al montoya

With little going on in Michigan athletics, I felt that now was a decent time to do a mailbag to see what our fine readers are curious about. I solicited questions Monday on the MGoBoard and on Twitter, and picked the ones I felt were most interesting to answer. I tried to select questions that were most frequently asked, and that covered the bases, giving different sports representation rather than just focusing on football. I also threw in a few silly questions and one on pro sports. 

[NOTE: I did not answer any NIL questions, despite there being many, because they would best be answered in a post dedicated to that topic. I am hoping that either I or Seth can get to that at some point soon]

Which non-conference game or series would you like to see for football, basketball, and hockey this upcoming season if you could schedule any opponent, and why? (-UMinCincy)

We'll start with a fun one, my favorite among the serious questions that I was asked. Here are my answers for each sport: 

- Football: non-conference games come with a pretty high risk when you play in a premier conference that regularly places teams in the playoff (like say, the B1G), so I'd want to schedule a game with some amount of upside, but one that limits the risk of losing and thus sinking your resume. In looking for a matchup that would be fun, likely to win, but still give you something to gain, I picked a home game against Miami. The 'Canes should be a solid team this year (hovering around 20th in early preseason polls), but don't represent the same threat that a Notre Dame would, especially if it's at the Big House and early in the year. This fulfills the goal of finding a team that would add to the resume but would not represent a titanic challenge. And in terms of the fun, there would be storylines galore given the messiness of the Gattis exit back in February, not to mention a new coach at The U in Mario Cristobal and two historic programs going at it. Sign me up. 

- Basketball: I'm all in favor of scheduling a slate of tough non-conference opponents in college hoops to bolster your tournament resume, so I looked for an opponent that would be tough and add intrigue. I rambled through different ideas and the best I could come up with was Gonzaga. They're a perennially great opponent, are always looking to schedule a tough non-conference, and Michigan and the Zags have surprisingly little history. They have met (1) time in history, and that was at the 2019 Battle 4 Atlantis. I'm always in favor of branching out and trying to play more marquee teams beyond the typical Duke/Carolina types, and getting a little more familiarity with Gonzaga could be good for the program, plus it would provide the chance for a resume-boosting win. 

- Hockey: The B1G is a good conference, but not typically a great one, so scheduling a big dog has a lot of upside. Putting teams like Minnesota State on the schedule last year is what helped get the #1 overall seed, after all. With that in mind, I'd like to see a re-match with Denver. Both teams are coming off a bit of turnover following their Frozen Four appearances, but there should still be plenty of talent on both sides. We learned during the run up to the Frozen Four that there is surprisingly little history between these two legendary programs, but thanks to what happened in Boston, now there is a little bit of it. Why not make some more and try to build a rivalry of sorts, while having a chance to get a quality win in the process? 

Alex, if Jim Harbaugh could turn himself into any animal in the animal kingdom what animal would he choose and why? (-Darker Blue)

I thought about this one for all of a couple minutes and came to what I felt was an easy answer: a cow. We know Jim Harbaugh loves beef football, and all the meaty boys who get it done, the Zak Zinters and Ben Masons. We know that he doesn't like white meat (chicken), so we have to assume he likes beef. We also know he absolutely loves milk. What animal produces milk and beef? A cow. Easy answer. It channels his tastes and football ethos, building a team that doesn't budge and can trample you, with the collective weight on the lines of many cows. 

[Bryan Fuller]

Specifically, we have so much talent at the WR position, can we realistically expect to keep them intact through the summer? (-othernel) 

This question was about the "play now" mindset of recruits and how to avoid attrition, and I was interested in the second half here. The Wolverines have a ton of hungry mouths at the WR position, even with Mike Sainristil's move to defense. The list includes Ronnie Bell, Roman Wilson, Cornelius Johnson, AJ Henning, Andrel Anthony, Christian Dixon, and then the three freshmen, with Darrius Clemons likely ready for playing time.

Just speaking honestly, it's hard for me to see this whole group making it through the season intact. The advent of the portal has made it very hard to keep positional groups together, but the WR position I don't even think is too affected by the portal. This would be a tough group to keep together even if we were under old portal rules and that's a good thing. You'd always rather have too many good players than not enough. With Michigan looking to take in 2-3 receivers in the 2023 class, there is going to be some attrition. The question is just who and when. 

