profitgoblue

January 18th, 2013 at 4:09 PM ^

To his defense, I don't think he's complaining about the language in general, just the language used in public.  I agree with him - swearing like that in venues where it's going to become public record is kind of bush league.  I guess what we might be saying is that it would be cooler if he didn't use that word in public forums.  That said, I love me some swear words used in everyday speak.  I have the mouth of a drunken sailor.  Just not on the public record.

/steps off soapbox and high horse at same time

Dutch Ferbert

January 18th, 2013 at 3:31 PM ^

Other than the win over MSU, the rest of the season was not that impressive. I appreciate how he doesn't throw the players under the bus.

But "close" doesn't mean anything to Hoke based on his assessment of the season. With this attitude, next year will be better because of a more favorable schedule.

Dutch Ferbert

January 18th, 2013 at 7:21 PM ^

they still had a good defense...and their whole season (and sense of self worth) hinges on the Michigan game. They play us better than anyone else on their schedule.

I miss the days of beating them 3 out of 4 times (with the fourth time usually involving some bs call like Spartan Bob or Desmond being interfered with) and usually beating them convincingly those 3 times.

Dantonio has seen the threat and the threat is increasing. Two TD victories are about to become more frequent.

WolverineHistorian

January 18th, 2013 at 3:37 PM ^

That's a pretty accurate description.  I grew up where an 8-4 season was considered the bottom of the barrel type season and 9-3 was considered ho-hum. 

8-5 is shit.  I couldn't agree more with that. 

EGD

January 18th, 2013 at 3:58 PM ^

I personally wasn't really all that disappointed with the season, seeing as the team played hard, we had a lot of bad luck, and the teams we lost to were all double-digit winners.  But I'm glad we have a coach that expects more.

BlueInWisconsin

January 18th, 2013 at 4:00 PM ^

He's right, but I don't think it was your run of the mill sh!t season though. Those 4 of those 5 losses were to top 5 teams, all were away from home and most were without full use of Denard. I would have been nice to pull some of those games out , but this team was damn good for one with 5 losses.

CRex

January 18th, 2013 at 4:27 PM ^

Also for four of those five loses, we had a realistic shot at winning the game.  Only Alabama just blew us out of the water without any mercy.  Under Carr in the period where he had things humming along, I'd have tended to agree that 8-5 was shit, however given the rebuilding needs I was actually fairly content with this season and found the perfomance to be in the target area.  Only the second half of tOSU really stings still.  

I'm happy to see this kind of reflection by the HC and what that likely means in terms of pressure being put on other coaches.  

Don

January 18th, 2013 at 4:20 PM ^

which is 1/3 of the total of 44.

Some of those seasons are worse than others ('84, '08-'09, for example)... I wouldn't put last season into the truly awful category, but I love the fact that Hoke isn't trying to varnish the shit.

Perkis-Size Me

January 18th, 2013 at 4:26 PM ^

we got embarressed by alabama, handed notre dame the game with 6 interceptions, handed nebraska the game because we had no backup offensive planning, lost to ohio when our offense imploded on itself and handed them the game, and lost a heartbreaker to south carolina, the difference in the game being 3-4 big plays from an otherwise pedestrian south carolina offense. minus alabama, the only team that really beat michigan this year was itself. hoke's calling the season how it was: a shit season. i'm proud of the team, but if we go by hoke's standards, the season was a 100% failure.

LSAClassOf2000

January 18th, 2013 at 4:31 PM ^

The DetNews piece also contains some other summary information from the speech Hoke gave - (LINK), not the least of which was the possibility of Countess being able to participate a little in spring practice, and Toussaint being apparently "OK", in Hoke's words.

As for the season, it has been posted before, but going back to 1969, the historic average for Michigan seasons sits in the neighborhood of 9-3 (includes seasons where we didn't play 12 games, but it does include 19 seasons of 10+ wins and 10 seasons with nine wins), and 9-4 in the last 20 seasons, so yes, 8-5 comes in below the average Michigan performance. I like his attitude towards it though - "We have to keep creating that culture that we want to have as a football team. The goal is always to win the Big Ten championship and we didn’t do that so we need to keep working harder.”

YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

January 18th, 2013 at 5:26 PM ^

Hoke called yr 1 a "failure" and yr 2 "sh#t". Clearly not a glowing self-appraisal of job performance or program direction. He's set clear expectations.
Next year we have 2.5 recruiting classes under Hoke and a favorable schedule, so the "expectations" could work against us with HS coaches and recruits if Urban or Dantonio have bragging rights.
B1G champs in 2013 or bust?

ryanlove12

January 18th, 2013 at 6:28 PM ^

I'm glad we have a coach that doesn't accept mediocre results. The 11-2 season was the result of playing 13 shitty teams. This year was horrible. I'm sick of people thinking the rich rod years are the standard we have to pass. I love this coaching staf and think they did a good job despite bring saddled with denard. He wa horrible, but a blond fan base would have run them out if town if he was benched. So they had to adjust. I am thrilled to see that they don't think these past two years are god enough. I am so excited to finally see Michigan football next season. Go blue

markusr2007

January 18th, 2013 at 6:47 PM ^

I doubt any pre-2010 Michigan fan could imagine a scenario where the Wolverines would ever play a college football schedule like that one, but ok. Shit it is.

My math formula for the season is:

Unfortunate injuries at QB + No running game + questionable OC playcalling = Shit season

Maybe I'm wrong.

I thought the defense actually played better than expected.

Blue Haven

January 18th, 2013 at 7:48 PM ^

I apologize if this is lengthy but i felt a need to respond. I have been an avid reader of the blog for a years, but never felt compelled to comment until today.

I happened to have attended the session today and appreciated how honest coach hoke came across. The comment was the words of a man who knew that every coach in that audience could relate when their team did not achieve the goals they had set. Could he have used a different word? Sure. But as a coach myself, I appreciated the emotion behind it. It was not an attack on the team, and he was quick to point out how proud he was of the players and coaches.