Dave Brandon's Athletic Department Continues to Use Student-Athletes to Save His Job
Facing a boycott of kickoff in protest of Dave Brandon's continued employment, Dave Brandon's Athletic Department puts out an official photo using a quote from Dennis Norfleet to try to stop the boycott. The caption on the Michigan Football Facebook page: "Fleet".
If you are like me in thinking that it is inappropriate for Dave Brandon to use student-athletes in orchestrated PR ploys intended to save his own job, you'll join me in thinking this is inappropriate, too. Boo, Dave. Boo.
Mrs. Jon06: "Is that official?"
Jon06: "Yes."
Mrs. Jon06: "...He should be fired."
ETA: Mr. Yost down below tries to convince me that this is not a new social media strategy. I asked him to provide an example from the Michigan Football Facebook page of any student athlete quote used in a 2014 ad. I mentioned that coaches' quotes had been used. His responses: basketball players from Twitter (not what I asked for), coaches (not what I asked for), and then a Funchess quote that never appeared on the Facebook page (not what I asked for), which (last time I checked) he is pretending was posted there. If anybody knows where he got that Funchess Chobani image, that'd be great to know. [Image was from Twitter. Again irrelevant. Again obfuscation from Mr. Yost who wants you to forget what we were discussing.] In any case I am just writing this here to register that Brandon supporters appear to be engaged in an active misinformation campaign here. Be careful out there, folks.
ETA2: To be fair, I should add here that Mr. Yost seems to think I'm lying by having moved the goalposts on him. I disagree insofar as social media strategies are a lot more specific than he seems to think, but you can see what you think if you read through the stuff below. The Funchess image he keeps reposting is from Twitter, per the above, unlike the FB-sourced image embedded in this here OP. FWIW, I am now inclined to think MGrowOld is right in the "Why the Surge" thread when it comes to at least part of the increased pressure to attend, but I still strongly dislike the AD using SA quotes in official materials in any way that even has the appearance of being an attempt to move the needle on a boycott aimed at DB.
October 7th, 2014 at 11:44 PM ^
That's fair. In general, I think DB has consistently pursued what's in Michigan's short-term interests even when it doesn't seem to be in Michigan's long-term interests (e.g., alienating long-term season ticket holders with frequent money grabs). Politicians do that all the time, since they get credit for what happens during their tenure but not what happens afterward, and maybe I assume that's Brandon's motivation since he's also a politician. You're right, though, that it could just be a different view of what's in Michigan's best interests in the long run.
At the same time, I have no idea how a lot of his behaviors possibly could be best for Michigan. I get why it's nice for DB to let Hoke deal with the media firing squad after the Morris concussion without AD support, to release his statement about the concussion stuff at 1:30 AM, and to sit in on the coordinators' film sessions. If he thinks those things are good for Michigan, I think he's telling himself really twisted stories.
October 7th, 2014 at 9:46 PM ^
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October 7th, 2014 at 9:51 PM ^
He could also do this by resigning. In fact, if he really cares about the players and getting a great home atmosphere for this weekend, he would resign today.
October 7th, 2014 at 10:07 PM ^
^^^^^ This is my response, in a nut shell. the un-tl;dr version:
You don't have to boycott kickoff to let the school know that you want him out.
But don't skywrite it either. Or peacefully and organically meet on campus to address the U President. That's all "unbecoming" or some bullshit. Just write a nice form email to the president or the regents public (junk) email. Maybe you'll get a form response back.
The point is to make so much noise that the people in charge (the Regents, the Pres.) are forced to address the issue now- not 8 weeks from now, not a few months from now. NOW now. The should feel the pressure from all directions to make the right decision.
It's clear what the issue is- the AD and his policies and decisions. MICHIGAN FANS & ALUMNI: You want to do right by the student athletes? Then I suggest you do all you can to make it be known, in no uncertian terms, that DB should be removed from his position immediately.
