Hoke Chimes In and Would Not Have Punted
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/2015/10/21/ex-michigan-coach-br…
Okay, you guys are sick of seeing MSU threads, chew on this one.
Personally, if we have the No. 1 defense in the nation I'm going to test those guys," Hoke said. "You've got to play to the strength of your football team and the strength of the Michigan football team all year long has been their defense." He said he was sure "Jimmy" went over what he wanted to do and how he wanted to do it but Hoke said there are too many potential breakdowns on a punt. "No. 1, I think the one gunner to the field should have been in a little bit more and if you're going to punt it there's ways to protect it a little better," Hoke said. Hoke first credited the MSU defense for forcing fourth down and said he would have gone for it at that point, handing the ball to De'Veon Smith and "challenge your offensive line" or play-action pass to take four to five seconds off the clock.
October 21st, 2015 at 5:46 PM ^
October 21st, 2015 at 3:29 PM ^
That's just special
October 21st, 2015 at 3:29 PM ^
Solid logic for a coach who has a 78-70 all time record.
October 21st, 2015 at 3:33 PM ^
Know your team. Obviously it would be dumb to run Smith again on 4th so the only option would be to let Rudock make a play. If it was MSU in the situation we were in then I could see them going for it on 4th down and giving Cook a run pass option. But Jake Rudock isn't Connor Cook. He hasn't earned that kind of trust.
October 21st, 2015 at 3:34 PM ^
October 21st, 2015 at 3:38 PM ^
October 21st, 2015 at 3:40 PM ^
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October 21st, 2015 at 3:42 PM ^
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October 21st, 2015 at 4:06 PM ^
I don't think he was fully aware that his comments would resonate with anyone.
October 21st, 2015 at 3:43 PM ^
Came here for the "10 men on the field jokes". Was not disappointed.
October 21st, 2015 at 3:44 PM ^
"Those 9 guys and the punter shouldn't have been out on the field" -probably said by Hoke.
October 21st, 2015 at 3:47 PM ^
The only thing I might say is that we should have taken a delay of game penalty to get in a different punt formation once we saw how they were lined up.
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October 21st, 2015 at 3:50 PM ^
And we have one of the best special teams units in the country and a punter who puts the ball wherever he wants. Seriously, people saying this wasn't the right choice are closing in on idiot status at this point.
The only possible, slight criticism you could make is about the formation. That's it.
October 21st, 2015 at 3:51 PM ^
Agreed. In hindsight this would have been a great strategy play. See how they're lining up, take 5 yards and then adjust to it.
Argh.
October 21st, 2015 at 4:28 PM ^
I would agree with this, and as I recall, MSU had no one back so if that play works, the ball flies away and lands harmlessly well behind MSU with no time for anyone to even contemplate retrieving it. It really was the correct thing to do in that situation, but I could see the delay of game if they didn't like the formation MSU had, but then we're simply talking about alignment while agreeing on the essential course.
I actually was discussing this very play - again, against my will and just to be polite - with someone at lunch today (a Spartan - shocker, I know).
October 21st, 2015 at 4:57 PM ^
I thought about this after I wrote something similar on Saturday night... What, if anything, would have been the penalty associated with the walk-off? We were already down to 10 seconds. With a delay of game penalty, would we have immediately forfeited the ball since it was 4th down and we were out of time-outs?
October 21st, 2015 at 5:46 PM ^
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October 21st, 2015 at 3:56 PM ^
October 21st, 2015 at 3:49 PM ^
October 21st, 2015 at 3:54 PM ^
I think he should make like a tree and get outta here.
October 21st, 2015 at 4:05 PM ^
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October 21st, 2015 at 3:49 PM ^
October 21st, 2015 at 3:49 PM ^
October 21st, 2015 at 3:53 PM ^
If Hoke were coaching he wouldn't have had to make the call in the first place since it would be 51-9.
October 21st, 2015 at 3:53 PM ^
Hoke actually wouldn't have let the game even come down to the last play in the first place.
He would've made sure we were down several scores at that point and thus avoided this whole mess completely.
October 21st, 2015 at 6:10 PM ^
Because he would have practiced the hell out of it, too.
October 21st, 2015 at 4:00 PM ^
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely think punting was the correct decision, but it is fairly close. A clean punt wins the game, plain and simple. The median team has punted about 33 times this year, the median team has blocked 1 about 1 kick this year (kick being FG or Punt). I took median because I can't find average, but suffice it to say that a punt is blocked maybe on 1-3% of all punts. That's very low, and it probably gets lower when the team should be max protecting and isn't worried about covering a kick.
Now, the idea of PA isn't an all together bad option either. If you make the 1st down, you win the game. Michigan was 4/15 on third down conversions in this game. Now, this was a shorter conversion, so let's say it's about 35% likely to convert. PA takes up probably at least 5 seconds, so really, they have to go for the Hail Mary. If you say that's about a 3% chance of converting, you're right around the 2% mark as well. So really, the odds aren't all that different, statistically.
But one is something you've been doing successfully all season (punting), and another is something you haven't been doing. Extending a play for longer (i.e. play action) gives more possibilities to chaos breaking out, especially because you're potentially leaving your QB exposed by forcing him to hold onto the football.
The clock wasn't going to run out with an offensive play, so that's not really an option. If there would have been 5, heck, 6 seconds left, I would have run a play and chucked it deep and out of bounds. With 10 seconds left, I think punting was the right choice. But hindsight is 20/20.
