That was quite possibly the worst press conference in the history of Michigan football

Submitted by Communist Football on
I hope all you RR haters are happy.

los

January 5th, 2011 at 5:01 PM ^

I think DB handles himself and represents his university better than 99% of AD's out there. Straight up gansgta'...

Here's hoping our crazy and ignorant fan base doesn't hate him for no reason like they do our coaches.

cjpops

January 5th, 2011 at 2:10 PM ^

I don't hate RR, but I'm pretty close to jumping on the Dave Brandon hatewagon.
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<br>Of course, we probably wouldn't be here if RR had managed to beat that pesky team from East Lansing once or twice.
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<br>Yeesh. This is a real mess.

the_dog-faced_…

January 5th, 2011 at 10:38 PM ^

...that this is all a grand conspiracy. 

Pissed off that fans were unhappy he was averaging 8-9 wins a year, starting the season in the top 10 but finishing it in the 20s, constantly losing to The University of Ohio State University of the State of Ohio and getting blown out every time he went up against USC in the Rose Bowl, Lloyd Carr worked it out with Bill Martin that he, Lloyd, would retire, Martin would hire a coach from some hick town, also retire, they would work from behind the scenes with Braylon Edwards to undermine the new coach by making a kerfuffle about the #1 jersey, slow down the staff’s watches and clocks around Schembechler hall so that they would unknowingly let stretching go a few minutes too long every day, get Greg Robinson fired at ‘Cuse and, while he was down in the dumps, tell him the secret to great defence was rubbing random stuffed animals on players’ faces, convince Mary Sue Coleman to hire a replacement AD with ties to Bo who would perpetuate the Michigan Man Mafia, rely on the fact that the team’s 3 worst defensive seasons would be insurmountable, have the MMM AD fire the hick coach and then hire as the replacement coach...Lloyd Carr.

RobSk

January 5th, 2011 at 4:06 PM ^

Lots of good football coaches out there who can manage better than 6-18 in the Big 10 over the next 3 years. Guessing we have a coach in place by Jan 17th.

          Rob

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

January 5th, 2011 at 4:18 PM ^

Oh, sure, January 17th.....that's definitely not too goddamn long. I mean, that leaves a whole two and a half weeks to Signing Day, plenty of time to get two, maybe three recruits to replace the five that leave and the five more that transfer.

If it takes that fucking long I'm gonna leave a flaming bag of shit on DB's doorstep. If it takes that fucking long and we hire Brady Hoke, I'm torching Schembechler Hall.

tomcat

January 5th, 2011 at 4:27 PM ^

Rich Rod is gone please support the process, what other living person would you rather have in Dave Brandon's position? He's played for UM, he's been a successful businessman, this is a tough decision and I'm glad he's not listening to irrational and angry fans like you.

MI Expat NY

January 5th, 2011 at 4:37 PM ^

Which of those two characteristics necessarily means he'll make a good decision?

Being successful in business does not mean you'll be successful as an AD.  Being a former athlete doesn't do it either.  

I hope he makes a good hire, but how he's handled it so far does not leave me hopeful.  Telling people to simply support the process is just sticking your head in the sand.

In the end, I think a "good hire" this go around is someone that will run an offense that suits our personnel, and someone who can instill a good defensive staff.  Those things happen and I think we can avoid steps backward.  

tomcat

January 5th, 2011 at 5:15 PM ^

All I'm saying is he has the right background to make this decision. I shouldn't be the first person to tell you that nothing is a guarantee in life. But if you're a scientific minded person like me (2008 Chemistry Alum)....you would agree that Brandon has the right credentials.

MI Expat NY

January 5th, 2011 at 5:22 PM ^

I am a scientific minded person.  I also understand that athletic departments, especially very public athletic departments, are far different to run than corporations.  And being a former player really means nothing, as Matt Millen has proven.  

Brandon has never made a single high profile hire as Athletic Director.  I don't know that he's ever actually been involved with a hiring process.  Somebody who had risen up through big athletic departments would have better credentials to lead us through the process, not that the end result would necessarily be better.  

tomcat

January 5th, 2011 at 6:05 PM ^

Ok so Brandon has yet to make you believe in him, I'm not blindly supporting him like I believe many bloggers on here blindly supported richrod, but I'm willing to give him a chance just like I gave richrod a chance (three years). I think DB should have a chance to make this hire before we start evaluating him. If we lose a couple recruits because of it, it's not ideal, but is shows me he's making this decision carefully. Quicker the better but he knows his first priority is finding the right guy because that is the long-term solution.

MI Expat NY

January 5th, 2011 at 8:12 PM ^

By the sentiment of statements, I think it's clear what I mean, but I'll spell it out for you:  I don't know that he's ever actually been involved with a hiring process in an athletics administrator capacity, specifically a coach of a high profile sport. 

