Informal poll: did this game change your opinion of Hoke?

Pre-season, I would have said A. 

I chalked Akron up to a fluke. 
After UConn, I would have said B.

Now, I'm afraid it might be C. 

Quite simply because we have actually regressed overall as a team from last year. I wouldn't expect them to be world beaters this year, but I definitely do not believe we should be worse. Can you imagine what our O-line would be like if Lewan had not returned? We would most likely have lost all of our close games this year. Think about how close those games were and if you remove the Lewan effect, we go down in flames to some very, very bad teams. As the season progresses, it is clear that these were not anomalies or 'off' weeks for the team. The teams that almost beat us are not better than we thought, they are that bad.

How did we get worse?

I think Hoke is a good college football coach and is one of the best fit for M football program. However, his shortcoming is obvisous, he doesn't know offense well enough to adjust in the game. He doesn't seems to be a good game manager in real-time, at least compared to elithe college coach such as meyer, saban. He adapt his scheme to his personnel too slowly, perticualerly on offense, through out the season. If you look back the past 3 seasons, he made some changes during the seasons that seems obvious from the outsiders and fans, but usually made the changes after a couple of game until fans beat the dead horse a couple of times. But the good side is at least he's willing to adapt to get the best outcome and learn their lessons.

I myself think, in the long term, we need a better OC, and a dedicate QB coach, like the old day, I am not sure TE coach is essetial, TE development in the past 3 years has not been great either. Either they cannot block, or they cannot receive, and there is no sign they are getting better. The TE development duty can probably goes to OL or WR coach such that we can save a spot for a dedicate QB coach. QB passing ability usually goe downward through out the season, and their mechanics get worse and worse throuhgh out the season.  I also think Fred Jackson probably should retire, our RB corps in the last 7 years have not been good. Don't tell me the talent level of OL or RB are not there. We have better talent than 80% of the NCAA schools, including MSU. I think it's time to have a young RB coach, to kick start this group for M football.

I love Hoke, but I'm afraid this is who we are -- an up and down team -- until Jim Harbaugh decides he's ready to come back to knock Urban Meyer's dick into the dirt.

Fitz Toussaint are products of Rich Rodriguez and they are the main ball handlers, we turn it over at qb and I've given up on Fitz. Still not his recruited players are on the field. I always say it takes 4-5 years to fully start over.

Game but I'm now at C. I have no doubts that Hoke has all the intangibles but I'm seriously concerned about whether or not he has the tangibles.

B. He's definitely fallen back to earth in my eyes. I still like his motivator and high level manager approach to head coaching, but he needs to be more involved in key situations. After last game, I'm not entirely sure he's hands off by choice, or if he's just not that good at game management. Given his entire body of work at Michigan so far, I still think he's the best guy for the job though.

As far as changes go. I think Funk needs to go. He's had so many options and whiffed on just about everyone. We can't get two guys next to each other to make a hole without putting our tackles next to each other and even then it's not that great. There is absolutely no coherence to what the line as a unit is doing. Last year, he didn't have many options but this year it's clear the guys sitting behind the starters are even worse. That's just not acceptable.

 

For me it comes back to the trenches. We don't get push on either line. I'm critical of Borges but its hard to be balanced when your Oline can't get you 3rd and inches. I know we are young or inexperienced but I wanna see improvement.

There is not another coach in the world that I would rather have at Michigan. And I say this while placing 100% of the blame for last nights loss on him. What did you guys expect from this team? We have the worst line in M history. It seems like Hoke saw this coming and appropriately brought in 11 OL in his first two full classes. What else can he do? Make RS Freshman good? I don't expect that. With a shit OL, your offense is going to be shit. Shockingly, we've been a bit better than shit, because our QB is capable of magic. He also routinely spots the other team points. What did you expect? I figures we'd be very helter-skelter. Some of you thought Gardner was going pro after this season. EL OH EL. Defense is fine. Special teams have been fine, excepting last night. Recruiting has been great. Morale of the program has been great. Public relations have been great. NCAA compliance has been great. It was never on the cards for us to be a great team this year. We lost a game. It was on the road. We should have won it, so it hurts. But anyone who thinks Hoke isn't a good coach is either too emotional at the moment or a fuckwit.

the amount of run plays run coupled with the utter lack of productivity out of the running game just screams insanity.

nfm

entirely B, I think Hoke is a great coach, his biggest weakness is his choice of a OC. I do get tired of the excuses of youth too. If he's going to let his coaches coach then he needs someone innovative running the offense

than scapegoating. And it's hardly Hoke's fault, let alone Borges's, that Gibbons missed two field goal tries that were within regular reach, through 16 made FGs in a row, last night. He makes those and we are here breathing another sigh of relief. 

What I DO blame Hoke for is the time management (the pooch kick either works or it doesn't; it's a 50/50 call that happened NOT to pan out--no blame there). He's got to get word in to Devin to watch that clock like a hawk and milk it correctly. 

