UM Coaches Meet and Greet (Chicago) June 14

Submitted by umchicago on

I attended the UM coaches meet and greet here in Chicago last night.  I estimate about 300 people in attendance at the downtown Marriott.  It sounds like it was a very similar format to what occurred in Boston (see post below).  I too am going from memory.  The coaches spent about an hour beforehand taking pics and signing autographs before the meeting.

1. Brief intro by Steven T (UMCGC President) saying how excited he and the coaches are in making these trips to Boston, NY and now Chicago.  Pretty rah rah.

2. Dave Brandon was next.  Talked about how great it is to have a good group of coaches who do things the right way.  Gave kudos to womens softball on a successful season.  Gave praise to the basketball program for making it to the tourny, winning a game, then "putting a scare in Duke".  Praised hockey for their title run.  However, he said football drives the entire athletic dept and stressed the importance of a successful football team.  Discussed briefly the addition of LAX, adding 25 schollies and 85??? total new people for men and womens teams.  He said Chi was the best group yet, but I bet he said that at each stop.

3. Red was next.  Pretty brief.  He said he was happy they had a successful season after a slow start.  He also said being at UM you have get used to disappointment (losing the title game).  I thought that was odd.  But he recovered by saying that UM expects to be playing in big games like that.  He also said he was an offensive coach and he is searching for ways to score goals.  He noted it was very unusual that they had the best D in the conference.  More goals, more goals, he kept stressing.  He gave praise to his "little walkon goalie".  He ended a general recruiting philosophy by saying its not what Michigan can do for you, its what you can do for Michigan.  (JFK reference obviously).

4. Beilein was next.  Very excited about the new facilities.  Said they should rival any in the country.  Said losing Darius to the NBA is a good thing.  Said it takes time to rebuild a program the right way.

5. Hoke was next.  Like Boston, he did the rah rah thing about titles, years of football and beating Ohio.  He said he isn't going to be leading the team, the Seniors are, and that's the way it should be.  He said they are going to be "fanatical" on defense (hmm slight jab at RR).  The crowd cheered.  He stressed the importance of winning the rivalry games, ND, MSU and Ohio.  He didn't get into any specifics about the O or D.  He stressed that this team owes something to the title teams of the past and needs to think about that when they get here on campus.  He also stressed the importance of doing things the right way.

6. Q&A was next.  Nothing earth shattering here.  A few general blah recruiting questions.  However, Brandon said we can only have one home-and-home opponent per year.  He took a vote ND or random teams going forward.  ND won by a show of hands.  He said that ND will be the deal for the foreseeable future.  They don't see 9 conference football games in the forseeable future.  Brandon said no chance on cash payments to athletes; maybe add'l help on travel costs for out-of-staters.

7. They passed out 2 chicago area awards (Sigler Award). Neither athlete was present.

8. Red then led the coaches and crowd in the Victors.  Then they were quickly ushered out.

I was surprised how accessible the coaches were beforehand.  I told Hoke, welcome aboard, and it's not going unnoticed how much work has already been done in recruiting.  I asked Red how much longer he plans on staying on.  He said it is a week to week thing (joking).  I said I hope it's a years to years thing.  I told Beilein that he must be excited about finally having good depth now.  He said "We will get better".  Probably just a standard line his said 50 times the past few days.

All in all, a pretty good time. 

Wolv2004

June 15th, 2011 at 1:50 PM ^

Brandon answered that they will look at any opportunity that is presented to them, but that "we play in the Big House."  Or something to that effect.

Also mentioned that the Alabama game is pretty nice for recruiting.  Being able to tell a kid that the first game they will be a part of will be in Jerry Jones' $1B stadium on national prime time televsion is a pretty good sell.

jmblue

June 15th, 2011 at 11:45 AM ^

He said they are going to be "fanatical" on defense (hmm slight jab at RR).

Are you sure that was a jab at RR? Hoke is a defensive-minded guy, after all.  I would expect him to be very fired up about that side of the ball, regardless of whom his predecessor was.

Touchdown... N…

June 15th, 2011 at 11:53 AM ^

I agree, I was there and I don't think anyone took that as a jab towards RR. Hoke was merely talking about his own defense...

As for Red, his comment "At a place like Michigan you better get use to big disappointment" was in regards to Michigan hockey always playing in big games on the national level. He stressed that they will not always win ALL those games but they will continually be in that position. So there was no recovery in his statement and I am glad he said it.

Also, there were officially 540+ people in attendance. It was a loud and fun group.

Tater

June 15th, 2011 at 12:56 PM ^

Hoke has shown, so far, too much class to take jabs at RR.  Even with the media trying to stir the pot at every stop, Hoke has been able to deflect potentially controversial questions with variations of "happy to be here," "we're gonna be tough," and "go blue."

So far, I would give Hoke an "A" in the categories of inspriation, recruiting, and public relations.  Hopefully, it translates into the "W" column.

M-Wolverine

June 15th, 2011 at 7:10 PM ^

But I doubt it was a shot, as much as a philosophy. He's played and coached defense. His biggest hire was a defensive guy. He's obviously recruited heavily to that side of the ball. I don't think it can be interpreted as any more of a shot than Rich getting excited about his offense would have been to the previous regime....which it wasn't, he was just an offensive guy. He got excited and was interested in offense.

Still, a very nice write up of the events, and fitting that the Chicago talk was written up by umchicago.

translator82

June 15th, 2011 at 11:47 AM ^

The majority raised their hands in favor of keeping Notre Dame instead of a home-and-home with a USC/Texas/big-name conference school type. I wouldn't mind a two-year break in the Notre Dame series. Michigan didn't play the Irish in my first two years in Ann Arbor (2000 and 2001) and I was OK with that. I'll leave it up to Brandon, Hoke and the athletic department to figure it out.

I personally wouldn't mind seeing a home-and-home with Maryland or Virginia so the DC alumni (like me) can get out to a game locally. I also miss the BC beatdowns of the 90s. I'd drive up to Boston for one of those.

Michigantrumpet82

June 15th, 2011 at 12:10 PM ^

would be fine by me.  Loved those BC games.  The voting at the Boston event also went strongly towards keeping ND. 

You Michiganders may not understand how great this was for those of us living in the hinterlands to attend one of these Meet & Greets.  For a day, I was just hanging out with my people.  Just like Christmas in June!