All Things SkunkBear

[IrishLax]

FWIW, there hasn't been a single legitimate Tier 1A job that has ever gone after Gruden. And he has listened to some Tier1B and Tier 2 places that have inquired.

The impediment is what it would take to overcome his current cushy gig, and no one is willing to pay that.

Saying he "isn't interested in coaching ever again" is a bit off base given public and private comments he's made over the last couple years.

 

[IrishSteelhead]

Doyel is a putz, but I agree with his take in this article:

mweb.cbssports.com/general/writer/gregg-doyel/24380767/jon-gruden-doesnt-belong-on-college-sidelines-hes-a-myth

 

[NDdomer2]

Just read that michigan is hiring a consulting firm to aid in search of new coach. This is the same firm that they used to find Brady Hoke and Dave Brandon.

Why would you go back to that firm?

 

[ulukinatme]

Just read that michigan is hiring a consulting firm to aid in search of new coach. This is the same firm that they used to find Brady Hoke and Dave Brandon.

Why would you go back to that firm?

The real question is....how do we keep them in business?

 

[Irish#1]

No idea if this site is legit or not. I didn't see it mentioned above unless I missed it:

Is Michigan Waiting on Harbaugh?

Blown away by the interest in the job tells me he has a lot of coaches that are looking to move up the ladder, not the big name guys. Cutliffe turning down the job tells me they will probably fill the position with their 4th or 5th selection.

The search firm is only doing the early due diligence. Find out who is interested, salary requirements, etc.. They will then give that to the school. They won't recommend who should be brought in or hired.

 

[phork]

Blown away by the interest in the job tells me he has a lot of coaches that are looking to move up the ladder, not the big name guys. Cutliffe turning down the job tells me they will probably fill the position with their 4th or 5th selection.

The search firm is only doing the early due diligence. Find out who is interested, salary requirements, etc.. They will then give that to the school. They won't recommend who should be brought in or hired.

Cutliffe was never contacted. That was confirmed through him and the school, including 3rd parties.

 

[Big23Head]

A week or so ago Tyree Kinnel was told they will have a coach around Christmas (or hope to anyway)

 

[NDdomer2]

Cutliffe was never contacted. That was confirmed through him and the school, including 3rd parties.

This may be true or it may not. But if he turned it down why rub it in their face or let the media.

 

[connor_in]

Word on the street is that they are reaching out to Gerry Faust

 

[MNIrishman]

Michigan Man demonstrating the Michigan Difference today:

 

[Circa]

I hope so but the fact is he's leaving San Fran after this year so the timing is right if he's got any interest in coming back to college. Doubt he does though.

He would be a DUMB ass not to go to UM. How could he not go to what made him a coaching legend, within the college way..

If I were in his shoes, what would I do? JH will be our night stalker in the NE when he starts the onslaught. Let's hope I'm completely off.

and on the same note, The Harbaugh Brothers inc. are just confident enough to want a Super Bowl and NC in the same year.. They would pair off better within this world and the media frenzy would be bank.

 

[GoldenDomer]

Michigan Man demonstrating the Michigan Difference today:

FUCK TAYLOR LEWAN

 

[Circa]

No, it isn't.

and who says ESPN hasn't been the root of this rumor mill, In order to sex up the appeal?

 

[MNIrishman]

Tweets coming out now saying Harbaugh hired, deal announced as soon as tomorrow. 6.125M/yr.

 

[Wild Bill]

Not good. He'll turn them around. I hate them.

 

[IrishLax]

Tweets coming out now saying Harbaugh hired, deal announced as soon as tomorrow. 6.125M/yr.

Really? Because there are tweets coming out literally right now (as in I just did a search on Twitter) that have the 49ers owner saying he spoke with Harbaugh and focus is on finishing 9-7 AND tweets from Dolphins sources saying it's "80%" that Philbin will be fired and replaced with Harbaugh.

Now the 49ers tweets could certainly be posturing for a trade... and Dolphins tweets could be smokescreen by Ross... but why is no one but Michigan people reporting anything positive here? The only guy saying anything about tomorrow AM is Jeff Moss who is citing a Michigan source... and then he "clarifies":

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>To clarify at 9am Tuesday I will tell you who is telling his media cronies that Harbaugh is coming.</p>— Jeff Moss (@JeffMossDSR) <a href="https://twitter.com/JeffMossDSR/status/544716762747400192">December 16, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Sooooo.... I mean... stinks of Arute-esque trolling for ears/eyeballs.

