OT Brady Hoke is getting the band back together - Jeff Hecklinski as OC
January 18th, 2020 at 8:14 PM ^
Hoke would be so much more valuable as a head coach if he didn't surround himself with such bad assistants ?
January 18th, 2020 at 8:51 PM ^
Heck wasn’t bad. The WRs were fine and he was also the recruiting coordinator.
Funk was the really shitty one. And Fred Jackson by that point wasn’t even trying.
January 18th, 2020 at 8:56 PM ^
I seem to remember he was one of the more highly regarded assistants, but that is not saying much.
January 18th, 2020 at 8:57 PM ^
The 2013 WR recruiting class was the worst position haul of the entire decade (at least the 2013 OL class was good on paper). That class was filled with big slow unheralded kids who had no business getting a Michigan offer
January 18th, 2020 at 9:41 PM ^
"Speed is overrated."
That was Hecklinski's infamous quote in discussing the 2013 WR class. Hoke stays within his comfort zone, as always with his hires.
January 18th, 2020 at 10:59 PM ^
I remember that... Ugh.
January 19th, 2020 at 8:07 AM ^
Jeff Hecklinski aka the anti-Gattis
January 19th, 2020 at 9:08 AM ^
Amble in impasse.
January 19th, 2020 at 8:42 AM ^
I had a coach back in the day who was fond of saying "you're no use to me if you run a 4.3/40 in the wrong direction."
January 18th, 2020 at 8:59 PM ^
True. Our receivers were actually very good under Hoke, but who knows how Heck will do as a first time OC.
January 18th, 2020 at 9:26 PM ^
Jeremy Gallon and Junior Hemingway were good. Roundtree Dileo and Funchess had moments but WR depth was so bad it led to the Gardner experiment
January 18th, 2020 at 11:34 PM ^
He was the OC at Indiana State before taking the TE coach job at Kansas.
I know it’s not much, but he has experience calling plays at least.
January 19th, 2020 at 4:58 AM ^
Its pretty bad when the highlight of your career (outside of Michigan) is coaching tight ends at Kansas or a position at SDSU. Michigan had coaches go from coaching here, to coaching at places like Indiana State. Let’s face it. Hoke certainly surrounded himself with poor coaches.
If you’re not going to be a Headset kind of guy, you can’t do that.
January 18th, 2020 at 8:25 PM ^
You know, I wasn't a fan of the Hoke hire in the first place, at least not here, but I will be intrigued to see if he really can come full circle and be successful again - nearly a decade later - at SDSU.
January 18th, 2020 at 8:30 PM ^
Hopefully Hoke stays put at SDSU this time around and maintains that program's solid standard
January 18th, 2020 at 8:36 PM ^
Brady Hoke should hire RichRod to coach the offense
January 18th, 2020 at 10:48 PM ^
I’d always like to see a RichRod defense play against a Brady Hoke offense.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the stoppable force meets the movable object.
January 19th, 2020 at 8:34 AM ^
Coughed up my coffee reading this one.
January 18th, 2020 at 8:48 PM ^
And that’s the last conversation they’ll ever have seeing as how Hoke won’t wear the headset
/s
January 18th, 2020 at 8:55 PM ^
I guess Gorgeous Al Borges is too busy doing podcasts to call an offense these days...
January 18th, 2020 at 9:12 PM ^
HIRE BORGES!
January 18th, 2020 at 11:18 PM ^
Borges *and* Brian Sipe. Sipe was on staff at San Diego State under Hoke and Rocky Long until 5-6 years ago.
I think part (but clear not all!) of the problem that Borges has at Michigan was that he didn't have a real QB coach.
January 19th, 2020 at 11:30 AM ^
Or a QB recruiter. Hoke would have looked a lot better if Rich Rod left him a legitimate freshman QB.
January 19th, 2020 at 3:40 PM ^
I mean, Hoke came in with Junior Denard Robinson and Freshman Devin Gardner. Not sure what else you would have wanted.
January 18th, 2020 at 9:01 PM ^
I can totally see us playing SDSU in a bowl game after another disappointing season...with Harbaugh's performance in bowl games I shudder to think what the final score could be
January 19th, 2020 at 5:17 AM ^
I can’t see that at all. Michigan would need to lose 5 or 6 games for that to be feasible. Or SDSU would have to win 11-12 and play is in a NY6.
January 19th, 2020 at 7:25 AM ^
You might be surprise! Note: Don’t be.
