Brady Hoke Presents Resume: A Mixture of Abject Failure, Punctuated Successes and Unexpected Zombie Resuscitations
by markusr2007 on Jan 5, 2011 1:22 AM CST
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Former Michigan Assistant Coach Brady Hoke
Brady Hoke is now a legitimate candidate for the head coaching position at Michigan.
Some people think he is a great college football coach and nothing to worry about. I think such ideas are preposterous. They are the cranial productions of blind fools who do not understand college football and offer no evidence to support their views.
Below I share a summary of Mr. Hoke's illustrious track record of college football coaching. In the appropriate words of Charles Dickens, he has "labored on it since. Ah, it is a ponderous chain!"
Now settle down. You didn't let me finish:
Mr. Hoke is a certified, verified, triple-stamped, no erasies, quincies,......
No, NOT a Michelin man! What I was trying to say was that Brady Hoke is a verified......
.....No. That's "Alabama Man". Brady Hoke is a genuine "Michigan Man!".
Check!
There.
Good lookin' out, man. What a relief!
Now on with the horror show:
1983 Grand Valley State (MI) - Defensive Line Coach for Head Coach Bob Giesey. Lakers team record:
1983: 4-6. At the time this was the worst and first losing season for GVSU football in over a decade.
1984-1986 Western Michigan - Defensive Line Coach for Head Coach Jack Harbaugh Broncos team records:
1984: 5-6, finished 44th in scoring defense, 19 points per game
1985: 4-6-1, 43rd in scoring defense, 19 points per game
1986: 3-8, 63rd in scoring defense, 23 points per game
1987-1989 Toledo - Linebackers Coach for Head Coach Dan Simrell.
Rockets team records:
1987: 3-7-1, finished 54th in scoring defense, 22 points per game
1988: 6-5, finished 42nd in scoring defense, 20 points per game
1989: 6-5, finished 60th in scoring defense, 25 points per game.
1990-1994 Oregon State - Defensive Line Coach for Head Coach Jerry Pettibone, a former OC for Barry Switzer at Oklahoma and major disciple of wishbone option offense, plus.....now wait for it....a "Michigan Man!" to boot. Pettibone was born in Detroit).
Beavers team records:
1990: 1-10, finished 99th in scoring defense, 34 points per game
1991: 1-10, finished 100th in scoring defense, 33 points per game
1992: 1-9-1, finished 99th in scoring defense, 33 points per game
1993: 4-7, finished 68th in scoring defense, 27 points per game
1994: 4-7, finished 32nd in scoring defense, 22 points per game.
Not too shabby Mr. Hoke. Even a blind fool can see why you would be selected to run the defensive line at a storied college football program like.....
Michigan defensive lineman Glen Steele 1997
via grfx.cstv.com
1995-2002 Michigan - Defensive Line Coach for Lloyd Carr
Wolverines team records:
1995: 9-4, 17 points per game
1996: 8-4, 15 points per game
1997: 12-0, 9.5 points per game
1998: 10-3, 18 points per game
1999: 10-2, 21 points per game
2000: 9-3, 19 points per game
2001: 8-4, 20 points per game
2002: 10-3, 20 points per game
The 1997 defensive line was arguably one of the most talented in Michigan football history. Hoke won 3 Big Ten Championship rings while coaching at Michigan (1997, 1998 tie, 2000 tie). Michigan was Hoke's longest, most consistent and most successful coaching stint noted on his coaching resume.
2003-2008 Ball State - Head Coach (34-38 over 6 seasons).
