ESPN Report: Regents To Discuss Brandon Tomorrow, AD Candidates Contacted Comment Count

Ace



Jeff Long and Warde Manuel: already contacted?

ESPN is reporting that the regents will discuss Dave Brandon at their previously scheduled meeting tomorrow, as revealed to them by regent Denise Ilitch herself. This may very well be the beginning of the end (or the beginning of the end of the end) for Brandon, as Ilitch had this to say about the Shane Morris situation:

"The systems failed and there are a lot of issues we have to review," Ilitch told WWJ CBS TV in Detroit.

The money quote, however, came at the end:

Sources told ESPN's Brett McMurphy that someone on Michigan's behalf has contacted three possible candidates to replace Brandon to gauge their interest in the job.

Arkansas AD Jeff Long, UConn AD Warde Manuel, and Boston College AD Brad Bates are the obvious candidates to be those three people, with Texas Tech deputy AD Joe Parker as a possible dark horse.

Comments

Bando Calrissian

October 15th, 2014 at 12:33 PM ^

To clarify, as I posted in the other thread, Ilitch made these comments on a CBS 62 political talk show the other day, sort of a local Meet the Press-type deal, alongside L. Brooks Patterson and Robert Ficano. She didn't actually speak to ESPN, and the comments weren't made today. It starts at 2:40 here:

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/video/10684272-michigan-matters-ficano-u-m-…

Bando Calrissian

October 15th, 2014 at 12:51 PM ^

It changes the context.

Regent talking to ESPN? Huge deal.

Regent appearing on a local TV show mainly talking about local politics where she gives a brief and fairly boilerplate, though "something is going to happen wink-wink"-type answer to a weird question about Dave Brandon? Still a huge deal, but not quite the smoking gun, regent-talking-to-ESPN-type story we'd all love to see. 

In short, not a huge surprise the regents will discuss this tomorrow. But if not in concert with the "candidates have been contacted" report, this is probably an interesting, but not terribly telling development.

I Like Burgers

October 15th, 2014 at 12:52 PM ^

It doesn't change the information, but it does change that Illitich "revealed this to ESPN."   Outside of the McMurphy thing, there's no reporting here.  Just repeating what was said elsewhere.

Yard Dog

October 15th, 2014 at 2:36 PM ^

I don't want to rain on the parade, because Mr. Brandon should be let go (or at least "asked" to resign), but I'm not sure Denise Ilitch actually says anything about DB really.  She seems to be alluding more to the issue with Shane Morris and the concussion protocol, IMO.

I'd like to hear what others have to say after viewing the clip.  I think it is shows something different than what is being assumed.

uncleFred

October 15th, 2014 at 3:03 PM ^

She is very careful NOT to say anything about Brandon directly, only that she and the other regents have receieved a great deal of input and expect a lot of public comment at the meeting and that the regents have a number of issues to discuss. The reference to the system failure is specific to what allowed Shane to get back on the field.