Michigan Daily Interview with Dave Brandon
I know a lot of people are upset with Brandon for various reasons but I fully enjoyed this article. It provides great insight into what Brandon saw in Brady Hoke during the interview process.
Enjoy
http://www.michigandaily.com/sports/brandon-talks-hoke-bo-and-chest-bumps-exclusive-qa?page=0,0
December 1st, 2011 at 1:24 AM ^
Intersting read for sure but I'm sorry -- how can we believe a word Brandon says about that period of time? After the dog-and-pony show in Baton Rouge and then his comments about how discreet he was trying to be while flying around in planes with winged helmet paint jobs on the nose?
I really liked DB up until that point and I also would have made a coaching move if I was in his seat, but I got so many douche chills from the guy in Dec '10/Jan '11 I thought I had the flu.
December 1st, 2011 at 9:27 AM ^
Hiring and firing a coach at a high profile institution like Michigan is no easy task. There are lots of hard decisions. The end result turned out quite well. What series of decisions would have made folks on this board so much happier? (if he had fired RR before the bowl game, it is very easy to see how things could have turned out much worse. RR could have taken another job and taken Denard with him, the seniors would likely have been dragged through more of a media circus, if Hoke had been brought in for the bowl game, he likely would have had a bad defeat to deal with to start his career. How would any of these things been good?
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<br>With regards to Les Miles - given the fact that Mary Sue Coleman was personally involved in discussions with him last time around, maybe, just maybe she told Brandon that while she understood his reservations, she felt she owed it to Miles to have Brandon give him a chance.
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<br>There is so much that we don't know about the process that we don't know and I just don't understand why you choose with no real basis in fact to decidethat all of Brandon's motices were so slimy?
December 1st, 2011 at 1:30 AM ^
Great read, thanks for the post.
I honestly don't understand everyones discontent with Brandon. Yeah, maybe the whole process may not have been handled in the best way, but there is really no smooth way to go about it. If he had fired Rich Rod before the bowl game, who on that staff would have stayed to coach in the gator bowl? Gerg? Does he hire a new staff and put them in control with a month to prepare? He had to do what was best for the team, and what gave us the best chance to win the bowl game (although I'll admit that didn't turn out for the best).
I know a lot of people are extremely concerned about him ruining our tradition by bringing in a mascot and procombat uniforms and rawk music etc, etc., but has he really done anything major? Maybe he has some bad ideas that get floated out, but hes smart enough to not follow through with them .
Look at where we are now. We ended up with the perfect coach, and Michigan is back. At least some of this can be contributed to Brandon.
December 1st, 2011 at 1:43 AM ^
Man, I don't want to bring this back up all over again but who cares about the Gator Bowl and what lame duck would lead the charge? So what if he have an awkward month. Happens to programs everywhere, every year. It's not like the month leading up to New Year's wasn't awkward with the way it WAS handled. The enviornment for the team was arguably worse.
More than the timing was just the deceit. He doesn't like Les Miles? Fine, I'm sure he has his reasons for that. I just didn't think the best way to deal with factionalism was through trying to fool people. It was insulting and, in this age of endless information, not very wise.
December 1st, 2011 at 2:06 AM ^
What do you want him to do..tweet out every detail of the coaching search?
<br>DB: Flying out to Baton Rouge today, don't have a good feeling about this #hescalledthemadhatterforareason
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<br>He has to make it private because of what happened the last time we tried to go after Miles. And you HAVE to agree that he handled it a million times better than Bill Martin. I really don't understand your argument, man.
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<br>The best way to deal with the factionalism was to hire Brady Hoke. And that's what he did.
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December 1st, 2011 at 2:13 AM ^
I don't think he wanted DB to tweet everything, just not insult everybody by pretty much calling us all stupid and not knowing what we're talking about. He doesn't seem genuine usually to me and is definitely a suit who gives the cookie cutter answers, sometimes in a subtle douchebag way.
December 1st, 2011 at 7:59 AM ^
Not to be a smart ass, but did anybody really knew what they were talking about? The general idea was Harbaugh or bust around the board and that Hoke was not the answer. Most of us appear to be wrong in that assessment.
And I don't really care if he gives us cookie cutter answers in a flat out in your face I am a giant asshole sort of way, as long as he returns our football program to the top in a non-shady way, I am totally in support.
