Dave Brandon breaks silence: "I've been doing things that are frankly more important"

The embattled athletic director has finally broken his silence.

Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon who, like Michigan coach Brady Hoke, has been under fire for how the Shane Morris concussion issue was handled during its 34-10 loss to Minnesota. After delivering an early-morning statement confirming Morris' concussion and sending Hoke out to face the media on Monday without prior knowledge, there has been a call to step down from the student-body and the fanbase alike.

After days of silence, Brandon finally spoke on the issues that have plagued his department by making the rounds of the local news station.

Brandon told WXYZ's Tom Leyden that he's had important things to do since then.

"First of all, I've been doing things that are frankly more important," Brandon said. "That's probably not what you want to hear, but ever since we got that statement out in the wee hours. What I've been doing is connecting with our student-athletes. I've traveled from team, to team, to team and I've caught them during practices and meetings.

"My primary responsibility is to communicate with our kids and assure them about our commitment to their health and safety. Make sure they understand with the noise that's being made out there and what they should understand and believe about the values of this program."

Although students across the country have called for Dave Brandon's ouster through petitions and a rally that saw students protest Brandon on Michigan president Mark Schlissel's front yard of his home on Tuesday.

Although the outside voices don't believe he is doing what he should be doing as athletic director, Brandon believes he is "doing his job."

"I'm doing my job," Brandon said. "My job is to manage this department and to take care of these 930 students."

Brandon, who spoke of needing to fix the disconnect between the department and the student-body, also sat down with The Michigan Daily, the Michigan school newspaper. In a four-minute video discussion, Brandon discusses his feelings regarding the calls for his termination (quotes via The Michigan Daily.)

"(The calls for job termination) that's very hurtful," Brandon told The Michigan Daily. "Anybody who thinks they want groups to gather with the topic being criticism, and sometimes very personal attacks, on the job you're attempting to do is hurtful. It's hurtful to me and hurtful to my family. I'm not tone-deaf, that hurt very badly. My job and my personality is, to the best of my ability, I have to fix that. I have that to own that as well.

"Clearly there's been situations where we've disappointed people. Disappointments take a lot of different shapes for a lot of different reasons. If we've got people who are disappointed and people who don't trust, the only thing we can do is work really hard to gain back that trust."

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