They are a legit criminal program and should be sanctioned heavily but they have a lot of rich donors so probably won’t happen.
Fitz to Michigan State
- Thread starter wildcatcoaster
- Start date
It is definitely not just a Moore issue. That’s what UM will love everyone to think, to throw him under the bus. Obviously what he chose to do was his responsibility but there is a pattern of lack of institutional control here, especially if it is confirmed that others knew about this for a long time.
It seems that the totality of what has gone down at Michigan the last few years goes from the top down, so I don’t see how UM itself can be trusted to police itself because they’re going to cover it up or find scapegoats to throw under the bus. That’s a role the NCAA could have here.
Except, again, what NCAA does Sherrone Moore committing HR violations with an employee violate? The NCAA isn’t Michigan HR. It can’t even police what its own players are making for contracts, it has no role in what occurred between Moore and the assistant. The NCAA isn’t some magical police entity for colleges, this has nothing to do with them.
Now, is Michigan gonna get sued again and have to write a check to this girl? Duh. Or at least probably, sounds like she only flipped recently.
If diddling the secretary was criminal we would need to have more flights to Nicaragua.
The article I linked details the multiple poorly handled situations throughout the athletic department, which fall under competition (sign stealing), MULTIPLE workplace sexual and other harassment (Title IX) across different programs, and so on. If U Mich is sitting on this then isn’t this something the NCAA may get involved in handing down sanctions, postseason bans, scholarship reductions etc? Or don’t they do that anymore.
You’re just describing in house HR violations. I can’t see the NCAA really punishing them.
We were accused of rampant hazing and some light sexual assault within our football program and the NCAA didn’t come calling with some big punishment. I think you’ll see the same self-policing within UM and that’s it.
NCAA already handed out their punishment for the sign stealing stuff.
Right, “punishment.” I know the NCAA doesn’t do much to those who are too big to fail. I just wish they would.
Acrisure CEO Greg Williams Donates $401M to Michigan State University Athletics | Crain's Grand Rapids Business posted on the topic | LinkedIn
Acrisure Chair and CEO Greg Williams and his wife, Dawn, have made a historic $401 million donation to Michigan State University, primarily aimed at athletics. It’s the largest single donation in MSU history and one of the largest single donations in college sports history. It follows MSU’s...
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While agree with the latter, both the NCAA and conference hit PSU with sanctions over the Sandusky abuse scandal which was a criminal case.
I believe it is too early to tell what actions the BigTen and the NCAA might take against Michigan. Some have suggested that the AD and UM administration were probably aware of the relationship between the coach and the staff member. It seems possible that the old saying of “when did the UM administration know about this and when did fhey acf” could potentially be a factor in investigations and further actions or sanctions against UM. This could be swept under the rug or further blow up, esp now since the situation went from an HR issue to a criminal act with the coach ending up in jail and being charged.
^ Apparently, Michigan knew that there was something going on for months, but didn't take action at that time because an investigation reportedly failed to bring up any concrete evidence.
Really don't see how this is something the NCAA should be involved in even if there seems to be a pattern of lack of institutional control.
Really don't see how this is something the NCAA should be involved in even if there seems to be a pattern of lack of institutional control.
I think our own coach firing story shows us how careful a university has to be when it decides to fire a coach for cause. Millions of dollars are at stake. I can understand why any university would want to take its time to make sure all the i's are dotted before making that move.
I am genuinely annoyed this isn't getting more discussion on the free board
I think it's the kind of subject your garden variety fan (myself included in that assumed description) isn't going to fully know the impact of -- it seems on its face bad that someone tapped into our fundraising system is going to take a high level role elsewhere and potentially be well-positioned to exploit that knowledge, either by picking off pro-Fitz types who might be willing to take their dollars out of NU's hands, or by negative recruiting and selling prospects on the fence on how limited their resources will be if they come here because of the intimate knowledge of how things work at NU.
But all of that is pure speculation on my part. It ... seems not ideal?
Anything beyond that is more inside baseball that I have the information to debate.
I'm more concerned that our own collective -> in house NIL management setup is so infantile that it doesn't appear we EVER brought Jacob in house or seriously transitioned over to a real internal operation
Fitz still hates Ioa by hiring their longtime ST coach… their fans not happy about traitor Fitz. LOL.
I will bet anything that Fitz spoke to Ferentz before poaching his coach.Fitz still hates Ioa by hiring their longtime ST coach… their fans not happy about traitor Fitz. LOL.
I thought Fitz was close to Coach F. His son walked on to Iowa and read speculation Fitz might land there as an advisor or coach- then he landed the MSU job. It seems that the winds are blowing in Fitz’s favor to succeed at MSU, esp. with the blowup at Michigan. Let’s see what he has learned during his time off. It appears he is recruiting very competent staff and MSU is heavily underwriting the program.
His OC decision is very very very important.
Absolutely. He never found the answer to the offensive issues at NU. I think he cannot take a risk with a young up-and-comer and doesn’t have to. I think he will go after a well established coordinator (Kotelnicki who was PSU OC) or an assistant from a well known offensive (Chandler Whitmer currently Indiana’s QB coach). He has the money to spend and also will let the new OC pick the assistants and have carte blanche. So, Fitz will go after someone big.
I'm more interested in the style he picks. Rumors about potential hires like the Bama QB coach and Co-OC or even Chip Kelly would be interesting. Another ground and pound guy and I' less optimistic. A ground and pound reread from his own background, bad sign.
He’s not going to evolve. I’d bet BIG money it will be a pro style/12 or 21 personnel heavy OC. There’s no way he’ll allow a vertical passing game. It’s too risky for his backwards mind!
