What Michigan Can Learn from Kansas' Firing of Charlie Weis

The coaching silly season is no longer reserved for November and December. It's become a months-long ordeal, and the first head coach to receive a pink slip (SMU coach June Jones resigned earlier this month) in 2014 was Kansas' Charlie Weis.

Another coach who could be on the way out sooner or later is Michigan's Brady Hoke after a disastrous 30-14 home loss to Minnesota. Since Hoke took over the program in 2011, the Wolverines have steadily declined. Hoke won the Sugar Bowl with Michigan in his first year, but he is off to a 2-3 start this season. 

There are a plethora of issues at Michigan, not all of which revolve solely around Hoke. Attendance is a problem and fans aren't happy at all with athletic director Dave Brandon and how he runs things. 

There are also plenty of people upset with how Hoke handled the brutal hit to quarterback Shane Morris, who was visibly shaken afterward. 

The easy out would be to fire Hoke (and Brandon?) right away, just like Kansas did with head coach Charlie Weis on Sunday, according to kuathletics.com, following a 23-0 loss to Texas.  

The consequences of midseason firings, while often unintended, can still have an impact. 

Firing coaches midseason is usually a Hail Mary attempt to save face at the expense of the players who pour their heart and soul into every game. To fire a coach before the leaves turn is an admission that what's happening isn't working and will never work. As a football team, you're taught from the get-go that giving up isn't an option. 

As B/R colleague Michael Felder, a former player himself, wrote in 2012, it usually doesn't aid the hiring process either:

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Wait. Do your kids, your exiting coach and ultimately yourself a favor and just wait to pull that trigger.

Instead of getting into the whole 'how do you handle this?' deal, let's talk about the actual hiring process. The advantage gained by having everyone know your gig... is negligible. This idea that you can start earlier in the hiring process and get a jump on other jobs is just more fluff than fact.

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If a program, be it Kansas or Michigan, is looking for an active coach to be the next guy, it's going to have to wait until the season is over. 

That, or as Russ Mitchell of College Football News tweets, it may have to go with a recycled coach. Either way, the timing is in no way advantageous. 

Long term, Kansas made the right move to move on from Weis. He simply wasn't getting it done or showing improvement. However, this is a classic catch-22 situation and something Michigan would face if it did the same thing. 

Keeping Weis for another year would likely only set the program back further. Yet, Kansas will be looking for its third coach in five years in the post-Mark Mangino era. Lawrence hasn't been an easy place to win, so what exactly would Kansas athletic director Sheahon Zenger pitch to potential coaching candidates? 

From a coach's perspective, you're looking at a program that hasn't had success and will fire someone in three years or less. That's not an attractive job to any coach with other options.  

ED ZURGA/Associated Press

A similar logic applies to Michigan, even though this is a discussion of two jobs on different levels. The Wolverines, should Hoke be fired, will be conducting a third coaching search in seven years. And firing Hoke midseason accomplishes little more than satisfying the masses, many of whom would agree that the season has been lost anyway. 

Michigan could target alum and San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh, as Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports writes, but there's baggage between the two. There's no guarantee it would work out, so what then? Who's the Plan B? Plan C? Plan D? Plan E? The list can keep going. 

There's also a case to be made, believe it or not, that Michigan hasn't hit its stride yet. Seventy-eight players on the Wolverines' roster are either freshman or sophomores. This is a young team. That doesn't excuse the offensive line issues, which started three years ago in recruiting and is now rearing its ugly head, but it provides context. 

"I think this team can still win the [Big Ten] championship," Hoke told reporters after Saturday's loss (h/t Wetzel). "I really do."

Scoff if you must, but what else is Hoke supposed to say? He can never lose confidence in his team, even if everyone else has lost it for him 1,000 times over. 

The only person who knows if Hoke will survive the season is Brandon, and he's not immune to external pressure. It's part of the business, and that could result in Hoke's job tomorrow or in three months. But if Michigan does decide to pull the trigger, it better have its act together. 

Firing a coach is easy; having the replacements lined up is not. That holds true whether you're a Big 12 bottom feeder or a Big Ten blue blood.  

Ben Kercheval is a lead writer for college football. All quotes cited unless obtained firsthand.