Dave Brandon Interview EDIT[ More TV Interviews]
Somehow WDIV channel 4 in Detroit is interviewing Brandon tomorrow and Smilovitz will have the interview tomorrow on the 5pm newscast. Guess DB figures no one watches the local news sports segments so that's where he decided to speak out. Enjoy.
EDIT [ He is now going to be interviewed and be on WJBK Fox 2 in Detroit today as well. WXYZ channel 7 can't be far behind. I'd say by this interview tour it looks like he is going to be safe, you don't send out a dead man walking into a controlled environment to propagate the Universities stance]
October 1st, 2014 at 11:42 PM ^
October 1st, 2014 at 11:45 PM ^
On-air resignation?
October 1st, 2014 at 11:46 PM ^
There will be a big media push to make Brandon out the hero, as with the WSJ article. PR flacks are making this happen.
October 2nd, 2014 at 9:59 AM ^
Dave, is there a correlation between Domino's stock, which when you left it was at $14/ share and is now at $77, and the way the football program has trended? Would we expect Michigan football to skyrocket upon your departure?
October 2nd, 2014 at 10:48 AM ^
I thought that was the best takeaway from the WSJ article yesterday...that after he left Dominos, their business picked up dramatically. Dave's a great fundraiser, but his execution is terrible.
October 1st, 2014 at 11:47 PM ^
for a larger noodle in front of the stadium.
October 2nd, 2014 at 12:13 AM ^
like this?
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:20 AM ^
I fully expect Dave Brandon to try to compensate for the size of his noodle.
October 1st, 2014 at 11:49 PM ^
Brandon, always controlling the medium. . .
I'd be more impressed if he did a press conference.
October 2nd, 2014 at 7:32 AM ^
Right. Opting for the goofball local sports anchor instead of standing up and taking shots in front of a group of reporters at a press conference doesn't exactly strike me as something a true leader would do, unless we're talking about a "political leader". Seems very politic-ish to me.
October 1st, 2014 at 11:50 PM ^
He's just going with a journalist he can control in exchange for granting the interview.
October 1st, 2014 at 11:51 PM ^
I know how it'll start out
October 1st, 2014 at 11:56 PM ^
factor!
October 2nd, 2014 at 8:56 AM ^
I really love the quick shot of the water bottle, DB killin' it!
October 1st, 2014 at 11:52 PM ^
That seems to me like he's going to fight back and try to ride the storm.
October 1st, 2014 at 11:52 PM ^
October 1st, 2014 at 11:55 PM ^
They should ask him about choosing Hoke over Sumlin and if he would go back and do it differently.
October 1st, 2014 at 11:59 PM ^
Uh oh.
Yet to meet a student athlete who doesn't support @DaveBrandonAD. Admire his passion 4 Mich and career path. Why i applied to bus. #GoBlue
— Luke Dwyer (@LDwys29) October 2, 2014
Thanks @DaveBrandonAD for coming to practice today. Gotta love all that he's done for us and the athletic department.
— Brian Archer (@bwarcher6) October 2, 2014
@DaveBrandonAD stopped by swim practice to tell the swimmers personally how much he cares about them. We support you Dave. #GoBlue
— Mark Hill (@M4rkH1ll) October 1, 2014
University of Michigan AD @DaveBrandonAD is the best around & has an abundance of passion & care for anything/everything "Blue."
— Mike Chiasson (@mchiasson3) October 1, 2014
Ive never seen more passion for Michigan than what I saw today from @DaveBrandonAD I will always stand behind this athletic program #GoBlue
— Andrew Copp (@Copp94) October 2, 2014
Wonder why Dave visited 4 different sports today to tell them how much they mean to him? Swan song?
October 2nd, 2014 at 12:02 AM ^
Trying to build a narrative that the athletes have his back.
October 2nd, 2014 at 12:05 AM ^
I have a source/friend who is a manager for a Michigan team and said that none of them were forced to tweet anything nice.
I have yet to see a Football or Basketball player tweet anything.
October 2nd, 2014 at 12:27 AM ^
October 2nd, 2014 at 12:41 AM ^
That's exactly why. This guy nailed it.
I'd like Dave Brandon too if he renovated my rink and gave me free gear all the time #sorrynarps
— Michigan Gossip (@umichgossip) October 2, 2014
Lacrosse wasn't even a sport until DB got here and they're getting a new stadium. Softball got a completely new team center.
October 2nd, 2014 at 12:53 AM ^
October 2nd, 2014 at 8:22 AM ^
If Brandon, and his regime, are not removed.
October 2nd, 2014 at 9:36 AM ^
TIING!
October 2nd, 2014 at 10:25 AM ^
I would love to see the financial model that the AD used to pay for all of the new facilities. How much debt was taken on? what does that imply for the minimum season ticket prices and quantities going forward?
I'm concerned that the AD has painted the department into a financial corner where they have so much debt from the construction boom that any downturn in profits from football will sink the entire department.
And then does some dillweed MBA think that we forced to pay discount prices for the next HC? (BTW -- I'm some dillweed MBA as well, I'm just not that short sighted)
October 2nd, 2014 at 1:03 AM ^
They need to be thanking the football players (and to a lesser extent basketball players too). Any dope with that fat budget and donor base could pay someone to build the facilities Michigan is building now. That's the AD's job.
In fact, outside of paying coaches and building facilities (and hiring more MBAs) there is literally nothing Brandon can do with the money.
It's the football/basketball players that are "creating the future" though. The non-revenue athletes should all be sending thank yous to Denard and Trey, not Dave.
October 2nd, 2014 at 1:10 AM ^
Of course they love him. Men's football brings in all the money and all the welfare sports benefit. They get a scholarship because football pays for it.
