Changing my opinion on the Hoke hire
As one of the more vocal supporters of RR and someone who felt Brian didn't go far enough in his disdain for the Hoke hire I must now publicly admit it looks like I was wrong. Very wrong. If you break down what a person has to do to be a successful college football coach I think the major buckets look something like this:
Assistant coach selection: check
Recruiting: double check
Game planning: ?
Halftime adjustments: ?
With half the precincts reporting in, so far this has been a Hoke landslide. He has massively exceeded my expectations in the first two categories and I'm now more than a bit optimistic he'll do the same in the last two.
Maybe Brandon DID know what he was doing after all. Go figure....a guy with his credentials, background and insight knew more about selecting the right coach to lead the football program I love than me.
I didn't like the hire when it happened, but I'm a UM fan first and foremost so I decided to just wait and see how Hoke would do. So far he certainly hasn't disappointed and it shouldn't be long till we return to tough, physical defense and consistently competing for Big Ten Championships.
I was / am in the same boat as you.
I think we're going to need a bigger boat.
Ha yeah probably.
Got any more room? lol
More than anything else. Every recruit that visits says the same thing as well as their parents. It seems that people really like this coaching Staff. I have a big crow in the oven for any else who would like to join me for lunch.
Where can I store my gear?? :)
GO BLUE!!
We'll need an ark!
I think we need one regardless of win total for all the pairs of recruits!
Whether intentional or unintentional.
I think we are going to need the Love Boat.
I hated the hire "on paper". Since then, this man has said all of the things that I needed to hear in his various interviews. I'm hoping that he now can recruit the talent to this top-flight program that will produce sustained winning, which is not what his overall record shows at Ball State and SDSU, where you can't attract this caliber of talent.
I will simply to go back and light a candle next to my RR bobble head doll, say three prayers to the Harbaugh shrine and eat grass from my Les Miles chia-head since I can't be content with our current coach no matter how great of a job he is already doing.
While I agree Hoke has been impressive with just about everything so far (especially recruiting), we haven't seen his team in action on the field yet (I don't count the spring game). I'm really excited to see what the final product looks like in the fall (at least the 1 year final product).
Also, with respect to recruiting, I remember reading something right when he got hired talking about how Hoke was in on kids at SDSU that they had no business getting to visit. While he might not have been landing them, that at least gave me some optimism of his recruiting abilities. So far he has exceeded expectations on that front.
It's a great start to recruiting, but we still need to land a truly elite player or two in order to complete the class. Hoke's excitement about the program has certainly helped land Michigan kids, which is nice, but will it translate to 5-star type players on a national scale?
In my opinion, the hire should be judged only on wins and losses. My expectations on this front has been raised from when the hire was first announced, based mostly on assistant coaching hires, but it still has to translate to the field, which is no sure thing. This year is vitally important. We lose talent in key places next year (DL, WR) without a lot to replace them going into a brutal schedule (ND, OSU, NEB on the road, Bama virtually on the road). Then in 2013, we're going to be heavily relying on the last two classes, that were arguably the weakest rated classes in recent memory. This is the year to win 10 games and continue Hoke's early momentum. Lets hope he can do it!
Also important: right now all the buzz around the program is positive (a good part of that is Hoke's own doing of course) but how will Hoke handle adversity? The recruiting so far is great, but will they all hang around if we lose a few big games this year? How will he handle negative press?
He's doing a great job so far (better than I expected), but he has a ways to go before we reach a final verdict.
Hopefully we won't have to worry about that. We forget that all the loosing and negative press was not around nearly as much before Rich Rod.
I'd add player development, but yeah... so far so good.
I'll just say it: Loved the hire then, knew you all would come around about now.
I'm not saying you're like this, but the only one of my Michigan fan buddies who loved the Hoke hire at the time also enjoyed referring to RR as "Dick Rod" and said things like "the spread will never work in the Big Ten" and "check out this Freep article."
And there are people who loved RR that despised Lloyd Carr and (to this day) believe that he tried to sabotage the program.
Conclusion: some people are just weird.
I'm still pissed at Fielding Yost.
He knows why.
The trifecta of stupid:
- "DickRod"
- "the spread will never work in the Big Ten"
- "check out this Freep article"
And this guy is both your "buddy" and a putative "Michigan fan"?
I was a huge fan of Rich Rod, but it was apparent that he wasn't working out. After 3 years of suck I am glad as hell to be returning to our roots. I don't care if the spread works or doesn't in the big ten, what is true is the cliche "defense wins championships".
I would add that after the 3rd OSU drumming, I was ready to move on and was surprised at Brian and Mgoblog's collective tolerance and unwarrented support of RR's regime. The coach was down in the mouth, the defense was in shambles, and the entire team lacked spirit by the end of each season.
I was jacked that Harbaugh would take the job, and less than excited about Hoke at first. That said, I would have taken Hoke over RR straight up after the bowl game and probably after OSU.
