No, don't know him at all...
Posted on August 13, 2026 at 12:39:08 PM by Cutter
It's just that I recall some pushback against Manuel for dropping the UCLA home-and-home because he wanted a minimum of seven home games per year.
That's why I chuckle a bit when he gets blamed for having Oklahoma and Texas on the schedule when those games were set up by Brandon and announced back in 2014, I believe.
I do give Manuel credit for getting the original home and away dates with Texas flip flopped so Michigan could play seven home games in 2024 and 2027. As was widely reported, when the SEC added OU and UT, the deal the networks made reversed all that, which is part of the reason UM has alternating years of eight and six home games from 2024 thru 2027.
That's why I'm amused when posters suggest that Manuel is the sole arbiter of Michigan's non conference football schedules. That's especially true in this era of ever growing money deals with the television networks.
As far as Manuel is concerned, he's the perfect fall guy to use to expunge all of the athletic department's drama and to keep the recent past out of the public eye. I've always thought of him as an institutionalist who had the receipts whenever decisions were made. That meant decisions he did make had the go ahead from the president, regents and stakeholders. It also meant he had university or outside counsel backing him up, not to mention human relations. I don’t think many of us knew until recently, for example, that the AD didn't handle its own employee vetting. That was done by a firm working for the university.
Was he perfect? No, and I wouldn't expect him to be so in that job. The Mel Pearson situation was baffling to me, for example, and I have written so on this board. I suspect it will be argued ad infinitum whether he gave Harbaugh too much rope in order to keep JH happy in Ann Arbor for as long as possible.
Speaking of Harbaugh, I think it's fair to say he didn't have the tightest grip on the tiller when it comes to his tenure in Ann Arbor. Almost as a rule, head football coaches have to be fanatical when it comes to rules, discipline and procedures. Yet we can point to Sherrone Moore and Connor Stallions as two major screw ups by Harbaugh during the latter parts of his tenure as Michigan's head coach--things Schembechler never would have allowed to happen.
And all that money Manuel is getting to wrap up his career? It's essentially hush money so that the sportswriters and sports radio hosts have no more additional fuel to bash Michigan over. The season will start anew, the Willingham era will be inaugurated in a few weeks, and Manuel will quietly slip away at the end of the year.
Then we'll have a new AD in 2027 to bitch and moan about regarding public relations or not sticking a fork into Pettiti's eyes or some other nonsense that willemliven the rage of the Michigan sports fan.
Meet the new guy. He's just like the old guy.
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