Unverified Voracity Gets Rehab Profile Comment Count

Brian

Basketball approaches. Save us, basketball.

Schlissel speaks. Mark Schlissel sat down with the Daily to talk about the future of the athletic department. Schlissel has mastered the executive's ability to talk without sending people running for the 72-point font, but there were some interesting bits in there. It seems like the timing here caught everyone off guard:

“I would imagine that we’ll begin the process of organizing a search in the coming weeks,” Schlissel said. “I can tell you with certainty I haven’t talked to anybody at all — no matter what you read in the media — about whether they’re interested in a permanent position here.”

It seems like the decision-making process was winding towards that mid-November date when things got accelerated. Not sure I like the overtones of "begin the process of organizing a search in the coming weeks." That sounds like an extended timeline, and Michigan has some pressing priorities.

Schlissel flat out admitted that the names being floated in the media are people he's "never heard of before," which again shows his refreshing ability to say "I don't know" but I hope doesn't extend to the Michigan guys—at this point you'd hope he had a handle on the Long/Manuel/Bates group. He also said the usual bit about how they're not going to focus exclusively on Michigan guys.

In a second article, Schlissel cited Brandon's resignation as a reason he couldn't say much about exactly what went down but did offer this:

"One thing I will say is I expect everybody who works at this public university to treat the public with respect,” Schlissel said. “That’s a sort of condition of working at this university.

“Everybody should be respectful to the public we serve.”

That's the general outline; I'll round up the AD chatter in a separate post.

A bit of a difference. Nebraska folk are looking at their schedule and that of various Big 12 teams and noticing that one is not like the other:

Let’s pretend that Nebraska stayed in the Big 12 and West Virginia never received an invitation. Let’s give NU the Mountaineers’ 2014 home conference schedule. Ready?

Oklahoma

Kansas

Baylor

TCU

Kansas State

I don’t have enough exclamation points at my disposal for that list. I get pumped just thinking about it. That’s a schedule from paradise, full of teams with speed and skill (OK, not so much Kansas). Or maybe it just seems that way based on Nebraska’s rice-cake diet this fall. Ready? Are you sure?

Illinois

Rutgers

Purdue

Minnesota

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Look at those two schedules. Look at 'em! The latter looks like an old catcher's mitt. It must be a sick joke, right?

This really hits home when you look at the basketball schedules: single-plays everywhere, even less balance than previously. Bleah. If the league was as responsive to legit criticisms as individual schools were, Delany would get run out of town on the same rail Brandon's on. But he's got that insulation.

Chaos in Bloomington. The last time things got so wild in central Indiana, Lucy left the barn door open and one of the cows got stuck in a police car. In the immediate aftermath of a freshman hitting one of his own teammates with a car, while intoxicated, Troy Williams and Stanford Robinson have been hit with four-game drug suspensions. That brings the number of IU players involved in drug-and-alcohol-related incidents up to 6.

And guess which newspaper just hired the human molotov cocktail that is Gregg Doyel?

Firing Crean for his team's fifth alcohol-related incident in a year could be expensive.He has a $12 million buyout this year unless he's fired "for cause." Would nearly 40 percent of his roster -- five of 13 scholarship players -- being cited for alcohol-related offenses count as "for cause"? A judge might have to decide, if it gets that far. But if a fifth IU player is cited, then that's where it should go. Because the coach overseeing that program, I don't care how much I like the guy, would have to go.

Yep. The Indy Star. Dan Dakich, meanwhile, went off on his radio show:

"Gregg Doyel was dead on. Indiana players, you're getting ready to get your coach fired... I love Indiana basketball down to my core. It's who I am. But not this crap...

"When did you fans become so soft, become so accepting of mediocrity, promotion and crap?"

Sounds kind of like a blogger there.

It's funny because we suck. If we did not suck it would be somewhat less funny.

Something like injury information. Gardner is not right and it's obvious; he limped around to finish the Penn State game and is still hobbled:

After a play broke down in the second half against Indiana, Michigan's fifth-year senior quarterback tucked the ball near the 50-yard line and took off.

His mind said go, but his sore ankle wouldn't let him. He ended up rushing for a first down, but it was obvious things have changed.

"(A year ago) I probably would've scored," Gardner smiled Monday. "But I got the first down, that's what the team needed, it kept the chains moving."

Let's just put that on the pile then. Soon we will ski down Mount Devin Gardner Problems.

Please? The Hoover Street Rag points out that fixing the current schedule imbalance in the Big Ten East is not a difficult thing as long as 1) MSU is also amenable to that change and 2) IU doesn't care:

Since Indiana is in the East, both Michigan and Michigan State play them every season. Fortutiously, Indiana played MSU at home and Michigan on the road this year. Therefore, all you have to do is flip the Indiana game from a home game to an away game and flip MSU from an away game to a home game. Everyone still ends up with the same number of home and away games, and the bottleneck is cleared.

