WTKA Roundtable 2/15/2024: The Other Direction
Things Discussed:
- The coaching staff is finally all younger than Brian (this happened sometime in the Bronze Age; he was looking around like "I thought stone tools were fine, but okay I guess we're all going into this mining business.")
- Clink: It wasn't about the money; he needed to be the DC, and Sherrone needed experience. If he was only staying for the buyout it wasn't going to be great for either party.
- We're going with guys who watched the Usher performance at the Super Bowl and didn't recognize any of the songs.
- Stephen Adegoke: Rising star. Getting a Mo Linguist a little earlier than we got Mo, but need to worry that an NFL team will come for him in a year or two. Guy is 28. Was a Michigan GA in 2021, NFL position coach in three years. Jesse Minter trajectory. Ryan doesn't want to let him go. When's the last time an OSU coach left for a better job?
- Losses to coaching changes despite NCAA rule that allows your team to get raided in these situations: Amorion Walker (Ole Miss NIL), Jalen Smith (literally every coach he knew is gone), and normal attrition.
- Casula: Great recruiter, needs to answer for his offensive analyst job in 2019, because Gattis was terrible.
- NIL: Sea change. Michigan's new partnerships and hiring GMs for the football program and an NIL GM for Athletics are going to ward off the poaching efforts. Could have done it earlier and maybe kept JJ.
- Saw how Alabama's roster got raided, and they had to hold off on announcing the Seahawks had hired away their OL coach and OC until their portal had closed—Michigan hasn't had that.
- Huge impact. You hear what Bryce Underwood is making ($3M) per year at LSU and think what will someone pay for a one-year rental on a DT who changes the entire shape of your defense?
- Michigan's NIL program can now show recruits they'll have sustainability. ROI for the investors too.
- Why are our donors different? Because they're not money-launderers.
- Basketba—oops we're out of time.
[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]
You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream.
Segment 2 is here. You can watch the video here:
The Usual Links:
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
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Direct download link (right-click/save as)
- What's with the theme music?
They've never downloaded any of those songs on Napster, which I have all of them.
February 15th, 2024 at 11:09 AM ^
Seriously, we can talk about basketball. Women's basketball.
WBB is taking on the Iowa Caitlin Clarks tonight.
Men's seats are going for, what, $6 courtside, if you can't find someone giving them away? Women's are apparently going for up to $1000, as folks expect Clark to break the scoring record.
Michigan isn't having a great year, but they are still expected to dance, and Iowa WBB isn't a "non-revenue sport". It's selling out arenas. Clark is a household name, and I guarantee more people have heard of her than anyone on Michigan's men's team. But Iowa just lost to Nebraska, so they're not invincible. Our team has a puncher's chance.
Crissakes, this has gone on long enough. Don't just cover the team that's more fun to watch. . .
Cover the basketball team that is legitimately more relevant.
February 15th, 2024 at 12:34 PM ^
If you know of $6 courtside seats to a MBB game, I will take them!
I thought I could score cheap UM/MSU tickets for Saturday but they're still pretty pricey. Maybe a bunch of Sparty fans driving the price up?
February 15th, 2024 at 3:30 PM ^
Maybe Sparty. I didn’t make up the $6 figure but to your point I think that might’ve been. . . I wanna say Rutgers?
February 15th, 2024 at 12:25 PM ^
Haven't gotten a chance to listen to this yet, but keeping JJ? Would have been great.
But... there's all kinds of chatter about him on the draft boards. He's been the hot name up here for the Vikings at 11, for example, with some (small) concern that they might not even be able to get him there if they don't move up.
Hard to argue with his choice if he goes that high no matter how much NIL can be raised for him.
February 15th, 2024 at 12:42 PM ^
Wasn't worth a separate post, but Klatt mocked him to our former Friend and Trusted Agent Mike Macdonald over there in Seattle (at 16).
February 15th, 2024 at 12:48 PM ^
Another thing in JJ's favor that doesn't get talked about much is his age. He's nearly 2 years younger than the other high-projected QBs. He was still 20 in the CFP championship game. He's got more mileage left, and more runway to develop. That's going to entice some teams, especially if they have an older starting QB and are looking for a 2025 or 26 replacement to be ready.
February 15th, 2024 at 4:09 PM ^
JJ is the best QB in the draft IMO...give me him over Caleb. Maybe a bias, but I try my best not to put those lenses on. He is a gamer, a winner, and a leader.
When the lights are brightest he shows up....we can ignore that TCU game for now lol
Not surprised at all he is shooting up boards
Meanwhile over here in Seattle people are crying that Penix is dropping like a rock....i mean i thought it was obvious, outside of the correct injury concerns, he will be 24 by the time new season starts, and he cant throw in the middle of the field. You dont do that in NFL, your dead in the water....plus Michigan NFL defense last year was too much for him.
February 15th, 2024 at 12:32 PM ^
Yeah I think even RichRod would characterize the notion of JJ possibly staying another year as an excessive stretch
February 15th, 2024 at 1:09 PM ^
JJ was going to stay for another year? "For who? For what?"
