OT: Brady Hoke's Oregon Defense

Submitted by 1VaBlue1 on

Through the summer there was some curiosity about how Brady would fare as DC at Oregon.  So, after week 1, I looked around and found this from the Statesman Journal.  I don't know that this is the definitive story of Oregon football, I suspect it's just some local reporters take...  Oregon won 53-28 over UC Davis.  Some takes about the defense:

Brady:

“It was a tail of two halves a little bit,” Hoke said. “First half, I thought we played on edge a little bit. Came out second half, didn’t feel that same edge, and gave up some plays that we can’t give up.” 

“We didn’t tackle very well,” Hoke said. “We gave up some big balls down the field, and we competed for some of them, but we’ve got to come away with some of those as well. We’ve got to do a better job coaching.”

Seems like we've heard that before...

Head Coach Mark Helfrich:

“I thought operationally, we just didn’t get gapped out all the time and led to some of the big runs with the fly-sweep action and the power, there’s a lot of moving parts there that certainly other teams will do against us going forward, so we’ll get that ironed out,” Helfrich said. “Most of that is very, very simple on the chalkboard, simple on the tape to look at and understand what’s going on. It’s not just, ‘hey, this guy got physically outmatched,’ something like that.”

Giving up 28 to UC Davis can't feel good right out of the gate...

 

MGoBoard
Football
Brady Hoke; Defense; Oregon

DonAZ

September 6th, 2016 at 2:26 PM ^

... Al Borges' San Jose State offense managed just 10 points, 287 total yards, and achieved  only 53 yards on 32 carries for an average of 1.7 yards / carry. :-)

Joined: 12/05/2011

MGoPoints: 16763

BlueRy

September 6th, 2016 at 3:00 PM ^

On the bright side, he sucked in the best possible way. He was a very bad X's and O's coach, but quite a good recruiter. The recruitment piece is key. This allowed Harbaugh to step in and coach a team that was well stocked with talent.

Joined: 10/16/2011

MGoPoints: 278

Jehu the Damaja

September 6th, 2016 at 4:18 PM ^

I had a chance to talk to Grant Newsome's mom last February at a USA Football event for a little bit, and she told me that they were all pretty bummed Hoke was canned. She said their whole family absolutely loved Brady Hoke as a person, and he was a big reason Grant committed there in the first place. If there was one thing he did very well during his time here, it was recruit. Too bad it never translated to on-field success until JH got here to coach them up.

Joined: 02/03/2010

MGoPoints: 6970

Carcajou

September 6th, 2016 at 10:43 PM ^

Two things he did/does well:
recruiting AND getting every player and coach to love the guy and each other, even when things did not go well. I think Harbaugh has benefitted immensely from what Hoke left, and the extra juice and different take that Harbaugh brings added to some of what was already here is paying off.

Let's receall that Bo made his mark and had some of his most dominant teams with guys recruited by Bump.

I think Hoke would have gotten things fixed at Michigan, and can be a good coach if he gets another opportunity. That said, I hope he's happy, and JH is coaching here now.


 

 

 

 

Joined: 02/26/2009

MGoPoints: 5794

Blusqualo

September 6th, 2016 at 11:32 PM ^

The team got worse every year he was here. They were atrocious at developing players. He was also lacking in some of the x's and o's. The longer we muddled around in between mediocrity and crappy, the less of a destination we became, the less attractive to recruits we became, the more people grew up associating Michigan as average, rather than a traditional power. We got worse every year with him, the chart was pretty easy to envision, its a straight line angled down.

Joined: 10/08/2014

MGoPoints: 2700

JohnCorbin

September 6th, 2016 at 2:32 PM ^

Oregon let up 393 yards, and there were 4 plays totaling over a third of that (133 total, 50+36+27+20).  There could be more... I took the figures from the longest receptions and rushes by player on the box score.

Take away those big plays and the yardage looks pretty good at 259!

Joined: 07/12/2011

MGoPoints: 435

Space Coyote

September 6th, 2016 at 2:41 PM ^

Oregon is not playing with a ton of talent on defense. Only one SR, two RS-JRs starting, the rest younger. Using the highest rankings, Oregon is starting 1 4star on DL, 1 4 star at LB, and 3 at DB (all three at DB were split between 3 star and 4 star players). So they have some talent, but it is not a loaded defense from a talent perspective. There are 3 returning starters that are starting on this years team as well, so not a ton of experience.

