Wolverine Wednesday: What Are We Doing?

CBS and ESPN are struggling with being media companies and being profitable.  So here is a question for you:  Why are they paying these guys in the booth so much?  Tony Romo which CBS clearly wants to cleary cut ties with gets paid $1M per game.  Monday Night Football host Joe Buck just signed a $108M extension.  For working one night a week for 17 - 18 weeks? 

These companies really think people are tuning in for the folks in the booth and not the game?  This entire industry needs a reboot.  

• University of Miami is moving from adidas to Nike next year. 

• Oklahoma needs to be very careful with New Mexico this weekend. 

• WMU has Boise State in two weeks.  It would be great for Michigan if they are ranked 

• The Dabo vs. Capel Bill might have one of those old pro wrestling, "Loser leaves town games this weekend'

• It makes me proud and pissed that Coach Minter and Coach Mac are seeing so much success in the NFL.  Michigan's program would be in a different place if Jesse Minter was our head coach right now. 

Michigan Friday: A Win but a Loss

Michigan Basketball got its first win in its last game in Europe.  Michigan beat The Serbian Club Mega SuperBet 84-81.  McKenney lead the team with 25 points, JP had 16, and EC finished with 15 points.  Michigan got to play a lot of players in this game including Harrison Hochberg, Malachi Brown, and Moeller got over 26 minutes at Center.  

The loss comes with a potential serious knee injury to superstar 5-star true Freshman Brandon McCoy. Who slipped and went down only seconds into the game and had to be carried off the floor.  I don't expect to hear the severity of the injury until the team gets back home and can do MRI's etc.  Either way it did not look good. 

Starting tomorrow Michigan Football will be a week away from playing a real football game in the Big House.  It's time to identify the starters, the 2 deep, and put the game plan in for Western Michigan. 

• Warde is back on Sam Webb radio this morning talking about leaving with his head held high and will always be a Michigan Fan.  He does not deserve a long goodbye.  Just go big man.

Enjoy Week 0 games on Saturday.  The best game of the day might be the night game between Memphis at UNLV at 10 PM EST.  NC State vs. Virginia is also an ACC conference game.  I don't have high expectations for UNC vs. TCU in Dublin.  

Wolverine Wednesday: Patches For Millions Race

Maybe some of you can relate to this story.  How many of you had to go door to door to sell something to raise money for your football/baseball/basketball/soccer team growing up?  It was mostly magazine subscriptions and that was a tough sell.  Nothing like sending your kids out to cold call so you could play shortstop.   True story, not sure what sport it was but I sold light bulbs door to door and that was the easiest sale I ever did.  I was sold out quick! 

Since athletics departments are now running like semi-pro baseball clubs, the race is on to get jersey patches and big dollars.  Two large brands announced deals yesterday.  OSU with JP Morgan Chase for $17M a year and then followed by Notre Dame and SoFi for somewhere between $18-$20M per year.  I would expect the price tag for Michigan would be $25M per to sew your corporate patch on the most iconic jersey in college sports.  The market has been set and now Michigan needs to break it. 

It would be nice if one of the Michigan Fortune 500 companies would step up! 

• Michigan Basketball was led by "Bigs" last season.  This season the guards will lead the way.  Sure would love a backup point.   

• Brian Kelly gets at gig with CBS.  Please keep him away from Big Ten games please.  I feel like he is a Mountain West or PAC 9 type of guy. 

• LIV Golf cancels its Michigan end of the season Championship in Michigan.  That is probably it for the struggling golf league.  Ironically, this week is also the last PGA event in Michigan for the Rocket Classic.  Thank goodness for Oakland Hills and US Opens.  I hear that clubshouse is back up and completed after that devastating fire.

Michigan Friday: A Daft Draft

That was a strange opening night of the NFL Draft, it was a huge crowd but seemed to lack energy and then the picks started to roll in.  Here are a few things I questioned:

• Tate was OSU's #2 WR and was picked #4 in the draft.  Has a college teams second best WR ever been taken #4 in the NFL Draft?

• OSU had some really good players, must be the coaching that they didn't do better last season?

