USA Today: ESPN commentators rip Michigan coach Brady Hoke for leaving in quarterback after big hit

#FireBrandon and Brady Hoke are still top trends on twitter this morning. People are pisseedddddd

For those who were not around yesterday for the aftermath of the loss here is the money quote from the presser. 

http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/hoke-presser-0

If he had simply said I didn't see it, I was not aware of it at least you have a case for neglect and people could yell at him for not wearing a headset so that ANYONE on the staff could point out Shane was stumbling. At that point you make a case there is an issue in the program that no one from the training staff has ability to communicate with Hoke about injuries they see on the field.

But his quote just is damning - it basically says, we expect our guys to self diagnose their injuries - head trauma or otherwise. Unless they fall down or come to the sideline, we're gonna play em! Cuz they're tough kids!

 

Well I don't know.. you know.. I don't know...he might have had a concussion or not. I don't know that. And that wasn't something... and Shane's a pretty competitive tough kid. And Shane wanted to be the QB. And so...believe me...if he didn't want to be he would have come to the sideline or stayed down.

 

and after that just looked at ESPN updates to get the score as the game progressed while I was doing stuff around the house.

I believed even before the game was over that if we lost that it would be the nail in the coffin for Hoke, especially given how fucking awful and uncompetitive we've looked this season. Even given that, I never would have anticipated this colossal fuckup by Hoke and his staff on how they handled Morris. Hoke's typically inarticulate "explanation" in the post-game presser is a devastating indictment of his management abilities, especially since he's not a coordinator of anything. You don't take chances with concussions, especially given how huge a shot Shane took on that late hit.

For a guy who has always made a big deal of how much he cares about "the kids" it's simply bizarre how poorly the situation was handled. I strongly doubt that Brandon will fire him before the end of the season, but Hoke's performance yesterday has mortally wounded his credibility as Michigan's head coach.

It's unfortunate since I still think he's fundamentally a good guy; in situations like this I try to remember the old aphorism "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence." Regardless, there's no evidence he's up to the task of successfully running a Power 5 program like Michigan's.

This is just another small log on the raging fire. As I said yesterday, he was fired--within days--as soon as he made his straight-from-1994 comments about Shane having to take himself out in last night's presser. Completely clueless about modern player safety.

I mean, TIME magazine had a cover story just last week about a HS football player who died after suffering a brain injury on the field. That's just one of many. It's not like this is exactly under the radar stuff.

It's too bad. He deserves to be fired for Michigan's poor on the field performance (e.g., first time with 3 losses in Sept in the history of the program). But this player safety incident is going to be the huge straw that breaks the camel's back.

I'm not giving Hoke a pass, but what's up with the medical staff? They should have taken his helmet so he wouldn't even be able to go back in.

If we were a a competent program, this would get Hoke fired. Leach got fired for not taking a concussion seriously and that wasn't even on TV. But DB strikes me as completely out of touch. And Schlissel doesn't give two shits about athletics as far as I know (generally not a bad thing) and even if he did, it's hard to fire your highest profile employee so early. So who is going to step up here?

Just saw Deadspin put up their article condemning Hoke for the non-decision. This is by far the most embarrassed I have ever been as a Michigan fan in my entire life. Losing is one thing, but pure incompetence in the form of not paying enough attention to your own players safety is so far beyond the line. Hoke needs to be let go.

...with tears, at a podium. And soon.

This sucks. I really liked Hoke when he showed up in AA -- who didn't? -- and even in my worst-case scenarios, never thought it would end this badly.

We, as fans, are past the point of worrying about the dubious effects of mid season firings in the program. Michigan absolutely cannot keep Hoke around any longer when he is putting player safety at risk, whether intentionally or by negligence. He has to be fired today.

Like many, I was pleading, PLEADING, pleading for Morris to get pulled after the ankle injury.  There was nothing left to prove.   But the late hit episode was the final straw.   A semi-national TV audience saw him wobble, ask for help from Braden, etc.   SOMEONE on the sideline had to see it.   He needed to be pulled ASAP after that play.

I think the current state of Michigan football was captured a few plays after Morris was finally pulled.   Gardner gets his helmet pulled off during a tackle and has to leave the field for a play.   The ABC camera pans to Morris on the sideline, then quickly focus on Bellomy.   Bellomy is the presumed backup at this point, but HE CAN'T FIND HIS F'ING HELMET!!!   Amazing.   I think he tried on two helmets before Morris is forced to go back in and hand the ball off.   That was the pure definition of a sideline clusterf#@ck. 

This was a sad, sad game punctuated by an injured football player that should've been nowhere near the field for at least a series before he was potentially concussed on a brutal late hit.  I'm nightmarishly saddened by our program right now.  

 

It'll be the 2x4 boulder that paralyzed the camel.

What people are not (yet) talking about is that this could actually open Michigan up to an NCAA investigation of Michigan's concussion policy and of what exactly happened yesterday.

NCAA Bylaws--not the football rule book, but the actual Bylaws that are subject to investigation by the NCAA enforcement division--require that a University have in place a process that ensures a player is immediately removed from a game if he exhibits "signs, symptoms or behaviors" of a concussion, and that he is not returned to competition or practice until he is cleared by medical staff.

Now I'm sure the University of Michigan has such a policy, because Michigan has a working compliance department, but the policy in place was obviously inadequate because it did not "ensure" that Shane Morris was properly handled under the minimum requirements of the Bylaw. 

The scary thing (other than the horrific negligence, I mean) is that this is exactly the sort of public issue where that the NCAA might be looking to make an example of somebody, and that "somebody" might be the University of Michigan.

I think he will be fired tomorrow, Nuss or Mattison as interim head coach. Maybe we can have Steve Fisher type situation.

Someone please email mark schlissel about the incident. Brandon is tone deaf about anything that doesn't build the brand. Apparently, he is hell bent on turning Michigan football into some sort of a minor league wrestling circuit with the gladiator-ish disregard for safety.

Perhaps Sanjay Gupta needs to have a personal talk with schlissel to get this moving. Hoke should be fired, with cause, and the rest of contract invalidated, for the stunt he pulled yesterday. Mike leach was fired for doing less with a lesser player.

Did it seem that Hoke, wanted no part of putting Gardner in?  The fact that Shane and Gardner did not talk, go near each other and all that.  Do you think there was a discipline issue Hoke had with Gardner?  

Basing this on noting but gut feel, but there was no way Hoke wanted to play Gardner. 

This has nothing to do with concussion/ankle issue, that was cleary stupid, wrong and he will get fired.  But earlier on, when Morris first got hurt and was clearly overmatched, why not put Gardner in to help save your job?  It made no sense. I don't buy "he didn't want to hurt morris' confidence"  Morris is bad and is not going to get much better, even Hoke can see that.

I wonder if it will come out later that Gardner did something majorly wrong in Hoke's eyes.

The announcers during the game, especially during the whole injury part could not have been any better. You could tell they were genuinely concerned about Shane, and genuinely upset that he was left in.

Let's be honest here, if we were 5-0, no one would be talking about this being a fire able offense. But this is Big Time college football, and Hoke cannot win consistently at this level, if this is the vehicle to get him out sooner rather than later then so be it.