Searchbits III: Eye Of The Storm

A NEW ROUND OF HE GONE. After San Francisco lost to the Rams in ridiculous fashion to drop to 4-4, the knives—already out—added numbers to their ranks. Jerry Rice:

"I think he’s gone," Rice said. … "We don’t really know if he wants to come back and be the head coach for the San Francisco 49ers...Maybe that’s starting to wear and tear on the team and it’s taking its toll."

Rice again:

San Francisco 49ers Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice believes coach Jim Harbaugh's act is starting to wear thin, in part because Harbaugh's "collegiate mentality" is not suited to the pro game.

"I have heard some complaints from some players that he likes to try to coach with the collegiate mentality, and that's just not going to work in the NFL," said Rice.

Steve Young:

“So I stood right by the team,” Young said. “It was right before halftime and afterwards. And I remember calling to my security guy that I’ve known for years and years, Jeff Rodriguez. I said ‘Jeff, something’s wrong with these guys. There’s a bad vibe. Guys on and off the field.’ … A lot of complaining, a lot of moaning coming off the field.”

49ers GM Trent Baalke agreed with that take without getting too specific.

Mercury News reporter Tim Kawakami:

Less than 50%, then let's see how the season plays out. RT @chang358 your odds for harbaugh coaching Niners next year?

— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) November 4, 2014

At 4-4, San Fransico is three games back of 7-1 Arizona and one back of the Seahawks, and the way the NFC is breaking down this year the wild card teams are likely to have fancy records. The 49ers are currently behind the Packers, Cowboys, and Seahawks.

ON THE AD SEARCH. I got nothin'.

I don't know how other people are getting more than that. Schlissel just told the Daily the search is restricted to his head at the moment, so I regard all insider information on this skeptically. I don't suspect bad faith on anyone's part. I just doubt any of these sources have a great handle on the situation no matter how many times reporters use "Fact" as a sentence. Fact. (Actually, opinion.)

That goes double given the wildly divergent timelines that have been thrown out there. Sam Webb was mentioning Hackett could be around 18-24 months on WTKA, which freaked a lot of people out; Rivals was first positing nine months and now has their prediction in the heart of common sense, mid-December; Coaching Scoop just asserted that the goal was to have an AD in place by the time the whistle blows on the Ohio State game. That's 25 days from now.

In the absence of any information you don't already have or anything resembling consensus amongst the people who say they have some, I resort to common sense—

[whispering]

—nevermind. I resorted to common sense right before I projected Brady Hoke had a 0.0 percent chance of being Michigan's coach, so common sense and I aren't on speaking terms.

It is worth noting that the long Hackett timeframes may be maximums instead of likely lengths and may not preclude a long-term AD being brought in, with Hackett as a bridging aide.

ATHLETIC DIRECTOR CANDIATES OUTSIDE THE MICHIGAN BOX. A few candidates have drawn mention:

• Joe Schad reported that Michigan "has targeted" Northwestern AD Jim Phillips. Phillips is the president of NACDA, which is the national trade group for ADs and was AD of the year a couple years back. Before Northwestern, Phillips was the AD at NIU; he's an Illinois grad. FWIW: I've heard from Northwestern people that Phillips is going nowhere, and he's got the list of spurned suitors to back that up.
• Football Scoop's Pete Roussell brought up Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione. The site just doubled down on that, saying "sources within the industry" thought he was the name and that he would take the job if it was offered. (Bob Stoops would not be coming along.)
• Sam Webb suggested that Michigan would look at Greg Byrne, the Arizona AD. This would of course be the most hilarious option.

Meanwhile, Warde Manuel told his local paper that he hasn't heard from Michigan.