• The NFL are drunk on QB's, taking Ty Simpson #13 is just dumb.  He can't help the Rams next season and is a 2nd round talent. Who has played 15 college football games.

• KC trading picks to move up for the LSU CB, why?

• The Lions had some decent choices for OT's and seemed to pick one with a ton of experience

• Bama's Kaden Procter has a huge upside but struggles with his weight and focus, many are predicting a bust.  Sounds like the perfect Dolphins draft pick. 

• ND had both RB's drafted in the first round.  

• Michigan's new OL coach had two players drafted on Thursday! Including the top OT!

Michigan Players expected to get drafted:

• Derrick Moore 3rd Round 
• Rayshaun Benny 3rd - 7th grade 
• Jaishawn Barham has a 4th round grade
• Marlin Klein TE Round 4-5 Grade 
• TJ Guy has a day 3 late round grade 
• Donaven McCulley when on a top 30 visit but is expected to be a Day 3 pick up. 
• Jimmy Rolder, Round 5-7  
• Dominic Zvada Free Agent 
• Max Bredeson Free Agent

Michigan Basketball got a talented but often injured power forward out of the Portal from LSU in 6'10 245 pound Jalen Reed.  Jalen is coming off back to back season ending injuries but is a talented player if he can stay healthy.  

Michigan Tuesday: Yikes Penn State

Penn State fired their successful coach because he couldn't win big games and had a championship team this season that barley made a bowl game.  They let James Franklin go mid-season and he has already found a new job but Penn State has yet to replace him.  

All the big jobs are now filled.  Even Michigan State made a lighting fast hire after letting Jonathan Smith go.  In fact, I saw that Pat Fitzgerald was being hired before I heard Smith was fired.  Nobody hired Gruden and Penn State is still open after their AD got hacked on Twitter saying, he doesn't know who the F to hire.   Did I mention that signing day is Wednesday and James Franklin is raiding the Penn State class? Good times.  

The latest news is that Penn State is targeting BYU head coach Kalani Sitake.  I like Kalani and think he is a good football coach.  He is no where near ready for the Penn State job.   This has been an absolute disaster for Penn State's program. 

• UK hires Will Stein Oregon's OC and its next head coach. CAL is hiring Oregon's DC Tosh Lupoi.

• Coach O is rumored to be a candidate for Tulane 

• South Florida is in Gruden's home town, will they make that happen?

• James Madison’s Bob Chesney is being hired by UCLA, they are going to try to do the IU turnaround model.

• The big story line for Michigan tomorrow is, what will Julian Walker do?  Julian is a 4/5 star DE, he has been committed to Michigan for awhile now but South Carolina keeps coming for him.  He was in town last weekend and I hope he saw the need for talented pass rushers in Ann Arbor.   Expectation is that he will make a decision and sign on Wednesday. 

• Colorado true freshman LB Mantrez Walker is entering the portal.  At one time he was committed to Michigan. 

• Star MSU WR Nick Marsh is also in the portal.  I'm here for Marsh and Marsh at WR, Marshall at RB, and Marshall at TE. 

Michigan Monday: The Fox Conspiracy Theory

We need Pablo Torre on this pronto! It seems Fox didn't send all the clips to the Big Ten officials for the Jeramiah Smith fumble out of the end zone.  Which means the officials didn't have the angle to show him juggling the ball and stepping out of bounds.

Why would Fox hold back replays from the booth?

1. Fox has a ton of money on the line to have the best football game in the country this Saturday.

2. There has never been a #1 ranked team in the nation play the #2 ranked team in conference championship game. 

3. We have already seen IU play Oregon once this year anyways.  

4. Fox was too busy cueing up their next 1000 commercials to show us during the broadcast 

It's clear Fox lost the game for the Wolverines!  Is that how you do it Ohio State and Michigan State fans?  Yes, that play was a turning point, but Ohio State was clearly the better team on Saturday and still would of won the game. 

A lot has happened in college football since the game ended.  

• Michigan received two new commits. 2026 4 star CB Jamiron Vincent (I like to call him Jam!) who flipped from Baylor.  Welcome Jam! and 2027 4 star DE Recarder Kitchen from Muskegon.  Welcome home guys! 

