Ramzy article. Good read.
This is my first forum post. I was strolling through Elevenwarriors, I found this gem:
Ramzy is my favorite writer over there. This was a good read (buckeye tilt warning).
http://www.elevenwarriors.com/college-football/2014/10/41405/the-enemy-…
"..Maybe you enjoy seeing Michigan's struggle, but this type of unthinkable decline is capable of happening anywhere - especially at our favorite ivory tower. All it requires is unchecked power in the hands of the wrong goddamn person guarded by influential people supporting him or her for all the wrong reasons."
October 8th, 2014 at 11:57 PM ^
Do you really think Dave Brandon is making every single one of the string of stupid decisions he has with zero input or support from people around him in the athletic department, university, or alumni? We know Ross supports him still, and it would stand to reason that the regents at one point liked him enough to pay him very well for reasons that I'm not sure will ever be clear. He's not some mad king who gained absolute power through birth right, he was chosen for the job and he has been supported by the institution in a number of bad decisions.
Skyrocketing ticket prices, the Coke promotion, the nightmare PR of the Morris concussion, the nightmare PR and general handling of the Gibbons case, the skywriting, the weird support Hoke thing he wrote. This isn't just Brandon, one person cannot fuck up so badly without some help.
October 8th, 2014 at 9:03 PM ^
in 2008 or 2010?
October 8th, 2014 at 3:18 PM ^
While the main reason for the problems is bad coaching hires, a big part of the reason they were bad coaching hires (or good coaching hires that went bad here) is instituational vanity. I really wonder how RichRod would have done if he would have received the same instituational, financial, and fan support that Hoke received on day one. But alas, he wasn't a Michigan Man, and the AD assumed we didn't need to pay much for coordinators because it was an honor to coach at Michigan. And as to Hoke, the entire reason behind hiring a coach with a 47-50 career record was institutional vanity - no other blue blood program have even considered him. But he was the best Michigan Man available, and apparently that was all that mattered to us.
October 8th, 2014 at 3:20 PM ^
Baloo:
Did you bother to actually read the article? Did you get far enough to read this:'
Ohio State is no different. This fiasco could happen in Columbus someday (and the current university administrators are entirely capable of making it happen). All it takes is the wrong goddamn person guarded by influential people.That is not a "shot at Michigan;" it's a well-thought analysis of the current situation.
October 8th, 2014 at 5:39 PM ^
Yes, he throws us a tiny bone by suggesting that maybe it could happen elsewhere, then proceeds to write a rambling article filled with scattershot criticism that has almost nothing to do with why the team is losing so much.
I still have no idea what the thesis even is. He begins by talking about Brandon's alienation of the students and corporatizing gameday, moves to how the real problem is that Brandon was a bad hire with a bad contract who has too much power, starts a discussion about administrative salaries, moves to the budget, the general pride of the Univeristy, politics, somehow incorporates Brendan Gibbons after a topic sentence introducing "the real threat," and ends with the Shane Morris issue.
He then attempts to tie these things together with meaningless generalities like "insitutional vanity!" or "pride and arrogance!" It's total nonsense, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the real issue, which is that we have a poor AD who one time put too much emphasis on prior Michigan connections when looking for a head coach.
Even the term "institutional vanity" makes no sense. By definition, an institution cannot have vanity, and an individual cannot be vain about an institution.
October 8th, 2014 at 9:04 PM ^
October 8th, 2014 at 6:33 PM ^
Basically the whole Senator Palpatine thing- UM has been taken over by the Sith? Where is Luke?
October 8th, 2014 at 2:58 PM ^
A lot of the self-inflicted damage honestly doesn't make me hopeful for the future. While I think this is about as low as things go, I don't think there's a ton of upside to the program until the old guard (Lloyd Carr and his cronies) are gone or removed from power and influence. And that actually may be one of good things Brandon has done. Turning over a lot of the AD staff may have been a painful but necessary step to take. The fewer old guard we have lurking around the AD, the further away we can get from our inbred Michigan Man thinking.
Brandon just needs to finish the job and quit fucking up other things along the way. And honestly, his fuck ups aren't viewed in such a negative light if Hoke wasn't such a disaster (which granted is also partially one of his fuckups -- but who knows what influence Carr had on that hire). If Michigan was winning 9-10 games a season, most of Brandon's moves would be seen as trying to move an aging program into modern times.
