The Team
1/11/2011 – Brady Hoke 1, Internet 0 – 0-0
I follow a blog called "Fund My Mutual Fund." The title should be taken literally: the guy running the blog wants you to pledge money so that he can get a mutual fund based on his stock picking method off the ground. He's done amazingly well on a publicly-tracked simulator, has sufficient pledges to break even, and is in the process of getting SEC approval after establishing a years-long track record. He's good.
He struggles when his method (technical analysis) is battered by external events that cause the stock market to veer from a well-established logical way of doing things, which is happening a lot lately thanks to Ben Bernanke. He responds to these events by publicly reminding himself the underlying fundamentals have changed, that logic means one thing when you're talking about five years and another when you're talking about five days and that even if the market goes up for stupid reasons it's going up. Here's one from this morning. He also lacerates the country's financial honchos in sarcasm-laden posts that get a little tiresome the tenth time you read essentially the same thing. He went to Michigan, too. He might be my Tyler Durden, or maybe I'm his.
A couple weeks ago I proclaimed there was a "zero point zero" percent chance that Brady Hoke was named Michigan's head coach because I assumed Hoke's flimsy resume was only acceptable to people who really truly believe that Michigan Men are Michigan Men who make other Michigan Men, who in turn create more Michigan Men until you enter a warehouse and it's like that terrible Will Smith movie with winged helmets.
My underlying assumption was that David Brandon was a cold-hearted corporatist who would tell someone to assemble a powerpoint about head coaching candidates and take the Michigan Man stuff as merely a relevant bullet point. I was wrong. Brandon is king of the Michigan Men, and my predictive performance has lagged the market.
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Not much of consequence was said at yesterday's press conference to introduce Brady Hoke—that is the way of things—but at the very end Dave Brandon started pointing and became emphatic and the world rearranged itself:
That's the athletic director version of Kurt Wermers saying "not my kind of crowd." Rich Rodriguez never had a chance after the Ohio State game. Why David Brandon decided to go on with a dog and pony show even he admits was pointless should be a frustrating mystery, but it's not. People had to be placated. This program will eat itself alive if given half a chance.
So maybe Brady Hoke is the best choice. This organ transplant will not be rejected. Given time and an upperclass quarterback or two and a defensive staff that's not utterly clueless, Brady Hoke will quickly prove himself to be the one true Notriguez. He'll quickly improve the program and get Michigan back to being Michigan.
But I think the way this went down proves that all the things rivals say about Michigan are true. This is an unbelievably arrogant program convinced its past glories are greater and more recent than they are, certain outsiders have nothing to teach it. We will enter bowl games against opponents that say "boy, that Michigan just lines up and comes after you," and we probably won't win many of them. We never have, and trying to out-execute Alabama or Oregon seems like a tall order these days.
I hoped we could be block-M Michigan without that, that we could have an exciting, modern offense that pumped out Michigan Men and maybe shredded Oklahoma for 48 points in a BCS game. I hoped we could reboot the program, keeping the things we treasure about it but maybe leaving the dismal bowl record and recent inability to compete with Ohio State behind. For a lot of reasons we can't. We are who we are.
So, no, I'm not super happy. On the field I was done with Lloyd Carr, done with punting from the 34 and running the same damn zone stretch thirty times a game, done with the premise that it's only the players who have to execute on gameday. To me, getting back to being Michigan means going 9-3 and losing to Jim Tressel. I remember thinking "this is the year" every year growing up, expecting great things literally every season until Rodriguez showed up and Mallett transferred. I don't think that now, and I can't imagine feeling like that in the future. Sometimes having an identity feels like having a ceiling.
Non-Bullets Of Explanation
That said and true, this also. On the other hand, the past is not destiny. Jon Chait provides the best possible perspective:
Selecting a coach is a lot like selecting a recruit. The resume is the equivalent of a recruiting ranking. With recruits, a high ranking correlates with success, but a correlation is only probability, not certainty. Sometimes high-ranking recruits flame out, and sometimes sleeper recruits turn into stars.
While I'm down on the hire except insofar as it appears to be the only one that would get institutional support, Hoke could surprise people. He's in a great spot to immediately improve a team that returns damn near everyone and should profit from that momentum. Rich Rodriguez was always pushing uphill; Hoke has a much easier path to positive attention.
I didn't want to say this during the many fire-Rodriguez discussions because it seemed like the most cynical thing imaginable, but cutting Rodriguez loose right now sets the new guy up to look like 2006 Ron English after he replaced Jim Herrmann and inherited Woodley/Branch/Hall/Harris: a freaking genius. We'd find out during The Horror that he was not, but for a year the guy was untouchable. Hoke is going to get all the rope left over from the Rodriguez era and then some.
So, yes, the internet has overreacted.
