Hiring coaches in any sport is tricky. The wrong hire can set a school back for decades, but if a school lands the right coach, they could find themselves on the fast track to relevancy.
For instance, the Pittsburgh Panthers decided Mike Haywood, then-coach of a Miami (Ohio) team that won 10 games in his two seasons, would be worthy of a head coaching gig.
Haywood was hired by Pittsburgh on Dec. 16, 2010. On Dec. 31, he was arrested for domestic violence, and the Panthers fired him the next day. The team had won at least eight games the three seasons prior to the Haywood hire, but have had just one winning season since.
Michigan hired current head coach Brady Hoke in 2011 and won 11 games that year. Since then, the Wolverines have seen their win totals drop each season under Hoke.
This year’s team sits at 3-4 on the season, and barring a drastic turnaround, Hoke will likely be fired for his team’s on-field performance.
But he should be out of a job already for something he did on the sidelines.
Let’s set the scene: Quarterback Shane Morris dropped back to pass and, just after letting go of the ball, received a helmet-to-helmet hit by a defensive player.
Morris was clearly concussed at this point. In videos released online, he was stumbling around and not entirely sure of himself.
Yet, he remained out there for the next play.
Team officials finally got him out of the game, but were “forced” to put him back in for a running play a few snaps later.
It does not matter if you have to turn to a punter. You do not put a concussed player back in the game.
It should be common sense.
Apparently, it isn’t, and Michigan head coach Brady Hoke is to blame.
In an early-morning statement released by the team two days after the incident, Athletic Director Dave Brandon apologized for the “confusion” that exposed Morris to potentially life-altering conditions.
As stupid as the press release was, in both timing and content, Hoke’s statements after the game somehow managed to top it.
“I don’t know if he had a concussion or not; I don’t know that,” Hoke said. “Shane’s a pretty competitive, tough kid…Shane wanted to be the quarterback, and so, believe me, if he didn’t want to be he would’ve come to the sideline or stayed down.”
In the words of Spongebob Squarepants, “Those words…is it possible to use them in a sentence together like that?”
Hoke said that his quarterback is competitive in one breath and then in the very next one said that if the same quarterback didn’t want to be in the game, he would’ve left it.
No, coach, he wouldn’t have. Because he’s competitive. Like you just said a sentence earlier.
This particular event may have been forgotten or lost completely in the eyes of the public with the baseball playoffs and NFL legal issues going on, but it’s just as important.
Even if it was just a run play, a turnover would have made the quarterback into a tackler, making him a target for defensive players trying to spring the ball carrier for a big return. Morris could have gotten hurt even worse, and Hoke is lucky that he didn’t.
I doubt Hoke will get fired for this alone. When he eventually gets canned, it probably won’t even be among the list of reasons.
Regardless, the way the entire situation unfolded makes you wonder how much emphasis Michigan puts on the “student” part of the phrase “student-athlete.”
