The case for hiring Kevin Wilson at Michigan

Regarding yesterday's installment of the annual embarrassment of the Ohio State game (in this case, a 56-27 loss), I present to you the case for hiring Kevin Wilson as head coach at Michigan. Change my mind.

1. You want to beat Ohio State, you hire Ohio State. It worked with some former OSU assistant named Schembechler. Besides, the Nuts hired away Mattison and Washington in the off-season. They already have Michigan's defensive playbook, so why not get their offensive playbook? You tend to have more success when you know their successful tendencies.

2. Get ahold of the 2000 Michigan at Northwestern football game and a bucket of popcorn. 54 points. 654 yards of total offense. Damien Anderson rushed 31 times for 268 yards and 2 touchdowns. Zak Kustok threw for 322 yards and 4 touchdowns on 27 of 40 passing. It was a work of art for a vastly under-talented Wildcat team.

3. Get coaching film of the 2008 Oklahoma Sooners. Two running backs ran for over 1,000 yards each. And a relatively unknown QB named Sam Bradford won the Heisman by throwing for 4,700 yards and 50 TDs.

4. Wilson (along with Ryan Day) are the architects of the current OSU offense. It's not a tempo thing or a spread thing. It's a READ thing. 75% of Michigan's offense you can see coming when they break the huddle—particularly that God-awful wildcat formation, which in crunch time has proven unable to gain a single yard. The Day/Wilson scheme, get the opponent to commit to their defensive personnel, step to the line, and THEN call the play, the play that best exploits what you see (and what you've studied). If you disguise it so the defense doesn't know what's coming, all the better. Now out-schemed, they are forced to out-execute you on every play--an unsustainable approach over 60 minutes given OSU's advantages at OL and skill positions, as evidenced by 62-39 and 56-27.

5. Die-hard Michigan fans are clinging to Harbaugh's consistency and recruiting advantages. So why not use that to your advantage as you take the next step? Put an effective and explosive offense on the field (under Gattis, with Wilson at the helm), and employ the players already on the team, and future recruits will follow the success. You're starting with the heritage of a perennial 10-win team that Harbaugh has built, and a roster that while thin in places, is pretty well stocked with NFL-caliber talent.

6. So, Wilson's not a "Michigan Man". Fuck that. Nobody really cares when it comes down to it. The thinking is, you care more about your team's success if it's your alma mater. Let's see. Lloyd Carr (who won Michigan's last NC) went to Missouri and Northern Michigan. Gary Moeller (who only lost to OSU once in 5 years) was an OSU grad. Schembechler went to Miami (and played under Wayne Woodrow Hayes). Hell, Fritz Crisler went to the University of Chicago and Fielding H Yost schooled at West Virginia and Lafayette. Think about it. Neither Yost or Crisler or Schembechler have Michigan pedigrees, yet all three have buildings named after them on campus. Think about THAT.

7. For those who insist on a lineage link to Wolverine coaching greats, Wilson played OL at UNC while Randy Walker was an offensive assistant. Walker moved on to coach Miami—the cradle of coaches, from whom Bo and Woody were born—and gave Wilson his first coaching opportunity. When Walker jumped to Northwestern (see point #2 above), he hired Wilson as his OC.

8. Wilson was fired at IU for what the AD cited as philosophical difference with administration. There were multiple allegations that he forced injured players to play. While irreprensible, it's far from irreparable. First, it's not difficult to understand the desperation of a coach trying to stay competitive with a thin roster of talent and a schedule that includes OSU, Michigan, PSU and MSU every season. If the allegations are accurate it's not acceptable, but it won't happen in Ann Arbor after Brady Hoke trotted a still-staggering Shane Morris onto the field just one play after suffering a concussion. The protocol is in place at Michigan to prevent any such thing from occurring again.

9. Lastly, the numbers. While coaching Indiana in 2015 (where he took Harbaugh to OT before losing 48-41) Wilson made $1.5M. The Nuts hired him and will pay him double his IU salary, $2.5M through 2021. AS A COORDINATOR. Michigan could double it yet again and still fall $2.5M short of what they're paying Harbaugh in base. I'm sure buyouts will be involved, but this isn't anything Michigan has shied away from before. They paid millions to Rich Rod and Hoke. Shit they just paid $4M to UCLA and Arkansas NOT to play them.

10. What you'd be buying in Wilson is The Next Step, a legitimate chance at going toe-to-toe with not only your arch rivals and the team who's owned you the last 8 years, but the current #1 team in the nation.

It's not a lost cause in Ann Arbor. It's the case of a storied program that's done everything in its power to get where they are right now, and while knowing a change must be made (and that losing to OSU every season simply cannot stand), is afraid to take that final step. This could well be that much-needed step.