Michigan Friday: Did Michigan Find Its Transfer QB?

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Michigan has been a bit quiet in the transfer portal so far and it makes a number of fans (including myself) nervous that they are again not taking the portal seriously.   The insiders are saying, don't let the lack of noise mean they are not active.   Which ok, we will trust the process for a week or so before we pull the alarm. 

The latest is Maryland QB Billy Edwards Jr. has entered the transfer portal.  Reports are he is expected to visit Wisconsin this weekend.  Then On3 Wiltfong and Nokas both put in predictions for Michigan to land Edwards in the portal.  

So who is Billy Edwards?

He has been at Maryland for 3 years after a redshirt year at Wake Forest.  

2021 - Redshirt 

2022: 28-46 passes for 313 yards with 3 TDs 

2023:  10-30 for 128 yards with 1 TD and 1 Pick 

2024: 274-420 for 2,881 with 15 TD's and 9 picks. 

Billy is also a runner and gained 136 yards with 1 TD in 2022, 91 in 2023 with 7 TD's, and 148 with 5 TD's in 24. 

Looks like a productive dual-threat QB with two years of eligibility left.  Maryland had a terrible offensive line this year which probably didn't help the picks. 

Is this Michigan's future QB?  We will soon find out and whether he makes a trip to Madison or not. 

• Thank goodness Dan Mullen is heading to UNLV instead of being the OC at Michigan.  Never thought he would be good fit in Ann Arbor. 

• Warde is making $1.9M a year in his new contract.  No comment.

• Loveland did not win the Mackey, it went to the Penn State TE 

• Mason Graham wins some new award/promotion from Arby's.  Love me some Arby's

Wolverine Wednesday: Post Season Awards

This maybe a hot take, but I'm not a fan of national post season football awards.  I think they mean very little and don't always identify the top coach or player at that position.  I submit this weak argument to Big House Blog Jury:

• Broyles Award -  Which goes to the top assistant in the country. Was given to Iowa's DC Phil Parker for his defense on Tuesday.  Iowa cleary has a very good defense and he got the award over Sherrone Moore who was Michigan's head coach for 4 games this year for the #1 team in the nation.  To me, it's a no brainer who should've won.  Did I mention he was the head coach, offensive line coach, OC, and called the plays?  Remember when Josh Gattis won in 2021, when Michigan was running Harbaugh's offense and pretty much pushed Josh out the door?  That was a well deserved win by Josh. 

• Joe Moore Award - Goes to the top offensive line in the country.  Michigan has won that award two consecutive years.  I had never heard of this award before Michigan won it. I also believe that this award is cursed.  Michigan's offensive line wins it and in both years goes out and loses the playoff game, where the OL doesn't play well.  Any chance this award helps fire up your opponents defensive line?  I don't expect Michigan is a candidate for a 3-peat. 

• Heisman - Goes to the nation's top player.  I do like this award but I have two problems with it.  1 - there has to be more defensive players included each year.  2 - If there isn't a clear winner any year, it defaults to a QB or a QB of the best team.  Remember when the bad Miami QB's would win? Caleb Williams won it last year and struggled this year.  With the way awards have been trending this year, expect the Iowa punter to win. 

• There are a ton of other awards, for top lineman, best center, best head coach, and so on.  Harbaugh has won national coach of the year before but not Big Ten Coach of the year.  Olu won the best center in the country last season but not the Big Ten's top center.   None of this makes any sense.  Why do people love these ceremonies so much?  I hate banquets that last for hours, where people get up and make long speeches, and serve us rubber chicken for dinner.  We must have better things to do with our time then that?  Yes, I was happy that Sherrone was up for the Broyles award but I rather have his time spent recruiting for 12/20, spending time with his family, or preparing for Alabama's defense, then wasting a day and night at the Broyles ceremony.   If a person wins an award, fly the trophy out to him/her, meet them at work/school, and shake their hand.   

Ok, that is enough old man, get off my lawn for one day.  I was supposed to go to a 4 hour banquet tonight and the person I was filling in for had his plans change and now I don't have to go!!! Kick save and a beauty! 😃

• Michigan Basketball lost another close game to IU last night at Crisler.  

• Hard to believe that Michigan is back at #1 in the AP, which is the first time in 25 years.  

• Rumors were that Bryce Underwood the #1 player and QB in the country was on campus on Tuesday.  

• There are also signs that former 2024 Michigan DL recruit Deyvid PalePale who committed to USC in July maybe re-considering that commitment and leaning towards the Maize and Blue.  PalePale is a 3 star 6'3 305 pound defensive lineman from Lancaster, PA. 

