The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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B y December of 2014, one of the biggest decisions in the history of Michigan's 116- year old Athletic Depart- ment was fast approaching. It wasn't what newly minted Uni- versity of Michigan President Mark Schlissel had signed up for, but he and his even newer interim Athletic Director, Jim Hackett, had to get to work finding Brady Hoke's replace- ment, and they had to get it right. "When we were considering how to conduct the search," President Schlissel told me, "we started ana- lyzing not this person or that person, but the ideal characteristics of a foot- ball coach. "First, we wanted someone who was technically proficient at coaching — obviously — but we also wanted someone who understands the role of football in the context of a univer- sity in general, and the University of Michigan in particular. "We wanted someone who under- stood the challenges student-athletes face — someone committed to mak- ing sure they got the most out of their experience, on and off the field, someone who could help them strike the right balance. Most of these ath- letes will not earn their living play- ing football. So we were looking for a coach who had that value system, who appreciated football's role in holding our campus together. "We also wanted someone who had already run a major program. We wanted someone who was proven. We did not want to hire someone who was on his way up. We felt we didn't want to take a chance with this, especially given the past several years." Then President Schlissel told me exactly what Jim Hackett had, ver- batim: "We had to get the right guy." The president and the athletic di- rector had to think long and hard before making any decisions. The guys following the playbook of Todd Anson, a friend, adviser and booster of Harbaugh's, didn't have that burden. They had made up their mind a while ago — seven years, in Anson's case — so they could focus on execution. As soon as Hackett announced Hoke's departure, they could work more openly, but so could Har- baugh's detractors. When the rumor mill kicked into overdrive, they did, too. "After Michigan fired Coach Hoke," recalls Jay Flannelly, a for- mer team manager from the 1990s who remains close to the lettermen, "someone was leaking to the media that Jim could not leave California due to custody issues from his first marriage. "I called [former lineman John] Ghindia and someone else who knows these types of things — and all of it came back the same: It was all untrue! But again, people were trying to sabotage our program with nonsense and jealousy. We all felt we couldn't let that happen again." Another popular rumor held that Sarah Harbaugh wouldn't leave Cali- fornia. Anyone who had talked to her would know that was also com- pletely false. Contrary to the rumor mill, which often depicted Sarah