Michigan Alum Taylor Lewan: What School & Program Must Do in Wake of Moore Scandal | Rich Eisen Show

‘Bussin’ with the Boys’ hosts Taylor Lewan and Will Compton join Rich Eisen in-studio to discuss the Sherrone Moore controversy at Rich and Taylor’s alma mater Michigan and where the Wolverines’ football program and the university as a whole goes from here.

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Welcome to my bus. Yeah, there’s a lot going on out there. I’m sitting between a couple Michigan guys. Yeah, you asked me how how we’re doing. Been better. I’ve been better, too. It was, by the way, this this was great. Uh we’re getting ready to sit down and tape this thing and Will comes up to me, goes, “How about that Michigan stuff, huh?” And I’m like, “Yeah, how about that Michigan stuff?” You know, how about that oxygen we’re breathing in today? Huh? What do you think of that oxygen? I look at this great alumni that Michigan has and I look about the great and powerful Rich Eisen and I’m thinking like if there’s someone that’s gonna save this university, it’s got to be you. I mean, last night it came out of my mouth. I’m like, what’s Rich think about all this, dude? Same. Yes. Well, I’m thinking about the same thing you are. I mean, just like where the hell did this come from? Why is this happening? How did it happen? What in the world is Michigan going to do next? I don’t even know when the page turn is actually going to happen, right? You know, I mean, you you were asking me right off the top like who who should be the next coach? I’m like I I I have no idea. I mean, there’s still a lot of pieces that need to land before we you get to to that square. True. Wouldn’t you think the the fearful thing are the pieces that land, right? Like right now there’s a b a lot of speculation taking place and what’s really happened all like you know there’s arrest that happened. There’s a bunch of crazy things that like I am not I should not like comment on from like a factual standpoint. Right. Sure. If we live in the world where everything we’re seeing is true, you have to assume these next couple of weeks, and you were talking about this right after the Get Up show, is like if if we’re going to live in a world where if that’s all true, then if I’m Michigan, it’s what’s our next move? Let’s make this change as fast as possible. Because you’re thinking about you’re the youngest team in the entire Big 10 last year. You went nine and three. You had a top 15 recruiting class. In January 2nd, you have the transfer portal. So all those things combined, I look at Michigan as if they have the right structure in place from a coaching standpoint, the right coaches, assistant coaches, you can be a college football playoff contender next year. And if you want to get that done and not lose all your players, like you need to move quickly and diligently, but put the most important people uh for Michigan in a room and have don’t let them leave till they make a decision. This can’t be uh middle of January and now here’s our new head coach. you know, half your guys have left. Who knows what happens with your quarterback. Like these these recruits are like, “Well, I don’t I I want to go to the NFL, right? Every every player that comes to college football wants to go to the NFL.” They’re going to go to a place that has better structure because right now, the way Michigan is, there’s a lot of uncertainty taking place, and we got to fix it immediately. Yeah. It’s it’s like it’s one of those best case scenario, you’re able to take your time and find the right guy, but it it feels like you’re in the worst case scenario right now. Like last night it went from oh this doesn’t seem good to it got bad in a hurry and now it just feels like if they’re not if they don’t have urgency for alignment to make a decision soon and you sit and this situation is sat on because you’re taking your time to find the right guy then the entire window of things can get even worse than what it was from last night is going to continue to happen which to me I feel like it kind of it tarnishes it ruptures the whole Michigan idea the structure there who’s going to want to go there if things continue to to leak leak out and come out and everything else. So to me, that’s why I feel like alignment’s got to happen in a hurry and the decisions got to be made fairly quickly because of the recruiting class, the guys who are there right now, like you know, like as players in the world that we’re in with the NIL players in college football, you’re not only waking up, group chats firing up to where you’re talking about, what did you see this, did you see that, man, did this happen? I thought I saw this back in the day to you’re also having the conversations of, hey, what are we like are you thinking of moving? If you’re thinking of moving, like where are you looking at right now? my agent’s telling me this, there’s a lot of dominoes that could fall if you