September 28th, 2021 at 11:11 PM ^
but Devin Gardner was a wide receiver
Devin Gardner was the #5 ranked QB in the country coming out of high school.
September 28th, 2021 at 3:54 PM ^
He recruited the core of the 2016 team which was Harbaugh's best team easily. Hoke is a terrific recruiter
September 28th, 2021 at 4:34 PM ^
And 2011 was easily Hoke's best team.
September 28th, 2021 at 6:22 PM ^
The one defense I will give Hoke is that he ran into a recruiting buzzsaw in 2011 after OSU hired Urban Meyer. The 2012 class was mostly committed before Urban came along, but you could see quick decline after that. Hoke's honeymoon period ended right there.
September 28th, 2021 at 9:54 PM ^
Maybe I’m misreading your post but I don’t think that’s entirely true. Hoke’s 2013 class was very highly rated (#4 in America on 247) and contained guys like Butt, Lewis, Charlton, McCray, Gedeon, De’Veon, and Hurst. All meaningful contributors as they entered their upperclassmen years, and guys who brought Michigan inches away from a Big Ten title and CFP appearance.
Now by 2014, yeah things were definitely on the decline in recruiting. I think Michigan was hovering around 20 that year, but 2013 was still a great recruiting class in its own right. Not everyone became a contributor of course, but from a pure talent perspective it was very good.
September 28th, 2021 at 10:51 PM ^
But I think some of the work for those recruiting battles were done before Meyer was even hired based off the successful 2011 season--a lot of recruits firm up their preferences and finalists during their junior year.
Hoke's class was good, but Meyer took OSU to another level from Tressel. Meyer's 2013 class was one of the best in OSU and college football history (6 NFL 1st round picks and 2 2nd round picks), and he shut off the inroads Hoke had made into Ohio that year. Gareon Conley flipped from Michigan. Cam Burrows and Billy Price didn't really consider Michigan. Dymonte Thomas was the only head-to-head battle Michigan won that year, and I think that was touch and go for a while with us barely holding on to him from what I remember. I don't think Ohio State even wanted Butt, Charlton, Gedeon, or McCray--their class was that good. Most of the kids in our class in 2013 didn't even have committable OSU offers. It was all over for Hoke at that point.
September 28th, 2021 at 8:13 PM ^
Didn't he also fail to recruit any OLs one year?
September 28th, 2021 at 10:42 PM ^
That was Rich Rod iirc. Hoke was good at recruiting the trenches. QB was tougher for him.
September 28th, 2021 at 3:52 PM ^
I guess I'm unfamiliar with this process- is it a bad sign to hold tryouts mid season or is it typical to have a fall tryout too? Do walk-ons typically try out in spring?
September 28th, 2021 at 5:05 PM ^
I suspect they need practice bodies as much as anything else.
September 28th, 2021 at 4:48 PM ^
Michigan's done this. Nice try.
September 28th, 2021 at 6:53 PM ^
You boys will appreciate this story. Back in the 80's, my husband's brother thought he had a pretty good arm so he went to an open tryout for the Cubs. He was around 20. He showed up at the field, and they told him to take the mound. He didn't play in high school and didn't have a lot of experience throwing off a mound. So he picked up a ball and threw it as hard as he could to the catcher. The momentum, along with his foot getting caught on the rubber, caused him to fall forward and he wiped out. Undeterred, he got back up and threw ten more, as hard as he could, until his arm ached. A guy walked up to him carrying a clipboard and said, "Ok, you can start throwing now." Needless to say, he did not make the team.
September 28th, 2021 at 7:11 PM ^
RichRod hangover? IIRC, he once brilliantly propped up the confidence of our kickers (/sarcasm) by stating that he might pull the team bus over on the way to Happy Valley to hold open tryouts for other kickers.
Seems to me like Fisch and Brown are great coaches who've done well at every stop. Firing Brown because of stupid things that happened in a stupid season that was only stupidly held was stupid.
Yeah, we had issues on defense against better teams. But that's how it works most of the time.
September 28th, 2021 at 7:51 PM ^
Good points. I forgot about RR. The offense didn't get key first downs in those loses where Brown looked bad.
September 28th, 2021 at 10:12 PM ^
Brown deserved to go. The expectation here is to keep OSU under 65 pts a game.
