The Dust is Settling

THEM has hired Brady Hoke, much to the chagrin of mgoBlog.

This is a stupid hire. It will always be as stupid hire and David Brandon just led the worst coaching search in the history of Michigan football. He managed to chase off half of an already iffy recruiting class, hired a Plan C coach on January 11th, probably ensured the transfer of the reigning Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year, and restricted his "national search" to people who'd spent at least five years in Ann Arbor. Michigan just gave themselves a year of USC-level scholarship reduction voluntarily.

What are the chances that the best available coach is a 52-year-old with a 47-50 career record and no experience as a coordinator?

I'd rather have Rich Rodriguez entering year four with a new defensive staff than this, a total capitulation.

A completely average coach should be able to take 20 returning starters on a 7-6 team that sees the schedule ease considerably and get to 9-3. That's good, because that's probably what we hired. If Denard's out the door all bets are off except "will Brian cut down or across?"

I have to be careful here, as Penn State could very well be in this situation in the foreseeable future.  For the Penn State optimists, that means the end of next season.  For Paterno, well, that could be another 4-5 years, since, well, he hasn't really thought about it.  Seriously?  How can you be 84 years old and NEVER really thought about retirement?  If they ever teach him how to download a jar of peanut butter, he may live forever.

But since we are not in this situation in the foreseeable present, it is rather funny to watch the names like Miles and Harbaugh basically pass--thanks, but no thanks--on what should have been a dream job for them.  But sometimes dreams become nightmares.

And for Tom Bradley, things have gotten no better.  No job at Temple.  No job at Pitt.  And now UConn is in the final stages of securing Mark Whipple.  Mr Whipple????