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| Did Michigan finally get their "Michigan Man"? |
Brady Hoke has been hired as the next head football coach at Michigan. Hoke comes to Michigan after stints at Ball State and San Diego State.
Hoke rebuilt the programs at Ball State and San Diego State but had a record of just 47-50 before accepting the position in Ann Arbor. Hoke had been an assistant coach at Michigan prior to accepting the Ball State job.
Some of the concern about Hoke is that his teams have had just three winning seasons in his eight as a head coach. If it wasn’t for his 12-1 mark that he put up at Ball State in 2008 before jetting to the west coast, his win-loss record would be even worse. Perhaps Hoke leaving the Cardinals was just him knowing that he would be losing most of the talent that led to the record-breaking 2008 squad. With Hoke’s offensive coordinator and former “Michigan Man” himself Stan Parrish as head coach in 2009-2010, Ball State was a meager 6-19, bad even for the Cardinals standards. Parrish’s struggles led to him being fired after the 2010 season.
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| Hoke led Ball State to a 12-1 record in 2008 before leaving for San Diego State |
Some Michigan fans are not pleased with his under-.500 record as a head coach, but this is something Michigan had to overlook after their top two candidates, Jim Harbaugh and Les Miles, “thanks, but no thanks”-ed the Wolverines.
It’s this simple: Michigan is no longer a destination job. Do you think Ohio State, Florida, USC, etc. would hire a coach from the MAC or the Mountain West? No. They would find a big name. Hoke may bring respectability back to the mediocre program that is Michigan at the moment. However, Michigan is supposed to contend, year-in and year-out, for Big Ten titles and national championships.
The last year of the Lloyd Carr era and the entire Rich Rodriguez era took the program from competing for national championships to celebrating when they became bowl-eligible.
Utah, TCU and BYU have brought some respect to the Mountain West Conference in recent years so maybe it isn’t so much of a step up in class for Hoke. But can you imagine the uproar of Michigan fans if Hoke had stayed at Ball State instead of leaving for San Diego State? Michigan doesn’t hire MAC coaches. It’s not what Michigan does.
The hire of Hoke comes one day before the Buckeyes basketball team takes on Michigan in Ann Arbor. Could they be planning to introduce him at halftime? That did not go so well when they introduced Rodriguez. Buckeye fans who made the trip up north chanted “Tress-el! Tress-el!” when Rodriguez was introduced. They also had a sign counting the number of days since Michigan had beaten Ohio State.
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| Buckeye fans welcome Rich Rod to the rivalry |
If any Buckeye fans are making the trip to Crisler Arena for this edition, here’s an update for gamenight: 2,608 days.
