Hoke a scapegoat too?

[Mr. Scot]

Mind you, it's not like we know much about Brady Hoke as a coach, but I have to say the situation as a whole does leave me with some questions. One of them relates to the similarity between the two firings.

Why exactly do you fire an underling when the person above them is the real problem?

Answer: To provide a scapegoat to cover for the one who's failing.

The other issue revolves around the relationship between the assistants and Rivera. We all know about Rodgers being Rivera's old college teammate. And we all remember that Rivera covered for him when he was a failure as special teams coach.

But who is Eric Washington?

The answer: He's Rivera's protege, someone Ron brought along from a previous gig who he planned to groom into a future coach. We knew this from the way Rivera talked about him when he was hired.

All this leads to the final question then...

What we're today's transactions really about?

Improving the defense? That's Rivera's answer, but I'm not sure it's the truth. If that were truly the aim, why not just part ways with the guy who's been doing a poor job of running the defense all season?

The answer: Because he's your buddy.

At heart, what happened today is that Rivera fired one assistant to protect his old friend and another to protect his protege. That's scapegoating at it's finest, and it's in no way an honorable thing to do.

To be clear, this is not presented as a defense of Brady Hoke. While it could legitimately be argued that our DL issues are more personnel than coaching, I don't think we know enough about Hoke to say much about his coaching ability.

But one thing we do know from experience: Ron Rivera's unfortunate tendency to be loyal to the wrong people.

And this is just Example # 546.

[PanthersBigD]

7 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

Mind you, it's not like we know much about Brady Hoke as a coach, but I have to say the situation as a whole does leave me with some questions. One of them relates to the similarity between the two firings.

Why exactly do you fire an underling when the person above them is the real problem?

Answer: To provide a scapegoat to cover for the one who's failing.

The other issue revolves around the relationship between the assistants and Rivera. We all know about Rodgers being Rivera's old college teammate. And we all remember that Rivera covered for him when he was a failure as special teams coach.

But who is Eric Washington?

The answer: He's Rivera's protege, someone Ron brought along from a previous gig who he planned to groom into a future coach. We knew this from the way Rivera talked about him when he was hired.

All this leads to the final question then...

What we're today's transactions really about?

Improving the defense? That's Rivera's answer, but I'm not sure it's the truth. If that were truly the aim, why not just part ways with the guy who's been doing a poor job of running the defense all season?

The answer: Because he's your buddy.

At heart, what happened today is that Rivera fired one assistant to protect his old friend and another to protect his protege. That's scapegoating at it's finest, and it's in no way an honorable thing to do.

To be clear, this is not presented as a defense of Brady Hoke. While it could legitimately be argued that our DL issues are more personnel than coaching, I don't think we know enough about Hoke to say much about his coaching ability.

But one thing we do know from experience: Ron Rivera's unfortunate tendency to be loyal to the wrong people.

And this is just Example # 546.

Hoke has never been a good coach at any level. Still, I do think Rivera is covering for his boys. I'm ready for him to go. Just think of what this team could have accomplished if he was a better judge of talent and actually ran the team as a meritocracy. 

[Moo Daeng]

It appears so on the surface.

For all we know Hoke didn't take the direction from Rivera that he should.  In the end it doesn't really matter. 

[rhyslloyd]

Firing and scapegoating the underlings to try to protect his own ass and the asses of his closest buddies certainly contradicts the generally accepted notion that Rivera is a stand up guy.  

[Datawire]

10 minutes ago, PanthersBigD said:

Hoke has never been a good coach at any level. Still, I do think Rivera is covering for his boys. I'm ready for him to go. Just think of what this team could have accomplished if he was a better judge of talent and actually ran the team as a meritocracy. 

He should have stuck to recruiting in Michigan. He did pretty well at that.

[Manther]

37 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

Mind you, it's not like we know much about Brady Hoke as a coach, but I have to say the situation as a whole does leave me with some questions. One of them relates to the similarity between the two firings.

Why exactly do you fire an underling when the person above them is the real problem?

Answer: To provide a scapegoat to cover for the one who's failing.

The other issue revolves around the relationship between the assistants and Rivera. We all know about Rodgers being Rivera's old college teammate. And we all remember that Rivera covered for him when he was a failure as special teams coach.

But who is Eric Washington?

The answer: He's Rivera's protege, someone Ron brought along from a previous gig who he planned to groom into a future coach. We knew this from the way Rivera talked about him when he was hired.

All this leads to the final question then...

What we're today's transactions really about?

