What’s the deal with JUB and Naurato?
Listening to Sam Webb interview John U Bacon today and while not exactly doubling down on his earlier “concerns” about Brandon Naurato vis a vis getting the interim tag removed he continued to damn with very faint praise what (to my eyes at least) is demonstrable progress and success under difficult circumstances for the hockey team. I normally don’t think of JUB as particularly agenda driven or “somebody’s guy” but it sure sounded that way to me. Does anyone have any idea what gives?
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/michigan-insider/id1045184175?i=1000607537387
Did he make any mention of Naurato needing to get off his lawn?
The only thing that I could think is that he thinks Naurato is connected to Pearson in some way. No way you would be mad at a guy making the frozen four with a chance to win a national title.
After listening to the segment, this is more about Bacon/Muckalt/Warde.
First Bacon and Muckalt... Bacon has known him for 30 years. Covered the 96/98 championship teams in his first book, Blue Ice which of course Muckalt was a team leader during both years. Bacon clearly states that Muckalt was his choice, and he didn't understand why Muckalt wasn't given the interim job since he wasn't named as committing any misconduct in the WilmerHale report.
Bacon and Warde... it's clear based on the bombs Bacon dropped on the Harbaugh/Warde relationship that Bacon likely doesn't have a very positive opinion of Warde. I'm sure (like for most of us) it doesn't sit well with Bacon how Warde mishandled the Mel Pearson situation letting it drag on all summer long.
Warde and Muckalt... I can't argue with Bacon, Muckalt was the likelier choice on paper since he has much more experience. However, the issue was a huge chunk of his experience was as Mel Pearson's assistant, that's why he didn't get the interim job. Warde fought for Pearson and when that fell apart and the president/regents got involved, he knew he couldn't turn around and give the job to a guy that had been with Pearson as an assistant for 8+ years and another 4 as a player in college.
I don't think Bacon has anything against Naurato, he's just annoyed at the fact Warde will get credit for the Naurato hire when in actuality he fell ass backwards into it. It'll all work itself out as in 10 years after Naurato has hit 300 wins and brought home 3 national titles, Bacon will write a book about him.
don't know if you're right, but that all sounds reasonable to me.
Like a lot of so-called journalists today John U. Bacon dont know shit. He’s out to stir shit and throw shit just to be relevant. He just uses his ladel to stir the largest and most influential alumni base in the world.
Edit: Thanks for all the negs. Looking back I did indeed disparage the man and that was harsh. Im just not a fan after listening to him on WTKA. 🤷♂️
Maybe that's your thing
We know your thing...
You obviously don't know John because you can criticize him for his take but the guy is as genuine as they come. He is NOT going to stir shit to be relevant. Sam has him on every week, you can ask Sam about his values and ethics they are beyond reproach. I didn't listen to the podcast and you may not agree with his take but your characterization of John is way off base.
JUB does know something about hockey in that he has played and coached, although not a high level. On Sam's show he has gone through a list of reasons why he was concerned about Naurato and mentioned that several former players were in agreement with him.
I've always found JUB to be sincere and often very insightful in his comments.
That's a hell of a typo in your last sentence (if it is in fact a typo, lol)
Good catch… Siri.
Yeah, that's the wrongest take of the day. If anything, JUB doesn't stir shit enough, and his main problem is homerism. He's basically UM's house reporter -- that's why he gets access.
Name checks out.
He's not even a journalist? If he just wanted to be relevant, he would probably first get a job as journalist.
that was weird.
Mr. Jibbroni, what you have just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone on this board is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul.
Fix your collar.
Username checks out
The only thing you can criticize JUB about is for releasing books before they’ve been proofread that one last time.
I can't get over the fact that Michigan was misspelled. Made me put my book down. I need to get over it.
I haven't gotten over the fictionalized version of the Purdue game in the RichRod book. As much as I try to forget that, it still taints anything from JUB.
Niels, to post a link, click the icon that looks like a link in a chain, at the top of the Comment box.
Oh whoops. Sorry about that.
It's obvious but only once you know it. We all—i.e., I—had to learn.
[FWIW, "i.e., I" was the beta version of Old MacDonald's "e, I, e, I, o."
He's still salty about that time the hockey team gave him a swirlie during an interview.
No idea, but maybe, like, he just has legit concerns? A lot of people have different opinions about how sports teams should be run, general strategy, game philosophies, etc. Doesn't have to be anything nefarious.
I don’t think that’s allowed here.
I'm with Brian and Seth that JUB's sources are from the previous establishment and Narauto is a break from that group. And people get territorial about these things (see also the post-Carr clusterfuck). So he's hearing things from people who don't like that break with the past (even though Nar played for Red)
I’m interested in listening to Brian & Seth’s take on JUB’s sources, which podcast was this on?
Thats the feeling I get too. Bacon is the Blue Ice guy, he's well tied in with the old guard of the Berenson era. I don't know what Bacon wants or what he's hearing, but Muckalt is a lot more 'old guard' than Naurato and there may be a perception that he put in his time with the program and deserves the job in a similar way to how Mel did.
