State of the Athletics Department
Tweet from Zach Shaw points out that in the past 12 months, we have witnessed Michigan win a conference championship (either regular season or tournament) championship in 12 of our 27 varsity sports. With Hockey falling just short of joining this group with a regular season title.
Warde receives plenty of criticism from some around here, and even some calls for his job, but credit where credit is due. Michigan is seeing success at sports across the board and he deserves some credit for that as well. I personally don’t follow along with the Warde criticisms, but I think we can all enjoy this unprecedented stretch of success the Athletic Department is seeing.
Thanks to the OP for this post, as I've been saying this for a few months, but this was needed. Warde needs a big hat tip. I knew there were alot but not this many titles.
I haven't been among the vociferous critics of Manuel, but out of genuine curiosity I'm going to ask a question that will be asked by his critics: to what extent is any AD like Manuel responsible for the success of the teams under his purview? What has he done to specifically help any of the individual programs? How many of the coaches listed above were hired by Manuel?
To respond to Don above, it is not just hiring a new coach. It is giving extensions to right coaches, recognizing a program that can prosper with a little more investment and spending that money, all while maintaining a budget. Granted at UM he has a budget bigger than most, but he also has a lot of sports to cover with it while still sitting at the big-boy table for both football and basketball. 12 titles out of 27 sports sounds pretty amazing to me.
@Don
Warde’s job isn’t just hiring coaches. Just googling “what does an athletic director do” says:
manage all facets of an athletic program, including scheduling, hiring coaches, promoting programs and events, ordering equipment, constructing budgets, and facilitating operations. Athletic directors also often help fundraise events and supervise sports personnel
Its pretty easy to see how quite a bit of that contributes directly to a program’s ability to succeed. When you have a ton of sports that are winning and the school is making money, your AD is doing a good job. Whether they directly hired those coaches or not isn’t relevant. The ability for some of these non-revenue sports to succeed is more about the funding and exposure your program has than which coaching candidate you hire.
Not to mention unprecedented success in womens basketball that came real close to winning their first title and a really strong mens ice hockey team that just missed their big ten title too
@Don
Just looked it up. Warde was hired Jan of 2016…
Basketball - Juwan 2019
Mens Gymnastics - 2022 (interim)
Wrestling - 2018
Women Soccer - 2018
So he hired 4 of those 12 coaches.
Not sure what he does on a day to day basis to be involved with the individual programs.
Don, there’s also fostering a culture that both athletes and coaches want to thrive under and stay in. There is okaying updating facilities, giving a coach more money for assistant coaches, saying “Sure I’ll allow an expensive west coast road trip for a middling women’s soccer program on the rise”. Warde’s like a CEO or senior administrator in a company, and how many of them receive this high praise and backing from their“workers”.
Truth in advertising: I have talked with 10 of 12 of these coaches and would have no qualms about sending my son or daughter to learn under them. I can not say the same for the many of the opposition’s coaches.So yes, Warde deserves volumes of credit for this continuing excellence And yes i’ve chatted with Warde many times also.
And yet somehow Stanford is going to still completely run away with the Director's Cup, isn't it?
That's a great list. I wish hockey and women's basketball were on it - both sort of choked away their share of a title in the last weekend of the season but were consistently the best team in the conference all year.
In light of recent revelations, I'm comfortable arguing Warde is the best AD Michigan has ever had. #GiveHimAStatue
Impressive. Go Blue.
(Athletic Department, covering athletics.)
Perkis-size Me mentioned Stanford's continuing dominance in the Directors Cup: country-club sports give them a built-in advantage.
Ward is the bullseye on the fan base's M-Sports target. Not surprising that he get's the good arrows along with the bad ones.
Congrats to the Student Athletes and all the coaches, trainers, along with the kids parents.
Appreciate the informative responses.
I would expect the responses to be overwhelmingly positive (for good reason), but it would be interesting to get the responses of the coaches on what working with Manuel is like. I would expect that he exhibits/embodies the general qualities of successful managers.
As for Stanford, the women's varsity sports that we don't carry are Artistic Swimming, Beach Volleyball, Fencing, Sailing, and Squash.
The men's sports that Stanford carries that Michigan doesn't are Fencing, Rowing, Sailing, Volleyball, and Water Polo. They don't have ice hockey.
