Warde hate seems to be everywhere right now
I see a lot of comments all over the place about Warde but many of these comments make me think that the commentors have no exposure to how hiring and retention works at a high level in large organizations. Two things about losing Bakich, Beilein and Harbaugh:
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All three of those coaches clearly wanted to coach at what they perceived as the next level, southern college baseball, NBA, and NFL, respectively. You can not make people stay when they don't want to - it is a free country. Money and how you treat people is not always enough to get people to stay if they have a strong desire to do something else. Sometimes it is simply not possible to offer someone what they want - even if you wish you could.
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Warde does not have full control over decisions about what he can offer these guys. Possibly he did with Bakich but it's incredibly unlikely he did with higher profile basketball and football. He for sure had to get approval from Schlissel with Beilein and from Santa and the regents for Jim in particular. You can also be sure that the university chief counsel weighed in heavily about the immunity stuff that Jim was supposedly requesting. We simply do not know exactly what happened. Neither does JUB, for that matter, who seems to be as connected as possible.
Jim could have been asking for a fully guaranteed contract with full immunity for everything: historical and future, which the university simply should not agree to. Especially with the NCAA seemingly hellbent to do something to Jim (probably because of his paying the players stance). You simply can't take that risk - for moral hazard reasons, if nothing else. Jim (or his agent) could have been demanding these things knowing that we can't say yes, in part, to set negotiations from an advantageous point for Jim but also to give Jim time to explore NFL options. He easily could have dropped some/all of those demands if the NFL hadn't worked out. He literally had all leverage on his side at that point. We obviously couldn't have fired him and moved on - he just won the national championship.
Could more have been done to make Jim 'feel the love' from the university. Probably. There is almost always something more that could be done. Would that have made a difference? Hard to definitively say but given that Harbaugh constantly tried to get an NFL job for the last few off-seasons and very rarely publicly committed to Michigan in the future makes it look like he always wanted to go back to the NFL. That sucks for us fans, but making it seem like Warde absolutely had it in his power to prevent him from leaving simply does not make sense.
That said, Warde has been a mixed bag. Lots of great stuff with the Olympic sports and he did retain Jim in 2020 when momentum was against him. Hiring Juwan, at the time, looked like a great move and I don't think you can blame him for hiring him (if you are disposed to do). Dropping the ball/being slow on Pearson was not so great and maybe we should have moved on from Juwan after the second 'incident'. Now, it's pretty hard to fire a guy just recovering from heart surgery so we have to see how things play out this year, which admittedly doesn't look good.
I don't know, maybe it's time to move on from Warde, that's for Santa and the regents to say. I just don't think we have enough information and I'm not convinced that Warde could have done anything that would have changed Jim's mind. Sometimes great employees just leave no matter what you do - that's just how the workplace is sometimes. Personally, I'd be inclined to take a look at what other other potential ADs are out there and think about how Warde stacks up vs the other options, but the 'fire Warde into the sun' crowd seems off-base at this point.
January 25th, 2024 at 10:35 AM ^
I don't hate anyone. However, Warde's job performance has been horrible. There, I said it. For the 30th time in the last 12 hours. Lol.
January 25th, 2024 at 10:40 AM ^
He's a black man in charge of a huge brand that millions revere. I'm sure that has nothing to do with the mass of idiots calling for his head. It never does, according to these types.
These same people generally have no real connection to our school, or understanding of anything AD or personnel related, to your point. Most of them are Walmarts, and don't know what they don't know. Which isn't much.
These asshats think Warde Manuel unilaterally makes these decisions. Which in itself says a lot.
These grown man clowns worship Harbaugh, so they can't bear to consider the strong possibility that he didn't negotiate in good faith. Or recall that he lied to Warde and us 2 seasons ago. For no reason!
Or that maybe he wanted to leave, in part, so he didn't have to face the music for his bs lack of institutional control(at minimum). Bs that he is either lying about having knowledge of (cough cough Jay knew), or he's on some Inspector Gadget shit and oblivious to, while Penny and Brain actually run the program, unbeknownst to the lovable idiot that doesn't know what's going on. He's innocent!
As someone who's been around the game at every level, it's a laughable take. Naive as fuck. Childlike even.
They also don't realize they're programmed to believe a black man in charge must be either flawless, or else he's incompetent. They'll deny that too, because self awareness isn't really their thing. Online trolling is. These goofies were calling for our AD's head the day after a natty.
Who does that??
