Fire Warde Manuel
Warde is basically just a nicer Dave Brandon at this point. I get that he isn't going to keep every good coach at Michigan but at some point you have to ask yourself why he can't keep John Beilein, Erik Bakich, Jim Harbaugh, Adam Steinberg (M Tennis), Jesse Minter, Ben Herbert, Mike Elston etc. That's a lot. You have his administrative issues like Zavier Simpson, Shemy, NIL, Mel Pearson, not backing Jim Harbaugh with the TRO/NCAA stuff. He doesn't want to fire Juwan when the men's basketball team is perhaps the worst non mid-major team in the country. Michigan's nonrevenue sports are tracking downward besides wrestling. Everything he does takes forever and sometimes doesn't get done like Harbaugh's contract, investigating if OSU hired the PI firm, or making a decision on Mel Pearson. If Michigan doesn't fire him now, it will get worse. They will lose players to other schools with better NIL deals, they will lose more coaches, they will lose money from donors etc.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:34 PM ^
If he stays, I think it will lead to a continuous downward trend in Michigan success
February 6th, 2024 at 6:35 PM ^
the next question is who do you hire to replace him? What is Hackett doing these days?
February 6th, 2024 at 6:43 PM ^
There's other options out there. I think I'd be open to finding someone from another university without Michigan ties that isn't going to base every decision on "this is how we did it with Bo Schembechler in the 70s and 80s." Hackett seemed to be open minded on a lot of things but I don't think he wanted the permanent AD position.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:49 PM ^
Honestly? I’d go poach a strong AD from an SEC school. They seem to be the only ones who know how to fight for their schools and be willing to lead into new uncharted territory.
We call ourselves the leaders and best and yet we’ve been timidly tiptoeing behind the entire rest of the sport in almost every aspect for decades.
February 6th, 2024 at 8:08 PM ^
However that person would have to have the board of Regents to back him up. If the regents will not deal in NIL what difference does it make?
February 6th, 2024 at 10:35 PM ^
Hey we should go get the Texas A&M AD.
oh wait...
February 6th, 2024 at 6:49 PM ^
LOL - sorry man. Posted the same thing above. Great minds...
February 6th, 2024 at 6:37 PM ^
I watched Se7en the other day and thought that Kevin Spacey could have had a two-fer if he used Warde for gluttony and greed.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:54 PM ^
Classic movie
February 6th, 2024 at 6:55 PM ^
Gluttony and sloth......
February 6th, 2024 at 9:55 PM ^
This^^
February 6th, 2024 at 8:36 PM ^
I still stand behind my comment from another thread. Fire Warde into space to a known Xenomorph colony so an alien pops out of his chest.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:40 PM ^
If I'm Sherrone I call Hoke to see if he wants to be D-line coach, not even joking.
I don't see this as our normal Michigan retread bullshit discourse. He was elite as both a D-line coach and someone who found diamond in the rough recruits.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:52 PM ^
This would not bother me one bit. We all love Brady Hoke. Not his fault he was hired as the head coach to follow a really shitty head coach.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:57 PM ^
And Hoke could recruit.
Was pre-NIL of course.
Hoke for D-line coach is solid.
February 6th, 2024 at 7:16 PM ^
This is absolutely not the worst idea. Give him a call.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:42 PM ^
Warde Manuel is Staypuff the Marshmellow Man and UM football is New York City.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:43 PM ^
Look, I get the frustration.
But everyone going to the NFL is likely looking at it as a job promotion and an opportunity to pursue the dream of winning a super bowl.
So it isn't a cut and dry argument to blame the AD.
You can come up with a ton of parallel examples. For example, if you work for the Michigan Governor and get a job offer to work for the President of the United States, you likely take the opportunity and nobody blames the Gov.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:50 PM ^
There were already enough reasons to let him go. Whether this is his fault or not, it is just the outrage needed to finally make it happen
February 6th, 2024 at 6:55 PM ^
Some coaches and support staff may want to leave for the Chargers. I don't think that there's enough of a difference between a bad NFL franchise and a national championship winning college football team to have your staff completely gutted unless there are issues. Warde should have used the 4 million dollars per year they saved on Harbaugh leaving on retaining these guys.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:56 PM ^
The CFP natty is way harder to win than a super bowl and quite frankly, way more gratifying. At this point, I really don't give a fuck about the super bowl. Fuck the chiefs, fuck mahomes, fuck state farm, fuck kelce and his average looking girlfriend, and fuck the eleventy-billion hours of theatrics that we will be exposed to Sunday sandwiched around a 3-hour football game.
