CC: What if Brandon survives?
Slow Friday, so I thought I would throw out this topic for some general discussion / speculation:
Up until now, I think that many of us have assumed that DB would be fired at some point soon. Perhaps not this week, but certainly in time for the new AD to fire Hoke and bring in a new head coach. And it is still a possibility that DB will, in fact, be fired by President Schlissel. But, the MGoBlue.com press release about DB working closely with CSG to address issues and the announced cut in studen ticket prices call that assumption into question. If DB was going to be fired, it seems as if Schliss wouldn't allow him to take this public role. So, we need to consider that he may survive.
Which leads to my question. If DB manages not to get canned, how does that realistically impact whether Hoke is retained? Let's assume for the moment that we finish the season at 7-6 (we beat Indiana, Northwestern and Maryland, but lose to our rivals, make some crappy bowl and muddle to a win). What happens?
My personal view: If Hoke loses to both rivals, he is gone, even if DB is making the decision. The fanbase discontent would be insane. DB, himself at the center of some of that discontent, would do what just about any political person would do, and try to place the blame on someone else while at the same time painting himself as part of the solution by firing Hoke and bringing in a big name coach.
For DB, if he plays it right, this could actually save him. Sure, many current students and alum hate the guy. And while some have principled reasons for doing so (ticket prices, commercialization, etc.), if we are being honest, many want him gone because the football team sucks. If Brandon were to go out and somehow convince a Harbaugh / Miles level coach to come here (while cutting ticket prices and stopping some of the noodle, skywriting, special K stuff that has annoyed some of the fansbase), I am pretty sure the Fire DB chants would quickly end, or be reduced to a small minority of the fanbase. So, I guess my short answer is that unless he beats MSU and/or OSU, Hoke is gone.
What say you, MGoBloggers?
October 17th, 2014 at 3:27 PM ^
Wow!! Is all i can say!! Classy!!
October 18th, 2014 at 9:31 AM ^
October 17th, 2014 at 1:29 PM ^
I would leap into the sun.
October 17th, 2014 at 1:44 PM ^
October 17th, 2014 at 2:10 PM ^
Brand New album cover
October 17th, 2014 at 2:05 PM ^
October 17th, 2014 at 2:36 PM ^
If Brandon is released in mid-late November, I would expect that all of the back-room negotiations with the new AD had already taken place, such that the new AD is in place within a few days, if not immediately. Essentially, a statement from Schlissel that "Effective today, Mr. Brandon has resigned from his role as AD of Michigan to pursue other efforts. While we will miss Mr. Brandon and we are appreciative of the many great things that he did here, I am please to announce that also effective today, Mr. Ward Manual has accepted the position of AD at Michigan. We are excited . . . "
October 17th, 2014 at 3:43 PM ^
October 17th, 2014 at 2:08 PM ^
I've said it elsewhere.
He just may remain UM AD, David Brandon - but thanks to this controversy - he will never be Governor Brandon.
That's a pretty big consolation prize right there.
October 17th, 2014 at 2:10 PM ^
October 17th, 2014 at 2:18 PM ^
He'll be likened to a cockroach in a nuclear apocalypse.
October 17th, 2014 at 2:19 PM ^
1. No good coach will come here because we will either keep Fred Flinstone or hire his doppleganger.
2. We will be having this same conversation next season.
October 17th, 2014 at 2:25 PM ^
October 17th, 2014 at 4:13 PM ^
October 17th, 2014 at 2:39 PM ^
This is the thing that took a lot of the fun out of Saturday's win for me. With every win and desperate move by DB to regain support, the pressure is going to go down. To me, the MSU game is the tipping point for DB. If he can somehow make it through the inevitable awaiting firestorm after the MSU loss, maybe he can survive.
October 17th, 2014 at 2:51 PM ^
October 17th, 2014 at 3:32 PM ^
I think sometimes we forget because he is a great writer but John Bacon is a glorified fan. He has insider access to the program simply because Bo gave him an opportunity to write a book.John Bacon also has a personal stake in the firing of Dave Brandon since Brandon has limited Bacon's access to the program. Brandon has the power to limit people's interaction with Michigan athletics and I seriously doubt it doesn't affect Bacon.