As for the folks pissy about what Hoke said, he's doing his job. Really people? He didn't even say anything bad about the program, he just said a hypothetical what-if. You guys really going to roll with that chip on your shoulder? That's some serious chipage I guess.
October 21st, 2015 at 4:06 PM ^
It's his job to offer an opinion. I don't really mind him talking about Michigan football, and I think it would be personally difficult to be giving commentary on a dream job that I had but lost due to poor performance. I am just really embarrassed by the way he handled our program. I cringe when his name pops up.
October 21st, 2015 at 4:09 PM ^
Its because his opinion is idiotic and and off in left field and the fact that he couldn't recruit a QB to save his life is a big reason we lost that game. If we had a reasonable QB option, maybe we could go for it.
Not to mention he was a terrible head coach who made poor decisions over and over and over again.
Hearing him speak on coaching is like listening to Matt Millen talk about how to build a successful NFL franchise.
October 21st, 2015 at 5:11 PM ^
But Harbaugh was so gracious in deflecting potentially negative things he could have said about what Hoke did with the program, one would expect to see that graciousness reciprocated with something more along the lines of "well, it's a tough call. Not sure what I would have done had I been in the situation. I may have been tempted to run the ball etc. . . . But it's all hindsight now, and given how well the special teams had played, I don't see how anyone can fault the decision." Or whatever.
October 21st, 2015 at 7:13 PM ^
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October 22nd, 2015 at 7:44 AM ^
October 22nd, 2015 at 8:02 AM ^
October 21st, 2015 at 4:01 PM ^
1. Everyone on the field had a helmet on
2. We didn't apologize to Dantonio for trying to score
3. I'm enjoying Michigan football again
And that's not even the power of Harbaugh. That's just the removal of Hoke.
October 21st, 2015 at 4:02 PM ^
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October 21st, 2015 at 4:05 PM ^
October 21st, 2015 at 4:06 PM ^
October 21st, 2015 at 4:10 PM ^
October 21st, 2015 at 4:11 PM ^
Blake should have power-slid into position!
October 21st, 2015 at 4:16 PM ^
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October 21st, 2015 at 4:18 PM ^
I always hoped that Brady would age on TV like a Michigan version of Lou Holtz. Guy you love in a wacky grandpa or uncle type way, and says enough crazy things that someone funnier than me can make a parody twitter account satirizing him. So far, Brady hasn't disappointed
October 21st, 2015 at 4:21 PM ^
Have been 35-11 and if he had punted, there would only be 11 out there.
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October 21st, 2015 at 4:25 PM ^
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October 21st, 2015 at 4:22 PM ^
I think I trust Nick Saban's judgement over Brady's:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJFyfW8-QOI&feature=youtu.be&t=2h32m13s
October 21st, 2015 at 5:01 PM ^
Saban did go max punt protect on the formation... And the Sooners still got pretty close to blocking it.
October 21st, 2015 at 7:05 PM ^
He did have max protect and Oklahoma still had two guys coming in unblocked. However, you are completely wrong about them almost blocking it. They weren't even close to blocking it. They don't even dive at him. Had the LSU punter not caught the snap, the two unblocked guys would have smashed into him just like Sparty did to Blake last weekend. So it looks like max protect isn't a guarantee of anything.
Again: All of this comes down to Blake catching the ball. If he catches it, he kicks it and we win the game. That's it. Its that simple. All this other talk about putting the ball in Rudock's hands or different punt formations is dumb. Catch. Kick. Win.
I give your analysis 0/5 putting it on par with Brady's pointless opinion.
October 21st, 2015 at 4:25 PM ^
Yeaaa.... too bad Hoke wouldn't have even come that close to winning that game. It took a miracle to beat us. With Hoke at the helm we would still be unranked, and our talent underutilized. Smh.
October 21st, 2015 at 4:25 PM ^
October 21st, 2015 at 4:27 PM ^
But I'm wondering to myself aloud here:
Due to the seemingly increased "wierdness" on special teams plays at end of games (is this because longsnappers, punters, and generally "less depended on" players are in spotlight of crunchtime?), i'm wondering why teams don't have a "seal the game" package for these scenarios. Jabrill in Wilcat formation and 2 best tacklers (Defensively) behind him in split back formation. They will not get the ball, they are safety valves.
The whole team would know that the objectives are:
1. Get the first down and end the game
2. If Jabrill does not catch the snap cleanly his only job is to fall on ball and insure no craziness. Let D take field and seal it. We can have a couple safetys as split backs to insure tackling on slim chance of fumble/turnover, etc.
3. If caught cleanly, and he sees he will not get first down due to crazy overload blitz, get out of pocket and throw ball out of bounds. If there is a defender within 5 feet of you just go down, don't even try throwing anywhere. Defense will win it.
4. If you find yourself in some type of shitstorm scenario not covered above, you are Jabrill Peppers, so run around and don't get tackled for 10 seconds. Make sure you are out of box so if at any point you are going to get tackled you can throw out of bounds.
IDK. Punting was the right call in this situation given everything we knew at that time. Maybe with 5 seconds left instead of 10 something like the above would be advisable.
When i saw the thread title i thought: "No way he is dumb enough or ballsy enough to comment on this with actual "I woulda done this" advice" - I was wrong.
As someone else stated already: If he shuts his mouth it wouldn't take long for him to be remembered fondly and maybe even come around the program occasionally. This is not helping.