Cardinals team records:
2003: 4-8, offense ranked 88th (22 ppg), defense ranked 92nd (32 ppg)
2004: 2-9, offense ranked 101st (20 ppg), defense ranked 111th (37 ppg)
2005: 4-7, offense ranked 94th (21 ppg), defense ranked 114th (38 ppg)
2006: 5-7, offense ranked 39th (27 ppg), defense ranked 84th (26 ppg)
2007: 7-6, offense ranked 40th (32 ppg), defense ranked 69th (28 ppg)
2008: 12-1, offense ranked 18th (35 ppg), defense ranked 29th (21 ppg)
Ball State's football history is amazingly similar to that of San Diego State's (see more on SDSU below). When it comes to meaningful victories on the gridiron, Ball State has been borderline bankrupt since about1978 when the Cardinals last finished 10-1 and Hoke himself was a star linebacker on the team. Unfortunately, the only truly memorable moments of Brady Hoke's Cardinal football teams took the form of "moral victories" only. The first moral victory exhibit would have been the 26-34 loss at Michigan (12-2) in 2006, in a game where up until the 4th quarter most of Michigan Stadium had their eyes closed, thinking to themselves "Please God, don't do it. Not this time. What would we tell our children?". This time God listened, allowed Ball State to lose the game, only to delay his wrath upon Michigan until September 1st the following year.
The second memorable Ball State moment has to be the 40-41 defeat to Bill Callahan's Nebraska team at Lincoln in 2007. Hoke's Cardinals had there way with Nebraska's "Blackshirts" all day long and were literally within a nanometric butt-hair from handing the mighty Cornhuskers their most embarrassing defeat in school history. A Ball State win at Nebraska (gasp) might have rivaled Appalachian State's monster upset victory at Michigan only a few weeks earlier. OK, maybe not. Anyway Michigan fans everywhere said "thanks a lot Brady".
The stand out season that everyone remembers was 2008, where Hoke prodded and cajoled his Cardinals to 12 wins and just one loss (a conference title-losing shellacking at the hands of Turner Gill's Buffalo Bulls team 24-42). So how in the hell did Brady Hoke cook up 12 victories for Ball State? It was easy, man. Schedule the least difficult schedule imaginable (ranked 120th among 120 teams that season) by peppering it with opponents like Northeastern and their ilk.
2009- 2010 San Diego State - Head Coach
Let's face it. For years San Diego State's football program has been a mixed up screenplay of both horror and comedy. SDSU football had taken the form of a zombie: Not quite dead. Not quite alive. Sort of writhing to and fro, strapped to a gurney, begging to eat its fans' brains so that all the suffering and pain can finally subside.
The last winning football season at SDSU was under head coach Tom Craft back in 2003 and even then it was an unconvincing, undead-like, you-don't-know-where-you-are, it's dark, OMG ZOMBIE!, 6-6 finish.
You'd have to go way back to the Ted Tollner regime (1994-2001) at SDSU to find the last ray of sunshine in San Diego State football, when the then failed-USC-coach led the Aztes to a victory over Hernan Cortez, a 7-6 finish in 1998 (and another bowl loss). There was also that magical and mystical 8-4-1 finish back in 1991 (right again, another bowl loss) under Al Lugenbill that nobody talks about anymore.
Look, it's in no way easy for any man to follow the kind of abject head coaching failure that perfectly describes Chuck Long's HC stint for the San Diego State Aztecs between 2006-2008 (3-9, 4-8, 2-10). After the 2008 football season, Long had SDSU's offense running on all cylinders, ranked 104th in the land with 19 points per game. Defensively the Aztecs finished 114th in the country, surrendering 37 points per game.
Chuck Long, SDSU head coach 2006-2008. Waiting impatiently for spite to show up.
So Brady Hoke arrived on the scene and proceeded to pump untold voltage back into SDSU stammering corpse of a football program - reversing a 2-10 record in 2008 to 4-8 in 2009 and then 9-4 in 2010, including a surprising Pointsettia Bowl win in downtown San Diego against Navy.
Happy Aztecs, 9-4 with bowl win over Navy in 2010
Stop everything. All you guys wearing in red and black right now. Yeah. You are no longer zombies.
via bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com
San Diego State Aztecs records:
2009: 4-8, offense ranked 85th (23 ppg), defense ranked 98th (31 ppg)
2010: 9-4, offense ranked 20th (35 ppg), defense ranked 37th (22 ppg)
Hoke achieved this success in large part with some "interesting" staff choices, namely Rocky Long (former New Mexico head coach, 65-69 career record) as his defensive coordinator, and selecting savvy offensive coordinator Al Borges (Boise State, Oregon, UCLA, Cal, Indiana, Auburn).
