Great Night for (former) Michigan Coaches
For those of you who missed it, three former Michigan football coaches all won their season opener as head coaches last night:
Brady Hoke's SDSU defeated Ohio U.
Don Brown's UMass defeated New Mexico State, and
Rich Rod's Jacksonville (Ala.) State defeated UTEP.
Congrats to all of them the Michigan Difference.
August 27th, 2023 at 8:53 AM ^
UMass's OC was a former UM analyst, and I thought their offense looked downright competent for stretches there especially given the fact they had a first-time starter in there.
August 27th, 2023 at 9:29 AM ^
Mike McCray is also on Don’s staff
August 27th, 2023 at 9:48 AM ^
happy for Don Brown's win, but merely looking competent against NMSU might not portend great things
August 27th, 2023 at 10:00 AM ^
happy for Don Brown's win, but merely looking competent against NMSU might not portend great things
Yes, a traditional football powerhouse such as UMass should be expected to win against a team coached by former Minnesota Golden Gophers' Jerry Kill. Totally not impressive at all for Don Brown.
August 27th, 2023 at 10:58 AM ^
August 27th, 2023 at 12:20 PM ^
NMSU went to a bowl last year (and won!) so beating them on the road is a pretty good win for a team like UMass.
I think people don't understand how bad UMass football has been basically whenever they've been an FBS program. Since they came back up to FBS in 2012 they've won a TOTAL of 21 games in 11 years.
August 27th, 2023 at 10:07 AM ^
The UMass QB looked pretty good. His name defies all linguistic conventions and I cannot even attempt to spell it.
August 27th, 2023 at 10:28 AM ^
Taisun Phommachanh
August 27th, 2023 at 10:29 AM ^
Show off!
August 27th, 2023 at 7:12 PM ^
I’m very good at “copy-paste”.
I know a guy with a name like that and I would never try to spell it.
August 27th, 2023 at 12:21 PM ^
You're just reading that from a card!
August 27th, 2023 at 9:07 AM ^
I was watching a bit of the Jax State game and had no idea Rich Rod was their coach until they interviewed him. Whereas Brady looks good and has lost weight, Rich Rod has quite the gut these days.
Both obviously are good coaches. Too much of a style shift with Rich Rod when he came to Michigan and Brady was just in over his head.
August 27th, 2023 at 9:25 AM ^
RichRod's record over time indicates, not that he is a good coach, but that he is a mediocre coach who stumbled into a paradigm shift in offensive structure and did well until the rest of college football caught up. In that sense, RichRod is a pioneer/inventor, but he is not a "good" football coach. 6-18 in B1G, 24-30 in Pac12. If he were a "good" football coach, he would have at least been able to have a winning record in those conferences, given the tools he was handed, and the abysmal state of the Pac 12 that he inhabited. RichRod is a system guy, whose system is now everywhere. No "good" coach could give up 65 points to Illinois at home at then be happy. No good coach would have fired Scott Schafer, who coached the only decent part of his team, and then hired Greg.
Hokie, on the other hand, is a good coach. A players coach, who isn't great with X's and O's, but compensates in other ways. You are right that he was simply out of his depth.
I don't know what Don Brown is except an awesome Motorcycle Cop. If I played him, I'd run crossing routes on every play and I'm not sure he'd figure out how to stop it.
August 27th, 2023 at 9:39 AM ^
I completely agree with your take on RichRod, although you left out that he is quite the awful human being (referring to his treatment of administrative assistants and other staff at UA).
Wrt Hoke I was watching with my 88 year old dad last night, a lifelong Michigan fan, and just as I was saying that Hoke is a decently good coach he went for it on 4th down instead of punting from near midfield at the end of last night's game. His team failed to convert and Ohio then had a real shot at scoring to tie the game. Ohio's 2nd string QB stinks so they didn't do so, and Hoke got away with his gaffe, but I immediately revised my opinion.
Good guy but terrible sideline coach. In hindsight it's no mystery why he failed at Michigan.
August 27th, 2023 at 10:00 AM ^
Didn’t watch, but based on what you described, analytics likely support that go for it decision.
August 27th, 2023 at 9:55 AM ^
What do you think Hokes record would be with the roster and staff Michigan has now? Legitimate question. He was always competitive with OSU. I think he would go 12-1 and win the Big Ten championship in a really close game.
August 27th, 2023 at 11:09 AM ^
No way Hoke goes 12-1. He could always recruit. There was no innovation. There was no in-game adjustments. Punch a Hoke team in the mouth and it crumples.
