Blake Anderson, Brady Hoke, Jim McElwain, And Accepting Your Strengths
A plea for G5 coaches to consider sticking around.
Brady Hoke said all the right things when he took the stand in front of the microphones and TV cameras for the first time as Michigan’s head coach, all the way back in January of 2011. Taking over for a coach that distinctly didn’t get it in Ann Arbor – it being the connection to the program’s rich history and the ability to prove that connection – Hoke’s howdy-doody first public address played brilliantly. He referenced Bo Schembechler, whom he played under for the Wolverines, almost as often has he referenced his own ability as a coach. He scoffed at any lingering worries about Michigan’s place in the national landscape.
“This is Michigan, for God's sake,” he said. “This is Michigan.”
In essence, he just played the Michigan man. He played it to a T.
At a school like Michigan, where a good chunk of the monied individuals who make decisions need their coach to be both of the culture and willing to loudly and frequently remind everyone was it, that sort of press conference is half the battle for a coach. Hoke won that battle as often as he could before the losses started to pile up and his schtick played less as cozy and warm and more as entirely unqualified for one of the biggest jobs in America.
Less than four years later, after a 5-7 season and several small on- and off-field scandals that had bubbled into one large mess, Hoke was fired. Michigan sent him packing with the dreaded “he’s a great guy who just can’t coach a lick” tenure-ending press conference that quite a few “dream job” hired have earned before, and just like that, the ultimate Michigan man was out of a gig, replaced by… the ultimate Michigan man part two (but that’s for another day).
In the years that followed, flunked out of a trio of make-work jobs, first as Oregon’s defensive coordinator for its disastrous 2016 season, then as Tennessee’s… uhh… something, and then as the defensive line coach for the Carolina Panthers. Just about every staff he joined was immediately fired after his arrival, which is honestly more an indictment of his agent than it is of him.
Seemingly headed for an early (or somewhat early, the man is 63 after all) retirement, Hoke reentered the job market and caught on with San Diego State head coach Rocky Long, whom Hoke had hired a decade prior when he was the head coach at SDSU after Long had been fired from New Mexico. When Long decided that he didn’t want to be a head coach anymore after the 2019 season, he recommended that Hoke succeed him in the role. SDSU agreed, and Hoke became the head coach of the Aztecs – one of the most unique jobs in the Mountain West – for the second time in his career.
It was a move met largely with jeering from those in and around college football who had last seen Hoke in the sport as something of a joke, and a man fired from four straight jobs. He hadn’t been a head coach since the debacle at Michigan and wasn’t exactly a hot commodity. The SDSU job is unique, but it could get someone with a bigger name than Hoke, yeah?
Well, it could have, but there’s something worth noting now because it wasn’t noted then. Something that Long knew, and that San Diego State knew because it had direct experience with it 10 years prior: Brady Hoke is a really good head football coach.
He peaked at 12-1 after a long build in his first job with Ball State, and then went 9-4 in year two with San Diego State and built a blueprint that Long followed for his entire tenure. He failed at Michigan, spectacularly, but failing in a big job does not a bad head coach make. Hoke is a member of a class of coaches that the sport needs more of. He’s a strong G5 coach, who understands what these programs need to do to win sustainably and can acquire the pieces both on his roster and in his staff to build out a program that can do all of it.
In year two of his second stint, the Aztecs are 9-1 and two wins from a West division title. They field one of the nation’s best defenses, a ridiculously strong special teams unit and an offense that fits Hoke’s identity perfectly, grinding out yards and time of possession to put his defense in a better position to win games. Unless you’re in an extremely specific spot, like Iowa, Kentucky or Wisconsin, you just can’t do that at the P5 level. Purposefully limiting yourself on offense so that you can better position your strong suit to win you the game isn’t going to fly at Michigan, because there’s no real excuse for it when you have top-tier talent, and because largely, it doesn’t really work.
