Warde Manuel comments about Juwan Howard and Jim Harbaugh
These articles don't really give me much confidence. Reading between the lines, it sounds like Warde doesn't think that anything is "way off" in our basketball program. Additionally, he didn't even talk to Harbaugh himself in his contract negotiations so he doesn't know how he felt about everything. This seems a bit different from Hackett calling everyone he could possibly find with connections to Jim to get him to Ann Arbor in December 2014.
January 27th, 2024 at 7:11 PM ^
Can we get a sticky for shit posting about Warde?
January 27th, 2024 at 7:14 PM ^
TBF, this is an article with new information about how much he sucks
January 27th, 2024 at 7:43 PM ^
Am I missing something? What new information is there in this article, other than Warde pouring cold water on the idea that he and Harbaugh hate each other?
January 27th, 2024 at 7:45 PM ^
Warde pouring cold water on the idea that he hates Harbaugh.
FIFY
Nothing in there about whether or not Harbaugh hates Warde.
January 27th, 2024 at 8:33 PM ^
Not only does he not say that, it seems pretty obvious from this article that they had no relationship.
January 27th, 2024 at 9:42 PM ^
Is it not weird to you that at the celebration at Crisler he said "I'm working on getting this man a new contract" and in this article says he didnt hardly deal with Harbaugh at all?
January 27th, 2024 at 9:58 PM ^
I feel like you meant to reply to a different post. My post said the article, from Warde's perspective, indicates he does not hate Harbaugh. Maybe he's lying, but he's saying things that are the opposite of "I hate Harbaugh."
So the thing at Crisler has nothing to do with what was in the article.
But, since you asked, no, I don't find that odd at all. The negotiations were happening with Harbaugh's representatives. So negotiations were happening.
January 28th, 2024 at 7:41 AM ^
Lawyerchat: normally, no. In this case, yes.
Usually, the lawyers get involved after the principals reach an "agreement in principle," which is like a 1-2 page outline with the key terms (length, $$$, etc). After that, the lawyers turn that agreement in principle into a full contract, and usually the lawyers communicate directly on that because the principals' time is valuable and the disputes are pretty technical.
But they should have been talking about the immunity stuff. The lawyers can draft that whichever way the principals agree to do it, and the lawyers will not be the ones resolving that dispute. So I would have hoped they were in regular contact about that.
January 28th, 2024 at 9:17 AM ^
He did cut his pay in half, somewhat deserved. Then failed to give it back when he won the BIG. Harbaughs buddy Todd, posted on X that more or less that was an issue. Cant say I blame Jim. When you’re one of the four best teams year in and year out, you should be one of the highest paid coaches. Warde deserves to be canned. Not for JH going pro but for everything he hasn’t done since Covid.
January 27th, 2024 at 7:17 PM ^
I'm cool with there being new posts constantly.
Maybe the administration will pick up on it and make the right decision.
January 27th, 2024 at 9:50 PM ^
If we see it, how can they not?
January 28th, 2024 at 12:01 AM ^
because they know there’s way more to the AD job than what y’all see publicly.
January 28th, 2024 at 1:22 AM ^
Sure. Still haven't seen a single example of what he's been good at publicly. At some point that's on that guy. People can say "we didn't see our bball coach jumping at a terrible NBA job, we couldn't pay our baseball coach to stay, we can't get meaningful transfers admitted to sports, we're going to self impose penalties that no one else would, we didn't need to fire Mel when an investigation has concluded, etc"
These things range a lot in terms of validity, but don't imply that they are not indictments on his ability to be an AD.
January 27th, 2024 at 7:26 PM ^
Just fire Warde already.
January 27th, 2024 at 7:30 PM ^
Well, every game he keeps these coaches he provides some new and same reasons he should be fired. It’s bound to happen. Just skip over it.
January 27th, 2024 at 8:09 PM ^
He should cut Juwan’s contract in half.
