CC:Comments from an Assistant AD that probably don't mean anything...but...
I'm a current student at U of M who's taking CLCIV 371. Basically a class about the history of sport primarily focused around the Greeks but making connections with modern athletics and the structures surrounding them. We've had a variety of assistant ADs and UM coaches come in as guest speakers (Brandon and Beilein were both scheduled to speak but were canceled due to firing and a meeting resulting from the firing. Ironically, Brandon's lecture was supposed to be on integrity in sports). Today was David Ablauf, associate AD of communications (basically the PR guy). During the course of the lecture he started talking about Harbaugh's comments about the General studies degree (on his own, no question was asked about it. He had to go out of his way) and then took a shot at Harbaugh saying that 40% of the players on his Stanford teams took the equivalent degree (supposedly) and he seemed overall kind of petty and mad about it.
So, just thought I'd share. I was slightly worried that might mean people are pissed at Jim in the department. But obviously it could be nothing.
Mod edit: I'm publishing MichAero's comment as an addendum to the OP. If ReegsShannon wants to make an additional comment that's fine too but I don't want another perspective to get buried after a hundred plus comments. JGB.
I am also in CLCIV 371 and you are leaving a large part of the context out.
I could be wrong, but I believe he was responding to a question about how much credibility should be given to reports that come out of social media, or some related question. Regardless, I'm almost positive this was during the Q&A session after his main lecture.
He began by bringing up the Harbaugh comments, but then went into how Pat Forde wrote an article about what Harbaugh had said. Forde wrote the entire article and then called Ablauf for comments, but Ablauf wasn't available at the time so it went to voicemail. Ablauf then called Forde back and began asking him about what he wanted to write about while at the same time researching what Forde was telling him. While on the phone, Ablauf found the article that Forde had written already published, even though Forde was telling Ablauf that he wasn't sure when his deadline was, etc. Basically, according to Ablauf, Forde wanted to be able to say he reached out to UM for comment before he published the story. Then he told us about how if Forde, or these other journalists, would have looked into the situation further, they would discover that this isn't anything new or something that nearly every school is doing, including Stanford (at 40% of their players).
This was part of a larger point he was making during his lecture about how media has changed. There is much less "work" done by the reporters today due to the culture that is the 24/7 newscycle. The goal is to be the first with a story, or write something that will generate clicks, regardless of how trivial a story might be.
In my opinion, he was more upset with Forde and the new form of media here than he was upset with Harbaugh.
November 10th, 2014 at 5:30 PM ^
The next AD member to speak poorly of Harbaugh must be seized, and never seen again.
November 10th, 2014 at 5:11 PM ^
you should get it right. Harbaugh lamented that he was steered away from certain degrees and not that the degrees were not available to him. His issue, if that is what you want to call it, was around the culture that discouraged taking a harder major vs. a culture that supported those pursuits. Now if his Stanford football players decided to choose an equvilent degree to Harbaugh's, than it would stand to reason they were not discouraged from that choice either. So pretty much David Ablauf's example had no real point to it.
November 10th, 2014 at 5:21 PM ^
remember it. As I see it, there are athletes, there are students and a few student athletes.
November 10th, 2014 at 6:12 PM ^
blocked for Jimmy back in the day and managed to leave with an engineering degree. That doesn't mean Harbaugh wasn't steered toward a particular curriculum, just that it was (and still is) possible to get a real education while playing high level collegiate football... if you're very smart, work your ass off and don't need a social life.
November 10th, 2014 at 6:39 PM ^
was also a starting WR that caught passes from harbaugh. i believe he quit football in his final season to attend UM law school.
November 10th, 2014 at 8:51 PM ^
Was an incredible WR especially in clutch situations. He was a lot like John Kolesar in that respect. Bo practically willed him into UM Law but Higgins had been accepted to Harvard, I believe.
November 10th, 2014 at 10:25 PM ^
He was in talking to Bo where Bo told him he was getting a fifth year. Higgins mad mention that he had been accepted by Havard Law. Bo withdrew the fifth year and told him to go to Havard and get his degree.
i believe that John U Bacon(bits) has written that story in one of his books on UM history/lore.
November 10th, 2014 at 6:47 PM ^
As I recall, he basically said something to the effect that college football needed Stanford because, in his view, these were "scholar athletes" rather than "student athletes", and the disctintion he made here was that schools with otherwise good academic reputation would let in borderline students and then steer them towards less challenging majors. He basically ended it, I believe, with saying that the same people who cheer such kids on turn around and don't hire those kids.
November 10th, 2014 at 5:15 PM ^
People have a right to be steamed about those comments. Harbaugh's going to have to make amends with some folks about it, because it was a total low blow and disengenous. I mean, every school, especially the top academic ones with top sports, has that major that all the athletes seem to end up majoring in. It's a pot-kettle type of thing.