December 1st, 2011 at 2:06 AM ^
I'm not even sure if he knew that he was going to fire Rodriguez before the bowl game. During bowl practices, Rodriguez had a chance to fix some of the issues on the defense and to put together a great offensive game plan with a healthy Denard Robinson. And if Rodriguez had won, we would have been 8-5 with a bowl win. Instead, Rich Rodriguez led us to the worst bowl loss in Michigan football history. So David Brandon rightly decided to make a change, and hired a guy who took almost all of those same players and went 10-2 in his first year with a domination of 17th-ranked Nebraska, a memorable night game win against Notre Dame, and finally, beat Ohio State in his first year, like all great Michigan coaches should. What the hell is your problem with David Brandon? The coaching search was an epic success. I don't give a shit if he doesn't want to talk about who he talked to and what he was doing flying that winged-helmet plane around, and neither should you. He got the right guy, and that's really all that matters.
December 1st, 2011 at 9:22 AM ^
Its probably tough to get your players to focus in practice when the seniors have been told by the AD's office that their coach will be fired after the bowl game. Even if the decision is made, it should never have been leaked.
December 1st, 2011 at 12:20 PM ^
This is the first time I have ever hear or seen this come up. What is the source?
December 1st, 2011 at 4:35 PM ^
Bacon interviewed '09 seniors for the book. They said at exit interviews that staffers (not Brandon) indicated to them that RR was not coming back. This was before the Gator Bowl.
December 2nd, 2011 at 6:05 PM ^
Thank you...I am a loser fan and have not read the book yet.
December 1st, 2011 at 4:36 PM ^
"Epic success" will be defined when Hoke leaves or at least five years down the line. Not after one season. I'm sure he would tell you the same thing.
December 1st, 2011 at 2:06 AM ^
Did he try to fool people or did people fool themselves by blowing every rumor out of proportion? I highly doubt he wasted energy trying to throw everyone off the trail. He just didn't report anything until he had something to report. It's not his fault flight tracker exists. I think the end justified the means in this case.
December 1st, 2011 at 4:37 PM ^
When Michigan-decorated planes are spending a couple days down in Baton Rouge, it's no longer a rumor. He was screaming "HEY! I'M HERE!!!!!" while meeting a man that RR told Bacon he said would coach at Michigan "over my dead body."
December 1st, 2011 at 7:38 AM ^
Yeah, who cares about the Gator Bowl.... But if RR had been replaced right after the Ohio game, half this board would have exploded in anger, and if Michigan got pummeled in the Gator Bowl with a new coach, they would have been going on and on how if RR had still been coach we would have scored at least 30 or 40 points, and what an idiotic move it was to replace a coach before a bowl game.
December 1st, 2011 at 11:36 AM ^
And if we had hired Hoke in December, people would have complained that we could have had Harbaugh if we'd only waited.
December 1st, 2011 at 4:58 PM ^
Hoke would not have coached the Gator Bowl. That is almost NEVER done. Brian Kelly immediately taking over Cincinnati and coaching their bowl is the only example I can think of.
Magee would have coached it and it would have had the same lame duck vibe it did with RR. So what?
December 1st, 2011 at 1:56 AM ^
I agree, I like Dave Brandon. Is he prefect, no, but we could be doing a lot worse.
December 1st, 2011 at 1:51 AM ^
I thought to myself, "I bet this is going to turn into a bunch of people getting mad at each other once morning comes." Turns out, I don't even have to wait that long!
December 1st, 2011 at 2:08 AM ^
Not mad at at each other. Just some very thorough discussion ;)
December 1st, 2011 at 2:10 AM ^
Alright, in the time that it took me to post that, it's turned a little to the angry side. Good call.
December 1st, 2011 at 8:42 AM ^
Mgoboard... Tomorrow's anger today.
December 1st, 2011 at 1:52 AM ^
David Brandon hired Brady Hoke. He seems to get very little credit for that around this board. After this season, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone that thinks Hoke was a bad choice. However, people like BRCE seem to still be bitter about the way that David Brandon handled the hiring of Hoke. This is pretty dumb. It worked brilliantly, and I don't have a problem with how he did it. Rich Rod had finally gotten to a bowl game, and it was his bowl game to coach. Had he won, he probably would have been retained. Since that bowl game was a horrible, historic debacle, Brandon was fully justified in firing him. He moved quickly to get a replacement for Rodriguez. By most accounts I've heard, he had the opportunity to hire Les Miles or maybe even Harbaugh but decided that Hoke was the best choice. And just as we would have blamed Brandon if Hoke had turned out poorly, we need to give him more credit that Hoke has turned out to be spectacular.