It's quite obvious where much of the bias stems from, idgaf how many of you come on here denying it and deflecting. This is a centuries old pattern, and it didn't start with Warde Manuel.
Hopefully, Moore comes in and wins right away, or you'll see the same premature pitchforks come out. Book it.
January 25th, 2024 at 12:22 PM ^
Yikes.
Dave Brandon received a ton of hate and deservedly so.
You are going to believe what you are going to believe, but blaming racism let’s Manuel off the hook for his numerous poor decisions/handling of controversies.
Ranting about Walmart Wolverines while presenting an argument informed largely by racial and class prejudice is a weak form of argumentation.
Warde Manuel isn’t at fault for Harbaugh leaving. Jim Harbaugh is the one responsible.
However, Warde Manuel is at fault for several poor hires and mishandling of several controversies. In any other place of employment he would have been fired a long time ago.
But this is the University of Michigan. Such incompetence is allowed regardless of your color. Unless, of course, you are stupid enough to send angry emails to supporters of high profile athletics programs.
January 25th, 2024 at 12:29 PM ^
Where to even begin....
January 25th, 2024 at 10:50 AM ^
I want Warde gone, but football is pretty low on the list of reasons why.
January 25th, 2024 at 10:59 AM ^
Name three good things that Warde Manuel has done that have materially helped the football team, not counting simply doing the basics and any below average AD would have easily done. I can't think of even one.
January 25th, 2024 at 11:04 AM ^
I mean, I saw this same sentiment articulated elsewhere, but it bears repeating: no matter what Warde did, the one thing he could not give Jim is a Lombardi trophy. Jim wants to win the Super Bowl. That’s the bottom line.
January 25th, 2024 at 11:26 AM ^
Warde hate is love.
Warde hate is life.
Join us.
January 25th, 2024 at 11:34 AM ^
I think most of the Warde hate comes from his failure to be publicly emotive. Express outrage and defiance at the NCAA and Big Ten, express teary gratitude to Harbaugh, be publicly frustrated with Juwan Howard.
The fact is, I'm unaware that any of us know what goes on behind the closed doors of the athletic department, so every time I see people repeating as gospel that he "forced Harbaugh to take the suspension" or in some other way failed to "support" Harbaugh simply have no idea.
It's funny. When things started to go well with Harbaugh in 2021 Warde got a lot of praise for keeping Harbaugh, despite the loud voices demanding that Harbaugh be fired. Now that Harbaugh disappoints everyone by leaving, Warde gets blamed for "forcing him to take the pay cut."
It's all boring, and the very worst of comment-board nonsense. I'm unaware of any college athletic directors who have front-of-camera personalities — that's simply not the job.
If Warde leaves, so be it. Fine with me. But damn, the football team just had its best three-year run in over 100 years, and you'd think Warde had destroyed all that was holy. People need to relax a bit.
January 25th, 2024 at 12:32 PM ^
No, it comes from him failing at the core and central aspects of his job. He is successful at peripheral things (but so too would any average AD succeed at those things). But at the most important things, he is an undeniable failure.
January 25th, 2024 at 12:51 PM ^
I deny it. No Warde fan here but that is just bullshit. He kept Harbaugh for 3 more years than you would have. Undeniable.
January 25th, 2024 at 1:22 PM ^
Wrong. JH had nowhere to go after the 2000 season. That season, and the two before, were disappointing. JH had not options. So it was easy for Warde Manuel to keep him. But he did so in a way (huge public pay cut) that fostered justifiable resentment. So...Manuel did an easy thing (keep JH) that any below average AD could have done, but he did it is the worst possible way (embarrassing public pay cut that motivated JH to want out once he could get an NFL offer).
January 25th, 2024 at 12:53 PM ^
A voice of reason. There are a few. The next guy down wants to tell you that you are full of poop. But this was a great synopsis.
January 25th, 2024 at 11:37 AM ^
To be fair, pretty much everyone on this board is an outsider looking in to what goes on at the Michigan athletic department. None of us know what went into all the decisions or actions that Michigan took or didn't take. We don't know Harbaugh's position, or the Regents, or Santa's, or Warde's. Still, many people are quick to make summary conclusions based on inadequate or no facts. There's a lot of evidence that points toward Harbaugh being hell-bent on going back to the NFL no matter what Michigan offered or agreed to. So, dumping on Warde or Michigan because you're frustrated and upset is a waste of time IMO. And trying to blame him for Beilein leaving is another fruitless exercise in futility. Again, Beilein didn't want to coach here anymore and was ready to move on.
