Does Hoke have some Beilein in him?
HURRR HOMO TITLE! No. Shut up.
At this point, we all know that everyone's favorite basketball coach has an excellent talent for talent evaluation. He gets locked onto players and makes inroads before they blow up to top-100 guys. Hence Trey Burke and our next couple of incoming basketball classes.
The question I have is, do you think Hoke has some of that in him? Now, it may not matter as much, because at Michigan, a recruiter like Hoke can go after the nation's very top prospects and have an equal or better chance of bringing them in. HOWEVA! Our depth chart is going to be devoid of high level, upper-classman talent for the next couple of years yet, and we're gonna need Hoke to have success finding not just those guys that could be mega-stars once they develop this or that to the best of their ability, but the guys that others overlooked, that can step in and fill holes and win games, now.
I think he does. We saw it last year in players like Desmond Morgan, who certianly could've gone elsewhere and played, but in whom Hoke saw a guy he wanted to make a difference, now.
This year, we're gonna have holes in the D-Line and very weak depth in the O-line. We lack recievers. Our defensive backfield is improved, but Never Forget will take years to completely obliterate. We will be relying on guys like Ondre Pipkins, Willie Henry, Kalis, Magnuson, Braden, Darboh and Wilson. I expect to see all of them on the field sometime this year. And when they're there, they will have to perform.
Trey Burke was ready to perform after D-Mo left. Do you think Hoke has that same vision? I do.
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:23 PM ^
Hey baby, do you have any German in you? You want some?
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:30 PM ^
strange that you downvoted the thread, no?
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:45 PM ^
Not really. My post is making fun of the OP and his poor choice in wording, and his poorer choice of pointing out his poor choice of wording.
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:25 PM ^
Nobody would have made the connection if not for your first sentence.
As for your question, I'm not sure. We won't necessarily find out because of how great our classes are, but I think the "diamond in the rough" players we have/will have are more due to fantastic coaching than anything else. Beilein is a good talent developer and amazing talent identifier. I'd say Hoke (et all) is at least good at identifying talent, but just about as good as it gets at developing it. I'm not convinced a guy like Desmond Morgan would be a great player elsewhere, but he fits our mold and is coached well enough to be good. A guy like Zach Novak or Trey Burke on the other hand would probably be just about as good if they played elsewhere.
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:52 PM ^
Sadly, that's not true.
August 23rd, 2012 at 7:02 PM ^
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:16 PM ^
August 23rd, 2012 at 7:01 PM ^
I'm not so sure about Zack Novak being just as good elsewhere. He was a tweener and Beilein found a spot for him as an undersized 4, and his offense got him a ton of good looks.
August 23rd, 2012 at 11:40 PM ^
Hi: I'm Mr Nobody. I made the connection before even clicking the thread, as I'm sure most people here did. Anybody who has taken any psych, lit, poetry, or writing courses has been taught to look for sexual symbolism, analogies, and puns in everything he or she reads. I can't imagine too many people here missing it.
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:26 PM ^
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:26 PM ^
Good god, only 9 days remain. So torturous.
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:30 PM ^
I think it is not just Hoke, but the entire staff and same goes for Beilein and his staff.
Clearly they all know what kind of players they are looking for. I'm not sure if this was the case under RR when we had a 4-3 guy at DC surrounded by 3-3-5 guys.
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:31 PM ^
i hope not,the ncaa my come down hard on us too.
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:33 PM ^
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:36 PM ^
but the one player you used as an example was a RR recruit. I'm particularly interested in seeing what his sleeper pickups like Houma, J. Clark and Stribling do.
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:36 PM ^
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:37 PM ^
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:53 PM ^
If I'm not mistaken Desmond Morgan commited under RR.
*edit According to Rivals he committed 12/13/2010. I think the coaching staff has down a great job with him I just don't think we can give Hoke credit for being the one to "find" him.
