Prodigal Son

The prodigal son was returning home, come to deliver us from misery and stagnation, come to rescue us from the worst loss since time immemorial, an annihilation at the hands of a west coast team and the moribund performance against our most hated rivals.

He was supposed to have come to save us with his passion, vigor, and anger. He was supposed to bring with him coordinators who actually knew how to coach rather than just their way around Ann Arbor. He was going to arrive with maize and blue blood flowing through his veins and pride in his heart, but it turned out his blood was purple... or maybe just green.

I cannot adequately describe the path of my emotions throughout the day yesterday as I tried to go about my routine as a college student, to write a paper, to read, to finish a presentation that was due the following week, as I could only stare at a computer screen and watch as the future of my most beloved team was tossed about. I know I don't need to retrace the steps for any of you, I'm sure man you were there with me, staring at MGoBlog as update after update appeared, each bringing hope or despair.

I don't even know how to feel now, when everything seems lost, when the hope of this program seems dead. I suppose it should be sadness, it should be anger, but many it's only confusion. I sit here wondering whether to be mad at Les Miles or LSU or Bill Martin or Kirk Herbstreit or Fate for that matter, but I have no answers, no information whatsoever. I have no idea what happened, and I'm not sure if I ever will.

I'm not going to speculate, but just sit here and stare at a glowing screen. After such a horrible campaign, we had a new general, we had our messiah, the man who would lead us back to the promised land. But instead of a glorious return home to rescue us all, he stayed in the bayou, forsaking this bitter winter and us.

If there is anything that I have learned from this football seasons, is that there is no perfect plot to real life. There are tales that you will tell your grandkids, but they aren't all the tales you wished so badly to tell.

Les Miles for President

The definition of noncommittal:

Les is More?

Since the coaching search began, as evidenced by the banner, my personal preference has been torn between Cincinnati's Brian Kelly and Louisiana State's Les Miles. The Ferentz madness is now dead and buried, and all signs point to Les Miles being Michigan's coach within a week or two.

And I hate it.

First, I'll let Matt Hayes of The Sporting News begin my argument.

Linkage

I know this is going to come as a shock, a slap in the face to the Michigan Men of the world. But hear me out. Want an end-all, be-all coach, a guy who encompasses everything and lacks nothing? Then take a page from history and follow Ohio State's lead. Hire Brian Kelly. Seven years ago, when Ohio State had become a team that couldn't beat Michigan, the Buckeyes went out and did the unthinkable: They hired a coach from the NCAA's lower divisions, Youngstown State's Jim Tressel. Now that Michigan has become a team that can't beat Ohio State, Kelly -- whose first head coaching job was at Division II Grand Valley State -- would be the perfect fit. Not Les Miles, not some NFL retread, not some guy Lloyd Carr thinks is the Michigan Man for the job. This is about hiring the best man for the job. Kelly, in his first season at Cincinnati, is a relentless recruiter, a guy who can draw up X's and O's with anyone. And -- in what would be a welcome change -- he oozes charisma. He is everything Michigan needs, with a history of winning championships in tow. Four years ago, after he won his second straight national title at Grand Valley State, the reality of the business hit Kelly full force. "If I wanted a chance to sit at the big poker table," he says, "I had to start at the bottom." So in 2004 Kelly accepted a job at Central Michigan, which had one winning season in the previous nine, and went to work. Last year, he won a MAC championship. Then, only days later, he took the Cincinnati job. Eleven months later, the Bearcats are one victory away from just their second 10-win season in 120 years of football. Their first was in 1951. Now the big table has an open seat -- and it's time to lay out the cards. If you think Kelly is a gamble, consider where Tressel came from and where he is now -- one of three key hires of the past decade, along with Bob Stoops (Oklahoma) and Pete Carroll (USC), that changed the landscape of the game. High rollers in Columbus wanted Glen Mason, the OSU alum who knew the way of Woody. Instead they got Tressel, briefly a Buckeyes assistant before he left after the 1985 season, built a national power at Division I-AA Youngstown State and was hired by Ohio State in January 2001. Ten months later, the Buckeyes beat heavily favored Michigan. Two years later, they won the national title. Few question the thinking behind Miles going to Michigan, his alma mater. Just like few would've thought twice about the Buckeyes hiring Mason. Seven years later, Tressel is the best coach in the game. Mason is unemployed. "Athletic directors and presidents are tuned in much more now," Kelly says. "A lot of it is breaking through perceptions." And embracing reality.

The comparison to Ohio State after John Cooper left is spot on, except for one thing: Jim Tressel has never expressed any desire to leave Ohio State for the NFL. Of course Kelly hasn't either, but his island hopping from Grand Valley State to Central Michigan to Cincinnati brings his loyalties into question. I understand the hesitation of hiring a coach that could bolt in 3-4 years...but what do you think would happen in those 3-4 years that would cause such a jump?

It's not like Michigan would suddenly be blacklisted if Brian Kelly left after 4 years. Coaches would still be lining up to listen to offers. And Kelly would almost assuredly leave the program in better condition.

I like Les Miles. I think he's a good coach. He doesn't live in the 1970s and 1980s like Lloyd Carr. But that's not the issue here. The issue is the powers that run things behind the scene like Miles because he's a Michigan Man and played for Bo. That's an asinine justification for hiring a man to coach one of America's most storied football programs. It's the same stale "play not to lose" mentality. If Bill Martin hires Miles, he will have hired not to lose instead of hiring to win.

Do these things always work out? No. But the biggest risk is the risk not taken. OSU took a gamble on Tressel. USC took a gamble on Pete Carroll. Michigan is simply afraid to take that risk, and because of that, they will never be all that they can be.

Les will be the guy. And I can't help but shake my head, knowing they could've done better.

These three things I KNOW are true:

1. Lloyd Carr and Mike DeBord DID call a good game in the second half, once Henne was in. The difference in knowledge of the playbook and trust of the coaches between Henne and Mallett will never be more apparent than it was tonight. Chad Henne won that game tonight, when Ryan Mallett tried to lose it with two redzone turnovers.

2. Yes, there will be a "Hart" Chart for Brown and Minor.

3. My disdain and dread of having Les Miles be Michigan's next coach seems to decrease with each week. I wonder if Les Miles having the biggest balls in the world has anything to do with that? Could be.

"Hart" Chart should be out on like...Wednesday or something. No superhuman adrenaline high tonight.