Is Warde the best AD we could have? No, probably not. Unfortunately, in today's complex college athletics world, administrators are who usually get hired. People who can run and manage departments with large budgets and countless more requirements and regulations than the old days. Everyone wants a swashbuckling, aggressive, forward looking leader like Don Canham again. But he would have been an abject failure in today's environment, and look what tragic situation happened on his watch.
The best thing to do is move on, look forward to a new future with a new HC that hopefully will be bright.
January 25th, 2024 at 11:37 AM ^
It is Warde's responsibility is to hire and retain a great coaches. In this case, he failed. If he was not given the resources or support, then he should say as much in order to correct the problem.
January 25th, 2024 at 11:48 AM ^
We don’t know the dynamic of how each of these coaching situations unfolded. We may never know about the Harbaugh situation unless Harbaugh and Warde choose to talk about what happened. I agree that people have their reasons—hell, maybe being bored and wanting a new challenge motivated all these coaches—but Warde does seem to have been very unlucky in retaining excellent coaches. Kind of like Moe Green’s casinos losing money. After a while, you begin to wonder if he has screwed some things up, or is simply unlucky.
January 25th, 2024 at 11:49 AM ^
Warde has turned into <insert politician of your choosing> where everything is his fault and he is evil and out to destroy everything I love or, he is the best and all of you are just haters. Then there's a lot of us in the middle that know everything isn't his fault but he still sucks.
January 25th, 2024 at 12:20 PM ^
I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes but my general sense is that the department is not proactive. Beilein may have been gone no matter what, but did the AD and/or his staff know he was dissatisfied and try to work things out or were they caught off-guard? My assumption is the latter. With Harbaugh, maybe the NFL was a done deal, but why meet his demands yesterday, when the ink was nearly dry with the Chargers, rather than a week ago? With Pearson, why did Warde let the WilmerHale report sit for months rather act on it (even if he believed there was a basis to keep Mel why not get ahead of the story)? Why was volleyball coach Mark Rosen renewed and then fired in close succession? Maybe there are reasonable explanations, and examples of positive decisions (such as retaining Harbaugh in 2020) that counterbalance these issues, but there are a lot of issues.
January 25th, 2024 at 12:22 PM ^
Yes we were all eager to downplay the Connor Stallions situation thing, but it’s time to interrogate what happened. What was Warde’s responsibility in hiring and oversight? Harbaugh’s ? Minter’s?
January 25th, 2024 at 12:33 PM ^
The only way I would say "fire Warde" is if he did something stupid like try and hire Urban Meyer, or Brian Kelly like the click bait rumor mill has been saying since last night.
January 25th, 2024 at 12:47 PM ^
Warde stayed the course in 2020. I get pissed at him for a lot, but if he hadn't done that despite so many of those on this board wanting Jim's head, we wouldn't be here today. It's funny how things change. He seemed to genuinely want to strike a deal during that celebration, and I believe he did his best. Jim tried to leave 3 times and succeeded in the third try. Imagine if you did that to your boss. I give credit to Warde where it is due.
That being said, he better not fuck this one up. I don't think he will. Go Blue.
January 25th, 2024 at 12:56 PM ^
Fuck Warde. This is solely on him. He should be fired.
January 25th, 2024 at 1:10 PM ^
This is the hyperbolic nonsense that doesn't help anything. Warde didn't have anywhere near the authority to approve Harbaugh's contract demands unilaterally.
January 25th, 2024 at 4:53 PM ^
As the AD, he was delegated the authority to negotiate the contract. Did it require approval and sign-off? Sure, but you have to request that sooner than after Jim has virtually agreed on a new job. But if your personal goal is to be rid of Jim while retaining at least a plausible argument that you "did all you could" then you would proceed the way that you did. If you hoped Jim would walk in 2020, cutting his salary in half in a public shaming would support that goal. If you wanted to further alienate Jim H. you would continue your friendship with the man on the NCAA infractions committee who has a personal vendetta against Jim H. If you wanted to show your support for your head coach, you wouldn't ask him to take one 3 games suspension before the NCAA has even given a notice of charges, and then acquiesce to a second 3 game suspension for that same coach when there is no evidence that he even knew about what Stallions was doing. Apparently one person's hyperbole is another person's damning evidence.
January 25th, 2024 at 1:24 PM ^
"Jim could have been asking for a fully guaranteed contract with full immunity for everything: historical and future, which the university simply should not agree to."
