When viewed as a whole, "average," "under-whelming," "pedestrian," "mediocre" are all suitable adjectival descriptions of Brady Hoke's coaching accomplishments in the context of current BCS football programs. That is the reality of the record we have been presented, as Brian and so many others have made clear, like it or not. Indeed no hard evidence has been produced to support using "outstanding" as an appropriate descriptor for any category or objective metric - let alone several of them - in Mr. Hoke's coaching resume.
It is extremely doubtful that a comparable record of academic accomplishments would have gotten a Mr. Hoke-like candidate past the initial screening committee for any academic department at the U of M seeking to fill a faculty vacancy (at any level), let alone to #1 on the interview list and then hired at what is widely acknowledged as one of the top 3 public universities in the country! Such a comparable professional record certainly would not have secured University President for MSC, nor even AD for DB. So why should any of us - alums, fans, Michigan men and women - be comfortable with - never mind optimistic and enthusiastic about - the result from the apparent application of much lower professional standards in the search and selection of BH as the Head Coach for Michigan football?
I'm of course very pleased to know that this is BH's "dream position, but that can scarcely have been (I hope!) the primary objective criteria or sufficient condition for his having been hired. I have 3 earned degrees from the U of M, and throughout my graduate studies residency, I never met another doctoral student for whom the U of M also was not their "dream position," as it was mine. At the end of the day, that did not translate into reality for anyone in our respective disciplines despite most having records of professional accomplishment in their fields that significantly exceeded BH's comparable coaching record.
I'll give Mr. Hoke his chance, to be sure; does a life-long Wolverine have any alternative? But don't ask me to give DB a pass on the process he followed that led to this result. It's impossible for me to believe that a similar approach would have been permitted when filling a similarly high profile position on the academic or executive/administrative side of our great university.
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When viewed as a whole, "average," "under-whelming," "pedestrian," "mediocre" are all suitable adjectival descriptions of Brady Hoke's coaching accomplishments in the context of current BCS football programs. That is the reality of the record we have been presented, as Brian and so many others have made clear, like it or not. Indeed no hard evidence has been produced to support using "outstanding" as an appropriate descriptor for any category or objective metric - let alone several of them - in Mr. Hoke's coaching resume.
It is extremely doubtful that a comparable record of academic accomplishments would have gotten a Mr. Hoke-like candidate past the initial screening committee for any academic department at the U of M seeking to fill a faculty vacancy (at any level), let alone to #1 on the interview list and then hired at what is widely acknowledged as one of the top 3 public universities in the country! Such a comparable professional record certainly would not have secured University President for MSC, nor even AD for DB. So why should any of us - alums, fans, Michigan men and women - be comfortable with - never mind optimistic and enthusiastic about - the result from the apparent application of much lower professional standards in the search and selection of BH as the Head Coach for Michigan football?
I'm of course very pleased to know that this is BH's "dream position, but that can scarcely have been (I hope!) the primary objective criteria or sufficient condition for his having been hired. I have 3 earned degrees from the U of M, and throughout my graduate studies residency, I never met another doctoral student for whom the U of M also was not their "dream position," as it was mine. At the end of the day, that did not translate into reality for anyone in our respective disciplines despite most having records of professional accomplishment in their fields that significantly exceeded BH's comparable coaching record.
I'll give Mr. Hoke his chance, to be sure; does a life-long Wolverine have any alternative? But don't ask me to give DB a pass on the process he followed that led to this result. It's impossible for me to believe that a similar approach would have been permitted when filling a similarly high profile position on the academic or executive/administrative side of our great university.