SI Reporting McElwain "strong candidate" to Michigan citing "Sources"
Bruce Feldman reporting
"Jim McElwain has emerged as a strong candidate to join Jim Harbaugh’s staff at Michigan working with receivers, multiple sources told SI"
Unsure if this means anything more than clickbait. Feldman citing "multiple" sources. Whatever.
Link Below
https://www.si.com/college-football/2018/02/10/jim-mcelwain-michigan-ji…
Edit: Title "Whatever Wordsmiths"
February 10th, 2018 at 10:49 PM ^
Good.
February 11th, 2018 at 12:26 PM ^
I like the idea of John Morton joining as WR coach. Better track record that McElwain.
February 10th, 2018 at 10:52 PM ^
Welcome addition to the offensive brain trust...
February 11th, 2018 at 8:18 AM ^
Honestly, how is everyone skipping over the mention of John Morton also being in the running? It think that is more intriguing than Jim McElwain
February 11th, 2018 at 9:08 AM ^
I hadn’t even heard that myself, but yes, I do find that very intriguing.
February 11th, 2018 at 9:33 AM ^
I hadn't either but it says it's him and McElwain for the spot in this article. Morton has worked for Harbaugh in San Fran and at San Diego. He took USC's offense from #44 to #14 in S&P+ in 2 years as OC despite the 2nd year being the first of their sanctions. I think anyone would argue he exceeded expectations with the Jets this year as well.
February 11th, 2018 at 8:55 AM ^
I think it is a little more than that now - we seem to be building a staff of analysts and position coaches on the offensive side of the ball that might necessitate the founding of "Michigan Offense, LLC" by the athletic department. What they could do is make the coordinators and Jim the board of "Michigan Football", then spin off the offense as a subsidiary and maintain controlling interest so it is semi-independent but still answerable to Harbaugh.
February 11th, 2018 at 9:07 AM ^
see Edwards, herm.
February 11th, 2018 at 9:09 AM ^
BRILLIANT!!! hahaha
February 11th, 2018 at 10:27 AM ^
OSU and Alabama have 8-10 rcently fired head coaches on their staff, time we were a landing pad as well.
February 11th, 2018 at 10:29 AM ^
we talk a lot about what number of points users should have to start threads, but what about the point total needed to delete double posts?
February 11th, 2018 at 11:30 AM ^
His success as an offensive mind is not in ddispute. More importantly, because of his familiarity of the SEC on how they recruit, identify talent, develop talent and scheme teams it would be a huge advantage for MIchigan to have him on their staff. The reality is the SEC plays the best football and Michigan/JH can learn a lot from him.
In short, his addition will make Michigan a better football team.
February 11th, 2018 at 11:52 PM ^
The SEC isn't the best conference because they have a superior style of play or better play calling that other coaches don't get. They have more talent to recruit and throw more money around.
February 10th, 2018 at 10:56 PM ^
I forgot about Left Shark.
February 11th, 2018 at 9:46 AM ^
He's a big star now.
I took my daughter to a Katy Perry concert. She brought him out to center stage for several songs.
He's totally gone Hollywood.
February 10th, 2018 at 10:57 PM ^
In this environment I believe he'll be removed because of a shark sex scandal.
February 10th, 2018 at 11:04 PM ^
Outside the lines will be calling
February 10th, 2018 at 11:45 PM ^
A special OTL edition.
February 11th, 2018 at 11:35 AM ^
After this shark fucking scandal gets litigated, McElwain will be swimming with the fishes.
February 10th, 2018 at 11:17 PM ^
it's going to be sturgeon
February 10th, 2018 at 11:38 PM ^
Will it be singing....
"Like a sturgeon, cuttin' for the very first time"
February 11th, 2018 at 1:35 PM ^
Mcelwain will be rolling out his own line of caviar
February 11th, 2018 at 11:24 AM ^
That MSU guy was his trainer....
February 10th, 2018 at 10:54 PM ^
Not a terrible hire. Not amazing either.
February 10th, 2018 at 10:56 PM ^
Check out his resume. It's a great hire.
February 10th, 2018 at 10:59 PM ^
Agree. I'll take him over Enos any day.
February 10th, 2018 at 11:53 PM ^
Agree 100%. JM has a lot of success under his belt. Enos ran CMU in to the ground. Alabama will be successful in spite of Enos.
February 11th, 2018 at 12:08 PM ^
Enos is an excellent recruiter. I think that was the main idea behind his hire.
February 11th, 2018 at 12:21 AM ^
Better than Enos and Cam. Much happier now. Hopefully AL does not need a WR coach now. Though Saban liked him as OC.
February 10th, 2018 at 11:15 PM ^
I mean people said the same thing thing about Nuss. Anybody can be good at Bama. His three years at Flroida were worse on offense than Michigan but he's a position coach so it seems ok.
February 11th, 2018 at 12:00 AM ^
No, Nuss was fired at Bama. Well, pushed out. We "hired him away" before he could be canned.
