Ball State coach Brady Hoke denied an ESPN report that said he'll meet with Auburn about its coaching vacancy, according to the Muncie Star Press.
"I'm not meeting with anybody," Hoke told The Star Press. "That report is false. No schools have contacted me."
ESPN ran across its ticker last night that Joe Schad was reporting the sixth-year Ball State coach would meet with Auburn sometime this week. There was no corresponding story with the news blip.
Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs, who is in New York for the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame function, is expected to interview Buffalo's Turner Gill in the next few days. Hoke was in New York to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman, a Ball State grad.
Hoke's Cardinals went 12-0 in the regular season before losing in the MAC championship to Buffalo, which is coached Turner Gill, who is slated to interview with Auburn sometime in the near future.
Hoke, who was a longtime Lloyd Carr assistant at Michigan, is 34-38 in six years at Ball State. But he got the Cardinals to their first bowl game in 11 years last season. Their 12 wins this season is a school record.
5 comments:
Coach Hoke will be a guest on Letterman Monday night.
I don't know, The MAC is an extremely weak conference. Ball State did not play one single top 25 team all season, and Buffalo only played two (lost to Missouri and beat Ball State). Needless to say both teams had extremely weak schedules and Buffalo still managed to lose 5 games.
Forgive me if I'm not too excited about Auburn digging around the MAC looking for its next coach. But on the flip side, everybody has to start somewhere and maybe these two guys are the next Urban Meyer and Pete Carroll. For Auburn to hire one of these MAC guys will be a big gamble.
Remember that Urban Meyer went through Utah before he got to Florida, even it was for only two years.
Going from the MAC to any BCS conference is a pretty big jump. Especially when expectations are going to be so high going to a place like Auburn.
Before Urban Meyer went Utah, he was the coach at Bowling Green State. Bowling Green is a MAC school so the MAC can produce a few winners.
If you Google "Cradle of Coaches" you'll find that title refers to Ohio University (a member of the MAC) which has produced more than a few coaches that could be termed "winners" - Red Blaik, Paul Brown, Ara Parseghian, Woody Hayes, Jim Trssel, etc.
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