Two Hoke comments that surprised me today
As many of you know, Coach Hoke spent the day at ESPN fielding mostly silly questions. And, being Coach Hoke, he gave mostly boring answers. But here are two quotes that caught my interest:
“One of the surprise dark-horse guys will be a young man we redshirted a year ago, a wide receiver, Jehu Chesson. A young man out of St. Louis. Six-four, wide receiver, track guy, can catch it, works hard.”
There's been so much talk about Darboh, I was sure that's where coach Hoke would go. Or even to RB, with all the Drake Johnson and Justice Hayes fluff we've heard (which there was some more of today). Hearing Chesson's name is a pleasant surprise and, if he were to emerge, would be a huge boost to our offense.
“We’re young in a couple places. We’re young in the guard position, offensively, the center position, but we have a lot of young depth and competition. On the defensive side of it, the interior of our defensive linemen and our strong end, our five-technique, are going to be young players, but we really like how, genetically, how they’ve worked at it.”
What I found interesting about this is that Black, Washington, and Ash are all juniors and seniors. Pipkins--the only other player on our roster to get significant snaps on the line last year--is a sophomore. Henry is a RS Frosh. The only other true DT's (Poggi, Hurst) are true freshmen. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I think this comment signals that we'll see a lot of Pipkins (starting?) and a good amount of Henry (more of a surprise) this year.
He has the quickness and a knack for getting around or through blockers and knife into the backfield. I think he'll have more TFL potential than Roh, but probably give up the edge more often early in the season. Decent size, works, I think he's going to be a good 'un, and this year.
By request from someone yesterday. I thought I would post links to Hoke's appearances on ESPN today. I thought the Dan LeBatard appearance was the best of the bunch, but that podcast is not up yet. And Joe Tessitore is really high on Devin Gardner.
ESPN First Take: http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=9528348
The Herd with Colin Cowherd: http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=9528512
ESPNU College Football podcast with Ivan Maisel: http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=9528665
SVP & Russillo: http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=9529022
I don't mind saying that, in watching the video, I really liked hearing that Lewan was part of mentoring and coaching up some of the younger offensive linemen and showing them the ins and outs of being up there. I particularly enjoyed the part about how he "tests their work ethic" - I think that, between that sort of leadership on the team and this staff, those kids are definitely in excellent hands.
Highly suggest listening to this one. LeBatard and Bomani Jones with some unique questions that I think caught Hoke a little off guard.
Might have been the most entertaining interview with Brady Hoke that I've seen.
"Oh Desmond, so you know what Al wants?..No, no please, you answer the question. It's not like I spend every day talking football with Al."
August 1st, 2013 at 10:56 PM ^
I can't believe Hoke called David Molk Devin.
August 1st, 2013 at 11:42 PM ^
The consummate professional
August 2nd, 2013 at 12:22 AM ^
From what I have been hearing, Jehu is going to have a great season. He is one of the fastest guys on the field and can catch any pass. He might even be the next Mario Manningham type Michigan player. He's also a really nice guy. I met him in North Quad one time and I am pretty sure he is in Ross pursuing a BBA.
Jehu is a cool dude. I have friends that lived in south quad last year and talked to him a few times when I went to visit. Pretty low key guy, didn't seem to go out much, studies a lot.
Cam Gordon '...started at safety' at Michigan. I think he was actually recruited at WR and practiced there, but moved to defense very early. Or my memory is even worse than I thought.