In Dave Brandon's ongoing battle to save his job at Michigan, Tuesday was not a good day for the beleaguered athletic director.

A Michigan spokesman said the school had "nothing else to add" to a report from mgoblog.com that the highly-paid administrator sent caustic and condescending emails to fans who wrote to him with their concerns about the athletic department. The website reviewed email exchanges between Brandon and several different fans in which he allegedly told one to "quit drinking and go to bed" and another to "find a new team to support."

The report, posted Tuesday morning, acknowledges there is no way to completely verify the messages were sent by Brandon himself, but goes to great lengths to eliminate any possibility of a hoax.

Brandon did not respond to messages from ESPN.com asking to confirm or deny the report. The university has yet to respond to ESPN's request to review messages sent from Brandon's official university email account through the Freedom of Information Act.

Both the report and the silence that followed from Brandon's office Tuesday is yet another public relations disaster for a man who was pitched as a whiz in that field when he left his job as Dominos Pizza CEO to become Michigan's athletic director. Those issues have been compounded by a struggling football program and a consistently shrinking profit margin that leaves Brandon's future in jeopardy.

The fifth-year athletic director and former Michigan football player has alienated students, alumni and fans in a variety of ways during his tenure. Former players say he ignored requests to set up a place where they could congregate during home games.

Students were upset when Brandon reworked the seating arrangements for football games without consulting them and raised season ticket prices for students to the highest in the Big Ten -- an issue he recently attempted to fix by dramatically dropping the price and promising to be more connected to the student body. Despite the change, the Michigan Daily reported that students still plan to distribute 2,000 "#FireDaveBrandon" T-shirts for Saturday's homecoming game against Indiana.

His detractors started online petitions and organized rallies to demand the university remove him from office earlier this autumn. Their main gripe in early October stemmed from Michigan quarterback Shane Morris playing in a game when he displayed concussion symptoms and the athletic department's butchered response to the incident.

The university's president and its governing board said they would conduct a "deliberate" review of the department at their October meeting. One regent, Mark Bernstein, said afterward that the reservoir of good will for Michigan athletics had run dry because of the department's recent mistakes.

"It's like a spark in a very, very dry forest," Bernstein said.

The flint and steel returned this week with the report by mgoblog.com.

Michigan's biggest athletic donor, Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, offered his support to Brandon in October. On Monday, Ross told the Wall Street Journal that he wouldn't stand in the way of any decision Michigan decides to make with the athletic director.

There's no word on if or when Michigan's president will make a decision on Brandon's future, but the timing of a potential change is quickly becoming an issue. With a 3-5 record this season, the Wolverines football team may be looking to hire a new head coach in December if Brady Hoke can't orchestrate a turnaround on the field. Attempting to fill a head coaching job and an athletic director's seat in a short time window is a difficult task.

The Michigan spokesman did not comment on what effect Tuesday's news might have on Brandon's future. He said there was nothing else to add.