Before we get into the latest Fan’s Interference, let’s flashback some 42 years ago.
A young coach gets hired away from a small regional school after he had success turning around that schools fortunes. He gets greeted at his new job with glaring newspaper headlines asking just who this new guy is. 20 years later he leaves as the winningest coach the tradition laden school has ever had. He collects 13 conference championships, wins 80 percent of his games and almost 85 percent of his conference games.
Moving ahead to just about 10 years ago, when another up and coming coach gets snapped away from a reclamation project that he has turned into a small school powerhouse. He won 4 National Championships and was winning games at a 70 percent clip. He too wasn’t his school’s first choice or even the second choice but ten years later and he’s got 7 conference titles, a National Championship and a 82 percent winning percentage.
Alright I know you are beginning to wonder where the point is but I promise I’m getting there. Let’s fast forward to Wednesday January 12, 2011. A coach slightly older than the two previous coaches but still very much the coaching veteran gets plucked from a mid major school that he took over two years ago and led to a 9-4 season this year. This after he leads his alma mater, a school who’s only history is a losing one, to a 12-1 season. He’s greeted by a faction of people whining that he isn’t a certain “hot” coach or not the “sexy” hire, but is universally loved by the players he’s coached. Sounds familiar huh?
Most college football fans could easily tell you the identities of the first two guys I talked about. I’m sure any Fan’s Interference follower can as well.
Just for the record though, case number 1 is none other than Michigan’s very own icon, Bo Schembechler! Story number 2 refers to Ohio State’s current head coach and living legend, Jim Tressel. Now if you’ve been paying attention to the sports world the last week or so you probably don’t need me to tell you who number 3 is, but being the nice guy that I am, I’ll enlighten you to new Michigan head coach Brady Hoke.
Ever since Michigan AD Dave Brandon fired former Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez last Wednesday, the search has been on to find the next great leader of college football’s winningest program. In conjunction with that and my standing as a Michigan Wolverine die hard I’ve been constantly asked my opinions on the coaching search, so I thought it would be time to break out the blog to express some opinions on the matter. Now to all my Buckeye followers out there who are wondering why they should keep reading, keep in mind that this might just have as profound an effect on that “team in ohio” as it does for that “team up north”! You never know where this will lead the rivalry to end all rivalries, although “rivalry” is kind of a hopeful term for this series lately. I hope to get into why this hasn’t been a real rivalry since the mid 80’s in a later post but for now back to the issue at hand.
Brady Hoke -- new Michigan head coach.
I can honestly say Hoke was not my first choice, actually he wasn’t second, third or fourth but in just 2 days I’ve already warmed up to the guy. As a Michigan fan I say there are several things that a Michigan football coach needs to have to be successful.
1. PASSION!
This right here is what’s already got Hoke endearing himself to many, myself included. At his introductory press conference he repeatedly professed his love to the University, at one point proclaiming he would have walked to Ann Arbor from San Diego. Hoke isn’t an alum of Michigan but he coached the defensive line at Michigan from the mid 90’s up until he left in 2002 to coach his alma mater Ball State. He helped UM win a National Title in 1997 and had repeatedly told San Diego State that Michigan was his dream job. The passion he brings back to the program and the knowledge of Michigan’s values and tradition already put him ahead of our previous coach. He was introduced at the basketball game on Wednesday night and was seen leading the crowd in a rendition of the Victors as the students chanted his name. Many of Hoke’s former players have come forward already to put in support and they have talked about Hoke’s passion and how much they think it will enhance the program. Passion just can’t be faked and Hoke oozes passion and love for the Maize and Blue and I imagine that he will instill that into the staff, team, cheerleaders and even the parking attendants six blocks from the stadium who take great passion in removing twenty dollar bills from football lovers who mistakenly believe their cardboard sign that reads “Easy Out” even though three hours after the game they still sit there hoping someone will let them out.
Passion itself won’t do it, you need to combine it with
2. KNOWLEDGE
As a Michigan fan, or a fan of any school actually, you want your coach to be educated. Not only in the x’s and o’s, but in the spirit of the University. Hoke knows Michigan’s history. He knows you don’t give the number 1 jersey to a freshman defensive back. He knows that the Notre Dame game is red letter game, but he also knows that Michigan State is a “gotta have” game. On top of all that though he knows that Ohio State is a MUST WIN game, each and every year. At his press conference he wouldn’t even refer to Ohio State by name, only calling it “That Ohio school.” It’s things like that which will endear you to the masses. It’s a little of Bo sprinkling in for good measure. You Buckeyes should even appreciate that considering Woody Hayes would never say the name Michigan and was once rumored to have pushed his car across the state line into Toledo because he would be damned before he would pay for anything in Michigan.
