Sports Monday Column about Sanderson's resignation
This is an interesting summary -- based on internal emails that have recently come out -- of the aftermath of the confrontation between Juwan Howard and Jon Sanderson last December. What's amazing to me is that it doesn't appear that any serious effort was made to resolve this incident internally through facilitation, which it sounds like Sanderson was open to. To quote John U Bacon (quoting Don Canham) you never want to make a one day story a two day story, or in this case an over two-month story.
Is there any *good* news to read about today? Like, in the world not just on this blog.
not exacly news, but thanks
user name checks
Did you miss the thread about making defensive coaching hires official? With bonus GA Brad Hawkins?
Sure there is. Just look at some of today's headlines.
Haiti jailbreak sows chaos
shit
Venezuelan dissident assassinated in Chile
nope
OPEC+ to continue production cuts
damn
Germany investigates hack of Ukraine weapons aid discussion
Well, I tried anyway 🤷♂️
Nope
Did you know that Braylon Edwards stopped a guy from assaulting an 80 year-old man?
What!!???!!
First I’ve heard of it.
/s
Red wings are in the playoff hunt?
Opening day at Tigers Stadium (Comerica) and all across the country soon
Its March 3rd and was 73 degrees out
In ~8.5 months there will be no more election ads on TV
my family is generally happy and healthy (this applies to me but still good news)
I’m just happy you got to live March 3rd twice
I gotta be honest - I don't think it being 73° on March 3rd qualifies as good news!
Putting in serious amounts of effort is foreign to this athletic department.
Warde is the cancer
It was weird to me at the time that Warde announced that Juwan was back almost immediately and that there was nothing to see there. If Juwan really was cleared then fine but at least do an investigation after the Pearson thing blew up in our face.
"To quote John U Bacon (quoting Don Canham)"
why in the world wouldn't you just say
"To quote Don Canham"
John U Bacon was quoting Bruce Madej.
If Sanderson's account is incomplete or inaccurate, Michigan needs to counter it at this point. It's become fact for all practical purposes.
The fact that they haven’t Eric is a pretty clear indication, to me anyways, that Sanderson’s version of the events was both complete AND accurate.
Unfortunately.
Not to mention Sanderson's resignation evidently involved a settlement and NDA. Clearly they don't want anything else about the situation coming to light.
Pretty much every settlement involves an NDA so that's not really evidence of anything.
Well it actually is - the side paying out doesn't want the reason they're paying out made public. That is evidence of something, including in this case.
Why does Michigan need to counter this story? Honestly, the only people it would be for are the posters on this site and the basketball blog run by Dylan. Most casual fans checked out following this team long ago.
As ardent as we are, we are a very small minority of the fan base. I don’t think the AD should cater their actions for us.
Let this story fade now, let Howard go when the season is over and this is all water under the bridge.
To emphasize your last point, the "nothing to see here" strategy is fine as long as Howard is fired at the end of the season. If he isn't, which is highly possible, then the Sanderson episode will live on as an ugly blemish on the program.
The program is losing horribly now so nothing done is right and everything done is wrong. The obvious only right move is to part ways with Howard which is a sad thing but seems necessary at this point. It does seem the very public incidents and the now behind the scenes incident made public even if it's only half the story are making it impossible to retain Howard. Given what's happening and the teams performance there is no way to continue beyond this season with Howard as the head coach. But, Warde is in charge so...
This was a very well written and thoughtful article. It saddens me.
Author might need witness protection or risks getting five fingers to the the face
Anyone who still supports Manuel as AD is delusional
You can say that again…
Anyone who still supports Manuel as AD is delusional
They tuk errrr jobbbbss
What a disaster Warde Manuel’s tenure has been.
Except, you know, for the national championships, Sweet 16s, and Frozen Fours. Otherwise, a disaster.
Because, as always, better to focus on blaming him for things we don't know about (what legal advice he was getting, what instructions from the President and regents, his plans for the offseason, etc.), than crediting him for the things we do know about (retaining Harbaugh, hiring Moore and Naruto, making sure no suspensions/sanctions derailed the national championship season, etc.).
I'm not saying he's flawless. Who knows? But damn, for so many fans to take the National Championship and success in almost every sport — not to mention no apparent reports of dysfunction or chaos in the athletic department in general — and somehow assume the man in charge of it all is incompetent is bizarre to me.
Blame him and only him for everything that happens that you don't like, but don't give him any credit for the things you do like. Seems fair to me.
"No apparent reports of dysfunction or chaos in the athletic department."
About that
as Brian has been saying over and over again: Manuel's policies have been inaction. Sit around and do nothing and hope it works itself out.
retaining Harbaugh
Ummmm? What?
He didn’t show up well trying to keep Harbaugh he will never get over that. Now he has a zero tolerance policy on Howard who smacked another coach on National TV (even woody got fired for this) and now he squares up against another adult coach on his own staff? What does zero tolerance mean to Warde?
Now we're giving Warde credit for the national championship and sweet 16s? I'll give him the frozen fours because he actually hired both Mel and Naurato. The national championship and sweet 16s were all Harbaugh and Beilein. Two coaches that he didn't hire and lost to the pros. Might as well give him credit for being at the same school as Geno too when they won a million games in a row.
Warde was such a key component of the football team's success that he didn't even show up to the team banquet in December.
He is better than Brandon. A low bar that floated under him as he sat on a bridge and did nothing, but a bar he passed non-the-less
really great read
thanks!
When I was growing up and became an M fan, Canham was AD, it was universally accepted that he was by far the best AD in the country.
Warde is nowhere near that distinction and shame on Michigan for having such a lame ass AD.
Canham presided over the Anderson scandal. Even though everyone blames Bo, that was really Canham’s fault.
It wasn't Bo's fault or Canham's fault. It was Anderson's fault.
It was all three of their faults to varying degrees unless this place has suddenly changed it's tunes about the situations at MSU and PSU, to name but two examples of places that ignored systemic sexual assaults for years because the perpetrators were prominent men and a bunch of other men ignored victims at the time.
Tom Goss wants a word
He wasn't this bad