Brady Hoke New Michigan Coach....

[AR182]

I think it's an excellent hire by Michigan....

Jan 11, 2011

Michigan moves quickly, hires Brady Hoke as new head coach

Michigan has hired San Diego State's Brady Hoke as the Wolverines' next head coach.CAPTIONBy Christopher Hanewinckel, US Presswire
The school announced Tuesday that San Diego State coach Brady Hoke has agreed to become the 19th head coach in the 131-year history of the Wolverines program.

"We are pleased to announce the hiring of Brady," Michigan athletics director Dave Brandon said in a statement released by the school. "He is a terrific coach and will be a great ambassador and leader for our football program. We look forward to having him build a championship program on the field and in the classroom."

Hoke is a former Michigan assistant coach who has spent the last eight years as a head coach at both Ball State and San Diego State. He was named the Mountain West's coach of the year after leading San Diego State to a 9-4 record.

The school will officially introduce Hoke in a news conference scheduled for 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

Hoke replaces Rich Rodriguez, who last week was fired just three years into a six-year deal as the coach at Michigan. Rodriguez went just 15-22 in his three seasons and failed to beat rivals Ohio State or Michigan State during his tenure.

 

[Carl Spackler]

A solid, safe play for Michigan. The people who played for Lloyd will be thrilled by this hire because Brady was always a vey popular coach on Lloyd's staff. I am interested to see who he surrounds himself with and how many former Michigan coaches will be on staff. Fred Jackson is a safe bet. Terry Malone was on Sean Payton's staff the last I knew, but I could see him coming back because he and Hoke were tight. God forbid Stan Parrish finds his way back to Ann Arbor.

 

[BobbyBlueChip]

:00hour

MGoBlog is gonna be great this week!!!!

:0corn

 

[Skipper]

Is this really that much better than Rich Rod:shrug:

 

[joefrog91]

He could have had a goldmine at SDSt. Great locale to recruit to. He could have challenged Boise St and TCU for the MWC title this year if he stayed. Now, the Aztecs drop back in the pack with UNLV and Colorado St.

 

[layinwood]

He could have had a goldmine at SDSt. Great locale to recruit to. He could have challenged Boise St and TCU for the MWC title this year if he stayed. Now, the Aztecs drop back in the pack with UNLV and Colorado St.

I agree Joe. SDSt is just ripe for someone to go in and build a really big football program.

 

[CWood97]

Is this really that much better than Rich Rod:shrug:

Not really, no. The good news is there won't be a character assassination of Brady Hoke before the first game is played.

I think Michigan could have had a good football team next year with Rich or someone spread friendly. Trying to put Denard (if he stays) or Devin Gardner in a west coast offense will mean disaster in 2011 IMO.

Hoping for better, we'll see.

 

[west coast guru]

Good fit he is such and overrated coach. He will not turn michigan around or even come close. They guy has really did nothing as a coach. He took two small schools who had pro caliber quarterbacks and had a good season. The guy has a career record of 47-50. He was 34-38 at Ball State. If your a great coach you should have a much better record than that in the MAC :mj07: He left ball st because he knew they would be terrible. If he was such a great recruiter Ball St would have did much better than when he left. Most of the SD kids he had were already there and the frosh running back already wanted to go to SD whether Hoke was there or not. Only time will tell but I think this will be a huge bust for Michigan. This guy is not a bigtime coach.:toast:

 

[AR182]

Here is an article on the Hoke hire....

Brady Hoke not popular choice for Michigan football coach, but he might be right choice

By MICHAEL ROSENBERG
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

Brady Hoke is not what you think he is. You see him and you see a heavyset schlub who has never won his conference, and you think Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon has lost his mind. At least, most of you do.

You might think Hoke was hired because of who he knows instead of what he knows. (Hoke was an assistant under Lloyd Carr.) You might think Brandon is so caught up in the past that Hoke?s news conference should be televised in black and white.

That?s fine. In December of 1968, a lot of people mocked this Bob Shlemblekawhat fellow, and when Carr got the full-time job in November of 1995, most fans were unhappy. And those hires worked out pretty well, as I recall.

The more you watch Hoke do his job, the more you will like him. In fact, the more you look at him right now, the more you will like him.

