Tag: Warde Manuel

Michigan’s Warde Manuel, Jim Harbaugh punt on contract talk

With one year left on his contract, Jim Harbaugh and Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel say they’ll discuss contract matters later.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — On Monday evening, there were reports as to what Michigan might do with head coach Jim Harbaugh, who is about to enter the final year of his seven-year contract — unprecedented in college football.

With both Harbaugh and Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel being present on a conference call to discuss the team’s cancellation of the Ohio State game, neither wanted to share whether or not Harbaugh has been extended another term, or if discussions have been had to this point.

“This is a time where we’re going to focus on the pandemic,” Manuel said. “Jim and I will meet, as we have said, at the end of the year to discuss the program and where we’re gonna go and all those different things. How rumors get started about things before Jim and I sit down and have a conversation, I’m not gonna get into. That’s not for me to try to track down. But that’s where that is, and that’s where we’ll be — at the end of the season.”

Not only did Manuel say that they weren’t going to discuss Harbaugh’s contract situation, but Harbaugh reiterated it when he was asked.

“As Warde said, this isn’t the forum to discuss that,” Harbaugh said. “For months, we long agreed we’ll talk about the extension at the end of the season.”

Manuel clarified, however, when he and Harbaugh would formally discuss a possible extension to his contract. With Michigan’s future not promised due to the current COVID-19 situation on the team, Manuel says that once there are no more games on the schedule, then that conversation will take place — while reaffirming his confidence in the football head coach.

“We have one last game we’re scheduled to play,” Manuel said. “We’re hopeful, as Jim said, that we can play as scheduled. We’ll get through the next few days and continue to monitor the situation with COVID on our team with quarantine and all the things we’re dealing with now that has led us to this point. What I mean by the end of the season is the end of our season. That is we have one more game currently scheduled. That’s when a conversation when the season shortly ends, will begin.

“And just to clarify, Jim and I have always talked at the end of the season — always. This is not — not making it up this year — we sit down, we talk. Sometimes we’ll talk in November in general just to get a sense. And we’ll have a lot of conversations in-between. It’s not like we don’t talk. Sometimes daily, depending on the issues, sometimes weekly. It’s just, I don’t want to make anybody feel or think that Jim and I have been sitting around just waiting and not talking to each other about things. We’ve had a lot to talk about.

“My coaches across the board — Jim has been a leader and phenomenal in his efforts with his team. He is co-chair (on the COVID-19 committee with softball coach Carol Hutchins). He has led that, he has been there. He is committed to his team, he is committed to his department, he’s committed to this university. From my standpoint, he has been doing everything and at a high level, including his efforts with the team. From that perspective, I don’t want people to get this sense that we’re just sitting around and nobody’s talking to each other, waiting and waiting. That is the furthest thing from the truth. We’ve had a lot to do, a lot of other things to talk about.”

But, with early signing day coming up on Dec. 16, what about other programs working to poach current Wolverines commits?

Turns out, Manuel isn’t too concerned about it, as that type of practice, unlike the pandemic, are relatively commonplace.

“You know what’s not unique in college athletics? Negative recruiting,” Manuel said. “Negative recruiting occurs all the time. All the time. I’ll let (end) at that.”

Michigan AD advocates for Ohio State’s goals, doesn’t write off rescheduling game

If you need further proof that Michigan isn’t trying to keep Ohio State from the CFP, Manuel suggests he’ll advocate for the Buckeyes.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The Michigan – Ohio State tilt, affectionately called ‘The Game’ will not be happening this year, though the Wolverines were quite clear that they wish they didn’t have to cancel the contest due to COVID-19 reasons. However, Michigan fans who weren’t eager to see a potential blowout to the No. 4 team in the nation weren’t particularly upset about the cancellation, many proponents of the Buckeyes felt that the Wolverines were dodging the game to save face, as well as to keep OSU out of the Big Ten championship game and the College Football Playoff.

ESPN College GameDay host Kirk Herbstreit intimated that was a possibility the day before Michigan canceled its Big Ten Week 7 contest against Maryland, but quickly apologized. Wolverines athletic director Warde Manuel had some strong words for Herbstreit in the aftermath, and on Tuesday, as he had to discuss his own program’s COVID-19 cases ensuring The Game will be paused for the first time since 1917, Manuel said that six game threshold for a Big Ten championship should be reevaluated by the conference.

“We made decisions months ago now about six-out-of-eight games, not knowing where this pandemic would take us,” Manuel said. “We were all hoping to play all eight games. And like we have done on the medical subcommittee, which I sit on, and throughout this process, we have discussed, we have adjusted, we have changed.

“I don’t believe that anybody — Ohio State or any other team — should just be punished for decisions we made by looking at eight games and saying we should play six, and not knowing the effects of what happens to them and their team versus what others because of what happens to our team affects them. I would be open, and I think the conference would be open, to having a discussion about whether or not we should make adjustments, whether or not schedules should be adjusted to get Ohio State enough games to play six, or to play the championship with five. But I don’t think we should just hunker down and say, ‘Well, we said six, so that should be it.’ I think they deserve, the conversation deserves to happen, to see if we could have any adjustments made. Because this is unprecedented times for everybody, and we need to make sure that we are flexible and able to move and make decisions based off the data that we have.”

