Tomorrow The Tide Changes
David Brandon's first day as athletic director is tomorrow. This is a good thing. In my opinion and from what I've seen so far, he is the best man to run this athletic department. Period.
All the "Michigan Man" and "Bo Schembechler" things aside, I feel strongly that he is very qualified and the best man to lead our athletic department. While I was never a Bill Martin fan, I can't discredit his strides in improving our athletics from a mere facilities and financial standpoint. By and large, the on field product that he was responsible for (to the extent that an AD can be responsible for that) was crap by our standards. I am extremely confident that David Brandon will capitalize on what Bill Martin did with our infrastructure and translate it to on field/court/rink etc. results.
As I'm sure many of you can relate, it was very difficult watching the drubbing of our basketball team at the hands of MSU yesterday. I watched it with a bunch of MSU fans, and I must admit, I was about to go off on motherfuckers. The worst was the ESPN headline about MSU not losing to us in Football or BBall for something like 700+ days.
The silver lining of this -
I'm pretty sure David Brandon was watching that game too. And saw the same thing we saw. And I'm pretty sure that, although he probably can handle it better than many of us, was pretty pissed off as well.
While the past few years have been rough, we all know this - Michigan owns dominance in most sports, not just over our rivals, but over everyone.
When it comes down to Athletics, I'll take our school, facilities, city, history, fan bases, stadiums, alumni base, colors, uniforms, money and most importantly, passion over any school in the country. And starting tomorrow, you can add Athletic Director to that list.
Does it suck to lose to your rivals and be where we're at? Sure does. But I'd rather be on the way up (no matter how long it takes) than the way down.
It seems like just yesterday that Florida was losing in Football with the Zooker and Alabama was an after thought. It didn't take that long to turn it around.
Like Coach Rod said a few weeks ago, his team's gonna have a "chip on it's shoulder" and "revenge is sweet."
Like it or not, but this shit is making us better fans of our school. You can't be shit without adversity. So we all gotta have a chip on our shoulder.
And I expect RichRod to run up the score on everyone this season - Not just for the program, but for Michigan.
I think we're gonna set a record for two point conversions this year.
Peace.
855 days.....Wayyyyy to long
From a Sparty friend of mine to me a few years ago after Amaker's squad beat the Spartans at Crisler -
"The sun has to shine on the dog's ass at some point"
855 days - The dog's ass is definitely getting burnt.
I don't understand why that stat is getting so much pub. After all, we're talking about:
4 victories in basketball
-and-
2 victories in football
That's it. I mean, you'd think a fanbase that is sitting on a 6 game losing streak to its biggest rival in football would know what actual domination looks like. If Michigan loses to Michigan State at home this fall, then I think we have a major concern here. Until then, it's just 2 years of victory for them following 6 years of utter, delicious defeat. Six years! If we beat Ohio State the next 2 years in football, will you tell all of your Buckeye friends that we dominate them? No, because, like MSU's recent "domination," it doesn't forgive the past 6 years of suck.
As far as Michigan basketball is concerned, we have sucked balls for a decade, and the year we finally put together a tournament team, MSU just happened to have a conference winning, national championship game-losing squad. They have been better than us for a long time, people are acting like this is something they just realized yesterday.
A school without much of a winning tradition since the 60's. Counting days seems like it has roots in an inferiority complex. Its kinda pitiful. The payback will be sweet.
This was Japans phrase for the US after its attack on Pearl Harbor. I think all the negative media crap, unfounded MSU trash, etc etc etc. has done much to stir the UM faithful up.
The sleeping giant is awake. Thank you vey much!!! Go Blue. Lets go support the school and our athletic program. The smack down will be fun.
Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto uttered the line "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." at the end (as he's watching the burning hulks of U.S. naval ships at Pearl Harbor) of the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!
historians are at odds in terms of whether or not he'd actually said this.
the point however is apt.
I thought Martin's tenure wasn't going to end until the day of the UConn game. No?
has not been arrested, indicted, convicted or thrown off the team: 4
"OK Mike, let's get out the No. 0 sign ... again."
Martin built the castle, but we need a general to run it. That's Brandon: A commander.
Martin was a great investment guy. He could valuate and build wealth with the best of 'em. But you can only take athletics so far with those skills. I have the utmost confidence that the skills necessary to be the CEO of a major corporation will translate perfectly into success for the AD.
And I'm excited as hell to see what RR puts together this year. He knows his ass is on the line and I expect him to pull out all the stops -- and I think the athletes have just as much fire in their hearts. Go Blue.
Under Martin we did not have an Athletic Director. We had a Chief Financial Officer. Brandon will be both.
What is that supposed to mean? What are the "athletic" aspects of the job that he didn't do here?
If you are suggesting that Martin didn't have the athletic acumen for the job, let me remind you that he is the former president of the USOC.
I don't think it's a stretch at all to say that Martin's strengths were more in business and finance than athletics, USOC or not. That isn't necessarily saying he was atrociously bad at the athletics side. It's just pointing out he was particularly great at the financial side.
That may be, but it seems that many people are ignorant of the fact that Martin actually has a pretty extensive athletic background.
Yeah, it sucks balls to not be winning, but not winning reminds us of all the things our school, team, & tradition has beyond putting up the Ws. You can't top Michigan in those things.
Of course I am as eager as the next guy to be winning again, so we can enjoy the full package.
I think he is going to be a really good AD for us. I have been impressed with him so far.
Brandon's praises too. And speaking of singing...
You post this video often. Did the Central Planning Committee appoint you as Media Advertising Czar or something?
You have the greatest avatar ever!
RR "We'll pull our startes when you pull yours"
UM 86 MSU 0 3ed quater.