OT: Offweek pondering. The Brady Hoke appreciation thread
Look, Brandon probably shouldn't have given Hoke the job here. At times he seemed over his head and his lack of awareness about what was happening on the field was at times baffling. At the end of his tenure it was clear he had to go.
But to his credit, Hoke currently has San Diego State at 5-0 and ranked in the Top 25 with wins over Arizona and Utah. Granted, Rocky Long left him the program in top shape, as SDSU went 10-3 in 2019 including a win over UCLA.
I am very happy to see Coach Hoke have success back at SDSU again. He could have easily packed it in after his embarrassing end at Michigan and just ridden into the sunset to count his money, But he chose to get back in the mud again and, so far, has been quite successful.
His tenure here at Michigan will never be considered good, but after the insanity of the RichRod years he at least restored our defense to respectability and stabilized the program. He especially solidified or defensive line.
So here's to you Coach Hoke, and to continued success at SDSU.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:26 PM ^
Good stuff. Rarely is a man fired for not meeting the mark, but continues unabashedly loving the program that fired him. He kept his head up, kept grinding, and has now found success again at a former stop. That man has integrity and humility - rare and precious qualities in our times. He was also the architect of our 2016 team which was #1 in the country at one point (and a bad spot away from a B1G championship and playoff appearance). Hats off to coach Hoke.
October 14th, 2021 at 3:32 PM ^
One minor correction: we never made it to #1. We got as high as #2, but Bama went wire-to-wire as #1 in all polls (AP, Coaches and CFP) from the preseason until losing to Clemson in the CFP championship game. Still a hell of a team, though, that dominated pretty much every game (save perhaps Colorado, which still ended up a comfortable win) until things went off the rails in Iowa City...
October 14th, 2021 at 4:32 PM ^
Humility! In this day and age and this profession, it rarely exists.
October 14th, 2021 at 4:41 PM ^
He kept his head up, kept grinding, and has now found success again at a former stop.
Just thinking about the money these head coaches make blows my mind. But it is a big business after all. All that to say that Hoke impresses me as the kind of guy that saves his money - doesn't flaunt it on frivolous purchases and big houses like others. Sadly, his grandkids will likely blow their inheritance in a year.
October 14th, 2021 at 4:55 PM ^
What in gods name does any of this have to do with anything?
October 14th, 2021 at 5:11 PM ^
WTF? Why do you assume his grandkids are/will be turds? Epically stupid take.
October 14th, 2021 at 5:41 PM ^
These Boots say otherwise !!!!!
October 15th, 2021 at 9:05 AM ^
Who's the guy on the right? Looks like we resurrected John Wooden and dressed him in Maize and Blue.
October 16th, 2021 at 9:38 AM ^
Logged in just to put some respect on Al Glick's name. Smh.
October 14th, 2021 at 6:27 PM ^
You must be grandpa of the year.
October 14th, 2021 at 6:52 PM ^
Nah, he just mad he already blew through his inheritance in a year.
October 14th, 2021 at 7:32 PM ^
MGoGrendel,
Clearly you didn’t see the house Hoke had in Ann Arbor MI. It was HUGE and full of frivolous purchases.
I know Hoke has a daughter but does he even have grandkids?
October 14th, 2021 at 10:58 PM ^
If your assumption is correct and he only has a daughter right now it doesn't mean he won't have grandkids.
I don't see any reason to attack Hoke. He proved unable to raise the Michigan program to the levels we expect but he loved Michigan and did leave it in a much better position than he found it.
As to his having a house bigger than you approved and his making purchases you deem frivolous....I don't understand why you believe you should pass judgment on such things.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:27 PM ^
Opposite of Cajun Brady is Aztec Ed
Also, does he wear a headset at SDSU? Legitimately curious
October 14th, 2021 at 2:32 PM ^
He wears 2 now.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:50 PM ^
I haven't watched an SDSU game but Google Images suggest that he does indeed wear a headset now.
October 14th, 2021 at 4:45 PM ^
If only he wore a head-set back then! How different would history have been?
Even if no one was on the other end...
... but God.
October 14th, 2021 at 3:21 PM ^
Not wearing a headset was legit weird. Still triggers me.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:27 PM ^
In my opinion, and we all have one, I appreciated that he actually did a halfway decent job of getting the program back on the tracks. His recruiting was outstanding and he knew enough about the Michigan culture to instill that back into the football team. We finally stopped seeing the Rich Rod type defenses that had teams running through them like shit through a tin horn.
