shemy schembechler

Things Discussed:

• Shemy: They had two months to do a cursory vetting. Harbaugh was trying to do a thing for Bo.
• Problem in coach culture that they feel the need to find everybody a job.
• Problem in Michigan's athletic department that they don't have enough attention to detail.
• The lesson isn't just check what you say in public; check some of these ideas when they're on their way into your head.
• NOTE: I erased a short bit where the panel got the Schembechler son mixed up; Matt is the one who made dubious claims re: Dr. Anderson.
• To be clear, it was hundreds of likes of racist ideas, not just one tweet (though the one tweet was very bad), and once they were public it would have been a major issue for Michigan, which is in the PR business.
• In the break Brian explains how Twitter works to Craig.
• The Big Ten's contract situation: How did Kevin Warren screw this up so badly? Guy sold the rights to a game he didn't own, and promised night games in November—what was his job other than to know these things?
• OSU is going to host a night game vs MSU on November 11 (Michigan had the IU game just as late in the year).
• MSU is going to move their last home game, vs Penn State, to Ford Field on Friday night—MSU season ticket holders must be pissed? Seth: MSU's last home game is usually empty and miserable anyways.
• November night game solution: USC and UCLA can play them at home.
• And they're paying a search firm to understand if they need to pay him a bonus for a contract he didn't complete when his contract didn't say he gets one, why, because Delany got one? Brian: Executive culture is messed up—these guys are all replacement level.
• What's the fallout? Sam/Brian think Michigan didn't have any concessions; Seth thinks MSU horse-traded their Senior Day at Ford Field and a night game at OSU in return for an easier schedule when Michigan is going to get USC. We figured that would happen anyways.

[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]

Mooch'd. Shemy Schembechler came, and then he went. Warde Manuel:

"Effective this afternoon, Shemy Schembechler has resigned his position with Michigan Football. We are aware of some comments and likes on social media that have caused concern and pain for individuals in our community. Michigan Athletics is fully committed to a place where our coaches, staff and student-athletes feel welcome and where we fully support the University's and Athletic Department's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion."

Schembechler got booted for his twitter account, which had dozens and dozens of likes on posts ranging between debatably racist and obviously racist. The ESPN story linked about asserts that "a source with knowledge of the situation told ESPN that Schembechler went through a thorough background check during the hiring process," which uh no he did not. When your background check misses publicly available information it was not thorough. Or even a "check," really.

Add it to the "What The Hell Is Warde Manuel Doing?" files. This is currently an athletic department that's winning the most important game on the schedule and doing very little else right. At this point the number of unforced PR errors that the department is stumbling into like so many rakes in front of Sideshow Bob is, dare I say it, Brandonesque. Articles are rolling in with titles like "Michigan leadership continues to embarrass itself" from places like The Athletic—not exactly the RCMB.

Shemy released a statement repudiating his hundreds of endorsements of racist right wing tweets, for what little that's worth.

[After the JUMP: anonymous quotes article woo]