Mailbag: Dead Yet, Duderstadt Days Again, Turnaround Timeframe Comment Count

Brian

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[Eric Upchurch]

Could he keep his job?

You can't twirl a dead cat anymore without hitting someone claiming, "if Brady Hoke wins out he could keep his job." If you ignore the fact that at no point has this team even competed with a competent team, there is still too much against him, right? If somehow the stars align and a UM team that was embarrassed in New Jersey can beat an OSU team that will probably be favored by 20+, Hoke is still gone, right?

I'm terrified that all this smoke about him still having a chance means there's fire. The last thing UM needs is to have Hoke Wayne Fontes his way into another chance. Pleases just tell me that a New AD means a new coach and I can enjoy watching Drake Johnson run roughshod over NW.

-Dylan [Ed: not that Dylan]

It's worse than that, actually: there are a number of people asserting crazy things about what happens if Michigan squeaks into a bowl game.

First, that is not likely. Michigan is a dog to a Northwestern team that just got blitzed by Iowa, and they'll probably be a slight favorite against Maryland before being a two-TD dog against OSU. Going to a bowl at all is a 30% proposition.

Even if Michigan finishes the season "strong" I can't imagine Hoke returning for a thousand reasons we've all seen. The major one is what happens to the season ticket base. It has to take a significant hit if Hoke's back, and with Brandon expanding his expenses even more rapidly than he expanded Michigan's revenue that could see Michigan dip into the red. That's not tenable.

Neither is Hoke. Without a miracle upset against Ohio State this year's resume consists of wins over some of the worst teams Division I has to offer and comprehensive blowouts against any team with a pulse. In year four, with an offense that is more experienced than Ohio State's.

Are we going back to the Duderstadt attitude?

What's up mgoblog,

I have read a lot about " be careful what you wish for" in terms of firing Dave. I think all football fans agree that we need to pay our coaches competitive salaries and Dave was on the same page.

It has been discussed most recently by Sam Webb that Schlissel has little interest in paying a coach top dollar.

Do you think there is some truth to this or do you think this is just speculation.

I am worried Michigan will hire a decent coach and be content with 8-4.
Thanks,

Mike V in CT.

I don't have much to go on in this department and I don't think many people know what's going on inside Schlissel's head. But: I seriously doubt that Schlissel is going to say anything to his athletic director about appropriate salaries as long as the department stays in the black. He's a doctor and a biology professor; he's going to look at numbers and do the thing that makes sense.

Since one of the best ways to keep the department in the black is to hire a real good football coach, I doubt a couple million a year is going to make or break M's ability to get the right guy.

If there's anything resembling a reconfiguring of priorities I would expect it comes in the academic component of the athletic department. That's something I forgot about in the previous mailbag when I was searching for good things Brandon did—under his watch Michigan pulled out of the Rodriguez transition APR disaster and graduated literally every senior FB player under Hoke. I don't think an emphasis on getting plausible students is going to have a ton of impact since Michigan is avoiding borderline guys already.

Michigan might scale back some of the more extravagant building projects for non-revenue sports, but I'm of the opinion that's a good thing. Palaces make some sense for the revenue sports because they, you know, generate revenue. (And those are all done anyway.) Adding permanent maintenance and debt service costs to the U's bottom line puts more stress on the fans to provide money and reduces Michigan's ability to get quality coaches in all sports.

[After THE JUMP: student attendance against Indiana, turnaround timeframe, WHYYYYY]

Student attendance?

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[Bryan Fuller]

Brain,

I would like to know your take on the student attendance at the Indiana game. Was the lack of attendance following Brandon's resignation indicative of ongoing anger with the program? Or do you think it had to do with post-Halloween lethargy?

Second, do you think our win was in part due to a burst of energy follow a positive change in our athletic program or merely because Indiana is just a bad football team?

Thanks.
Strokepmr

Brandon's exit didn't change many of the fundamental facts presented the students on Saturday: they were hungover, it was surprisingly cold, Michigan is not a good football team, and the game they were watching was not a good football game. Also only 12,000 of them have tickets this year.