If it's a dealbreaker, then we're through the looking glass and the school is officially being run by butthurt crybabies who can't get over anything.
November 10th, 2014 at 5:27 PM ^
So basically what I get from the comments were not the Jim Harbaugh was wrong but that he was probably right. Otherwise why would you accuse him of doing the same thing. We should embrace the General Studies degree. Our Governor has a General Studies degree and obviously he went on to great success. Why not use it as an opportunity to educate the public about the GS degree?
November 10th, 2014 at 5:29 PM ^
This asshole totally butchered everything from Cokegate, to the Morris press release, to lying about the skywriting, to Gibbons.
Fuck whatever pot he's trying to stir.
November 10th, 2014 at 5:31 PM ^
Of course people are pissed about it. At the time he made it, people told him to f-off, and good riddance, you're not invited here anymore.
So, yes. Very upset. Apparently still. Hopefully, the fact that it came to light in that forum means that it's not the general consensus from those making decisions.
November 10th, 2014 at 5:41 PM ^
It's only relevant because he didn't release his views at 1:00am.
/S
November 10th, 2014 at 6:44 PM ^
November 10th, 2014 at 10:50 PM ^
More discretion moving forward!
November 10th, 2014 at 5:50 PM ^
But Chris Bilas was just on the Huge Show and was really kind of hyping up Les
Miles as a strong possibility of being our next coach. He said he could still see Michigan going all in on Harbaugh though. He also said not to rule out Schiano as a dark horse
November 10th, 2014 at 6:10 PM ^
I'd be totally fine with that. Watching LSU this year beat Ole Miss and hang tough with Mississippi State and Bama, despite being probably the youngest team Les has ever had, shows what a great coach he is and that he's still got it despite being 62. I could see Les coaching here for 7-8 years before retiring, leaving Michigan in a much better state than when he found it.
November 10th, 2014 at 6:12 PM ^
November 10th, 2014 at 8:41 PM ^
November 10th, 2014 at 10:44 PM ^
He also floated Schiano who had a career record of 68-67 at Rutgers and couldn't beat RR at West Virginia. Talk about a lead balloon! Sure hope that is not real! Talk about Hoke 2.0.
Go after the obvious choice with vigor! After that there a more options than being considered. All the usual suspects and I am becoming a big fan of Herman at OSU after the way they dismantled MSU. In addition to that you would get a lot of insight into the OSU game plans.
November 10th, 2014 at 5:53 PM ^
November 10th, 2014 at 6:01 PM ^
Jim wanted to be Carr's QB coach and, in hindsight, Lloyd picked the wrong guy. It's quite painful to think about what might have been...
November 10th, 2014 at 7:54 PM ^
To be fair, in 2002 it wasn't obvious that Harbaugh would be a superstar coach. Many ex-players don't make good coaches. Also, Loeffler had already worked with Griese and Brady as a grad assistant. By all accounts he was in fact a good QB coach.
November 10th, 2014 at 10:38 PM ^
I don't know what Carr's angle was on this one, but it sure is curious that Jim Harbaugh (a former UM QB, NFL QB) was passed over as a QB coach. Also, when you take into consideration that the Harbaugh family was so prominent at UM, it just seems strange to me.
November 10th, 2014 at 6:14 PM ^
Now this David guy has his name out there as someone who might be a impediment to UM getting Harbaugh...I wouldn't want to be in his shoes lol.
November 10th, 2014 at 6:30 PM ^
Harbaugh's comments. One thing we may be missing is that Harbaugh is one of the most, if not the most, competitive people in his profession. The handshakes, the 2 point conversion, back slapping, etc.
Have we become so soft at Michigan that a competitive posture against us is a grudge that lives on and on and on....I think I just threw up in my mouth.
He was competing against us. Helllooooooo. He loves to throw his competition off their game by getting in their head. A brilliant move from my perspective because this one has lived on so long.
Get Harbaugh here however you need to do it.
I don't have the emotional energy to address the petty behavior of our athletic department.
Who told DB that responding to emails with a snarky tone was a great PR move? A great PR person??? and how many more WTF questions can one have when our coach doesn't wear a head set yet our AD was a Communications major at Michigan? Let's see, maybe being engaged in the decision making within the game will yield better decisions...... Every freaking quality control, process improvement, etc. discipline has known for years that more communication amongst a team yields statistically better results. But somehow we get some folks who don't understand that. It is so embarrassing I need to step away from the keyboard....Judas Priest!!
November 10th, 2014 at 6:45 PM ^
I will still never understand why people were furious at Harbaugh for verbalizing a well known fact. Football players aren't held to quite the same academic standard as everyone else? No shit. Who cares? They bleed for the university, bring the institution into an (ideally) positive spotlight, and provide something wonderful for students of all different stripes to rally around. All of the controversy surrounding his statements, PARTICULARLY the shit that Hart had the audacity to spout is ridiculous.
