00:00So we mentioned before the break that Ross Dellinger has some reporting on the Ward-Manuel situation at Michigan,
00:06and he's a college football writer for Yahoo Sports.
00:09And it's a tweet that came out about a half an hour ago now.
00:11It says, reached for comment on Monday.
00:14Ward-Manuel told Yahoo Sports, quote,
00:16The president and I have had several great conversations over the past couple of days.
00:21There are no plans for me not to continue to be the athletic director for the near future.
00:26As reported Sunday, Michigan's board is scheduled for a meeting Thursday in the wake of the finalized report
00:33for the internal investigation into the Sharon Moore situation.
00:36The board is expected to take potential next steps in light of the report.
00:42So I look at this, and if this is Ward's comment,
00:47I had a great conversation with the president, and he hasn't told me that I'm not coming back.
00:50It tells me because he doesn't know.
00:53Exactly.
00:53Because the board hasn't met yet.
00:54They've shut him out.
00:56Now, maybe some of this reporting has come out over the weekend from Dan Wetzel and from others.
01:00Maybe they have some information from people on the board,
01:04and they have sources anyway, or whatever it is it tells them.
01:07They don't think he's going to be kept around at Michigan after this week.
01:12It remains to be seen.
01:14But it's a good jumping off point for us here in the show,
01:16because this was one of the things we were going to talk about,
01:18was how to handle Ward-Manuel,
01:20and want to talk to Michigan fans out there, 248-539-9797,
01:26is how do you feel about what's happening right now?
01:28I feel like Ward-Manuel has been a very polarizing figure at Michigan,
01:32and maybe more in the negative than in the positive,
01:36in that Michigan fans love the fact that they won a national championship in football and basketball under his watch.
01:44There's no question.
01:45You've got to love that.
01:46But you also have to live with it.
01:49And the living with it is some of the dirty stuff, too, that has gone on.
01:54And obviously, the football program has tried to sweep a bunch of things under the rug.
02:02It's not just Sharon Moore.
02:03Sharon Moore is the, I don't know if he's the tip of the iceberg.
02:06He's a big part of the iceberg.
02:08But there was a lot going on with Sharon Moore to unpack.
02:10And obviously, the scandal with the staffer is way over the top.
02:15But there's plenty of other stuff, too, that has gone on there under Jim Harbaugh and his hirings.
02:21And you've got scandal after scandal.
02:24And there were things that they just kept to themselves.
02:27And then they finally come to light.
02:29And you're like, oh, we already handled this situation.
02:30Well, no, you didn't.
02:31You still allowed this player to travel with you.
02:33You didn't.
02:33There was no punishment.
02:35And lots of things that have happened.
02:36And it seems like there's more than a half dozen things that have happened just to the football program alone,
02:42let alone other sports like hockey and basketball and the Jawan Howard situation and everything.
02:50But for Michigan fans, do the ends justify the means?
02:55Do you just sweep it under the rug yourself and say, I don't care.
02:59We've got two national championships.
03:00Whoever the athletic director is, is.
03:02Doesn't matter.
03:03Go ahead, fire him.
03:04Or are you, like, adamantly opposed to that and say, no, this guy is the reason that we were able
03:08to get national championships.
03:10We need to hang on to this guy.
03:12So it's, you know, that show on House Hunters, love it or list it.
03:16Yeah.
03:17This is almost like for Michigan fans, love it or live with it.
03:20Right.
03:20I mean, what emotion do you feel more at this particular point?
03:27They're looking for a fall guy.
03:29They need Ward Manuel to be their fall guy.
03:32And they need to be able to pin this on somebody who is no longer there.
03:37We're going to throw our sharp, pointy objects at him.
03:39And now we're going to move on.
03:40And now we have our, our, you know, our rag doll.
03:46I might not be that way.
03:47Then who are you going to blame?
03:49Right.
03:49Well, do they need the fall guy or is the fall guy simply Sharon Moore?
03:52I mean, they'll ignore everything else.
03:55But I mean, is, is it just, oh, we'll just look at the most recent scandal.
03:59Let's check it up.
04:00Oh, it's a football coach.
04:01Yeah.
04:02And an inappropriate relationship with a staffer and everything that went on there.
04:05Or is the fall guy Santa Ono.
04:07Did you see this?
04:09Santa Ono instructed staff not to report findings of sign stealing scheme to compliance NCAA or any other party.
04:17Who is the fall guy?
04:19What I'm not going to blame Ward Manuel for is the loss of Jim Harbaugh who got out of Dodge
04:24before the punishment happened.
04:25Right.
04:26Or Dusty May who doesn't want to be a part of what college sports have become.
04:31Well, but you could for Harbaugh because he tolerated all the stuff that was going on under Jim Harbaugh.
04:39And the Stallions experiment and other assistant coaches that had to be consistently fired and other staffers that had to
04:47be fired for inappropriate conduct and all that.
04:50I mean, he put up with it or were, you know, students were pulled over for speeding and they had
04:55a gun in the car that wasn't registered and stuff like that.
04:58Could be worse.
04:59Could be Georgia.
05:00Well, right, but it's not.
05:02It's Michigan and they have a higher standard up here and, you know, whatever the case is.
05:06I mean, there's a lot more to it and Harbaugh at some point is like, okay, now I can get
05:13out of here.
