If You Pretend You Are A Statue Do Not Be Surprised When You Erode Comment Count

Brian

Oblig coach obit. Don't get on my case, man.

Hoke-Rain-2[1]

I mean, he gave Penn State a free shot at the endzone by taking a timeout with three seconds left in the first half.

What do you do with that? How do you put that into your ongoing calculations? Add that datum to the rickety mess that is your ever-shifting, often-hypocritical, prone-to-explode model of your favorite thing in the world, and what happens? I don't know. The brain elects not to travel down that path. The future ceases to exist, replaced by only the ever more nonsensical present. All series diverge. Projection is impossible.

Let's jam that thing in anyway.

5T5IB[1]

Not an improvement, but not any worse either. At that point such a thing was almost expected, after the previous year's offensive line roulette and 27 for 27 and two minute drills that usually took five minutes. Time for some maniacal giggling, then.

On the bright side, even three-and-a-half years deep into a coaching tenure that resembled nothing so much as Wile E. Coyote sauntering off a cliff Brady Hoke still had ways to surprise you.

hokeecoyote[4]

via Seth

-------------------------------------------------

Brady Hoke should never have been Michigan's football coach. This was apparent from the start, as at the time of his hire he had two assets: the fool's gold of an undefeated MAC regular season and a reasonable, if truncated, turnaround job at San Diego State. Aside from that he had five seasons of average MAC ball and zero years as a coordinator. Even the breakout year at Ball State ended with consecutive blowout losses to Buffalo and Tulsa.

When you stake your program to a resume like that you're as likely as not to come out the other end with Tim Beckman or Tim Brewster or Darrell Hazell. An infinite number of nondescript gentleman have had the ball bounce the right way during the furball that is a season in the Mid-American. Some of them populate the lower rungs of the Big Ten when Purdue can't think of anything better.

And then there's Bo.

Bo was on another level, having gone 27-8-1 in league play in six years with Miami. Even he was widely derided. Here is that picture again.

bl006724[1]

In the center is a man who has made a Decision. It's no exaggeration to say that Michigan's best and… most recent athletic directors staked their careers on whether they could separate coaching talent from noise.

All these years later, you get why Canham rolled the dice on Bo. Bo was a legendary hardass who took nothing from anyone and comfortably existed atop the roiling mass of chaos that is any football program, successful or not. He chewed out players on the sidelines, sent them back in the game, and cracked impish smiles at the reaming he'd just handed to the young man. He has a gravitas that stays with the program—veritably looms—a decade after his death. Bo had the proverbial It, and you can understand how he communicated that to Canham in whatever passed for a job interview between them.

That understanding will permanently elude historians attempting to discern what comparable force of personality Brady Hoke brought to a press conference in the Junge Center in January 2011.

-----------------------------------

There was a moment, though. Now it's hard to remember that Brady Hoke had two years in which it seemed he was indeed gold that does not glitter. Hoke gruffly intoned "This Is Michigan, fergodsakes" in response to a question nobody remembers. He wore short sleeves in weather ranging from torrid to frozen. His matter-of-fact declarations and tough toughness were his tentpoles. We hung a great edifice of hope on it; Hoke going to and winning a BCS game in year one provided buttresses and filigree and whatnot to the structure.

At a few years remove it's clear that Hoke stumbled ass-backwards into that success. Few 11-2 seasons have been jankier than Michigan's 2011. The Notre Dame game that kicked things off was a deranged exercise in winning against double coverage; Michigan threw 41 times for 2.8 YPA against Michigan State; they had 166 yards of offense before chuck-and-pray time against Iowa; they were one overthrown Braxton Miller pass away from losing to a .500 OSU team; they won that bowl game with 184 yards of total offense.

The signs were all there, even in the moment ("lucky as hell," quoth this space in the aftermath of the Denard After Dentist game). I alternated between excitement at the idea of a head coach who had an innate aggressiveness on fourth down and wondering why the hell they thought Denard Robinson could be Tom Brady.

But the games were won, and the recruits rolled in. Hoke seemed to stroll through a garden of four-stars gathering what he would. For a year or two, everything seemed just fine. In 2013, Michigan beat Notre Dame rather easily. Michigan fans were walking on air. Then someone looked down.