I will swear now. The inbox is overflowing with pleas of varying levels of politeness to get behind Hoke, stop being so negative, etc. If you phrased it nicely, I appreciate the sentiment and the too-generous belief that I have any influence over the success or failure of Michigan's head coach. I'm not going to change my opinion overnight, however, and this remains a No Sugarcoat zone. No sugarcoat. I can promise that I'll go into the Hoke era looking for reasons he'll work out (you know, on-field reasons, not "Brady Hoke is the best human" stuff), if only because of human nature. His flexibility with Nate Davis and successful deployment of Rocky Long as a 3-3-5 DC gives me hope he's not a stick in the mud, and I'm sure Craig Ross is mailing him the Romer paper as we speak.
If you called me a hypocrite for not liking the hire when I didn't like the three years of shit Rich Rodriguez had to wade through when I haven't said one negative thing about Hoke that does not boil down to "does not have a thrilling resume," please fuck off and die. Especially people complaining about how constantly negative I am when I spent the last three years as the last guy on to die on Rodriguez Hill, as a commenter whose name I can't remember aptly put it. Double especially for people complaining like that a week after calling Rodriguez a "hillbilly" because "only hillbillies leave their alma mater."
What I am negative about is the Carr-era players—like the hillbilly guy above—whose loyalty to the program stops at the water's edge. Aside from one recent Harlan Huckleby outburst, the Bo guys either shut their traps or tried in vain to support the head coach at the University of Michigan. But I've made that point over and over again. (Mike "I support the head coach x1000" Hart is an obvious exception to this and should have been the model for his teammates.) The culture that made the last three years happen is petty and arrogant and utterly fails to live up to the Michigan Man ideal it pretends to espouse, and though I'm about a day from shutting up about it because even I'm tired of it I'm not backing off.
This will be fun. I hope everyone loves Jason Whitlock columns, because we're about to get a boatload of them. As Over The Pylon points out:
In a panicked desperate move, the administration at BSU freaked out and hired an in house coordinator to quiet the fans and hopefully maintain the momentum that was building. Michigan did much the same, only the “in house” became “Michigan experience” and the “maintain momentum” became “rebuild the program”. In BSU’s case, the failsafe went 6-18. Let’s hope for UM’s, Brady’s and everyone associated with the Wolverines’ sanity that the performance isn’t also duplicated, lest they become the target of one particular columnist with a national audience, a significantly close connection to the head coach, and a nicely sized ax that could always use some grinding.
Guh. Win, Brady, or we'll all suffer. Meanwhile, if you'd like a condescending lecture Dan Wetzel has you covered.
Carty on the dude. You can hate on Carty if you want but this is probably more interesting than anything that's been written about him so far:
The thing that separated Brady Hoke from most assistant coaches under Lloyd Carr was the confidence to be the same guy in a media interview as he was when the cameras were off. Michigan assistants never talked much in those days, and when they did, most of them were obviously concerned about saying something that would be met with disapproval by their boss.
Hoke wasn't very polished or made-for-television, something he poked fun at himself. He laughed a lot more than the other assistants did, at least in public. When he did do interviews, he asked more questions than most assistants and seemed genuinely interested in how reporters did their jobs. When a sensitive topic came up, he'd simply chuckle and say, "You know I'm not going to talk about that." He didn't shy away from criticizing players or performances when he had to. I don't ever remember him asking to go off the record or take back something he said, both common practices with assistant coaches at Michigan and elsewhere.
There are a couple more paragraphs to go along with the Ann Arbor News's entire republished archive of Hokemania.
Search fiasco: somehow still growing. I still think Jim Harbaugh was supposed to be Michigan's next head coach before he backed out sometime after it became clear the NFL wanted him badly, thus resulting in the month-long post-OSU limbo and panicked search, but seriously if Dave Brandon means what he says about not offering Miles the job he traded the opportunity to not obliterate Michigan's chances with a few key recruits for some PR. If this was going to be the result Hoke should have been hired two seconds after Rodriguez went out the door—there were no serious overtures made towards anyone else except maybe Pat Fitzgerald.
Elsewhere, Or The Best In Overreaction
My verdict on the Hoke hire depends somewhat on my view of the Lloyd Carr era. I liked Carr as a coach and as a representative of the University, but I wasn’t upset when he retired in large part because he had not done a good job of surrounding himself with top-notch coaches. It’s in this respect that he is no Bo. Bo Schembechler created modern Michigan football and one aspect of his greatness was that his coaching tree was excellent. Carr, on the other hand, doesn’t have a coaching tree to speak of. Thus, the two obvious candidates for Michigan’s head coaching position were Jim Harbaugh – a Bo quarterback whom Carr declined to hire when he was looking for a quarterback coach – and Les Miles – a Bo lineman/assistant whom Carr reputedly did not want as his replacement in 2007. If Dave Brandon’s much-discussed Process was designed to bring back a Michigan Man from Bo’s lineage, then that would have been fine because hiring a Bo protege can be done on merit. The fact that the Process produced the one sickly branch from the Carr tree is the reason why Hoke’s hire has been greeted by articles with titles like "Advice for the Despondent."
