We earlier mentioned Jon Chait, Senior Editor at the New Republic, as a candidate for the job of Michigan head football coach. We regret that there were some inaccuracies in the piece regarding Chait and his qualifications, which we would like to clarify with Chait’s own words right now.

From: Jon Chait
To: Orson Swindle
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 1:44:38 PM
Subject: You are seriously understating my qualifications to be Michigan ’s next head coach

I’m currently at the New Republic , and it wouldn’t be fair to the writers or editors here for me to talk about another job. We’ve got a National Magazine Award to win and I’m focused on that.

However, just for the record, my resume is more impressive than you make it out to be. You write that I have “No experience as a football coach, player, or recruiter.” In fact, I was a star special teams performer in high school. In college, I was defensive coordinator for the Michigan Daily in our annual game against the Michigan State News, and the Cover 2 defense I installed was instrumental in our shutout victory, which came after having lost the first seven games of the series. (By the way, those pansies play two-hand touch now; in my day we played 11 on 11 tackle.) I also took a course at the University of Michigan called “Theory, Strategy, and Practice of Football,” taught by the Michigan coaching staff.

However, to reiterate, I am not interested in talking about the Michigan job.

We regret the errors. This disavowal of interest only confirms that the editor is, in fact, the current frontrunner for the job, along with Glen Mason, Gary Barnett, Rick Neuheisel, Bill Callahan, Dennis Franchione, Walt Harris, and Rich Kotite. Hey, if you just read that and died, we apologize.