Hoke: Upon Further Review
Now that the regular season is through, I've been looking back at MGoBlog circa January 2011, "Hoke React, No Swearing". Given Brian's previous distaste for the idea of hiring Hoke, I was surprised to see that he actually projected a lot of good things would happen this upcoming season: "A completely average coach should be able to take 20 returning starters on a 7-6 team that sees the schedule ease considerably and get to 9-3....This hypothetical 9-3 will cause the media to fall all over themselves declaring Brady Hoke the polar opposite of Rich Rodriguez". This has actually all happened, except Michigan is 10-2 but in a weaker-than anticipated Big Ten, and one of those wins was miraculously stolen from Notre Dame in an incredibly improbable fashion. The BCS computers all still seem to treat us like we're 9-3 anyway, so we only did a little better than Brian predicted. So here we are, in the not-very-nightmarish situation that Brian curiously predicted at a time when he was predisposed to be pessimistic.
What Brian seemed most worried about were future years, not this next year. He said, "Michigan's just thrown in the towel on being a national power". I think Brian and a lot of MGoBlog people felt like although Hoke might have this kind of season from time to time, this was his ceiling. Do we still think this? Is Brady Hoke's tremendous first year success more the product of returning starters, experience, talent, and media support that he walked into, than any of Brady Hoke's doing?
Brady Hoke isn't an offensive guru. The offensive coordinator that he hired does not have an elite resume. However, the offense this year has still been good, and next year, it may well be one of the best in the nation, if the last two games are any indication. Hoke has inherited a tremendous amount of talent recruited by Rich Rod on the offensive side of the ball: mountain goat slot ninjas, a dilithium quarterback, a running back who is like Mike Hart but with speed, donkey-hating, freshman-headbutting offensive linemen, and a bunch of short guys from Pahokee who block like they're twice their size because they've got something to prove. Borges has figured out how to use these guys; but one wonders if the offense will ever be even close to what it was once they graduate and Hoke's recruits move in.
Anyway, I'm just wondering, what do you think Brady Hoke's ceiling is? Do you still think he represents a return to late-era Carr, going 9-3 every year and beating OSU 30% of the time, occasionally going to the Rose Bowl sometimes but invariably losing by trying to out-execute USC? How does Brady compare to Carr, and what might make him more or less successful than Carr was?
November 30th, 2011 at 2:48 PM ^
November 30th, 2011 at 4:08 PM ^
1. Borges's resume is elite. He's even better geared to non-spread talent, so it's safe to assume we'll get better as these players move on, not worse. I'm so tired of people criticizing Borges. He's done an amazing job with our offense this year and has a history of doing that pretty much everywhere.This is what I've been saying since he was hired. Borges has been overshadowed by Mattison a bit, and understandably so, but his track record is no less impressive. This is what he's done: Coached a UCLA offense that averaged 40 points a game and went 10-2 in '97 and '98 Coached an Auburn offense that averaged 30+ points a game and went 13-0 in '04 Coached an SDSU offense that averaged 35 points a a game and went 9-4 in '10 Turned Cade McNown and Jason Campbell into first round draft picks And the way the offense started to gel over the last three games has somewhat alleviated the concerns that he's not well-suited to exploit the skills of our current personnel. In fact, we're actually better this year in scoring offense than we were last year (34.17 ppg in '11 versus 32.77 ppg in '10). I'm telling you, Al Borges can flat-out coach offense. That will become even more apparent when he has Shane Morris, Brionte Dunn, and Stefon Diggs to build his offense around.
November 30th, 2011 at 4:00 PM ^
I was very pleased with this season. I thought we were an 8-4 team at best, especially after the collapse of the last few years. 10-2 with a possible BCS berth is outstanding in my book. I think next year will be tough with all of the difficult road games, but who knows. If we play the game of our lives and somehow beat Alabama, we could be in shape for an epic season. Everyone here is always so fuckin negative. Let's enjoy the bowl game and remember how great this season has been, then we can think about the future.
November 30th, 2011 at 4:01 PM ^
I was very pleased with this season. I thought we were an 8-4 team at best, especially after the collapse of the last few years. 10-2 with a possible BCS berth is outstanding in my book. I think next year will be tough with all of the difficult road games, but who knows. If we play the game of our lives and somehow beat Alabama, we could be in shape for an epic season. Everyone here is always so fuckin negative. Let's enjoy the bowl game and remember how great this season has been, then we can think about the future.