Hoke Came Off Well, Brandon Not So Much

Yea that was pretty bad. I get what he was going for, but for better or worse on the field, RR was a good ambassador for the program as a person. He deserves more respect than that.

So we can expect that kind of thing to continue for a while.  Whether we like it or not, the athletic department and our former Carr players were all looking for the anti-RR and so that is what we got. 

Hope he does well, and that this works.  Coaches are sometimes a crap shoot, as we have found out.  Let's see how he does before we either raise him to sainthood or start burying him.

Yeah, there was one particular instance when he seemed to be taking a silent jab at RR when he was saying that he was looking for a coach who could adapt to the roster at hand and not be narrowminded in terms of thinking their way to do things is the only way to do things.

The only jabs I saw were pointed squarely at Bill Martin.

Agree with controversialidea 100%. 

A lot of what DB said at the beginning... he came off as, well, a DB.

Seemed like he was taking thinly veiled cheap shots at Rodriguez for not being a "Michigan Man" and that he was placating the media and the Carr-folk saying, "Look, I went out and got you what you wanted."

At one point in the introductory comments at the beginning, he even mentioned that Hoke knows his way around Ann Arbor already....  as if that's somehow a positive asset we should have been looking for in our football coach....  which caused me to scream, "What the fuck does that have to do with anything!?" at my computer screen and made me want to throw things.

I was willing to give Brandon the benefit of the doubt until today, but, the press conference in my mind clearly demonstrated that he was looking at all the wrong criteria in his hiring decision, and, pandering to the media and former players in getting someone from the "Michigan Man" club took precedence over who will be the coach that will put us in the best position to win.  

As others have said, it seems like this hire indicates we've resigned ourselves to aiming at being a regional power at best (underscored by all the emphasis on B10 championships instead of Natoinal Championships) and that is sad.

With the RR hire, it may have been a swing and a miss, but at least we were swinging for the fences.

Now it seems like we're not even trying.  

All that said, maybe Hoke will work out great here and be the right guy to take us to the promised land.  I hope that's the case and I hope he succeeds beyond all of our wildest expectations.

But, DB's reasons for hiring him seem horribly misguided to me.

Cosigned.

Sleep-depraved != sleep-deprived.  Though now I'm curious what sleep-depraved is...

In the age of the internets.  He is going to get a good night's sleep and regret this press conference in the morning.

It was getting a little wierd.

Didn't Jim say he had offers on the table from Stanford and Michigan at his press conference with the Niners?

he had an offer at the ready? I don't. Exploraory interviews are part of good due diligence IMHO.

David Brandon is a businessman first and an athletic director second.  The rhetoric about increasing the profitability of the AD and this phantom coaching search has me convinced that he's committed to building the "brand" over all other priorities.  How do you build a football brand?  Restore the NFL pipeline.  How do you restore the pipeline?  Hire a coach your NFL bully-boys will rally around and fawn over in the media.  Done and done.

Of course, as a non-football player, I'm vulnerable to "you don't know the game, get off my lawn"-type arguments, but that's what the politics looks like to me.

even closely resembles Bo with the exception of employment at University of Michigan.....

I would complain if I was getting hung with anything other than toliet paper.  Strange analogy but you get a +1 anyway.

Is it poor form to have a Papa John's advertisement on the left side of this page as I am writing this?  Just curious.

that he hasn't gotten much sleep lately, but I'm waiting for my several anonymous sources to confirm this.

But I still think he spoke with others only as a formality. I think it's been Hokemania for a while.

Even if you assume that Brandon had decided on Hoke last week, six weeks ago, or even six months ago, do you really think Brandon would have been stupid enough to simply fire Rodriguez last week and immediately hire Hoke? How well do you think that would have been received compared to the way things actually played out?

There were two other, higher-profile, Michigan-connected candidates out there. Brandon couldn't ignore them, the way that Bill Martin ignored Miles last time. The way Martin handled the last search undermined Rodriguez from day one.

I think it's possible that Harbaugh had a chance at the job first, but he essentially eliminated himself by choosing to the NFL. I don't believe Brandon was ever going to offer Miles the job, and I don't think Miles even wanted it this time around (he clearly did want it last time). I think Brandon and Miles basically conspired to make it appear that Miles had been offered the job and turned it down. Miles thus eliminated himself as well.

Brandon had to go through this process in order to--publicly--eliminate the other candidates, so that no one within the Michigan "family" (former players/coaches and fans) has a reason to be pining for Harbaugh or Miles or a reason to do or say anything to undermine Hoke.

And, in my opinion, Brandon was very smart to have handled the search in this way, and I for one couldn't be happier with the outcome.

the 40 former players? I heard a handful of names mentioned at the press conference. I believe most if not all are local to Ann Arbor. Not being a smartass.. I truly have not heard about 40 former players being there. Where did you see this?

I have a masters degree, but I don't understand what that has to do with understanding DB.

that he was basically lying when he said he'd conduct a national search.

I am on board with Hoke and I liked his press conference, but it was very evident that DB's national search really was actually focused on 3 possible people, all of whom had Michigan connections (JH, LM and BH).

Brandon reiterated he did a national search today, then followed up by saying that it was vital the candidates had experience recruiting in the area, then made the comments about not having to teach the Victors to the coach.

If Hoke ultimately works out here, that doesn't necessarily mean that Brandon had the open mind and open search that he claimed he was going to run.

I have two masters degrees . . . What are we talking about again?

the new rocket science, yo.  I'm going to start using it the phrase liberally.

