Unverified Voracity Is Cajun Brady Hoke Comment Count

Brian

EdOrgeronCoachingTree-645x356

no idea

A challenger appears. LSU's Joe Alleva offered this contract to an interim coach nobody else would hire who was 10-25 at Ole Miss in his first tenure as a head coach:

If Orgeron is fired “without cause” (namely for losing too much rather than NCAA violations or legal issues) prior to Nov. 28 of each year, then he is owed $12 million this year, $8.5 million next, $6 million in 2019, $4.5 million in 2020 and $1 million in 2021. Those numbers are “minus compensation paid during the terminating year.” So subtract $3.5 million pro-rated at however many months he’s worked that year.

This is worse than Brady Hoke's contract, which started off with an 8 million dollar buyout despite the fact that he, too, had zero other suitors. And despite his many, many flaws it should be apparent that Brady Hoke is a better coach than Ed Orgeron.

Also I don't know how you don't walk away from the deal as soon as you see the name of this LLC:

LSU’s contract is actually with “O” The Rosy Finch Boyz, LLC, which was incorporated last January when he got the job.

You gave a five year, eight figure deal to a guy who put an unironic Z in his LLC, which sounds a gang comprised of private-school sixth-graders. Coulda had Jeff Brohm, but no, had to go with the carnival barker. People are just in charge of things for no reason, man.

Reasons that Cajun Brady Hoke is losing games. Yahoo has an article with some Tiller-level anonymous quotes on LSU:

“It wasn’t what you expect,” said one assistant coach. “You expect guys ready to kick your ass. There wasn’t any fire. Genetically they weren’t as good. On film, they weren’t as good. But these guys, I don’t know. These guys, I don’t even know what to say. I can’t believe they play the way they do. They’re soft. Soft. It doesn’t make sense.”

Added another personnel executive: “When everything got super tough against Mississippi State, they tapped out. State was giving it to them and they didn’t want any piece of it. They were tapping out the entire game.”

We've seen what happens when you believe your coach is incompetent first hand. I'm sure people called Devin Funchess soft after his indifferent final year in Ann Arbor; he doesn't seem soft in the NFL. When your leadership sucks you don't give it your best, because what does it matter?

Speaking of Tiller level. RIP to former Purdue coach Joe Tiller, who still defines Purdue football to this day. Tiller brought basketball on grass to the Big Ten, won a bunch of games, and was probably the source of a bunch of harsh-but-true things in those anonymous coach quote articles. Their spiciness level dropped off a cliff after Tiller retired.

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Tiller's mustache game was fierce and he made the Big Ten a more interesting place. RIP. SBNation has assembled a collection of remembrances for those so inclined.

FBI fallout of the week. Many articles saying "pay the players" have come out, because obviously. If the NCAA can't touch 90% of the malfeasance going on without the involvement of the FBI—which can hardly be counted on going forward—you have a choice between the current system, where shady characters run riot and you've got a choice between your eligibility and reporting your income, and something that makes any sense.

We'll see if any of that sticks. This guy in the WaPo doesn't think so and he's got history on his side:

In 1915, the University of Chicago Daily Maroon upended the college football community by pushing the matter further. Given that the editor of the college newspaper and the tuba player in the marching band received compensation from the university, the Maroon argued, why not the college athletes? “They work hard for the university organization known as the football team, which is a money making enterprise, the receipts from football being something like $20,000 [roughly $478,000 today] more than expenditures for the sport. Why not give the players a share of the profits accruing from their hard and faithful labors?”

The University of Chicago was only one year removed from a national championship in football; its voice on the subject mattered.

102 years later we're still all like "man... these dudes have accrued with hard and faithful labors."

Hockey recruiting item. SBN's Jeff Cox had one main takeaway from the USHL Fall Classic camp:

Green Bay Gamblers left defenseman Michael Vukojevic was the best pro prospect on the ice Wednesday, but the ‘01 isn’t eligible until the 2019 NHL Draft. The Oakville, Ontario native was selected by Green Bay in the first round, eighth overall, of the 2017 USHL Phase I Draft.

A Michigan commit, Vukojevic has the size and skating ability to be an elite defenseman. He plays older, communicates well and makes plays in both ends. He’s still adjusting to junior hockey and rushed a couple of breakout passes, but he’s a big time prospect. Kitchener holds his OHL rights.

Kitchener is one of the OHL teams with the resources to woo committed prospects but at the moment Vukojevic seems committed to the college route. For one, he's at USHL camps. If Michigan does manage to get all their committed defensemen to campus they are going to be more loaded on D than they have been since I've been paying attention. Vukojevic, Quinn Hughes, Bode Wilde, and Mattias Sameulsson aren't just potential first round picks but potential top ten picks.

