Close enough.  Funny, there are only a few decent Hoke pics to choose from but that’s about to change. Sure, I wanted a bigger name coach and I wanted Harbaugh to be here (and Harbaugh was certainly offered).  I’m anxious about how this is going to go but I’m excited to watch it play out. Dave Brandon had a process to get us here.  While my support is unwavering, I, too have process in judging Hoke and how I think this thing is going to go. A few near-term inputs: Hearing what he says at the presser today to Michigan fans and his plan of rebuilding this program. Watching his staff come together. Seeing how he handles the current recruiting class and how high school coaches react to Hoke in the near term. We know some players will leave due to the coaching change (Tate doesn’t count), but who and how many?  How does Hoke handle it? Watching how the team reacts and performs during Spring practice and the Spring game. For those unhappy, I understand.  You feel like we had a #1 pick but settled on a mid-round guy.  So do you dig your heels into your bitter hole and hope you’re right, or judge Hoke on his actions at the helm?  Unite the clans.  Don’t storm State Street,…

Tonight I chatted with CJ Lilly, winner of the athletic department’s contest offering two passes to tomorrow’s press conference where Brady Hoke will be introduced.  The 21-year-old U-M senior was kind enough to endure a few goofy questions: MVictors: You’re an engineering student? Lilly: Yes I am. MVictors: So how long did it take to write the script that entered your name in the contest six million times? Lilly: [Laughs].  I actually only entered it once.   I was sitting in class and entered it on my phone, really not paying too much attention to Reinforced Concrete Design. [laughs] MVictors: The press conference is at 1pm tomorrow– are you sure you’re going to be awake by then? Lilly: Yeah, I won’t party too hard tonight. MVictors: So as an engineering student let me guess—you hate the Hoke hire? Lilly: No, no, I’m excited to see us move forward.  I felt like we had two weeks of stalling around and now we can actually move in some direction.  MVictors: How many times have you been on flightaware.com the past few days? Lilly: mgoblog has had most of it that I’ve seen.  I don’t pay much attention– I think that’s B.S, as far as where flights are headed to.   I don’t think it’s worth the time.  MVictors: Did the athletic department complete its…

Would this work for you?    If you missed it, Michigan met with Les Miles last night and Brandon flew home, the athletic department is offering two seats at the new coach press conference, the players have a meeting today at 4pm, and on the way home from Baton Rouge, Dave Brandon wrapped his luxurious plane around Ohio so as not to enter Buckeye airspace. So why no word yet on whether Miles is the guy?  Tough to say because we don’t know what happened in the meeting.  Perhaps they are sleeping on it, perhaps they wanted to wait until Miles delivers his speech today at the coaches convention, perhaps Miles is listening to LSU’s counter-offer, perhaps the two sides agreed to move on, perhaps Brandon wanted to give Moe’s time to order oversized M hats. Related: The Finals: Hat vs Visor, Miles vs. Gruden (vote) Inside The Hat – Bayou Perspective on Miles (guest post) Welcome To F5 Day – mgoblog

[Ed. A fascinating guest post from John Kryk, author of Natural Enemies.  Check it out and thanks John.  Don’t forget to look for Kryk’s upcoming book on Yost and his point-a-minute teams.]  ——————————————————————- Guest post by John Kryk As I have found myself saying more and more in recent years, as I dig ever deeper into Michigan’s rich football past — it has all happened before. To wit. Except for one year, Michigan hadn’t been all that good on the football field for six painful seasons. Students, alumni, fans — everyone had had it. The latest heralded coach had come and gone too quickly and, if anything, made things worse despite having some impressive talent at some positions. By the end of the most recent season, everything had fallen apart. The athletic department then conducted an unprecedented, deliberate post-mortem. What were the causes of Michigan’s embarrassing fall from pre-eminence in football? It was found, first and foremost, that to a "disgraceful extent" the Michigan football family was "separated into discontented and hostile" factions.   And once a Michigan football supporter "becomes a member of one of these warring factions, he places the success of the members of his clique, faction or society above the University good.  The unsuccessful factions are then consumed with a burning hatred of those in authority, which…