October 1st, 2014 at 12:52 AM ^
How about this gem:
Maybe some of the old-guard department officials who were let go could've helped avoid these public-relations blunders.
A direct shot at how Bruce Madej left, anyone?
October 1st, 2014 at 1:04 AM ^
Madej is a good man. Gracious, and a straight-shooter. The AD in the late 1990s was so user friendly. Was he forced out?
October 1st, 2014 at 1:31 AM ^
Madej, like Jon Falk (if you listen to the right people), was given the benefit of a victory lap for the long period he spent at Michigan before his "retirement." Apparently, neither longstanding department stalwart got to choose their departure date. And that's completely on Dave Brandon.
October 1st, 2014 at 1:43 AM ^
Thanks.
I don't know if this is fair or not, but I have this image in my mind's eye of the sort of yes-men Brandon has packed with the AD with: they look like the Alpha Betas from Revenge of the Nerds, they are smirking, and wearing blazers.
October 1st, 2014 at 1:29 AM ^
Not just Madej, but the rest of the, what, 95% or so former AD employees who are no longer at 1000SSS in the wake of DB pretty much cleaning house in favor of his young gun marketing gurus.
We've let the MBAs take charge, and this is what happens.
October 1st, 2014 at 6:44 AM ^
Ironic that he railroaded the old guard out of the offices and refused to consider anything but the old guard as the football coach. Sure sounds like the other way round would've been a lot smarter.
October 1st, 2014 at 7:58 AM ^
tends to operate. But this would be a caution for anyone coming in: there's a whole culture and a lot of people in place who could make a new AD's life unpleasant.
October 1st, 2014 at 8:30 AM ^
...when you don't clean up some of those guys, you become stale and behind the times.
And we were that in a lot of things.
I can't stand that people refuse to see middle ground in things. Brandon wasn't wrong on ALL accounts. He just took it waaaay too far.
Half those old guard guys Brandon kicked out were getting paid lots of money to do NOTHING. Or at most, to do the same things they did in 1996.
Virginia Tech is currently going through this EXACT same situation. Did you know that VT didn't even have a ticket sales department until THIS year? 2014! THIS YEAR! They didn't even have a ticket sales department.
Because for so long they just renewed season ticket holders and had the fan base to buy single game tickets that they didn't need to actively engage the community. Well, the team started to suck and the times started to change where they didn't automatically sell out Lane Stadiium and last year was a disaster.
So for the first time, ever, VT hired a ticket sales department to actually make outbound calls and try to fill Lane Stadium.
Michigan was caught in that same mentality. Do what we've always done, never grow with the times.
Brandon took it to the opposite extreme, but he wasn't wrong in trying to change things and push forward.
You had a bunch of guys just collecting their WAY too big paycheck and not doing anything but BTN documentaries on the old days.
October 1st, 2014 at 9:53 AM ^
So........ who exactly was kicked out for not adding value? Can you give a name? Any name will do.
October 1st, 2014 at 9:57 AM ^
We didn't need much help filling the Stadium until the price for everything got so jacked up that people started to consider the prices and realized it was a crappy value. That is the fault of the AD.
October 1st, 2014 at 1:42 AM ^
October 1st, 2014 at 2:06 AM ^
Tom Goss, the AD in the late 90s ran the program in to the ground financially.
October 1st, 2014 at 2:16 AM ^
Well, it wasn't just Goss. The Athletic Department started to dwindle under Bo in 1989, followed by the relatively poor and overmatched one-two punch of Jack Weidenbach and Joe Roberson. It was pretty much the dark ages in between Canham and Bill Martin, unfortunately.
October 1st, 2014 at 4:09 AM ^
as I thought Jack Wiedenbach was Bo's associate AD, in charge of the business side of the job and day-to-day, minute-to-minute operations, while Bo (who was still HC) took care of major things and big decisions.
October 1st, 2014 at 9:51 AM ^
Weidenbach was in facilities management before he was brought on to be Bo's associate AD. He was AD for two years after Bo went to the Tigers. For all Bo's strengths, he was not made for athletics administration; Weidenbach had no experience in athletics. He was a management guy, and not a great one at that. Roberson was overmatched, and so was Goss. We had a string of four ADs who basically ran the thing into the ground out of sheer incompetence.