Chances are at least one gets picked off or leaves in a flash, but even so Michigan's blue line is going to be stacked.

On Hughes. Adam Herman breaks down what makes Quinn Hughes an elite prospect:

He has immaculate skating ability, both in terms of straight-line speed as well as agility. Furthermore, he reads plays from the back-end similarly to how an elite football quarterback might survey the field.

In the age of analytics, the ability to make clean entries into the offensive zone with possession has been highlighted as an effective first step towards creating threatening shifts. Hughes’ previously highlighted abilities plus his fearlessness when dealing with the opposition’s forecheck make him elite in creating these types of shifts. ...

He is adept at walking the blue line and creating time and space for himself to set up a play. He takes on defenders, makes crisp passes to open players in dangerous spots, and can get the puck off his stick quickly to surprise goaltenders with a hard shot.

Hughes's PPG pace in 26 USHL games with the U18s is unprecedented for a player two years away from the draft, although in Hughes's case he only missed this year's edition by three weeks—he's several months older than Werenski was when he accelerated and joined Michigan a year early.

Those who exited. Michigan's transfers are surveyed at MLive. Still sucks that Keith Washington bolted; he's got 2 INTs and 4 PBUs already for his JUCO. Also of note: Ross Douglas, RB/CB at Michigan, is starting for Rutgers. At linebacker. Spacebacker, to be sure, but yikes. Rutgers might not be good.

THE FOUG CONSPIRACY. Bruce Feldman collects some data on James "Doug" Foug:

Jim Harbaugh has quite a weapon in kickoff man James Foug. Purdue special teams coordinator Tony Levine told me that in 15 years as a coach he’s never seen a kickoff guy get the kind of hang time Foug gets. Most of his kickoffs end up as touchbacks. The ones that are returned end up with the opponent’s average starting field position at their 17.

Levine says anything over four seconds of hang time on a kickoff is exceptional; Foug’s kicks consistently come in around 4.5. Usually when the returner catches the kick, you want the coverage guys to be inside the 35-yard line; Levine says that by the time Michigan’s opponents receive the ball, the Wolverines’ coverage team is typically inside the 25.

Michigan is definitely trying to keep the ball just short of the endzone so they can pick up that 5-10 yards of field position. Weird that Harbaugh told the media that Seychel would kick off when they've got this dude hammering them.

Also, Troy Calhoun on what he faced down:

Two weeks ago, the Wolverines held Air Force to 232 yards of total offense, its lowest output since 2012. Air Force coach Troy Calhoun told me this was one of the best defenses he’s ever faced. The guy who really caught his eye was linebacker Devin Bush Jr. “He doesn’t look like much, he’s maybe 5'10", but he’s so quick and tough. He just unloads and knocks the heck out of people.”

Whenever people talk about Bush I'm reminded of this Ringer article about the evolution of the NFL linebacker. He's a modern linebacker all the way.

Etc.: Some good news, at least. Contains this quote: "“We can get them dead, but they’ve got to go someplace." Hidden gems of Washtenaw County foods. Talkin' Ben Mason. Harbaugh on kneeling. Gasaway on FBI. Drum major Kevin Zhang profiled.

Comments

PurpleBeaverEater

October 3rd, 2017 at 1:05 PM ^

That Orgeron contract is abysmal. Les Miles must be having a laugh. Are we certain Dave Brandon isn’t moonlighting as their AD?

jblaze

October 3rd, 2017 at 1:10 PM ^

Regarding Coach O's contract, could it be that the AD made the buyout so high/ painful that it almost forces LSU to keep him at least 3 years (meaning, it's a backdoor way to buy Coach O a 3rd and maybe 4th year) because the AD wanted to make sure he had a chance if he lost a few early? I'm not saying this is a good move or that coach O is any good, but could it have been the AD's strategy?

Big Boutros

October 3rd, 2017 at 1:19 PM ^

No, it was a recruiting panic.

When Lane Kiffin left Tennessee, Orgeron (his recruiting coordinator) called all his commits and urged them to follow him to Southern Cal.

Years later, after his 6-2 finish as the LSU interim, he threatened Joe Alleva that he would pied piper every recruit in the state of Louisiana away from LSU and towards his next job, wherever it was.

It worked -- he got the job. But he also got the huge buyout to make it clear to Louisiana high school coaches that he was safe in Baton Rouge.

