GBMWolverine: Coach’s Corner — Michigan Football — First Hand Look at Coach Hoke
Posted at 6:00am — 1/12/2011
GBMWolverine: Coach’s Corner — Michigan Football — First Hand Look at Coach Hoke
The staff members of GBMWolverine are impressed with Coach Hoke’s football resume, admittedly more so than other pundits. Brady Hoke has 30 years of coaching experience starting at the high school level, and then being an assistant coach at many different levels of college football, and lastly eight years as a head coach at Ball State and San Diego State.
Coach Hoke’s longest tenures have been five years at Oregon State, mostly as a defensive line coach, eight years as defensive line coach at Michigan, including one year as the assistant head coach, and six years as head coach at Ball State. We have been familiar with Coach Hoke since his days at the University of Toledo.
As a head coach, Brady Hoke has a record of 47 and 50. While on the surface this is not the most impressive record on the block, it is necessary to factor in where Hoke has been a head coach, Ball State and San Diego State, and consider that both programs were near the bottom of football production. If one looks beyond the mere raw numbers of wins and losses, a conclusion can be reached that Coach Hoke has turned programs around in reasonable amounts of time.
Coach Hoke is a classic “players coach.” Players who played for him were loyal, very loyal, and still speak highly of him. Our experience with Coach Hoke is he has a very good sense of humor and is a solid clinician. Hoke preaches a physical, tough style of play and firmly believes in the importance of playing great defense.
At both stops as a head coach, Coach Hoke has built strong staffs emphasizing excellent teaching ability. Coach Hoke believes in the importance of strong fundamentals and meaningful practice sessions and puts extra emphasis on the above.
Coach Hoke’s practices are very well organized and he demands discipline. Parents and players we have talked to speak very highly of Coach Hoke, particularly his straight shooting style and the importance he puts on players’ education. Our experience with Coach Hoke is he clearly lays out what he expects of players and is equitable in his treatment of his players.
Coach Hoke is a big believer in the once familiar (at Michigan) pro style offense. When he reached SDSU, the Aztecs did not have the personnel to make the pro style offense work. Coach Hoke adjusted his normal schemes and installed a spread offense that fit his personnel very well and success was forthcoming.
On defense Coach Hoke has in the past talked mostly about 4 man fronts at clinics we have attended. Playing in the pass happy Mountain West Conference, Coach Hoke used a 3-3 odd stack defense.
Bottom Line:
Coach Hoke was not GBMWolverine’s first choice as Michigan’s head coach. But take note that in our opinion UM could have done a lot worse. We think he is going to do a very good job and believe that this team will be back to Michigan standards soon. We believe a lot of people will be wondering where this guy came from and maybe sometimes the best fit/hire for the job isn’t always the hottest coach or the sexy hire. You got to find the right fit for your program and we believe Coach Hoke is that hire.
As with any UM coach, he will have 100% of our support. As with all UM coaches, support does not mean blindly following without comment or discussion.
One reality is perfectly clear:
Coach Hoke has his work cut out for him in the next few months, perhaps even years, across many domains. But the man is happy to be Michigan’s new head coach and that counts for something.
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Written by GBMWolverine Staff
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