The submarine has been submersed for awhile now and not much news is getting out. Here are a couple bullet points of interest:
- Brady Hoke says on his new radio show that it take 5-6 years to build a program. Here is a (freep) link if you want other Brady deep thoughts.
- BTN is in A2 today to watch practice, we should be getting a lot of tweets on who looks great, etc.
- Naseir Upshur is now expecting to make a decision in the next month or so. His top 5 is Florida State, South Carolina, Arizona State, Michigan and Temple. “I’m going to try and take official visits to (Michigan and Florida State),” Upshur said. “I want to go back to (Michigan) with my mom. I want her to see them.”
- 24/7 has a quick preview of Utah's offense. They are lead by a senior QB and senior RB.
- Sounds like Michigan's new one and done punter Blake O'Neill is a pretty good punter: "Listen," he continued, "if you put a trashcan out there 40 yards, he can usually hit it, OK? He's as accurate, and in some cases more accurate than, the quarterbacks."
6 comments:
I heard the original radio broadcast interview of Hoke when he was asked about Harbaugh being considered a "home run" hire and Hoke didn't consider it as such. I was disappointed in that response because even though we know Hoke was emotionally hurt by being fired (I mean who enjoys being fired), I thought the more classy response would have been to confirm Harbaugh as an excellent hire because he is an excellent coach and not interpret the question as a put down of his own efforts. In this Syrius broadcast Hoke seemed to have softened a bit and said that Harbaugh will do well because he's done well every where he's been and he was left with a talented roster. I don't expect Hoke to "love" Michigan because he lost his job but Harbaugh has gone out of his way to praise the work that Hoke did as his predecessor.
I do agree with Hoke that Michigan will do far better than most people expect this year because there is a lot more talent on this team than Harbaugh inherited when he went to Stanford. Hoke's coaches never fully developed that talent. I believe in some schools the new coach may need 5-6 years in order to win, but when Harbaugh went to Stanford which is historically a very difficult place to recruit and win, you could see his team improving upward and not downward from the very first year. Correct me if I'm wrong but Bo's teams had its ups and downs but his worst record was something like 6-6? All of his teams were competitive. Nick Sabin's Alabama teams haven't all gone undefeated but they've been competitive. I don't believe he's needed 5-6 years to become competitive. Even Rich Rod now at Arizona is fielding (a not great but) a very competitive team without going 5-6 years. My point being that yes Hoke was 5-7 but as one article stated "it was a bad 5-7, and they were fortunate to win some of those games that they did win." Hoke had lost his team and the confidence of his players. I believe Harbaugh's staff will if nothing else restore the confidence the players had in themselves and play with pride. That will be the biggest difference. Other teams including msu and osu will know that they've been in a real football game.
I understand how our pride can get in the way, and I still do like Hoke as a person, but nevertheless, I believe his heart was in the right place but that he was way over his head when he accepted the Michigan job. I wish him well in his future. IMHO!!!
Voice of Reason... nice :"Hoke synopsis"... can't add much because I'm 1200 miles away, relying 100% on info from bloggers, and people like you and Scott K.. From what I glean from info derived from this blog and a few others... is that Hoke wasted precious practice time in meetings, and way under utilized real practice time... a possible source of injuries from lack of proper preparation?
Brady's reaction is disappointing. RR, in my opinion, got the shaft and had every reason to be bitter. I think he stayed reasonable when asked about Michigan. Brady really has no one to be pissed at but himself. Three years of steady decline isn't building a program, the implication that year 4 and 5 were going to redeem him really doesn't sell.
14 days till kickoff! GO BLUE!!!!
RR was a fish out of water. We were never going to have a quality defense under him and in all honesty I found his offense lacked imagination and an identity even after the 1st season when he had square pegs in round holes from a talent standpoint.
VOICE OF REASON.....very well put. The only thing that I might add is that I felt like during Hoke's entire regime Michigan took a step back in the strength and conditioning standpoint. In addition, the lack of a true QB really hurt him too. One thing is for sure, Jimmy's teams are not going to get "pushed around" like we have for the past 7 years.
GO BLUE! Let's get after it!
Agree with all the above. But to be a great coach IMO, you have to be able to play the hand you're dealt (I.E. coach up the team you have) Both RR and Hoke finished out seasons with fans wondering if we even got better than we started.
We also had big issues with losing the TO margin. That just translates to hitting harder.
Brady did a poor job of recruiting QBs and it showed on his record.
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