Unfortunately he didn't win enough games, and probably wasn't tough enough on the players to get the potential out of them that other coaches could. In the end, it cost him his job. But I feel no animosity towards him.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:31 PM ^
And the concussion thing... I don't mean to crap on Brady Hoke but he got let go because of the horrible way he handled Shane Morris' blindingly obvious concussion.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:39 PM ^
Yes that is what I was referring to with his "baffling lack of awareness about what was happening on the field at times".
The truth is, if he had been winning, he wouldn't have been fired for that. When coaches are losing, anything like that puts the nail in the coffin.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:42 PM ^
Agreed. For his first 2 years, people actually found his clapping and lack of headsets endearing lol. Clapping spoke to his "positivity, and motivational skills" and the lack of headset showed his "immersal in the minutiae of the game and trust for his assistants"
October 14th, 2021 at 3:08 PM ^
I am probably going to be negged for this but there are some fickle fans want Harbaugh to be off the plays. When Brady was around most of us, including myself, were trashing him for not wearing a headset. Our coach wears one and we have a controversy if he is calling the offensive play. Can never win with the fans.
October 14th, 2021 at 3:19 PM ^
You can never win, but there was really no excuse for Hoke to not have a headset. The idea that he needed to "hear football" was ridiculous. The head coach has to be connected to everyone during the game, and the only way to do that is with a headset. Hell, Bo did that 40+ years ago.
October 14th, 2021 at 4:23 PM ^
If you read Bacon’s book, 1) Hoke wasn’t the only one who didn’t see the hit 2) Brandon’s personnel changes eliminated long time safe guards that would have helped mitigate/prevent what happened then 3) Brandon’s meeting to craft a response was an absolute cluster & left Hoke hanging in the wind.
October 14th, 2021 at 4:23 PM ^
Except that Morris has repeatedly pointed out that he wasn't concussed, but had an ankle sprain that caused him to stagger.
Hoke should have taken a time out to allow Russell Bellomy to find his helmet, for sure, but the way Dave Brandon threw Hoke under the bus (later claiming that Morris had suffered a "probable mild concussion" when Morris exhibited none of the signs of concussion) was far worse.
Hoke got let go because he didn't win enough. Brandon was let go because of he was an ass to fans and boosters. In both cases, Concussiongate was just the fig leaf.
October 14th, 2021 at 4:41 PM ^
If you watch the ESPN replay of the game, you can see someone that looks like the team doctor/neurologist talking to Morris between plays (in the background (guys were slim so they weren't the coaches)). The team doctor/neurologist wouldn't comment on Morris directly but he stood in front of the press and said the medical staff followed the proper protocol during the game. It could have been handled better but the medical staff was involved and we should all remember that Hoke lets his team members do what they are supposed to do without his interference.
QB can't find his helmet? Playing on bad ankle after a hard hit? Looks bad. Meanwhile the ESPN analyst was going berserk.
October 14th, 2021 at 6:27 PM ^
Hoke was let go because he did a terrible job here as the coach. People don’t like to hear this but he took over an RR built team and won with it. Something RR would’ve done if he was given one more year. After that Hokes teams did progressively worse ever year until we were 5-7 and were basically a joke as a team.
Hoke is a great guy. Years ago I coached at a UM camp and went out for beers with him one night. He’s a genuine guy and just a great person. He just wasn’t cut out to be a P5 head coach
October 14th, 2021 at 7:48 PM ^
And Harbaugh took over a Brady Hoke built team, and I might add, Hoke was always more competitive against OSU than Harbaugh ever was as a coach.
October 15th, 2021 at 7:58 AM ^
Yes he was but that was before Urban Meyer got the OSU Death Star fully operational.
Also Hoke screwed us on QB recruiting, Bellamy, Morris, and Speight... Small wonder Harbaugh had to get two transfers to fill out the roster over the years.
October 15th, 2021 at 12:10 AM ^
YES. It's exciting to see Rodriguez stans in the wild still--brings me back! Dare I say: you raise me up, friend.
