Wojo: "poor coaching drags Michigan into first real crisis"
I think most of us like Wojo and rcognize that he is one of the few good sportwriters around in the Detroit MSM. He also is evenhanded and seldom calls out anyone. So to me it's significant that his column today calls out the offensive coaches and Hoke.
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131109/SPORTS0201/311090075/Poor-c…
November 10th, 2013 at 3:25 PM ^
which is pretty long in the tooth.
November 10th, 2013 at 3:25 PM ^
The only thing I don't like about your prediction, Don, is the word "if" instead of "when" in the sentence, " if Borges is let go after this season, Hoke will hire (drum roll)..."
But it makes sense.
So much so that I now feel compelled to read up on Mr. Parrish...
November 10th, 2013 at 3:34 PM ^
Then he might as well promote Coach Heck to OC (I think he was an OC) and try and poach back Soup Campbell and hire a good QB coach. I personally don't like this keeping it in the family business but if that is the direction then this probably makes the most sense.
November 10th, 2013 at 3:56 PM ^
I think this is a pretty good suggestion, since it appears as though Campbell actually might have been good at coaching. This is from his wiki profile:
"At Michigan, Campbell coached wide receivers and punt returners. He was also the team's assistant head coach from 2003 to 2007. He set an NCAA record by coaching a 1,000-yard receiver for eight consecutive years from 1998 to 2005. During his tenure at Michigan, he coached receivers Braylon Edwards, David Terrell, Marquise Walker, Amani Toomer, Mercury Hayes, Tai Streets, Marcus Knight, Jason Avant, Mario Manningham, Adrian Arrington, Steve Breaston, and Ronald Bellamy. He also coached Charles Woodson as a punt returner, and Steve Breaston set a Big Ten record with 1,599 career punt return yards (12.6 yards per return) with Campbell as his position coach."
Unless he just loves Montreal and is getting paid big $$, I wouldn't be surprised if he'd be interested in coming back to Michigan.
November 10th, 2013 at 8:31 PM ^
Campbell was an excellent coach and recruiter. I was surprised he was not retained by RR. Ferentz quickly snapped him up and he did good work there as well.
Most of Carr's position coaches were pretty good. The main coaching issues in his tenure were more about game strategy than player development.
November 10th, 2013 at 4:40 PM ^
First and foremost, I am not suggesting Al (or Funk at this point) should be going anywhere after this year, but back to Schembechler Hall. However, if they were, I'd suggest we take a look at Mr. Cameron at LSU. I doubt we'd get him at this point, but you never know.
November 10th, 2013 at 5:32 PM ^
other retread "michigan men" like Loeffler have not been particularly good at their other stops. Why not just give a young promising guy like Coach Heck a shot? It seems like he coaches the wideouts pretty well (at least they block well!) and he's been an OC at some of his previous stops. And he's the recruiting coordinator.
November 10th, 2013 at 3:09 PM ^
Needs to go up to Mount Pleasant where they belong and take over CMU - MAC quality at best and that is why Hoke was out at San Diego. His staff is incompetent and he hasn't corrected anything which makes him incompetent as well. This program won't return to where we were unless we go and steal a top notch staff.
November 10th, 2013 at 3:12 PM ^
Are you actually asserting that Brady Hoke was fired at San Diego State?
November 10th, 2013 at 3:52 PM ^
That is why he was out at that school and not a better program
November 10th, 2013 at 4:04 PM ^
Your premise doesn't hold up.
Hoke went from Ball State (MAC) to SDSU (Mountain West)
Urban Meyer went from Bowling Green (MAC) to Utah (Mountain West)
Is Urban Meyer a better coach than Brady Hoke? Of course, but it has nothing to do with coaching at a small school out west for a short time.
November 10th, 2013 at 4:15 PM ^
It's the thought that if was such a great coach, why wasn't he at a school "better" than SDSU?
November 10th, 2013 at 4:30 PM ^
Because for most coaches, there's a ladder you climb. You start off in a MAC level school, then advance to a mid-major, before going to the Big Boys.
Again, look at Urban Meyer. Or Brian Kelley. Or Nick Saban
November 10th, 2013 at 4:37 PM ^
Brian Kelley and Brady haven't coached long enough at their respective schools to judge their coaching acumen. That's the only thing they have in common with Meyer or Saban . . .
