Post game player and coach comments.
Lots of focus on the play. Players saying they are keeping the noise out. Harbaugh said the team is stalwarts. Not in the link, harbaugh was asked about Ono's support. He responded it was deeply appreciated.
I'm really lost on where is ward in all of this. Is this expected that the AD has been non-existent? Even the players are talking about Santa and 0 reference to warde. This is extremely confounding.
November 5th, 2023 at 11:32 AM ^
Warde is clearly not a wartime consigliere.
November 5th, 2023 at 11:34 AM ^
He was doing so good in peace time.
November 5th, 2023 at 11:38 AM ^
When the best thing to do is nothing, Warde delivers. TBF, he is better than a distressing number of ADs (including Dave Brandon) at this.
It’s in times of crisis we see his true colors, which is. . . to still do nothing.
It’s almost like he just never does anything, regardless of the situation.
November 5th, 2023 at 1:50 PM ^
It’s really hard to know what Warde has been doing.
He may be one of those that get all the work done and let others take the credit. He may be someone that believes you play strictly by the rules for the organization to survive.
I haven’t been a fan but I will reserve judgment on Ward.
November 5th, 2023 at 2:05 PM ^
That seems wise. In so many of these college sports issues, we just don't know the full story. At least I don't. I've read a lot here, but it doesn't quite make sense to me. It seems like maybe Harbaugh is somebody who looks for loopholes and exploits them. This is not necessarily bad or good, in my view. I have no idea what Warde's personal views are or how these fit in with his job responsibilities. Maybe he's pro-Harbaugh but doesn't want to compromise the university by appearing to be a reflexive booster of the football program. Maybe he's anti-Harbaugh but doesn't want to harm the football program. I'll be supportive until I find some more substantive reason to be otherwise.
November 5th, 2023 at 2:26 PM ^
I tried to think and nothing happened.
November 5th, 2023 at 2:03 PM ^
Manuel is the Athletic Director version of his old teammate Leroy Hoard, who is supposed to have said “If you need two yards, I’ll get you three. If you need four yards, I’ll get you three.”
November 5th, 2023 at 2:11 PM ^
Hoard played with Manuel? I thought Warde was older. Now I feel old.
November 5th, 2023 at 3:51 PM ^
My memory of Hoard is the 1989 Rose Bowl when they needed 10 yards and he got 61.
November 5th, 2023 at 12:42 PM ^
Everyone wants to be the AD until it's time to do AD shit.
November 5th, 2023 at 11:36 AM ^
I agree with this sentiment, and am withholding judgment on whether this is good or bad, or neither of those. I don't know enough about the inner workings of an athletic department to know what his role should be in this situation, or whether he's been told to keep a low profile and that Ono will be the face of this.
November 5th, 2023 at 11:55 AM ^
Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. It makes a certain kind of sense for Warde to do his job for the sakes of all the other sports and for Ono to handle the public face of football until all this is past us.
November 5th, 2023 at 12:25 PM ^
I realize that we live in an entirely different period of time but Don Canham would never put up with this. There would be no way he could limit a one day story into two days much less three plus weeks. He at least would be out in front of this. That was then, times have changed.
November 5th, 2023 at 1:16 PM ^
He would never have had to, because back then, there was no social media and the mainstream media actually practiced journalism. All they would have done is verifiy an investigation had been initiated, report it briefly, and wait until actual facts come out. Also, the other coaches respected each other back then, and you wouldn't have seen all these whiny, shit bags like Day and Walters stabbing other coaches in the back from the shadows.
November 5th, 2023 at 2:08 PM ^
Canham was far from perfect, but if confronted by a similar situation, there is no way he would have adopted Manuel’s sphinx-like approach to communication with his audience—Canham would have been a vocal and forceful advocate for Michigan.
November 5th, 2023 at 2:54 PM ^
Just a thought…. maybe Ono told Ward “I’ll take the offense on this one, you take care of the back office dealings and keep quite”. I’ve seen this in business dealings.
November 5th, 2023 at 4:50 PM ^
usually when this happens though there's a definitive outline of where the responsibilities lie. An email or reference to "I'll be the point on this, please include Warde on any communication, but expect me to be your point of contact".
November 5th, 2023 at 12:01 PM ^
Our AD was responsible for stocking the concession stand. Also this was 1996 and I was 17.
November 5th, 2023 at 12:59 PM ^
It’s weird because Ono has to run THE WHOLE UNIVERSITY, so you’d think someone in charge of athletics would handle this situation with the football team
November 5th, 2023 at 1:09 PM ^
I think Ono is speaking to the other guys running their whole universities and saying, "do you really want your football coaches' whining to cause me to break this glass and take out the big, blue hammer?"
November 5th, 2023 at 2:49 PM ^
Not to be that guy, but I think some people don't understand what a University president does. This is very much Santa Ono's job. Most of his job is about keeping the reputation of the University in a good position so that regents and donors don't lose confidence so Michigan can continue to build their endowment and alumni network.
In other words, when the University's biggest brand, the football team, gets in trouble, it is very much in his interest to combat that publicly. There are deans of each college, who in turn have huge staffs, who even during normal times manage the day-to-day of the University.
