Dave Brandon on Attack Each Day podcast
currently listening to the recent Harbaugh's podcast with Dave Brandon as an invited guest.
I though JH didn't like Brandon? or maybe just as an AD.
haven't finished listening and haven't got to the portion talking about Brandon's time as AD.
but surprised to see Brandon to be invited to the podcast.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:52 PM ^
I thought he handled Stretchgate well as well.
August 20th, 2019 at 1:17 PM ^
I mean Brandon wasn't the worst person in the world, and how he handled the Rich Rod violations inquiry was good. But it turns out that dismissiveness which the NCAA deserved was kind of his default reaction to most everything. He is kind of a crappy person and leader who only apparently cared about the bottom line and those personally loyal to him, not the university or programs. And the ability to spend a lot of money you have to spend, money that you did not earn, is not a very high bar in judging his ability as an AD, or any type of leader. UM would have been much better off he would have stayed an alumnus who donated money and showed up at games and fundraising events.
August 20th, 2019 at 4:14 PM ^
how he handled the Rich Rod violations inquiry was good
I wish DB would have told the NCAA to go eff themselves over 20 minutes of stretching.
August 20th, 2019 at 1:48 PM ^
Yep, there was certainly a lot he did poorly as AD and he seemed to be an egomaniac but you can't question his love for Michigan or that he did do some things right in his life. Bacon excoriated him pretty well in his book and I bet it's awkward when those two run into each other.
August 20th, 2019 at 11:56 AM ^
Obviously the episode is titled “failure and living with shame”. Harbaugh must be riveted as he’s never experienced either.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:00 PM ^
So Dave, how'd that Toy's r Us turn around thing go?
August 20th, 2019 at 12:04 PM ^
For Dave, it went about as well as it could have. He was brought in to take it through bankruptcy - that's what he does. And he does that well. As another poster said, give credit where its due.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:13 PM ^
Yeah as a toy nerd (for reference please see my avatar), TRU was not Brandon's fault.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:45 PM ^
Actually that's revisionist BS.
When he took over as CEO in 2015 he was chosen due to his ipo track record. Ch11 was over two years later and not on the horizon at the time. During a WSJ interview he stated that the focus for TRU would be execution, performance and growth, and that the company needs to put itself in a position where it can compete globally.
He basically did nothing from what I can tell, except try to cut costs so Bain could soak up a few years of cash.
He could have used their global name and supplier network to become an online toy store, when even by 2015 it was obvious that an online presence was key.
August 20th, 2019 at 1:30 PM ^
Bain had already saddled the company with too much debt by the time he got there. Nobody could've been successful.
August 20th, 2019 at 2:05 PM ^
It not uncommon for a corporation to use bankruptcy to reorganize and start over, Charter Communication, General Motors, Ally Bank, Marvel Entertainment, Chrysler, Texaco, Six Flags and many others have. I don't believe Dave was hired to close the doors, he was hired to salvage a viable business out of the mess that Toys R Us was and he was unable to do so.
Bain hired him to head up Dominos and he was very successful.
or so i've read.
August 20th, 2019 at 3:02 PM ^
Exactly. Bain bought it to liquidate it. They saddled Toys R Us with the debt they used to buy Toys R Us in the first place.
August 20th, 2019 at 2:06 PM ^
"He basically did nothing from what I can tell, except try to cut costs so Bain could soak up a few years of cash."
That was his job! Bain is a private equity firm - all it does is buy properties and extract every last penny from it they can, and then run it through bankruptcy. Companies like Bain take the money, and leave the creditors holding the bag. Brandon performed the job for which he was hired quite well...
August 20th, 2019 at 12:01 PM ^
Brandon talking about stadium lights and night games. I didn't know this (maybe read it in one of Bacon's book and forgot) but he says ESPN payed for the stadium lights, UM didn't pay a single penny. Just have to play one night game a year for it.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:25 PM ^
Its amazing what you can get partners to pay for to ensure them that you will continue to do business with them so that it provides security and incentives to both parties.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:02 PM ^
Gonna go ahead and not listen to that.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:10 PM ^
User name checks out.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:16 PM ^
It's short for "unwavering hatred of Dave Brandon"
August 20th, 2019 at 12:03 PM ^
Brought to you by the Brandon's.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:05 PM ^
Got thru first 25 minutes. Good content. I suspend my dislike for the guy and it’s actually a good discussion about improvements to overall athletic campus during his tenure. He only mentioned Michigan “brand” once during that time. I cringed. But otherwise it was a good listen.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:06 PM ^
Da fuck?
I never would've thought DB would be a guest. But Harbaugh has given a fair shake to a number of unusual guests on his show, and he always handles himself with grace and dignity. I'm no fan of DB, but if Harbaugh will have him as a guest, there must be a reason worth listening for...
August 20th, 2019 at 12:09 PM ^
I didn't appreciate a lot of his actions but he did hire Erik Bakich. At some point, we should move on and he becomes a former UM football player.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:12 PM ^
I'll agree to move on. I mean, Tom Goss was a worse AD than Brandon, and he's welcomed back in Ann Arbor as nothing more than a former AD and football player.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:10 PM ^
Just goes to show you that if you're rich AF all your failures will be ignored or somehow celebrated.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:17 PM ^
I had to look it up. Per Urban Dictionary:
August 20th, 2019 at 2:07 PM ^
when in doubt, refer to the Urban dictionary +1
August 20th, 2019 at 12:20 PM ^
I don't believe in absolutes. You are implying always through the use of all. I believe your actions, most often, catch up to you, no matter how rich or poor you are.
