In a lot of ways, DB's tenure at UM mirrored RR's. They both came in, did what they thought they were hired to do the only way they knew how and it just didn't work.

The big difference is, DB SHOULD HAVE FUCKING KNOWN BETTER.

I am halfway through the book and am up late at night trying to finish it this week.  It makes me so upset to see how much damage Dave Brandon did.  I am so glad that things are FINALLY moving in the right direction.

Go Blue!

One of the biggest problems with Brandon approaching the whole thing like he would a business is a college AD requiring a different way of thinking about the enterprise. College football in particular rides on tradition and nostalgia and such. Without those sorts of things unrelated to the game on the field, and the fan's connection to the team, you are left with minor league football. You don't sell 100,000 tickets to minor league football. In such an enterprise where tradition and nostalgia matter so much, "if it ain't broke don't fix it" is the right mindset. Tickets were sold out, there was a substantial waiting list, etc. There were things that could be done on the margins but the basics of it were humming along very well.

In the business world though, the general thinking is you need to continue to improve things, to innovate, to grow. "If it ain't broke, break it" is a mindset for that kind of enterprise. So we got an AD who did all sorts of things that aggravated the paying customers likely in the name of innovation and the like. But we don't WANT innovation in the athletic department, or a so-called "wow" experience. Our "wow" experience is walking into Michigan Stadium and seeing 110,000 people in the stands, the band playing, and the connection with past favorite teams and (for many) our college or grad school years. And obviously, we want the onfield product to be good. Brandon took shots at the tradition and nostalgia that brings people back, so when the team's results were ugly, people had much less reason to go, and attendance collapsed. 

Amazon doesn't list it as having been converted to an audio book. Does some other service offer it? I just recommitted to swimming miles each week and would love to listen to the book as I'm splashing and thrashing like the wallowing whale I've become.

came as I read Endzone after a July 4th re-read of Bo's Lasting Lessons. It makes me sad that Bo Schembechler died thinking Dave Brandon was a great Michigan guy. It makes me sick that Brandon was one of Bo's last dinner dates.

Bo talked in that book about two former players who didn't get much playing time, but were champions of the business world and he was proud of them - Dave Brandon and Jim Hackett. To see in Endzone how these two men who Bo respected played opposite each other in the fall and the rise of the program after his death is ironic. AD Dave Brandon is an affront to Bo's Lasting Lessons. AD Jim Hackett embodies them. 

Thanks to Bacon for this important addition to the Michigan Athletics record. It's a riveting, disturbing, but ultimately uplifting read that should find an audience that extends far beyond the fandom of Michigan Football and Michigan Athletics.

I hope his next book is called "Six and Counting: The Championship Years Under Harbaugh". We could use some light, happy, drama-free reading for a change!

Thanks for the review. You might consider changing the title; currently it's, well, non-standard. Perhaps, Brandon's Lasting Lessons: A review of John U. Bacon's 'Endzone'

First off, I can't remember the exact quote from the book, but I am converted to the face that I now believe that Brandon was not a bad guy or evil... he was just "inept." Just plain not good at being Athletic Director.

Secondly, I liked Three & Out better because I am a Rich Rodriguez stan. But this book was really good and something that I will definitely find useful as the owner of a business.

When I read about the attendance-guessing thing, I feelt like my whole life had been a lie. The only thing I can compare it to is when I found out in April that I had been looking at the Atlanta Hawks logo wrong my entire life.

If you've followed MGoBlog, read the published excerpts of the book and Bacon's blog, you'll have the gist and the general themes behind "Endzone" and you really won't need to buy the book.  It does have some interesting details in it, but even the casual follower of Michigan football knows that Brandon mismanaged the AD, Hoke was not a good enough coach to replace Rodriguez and U-M and that a lot of people were involved in the effort to court Harbaugh.

While Bacon does a very good job in setting out the culture and traditiions surround the university and the football program, he begins losing course as early as Chapter 2 in his book with his definition of a "Michigan Man".  According to Bacon, a "Michigan Man" has certain values--honor, sacrifice, pride in your school and humility in yourself.  But literally paragraphs later, he talks about Fielding H. Yost as being "egotistical" and having "a passion for self-promotion".  Per JUB, Yost would be lacking when it came to the qualities of a Michigan Man.

Of course, I don't think that's what Bacon wanted to do.  Instead, what JUB will do is try to use that "Michigan Man" defintion to crucify Brandon throughout the book.  He sets aside the donations Brandon gave to the university, the money he didn't make by taking the CEO job (say what you will about DB, but seeing that he got the Toys R Us gig, he is a valuable commodity to the right employer) and the obvious pride he had in the school and the football program as a wearer of an M ring should and does have.  Was DB humble?  Nope, but neither was FIelding H. Yost (and FWIW, Yost was also a hell of a businessman too).

I think some of the conclusions that Bacon makes in the book require either leaps of faith by the reader or just don't make sense (or involve a lot of Monday Morning Quarterbacking).  For example, Bacon tries to paint hs picture that if BIll Martin was still the AD, Notre Dame would not have cancelled the football series in 2012 when the Big East was imploding and ND needed a conference (which turned out to be the ACC) to house all its non-football teams.  Anyone who is a student of Michigan football and knows the century-plus relationship between UM and ND (which Bacon should be) would know better and actually applaud Brandon's insistence on written contract rather than the vague 25-year scheduling agreement Martin had with Jack Swarbrick (FWIW, I would recommend John Kryk's "Natural Enemies" as a great source of information on the Michigan-Notre Dame relationship).  Bacon would like to have you think that such an agreement would have been viable in what is a constantly changing competitive environment in college football.  Does anyone at MGoBlog really believe that?

When Bacon discusses Harbaugh's comments in 2007 about the relationship between Michigan football and athletics, I can't but help think that JUB is coming off as an apologist for JH.  There are no quotes in the book from Harbaugh about why he made those very public comments, so Bacon rushes in and tries to make a case for why JBC was a "Michigan Man" for doing so.  In a spasm of honesty though, at least Bacon states and Harbaugh realizes what he said hurt him to various degrees within the university community and the athletic department.  So at least the book has that going for itself.

The other question I have about the book is this--Is it really necessary?  The problems within the UM AD and on the football field have been pretty well documented in the press, on blogs and in social media.  David Brandon has resigned and the athletic department is under new leadership (although interestingly enough, a lot of DB's hires are still in place).  The book sheds no light on the department's strategic vision or how it plans to deal with the changing environment of college athletics as student-athletes rights and demands clash with a financial model that doesn't work at the athletic departments of most universities.  Fielding H. Yost coined the phrase "Athletics for All" when he expanded facilities 90 years ago not only for varsity sports, but for women as well.  Is U-M still committed to that vision?  You won't find the answer in this book.

One thing that jumped out to me when reading the book (I'm about 70% through it right now) was that it sure seems like Hoke really is the genuine article with respect to being a tremendous father figure for the players. The story about the unnamed player with the alchohol/drug issue, and how Hoke handled that-- shutting down a party at Hoke's own house following a game, kicking everyone out, so he and his wife and daughter could go to the player's house to intervene immediately, and then the description of that intervention-- made me think very, very highly of Hoke. 

The guy just didn't win enough. In other areas, and specifically in caring about his players (truly, and not just in the same way every CFB coach cares about his players), he comes across very well. As for the Shane Morris concussion thing, well, there was a breakdown on a few levels, and Hoke bears ultimate responsibility for Shane going back in the game. However, on balance, I was really impressed with Hoke as the sort of father figure; it seems that wasn't just hype.