The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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can't tell you how impressed I am to be back and connect with him." Hackett ran his operation like a CEO would run it, with pros and cons listed for each candidate, Irons recalled. "When he got us together, the one thing he said was that we're entrust- ing him to find a new head coach and he wanted us to come along in the process," said Irons, an All-American linebacker who played from 1993-96. "He said, 'I want to be open-book and want you guys to know exactly what I'm doing and how I'm doing it. He had a list of all the guys he wanted — in the beginning stages, it was about 20 candidates. "For a guy who doesn't have a lot of experience in college athletics to run it the way he did, I was very im- pressed. He was very knowledgeable before he even hired the firm. I don't want to put too much credence on How Long Will Jim Hackett Stay? Nobody knows for certain exactly how long Jim Hackett will stay as Michigan's athletic director, but many in the university community hope it's longer than he initially expected. Hackett had planned to search for an athletic director at the same time he was looking for a coach. Instead, he was the driving force behind landing Jim Harbaugh. He's earned all the praise he's gotten, former head coach Lloyd Carr said, and the right to stay as long as he wants. "I'm not the president of the university, but you'd be hard pressed to do a bet- ter job and to create the enthusiasm," Carr said. U-M president Mark Schlissel will be the one to make the decision, but he'll likely have few advising against a Hackett hire. The question is, does Hackett want it? He had just retired before getting the call from the bullpen to secure the most important hire in recent Michigan football history. "To be really candid, I haven't had time to think about that, and the reason for that is this — I thought my first assignment was about getting this done, and I had a couple of other issues," Hackett said. "One day I'm going to sit down with [Schlissel] and talk about both of our interests." For now, though, Hackett's out on the West Coast on a working vacation, es- sentially running the athletic department from there while Harbaugh hits the recruiting trail running in Ann Arbor. There's been talk he'll remain on the job for a few years, at most, but his friends wouldn't be surprised if it lasts longer. "It might get to a point where he kind of likes it," former Michigan receiver Curt Stephenson said with a laugh. "I think he'll be there until Jim is solid and has a recruiting year, maybe two under his belt, but it might be longer now. There's something to be said for that environment. You can get emotional and caught up in things." And that can happen to a guy as even-keeled as Jim Hackett. — Chris Balas