Michigan is a complete mess. Another sexual mess that is under Manuel. Michigan needs to clean house.
Coaching Carousel (Football)
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Michigan men.
Borat 2, starring Bill Belichick in the title role.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
My brother in law is a huge Michigan fan. He thinks the program is a total dumpster fire, and he wants Manuel gone yesterday. He also agrees with me that it’s hard to not think Michigan embodies “lack of institutional control”.
It's not just NIL in my opinion. I think Cignetti's legacy beyond Indiana is demonstrating to "non-bluebloods" that you can take all kinds of steps to be competitive if your program can access the cash to do it, and it's an easier vision to sell (both for a coach to sell to an AD and for an AD to sell to boosters) now that Indiana has done what they've done. Of course you'd never believe me if I told you two years ago that Indiana would go 25-2 in their next two seasons and be an overwhelming national title favorite, but even if you accepted that...you'd NEVER believe that both of the coordinators from Year 1 are locked up for Year 3.It’s different in every situation … I’ve said on here many times, Kenny never wanted to leave ASU … He just wanted compensated fairly, his staff compensated very fairly and have resources that at least got him CLOSE to the elite … Sounds just like someone we’ve got … LOL … But it’s true …
To be very honest, with NIL the blue bloods aren’t as attractive as they once were … If you’ve got a great AD, great situation with staff and resources … What’s the incentive to leave ? You can be a legend at ASU, Illinois winning 8+ games a year … Or just be another dude at a blue blood … And at a school like Michigan, 8 wins will get you friggin fired …
Clearly Iowa State couldn't match what Penn State could offer Campbell as far as not just pay, but commitment of resources.
I don't know that we could have committed enough to Walters to get him to stay. He clearly wanted to be a head coach. I'm not worried about any of our assistant coaches moving on to bigger and better things unfortunately, but I'd like to think that if that time should ever come again, we'll understand that we don't have to be a stepping stone.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
Cignetti did a LOT at Indiana in his first year without noticeable resources. He brought in a slew of JMU guys, that didn't have big price tags, and won at an unprecedented level. Then in 2025 he got a lot more resources in response to his 2024 performance, but he's still well short of Penn State, Ohio State, Oregon, etc.
Your statement is better fitting for TTU. They went from being an above-average funded Big XII to one of the best funded programs in the country because (a) they have a newly-minted billionaire as an alum and (b) he's very motivated in funding their football program.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
I look at places such as TTU and think: "key man risk." Maryland was drinking deeply from the Under Armour tap (based in Ballamer, founder is alum) until that company was driven into a ditch.
As in any investment portfolio desired to perform well over a long period, diversification up to a certain level is wise.
Also, don't underestimate the near fusion level access to white out energy
(sry, I'll probably never let this one go...)
MoCoMdIllini
- Montgomery County, Maryland
That has to have Central Michigan nervous.
. Long history of cheating (and getting caught). Really belongs in SEC.Under the heading "the great what-if": supposedly, Indiana's main target as a head coach a couple of years ago was a Michigan assistant named Sherrone Moore. He fills in for a suspended Harbaugh, leads the team to a victory over Ohio State, and becomes the in-house replacement when Harbaugh leaves for the Chargers. Indiana is forced to pivot and hire some little-known and under the radar coach named Curt Cignetti.
Assuming that narrative is all true, sometimes it really is better to be lucky than good.
Assuming that narrative is all true, sometimes it really is better to be lucky than good.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
I feel like this would also be a “we got lucky despite the total poop show this was” type of hire for Michigan. At the least, he seems like a guy who could clean up the culture and get them through the eventual AD transition for three years.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
I feel like this would also be a “we got lucky despite the total poop show this was” type of hire for Michigan. At the least, he seems like a guy who could clean up the culture and get them through the eventual AD transition for three years.
I don't see why a 66 year old mormon, who has been at Utah for 30 years would leave?
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
Sometimes, it’s just time for a change.
I saw this with a friend of mine. He’s 4-5 years from retirement, and he was a CFO at a local education agency for 12 years. He took a CFO job at a large school. He said he could have easily finished his career where he was, but he felt like he had done all he could do and wanted a new challenge for the last leg of his career. It sounds a lot like what Whittingham is thinking.
In the lucky but good category, Indiana has twice been the beneficiary. In 1972 Wisconsin had come to terms with an unknown BB coach at Army by the name of Bob Knight. Knights only request was that nothing was to be released until he had a chance to talk to his team. Wisconsin couldn't resist, Knight got PO'd and backed out. We know the rest of the story.
ptgrd23
- orange county CA
Michigan is the definition of lack of institutional control. FB expectations are Naty or bust. I don't think Whittingham has anything to prove after winning for 21 seasons at Utah.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
Whittingham is an awesome coach. If UM was getting him 10 years ago, this would be a home run hire. He's been planning on retiring for a while now. We can discuss the merits of how motivated he was to retire, but he was at least a willing participant in that plan for a time. At worst, he's been giving less-and-less effort over time and Utah decided to give him an ultimatum to force the transition now, which created hurt feelings.
A few things if I'm Michigan:
(a) This search feels awfully rushed because it's in both Warde and Whittingham's best interests to quickly agree to this arraignment. Warde is not fully protected but it makes it messier to fire Warde after this contract is signed. Plus, if Warde is fired and UM wants a fresh start from Whittingham, he goes back to retirement plans (with more money)
(b) I'm nervous about Whittingham's commitment. Is he still hungry? Is this him lashing out for being jilted by Utah? What happens when all of those Utah problems are replaced by Michigan problems?
(c) I'm building a moat around Whittingham. He seems like a guy very comfortable with his privacy and being out of the spotlight. Michigan's job is the opposite of that.
A few things if I'm Michigan:
(a) This search feels awfully rushed because it's in both Warde and Whittingham's best interests to quickly agree to this arraignment. Warde is not fully protected but it makes it messier to fire Warde after this contract is signed. Plus, if Warde is fired and UM wants a fresh start from Whittingham, he goes back to retirement plans (with more money)
(b) I'm nervous about Whittingham's commitment. Is he still hungry? Is this him lashing out for being jilted by Utah? What happens when all of those Utah problems are replaced by Michigan problems?
(c) I'm building a moat around Whittingham. He seems like a guy very comfortable with his privacy and being out of the spotlight. Michigan's job is the opposite of that.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
I’d read that as “we need to get our current AD out of here ASAP, and we’ll accept this to let the new AD make a hire in a little while.”
sbillini
- st petersburg, fl
Yea this is very much a bill O’Brien type hire. I think Sherone Moore was the same vs any sort of long term solution, but that obviously didn’t play out as expected.
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