00:00This crazy story, I want to start with this because it's probably one that needs to be opened up for
00:05a while.
00:07The Ward-Manuel situation with what's going on in Michigan, as you understand, I heard he was fired and then
00:13he's back, he's fighting for his job.
00:16They outline all this crazy stuff. There's lawsuits alleging different things of what people knew and what he's been covering
00:22up.
00:22Bill, as you get into this situation in Michigan, I know people down in Columbus are probably enjoying this a
00:29little bit and rightfully so.
00:30It probably makes them feel a little better to enjoy some of the pain from the rivalry.
00:36But when you see that, Bill, what is your understanding of what's going on up there?
00:42Well, you know, I'm friends with John Bacon. He's wrote several Big Ten books, obviously.
00:47A great writer. His latest one was about the Edmund Fitzgerald, and he always told me the old Michigan athletic
00:53director, Don Canham,
00:54used to say, you never turn a one-day story into a two-day story.
00:58Well, this has been a five-year story, essentially.
01:02Every summer, Bobby, you have a different Michigan thing going on, dating back to the first recruiting scandal around Jim
01:09Harbaugh,
01:10where he serves a suspension during the season.
01:13And now I'd look at this and touched on it briefly on this with you at 97.1 yesterday.
01:18We can get a little more into it.
01:19I don't know what the shelf life for an athletic director is, but I do know they will be on,
01:25if Ward-Manuel moves on, Michigan will have been on their fifth athletic director essentially since Lloyd Carr retired.
01:32You know, you go from Martin to Dave Brandon to Jim Hackett, briefly, to Ward-Manuel,
01:39and now to possibly a fifth one if Manuel is let go, in an environment where they're football.
01:45And I think those athletic directors, we can say what we want.
01:48They're tied to the coaches, the football coaches.
01:51So this next athletic director, if they have one, will probably be tied to the guy that follows Kyle Whittingham
01:57when he retires.
01:59And it's a little bit, and that athletic director will be tasked with cleaning up a reputation that's taken a
02:05hit,
02:05like I said, every summer for the last five years.
02:08So the reports of Ward-Manuel was fired, but then it comes out, you know, he's fighting for his job
02:13and they're having these meetings.
02:15Do you think there's a way, despite all the allegations and different things that have happened here over his tenure,
02:21do you think that there's a way that he potentially saves his job or he could be the guy moving
02:25forward?
02:26I mean, what he told Ross Dellinger was, I plan on being the athletic director essentially.
02:32There's been none of that.
02:33I think we'll have more clarity Thursday, but when there's this much smoke, it would be hard for him to
02:38keep his job.
02:39And maybe it came to a head at some point when Dusty May left for the Mavericks,
02:45because you've read some of the reporting there that, you know, May didn't necessarily want to leave,
02:49but there was friction between him and the athletic director.
02:52And it was kind of a him or me type deal.
02:55And of course, Dusty May goes to the Mavericks.
02:59So in essence, Michigan's won two national championships between football and basketball in the last three years,
03:06but the coaches are immediately gone.
03:08So it's hard to celebrate when you know that the next guy is in,
03:13whether it's Boynton or Sharon Moore, who quickly went to Kyle Whittingham.
03:17You know, it's interesting is you went to Boynton right after May and they did Sharon Moore right after Harbaugh.
03:23That didn't end up very well.
03:24And I know you like to separate it and you don't always want to sit there and they're two different
03:28guys.
03:28It's two different sports.
03:31I just and I think it was probably the right move.
03:33But now looking at that and you bringing that up, it seems a little peculiar and maybe worrisome if you're
03:40a Michigan fan.
03:41Well, I think same thing where whereas like Ohio State, you know, with the basketball when Holtman let go,
03:48Diebler takes the job.
03:50And I think Diebler got a audition for the job and did well, you know, and, you know,
03:55some whenever you don't open a national search, it leaves it open to criticism.
03:58And like Urban Meyer, I remember he moves on and you're trying to scramble around thinking of all these Ohio
04:06State coaching candidates.
04:07That coaching search lasted about an hour before Ryan Day takes over and it works out.
04:11So it's not a perfect science.
04:13But I do think in Michigan's case, they went one higher.
04:17Kyle Whittingham will do OK there.
04:19You know, I'm not even talking about like national championships or anything like that.
04:23I think what they need is a coach that matures the program quite literally on the field and off the
04:29field.
04:29And then, you know, whoever this next athletic director will be.
04:33Michigan is one of those places like Ohio State, like Alabama, like Georgia, where I could sit here and lie
04:39to you, Bobby,
04:39and say I know the name of all 138 athletic directors in the FBS.
04:44But there, you know, there's certain ones, you know, at the top.
04:47And Michigan's one of those top 10 athletic director positions where you have to know who the athletic director is.
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