I was wondering if anyone could give any insight as to what happened to Brady Hoke as the coach of Michigan AFTER 2011? He inherited a nightmare from Rodriguez and the only light for him was Denard Robinson. I personally witnessed Michigan in the Gator Bowl against Miss State and I was shocked at how awful they were. They were unorganized, terribly coached, unmotivated and lined up wrong on defense on several occassions. Hoke took the same team and ripped out an 11-2 record and was recruiting his ass off. Something had to happen after that and I wonder if David Brandon had a role in that. Hoke seemed to have lost his fire and it showed on his face. He looked like he wanted to be fired. I was embarassed last year watching him on the sidelines and you could tell the players had quit. Something had to happen to affect him and his leadership. I read some time ago on another site that something did happen, however, it would never become public because of potential lawsuits. I was just wondering if anyone had ever heard anything? I know David Brandon was an arrogant ass and seemed to be proud of it.
What Really Happened to Brady Hoke from 2011-2014?
- Thread starter scfanblue
- Start date
Interesting. Clearly the program went off the rails and Clappy had no idea how to fix it.
On a side note, I have never been more disgusted than I was with Hoke talking to reporters after the concussion thing. Rather than manning up and saying he screwed up, he decided to argue with a reporter and tell him he didn't know what a zone blitz was. Sad and pathetic.
I believe that Brady was hired by the "Old Guard" who never wanted Rich Rodriguez there in the first place. When Hoke failed, it finally shut them up for good because they witnessed their guy in his epic failure to bring back Michigan football. Michigan was lucky to have hired Harbaugh and he should have been on the staff long ago, however, Loyd did not hire him. What I love about Harbaugh is that he is a true individual who does not give a shit about what others think. Yes, he played for Bo and his Dad coached there, but he is going to do things his way that he sees fit. He has the right attitude for the Hornet's Nest he entered. I have not seen this much excitement about Michigan football in probably 10 or more years and they have not played one snap. I do agree that Hoke got LAZY after going 11-2. Michigan the past two years were just as bad as they were under Rodriguez with the exception being the defense who was on the field 85% of the time. I expect the program to get better each week and every year now and I don't think we will be seeing an unmotivated team take the field anymore like the entitlement attitude that has been shown even in Loyd's last few years.
He didn't look in over his head in season 2 either. They went 8-5 but that was due to having to play Alabama week 1, and then some serious bad luck. They lost by 7 at ND and had 6 turnovers, 5 by our best player. Then lost to Neb because Debard got hurt. Lost a close one to OSU at their house, and finally lost in the closing seconds against SCar.
If that team had scheduled another MAC school instead of Bama, and Denard doesn't get injured, that would have been a top 10 team with both losses being to #1 ND and #3 OSU.
If that team had scheduled another MAC school instead of Bama, and Denard doesn't get injured, that would have been a top 10 team with both losses being to #1 ND and #3 OSU.
I have never bought that he was in way over his head. He had coached at big programs before and SDSU plays the big programs every year. He as a person and coach changed very rapidly and that due to something usually occurring either personally or work environment. Something happened that affected his coaching appproach and it tanked quite fast. I guess it doesn't matter now though.
Interesting that you choose to call ND #1 in the nation, considering they lost to Alabama (whom you were trying to remove from our schedule). Keep in mind that, having played Alabama, 3 of Michigan's 5 losses were to top 4 teams in the nation (with Alabama #1, OSU #3 and ND #4). Our bowl game loss was to South Carolina, whom finished #8, so that means we had 4 losses to the top 8 teams in the nation that year.
Not that I'm contesting whether we should have played Alabama. Just found your end comments interesting..
He was to loyal to his coaching staff, how do you practice every week and get worse as the season goes on.that should have him see something was very wrong.so u of m fixed it, they got rid every one, now jh can clean this mess up.
What happened was reversion to the mean. Hoke and staff were mediocre coaches and mediocre talent evaluators along with their recruiting experts.
Basically UM had some nice wins and some lucky wins like against Va Tech. I remember Junior going up and grabbing balls all season long. The Big Ten was also pretty weak. UM snuck one out against MSU if I recall at home.
Some all the stars aligned in that season. Sometimes the cards fall into place and the next years were more of a reflection of Hoke and staff and his talent....7-5.
Reality Man
Basically UM had some nice wins and some lucky wins like against Va Tech. I remember Junior going up and grabbing balls all season long. The Big Ten was also pretty weak. UM snuck one out against MSU if I recall at home.
Some all the stars aligned in that season. Sometimes the cards fall into place and the next years were more of a reflection of Hoke and staff and his talent....7-5.