• Lane after a long think decided to go to LSU and Ole Miss is not letting him coach in the playoffs.  They have already hired their DC as head coach. 

• MSU didn't surprise anyone by firing Jonathan Smith and sending him away with $33M, the surprise was Sparty immediately hiring former Northwestern head man Pat Fitzgerald.  Pat is a good coach but struggled the last few years in the Big Ten when he had the Northwestern job. 

• Mark Stoops was finally fired at UK, not sure what took so long there.  Maybe his last name. 

• Florida seems to be hiring Tulane's coach Jon Sumrall. 

• Arkansas hired the Memphis head coach. 

• Penn State your up?

• National Signing Day is Wednesday.  Crazy I know.  Its actually the early signing period, but its become the #1 Signing Day. 

• Michigan looks to be headed to the Citrus vs. Texas or Vandy.  Should be an interesting exhibition. 

• Corum might have has his best day as a pro, he had 81 yards and TD as the Rams got upset.  Nice to see Moody back kicking well for Washington. 

• The ACC Championship game is very funny.  Duke vs. Virginia.   James Franklin is going to rule the ACC world soon. 

I have thoughts on Sherrone and Michigan's season, but I will save those for later this week.  

Wolverine Wednesday: 49 Straight Nights of Football!

Michigan Football is getting on a plane on Thursday and traveling to LA.   Jimmy will host them for Friday practice and Saturday afternoon they play the USC Trojans.  Right now, Michigan is a 2.5 dog on the road.  

It's a little quiet around the program right now, so I thought I would pass the news for the next 49 straight nights there will be some type of college or NFL football on!  Yes, please! 

• New Single Transfer Window for Football: Jan 2-16th.  Happy New Year the transfer portal is now open! That seems like a small window to get enrolled for winter semester.  I don't really miss the Najee Harris is enrolled or there is a rental car in his mom's name at Avis DTW drama. 

• Wow, there are some good games on Saturday!  

• Has anyone considered the transfer portal and NIL has been really good for Sport Betting apps?  These teams are very even now.  For example:  CMU beats San Jose State week 1, New Mexico plays Michigan hard and blows out UCLA.  Michigan puts up a 60 burger on the Chips.  Last weekend, SJS beats New Mexico 35-28, UCLA beats a top 10 PSU, CMU loses to Akron. 

• Stanford philanthropist and former trustee Bradford M. Freeman has given Stanford Football a $50M gift. Andrew Luck is so happy riding his bike to work today!

Michigan Friday: Meet Your 2025 Captains

 

That's a strong list of leaders! Don't forget Tom Brady said, his greatest football honor was being named a Captain at the University of Michigan. 

• Max Bredeson is mentoring Bryce Underwood and asked to be his camp roommate.

• How did CJ Carr get the start for ND?  Per sources and Chris Hummer: "He's got the moxie. He's got the leadership. He's got that 'it' factor."

• Pat Fitzgerald and Northwestern have come to a settlement on his dismissal. I'm shocked he is not working anywhere.

• Hawaii Football will log nearly 30,000 air miles this season.

• DPJ was released by the Saints after trading for Vele.

• One sleep before Week 0 of College Football! A ranked Big 12 game!

Did you know? That Iowa Football shared the National Championship in 1958?

Iowa has long laid claim to the 1958 national championship. The Hawkeyes were recognized as national champions by the Football Writers Association of America after leading the nation in total offense. The Hawkeyes' 8-1-1 (5-1 Big Ten) campaign ended with a 38-12 Rose Bowl victory over Cal and garnered the No. 2 spot in the final Associated Press poll.

Iowa leading the nation in offense is just crazy.  The AP voted LSU National Champs that year.  With all that said, Auburn has now taken the National Championship that year for themselves.  😃

Wolverine Wednesday: Milton to Pickens

Not a ton of news today.  Thank goodness Joe Milton now has another weapon in Dallas, as the Cowboys traded for George Pickens today. 

• University of Akron's Football APR has fallen to 914 and they are now ineligible for a bowl game.  

• There are ton of UNC offensive players in the portal and it doesn't seem like Chip has been targeting any.  

• Miami Football has landed 7 transfers in 11 days. 

