Posted at 8:00am — 5/5/2010
Mailbag question: What are they hearing about David Brandon??
I have heard a lot about recruits and their parents talking to A.D. David Brandon about Rich Rodriguez’ job security. It seems to have the right effect on them with the latest example being D. Hart. While this is great news and I really do believe Rich Rod will turn things around at Michigan, what is Brandon saying to these recruits that gets them to instantly fall in love with Michigan again?? Did he borrow some of Rod’s snake oil??
Thanks,
David from the heart of enemy territory in Lansing
P.S. Love your site!! You guys are always insightful and have class!! Love it!!
David M.
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Thanks for the question and comments.
First off, Mr. Brandon bleeds Maize and Blue. Anyone who turns down a 3.5 million dollar job a year for a 500,000-dollar job clearly loves Michigan and this University. This is his mission; his passion; his focused interest. Mr. Brandon is capable, very capable, and Michigan is in great hands, perhaps similar to Don Canham.
Mr. Brandon does not need to spread any snake oil. He has communicated to all the coaches at the University of Michigan that he will gladly help in any way possible including sitting down with parents and recruits to provide support, accurate communication, and trumpet the positive nature of Michigan athletics.
As far as Coach Rod goes, and his future, almost certainly any forthcoming evaluation with job implications centers on Coach Rod continuing to show overall, across the board improvement, win games, stay clean, and present a good holistic resume of accomplishment this year. Every athletic director will have a personal operational definition of holistic improvement that translates into success. Fans will start with winning, but sometimes for a program administrator, that may not serve as the lone criteria.
Every year, we all see examples of coaches losing good jobs based only on the criteria of wins. Historically, Michigan has not been in this recent mainstream of simply using wins as a measuring stick; clearly the university has been different in the termination of coaches. Al Davis’ motto of “Just Win Baby” is now tempting to U of M fans in the current climate. But the picture is bigger.
Mr. Brandon has that one ingredient that all parents and athletes want; a true and genuine love, and passion for Michigan, this is obvious to anyone who talks to him.
We have always heard that he would give the coaching staff plenty of time to get things turned around, but again an administrator whose number one task is likely to return the football program to prominence cannot accept a debacle such as Coach Rodriguez’s first year again and such a result could trigger quick changes.
There have been some false reports bandied about even before Mr. Brandon took the job, and by our account, everything he has done so far has been great and falls under a generic conclusion of just what the athletic department has needed.
No offense to Mr. Bill Martin, who was very good at getting donors to fund the program and should be credited with leaving his tenure with great accomplishments regarding facilities. Mr. Martin needed to take more of an active roll in being the athletic director and demanding more from his programs. With so much money being spent now with upgrades, tickets, etc. program supporters have less patience for losing and by human nature will “demand/expect” to see a better product throughout the entire Michigan program.
Michigan has always counted on its prestigious name to sell its product, whether it be tee-shirts or five star recruits, and has not lately demonstrated exceptionalism in planned and effective salesmanship in the mode of Don Canham.
Well, not anymore, in our opinion, with Mr. Brandon in charge. He has taken the bull by the horns even before he officially started his tenure by being the head guy speaking about the NCAA investigation. He has also within a few weeks on the job put together a night game with Notre Dame, along with creating a fund-raiser for Mott’s Children’s Hospital made better by bringing on board PNC to be the official sponsor of the spring game. Continuing on, it has been reported that over 90,000 tickets have already sold for “The Big Chill at the Big House” with Arby’s as the event sponsor.
Few would argue that his start has not been noteworthy.
Written by GBMW Staff
Go Blue — Wear Maize!