MI Expat NY

October 3rd, 2017 at 1:22 PM ^

I think it just reflects the fact that College coaching salaries have been traditionally fully or mostly guaranteed.  An agent isn't goint to let his coach sign a contract that says he can be fired and paid significantly less than what's remaining on a long contract.  The buyout goes down as the value left on the contract goes down.

If the AD really wanted to buy him a couple years, he simply wouldn't have negotiated a buyout.  

corundum

October 3rd, 2017 at 2:15 PM ^

Miles' biggest knock was that he was an OL guy by nature and never had a single offensive lineman drafted in the first round the entire time he was at LSU. The play clock issues were one thing, but having great a defense plus ridiculous talent at RB and WR and still not being able top field a productive offense was the nail in the coffin. He was always submarined by poor QB and especially OL play and coupled that with an annual loss to their rival. Most here can probably relate to that frustration. 

SHub'68

October 3rd, 2017 at 2:50 PM ^

are all reasons for 'not Les.' Why would they have expected Orgeron to be better? They were at least competitive with Miles. And blackmailed with losing recruits? Where'd that get them? Terrible is terrible; at least if he'd taken his ball elsewhere, they'd have an excuse...

crg

October 3rd, 2017 at 3:36 PM ^

I still laugh a little at how much hype Herman gets. Unlike Harbaugh or Fleck, he has yet to prove that he can build up a program from being down, let alone have any prolonged success as a head coach (a 2-year stint at Houston where the situation was good coming in shouldn't really count). If he brings Texas "back", then I might change my mind, but I won't hold my breath.

Michigan4Life

October 3rd, 2017 at 3:36 PM ^

Les Miles biggest knock was the inability to field a competent offense and QB. That's the biggest source of frustration from LSU fans because Les Miles would field elite defense only to have a below average offense despite the talent level they have on the field. They have NFL WRs, RBs, OLs but NCAA level backup QB. That's a big problem.

UofM626

October 3rd, 2017 at 1:15 PM ^

I know a story of him at Ole Miss from a kid I coached for 10 plus years and played GM for him, he's a legit 4* starter, when his team got smoked in a game on a Saturday and he went straight YOUNGBLOOD and made the team strap up for a 3 hour practice of hitting. He then strapped up his helmet and uniform and went head up w the RB and the D line guys. Go back and look at all the kids that were hurt bad during his time at Ole Miss. the kid said so many had shoulder issues from 2-3 practices a night. I know this guy is a nut

Swayze Howell Sheen

October 3rd, 2017 at 1:46 PM ^

it will change some of the factors but won't solve the overall problem.

however, if a player (esp. a very good one) knows that he can have a stipend, make money off his name through endorsements, etc., there may be a lot less incentive to take anything that is not above board.

not sure what the resulting haves/have nots will do to esprit de corps, but that's life I suppose.

 

bronxblue

October 3rd, 2017 at 1:59 PM ^

The thing with paying the players is the same way people should look at concussions. You can't make then go away completely, but making recruiting more transparent and provide some assistance to the players can't hurt.

And as for the have nots, that has existed forever. It's not like San Jose St is going to start losing recruits to USC because of a stipend.

Brian8603

October 3rd, 2017 at 9:56 PM ^

I have no major issue with a modest player stipend, provided the NCAA accounts for all the downstream effects from implementing one, but it isn't going to make the bagmen go away. You might see fewer of the non-elite recruits taking a taste and coaches wouldn't be in as difficult a spot with assisting players with the basics, but the whole practice is about competitive advantage, not being fair or helping the players.  Honestly, I think the only organization that could really put a dent in the booster/bagman culture is the NFL, and they have pretty much zero incentive to do so.

Skiptoomylou22

October 3rd, 2017 at 3:02 PM ^

 

Vukojevic, Quinn Hughes, Bode Wilde, and Mattias Sameulsson aren't just potential first round picks but potential top ten picks. Chances are at least one gets picked off or leaves in a flash, but even so Michigan's blue line is going to be stacked.

Admittedly, I don't fully understand classifying in college hockey but if they enroll when http://collegehockeyinc.com/commitments.php says they do, it'd be amazing to have a junior Hughes, sophomore Wilde and Samuelsson. and a freshman Vukojevic on the back end.

CharlesCarmichael

October 3rd, 2017 at 3:05 PM ^

Interesting Washtenaw Food article that I hadn't seen yet.  I have to take issue though.

Listen- you people just stay away from Taquerita La Torre.  It's busy enough as it is these days.  My tacos!  Mine.

gbdub

October 3rd, 2017 at 3:46 PM ^

Can you imagine if Joe Tiller and Don Brown had coached together? The sheer moustachery would have left opposing teams in the fetal position.