This team spent the last three years building something, and I spent the last three years not simply waiting for future glory but anticipating it. Times were certainly tough, but I could still see the payoff at the end. The top ten offense paired with what I still believe could have been a fast, havoc wreaking defense with a couple more years of experience and depth--and probably a new coordinator. It wasn't always easy to watch the games, and the losing streaks against rivals always hurt, but I could take the taunts and laughter from other teams fans because I believed. That belief wasn't ever there under Lloyd. It was always just an ominous feeling that the other shoe was about to drop.
Another bit was not happy after the hire, either, focusing mostly on the Les Miles discussion that does not and never will end up being an offer.
I have no idea how I got to Hashiell Dammit, but if you reference Straight Bangin' in your post well, that's old school:
You know it‘s a bad decision when one’s first reaction to the news is to draw easy comparisons between Michigan football and the Big 3 Automakers decline and to scramble to the Wikipedia page for the Romanovs to confirm that yes, this moment fits perfectly within the arc of a decaying empire. The emptiness that follows, however, is a bitch.
For its part, Straight Bangin' is "paralyzed." That's probably for the best.
Touch the Banner surveys the team and attempts to find out who fits. Slot receivers have to be saying "WTF" to themselves. HSR wants Michigan Replay back, but I don't think that had anything to do with Rodriguez. IIRC the producer lost his job with the IMG switchover and owned the rights to the name and possibly the music. This totally happened 110 years ago.
January 13th, 2011 at 3:50 PM ^
Am I the only one who caught the sly Ke$ha reference? Yes? Ok, I'll go back to watching everyone argue some more.
January 13th, 2011 at 3:50 PM ^
Brady Hoke is NOT Lloyd Carr.
January 13th, 2011 at 3:51 PM ^
A decent kicker would've saved RR's job
January 13th, 2011 at 3:55 PM ^
does this mean that brian thinks 9-3 is "UNACcEPTABle!!!!11!3!##!"
January 13th, 2011 at 3:56 PM ^
Time to get to work.
January 13th, 2011 at 4:03 PM ^
Brian doesn't appear to see it, and Maize n' Brew doesn't, and neither do some of the other people who are utterly heartbroken about Rodriguez's demise, but all these people are mourning a fantasy and an expectation, not the failure of a regime. Take this quote from Maize n' Brew:
It wasn't always easy to watch the games, and the losing streaks against rivals always hurt, but I could take the taunts and laughter from other teams fans because I believed. That belief wasn't ever there under Lloyd. It was always just an ominous feeling that the other shoe was about to drop.
To me, this is so entirely delusional it's hard for me to understand it. You always maintained your belief with Rodriguez, even after he found lightning in a botttle in Denard Robinson, racked up 500 yards a game, and still left us utterly embarrased by OSU for three years in a row, yet you always felt dread regarding Lloyd Carr and his career average of over nine wins a year? I know that Lloyd was owned by Tressel, and I know he wasn't quite the same coach by the end of his career, but if you had more belief in Rodriguez than in Carr you somehow managed to keep the vision of White and Slaton in your head even when it was obvious that that wasn't happening in Ann Arbor.
You know what happened to me the last three years? I got tired, I got used to Michigan losing. No matter how bad the season was under Lloyd, I never went into a big game without thinking that UM would definitely find a way to pull things out. Sometimes I'd end up crushed - more often than not once Tressel came into town. I was crushed because it didn't seem right. I wasn't crushed when UM lost to MSU the last couple years, wasn't heartbroken and shaking my fist at an uncaring universe when we were utterly demolished by OSU, let alone by Wisconsin and Iowa, under Rodriguez. I'd come to expect it. I no longer have the notion that Michigan should win and at the very least has a fucking chance to. It's immensely sad for me to admit that.
You experienced levels of belief and optimism with Rodriguez, even after three years, that you never knew under Carr? For the life of me, I simply can't understand that.
Finally, as to Brian's bitterness toward the way Rodriguez was treated here - I think there's something to this. But I also think Rodriguez likely bears some responsibility, and it's somewhat naive to treat him as a blameless, saintly soul who came with his heart in his hand only to have it thrown on the ground and kicked by the minions of Lloyd Carr. Rodriguez did not come here to share his wisdom and teach the old guard something - he came here to remake the program entirely, to make it utterly his own. From the start, Rodriguez had the attitude, and perhaps the mandate from Bill Martin, that this was a radical readjustment that was not beholden to the past at all. From day one and through his entire three years. there were frequently intimations in Rodriguez's press conferences that he inherited a toxic product, that the players simply weren't up to the challenge, that the methods he encountered when he got here were outdated and futile. And you know what, there was a lot of truth to those statements, and any intelligent follower of the program could see it. But it's not his fucking place as the coach to point those things out. It's up to him to take the responsibility and try to protect his team and the program even when there's little more he could do as a coach. Finally, though I'm no insider and don't know exactly what happened in Schembechler Hall when Rodriguez was here, reading things such as Greg Harden being marginalized for the past three years makes you wonder how much Rodriguez may have unnecessariy swept out the old in an attempt to remake the program in his own image.
