THIS IS NOT MICHIGAN Comment Count

Brian

9/27/2014 – Michigan 14, Minnesota 30 – 2-3, 0-1 Big Ten

Brady Hoke is too incompetent to be Michigan's coach. He's too incompetent to be responsible for 85 kids who might get badly hurt at any moment. Hell, he's too incompetent to run a Hooters. Do not eat the chicken at Brady Hoke Hooters. That's not chicken.

And that's the nice way to interpret the information presented to us. It's one thing when Michigan is sending out ten guys in their dinosaur punt formation, one thing when they have the country's worst offense relative to available hyped recruits two years running. It's one thing when Michigan is pretending to try by getting Devin Funchess's ankle mangled in the waning moments of a 31-0 game. These are all fireable offenses, but year-end fireable offenses.

It's another thing when the Yakety Sax chaos that has come to symbolize the Hoke regime puts one of Hoke's "115 sons" in danger, as it did Saturday.

Shane Morris had just taken a headshot from a defensive end. He momentarily lost the ability to use his limbs. There was no real reason for him to be in the game anyway, what with his 49 passing yards and air of being totally overwhelmed. And Hoke threw him out there, because he "didn't see" his quarterback stagger onto one of his offensive linemen.

Even if that implausible excuse is true, somebody did. The announcers did. Doug Nussmeier—who was desperately trying to get his quarterback to fall on the ground—did. There were 80,000 people still in the stadium looking at the quarterback, and

EVERY

GODDAMNED

ONE

OF

THEM

knew Shane Morris had just had a very bad thing happen to his brain. When he was left in, they booed vociferously. This is where we're at: the guys booing in the stands are doing so because they fear for the players' health.

This is a long, long way from the "they ain't got no heart" guys from the Rodriguez era. Booing is now the only agency you have when something reprehensible is going on in front of your face. It's gone from childish to necessary.

Brady Hoke had no idea, and even more damningly nobody on his sideline had the sense to overrule the guy who purports to be the head coach. Some guys started yelling at Russell Bellomy to get his helmet on when Gardner lost his a couple plays after entering; Bellomy tried about 50 because he never dreamed he'd go in a game again. Morris re-entered the game. Did he have a concussion?

"Shane's a pretty competitive, tough kid. Shane wanted to be the quarterback. Believe me, if he didn't want to be, he would've come to the sideline, or stayed down."

That is unacceptable. Brady Hoke should have been fired walking off the field.

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

Dave Brandon is too stupid to be Michigan's athletic director. After a day-long lambasting culminating in ABC's World News Tonight slamming the program, they released a breathtakingly tone-deaf statement that is a flat-out lie.

We generally never discuss the specifics of a student-athlete's medical care, but Shane Morris was removed from yesterday's game against Minnesota after further aggravating an injury to his leg that he sustained earlier in the contest

This is how Shane Morris aggravated his leg injury.

Who are you going to believe, Dave Brandon and his lawyers or your lying eyes?

It does not matter whether Morris was concussed or not. What matters is that Shane Morris showed obvious signs of a concussion immediately after taking a wicked head shot and was permitted to stay in the game, then re-entered some 90 seconds after departing, well before any serious concussion check could be completed. The NFL's process takes 8-12 minutes. The NHL requires players suspected to have sustained a concussion to be removed from the ice and taken to a quiet place for evaluation.

Michigan was flagrantly negligent about Shane Morris's safety. Period.

And then they lied about it. To your face. Because they think you're too fucking dumb to do anything about it.

Michigan's athletic department has been insulting the intelligence of their fans for years with offended statements about how they weren't really going to do the thing they said they were going to do and the thing you're mad about definitely is your fault, not theirs. That was bad enough for petty things like noodles; this is the athletic department lying to the nation about a matter of real import.

This opinion is universal outside a small corps of true believers who have inexplicable faith in the people who are just in charge of the Michigan athletic department.  Hoke has been condemned by the ESPN announcers, Deadspin, Business Insider, Yahoo, Andy Staples, Nick Baumgardner, Wojo, Bruce Feldman and Stewart Mandel, USA Today's Nicole Auerbach, CBS, CBS again, USA Today's George Schroeder and virtually every other person to offer an opinion about college football this year. Hell, a news program aimed at olds did a segment on it, just after they talked about ISIS.

