A World Held Hostage: Day Five
Les pun barrage avoided. The mandarins at LSU are sticking to their story that no one's talking to them about talking to Les Miles. The chancellor's version of yesterday's statement by the AD:
“No one has said anything to me,” Martin said. “But of course a lot of these things are done with agents now, behind the scenes.”
Just like LSU's recruiting. Hey-o!
It's contagious. Jennifer Hammond was patient zero in the Michigan edition of Fruitless Jon Gruden Naming but it's spreading: I have more than one account from actual sources indicating Michigan did interview him yesterday. With Gruden an interview is usually a brief conversation about how this guy makes more money than God by saying generic things on Monday Night Football, so don't get excited. I can't believe I'm actually relaying information about Gruden and Michigan but I guess if we've deployed flight tracking Gruden couldn't have been far behind.
If, like me, you've become inured to the constant Gruden-to-everywhere speculation that seems like it's been a major feature of American culture for the last fifty years you may be surprised to find out that he's a youthful 47 and could actually be plausible in a Pete Carroll sort of way.
Speaking of flights. So the winged helmet plane that touched down in Baton Rouge when Miles was in Dallas was there for all of two hours, then took off for South Carolina. What's in South Carolina? Um… well… a few days ago it was relayed to me that Lloyd Carr was in South Carolina. He supposedly has a vacation home at Hilton Head (restaurant to the stars!). The plane flew to… Hilton Head. It then went to a regional airport in Georgia, back to Hilton Head, headed out to Westchester County, and then went back to Hilton Head.
Ironically, Carr lit out for South Carolina because he was sick of people claiming he was the nefarious power behind the throne and just wanted to get away from everything and now a plane with a winged helmet painted on it is using his location as a hub. This is either
- an amazing coincidence, or
- David Brandon smoothing over Les Miles with Lloyd Carr and random incredibly wealthy NYC-based booster who is probably Stephen Ross.
Since a good source says Brandon actually is using the winged helmet plane—Dominos was a ruse!—I lean towards the latter; this seems like a fact corroborating the Les Miles buzz. I may have to apologize to Tiger Droppings.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:54 PM ^
The highly reported animosity he has with so many says something about him.
But it says nothing about the press? So you probably believe everything that Rosenberg wrote about practicegate, right? Give. Me. A. Break. Highly reported by whom? "Anonymous sources"? Oh so reliable, right?
You spiel is ridiculous. Carr has at least as much if not waaaaay more integrity than anyone on that list. Believing otherwise based on ZERO (0) evidence is ludicrous.
January 9th, 2011 at 3:11 PM ^
Fuck Rick Leach.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:05 PM ^
He let that swirl for like 48 hours before squashing it. Was that not fast enough for you? Sorry if he doesn't read internet blogs 24hrs a day like the rest of us. If you recall, Brian apologized for blaming Carr for that, as he among many others were wrong to have doubted Carr's loyalties.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:40 PM ^
I love Lloyd Carr. I cried like a baby his last game when they carried him off on their shoulders after the bowl game win over Florida.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:45 PM ^
I seriously want to make some phantom accounts right now just to neg you more than once. Get off Lloyd. Seriously, the guy did a lot for our program, give him some respect. I've been incredibly annoyed by some of the posters on this site that stoop to bashing him beyond his last year of recruiting fall off.
You were probably saying "fuck Bo" when he fire the coach the night before the tourney too...
January 9th, 2011 at 12:50 PM ^
I love how seriously some people take their negging privileges. Grow up.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:53 PM ^
I don't love how you're completely and totally wrong in your assessment of one of the best ambassadors this University has ever had.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:01 PM ^
Of course I'm wrong. As are every one of those rumors. Sure.
Just because you're a sappy little senitmental bitch for LC and don't want to believe something doesn't mean it's not true.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:07 PM ^
If you keep going, you may just make it to zero by dinnertime.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:17 PM ^
I'm concerned about that. I am.
Again, I LOVE how empowered some nerds feel from negging as if it means anything. This mafia mentality on the board is hilarious to me.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:23 PM ^
Brother, I am with you. A bunc of "UM grads", CEO's HAHAHALOL, and other oh-so-high-and-mighty types--get theri jollies out of spending their lives on a message bard and hitting the "Neg" or "Pos" bang button til their nipples get hard.
