Gattis awarded a contract extension
MLive reporting that Gattis was awarded a contract extension through Jan 10, 2023, one year longer than originally contracted. No announcement appears to have been made, the obtained the information via a FOIA request. https://t.co/EsMNqfeMhs
*they obtained.
Guessing it's more that his coaching star has faded than he actually earned it.
Coaching star fades = contract extension? How in the hell do you figure that? This is more about continuity and not letting teams use his contract against them in recruiting.
It means Gattis has no other options and proven guys aren't exactly lining up to join Harbaugh's staff right now. He's the first OC we've had that will last longer than 2 years. Fisch moved on after a successful 2 year run, Hamilton was let go for a supposedly better candidate. Right now neither of those are options for Gattis and Harbaugh.
Fisch wasn’t the OC.
This is a horrible take. He just shook up his whole staff. If he wanted to fire Gattis, it would have been the perfect time. Whatever you think of Harbaugh, he has never been afraid to fire someone.
With mostly unproven guys. He has a first time DC, a first time OL coach, and a first time QB coach. You think he wants to roll with 2 first time coordinators knowing his job and reputation are on the line?
It would be news to Jedd Fisch that he was the OC while at UM and not Tim Drevno.
Anyway, glad to know that a contract extension is now grounds for complete lack of faith in a coach.
lol yeah and I guess Drevno was the OC when we had Pep Hamilton too. I mean hell, "good shit Jedd" is everyone's favorite gif around here.
Oh yes, I forgot that org charts are in fact based on gifs.
Drevno was not the OC, either - there was no OC. Fisch was the Passing Game Coord, and Drevno the Run Game Coord. Harbaugh was just the HC, there was no 'official' OC until Gattis was hired. No, Hamilton was not the OC, either...
No, Drevno was the Sanford Robertson Offensive Coordinator and Offensive Line coach, and Fisch was the passing game coordinator/QB & WR coach. Same in 2016 when Fisch was gone.
Again, you can argue as much as you want about who actually calls those games (all HCs to an extent have input on playcalls especially if that's their "side" of the ball), but "he wasn't the OC" ignores the fact that he was, by title, the OC.
This is a minimum requirement to just have some consistency on staff until Warde can determine Harbaughs ultimate fate. More unexpected coaching turnover is bad for everyone. This extra year is certainly not a reward for anything but merely buys the AD a little more time to see if Harbaugh can turn it around. Most people think Harbaugh has two season to do his thing, that’s hard to do if you get another coach poached or have a lame duck coordinator.
proven guys aren't exactly lining up to join Harbaugh's staff right now.
So Clinkscale is just some chump off the reject pile?
I’m too lazy to look, but I think the extension brings his contact in line with the new coaches who got 2 year deals. Most all should now be up for renewal after the ‘22 season. Again, too lazy to Google it so take it fwiw.
Well, I have not seen anything yet to warrant an extension considering the on field performance. Maybe they are just really good in practice?
Well if Harbaugh was given an extension after his glorious 6 year track record, why not Gattis - AND with a pay raise! Surprised that we don't rehire Don Brown.
/s - just in case
Contracts these days don't have anything to do with on-field performance. It's the weird backwards economics that if you somehow don't have a guy locked up for the next 10 years, then recruits are going to think he's on the hot seat or that coach will flee immediately.
There are only two valid games for judgment of Gattis, MN & Rutgers 2020. Perhaps also the first quarter of PSU 2020. The O design looked pretty darn good in that sample set.
Every other game over Gattis' time at the U of M the starting QB has been injured. Rutgers and PSU, we were playing the back-up.
True but I'm glad we were playing the backup against Rutgers or we be talking about coming off of 1 and 5 season ?
Truth. Seems like Harbs has some trust issues going with the back-up when the starter is injured. Does it kicking and screaming. Milton prob had a scaphoid fracture in his throwing hand after week one...why did it take so long to try the back-up? I suppose in seasons past, when the back-up has been put in, they've gotten injured pretty quickly (which happened vs PSU with Cade) so perhaps he's right?
I'm glad we got Bowman. At least if Cade goes down again, we have and experienced QB to come in and pick up the pieces.
I like the incentives.
I really hate the current state of college football contract structures.
