I actually think we matched up a lot better vs. Florida than OSU did in 2006. Not sure we would have won, but 06 UF was not as good as 08 UF.
The real butterfly effect of that play is that with a BCS title game win (or maybe even just appearance), Hart/Henne/Long probably go pro after the 06 season, Carr retires and who knows who the choice would have been going into 07...Saban? It's not a stretch to say Michigan looked like a much more appealing job in the 06-07 offseason than Alabama.
Anyway, it's a fun scenario to game out but ultimately, the intervening ~15 years were worth it for what Harbaugh was able to help us accomplish over the past 3.
Even if Juwan is retained as expected, it's going to be hard to attract top assistant coach talent. Up-and-comers with early-career success will be hesitant to enter a program that starts 2024-25 season on the hottest of hot seats.
OK. Hard to get too worked up about anything with him. Seems like he wanted to be here, admissions screwed him over (as they have done with others, and probably will continue to), and during his career we won a national title and he didn't.
Wish him the best in the NFL and be very glad we don't need to think about what if...
When I was admitted (turn of the 21st century), I found out from through an email titled 'University of Michigan Admissions Decision' that was 1) text only, no pictures or links and 2) received at about 11:30 at night, on a weeknight in mid/late October (admissions were rolling then, and I had my application ready to go about the first week of school)
I was so excited to see I'd been admitted, and immediately confirmed the email was from an @umich email account, but given the low-quality contents and very unexpected release time, I wasn't 100% sure it was real and not an elaborate troll job until I had my HS guidance counselor check it the next day.
I see you switched to Streamable rather than Youtube for practical reasons, but if feasible it would be nice to make this switch permanent - I love how it auto replays (helps me breakdown the play from all the different contributors) and the quality is really good.
It's hard to see the problem of bowl opt-outs going away. The systematic way to prevent them would come when college football players are contracted employees (and thus, skipping a game would be a breach of their contract).
However, in a system of contracted employees we would see the Marvin Harrison/Aidan Hutchinson-level players' contracts worth millions but 98% of FBS players worth maybe a few thousand per year each. What happens when you are a university employee making $15K a year pre-tax as a backup tight end but are contractually obligated to play in the OnlyFans.com Bowl in suburban Omaha, risking injury that could drastically impair your future earnings potential???
There already have been multiple lawsuits where CFB players sued for the right to enter the NFL draft early. Maurice Clarett and Mike Williams (USC) come to mind, both ended up mostly shut out of football after an appeals court overturned a lower court's ruling that they could enter the draft.
In the ~20 years since, the courts have shifted away from legal precedent and in the direction of the political preferences of the judge(s) involved so it's unclear if the result would be the same today. This isn't such a left/right issue so anything could happen.
No. If he goes pro and is a top-3 pick, Harrison’s first year take home (pre-tax) would be close to 35M. The signing bonus cap hit is spread out across the length of the deal, but it’s a signing bonus fully paid out at the time of signing, not gradually. That’s what OSU boosters have to contend with.
If a group of OSU booster(s) are really crazy enough to offer MHJ $35M to play one more season with the Buckeyes (and I'm skeptical), he still shouldn't take it.
With that amount of money, why not actually go play in the pros, work on your craft full time and generate even more income on the side? QB is projected as a weakness for them next year, whoever it is, and it isn't like he's some kind of lifelong Buckeye fan.
It's really incredible how terrible the adidas uniforms were, especially in football and basketball.
I understand that back when that deal was signed in like 2006, they were paying orders of magnitude more than Nike was to top schools at the time, but the quality and look was not befitting an athletic department of Michigan's stature.
I know they rotate home and away annually between the divisions for B1G championship game, but I really wish (as the higher-ranked team) we were able to wear the iconic blue top, maize pants that's the signature of our program.
I have no idea if it still exists, but in my day UM had a formal Wikipedia Club which met regularly to write and update Wiki articles about the university and its many facets.
Read any article about the history of the school, random athletes, buildings on campus, etc. and it will be super detailed, well-researched and accurate...this group is probably why.
Can someone please explain to me why the buckeye trolls are celebrating this story coming out as some type of win? There's a rabbit hole to be gone down on twitter that involves disgraced ex-OSU troll/coach Zack Smith and (fake reporter who shall not be named) who think this is good for the buckeyes, but not one i'm going to pursue myself...
This is never going to happen. The entire economics of the media ecosystem that makes big-time D1 college athletics so lucrative would have to be discarded for a system like this. A fun thought exercise, but nothing more.
The US News has zero relevance or meaning in any way, with the exception of their college and graduate school rankings, which are the industry standard. Colleges and alumni care deeply about where they rank in these things despite their flaws.
And perhaps a better opening would be "the title says most of it" but alas, this here site does not appear to allow edits of OP's.
