Michigan AD: New coach Brady Hoke already helping unite U-M family

Submitted by CHI_BLU on

Detroit News article stated here.

 

Link Here

wlubd

February 16th, 2011 at 5:06 PM ^

I don't think Hoke's results have anything to do with it.

A home-run hire would have been a successful Hoke being hired in December. Even if Hoke's successful, it's more akin to Brandon 'pulling a Homer' (Simpsons reference) instead of Brandon hitting a homer.

jmblue

February 16th, 2011 at 5:16 PM ^

Hoke's results have everything to do with it.  Football is the engine that drives the athletic department.  If the guy Brandon hired works out, then Brandon's done his job.  The only other really big thing he has on his plate is the Crisler renovation.  Besides, if Hoke is successful, he'll most likely be around longer than Brandon will, anyway.

 

wlubd

February 16th, 2011 at 5:16 PM ^

Hoke's results have everything to do with Hoke and the product he and his staff are able to put on the field.

What I'm talking about with Brandon is confidence in his decision-making. Nothing Hoke puts on the field will affect that. We can win 5 straight national titles, erect a state of Brady Hoke outside the Big House, and I still won't have full confidence in Dave Brandon. And there's not a lot Brandon can do to change that. That's what it comes down.

Hoke's results reflect how Hoke will be judged. Brandon's decisions reflect how Brandon will be judged. In some ways those are linked, in this case not at all.

wlubd

February 16th, 2011 at 5:29 PM ^

"why will you lack confidence in his ability to make them?"

Did you see how our coaching search went down? I've had no problem with most of what he's done, but as you said the football program drives the athletic department. And hiring a new head coach is a huge decision to make, IMO one of the most important an AD can face in their job. To bungle it as badly as I felt he did is hard to come back from.

Am I concerned about things like the Crisler renovation? Not really. It's not as big a department-affecting change and frankly I'm not sure how Brandon could possibly screw it up (he isn't stupid).

His biggest decision in his tenure was highly flawed though, so excuse me if I'm not comfortable with his ability to make another crucial decision when the time comes (whenever that might be).

aaamichfan

February 16th, 2011 at 5:34 PM ^

We tried "low profile AD" with Bill Martin.

In a world of ridiculous rumors and speculation, the AD needs to be visable enough to squash things. It's sad that things have reached this point, but it's only realistic for him to approach his AD duties this way.

psychomatt

February 16th, 2011 at 6:11 PM ^

Bill Martin was an excellent AD. He inherited an Athletic Department that was a mess financially (and in a number of other ways) and returned it to one of the top 5 or 6 in the country. He did that while getting approval and arranging financing for a number of long-overdue, major facilities improvements (including the $226 million Big House renovation).

Maybe Dave Brandon will turn out to be as successful an AD as Bill Martin. I sincerely hope he does. I just wish he would do his job without all the self-promotion. The constant newspaper and radio interviews, the blog, the tweets, the stalking the sideline at the Big House -- it's a bit much.

psychomatt

February 16th, 2011 at 6:24 PM ^

What are you talking about? If you are suggesting that Bill Martin is somehow responsible for RR getting canned, you are delusional. RR was fired because he did not win enough. Period. If RR had won 9 games last year, he still would be the HC at Michigan. No amount of blogging or tweeting or radio interviews by the AD would have changed the product on the field and the product on the field is what got RR fired.

BigBlue02

February 16th, 2011 at 7:27 PM ^

I don't buy it at all. Everyone keeps saying how it was only the record. Nothing else played into the decision. But then DB keeps saying the exact opposite. He keeps saying how the fanbase needs to be united and the new coach knows the words to the fight song. He is hinting that a Michigan man needs to be at the helm.

BlueVoix

February 16th, 2011 at 6:53 PM ^

An absolute TON of people are only going to remember Martin for hiring Rodriguez, not his improvement to the facilities or his ability to balance the budget.  Old wounds die hard, and Rodriguez created a bunch of them for the average fan.

M-Wolverine

February 16th, 2011 at 7:12 PM ^

I don't get how someone who admits Rich was fired for not winning doesn't hold the guy who hired him accountable for his biggest decision, hiring a guy who didn't win enough in his most important post. (and not just Rich bashing; his percentage of successful coaching hires is bleak, with maybe 1 success and a couple of TBD's).
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<br>I credit him with some really nice infrastructure developments (the Stadium's original Suite design was kinda "meh", but the final product is amazing), but making Michigan profitable is more an embarrassment of the previous administration, because it shouldn't be hard. And the way he did it wasn't any act of business genius; nearly double the ticket prices over ten years, and add "seat donations" to triple charge them on top of that. It's easy to make more money when you drastically raise the price of everything.

M-Wolverine

February 16th, 2011 at 7:16 PM ^

So many people thinking Brandon was a super human genius, pimp-handing everyone, right up to the point he made a decision they disagreed with. If I had a dollar for every post that was basically "Brandon sees all the stuff we don't, and sees the big picture [like 'I' do], so he'll never fire Rich and all the haters will have to live with it..."...then, when he must have seen something he didn't like..."IDIOT!!!!".

LSAClassOf2000

February 16th, 2011 at 7:13 PM ^

.....that  people need to be able to get over, I think. It seems like the larger problem is that nobody is completely sure that he did the right thing, and because Hoke has yet to actually coach a game as the head coach of the University Of Michigan football team. That's a fair thing to say, but again, it doesn't have anything to do with uniting the Michigan family, as has been suggested here. 

M-Wolverine

February 16th, 2011 at 8:30 PM ^

We all thought Rich was the greatest hire ever, and well...
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<br>We won't know for years, what decisions are right and wrong. Amaker seemed like a good hire at the time too for many...Beilein could be...or it could still go wrong. How much I like a decision doesn't matter to me anymore...long term results do.

aawolve

February 16th, 2011 at 4:37 PM ^

If something M sports related appears on the internet, it has already been posted, double posted, triple posted, front paged, and sidebar'd by the time you're done reading it.

aawolve

February 16th, 2011 at 4:41 PM ^

Too much negging others, getting negged myself, points dying of old age, and a well-deserved 900 point deduction from on high. I probably won't neg as much going forward, it sucks to not at least have the option to start a new thread, and miss being able to see voting on posts.

TIMMMAAY

February 16th, 2011 at 5:11 PM ^

I haven't been on here much recently, and hadn't noticed your drop. I hate the expiring points thing, honestly. I think it's pretty bunk that I can go away for a week, not post a thing or get a single neg vote, and yet come back to having lost 500-800 points. Bunk I say.

What If I had to go away for a month or two? I'd have to start over? I realize points literally mean nothing, but that's just plain annoying.