The die has been cast. Until Brady Hoke and Dave Brandon are removed from this program, This Is Michigan: incompetent liars.

I can't stand by and watch this anymore.

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

This program is broken. The coach is too dumb to be in charge of other people. The athletic director is so loathed that when the remainder of the student section started to chant something after the concussion fiasco, they went with "FIRE BRANDON." Tickets go for two cokes, and that's too expensive.

Stephen Ross is defending Brandon, and I feel helpless. The thing I love most in the world has been held hostage by unacceptable people. So I'm going to do two things.

I'M NOT GOING TO THE MARYLAND GAME. (Unless Hoke and Brandon are gone.) This is going to break a home attendance streak dating back to the 1997 opener, when I was a freshman, but it's the only thing I can do to show my disgust at the state of the program. I'm not selling my ticket—not that I could sell it for anything. I am eating it. I urge you to do the same. Yeah, it sucks for the players. I am more concerned about sending a message about the program as a whole than making anyone feel bad.

#boycottmaryland

Do it for all of us. I hate it with the fury of a thousand suns, but this is the only thing we have left.

I'M RUNNING FOR REGENT IN 2016. I don't know how or with who yet, but the  board of regents is a broken institution that privately conspires to vote unanimously in favor of everything, in violation of the law. They accepted the presence of Dave Brandon; they run the worst FOIA office in the country; they are supposed to be the check on an increasingly overpaid and unaccountable administrative class at Michigan. They are failures.

Leaders and best. I still believe that. Goddammit, I do. I started the Every Three Weekly with Amol Parulekar and Mike Chu and Paul Malewitz and Michigan allowed that to happen despite it being an obviously not-great idea for them. I learned how to code; I didn't go to my discrete math class for the entire semester and that was cool; I got my brain rearranged by Stephen Kaplan in an immensely productive way. Michigan is awesome. It is awesome in spite of the people in charge of the university's front door.

I love this place, which gave me my education, livelihood, and wife. I am going to do the thing I can to try to help it.

morris-cart

Because this is not Michigan.

[After THE JUMP: more reasons to fire Brady Hoke.]

GAME STUFF

There's not much point to going over what happened in the usual way Michigan sucks so hard that it doesn't matter anymore. Michigan was comprehensively outgained and blown out by a team that lost 30-7 to TCU. A bowl game is unlikely, to say the least.

But here's some more stuff about why Hoke should be fired.

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[Bryan Fuller]

Giving your players the best chance to win: fail. When Sam Webb said he thought Morris would start during our Thursday roundtable on WTKA, Craig, Ed, and I all involuntarily groaned at the same time. Morris had given no indication he was anywhere near ready, and that played out as Michigan's starting quarterback managed 49 yards passing while being just as turnover-prone as Devin Gardner.

By halftime Michigan had just over 100 yards of offense and it was obvious Gardner should be re-inserted; Hoke refused. Morris started hobbling around on one leg; Hoke refused to take him out even then. Morris fumbled without being touched by an opponent; Hoke still did not take him out. Without the Morris injury, Gardner would not have shown up at all.

That is a slap in the face to a guy who was a warrior last year in the face of horrendous pass protection. Michigan was prepared to lose this game to teach Devin Gardner a lesson, because "uh, Shane Morris was our quarterback." Brady Hoke was willing to throw the entire team under the bus to make a point.

Clueless tempo item of the week. Near the end of the first half, Michigan called timeout just before Minnesota spiked the ball. This was because they were trying to substitute while the opponent was in an extreme two-minute mode and got stuck with twelve guys on the field.

The reason they called timeout doesn't really matter; the mere fact that Michigan had no ability to project what would happen after a Gopher first down in that situation is yet more gross incompetence. It feels like nobody on this staff has ever watched the end of a half of football, weekly.

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[Bryan Fuller]

"I quit" of the week. Hoke once again quit when victory was still distantly possible. After Gardner drove the team to a touchdown, he kicked an extra point instead of going for two to find out whether he was 2.5 or 3 possessions down, then kicked deep. "I quit," he said. Then facing fourth and ten down 16 with 4 minutes left, he punted. "I quit," he said again.

