The Brady Hoke Style...
I received an email from a buddy of mine that I would like to share with everyone. We all know that Brady Hoke "gets it" at Michigan and this is just another example...
The following was sent to me by a fellow UM grad who lives in Seattle. I thought the group might be interested in the coaching style of a true “Michigan Man”! The first two items below have been given out in speeches to alumni groups (as has the "Strikes Policy") - so it is not secret. (1) The beginning of each team meeting: Hoke walks into the room and yells "good afternoon" ... the team is then expected to respond with great passion and enthusiasm "good afternoon." Then Hoke says "championships" ... the team is expected to respond with great passion and enthusiasm ... "42" ... the number of Big Ten championships Michigan has won. The Hoke says "Michigan" ... the team is expected to respond with great passion and enthusiasm ... "132" ... the number of years Michigan has played football. Finally, Hoke screams "beat" ... the team is expected to respond with incredible passion and enthusiasm ... "Ohio." (2) Also, when Hoke is introduced to the alumni group he says, "Don't applaud for me" and then asks any former players to stand - and has the audience applaud for them. Hoke says, "This is not about me - it is about YOU and the Michigan tradition." This all goes over big of course. +++++++ (3) One other thing -- the main emphasis in practice as far as the D goes: missed tackles. A kid who misses a tackle barely escapes with his life (figuratively of course) ... kids getting this treatment say to their friends after practice, "I will never miss another tackle again."
freaking fan who enjoys sports history. Having a coach repeat my signature over and over again isn't gonna help him win. Knowing the history is not relevant to winning in the present day.
So, in your mind, U-M and its coaches shouldn't emphasize any of the things that make its football program different from any other program. There's nothing inherently special about playing for Michigan, right? It's just all about the schemes. And even if there was anything special, it certainly can't help in the outcome of a game, right?
He shouldn't emphasize all the things that make Michigan special. Sure go for it. Make the fans happy. But let's not act like talking about the past is going to directly lead to more victories. If he's emphasizing things like that at, I dunno, practice....as opposed to emphasizing schemes, then that's not helping yourself win football games.
What I'm saying is, emphasizing history is not going to be a CAUSE of winning. And if Hoke wins, it's a coorelation, not a causation.
Why in your mind should somebody come to Michigan? For a scheme?
and they wonder "how am I going to be used?" it usually makes me think that maybe they care about schemes. Maybe some recruits care about history, but I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that we have a far and away richer tradition than schools like Ohio State, Alabama, Texas, ect. I view all those schools on an equal footing and I just happen to root for Michigan because that's where I'm from.
just doesn't do it for me.
scheme, technique, practice management- everything's important to great coaching. But anyone who doesn't recognize getting the team's mind by making them believe they are part of something great is exactly what leads to winning, on top of the rest is missing out on the huge mental part of the job of coaching.
Why do you think kids of doctors become doctors, NBA players sons play for Michigan, perennial wrestling champions like Iowa usually win the close final match, etc...?
Psychologically, we know a single mother should never criticize her ex-husband around her son because he transfers those criticisms onto himself. He associates himself and his future level of success with his dad. We often if not almost always rise to the height of the success of the role models and people who've come before us.
There's an edge in being programmed to believe you are the best. And family, tradition, ie- where you come from is a huge part of it.
There is no substitute for hard work or great teaching/technique. Absolutely. But if you have tradition, you use it, and it makes a difference when the big games come (the toughest times to believe and to succeed).
Wouldn't the fact that we are a cold weather northern state that recruits nationally with success help prove how much our tradition helps on the field?
March 28th, 2011 at 12:27 PM ^
I'm not saying that Hoke's passion for Michigan football is lesser or equal to Rodriguez. Clearly Hoke is very hardcore about Michigan. I'm just saying that having a specific passion for Michigan doesn't make him a better coach than Rodriguez, and this idea that somehow Rodriguez was doomed because he wasn't from the Michigan coaching tree (which is exactly what everyone means when they bring up the "Michigan Man" idea) is stupid. Rodriguez failed at Michigan for a number of reasons, some his own fault, some not, but I don't think one of those reasons was not "getting" Michigan football.