December 1st, 2011 at 2:12 AM ^
Winning the bowl game would not have saved Rich Rod's job. He was a dead man walking, and the players likely knew that and as a result didn't give it their all in that game.
December 1st, 2011 at 2:24 AM ^
How do you know that Rich Rod would have been fired if he had won? That's not a rhetorical question, do you know if that's true for sure?
Also, Luke Fickell and Earle Bruce were dead men walking when their teams played Michigan. That didn't stop Bruce's team from winning and Fickell's team from playing their best offensive game of the season. You really can't argue by using intangibles like that.
December 1st, 2011 at 10:24 AM ^
People who post responses like this have to have never played sports before.
December 1st, 2011 at 5:23 AM ^
>>maybe even Harbaugh but decided that Hoke was the best choice
A year ago you would have been happier with Hoke over Harbaugh?
People are miffed with Brandon because let's just say he doesn't come across so nicely in Bacon's book.
Also corporate this and that, RAWK muzak, special jerseys to sell and what not.
December 1st, 2011 at 10:25 AM ^
I really didn't think Brandon came off all that badly in Three and Out. The stuff in January with the firing timeline and bowl rings looks bad (and we knew the firing stuff, obviously), but Bacon went out of his way to call Brandon fair more than once in the book.
To me, the only people who came off looking worse than expected were some important but for the most part nameless people connected to the AD, and the AD PR department. Martin came off as clueless, MSC was presented as a badass and RR...to me RR came off as a guy who was frustrated with his situation and not quite sure how to fix it. Also, Denise Illitch was horrible; like, to the point that I wish I was registered to vote in Michigan just to cast my vote against her when she's up for reelection.
Sorry for the tangent, apparently there hasn't been enough T&O discussion since I've finished the book.
December 1st, 2011 at 2:45 PM ^
>>A year ago you would have been happier with Hoke over Harbaugh?
It doesn't matter at all how I felt a year ago at all. That's completely irrelevant. Pretty much everybody except for David Brandon was totally wrong about Hoke. The important thing is how I feel now about the guy who has been here for a season and who just beat Ohio State.
David Brandon would have been blamed for not hiring Harbaugh had Hoke not performed as well as he has. Isn't it only fair that we should give him some credit for Hoke's success?
December 1st, 2011 at 3:04 PM ^
David Brandon would have been blamed for not hiring Harbaugh had Hoke not performed as well as he has. Isn't it only fair that we should give him some credit for Hoke's success?
Yes, and yes. Had Hoke failed badly, it would have been awful. Everbody would have been blamed. Hoke. Brandon. Mary Sue Coleman. President George W. Bush. President George H.W. Bush. They'd all have been blamed.
In fact, even if Hoke had done 'a good job and gone 5-7,' (say, hypothetically, a disaster scenario with injuries to Molk, Martin and Denard, and something like an eligibility problem for Countess) it would have been awful. There'd have been a riot in Ann Arbor as soon as Bacon's book came out, before any riots in State College. For many people, including all of Rodriguez's critics, a 5-7 record is, by definition, a bad job of coaching.
So yes, I agree with you. I think anybody would have to agree with you. I often think about the kind of credit Brandon deserves for hiring Hoke, despite the fact that I think he was mistaken in firing Rodriguez.
December 1st, 2011 at 4:42 PM ^
"By most accounts I've heard, he had the opportunity to hire Les Miles or maybe even Harbaugh but decided that Hoke was the best choice."
Where on god's green earth did you hear that we had the chance to hire Harbaugh and decided Hoke was better? I don't believe that for a second but if it is true, it is DUMB - period. I love what Hoke did, but Harbaugh might be the best coach in football right now.
December 1st, 2011 at 2:13 AM ^
this is all in the past man.
Can we just leave Rich Rod, hiring Brady Hoke and Dave Brandon's hiring process behind.
We are Michigan fergodsakes! Move on and bask in the glory of the golden poop!
