Info from fireside chat w/Schlissel: AD change not ruled out

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

RT'd by Brian. Proppe is the former student president at Michigan who took the AD to task when the student seating fiasco went down. 

 

Hearing from several students who attended Schlissel's fire chat that he signaled AD needs a culture change. Read into that what you will.

— Michael Proppe (@mikeproppe) October 8, 2014

By AD I mean athletic department. Was a question about whether that meant a change in leadership, and Schlissel did not rule it out.

— Michael Proppe (@mikeproppe) October 8, 2014

I wasn't there, but several students did all relay the same thing to me. So, as I said, read into it what you will.

— Michael Proppe (@mikeproppe) October 8, 2014

TruBluWolv55

October 8th, 2014 at 7:16 PM ^

If they do make a change I hope they give strong consideration to a former UM associate AD, Warde Manuel. My nephew went to school with Warde and was also on the track team with him. He thinks a lot of him and I know he would have a very strong desire to return the football program to what it once was.

cutter

October 8th, 2014 at 10:52 PM ^

Before Bates went to Boston College in October 2012, he was the Athletic Director at Miami (Ohio) starting in November 2002. 



Terry Hoeppner was the head coach at Miami, but he went on to take the head coaching job at Indiana in 2004. Hoeppner passed away in 2007. 



Bates' first football coaching hire was Shane Montgomery (2004-7), who had been Hoeppner's OC. Montgomery went 17-31 at Miami before being replaced by former Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Haywood. 



Haywood went 1-11 and 9-4 in the two seasons he was at Miami before taking the job at the University of Pittsburgh. That lasted only 16 days as Haywood was arrested for domestic violence. 



Haywood's replacement at Miami was Don Treadwell (2011-3). Treadwell was a Miami alum and previously held the position as offensive coordinator at Michigan State. Treadwell went 4-8 his first two seasons and started 0-5 in his final year before he was fired midseason by Bates' replacement. 



Bates did hire Steve Adazzio to come to Boston College from Temple in 2013 after his predecessor at BC went 2-10 the previous season.  Through five games this season, his total record is 10-8 after going 13-11 at Temple. 

So for the record, the coaches Bates hired at Miami (Ohio) went 35-67 while his BC hire is 10-8 to date. 

For the record, Warde Manual has been the AD at Buffalo (August 2005-February 2012) and Connecticut (February 2012 to Present).  Buffalo became a Division 1-A team in 1999.  Gill hired Turner Gill, who went 2-10, 5-7, 7-5, 8-6 and 5-7.  Gill went on to coach at Kansas for two years and had a record of 5-19.  He currently coaches Liberty University.

Manual's second hire at Buffalo was Jeff Quinn.  In his two years at Buffalo, Quinn went 7-17.

At UConn, Manual fired Paul Pasqualoni and promoted OC T.J. Weist during the 2013 season.  He went 3-5 in those last eight games.  Manual then hired former Notre Dame DC Bob Diaco, who is 1-4 so far this season.

Also for the record, the two coaches Manual hired at Buffalo went 34-52 and during his brief tenure at UConn, his hires have gone 4-9.

 

 

 

 

Don

October 8th, 2014 at 11:39 PM ^

Neither Brad Bates nor Warde Manuel have displayed any proven ability whatsoever to identify and hire capable head football coaches.

And yet we're supposed to be all giddy about hiring them because they're "Michigan Men."

The technical term for this is "Stuck on stupid."

BayWolves

October 8th, 2014 at 6:43 PM ^

So Schlissel may not be neutered after all.  Go for it.  We already know the Harbaughs may come if Brandon is axed so let's get this train moving.

pearlw

October 8th, 2014 at 6:46 PM ^

Im not sure if Schlissel's idea of a culture change will be the same as what people here want.

Many here want less advertising, less promotions, and less of a money grab..while still wanting Michigan to be a national power and spending whatever it takes to get a Harbaugh as coach and return to national prominence.

Schlissel's idea of a culture change may indeed be less advertising and less of a money grab..but not to win at all costs by spending 8 million a year for a coach.



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pearlw

October 8th, 2014 at 6:55 PM ^

So you are suggesting cutting the AD salary from what Brandon makes now back to what Martin was paid? Well, good luck getting any of those names on the AD wish list then.

My main point is alot of the arguments used to get rid of Brandon are more consistent with scaling back spending on big name coaches as opposed to expanding it.

 

MGoBender

October 8th, 2014 at 7:20 PM ^

I think the key is administratorS plural.  There's been a big increase in both the number of administrative workers and their salaries since Brandon took over.

EDIT, source (MLive):

In 2009-10, Michigan paid $33 million in wages to about 275 people. By 2012-13, the athletic department had 321 employees (it has grown even more this year to 336 workers) and projected $44 million in pay, including $19 million on coaches' salaries.

