Re: Lloyd Carr Retiring
 

[ QUOTE ]
Can anyone defend Les Miles as far as gameday coaching goes?

I'm scared that Michigan will hire a Michigan man and we will be stuck with Les for the next couple of decades even if he goes 7-5 or 8-4 year in, year out.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm certainly not qualified, but maybe you could be more specific? Are you talking about playcalling, 4th downs, etc?

Again, not qualified, but my sense is that Matt Flynn just isn't very good, and with Doucet injured as well it makes more sense to feature a run-heavy gameplan. Really the only thing I've seen that I thought was definitely wrong was running 3 plays in the last minute and 30 against Auburn. Otherwise he seems to have a grasp of what to do on 4th downs, whether or not he does any sort of cost-benefit analysis, it looks like he gets it right most of the time. And he seems willing to hire top-notch coordinators, although others have suggested he isn't willing to trust them enough.

I am intrigued by Brian Kelly, though, and would give him a lot of consideration too.\

Re: Lloyd Carr Retiring
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Can anyone defend Les Miles as far as gameday coaching goes?

I'm scared that Michigan will hire a Michigan man and we will be stuck with Les for the next couple of decades even if he goes 7-5 or 8-4 year in, year out.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm certainly not qualified, but maybe you could be more specific? Are you talking about playcalling, 4th downs, etc?

Again, not qualified, but my sense is that Matt Flynn just isn't very good, and with Doucet injured as well it makes more sense to feature a run-heavy gameplan. Really the only thing I've seen that I thought was definitely wrong was running 3 plays in the last minute and 30 against Auburn. Otherwise he seems to have a grasp of what to do on 4th downs, whether or not he does any sort of cost-benefit analysis, it looks like he gets it right most of the time. And he seems willing to hire top-notch coordinators, although others have suggested he isn't willing to trust them enough.

I am intrigued by Brian Kelly, though, and would give him a lot of consideration too.\

[/ QUOTE ]

I should have worded that better. I'm not saying that Miles sucks. It's just that that's all I ever hear. I guess the only things I've seen are what you mentioned and all of those fourth downs against Florida. I didn't like that at all. I'm just wondering if he really is not a very good X's and O's guy.

Re: Lloyd Carr Retiring
 

Les Miles would make a great fit at Michigan, he already is 0-1 against Ohio State (and was favored going into the game).

Re: Lloyd Carr Retiring
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Can anyone defend Les Miles as far as gameday coaching goes?

I'm scared that Michigan will hire a Michigan man and we will be stuck with Les for the next couple of decades even if he goes 7-5 or 8-4 year in, year out.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm certainly not qualified, but maybe you could be more specific? Are you talking about playcalling, 4th downs, etc?

Again, not qualified, but my sense is that Matt Flynn just isn't very good, and with Doucet injured as well it makes more sense to feature a run-heavy gameplan. Really the only thing I've seen that I thought was definitely wrong was running 3 plays in the last minute and 30 against Auburn. Otherwise he seems to have a grasp of what to do on 4th downs, whether or not he does any sort of cost-benefit analysis, it looks like he gets it right most of the time. And he seems willing to hire top-notch coordinators, although others have suggested he isn't willing to trust them enough.

I am intrigued by Brian Kelly, though, and would give him a lot of consideration too.\

[/ QUOTE ]

I should have worded that better. I'm not saying that Miles sucks. It's just that that's all I ever hear. I guess the only things I've seen are what you mentioned and all of those fourth downs against Florida. I didn't like that at all. I'm just wondering if he really is not a very good X's and O's guy.

[/ QUOTE ]

Meh, my take was that those were all very good calls (and MGOBLOG agrees with me). Now the question (aside from whether those were good calls or not) is whether he is doing it because, like Charlie Weis, you just do crazy things because that's what brilliant coaches do apparently, or if he's doing them because he has a good sense of the cost-benefit analysis. Hopefully it's b, because while I think coaches need to go for it more than they do (not as much as Romer suggests but quite a bit), it's very easy to fall in love with the idea of a guy beings ballsy, which isn't what I want. I want decisions to made intelligently, not with bravado.