But you know what, just worrying about the 900 some SAs isn't looking at the whole picture. Michigan is more than the 900 SAs on campus now- it's the 45000 students, the thousands of academic and admin and support staff, it's HALF MILLION alumni and a couple million fans.
October 7th, 2014 at 10:19 PM ^
October 7th, 2014 at 10:22 PM ^
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October 7th, 2014 at 10:27 PM ^
Are you not attempting to stand in the way of getting DB fired? Analogies too hard for you? What is it?
October 7th, 2014 at 10:47 PM ^
October 7th, 2014 at 10:44 PM ^
right. people don't want to boycott football also would have stood against women's suffrage. This is rational.
Like the guy who said loyalty to Hoke was akin to nazi Germany. These are rational views. s/ there. s/ if you did not understand that. s/
October 7th, 2014 at 10:54 PM ^
October 7th, 2014 at 11:14 PM ^
If you didn't realize what you were doing with that analogy... it's really not worth debating with you any further. But I believe you did.
October 7th, 2014 at 11:26 PM ^
October 7th, 2014 at 11:43 PM ^
Look, I like you as a poster as well. But now you've associated this little, tiny, nothing protest against the AD of a college sport team with the civil rights movement. In your analogies, you are putting yourself in the position of supporting women's rights and civil rights, and those disagree with you as the opponent. It's a common tactic in debate, I'm sure it has a name, and it's used often enough but it's kind of a weak method.
Using such strong analogies is way off board. It associates your opponent with a really distasteful and offensive view that has absolutely nothing to do with the current topic being debated (other than a loose connection to action). You must realize that.
October 7th, 2014 at 11:57 PM ^
October 8th, 2014 at 12:03 AM ^
Well, I like both of you as posters. I think Erik's word choice was poor when he said "if it had been up to some of the people on the board." I think a better way to phrase that - and maybe closer to his true intent - would be to say that sometimes things that people want won't happen unless they noisily, actively, unpleasantly demand them. I don't think Erik is trying to imply that the posters arguing against protesting DB also would have been apathetic toward or, worse, opposed to civil rights efforts, nor do I think he's trying to associate you with people who were. At least I've never seen him use that kind of tactic before. I think he's making a general point about the necessity of being nasty sometimes and he just chose his language poorly and accidentally implied something much harsher than he intended.
October 7th, 2014 at 9:52 PM ^
but a boycott will let all parties involved know our displeasure. If the students go in after kickoff they are still supporting the team and school. Right now they have the biggest voice with that move. Empty seats at kickoff will get people talking.
October 7th, 2014 at 9:58 PM ^
You are making it about you and not about them.
October 7th, 2014 at 10:04 PM ^
October 7th, 2014 at 10:18 PM ^
Give this man a prize Johnny.. someone who gets it
October 7th, 2014 at 10:57 PM ^
They won't have near enough time to get out by kickoff if they wait for the players to run under the banner. It will just look like a bunch of students milling around. It will have no impact.
October 8th, 2014 at 12:41 AM ^
Just curious, are 30,000 students going to file out before or after the National Anthem?
October 7th, 2014 at 10:23 PM ^
so I can go out and look as if I am supporting everything, or make a statement? Which one do I choose if I am a 18 to 21 year old? I know what I would do.
If the upper echelon sees everyone there they think ok the problem isn't as bad, we are still making money.. Do something that makes them grab the check book and watch the results. No one likes to be shamed in public. I support the team and the school regardless of what happens.
October 7th, 2014 at 9:55 PM ^
I would agree with u if it was anyone other than Brandon. I wonder what ESPN is gonna say whn the student section is completley empty at KO. Hes more worrie about his own ass than the "Fan Experience"
October 7th, 2014 at 9:57 PM ^
So if its not about him, he should acknowledge he's done a shitty job and step down as AD. This would ensure that there is no boycott and that the players will have the atmosphere they deserve.
Him still being employed is literally the only reason people are thinking about doing this. If he cares about Michigan and if he cares about the players as he claims to, he'll quit his post tomorrow.
