Brian Kelly will be next Michigan Football Coach
With the Michigan Football team showing some semblance of life the past two weekends we’re at a point in the season where as fans the team has nothing to gain for at least the next two weeks. Sure, a team that lost to Appy State and got smoked by Oregon certainly can’t sleep on anybody. But as a fan it’s tough to get too pumped up for Northwestern and Eastern Michigan. Much like when the Appalachian State game came down to a last second field goal to win the game, a close game in either of the next two contests would bring your worst fears back to the surface.
I’m writing this while watching the Boise State - Southern Mississippi game [talk about your exciting matchups] and the thought crossed my mind that Lloyd Carr just might retire before a bowl matchup if the opponent was a team like Boise State. If a division 1-aa team could put up 34 points on Michigan in Ann Arbor you can only guess how many points the Broncos would score in that matchup on a neutral field. Boise State would be hunting for bear for their second straight bowl-game pelt from an elite football program while the upside for Michigan would be limited to…well…maybe some sweet bowl game swag.
There have been a couple articles on who should be the next coach whenever Carr decides to call it a career. Now seems like a good time to state the case for the guy who I think would have the highest potential. Two websites are throwing some support behind LSU head coach Les Miles, while MGoBlog throws its support behind Jeff Tedford.
Both coaches are fine choices. Les Miles seems more realistic as Tedford strikes me as an NCAA Football version of Mike Montgomery - a west coast guy who has accomplished incredible feats at a school that sucks at sports. I could be completely off-base in this, but I think Tedford is about as likely to coach in Ann Arbor as the former Stanford and Golden State basketball coach. Miles coaches in the SEC, and with the insanity of the fanbases at programs like Alabama and Arkansas, you can see the Tigers having no qualms about getting into a bidding war with Michigan for their head coach’s services. With that being the case I could still see Miles deciding to come back to Ann Arbor.
But I think there’s a guy who has the potential to be a home run, who can put Michigan back on equal footing with Ohio State. All it requires is they follow the Buckeyes’ lead.
Prior to coaching at Ohio State, Jim Tressel coached at Youngstown State for 15 seasons. During that time he won four national championships. Since coming to Columbus he’s won one BCS title and took OSU to the title game last season. There aren’t many coaches not named Pete Carroll who can say they’ve done better. Bob Stoops is in the conversation, while Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden were once in the conversation but have clearly hung around for far too long.
There’s a coach who had similar success to Tressel in the college football subdivision - or whatever the hell the NCAA calls the other divisions that aren’t part of the BCS and its vapid poll. That would be Brian Kelly, who’s currently coaching at the University of Cincinnati. Kelly made a name for himself at Grand Valley State University in Division II, where he coached for 13 years. In that time he won back to back NCAA championships. They’ve won two more since he left, so if he decided to stay he’d have been there 16 years and would likely have won four championships in five years.
Instead he decided to work his way up the coaching ladder. He stopped off in Mount Pleasant and led the Chippewas to their first Mid-American Conference championship in 12 years. He was interviewed for the Michigan State job this past offseason but ended up being hired at Cincinnati when Mark D’Antonio was hired by the Spartans. He’s gotten off to a great start with the Bearcats, as the team’s 4-0 and ranked #24 in the country. More importantly, he’s moved his way up from Division II, low Division I at CMU, and is now coaching and having success at a BCS team that is part of the Big East.
His teams are putting up a ton of points and are shutting the opposition down. They are currently averaging 45 points per game and are only allowing just over a touchdown per game. That’s a differential of nearly 5 TDs and a field goal per game. They will obviously face tougher opponents as the season goes on, particularly in matchups against Rutgers, South Florida and West Virginia. That’s two top 10 opponents and one top 20 team - so he’ll have a chance to make his case against some of the best competition in the NCAA.
Is there a coach who will legitimately be available who can compete with that track record? Kelly put together a program that has won four Division II championships in five years, turned a mediocre MAC team into a conference champion in three years, and could potentially lead the Bearcats past two top 10 teams at the highest level of college football.
