Technically Truthful Is The Worst Kind Of Truthful
by Seth
Over the past three days, Michigan's addressed the Shane Morris incident in three different ways:
1) Two-paragraph statement with boilerplate language about student health that claims Morris was removed from the game because of a leg injury and doesn't even mention the possibility of a concussion.
2) Testy Hoke press conference in which Hoke says Morris would have practiced Sunday if not for a high ankle sprain, says there is a statement from medical staff forthcoming, says he hasn't talked to Brandon since Saturday.
3) Medical staff release becomes Brandon statement released at 1:30 AM in which it is admitted that Morris had a mild concussion BUT BUT BUT all this other stuff.
I'm not particularly interested in arguing about whether Brady Hoke is a great dude who's too incompetent to be Michigan's coach or a careless rub-some-dirt-on-it dinosaur who's too incompetent to be Michigan's coach. Either way his lifespan in our lives is measured in weeks, with no pardon coming.
You say he's a great dude, fine. Michigan's still been blown out by every Power 5 team they've played in year four. I'll agree with you that he's a great dude as long as he's a great dude with another job.
The real issue is Dave Brandon. Michigan is caught in a web of contradictions that the Rosenbergs of the world will contort themselves through to say that Michigan technically didn't lie to the world about player safety, and fine! I'm not even going to comb this pile to find the parts that directly contradict other parts. Sure, Dave Brandon is… a great… dude. Let's even stipulate that.
He just evaporated for 52 hours, left his coach out to dry with information that was incorrect, contradicted him on half the stuff he said after most of the western world had gone to bed, and helped spin Michigan Can't Protect Its Players from
- a one-day story in which Michigan acts like adults about a bad situation and addresses the failures that culminated in Morris putting his helmet back on to
- a three-days-and-counting story that makes Michigan look like a mendacious clownshow.
The Brand has been tarnished by Dave Brandon's incompetence, by his instinct to obfuscate and cover his ass. The #1 play of this athletic department is to not quite lie to your face and ask "are you calling me a liar?"
I am. And you need to GTFO.
September 30th, 2014 at 10:49 AM ^
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September 30th, 2014 at 10:50 AM ^
You are technically correct, which is the best kind of correct!
September 30th, 2014 at 10:50 AM ^
Something I have come to terms with in recent weeks is that we're going to start losing many of our top current recruits. Also lost in this shitstorm of a situation will be many current players who are sick of this-- and who can blame them? I hope attrition is kept to a minimum, but I for one will not be freaking out about it as I would have in years before.
I have been here for too long and seen too many star-studded recruiting classes flame out under poor coaching and player development to give a shit about that right now. We need to fix the foundation of this program. We need a competent coach who can develop the players on the roster and lead this team in the right direction on game day and on every other day.
We need to brace for a very turbulent near-future that, we can only hope, will be the catalyst for a bright future in which we have a coach and a program we can be proud of.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:00 AM ^
This too is what I hope for. I'll take the short term pain in the hope of getting it right for the long term.
September 30th, 2014 at 12:24 PM ^
September 30th, 2014 at 11:01 AM ^
The short term is going to be very bad. Losing most or all of the current commits and most or all of the remaining games seems very possible. We can only hope that, in January, we have some reason for optimism for the (not near) future.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:22 AM ^
Why the F*** would any kid come to play here at this point? I wouldn't send my kid to play here under the people currently in charge. Hell, I WOULDN'T PLAY HERE, and I've had season tickets for 40 years.
September 30th, 2014 at 12:06 PM ^
The recruits see how things go down now at Michigan and they shouldn't expect things to change. A shit leopard can't change its spots.
September 30th, 2014 at 12:33 PM ^
The only hope is that we are able to somehow name a new AD and coach quickly and that coach is a rockstar. In other words, that we somehow connect on a Harbaugh Hail Mary in the next few weeks. I realize there is just about a 0.00001% chance of that happening given their current employment. But that is just about the only hope I see out there for avoiding what you kindly describe as "turbulent" near-future. Per my sig line, I am using my illusion.
September 30th, 2014 at 12:59 PM ^
i just want a coach who can get the players to learn the basics; blocking and tackling. i don't think we need a superstar to do this. sure, a harbaugh type may keep the roster in tact, but even if we lose some recruits or suffer some transfers, we still will have more talent on the roster than most BIG teams. so short-term success could be possible.
if we can't get a harbargh-type, we surely can get a beilein-type. if we have to dip down to a successful DII guy, so be it.
September 30th, 2014 at 1:12 PM ^
I don't disagree with you. My post was only aimed at keeping the roster together and preserving recuits. I think the only way to do that is pull in a rockstar. I just don't see a DII guy keeping it together in light of all that has happened. I also think it needs to happen soon.
September 30th, 2014 at 10:52 AM ^
No one is fired? The sport is being taken over by slimey people.
I want both Brandon and Hoke GONE. But the way this situation has been handled, I can just as easily see both of them slipping through the cracks, to establish a "new normal".