----------------------------

Rarely in the history of college football has a fanbase been jerked so rudely to attention as already beleaguered Michigan fans were in 2013. The relatively straight line that was the Hoke era turned into a harrowing plunge straight into the bowels of second-and-eleven-play-action hell. Save for an inexplicable Ohio State game, Michigan became the most brutally unwatchable team in the country the instant they left the field against Notre Dame.

Hoke was the same person through the good bits and the bad. He was gruffly nonsensical to start and gruffly nonsensical to end. As success turned to failure, the things we liked about him became the things we hated about him. Remember when this was hilarious?

via Ace

That joke isn't funny anymore.

Despite the fact that people will still swear up and down that Brady Hoke is a great dude, I have less charity in my heart for him than I did Rich Rodriguez when it came to write his obit. A slice from that piece:

Coaches aren't humans. They are walking soundbites wrapped in great swirling cloaks of mythology. Rap on one of their chests. You will get a hollow clang and a statement about senior leadership. Kick sand in one of their faces. You will get a lecture from Peter the Great. Peter the Great will be confused and incensed that he cannot sentence you to hang. Tell one his aunt has been dismembered by bikers on PCP and you will get a statement about senior leadership. Seniors don't do PCP and rip aunts limb from limb, because they have leadership.

Rodriguez was human. He was just this guy. He wasn't supernatural or metallic. If you rapped his chest he would probably get a little weepy. He did not seem like a great leader of men, or a colossus astride anything, or even a dude fully in control of his shit.

Hoke was that coachbot even in impossible circumstances. By the end so many indignities had piled up that I was waiting for him to snap.

It never came. He endured the brutally painful press conference following last year's Minnesota game as a coachbot. He released a statement apologizing to Michigan State for Joe Bolden putting a small piece of metal in their field. At no point did he bite the head off a reporter, or say that his boss had sold him down the river, or do anything at all other than repeat the same goddamn things he'd been repeating for two straight years.

I liked Rodriguez because he seemed like a person who reacted to stimuli. He reacted too much, but at least you could see that he was processing information and coming to conclusions about what it meant.

Hoke did not do this. Whether Hoke was stoic or insensate is in the eye of the beholder; given the chaos around the program my vote is the latter. He seemed to shut down in terror when his dream job turned to a nightmare.

As the competence of his team deteriorated, Hoke shuffled his coaching staff nonsensically instead of making real changes. He stuck with his terrible punt formation and a style of offense unsuited for his quarterbacks. Even after it was clear his disastrous program could not be allowed to continue—the financial ruin it would cause must have been apparent to even Michigan's most recent athletic director—nothing changed. If Hoke thought he had a chance, well, he also called timeout to give Penn State a free Hail Mary.

At least Nero fiddled. Brady Hoke stood there in the rain without so much as shaking a fist at the heavens.

Comments

UMForLife

August 6th, 2015 at 1:18 PM ^

I am glad Brian got this out of his system. Now I would love to see his UFRs in a month. No more Hoke talk please. I just gotten over wetting my bed out of fear of our past football seaaons. Let us not revisit this again.

We got the perfect medicine to numb the pain in Harbaugh. Let us start focusing on that.

Go Blue!

jimmyshi03

August 6th, 2015 at 1:26 PM ^

About Rich Rod's tenure that's lacking in Hoke's. Rodriguez was  a coaching genius undermined both from within (buyout stuff, inability to get Casteel, the state of the roster and then everything that went on behind the scenes), and by his own hubris (the decision to fire Schaeffer, to implement the 3-3-5 with Gerg despite all evidence that it wouldn't work in the B1G, the o-line recruiting). But his genius, at least on offense, remains undeniable. He is a quality coach who either hit his Belichik in Cleveland bump in the road or suffered from too many knives in the back, some of which were self inflicted.

Hoke had the support of the AD, alumni and everyone associated with the program because he was an undeniably decent human being who loved the school. But there was also no imagination to anything. He always allowed coordinators a wide berth, and he fell into Borges and just brought him along, without any analysis of what offense would best fit the roster at hand. His failures are those of a mediocre coach who either failed to attend to the little things (like the redshirting issues and general player development problems everywhere but the D-Line) and larger issues in which his own expertise did not extend, like the offense. 

dragonchild

August 6th, 2015 at 2:30 PM ^

RichRod was put into a bad situation that he couldn't turn around, and I don't mean the football team.  I think he expected his resume (and eventually, wins) to settle all arguments.  I've made that mistake.  I've since learned there are some people you just can't impress.  You have to learn how to manage them so they're happy enough to get out of your way.  And at a gargantuan school like Michigan, it's an essential skill.  At WV, the on-field results got him a very long leash, but at Michigan, there are plenty of egos bigger than football.  I don't mean to say that as a good thing or bad thing as much as it's just not something a coach can choose to avoid.  You coach for Michigan, you HAVE to deal with these people.

