Pat Hoke never doubted her son, Brady, would make it back to the University of Michigan after previously serving as an assistant football coach in Ann Arbor. Proof is the fact that this Ohio mom never discarded her Michigan football sweater, and once again donned it the day her son was named the 19th U-M Head Football Coach.

Lucy Ann Lance & Dean Erskine, who host the U-M Football Tailgates for the Michigan Football Network, talked with Coach Hoke this past week on 1290 WLBY. The team is preparing for the annual Spring Game on Saturday, April 16, at Michigan Stadium. The noon event is free with the gates opening at 9 a.m. Visit www.MGoBlue.com for details.

Lucy Ann: Championships?

Coach Hoke: 42!

Lucy Ann: Years?

Coach Hoke: 132!

Lucy Ann: Beat?

Coach Hoke: Ohio!

Lucy Ann: Yes!

Coach Hoke: There you go - you’ve been indoctrinated!

Lucy Ann: Coach, you do that with your guys every time you meet.

Coach Hoke: There’s no doubt we want to hold those traditions and those legacies close to us and remind ourselves everyday of what is important, and having that accountability.

Lucy Ann: How does all of this feel to you, doing a job that has been your dream?

Coach Hoke: This is a special place from the academics to the history and traditions of Michigan football. All of the great men who have worn the winged helmet- for all of us - it’s where we’ve always wanted to be. It’s great working with these kids.

Dean Erskine: Coach, after you left U-M you had a couple of head coaching jobs in which you had to come in with programs that were down and you successfully raised them up. You are in the same kind of situation here in Ann Arbor.

Coach Hoke: Getting a bunch of guys to play together and be accountable on the field and off the field, as well as the life lessons that you teach through athletics, the game of football, is all a part of it. Our focus is mentoring these young guys so when they graduate they will be great husbands and fathers, and people who go back and give to their communities and be great leaders. They learn a lot through the game of football.

Lucy Ann: I think that emanates from you and from your family life.

Coach Hoke: I come from a big football family. That includes my wife, Lauren, and her mom and dad, and my mom and dad. They loved what it has done for us as a family and the life lessons that my brother and I both learned playing the game.

Lucy Ann: The new Mott Children’s Hospital will feature a one-of-a-kind Michigan Football Experience Room, an interactive play area for the patients to experience what it’s like to be a Wolverine football player. Mott and Michigan Football have been partners for a long time.

Coach Hoke: I think it’s one of the great things about our football program at Michigan. We love what we do for those kids and it reciprocates on our end with our athletes seeing what they are going through. It is a win-win for everybody!

Lucy Ann: The Michigan Spring Game serves as a fundraiser for the construction of the new Mott Children’s Hospital. While the game is free, fans can make a donation when they enter the gates and receive Michigan collectibles in return. Donate $5 and get a 5” x 7” Charles Woodson or Desmond Howard trading card. Which one would you want, Coach?

Coach Hoke: That’s a tough one. They are both great Michigan men who have had tremendous careers. Charles is still playing, and everything Desmond is doing for ESPN and college football. I’d take either one and probably give $10.

Lucy Ann: Many people think the hiring of Greg Mattison away from the Baltimore Ravens to run the defense is the single most impactful thing you’ve done so far. How have you stayed in contact over the years, and how did that help you hire Mattison?

Coach Hoke: Greg and I have been friends for over 20 years. He’s one of those guys I always would talk to, and I’m not one of those guys who calls a lot of people on the phone. Greg’s character and love for Michigan, the way he interacts with players, and how he teaches the game, I think it was a no-brainer. We are glad he’s here.

Lucy Ann: Quarterback Denard Robinson seems to be a model player on and off the field. What kind of growth do you see in Denard yet to come?

Coach Hoke: There is always continuous growth. Both the quarterbacks, Denard and Devin Gardner, have done a tremendous job. Our offensive coordinator (Al Borges) is an outstanding football coach by his own right and I think they both have really buckled down to learn the offense and get their feet planted on the ground. They’ve done a good job.

Dean Erskine: Is there going to be a difference in the offense we’ve seen and the new Brady Hoke offense?

Coach Hoke: This will be more of a pro-style offense. Denard ran the same offense in high school, so he is comfortable taking the snap under center, we are going to be using two backs in the back field, and also use our personnel. You always want to look at the strength of the team and what guys can do. There will be some elements of the spread still in there, but I think that Al has done a great job at implementing and getting the ball into the playmaker’s hands.