October 2nd, 2014 at 7:03 AM ^
That's the way it is throughout college sports.
October 2nd, 2014 at 7:36 AM ^
coaches have voiced support yet. Or any assistants and members of the staff. Or did they and I just miss it?
October 2nd, 2014 at 12:33 AM ^
The vast, vast majority of people inside an athletic department are going to view things differently than fans do. Football players seem to love their coach that Brandon hired. Every athlete has DB catering to them, because it's his job, with sparkling new facilities and their academics/life being a concern, because it's his job and because he's probably a fairly normal human being.
Brandon needs to go because he's out of touch and mismanages every semi-tough issue that his core base cares about. There is zero confidence that his reputation will enable him to hire a first rate football coach and less confidence that he'd know one if that coach slapped him in the face.
That doesn't change the fact that most of the softball players remember huddling in a tornado shelter in Oklahoma with him and his wife while deadly tornados circled or mean that he's some monster that hasn't ever contributed anything positive to athletes at Michigan.
October 2nd, 2014 at 12:43 AM ^
I'd +100000 you if I could. Absolutely nailed it.
October 2nd, 2014 at 8:21 AM ^
In contrast, players have tons of experience with new or updated facilities and effects of increasing team budgets. I'm guessing they like both.
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October 2nd, 2014 at 9:45 AM ^
This is all true.
But you can't just ignore the fanbase like they don't count. If that's how you want to operate, then just make everything a club sport and go play in the open fields across the railraod tracks.
The fan base matters. It's really disingenuous (and dangerous for the future of Michigan athletics) to pit the fans against the athletes, which you know Brandon is actively doing.
The passionate (for now) fanbase keeps Michigan from being Eastern Michigan. EMU would kill for the pain-in-the-ass Michigan fanbase
We all need each other. You can't think you are going to sacrifice one for the other.
October 2nd, 2014 at 11:10 AM ^
My only point was that it is not strange that athletes (whether the SAAC or individual players) would like Brandon even with fan discontent. This is because fan discontent is about fan things that only indirectly affect athletes--especially a college player who is only playing for the program for 5 years tops (give or take an Evan Eshmeyer)
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October 2nd, 2014 at 9:13 AM ^
"There is zero confidence that his reputation will enable him to hire a first rate football coach and less confidence that he'd know one if that coach slapped him in the face."
Sadly, I am less confident than you are that Dave Brandon will be doing any hiring of any football coaches. Given the amount of push-back over the last week, it is my opinion that we are in for at least another year of Brady Hoke. It appears that Hoke has influential supporters, and any amount of blogger or general fan outrage is more than cancelled out by former players, former colleagues from his first stint at UM, major donors, and otherwise influential people such as James Stapleton.
October 2nd, 2014 at 12:25 AM ^
October 2nd, 2014 at 1:12 AM ^
This honestly worries me more than anything yet if he can spin it well.
Hopefully people see past it.
October 2nd, 2014 at 1:11 AM ^
Hot take: Brandon is abusing the enthusiasm of these kids to fight a PR battle for his job. This is unseemly, and if I'm President Schlissel, I don't like it. Of course, if Brandon had enough class to realize this was ridiculous in the first place, the department wouldn't be such a clownshow to begin with.
IMO the serious and insuperable problem for Brandon is that he learned to lead in a world where his stakeholders were a bunch of overworked hourly employees who lacked the time and energy to pick through his disingenuous PR efforts. But the stakeholders at Michigan are thousands of lawyers, thousands of PR professionals, thousands of doctors, and tens of thousands of other intelligent and successful people with the time, energy, and commitment to Michigan to look past the lapel pin on this particular empty suit.
October 2nd, 2014 at 8:36 AM ^
even though I'm not sure it's fair. People that support Brandon are going to speak out in response to the rally, they don't need any prompting from him. If he is suddenly showing up at practices counter to his usual practice, then it's unseemly. If that's routine for him, it's not.
Your second paragraph doesn't make sense. Dominos' primary stakeholders are the franchise owners and their customers, not hourly workers.
October 2nd, 2014 at 10:36 AM ^
If the people putting your product out to the customers, the people who interface with the customers and are the face of your pizza aren't stake holders you are in trouble. This attitude is why there is such crappy service everywhere. Labor that is only viewed as an expense will strangle an orginizations. Quality people who deliver pizza will not tell you about improvements or worse no one will listen. Ever try to get help at Walmart? Now try to get help at Costco. You will see the difference.
October 2nd, 2014 at 2:24 AM ^
Damage control 101. Go to the areas where you're going to receive support, aka the non-income sports where he's actually done a pretty good job (makes me sick to give him a compliment). Next is a controlled interview tomorrow. I don't really think there's much of anything he can do at this point that will change the public's perception of him though. The point of no return was passed after Sunday came and went with no statement and no explanation. I wonder if this is the first time he's even visited some of these sports at all.
October 2nd, 2014 at 8:09 AM ^
Seems like he made sure to stop by all the sports' practices yesterday. I wonder why?....
He'll probably do it daily for his campaign to remain.
October 2nd, 2014 at 8:14 AM ^
October 2nd, 2014 at 11:23 AM ^
Meh. I think it's cool that they like him, but being cool to 1% of the people who love Michigan and an asshat to the other 99% means you're still an asshat.
October 2nd, 2014 at 12:24 AM ^
October 2nd, 2014 at 12:02 AM ^
The next time Bernie asks a tough question in his life will be the first time. Bernie is to sports journalism what Jimmy Fallon is to late night.
October 2nd, 2014 at 12:20 AM ^
October 2nd, 2014 at 12:54 AM ^
Hey what do you have against Jimmy Fallon?
October 2nd, 2014 at 1:08 AM ^