I, for one, was curious but not worried when it was revealed that the University of Minnesota made overtures to San Diego State football coach Brady Hoke early this week. There were more reasons to reject the Gophers job than to take it, with the possible hitch being that UM officials were planning to bury their new hire in cash.
I always saw Hoke here for the long term to build the SDSU program unless someone else made an offer he couldn't refuse, and I didn't see that coming for awhile. Also, based on various media reports in recent years, one gets the impression that Hoke, offensive coordinator Al Borges and defensive coordinator Rocky Long committed to each other -- the only exception being if Borges was given a long-coveted head coaching job.
Now I think conditions are changing, and that Hoke might receive such an offer that he can't turn down. None of the big names connected to the Minnesota job along with him seem realistic to me, and his credentials are right there with other candidates like Al Golden of Temple.
The market is turning into the coaches favor, which will drive up salary offers. The head coach at Vanderbilt resigned, the coach at Indiana is on shaky ground in territory where Hoke is familiar, and Ohio State's rout of Michigan might have ended the star-crossed tenure of Rich Rodriguez in Ann Arbor.
Hoke would be interested in two of those three jobs, and he would be sought-after in both. If for some strange reason Stanford's Jim Harbaugh cast his lot with the Wolverines, it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility for Hoke to end up at The Farm, where he and Borges could salivate over the best offensive line in college football, as well as the best quarterback by far in Andrew Luck, with all due respect to Auburn's Cam Newton.
None of my thinking has anything to do with loyalty to schools, players or coaching colleagues, or SDSU's status as a mere stepping stone. It's all about market forces at work, and those forces are turning against the chances of Hoke remaining in San Diego.
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When all is said and done, I hope Hoke stays. Earlier in the week, I'd have rated the odds 75-25 that he remains at SDSU. Now it's more like 50-50. Hoke has been the perfect head coach for the past almost three calendar years, waking up the sleeping giant of Aztecs football. In a way, his success is what makes him replaceable. Athletic Director Jim Sterk can hire from within or bring someone from the outside who can build on a foundation that is now firm.
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I'm on record of not being fond of former Padres P Jon Garland. He was very little of what he was made out to be when first signed. I'm certainly not going to like him anymore now that he's signed with the Dodgers. I hope he's every bit as wild with LA as he was at Petco.
That said, GM Jed Hoyer has his work cut out for him.
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