And here's where my view of Hoke is a bit more CONFIRMED than changed as of last night. He's a pretty easy-going guy, and not a tenacious intellect. And that may be what the ideal coach IS. Instead we have a game manager, a Bobby Bowden-type who is quite lovable but is not contributing everything he could on the sideline.

He's got a decidedly old-school philosophy, imported from the MAC schools. And the jury is very, very out. MORE out after last night, where an aggressive spread was clearly catching us flatfooted from time to time.

My hunch is that we're stuck in the perennial also-ran position with this approach. But there's no guarantee you succeed with basketball on wheels, as RR showed. BOTH experiments may fail, given our fairly big demands; there may be no adequate solution to the dilemmas M faces, and there are certainly no guarantees. 

Looking back, however, you have to wish A) that RR had been given money for a serious defensive hire; B) that the Freep hadn't screwed him, C) that the alumni and former players hadn't screwed him; and D) that he hadn't screwed himself.  The experiment might well be over by now, anyway, and a clear failure. But we would have had a clearer view of the relative value of the approaches. 

EDIT: Worth pointing out, as Brian often has, that Hoke has made a LOT of gutty and non-conservative calls down the stretch in Michigan games the last several years, gaining a lot of wins that were by no means assured. Again, to me this suggests that the passivity was the issue last night. Shawn Windsor has a nice parsing of the late-game decisions at the Freep right now; I don't agree with all, but--yes--with much of it. 

The job of the staff is to put the players in a postion to win, rather than not to lose.  Unfortunately our current staff is not doing this which is why we suffer these gut crushing losses. This is becoming a Michigan tradition that goes back at least to Lloyd and possibly to Bo himself.

Being stubborn is not a strategy, at least not a strategy for success.  If what you are doing isn't working, CHANGE IT.  This shouldn't be a foreign concept.  This failure to adapt has cost us many close games since I was a freshman in 1971, especially in bowl games and against major rivals.

I'm not suggesting we convert to a spread with the read-option being our staple play but throwing short passes and the occasional deep ball in order to set up the run would seem to be a rational strategy given our deficiencies on the offensive line. Splitting four receivers out will prevent teams from loading up in the box.  That is what Tressel did in 2006 with excellent results. This year, Northwestern and Indiana (fer godssake) have more dynamic offenses than we do and Sparty seems to have found an offense as well.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Last nights' game and last years OSU game and too many others to list have been lost partially because of our approach to the game.  Something has to change-either our strategy or our staff- if Michigan is to be a consistent winner..  I am willing to give them time to develop their own recruits but the results should be very obvious and very soon.

B

Mattison is doing dumb things like rushing 3, yet he does what is necesscary when the game is on the line. They are young and getting better, yet I'd like to see the coaches actually teach our ends and LBs to, you know, rip and swim inside so their aggressive rush doesn't take them right out of the play. This is the best unit on our squad.

Borges...sigh. An inside screen to Devin Funchess? Like really? Even my girlfriend was like, why is there such a large man getting the ball so close to all the other large men? A QB rollout would be nice? You know, to offset out struggling OL and take advantage of Devin's speed ability to improvise with his WR/TEs. Borges sucks, plain and simple. Needs to go.

Special Teams have not gotten any better since Hoke has been here. I don't think we've had a kick or punt return for a TD since he's been here. We keep saying Norfleet is going to break one...he has the ability...he does not have the blocking or the coaching to learn how to follow them.Coverage has left a lot to be desired. Kicking?  Gibbons reverted back to the RichRod struggles. Also he is now 240 pounds. That blocked kick on us was just a complete lack of effort on the line thinking the game was done. I don't think Ferrigno is doing anything.

Gardner is also not good, but I believe it is Borges destroying him with stupid playcalls and personnel on the field. Also, he needs to look at the god damn playclock.

Hoke needs to make a change, and if he doesn't? I don't even want to go there. Just do it.

Not really. Notre Dame's 20 years in the wilderness should be a lesson to people foolish enough to want to find another coach. Besides, who would we get that could deliver a NC? Meyer, Tressel, Chip Kelley, Saban, Chizick, Pete Carrol, Les Miles, Butch Davis. All cheaters. Seriously, there are very few coaches who can deliver while maintaining the type of Ethics I want in my Wolverines. One of them now coaches San Francisco.

I do think Funk has to go, and I think we need a QB coach. Otherwise, we just need to give a young team time.

Caveat: I think Borges should get one more year with the chance to figure out a way to replace Funk if necessary (maybe that's Hoke's call though, don't know how that reporting structure works). Either way, hard not to justify an offensive coaching change at this point. What a wate of Fitz's talents.

B- flirting with a C+  I know that we are young but it does not seem like our players have been progressing for a while.  Blaming our problems on RR players can only go so far.  I'm not ready to cash it in just yet though but the state game is really worrying me now.

B-. I am positive that Borges will limit this team for as long as he is here. Game management and overall player development bodes very unwell for Hoke too. I am being kept from voting a C only by optimism and Hoke's stellar recruiting.