Uhhh my dude, I don't think you really get what "streaming" means....
also (until a premium ad-free version of mgoblog exists), those of you using ad blockers on this site are cutting off Brian and co.'s primary stream of revenue, so if you really appreciate what they provide for free, maybe consider allowing this site as an exception to your ad blocker, or contribute another way if/how your means allow...
The #1 jersey isn't really a *thing* anymore...Andrel Anthony was given it as a freshman, we have had multiple non-WRs and defensive players wear it in recent years and IIRC the whole "only for an elite game-breaking WR" thing was only while Braylon was actively endowing a scholarship for that player, which I believe he hasn't done in years.
Favorite - both NYC airports have recently completed major renovations and are now great in terms of dining, comfort and other things I care about. DTW is also good.
Worst - Kansas City, and I don't think it's particularly close.
Nebraska is by far the best gameday experience of the three and by very far the worst of the three at everything else. A very long trip to the middle of nowhere without much to do other than the game itself.
Maryland is a pretty sterile gameday experience but if you're making a weekend of it, College Park is just minutes from Washington DC so there's plenty to do there if you want to go out, good restaurants etc. Bonus from having been to several UM vs UMD games there is that their student body and fan base are apathetic about football so it's like 80% Michigan fans.
I've never been to a football game at Minnesota, but the Twin Cities are a lot of fun and early October should allow you to miss their worst winter weather.
We probably would have lost in a game where the score is somewhat respectable but makes it look closer than it really was...a big step forward from 2021 vs UGA but something like 38-21 maybe.
The reality is that we were a better team than TCU and probably would win a semifinal matchup with them 7 or 8 times out of ten.
I'm personally salivating as we look towards this season because things are really lined up, I think this year has the potential to be better than both the 21 and 22 teams on both offense and defense (not special teams), and there doesn't project to be a UGA juggernaut like there was the past two years standing in our way. That's not to say the playoff is a guarantee, we had to win a close one against Illinois which there's no guarantee would go our way again, but it's a good place to start from.
Gyro II…was that the one on 7th Ave a block or two north of MSG? If so, I also remember it fondly. Their food was Greek-adjacent at best and their take on the tzatziki sauce was way too sweet but unique and tasty to be sure
Good to know. Virtual lock one of our early-season non-conference games will be on Peacock then. NBC isn't paying the B1G billions not to put their premier brands on the streaming service they're trying to grow.
Bars and restaurants have to pay commercial rates for streaming services like Peacock and those costs can be very steep. Unfortunately some places will pass those costs along to customers, either through upfront cover charges or indirectly by raising prices on food and drinks.
I don't think he got a redshirt. He appeared in about 5 minutes over 2 games as a true freshman (against UNC was one of them, I remember being furious about how we wasted a potential 5th year for that) and a handful, maybe even most, of our games this season off the bench.
Is this one of those things where Michigan retroactively applied for a redshirt for his freshman year? Basketball has not yet moved over to the football redshirt model, so as of now appearing in any part of any game disqualifies you for a RS that season.
Hard to say that I would change anything, good or bad, that happened in the 2012-13 season prior to March Madness. Because say Michigan wins that game at Wisco, maybe we end up with a 3 seed instead of a 4 in the tournament, maybe we run into a better 1 seed than Kansas or a draw a worse matchup and don't make it all the way to the end.
Because hey, no matter how we ended up there, we were the best team in a year where there was no national champion (due to Louisville's shenanigans).
I think these team names are a lot more modern and normal than some of the legacy ones that the more established leagues have. For example, if the NFL was starting up today, they would never name a team "the Browns" and don't even get me started on half the MLB franchise names that date back to the 19th century.
Really seems a lot more legit than the upstart USFL, if there's going to be a clear cut #2 pro football league in a few years, I think it's going to be the new XFL. Having The Rock as the face of your league is a good thing.
No real geographic ties to any team so I've decided I'm going to be a DC Defenders fan, plus root for any ex-Michigan players to do well.
Wait, so PSU's poor performances against Michigan the past two years weren't because Michigan was a more talented and better-coached team, but because they were surprised by our uniforms?!?
Looks like he's been a depth player so far with a chance to start next season as a redshirt sophomore.
Definitely a good player we would have loved to sign out of metro Detroit, but given the results the past two years, hard to say I'd rather see any changes on the OL vs what we actually ran out there.
College hockey refs, man...I remember in the old CCHA days they had to remove the ref's last names from the back of their uniforms because the fans started coming up with chants directly targeted at them.
If his #1 priority is to be an Olympic track star, Oregon is probably the right fit. UO's facilities, and investment in that sport, leave the rest of division 1 far behind in the dust. Just a completely different level of commitment than anyone else has put into indoor and outdoor track and field.
That said, Michigan is no slouch there. In the non-Oregon universe, we have some of the best T&F resources, not to mention an impressive roster of Olympians for various countries in recent years. And if he is still serious about football, it's no doubt that the better combined opportunity is at UM.
