How did Brady Hoke's teams hang with Ohio State?

Submitted by Couzen Rick's on
The one interesting thing I found throughout Brady Hoke's tenure, was he consistently had teams that were less talented and lower ranked than Urban Meyer's, but yet he always managed to make the OSU game extremely competitive, usually within a possession until the very end, occasionally controlling the game early on. It was almost as if Michigan had the mental advantage over OSU, completely opposite of the Jim Tressel era, when they dominated Rich Rod and Carr, including Carr teams that were ranked higher and were more talented. I was wondering if you all had any explanation for this, if it was a Hoke thing or a Meyer thing, and if Harbaugh would be able to continue the good showings, but get over the hump and actually win?
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Bigfoot

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:04 PM ^

They didnt quit like Alabama did last night.  Am I the only one that was sad to watch the Bama guys send it in after the first quarter and wait for the NFL to come calling? 

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snarling wolverine

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:42 PM ^

How did Bama quit?  They lost by 7 and had the ball with a chance to tie in the final minute.

You can argue perhaps that Bama's players didn't take OSU as seriously as they should have in preparation, but I don't think they failed to play hard in the game itself.

Now FSU, they quit.

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snarling wolverine

January 2nd, 2015 at 6:03 PM ^

I just think Alabama wasn't quite as good as everyone assumed.  They lost to Ole Miss, could have very easily lost to LSU, and their D got gashed by Auburn.  They probably have the most raw talent but Saban didn't get the most out of it for whatever reason.  Maybe a sense of entitlement crept in.

Also, Lane Kiffin.

 

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Former_DC_Buck

January 3rd, 2015 at 11:58 AM ^

I don't think Alabama took OSU seriously, at least to some point. And between turnovers and poor redzone play we got down 21-6. Even when we got close, they didn't seem to really wake up. Even when we were up by 6 they were still not playing with urgency.. Their punter kept us at like the 4 most of the late 3rd and 4the quarter and I think they just expected us to submit to the inevitable. It wasn't until Elliot's run to put us up by 14 that their spine seemed to stiffen and they relaized they were in trouble. And at that point they tried real hard to come back and played with urgency. I didn't see quit. I saw some complacency and some odd coaching choices (on both sides) but I did not see quit.

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1of12MattDamons

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:05 PM ^

 

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unWavering

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:05 PM ^

It's just the nature of the rivalry.  The lesser team always plays up to its opponent.  Unless you're coached by Rich Rod.

/s on the last part, kind of.

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San Diego Mick

January 2nd, 2015 at 11:45 PM ^

and I agree we were not imaginative enough on offense too often until that awesome Bowl Game against the Florida Tebow's, I loved that offensive game plan and I hope JH incorpoates some of it.

 

But as far as Carr vs. Tressel, let's review:

2001  We should have beat them at home but OSU played inspired and won 26-21

2002  They were undefeated and we were eventually a 4 loss team and OSU escaped with a 14-9 win at home

2003  we won 35-21

2004, I think they beat us something like 37-21, awful game for Henne

2005  we had all kinds of injuries and Tressel uses players who should have been ineligible like Troy Smith and it took a miracle 4th qt comeback for OSU to win 25-21

2006  we all remember that game, #1 vs #2, OSU wins 42-39 in a classic.

2007  again we had all kinds of injuries and lost 14-3 to a team that played in the NCG that year and had we been healthy like we were for the bowl game against Fla., we prolly win that game.

 

So please folks, don't say Carr got whooped by Tressel, that was Rich Rod.

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Coach Carr Camp

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:07 PM ^

My completely unsubstantiated theory is that Hoke knew the importance of that game, and thus put in significantly more time in the off season game planning for them. I know NFL teams do this against some more important opponents.

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Khrothgat

January 3rd, 2015 at 1:34 AM ^

I always imagine Brady Hoke saying: "The Ohio game is the season. Plan a little for it every day, set aside some of our playbook for it, and when we win it, everything will come together."  As far as stretegies go, btw, that's not the worst one imaginable.  Aside from the fact that OSU is the last game of the season, beating the Bucks is definitely a ticket for success.  I'm not sure that it's worth holding back some of the playbook all year for, though.

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funkywolve

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:08 PM ^

If you look at recruiting results over the last 4-5 years, OSU and UM have been pretty even when it comes to signing high school players (OSU does have an edge).  While Meyer has definitely done a better job of developing recruits, the difference in raw talent on the rosters (at least according to the recruiting rankings) isn't that great.

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funkywolve

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:08 PM ^

If you look at recruiting results over the last 4-5 years, OSU and UM have been pretty even when it comes to signing high school players (OSU does have an edge).  While Meyer has definitely done a better job of developing recruits, the difference in raw talent on the rosters (at least according to the recruiting rankings) isn't that great.

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tlo2485

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:09 PM ^

I think osu played too conservatively against us... either urban wanted to tame rivalry emotions and limit mistakes or he just thought they didn't need to be fancy to beat us

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Schembo

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:10 PM ^

I was thinking about this the other day.  Brady had no problem getting guys to play up more to their potential during The Game,  but just couldn't do it for the majority of the other games.   I don't think the players had much confidence in the coaches or each other during the season, at least on the offensive side of the ball, and it showed.  When the OSU games came around they just laid it all out on the line.  They had nothing to lose.

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Ray

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:24 PM ^

plus the awful Hoke road record is one of the great mysteries of his tenure.  He was 7-13 on the road, including 0-7 against State, tOSU and ND playing away.  Yet he could get them fired up enough to make it competitive against the Buckeyes.  Really strange.

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alum96

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:15 PM ^

More strange how did Indiana give them a game for 3 quarters.  Or how did PSU with zero offense almost beat them this year (and should have if not for replay officials suddenly not able to find a replay).

This year Barrett did not play well in the 1st half until Mattison went to his "we did a good on your offense for most of the 1st half but in this last drive we will give you a TD, k?" defense and then Jones came in completely cold and with zero experience in the latter part of the game.  So basically their starting QB played well for 5 minutes of the first and part of the 3rd.  And they still won comfortably.

Last year Devin Gardner played one of the best games of 2013 in the entire NCAA.  He put up Baylor type #s: 32-45 451 yards 4TDs. 

In 2012 it was Urbz's first year and Miller was not super duper (I think Barrett is the scarier QB).  We had Denard as our RB with Devin as QB- that worked great against Iowa but Borges decided to ignore it for an entire half vs OSU.

OSU's D under Fickell was not that good in 2013 or 2012.  This year with Ash on board it took a big step up. 

But as someone else said, rivalry man. 

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ThadMattasagoblin

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:18 PM ^

They weren't really as good as their record indicated until this year, Hoke had his players fired up for that one game, and it was clear that the SEC wasn't as good as advertised.

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Blarvey

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:21 PM ^

Did you notice how the playbook suddenly opened vs. OSU? All of the Devin magic in the 2013 game was designed to hide the weak OL. This year we saw much more sensible calls and a lightly used Drake Johnson who did a great job getting to the second level.

I also think he got his players up for it with the whole Ohio thing. Unfortunately it wasn't always enough and the defenses struggled, especially vs. Hyde.

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Michigan4Life

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:25 PM ^

Hoke put all of his effort on OSU game and the team get up for the game whille they look like a shitshow on 11 other games. It shows on the field against OSU. If only Hoke can do the same for the rest of the games.......

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