Never Too Late: 2021 Michigan Football

Average Reds

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Michigan just made a high-profile hire to replace Shaun Nua as their defensively line coach.

https://thespun.com/big-ten/michigan-wolverines/college-football-world-reacts-to-michigan-coaching-news/amp

Perhaps far more significant is the fact Elston’s departure from Notre Dame to join Jim Harbaugh’s staff is a clue that he’s staying in Ann Arbor.

Harbaugh is reportedly tempted to leave Michigan for another opportunity in the NFL. But if he persuaded a well-known defensive coach to join his staff that may be all we need to know about Harbaugh’s future.
After filling out his staff, Harbaugh is headed on the road for one last recruiting push as the “dead period” ends. Looks like we can put the “Harbaugh is leaving for the NFL” speculation to bed. ( Edit: I should note that now that I'm comfortable this almost certainly means he's leaving. :) )
 

Zososoxfan

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Mike Macdonald looks to be heading back to Brother John's Ravens to be the new DC. I find this confusing considering Jim and John presumably talked about Mac's move to Michigan and now back to Baltimore. In retrospect, perhaps John and Jim had this in mind from the beginning and the Michigan season was basically a tryout with the bonus of modernizing Michigan's D. Hopefully John and Jim talked about this for some time prior and Jim has someone lined up to establish some continuity.
 

Average Reds

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Mike Macdonald looks to be heading back to Brother John's Ravens to be the new DC. I find this confusing considering Jim and John presumably talked about Mac's move to Michigan and now back to Baltimore. In retrospect, perhaps John and Jim had this in mind from the beginning and the Michigan season was basically a tryout with the bonus of modernizing Michigan's D. Hopefully John and Jim talked about this for some time prior and Jim has someone lined up to establish some continuity.
If I were a betting man I’d say that the hiring of Elston from Notre Dame may have been in anticipation of this move.

Edit: Or, if reports are accurate, he had Larry Foote (former UM linebacker; current TB linebackers coach) as a plan B fallback.
 
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Average Reds

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As I said in the NFL coaching thread, I’m getting bad vibes from the Vikings situation. For the first time, I no longer believe Harbaugh stays at Michigan.
 

Zososoxfan

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Yeah, he gone. Only question left in my mind is whether they promote Gattis, or go after Fickell or Campbell. Not sure that anyone else available is a better bet.
 

Average Reds

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Yeah, he gone. Only question left in my mind is whether they promote Gattis, or go after Fickell or Campbell. Not sure that anyone else available is a better bet.
Assuming that the inevitable is announced tonight, I have to believe they have a plan in place. (I mean, it's not like this was done in secret.) A big part of that plan has to be continuity, which is why I would lean towards Gattis being promoted, Mike Hart sliding over to OC and quickly filling the defensive coordinator spot (maybe Larry Foote with co-coordinator roles for Elston and/or Clinkscale.) Then move quickly to backfill the open slots. (RB and special teams, since I assume Jay Harbaugh will be leaving with his father.)

I know there are good coaches out there, but given how late it is, that feels like a sure-fire way to create downstream chaos as the staff turns over and players transfer out.
 

Zososoxfan

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Assuming that the inevitable is announced tonight, I have to believe they have a plan in place. (I mean, it's not like this was done in secret.) A big part of that plan has to be continuity, which is why I would lean towards Gattis being promoted, Mike Hart sliding over to OC and quickly filling the defensive coordinator spot (maybe Larry Foote with co-coordinator roles for Elston and/or Clinkscale.) Then move quickly to backfill the open slots. (RB and special teams, since I assume Jay Harbaugh will be leaving with his father.)

I know there are good coaches out there, but given how late it is, that feels like a sure-fire way to create downstream chaos as the staff turns over and players transfer out.
I agree with the bolded generally, but I think Fickell is an elite coach and I think I'd be OK with some transfers to get him in. But you're right, after thinking it over I'd rather try Gattis than bringing in Campbell or Aranda.

I also agree that there's a plan in place and it's likely Gattis. Warde is reported to be very keen on keeping the current coaching staff (rightfully so) and likes their youth and recruiting chops.
 