In aggregate Brady Hoke is 47-50 as a head football coach, and 127-109-3 as an assistant defensive football coach.
Mr. Hoke is already checked off as a "Michigan Man" by the sports media and Michigan fans, because of his 8 successful seasons of defensive line coaching under Jim Herrmann and Lloyd Carr outlined above.
But overall Brady Hoke's resume reads consistently below average and less than impressive. It's also full of shocking scenes of futility and defeat on the gridiron. Most importantly, Hoke's few accomplishments would probably pale in comparison to those of the man he would supposedly replace at Michigan - Rich Rodriguez.
This is not an argument to keep Rodriguez as Michigan's head coach. Far from it. Rich Rodriguez had his chance at Michigan and failed.
This is, however, a justified appeal that the "Michigan Man!" filter be shut off completely. It should not be applied as the first and primary selection criteria to the exclusion of all others that might be both viable and available to Michigan football for 2011. Other candidates may be far better options for the Wolverines over the longer term. Choosing dilapidated, refurbished, versions of what was familial and/or familiar can have negative consequences too. Insisting on "Made at Michigan" can be short-sighted. David Brandon must choose wisely and hire the very best coach available. Brady Hoke can't be Michigan's only option. Nor would he be Michigan's best.
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This what I think (and very much hope)
The past two weeks, the ESPN NFL people and most of the media has been buzzing about Jim Harbaugh to Michigan. NFL Teams approached him, but knew Michigan was it. That almost puts Harbaugh at a disadvantage during the negotiations for his contract at Michigan. Michigan might start out at a lower number because they know he wants to coach here. So? Damage control and maybe a little bit of emotion. After the win, his people start saying – “Hey, Stanford ain’t too bad, maybe we’ll just stay here.” and “Hey, the 49ers are right around the corner and I mean, I do want to be in the NFL!” and “Yeah I think my brother is done with Michigan” etc. Basically, they want to scare Michigan, specifically Dave Brandon and Mary Sue Coleman, because even he knows that he is the in-demand, young coach and he’s just trying to get his fair market value, I have no problem with that – the guy has three children with his first wife, 2 younger daughters with his newer attractive, probably demanding wife. Alimony and child support is probably a bitch! =) I just don’t see how in one week, all these things could suddenly change. I’m thinking and hoping the Harbaugh clan is using all this a negotiating tool. And if you remember, his father said his son’s heart was in Michigan – and we haven’t heard from him recently – probably told the old man to shut his mouth until the contracts done.
My only confusion is, what the hell are Dave Brandon and Rich Rod doing in these meetings? Josh Groban Karaoke and Domino’s Pizza Delivery in “30 Minutes”? Or maybe they are getting tattoos in exchange for soon defunct Rich Rodriguez signed memorabilia. But seriously, this is the only thing that scares me. Are they really going to work it out? Maybe they both agree to end this relationship, negotiating a different arrangement to avoid the buyout. (Free Domino’s pizza for a lifetime) and maybe RR is giving us some information on all of our players instead of getting the shredders out.
Whatever the case, hopefully this is over soon. Can’t say I’m particularly happy with Dave Brandon’s handling of the process, but if he gets Harbaugh all will be forgiven. If not, he might have to check the temperature of his seat at Weidenbach Hall on State and Hoover. (And not because he left a pizza on it)
A counterpoint about Hoke at BSU
Some things to focus on about Hoke at Ball State is that he basically had to completely rebuild the program from scratch. There were high school stadiums nicer than Scheumann Stadium; the coaches had no individual offices, shower curtains separated coaches’ work spaces; the talent level was a joke; and certain positional coaches were incompetent, but Ball State didn’t have enough money to fire them and hire competent replacements.
