Football Found Its Michigan Man

It’s official – UM Athletic Director has announced that San Diego State’s Brady Hoke will be the Wolverines’ next head coach.  Hoke lead the SDSU Aztecs to a winning record after more than 10 losing seasons.  More importantly, though, he worked as a defensive line coach for Michigan for 8 years and later as assistant head coach to Lloyd Carr. Hoke is expected to foster the essential growth of our defensive performance.

Some might be disappointed that Jim Harbaugh or Les Miles didn’t turn out to be our man, and some of that feeling may be justified.  Harbaugh and Miles are fantastic coaches, after all.  But ultimately, I think these two quotes from Hoke say it all:

“It was a long night of travel flying here, but we would’ve walked to the University of Michigan.”

[…]

Asked about the Ohio State game, Hoke pounded the podium with emphasis: “That rivalry is special. It’s like none other in football. It is the most important game on our schedule… It’s almost personal.”

Brady Hoke really wants to be at Michigan (hell, the guy was choking up at his press conference).  And he understands what it means to be at Michigan—most importantly, the rivalries.  I used to think that this “Michigan Man” factor wasn’t all that important in a coach.  If he could work well with his players and win games, why bother quibbling over whether or not he “understands” the rivalries?  But I’ve come to the conclusion that being a Michigan Man determines a lot of a coach’s ability to work with players and win games.  There’s a distinct sports culture at UM, and you have to be able to work within that culture if you want to succeed.  So like Mark Schlabach over at ESPN, I think that bringing on Brady Hoke was the right choice.

(Photo by Jeremy Bronson)