Tuesday 11 January 2011

It's official

Brady Hoke is the new head coach of the Michigan football program.

Would I rather have landed a big name coach? Yes

Would I rather have kept Rich Rodriguez? Yes

But still, the Michigan fan base must learn from it's last mistake and get behind the new coach, because this team needs all the support its going to get next year.

Hoke may not be the most experienced coaching candidate out there, but he has worked wonders with both Ball State and San Diego State, so maybe the time is right to give him the reigns at Michigan. One thing is for sure, you can't deny his determination to bring UM back to glory; no one wanted this job more than Brady Hoke.

It will be interesting to see who he brings in as co-ordinators and other coaches. *EDIT*: Just found out that Hoke's brother, Jon, has basically been a defensive back coach all his life and is currently with the Chicago Bears. Could Brady persuade his elder brother to come help out a weak Michigan secondary?

As for recruiting, it's going to be pretty poor for a while I'm afraid. Let's face it, a lot of recruits won't know who Brady Hoke is, and no matter how good he is at a sales pitch, he's going to need to show results on the field to start landing a Michigan caliber recruiting class.

His main priority should just be holding the current class together, securing players like Jake Fisher and Blake Countess. The best possible outcome now is that he keeps all the commits, and lands Chris Bryant, Raymon Taylor and Dallas Crawford to finish off the class. Oh and if Tom Bradley leaves Penn State, he should definitely take a shot at Anthony Zettel.

26 comments:

  1. My heart is truly hurting. Just when I thought I couldn't be any more numb with regards to this coaching situation. I guess we just ended up getting who would take us instead of getting who we wanted. Best of luck to Hoke. I'm gonna go crawl in a whole now.

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  2. Be happy this guy actually wants to come to Michigan this is his DREAM Job ..So we know he will do his BEST to stay here long term..When he was coaching our Dline we were consistently 1 of the nations best defense which is a start ..As long as we can improve in that area by about 150-200 yards again (sounds like alot but we gave up 520) we should be in every game this coming year

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  3. I agree, too many guys were using us just for enhancing their market value (aka Cash) at their current job or future job (Harbaugh). This guy wants it, knows Michigan, is from the midwest and will work hard. Let's all give him some room to see what he can do before he's judged.

    Ready for some Hokie Pokie

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  4. He needs to keep RR's O coordinators because our O isnt the problem and with a year under D-Robs belt the offense should get even better, Now he needs major work on the DEFENSE getting rid of the 3-3-5 should be the first thing he does ...

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  5. If he managed to keep Calvin Magee, that would be huge. Everyone talks about how young Michigan's defense was, but the offense is almost as young, and they were pretty good considering they didn't have a FG kicker.
    If Hoke can run a similar offense to RR, then really all he needs to worry about is finding a kicker and improving the defense, which he should be able to do. The pieces are in place for Hoke to have a good start.

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  6. Forget that, Calvin Magee is now at Pitt, along with Tony Gibson. Pitt fans should be worried about that last hire...

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  7. I'll admit, I didn't like this hire at first, but the more I'm reading about Hoke, the more I like him. Hopefully, the current and future players accept him and the fans back him. I don't think there was anybody out there that wanted the job more.

    Do you think he loses any current players, i.e. Denard? I agree, I think he should be all over Zettel

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  8. Denard loves Ann Arbor, and he loves his teammates. Therefore if Hoke can run anything like a spread offense, I think Denard will stay put. Besides, if Denard ever wants to play QB in the NFL, he'll have to learn to play in a 'less-spread' offense.
    I think Mike Martin is arguably more important next year than Denard. If MM leaves, it will be really hard for UM to run a four man front with any real success because there will be no depth or experience at DT.
    If Denard goes, sure the offense will suffer, but at least they have Devin Gardner with four years of eligibility. The problem is if Tate and Denard both leave, then depth becomes the issue. I'd really like to see Hoke try and bring in any kind of QB in this recruiting class now.

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  9. Michigan fans need to get behind this hire. Its not his fault that michigan hired him. Passion and desire to be here may be more important than anything. He will spend that extra minute working because he wants to win here. Its not my first choice but, what were Auburn fans saying when Gene Chizik was hired with his losing record. I think that worked out ok.

