Wheatley leaving his alma mater and where his own son is playing seems to be strange since he is literally making a lateral move. Unless, he has decided to devote his coaching career to being a pro coach. Going to Jacksonville though is not such a great destination since they are so bad. Wheatley also had to be making good money as well at Michigan as a position coach. Wheatley is an icon at Michigan, however, I believe he did not play Chris Evans or Ty Isaacs enough in the games we needed them the most. I also include Higdon in the rotation. I got real tired of watching Smith and his slowness gain 1 to 2 yards per carry. At this level of football, position coaches are in charge of rotating their players. I wonder if Harbaugh took issue with this after evaluating the season. As for Fisch, he made the right choice leaving UM to be an OC all by himself and for a raise.
Wheatley/Fisch Leaving-Program Issue?
- Thread starter scfanblue
- Start date
Wheatly was Marrone's RB coach prior to this gig. He's spent 4 years on the college level and has't gotten anywhere expect being selected as a top recruiter. I'd rather deal with 5 rich NFLers than a dozen snotty nosed, ego manic college kids. He's made no secret of his desire to become a HC so maybe he figures what the heck because college's are now looking at NFL experienced coaches.
Fisch's raise is debatable but not his new OC title. And if Mora doesn't win this season he'll be looking for a job some where else. I think JH made a successful hire, stealing an NFL assistant (even though its the Browns). And if JH is so hard on assistants why would a guy leave the NFL to rejoin his college coach?
Fisch's raise is debatable but not his new OC title. And if Mora doesn't win this season he'll be looking for a job some where else. I think JH made a successful hire, stealing an NFL assistant (even though its the Browns). And if JH is so hard on assistants why would a guy leave the NFL to rejoin his college coach?
Nor are we used to having a big league coach that recruits talented coaches who move on for promotions and aspire to head-coaching jobs. The coaching trees of Carr and Hoke on that score are pathetic. There's nothing really to worry about here, Wheatley was seeking a head-coaching job and this is the best way to that and Fisch treated UM as a temporary stop as he likely wants to either be a permanent coordinator or head coach again.
I would only worry if we could not replace them with talented coaches. Pep Hamilton strikes me as a very capable coach, we are going to see a lot of this in the future. And frankly I welcome getting talented coaches who are highly motivated to succeed enough of the career stations for unambituois coaches and, for that matter, unambituous upper-class players.
Harbaugh has good coaches that want to be head coaches someday. Harbaugh will replace them and I'm a firm believer that no matter how good a recruiter, michigan recruits itself. Ask don brown how easy it is to recruit wearing a michigan shirt than a Boston College shirt. Wheatley left for the NFL...I'd be concerned if he left for another college job. The amazing thing is how Harbaugh got Hamilton to leave the NFL for michigan.
See Bama and OSU if you think this is a problem. Bama has lost a couple DC and OCs that are all head coaches somewhere else. OSU has had the same - in fact quite a bit over the past 2-3 years. Great programs will have this because other schools want a piece of the type of culture these great programs have. Believe me, if people stopped poaching our coaches it means we are really starting to regress. As long as we keep producing results, our coaches will continue to get other and better opportunities and good for them. Brown is likely the only one that seems like he will stick through - the rest we should expect will move around. Good problems to have for a program on the upward swing.
I'm sure the Wheatley's are very close, and having Jr. start out his college years with his Dad might have been a very positive situation for making that transition. However, most guys probably prefer a little space from their parents while in college ... so maybe that was a consideration in Dad moving on at this time. I sense it's all good, all the way around.
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