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By Ace Anbender
 Domino's Pizza CEO Dave Brandon has been hired as Michigan's new athletic director. This is going to be a quick post, since it’s the first day of classes for the winter term here, and I’m already running late. Way to go, me.
Unless you’re living under a rock, you know that Michigan hired Domino’s Pizza CEO, and former Wolverine football player, Dave Brandon to replace the retiring Bill Martin as athletic director. MGoBlog has you covered on everything Brandon, with a quick welcome post and a semi-transcription of his first press conference. Brad at Maize & Blue Nation think the hiring of Brandon was made to satisfy the Old Guard. MVictors, of course, digs up a photo of Brandon from his playing days, because that is what Greg does. I’ll only venture so far in my opinion of the hire to say that Brandon was clearly the most enthusiastic candidate, a guy who truly loves the University and its athletics, and is an incredibly successful businessman — if he can make it through the first two years of his tenure and handle the Rich Rodriguez situation deftly, I think he’ll be a very good athletic director.
The Fifth Quarter is already looking ahead to the 2010 football season, breaking down the position battle at quarterback, which should be much clearer once we know if Devin Gardner can enroll early or not. Touch the Banner, on the other hand, chooses to look at quarterback’s past, wondering what could have been if Ryan Mallett had chosen to stay at Michigan. The Other Brian, at Genuinely Sarcastic, laments a house divided after the Braylon Edwards into to Sunday Night Football — his post is well worth reading.
As for other sports, Dylan has the scoop on Jordan Dumars (son of Pistons legend Joe) transferring to Michigan, and also has a breakdown of Michigan’s disappointing bench play so far this season. Over at The Blog That Yost Built, Michigan has picked up a commitment from forward Cristoval “Boo” Nieves, who would enter school in the fall of 2012. I’m in full support of anyone named “Boo” committing to any Michigan sports team.
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By Ace Anbender
 Bill Martin will step down as athletic director on Sept. 4, 2010. The football team is an embarrassment, the head coach is constantly under fire, the hockey team is a disappointment. What else could go wrong at Michigan?
Oh, good lord:
Just before halftime, Turner was in charge of opening doors to let patrons out of the area when three males wearing University of Michigan polo shirts attempted to come through the doors, according to the report.
Turner told DPS she stepped in front of the doorway and told the man in the front of the group that she needed to see his pass to let him in. In response, the man, Martin, put his hand on her shoulder and said “Honey, I’m the athletic director,” pushing her just enough so she would get out of his way.
According to the report, Turner decided to report the incident after she heard fellow employees talking about a similar incident at the Oct. 17 game against Delaware State.
Arif Kahn, an Eastern Michigan student and DPS employee, told DPS he was assigned to work the south stairwell of the Regents Guest Area during the Delaware State game.
Shortly after the game ended, a man and woman, both elderly, tried to enter the area and walked past him “as if he wasn’t there,” according to the report. Kahn said he put his hand on the door and asked to see their passes. In response, the man “forcibly grabbed” Kahn’s windbreaker and pushed him slightly.
The man then said, “I am the athletic director, I can go in,” according to the report.
The first incident occurred at the Notre Dame game, at the second during the DSU game, so this isn’t exactly recent news. However, it is coming out now, and doesn’t reflect well on Martin or the University. He has apologized to the parties involved, and it appears there will not be any charges pressed. Martin had this to say on the matter:
“I have communicated with both employees to discuss the situation and express my regret,” Martin wrote. “They were just doing their jobs.”
…
“It was a frustrating situation, and one I should have handled differently,” Martin wrote in the statement.
No kidding. I have the utmost respect for Martin as an athletic director, but he really needs to carry himself better than that, regardless of the situation.
I can’t wait for basketball season to (officially) start. I’m getting sick of writing about how bad everything is at Michigan. This isn’t a huge deal, but certainly didn’t help matters. Here’s hoping the next AD knows how to properly deal with a simple security check-in.
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By Ace Anbender
 Who are you, and what have you done with Michigan's linebackers? I have nothing against Kevin Leach personally, but he is everything that is wrong with Michigan’s program.
Let me explain. It is not so much Leach himself that is the issue (in fact, not really at all), but his presence in the starting lineup for the Wolverines that says so much about the team’s ills this season. Leach started at middle linebacker over Obi Ezeh, a former freshman All-American and three-yard starter who appears to have regressed this season, like several other Michigan players. Leach is a redshirt sophomore walk-on, weighs just 206 pounds, and showed up to Saturday’s game in what appeared to be a replica Steven Threet jersey with no name on the back.
Meanwhile, Ezeh sat on the sidelines, along with J.B. Fitzgerald and Kenny Demens, four-star linebackers who can’t crack the lineup of the nation’s 81st-ranked defense.
What makes this situation even worse? Leach was one of the better Wolverines on the field Saturday, tallying 11 tackles and a sack.