Zososoxfan

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The second Schefter tweet added that (paraphrasing) Jim's not going to look at the NFL again, and this won't be an annual issue.

I hope they can finish the recruiting class strong and build on last year's success. They need to find someone who can continue Mac's D schemes, although by most accounts Mac is a pretty special coach. Gattis will be here one more year before taking a HC job and that's cool. Hopefully Hart or someone is ready to step into OC by that time.

More broadly, I think this is good for Michigan in the short and medium term. If Harbaugh is going to be a stabilizing presence and continue to evolve (i.e. bring in coordinators that can keep up with OSU, and lower coaching staff who recruit hard), then he has a great chance to be a CEO coach.
 

Average Reds

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The second Schefter tweet added that (paraphrasing) Jim's not going to look at the NFL again, and this won't be an annual issue.

I hope they can finish the recruiting class strong and build on last year's success. They need to find someone who can continue Mac's D schemes, although by most accounts Mac is a pretty special coach. Gattis will be here one more year before taking a HC job and that's cool. Hopefully Hart or someone is ready to step into OC by that time.

More broadly, I think this is good for Michigan in the short and medium term. If Harbaugh is going to be a stabilizing presence and continue to evolve (i.e. bring in coordinators that can keep up with OSU, and lower coaching staff who recruit hard), then he has a great chance to be a CEO coach.
Complete agreement with all of this.

I also think that Schefter's second tweet hints that Harbaugh had an epiphany about the NFL no longer being the fit he thought it could be.

Put simply, he's a headstrong coach who wants the kind of control that most owners/GMs won't allow. If some of the stories leaking out are accurate, he was willing to go to MN for the interview only after being told that he was Adofo-Mensah's top choice for the job. When he got there, he discovered that Adofo-Mensah didn't have as much pull as either of them assumed. (Only John Bacon seems to have anticipated this.)

To me, this is why he flat out stated that this would not be a recurring issue and that he'll be at Michigan for as long as they'll have him. Which is probably best for all concerned.
 

Zososoxfan

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Complete agreement with all of this.

I also think that Schefter's second tweet hints that Harbaugh had an epiphany about the NFL no longer being the fit he thought it could be.

Put simply, he's a headstrong coach who wants the kind of control that most owners/GMs won't allow. If some of the stories leaking out are accurate, he was willing to go to MN for the interview only after being told that he was Adofo-Mensah's top choice for the job. When he got there, he discovered that Adofo-Mensah didn't have as much pull as either of them assumed. (Only John Bacon seems to have anticipated this.)

To me, this is why he flat out stated that this would not be a recurring issue and that he'll be at Michigan for as long as they'll have him. Which is probably best for all concerned.
That link is super insightful. It cracks me up that someone could look at the SF situation and decide to follow the guidance of the owners who OBVIOUSLY AND DISASTROUSLY PICKED THE WRONG GUY between JH and Baalke. And it's not like both guys have done anything since to reinforce their relative value...

Moreover, I guess you need to listen when a minority owner has something to say, but Stapleton sounds like an ass. While he wasn't the only one, someone who at least didn't help RR, or at worst actively sabotaged him, and had his sideline pass revoked (as evidence of not being a team player) isn't someone who should get much deference. Nevertheless, I'm happy the Vikes decided to go a different direction and JH now knows that the NFL pastures aren't really greener, and he can recommit himself to making Michigan the best program it can be in his image.
 

baggy5

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Multiple outlets reporting Gattis is leaving to become the OC for Mario Cristobal @ Miami. I wonder if Harbaugh moves Mike Hart to OC.
 

Average Reds

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From what I’m reading, the subtext is that Gattis believes that he was going to be passed over for HC if Harbaugh had left.

No idea what the truth is, but it seems he’s getting paid by Miami. Which is fine.
 