Current 2016 Schedule
UM at MSU, at OSU, vs IU
MSU vs UM, vs OSU, at IU
OSU at MSU, vs UM, vs IU
IU vs MSU, at UM, at OSU

Proposed 2016 Schedule
UM vs MSU, at OSU, at IU
MSU at UM, vs OSU, vs IU
OSU at MSU, vs UM, vs IU
IU at MSU, vs UM, at OSU

Seems like all three programs in the MSU/OSU/M troika would prefer to have one at home and one on the road for balance and ticket sales reasons.

Alert! Alarm! The word from Boston:

Never! Mind! The word from Boston:

This is a big bowl of awkward.

Tommy Amaker is set to coach No. 12 seed Harvard against No. 5 seed Cincinnati in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Thursday, and when the Crimson lose their next game, Amaker is gone. He’s Jacoby Ellsbury gone. Harvard’s loss will be Boston College’s gain.

BC hired Ohio coach Jim Christian instead. On the bright side for Shaughnessy, Jacoby Ellsbury was never found again.

Number one. Would you like a lot of quotes about Jim Hackett? Angelique has them for you:

"Number one, he's nice," Gilmour said. "Number two, thoughtful. Number three, clearly deep. … He is a thoughtful and organized person. And he may be the interim (athletic director) but he won't be a caretaker. He will be moving the athletic department ahead."

The Schiano rehabilitation project begins now. A long Pete Thamel piece on Peter Kings site finds Greg Schiano looking up at nothing in particular while exposing his teeth for reasons he doesn't understand.

schiano-board-960[1]

I know that feeling of panic whenever someone points a camera at you and says "look like a human being," bro.

Anyway, Schiano makes breakfast, he is enamored with Urban Meyer's juice, he sings songs about chores to Red Hot Chili Peppers songs, he won't be an enormous Brandon to NFL scouts anymore, etc. Schiano's image was run through the woodchipper over his two years in Tampa and he's trying to be… well… that guy above instead of the guy who has his players go after people on a victory formation play.

(Also, what is that diagram? Is he demonstrating Notre Dame's last touchdown in 2011? WHAT DOES IT MEAN?)

Etc.: I was on Drew and Marc Friday talking about what happened and what's next. Hackett intro. Niyo on Hoke chatter. The Brandon timeline. Slate on the ouster. Drake Johnson breakdown.

2015 GA SG Jaylen Brown, the #1 kid nationally, will take a visit to Michigan. Ricky Doyle is going to be critical. Good think he doesn't look like a freshman physically.

Stuffing the Passer is now an animated comic strip, because of course it is.

Comments

MichiganStephen

November 4th, 2014 at 1:29 PM ^

Brian, these fluid situations must drive you crazy. You spend a chunk of time writing this article and just before you publish it Football Scoops releases their article saying that M would like the AD search done by 11/29. Caveat: Schlissel is directly quoted while the other guys have “sources”.

Raskolnikov

November 4th, 2014 at 1:33 PM ^

as "actually hiring the guy that has already been unofficially selected." At least, that's what I hope it means. Time is of the essence, and there is no reason whatsoever for it to take so long.

steve sharik

November 4th, 2014 at 1:33 PM ^

schiano-board-960[1]

(Also, what is that diagram? Is he demonstrating Notre Dame's last touchdown in 2011? WHAT DOES IT MEAN?)

It's a zero, bring-one-more-than-the-offense-can-block, house blitz--named "Buddy" after Buddy Ryan b/c it's out of the 46 "Bear" front.  Also, circled DT is taught to hug the center.  The dashed lines from the nickel (N) and corner (C) to the WRs mean they're in man coverage.

Hey, you asked...

Space Coyote

November 4th, 2014 at 2:30 PM ^

And to add, looks like the DE on the right has peel ("Train" in Buddy Ryan lingo) responsibility on the back, and if he peels than the FS has contain responsibility. A bit surprised that the SS/DE don't have a hug responsibility shown on the TE. Whichever way he tries to release (if he tries to release), the SS/DE have him in coverage and the other maintains the gap.

Looks to me like they went over a few formations and a bunch of blitz concepts. Storm is a SAM blitz. Wk Cobra a CB blitz from the weak side. FZ is either "Frank or Zebra" by Buddy Ryan lingo (which is a man-to-man check to the strongside to account for coverage in a blitz package) or simply Fire Zone. Dog, Switch, Slash, Dash, etc, are all likely blitz concepts. It's good stuff, I'd love to be in the room to watch him draw this stuff up while he looked blissfully into the overhead lights.