Oh, and even funnier is all these types scram like lil beeyotch for Daddy to ban anyone they don't like.
HAHAHAHAHLOZ What a bunch of phonies.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:30 PM ^
You are still a dipshit. I'm sorry you couldn't get into UM and live in Nebraska.
There's like 12 mistakes in your post but I've seen you type "CEO's" a few times now. You are not smart.
January 9th, 2011 at 3:36 PM ^
Stone the unbeliever!
January 9th, 2011 at 2:03 PM ^
According to wikipedia a rumor is "an unverified account or explanation of events circulating from person to person and pertaining to an object, event, or issue in public concern" Going further, " Most theories agree that rumor involves some kind of a statement whose veracity is not quickly or ever confirmed. In addition, some scholars have identified rumor as a subset of propaganda, the latter another notoriously difficult concept to define" [emphasis mine]
Quantity does NOT mean quality. A billion rumors are still just that, rumors. Just because there are more of them doesn't make it any more true.
In summary, kindly STFU. Lloyd is a good man, and until I see official reports about "shady dealings" with regards to anything Michigan-related in the past 10 years, then I will always believe he's a good man. Do you know him personally? Why do you have an axe to grind? Why are you so gullible with regards to rumor-mongering? I'm not sure how standing fast on my beliefs that he is a man of great integrity constitutes me or anyone on this blog being "sappy little sentimental bitches" with regard to Lloyd. Please.
January 9th, 2011 at 3:00 PM ^
But all the rumors about the reasons he didn't like Miles, or the rumors of Rich badmouthing Lloyd behind closed doors are made up? Your reasoning of believing some out there rumors but not others to fit your viewpoint is whacky at best.
January 9th, 2011 at 2:18 PM ^
Telling another poster to "grow up" right after you just said "fuck Lloyd Carr"? That's not even good trolling.
January 9th, 2011 at 2:17 PM ^
TREASON!
January 9th, 2011 at 2:57 PM ^
Can someone explain to me how if this diatribe (hell, this statement) was said against any player, he'd have been banned for life in like 5 seconds, but he does this about our former coach on the front page (not an intelligent criticism, but an insane rant) and he's allowed to go on and on...?
<br>
<br>Makes it look like you're endorsing it by saying this is ok, but other stuff isn't.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:34 PM ^
I sure hope this is a stretch of deductive reasoning...
Because the last time Carr meddled in the coaching search, things worked out so well.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:56 PM ^
I would be fine with hiring a broomstick with a hat on it if it meant the end to the insanity.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:56 PM ^
The UM Plane is owned by:
Rich Rogel was the founder and CEO of Preferred Provider Organization of Michigan (PPOM). Before entering the medical management field, Mr. Rogel worked as a management consultant for Arthur Young & Co. and as a corporate finance associate in for Burnham & Co. For eight years, he owned and administered a multi-specialty medical center. In 1982, he founded PPOM, the first operational PPO in Michigan. This plan offered its services to more than 1,100,000 employees and dependents in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. PPOM won awards as Michigan's fastest growing private company and placed as high as 40th in the INC. Magazine 500.
Currently, Mr. Rogel invests independently and has been the angel investor for CoolSavings, Geneworks, Inergi LLC, and several other companies. He was also formerly the President of Tomay Inc and served as the chairman of Mobile Path Services, Inc. He is Past President of the University of Michigan Alumni Association, Chair of Michigan's capital campaign, and on University President Coleman's Advisory Board. He resides in Colorado where he helped found The Youth Foundation, serving on the Executive Committee and chairing the Education Committee. He also has positions on the Board of Trustees for the Progressive Policy Institute.
Mr. Rogel graduated as valedictorian from the University of Michigan Business School
January 9th, 2011 at 1:00 PM ^
His vacation home is in Scottsdale, Arizona. Miles' agent and the coaching convention Miles will be attending this week are both in Dallas. He's been riding on that jet. Draw your own conclusions as to why.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:07 PM ^
The one good thing that comes from coaching search nightmares is that Brian and the MgoCrew posts more than double... Even if each post makes our collective maze and blue hearts crumble a little bit more with each post.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:10 PM ^
FYI, smaller corporate jets are often used to carry cargo, if it's many small pieces, documents, etc. They just sit it on the seats. For example, when I worked at McDonnell-Douglas, it was a well-known fact that the company Lear jet was used to deliver the F-15 response for quote to the Air Force back in the day. The cargo was several copies of the response document and it FILLED the jet. They did that because the documentation was too big to fit in the underwing cargo pods an F-4 can carry.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:37 PM ^
...we email those proposals or post them to a government website. Frees up so much space on the plane for golf clubs.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:58 PM ^
Stories are told in my research group of late-night collating parties at conferences. You see, you had to hand-carry a hundred dead tree copies of your paper to your talk.
