What Rich Rodriguez Could Learn from Brady Hoke

Beginning a new job is one of the most precarious situations that a person can find themselves in. It becomes even more so when that new job places you directly at the center of the national sports focus. With all eyes on you, there are two ways to handle your first day of work: feel out your situation and see where you fit in or come in guns blazing. The story of Michigan football has become a cautionary tale of what happens when you choose the latter.

When Rich Rodriguez was hired at the end of the 2007 season to help the Michigan football program recapture a national title, he was one of the hottest names on the coaching carousel. He had just transformed West Virginia into a Big East powerhouse, compiling a 60-26 record in seven years, including three straight years with ten or more wins.

Contrarily, Michigan was coming out of one of the lower periods in the programs history. They hadn't won a Big Ten championship in three years, the 2005 season saw them fail to finish in the top 25 for the first time in over a decade and they hadn't played in a national championship game since 2007. They needed an injection of life and while many alumni weren't sure of the decision, Rodriguez became the choice.

And it all was downhill from there.

What Rodriguez failed to understand is that when you come into a program that is the winningest in NCAA Division One history, you need to find a way to fit your personality and your style into the breed of football that has achieved such great levels of success. Instead of finding that happy marriage, Rodriguez decided to blow it up and start over with his own model.

He showed no inclination to mold his offense around the talents of Michigan's prize rising Sophomore QB Ryan Mallett, now a projected first-round pick out of Arkansas, clashed with likely starting guard Justin Boren, who transferred, and started, for rival Ohio State and had two four-star recruits (Taylor Hill and Dann O'Neill) transfer, citing differences with the schemes and program, saying Michigan "wasn't the right fit." Instead of choosing to work with what he had and slowly install his own system, he ostracized players that didn't fit into his style and chose to start from scratch, trusting his own talents over the schools years of success.

Showing a complete opposite approach, newly minted Michigan coach Brady Hoke, a traditional pro style man, sat down with the team's star, spread option QB Denard Robinson, upon first arriving on campus and assured him that he would tailor his offense to Robinson's special gifts. "We understand that when you have playmakers, you've got to be able to utilize them to their fullest so that they're going to help your football team," Hoke told the media later that day. "With Denard, his capabilities, obviously he's a tremendous athlete that can do a lot of things for you on offense. He'll be the lead part of that offense."

When RichRod was hired and went about changing the face of the offense, he also neglected what made Michigan such a traditional powerhouse: a stingy defense that made opponents earn every yard. He fired highly regarded defensive coordinator Ron English before the season started and a Michigan defense that ranked 24th in total defense nationally in 2007 fell to 69th in 2008, 82nd in 2009 and plummeted to 110th this past season.

Hoke, a former Michigan defensive line coach, is hell bent on bringing the defensive prowess and ferocious energy back to Michigan football. He knows that that's been the bread and butter of the Wolverine's success for so many years. "I know we're going to be a defense that plays with great toughness and great effort. It's going to be a defense that's going to play fanatical. That's an expectation. The guys who play that way and play with that mentality are the guys that are going to represent Michigan on the field."

Rodriguez also failed to establish a strong relationship with the state of Michigan and it's notoriously loyal alumni. Instead of welcoming the tradition of intense support, like managers do when they take the Yankees job or coaches do when they sign on to lead the Cowboys, Rodriguez told some Michigan supporters to "get a life" before the Ohio State game in his first season. A comment that alone would have gotten him canned at either of the those jobs.

Contrarily, Hoke immediately expressed his desire to turn this football team back into a Michigan team. "This is the University of Michigan, the winningest program in college football. Obviously an important piece of it is this state and the talent that's in this state, and then regionally. We're going to focus our attention on that, we're going to compete, we're going to work, and we're going to extend ourselves to those high school coaches and those programs. We want their student-athletes to be part of Michigan."

So, while Rich Rodriguez can complain all he wants about not getting the support he feels he deserved from Michigan, he has only his bravado and confidence to blame for his failure. He's the only coach who tried to change the face and culture of the winningest school in collegiate football history and, not coincidentally, is the only coach to leave Michigan with a losing record since 1891 (and that includes three coaches that only lasted one season). Instead of finding a way to have the principles of the university co-exist with his style, he threw his cards all in, betting on himself.