Clearly, Lloyd, the boosters, and the Old Guard with their unkind rumblings really did a number on that incandescent, beautiful, misunderstood genius, because he's been straight dogshit at coaching at every single stop ever since.
And he was just about to turn the corner!
October 15th, 2021 at 3:45 AM ^
"People don’t like to hear this but he took over an RR built team and won with it. Something RR would’ve done if he was given one more year."
There is nothing to indicate Rich Rod would have certainly won in 2011.
His offenses were overrated. His defenses were getting boat-raced. And he all but abandoned the kicking game.
I don't understand why people continue to think RR would have been successful here. It was a bad fit from the start!
October 15th, 2021 at 9:23 AM ^
RR would have won with what D?? RR would have lost more games in 2011 than Hoke did. Look at the scores, think RR would have beat Sparty that season? BTW, where is wonder boy now? Hoke has an undefeated team that he's at the HELM of. Sorry apologist's, we hired a "flash in the pan" coach who's "flash" had already worn dull when he got here. RR dominated the already decimated Big East (FSU, Miami already gone) and has repeatedly demonstrated, since then, that he's not a good coach. His defenses at Arizona, with Casteel(where is he now also) turned out to be exactly as shitty as his defenses everywhere else he's coached. Hoke will finish his coaching career with a far better resume than Rita's pervy husband.
October 14th, 2021 at 3:47 PM ^
I think he brought in the right players, but he had two major faults.
First, he did not instill a winning culture. That type of culture should have the players focusing on winning all the time, even away from the game and practice. That focus should guide their decisions, so that they're not going to do anything stupid. Well, Fitz Toussaint got a DUI a week before the Alabama game in 2012. Frank Clark got wasted and got into that incident with his girlfriend during the bye week his senior year. Russell Bellomy didn't even know where the f*** his helmet was when he was needed to go into the Minnesota game when Morris and Gardner were temporarily unavailable. It was OBVIOUS that culture was not what it needed to be.
Second, he could not pull the program out of a tailspin. He took over a mediocre team and convinced them they could be great, and they became great. But, once they were flying high and things suddenly started going bad, he could not stop the program from crashing.
October 14th, 2021 at 11:33 PM ^
I get what you're saying about Fitz Toussaint, so I'll give you that one. And maybe the Bellomy situation too, but that's more of a situational thing than a cultural thing, IMO.
But Frank Clark was, by all accounts, a bad apple. With guys like that who are nothing but trouble waiting to happen, well, trouble happened at the most unfortunate time. It has nothing to do with a winning culture other than that we had no absolutely no DL depth in the wake of the defensive recruiting disaster of the entire RichRod reign of error.
October 14th, 2021 at 4:11 PM ^
I think Hoke did more than just a half-decent job. We won 11 games in his first year, and everyone was excited that Michigan was back. He even changed the tide on the rivalry, albeit for just one year, but his teams were always competitive with Ohio year in and year out. He recruited well, and even though he also had 2 mediocre years and that god awful final year, the team was in a good position for Harbaugh to do well.
I sometimes wonder if we would have had just as much success after 6 years of Hoke than we've had after 6 years of Harbaugh, because when you look at the stats and playing style on offense and on defense, it isn't really that much different than it was under Hoke. In fact, Harbaugh's teams have averaged 395 ypg on offense vs 387 for Hoke (in the 3 years under Borges), and 305 ypg vs 334 ypg on defense. If anything it's the defense that has improved since we canned Hoke, and not the offense, which is what everyone was complaining about with Hoke.
October 14th, 2021 at 4:18 PM ^
Look I appreciate Hoke and his win vs Ohio State and his recruiting skills despite his lack of development and his hire of Greg Mattison (traitor) that brought our defense back to respectable. But it was VERY clear that if we kept him around for 2 more years, it would have been bad. His OL's were constant garbage despite talent being their and the offenses (as frustrating as Harbaugh's have been) were toothless versus good defenses. He also didn't have Harbaugh's knack for firing underwhelming assistants and hiring promising ones. Hiring Doug Nussmeier after Alabama shit canned him was a terrible move. Keeping Funk around for so long despite abysmal (and I do mean ABYSMAL) OL results is awful leadership. Hoke was worth his salt on the recruiting trail (other than not recruiting enough QB's) but if you can't coach x's and o's, you sure as hell better hire some dudes who can, and he was not good at that.