Hell, I was seriously thinking about leaving in the fourth quarter. The entertainment value here is not real high, and even the normal reason to hang around and watch a game like Indiana—it might give you some information about how Michigan will be the rest of the year and possibly next year—is a really weak one at the moment.

Michigan won because Indiana is really really bad, especially without a QB.

How quick can this turn around?

Brian,

I keep hearing you suggest that whomever the coach is, we should expect a four year rebuild. I can't help but feel this is a classic situation of the new coach winning with the old coach's players. The roster is full of scholarship players. There is a huge number of four and five star players entering upper class men range. I especially expect a huge bump from the offensive and defensive lineman entering that range. Are these players damaged from the disorganization that has plagued the team? Were there really that many swing and misses?

Jim

I don't think I've said this is a major reclamation project. Rodriguez had one. Hoke had one. The next guy is walking into 9 or 10 returning starters on offense and a defense that returns seven starters plus Morgan and Peppers. Unlike both of the previous transitions, the new coach will have double-digit offensive linemen.

I do think it's likely that Michigan had some swings and misses amongst its touted offensive line class; otherwise they would not be starting a true freshman at LT. Still, a new good mean coach can get production out of these gentlemen quickly. A look at the roster suggests the year two breakout that successful coaches tend to have is very plausible.

As long as he finds a QB, that is.

WHYYYYYYY?

Hi Brian,

I know for some its a forgone conclusion that Hoke will not be
back after this season.  I have no problem with this as he has simply
failed to develop players, and most of all, regressed every year.
That being said, I have one question.  Why? 

What do you see our successful opponents doing when you watch on film, that we are not doing.  Specifically, is there a fundamental flaw that you see
when watching hours of video that our team possesses that could only come from our coaches?  I'm not talking about Gardner and his footwork, or the O-line/running backs failing to pick up yet another A-gap blitz.  We know they fail at these things, we know that the running backs don't hit the holes.  But why? 

I don't know if I am even asking my question correctly.  What is it at the molecular level that has prevented this team from learning from their mistakes?  Is the system too complicated?  Too simple?  Too archaic?  If Chris
Spielman can predict a run or pass play based on some obvious mannerisms by the MSU RB, why couldn't Hoke pick up on this from the hours of video he watched?  I know you don't have access to the team practices (unfortunately), and I know you are not a football coach, but is there something specific you see that makes you think our players are being taught incorrect things? 

-Fritz

I wish I had an easy answer. For Rodriguez there was an easy answer: he hired two guys who didn't know a 3-3-5 from a hole in the ground to run his defense and his assistants hated the idea of running anything else. (Here's a what-if-the-Nazis-won-WWII counterfactual: what if Rodriguez installed Tony Gibson as his DC on day 1.) That paired with Mallett's departure and the dearth of talent left from the Carr regime put him behind the eight ball and he could not recover.

Hoke is a more complicated nut to crack. I do think it says something about something that the coaching staff came in swearing up and down that they were going to run power down the opponents' throat and have gone to an inside zone oriented system in year four. In year one, they ended up running the inverted veer wrong but got bailed out by Denard being Denard and OSU being down to a seriously injured freshman edition of Ryan Shazier.

At no point have they settled on a thing to be, and the things they wanted to be only grudgingly took advantage of the fact that they had some super fast QBs.

Yes, they're too archaic. Jeff Hecklinski told Sam Webb that "speed can be taught"; a glance at this year's WR corps suggest that's not actually true. They've assembled an offense with very little speed and insisted on running a bunch of tight ends onto the field when for most of the Hoke regime they've been more likely to blow a block than make one. They've heavily preferred their biggest backs despite serious performance issues; they have a vision of their program that is hard to make work unless you're Alabama. (Yeah, Stanford. Stanford and…?)

That's one issue, but the bigger one is that it seems like everyone is sloppy. Hoke's making bonkers decisions on a weekly basis. WRs run bad routes, OL blow by their assignments, RBs miss holes, safeties take terrible angles. The most likely explanation to me is that Michigan is poorly structured from the top down, with a lack of—I'm sorry to use this #hottake—accountability with various assistants.

The mission statement.

Check out the mission statement for the athletic department.