 

[IrishLax]

The other angle that no one is talking about is that Harbaugh could be leveraging Michigan to get a juicy deal in place such that he can strong arm the 49ers into giving him a free release instead of being traded to somewhere he doesn't want to go.

Harbaugh to UM rumors REALLY help Harbaugh on every level... Harbaugh staying in NFL rumors really help the 49ers ownership (and also Harbaugh some if trying to leverage UM into demands)... I think this is still going to take a week or two (if not more) to play out.

 

[MNIrishman]

I hope your doubts carry the day, Lax.

 

[IrishLax]

I hope your doubts carry the day, Lax.

Haha me too but you know the more I think about it, it's weird that every Michigan person started being so emphatic today. Either that means it was an orchestrated "leak" for leverage, or someone spilled the beans, or.... echo chamber?

I did some more Twitter searching and it's NOT just that guy... it's lots of people saying lots of conflicting things... ask yourself this though...

If it was already a truly done deal, wouldn't Harbaugh be contacting potential recruits? Or someone on Michigan's side telling them? I mean, I don't see how it's conceivable that a long period of time passes without someone moving forward here given that 2 weeks = about 30% of the remaining recruiting calendar.

I guess we'll see. I give them a really solid chance of landing Harbaugh, but I'm also cautious that this is group think going on.

 

[stlnd01]

It would seem unlikely that a deal's done, as no "major" NFL or college football media are reporting it - and tbh the big-time ESPN/Fox or local print guys tend to break more real news than detroitsportsrag.com.

But there've certainly been credible reports that Michigan is basically waiting on a yes/no from Harbaugh before moving to other candidates, and that might be what we're getting to here.

 

[IrishLax]

It would seem unlikely that a deal's done, as no "major" NFL or college football media are reporting it - and tbh the big-time ESPN/Fox or local print guys tend to break more real news than detroitsportsrag.com.

But there've certainly been credible reports that Michigan is basically waiting on a yes/no from Harbaugh before moving to other candidates, and that might be what we're getting to here.

This is totally what I buy is happening. I think Harbaugh is trying to wait until the season is concluded to evaluate all of his options (and, ideally, get fired by San Francisco). I don't think Michigan is prepared to force his hand, and I think they have a deal in place that he is happy with. This also jives with precisely what Michigan HAS told recruits, which is to expect a new staff in place shortly before or after Christmas.

If Harbaugh gets fired by the 49ers and can hit the NFL free market, then he can potentially snag an incredibly lucrative deal from a place he wants to coach at while using the Michigan deal as leverage AND simultaneously leverage Michigan for more if need be. At this point, it becomes an open race with Michigan being attractive but hypothetically not moreso than another destiantion.

If he can't get fired, he basically has to force a trade +extension to somewhere (difficult, and even more difficult to command the $$ he wants) and I think Michigan is an almost obvious choice.

 

[phork]

The funny thing is that alot of these newer tweets are repeats of tweets from the last few weeks. If Harbaugh doesn't go then the drop off to #2 is steep.

 

[NDohio]

Haha me too but you know the more I think about it, it's weird that every Michigan person started being so emphatic today. Either that means it was an orchestrated "leak" for leverage, or someone spilled the beans, or.... echo chamber?

I did some more Twitter searching and it's NOT just that guy... it's lots of people saying lots of conflicting things... ask yourself this though...

If it was already a truly done deal, wouldn't Harbaugh be contacting potential recruits? Or someone on Michigan's side telling them? I mean, I don't see how it's conceivable that a long period of time passes without someone moving forward here given that 2 weeks = about 30% of the remaining recruiting calendar.

I guess we'll see. I give them a really solid chance of landing Harbaugh, but I'm also cautious that this is group think going on.

I agree with everything you have said, but aren't we in the dead period? Is it even possible for recruits to be contacted right now?

 

[Irish#1]

The other angle that no one is talking about is that Harbaugh could be leveraging Michigan to get a juicy deal in place such that he can strong arm the 49ers into giving him a free release instead of being traded to somewhere he doesn't want to go.