October 14th, 2021 at 8:00 PM ^
Hiring Doug Nussmeier after Alabama shit canned him was a terrible move.
A move almost unanimously hailed on this site. The young and in shape Dough Nussmeier was going to lead Michigan to the offensive promised land. This was evidenced by his teaching Gardner how to identify Mike.
I agree about Funk. Should have kept Borges and replaced Funk, Gardner was ready to light up the B10 under Borges' tutelage. Alas, there was pressure being put on Brandon by some fan sites to have Hoke fire Al Borges. Hoke did as he was told and less than a year later the guy that told him to fire Borges was himself fired and so was he.
October 15th, 2021 at 10:45 AM ^
A move almost unanimously hailed on this site. The young and in shape Dough Nussmeier was going to lead Michigan to the offensive promised land
I do remember that now. We should have been skeptical when Alabama fans were more than happy to see him leave. Never hire anyone who's previous job cheers when they leave.
October 14th, 2021 at 4:12 PM ^
That about sums it up for me. I think he did the best job that he could, but had limitations. We'll never know exactly how much Brandon was sticking his hand in everything (Do we really think Hoke thought putting Denard under center was the best way forward with the offense, or was it Brandon insisting on MANBAWL?), but I can't imagine it made is job any easier. He wasn't great in front of the cameras at press conferences, and when the Morris thing got bungled beyond repair it was going to be hard for any HC to keep their job...especially for a team that was underperforming.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:29 PM ^
I blame Brandon as much as I do Hoke for the shit show that was his last season. I don't think Hoke would have been very successful here regardless, but it was pretty clear the pressure of the hot seat really made him even more ineffectual. If you believe John U Bacon, Brandon was all over him night and day about how the program should be run, and that can't have helped.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:50 PM ^
Related to former Michigan people and speaking of shit show (and I am not going to start a new thread for this) there is the McCaffery drama in Colorado.
Furious college coach, Max McCaffery, injures fan for making fun of his ‘small pants’
October 14th, 2021 at 2:58 PM ^
That's a pretty funny article. Also, guy might want to relax a bit if an interception made him break his clipboard.
October 14th, 2021 at 4:10 PM ^
Yes, and then it’s his own brother that threw the interception.
October 14th, 2021 at 3:36 PM ^
Bacon also outlined the things that helped lead to the concussion BS with Morris. Essentially, changes in reporting structure with the medical staff and walls put up to isolate certain groups from other groups led to a lack of communication between the coaches and trainers. As Bacon put it (and I forget the details from the book), Brandon's changes led directly to the lack of communication that left Morris out there. It didn't have much to do with headphones, but was directly between the assistant coaches and trainers/doctors.
Wish I remembered the details... Nonetheless, Dave Brandon was a big part of Brady's failures here, and I think most Michigan fans realize that and thus hold no real animosity for him.
That does not say that we'd want him back as a head coach...
In any case, good luck to Brady at SDSU, hope he gets to win a league championship and a good bowl game...
October 14th, 2021 at 3:47 PM ^
... And Brandon can go F--k himself.
/finished it for you
October 14th, 2021 at 2:31 PM ^
he chose to get back in the mud again and, so far, has been quite successful.
Kinda skipped over his time at Oregon and Tennessee which were also... bad.
Happy to see him succeed back at SDSU. He always seemed like a genuine guy who just wasn't cut out for P5 level coaching. Good recruiter, well liked by players, and built to either be a DL coach or a head coach that depends on his coordinators to make the scheme decisions.
October 14th, 2021 at 2:42 PM ^
He was defensive coordinator for one year at Oregon. Pretty hard to evaluate anyone in one year, with exactly zero guys he had recruited.
He was d-line coach at Tennessee for one year and interim head-coach for 2 games. Again, pretty hard to judge him for that.
October 14th, 2021 at 3:00 PM ^
Oregon's defense was atrocious under him. Like, could barely line up correctly.
He's a DL coach or G5 HC with little Xs and Os input. Which is fine. He's a good head of the program type guy that is successful when he makes good hires (Mattison for example) and not good when he makes bad hires (Borges isn't even coaching anymore and Nuss is an assistant in Dallas).
October 14th, 2021 at 4:27 PM ^
Was Nuss Hoke’s choice or Dave Brandon’s?