Tracking Dave Brandon of Michigan's Airplane

I saw this on Adam Rittenberg of ESPN's blog, and here is the link to FlightAware, which allows a person(s) to track flights. Looks like Mr. Brandon is on his way to John Wayne Airport, presumably to meet with Brady Hoke of San Diego State, after Les Miles decided to stay at LSU.

For what it is worth, I have felt all along that Hoke is the person Michigan should have offered the job in the first place. Hoke wants the job, and has done a decent job at Ball State and San Diego State, two places that are not synonymous with winning. Hoke is a former defensive line coach at Michigan, and can probably recruit well in the Midwest.

I respect what Dave Brandon was probably trying to do by keeping Rich Rodriguez around until after January 1st - the buyout from the contract fell substantially, and he wanted to see if Michigan would look improved in the bowl game, as compared to when Michigan was beaten up by both Wisconsin and Ohio State.

I may be mistaken, but I believe Dave Brandon also felt that Jim Harbaugh had a strong interest in returning to Michigan. Brandon may have believed he was giving Harbaugh time to complete Stanford's season (the Orange Bowl was January 3rd), but in reality, may not have known about how strong Harbaugh's NFL aspirations were until it was too late to turn back from his decision to fire Rich Rodriguez.

In the meantime, Michigan has been losing out on valuable recruiting weekends (Michigan canceled last weekend's visits, and I have doubts they will be able to have any this coming weekend). Several players who were considering Michigan have eliminated them from consideration as they do not know who will be the coach yet.

Keep an eye open on the FlightAware website, as well as in airports if you happen to frequent any in the near future. You may even run into Dave Brandon while you are there.