Every year, a number of brilliant offensive, defensive and special teams minds find themselves without a coaching job come fall for one reason or another.
In an ESPN piece published today, first-year Oregon defensive coordinator Brady Hoke inadvertently touched on why that may be in two simple sentences, while also describing what the Oregon defense will look like in 2016.
“You can be flexible, as long as you’ve got the guys who can handle what you want to do. I’ve done this long enough to know you can have too many tools in the toolbox that you think everyone can understand."
"It doesn't really matter what weknow. It's what theyknow. And how we can get them to play fast and tough and hard. That’s the most important thing.” Hoke explained.
The best coordinators and head coaches are great at communicating the scheme and expectations of the offense, defense, or special teams, and at identifying how to adjust the schemes to the strengths of the players they have on the field. If you can do that, players play with more confidence and can fly around playing fast and hard, and that's an important staple of any side of the ball. If the coaches understand it, but the player's don't, chances are good that you're in for a long season.
On his time at Michigan, Hoke noted that he isn't concerned with what his legacy in Ann Arbor looks like.
“If you worry about your legacy then you are worried about the wrong things. You have to live day to day. If you worry about legacies, you’re not worrying about what’s important and that’s what you are doing in the present.”
Head over to ESPN to read the full piece, which includes why Hoke feels like a year away from the sideline has helped reinvigorate and refocus him.