• DB Chace Calicut will take his official to Michigan on 6/20

• 5-star OL Darius Gray has had his expectations exceeded by Michigan so far. 

• 4-star WR Zion Robinson will take his official on 6/13 to Ann Arbor

• Draft Expert Jonathan Givony says this about Vlad:  Watched Michigan's Vlad Goldin working out in LA. The 7'1 Russian center has a tremendous frame, size, and length, more athleticism than you might expect, and even flashes some touch from the perimeter. He will very likely be on an NBA roster next year in some capacity.

Wolverine Wednesday: This is Pro Ball

There is no pretending any longer that college football is an ameutur sport. Many programs are investing $20M into the portal and god knows how much into recruiting 4 and 5 stars.  Don't hold your breath when it comes to Michigan recruiting 5 star talent, Michigan will not be paying those fees anytime soon.  

I was even surprised yesterday when I looked up when Maction starts on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.  Answer is: not until November.   I was surprised, as I thought the MAC could be getting more viewers starting it now.  Probably has something to do with the Baseball Playoffs.  Side note, I told my son after N. Illinois beat ND, that they would lose their next game.  They did to Buffalo this past weekend.

The latest example of college football being a pro sport happened this morning when UNLV 3-0 starting QB Matt Sluka has decided to redshirt for the rest of the year after he says, " it became clear these commitments would not be fulfilled"  UNLV is surrounded by PAC 12 talk and is a solid candidate for making the college football playoffs.  UNLV quickly leaks he was getting NIL deals from other schools to leave.  I can not confirm or deny those calls were made by me.   😀

It's a new world in college football. 

• Michigan USC averaged 6.3M viewers, topped out at over 10M

• Sherrone won Dodd Trophy Coach of the Week 

• Josaiah Stewart won the Chuck Bednarik Player of the Week 

• Michigan was named the #3 Public University by US News and World Report

• This weekend is Military Appreciation Game vs. Minnesota

Michigan Tuesday: Portal Day

College Football is at an interesting cross roads right now.  The NCAA continues to investigate Hamburgers and Ticket Brokers, while they give FBI investigations and Happy Meals full of cash a slap on the wrist.  

The Portal has become college football's eBay with top tier QB's getting between $1M-$2M dollars.  Former Detroit 5-Star QB Dante Moore who played 1 year at UCLA is reportedly down to Oregon, FSU, Michigan, and Miami.  Guess which team is not coming with a bag full of money?

UNC picked up a QB in the portal a week ago and yesterday was the first day players could officially jump into the portal. I'm sure it wasn't tampering. 

Ohio State had 11 players enter into the portal on Monday, including their starting QB who has a year of starting under his belt and was 11-1.  Maybe Ryan Day should be in the portal?

Alabama had a QB jump into the portal as well.  He was the former starter at ND, who transferred to Bama, and is now in the portal in Lacrosse.  

Bowl Games as I mentioned yesterday are becoming nothing more than exhibitions.  Players with an NFL future don't want to play in these games.  Caleb Williams is going to risk a Jake Butt situation by playing at a MLB park at the Holiday Bowl?  With over 2000 players in the portal and your top talent going to the draft, who is left to play in these exhibitions?

There is no way in the world FSU and Georgia wants to play in the Orange Bowl.  They both feel disrespected and I can't imagine Brock Bowers is going to risk further injury by playing in it.  Talk about a Jake Butt situation, same position, same stadium, same Bowl Game. 

Michigan will have players going into the portal, but of course they don't want to miss this playoff run.  Expect some after the game and in the Spring window.

To recap the current college football situation:

✔ NCAA is a mess

✔ NIL is out of control 

✔ Transfer Portal has become eBay with over 2000 players in it 

✔ The CFP Committee left out the undefeated ACC Champion because of its roster 

✔ National Signing Day is 5 days before Christmas 

✔ Bowl Games have become exhibitions

✔ Rosters have been depleted with the portal and NFL entries 

✔ Michigan is the #1 team in the country 

I see one good thing on that check list.  

Michigan has offered a few players in the portal.  DT from Harvard Thor Griffith, DT from Penn Joey Slackman, and a DB from WKU Upton Stout.   Love the names and positions.  Yes, Please. 