September 30th, 2014 at 12:34 PM ^
Then this is no longer Michigan.
September 30th, 2014 at 10:53 AM ^
myself included, have been talking extensively about player ceilings the past few weeks. It has now become obvious that the ceiling they are bumping up against are the coaching staff and the athletic department, who, it turns out, have bumped up against their own in every conceivable aspect. Indeed, it is time to GTFO.
September 30th, 2014 at 10:53 AM ^
facts around to cover up either his or his departments many screw ups has to end. Hopefully, the Regents will do the right thing and immediately remove him. Then, they will need to do a very thorough job to find the right person who will be the true leader this department and university desperately need now to lead us out of the darkness. We just can't have any more incompetent corporate ass-clowns with the ethical & moral compass of a dirty politician.
September 30th, 2014 at 10:54 AM ^
The blame for the clownshow falls at Brandon's feet. Brandon hung Hoke out to dry. I think the evidence says we should take Mattison on his word re: Hoke's character. The guy is incompetent to ensure that the right thing happens in an Athletic Department run by an utterly mendacious CEObot, but he is not totally without integrity. I was on the fire-Hoke-immediately bandwagon, but only because I had no idea how craven and deceitful Dave Brandon could be.
9 pm: leak to Bacon that the statement's not coming tonight, so everyone can go to bed.
1 am: statement released. (Bacon might wanna reevaluate his sources, because he got played, too.)
Anyway, thanks for writing this, Brian. IMO, you fire Brandon now, and you let the new AD decide whether Hoke gets next year. I hope for the players' sake that the team finishes strong either way.
September 30th, 2014 at 10:54 AM ^
Brian, please address this loudly on Thursday. It's hard to listen to Sam and Ira, especially Ira continue to put diamonds on this stinking pile of shit we call a football program.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:00 AM ^
He described the chain of events listed in Brandon's statement as a "catastrophic" failure. He particularly couldn't believe Hoke hadn't been informed that Morris had been diagnosed with a concussion when he gave his press conference yesterday.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:04 AM ^
It is catastrophic. This thing should have so many steps in place to prevent this sort of thing from happening, because people do make honest mistakes or miss things. For every single one of those things to fail, and it's a lot of things, is absolutely catastrophic failure.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:12 AM ^
As far as Coach Hoke knew (assuming you believe him, and I do), Morris could have practiced yesterday but for his leg. That's really bad.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:17 AM ^
No I didn't hear the show this morning. I was talking about yesterday's show, and how they were just bagging on every caller that is saying the same sh*t we are saying here. I will have to Dl the podcast tonight and listen to it, and if Sam is finally expressing his displeasure than that is great, and I will love hearing that. I have always respected Sam though and understand that he has to keep his opinions more muted than most. Ira needs to stay off the radio though, he is not very easy on the ears.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:17 AM ^
No I didn't hear the show this morning. I was talking about yesterday's show, and how they were just bagging on every caller that is saying the same sh*t we are saying here. I will have to Dl the podcast tonight and listen to it, and if Sam is finally expressing his displeasure than that is great, and I will love hearing that. I have always respected Sam though and understand that he has to keep his opinions more muted than most. Ira needs to stay off the radio though, he is not very easy on the ears.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:18 AM ^
And what I speculated because to me it fit better than other things. I think they left Hoke in the dark, basically told him to "trust them" (he made a mistake, and not an absolvable one by doing so) and they left him out to dry.
What a mess.
September 30th, 2014 at 12:09 PM ^
It seems like the mismanagement that occurred since the game has been even worse than the original incident, if we are to believe that everyone is speaking the truth about what they knew and when they know it (and that's quite a hefty assumption anyway).
September 30th, 2014 at 12:40 PM ^
Erik - I tuned in a little late and Sam decribed the fact that, as far as Hoke knew, Morris could have practiced if his ankle was better as being potentially "deadly." He said that he wasn't saying that to be dramatic, but that was reality.
September 30th, 2014 at 1:19 PM ^
You can put me in the camp who believes the post-game mistakes have been much worse than the in-game mistakes. How Hoke took the podium yesterday and said what he did is almost unbelievable (and to be clear: I think he was uninformed, not lying).
September 30th, 2014 at 11:46 AM ^
Nope, you're totally wrong as of this morning. They ain't sugar-coating anything.
September 30th, 2014 at 12:08 PM ^
Sam is obviously not trying to burn bridges but it kind of feels like, what's the point? He has to know Hoke is a dead man walking. Brandon is a dead man walking.
I respect his position of not calling for a coaches head but there were some callers this morning that nailed it, particularly a caller that talked on the theme of miscommunication with Hoke and cited every instance where miscommunication was the explanation. Sam was speechless. I had to check to make sure my stream didn't cut out on me. Sam and Ira jumped on his point saying this is bigger than football and something that effected the whole department.
I needed to hear that call, it was the nail in the coffin for me. I have been relatively silent here regarding all of this because I have been holding out hope (sadly even through all this stuff) Hoke can turn things around, because I absolutely loathe the idea of another rebuild.