The AD's customers are the student-athletes. The mission statement is 300 + words long and does not mention students, alumni, fans, community or state. Dave Brandon was just doing his job.

Obviously this is dumb. More importantly, it seems to not be how Schlissel conceives of the Athletic Department's role. Do you know how people change a mission statement here? Do people within the AD take the mission statement seriously? 

-Jeremy

Mission statements are never taken seriously by anyone except the committee crafting them, and as soon as they're done torturing the English language past its breaking point they forget about it too. That does provide a great deal of insight into the department's attitude.

Here's what the mission statement should be:

"The University of Michigan athletic department strives to graduate its athletes, win games, and provide a kick-ass fan experience at a fair price."

The end.

Pearson.HOPosed2011_sr[1]

RAP LYRICS INDICATING SUITABILITY OF PURPOSE [MichiganTechHuskies.com]

Mel Pearson tha god?

I think so.

I mean, I kind of thought so when Pearson went to Tech and they immediately went from punching bag to pretty decent. The year before Pearson arrived in Houghton the Huskies were 4-30-4(!), and the previous two years had seen the Huskies win 5 and 6 games. Pearson helicopters in; they immediately go 16-19-4, their best season since 2005-06, and they've hovered slightly under .500 since. Before Pearson, MTU's had two seasons of 10+ wins since 1999-00.

This year they're going full Mullen. They're 6-0, having swept LSSU and Ferris on the road before blowing Michigan's doors off in a series that was 10-3 total goals. Meanwhile, Michigan has fallen off the map and is facing down what may be their third straight year without a tourney bid of any variety.

By the end of this year or next—Berenson is scheduled to retire after 2014-15 but has made noises about getting out early if he thinks he's not getting it done—Pearson is going to look like a strong candidate for any college hockey job, let alone the one he helped drive to great success. Age is the only drawback—he's 55 currently.

Pearson's biggest obstacle to the Michigan job is in Massachusetts, where UMass-Lowell coach Norm Bazin has done even more incredible work. The year before his arrival UML went 5-25-4. They hadn't been to the tournament since 1996. In Bazin's three years UML has been to the tourney every year,—doubling the number of bids in the history of the program—won their first-ever Hockey East title, and gone to their first-ever Frozen Four. He's in his fourth year there and he's already won HE coach of the year twice and national coach of the year once. Possible difficulty: Bazin's a UML alum.

Even if Bazin doesn't work out, if the worst you can do is Mel Pearson you're gonna have a good coaching search.

Comments

Erik_in_Dayton

November 5th, 2014 at 12:47 PM ^

It may not just be the students who will need to see Harbaugh at Michigan in order to attend games next year.  Michigan is in an unfortunate situation with respect to the fact that Harbaugh seems like a significantly better option than anyone else.  I'd rather Michigan's eggs not appear to be so much in one basket, but here we are.

I'm not advocating that people stay away if a non-Harbaugh is hired.  But I also couldn't blame them.  My own ability to be optimistic about - or even enjoy - Michigan football is pretty well worn down to the nub at this point.  It's been a long seven years.   

late night BTB

November 5th, 2014 at 1:40 PM ^

Having DB gone doesn't lower student ticket prices, fix the shit home schedule, fix the lame gameday experience, or improve the product on the field immediately.  That's why students didn't 'celebrate' by not showing up to the game.  

Imagine yourself in their shoes not considering your student experience.  I don't blame for not going, I probably wouldn't either.  I'd be with friends, a fully stocked fridge, females, and watching several games in a warm living room.

 

Skapanza

November 5th, 2014 at 1:57 PM ^

Why not? The season ticket holders have already been disappearing, it just hasn't been very visible yet due to the waitlist, which by all accounts has been burned through. Without the waitlist to fill in the ranks where other ticket holders drop out, very real holes will appear in the stadium.

To date, those holes have been filled by massive ticket giveaways (I have received plenty of emails from my school administrators with the subject line "Free tickets for Saturday's game", and it sounds like other local institutions have had the same experience), Coke promotions, and other strategies to band-aid over the gaps. Long-term, this is not a sustainable option with the way the AD has been spending money and a need to fill those seats with paying customers, not giveaways. The waitlist insulated the stadium from having to expose these hemmorhages, but that protective layer is gone.

