I'm having a hard time with this. Our world as Michigan Football fans got turned upside down in what seemed like 3 hours yesterday. When a musician, comedian, or actor does something criminal, we say "can you separate the art from the artist?" Many can not. I will try to do that today. Because that is the only way I can see through this fog.
The Job as Michigan Head Football Coach
From day 1, I have been consistent in saying this job is too big for Sherrone. It's too big for most football coaches. This job ate up Gary Moeller, Rich Rod, Brady Hoke, and now Sherrone. Bo, Lloyd, and Jim were far from perfect but they understood what it took to be the Michigan Head Football Coach. This is not just a football job, its being the CEO of a very large Football Organization. Very few coaches are ready for that responsibility or can handle it if they are lucky to find themselves with that role. Sherrone was gifted this role and that was a mistake from day 1.
The signs were evident quickly. Sherrone completely went into his first season without a QB and not finding anyone in the portal that could pass the ball. He also hired a unhireable DC from the NFL, who will make $2.7M next season. Now that season did have some highlights but what many saw was a defense that could've been the best ever and an offense that might have been the worst ever.
This season Sherrone again screws up the QB situation in the portal. He signs a QB with an injury that would not allow him to play this season. So the plan of Bryce learning and becoming the starter, is thrown out the window and suddenly Bryce is the starting QB days after his 18th birthday.
Something was off this season but it was hard to put a finger on it. Michigan seemed to play free and loose when Biff was the head coach but differently when Sherrone was running the show. We took that as the unpredictability of a young team. But maybe it wasn't? Jack Tuttle went on the Wolverine Wire Podcast early this season and said that Sherrone had lost the locker room. Nobody really believed it. Now it looks to be true. The job was to big for him. Sherrone's situation also seemed to be the worst kept secret at Michigan. National Media seemed to know and even John U Bacon had heard rumblings for years. The job was too big for him.
Then yesterday happened. The investigation into Sherrone's improper contact with a staff member caused him to be fired with cause. Then there was a incident at the staffers house later that afternoon that caused the police to be called and Sherrone spending the night in jail under protective custody. A horrible conclusion to a horrible day.
It's time for Warde to move on. I've never been a fan of Warde's as he has been at the center of scandals with the football, basketball, and hockey programs. He brought us Dusty, which I'm very thankful for. But has mismanaged pretty much every other situation. Warde being the head of the CFP last season was laughable. A clear move by a bunch of over paid AD's, that couldn't read a room if their life depended on it. The Regents need to do their job and remove him as early as today. Michigan Athletics needs a Jim Hackett type of leader now and I expect the Regents understand that.
I will get into my top candidates for this job later today.
The Man
Sherrone had the worst day imagiable yesterday. He lost his job, his career, millions of dollars, his family, and his temporary freedom all in one day. I don't want to guess at his current state of mind, but it looks like he had a mental breakdown where he wanted to hurt himself or others. He started the day expecting to prepare to face Texas and ends up in jail that night.
Now, clearer heads will say that Sherrone brought this on himself. Which he did. This situation seems to be happening at an alarming rate at many programs across the country. Everyday it seems there is a similar story about a coach or AD resigning or getting fired for improper contact with a player or staff member. Still that is not an excuse for what happened yesterday.
When you put a person in a role like this when they are not ready, it can destroy them. It drove Moeller to have an incident at a Southfield Bar, RR's break down at the awards ceremony, Hoke losing control of his team. They lose the line between this being their job and their life. Your life is at home with your family, your job is at Stadium and Main. The job was too big for all of them.
Warde needs to take some blame for this. If he had to pick between the two coordinators, I still believe Jesse would have been a better choice. His father who was on staff, was the head coach of ND. If there is a similar situation to Michigan, ND is a good comp.
As a man, I feel awful for Sherrone and his family today. They have very young children. As a Michigan fan, we all sort of knew Sherrone was on borrowed time. Sherrone was about to start his make it or break it 3rd year. Michigan now has to move fast with many decisions. We will get into the next steps later today.
15 comments:
Can't argue, outside of Dusty, Warde's done a piss poor job as AD. I hate that Bob puts me in the position to defend Warde Manuel, but Jim left Michigan in a bad spot. Either all the other staffers were fired or left to the NFL. Moore was the literally the last man standing. The other issue, NOBODY knew was sanctions Michigan was going to face for the sign stealing scandal and most coaches don't want to take over a program with a black cloud hanging over it. So you were either hiring Moore or taking a wild swing at an up and comer with little experience at the level of a Michigan.
Now Michigan could of expedited things by just copping to the sign stealing and blaming it all on the previous coaching staff, i.e. Jim Harbaugh. 20/20 hindsight would of been, naming Moore as the interim HC and then bending a knee to the NCAA, taking your hit in 2024 and be ahead of the game in hiring your next coach. Because as you see now, the NCAA is fairly toothless and the sanctions against UofM is not much more than a slap on the wrist.
I knew Sherrone was not playing with a full deck when he bear-hugged the Texas coach after he soundly defeated Michigan at a season opener (I believe it was a season opener). Jim Harbaugh will remain silent, but it was his purple stamp of approval on Sherrone's rear end that got him hired.
