Brady Hoke Should Have Been Fired, Will Be Soon
By Ty Duffy
This is Michigan, Fergodsakes
Michigan football slammed into an iceberg a few weeks ago. Brady Hoke remains inert and trapped in a viscous fog as folks scramble for the lifeboats.
We’ll start with the football itself. Michigan rearranged deck chairs at quarterback. Systemic issues, predictably, subsumed a not ready for any sort of action Shane Morris, who averaged just 2.6 yards/attempt. Minnesota, among the worst passing teams in FBS, found the daylight against the Michigan defense. The Wolverines conceded 30 straight points to the Gophers before a late, garbage touchdown. The little Brown Jug traveled North and West.
The Wolverines have lost three times before October for the first time ever. Dating back to the Minnesota game last season, Michigan has lost 9 of 13. The three wins in regulation have come against Indiana (at home), App. State (at home) and Miami of Ohio (at home). “Michigan Football” is winning. “Toughness” is more than just vacant aphorisms. Brady Hoke is now 15-10 in B1G play, after a 12-4 start.
This on-field ineptitude, combined with a myriad of irritations, miscalculations and gaffes off the field by David Brandon’s corporate regime, has made the atmosphere toxic. Michigan’s 100,000-plus attendance streak will end, when the athletic department decides to stop lying.
Compounding that fiasco was the Michigan coaching staff’s inexplicable decision to put Shane Morris back on the field. Morris took a wicked shot to the head and stumbled under his own weight exiting the field. He was, shortly after, inserted back into the game for a play when Devin Gardner’s helmet came off.
Hoke’s initial explanation, about Morris being a tough kid and not wanting to come out, was startling to read in 2014.
"“I don’t know if he had a concussion or not,” Hoke said. “Shane’s a pretty tough kid and Shane wanted to be the quarterback. Believe me, if he didn’t want to be, he would have come to the sideline, or stayed down.”"
His canned explanation from the team’s website deflected the issue, discussing Shane Morris’ leg injury (which the staff also forced him to play through) and made no mention of a possible concussion.
"Well, number one, we would never put a quarterback who was hurt (in there). That would never happen. As far as where we’re at with it, we usually don’t talk about injuries and stay away from them. But this has kind of become an issue to some degree, and Shane Morris has got a leg injury, and that’s why we pulled him from the game. We’ll see where he’s at."
"On the down where Devin’s helmet came off, there was a discussion about the timeout with the referee that I wanted to take to buy him back into the game. When I talked to the referee — because he kind of came to the sideline — and he said, ‘No.’ So, a couple seconds later the line judge comes up and says, ‘Now, you can buy a timeout.’ But by that time, Shane was already back in the football game."
"(Shane) was on the bench and (senior football athletic trainer) Paul Schmidt was looking at his leg, and (reserve quarterback) Russell (Bellomy) was there. Russell is signaling in, him and the other quarterbacks. And when Shane heard his name, the medical staff said, ‘Yeah, he can go.’ And he went out on the field. We’d never put a kid out there who wasn’t capable. He was medically cleared to go in on that play."
Frankly, Michigan’s “we would never do this” defense expired when Brady Hoke and the athletic department, at the very least, purposefully misled the public about kicker Brendan Gibbons being dismissed from the university for sexual misconduct. The Morris or the Gibbons situations, alone, warranted firings. But, football does not abide by real world strictures. Michigan, it seems, will try to wait out the valid Internet outrage.
Hoke is finished, unless he mounts a Lloyd Carr-esque salvage operation and beats Michigan State and Ohio State. Those hoping for Brandon to join him may be disappointed. Stephen Ross, who donates more money than the rest of the Michigan fan base combined, likes the cut of Brandon’s jib. Brandon, for better or worse, will be hiring Michigan’s next coach, who probably will not be a Harbaugh.
Fan base misery status: hard time finding the energy to care anymore.
Almost Upsets
We posited that some Top 10 teams may have interesting weekends. While Baylor took care of business on the road and Notre Dame held off Syracuse, there was a bit of that. Texas A&M faced its first team with a pulse since South Carolina and nearly lost. The Aggies overcame a two-touchdown deficit in the fourth quarter to fend off Bret Bielema’s Arkansas team and preserve a 5-0 record. How the future plays out, though, is far from certain. Six of A&M’s last seven are against ranked opponents. Five are in the Top 15.
Florida State pulled away from N.C. State eventually, though they were caught in a clear letdown spot. Our trap games for 2014 list is now 2-0. There are few concerns about the Seminoles’ offense. Though, their vaunted defense ranks 64th vs. FBS teams in yards/play allowed and 91st in yards/pass allowed through four games.
The Good…
Freshman QB… Brandon Harris is the next big thing for LSU. He appeared, at least for a weekend, to be ready for deployment. The true freshman completed 11/14 passes for 178 yards and three touchdowns against New Mexico State. He added a further two touchdowns on the ground. Les Miles managing a quarterback controversy is a recipe for fun, for those without a rooting interest.
Cardinal Defense… Stanford held Chris Petersen’s Washington team to just 2.6 yards/play. The Cardinal are allowing only 3.34 yards/play on the season and stopping 72 percent of third down attempts. Stanford has permitted just three trips to the red zone over four games, conceding one touchdown. If their offense could find some level of stability and efficiency…
Signs of Improvement… Washington State overcome a 24-7 halftime deficit to upset Utah 28-27 on the road. That’s a second-straight quality performance for the Cougars, who narrowly lost to Oregon the week before. Mike Leach’s team won’t have a magical season. With an unrelenting schedule, they may not reach a bowl game. But, if they find their rhythm they could spoil another team’s dream.
The Not So Good…
Decided Schematic Advantage… Charlie Weis was fired, finally, after Kansas fell 23-0 to Texas. He went 3-22 vs. FBS programs. Hiring Weis, a coach with a glaring weakness at program building, to rebuild from the foundation up was a laughable prospect at the time. Investing a guaranteed $12.5 million in him to do so was flat out absurd. His departure was inevitable. The only lingering question was how long Kansas would wait to buy him out.
Losing to Akron… The recovery period for losing, at home, to Iowa is longer than a week. Pitt came out flat and lost 21-10 to Akron. The Zips held James Connor, who had been one of the nation’s best 2014 backs, to a pedestrian 92 yards on 25 carries. The Panthers could not stop Conor Hundley, who had just 12 carries for 43 yards entering the game. Akron should just keep those daggum helmets.
B1G Offense… The B1G stats continue to come hard and heavy. 10 B1G offenses faced a power five defense this week. Six averaged fewer than 5.0 yards/play. Only two, Maryland and Nebraska, eclipsed six yards/play.
In a Losing Effort…
Jacoby Brissett completed 32/48 for 359 yards and three touchdowns in N.C. State’s 56-41 loss to Florida State. He made one of the plays of the season as the Wolfpack took a third quarter lead before succumbing.
Video of the Week
Hard to top Ohio State strength coach Anthony Schlegel beating the cops to the scene and slamming a field invader to the turf.
[USA Today Sports]