Harbaugh has far better instincts. He knows when to cede control to his assistants and when to take it back.
Hoke is an average coach. Below Day, Ferentz, Belima, Locksley, Fleck, and Fickell. Harbaugh is elite and better than all those guys. Even with this roster I couldn't see Hoke doing any better than 9-3.
August 28th, 2023 at 8:19 AM ^
Agreed. Harbaughs record proves he can coach any team in any league and bring them back to respectability. Hoke is what he is. A good position coach who lucked into his dream job and then Tommy boyed the shit out of it. I have nothing against Hoke personally from a human being standpoint, but the guy was in over his head from day 1 and was exposed as such everyday after.
August 27th, 2023 at 1:00 PM ^
Hoke loses the game against Illinois last year, for example. Or the game in 2021 "we used to lose those kinds of games."
Remember, we're not more talented than Penn State or ohio, recruiting wise. It's the staff and the culture making the difference.
August 27th, 2023 at 11:11 AM ^
You’re actually off on Rich Rod. He inherited a mess at UM and Carr did him no favors. He actually was rebuilding the team and did a good job with it. Hoke took over a very good team Rich had built and then destroyed it. Hoke was much worse of a coach
August 27th, 2023 at 2:14 PM ^
In year 3, Rich Rod’s Michigan teams quit when behind. The low point of my Michigan fan experience. 2nd worst was the Hoke offences that couldn’t get a first down, primarily because he did’t have a QB that could read a defence. It would have been nice if RR left Hoke a QB to follow Denard.
August 27th, 2023 at 5:20 PM ^
Someone like, say, Devin Gardner?
August 27th, 2023 at 9:01 PM ^
lol. hoke inherited a junior denard and they tried to turn him into tom brady, an epic failure. not to mention his backup, gardner, they decided to turn into a WR. lmfao.
August 27th, 2023 at 4:06 PM ^
I’m not off. He did not inherit the talent of years before, or the talent that Carr inherited. But he didn’t inherit 6-18 in the conference either. He inherited more talent on Defense than offense. He certainly went on the field with more talent than Northwestern, Illinois, Minn, Purdue, teams he lost to in year one.
August 27th, 2023 at 11:52 AM ^
Arizona provided some useful RichRod data. It's not an easy place to win even in a mediocre conference, but his recruiting was bad even adjusting to the degree of difficulty.
I do think the '10 Illinois game gets way too much attention ("65 points!!!"). It was tied 40-something at the end of regulation.
August 27th, 2023 at 4:12 PM ^
45-45 at the end of regulation followed by a continuation of total defensive ineptitude in OT, deserves all the attention it gets. This is Michigan fergodsakes
August 27th, 2023 at 12:36 PM ^
Rich Rod not working at UM is partially on him and partially on larger program issues that took years to settle their way out. That isn't meant to defend RR's poor handling of the program but I do think people forget how unwelcoming UM was to an outsider taking over the program. And 24-30 in the Pac-12 at Arizona isn't that bad; Jedd Fisch is getting flowers for taking the Cats to 5-7 last year after going 1-11; Rich Rod took over a team that had gone 4-8 the previous year and then went 8-5, 8-5, 10-4, 3-9, 7-6, 7-6. He got fired because he's an asshole and a bad dude, not because he's particularly bad at coaching. Kevin Sumlin followed him at Arizona and somehow went 9-20.
Brady Hoke seems like a better dude but everyone shits on Rich Rod for never figuring out a good defense but Hoke's teams generally have no freaking idea how to run a competent offense even though they have stout defenses. I think people forget just how awful those Hoke offenses were at UM, and his career is way more emblematic of a guy who gets it right once (he won 12 games at BGSU, 9 at SDSU, 11 at UM, then 12 at SDSU part deux) but then his next best season at any of those spots was 7 (BGSU), 4 (SDSU - though he was only there 2 years), 8 (UM), and 7 (last year at SDSU). Maybe he bucks the trend but I wouldn't be remotely shocked if he muddled through another 6-8 win seasons.
August 27th, 2023 at 3:43 PM ^
Never let facts get in the way of a good narrative, bronxblue
August 27th, 2023 at 4:24 PM ^
That’s a bad record in years in which the Pac12 was terrible. And, you can cite his record overall, and it looks okay, but his conference record is what matters, because his AZ teams never played anything but awful OOC schedules. They played 1 power 5 team OOC in his tenure. He had a winning record in the conference twice in 6 years, and one of those was 5-4. He is a mediocre coach and he wouldn’t have succeeded at UM even with full support. Even if he was a scion of the program he would have simply been our Scott Frost.
