Greg Mattison To Return To Michigan As Brady Hoke’s Defensive Coordinator

Ravens coach John Harbaugh is quoted as wishing Mattison well in his new venture and announcing secondary coach Chuck Pagano’s ascent to the DC spot:

Before working for the Ravens, Mattison coached at Florida, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, and elsewhere in addition to his time in Ann Arbor. You’d like Midwestern bona fides, you say? He grew up and went to school in Wisconsin and has coached at Illinois and Indiana schools in addition to his stints at Michigan and Western Michigan. His son was a captain of Iowa’s football team. Out-Midwest that!

Thursday morning Hoke said he met with Robinson for about 20 minutes on Wednesday, and that the two would meet again shortly. After that second meeting, it was apparently settled that Robinson would agree to play in the new offense installed by Hoke’s offensive coordinator. Hoke on Robinson:

The worry for Wolverines fans has been that the team could lose its best player its entire offense if Robinson felt the new offense wouldn’t fit his unique talents. But Hoke has expressed openness in adapting the team’s offense to suit personnel, starting with the program’s most important player.

While Michigan fans may have had dreams of a high-profile head coaching hire, they instead got an up-and-comer from San Diego State in Brady Hoke. The Aztecs head coach turned heads this year, compiling a 9-4 record at the helm in San Diego. On Tuesday, Hoke landed his dream job as he was named the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines.

Now that the coaching search is over, and Hoke has been introduced as the head coach, reactions are rolling in. The players were happy, the sentiment online spans the full spectrum of reactions -- from thrilled to forecasting impending doom -- and alums are rushing to praise Brandon for the choice.

With Brady Hoke officially on-board as the head coach at Michigan, the attention turns to how the players will accept him. Hoke’s first job is winning over the players still in the program, before moving quickly to secure the incoming recruiting class. Players were assembled in a team meeting on Tuesday, shortly after Michigan announced the hire, to be informed that Hoke would be the new man in charge.

According to Angelique Chengis, players were not only receptive to Hoke, but stood up and cheered when the hire was announced at a team meeting on Wednesday.

Just hours after Les Miles elected to stay at LSU, Brady Hoke has been hired as the Michigan head coach. Hoke, the head coach at San Diego State, emerged as a top-target of athletic director Dave Brandon on Tuesday after Miles, Jim Harbaugh and others declined to take the job. Reports surfaced earlier in the day that Brandon had been in talks with Hoke and was flying to California to meet with him.

The news was made official with a press release from the Michigan athletic department.

He also lacks anything you might call sex appeal in the eyes of those looking for more sparkle in their new hires. Aside from those two peak years his teams in his short career have been pedestrian. Coaching demands may hinder his budding acting career. Will probably get the job from sheer safety and familiarity.

If we can’t get a Michigan Man we’ll at least get something like one. I.e. a low-key, self-effacing guy with solid football chops and the people skills to mend fences in Ann Arbor after the long siege of Rodriguez’s tenure. Kyle Whittingham and Chris Petersen fall into this category, have won loads of games as head coaches, and are completely unavailable and happy where they are, but they’ll come up in a lot of lists so you might as well know their names to say, “Yeah, that’d be a great idea! And it will not happen. But it’s a great idea!” And then you can give them a cookie, because being patronizing is always more tolerable when you get a cookie at the same time.

After reports circulated on Tuesday that Rich Rodriguez had been fired as Michigan football coach, we now have more official confirmation that RichRod has, indeed, be relieved of his duties. Several outlets are confirming it via Twitter, including ESPN’s Joe Schad and Detroit Free Press’ Angelique Chengelis.

Chengelis is reporting that Rodriguez’s staff has been fired, as well, and Schad tweets that RichRod is meeting with his coaches Wednesday morning to inform them of the decision. Athletic Director Dave Brandon will hold a 12:30 p.m. press conference on Wednesday to announce the decision.

The Associated Press reports the players’ meeting was postponed after Rodriguez met with Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon “for hours Tuesday afternoon.” While there’s of course no word on whether Rodriguez’ firing will be announced at Wednesday’s meeting or not, it is curious that a meeting which presumably involves a termination would last “hours.”