Now, I think that overall Rodriguez is a good man who cares about his players, as well as a brilliant offensive coach who will find success again in college football. But I think it's ridiculous to pretend that he was utterly blameless in his three years in Ann Arbor from a political standpoint (it's even sillier to pretend that "factions" as opposed to "defensive staff" are the reason that he's no longer with the team.) But to act like he was the high point of the Michigan program is to twist fantasy and reality to the point that I cant even begin to understand the sentiment.
January 13th, 2011 at 4:19 PM ^
A very smart historian once wrote something along the lines of "people live their lives, process their experiences, through stories" as a way of explaining why facts are not enough to explain what has occurred in the past, you also have to understand the stories that people at the time told about the facts that surrounded them.
I think what you're seeing here are lamentations for the collapse of stories that people have used to organize their thoughts about M football for the past three years. A story that the stuggles before us are merely prelude, that greatness is sure to come. That's certainly not the only story out there about the last three years, as we all know, but the RR regime would be an excellent case study of how people can witness many of the same events and understand them in completely different ways because of the stories within which they embed them.
January 13th, 2011 at 4:48 PM ^
I definitely think it would be a very interesting study and would happily submit as a patient to be studied. What my point has been since Hoke has been hired is that people need to give the Rodriguez supporters (like myself) some time to "heal" and switch mental gears. And posts like Brabbs's post do not help us do it. They use personally offensive words like "silly" and "ridiculous" and "dumb" and "delusional" etc. to argue their points. All that does is further alienate people, having the exact opposite effect of what I presume to be an attempt to rally the fanbase.
January 13th, 2011 at 4:20 PM ^
Very well stated. This is the most trenchant and resonant point and something that I agree with wholeheartedly:
it's even sillier to pretend that "factions" as opposed to "defensive staff" are the reason that he's no longer with the team.
January 13th, 2011 at 5:24 PM ^
Well done.
January 14th, 2011 at 12:50 AM ^
If wanting to "suffer" through 9 - 3 seasons and being competitive in all our games is wrong I don't want to be right!
January 14th, 2011 at 2:24 PM ^
Put this post in bronze.
January 13th, 2011 at 4:11 PM ^
I'm not debating you on most of those points, but I don't think DB was channeling Wermers when he gave the "this is about the players" speech, but his old coach Bo. What I mean is that this wasn't meant as a dig against Rodriguez, but a glimpse into the ultimate reason for hiring Hoke.
Watch his facial expressions as compared to the "Next Governor of Michigan" persona Brandon normally conveys. This is Brandon repeating what Bo said. This is evidence of your "he is the ultimate 'Michigan Man' man" comment, but not that he's a "Notriguez" on the Maize-to-Blue spectrum that divided this fanbase.
So much of this press conference was pomp, which I guess it has to be. Much of the pomp was staged not for the RR supporters but the crowd that was begging for "Notriguez." Since we weren't with the majority, it's going to be up to us to recognize a bone thrown from a policy shift. But that end statement wasn't a bone. That was a guy repeating something a father figure taught him, and I know this because I'm known to open my mouth from time to time and say something very un-Seth because Dad said it, and when I do that I have that same look of "I don't have any way to back this up but I'm not going to argue it so I'd better be emphatic." Some guys do that kind of arguing all the time because they can't conceptualize themselves ever being wrong, but we all do it a little and when smart guys do it it's because something is hard-wired.
This is a part of Brandon that we underestimated: he believes that Michigan's program is based on this being the place that serves its players, and that being that kind of program will draw the right players here. This isn't something one side or the other owns. When you break it down, Michigan is Block M MICHIGAN because we can offer Michigan degrees, and only a few other schools in the country will have the top facilities and top competitive atmosphere and big stadium AND offer one of those degrees.
My point is this isn't Brandon being snarky, but Brandon being sincere. This is why he really picked Hoke, and we should at least be relieved that this decision came from some conceptual basis for the program that he finds important, not partisanship. Wermers, on the other hand, was all partisan. It doesn't make it right, but it's something we can respect.
January 13th, 2011 at 7:05 PM ^
... I may not agree with Brian, but even when I don't his points are scarily well-written and thought provoking.
And one other thing:
It's his blog.
So those who don't agree, or complain about the servers, or who offer their one sentence "Fire Brandon" stuff, I have two thoughts:
1. Contribute to Beveled Guilt you cheap bastard.
2. Set up your own blog you lazy prick.
And when you do, you will hear the following:
January 13th, 2011 at 4:31 PM ^
Well said, Brian.
I feel exactly the same way about Rodriguez and the way his tenure played out, so thanks for not backing down. I think the quote from "Maize and Brew" is perfect. Those were my thoughts everytime we began another season with Lloyd Carr, probably the same way Penn State fans feel every season they start with Paterno. One day I will stop thinking about what might have been had Denard and Rodriguez had another year or two together, but today won't be that day.