don’t make a decision somewhat soon. Right. I So, cuz I veer back and forth between the we got to deal with this for the football program to we we we’ve got bigger issues potentially than just the football program. I if there’s uh a systemic problem in terms of a coaching staff, if there’s a systemic problem about what what the uh athletic department knows and when they know it and what what is happening like there there’s there’s a lot of of issues here. Also, a family is shattered. Yeah. Which is an actual family is shattered. Um families are shattered. There’s football program that appears to be shattered right now. And how do you how do you even sit here and say who should be the football coach except for the fact that there is a program to run in a cutthroat world of college football? And if you are looking for your next head coach and you might be looking to buy somebody out because that’s the way you do things these days in college football, who would you target? They’re potentially getting ready for a college football playoff game right now or they’re getting ready for the end of an NFL season. I mean, coaches in the NFL aren’t going to be available for for this sort of conversation for another few weeks, for a month and a half. And so, but the and the transfer portal’s coming up. You got to wonder if Lane Keifin’s in Bryce Underwood’s driveway right now. You know, you know what I mean? like you these are things that you have to be figuring out while you’re also trying to put the pieces together as to how did it go from what we were seeing throughout the football season or to Chiron Moore learning he’s been fired and then everything that happened after that. What I mean I didn’t think in a million years there’d be a mug shot of a Michigan football coach. Is that real? Was that a real thing? I I I have no see and that’s the other thing too is what’s real and what isn’t anymore you know which you know obviously that’s for a totally different show or a different day but you know it’s just it there is a lot of shocking stuff to get through um and a scandal that you just can’t believe has landed uh on on our school man you know like that’s what’s happening right now. The thing that you you bring up an incredible point of is there are families that have been shattered. There are people that are affected on a personal level that we sit on like we sat on Get Up and it was Greeny. He him and Chef kind of handled the sensitivity part to it, but then it’s like, hey, we’re a sports show. So like it might come off to a casual viewer that we’re being extremely tonedeaf about what’s really an issue when we’re sitting here trying to figure out who the next head coach is going to be. My argument to that is is I don’t know what’s real and what’s not right now. I would hate to go and say something that hurt somebody without knowing all the correct information. So because I have I sit on a show and have to talk about football and this is a major piece of news. Yeah. Well, the only thing I’m going to lean back on right now is okay, where are we going with the University of Michigan? So, it’s not that I’m not empathetic to everybody that’s affected because it is very important that these people that were affected like I got two daughters. Chiron’s got two three daughters. Like you have two daughters. Like it’s it’s absolutely heartbreaking to know that those three girls like for the rest of time they’ll be able to pull that up on the internet regardless of how things work out. And that I I I have a lot of empathy for. But when it comes to the coaching search, you’ve really got to figure out like 2023 happens in the midst of a national championship season. You have all these allegations come out. There’s an NCA. They they, you know, they try to break down everything, figure out. They end up slapping with a $20 million fine. Now, this is taking place. It’s like if you’re Michigan and you you want your logo to keep standing for the things that you and I believe it stands for, you have to make a a credible decision, a long-term decision, character, integrity, all those things have to be in it, but you have to produce in the field now, too. So, there’s a lot of different variables that need to happen in a hurry that you would love to have more time for, but because of the the dates, you don’t have those. Tell me about it. Part of me is sitting uh about last night um you know I was mentioned at the top of the show I was getting ready for that Steuart Scott Booya event um just took me about 20 minutes because you know not much is needed um not much priming uh needs to go down um for various reasons and I 20 minutes away from my phone I look at my phone 29 text messages and I’m like what the hell is happening and I’m going through all this and I’m stunned and I’m completely taken aback. And then at some point after all this, I land on the what next, right? Who’s the next coach? Who could this possibly be? And I’m