gus johnson

[Bryan Fuller]

12/3/2022 – Michigan 43, Purdue 22 – 13-0, 9-0 Big Ten, Big Ten Champions

After Will Johnson's second interception my twitter feed had consecutive tweets that were literally "Will Johnson has arrived."

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One was in all caps.

It may have been last week when Will Johnson arrived since he started against Ohio State and your Will Johnson-related memories of that game do not exist. Johnson took 70 snaps against the Buckeyes and he did not get dunked on once. But there's arriving quietly, like an offensive lineman who refines his assignments, and then there's going Fury Road on a version of Aidan O'Connell with glowing eyes and electricity coruscating down his forearms. Johnson has now arrived, loudly. He has a hype man. It is the internet.

It is a late-season cliché to say that freshmen are no longer freshmen. Sometimes this is not true because the freshman in question is completely the wrong size or just doesn't have it yet. You cannot assert that CJ Stokes is no longer a freshman. But you can for Will Johnson. You can for Colston Loveland. You can for Mason Graham.

Meanwhile in the realm of no longer sophomores: Donovan Edwards seems fully leveled up from last year's pad-seeker into this year's slashing missile, and we have answers about what happens when you put a game on JJ McCarthy's arm. McCarthy made one very bad mistake in this game, because he is not a 35-year-old All Pro yet. He also threw enough dead on downfield balls that everyone looking at the box score this morning can't believe he only had 17 pass attempts.

Going into the Ohio State game Michigan had questions. A wonky passing game, an injured star, a looming matchup against a real quarterback. In each case they had a player step up. The questions are no longer whether Michigan can. It is now merely whether they will.

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[Patrick Barron]

Mix in the rapidly-arriving youth with Ronnie Bell, Mazi Smith, Jake Moody, Brad Robbins, and Luke Schoonmaker--guys who took the long way around to get here—and you stand here, atop the Big Ten for the second straight year. This feels different, though. Last year the OSU win was shocking but a clear example of OSU dysfunction catching up to them. This year it eventually became clear they were trying to catch up to Michigan.

Last year Michigan entered a game against Georgia's generational defense more in hope than expectation that success would follow. It didn't take long to cast Michigan as a team not on UGA's level, one just hoping to stay in contact with a series of breaks. Upset minded. This year they'll enter the semifinal touchdown favorites against a feisty, insane TCU team that will enter hoping that they can keep up with Michigan's pounding ground game. Maybe they will; maybe they'll find that they're in the same position Michigan was a year ago: not quit there.

Michigan is there, or at least as there as they're ever likely to be. They have their five star QB locked in with a five star running back. They've got a defense that doesn't have Aidan Hutchinson on it but maybe just got a star. There's no time like the present to recalibrate from "just happy to be here" to a team with expectations even at the playoff level.

Some got here fast, some took their time. But they're here, individually and collectively. Michigan has arrived.

AWARDS

Known Friends and Trusted Agents Of The Week

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[Barron]

you're the man now, dog-2535ac8789d1b499[1]

#1 Will Johnson. Two interceptions, but that's not the whole story. Both were superior coverage on which Johnson had the route dominated and picked the ball off without any assistance. Since he's a corner the fact that he had just two tackles, one a third-down stop a yard downfield and one a screen TFL, is excellent. Johnson did get hit with a deserved PI and missed a tackle on a third down catch and run but two turnovers versus two instances of 15 yards is a massive win.

#2 Donovan Edwards. 25 carries, 185 yards, 7.4 yards a pop, two exclamation-point runs. On the first he dusted a cornerback and burst for 60 yards that could have been 70 but he ran out of bounds curiously early. The second was a ridiculous slalom through six Purdue defenders for a 27 yard touchdown. Project "quit running directly into guys" is a success. Imagine if he had two hands and was the receiving threat he was earlier in the year.

