Michigan Football: The time has come to fire Pep Hamilton

There are lots of rumors swirling around about the status of Pep Hamilton and hopefully, for the sake of Michigan football, they are true.

When it comes to what Jim Harbaugh must do in order to fix the Michigan football program, just about everyone agrees on at least one thing: Pep Hamilton must go.

Obviously, after the Wolverines ugly 41-15 loss to Florida in the Peach Bowl Saturday, lots of Michigan football fans and pundits have opinions about what needs to happen and what Harbaugh needs to do. However, the chorus calling for Hamilton’s departure is almost in unison.

After Notre Dame beat Michigan. I said it was time for Michigan football to let Hamilton go and following the crash and burn to close the season, the move needs to be made now more than ever.

For the past two seasons, Hamilton has been making $1.5 million to be the passing game coordinator and in that time, the passing game has had some major issues. in 2017, it was terrible as Michigan had less than 10 touchdown passes and in 2018, while it was better, Hamilton still didn’t get the production he should have with Shea Patterson and a bunch of skilled wide receivers, especially not in the three losses to Notre Dame, Florida and Ohio State.

That’s maybe the most frustrating thing about the Michigan offense. The Wolverines are loaded with talented players, players that will be catching passes in the NFL someday. Yet, the coaches can’t figure out how to get them the ball.

Hamilton isn’t the only person to blame. Harbaugh shoulders his share of the responsibility too. He should have demanded changes before now and if he can’t see that the offense is wasting its talent, then he needs to wake up before it’s too late.

Anyone who watches this team knows that it’s underachieving and it seems like Hamilton is the one calling most of the plays. Like Harbaugh, he seems stuck in the NFL mindset and maybe he would be better off coaching in the league.

It’s possible he could be hired on as a coordinator somewhere and that would be ideal for the Wolverines. If not though. Harbaugh needs to pull the trigger. A change is desperately needed and so is a true offensive coordinator.

The worst thing Harbaugh could do is convince himself that progress was made in 2018. I can agree that some progress was achieved, but not nearly enough, not if Michigan wants to beat Ohio State and win the Big Ten championship.

And if Hamilton does stay, it’s hard to see how things get better and while it’s frustrating now, imagine how frustrating it would be for Harbaugh to be stuck in this same position next year, wondering how his team wasted its talent because he failed to act.