That was quite possibly the worst press conference in the history of Michigan football
January 5th, 2011 at 4:53 PM ^
....can people chill out about Dee Hart....he's a 4=star recruit who's a scat-back. Last time I checked, many of the same type players in our program weren't performing to well in our offense. I can only take so many times watching Vincent Smith gaining a few inches running into a pile of 8 guys twice his size wearing Iowa, Wisconsin or Ohio St. uniforms.
January 5th, 2011 at 5:02 PM ^
Stop telling people what to or not to do.
January 5th, 2011 at 5:37 PM ^
You're telling him what to do. Just sayin.
January 5th, 2011 at 6:43 PM ^
....evidently not good enough for you
January 5th, 2011 at 7:51 PM ^
Are uninformed idiots. Just sayin'
January 5th, 2011 at 9:18 PM ^
....I like that joke but obviously you don't know who runs this country
January 5th, 2011 at 5:39 PM ^
That little guy Mike Hart sucked running into guys twice his size.
January 5th, 2011 at 6:42 PM ^
....but it's alittle different when Hart lines up directly behind Henne so that the defense has no idea where he's going as opposed to lining up Smith to the right of Robinson and everyone and their mother knows which way he's going if he gets the ball. Quotes from Miss. St. players..."Michigan was predicatable"
January 5th, 2011 at 11:11 PM ^
Running off-tackle left wasn't predictable? Yeah, I thought the play-calling in the bowl game was uninspired, but it got to the point where fans were predicting each and every play that Carr's offense ran based on formation alone.
January 6th, 2011 at 12:17 AM ^
I loved draw plays and screen plays on 3rd-and-anything-longer-than-7-yards.
January 6th, 2011 at 12:19 AM ^
...with you but Carr never lost 9, 7, and 6 games such as RR. Granted we lost some embarrasing games towards the ladder stages of Carr's tenure but come on, UM was in much better shape in Carr's later years than any of RR's years. I, too, wanted Carr to move on because I thought we were getting stagnant....I just did not want a complete overhaul of the program and how it was winning. Martin and Coleman, although smart people, really didn't seek enough advice from people before making an educated decision.
January 5th, 2011 at 4:58 PM ^
I feel terrible for the coaches and their families - no one deserves to get fired and have to deal with the aftermath of it all. And the media circus was embarrassing to say the least. But it's sort of hard to defend what we saw on the field during the entire season and the post-season. Let's be honest with ourselves. Denard was the high point, but no one player can make a team, and the rest of the offense was exciting but spotty when we really needed them. Our losses were BIG. Over the course of the last three years, we improved on some fronts, but only marginally. We devolved in a lot of areas, and special teams was sort of an afterthought. This isn't anywhere near an elite program anymore. We're middling in the Big Ten at best. We need a change.
Now, the way in which it was handled - and the obsession we ALL had with Jim Harbaugh - was also embarrassing. Dave Brandon learned a very difficult lesson here - social media runs the show if you let it. It isn't even about the MSM anymore. It's about who can get on Twitter first. So you better have a fucking plan in place, in stone, because everyone is watching your every move in real time. I guarantee you will never see another elite program handle it this way after what we went through.
January 5th, 2011 at 5:02 PM ^
For the past two years I have thought he was a top five coach in the country (not because of the Gator Bowl). He has mentored Alex Smith (Heisman finalist), Chris Leak (National Champion), and Tim Tebow (Douche) who are all very very different types of quarterbacks. I guarantee that if he were to come, Denard would be staying put and we would have a 5 star recruit waiting in the wings when he graduated. I think Mullen is the absolute best bet as far as winning RIGHT NOW (even better than Harbaugh) and he would hopefully bring some of his MSU recruits with him. Do you honestly think he would turn down a $2.4 million raise if we offered him the job at $5 million?
January 5th, 2011 at 7:54 PM ^
You don't throw $5,000,000.00 at someone with two years head coaching experience. I don't see how he is any upgrade over Rodriguez.
January 5th, 2011 at 5:14 PM ^
and Tim Tebow (Douche)Why can I not +1 that?
January 5th, 2011 at 5:14 PM ^
K.C. Keeler is a hell of a coach at Delaware. He's my pick if not Harbaugh or Patterson.
January 5th, 2011 at 5:35 PM ^
Maybe we could convince the old farts that he's a "Michigan Man" since he coaches Bizarro Michigan.
