The Shane Morris Incident
For posterity I've clipped the video of the helmet to helmet hit and Michigan's actions after, plus the decision to insert him into the game after Gardner's helmet popped off.
The booing you hear in the background is fans demanding that Morris be removed, as it was even more obvious Morris was not right if you were looking at him for those 20 seconds uninterrupted. The only guy in the stadium who didn't know was Hoke.
Bluntly, anyone arguing that we shouldn't jump down Hoke's throat because of the slight possibility Morris was not concussed is an idiot.
September 28th, 2014 at 3:00 PM ^
Nuss got to Shane first and put an arm around him. Only then did Hoke go over and say anything, because he did not give a shit.
September 28th, 2014 at 3:08 PM ^
I'm headed for a probable firestorm, but I'll say it: I see parallels between where U-M stands today and where Penn State stood when the Sandusky stuff broke.
First, the obvious: They're very different issues, of course. PSU scarred kids emotionally for life. U-M, if this goes unchecked, risks scarring older kids physically for life.
Yet, here's why I can't escape the parallel: Paterno was the proud epitome of old-school values. I sincerely doubt that he ever intended to cover up child rape; he just, in a very intergenerational way, didn't understand why it required his immediate action. I am not saying that past generations would have been OK with those crimes, just that with each generation we have a better idea of the gravity of the situation and the need for immediate action. I don't think Paterno ever quite got that.
Hoke clearly is stubbornly old-school. He clearly pines for a day when people just played through injury. See his quotes about Gardner limping after OSU.
So I don't think he actually wanted to put a concussed S/A in the game, and I don't think he was cognitive unaware of the fact that Morris was stumbling around. I think he quite simply processed it as that Shane had "had his bell rung" (what a disturbing old euphemism) and just needed to play through it.
That doesn't quite explain putting him back in, but it's of a piece: If getting your bell rung requires stepping to the sidelines to get your bearings back, then a few plays later it should all be OK. I mean, that's the kind of toughness you want in your players, right?
I will be embarrassed for the University if they fall into the same sort of yes-manship that defined the culture at Penn State.
September 28th, 2014 at 3:22 PM ^
September 28th, 2014 at 4:02 PM ^
Of course they're very different offenses. I think I was pretty clear about that, but maybe the scarred emotionally/physically comparison was over the top. But the culture that allows them could easily develop along similar lines. Is that too nuanced a distinction?
I don't think that Hoke wants to do harm, and I want to better understand the mentality that allows him to act like he did yesterday. Comparisons to other out-of-control cultures don't imply that the misdeeds were comparable, just that we can learn from their enablement and avoid our own (despite the differing root cause).
EDIT: I think this distinction is too nuanced. I'd probably delete my OP if I could even though I think we can learn something from looking at dysfunctional cultures. It's just too emotionally charged, and understandably so, to try to draw a lesson about org. culture without sounding like I'm comparing the deeds.
September 28th, 2014 at 5:28 PM ^
No way. Hoke's decisions with Morris were made with only a few minutes, maybe just a few seconds, of time for deliberation. Penn State had years to weigh their options and reconsider their course of action. Not saying Hoke doesn't deserve the criticism, but there's a huge difference between the two situations.
September 28th, 2014 at 8:18 PM ^
Phil, best to just give up on this one. Nuanced or not :)
September 28th, 2014 at 3:44 PM ^
Please tell me that this is a joke. I feel terribly for Shane. He was put in an extremely unsafe position by an incompetent coach. But please don't equate this to a long-standing pattern of institutionalized sexual abuse.
Those aren't even on the same plane and it's uneducated to express that viewpoint.
September 28th, 2014 at 5:24 PM ^
Similarities and parallels don't mean the original poster thinks they are the same thing. I get what he's saying. Obviously the outcomes will be different, but the cultures are similar.
September 28th, 2014 at 2:46 PM ^
September 28th, 2014 at 2:47 PM ^
"The only guy in the stadium who didn't know was Hoke."
And that says it all, right there.
September 28th, 2014 at 4:12 PM ^
September 28th, 2014 at 2:48 PM ^
I've been off the Hoke bandwagon for a while. I'm now on the wagon that will hopefully run him out of town. I'm ashamed for him.
September 28th, 2014 at 2:48 PM ^
the 10 man punt coverage has been moved the back burner
it is sad - I don't want to root against hoke or Michigan, but player safety has to be a given.
Hoke is a good guy, but he is not a good coach.
