<p>If he does get fired I hope it’s before the bowl game. Sure it’ll help the new coach with recruiting, but id like to see how Harbaugh, or whatever coach we get, handles Denard and our spread guys.</p>
<p>Unless it is conceivable that RR will be coach at Michigan 10 years from now and that the school will be satisfied with the program, it makes sense to let him go now and start in a new direction (assuming the guy we want is available). I am concerned that if RR stays, RR will constantly be under threat of being fired and that we will just be delaying the inevitable. I think the difficulty is that RR is probably a nice guy outside of the scope of the media and the administration likes him personally but I don’t see the directon of program returning to its glory under his leadership. I am assuming that Brandon has enough experience in both football and business to do what he has to do. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.</p>
<p>Sounds like Brandon’s going to wait till after the bowl game to make a decision</p>
<p>For all the Harbaugh people, he has recently ripped Michigan about them taking in bad students and leaving them out to dry after they graduate and praised Stanford for doing the opposite. Everyone here seems to think Stanford is just a rest stop for him, it’s not like he’s a once in a generation caliber coach that will have every top program on his doorstep and if he doesn’t want to come to Michigan, he could be at Stanford for a while. @iamsocool- Michigan was third in the Big Ten in points. The defense hasn’t continually gotten worse, it’s always been this bad. RR just needs to hand the d over to a good coordinator and let him run it and I think he could be a good coach at Michigan in the future.</p>
<p>The RR buyout goes down by $1.5 million if they wait until after January 1.</p>
<p>Personally, I think Harbaugh is waiting for a gig in the NFL. He has a pretty good gig @ Stanford, a relatively weak conference, and doesn’t have the pressure of restoring a football powerhouse to prior glory. RRod experiment hasn’t looked great thus far, but I’d still give him one more year. If he has the same record, or worse, next year, it might be time to can him.</p>
<p>I’ve followed Michigan football since Bo’s days. During that time there has been one constant among the Michigan “faithful”: Whoever is Michigan’s head coach is the stupidest man on the planet! - Bo ran a boring offense and didn’t win enough titles. Moeller was a moron. “Fans” wanted Carr’s head on a pike because he couldn’t beat Ohio State and should have won at least 50 national titles during his 13 years give all the talent he had. Now it’s Rodriguez’ turn. It’ll only be a short matter of time before the “Blue Coats” turn on the next guy be it Miles, Harbaugh or Lombardi.</p>
<p>I’ve followed Michigan football since Bo’s days and I’ve never seen or heard anything like this. I highly doubt that if Texas A&M came to Ann Arbor to give Rich Rod the job he could not refuse that there would be the same kind of vigil (along with the pizza franchise and salary increase) there was in 1982 when Bo almost left.</p>
<p>Michelle Tafoya just interviewed Harbaugh before the game against VA Tech tonight and asked him if he was leaving Stanford. He sure didn’t put too much effort into not only denying the rumors that he would be leaving Stanford but also a reassurance that he was STAYING at Stanford! Based on his response to Tafoya’s point-blank question in this latest interview, I also think he’s leaving. My guess is he’s going to the NFL. I too would love to see him become Michigan’s next head football coach, but I would be suprised if that’s going to be his next stop.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s all Rich Rod’s fault. The defense features several four star players and they aren’t playing to their potential.</p>
<p>And how do you explain a lack of player development?</p>
<p>Anyway, back a while someone asked what would happen to players (Denard, mostly) if RR was fired. The players have a strong connection to RR. If RR were to leave, many players who are succeeding in the Spread (i.e. Denard, due to his comments) will transfer to another school that runs the spread, especially if that is RR’s new home (he will get rehired as a head coach or OC somewhere… he is too good of a coach not to). Starting QB would thus be Tate, who fits the role of a pocket passer more than Denard and has stated his commitment to Michigan on prior occasions.</p>
<p>And who really wants the same process of transitioning from vastly different schemes with different personnel needs that occurred when RR got the job? I know I don’t. I also know abandoning the offense what got Oregon to the title game (Belotti and Kelly consulted RR on the Spread) is probably a bad idea.</p>
<p>The problem with Tate… is that he’s academically ineligible.</p>
<p>Tate has winter term to gain back his eligibility.</p>
<p>For one game… I’m not sure how that works, but it seems as if he bombed a final and thus couldn’t play in the game. He is still a student, and can become re-eligible for next semester/year.</p>
<p>I know he won’t see this, but…
TATE FORCIER, STUDY YOUR ASS OFF SO WE WILL HAVE A QUARTERBACK IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO DENARD!!!</p>
<p>I am not concerned about QB. Tate will be eligible and Devin Gardner has decent potential. Offensively, Michigan will be good next yearl, regardless of the system we have in place or of the QB that runs it. I would love to see Denard still running the Offense, but he is not the be-all, end-all. In fact, our reliance on him has hurt us against teams with good defenses. </p>
<p>The real improvements have to come on Special Teams and, most of all, Defense. A new coach will bring with him a 4-3-4 or 3-4-4 scheme and that alone will make a significant difference. However, the new head coach will have to hire a DC that instills real discipline around adhering to the fundamentals, such as tackling!</p>
<p>Did anyone else notice that Harbaugh literally walked away from the reporter in the middle of the post-game interview, deferring her to a Stanford defensive player and Luck (Stanford QB) in the process?</p>
<p>It is pretty much known that Harbaugh is leaving Stanford. Where to is the question? Is he staying in College and therefore taking the Michigan job or will he move to the NFL and take the 49ers job? We’ll know in the coming week I suppose.</p>
<p>Pompous ass…</p>
<p>Reporter wasn’t much better…she wouldn’t even look at the linebacker and pulled Luck from other interviews.</p>
<p>Not going to interfere in the UCB-Stanford rivalry :P</p>
<p>Harbaugh said he’d make his decision by Wednesday or, at the latest, by the end of this week. That coincides with the timeline of Brandon’s decision regarding our (new?) football coach. I’m gonna keep the hope alive for now.</p>
<p>Heh, Mike Tiricos effusive comments just about made me wanna puke…and Condi Rice and John Elway yuking it up on the sidelines…all we needed was Chelsea and Tiger make an appearance. :-)</p>