August 20th, 2019 at 1:48 PM ^
I'm sure nobody here has every been fired for doing a shitty job, right?
If you were, was that broadcast for the nation to see? Did it follow you around the rest of your life like a black cloud where fellow alumni curse your name? No?
In that case it seems as if you're "rich AF", all your failures will be exponentially amplified, not ignored.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:12 PM ^
The Harbaugh’s are pure class.
Brandon’s extreme arrogance cost him his job and damaged the AD. However, please let us not forget, he is a Michigan Man, and deserves rehabilitation. None of his missteps were crimes nor cheating.
That said, he should rehabilitate very far away from the M athletic department.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:16 PM ^
That's a pretty low bar you're setting there. Being horrific at your job to the point where you tried to cover up a serious injury, while not a crime is pretty fucking bad
August 20th, 2019 at 12:28 PM ^
Concussion gate was nothing more than a PR gaffe. Nobody was denied treatment nor were doctor’s orders disobeyed. The situation exposed a gap in our concussion protocol which had been in place long before Brandon. It was then fixed. Like everything else, Brandon was concerned more about appearances.
It was a bogus controversy contrived to chase the man out. Which he deserved, ultimately, but not for that.
August 20th, 2019 at 2:04 PM ^
From what I remember of the whole concussion fiasco was that Gardner’s helmet came off so he had to leave the game for one play. Hoke spoke to one of the officials and said he wanted to call a timeout so Gardner could come back into the game. The official told him that Gardner would still have to sit out one play regardless of the timeout. This is actually not correct. Calling a timeout meant Gardner would be able to come back into the game without sitting out one play. Still not the best situation all around but the officials certainly helped fuck things up.
August 20th, 2019 at 2:10 PM ^
It was Shane Morris, not Devin Gardner. But otherwise, yeah - botched by everyone involved. And Brandon piled on afterwards with the poor PR...
August 20th, 2019 at 2:46 PM ^
No, he's right. Gardner came in once Morris was decked and wobbling around the field. Gardner lost his helmet and had to come out. Morris was re-inserted.
August 20th, 2019 at 10:18 PM ^
Morris's ankle (JUB wrote that Morris told him that it was an ankle injury, not concussion, that had him hobbling) wasn't a serious injury. The handling of the story (by Michigan and the media) probably WAS a crime.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:16 PM ^
I don't know man, the noodle was pretty damn criminal...
August 20th, 2019 at 2:10 PM ^
Fuck that. I'll say it again fuck dave brandon. that is one asshole I refuse to shake hands with or associate.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:15 PM ^
is this a confirmed probable interview or ...
August 20th, 2019 at 12:17 PM ^
I don't understand the vitriol against Dave Brandon at this point. Yes, his vision for Michigan was far less than ideal and he needed to go when he did. It's fine to be critical -- even very critical -- of his decisions as AD, but why are so many here attacking him as a person?
This was a guy who was hired to do basically what he did. There is no suggestion he acted unethically, that he was lazy, or that he engaged in conduct that embarrassed Michigan. Rather, he worked hard, was a reasonably effective steward of Michigan athletics as measured by the metrics he understood, and he tried to do right by the university. It is possible to say both that he was out of his depth and that he cared about Michigan and tried to treat her well.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:25 PM ^
Brandon's late night email exchange with disgruntled fan was sort of embarrassing i think.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:27 PM ^
I agree with most of what you are saying but I am not sure he understood the fanbase and treated them better. It is not criminal or unethical but sure wasn't about improving the image of Michigan - case in point the damn noodle.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:46 PM ^
"...I am not sure he understood the fan base and treated them better."
I'll go a step further and say that he did not care about the fan base - not one single bit. He treated it (us) both as a commodity to be sold and as a revenue stream. Nor did he care about competence in performance of ones job. His only care about job performance was loyalty. And forced loyalty is where he lost alumni and fans.
The players liked him. The students hated him. The coaches (largely) hated him. The fans hated him. The contempt he still receives in Ann Arbor was well-earned...
August 20th, 2019 at 12:58 PM ^
This blog has dedicated tens of thousands of words and hours of podcast to Brandon's various failures & wrongdoings. They've been discussed and analyzed to hell and gone. The crisis got so bad that people poured into the streets by the thousands to demand his firing.
Thing is, while we don't (or rather shouldn't) expect a newcomer to understand the difference between a 3-technique and a boundary corner on their first day:
- You've been here for almost nine fucking years, and
- This is largely a literate forum; we expect people to read.
The cheap "gosh I don't understand, just having a conversation" chin-stroking contrarian act might make you look wise on Reddit, but here, you're showing almost clinical lack of self-awareness (if not serious memory problems) in thinking professing ignorance makes you appear as a voice of reason.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:17 PM ^
Might be the only AED podcast I deliberately skip.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:21 PM ^
Well my 8.5 win O/U is looking more likely with that guy associating with Coach.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:21 PM ^
Have to pass. I'm drunk now and think I should go to bed.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:21 PM ^
True story: a medical school classmate with aggressive lymphoma needed to get to the NIH in DC pronto. DB heard about it and flies him there in his private jet.
People are complex.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:27 PM ^
I don't know, crom80. Did you think Jim didn't like him? You tell us. None of us know.
August 20th, 2019 at 12:43 PM ^
i only based that assumption from Bacon's Endzone book where someone is quoted as saying Dave Brandon being the sole reason Jim Harbaugh didn't become michigan's coach in 2010, JH told the person he didn't feel the love. whereas the quoted person genuinely believed Brandon thought he had Harbaugh.
though i may have read too much into that.