I hope shane recovers back to 100%
September 28th, 2014 at 2:48 PM ^
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September 28th, 2014 at 3:36 PM ^
September 28th, 2014 at 4:09 PM ^
Me and almost everyone else around us was yelling to take him out. And we were sitting in the south end zone a ways away from what was going on and it was still very easy to see.
September 29th, 2014 at 12:29 AM ^
Even without the machismo factor, a concussed person is not exactly in a position to make rational decisions, or even be aware of them.
I got one on an opening KOR in HS and was successfully running plays in and out of the huddle, yet the next thing I knew after that KOR, the 1st quarter ended. If anyone asked me during the 1st Q if I was okay (and hell, maybe people did), I'm sure I would've said (and maybe dide) that I was fine.
September 28th, 2014 at 2:49 PM ^
Hoke endangered his student/athlete by either intentional neglect or complete incompetence - plain and simple. He should not be allowed to coach this team one more game.
September 28th, 2014 at 3:05 PM ^
if weis can get fired midseason, so can hoke. fire him now and get a change in leadership. @rutgers then home against penn state then a bye. we would have a full month to at least try and salvage the final 5 BIG games; including msu and osu.
watching this tire fire continue to rage on would be insane.
September 28th, 2014 at 2:52 PM ^
Yesterday was a culmination of lot of bad and even more bad happened. Anything that could go wrong seemingly did. Morris gets his shit rocked, Gardner comes in FINALLY, and has his fucking helmet come off. What are the odds that little scenario happens? Well, for Michigan, those odds seemed pretty good yesterday. So the backup is of course no where near ready and instead of calling a timeout, Morris goes back in. Holy hell. Again, everything bad happened and even as Hoke is already under the microscope, all of the shitty bad that happened yesterday was amplified because what's already occuring with this terrible football program. It was an odd day and I wasn't even there.
September 28th, 2014 at 2:50 PM ^
September 28th, 2014 at 2:55 PM ^
Brian,
Thanks for setting the record straight. It always amazes how some of Hoke's defenders have come out of the woodwork to try and defend the indefensible!
September 28th, 2014 at 2:54 PM ^
September 28th, 2014 at 2:57 PM ^
September 28th, 2014 at 2:57 PM ^
This was Michigan, for God's sake!
September 28th, 2014 at 3:01 PM ^
On the 2nd video, after they put Shane back in there because Gardner's helmet popped off... The official sees Shane wobbling to stand up and he is thinking "WTF is this guy doing in the game?"
So the Ref holds up play and you can see him shout to Hoke "Do you want a Time Out".
Camera cuts to Hoke and he yells something back and then motions for the ref to start the play and roll clock.
For Hoke to deny that he knew anything about Shane's condition after the game is a flat out lie. The video proves that Hoke is lying. It was a despicable action and hopefully he is either fired or steps down tomorrow.
Hoke put his own selfishness in front of a player's health.
"I can only speak for me" -- yes Coach that is exactly the problem.
September 28th, 2014 at 3:06 PM ^
September 28th, 2014 at 4:31 PM ^
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you can pass a concussion test in the first few minutes after the incident in question. It takes a little time to adequately assess the player.
September 28th, 2014 at 4:39 PM ^
September 28th, 2014 at 5:41 PM ^
I can attest to this from personal experience. I've suffered four serious concussions earlier in my life; in each instance, I did not lose consciousness, nor did I have any trouble getting to my feet. I was never dizzy, had no trouble speaking, and was aware immediately after each incident what had just happened.
However, within 15 minutes or so after each blow to my noggin, I began to experience significant short-term memory problems, to the extent that in each case I had no memory of what had just happened within 30 minutes or so after the event. One of my concussions was severe enough that I had no memories of buying the house we had recently moved into.
Eventually, thank God, the memory issues dissipated within 12 hours or so, but to your point—concussion symptoms don't necessarily manifest themselves in the first few minutes.
September 28th, 2014 at 5:58 PM ^
September 28th, 2014 at 3:10 PM ^
September 28th, 2014 at 4:14 PM ^
but what was Bellomy doing not knowing where his helmet is? Gardner is seemingly injured on some level, Morris was getting dinged up and you don't even know where your gear is to go in the game?
I guess Hoke may be responsible on some level but Russ: cumong man
September 28th, 2014 at 4:56 PM ^
September 28th, 2014 at 5:44 PM ^
I guess I disagree. I can't believe that it isn't drilled into these kids to know where their helmets are at all times, especially QBs when one of their own has gotten dinged up.