#3 JJ McCarthy. Just seventeen attempts, and did throw a turrible interception on one of those. Still managed almost ten yards an attempt; broke the pocket and created second chances on many of those. When he stood in the pocket he delivered at least three DOs, one on a rocket TD to Bell, the others on perfect arcing balls between levels in the Purdue zone. Elite business not that far away.

Honorable mention: Eyabi Okie had a couple of impressive QB pressures. Junior Colson was everywhere and didn't seem to have much blame for the early hiccups. The Offensive Line had some pass protection hiccups but my early take on their run blocking is that they were dominant and the only thing holding the run game down was free hitters. Mazi Smith consistently pressed the pocket, forcing a sack that Jaylen Harrell picked up; Harrell also had a solo sack of his own as he spun past the right tackle.

KFaTAotW Standings.

(points: #1: 8, #2: 5, #3: 3, HMs one each. Ties result in somewhat arbitrary assignments.)

51: Blake Corum (#2 CSU, #2 Hawaii, HM UConn, #1 Maryland, #2 Iowa. HM Indiana, T2 PSU, #1 MSU, T1 Rutgers, #3 Nebraska, #1 Illinois)

32: JJ McCarthy (#1 Hawaii, #2 UConn, HM Maryland, HM Iowa, #3 Indiana, HM PSU, HM MSU. HM Rutgers, #2 OSU, #3 Purdue)

24: The Offensive Line (#3 Iowa, #1 PSU, HM MSU, #3 Rutgers, #1 Nebraska, HM Purdue)

22: Donovan Edwards (HM Hawaii, T2 PSU, T1 Rutgers, #4 OSU, #2 Purdue)

18: Ronnie Bell (HM CSU, HM Hawaii, #1 UConn, #2 Indiana, HM PSU, HM Nebraska, HM Illinois)

17: Mike Morris (T3 Hawaii, HM Maryland, #1 Iowa, T1 Indiana, #3 PSU, HM Rutgers),

15:  Kris Jenkins (#3 UConn, T3 Hawaii, HM Iowa, T1 Indiana, #2 MSU, HM Rutgers, HM Nebraska), Mazi Smith (#1 CSU, T3 Hawaii, HM Maryland, HM Iowa, HM MSU, HM Nebraska, HM Purdue)

13: Mason Graham (HM Hawaii, HM Iowa, HM Indiana, #2 Nebraska, #2 Illinois)

12: Rod Moore(HM CSU, HM Indiana, HM MSU, T1 Ohio State)

11: Mike Sainristil (HM Maryland, HM Indiana, T1 Ohio State)

9: Cornelius Johnson (HM Hawaii, #3 Ohio State), Will Johnson (HM Rutgers, #1 Purdue)

7: Gemon Green (HM UConn, T2 Maryland, HM PSU), Jake Moody (HM PSU, #3 MSU, #3 Illinois).

6: Junior Colson (#3 CSU, HM UConn, HM PSU, HM Purdue)

5: DJ Turner (T2 Maryland), Luke Schoonmaker (T3 Maryland, HM Iowa, HM Indiana, HM MSU), Michael Barrett (#2 Rutgers), Eyabi Okie (HM CSU, HM Iowa, T1 Indiana, HM Purdue).

4: Jaylen Harrell (HM CSU, T1 Indiana, HM Purdue)

3: Derrick Moore (HM CSU, T1 Indiana)

2: Roman Wilson (HM CSU, HM Hawaii), Max Bredeson (T3 Maryland), Joel Honigford (T3 Maryland),

1: Braiden McGregor (HM CSU), Makari Paige (HM Hawaii), Rayshaun Benny (HM Hawaii), AJ Henning (HM UConn), Caden Kolesar (HM UConn), RJ Moten (HM Maryland), CJ Stokes (HM Nebraska), Andrel Anthony (HM Nebraska), Colston Loveland (HM Illinois)

Who's Got It Better Than Us(?) Of The Week

Johnson's second interception sets up a short-field touchdown and Michigan clinches a second consecutive Big Ten championship.