There is too much of a pattern of breakdowns to stand behind him anymore. Yes some of it is bigger than football and goes beyond Hoke but like Space Coyote said, this is a catostrophic failure.
September 30th, 2014 at 12:26 PM ^
Sam repeatedly said this morning that in contrast to his usual stance regarding calls for a coach's head, he was no longer going to contest or argue with callers who wanted to do so. Virtually every caller that I heard this morning called for Brandon's head or Hoke's or both, and neither Sam nor Ira took issue with those opinions. The only thing they did was to correct somebody if a caller had an obvious fact wrong, but that was rare. I've exchanged emails with Ira and believe me, he's as disgusted as anybody else is.
Given the fact that live events involving U-M sports, particularly football, are the core value of WTKA's programming—and ad revenue—it's nuts for people to assume that any of their radio guys are going to freely and openly bash any UM athletic person on a normal basis. The fact that both Ira and Sam are now basically not defending either Hoke or Brandon is a testament to how bad the situation has gotten.
September 30th, 2014 at 2:02 PM ^
That's interesting they took that position this morning, I only caught bits and peices.
September 30th, 2014 at 10:59 AM ^
As, always well put Brian
... Let's hope a change is coming...
September 30th, 2014 at 11:00 AM ^
As, always well put Brian
... Let's hope a change is coming...
EDIT: SORRY FOR DOUBLE POST
September 30th, 2014 at 11:01 AM ^
I don't really agree with this. I liked Brandon's statement (I'm not a Brandon supporter in general by any means). What would you have him say? He said a lot of the things that people were complaining Hoke didn't say in his press conference as far as changes being implemented and what exactly happened.... I don't know, this still feels like people are mad that the football isn't good so we have to be mad at something.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:27 AM ^
September 30th, 2014 at 11:43 AM ^
Brandon’s not absolved either. Hardly. He knows damn well how to handle a crisis like this, or at least has the people around him to do it. By not informing Brady of what was happening he allowed Hoke to embarrass himself, to potentially put Morris at more risk during practice, and more importantly, to make a mockery of this university on Sunday (with that ridiculous statement) and Monday at the press conference.
And Brandon didn’t tell Brady he was conducting all these reviews? And Brandon didn’t include Brady in any of the reviews (isn’t the head coach part of the communication loop)?
Only reasonable conclusion – the boss is excluding Hoke because he’s lining him up to be fired for this. Maybe not now or this week, but you don’t have an epic freeze out like this in the athletic department between the athletic director, the staff and the coach unless something is up.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:01 AM ^
Just go, Dave
September 30th, 2014 at 11:28 AM ^
September 30th, 2014 at 11:38 AM ^
wouldn't want to see him in Arizona either
September 30th, 2014 at 12:04 PM ^
Because he needs to get punched in the face by you, thecool
September 30th, 2014 at 12:32 PM ^
Can't. Stop. Watching.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:03 AM ^
Of which I normally agree with much of what he says. But I agree with right now, to his exact level, on everything from "The real issue is Dave Brandon" all the was to the end.
Brandon caused a crash to become a train wreck and pushed everyone else under it in an effort to cover his ass.
September 30th, 2014 at 3:33 PM ^
Under Brandon PSU and OSU are farther ahead than we are. This is a train wreck. I just hope Brandon is as deep as it goes.
I still support the U. I take an unreal amout of pleasure in seeing some of these kids do well (I'm still amazed at Gardner working on his Masters). I just want the cancer cut out so we can move on and start being a first rate athletic organization; one with alot of honor and class instead of 'message shaping'.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:03 AM ^
I can stand behind this in ways that I could not stand behind yesterdays write-up. Obviously, this is not geared towards me, but here, rather than condemning Brady Hoke as a bad person, who would be incompetent to run even a fast food joint, it is much more reasonable:
1)Brandon is not good at his job
2)Brady Hoke has not produced desired results on the field across the last four* years
Therefore, 3) Both should be removed from their respective positions.
So, thanks for that.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:05 AM ^
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September 30th, 2014 at 11:33 AM ^
Larry Deitch is still a regent!! He was there when I was a student close to 20 years ago.....
I'm sure he's doing a great job but you should never have someone in a position like that for 20+ years. We need fresh blood, with fresh ideas and high energy very badly.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:06 AM ^
Everything Brian said is spot on.
In case anyone did want to see the results of someone casually combing through this mess of a release:
http://www.maizenbrew.com/2014/9/30/6871193/dave-brandon-shane-morris-b…
I apologize in advance if this has already been up elsewhere. Just thought some might be interested in the autopsy of this pile of crap.
September 30th, 2014 at 11:07 AM ^
As Bacon is fond of quoting former AD Don Canham as saying: "Never turn a one-day story into a two-day story."
September 30th, 2014 at 11:07 AM ^
"Catastrophic failure" is exactly the right phrase.
Who in fuck's name, other than the toolsiest corporate tool, releases a public statement on a hot-button issue like this at 1:30 in the morning?
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