getting all of these texts about this person and that person and that person and this person. And I’m thinking to myself, if there was an investigation going down and rumors were everywhere, you and I both heard them. Just to share off air what we we we talk about. We heard them. We’re just like, this can’t possibly be true. I hope it’s not true. I was thinking to myself, this couldn’t get done before Matt Campbell gets hired by Penn State, you know, just to throw a name out there. you know, we just saw all of that like and and then there’s the confliction the conflicting part about it about the human element of it that’s going down and I feel stupid talking about the football part of it but that at the end of the day there is uh a Michigan standard that we keep talking about that now keeps getting torn down by real life events and everyone else rightfully saying what the hell is going on at your spot that is legitimately what’s happening right now I feel like this is a therapy session between us right now and and you’re doing a great job of putting us to the dance. How how much do you guys charge by the hour? I’m very happy to sit in on this. Okay. Right. You know, so this is the way I kind of feel about it. But and you like, you know, you’re you’re treating this really well. There’s a piece of Will Compton right now that is like screaming inside wanting to be wanting to be, you know, cuz I see. Yes, it’s true. Not not the person we’re talking about. Just just football in a vacuum. I enjoy the fun. I enjoy the trolling. Um, but this being a very real situation, then you’re looking at the the football side of it to where it’s like you want to have time for all the things that are tragic and the sadness and everything going on. And then when you’re talking about the football side, it’s like, yeah, what are they going to do? Because no matter what, like the reality is when you fire your coach, there’s like a 30-day window that players have to leave. You’re going to want to keep them there. Is there align like I know they’re trying to figure out their alignment right now and who they want to go after and what they want to do but it’s like man what what are they going to do because they g they’re going to need to do something fast if they don’t want to look like you know Penn State who’s kind of fell off and the way they had to go about their hiring process throughout the year like what candidates are you going to have you’re going to have to target guys who are currently in the college football playoff like talking about Kaylin Dbor guys who just signed extensions yeah guys who just signed extensions NFL names coming up and you alluded to like those guys aren’t going to be available right now. Well, mid January or or if you’re if you want to take someone from a a winning playoff run football team, maybe not till, you know, I know these things can be on the side and we’ll wait for you, but you can’t tell a bunch of kids who are like what’s happening there and having the opportunity in the first two weeks of January to figure something out. Yeah. Say just stick with us. You know, you like the campus, you know, you like the education opportunities. Like you that’s not flying. And then that selling point being stick with us. We have this, we have that. Well, you have your agent in your ear and other guys talking about money you could be getting if you could leave here. This is a mess. You can start a bidding war for you if you do it now. And regardless of like the true product in the field we saw this year, it’s the youngest team in the Big 10. It’s the youngest team in the Big 10. So there’s a a bunch of talent that all these kids who had played significant snaps woke up to multiple text messages about where you can go. What are you hearing? What are you hearing from your your your guys that you played with or other just as a a Michigan football alum here? Well, when it comes to like hearing the rumors, I think there were all rumors kind of getting sprinkled around a couple weeks ago and I think everyone is now caught off guard, which is a little confusing to me because if I’m a a common being just on the outside as a fan watching like if I’m hearing rumors and you’re hearing rumors and you’re hearing rumors, well then the the administration and the people that are in control of everything, they obviously know the rumors as well. So if this was ever going to be a thing, let’s say it it’s not true and it never happened, great. But if it is true and we live in the world we are right now, you have to be a little critical of the University of Michigan of if you’re a top five brand in college football. We had Ed Oron who kind of talks about the back channels and the third party, you should have been prepared for any scenario that could have possibly taken place from a business standpoint and business standpoint is the the football team, right? So that’s why I’m sitting there being like, if you guys really