Michigan Director of Recruiting Candidate Chad Bowden to stay at Notre Dame

Submitted by Speed_in_Space on February 1st, 2024 at 2:56 PM

Don’t shoot the messenger but looks like the plan to boost recruiting by scooping up Bowden mentioned by Sam Webb and the roundtable fell through.

https://wolverineswire.usatoday.com/2024/02/01/report-michigan-football-misses-out-on-high-priority-staff-target/

Cue the obligatory Fire Warde and the sky is falling takes.

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NotAMichiganSpy

February 1st, 2024 at 3:25 PM ^

Imagine how shitty this would all be if we had lost to Bama or Washington. The championship is the glue holding it all together. Without it I'm sure we'd be seeing some big names hitting the portal.

Edit: Ill add some context for the dick below since I cant reply to him for some reason. Harbaugh leaving and the clusterfuck that follows was always inevitable. Although all of this sucks at least it happened after a championship. The championship helps to shutdown other fanbase shit talk about the current state of the program and helps prevent a full-on collapse which likely happens if we had lost for a third year in a row in the playoffs with Harbaugh leaving right after.

Joined: 10/19/2023

MGoPoints: 1486

bluebyyou

February 1st, 2024 at 6:24 PM ^

We won the NC with players who largely arrived before the NIL decisions and with a great head coach and some very fine assistants.  Perhaps Moore will be able to match that but I'm not holding my breath.

That great coach may have love for his alma mater but with the people he is taking, Herbert in particular,it's a bit difficult not to do some head scratching.

Joined: 09/07/2009

MGoPoints: 18566

Jkidd49

February 1st, 2024 at 3:01 PM ^

Webb also said Moore was going after this guy like JH went after Herbert so make of that what you will but it doesn't seem great.  And yes, fire Warde.

Joined: 01/30/2012

MGoPoints: 5141

jmblue

February 1st, 2024 at 3:13 PM ^

Granted, the situations were a bit different.  Herbert worked for Harbaugh the last six years while  Bowden, as far as I know, had no connection to Moore before we reached out to him.

What's the story with Courtney Morgan?  Any chance we could get him to come back?

Joined: 11/07/2008

MGoPoints: 102810

mGrowOld

February 1st, 2024 at 3:03 PM ^

Pretty surprising that we weren't able to get a coveted recruiting director  given our non-existent NIL program and the fact that we definitely proved this year that if somebody from the NCAA or B1G wants to take a shot at destroying your career, no matter how ridiculous the claim,  the University will side with your attackers, not you.

Joined: 10/04/2010

MGoPoints: 212943

jsquigg

February 1st, 2024 at 3:07 PM ^

Be careful. Mentioning this will bring out the “there’s nothing Warde could do” guys. I don’t understand what happened when everyone was full on supporting Harbaugh and then suddenly withdrew the lawsuit, fired Partridge and capitulated. I thought Santa was going to change all this. Guess Warde is determined to seek out the mediocrity he desires.

Joined: 09/06/2009

MGoPoints: 9621

Hensons Mobile…

February 1st, 2024 at 3:14 PM ^

Be careful. Mentioning this will bring out the “there’s nothing Warde could do” guys.

No it doesn't. We're talking about how Warde handle's NIL and handled the Big Ten and NCAA, and the impact this had on being able to lure a director of recruiting from a prestigious institution in a lateral move.

If MGrowOld had said, "And that's why Harbaugh left," then you'd have a point. 

Joined: 09/12/2019

MGoPoints: 49403

JonnyHintz

February 1st, 2024 at 3:42 PM ^

Well… since you asked.

 

Rumor has it that it was Harbaugh’s decision to withdraw from the lawsuit. It was a 3 game suspension handed down the day before game 1. Michigan challenged, the B1G appealed Michigan’s challenge. He missed Game 1. The hearing was scheduled for the following Friday, the day before Game 2. The ruling from the hearing wouldn’t have occurred until the following week, meaning he missed Game 2. Instead of awaiting a ruling that wasn’t likely to go in your favor anyway and being a distraction during OSU week, he decided it was better to withdraw the lawsuit. The statement from the University seems to back that up. 

 

This morning, the University, Coach Harbaugh, and the Big Ten resolved their pending litigation. The Conference agreed to close its investigation, and the University and Coach Harbaugh agreed to accept the three-game suspension. Coach Harbaugh, with the University’s support, decided to accept this sanction to return the focus to our student-athletes and their performance on the field. The Conference has confirmed that it is not aware of any information suggesting Coach Harbaugh’s involvement in the allegations. The University continues to cooperate fully with the NCAA’s investigation.”

 

Partridge was fired for coaching players on what they should say to NCAA investigators. Which is a big no no on its own merit, but even moreso when the coaches were specifically instructed not to discuss the investigation with anyone.

 

I really don’t understand the inclination to blame Warde for literally everything. Lord knows there are plenty of valid reasons to criticize the guy, yet we keep reaching for reasons that really aren’t his fault. 

Joined: 01/11/2015

MGoPoints: 48347

mGrowOld

February 1st, 2024 at 4:00 PM ^

Not that I expect you to do this but if you were so inclined to go back to my posts circa 2016 in the aftermath of the OSU officiating game travesty you'd see I was calling for Warde's head back then when he refused to publicly back Jim and left him on an island after Harbaugh called out the officials.  I said he was cowardly and gutless - not many here agreed with my take.

Fast forward to 2019 when our basketball team plane crashed and the B!G refused to move our game time and once again Warde did nothing about it.  I called him out here again and said he was a coward who was afraid to confront the B!G and again, not many here agreed with me.

