When did Hoke lose you?
Simple question. I know, timing is weird with us having one last shot at salvaging a bowl game but the situation only embigens the question.
For me, the first dent in the armor was Penn State last year where it seemed like the coaching staff lost us the game. That was the first time I wondered if we had the right guys in charge.
The final nail in the coffin was Utah, which in hindsight doesn't look quite as bad but in context was unbearable.
But I think he lost me during the bowl game last year. Again, another loss that looks a little better in hindsight. But the team that showed up at that bowl game looked uninspired and unprepared. Sort of set the tone for all of 2014. Also, was the impetus for my username (and also explanation for the spelling--alcohol).
November 18th, 2014 at 6:44 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 7:02 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 10:44 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 7:18 PM ^
@ND this year started it...that was just unacceptable.
Rutgers put us in red alert.
Minnesota just nailed it home. You can't be that stupid and/or stubborn as a head coach. The Morris thing was just sickening. From a health/safety standpoint and from a competance standpoint.
Everything after that has just been affirmation.
November 18th, 2014 at 7:28 PM ^
I think Minnesota is when Hoke gave up on MICHIGAN.
Many may not agree, but to my grave I'll believe that at some point at halftime/in the 3rd quarter Hoke simply gave up on trying to win that football game. I think it became about him proving his point to everyone saying Morris had to start and play.
I think he's stubborn and it got the best of him and he was going to say "I told you so" and watch the ship go down/house go up in flames. I think he accepted a loss before the loss was imminant - and to me, that is SO unacceptable.
I was disgusted.
Then Morris got hurt and he just stood there with his arms folded. Almost to as say "look at what you all have done...is this what you wanted? HAVE IT!"
Then "it" happened. And when that happened I cut Michigan off for the first time in my life. I couldn't watch any more.
Everyone who watched that game knows Gardner should've come in at halftime, his point was proven. At the very latest, Gardner should've come in midway through the 3rd quarter when Morris got hurt and started turning the ball over.
But Hoke's stubborness was more important than trying to win the game. Then it became more important than the health and well-being of one of his players.
That's when Hoke didn't just lose me, but he lost my respect.
November 18th, 2014 at 7:48 PM ^
Agreed 100%. Three years of not beating/upsetting any teams that you weren't supposed to win and losing more than a few that you should've won was the stacking of the logs, the ND and Utah games this season were the kindling and then the Minnesota game came and that the lighter fluid and blowtorch.
It was clear from the 2nd or 3rd series of the Minny game that Morris was grossly ill-prepared and simply not ready to lead the offense in any stretch of the imagination. That he kept being trotted out there with little if any chance to succes made it appear like Hoke was doing it out of spite. What point he was trying to prove escapes me but I have to question his judgment for (1) putting Morris out there in the first place; (2) keeping hm in the game in the 2nd half; (3) letting him get the shit kicked out of him on numerous occasions yet not removing him; (4) not having a fucking clue that Morris was dazed and concussed and (5) being completely inept afterwards when trying to explain what happened. Lost in the shitty handling of the concussion is how he could've ever thought that Morris was ready, why he kept going back to him when he was ineffective and later gimpy in the 3rd quarter pre-probable mild concussion.
November 18th, 2014 at 8:08 PM ^
I shared a similar observation during the Minnesota game regarding Hoke's refusal to put in Gardner but I speculated the reason differently. To me it seemed as if he left him in to "prove a point" to whoever ordered him to play Morris and to me it appeared to have Brandon's fingerprints all over it.
It sure seemed to me like Hoke was determined to show somebody that Morris wasnt ready to play and I think Brandon would have a hell of a lot more ability to influence that than us fans do.
November 18th, 2014 at 8:55 PM ^
...it's something.
I just have a hard time believing that a man who's earned the right to be the head coach of Michigan could be that, I'm sorry...but stupid.
I don't have a great enough vocabulary to call it anything else.
It was just stupidity...unless he indeed was being stubborn and trying to prove a point. Which I think he was.
Whether it be to the team, Brandon, the fans, I don't know.
You just felt like every other coach in the country would've said "okay, that's enough...point proven, he's not ready."
And Hoke was out there arms folded going "AGAIN!"
Only this isn't 1980, this ain't hockey, this wasn't conditioning.
November 18th, 2014 at 10:57 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 7:20 PM ^
PSU Game 2013
Nebraska game with D Gaardner not prepared to step in. LOST SHOT AT ROSE BOWL
BD 2014. BULLSHIT.