Loyal fans are loyal, no doubt. I don't think anyone who is giving up their seats would stop watching on the team, but it would be in TV. But when you are being asked to pay high ticket prices and an expensive PSL, you'd like to be rewarded with something more than terrible football. Watching a bad team from the couch with cheap beer and a clean toilet starts to look appealing very quickly when the alternative is an expensive seat next to a guy who only had to buy two Cokes for his spot.

Tony Soprano

November 5th, 2014 at 1:00 PM ^

That might have worked for the last 6 seasons, but no longer.  There's only so much losing a season ticket holder can take before they decide to stop spending thousands of dollars and a significant amount of time to go witness a mediocre team lose in person. 

I suspect that there are a lot of season tickets holders that were on the fence last year as far as renewing and went ahead and renewed with the hope that last season was an abberation and with the hiring of a new OC, Michigan would go on to have a good season.  Well, here we are and they are just bad.  I suspcect that those fence sitters from last year will jump off the fence onto the side of not renewing - I am one of them.  I waited until the last day to renew, not sure I wanted to, but thought I'd give it one more season.  If Hoke is not replaced, I will not be renewing my 4 season tickets. 

Some season ticket holders have already stopped showing up to the games, some fans have turned off the tvs already.  I hadn't missed a home game in years, incluidng all the RR home games, and yet twice this season I didn't attend (Minnesot and Indiana) and I doubt I'll go the Maryland game either.  I just don't feel like taking the time to go witness mediocre football in person.

Apathy is setting in and Michigan better do something to turn it around quickly. 

Rach

November 5th, 2014 at 1:21 PM ^

Season ticket sales will take a big hit if Hoke is retained, and will probably take a hit regardless of who is hired (perhaps with the exception of Jim or John Harbaugh).  The reason for this is more and more people are starting to realize the convenience of buying only the games the want / are able to attend on Stub Hub, which usually means they're buying tickets for way less than face value and they don't have to pay the dreaded "Preferred Seat Donation."  Strongly hope I'm wrong, but given the low resale prices on Stub Hub some season ticket holders have taken to just giving their tickets away...

mGrowOld

November 5th, 2014 at 1:39 PM ^

You and several others above outline nicely why I made the decision last year to give up my 6 tickets I've held since the late 80's.  The combination of bad football, high prices (both the ticket and the PSL) and the availability of stubhub made the decision to drop them fairly easy for me.  While I didnt much care for the "wow experience" Brandon fostered it didnt factor into my decision any.

I was clearly too vocal last year about it and rubbed many posters the wrong way but I can say I surely havent regretted the decision any.  I've watched every game from my couch and so far at least, havent felt the least bit of loss at not being there.  I'm sure next year if we do get Harbaugh I will start going to games again but if Hoke is retained I seriously wonder if I'll even bother to watch anymore or at least I wont schedule my Saturday's around watching like I do now.

Anybody who thinks bringing Hoke back won't crater season ticket sales is kidding themselves.

saveferris

November 5th, 2014 at 4:19 PM ^

I have been a season ticket holder for 25 years and I will seriously consider letting them go after this season if Brady Hoke is retained as head coach.  Why?  Because there is no reason to continue shelling out my hard-earned money on a product that delivers no entertainment, and there is no reason to expect that in Year 5, Hoke will suddenly find the right formula to get this program performing up to historical expectations. 

Hoke is losing with a 5th year senior at quarterback!  And not just a 5th year senior, but a 5th year senior who had performed progressively worse with each passing season he's been starting.  I didn't even think that could be possible!  There is NO REASON to expect that things are going to appreciably improve under Hoke's continued leadership.

Add to that the impact that his retention would have on recruiting and the situation just becomes untenable.  The damage done this season will be somewhat limited  if only because the 2015 recruiting class was always going to be small, but the 2016 is going to be a huge class, and what kind of quality can we expect with a lame duck head coach trying to fill those spots?  Keeping Hoke for a 5th year means disaster for the long-term health of this program.