Let?s start with his record. Yes, Hoke is 47-50, and if you can block out the crying in Ann Arbor, you might hear the laughter in Columbus and East Lansing. Michigan hired a coach with a losing record!

But that record is misleading. Hoke?s 34-38 record at Ball State, for example, included a 1-16 mark against teams from the major BCS conferences. Thirteen of those 17 games were on the road, and one was a neutral-site bowl. Realistically, how many of those games can a school like Ball State win?

There isn?t that much football talent in Indiana, and Ball State is behind Notre Dame, Purdue and Indiana in line at the recruiting buffet. In his last three years, he was 18-5 in the Mid-American Conference. That was the Cardinals? best three-year league record since the late ?70s. By any reasonable standard, Hoke did a very good job there.

Hoke then went to San Diego State, which has a long, storied history of being in a great city. The football hasn?t gone so well. The last three coaches before Hoke left with losing records. Before Hoke arrived, SDSU had had 10 straight non-winning seasons, and in the three years before Hoke showed up, the program won nine games, total.

Hoke went 4-8 in his first year and 9-4 this past year. His 5-3 conference record this season (which included a 40-35 loss to Rose Bowl champion TCU) was the Aztecs? best league record since 1998.

Fans and the media tend to get caught up in schemes (especially offensive schemes) and in-game decisions, because that is fun, and that?s what we see. And of course that stuff matters a lot, and Hoke had better handle it well. But Hoke has a reputation for being an excellent recruiter and motivator, and at Michigan, that is most of the battle.

Schools tend to hire the opposite of what they just fired. That is absolutely true in this case. Rich Rodriguez was the hot coach with no U-M ties. Hoke is not a hot name, but he worked at the school. Rodriguez is known for being an offensive innovator. Hoke?s background is on defense.

And then there is this: Hoke doesn?t have to learn about Michigan?s traditions and rivalries because he has been a part of them. He reveres the school. He has spent a lot of time working U-M?s traditional recruiting areas, so he has an advantage there that Rodriguez did not have. And former players speak glowingly of him.

As I wrote more than once, I thought Jim Harbaugh was the best candidate. But Harbaugh chose to coach in the NFL ? a career decision he was entitled to make. Brandon had to find somebody else.

Most fans are not pleased. But Brandon does not need to please people today. He needs to be right

 

[DR STRANGELOVE]

jmho but, awful choice.

 

[Wilson]

Not really, no. The good news is there won't be a character assassination of Brady Hoke before the first game is played.

I think Michigan could have had a good football team next year with Rich or someone spread friendly. Trying to put Denard (if he stays) or Devin Gardner in a west coast offense will mean disaster in 2011 IMO.

Hoping for better, we'll see.

I wonder why Forcier doesn't stay?

 

[CWood97]

I wonder why Forcier doesn't stay?

Forcier flunked out of school. He is trying to do some work at a local JC and get readmitted as a student as UM in the spring. Even if he does that (which he probably won't) I can't imagine he'll be eligible to play anytime soon.

 

[spits]

CWood....realistically, who was out there?

You are much more connected to the program than anyone I know....I've heard the conspiracy theory that Hoke is the guy Brandon (along with Carr and Coleman) wanted all along and that they went through the charade of talking to Harbaugh, Miles and some others (Fitzgerald, possibly Gruden)

Nevertheless, I'm not sure what the situation really is but would love some of your thoughts on the whole process and how it was handled. I recall reading a week ago or so you thought Miles was going to become the next head coach. My fear now is that Hoke is hamstrung with this year's apparently average recruiting class.


FWIW, I wasn't crazy about the hire at first and not gonna lie when I say I don't know much about Hoke aside from his Ball State team that gave Michigan a scare 3-4 years ago (34-26) at the Big House. He has said all the right things thus far and more than anything else, like you said, he appears to have the full support of alumni, former players and administration.....something Rodriguez never enjoyed.

Bottom line, Michigan is still a big coaching job, but it does not seem to have the cache it once may have had.

 

[WhatsHisNuts]

Here's an article I just read about Hoke.

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/slant/201101/hoke-might-not-be-first-choice-could-be-right-choice

I was sorry to see them dismiss RichRod this quickly. It is a discredit to all the teams in the BigTen to think a guy can walk in and just start winning with a totally different style and a relatively shallow talent pool to start with. 3 years isn't shit.