It works here. San Diego State does the bare minimum offensively to hold onto the ball and build out leads that it then relies on its phenomenal defense to hold onto. It flips the field and forces opponents to out-physical the most physical roster in the Mountain West. Just this weekend, SDSU needed only 176 passing yards (among the best it has had this season) from young QB Lucas Johnson to topple the high-flying Nevada Wolf Pack and quarterback Carson Strong, because the SDSU defense held his offense to only 21 points. This style can work in this job, and Hoke is as good as anyone at running it.
Plus, he can rah-rah to his heart’s content. He can quote Schembechler, he can rave about the importance of all three units playing in unison and the skill of his field goal holder and snapper. He can create the culture that he wants to create, without fear of booster interference.
“It was a great team win, and we talked about the team, the team, the team all the time, and it was truly all three units working together," Hoke said this weekend. "The offense had a couple of great drives during the game. They had a really good drive there at the end when we needed it most. The field goal unit of Matt Araiza, (holder) Jack Browning and Jacob Raab snapping, those three components have done a great job all year and did it again today.
"The defense had a stand at the end, and they did a nice job during the game. We have two drives that were a little sloppy and we will fix that. Overall, the defense played a good football game. It is a great win, and now it is time to keep going. We have UNLV next. We have goals, and as hard as these guys work, they still know that we have more work to do.”
And for it, he’s thriving. He looks happier and healthier than he ever did in his dream job.
Meanwhile, back in the Mitten State, Central Michigan head coach Jim McElwain is experiencing pretty much the same thing. After being fired from Florida and publically humiliated in the process – due in large part to his struggles in building a capable offense for a program that requires it – McElwain landed back in the G5 ranks with the Chippewas, touted for his success with Colorado State from 2012-14, which is what landed him the UF job in the first place.
Now in year three, CMU is fresh off a blowout win over MAC East leader Kent State, 52-30. The Chippewas aren’t likely to win the West this year because of a loss to NIU, but they’ve hit a groove offensively with McElwain’s misdirection-heavy rushing attack and QB Daniel Richardson, RB Lew Nichols, WR Dallas Dixon and potentially even star wideout Kalil Pimpleton able to return (though I’d be surprised if the latter does), they should be in the thick of it again next year. Especially assuming almost every other team in the division is going to have to start over at QB.
As it turns out, McElwain too has not forgotten how to run a program – he just didn’t know how to run Florida. As Hoke didn’t know how to run Michigan. These jobs have wildly different requirements than their G5 counterparts. It’s an entirely different world, and while some are built for it, a whole lot of coaches just… aren’t.
Take Hoke’s MWC counterpart at Utah State, Blake Anderson. Anderson is 8-2 with the Aggies, only two very winnable games away from a 10-2 season in year one, and a berth in the conference title game to face off potentially with Hoke and the Aztecs. Anderson is a long-time G5 staple at this point, and after proving himself at Arkansas State, he’s winning with the same ideology in Logan.
For some coaches, this level is ideal. And that’s great. It should be celebrated – standard, even – for a coach to win a lot at the G5 level and just decide that he wants to stick it out there and build something special within a program and a community that he knows. This is arguing against money and power, which is always going to be difficult, but look at the quality of life here. McElwain was joking with his players and in his postgame press conference after their win, saying that the group is purposefully starting slow (Kent State led 14-0 at the end of the first quarter) to make him sweat. At Florida, that kind of comment gets him reprimanded by an overly-involved booster, as does starting down two scores in the first place.
Hoke looks like a new man, winning his way with only the players he wants, rather than top recruits that he needs to land for survival. Anderson seems to be widely loved by his players, who are dancing on the field with the boys after forcing turnovers and generally just having a blast.
There’s nothing wrong with this. It’s a path that plenty of coaches have taken before, and a path that many of them should take again. This trio should stay where they are for as long as they can. Luke Fickell should do the same at Cincinnati and Jeff Traylor should enjoy all 10 of those extension years with UTSA. Finding a perfect program fit is hard. The grass isn't always greener.