05:13I legitimately have an offer in the NFL.
05:15I'm going to go.
05:17Yeah.
05:17One national championship.
05:18Now I can get out of here.
05:19So I think part of it is on him because Ward Manuel lived through it.
05:23He allowed it to happen, allowed it to continue as long as it meant that they were going to have
05:28a chance at a national championship.
05:29And they finally did.
05:30And they, and they delivered.
05:32But even the president said, Hey guys, don't report any of this sign stealing stuff.
05:36Well, yeah, the president, I mean, look, the president, if this is true, if that's the reporting that's going on
05:41and it's true,
05:43that doesn't make him look good, but he's not the president anymore.
05:46So, you know, what, what are they doing?
05:48You know, a lot of stuff can come out here.
05:51And I think that is the fear that Michigan has is that, okay, we've got a lot of secrets that
05:57are buried here.
05:58How do we maintain these things?
06:01How do we make sure that this stays buried?
06:03I'm beginning to be convinced that Michigan is in that class of, of Teflon sports entities.
06:10Guys, Derek Jeter was in the Teflon class, Peyton Manning, Charles Barkley in the Teflon class.
06:16I once heard Charles Barkley say the only clock a woman needs is on the stove.
06:20I heard him say that.
06:21Okay.
06:22But it's because it's Charles Barkley.
06:24Nothing sticks to him.
06:25Michigan.
06:26Unbelievably, none of this stuff sticks to him.
06:29Do you notice that?
06:29Right.
06:30It doesn't really stick to them.
06:31You're asking the Spartan if I've noticed that nothing sticks to Michigan.
06:34Yeah.
06:35It kind of.
06:36Yeah.
06:36I've seen that or that everything gets deflected and everything gets pointed out at Michigan State.
06:40The real question is to ask is how is this going?
06:42What's Michigan State going to suffer?
06:44Because Michigan's going to come away scot-free on it.
06:47Right.
06:47And that's real.
06:48The real thing that Michigan is going to suffer is if Ward Manuel stays on, then who is your fall
06:53guy?
06:53Is Gator right?
06:54Is it your own more?
06:55Because obviously to me, you guys need a fall guy and you want it to be Ward Manuel.
07:00What if it isn't?
07:00My guess is that Ward, this is just, this is me, right?
07:04This is my guess, is that Ward Manuel and University of Michigan will agree to part ways.
07:11There'll be a buyout and part of the agreement is that there's a non-disclosure and that he's not allowed
07:17to talk about anything that happened.
07:18That's so lame.
07:19But that's Michigan.
07:20That's what they do.
07:21Nobody talks about it.
07:22He can't talk about it.
07:24There's plenty still to investigate and we'll see if those investigations take place.
07:28I mean, you know, nothing, nothing happened with the basketball player that got into a car accident driving Ward's car.
07:35Nothing happened with that.
07:37Nobody dug deeper.
07:39They just took his, oh yeah, we're kidding.
07:41We just got, got to use it.
07:43What?
07:43So what would be listed as the official fireball offense for Ward?
07:47New of the relationship six months prior?
07:49I mean, what, what would be?
07:50Yeah, I think that would, that would be it.
07:52Or it's just simply a culmination.
07:54Right.
07:54The easy, the easy button is.
07:56Everything that happens.
07:56Hey, we've got this laundry list of things, you know, whether stallions and, and the assistant coaches and, you know,
08:04here's what happened.
08:05You, you allowed the, uh, the head basketball coach stick around longer than he should have.
08:09You've got the, the, the kid that had your car.
08:11We have, you know, the gun here, the gun charge here.
08:14And we have all these things.
08:15Is that all?
08:15And I, oh, and oh, by the way, there's Sharon Moore to, to deal with it too.
08:18And when did you know this and all that?
08:20Yeah.
08:20I think it's a culmination of things, but we'll see.
08:23Let it, let it play out as we always say on the show, let it play out.
08:27We'll see if anything gets leaked on this investigation.
08:31And I imagine that when, when it's all said and done, the board of the regents is going to have
08:36to say something.
08:37What will be the language they use?
08:40And is there more to come?
08:42Are there, are there other scandals yet to be unearthed?
08:46You know, the LLC with, um, with the running back and, and Connor Stallions.
08:52And I mean, there's lots of stuff, man.
08:54Can you believe given all that's come out, how long we spent talking about the cheeseburger?
08:59Right.
09:00Like, oh boy, what a, what a harbinger of things to come.
09:03That was, it wasn't a cheeseburger.
09:04It was the, everything goes with it, but that's, that's, that's, that's the other things, right?
09:08That's all part of this package.
09:10Anyway, um, but it's going to look like, I mean, because it comes out of my mouth, take
09:16it for what it's worth.
09:17Cause I'm not a Michigan fan.
09:18So I get it.
09:19And even I'm saying, wait, wait and see what happens at the end of the week.
09:22But this is the reporting going on right now.
09:24This is what word manual has, uh, reportedly said to Yahoo quote, the president and I have
09:29had several great conversations over the past couple of days.
09:32There are no plans for me not to continue to be the athletic director for the near future
09:37between he and the president, but it's not the board of regents.
09:40So we'll see what happens.
09:41Two, four, eight, five, three, nine, 97, 97.
09:44This is 97 one.
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