Losers, Part 2

Was able to get to AA on Friday and ran into a few people close to the team.  Wanted to share what I was told, one of these guys played with coach in the mid 80's, and the other is the husband of one of the regents.  First and foremost, they both said unless coach takes another job he will not get fired, but that coaching changes were most likely coming to the staff.  They also said without hesitation that coach was close to a contract extension last winter, but the situation took a back seat to covid.  

On Dmac - He was neck and neck with JM and doing very well.  DM pulled himself out of practice and told the coaches he felt sick, although he didn't look sick, and was having a great week of practice.  Apparently this ticked off coach and showed "a sign of weakness".  Seemingly coach then tried to motivate DM to get after it and continue to practice and workout with his team.  When DM told his parents about the way coach was handling him feeling sick they got extremely upset.  As a family they decided to sleep on it for that weekend, the following Monday Mr. and Mrs. Mcc let the coaches know that DM was going to finish his scholastic year and transfer.  It sounds like DM might go play for his father next season, while also looking at Nebraska, and West Coast schools.  

The only thing I will add to this story is that 100% DM was QB1 at the practice I was able to watch last winter.  I was puzzled when all the smoke started to come out about JM, and how he won the job.  I do not believe this was the case any longer. 

The program seems fractured.  In another story, JH has lost almost all the support from previous players from the Detroit area.  Almost all of them have been very vocal with their peers, high school coaches, and circle that JH is a dictator who plays favorites.  I'm definitely missing some guys on this list but here are a few (LockDownLew, Dawson, Hill sr, Ambry, Bellville coach, DPJ, and others). in fact if you look at their tweets in the past 2 weeks, they have all taken shots at coach.

Need to hold onto our recruits for next year, sign some more, and beat Rutger.

It was a big mystery why Dylan McCaffrey left the team, not the school, and now that Joe Milton is fizzling this appeared from a self-appointed Michigan insider.

This is what is so fascinating and so frustrating at the same time.  It is why, whatever the fanbase, we are hooked.

You know those old jokes and plots in sitcoms where the rumor starts out as a VW bug and ends up as a Rolls-Royce.  Who the hell knows.  It is a logical and precisely-written summary.  

Here is another condensation:  Harbaugh had tremendous success early and he is having a lot of trouble dealing with failure.  There is no question he is a despot and tyrant.  Other people have positions with similar, absolute power and budget control, but they are not likely (unlike Trump) to lose it so quickly, completely, and publicly.  He is like a long sought-after felon who is paraded in front of the cameras.  He has nowhere to hide.

For Harbaugh the fall has been dramatic.  I cannot get the "interview" with jock reporter Charles Woodson.  'Hey, how you 'doin,' I have no idea how the nonsensical banter actually unfolded.  It turned into something about toolboxes and how all the tools are important.  Woodson came off as a ridiculous buddy-buddy reporter.  Harbaugh came off as someone who cannot relate to anyone.  We have seen these awkward interviews before.  Jim Harbaugh can relate, but only if he is in charge.

Why is the Michigan football team so short on leaders?  Because there aren't many people who can lead just like, and under, Jim Harbaugh.

Remember Nixon's fall, or more to the point, Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of him.  It is about a guy sitting there withering away drinking highballs.  Donald Trump is in a similar situation.  Nixon is the one who said "You have to know how to lie."

The exit of McCaffrey remains a complete lie and coverup.  You can't challenge the king, even if his team is lousy right there in primetime for all to see.  That too is a logical conclusion as far as Harbaugh goes.

This business of "they are both competing" is another insulting lie.  Why not tell the pool boy he is next in line to be chief executive?  The old saying goes that if you will lie for me, you will lie to me.  I too could talk about culture, or fractures, or even factions, Harbaugh is the problem in this kind of fear-based environment, not more coaching changes.  DJ Durkin was not that long ago.

I have written about Dylan McCaffrey before.  To me he was one of the best returning players.  His was a bold decision, and like the line from the movie Chinatown "he has to swim in the same water as the rest of us."  He chose to hunker down for the Fall semester and graduate.