This is from another poster on TOS
Read this from another poster:
1- For the last five years this board has opined the lack of forethought that lead us to hire Derek Dooley instead of David Cutcliffe (as Wes has reported a few times, Cut turned us down because we wanted to micromanage his staff and because power players wanted a "sexier" hire, but we could have gotten him.) Instead, we got what we all wanted- a connection to the Saban tree. Then we got it again with Sal. You can add the Lane Train to the sexy hire pile. Also, Dave Clawson over better pro-style OCs because fans and boosters wanted a "west coast" offense and running QB like Florida
2. Debord is the David Cutcliffe of the Midwest. Maybe we should learn from our past. How much is he like Cut? He was the OC at Michigan from 97-99. He was undefeated and won a national championship in his first year and won two Big Ten titles during that run before he decided to parlay it into a head coaching job at CMU. (Sound familiar.) In 1997 he was the national assistant coach of the year.
3- The he comes back to Michigan (he was succeeded at CMU by Kelly and then Jones). He was on staff there but not the OC because Carr wouldn't shuffle the deck and move the OC who had replaced him. As a position coach he won another Big 10 title. Then in 06 he returns to the OC position and his first team makes it to the Rose Bowl. After Carr retires he looks just like David Cutcliffe after Phil to the Michigan faithful and so they go with the "sexy hire" instead, Rich Rod. You can find Michigan blogs that opine the fact that they hired Rich Rod instead of Debord.
4- QBs he groomed as an OC at Michigan- Tom Brady, Drew Henson, Brian Griese, and Chad Henne. All had great college careers. Every QB who started a game for him at Michigan played in the NFL. He also has a huge role in the career of Scott Lefler (now OC at V Tech). Scot Loefler was his QB coach at Michigan, then goes with him to CMU, then back to Michigan. When Debord (and Carr) leave Michigan he goes to Florida as QB coach for Meyer, then to the NFL when Urby "retires".
5- When Carr retires Debord goes to the pros. He works under Mike Holmgren (a legendary offensive coach) at Seattle, then Lovie Smith (a very good coach who has a successful track record) at Chicago. Mike Martz who was the OC for the Bears (who knows a thing or two about offense) and coaches on a team that goes to the NFC championship. He stays there until Smith gets canned in early 2013, but past the coaching hiring cycle. Overall he has coached tight ends or the o-line in 5 NFL seasons.
6- The only real problem anyone has with him is the fact that he took two seasons off- but did he really? Here are some other coaches who have taken seasons off- David Cutcliffe, Bill Snyder, Urban Meyer. He is 58, not 85. That means he is younger than Spurrier, Saban, Pinkel, and Les Miles. Roughly the same age as Miles and Richt. He isn't a dinosaur. Also, I'm not convinced he's just been hanging out at intramurals at UM. This job looks more like a way to add a football coach without counting him. Note that he was the interim in charge of the team after Hoke was dismissed (that doesn't sound like a guy who isn't involved in the program) and then he was involved in the hire of Harbaugh- that turned out OK.
All of this to say- I have no idea why we are all so upset about the possibility of adding a coach who won a Natty as an OC to this staff, has coached every position on the offensive side of the ball, and helped groom Tom Brady. What does the guy at TCU, who has never called plays in a college game or the guy who won a lot of games at freaking Marshall, got that that's better than them?
This is not a "we need a recruiter" hire. We have recruiters. We need someone who is a winner, who brings stability, and who knows offense. The fact that he has that national championship ring and all those NFL contacts doesn't hurt either. I have no idea if Butch will hire him, but if our opinions about the coaches we have wanted on the message boards over the years are any measure of success (Muschamp, Strong, Sal, to name a few), then by gosh we should be thrilled that this guy is not someone any of us want. He's just a boring dude who has won a TON of HUGE games as an OC at a program very comparable to ours including a national title.
