Endzone Discussion

I know excerpts have been posted here and discussed and it has been discussed in varying capacities over the past few months, but for those of us who received it for Christmas and are slow readers.

I just finished the book and found it infuriating at times, jaw dropping some of the stuff going on behind the scenes, and fascinating.  If anyone cares to discuss:

-The amount of seemingly excellent people that were forced out with the Firing Fridays.  People that worked tirelessly for Michigan and not for the paycheck, necessarily.  People who loved the University and loved what they did.  Seems like a wealth of knowledge, connections, and the like were forced to  move on or into early retirement.  

-With the department growing in size and salary under Brandon, does anyone know what checks and balances are happening now to reign that in?  I assume Hackett and Manuel aren't offing people either, but I could imagine salaries being stagnant for a while in the department and some openings not being replaced.  Some of the obvious high paid and Brandon manufactured positions have already been phased out.

-I definitely felt like the Michigan culture the past 5 years or so was a bit of a circle jerk of how great we were without much to back it up.  Reading the book and hearing about interactions and policies behind the scenes it put it into context for me.  I can imagine we were a pretty obnoxious fanbase to be around (at least locally for the Sparties).  At least today, I feel like we are on our way to backing it up.

-I'm sure Dave Brandon is not a bad person, but an arrogant and very out of touch person at times.  Sounded like he was trying to make amends, but it was already too late.  Not sure if he could ever turn around the damage he had made.  MGoBlog played a critical roll of getting Brandon to resign when he did, which was something that absolutely had to go our way for Harbaugh to fall into place.  I appreciated the Hagerup excerpts to humanize Brandon.  

-Does anyone have an explanation for Brandon resigning and still getting the buyout?  

-Harbaugh stuff was fascinating how that came together and how the groundwork was layed along the way.  The power of all parties working together and on a common goal was critical.  So many things had to go right and at critical times.  Unbelievable how different the feel is a year+ later. 

-Lastly, kudos to Hackett for landing the Unicorn. But how in the hell are you about to land the biggest fish and your computer is on the frizz, cell phone dead, no chargers, no internet on the flight? Glad that worked out, but I was nervous for him and I already know that Harbaugh is our coach!

Sorry for the length. Slow day, snow day. Discuss, or not. Go Blue!