Brady Hoke, It's Tuesday 1/18 Do You Know Who Your DC is?

I sure don't and time is ticking away in this 2011 class.   I think someone should check the clocks and calendars in Schembechler Hall.  I think they might be a week or two off.  First, David Brandon decides to fire RR in early January and do a national search.   Which most experts believe to be a month late to find serious candidates.  Since he took him a week to find that out, he hires a coach who he could of had the day he fired RR. 

So Michigan continues to be behind the 8Ball in recruiting with a coach hired in mid-January.  Then Brady Hoke gets the job and brings a couple of assistants with him that were with him at Ball State and SDSU.  Now it's January 18, 2010 and you haven't hired the most important role on your staff - The Defensive Coordinator. 

I was pretty vocal when Brandon fired Rich Rodriguez that you don't fire him to hire Brady Hoke.  I have somewhat changed my mind on that after I saw Brady's love for Michigan.  Now, let me be very clear - a Ball State Staff should not be coaching at Michigan!  Please find some quality guys with a lot of recruiting and coaching experience to fill out this staff.  DC is the most important role on this staff and there needs to be a very high quality coach.  Tick Toc, Tick Toc..................

Rumored candidates?

Greg Mattison: DC Baltimore Ravens: Greg and Brady are very close and I'm sure they have talked since Brady got the job.   Greg is 61 and I don't know if you go from the Ravens to the Wolverines, but maybe he misses the college game.   I don't see this happening.

Jon Hoke, DB coach of the Chicago Bears:  Brother of Brady and said he hasn't talked to Brady about a role at Michigan.  He is also busy with the playoffs.

Teryl Austin, out of work but was the DC of Florida last year.   Austin coached the DB's at Michigan from 99-02.   If he was the guy, they could of had him last week.  Of course, since that seems how Michigan hires coaches, he is probably the guy that will get hired.  Austin only has 1 year experience as a DC.

Vance Bedford, DC at Louisville - Charlie Strong brought Vance with him when he left the job at Florida and took the head coaching job at Louisville.  Urban Meyer wanted Vance to stay and replace Charlie as the DC at Florida.  He declined and went to Louisville.   Urban offered him a boat load of money and Vance said no.  I think he is pretty happy in Louisville. 

Mike Trgovac, DL at Green Bay.  Mike was the DC for the Carolina Panters and there are rumors he might be a candidate to join John Fox at Denver as their new DC.  Mike is my first choice but he may enjoy the pro game (and money) over college.  He is also busy right now.

Ron English, HC at Eastern Michigan.  Ron has won a couple of games at EMU in two years.  He is building a program and I would be surprised if he left to be Michigan's DC.  On the other hand there was a strange message on his facebook page that he spoke to Coach Hoke and that there is good news coming.  Many believe that account is not Ron's and the whole thing is a hoax not a Hoke.

Corwin "Cornflakes" Brown: DB coach for the New England Patriots.  Corwin as you know was a safety at Michigan from 1993-2000 and was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the 4th round.  He was also the DC at Notre Dame under Charlie Weis.  His season is now over. 

Randy Shannon, former head coach at Miami.  The only people throwing his name around are Michigan bloggers.  I'm pretty sure Michigan isn't going to pay him close to $1M a year to coach defense, but they should.  He is a very good defensive coach and would have a HUGE impact in recruiting Florida. 

So those are the candidates I have been hearing (outside of Randy Shannon).  You might be wondering, what the hell is taking so long?  (Becuase I sure am).  1) The coach they want to hire is still alive in the NFL Playoffs and doesn't want to leave before his team is eliminated.  I understand that but why not do what Charlie Weis did?  Take the job at Florida but work with Kansas City until they were eliminated. 

2) They are in deep negotiation with a college coach.  If they are currently employed they are on the road recruiting and pretty busy.

So we better hear something real soon! Because the time is ticking away and recruits like Kris Frost (whose commitment was accepted by Auburn today) really wants to know who the DC is going to be.  Please hire someone soon, so we can try to salvage this recruiting class. 

Michigan recruitment of Devin Lucien seems to be over.  Michigan called him yesterday and said they wanted the 4 star prospect from California as a DB instead of a WR.  Devin was crushed and really wanted to visit and sign with Michigan.   So I'm guessing Michigan feels pretty good where they are with a couple WR's they have on their board.  (I certainly hope so).

Michigan Thursday: 1/8/2011 is a Make or Break Date for the Wolverines 2011 Recruiting Class

Why you ask?  Well, first of  I assume that the Michigan coaching situation will be decided by then.  Michigan plays in the Gator Bowl on New Years Day and Stanford plays in the Orange Bowl on 1/3. 

So what's so special about the 8th?  January 8th is the day of Army All American Game where top 2011 recruits like to pick a hat for their school of choice on National TV.   By this game, Michigan should know if RR will continue his head coaching duties or another head coach has been hired.  If RR is retained Michigan has a legitimate shot at these following Army All Americans:

• RB Dee Hart of course
• Safety Wayne Lyons
• WR/LB Kris Frost
• CB Blake Countess

Bowl Practice:  RR gave us an update on Bowl Practice and how it's progressing.  They have had 5 practices so far and basically working on fundamentals (freep): "You get the timing back, you get some of the conditioning back a little bit, you can see the first couple days we were a little bit rusty, especially throwing the football, but as we went along, we've been getting better,"

"I can see from all the guys their legs are fresh, and Denard is obviously the healthiest he's been since the season started," Rodriguez said. "He's running a little faster, which you'd expect."


Austin in Austin?  There are rumors that former Michigan assistant coach Teryl Austin will be Texas's new defensive coordinator.  I have also heard Randy Shannon former Miami head coach name as well.

Hands off the MAC!  In less then 2 weeks, three BCS programs have picked off coaches from the MAC.  First it was Jerry Kill going to Minnesota, then Al Golden at Miami and now it's another coach from Miami but this time it's Miami of Ohio.   Pitt has hired Mike Haywood who turned around the Miami program from a 1 year win season a year ago to MAC Champions this year.  Mike was a former assistant under Charlie Weis at ND.   In a related story the MAC is looking for some good young coaches. 

Does anyone else think that the situation at West Virgina next year is going to be awkward? Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen has been hired as WVU's OC and "coach in waiting" for current coach Bill Stewart for one year.  Bill is planing to resign or retire after the 2011 season.  Does this make any sense to anyone?  I'm guessing they had a small window to hire Dana or they were going to lose him to Pitt.  So they put this plan together so that Bill could coach the bowl game and step down after.  I don't see any upside for Bill Stewart to coach next year.  Pay him his salary and let him go find another job or head to Florida.  There are a couple of openings in the MAC. 

Max Issak a 6'3 240 DE from NJ and current Pitt commit is re-thinking his verbal and might be interested in re-considering Michigan.

Information about Miami's coaching search:  It seems they contacted Jim Harbaugh and he wasn't interested.