Michigan Thursday: More Awards and Updates

The Big Ten came out with its offensive awards on Wednesday and plenty of Wolverines were included:

• Blake Corum RB of the Year and 1st Team All-Big Ten 
• Zak Zinter 1st team 
• Trevor Keegan 1st and 2nd Team 
• Olu Oluwatimi 1st and 2nd Team 
• Ryan Hayes 2nd and 3rd 
• JJ 2nd and 3rd 
• Ronnie Bell 3rd Team
• Luke Schoonmaker 3rd Team 
• Karsen Barnhart Honorable Mentioned 

Blake is also a finalist for the Walter Camp award.  Olu is projected to be named the best center in the country but somehow got on the 2nd team Media vote?

• 12 team playoff seems to be coming next year! 

• Former interim Nebraska head coach Mickey Joseph has been arrested for domestic assault 

• Blake provides an injury update in Harbaugh terms.  In the training room every day, sore and day-to-day. 

• Reports are that Brian Hartline is interviewing for the UC job.  He is known as a top-notch recruiter.

I'm hoping for "chalk" this weekend and zero chaos. Here are my predictions. 

PAC 12: Utah vs. USC (-2.5): The battle of the "U's" (sorry Miami).   The O/U for this game is 68! let's play some defense!  The best unit on either side is USC's offense and I think it will be tough to stop indoors in Vegas.  USC 44 Utah 34

Big 12: TCU (-2.5) vs. Kansas State: This is another close game with some defense played.  TCU is playing in Dallas and I think they get the home crowd advantage.  TCU 31 KSU 27

SEC: LSU vs. Georgia (-17.5): Georgia has been sleepy at times this year but they remember what happened to them in last year's game.  That line is way too high.  Georgia 30 LSU 21

ACC: Clemson (-7.5) vs. UNC: Who cares?  Clemson 24 UNC 21

Wolverine Wednesday: Award Season

I've got two different takes on awards.  The first comes from my own experience with my son playing travel baseball.  Travel ball in Florida works like this:  There is a tournament almost every weekend, where you play 2 games on Saturday for seeding on Sunday.   On Sunday it's play until you lose until the final two teams are left.  So, the kids got wise that Saturday is not a big deal and would usually go 1-1.  Then on Sunday they could play 5 or 6 games and sometimes finish at 10:00 or later at night a few hours away from home.  The championship games were terrible with a bunch of tired kids and no pitchers left.   The winner gets to take home a 4-foot cheap-looking trophy.   We played all day for that piece of sh*t?  Most of time, the kids had more fun destroying it in the parking lot.    That award was not so great. 

In corporate America, it is now common to make sure your employees are recognized for the good work they do.  It might not be a bonus check but a special recognition app that goes to everyone in the company when you have done exceptional work.   Studies show making employees feel recognized for their effort goes a long way towards loyal employees.   In this case, good recognition! 

Last year, Jim won a couple National Coach of the Year awards, but somehow didn't win Big Ten Coach of the year as that honor went to The Portal King Mel Tucker.  This year his team had a losing record, got into a tunnel incident, and Mel kept his assistants bonus money.   Bad choice and bad recognition.  Mel did turn that award into a $95M contract, so good job MSU administration! 

Here is a list of this year's accolades so far:

• Jimmy Big Ten Coach of the Year 
• Jake Moody Big Ten Kicker of the Year 
• Mike Morris Big Ten Defensive Player and Lineman of the Year 
• Mazi and Morris finish 1st Team All-Big Ten 
• Junior Colson was named 2nd and 3rd team All-Big Ten 
• Michael Barrett 3rd Team 
• DJ Turner 2nd/3rd
• AJ Henning 2nd Team for returns 
• Sainristil, Green, Paige, Moore, Harrell, and Jenkins got honorable mentioned

The reason some players are on 2 teams is due to the media and coaches each having a team. 

Offense is expected out today. 

National Finalists:

• Doak Walker - Corum 
• Outland - Olu 
• Lou Groza - Moody 

I would consider this good recognition. 

• Michigan Basketball lost to the #3 team in the nation last night at home.  It might have been one of the better efforts of the season so far, but came up a basket short.  

• Michigan lost one of its highest ranked players in the 2023 class when 4-star defensive athlete Colling Acheampong flipped to Miami.  The rumor mill is saying that Colling is having some family issues and Miami's NIL is off the charts right now as they rebuild.  Can't blame a kid for following the dollars. 