January 18th, 2020 at 9:05 PM ^
#SPEEDISOVERRATED
January 18th, 2020 at 9:20 PM ^
I don't think Hecklinski is a bad coach or anything, but if I were an SDSU fan I'd probably view this as an uninspired hire. (I wouldn't be super excited about Hoke, either, to be honest, even though his two years there were arguably the most impressive of his career.) I'm reminded of the staff Scott Loeffler put together at Bowling Green.
Hoke seems like a "CEO" type of head coach. His strengths seem to be in the area of culture rather than strategy. (That's not necessarily a bad thing outside the Power 5.) Accordingly, hiring good and proven coordinators (like Rocky Long in his first round) would seem to be very important.
Elsewhere on the staff, I think he should swing for the fences and hire a few young, unproven guys with promise (like Chris Partridge). It would be easier and less risky to do that in the minor leagues.
January 19th, 2020 at 9:22 AM ^
You would probably be able to have a quick conference call with the other 4 fans and hash it out.
January 18th, 2020 at 9:31 PM ^
Jeff was a top ranked QB in the early 90s. This doesn’t contribute anything to this thread, but I reviewed all of Lemmings rankings over the last few weeks and some names stuck out to me. Jeff was one of them. He would have been the equivalent of landing Tua back in the day, and he was at Illinois for a bit before transferring.
January 18th, 2020 at 9:45 PM ^
Does Borges still live in Ann Arbor? He is on Sam's show now and again. Maybe doesn't want to move ?
January 18th, 2020 at 11:38 PM ^
How fucking crazy is it that we beat OSU with Brady Hoke and his band of fools coaching our team?
January 19th, 2020 at 12:33 AM ^
Maybe the narrative that they are bumbling fools is incorrect.
January 19th, 2020 at 1:39 AM ^
Harbaugh should have beat them his first year, with Brady Hoke's players. The most talent he's had in the matchup thus far.
January 19th, 2020 at 5:22 AM ^
That was OSU with a frosh at QB and an interim Fickell at HC. OSU still scored 40 pts.
January 19th, 2020 at 1:10 PM ^
Michigan scored 40. They scored 34.
January 19th, 2020 at 1:06 AM ^
That was OSU's only down year in the past 18. I can't wait until their run is over.
January 19th, 2020 at 8:03 AM ^
They were better against us than in their other games. There was a WR who was a stud but had been suspended or injured until the game before us. He nearly broke a couple against us.
January 19th, 2020 at 8:44 AM ^
Devier Posey was the WR and was cleared to play in all of TWO games (re-suspended for bowl game). That OSU team record and Fickell may have been under rated as they played so many games without their starters. 5 starter suspended for 5 games plus a few others. Many forget that OSU was at full strength for the Michigan game (of course.) That was a bigger win than some think.
Braxton Miller was the QB.
January 19th, 2020 at 1:15 PM ^
It was Posey who was wide open behind everyone on the last drive at about the 1:48 mark and Braxton overthrew him. We were that close to blowing the game.
January 19th, 2020 at 8:35 AM ^
Which one is Brady instituting?
“only hire guys you can trust”
“only hire someone who knows your ceiling”
”only hire someone in your contacts list”
”only hire someone who is an inferior clapper”
January 19th, 2020 at 10:59 AM ^
I may get crushed for this but I think Hoke could have been a Coach O from LSU if he just would have had better coordinators. They remind me so much of one another. Great recruiters but need some solid assistants for the X's and O's.
January 19th, 2020 at 12:53 PM ^
Coach O caught lighting in a bottle with Burrow. He should get full credit for the Joe Brady hire, though.
The delusion that Hoke or anyone at UM can recruit at the level of LSU is absurd. UM always has holes in their recruiting classes (we'll be ranked #5 with like 4 top 100 receivers and no cornerbacks, or some other variation of an unbalanced class). LSU has been recruiting at BAMA levels since the Saban years - they just never had a coherent offense or decent QB. Elite teams bring in balanced classes with elite players at every position.
January 19th, 2020 at 2:00 PM ^
We'll never get to LSU level but that 2016 team is probably as close as we'll get. 10 NFL picks with a couple UFAs. That team had no business losing any of the games it lost.
January 19th, 2020 at 2:48 PM ^
No, I've felt the same thing. Its amazing the difference a great quarterback makes. (See Andrew Luck).
January 19th, 2020 at 12:47 PM ^
Will he walk to San Diego?
January 19th, 2020 at 3:07 PM ^
He did (does?) love San Diego, but maybe not enough to walk there.
January 20th, 2020 at 4:54 PM ^
"Brady Hoke is getting the band back together ..."
That's like hearing Air Supply is planning a reunion tour.