November 11th, 2013 at 10:44 AM ^
I wasn't comparing how good of coaches Kelly/Hoke are to Meyer/Saban, only talking about their previous job stints. And that you can't knock Hoke for being "out" at SDSU and asking why he didn't have a job
Try to keep up, or just scroll 2 comments up
November 10th, 2013 at 5:36 PM ^
If Urban Meyer was a better coach, why wasn't he at a 'better' school than Utah. Yeh, that guy sucks
November 10th, 2013 at 3:51 PM ^
Dave Brandon's judgement in firing RR was both narrow minded & short sighted.
Hoke is a glorified position coach who resembles Barney Fife.
Michigan needs to find a Sheriff.
November 10th, 2013 at 8:12 PM ^
Yeah that or was based off of having zero defense, given up 50+ in his last game to a meh Ole Miss team, having an abysmal record against rivals, barely 1 season over 500, sanctions, terrible recruiting, and bad hires ... Other than that Brandon jumped the gun, right?
November 10th, 2013 at 8:57 PM ^
Michigan would not give RR another measley 5 grand to bring his DC with him nor offer the guy an actual contrct compared to the Red Carpet treatment afforded to Hoke who had Denard's Jr & Sr season too boot. Apply the same standard ro measure the product on the field as before to realize this is not the guy you thought he was.
November 10th, 2013 at 9:05 PM ^
So do you want us to go through another coaching change, suffer more transfers and have more years of being very young again? If not, what is the point of constantly rehashing the RR stuff?
November 10th, 2013 at 10:06 PM ^
My Post is about Dave Brandon's Judgement:
A. Short Sighted;
Changing horses in midstream.
B. Narrow Minded;
Michigan DNA as the main criteria.
RR is pertinent to the 1st point.
Beyond that I will not comment,
Unless brought up in response.
This is what Dave Brandon wrought,
This is His Choice to parade up & down the sidelines sans headphones.
Let him Live with it & be Judged by it.
November 10th, 2013 at 4:14 PM ^
First off, Wojo's article is spot on.
I think everyone should wrap their head around the fact that Brady Hoke's job is NOWHERE near in jeopardy. Brandon is not going to subject the Michigan program to another, potentially damaging, coaching change this soon. Right now the program is in desperate need of stability, not change.
That being said, however, to think that Hoke is somehow satisfied with the offense -- and particularly the running game -- is asinine (despite what he says in pressers). Hoke said specifically that Michigan is going to run the ball, and right now it is doing the complete opposite of that. Whether he's a delegator type of not, it is plainly obvious to even the casual observer that something is seriously wrong with Michigan's offense, and it's OLine in particular -- let alone someone who is totally immersed in the program. Don't let Hoke's comments and his sort of bumbling nice guy personae trick you into believing for one second that he's not completely in control of the situation.
I stand by my comments about Hoke taking a dogmatic approach to development. He's going to get these kids to execute by letting them try to execute until they get it right. Further, the youth issues are a factor, and that issue will only be resolved with time. However, what we saw saw last night after the muffed punt has nothing to do with youth, nor anything to do with dogmatic development -- it was nothing but stupidity on the part of Borges. Honestly, I hate ascribing stupidity to people who have done something as long as Borges has. But, what other conclusion can one logically come to?
Back to Hoke and the overall trajectory of the program. I would be shocked if Funk, Jackson, and Borges are on the staff next season. Those three coaches oversee the running game, and it's an historic cluster fuck. Hoke knows what Michigan expects of him and the team he leads, he knows that something needs to change, and that time will fix some issues, but not all the issues that plague this offense.
November 10th, 2013 at 4:40 PM ^
Sten:
First of all - welcome to the "WTF is Borges thinking team". You'll find our club growing in members every day and it's a lot easier to attribute his weekly WTF play calling to being just a bad play caller than some master plan he is about to unleash on everyone.
Second of all I respectfully disagree with your assessment that Hoke is unhappy with his coaching staff and will make changes. He is most certainly unhappy with the results but I firmly believe - from both his words and his actions - that he believes the failings are that of youth, not his coaches, and time will make things right.
I dont think anybody is going anywhere for a year at least.
November 10th, 2013 at 10:12 PM ^
After the muffed punt, It was deja vu all over again with the PSU OT game. In hindsight, it's like they were playing for the FG. They didn't want to throw the ball to risk an INT or sack.
November 10th, 2013 at 4:29 PM ^
i question I have is even if we fire Borges, do you trust Hoke to go hire the best OC he can? or will he be like a large portion of this fan base and go get a "Michigan man" like Debord or Parrish?
