After a storm gathered over the weekend portending the likely end of Warde Manuel's tenure as the Michigan athletics director, perhaps by the end of this week, Manuel himself spoke. And spoke a lot.
Manuel sat for a live interview with The Michigan Insider for well over an hour on Tuesday morning, and the conversation started with a Mark Twain-style "the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated" proclamation from the Michigan AD.
"What happens in this world, for whatever reason people decide to put things out there about what the future is going to hold. I think I've been fired three times by social media in the 10 years I've been here... Don't believe everything that's out there in the world about what people say," he said.
However, seemingly in the next breath, Manuel implied that his decade-long tenure atop the Michigan athletics department, as well as his 40-year relationship with the university that stared as a defensive tackle for Bo Schembechler, could be nearing its end. "It could happen, I don't know. I don't know what the future is going to be and how long I'll be in this position," he said.
In fact, asked directly if he's had conversations about buying out the remainder of his contract, Manuel confirmed that those conversations have taken place.
"I've had several conversations over the last six or seven months about the future and things that have happened -- different opportunities and different ways that things could go. I'm not going to hide from that conversation. As it relates to the way things are going to go, I'm not 100 percent certain. Those conversations happen. Things are discussed along the way," he said. "But it's not taking away from me doing my job and what I need to do help us drive success. How those conversations come together and when anything is going to be announced, I can't predict that."
So, if the gist of the reporting is true and that Manuel really could be on his way out as Michigan's AD, why sit for this interview? Why all the bluster? Good question, Zach. Glad you asked.
Manuel talked Tuesday to clear the air and settle scores. He took issue with the nature of the reporting, and vented frustration at his rivals, seemingly those across campus on the academic side of the University of Michigan.
"It's been challenging because of how 'sources' and others outside of athletics that have tried to put this in a particular way, and that I battled through," he said. "It's challenging and at times very frustrating as a leader to have to deal with it. You get frustrated by some of the internal politics that you have to deal with. We are in competition, in the Big Ten and nationally. I can deal with it when it comes from the outside. But when it comes from the inside, that bothers me."
If Manuel really is on his way out -- which, again, he did not deny despite multiple opportunities to do so -- he used Tuesday as part exit interview, part victory lap. Any near-future exit would not be a firing. Manuel termed his 10 years as the most successful decade in the history of Wolverine athletics, with four national championships (including one in football and men's basketball), 95 Big Ten championships, and astounding 4,000 Academic All-Big Ten honorees. And Manuel did it all despite "unnamed sources" within the university wishing upon his failure every step of the way.
"I want people to understand I don't need the credit, but I'm not going to stand idly by and let people say, 'All of this happened despite Warde Manuel.' That's crazy," he said. "That's crazy."