have your stuff together, you should know who your next guy is. Those back channel conversations should have already taken place because that’s the world we live in. It’s not like there’s a lot of information that gets out now, but there’s also ways to go talk to somebody, you know, kind of feel their temp on, hey, do you want to go here? What’s the thought process? Would you ever be a Michigan head coach? And you know who your top two, three guys are, or you should know who they are and be able to pull the trigger at any moment for a brand like Michigan. Yeah. And and and again, if you’re putting the the critical hat on, it’s like if you’re sitting there wondering if Michigan was going to make a move, like some of the rumors started to circulate after the Ohio State game to where those conversations were starting to take place and it didn’t happen or they didn’t make a decision to do it then and now that it comes all out right now when it kind of just derails everything. That’s why I feel like it went from not good to this is bad to where it could get worse in a hurry if they don’t figure out what the alignment’s going to be in a decision they might make. So that way they can turn the page and start doing damage control for the future because you brought somebody in that represents the brand well. So does this answer your question of how how about that Michigan stuff? Was that did this answer your question? I you’re open-ended. Hey, you hear about that Michigan things, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot more. Yeah. I I it’s again, you guys are Michigan guys. Like I we were getting the information last night like while we were going to uh to dinner and um I’m sitting there kind of seeing ta Taylor like get receive text messages trying to figure out what’s going on and I’m I’m kind of taken back seeing all the rumors, seeing everything going on in the internet, watching it burn and I’m just like, man, what is what is going on? Yeah. What is going on? Like I wonder we’re giving a heads up maybe that a firing was was on. We I Well, again, you know, you heard from the the beginning of the show. I I I heard nothing but this rumor within an hour and a half of Ohio State beating Michigan from four different people, right? I mean, and it’s interesting that as soon as Ohio State happens, I heard this, you know, I I told Suz I didn’t really want to spread it to anybody cuz I heard because you don’t know what’s real and this is as scarless as it comes. Like this is as you know, look that up. Hey, he’s right. He’s right. He said scarless. I mean, sounds like a great word. I’m sorry. I can’t I can’t be on my Michigan mountain. Yeah. No, there’s no mount to stand on. There’s no mount. It’s just there it’s whatever. There’s it’s an inverse mount. It’s it’s dug beneath Nebraska. That’s how far we’ve nasty rumors it could possibly be, right? And and now, you know, throughout the entire process with everybody being hired here and hired there and moving around and buying out and extending their contracts, I thought to myself, well, I guess this can’t be true. I had no idea there was an investigation happening and then boom, out of the blue comes this announcement that 100% seems to confirm exactly what I was hearing, what you were hearing. And so, yeah, I mean, and the the ultimate shocker was the aftermath. And it’s been really difficult to try and figure out how somebody in the the administration of of our school needs to figure out as you mentioned what is the next step. Is this a larger issue? Yeah. Um but because you look across the rest of the you know athletic department landscape. I mean um everybody in the basketball program is loving life right now. Yeah. You know and so that’s the same that’s the same athletic department. you know, hockey just split with uh Michigan State, which is a big thing. It’s a big to-do. Michigan’s hockey program. I just I could go on and on and on. Uh but we h we we have to sit around as a a collective, you and I and the rest of the alums have to sit around and how do we process all of this stuff and I’m still doing it. So, I don’t know if that answers your question. It’s like the uh the Homer Simpson gift where it’s like you’re wearing the Michigan football pads backing into the bush and now you’re coming out with a basketball jersey on. Yeah, pretty much. That’s for the casuals. Will we need to figure out the problems here? I’ll tell you who can fix the program and he’s sitting at this desk. It’s Rich Eisen. All right. And Rich Eisen might have to become the AD. Might have to become the head coach, the everything. We just need one dictator. And his name is Rich Isaac. Sounds good. I’ve never been referred to as a dictator. Well, you I’m saying you have I’m giving you I’m giving you my vote for dictator. Supreme ruler. Supreme ruler. I appreciate. Hey, you made it all the way to the end. Thanks for that. 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