Whenever I see that pictue of Hackett I can't help but imagine that he's saying "No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die."

Hire.  The right.  Football coach.

If he nails that, if he gets the guy who makes Michigan a viable 21st Century football program, I honestly don't think it matter whether he comes stays, lays, or prays. 

Unfortunately for the traditionalists, whether or not he undoes a lot that DB is probably not at issue (I suspect the "WOW experience" at games isn't likely to revert back to pre-DB administrations), but I'd be willing to bet it doesn't get obviously commercially worse.

EDIT:  Almost forgot...he actually has TWO jobs.  Additionally he will need to:

Hire.  The right.  Hockey coach.

I love Coach Red, but it's time for him to hand off the whistle.

I think because of all the scrutiny and missteps of the Athletic Director that occurred under Dave Brandon, this situation is getting way more uproar than it deserves.  Think of top programs around the country.  How many ADs can you name?  Other than coaching hires,most of what the AD does is behind the scenes and doesn't affect the average fan unless they really botch things.  Dave Brandon has warped that perception for us.  

The roles and responsiblities of an AD are largely making financial, marketing, and personnel decisions.  Obviously someone with previous AD experience makes a great candidate, but it is also very plausible that a former successful CEO would make a great candidate as well.  

At Steelcase, Hackett stepped into a very dire situation and made the tough decisons to turn the company around.  He pissed a lot of people off by making these tough decisions, and had to fight the longstanding Steelcase culture of taking care of employees and former employees at all costs.  

That same mentality is what is required here and he might be a great hire.  I'm witholding judgement for now.  

The "wait and see maybe he'll be okay" crowd is compeltely missing the point.  Hackett is a retired CEO with no relevent experience.  There is no way that he is the #1 best candidate to do this job.  Why is it considered so unreasonable at Michigan that in order to hire somebody, you conduct an exhaustive search and hire the best guy?  At Michigan, we just hire the guy whose ass is conveniently in the chair and then try to justify it after thef act.  It's more evidence of the cluelessness and arrogance at Michigan.  If Hackett is truly the permanent AD then we just found out everything that we need to know about Schlissel. 

Brian.. if I may have my Steve Martin moment...

well excuuusssse MMMMEEEEEEEEEE,  but the only thing that matters is getting the football hire right... Canham sure did, who then proceeded to do many Brandon-style marketing with nary a word....  

All that matters, is the football hire.

I'm not sure how much control Hackett (or anyone) has in "getting" Harbaugh to Michigan.

and people people got him because no way, Hackett said only short term, no interest, etc etc?

This is 100% on Schlissel, and I'm not terribly worried. From all we have heard from the Pres,

1) He's willing to take his time to get the AD right. It's not a corporation and who cares if Microsoft can get a CEO in less than 6 months? POTUM will learn about the culture of the U, the AD and the candidates (with help from Hacket). He'll make his decision from there based on all available info: not jus tthe BS message board list of 4-6 guys with M ties. Isn't that what you DON'T want: a list of JUST Michigan Men? We need a guy who can work within POTUMs ideas of how an AD should be run, not just a successful guy with ties to M.

2) the interim timeline is what people are mistaking: it's not permanent, obvs - Hackett won't be the AD in 4-5 years. But it's also not a 2-6 month thing either. There are 2 reasons for this: A) POTUMs ideals about hiring the right guy (See 1 above) and B) they need to hire a football coach 1st, so that's where Hackett time is being spent right now- he has to research, negotiate, hire, and see the coach thru the transition. that is necessarily a year long type of process.

adjust your own personal def'ns of interim to 8-20 months and you'll be OK, people

All CEOs are not bad news.  Do you guys even know who Hackett is?

Hackett is a dude who moved up the ranks in a massively conservative, change-resistant institution with a "brand" that was squarely on the wrong side of history.  He led the push to return the business towards profitability not by doing the old thing better but by doing new and modern things in an innovative way.

I'm not saying this will or will not work out, and I'd prefer proprietary AD experience too.  But U of M Athletics is, actually, at least superficially like 1980s Steelcase, and I think this blog's audience would very much appreciate if Hackett tried to fix the football program by getting fresh instead of getting back to basics.

This could be a total disaster, but there are a lot of possible reasons this is happening that are for positive reasons.

What if Jeff Long is the choice for AD?  Given that he is the chair of the National Championship committee, he is probably the one AD that must wait until the end of the season for fear of not appearing to upset the political balance that probably went into forming the committee.

What if discussions are already on-going with JMFH, and one of his demands is that he has a hand in selecting the AD?  Given what he is going through with SF, he might not want to walk into a situation where he could be at odds with his immediate superior.

And it could be that we have inherited a power hungry DB-clone.  And garments should be rended and all hope should be discarded.

The comments that came from his report to the regents that he hasn't found a suitable AD candidate are worthless.  The comment may be true or just a diversion.  The real conversations took place behind closed doors and this is just what they want out for public consumption.

Dave stocked the department with so many unqualified dipshits whose only positive trait was loyalty to him that there's gotta be a massive blood letting of the department. And since SO many people are gonna get the hatchet, it's a turn off to potential candidates. So let Hackett fire everyone for the next year until the department is lean and mean for the next guy to stock with people who aren't shit at everything.