Hoke Fits Profile for U Job Better Than Most
Will Brady Hoke be a finalist for
the Gophers football coaching job?
There may be more common sense reasons why
Hoke could be a finalist than anyone else the Gophers will seriously
consider. It’s not known whether San Diego State’s head coach is
interested or if Minnesota is in pursuit but it is likely the answer to
both questions is yes.
Hoke’s resume is appealing and presumably
so is his availability. It’s likely Gophers athletic director
Joel
Maturi prefers candidates with previous college head coaching
experience and Hoke, 52, has impressed at San Diego State and previously
at Ball State.
He’s in his second season coaching the
Aztecs, now with a 7-3 record after last Saturday’s 40-35 loss to
national title contender TCU in Fort Worth. San
Diego State also lost to nationally ranked Missouri by only three points
in Columbia. The Aztecs were 4-8 last season, a two game improvement
over 2008. With two games remaining on the schedule, the seven
wins total surpasses the previous 11 seasons.
At Ball State Hoke’s last team was 12-1
and ranked in the national polls for the first time in school history,
rising to No. 12 at one point. Just like he’s doing at San Diego State,
Hoke’s record improved at Ball State and in his last four seasons
he
won four, five, seven and then 12 games.
San
Diego State and Ball State are difficult places to turn out winners. At
San Diego State the Aztecs draw miniscule crowds, the athletic
department loses money and turmoil has sometimes characterized the
department.
Hoke’s salary last year was $676,800,
according to
http://college-football-coaches.findthebest.com/detail/79/Brady-Hoke.
Mountain West Conference coaches can’t earn anything close to what
those in the Big Ten make because of smaller school and league
revenues.
Offering Hoke a salary of over $1 million
per year looks like big money compared to San Diego State, yet would
probably be
far less than what other finalists for the Gophers job will demand. But
in addition to money, Hoke could be attracted to returning to the
Midwest where he not only coached Ball State but also spent eight
seasons at Michigan.
Maturi likes to talk about the “right fit”
when he has coaching openings. Hoke’s Midwestern and Big Ten background
is attractive. He was associate head coach at Michigan and knows the
Big Ten area, a plus for coaching and recruiting.
Hoke is intriguing, too, because of the
reputation he and his staff have for teaching. Better instruction will
improve the performance of players regardless of talent. Hoke’s
assistant coaches include former Cleveland Browns quarterback Brian
Sipe, offensive coordinator Al Borges and defensive
coordinator Rocky Long. Borges has over 20 years experience as
an offensive coordinator and Long had a solid record as New Mexico’s
head coach where his teams were exceptional in rushing defense.
A former high school coach in the San
Diego area emailed Sports Headliners about Hoke, describing him
as a “great candidate” for the Gophers job. The ex-coach said Hoke’s
priorities are the kicking game, defense, running the ball and then
passing. A lot of people who know football believe that is the formula to
win at Minnesota, a program which for the better part of 40 years has
been subpar defensively.
Before coming to Minnesota, Maturi was
athletic director at a Mid-American Conference school, Miami of Ohio,
and a Ball State rival. Maturi might have a pipeline of information
from his MAC contacts that could further persuade him to pursue Hoke.
Maturi is under a lot pressure to make the right hire and the better his
information about a candidate, the better his comfort level. That all
could be an edge for Hoke.
What Hoke has going against him, though,
is he’s never been a head coach at a BCS conference school. And that’s
a detriment to his resume because the Gophers minimize the risk in who
they hire if they can attract a proven winner from one of the six BCS
conferences.
Not convinced? Except for Jim Wacker,
who came from TCU and the now defunct Southwest Conference, all of
the Gophers most productive coaches for the last 50 years were previously head
coaches at major programs. The least successful included Joe
Salem from Northern Arizona, John Gutekunst who had been
Minnesota’s defensive coordinator and Tim Brewster, a former NFL
and college assistant with no head coaching experience.