In regards to the Hoke hire, I think we can clearly see that it was a mistake. Brandon hired a Michigan man as opposed to a coach who could have become a Michigan man. It matters not how many platitudes you can spit out concerning Michigan football if you can't coach the team to victory. Michigan's #1 tradition is WINNING. Find the best man to lead this team to victory. Most of you are caught up on Harbaugh and rightfully so, he would definitely be a winner here. Don't let your desperation for Harbaugh lead you to believe that Michigan can't snag another winner.
The question is whether Dave Brandon has learned from his mistakes. I think Hoke is to slow to learn from his mistakes and that is why he will be gone. Dave Brandon is not. He changed the seat cushion policy when it was clear that people hated it. He changed the general admission policy when it was clear the student's hated it. He has now cut student ticket prices. I. personally, think DB will learn in regards to hiring and firing coaches. Whether he will be given the opportunity remains to be seen.
One more caveat, the posters and many of the community here were upset with student attendance and expressed the need for change. Brandon changed the policy and it was not met with opposition until it was realized that it was a disaster. People in this community can be fickle at times. We wanted to see change to encourage students to be on time then we slapped DB for making changes.
October 17th, 2014 at 8:11 PM ^
to the reversals of his policies does not bode well for the removal of Hoke. Just about everyone recognizes that Hoke is not right for the job. Yet he remains and Brandon was quoted after the Rutgers game that Hoke has not forgotten how to win.
One can only assume DB remains very supportive of Hoke. Otherwise he would have taken action as he did with the reversal of his some of his policies.
October 17th, 2014 at 4:05 PM ^
October 17th, 2014 at 4:08 PM ^
October 17th, 2014 at 5:28 PM ^
October 18th, 2014 at 10:01 AM ^
October 18th, 2014 at 12:42 PM ^
October 17th, 2014 at 4:09 PM ^
we'll need a wooden stake and a mallet. that should do the trick.
October 17th, 2014 at 4:13 PM ^
can someone tell schlissel that keeping DB means we will continue to be mediocre in Football - and that the likelihood of us bringing in a high profile head coach is slim to none?
It seems like this needs to be directly conveyed to him ....... Bakes...?
October 17th, 2014 at 4:13 PM ^
Maybe we should actualy start looking at what Bo meant with the Michigan Man. What I never seem to see is a recognition that our beloved team has lost its way from first day (AB) first day after Bo
October 17th, 2014 at 4:37 PM ^
Well, DB detests the spread so after Harbaugh rejects him we're screwed.
October 17th, 2014 at 4:43 PM ^
Say it ain't so!
October 17th, 2014 at 5:19 PM ^
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October 18th, 2014 at 10:03 AM ^
October 17th, 2014 at 5:48 PM ^
Will be vented.
October 17th, 2014 at 5:55 PM ^
I think Brandon doesnt get fired, makes dramatic changes, and is even under more pressure to fire Hoke than before. I think if Brandon stays, Hoke is definitely gone - unless he wins out. Anything shy of that, and Hoke is gone. Its the pennance Brandon must pay. And I think he must also make the slam dunk hire rather than getting 'his guy' and/or someone he is taking a chance on. There's no more risk-taking. The new coach must be the gets of all gets.
October 17th, 2014 at 6:06 PM ^
October 17th, 2014 at 6:16 PM ^
I do not have the confidence that the guy should be the AD at Michigan, or anywhere else for that matter. There is a strong case to terminate him, perhaps even for cause, and I hope the University does so.
That being said, if he survives, it may not be as bad as it sounds. He will be reigned in. With all of the backlash against him, I think it is taken for granted that he has done some good for Michigan. Last weekend's halftime show, and the UTLs generally, are pretty damn cool.
My main concern is the coaching search. I do not trust Brandon to put aside his ego and find the right guy.
October 17th, 2014 at 6:16 PM ^
Regents can give a body blow to a Gubernatorial hopeful for the other party.