Hoke roared out of the gate saying all the right things and fixing various aspects of Michigan football that RichRod had neglected (academics, defense, rivalry, in-state recruiting).  He was what Michigan needed at the time, and he was the guy who could tolerate working for DB.  The sad thing is, DB is such a jackass that no one who works for him can succeed, so the program had to fail for us to get rid of him.  That's not to say Hoke wasn't responsible.  Rather, that the two are one and the same.  The only kind of person who can work for DB is the type that can tolerate being undermined by him, but that involves. . . being undermined.  If there was any doubt that Hoke was not in charge of the program, Concussiongate ended it.

So what if Hoke had the AD's support?  What was that worth?  Until Hackett's hire, AD support and program success were incompatible.  RichRod could win football games but only on terms Michigan found unacceptable or by needing things he lacked the savvy to fight for (like a competent DC).  Hoke's "support" evaporated as soon as things started looking bad for DB.  If by some miracle Brandon hired Harbaugh, it would've been a disaster.  It wouldn't have been RichRod 2.0; it'd have been worse.  DB does not like people he can't control, and no one can control Harbaugh.  DB would've soured on him in a manner even uglier than York, and I'm fully aware just how extreme that sounds.

Michigan's illness for the past seven years was not the sort that could be cured just by finding the right coach and giving him full support.  The root of the problem was an institutional arrogance that prevented that from happening.

CompleteLunacy

August 6th, 2015 at 1:40 PM ^

" He endured the brutally painful press conference following last year's Minnesota game as a coachbot. He released a statement apologizing to Michigan State for Joe Bolden putting a small piece of metal in their field. At no point did he bite the head off a reporter, or say that his boss had sold him down the river, or do anything at all other than repeat the same goddamn things he'd been repeating for two straight years."

Now, these were brought up as negatives, and I agree, but paradoxically I also give Hoke a little bit of credit for not breaking. At no point did he slap himself on the face and say "the coaches screwed it up!!!" Now, he obviously had some big missteps with his glaring lack of information, but I'm more inclined to blame Brandon than Hoke. I'm more inclined to believe Brandon told Hoke to apologize for teh stake, Brandon told Hoke to not give any information about Morris' concussion , and Brandon told him to just generally never give any info ever. Hoke's biggest misstep to me is his complete inability to take control of his OWN program. I was absolutely FURIOUS when the Morris concussion went down. I've ultimately forgiven him since his mistakes were mistakes of someone who was just in over his head, rather than someone who was just trying to look good. He let Brandon play him like a puppet. But, through it all, as annoying and aggrivating as it was at times, he never broke. He stayed the same. Which is admirable for someone who was very clearly in over his head. 

So I'm not nearly as negative towards Hoke as Brian may be. But, I am still a bit more sympathetic towards RR. With RR you could attribute at least half of his firing to the complete lack of program support around him from day 1.  Hoke's downfall was ultimately his own doing. 

softshoes

August 6th, 2015 at 1:40 PM ^

I'm not going to glom on to the Hoke/RR debate, guess enough been said. What I found funny was that pic of the Bo hiring. Four mics on a coffee table while the main participants are sitting on a couch. All the major players(only players) are there, ABC NBC CBS and channel 50. Maybe channel 20 didn't have an extra mic that day. Imagine that presser today.

late night BTB

August 6th, 2015 at 1:44 PM ^

so glad he's gone, don't care whether he's a good person or not.  I called him the Clapper from day 1, and that's what he turned out to be.  A clapper that stumbled into an ass ton of money and had the best seat in the house every Saturday.

UMgradMSUdad

August 6th, 2015 at 1:45 PM ^

Do we think MGoBlog will ever have a post where Hoke or Rodriguez is mentioned that will not devolve into posturing about their comparative coaching abilities?

DoubleB

August 6th, 2015 at 6:40 PM ^

Because Hoke is treated like a bum while Rodriguez gets lauded as the prodigal son who just never had a chance.