Dean Erskine: I’m old enough to remember the offense under Bo Schembechler and his first year. His teams threw the ball a lot back in 1969 because he had a guy who could throw the ball. So you have the same philosophy.

Coach Hoke: You have to do what you do best. Denard has shown that he is a dangerous man with the ball in his hands. Some of the surprise might be how well he sits in the pocket, evaluates the field and throws the ball from a conventional pro-style offense.

Lucy Ann: What are the relative strengths of your running backs? Who has more of the complete package?

Coach Hoke: We are still evaluating that. As we go through the spring, we will have more of a complete depth chart of where guys are but I think that all the backs (and I would be remiss to just name one) have had good days and have done a good job at learning the offense, and learning the power play.

Lucy Ann: Smith, Cox, Hopkins, Toussaint, Shaw, and your true freshmen Rawls and Hayes, as well.

Coach Brady Hoke: You can’t have enough of those guys. Nine times out of 10, the best guy on the field is going to be the running back. So when you have those guys, down the road you may have a chance to play a guy in a different position if he is not in that top three, and you are going to have a good athlete on the field.

Dean Erskine: It is a fabulous home schedule: the night game with Notre Dame; Nebraska; Ohio State. It’s going to be a great season.

Coach Hoke: It is a great schedule. I think the only game I’m not so sure about is that San Diego State game on Sept 24. I don’t know who did that scheduling, but they are going to have a good team.

Lucy Ann: That’s going to be hard for you to coach, having just left there to come to Michigan.

Coach Hoke: At the end of the day, it comes down to San Diego State coming here to Michigan.

Dean Erskine: Obviously you don’t want to talk about specific schools, but controversies are coming up with players and benefits. Is it tougher now than it used to be keeping an eye on the players?

Coach Hoke: You can’t be with them 24 hours a day. You have to do a good enough job educating them on what’s acceptable, what is not acceptable, where the standards are, the NCAA rules. It gives college football a black eye, but I can tell you there are more good stories than the ones you read about. Sometimes I think the good stories need to be told more often.

Lucy Ann: It’s also how we handle the bad times. With the mounting scandals facing the NCAA, what do you do to proactively show your players that true success is only gained without shortcuts and cheating?

Coach Hoke: We talk about it every day. When we start those meetings, there will be an administrative piece where I talk about what the expectations are for everybody in Schembechler Hall and how we are going to be a program of integrity with high character. We are going to do things the right way. That is where the message has to start and we’ll use some of the examples as a learning tool.

Lucy Ann: What can the NCAA do to protect fair competition and the interest of these athletes?

Coach Hoke: I don’t know if they can. I don’t know how many people can police all these schools, and I am just talking about the football side of it. I think there are some common sense things we should all be aware, but at the same time there are a lot of distractions. I think it also has to do with media access and technology. You hear about things at a much quicker pace.

Lucy Ann: You have been married to your wife for how long?

Coach Hoke: Going on 31 years.

Lucy Ann: And you were grade school friends?

Coach Hoke: Yes, I married my best friend going into senior year of college and she is my best friend to this day.

Lucy Ann: Tell us about your daughter, Coach.

Coach Hoke: She is the best, and we are very blessed and fortunate. She lives and works out in Tempe, Arizona. She is a football fanatic and probably knows more about the game than a lot of people. She just wishes she could play!

Lucy Ann: What does she do?

Coach Hoke: She works for a start-up company called Unicorn Media and has been there for a few years now, and will be back here hopefully a bit.

Lucy Ann: What are we going to see at the Spring Game?

Coach Hoke: It will be what we usually do on Saturdays - learning the game, scrimmaging. We have things we need to be improving on, the number one being a competitive nature.

Lucy Ann Lance and Dean Erskine are co-owners of Lance & Erskine Communications, which produces “The Lucy Ann Lance Business Insider” (M-F, 8 a.m.-11 a.m.) and “The Lucy Ann Lance Show” (Saturdays, 9 a.m.-12 p.m.) on 1290 WLBY. The programs are live streamed at www.1290WLBY.com, and podcast on www.lucyannlance.com. The complete audio interview with Coach Brady Hoke is posted on their website.