Honorable mention: Johnson's first interception. McCarthy's laser TD to Bell. Edwards's slaloming TD run. Edwards busts outside for 60.

image?MARCUS HALL EPIC DOUBLE BIRD OF THE WEEK.

Purdue's second drive is a mess of missed assignments and tackles, setting them up with a touchdown and announcing this was not going to be an Iowa 2021 walkover.

Honorable mention: Any of several different O'Connell throws that were eyepopping, or any of several Chuck Sizzle moments that were similarly eyepopping.

[After THE JUMP: unstoppable throw-god ahoy]
run away from injuries please [Patrick Barron]

Injury status. You've probably heard about Charbonnet Panic 2019 by now, which had its origins in a Facebook post by a family member of a player, got Yodered by an OSU guy, and then ran around the world several times before meeting some pushback. Let's address that and Michigan's other walking wounded:

  • QB Shea Patterson: says he's 100%: "I did get banged up in the first game, and it did kind of wear on me a little bit, but I’m ready to go. … I think it affected all aspects of (my play). An oblique is no fun, but I’m ready to go." Patterson said he was 100% after the Army game, when he was apparently not 100%, so… yeah.
  • RB Zach Charbonnet: zillions of conflicting reports, some of which don't even make sense internally. Jon Jansen was pretty strident about the fact that Charbonnet has not had surgery and was walking around normally; Jansen said "fully expect[s]" Charbonnet to start Saturday. Other reports have been more circumspect. It seems certain that Charbonnet did miss practice earlier this week. That probably started up the rumor mill and now we're in the eight iteration of telephone.
  • RB Tru Wilson: "We'll see if he's back this week, or soon," per Harbaugh on his radio show three days ago. Did not practice the previous week, paving the way for Christian Turner to solidify the #2 job. Turner seems fine after taking a hard hit late in the Army game.
  • WR Donovan Peoples-Jones: ominous radio silence aside from a "not sure" from Harbaugh. His injury was reported very, very late in fall camp as a high ankle sprain, which is the kind of thing that can linger forever. No insider rumblings, which is in contrast to a lot of the other guys on this list. Signs point towards no.
  • LT Jon Runyan Jr.: "Ready to go" per Warinner.
  • DT Donovan Jeter: Played a few snaps against Army and was put in front of the media this week so should be full go.
  • DT Mike Dwumfour: Was reputed to be ready to go two weeks ago against Army; did not play. Apparently the only issue remaining is with his arm(?) and could have been left out of the Army gameplan for tactical reasons. Like DPJ, no encouraging insider noises may mean he's still out.
  • S Quinten Johnson. Johnson posted a picture in which he was about to undergo surgery. A redshirt, already likely, is now assured.

If Dwumfour is out I don't see how Michigan doesn't spend a significant chunk of the game in a 3-3-5. Michigan doesn't trust their freshmen, I can't imagine Ben Mason is going to be able to cope against the Badgers, and Kemp/Jeter are unlikely to play every snap.

[After THE JUMP: Spartan Stadium's beleaguered grass.]

When in Rome, kayak as the Romans did. Cesar Ruiz's displacement is an asset on the football field. In a kayak not so much.

This trip is probably the most Summer Of Harbaugh thing that's happened yet. Except for the shirtless touch football game at a camp he participated in. That's permanently #1.

I could use more Gus in my life. ESPN's college football announcing crew was decimated this year so I'm much more into this than I would have been previously:

...this season kicks off Fox Sports' six-year, $1.44 billion deal with the Big Ten Conference. Under the terms of the new pact, not only has Fox wrested the deed to the annual Ohio State-Michigan game from co-rights holder ESPN/ABC, but it will also broadcast the Big Ten football championship game in December. (And no, the change of broadcast venues doesn't suggest that the Buckeyes-Wolverines grudge match is going to move under the lights for a primetime airing any time soon -- tradition still demands a noon game.)

Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt might be the best extant CFB announce team and I'm totally down with those guys calling M-OSU. Hopefully FOX tones down the robots and goes with a more collegiate feel for their Big Ten games.

