Michigan president Mark Schlissel delivered his first public remarks since Dave Brandon CTRL-ALT-DELETE'd on the Michigan athletic department.
Schlissel, for his part, was very candid about the challenges facing Michigan football.
From Stephanie Shenouda of Freep.com:
“We admit students who aren’t as qualified, and it’s probably the kids that we admit that can’t honestly, even with lots of help, do the amount of work and the quality of work it takes to make progression from year to year,” he said. “These past two years have gotten better, but before that, the graduation rates were terrible, with football somewhere in the 50s and 60s when our total six-year rate at the University is somewhere near 90 percent, so that’s a challenge.”
[...]
“The thing you have to keep in mind is there’s football and there’s everything else,” he said. “There are 930 or so recruited athletes and 115 of them play football, and most of those teams actually have great graduation rates, and it’s just where you’d expect we struggle.”
Hmmmmm. Really makes you think.
“That’s why I’m taking a bit of time with the search for Dave’s successor,” Schlissel said. “Some folks wanted me to hire an athletic director (earlier) so he could fire the current football coach and hire the next coach but I want to take the time to make sure we get someone who is not only technically adept, but can ensure that the program has financial and academic integrity, and also someone who shares the value system of realizing our mission."
Say it ain't so, Schlissel! Brady Hoke is 2-0 in his last two games! The ship is slowly turning around, and it's only fair to give a coach five years to "get all his guys in there."