Also this is probably opening a can of worms. A rare look at Mgoblog revealed a strange picture of our coach with a woman (not his wife?), the lady in question in this controversy received a 100% pay raise in 2023/2024. I do not feel sorry for anybody involved. that would just be people feeling sorry for celebrities more than their own family members. How could his wife not know .... she probably did and let it fester until it blew up in her face. Remember the old frame oil filter commercials "buy one now or pay for it later! (Something like that.) Jim Harbaugh was blind-sided by Sherron because he was a cheerleader, a "yes man" and preached Christianity until he barfed.
Bob is right, Warde has to go and others yet to be identified.
I hate that this program has apparently started to implode like we're seeing. It's not to say that all of the other football programs do not have cracks in their armor, but this is our program and its historic and seems to be the most hated program in the NCAA. Other programs are reveling in what's happening to Michigan.
It's also apparent that there needs to be some serious "retooling'" from top to bottom. Unfortunately, it could logically mean that some of the kids could be caught up in the crossfire. If this is true, then it's more than likely that this program may take a step or two back and the danger is that it would experience a slow rebuild.
Albert Einstein was once quoted as saying, "The level of intelligence needed to fix a problem has got to be higher than the level of intelligence that it took to create the problem." So yes, we may need to clean house. Pray for Michigan. IMHO!!!
There are no slow rebuilds anymore, aka Curt Cignetti. with the resources Michigan has, you hire a top level coach away from their current programs......Yes, Jedd Fisch or Kalen DeBoer.....Washington is a nothing program compared to Michigan and DeBoer is Bama's RichRod. Now he's a hellavu better coach than RichRod, but he's NOT Nick Saban.
Don't spend 100 million to break-out Cignetti, get an excellent coach and use that money on NIL, and we will win CFP next year, and this episode will be like it never happened. {trust in Scottydoggs}, concentrate on linemen and wide receivers. Last question, does Sherrone have to learn to chirp like a bird because he will be in a cage for 3-5 years (or should be)... Sherrone will have to learn to give and "take" .... mostly learn to take (in between the buns) ..... man-pussy in now on the menu!!!
Its why I'm shooting for Fisch. He was on Jim's staff. He turned around a MORBID ASU program and he worked with Demond Williams Jr, who at this stage of his career is a better QB than BU. Moore and his staff didn't nothing with BU and IMHO stunted his development
I hear you and you make a good point; however, you can't reasonably expect the Cignetti effect to happen automatically in spite of the resources. The old adage "You can't get blood out of a turnip," or "You can't make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t" still means that you've got to start by having the material to make it work. They've got the goods now but unless they bring in the right type of builder, you can expect an exponential jail break of players and staff.
If they don't get the hire right this time, it would be paramount to Pharoah telling the Hebrew slaves to make bricks without straw and Moses responding to Pharoah to build the city without bricks. In any case, without the right material and skill builder you won't have a team that will take you to national prominence but instead you'll have the "Made in China" quality (e.g., some of the buildings and structures that Chinese engineers have made are starting to fall down on their own), juss sayin... in any case, that's what I mean when I said that it could be another slow build. Do you trust the current AD to hire the right builder and to bring him in on time? However, I hope you're right. IMHO!!!
Excellent reply Chowman .... I borrowed the linemen and wide receivers idea from you!
I assume we will lose a lot of players to the portal unless we get a home run hire asap.
I assume we will lose a lot of players to the portal unless we get a home run hire asap.
but with Michigan's resources, i.e. NIL they can have all the bricks they want. its not about coaches and schools anymore. its about boats and hos...its about who's going to pay the most money. you think BU came to Michigan for his love of the Wolverines? he had 13M reasons to sign with Michigan. Do I think its right? no, it just is
maybe not....I've said this several times. its more about the NIL these days. I read an article where they interviewed some of the top coaches. kids and parents don't ask about education or scheme anymore....straight out the gate its how much you going to pay us. I'd argue the hold up on Savion Hiter's LoI was him seeing if there was anyone that would come in and top Michigan's offer
These kids are getting paid so not sure how many will leave. There will be some as schools will match or pay more then what they were getting.
Warde should be fired as he hired Sheronne and we can blame it on Jimmy or to keep the program running smoothly, etc. No, Warde is a big man or large man and it's on him for hiring a first time coach at a program like Michigan.
This is messed up and other schools will take joy in it, but you can go through every program in the country and there will be DUI's, etc. I know ohio state fans are loving it and they talk trash? They celebrated a scum bag in Urban Meyer. He had a coach on his staff that abused his wife and yet that's ok I guess as he's also grinding on a young girl. "Michigan are cheaters and why we lost", yet they and MSU are the ones with vacated wins. Too funny....
Chowman, I really hope that in this case that you're right, that it's all about the Benjamins, however, when you have kids who can legally be tempted away by other programs with who will dangle out a few dollars more, and a staff (talking about the good ones) that are concerned about their jobs and want to get a jump on their next gig, and other programs now negatively recruiting against us, this uncertainty makes a difference. This program "could" be left decimated. It does matter who the next coach would have to work with both players and staff; there's no getting around it, the risk is there. Even if Nick Saban had the 24' Michigan team we had last year or this year's team there was no way that he would have gone undefeated or won the National Championship (even though you could argue that there may have been some improvement). The bottom line is that you need quality players and coaches, and I wish that I had your confidence that there's no concern with losing the best ones. IMHO!!!
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