Let The Dominoes Begin

The coaching dominoes are about to fall with the announcement this morning of the retirement of Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr. The announcement could also completely turn the recruiting landscape upside down.

"Despite all the wins and a national championship today marked the end of an era for Michigan football as Lloyd Carr announced his retirement," said Scout.com recruiting analyst Bob Lichtenfels. "Yes, he may have not beaten the Buckeyes, but he always did everything the right way with class and success. The fans have gotten what they wanted and now we see if the grass is greener on the other side."

With a recruiting class ranked nearly in the nation's top ten currently, and just five from the state of Michigan, certainly a high amount of poaching should be expected until a new head coach is announced in Ann Arbor.

"Looking at it from the outside one would assume that Michigan is bound to lose a few recruits, it always happens in these situations," added Lichtenfels. "This news will create a feeding frenzy among college coaches who will try and persuade these future Wolverines to rethink their options."

Recruiting is such a valuable part of college football that even Carr said in his press conference that his timing was partially to keep such a talented class in place.

"My timing is based on one thing, what is best for Michigan football," said Carr. "There are no other motives, and this announcement is made at a time when the recruiting process can be made in way where we can move forward."

While the new head coach more than likely will honor all fifteen current commitments, ultimately everything will be up to the current coaching staff which will continue to recruit for Michigan until a new head coach is named.

The obvious attention is starting to trickle out of Baton Rouge as every question asked of LSU head coach Les Miles certainly will have a follow-up question about the Michigan opening. Should there be any true interest on Miles' end of the spectrum, the Wolverines would probably have to wait until the beginning of January to have a head coach in place as LSU is in a prime slot for the BCS national championship game and at the very least a berth somewhere in the BCS.

Even if Miles is not an option, Michigan still has Texas A&M, and its big money donors, to compete with in the coaching carousel. Reports already say that Houston Nutt is out at Arkansas. Rumors about Nebraska continue to circulate heading into the team's final game of the year on Friday. Potentially four teams in the top twenty of the Scout.com team rankings with new head coaches on signing day, not even including LSU.

Maybe it does all come down to Miles.

"The next question becomes what if Les Miles is offered and accepts the job at his alma mater," questions Lichtenfels. "Would current Tigers defensive coordinator Bo Pelini be offered the head job? Pelini has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the potential opening at Nebraska and a few other schools. That is all speculation for now, but one thing is for certain you can expect to see quite a domino effect from this morning’s announcement and it will likely cause a stir in the recruiting world."

It is all complete speculation and rumors, but it all started with Lloyd Carr finishing his press conference with the following line:

"I have only one wish, that this program will continue with the values established by Bo Schembechler and the coaches that preceded him; to win with integrity."

While there are undoubtedly hundreds of thousands of Michigan fans who hope the same thing, the question is now what does it do to the rest of the country?