Wolverine247 Board

When they first started bringing up Hoke's name and I didn't know much about him, I was mad. Not gonna lie. I was not happy. It seemed like we had missed on Harbaugh and Miles and settled for a crappy MAC coach.

He turned me into a believer during his introductory press conference. The most passionate, excited, awesome coach introduction I had ever seen. He just reminded me of the everything I had heard about Bo. The love for Michigan, the love for the kids, and the love for football. You could tell that he was gonna give it his all and that there was nowhere on Earth he'd rather be. That's what we wanted and that's what we needed.

Since then, he's just reinforced everything. I wouldn't trade him for anyone in the country right now.

^^This^^

What Ducksworth said.

But I'd like to add that I knew Hoke meant business when Michigan hired Greg Mattison to be Defensive Coordinator.

If we are hiring Hoke, why the hell didnt we hire him in December instead of dragging it out and killing our recruiting.

I do think I felt better about the Hoke hire then I did the RR one.

This to a T.

At first was I was wtf, what about Miles or Harbaugh? Heard his introductory speech and I was 100% on board. He hired Mattison and I knew they were serious. He pulled Ohio kids from tOSU and I knew the man could recruit. Went 11-2 and I knew the man could coach.

We Michigan fans are blessed to have Hoke.

Once it became clear Harbaugh wasn't coming, Hoke was my next choice. I've never liked the way Miles coached or acted, so I was relieved he didn't want the job. I didn't think it would start off as successful as it has, I thought there would be some growing pains but his love for the University would keep him safe until he built a winner.

Well, my opinion, I was happy when RR was fired. I actually thought Rich was a good coach but I did not think he was given much of a chance from day one. He also was denied support in my eyes by people close to the program.

When the coaching search started I was sure listening to the news coming out that Michigan was going after another big name coach. From what I was hearing Brandon first went after Miles. I do not think we ever had a shot at Miles and just guessing but I think Miles and Brandon talked about who Michigan should go after. I might be mistaken but I do believe that Brandon and Miles knew each other from their playing days at Michigan and Miles dropped a few names for Brandon to look at.

Next there seemed to be days of Jim Harbaugh as the next coach at Michigan. I was really hoping this would of been the case. I have always been a Wolverine fan along with a Bears fan so I just naturally was hoping Jim would get the job. Looking at what was going on at Stanford I was pretty excited if he would come back to Michigan. Then I heard rumors of the Niners wanting him so I knew it would not happen either. I was kind of disappointed when Harbaugh turned the job down. I think like Miles, Brandon and him talked about who Michigan should get. I really believe Harbaugh talked Brandon into going after Hoke next.

When I heard Hoke got the job I had already researched his career. Before the coaching search started I had no clue who Hoke was in all honesty. Here is how I felt. Knowing Hoke coached on the '97 team gave me confidence we'd not have issues with the "Michigan Man" BS. Knowing Hoke took Ball State to a 12-0 season said a couple things to me 1. he can build a program to success 2. He can recruit Ohio and the Mid-west successfully. To me number 2 meant a lot because he had to have good ties with many HS coaches already. His two years at SDSU were as good as SDSU has ever had. This said a lot too.

So when Hoke took the job and how he took it I was very optimistic and excited. I was not disappointed at all when he was not a big name coach and was actually glad for it. After his press conference I went to work and told my buddy a Nebraska fan "Michigan is back and you guys are in trouble" he laughed at me. I told him to just wait a couple years because if he can coach the talent that Ball State and SDSU and get to the top 25. He will dominate the Big Ten with the talent he will get at Michigan.

After Hoke arrived and I started seeing who was coming with him I must say I felt like a little kid on Christmas eve.

I was pretty excited because of his Michigan ties and the fact that he had taken a SDSU team to a bowl game which had been almost impossible there. As Ducks said, once he took the stage, introduced himself, and showed his passion for Michigan I had a pretty good feeling Michigan was great hands.

My 1st thought was relief, as he was a very safe hire. Richrod had boom or bust written all over him, not to mention some drama from the get go. I wanted absolutely nothing to do with Harbaugh, as he would've ripped the hearts and guts out of everyone that wanted him here so badly, after taking a massive steamer on uofm only 2 years in to a probable 4-5 year contract by going to NFL. His hiring would've been worse to uofm than richrods was. Hoke had shown progressively his ability to turn around dumpster fire programs in their respective leagues. He's blunt, and brutally honest, I loved his opening presser. I was happy with the hire upon hearing his resume', I was much more confident after hearing him speak.

I wasn't to enthusiastic about it, really wanted Harbaugh or Miles. I did some research on Hoke though and saw what he'd done as head coach of Ball state and SDSU and was pretty impressed. He really won me over with his press conference when he said he would've walked to Michigan for this job and then got upset when asked if its still an elite job and said "of course it is this is Michigan forgodsakes". Also he immediately brought back the old school Michigan football mentality, run the ball and play great defense. He's proved to be an excellent recuiter and all around great coach. I defenitly wasn't impressed with the hire immediately but coach Hoke has absolutely made a believer out of me.

Mattison is what sold him for me as well.
That is when I started to get excited.

Great discussion thus far guys - really enjoying reading your thoughts.