Brady Hoke NFF keynote speaker Toledo and Kovacs guest speaker 3/10

Brady Hoke was the keynote speaker at the National Football Foundation’s 52nd Annual Scholar-Athlete Dinner put on by the Toledo Wistert Chapert of the NFF. The Toledo Wistert Chaper of the NFF acknowledges the exceptional accomplishments of selected senior football players from the area. The criteria to be chosen in three-fold: The player must be at least All-League, have a GPA of at least 3.2 and be involved in his school and community away from football.

The evening for me started out with an hour long private reception where there were beverages and only about eight tables.  Coach Hoke went up to each table for pictures and got a chance to talk to people.  He came up to our table and introduced himself, "Hi my name is Brady  Hoke", which I though was pretty cool he thought he would have to introduce himself.  After taking a picture with him we talked about the excitment for team 135 and his favorite pizza joint in town, Gino's.

Kovacs came in and told the whole group a story.  He was having lunch with his girlfriend when he got a text from Hoke, "COME SEE ME AT NOON".  Jordan didn't get a chance to eat his lunch before leaving his girlfriend as it was 11:45.  After running across campus worrying that somthing had to be wrong for him to want to see him so quickly he finally got to Hoke.  Hoke then asked him how he felt about wearing #11 to honor the Wistert brothers to which Jordan responded "this couldn't wait 30 minutes!".

After the reception Kovacs introduced Brady Hoke at the awards dinner, but not before letting everyone know about Hoke. 1. He always txt's in caps. 2. On gameday he wakes up the d-line by body slamming their beds.  3.  He though Kovacs was an accountant until senior year he told Coach that he was a Kinesiology major 4. Hoke does not eat on gameday and he gets "butterflies" in his stomach to which he added must have been some big tasty butterflies. 5. He points A LOT and even mentioned hokepoints.tmblr.com.  He finished off with a joke saying that although it's a step down from last years speaker who was Brian Kelly, Brady Hoke is not chicken.

Hoke then came up and talked about his years at Ball State and how he had too much fun and was there to play football for his two years and was not until his Coach, Dwight Wallace got him to get his act together.  He graduated with a degree in crimal justice and aspired to be a secret service agent.  After having a job in his field of study he was asked to Coach a high school football team and took it up.  After a couple of games he told his wife this is what I want to do, help young men grown like my coach did for me at Ball State. 

Hoke said he has three things he always talks to recruits when he is on the the recruitng trail.  1.  You have to have commitment, accountablity, respect and trust for you and for your team.  2.  Honor your name on the back of your jersey. 3. Have in mind what you want to do once you earn your degree at the University of Michigan.