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  10. It's time to back the new coaches play. I wonder if Campbell will switch back to D-line. We will need more bodies to run a 4-3. Maybe some current DL recruits will reconsider know that we will most likely switch to a 4-3 if we have the depth. Yes, I know that Hoke ran a 3-3-5 when he first got to SDSU, but that was a depth issue. I also think that D-Rob will stay and be QB. I also wondering if next year we can get a little more production out of the RB's. Just didn't seem to be there near the end of the season. Either way GO BLUE!

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  11. I actually work with a guy who played under Hoke at Oregon St. He is a defensive minded coach who lives to make the D-Line great. I think Big Will will be a d-lineman next year and Hoke is the man to teach him how to get off a block. At this point, our defense needs this man and if his brothers comes to help, it could be a good year. We have a weak schedule so he will have time to get used to the offensive style of RR's players. Not to mention SDSU just had their best season since '98 and 1st bowl win since '69. The passion is back in Michigan and the fans got a Michigan Man. I will back HOKE and its time to bring some defense back to the BIG HOUSE.

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  12. I remember Hoke from past days, but I'm still not certain about him as HC. As an alum, I'll give him my full support as I did RR. The unsettling issue for me is how everyone talks about him turning around Ball State in his 5 years there. The truth of the matter is his first 4 years were losing seasons. Is that really going to fly here? I really think Brandon made a huge mess here. He should have stayed the course with RR one more year. He had a great defensive class coming in that has since fallen almost completely apart.

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  13. FWIW Mike Martin just tweeted that he was excited. It looks like Hoke has a ton of support from Former players and NFL guys...

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  14. Who are the coordinators at SDSU? Do we think he will bring them with or go for someone else?

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  15. What do you think of D-Rob playing wide receiver IF Brady Hoke wants to run a pro-style offense. Also, Defensive coordinator ideas: Charlie Strong? Mickey Andrews? And for offense, I know Mark Mangino had some troubles at Kansas but he was a great coach and that's all that matters, I think he could be a good assistant and then put the offensive genius Charlie Weiss at Offense Co-ordinator

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  16. We need to give Hoke at least 4 years before judging him. Actually how about one game since he has yet to coach one for UofM. It seems that in most cases at Michigan if it doesn't work in the first 3 years then we fire and get a new coach. Alot of people wanted to fire Carr after his first 3 years for only winning 9 games in each season. They ended up keeping him around and the next year we won a NC.

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  17. If I was reading right earlier SDSU was going to hire their D coordinator as HC ...So he wont be coming

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  18. I said the same thing about giving this coach a guaranteed 3 or 4 years to work his magic ... But with so much youth on Offense and defense I dont think he needs that much time to turn this team around...He basically needs to get the Defense up to atleast top 50 in the nation and that could add another 2 or 3 wins we lost by 17, 10, 10, 20 and 30 ... And we were in most of those games but the Defense couldnt stop ANYONE

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  19. The 3 years or bust to probably one of the main reasons why we haven't been able to get in of the big name coaches this time or last.

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  20. D-Rob won't move to any other position. The only reason he came to michigan is because they where one of the few schools to offer him as a QB. If Hoke can't find a way to use D-Rob as a QB then he wasn't the right man for the job. If D-Rob can get a little better in his reads and real to relax more in the pocket Hoke will be able to use him in any offensive scheme. Strong is the head coach at Louisville. I wouldn't mind seeing Ron English standing on the Michigan sideline again. As far OC I don't know. Does Rich Rod have a job yet?

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  21. How funny would that be if they brought RR back as the OC. He's probably the best guy for the job, but of course he'd never accept.

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  22. Are you kidding me, RR for OC...after these past 7 days,,,, got no comment for what you just posted....

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  23. RR as OC was a joke jackass.

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  24. I'm a huge RR and had been since day 1 and will where ever he goes... post after post before he was fired was saying his offense would never work in the big ten and now we are asking to keep his offense? The University of Michigan screwed RR and didnt give him 4 years. His first year he only got 30 days to recruit and sign so his first year wasnt all on him. Next year regardless of who the coach is, our defense was gonna get better with the new kids coming in! But either way I dk much about Hoke but either way I'm ready to win! Go Blue!!!

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  25. Why didn't they try to get Marvin Lewis. That seems to be the kind of success Michigan fans
    are comfortable with. Lol

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  26. Lloyd Loser Carr may as well be on the sidelines
    next season. He ruined Michigan football and still runs it.

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