David Brandon stood at the podium during his press conference and stated that he would undergo a "national search" for the University of Michigan head coaching job. That was never the case. If you read between the lines you will see that the choice has always been Brady Hoke. Hoke was offered a contract extension by SDSU in early December, and despite reports that he would sign it, he never did. Did he already have communication with the Michigan camp about the job? If in fact this was the case, and he and Brandon already came to an agreement, the fans and alums would be furious. Brandon chose to wait until after the bowl game to fire Rich Rodriguez, thus cheapening the buyout. It was during the 'good riddance Rich Rodriguez' press conference that Brandon said he would go on a national coaching search. There is a great divide in Ann Arbor and how could he make everybody happy? Easily, interview every candidate that each "faction" wanted. There was the Harbaugh camp, the Les Miles camp, and the Brady Hoke camp.
Jim Harbaugh was the most popular candidate among Michigan fans. He was the guy that would mostly unite the blue bloods again. A rumor was floated out that Michigan had offered Harbaugh over $5 million per season. I don't believe that in the slightest. Could it be possible that Brandon, or other people in the inner circle, started that rumor to appease the Michigan faithful? San Fransisco then offered Harbaugh the job at less than $5 million per year. He did not accept, and instead interviewed for the Miami Dolphins head coaching job (even though there was not a vacancy). Stephen Ross (a U of M grad who has the business school named after him) is the owner of the Dolphins and early reports were that he was set to offer Harbaugh in upwards of $7 million per year. That just drove up the price for Harbaugh and he eventually signed with the 49ers for $5 mil per. It is my belief that Ross was never interested in hiring Harbaugh, but instead helped Michigan in the perception that they did everything they could to land the former Stanford head coach. Later, there were reports that Brandon was interested in talking to Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern) and Gary Pinkel (Missouri), but those talks never came to fruition. This was something Brandon had to do to conduct a true 'national search'.
Next on the list is Les Miles. Brandon flew to Baton Rouge on Monday and talked to Miles, and by all accounts he 'would take the job if offered'. Tuesday morning came and there was still no deal with Miles. Later in the day it was announced that Les Miles would remain as head coach of the LSU Tigers. It was literally minutes after that announcement that reports came out that David Brandon was on his way to San Diego to speak with Brady Hoke. It was only a few hours later that Hoke was named the head football coach at the University of Michigan. Had the plane even landed in San Diego yet? I can't seem to understand how you can interview one guy one minute, and hire another guy the next, unless the deal was already in place.
The "factions" that I referenced earlier now have no ground to stand on. Brandon went after Harbaugh and Miles and couldn't get them. At least that will be his story. This was Brandon's way of trying to make every Michigan fan happy during the search, however it just made Michigan look bad. I have high expectations for Hoke and I think he will live up to them for the most part. He better live up to them anyway considering he was the only guy truly in the running for the job.
No comments:
Post a Comment