February 15th, 2024 at 1:10 PM ^
A 6 figure donation? I'll be recreating the nowyouhavemyattention.gif when its 8 figures but 6, while obviously needed and could potentially trigger more from others, doesn't really seem to move the needle when Underwood is pulling in mid 7's by himself
February 15th, 2024 at 7:16 PM ^
That was my reaction as well. 6 figures is not moving the needle in literally any direction. That's not stopping Oregon or Texas or someone like that from coming in an offering a single player a few million dollars
February 15th, 2024 at 1:41 PM ^
The NIL complaints have always been weird to me; I'm sure UM is below some of the big players in the space but this university LOVES making money and are good at it, and so I never doubted they'd figure out a sustainable NIL system. UM will never compete with your A&M and Miami style operations but they've not really lost many guys to better paying schools once they got on campus and, fingers crossed, that'll continue.
Also, really excited about the defensive staff. Still will have to see them on the file but a lack of a Rolodex helps in sense that the guys Moore does know sre younger, hopefully hungry guys who are open to new ideas and not, say, Tim Drevno who seems set in not recruiting offensive linemen.
February 15th, 2024 at 2:17 PM ^
Michigan has the resources to bring in money at a top-5 level. Texas, Texas A&M, and Oregon are the only three with a clear advantage over UofM. I'm not saying they should be top-5, but they shouldn't be "Tier 3" by their own assessment. They need to close the gap between what's available and what's being brought in.
February 15th, 2024 at 3:09 PM ^
I may have missed it but I don't remember UM referring to themselves as a "tier 3" outfit outside of a grainy slide that was purportedly shown to donors (during a sales pitch, mind you) to convince them to give more. And that slide was referring to a single year and somehow didn't include Oregon anywhere on it but inexplicably put Louisville and Mizzou at the top (I guess Papa John's money is allowed to stick around even if his shitty pizza and racist thoughts aren't).
UM has never been at the cutting edge of NIL but even in the podcast they noted that UM is really good at above-board NIL opportunities; basically, making sure guys who are on the team get good financial deals. That likely explains why UM doesn't have a ton of guys transfer out. Miami and A&M seemingly have a really good "pay guys up front" NIL program and that's only led to a ton of mediocre seasons and out-transfers. They are different approaches but we seem to be measuring success based on a formula that focuses heavily on the A&M/Miami model and not UM's.
Michigan's NIL program has seemingly always been built on good ROI for the donors and the players - you get paid for being good and that's going to foster healthy, consistent relationships. OSU seemingly calling in every favor in the world to keep all their players may work, but that's a level of fund raising that's probably not sustainable outside of oil or Nike money.
So again, I'm fairly certain that UM has a growing and strong NIL program financially and that'll be further boosted by continuing to win.
February 15th, 2024 at 4:57 PM ^
Oregon may not have been on it because they didn't have access to the data.
February 15th, 2024 at 6:52 PM ^
I suspect that's mostly a slide based on rumors and innuendo, as you have schools like PSU and UM occupying the same space as Vandy but you don't see schools like Tennessee, OU, FSU, etc. anywhere even though I know they throw money around.
Again, UM isn't at the top but as someone who has worked in tech for 15+ years I can tell you that slide decks are designed to do a couple of things and "accurately state financials" ain't one of them.
February 15th, 2024 at 5:29 PM ^
What is always lost in the NIL discussion is people wealthy enough to donate 6 and 7 figure sums didn't typically get that far ahead financially by giving money away. They usually want a ROI. A player that can transfer or flame out is not going to entice due to the high risk factor. I'm glad it was talked about on this segment.
February 15th, 2024 at 3:42 PM ^
Michigan has a lot of wealthy alumni but — especially for a university with our sort of legacy in athletics — an unusually large share aren’t sports fans at all.
For that matter I wonder where OSU’s NIL money is coming from, because it’s not like their business school grads are all hardcore football fans. I wonder if they’re stretching themselves thin.
February 15th, 2024 at 3:48 PM ^
How many schools have sent their teams to the Vatican, Paris, South Africa, Gettysburg, all over Michigan, etc.?
Michigan donor money goes to educational opportunities for the students. Dare I say, transformational experiences?
The difference is buying one player for a year versus providing an amazing learning experience to the entire team that they’ll never forget.
February 15th, 2024 at 1:54 PM ^
Whilst not money laundering, look at Stephen Ross buying a $3 million dollar property, donating it to the U a year and a half later, then writing it off as a $30 million dollar property which the U then sold for $1.5 million.
Mega fraudulent.
February 15th, 2024 at 2:00 PM ^
Craig Ross thinking Sam was working on NIL opportunites for Will Heineger last year. He last played in 2011...lol.
February 15th, 2024 at 2:17 PM ^
Can Jim Harbaugh be a donor now? Like, ethically?
February 15th, 2024 at 7:13 PM ^
Seth bringing up that UGA's collectives are literally money laundering just makes you stop and sigh
February 16th, 2024 at 5:10 AM ^
If we lost JJ because of NIL everyone in management should be fired, everyone. With JJ we are talking about another national title vs 9-3 (hopefully)
I'm not an NIL expert but I think LSU & others are using donor dollars to compensate their top players where Michigan is begging fans for $...huge difference.
The Bryce Underwood situation will be used against Michigan until the end of time...meanwhile for the first time in a long time we will either be trotting out a walkon or 3 star at QB next year.
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