End of rant...back to my happy place.
February 6th, 2024 at 7:24 PM ^
This goes far beyond football. There's a consistent trend of our coaches, across a variety of sports, looking elsewhere. No one, it seems, enjoys Warde as their boss. Which makes sense given how he clutches his pearls on NIL and throws his coaches under the bus to the NCAA.
February 6th, 2024 at 7:25 PM ^
OSU assembling the most talented roster in the country by a country mile.... through recruiting.... actually through buying players. Is a big problem. M fans do not want to re-live the RR and Hoke era.
February 6th, 2024 at 7:53 PM ^
February 6th, 2024 at 6:45 PM ^
I was excited when he first took the job, but now it is time for someone else.
He just seems to be way in over his head, unable to make decisions, and unwilling to recognize that the college sports landscape is rapidly shifting - so at this point, my belief is that he cannot effectively lead the department.
Time to let someone else have the reins.
February 6th, 2024 at 10:03 PM ^
I thought it was a bad hire when he came from UConn. I mean it was UConn. Not even a P5 conference
February 6th, 2024 at 6:45 PM ^
I'd like to see replacing a bunch of regents.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:45 PM ^
Retaining Juwan while demonstrating an inability (or worse, an unwillingness) to help Moore retain/assemble a staff are absolutely data points supporting the notion that he's simply in over his head. C'mon Santa - give Warde 'The Handshake' and let's find an AD capable of running a top-tier, major conference Athletic Department.
Jim deserves a stink-eye here too. imo.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:58 PM ^
I gave up on Warde after 2016 Columbus. He should have been jettisoned then. His silence was deafening.
February 6th, 2024 at 9:47 PM ^
Totally agree. You have to at least publicly support your coach after he sticks out his neck for the program like that. At the very least.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:46 PM ^
I was expecting this to be negged. Glad that it isn't.
The sentiment is shifting.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:51 PM ^
No no no we must fire Harbaugh for stealing all our coaches … how dare he build a staff to win a championship … is that even allowed ??
February 6th, 2024 at 10:02 PM ^
His NFL program has our college S&C coach and our recruiting coordinator. I dont know what it would look like to burn it down on that way out but this has to be at least laying some gas soaked tinder down at the door. Grant, Graham, and our veteran secondary hold the match.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:52 PM ^
While I think Harbaugh was gonna leave no matter what in this particular hiring cycle, the one reason I will be slightly peeved if we fire Warde NOW, is that I will always wonder what would have happened if we fired him a few months ago
But still, Fire Warde
February 6th, 2024 at 6:53 PM ^
Really Warde should focus on his acting career.
February 6th, 2024 at 8:08 PM ^
Will never forget him in Full Metal Jacket.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:55 PM ^
Yeah, it’s really interesting as we don’t know the details of the contract negotiations between UM and the Chargers. I understand blaming Jim for taking staff, but if Warde was penny pinching and/or not offering raises for current staff, then of course it could make sense to take a promotion regardless. Again, we are all on the outside looking in, but I think abdicating blame is difficult at this point until we learn more.
Also, Warde needs to go.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:56 PM ^
I think Warde should be gone, but some of this stuff is just massively overblown.
Beilein left for an NBA head coaching job. Harbaugh left for an NFL head coaching job. No athletic director was keeping those guys, sorry. Harbaugh hired staff and is taking some of them with him - none of that is unusual. Bakich was never staying long term and baseball will never be a revenue generating sport unless they build a dome or massively change the sport schedule, and it still may not be. They have not finished worse than 6th in the Director's Cup standings since Warde took over, but almost certainly will this year.
