UPDATE (12/27/14): This morning I received a text message from a good friend who has connections in the Michigan Athletic Department. This friend informed me that two separate sources of his were telling him very similar things about Jim Harbaugh and the opening at Michigan. I asked the friend if he could share either of the correspondences so that I may share it here on the blog and he obliged. FWIW, after receiving the screen grab of the text, I verified that the source is very much someone inside Michigan who would be in the know regarding the kind of information he shared.
Below I have transcribed the text my friend shared with me, with the actual image posted below that:
"I know our top guys are in San Francisco this weekend and we are preparing the press conference for Wednesday or Thursday. Like I said on the phone, it all hinges on if (49ers general manager) Mr. Baalke and (49ers owner) Mr. York drag there [sic] collective feet but our understanding is that Mr. Harbaugh has a meeting first thing Monday morning with the decision makers in San Fran and we expect him to ask for his release. So as of now that's the timeline we project but these things always change last minute but I can say it's what we expect."
The scuttlebutt online today is that something official with Harbaugh and Michigan could happen as soon as Tuesday, with some saying Harbaugh will even be at Michigan's men's basketball game vs. Illinois that afternoon. According to my friend's source, UM is preparing for a presser on Wednesday or Thursday, but even he says at the end that that's only the timeline they expect, so don't necessarily take this for gospel.
Some outlets, most notably Bleacher Report, are saying it's a basically a done deal. I'd say there's a 1-in-1000 chance the Raiders could still swoop in, but overall, I'd take this just to say Michigan is in fact at the one-yard line and is as on the precipice of punching it in.
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University of Michigan interim athletic director Jim Hackett fired former Michigan football head coach Brady Hoke on December 2nd. It has been 3 weeks to the day since Hoke’s ouster and still Michigan has yet to hire his replacement. But we all know the primary reason for this: Hackett and all the Wolverine faithful are waiting for the San Francisco 49ers lame duck head coach Jim Harbaugh to become available.
The Niners’ season comes to an end this Sunday, December 28th. Once their season concludes it’s widely expected that San Francisco will officially cut ties with Harbaugh, even though Harbaugh has one year and $5 million remaining on his contract.
Everyone and their mother knows that Harbaugh is Michigan’s top candidate to replace Hoke as head coach of the Wolverines football program.
Hackett and Co. have been incredibly patient in their pursuit of Harbaugh - hiring the search firm Korn Ferry to thoroughly vet numerous candidates and never officially commenting on their pursuit of Harbaugh even after it was reported that Michigan has offered the coach a contract in the neighborhood of 6-8 years for $48 or $49 million, depending on whom you listen to.
In the blogosphere and Twitterverse, rumblings have been ranging from cautious optimism to outright claims that Harbaugh to Michigan is a “done deal.” And yet…skepticism remains from local to national reporters that Harbaugh won’t leave the NFL for the college ranks. (To be fair, that skepticism has been waning the last couple days, but it's still there.)
Let’s take a look at some of the more popular reasons these reporters and bloggers say Harbaugh won’t be Michigan’s next coach and poke holes in them after the jump, shall we?
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| Let's do this! |
Like the title of this first post says, Welcome to Keck Thoughts! If you're not familiar with me (like, you're not a family member, friend, co-worker, acquaintance of some kind) my name is Andrew Keck. I'm just a normal guy - late-20's, average height, weight and looks; love my wife, food, movies and sports. Speaking of my wife and movies, she and I run a little movie review blog called Two Tickets For… where we do joint reviews of movies and sometimes write original material about films and Hollywood news, etc. It's a little side thing we both enjoy doing when we have the time to do it.
And that, essentially, is what this new blog is going to be. The difference is that it's going to be only me, and it's going to be focused primarily on sports. Here on Keck Thoughts I will occasionally write about things going on in the world of sports.
What makes me qualified to do such a thing, even if it is only on a blog that not many people will read? Good question. By definition you could say I'm an amateur sports writer, but I have been in love with sports since I can remember, and I've enjoyed discussing sports for just as long. I have plenty of experience writing and talking about sports, from writing in high school to being a sports anchor/play-by-play announcer/talk show host while I matriculated through Central Michigan University to get my broadcasting and journalism degree. I worked for a minor league baseball team for a summer, I worked at ESPN in Connecticut for nearly three years, and I'm closing in on my one-year mark working for Turner Sports/NBA TV in Atlanta. I'm not trying to brag, just wanna let you know I'm not just some slack-jawed yokel who's going to ramble about the local sports teams. I do have some experience when it comes to this stuff.
This would also be a prudent time to let you know that the majority of the topics covered on this here blog will involved Michigan-based sports teams. The Detroit Tigers, Detroit Lions and University of Michigan football and basketball teams will probably most prominent, but I'll occasionally dabble in the Pistons, Red Wings and Spartans. National topics might be touched on, and since I live in the greater Atlanta area, maybe I'll randomly post something about Atlanta teams and topics.
I'm really only going to write on this blog when the mood strikes me and as time allows, so it may not be very often necessarily. My day job and other responsibilities (like we have a new kitten) have kept my wife and I from being able to blog about movies as much as we'd like to, so just warning ya not to expect new content every day. If I could eventually turn this blog into some monetary assets and therefore be able to do it every day, that's the dream. Fingers crossed, but let's not expect that. If I can get any of my friends to join in with the occasional post, even better, because some of my friends are much more qualified to discuss certain topics (like Michigan State sports and the Red Wings) than I am.
But for now, welcome. I hope anyone who reads my stuff here will enjoy it, and I'm more than welcoming of responses so we can create a dialogue and create a real discussion on some stuff. That's what I love to do after all. Later today I'll be writing up an article about the Detroit Tigers; some thoughts about how the Tigers may have looked these past few seasons had Victor Martinez not torn his ACL in the 2011-2012 offseason. Should be fun.
Oh, and if you'd like, you can follow me on Twitter at @andrewkeck. That's my personal Twitter account and I don't think it'll be necessary to create a new one specifically for this blog unless it REALLY takes off. And again, I'm not counting on that. But yeah. @andrewkeck on Twitter. I'll use the #KeckThoughts hashtag when applicable. That's all. And as my wife and I like to sign off on our other blog, thanks for reading!
