The Josh Innes Show - How Good Is The Michigan Job?

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

Considering Kenny Dillingham spurned Michigan to stay at Arizona State, I don't think the Michigan job is nearly as attractive as others seem to think it is. I think we are in an era where programs of various prestige can compete for titles. It seems Dillingham feels the same way. Also, it's miserably cold in Michigan. Have I mentioned that? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Nothing else is Rees. It's funny because I live in Michigan, so I see all of these people that are dumping on Kenny Dillingham, who will stay at Arizona State. Apparently, he turned down the big cash. Well, first of what, we don't even know if he was offered the job at Michigan. He may have been. He may not have been. Look, if he was, and he turned it down, and he decided to stay at Arizona State, which is the place he went to school. He's from Phoenix, all that stuff. So it made sense. But people are ripping him because he'd rather stay at a poverty program than come to Michigan.

Well, maybe that should tell you a little bit more about where your program is where a guy chose to stay at Arizona State. And maybe it'll tell you where college football is as well. But let's get into some college stuff after these words. First off, let's focus on this Michigan thing for a second because Michigan, like basically, Michigan, and there's no basically,

Michigan does not have a coach. and maybe they're waiting on Kalin-Dibor but I think the more Kalin-Dibor wins the less likely it is that he ends up at Michigan we've talked about this for the last couple of weeks like how do you find yourself in this position where you're Michigan, you're this huge brand now you had to fire a coach

that you didn't think you were going to have to fire obviously because the guy is a fucking nut but you know you're waiting to see if Kalin-de-Bore is going to leave the Alabama job for your job at some point you need to hire a coach and the more DeBore keeps winning in Alabama of the less likely it is he leaves, he's not going to go there and make it to the championship game or something and then throw up the deuses to come coach at Michigan, right? So, like, it's a mess. But to Dillingham,

and I've been saying this this entire time, man, we're at a point in college football and college sports in general in this kind of disgusting era we're in of NIL and just stroking big checks to get guys to come to your school, guys playing at five different schools in five years like we're in a shitty era we're in a very unappealing era of college football at least for somebody like me i find it to be unappealing that said if you're a place like Arizona state if you're a place like i mean look at indiana if you're a place like schools like that that are not traditionally big time football powers you can now be a big time football player and your job can remain appealing to a guy like Kenny Dillingham. Now, Dillingham is a unique situation because he's a lifer there. He went to

school there. He's from there. So that's unique. But that said, and we talked about this last week, I'm sitting in Michigan right now. I am in Hazel Park, Michigan. It is currently about 27 degrees. By the time this winter's all said and done, we're going to see a fuck ton of snow and we're going to get temperatures in the negatives before you know it. We had some really cold temperatures a week ago. It was just last week that the snow finally melted after being on the ground for three weeks. We're no longer in this world where you have to coach at Michigan, where you have to coach at Ohio State, where you have to coach at LSU to be able to find success. Like I know that I'm an LSU guy and I'm glad that Lane Kiffin came to LSU and I guess they have the resources that

he feels he needs. I truly believe that Lane Kiffin could have probably won something eventually at old miss because i think you could win in a lot of places like if you want to convince me that a guy can win championships in indiana and a lot of people seem to think the signet he can right like oh he can win championships in indiana then there's no reason why that guy could win in indiana and lane kiffin couldn't win an old miss there's no reason so you look at a guy like kenny dillingham again unique situation because he's from there he's got history there he went to school there so it is a unique situation i am aware it's a unique situation so it's not a not totally apples to apples.

But if you take the option of being in Arizona, it's 70 degrees in the winter, it's sunny, I don't know that I'm ever going to see sunshine again. Like that's how it feels right now. The way I'm sitting right here in Hazel Park, Michigan, it feels like I'm never going to see extended periods of sunlight or have any sort of warmth. If you have the choice to stay in Tempe, Arizona,

but that's where Arizona state is, right? there in Tempe, Arizona. Let's see what the temperature. Let's see what the next week looks like in Tempe, Arizona. Let's see, Tempe, Arizona weather. It is currently 78 degrees in Tempe, Arizona. On Christmas Day, it's going to be 77, with a low of 58. Over the weekend, it's going to be a high of 67 degrees. Okay, that doesn't suck, right? Sunshine, 70-something degrees. Hot babes, great weather. Now let's go to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Let's see, Ann Arbor, Michigan weather for the rest of the week.

Oh, tomorrow it's 44, and that's the warm day. Friday, it's going to snow in 38. Sunday. Sorry, next Monday, 22 degrees in snow. You can't just lure people into these jobs now because you're Michigan. And sure, Michigan will write big checks, and that's the difference between a Michigan and certain place, like a Texas, a Michigan, a Texas, saying in him. Yes, they do have the guys that will go out and write giant checks that maybe

an Arizona State doesn't have. But I think you have a chance to compete at Arizona State. Why the hell not? You get the right quarterback. You get the right booster. You're right in that shit. But like this idea that it's like, oh my God, how dare you turn down Michigan to stay at some shit program like Arizona State? Yeah, it's because maybe people don't want to, when you have options and you have choices in life, maybe his, His choice and his option isn't to live where it's 20 fucking degrees in January and the snow doesn't melt for four months and you deal with seasonal depression. Maybe he doesn't want to deal with that.

