Another Endzone Exceprt (this time on ESPN)
This one is probably not as enraging as the post-Minnesota debacle but also pretty bad.
Money quote from Todd Anson (Harbaugh confidant and sometimes advisor): "I used to think Dave [Brandon] was deceitful. My take now is that he was inept."
August 24th, 2015 at 9:29 PM ^
I suppose if you're the AD of a MAC level program, maybe. But even then I have my doubts given all the other coaches that could probably do a good enough job without having to be paid as the former HC of Michigan.
No Power 5 team will give him a shot anytime soon. He took 4 years of 4* recruits and his record got worse and worse and worse every year. 5* players looked like 2* walk ons under his tutelage. Forgetting everything else, that will hold him back for a loooooong time if he decides to get back into the HC game.
August 24th, 2015 at 11:42 AM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 12:01 PM ^
I think it's pretty clear Brandon wanted to be the CEO of the football team and be credited with any and all successes. While I preordered Bacon and look forward to the read, I would LOVE to have a beer with Hoke and get his take on working for Brandon ...the real truth from his perspective. So many bizarre things took place over these years that just don't jive with Hoke's personality or history at other programs.
"While many Brandon miscues were the product of inexperience or hubris, one constant shines through, and that was Brandon's burning desire to be recognized by the Michigan family and his former teammates as an "All-American athletic director," just as he had proudly told them at Bo Schembechler's first reunion in 1989 that he was an "All-American in business." To achieve that, he needed control, from the expanding budget to the expanding staff, right down to the quality of the crease in his employees' khakis. If it wasn't sharp enough, he would send them home."
August 24th, 2015 at 12:13 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 11:46 AM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 1:01 PM ^
"would have been"? He was actually beyond Jed York as DB managed to run Harbaugh off before even hiring him!
August 24th, 2015 at 2:36 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 2:46 PM ^
and have done so for the last 24 years... So I saw Jack Weidenbach, Bill Martin and D.B. all in my little corner of Michigan Stadium and I was amazed by the difference between the first two and the third.
Weidenbach and Martin were more reserved and the only time they were down there was when there was an introduction to be made, contrast this with D.B. whose sideline presence was a gameday certainty.
I remember thinking as Michigan began its slide into ineptitude under Hoke and D.B. of just how much he reminded me of Jerry Jones, stealing the focus of the on-field product and getting the spotlight shined on him...
I'm glad that things worked out the way they did. in the end we will be stronger and now we have been afforded an opportunity to see how ego and pride can affect institutions that are normally perceived and firmly entrenched only need a couple of bad things to happen for the whole thing to unravel itself.
Bo was the glue that held the whole thing together when he passed on so did an era of Michigan football. Thankfully those that he inspired see fit to keep his vision alive through their actions.
August 24th, 2015 at 8:29 PM ^
Can you imagine what kind of conversation would've been happened when DB comes to Harbaugh and asks if he can sit in on his film sessions? Those two NEVER would've gotten along.
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August 24th, 2015 at 11:51 AM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 11:54 AM ^
He ran the AD department like a business, the only thing he knows. And every time he got in trouble he doubled down with corporate ideology and practice.
His business accuse helped him build up the athletic facilities, but it also led to his downfall.
August 24th, 2015 at 11:56 AM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 1:00 PM ^
Brandon viewed the fans as customers - which there is nothing inherintly evil about. I don't think this was a conscious decision of his either, he just defaulted to his business mindset. I had a business prof at Michigan who hated calling his students customers (even though we technically were), because he always saw us as the product. Brandon could never grasp this concept - a large content fan base is to an extent the product he was responsible for overseeing, not just the constituents to which he sold.
August 24th, 2015 at 3:59 PM ^
My dad was DB's neighbor in South Quad way back when. They weren't really friends, but they knew each other, and had a lot of common friends. His reputation as a guy has always been good--he did well in business, and took care of his friends along the way. I think for a lot of people, it was a pretty big surprise to see him flame out so hard as AD, because I don't think anyone really anticipated the intense vanity and general ego he ended up exhibiting on the job. We all saw a successful guy who had been a regent, about whom everyone seemed to generally sing praise, and thought he'd just keep on keeping on.
