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

[gjdodger]

But that's not why I came here. This is why I came here:

Detroit— Ohio State University president Gordon Gee endorsed the hiring of Michigan's new football coach Brady Hoke, saying Buckeyes should be nervous.
"They've hired a fine new coach. This guy's a builder. He's going to do great," Gee told The Detroit News as he toured the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. "If you're an Ohio State fan, you fear him."
He noted that when he was first OSU president, the school didn't do well against Michigan. "During my first tenure, I was in 1-5-1 against Michigan, so we've had a good run. I think there will always be a great rivalry," Gee said.
Still, Gee is very happy with his football coach — and OSU's success. "Jim Tressel is the best coach in America," Gee said.
Gee was in town with new Ohio Gov. John Kasich to meet with automakers and tout Ohio's benefits for economic development.

Now, let's be honest. Gordon Gee--DOCTOR Gee--is full of shit. Everybody knows that. But, you know, it's kind of funny. As I was watching and listening to Hokey (first attempt at a nickname), I was thinking the same thing. This guy is so rabid, I would think he would make OSU kind of uneasy. I'm probably full of shit, too, and I have no idea if he will make Michigan an outstanding team again. But damn, that was the feeling I got. Thoughts?

[dsred]

Great. Of course, citing the 'Peter Principle', EVERYONE reaches their level of incompetence....

Citing a bunch of degrees means nothing as education does not equal intelligence. It equals means to obtain useless degress, you educational enlitist puke.

PS- The phrase after the last comma was the obligatory,and patented dsred personal™ insult.

Carry on.

[gjdodger]

Don't worry. That GED is just within your reach.

[Mainevent]

One good thing about Hoke's hire is that alumni players certainly seem to endorse him and they're showing a lot more interest. I thought this quote was pretty telling:

“It was amazing,” Kelvin Grady, the senior-to-be receiver from East Grand Rapids, said. “The first couple things he said were 'It's about you guys, it's about Michigan, it's about these seniors, it's about these leaders,' which says a lot about him. Just from the looks of it, he has a lot of support in here. For the first time, I'm seeing a lot of alumni here, who are interested in what he's going to do with this program, and have a lot of faith in him.

Now, you could say that maybe the alumni players should have been more supportive of the RR regime and helped him build it up, but it's pretty clear that they felt disassociated with the program and the coach, and Hoke's hire is mending that already.

[Panoptes]

UofM takes the HC from the alma mater of mutiple members of my wifes family. From a sister to multiple nieces.

CALI-for-ni-a

SDSU!

[Niffla]

Michigan Man-----------------I'm sorry. I laugh at that. Your top priority should be to bring in the best fucking coach. Not the best fucking coach, who'll accept the job, because he's a Michigan Man. That's a joke.

GO LIONS "11" !

Definitely agree with this, DanO. Time is the only thing that will tell on this hire. A "Michigan Man" doesn't mean shit in the win-loss column.

[Cody_Russell]

Your top priority should be to bring in the best fucking coach. Not the best fucking coach, who'll accept the job, because he's a Michigan Man. That's a joke.

Like Rich Rod at the time?

I think the hire had to be a little of both ... being a Michigan man (understanding culture of Michigan, Pro style offense) and a great coach.
Brady Hoke.

Great Hire.

[Niffla]

I think the hire had to be a little of both ... being a Michigan man (understanding culture of Michigan, Pro style offense) and a great coach.
Brady Hoke.

Great Hire.

I hope so, Cody. But I don't think anybody really knows at this point. He had some real nice individual seasons at Ball State (well, the last one at least) and SD State, but the level of competition isn't a real strong indicator of what he'll do in the Big Ten positively or negatively.

We'll only begin to find out what kind of coach he really is come this spring...

[Cody_Russell]

Brady Hoke cries at his opening press conference because he Loves U of M that much ... I'm going to be optimistic no matter what because I want him succeed.

But yeah, with any change ... who knows lol.

[Niffla]

Love the support from all the accomplished alums, by the way. None of them had to publicly support the move.

I think all the support is pretty genuine.

[gjdodger]

Hoke also called OSU "that school in Ohio." He's not channeling Bo; he's channeling Woody.

[chemiclord]

He can be a "Michigan Man" all he wants. He can channel Bo or Woody or Jesus Christ.

At the end of the day, the only thing that will keep the respect of the people currently behind him is winning. The only thing that will draw the recruits he needs is winning.

I don't see enough winning in the future of U-M, and that won't be entirely Hoke's fault.

[nhwbrooklyn]

Carr's fault?

[chemiclord]

Carr's fault?

There is plenty of blame to spread around the mess of a program that has become the U-M.

But a lot of it is that Hoke is not going to have a very good team (I expect Robinson to transfer sometime before spring, leaving the Wolverines with no offense to go with no defense), and is pretty much guaranteed to have three losses before the schedule is even released (Nebraska, Michigan State, Ohio State).

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.

He has the benefit that at least one of the factions likes him... but if there aren't results quickly (and I don't think there will), the Schembechler Camp (the ones that would rather like Lloyd Carr and his coaching tree to crawl under a rock and die) is going to start cranking down on him. Hoke, in reality, doesn't have much longer of a leash than Rodriguez did, in my opinion.

In a perfect world, Hoke could mostly replicate Carr's career... 9-3 with a couple of 10 win seasons mixed in... I just don't see him getting the chance to reach those "lofty" heights before he's given the axe.

Maybe, just maybe, he'll be able to set the table for the guy that comes in after him... whoever that person might be.

[froot loops]

I don't know what chemiclord is so angry about, Hoke's a Michigan Man and a Grand Valley Man.