By Mark Wilson
October 31, 2014

Yes, I know. Technically David Brandon turned in his resignation as Michigan Athletics Director Wednesday.

But, that’s no fun!

The press conference by new Michigan president Mark Schlissel happened at 1:30 Halloween afternoon; right before the kiddies were to start trick or treating.

So, trick or treat. Brandon’s out.

Jim Hackett is IN on an “interim basis.”

I put that in quotes because… you never know with these “Michigan Men.”

I put THAT in quotes because… it’s tired and old.

Enough with the “Michigan Man” thing already.

Kind of wish Bo Schembechler had never uttered that line back a quarter century ago.

Bo used it when then-basketball coach Bill Frieder hi-tailed it to Arizona State but still wanted to coach the Wolverines in the 1989 NCAA Tournament.

Freeds wasn’t allowed to lead his beloved Michigan group into the March Madness waters once the ink was dry on his deal to coach the Sun Devils in Tempe.

Bo said, “A Michigan Man is going to coach Michigan.”

Thus, Steve Fisher (a guy from Illinois) took the reigns and led Michigan to the improbable 6-and-0 run National Championship of college hoops.

“Michigan Man” was born.

For the subsequent 25 or so years, it has been used ad nauseam around Ann Arbor and it doesn’t even have to be about sports.

I was having dinner at the Brown Jug this past summer when someone at the table next to me asked who made the pizza.

“This pie better have been made by a Michigan Man,” the dude joked.

Ugh!

I literally rolled my eyes when I heard it.

Dave Brandon is a Michigan Man.

How did THAT work out for ya?

As I was “live” tweeting the Schlissel press conference, I flippantly typed, “Let’s remember all those terrific memories he brought to A.A.”

A guy tweeted back, “Final Four, Sugar Bowl, Winter Classic….”

Really? It’s come to THIS?

First of all, Brandon had just about zero to do with John Beilein’s success on the basketball court. He didn’t even hire him; Bill Martin did.

Sugar Bowl? Is that REALLY what Michigan plays football for? Unless it was a year that the Sugar Bowl was the national championship back in the OLD DAYS, getting to the Rose Bowl is what you want or… a national championship game.

We all know that Brady Hoke got to that Sugar Bowl with a great first season using Rich Rodriguez’s players and even some of Lloyd Carr’s seniors.

Winter Classic?

Stop it.

I could have set that sucker up. Took no genius there.

Brandon’s legacy will be 2014.

He’s handled it like a guy who had no clue what he was doing; deer in the headlights kind of thing.

The downturn of the football program in general, the Shane Morris concussion incident, the rally by students in protest of Brandon— all black eyes on the university.

Those things are supposed to happen at the home of “little brother.”

Michigan State is the one who makes mistakes like that. NOT the vaunted home of the “Michigan Man.”

Forget the fact that the Wolverines can no longer beat the Spartans; they can’t even ACT like them.

Whoa! Heresy!

MSU acting better than Michigan?

That Midwest earthquake you just felt was Bo rolling over in his grave.

Schembechler was awesome; I dug the guy. No Bo hating here.

Quite the opposite.

I covered a lot of Michigan over the years and even saw Bo just days before he died in November of 2006.

My favorite Bo story is when I was hosting Bill Frieder’s coaching show on TV.

It wasn’t much of a show. We had the basketball contract at WILX TV in Lansing back in the early 80’s. Freeds and I would stand at Crisler Center (then Arena) center court with a hand held stick microphone and one camera in front of us.

When we needed a “guest,” Frieder would just yell to one of his minions to grab a player from the locker room.

“Hey! Get Rockymore!” he would scream referring to former UM guard Leslie Rockymore.

It could have been any of those guys back then but I remember most how he bellowed, “ROCKYMORE!”

Sadly, Rockymore was busted back in April on a “drugs for sex” charge.

33 years ago, however, Leslie was a Michigan Man captain.

Before Rockymore showed up at half court with us, Schembechler walked through the arena.

He stopped near where the videographer had the camera set up and uttered this gem.

“Shit, a Spartan doing a Michigan show. Disgusting!”

Had to use the swear word because it was such pure Bo.

I said, “Love you too, Bo!”

He howled with laughter and kept on walking.

Frieder rolled his eyes.

Schembechler knew I was an MSU alum because Bo knew more about those that covered his precious football team than most people realized.

We were always cool but it took some time for him to warm to you if you WEREN’T a “Michigan Man.”

