Back in 2011, Nebraska football coach Bo Pelini went off on a tirade that he didn't know was being recorded. Following his team having rallied to a home win against Ohio State after being 3 touchdowns behind, no small feat, Pelini was upset that some fans had given up and walked out, and was further pissed about how a few local reporters had recently ripped his Cornhuskers. It was "f" the fans, "f" the media, "f" the university, and "f" just about anybody else that came to his mind. He was certainly on a not so good roll.
Definitely not cool -- but few knew about it at the time. This is because Pelini thought it was "off the record". Now, a full TWO YEARS LATER, this recording has not only surfaced publicy, but gone viral. Pelini may or may not survive as the head football at Nebraska, while the powers-that-be in Lincoln deliberate his fate.
Lessons learned? Regardless of who you are and/or what you do -- never assume anything is "off the record". Such things have a way of rearing their ugly heads in the future when it's advantageous for someone else to make it so. Either that, or never trust a reporter to keep their word forever when they've promised something is "off the record". Given the right circumstances, many scribes and/or talking heads would rat out their own mothers if they thought it was an "exclusive". Fair or foul, they can't help it. It's just the nature of the beast.
Michigan head football coach Brady Hoke has been a poster child for hypocrisy, but the faithful Maize and Blue following evidently haven't noticed.
Following the disastrous reign of former coach Rich Rodriguez, Hoke took over in 2011. To his credit, the program quickly turned around. Indeed, Michigan would defeat not only Notre Dame, the aforementioned Nebraska, and finally break a long losing streak to their nemesis Ohio State which had dated back to 2003. The Wolverines would post an 11-2 record including a win in the Sugar Bowl against Virginia Tech. A very impressive first year for any coach.
But then, like they seem so prone to do in Ann Arbor, the arrogance factor quickly returned. Thinking they were "hot stuff", Michigan decided to challenge defending national champion Alabama in the opening game of the 2012 season. To the surprise of no objective football fan -- Michigan got taken to the woodshed by a far superior team. They were blown out. Michigan would finish the 2012 season a quite mediocre 8-5, including going down at the hands of Ohio State in Urban Meyer's first year on the job in Columbus, and coming up on the short end against South Carolina in the Outback Bowl. Meyer's track record speaks for itself and he's not going away anytime soon. The Buckeyes are currently ranked #2 in the nation, while UM isn't even in the top 10.
Yet Hoke still found a way to bluster. After Notre Dame announced they were cancelling a few future games with Michigan because of commitments elsewhere -- Hoke was quick to call Notre Dame a "chicken" for backing out. Bawk, bawk, bawk.
But a closer look begins to expose the hypocrisy mentioned above. Look at the schedules. Granted, Notre Dame opened against a patsy in Temple, but then played Michigan on the road. The next week, the Fighting Irish visited cross-town rival Purdue. Next they go up against Michigan State and then host Oklahoma. This isn't exactly a cake walk.
Conversely, Brady's boys welcomed a mid-major (Central Mich) into their "big house" for an opening first game beat-down to the tune of 50 points. After Notre Dame, UM hosted the Akron Zips. Zips might be an appropriate name for that team. As in how many times in their history have they ever been even remotely close to being competitive in big time college football? Zip. Never. At that, UM was lucky to escape with a narrow 28-24 victory. This Saturday, Michigan travels to that ever- fearsome football powerhouse known as UConn. Then they have a bye week.
If their schedule got any softer, Brady and his boys might likely benefit from having a bowl full of Viagra pills available at all team meals. Couldn't hurt.
So, let's see. After getting big heads and thinking they could actually give Alabama a decent game, Michigan thudded back to earth last year.
Lesson learned?
By UM's actions, it would appear to be....... forget those southern boys. They're too tough. We'll go back to scheduling our usual patsies to start off the year and hope another Appalachian State or Toledo disaster doesn't happen.
So while Brady Hoke can disparage Notre Dame for backing out of the rivalry -- who indeed are the chickens when it comes to what other teams they play?
Brady can rant all he wants, but in the end, I only hear one thing coming out of his mouth.
Cock-a-doodle-do.
For that matter, Hoke would appear to be no more than the latest in a long line of banty rooster Michigan football coaches, dating back to Bo Schembechler and beyond. While being big on struts and squawks, they were short on meaningful results. Ironically, the lone exception was Lloyd Carr, a rather quiet man. And one of Carr's teams shared a national championship. You'd think the blue-bloods would eventually learn to stop crowing, shut up, and let their play do the talking -- but evidently not.
Brady Hoke reminds me of one of my all-time favorite characters. That would be Foghorn Leghorn of the classic Looney Tune cartoons. They both talk a lot of smack and are definitely yuk-worthy on occasion. Plus they both always seem to have "dogs", I say dawgs, put in front of them to abuse.
But there's a difference of course. No, it's not so much that Mr. Leghorn was only a cartoon while Mr. Hoke is allegedly real.
Even Foghorn wouldn't have put the Chickenhawks on his schedule.
I wouldn't put it past Brady.
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