October 7th, 2014 at 11:32 PM ^
October 7th, 2014 at 9:41 PM ^
Disgusting.
October 7th, 2014 at 10:45 PM ^
True. What would the easiest way to encourage fan support for Michigan football and bring the fans back? A RESIGNATION. TODAY. But Dave Brandon would rather trot out student athletes for send-offs (when was the last time that happened) and guilt fans into not boycotting by using student athletes as human shields.
October 7th, 2014 at 9:42 PM ^
It's a good quote before a big game. Some marketing intern probably found the quote and threw it on there. I'd be surprised if Brandon had much to do with this
October 7th, 2014 at 9:46 PM ^
It's the guy who fields kickoffs. But DB is counting on people being as gullible as you'd like me to be.
October 7th, 2014 at 10:15 PM ^
Man, you're starting to sound unhinged here.
There are plenty of reasons to be upset with Brandon but this is really grasping at straws. This thread is confirmation bias at work.
October 7th, 2014 at 10:15 PM ^
Dave Brandon and the players would both like you to be there. Not much deception or trickery there
October 7th, 2014 at 10:20 PM ^
If Dave Brandon is worried about social media publications...he should be fired.
No AD in the COUNTRY, including Dave Brandon is worried about these kinds of things.
There are literally 4-5 people over the intern or entry-level person who created this that could've shot it down. Dave Brandon isn't going to see every little piece that leaves the athletics department. How would they EVER get anything done.
I've worked in Division 1 college athletics for over 10 years. If my AD ever worried about something like this, I'd laugh in his (or her) face. Honestly.
Let's say an Assistant Director made this, you still have a Director of Marketing, Assistant AD for Marketing, Associate or Sr. Associate AD for External Relations, and a Deputy or Executive AD...ALL before you get to the actual Athletics Director.
This is likely the same social media coordinator that does those basketball halftime and end of game updates with the graphics. The release them on Facebook and Twitter.
Blaming this on ANY AD is so beyond silly. It's just so funny that so many people accuse and speak so "matter of fact" when they have absolutely no idea what an AD actually does.
Again, if Brandon is worried about these graphics...he should've been fired loooong before all of this football stuff. He's got 2-3 people in place (like every other school in the country) to handle and monitor that stuff.
This would be like blaming Brandon for a typo in a press release. But I suppose it's dog pile time...so look out, here I come!
October 7th, 2014 at 10:29 PM ^
Who makes the decision to change social media strategies to put players' names and quotes on promotions which previously had just images or coaches' quotes? That's not an entry level decision.
It was probably also made by one of the 118 yes men DB hired after he fired a ton of AD employees for risible reasons.
October 7th, 2014 at 10:42 PM ^
This isn't the first time they've used a quote on a poster.
And they use video of quotes in their "pump up"/hype videos ALL the time. They'll cut into a huddle or a timeout or something and take that clip and make an entire hype video using it.
Have you ever been to a game? Honestly question.
Just like the first year they used the Hoke "THIS IS MICHIGAN" over and over. It just happened to be the coach and not a player. But they've used similar stuff from players current and former.
Pretty sure every school with a decent video department in the country would do the same thing.
Now you have to be careful because of the NCAA "likeness" stuff that's coming down. But that's clearly not what you're upset about.
October 8th, 2014 at 6:15 PM ^
I can't find the one of J-Mo where he said "So we're not really soft around here. That's not who we are. We lift a lot of weights... It's a pride thing for us. We're not about to get punked."
But they used that in the exact same kind of image for the next game. But rather than an image of Crisler (where this is the stadium)...it was the team lifting weights. Almost the same picture though. It was part of the "MARCH ON" series they did for the tournament run.
It's not a change in PR strategy to use student-athletes, they've been using quotes from players and coaches for awhile now. Including this year. So using Norfleet on this poster when they've done the same for other student-athletes isn't changing anything.
