The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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"We're well into that. Brady is in his fourth season. He's getting more and more of the young players that he re- cruited out on the field. The culture of the program is changing. The recruit- ing pipelines are really starting to iden- tify themselves, in terms of the kind of student-athlete we're bringing to Michigan, how they're set to perform both academically and athletically. "I feel really, really good about the state of our football program. I think we're well on our way to getting to where we all want to go." The Wolverine: You once gently re- buffed a gentleman who wanted to see John Beilein fired in his early years here. Brandon: "A lot of gentlemen [laughs]. It wasn't just one." The Wolverine: Talk about the pres- sure of dealing with all the passion and interest in the high-profile sports, when people aren't satisfied. Brandon: "Part of the job description of being an athletic director at any major university, and particularly one where the program is as large and far- reaching as ours, you have to listen to a lot of people's opinions. And they're out there. "But I don't have time to listen to talk radio and stare into my computer to look at what is being bantered about on social media every day. I'm doing other things. But I understand there is a host of people out there who have opinions. If they were the coach, they'd do X, Y, and Z. If they were the athletic director, they'd do X, Y, and Z. "I think that's great. Everybody is entitled to their opinions. When peo- ple confront me with them directly, I respect them for their opinions. But this is a job that I do for a living. The people that I work with here at Michi- gan athletics, we come here and work long days. We have all the informa- tion, and we see things from the in- side out, as well as from the outside in. "We make the very best decisions we can possibly make, knowing we have the same objectives as every- body else out there. We want to recruit great kids, we want them to graduate, to be successful academically, to con- duct themselves in the community in a way that makes us all proud, and we want to win — every game, every match, every meet. "We want to win every champi- onship. We are as passionate about that as anybody. But we're in the real world of doing the work and seeing what it takes to build these programs, and seeing the challenges associated with achieving those lofty goals. "Believe me, we push as hard as anybody. We try to get high levels of accountability, and we set high expec- tations. At some point, you have to be realistic about what you can achieve. That's our job. That's what we do." The Wolverine: What are the biggest issues facing the Big Ten in football these days? Brandon: "I don't know that there are big concerns. Our attendance at games is pretty well holding strong, with the exceptions of the whole stu- dent section issue, which all of my colleagues are dealing with. But we're