VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 05:22:01 01/17/11 Mon
Author: jim4blue
Author Host/IP: 76.226.168.166
Subject: Brandon's Process decoded from Former Club Seats Holder

"The Process" decoded. (long) Don't read if that's an issue for you.
IP: 75.46.111.165
Posted on January 16, 2011 at 01:59:33 PM by Former Club Seats Holder

I've posted a couple of times in the past couple of weeks on the search process. I have been a season ticket holder and benefactor to the university for the past 20 years. This has allowed me to network with a wide variety of people including U of M officials, former players, and media types from different generations of U of M athletics. Below is, what I and others who I have spoken with the last week, feel is an highly accurate picture of how the coaching search transpired. I chose this venue because I feel what is written below would get deleted quickly from the paid sites as this has happened before. This information was collected from multiple people, each giving what they knew to be an accurated account of how the coaching search unfolded. Backed up by some "coded" comments made by the current AD. I will not give the names of the sources but will give clues to give some credibility to it. Why am I doing this? Because after the years of contributing to this University I have had enough of it and it's current ways.

The sources: former AD, Detnews columnist(not angelique), "Favre's Jeans", and a member of the 85 team. go figure it out

I will do a timeline in bullet points to try to keep it as simple as possible. Again we feel alot of it is highly accurate, there are some things that are speculative because of missing pieces.

2 key points

1. Jim Harbaugh was Plan A from start.
2. This whole thing was about money. DB was giving a strict budget to work with from the beginning

-DB starts the process of thinking about making a coaching decision - back channels to Harbaugh people and things look very good. money was talked and agreed upon. $3mil is the figure a couple of different people told me (around thanksgiving, but not 100%)

-DB was told the buyout(confirmed by almost everyone that was talked to) would be an issue so after Jan. 1 date to decide was planned no matter what. Some feel that DB still was considering keeping RR around after OSU game and making defense changes to save from the buyout. (The bust and Gator bowl changed that thinking)

-After Gator bowl, DB was still very confident that JH was coming until the 49ers job opened up and they started talking to his people

-Jan. 3, JH people comeback with the 49er offer. DB goes to MSC and Regents (2 things happened here, 1. They say no, they won't go higher or 2. they will agree but the buyout for JH is higher, conflicting info here) Either way the JH camp doesn't like the numbers and It's dead right there. Right there DB knew that Brady Hoke was going to be the next head coach. Re-check the firing presser. His statements and questions tell everything. He knew Jim Harbaugh was not going to be the coach because he couldn't get MSC to up the ante. He fires a salvo at her when he comments about Michigan coach's salaries being in the middle of the pack and "not appropriate" He also stated that money wasn't going to be a factor because it wasn't at that point. Hoke wouldn't care what his salary was.

-the search commitee was actually hired to try to find some outside names as DB knew that Hoke was going to be a tough sell. But no one of interest was going to take the money, which at that point was still $3 mill and all of the baggage that would come with it. RR ishighly regarded in the coaching circles and alot of college coaches are upset about the lack of support the university showed RR.

-Les Miles was never going to coach here. That interview was just a courtesy interview to appease the fanbase and Miles supporters. Even "Favre's Jeans was not optimistic about it. The back channel numbers were around $3mill and low asst. coaches pay. But Les didn't get the sense from the discussions with DB that he would have a smooth ride up there and DB did not officially offer him the job. The LSU thing is false. He did not get offered more money in fact it was his agent who leaked to Sheffler (espn guy) that he would accept the job if offered and that LSU would lower the buyout to try to force DB's hand. Chris Laundry was right, Mile's agent proposed to DB that U of M would only be on the hook for $500K and Les would take care of the rest. It didn't work. MSC was not going to have Miles be the next FB. Her only concern is about the image of U of M and being fiscally responsible. Ask Iowa fans there about when she was president there. There's an urban legend story of her ex. asst. having to remind her on Friday afternoons that there was a home FB game the next day.

-last point - DB at hiring presser taking the shot about getting a coach who wasn't about the money or himself. That was a direct shot a JH. DB was pissed that he got hung out like that from both JH and MSC because he really wanted JH. He would have been a big splash hire and he would have been able to turn the program around alot quicker.

So in the end Brady Hoke was the popular choice at U of M because as a former AD told me when I spoke with him late last week. "He's a good coach and he was cheap"

-I can't 100% guarantee that all of this is accurate but when I gave this timeline to an former U of M official his response was "If someone told me that story I probably would believe it"

Believe this or not. This was my last step in stepping away for awhile.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.