Hoke with no headset?

PurpleStuff, you're definitely one of my favorite posters, but you calling Hoke a "Figurehead" is erroneous and a slap in the face to him.  There are nomerous videos of him physically engaging with his players--shoving and getting shoved--showing that he cares about the nuances of the defensive line.  Unbalance...maybe...but a figurehead...not in the least.

I understood what you meant, or was hoping I did, but using the word Figurehead means that the person is just there for appearance.  The word comes from the figure that was carved out of wood on the head of a ship.  And from a nautical perspective it was a very important and distinctive symbol of the ship, very important to the crew, but still was not considered anything human or part of the crew.

Hoke doesn't have a headset on because isn't directly calling the plays.  Also headsets are heavy, and it would be very easy to grab one of the grad assistants with a headset if he wanted to get a message to Al about the offense.  Greg is on the field, so talking to him about defense, if needed, would be pretty direct.

Now with that said, I do think Hoke is very aware that he is on TV and is trying to provide a specific image of who he is as a head coach.  Exactly like Patton's "warface" which Patton practiced in the mirror every morning.  The liveblog noticed right away that he also wasn't wearing a hat.  So I defnitely understand if you were trying to make this statement with your use of Figurehead, but that word still has the wrong definition and connotation to be the best choice.

Of course your other metaphor of a big wet sexy cheerleader just made me think, "ewwwww" and I wished you had just stuck with Figurehead.

That over-simplifies things a bit.  In terms of the offense, you're totally on point - Hoke doesn't really know what's going on, and to his credit he admits as much.

I think he's probably fairly on top of things on the defensive side of the ball, but he doesn't really need a headset to walk over and talk to Mattison.

Also, per newspaper reports he occasionally did put a headset on to chat with Gorgeous Al. 

I would consider him similair to Vito Corleone acting as Consigliare after he got shot

...seems more like JoePa's current title. Penn State has vastly underachieved the last few years. If you get a real coach there, you could see a FSU type resurgence: fast and potent