In hiring – and firing – Mike Yurcich, James Franklin demonstrated commendable willingness to take bold action, but the pressure is on to get the next move right.
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For proof of the critical importance assistant coaches play at elite college football programs, you needed only to look to the opposing sidelines at Beaver Stadium in the game that ultimately cost now-former Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich his job.
The latest ludicrous turn of this largely ridiculous Michigan sign-stealing saga saw the Big Ten hand down an 11th-hour suspension for Jim Harbaugh while the Wolverines’ team flight was en route to State College. A legal Hail Mary by Michigan failed to yield a stay of execution, so the nation’s third-ranked team took on by far their stiffest test of the season without their head coach – insert joke about James Franklin getting outcoached by a team without a coach. But therein lies the point.
Saturday began Michigan’s second stint playing games without Harbaugh after he served out a school-imposed three-game suspension to start the year, and neither time has his absence disrupted the team’s collision course with the playoffs. Current allegations aside, Harbaugh has clearly done a good enough job building a culture and setting a standard that now, even in the stretch run of the title hunt, he can comfortably hand the keys to his assistants and the machine keeps humming. It offers a painfully instructive reminder of why James Franklin makes aggressive moves in pursuit of upgrading his staff.
