Endzone: The Rise, Fall, and Return of Michigan Football

This is a thoroughly enjoyable account of the recent controversies surrounding the Michigan Football program (though it is more than about just football). One can get a feel for that story just by reading the Amazon blurb, so no need for that here. (Suffice it to say that Toys R Us is likely heading for a fall.) Mr Bacon is a journalist and what you get here is a very good journalist's account, that is not a criticism, it is just an accurate statement so you know what you are getting. It could hardly have been otherwise since much of what he is describing is only a few years old and some of it occurred just months before publication. As such, it is fast paced, engaging, to the point, with lots of interviews quoted. Whether in a year from now some of it will stand up to a more critical scrutiny or in light of ongoing developments remains to be seen. But that really isn't the point here.Michigan football came close to losing much of what it was best known for and maybe it got it back. We will see. If you want to read about how it got to where it is, this is probably the best source you will get.The book probably suffers a bit from a conceit that Michigan stands apart, substantially elevated from the rest of the pack. I can certainly attest to the fact that it wants to be that school and that it has many of the qualities it aspires to. But one gets the impression reading this that there isn't anything wrong with Collage ball or the NCAA that a good strong dose of "do it Michigan's way" wouldn't cure. Certainly the values expressed here on behalf of Michigan (whether observed or in the breach) would be a welcome sight for many programs, but I doubt that College ball can be so easy fixed and that the troubles of the NCAA don't run deeper.Mr Bacon writes well, though in a reporter-like way. Accordingly he could use the help of an editor (or a better one) for two reasons. The thread is sometimes hard to follow, with names being used sometimes with surnames and sometimes not. It just gets confusing at times. Second, there are some glaring typos. And those get more frequent and more egregious as you get towards the end. This did not really diminish the reading experience, but it reminded me often that I was reading about events that had only happened maybe weeks before the actual drafting of those chapters. An editor would have been a welcome buffer, and the typographical errors made clear that an editor had not done that job.Overall a good read, less and less critical as one gets to text written nearer and nearer to the time period being discussed. That doesn't mean it is wrong but it gets a little much at times. If you follow college football, this is a great weekend read.

The story told in Endzone begins in 2007 when tiny Appalachian State shocked the college football world by coming into Michigan Stadium and knocking off the storied Michigan Wolverines. Although they would finish 9-4 with a Citrus Bowl victory, coach Lloyd Carr was done. Controversy then ensued when Michigan recruited away ("stole") West Virginia's Rich Rodriquez. But under "RichRod" and successor Brady Hoke, Michigan would average less than seven wins a season from 2008-2014.The results on the football field, however, were only the manifestation of years of decline in the university’s athletic department. John Bacon, author of numerous books on Michigan athletics, describes how and why Michigan Football declined on-field and off, what it meant to the University and those who are part of it, and finally how it "returned." To do this, Bacon takes his reader back to the founding of the Michigan athletics program, explaining the enigmatic concept of the "Michigan Man” and its place in Michigan lore.The book largely centers on the many changes brought by Athletic Director Dave Brandon, and how they systematically undermined the university’s values to the point where virtually every constituent group was alienated and angry. As Bacon astutely notes, when students angrily marched over to President Mary Sue Coleman's House, they were after Brandon’s job, not head coach Brady Hoke’s.Of his many mistakes, the biggest was Brandon’s failure to recruit former Michigan QB and Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh to replace Rodriguez in 2011. Brandon’s ego was a major factor, as it was in many other decisions that led the athletic department astray. Bacon chronicles Brandon’s eventual downfall and the subsequent process that would lead to that failure’s reversal in 2014, a process largely driven by outsiders who had had enough.It's telling that Bacon's declared that Michigan football had "returned" occurred before playing a single down under Harbaugh. Michigan football isn't about wins, but doing things a certain way, the "Michigan way" with the belief that the wins will eventually follow. Bringing in a coach who understood this and embodied the school's values was all that was needed to constitute "return” in the eyes of the program’s fans.Endzone is really "must reading" for anyone who wants to understand what happened at the University of Michigan between 2007 and 2014. Alums and fans will find it indispensable. But many others with no connection to the University will be fascinated with the story of how a great institution loses it way and what it must do to restore itself by remaining true to its values.

Interesting insight regarding dave Brandon's role in the demise of this storied football program.

It made me so angry I walked away from it for months. But when I came back, a Michigan triumph was waiting this book is great.

What a great book. Bacon is a terrific writer with a deep understanding of Michigan and college football.

Excellent livre pour les fans de football et des Wolverines.