Rest easy, it's not.
The Illinois AD Search
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Rest easy, it's not.
IlliniOX08
- Bucktown, Chicago
This is going to turn out to be some sort of conditioning exercise. The mob wants George or Tiley, which it doesn't appear the mob is going to get. The mob doesn't have a second choice but really, really doesn't want Michael. Enough info is leaked that it's going to be Michael so the mob turns its gaze to Whitman. Whitman is hired, the mob breathes a sigh of relief that it isn't Michael and the administration confuses the sigh of relief with outright support. Cycle of self induced athletic destruction continues.
IlliniOX08
- Bucktown, Chicago
https://twitter.com/deebrown11/status/696339269670039552
Link to Dee Browns open letter to fans tweeted out 10m ago. Reads like he knows the AD choice and knows it isn't going to be well received.
Link to Dee Browns open letter to fans tweeted out 10m ago. Reads like he knows the AD choice and knows it isn't going to be well received.
Let's dispel this one real quick.
Michigan outsted Dave Brandon as AD right around the time of the football season when we fired Mike Thomas. And they had the Brady Hoke era clearly going off the rails which needed addressing, so they faced the same sort of time squeeze with a football coach we did.
What Michigan did is bring in Jim Hackett from outside, who was a bigwig in the donor community, make him a fully empowered, semi-permanent interim AD, and make clear both publicly and privately that Hackett had full hiring and firing powers, and that the search for a permanent AD was on the backburner for the time being. Any decisions on Hoke and his replacement were Hackett's show.
Now, the subtext there of course was that everyone knew an all-out courtship of Jim Harbaugh was coming, which would be an effort involving the whole University from top to bottom. A "search" wasn't part of the plan, at least not Plan A. And Jim Harbaugh might have said no, and if he had, having a guy with no college administration experience searching for Plan B with a chastened, angry, desperate fanbase might have gotten messy. But it was going to be Hackett's cross to bear regardless.
That's the opposite of what happened at Illinois, it bears no relationship to our situation whatsoever. We pretended that our interim AD had authority and then ripped it away from him in favor of a non-decision that essentially mothballed the football program for a year. Michigan hired a new AD immediately, it was just a temporary one. We have had gone without leadership of any kind in the DIA for months now, through the depths of a five-alarm leadership emergency.
Their insistence? Wisconsin-loving Barb Wilson and Welshman Tim Killeen, not to mention a BoT on which only 4 of the 11 members attended UIUC, insisted the hire be an "Illini Guy"?
The Illini Guy thing was a mandate applied to the process from the outside. The money wants someone they have total control over.
I may be reading too much into it, but it does not sound like preparting for a home run hire.
You are reading way too much into the letter. Dee does not know who the new AD will be, because that decision has not been made. Dee has been working on the idea for this letter for a couple of weeks and this letter would have come out regardless of who might have been the choice, had the announcement already been made.
That is not Dee's voice, that much is for sure.
More like... people at UI had been working on this letter for a couple of weeks and wanted Dee Brown's signature.
This continuing theory (and it's nothing more) that some cabal of big donors is trying to control the hire to satisfy their own desire to thereby control the DIA has no basis in fact that I have seen. It appears to be nothing more than typical forum board conspiracy theory. I've not read a single name of the supposed 'controllers' or 'behind the scenes' devils who have only their self interest in mind. Put some meat on this bone if you can.
Ok, I see that. My wording was poor. I guess I'm more lamenting that they permitted themselves to be strong armed into the "Illini guy" foolishness when the result is the appointment of an unaccomplished second fiddle like Tom Michael that wouldn't be on the radar at any other university in the nation at this point in his career. It's one thing to have Illinois connections; it's another to have only Illinois connections.
I continue to not think this is fair.
Put it this way: when Mike Thomas came in, he fired and/or ran off a whole bunch of the old loyal Guenther DIA staff. Tom Michael got a promotion and a raise.
If you believe that Thomas' reign was a largely successful program of evolution and modernization for the DIA away from Guentherism that was undone by a horrible blunder in choosing a football coach (which Michael had nothing to do with), then a Tom Michael hire should at least inspire some hope that we can continue on the path we were on on the business side.
Now, that could be naive, and Michael could just be a patsy for the donor's interests, but that could be true of anybody we'd hire.
That's hardly a conspiracy theory. That goes on everywhere. The conspiracy theory is that it's actually working.
This. I wouldn't take his quote earlier as promising by any means but if there wasn't something there then why not come out and say "I am not interested and I will remain in my current position?" There is still an open door here imo.
I think someone on here knows a hell of a lot more about this situation than the others. 
Most are surmising. Some are filtering and surmising. And one knows what he is talking about. And it isn't me.
Most are surmising. Some are filtering and surmising. And one knows what he is talking about. And it isn't me.Dee just said on Twitter that he doesnt know who the AD choice is, so read into it however you choose.
Please if its not Tiley or Geroge let it be Whitman. I think Illinois fans would be disappointed right away but then get behind him. Michael on the other hand might be fighting a losing battle since day 1.
icengineer
- Southern Illinois
I think someone on here knows a hell of a lot more about this situation than the others.
And this poster is.....?
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
I do agree that the UM and Illinois situations are very different, but this part is very questionable. From someone with strong ties to Michigan, there was daily conversations (social media, news reports, in-person discussions, you name it) of whether Hackett was simply a "seat warmer" or was going to actually be active in hiring personnel and providing annual reviews to current employees. My memory might be hazy, but I want to say that UM sniffed around about making a very quick hire before any personnel changes would have to occur. Even after the Harbaugh hire, questions arose on whether UM administration had already laid the groundwork for his signing before Hackett came aboard. It took a handful of months before it became clear Hackett was going to have greater powers than most interim ADs.
At EIU I have over the past several years had the good fortune to be asked to an annual dinner. This dinner's guests include donors above a certain price level. In past years, the former A.D. would travel from table to table and talk to the guests. I was always amazed how she (Dr. Barbara Burke) could remember my name and ask about my job, as well as ask about my son. I didnt have many interactions with her outside of this event except maybe 1 or 2 others per year. When Tom Michael was hired, with me being an Illini fan, I was excited. We went to the annual dinner with high hopes. He stood up to speak and I had never been more underwhelmed with a speaker. Everything seemed canned/fake. I brushed it aside thinking that perhaps I had built up too high of expectations for him and his first speech. We were there for about three hours and not once did he come to our table and introduce himself. I was extremely taken back at this, as were the others at my table. One would think that at an annual dinner to thank donors at a struggling university with a new AD that he would try his hardest to meet everyone. Not Tom Michael. He settled in with 2 tables and that was it. There were maybe 7 tables in the room. Maybe 40 guests. Maybe. Tom Michael is not the answer.
midastouch11
- New York, New York
This is about the same impression I have from my interactions.
Here's Tommy Michael accepting the job at EIU - prepare to be inspired!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1qmgak7BRI
There is no way Barb Wilson or the search committee would land on Tom Michael. Remember that.
If he gets the job, that's a decision that was made at bayonet point.
If he gets the job, that's a decision that was made at bayonet point.
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