August 27th, 2023 at 7:17 PM ^
Rich rod problems were on Rr himself and nobody else! Rr ran off a ton of players he needed to win! His recruiting, half of those classes didn’t even make it to their sophomore season! He left the program in trouble on the academic apr score! Dear god we were fighting against Tulane for recruits!
if you’re blaming Carr or anyone else for rr running off Mallet and many others, keep ignoring reality of who was running the program!
August 27th, 2023 at 7:28 PM ^
There was never any reasonable evidence that RichRod "ran off" Mallet (rest his soul).
August 27th, 2023 at 9:51 PM ^
Thanks. There was one year where RichRod took 1 OL recruit? Good coach?
August 28th, 2023 at 7:36 AM ^
If you take a longitudinal look, it's even worse than that. They loaded up in 2008 with a combination of Carr and RichRod recruits. Then, 3 in 2009, *1* in 2010, and I think just 3 in 2011 before the firing.
August 27th, 2023 at 8:43 PM ^
If you want to know how bad Hoke's offenses were, I have two words fur you: Al Borges.
August 27th, 2023 at 9:42 AM ^
Rooting hard for Hoke and Brown. Rich Rod can drink diarrhea.
August 27th, 2023 at 2:37 PM ^
Haha!
we also have coaches Jedd and Biff to root for
August 27th, 2023 at 3:23 PM ^
* Looks at protein shake. Gags a little *
August 27th, 2023 at 10:09 AM ^
Michigan had a few former players and commits in action this week, too. I put together a rundown of former Michigan people around the country (LINK), something I do each week.
August 27th, 2023 at 10:18 AM ^
Charlotte probably has the most former Michigan staffers, including head coach Biff Poggi, special teams coordinator/running backs coach Greg Froelich (a former walk-on lineman at Michigan), run game coordinator Kyle DeVan (former Michigan analyst), offensive tackles/tight ends coach John Morookian (former Michigan analyst), defensive coordinator Ryan Osborn (former Michigan analyst who got in trouble for coaching on the field), director of player personnel Jonathan Herd-Bond (former recruiting staffer), and graduate assistant Austin Gilbert (former Michigan student assistant).
It's funny how these groups kind of travel together. A few years ago, it was Indiana State that had a bunch of former Michigan people (Desmond Morgan, Roy Roundtree, Curt Mallory, etc.). But Charlotte is the most Michigan-centric staff I can remember - even more than when Rich Rodriguez went to Arizona with the late Calvin Magee, Tony Dews, etc.
August 27th, 2023 at 1:52 PM ^
I just looked at your ex-Wolverine post (https://touch-the-banner.com/ex-wolverine-updates-week-0/).
Five years ago, what odds could you get for a bet that an obscure game like UMass - NMSU would involve a former Michigan coach, two former players, and four former recruits?
August 27th, 2023 at 11:26 AM ^
Speaking of former Wolverines...
August 27th, 2023 at 1:21 PM ^
Interesting:
Wheatly is
A) An OT
B) In the league
August 27th, 2023 at 11:49 AM ^
Next week we may see four Michigan QBs get wins.
JJ, Cade, Milton, Bowman
August 27th, 2023 at 11:58 AM ^
Don't care about his coaching, but Rich Rod is POS. Fuck that guy.
August 27th, 2023 at 7:01 PM ^
As you might imagine, Rich Rod is has earned bitter hatred from the WVU fan base.
Side note: the word on the street here in Morgantown is that RR did not leave for money or prestige, but rather because he was caught having an affair with a cheerleader. I cannot verify if this story is true, but it is widely accepted as established fact by WVU fans.
August 27th, 2023 at 12:45 PM ^
I'm here for the Don Brown love. He was always genuine and committed to his view of how defense should be played. It just didn't always work out for the best here.
August 28th, 2023 at 8:28 AM ^
It worked against shit teams. I’m sure Ryan Day still goes to sleep with visions of crossing routes scoring 100 points against us.
August 27th, 2023 at 12:46 PM ^
Double post. No Electricity->No Spectrum Internet->using a hot spot on my phone->incredibally unresponsive MGoBlog experience, that when coupled with my impatience, equals jjuusstttt one extra click.
August 27th, 2023 at 2:02 PM ^
As a wise man once said...BEAT OHIO
August 27th, 2023 at 3:15 PM ^
Also this morning Chad Henne was in a Subway commercial with Patrick Mahomes