January 5th, 2011 at 5:15 PM ^
From a football standpoint, I am happy Rich Rodriguez is no longer coaching our football team. Wish we had Jim locked up, but we still will come out on top here when it is all said and done.
Rich was in over his head, it was proven, turn the page.
January 5th, 2011 at 5:42 PM ^
if the next page wasn't blank. But you're right, it's inevitable that we'll "come out on top" with the next coach -- just like with the last one.
January 5th, 2011 at 7:43 PM ^
God, you're an idiot.
January 5th, 2011 at 5:21 PM ^
Someone completely messed up in the last 3 days. The mistake led to the crapshoot of a press conference we saw today and the coaching search starting Jan 5. Someone really messed up in order for a "top tier" team with a "really smart" AD who is really "business minded" to set course into the wilderness.
I really hope this is an illusion.
January 5th, 2011 at 5:45 PM ^
Shouldn't have called out JH to NFL - just like MSU's AD shouldn't have tweeted about RR getting fired. Otherwise, I think circumstances have overtaken DB. He may have had:
Plan A: JH
Plan B: RR comes back
Plan C: Hoke
Plan B was lost with the Gator Bowl performance, Plan A was lost with the Orange Bowl performance (NFL $$$), and Plan C was lost when floating Hoke's name last night did not meet with universally positive reactions.
So now it's on to Plan D - wide open search. Just Googling NFL.com for NFL assistants with Michigan ties, there seem to be a lot of NFL assistants who were formerly assistant coaches at Michigan. So they have some college coaching and recruiting experience, and some experience on a higher level, just no head coaching experience per se. Just another option to throw out there, besides the usual suspects.
January 5th, 2011 at 6:29 PM ^
MSU's AD tweeted that RR was fired? Wow - the inferiority complex goes all the way up to the top in EL.
January 5th, 2011 at 7:56 PM ^
Didn't you read his comments about the Big Chill after we smoked their asses?
January 6th, 2011 at 10:32 AM ^
Nope. Link?
January 5th, 2011 at 5:45 PM ^
As a retired corporate executive, now involved with non-profits, I can say that the transition is more difficult and humbling than I think almost anyone in the corporate world appreciates until they do it. The tendency is to think that everything can be fixed just by making good decisions; but in the rest of the world, far too many things are simply out of your control. It seems to me Brandon is learning a bit of this himself right now.
The dedication to the "process" he'd laid out is the mark of a good executive. Collect all the data, do all the analysis, and make the decision in its own time. Keep your eye on the strategic goals, and don't let tactical considerations overly influence long term decisions. That's basically what DB was saying in the presser. But CFB is not Domino's. Some tactical considerations loom very large in the ultimate strategic success of a coaching hire, and the recruiting cycle is key among these. Coaches are reluctant to spend time chasing a speculative opportunity while working 24/7 to close on their recruiting classes, or to take the heat for leaving during that period. These factors immediately limit your access to the national talent pool in January. To pry away, for instance, a Mullen right now is to risk a Kiffin/Tennessee style circus.
And if the rumored interest in Hoke turns out to be more than speculative, I think it shows a lack of understanding about how "Brand" and "Image" get created in a university environment. In the corporate world, changing your brand is, to a significant extent, a matter of money, resources, and focus. As an AD, you have far fewer tools to directly impact perception - and far more outside influences in control. When RichRod was hired, there were almost immediately a couple of negative narratives put into play - RichRod the ambitious gold-digging outsider, the unsuitability of spread offenses to the Big Ten, etc. - and much of the mainstream and even alternative media spent the next 3 years cherry picking data to fit those narratives. If Hoke comes in, the "is he qualified" narrative will dominate much of the coverage, especially if his teams are playing decent but boring football two years from now while Denard is off playing in a national championship with a Heisman back home on the shelf.
This is an exceedingly tricky situation DB has gotten himself into, and while I certainly agree we shouldn't freak out until we know the final resolution is known, it also seems obvious to me that it would have been less risky, with better chance for optimal outcome, to have made the decision in December.
January 5th, 2011 at 6:04 PM ^
That's about as good a summation of the situation as you'll see. Good work.
January 5th, 2011 at 9:16 PM ^
Normally not a "I agree" guy, but that post was do good it deserved more than a pretend +1.
January 5th, 2011 at 6:08 PM ^
..but I don't think there was an overcommitment to process here. Rather, I think the "evaluation process" was, in effect, cover to allow him to pursue Harbaugh as Plan A and bring back RR with new coordinators as Plan B -- until the bowl performance, as well as the public reaction to it (evidenced here and many other places), made Plan B infeasible.
