The Greatest Era In Detroit Coaching History

By: Jamie Samuelsen

When you work in sports radio, you have certain topics you call 'evergreens'. Basically, they're topics that you can do anytime…any day…for any length of time. If you've listened to 97.1 The Ticket for a while, you've undoubtedly heard one of us ask "Who will be the next team in Detroit to win a title?" or "Who will be the next athlete to have their number retired?" or "Who will be the next Detroit coach/manager to get fired?" That last one is a doozie and always has at least two or three candidates to dissect and debate.

Until now.

Last week, I was admiring the job that Lawrence Frank was doing with the Pistons and I realized that of the 8 major coaching jobs in Detroit right now – ALL are in pretty good or great shape. Think about it. Who is the next Detroit coach to get fired? Who is the next Detroit coach to leave? I honestly have no idea. I'll put them in order in terms of job security.

1. Tom Izzo – He's one of the top five coaches in America. He's a Hall of Famer. He will win another national title at MSU. It's an issue of when, not if. They will name buildings after him when he leaves. There's nothing else to say.

2. Mike Babcock – He's the best coach in hockey. He should have two Stanley Cups already. If he left the Red Wings, he'd be out of work for however long it took for the news to reach Twitter.

3. Mark Dantonio – If Izzo is the perfect basketball coach for Michigan State, Dantonio is the perfect football coach. You can tell that the fans and the administration love him. And it helps that he's 4-1 against Michigan.

4. Brady Hoke – Pretty good first year for Hoke. He led Michigan to an 11-2 record. He won a BCS game. He beat Ohio (State). And he recruited the heck out of the state and the region. The only reason that he's below Dantonio is that he's only done it for one season in Ann Arbor. But all the signs are there for a very long run.

5. Jim Schwartz – Like Babcock, if he leaves the Lions, he'll have a new job the instant he wants it. He's fifth only because pro coaches automatically have less job stability than college coaches. But he's the best coach the Lions have had in decades (that's not saying much). Don't buy in to the crap about his temper and his lack of discipline. He's as smart as any coach in the NFL.

6. John Beilein – I'm not totally sure that he's earned it, but he's ridiculously safe in Ann Arbor. He's stabilized the program and cleaned up the mess. He's starting to get some serious recruits in even though his star players are leaving early. But now he's got to push things forward. No more 'progress'. No more 'baby steps'. Beilein is entering his sixth year at Michigan. Izzo won a national title in his fifth season at MSU.

7. Jim Leyland – It's preposterous that Leyland got within two games of the World Series last year and ranks seventh on this list. But it speaks to two things. One, as I said before, the caliber of coaches in the area is pretty good right about now. And two, the pressure on the Tigers to win this season. If this team slumps or falters at all, Leyland could be in trouble.

8. Lawrence Frank – How could a coach with a 20-33 record rank any higher than 8th on this list? He can't. That said Frank has done a terrific job in his first season at the Palace. The Pistons are 16-13 since starting the season 4-20. And it's clear that some of the longtime headaches (Rodney Stuckey) are actually paying attention to their coach. What a concept.

To me, the top two are locks as are the bottom two. Everything else is totally up for grabs. Beilein may be more secure than I give him credit for, Dantonio may be less so. But all are doing a very good job. All are very safe. And all are doing such a good job that it makes it very difficult for us to do our radio job without this evergreen topic to fall back on.