The Blue Board

I said no one is calling him the Savior, as in he is going to work a miracle overnight. I am sure most Michigan posters are happy with his hire, think he is a good coach, and believe he will improve Michigan's team in the coming years. That is exactly what your quoted poster states. That is a far cry from "Savior".

One sentence in a page long post that gives credit to MSU and their recent success. OK.

First, Hoke proved as Michigan's DL coach that he can coach, recruit, and develop talent. He was regarded as perhaps the top position coach recruiter on the staff during his time there. Hoke's last two HC jobs were at two of the (historically) worst places to be a HC. Ball State was abysmal before Hoke took over. SDSU hadn't been to a bowl game in about 40 years. Hoke got them to one (and won it) in his second year there. Also, look at the losses they had last year. I think all were by less than 5 points.

Hoke also has a superb relationship with the high school coaches in Michigan and Ohio. This is being shown through the quick start in recruiting. As the other poster mentioned, recruiting is the lifeblood of any program. For whatever reasons, RR did not have much success in recruiting the top talent in the Midwest. Sure, he got some kids from FL, but losing kids in the Midwest usually means they are going to one of your rivals and you are going to have to see them for the next four years. Recruiting is not just about what kids your team lands, but what teams you prevent from getting them.

I also like the staff that Hoke has put together. The Mattison hire was huge, both in terms of pedigree and his ability to recruit. Urban Meyer referred to Mattison as the best recruiter in CFB in Feb (and I think Mattison is living up to that). Borgess is proven as an OC with success at Auburn, UCLA, etc.

I believe people who don't know much about Hoke, and happen to be fans of some of Michigan's rivals, believe it was a desperate hire. There are plenty of analysts who think exactly the opposite.

Well...I think his argument about recruiting is logical, but it is going to take a lot for Hoke to secure all of the top in-state talent over a long period of time (making it unlikely). Like so many posts in this thread, it is just a lot of prognostication. I can't get too upset with when a poster makes an attempt to predict the future.

The only thing I would add to C_Woodson's response is that Hoke has won his conference coach of the year award 2 of the last 3 years. Doing it one time at a dismall program could be a fluke, doing it twice has to make you think that something maybe there.

Can you guys please adopt "hokeamania" if Hoke is doing awesome? Because that would be hilarious. Probably less funny if you beat my Spartans but I'd probably laugh again a week later.

My sig on TOS used to be Hokeamania lol.

Here it was.

The majority of those in-state players had early offers from both schools, I think MD was caught a bit off guard with how quick these kids (particularly MO, a spartan fan growing up) committed to Michigan. And I'm hard pressed to believe you guys are getting BETTER players out of state. I'm sure you'll pick up a 3 star here and there from the east coast, but the majority of states higher ranked talent usually comes from the midwest.

Cooled on Ross? Do you really believe MSU is going to get a better player OOS than him?

I believe Hoke is 10-0 in head-to-head battles with Dantonio this year. How many more recruiting victories does he need at this point?

You said in your previous post that you guys were recruiting talent that would be "equal or better" to the instate talent Michigan already has. I'm not saying that Dantonio isn't going to find some diamond in the rough 3 star kids (he is good at finding sleepers, I'll give you that), but to expect highly touted kids to leave places like Texas seems a bit overly optimistic.

The fact is MSU lands about 1 prospect per year that isn't from Michigan or Ohio that is rated as a 4-star. So the chances that MSU lands a LB OOS of Ross's caliber are slim. It'll be interesting to see how many 4-star players MSU lands from states other than Michigan and Ohio this year. It's kind of an indicator of national recruiting power.

I consider any battle will kids have offers from both schools to be head-to-head. Very rarely does a kid say that Michigan and MSU are his top two (as is the case with Burbridge). Often times we hear about a final four, at best.

FWIW, things are looking pretty good for MSU and Jaleel Johnson. MSU is the only set visit he has this summer, though he did say he would make an effort to make it to TN later on this summer.

Did not say anything about dominating Dantonio. I am commenting on the defense that most spartans are giving right now. The fact that MSU is recruiting "Nationally". So is Hoke he snatched up as many top recruits as he could get in the state and has since focused on out of state talent. Our staff has been to California, Georgia, Texas, Florida, and New York. Not to mention everywhere in between. These guys are doing work.

Seriously?
I love the oos recruiting that is supposedly going on by msU. First off UofM has the #2,3,& #9 MLB in the nation according to s. w two of those commits being the top two LB's in the state also the highest ranked in state DB as well as a host of others interested in the program. msU fans boast as much if not more than o$u fans i've never heard sooooo much rederick in these boards it's stupid no one can predict the future and all we can go on is facts and the facts are msU is getting their a$$es handed to them in recruiting if you look at the recruiting boards mD doesn't even have higher prospects targeted and why is this??? Because msU is a basketball school trying to build it's football program. No disrepect to msU but you are not a national power and winning a big 10 championship every 20-40 years doesn't make you a national power but in your minds it may.