And lost.

Michigan Introduces Brady Hoke

Brady Hoke set the tone for a new era of Michigan football with his mouth and fist, pounding the lectern with each word when asked about the suddenly lopsided rivalry with Ohio State.

"It's like none other in football," Hoke said when he was introduced as the leader of college football's winningest team Wednesday, a week after Rich Rodriguez was fired. "Being engaged in that battle for eight years and growing up in the state, you knew Bo and Woody and the great fights they had. It is the most important game on that schedule. Not that the others aren't important, but it is the most important game on that schedule.

"It's almost personal."

The late, great coaches of the stories programs -- Michigan's Bo Schembechler and Ohio State's Woody Hayes -- likely would've loved the passion that poured out of Hoke when he landed his dream job.

"I think my dad is probably as happy as anybody right now," Shemy Schembechler said with a smile after attending Hoke's news conference. "This is an exciting day for Michigan."

Hoke, who turned around San Diego State and Ball State after being a Michigan assistant for eight seasons, might not have been the fans' first choice because many of them wanted Jim Harbaugh or Les Miles to restore the program as a national power.

Athletic director Dave Brandon said he had discussions with both of them, but insisted Harbaugh and Miles weren't offered the job in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday night.

The next day, he seemed to try to knock the luster off the coach who left Stanford to lead the San Francisco 49ers and the one who stayed at LSU.

"All that glitters is not gold when it comes to some coaches," Brandon said. "A two- or three-hour meeting with a coach uncovers much more than you could learn scanning the Internet or sifting through statistics.

"Sometimes the hype or the PR doesn't match the real person."

Brandon had Hoke on his list of candidates from the start and, toward the end of the seven-day search, he liked him even more after talking to coaches who played against him and hearing from former Michigan stars such as Tom Brady and Charles Woodson lobby him to hire Hoke.

"He is clearly a players' coach," Brandon said. "Unlike some other coaches, it's not about him, it's about his team."

Hoke was so excited about accepting the job that he didn't ask how much he would be paid in a six-year contract that hasn't been finalized.

"We would have walked here from San Diego," Hoke said.

After meeting Hoke at the Big House, some of the current Wolverines sound as if they would try to run through a brick wall for their new coach.

"He's an intense guy, a passionate guy," safety Jordan Kovacs said. "The first thing he talked about was championships -- Big Ten championships. He emphasized that we have 42 and we plan on getting 43 very soon."

Former defensive end Glen Steele, who was coached by Hoke in 1997 when Michigan won the national championship, looked fired up enough to suit up for another snap.


"He loves it here and you can see it in his eyes and you can hear it in his voice," Steele said.

Hoke's chances to have success next season are tied to his ability to persuade Denard Robinson to stay after becoming the NCAA's first player to throw and run for 1,500 yards in Rodriguez's spread offense. Robinson's high school coach, Art Taylor, said Wednesday afternoon he has already heard from at least 10 to 15 schools inquiring about the dual-threat quarterback.

"Every school wants Denard -- trust me," Art Taylor said.

Michigan does, too, even if it has to postpone its return to a traditional-style of offense to keep Robinson.

"When you have talented players, it's your job as a coach to mold that into what's best for your football team," Hoke said.

When Rodriguez was hired to succeed retiring coach Lloyd Carr on Dec. 17, 2007, he was handed a blue button with "Beat Ohio State" in maize letters.

Rodriguez, who later put the button in the top drawer of his desk on one of the many days he was mad, didn't do that once.

The Wolverines slipped from being consistently good -- and sometimes great -- under Schembechler, Gary Moeller and Carr to awful, mediocre and average in Rodriguez's three seasons

But Hoke bristled at suggestion that the program has slipped in stature.

"This is an elite job and will continue to be an elite job," he said. "This is Michigan for God's sakes."

The native of Dayton, Ohio, has to do something about Michigan's unprecedented seven-game losing streak to the Buckeyes to prove his point.

"That school in Ohio and growing up in Ohio, I understand both sides of it," Hoke said.