As much as I'd like to run the big bus on Hoke over this one, based on what we have to go on right now there really isn't anything to get riled up about in regards to the fat oaf.
He couldn't come out and say anything directly about what was really going on with Gibbons so he made some "family matters" bull[Mark May] up. That's really not a lie in my mind just the closest thing to an artful dodge a very simple mind was capable of at the time.
I do however question the direction of his moral compass if he was appraised of the situation internally and allowed those two pieces of [Mark May] to still be associated with the team and university. To be fair now, his moral compass could be way out of whack given the distortion of the gravitational fields caused by his excessive mass.
So "what did Hoke know and when" tempered by the realization that "know" for Hoke means something different than it means for people with an IQ over 80, is my general stance at this point. Meanwhile, Gibbons and Lewan need to be in jail getting ass fucked by a biker gang asap.