To everyone who says to "stop whining", I say "no". As a fan and alumni of the school, I have a right to express my thoughts and feelings when I believe our school has not been represented appropriately by its administration. This is one of those times.
I hope Hoke is his own man, and not some reincarnated version of Carr. I wish him the best and hope he lives up to everyone's expectations, and proves me wrong.
January 13th, 2011 at 4:57 PM ^
If Rich Rodriguez was still our football coach, I would've been counting the days to kickoff 2011 with great anticipation. With Hoke, it seems like there is no point in getting excited, the future appears set.
January 13th, 2011 at 4:33 PM ^
Hoke's overall W-L record, for me, matters less than his records in the years before he "stepped up" to different programs. He (1) started with lesser teams/talent, (2) built them up, (3) got noticed & (4) moved on. But at UM, if logic serves, he's (1) inheriting talent that he could only dream about at BSU/SDSU, (2) should be able to improve the D (build the team), (3) get noticed, and then (4) NOT GO ANYWHERE. If it works out, that sounds pretty good, no?
With Harbaugh, it would've been 1-3 and then GTFO.
January 13th, 2011 at 4:36 PM ^
...is listening to Mike Valenti and realizing he has a valid point, which ultimately is the same thing Brian is getting at. We may be getting ourselves stuck in a nice happy rut.
I've stated on another thread my reasons why I thought a change in guard was in order after Carr (Carr did not fully utilize the talent we had) and what I hoped for with Rodriguez (leverage the brand to turn us into what we could be). We took a risk and it backfired. I had hoped that we would take a risk again.
I think this is where the comparison between Hoke and Tressell becomes null. Tressell was a tremendous risk for TSIO. Yeah he had I-AA titles bursting out of his little sweatervest but no one was sure it would translate, especially the Big Ten. Then, he comes out at that basketball game and makes what, at least many of the Michigan people I know feel, was a ridiculous claim that they would come into Ann Arbor and win in his first crack at us. Then, he came in and delivered. The common theme here is risk taking.
If there is one thing Brady Hoke has been labeled consistently is "safe". And this is ulitmately where I fear we will stall. I want so badly to be wrong. I want so badly for this to turn into our Tressell. The man who turns us into the prominent power we should be. However, when considering the pedigree, it doesn't seem likely. And forgive those of us who are supportive but skeptical but history is all we have to go on right now.
We took our one and apparently only risk and threw up our arms and said "Well, that sucked. I'd rather go back to Lloyd's days than this", something I personally said after the 1st year of Rich Rod. As we navigated this season and it became more and more apparent that RRod probably wouldn't survive, my tone actually began to change because as I looked forward I realized that Lloyd was not what I wanted. We were Michigan dammit. We were sure as hell should be capable of better than what Rich Rod was giving us and we should be capable of more than Lloyd gave us in his waning years. It is why I publicly proclaimed my manlove for the idea of Jon Gruden on this board. I was thinking of what he could do with us.
So, that's where I stand: Supportive but skeptical.
Go Hoke and as always Go Blue!
January 13th, 2011 at 6:14 PM ^
January 13th, 2011 at 6:31 PM ^
I'm pretty sure Tressell didn't say they would win, rather that the fans would be proud of the football team in x amount of days in Ann Arbor. One can infer that he meant they would win but he didn't come out with a Harbaugh style guarantee of winning.
January 13th, 2011 at 8:57 PM ^
to think that Tressel just got lucky with what he said that night at the OSU basketball game. Sure he came out and insinuated something to the tune of he will always remember the rivalry and they will beat UM in the coming years. 3 coaches later and an 1-8?? record, here we stand. I am not the highest on the hoke hire and I really want him to come out and say that we are going to focus on National Championships, but I will love this guy if he BEATS OSU. I just cannot stand those fans and that team.
January 13th, 2011 at 9:27 PM ^
Funkywolve you are probably right. Isn't it amazing how we remember history based on the context? They won therefore in my head he gauranteed a victory....
Totally agree with you bdneely. Beating the buckeyes will go a looong way to keeping Hoke alive....wait, did I just type that? I think I did.
Nija, you don't mean to sound harsh? Cuz you kinda don't sound all that sorry ;-) I'm not a Valenti slappy by any means. However, his comments that this was not a national search and we are going to slip back into the old ways are exactly what Brian expesses concern over and I agree with it. Of course, it is incredibly depressing when I agree with Valenti, hence the title of my post.
January 14th, 2011 at 9:16 AM ^
January 13th, 2011 at 4:42 PM ^
Brian, you must be the most optimistic guy in the universe, because it certainly appeared to many of us that each year we saw light at the end of the tunnel we were hit by the on-coming train. As for waiting for "the other shoe to drop", that became the inevitable curse of the past two, B1G seasons, particularly against teams that had, you know, a defense. Double if they had an offense with linemen bigger than the average Girl Scout.