• If you want to watch Michigan - IU basketball tonight, you have to have Peacock.  

• Michigan - OSU was the highest watched college football game of the year and beat #2 by over 9M viewers. 

• My thoughts on the Big Ten trophy presentation.  Jimmy having Tony give the award to Zak Zinter I thought diffused the situation.  Tony did shake Jimmy's hand.  Tony didn't speak and then left off the back of the stage.  That is a great show of leadership right there.  Maybe lets not hire a TV executive to run one of the most powerful conferences in sports. 

Wolverine Wednesday: College Football Changing Fast

Did you ever think Nick Saban would be complaining about another team buying players?  A move he has mastered over the years.  If you think that is incorrect, check Nick's record at MSU and the Miami Dolphins vs. his years at LSU and Alabama.  

With all the cheating now being legal with NIL, the transfer portal, and conference divisions being abolished, college football is changing fast. 

Most of these changes have a negative effect on our beloved Michigan program.  Michigan will do its best with NIL, but they will never incent a player to come to Michigan with money.   Jimmy and Hunter Dickinson have been very clear on that.   

It's no secret the transfer portal does not work in Michigan's favor with Michigan's high standards for admissions.  Being able to flip a roster or even a position group is not really possible in Ann Arbor, like it would be in East Lansing for example.  Getting 1 or 2 guys a year, is really the expected upside per off season.

There is also a ton of rumors floating around that the Big Ten will be doing some type of reorganization in its football divisions.  The PAC 12 is doing it and the SEC is talking about having its own college football playoff system.   It will be interesting to see how this affects Michigan, but I'm strongly against having back-to-back Ohio State games.   Maybe they will do something like they did for the COVID year and have teams that haven't played during the year match-up during the last weekend.  

With all this said, I will continue to stand on my soap box and yell at the clouds, that Michigan's goal every year should be a Big Ten Championship only. 

Here is why I think that:

• Per Jimmy: It's hard to beat the cheaters.  Talent wins and the SEC has been buying (and will continue to buy) all the top players in the country.  

• If you don't have the players, you can now buy them out of the transfer portal.  Top players at smaller NIL schools will now get paid every year in the transfer portal. 

• Rebuilding is now only a transfer portal away.  MSU had a coaching change, a roster devoid of talent, the best way to bounce back quickly is through the transfer portal.   Sparty is doing this at a high level and almost got a Heisman trophy out of this strategy last season.  Is Mel Tucker a good coach or good at buying groceries?

• The playoff system is broken and bowls don't matter.   Would anyone be interested in Michigan vs. ND playoff game last season?  That game might have broken TV viewing records.   The Semi-finals were not competitive and never were.  Still, they won't expand the playoffs.   Like the SEC is thinking about they should just do their own playoff system and save everyone time.  

Michigan for some reason always gets the toughest Big Ten schedule most years.  Wisconsin is in another division but Michigan always seems to get lucky having them on the schedule.   Michigan and Minnesota play for a legendary trophy and many years it's hard to find the Golden Gophers on the schedule.   The Big Ten divisions are not even and with the changing landscape it seems to be more of a disparity each year.   Michigan, OSU, and Penn State clearly out recruit the likes of Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Iowa.   Yes, it's time for a change and hopefully one that will benefit Michigan in the long run. 

Michigan Tuesday: COVID Football

College Football started this weekend, sort of.   I know these were nothing games, but what I watched was horrific football.   There were 9 games this holiday weekend and here are a few scores:

Marshall 59 E Kentucky 0

Army 42 Mid Tennessee 0

Memphis 37 Arkansas State 24

BYU 55 Navy 3

There was only a few competitive games and even one coach got fired/resigned, Jay Hopson at Southern Miss who got upset on Thursday.   Jay was a former Michigan assistant under RR for 1 year. 

What a strange time. 

• Jimmy supported the parents protest outside the Big House on Saturday and said, they could be ready to play in 2 weeks.  

• News is starting to leak out that Joe Milton is the starter at QB.  That news will never be confirmed by Jimmy or anyone on staff. 