McElwain doesn't fit the "anybody can be great at Bama" quip because he built the Bama offense. In Saban's first season they were 54th in S&P Offense. Then Saban replaced Major Applewhite with McElwain and he had them up to 7th the next year. 3rd, 1st, and 4th after that. Won Saban's first two national titles with McElwain's offense. McElwain came in before they were a juggernaut, he helped Saban make them what they are today. He was the first OC they won with.
Then at Colorado State he turned one of the nation's worst offenses into one of the best. He knows his shit.
February 11th, 2018 at 6:24 AM ^
I think his biggest mistake at Florida was the handling of the Will Grier matter. I have no idea how it went down in reality, but my impression was that Grier was pissed enough to leave and sit out a year. Had Grier remained at Florida, McElwain may still be there today.
I always thought he was in over his head at a school like Florida, but the man does know his football and would add value to the Michigan staff.
February 11th, 2018 at 5:29 PM ^
While I agree with the broader sentiment that McElwain would be better than status quo or Enos, this would be a long distance from the offensive version of the Don Brown hire. Bama was putting up huge numbers against Georgia State and Kentucky, but he probably averaged 15-24 points against the meat of the SEC. Same can be said for his success at CSU...big points against Fresno but they didn’t break 20 too often against traditional top-25 teams (sure talent is a factor in that but I’m looking for signs of being exceptional).
I’m all for this pursuit - I don’t think the “Don Brown” hire exists and McElwain should be an improvement - but I’d wait to see performance in the B1G schedule before I start yelling from the mountains.
Managing my own expectations has probably been the biggest issue I’ve had with UM football since 2011, so I’m working on improving myself each day.
February 11th, 2018 at 9:31 PM ^
This is for the WR coach, not OC. It would be a pretty big hire.
February 15th, 2018 at 12:03 PM ^
I’m not sure that is the case though. Obviously, a lot in flux here in the off-season.
Like I said, I’m not up or down on the hire, but am holding my excitement in check until we see product on the field.
February 11th, 2018 at 12:00 AM ^
Absolutely. Even though Florida was not good, they weren't an outright abomination when he was there. They did win their division (which isn't good but whatever) the first two years.
EDIT: And that's by far the worst stop on his resume
February 11th, 2018 at 10:21 AM ^
could be classified as an abomination his 3 years at Florida. 73, 88, and 108 in S&P in his 3 years there.
They won the division because of their defense.
February 11th, 2018 at 9:48 AM ^
Check out his resume.
Should I skip over the abysmal Florida part?
February 10th, 2018 at 10:55 PM ^
Yes please! His resume at wide receivers and quarterbacks coach is solid. He was also the offensive coordinator at Alabama in the early years of their national championships.
February 10th, 2018 at 11:43 PM ^
Now all we need is an Alabamaesque roster and we're set!
February 11th, 2018 at 2:30 AM ^
Not quite, he was there at the beginning before it became the world beater it is today. He helped build it.
February 11th, 2018 at 11:21 AM ^
McElwain was the OC at Bama before Bama was what they are today. He was there for Saban's 2nd-5th years. Offensive rankings:
Pre-McElwain:
#56 total OFEI not available
#67 total #67 OFEI
------------------------
McElwain
#41 total #14 OFEI
#15 total #6 OFEI
#22 total #6 OFEI
#30 total #7 OFEI
February 11th, 2018 at 11:21 AM ^
Can he recruit?
Is this an example of a coach with a good resume coming to us in a bad situation?
How does the chemistry between pep, him, and Harbaugh work?
I suppose in the end the lack of clarity and the confusing organization, on top of a bad end to our recruiting and our offensive nightmare of last year, has me nervous going into a brutal schedule next year.
I know there won’t be, and maybe shouldn’t be, but I would feel great if Harbaugh came out and said these are the responsibilities of each coach.
I would like to see some of his fire return.
I’d also like to know where mama bush went.
February 11th, 2018 at 11:27 AM ^
Based on his 247 page, he doesn't really seem like he recruits too much. Here are his top lifetime commitments:
https://247sports.com/Coach/Jim-McElwain-270/AllTimeRecruits
February 11th, 2018 at 11:43 AM ^
+1 for title
February 10th, 2018 at 10:59 PM ^
Join 'em!
February 10th, 2018 at 11:00 PM ^
Enough of the shark talk. Harbaugh is diagnosing a known issue with our offense, and McElwain is in a great position to provide informed outside perspective into what those problems are, and how they might be solved. Harbaugh would be higher than giraffe pussy if he didn't hire McElwain as a coordinator.
February 10th, 2018 at 11:03 PM ^
His offense and QB revolving door still racked 17 on us to take a lead in the first half this past season as well.
February 10th, 2018 at 11:08 PM ^
LOL you mean 2 of his DBs and his K put 17 on us?
I think this was a great hire, but the 2017 UF game is a horrible game to point to for that. He's got plenty of good on his resume you can look to.