Being a skilled CEO does not automatically make you a good athletic director.  As CEO of Dominos, the percent of the population that cared who he hired as CFO was miniscule.  Not getting the guy he wanted would probably only be known by a handful of people.  Obviously hiring the head football coach at the University of Michigan is a bit different.

the_dog-faced_…

January 5th, 2011 at 10:55 PM ^

Especially, continuing the corporate analogy, the way a lot of people invest these days as evidenced by things like the "Cramer Effect".  Most Michigan fans, good or bad, know way more about Michigan Football than lot of people know about the companies they buy shares in and fans definitely care more about coach hirings than investors care about execs. 

MI Expat NY

January 6th, 2011 at 10:07 AM ^

This.  Shareholders care, but outside the institutional investors, not many of them are following the day to day operations of the corporation.  And even fewer could tell you if a CFO hire was a good one or a bad one.  The corporate world is far murkier to the average citizen than college football.  

Let me put it to you this way, how many CFO's of fortune 500 companies can you name?  How many college football coaches can you name?

snowcrash

January 5th, 2011 at 5:28 PM ^

It pains me to say this as an M fan, but I think the fanbase here has to be a major drawback for any coach (except maybe Harbaugh) considering taking the job. The seemingly dominant faction is spoiled, stuck in the past, hostile to outsiders, and has no patience or perspective.

Here's what I suspect will happen: The toxic environment here will scare all the A-listers off, we'll hire Hoke, he'll do a decent job with what he has left after a bunch of RR's recruits bail and go 7-6, 8-5, 7-5, this won't be enough to satisfy the fans, he'll be fired before the bowl game in 2013, and we'll be right back in this same spot.  

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

January 5th, 2011 at 8:20 PM ^

I think it was based partly on the knowledge that certain fans, keeping in mind that it's the fans who pay the bills, had decided that nothing RR could do would satisfy them and wanted him gone without thinking about the future, only about the past. This is an angry and irrational viewpoint.

3rdGenerationBlue

January 5th, 2011 at 9:30 PM ^

Fortunately I haven't encountered the fans that you mention. I have talked with people that are substantial donors/long time supporters and my experience is that they were ok with RR until very late in the season. It may be over blown that influential alums were against him from the beginning. I have said it before that most of the big donors are focused on other interests rather than getting embroiled in details about the football coach's performance.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

January 5th, 2011 at 11:21 PM ^

Anecdotal evidence being what it is, I will still say that my own uncle has been anti-RR from the start. I had this argument with him over Christmas (and short discussions in prior months) and it's like talking to a Michael Rosenberg article. Or a Sparty (which he definitely is not.) RR's a sleaze, buyout, practice-gate, offense doesn't work in the Big Ten, chased off Ryan Mallett....I mean, every canned soundbite there ever was about RR, I heard it. Maybe that colors my viewpoint about how many fans exist in that segment of the fanbase. I love my uncle to death, absolutely, but that talk was like listening to a Buckeye.

samgoblue

January 5th, 2011 at 5:45 PM ^

It doesn't translate to running an athletic department. To me, a "process" implies a "plan" ... so far the process/plan seems to be "figure that part out later". If the process is to start looking for a coach today, I hope the Freep runs an expose about DB's flatulence. I'm reduced to poop and fart jokes.

On a more productive note ... Jeff Tedford, bud foster, Bo's corpse.

w2j2

January 5th, 2011 at 4:15 PM ^

Dave Brandon will undoubtably make a better choice than Bill Martin....If for no other reason than having learned from the RichRod years.

I feel terrible for the players, for the recuiting class, for RichRod, his coaches, and their families.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

January 5th, 2011 at 4:25 PM ^

What exactly is there to learn from the RR years? That's a serious question, not a fuck-you question. What is the lesson? Don't hire a bright, youngish coach with a revolutionary mind on one particular side of the ball who can shake up a program clearly on a downslide and get it back to prominence, having achieved fantastic success in having done so once already?

I sure hope the lesson isn't "hire from within" either. I mean, what mistake, exactly, was made in hiring Rich Rodriguez that could have been clearly foreseen before the hire?

Section 1

January 5th, 2011 at 4:36 PM ^

The system won't seem to let me pos-bang you.  So let me put it into words.  Like, uh yeah.

Rich Rod wasn't a "Michigan Man"?  So we get a Michigan Man like Chris Peterson or Gary Patterson?!?

There's no chance of a bad or mistaken "hire from within" now.  There is no "within."  The only people available to talk to the student-athletes on our football team right now are functionaries from Weidenbach Hall.