Guys get hired, and then extended after a season, and then fired with big buyouts.
It's getting f'n ridiculous and makes no sense.
It makes perfect sense, you can't have lame duck coaches recruiting. Until the players are professionalized with contracts that incentivize them to show more loyalty to the school than to a coach, this is going to be the way it goes.
True but the two thoughts aren't mutually exclusive, we can understand why they do this while still being annoyed by it
"The agreement also includes previous bonus payments for finishing top-two in the Big Ten in scoring offense ($100,000) and top-10 in the Football Bowl Subdivision in scoring offense ($100,000), as well as each win Michigan obtains over 8 in a season ($50,000 per win, with a max of $200,000 allowed)."
Some really nice incentives here - lets hope he gets his fully bonus potential
Funny how they specify "top-two" in B1G scoring. I wonder why that would be the case.
I think because -- unlike the fanbase -- the AD hasn't yet severed all contact with reality.
Anyway, I understand the need for a contract extension for recruiting reasons.
I do really wish we knew more about the decision to roll with Milton over McCaffrey. Was Milton the kind of player who lights it up in practice but it doesn't translate to the pressure of game situations (that could be unfair to say? he looked ok in his first ever start, and was injured after that). Did Dylan himself value the opportunity to play for his dad (and brother) and succeed together as a family and build the family brand, more than being the starting QB at Michigan? Were McDaniels, Gattis, and Harbaugh all in alignment with the decision to go with Milton or was there disagreement?
It's fascinating to think about and I don't think we'll ever really know, at least not any time soon.
With that said, I will be watching the careers of McCaffrey and Milton at their new schools with tremendous interest.
I think it has been pretty well established (although not gotten too much coverage), that McCaffery decided to leave the program after spring practices when he was leading the QB position battle over Milton. He apparently had some kind of ailment/injury and asked the coaches for some more time off from practice. Harbaugh apparently did not like that request and felt the McCaffery should have been healthy enough to play and practice. McCaffery then, did not like the response from Harbaugh and subsequently decided to transfer and play for his dad.
All this is to say, it's been said by multiple credible sources that McCaffery was in line to be QB1 had all things remained constant. Milton would have backed up him up. When he decided to transfer it was kind of a next man up situation and the coaches spent a lot of time pumping him up in the local media which is what created the perception that he had taken the job from McCaffery and that is what led to the McCaffery transfer.
When you have a head coach who is deeply unpleasant to work with AND who is on the hot seat, you have to pay a premium to keep assistants.
That's a lot of animosity to hold onto, my friend. Deep breaths.
some people are only happy when they're unhappy and complaining
I have no animosity, it's just factual. People do not like working for Jim Harbaugh. You can tell because the staff has an insane turnover rate but not in the Alabama way where guys are constantly spinning their experience into better jobs, they typically leave for lateral or worse paying jobs.
It is what it is. Jim Harbaugh is unpleasant to work for, the sky is blue, grass is green.
Did you upvote yourself? Your evidence is extremely tenuous, yet you present your hypothesis as fact. I mean, this is the internet so you can do whatever you want, but pretending you have a bulletproof theory here is peak delusion.
Promoted:
DJ Durkin
Greg Mattison
Tyrone Wheatley
Maurice Linguist
Chris Partridge
Jedd Fisch
Jim McElwain
Greg Frey (Alumni there, promoted to full OL coach)
Anthony Campanile (Move to NFL)
Fired or Pushed Out:
Tim Drevno
Mike Zordich
Don Brown
Pep Hamilton
Ed Warinner
Ben McDaniels
Left for lateral or worse position:
Brian Jean-Mary (I think you could make the argument for "fired or pushed out" since we were shopping for his replacement in advance)
Al Washington (His father was an alumni and this dream job)
Summary:
Perhaps some of these guys could be shuffled into different spots or I missed some but your claim that guys are fleeing the program is a mistake at best.
Also pushed out, Matt Dudek, who may have played the most critical role.
I don't have a problem with this extension and I'm probably more forgiving of Gattis than many others. 2019 was his first year as OC trying to install a new offense. We saw some nice flashes of what the offense could look like (2nd half of PSU, ND), but just not with any consistency. 2020 was, well, just weird for UM in a number of ways and I won't judge him (or the team) based on last year. This should be the year to really showcase the offense. The players have had enough time in the system, Warinner isn't calling the shots in the run game, and hopefully Harbaugh won't meddle in the playcalling too much.
