Is Hokeamania real?

Michigan fans are in love. They're absolutely smitten.

After three years of Rich Rodriguez committing essentially every crime you can against a tradition-rich Midwest program (losing, recruiting midgets, bringing the NCAA to town, losing), Michigan fans were a downtrodden bunch. The fact they weren't able to close the deal with native son Jim Harbaugh, and that it took much longer than it should have to hire Hoke, a guy who would have crawled from San Diego on broken glass to coach there, didn't help.

But in a six-month span, without having coached a single game at the Big House, Brady Hoke has turned Michigan fans' frown upside down.

Why? The man -- and his staff -- are bringing in a damn fine recruiting class. There's no better way to make a fanbase forget about past on-field failures and fill them with giddy optimism than to snag some four-star players. And when you're at Michigan, especially after what has happened the last three years, you better snag every stud player in the state -- which Hoke has done.

So is this real? Are we really witnessing a turnaround of Michigan's fortunes before the team even steps on the field? Yes, we are (kind of).

Michigan has always been a recruiting giant, and it's on that same path again. It's alumni network stretches across the country and kids everywhere know Michigan. More importantly, it's a giant in the Midwest, where it only has to share giant status with two other schools -- Ohio State and Notre Dame. Since Notre Dame does most of its recruiting nationally, and has historically pulled from Catholic school around the country, Michigan has long fought almost solely with Ohio State for recruits from the region. Of course, Michigan State has made a little run when it came to in-state talent as of late, which didn't sit well with the Wolverine faithful, so to have a lock on the state again is being considered a victory.

Michigan has also been doing pretty well on a grander scale. It pulled in a high four-star lineman from California and a four-star lineman out of SEC country. That's not an easy task. The Wolverines are also considered to be sitting well with another highly-rated lineman, this one from Arizona.

Michigan is bringing in one heck of a class, there's no question about that.

Before we crown Hoke as the next Urban Meyer/Nick Saban/Pete Carroll of the recruiting world, however, we should probably wait another cycle. Hoke stepped into one hell of a situation for Michigan in recruiting. Outside of the two lineman I mentioned, the class of 18 is almost exclusively made up of kids from Michigan and Ohio. And the two that aren't are from Illinois and Kentucky.

It's an above average year for Midwest recruiting, which is helping the class. But you could make the argument this recruiting class is a lot more about Michigan being Michigan than it is about Hoke or even Greg Mattison. Kids from Michigan want to go to Michigan. Rodriguez still recruited the state, but not as hard as the school has in the past, mainly because the type of athlete we have here didn't match the profile he was looking for.

Hoke wants big Midwestern linemen and big Midwestern linebackers and midget corners from Cass Tech. All is well with the world again.

Throw in the fact that recruiting rival No. 1 is about to get hit with the NCAA banhammer, and you've got yourself one hell of a class without trying all that hard (and Hoke is trying, which is why the Wolverines are at a Texas-like 18 in June).

As long as Hoke and Co. aren't awful on the field, Michigan should continue to recruit well in the Midwest, while pulling the occasional big-time prospect from other parts of the country. If this sounds exactly like the Lloyd Carr days, it's because it is exactly like the Lloyd Carr days. But something tells me that after Rodriguez, Michigan fans are OK with that, even if it means a yearly de-pantsing in a bowl game.

So yeah, Hokemania is real. It's a stunning case of "Don't know what you've got till it's gone," but it's real, nonetheless.