He didn't. Ergo, this gem of a book I can't wait to read.
August 25th, 2015 at 10:29 AM ^
I think Dave knew he was giving up all of his political ambitions to take the job and had to channel that aspect of his personality into something
August 24th, 2015 at 11:59 AM ^
if true, that is more than I thought he did. I honestly believed that Brandon wanted to be the MAN, wanted a puppet, etc. I didn't believe he really did much to gauge the interest of Jim or Les. I believed that he MAY have spoke to them in order to appease the people who wanted one of the two. He felt that by at LEAST speaking to these two and spinning it by stating, "I don't think either were truly interested..."etc that he would gain more support in the hiring of Hoke...afterall, both Les and Jim, probably the two most fans wanted, turned down Michigan....
Honestly, that is how I think it panned out...
August 24th, 2015 at 12:01 PM ^
had insider info and personal relationships and they told me he was coming...it was pert near a done deal. I posted it here. We were wrong but not on bad info. The age of ragnarok has ended. The is sun on the horizon.
August 24th, 2015 at 12:03 PM ^
About the crease in the khakis comment. Our old CEO was very much in this vein. I'm a consultant and he's a former McKinsey guy. After he came on board, he did a roadshow and talked about how he expected everyone to show up to the office when they weren't at a client, and to be dressed like they're expecting to meet a client. He said that seeing people in the office wearing business casual dress or even (gasp!) jeans suggested to him that we weren't out meeting our clients often enough and not being productive. His cultural perspectives (i.e. that we should be exactly like McKinsey) never really caught on, although he did last for several years.
August 24th, 2015 at 12:05 PM ^
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August 24th, 2015 at 12:48 PM ^
along with one Regent (Andrea Fisher Newman) who still supports him.
August 24th, 2015 at 1:27 PM ^
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August 24th, 2015 at 12:16 PM ^
Initially I was curious if the Hoke era was necessary to return us to a style of play that Harbaugh would be able to utilize better with the recruits he had. Then I thought of the softness of the teams, the lack of effort, and the opportunity Hoke had to build off his first season, and it was all a waste. Harbaugh or pretty much any other non MAC coach would have done dramatically better than Hoke.
August 24th, 2015 at 12:57 PM ^
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August 24th, 2015 at 5:12 PM ^
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August 24th, 2015 at 12:25 PM ^
If Brandon deserves most the blame, we should all be pissed at Mary Sue too. Not only hiring DB against the wishes of the committee, but requesting that he go through the committee process to make it look like it wasn't nepotism.
Imagine she pulls her head out of her backside and Hackett is the interim AD back in 2010-2011. Things look a lot better right now
August 24th, 2015 at 9:21 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 12:47 PM ^
"I will never know what Brandon's motivations were," Anson told me, "but it seems clear to me that Dave was so insecure that he needed to be the big deal and could not countenance a strong personality as Michigan's head football coach.Newsflash to any prospective Athletic Directors out there. You are not supposed to be the "big deal" within your school's program. You manage the department, you take steps to keep the department profitable, but you are not the goddamned show! If you are front and center in the media all the time, you are doing your job incorrectly. Damnit, stuff like this just makes me furious!
August 24th, 2015 at 1:22 PM ^
Exactly right. FWIW when I was in school I had no idea who the AD was (some dude called Don Canham it seems) and word on the street is he wasnt half bad at the job.
How or where Brandon got the idea he was suppose to be "the show" lays imbedded in his own ego and insecurity -not anything he witnessed first hand.
