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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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.......

Joined: 07/29/2010

MGoPoints: 25756

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.......

Joined: 07/29/2010

MGoPoints: 25756

Michigan4Life

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:26 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.......

Joined: 07/29/2010

MGoPoints: 25756

Michigan4Life

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:26 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.......

Joined: 07/29/2010

MGoPoints: 25756

Michigan4Life

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:26 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.......

Joined: 07/29/2010

MGoPoints: 25756

Michigan4Life

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:26 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.......

Joined: 07/29/2010

MGoPoints: 25756

Mgoscottie

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:45 PM ^

I think that Gardner's health had a lot to do with it.  He looked much healthier in the ohio games.  This year they had a bye week 2 weeks before and Gardner was really beat up after msu two years ago.  

Joined: 08/25/2009

MGoPoints: 16446

M-Dog

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:52 PM ^

It had more to do with Ohio State than Michigan. The rivalry is a big deal to them and they tended to play very tight early in the game.

The rivalry is also a big deal to Michigan, and Hoke's teams would give their best, focused effort of the year. We usually surprised them with an early lead which would make them play even tighter.

But the pattern was always the same. They would break out of their funk by the fourth quarter, become their normal selves, and pull away.

I would not put much stake in the notion that we were "nearly as good" as Ohio State under Hoke. More like they were nearly as bad as us for 3 quarters when they played us.

Hoke's team hung with Ohio State this year for 3 quarters, but there is no way they would have given Alabama anywhere near the game that Ohio State gave them.

Joined: 07/06/2008

MGoPoints: 257573

Former_DC_Buck

January 3rd, 2015 at 1:00 PM ^

The trollish part of me was going to say Urban kept it close to keep Hoke In Ann Arbor. Kind of like how I let my son almost beat me in games like Chess, Checkers and Connect Four so he still wants to play me. But every now and then it gets way closer than I intended. However, the realistic fan in me agrees with you. I think Urban has a little Cooper in him and plays the game too tight. I think you also saw some of that at Penn State this year. The night road game with a young team just seemed to have them turtle up. And then JT getting dinged made matters worse. But I do think that game was good prep for our trip to EL.

Joined: 12/01/2013

MGoPoints: 1591

SECcashnassadvantage

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:53 PM ^

Hoke is suppose to get the team in game mode and inspire them to play at an elite level. Rivalry games do this on their own. Sparty isn't a true rival regardless of their recent short term success. They aren't a national program and any bowl committee will always pick us over them when its close. Their team colors are ugly, they have a losing tradition, and their fans are fairweather. They will die out the day Dantonio is promoted to a national powerhouse, which will be soon.

Joined: 01/25/2014

MGoPoints: 2662

MichiganMan20

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:55 PM ^

Well if you think about it, there isn't a large disparity when it comes to talent between the 2 teams and when you're talking about a rivalry game, you know both teams are going to play their hearts out. Therefore you get close competitive games, except against MSU, man they treat that game like the super bowl while we just show up expecting to win because we're Michigan. Now that we have Harbaugh, I fully expect this team to come out and compete to the best of its ability, week in and week out. They do that and I think the fan base will be surprised by how good this team actually is.

Joined: 05/16/2010

MGoPoints: 4110

M-Dog

January 2nd, 2015 at 5:55 PM ^

It had more to do with Ohio State than Michigan. The rivalry is a big deal to them and they tended to play very tight early in the game.

The rivalry is also a big deal to Michigan, and Hoke's teams would give their best, focused effort of the year. We usually surprised them with an early lead which would make them play even tighter.

But the pattern was always the same. They would break out of their funk by the fourth quarter, become their normal selves, and pull away.

I would not put much stake in the notion that we were "nearly as good" as Ohio State under Hoke. More like they were nearly as bad as us for 3 quarters when they played us.

Hoke's team hung with Ohio State this year for 3 quarters, but there is no way they would have given Alabama anywhere near the game that Ohio State gave them.

Joined: 07/06/2008

MGoPoints: 257573

snarling wolverine

January 2nd, 2015 at 7:13 PM ^

But the pattern was always the same. They would break out of their funk by the fourth quarter, become their normal selves, and pull away.

Huh? The 2012 game was 26-21.  The only scoring in the second half was a pair of OSU field goals.

The 2013 game was 42-41. The difference was the 2-point attempt at the end.

2014 is the only one that fits the "pattern" you describe, and it might not have done so had Drake Johnson not gone down.

Joined: 12/14/2011

MGoPoints: 98768

Blau

January 2nd, 2015 at 6:28 PM ^

One of Brady Hoke's best qualities was his understanding of the importance of our traditional 3 rivals in ND, MSU and OSU. I think one of Harbaugh's best qualities will be taking that importance and transferring it onto the field for wins.

Joined: 01/23/2014

MGoPoints: 35411

Blau

January 2nd, 2015 at 6:28 PM ^

One of Brady Hoke's best qualities was his understanding of the importance of our traditional 3 rivals in ND, MSU and OSU. I think one of Harbaugh's best qualities will be taking that importance and transferring it onto the field for wins.

Joined: 01/23/2014

MGoPoints: 35411

Blau

January 2nd, 2015 at 6:28 PM ^

One of Brady Hoke's best qualities was his understanding of the importance of our traditional 3 rivals in ND, MSU and OSU. I think one of Harbaugh's best qualities will be taking that importance and transferring it onto the field for wins.

