I'm very pleased that David Brandon worked so hard to take care of business in an 8 day window! Hoke is a Michigan Man! He coached here for 8 years including the National Championship year in 1997. He has the respect, admiration and support of virtually all the former Michigan players and coaches who played for him and worked with him when he coached in Ann Arbor; that includes Lloyd Carr. Quotes from former players/coaches He is a winner, a proven winner as a head coach. He build his alma mater, Ball State, into a winner and that includes giving Michigan one helluva game in 2006, 34-26. Ball State also gave Nebraska a 40-41 game in 2007, defeated Navy two years in a row in 2007 and 2008, and beat Big Ten and intrastate rival Indiana in 2008.
He was promoted to the San Diego State head coaching position in the Mountain West Conference. In his second year, his team was 9-4 and defeated Navy in a bowl game, Air Force, and only lost to a 10-2 Missouri team by 24-27. The Aztecs only lost to Top 10 teams, TCU, 35-40 on the road and Utah, 34-38, along with BYU, 21-24. His passing offense threw for nearly 300 yards per game ranking the Aztecs #12 nationally; they were #16 in total offense and #10 in scoring offense.
He is a defensive coach, and specializes in defensive line; that is exactly what we need. He knows the two most important games on our schedule are always, Ohio State and Michigan State. He will definitely plan for both those games every day while he is the head coach at Michigan. It will be interesting to see who he hires on his staff; hopefully, it will be former coaches he worked with from 1995-2002 when he left to become a head coach. This is official:
True Michigan Fans need to support him, and give him time to build relationships with the current players, recruit and build his program this Spring and Summer. The hyper-critical nature of alleged Michigan fans (like those on the Victors Board or other boards) with their internet tools who have already pre-judged Hoke negatively are foolish. Many appear to suffer from borderline personality disorder of finding fault with anything and everything possible (OCD). This man will build our program back to one of the top programs in the Big Ten.