When Brady Hoke took the Michigan job he spoke about injuries as boo boos and went for it on 4th down. He coached aggressively (mostly on 4th down) to move the sticks and give his offense a chance to score. He was the Michigan head coach in year 1 and heading to a BCS Bowl. Things were going well.
Coming off the blow out against ND and his team un-preforming against Miami of Ohio he makes this decision:
- Michigan has a 4th and one from the Miami 32 with a minute left - time out
- Team somehow gets a delay of game penalty which seemed odd as they lined up to go for it.
- Now its 4th and 6 from the 37 with still a minute left. Miami had scored 10 points and Michigan has turned the ball over 3 times in the quarter. Michigan has a 7 point lead when it probably should be 21 points.
- Michigan takes another 5 yard delay penalty on purpose
- Punts the ball out of the end zone
- Miami runs the clock out - halftime
- The Big House fans boo as both teams leave the field
After the game, Coach Hoke was asked the following:
You talked about being able to use the crowd to bounce back from last weekend. It helped early, you said, but I’m sure you heard some of the boos at halftime. What’s your level of concern with your team having to deal with that and kind of some outside…
“Well, you know what, we’ve got great fans. They’ve got high expectations like we do. As far as the players, they know that they can only control what they can control and that’s playing the best Michigan football we can.”
Coach Hoke said this earlier in the week:
"If they’re truly fans they'll believe in these kids and what they've done and the hard work that they've put in. If they’re not, they won't."
Back to the 4th down complete cluster:
Michigan needs to score here, because they have played poorly in the 2nd quarter. They are beating one of the worst teams in D1 by 7 points. This is not the statement they wanted to make after the ND blowout. Miami offense has only scored off of Michigan turnovers and have no shot going 60 yards for a halftime TD. Michigan is kicking off to start the second half and need to increase their lead to two scores. The only decision is go for it and Brady Hoke punted.
Back to the fans booing:
Coach took a shot at the fans for booing the kids and then backed off it a little bit after the game. I'm sure the coach realizes who the fans are booing and it's not the kids. It's the guy that took two delay of game penalties and took at least 3 points off the board.
Bottom line:
I have a few emails from folks that Brandon has been leaning hard on Hoke lately. I'm sure the post-ND discussion was not a positive one. Coach Hoke is very much starting to feel the pressure of being the Michigan head coach and it's starting to wear on him physically. It's also starting to wear on him mentally and he is starting to make poor in game decisions. His press conferences have become a waste of time as the most new worthy items is that Wile will do more short yardage punting because Hagerup can't control his bionic leg. What is the issue on saying Desmond Morgan is out 4-6 weeks? He is not playing and nobody expects him on the field this Saturday.
Coach is starting to feel the heat and he is coaching like a scared turtle that is more comfortable in his shell then out. This is a really alarming sign for the rest of the year. He is in some serious need of advice from a coach that has been there and done that. If he doesn't shake this off and start playing to win, there is one sure thing that will happen - he won't.
BTW: The fans that were booing on Saturday were part of the smallest crowd since 1995.
13 comments:
Rich Rod's record improved every year...
Brady's record has declined every year...
Rich Rod's teams actually showed improvement every year....
Brady's teams don't seem to be getting much better...
Someone save our program please.
This column is exactly on point!
I could not believe we did not go for it on 4th down (even with the stupid delay of game penalty). There was no way Miami was going to score on us if we failed to get the first down.
I booed my tv set...
Sad to see my beloved Michigan team turn in to cowards (I am 73, and have followed Michigan football since the late 1940s).
I was at the game with my wife and kids. All of us were disgusted with the lack of leadership and lack of a sense of urgency. We were at the Akron game last year and it was almost another Akron game. Bring back passion and toughness with a new coach that actually wears a headset to know what's happening in the game. I hate that so much. I love Michigan teams and Brandon got this hire wrong ! Don't need a cheerleader we need a coach.
@Scott K
This offense is improving game to game and MUCH better than last year.
This defense is so much nastier this year than last.
This team seems much better than last and most casual fans can even see that.
Lastly, the delay of game was because either the official didn't give a signal to the coach that the play clock was starting or the coaches didn't see it (Read something about this on 247 by Tremendous). Not trying to make excuses for this but after watching the reaction after the flag went out, ALLLLL the coaches were beyond confused.
Lastly, this article is very speculative and rather see the factual articles better. This was a very Bleacher Report article and pretty disappointed in it honestly.