Oddly, Stanford doesn't have a varsity men's lacrosse team.
Go Blue.
Warde has proven himself to be a damn good administrator, and not only at Michigan - he had UCONN humming along, too. It's pretty clear that he creates a really good atmosphere for the department, lets his coaches do what they by staying out of the way, and gets them what they need. No doubt he listens to the students, too. There doesn't seem to be much that anyone is complaining about.
My complaint about him is only that he doesn't seem to defend his coaches or players enough (at least publicly), and seems a bit soft when dealing with opposing programs and the state of officiating in the B1G. He rolled over and gave ND everything they wanted for a football game. He publicly admonished Harbaugh (several times) for being upset about clearly biased officiating and responding to tweets attacking Michigan football. Most recently, he apologized on behalf of everyone while not acknowledging that the other side also had some culpability. He allowed that other side to publicly frame all of it against Michigan. It's that type of stuff that I don't like, but he is otherwise a fantastic Athletic Director and well worth his paycheck.
Besides the above listed sports, the Lacrosse team is coming on and is currently undefeated after (I believe) six games. Warde hired the current coach after letting the club team coach go after one season at the varsity level.
@1VaBlue1
I just don’t see it as the AD’s job to BE public. By being to public, you risk being a distraction to your programs (Dave Brandon for example). You generally want an AD who remains in the shadows unless he has to make a public statement. Which he has done.
The qualms with officiating can all be done behind the scenes. Public comments don’t do anything other than reflect poorly on the school. While Juwan’s actions required a public statement. At the same time, throwing accusations at another school there (or making statements like Wisconsin’s AD did) also reflect poorly. Warde’s job is to handle what Michigan does. What happens with Wisconsin is up to their AD and the conference.
Just out of curiosity, how many of these championships are with coaches that are the result of Manuel hires? I count one in Juwan Howard and men's basketball. Any others I'm missing?
@JonnyHintz,
I upvoted! Yeah, complaining about officiating is a no-win situation. I could have been more clear, but I was referring mainly to the 2016 game where JH took a $10K fine for comments that were justified. I feel Warde could have done more in that specific case. I would also like to see some generic effort towards bettering the overall state of officiating within the B1G. He lead the conference to on-site medical upgrades after Speight was injured, maybe he can do something similar for officiating?
You are correct that the AD should stay in the background most of the time, and I agree with that. But I also think the AD is the guy that steps up on occasion to defend his people. This is where I think he's not as good as I would like. When he comes to the podium, it's only been to apologize for his subordinates. When does he back them up? Juwan was clearly wrong to throw a punch (and he deserves every second of the shame it brought), but he did nothing to defend Williams from having been attacked by a coach.
An opposing coach physically attacked one of his players, and he apologized for it. This is where he could lead more publicly, IMO.
this unprecedented stretch of success the Athletic Department is seeing.
Honest question - is this stretch actually unprecedented or has UM Athletics ever had a similar run of success across all sports?
Regardless, it's definitely great to be a Michigan Wolverine!
deleted. don't feel like getting into it this morning.
@1VaBlue1
Michigan's own Don Canham is credited with the quote "don't turn a one day story into a two day story". An AD being combative in public does that.
Complaining to the refs during a game may earn a coach one call. An AD publicly complaining about the refs after the game will change nothing about that game and will not have a positive impact in future games. It very well may generate resentment from officiating crews towards Michigan for future games.
The best way to address these things is behind the scenes. Making sure the B1G officiating office knows about patterns of bias to limit who can work certain games (i.e. that OSU slappy ref who worked the 2016 game). I'm pretty sure that guy has not worked a Michigan game since.
Yeah, I think the results speak for themselves -- most significantly for the football team. I don't know what more people could want. Even those people criticizing him for not, somehow, trying to push some of the blame onto Wisconsin for the fracas a few weeks ago. Surely what we want most from him is to help our teams succeed, and obviously he's doing exactly that. The fact that he isn't satisfying our need for a public whiner-in-chief speaks volumes for his character, it seems to me.
Who knows what weapons he's wielding behind closed doors?
His work on football is exemplary, by the way. I admit to being one of the hordes that had concluded Harbaugh had lost the team and believing it would be best to try something else. (I know, I know, you all knew better). Full credit to him for speaking to Harbaugh and the team and recognizing there was a lot of real potential there, while still structuring a deal that would allow us an out if he was wrong.
