re: If Florida and Nebraska are any indication of what Michigan will do they

completely disagree with your assessment. Both of these hires are very solid.

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McElwain is not head scratching. That is a good/great hire. Riley is LOL though

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Don't understand this.

McElwain is not a great hire, for sure. He's still relatively unproven, and it seems like Florida is just reaching for another Saban guy. I think he could do a good job at Florida, but I don't think he'll for sure do great things.

Mike Riley is a solid, proven coach. I think he's exactly what Nebraska needed.

Peterson - not going to happen, has to prove himself at Washington and has not done it yet. Boise =/= Washington

Cutcliffe - too old, you'd be looking for a new coach in about 5-7 years. Good with QB's though

Freeze - Interesting thought, but Archie and Sean will up the ante.

J.L. Mora - solid coaching job at UCLA and can probably get him, would be his to turn down assuming Miles takes Michigan, which would be stupid on Michigan's part...actually think Mora at Michigan would be the smart move for all involved provided Harbaugh turns down Michigan.

No one though talks about this scenario much: Miles goes to Michigan, Harbaugh makes good on his threat to leave San Fran, LSU has 5 million / year in the pot... would Harbaugh turn down?

DP

Michigan will hit a major name hire....you can book it

What McElwain brings to the table is very good knowledge of the Alabama defense because Kirby Smart is not leaving.

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What McElwain brings to the table is very good knowledge of the Alabama defense because Kirby Smart is not leaving.

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That will make a difference when Florida plays Bama once every 6 years.

So who exactly was the splashy hire we could have made a missed? I'm always curious when someone calls a hire "underwhelming." I would guess for something to be underwhelming, there must have been some serious expectation of something greater, coaches who I find generally fall into two categories:

A. Other coaches without anymore pedigree but are just favored more by the "underwhelmed party."

B. Blowhards who think their school is so sexy and rich that they just pull up a logoed Brinks truck to any coach they desire's house, shower him in riches, and take him back to campus.

Sometimes, those two categories combine, and you get someone like Freeze who has done OK the last two seasons at mid-sized programs that often are rarely watched by the very people who salivate over them. Something like "Ole Miss sucks! It is a black hole! Did you see what he did there? Imagine if he were somewhere else. Just back up the truck! We can outpay Ole Miss!"

Home run hires, at least as home run as it gets, would have been someone like Jim Harbaugh, and that guy was NEVER coming to Florida. If he goes back to college at all this year it will only be because his personal connection to Michigan. Chip Kelly wasn't coming. No one like that was coming. All you have after that is conjecture as I don't think a Rich Rod, Freeze, or Gundy would have undoubtedly done better than McElwain. We'll see. I personally am more excited about what this guy can do than a Rich Rod or Gundy, guys whose names have been around now for years and have had some success but nothing really over the top.