I booed..And, I booed Hoke plane and simple...For the first time since I booed Borges after some pathetic play calling. Both times I felt guilt due to the fact that my boo's might be misinterpreted of booing the players, and/or that the coaches would deflect to the players which they did both times. The clock management prior to the half was pathetic, along with the decision making, and the special team's not being able to, or apparently not even thinking about punting inside the 20. It's time for Hoke to leave all decisions and coordination between O, D, and special teams to the assistants. He should stick to what he's good at and it ain't anything involving football at a high level - Recruiting and defending culture perhaps - If this is with $4 million fine....but, let the right people make the decisions! Every fan that booed knew more about what was going on then the coach....uhhhgggg
I really think that Brandon needs to make some quick decisions; 1. Fire Hoke, 2. Fire Ferrigno 3. Fire Funk....Perhaps Borges will hire them all....lol (wow all SDSU...hmmm, get the best in the biz since that's what we pay for!) 4. Make Mattison or Nussmeier interim 5. Send the O-Line to Barwis to strengthen and toughen them up.
6. If not any of the above get Hoke some headphones, but make sure that they are Tyco so he can't make decisions....Perhaps he could through them on the ground, or at people as Bo did, to at least show some passion vs. clapping and patting on the butt.
@ Eric, we were absolutely embarrassed by nd ( a nd team that isn't great )
We played even for a half with Miami of OH...
I stated facts, RR's teams had a better record each year...
Brady's team records have been worse each year...
Brady's teams are not taking the field pumped up and ready to play, if they were we wouldn't have gotten beaten up by ND and we would have blown out MofO.
We aren't feared, in fact, no one would be shocked if we weren't favored on Saturday.
Change is needed, we're going into season three of the same mediocre play. That isn't Michigan football.
Most of you sound like a bunch of jagoffs. Eric C was on point with his comments.
Dwelling on this end of the 1st half sequence is idiotic. Could we not see all of the confusion after the flag came out? Just because the announcers didn't do their job and comment on it doesn't mean there wasn't an issue. It was all over the screen.
Anyways, as Eric C stated, the offense is much better. The defense is also much better. The secondary was very banged up against a team (ND) that had a hot QB that night that took advantage of the Stribblings and Holloways. If our top 3 CB's play then the score would have been much closer. They played a horrible game. I get it. It was a complete stinker and I caught more crap from ND fans than anyone.
Let's keep some other things in mind. Hoke is recruiting well. We have 2 VERY good coordinators. The depth on this team is improving a TON.
There is light at the end of the tunnel and firing Hoke will only set the program back another 5 years. This is a GREAT, and I mean GREAT Blog that I read on a daily basis. This post was unfair. If anyone gets shown the door it should be Funk. Every other aspect of this team has taken a step forward.
Not sure how anyone can say that this team has improved this year on offense? Please note the shut out at notre dame and the mere 17 points against Miami late in the 3 rd quarter and 0ne of those scores the defense set up. In fact the first score, a field goal came after a nice kick return. We fumbled the snap in there'd zone so we had no choice but to kick three. Is that improvement???
As for rich rod's improvement over the course of three years... The defense regressed each and every year. Remember the ohio game followed by the gator bowl. There was absolutely no improvement on that side of the ball. Lead to his demise. The same will happen to hoke if there isn't improvement but he will get until 2015. To turn it around.
I bet Brian Kelly was furious that we had 8 yards more offense than they did.....
Michigan football used to be about playing tough in the trenches, winning games and competing for Big 10 Championships.
Somehow now its about excuses and reaching for positives to take away from poorly coached, poorly played games.
Scott K,
you said and I quote
"Rich Rod's teams actually showed improvement every year....
Brady's teams don't seem to be getting much better..."
Please rewatch the last 3 games and all of last season and please tell me if you want to take that back.
Also look at Rich's defense all three years and tell me where they got better.
I'll be waiting.....
We didn't play even for a half with Miami (NTM). We would had dominated if it wasn't for
1.) Fumble by Darboah (Not Gardner's fault at all). An honest mistake that probably will happen again and not on the coaches.
2.) Int by tipped pass. (Gardner is to be blamed for 50% for poor read in triple coverage).
3.) Shallman running into (I forgot who) and causing a fumble on a short kickoff. This one can be chalked to coaches not preparing players.
That all occurred in about 5 mins and we would have had 2 more TD's and 10 less points for Miami without them. Score would had been like 48 or 54-3
That's a dominate performance
As for ND, if Wile made those two kicks and Lewis didn't get that awful PI call in the endzone, the halftime score would had been like 10-6 or even 7-6.
Then who knows what would had happened in 2nd half but Michigan kinda gave up (Coaches fault for that, I'll give you that).
And I see this ND team winning 9-10 games this year with one of the hardest schedules. They def aren't over-rated and will finish the season in top 20.
The game against ohio last Nov. was the best game we played in over a season....
none of the games we played this year even came close.
team record improved in each of RR's seasons, that's a fact.
team record in each of brady's seasons declined, that's a fact.
17-10 at halftime, against a team that hasn't won a game in 18 attempts, seems about even.
if no one fumbled, if no one threw an interception, if no one missed a kick.. all great 'what if's'. excusing the biggest blow out in the history of the rivalry with nd, because of two missed fg's is pretty weak... but we did out gain them on offense by 8 yards, that's a positive to take away from the game.
I guess I just have higher expectations.
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