Now let's take a look at 2022 when Bakish left after guiding our baseball team to it's best record in forever.  I said then Warde was ineffectual and cost us a fantastic coach and laid the blame on him for not doing what was necessary to keep him.  This time there were more people agreeing with my assessment of Warde's "ability".

Later in 2022 I was very critical of Warde's handling of the Person situation and his inaction on dealing with the problem when it was VERY clear we had one.

So you can disagree with how I feel about Warde but you CANNOT claim I'm falling into a "mob" given I've been front and center for longer than just about anyone here on what a useless tub of goo he really is.  I saw him for what he is years before it became evident to everyone else.

Joined: 10/04/2010

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Honker Burger

February 1st, 2024 at 4:10 PM ^

Was responding to above, and not an attack on you.

I'm not arguing either way about whether Warde should be AD or not. I think you've laid out several clear and fair points for why you feel the way you feel. I wish more people were like you. I'm just saying our society as a whole likes to approach from the mob mentality side moreso than the critical thinking side.

We're all prone to it. Easy to get riled up and pick apart every tweet from a reporter that goes against us, and then alternatively believe things that sound good to us. Guilty of it myself and I really try to be cognizant of it.

Joined: 04/15/2018

MGoPoints: 5686

Eng1980

February 1st, 2024 at 6:34 PM ^

Thanks for reminding me of Warde's failure to back Jim Harbaugh after the officiating disaster of OSU 2016.  Geez, the guy didn't even make a public statement indicating the filing of an official grievance with the BIG 10 for having a questionable crew and then a poor performing crew.   Just say, "We back our coach and are having discussions with the Big 10."

Joined: 04/28/2016

MGoPoints: 11957

bronxblue

February 1st, 2024 at 4:25 PM ^

Partridge got fired because he was caught telling players how to respond to investigators, which is a galaxy brain level of stupid especially since it appears he did so via text.  That's not capitulating by anyone; that's a dipshit hurting his boss because he acted rashly.

By all accounts Michigan offers Bowden a hefty raise in pay and title; ND matched and since he's been friends with Freeman for years that loyalty won out. I know when you're a hammer everything is Warde's face but when Michigan retains a highly desirable candidate we don't call the other program a loser but instead crow about the loyalty shown.  That's life.

The recruiting infrastructure issues at UM, as far as they exist, stem both from the AD but also a fair bit on Harbaugh, who was here for 9 years and made it what he wanted.  It's on Moore and co. to change that system if they don't like it but you aren't going to do it in a week, and maybe require building it by taking risks on unproven guys with potential.

I'm fine being critical of Warde but you guys are a broken record after a while.  I'd be fine getting rid of Warde for his handling of Mel, of hiring assholes like Schemmy, for firing the VB coach, for what may be a mishandling of Howard and MBB.  But he gave Harbaugh huge contracts, including one that would have made him the highest paid coach in the sport.  He let him hire anyone he wanted, basically.  He made Herbert the highest paid SC coach in America.  He sued the league to Harbaugh's suspension reduced.  He's your average AD and he's got flaws but the idea he's this feckless idiot just reads like the same mob mentality that's basically screaming "do something!" when things aren't going perfectly and isn't necessarily based in any coherent thought pattern beyond assuming change is good.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 171743

JonnyHintz

February 1st, 2024 at 6:03 PM ^

Bingo. The guy has plenty of faults, more than enough for people to pile on. Many would argue it’s enough to let him go and I personally wouldnt argue. 
 

It’s turned into every little thing being Warde’s fault, and now Santa’s fault for not firing the guy, even when the facts show it really has nothing to do with Warde. 

Joined: 01/11/2015

MGoPoints: 48347

JonathanE

February 1st, 2024 at 6:07 PM ^

I would like you to unpack the whole non-existent NIL program bit. Here is an article I found from April 11, 2023, listing schools NIL valuation, based on average earnings across the team. This is the average for the whole team, so some schools will have eye-popping numbers for some elite players, but this is how it all came out in the wash in the spring of 2023. Obviously, there has been some movement since then, but this was what I could find. 

 

1) Texas A&M - $85,000

2) Michigan - $65,000

3) Oklahoma - $64,000

4) Georgia - $56,000

5) Alabama - $52,000

6) Clemson - $46,000

7) Ohio State - $44,000

8) Notre Dame - $34,000

9) Utah - $29,000

10) Baylor - $16,5000

Looking at current individual NIL earnings, I think I saw that Will Johnson was the highest and he was down the list. You can take numbers and draw many different conclusions. One is that Michigan may not have the eye-popping numbers of the elite players, but it appears that NIL money is spread more across the team. Again, figures can be manipulated in a number of ways, but you can't just sit back and say that Michigan's NIL program is holding the team back. 

If the NCAA changes some of the pay to play rules regarding NIL, maybe the focus and payments change. 

I'll admit that I do not understand all of the NIL rules and the relationships between the collectives and the athletic department but what is the AD's job in relationship to a collective?

If Michigan's NIL program was non-existent, why haven't we seen an exodus to the transfer portal? When Saban retired, the ink was barely dry on his official statement before the players were packing up and heading out.  

I get it, you're not a fan of Warde. I'm not really wild about him either, but this mob is turning him into Keyser Soze. Anything goes bad, it's Warde's fault. When things go right, it's because of someone else. 

https://nfldraftdiamonds.com/2023/04/richest-college-football-programs/

Joined: 09/03/2017

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