The Early Years

Born on November 3, 1958 in Dayton, Ohio, Brady Hoke is a former college football player and now coach, with a specialism as a defensive line coach.

As an Ohio native, Hoke went to Fairmont East High School in Kettering where he excelled on both the football team as well as the school’s wrestling team. Hoke played as a linebacker and defensive end, a position he became well versed in coaching during his professional career.

Upon graduating high school, Hoke made the move to Muncie, Indiana, where he attended Ball State University. He played for the Cardinals for four seasons as a linebacker, and was notably part of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) championship team in 1978 and also captained his time in 1980.

He successfully graduated from Ball State in 1980 before beginning his career as a college football coach.

Coaching History & Timeline

Hoke remained in Indiana post graduation, and in a similar fashion to other college coaches, Hoke got his start in the high school arena, becoming a defensive coordinator and offensive line coach for Yorktown High School’s football team in 1981.

After two seasons coaching high school football, Hoke made his way into college football, serving as the defensive line coach for Grand Valley State University’s football team.

Having spent a season at Grand Valley State, Hoke had a three season stint at Western Michigan University in the same capacity before moving onto a new role at the University of Toledo in 1987.

He was a linebacker coach at the University of Toledo for two seasons before starting a new role at Oregon State University for five seasons, in what was his longest tenure to date.

Between 1995 and 2003, he applied his skills in strengthening the football team at the University of Michigan. Hoke began his time for the Wolverines as defensive ends coach, then defensive line coach, before adding assistant Head Coach to his resume.

Having gained great experience and producing strong results, he landed his first position as Head Coach at none other than his alma mater, Ball State University in 2003.

His record at Ball State was poor, going 34-38 between 2003-2008 and subsequently moved to San Diego to take up the Head Coaching position for the Aztecs at San Diego State University in 2009.

After just one season he moved back to working rot eh Wolverines, but this time as head coach.

Between 2011 and 2014 Hoke had a successful run, with the Wolverines going 31-20 under his leadership as Head Coach.

Hoke got off to a strong start, leading the Wolverines to a winning season going 11-2 and an All State Sugar Bowl victory. 2012 saw Hoke being applauded for being the first Head Coach to lead the Wolverines to two back to back undefeated home seasons since 1901 and 1902, going 8-5 in the second season.

Hoke spent a year as Defensive coordinator at Oregon University before becoming the Assistant head coach at the University of Tennessee in 2017. He served under Butch Jones until Jones was fired mid season after a terrible loss to Missouri 17-50.

This left Hoke in a precarious position, coming on board as Head Coach for the final two games of what was already a poor season. He was unable to garner any wins, and the Volunteers lost both matches under his leadership. The first was a loss against Louisiana State 10-30 and the final match going 24-42 against Vanderbilt University.

He spent a year on the NFL coaching stage, as Defensive line coach for the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte, before returning to college football at the San Diego State University in 2019.

Present Day

After one year as the defensive line coach for the Aztecs, he returned to the position of Head Coach, a position he held back in 2009. He has been in this position since 2020, and has gained momentum during his second stint going 4-4 in 2020, 12-2 in 2021 and 7-6 in 2022.