[Ed: This user has been stepping in because we've been letting UV pile up while Brian's on his vacation. Might as well not hide it in the diaries.]

Copied from My Notepad

Talk Before Talk. I did one of these on Friday. It's a blatant homage (read: rip-off) to the thing I love the most about this site. I am hesitant to call it a "give back" as gifts are generally invited and, per my own standards, the quality isn't quite there yet. But, it's pre-football season... and HOKE SPRINGS ETERNAL (I hope he doesn't)!  The first one on Friday wasn't too difficult to pull off, so I'm back again, maybe there's some links you haven't seen yet. 

Here's to the think you love or hate the most, Michigan athletics!

[After THE JUMP: People predicting Michigan's depth chart]

So many balls at over there. Over at 247, Zach Shaw looks into his crystal ball and takes his first swing at predicting Michigan's 2021 offensive depth chart as fall camp begins. Everything is basically chalk so far from Cade at QB, RB Haskins, to Ronnie Bell and C Johnson at WR, Sainristil on the inside and Erick All at TE. Offensive line remains where the true early excitement lies, particularly on the interior.
 

Starters (left to right): Ryan Hayes (redshirt junior), Trevor Keegan (redshirt sophomore), Zak Zinter (sophomore), Andrew Stueber (fifth-year senior), Karsen Barnhart (redshirt sophomore)

What to watch for: Michigan is sincere in its hopes to truly find the “best five” offensive linemen, and isn’t afraid to move guys around to do that. As such, we’ll briefly go position by position to make this more clear.

Left guard: All signs point to this being a Keegan-Filiaga battle. Keegan appeared to have won the job in the spring, but Harbaugh said Filiaga has had the most productive summer of all offensive linemen in terms of training progress. We give Keegan the slight edge for now.

Center: Vastardis is the incumbent, but we think Michigan’s best five right now actually has Zinter at center. Vastardis is battling Zinter to some extent, but is really trying to impress coaches at center more than Barnhart or Jones impress at right tackle.

Right guard: In all likelihood, this spot will go to either Zinter or Stueber. Harbaugh has stated both are definite starters for the Wolverines, but both could play different positions depending on where Michigan likes a fifth lineman more.

Honestly, at this point I'm embracing the whole Charlie Brown-ness of it all. Michigan football you had me at hail. Mainline me some of that sweet, sweet August football content right into my carotid.

We don't need to be an organization that labels people.

Over at the Athletic, Bruce Feldman has rolled out his annual "Freaks" list. While Emily Dickinson does not appear to be on this list, two Wolverine footballers are. One at the tippy, tippy top.

2. Aidan Hutchinson, Michigan, defensive end

After an injury-shortened season that limited him to three games with 15 tackles, sources inside the program expect Hutchinson, who made 68 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks in 2019, to have a huge 2021 season. We had his former teammate Kwity Paye at the top of this list a year ago, and we hear that 265-pound Hutchinson is every bit as big a Freak.

“He’s gonna test really well when he goes to the combine,” one source said. “He has a huge chip on his shoulder and can be right where Kwity was (in those agility numbers), running low 4.6s, with a mid-30s vert, but he’s over 6-6, and he’s gonna bench (225) in the 30s.”

While at Michigan, Paye clocked the second-best 3-cone time on the team at 6.37. This offseason, Hutchinson timed 6.54, which would’ve been better than anyone at the 2020 combine. In addition, he vertical jumped 36 inches, ran a 4.64 40 and ripped off a 4.07 shuttle time. Hutchinson also did a 2.57-second reactive plyo stair, which at 265, amazed even his strength coaches. He is the first athlete that veteran strength coach Ben Herbert has witnessed do a “Turkish Get-up” with 135 pounds and no collars (to lock on the plates) in 24 years working in college weight rooms. (Any mistake or hint of imbalance in keeping the bar perfectly level, and the weight will slide off.)

In case you were wondering, a year later when Paye had his NFL pro day, he matched his time in the 3-cone drill. Paye, then 10 pounds lighter, also ran a 4.52 40 faster than the 4.57 he had last offseason; vertical jumped an inch higher (35.5) and did six more reps (36) on the bench press at 225 pounds.

And on the other side of the edge...
 

33. Julius Welschof, Michigan, defensive end
When Aidan Hutchinson first saw Welschof, a 6-6 250-plus pound former champion moguls skier from Germany, broad jumping 10-5, it blew his mind. “It was insane,” Hutchinson recalled. “I was like, who the hell is this guy, this German freak?”

The 24-year-old first got on European football scout Brandon Collier’s radar with videos of a then-220-pound Welschof doing backflips on his skis and walking 50 yards on his hands. Welschof is now up to 288 pounds and can still do some ridiculous athletic feats, running a 4.68 40 and still broad jumping 10-5, and Hutchinson said his friend could be in line for “a breakout season” in a new defensive scheme.

If Michigan can get some serious push out of someone not named Aidan Hutchinson then things could free up in about five other places on the defensive side of the ball. This is, however, a list of 'freaks' not a list of predicted and expected output of known commodities. 

