Warde Manuel The Right AD Hire For Michigan
By Ty Duffy
Multiple outlets are reporting UConn athletic director Warde Manuel will be the next Michigan AD. It’s a no-brainer. It’s a move that will go down well.
Manuel is a Michigan man. He played as a defensive tackle under Bo Schembechler from 1986 to 1989, overlapping with Jim Harbaugh for a season. He was also an associate AD at Michigan before taking the University of Buffalo job.
At UConn, Manuel kept Kevin Ollie on as basketball coach, leading to a national title. It looks like he made a strong hire as football coach with Bob Diaco. He got UConn’s hockey team bumped up to Hockey East. He didn’t get UConn into a Power 5 conference, but that was not his fault.
Michigan went outside the box with Dave Brandon. It was a comprehensive disaster. This search (as during the last one) the box was full of promising, well-regarded, experienced candidates with deep ties to the school.
The Wolverines have Jim Harbaugh and Jon Beilein. They just signed a huge long term deal with Nike. They have a ton of new facilities. The sole missions for the next AD are not alienating the fan base, not alienating the former players, and by no means hiring a skywriter over East Lansing.
Manuel has built ships. He should be more than capable of not capsizing a readymade one.