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Posted on Thu, Jan 14, 2010 : 12:45 p.m.

New Michigan AD David Brandon: 'Results matter' in football

By Dave Birkett

David-Brandon-010710.jpg

David Brandon (Photo: Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com)

Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

Incoming Michigan athletic director David Brandon wouldn't say how many victories Rich Rodriguez needs to keep his job beyond the 2010 season during a radio interview Thursday morning.

"Setting arbitrary kinds of milestones is not the job of an athletic director," Brandon said. "One of the things I want to do is really have a chance to spend some time with Rich Rodriguez and get to know him better and understand exactly how he’s measuring the progress of the program and what his expectations are, and how he feels he’s performing against those expectations."

Rodriguez is 8-16 after two seasons as Michigan coach. The Wolverines have not made a bowl game in his tenure and are coming off a last-place finish in the Big Ten.

Brandon, who takes over for Bill Martin on March 8, said on the Lucy Ann Lance Business Insider on WLBY-AM that Rodriguez "understands the expectations of this community and of this university as it relates to our football program."

"In any occupation, in any leadership role, results matter," Brandon said. "So obviously we need to continue to monitor and measure those results, as he will and as I will in working with him, and I look forward to that."

Currently the CEO of Domino's Pizza, Brandon said he hasn't talked to Rodriguez since a brief meeting the day he took over as athletic director.

He addressed several other topics in Thursday's interview:

• On where the NCAA investigation into potential rules violations by the Michigan football program stands: "I have no idea what’s going on there yet, but at some point I will. I don’t believe any of the other leadership at the university has any kind of an idea as to where it’s at because there’s a tremendous amount of fact-finding, there’s a lot of interviews and a lot of work that’s been done by the NCAA to coordinate this investigation. My view is I understand this is something that I’m likely going to inherit in terms of, at some point in time they’re going to come out and state the facts as they know and believe them. And the university will react in whatever manner’s appropriate."

• On his first order of business as athletic director: “There’s been a lot of great work done and the finances are in good shape, so I don’t need to go in there feeling that crisis management tools need to be deployed. I want to go in there and listen and learn and get to know some people. ... Over time I’ll come up with my own ideas in terms of making those decisions on personnel and making decisions on how we can best deploy our personnel to get the work done. But I have time to do that, so I don’t plan to go in there Day 1 and turn the place upside down. I don’t think that’s necessary."

• On whether he could have envisioned becoming AD at Michigan when he played under Bo Schembechler: “Back in those days if somebody would have said someday you’re going to come back and be the athletic director at Michigan I would have suggested that they get a drug test."

• On whether this will be his last job: "Never say never. You never know about things. I hope so. I hope so. I plan on doing this for a long time. If everything works out, if the university wants me to, I think that would be great."

Dave Birkett covers University of Michigan football for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at 734-623-2552 or by e-mail at davidbirkett@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

Comments

Roundin' 3rd

Sat, Jan 16, 2010 : 12:44 p.m.

Bo not a Michigan Man? C'mon. He is the epitome of what a Michigan Man is.

rightmind250

Sat, Jan 16, 2010 : 8:36 a.m.

chango, you are right. we are not tennessee. they went to a bowl in kiffin's 1st and last year as coach. A program in much worse shape than what rr inherited.

rightmind250

Sat, Jan 16, 2010 : 8:31 a.m.

Yeah you are right. We probably will see Domino's pizza for sale at the games. Crappie pizza goes well with crappie football. Tater you wish so much, you are starting to sound like Dorothy in the wizard of oz. Click your heals together 3 times.

Go Blue

Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 8:44 p.m.

Amen! NoBowl4Blue and BorninA2 said it all. Its not just the score up there on the board - its how you got there and what you do off field as well as on. Lead....follow.........or if you can't do either........get out of the way.

BornInA2

Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 1:04 p.m.

"My hope is that Brandon looks at RR decides that the program is headed in the right direction, and that everyone who works in the athletic department had better be "all in" or will be fired immediately." A last place finish in the Big 10 and a NCAA violations investigation is the 'right direction'? "I suspect after they talk and after Michigan finishes with a winning record this year, RR will get a "ringing endorsement". " Carr went 11-2 in 2006 and people wanted him fired. But with RR a winning record is cause for 'ringing endorsement'? My hope is that Brandon lays down the law about ethics and integrity on and off the field so that I don't have to read about any more NCAA issues or any more lawsuits because a coach is defaulting on a contract he signed. You signed it, you live by it. At Michigan it's never been just about winning; how you win has been equally important. Honor, integrity, and W/L success.

FlintMaize

Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 11:33 a.m.

It is very difficult to give Coach Rodriugez a "ringing endorsement" because he has not sat down and spoken with him as of yet. I suspect after they talk and after Michigan finishes with a winning record this year, RR will get a "ringing endorsement".

birch creek john

Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 8:55 a.m.

