The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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Ohio, and isn't at all foreign to the Midwest. Whether he'd want to up- root and take on the challenge of molding another historically elite program remains to be seen, but that's the level of coach Hackett is said to be pursuing. Some have discounted LSU head coach and former Michigan assistant Les Miles as someone who won't get the chance to come home. Along with those reports are the not-so-fast ad- monitions from parties connected to Michigan donors who know the Wol- verines need a "name" hire. AN ERA THAT FADED While the forward focus grows intense, some can't avoid a glance backward, wondering how it went wrong for Hoke. The former assis- tant, who wowed the crowd with his "This is Michigan" defiance upon coming to Ann Arbor, suffered through diminishing returns in the wins column. Rodriguez never managed to put a high-level defense on the field in Ann Arbor, and couldn't get his offense up to speed in big games (averag- ing 8.0 points per Ohio State contest) quickly enough to render that im- material. Hoke, on the other hand, came to his dream job with a defen- sive mindset, bringing Greg Mattison back from the NFL. Those two and Michigan's other defensive coaches worked wonders their very first season in Ann Arbor. Michigan's defense went from hem- orrhaging 35 points a game in 2010 to yielding 17.4 in 2011, the sixth-best mark in the nation. But offense became the Achilles' heel of Hoke's squads, particularly after the explosive Denard Robinson bolted out of The Big House. The Wolverines went from aver- aging 33.3 points per game in 2011 to 29.8 in Robinson's senior season. of the best coaches in the NFL, and he built a powerhouse at Stanford. Hire Harbaugh, and you get top-5 recruiting classes, future NFL quar- terbacks, an energized fan base and Big Ten title contention. Plus, the 49ers seem ready to get rid of him because he wins too much. Like others, I suspect Harbaugh will stay in the pros. Harbaugh loves his alma mater, and I think he enjoys a university environment far more than people realize. It's easy to think of him as a football automaton, wearing the same khakis every day and thinking only about the game, but that's not really him. "I think Harbaugh is like most Michigan grads: moving back to Ann Arbor would hold emotional appeal for him. But most grads don't actually move back. "And if you look at it analytically, and the Raiders or Jets or Bears are courting him, why would Harbaugh take less money to coach at a lower level? Coaches who leave NFL teams for the college ranks usually have no choice [because they got fired] or simply prefer the college game [Nick Saban, Bobby Petrino, Steve Spurrier]. There is no indication that Harbaugh is tired of the NFL. That alone makes this a long shot."