Manuel is going even further than merely stating that Ohio State should have an opportunity to play for bigger things, despite having only played five games.

He states, categorically, that in his mind, the Buckeyes are one of the best four teams in the nation, and that Michigan’s decision to cancel shouldn’t hold them back from reaching their goals.

“I just want to make it clear: I think Ohio State is one of the top four teams in this country, deserves the opportunity and the conversation about their success this season, and would be a great representative to the College Football Playoff, if they are chosen,” Manuel said. “So it is, for me, that’s where I stand, and I’m gonna work with my colleagues in the Big Ten and Commissioner Warren to help make the best decision for us moving forward.”

But, what if, let’s say, the Michigan – Ohio State game has the capability for being rescheduled on Dec. 19, the day when the Big Ten championship game is currently scheduled, where the Wolverines would potentially — assuming the team is cleared to play — face off against a Big Ten West foe? Would Manuel be open to seeing the maize and blue square of against the scarlet and grey if that’s possible?

He certainly didn’t write it off.

“We will make any adjustments from my standpoint that we need to make,” Manuel said. “So if it’s not, and we make adjustments on our calendar, and we play Ohio State on the 19th, from my perspective, that would be great. We will play whoever is going to be scheduled for us.”

Michigan AD, Jim Harbaugh explain why Ohio State game was canceled

With The Game off the books for 2020, the Wolverines brass explains the decision to cancel the game due to COVID-19.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan did everything in its power to keep it’s one-game cancellation against Maryland isolated to one game. However, with rising cases within the football program, it had to make the decision to cancel the 2020 iteration of the Ohio State game.

The Wolverines brass — Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel, head coach Jim Harbaugh, medical director Dr. Sami Rafat and chief medical officer Darryl Conway — met with the media on Tuesday evening to discuss the program’s decision to not hold The Game for the first time since 1917.

“This is not a day that I envisioned we would have,” Manuel said. “It was not an easy outcome to take, as we wanted to, with everything that we have — the Michigan – Ohio State game is the greatest rivalry in this sport — so this is a really hard day, hard time. For me, for Jim, for our team, for our staff, for our university, for our fans — of both teams, I’m certain.

“But we had a trend with a number of positive tests that continued to go up over the weekend. So in the last seven days, they have not slowed. We were not cleared to participate in practice by our medical staff and we were looking at, in terms of, by the end of the week, much wouldn’t have changed, and we still don’t have a total grasp of this virus on our team. So we are here today, we made the decision this afternoon that we would not be able to participate. We weren’t even cleared to practice today and the medical staff felt that we would not be able to participate Saturday. And so to afford Ohio State and the Big Ten Conference the ability to adjust where necessary, we felt it was best to talk to Kevin Warren and Gene Smith and let them know our decision today.”

Rafat chimed in, noting that medically, the team wasn’t cleared to practice, and that it wasn’t going to have the COVID-19 situation under control by Saturday. “Simply, at this point, the prevalence of COVID on our team, the impact of COVID on our team, is simply too great to allow for the safe return to full practice and full activity.”

There’s a misconception — especially after ESPN College GameDay host Kirk Herbstreit made off-the-cuff remarks that Michigan could cancel the game to keep Ohio State out of the playoff — that the players didn’t want to take the field against the Buckeyes. Two people, who spoke to WolverinesWire on the condition of anonymity, strongly refuted that notion off-the-record, noting that the players were still eager to take on their arch-rival. That’s especially true of those who would be participating in this matchup for the final time.

That sentiment was echoed by Harbaugh, who said that the players were more than ready to play, if the team was medically cleared to do so.

“For me, this goes back — really for everybody that’s been in football, especially college football — the situation we found ourselves in, we knew there’d be obstacles,” Harbaugh said. “The situation that we’re in today is that the players, the players, to a man, wanted to play this game. The daily — this is a daily process, and we follow the daily decisions that are made, and we proceed with what’s in the best interest of the health and safety for our players and our staff. Warde put it very well, and tomorrow there’ll be more information. There’ll be more decisions made. We’ll continue to follow those decisions for what’s the best for the health and safety of our players.”

As Manuel notes, it wasn’t like Michigan played last week and that these COVID-19 cases arose from nowhere this week. The Wolverines canceled the final home game of the 2020 season against a Maryland team it very well could have beaten on the field, as the two programs had similar records on the year and the maize and blue have beaten the Terrapins every year since 2015 forward.

Manuel reiterates that Michigan wanted to play this game, but with cases rising throughout the community in Ann Arbor and in the state as a whole, health and safety were paramount and the biggest deciding factor.