As far as Hoke goes, I think the guy has potential and I'm glad to hear the former players and coaches talking so highly of him. Big names are made over time. Urban Meyer wasn't Urban Meyer until he went undefeated at Utah. I hope Brady does for himself what Jim Tressel has done at OSU.

 

[BobbyBlueChip]

I thought this was interesting considering that a defensive-minded coach was mentioned as the main criteria that they were looking for..

http://www.burgeoningwolverinestar.com/2011/01/brady-hoke-by-numbers.html

:0corn

 

[WhatsHisNuts]

I thought this was interesting considering that a defensive-minded coach was mentioned as the main criteria that they were looking for..

http://www.burgeoningwolverinestar.com/2011/01/brady-hoke-by-numbers.html

:0corn

I like dissecting the national rankings of small schools as much as the next guy, but I am going to give the guy a chance. I don't have much of a choice.

 

[BobbyBlueChip]

 

[CWood97]

CWood....realistically, who was out there?

You are much more connected to the program than anyone I know....I've heard the conspiracy theory that Hoke is the guy Brandon (along with Carr and Coleman) wanted all along and that they went through the charade of talking to Harbaugh, Miles and some others (Fitzgerald, possibly Gruden)

Nevertheless, I'm not sure what the situation really is but would love some of your thoughts on the whole process and how it was handled. I recall reading a week ago or so you thought Miles was going to become the next head coach. My fear now is that Hoke is hamstrung with this year's apparently average recruiting class.


FWIW, I wasn't crazy about the hire at first and not gonna lie when I say I don't know much about Hoke aside from his Ball State team that gave Michigan a scare 3-4 years ago (34-26) at the Big House. He has said all the right things thus far and more than anything else, like you said, he appears to have the full support of alumni, former players and administration.....something Rodriguez never enjoyed.

Bottom line, Michigan is still a big coaching job, but it does not seem to have the cache it once may have had.

Harbaugh was not a charade. They had (two) deals with him prior to Michigan's bowl game. Harbaugh has an upside down investment (golf course and real estate) project that a Stanford booster was servicing for him as long as he stayed at Stanford. Harbaugh came back to UM a third time after the Orange Bowl for more money, citing the bad investment. UM told him our best offer was in and to call us if he was interested. UM's second "deal" with Harbaugh was at approx $3.2M and a $2M staff pool. Stanford and UM could not compete with $5+ million from the Niners, and quite frankly I think the Niners owner's Buckeye tendencies got the best of him. I simply can't imagine paying a college coach with one great season $5.2M to coach in the NFL, but we'll see how he does. Moving on....

The Miles "pursuit" was a total charade. Brandon stopped by Baton Rouge, undressed Miles for a couple hours (NCAA problems, sketchy recruiting practices when head to head with Michigan, oversigning, etc) and then told him we were willing to pay our new coach about 60% of Miles current salary. Obviously, Les was not impressed and the "talks" never got off the ground. I know this doesn't jive with what the media is saying this week, but according to Miles' closest friend, this is exactly what happened.

Hoke was already recruiting staff to coach with him at UM prior to the UM/Miles meeting in Baton Rouge. Further, the players meeting to inform them of Hoke's hiring was scheduled the morning of the Mile's "interview". Hoke was a done deal before Brandon stopped in Baton Rouge and probably a couple days before then.

Basically, the national search consisted of Brandon gathering information on Hoke from those in the business. The feedback was all great, FWIW.

Hoke has been very well received by the Detroit media thus far. That's a start, because the character assassination of RichRod put him behind the 8-ball with local recruits from day one. I don't think Hoke's a particularly great coach but hiring a new guy is always a crap shoot. I do think it's tough to judge him based on anything he did at Ball State, because that place is the Indiana of the MAC. Just a horrible, horrible job to take on. The SDSU early returns were nice but a real small sample size there. So we'll see. 2011 is a big year for him. 20 starters back, Denard, there are some pieces to work with, relatively easy schedule......gotta get it done on the field

 

[Roger Baltrey]

I love the columnist above painting Lloyd Carr's regime as a successful one. He was a stiff who consistently wasted talent and ran a bland vanilla offense. The QBs during his reign might have been as good as anyones including wasting Tom Brady for a couple of years. Hoke seems fine but Michigan has botched this thing from start to finish.