I am far less enthused about this, however:

“It’s still a concern,” Manuel said. “The only difference is, the Big Ten and television can assign us to a primetime game and it’s not our option. In November, we have the option if we choose to do so. I don’t anticipate that choice being made.” ...

“It comes out in terms of we agreed to it several years ago as a part of negotiating the new Big Ten television contract that we would allow up to two games at night,” Manuel said. “Last year for this (2016) football season, we had the option. Next year and moving forward the Big Ten can assign us and television in the Big Ten. In the month of September and October.” ...

“Jim (Harbaugh) and I have been in lockstep, saying our preference is in the afternoon and not in the evening,” Manuel said. “In this particular case, we have granted the ability for the Big Ten to assign two home games in the evening. That’s where it will go.”

I don't know if that's yet another Dave Brandon ace negotiation or an unfortunate side-effect of being part of the Big Ten during a period when it's being run by someone who cares about nothing other than stacking dollars. It kind of sounds like the former since Manuel says "we have granted the ability" to the Big Ten. Which is another going-away president from the worst AD in history. Also in "Dave Brandon's icy hand reaches out from the grave": he scheduled Air Force again. Never schedule Air Force.

Cord cutting leads to other forms of cutting. ESPN is about to have an on-air bloodletting:

ESPN will part ways with more than 40 people, all of them “talent,” a label that ESPN applies to radio hosts and writers (almost all of whom regularly do video or audio), not just traditional TV personalities. ESPN says it has 1,000 people in the category. Still, you can expect most of the people cut to be faces you’ve seen on TV. In some cases, ESPN may buy people out of existing long-term contracts—as Sports Illustrated points out, that is unusual.

Most of these folks are probably going to be peripheral folks with few names you'd be familiar with, but the story speculates about one potential exit that would be frown-inducing:

The New York Daily News has some speculation, including SportsCenter anchor John Buccigross, whose contract expires on July 1.

Nooooooooooo. Buccigross is probably the network's foremost college hockey proponent and things would not be the same without him. Here's hoping his skillset keeps him on the four-letter.

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who are you going to believe, your own lying eyes or this dipshit?

This week in bullshit. Danny Kanell brings his turtleneck to a fact party:

Kanell is way out of line here. Consider the environment he's living in at the time of the FSU game: various players have outright skipped bowl games and gotten praise for it in the media; neither Leonard Fournette nor Christian McCaffrey has seen his draft stock altered one iota by that decision. Even if Peppers wasn't going to play by his choice he could have just said "nope" privately and not dressed, as is common in football.

Instead he dressed and attempted to warm up, whereupon he looked like a guy who'd injured his hamstring. So unless he's a pathological liar who's simultaneously extremely convincing at faking muscle injuries, he was, you know, injured. Kanell is slandering Peppers without proof.  Probably because he's dumb as a brick.

Here's a guy in need of some firin', ESPN.

When third chances go wrong. If your program has a guy get in trouble, it had a guy get in trouble. It happens. If your program takes a guy with two arrests in his recent past you'd better do your homework, because if he gets in trouble again that is on you. This is on Mark Dantonio:

Robertson was arrested for criminal mischief* in 2015, then arrested shortly before Signing Day for inappropriately grabbing a female student at his high school. MSU issued a statement about the deep background they did on the guy in an attempt to justify the signing:

“Our decision to accept Auston Robertson’s signed National Letter of Intent and Big Ten Tender has been evaluated over the last three months while utilizing all resources available to us to thoroughly review his situation,” Dantonio said.

“Our relationship with Auston began last summer when he committed to Michigan State. When we accepted his verbal (commitment), we also made a commitment to him and his family. We elected not to sign him in early February, and since then he has been accepted into a pretrial diversionary program and must continue to satisfy those requirements. Given all the information available to us, we believe Auston should be provided with an opportunity to begin his education and playing career at Michigan State.”