"Come on, honey, we're making PB&Js for the kids, here. Geez, this isn't adminstrating!" 

or 

"Ed, you need to CC on those emails to HR. It's not that hard to remember, is it? It's not like this is adminstration." 

LOL your argument is seriously laughable as it's based entirely on an appeal to authority/expertise....  "DB has a master's degree ergo he's right and you all are wrong".  Seriously, that's what your post amounts to.

We have the blessing of Gordon "Little Sisters of the Poor" Gee.  Rock and roll guys!

I feel obligated to post this sarcastically for the perceived good of the board.

Where is Ohi?  When did it get it's own school?  Why should they be afraid of BH?

*fingers crossed in hopes that I spelled everything correct and was grammatically perfect, lest there be repercussions*

It is possible that Brandon did exactly what he said.

Amen!

 We don't know if he was lying about offering Hoke yesterday because:

1. Hoke was still working as normal for SDSU at that time (recruiting)

2. Couldn't locate Hoke and directly spoke to Hoke's wife at the press conference about that

3. He might have had a list of people ready to show up at the the press conference prior to all of this due to his time line of wanting a coach

Why do you care to know so much about the behind-the-scenes hiring process? Brandon hired what he believed to be the best guy for Michigan and that's all that matters. When I get a job offer I don't care if I was their first or last choice, and neither should you. Even if he had Hoke at the top of the list the whole time, he needed to be sure that he was the right guy and thus evaluated other candidates as well. We will never know the full details of his search, and that's the way it should be.

Stop trying to stir up drama. Brandon did the best job he could as a first time AD. The program is in good hands. Worry about something else. Move on.

Are you serious with this?

A Superbowl MVP, NFL defensive MVP, former coaches, and just about everyone who played for Hoke at Michigan and other schools all think he is perfect for the job, but because you wanted something else, the athletic director needs to be fired?

What little respect I had for conversations on message boards is quickly dissapearing.

The board has closed ranks behind Hoke.  It wouldnt matter if he was a third year med student that had never seen a football field before, now that DB has annointed him and the search is over the vast majority of the board is going to hold hands and sing kumbaya cause he's a "Michigan Man".

I just have one question for the pro-Hoke crowd.....who would be a WORSE hire?  Who did Brady beat out that you'd say "man am I glad we dont have THAT guy coaching us."?

i second that.  Hoke gets 3 years to prove it or shut up.

But then he retired and left Rich Rod without cover which is why he got fired. $10 says D Brandon gives Hoke waaaaay more time than Rich Rod to turn things around.

To be fair we don't know that he hasn't spoken to the players back in SD.  Could have been a conference call due to the timeline.  Maybe he will go back and talk to them also; you're just making an assumption here.

...about the last two minutes of the presser.  He really put his heart on his sleeve there. 

Another thing to keep in mind, he was speaking primarily to the "PRESS."  He wasn't talking to fans, former players, alumni (i guess some of the press are alumni, including Drew Dull), etc.  I am glad he put them in their place.  These were the same people who were crapping on the program.  DB knows that and wasn't ready to make kissy face with them just because they fawned over Hoke. 

Bo, Mo, Lloyd all BLED maize and blue.  They weren't the most sophisticated or innovative.  We loved them because they loved UM so much and were passionate, caring, and tenacious.  I get the same feeling from Hoke.

I'm curious as to the relevant evidence that Brady Hoke was his man all along? Again, I'll reiterate a point I thought of before the dismissal of RichRod and the press conference comment, if you are in the business world, you are constantly considering your succession plans. So yes, I'm sure Brandon had a list of potential contacts in mind.

Now, when you stop thinking that this search HAS to have been like most other coaching searches, most hiring processes involve assembling candidates and actually interviewing all of them first. This process gives you a chance to actually use data, interviews, and recommendations to select the best coach, not just the flavor of the week. I think he was high on Hoke, but again, why even reach out to Fitzgerald. Outside of this blog (of which I was one of many that advocated for before and after the firing) no one was talking about Fitz, so it's not like asking to interview would be appeasing anyone (like Harbaugh/Miles). Also, I'm actually applying for a coaching job right now, had my second interview today, but during the initial interview, I was told that I was probably the strongest candidate out of all four initially interviewed. But that doesn't mean I was going to get the job, they are doing their due diligence. I might not click with some of the current staff that would be working under me. 

Finally, what is your evidence that some of those who have defected might have stayed with a Hoke hiring anyhow. Would more time help - possibly, but not guaranteed. DB played under Bo Schembechler. He has a degree from UofM. He was a CEO of Domino's Pizza. He's a former regent, and now an athletic director. I think he's earned a bit more respect and our patience. 

Are you implying that JH and LM, the other two most talked about candidates, have no integrity? Or perhaps that was meant for RR? Totally uncalled for in all three instances in my opinion.

He *had* to pursue Harbaugh to the depth's end. And I'm sure that was his plan. Everybody, including me, would have disavowed the program if he had hired Hoke a month ago.

And I'm not buying the argument that all these flights take a week to get lined up; they don't. At any rate, don't you think everybody that showed up today would have been thrilled with JH as well? Or Miles? If I Were DB, I'd have them lined up no matter who the coach was. It only makes sense.

Bottom line is, you can have your theories that this was all a charade to dupe you, and sure some of that necessarily goes on with something very public that one is trying to keep private, but you can't objectively judge a guy on what you don't know.

I guess most of you haven't been involved in management or in hiring managers, vice presidents, etc, but it's much different in the business world than in the athletic world.

How's it going up there on your high horse, Mr. President? Just cut the Athletic Dept. their annual check and talk down to the folks on mlive.

this is strangely familiar...like i just read it on facebook...