He also used to pester me about what was going on up in East Lansing.

Keep your friends close… and your supposed enemies closer.

Just to let Spartan Nation know, I never gave away any Michigan State trade secrets. Basically because, I really didn’t know any.

Or, at least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Look, here we are in 2014 and we’re still playing the “Michigan Man” game. Bo’s been gone almost eight years and his presence is still larger than life on campus.

He’s the Ronald Reagan of the Wolverines’ sporting community.

Could Dr. Schlissel have named anyone to be interim AD?

Of course.

Did he?

No.

Schlissel is an interesting fellow.

Born in Brooklyn, New York and educated at Princeton and Johns Hopkins, Schlissel has a PhD in physiological chemistry. He did postdoctoral work at M.I.T. He worked at Cal Berkeley before becoming provost at Brown University of the Ivy League in 2011. He’s married to an environmental and energy lawyer.

The dude is smart.

He also ISN’T a Michigan Man.

Obviously, it is a lot easier to accept Brandon’s “resignation” with a guy in place who knows the school so he succumbed to the philosophy for the time being.

Jim Hackett played football under Bo, was a teammate of Brandon and went on to business success at Domino’s Pizza. Blah, blah. Yeah, yeah.
Uh, wait. Brandon was at Domino’s. Hackett ran Steelcase out of Grand Rapids. (Yes, typed it on purpose)

Basically, they have the SAME background.

Bo would be proud.

The difference is Schlissel may really be open to finding a guy who is NOT a Michigan Man to be the next director of athletics.

I wrote this in a previous piece about football coach Brady Hoke but, since AD has been an actual job at Michigan, only 11 men have held the position.

Starting with Charles Baird in 1898 and through Brandon; just 11 guys.

Hackett makes 12.

From 1898 until the departure of Don Canham in 1988 (90 years), there were just FIVE directors. Starting with Schembechler in 1988 and into Hackett now (26 years) there have been SEVEN.

Soon there will be an eighth.

Naturally, if Hackett likes the job he could campaign to become the permanent AD. Schlissel is smart enough to make that distinction. He’s not going to cut off his nose to spite his face.
This is the time for NEW leadership in the Huron Valley.

Schlissel has a unique opportunity to be the first Michigan president to name someone outside the community to that position of power. He has a clean slate since he’s been in his job, as he put it, “for 110 days.”

He can do a nationwide search!

Imagine that; there MAY be candidates that have no ties to the school just like Schlissel when he came from Brown.

He could hire one of them!

Voila!

Just like that— for the moment— the Michigan Man ideal would be dead in the water.

All previous 11 athletic directors had ties to Michigan. Either as football players, coaches, assistant coaches, benefactors or something else; they ALL had ties.

Nice maize and blue “ties” for the team photo.

We’ve already seen some media reports detailing possible candidates and the two biggest names are Warde Manuel from U-Conn and Jeff Long from Arkansas.

(Heavy sigh).

Yes, they both have ties to Michigan.

Long and Manuel are fine AD’s but can’t people get past ties to the school??

Seriously, think outside that maize and blue box and honestly do a search for the best successor in 2014. He/she doesn’t have to be rah, rah Michigan.

One of THOSE names is current Northwestern A.D. Jim Phillips who has done a terrific piece of leading in Evanston. His name began circulating Friday night by some media sources. Phillips would be an excellent choice.

Try something new.

I promise… it won’t hurt.

MSU has done it. A couple of times now.

Merrily Dean Baker and Merritt Norvell arrived in East Lansing without stepping foot at the pioneer land grant institution prior to interviews. I mean, maybe Norvell came to a game when he was AD at Wisconsin but who cares?

He and Merrily were new thinkers who brought fresh, new ideas.

Sure, it didn’t work out great but at least MSU gave it a shot and didn’t have to have a “Spartan Man.”

Current director of athletics Mark Hollis DOES bleed green and white.

He rose through the ranks from basketball manager under Jud Heathcote to running the whole shebang.

Hollis was the right choice at the right time.

He succeeded Ron Mason and was perfect for what Michigan State needed.

Michigan needs the right choice at THIS time.

If it’s one of those former Michigan dudes like Long or Manuel, then so be it. If it’s Hackett? Cool.

I just want to see Schlissel open up the process to names WITHOUT handcuffs to a bye gone Schembechler era.

Not too much to ask.

Michigan alum and faithful are putting their trust in Schlissel, a guy they don’t know very well, to make the right move and have the regents sign off on it.