September 29th, 2021 at 8:19 AM ^
Don Brown was worshiped on this blog for a few years, and then he was mud.....
People were calling for Coach Beilein's firing about 1/3 of the way thru several seasons, and then he was worshiped..
its a fickle crowd here
September 29th, 2021 at 8:54 AM ^
Well, at some point you have to adjust to the crossing routes and quick slants. Don Brown still isn't doing that...
September 29th, 2021 at 10:52 AM ^
Don Brown was a very good D-coordinator, especially in 2016, 2017, and honestly most of 2018 leading up to the OSU game. His issue was that his "Dr. Blitz" overly-aggressive schtick started to go stale and (more importantly imo) this compounded with his inability to recruit high enough level talent to backfill the defensive line, particularly on the interior DL to get a solid pass rush.
Remember how the D-line became noticeably worse as the NFL-caliber guys that Hoke recruited slowly began to leave (I mentioned the interior D-line as it has been a key sore spot ever since Mo Hurst left)? Without the big, talented goons up front, you're suddenly not putting enough pressure on the opposing QB---> your CB's playing man all game are suddenly getting put on an island with no pass rush to help them out---> your entire scheme is rendered ineffective and you get wrekt.
September 28th, 2021 at 7:45 PM ^
I like those guys. I hope they can get the team playing better this year and then continue the progress next year. They should be given a chance. They took over a terrible team.
September 29th, 2021 at 12:15 AM ^
You got that right RAH.
September 28th, 2021 at 10:44 PM ^
Michigan is 4-0, ranked #14 in the country and hasn’t trailed all season. So of course we have a thread entitled “It could always be worse.” MGoBlog is in midseason form.
September 28th, 2021 at 11:42 PM ^
UA lost at home to (formerly) I-AA Northern Arizona. That says a lot about the state of the program post RR and Sumlin. Judd may get it moving forward, but Herm has done way better at ASU - if Judd can't even be #2 in his own state, it's a long ride. I liked Judd at UM 2015 and part of 2016 (sans Iowa game) but maybe the dreaded Peter Principle is at work here
September 28th, 2021 at 11:55 PM ^
Who’s Judd?
September 29th, 2021 at 4:21 AM ^
Fisch has been coaching UA four games. Perhaps give it a little time to see how he does.
By the way, Sumlin didn't win a game at UA last year and never made it to .500 in his three years at UA. (RR was above .500 at UA five of six seasons, with one Pac-12 South title.)
September 29th, 2021 at 8:21 AM ^
right? i doubt they'll be Pac 12 champs in the next two seasons, but they'll hold their own, let them get a few players recruited. how many left when their head coach was fired? Jedd hasn't been at the helm for a friggin' year yet.
September 29th, 2021 at 12:12 AM ^
Arizona is better than you think.
I don't think you saw the game Saturday night. I looked for the whole game on YouTube. But only found highlights. So I can't attach the full game here.
Arizona actually looked good. It was exciting to see how they outplayed Oregon. If not for 5 interceptions by their new starting QB, and an illegal forward pass on a trick play on a kick return, Arizona would have likely beaten them. Arizona had been a very bad team pre Fisch/Brown. And in only 4 games, it looks like they have them on the road to a real turn around.
Here's the stats from the game. Arizona numbers are surprisingly good. Though without watching the game, the numbers won't convey the feeling during the game.
September 29th, 2021 at 9:11 AM ^
I take your point, but "if not for 5 interceptions by their new starting QB" is a clause doing a lot of work.
September 29th, 2021 at 1:10 PM ^
how much of that happened when the game was already over?
September 29th, 2021 at 9:53 PM ^
Look at the score by qtr. Arizona was down 5 at the start of the 4th qtr. Look around the internet. The full game might be somewhere. Watch and see, it was a great game. Those picks were killer.
September 29th, 2021 at 7:35 AM ^
Bad shit, Jedd
September 29th, 2021 at 8:05 AM ^
I wonder how long the band stays together out there? Rough start.
September 29th, 2021 at 8:16 AM ^
some of our best players were walk on guys.
September 29th, 2021 at 9:40 AM ^
walk-on tryouts are almost always a p.r. thing. this is no different.
September 29th, 2021 at 10:19 AM ^
Michigan has also done this. I've always thought it was a good idea.