Zososoxfan

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I think this is a big loss and it's hard not to blame Harbaugh here. Maybe JH thinks the world of Gattis, and now that he's back in the fold he would've offered Gattis the Associate Head Coach title and/or gone to bat for JG to get a big pay increase. But JH's flirtation with the NFL combined with (reported) radio silence to the entire coaching staff (absent Matt Weiss) meant that those guys would be dumb not to look around. Now, Gattis says that he felt underappreciated (read: underpaid) by the admin, and that's probably true, but if Jim has his shit together and tells Gattis 'I'm getting you paid buddy', then Josh probably stays at least another year. Apparently, Mac was paid better than Gattis even though he had less experience, and that has to chafe.

The offense next year should be good no matter who's at the helm, they have weapons and experience at just about every position. But that O is going to need to be capital E explosive to bail the young D (also with a new DC) out of some games.

Even when we win, we don't get to have nice things (sigh).
 

Average Reds

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It’s hard not to agree with you, but I also feel as if we may be losing perspective.

Nick Saban seemingly goes through a new offensive coordinator each year. Some of them have imploded spectacularly - Lane Kiffin being fired during the playoffs comes to mind - and it doesn’t have an impact on a year-to-year basis. (Kiffin getting booted almost certainly had an impact on a week-to-week basis.)

The point is that we’re only talking about this because of Harbaugh’s very public dalliance with the NFL, when the reality is that coordinators leave all the time and teams never miss a beat.

I may very well be proven wrong next year, but if we assume continuity with Weiss and Hart I don’t think they miss a beat on offense.

Defense is another matter altogether.
 

Zososoxfan

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Reports out that QB Coach Matt Weiss is being promoted to Co-OC along with OL coach Sherron Moore. Grant Newsome moving from analyst to TE Coach, and Jay Harbaugh moving to the defensive side of the ball from ST Coach. Finally, Vandy DC/Safeties Coach Jesse Minter has apparently been interviewed for a role on the D.
 

Zososoxfan

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Decided to post a Hunter Dickinson interview with Sam Webb re NIL rights here, because this thread was more recently used than the BBall or hockey one:

The NIL process is pretty difficult, I'm not gonna lie. Especially during the season, it can be overwhelming because you've got contracts that you're trying to sign, you gotta be aware of obligations that the companies are holding you up to, because it's like, you've got to post something or something like that. I remember I had to post something the night before a game — before the Villanova game, a company hit me up the day before, early the day before the game. ‘Yeah, we'll give you this if you post this video.’ Shoot, I can't mess up on that. So I did it, but it can get overwhelming.
...
In this day and age, there's no way a guy commits and his NIL deal is disclosed on Twitter an hour after. Like, they didn't work that fast. They did not work that fast. It was definitely put into place before he got there and he wasn't going around asking. That place in Miami, like, ‘Hey, if I commit here, do you want to do something?’ That was definitely put in place for him to commit. Then the deal is gonna be the deal.

I just think Michigan, in that sense, is so far behind, because it's like, you're never gonna get a top-10 player again unless you're able to provide NIL for him.

If I'm the number one player in the country for basketball or football, why would I come to Michigan, where they're saying they have the potential for you to get something?

When I’m at Alabama for football or if I'm at Kentucky for basketball, they're like, 'You can commit here and this deal, you can sign it right after you sign the letter for a million dollars.' I would never come to Michigan if that's the case. They're gonna lose out on so many players if they don't start stepping up to the plate. I feel bad for Coach Juwan and Coach Harbaugh because they're trying.

It's not their fault. The coaches are trying for sure. I know for a fact Juwan and Coach Harbaugh are trying to plead with the administration. At some point they're gonna realize that you either gotta be all in or you're not gonna get anybody. That's my take on it.
https://247sports.com/college/michigan/LongFormArticle/Hunter-Dickinson-NIL-at-Michigan-football-basketball-programs-will-lose-out-on-so-many-players-exclusive-187105832/#187105832_9

A couple of thoughts.

First, it's interesting to hear Hunter talk about how the obligations as part of these deals can get in the way of the season. I'm strongly in favor of NIL and more payment for players, but a better system would limit enforceable obligations during the season.

Second, good to hear that it's the admin that's holding things up, rather than the coaches. That being said, the admin needs to get the fuck off its high horse and get down to business. This was supposed to be a great equalizer for Michigan, and we're not taking advantage. FUCK. THAT.