January 5th, 2011 at 6:45 PM ^
DB was describing exactly the process he would use to, for instance, evaluate his national sales manager, and hire a replacement if necessary. And he certainly had to be aware that people like Harbaugh were out there, but there is, among good executives, a stubborn reluctance to be controlled by circumstances. Just like, say, Brett Favre stubbornly throwing into coverage.
I do think that one thing he said in the presser was telling - the bit about seeing what would happen in the bowl after 15 practices, seeing the results of that "test", as I think he described it. This tells me that he was hoping to see significant improvement in the defense, and overall sharper play, and that he was open to being influenced by the bowl result. Maybe he hoped a big game would remove the need for a firing. But there were also other hints in the presser - for instance, the list of criteria he chose to evaluate RR on - that suggest he had a particular set of concerns of long standing. Who knows, really - it's a moot point now.
January 5th, 2011 at 9:39 PM ^
You bring up an interesting issue that I was pondering this evening: How many high-profie positions did Brandon have to fill during his tenure at Domino's? Does anyone have insider information with respect to his track record of filling corporate officer level positions (e.g. CFO, COO, General Counsel, etc.)?
It would be interesting to see if he ever had to go through such a process - its not common but I do not know Domino's recent corporate history. I know from my own experience with my company that it is an extremely complex process requiring Board approval and, in my company's case, government approval. As such, if I knew that Brandon had such experience I would feel much more comfortable. But, for all we now know, he never had to go through such a process and, notwithstanding all his other qualities, the lack of such experience makes him no more qualified than Bill Martin.
Another interesting piece of information is whether Brandon served on the Board of Domino's and, more precisely, whether he sat on the Excecutive Compensation Committee . . .
Anyone have any insight??
January 5th, 2011 at 10:10 PM ^
Brandon was not only on the board at Domino's, he was the chairman--actually he still is the company's chairman of the board. He was also the chairman at Valassis and has served on other boards as well. I'm sure he's had plenty of experience hiring top executives. His Domino's bio:
David Brandon is currently Chairman, and served as Chief Executive Officer and Director from March 1999 to March 2010. Prior to CEO and Director, Mr. Brandon was President and Chief Executive Officer of Valassis, Inc., a company in the sales promotion and coupon industries, from 1989 to 1998, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Valassis, Inc. from 1997 to 1998. Mr. Brandon serves on the Board of Directors of Burger King Corporation, TJX Companies, Kaydon Corporation and Detroit Renaissance. He serves on a number of Southeast Michigan-based civic and charitable boards including the Gerald R. Ford Foundation and the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital National Advisory Board in Memphis, Tennessee. Mr. Brandon is the Athletic Director at the University of Michigan.
January 5th, 2011 at 10:44 PM ^
January 5th, 2011 at 5:48 PM ^
Step 2 will be the new coach, and Step 3 will be the national signing day salvage operation. We have a new long journey but it will be a better ride than we have had the last 3 years.
The firing looks like a disaster because it seems likely that the player disengagement under RichRod did not become visible until the Bowl Game practices and the actual game. Betting DB thougth we might be alright and he could give RRod 1 more year but when you lose the players, you lose everything.
Time to have hope, a positive attitude, and a plan to get back on track.
January 5th, 2011 at 5:49 PM ^
I am missing something, DB kept his word from Week 1 that he would evaluate the program as a whole upon the completion of the season and he is the A-Hole? I get all the arguements why it was bad timing, but he kept his word and never waivered - I find that a unique quality that should be commended in today's world right? Also - did my research on Brady Hoke, have a great friend who coached with him back in the day that told me the man can coach and overall I have been impressed with his body of work - why so negative about him?
January 5th, 2011 at 6:09 PM ^
January 5th, 2011 at 7:01 PM ^
Except after the bowl game, the "hire Harbaugh or keep RR" meme got blown out of the water just as badly as Michigan got blown out in Jacksonville. That line of argument was permanently gone. So I guess I don't understand how it could be possible to be angry about what happened today on that basis, nor do I understand the general hysteria about the process as it was laid out in the presser.
January 5th, 2011 at 7:32 PM ^
January 5th, 2011 at 7:41 PM ^
What "enormous, earthshattering uncertainty?" Do you really expect Dave Brandon to get up and read off his short list? Is it going to make things better if we can sit here and do a full MGoVetting process of the candidates while he conducts interviews?
