The Hoke Era is about half way through its 1st season and being 5-0 has been a great start. Starting 5-0 is going great for Michigan Football, but the record hasn’t come easy a lot of the games have been ugly.
Starting out against Western Michigan, Brady Hoke got his first win in about three quarters of play winning 34-10. Michigan in the 1st half struggled against Western QB Alex Carder (who is one hell of a QB) and it initially seemed like he couldn’t be stopped. Matching Michigan’s first couple drive’s and then going into the half Michigan was up 20-10 and for many this was a disappointing. Coming back in the second half Michigan Defense Started to take over the game by basically taking Alex Carder out of game by putting a ton of pass rushing on him. It was now getting close to the end of the third quarter with Michigan up 34-10. Finally this was the quarter of Michigan football fans wanted to see.
Next up was the most hyped game of the season where Michigan turned it’s newly installed lights on for the first night game in the Big House’s history. In this game Michigan invited one of their bitter rivals Notre Dame being led by Head Coach Brian Kelly. This proved not be an easy game for Michigan. Notre Dame went into this game like a bat out of hell shutting down the Michigan Offense and Torching the Michigan Defense. It was almost certain that this game was over by the 1st quarter . Michigan’s Offense only had 27 yards in the 1st quarter while Notre Dame went down the field on both of their drives racking up 140 yards and was up 14-0. This game was truly Notre Dames to lose at this point and that’s exactly what Notre Dame did. They turned the ball over many times in the redzone allowing Michigan to crawl out of the hole they were in. In the Fourth Quarter fans watched on as Michigan took a 28-24 lead with 1:22 left. Then it was like a punch in the gut when Notre Dame scored a touchdown with 30 seconds left to take the lead 31-28. That’s when I looked over at all the Notre Dame Fans thinking they are about spoil the party. I sat on my seat in the Big House staring into space, when everyone starting yelling that Gallon was running down the field and with 2 seconds remaining D-Rob threw the ball up and some how Roy Roundtree caught his only pass to win the game. Oh what a night.
Eastern Michigan came back to Ann Arbor with former Wolverine defense coordinator Ron English as the Eagle head coach. There’s really to say about this game but just like Broncos’ QB Alex Carder, Eagle QB Andy Gillett seemed like he was making plays all over Michigan’s defense. Michigan’s ground game however came out to play as Vincent Smith had 118 yards and D-Rob had 198 as Michigan rolled 31-3.
Next up, Brady Hoke’s former team San Diego State came to Ann Arbor and with another good QB in Ryan Lindley at the helm. Lindley seemed to be able to move the ball on the Michigan defense however like Notre Dame he was unable to finish drives. Again D-Rob’s legs come through once again to help Michigan earn their 4th win of the season racking up 200 yards on 21 carries, with 3 touchdowns. The final was 28-7 Michigan.
Finally it was time to fight for the Little Brown Jug. This game got hard to watch as Minnesota looked like a JV team out there while Michigan continued to pour on the offense. Vincent Smith had touchdowns rushing, passing and receiving in his team’s first four drives which was rare feat. Michigan dominated this game racking up 384 yards of offense in the first half alone. Eventually Michigan backup QB Devin Gardner came in to finish out the game. The Little Brown Jug ended up staying in Ann Arbor after Michigan won 58-0.
Brady Hoke’s era couldn’t have had a better start going 5-0, a great recruiting class in the making and the support of the fans and alumni. Most of these wins were ugly and many will argue that they were all at home, but in my mind a win is a win, and that’s the only thing that matters at the end of the day. Brady will lose some games, there shouldn’t be any doubt about that. However what’s important now is he’s winning and should be at the helm of Michigan football for a very long time.
SDSU Head Coach Long predicted afterward that Hoke would have great success down the road.
“Brady will win a national championship here,” Long said. “I don’t know how soon it’ll be, but he’ll win a national championship here.”
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