He's allowed to have concerns. He's allowed to be wrong, too. As long as--should Naurato sustain early success--he acknowledges the fact, why can't he have his opinion? At this stage, I respect him that tad much more, given that he's going against the tide of current opinion.
Whoa whoa whoa. Let's not get rational here. It's not like this fanbase has overreacted to early HC success, only to have it implode a few years later on national TV while a clearly concussed QB wobbled around the field.
Leave Mel Tucker out of this.
There is clearly a deal here. I do have a theory, but there is a lot of speculation and hearsay below so take it for what it's worth.
I have only heard this third- or fourth-hand, but some in the know think Naurato is not good with the media. One-word answers, declining (or ghosting) interview requests, I have heard of things like that.
Not at all something I would care about, but Mr. Bacon spends more time talking to journalists than I do.
"but some in the know think Naurato is not good with the media."
That would be an odd thing for Bacon to be concerned about, given that Bacon's most famous interview subject (the guy on the right) was frequently and notoriously hostile to the media.
Lol, have you (I know just your just repeating what you heard) seen any of Harbaugh's post game interviews? No possible way he is more dismissive of the media than Harbaugh.
Hey, I'm with both of you here.
Although I will say Bo was great with the media. He was gruff with them, and they loved him for it because he said whatever was on his mind. Bo was a "good ol' boy" type, and shared his emotions with them and was always quotable.
I'm thinking more like Lloyd, whose contempt for the media was right on top of every interaction he had with them, often to his detriment. I agree though that the best comparison here is Harbaugh.
Whatever the issue with Naurato, (1) there is no way the athletic department wasn't aware of it, and (2) they seem to have been no more concerned about it than you or I are.
It was the older and more mellow Schembechler who was more accessible to the media. Earlier in his career, even Sports Illustrated published articles about Bo that specifically mentioned his distaste for the media.
This is from the September 14, 1981 issue:
"O.K., from a distance Bo comes on like a yahoo. And that's Bo's public image. He has had horrible problems with the press, which has this nasty habit of wanting to talk to him when he loses, his mother's advice notwithstanding. But even if the media's timing were better, it probably wouldn't make much difference, because Bo hates the press. Not just a little. A lot. The Voice of Michigan Football, Bob Ufer, says he has tried to get Schembechler to be nicer to the media. "But he told me," says Ufer, " 'Bob, if I win, I don't need the press, and if I lose, they can't help me.' " Ufer defends Schembechler, whose record at Michigan over 12 years is 114-21-3; Bo's teams have won the Big Ten title twice and tied for it seven times.
Says Ufer, "Bo has two categories of things in his life: what matters and what doesn't matter. What matters is football. What doesn't matter is everything else. Bo is the kind of guy who is so dedicated that he doesn't realize how he's coming off." So while some coaches like to go out and drink with sportswriters, Bo would prefer to break out in warts.
Until a couple of years ago, he would routinely storm out of press conferences, kick reporters out of the sessions ("Don't be offended," says one of Bo's friends. "He'd kick Millie out, too"), make himself unavailable and order his players not to talk. Talking very softly once at a press conference, he was asked to speak up. "I'm speaking as loudly as I can," said Bo softly and arrogantly. And in a memorable set-to on Oct. 1, 1979, Schembechler gave an absolutely unnecessary push to a publicity-seeking college newspaper reporter.
Yet too much is read into all this. As Don Canham, athletic director at Michigan, says, "Bo is oblivious to life."
Don, going out on a limb with good things to say about Bo. The Schembechler name has in large part been erased from Mgoblog.
??? If anything, the stuff I posted about Bo doesn't exactly paint him in a positive light, at least in most people's eyes.
Oh was that the profile where the SI reporter was at a cookout at Bo's house? And lied about Bo swearing at Millie? I remember that one. Borderline hit piece designed to make Bo seem like Woody.
Can you imagine Lloyd or Harbaugh letting an SI reporter into their home?
If an SI journo lied about Bo, that doesn't change the fact that he was well known throughout the '70s when I was in school as a prickly interview particularly after a loss, which is what Ufer was referring to. I still vividly remember the hoo-ha in '79 resulting from when Bo shoved the Michigan Daily reporter when he persistently questioned Bo about our kicking game after the tough loss to Purdue that season.
Personally, aside from shoving the Daily guy, I didn't give a shit about Schembechler's dealings with the media, and Lloyd's hostility to the media never bothered me, either. Neither does Harbaugh's indifference to it.
Regarding the question of Naurato and Bacon, I think it's moot anyhow—I believe his reservations about Naurato aren't due to media issues but are due to his opinion that Muckalt deserved the position.
And I don't really disagree with anything you say here.
I think there's a difference between an established veteran coach being gruff (classic Saban!) and a new guy being poor with the media. The media types are going to be far less forgiving of the new guy than a great coach with a long track record like harbaugh
Wasn’t JUB also all about how Harbaugh was on the way out? Maybe he’s not all that plugged in. Getting good info to write up an autopsy of past events, as Bacon has, isn’t necessarily the same as getting good info on current stuff.
Or maybe he traps himself with the written word.
Maybe he doesn't like the way Naruto runs with his arms straight back.
I heard he eats his peas one at a time.