Hard to see embattled Michigan AD Warde Manuel emerging unscathed

Barely three months since students flooded downtown Ann Arbor and chanted “Tt’s great … to be … a Michigan Wolverine” as they celebrated Michigan basketball’s first NCAA championship in 37 years, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone on the school’s campus who feels great about anything in the athletics department.

Instead, the university found itself in a much different and darker place Monday, July 13, when it faced new legal accusations that replaced all that happy singing with the deafening silence emitted through a barrage of “no comment” statements.

An amended lawsuit from former Wolverines linebackers coach Chris Partridge alleges former school president Santa Ono worked to hide details of the football team’s sign-stealing scandal and that athletic department leaders knew about ex-coach Sherrone Moore’s affair with staff member Paige Shriver years before it led to his firing.

And Warde Manuel – the athletic director who orchestrated that jubilation three months ago and even more jubilation three years earlier, when Michigan football won its first title in a quarter-century – finds himself in the eye of the storm as he faces the end of his highly successful but troubled tenure.

Manuel is named in Partridge’s lawsuit, which claims he knew about Moore’s relationship with Shriver “for years without taking action to protect the employee.” 

He’s also a focal point of an investigation that began in December, run by Chicago law firm Jenner & Block and costing the school nearly $12 million. The Free Press has learned that higher-ups have been briefed on the findings. The U-M Board of Regents is expected to discuss that investigation at a Thursday meeting in Traverse City.

On Sunday, Yahoo Sports reported that Manuel’s future is “in doubt” based on the findings of that investigation. On Monday, Manuel told the website: “The president [Domenico Grasso] and I have had several great conversations over the past couple of days. There are no plans for me not to continue to be the athletic director for the near future.”

The near future. As in the ax may swing at any moment in the near future.

It’s impossible to say what exactly will happen to Manuel once the investigation findings are released and discussed by regents. But it’s also impossible to imagine Manuel emerges unscathed from years of scandal within the school’s prized football program.

Can anyone imagine Jenner & Block lawyers facing regents after nearly $12 million has been shelled out and saying: “Yeah, you know the guy who’s been in charge of all this? Yeah, we got nothin’ on him.”

So it’s not hard to see Manuel getting blamed in the investigation. The question is how much blame does he get – and what kind of punishment does the university want to dole out? Also, how much can the investigation truly divulge about Manuel’s role while the school contends with lawsuits from Partridge and Shriver?

Cleaning house always sounds good. But anyone who’s ever actually cleaned a house, inside out and from top to bottom, can tell you it’s no easy chore. It’s actually messy, difficult work that often reveals other structural problems, whether you’re talking about an actual house or an entire athletic department.

The closest example Michigan might follow with Manuel could come courtesy of its most hated rival. Ohio State basically gave then-AD Gene Smith a slap on the wrist in 2018 by suspending him without pay for two weeks after he and then-football coach Urban Meyer mishandled domestic-assault allegations against former assistant coach Zach Smith.

The big difference between than Manuel’s situation is twofold: First, U-M’s investigation is examining the entire department; second, he’s coming off a huge high that vaulted him into rarefied air – an AD with national titles in football and basketball on his résumé.

Does Michigan really want to get rid of the guy who proved he can hire a championship hoops coach, won the school an NCAA Tournament title and helped refill those NIL and donor coffers, just as new football and basketball coaches are about to start their first seasons in Ann Arbor?

As for Manuel deciding to step aside on his own? He’s 58 and under contract through 2030. He has too much road in front of him to imagine a quiet resignation – to decide he’s done as much as he can – after 10 years on the job.

Nah. It’d be a lot easier to imagine the man who played defensive lineman under U-M legend Bo Schembechler saying to Grasso, the regents, and the rest of an ungrateful administration: You’re gonna have to fire me.

If that’s the case, you can also imagine a new contingent on Manuel’s behalf joining the growing briefcase-carrying group that’s flooding downtown Ann Arbor these days and chanting to itself: “It’s great … to sue … the Michigan Wolverines.”

Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on X @cmonarrez.