October 1st, 2014 at 5:55 AM ^
I believe Wojo was right-on with this article.
October 1st, 2014 at 6:50 AM ^
October 1st, 2014 at 8:54 AM ^
I know! I have come to think of him as "the guy angelique needles ercilessly on twitter" but this was spot on.
October 1st, 2014 at 6:59 AM ^
"Brandon has asserted so much control over athletics, he can't escape culpability. A few hundred fans actually marched onto the lawn of Schlissel's campus house Tuesday night chanting for Brandon's dismissal. There's a mob outrage to this, which is uncomfortable. But Brandon has alienated people to the point where it's virtually impossible for him to be an effective leader."
I support the protest, but I sort of agree here - on another level, it was uncomfortable and I think only because I can't recall that level of disenchantment with an AD being expressed in quite that way before. Still, it was nice to see and I agree with Wojo here - we're now at a point where I don't know that Brandon can even lead in other sports effectively, let alone football, and I have to believe the toxicity which he brings will eventually spread to other sports if he's allowed to remain, if it hasn't already.
October 1st, 2014 at 7:28 AM ^
October 1st, 2014 at 7:41 AM ^
Right, this to me is the link between concussiongate and our shitty football play. Many people asked, fairly I think, if we would see this level of outrage if M were 5-0. And I don't know about everyone, but I doubt it would be in the main.
But we aren't 5-0. We suck, and there is mounting evidence that this is because our HFC doesn't know how to react to changing times and field a competitive team in a Power 5 conference post-Y2K. The blunder with Morris is just more evidence that this is so, not a tacked-on morally outraged reason to want him gone.
October 1st, 2014 at 7:52 AM ^
"Morris' concussion is the flashpoint, but the most ridiculous mistake occurred earlier, when Hoke left a completely ineffective Morris in the game despite an ankle sprain."
This was exactly my thought. In fact, I turned the game off before "the hit" because Hoke clearly wasn't trying to win since he chose to leave Morris in the game after the fumble, pick six, fumble sequence. If he doesn't play to win, then I don't want to watch. Brady Hoke brought this on himself.
October 1st, 2014 at 8:02 AM ^
an agile mind. But then, we've known that. And people stuck up for him. He should have been performing some lesser function. Instinctively or not, Brandon saw him as someone he could control. Almost definitionally, an AD cannot be an egomaniac. Because the stars are on the field.
October 1st, 2014 at 9:00 AM ^
October 1st, 2014 at 10:09 AM ^
Hold on, I've got a few more...
Yes exactly, as a football coach, how do you not realize that Borges was vastly ineffective?
Yes exactly, as a football coach, how do you not realize that Funk was vastly ineffective?
Yes exactly, as a football coach, how do you not realize that Burzynski was vastly ineffective?
Yes exactly, as a football coach, how do you not realize that Manball was vastly ineffective?
I'm not sure when I should stop this...
Beside being overwhelmed, I think that Hoke's greatest shortfall is that he has no ability to evaluate performance or talent. Or loyalty is more important than performance in Hoke's heirarchy of needs.
October 1st, 2014 at 11:07 AM ^
October 1st, 2014 at 8:26 AM ^
If you look at what we have seen over the past couple of years, it shows how what happened Saturday was just a logical addition to what had been happening. Last year, the OL problems were so severe and never effectively addressed that it made one wonder whether there was either a plan or effective control over what was going on. This year, it has snowballed. It is hard to account for the disastrous handling of the 4th and 1 situation a couple of weeks ago, the overall deterioration of play against Utah and the lack of sideline awareness that led to Shane Morris's situation as anything other than part of a picture that shows an overall inability to collectively manage the HFC position.
Additional evidence is that in both of the last two games it was close at halftime. Our opponents made adjustments at halftime, Hoke did not and we were pummeled in the second half.
His incredible stubbornness doesn't help, either.
October 1st, 2014 at 8:41 AM ^
i'm not saying this whole thing is dave brandon's fault
but it's dave brandon's fault.
October 1st, 2014 at 9:14 AM ^
Wojo is the ultimate defender of the School so to see him call for a change is surprising.
He makes excellent points and will his connections, he may know more than most about what is going to happen.