beards are sweet

Moving towards a semester. This is a development:

BREAKING: @UMich Provost Susan Collins: “We are very optimistic that the University of Michigan will have a public health-informed, in-residence academic year.”

A change from “cautiously optimistic” in previous statements, one day after @michiganstateu announces in-person fall.

— Calder Lewis (@CalderLewisTMD) May 28, 2020

Michigan is still being more circumspect than MSU, which just announced it would be open this fall, and Notre Dame, which announced it would have a fall semester that ended at Thanksgiving. MSU is also ending in-person classes at Thanksgiving and finishing the rest of the semester online.

Still, everything is pointing towards a return. For the purposes of this website this means they'll try to play football like everyone else. The broader impact on the university is currently projected to be… not that bad, actually:

Not much new from Pres. Schlissel, although it now looks like the predicted losses ("for the year ahead" which I take to mean the calendar year) are in the range of $22M to $192M, which is much more optimistic than earlier projections.

— peter honeyman (@peterhoneyman) May 28, 2020

Although that's quite a range. We'll see how it goes. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. The current plans at MSU:

Stanley said. Physical distancing and wearing face masks on campus, as well as strict limitations and regulations on large gatherings are being imposed, he said.

The punch in the mouth is coming from Rick's, et al., this fall.

[After THE JUMP: More on the transfers]

10/12/2019 – Michigan 42, Illinois 25 – 5-1, 3-1 Big Ten

It is said that when you have two quarterbacks, you don't really have any. I wonder if that might change in the near future. Survey the landscape: modern shotgun offenses virtually require the quarterback to be a viable run threat. The prospect of losing your starting quarterback, as Illinois did last week, looms.

That's not going to satisfy anybody.

In many ways, Michigan won comfortably over a bad Illinois team today, outgaining them 489 to 256 with a 17-point final margin. The Wolverines boasted a pair of 100-yard rushers, finally utilized Shea Patterson in the running game, took several shots downfield in the passing game, and tallied 12 TFLs on defense.

And yet.

For most of the first half it looked like a Michigan-Rutgers game. The Wolverines moved the ball at a ten-yard-per-play clip, almost cruelly pounding the Illini defense on the ground, while the defense forced six punts and a turnover on downs on the first seven Illinois possessions as they rotated through ineffective quarterbacks. A Zach Charbonnet fumble to kill a drive and a Matt Robinson touchdown pass to Josh Imatorbhebhe shortly before halftime seemed like minor blips. Michigan led 28-7 at the break. All (okay, most) went according to plan.

Zach Charbonnet had 116 yards but also lost a fumble. [Barron]

Then the Michigan-Army game emerged from the tunnel. The offense punted on their first two drives of the half, then lost the third on a Tru Wilson fumble. That set up the Illini with a short field and they'd capitalize on a Dre Brown scoring plunge; he'd add a two-point conversion to stretch the scoring run to 25 unanswered points.

Patterson and friends averted disaster, as the embattled quarterback used his arm and his legs to account for most of the ensuing ten-play, 79-yard drive himself, capped with a diving touchdown catch by Donovan Peoples-Jones. The Illini fumbled on each of their next two drives, with the second—a comical pop-up caught out of midair by Carlo Kemp at the doorstep of the end zone—leading to a final Patterson touchdown run.

While this game wasn't going to solve the team's many season-long problems, it was reasonable to expect a relatively clean game against a struggling Illinois squad playing without their starting quarterback. Instead, it got passers-by-are-gawking bad for much of the second half as those familiar problems reappeared. Next week, Michigan plays in a much less forgiving environment: a night game at Penn State. Maybe this time they'll figure out how to hold onto the dang ball.

[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]