Michigan Interim AD Jim Hackett inherited the ashes of Dave Brandon's glorious reign. Since then, he's hired Jim Harbaugh, scaled back some corporatized policies of his predecessor, and ditched ADIDAS for Nike.
Say what you will about Michigan (and I've said a lot), but that's not a bad way for a man to end a career.
The only kerfuffle — other than Ondre Pipkins saying he was shoved out the door against his will and his head coach acting like a man high on psychedelics — was his associate director of football and Jim Harbaugh's right hand man, Jim Minick, getting jailed on a suspicion of OVI back in May.
Minick, to his credit, didn't hide from the severity of his mistake shortly thereafter:
"I'm not going to make any excuses. I'll face the consequences of my actions. I regret the difficult position in which this has put my family and my employer."
As it turns out, he went a step further. He offered his resignation to his boss, but Jim Hackett says he refused it:
From Mark Snyder of Freep.com:
"I refused it," U-M interim athletic director Jim Hackett said today in a small group meeting of reporters. "This is a man who served … seven tours of duty (in the Marines). Selflessness is a way I would describe him. He got thousands of emails, most of them from people who served in war with him, urging him to soldier through this. He made a life terrible mistake. He dealt with something that can kill people. People die, either himself or others, from what happened. So the gravity of it was not dismissed at all.
"He and I had deep conversations about it and I was convinced this is a guy who will learn from this mistake."
Thankfully, nobody was hurt to this apparent mistake. It's up to the legal system at this point, and I'm not about to pile on a decorated Marine who owned up to his mistake and is willing to accept his punishment.
That said, I'm not going to shed any tears when Jim Hackett bids his adieu and exits stage left. The Dave Brandon era was much more comedic.
