Minutes after it was announced that Les Miles is staying at LSU, the plane that Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon has been using departed for Santa Ana, California. The plane, which is owned by Domino's Pizza, was in Baton Rouge last night. It returned to Willow Run Airport following Brandon's meeting with Miles and was in Dallas, Scottsdale and Las Vegas last week.
It's obviously unknown if Brandon is for sure on this plane, which is scheduled to land at John Wayne Airport at 5:57 p.m. ET, but let's connect the dots. In the last hour it came out that Miles is staying at LSU, meaning Michigan needs to move on to another candidate for its head coaching job. Quickly a flight was scheduled to leave Willow Run Airport for Santa Ana, which is about an hour and a half away from San Diego. That, of course, is the location of San Diego State head coach and former Michigan assistant Brady Hoke.
This is all based on speculation and circumstantial evidence, but it appears Brandon has moved on to Hoke. Hoke has been considered Michigan's ultimate fallback option from the second Rich Rodriguez was fired, as it is no secret that coaching Michigan is Hoke's dream job. With Miles deciding to stay at LSU, it appears that Hoke's dream may be about to become a reality, as I'd be willing to bet that he has a meeting scheduled for tonight with Dave Brandon.