Despite the ongoing scrutiny surrounding the handling of quarterback Shane Morris’ concussion, Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon said he has not considered firing head coach Brady Hoke, nor has he considered resigning.
Brandon, in an interview with The Michigan Daily, did admit to mistakes made by the athletic department when Morris was left in the game for another play after being hit hard in the helmet.
Hoke, who defended Brandon Thursday, maintained that he and other medical personnel did not see the hit on Morris and said Monday afternoon that he thought Morris was removed from the game because of an ankle injury. Brandon said he does not know how Hoke learned of Morris’ concussion.
“That was just another example of the failure of communication that took place between the doctors, all of the trainers – in this case, the head coach – to try to piece together what happened,” Brandon said.
Brandon said he spent Sunday “getting further acquainted to what happened on the sidelines,” but did so without Hoke. He then gathered further information about what happened on the sideline Saturday afternoon throughout the day on Monday, leading to the statement released early Tuesday morning acknowledging "a serious lack of communication."
“The appropriate person in athletics — and I judged that to be me — needed to make it very clear that a mistake was made,” Brandon said. “We own it, we recognize and we acknowledge that a mistake was made, we apologize for it — and I did — and we immediately committed that we would learn from it and make changes to ensure that it wouldn’t happen again.”
As he did in Tuesday morning’s statement, Brandon detailed new protocols that will change moving forward. That includes having a medical professional in the press box that will have access to monitor injuries on television broadcasts as well as in real time.
More than 10,000 people have signed a student-run petition calling for Brandon to lose his job. Additionally, students led a protest Tuesday calling for university president Mark Schlissel to fire Hoke and remove Brandon from his position.
Brandon said the student protest was “hurtful.”
“That’s very hurtful,” Brandon said. “Anybody who thinks that they want groups to gather with the topic being criticism and sometimes very personal attacks on the work and the job. It’s hurtful. It’s hurtful to me, it’s hurtful to my family. I’m not tone-deaf. I felt very badly. My job and my personality is to the best of my ability, I have to fix that.”
Brandon, who played football for the Wolverines in the 1970s, hopes to mend the relationship with the student body by making more public appearances. And above all else, he does not want the focus to move away from Michigan’s student-athletes.
“Michigan athletics cannot be successful without the community embracing this work, caring about student-athletes and caring about coaches, and supporting the work they do.” Brandon said. “I’m just hopeful that with the controversy, personal attacks, and demonstrations aside, we stay focused on the real purpose and mission of the Athletic Department and the young people we care about.”
For more Michigan news, visit TheWolverine.com.
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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
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