In which we respond with Seinfeld gifs. Ohio State's Chase Young has been suspended for taking money from someone last year. The Michigan Twitter response to this has been 1) assert that Young will be back for the Michigan game because nothing ever goes wrong for them, 2) bitch about NCAA rules being stupid, and 3) post Seinfeld gifs.

“ALL OF THE SCANDALS WILL CATCH UP TO OHIO STATE” pic.twitter.com/kgOYUCrLH8

— Anthony Broome (@anthonytbroome) November 8, 2019

Excellent work, everyone.

Young asserts that he got a loan (it was not a loan) from a "family friend I've known since the summer before [his] freshman year" (agent, why do you think that timeline is exculpatory, agent agent agent) and that he repaid it (because the payment was about to become public knowledge and repaying it helps him get his eligibility back). This is the kabuki dance dictated by the NCAA abasement ritual, and OSU knows its steps well.

I have questions: why is this coming out now? Is this like the Pryor thing where the one idiot in the OSU fanbase who thinks everything is on the up and up courageously emails the head coach? Or is there a disgruntled booster? How much of a toddler do you have to be to be an OSU booster who is disgruntled in any way? Isn't it slightly convenient that whoops this suspension is for Maryland and probably Rutgers but obviously not PSU and Michigan?

UPDATE: Ah.

I'm hearing that the "family friend" who gave Chase Young a loan is also an NFLPA-certfied agent. Which if true could possibly cause more problems for the agent than for Young.

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) November 8, 2019

I don't think it helps Young's case for reinstatement. Yes, I think NCAA rules should be changed. No, I'm not above hoping OSU gets burnt by them.

[After the JUMP: Devin Bush's fashion sense remains undefeated]

No redshirt necessary. Josh Uche was listed as a redshirt junior on our depth chart by class because we believed he could get a season of eligibility back after only playing in four early-season games as a freshman before being sidelined. That point appears to be moot:

The @Reeses #SeniorBowl would like to welcome LB Josh Uche (@_Uche35) to the 2020 Senior Bowl! @UMichFootball #GoBlue #TheDraftStartsInMOBILE pic.twitter.com/1l28EHoFiP

— Reese's Senior Bowl (@seniorbowl) November 8, 2019

A guy with Uche's ability off the edge was always going to be of significant interest to the NFL.

Note that Sean McKeon and Carlo Kemp are in a similar situation: both are technically seniors but only played in four games as freshmen and did not play any in the second half of the season, so they could get fifth years.

Back? Chris Evans tweeted out something that seemed like good news about his ability to return next year, and some teammates picked up on it:

They done free’d my boy ‍♂️ God is good my boy https://t.co/DPU2H2Y5fN

— Josh Uche (@_Uche35) November 7, 2019

Ethan Sears pinged the department to see if there had been any official movement on Evans. The answer was no. Best guess: there is a path for Evans to get back that he's on but he hasn't gotten all the way down it.

Devin Bush remains uncompromising. He was on the Rich Eisen show to discuss his rookie year and last year's MSU game came up. After bringing up 93 total yards a couple times, he seamlessly pivoted to fashion:

“It was so bad though, you see the jerseys they started wearing? You didn’t see their new jerseys? They got these neon jerseys that say ‘state’ across the front of them and I don’t think – I wouldn’t have made that design. I would have made that in the dark, for real.”

This is clear evidence that The Youth do not like uniformz and I will treasure it always.

Yowza. TSN's Craig Button has put out an early top X list for the 2021 NHL draft featuring three Michigan commits:

• #2 Owen Power, currently with the Chicago Steel in the USHL. He's 6'5" and amongst the league's top-scoring D in his draft –1 year.
• #8 Luke Hughes, who is a Hughes. Currently with the NTDP U17s. Stunning HockeyFact™: he is teammates with Jack Hughes, who is another guy named Jack Hughes and not his brother who went first overall in the most recent draft.
• #10 Kent Johnson, currently leading the BCHL in scoring by a million miles in his D–1 year.

Usually high-end players arrive in college just after they've been drafted, but occasionally they will spend their draft year in the NCAA either because they've accelerated their schooling (Zach Werenski) or just happen to not have their school and draft years match up (IIRC, Quinn Hughes). So: both Power and Johnson were announced as members of the 2020 class and should arrive next fall, because you don't put off top-ten players in any circumstance. Hughes should be a 2021.

With a couple of undeniable guys and a couple of NTDP players, the clown-car mystery that has long been the 2020 hockey recruiting class is now getting clearer. Michigan has 9 slots before attrition, two of which are probably walk-on-ish since Adam Winborg and Shane Switzer are healthy scratch types. 7-ish of these spots are spoken for:

• G Erik Portillo will fill Hayden Lavigne's spot. Portillo was a third-round pick last year.
• The three D spots will probably go to Power, NTDP defenseman Jacob Truscott, and 1999 Jake Harrison, who followed Mel from a Tech commit and will be out of junior eligibility after this season.
• The F spots are more up in the air. Two will go to Johnson and NTDP F Thomas Bordeleau. Cassidy Bowes is another 1999 who's got to end up in college next year and has announced a commit to M.

Then you've got two spots for six F commits unless there's attrition. Brendan Brisson (C-ranked by the CSB), Patrick Guzzo (same), Josh Groll (leading the USHL in goals in the early going) and Philippe Lapointe (Martin Lapointe's son) are ahead of the other two guys. A half-dozen guys are going to be deferred, a practice so widespread that it must be understood as a possibility when these guys commit.

There usually is attrition but this is a highly unusual M roster with only 3 drafted Fs: Jack Becker, Eric Ciccolini, and Johnny Beecher. Only Beecher was a high pick and he's the kind of large F who takes a while to develop. I'd guess that if there is attrition it's more about playing time than the NHL.

Over the next few years the hockey roster is going to change pretty radically in its composition. 2020 is the first real Mel class thanks to the extended recruiting horizons in college hockey, and it's probably going to be 2-3 overage guys and then a lot of talented guys in their draft year or D+1. I don't think any more Lake State transfers are incoming.

Good lord. Desmond Howard had the greatest punt return season in NFL history, and it's not close.

How ridiculous was @DesmondHoward the punt returner in 1996? @AdamHarstad investigates, and concludes that it's the best season by a PR ever.

A picture is worth a thousand words: Howard is the red dot. https://t.co/U359kcJsPH pic.twitter.com/dkbU2HdKAQ

— Football Perspective (@fbgchase) November 8, 2019

Etc.: "It is becoming more and more alarming that the season is nearly over and no one in charge of college football is going to do anything to pit Northwestern and Rutgers against each other." Ben Mathis-Lilley on the fanbases of college football and their unique ability to be miserable. Maybe we could talk about this on the podcast! Don't click here. Nate Wells on what Yost seems like from outside the fanbase.

Theo Mackie on Nico Collins; basketball went fast in the opener.