I have told friends that while I'm not thrilled by the hire, and I absolutely hate the "process" to which Brandon professes he was beholden, I'm not going to hate on either of them. Hoke is already in a difficult-enough position, forced to bring a team back to a tradition of winning. How refreshing it would be if we were all back to a point where we were bitching because we'd "only" won 9 games, instead of epic meltdown because we'd lost 9!
And, you heard Brandon's speech -- he expects to win championships, not just a bunch of games. I doubt, then, that being perpetually at 9-3, with a 10% winning percentage against tOSU is going to fly, either.
Finally, in what alternate universe have you been living that doesn't know its been since 2003 that we had Big 10 Championship rings to bestow on our players, sweatshirts for Christmas and hats for our heads? That certainly wasn't Rodriguez's fault, entirely, but he couldn't beat Iowa, Penn State, or MSU in three years. While I genuinely appreciated what he was trying to do, and I absolutely despise the so-called "Michigan Men" who worked their asses off from Day 1 to get him fired before he'd even set foot on campus, that kind of performance is on him - alone. He had to be held to account for that kind of pathetic display, and Brandon did it.
January 13th, 2011 at 5:17 PM ^
And, you heard Brandon's speech -- he expects to win championships, not just a bunch of games. I doubt, then, that being perpetually at 9-3, with a 10% winning percentage against tOSU is going to fly, either.
History doesn't bear this out. We might grumble and gripe about no conference championships and 9-3 seasons, but we don't fire coaches over it.
For better or for worse, Brandon has hitched his wagon to Brady Hoke. If Hoke crashes and burns, then Brandon won't be far behind. If Hoke is able to manage more success than Rich Rodriguez did while still falling short of getting us back to perennial BIg 10 champions status, I think Brandon keeps giviing him rope, because it's his rope too.
January 13th, 2011 at 5:33 PM ^
neither do night games but things change, well as this coaching search has shown not everything changes
January 13th, 2011 at 5:22 PM ^
Your subject line is very intriguing . . . Has anyone actually had s-x while running? If so, link?
/kidding
January 13th, 2011 at 6:03 PM ^
January 13th, 2011 at 6:28 PM ^
2003 was the last outright big ten championship. 2004 was the last time UM can say they were big ten champions.
January 13th, 2011 at 4:48 PM ^
Well, I too was skpetical that we would hire Brady Hoke. But, he's a heckuva coach to have gone 30-19 in his last four years at perenial last place programs. Heck, you could probably even make a decent case that competing in this season's MWC was a tougher chore than competing in the 2006 and 2007 Big East. Here's hoping Brady can win big with Denard and then Devin the way he won at BSU and SDSU when he good QBs at his disposal.
But, whatever.
I'm here to come clean on a bet. I said when his name first got brought up that Hoke would never get hired here. So much so that I offered to host an MGoBlog tailgate before the first game next year.
I welcome our new Brady Hoke Overload. The qeustion is when and where are we toasting this new era? As promised, its on my dime.
(unless i lose all my dimes during March Madness, lol)
GO BLUE, GO BRADY, BEAT WESTERN
January 13th, 2011 at 5:19 PM ^
jamiemac loses money at the sports book? You're putting us on right?
January 13th, 2011 at 5:39 PM ^
Seriously,
I love Lloyd, loved Bo, loved the Michigan I grew up watching. But so help me God if BH becomes a replica of a bygone era of college football I will be beyond discourged and it will be a painful existence... Michigan and Michigan football is stamped on my goddamn heart. I will never stop supporting this team or going to games or being a fan. Ever. But I am D.O.N.E. with offenses that grow moss and teams that go 9-3 but "win a share of the B1G." I want adapability, innovation. I want a dynamic team. Iowa and Wisconsin and whoeverfuckingelse who play MANBALL and Michigan offense circa 68-07 have won exactly how many MNCs in the past two decades? 9-3 every year and the occasional 10 or 11 win season was great under Lloyd but I want National Championships Mythical or not.
3 yards and a cloud of dust is manly...sure. So is dropping 45 points on the world and bitchslapping the SEC. "Basketball on Grass" and "rock solid defense" are not mutually exclusive. See: Auburn this year, TCU this year, LSU most years, Florida in their MNC years, Alabama 09, etc. etc. etc. etc.
I am fully behind the program and Hoke but I will be fully pissed off if we return to boring, bland, slow.
Label this post Michigan Arrogance if you want but I don't care. Why do you even line up and play the games if you don't expect to win them all? Leaders and Best and Champions of the West should stand for a hell of a lot more than the B1G championship. We have every right as one of the greatest universities on the planet to expect the best.
January 13th, 2011 at 5:00 PM ^
No homo, as guys say here sometime. But Brian encapsulates my feelings almost peerfectly. I think it's great that Brian is able to say "I was wrong" and move on. I completely drank the RR koolaid and am not optimistic about our ceiling for the future, much like Brian. Carr had to go, and RR had to go. But the arrogance and hubris at Michigan are recognized and resented elsewhere, and this whole thing could spiral further down, a la ND. Sure, I hope Brady Hoke and Michigan return to winning ways. But there are also lots of questions in my mind.