I'm in wait and see mode, but optimistic he can get the offense rolling.
Same. I still think Harbaugh could still be a great coach if he steps back a bit and takes on a CEO style and lets Gattis and Mac do their jobs, a la Mack Brown / PJ Fleck
I disagree to an extend. Jim is the head football coach at a big program with a ton of experience. He should be a driver in it's success with the on field strategy (especially on the on the offensive side of the ball). If he is not contributing, then how much value is he actually adding to the program? There would be no point in keeping him and the AD should turn to someone else who will.
In the ideal world he allows Gattis to run his offense (thereby modernizing it) but meshes it coherently with some concepts of his that have been successful (such as pin and pull, man ball from the gun). Seems like there has been a lack of consistency in what they want to do.
Sorry, can't forgive him for 2019. I don't care that he was implementing a new system. He had 5(!) draft picks on the OL, 2 draft picks at WR (and potentially another in Ronnie Bell), and the top returning QB in the Big Ten. All that talent and experience and he produced an offense that was 29th in FEI and 21st in S&P. That's hard to do.
2019 wasn’t a great year, but other than getting annoyingly pantsed by Wisconsin again.... we were 9-2 heading into the the Ohio State game and had a good chance to be 10-1.
We also clubbed MSU and ND by like 30 points each. It wasn’t a horrible year.
Win-win
Projects stability for recruiting
Reinforces incentivized performance
There's plenty of money behind it, so possible buyout in a couple years just isn't a problem.
Gattis has had 2 bad offenses since he's been here. It's not looking good for 2021 either. Doesn't deserve an extension or a raise.
Is it bad that I think Pep Hamilton's 2018 offense was pretty good and speed in space is not that fun? And I really miss Jedd Fisch after watching the 2016 Michigan State game this weekend on BTN. All the tight ends and fullbacks and play action passing.
Not at all. Those were some great offenses that actually had Harbaugh influence and were unpredictable and had many games wrapped up by halftime. But it isn’t “modern” so people here don’t like it.
Disappointing news to me, anyway:
- Lots of rumored malcontents (and subsequent transfers and early draft entrants) in the WR room recently
- Charbonnet was rumored to be saying he was gone if Gattis returned, which obviously happened
- Picking Milton over Cade seems like a bad personnel choice also, with the benefit of hindsight (unless Cade was hurt early, or Milton's hand injury really held him back, etc)
I could go on. What has he brought to the program that warrants this? Alabama pedigree? Telling everyone who will listen how much more time Bama spends on football than we do?Rumored prickliness with other coaches? 6 games of "Good Shea" in late 2019? Anyone got any "plus" items to all the minuses I see?
Maybe the buyout is small, hopefully?...
Classic...
Personally, if I were Ward, my first order of business would have been renegotiating Juwan Howard's contract, which currently sits as 56th highest paid coach in the nation.
I've had more patience with Gattis than many, for a variety of reasons. One reason is that we know Harbaugh isn't always easy to work with and that he has a very particular way of looking at offense; another is that the personnel issues and general circumstances last year were simply so stark that I don't think you could judge a second-year guy fairly. And to Gattis's credit, he's continued to recruit well. However, given the on-paper talent and fair amount of experience that side of the ball has this year, if the offense isn't a LOT better than last year... I'm prepared to say he's not a defensible OC for a P5 team and should be let go regardless of contract details.
Not that it's because Gattis has shown any real on field production from his offense yet, but this makes sense if for no other reason than recruiting and continuity. You don't want other school's negatively recruiting kids against UM saying Gattis won't be around. It's beginning to sound more and more like this year will be a rebuilding year for the program and as long as steps are taken forward Warde seems OK with progress from last year even if that doesn't mean a return to form (9+ wins). We'll see how much leeway the staff gets if they turn in a 5-6 win type season. Unfortunately I see a 7-win season which puts us squarely in limbo mode again where there was likely some progress from last year, but enough to make anyone all that confident in 10+ wins in 2022 and will put JH in the hot seat yet again.