BornInAA

November 5th, 2014 at 12:13 PM ^

nearly every poor offensive play has 2-3 OL and the blocking back standing around while the tailback and the QB get stuffed. 

They get clapped at if they block, clapped at if they do not.

They don't teach "block to the whistle" or if they do, they don't go all rage on the player when the player takes off a play or two.

Sac Fly

November 5th, 2014 at 12:16 PM ^

Pearson had a year gap between when his contract ended and when Red is going to retire, so had to sign the extension.

Unfortunately for Michigan if Pearson were to leave MTU he would be required to pay an early termination stipend of somewhere around $275,000 depending on when he leaves.

But, the candidate search does open up to a few other higher profile guys now that Dave Brandon and his HC experience rule is gone.

93Grad

November 5th, 2014 at 12:23 PM ^

Northwestern and Maryland are very beatable.  Plus the kids may over achieve a little in a bid to save Brady's job.  That being said, I don't think Hoke should be back even if he ran the table. 

Sam and Ira have been scaring the hell out of me with their speculation that Schlissel wants to turn back the clock so much so that we will be stuck with Hoke, Nussmeier or trying to identify the next Dantonio.  We have already blown the last 2 coaching hires so badly we are working on a decade of football ineptitude. 

93Grad

November 5th, 2014 at 1:02 PM ^

I agree they have underachieve all year so I  should have phrased that differently.  What ever you term it, I could see an uptick in play just based on pride and wanting to win for Hoke.  Not saying that will definitely happen, but it would not surprise me.

gwkrlghl

November 5th, 2014 at 12:31 PM ^

I was such a Pearson hater until they beat Ferris, then I became a Pearson believer when they just obliterated a team with more draft picks than Tech has probably had in the last decade

His track record is pretty awesome for the last 5 years:

Pearson leaves. Michigan immediately becomes mediocre while Tech immediately jumps up to mediocre. Michigan is now seeming to be even worse even though we apparently ditched some of the dead weight while Tech is now in the Top 5 to some people. Michigan Tech! Top 5!

Come back to your real home Mel. You've spent more time in A2 than you have in Houghton as a player and coach combined.

 

Lastly, its a bit ironic to think that Brandon effectively chased Mel out of Ann Arbor because he has higher expectations for a head coach and in doing so made Michigan's program crappier with the possibility that Mel won't even return. Looking like it may be a failed policy

Sac Fly

November 5th, 2014 at 4:42 PM ^

I don't see Pearson as Michigan's next coach. The other names thrown around on everyone's dream list: Rick Bennett, Danton Cole and Mike Babcock aren't realistic options either. Put John Madden in that group as well.

To me, a viable and realistic candidate is Don Granato. That would be a fantastic hire.

Bodogblog

November 5th, 2014 at 12:28 PM ^

Season tickets - that seems to be your major argument, rather than the poor coaching.  The latter is the much better one.  I'd prefer you keep hammering that in the same way you hammered Brandon. 

Everyone likes Hoke as a guy, even though they're sick of the coaching.  If he wins out, that good feeling after the OSU game will linger.  Did the offense look better?  Finally coming together under a new OC.  Defense great in the last 3 games?  Well, it's been good all year (though I would argue strongly against this, it seems to be a prevailing thought).  He can survive.

Season ticket concerns are solved as easily as student ticket prices: lower the price of tickets or take the PSD down a bit.  Sure you lose revenue, but these are dire times - bite the bullet and plan for increases  in the near future.  Couple that with an incoming AD who makes a statement about the importance of the fans and reducing commercialism.  Look at next year's schedule.  Season tickets won't be an issue.  Everyone will rally.

In the important games for two years Michigan has been outschemed.  Your absolutely right that they're sloppy and make too many glaring mistakes.  This is why Hoke needs to go.  Document these things and keep doing so, please. 

funkywolve

November 5th, 2014 at 12:43 PM ^

I think if Hoke is still the coach next years season ticket sales will still be an issue even with that schedule, at least with regards to UM fans.  Now if they do what they did in the past and offer 3 game packages with one of the games being OSU, OSU fans will scoop those packages up in a heartbeat.

late night BTB

November 5th, 2014 at 1:50 PM ^

If you're the AD, it's scary to think what's happened and what could, to season tickets.