I think even Hoke supporters would acknowledge RR is the better coach, certainly from a scheme standpoint. Until RR supporters stop with the excuses and just acknowledge that RR failed at Michigan this debate will rage on.

NRK

August 9th, 2015 at 1:34 AM ^

Plenty of RR "supporters" acknowledge he was a failure at UM. In fact if you read Brian's piece when he left he made a comment about the defense in the bowl game and saying it was time. None of that means people will give up critiquing the factionalism and undermining that they believe occurred during that era. I think the denial about this is what annoys the "RR supporters."

RR had flaws. Hoke had flaws. Neither is coming back.

Number 7

August 6th, 2015 at 1:54 PM ^

Take a gander at the comment posts here.  Especially among the first 100, they are far more about Rich Rod than about Hoke.  Harbaugh, not Hoke, arguably runs second throughout the whole thread.  Hoek shrunk from the job so much that even after his coaching obit, no one can realy be bothered to say much about him.

DoubleB

August 6th, 2015 at 6:45 PM ^

"I liked Rodriguez because he seemed like a person who reacted to stimuli. He reacted too much, but at least you could see that he was processing information and coming to conclusions about what it meant.

Hoke did not do this. Whether Hoke was stoic or insensate is in the eye of the beholder; given the chaos around the program my vote is the latter. He seemed to shut down in terror when his dream job turned to a nightmare."

Apparently Hoke's demeanor in the face of the program going downhill doesn't compare favorably with RR's. What a load of crock.

Great Cornholio

August 6th, 2015 at 1:58 PM ^

for deploying the adjective "jankier." Without use, this magnificent word would dry up, like a raisin in the sun. This is why we need writers like you. Betcha ten fiddles to a dollar Drew Sharp never uses janky.

SalvatoreQuattro

August 6th, 2015 at 3:17 PM ^

He LOVED Michigan. That counts for something in my book. Yes, he was grossly incompetent. Yes, he was in way over his head.I felt that at the time of his hire and expressed myself so.

But we cannot deny that the man loved Michigan football. He loved it like we all do. When he uttered his famous statement of walking to Michigan he clearly meant it. In our time of craven duplicity where people will express sentiments and intentions they later disavow(Saban, Meyer) the sincerity of Hoke's stated reverence stands out.

Brady Hoke never should have been hired as Michigan's head-----sorry,, J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Head Football Coach. But he can scracely be blame for accepting the position. Who wouldn't in Hoke's shoes accept an offer they could never refuse? That blame lies solely with the man with two first names and who once helmed a company that crafts foul-tasting pizza.

Brady Hoke rightly lost his job. That is beyond dispute. But to mock and scorn him months after his downfall is unseemly to me. This was by most accounts a good and honest man.  His dismissal is punishment enough for his failure to be what Brandon promised.

Esterhaus

August 6th, 2015 at 2:15 PM ^

 

When we have umpteen consecutive national and conference championships added to our history all of this discussion will hold entertainment and comparative historical value. We will look back, wag our faces and then burst into maniacal laughter.

I appreciate the future utility of the obit but it's truly painful to behold now because today is not yet someday. Google search "michigan athletic director" for evidence of what I mean. After all we've been through I'm simply going to express my gratitude here for Dr. Schlissel, Jim Hackett and James Joseph Harbaugh.

Go Blue!

JFW

August 6th, 2015 at 2:19 PM ^

This is one of those articles from Brian that have me torn.

On one hand, it's very well written.

On the other, why the hell was it written? What does it add other than a swipe at Hoke and another explanation for Rod?

I'm beyond caring. I'm like the guy who left a dysfunctional household and moved into his uncles model family: screw the past. It sucked. It has no relevant lessons to teach other than how to avoid getting into it again. Reliving the past threatens to break open ugly internecine rivalry.

Let's wish Hoke and RR well and move on for God's sake: We have a new, very promising coach to support.




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

DoubleB

August 6th, 2015 at 6:47 PM ^

"On the other, why the hell was it written? What does it add other than a swipe at Hoke and another explanation for Rod?"

You summarized this post better than I ever could!

One can acknowledge Hoke's demise and deserved firing without talking about RichRod.

DoubleB

August 7th, 2015 at 2:31 PM ^

"I liked Rodriguez because he seemed like a person who reacted to stimuli. He reacted too much, but at least you could see that he was processing information and coming to conclusions about what it meant.