All that said, I still think you clean Hoke and Brandon out and bring in someone else to usher the program into the modern era. Leave the stink of failure and growing pains on Brandon and start fresh.
October 8th, 2014 at 3:00 PM ^
Let Eleven Warriors get the clicks. It isn't the Freep and Mods frown on this.
October 8th, 2014 at 3:09 PM ^
+1 I agree. It was overzealous. I humbly take your criticism.
October 8th, 2014 at 7:16 PM ^
Is that you, Dave?
HA! Just Kidding.
October 8th, 2014 at 3:10 PM ^
The article was well written and a thoughtful editorial from the perspective of a college football fan; it was even self-reflective and cautionary to all Buckeyes that this type of systematic failure can happen anywhere - even to them.
That all being said, my favorite reference is to DB as a "child emperor" - that was a laugh out loud moment.
October 8th, 2014 at 3:24 PM ^
"My son (all of four years old) is going to soon know that Michigan sucks, but he may never believe me when I tell him that once upon a time they had a very good football program".
October 8th, 2014 at 3:26 PM ^
I have a lot of respect for Ramzy. 11W writers, on the whole, are beyond awful but he does a great job and is fair and balanced in his reporting.
If you ever need some perspective on life, take a look at the comments on an 11W article, especially one about Michigan. The mouthbreathers who are members there make me glad to be a part of their opposing fanbase.
October 8th, 2014 at 3:16 PM ^
As usual, Ramzy writes well about his school's biggest rival. What's particularly hard about reading that is the fact that Ramzy is implicitly expressing sympathy for our plight with Brandon at the helm. There's nothing particularly new there for those of us who follow this stuff closely, but the fact that a prominent fan of our biggest rival is sincerely pitying us?
That's just sad. The good news is that the notion that Brandon is at the root of our problems is getting traction far beyond the Michigan echo chamber. And that should help force Schlissel's hand, to the extent it ultimately needs forcing.
October 8th, 2014 at 3:19 PM ^
If you think Ramzy will ever pity us, you haven't read much of his stuff.
October 8th, 2014 at 5:07 PM ^
Why ? The top 1/4 of their fanbase are just like the top 1/2 of ours, and deserve respect... because they are smart enough to realize that a terrible Michigan is bad for them too... when OSU was down, I wasn't happy at all... because they make a GREAT rival.
October 8th, 2014 at 6:01 PM ^
I don't know what your "why?" is referring to, but I'm guessing it's my comment that it's sad that Ramzy and his ilk are pitying us. My point is that if we've gotten to the point where OSU fans (upper echelon ones, as you note) are feeling bad for us, we've gotten to a really low point.
Also, remember that during our most recent run of dominance over OSU, OSU was never really "down" like Michigan has been lately - at least not for long. Cooper and Bruce both had good records* at OSU, but struggled against Michigan. So I never felt pity for them, because Michigan was beating good OSU teams through that era.
*Bruce had only one 4-loss season at OSU and won the Big Ten 4 out of 9 years. Cooper had one 5-loss season, no 4-loss seasons, and was 1st or 2nd in the Big Ten 7 out of 13 years.
October 8th, 2014 at 11:28 PM ^
When you were kicking our ass, we we're undefeated up until The Game. So it was way worse I guess. So that's, uh, something? At least you aren't pissing away 12-0 seasons. Who really cares in ten years if you're 7-5 or 6-6, ya know?
October 8th, 2014 at 4:00 PM ^
pure brilliance.
October 8th, 2014 at 3:33 PM ^
October 8th, 2014 at 3:37 PM ^
Was gratuitous everything else was excellent
Implying that Michigan is harboring an epidemic of sexual assault by its athletes is inane at best
October 8th, 2014 at 8:48 PM ^
Agreed. It was a case that was open and shut before Brandon was even at Michigan, and was only reopened due to a change in Federal policy. Not that I think they handled the PR of it well, but it doesn't seem like the department was anything other than cooperative in the renewed investigation and ultimate expulsion.
October 8th, 2014 at 3:43 PM ^
To be fair, I haven't read the article because - things being what they are - it'd hurt my soul dong too hard to click over to 11w and read it.
