Hoke's Post-Game Locker Room Talk
Coach giving the team a piece of his mind. The fact that this was released speaks volumes about Hoke's displeasure with the team's performance.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:00 PM ^
I might have crapped myself.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:10 PM ^
why? He spoke reality and said they will go back at it next week even harder. There was no angry tone in his voice that would make me feel like Bobby Knight was about to hit me. I expect a big winn at U-Conn but the issues this team has is not solved within a season. Both lines might be 2 years away from what is necessary to be "Big 10 dominant". I am not talking nationally dominant - I am watching a Purdue defensive line on a very bad team that in the 1st half is smacking a "stout Notre Dame OL" around. We were not competitive in that battle last week and we can see why in the CMU and Akron games. When MAC OL's neutralize us, we can see we made ND look good, and even sad sack teams like Purdue have units better than ours. No speech or "work" at practice in a week or 3 weeks is going to change a lack of talent or talent that is (hopefully) loaded in the freshman or RS freshman classes.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:14 PM ^
Season over. Let's just all die.
The team can improve quite a bit in three weeks. It's rather condescending of you to totally dismiss the team because of today.
I would prefer some fury over this speech. This was disturbingly calm.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:21 PM ^
No. Devin can cover up a lot of deficiencies. He will. He wont play this bad the rest of the year, or if so maybe once more. Devin alone neutralized all that pash rush ND created last week, he was friggin splendid. He can do that in many more games this year, because he has that much talent. But if he is average this team is going to be in dogfights with names we are crossing off on the schedule as "meh" and the team will struggle to win in November. He is the wildcard, more so than most QBs. Yes I would have liked to see Hoke mad more but I dont know if he has that gene in terms of outwardly expressing it. But whatever the tone, again it doesn't fix talent. I think what can in the near term is Mattison seeing what he has and admitting to it internally and now adjusting the scheme to that talent and its strengths and weaknesses. Some of this DL stuff seems more like an open tryout to find the best players in relatively vanilla schemes (w/ AKron and CMU)
September 14th, 2013 at 10:33 PM ^
This has worked well in so many threads today. Thanx for the continued levity.
September 15th, 2013 at 4:51 AM ^
Haha nice meme! You're a joke.
September 14th, 2013 at 11:53 PM ^
You're right. Thanks for the analysis. The culture on this blog after a disgusting performance isto pretend like everything was an aberration and that the coaches will straighten everything out. That's how it was here for three years of RR. It's fair and it's entertaining to deconstruct the team's issues, especially when they are abundant like now.
September 15th, 2013 at 10:31 AM ^
This post is spot on...
I will also add whenever UM loses an important recruit (particularly DB's) we like to say "no worries, we are Michigan. We will get someone else". That "someone else" has not exactly taken us to the Promised Land.
September 15th, 2013 at 1:33 AM ^
You can't applaud Hoke's demeanor on the sideline during the ND game and then turn around and say you're disturbed by how calm he was during this moment.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:27 PM ^
I don't think you can say that they were uncompetitive. An uncompetitive OL would not have helped wrack up 460 yards of offense.
You are correct in pointing out that UM's lines are a year or so away from being championship quality.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:29 PM ^
Nope the other way around I am more concerned about - I think Devin can offset the OL issues. I think the DL issues are unsolveable with the current crew, unless Jake Ryan goes to DE I guess.
September 15th, 2013 at 2:03 AM ^
both lines are unfixable. there has been absolutely no pressure from the d-line and the o-line is simply atrocious. the entire offensive line needs to be either benched or completely retooled. we're at least 2 years away from being decent. Miller needs to go immediately. his ceiling is third string not starter. Kugler needs to be in there and helping prepare this line for the future. Same goes for Schofield. He's not as bad as miller, but he just can't get it done. Finally i can remember how many times i saw glasgow get blown by in this game. he was absolutely pathetic. all three of those guys should be done. give the young kids some game experience and prepare this team for the future
September 15th, 2013 at 2:33 AM ^
You're right that line play is the problem, but benching everyone? The tackles are money. The interior is young and/or inexperienced. As a unit, there are likely some cohesion problems, especially with the young and undeveloped pieces.
The D-Line is light in the center and slow on the edges. But how do coaches fix that with benching?
O-Line will improve this year with experience and Devin will give them time to develop with his talent. How much they improve and for how long Devin can shore up the deficiencies is tough to say. As for D-Line, there's some chance that Pipkins is good enough until Washington's health improves--and maybe Pipkins' play improves enough to be interchangable.
September 15th, 2013 at 2:42 AM ^
September 15th, 2013 at 10:12 AM ^
I would not want to watch the team that you want to put on the field. Would be brutal Chicken Little.
September 15th, 2013 at 5:15 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 11:04 PM ^
2 years away from National Championship teams ... seriously ... I'm tired of the 2 year hypothesis
/rant
September 15th, 2013 at 12:32 AM ^
I'm tired of us always turning into Alabama, but ethically.
In the RR years we were going to turn into Oregon, but with better defense.
September 15th, 2013 at 4:01 AM ^
we won one national championship in like 60 years lol. There are nice but right now I just want a team that's competitive nationally, not just in the Big Ten.