Yay PDFs!
On the other hand, you don't get to re-run your computations the night before and stick new figures into the paper the day of the talk. Plusses and minuses.
January 9th, 2011 at 3:01 PM ^
Now you get to spend hours creating the perfect cryptic bullets for your PowerPoint Presentation instead of creating the perfect cryptic bullets for your overhead projector.
I hate PowerPoint so, so much.
Civilian Contractor: "Don't use a period there, it's a bullet, not a sentence!"
Me: "But it has a noun and a verb. What do you think of the content? Is that the message we want to convey? Why the hell are we briefing this crap anyways? No one is going to use this information."
Civilian Contractor: "What you say isn't relevant, it's how you say it!"
Me: Dies a little inside...
January 9th, 2011 at 1:14 PM ^
Oh, right, every single person over the age of 64 that's on anything beyond a fixed income.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:28 PM ^
So here's the tip of the day. To make your coaching search experience a bit more productive, register on Flightware. Once registered (for free!) you can setup alerts that are sent to your smart phone or email account. Just enter a tail number and tell them what you want to be altered on (like "filed flight plan"!), and you will receive a message on your Blackberry, smart phone or email account the second the event happens.
What a great way to get away from the web browser and actually interact with your family!
Like JUST THIS SECOND I received an alert that the MgoPlane (N929SR) is heading from Hilton Head to.... Baton Rouge!
Enjoy!
January 9th, 2011 at 1:33 PM ^
Is that the correct plane to be tracking?
N220DF is owned by Dominos Pizza and landed in Dallas (where the current coaching convention) is being held, and where Brandon is rumored to be conducting interviews.
It is possible that the N929SR is somebody else related to the issue, but I'd imagine it's not Brandon and either somebody a) Chumming it up with Lloyd and Ross or b) Some kind of fund raiser.
N929 just took of for Baton Rouge again, FWIW.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:36 PM ^
We're following two planes here.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:44 PM ^
Well. Unless Brandon is so awesome that he can teleport, he's not the one on the plane that has been bouncing from LA - > SC -> GA -> SC -> NY -> SC -> LA. Because he was on the plane that has been in Dallas for the last 24 hours.
So he's not the one smoothing over Lloyd/Ross/Miles' wife.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:54 PM ^
Haven't heard anything about Cam. IMHO he would be the best choice from among the so-called "Michigan Men" (ahead of Miles or Hoke). He has ties to Michigan, the B10 and midwest.
January 9th, 2011 at 1:59 PM ^
on Cameron's sterling record of success as a head coach in the Big Ten?
January 9th, 2011 at 2:04 PM ^
On his success in the pros?
January 9th, 2011 at 2:05 PM ^
His record at Indiana was not stellar, I grant you. But he was woefully short on talent there, and short on numbers, with several players playing both ways. He has coached some innovative players, however, including Harbaugh,Howard, Randle El.
January 9th, 2011 at 2:25 PM ^
That's an understatement. He followed a coach who took IU to 6 bowl games in 13 seasons ... in 5 years, Cameron couldn't even break .500 once. If he was short on talent, it was his own fault; Mallory was obviously able to find enough to at least be competitive.
And at the same time as Cameron was bumbling his way around Bloomington, Joe Tiller was taking Purdue to bowl game after bowl game. Both coaches took over teams that combined for 5 wins in the last two seasons under their predecessors, so it wasn't like Tiller had a built-in advantage ... and Cameron was the one who was supposedly familiar with the region, not Tiller. (Just for the record, I'm absolutely not advocating Tiller; he stopped coaching two years before he retired and stuck the program with Hope, so I wouldn't care to see him anywhere else, certainly not here. I'm just pointing out that he went into a similar situation and had a huge amount of success compared to Cameron.)
Cameron had five years to do something at Indiana and completely failed. That's not to say he might not be a better coach now, but there are many, many other coaches who have better resumes and are probably better bets.