• Trent Dilfer to UAB.  If you're UAB why not?

Michigan Tuesday: Rest and Disrespect

In the Harbaugh era at Michigan, I rarely disagreed with Jimmy on game strategy.  Yes, there have been a few time management mistakes and I'm often critical of the offensive play calling.  He did hold on to Don Brown way too long.  So maybe I've been more critical than I thought.

With that said, last Saturday's game was shocking to me.  First off, it's hard to know if any injury reports are ever true coming out of Schembechler Hall, but the consensus was that Morris, Schoonmaker, and Edwards could have easily played on Saturday.  Then Corum runs out of bounds on a long run and gets hurt later in the game, but plays one snap in the 2nd half.   The offense on Saturday, wasn't just vanilla it was French Vanilla (is that more vanilla, then vanilla?).  

Michigan ends up playing walk-on RB's and throwing to a true freshman TE.  While they're losing the game!   Michigan ends up winning on a Jake Moody field goal, as the Wolverines find a way to beat Illinois prior to Ohio State.  

There could be very valid reasons for what happened and it's only fair to give that side of the story as well. 

• The players held out, might have needed one more week.   
• Corum after running into the line and getting 5 or so yards in the 2nd half, knew he couldn't go. 
• Running out of bounds down the sideline, was because he thought the DB had an angle and was going to dive at his legs. 
• French Vanilla offense was on purpose to hide things from the Buckeyes. 
• This Saturday is way more important than last Saturday. 

Can both situations be true?  That Michigan thought they could beat Illinois with their 4th and 5th string RB's and wanted their injured players to heal for one more week? A bit of disrespect for Illinois and rest for healthy players against Ohio State.  

Either way, that is a dangerous game Jimmy was playing and it worked out for him last weekend.  Also, a sign that a Big Ten Championship and win against OSU is way more important than a CFP invite. 

Some early thoughts about this weekend. 

I have a friend, that I have mentioned before on the blog named Augusta J, he always likes to shoot me a text during the game on how many sacks Michigan has had during the game.  It's usually a good thing, as the Wolverines seem to get one, right after he sends the text.   Would you be surprised to learn, Michigan had 0 sacks against Illinois on Saturday.  That is a terrible sign going into OSU.  Michigan won the game last year by doing 3 things.  

1. Running the ball in the bad weather 
2. Pressuring Stroud non-stop 
3. Designing a zone defense to stop the pass  

Michigan will have to do those 3 things at an elite level if they're going to leave Columbus with a W. 

I'm also disappointed where the passing game is at this point in the season.  JJ has had accuracy issues and the WR's are dropping catchable balls.  How many points did drops cost the Wolverines on Saturday? 14 or more?  Anthony, Wilson, and Gash all had drops that cost the Wolverines potential points.  Can't do that against the #2 team in the nation. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm over the moon happy Michigan is 11-0 and I have realistic outcome thoughts for Saturday.  Going into the season, we were concerned about pass rush and a balanced offense and now in Week 13 we're worrying about the same things. 

• Hooker is out for Tennessee, Hello Joe Milton. 

• There was a report on Twitter last night that Lane Kiffin was going to be named the next head coach of Auburn.  Lane quickly shot that down. 

• Michigan Basketball plays the fighting Coach Primetime's on Wednesday.  Let's hope for a better effort by Juwan's program.

• Can your squad give up 418 yards to one team and still win the Broyles award?  Manny Diaz is on the semi-finalist list.  Coach Minter is also on the list. 

• There is MAction tonight, don't sleep on BGSU and what the former Wolverine Scot Loeffler is building down there. 

Brandon Graham Wins Big Ten MVP Award

Well it was actually was a tie between him and Darryl Clark from Penn State. The award is given out by Chicago Tribune’s and it's called the Silver Football Award, which is actually an older award then the Heisman Trophy. The Silver Football goes to the Big Ten MVP.

Brandon and Darryl both received the same number of first and second place votes. So they will share this prestigious honor. He is Michigan's 16th player to win the award and first defensive player since Charles Woodson in 1997. Brandon is only the 7th defensive player to win the award all time.

Congratulations to Brandon on a well deserved award and welcomed good news at the end of the season.

• Former Wolverine Maurice Williams signed with the Lions yesterday.

• Louisville is planning to announce the hiring of Florida's DC Charlie Strong today as head coach. This is a great hire for Louisville. This news also might effect the recruitment of Johnathon Hankins, who had Florida has he leader last week before his Michigan visit. This news could push Johnathon closer to a Michigan commit.