Hackett May be Permanent AD

Now four ADs in a row with no previous AD experience.

• Tom Goss
• Bill Martin
• Dave Brandon
• Jim Hackett

Now take into consideration that Goss began his tenure in 1997 and think of the slide we've been on ever since. Anyone notice a trend?

If he hires a good coach that gets us back to competing for championships, I really doubt anyone will be complaining about him.

The corporate atmosphere that has hung over the stadium, the gameday experience and the ath dept the lat 3 years has hurt donations and season ticket sales.  No matter how you look at it, the football program and those 110k seats is the engine that drives the bus of the ath dept.  If they don't get the right coach, there won't be butts in the seats and heads will roll.  No matter how much Pres. Schiss wants a "balance" b/w athletics and academics, the football program is king and it is the source of the revenue.  The MBB program may hold it's own but it's not funding the rest of the athletic dept.  Neither is it gonna fund the $$ the ath. dept gives back to the University every year.  If Hackett is permanent (don't believe it) then he better score Harbaugh or it will not go well for him or the ath dept.

I like Hackett, he's cool.

I hope his former CEO abilities know how to negotiate us through an athletic apparrell change. 

It would be a huge department blunder to be stuck with Adidias. Like Jim Harbaugh, there's only one way to go here Mr. Hackett ... Nike

This will be his biggest decision as AD if the interim tag is removed.

/s

Sex addict, penis bird 

What could go wrong with a very successful CEO running an athletic department?

We been over this several times before, but there are different types of CEO, so having a corporate background should not automatically brand (hah!) Hackett with a "Brandon Part Deux" stamp.  It's convenient thinking, but I think it's wrong. 

First, there are different corporate personalities.  Brandon is of the hedge-fund prick model who is going to change things, piss on every fire hydrant, and generally show what a hotshot he is.  (Not all, or even most, hedge fund leaders act this way, but Brandon certainly lived up to the cliche.)  Hackett is more old-school - an establishment type who managed in a much less brash and more thoughtful manner.

Second, corporations have different foci and different cultures.  Domino's is focused on selling a commodity to consumers, is volume-driven, and is price-driven.  Steelcase is focused on selling a commodity to other business, is both volume and relationship driven, and depends dearly on its reputation for quality.  Domino's also is focused on wrangling its franchisees and providing blanket marketing for those franchisees.  The point being that Brandon's style fit Domino's but probably would not fit Steelcase, and Hackett's style fit Steelcase but probably would not fit Domino's. 

I don't necessarily want a CEO to run the Athletic Department long-term.  I'd rather see someone with success running a major athletic department in charge.  But if Hackett is around for a year or so, I don't automatically assume it's a return to the tone-deaf and oafish Brandon years.

... as long as he doesn't sign us up with Under Armor next year when Adidas expires...

There is another factor that Brandon ignored and that is the regular fanbase.  They spend a lot of money toward the program too.  Hackett talked about student fans being satisfied and students in general.  Problem is the other 90k seats aren't students.  They are working peoplel and alumni and if they don't like the atmosphere they will stop coming, especially for 7-5, 8-4 teams every year.   You're not gonna sell $88,000 suites for 8-4 teams every year.  And middling coaches like Hoke won't get to the conference championship or the national championship.

Brandon dug his own grave not because he was a CEO but because he was a thin skinned jerk with no tact. It's quite foolish to quickly write off Hackett just because he was a CEO. Maybe it makes more sense to judge a person based on their actions than on innuendo.

that were asked to "pizza pimp" when he took the job. Reading these comments from the board is "fun" too.

http://mgoblog.com/content/david-brandon-press-conference-semi-transcri…

DB had a huge ego and thought he was the smartest guy in the room.  His performance at Domino's was poor as evidenced by the turn around in the company after his departure.  Hackett turned around a poor performing company and left on good terms from Steel Case.  He does not come across as someone with a huge ego and seems to know that he does not know enough.  I am OK with him.