December 1st, 2011 at 2:17 AM ^
Thank's Rafiki, for the swift bash on the head reminding us that it's all in the past.
December 1st, 2011 at 2:20 AM ^
Didn't we hate Bill Martin too?
I think Brandon has made some good decisions at Michigan. I think he's made some bad. On the really important decisions, like the new football coach and the infrastructure investments, he's hit a home run. He's gone over board a bit with the pipped in music and what not, but he's done an overall really good job for the athletic department.
December 1st, 2011 at 2:27 AM ^
Don't we still kind of hate Bill Martin? He handled the Rich Rod transition really poorly. I mean, he got Rich Rod, which was a huge coup, but after Rich Rod was hired, I don't think he did his part to make sure Rich Rod succeeded.
December 1st, 2011 at 2:29 AM ^
Also, sailboat.
December 1st, 2011 at 3:34 AM ^
Hoke made for his first press conference compared to Rich Rodriguez's at Arizona (read the 48 hrs. article on the Sports Illustrated website) is very telling.
December 1st, 2011 at 10:07 AM ^
That the AD/Dept set Hoke up with the perfect speech, and Martin left Rich to flounder at his first press conference. The later may still be true, but the former wasn't. The credit goes to Brady, not the department being behind him and preparing him. It's just Brady.
December 1st, 2011 at 11:29 AM ^
I think general consensus is that 3&O is the tell all...maybe but I'm taking it with a big load of salt. We can't and shouldn't expect a book about RR not to defend him and criticize the AD a little bit more then we should.
Then again, I don't know shit.
Then again, none of us are or were inside the athletic department for the last three years.
December 1st, 2011 at 4:58 PM ^
HEY!!! Did it ever occur to you that you are taking Brandon's word in the exact same way that you criticize others for taking Bacon's word? Just because his book offended your Lloyd Loyalist sensibilities doesn't mean it was made up.
In fact, Brandon, a corporate man and wannabe politician at one point, is probably much more adept at the art of lying than John Bacon is.
December 1st, 2011 at 5:26 PM ^
Bacon was speculating. He didn't have any knowledge of what happened before Hoke's press conference. Brandon's statement is easily corroborated, because Hoke can easily say HEY, I didn't wing it, I was prepared! Why would Brandon put it out there if it was a lie about Hoke? It's kind of a neutral statement...doesn't make him look that good or bad. So yeah, it could be some grand conspiracy. Or it could be Bacon talking out of his ass, and Brandon telling matter of factly what happened. You guess which seems more plausible.
December 1st, 2011 at 6:43 AM ^
but respect for Dave Brandon ...What he has done since taking the job is nothing short of amazing ....From the additions to the Big House and the hire of Brady Hoke..This guy gets it..How many of us thought "Brady Hoke,are you kidding me",but not David ..I think alot of the credit for this team should also go to David Brandon ..I think a lesser AD would of went for a big name..Great Job to the whole athletic department for a great season....GO BLUE!!
December 1st, 2011 at 7:28 AM ^
December 1st, 2011 at 7:37 AM ^
Did you know he can also walk on water?? Pizza fucking sucks though..
December 1st, 2011 at 8:59 AM ^
you tried to molest a pizza???
December 1st, 2011 at 7:41 AM ^
By all means, let's credit Brandon for the renovation of Michigan Stadium. Like blaming Rich Rodriguez for the loss to Appalachian State. This guy gets it.
December 1st, 2011 at 8:07 AM ^
The reneovation was Bill Martin's pet project
December 1st, 2011 at 10:05 AM ^
And various other changes were not (lights on the Stadium, etc). Martin got the ball rolling on a lot of great improvements, but Brandon has seen some of them through, and made some tweeks himself. To act like facility improvement went to a halt after Martin left, and nothing else was added is as unfair as to say Martin didn't do anything for the athletic department.
December 1st, 2011 at 5:07 PM ^
there's probably no way to have a Bar Mitzvah without lights. Got to have lights!
(Personally, I think the lights were planned all along, but they were too much emotional baggage to add to the original planning/controversy.)
As for the scoreboards, they are nice. An overdue renovation.
Nobody suggested that facilities upgrades came to a halt under Brandon. Just that the biggest ones, by far, were planned, financed, executed and completed under Martin. And the poster above seemed to want to shift credit to Brandon.