August 24th, 2015 at 2:25 PM ^
I know your reply is somewhat tongue-in-cheek but it's amazing to me to think that Canham was the AD at Michigan for 2 decades, pretty much created the modern business model for college athletics and the only time you read about him in the newspaper was when somebody interviewed him for a story about that time he hired Bo Schembechler. You NEVER saw Canham in the news, or on the field during games, or in the film room with the football coaching staff (grrr, fuck!). THAT'S how you run an Athletic Department.
August 24th, 2015 at 4:19 PM ^
Here is the link to his SI feature:
http://www.si.com/vault/1975/07/28/606686/no-death-for-a-salesman
August 24th, 2015 at 12:50 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 1:27 PM ^
Although it is easy to believe that Brandon was playing his usually games with Harbaugh, I remember Hoke's name coming up before the start of RichRod's last season as the person Brandon was going to hire. I remembering thinking how crazy that report was, but according to the report, Brandon made the statement at a golf outing.
August 24th, 2015 at 1:49 PM ^
This excerpt doesn't make a lot of sense.
It says: Brandon was very self-critical when he didn't get Harbaugh and was fully expecting to get him -- Harbaugh was his first choice. His problem was ineptitude in executing that choice, not intention.
BUT ALSO
Brandon wanted to be the center of attention and didn't want a coach like Harbaugh, who would outshine him....
Those two ideas don't really square with each other.
August 24th, 2015 at 1:52 PM ^
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August 24th, 2015 at 5:07 PM ^
Though I'm far from an insider, I heard at the time of Hoke's hiring that Brandon really wanted Hoke, precisely because of Brandon's fear of being overshadowed by a more powerful coach. Brandon knew, though, that Harbaugh had a very strong following, and he also knew how discord among the Michigan faithful had hurt the program during the Rodriguez years. Brandon's solution, then, was to make a lip-service overture to Harbaugh so Brandon could cast Harbaugh as having said no.
Again, though, the above is just something I heard, but it does tie the pieces together better than Bacon's apparent conclusion that Brandon's first choice actually was Harbaugh. Interestingly, if true, it yielded at least one benefit to Michigan in that Hoke's hire did help unite fans. While we differed on whether Hoke had any business being at Michigan, everyone rooted for him to succeed. Of course, that unity came at the price of losing (for a time) the coach who could have brought both unity and success. That loss was the real price of Brandon's arrogance and insecurity.
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August 24th, 2015 at 2:14 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 2:35 PM ^
Hmm...I think you're probably right. Good interpretation.
I don't think Brandon was a good AD or anything, but I do think Bacon has a bit of an axe to grind here. Seems to be drawing the black and white conclusion that Brandon's ego was the main thing that got in the way of getting Harbaugh, when I think it's equally likely he just was kind of shit at wooing a top level head coach, due to inexperience, personality, and other factors. The fans were clamorning for Harbuagh, and Brandon must have known he would have been worshipped had he landed him.
I'd say (and have heard from others, like Sam Webb) that Mary Sue and Lloyd Carr's coldness to the idea of Harbaugh was a much bigger factor in him "not feeling the love."
August 24th, 2015 at 2:15 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 2:15 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 2:18 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 2:15 PM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 3:37 PM ^
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August 24th, 2015 at 4:21 PM ^
glad to see some discussoin on Carr. we should all praise him for his many accomplishments, on and off the field. but the fact that he did not leave the program better than he found it is still unsettling.
August 25th, 2015 at 7:59 AM ^
August 24th, 2015 at 4:50 PM ^
"I will never know what Brandon's motivations were," Anson told me, "but it seems clear to me that Dave was so insecure that he needed to be the big deal and could not countenance a strong personality as Michigan's head football coach.
I could totally buy that and it angers me actually, that mere ego would be the insurmountable obstacle in the case of David Brandon, that he couldn't stand to be in the background as he undoubtedly would have been had Harbaugh come back to Ann Arbor in late 2010. In the end, as others have mentioned, maybe this was the time, under an administration willing and wanting to let Jim be Jim.
August 25th, 2015 at 12:28 PM ^