Michigan Football Recruiting: Brady Hoke's Personality Winning over Recruits

The No. 1 job of a college football coach is relating to his players.

In the day and age of social media, video games and rap music, it’s hard for 50-year-old coaches to relate to 17-year-olds that have no sense of historical perspective.

Brady Hoke has figured out a way to leap over these hurdles and the result is the No. 7-ranked recruiting class, according to ESPNU.

His outgoing and engaging personality may not be the only reason 11 4-star recruits are flooding towards Ann Arbor, Mich., but it sure does help.

Hoke, 53, is as real as it gets in college football. He doesn’t act like a robot at press conferences like Nick Saban and actually shows a sense of passion on the sidelines. Obviously, there is no statistical measure to figure this out, but few coaches are as energetic and engaged into his players as Hoke.

He wears his emotions on his sleeves—just like his players. He is straight up with them for better or worse and is a rarity in today’s back-stabbing, shady environment of college football recruiting.

Hoke recently conducted an interview with Michigan Alumnus magazine and had an exceptional response when asked about the importance of coaches and mentors:

"

There are a lot of distractions. I think there are more today than there ever were. I had two goals in college: I wanted to play football, probably drink every beer in Muncie, Ind. I'm not proud of that. But that's the way it was for two years. I've got great parents; I knew right from wrong. But if I hadn't had the coaches I had, I wouldn't be sitting here, because they had an impact on how I wanted to proceed the last couple years in college. You learn from those things. When I talk to recruits and parents, I tell them that story.

"

That’s as real as it gets.

It’s no mistake Michigan has a top-10 recruiting class with Hoke now on board. He tells his player’s stories like the one above and the kids realize he was in their shoes once upon a time as well. Considering how much time players spend with their coach in any given week, they want more than just an angry man screaming at them. They want a friend, they want a guy they can relate to, they want a mentor that won’t make them do 20 push-ups for not calling him "sir."

While he may not have the offensive mind of Steve Spurrier or the defensive competency of Saban, he is winning over recruits with a unique style that is going to make Michigan a BCS contender for a long time.