January 13th, 2011 at 5:00 PM ^
OK. Tressel certainly wasn't Ohio States number one choice coming from a D2 school, which was something that ohio state was deffinitely NOT excited about. Pete Carroll had little to no college experience and was just coming off getting fired from the NFL. Stoops was relatively unknown at first. Oh yeahh.. Chiznik was 2-10 with Iowa state a few years ago now. And Im pretty sure I saw him on ESPN raising a BCS trophy this week. Point is let's stop discussing where he came from, whether or not he's the first pick, the guy we wanted and just get to supporting our coach. If your a true Michigan fan, your not going to be holding your head down low, not expecting this year to be the year. You support your team and look forward to what we can accomplish. Stop with all this horrible season foreshadowing nonsense.
January 13th, 2011 at 5:04 PM ^
January 13th, 2011 at 8:35 PM ^
Amen. Pointing out that Hoke wouldn't even be considered if he wasn't a "Michigan Man" - whatever that means - hardly makes one some sort of traitor. The simple fact is that by any other metric and criteria, Brady Hoke does not meet what M fans would want in their head coach (overall winning record, experience in BCS conference, history as a coordinator in a big program or NFL, etc.). As Brian said, if Hoke had went to Penn State and been a d-line coach before compiling a 47-50 record in non-BCS conferences he would not even have been considered.
Hopefully being a Michigan Man can offset some of the glaring deficiencies in his resume and this hire but I am extremely concerned about the future of this program. I would love being the equivalent of an Auburn fan that went ballistic when Czinick (sp) was hired and being negged to Bolivian when the Hokester brings the pain back to our opponents but that doesn't mean I need to take on faith that Hoke's M-ness will magically surmount the various challenges facing this program.
January 13th, 2011 at 5:08 PM ^
The people who are most exercised about the hiring of Hoke went into this "process" with expectations completely out of whack with reality. Michigan is not some NFL franchise where you can hire whoever you want. You cannot ignore the program’s traditions and history, you cannot ignore the program’s recruiting base in the Midwest, and you certainly should not use as your primary criteria whether the person runs one particular style of offense.
What the hell is wrong with hiring a person who has succeeded as a head coach in two previous stops, has deep ties to the university, has previously recruited successfully for that university and within that university’s recruiting base, and who, most importantly, will clearly work as hard if not harder to succeed than anybody else who could have been hired? I’ll take that every time over parachuting in the latest "hot name" without any ties whatsoever to Michigan.
Go Blue!
January 13th, 2011 at 5:11 PM ^
His face swells up when he talks about the rivalry and winning it. While I was a RR supporter and had great hopes that the experiment would have worked and wins would have been produced instead of drama, there are some things I will not miss. I also will not miss the obligatory "who is on the hot seat" or "Michigan Man" chatter that has been in place for the last 3 years and would have continued ad nauseam. I will not miss holding my breath when we try to stop a run on 3rd (or 4th) and 1 or stopping a play action or when we are trying to catch a punt or kick a 30 yd FG.
RR was a former hot gf that was fun while it lasted, but wrecked your car and killed your dog (or killed your mom depending on how much you believe he tarnished the Michigan brand). He brought (or was subject to) too much drama, headache, and was ultimately unreliable and not marriage material. On to the next one that brings the necessary components to the relationship, stability, brand loyalty, back to basics, maybe not pretty to look at but hopefully can perform when and where necessary.
January 13th, 2011 at 5:26 PM ^
I like I, Robot!
January 13th, 2011 at 5:39 PM ^
It strikes me that we're too concerned about tactics and making things more complicated than they are.
Strategicially, big picture, if Hoke recruits as well as Carr, and he and his coaches coach better, that's a formula for "national aspirations" and national championships. It doesn't matter what offensive and defensive systems get you to that point.
I see no inherent obstacles to that happening. My own opinion is that I'm not sure he ever was, but by 2005-07, Lloyd was ... not ... that ... good ... a .. coach.
For Michigan, the road to BCS glory goes through the Ohio school whose name dare not be mentioned. If we get to the point where we can beat them, there's no reason the rest can't fall into place.
January 13th, 2011 at 6:18 PM ^
Brian should give himself more credit for his influence regarding Michigan football. While I took some criticism for my diary post asking for leadership I think I'll live. The reality is most rational adults can have their opinions shaped when well reasoned ideas are presented (particularly if it is backed by hard data). My thoughts on Michigan football and Coach Rodriguez in particular were bolstered by Brian and other MGoBlog contributors.
So here is my "cool story brah" about Brian's influence. I was invited to the Reagent's room during halftime of a game this fall. While eating some snacks and driniking Coke (not Chardonnay) I engaged in conversation with my aunt (she and my uncle are friendly with DB and MSC). She told me she was disappointed with the team since RR took over - fair enough I said and quickly listed the challenges that RR faced when he took over and the measurable progress he had made. A good portion of my data came directly from this site. As I finished what I was saying I realized someone else was listening while waiting to say hello to my aunt. I turned and my aunt introduced me to MSC. She smiled and thanked me for being so supportive.
