4B — January 9, 2019
SportsWednesday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Bucking the norm
Greg Mattison, Al Washington accept jobs to join Ohio State defensive staff, leaving Harbaugh in the dust
Michigan linebackers coach
Al Washington will be accepting
an assistant coaching position
with Ohio State, according to
Rivals on Tuesday.
The move comes one day after
the Wolverines’ defensive line
coach, Greg Mattison, was named
the
Buckeyes’
co-defensive
coordinator, both joining Ryan
Day, the Buckeyes’ new head
coach. A Michigan spokesperson
did not immediately return a
request for comment.
Washington’s
loss
will
likely be felt the hardest on the
recruiting trail. At different
points throughout the season
Harbaugh
complimented
Washington, lumping him in
with first-year tight ends coach
Sherrone Moore as staff who
helped Michigan this season.
“There’s two other coaches
that don’t get talked about as
much that are doing a fabulous
job and that’s Al Washington,”
Harbaugh said on Nov. 12. “Good
play out of Khaleke Hudson and
Josh Uche. His contribution has
been huge. Just a high-energy
coach that does a great job with
recruiting. The other is (tight
ends coach) Sherrone Moore
who has done a fabulous job with
the tight ends.
“… Just really wanted to
mention those two coaches in
particular because you don’t
hear people talking about them
that much.”
Washington
grew
up
an
Ohio State fan, due to his father
playing
linebacker
for
the
Buckeyes. He mentioned that he
heard stories of Ohio State coach
Woody Hayes and his legendary
battles with Wolverines coach
Bo Schembechler growing up.
At one point, Washington said he
wanted to play for Ohio State as
a kid.
He
didn’t,
attending
Boston College instead, and
Washington’s full conversion
from Buckeyes fan to Michigan
coach seemed to be complete.
Washington was the Wolverines’
lead recruiter on players like
Zach Harrison, attempting to
convince them that Ann Arbor
was a better home for them than
Columbus.
Now, it seems that conversion
was
only
temporary,
as
Washington is headed back to
the place he heard about growing
up.
Michigan and Ohio State will
face off Nov. 30 next season.
Despite some staff turnover
in Columbus, it seems there
will be more familiar faces on
the Buckeyes’ sideline than
previously thought.
MIKE PERSAK
Daily Sports Writer
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Al Washington, one of Michigan’s best recruiters in the state of Ohio, joined the Buckeyes’ coaching staff Tuesday.
A turbulent offseason for
Michigan football has now
gone from bad to worse.
Michigan
defensive
line
coach
Greg
Mattison
has
accepted a job to join the staff at
Ohio State, as first reported by
Wolverines Wire on Monday.
A spokesperson for the team
did not immediately respond
for comment. Mattison is set
to replace Greg Schiano as the
defensive coordinator of the
Buckeyes, per multiple reports.
Mattison
spent
eight
seasons on staff at Michigan,
regularly
grooming
a
top-
tier defensive line. With the
Wolverines, Mattison coached
five defensive linemen to first-
or second-team all-Big Ten
selections — Taco Charlton,
Rashan
Gary,
Maurice
Hurst, Chase Winovich and
Chris Wormley. During his
tenure, the defensive line was
frequently the hallmark of the
team.
This is the culmination of
Mattison’s second stint with
the program, joining from the
Baltimore Ravens in 2010. He
also coached for the team from
1992-1996.
Mattison’s departure would
undoubtedly sting regardless,
though
the
loss
is
only
enhanced by his destination.
The Buckeyes have beaten
Michigan 14 of the last 15
seasons and have yet to lose to
a Jim Harbaugh-coached team.
Mattison will join the staff of
new Ohio State coach Ryan
Day, who takes over for the
now-retired Urban Meyer.
The Mattison news comes
just over a week after the
Wolverines were embarrassed
in their bowl game, falling
41-15 to Florida in the Peach
Bowl, capping the 10-3 season
in a dour manner. In the
interim, several high-profile
players declared early for the
NFL draft: Gary, linebacker
Devin Bush, cornerback David
Long and tight end Zach
Gentry.
Each
offseason
under
Harbaugh
has
included
turnover
on
the
coaching
staff, with Ed Warriner, Al
Washington
and
Sherrone
Moore joining the staff last
year. The Mattison departure
is the first such move of 2019,
but did not prove to be the last.
Tuesday, linebackers coach Al
Washington joined Mattison in
Columbus.
And
for
Harbaugh
and
Michigan, an offseason already
sure to be rife with questions
just reached a fever pitch.
MAX MARCOVITCH
Managing Sports Editor
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Greg Mattison left Michigan to take the co-defensive coordinator job at Ohio State under Ryan Day.
SportsWednesday Column: Mending the gap
A
h, the college football
offseason.
A time for those of us
in Ann Arbor
to turn our
collective
attention to
John Beilein
and the
undefeated
Michigan
basketball
team. After
the way the
Wolverines’
football team
finished its season, you can’t
blame people for being eager to
do just that.
And yet, Monday, nine days
after Michigan’s season ended
in a 26-point loss to Florida in
the Peach Bowl, my attention
drifted back to the football
team for a bit.
