A Look back at my pick for the M football gig
Let me preface this by saying I am still very bullish on Michigan’s head football coach even after a very rough first season. I think Rich Rodriguez is going to produce a very exciting offense and will give Michigan a great shot at winning a BCS championship in the next 3-5 years. The one thing that could hold him back might be his defense as first year coordinator Scott Shafer was complete and utter FAIL this season despite having a pretty decent amount of talent.
I was pimping Brian Kelly to replace Lloyd Carr mostly because I didn’t think the U of M athletic department would pay top dollar to hire a proven BCS coach. Kelly could obviously be had for pennies on the dollar due to the fact he wasn’t a truly proven coach at that point. His success had come at division II Grand Valley State and in the MAC.
Today Kelly’s Bearcats won the Big East title and will play in the Orange Bowl. It will be Cinci’s first appearance in a BCS game.
It isn’t just Kelly’s spread offense that makes him successful. The Bearcats had the #18 rush defense and #30 scoring defense. Kelly was considered for Michigan State’s head coaching job before Mark Dantonio was hired and there were rumors suggesting he was on a “blacklist” of sorts that meant he was never considered for Michigan’s head coaching position.
I don’t know what those rumors are all about and I did a bit of searching to try and find out what the issue was. I couldn’t find anything so I can’t comment on that. There shouldn’t be any doubt the guy is a great coach as he’s won national championships at the division II level and conference championships at Central Michigan and Cincinnati.
If Michigan hadn’t gotten a proven coach like Rich Rodriguez who is potentially capable of coaching the Wolverines for 10-15 years I’d be pretty bummed out about not getting Kelly as head coach. He’s going to do very well whenever he gets snapped up by a major college football program.
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Interesting to note that CFT has posted rumors saying Kelly leaving Cincy for Notre Dame is all but a done deal. Bearcats insiders believe he’s gone. It’s pending Weis losing to USC, as a win over the Trojans is the only thing which may save his job.
Apparently Kelly isn’t the Michigan type, but he’s plenty good enough for the golden domers.