There's two things I don't understand.
First, why does anything think Venables is even a remotely plausible candidate? There's a lot of smoke around his poor behavior in the past. There's also no reason to even think he wants to be a head coach and he isn't happy where he is. Also, we all know Clemson pays / bends the rules... why would he take a head coaching job at a place that is much harder to recruit / win at? Nothing about Venables makes any sense yet I keep seeing his name near the top of these lists. He is as unlikely as Meyer IMO.
Second, why do people almost write-off Luke Fickell simply because he was a Buckeye? While he was every bit as accomplished a player as Harbaugh only at OSU, there are plenty of instances of OSU people coming and coaching at Michigan (Bo, Moeller, are the obvious). Fickell also was clearly spurned by OSU, understands the rivalry and Ohio recruiting, and seems to still be young, energetic, and capable of coaching fundamentally solid teams. His failure as interim OSU head coach 10 years ago is - in my view - completely meaningless. He wasn't ready back then, but people change a lot in 10 years. Were you ready for your current job today 10 years ago? I sure as hell wasn't. Fickell would be taking a huge career step-up with the Michigan job and he'd be foolish not to at least consider it, especially given money. And as far as I know, there isn't any smoke around baggage with him. I'm all aboard the Fickell train at this point.
First, why does anything think Venables is even a remotely plausible candidate? There's a lot of smoke around his poor behavior in the past. There's also no reason to even think he wants to be a head coach and he isn't happy where he is. Also, we all know Clemson pays / bends the rules... why would he take a head coaching job at a place that is much harder to recruit / win at? Nothing about Venables makes any sense yet I keep seeing his name near the top of these lists. He is as unlikely as Meyer IMO.
Second, why do people almost write-off Luke Fickell simply because he was a Buckeye? While he was every bit as accomplished a player as Harbaugh only at OSU, there are plenty of instances of OSU people coming and coaching at Michigan (Bo, Moeller, are the obvious). Fickell also was clearly spurned by OSU, understands the rivalry and Ohio recruiting, and seems to still be young, energetic, and capable of coaching fundamentally solid teams. His failure as interim OSU head coach 10 years ago is - in my view - completely meaningless. He wasn't ready back then, but people change a lot in 10 years. Were you ready for your current job today 10 years ago? I sure as hell wasn't. Fickell would be taking a huge career step-up with the Michigan job and he'd be foolish not to at least consider it, especially given money. And as far as I know, there isn't any smoke around baggage with him. I'm all aboard the Fickell train at this point.