November 10th, 2013 at 4:41 PM ^
For anyone who missed it, YouTube the Saban 60 minutes piece. Certainly plenty of fluff, but one thing that stands out - the guy knows how to coach. Jimbo Fisher can talk football circles around the best of them. Meyer may be hated in Florida but the guy wins wherever he goes. Hoke talks about "hearing football" and tries to stuff the term "physicality" into every sentence. I'm sorry but the guy seems to be in a bit beyond his pay grade. Who is the answer if he's not? Go to the pro's?
November 10th, 2013 at 4:42 PM ^
GTFO! Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
November 10th, 2013 at 5:01 PM ^
"So this is on the coaching staff and offensive coordinator Al Borges, who has failed to make consistent adjustments."
Not sure what team he's been watching if he doesn't think adjustments are being made - they were made during the Nebraska game. Hard to take him seriously after that comment.
Just lazy, bandwagon, blame the coaches journalsim. No insight or analysis to back his talking points whatsoever.
November 10th, 2013 at 5:10 PM ^
making adjustments. And calling the same shit plays that have yet to work this season is so far from "making adjustments" it's not even funny anymore.
November 11th, 2013 at 9:28 AM ^
First half game plan was garbage, first drive second half with quick passes was outstanding and then what did we do after we scored? Go Right back to the first half game plan...what FN adjustments?
November 10th, 2013 at 7:51 PM ^
Not sure if serious Clark
November 10th, 2013 at 8:08 PM ^
Agreed.
November 10th, 2013 at 5:43 PM ^
The Hoke Era jumped the Shark once Brandon and his marketing guy, convinced Hoke that wearing Clowniforms vs. your rival was a good thing "for the kids".
Later, they convinced Hoke that unretiring Michigan football Legends numbers, and bestowing them on kids who had barely done next to nothing in their Michigan careers, was a good idea and one that would not promote individualism on the team.
November 10th, 2013 at 6:04 PM ^
Hoke had no choice in these matters
November 10th, 2013 at 9:06 PM ^
I see we've entered "scorned ex-girlfriend" territory, where anything that can possibly annoy you about a coach does.
November 10th, 2013 at 6:02 PM ^
After PSU, I decided I'd DVR the games, enjoy my Saturday afternoon, and check the score to see if I wanted to watch. Both games since have been deleted without a look.
Yes, the 2008 team was clearly worse, but not by much. We could easily be 5-4 and headed for 5-7. The thing that's very scary is that the failure is systemic. Hoke wants Michigan to be a run-first team, and we seemingly don't have the RBs or OL in the pipeline to do it. I don't mean this year -- what in our underclass RBs or OL gives us much hope? I guess Drake Johnson was #2 until the injury, but Green and Smith look clueless. It just doesn't seem like anyone on the offense is being coached up and improving.
As far as scheme and play-calling, the things we can do aren't apparently called enough. Someone talked about the first drive after the half and how we moved the ball. After that, those plays weren't seen again. That's ludicrous. Hoke made mention that before the Indiana game, he had to tell Al to go for the end zone. Why would an OC need to be told that? Either Borges or Hoke puts trying to control clock ABOVE scoring points? Maybe in the last half of the fourth quarter with the lead, but not as a game strategy.
I've been a fan since before I can remember, but this team is unwatchable, and looks to be so for the foreseeable future. Sad.
November 10th, 2013 at 6:46 PM ^
That doesn't make any sense - the most important thing is the score so by checking it first you're defeating the purpose of watching the game at all. Now don't get me wrong, I DVR pretty much every single game but I still watch them in their entirety. It's a lot easier to deal with a loss when you've only lost an hour of your Saturday than 3+...
November 11th, 2013 at 9:24 AM ^
He doesnt watch games we've already loss only the victories. I do the same thing when i have to DVR football and basketball games.
November 10th, 2013 at 8:06 PM ^
Could be 5-4? We could just as easily be 8-1 right now with PSU and Neb
November 10th, 2013 at 8:13 PM ^
Hit the nail right on the head. I had been holding back judgment on Borges (last year Ohio game). But he needs to go!
November 11th, 2013 at 9:36 AM ^
maybe, just maybe, Hoke is actually not a "good" football coach, and maybe he knows nothing about offensive playcalling... so he washes his hands of it every week. he was a defensive lineman in college and that's been his calling ever since. motivation and keeping The Team The Team The Team together is one thing, but knowing how to win games by scoring points is quite another.
i'm not saying, i'm just saying.