Nah. I'm a big fan of Warde, and I'm proud to have a Michigan athletic director who doesn't complain and whine all the time.
Who is calling for his job and why? I am not plugged into the palace intrigue around the athletic department but it seems like the goal from the school is for the AD to make money and not make the university look bad and it seems like he's done that. The university has had plenty of their own issues outside of the athletic department and the Anderson/Bo controversy is not Warde's doing nor is it going to be his decision as to how it's handled.
HAIL!
Also of note both the Lacrosse programs have also started to gain some real momentum.
The winter Division I LEARFIELD Directors' Cup standings will be updated and published in early April.
The official Director's Cup standings seem to have last been updated Jan 13, so this is out of date, but at that time Michigan was #3 behind BYU and Notre Dame, with Stanford way down at 17 (Wisc & PSU were 4 & 5, respectively).
I think Stanford finally had to drop a few varsity programs during the pandemic, eroding what had been one of their biggest advantages -- having more varsity sports than everyone else.
https://nacda.com/documents/2022/1/12//Jan_13OverallStandings.pdf?id=45…
For those who say that Manuel shouldn't publicly support the program when we're getting screwed by officials or by conference policies, Don Canham wasn't afraid to speak up as he did after the infamous 1973 10-10 tie with OSU:
"Schembechler lashed out at the athletic directors and said, “I'm very bitter and resentful. Petty jealousies were involved and they just used the injury to Dennis Franklin as a scapegoat. I'm very disappointed in the administration of the Big Ten. It hasn't been very tough and it hasn't been very good.”
Don Canham, the Michigan athletic director, backed up his coach, saying, “We're shocked. That's a sad situation that they used the injury. If we're deep at any position, it's at quarterback. And who is to say Franklin won't be healthy by the time of the Rose Bowl? We feel the underdog that ties the favorite team should get the credit. We have Larry Cipa, who has played a lot this year behind Franklin. He's the one, you remember, who led us to the win over Ohio State two years ago.”
Wonder why.
@Don
The example you cited, is a scenario where an AD needs to make a public statement. Michigan was screwed, not by officials on the field, but by other conference AD's with personal bias. The only option was a public statement. It was made, and if I'm not mistaken, the Big Ten changed it's selection process as a result.
As far as I am aware, Michigan has not faced a similar situation during Warde's tenure.
I feel most of the complaints about Manuel have been unjustified. People blame him for Beilein leaving when it is painfully obvious the Beilein was running away from college basketball entirely, not Michigan. People blame him for Harbaugh, but a year ago a lot wanted Harbaugh fired and NOBODY wanted him extended on a huge deal. I feel like Warde threaded the needle on that, retaining Harbaugh to keep recruiting OK without boxing Michigan into a bad deal. Sure, Harbaugh knocked it out of the park and good for him. That was the BEST case scenario, and blaming Manuel for Harbaugh suddenly becoming valuable to the NFL again is not fair. If he had signed Harbaugh to a huge deal in 2020 people would have been apolpectic.
With Juwan, I think he saved his job. I guarantee there were people within Michigan that wanted him immediately fired. Look at how quickly Moeller was discarded. By giving Juwan a harsh (but not entirely unfair) punishment he got him out of view for a while and let the whole thing settle down. I don't care if Wisconsin is a bunch of pricks about it. Juwan threw the punch. He's a coach--you can't do that. Famous coaches have been fired for that.
No one will ever be perfect and Manuel is not perfect. But I honestly don't know how anyone can say they would have handled the last few years any better than he has.
"As far as I am aware, Michigan has not faced a similar situation during Warde's tenure."
I would argue that the Big Ten assigning two officials with overt, public records of pro-Ohio State partisanship to work the 2016 UM-OSU game was a gross dereliction of any notion of neutral officiating and should have been privately criticized before the game and publicly blasted after the game.