We're better off having this search go on behind closed doors, with ZERO credible rumors, than rampant speculation turning this into 2007 all over again, when it was fundamentally and publicly clear we were running a rudderless, aimless search, a search that got taken out of Bill Martin's hands by the end of the process because it was so amazingly botched.
Have some faith in the process. Brandon has kept his word so far. There's no reason to believe he won't continue to do so, or to cast doubt on the entire process because the MGoUniverse doesn't know anything of substance about what he's thinking.
January 5th, 2011 at 8:32 PM ^
January 5th, 2011 at 5:49 PM ^
Why do you all think this is the worst press conference ever? We may not have learned much, but it was done professionally and by no means a bad press conference....
January 5th, 2011 at 8:03 PM ^
I mean, it was done professionally relative to a small-time press conference. Dave Brandon has been in front of a mic before. But it was baaaaaaaaaaad news. There's nobody lined up. Dave Brandon has no plan. He looked nervous relative to normal Dave Brandon.
I'm at about DEFCON 2 right now and if Brady Hoke gets hired I might just lose it completely and call into work for a week while I work out the universe.
January 5th, 2011 at 8:05 PM ^
He has no plan?
You seriously think this?
January 5th, 2011 at 11:25 PM ^
Dave Brandon's plan is to start a nationwide coaching search 26 days before signing day. Without knowing any details of said plan, it looks like an awful plan given what it can do to recruiting and even the current roster, especially given the amount of experienced talent the team has for the first time in what would have been Rich Rodriguez's tenure.
January 5th, 2011 at 5:56 PM ^
Guess we should all vent a little and try to get over it.
I was a RR supporter and would have preferred for him to get at least 1 more year. However, there was probably too much drama going on and I wonder if he could ever have righted the ship (even with a big year in 2011). Too much going against him.
I thought DB gave an excellent press conference today. It is clear that he understands there may be hits to the recruiting class and transfers, but he is more concerned with getting the right coach for the long term. A poor class in 2011 shouldn't have a huge impact on next years record, but it could affect future years. However, if he gets the right coach and the team does well next year (as it should), then future classes could be fine.
I will take the position of not getting too upset with DB for now. Wait and see who he hires as the next coach and throw my support behind the new guy (as I hope the team and all the fans do).
And whereever RR ends up, that team will become my second favorite team.
January 5th, 2011 at 6:31 PM ^
This is from an MSU fan that I know; good guy and we all know he has endured his share of instability with that program through the years. We have to realize that it might be a little longer road back then we'd like but Brandon is not about shortcuts. He knows the school can't go through this again and he also knows that Michigan has to do things a certain way both on and off the field. Here is what the MSU guy said:
January 5th, 2011 at 8:16 PM ^
With all due respect to you and maybe a little less for your acquaintence, it's my opinion that that's a mixture of emptiness and crap. I don't know what this respect of the local media is but it sounds like something that's not very important.
Firing Rich Rod during the season would have been an absurdity. Firing him in December if he was going to fire him would have been better for the program than what we have now, both short and long-term. The mess about knee-jerk reactions and merits is nonsense.
Further, making your hiring and firing decisions based on who else is available is just common sense. The job market for big-time college football coaches is a very open one with a lot of information. It's much like a sports draft: some years a high draft pick has more trade value than others.
January 5th, 2011 at 6:58 PM ^
I guess I'm not understanding the backlash here. It's been, what, 6 hours since the presser? Did you expect Brandon to be shopping deals to coaches before he fired RR? And are you really convinced he doesn't have a plan, and it wasn't outlined and put together for quick deployment before the press conference today?
"National coaching search" is not synonymous with something of epic length. I don't think it's out of the realm of reasonability that this thing is done this week. To say Brandon is going to be taking weeks and weeks to do this, or to even suggest he didn't have a plan in place, is ridiculous.
Let the process play out here. And give DB more than 6 hours before you throw him under the bus.
January 5th, 2011 at 7:30 PM ^
Even though he said at the press conference that the coaching search hadn't started yet, I have to believe that Brandon already has a short list of candidates in place who have been at least partially vetted. He's not really starting from square one here.
January 5th, 2011 at 8:31 PM ^
(or any good CEO of any business) always has a list of replacement candidates for the top positions. That is just good business. You never know when you are going to lose a key person, so you should be prepared. So no, DB is not starting from scratch.