Still Standing by Kelly
MGoBlog suggests current Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz has been offered the Michigan head coaching position. This might make sense if we were further along in the process. The timing of this rumor suggests he is the #1 candidate. This is hard for me to believe, and I’m a Kirk Ferentz fan. I was in the stands when his Iowa Hawkeyes delivered a 34-9 beatdown to Michigan in 2002. They looked like a Bo Schembechler-coached team and I think Ferentz could return the Wolverines to being a consistent top-10 program.
On the one hand this does make some financial sense. I’ve always been a little concerned about the Les Miles rumors due to the financial outlay it would require. Here’s a quick look at the money involved.
$1.4mm for current assistant coaches
$3-4mm for Miles
$1.25mm buyout
$2.5mm for new coaches [if you thought Mike DeBord sucked, it’s going to cost some serious coin to get a real OC]
TOTAL: $8.65mm
That’s some serious cheddar. Sure, Miles could pay his buyout which is what John Belein did for the opportunity to coach at Michigan. But even if that happens we’re talking about over $7mm dollars just to hold a press conference to announce Les Miles as the new coach. That seems a bit steep.
If Ferentz is hired you might be able to get him for less money due to his poor showing of late. I don’t think he has a buyout clause, and he might be willing to coach with much of the current coaching staff in place. So with that scenario you potentially have the following outlay:
$1.4mm for current assistant coaches
$2mm for Captain Kirk
TOTAL: $3.4mm
So that might provide you with about 5 million reasons why Ferentz makes more sense than Miles. Even with that being the case I don’t see him being the obvious choice this early in the process. Which brings me to a fun little article I read over at the Detroit News. Mike DeBord said some really funny things about his qualifications to be the next head coach.
DeBord is aware he will have to defend himself on several issues. While at CMU, his teams went 12-34. Three years later, Brian Kelly, now head coach at Cincinnati, led Central to the Mid-American Conference championship.
“The way I defend that is, I will say this: We went in there, we put a culture together just like Michigan, we were, it’s nothing against the kids, but we weren’t as talented as we wanted to be,” DeBord said. “When they won the championship, those were with sophomores, juniors and seniors that our staff had recruited. We had taken a program that was at the bottom of the conference, and we elevated it recruiting-wise to go win the conference championship.
“I know what the record is, but I also do know where we started and what ended up happening and what is still happening.”
Yeah, DeBord left CMU before he got fired and was in such a hurry to leave that he accepted a position as a special teams coach. That’s right: he went from being a head coach to being a special teams coach. For those who aren’t quite familiar with his coaching history he left Michigan as an offensive coordinator. While being the head coach at CMU he decided he didn’t want to keep Brian Van Gorder as his defensive coordinator at CMU.
Van Gorder was hired in the same capacity by the University of Georgia. Those Bulldog defenses he fielded were excellent, and Van Gorder was recognized for his excellent coaching by winning the Frank Broyles award in 2003. DeBord’s claim to be qualified to be Michigan’s head coach is preposterous and if Bill Martin can keep a straight face while DeBord peddles this crap then he’s a true professional.
Brian Kelly went on from leading Central Michigan to its first MAC championship in 12 years to leading Cincinnati to its first 9-win season in 54 years. He could win 10 games if the Bearcats win their bowl game, which is a win total that has only occured once before in 1951 when legendary coach Sid Gilman coached the team. Both head coaching jobs came after building a juggernaut at Grand Valley State University. Comparing DeBord’s resume to Kelly’s is quite frankly embarrassing.
I’ve acknowledged that Les Miles probably has the best proven track record given what he’s done in the Big Twelve and SEC. But I still believe Kelly could potentially be a home run hire and would put Michigan at least on equal footing with OSU, if not allow the Wolverines to re-gain the upper-hand on the Buckeyes.
Here’s hoping Kelly is given serious consideration for the position. His track record stacks up with any seriously available candidate and he’ll likely never be available again when he gets snapped up by a top college football program.
brian kelly Kirk Ferentz Michigan Football Mike DeBord1 Comment(s)
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They wouldn’t hire Kelly he makes the peole at the top very scared!!! They might have to take accountablity for why their program is in shambles!!! They are all afraid of loosing their jobs!!! Who the hell would want to be a puppet on a string….when the puppet maker isn’t even at the show! He shakes up and wakes up people and programs …..sometimes those people who don’t want to wake up……will continue to blame it on everyone else but the real problem! The truth is plain and simple…….a loosing record reflects a loosing coach!!! Debord blaming kids for his lack of career success is absolutely shameful!!!