Improving the defense? That's Rivera's answer, but I'm not sure it's the truth. If that were truly the aim, why not just part ways with the guy who's been doing a poor job of running the defense all season?

The answer: Because he's your buddy.

At heart, what happened today is that Rivera fired one assistant to protect his old friend and another to protect his protege. That's scapegoating at it's finest, and it's in no way an honorable thing to do.

To be clear, this is not presented as a defense of Brady Hoke. While it could legitimately be argued that our DL issues are more personnel than coaching, I don't think we know enough about Hoke to say much about his coaching ability.

But one thing we do know from experience: Ron Rivera's unfortunate tendency to be loyal to the wrong people.

And this is just Example # 546.

Defensive line took a huge step back this year.  That's on Hoke.  Washington was awesome with the DL.  Moving him down and getting rid of Hoke was the right move.  

[thecookouter]

We’ve been a top 5 D line for YEARS.  He’s the congruent move that caused it to turn to poo.

 

ive been preaching to fire Hoke and now that he’s gone and Wash is back on them, I imagine our pass rush going back to form very soon.

[Jon Snow]

2 minutes ago, Manther said:

Defensive line took a huge step back this year.  That's on Hoke.  Washington was awesome with the DL.  Moving him down and getting rid of Hoke was the right move.  

No, the real issue is the dline aged out and those that aren't old are not very good.  That is on Ron and Hurney.

[Snake]

[Manther]

3 minutes ago, Jon Snow said:

No, the real issue is the dline aged out and those that aren't old are not very good.  That is on Ron and Hurney.

The near complete collapse of the defensive line across the board is hard to pin on age and talent.  They aged a hell of lot and lost a lot of talent in one year.  We'll see.  Hoke is gone, if the same guys perform better, it was Hoke.  I've been saying all year the DL coach sucked.  

[rayzor]

2 minutes ago, Manther said:

Defensive line took a huge step back this year.  That's on Hoke.  Washington was awesome with the DL.  Moving him down and getting rid of Hoke was the right move.  

The whole defense took a huge step back. That's on Washington and, ultimately on Rivera.

Put Washington back where he doesn't suck and force Rivera to take over the defense. That was the right call.

Only question is, why did it take so long? Follow up question is, "would this necessary move had happened if Tepper hadn't forced the issue?"

None of this looks good for a guy who is supposed to be the head coach. He's not as fit for the job as people think he is. He can't make the tough calls unless his hand is forced because he's too loyal to those under him who have been with him the longest.

That worked for a JR because that's how JR did things. It won't work for Tepper because he understands that the only thing that matters is the result and the only acceptable result is winning.

If the guy you employ is having trouble getting the job done, force his hand or show him the door. Get the job done or I'll find someone who can.

[Manther]

8 minutes ago, rayzor said:

The whole defense took a huge step back. That's on Washington and, ultimately on Rivera.

Put Washington back where he doesn't suck and force Rivera to take over the defense. That was the right call.

Only question is, why did it take so long? Follow up question is, "would this necessary move had happened if Tepper hadn't forced the issue?"

None of this looks good for a guy who is supposed to be the head coach. He's not as fit for the job as people think he is. He can't make the tough calls unless his hand is forced because he's too loyal to those under him who have been with him the longest.

That worked for a JR because that's how JR did things. It won't work for Tepper because he understands that the only thing that matters is the result and the only acceptable result is winning.

If the guy you employ is having trouble getting the job done, force his hand or show him the door. Get the job done or I'll find someone who can.

I agree that putting Washington back down and replacing the underlings was the right call.  I was disagreeing that we have a no-talent/retirementhome DL that was incapable of performing.

I also wish this would have happened after the steelers game.  Riveria kept giving more chances.  This change is going to help A LOT.  Cam is going to bounce back and the D will return to form.  Thomas will have to step up, and Gano lose his yips.  Maybe we can play a little spoiler.

[t96]

I had high hopes for Hoke and really enjoyed watching his intense coaching at Training Camp, but he absolutely did not deserve to keep his job. KK and Poe’s regression is just unacceptable, and while there isn’t much young talent at DE (if any) that group absolutely underperformed as well. Washington will do much better with them now that he’s back to focusing there and not calling plays or thinking about the secondary. Washington was clearly in over his head trying to run the unit, but he’s been a solid position coach. Hoke was just terrible ultimately.

[t96]

And, Scot, Washington basically got demoted this morning. That’s just as bad as getting fired. Rivera certainly didn’t do him any favors with these moves. In trying to win it’s definitely better having Washington at DL/front 7 coach than Hoke, with Rivera calling plays. 

Imamura is a different story.