“We paused last week because of the increase in numbers on a daily basis, and those numbers kept increasing through this week,” Manuel said. “Through the weekend and through early this week. So for me, and more importantly for our medical staff, as we started to look at the number of our players who were impacted by COVID and impacted by quarantining, it became really apparent to us all, no matter how much we wanted to play the game — we started back in March with the goal of putting the health and safety of our student-athletes, our coaches, our staff is the first priority. And, as numbers continue to grow, we can’t ignore and put first how much we want to play this great game against Ohio State. We have to put their health and safety first, and until we have a good sense of that and control of that, there’s no reason we should move forward knowing we don’t have a good handle on this, COVID cases on our team right now.”

Michigan AD Warde Manuel responds to Herbstreit comments, has hopes Wolverines can play against Ohio State

Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel responded to Kirk Herbstreit’s comments about ducking Ohio State firmly, wants to play Buckeyes.

We were all a little taken aback by comments former Ohio State quarterback and current lead ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit made on the networks College Football Playoff Rankings show Tuesday. During a segment, he uncharacteristically took a shot at Michigan by insinuating that Jim Harbaugh at the program might fawn a coronavirus outbreak to get out of playing the Buckeyes and seeing another bad result.

He later issued an apology on his Twitter account, but you had to figure the Michigan brass would respond, and respond it did.

Athletic Director Warde Manuel appeared in a video shared by Michigan football’s Twitter account and fired back at any kind of notion that the sports’ winningest program would shy away from challenging anyone, most especially its arch-rival Ohio State.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” Manuel said. “I have to pause because my words, the anger, I was infuriated by the insinuation that Michigan would do anything other than play a football game. We’ve been playing this game since 1879. We’re the winningest program for a reason, because we play whoever’s in front of us. And the only way we want to keep anybody from moving on is to beat them on the field of play. And to insinuate that — to say something other than that — is a statement by a fool.”

“It is something that just, I can’t tell you how embarrassed I am for the Big Ten Conference to have one of their representatives who played this game to say that about any team in this conference. And to say it about college football and the student-athletes around this country who are trying to play games during a pandemic is ridiculous and sad.”

You can get a look at the video yourself below.

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I have to say though — and I know it’ll be an unpopular opinion for our readers — I tend to agree with Manuel and Michigan on this. The Game between Ohio State and Michigan is steeped in tradition and lore. Wolverine fans might be rooting for this game to be canceled, but you can’t get back on the top without having the opportunities to do so.

Despite the recent, sustained run of challenges in competing with what’s going on in Columbus, Michigan is still a proud program and isn’t going to duck anyone or anything. At least, that’s not happening with the folks in charge.

And, we just happen to be dealing with a global pandemic, so you have to look at this from that angle too. In fact, Michigan’s game against Maryland is now canceled as a part of trying to get the outbreak under control up in Ann Arbor. There’s real jeopardy here that The Game won’t be played for the first time since 1918, but if so, it’ll be because of the virus. Manuel went on to say he hopes the Wolverines can get back on the field and play OSU.

“We have over 100 tests that are coming back today to be analyzed by our medical staff,” Manuel continued. “We hope to play as we hope to play every game this year, and any team in our league who has stopped thus far had the goal of playing every game this year. And it is disheartening that we’re not going to be able to play Maryland, and our hope is that we can play Ohio State and finish the season in the final week.”

That certainly puts everything up in the air on whether or not this clash between historical titans will take place because of where things are. We hope these two can do battle because it’s a part of American and football culture, and Ohio State can go on with life in the big city. But to think the Wolverines would shy away from a game it circles, stars, and highlights on the calendar every year is nonsense in my opinion.

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WATCH: Tom Izzo joins B1G Impact roundtable discussion on social justice

Michigan State Men’s Basketball coach Tom Izzo joined the B1G Impact roundtable on social justice. You can watch it here.

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One of the Big Ten’s many commitments to social justice this year is their new B1G Impact Diversity and Social Justice Roundtable program where Howard Griffith interviews different movers and shakers in the Big Ten athletics community about important social issues in the country as part of the Big Ten Network.

In the latest episode, Griffith was joined by Michigan State Men’s Basketball head coach Tom Izzo, Michigan AD Warde Manuel, and Maryland football coach Michael Locksley.

You can watch the full episode below:

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Michigan AD Warde Manuel issues statement on Big Ten fall sports postponement

Fall sports were postponed. The Wolverines AD weighs in.

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While the #WeWantToPlay contingent of the Big Ten players, coaches and supporters seemed to have gained momentum towards a 2020 college football season still taking place, the university presidents felt otherwise, voting to postpone the season with eyes on the spring.

Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel issued a statement to react to the news that fall sports, football included, would be benched for the foreseeable, noting that it was a tough, ‘but necessary’ decision.

“For the second time in five months, the Big Ten Conference made the unfortunate but necessary decision to postpone an athletic season in order to protect the health and well-being of our student-athletes, staff, and community members,” Manuel said. “As a result, all fall sport schedules have been postponed. This latest decision was reached after careful consideration and the grim knowledge that this pandemic continues to affect our country adversely. I am deeply saddened for our student-athletes and remain committed to our ongoing promise to provide them with a world-class education. We remain grateful to our global Michigan family for their unwavering support.”

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Stay tuned to WolverinesWire as more reactions and details on the Big Ten’s monumental decision come to light.