Schiano to Michigan???

[socal]

I think the search may be headed in a dangerous direction. By that I mean the next few guys interviewed will basically be plan b or c candidates.

If your AD is a complete dumbfuck, plan c can work out great. It did for us.

Not so much for us.

[Terry in Crapchester]

i always thought Todd Dodge would be a Tejas candidate when Mack leaves! Atleast thats what several Dallas UT fans claimed while he was killing Tejas Highschool teams at SLC

A high school coach taking on a big-time power college program. Perish the thought!

Regards,

[Vito Corleone]

i always thought Todd Dodge would be a Tejas candidate when Mack leaves! Atleast thats what several Dallas UT fans claimed while he was killing Tejas Highschool teams at SLC

Dodge needs to cut his teeth on a program a little bigger than UNT before Texas gives him a look. Now I wouldn't rule out Art Briles moving to Texas. If he can do for Baylor what he did for UH I think he will be a prime candidate when Mack moves on.

[Terry in Crapchester]

we've been turned down by the coach at rutgers, . . .

Of course, this doesn't tell the whole story. It's been pretty well-documented that Schiano's dream job is Penn State, and going to Michigan now probably would have precluded him going to Penn State in the next five years or so. I realize that Michigan fan might be a little taken aback that a coach his school coveted would prefer one of the Big Ten's junior partners, but as we've discussed before, you have to take a coach's subjective wishes into consideration in evaluating this. For instance, Bob Davie would have preferred Texas A&M to Notre Dame given a choice between the two, and his concerns may have been quite valid from a subjective standpoint. But that doesn't make Texas A&M more of a destination job than Notre Dame.

For that matter, I think you can definitely make an argument that Ferentz turning down Michigan is or would be a bigger insult than Schiano turning down Michigan. Unlike Schiano, Ferentz doesn't have ambitions to coach at a different place (except the NFL, if you believe NOJ, and I don't think the Michigan job would preclude him from pursuing that). Also (and I realize this will bring NOJ into the discussion with a vengeance), I think you can make the argument that right now, Rutgers is a better program than Iowa (note that I'm talking about the current state of the respective programs, so I'm not bringing history and tradition into the discussion). As Killian pointed out in another thread, the Big East is essentially a new conference, and the power gradations between its members haven't been worked out yet from a traditional standpoint. Rutgers is the only 1-A, ERRR, FBS, school located in a state which is traditionally rich in high school talent. In the extremely unlikely (and even more ill-advised) event that the NCAA ever adopted the Schmick Rule, Rutgers would become a national power immediately and for the foreseeable future. As it is, if you can convince some of the top players in the state to stay closer to home rather than going to Penn State, Notre Dame, Miami, Nebraska, tOSU, Michigan or some of the other schools that have had success raiding the state, you have the potential for a really nice program. Iowa, by contrast, has the potential to have an eye-popping year every now and then, such as in '02, but for the most part will be relegated to the second tier of its conference. Given a choice between the two schools, I'd definitely rather have the Rutgers job.

[M Club]

all true, but i'm allowed hyperbole and over-generalizations while looking a mike debord candidacy in the face. ppl say a lot of things while breathing through a brown paper bag.

[Goober McTuber]

Talk radio around here says Miles is still in the mix. Sure, he signed the extension, but the $2 million dollar buyout is still in there.

[Terry in Crapchester]

we've been turned down by the coach at rutgers, . . .

Of course, this doesn't tell the whole story. It's been pretty well-documented that Schiano's dream job is Penn State, and going to Michigan now probably would have precluded him going to Penn State in the next five years or so. I realize that Michigan fan might be a little taken aback that a coach his school coveted would prefer one of the Big Ten's junior partners, but as we've discussed before, you have to take a coach's subjective wishes into consideration in evaluating this. For instance, Bob Davie would have preferred Texas A&M to Notre Dame given a choice between the two, and his concerns may have been quite valid from a subjective standpoint. But that doesn't make Texas A&M more of a destination job than Notre Dame.

For that matter, I think you can definitely make an argument that Ferentz turning down Michigan is or would be a bigger insult than Schiano turning down Michigan. Unlike Schiano, Ferentz doesn't have ambitions to coach at a different place (except the NFL, if you believe NOJ, and I don't think the Michigan job would preclude him from pursuing that). Also (and I realize this will bring NOJ into the discussion with a vengeance), I think you can make the argument that right now, Rutgers is a better program than Iowa (note that I'm talking about the current state of the respective programs, so I'm not bringing history and tradition into the discussion). As Killian pointed out in another thread, the Big East is essentially a new conference, and the power gradations between its members haven't been worked out yet from a traditional standpoint. Rutgers is the only 1-A, ERRR, FBS, school located in a state which is traditionally rich in high school talent. In the extremely unlikely (and even more ill-advised) event that the NCAA ever adopted the Schmick Rule, Rutgers would become a national power immediately and for the foreseeable future. As it is, if you can convince some of the top players in the state to stay closer to home rather than going to Penn State, Notre Dame, Miami, Nebraska, tOSU, Michigan or some of the other schools that have had success raiding the state, you have the potential for a really nice program. Iowa, by contrast, has the potential to have an eye-popping year every now and then, such as in '02, but for the most part will be relegated to the second tier of its conference. Given a choice between the two schools, I'd definitely rather have the Rutgers job.

I disagree with several of your points, Terry, but mostly with your notion that 1) Rutgers is a better program "right now" than Iowa and 2) that Iowa is generally "relegated to the second tier of its conference". IMO, neither of those statements are true. Rutgers is in the freaking Big East, not the Big Ten...'nuff said,

That works to Rutgers' advantage, imho. The Big East is still a BCS conference, and in most years, I think Rutgers probably has an easier road to a BCS bid than Iowa, at least potentially.

and, FYI, Iowa has consistently finished in the upper tier of the Big Ten over the past 20-25 years (I'm saying that off the top of my head but I'm pretty confident that I'm correct - I'm too lazy to look it up, btw). That's not to say that they don't dip into the second tier, but I don't think that they'll be considered second tier team any time soon....at least not by the coaches who have to play them.

Mace

Maybe you misunderstood what I was getting at here, or I wasn't as clear as I should have been. By referring to Iowa as a "second tier" Big Ten team, I was thinking of the Big Ten in pretty much three tiers, not two:

Tier 1: tOSU, Michigan, Penn State, Wisconsin
Tier 2: Iowa, Sparty, Purdue
Tier 3: Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Northwestern.

Maybe you would still disagree with this assessment, I don't know. But I wasn't placing Iowa among the Big Ten bottom feeders.

[Terry in Crapchester]

BTW, did you know that Iowa had Knute Rockne hired away from Notre Dame at one time? Problems occurred when the story leaked to the press and ol' Knute got pissed and renegged on the deal.

Mace

No, I didn't know about that. I guess you learn something new every day.

[Killian]

Knute was hired away by a few schools, including Columbia. I think it's OSU that has a signed contract of his framed on the wall of their football office.