Michigan BLOG! says Lloyd Carr to retire next Monday

Ask Paul Hackett, Larry Smith and John Robinson II how hard it was to recruit at SC the last two decades.

Six losses in five seasons. None by more than a touchdown. But Carroll's a free pass.

Okay.

 

I made the original comment about the free pass for Carroll, but it was within a context (journalists can be the worst about context, can't they?) of someone saying you look at Miles' talent and wonder how LSU could have ever lost.

All I meant was that if you can say that about LSU, which hasn't lost to a team ranked lower than No. 18 under Miles, then it's only fair to apply that logic to Carroll, who has multiple losses in the same span to unranked teams.

Not saying Carroll isn't a great coach.
Not saying he hasn't won championships.
Not saying Miles has won anything other than two division titles yet.
Not saying Miles is better than Carroll.

Just saying if you say "how could they lose" about LSU, you have to say that about USC, which has had higher-ranked recruiting classes in each of the past seven seasons.

If you don't say "how could they lose" about a USC team that loses to unranked teams, it's intellectually dishonest to say that about an LSU team that has yet to lose to an unranked team.

Oh, and if you are going to say "look at USC before Carroll, and look at it now," don't you have to say the same about the NFL teams he left, and what they did after he left?

 

He got a free pass for losing to Stanford.

I still think he's a great coach, but he got a free pass for that debacle.

 

I think you have that backwards. My understanding is that Michigan is the only school he can leave for WITHOUT having to pay a buyout.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;_ylt=Aqams.AUN1g2gwwAlm188WA5nYcB?slug=ap-michigan-carr&prov=ap&type=lgns

 

If I'm Miles and Michigan I'd make the deal quick or forget about it. If Miles gets the offer he can say yep, I'm taking the job, hire a top assistant to handle things at Michigan until LSU's season is over and focus on LSU's remaining games. Otherwise he'll be dealing with the bs for another two months. Same goes for LSU. Name Pellini the new head and move on.

 

The Slappy pipeline in Michigan says that Miles has told Michigan to hire him without a search or he's no candidate; that his position at LSU would be severely compromised if he got into a prolonged search.

 

I could see Michigan caving, too.

I also could see both sides really regretting such a hire, if it happens.

 

Michigan is open
Nebraska will be open
Texas A&M will be open
UCLA could be open
Arkansas could be open

That's five pretty good jobs.

 

What's interesting, besides ND State losing to SD State, is that there don't seem to be that many "up and coming" coaches. If you look down the Top 25, many of the coaches enjoying breakthrough seasons are in their 50s or 60s. Might be a good year to hire top assistants.
Anybody have any inside dope on why Carr might oppose Miles being hired and who the other top candidates for the job might be?

 

Caving how?
All he wants is not to come in and, say, interview him first, then bring in a few more candidates so he doesn't get screwed at LSU.
Lloyd would love to have Mike DeBord replace him but between his less than stellar performance at CMU as head coach and sluggish offensive outings against OSU and Oregon, that's not happening.

 

That Yahoo story linked above listed these (of course maybe he's just throwing names out and see what sticks):

Other candidates might include Carolina Panthers assistant Mike Trgovac, who played for the Wolverines and joined their coaching staff in 1984 as a graduate assistant; Kirk Ferentz of Iowa, where University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman was before coming to Ann Arbor; and NFL head coaches Bobby Petrino in Atlanta and Tampa Bay's Jon Gruden.