That was probably inevitable,
since college football was rath-
er unavoidable Monday. In case
you didn’t hear, Clemson beat
the hell out of Alabama in the
national championship game
after beating the hell out of
Notre Dame in the semifinals.
The transitive property is
tempting to bring up here as
someone who follows the Wol-
verines, but it is a dumb metric,
and in this case, it doesn’t really
matter. That’s because there are
two programs seemingly light
years ahead of the others in the
country, and they played on
Monday night.
There are
programs, like
Georgia, per-
haps, or maybe
even Oklahoma
and Ohio State,
that can claim to
be within arm’s
reach of the
Tigers and the
Crimson Tide.
And then
there are pro-
grams like
Michigan, which is waiting
near the front of the line to
join the elite programs club,
while the bouncer is letting the
important people skip the line.
That is fine, in the grand
scheme of things. By that, I
mean that things could be
much, much worse. Ask about
110 other programs in the coun-
try. Hell, ask the Gators, who
are playing third-fiddle in their
conference these days.
But it brings a question to
mind: How do the Wolverines
get to the level of Clemson and
Alabama?
It certainly isn’t through
what was Michigan’s biggest
news Monday, which came
when defensive line coach Greg
Mattison departed to become
co-defensive coordinator for
the Buckeyes — the Wolverines’
biggest rival.
On Tuesday, it was
announced linebackers coach
Al Washington would join Mat-
tison in Columbus.
These are just the most
recent Michigan losses to the
Ohio State in a long string of
them. The Buckeyes have beat-
en the Wolverines seven times
in a row and in 14 of the last 15
meetings.
With seven of those 14 losses,
Michigan has finished in sec-
ond place in the Big Ten or its
division. That includes this
season and 2016 — both years
when a win over Ohio State
would have likely pushed the
Wolverines into the College
Football Playoff.
Win even a few of those
games and we aren’t talking
about the dis-
appointment
Michigan con-
tinually faces.
And this is
where Mattison
and Washing-
ton’s departures
really hurt.
Because if there
was ever a time
that the Buck-
eyes were vul-
nerable, it would
be now.
Urban Meyer, a deeply flawed
man but one of the best coaches
in college football history, just
retired. His replacement, Ryan
Day, is a relatively unknown
upstart. Yes, he helped orches-
trate the offensive dominance
Ohio State displayed in its 62-39
win over the Wolverines this
season, but it stands to reason
Day will need some time to fig-
ure everything out.
Or maybe it stood to rea-
son. Since Day
took over, he has
won a recruiting
battle for five-star
defensive end Zach
Harrison, who was
once predicted to
go to Michigan.
Then, Day secured
the transfer of
Georgia quarter-
back Justin Fields,
the former No. 1
prospect in the
2018 recruiting class. And now,
Day has hired away two of the
Wolverines’ best recruiters.
To be fair, staff turnover isn’t
uncommon with top programs.
Alabama has had an enormous
amount of it and has been at
the top of the heap in college
football for much of the last 10
seasons. Of course, the Crimson
Tide’s turnover often comes
after a national champion-
ship, whereas the Wolverines’
typically comes after a crushing
loss to Ohio
State and then
another defeat
in whatever
bowl game
follows.
This is
also differ-
ent, because
Alabama
doesn’t lose
its coaches to
Auburn, and it
often has the
talent to make up for any coach-
ing losses.
So Michigan has some
ground to make up. By some, I
mean a lot. The way to do it is
through elite recruiting or elite
game-planning. Often the two
go hand in hand.
The Wolverines brought in
a top-10 recruiting class this
season, the third in the last four
seasons under coach Jim Har-
baugh. That is better than most
teams. It is tied with Ohio State.
It is not better than Alabama or
Georgia.
In terms of gameplanning or
coaching, Michigan has it bet-
ter than nearly every team it
plays. It does not have it better
than the Buckeyes. I give you
the aforementioned 62-39 as
proof.
That is the kind of loss, a
23-point blowout to your big-
gest rival, that hampers recruit-
ing and makes it feasible for an
assistant coach to think about
jumping ship to said rival.
And it is also the exact, annu-
al loss that is holding Michigan
back.
What the Wolverines have
right now is good enough to
finish second in the Big Ten
East every year, remain a top
10 program in the nation and
then watch the real big boys in
college football play for cham-
pionships.
Ask anybody within the pro-
gram if that’s good enough, and
they will say it isn’t.
What has to change is some-
thing systemic. There either
has to be a greater buy-in
within the program to elevate
players to a new level, a change
in philosophy to use players’
talents more effectively or an
uptick in recruiting that injects
Michigan with players too good
to fail.
That is what separates the
Wolverines from the top. From
the Buckeyes, even.
Whether or not Michigan
is willing and able to make
the necessary improvements
remains to be seen.
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh lost two of his best assistant coaches, Greg Mattison and Al Washington, to Ohio State and new head coach Ryan Day.
(Michigan)
does not have it
better than the
Buckeyes.
MIKE
PERSAK
If the
Buckeyes were
vulnerable, it
would be now.