This has been a pattern in every one of Michigan's blowout losses: offenses that huddle and run the clock down to nothing while trailing by multiple scores in the second half, coupled with starters still on the field. Brady Hoke quits when down, but he wants to keep up the appearance of trying. This is why Devin Funchess is going to spend the year nursing an ankle sprain.

I get why he quits—I also want the games to be over as fast as possible. It's still embarrassing to the program.

Shoe-throwin' quote of the week not related to Shane Morris. Oy.

I think field position was a part of the game. We've got to do a better job. A couple of punt returns went for way too much yardage.

You don't say. Michigan was lucky to only be down three points at halftime; their first two punts should have been brought back 20+ yards but for the incompetence of the Gopher returner, who let one of the punts drop and fumbled the other.

On the severity of the Morris incident. This is the only place on the internet other than the Pravda-like Wolverine where you will find people defending Michigan's actions in the aftermath of the helmet-to-helmet hit on Morris, some even going so far as to assert that the problem might have been with his leg even before the athletic department asserted so.

I cannot fathom why a certain subset of posters insists on reminding us that Brady Hoke didn't intentionally put Shane Morris in harm's way, as if that matters. A major argument they bring is that "X isn't stupid/incompetent," which… why would you be certain about that at this point? They seem to want a standard of evidence that is beyond a reasonable doubt and extend the benefit of the doubt to people who have long since lost that privilege. I tell you what, guys: it's just 99 bucks a year for a Rivals subscription.

There is always a faction that wants to downplay everything that people get mad at; the Aggressively Reasonable people spend their entire posting lives clucking at other people that they shouldn't be mad about the thing they're mad about. That combined with a desire to see Brady Hoke as a good guy causes people to say this isn't as big of a deal as everyone here is making it out to be.

Bullshit. The Michigan brand now: send your child to play for a guy who can't tell you've just been hit in the head really hard. Whether it was malice or stunning incompetence doesn't matter: either is grounds for immediate termination.

Toxic. ESPN is clowning Hoke now.

So there's that. 

Toxic Part II. I heard only "Fire Brandon" from the students, and multiple reports that have filtered back to me from the student section say that they were all "Fire Brandon" chants, not "Fire Brady," except for scattered dudes who didn't get the idea. Someone even sent me some video:

There's your future season ticket base. Keeping this guy is impossible even if he wasn't running a confederacy of dunces.

WELL TROLLED, SIR. Is Special K joining the resistance? He played "Numb" by Linkin Park before the game, which is way not on message, and then as I'm exiting I hear "this is it, the apocalypse" from that Imagine Dragons song. Either Special K is a clueless dillweed or he's just as pissed as everyone else.

HERE

Inside The Box Score:

I'm left scratching my head wondering what Brady Hoke was trying to do in this game. In Schembechler's account of his first game against Minnesota, he admits this:

Let me tell you the God's honest truth: Even if we got beat up there in Minnesota, I would still have felt better about taking the squad I took than I would have if we'd won that game with a bunch of guys who hadn't practiced all week, guys who let their teammates down, guys who didn't take my word seriously.

So it's obvious Schembechler had a larger goal in mind; it was a "lose the battle but win the war" mentality. Oh to be a fly on the wall in Schembechler Hall so that I might understand what Brady Hoke was trying to prove with this stunt. He sat a 5th year quarterback with significant playing experience, a player so distinguished, with so much ability, talent, and skills that he was given the honor of wearing the Tom Harmon Legends jersey, for a 2nd year quarterback with one start under his belt in college. I thought maybe, just maybe, Gardner was injured. That's the only way this makes sense to me, if the objective was to win the football game. However, when Russell Bellomy couldn't find his helmet to sub in for a play, the truth was revealed. Gardner was not injured, for if he was, Bellomy would have practiced all week and would have the slightest clue where his helmet was. No, Gardner was sat to teach some sort of lesson.

Best And Worst:

I know last week I described the death of my optimism about this season, so this might sound a bit hypocritical to then attack others for voicing their own displeasure, but I am profoundly, mind-numbingly tired of people questioning the desire of college players and the people who have dedicated their lives to making them better.  Now, I'm not defending the results so far on the scoreboard, nor am I saying that I believe guys like Hoke, Funk, Ferrigno, etc. are the best choices for the jobs the currently inhabit.  I still believe that Hoke should be gone, as the number of boneheaded decisions (the punting formation fiasco and the lack of anything resembling tempo or urgency on offense being prime examples) has only increased since he's been at the helm.  But I absolutely believe that he cares about Michigan football and is trying his best to make it a winner, just like everyone else involved with the program; to question the effort and desire put forth by the players and coaches is asinine.