The Mel/hockey situation, handling of NCAA infractions, support staff hires without vetting, head coach hires, NIL, etc are all are major red flags and the reasons why I don't think he should keep his job.
Who's the last non-interim athletic director that people liked?
February 6th, 2024 at 7:06 PM ^
In the real world, when a top executive leaves a big company, the non-compete, non-solicitation clauses kick in and prevent you from taking clients and key staff. Probably why we are now getting pissed at losing Minter, Herbert, Jay (Seahawks), and now Elston. Am I forgetting anyone? While College Football likely doesn't seem to have these clauses in place, it is starting to get annoying that Harbaugh (a man with coaching connections all over the country) is pilfering Michigan's staff to a degree that we as fans believe is excessive. I can understand Minter, but the rest has now reached the point of annoying.
February 6th, 2024 at 7:17 PM ^
This is by far the dumbest take.
As noted in a different thread, Harbaugh took 4 coaches when he left Stanford. Pete Carroll took 6. Taking people who you've had success with in the past is totally normal. Also, on top of all of this, we know from Sam Webb that MINTER wanted Elston (and Clink, too). So, what's Harbaugh supposed to say? "Listen, Minter, I said we would do everything we needed to do to win a Super Bowl -- but I can't take Elston. You'll have to work with a coach you don't know because of...reasons."
This Board has totally lost its mind.
February 6th, 2024 at 7:09 PM ^
Michigan finished 11th in the Director's Cup last year. I get that things happen and coaches leave but MSU has kept Izzo around, Alabama kept Saban for 17 years, Kirby Smart has been at Georgia for close to a decade, Coach K never left Duke for the NBA. Additionally, even if Warde couldn't keep Jim, shouldn't we at least be able to keep some assistant coaches and further our NIL policies to remain competitive.
February 6th, 2024 at 8:15 PM ^
Sabin had already failed in the NFL by the time he started Alabama. The rest of those coaches just do not have the NFL experience that Harbaugh does and probably would not win a Super Bowl anyways
February 6th, 2024 at 8:29 PM ^
Then explain Beilein leaving? Doesn't a lifelong college basketball coach in his 60s leaving for a NBA bottom-dwellar seem kind of odd?
February 6th, 2024 at 10:08 PM ^
So many comfy pillows thrown down for Warde's soft landing. I think this comment is like our regents right now.
"Hey what could he do anyway?"
Izzo/Coach K we kept from the NBA somehow someway
Saban never left Bama, Swinney never left Clemson, Tressel never left OSU (pre scandal), Kirby isnt going anywhere, Dantonio never left
I dont know man everyone is undefeated vs the pro sports and we are 0-fer. Someone needs ot be held accountable for losing a life time college S&C and a life time college D line coach that also graduated from U of M! Stop fucking enabling. You dont come up with 10 sideways moves to the pros and only come up with Michigan coaches. It is very us specific.
February 6th, 2024 at 6:59 PM ^
Probably in over his head, he's just there to shake hands and kiss a$$holes. Collect a pay check, call it a week.
February 6th, 2024 at 7:08 PM ^
How exactly is it Warde's fault that Harbaugh is hiring some of the staff that he built here to come with him to the NFL?
Feel like this is a Sherrone Moore problem, or maybe these guys see the NFL as a step up / promotion given all the bullshit with NIL and recruiting.
Not saying I support Warde, just don't see how the staff leaving to join Harbaugh is Warde's fault.
February 6th, 2024 at 7:15 PM ^
Secure resources for Moore to retain the staff should be the #1 priority even before JH made his decision.
February 6th, 2024 at 7:19 PM ^
Word on the street is that Elston wanted more playcalling duties and Sherrone didn't want to give it to him - because he wants a proven playcaller. So, how is that a Warde or resource issue?
February 7th, 2024 at 12:15 AM ^
It is not that Elston is going to call the plays on his new job. He may not be happy to be passed up but I am not sure that a big raise cannot fix it.
February 6th, 2024 at 7:21 PM ^
And we know he didn't do this? How do we know these guys are only leaving cuz Harbaugh offered them more money?