January 9th, 2011 at 2:10 PM ^
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the term "Michigan Man" coined by Bo to justify his reason for not letting Frieder coach the b-ball team AFTER he took the Arizona State job? So, by definition, "Michigan Man" defines loyalty to and/or employment with Michigan.
It never meant "someone with ties to Michigan," so using it as some sort of coaching prospect prerequisite is just plain wrong.
If RR had won at Michigan, there would be no talk about his being a Michigan Man. Either way, he's certainly not one now.
PS I'd rather see Cowher coaching here than Gruden. How come nobody ever mentions him as a possibility? I've read he's ready to get back into coaching. He's won multiple Super Bowls, so he doesn't have much to prove in the pro ranks. I think luring him to Michigan would be huge.
January 9th, 2011 at 2:23 PM ^
i think he's waiting for the right NFL offer; coach with full authority on personnel decisions and probably become the highest paid coach.
January 9th, 2011 at 2:49 PM ^
... it wouldn't hurt to talk to him. Instead of waiting or hoping for full control, Michigan (or any college) guarantees it. I hope, at least he was contacted to make sure he wouldn't be interested.
He's defensive-minded, has proven success, and recruits would flock to us -- as would many of the top OCs and DCs. Cowher would have more pull than almost any other college coach. And good recruiting would be a big help in getting us out of our RR quagmire.
January 9th, 2011 at 2:31 PM ^
January 9th, 2011 at 3:15 PM ^
...I stand corrected. I had thought he won twice. Still, getting there twice is not an easy task, even if he did lose one.
There's no doubt he's a great coach with a track record much better than Gruden's. He'd be a fantastic hire and worthy of the highest college salary should Michigan be willing to pay it.
January 9th, 2011 at 2:53 PM ^
...the term, but he did bring it squarely into the national discourse with his comment about Frider/Fisher.
Read up on the history of the term at MVictors and the Hoover Street Rag. Here's Craig Barker at HSR:
Upon [Yost's] retirement as Michigan's athletic director in 1942, a major valedictory banquet was held by his friends in the Field house that bore his name. As John U. Bacon recounts in Blue Ice, Yost concluded his statement by saying:
"But do let me reiterate the spirit of Michigan. It is based upon a deathless loyalty to Michigan and all her ways; an enthusiasm that makes it second nature for Michigan men to spread the gospel of their university to the world's distant outposts; a conviction that nowhere is there a better university, in any way, than this Michigan of ours."
Bo may have popularized the phrase "Michigan man", but I think it's important to understand that I've always taken Bo's point that "A Michigan man will coach Michigan" simply meant that someone who would rather be at Michigan than any other school would lead Michigan. Bill Frieder (a Michigan alum, by the way) was headed out the door for Tempe as soon as the NCAA tournament was over. That isn't loyalty to Michigan, so Bo hastened his departure, and lo and behold, it worked. Six games later, Steve Fisher and the Wolverines are national champions and the mythos of a Michigan man takes on a whole other dimension, one, I genuinely suspect, Bo never intended.
In my mind, if you want a Michigan man, it's simple, pick someone who gets that for so many of us, there is nowhere else in the world we would rather be associated with than the University of Michigan, for good or for ill, in right and in wrong. If they understand that, and if they feel the same way, if they are respectful of tradition without being beholden to it, if they are mindful of what has made Michigan great in the past without trying to do it exactly the same way, if they hold fast to the spirit of the thing rather than the letter of it, they will have a strong chance to be successful.
January 9th, 2011 at 3:06 PM ^
It's not coming from here. It's believing and upholding the ideas it represents. People can come from elsewhere and have the same ideals. Or leave from here and not take them with them.
January 9th, 2011 at 2:59 PM ^
The National Coaches Convention is taking place in Dallas. Seems like that's the place Brandon should be. It's typically a popular place to conduct interviews.
January 9th, 2011 at 3:05 PM ^
Ironically, Carr lit out for South Carolina because he was sick of people claiming he was the nefarious power behind the throne and just wanted to get away from everything
Did anyone else take this to mean that Carr reads MgoBlog? I don't know if there was anywhere else with such fervent proRR people who clung to such an outlook.
January 9th, 2011 at 3:06 PM ^
This search is looking as confused as the last search. I'm not sure it will be resolved this week?
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