ALL MSU games
A nice guy, but not a winning coach. BYE
Calls to make in this order:
Harbaugh
Les Miles
Gruden
November 18th, 2014 at 8:13 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 6:45 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 7:39 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 8:51 PM ^
Yup. I've never been sold on him.
November 18th, 2014 at 6:45 PM ^
At Hello. . .
November 18th, 2014 at 6:46 PM ^
I'm a very optimistic fan, very, very, VERY optimistic. So I'd say the Notre Dame game was the beginning of the end in my eyes, and the Minnesota game sealed the deal.
November 18th, 2014 at 6:57 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 6:46 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 6:47 PM ^
...Utah
November 18th, 2014 at 6:47 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 10:52 PM ^
November 19th, 2014 at 2:45 PM ^
the play calling that year against ohio state when you had devin and denard at your disposal was a firable offense.
November 18th, 2014 at 6:48 PM ^
0-31. I knew nothing had changed, that we'd have another miserable year with players Hoke can't develop.
November 18th, 2014 at 6:52 PM ^
Never thrilled but patient until then.
November 18th, 2014 at 6:50 PM ^
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November 18th, 2014 at 6:51 PM ^
I was never a big fan to begin with, but the moment Bellomy stepped onto the field against Nebraska was the moment I knew it wasn't going to work out.
November 19th, 2014 at 12:31 AM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 6:51 PM ^
I was never a big fan to begin with, but the moment Bellomy stepped onto the field against Nebraska was the moment I knew it wasn't going to work out.
November 18th, 2014 at 6:51 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 6:51 PM ^
I mean, that stretch last year of Akron, @UCONN, Minn, @PSU was brutal. Tackle over, 27 for 27, just not getting a simple plan in place and stick with it for a young OL. The cracks started showing then, but the DG98 spackle wasn't empty yet.
After the ND game, Hoke was all but lost to me. He had a shot, but it was clear after the Utah game this the problems were systemic, not isolated.
November 18th, 2014 at 7:56 PM ^
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November 18th, 2014 at 6:53 PM ^
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November 18th, 2014 at 6:53 PM ^
1. No bubble screens despite Penn State not even bothering to cover our WRs
2. Playing "not to lose" in OT
3. Telegraphing plays via the vaunted tackle over formation
4. 27 for 27
And worse of all he tried to DEFEND the insanity afterwards.
November 18th, 2014 at 8:36 PM ^
I cannot think of many questions more irrelevant than the OP's; however I guess it is fun to read different people's answers to such a thing.
If it is not clear to you now that Hoke is woefully short of what it takes to be a successful Big Ten coach, then you just are not paying attention, or...
Having said that, I feel that the answer above sums it up both for me, and for anyone else who was paying any attention at all and could look at it objectively. It has been more of a sideshow than anything else since then.
I prefer not to laugh at the lunacy of the people running my favorite team, where I went to school, where I lived for 10 years, but laughing at it at least made it digestable though it did not feel good going down.
That Hoke then defended it, understandable I suppose, made me look to his side and behind him for a glimpse of Rod Serling. Also funny were the many posts on this very site of people defending Hoke for defending his, er..., stragegies.
With hindsight, I would speculate that he got the job becuase at least implicit in the deal was he was going to be DB's yes man. (and I am very close, let's say related to someone who has a position in the AD, and obviously nobody is privy to this stuff but DB and BH themselves) Whatever the case, thanks for your service, thanks for trying to be classy as you could, but damn am I glad this clown show is almost over.
November 18th, 2014 at 11:20 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 6:53 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 10:13 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 10:56 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 6:54 PM ^
Mattison lost me after the ND game. He raved about the defense going into the season which is something he has never done before so that elevated my expectations. I was expecting to see a ball hawking secondary, lock down corners, and a penetrating defensive front.
November 18th, 2014 at 6:57 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 10:57 PM ^
2013 Sparty defense even.
But to be honest, Mattison kind of lost me in the 2013 Indiana game
November 18th, 2014 at 6:54 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 6:54 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 11:49 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 6:58 PM ^
2014 Notre Dame. This team clearly did not get better since last year.. Game Over. Finish the year (ughhh, if we have too I guess...it's not been fun, at all) and sayonara. I actually do not know how any game after that was the breaking point, for you others. ND clearly showed that progress had not taken place so how was there patience after that debacle?! To each their own.
I will cheer for him like I do Rich Rodriguez at his next destination.
November 18th, 2014 at 6:56 PM ^
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November 18th, 2014 at 6:57 PM ^
Notre Dame this year.
November 18th, 2014 at 6:58 PM ^
November 18th, 2014 at 6:59 PM ^