OT: Oregon president burns Hoke in Press Conference

Submitted by GRBluefan on

Seems a bit petty and unnecessary, and not really even that funny.  

Oregon president Michael Schill opened the press conference to introduce new coach Willie Taggart with a joke (but it's not really a joke): "I told him I can only give him one bit of advice which probably everyone in the state of Oregon can give him, which is: Go find a great defensive coordinator."

 

Ducks defense was certainly a step or two below dreadful this year.  Certainly hope Brady Hoke finds his level soon and has great success.  

uncle leo

December 8th, 2016 at 3:29 PM ^

And it does little to change my opinion. If the defense had taken a step forward this season, or even shown life whatsoever, these comments would not have been made.

It's a slap in the face to the man running the defense, short time or not. 

You get a job at a company delivering pizzas with notoriously slow time. You do nothing to improve the product. New CEO comes in and says, "I don't care what you do, we need to deliver these damn pizzas faster."

Well, you are the delivery guy. How is that anything but an insult to YOUR work? You couldn't make it better and the guy in charge says shit needs to be fixed.

IncrediblySTIFF

December 8th, 2016 at 3:51 PM ^

incorrect -- even in your example:

if there is only one delivery guy you are being asked to do too much

it is possible that your delivery issues are related to the amount of time the pizza takes to cook

it is possible that you were provided with a crappy bike with flat tires to deliver your pizza

it is possible that your manager does not do a good job planning the deliveries -- setting you up for failure

 

 

uncle leo

December 8th, 2016 at 3:54 PM ^

But coming out to say "Get me a great defensive coordinator," to me at least, is a slap in the face fo the guy directly in charge of the current product.

Yeah, he was set up in a horrible situation, I get that. But he was hired to improve the defense, or at least show they can be functional. He took a bad defense and made them one of if not the worst in the NCAA.

You can say things like, "Taggart brings a new excitement and we'll be focusing on improving both side of the football." 

Not, "get me a new D coordinator." That's a low blow.

schreibee

December 8th, 2016 at 3:05 PM ^

The correct phrsing of your post would be Defense (has been) shit, get me a new coordinator.

Totally classless thing by a university pres to make it even appear he might be singling out a coach that way.

Did Baylor's even throw shitbags like that previous staff under the bus like that?

Hoke needs get back to a DL position at a MAC or similar school and just enjoy his chosen life of coaching young men, not try to be something he's not...

Brimley

December 8th, 2016 at 3:24 PM ^

In 2015, leaving out the overtimes in which Oregon gave up between 45 and 61 points, remember that they gave up:

62 to Utah

42 to Oregon State (a team we beat 35-7)

and 42 to East Washington (!!!!)

Then they lost some of their better defensive players.  I have no idea if Hoke is a decent defensive coordinator or not because this was an impossible situation to succeed in.  Maybe he does suck; maybe he's good.  2016 Oregon was fucking mess that tells nothing.

TrueBlue2003

December 8th, 2016 at 7:01 PM ^

last year in DFEI, which is very bad.  They were 127th this year which is absolutely horrendous.  I mean, that a P5 school with their resources could possibly be that bad is...wow.  I mean, we talk about transition costs around here, but when your unit has that much improvement to make, it seems like a change couldn't do anything but at least bring a regression towards the mean.

The perception around here was that he was never really an X's and O's guru, but he could teach DL technique and recruit.  Since recruiting doesn't take effect for a couple years, he was never going to be a quick fix guy.  Had no chance in one year. I'm not sure about the personnel changes from last year, but to get worse didn't seem possible, either.

FrankMurphy

December 8th, 2016 at 2:50 PM ^

Oregon finished the 2015 season ranked 116th in total defense, surrenduring 485 yards a game. This year, they ended up ranked 126th out of 128 teams (and were dead last for long stretches of the season), surrendering 518 yards a game. I don't know how many starters Oregon returned this year, but Hoke took over an already terrible defense and somehow managed to make it significantly worse. 

lilpenny1316

December 8th, 2016 at 2:59 PM ^

...Oregon had a top 30 defense going back to 2010, according to S&P rankings.  I don't know what happened in 2015 and didn't watch them at all this season, so I don't know know how much is the players and how much is on the coaching.  But their defense will be left out to dry if the offense goes 3 and out in 30 seconds.  

I don't think it's a coincidence that their defense started sucking once Mariota left.  If you don't have a QB that can keep you on the field and score points, your defense will eventually fall apart.

reshp1

December 8th, 2016 at 5:23 PM ^

They also lost basically their entire front 7. I know Hoke is MgoBlog's favorite punching bag even 2 years after he moved on, but you can't reasonably expect anyone to succeed in that situation in 1 year.

samdrussBLUE

December 8th, 2016 at 2:36 PM ^

Most Pac12 programs could say this. It isn't exactly the land of limiting opponents' offensive production.

mGrowOld

December 8th, 2016 at 2:37 PM ^

If Hoke was the problem why didnt he just fire him and keep Helfrich?  Kinda of a cheap shot if you ask me.

And I'm the furthest thing from a Brady Hoke apologist you can find.......

doggdetroit

December 8th, 2016 at 2:52 PM ^

If you decide to keep Helfrich with the understanding of getting rid of Hoke, what makes you think Helfrich can make a good hire? After all, he was the one who chose to hire a guy with no collegiate coordinating experience in the first place. That gives me zero confidence he can actually hire a competent DC.

mGrowOld

December 8th, 2016 at 3:21 PM ^

I was stating you dont take a shot at a subordinate when the supervisor was the real problem.  He obviously doesnt make decisions on the football staff make-up but he knew enough about the football team's struggles to basically call out Hoke as the issue - not Helfrich.

What he SHOULD have said is something like "Welcome to Oregon football.  The expectations here are high - we're confident we've chosen the right man to meet them" and not take the opportunity to slam an assistant coach in public.

Jesus....how on earth did I become the guy sticking up for Brady Hoke?

stephenrjking

December 8th, 2016 at 3:16 PM ^

Hoke wasn't the only defensive problem (promoting the LB coach to DC in 2014, as discussed in this thread, seems to have been the start of the trouble) so I don't think firing him would be enough.

And, let's face it, our last two coaches failed in part because their assistant coaches could not get the job done. You could ask almost the same question about Rich Rodriguez and the practicality of just firing GERG. Hypothetically, RichRod with Don Brown as DC is a pretty good combo, right?

But head coaches are responsible for their staffs. Helfrich was incapable of 1. Seeing the problem and 2. correcting the problem.

Much the same way Hoke was incapable of seeing and addressing serious offensive problems early in his tenure when he had time to correct them. Hoke isn't the one who couldn't coach OL technique, and Hoke isn't the one whose mad genius playbook combined with completely unoriginal game-long playcalling to sink Borges, and Hoke wasn't the one who ruined Devin Gardner, and Hoke wasn't the one who couldn't teach RBs to run through holes that were open.

But it was his responsibility to make sure those things were taking place, and they weren't. Helfrich may be a good coordinator, but as a head coach he was unable to manage his program and to properly address problems with defense.

The way he said that was a cheap shot, but he wasn't wrong.