U of M thread (in the Lions Forum) :)

[FVD]

As far as how he sounded in his press conference, The guys on the Dan Patrick show compared Hoke to Chris Farley's Matt Foley character.

[mason reese]

And if you want to see an example of why Harbaugh was never seriously considered at any point for the U-M job... just read this.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07215/806578-134.stm

Boy, them's some whiney bitches.

[gjdodger]

Boy, them's some whiney bitches.

Agreed.

[FVD]

Tate Forcier and Michigan are no more an item.

[gjdodger]

That's kind of murky. Some people were saying Forcier wanted to get reinstated, I guess so he could pass winter classes and regain eligibility. But as I recall, if Michigan NTR's you, they want you to sit out a semester.

[TK0001]

Who said that?

All the people who are practically jumping out a window over this hiring, as if they even know who the fuck Brady Hoke is.

[gjdodger]

Oh. Well, it's kind of implied, I guess; I know the people you're talking about, and they all said we HAD to have Harbaugh and we HAD to have Miles, and if not why did we give up a perfectly good coach in Rodriguez? I don't know if that's the same thing as predicting failure, but it's close. I think Hoke is highly amusing; I don't know if he'll succeed. Although he's turned around programs that were dead in the water, he's not had access to the resources and challenges of running a Big Ten program. In other words, it's not just making things sound again, but recruiting and coaching at that consistently high level. So we'll see. But Jesus Christ, Rich was a 5,000 lb weight on the program's back, and he had to go. He didn't do anything right in three years.

[CGVT]

Hater

[gjdodger]

Hater

Kum bay ya, baybee!

[calijawn]

The debacle that has been this coaching search isn't going to help him, either. The university should have come clean and given this guy the keys in December rather than trying to keep up appearances by pretending to court Harbaugh and Miles.

The problem here is that you're shaping events around your pre-determined "Carr pulls the strings" narrative.

"Pretending" to court Harbaugh? Look at Brandon's early comments on Harbaugh. Obviously overtures had been made behind the scenes and the word came back that Harbaugh was looking toward the NFL; Harbaugh then proceeded to meet with SF and Miami before ultimately signing with the Niners.

"Pretending" to court Miles? Brandon personally met with Miles, and I believe the job would have been his if he had wanted it. Was an offer made? At Brandon's level, you don't make a formal offer unless you know it's going to be accepted. Miles decided staying in Louisiana was a better fit, and even managed to get a new contract extension from LSU out of it.

Here's the bottom line: head coach at Michigan is still an elite job, even if it's not the best job in football. Both Harbaugh and Miles had ample reason to turn it down -- the former wanting to go the NFL and was likely never going to be a hotter prospect to do so, and the latter staying with a powerhouse program that is expected to compete for national championships *right now* in a division (the SEC) that does nothing but breed national champions.

If you took any coach in the country and offered them a choice between (a) coaching an NFL team (b) coaching a strong SEC team and (c) coaching Michigan -- or even anywhere else in the Big Ten -- I'd be willing to bet that Michigan comes in third just about every time. What that means to someone in Brandon's position is that you're either going to have to sell a coach the Michigan Kool-Aid or you're going to have to pick a coach who simply had fewer options. With Hoke, it's a little bit of each, and I think he'll run a better overall program than Rodriguez.

[froot loops]

I imagine Drew eats breakfastes too...

So does my 5 year old daughter

[chemiclord]

Who said that?

I have speculated he will fail miserably.

Let me put it this way. We'll have Coach A, and Coach B.

Coach A:

Career record upon hire; 105-62-2
8 conference championships
3-3 Bowl record

Coach B:

Career record upon hire; 47-50
0 conference championships
1-1 Bowl record

Coach A was largely reviled and spat upon by the U-M faithful the moment he held his first press conference.

Coach B has the "full support" of the school and magically now is going to be the one to turn the team around.

History suggests that will not be the case.

[calijawn]

Of course, Coach A has already failed miserably which is why he's gone, so Coach B now gets a shot at it...

[froot loops]

Brandon may have talked to Miles but I doubt he was willing to pay the price it was going to take. When Brandon had the press conference, he said that he was going to have a national search. It wasn't really a national search. He said that the days of paying mid level for a coach were over, that they were willing to pay top dollar. Brady Hoke is not going to make more than mid level.

Brady Hoke might be turn out to be a whale of a coach. But the ones who are critical have a right to be. He comes out and says something and he does something else. You don't have to be really jaded or cynical to see that.

[nhwbrooklyn]

Brady Hoke might be turn out to be a whale of a coach.

Oh come on, fat jokes already?