Mark Smith, Former LB/DL Coach, Takes Job at Florida Tech

Submitted by State Street on

We now have coaching alumni from the Hoke staff at Colorado State - Pueblo (?) and Florida Tech (?), two schools that actually exist.

 

Source: Former Michigan DL coach Mark Smith has accepted same position at Florida Tech http://t.co/sNnVtyuq1F pic.twitter.com/jniKWzpKHP

— FootballScoop Staff (@FootballScoop) April 23, 2015

JonnyHintz

April 23rd, 2015 at 1:52 PM ^

At the same time, both Hoke and Mattison are DLine specialists. So how much credit is Mark Smith actually going to get in that? It's debatable, but I don't think you can say for certain that that can be attributed solely to Mark Smith. It's just crazy to me to see where Hoke's staff has ended up after their tenures here, and to compare that to where our current staff came from. Hoke's staff going mostly to FCS and D2 schools, with a few lower FBS teams sprinkled in, compared to our current staff coming mostly from the NFL. Speaks volumes to the coaching that these guys have received in recent years, compared to what they are about to get.

JonnyHintz

April 23rd, 2015 at 1:56 PM ^

Im hard pressed to find a single staff member on this team that isn't a significant upgrade over their predecessors under Hoke. Maybe Wheatley compared to Jackson? But that's only if you're taking into account Jackson's long resume and the top backs he has produced. Conversely, he fallen off in recent years in terms of production from running backs. Wheatley has a short, but very good resume as comparison. Quite literally, every other position is a significant upgrade.

The Mad Hatter

April 23rd, 2015 at 2:31 PM ^

but I think a lot of those guys actually regressed.  We had top rated recruiting classes just completely shitting the bed, especially the last two years.  I almost think that someone with a copy of Coaching D1 Football for Dummies could have done a better job.

If Hoke was smart, he would have hired the best assistants that money could buy and let them run the show.  The one good thing about Brandon is that he wasn't afraid to spend money on staff.  Hoke could have gotten a staff almost as good as the one here now and just been a figurehead coach like JoPa's last several years.

alum96

April 23rd, 2015 at 5:01 PM ^

That was the hope with Hoke.  That he was a Bobby Bowden type - an aw shucks dude who loved his school and hired a cadre of ridiculous assistants.  Instead we got Hoke assistants.  Nuss was here 1 whole year and straight out of Bama so can't give much credit to Hoke there - other than Mattison (a personal friend and yes I know most coaches have some friendship with assistants) the rest outside of 1 guy who went to the Pac 12 are nowhere to be found in the P5. 

If anyone knows the ability of coaches it is other coaches.  And this aftermath speaks volumes.

LSAClassOf2000

April 23rd, 2015 at 2:12 PM ^

Florida Tech has only had football for a couple years now, if I am not mistaken. Interesting chance to try and be part of getting a fledgling Division II program off the ground though. They are in the same conference as Valdosta, Lee and a host of deep South directional colleges, I believe. Good luck to him. 

LandryHD

April 23rd, 2015 at 2:25 PM ^

I am very good friends with Mark Smith's son. I got to go to several games because of them including UTL2 (had field passes and all). Great family to be around with! So I wish him the best of luck

CoverZero

April 23rd, 2015 at 3:23 PM ^

Fred Jackons's first 10 years at Michigan were amazing:  Ricky Powers, Wheatley, Biakabatuka, Chris Howard, A-Train, Chris Perry etc.  The last 10 pretty much sucked.  Of course the talent level dropped off big time, and talent is the single biggest factor in how a position coach is evaluated.

Perkis-Size Me

April 23rd, 2015 at 9:16 PM ^

I don't want to knock Hoke and his staff too much (and maybe I'm going to end up doing it anyway), but it says something about the quality of his staff when essentially none of his guys can go out and land what are considered to be "good" jobs.

Just one more feather in the "Hoke and Co. were in over their heads" cap.



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Crisler 71

April 24th, 2015 at 9:41 AM ^

What is interesting is that Hoke had almost that much upgrade over RichRod's coaching staff in terms of where they came from.  Outside of W.Va RichRod had a mostly nobody staff.