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| This is the way I want to remember Brady Hoke. |
Hoke released a statement shortly after the news became public:
I feel very fortunate to have been an assistant and head coach at the University of Michigan. I will always support the University and this football program. This is a special place and one that Laura, Kelly, and I have enjoyed representing during our time in Ann Arbor. I want to thank all of the sons that played for our teams and appreciate the commitment that our coaches and support staff made to the program every day. I will miss the relationships that I've been fortunate enough to make within the university and community. I additionally appreciate all of the support that our fans, alumni, students, administration, and former players have provided our Michigan. I leave with fond memories of my time at Michigan. Thanks and Go Blue!Hoke was hired in January 2011 (check out my introductory post on Hoke) after Rich Rodriguez was fired. Rodriguez was 15-22 from 2008-2010, incurred NCAA sanctions, and did not fit well with Michigan's established administration, but he did have increasing win totals (3 in 2008, 5 in 2009, 7 in 2010) during his career. As for Hoke himself, he had gone 47-50 during his head coaching career with Ball State and San Diego State, taking those teams from 4-8 in his initial years to 12-1 and 9-4, respectively, in his final season at those schools. Despite the losing record, he was considered to be a coach who could build a program.
Bucking his own established trend, Hoke led Michigan to an 11-2 in his first year, beating Ohio State and winning the Sugar Bowl against Virginia Tech. He followed that up with an 8-5 year that ended in an Outback Bowl loss to South Carolina. The 2013 season saw Michigan fall to 7-6 with a loss to Kansas State in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. The Wolverines completed a 5-7 season this past Saturday with a 42-28 loss to Ohio State, dropping him to 1-3 against the Buckeyes - not to mention 1-3 against the intrastate rival Michigan State Spartans. Hoke finishes his Michigan career with a 31-20 overall record and at 18-14 in the Big Ten. That includes records of 12-13 and 6-10, respectively, over the past two seasons.
As for the reasons Hoke was fired, the problems were multiple. One of the biggest symptoms was the failure to develop a solid quarterback. Hoke inherited Denard Robinson in 2011, and while Robinson won a lot of games and had pretty good overall numbers, he regressed in the passing game. Due to injury, Robinson and Devin Gardner split time in 2012, when Gardner looked like a future star. Unfortunately, he also regressed in 2013 and then even more so in 2014. That seemed largely to blame on Michigan's offensive line, which was among the worst in the country despite having 1st and 3rd round NFL Draft picks as the bookend tackles in 2013. Some improvement occurred in 2014, but not enough and not quickly enough. Unhappiness was rumbling prior to this past season, and the calls for Hoke's head were exacerbated by anger at then athletic director David Brandon - which seemed to be aimed at Hoke and the team at certain points - and some very questionable in-game decisions that made Hoke look overwhelmed.
I have mixed feelings about Hoke's firing. Hoke was too often unsuccessful on the field, but he has been universally acclaimed for the relationships he builds with his players and the leadership he provided for them. Michigan improved their academic standing and generally kept players around under him, which was a huge problem during the Rodriguez administration. He liked to claim that 69 out of 69 seniors graduated during his tenure (although Frank Clark and his domestic violence situation might mar that perfect record).
Hoke also had some admirable personal traits. He was obviously elated to be hired by Michigan in 2011, saying he would have walked from San Diego to Ann Arbor. It's hard to find major faults in someone who is that unabashedly excited to be doing his job. Furthermore, he referred to his players as "sons" and genuinely seemed interested in seeing them succeed. He usually refused to wear long sleeves on game days, presumably because he wanted to lead by example in getting players to tune out the weather. Unlike some coaches around the country who berate players on the sideline or call them out in press conferences, Hoke kept criticism behind closed doors.
Ultimately, the goal at Michigan should be to win national championships. If not, then at least Big Ten championships. If not, then at least beat Ohio State and Michigan State. Unfortunately, Michigan never won any kind of championship under Hoke and went 2-6 against those rivals. Hoke's time had come. It isn't fair, but it's the way the world works.
Wherever Hoke ends up next year or in two years, I hope that Brady, his wife, and his daughter find happiness and success. His next team will be my second-favorite team.*
*Unless it's Ohio State or Michigan State
Well said. I really wiished this would have worked out, but it was time. I hope Brady finds success at his next stop. He is a good man.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you wrote. Great coach off the field but the incompetence on it was too much. It's not just that they lost. They lost while looking inept, confused, and poorly run. It was a disgrace to Michigan in a way that 3-8 can't touch. All the best to Coach Hoke, wherever he ends up next.
ReplyDeleteMy 2011 comments in that post you linked hold up pretty well I think.
"Don't get me wrong, I think this is a massive failure by DB. He got worked by the process instead of working it. He failed to build on the foundation that RR built and will instead blow up the program to look backward into the past."
Lets hope Hackett does better 4 years later.
Oh, and this comment still stands:
"Most of all, I'm extremely relieved we didn't end up with Miles as our coach. W-L record, or not, Miles is an idiot and a sleazeball. I'd have had a hard time with him representing the UofM that I came to know as principled and filled with integrity."