Coach Hoke has grown a lot as a head coach during his tenure at Ball State and San Diego State and is a legitimate candidate to move up to a higher profile job. Is that higher profile job Michigan? Eh, I don’t know. I guess I would be ok with it, but I would prefer a younger and higher profile coach.
My observation is that Ball State had hit rock bottom in 1998 at 1-10 under
Bill Lynch (former IU head coach) and flirted with disaster again to “really hit bottom” the following year at 0-11 in 1999.
Then Lynch started to do something amazing. Ball State started winning football games again (they last won the MAC title in 1996). In 2000 they finished 5-6, then 5-6 again in 2001 (with a tie for 1st place in the West division). In 2002 they finished 6-6, Lynch’s last year.
Hoke was hired in 2003 and Ball State football proceeded to skim the bottom of the MAC for 4 more years before getting to 7-6 (tie for 1st) and then 12-1 (1st place West) in 2008. That 2008 season was special for BSU and Hoke, I know, but man, that schedule. Whoa.
Lynch had Ball State winning games when he started. Then they hit rock bottom in 1998-1999, and then it was Lynch that built them back up again before he departed. Hoke actually arrived into a good situation at BSU in 2003, and in my view, sort of blew it at the beginning.
Yes, he did build it up from scratch. But some might argue that he didn’t have to do that.
At any rate, I think Hoke is an average head coach overall. I think he is an inconsistent assistant coach as well. The one good thing about Brady Hoke is that he is purportedly a very good recruiter, which is a need at any school.
But if you’re happy with 7-5, 8-4 and rare 9-4 seasons at Michigan, and if the “Michigan Man” moniker is all important to you, then I guess Brady Hoke is your man.
Go Blue!
As a former Ball State student for most of the Hoke era, I think that I have a bit better view of the actual state of the program than you would as an outsider looking at the records of Lynch and Hoke. You’re right, Hoke absolutely blew some winnable games early on, but the roster had very little talent at any of the positions and Brady had to use his recruiting skills to rebuild both sides of the ball. I actually laughed for five minutes straight when I heard that IU hired Lynch, he’s that terrible of a coach and recruiter.
I never said that I want Hoke as the head coach. I clearly said that I want a coach that is younger than him and preferably more high profile. I would love for us to hire Chris Petersen from Boise State or some young and up and coming I-AA coach. If Hoke is the man hired, I guess I’d be ok with it and I think that he’d do a better job than some believe, but he’s not in my personal top 5 wish list to be the next Michigan head coach.
Sorry Hoke doesn't
Make my top 5 five.
There are just so many others I believe we could get that would do a far better job.
it's not that you are stupid, it's just that you don't suspect!
Nothing is good nor bad until compared to something else.
Seriously....
…can we all STOP with the “Michigan Man” crap?? I want the BEST candidate to lead our team back to glory and don’t care where he comes from. Would we seriously rather have Brady Hoke over a Gary Patterson or Chris Peterson if they were available?? I sort of agree with Darth except Hoke is not in my top 10….think Notre Dame and Gerry Faust….period.
Agreed...
re “Michigan Man”- Bo was a Woody Disciple, Gary was a captain at Ohio State, Lloyd followed Bo…
Michigan needs to get the best coach out there, no matter the institutional pedigree…
and I, for one, whisper these two words- Mike Leach.
Most definitely
So tired of all of this “Michigan Man” crap. We need somebody who will win, plain and simple. I have a hard time believing that Hoke could come in and recruit at this level with any type of effectiveness. I can’t picture four and five star recruits clamoring to play for a guy who’s got a sub-.500 record as a head coach at the not-so-awe inspiring Ball State and Sand Diego State football programs.
As for Leach, he seems like he’d be a better option then Hoke, but the whole “locking a player in a garage” ordeal that got him canned at Texas Tech would likely be too much for a Michigan program that likes to pride itself on being squeaky clean.
Well...
