Michigan Hires Wrong Mountaineer Coach!

As the 1963 football season drew to a close, the University of Notre Dame was badly in need of a new football coach. Hugh Devore had just led the Irish to a 2-7 record, following four years under Joe Kuharich (1959-1962) when the Irish were 17-23 and never posted a winning record. Following the old adage "if you can't beat 'em, hire away their coach" Notre Dame turned its storied program over to Coach Ara Parseghian. While head football coach at Northwestern University, Parseghian had gone 4-0 against the Irish over four straight years from 1959 through 1962. The rest, as they say, is history.

On September 1st of this year, the University of Michigan made college football history by losing, at home, to the eventual champions of NCAA Division I-AA football, the Appalachian State Mountaineers. The Mountaineers ran a newfangled spread offense that totally baffled the Wolverines and the U of M loss to a Div I-AA school ranks among the most humiliating defeats in the history of the NCAA. The 34-32 final score of that game is in no way indicative of how thoroughly the Mountaineers dominated the Wolverines that day.

So, when Llloyd Carr finally decided to step down as Michigan head coach, it was only natural, following the example set by Notre Dame 43 years ago, that the Wolverines would reach out for ... the head coach of the Mountaineers of the University of West Virginia. D'Oh!


Yes, the WVU Mountaineers are from the same general region of the country as the Appalachian State Mountaineers, and they also run one of those newfangled spread offenses (which will no doubt be a great fit for uber-freshman QB Ryan Mallet), and they of course share the same nickname (which no doubt accounts for much of the confusion), but Rich Rodriguez of the West Virginia Mountaineers is NOT the same coach that opened a can of whoop-ass on the Wolverines back in September. The West Virginia coach has never beaten Michigan, and is 0-2 lifetime against the Big 11. But he has absolutely owned Rutgers and Syracuse.

No, the Coach Michigan meant to hire is Jerry Moore of the Appalachian State Mountaineers, who in his 19 years there has amassed a 167-70 record (.705 winning %) and won three straight Div I-AA championships. But, as we all know, National Championships aren't really that important at Michigan, as long as you can lay claim to a share of the Big 11 title every few years. No doubt the U of M athletic director wanted a guy with experience at the Div I-A level. After all, look at how badly it turned out for Ohio State when they hired a head coach out of Div I-AA Youngstown State. Clearly the Wolverines didn't want to repeat that mistake.