POCATELLO, Idaho- Growing up Merril Hoge had a goal of playing in the National Football League. While many told him he couldn't do it, Hoge was determined to find a way to accomplish his goal. The theme of "Find a Way" became his mantra when he was 12 and he continues to teach people across the country the importance of working hard to achieve success in all areas of life.
During the first three years of Hoge's high school career at Highland he wasn't sure how his goal of playing in the NFL was going to be accomplished. Not being highly recruited, Hoge's focus was to make the most of whatever opportunity he had to play college football.
"I didn't know what a scholarship was until my senior year," Hoge said. "I wanted to start as a freshman. I didn't care where that was. I didn't have my heart set on any university. I wasn't highly recruited. I would argue that I only had one scholarship and that was Idaho State and that one was almost given to a running back in Mountain Home."
Upon arriving at Idaho State, Hoge made the most of his time as a Bengal setting many ISU single-season and career records. He still holds the record for most rushing attempts in a season with 213 in 1984. He owns two of the Top 10 rushing marks for a season as his 1,041 yards in 1985 ranks fifth and the 900 yards in 1984 is the ninth best single-season mark in program history.
Hoge's 192.1 all-purpose yards per-game in 1985 still ranks first in the ISU record books. For his career Hoge ranks second in rushing attempts (591), third in rushing yards (2,713) and second in rushing touchdowns with 31.
Little would Hoge realize at the time that the offense the Bengals and other schools in the Big Sky Conference ran, would prepare him for his NFL success.
"The Big Sky Conference was superbly advanced in college football with a pro-style offense," Hoge said. "ISU, Idaho, Weber, Nevada, NAU all ran it. We had a very pro-style system here. We ran from split-backs, I-Backs and did all the things NFL teams were doing. When I got to the NFL and what I noticed right away was that the kids from Michigan, Florida, Georgia or LSU had no concept on how to run a route or to pass block. In the NFL you have 48 hours to really make your mark. The conference I played in really trained me to adapt to that because I did that for four years."
Hoge added that, "When other colleges were not doing it, the Big Sky Conference was. We had more of an NFL flavor to what we did than any conference in the country."
Following Hoge's career at ISU he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers and found great success there as a running back.
Hoge played a year for the Bears before ending his career because of concussions. Hoge continues to be a spokesperson on concussion prevention and treatment.
Hoge currently serves as an NFL analyst on ESPN. He calls his involvement on television an accident but one he is grateful for.
His broadcast career started in his first year with the Steelers when he joined a local radio show on Friday's to talk about the upcoming game.
"I start doing the show from our PR director's office," Hoge said. "It became popular and people liked it."
Going into his second season another opportunity presented itself to do a live 30 minute radio segment at the top rock station in Pittsburgh each Monday.
"There one catch was I had to go to the station and do it live in studio," Hoge said. "The first day I went there I opened the door and I had never been in a studio setting. Something just grabbed me. I wanted to do this. It evolved from there. I had no intentions of doing television. It was a luck accident that I am grateful for."
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