It’s tough for me to get truly pissed off at Rich Rodriguez when this is what the team has to work with. Jay Hopson? Well, that’s another story, but if you really think that firing a position coach or two is going to change the direction of this program, I have some volcano insurance to sell you.
Yes, the offense sputtered terribly, but this is still an outfit being run by a true freshman quarterback, standing behind a makeshift line that lost its best player, handing the ball off to two senior running backs who can’t stay healthy and throwing the ball to a group of receivers that can’t stretch the field vertically. I don’t see much in that situation that falls on the shoulders of the head coach.
The defense sucks, plain and simple. The defense also now starts two walk-ons (underclassmen walk-ons at that), has just two senior starters, and has such little depth at every position that the defense is designed to need no situational substitutions (whether that is coincidence or not, I don’t know, but it sure as hell is necessary). Does the blame for that situation fall on a second-year head coach who has all of 1 1/2 recruiting classes under his belt? I don’t think so.
Who we blame at this point is largely irrelevant — firing Rich Rodriguez would only serve to set the program back a few more seasons, and I still think he’s the man to turn this program around; Lloyd Carr is retired; Bill Martin is a year away from joining Carr; the players are all college students. What is relevant is the need for patience. Programs don’t turn around overnight, and regardless of your thoughts on Rodriguez, this team was going to be in trouble no matter who took over for Carr — yes, Rodriguez’s style of play accentuated the team’s shortcomings, but those shortcomings were still present before he took over.
I’m just going to blame number 10 in white — not Kevin Leach, just number 10 in white.
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By Ace Anbender
Bill Martin will step down as athletic director on Sept. 4, 2010. Whoa … sleep in late one Wednesday, and miss a big story breaking. From the Detroit News:
Michigan athletic director Bill Martin will retire Sept. 4, 2010 after a decade in that role.
Martin made the decision official Wednesday, according to University of Michigan athletic department sources. He sent a letter to U-M president Mary Sue Coleman and was to inform the athletic department at an all-staff meeting at Keen Arena.
No candidates to replace Martin have been announced yet, but Michigan now has a lengthy timetable to handpick candidates before he steps down.
Martin got a bit of a bad rep after the “sailboat incident”, but it’s tough to say he’s been anything but a great athletic director in his time at Michigan. We can credit Martin for keeping the athletic department (very) profitable in a time when few schools stay out of the red, while still managing to approve huge additions to Michigan Stadium, a practice facility for the basketball teams, and many other projects that help Michigan have the best facilities in the country across the board. He hired Rich Rodriguez and John Beilein, which to me (and many others) was knocking both coaching searches out of the park.
We’ll see what direction Mary Sue Coleman takes in the search for a new athletic director — do we stay with a businessman, or move more towards a person with a sports background (Lloyd Carr, maybe? Just throwing it out there). Regardless of who takes his place, Bill Martin will leave some big shoes to fill in Ann Arbor.
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By Ace Anbender
 No, not that we're making a good bowl yet. Big Ten Media Day is on in full force, and Ruth Lincoln over at the Michigan Daily is reporting some good news. Rich Rodriguez stated in his press conference that Michigan will open the 2010 season against a BCS team, the first of a home-and-home series:
The 2010 home opener will be a “BCS home and home” Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez confirmed today at Big Ten Football Media Day. Rodriguez said contracts are still in the works, but there should be an announcement in the coming weeks.
The game will be a bold move by an Athletic Department which has received significant criticism in recent years for padding nonconference schedules with non-BCS opponents.
The Detroit News reported in April that Massachusetts (a Division-1AA school) was an option for the 2010 home opener. Massachusetts was later announced as a 2010 opponent, but not the opener.
As a fan and student who has complained about paying for matchups against Delaware State, Eastern Michigan, and the like, this is tremendous news. Bill Martin sacrificed some cash (in all likelihood locking Michigan into seven home games for both 2010 and 2011) to ensure that Michigan would open up the renovated Michigan Stadium with a good game. My early guess for the opponent is Virginia (with Pitt, Duke, and Oregon State all possibilities, as Adam Rittenberg’s article suggests).
In other media day news, Ohio State was picked by the media to finish first in the conference, followed by Penn State and Michigan State. Terrelle Pryor is your preseason offensive player of the year, with MSU linebacker Greg Jones tabbed on the defensive side of the ball. Personally, I would have gone with Penn State’s Darryl Clark and our own Brandon Graham, but my Michigan bias and Ohio State hatred really are hard to stifle.
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"When your team is winning, be ready to be tough, because winning can make you soft. On the other hand, when your team is losing, stick by them. Keep believing."
- Bo Schembechler
“I ask no man to make a sacrifice. On the contrary! We ask
him to do the opposite. To live clean, come clean, think clean.
That he stop doing all the things that destroy him physically,
mentally and morally, and begin doing all the things that make him keener, finer and more competent" - Fielding Yost
“People come up to me and say, ‘I’m sorry.’ I’m not sorry because I received the greatest thing from the University of Michigan anyone can receive: a degree.” - Zia Combs
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