Your once legendary waitlist is burnt up, now even long time holders are dropping, all the while recent grads (like myself), have little to no desire to drop small fortunes a year to see football in AA even once a year, much less the entire season coming from out of state, and you can't even get the current students to show up to games.

There'll be a case study about this in the Ross School soon, and it'll be interesting to tally up the damage DB has done a couple years from now.

Bodogblog

November 5th, 2014 at 4:38 PM ^

I would love to see that case study.  I would wager DB's impact was much, much less than the combined W/L football record of the RR and Hoke eras.  Blame DB for hiring Hoke?  Very much deserved.  A lot of the rest is either problems on a national scale (student attendance declines, too high prices, search for "wow" to put butts in seats) or feelingsball complaining (a noodle appeared once, when just about every other program in the country has been pouring metaphorical bottomless bowls of macaroni at every gameday for years).  And yes, I still feel a lot of it was politically motivated.  His mistakes - and there were significant ones - allowed him to become the focal point for fan anger over losing.  

Now the emails proved he either an asshole all along or became one.  Kind of like when Brian read 3 and Out, and after reading the passages on RR screaming at players, he finally decided he liked him gone.  I'm in that boat.

west2

November 5th, 2014 at 12:39 PM ^

that even if hoke wins every game the rest of the way the bad karma and associated spectre of diminishing ticket sales-empty seats next season diminishes hokes chances of returning to zero.  

Also, if you try to state why hoke & co failed in a nutshell I believe it is lack of discipline and not paying attention to detail.  Their failure in these areas are probably why they are also great recruiters.  The kids love the laid back atmosphere.  This approach seemed to work for Pete Carroll out there on the left coast but doesn't seem to be effective here.  Probably because Carroll found other ways to light fires under players.  

Ron Utah

November 5th, 2014 at 12:40 PM ^

It's no secret that I like Coach Hoke.  It's also no secret that I think he should be fired, no matter what happens with the remainder of the season.  Consider this: we have the 107th-ranked scoring offense in the NCAA.  We are one spot behind Miami (NTM), one of the teams we blew out because they were galactically bad.

Coach Hoke should not get fired for being unlikeable, immoral, or failing to graduate his players.  That our record is so poor and the team shows no (or few) signs of fracturing is a testament to how well he takes care of his team.

Coach Hoke should, however, get fired for fielding futile offenses that closely resemble RR's futile defenses.  In 2010, we averaged 6.75 yds/play.  The problem is that we also allowed over 6 yds/play.  In 2011, the average dropped a bit to 6.23 yds/play, and we held our opponents to 5.23 yds/play.  In 2012, we were down to 6.07 yds/play, allowing just 4.93 yds/play.  The decline continued in 2013 despite two massive offensive outputs (Indiana and Ohio State) when we averaged just 5.44 yds/play and gave-up 5.29.  Now?  In 2014, we are averaging 5.38 yds/play while we cede 4.76 yds/play.

See a trend?  The offense has gotten less efficient each season, and is now at the point where, immediately following a huge blow-out victory over Indiana, we are still ranked #107 in scoring offense.

The big question: WHY?

Nuss is regarded as one of the top offensive minds in the country.  I will bet anyone any amount, any time that Nussmeier goes on to have a very good career as an OC and probably even HC after he is done at Michigan.  He is not the problem.  (It's possible Borges wasn't the problem either)

I agree with Brian: the assistants are NOT getting the job done, and Hoke is not holding them accountable or creating an atmosphere where attention to detail is paramount.  Wisconsin fired their O-Line coach mid-season, and turned things around almost immediately.  Michigan has been far too patient with Funk, not to mention Jackson, Ferrigno, and even Hecklinski.  The offensive staff has not been able to get the players to execute their assignments, and therefore they should be canned, along with the HC that has kept them employed.