March 28th, 2011 at 12:38 PM ^
Don't underestimate the power of emotion in the game of football.
March 28th, 2011 at 12:40 PM ^
Of course I'm not saying emotion isn't important. Just the implication that Hoke knows emotion is important and Rodriguez didn't is wrong and dumb.
just "didn't get it" at Ball State and that's why he had a losing record in the MAC. But don't worry. He "gets it" at Michigan so he's gonna go 140-13 to start his career.
What exactly is there to get about Ball State?
This is all I got:
or alum, but I do know that they have a .523 all-time winning percentage and Brady Hoke had a losing record there. Therefore, I have arbitrarily decided that he somehow didn't understand that place and didn't even live up to their only modest expectations.
Brady Hoke was never a "Ball State man."
He was a perfectly good football coach, but there seemed to be a certain distance between Hoke and the Ball State/NFL alumni like Shafer Suggs, Ed Konopasek, and Dan Gerberry.
And, sure, Hoke may have actually attended Ball State and played football there, but when he returned as a coach, somebody remarked that he had forgotten the words to "Fight Team Fight," the Cardinals' fight song.
The other problem was that it was widely perceived among the h.s. coaches in, Muncie that Hoke was not really devoted to recruiting Muncie the way that other Ball State coaches had in the past. Sure, Hoke liked to recruit Dayton, and he did pretty well there. But if you're going to coach at Ball State you have got to recruit Muncie.
Any one, or a combination, of these things probably wouldn't have ended Hoke's career at BSU.
But in the end, Hoke was just 34-38 at Ball State. And that is unacceptable, for the storied Ball State football tradition.
Thanks for that. Couldn't have typed it better myself!
I love it.
Section 1, please stop making me feel bad about things.
Yes.
At least RR knew that Michigan's biggest rival is Ohio State rather than Ohio, which Hoke believes is Michigan's biggest rival.
GoBlueInTX,
You have 'room' talking about someone's avatar with that FREAK SHOW on yours...Hahaha! You could've put a clown as your avatar and it would have been the same thing, some people have the nerve...smh!
It's a Wild Thing avatar in reference to Roundtree and Stonum; it's not meant to celebrate Sheen. And I've had my Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn avatar long before Sheen's public meltdown (which, to me, seems less entertaining than a very sad and pretty clear example of mental illness).
With this whole thing is i didn't direct anything towards RichRod. I was one the BIGGEST RichRod supporters left after everything went down until he was let go. I was saying that Hoke 'gets it' because he was already here and understand te tradition. He doesn't have to learn the Victors, Tradition or anything like that. He's had former players and coaches come out in public with their full support. RichRod never had that luxury and it didn't help matters at all. Hoke's already won over a lot of people, fans, alumni, etc and he doesn't have to make that uphill battle from the start.
Hoke knows all about the rivalries, past championships, fight song, and so on, so he's a step ahead of RichRod in that aspect. That was the point of the email, he doesn't have to learn these things, he's already been through them and he can just recruit and coach football...
I actually agree with your individual points, but there are two things that rub me the wrong way with all the "rah-rah, Hoke gets it, he's a Michigan Man!" kind of claims.
1. Even if it's not explicitly stated, there's always going to be a heavy implication that Hoke is better because of his prior connection to Michigan than Rodriguez was. It's not a big leap when someone says "I like Hoke because he gets Michigan football" to also take from that "he's an improvement over Rodriguez, who didn't get Michigan football." (Not saying you think this.)
2. Whether or not all that passion and prior connection will actually contribute anything on the field v. just being a distraction that actually has very little to do with on the field performance. (As a fan I like it, and as someone pointed out, it probably helps with recruiting. But realistically, I don't see that passion translating into any direct improvement on the field.)