He lasted barely a year before getting charged with criminal sexual conduct in East Lansing, a charge that is easily predicted by the nature of the battery he got diverted. The above statement should have read "We know this is a risk for the people who will be around Robertson. Sorry. (Not sorry.)" That risk seems to have resulted in something very bad indeed, given the fact that Robertson went on the lam for two days. Even more ominously, Mark Dantonio saw fit to remove him from MSU's team. Short of failing to meet academic eligibility requirements, when does that happen?

This isn't and shouldn't be a rivalry thing. Hopefully the fact that I bombed Brady Hoke and Dave Brandon for their useless lies about Brendan Gibbons demonstrates that 1) nobody is immune from this sort of thing and 2) I'm not just a message board dude with my rivalry lols. It should be about what looks like an institution that has serious issues with sexual assault, at multiple levels.

*[And "resisting law enforcement," a charge which I'm always extremely dubious about.]

Expected starter confirmation. Chris Evans on his spring game deployment:

"I wanted to play more  ... But they said 'nah, nah, nah, you're not going to play, you're not going to play.' I just respected that and just back to the drawing board (for spring practice) on Tuesday."

That is a leader in the clubhouse.

Red encomiums. John Bacon:

Berenson loved the game from the start. When he was a 6-year old kid in Regina, Saskatchewan, for Christmas his parents gave him new skates, new gloves and new shin pads. He was so excited, he called his best friend – at 6 a.m.

When his friend's mom answered, she asked, "Do you know what time it is?"

Berenson replied, "Yes -- but this is important!"

From CHN:

Berenson stepped down Monday after 33 years as Michigan's head coach. He was hired during a tumultuous time in the program's history, May 1984. It was the third time then-athletic director Don Canham had asked him to take over. He was an assistant coach in the NHL at the time. He finally accepted.

"I left a job making $85,000 a year to take a job making $40,000," Berenson said. "I thought, 'Did I get my MBA at Michigan to make a decision like this?' But it was the right thing to do. I loved Michigan and loved the experience I had."

MGoBlue has a thing that's more of a pretty-design item than a story but here is a picture:

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And Hoover Street Rag:

Red Berenson did not invent Michigan hockey, that's Vic Heyliger and Al Renfrew.  But Red did save Michigan hockey, first with the Regina Regiment, then by coming home to Ann Arbor in 1984.  He was hired by Don Canham, and he, slowly but surely, brought Michigan back from the abyss.  He won 848 games in the NCAA, fourth most in college hockey, and starting in 1990-91 when Michigan posted a 34-win season and its made first trip to the NCAAs in 14 years, an event they would not miss for the next 22 seasons, Michigan began a streak of 8 straight 30-win seasons, with 6 Frozen Fours and 2 national titles, Michigan's eighth and ninth all time.  And in all of this, in the down seasons, after the Hunwick fueled miracle run in 2011, after Mel left, and we wondered when would this moment come.  Then came last year, when Michigan hockey was fun again and four NHL-caliber players were lighting the lamp and Michigan won the conference tournament, there was the notion of maybe the old magic had been recaptured, let Red have one more run this year and then hand the reins off after one more season.  But, wishing doesn't make it so, and Michigan Hockey Summer took its toll, as it is wont to do.

Woke Harbaugh continues. Harbaugh on Colin Kaepernick in Time:

Colin Kaepernick was alone in his early protests last year when he boldly and courageously confronted perceived inequalities in our social-justice system by refusing to stand for the national anthem. At times in our nation's history, we have been all too quick to judge and oppose our fellow Americans for exercising their First Amendment right to address things they believe unjust.

Rather than besmirch their character, we must celebrate their act. For we cannot pioneer and invent if we are fearful of deviating from the norm, damaging our public perception or—most important—harming our own personal interests.

That writing style is familiar from the opening video at home games. Feels like every word is capitalized, which is very Harbaugh.

Etc.: Some Peppers fluff. Tom Herman wants it nice and light. Fart man. John Borton reports that Brad Hawkins will play safety at Michigan, as expected. Graham Couch, man.