• Tarik Black was named a starter at Texas.  I hope his mind and body is right.  If it is, he could have a big year. 

• Duncan Robinson is getting his revenge for his poor performance against Villanova and Donte DiVincenzo in the NC, during this series with the Milwaukee. 

• JJ had a very good performance for his first game at IMG. 

• NFL News:  Jordan Glasgow made Indy and Sean McKeon makes the Cowboys as an UDFA.  With good news comes bad, the cuts included:  Darboh, Chesson, Higdon, and Mettelus.

• Michigan is trending for 2021 3/4 star Texas RB Tavierre Dunlap. 24/7 Composite has him as a 3 star, 24/7 ranks him as a 4 star.   The hope is Edwards and Dunlap are the 2 RB's in this class. 

Michigan Monday: Some Weekend News and Notes

• 2021 RB recruit Prophet Brown picked USC.  He had Michigan in his final group.   USC recruiting is starting to turn around.  

• OSU flipped Clemson commit in CB Jordan Hancock.  They still have the #1 class in the nation. 

• Former Michigan recruit and Nebraska WR, JD Spielman is transferring to TCU and is expected to get a waiver to play right away.   JD is the son of the Vikings GM and nephew to famous Detroit Lions LB Chris.  

• Michigan Basketball recruit 5 star SG Matthew Cleveland is expected to announce his decision on Tuesday.  Many expect a FSU decision here. 

• Michigan has had 4 people test positive for COVID

• Trevor Lawrence got engaged on Friday

• Central Michigan tight end Tony Poljan is transferring to Virginia

• Alabama was supposed to open their season against USC in Dallas.   BYU was supposed open against Utah.   Now Alabama may open against BYU.   The Cougars have lost 5 total games due to the Big 10 and PAC 12 conference only decisions including games against MSU and Minnesota.  

Wolverine Wednesday: Everyone Cheats and Nobody Cares Anymore

This is where we are at in big time college sports now and maybe all sports.  Major League Baseball which is struggling to keep pace with other big time sports in the US just found their former champions were cheating during the World Series.  

Lets quickly look at college football, it's known that Alabama has a "system" that funnels money to players and even the National Champion LSU Tigers had a recent scandal that nobody noticed.   A LSU Booster named John Paul Funes  pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $800,000 from a hospital charitable foundation.  How did he get caught?  He paid $180,000 of the foundation’s money to the father of Vadal Alexander, a former LSU offensive lineman.   Not to mention OBJ handing out $100's after the NC game (which I really don't have a problem with), is just another example that times have changed.  

How about the College Basketball Scandal with the FBI Wire Taps?  How has that effected Kansas coach Bill Self or Arizona's Sean Miller?  The answer is, it hasn't and nobody seems to care.  

MSU's Mark Dantonio brought a known sex offender to his team and the MSU athletics department seems happy to employ him because he won a Big Ten Championship and went to the College Playoffs.   They seemed to have learned nothing from one of biggest sexual assaults' scandals in history of college sports.   Mark's program is in a steep decline and there are more reasons to fire him then to keep him.  

OSU's star transfer QB Justin Fields, hasn't really seen the Ohio State campus as he is taking online classes and heads directly to the football facility.    This isn't breaking the rules but another example of the student fading from the term student-athlete.   OSU is running a professional football program and Michigan isn't.

Why do we wonder why Michigan isn't competing with these programs?  Michigan of course shot itself in the foot for many years with the RR and Hoke hires and then have been on a long re-build with Harbaugh.  No of us are happy how long its taking.    We also want Jimmy and the program to be above the rules.   He admitted last summer, "that its hard to beat the cheaters".  Yes, it is.

Kids go to class at U of M, Michigan doesn't pay players, and you need to be elite on the field and in the classroom.   If you are an 18 year old 5 star and Bama offers you a chance to compete for National Championships, $100K in your pocket (or your parents pocket), have a great shot at getting to the NFL, and very light college class schedule.   How many of you are turning that down at 18?  I wonder why Najee Harris didn't get on the flight to Detroit.

I'm not saying we go Lance Armstrong but if something doesn't change we need to be happy understanding with losing to the programs that are.