I believe Butch wants to keep Azzani since he is an up and coming coach, and one way in doing that is to promote him to OC. But rather than just toss him to the wolves as a fresh young OC only makes sense if he can give Azzani the help he needs to continue to grow - more experience, more knowledge of the entire offense and each position, more knowledge of the fundamentals. Butch probably only has limited time to directly mentor Azzani - the guy barely sleeps now, so to do this job I believe he would select DeBord as the two have great trust between them.
DeBord can then we the "old sage" to Azzani for a year or two while he is coming along as a young coordinator, reducing some of the risk and also helping the rest of the staff with his knowledge of fundamentals, etc. Butch's offense will still be retained, with Azzani calling plays, while DeBord helps as an on-field coach to help everyone (coaches, players) reinforce the system. He can also help Azzani with some of the "management" aspects of the position in terms of organizing meetings and sessions - all we tend to think about an OC doing is calling plays, but it is much more than that.
DeBord should come relatively cheap since he is just doing administration type work at Michigan. This will allow Butch to spread the salary money around to the other assistants a little more generously and take care of everyone - Azzani with partial-to-full OC money, a raise for Jancek to keep him away from CMU, and more money for the big recruiters (Gillespie, Thig, and up-and-coming Elder). In a couple of years Azzani will be a fully matured OC and DeBord can retire or take a quality control role, allowing Butch to hire another young and eager recruiter / up and coming talent.
So, this hire makes sense to me from this perspective but only if it is to groom Azzani and if Azzani stays.
DeBord can then we the "old sage" to Azzani for a year or two while he is coming along as a young coordinator, reducing some of the risk and also helping the rest of the staff with his knowledge of fundamentals, etc. Butch's offense will still be retained, with Azzani calling plays, while DeBord helps as an on-field coach to help everyone (coaches, players) reinforce the system. He can also help Azzani with some of the "management" aspects of the position in terms of organizing meetings and sessions - all we tend to think about an OC doing is calling plays, but it is much more than that.
DeBord should come relatively cheap since he is just doing administration type work at Michigan. This will allow Butch to spread the salary money around to the other assistants a little more generously and take care of everyone - Azzani with partial-to-full OC money, a raise for Jancek to keep him away from CMU, and more money for the big recruiters (Gillespie, Thig, and up-and-coming Elder). In a couple of years Azzani will be a fully matured OC and DeBord can retire or take a quality control role, allowing Butch to hire another young and eager recruiter / up and coming talent.
So, this hire makes sense to me from this perspective but only if it is to groom Azzani and if Azzani stays.
