Brady Hoke to San Diego State?!

[hammb]

This is in no way, shape or form a "lateral move". It's a bigger school, a better conference, a bigger media market and a much bigger paycheck.

Agreed.

The thing I find funny, though, is that SDSU jumped on the coach du jour. Brady Hoke is nothing special as a coach. He lucked into a superstar recruit when BG, UT, and many other schools backed off Davis because of academic issues.

If Davis doesn't make it as an NFL player (he should be a 2nd/3rd rounder, so he'll get a good paycheck), I think Brady owes him some of that coin.

[Globetrotter]

This is in no way, shape or form a "lateral move". It's a bigger school, a better conference, a bigger media market and a much bigger paycheck.

Agreed.

The thing I find funny, though, is that SDSU jumped on the coach du jour. Brady Hoke is nothing special as a coach. He lucked into a superstar recruit when BG, UT, and many other schools backed off Davis because of academic issues.

If Davis doesn't make it as an NFL player (he should be a 2nd/3rd rounder, so he'll get a good paycheck), I think Brady owes him some of that coin.

Did he also luck into Dantel Love, Darius Hill and their RB?

[hammb]

This is in no way, shape or form a "lateral move". It's a bigger school, a better conference, a bigger media market and a much bigger paycheck.

Agreed.

The thing I find funny, though, is that SDSU jumped on the coach du jour. Brady Hoke is nothing special as a coach. He lucked into a superstar recruit when BG, UT, and many other schools backed off Davis because of academic issues.

If Davis doesn't make it as an NFL player (he should be a 2nd/3rd rounder, so he'll get a good paycheck), I think Brady owes him some of that coin.

Did he also luck into Dantel Love, Darius Hill and their RB?

I don't know, but I don't think it matters. Nate Davis is the heart & soul of that team and has been all season long. When he finally had a bad game they lost.

Look, I wish Hoke well, and he might do well, but I don't see him as the next Urban Meyer or anything. He's a decent coach, but nothing special. He's only had 2 winning seasons in 6 years in Muncie (one of which was 7-6), and those happened to coincide with Nate Davis developing into the best player in the MAC. Kudos to him for recruiting him, and kudos to him for helping him develop into the player he is, but I have not seen enough from BSU over the years to think Brady Hoke is the next great head coach that will be flying up the ladder.

If Nate Davis was a 4.0 student with a 30 on his ACT he would have been playing at either BG, UT, or perhaps even a Big 10 school. Without Nate Davis Ball State is a mediocre MAC team and Brady Hoke is not getting a promotion, heck he might be getting fired for having gone 6 years without a winning season.

I'm glad to see him doing well, but I don't see him as nearly the coach as Gill, Meyer, or Kelly. IMO, Brady Hoke owes his newfound salary to Nate Davis' dyslexia.

[tiznow]

Given it's local and access to high school athletes in Southern Cal, you'd think they'd be a dominate player in the MWC, but that's not been the case. The last few coaches have left San Diego in disgrace. The Aztecs are a mystery. Unless Mr. Hoke has the magic formula, I'd advise him to steer clear of SDSU.

I don't think there's a magic formula. SDSU has just hired poor head coaches. A good head coach who knows how to recruit can get it done there, it's been proven in the past.

1999- 5-6
2000- 3-8
2001- 3-8
2002- 4-9
2003- 6-6
2004- 4-7
2005- 5-7
2006- 3-9
2007- 4-8
2008- 2-10

They might have to dig up the last successful coach at SDSU. There is no doubt that it is a bigger conference, a bigger school and more money. Once you look at the opportunity and the failure among multiple coaches, you shake your head. The reason I am calling out the hire is not because he is leaving the MAC. He is leaving to possible never be heard from again. That is why I mentioned Stoltz earlier.

[bgsufalcon24]

This is in no way, shape or form a "leteral move". It's a bigger school, a better conference, a bigger media market and a much bigger paycheck.

Exactly. People need to quite being bitter about coaches leaving the MAC and just accept the reality that being a MAC coach is a stepping stone job for them including to jobs in other non-BCS leagues.

If a stepping-stone to a continual loser program is what you mean, then I totally understand your viewpoint.

Say what you want about bigger school (enrollment?), better conference, bigger media (nobody in SD cares about SDSU, bad argument), and a bigger paycheck, but San Diego State sucks. They haven't had a winning season in over a decade. Hoke is going from a middle-to-upper level school in the MAC to one of the doormats of Division I-A. I wish him luck, but everybody out there who says that this is a big step up is only looking at the forces around SDSU. SDSU is like a chocolate with poop on the inside.

[TG1996]

Hoke is going from a middle-to-upper level school in the MAC...

This year.

See hammb's earlier posts about Nate Davis. Until last year (with Davis as a starter), BSU hadn't had a winning season since 1996, and hadn't won more than eight games in 30 years. Even at their best, they have been average the last three decades. When all the BSU fans around work were "chirping" about their BCS ranking, I wanted to send them a note that said, "Congrats on your undefeated season. Love, Miami(OH) since 2004." Love is their Big Ben.

I figured they were dead in the water when Love went down, but it just became apparent that Davis was the force behind that team.

Hoke is going from an average-at-best MAC program to an average-at-best program and cashing his average career in for a pile of bigger chips.

[MacGuy]

The weather alone makes SD a great place to live and raise a family. Hoke is a pretty good recruiter, so I think he can have some success.

Here's something interesting about SDSU:

SAN DIEGO – (Friday, December 12, 2008) – San Diego State University is once again one of the most sought after schools in the country, having received 55,578 undergraduate applications for the fall 2009 semester.

[cw08]

Better conference, better weather, better city, better money, better HS football state, better overall state. I don't know why it's so hard for people to grasp that.

[Flipper]

The greater San Diego area is home to about 3 million people. Muncie is home to about 120k. If only 5% of the people in San Diego care about the Aztecs, that's still more than the entire population of Muncie.

Yeah...that market size argument is really weak...

[TG1996]

Hoke resigned today to take the SDSU job. Ball St. says they offered him $390K, plus $60K in incentives and $225K if he made a BCS bowl.

AD Tom Collins said Hoke "has had a tremendous amount of success as our head football coach". Tom Collins also hired Ronny Thompson.