This isn’t a knock on Les Miles or Jeff Tedford, who are both coaches I’d gladly welcome to Ann Arbor. Miles is a great motivator who hires top-notch coordinators; Tedford’s playcalling would make the Wolverine offense a joy to watch rather than the current sensation, which is similar to having a cavity filled - I guess Mike Hart’s the novicaine in that scenario.
There are two top-flight football programs in the midwest that have filled their coaching vacancy since Lloyd Carr took over as the head coach for the Wolverines. Ohio State obviously made a great choice while Notre Dame has made three poor choices. You can also argue Penn State has made a poor choice by keeping Joe Paterno as head coach. I don’t see Michigan being in a position where they are going to do as poorly as Notre Dame has done. I also don’t see Lloyd Carr pulling a Paterno and staying longer than he should as his program’s head coach.
The question as I see it is whether they hire a guy who can maintain Carr’s impressive record and get the team into the BCS title game at least once in his first 3-5 years. I believe all three coaches have that ability, but the combination of Kelly’s dynamic offenses and lock-down defenses - combined with his track record of success - lead me to believe he’s the best guy for the job. He could potentially match what Jim Tressel has done to this point in Columbus.
Another kind of fun twist if you enjoy a bit of schadenfreude is that Demetrius Jones - who was just granted a transfer from Notre Dame to Cincinnati - could possibly transfer from Cinci to Michigan if Kelly becomes the head coach. Given how heavy handed Notre Dame was in determining where he could transfer it would be a nice way for that to come back and bite them in the ass, as they’d never let their former quarterback transfer to Michigan. In this scenario they’d have no say.
Since Kelly interviewed for the MSU job I think it’s safe to say he’d jump at the opportunity to return to the state of Michigan to coach the Wolverines. Then if he’s as good at Michigan as I think he’ll be, it’d be a great story, much like Wisconsin interviewing Bo Schembechler before he was hired to coach the Wolverines.
Bo Schembechler brian kelly jeff tedford jim tressel les miles Lloyd Carr Michigan Football3 Comments
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I don’t get the MGoBlog’s love for Tedford. I totally agree, he’s a west coast guy, and he’s staying on the left coast.
I do think that Miles is U of M’s 1st choice, or at least he’s getting the 1st phone call. But has he really proven anything other than he can win with Nick Saban’s players? (You could say the same about his time at OK St, as he was only there 4 seasons, and had only middling success, 7-5, in his 4th year) That’s all well and good, but I’d be afraid that Michigan would be getting a bill of goods in Miles. This season will tell us plenty as to Miles’ worth as a head coach. There’s also the fact that Miles has a mouth on him, which doesn’t fly well at Schembechler Hall.
Kelly makes sense, as you say, with his ties to the state and the Midwest, he’s won at every level, has a state of the art offense, and he’s just a damn good coach. His offensive powerhouses at GVSU were huge fun to watc. The similarities to Tressel are hard to ignore. If Michigan hired the “Next Tressel,” they’d be in damn good shape.
There’s always the Lloyd factor, though. No matter how the fans and alumni feel, Lloyd’s is going to have some say in the matter. Whomever Bill Martin sets his sights on may have to have the blessing of Carr, for better or worse…
[…] Miles seems to be very interested in the opportunity and it’s impossible to argue for a more qualified candidate outside of outlandish pipe dreams of hiring Urban Meyer or Bill Belichik [yes, at least one national sports columnist suggested Michigan take a run at the Patriots’ head coach]. I thought there was a good chance Michigan could lure Miles away from LSU although the Tigers could probably outbid U of M by quite a bit, offering him Nick Saban money. So I felt that Brian Kelly would be the best hire if that scenario were to take place. […]
[…] Back in late September I looked at both coaches and made the case for Brian Kelly to be the next head coach. Let’s take a quick look at where his Cincinnati team ranks in several key football metrics. […]