San Diego State head coach Brady Hoke is expected to retire at season's end, sources told FootballScoop on Monday. ESPN's Pete Thamel first reported the news.
The move happens as San Diego State finds itself at a crossroads. Six months ago, SDSU was preparing to leave the Mountain West for the Pac-12, with its men's basketball team one month removed from a national title game appearance and its football team riding a string of 12 straight winning seasons (2020 not included).
Now, there is no Pac-12 after this season, and the Aztecs find themselves at 3-7, doomed to their first sub-.500 season since 2009, Hoke's first first season in San Diego.
In his second tenure at the school, Hoke took the Aztecs to a Mountain West championship and an AP Top 25 finish in 2021, but the team slipped to 7-6 in 2022 and now 3-7 following a 22-19 loss to struggling Colorado State.
Hoke is 104-91 as a head coach dating back to 2003. His 6-season tenure at Ball State concluded with the best season in school history -- an undefeated regular season that saw the Cardinals climb as high as No. 12 in the AP poll. That success earned him the San Diego State job, and two seasons later he was the head coach at Michigan. Hoke went 31-20 at Michigan, highlighted by an 11-2 season with a Sugar Bowl victory and a No. 12 finish in 2011. He went 39-31 in his second run at SDSU.
A former Ball State linebacker, Hoke began coaching in 1981 at Indiana's Yorktown High School. His first college coaching job came as the D-line coach at Grand Valley State in 1983. Hoke was the defensive line coach on the Michigan team that won the 1997 national championship.
Hoke won Coach of the Year honors three times in the four seasons between 2008-11, in three separate conferences -- MAC (2008), Mountain West (2010) and Big Ten (2011). He also won the 2021 Mountain West coach of the year honor.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.
Update: San Diego State has announced the move.
"I am proud of what we accomplished at San Diego State," Hoke said. "I am grateful to all the great student-athletes I've had the chance to work with, molding them into men, husbands, fathers and pillars in the community. I will always cherish my time leading this program. I'd also like to thank the wonderful staff I've worked with and wish them the best in the future."
"I am very appreciative for the work Brady Hoke has done with our football program at San Diego State both on and off the field," AD John David Wicker said. "Brady set the standard in 2009 when he first arrived on The Mesa that we now hold ourselves too. However, it's more than wins and losses. Brady created a culture, led our program thru COVID, played two entire seasons in Carson, including a 12-win campaign, and takes seriously the development of young men off the field as well as on. I wish Kelly, Laura and Brady a happy retirement!"