This is where you lost me. According to the Detroit News, Warde and gang caved in the 11th hour on the Stallions concessions after months of playing hard ball on those very concessions.
As a contracts lawyer in a past life, I can tell you this is inexcusable. I've negotiated hundreds of deals, and one of the first factors considered in any negotiation is the flight risk of the potential customer to another service provider. The higher the flight risk, the less advisable it is to play hard ball on virtually anything. Instead, you get right to the fade - the bare bones minimum that you are willing to accept to get this customer on board. Bird in the hand vs 2 in the bush.
JH is the best coach Michigan has ever had, if not the best coach in the country. In contractual terms, this is a "must get" customer. In such a circumstance, you cut out the bullshit, and fade right into the bottom line of what you can offer to get that customer on board.
The fact that UM caved last hour after months of stonewalling on the Stallions concessions, shows they did not in fact fade right into that bottom line like they should have.
Call it arrogance, call it lawyers inflating their presence, call it whatever you want, but the buck stops with Warde. While there is no guarantee that JH would have been retained had UM capitulated early, bottom line is UM did not put its best foot forward in the negotiation, and that's on Warde.
I don't think Warde needs to go. He does get credit for keeping JH over the last 3 years, which gifted us our greatest sporting moment as Michigan fans. But what he does need to do is realize he fumbled this ball, and can make up for it by cleaning up NIL and fixing whatever he thinks is going on with Juwan.
January 25th, 2024 at 1:44 PM ^
If there's one thing I want out of this, it's to never hear the phrase "feel the love" in regards to Michigan's head football coach. It was a silly metric that made no sense, and ultimately was unimportant to what actually happened. Love was shown. But love does not go into making a Lombardi Trophy.
January 25th, 2024 at 2:00 PM ^
Its NOT just that he let Harbaughgo. Hes fired or let go a NUMBER of succssessul coahces go or couldnt retain...Baseball, Water Polo, Mens Gym , Hockey and others..He couldnt retain Belien and His Juwan Hire looks like a DISASTER...The record speaks for itself..Time for Manuel to GO!!
January 25th, 2024 at 2:03 PM ^
Bakich left because Warde was unwilling to put money into baseball that was needed to compete with the teams in the south and out west, when our program was truly on the rise. So, Bakich gave up trying and left for a school that was invested in baseball.
Warde seemed to drag his feet with Harbaugh and his language when speaking of a Harbaugh was often less than flattering, bringing up Harbaugh’s less than stellar record in 2020.
We Michigan fans mocked Gee down in Columbus when he stated that he was worried about his job and getting fired by the current football coach, but that’s how things run elsewhere. I don’t believe the relationship was sound between Coach Harbs and Manuel and Harbs wasn’t allowed to be his own GM perse.
Whether Manuel should stay or not, it’s not for me to say. I’ll just say, I sure do miss Don Canham.
January 25th, 2024 at 2:16 PM ^
It’s because he deserves it. Maybe we would have lost Jim anyways but the new coach deserves better than Warde and Stapletons intrusion.
January 25th, 2024 at 2:38 PM ^
This outcome was the result of a perfect storm.
Perfect as in 15-0 perfect.
Harbaugh’s stock will never higher than it is now and he’s allowed to chase his dreams.
This was destined to happen. Let’s play bang and blame on another day.
January 25th, 2024 at 3:11 PM ^
If we're to believe that Jim was always gonna have his on a Super Bowl (like an overwhelming majority seems to think) then there is nothing Warde could have done.
Has he been the best AD? No, but he hasn't been the worst either. His predecessor probably has that title. You win some, you lose some. I received some great advice the first time I got a leadership role in my career: "if you wanna please everyone, don't be a leader, go sell ice cream*."
*lactose intolerant aside
January 25th, 2024 at 3:28 PM ^
I am not inside the building nor inside other people's heads, so I will not slam someone on what I don't know about.
January 25th, 2024 at 4:00 PM ^
Warde should own this situation. What would you have done if you were in Jim's shoes? Public humiliation and/or insult is not a good way to build a cohesive, mutually respectful relationship. It appeared to me that Warde did very little to support and defend coach Harbaugh. He could have made the adjustment to the contract soon after being presented with the request and show Jim what he had changed but tell him it had to go through legal. That may have earned him more time. Jim Harbaugh said he wanted to feel wanted, when your supervisor repeatedly hangs you out to dry, or delays response when you asks for something it's time to find another job.