And consider this, Brandon has shown a propensity to spin things into manipulation or even at or near lying. Someone who does this usually has had success doing it in the past and that's why they keep doing it. It's like a bully who keeps bullying until he gets the black eye from someone who stands up to him.
So, what else has he done that we don't know about? I pose the question to frame the situation we're in. He has been forced to pay attention to the students because his neck is on the line. Is that how students should expect to receive respect and attention? Only when they protest like an angry mob? The answer at Michigan can only be "No".
I don't see him surviving this.
Put another way - The only way he survives his Jerry Jones like rule of the Michigan Athletic Department is If the Dallas Cowboys' offensive line has college eligibility remaining and they all decide to go to grad school at Michigan tomorrow and the NCAA approves that.
Right now I don't see anything that could change the momentum against Brandon. Out of respect for him his intentions have always been good in his mind. I don't doubt that. He just missed understanding Michigan in the first place and made a critical mistake with his only significant coaching hire.
Ask yourself this "Given his treatment of the people around him does he deserve to have another chance to hire a Football Coach for Michigan?" I'm only able to conceive of a world where the answer is "no" to that question. Republican or Democrat. For the record I'm a balance of power guy and not registered with either party.
October 17th, 2014 at 6:21 PM ^
Little secret: Brandon isn't going to be running for governor, like, ever. He may have had aspirations, but really. No way.
October 17th, 2014 at 6:51 PM ^
The political aspects of this are a red herring. Some stoogies with personal loyalty to Brandon happen to be Republicans. Everything else is spin.
October 17th, 2014 at 6:30 PM ^
October 17th, 2014 at 9:16 PM ^
this recent CSG Compromise clearly indicates that The CSG is being USED as a PAWN by DB.
DB can now simply say-- Oh ?? you have complaints ?? Your-re gonna have to go to the CSG, and talk to them
The CSG Compromise-- MUST be rejected by The Fans-The Movement . . .
Otherwise-- DB will . . . SURVIVE . . .
October 17th, 2014 at 10:34 PM ^
- Schlissel / Regents don’t want to shell out the $$$ to buy-out and fire Brandon and Hoke.
- The team somehow figures things out enough to go .500 and make it to the Pizza Bowl.
- Brandon does/says enough (cuts ticket prices, eliminates the “wow factor” crap, is restricted from going to coaches meetings, is not seen or heard from on the sidelines, etc...).
- Brandon pulls in enough favors to be granted a graceful exit over the next year or so in order to save face.
October 17th, 2014 at 11:50 PM ^
"Even if Brandon wanted to fire Hoke, he couldn’t because that act would force Schlissel / the Regents hand. They simply couldn’t allow Brandon to hire a new bad coach and risk the next 5 years of Michigan Football as well as alumni & student relations. If Brandon were to fire Hoke, it would cost him his job."
WTF? This is a huge assumption basically based on nothing. Brandon firiing Hoke would help him keep his job. It would mean that Brandon is taking big steps to fix the shit he created. To change the culture. It sends a message that he holds performance over friendship.
October 18th, 2014 at 12:45 AM ^
The president of the university and the regents essentially have no confidence in the man and do not support his actions. You do not simply let a person you have no confidence in go ahead and chart the multi-million dollar course for your football team (read FACE OF THE UNIVERSITY) and commit 4 to 5 years to a sub-par coach (sub par because no good coach will come with Brandon is AD per many well informed sources). Because of this, Hoke and Brandon’s fates are linked.
October 18th, 2014 at 1:43 AM ^
Never watched the show. Is it any good?
October 18th, 2014 at 10:20 AM ^
Bo is almost universally known as the quintessential Michigan Man. But think back to1969...was he in ANY manner a MM then?
Sorry - rhetorical question.
The answer, ofc, is NO. He didn't ever take classes here, has no University of Michigan degree (Frieder had 2, BTW,) he never was an asst coach here, & (lthough we cannot be sure of this) - he wasn't even a UM fan!
So, please explain to me - why is being a Michigan Man even a consideration? Heck, DB is one!!
