Two coaches forever bound by their eternal mediocrity, Brady Hoke and Will Muschamp, were dumped on the curb by their respective programs this off-season. (While Hoke is still shooting dice in the breadlines with Michigan's money, Muschamp landed back at Auburn as DC [where he earned the "Coach Boom" moniker] for a princely annual salary between $1.6 and $1.8 million dollars. [For those scoring at home, that would get you about three Tom Hermans.])
Two of their coordinators, however, are also hot commodities in their own right.
Wolverine Offensive Coordinator Doug Nussmeier, Michigan's One Million Dollar Man who had previously been replaced by Touchdown Oracle Lane Kiffin at Alabama, is off to take the same position at Florida under new Gator frontman Jim McElwain, whom Nussmeier worked with at Michigan State, Fresno State, and Alabama. (In Big Nuss' one year as offensive architect at Michigan, the Wolverines offense posted a -3.1% F/+. That was good enough for No. 72 in the country; 26 spots behind Western Michigan.)
The other hot coordinating candidate is Will Muschamp's former defensive coordinator, D.J. Durkin. While Durkin would've undoubtedly been on Urban Meyer's shortlist if either Chris Ash or Luke Fickell had been poached, it appears Durkin is treading water until Jim Harbaugh decides if he wants to descend from the NFL heavens and rescue Michigan Football from the decadent pit in which it has wallowed since Bo Schembechler was shuffled off the mortal coil.
Per Ryan Autullo of The Austin American-Statesman, Kevin Sumlin and the Texas A&M Aggies are hot for D.J. Durkin, but Durkin is cool on them:
Texas A&M’s slow movement toward hiring a defensive coordinator appears to be tied to Jim Harbaugh.
One of the Aggies’ candidates, Florida defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin, is waiting to see whether Harbaugh takes the open Michigan head coaching job, according to a source close to the situation. If Harbaugh, currently at odds with the San Francisco 49ers, were to go back to coach his alma mater, Durkin could get reunited with his former Stanford boss.
Granted, it's unfair to Nussmeier to judge him entirely of one year of work in Ann Arbor (look what leaving Satan's Mitten did for Rich Rodriguez's career), but I think the Big Ten wins a trade of Doug Nussmeier for D.J. Durkin.
Bring on Jim Harbaugh to Michigan, I say. It's harder to enjoy watching Michigan get its back broken if its spine is made of baby shit.