From The Student Section:

…toward the end of the game two things happened on the sidelines near the student section:

  1. A dramatic increase in police and event staff presence.
  2. A rope being held along the sideline and end zone, presumably to prevent a field rush (??).

Did either of these things directly impact my, or really any other students’ lives? Not really. Nevertheless, the symbolism remains. One needs look little further than this to get a good grasp on why the students are so upset with the athletic department. Is the department so distrustful of the students that they want to keep them in line by show of force? Are they so delusional to think that the students would rush the field after a loss? After even a win over Minnesota? over Utah? over literally any home game this season? They’ve taken our water bottles so that they can sell water for $5; they’ve prohibited numerous innocuous items from entering the stadium; three separate event staff members tried to tell me I wouldn’t be allowed to bring a cowbell into the stadium; you can’t bring bags; you can’t bring food. And yet after all of this, they expect us to keep paying such exorbitant prices for tickets? To keep showing up? Don’t get me wrong, I love Michigan Football, I love the Michigan Stadium experience; it’s just that, under Dave Brandon I have yet to really experience either at the Big House.

ELSEWHERE

Bombs away in the Michigan blogosphere. MZone:

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 Maize Pages:

In Michigan’s 67-65, 3-OT thriller over Illinois in 2010, Rodriguez pulled Robinson after a hard hit during the 3rd quarter. “He was dizzy and had a headache,” explained Rodriguez, extra cautious his star player might have a concussion. The context is even more important. Rodriguez entered that game 5-3 after 3 consecutive losses to #17 Michigan State, #15 Iowa and at Penn State. Under fire by the media before the season and intense scrutiny by Brandon during the season, Rodriguez pulled the most electric player in college football for his safety in a must-win game. He recruited Robinson, developed him, and above all protected him over his job. If only he was a Michigan Man too.

Genuinely Sarcastic:

I now call on all Michigan fans to stomach the unthinkable: boycott this obscenity until it collapses in on itself. If you have tickets, don't use them. Don't sell them to someone who will. Don't give them away to someone who will. Do not buy tickets, no matter how cheap they become, or how many Cokes you get with them. If someone offers you tickets for free, politely decline. I understand how reprehensible that will sound to some. Many will say that it is still a fan's obligation to support these players. I implore you to reconsider. I beg of you to support these players by putting pressure on those who are destroying them. These players are having their careers derailed by people who are in painfully over their heads, and one of them was put at grave physical risk by the man he trusted with his future today. Shane Morris didn't even walk off the field after the game today; he had to be carted off because he couldn't put weight on his ankle; that's not even considering the concussion he took and then continued to play with.

Maize N Brew:

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For starters, Morris never should have been in this huddle. But look at the play clock in the graphic above. THERE ARE A FULL 25 SECONDS ON THE PLAY CLOCK. That is plenty of time for Hoke to either: (1) call Morris back to the sideline and sub in Bellomy, who now has a helmet; (2) call a timeout, which still remains an option every second until the ball is snapped; or (3) PUT IN ANY PLAYER -- WILTON SPEIGHT, BRIAN CLEARY, ALEX SWIECA, LINEBACKER JAKE RYAN, DEFENSIVE TACKLE WILLIE HENRY, ETC. -- THAT IS NOT CONCUSSED.

Even the umpire looks over to Michigan's sideline and asks Hoke if he wants to take a timeout, to which Hoke declines, before starting the play clock.

Maize And Blue Nation:

Then Michigan's coaches failed Shane Morris. It's the coach's job to know whats going on at all times with the players on the field. Hoke admitted to not seeing Shane Morris visibly wobbling back to the huddle after that hit. How you miss that it beyond me. He could barely stand up. How could Doug Nussmeier, the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach not pull his guy immediately after seeing that. Shane probably shouldn't have been in the game at that point anyway. He was limping very badly.

I don't even know what to say abut this series of events other than its easily the most concerning thing that happened on a day when there was a lot to be concerned about. But this goes beyond football and x's and o's. This is a blatant disregard for player safety, plain and simple.