Not all corporate folks are the same, and not all CEOs are the same.  Hackett's experience as an executive is very different from Brandon's, and is, in fact, pretty well suited to the task at hand.

Basically, Hackett was a guy who was professionally good at firing folks and restructuringing an entrenched bureaucracy.  He made an American furniture manufacturer profitable over a 20 year span from 1994 to 2014.  Res ipsa loquitor.

He doesn't have a rep as a micro manager, and interestingly (despite the 'Michigan Man' rep) is not known as a traditionalist / conservative.  He's a guy who wasn't afraid to make radical changes to survive in a changing environment.

I urge y'all to read up on Hackett before dismissing him as Brandon 2.0.

with winning and it's trendline.  It has everything to do with supporting the Ath dept financially.   Look that the numbers at UM or anywhere, if the football program isn't successful, then the ath dept loses money or at least isn't self-sustainable.  There's no point to having a 110k seat stadium if you're going to hire a MAC level coach and go 8-4 every year.  Just graduating all your players will not fill that stadium.  Havin a CEO that focuses on the bottom line only won't fill that stadium either.....with today's options the average fans that buy many of the tickets can always stay home and watch the games for free (or a lot less) than going to the games, it's a trend around the country.

Right now the priority is to find a replacement for Hoke.  If Hackett replaces Hoke with Harbaugh or Miles, all is well.   Schlissel has made it clear that there is no rush to find a pernament AD.  Once the leadership for the football program is settled they can concentrate on finding an AD.   So, don't freak out; things are moving along as they should.  If you expected a new AD to be hired, and the new AD to hire the new football coach, that was not realistic.

Go Blue!

his interview process is getting a Harbaugh or Miles to Michigan. If he does that, he's already light years ahead of the past 2.  I don't think that just becuase he is a former CEO that he should automatically get "Brandoned"

as much as i despised brandon, the student athletes sincerely loved him (so it seems); clearly brandon wasn't doing everything wrong - he took care of his primary charges (athletes) - but he failed to understand that the athletic department/athletes is/are just one parcel of the michigan community.  

if brandon can gain the trust the athletes, i am hopeful that at the very least hackett can gain their trust as well.  and from everything ive heard and read about him thus far from his time at Steelcase and his time on the football team, i believe that he will bring to the table that awareness and sensitivity to the concerns of the larger michigan community that brandon lacked.

that being said, im willing to give hackett a chance, despite his lack of an AD background.  

The biggest issue I would have with this, if true, isn't that Hackett is a "CEO-type" AD.  It would be that ever since he was brought in both he and Schlissel have been reiterating that this is a temporary thing to help Michigan find a highly-qualified, experienced permanent AD.  Then they go with the "this is going to take time" approach, and now they are laying the groundwork for him to be here long-term?  Seems fishy to me; they basically would have lied to everyone from the beginning.

Until he is announced as the long-term AD, I think this is people jumping to conclusions.

Please just hire a "Plan A" coach...and do the opposite of DB.

So I'm a bit confused because I thought I had read right here on MGoBlog (perhaps in one of Brian's Searchbits posts) that Hackett was very reluctant to even take the interim AD job?  And that he was content in his retirement and definitely didn't want the permanent position but was just filling in because he is a huge Michigan supporter and former player with fairly good leadership experience?

Since then, I haven't heard anything along these lines and it seems more and more like his term is getting longer.  Just wondering if anyone had a perspective on this - doesn't seem like these two positions really reconcile.  Did he simply change his mind and decide he likes being AD?

I think this bodes very well for attaining Jim Harbaugh.

It might take a CEO to be able to decipher and fix the issues that another CEO created that your typical AD wouldn't be able to handle or understand. 

While he may fit the "Dave Brandon" mold, we should all remember that Dave did some great things for non-revenue sports and turned a healthy profit for the department. His mistakes, while huge, are easy to avoid going forward. 

Let's give Hackett a chance to show us what he can do.