November 10th, 2014 at 6:48 PM ^
It's known that Brandon forced out a number of long time employees, and replaced them with "his" people.
Those people are probably a bit irritable right now.
November 10th, 2014 at 6:53 PM ^
This probably gives some additional insight into Brandon's opinion of Harbaugh!
November 10th, 2014 at 7:10 PM ^
Not saying this guys is one of them, as it sounds like he has been around longer than Brandon, but all of the Brandon kiss-ass yes men/women in the Athletic Department now are going to be pissed and are going to be virulantly anti-Harbaugh.
Just something that the new AD will have to deal with.
November 10th, 2014 at 7:17 PM ^
November 10th, 2014 at 8:01 PM ^
I believe a later post in this thread clarifying Ablauf's comments indicates that what he was saying was not exactly what the OP was indicating. Which is why it is dangerous to infer too much from a single story.
November 10th, 2014 at 6:49 PM ^
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November 10th, 2014 at 6:51 PM ^
If we have not learned anything after the Miles and RR debacles and there are still people in the Athletic Department with petty attitudes it's time to clean house. It sure is starting to seem like all of the personal issues with Carr, Brandon, etc. are what is holding back the success associated with Football team.
It sure makes me wonder why the Department always seems to go out of there way to sabotage the popular choice. First it was MIles and now Harbaugh. The nonsense needs to end.
I have grown to be totally amazed at how many so called adults associated with athletics in all walks of life act like children.
November 10th, 2014 at 9:32 PM ^
Post Redacted... MichAero, thank you for the context.
November 10th, 2014 at 9:35 PM ^
There was additional context that has been provided to the original post, which seems like there was a broader point being made. That particular insight may have been timely, but is probably ill-advised considering the current climate around the program.
Maybe this constitutes an overreaction to his comments in the same way that there was an overreaction to Jim Harbaugh's comments. Perhaps a good lesson here.
November 10th, 2014 at 6:52 PM ^
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November 10th, 2014 at 6:56 PM ^
I really think the media piles on any Michigan stumble because of the holy than thou attitude espoused by so many.
November 10th, 2014 at 6:59 PM ^
November 10th, 2014 at 7:17 PM ^
I am also in CLCIV 371 and you are leaving a large part of the context out.
I could be wrong, but I believe he was responding to a question about how much credibility should be given to reports that come out of social media, or some related question. Regardless, I'm almost positive this was during the Q&A session after his main lecture.
He began by bringing up the Harbaugh comments, but then went into how Pat Forde wrote an article about what Harbaugh had said. Forde wrote the entire article and then called Ablauf for comments, but Ablauf wasn't available at the time so it went to voicemail. Ablauf then called Forde back and began asking him about what he wanted to write about while at the same time researching what Forde was telling him. While on the phone, Ablauf found the article that Forde had written already published, even though Forde was telling Ablauf that he wasn't sure when his deadline was, etc. Basically, according to Ablauf, Forde wanted to be able to say he reached out to UM for comment before he published the story. Then he told us about how if Forde, or these other journalists, would have looked into the situation further, they would discover that this isn't anything new or something that nearly every school is doing, including Stanford (at 40% of their players).
This was part of a larger point he was making during his lecture about how media has changed. There is much less "work" done by the reporters today due to the culture that is the 24/7 newscycle. The goal is to be the first with a story, or write something that will generate clicks, regardless of how trivial a story might be.
In my opinion, he was more upset with Forde and the new form of media here than he was upset with Harbaugh.
November 10th, 2014 at 7:20 PM ^
that certainly sounds like a pretty different take on the story. I believe we have a very interesting game of telephone going on here......
November 10th, 2014 at 8:33 PM ^
November 10th, 2014 at 7:25 PM ^
November 10th, 2014 at 8:32 PM ^
November 10th, 2014 at 7:20 PM ^
Big game Bob. Make it happen.
November 10th, 2014 at 7:26 PM ^
That makes sense.
November 10th, 2014 at 7:30 PM ^
What's he say?
Well, you know, he don't say nothing,
He just gives me that look,
You know, he's got that look,
Yeah, he don't say nothing, He just gives him that look
November 10th, 2014 at 8:05 PM ^
Nicely handled, JGB. Those comments from MichAero feel very relevant and necessary.
OP, if MichAero has that right, then boooooo this thread. I feel kind of ambivalent to begin with about taking comments heard in class right to MGoBlog. I know it's the world we live in, but I still think it's a little disrespectful to the speaker, and if you want speakers to keep coming and opening up, then let them talk to the people in the room without then telling the world about it. But to do that and then ignore the context is pretty shitty. Especially when it makes a relatively anonymous, seemingly decent guy look petty and spiteful.