Aw man play 60 kid this is a major burn

but you're just the major burn of all major burns so ok.

And this was just a random post on the Scout message board from A1Portable but it's too good to let die with two responses:

We Are Michigan! ...


... and Brady Hoke is a MICHIGAN MAN!

That is all you need to know ... except perhaps ...

...  that Michigan's Athletic Director is a former CEO of a big company that sells pizzas.  Yes, that's right, Michigan's Athletic Director is a former CEO of a big company that sells pizzas! 

So naturally, he is qualified to be Michigan's Athletic Director.  In fact, he is more qualified than any other kind of athletic director, especially the kind who have experience running college athletic departments and hiring coaches.  That is not the kind of experience that prepares a man to be a master of public relations flim-flam, which is what a Michigan Athletic Director must be a master at!

Do you know how hard it is to persuade 100,000 folks to spend more than $1,000 to buy season tickets to college football games when they could have picked up some tickets at 7-11 just by buying a couple liters of Coca-Cola?  I'm telling you, that is not easy, nosiree!  Don't think that any old ordinary athletic director is capable of doing stuff like that.  No, it takes an athletic director who is a genuine former CEO of a big company that sells pizzas to pull off something like that.  Do not try that at home!  

What's that?  You don't understand?  That is because you are just ignorant peons who are incapable of understanding the depths of  the twisted genius of the Michigan Athletic Director.

Do not question the Michigan Athletic Director!  To question the Michigan Athletic Director is to admit, ipso facto, that you are not qualified, or worthy, to question the Michigan Athletic Director!  You know enough about the Michigan Athletic Director not to question the Michigan Athletic Director, but you question the Michigan Athletic Director.  Therefore, you do not know enough about the Michigan Athletic Director not to question the Michigan Athletic Director.

If you are an ignorant peon and continue to question the Michigan Athletic Director, you will be ignored, and then a way will be found for the experience of going to a football game to become so unpleasant that you will "voluntarily" give up your season tickets, which you could have gotten at 7-11 for buying a couple liters of Coca-Cola.

... and one more thing, WE ARE MICHIGAN!  Seriously, we are.

orsonwellesclap.gif

The Penn State game is going to be epic.

Comments

maizenbluenc

September 29th, 2014 at 10:37 AM ^

as he wobbles and looks about to go down, then leans on Braden and Braden almost has to hold his hand to keep him up, then as he's waving Nuss off his arms are flailing in an odd limp manner like he is drunk or something ...

Tell me - if it was your son - whether he may not have taken a helmet hit - would you want him pulled and evaluated right then for a concussion?

If aa a parent I could see what I saw real time on TV, security would have been dragging me off the field (or maybe an OSU coach would have tackled me), because I would have been going over the wall to stop play.

Indiana Blue

September 29th, 2014 at 9:57 AM ^

in the previous quarter, IIRC it was when he fumbled.  I was in the southwest corner - I didn't even see the hit to the head - which was blatent and intentional.  But even beyond the concussion topic - look at Kyle Kalis in the video.  Kalis saw the entire hit and never went after the guy!  That's bullshit.  This topic has been discussed since the nd game - but this is NOT a TEAM.  They have no PRIDE in protecting each other.  Even in Bo's day - had this happenned to Rick Leach - somebody would have gone after that Minnesaota player.     

Just another reason that Hoke must go ....

MaximusBlue

September 29th, 2014 at 9:58 AM ^

All this political shit going on at the top has brought us to this point. All these damn different factions and everyone wants to do it their way. Michigan used to be about winning football games the right way. I don't know what we stand for at this point.

No way DG shouldn't have started the second half. The game was in reach and he could've provided the "spark" that they thought Shane would provide. Hoke played to lose the game for his own bullshit reasons.

maizenbluenc

September 29th, 2014 at 10:42 AM ^

to permanently shut up all the Gardner detractors. Or if something had transpired that Gardner was intentionally benched for the game (like Peppers). Gardner sure looked pissed, and was not supportive of Shane in the way he had been against Utah.

LKLIII

September 29th, 2014 at 9:59 AM ^

Ditto on everything, but why Maryland? It's months away. In the meantime fans are supposed to attend the other home games and pretend all is well. PSU was supposed to be the marquee home game of the season. Boycott THAT and it will get people's attention.