Some parts of the last coaching hire I hope we can repeat.
I'd be curious to know your views on Hoke's biggest mistakes. People point out things like poor game management, which of course is true, but it comes down to not being very good at football, and I don't know how you correct that at his age.
ReplyDeleteTwo mistakes stand out for me that he very easily could have corrected. First, he was far too loyal to mediocre assistants. I don't know what Roy Manning was doing coaching cornerbacks, when he'd never played or coached the position in his life. Hoke fired Al Borges a year too late, and as far as we know, never considered firing Darrell Funk at all.
And second, he should've taken a QB in the 2012 class. I have to admit, I originally didn't think this was that big of a deal, but I was wrong. By not taking a QB in 2012, he was leaving himself with no options other than Shane Morris if Gardner was either injured or ineffective, both of which happened.
Excellent question. I think his inability to show progress or learn from his mistakes was the biggest issue. The lack of development in the OL, at QB, or really any position was pretty damning. You can probably count on one hand the number of players who clearly improved during his four years.
DeleteThe other thing that bothers me is that he was supposed to be a CEO coach who entrusted his assistants to run the show. It became clear that he meddled with the offensive philosophy far too much and perhaps didn't align his assistants correctly in the first place. We will probably never know, but I think he told Nuss against OSU and Borges against OSU to unleash the full playbook - especially zone read handoffs and fakes, a diverse passing game, and general unpredictability. That was after trying multiple TEs, blind fake handoffs that were ineffective, and POWER for far too long. Having an identity that put the players in position to succeed and identifying the right players was an issue.
I would love to have Hoke as a recruiting coordinator and defensive line coach. He's great to have on the staff and to represent the university - he just isn't very good at managing the big picture or anything related to offense.
AC1997
I did a piece on Rich Rodriguez's biggest mistakes, and I plan to do one for Hoke, too. It might take a few days, though. There's lots of stuff to write about in the meantime.
DeleteWhere can I find your piece on RR's biggest mistakes? Either I missed it at the time or have forgotten it but would be interested in reading it now. Thank you.
DeleteHere you go, Jack:
Deletehttp://touchthebanner.blogspot.com/2011/01/top-10-failures-of-rich-rodriguez.html
The grass isn't always greener on the other side. I hope this doesn't come back to bite us but I think that it will. It will take a homerun hire and there just isn't a homerun out there right now. Good luck to coach Hoke. I will root for him. Still better than RR!
ReplyDeleteHow is a coach whose teams got progressively worse every single year better than a coach whose teams got progressively better, was just named Pac12 COY and is going to the conference championship game? Not saying RR shouldn't' have been fired when he was, just as Hoke should have, but one was given every opportunity to succeed while the other had the deck stacked against him.
DeleteTrajectory numbers. They mean that RR will be undefeated next year. They also mean that Florida st will never lose again and Michigan would have won 3 games next year. All of which I do not believe will be true. Trajectory numbers are for the casual fan. They do not reflect things like recruiting classes(size or talent). Coaching changes (nuss). Injuries (jake Ryan, Denard Robinson, Devin Gardner, etc...) Do people not really remember RR? He was horrible at Michigan. Horrible! People want to throw in that trajectory number but it was clear that 15 wins in 3 years while not being competitive wasn't leading us to a national championship. Believe me. Ohio st and Michigan state wanted us to keep RR. They fired Hoke on trajectory numbers but didn't take into account that his players were mostly red shirt sophomores. This was due to the fact thatRR's last recruiting class had no lineman in it . And the next recruiting class was empty because of the late firing. Michigan fans are going to learn about patience. The difference between Michigan and Michigan st is that Michigan st is stable. They gave their coach time and he now has an entire team of his recruits. If you use trajectory numbers they should have fired dantonio the year before last. RR was the one who was given an opportunity to achieve with a full team of recruits. Brady Hoke walked into a mess of a team. And if I hear anyone say that Brady Hoke only won with RR's recruits, I will counter that he only lost with them. Next year will be the first year that Michigan fields a team without RR's recruits. we didn't lose many players to graduation this year. Not very many are slated to leave next year. In my opinion we were trending up. But now because of impatience we will go through more transition years
DeleteAlso' RR didn't walk into sanctions. Hoke did.
DeleteThe grass-is-greener argument is something I said at the end of Carr's era. I think the single biggest problem is that there was no plan to deal with Carr's decline and retirement. He affected that by his coaching stump (i.e. lack of tree). The "Michigan Man" philosophy that helped to undercut RichRod further fueled that fire. And then the over-correction to Hoke when he wasn't prepared for this role made it even worse.
DeleteBut at this point, while I am nervous about the non-Harbaugh candidates I read about, it is hard to justify keeping Hoke when his teams seem to be getting worse, his teams are generally un-fun to watch, and attendance is dwindling. I'm sure there is a faction of the fan base that watched Auburn-Alabama and hated the high scoring and lack of defense. I watched it and thought "this is fun football."
