The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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R evisionist historians were out in full force following head coach Brady Hoke's dismissal after four years on the job. Hoke finished 31-20 overall, 18-14 in the Big Ten and only 5-7 this year. "Never should have got- ten rid of Rich Rodriguez," some said after watching the former U-M head coach (2008-10) earn Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors after lead- ing Arizona to a 10-3 season. "Hoke was never any good, anywhere," others said. Many of the same fans, however, were singing Hoke's praises after his inaugural campaign, an 11-2 season in which the Wolverines won the Sugar Bowl. They (and we) predicted bigger and better things to come when Hoke got "his players" in place, especially with the way he was recruiting. A number of them, too, were still stinging from Wisconsin's running 77 straight times (we exaggerate, but not much) against the Wolverines in a 2010 blowout loss to the Badgers in Rodriguez's last year, even if they wouldn't admit it. Fact is, neither Rodriguez nor Hoke was the right guy, and the play on the field proved it. Rodriguez's teams were three of the worst defensive units (28.9 points allowed per game in 2008, 27.5 in 2009 and 35.2 in 2010) in program history, and Hoke's 2014 offense finished 13th in the Big Ten in average points scored (20.9 points per game). Only four conference teams won't be going to a bowl game, and U-M is one of them (along with Northwestern, Indiana and Purdue). Rodriguez was never going to win big at Michi- gan, even though he's been highly successful before and after Ann Arbor. Hoke was Coach of the Year three times in four years, in three different conferences (Ball State in the Mid-American Con- ference, San Diego State in the Moun- tain West and then at Michigan), but he couldn't get it done in Ann Arbor, either. So who can? San Francisco 49ers head coach and former Michigan quarterback Jim Harbaugh is the guy. And most for- mer Wolverines believe that if anyone can land him, it's new athletics direc- tor Jim Hackett, the former CEO at Steelcase in Grand Rapids, Mich. "He's an outstanding guy with a lot of integrity, credibility and honesty," former Michigan kicker/linebacker Dana Coin (1969-71) said. "He's ex- emplified that not only in his profes- sion, but in everything he's done. INSIDE MICHIGAN CHRIS BALAS Jim Harbaugh Is Michigan's Perfect Fit HARBAUGH