October 7th, 2014 at 10:55 PM ^
If I can find more...I'll post them here, but it's kind of pointless. Every school in the country does it. God forbid Michigan post a quote like other schools do.
Or do we have to do the same thing we did for UTL 1 and 2?
That's why Dave Brandon was hired in the first place...because there was no innovation or forward thinking in the Michigan athletics department. Everyone was just doing what they did the year before.
It was a failed hire. But change was needed. So just because we put a quote on here versus two helmets smashing together like it's 1994 MNF, it's now an issue.
October 7th, 2014 at 10:55 PM ^
Go to Michigan Football's Facebook page and see if you can find something. (Hint: nope.)
At this point I would just like you to admit that it is a change in social media strategy. Then we can work on getting to the acknowledgement that it is a change in social media strategy that treats SAs as pawns to save DB's job.
October 7th, 2014 at 11:05 PM ^
Give it up.
Here's Mattison...
October 7th, 2014 at 11:08 PM ^
...just in case you wanted to bitch that those were all coaches.
October 7th, 2014 at 11:22 PM ^
Funchess is also wearing last year's number in that photo. What year is it from? We're trying to establish whether they changed their PR strategy to avoid the kickoff boycott by using a SA. The Funchess picture isn't from the FB page in 2014. I mean, I could also post irrelevant things. For example, here is a picture of a movie poster:
But let's focus here.
October 7th, 2014 at 11:25 PM ^
Which is why he didn't have #1.
Think about it...why would they design the Hoke/Mattison posters that are clearly THIS YEAR...using the same format as something from last year.
Also just read the quote. He said it before the App St. game.
October 7th, 2014 at 11:29 PM ^
http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2014/08/michigan_gets_a_chanc…
Michigan gets a chance to start fresh, put 2013 to bed with opener vs. Appalachian State
By
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on August 30, 2014 at 8:01 AM, updated August 30, 2014 at 2:10 PM
ANN ARBOR -- Devin Funchess stood near his locker room inside Sun Devil Stadium at a loss for words.
Michigan had just wrapped up a disappointing 7-6 season with a clunker of a performance in the 2013 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, and Funchess – Michigan’s dynamic 6-foot-5 wide receiver – was having trouble processing what had just happened.
Not just what had happened during the previous three hours in the desert, but over the previous five months.
“We don’t want this season to ever happen again,” Funchess said that night in late December. “We can’t have things like this happen two years in a row.
“We just can’t.”
It’s been a long eight months for Funchess and the Wolverines.
They’ve got a new offensive coordinator in Doug Nussmeier. They have a retooled defensive staff. They’ve been written off by just about anyone who has any type of national voice, and head coach Brady Hoke has had to answer more questions about his seat’s temperature than anyone inside Schembechler Hall would like.
But Saturday, when Michigan opens a crucial 2014 season against Appalachian State (noon, ESPN2), it won’t be focused on any of that.
The Wolverines will be focused on what cannot be repeated.
“We don’t want to repeat what (happened last year), but we (also) can’t change the past,” Funchess said this week. “So we’re looking forward, and we’re going to try to make our mark Saturday, Aug. 30.”
October 7th, 2014 at 11:37 PM ^
Does the mic drop mean you want me to respond to this one? It's hard to tell because you also posted a bunch of irrelevant things, like images of coaches' quotes after I told you like 5 posts ago that previously they'd used coaches' quotes. I'm not really fluent in obfuscationism.
Let's just respond to this one. You work for the AD, right? Is that why you're pretending this image was on the Michigan Football Facebook page, which is the only thing we've been discussing here? It wasn't. Simply wasn't. You're lying. See the previous image I posted. I confess it was relevant after all. Why are you lying, dude?
It's not a tin foil thing to point out that you're lying, which you are, plain as day. It's just not there. You and the other Brandonites can downvote me all you want, but you know I'm right, which is why you first posted a bunch of coaches' quotes I already told you were there, and then you came up with this image which was never on the FB page. So, are you ready to agree the social media strategy has changed now?
