Wednesday night I posted video of new Michigan football coach Brady Hoke referring to UM’s Buckeye rivals as “Ohio” over and over and over again.

At the time I posted the footage, I wasn’t completely sure that Hoke had deliberately enacted an abbreviation-based embargo on Michigan’s interstate neighbors.

Now I am.

Today I was sent a photo of a rather unique clock currently on prominent display in the Michigan football team’s weight room that rules out Hoke’s halfway characterization of the Buckeyes as anything other than gamesmanship. The Wolverines coach has installed a reverse countdown clock in the UM conditioning facility that tracks the exact time ’til Michigan takes the field against Ohio State on Nov. 26, 2011. Under the clock’s display is a Buckeye football helmet and the words, “BEAT OHIO.”

But “Ohio” isn’t the only UM rival assigned such in-house hokum by the Wolverines coach.

Hoke also has a backwards-running clock for Michigan’s Oct. 15, 2011, East Lansing engagement with Michigan State.

A supposed quote by Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio - apparently uttered at a recent gathering of Ohio high school football coaches in Columbus - is also noted by a sign erected in the same UM training area: Read more…

So far during his young tenure, new Michigan coach Brady Hoke has repeatedly taken to calling UM’s Columbus-based arch rival “Ohio” instead of the more customary “Ohio State.”

Having covered Ohio State football as a local, credentialed media member myself for several years, I can assure you that Hoke’s insistence on abbreviating The Ohio State University during press conferences and interviews, whether deliberate or not, is not going over well in Columbus.

And though his “State” embargo doesn’t extend to East Lansing, what else is Hoke supposed to call the Spartans?

UPDATE: It’s official. I talked to a UM athletic department staff member Thursday morning and was told that Hoke is indeed engaging in some gamesmanship with the Ohio “State” embargo.

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Outspoken former San Diego State and NFL star Kyle Turley guested on the Scott and B.R. Show on XX 1090 in San Diego this week to talk about the departure of Aztec football coach Brady Hoke to Michigan.

(Audio highlights below? Yesssir)

Combine one of my favorite radio shows, as the Scott Kaplan & Billy Ray Smith production has been for many years, with one of the few sports personalities who’ll unmute my ‘puter for more than a couple-six seconds and,  welp  … let’s just say that’s when the magic happens.

I can attest that the entire interview is a verifiable treasure already worthy enshrinement into the pantheon of great radio moments like Orson Welles‘ 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast, Russ Hodges’ “The Giants win the Pennant! The Giants win the Pennant!” call in 1951, and the complete archive of  David Lee Roth’s New York morning shows following his ascension into Howard Stern’s terrestrial radio timeslot. (Both weeks.)

Enough gush, some snipped clips:
Read more…

The University of Michigan announced today on its official sports site and Twitter feed that it had hired former San Diego State football coach Brady Hoke as its new football coach.

Hoke, who most recently spent six years turning around the Ball State football program and two years as head football coach at San Diego State, was defensive line for eight seasons under coach Lloyd Carr at Michigan. Read more…

The Rivals.com Michigan football website reports Tuesday afternoon:

Sources tell us (San Diego State head football coach Brady) Hoke has informed his staff he would meet with Michigan, with a plane en route to pick him up and bring him back to Ann Arbor. Due to the travel schedule it is unlikely an announcement would come today, but if a deal is made, it could be announced Wednesday.

Further fueling speculation that San Diego State head football coach Brady Hoke could be Michigan’s next head football coach was that the private plane used by Michigan Athletic Director Dave Brandon to travel to Baton Rouge to meet with Les Miles was seen flying to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California today. (Airport is located between L.A. and San Diego.)

Brent Schrotenboer of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE also reported today that Hoke was recruiting in the vicinity of John Wayne airport.

On December 10, 2010, Schrotenboer reported a conversation he had with current San Diego State President Stephen Weber about Hoke’s career aspiration: Read more…