Hoke did not do this. Whether Hoke was stoic or insensate is in the eye of the beholder; given the chaos around the program my vote is the latter. He seemed to shut down in terror when his dream job turned to a nightmare."

 

What possible reason is there to write that? To try to prove to the reader that RR was a victim and Hoke was a tool.

 

RR was in over his head at Michigan. He vastly underperformed based on the talent both remaining and that he recruited. He did only one thing well--implement and develop a successful offense. That's it. And yet somehow, because the poster is enamored with the spread, that's all that matters.

That singular focus on offense got Michigan to win 25% of their conference games and a 15-22 record overall. 

WolverineHistorian

August 6th, 2015 at 2:28 PM ^

That 2013 Notre Dame game. I was so happy that night, I couldn't sleep. I was literally too happy to sleep. The rest of the B1G looked like a complete dumpster fire at that point and I thought ahead that this could be an amazing year. Then Akron happened and, like Brian said, we instantly became the most unwatchable team in the country. Everything since that day has been one horrible blur of crap.

It still hasn't fully sunk in yet that Harbaugh is our coach. If anyone can put that 2013 Notre Dame feeling back in my heart, I know he can.




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

Reader71

August 6th, 2015 at 2:47 PM ^

I accidentally clicked submit before I could finish my thought, which was going to speak to your point.

I think his demeanor as coach - the stoicism Brian talks about, the earnest belief in toughness and doing things a certain way, the maligned ability to apologize to a rival to teach his team a lesson about cashing checks their asses cant cash, etc. - is just about perfect. Who he is as a coach is something I love. I'm a huge, huge Harbaugh guy, but if I do have one problem with him, its that I do not like his persona. Hoke's is, to me, ideal.

Now, his ability to actually coach the team and get results is indefensible. So, no, I dont love him as coach of Michigan. But I did for a while. And I really wanted him to work, because that's the type of coach I think Michigan deserves. Hoke, but better.

Space Coyote

August 6th, 2015 at 3:01 PM ^

On everything you've said here.

Hoke hitched himself to a coaching staff that didn't do due diligence for his players. To me, that was his major fault. He wasn't able to turn back the snowball once it started rolling; most coaches can't what with all the potential energy turning to kinetic energy and momentum and all the other good physics. But he created the snowball with those around him.

If the OL performs better in 2013, if the players improve at a clip they should, they could have easily won two or three more games. That's a 9 or 10 win team and the snowball doesn't start... yet, but the wagon was hitched, and Funk wasn't necessarily the only horse. I think 2011 wildly swung luck in his direction, but the pendulum wen the other way, and with a vengeance, and he couldn't combat it, and that's the mark of a "great coach".

He may not have been a great coach, but I really do believe he could have been a good head coach at Michigan, but the development wasn't there, plain and simple, and ultimately that was on him. There certainly seem to be issues at righting the momentum when it started going against him, so maybe it just would have been masked for a while, I don't know. I'm biased for the reasons you describe above, I love the way the guy held himself and how personally he took his job and his position as a coach and father figure to his players. And I really wanted him to succeed because of that. But he had faults like any coach has faults, and ultimately they doomed him and he had to go. I'll miss him and the guy he was as head coach of Michigan. And I'll still hold him in high regard, even if I don't hold his time at Michigan as head coach in high regard.

Reader71

August 6th, 2015 at 3:46 PM ^

I think the common thread for us is that we think its possible to have a CEO HC, for lack of a better term.

I always thought the HCs main jobs were setting a tone, developing an identity, hiring assistants, discipline, etc. Basically, HC as overseer. I still think its possible, and I think you do too, since you focus on his staff.

But, to be honest, I am not as sure as I once was that that type of coach can work at the highest levels anymore. I think you might need a specialty ala Meyer (offense) or Dantonio (defense). Or you have to be the smartest guy in the room, knowing every wrinkle of every position (Saban and Harbaugh). Hoke was a lot like Carr, in my eyes. And I think the world of Carr, who was very much the old-school CEO type. But I dont know if that is still a viable model.

UMCoconut

August 6th, 2015 at 4:05 PM ^

Lloyd Carr was the DC for Michigan under Bo and Mo and had some great defenses.  He may not have been an innovator, but he clearly had a knowledge and specialty on the D side.  I get your point, but it's probably unfair to lump him in with Hoke, who has never even been a coordinator.

