kalamazoo

December 22nd, 2015 at 3:16 PM ^

It's still marketing (bullying if we were kids) against Hoke and influencing thoughts for those on this board.

Let him not have to fight this board in his interviews at other schools when they check up on the chatter here.

Let's come up with something funnier now, like maybe someone can paste Urban's face on this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP8blbZzM2U

Joined: 08/20/2010

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FreddieMercuryHayes

December 22nd, 2015 at 1:22 PM ^

I would imagine Hoke is up there on the list. Unlike an up and comer, they would probably have Hoke the rest of his career. 

Also, Durkin seems to actually be putting together quite a nice staff.  Guess UMD throwing some money out there was true.
 

Joined: 12/29/2010

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FreddieMercuryHayes

December 22nd, 2015 at 1:56 PM ^

It's a question Ball State will have to ask itself.  Hoke is a good coach.  Not great, but good.  His breakthrough season at BSU was aided by Nate Davis blowing up his senior year, but the team did get better through Hoke's career there.  He did make SDSU better.  It was only when he got to UM that his lack of coaching chops really showed through.  So BSU needs to weigh the options: they try and get a hot 'unknown', which either doesn't work out, or works out and he's then gone in 3 years and they start the process over again.  Or they can go after Hoke, who would make them decent for a MAC school and he's probably there the rest of his career.

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FreddieMercuryHayes

December 22nd, 2015 at 2:22 PM ^

I'm not arguing Hoke would be better than Solich.  Solich might actually be a decent example.  You're correct he's a 56% win percentage at Ohio (although it's slightly higher in MAC play).  But he's also had Ohio in 7 bowl games in those 11 years, won his divison three times, only had two seasons with a losing record (his 1st and 4th).  And this following Ohio being absolutely terrible (like several 1 win seasons) since the 70's.  So yeah, he's not elite, but he's been remarkably consistant for a MAC school coach.  That' just the thing with MAC schools.  You have two options like I outlined before: gamble on a hot coach or take an older one no one will try and poach away.  You may hit the jackpot on the hot coach, get double digit wins, win championships, but he'll be gone in 3 years and you have to gamble again.  Or you can go the Solich/Terry Bowden/Hoke route and get a decent older HC that makes you consistantly decent year in and year out. 

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Tuebor

December 22nd, 2015 at 2:59 PM ^

NIU (9 bowl games), Toledo (6 bowl games), BGSU (6 bowl games), and CMU (7 bowl games) have all had 3 or more head coaches since Solich was hired at Ohio and they have been just as good as Ohio since 2005 or better in the case of NIU (overall record and bowls) and Toledo (overall record).

 

Your assumption lies on the notion that Hoke is as good a coach as Bowden or Solich.  An assumption that when looking at their respective records at P5 schools (75%, 74%, vs 61%) is laughable. Not to mention I'd argue that Bowden is a much better coach given that he had a 5-7 Akron team 1 yard away from beating Michigan at Home.  And Bowden is still 12 games under 0.500 at Akron and it will likely take him 3 to 4 more years of 8-5 type results to get there.   Frank Solich was a great coach at Nebraska (75% wins, 1 conference title, and 3 division titles in 6 years).  He just happened to follow a coaching legend in Tom Osborne and so it wasn't enough. 

 

My point being that the Solichs and the Bowdens of the world are rare, great coaches who are deemed unhireable by larger schools.  Brady Hoke might be a good fit for Ball State but I doubt he finishes with a record above 0.500.

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Yooper

December 22nd, 2015 at 3:35 PM ^

I wouldn't classify either Solich or Bowden as great coaches.  Solid, maybe even good coaches who never met expectations at the highest level.  in other words, okay at the MAC level but not good enough to sustain excellence in the big time.  Kind of like Hoke.  

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FrankMurphy

December 22nd, 2015 at 5:02 PM ^

I think they would be foolish not to give Hoke a call. MAC schools rarely get to hold on to successful coaches, so they would be wise to take a lesson from Frank Solich's tenure at Ohio and go after someone whom they know can be successful and who would be likely to stick around. 

The bigger question is whether Hoke can swallow his pride and take a few steps down the ladder. Ball State is obviously a much smaller stage than Michigan, and during his stint as head coach there, he didn't have anywhere near the level of institutional support he would later have at Michigan (IIRC, he shared his office with another coach). But everyone saw how dysfunctional Michigan was under Hoke in 2013 and 2014, so it's hard not to get the sense that he's not cut out for a Power 5 job. 

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AZBlue

December 22nd, 2015 at 2:15 PM ^

Agree on a solid staff by Durkin. My biggest disappointment with him leaving is that I had hoped he'd stay long enough (2-3years) to establish a bond with the program and thereby a candidate for the head job when JH retires or leaves. (Assuming he had proven himself worthy..)

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Leaders And Best

December 22nd, 2015 at 3:16 PM ^

When a head coach leaves for another head coaching job, he usually takes a chunk of his staff with him to the new job. Most football assistants have only 1-2 year contracts and have very little job security compared to the HC. Their job security is pretty much tied to the head coach. The Ball State assistant coaches are in a really tough position now. A new HC is probably going to want a lot of his own guys.

This looks more like a captain getting out before the firing squad and leaving the rest of the squad to die. Pete Lembo was going to be on the hot seat, and I think he saw his potential HC career dying at Ball State. There were also rumors of a lack of support for the football program dating back to Brady Hoke, but I still think this was a pretty cowardly way out to leave your assistants and players like that. I thought the same thing when Dan Enos cut and ran from CMU to take the Arkansas OC position.

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Tuebor

December 22nd, 2015 at 1:42 PM ^

I doubt it.  How would you enforce such a clause?  His buyout was $3M in 24 monthly installments of $125K each month. 

 

If he does get a job then Michigan can deduct his salary from the new job out of the buyout payments. Although I doubt he gets a job that pays him more 1.5M a year.

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