How long until we hear about possible coaching changes for Michigan?

I'm not sure why people think a guy who actually played football here wouldn't care about the success of the team.  Doesn't he attend the weekly film sessions?  That doesn't sound like the actions of a guy who's just a bean counter.

Brandon has better access to the program than any of us, and can compare what he sees now with what he experienced under Bo, and what he observed under RichRod.  He now has a lot of frames of reference.  If what he sees behind the scenes gives him confidence, maybe we shouldn't be writing Hoke off.

We finished one game out of first place in our division in Brady's first two years - and if Denard hadn't damaged his ulnar nerve, we probably win the division in the second year.  We weren't that far off.

Hoke hasn't won those things. Chizik did. Out of 6 seasons as a coach, that was also his only one where he had more than 8 wins. He also finished with 3 or fewer wins in half of his seasons as a head coach. He also was above .500 in conference once in his career. Lastly, his final season he had zero conference wins and went 3-9 (the programs worst record in 60 years). Let's not even get into all the off-field issues surrounding the program.

So Auburn fired him to hire the OC that you love so much and is apparently pretty good at what he does. So, again, there aren't really many parallels between Chizik and Auburn and Hoke and Michigan.

Hoke was DC at Florida from 1999-2001, which was his last college job.  If he returns to the college ranks, I don't think it would be as a mere position coach at this point - unless he really wants to work with his brother (which could be the case, I don't know) and/or becomes Mattison's designated successor.

Steve Spurrier wanted Jon Hoke to join him back in 2004 to be the defensive coordinator of the Gamecocks. I wouldn't mind to see Jon come in and replace Curt, if Curt left to get a DC or head coaching job. Jon would be a good potential DC after Mattison retires. Or Jon would also be someone who would be beneficial to have around if Michigan hired a younger guy once Mattison retired. 

Can you provide more specific evidence of the drop off in combine and pro day workouts?

Hmmm, I don't remember us being all that good at controlling the line of scrimmage in the RR years.  We had a lot of big plays, but converting short yardage, and in the redzone in general, was a lot more challenging.  Illinois 2009 comes to mind.

As for the defense, it was on the field a lot for the same reason that most bad defenses are on the field a lot: it didn't get stops.

Part of the disappointment at the Combine and pro days might be that we just didn't have very good players the past couple years. I think Denard Robinson was the only guy at the Combine last year, and other representatives at the pro day included former walk-on Jordan Kovacs, the legendary JT Floyd, our poor interior offensive line, etc.