Reader71

August 6th, 2015 at 4:58 PM ^

I know their histories are different, but despite Carr's defensive background, he spent more time as HC with the offense. As a head coach, he was almost entirely hands off. He spent almost all of his film time in QB meetings, where the QB coach did most of the talking. On the field, he never focused on one group or another, he sort of roamed around silently unless he saw something he really hated.

In practice, Carr and Hoke were very, very similar. And I don't think that's coincidence -- I think Hoke modeled himself as HC on Carr.

NoVaWolverine

August 6th, 2015 at 4:50 PM ^

Besides Hoke, the best example of this is the rapid decline of Texas Longhorn football in the latter years of Mack Brown's tenure. The UT blog on SBNation had a pretty good post about the problem of the "CEO coach" a few years back:

http://www.barkingcarnival.com/2012/11/18/3650526/the-demise-of-the-ceo-coach-and-the-future-of-texas-football

"Coach Wonk is winning. And the Coach Administrator is reeling. [...] The most highly ranked and/or most resurgent programs in college football are being led by head coaches who serve as their own coordinator, or are as good or better at the job than the junior men they've tasked. Whatever their outward shell, these coaches are, at their core, football nerds. Many are among the best teachers in the game and most of them have invented actual stuff - new plays, philosophies, novel ways of thinking, now copied at every level of football."

 

Obviously, you won't succeed as the HC of a major program like Michigan without certain CEO-type skills -- an eye for talent and ability to delegate wisely, a knack for motivating people to do their best work, alpha-male charisma and confidence, a big-picture view, ability to handle the PR part of the job, etc. But it's become clear that you now also need to be an Xs and Os master on at least one side of the ball (Hoke wasn't), and be able to identify and retain talented assistants to take care of the side where you lack expertise (Rich Rod's problem at UM). The lack of any coordinator experience on Hoke's resume was the biggest red flag when he was hired, and if Brandon had any sense he would've seen it and realized Brady wasn't prepared for the job. You can fault Hoke for putting himself in that situation. But as someone else mentioned in this thread, it takes a lot more humility than most of us possess to turn down one's dream job because you realize the job's too big for you.

 

 

Philmypockets

August 6th, 2015 at 2:34 PM ^

I said from game 2 that Hoke looked like a lost puppy and was soft. People would call me a dick, say I didn't know what went on in the locker room, etc,. The same with Rich Rod, and Bacon on his jock. Rich Rod was the captain of the ship and crashed. He had to manage the team, alumni, and criticism from Drew Sharp, (which is laughable as an excuse when getting paid millions). Rich Rod failed on his own. Now its cool to rip Hoke and it shouldn't be. The guy loved Michigan and was hired by an incompetent asshole.

Erik_in_Dayton

August 6th, 2015 at 2:37 PM ^

...another part of the Hoke saga.  OSU's lack of Terrelle Pryor in 2011 must have made that game easier for Michigan to win, and as Brian notes, they almost lost in the end anyway.  And guys like Kyle Kalis and Tom Strobel picked Michigan because of the chaos in Columbus, helping to get the ball rolling for Coach Hoke on the recruiting trail. 

Michigan's success in 2011 seems to me to have been born of a bit of Lloyd Carr's recruiting (RVB, Hemingway, Molk), RR's eye for offensive talent, Coach Hoke and Coach Mattison's defensive coaching, a lot of luck (the ND game and Va Tech games), and the fact that Ohio State shot itself in the foot prior to the season.  It seems four years later like a recipe that was very unlikely to be repeated by Coach Hoke alone, especially once Fickel was replaced by Meyer, who righted OSU's recruiting ship very quickly. 

alum96

August 6th, 2015 at 2:36 PM ^

This reminds me how depressed I would be if Brady Hoke was coach today.  And the love for Hackett we all have would not be there IMO if he had retained him - as it seems like he was clsoe to doing if we had 1-2 more wins last year.

A 0 TD in his career Shane Morris would be competing with Malzone and Speight for QB, all the same sad sack position coaches (ex 1 or 2) would be "teaching" these kids how to play football, and a lost conductor would be at the helm.  As our top 2 rivals sit in the top 10.  Ugh what a disaster this could have  been with another year of this shit.

M-Dog

August 6th, 2015 at 2:49 PM ^

I hate to say it, but if Peppers had stayed healthy, that's exactly what you could be looking at.