…I think Mike Leach would get treated the same, if not worse, than RichRod upon his arrival. Plus, his departure from TT was not exactly something you want to put on a resume. My top 5: Harbaugh, Gary Patterson, Chris Peterson, Bob Stoops, Urban Meyer even though I know the final 2 are LONG shots. Should have stuck with a Top-3…..5 minutes to the News Conference. Gotta try to find it out here on the left-coast…..
Go Blue!!
by David Koenig on Jan 5, 2011 11:26 AM CST reply actions 1 recs
Your top 5 match mine
I’d have Chris at 2 but I don’t want him to leave Boise State.
it's not that you are stupid, it's just that you don't suspect!
Nothing is good nor bad until compared to something else.
by Darth Prophet on Jan 5, 2011 11:50 AM CST up reply actions
Have concerns about Chris....
……like RR, Chris comes from a weak conference. They have beaten some quality teams, but would he be ready for the Big 10? They held on to beat Va Tech (after blistering them the first half), beat a decent Oregon State team, lost to a decent Nevada team, and beat a Utah team which got pounded by a Notre Dame team that is still re-building. The previous undefeated years, they beat one ranked team during the regular season (Oregon twice) by fairly slim margins. The Mountain West does not equal the Big 10, even when the Big 10 is “down.” It would be like the 2006 Wolverines if they played in the MAC conference all year. Sorry; I know that all Boise State could do is win their games (which they did), but I am not convinced. I will say that Petersen would probably do a better job than RR, but I have my doubts as to whether he is the “juggernaut” coach that Michigan needs.
The only knoch one could give him was the Nev game
What happened in Nev, simple because of his weak conference play most starters barely played the five games leading up to Nev more than 1 series, I went to the V-Tech game I watch every Boise State game what happened in the cold high mountains of Reno was the team was gassed by the fourth quarter.
Watch this video ..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLs0gUfoPt0
The down side of Coach Pete is he’s to nice a gay has no desire to crush anyone.
The fact that he’s only lost 5 games in 60 played says it all, the fact that he takes 2 star players and turns them into Heisman hopefuls and NFL draft picks speaks to coaching them up. the fact that every year he loses assistant coaches and his teams only improve speaks to his mentoring.
All that being said I would prefer Paterson to Michigan mainly despite what others are saying of why he wouldn’t leave TCU I would retort, I was at the 2010 Fiesta bowl and just as we seen with the rose bowl Boise State way out numbered TCU fans there. TCU is a great Business school no doubt but it ain’t no Ross Business school and they have nothing to compare to the big house! Sure TCU has the largest of all the mid-majors budgets, that being said it’s still only 15 million and pales in comparison to Michigan’s.
The pluses over Petersen to Paterson for Michigan are many. The biggest being recruiting, Paterson would open more of Texas up to us, he also has more failure with the type of administration of Michigan. Both Paterson and Petersen are smart coaches and know what the lime light is like. I think it’s fair to say over the last 2 years no 2 coaches got more press and press pressure then TCU last year and Boise State this year, and they both came through it unscathed. As much as you might discard that keep in mind the “drama” of RR!
Nope the smart move if JH doesn’t come is Paterson!
it's not that you are stupid, it's just that you don't suspect!
Nothing is good nor bad until compared to something else.
by Darth Prophet on Jan 5, 2011 12:39 PM CST up reply actions
It looked like he rolled quite a few teams
regarding the scores of the past few years! ;)
It is hard to disagree with you as I don’t have a good #2 option for my personal opinion. I would take either Petersen or Patterson over Hoke or some of the other names being brought up. I really wish that we would have fired RR last year and had gone after Brian Kelly; he’s the guy I thought would have been most beneficial to the football team.
Oh well! It is good for college football to see Notre Dame’s worst days are behind them and they have turned the corner. Now, we just need Big Blue to do the same.
I have a bit of a miss print
I meant 1 series of the 3rd qt.. as for the rolled games if you look at the score boxes that would be the score in the early 3rd he would call off the dogs rarely did he let the backup cut lose, they would basically turn to a run only team by the 4th.
