This past Saturday, Michigan quarterback Shane Morris took a jarring hit with eleven minutes to go in the third quarter; one that left him woozy, stumbling, and clearly concussed. Trainers came out to attend to Morris, but Morris signaled to the sideline that he was okay and good to keep playing. The hit on Morris drew a fifteen yard penalty and is currently being reviewed by the Big Ten officials. The controversy is less about the hit and more about the actions or lack there of by Michigan head coach Brady Hoke. National media was in uproar and it seemed like Hoke ignored the medical dangers of letting Morris continue to play.
Regardless of whether or not Hoke won Saturday, his job is done at Michigan. As a team Michigan is 1-8 vs. the Power Five conferences since last November. Hoke’s has been a disaster as Michigan as sunk further and further into irrelevancy in a Big Ten conference with an already shaky reputation. The offensive play-calling for the past four years has been inconsistent and borderline stupid; the defense has continued to struggle, and Hoke’s inability to lead his team and provide stability has been noticeable since he stepped on campus.
The phrase, “The straw that broke the camel’s back” is most applicable here. The straw being the controversy, the Camel being Brady Hoke. Today in his weekly press conference Hoke was on the defensive, spewing non-sense and ultimately digging himself in a hole so deep that it will be near impossible for him to get out. Hoke declined to answer questions about whether or not Morris went through the standard concussion protocol. Not a second later he essentially threw the medical staff under the bus and claimed he thought Morris was suffering from an ankle injury. When asked why Morris still had his helmet and returned to the game, Hoke said, “he hadn’t been diagnosed yet” and spewed some garbage about a statement from the medical department. Brady Hoke could have saved himself today if he had showed some integrity, admitted he made a mistake and took ownership. Instead he took no responsibility for his actions, placed the blame on others, and essentially sealed his fate as head coach of the Michigan Wolverines.
It has become abundantly clear that there is a pressing need for independent neurologists on the sidelines to decipher if a player is showing concussion symptoms or not. The head coaches have too much invested in these games and their natural instinct is to ignore the injury in order to keep an important player on the field. Concussions are real and the growing amount of data supporting long term brain damage from them is exponential. The NFL has taken major steps in the past five years to put an emphasis on treating them, and it’s about time that college football does the same. As for Brady Hoke his seat has never been hotter. His failure to produce marquee victories in a conference that isn’t really that great is a major concern. Michigan hasn’t been a relevant force in the Big Ten since Lloyd Carr and it’s clear now more than ever that Brady Hoke isn’t the answer.
*Section Photo credit to Gregory Shamus, Getty Images; Featured Photo (above) credit to Christian Petersen, Getty Images
