You put your right hand in, you put your right hand out… but the song doesn’t call for pulling QB’s in and out.
He put his right foot in, he put his right foot out, he put his right foot in, and shook it all about in his time here as the head coach of the football team but in the end of his Hokey-Pokey, turned himself around and out; and that’s what it was all about his time here at the University of Michigan.
I’m no hard critic on sports -others are much better at that than I am. But what finally happened Tuesday was the result of a tedious back-and-forth between someone who’s lost face and the people who’ve lost faith in him and his ability to perform his duties. If anything, Machiavelli would shake his head at how things went down -things that went south and could have prevented.
In the beginning of it all Hoke did start off on the right foot just like the Hokey-Pokey. In his first year, he got us 11 wins and the Sugar Bowl. But somewhere after that year, Hoke put his foot out and our team went on a steady downward spiral. In the early years, which is just 2 years ago, the spiral wasn’t too bad -8 wins, Big Ten, and we got to be the first college football team to have 900 wins! But the year after that, our 2013 team, foretold how things are going to be the year after it with 7-6 overall record: a downhill for UMich football. But the worst part, the thing that probably would trip up Machiavelli the most, was Hoke’s action (or inaction to be exact) on the field.
Throughout his time here, Hoke’s has had a rather “let the boys play” attitude towards the football team, and like a stubborn prince -stuck by it too well. There were too many cases where Hoke would refuse to call a time-out when an extra point from a field goal could bring the game to overtime and give us a fighting chance -a lot of these moments ended with a failed two-point conversion or poor running play and costed us the game. Especially this season, I remember entire sections of spectators calling out for a time-out where Hoke would sit by and let fatigue take its course. Moments like this tremendously damaged Hoke’s public appeal and face as a coach, which only exacerbated public dismay over Hoke’s worst mistake -“let the boys play” even with concussions.
When Hoke stepped in to make a crucial decision regarding Morris’s concussion, he made a decision that got rid of any virtues or morals other than winning from his public image. When Machiavelli said that maintaining face and seeming to have good virtues was key to a prince’s reign, he was absolutely right. Quickly after Hoke made this decision that would later cost his job, public dissatisfaction turned to anger. And as interviews continued on regarding Hoke’s decisions, the people lost faith not only in Hoke but the athletic department.
After the athletic director resigned, that same anger funneled towards Hoke (perhaps even unfairly so in its gravity). In my opinion, Hoke was going to have to turn around and walk off lest he be swept by the masses; but what really tipped it off was his action and inaction that not only seemed incompetent but lacking any care for the players as people. To the public, Hoke seemed desperate to win games and when it seemed like it wasn’t going to happen he seemed like he simply didn’t give a damn. If anyone could have turned Hoke’s fate around it would’ve been Machiavelli. Had Brady shown as much passion in public as he is said to have shown to the team, maybe he could have finished this season and gotten a second chance.
To be honest, I really don’t know how to feel about this issue. A part of me pities him for all the negativity he’s gotten, but in a sense -a Machiavellian sense to be exact, Brady had it coming. In football, school, and life, maintaining face is almost as powerful as decisions themselves. Even if you are the most passionate coach behind the scenes, your actions in public will make your public image. When things like this happen, I am reminded more and more how important image is in life: it’s much easier to fall apart than to pull yourself together.
So whatever image you have of yourself, cherish it and build on it -never let yourself destroy yourself.
Touchdown Theory 
I think this is a great spin on the Brady Hoke situation. It ties Machiavellian theory in very nicely while also giving a non-biased account of the coach’s career. In my opinion, I think you are completely right when you talk about the importance of face and have a good public image. People make judgements and decisions based on your image that are very important. People need to have good public images in order to get jobs and achieve many things in life. Politicians need to master this because they rely on the public to support them. I think it is interesting how media shapes public images too. Our society today looks so strongly on images that they have become crucial to our social survival.
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I found this post extremely interesting. Like the above commenter mentioned, the Machiavellian lens you applied to this whole Hoke situation adds an different twist to the whole controversy. Although I am no expert on college coaching or Michigan’s athletic department, I somewhat followed the progression of our football team the last few years. As you mentioned in your post, I had heard that the players absolutely loved him as a coach. Our recruiting classes for the last few years would agree with this sentiment. Brady Hoke certainly seemed to bring great talent to the program. But I think you’re correct in stating that he needed to show some of this passion and commitment that our student-athletes clearly loved to the public. Too often, people felt like his press conferences were unsatisfactory. If he could have showed the critics his plans for the team (along with won a few more games) I think there is a chance we would be keeping Hoke on. I think Hoke failed in following Machiavelli’s advice because he was unable to make unpopular decisions while saving face. His unpopular decisions were very apparent, and just that: very unpopular.
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Interesting post – as an avid Michigan football fan, I obviously followed the team and coaching situation this season with great interest. That being said, I don’t really agree with you that poor public image was the reason he was fired – he was fired simply because he didn’t have results. Though a strong first season, those were not his players and benefited from a very strong senior class led by Denard Robinson. The team has regressed every year since, which most likely points to poor player development by Hoke and the coaching staff. The 2-point conversion against Ohio was thought by most to be the right call and the Morris situation was much more a failure of the medical team than Hoke. My main point is this – I think Hoke’s public image would have been fine had the team been winning games. 5-7 will never be acceptable at Michigan – this is why Hoke is gone.
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I thought this was an interesting post. This is a situation right in front of us at UofM and you took an interesting spin on it. I do agree with you that Hoke’s image was not the best and he lost the support of most fans. However, I don’t think that was the main reason behind him losing his job. What matters at Michigan is results and wins. No matter how good Hoke’s image was in the public or how much the team respected him, if he wasn’t winning games than his time was up.
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