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Al Borges was criticized a great deal by fans and pundits alike during his time at Michigan. Well, he's not around to criticize any longer.

(Melanie Maxwell | MLive.com)

ANN ARBOR -- Michigan's scapegoat has left the building.

Al Borges, Michigan's maligned offensive coordinator for the past three seasons, was fired on Wednesday.

And, before the dust even really settled, reports surfaced that his replacement was already on his way to Ann Arbor. That replacement? Alabama offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier, a hire Michigan has yet to officially confirm.

Either way, for Michigan coach Brady Hoke, this is it.

Borges -- the man most fans blamed for Michigan's struggles over the past two seasons, the man who never really found a way to install an offense, the man that was not-so-ironically left out of athletic director Dave Brandon's declarative letter of support for Michigan's coaching staff in November -- is gone.

The Wolverines went 8-5 in 2012. Not good enough.

They went 7-6 in 2013. Nowhere near good enough.

Someone had to pay for this. Someone had to be the fall guy. The finger pointing had to settle somewhere. And, ultimately, that finger landed on Borges.

It wasn't the wrong call to cut him loose. Far from it. His offense was woefully inconsistent. It racked up fewer than 300 yards 12 times in three years (Michigan was 2-10 in those games), which is completely unacceptable.

It racked up less than 200 yards four times during that stretch, which is even worse.

The clock had run out on Borges' time at Michigan. That much is clear.

But with that expiration comes one very firm realization inside Schembechler Hall.

The next time a finger needs to be pointed at someone and blame needs to be pushed for not being good enough, it'll land firmly at the feet of Brady Hoke.

And no one else.

Heck, in part, it already has. This is Hoke's team after all. He's the head coach. The caretaker of the program. Everything that happens inside that locker room, training room, film room, lunch room, bathroom, parking lot ... is his responsibility.

If the defense is struggling, it's Hoke's job to fix it. If the offense isn't scoring, Hoke has to take care of it. If kickers are botching field goals, Hoke needs to correct it. If the sprinkler's are broken on the grass outside Glick Field House, Hoke needs to make sure they're repaired.

This much we already know. And this much hasn't changed.

But far too often over the past three seasons, most of Michigan's struggles were on the offensive side of the football. And as a natural reaction, fans and pundits typically directed their anger/criticism at Borges -- not Hoke.

Hoke's a defensive coach, some would say. He and Greg Mattison were focused on job No. 1 when they arrived at Michigan, which was fixing the defense -- or so the narrative went.

All along the way, it seemed clear that Borges had full control of Michigan's offense. In fact, Hoke spent this season as a co-defensive line coach with Mattison.

So if things were going wrong on the offensive side of the ball, the finger pointing pendulum always swung toward Borges.

Well. Borges is gone now.

This is Hoke, and Brandon, doing their best to make a statement.

It's a statement that 8-5 isn't good enough. That 7-6 isn't good enough. That an offense ranked No. 87 nationally isn't going to cut it at Michigan.

It's a statement that Hoke's not going to put up with mediocrity without making a change. Hoke's not going to naively sit back and just "trust the system," as so many coaches have done so many times -- to no success -- across the country.

It's a statement that Hoke's going to do whatever he can to fix it. Even if it means firing a friend and hiring away a coordinator off a national power and reportedly making him one of the five highest-paid assistants in the country.

It's a statement pointing toward the old cliche: You're either getting better or getting worse. You never stay the same.

Well, that's good. Because the next time Michigan stays the same, or gets worse, Borges won't be around to blame any longer.

It'll be Hoke.

And no one else.

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