Oh, those regents.

Brandon WAS a regent.

Schlissel will find out pretty damn quick how it is to deal with them on a hiring of this magnitude. Going outside the community may not be as easy as it looks with all the politicking that goes on with the BOARD OF REGENTS.

Unless Brown University has one of the slickest cats in the world running the show there in Providence, I doubt Schlissel is tied to a “buddy” from his previous place of employment.

Ok, I looked.

His name is Jack Hayes and he’s been at Brown since 2012 so Schlissel hired HIM. Hayes was at Hofstra for eight years prior to his appointment in Rhode Island.

Earlier this year, the Brown crew team placed third at the NCAA championships.

THIRD in crew!

Hey man, where did Michigan finish in crew, huh?

Yeah, you don’t know! Neither do I. Does Michigan still have crew?

Brown is 3-and-3 so far in Ivy League football.

That’s pretty good.

Better than Michigan!

And, they play Penn on Saturday hoping to go to 4-and-3.

Alright, I’ll stop with the Jack Hayes resume. But, you don’t know what Schlissel is thinking. For all we know, Hayes is “his guy” even if the good doctor was more in charge of all things academia at Brown.

I’m not making fun of Brown. Far from it.

Brown is a fantastic school with a rich history and tradition dating back to 1764. It was one of the nine colonial colleges that were founded before the American Revolution.

It’s just not a football powerhouse.

This move ousting Brandon is ALL about football.

John Beilein is doing great with his basketball program. Red Berenson has been coaching hockey since Canham hired him in 1984. Baseball hasn’t gone to a College World Series since that same 1984, but Coach Erik Bakich is only two years in and had a decent 2014 with 30 wins.

Other sports at Michigan are just fine for right now.

Make no mistake. David Brandon lost his gig because of FOOTBALL.

Thanks a lot, Brady Hoke.

Whoever ends up running the show full time in A-squared has a football problem on his/her hands.

The prevailing thought is that Hoke’s latest loss to MSU solidified his departure. Not even a victory over Ohio State on the road in Columbus would be enough to save his bacon.

New AD has to hire new football coach.

That is a HUGE deal.

The new guy will have to sift through the rubble of a program that has lost five or more games in a season in six of the past seven years.

There were only TWO seasons of five or more losses in the previous 40 campaigns.

HUGE DEAL!

Schlissel knows it.

It’s a double edged sword. A new director AND a new coach unless some absurdity takes place and Hoke is allowed a fifth season as coach.

Can Jim Hackett…. HACK IT?

Or, is someone brand spanking new right around the corner at Michigan?

Anyone that believes they have the 100-percent solution is sorely mistaken.

Les Miles, Jim Harbaugh, Mike Trgovac… are all Michigan Men. Bobby Stoops is a creative name due to all his successes at Oklahoma and would be a name worth considering as would be Dan Mullen at Mississippi State.

Jim Harbaugh’s brother John, Nick Saban, Kevin Sumlin, Pat Fitzgerald, David Shaw at Stanford… all names you’ve heard like crazy since the “Fire Hoke” train left the station after last season.

You could list a ton of guys who’ve had more success than Hoke or his predecessor Rich Rodriguez. It’s easy.

Hell, even RICH ROD’s name has been mentioned again because he’s getting it done at Arizona now.

I laugh every time I see that.

The next few months will be most interesting over there off Hoover and State streets.

It all begins with permanency at A.D.

And… it’s all on YOU Dr. Schlissel.

Good luck with that.

Hackett, or someone else, is going to make the call on Hoke and his successor. In the 116 years of having an athletic director, this is by far the most important hire. Yes, even bigger than when Canham arrived in 1968 and hired Schembechler from Miami of Ohio.

See? Bo had NO ties to Michigan. The man who created the “Michigan Man” moniker… was NOT a Michigan Man.

Canham WAS and it made it more plausible to accept his decision to fire Bump Elliott after an eight win campaign in ’68 and bring in a relative unknown coach with the funny, long last name.

Even Don Canham wouldn’t envy the task at hand for the “110-day old” school president.

Halloween just got spookier.

Whoever Schlissel recommends to the regents and whoever ends up with the gig has a lot of work to do immediately.

It might even be Jack Hayes from Brown.

If it is? You heard it here first.

If it’s Manuel or Long or Phillips, et al?

I have one thing to say about that too.

Welcome to Michigan… Man!