michael williams

Quick overview of where things stand, since the meat of this article gets into a lot of 2022 recruits with decisions far in the future.

• The deadline passed for NJ 4* DT George Rooks to make a decision before the season. Now we wait (some more).
• 2021 cornerback recruiting is a bummer; Michigan's best hopes are to get CA 4.5* Ceyair Wright on campus or flip another team's commit, the most likely being FSU's Omarion Cooper, and Cooper more likely that Wright at this point. The good news is 2022 cornerback recruiting begins about as well as it could.
• The 2022 class has a handful of recruitments that look more like a "when" than an "if" in NJ 4* CB/S Jaeden Gould, MI 4* OLB/Edge Josh Burnham, GA sleeper TE Oscar Delp, MA sleeper OL Sully Weidman, and maybe two West Bloomfield 4*s in RB/ATH Dillon Tatum and ILB (at Michigan anyway) Michael Williams.
• They'll also probably go all the way to signing day with 5* CBs Domani Jackson and legacy Will Johnson, win at least one of the 4.5* receivers from Illinois Kaleb Brown and Tyler Morris, and have a good shot at landing IMG 4* OL Tyler Booker, top-100 LB Jaylen Sneed, CT DE Wilfredo Aybar, and Devin Bushian IL 4* ILB Sebastian Cheeks, the latter two being your standard Michigan-Notre Dame wars.

247's Steve Lorenz has a pretty comprehensive free update from this week.

[After THE JUMP: a lot of names, and then we move past 2022 cornerbacks.]

Cornerback

[Reposting for those who missed yesterday]

What? MGoBlog and handful of former Michigan players who are disproportionately cornerbacks about my age are going to be tailgating before the PSU game at Marlin Jackson's Go Blue Bowl Tailgate charity drive. There will be a raffle, and a tailgate Olympics where fans are teamed with former players for maizehole/beer pong/ladder toss, and a Q&A session MC'ed by Brian, and beer.

Where? The North End Zone, 1011 S. Main St., Building B, Ann Arbor, MI 48104. Technically it would be Michigan Stadium's north end zone if the field was 300 yards long. It's the white and green house on Main Street, opposite Pauline, off the northwest gate of the Big House.

When? 3 pm to 6 pm this Saturday. Games will start at 4-ish, probably do the Q&A from 5 pm to whenever it breaks up or it's time to go to the game.

Who exactly? Well, Brian Cook, Seth Fisher, Ace Anbender, Adam Schnepp, Orson, MMMGoBlueBBQ promised to stop by, my 7-month old…oh you meant important people? Confirmed so far are Marlin Jackson, Brandon Williams, Todd Howard, Marcus Ray, Cato June, Chris Perry, and Zia Combs. As these things go, more are planning to come but can't make promises.

Looks like this except none of us wear khakis and polos.

  The event was organized by Marlin's people, who asked us to participate.

NOBODY under 21 (except babies). They are checking IDs.

What's the cause? The Go Blue Bowl Tailgate and the Go Blue Bowl Football Challenge support Marlin's Fight for Life Foundation, as well as the the Phalen Leadership Academies, the Peace Neighborhood Center of Ann Arbor, the Summer Advantage Program, and Go Blue Then and Now. These all* fund extracurricular and catch-up programs for at-risk kids.

Marlin started FFL in Indianapolis and has expanded the concept up to Michigan. The school systems where these kids live have been dropping such programs and don't have the ability to implement modern teaching techniques (even though we've known they work for 15+ years) so FFL provides that. It's evolved a bit since we started supporting it: the in-school programs are Building Dreams/Field of Dreams (elementary/middle), and RAP (high school). Seal the Deal is the after-school youth flag football program. And they've added Be a Blessing!, which follows up with the kids who've been in their programs, and provides need-based assistance to their families.

Go Blue Then and Now is an umbrella organization for former Michigan players' charities.

The Go Blue Bowl itself is a flag football game for local kids football teams where former Michigan players coach them for a day (or most of a day then hide indoors because their Floridian skin still can't handle Michigan weather; not naming any names that are also a unit of measurement).

I gotta make a donation right? Yes, but what you can afford. We urge you to donate beforehand on Marlin's website, or buy some raffle tickets when you arrive, or be like "here's five dollars" at the gate. I do ask if you're going to drink the beer you donate like $20 at the door so they don't end up taking a loss on the provisioning of said suds. Suggested minimal donation if you're just gonna come by for the Q&A is $5. The point of the tailgate is to raise money for these charities.

There are things you get for donation levels of $100 and above, like access to the VIP lounge where players with weak-ass Floridian skin might be hiding, and signed memorabilia, and corporate sponsorship displays.

Also one sponsor who sends a check ahead of time will get two free tickets to the Penn State game that one of our readers donated to the cause.

The raffle? I'm not sure of everything that will be there; when we did our tailgate last year Marlin brought a jersey signed by Woodley and some footballs and t-shirts, and Six Zero had a drawing of a half-lion/half-Devin Gardner. There's a Michigan Stadium print by Bennie (godson of THAT Bennie) McCready that I'm bringing. And you can win a spot in the tailgate Olympics.

After a little time to digest it all, here are important notes from the postgame press conference.

• David Molk suffered a potentially serious foot injury, and Rodriguez hopes it's not broken. If he's out, Moosman and Khoury will step in at the center position. Tate's injury was just bruised ribs, and he should be fine. Rodriguez didn't say it was anything serious in the press conference, but I saw Mike Williams wearing a walking boot outside Crisler Arena after the game. Sitting Minor was precautionary, because he's still sore.
• Rodriguez seems pretty angry about the Mouton suspension. The worst part: the team wasn't informed until after practice Thursday, which means they didn't even get to practice with the backups in the game. That's inexcusable by the Big Ten, IME. Rodriguez plans to make sure the Big Ten is equally diligent for the rest of the season in suspending players from every team around the conference. He specifically mentioned something that happened at the end of an early game yesterday when a Purdue lineman went after an NIU player with an elbow.
• The team only had 2 penalties for 20 yards in the game, a major improvement to this point. RR implied that he thought one of them wasn't a great call (I'm going to go out on a limb and say the Cissoko PI), and wasn't happy about it.
• Coach Rodriguez and Brandon Graham both said they don't want Michigan to be a second-half team, but rather a 4-quarter team. However, it's not surprising with their conditioning that they can wear teams out in the second half.
• Kevin Leach and Brandon Graham both said there weren't many schematic changes at halftime, but rather an emphasis on players sticking to their gaps and executing their assignments.
• Craig Roh said he didn't have to think about his interception - he just reacted and came down with the ball.
• When asked if he really likes running into the South endzone, Denard Robinson had the quote of the day: "I think I had one going this way, too." Rodriguez emphasized that Robinson is a passing threat, and Robinson said his picks were mental mistakes, a result of inexperience.
• Carlos Brown said it feels good to be healthy, and noted that he ran for more yards in the first half yesterday than he did for all of last year.

[Editor's note: here's the obvious cheapshot by the Purdue player:

You made this bed, Jim Delany, and now it's time to lie in it.]