Calrissian once again showing himself to be the most predictable Michigan Man douche on the board.
Don't take this the wrong way, but until football is played we don't know much. Ron Zook is a great recruiter. That hasn't been that great by way of results.
That said, as far as what Hoke has had the opportunity to do he's been the perfect hire. I really hope this trend continues, and I bet it will.
I think we're saying the same thing. I have no idea (hence the question marks) how he'll do at the last two categories but he's knocking the ball out of the park in the first two IMO. Which leads me to be optimistic he'll do the same in the last two.
So far so very good. That's all.
Were you excited when Cullen Christian committed? How about when we got Ricardo Miller*? What did you think of Patrick Omameh? And so on.
I'm happy recruiting has been good so far, and that we've gotten a bunch of three to four stars, many of whom also seem to be solid citizens, with no likely clunkers in the bunch. It seems like it should be a lower-reaches of the Top 10 class. But it's WAY early to even say "the precincts have reported in and it's a landslide" about recruiting before they have even played a down.
I will not know if Hoke is a good hire until at least three years from now, if not more, unless he does incredibly well (e.g., wins a Rose Bowl this year or next) or incredibly bad (e.g., Denard regresses markedly and D is not much improved). There was a funny post on EDSBS the other day about "Your coach makes a terrible book cover" which had an image of Ty Willingham for the book "Return to Glory." Willingham was a man of integrity who had some initial success, but ultimately was not a success. It's good to be excited, but let's play some football before we decide someone is or isn't good at being the HC of Michigan.
*(BTW: I'm not writing off R Miller; I just remember how excited we were when we initially got him ("one of the best in Florida!"), and he hasn't had an impact yet and looks not to be the world-beater we'd hoped).
I agree with everything you stated above. Can we just wait and see how they perform on the field? All this other stuff is just" fluff" cause we really don't know how any of these guys will play out nor do we know if Hoke & Co. can get us back to winning the conference.
Then what should we talk about until September...
Do you know of any great teas I could try?
How about those royals?!
Where are the good places in Pennsylvania for cheesesteaks?
(1) Earl gray. Hot.
(2) I think Prince William is a bit snooty. Oh, baseball...
(3) Throw a rock in Philly, you'll hit one.
On the same note, Clemson would have 7 straight national championships...
is that he is PASSIONATE about the program. He genuinely believes in the Michigan program and system.
And that passion will rub off on the players and fans.
He is ... a Michigan Man.
A coach who is a great cheerleader for his school can make a big difference. I think Lou Holtz, for example, was a successful recruiter at ND because he genuinely believes that ND is the greatest place on earth. That sort of enthusiasm obviously isn't enough by itself but it sure helps.
and blind eye Holtz turned towards the thug life and steroids that were going down at ND at the time also helped.
he would've walked from San Diego to Ann Arbor (and meant it) to take the job, I really felt like we had the right guy. Let's be honest, Harbaugh and Miles are about themselves, first and foremost. I don't question their fondness for Michigan, but it's clear that Hoke LOVES Michigan with the kind of passion we have as fans. He probably thought about returning to Michigan often, if not daily, while he was at Ball State and SDSU. The guy landed his dream job and he's going to take advantage. If he can coach even half as well as he recruits, we're going to be back in a big way.
I can't wait to see the O and the D for that matter. ND will be very telling but not back breaking. Recruiting is going well... there can be no question.
The other side of the coin has yet to drop. We will not see the benefit of any of this recruiting class for a couple years. Hoke will have to make something happen here these next two years with the guys he has. This means making a spread O pro style with spread players. The D has to work with developing the players we have. It's "telling" that GMAT is talking playing time with his recruits.
Regardless of how well it is going. - there is going to be transition and bumps on this road.
Although I too am extremely pleased with the start to the Hoke era, I think it's definitely too early to pass judgement as to whether he was the "right" hire. In fact, I believe that sometimes you still can't judge a hiring even after the coach leaves. I don't consider Rodriguez to be a failure by any means; more of an incomplete.
However I will say that I am pleasantly surprised by Hoke's immediate success on the recruiting front. I just wish we hadn't had to take a step back on offense in order to take steps forward elsewhere.
While you might be right, isn't it also too soon to pass judgement on whether or not we've taken a step back on offense??
Not if you were at the spring game...
I guess you've never seen any other teams' spring games.
The ones where record breaking returning starting QBs light up defenses that were historically bad one year earlier? Yea, I have seen plenty of those.
It's one performance, and an early one.
Could have sworn I asked you not to comment on any of my posts. Yep, I remember asking that.
I love when people take 25 plays in a touch football game and want to get butthurt.
Also, I love when His Dudeness gets sensitive.
when people neg comments that disagree with their view just for the hell of it.
I guess my father was right when he told me some people are perfectly happy going through their entire lives being complete assholes.
Was that Dad's self-awareness, or was he just setting you up to accept your future?