The first round of the ‘Death March Madness’ tournament (full bracket here – background here). Here’s a printable version. Mike DeBord (Offensive Coordinator, Michigan) v Cam Cameron (Miami Dolphins) As 3 and 4 seeded players, each has an outside shot for the position. Bill Martin will interview Mike DeBord for this position. If he gets hired Ann Arbor will burn. We can only imagine the complexities of his job but Coach DeBord is just not a popular figure amongst Wolverine fans. Per the mgoblog: The one silver lining in this turd sandwich of a season is getting this guy the hell away from Michigan’s football program. Yikes. His status as Lloyd Carr’s buddy is probably the biggest thing in his corner. He quit the CMU job and there are still many bitter fans in Mount Pleasant. He certainly qualifies as a ‘Michigan Man’ as a loyal assistant and he served Carr during the great year of 1997, when everything seemed to work just fine. We’ll see what happens. I know there are a few DeBord people out there, I saw you come out during the original vote in September. Cam Cameron has had a charmed career in athletics. Just look the folks he played under during his days at IU: Before embarking on his coaching career, as a collegian Cameron…
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Yost Region Round 1: English v Grobe
The first round of the ‘Death March Madness’ tournament (full bracket here – background here). Here’s a printable version. Ron English (Defensive Coordinator, Michigan) v Jim Grobe (Wake Forest) As 3 and 4 seeded players, each has an outside shot for the position. As for Grobe, his performance at Wake Forest last season made him the rage of many college football punits and, for Here’s his bio from the Wake Forest official site. He has Midwest ties as he was the headman at Ohio prior to joining Wake where he had some success. Ivan Maisel of ESPN called out Grobe as a candidate and summed up his reputation: Among other names that will be discussed amongst the public is Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe, a Midwesterner who believes in physical football. Grobe’s teams are known for playing hard for 60 minutes, and he is greatly respected by his peers. Grobe’s followed-up on his success this season, going 7-4 thus far with Vanderbilt on Saturday. A lot of people liken Jim Grobe to the John Beilein hire, as Grobe just seems to be one of the coaches that everyone respects. We’ll see if he gets in the mix. As for Ron English, what a difference a year makes. If we went back into time, just prior to the Ohio State…
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Crisler Region Round 1: Bielema v Pinkel
The first round of the ‘Death March Madness’ tournament (full bracket here – background here). Here’s a printable version. Bret Bielema (Wisconsin) v Gary Pinkel (Missouri) As 5 and 6 seeded players, each is considered a longshot for the position. Bielema has come into conversation lately as a candidate, but it may not be the right time for the young Bielema to leave the high profile job in Madision that he just took over. He would have instant recruiting ties to the Midwest, and may be buddy-buddy with current Michigan president Mary Sue Coleman due to his pedigree on Iowa’s coaching staff. More on Bielema here from the Wisconsin official site. I’m sure a few Badger fans would take offense at the suggestion that their coach could be cherry-picked by the Wolverines, but it could happen. Like it or not, the Michigan gig in on a different level and double-B would be foolish not to keep his ears on for Martin’s call. We’ll see. Gary Pinkel certainly is a hot name right given his hand in resurrecting the Tigers to one of the teams in the BCS championship hunt so late in the season. His team faces Kansas this weekend which will tell us a lot. He’d have instant Midwest recruiting ties as his pedigree is MAC-based (Kent State/Toledo/Bowling Green).…
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Kipke Region Round 1: Petrino v Prince
The first round of the ‘Death March Madness’ tournament (full bracket here – background here). Here’s a printable version. Bobby Petrino (Atlanta Falcons v Ron Prince (Kansas State) As 5 and 6 seeded players, each is considered a longshot for the position. How they got on the list: Bobby Petrino elevated the Louisville football program to new heights last season and took his craft to the NFL, where his short tenor has been stunted by the off field activities of Michael Vick. He’s a longshot for the candidancy but he’s got ties to the Midwest via Lousiville, and they way that team collapsed this year you have to wonder if Petrino is worthy of the hype. Ron Prince is a name you probably haven’t heard of but his name has come up by a few pundits as someone that just might be a good candidate. One of a handful of African American head coaches, Prince got some major props last year for taking over for Bill Snyder and getting the Wildcats to a bowl. The highlight of the 2006 campaign was taking down mighty Texas. His pedigree ties him to Virginia, and a little school of which I’m not familiar named Appalachian State. His stock has dropped a bit in the wake of giving up 71 points to the Cornhuskers…
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Yost Region Round 1: Johnson v Kehres
The first round of the ‘Death March Madness’ tournament (full bracket here – background here). Here’s a printable version. Larry Kehres vs. Paul Johnson An interesting match-up a two coaches you may know about but have caught the eye of several Michigan fans. In the September poll of potential candidates to replace Lloyd Carr I didn’t include either of these men, but Kehres received a bunch of write-in votes due to his great success at tiny Mt. Union. Navy headman Johnson has caught some notice for his work with the Midshipmen and especially his great win over the suffering Irish. Here’s a little more on each man: On Kehres from the Mt Union official site: Under Kehres, the Raiders have won nine Division III National Championships in the last 14 years (’93, ’96, ’97, ’98, ’00, & ’01, ’02, ’05, ’06). Since 1990, the Raiders have made 16 playoff appearances while posting college football’s most wins and best winning percentage (216-10-1/.954). During the last 15 regular seasons, his teams have posted a phenomenal 148-2 overall mark. For his efforts, Kehres (246-20-3/.920 at Mount Union) has been named the AFCA Division III National Coach of the Year eight times (’93, ’96, ’97, ’98, ’00, ’01, ’02, ’06) – voted on by the American Football Coaches Association. On Johnson, from the Navy…
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Death March Madness
Twenty minutes before Lloyd Carr’s tearful presser today I heard a caller into WTKA ask what the host thought about Miami Dolphins head coach Cam Cameron. As any sane person would do I started smashing my head against my steering wheel until I felt better. So continues the non-stop parade of radio talk show hosts & callers, punits, bloggers, journalists and anyone else with a pulse that will speculate on a replacement. This death march will drag Michigan fans through the holidays and most likely beyond the BCS Championship in early January. The beauty in all this is that no one really will have a clue what’s actually going on inside Bill Martin’s head until we get close, and maybe not even then. Have fun with those out of town relatives peppering you with takes on this. Prepare yourself man. To combat the stupidity of the next few months I’ve decided to fight fire with fire: a tired old radio show stunt to determine the next coach. It’ll be fought out in the blogosphere amongst my fellow nerds, which is where it belongs. The results will be as meaningless as the opinions of the talk show callers (except for maybe ‘Caller Marcus’). Should you chose to participate in Death March Madness you may actually feel yourself getting dumber as a…