The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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OCTOBER 2024 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 19 thing to do when you're trying to get through it yourself. "Also, I'm to the point now where I think through all of the great things that he's done for Michigan, our student- athletes, and the University, nationally. It gives me great pride to have had him in my life for that long, and great joy and happi- ness about it. It's really helpful to see the impact he's had on other people that you never would have thought. "I ran into somebody who said, 'I met him once. I really didn't know him, but I got the same feeling about him that all these people who knew him for so long have. His character, his sense of caring about people first.' It gives me great hap- piness about him, that his legacy is that way. All of us would love to have people say about us what people are saying about Greg. "While I'm sad that he's no longer with us physically, he is going to be with me for the rest of my life, mentally. His impact is going to go beyond the people he touched to the people around them and their fami- lies. As people have talked to me, they're saying, 'I'm teaching my kids some of the lessons Greg gave to us.' "The last thing I'll say is, I'm really happy he wrote his book ['Stay Sane In An Insane World: How To Control the Con- trollables And Thrive']. He talked about it for a number of years, that he was going to write a book. To see the success of the book, a New York Times No. 1 bestseller, to see him happy to go out and talk about it, to help people through it, I'm just glad he had the opportunity to see that and see the success of it. It made him very, very happy. "To all of those who love Greg and whose lives he touched and continues to touch, I love the fact that people had that experience. He's going to live on in us and in this place for a long, long time." The Wolverine: What will you always remember about a national championship football team and season? Manuel: "It brings a smile on my face when I think about it. I think about the people, the journey that we all went on together. Whether it's with the coaches, and Jim [Harbaugh], the coaching staff, to the student-athletes in the recruiting process to NIL changing, the landscape with the transfer portal and all that and what it meant, the Champions Circle pull- ing together to help us maintain that team. "The way it was done. There was no animosity. The way they gave to each other through it all. Their friendships, their love for each other, to come back and put the season together. "Then you add to it some of the obsta- cles that were in our way, and some of the things we had to deal with in that season and still have to go through, speaks to the resolve and the collective effort to really work through it and focus and continue to drive that success. "When I think about all of that, it's even sweeter. In that time, when things could have certainly fallen apart at dif- ferent times, those coaches and the stu- dent-athletes and everybody here came together to support them in the effort to continue to work through it, compart- mentalize that stuff and move forward. "A lot of people ask, what's your most seminal moment in your career? I would say that. The national championship in football, for all those reasons. "It's hard to do when there's not a lot of noise around it — really hard to do. When there's a lot of noise and things popping up, and things potentially affecting the team and their mental focus, to do it with all of that? It's even greater, in terms of how good it was. "To see them win, and excited on the field, and have that parade, have the event at Crisler, all of those things were just an unbelievable ride, and something I'll never forget." The Wolverine: Did you get to enjoy it long enough, because the confetti had barely been swept away when you were dealing with major personnel losses, including the head football coach? Manuel: "I'm still enjoying it [laughs]. There were times that those things weren't easy to go through. It's another set of circumstances that are out of your control, to a certain degree. I wanted a different outcome, but you don't always get what you want in life. I enjoyed it along the way, and I'm still enjoying it. "I often tell people, until somebody else is crowned or we win it again, I'm going to celebrate the fact that we're the reigning national champions. It has a good ring to it. I enjoy saying it, and I enjoy what was accomplished. "When you look to this year and what you have to do this season, it's a differ- ent team, but you still have that. You're the defending national champion until either you do it again or somebody else takes the crown." ❱ Manuel "I think we are in a very solid NIL position, but we can't sit back and relax. We need to keep moving forward to drive support for our NIL activities with our student-ath- letes, mainly through Champions Circle …"