October 8th, 2014 at 12:03 AM ^
And unfortunately for you...I'm not going to respond to everything you're asking.
- No, I don't work for the AD or for Michigan. If I did, I wouldn't be saying shit like "I hate Dave Brandon" or "he should be fired" or anything else. It all may be true, but I damn sure wouldn't be posting it on a Michigan message board. Also, if I worked for Michigan...I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be all over the OPEN Threads posting on Saturdays, lol...I'd be at work.
- You've changed your argument 4 times in just this "mini-thread" of ours...you talked about PR strategies, then PR strategies for just this year, then just football, etc. - enough. You're reaching and you're losing so you continue to reach. The problem is...every single times you've reached. I've literally come back and DETROYED your argument. Like just now with the Funchess picture...and then when you said "nuh uhn, but that's his jersey number from last year." I destroyed that as well. You're toast. And yes, they ARE on Facebook as well. So you lost that argument too.
- I'm from the OMG Shirtless MGoSchool...I rarely downvote people. I learned that early on. So I haven't downvoted you one single time in this thread. I generally downvote OSU/MSU/ND trolls who come to this board during game week and say stupid shit. That's about it.
- You should really go to bed, because there ARE people who are going to downvote your every post from here until forever. And you couldn't have gotten as many posts as you do from trolling the way you have in this thread. So I really don't care, but I'd suggest you call it quits and apologize tomorrow. Say you were drunk, that ALWAYS works. Like always.
- Dropped mic means I just owned you. And I did. Which doesn't happen on this site too often, people are too smart and they always find a loophole. But no. I OWNED you tonight. So I drop my mic, and say "peace out, beeotch!" That's what that means. It felt so good too. Like a stiff arm to the CBs throat in route to the endzone good. And you were the CB this time around. Hopefully you get it now.
One more for the road:
And from last year (from Facebook):
October 8th, 2014 at 12:07 AM ^
Jon06:
promotions which previously had just images or coaches' quotes
Mr. Yost:
Tons of pictures of coaches' quotes. I OWNED YOU MIC DROP!!!!!
Social media strategies are individuated by platform and obviously change over time. I agree that I didn't make that explicit before but I thought you weren't an idiot. Mea culpa. Thanks for the additional pictures of coaches' quotes and things from other years. I appreciate their continued irrelevance.
The Funchess picture is still not on Facebook. You are still lying. I am still not super impressed with your candor here.
October 8th, 2014 at 12:17 AM ^
Even if any of what you are saying is true or relevant, YOU ARE GRASPING AT STRAWS.
You obviously don't understand how a large complex system like an Athletic Department is run, and if you think that Brandon himself had anything to do with a photoshopped image on a fucking facebook page, well, then, you're an idiot.
Notice your massive downvotes throughout the thread. Or does everyone here work for the AD?
October 8th, 2014 at 12:28 AM ^
Please read the first four words of the title of the OP and get back to me with your apology ASAP.
You may wish to read up on the number of AD employees DB initially fired, and the number of yes men he subsequently hired. Counterpunt's last column has those numbers.
October 8th, 2014 at 9:43 AM ^
I don't think you understand how pervasive twitter is. If it's on twitter, it might as well be on facebook. You're splitting hairs.
October 7th, 2014 at 11:13 PM ^
How is that tin foil hat treating you?
As someone who used to do things like this. The design and concept is usually by some intern graphic designer who meets specific rules and graphics criteria and posts it to a queue. Then someone just a smidge higher up confirms the posts and they are scheduled at variable times such as peak reach/impression hours or for specific demographic targeting etc. It's not like there is some DB authorized counsil drudging themselves over twitpics and facebook posts.
UM also pays a shit ton for their social media director if I recall directly. Though i'm not sure how they, or their team function with the Atheletic Department.
October 7th, 2014 at 10:37 PM ^