I wouldn't expect a ton of attrition in the summer, to be honest. It's an inconvenient time to bail because it's too late to join a team in time for the season. I suppose if someone realizes at the end of fall camp that there's no chance they will play (Dixon?) that they may say it makes no difference and leave then. But I would expect that most of this group goes into the season and then at the end of it there will be a good bit of attrition either from NFL declarations, running out of eligibility, or transfers. But the fact Michigan got through the spring (which is the optimal time to bail) with this group makes it seem to me that they will be together for at least the bulk of the 2022 season before splintering after.  

This might be hyper-niche but if M is looking to replace Hutch and/or Bakich, do you have any names you think they should look at?

— Alex Garbarino (he/him) (@DrGarbs) June 13, 2022

Well this one is pretty topical now that there are reports that Bakich is leaving for Clemson. On the softball end of things, I discussed this in my post-season column. Bonnie Tholl will be the in-house, odds on favorite, but my top candidate is Duke's Marissa Young. Young is a former player under Hutch who has coached in southeast Michigan at EMU/Concordia and has built Duke from the ground up into a quality program. She's also only 40 years old and would be the perfect coach to lead Michigan for decades. 

As for baseball, with Bakich likely out of the picture, I'll throw out a couple names but more will be in a coaching search piece. Chris Fetter is the first that comes to mind and apparently it's on Michigan's mind. It's hard to imagine he moves back from the MLB to the NCAA, but if there was one job that could make that happen, getting to be the head coach at his alma mater might be it. Fetter was a phenomenal NCAA pitching coach and has been stellar in the MLB as well, evidenced by the Tigers having one of the MLB's best bullpens despite it consisting of a bunch of relievers no one has ever heard of (who the hell is Will Vest? I don't even think his own family members have heard of Will Vest). Fetter is also only 36. 

In terms of more realistic options, Central Michigan's Jordan Bischel seems like an obvious name of interest. He was a highly successful coach at Northwood University in Midland, before coming to CMU in 2019. Since arriving in Mount Pleasant, Bischel has been named MAC Coach of the Year twice, and has taken the Chips to three straight NCAA Baseball Tournaments, with two MAC regular season titles and two MAC Tournament titles on the way. He's 41 years old, a native of the Midwest and familiar recruiting in this state and region, and would be a stellar hire.

This is where I'll leave the answer but will have more on it in the future. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Harbaugh... to the LAKERS??]

New Hockeybear. The Alaska hockey series is previewed by Yesman. Alaska means hockeybear. There is new Hockeybear.

Yeah, it's not as good as last year's, but they were due for a comedown after making the greatest hype video in the history of the world. I do like that it makes me think of Take On Me.

UFR update. It is not going to happen this week. It's a long story but I ended up having to disassemble my laptop almost wholly—I still have a half-dozen screws left over, looking for a home—over the course of the week. This was accompanied by the usual shouting and banging that precedes total laptop disassembly. Sorry; look for both halves early next week.

We are 2% of the way to this game. The thing the man said to the people at Tulane about wanting a game against Michigan turns out to be a real thing:

Rich Rodriguez wants a piece of his former employer.

UA athletic director Greg Byrne said Thursday he and the Wildcats' new coach discussed playing Michigan, which fired Rodriguez after the 2010 season.

"He brought it up like, 'Hey, let's look at this down the road,'" Byrne said. "I said, 'Sure.'"

But not a really real thing.

Byrne said the conversation lasted 10 seconds. He has yet to contact the Wolverines.

"It's a two-way path to play a game," he said.

I'd rather not dredge that up again, but if they want it enough to do a one-off at Michigan Stadium it's better than playing East Nowhere.

Something that turns out to not be true. Yeah: the seat filler thing was a hoax that lured me in. Mea culpa. Well played, whoever you are.

Iowa on the decline? The High Porch Picnic breaks out the recruiting stars for a rough evaluation of the amount of talent available for the Hawkeyes next year, finding that the offense will drop a little (from 3.0 to 2.9) and the defense will fall off a cliff even from its current dilapidated state. This year Iowa's average is 2.7; they graduate seven starters and will be dealing with this:

Defense:

Dominic Alvis:

Steve Bigach:

Joe Gaglione:

Carl Davis:

Christian Kirksey:

James Morris:

Quinton Alston:

BJ Lowery:

Micah Hyde:

Collin Sleeper:

Tanner Miller:

Average: 2.36

Standard disclaimers about stars not being the be-all and end-all apply but holy dang, man. Remember that window when Iowa was recruiting at a top 25 level? Not so much these days. HPP sums up:

Not only do we lose 7 starters to graduation but their replacements (based upon our current depth chart) aren't highly touted. For guys like Alvis, Hyde and Miller the stars don't seem to matter much. For everyone else, especially the rest of the defensive line, it's one big GOD HELP US. That's just something to think about following the bowl game. Remember when Vint wrote this article and Ross wrote this one? Yeah, just like Penny Lane said: it's all happening.