Reality Man
All anyone needs to do is look at Hoke's record for a along stretch prior to coming to Michigan to know he was probably just a bad coach.
I mean he inherited a Ball State team that went .500 for 3 straight seasons from 2000-2002. Hoke was sub .500 at Ball State for his first 4 seasons and barely above .500 his 5th season. He had an outlier season in 2008, but then Ball State plummeted after he left which leads me to believe he could not build a team as even a terrible coach can auto pilot a team to a decent record for their 1st year if a good foundation was built.
As for what happened at Michigan, his trajectory was like Charlie Weis's at ND. Sometimes a bad coach is capable of doing a great job and having teaser years temporarily. Hoke and Weis were bad coaches that looked like they had Michigan and ND back on track (decnet seaosns, but not up to par yet, but really good relative to expectations) respectively their first 2 years only to implode their 3rd years and beyond.
I mean he inherited a Ball State team that went .500 for 3 straight seasons from 2000-2002. Hoke was sub .500 at Ball State for his first 4 seasons and barely above .500 his 5th season. He had an outlier season in 2008, but then Ball State plummeted after he left which leads me to believe he could not build a team as even a terrible coach can auto pilot a team to a decent record for their 1st year if a good foundation was built.
As for what happened at Michigan, his trajectory was like Charlie Weis's at ND. Sometimes a bad coach is capable of doing a great job and having teaser years temporarily. Hoke and Weis were bad coaches that looked like they had Michigan and ND back on track (decnet seaosns, but not up to par yet, but really good relative to expectations) respectively their first 2 years only to implode their 3rd years and beyond.
The "snuck one out against MSU" was in 2012.
I guess it's easy to say in retrospect .... but that 2011 U-M team wasn't really a "good" 11-2.
The 2 losses (at MSU, at Iowa) were pretty decisive, in none of them did I think "well, Michigan played right with them but just got unlucky." U-M may have gotten to the Iowa 3 at the end while down 8, but they also trailed 24-9 with 7:00 to play. Iowa got way too conservative after playing superior ball for the game's first 50:00, and U-M almost snuck that game into overtime.
Regardless, that Iowa team wasn't very good. Nobody in the B1G really was: we went 4-6 as a conference in Bowl games that year.
Conversely, there was the rather miraculous comeback win vs. Notre Dame, that ugly Orange Bowl win vs. Virginia Tech, and a 6-point win over the worst Ohio State team of the 2000s, that could have been a loss except for Braxton Miller air-mailing a touchdown pass over DeVier Posey's head in the game's final minute.
As you said, eventually it was a "reversion to the mean." 7-5.
I think Clappy and Co may have been the worst staff of any Power 5 conference program. Hoke, clearly in over his head at a big program. Funk, possibly the worst OL coach in D1. "Strength" coach was atrocious. "26 seconds" Mattison, a DC who seemed to abhor sacks or creating turnovers. Teams never improved with this bunch, they mostly regressed as the season went on.
for a fact, the only reason SDSU hired him was for economics. He was willing to take $400,000 while San Diego paid off its previous coach Chuck Long $700,000. I think the reason for his success at SDSU was because of Rocky Long, who is still winning at SDSU long after Hoke left. Long may be one of the best coaches in the NCAA abet without star recruiting abilities. Any one who can win in New Mexico is a world champion.
I personally think a couple things did Hoke in:
Anyway, regardless - Hoke was a good man, he cared, and a great person. I am glad he is not our coach but he is also set for life and I hope he lands somewhere as coach at some point.
- He preached a brand of football that was full of Bo's fundamentals but without the evolution of the game. I think in his mind he felt that big and fat players without speed can win and that is all that mattered. Smash-mouth football works but even smash-mouth has evolved and you need to do so.
- He was too soft - he was a father-figure to players and treated them like his kids (I admire him for that) but never taught them accountability. I would have benched Funchess after 2 games last year - he was so incredibly lazy during the games. I would have benched Gardner for 5 games for sitting on the sidelines cracking jokes while trailing 31-0 to ND.
- He was too loyal to his coaches and did not hold them accountable. He refused to hold anyone accountable. Funk Funk Funk! He should have been gone after Season #2!
- I disagree that Hoke did not know how to assess talent - he did, but talent wanted to play with him because they knew they could get away with a lot versus having to work hard. So he recruited talent that did not have the desire to be great.
- His S&C coach was probably in worse shape then Hoke himself.
Anyway, regardless - Hoke was a good man, he cared, and a great person. I am glad he is not our coach but he is also set for life and I hope he lands somewhere as coach at some point.