That's more or less a summary of why, even though I like Hoke's enthusiasm, I hate it when people keep bringing up the "Michigan Man" and "he gets it" claims.
I totally understand your 'Michigan Man' statement. I don't care where the coach came from as long as he's winning football games. Unfortunately, not everyone feels that way and the fact that RichRod wasn't winning just made everything that much harder for him. Then the 'practice gate', WVU buyout, real-estate scandal, bitter players leaving, Detroit FreeP, 0-6 vs. Michigan's 2 biggest rivals, bowl streak snapped, crushed in his only bowl appearance. RichRod didn't make it easy on himself BUT he handled it like a man and I have all the respect in the world for him. I will root him on anyday as long as he's not matched up against Michigan. He didn't throw anyone under the bus, made excuses here and there but who wouldn't. You get paid to win games and it just wasn't happening under him.
The people that called him a redneck, hillbilly should be ashamed of themselves. He's was climbing uphill since day one and just couldn't get to the top. DB had to make a decision and he went a different direction. I have no hard feelings towards RichRod and his tenure here. He brought us a Heisman Trophy Candidate and Record Breaking QB in Denard, how could you be mad at that?!?! :)
March 29th, 2011 at 10:41 AM ^
I happen to love the term "Michigan Man" but agree with you that it is overused and inapprorpiately applied, especially by the Mustachioed Freep readers Brian has railed about. I think it is a lot less about Manball and inbreeding and more about character, intellectual curiosity, open-mindedness, reserved integriety, ect. I wish the term could be rehabbed in this community someday. Also, the only time i've seen an appropriately placed peeing Calvin was on a sticker slapped onto the building next to the Manneken Pis.
March 28th, 2011 at 12:02 PM ^
Why are they obsessing so much with the Bobcats?
March 28th, 2011 at 12:16 PM ^
Yeah, why all the Ohio Bobcat hate? The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?
/s people.
I love that picture!! I know there are alot of Bobcat Alumni out there that truly enjoy it! Ahhh such good times!! After all, Ohio isTHE state university!!!
Go Bobcats and Go Blue!!!
March 28th, 2011 at 12:17 PM ^
I'm guessing it's because Brady Hoke is such a MICHIGAN MAN that he is physically incapable of putting the words, "Ohio" and "State," next to one another.
/MICHMAN
March 28th, 2011 at 12:06 PM ^
Your friend from Seattle copied and pasted that from Scout.
March 28th, 2011 at 12:30 PM ^
Exactly I read this a long time ago on the scout "in" boards.
March 28th, 2011 at 12:07 PM ^
by reading an old MGoBoard thread. Am I close?
March 28th, 2011 at 12:10 PM ^
By all accounts, tackling has improved a lot. Especially open field tackling.
March 28th, 2011 at 12:23 PM ^
Literally the only relevant thing posted in this entire thread. Thanks JC3, great to hear.
March 28th, 2011 at 12:24 PM ^
How do we know that tackling, especially in the open field, has improved?
March 28th, 2011 at 12:24 PM ^
Do those accounts come from four days of spring practice?
It was printed in the Freep yesterday....didn't you read it!?
March 28th, 2011 at 12:10 PM ^
Oh boy....
March 28th, 2011 at 12:11 PM ^
Well, I like the third part at least. Can they not miss tackles ever again plz?
March 28th, 2011 at 12:11 PM ^
Now forward this email to 10 people or you'll have bad luck for a year!!!!!!!!
March 28th, 2011 at 12:13 PM ^
Do people like this stuff? Because it's fucking cheesy.
March 28th, 2011 at 12:31 PM ^
You mean the stuff about Michigan tradition -- "don't clap for me" -- are there former players in the audience etc? It's not just cheesy, it's weird.
The bar for "cheesy and weird" (in a Michigan public speaking context) got raised to Everest-like heights the second hands were held to Josh Groban. I will take cliche'd "rah rah" that engenders positive vibes over awkward exchanges with a hostile press and public in a heartbeat. Wins will turn cynicism about this into admiration and canonization.