The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/432566
T he tree is already trimmed. Maize-and-blue ornaments hang everywhere. There's a glass of milk and a plate of cookies on a chair nearby … along with bundles of cash, tallying into the tens of millions. Santa just can't drop the ball this year. He's supposed to bring home the big-name, sure- fire, can't-miss leader that will drive Michigan's football program out of a 10-year, Big Ten title- devoid wilderness. He's tasked with delivering a present that will send season ticket holders — many of whom are waiting until the big box is opened before renewing for 2015 — into ecstasy, tearing off paper and ribbons and dancing about the room like 4-year-olds. No pressure, Jim Hackett. None at all. Hackett, a.k.a. Santa, has proven as tight-lipped as a Tough Mudder con- testant swimming through ooze while Michigan's coaching search plays out. It couldn't happen any other way, in this game of high stakes poker, upon which depends the next several years of Michigan football. The interim athletic director did let one comment slip to the Detroit Free Press at the Michigan Football Bust, an emotional affair featuring Hackett sitting near and singing the praises of the man he'd just dismissed as head coach. The AD insisted the desire to be- come Brady Hoke's suc- cessor is raging. "The interest has blown me away," Hack- ett noted. Hackett has reportedly put together a financial package for a coach that would blow away al- most anyone in college football. He's rallied the troops internally to get everyone singing off the same caroling sheet, ready for the next football boss. Now, it's time to deliver. There's been so much Jim Har- baugh mania this holiday season, anybody else will seem to some like fruitcake compared to a Lambo- rghini. That's not fair, of course, but nothing has seemed fair for a good long while to the Michigan football fan base. They dined for 40 years on cham- pionship steak. For the past decade, they've been charged more — a lot WOLVERINE WATCH JOHN BORTON Santa Needs To Get It Right This Year Interim athletic director Jim Hackett said he has been blown away by the interest in becoming U-M's next head football coach. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN