It's not just Hoke
It's not just Hoke. Firing him won't fix things. It's an entire culture and program problem. The president of Michigan just learned what football was yesterday. Brandon is running the athletic program like a Domino's restraunt. That's what he does best. We can't progress forward because of the whole "Michigan Man" thing. We are stuck in a deep hole. Brady is probably a good person but doesn't have the overall football IQ and demeanor to run a consistent and winning football program. It's either stubborness or ignorance with him in reagrds to how the offense is run, why we cant run a spread punt, etc. etc. Nuss wasn't this slow at Alabama. Mattison seems good only because every other aspect of the team is so bad, but he is unable to adjust quickly enough. Hopefully the Michigan I grew up watching will come back in my life time, but I think we are in for a long long recovery. It might be another 10 years or longer before Michigan rights itself. By then we might have a new athletic director and there might be enough distance between us and the "past" that we can finally move on and progress into modern football.
September 20th, 2014 at 6:45 PM ^
entire program needs an enema
September 20th, 2014 at 6:51 PM ^
September 21st, 2014 at 1:43 AM ^
September 20th, 2014 at 6:47 PM ^
There is no reason why it should take 10 years to right this ship. We have at least some young talent on this team, and a competent coach could take advantage of that immediately.
September 20th, 2014 at 6:46 PM ^
If you think Brandon is hurting the team from scoring, blokcing and tackling you're out of your mind. He's hired the most expensive coordinators M has ever had.
September 20th, 2014 at 6:50 PM ^
And one of the worst head coaches we've ever had.
September 20th, 2014 at 8:41 PM ^
September 21st, 2014 at 9:06 AM ^
By the end of the year Hoke will be ahead of only Frank Barbour, Harry Kipke, Elton Wieman, Bump Elliot, and Rich Rodriguez.
Of course Frank Barbour, Harry Kipke, and Elton Wieman all coached pre-WW2... and Kipke, even given his record, won 2 National Championships and 2 Conference Championships.
Brady Hoke really appears to be Bump Elliot re-incarnated - except he wasn't a good player before becoming a coach and he doesn't seem to have the intellect to end up as a great AD like Bump Elliot did.
September 21st, 2014 at 2:12 PM ^
I guess he can take solace in the knowledge that he'll always be better than Rich Rodriguez was.
September 20th, 2014 at 6:57 PM ^
September 20th, 2014 at 7:30 PM ^
If you think that a leader with a broken idea of what direction an athletic program should be going in and the values it should operate under doesnt have a trickle down effect to the team itself YOUR insane.
September 20th, 2014 at 10:35 PM ^
September 20th, 2014 at 6:50 PM ^
He could have brought in Miles. That would at least be better than this crap. The egos and the pompous asses that have run this program for the 10 years are at fault. And yes, that includes Lloyd Carr. If they would have hired Miles instead of Rodriguez we wouldb't be here now.
This program is dying. We are lower the MSU, ND or even PSU. Hell, the only team we can beat in the state is probably EMU and thet would be a dog fight.
Hoke, Brandon, Mattison...fire the whole lot of them
September 20th, 2014 at 6:50 PM ^
has anyone ever deprogrammed themselves from being a fan of a team. as a of right now i would just like to be a casual fan and enjoy watching games and not caring who wins.
September 20th, 2014 at 8:53 PM ^
I find myself feeling that way this year. I don't really care whether they win at this point, I've checked out emotionally. I had plans to go up for the Penn State game, and I think I'm going to change my plans. I can't see paying more than face value for tickets, or paying for a hotel and ending up watching what I saw today (which I've seen too many times in the past 7 years). I don't even think I'll go to the Northwestern game this year, and I live in Evanston and go whenever Michigan's in town. I always root for the players, and I feel especially bad for them because they came here to play a certain kind of football that was promised to them by the coaching staff. But the reasons I enjoy college football so much are lost with this team and it's really sad.
September 20th, 2014 at 8:53 PM ^
I find myself feeling that way this year. I don't really care whether they win at this point, I've checked out emotionally. I had plans to go up for the Penn State game, and I think I'm going to change my plans. I can't see paying more than face value for tickets, or paying for a hotel and ending up watching what I saw today (which I've seen too many times in the past 7 years). I don't even think I'll go to the Northwestern game this year, and I live in Evanston and go whenever Michigan's in town. I always root for the players, and I feel especially bad for them because they came here to play a certain kind of football that was promised to them by the coaching staff. But the reasons I enjoy college football so much are lost with this team and it's really sad.
September 21st, 2014 at 2:05 PM ^
That happened to me after RRod was fired.....couldn't believe we fired a coach after 3 years having watched ND do the same thing. So, so stupid. Confirmed for me the AD was in over its head even more than when Sail Boat Bill was running the coaching search.
