Ex-Michigan HC Brady Hoke Replaces Rocky Long as San Diego State's Head Coach

Brady Hoke is heading back to Southern California. The former Michigan coach is rejoining San Diego State University, where he was head coach for two seasons from 2009-10 before the Wolverines came calling. 

The school announced Hoke's hiring on Wednesday. 

Hoke previously led the Aztecs to their first bowl victory at the Poinsettia Bowl in 2010 after going 9-4 that season. He was 13-12 overall at the school.

The 61-year-old replaces retiring coach Rocky Long, who took over the job after Hoke left for the Big Ten. 

In many ways, Hoke's departure from San Diego State in 2010 altered the entire course of his career.

An up-and-coming head coach in the college ranks who'd spent time overseeing a variety of defensive position groups at Power Five schools, Hoke had just gotten settled in his second job as a Group of Five coach—leaving Ball State to join SDSU—when Michigan decided to part ways with Lloyd Carr-successor Rich Rodriguez.

On paper, Hoke was the perfect replacement for the Wolverines. He'd been an assistant under Carr from 1995-2002, ascending to associate head coach in his final season before taking the head coaching job at his alma mater, Ball State. 

In six years with the Cardinals, Hoke's teams went from barely reaching four wins per year to competing for conference titles in the Mid-American Conference. in 2008, his last year before leaving for San Diego State, Hoke's team went 12-2, knocking off both Navy and Indiana before ultimately falling to Tulsa in the GMAC Bowl—a game Hoke didn't coach in. 

A quick turnaround at San Diego State, where the Aztecs went from four wins in his first season to nine wins a year later, put him near the top of the list for Michigan when it came time to replace Rodriguez. 

But Hoke didn't last much longer than his predecessor in Ann Arbor. After finishing his first season with 11 wins and a Sugar Bowl victory, Hoke's teams nosedived, winning fewer games each year until he was fired after a five-win 2014 season. 

The Ohio native would bounce around the sidelines for a few years in the NFL and college ranks before he landed back at SDSU as a defensive line coach on Long's staff in 2019. 

A decade after he first got to San Diego, Hoke has another opportunity to mold the program as he sees fit, the latest stop on his path to redemption after falling from grace in Michigan.