Hoke is the man. I think it's a good hire. Everybody wants the home run hire, ND fans did as well. But Hoke has coached at UM, he knows the culture and the expectations, he knows the recruiting. Only thing against him is that he's not a big name. Maybe the guy can just coach, what a thought. How long it will take him to turn it around, we'll have to wait and find out. I guess the first thing will be what is he going to do with the offense? Specifically what will he do with Denard Robinson?
Going back to smash mouth, getting away from the spread, Michigan has apparently finally recovered from the Appy St. shock.
This IS bad news. Hoke is a real coach. I was hoping they would sign the Mad Hatter or Bob Davie or someone like that.
Like most new coaches hiring his first staff will be critical. He has to get a good solid staff that has chemistry, can recruit and of course can coach. If he gets a good staff they will do just fine. At SDSU he hired Al Borges and Rocky Long, both excellent Coordinators with lots of experience and they knew the area. Long will stay at SDSU as the Head Coach, don't know what Borges will do.
Well supposedly Al Borges is going to Mich to be the OCoord. I know Corey and JO'Co liked him a lot at UCLA. I'm guessing he'll figure out a way to use Denard Robinson, maybe the Pistol will be at UM, you can be a power running team with the Pistol and the QB can still be a playmaker with his feet. I don't know what Borges ran at UCLA or Auburn or SDSU though. But given Hokes comments on the spread, I assume that SDSU didn't run a spread offense.
Borges runs a 2 back pro-style offense. A Bill Walsh style/West Coast short passing game with power running. Denard might want to work on his pass catching skills. The RB in their bowl game ran for how many yards? The RBs at Auburn were great while he was there as well. The problem at Auburn is that Hugh Nall threw the OL and the OC under the bus and Tubbs let him.
If anyone on SB is thinking of buying a home in the Ann Arbor area, watch out for shady sellers: http://www.freep.com/article/20110113/SPORTS06/110113053/1054/SPORTS06/Lawsuit-against-Rich-Rodriguez-amended
I think Rodriguez is under some kind of indictment in Tuscaloosa because of a real estate investment fraud also. I'm not sure of the nature of it or how he came to invest in Tuscaloosa real estate but it seems like I heard about this a few months ago.
I see that Greg Mattison has taken the Michigan DC job. Very interesting, he was the DCoord on their split NC team, but left the next year for Notre Dame. Hardly qualifies him as a Michigan Man, and I seem to remember some UM fans not being all that upset that he left and feeling that his replacement was a better DCoord. He was a good recruiter for ND during his time, but Davie took over the DCoord duties after a year or so and Matty coached the DL. He was at UF and tortured ND fans during recruiting with what some (many) thought were unethical tactics, no illegal though! When he was at ND he tried a few times to get NFL gigs, finally did get one after being at UF and moved on, supposed for the NFL pension. I expect he'll do a good job at Michigan, and he knows Midwest recruiting that's for sure so I expect he'll be a thorn in our side there.. But he's got his work cut out for him in resurrecting the UM defense.
Hoke has been successful in filling his staff quickly. Recruiting is in a pickle for next year's team. Looking at a minimum of two years to see any results?