I agree that Brandon's having played under Bo, albeit as a third-string quarterback, will qualify him to evaluate the football team's perfomance. However, there is much more to being athletic director at a prestigious university than evalutaing the performance of one of the man teams sponsored by The University of Michigan.n I'm still worried that Bo was not a Michigan man; he was a guy from Ohio who was a protege of Woody Hayes. Those days have been over for a long time now, and I hope that David Brandon is able to understand and support the innovative, ultimately winning approach to football taken by Mr. Rodriquez. It's not the same as selling pizzas, altough I'll bet we'll see Domino's pizzas for sale at the stdium this fall:-)

ChiTownSprty

Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 12:31 a.m.

Mr. Hagan, from your own stats, we are 37th all time in winning percentage. I had no clue of this and it's hardly "mediocre." And before you try and insult me by calling out my "lunacy," I never once said State was better than you. So why did you even bring out our records?? Idiot. And your winning percentage is pretty lopsided and isn't "harder" to maintain in your case because you played the likes of high school equivalent teams until the mid 20's. Remember, you started playing football in 187something I believe. With the majority of your titles earned before 1910 doesn't say a whole lot. Though you may have been the winningest (is that a word??) program for the past 40 years, wouldn't you say it's pretty sad you only have 1/2 a championship since 1948?? I think the rest of the country living outside of A2 (or Walmart...zing), would agree.

Pete Bigelow

Fri, Jan 15, 2010 : 12:14 a.m.

A post has been removed from this thread because it contained a personal attack. We welcome comments from everyone -- Wolverines, Spartans and everyone else -- but please keep them civil. Thanks.

tomhagan

Thu, Jan 14, 2010 : 10:59 p.m.

The other thing that the Spartan business school grad (obviously) failed to note is that Michigan is #1 in all time WIN PERCENTAGE...an accomplishment that is even harder to maintain the longer that you are playing. Your school has a.588 winning percentage all time. Congrats you are mediocrity by definition!!! http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/misc/div_ia_games_played.php

tomhagan

Thu, Jan 14, 2010 : 10:49 p.m.

to the "Sparty" that posted his ridiculous comment: Prior to Rich Rod getting here... Michigan was the #1 program from 1970 to 2007. In other words, Michigan was the winningist program in that nearly 40 year stretch in which one could consider it the modern football era. That is a FACT. The Spartans were what??? 50th... give me a break. You failed miserably with your lunacy.

heartbreakM

Thu, Jan 14, 2010 : 10:24 p.m.

Hey Chitown: I appreciate your comments, but let's not dwell on the long history and tradition of Michigan. Let's just look at modern history (for 40 years)--the only program in Div I to not have a losing season, the most Big Ten championships won during that time; longest or second longest bowl-in-a-row streak *until 2008. How do these apples grab you, and we don't even have to go back to the 18th century. That's consistency, at least until 2008. That's winning, at least until 2008. And unless you're Tater.

azwolverine

Thu, Jan 14, 2010 : 7:15 p.m.

I would hope results matter. If not, then we should not be fielding a Division I football team, singing "Hail to the Victors" (as 'Victors' signifies a winning "result"), or discussing the fact that we are the winningest program in history. I really, really want to see Michigan on top. If we can't start winning in the Big Ten this year, then hopefully Brandon will determine it's time to move on. But, and I actually agree with Tater on this, I'm glad that decision will be made by a guy who played football under Bo rather than administrators or businessmen (such as Martin).

Pete Bigelow

Thu, Jan 14, 2010 : 4:39 p.m.

A comment has been removed from this thread because it was off-topic.... Let's stick to Brandon and Michigan football and not segue into politics. Thanks.

Blue Marker

Thu, Jan 14, 2010 : 4:33 p.m.

michboy40....he doesn't assume duties until March. Bill Martin is still AD at Michigan until then.

michboy40

Thu, Jan 14, 2010 : 4:07 p.m.

Is Brandon accually the AD yet? Is he acually working at the University? I don't understand how he can be in the dark about the NCAA situation. Also, he has only spoken with RR one time briefly? It just seems to me that those two items would be at, or near, the top of the list.

voiceofreason

Thu, Jan 14, 2010 : 3:25 p.m.

NoBowl4Blue, It's good to get quality advice from an upstanding individual such as yourself. In fact, it is always a good idea to fire the leader of an improving organization shortly before it has a chance to become successful. This has been proven time and time again to be very solid logic.

Chango

Thu, Jan 14, 2010 : 2:24 p.m.

He can't just up n fire RR. We are not Tennessee, I would hate to be set back and start over again, rather see how it pans out this year and onwards. I'm interested to see what Brandon does on watch. It will be something to see what he implements.

NoBowl4Blue

Thu, Jan 14, 2010 : 1:59 p.m.

If results matter as I suspect reputation does as well, the first order of business is to fire Rich Rod before he destroys a once proud football program any more than he already has. He is an embarrassment to U of M.

tomhagan

Thu, Jan 14, 2010 : 1:57 p.m.

Brandon is a well spoken, focused person. His comments regarding RR are not exactly what you would call a "ringing endorsement". His comment about the 'drug test' is pretty funny...