On Dec. 18, a new era in Ball State football began as 1982 graduate Brady Hoke was hired by athletics director Bubba Cunningham as the 14th head football coach in the school's history.
Hoke comes to Ball State from Michigan, where he was defensive line coach the past six years and defensive ends coach two years before that. Michigan recently completed a 10-3 season and finished ninth in the polls. In 1997, the Wolverines captured a co-national championship.
Before his stay in Ann Arbor, Hoke coached at Oregon State (1989-94), Toledo (1987-88), Western Michigan (1984-86), Grand Valley State (1983) and nearby Yorktown High School (1982).
Among the players Hoke coached at Michigan are current National Football Leaguers James Hall (Detroit), Glen Steele (Cincinnati) and Josh Williams (Indianapolis).
With Hoke on board, Ball State has now hired two of its last three head coaches from Michigan. Paul Schudel came to Muncie from Ann Arbor in 1985.
Hoke says he will not only use offensive and defensive philosophies from Michigan, but also from the various places he's coached at.
"Overall, we'll be very aggressive in what we do," Hoke said. "Offensively, we'll try to take advantage of what the defense gives us and stretch the field. We'll use multiple sets and make people defend both the run and pass. We don't want to be one-dimensional."
"Defensively, we'll follow my personality and be as aggressive as we can. We're going to sit back and let the other team tee off on us," he said.
Hoke said he will use spring practice to evaluate the players on hand and see what defensive schemes can be used.
"It might be a 3-4 or 4-3," he said. "We'll see what fits with what we have. No matter what the schemes, we'll be aggressive."
A four-year letterwinner and three-year starter as inside linebacker for Ball State, Hoke was a captain in 1980. In 1978 he had 99 tackles as the Cardinals won the Mid-American Conference Championship under the guidance Dwight Wallace. He had 95 stops the next year and 150 in 1980, when he took second-team MAC honors.
Hoke's older brother Jon, a 1979 graduate of Ball State, was defensive coordinator at Florida from 2000-01 and is now coaching defensive backs for the NFL's Houston Texans.
As far as hiring assistant coaches, nothing is official. Hoke says he has met with predecessor Bill Lynch's staff, and that "we are putting together a staff right now."
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