As Ramzy Nasrallah laid bare the other day, Michigan football's problems go beyond its out-of-his-depth head coach. It starts with Dave Brandon, the pizza tycoon turned athletic director, who has tried to run Michigan athletics like a business. (This is a bad idea, because most businesses fail.)
The gaffes and janky marketing tactics are obvious to anybody who has been paying attention, and the results on the field have only compounded those mistakes.
Simply put: Dave Brandon is the greatest Wolverine-killer since the Ironman, Jim Tressel, coached Ohio State.
So, it was with a heavy heart that I read this ESPN report on what is likely Dave Brandon's waning tenure:
University of Michigan regent Denise Ilitch told a local television station Wednesday that the board will discuss athletic director Dave Brandon at Thursday's previously scheduled meeting.
[...]
"The systems failed, and there are a lot of issues we have to review," Ilitch told WWJ CBS-TV in Detroit.
[...]
Sources told ESPN's Brett McMurphy that someone on Michigan's behalf has contacted three possible candidates to replace Brandon to gauge their interest in the job.
Granted, these are the same people that hired Dave Brandon (and gave him a $3,000,000 buyout), so it's possible Brandon could weather this storm. But, unless Michigan thinks the current trajectory of its football program is acceptable, then Dave Brandon must go.
Long live Dave Brandon.