January 27th, 2024 at 8:59 PM ^
He would if it was a coach he didn’t hand pick. He’s married to juwan and it would make warde look bad if he fired him or cut his pay. They are joined at the hip and no turning back till wm is gone
January 28th, 2024 at 8:29 AM ^
Well that and the fact that Juwan is already bottom of the half of the conference in salary. His salary does somewhat reflect the results right now
January 27th, 2024 at 10:15 PM ^
I wonder when the braindead "fire warde" mob will turn their attention to Santa Ono and demand he be fired for not signing Harbaugh and firing Warde.
Maybe if we just fire the entire University leadership everything will be fixed and we'll win titles in every sport every year.
January 28th, 2024 at 1:24 AM ^
Warde has more missteps than steps at this point.
Guess I'm "Braindead". If you're around an athletic campus building you're closer than Warde.
January 28th, 2024 at 9:45 AM ^
Anyone who thinks those of us who want Warde fired are “brain dead” have their heads in the sand regarding what’s been going on in the athletic department, particularly with our coaches. Do some research and educate yourself. He may have lucked out with Sherrone Moore, because I have zero confidence in Warde being able to run a successful search for a head football coach. He couldn’t run a hot dog stand.
January 27th, 2024 at 7:12 PM ^
So when is the giant FIRE WARDE rally? I need some advance warning so I have time to stop by Ann Arbor Torch & Pitchfork and replenish supplies. Kinda low after using things up celebrating the National Championship.
January 27th, 2024 at 7:22 PM ^
What did Warde contribute to the national championship? He didn't hire him and Harbaugh left directly after winning it.
January 27th, 2024 at 7:27 PM ^
He would say he "didn't fire him" in 2020. But I think that was just inaction that happened to work out.
What is it with this school and the ADs??
January 27th, 2024 at 7:53 PM ^
Eh, at the time I think most people thought his approach after 2020 was actually pretty good. Now, not locking him in with a much better contract after 2022, and plenty of other things he’s done, were quite stupid. But I don’t think the 2020 stuff was an issue at all.
January 27th, 2024 at 8:58 PM ^
Didn’t fire him in 2020?? Guess he looks like a hero for not doing the thing no one should do to a UM icon after a pandemic shortened season where contact tracing could wipe out a whole section of your team at any moment. Right.
SMH
January 27th, 2024 at 9:30 PM ^
That is a bit of revisionist history. This place was filled with people ready to jettison Harbaugh in the fall / winter of 2020.
January 28th, 2024 at 2:07 AM ^
Well I wasn't one of them.
January 28th, 2024 at 11:22 AM ^
Me either. 2020 was a season that should have been canceled to the point that wins and losses from that year should not even be counted. Harbaugh was more interested in protecting the players than anything else, a view shared by few, who were more concerned with money being lost than with the health of the athletes. As far as I am concerned, Harbaugh was 87-21, not 89-25.
January 28th, 2024 at 2:21 PM ^
Only fools wanted to get rid of him after COVID it was the point of idiots tearing down a coach without consideration!
January 27th, 2024 at 10:14 PM ^
Woah, woah, woah. I NEVER thought Harbaugh should have been fired. But many did, and my point is that Warde probably *only* did the right thing because it was the path of least resistance.
January 28th, 2024 at 12:03 AM ^
so he gets no credit for not firing the one guy, but blamed for not firing the other guy. got it.
January 27th, 2024 at 7:55 PM ^
"What did Warde contribute to the national championship?"
I'm not a fan of Warde Manuel but I would say Warde not firing Jim Harbaugh when most of the fanbase wanted him fired is undeniably a big feather in Warde Manuel's cap. Warde not being reactionary and not yielding to massive pressure was a major positive in the long-run. The 2nd chance he gave Harbaugh cannot be understated.
Many Michigan fans might not want to admit that they once wanted Harbaugh fired (0-5 against OSU, 3-3 vs MSU, 2-4 in COVID season) but they know who they are. Many of those posts on MGoBlog can be easily accessed with a Google search. Some of those posts are still up on Twitter/X. (The internet is forever.)
January 27th, 2024 at 8:07 PM ^
What? I don't know that most of the fan base wanted Harbaugh fired. Maybe that dick on the NCAA infractions committee wanted him fired, but not most.
