The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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fidence in the world. Their record speaks for itself over the long haul. "Clearly, the last couple of years, not getting into the tournament, has been a real disappointment. Those guys have taken a hard look at what has been going right and wrong the last couple of years. I'm very satis- fied they're addressing those issues, and I'm looking forward to the sea- son ahead. I think it will be very exciting." The Wolverine: If a new coach came in here, what programs might you point out and say, "Get your pro- gram to look like that"? Brandon: "This is a little bit like I've got 31 children, and you want me to pick my favorites. You're not going to get me to do that. "I have tremendous faith in ev- ery one of these 31 coaches, or they wouldn't be here. We've made some changes. We've let some coaches go, and we've brought in coaches that we strongly believe are better. "We hold these coaches to a high standard. We set high expectations, and we hold them accountable. They know it, and we know it. I wouldn't function well if I really felt there was anybody out there that wasn't in a position to make us a champion. At that point, I'm doing a real disser- vice to the young people. "You look at programs and go into their facilities and see how many banners are in the rafters. Look at Carol Hutchins with seven Big Ten softball championships in a row. She has won a World Series and been competitive at the national level vir- tually every year. Carol is doing it the way we want it done. That's a phenomenal track record. "Look at the number of banners hanging in our women's gymnastics facilities, led by Bev Plocki. Look at Kurt Golder and what he's ac- complished — two national cham- pionships in a row with our men's gymnastics program. Look at Mike Bottom and what he's accomplished with a national championship two years ago and this last year a top- five finish in men's swimming and diving, and winning Big Ten cham- pionships virtually every year. "There's John Beilein and what he's accomplished. With Ronni Ber- nstein, every year we're knocking on the door of winning the Big Ten in women's tennis. "Greg Ryan has had some really great success. You talk about build- ing a program from scratch. He came into our women's soccer program, and we were nowhere. He put those pieces in place and had some really, really tough early years, but now we get to the final eight. Now you can see the quality of the pipeline of the recruiting.Our track programs, and some of the individual performers there, have been great. "We know what success looks like here. We've seen it, we've tasted it, in just about in every sport we compete in. There is no lack of benchmarking or being able to look around and say, 'What are we really looking for?' It's everywhere. There is plenty of evidence as to what you can accomplish here when you get it right." ❑