AZ-Blue

November 4th, 2014 at 2:11 PM ^

Schlissel has handled this, so far, about as well as anyone in his situation could have.  And it is refreshing that Schlissel isn't afraid to say simply, "I don't know," but less than refreshing to hear he isn't aware of the names of some high profile AD candidates.  Did the admin really think this whole Brandon disaster situation was a localized minor fan thing that would just blow over?  

His Dudeness

November 4th, 2014 at 2:18 PM ^

Not sure if you didnt see this, but I think Schlissel has said (or at least people around Hackett have said) that Hackett is set to be the "interim" for at least 12 months.

That would mean a much longer process than you are stating would be optimal here.

I, for one, dont care as long as the wheels are oiled on the Jim Harbaugh to AA bus. After that the hiring of an AD (provided the new AD was once, in fact, an AD somewhere) is gravy.

I think it's been stated that Hackett is the oiliest of oiled wheels in order to get Harbaugh here, so I'm cool with the extended timeline, bro.

 

 

Raskolnikov

November 4th, 2014 at 2:26 PM ^

refers to the amount of time he will be with the athletic department, and not necessarily as acting AD. So, they could get a new guy in a few weeks and retain Hackett in an advisory role of some sort.

"I think it's been stated that Hackett is the oiliest of oiled wheels in order to get Harbaugh here"

I haven't heard this, but would be nice if true. Can you elaborate or find where that came from?

WolvinLA2

November 4th, 2014 at 2:47 PM ^

I've heard the same about Hackett getting Harbaugh.  Hackett played (I believe) when Jack was an assistant and has been very involved ever since, so it would make sense they would at least know of each other.  Hackett is also widely known as a great guy that everyone likes, so it also follows that if they know each other, Harbaugh likes Hackett.  

 

Needs

November 4th, 2014 at 2:32 PM ^

I would not be surprised if Hackett was kept on to do some kind of "administrative review" of the AD after the new guy is hired, basically charged with separating Brandon's new hires into categories of "competent" and "Brandon toadie," which he could then pass on to the new AD.

carlos spicywiener

November 4th, 2014 at 2:22 PM ^

Schiano is far and away the single biggest asshole I've ever seen in football, and that is absolutely saying something.

Who the hell tells their (embarassed, ashamed-to-be-following-instructions) players to go after Eli Manning on a kneeldown?

All Day

November 4th, 2014 at 6:45 PM ^

I was at a Halloween party over the weekend talking about football with some guys. A Michigan "fan" asked me who I thought some realistic candidates were, so I listed them. He then told me, straight faced, that the only person who made sense was Greg Schaino. Without saying a word, I left the room to pour myself another drink.

bigmc6000

November 4th, 2014 at 2:39 PM ^

I'm not sure if being over .02 really constitutes being intoxicated in a non-legal sense. That's, what, 2 beers? Doesn't impact the rest of what's going on at IU but saying the kid was drunk because he was above .02 (.025 in the report). I know it's the line they have but I think common sense has to prevail at some point and say that blowing a .025 is far from a common sense definition of "intoxicated."



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bronxblue

November 4th, 2014 at 2:43 PM ^

I am still positive and confident about Schlissel's handling of the Brandon situation, but at some point "I don't know" stops being refreshing and stops being, what's the word, troubling.  I suspect it will all work out in the end, but I've been burned too many times by the "new guy" seeming competent at the task because we don't know him very well and haven't decoded his seemingly-innocuous statements as evidence they aren't prepared for the challenges ahead.

Tim Waymen

November 4th, 2014 at 4:29 PM ^

Don't listen to Shaughnessy. Like all of the sports writers for the Boston Globe, he knows dick about college sports (maybe it's improved since I last checked though) and his statement is most likely based on the chatter from Michigan fans or whatever random statements with Brad Bates and Michigan in the same sentence. Plus he enjoys antagonizing the local Boston sports fans so there's that.

Mr. Yost

November 4th, 2014 at 5:51 PM ^

 
 
  1. Love Luke's basketball "hype" video.
  2. Love the AD timeline even more...STRETCH THIS THING OUT. Sorry Brian, but you don't want to fire Hoke immediately after the OSU game, you run the risk of your guy not being available until the end of the following month. That's too long to go without a head coach AND the media storm will force someone who may be interested to say "NO!" just to save face with his own program. Push that AD search back, fire Hoke 12/19 or 12/29. Hire your new coach on 1/5 and let's roll. OLIVER LUCK, GREG BYRNE, WARDE MANUEL. GO GET ONE!