The Case for Warde
I do not Stan Warde. However, there are certain inaugural facts that important people without message-board-brain-poisoning will consider when deciding to retain Warde. And they WILL retain Warde.
This has been the best 3 years in Michigan football history largely because of a universally accepted wise decision by Warde in 2020 to retain Harbaugh with a performance-based contract.
UM has 2 BIG basketball Tournament championships and a Final Four while Warde was AD as well as a regular season bball Championship in 21 with a coach he did hire. Basketball is a problem now, but we shall see what happens after this year. FYI, there are several Regents who do not support loosening transfer requirements, that is not 100% on Warde. I have talked with a Regent about this.
Regardless of your opinion of how he handled Pearson, he hired the right coach and UM made a Frozen Four and is recruiting well. No one questions Nurato as a good hire.
UM has a championship in gymnastics.
Michigan has finished second, third (2x) an 6 (2x) in the directors cup while Wards has been AD.
Warde’s tenure has arguably been the most successful of any ADs tenure in history. Yet the brainworms have invested this board as bad as ever seen on CRMB. I am often as guilty as anyone in this regard, however, this “Warde has to go stuff” is risible.
I understand there are Regents that aren’t happy. Warde obviously doesn’t get NIL, and coaching losses may or may not be his fault, but everyone here comparing him to Dave Fucking Brandon is insane. If I gave you this list of accomplishments in 2010 you would have promised to never complain again and given me your first born.
Regards from Bolivia.
February 7th, 2024 at 7:48 PM ^
Nice try, Warde.
February 7th, 2024 at 11:03 PM ^
What do you expect from someone who has Commie in their screen name?
One of the most oppressive types of governments in the history of human kind so he wants us oppressed with that ineffectual Warde guy.
February 7th, 2024 at 11:21 PM ^
... he's a Community High School grad. ?Affectionately? called Commie High by other Ann Arbor high school students.
February 7th, 2024 at 11:36 PM ^
Is that for real or are you making that shit up?
If it is true, how the fuck would I know that? I've lived out here for 33 years.
I see the word commie and the usual extrapolation is from the word communism.
February 8th, 2024 at 12:27 AM ^
Well Commie High was started in 1972, by people who I’m sure you’d label communists. Rest assured Warde is not a communist, given his clear apathy toward the whole “paying college athletes for the work they do” thing.
February 8th, 2024 at 9:46 AM ^
TRIGGERED!! Need a kleenex?
February 8th, 2024 at 10:06 AM ^
This was a nice try? What's a bad one look to you?
February 8th, 2024 at 2:40 PM ^
The case?
A suitcase.
Hit the road Jack
February 7th, 2024 at 7:49 PM ^
Exactly, here is why we should keep Warde:
February 7th, 2024 at 7:50 PM ^
I really hope they combine this and the other 2 Warde threads into a single stickied thread. It would be mesmerizing to watch it grow every day.
February 7th, 2024 at 7:52 PM ^
The other thread is already stickied.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:28 PM ^
The blog posts version of Human Centipede. That's what Warde has done to us.
February 7th, 2024 at 9:39 PM ^
I'm so sick of the constant Warde bullshit here. Whether it be pro or anti-Warde. It's every other post.
Michigan just won a basketball game and there's no post-game thread. No one even cares. People just want to whine about Warde nonstop.
Some genius decided to sticky a 4,000-paragraph Warde thread at the top of the forum and allow even more Warde threads every other hour for more "constructive" conversation. This is lame as fuck. We get it already. Someone make it stop.
February 7th, 2024 at 7:50 PM ^
Not going to lie, I fully expected the text of the thread to be "LOL NO, FIRE WARDE"
February 7th, 2024 at 7:53 PM ^
Likewise.
February 7th, 2024 at 7:52 PM ^
Why? So we have to compare to Dave Brandon? Not to Jim Hackett? We should be aiming high.
Unless he suddenly makes us the best place to be for NIL, I don't see how he will be at UM long term.
February 7th, 2024 at 7:53 PM ^
Another Warde thread? How many of these to we need? What else is there to say? Have we discussed the color of his underwear? I'd rather see the All Time Best of WD.
February 7th, 2024 at 7:55 PM ^
Nah, I'll take this any day over WD
February 7th, 2024 at 7:53 PM ^
Oh lord. This should be good. I’ll watch this instead of the second half.
February 7th, 2024 at 7:54 PM ^
Inaugural facts?
February 7th, 2024 at 8:07 PM ^
Forget it, he's rolling
February 7th, 2024 at 7:57 PM ^
Stan Lee > Stan Warde
February 7th, 2024 at 7:58 PM ^
you always need more cowbell, but you don't need any more warde threads.