In hindsight, I wish for a lot of things:
-- I wish Carr had found/hired/promoted an assistant that was a worthy successor
-- I wish Carr hadn't let recruiting slip at critical positions his last couple of years (OL, DB, QB)
-- I wish everyone had embraced Rodrigez and supported him from the start
-- I wish Rodriguez would have either kept most of the defensive staff as a bridge between old and new or brought in Casteel
-- I wish Rodriguez would have recruited better
-- I wish Hoke had not been so insistent on a man-ball power offense and stuck to zone-based concepts from day-1.
Now, by default, I wish Harbaugh would come to Michigan and stabilize things quickly. I think he's the best solution to the problems that ail us. Any other candidate will require patience and time and a great set of coordinators.
AC1997
Lloyd Carr left Ryan Mallet. Who I believe to be the highest ranked player Michigan ever got before peppers. RR ran him off. And how did RR not having full support off the field because he wasn't a Michigan man hurt his on field performance? And like I said in my original post I believe the maturation of players and getting an offensive coordinator made the team trending up. That trajectory stuff can't be the only tool used to judge a team
DeleteI didn't know Thunder had such a soft spot for Brady Hoke to the point that Hoke's next team would be his second favorite. And don't worry, MSU or OSU will never ever hire Hoke.
ReplyDeleteWell, it helps that I find a reason to hate just about every other team.
DeleteBut I genuinely just like the guy. I still wanted him to be fired, and I had been calling for that for several weeks. Business is business, but I'll still root for him.
As a coach on the field I will not be longing for the days he coached. As a fine example and role model for young men in his program I will forever remember him. He clearly was the kind of mentor to these young men that the University of Michigan had been searching for. Unfortunately for him this is a business and winning is just as important as turning these young kids into men. I will continue to follow Hoke wherever he lands, maybe someday he will return to coach the DL.
ReplyDeleteWell said Thunder. Much appreciated for the post.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteJust like at Florida you can b a great person who helps young men but same as muschamp said himself "i just didnt win enough games."
ReplyDeleteGreat Post. I think we all agree that Brady did not win enough games. I do believe Brady left the program in a better position than Lloyd Carr and Rich Rod did especially on the Depth Chart.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteAs a reminder, I'm not going to publish posts where people call each other idiots. Nothing productive comes from those conversations.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately being a great mentor and role model does not translate into wins or a fundamentally solid team. The lesson is a coach must be a coach first, and mentor second.
ReplyDeleteLan..."the foundation that RR built"...ok?? That's funny stuff right there.
ReplyDeleteNice post Thunder. Pretty much sums up my thoughts as well. His next team will be my second favorite.
There seems to be a lot of gratuitous RR bashing in this set of comments, and I would have to believe much of it comes from folks who never read Three and Out and who either never read or have forgotten the many posts on "the decimated defense" that were run when RR was still our coach. When RR came in, he had Sheridan and Threet as his QB and NEVER had a year when he had a QB with even one year of experience. It was Carr who had not recruited well for the years preceding RR's arrival, so that (don't take my word for it, just go back and read the many articles on the decimated defense) there was no one to play defense, either, by the time RR was in his second and third year.
ReplyDeleteWhen Hoke arrived, he did get a second year Denard as QB (and quickly caused him to regress for the next two years) and a team that was good enough (and would have been good enough under RR) to go 11-2, along with an unlimited budget for hiring coordinators, so that we went from not being willing to match Casteel's pay at WVU to paying Mattison nearly $1M to come be our DC.
Hoke has never been that successful: good guy, yes, but good coach, not so much. RR on the other hand was phenomenally successful at WVU and has already built Arizona into a solid team with all the handicaps he had to overcome there. And he did it this year with a freshman QB who, under RR, will probably improve as time goes on.
Regardless of where Hoke winds up, Arizona will be my second favorite team as long as RR is there. He got a raw deal from us. Hoke, on the other hand, got every opportunity to succeed on an unlimited budget with full backing and still failed.
I think there were more pieces in place on defense than what you're stating. I don't think Carr did a great job of recruiting in the previous years, but he did well enough for Rodriguez to have more success than he did.
DeleteRR had Robinson for 2 years and Lloyd Carr left Ryan Mallet who at the time was the highest rated recruit Michigan ever had. He also went on to set SEC records. RR ran mallet off
DeleteExactly what proof do you have that RR "ran off" Mallett?
DeleteBTW, you might want to spell Mallett's name correctly (that's two Ts) since you seem so hellbent on using him in your revisionist history lesson.
Hoke got paid $3 million a year to be the cool uncle. Zero indication was made in his Michigan tenure that he was capable of being a major college head football coach.
RR may have had Denard for 2 years, if you include the year he was a true freshman, but that first year he was clearly not ready as shown the few times he got in. His first year, he had Threet and Sheridan. His second year, Forcier was the starter (as a true freshman). His third year, Denard was the starter.
DeleteAs to your other point, Mallett, if you read Three and Out, or for that matter if you even followed MGoBlog, you would know that Mallett left at the urging of Lloyd Carr and was already on his way out the door when RR arrived. (It was also pretty clear to everyone that Mallett was somewhat of a head case while at Michigan.)