If we are going to lose the 100K attendance streak this season, let's not do it by just falling short. Let's absolutely tank it. I mean attendance of 30K or something. Then take out full page ads in the Detroit News, Michigan Daily, and hire a sky writing team to explain to the players that we support them but not the administration or coaching staff. Explain that the boycott is out of love, and then implement it to deviating effect.



Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

Gordon

September 29th, 2014 at 9:59 AM ^

Boycott Indiana.  Here's why.

- It's homecoming.  There's going to be a much bigger, older, and more monied alum crowd at homecoming.  Protesting that game will send a much more direct message to that crowd than if they watch it on TV against Maryland.

- It's not Senior Day.  Not the players' fault that the program is run by an egomaniac and a lummox.  Support the seniors, go to give them a good send-off, then leave if you want.

- The earlier this boycott comes, the more pressure will be on Brandon.  If it comes with games to go, that's weeks of football to be played with the focus on the terrible job going on.  By pushing it to the end of the season, it reduces the amount of coverage it gets as the season ends.

FreddieMercuryHayes

September 29th, 2014 at 10:01 AM ^

I hate that boycotting the games is what it's come down to.  And I absolutely agree with Brian on this one.  As fans, the only power we really have is whether to watch the game or not.  The AD and coaches will use players as a hostage as no fan wants to not support the teens that are working their ass off to play for UM.  But what else is there?  We're not millionare donors.  All we have is our eyes, and what we choose to view with them.  And honestly, the players deserve better than what they're getting from the HC and the AD.

Jeff4179

September 29th, 2014 at 10:05 AM ^

When you watch Morris being hit, you can see Kalis looking right at the play and Cole turning towards it.  No one seemed upset that the Minnesota linebacker launched hiimself head-first-no-arms into their already-injured quarterback.  That says a lot about how much of a "team" these guys are. 

UofMJason

September 29th, 2014 at 10:11 AM ^

I can't believe the other players let him take a cheap shot like that and just walked back to the huddle. I would have been happier if someone, anyone, got pissed off and defended him. I would even have accepted Hoke going apeshit and getting tossed from the game as opposed to laying down and letting your QB get abused.

skurnie

September 29th, 2014 at 10:06 AM ^

"Michigan was flagrantly negligent about Shane Morris's safety. Period.

And then they lied about it. To your face. Because they think you're too fucking dumb to do anything about it."

 

This hits that press release/Q&A right on the head. Why can't they do anything right? I mean, whey can't Brandon and Hoke get one fucking thing right? They can't even admit they were wrong in the first place. And now they're wrong twice? Can't they see this crap is just compounding? 

AA2Denver

September 29th, 2014 at 10:07 AM ^

Holy fuck. This is a fantastic post. It hits on so many points I can't articulate myself. I supported Hokes hire and that support has deteriored slowly (slower than it should have) over the past three seasons. It started the Gibbons debacle. Ugh. I HATE being a part of the pitchfork carrying mob, but this has gone on too long and too far. I support Brian as regent, I don't even know what a regent does.

LSAClassOf2000

September 29th, 2014 at 10:09 AM ^

Perhaps it was emotion, but I rather had the same feeling waking up this morning, trying to digest all that has gone on in the past day or so - this is not Michigan indeed, at least not the one I grew up next to, attended and have supported through the years. I sympathize with the feeling that there is a lot about the posture and culture of the department that I don't recognize or understand anymore. 

The interactions that the department has had with the press and the public in the wake of this game are the interactions of a department which handles its public relations with NFL competency, which is trying to make people fit into a preconceived football ideology without regard for the true talents of individuals and which has turned the football experience into a monetized event lacking the life it once had. It's hard to watch, if nothing else, because you know it could be something else. Worse, you know it was something else once.

MGoStrength

September 29th, 2014 at 10:10 AM ^

That we feel we have a personal obligation to take on the role of impacting who our coach and AD is.  I really don't understand how so many coaches can all be so bad.  If Hoke is bad/incompetent whatever, OK.  But, is he enforcing his will on the rest of his staff or all they all equally incompetent?  And, if he is, why are good coaches willing to do that?  I mean are Nuss and Mattison equally incompetent?  I just don't get how even if Hoke is a bad coach that the product is still this bad.  How are players not playing better?  Shouldn't good coordinators still be able to get the job done with the talent on the roster?  I just don't understand how it got this bad or frankly how it will ever get good again.  It seems no matter what UM tries nothing works.  Will UM ever be nationally relevant again?