Harbaugh to UM rumors REALLY help Harbaugh on every level... Harbaugh staying in NFL rumors really help the 49ers ownership (and also Harbaugh some if trying to leverage UM into demands)... I think this is still going to take a week or two (if not more) to play out.

Harbaugh getting a deal from scUM doesn't give him any leverage over the 49'ers. The 49'ers hold all the cards. scUM needs a coach asap for recruiting. The 49'ers can sit on Harbaugh as long as they want to force scUM to pony up an incentive to let him go. They can agree to a trade or let him out of his contract if the buyer wants to offer some incentive, but Harbaugh holding a billion dollar deal from scUM isn't going to make the 49'ers do anything until they get what they want. This is pretty much true for any team interested in Harbaugh.

 

[koonja]

I will be sooooooooooo jealous of UM and OSU if they get Harbaugh.

 

[OCIrish]

If Harbaugh wants to stay in the NFL......Chicago may have an opening soon. I have no info, and this is mostly me thinking out loud, but I don't think Trestman, or Emery possibly survives this year. The Bears are a tire fire right now, and it's gonna take a serious coach to turn that team around. He may very well end up in Ann Arbor, and good for them......as much as I hate UM, I think college football is better when they are a really good team, plus, anyone who can stick it to Urban Meyer with any kind of regularity, I'd be ok with!

 

[IrishLax]

Harbaugh getting a deal from scUM doesn't give him any leverage over the 49'ers. The 49'ers hold all the cards. scUM needs a coach asap for recruiting. The 49'ers can sit on Harbaugh as long as they want to force scUM to pony up an incentive to let him go. They can agree to a trade or let him out of his contract if the buyer wants to offer some incentive, but Harbaugh holding a billion dollar deal from scUM isn't going to make the 49'ers do anything until they get what they want. This is pretty much true for any team interested in Harbaugh.

Assuming the 49ers are set on getting rid of him, but want to trade him, and Harbaugh doesn't want to get traded... then representing that he is a "done deal" to Michigan DRASTICALLY decreases his trade value for other franchises. If franchises believe he won't actually show up if traded then they aren't going to give up anything for him. If franchises believe that he set on staying in the NFL, then the 49ers have much more leverage to ship him to where they want for a trade package instead of Jim getting released and able to sign wherever.

 

[IrishLax]

I agree with everything you have said, but aren't we in the dead period? Is it even possible for recruits to be contacted right now?

"Dead" periods aren't actually "dead." You can't have in person contact, but phone contact is still allowable.

 

[IrishLax]

247 just posted an update... two small chunks...

"I can confirm that there are a pair of important Michigan-related figures that believe the chances with Harbaugh are currently very good. We've continually written about the potential flakiness of Harbaugh, and those caveats are going to remain until his name is on the dotted line in Ann Arbor. However, one source described Michigan's chances as "strong" late on Monday night, which is the most positive word we've gotten related to Harbaugh from them this entire process."

"Based on everything I was told tonight, and have gathered altogether, I'm willing to bump up the optimism meter a tad and say that I'm cautiously optimistic that Jim Harbaugh will be Michigan's head coach. I want to make it clear, however, that Harbaugh's flakiness, combined with the potential for teams like the Jets, Bears, Giants and Falcons to enter the NFL fray, make it far from a certainty at this point."

So basically... all of this optimism and tweets and such come from two Michigan people who "feel good" about the situation without any information on the dynamics on the other side of things with Harbaugh and possible NFL openings. I don't think the status quo has changed virtually at all except that they have an agreement on the table that Harbaugh's representatives have said is acceptable. Whether he actually takes it or not likely depends on what on the other side of things.

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

Assuming the 49ers are set on getting rid of him, but want to trade him, and Harbaugh doesn't want to get traded... then representing that he is a "done deal" to Michigan DRASTICALLY decreases his trade value for other franchises. If franchises believe he won't actually show up if traded then they aren't going to give up anything for him. If franchises believe that he set on staying in the NFL, then the 49ers have much more leverage to ship him to where they want for a trade package instead of Jim getting released and able to sign wherever.

Right. Which is why I'm skeptical that Harbaugh has even been given clearance by the 49ers to talk with Michigan.