To go along these lines, if Hoke can somehow figure out how to get 11 guys onto the field defensively who can put any kind of scare into an opposing offense by, oh I don’t know, tackling someone, or forcing an occasional turnover, or and this is a big one, preventing someone from scoring on a drive or two, then he’s going to go from program savior to program icon.
Thing is you can’t have either of these without:
3. SUCCESS
This one is where my doubts came into play about Hoke. He comes to Michigan with a 47-50 record as a head coach and he did that at two low-brow schools. He went to Ball State and went 34-38 and followed it up by going 13-12 at San Diego State in 2 years. One of my biggest concerns when Hoke was announced was his lack of “big school” success.
On the flip side of that Hoke is gaining a great reputation for being a “rebuilding mastermind” after he took Ball State from 4-8 his first year to 12-1 in 2008. A record for wins at Ball State and included a limited time appearance in the national top 25, topping out at number 12. He left to help turn around San Diego State and didn’t take nearly as long going from 4-8 to 9-4 in just one season. Both reclamation projects are very nice resume builders but neither included a conference championship, although San Diego State did push eventual Mountain West champ and Rose Bowl winner TCU to the end before falling 40-35, and Hoke does have one more bowl win than Michigan in the last 3 years. That lack of “power program” pedigree had me worried, but comments and quotes from such coaching colleagues like Lloyd Carr, John Harbaugh and many others have helped ease that worry.
One thing that Brady has on his side is his ability to recruit. In his last stint at Michigan Hoke was known for his abilities to recruit on the West coast. He was responsible for bringing in such Michigan men like Leon Hall, Larry Stevens, Justin Fargas (Yes he transferred but still) and some skinny legged kid na
med Tom Brady. Those kinds of ties to the West could really help Michigan in the future. Although Hoke’s first bit or recruiting will be in whether he can keep stud quarterback and spread guru Denard Robinson at Michigan (ed. Note: As of Thursday night the Detroit Free Press is reporting Denard is staying at Michigan).
Like I said before Brady wasn’t my first choice and probably wasn’t many fans first choice to lead the Wolverines. He didn’t have Harbaugh’s legendary status or Miles winning ways or Gary Patterson’s appeal but what he does have is a loyal, undying passion and know how of Michigan and the potential to be very successful. Unlike some candidates I doubt that the fan base will have to worry about Brady bolting to the NFL or to any other job in the country. I also doubt the fans will have to worry about him taking the Ohio State game for granted or not installing the hatred for Michigan State that needs to be instilled.
Can Hoke be successful at Michigan? Of course, after all it is Michigan. The facilities are top notch, the talent pool is still there and the tradition will never go away. But since I’m all for helping out, here are a few simple things Coach Hoke could do to better our beloved Wolverines.
1. Keep Denard Robinson in the fold and build him an offense. The kid is a keeper and I know Hoke likes to run a Pro style offense but if he can teach Drob a thing or two about passing and still be able to cut him loose on unsuspecting defenses to use his speed then the kid can be dangerous maybe more so than last year. Besides without backup Tate Forcier around (university issues) we need Denard more than ever.
2. Fix the defense. Teach some fundamentals like tackling, tracking the ball in the defensive secondary so you might actually make a play on it and maybe just maybe letting the corners play closer than 10 yards from the receiver. With just a marginal defense combined with the playmaking ability of our offense Michigan could push for 9-11 wins next year. Contrary to popular belief there really is talent on the Michigan defense. Mike Martin is a beast in the middle of the line, Craig Roh is a pass rusher and even though it seems like 38 freshmen started at corner for Michigan they do have a senior and a junior coming back from injury that should really add some experience and talent to the defensive backfield.
3. Find somebody, anybody who CAN KICK A FIELD GOAL! Please put the special back in Special teams. Our punting game has gotten quite the practice the last few years so that part is doing fine, as is our kick return game but please Brady find someone who can put the ball through those two upright things in the end zone.
4. Win the Time of Possession Battle. Personally I think this one will go a long way in helping with number 2. Keeping the defense off the field would be the greatest way to help the defense get better. The less they are on the field, the less likely they can give up points.
5. Beat Ohio State and Michigan State. Self explanatory.
Brady Hoke has a lot to do before he climbs into the atmosphere of such legends and leaders like Bo, Gary Moeller, Lloyd Carr or Fielding Yost. As a Michigan fan and follower he may not have been Jim Harbaugh or Les Miles but he also isn’t Rich Rodriquez (who for the record I am not against by any means but I did think had to go after having thirty days to prepare for a bowl after the blowout loss to Ohio State and still lost 52-14 to a middle of the road SEC school).
Hoke might need a little magic to pull off the greatest rebuild of his career but if he’s the coach that I see and that hundreds of players and coaches rave about then it will be a little less Hok-cus Pocus and a lot more Hoke-a-mania.
So Big Ten Nation, What you gonna do when Hoke-A-Mania runs wild on you!