Michigan inched few more steps toward panic mode after Kalen DeBoer swats away Wolverines, but it’s not dire yet.
Not a shock that a coach wouldn’t want to leave Alabama for Michigan.
Sherrone Moore’s messy exit not the red flag about Michigan.
Imagine Michigan’s coaching search as that game off the “Price is Right,” where the contestant must stop the hiker’s climb up the mountain before he topples over the cliff.
Michigan inched a few more steps up the slope and toward the cliff with Kalen DeBoer saying no thanks to the Wolverines.
“I haven’t talked with anyone, no plans of talking with anyone,” DeBoer told reporters, before adding, unequivocally, he’ll be Alabama’s coach next season.
Ann Arbor is but a lovely place, and Michigan is but a fine program, but it really should come as no shock a coach didn’t want to leave Alabama for Michigan.
Alabama is college football’s mecca. Coaches who win big there ascend to single-name status.
Several years ago, a reporter asked Nick Saban whether he’d consider running for public office. He shot down the idea with a single word: No.
Saban just as easily could have said, “Why would I consider a demotion?”
Governor or senator would have been a step down from the demigod stature he attained as Alabama’s coach.
Sure, the pressures of the job can chew up a coach, but if DeBoer feared a challenge, he never would have left Washington and signed on to replace the irreplaceable.
I could argue DeBoer would have been smart to free himself from Saban’s shadow and opt instead for cleaning up Michigan’s mess. DeBoer cannot possibly hurdle the bar Saban set, and only a national championship will placate Alabama fans. Then, they’ll want another.
By comparison, clearing Sherrone Moore’s bar would only require avoiding national shame and staying out of jail.
But, if DeBoer had left Alabama for Michigan, he would’ve been branded a coward who ran. Who would welcome that narrative? And, if the price of failing to meet Alabama’s standards becomes a $50 million buyout check, well, would that be so bad?
Anyway, DeBoer announced he’s “fully committed” to Alabama and not interested in job hopping.
Where does that leave Michigan? That mountaineer keeps yodeling up the mountainside. It’s not panic mode — yet.
Kalen DeBoer says no to Michigan, other candidates stay quiet
DeBoer’s intentions provide clarity. If he’d wanted out of Tuscaloosa, then this coaching search would’ve been straightforward. You ask him whether he desires a seven- or eight-year contract at Michigan, what make and model of courtesy vehicle he wants to drive, and that’s that.
DeBoer doesn’t want out of Alabama, and so now Michigan can move on.
Lest you think Michigan teeters on the brink of the abyss, I’d point out DeBoer’s public rebuff of Michigan did not ignite a trend. So far, I hear only hear crickets from the likes of Louisville’s Jeff Brohm, Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz or Washington’s Jedd Fisch.
Missouri is not college football’s mecca. Just saying.
Here’s the red flag with Michigan (Hint: It’s not Sherrone Moore)
Moore’s rap sheet is a black eye for Michigan, but it’s not a red flag for this job.
More likely to give job candidates pause is the university’s unstable alignment.
Michigan treks up the mountainside with an interim president, and athletic director Warde Manuel gives off the whiff of a lame duck, or at least a wounded duck, while his athletic department undergoes investigation for this latest scandal to occur under his watch.
In other words, the coach Michigan hires must accept the realities of shifting university alignment and the possibility of getting a new boss in the new year.
And, still, I cannot deny this would be a tempting level-up opportunity for someone like Drinkwitz or even Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham or Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea, a coach who’s punching above his program’s weight class and might sense it’s time to springboard off that success, rather than risk staying in place too long and missing his window, akin to Mark Stoops at Kentucky.
Coaching searches rarely function as a neat line from starting point to dream candidate. Penn State stumbled around for nearly two months before backdooring its way to a solid hire of Iowa State’s Matt Campbell.
Michigan lacks the luxury of time. While DeBoer prepares for the College Football Playoff, and the transfer portal opens in just more than two weeks. That’s the cliff.
Has Michigan reached the point where it’s ready to humbly ask Drinkwitz or Fisch if he can put a stop to that yodeling mountaineer?
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