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/03/wolverine_footbal…

Ugh, worse from that article:

Over his tenure, Brandon has hired more marketers, sports administrators and even nutritionists than any athletic director before him. ...

Nutritionists, fine. Marketers and the ever vague "sports administrators"... lame.

pearlw

October 8th, 2014 at 7:28 PM ^

Based on your quote, that increases includes coaches salaries. So where do you want to cut back on that - should Bielein not have been given a raise? Should the basketball assistant coaches not have been given a big raise?

You are essentially arguing that salaries have gone up too much...but are also arguing to pay the new football coach more and keep the AD salary at a high level. Those are the positions that move the needle on the total salary of the department so I cant follow the logic too much.

As to your bottom quote, Im pretty sure every AD has more marketers and nutritionists in their departments than their previous ADs did....thats a function of the growth of all of college athletics. If you want to get rid of the nutrionists, OK...but other teams are hiring them and its a huge selling point in recruiting these days.

Its very easy to talk about cutting salaries and costs. But when a huge chunk of it comes from coaches, its hard to actually do it in a competitive environment especially when these replies are trying to support the idea of paying the new football coach a multiple of the prior one.

MGoBender

October 8th, 2014 at 7:50 PM ^

The increase is $11M.  Yes, a big chunk is from coaching salaries.  Not all of it.  Probably half-ish.

I'm not saying coaching salaries have gone up too much, I'm saying that the administration has become bloated.  Also, I explicitly said I'm fine with the nutritionists.

I'm guessing Brandon didn't hire 46 nutritionists, though.  46.  That's how many additional staff there are in the AD now.  Did you know there are 51 people on staff just for football.  51.

You cannot tell me there's no bloat.  You can keep the coaching salaries the same and find plenty of unneccesary positions to cut, I'm sure.  Then you can talk about putting that money back into the wallets of your fans, your students and your future donors.

Aside from all that, though, I do believe football coaching salaries, nationwide, are out of control.  I don't know how to fix it and I want to stay competitive, but it's certainly a concern of mine.

13 of the top 30 earners in the AD are on the football staff.  13.  I'm all for paying your coordinators well and even a couple more.  But there are 9 coaches on the fball staff.  Meaning 3 non-coaches are making more than coaches in other sports.  There are 4 staff members with the title "Football analyst."  What do they do?!  

 

MGoBender

October 8th, 2014 at 6:50 PM ^

Well, there's a bit of a two way street here.  Perhaps if the ADept cuts all the ridiculously excessive jobs that Brandon has created in the department, Schlissel is okay spending 5M on a coach (8 is pretty insane).

EDIT: enlightenedbum beat me to it!

Jaqen H'ghar

October 8th, 2014 at 6:54 PM ^

I think Schlissel is beginning to understand that Football, for better or worse, has a direct correlation to the donations that both the academic and athletic departments receive. Bad football = less donations for both. 

Also, a good football team will attract more applicants to the university (it definitely can't hurt), leading to a larger base to draw from, more demand for a Michigan degree

/sorry, trying to frame this in a way where Schlissel might give a damn about athletics, or at least the way I would frame it if I was the head of an Academic institution but wanted a good football team

pearlw

October 8th, 2014 at 6:59 PM ^

There is a big difference between wanting a good football team vs going out and paying the highest coaching salary in the country. I think many here want the latter and I just dont think a culture change to reduce the commercialized nature of football will be consistent with that.

M-Dog

October 8th, 2014 at 7:26 PM ^

Schlissel is not an $8 million football coach kind of guy.  Especially if it is to an abrasive Jim Harbaugh who called out the University's academics.

I gather that Schlissel views the whole big time athletics thing as rather seedy and would like to see it diminished.

But he does not call the shots on his own and he's smart enough to know that a losing Michigan football team would cause this kind of turmoil for him every single goddamn year.  

So my guess is that he will go for a big time hire, but he wants it to be drama free.  More John Harbaugh (assuming no direct Ray Rice culpability), less Jim Harbaugh or Les Miles.

 

umchicago

October 8th, 2014 at 8:11 PM ^

"I gather that Schlissel views the whole big time athletics thing as rather seedy and would like to see it diminished."

seems presumptive of you.  If this is true, why would he accept a position at a university that has a top 5 athletic department budget in the country?  

based on what i've heard thus far from him, he may actually "get it" here.  i think he is smart enough to understand the important role athletics play in the reputation of the university of michigan.

SWPro

October 8th, 2014 at 9:44 PM ^

I see Harbaugh calling out the academics as a good thing wish Schlissel.

 

Schlissel wants someone who isn't going to cut corners academically to succeed. By all accounts Harbaugh isn't willing to do that.

 

From his Stanford days he did all the right things and was demanding of them on and off the field.

 

Expect good performance on the field in the classroom and in society in general.

 

Schlissel may not like the price tag but he is the kind of guy who he wants in that position. And I think he will see the value of it as well.