Joined: 01/23/2014

MGoPoints: 35411

WolverineHistorian

January 2nd, 2015 at 6:39 PM ^

In 2011, OSU wasn't good. Plain and simple. They were a miracle hail mary away against Wisconsin from being 5-6 coming into the big house. Braxton Miller sort of came of age, unfortunately. But we were the better team all around. In 2012, I did not think OSU was as good as their record. Just like I didn't think we were as good as our record the season before. They beat a 9 loss Cal team 35-28, a 6 loss MSU team 17-16, a 7 loss Purdue team 29-22, an 8 loss Indiana team 52-49 and a 6 loss Wisconsin team 21-14. They had no wins against a top 20 team. They didn't play 2 teams competing for the national championship in non-conference season like we did. Our offensive line wasn't very good but it was not the train wreck yet that it would become in 2013 and 14. It didn't surprise me that game was close. Al Borges' playcalling sucked in the second half. But our defense was impressive. In 2013, the levels of suck I saw during the season sometimes felt worse than RichRod. The team was agonizing to watch. We just came off a game where we managed ONE scoring drive all day against Nebraska's 116th ranked defense. My prediction before the game was that we would lose 42-6. But for some reason, our offensive line actually did decent, Devin played out of his mind and Borges opened up the playbook because why not wait until the 12th game of the season to do such a thing? Unfortunately, the defense, which was supposed to be the strength of this team, was about as bad as what we saw under GERG. Sadly, even if we scored on the two point conversion, I didn't have much faith that the defense could close out the final 30 seconds of that game. In 2014, I was beyond dead inside. Didn't expect a miracle or a close game. The team played better than I thought but it was probably just a matter of the rivalry and the players playing harder because they knew Hoke was toast after that Maryland game.

Joined: 08/10/2009

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Chitown Kev

January 2nd, 2015 at 7:35 PM ^

there was (or is) a great talent differential between the 2. Hoke also did some of his best coa hing jobs in the OSU games but at critical moments Meyer showed why he is a vastly superior coach. Give me Harbaugh for the 2012-2014 games and Michigan wins all 3 games.

Joined: 10/01/2011

MGoPoints: 4970

Chitown Kev

January 2nd, 2015 at 7:41 PM ^

there was (or is) a great talent differential between the 2. Hoke also did some of his best coa hing jobs in the OSU games but at critical moments Meyer showed why he is a vastly superior coach. Give me Harbaugh for the 2012-2014 games and Michigan wins all 3 games.

Joined: 10/01/2011

MGoPoints: 4970

Magnus

January 2nd, 2015 at 7:42 PM ^

Some of you may disagree, but I really think this Michigan program is stocked very well with talent. There are question marks at some positions (quarterback, safety), but Michigan hung with Ohio State because they were mentally ready and because they have talent. For whatever reason, I don't think Hoke's teams consistently had the fiery mind-set required to come out and win on a consistent basis. Unfortunately, it took The Game to bring that out of them. I fully expect that Harbaugh will get the team fired up to play on a more regular basis.

Joined: 07/17/2008

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UofM626

January 2nd, 2015 at 10:00 PM ^

Just like RR and his teams we pulled the plug 1 year too early. I'm batshit happy we got Harbaugh but the team was finally getting older and ready to jump, but o well... Harbaugh will take us to the promised land

Joined: 01/02/2012

MGoPoints: 3443

kjblue42

January 2nd, 2015 at 10:18 PM ^

I was wondering the same thing..Pulled the plug to early? I definitely think not.. Urban has less of a tenure than Hoke did.. Mental advantage, very possibly so. Hoke had been a part of the rivalry before, a part that was successful.. I would have to imagine he learned some tricks in preparation leading up to the big game. His heart was in the right place and he had passion but he is no Harbaugh and lacked many skills to be the caliber coach he needed to be. You will quickly find this when watching a JH coached M team when he molds these men properly and to be the best.

Joined: 01/15/2014

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UofM626

January 2nd, 2015 at 10:24 PM ^

Granted we didn't have the mental make up as the other teams, we definitely pulled the plug to early on RR and on Hoke! I don't care what anyone says here, I'm happy as hell to have Harbaugh but I still think we pulled the plug to early on both of them. Those are my opinions and that's what I think. I've been a fan well over 30 plus years and I was sad to see us have those issues but it was sadder to see how the fan base treated RR and how they turned on Hoke like that. We're a fickle bunch and I hope Harbaugh whips the team into a mean machine sooner then later.

Peace

Joined: 01/02/2012

MGoPoints: 3443

Wolfman

January 2nd, 2015 at 11:47 PM ^

it was the only one he had his team mentally prepared for...........to a degree, that is. He should have easily had a 2-0 record over Urb but inexplicably allowed the second half of the second meeting go for naught as he repeatedly allowed Al to pick up 8 to 9 yds on first down passing and then try to run into the line for the first down, only to be denied.  A couple times, OK. But the entire half.  Hoke was in over his head from the time he got to Michigan and I have no idea why Brandon ever hired a coach with a lifetime winning pct. of under .500 to take the reins. Good guy, terrible big league Head Man.

Joined: 07/23/2008

MGoPoints: 8259

treetown

January 3rd, 2015 at 2:01 AM ^

Short simple answer = college football

Most of the team will never play pro ball let alone get a tryout. So this game is the highlight of their football careers. Lately it has been one desparate battle against impossible odds - and they nearly pull it off.

Great spirit.

 

Joined: 11/10/2010

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