football

RT'd by Brian. Proppe is the former student president at Michigan who took the AD to task when the student seating fiasco went down. 

Hearing from several students who attended Schlissel's fire chat that he signaled AD needs a culture change. Read into that what you will.

— Michael Proppe (@mikeproppe) October 8, 2014

By AD I mean athletic department. Was a question about whether that meant a change in leadership, and Schlissel did not rule it out.

— Michael Proppe (@mikeproppe) October 8, 2014

I wasn't there, but several students did all relay the same thing to me. So, as I said, read into it what you will.

— Michael Proppe (@mikeproppe) October 8, 2014

IMO, since Bo left, UM has often looked not at the strength of its leaders but their weaknesses.  So, it has often chosen opposite, new leaders who lack these weaknesses, but who often also lack the strengths of their predecessors.  And that has led to serious problems.

Consider first coaching.  UM went from the defensively-principled, tough-as-nails Bo to the offensively-minded Moeller.  But Moeller was perceived to have an alcohol problem, which he reportedly refused to get help for.  So (regardless of the truth or falsity of this perception), UM turned to a man they perceived as more principled and intelligent Carr.  Yet, when Carr’s record began to plateau, he was called too old and predictable.  So, UM turned to the inventive spread-coach, RR.  But his defensive incompetence then made UM go the opposite way.  So, now UM is back to a defensive-minded but offensively disorganized Hoke. 

In choosing its AD, UM also has seemed to choose each succeeding leader as the opposite of his predecessor.  For example, under the cloud of scandal, the aggressive fund-raiser, Roberson was replaced as AD by his opposite: the less profit-minded, more flamboyant and humanistic Goss.  Then, after Goss led the UM AD to the brink of financial ruin, UM chose the opposite once again: a quiet, out-of-touch financier named Martin.  Ill-equipped for the myriad public relations disasters during the hiring and demise of RR, however, Martin himself was then also was replaced by a dramatically different type of AD: the publicity-seeking brand-maker Brandon.  His public relations campaign seemed to work wonders at first.  But the obsession with publicity and profit ended up making UM look far worse.

So what can we learn from the past forty years of UM’s athletic leadership choices?  Most clearly they have taught us what not to do—that is, just choose the opposite type of leader from the one you have now.  It does not work for very long.  Why?  When you choose a leader, he fills his program or department with one type of student or employee.  But if you then fire him and choose just the opposite type of leader, there is no growth in the program.  It is like putting matter together with anti-matter.  If they collide, what do you get?  They annihilate each other in a violent explosion.  In an organization, that means turnover, disorganization, and chaos.

So, no matter how angry we feel sometimes, we should learn from past experience.  We should recognize not just the bad in our past leaders and seek their opposites. We should also recognize the good in our past leaders, then search for new ones with their best characteristics.  The toughness of Bo, the fire of Moeller, the inventiveness of RR, the intellect of Carr, the likeability of Hoke.  The decision about whom we should choose now I leave to others, who are far more knowledgeable than me.

But IMO, only if we seek to see the Best in our own past Leaders can we hope to find the new Leaders and Best.

John U. Bacon, just wrapped an interview on the Hugh Show.  When asked to guess who will be the HC of Michigan football one year from now, after giving several disclaimers and noting that it was just his guess, stated that one year from now, Brad Bates would be the AD and one of the two Harbaughs would be the HC. 

He also said earlier in the interview that from talking to people who he knows who are close to Miles, Harbaugh and Harbaugh, he does not believe that any of that group would accept the HC spot with Brandon as AD. 

Sorry, no link, as it was a radio interview.

This is my first forum post. I was strolling through Elevenwarriors, I found this gem:

Ramzy is my favorite writer over there. This was a good read (buckeye tilt warning).

http://www.elevenwarriors.com/college-football/2014/10/41405/the-enemy-w...


"..Maybe you enjoy seeing Michigan's struggle, but this type of unthinkable decline is capable of happening anywhere - especially at our favorite ivory tower. All it requires is unchecked power in the hands of the wrong goddamn person guarded by influential people supporting him or her for all the wrong reasons."

Yes, yes, we don't talk about injuries unless they are season ending. /hoke

That said, having followed most of the pressers and such so far this year it beginning to sound to me like half the starters are injured and have /will be missing playing time.  

Is anyone keeping track of what is known so far?

So, uh...who wants some wallpaper?

I didn't plan on making any wallpaper for the rest of this season for obvious reasons (my previous "Just Win" wallpaper could probably suffice), but then someone on the board said something that caught my eye. The thread has since been deleted, but it was titled "No Maize...Just Blue."

I think that line sums things up pretty well. This season has us all feeling blue, and coincidentally we will be sporting all-blue uniforms this week. If you want your desktop to be as depressing as Michigan football this is the wallpaper for you.