CC: Hoke Evaluation Day Open Thread

I bet the vultures are circling.

Ran out at lunch and flipped on the radio. First thing I heard, "Brady Hoke is still the coach of Michigan..." and I almost crashed into a light pole. Then he finished the sentence, "at least for now. He meets with AD Hackett today."

Geez, man. That was just wrong.

CAN WE JUST DO THIS THING ALREADY? I HAVE LOTS OF WORK TO DO AND IT"S NOT GETTING DONE!

I'm no more psyched than others at the prospect on another year of Hoke, but we better be damn sure we can do a LOT better with the next hire.  Otherwise, you are in the Notre Dame "rinse and repeat" with crappy coaches.  I'd rather have a bad we know for another year, than a New Bad for 4-5 years.

a big fan of the Hoke hire when it happened, but of course, as a Michigan fan I grew accustomed to him as head of the program. He has done a good job of recruiting and restocking the depleted ranks of the program, graduating those he recruited and treating his players and their future outside football with great respect. In that regard, he has held steadfast to his principles about leading "his sons" and mostly getting them to prepare and work hard toward their program goals. 

Unfortuntely, while he may be a good teacher, he hasn't succeeded in getting  his guys to deliver their  best test results when it absolutely mattered. Achievement is about performing successfully when it matters. This team hasn't  done that.

 And so, today, he will learn his fate, one that we've been speculating about since the season began and earnestly questioned starting immediately afrter the Notre Dame debacle. 

His record as a road coach has been atrocious. His teams have played well enough at times to compete but never beat a team that was ranked higher or considered better since his first season. He never beat MSU in East Lansing, and was unfortunately saddled with a schedule that gave the Spartans three home games against him. He won a field goal battle with the Spartans in Denard's final star-crossed season, one that would usher in the Devin Gardner era. 

And then his offensive philosophy never worked, and never advanced the ability of the two dynamic quarterbacks he was given. This was because of compromise over talent and offensive style, with style taking precedence, and then just not being good enough. 

In every big matchup Michigan faced in non-conference, the only dynamic wins came at home, twice against Notre Dame. There is not a singular victory outside of the Sugar Bowl game that stands out as a Hoke achievement, other than beating Ohio, then coached by current Buckeye DC L:uke Fickel. That win stopped a long losing streak and was widely appreciated by Michigan fans. But,  there hasn't been a followup to it, although Hoke's team has played highly competitive games in every encounter with Urban Meyer's squad. 

Not good enough is the final verdict. Things just went from bad to worse, poor choices, questionable deicision-making, failure to adjust to changing game situations, and not enough emphasis on winning as a prerequisite before anything else. Maybe winning shouldn't be the only thing, but in the end, it always ends up being that thing that makes or breaks your tenure as a coach. So, the heat is on, behind closed doors, the final evaluation will spell Brady Hoke's final day as head coach at Schembechler Hall, a fergodsakes coda to his dream job. 

And a new coaching search will officially begin. I have no clue who the next guy will be. But I do hope that the next guy really looks at the people on his roster and sees how they fit together in forming a team, and working together in a revised offensive, defensive and special teams system, that either fully accounts for the assembled ability and talent to deliver better results, or doesn't compromise their skill for the sake of building a program. So far, that philosophy has cost two coaches and a lot of lost transition time rebuilding a once proud program that itself needs to come together and no longer live in the past.  

about to explode any moment you'd think

Its hard for me to believe that a guy named "joelstoner" who has 1 mgopoint and has been a member since 2010 has a connection in the Athletic Department.

It would be nice if there were no leaks before 3:00, which is when Hoke will meet with his team.  Let them find out from him and not the internet.

Here's the way I see it ...
- There are "sources" saying that UM reps have reached out to Jim Harbaugh, Les Miles, Butch Jones, etc
- Hoke has regressed in three straight years

Michigan plans to move on.  Even if Harbaugh, Miles, and Jones are actually not interested (and "sources" claim such but are unconfirmed), Michigan knows they can do better than Hoke.

I'm expecting within the next hour to two hours we'll know for sure that there will be a new coach next year.  This is a big enough job that we'll get a household name coach.  I believe it.

Jim Hackett regime if he allows Hoke to end his tensure in a Michigan way. In fact, I hope Hoke addresses the media with Hackett as was the case in Florida. No one thinks ill of Brady Hoke, his teams just didn't perform up to Michigan standards, and he knows this. 

He will get another job as a position coach or possibly head coach at a lesser school. But I do hope that today's news is officially announced after the players have been informed. 

Just heard on Karsh/Anderson...

Weird comment by Karsh - 97.1 still trying to decide whether to carry the presser. Uh, really?

but since this is 2014, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Hackett brings Hoke back for 2015.

I like that the higher ups are allowing Hoke/hackett to inform the players before the world.

Much classier than sending them an email