Other notable entries: A "freak" Alabama lineman tops the list, #19 is a picture of another Ohio State RB with a silly name and an overproductive varicose system, confounding Boilermaker George Karlaftis checks in at #7, No Sparties (Sparty No!) but Western has two, Central one and even Wayne State has a player on the list, #8 is a player on Coastal Carolina who plays a position called "Bandit", my suspicion is he'll never get that Coors from Texarkana to the Georgia State Fairgrounds in time, but he's a freak, so...

Harbaugh sits in a chair. BTN posted their 2021 B1G Football Kickoff Show on YouTube. They split up the coaches in groups and sat them down for some mostly uninformative interviews. Coach Harbaugh was paired up with Pat Fitzgerald and the two spoke on the two schools' new rivalry trophy, the George Jewett Trophy that the teams will play for this season. Jim talks about how "cool" the trophy looks, and I agree. As trophies go, I'm sure it'll look great being hoisted and paraded around a big grassy field by a bunch of sweaty 19-year-olds in celebration of a triumphant 10-9 M 00 N affair!

Later, Coach goes on to talk a bit about the QB race in Ann Arbor.

"You never know about a new Quarterback until they get into 11-on-11 football. Cade McNamara did get in games last year for us. He played very well and had an excellent spring. He's taking charge, doing everything, and has all the traits that you want in a quarterback. And J.J. McCarthy has those same traits, same competitive nature, talented and athletic. So put talented guys out there and let them do."

Lastly, you don't see a lot of interviews of Jim just sitting in a chair. It feels unnatural. Also, Dave Revsine's haircut is distracting. 

Here comes the Roly Poly Man. While Haskins is getting all mentions as the "starter" for the upcoming season, it's still unclear what kind of running back system the Wolverines will be running in the fall. Will it be a featured back (Haskins) with a dash of Corum/Edwards, or more of a platoon. Honestly, having seen nearly every variation of how you can run out a bunch of backs over the past handful of years, I don't even know what style I like best. Can we just play the RBs coach? I do remember liking it when he was back there.

What is clear though, Donovan Edwards is getting some preseason love. MLive:
 

Michigan’s true-freshman running back Donovan Edwards impressed coaches in the spring with his work ethic and talent, so much so that he’s worked his way into the depth chart and will be part of the playing rotation on Sept. 4.

Last month at Big Ten Media Days, Harbaugh told reporters that “you’ll be seeing Donovan Edwards Game 1″ — a statement backed up Thursday by Michigan offensive coordinator Josh Gattis.

“Donovan will play Week 1,” Gattis told reporters on Thursday. “That’s no secret in this building, the type of talent that he is.”

Gattis described the 6-foot, 202-pound Edwards as “one of the most competitive people that you’ll ever meet,” complimenting the West Bloomfield, Mich., native’s ability to complete a quick turnaround from high school to college. 

Also, more praise for Donovan and his Magic Bus on Freep. It's fall practice. One thing to remember: all your backs are 10 feet tall dino-robots that breath fire rockets.

Bill Connelly Checks In

Michigan leads Connelly's Teams most likely to rebound from a 2020 stumble. 
 

It's a lot harder to make a defense after 2020. The Wolverines significantly underachieved last fall, going 2-4 and not only struggling to keep up offensively (not a new thing) but also regressing significantly on D.

SP+ projections take longer-term factors into account -- your recent history beyond last season, your recent recruiting -- and those factors suggest the Wolverines have good odds of improving over last year's performance. 
 

It's not a ringing endorsement, but what did I expect? There's more, he basically says things could be bad or they could be good. Who's to say? 

Wings with Stickers. Chris Breiler over on SI, spotted some New Award Decals on Michigan's Iconic Winged Helmet

The numbers seemingly are in sequential order. You've got a Paul Bunyan Trophy in there, a Little Brown Jug, a Michigan Varsity jacket, a B1G tape? and of course something that looks like the TED Talks logo.

Hopefully that's a sticker solely dedicated to giving a mildly amusing speech about replying to SPAM.

Hype like Gata. The Twitters has alllll the practice hype. Last post I tried to do normal Twitter embeds and the result was not great Bob. So, now I'm just trying to lean all the way in. What could go wrong?

ꜰɪʀꜱᴛ ᴅᴀʏ ᴏᴜᴛ. ?️#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/w51N3XfOae

— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) August 6, 2021

 

Strategic how we move, treatin’ it like chess. ♟#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/zBqeBrVOus

— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) August 7, 2021

 

The whole squad is getting ready for battle. 〽️#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/lQVmNz50eu

— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) August 9, 2021

 

Just two "dudes" from Ohio that helped make @umichfootball great and did what they could to bring @packers world championships. And the guy on the left is what Shaft would call "A Bad Mutha" I prefer to call him "First Ballot". Congrats Wood! pic.twitter.com/9FoeFeAyPh

— Desmond Howard (@DesmondHoward) August 9, 2021

(Hmmm: Not sure what I'm doing wrong. I don't normally have an issue embedding tweets. Will test below, but once I press Save I can't edit. I'm just a mortal man. Anywho, the tweeted content is actually pretty good, click on the twitter links above. It'll take you to Twitter for some hype vids for you to get hype. It's not as convenient but it's definitely hype.)

