The Brady Hoke Era Begins

Ken — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 12:50:27 +0000

Four days ago, former Michigan assistant Brady Hoke was introduced as Michigan's new head football coach, replacing the fired Rich Rodriguez. Three years ago, when Rodriguez was hired, I never thought I'd be typing those words.

At the press conference, reporters and former players were positively fawning over Hoke. He's a "Michigan man". He'll "restore toughness" to the program. He's a "player's coach". He said all the right things and people just ate it up.

I can't help but think that Hoke seems to be getting a honeymoon that Rodriguez never enjoyed. Rodriguez was derided for his folksy manner; he was discredited for winning in a weak conference; he was criticized for running off recruits and players by bringing in a new system. (That last criticism was mainly centered around Ryan Mallett, and it wasn't a fair point: Mallett had made up his mind to leave before Rodriguez was even hired.) Hoke isn't all that different from Rodriguez in 2008, except for this whole "Michigan man" thing, and the fact that Rodriguez had a much better track record when he came in. As many folks on mgoblog have pointed out: if Hoke had been a former Michigan State assistant, there is zero chance he would have been hired at Michigan strictly on his own merits. For me, that's a red flag.

But I'll support Hoke and I'll support the program, because Michigan football should not be about politics. (I still find it weird that Michigan fans actively rooted for Rodriguez to fail, even if that meant seeing Michigan lose, just because they wanted him out.) I think Hoke may be a decent coach. But right now there's really no way to tell how successful he'll be.

Hoke brings with him his offensive coordinator Al Borges. Borges runs a modified West Coast Offense (the "Gulf Coast Offense", as he called it; will it be the "Great Lakes Coast Offense at Michigan?), which is a lot like what we ran under Lloyd Carr. Oh yeah, back then all the grumpy alumni complained how Michigan's offense was predictable and outdated. Run, run, incomplete pass, punt... hopefully we won't see a return to that.

One last regret... we've lost the chance to see what our dynamic spread offense could have become. We were already one of the top offenses in the country with a sophomore quarterback. What would we have been next year?

Go Blue.