That we have MNC-winning coordinators on both sides of the ball tells you that we have adequate football knowledge to be at least competent in all phases of the game.  Unfortunately, our offense is a wreck, and shows no sign of lasting progress.  Given that we now have an OC known for grooming excellent QBs and getting the most out of his talent, it's plain to see that the final variables are the HC (whom we know is not that involved on offense) and the offensive assistants, who appear to be culpable.

bstaub32

November 5th, 2014 at 12:46 PM ^

You don't think any of the problems have to do with an offense of mostly underclassmen learning a completely different system this year under a new coordinator?

I guess it's Hoke's fault that he went out and go a no name OC from a lackluster football program like Alabama (sarcasm) to come in and teach all the redshirt sophomores that used their redshit season learning an offensive scheme they have now been told to forget.

The reason Hoke may survive is the offense IS the problem and he isn't an offensive guy, and he remedied that last season by bringing in probably the BEST offensive coordinator available...

 

 

Reader71

November 5th, 2014 at 4:13 PM ^

Other than the fundamental running scheme going from gap to zone and aside from the passing concepts going from a vertical stretch to horizontal spacing, this offense is IDENTICAL to the previous one.

/s.

Salvatore, you are way off on this one. New England and New Orleans are passing-based pro-style schemes. Same shit? Not even close, from a concept standpoint or a personnel standpoint. No offense meant, but this is where the term 'muggle' comes from.

mich_engineer

November 5th, 2014 at 1:17 PM ^

Even if that is the problem, that doesn't absolve Hoke in any way.  The reason that they are learning a whole new system this year is due to Hoke's decision to hire and retain Al Borges and the offensive position coaches for three years.  I agree that hiring Nussmeier was the smartest thing that he could have done, but it has been proven that it was too little, too late.  This staff change just doesn't reset the clock on the whole experiment.

bstaub32

November 5th, 2014 at 1:22 PM ^

I think it may, because losing Mattison will certainly set the defense back, and on offense they would be learning a new system next year.

It makes no sense to get rid of Hoke and keep Nuss when the offense is whole problem...

mich_engineer

November 5th, 2014 at 1:36 PM ^

I am in no way advocating keeping Nuss, just pointing out that bringing him in for year 4 doesn't erase the results of years 1-3, or reset the clock for Hoke so his players can "learn a new system."  The responsibility for the installation of the first system lies with him, and he doesn't get a full blown mulligan to try something else.

 

Also regarding the earlier post's comment about "mostly underclassman" - that would be more powerful if the players on the field were not making the same mistakes that have been endemic for 4 straight seasons.  There is no evidence at all that these linemen, for example, will magically acquire the ability to block someone simply by being one year older.

uncleFred

November 5th, 2014 at 2:46 PM ^

You dump an OC who goes 11-2 his first season with better offensive production against "quality defenses" than his predecessor. A guy who goes 8-5 after losing his starting QB 2/3rds of the way through the season and still comes within a play of winning the bowl game. 

Borges got fired after a single ugly season where the team still won more games than they lost. If Gardner had been healthy throughout the OSU game and for the bowl that easily could have been a 9-4 season instead of 7-6. It wasn't and he got dumped. - Ok that's fine but lets not rewrite history here. Borges was generally very popular after the first season, and Denard's injury certainly reset some expectations about the end of that season. 

The reason that they are learning a new system this year is because Nussmeier became available. Much the same line of reasoning that is applied by many here should a Harbaugh become available.

It's a popular notion here that youth is an excuse. Former players talk about the importance of experienced senors to improve the rate that underclassmen learn. Coaches talk about the importance of it as well. Program stability matters as well. 

 

 

GoBLUinTX

November 5th, 2014 at 1:24 PM ^

for firing the guy that was responsible for his team scoring 31 points per game and hiring a guy that can only manage 21 points per game.  Nussmeier was hired to fix the offense, not dismantle it, we went through that type of shit storm in 2008.  

Hoke should be fired for allowing people who only know how to caterwaul about zone read and bubble screens to convince him that scoring 31 points per game was bad.  Nussmeier didn't need to fix anything more than to build upon what worked.  Hoke should be fired because he doesn't know enough about offense to understand you can't totally change the offense and expect to see instantaneous success.  Hoke should be fired for allowing himself to be sold such a bill of goods.