My life is a lot less stressful since I decoupled personal pride from a team I had no impact on. Now I just shrug and consider myself lucky to have been a student in 97/98.
September 20th, 2014 at 6:51 PM ^
September 20th, 2014 at 6:51 PM ^
Having a leadership team hyper-focused on promoting a brand of what Michigan is supposed to be and monetizing on this brand in any way possible is damaging the on-field result.
Leadership (AD, coach) is unable to recognize it's own blind spots on the field because 1) the money is still flowing in, and 2) they are so focused on the message they want to convey to their 'customers' about what Michigan represents.
The transition from a frustrated to an apathetic fan base will make it more difficult to monetize the brand the UM atheltic leadership is selling, even with a far more exciting home schedule in 2015. It may take years to recover from this 'lost decade'.
September 20th, 2014 at 6:59 PM ^
September 20th, 2014 at 6:51 PM ^
September 20th, 2014 at 8:26 PM ^
I don't believe blaming Bo makes a lot of sense. Perhaps I misunderstand the 45 year comment.
September 20th, 2014 at 6:52 PM ^
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September 20th, 2014 at 6:52 PM ^
September 20th, 2014 at 6:52 PM ^
September 20th, 2014 at 6:53 PM ^
September 20th, 2014 at 6:53 PM ^
Neither of those first two points have anything to do with playing football.
September 20th, 2014 at 6:53 PM ^
September 21st, 2014 at 2:13 PM ^
Why do WE deserve better? We had it pretty great in the past and probably didn't appreciate what we did have. How much you wanna bet Purdue and Illinois fans also believe they deserve better?
September 20th, 2014 at 6:53 PM ^
This isn't on Brandon. He has ponied up the money for the best assistants money can buy. It just isn't working for some reason
September 20th, 2014 at 6:54 PM ^
The Biggest problem is Hoke. Brandon just has to hire the best canidate and this thing will get fixed in no time.
September 20th, 2014 at 6:54 PM ^
September 20th, 2014 at 8:38 PM ^
Pay him whatever he wants. I guarantee that you will get even BETTER recruiting classes than Hoke is bringing in.
September 20th, 2014 at 6:54 PM ^
September 20th, 2014 at 6:56 PM ^
September 20th, 2014 at 7:23 PM ^
is an MBA guy, played for Michigan...but he is a money guy. When you run a Dominos your focus is the bottom line. It's a pizza assembly line designed to squeeze out the most money possible. He is good at that. But he came to Michigan with the same focus. He pissed of the students. They have to sell groupons to get the attendance up. If you payed full price for tickets and now they are selling groupons...I'd be pissed. It is possible to find a happy medium between increasing revenue, while maintaing a great culture. The Fireworks issue may not seem like that big of a deal but it gives you insight into his mindset. We want a good football team that kicks ass and loud fans and a great band that you can hear. We dont need fireworks, shitty piped in music, etc.etc. We don't need to hire a "Michigan man". We need to respect and honor tradition, but move on into the modern era of football with a coach that can adapt and coach smart football while respecting tradition.....not be handcuffed by it.
September 20th, 2014 at 8:21 PM ^
So we need to fire both Hoke and Brandon. I'm totally fine with this.
In the meantime, we need to give Nussmeier an audition and see if we can find lightning in a bottle.
September 20th, 2014 at 8:27 PM ^
Like I said in the other thread, it's a program wide problem.
The Michigan football of the last century is dead. The past is dead.
We need to as fans, as donors, as influential people, say enough is enough. It's time to put the past aside and build toward a new future for Michigan football.
It's time to stop clinging frantically to tradition and the past to the point where it simultaneously becomes a crutch and smothers the future of the program.
We need to stop using "tenuous connections to Bo" as any sort of a prerequisite for head coach, let alone the top one.
We need to clean house, get outside of the confines of this decrepit program, outside of our comfort zone, and find the best people for their respective jobs. We also need to shut the hell up at that point, stand in unison, and get behind those people.
Platitudes like "Those who stay will be champions," "This is Michigan fergodsakes," and "A Michigan man will coach at Michigan," are all well and good, but they put no points on the board. They don't give you a competitive advantage. They are utterly meaningless in the context of winning football games.
Platitudes and traditions are fine as a part of your program, it's when they become your program that you have a problem, and we have a whole lot of problems.
September 20th, 2014 at 8:29 PM ^
September 20th, 2014 at 8:47 PM ^
You can say the basketball program has done well under Brandon, but basketball program is not like the football program at all.
While we have been historically pretty good at basketball, there have not been years and years of the same people around it.
Football is a different story. Everyone in the athletic department that thinks their way is the only way has contributed to this toxic enviornment. Undermining and making decisions about the football program when they have no business doing it (I'm looking at you LLOYD). We really need to just clean house because nothing will change until they're gone.