I'd be willing to bet the pay cut in 2020 after the COVID year was what put Harbaugh on the trajectory to leave.
January 27th, 2024 at 8:15 PM ^
By the same token, that's when he made the changes that set the program in the direction it's in now so......
January 27th, 2024 at 8:42 PM ^
I think the 2020 pay cut was brilliant. Yes it pissed Jim off. Probably even pissed him off enough to leave. But he also knew he needed to succeed in order to leave on his own terms.
To me, pissing Jim off to the point where he turns around and wins 40 games, 3 conference title, 3-0 vs OSU, and a natty, is a huge win.
January 27th, 2024 at 9:00 PM ^
It was humiliating for sure, but what if Warde had done nothing? I think people need to revisit how they honestly felt back then about how things were going. It's easy to get angry now that we have the last three years to reflect on, but we need to go back further. I feel like there's some revisionist history going on here. I never wanted Harbaugh fired but I certainly thought at the time that he just didn't have it in him to get over the hump (beat OSU, beat Michigan State a lot more often than not, and win bowl games).
January 27th, 2024 at 9:11 PM ^
I definitely understand your point. However to me it wasn’t that Warde did nothing, it was that after the magical 2021 season Harbaugh’s contract was revisited, aaanndddd he still gave him less than he was originally making. To me this is more about competence and Manuel playing politics, which doesn’t sit well with many folks.
January 27th, 2024 at 9:44 PM ^
And yet he made $10 million in 2022, which was 25% more than he made before the pay cut. That "less than he was originally making" is misleading because it doesn't include all the added incentives which put him over the original $8 mil mark. What's wrong with incentivizing someone's pay who's been underperforming?
January 28th, 2024 at 7:04 AM ^
People seem to forget that with COVID, college revenue, and MIchigan football revenue was way, way down. If Harbaugh didn't take a pay cut, the program would have lost money. The cut had everything to do with revenue and nothing to do with performance except that maybe revenue would have been up if Michigan football was undefeated.
January 27th, 2024 at 9:27 PM ^
Abysmal 2-4 '20 season triggered the changes, not Warde's public humiliation in cutting Jim's salary in half. That only pissed him off, brought resentment and that's when he started exploring the NFL. And at that time, if he had NFL options, he would have left. He didn't, so he came back.
Warde doing nothing would've been better. Nothing about that move was brilliant. You either have Jim's back 100% and strengthen your relationship or you fire him. You don't half ass pretend to support him by offering a non-negotiable "50% off" deal. That says 'I don't care if you leave, but if you want to stay you need accept my terms." This wasn't some profound move by Warde. It was a win-win situation for him and put Jim in a tough spot. Warde's move was nothing short of insult and further divided their relationship.
January 27th, 2024 at 9:31 PM ^
And you know this how? Really, it's amazing how many people go from pure speculation to absolute certainty about things that happened behind closed doors in the AD.
January 27th, 2024 at 10:18 PM ^
Agree 100%. It's all speculation. The conclusions invariably fit the prior biases of the subject doing the speculating.
January 27th, 2024 at 9:20 PM ^
It’s very likely this change was already being discussed and would have happened anyway.
January 28th, 2024 at 6:47 AM ^
We don't actually know that though. Could have been coming together all on its own.
January 28th, 2024 at 2:35 PM ^
Of course we don’t which is why I said likely. We do know it wasn’t a random choice which suggests there were already thoughts or even discussions about what the problems were and what needed to change.
January 27th, 2024 at 8:15 PM ^
That's because it wasn't most (which would imply well over half).
January 27th, 2024 at 9:15 PM ^
I think most people wanted Don Brown gone. I think the fire Harbaugh stuff was just conjecture and emotions. When Brown was gone, I think people calmed down and realized it would be better for Jim to stick around back in 2020.
January 27th, 2024 at 9:17 PM ^
I’m convinced that was the beginning of the end.
Thanks Warde.
January 28th, 2024 at 12:06 AM ^
oh, pay attention. this board fired him a dozen times in 2020. but the manner in which he kept him supposedly pushed him away? which is what y’all wanted in the first place? the gymnastics you idiots perform is really astonishing.