New Head Football Coach at The University of Michigan: Brady Hoke
I think this is a good hire. I know essentially nothing about Brady Hoke, but my intuition tells me that he'll do well at Michigan. Obviously, Hoke was always on the radar but Michigan's A.D. was snooping around assessing interest of other possibilities, namely, Harbuagh, Pat Fitzgerald, Les Miles and possibly others. Harbaugh saw greener pastures and a lot of "green" in the NFL. Fitzgerald, perhaps not so inexplicably, decided not to abandon his alma mater for the long time big papa of the Big Ten. I get it. Les Miles might have a screw loose. No, I'm not saying this in the context of "How could anyone even think of not taking the Michigan job", but rather it seems that his coaching methods and shady dealings leave a lot to be desired. LSU very easily could've lost 3 or 4 games this year to overmatched opponenets (NC, Tennessee, Ole Miss).
Michigan was in a tough spot. There was a lot of pressure to hire a big name to get the program back on the map and get the fanbase excited. This may have lead to a short sighted hire. Jim Tressel came from Youngstown St., Urban Meyer came from Utah, Gene Chizik came from Iowa St., etc etc. Some of (not all) the best coaches in the game today were identified as up and coming football minds. Hopefully Brady Hoke fits that bill. Hoke is a Michigan guy and will do whatever it takes for success. I'm behind it.
He has a track record of turning around two miserable programs. My only concern, again without knowing many details about what Hoke's teams looked like, is that he hovered around .500 at Ball St. and was there for nearly 7 seasons. That seems like a long time for a supposed up and coming coach to be lingering at a lower level University...but who knows. Leading San Diego St. to a poinsettia bowl victory over Navy may qualify as an incredible accomplishment for the Aztecs, but the bar is set just a tad higher for Big Blue.
And......what happens to Denard?
Brady who?
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