Wednesday afternoon, David Brandon and the University of Michigan introduced the new head coach of the University of Michigan football program Brady Hoke, a Michigan Man and former coach under Lloyd Carr.
Now if you were to use a baseball analogy on the initial hiring, I guess you could call it a single up the middle. Hoke didn’t bring the flash of a Harbaugh or the winning track record in a big time conference like Les Miles.
What Hoke does bring though is a apparent intensity and drive to bring Michigan back to what it once was. He brings the knowledge and understanding of coaching in the Big Ten. But maybe more so he brings the knowledge and understanding of the Michigan traditions, something that former head coach Rich Rodriguez never really got a good hold of.
Brady Hoke was very successful in conveying his emotions, intensity, dedication and loyalty in Wednesday’s press conference. It also seemed like he was able to start the unification process of a very divided fan base and appeal to players such as DT Mike Martin who will return for his senior season. He talked up and credited his current players, like Denard Robinson, again something that Rich Rodriguez couldn’t do which in turn may have contributed a little to Ryan Mallett leaving Michigan for Arkansas. For all of those reasons alone leads me to believe that Brady Hoke hit a home run during his press conference Wednesday.
Again, one of the biggest criticisms about the Hoke hire was his lack of national coaching awe. He didn’t bring the attention that many thought Michigan needed to begin to bring it back to the national stage. One thing though that a lot of people need to be aware of his Hokes own coaching record when taking over bad teams.
In 2003 Hoke took over a very mediocre to bad Ball State team and led them to consecutive bowl games in 2007 and 2008 (he didn’t coach Ball State in their 2008 Bowl Game) including 7-6 and 12-1 records his last two seasons at Ball State.
What may be even more impressive then his tenure at Ball State is his tenure at San Diego State University. In the season prior to Hokes arrival, the Aztecs went 2-10 didn’t have a winning season since 1998 and had only seven winning seasons since 1980. In his first season with the Aztecs he went 4-8 then 9-4 in his second season including a win over Navy in the Poinsettia Bowl. Furthermore, in that second season, Brady and the Aztecs were able to give this year’s Rose Bowl Champion TCU a scare getting edged out by the Horned Frogs 40-35 and losing a close game to #12 Missouri 27-24.
The bottom line in all of this is Hoke has the experience turning around programs which clearly do not have the resources that the University of Michigan has. You can very much compare Hoke’s track record coaching up bad football teams in mid major conferences to Jim Harbaugh after what he did for San Diego then later Stanford (who I know isn’t in a mid major conference).
Now maybe, just maybe David Brandon found the next Jim Harbaugh in Brady Hoke, the only difference being that they were able to get him before the name became too big. Brandon and Hoke just need the chance to make winning happen.