September 28th, 2014 at 8:31 PM ^
I would assume you're going to get chewed out for that one from Pee Wee all the way through the NFL. Total brain fart by Bellomy in my opinion - I guess when you rarely ever play you can get complacent in that, but it seems like this is as good a time as in to be ready to go in
September 28th, 2014 at 6:03 PM ^
I agree with you to an extent, but I think there's also a chance this speaks to the overall culture Hoke has instilled in the program. Are mental lapses and general lack of attention to detail, such that backups don't even keep track of their things, that prevalent? I played high school football for a couple coaches of whom I'd have been terrified to be caught not ready to enter the game at a moment's notice. I served in the Army and I partially credit that mindset for preparing me for basic traning and initial junior enlisted life, where such lack of attention to detail is simply not tolerated.
September 28th, 2014 at 8:10 PM ^
As someone pointed out on another thread, Bellomy (normally #3 QB) is signalling plays which has been his main job on game days, apparently wearing a headset. Not sure who is responsible for keeping his helmet ready for him.
Not making excuses, but it is highly unusual that the 2 QBs ahead of him would go down within a couple of plays of each other while still maintaining possession of the ball. Presumably, at the next change of possession he would be relieved of his signalling duties, gotten his helmet, and began warming up.
You would like to think that great coaching would involve preparing for every such contingency, but the reality is, it is likely to happen anywhere. For those who haven't been, the sideline is a hectic place, and you don't get the view or perspective that people in the stands or watching on TV do. There is a good reason there are coaches in the pressbox.
In this case, they should have called on of the two remaining time outs, or #4 QB should have been ready and sent in.
Two unfortunate over-reactions we might see from this incident?
1. They'll put numbers back on the helmets [NOT in favor, unless the is in back, rather than the sides].
2. Will burn timeouts every time there is the slightest confusion,etc. making clock management even more difficult.
September 28th, 2014 at 4:34 PM ^
That's really the damning part of the whole incident. That the official looks at Morris and basically suggests Hoke use a timeout and Hoke doesn't... None of Hoke's excuses are valid...
September 28th, 2014 at 3:00 PM ^
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September 28th, 2014 at 3:00 PM ^
September 28th, 2014 at 3:06 PM ^
Fred Flintstone and the Domino's Pizza Pimp got fat while this football program starved... And this is the result: The borderline beheading of our beloved 5* quarterback.
I've given too much of my time and tuition dollars to sit back and accept this; Hoke better out by the end of the week.
September 28th, 2014 at 3:02 PM ^
Michigan can't trot Hoke out there next week, simply cannot. If they do they'd be endorsing this kind of behavior.
September 28th, 2014 at 4:15 PM ^
Sorry to rain on the parade, but Hoke almost certainly will be the coach trotting onto the field next week
September 29th, 2014 at 12:01 AM ^
Heck, the rest of the season and the way Brandon is, next year too. He'll keep Hoke just to show those pissant dissenters who is boss.
September 28th, 2014 at 3:03 PM ^
This was shameful.
September 28th, 2014 at 3:04 PM ^
I really appreciated BronxBlue's take on this. You should read his whole column, but here's the part relevant to this discussion.
"(I'll leave claims of Morris possibly being concussed and still on the field for those with more information, because I wasn't there and we've seen many players take shots and bounce back up. Not to play devil's advocate, but it looked as much like Morris had the wind knocked out of him by that hit than he was concussed, and the fact he was taken out 2 plays later felt like a coaching staff realizing something more was up than a hit. Putting him in a couple of plays later for that handoff is obviously bad, and his fumbling with a response in the postgame didn't help anything. [EDIT] That said, Brady Hoke is many things, but it takes a pretty extreme jump in logic [admittedly, one that a certain subset of the fanbase is dying to make] to claim that he would knowingly endanger the health of one of his players in a game. But as more information comes out, that could obviously change the story. I'm just wary of the reactionary tone that took over immediately following the game, especially by [mostly] uninvolved third parties)."
(Sorry I haven't learned to blockquote yet)
September 28th, 2014 at 3:31 PM ^
Perhaps more articulate than I have put it. But I agree completely.
That's not to say we can't jump down Hoke's throat, just that the way this is being talked about seems to be jumping to conclusions.
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September 28th, 2014 at 3:37 PM ^
I wrote this sticky a while back that should help with blockquoting and whatnot.
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