Re: Lloyd Carr Retiring
 

[ QUOTE ]
Les Miles would make a great fit at Michigan, he already is 0-1 against Ohio State (and was favored going into the game).

[/ QUOTE ]
I forgot the world began once Tressel was hired.

Re: Lloyd Carr Retiring
 

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3108059

ESPN now reporting the Lloyd rumors:

"Signs have been pointing toward this being the 62-year-old's 13th and final year. Carr altered his contract last December, allowing him to easily make this his final season as coach and still collect deferred compensation. In March, his assistant coaches were given two-year deals to pay them through Feb. 28, 2009, even if they are not coaching at Michigan."

...

"Many others, however, have been talking about his possible successor for months, if not years.

LSU coach Les Miles seems to be at the top of the list because he played for the late Bo Schembechler at Michigan. That is where Miles met his wife, and he was an assistant there under Schembechler.

Even though Miles appears to be in a great situation leading the top-ranked Tigers in a talent-rich area of the country, the school seemed concerned enough about him bolting for Ann Arbor that it put a specific clause in his contract to make it an expensive move.

In the "termination by coach" section of his deal, Michigan is the only other school mentioned. It states that Miles will not seek or accept employment as Michigan's coach. If Miles does leave LSU to coach the Wolverines, he must pay LSU $1.25 million."

Re: Lloyd Carr Retiring
 

On campus, everyone thought carr was retiring at the end of the year before the season started... the big rumor is that he'd take the AD's job after. UM would probably have to pay him more than the 1 dollar/year they pay the current AD tho.

Re: Lloyd Carr Retiring
 

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?s...&type=lgns

"His (Lloyd's) decision when to announce his retirement will tell you all you need to know about his true support of Miles succeeding him. Since neither man is talking, all we have is fun speculation.

Publicly, no one knows their true relationship. It may be good. It may not.

Miles lettered under Bo Schembechler in 1974-75 and was an assistant coach at U of M from 1980-81 and 1987-94, right alongside Lloyd Carr. But when Carr got the head coaching job in 1995, Miles promptly left to be an assistant at Oklahoma State, a less than lateral move.

If Carr wants to help Miles get the Michigan job, then he'd wait until January, after the BCS title game, to call it quits. Then the entire thing is seamless.

If he wants to hurt Miles' chances, then he announces his retirement within the next week.

That would put Miles in a brutal position and quite possibly eliminate him as a candidate. While coaches often switch jobs in the lull before the bowl season, no one has ever left a team before the title game. Even if you were crazy enough to do it, the move would probably kill you in recruiting forever.

In one quick announcement, Carr could whack the guy in a number of different ways.

Carr must know all of this. He knows how coaches think. He knows Les Miles. He knows why he has a great job. And he knows that, even if he isn't allowed to hand-pick his successor (and who knows, maybe he will be) there are other ways to influence who is going to follow him.

So if there is no announcement in the next week – either retirement or a promise to return for 2008 – then it stands to reason Carr wants Miles.

If he calls it quits, then the rumors of his preferred candidates being either Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Mike Trgovac, who played for U of M 1977-80, or Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz take on added value."

---

Everytime Kirk Ferentz's name gets brought up for the Michigan job, Baby Jesus cries.

Anyway, I agree with the crux of the article. Lloyd has to be pretty-well aware that if he announced on Monday, he's essentially [censored] Miles.

Trogvac's name has been brought up in the past; I forgot to mention him in my previous posts on the coaching search. I also didn't mention Cam Cameron, another former Bo assistant. I doubt he'd leave the Dolphins, especially this early into his tenure there, but there is precedent for that kind of thing:

http://static.flickr.com/158/347448242_84cb643c9d_m.jpg



Anyone upset with Michigan's propensity for staid offenses would probably enjoy Cameron, who's known as an offensive guru; we all know how the last "zomg offensive genius" who made the transition from the NFL to college worked out. Plus, his Indiana teams were pretty bad. So color me skeptical.

Re: Lloyd Carr Retiring
 

Didn't Chelsea just fire their football coach? Let's go get him.

Re: Lloyd Carr Retiring
 

If we can convince Cameron to be Les Miles' OC, sure. As HC, no thank you, but no one has really suggested him. Of course, the only people I talk to have no influence and very few contacts so...