It would be hysterical to me if Michigan ended up just settling on this interim coach, who is by every account, everything you see of him. And I say this is a fat guy myself. This is a morbidly obese slob. Bless his heart. this Biff Poggi is a skin tag of a human. Michigan interim coach Biff Pogi described the program as a malfunctioning organization after a series of high-profile scandals when he hopes to fix if he has the interim tag removed.

Look, if they end up hiring Biff Pogie as their permanent solution at head coach, you lose all credibility as a university. You're supposed to be Michigan. and you're hiring this doofus. Bless his heart, he seems like a nice enough guy. But you hire Biff Poji. Your entire program is basically a clown show at that point. You start to look around college athletics and like, dude, I live in Detroit.

I enjoy living here. I like the people here. It's a good job. I'm totally content. And if this is where I'm staying for 10 years, that'd be great. You know, I have nothing against it. I hate fucking snow. I don't really like dealing with 20 degree weather.

I don't like having to tiptoe around on ice, but those are things you have to deal with when you live in Antarctica here, and that's kind of part of it. The summers are wonderful. But all things considered, if it came down to this or you had the chance to live somewhere, like I saw people posting pictures of, not posting this actually, I take that back.

I'm watching the Texans game yesterday, and they're showing tailgating scenes, and people have their smokers out in the parking lot, and they're smoking meat, and there's ribs. Guys are cutting up fucking brisketes, and the weather's nice, and I'm like, fuck like those people are living the life that i sure as fuck would like to be living and it's a life that i didn't totally appreciate when i was living it i'd give my left nut to be at that tailgate

smoking fucking meat and have an outdoor kitchen at my house with a smoker i would love that you know certain things like and by the way the job i'm at here might be a better job than whatever those jobs would have been but there's there's something about where you're sort where you're from the history you have in certain places right and that's kind of what you're dealing with guys like Kenny Dillingham. Like they think they have a chance to compete. You're at a place where you're at home. The weather is spectacular.

Like the older I get, the fact that people choose, the fact that people choose to just live in a place where it's going to be 20 degrees for six months is baffling to me. Like I understand, look, this is where the job is and I like the job and I like the people I work for. I don't want this to sound like I'm shitting on the people I work for. But like, when you don't see the sunshine

for weeks at a time and it's just perma gray outside if someone called tomorrow like if i heart came to me and they're like listen we'd like you to move to you know san diego i'd be like i'll be there tomorrow you know like like i love it i love the people it's a really cool place and it's a lot more charming than than people let on about detroit's great place work for five people but man if you have a chance to go somewhere where the weather's fucking great all year round now houston's not great weather all year around. Most of the year it's fucking gross and hot. So it's not really my ideal scenario there either. But man, when you're sitting out here and you're watching people smoking meat on TV and you're seeing the ribs and the brisket and the nice weather in December

in Houston and I'm sitting here like trying to like knock a bunch of ice off of the car at five in the morning to go to work. Like you wonder like how people make certain choices. Like I made the choice to come here because this is where the job was and I like the people and this was the set up and it works and again I like the people I work for and everything but holy shit sometimes I'm sitting there like you know the other day like the weather's been okay if the weather's in the 30s it's not bad like it was so cold two weeks ago that 30 degrees feels balmy 30 degrees like feels incredibly warm relative to what it felt like a couple of weeks ago it was a nightmare a couple weeks ago. I'm talking in the teens, blustery winds, face frozen, dog can only stay out

for 15 minutes at a time. Like, today it was in the 30s. We walked for two hours. Like, it is incredible that you can be in a place that's so fucking cold that 30 degrees you're damn near putting flip flops on. And that's how it is, right? Like, you just have that. And then you see people making the choice to do this. Like, it amazes me that professional sports teams, and yes, these teams, or you know they pay you a lot of money to play it is wild to me that if you have a choice in life and you're a big time athlete you're a free agent why anyone would choose to play in a city where for half the year it's like 25 degrees like i get like new york you'll deal with snow and cold weather and philly you'll deal with snow and cold weather i never remember dealing

with this i never remember going to a like an eagles game where i felt miserably cold and i went to games in november december january i never felt miserably cold. I have felt miserably cold more here than I have ever felt in my life. Just like balls cold, balls shriveled up into your fucking body cold. Like I've never experienced. I lived in Montana. I don't remember living in Montana much. I have memories of it, but I don't remember the day and day out of living in Montana because I was seven, eight, nine years old. I don't remember the day and day out of it. So I don't remember the weather. I know it's snowed a shit ton. I knew I had to wear snow pants to school.

And I remember that kind of shit. Like snow pants were on the school supply list. But I don't remember much of like living there day and day out. This is the coldest I have ever been in my life. Just like consistently miserably cold. Wake up at five in the morning. You have to chip the ice off the windows. You're wearing layers.

You're wearing like long underwear under a pair of pants and then like more long underwear. like it is miserably cold and if you have options in life and I think I can count that for Chicago and Chicago is obviously a more glamorous city than Detroit but it's balls fucking cold in Chicago too like how how cities like

Cleveland get guys that want to stay there long term to play sports is wild to me if I were a superstar athlete my ambition in life would be to get to somewhere fucking warm just give me to Texas get me to California get me to Florida get me somewhere or

Or I will gladly take somewhere where there's seasons But it's not oppressively cold Like it's wild to me that like the lions can You know get guys to resign here And yes money is money and I get the money is a big deal But holy shit like if you're living here in December Like holy hell it's fucking miserable It's a cool place

The city's cool the vibes are good But fuck is it cold Now that I spent a whole podcast here Bitching about the cold weather of Detroit But it is cold Anyway, more to come.