2000 Orange Bowl

I am a K-State fan.  Because I cannot start topics, I am forced to discuss navel gazing Michigan topics for a bit before I can blow your minds with my really awesome original posts.

" Heaven forbid we have a down season or two. Ignore whether Hoke and his staff develop young men, keep a clean program, are good for the school and graduate their players. It's all about how many wins this year or in two years.

What should we expect from our program? Teams that show character and in which we can take pride."

"Criticising coaches is fine, talking openly about forcing out a coach if they don't hit your personal W/L threshold is counterproductive."

Do these guys really think there is some giant magic karmic up/down vote Michigan bucket that is being tainted by someone, somewhere on the internet talking about multi-millionaire Brady Hoke's job performance?  Good grief, the Big House isn't going to grow legs and terrorize Ann Arbor like in Ghostbusters.  I hope all the young people that actually earned their way in to Michigan laugh at these class ring cheese dicks.  You should demand results.  

An old money attitude in a new money world will doom you to the faint praise of being "true Michigan men" and "playing it the right way" and being proud of a mediocre team in a mediocre Big Ten.  If the achievements of Fielding Yost still keep you warm in 2013, more power to you.

gobluehtown, compiled some nice stats, but I wanted to look at 3 different questions:

1) conference record-  are you competitive in the Big Ten?

2) conference titles-  are you the best in the Big Ten?

3) BCS bowls-  are you competitive among the nation's elite?

To provide some similar context I picked out 3 other blue blood programs that have had similar profiles over that span of time:

Michigan: Spilt National Title and on (1997-2013) 17 seasons
Nebraska: “ (1997-2013) 17 seasons
Texas:  Mack Brown era (1998-2013) 16 seasons
Notre Dame: post-Lou Holtz (1997-2013) 17 seasons

Conference Record:

Texas 98-33
Michigan 92-44
Nebraska 90-46
Notre Dame N/A

Conference Championships:

Michigan 5 (Lloyd Carr 5)
Texas  2 (Mack Brown 2)
Nebraska 2 (Osborne 1, Solich 1)
Notre Dame N/A

BCS Bowls:
Michigan 3-3 (1 MNC) (Hoke 1, Carr 5 (1))
Texas 3-1 (1 MNC) (Brown 4 (1),)
Nebraska 2-1 (1 MNC) (Solich 2, Osborne 1 (1))
Notre Dame 0-4 (Kelly 1, Weis 2, Davie 1)

Other notes:
The most recent MNC appearance is Notre Dame.
The most recent MNC win is Texas.
Neither Michigan nor Nebraska have a conference title under their current coach.

I think the divisional/title game format has allowed Michigan to back in to a BCS appearance (and that will happen again), but it will suppress your conference titles.  For example, Texas has 6 additional conference wins in one less year, but only two titles and 2 fewer BCS appearances.  The good old days of the lazy Susan Big Ten schedule never making its way to a true round Robin are gone.  The Big 12 is a crap shoot and very competitive because of the new format, and the division/title format certainly resulted in a number of upsets as well.

Conclusion:

Mack Brown just “retired” tonight after achieving a hell of a lot.  It will be interesting to see who Texas hires and how that all shakes out.  Nebraska and Michigan since 1997 have not been the same.  While Nebraska owned the early 90’s, Michigan has clearly been better since, but has not been a real threat for a National Title.

Maybe that is not what you want to chase, but it should be.  If you think Brady Hoke is the guy to do that you should keep him.  But history says it should start winning 10+ games soon if that is ever going to happen.  Hell, Bill Snyder has won 11 games 8 different times and did it in 6 of 7 years during his best stretch.  That only got us 3 BCS bowls, so be thankful that isn’t your problem.  I don’t understand the attacks on someone actually putting together a case that Brady Hoke’s seat should be getting warm and if you look at a group of your peers, things can go off the rails pretty easily with a couple bad hires strung together.  Of course it is easier to recover from, but if you are indecisive you lose in the mean time.

When Michigan State has the better program, you should probably make a move.