Whiff!
this is an extremely interesting hire, likely a very expensive and aggressive one, and materially impacts my personal perception of the odds Fitz succeeds at MSU. This is a QB focused, pass first OC who leads a pass heavy offense for a head coach whose teams are always QB and pass centric. Maybe he’ll get bad marching orders from Fitz, but this hire feels like a material evolution from Fitz.
That big assistant salary pool is helping as well. Be it poaching the long time Iowa ST coach or getting a hot young OC, he’s going out and poaching a lot of top guys.
Could these new hirings be an indicator that Fitz has “learned his lesson” during his layoff and he’s now prioritizing talent&experience over the buddy system of his past hires. It seems he is taking the right steps towards success. Will he and MSU be able to emulate what Cignetti and Indiana have accomplished the past 2 years? Fitz seems to have all the money and support he needs to succeed at MSU.
It would have been interesting to see who he hired to replace Bajakian (assuming things didn’t improve drastically). The Braun DC hiring was clearly a home-run.
Fitz himself is claiming he reevaluated his entire approach to the game and learned about new systems and ways of thinking, so maybe the hiatus did him well.
That said, I don’t think we need to compare every coach to Cignetti, much less Fitz. Cignetti is one of one, he doesn’t have to be part of the conversation,
MSU still has many challenges to overcome, but any evidence that Fitz has evolved his approach toward offense - like actually believing the forward pass is good and that scoring points, as many points as possible, is and should be the primary goal of offense - is bullish for Sparty
Bill Connelly ranked and graded all recent coach hires. Ranked Fitz hire as the worst one (30th out of 30) and gave it a C.
I’m of the belief that Fitz has learned some valuable lessons and will turn MSU into a consistent winner. We shall see.
Fitz hired Bajakian to be the QB coach today. Hiring a failed old friend like Bajakian, really Bajakian in particular, is easily the number 1 thing he could have done to make me think he hasn’t actually learned a thing. He made a pretty good and interesting OC hire and then turns around and does this.
I definitely question this move. According to sources, it was Sheridan who chose Bahamian, but it seems awfully coincidental that the new OC would pick the previous OC from the head coaches last job.
Wouldn't exactly characterize Sheridan as "hot" as he was under fire last season for the struggles Bama's O experienced, which is why Grubb reunited with DeBoer.
Maybe he learned something this season from Grubb, but if Kyle succeeds in luring Beck from Utah, UM has the much better OC.
Difference is Cig is a master at talent evaluation (including coaching) and combining talent with scheme/system.
Hearing some talk that whatever team drafts Mendoza will want Cig to come along as QB coach or OC or even HC. Just fan message board talk but I think the HC chairs might be a bit shaky in Las Vegas and for the Jets.
Why would he turn down his rockstar status and fat contract to be an offensive coordinator in the NFL lol. Even as a HC he’d have to get PAID.
Isn't Cig getting like 10-12 million per year? Way above coordinator pay grade let alone position coach in NFL.
At this stage of his career, Cig has no interest in not being the head guy.
As far as comp, Cig is piling on the bonus $ and triggered the clause in his contract which calls for top 3 HC compensation.
As far as comp, Cig is piling on the bonus $ and triggered the clause in his contract which calls for top 3 HC compensation.
Did you see MSU Reddit’s reaction to Fitz hiring Bajakian as QB coach?
They wanted someone like Chip Kelly and weren’t too pleased with the hire of the Alabama co-OC… who had been demoted before the season, and just lost 38-3 to Indiana.
I wish I could wager on how long Fitz will last at MSU. If given an over/under of 3.5 years, right now I’d take the Under.
They’re in a lot of denial about it. It’s funny how people misread things from the outside, I saw a bunch of MSU fans take the position that Fitz was a poor recruiter but a big Xs and Os guy so he just needed position coaches to get players so he could scheme em up on both sides. Entirely based on his recruiting ranks at NU. Hilarious how they couldn’t have been more backward.Did you see MSU Reddit’s reaction to Fitz hiring Bajakian as QB coach?
They wanted someone like Chip Kelly and weren’t too pleased with the hire of the Alabama co-OC… who had been demoted before the season, and just lost 38-3 to Indiana.
I wish I could wager on how long Fitz will last at MSU. If given an over/under of 3.5 years, right now I’d take the Under.
Their best hope is that Fitz 2.0 is basically Dantonio 2.0, and that would be a huge step forward for them.
Most of their fans are aware of his record the past couple of seasons (3-9, 1-11) and his terrible record against Michigan, OSU, and PSU.
Given he no longer has admissions as a barrier and should have plenty of NIL cash, we’ll finally see what he can do at a “normal” Big Ten school.
It is weird as hell seeing him in Spartan Green… but he has Bajakian as his “van buddy”, as the MSU fans call him.
More like an OC who got demoted bc he couldn't run the ball (not that Grubb is any better).
See below...
Much of that has to do with not being able to field even an average O-line.
Not sure your point. Fitz went after a well established coordinator. Sheridan was co-coordinator at Indiana when they had a pretty explosive offense 2020 and 2021. You can’t say Sheridan was demoted then blame him for Alabama’s offense this year. The fact was Alabama lost a lot of offense after they took away play calling duties from Sheridan and gave primary duties to Grubb. The running game was not his responsibility this year and last year the co-offensive coordinator was the run game coordinator. Sheridan has been primarily responsible for the passing game and that was good both years at Alabama. But in any case, Sheridan is a lot better than any coordinator we had for the last 20 years…well until 5 days ago.
That being said, I am skeptical about Michigan State running the ball. They have to rebuild their OL and last year’s team was pretty bad in the running game. I don’t think they will be good next year, which is good for us.
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