Both lines need to pick up their play, Fitz needs to pick it up and Devin even tho he'll play simply brilliant football 3/4th of the time needs to stop the just plain stupid mistakes. That screen play pick six when they zoomed in on Devin for the replay, he wasn't even looking at Touisant or the defender who he threw it directly to. Things like that and the fumble with fitz in position for the pitch and 2 defender closing on Devin. If he pitches it's a nice gain and yet he chose to keep it and fumble.... Mistakes like that just cant happen on a winning football team.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:04 PM ^
Unless he somehow turns the Interior OL into road graders not much they can do. Maybe just maybe the DL can figure something out like leaving one of Pipkins/Washington on the field for most of the game.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:05 PM ^
I forgot the almost blocked punt - gosh that would have been the cherry on top.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:06 PM ^
but unless the D-line suddenly earns "the right to rush four" in one week after not figuring it out in 6 months and the interior O-line suddenly gets leaps and bounds better in 6 days, we're probably still going to see the same issues going forward
September 14th, 2013 at 10:08 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 10:27 PM ^
Sounds like stadium steps to me, in a big stadium to say the least. This game was all about lack of preperation.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:47 PM ^
Lewan's comments give me some hope they'll self-motivate after this; the on-field celebration after the last stop makes me worry they won't figure it out on their own.
If it were me I'd wait and see what happens the next couple of days before I decided, but I'd rather have a week of intense and focused practice than have to resort to outright punishment.
There's an old rule of thumb I first learned from my father but I think it's a pretty common saying: you work your team harder after a win than a loss--after a win you're trying to avoid overconfident self-satisfaction. Which today was, i don't know yet. If they're embarrassed, it's like a loss. If they're happy about it, it's even worse than a win.
September 15th, 2013 at 1:08 AM ^
I like that gif, but why would he stick his tongue out after the shit hits the fan?
I demand a UFR of this gif!
September 15th, 2013 at 2:35 AM ^
Out loud.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:45 PM ^
Yeah, those boys are definitely not going to like what happens next.
September 14th, 2013 at 11:05 PM ^
That comment was a nice bit of doublespeak between threat and admission of culpability.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:08 PM ^
Saw nothing that said lack of preparation. I saw plenty that said lack of focus and lack of effort.
September 15th, 2013 at 1:56 AM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 10:09 PM ^
That finger-wave and the "we will prepare you better." Caught a flash of Bo. Downright eery.
September 15th, 2013 at 12:25 AM ^
Our "player's coach" is not all just hugs and noogies.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:10 PM ^
Hoke let's the guys know he is displeased, but does not call out individual players in front of the entire team during the post game speech. He also puts blame on himself and his staff. He is a good leader! Now they need to get to work and fix issues this week.
September 14th, 2013 at 11:11 PM ^
put the blame on himself & the coaching staff.
You don't have all phases of the game look like complete crap, and have week to week issues unsolved and not have it be on the coaching staff.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:13 PM ^
"We'll prepare you better, I promise you that." = You're going to hurt after practice in the coming week(s).
September 14th, 2013 at 10:20 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 10:14 PM ^
Michigan is still a very young team overall. This year might be rough...
September 14th, 2013 at 10:29 PM ^
Enough of this shit.
We're young isn't an excuse anymore. Michigan has elite players.
I feared that there would be a let down since akron is arguably one of the worst teams in FBS. Went from a Super Bowl like atmosphere to the students not even showing up until the 3rd quarter.
And people that penciled in the win back when the game was announced acting like the program is folding isn't surprising.
Don't get me wrong, I'm pissed. If Michigan lost this game, I would pin this loss on Gardner. 4 turnovers and one that went back for a TD was a huge problem.
The defense bailed out the offense time and time again. The defense did not play awful at all. If you expected them to stop akron every possession after the offense did literally nothing or turned it over then I don't know what to tell you. Game of momentum.
Like Hoke said. If you turn the ball over and do diddly poo offensively, you're giving them confidence and letting them hang around. Let's just all be thankful that Michigan got the win. Because if they lost this game, this would be the worst loss in program history, by far.
September 14th, 2013 at 10:39 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 10:44 PM ^
September 14th, 2013 at 10:49 PM ^
Let's cherry pick and ignore the whole concept of general statements about the composition of a group. That always ends well.
I'm taking a break from the blog for a few days. The jackassery factor is just too much.
September 14th, 2013 at 11:15 PM ^
That's four of our 22 starters.
We're still pretty young by national standards.
September 14th, 2013 at 11:07 PM ^
Ha Ha is going to the NFL next year
... just saying
September 15th, 2013 at 1:23 AM ^
And Alabama's secondary got torched & exposed today against a good Texas A&M offense...So yeah? There aren't many players that can start as true freshmen and play at a high level and Alabama recruits players at that high level. Michigan will get some of those players (like Peppers and Hand) but it won't come without growing pains like today.
September 17th, 2013 at 4:03 AM ^
against the best QB in the country ... no shame in that.
But our team got smoked allround against Akron. There's a huge difference.