February 7th, 2024 at 7:59 PM ^
Aside from the fact your first sentence is unintelligible, Warde's legacy is one of bureaucratic weakness and inaction. He just doesn't live up to Michigan's claim of being the leaders and best. His lack of leadership was in no better display than failing to stand up to the NCAA and Big Ten during signgate. That may have been a strategy in the 1990's or early 2000's, but it's an undeniable sign of weakness in 2024 when the NCAA has been evicerated in the courts and by other schools with the balls to say NO to them.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:06 PM ^
All true, but he isn’t going anywhere. Sports have been successful under him. Obvious men’s bball hasn’t panned out but Howard was a popular hire at the time. Warde may be lazy and ineffective but what criteria does the U have to actually fire him? Nothing. Fire him, then he’ll sue the school. Sorry but we are stuck with him.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:16 PM ^
The school doesn’t need a reason to fire him. Pay the pre-negotiated buyout on his contract and he has zero grounds to sue.
February 8th, 2024 at 9:38 AM ^
Sports being successful under him doesn't mean that he played a large role or that they couldn't have been stronger. UM athletics were generally successful with Dave Brandon at the helm...
February 9th, 2024 at 12:06 AM ^
The NCAA had nothing to do with Signgate other than to note that there was grounds for investigation, so there's no way Manuel could have "stood up" to them. Manuel was standing up to the B1G when he had his legs cut out from under him by the Partridge affair.
I don't think that Michigan should retain Manuel when his contract expires in two years, because I think that Michigan can do better and deserves better. However, there are no reasonable grounds for termination, and I don't want to see Michigan become one of those institutions that dumps employees because emo.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:01 PM ^
Hopefully future coaches and players don’t come here to Vet the fanbase. We all know what needs to be done, but this is approaching the buckeye and Sparty cheating scandal level of cringe.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:05 PM ^
Warde didn't win any of those titles. The coaches and players did (and major donors like Stephen Ross who together donated over $160 million under Brandon/Hackett to substantially upgrade virtually all the olympic sports' facilities). Talk about a guy born on third base!! Warde inherited the greatest collection of major sport head coaches in Michigan history and all but one is gone. And in pretty much every sport in which he failed to retain those coaches - Basketball, Baseball, Ice Hockey, Volleyball, Swimming?, Tennis? - we've regressed substantially. The one major sport that is still thriving is football, but this cluster**** of a transition doesn't bode well for that sport going forward either. Sorry, but facts are stubborn things. And the facts are this is Warde Manuel's record. He needs to go.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:09 PM ^
The case for Warde is a suitcase. Right out of town.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:12 PM ^
Or a civil case for fraudulently impersonating an athletic director.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:32 PM ^
If I can get real for a minute...
This is the thing-–Warde actually knows how to be an AD! The problem being he seems unable to understand that to keep doing this job, you have to evolve with the job. It's like he got here and thought he could keep being an AD like it was still 1994 or 2004, because Michigan is immune to change, and... big ol' nope.
February 8th, 2024 at 9:59 AM ^
Could not agree more. He seems to think It is still 1990. The question is whether the University will wait until football is where Bball is now or whether they will see the handwriting on the wall and act before our NIL program craters the team.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:26 PM ^
I like the song and the album.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:28 PM ^
February 7th, 2024 at 8:46 PM ^
hoo baby, there's some nostalgia for you.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:13 PM ^
How about the case for sitting down and shutting up?
Oh I forgot the *sigh*
Get a fucking grip all of you. We're the goddamn national champs
February 7th, 2024 at 8:13 PM ^
As fun as dueling message board threads are, I'm fairly certain no action will be taken with regard to Warde anytime soon.
Michigan as an institution is a very large boat.
February 7th, 2024 at 9:45 PM ^
So was the Titannic.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:20 PM ^
Your take is dumb and so are you.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:20 PM ^
Everyone knew that Harbaugh would be gone, so a better succession plan would have been desired.
I'm disappointed that CFB is shit and not even a month after winning it all, we are where we are.
No one wants to go back to what it was like before Harbaugh.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:21 PM ^
Warde lives rent free in a lot of people's heads.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this mashup.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:27 PM ^
"he's not as bad as Dave Brandon" 😂
The very definition of "damning with faint praise"
February 7th, 2024 at 8:30 PM ^
I really hope Warde takes a job with the Chargers, just to see what impact it has on these discussions.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:31 PM ^
Those all will look good on his resume,
Good luck on the job hunt Mr. warde.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:32 PM ^
I’m neither pro nor con on Warde because I don’t see a lot of definitive insight into what he does or doesn’t do. Instead, I see a lot of conjecture about him being “fat” and “lazy,” which sometimes smacks of racial stereotyping. I suspect most his “policies,” particularly concerning NIL or Conor S., came down from above him. And we just won a title. There’s little quantifiable evidence that he should be fired.
February 7th, 2024 at 8:33 PM ^
Warde doesn’t hire good coaches and lets the all time legends walk.