Hoke's "Good Man" Label Needs To Be Put On The Sideline [BLOG]
By: Mike Feld
@iammikefeld
Please stop telling me Brady Hoke is a good man.
I have no idea who Brady Hoke is as a person, and neither do you.
All I know about Hoke is what I can find in Google searches and in feature stories written about the man.
Unless you're his friend, his family member, his colleague or one of his former players, you don't know much about him, either.
Here's what I know: Brady Hoke is a football coach. He cares about his team first.
Sometimes, integrity takes a hit along the way for the betterment of the program. The truth is, this isn't Hoke's first time dealing with integrity issues.
Remember last winter, when kicker Brendan Gibbons was dismissed from the team right before the bowl game? Hoke led the general public to believe it was a personal issue that led to his absence from Michigan's loss to Kansas State in December.
The reality was, of course, that Gibbons was removed – not just from the team, but from the campus as well – for an alleged sexual assault that occurred four years previous to that game. Former lineman Taylor Lewan, who was heavily considered one of the team's leaders and mentors last season, was named in the police report as well. The report indicated Lewan allegedly attempted to intimidate the young woman to protect Gibbons.
It's hard to believe that Hoke didn't know about the detailed and graphic police report. He allowed Gibbons and Lewan to play all four years after that report, save for Gibbons in that one game.
Where was the outrage back then? Many people that were on campus or close to the program knew about the report and didn't understand why the news was considered "breaking" last February. And even after it broke, it didn't take long for it to go away.
The truth is that no one was paying attention. Hoke is a football coach – and back then, he was a winning football coach. I'm not one to make any accusations, but Hoke continued to use a player involved in a sexual assault complaint while his team racked up wins.
And as those wins racked up, fans didn't seem to mind.
The reality is that this is not a debate on Hoke's character or personality; it's a debate on his win-loss record. When you win, things go away. When you lose, everything you do becomes magnified.
Don't believe me? Take a look at one of Michigan's rivals – the same one that opted out of a contract with Blue and housed it 31-0 in its final meeting.
As far as coaches with off-the-field blemishes go, there are few that pack a punch quite like Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly.
In 2010, a Notre Dame student named Lizzy Seeberg accused a Notre Dame football player of sexual assault. While campus police twiddled their thumbs – 10 days to be exact – players allegedly harassed Seeberg via text, telling her "messing with Notre Dame with football is a bad idea."
After those 10 days, she took her own life. No one was disciplined for the incident.
Then there was Declan Sullivan, the Notre Dame student who died in 2010 while videotaping practice on a scissor lift during dangerous wind conditions.
And of course, there was the academic fraud investigation to start the season, which included four players allegedly having someone else do their classwork.
But Brian Kelly is doing something no coach has done at Notre Dame in 20 years: win.
He's 41-15 at Notre Dame, which includes a National Championship Game appearance.
Brady Hoke has no connection to what has happened at Notre Dame. He does have control over what has happened in Ann Arbor.
In the end, it does not matter if Hoke is a "good guy." While his career choice entails endless hours of hard work in all facets of college athletics, his job boils down to three areas: winning football games, holding his players accountable for actions and holding himself accountable for actions.
In all instances, Brady Hoke has failed.
