Michigan State football fans finally have a reason to smile. Not only did the Spartans hire a proven head coach with Big Ten experience and a hunger to revive his career, but they just watched their rival fire its head coach, with cause, on Wednesday evening.
Following some wild internet rumors, Michigan decided to fire head coach Sherrone Moore, putting the Wolverines way behind the eight ball in terms of the coaching carousel.
Any Michigan fan would tell you that this is a disaster.
Obviously many wanted to move on from Moore after two ho-hum seasons (compared to the previous run by Jim Harbaugh), but no one was expecting the firing to come this late and with all the other good coaches scooped up by Power Four programs.
Michigan is in a bad situation and the Wolverines are now trending in the wrong direction while Michigan State is finally trending in the right one.
Why Michigan could be in major trouble
There’s not much you can say about the firing other than the fact that it was unfortunate for Moore, but it seems as if the Wolverines found enough cause to let him go — no buyout for him.
But there’s a bigger issue for Michigan here: there aren’t any good coaches left.
Michigan is entering the coaching carousel after all the major programs hired good coaches. Florida got Jon Sumrall, LSU got Lane Kiffin, Penn State got Matt Campbell. Heck, even South Florida got Brian Hartline who was rumored to be a Power Four coaching candidate for years.
There’s still a chance that Michigan could pull off a miracle and hire someone like Kalen DeBoer away from Alabama or Jedd Fisch from Washington, but it’s going to take a whale of an offer.
Good thing for Michigan is that it has the money.
At least for a few days, Michigan State is trending up while Michigan is trending down, and entering the coaching carousel this late could be a death sentence. But hey, we’ve seen big-time coaches leave prominent jobs for money and more resources elsewhere.
Let’s hope the Wolverines screw this up a-la Brady Hoke.