WTKA Roundtable 1/13/2022: In Defense of Neanderthals
Things discussed:
- Harbaugh to the NFL? Only the Raiders, and only if they make a ridiculous offer.
- Difference this year from last: Harbaugh went through last January’s renegotiation.
- If anyone’s going to make the move it’s the Raiders making a big one. Jim’s gotta know however that it’s not going to last.
- Donors who are for Michigan not their own self-aggrandizement is what makes Michigan so competitive. Having Ross be mostly hands off helps Michigan keep the donors from messing with the program, and that’s something that other schools envy us for. Good donors want a better linebacker, not more access.
- NIL and “NIL”? Michigan is coming along, probably not as fast as other schools are going to keep adapting.
- Transfers? Michigan’s only gotten one guy since 1990 who got more than a few credits towards a Michigan undergrad degree to transfer: Grant Mason from Stanford. Everyone else was a grad transfer or more or less started from scratch.
- Can Michigan be competitive in this environment? If the talent is more diffused. If Bama and UGA and Ohio State have their choice it’s unlikely Michigan can go 3-0 against them to win a championship. When you have an Ole Miss and Florida and A&M focused on getting the guys who want to go wherever’s offering the most money, that takes the top off of Bama and Georgia and Ohio State.
- Hoops: Problems they have are not solvable, because they don’t have wings. Their thruck will change at least. Illinois is playing great even without Curbelo. Frazier is the kind of guy who can tear us apart.
- Hockey: Made it over their bumpy part of the road and Mel teams have good second halves, but the Olympics could leave us severely depleted. Still look like a good team to make a run in the playoffs. Great UMass series this week.
[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]
You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream.
Segment two is available here. And you can watch the video here:
The Usual Links:
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link (right-click/save as)
- What's with the theme music?
Just for the lols, that’s the ideal scenario.
January 13th, 2022 at 11:51 AM ^
Haven't had a chance to listen yet but that first bullet re:Raiders is straight up incorrect. That said, the larger takeaway is that things are considerably brighter (for Michigan fans) than they were at the beginning of the week.
This part is speculation: JH really burned more NFL bridges than he, we, or anyone else may have realized when he exited SF. Telling your boss he can't come into a meeting because it's "for men only" comes back to haunt when you're talking about a fraternity as small as NFL owners. Jed York has had 7 years to blackball him, and I'm starting to think he did.
NFL owners ask each other about their experience with HC's. LINK
January 13th, 2022 at 1:43 PM ^
Ok, I completely agree with you that a “ridiculous offer” is not what would get Jim to leave Ann Arbor. When you are rich, getting $15 million a year isn’t much difference than getting $9 million a year. I don’t think he’s going to go based on who can pay him the most money.
But you have consistently been saying your source says he will take any NFL job he is offered. Which is pretty terrifying if true. So he really doesn’t want to stay here? If we are pinning our hopes on no one in the NFL wanting him, ever, that’s a pretty bad position for us to be in. Let’s hope that’s not the case. Sooner or later someone is going to make him an offer.
January 13th, 2022 at 4:02 PM ^
I don't think he'd ever break a contract with Michigan. That's just my opinion and not based on any sourced information. So if he's going to go to the NFL, the window is now.
Stand by my opinion (which is actually based on the Harbaugh-orbit source) that he'd take any offer the NFL makes absent some dealbreaker e.g. working with Trent Baalke as the GM.
January 13th, 2022 at 11:54 AM ^
I'm looking forward to the part about Neanderthals. It turns out that they were far more sophisticated than once thought.
January 13th, 2022 at 3:59 PM ^
Nasty the Cro-Magnons gave us Neanderthals a bad name.
Just so unfair.
But better than being labeled a "deformed Cossack" by someone as brilliant as Virchow.
January 13th, 2022 at 12:15 PM ^
Brian and Seth, a while back there was a pretty interesting discussion about the practice of over-signing going on at places like Alabama, which was essentially allowing Bama to sign more players than places like Michigan. The obvious ethical problem was it meant scholarship players were regularly being cut to make room for the extra recruits.
With the current transfer rules, Michigan -- and every other school -- can have more players transfer out and therefore sign more players every cycle. To me, this gives similar benefits to the practice of over-signing, without totally screwing over the players.
The reason I bring all this up, is that while Michigan can't easily get players out of the portal because of their tough admission standards, do you think it's really that big of a deal? Outside of a few players, most of the portal prospects don't seem likely to be instant starters at a place like Michigan.
I think the bigger problem Michigan has is that many top high school recruits are not good enough students to clear Michigan admissions, and therefore Michigan has a smaller recruiting board than places like OSU and the SEC.
With all that said, in this era of the portal and NIL deals, it seems like Michigan can swing on more boom or bust prospects like Ojabo, and if those players bust, they can seek greener pastures elsewhere. For the players that boom, the Michigan brand should pay big dividends in NIL opportunities.
I would be curious to see more data on how many players have transferred out of various programs since the portal era started and how many more prospects those programs have been able to sign out of high school to fill in those losses.
Love all the great discussion y'all bring to the roundtable. I always look forward to it hearing your different perspectives!
Cheers.
January 13th, 2022 at 9:57 PM ^
That got resolved by rules. Today there are limits on how many players you can sign, set by the NCAA and the conferences. You can back-date early enrollees if you have the room, but to do that you have to have the room. It's way less Wild West than it used to be.
You're correct that it's less skeezy with open transfers. The really bad stuff--like guys getting signed then grayshirted--is gone but not forcing players out or pressuring them into medical scholarships. You don't see 20 medshirts on Bama anymore.
Harbaugh has been criticized in the past, especially at Stanford, for pushing guys out the door. It's something we've been watching for since.
January 13th, 2022 at 12:15 PM ^
I don’t think money is driving JH right now. So not sure a huge offer from the raiders is really going to move the needle for him. It’s more if he thinks he can win there in a short period of time and if the NFL is really a draw for him anymore. I think deep down he knows he has a good thing in AA and is only looking at another 4-5 years to coach and then get out and enjoy the fruits of his labor.
January 13th, 2022 at 1:45 PM ^
Agree with half of this, disagree with the second half. No part of me thinks that Harbaugh is the type of guy that will kick back and retire early at 62 years old. I bet he coaches another 15 years. Hopefully here but I don’t know.
January 13th, 2022 at 3:58 PM ^
Harbaugh considers the "fruits of his labor" to be more coaching.
"Play as long as you can, then coach as long as you can, then die."
-Jim Harbaugh
January 13th, 2022 at 3:01 PM ^
Are you just taunting us with the jump now? It worked yesterday, it worked on the Raylen Wilson hello post but not on this one.
(My bet is on a cut and paste or other copying error.)
January 13th, 2022 at 3:12 PM ^
Well, that was fun. Thanks, all.
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