JeepinBen

September 29th, 2014 at 10:11 AM ^

So in (can't vote though).

Also, I'm probably going to a few more games this year. For those of you who feel bad about attending, bring a sign - here for the players only - Brandon & Hoke should go or something similar.

 

Ed Shuttlesworth

September 29th, 2014 at 10:17 AM ^

Brian's comment about Brandon's absurd statement must be amplified and repeated -- it was a flat-out lie.

Why is the Michigan athletic director issuing statements on matters of keen public interest involving the safety of one of their scholarship football players that contain flat-out lies?

Hannibal.

September 29th, 2014 at 10:16 AM ^

Why wait until Maryland?  Boycott the Penn State game.  If you decide not to boycott the Penn State game, then at least boycott all of the concessions and get "fire Brandon" chants going the whole game.

matty blue

September 29th, 2014 at 10:16 AM ^

i'm just...beaten.  i was pretty close before the season started, to be honest (i'm just so tired of being treated like a bank account wearing a goddamn 'M' hat) but a team that was actually fun to watch would have made that go away, at least a little bit...and i'm not even talking about going 5-0, more like fielding a team that's mostly watchable.  this team isn't. 

and it's really too bad - there are some guys on this team that, if the coaching staff wasn't 90% incompetent, could become among my favorite players we've ever had.  i LOVE devin gardner - great kid, smart, super-tough, dynamic.  jake ryan is fun to watch.  funchess.  we've got a true freshman at left tackle, and he looks way more competent than his coaches - think about what he might be 3 years from now...

instead, i'm seriously thinking that i won't even watch saturday's game by CHOICE, and that's never happened to me in 45 years of fandom.  what.  the fuck?

Jeff4179

September 29th, 2014 at 10:17 AM ^

A few years ago I went to see BB King and Jeff Beck in concert.  I was excited because I had always been a BB King fan but had never seen his legendary guitar playing live.  After Jeff Beck was awesome, the BB King part started, but there was no BB King.  I kept wondering when they'd bring him out, and after about 15 minutes over the loudspeaker came "ladies and gentlemen, BB King!!!"  Two guys helped BB King walk out onto the stage (he looked like he wouldn't make it on his own), and sat him in a large lazy boy chair, and gave him a guitar.  He played a couple of short riffs and the crowd went nuts.  That was pretty much the entire show -- the blues band would play a song, and BB King would play a 15 second solo. Since then, I have told people that I saw "Jeff Beck and BB King's corpse."  I didn't have binoculars, but my theory is that somebody behind the lazy boy chair moved his arms to make it look like he was playing.  This was supposed to be BB King, man, not someone who could barely walk, let alone play guitar.  I remembered how great the live recordings I listen to sounded, and wished I could see those shows.  I also felt exploited that I was supposed to be seeing BB King, and paid good money for it, but instead I got a pale imitation. 

I felt the same way watching Michigan play on Saturday.  (At least I was smart enough not to accept the free 50-yard-line tickets I was offered, but couldn't stay away from the TV.)

 

ontarioblue

September 29th, 2014 at 10:17 AM ^

Hoke is a dinosaur. Brandon is a dinosaur. They both must be made extinct from Michigan. Enough is enough. When you split hairs on a student athletes health, it is time to disappear.

rstanek

September 29th, 2014 at 10:20 AM ^

In addition to running for Regents (and good on you, as too few are aware of the how the Regents can steer a university, for good or for ill), perhaps some sort of campaign or reaching out to the new UMich president?  He is a medical doctor; he should be appalled by what he saw on Saturday.

(Does the Athletic Department report to the President or straight to the Regents? Good god, I hope it's not the latter.)

bronxblue

September 29th, 2014 at 10:23 AM ^

I fully support Brian for regent, for president, space emperor, etc.  This isn't just "not Michigan"; this is barely a half-step above a bunch of monkeys throwing poop at each other and calling it entertainment.  I doubt anything will happen between now and the end of the year, but the new year better start with each of these idiots gone.

DanKretchman

September 29th, 2014 at 10:24 AM ^

So many things that could have gone wrong Saturday did. 