A healthy Peppers would have been good for at least wins over Rutgers and Maryland.  Had he turned the tide aganist Minny and you would have enough fuel for the Hoke apologists in the AD to try to keep him on.

The whole Harbauigh thing still amazes me in that 100 planets had to align for it to happen, and even one of them being off could have tanked the whole thing.  

We could easily be looking at another year of Hoke with just one less butterfly wing flap.

CompleteLunacy

August 7th, 2015 at 10:26 AM ^

Michigan fans have had to struggle through awful transitions after Carr left, whiel OSU basically never bats an eye transitioning from a top program under Tressel to...a top program, shit a BETTER program, under Meyer. And the stars had to align at that moment for them too...Meyer had "health issues", took the year off, figured out whatever the hell was his problem, and oh look that's preciesly the moment OSU is needing to look for a new coach, and hey look, a man from Ohio who won two NCs in 3 years at Florida is available. 

Damnit, it's about time we had a bit of that "the plantes needed to align" luck, with how we needed a coach at precisely the right time that Harbaugh wore out his welcome in SF, and how this is probably an even BETTER situation to get Harbaugh too than it would have been had Brandon managed to land him in 2011.

Basically, let's thank the incompetent people for being incompetent in the exact ways needed for all of this movement to happen.

markusr2007

August 6th, 2015 at 2:43 PM ^

I do not doubt that he sincerely loved Michigan and intended to do his very best as HC here. I think he embraced his theatric role: coming back to Michigan to save it.

I considered his decision to bring in better, more experienced assistants like Mattison and Borges as wise at the time, and a rather solid admission that he probably doesn't possess all the knowledge that's needed to run a football team.

People ate up his goshdarned simplicity and toughness act.  But afterobvious remarks like  "we'll run the power play!", nobody in their right mind could ever confused that guy with a master football strategist or tactician.  He was just wholesome goodness that people liked. 

I'm not sure whether the whole fiasco experience changed Brady Hoke or not. He's 57 years old now.  However, I cannot imagine the nightmare software that is probably running on his brain right to this day - repeating the chain of events over and over forever, wondering when and why it all went so wrong.  He's the type of guy that may never say anthing about it, and take it all to the grave.  I hope not, but I get the feeling he's one of those men. 

There's a lesson there for all of us though. Sometimes the task at hand is simply going to be way too big for you. You are out of your element. You really are not ready.  Inevitably you will be found out. You cannot fake it.  Humility always seems in such short supply, when you need it the most.

UMProud

August 6th, 2015 at 2:44 PM ^

Good deconstruction of the Hoke Era and hopefully this chapter of history is closed. I am beside myself with longing for the 2015 season to start, and to see how Harbaugh writes a new book of Michigan history!

Superfun Happy Slide

August 6th, 2015 at 2:54 PM ^

Weather doesn't care if you think you're tough.  Weather doesn't care if you think you're sending a message to your team.  Weather, simply is...and life on this planet is meant to adjust.

If it’s cold outside, put on appropriate outerwear.

...it just makes sense.

For what it’s worth, I liked Grady, as a person and representative of Michigan.  After the way things went sideways with RichRod, I guess it’s not all that surprising that fans overlooked Hokes' shortcomings.  It happens when you’re looking for someone to save you from a precarious situation. 

I thought he was barking up the wrong tree with the whole physicality emphasis he wanted to install.  Football teams need to be tough, don’t get me wrong.  But you also have to cook with what you’ve got and be aware of what the other chefs are going to have a comparative advantage in.  If the goal was to compete nationally, Man-ball was going to create more limitations on that national stage than it was going to provide for tactical advantage.  Oh, that’s right, we have a recruiting super power in our conference too.  Yeah, what’s brewing in Columbus was going to make cornering the market in physicality tough up here too.

Considering the way that the spread has allowed some lesser lites to chip away at Alabama's vaunted toughness advantage, I thought any emphasis on line-play over throw-and-catch schematics were probably always going to be a failing course for Hoke's Wolverines.  Oklahoma's Knight made mighty Bama look pretty ordinary, and the Sooner roster was more similar to Michigan's type of recruiting expectation into the future than it was to the Tide's.  It’s not fair to invoke the name of Johnny Football, but A&M's spread'em-and-make-plays also took the emphasis off of Bama's LOS and put the game in the hands of athletes that could win the day. 

Meh, hindsight is 20/20.  I hope Grady has peace with the way things finished for him at Michigan.