And now for something completely different. To effectively combat the hype posted above for obvious karmic purposes, I will now make you depressed by pointing you to a piece Adam Rittenberg posted on ESPN ($) called "The underachiever tiers of college football."  Guess who's favorite football team leads the list? Nope, not us. Ryan Seacrest's Georgia Dawgs.

Michigan comes in on "Tier 4 - Lost-Glory Schools". There's nothing really worth copying and pasting out of the article that you don't know. Michigan's little blurb is basically just a paragraph that reads like a Wikipedia entry called "Michigan's Football record since 2001". For context/interest, fellow Tier 4 schools include Miami (YTM), USC, Nebraska and Tennessee. 

Anywho, I know there are people who solely exist in the Michigan Football universe for the torture-porn aspect of it all. Enjoy your fap, sadists.

We're a basketball school now. On to hoops, CBS Sports dropped it's kinda too early Top 25-and-1 rankings. I guess that's a cute way of saying 26 and not a list that inevitably has Skip-to-my-lou on top.

The return of Hunter Dickinson and Eli Brooks provides Juwan Howard with high-level experienced pieces to pair with the nation's top-ranked recruiting class that features five-star prospect Caleb Houstan, five-star prospect Moussa Diabate and reigning Sun Belt Player of the Year DeVante' Jones. The Wolverines should be the favorite to win what would be a second straight Big Ten title.

Other B1G notables, Purdue at 10, Illinois at 16, Ohio State 18, Maryland 21, Michigan State 24. What? No Rutgers? 

Rounding out the Top 5 are, in order: Gonzaga, UCLA, Texas, Kansas and Villanova.

Gonzaga welcomes five-star Chet Holmgren but says farewell to Jalen Suggs, Corey Kispert and a couple others. Leaving the Lemon family out of this, I challenge you to think of one other high-performing athletic Chet. Drew Timme is back, but I've never been a fan of novelty facial hair. I mean it's a fun joke when you walk up at the bar for about 10 seconds, then what, you just live like this?

I'll be around for more non-sports observational Gonzaga-based humor-type takes all year. HMU.

Diabate is here to shut you out. Rivals chipped in with a quick little feature on Moussa Diabate. After the legal requirement of everyone speaking publicly about Juwan Howard to compliment how great of a person he is, Diabate talks a little bit about his Juwan's coaching style.

"He’s extremely focused to the details. So even the angles of the screen, you’ve got to pay attention to those because at the pro level, all those things are going to matter. I really think that was the main thing that I was like, ‘Wow, that’s serious. He really takes that stuff seriously.’

"His approach to the game, just how serious he is, and the way he involves everybody else around him — I think that’s a pro attitude. He doesn’t have a lot of an ego — he doesn’t have an ego at all. He makes sure that everybody around him connects and is able to be reliable with him. That’s a great skill to have, and that’s what he does best."

First on the Juwan thing. It's becoming (or already is) a meme. Is Juwan so nice of a guy that any person who ever goes on any record has to mention it?  Perhaps it's a College Basketball PTSD thing? So many ego-centric, monomaniacal assholes (read: Izzo, Crean, McCaffery, etc etc etc etc) have ruled the college basketball landscape for so long, that a guy whose face isn't "violent purple" in the crayola box is constantly lauded for being the world's best human. Ever.

And for the rival team fans out there, I'm sure the above quoted is actually an implied Phil Martelli compliment, because everyone knows that Juwan doesn't really coach. And he's gonna be in the pros next season anyways. So, it's not like it really matters. But if anyone asks, he can't coach. 

Diabate goes on to talk about his defensive approach to hoops.

"First of all, I am competitive," he said. "I don’t want people to score on me. I don’t like it — I hate it, actually. So whenever I feel like somebody is scoring on me, I don’t like it.

"I just love playing defense, especially when you’re able to keep your man scoreless. It’s such an insane impact, a big impact, on the team that you’re playing against. I love playing defense, really."

Looking forward to this team. What's French for "Diabate shutout."

Etc. All 50 Wolverines on NFL Training Camp Rosters. I've enjoyed lists like these since days of Madden yore and creating All-Michigan squads. Here's hoping Chris Evans makes an NFL roster so someone can have a 55 OVR RB as their starter. Also, Brandon Rusnak and Adam Coon are names that'll live forever in Michigan football lore. Hutch's Bust Looks Great. Mayor of Flavortown Approves. ChadTough Still Going Strong. Chris Hinton has been working on his Football IQ. Quinn Nordin does something that doesn't involve sleeping over. More roster observations. SI.COM  USATODAY. The Athletic rates every home EPL shirt.