 

I was against putting Shane in as the starter and he got abused behind our OL. 

I thought Devin should have started the second half. He didn't . When Shane dropped that second fumble I thought it was time for Devin to come in.

Devin not being in the game shows you how bad our OL really is. Devin does a nice job of stepping up and running when he needs to and of course we march down and score the second he comes back into the game.

No one went after that DL after Shane got popped. Terrible.

And we have 4 guys watching Shane get nailed on that play. Hill, Cole, Braden, and Miller...all not engaged with a defender. 

mgoBrad

September 29th, 2014 at 10:33 AM ^

Repeat after me: it does not matter. Mind you, a concussion is not a binary sort of thing. Brian injuries are sort of like a continuum, but I won't waste time explaining this. If you can't see the sheer weight of incompetence of the coach and the AD, laid out in a detailed but not even comprehensive manner in this post, I don't know what else to tell you.

HighSociety

September 29th, 2014 at 11:54 AM ^

If Shane had a concussion and was medically cleared then there is a major problem with the UM medical staff that needs to be corrected ASAP before more student athletes are put at risk.

If Shane had a concussion and was not medically cleared on the sidelines and there was an orchestrated attempt to say he was cleared after the fact then there needs to be an independent investigation done and multiple heads need to roll.

 

If Shane was never concussed and was medically cleared to return then this is all a mountain out of a molehill and Brady Hoke Hate Week needs to end.

If Shane was never concussed and never cleared but there was still a coverup to say he was cleared then the same investigation needs to be done but obviously the potential legal ramifications are not going to be as severe.

 

So yeah it does kind of matter if he was concussed or not.

gbdub

September 29th, 2014 at 10:39 AM ^

Jesus. This has been said a million times but IT DOESNT MATTER IF HE WS CONCUSSED OR NOT. The ONLY appropriate response to a hit like that is to sit the guy down IMMEDIATELY and perform a thorough check for concussion symptoms. Not doing so risks a second hit turning a 19 year old kid into a vegetable. It's in the NFL rules. It's in the NHL rules. IT'S IN THE NCA FOOTBALL RULES, and the rules were not followed.

HighSociety

September 29th, 2014 at 10:51 AM ^

so are you saying the medical staff's protocol is deficient and not thorough?

 

This is not like the Rich Rod situation vs USC where his QB was barfing all over the field and left in to throw a pass and then pulled later and eventually benched due to not passing the concussion test.

By clearing him the medical staff is saying he does not have a concussion.

matty blue

September 29th, 2014 at 10:58 AM ^

there is no way he was cleared by anyone.  not a chance.

picture this - he finally gets pulled, goes to the sideline, gets "checked out," the docs tell brady, "shane morris is ok to go back in."  brady goes "what?  he was hurt?" (he had no idea, you know).

fast forward, press conference:  "brady, why did morris go back in?" "well, he was cleared by our medical staff."  end of story, right?  NOPE.  that's because it didn't happen.

Davymac97.

September 29th, 2014 at 10:25 AM ^

Damn it,  Brian!  You got me fired up and mad as hell.  Thank you for writing this.

I hate standing back and watching the school and football team I love go to hell like this.  It's a hopeless feeling, I feel like we need to do something.  #BoycottMaryland

wile_e8

September 29th, 2014 at 10:25 AM ^

FYI I did go to my discrete math for pretty much the entire semester, but I don't think I actually learned anything. I somehow did great on the final anyways, and that was the last time I ever used anything I didn't learn in that class. So you didn't miss much.

Njia

September 29th, 2014 at 10:29 AM ^

I sent a letter to the President of the University expressing my extreme displeasure with the actions - or inactions - of the AD, the HC and their staffs.

I encourage all of you to do the same. It's one thing to vent on this site, and it's certainly cathartic to a point, but Mark Schlissel needs to hear from all of us that the Athletic Department is completely out of control and in desperate need of authoritative action. His is the only office left with the opportunity to find the appropriate remedy and enforce it.

EDIT: And, Brian, before I forget ... If you run for Regent, you have my unswerving support. I don't care if you registere as a Republicrat or Demicran. Hell, run as a Green for all I care. At least I will know that my vote was for a person who believes in what the University is meant to stand for and will do his level best to serve in those interests.