In one of the least surprising moves of the college football “offseason,” Michigan has fired head football coach Brady Hoke after four seasons.
Hoke was 31-20 in his four years at Michigan. His most successful season was his first, 2011, when he took the players left to him by former Wolverine Coach Rich Rodriguez and went 11-2, including a win over Virginia Tech in the 2012 Sugar Bowl. He was named Big 10 coach of the year that season. Hoke was 20-18 over the next three years and lost two bowl games. With a record of 5-7, this year’s Wolverines will not be in a bowl game at all.
Hoke had been a Michigan assistant under Lloyd Carr in the early 2000’s. From there he became head coach at Ball State and San Diego State. He was brought in following the 2010 season and firing of Rodriguez, who has since turned Arizona into a Pac-12 divisional champ and ironically enough was named conference Coach of the Year today. Then-athletic director Dave Brandon did not get along with Rodriguez and wanted a Michigan man for the job. Hoke had a losing record over his six seasons as head coach at Ball State but did finish with a 12-1 record in his final year there before taking the top job at San Diego State. He was only one game over .500 in two seasons at SDSU but took the Aztecs to a rare bowl appearance in his second season.
He received heavy criticism this season because of his handling of quarterback Shane Morris, who suffered a head injury in the loss to Minnesota in late September. Despite coming off the field wobbly, Hoke put Morris back in the game for a few plays before eventually pulling him for good. Morris was later diagnosed with a probable concussion. Amid clamoring for new leadership throughout the athletic program and proposed game day boycotts by students, Brandon resigned as AD in late October.
While Michigan has lost the national luster it once had, it is still considered a premier job. The question will be whether the school is still intent on demanding a “Michigan man” for the job. It is expected that the first call will be to former Michigan quarterback and current 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh. He made Stanford nationally prominent with a tough, physical style of football. It is well known that he has a rocky relationship with current 49ers management and his future in San Francisco is uncertain.
Another name likely to come up is current LSU coach Les Miles, another protégé of Michigan coaching legend Bo Schembechler. There have been rumors over the years that the Michigan job is the one job he would leave LSU for.
If the school looks beyond their own history, former Rutgers and Tampa Bay coach Greg Schiano could get a call. While at Rutgers he turned down the Michigan job prior to Rodriguez accepting it. He was highly thought of for turning around a dormant Rutgers program and is out of coaching right now, having been fired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, so contract buyouts would not be an issue.
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