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:15 PM ^
He was and I admit to not thinking much of it at the time. He had a weak offer list and on video he looked like a west Michigan kid running around slower smaller west Michigan kids.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:56 PM ^
I don’t think I would refer to West Ottawa or the teams they play as small West Michigan kids. I believe the OK Red conference does quite well against east side teams.
August 23rd, 2012 at 7:24 PM ^
A couple OK-Red teams do, but for as good as the teams are, the individual players are not very good. OK Red teams have success because they're well rounded, well coached teams, not because they have future college players on the teams.
So although a team like Rockford or Hudsonville wins a lot of games, a clip outrunning their future-accountant DBs isn't the same as doing so against a PSL team, for example.
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:36 PM ^
Hoke was mostly trying to keep things together given the short timeframe. Carter, Clark, Heitzman, Barnett, Bellomy, Rawls, Taylor, and Wile were the commits who were offered by Hoke, but not Rodriguez, IIRC.
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:24 PM ^
I think it's hard to say that when you keep reeling in 4* players across the board. On average, those kinds of guys do pretty well wherever they end up.
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:40 PM ^
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:54 PM ^
I contradict when I want!
August 23rd, 2012 at 7:16 PM ^
"Do you think Hoke has that same vision? I do." - Blazefire
I think that any good, thorough coach with an equally astute staff will not leave very many unexplored routes when it comes to the recruiting trail, and this is true in most sports, I think. It may take more time and money, but it behooves any team to prioritize their needs at every position, prioritize their needs and then do their research, especially in a time when information is available on virtually any potential recruit, whether they are a headline name or not. I think both the football and basketball teams are very good at "doing their homework" on players, if you will.
The upside to that, if you do it right, is that you do get players that can potentially perform sooner rather than later, who are smart and can learn the system quickly and will commit themselves to the training as well as the academics. If you incorporate all this into your recruiting searches, you'll get all-around winners more often than not, I believe.
August 23rd, 2012 at 9:50 PM ^
It sure would be great if our coaches really practiced watching film to gauge the talent levels of potential incoming recruits. We could do that with our opponents also to gain a competitive advantage!
August 23rd, 2012 at 10:49 PM ^
Then I saw the downvotes. Thank you fellow posters.
August 24th, 2012 at 3:14 AM ^
I like this comparison, and I agree about the potential for Bielin-levels of talent evaluation. However, there are many miles to walk before we can tell about that or Hoke's talent development.
I also think I might agree for different reasons. First, I don't know if early playing time is a great indicator--some kids are just more physically ready than others. I would evaluate it by recruiting hype v. performance over the usual trajectory for a particular position. So, if Kalis takes two years to be a road-grading terror, I have no problem with that (early playing time be damned). Second, my view of talent evaluation is based on 'overlooked kids.' I think Hoke's Trey Burke is something like Channing Stribling or Csont'e York. The reason I say it's 'too early to tell' is because Stribling and York--and other potential diamonds in the rough--haven't seen the field yet.
That goes double for talent development. It's really hard to tell how improved kids are with so little time having passed since Hoke's hiring.
August 24th, 2012 at 3:30 AM ^
The fact that Hoke took Rich's table scraps and built a Three Wheeled Death Machine out of Fitz, Denard, and Junior speaks dividends. But I also believe Hoke is a chronic underdog loving, rag-tag team builder when he has to be imporvisational. Of course he loves his drop back passers, and smash mouth runners, this shows in his prospecs of course. But Hoke also can do what Rich Rod and many of the coaches in the NCAA cannot do, mold a scheme around his players. He is a patient coach and he may have to settle for a couple 8-4 seasons until his team recovers from deficates and his talent is proven and has a little salt on their jackets.
August 24th, 2012 at 3:33 AM ^
Also I'd like to add that Hoke is a rebuilder, he did it at Ball state, he did it at San Diego state and he did it last season. give him 2014 and all your questions will be answered.