Michigan Monday: Michigan Beats The Ash Out of Rutgers

Chris Ash tried to win at Rutgers, it just didn't happen.   He tried to create a rivalry with Michigan by fencing in the State of New Jersey, but Peppers and Gary still landed in Ann Arbor.    On Sunday, the Rutgers administration had enough, wrote Chris a $8.5M check and asked him to take his Offensive Coordinator with him.

Of course there seems to be more to this story.  Enter former coach Greg Schiano.   Greg has a long strange history with Michigan.  Turn your memory book back to 2007.  Greg has turned Rutgers around and they are a regular in the top 25.  He is rumored to be Penn State's choice to replace JoPa when he retires and is considered a top coach in the country.   "Sailboat" Bill Martin, Michigan's AD is looking for a new football coach as Lloyd Carr has called it a career and speaks to Greg at the national coaches conference.   "Sailboat" Bill is so impressed by Greg, he offers him the Michigan job.   Schiano is a little torn between taking a huge job or staying with his kids at Rutgers.  He declines the Michigan job (reportedly changes his mind and tries to get the Michigan job back a day later, but this time Sailboat Bill declines) to continue coaching at Rutgers.   Looking back, that was one of the dumbest decisions ever.

Greg goes on to fail with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and ends up on Urban's staff as the DC at Ohio State.   Greg then gets the Tennessee head coaching job, until the entire UT student body starts to  riot over a guy that they believe protected Jerry Sandusky's criminal activity at Penn State.

With Ryan Day now at OSU after Urban retires, he asks Greg to leave the Buckeyes and hires Michigan's DL coach and former DC Greg Mattison.  Many Michigan fans feels betrayed by Greg wanting to coordinate a defense for its top rival.   Schiano's unique connection to Michigan continues.
Greg quickly jumps to another high profile job, this time with the Super Bowl Champions.   As its current DC is now the head coach of the Detroit Lions.   Within a few weeks, Greg resigns from his new gig with the Patriots for untold reasons.   What the hell is going on with this guy?  It's probably good for us that Schiano stays away from the greatest NFL QB ever.

This weekend, Michigan beats Rutgers 52-0, and Chris Ash is out of job.   What's interesting is Brett McMurphy, reports that the Rutgers Board of Regents had voted to fire Chris Ash two weeks prior.  Meaning the Rutgers AD had the ability to fire Chris anytime he wanted.    He wanted to on Sunday.

Football Scoop also reported the reason Greg Schiano left the Patriots so abruptly was that Rutgers had reached out to him this summer about the "plan" to get rid of Chris Ash and Greg becoming the next head coach.   Greg then speaks to Belichick about the "plan" and they both decide it would be too disruptive during the season and he should just resign now.   Greg feels that going back to Rutgers wouldn't have the same "Sandusky reaction" that other schools might.   It was really his only way back to being a head coach.

Time to see if the plan comes full circle.

• Michigan opens as a 5.5 point favorite over Iowa on Saturday

• Michigan now #19 in the AP 

• Peppers had a pick 6 off of OSU's Haskins yesterday 

from The BIG HOUSE Blog http://mbighouse.blogspot.com/2019/09/michigan-monday-michigan-beats-ash-out.html