Picture this, your overbearing, out of touch, micromanaging boss orders you to do something you know is a bad idea. You know you have to do your job, and you love where you work, so you do it even though you know it's a terrible idea. After it blows up, and you have to make a statement about it. You can't throw your boss under the bus, or you get fired, and you make yourself sound irrelevant. So you make a statement about trying to be smart about it, which is probably what you told your boss to begin with. Sort of an I told you so to your boss without being too obvious.

DB clearly wanted to "market the brand" to other than traditional fans. He did it with marketing gimmicks, which Hunter had to implement. They all ended horribly. In many cases, I agree what Hunter said wasn't good, but what was he supposed to say? My boss is an idiot and I told him not to do this.

From what I understand Hunter didn't authorize the Coke for tickets thing. According to some contract the company gets a bunch of tickets it can use for promotions, but it's supposed to clear them with the department first. They didn't clear it and just did it. Again, he doesn't want to throw the sponsors under the bus and lose money from the department. What is he supposed to say? If you wanted to keep your job, what would you say?

I'll tell you one thing Hunter did, after last season and the disastrous general admission policy, Hunter formed a Student Advisory Council. The council was composed of 4 students from each class (freshmen - graduate student) plus 2 from the central student government. We met throughout the season, and Hunter attended our meetings, and that council was the reason student ticket prices were lowered, along with other, mostly student section related fixes.

Hunter cared, and got it. He is the scapegoat for a lot of the BS that has happened and that is unfortunate.

I know you guys don't know me so you don't know what a big deal it is that I'm defending him. As I said I'm an engineering student. I'm not a fan of marketing or business in general. I prefer facts and truth to promotions and advertisements that make emotional appeals. Michigan football is one of the very few things I actually get emotional about. Ask my wife, I get yelled at about it all the time. Hunter has earned my respect and trust. He's not the person that he's being made out to be, and while I have disagreed with some of his decisions, and he is responsible for a small percent of the problems, he is not the problem.

The real problem in my humble opinion is that people are looking for a person to blame for an institutional failure. Michigan's problems don't start with the athletics department. They are much deeper. It's not just Dave Brandon that cared more about money than tradition. Many people have forgotten what Michigan's real tradition is. One of the clearest and least political examples I can give for this it the visceral hatred for passing offenses at Michigan. I hear people constantly complaining and saying that we have to run the ball, we have to play man ball, and Bo would roll over in his grave if we don't run more. All the while forgetting that Michigan was a pioneer in the forward pass:

"...Prior to the advent of the forward pass, football was nothing but a smash-mouth, up-the-gut running mentality. Yost, however, demanded speed and agility, and he demanded it right away. If you stood around at practice, you did not belong on the team. Yost's teachings were precise and calculated down to the second of each practice. If a player missed an assignment on the field, Yost would jump in without pads and run the play first-hand..."

"...

One of Yost's most significant contributions to Michigan and the game in general was his usage of the spiral when the forward pass was implemented in 1906. While other teams were simply trying to "perfect" the two-handed end-over-end basket push, Yost found that by throwing the ball in a spiral, it could be delivered to the intended target faster with more accuracy and at much greater length.

Michigan's new passing game dominated teams across the country over the next decade. The Wolverines became frequent visitors to schools outside of the Midwest, since due to a scheduling squabble, the team did not compete in the conference from 1907-16..."

source: http://www.bigten.org/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/092607aaa.html

In short, rushing smash mouth manball is not Michigan's tradition.

In general, money, an enormous endowment, etc is not Michigan's tradition.

Michigan's tradition in one word is: Excellence.

In everything we do we should strive for and achieve excellence. If that requires hurry up, spread, passing offenses, then so be it. People are so short sighted, and attacking Hunter is just one more example of it. Until we drop the notion that we have to do things one way because that's the Michigan way, and realize that whatever way is the best way is the Michigan way, and just because we've always done something one way does not make it the best way, then we will not return to our positon as the leaders and the best.

I could go on but I'm afraid this is already TL;DR. But if you did read it thank you.

*edited for spelling, sorry I'm an engineering student and this is the longest thing I've written in college.

Letting former athletes, regardless of how successful dictate anything isn't okay. They are not Michigan. Sure they represented us, and we appreciate them and even love them for it. For me at least though, I don't care who they are, it's not about them. His version is less eloquent but no different than "No man is more important than the Team.." You can argue that he should have phrased it better, but it reads to me the same way, and I agree with him.