I don't know much about the position coaches at Oregon on defense, but it could be an additional problem. Pretty sure they kept most of them, but not sure. We'll see. I'm hoping the best for Hoke. I think people assume because his time at Michigan went poorly and he always had other DCs that he doesn't really know defense; I disagree very much, the guy knows defense in and out. But we'll see how he does as a coordinator.

Also, I didn't know all that by head, but I wish every team had someone putting together this level of depth chart. Very helpful 

https://web.nmsu.edu/~ogden/oregon/depthchart.html

Joined: 06/18/2009

MGoPoints: 38962

Yeoman

September 6th, 2016 at 3:48 PM ^

...right after Hoke was hired Oregon stopped pursuing some offensive players and had, instead, some last minute signings on the defensive side. There was a funny quote from Helfrich that I can't seem to find that, loosely translated from coachspeak, said "yeah we sort of realized that maybe we should recruit defensive players too."

Sometimes you need someone from outside your organization to look at what you're doing from a different angle. They'd gotten a little insular there, which I suppose isn't an unusual problem. I don't know if Hoke was the right hire, but what he brings them is something they needed.

Joined: 06/08/2011

MGoPoints: 21390

Tex_Ind_Blue

September 6th, 2016 at 2:52 PM ^

The first half was really a good display. Out of 8 meaningful drives, UCD punted 6 times, threw one interception and scored one TD. That TD drive also started at Oregon 33 due to a fumble by the Ducks offense. 

UCD scored most of its points in the second half, possibly against the second or third string defense. Even in the second half, the Ducks defense held an UCD drive originating at Oregon 31 to an FGA. 

Looks like it was a decent performance by the Ducks defense and Hoke. 

 

http://www.goducks.com/boxscore.aspx?id=5594&path=football

 

Joined: 12/31/2014

MGoPoints: 7717

bronxblue

September 6th, 2016 at 8:51 PM ^

It's the internet; if you can't make snide comments anonymously about people who are probably better at their jobs than you are, what else would we do doing?  Well, except looking at naked pictures of other people.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 171810

Zarniwoop

September 6th, 2016 at 3:08 PM ^

Making Oregon play real defense is going to take some time.

Factor in that they are on the field essentially the entire game and yeah... they will never win that battle completely.

Joined: 09/10/2013

MGoPoints: 10498

1VaBlue1

September 6th, 2016 at 4:29 PM ^

I didn't post this to pile onto Hoke, though I knew people would.  I understand the sentiment...  But I won't pile it on - he sucked here.  Sucked like a Dyson.  But I can also recognize his love for the place and its traditions.  He tried to do it right, just couldn't.  At least he cared...  Rich Rod didn't care for the place, or its traditions.  All he cared about was his precious scheme.

If we had to choose between the two, I'd take Hoke.  That said, THANK GOD we have JMFH running the show now!

Joined: 01/31/2016

MGoPoints: 127312

Parkinen

September 6th, 2016 at 5:07 PM ^

Yes. It was probably getting the job you've lusted for all your life only to realize that you are horribly ilequiped and not capable of doing what you've been hired to do. You think we felt bad? How do you think Hoke felt? Let's hope he finds some success somewhere. He's a decent and caring person both for his players and the university.



Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

Joined: 09/09/2013

MGoPoints: 2047

UMProud

September 6th, 2016 at 6:38 PM ^

Ya but is he a heckuva defensive coordinator?  Believe me I wish him success but I really don't know what he has to work with either....never really paid much attention to Oregon's defensive unit....maybe he interited a work in progress ?

Joined: 12/18/2014

MGoPoints: 2705

bronxblue

September 6th, 2016 at 8:49 PM ^

Not to defend Hoke too much, but Oregon's past defenses just didn't recruit to the style he's used to coaching to, and there is going to be a clash.  We saw that a bit with UM's offense last year, or in RR's first year at UM.  Hoke isn't a great coach by any means, but Oregon and him were never a great match, at least early on.  It's not a defensive line designed to play to Hoke's strengths, and it'll take some time.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 171810

Durham Blue

September 6th, 2016 at 9:19 PM ^

Seems to me great O and D coordinators need to be great at X's and O's.  Football geek if you will.  Hoke doesn't strike me as one of those guys.  Not sure if this will work but I do wish him the best.

Joined: 10/09/2008

MGoPoints: 30055

ThoseWhoStayUofM

September 6th, 2016 at 11:56 PM ^

Brady Hoke held them to under 100 yards rushing.  His first imperative is to stop the run, and he did that.  Don't forget this is his first year and Oregon's defense blows.  This is a mac level defense here.

Joined: 11/09/2010

MGoPoints: 368