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Hiring WVU Coaches Not Quite Working for UM, But Working Just Fine for WVU

Before we get off to the actual post lets get off to a light hearted start courtesy of Ryan Parker...



Hoop

Ok with that out of the way let's start with Michigan's initial WVU pilfer, John Beilein. While at West Virginia Beilein ran a clean program which had some exciting spurts and almost made the Final Four in 2005. Two years later after winning the NIT, Beilein left for greener pastures i.e. more money at Michigan. At Michigan in three seasons Beilein has accomplished something no coach in a decade accomplished, he got the team to the NCAA tournament losing to Oklahoma in the 2nd round, but he also had a massively disappointing 3rd season with the Wolverines as they were ranked preseason top 15 and failed to reach even the NIT.

Meanwhile at WVU, Bob Huggins returned to coach his alma mater. In his first year at WVU he guided the Mountaineers to the Sweet 16 after an upset of 2 seed Duke. In his second year he got WVU back into the tournament only to lose in the first round to Dayton. In his third year at WVU he guided the university to their first final four since 1959 and finished the season as the 3rd ranked team in the country.

So on one end we have Beilein, a mild success at Michigan, and on the other we have Huggins who has already exceeded what Beilein accomplished at WVU and whose accomplishments are in another class from Beilein's in Ann Arbor. I think West Virginia has won that battle.

Michigan's BBall Record from 07-10: 46-53
WVU's BBall Record from 07-10: 80-30


Football

Now football has essentially been a disappointment on both sides of the equation but of course incredibly more so for the Wolverines. In two years at Michigan, Rich Rodriguez has broken the Wolverine's nation leading consecutive bowl appearance streak. He has led the Wolverines to back to back losing seasons for the first time since my father was essentially in diapers. He also pushed the limits on practice time which is going to require NCAA disciplinary measures. Some of RichRod's failures can be blamed on the exodus of talent the season prior to coming to Ann Arbor, but he did run out an NFL Quarterback in Ryan Mallett and the recruiting numbers at the tail end of the Lloyd Carr regime do not suggest 3-9 and 5-7.

Meanwhile in Morgantown, Bill Stewart has mostly been a doofus and bad coach but with a little sprinkling of love from the Big East being a pile of crap the Mountaineers have won 9 games in both of his seasons as head coach. 9 games is more than RichRod won in both of his Wolverine seasons combined. Additionally now WVU could be facing similar sanctions of over practice thanks to the good ole RichRod days.

Michigan's Football Record in 08 & 09: 8-16
WVU's Football Record in 08 & 09: 18-8


So to sum it up quickly, the Wolverines have had drastically less success after pilfering WVU's coaches than to WVU has had since replacing them.

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