With a couple of disappointing years in the rear-view mirror already, unless that defense vastly outperforms recruiting expectations this could be the beginning of the end for Ferentz. While Iowa is grateful and patient it will be hard to look at the trajectory there and get excited about it.

BONUS IOWA WORRY: They lost a freshman WR to a transfer in a class Vint says this about:

Grant is the third member of the Class of 2011 to leave the program -- defensive end John Raymond left in September under similar circumstances (Raymon was from the Philadelphia area and got homesick), and Rodney Coe was unable to qualify and left for Iowa Western C.C. -- which, coming off massive attrition in the classes of 2008 and 2009, is a troubling number for a class that Iowa desperately needs on the field.

Boy, we've been there. Now if Ferentz can maintain his puntasaur ways against us we're in business.

Speaking of corn. Iowa State is this weekend. UMHoops has a full preview; the Cyclones are a hodge-podge of former Big Ten players like MSU's Chris Allen, Minnesota's Royce White, and PSU's Chris Babb.

They're better than they were a year ago but haven't really played anyone—Lehigh and Northern Iowa are their only top 100 opponents in Kenpom—and lost games against Drake and UNI, both in-state mid-majors. Their offense is humming along thanks to a 56.8 EFG%; their defense is still pretty crap. They let opponents shoot a lot of uncontested shots (223rd in EFG% D, 300th in turnovers forced, 22nd in FTAs allowed) and rebound well.

Michigan should win. This is a team that was 3-13 in the Big Twelve last year and they haven't so much as played a major conference school to prove they're much different. Kenpom has them an eight point favorite with around an 80% chance of victory.

More NBA draft. The Daily hits up Ford for his opinion on Burke:

“I spend the start of my year talking to our high school scouting guys about who are the freshmen to watch, who are one-and-done candidates — he wasn’t mentioned,” Ford said. “He was a steady kid, not flashy like a lot of the players can be. I think a lot of the scouting guys … see that and they say, ‘He’s not as good.’

“Well now when you see him play that way in college, it’s all poise. He’s unselfish, he’s getting people involved, he gets his own shot, but he’s not out there just primarily looking for his own shot.” …

“One of the NBA GMs said to me, ‘Well look, think of the 30 backup point guards in the NBA and then look at him and what he does and say, ‘Could he do that?’ And I think the answer is yeah.”

There's some one-and-done chatter, which is a bit scary. Michigan does not have a Burke waiting in the wings like they did last year and would have to go with… uh… Brundidge? That's a scary prospect since he's currently behind Eso Akunne. I still think anyone not going in the lottery this year will be inclined to hit up a much weaker draft in 2012, but can a brother get a four year player around here?

Exit Burns. The only head coach in the history of Michigan soccer is gone:

"As a Michigan alum, I'm proud of everything we've been able to accomplish within the soccer program," Burns said in a statement released by the Athletic Department.

"I will forever cherish the relationships that I have developed over the past 12 years with players, assistant coaches, support staff and fellow coaches within the department. However, it's time for a new direction in my life and leadership for Michigan soccer."

Losing Meram, both Saads, and his top incoming recruit was too much to deal with and the team collapsed from a College Cup appearance to a 5-14-1 record. Speculation as to his successor naturally focuses on Caleb Porter, the piped piper of Akron and the Olympic team's coach. It was Porter's team that made Michigan look like the USNT against Brazil in that College Cup game.

Many in a thread with a lot of people close to the situation say he won't leave, but there's got to be a chance. Michigan should punch him in the face with the highest salary in the country; this is a high leverage opportunity to make one of your programs a national power for a relative drop in the bucket.

Montoya on Yost. Bang:

“I’ve played in some great rinks in the NHL and with Team USA, but when you get those 7,000 fans in Yost Ice Arena, there’s not anything like it,” he said. “I’m glad I went to a program like that.”

Etc.: Other Brian unearths self for Genuinely Sarcastic column, receiving bonus points for reminding me of Bring Your Champions, They're Our Meat by referencing historical events with no apparent connection to the game in question. If Johnny posts I think we'll have everyone save IBFC covered in the aftermath.

Bacon on beating OSU. OSU fights to keep the Sarniak-Tressel emails secret under FERPA.