Univ. of Michigan President Mark Schlissel on Friday said that he and interim AD Jim Hackett "will sit down and start talking about how the department should look moving forward," according to David Jesse of the DETROIT FREE PRESS. Schlissel: "I was incredibly fortunate to find Jim Hackett. He did an incredible job. As you recall, when I introduced him, I appointed him as an interim athletic director. I didn't specify a term. He had some very important short-term tasks. He had to review the football program. ... I think he did a very thoughtful analysis of the program." Schlissel "did not provide any other details on whether Hackett will be kept" as the permanent AD. Meanwhile, Schlissel said that Jim Harbaugh was the "best possible coach out there" for UM football. Schlissel added, "He has experience at a very similar university (Stanford) with very high academic standards. He's a man of the kind of level of integrity I'm very proud of to have as a football coach." Schlissel admitted that he "had much to learn about big-time college athletics" when he was hired to the position. He said, "Part of my job as the president is to focus on jobs that rise to the level of institutional importance, and certainly, the events that occurred in our athletic department last fall and the attention that they drew pushed it to the front burner. I appreciated quickly the great passion our community feels for athletics." Schlissel said, "I need (Hackett's) impressions of how the athletics program as a whole is doing, not just football, what his thoughts are for what we need. I've developed my thoughts on what we need" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 1/10).
MARK HIS WORDS: Schlissel: "Although (athletics) is not the mission of the university, it is certainly a large part of the culture of the university. Amongst the several things I've learned during my time here since July is that the University of Michigan has a very strong culture. It has a culture of student engagement, student activism, alumni engagement. People who have been here develop a love and a passion for the place and I think part of what connects people to the place and keeps them connected is athletics." (DETROIT NEWS, 1/11). Schlissel said of Hackett hiring Harbaugh, "He did a very thoughtful analysis of how the football team's season played out. He made the decision to make a coaching change, but he handled that with incredible class and respect for coach Hoke and his group of assistant coaches and other staff" (MLIVE.com, 1/10).