Again as for Gary Paterson, one must remember next year they are still in the MWC and it’s a rebuilding year, TCU is losing like 15 starters.
Other reasons I believe Paterson will be the easier get, Boise State is losing some key players but most of the O-line and the Muscle Hamster is back next year so is all but 3 pieces of the defense, add in Kellen Moore and Petersen still has a contending team next year to start the Hype all over again, Paterson doesn’t.
As well there is a very good possibility that Boise State with the building a new technology research facility, starting major stadium and sports complex upgrades and is being talked about being invited to the big 12 something that TCU would never get.
For Petersen and Paterson the future outlooks of their schools are very different, you may not see it that way today , but the writing is on the wall. There are even more reasons why it might be harder to get Petersen than Paterson, and that being legacy Petersen is in a great position to build one, Boise is considered one of the top 5 cities in America to start a company, Boise is also home to the most fortune 500 companies a very little known fact! Until recently Boise was the fastest growing Metro areas in America. Back in the late 90’s while being rep with Idaho being one of my states I watch as towns like Meridian, Napa Caldwell not double not triple in population but explode going from little towns of 5 and 15 k to 50 and 60k in just a few years, this growth in the Boise metro area has slowed down recently, but it has everywhere but Texas anyway.
The reason Boise has been getting better recruits is one part winning and coaching but that just gets the recruits to visit the biggest part has been Boise itself. Boise is a newer city in that it’s just in the last 2 decades came into its stride, that offer very low crime very high standards of living and a wonder land that would make any Michigander cry. The surrounding area of Boise Idaho offers so much it’s just hard to say no too.
Because of all of what I have just posted above Chris Petersen who in the past turned down interviews with USC and many other schools who cares less about money as he does for quality of life, knows he has an opportunity that is very rear today, that is building a legacy on the scale of Fritz Chrysler, Knute Rockne Woody Hays.
Chris Petersen knows if he stay in Boise he will in the end get everything he could every dream of and his name would live on long after he’s gone on buildings and streets in Boise Idaho and new modern growing city of the future.
In other words I just can’t see him leaving Boise, So yep he’s 3rd on the list but he may very well be harder to get then JH.
it's not that you are stupid, it's just that you don't suspect!
Nothing is good nor bad until compared to something else.
by Darth Prophet on Jan 5, 2011 1:34 PM CST up reply actions
Since Jim Harbought ISN'T COMING TO MICHIGAN
and Hoke is not an auto-hire, David Brandon has about 1 week to land a top head football coach in order for that coach to sign, assemble a staff and recruit the living shit out of whatever scraps are left on the table.
David Brandon, your “process” sounds sophisticated and prudent, and probably works great in a Domino’s kitchen, but it has no business in college athletics.
Brandon should have fired Rodriguez after the Ohio State game with all of the same conditions and used Calvin Magee to coach the Gator Bowl. The he should have started interviewing and recruiting coaches like a demon possessed throughout December.
Go Blue!
by markusr2007 on Jan 5, 2011 12:15 PM CST reply actions 1 recs
rec'd
But one has to love the toppings ;)
it's not that you are stupid, it's just that you don't suspect!
Nothing is good nor bad until compared to something else.
by Darth Prophet on Jan 5, 2011 12:23 PM CST up reply actions
Brady Hoke...
…is a Lloyd Carr guy. He played at Ball State and didn’t come to UM until the 1995 season when LC was named hfc. He did a fine job for Jerry Pettibone at Oregon State. In fact, one of the reasons why Hoke hired Rocky Long as his DC at SDSU was because he coached under Long at OSU during the Pettibione era. Oregon State had some terrific defenses back then despite the fact that the Beavs still struggled. Ultimately, it was the lack of offense that got Pettibone fired from Corvallis and Hoke landed on Carr’s staff.
Pettibone ran into the classic "pro set to wishbone" transition problem at Oregon State
Pettibone was a great football coach, a real master of the wishbone and variant option attacks (Option I, Flexbone). He’s now doing consulting work.
Go Blue!
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