November 5th, 2023 at 2:56 PM ^
Agree; just posted above without reading this first.
November 5th, 2023 at 11:37 AM ^
It's time to go to the mattresses.
November 5th, 2023 at 12:49 PM ^
Yall should know during a time of conflict, a family can't have all their high ranked officials out in the public. Thats why Michigan sent Warde to Arizona to be with Moe Greene(Fisch) while Harbaugh and Santa take on the masses.
November 5th, 2023 at 2:13 PM ^
Warde is juggling his gun while Jim buys oranges.
November 5th, 2023 at 1:53 PM ^
I honestly just don’t think he and Harbaugh get a long at all.
November 5th, 2023 at 2:10 PM ^
logged in to upvote. Nice!
November 5th, 2023 at 7:48 PM ^
Warde who? Not doing anything as an AD
November 5th, 2023 at 11:35 AM ^
Is this expected that the AD has been non-existent?
At this point? Yes! What’s confusing about it? Warde is always non-existent. It’s not a new thing.
November 5th, 2023 at 11:40 AM ^
I feel like at some point warde should have been involved based on being in charge of the ad. Ono is not going to step in until this thing got too big or warde didn’t do his job.
November 5th, 2023 at 12:17 PM ^
I think us speculating about Warde and what he's been doing is no different than rival fans speculating about what Harbaugh did or didn't do.
November 5th, 2023 at 1:04 PM ^
The difference is that Warde has a track record and we’ve seen it. The first thing that comes to mind is Juwan’s slap. Yes, Juwan was in the wrong. Gard instigated. The other wisconsin coach went after the players. Rather than at least having Juwan’s back at all, warde let Wisconsin set the narrative and the punishment. That set a precedent. I think that warde would’ve let the big ten coaches punish Harbaugh if Santa didn’t step in.
November 5th, 2023 at 1:12 PM ^
i have no problem with people criticizing him in hindsight, for other infractions, particularly him not supporting coaches. But this seems bigger than that, it has its own media life, as well as legal and reputational ramifications for the university. It's entirely possible that he's taking marching orders from Ono or M's lawyers about what he can and cannot say.
November 5th, 2023 at 5:13 PM ^
Gene Smith would be all over this shit to control the narrative, so not quite buying this. Hindsight will be here in due time and at that point it'll be too late.
November 5th, 2023 at 1:22 PM ^
Wholeheartedly disagree. Like an official, the AD should be invisible until it is imperative for the official to do something about the play on the field. Warde has helped allow this to get out of hand by standing back. To even permit the ADs to meet with the Big Ten without him and say nothing is egregious on its own. It shows their respect for him as a colleague.
November 5th, 2023 at 2:14 PM ^
Not sure where you are getting this info, but none of the reporting suggested Warde was not part of the AD conference call with the Commish.
November 6th, 2023 at 1:50 PM ^
Well, there are 14 schools. The reports suggest that 13 ADs met with the commissioner to express their concerns. It is easy to connect who the one who was not is...
November 5th, 2023 at 11:41 AM ^
You have to believe that Ono had a sit down with Jim before he issued that letter to the Big Ten.
But for the life of me I cannot understand why Jim hired Stalions. Bad things happen when the resume’ is lacking and the person is obsessed.
November 5th, 2023 at 11:44 AM ^
If I had to wager, it’d be that Jim Harbaugh felt this guy was a kindred spirit. “Enthusiasm Unknown to Mankind” and all that. It looks foolish in retrospect, but Jim probably thought he was a go-getter.
November 5th, 2023 at 12:08 PM ^
Jim was correct. A go-getter of other teams' signs.
November 5th, 2023 at 11:46 AM ^
You can say a lot about Stalions, but he is indisputably someone who is maniacally and intensely obsessed with Michigan football. Knowing what we do about Harbaugh it would have been more surprising if he didn’t hire him on the spot.
November 5th, 2023 at 11:49 AM ^
How was Stallion's resume lacking for a low-level job? Our coach describes himself as a jackhammer, so I don't think he would regard Stallions as being obsessed or extreme.
November 5th, 2023 at 3:00 PM ^
Agree. I see comments about “how does Stallions do this with a $55k job?”
I’m confident he has a full time job and this is his ‘weekend gig’.
November 5th, 2023 at 4:25 PM ^
His family has money, his dad and him were seen at an away michigan game I believe with sideline passes before he was on staff, they aren't cheap. Gardner also said he was at every hotel at away games while he was playing. Connor would have been 19- early 20's at this point. The money is definitely Dad's.
November 5th, 2023 at 11:53 AM ^
I suspect that Harbaugh has a bit of a weakness for non-coaching staffers with military and/or law enforcement backgrounds. He hired Minick who eventually flamed out, and if Stalions wasn’t a Navy guy and instead was just an obsessive nerd, I doubt he’d have gotten hired.
November 5th, 2023 at 12:09 PM ^
He is a Marine, not Navy.
November 5th, 2023 at 12:26 PM ^
He went to the Naval Academy.
November 5th, 2023 at 2:14 PM ^
Still a Marine.