Given the failure to retain Harbaugh, the lack of his ability to establish a top notch NIL program, the degradation of the basket ball program it is time for Warde to shuffle back to Buffalo.
January 25th, 2024 at 5:04 PM ^
Beilein there was nothing he could do. Bakich and Harbaugh he should have made them say no to an offer with everything they wanted (at the college level) and by all accounts he didn't. Mel was a debacle and Juwan situation is perhaps just as bad.
January 25th, 2024 at 5:12 PM ^
Warde only strength is that he’s a shrewd af negotiator. He absolutely fleeced Harbaugh on his last contract, he preserves as much money for regents and university so the suits in the building love this guy.
Hes also stingy on NIL and fleeces athletes on their money as well. This is a guy you want representing you in any contract negotiations. He’s a bully in business
January 25th, 2024 at 5:14 PM ^
Let's just look at football with Warde. He let the most successful football coach in the school's history since the days of Yost and when the forward pass was invented get poached by the NFL.
Does that sort of thing happen at schools that have won a NC in the last 2 decades sans FSU?
January 25th, 2024 at 5:22 PM ^
I don’t hate Warde (responding to the title) but I’d feel a lot better about him as an AD if he’d found a way to pull out all the stops before the 11th hour.
I think JH made his life harder and Warde didn’t want to keep him around. Makes me wonder how hard he’ll work for other coaches who speak up and raise troublesome questions. It’s Michigan, so it’s going to happen again.
January 25th, 2024 at 6:41 PM ^
Take a look at some actual reporting. The Warde hate is justified.
https://twitter.com/Johnubacon/status/1750358572691595284
January 25th, 2024 at 7:54 PM ^
For people who really have experience in corporate recruiting and retention, you know that there are often factions. And not all factions have best interest of whole company at heart. They have personal interest at heart. So, if there is a guy they don't like, because he doesn't help further their plans, or personal vendetta, or "just not my kind of guy", or you don't want the football program to get too big for its britches, well, you can get shit like this.
Also, you know that there can be lots of incompetent assholes embedded in the system. People who will dig in heels over some thing that overall is a meaningless triviality because they can never see a big picture.
I've felt all along that Michigan admin was BLOWING IT. The signs were easy to see. Starting way too late. Stooging around over stuff that is not of major consequence in the end. Taking waaaaaaaaay too long while your candidate is exploring alternatives. And many others.
This news through J. U. Bacon:
https://x.com/Johnubacon/status/1750353313696981186?s=20
If true, that confirms an inexcusable level of incompetence.
Or it could be purposeful sabotage by elements that could bog it down long enough for it to fail.
This whole thing was a shitty failure. In many places, people would get shit canned over it.
If Warde gets fired, I would not believe for a second that he is the only problem. I would believe only that he was part of it and a convenient scapegoat for others who get to skate away.
The above is all speculation, of course. I have no personal knowledge of any of the details involved and am providing my input here only in the spirit of a message board where people speculate widely.
January 25th, 2024 at 9:01 PM ^
Reasonable takes. I like your thinking.
January 25th, 2024 at 9:17 PM ^
We can slice and dice it multiple ways but the fact is Ohio won, NCAA won, Warde won.
January 26th, 2024 at 2:47 AM ^
This has been mentioned before, but the pragmatic thing for Warde to do was rehire Jim. The additional revenue he would have generated UM (and already has) over another 5-ish years with merch sales, playoff appearances, events, etc. would be substantial.
A report came out detailing Saban’s rise in generating an extra 2 billion for Bama over his tenure.
I get the whole immunity clause was a holdup until the final hour, but being the businessman Warde is, I’m surprised we didn’t offer a signable contract to Jim sooner.
January 26th, 2024 at 6:40 PM ^
Among businessmen, there are good ones, incompetent ones, ones who undermine things they don't like, etc.
January 27th, 2024 at 7:51 AM ^
Name one good thing Warde has done without googling.
You can't. Yes, we get it Harbaugh made his own decision to leave. That's not the point. Warde is bad at his job and has bad relationships with his coaches. He doesn't direct anything, he just finds out how much distance he has to keep from his coaches until Ono no longer has to field complaints about him.
Harbaugh would have left even earlier if Ono didn't cut out Warde from the negotiations last time.
January 27th, 2024 at 10:41 AM ^
Many close to the program have realized it from his early days, Warde does not bring much to the table. He now is a divisive force of our alumni and fan base, he needs to be replaced.