Bo did, however, have the essential qualities of a Michigan Man - even though he was (HORRORS) an Ohio Man. What we absolutely need the new AD to have (sorry OP, it's not even a plausible question - DB is gone. QED. GONE, Finito Benito!) is to be able to recognize a POTENTIAL true Michigan guy.
October 18th, 2014 at 6:01 PM ^
Hoke is gone and is almost irrelevant. And for the time being, Brandon is on a death watch. But I submit he'll be a lot more subdued if he stays for the rest of his tenure.
I can almost understand how this guy has been so tone-deaf, and so seduced by the dark side. He is a multimillionaire. His friends are not "regular folks." He doesn't watch a game in the stands with the hoi-polloi, nor do his guests. They interact with each other in those fucking sky boxes, isloated from everyone else. They hardly hear the band, the rawk music, or anything else. It's a social occasion, and it's different from what most of us experience at a game.
The sky boxes are a terrible place to watch a game, in my opinion, one loses completely the experience of being outdoors in a great stadium, on an equal level with the rest of the Michigan family. I've attended Lions and Red Wings games as a corporate guest in those glass-walled rooms, and they're not a great experience (to me, anyway). I think they should be demolished, but I digress.
Wait, I don't digress. Why on earth is it necessary for a university already rolling in dough to erect these elitist edifices in the first place? What is wrong with the Michigan family coming together on a Saturdy and everyone rubbing elbows with each other in a down-to-earth way?
Talk about the corporatization of the athletic department, and with the constant need to show everyone who's who, and have the most seats, and whatever other nonsense was pushed to justify this bulltshit! This is the real problem! Not only Brandon, this business of sky boxes started with his predecessor.
To me - and I realize that reasonable minds can disagree - this is emblematic of the problem with Michigan today. And I say this is a Michigan lifer, who attended the school, whose wife attended the school, whose kids attended the school, and who has given within means to the University.
The Michigan operation isn't really Michigan any more. The stadium no longer reflects my values. The athletic department is all corporate America. The team sucks.
To me, that's a shame.
October 18th, 2014 at 9:25 PM ^
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October 19th, 2014 at 12:32 AM ^
I don't want to go out on a limb with this -- I'm not sure any single thing can be blamed. Could it be a factor? I think it could be, but more than that, it's a symptom of a real problem.
Again, reasonable minds can differ, and I can see the arguments on the other side, even though I disagree with them.
This may be anachronistic thinking, but I don't believe that a University is about buildings, however impressive they might be. I think it should be about students and faculty, and that the administration should be supporting them in their goals and achievements, and not be so attached to bigger, better, more expensive, newer.
In any case, the idea that the students, the alumni, the faculty and the administration share something - that, to my way of thinking, is what the academy should be about. A shared experience, shared values, and a sense of identity, community, and all that other old fashioned stuff.
When the announcer says, "Band, take the field!" and a joyful shiver goes up and down 110,000 collective spines, young and old; when The Yellow and The Blue gets played and there's a lump in however many collective throats; when we share these experiences they mean something we can all relate to. They're more important than watching the team win, in a way, though that's still important, but if the team wins, what makes it so much more meaningful is that it validates how we feel about our university experience. That it was the best. That we, too, are part of The Victors' 135 year tradition.
This is what the sky boxes, television, fireworks, Beyonce, big screens, and all the other gewgaws can't duplicate.
And this is where the people who don't get it, and will never get it, miss the point of the experience. They miss the gestalt of it.
This isn't pro football, where the team doesn't mean a damn thing other than it's in your city. This is college, where you spent the best four years of your life if you were lucky, or maybe you relate to it in another way if you weren't lucky enough to experience it. But in any case, it means something real.
Everything changes, of course. But something special might be lost and I wonder if we can ever get it back.
The honest truth is I'm not much of a sports fan. Example: I don't really care about pro sports. Going to see the Lions, Tigers or Wings isn't a big deal to me. I'd rather play music with friends, or hang out in my studio.
I'm a Michigan fan, because I love the school. Weird, but true.
October 18th, 2014 at 9:27 PM ^
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