Since Ramzy is a fine writer, I'm sure it's an excellent evenhanded article that doesn't elide facts in order to pander to the lowest common denominator of the OSU fanbase. However, it's worth noting (maybe he fessed up to this as well?) that at one time he too thought Hoke's overwhelmingly Michigany Michiganess made him the right hire for Michigan
www.elevenwarriors.com/2011/05/the-cleaner
We were all of us deceived, my precioussssssss
October 8th, 2014 at 4:17 PM ^
who are just loving the way we are! I try to tease them about the Cooper years but the only team Cooper loss to was Michigan. I would love if our team would finish 10-2 or 11-1.
October 8th, 2014 at 4:18 PM ^
October 8th, 2014 at 4:25 PM ^
He makes a great point not just about university leadership, but leadership in general. Unfortunately we're seeing the results of this in areas other than football.
October 8th, 2014 at 4:28 PM ^
I don't find myself on 11W very often, but this is certainly not the first time I've been impressed with one of Ramzy's articles. The guy can write a mean article and often finds way to do so in a manner which not only doesn't alienate opposing fanbases, but actually pulls them in. Kudos to him yet again.
October 8th, 2014 at 4:35 PM ^
I've never been more ready for basketball season in my life. I love how we kicked their ass last year and how we will again this year. Dave Brandon needs to get the F*&% out.
October 8th, 2014 at 5:16 PM ^
Exceptional institutions like Michigan football are run and maintained by temporary caretakers. That's all university administrators are supposed to be.
Ramzy does stand out among his peer at 11W and this article is evidence as to why - it does illustrate how very easily something like a storied football program and its purported mission and purpose can be perverted, if you will, by a Brandon. While it's a bit painful to see Michigan being used as an example of how NOT to go about things again, this is a good cautionary tale.
Incidentally, I find myself drawn to the above quote because that's what I would think to be the main driver for an administrator in an athletic department with a long and rather nice history. Even knowing the business reality, I would love to see someone post-Brandon who sought to be a steward of a great program, not its COO / CEO / etc...
October 9th, 2014 at 9:46 AM ^
I guess I'm just cynical right now, but the era of "stewards" for Universities seems to have ended when budgets skyrocketed and the fans (and let's be frank, most of those people also post here) wanted a better "experience" at UM and/or stopped showing up to the games because they had a better experience at home. It's cliche, but college sports are huge business, and while an AD who cares about tradition is nice, those guys are hired to make business decisions that increase the bottom line for a department. And for all the crap Brandon has gotten about the football team and the stadium, he has made some good financial and athletic decisions - really kick-starting the move to D1 for the lacrosse and building up the facilities, seemingly help soccer gain a more prominent role on campus, improving facilities across various sports, etc. He isn't perfect, but this argument that Brandon is the embodiment of AD malaise and idiocy feels unwarranted. He's a guy doing his job and serving many masters, and while I think he's done a bad job of it trying to find a guy who meets some people's notions of "tradition-rich custodian" is just one group's opinion, like "corporate-style AD who can maximize profits".
October 8th, 2014 at 5:27 PM ^
for the sole fact it makes me hate Ohio State less than usual, because of how terrific 11W. Always a fun read.
October 9th, 2014 at 1:52 AM ^
is so much better than RCMB, or at least Ramzay is ( i have not looked at 11W as much as RCMB ) Only every 4th or 5th post makes reference to scUM,etc. In between is some good writing and gifs. RCMB has a solid post about once a page.....
October 9th, 2014 at 9:37 AM ^
It's pretty much just Ramzay. It can absolutely push out better content than RCMB, but its still mostly fluff.
October 9th, 2014 at 9:36 AM ^
It's a good article, but you really could say this for any major program in America. Red herrings like "look at the rise in administration pay" always drive me crazy - look at every college AD out there and virtually all are making more money, especially ones like UM that are cash cows. That isn't Dave Brandon's doing or Michigan arrogance at work; that's market conditions. Assistant coordinators make more money that HC's used to make, virtually every stadium has big screens and music playing, etc.
UM has many problems in their administration, but that is endemic of college sports in general just as much as picking a crappy AD in Dave Brandon.