@KRK, you're asking who is calling for his job, and the answer is: A bunch of people on this site, almost from the moment he was hired. They blame him for bad B1G football officiating because B1G officiating would be good if Warde would complain about it publicly, and for the Michigan basketball team playing the early game in the BTT right after the plane crash as the team said it wanted to, and for Beilein leaving, and for not having a star coach ready to step in for Beilein two days after he left, and for not firing 50-year Michigan man and multiple national title winner Red Berenson, and for not having a star coach hired two days after Red Berenson retired, and for extending Jim Harbaugh last year, and for that extension not being enough money to keep Harbaugh from looking around this year.
People have complained about Warde for almost every conceivable reason. And then, of course, when the teams do well, it's "not the AD's responsibility." Amazingly, people think that Warde deserves blame for bad ref calls but not credit for multiple teams across the department winning championships.
I respect some of the complainers, mind you; I just disagree significantly with the grounds for most of the complaints. Warde keeps getting things right. People keep looking for reasons to blame him for whatever they are unhappy about.
I'm sure he's not perfect, and as others have mentioned, most of his job is stuff we don't see. Which is part of the point: People gripe about the visible stuff that's a small part of his job, without really considering what his job is. Well, the OP discusses visible stuff that's not entirely his job, but I think Warde is entitled to a football spike here with all of the people that have whined about him for years.
Blaming Manuel for not attacking the officiating in 2016 is silly. He was a new AD. The best way to get your team repeatedly screwed it to get into a pissing match with the Big Ten head office.
I'm not saying Manuel handled it great--but WE DON'T KNOW. What was said behind the scenes? What talks were had? That is private stuff that we aren't privy to. Sure venting to the media feels good, but for all of Canham's venting that people have mentioned, did any of it really help?
We as fans like to see public statements from the AD. But the reality is, if Manuel is good, those efforts are going on behind the scenes where no one is hearing about them. I have NO IDEA if he did do anything or not, I'm just saying, expecting it to be public is not overly realistic. Also, assuming it DIDN'T happen just because it wasn't public is also not realistic.
I roast Warde a fair bit over the Harbaugh stuff, so I'll definitely give him credit for this banner "year" (well, rolling 12 months).
Excellent job, Warde -- and an excellent post by the OP. It's always good to stay aware of all M sports.
Some people will always criticize those in charge and ignore any facts that fail to enforce their belief that they can do a better job.
@Don
...was a gross dereliction of any notion of neutral officiating and should have been privately criticized before the game and publicly blasted after the game.
My upvote wasn't enough for such a poetic rant, so I hope this laborious manual-reply-method is a worthy tribute
@ scanner blue
Culture. Could not agree more.
IMO Warde has been a terrific AD. Strong hires, competent management - but most of all overseeing a culture of success and excellence that pervades the entire department.
Evidence is everywhere. So many rising, successful programs. The way the coaches support one another and attend the events of their peers. Tremendous facilities and superb training/support staff. Warde didn't hire everyone or build everything, but he sure does have an impact.
Also bears mentioning that Michigan is enjoying success in all three revenue sports. Football team made the playoff for the first time, hoops team had a great season last year and appears poised to make the tournament again, and hockey team is loaded and ready for the NCAAs.
Michigan has an incredible group of truly special coaches, from legends like Hutch to rising comets like Barnes Arico. Athletic legends like JH and JH, who are only coaching in college because Michigan came calling.
One of my longstanding frustrations with Michigan's athletic department was the seeming lack of emphasis on women's sports. That has certainly changed. So cool to see the success of women's gymnastics and hoops among many others.
Count me in the group of Warde supporters. I think he's really good.
Fire Warde!
🙄
Should be 14, with hockey and women's basketball from this year.
But this is the AD, this is a winning culture. This is supporting your head coaches, extensions, increasing assistant coaching salary pools and recruiting budgets.
This is managing everything from egos to NIL.
Drives me nuts when people cry "fire Warde." For one, no one has ever named a SINGLE AD who we could get who is better.
Warde is also on the NACDA board of directors this year.
As someone who knows college athletics administration, Warde is very similar to Harbaugh, IMO. They may be in the 10-15 range, but you won't get or don't want anyone ahead of them on that list.
Both are very solid and Michigan should be THRILLED to have both. Bama and Texas A&M may be the only schools with better combos. Maybe Clemson, but their AD just left and Oklahoma, but their HC just left. Oregon also lost its HC. Georgia has a new AD and you don't want Gene Smith or Ryan Day.
There's still the matter of the non-conference football schedule...but that's just me.