While this interaction was brief it was positive and well received - in no small part because I was passionate about my position without being directly critical of anyone. I share this because we all need to understand that what we say (and how we say it) on this blog can influence people (positively and negatively) and the degrees of separation from the decision makers is closer than you think.
January 13th, 2011 at 6:04 PM ^
At least we're on Whitlock's good side for the duration of Hoke's stay. The reason he's so hard on his alma mater dates back to their handling of Hoke's departure.
January 13th, 2011 at 6:41 PM ^
This really sums up my feelings on being a Michigan football fan. I'm roughly the same age as Brian and nothing hits home like this:
To me, getting back to being Michigan means going 9-3 and losing to Jim Tressel. I remember thinking "this is the year" every year growing up, expecting great things literally every season until Rodriguez showed up and Mallett transferred. I don't think that now, and I can't imagine feeling like that in the future. Sometimes having an identity feels like having a ceiling.
During the Bo and early-Lloyd eras, every year was the year. Usually, '97 being a glorious exception, that fell short later in the year. The transition away from that for me has been building since the early aughts. With Rodriguez, I always felt there was possible return to realistic title hopes each and every season. We never got there - and there are legitimate arguments that we couldn't with him - but I can't help feeling a sense of defeat. "We tried that modernization crap and it didn't work, let's go back to what's old and comfortable."
In three years, we'll probably be sitting here with three seasons of between 8-10 wins wondering whether Coach Hoke can fully lead us back to national prominence. And you know what, it won't be that bad either after suffering through the last three years, but I'll always wonder if the ceiling was higher under Rodriguez.
January 13th, 2011 at 7:01 PM ^
and I'm surprised Brian Cook doesn't remember this, the reason that Michigan Reply does not exist, is that Rich Rodriguez refused to tape the show on Saturday night to air Sunday morning. That is what led us to the Thursday night show so generic.
Rodriguez' refusal to do that show, in turn led to the demise of the Michigan Reply soundtrack. One of the great tracks in all of music (for those of you who can remember it).
I for one would be happy to get Brady Hoke back on Michigan Replay. I suspect Brandy is right there with me.
January 13th, 2011 at 8:08 PM ^
But Brandy has some major logistical issues with flying to Lions games anyway, squeezing in a Saturday night taping as well wasn't his cup of tea. Though listening to him groggy reacting to another Lions turnover was entertaining.
January 13th, 2011 at 10:54 PM ^
tv shows on Saturday nights was because he wanted to spend that time with players and recruits.
I count it as a mark of Bo Schembechler's vastly underrated media-savvyness that he did that show that way, and a mark of Rich Rodriguez's coaching intergrity that he did not.
For the record, there are almost no other coaches in the country who do weekly show tapings on Saturdays.
January 13th, 2011 at 11:12 PM ^
And Matlock, too!
January 14th, 2011 at 10:51 AM ^
I would certainly slingbox into the Michigan Replay if they brought it back, but wow, they do need to freshen it up a little bit, it was kind of Hokey.
January 13th, 2011 at 7:15 PM ^
To put the last 3-4 years in perspective using the mutual fund analogy: more risk = more reward.
First, I find it kind of ironic how the football program has, in a way, resembled the stock market circa 2007-2010.
Specifically, the stock market first showed signs of trouble in the summer of 2007. At the same time, the football program showed its first sign of severe volatility the weekend of the horror, which was September 2007. Both remained volatile throughout the remainder of 2007. Furthermore, in 2008 the stock market and football program alike, declined dramatically from where they were the previous year(s): Michigan 3 wins down from 9 in 2007, meanwhile, the stock market lost roughly half its value.
However, the stock market and the football program reached its low point soon after and began to recover in the spring of 2009. For the fans, I think the first glimmer of hope was obviously the debut of the weapon of choice (Tate for those who don’t remember) in the spring game of 2009. In 2010, both slowly regained some momentum and showed “progress” to getting back to where they once were. Neither has made it yet.
Now, for the fund analogy, I think most Michigan fans are risk averse. Therefore, they would like a blue chip fund, S&P fund, or a bond fund, something that will lower the risk to the down side but will not outperform the overall market returns when times are good. On the other hand, some fans, including myself, are willing to take more risk now in order for greater returns in the future similar to an emerging market fund.
I like to think of RR as an emerging market fund in the sense that when times are bad they were really bad but when the returns started coming they would be really good (like MNC good). On the other hand, I think of Hoke as a safe choice or someone that will lower the downside risk but will not outperform the overall market (NCAA) while maybe winning a B1G championship here and there but no MNC if you will.
Lastly, thanks for your work Brian. It was a great read and mirrors many thoughts I have.
Go Blue!!!!!!!!!!
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