IMO, Balas' track record is not great with recruiting or program inside info. He has been wrong too many times to be considered a real 'insider' though I'm sure he does have some sources on the periphery of the AD. Agree that Sam Webb does sometimes feel overly optimistic, this could be the outcome of trying to maintain his relationships with sources, but he's virtually always right when he speaks definitively about something and his team has broken a lot of news.
Jim Harbaugh (5 - has achieved virtually every goal he could here, wish he didn't create distractions for the team with the NFL stuff but he has earned the right to. Best coach this program could actually have right now despite it all. Not a single one of his detractors would rather have Mel Tucker or Ryan Day or Frames Janklin)
Juwan Howard (3.5 - performance of the team the past 1.5 seasons is concerning, but winning a B1G title, 1 seed, big NCAA upsets etc. are not an accident. Realistic conversations about his job probably won't come into play until after the 23-24 season)
Kim Barnes Arico (5 - she has the UM WBB program at as a high a level as can be expected and actually beyond what I thought possible. WCBB is the ultimate blue blood sport, and the only team that's newly broken into that realm this century is South Carolina. I think KBA has some 5*'s committed, let's see if they propel us to take that next step...)
Brandon Naurato (4? Team seems up and down but he appears to be a good recruiter and in a coinflip sport like NCAA hockey that puts UM in a position to compete for national titles)
Tracy Smith (3/incomplete - he's in a tough spot but so was Bakich when he arrived, let's see how it goes)
Warde Manuel (2.5 - it's really hard to tell which narratives out there are accurate and which are being pushed by those with agendas. He's made some good hiring decisions but would like to see him as more of an advocate for his people. Athl. dept. has had a lot of on-field success overall since he's been here)
Santa Ono (5 - very early, but he seems to "get it" so far)
Kevin Warren (3.5 - won't be remembered as a great commissioner but he was brought in to make the conference and it's schools money, and he sure did via the new media deals)
The coordinating abilities of Matt Weiss/Sherrone Moore/Jesse Minter/Steve Clinkscale (together) (4.5 - the results are out there on the field for everyone to see. Developing players and a team that win. Slight ding for a couple of uncharacteristic performances in big games, countered by overperforming against OSU)
"The Current State of College Football" (IDK what this means, but 3.14159? The game is messier now with the portal and NIL, I still love it like I have for years)
If JJ goes pro after next season, I think it's safe to assume our 2024 starting QB is currently playing elsewhere and will portal in next winter - otherwise it's (hopefully) a highly-touted true freshman.
It's easy to forget with how the past few years have gone, but for the first half-decade of Nebraska's B1G tenure, they were actually a tough team! They consistently beat Brady Hoke teams, and then we didn't play them for a good while until Harbaugh had things up and running here.
This is such a tired argument from Tennessee fans. The more deserving player won the Heisman, both went on to become pro and college football hall of famers, Super Bowl champions and make many millions of dollars, both teams won a national championship before the 90s was over and Phil Fulmer even got his revenge by voting UM 4th to prevent a coaches poll national title. Move on with your lives.
Recent Comments
I actually think we matched up a lot better vs. Florida than OSU did in 2006. Not sure we would have won, but 06 UF was not as good as 08 UF.
The real butterfly effect of that play is that with a BCS title game win (or maybe even just appearance), Hart/Henne/Long probably go pro after the 06 season, Carr retires and who knows who the choice would have been going into 07...Saban? It's not a stretch to say Michigan looked like a much more appealing job in the 06-07 offseason than Alabama.
Anyway, it's a fun scenario to game out but ultimately, the intervening ~15 years were worth it for what Harbaugh was able to help us accomplish over the past 3.
Keaton Pehrson is an Esports major at UND.
https://fightinghawks.com/sports/mens-ice-hockey/roster/keaton-pehrson/11660
Even if Juwan is retained as expected, it's going to be hard to attract top assistant coach talent. Up-and-comers with early-career success will be hesitant to enter a program that starts 2024-25 season on the hottest of hot seats.
OK. Hard to get too worked up about anything with him. Seems like he wanted to be here, admissions screwed him over (as they have done with others, and probably will continue to), and during his career we won a national title and he didn't.
Wish him the best in the NFL and be very glad we don't need to think about what if...
Are special teams included in the combine? You could argue for James Turner as a draftable player based off of his performance this year.
When I was admitted (turn of the 21st century), I found out from through an email titled 'University of Michigan Admissions Decision' that was 1) text only, no pictures or links and 2) received at about 11:30 at night, on a weeknight in mid/late October (admissions were rolling then, and I had my application ready to go about the first week of school)
I was so excited to see I'd been admitted, and immediately confirmed the email was from an @umich email account, but given the low-quality contents and very unexpected release time, I wasn't 100% sure it was real and not an elaborate troll job until I had my HS guidance counselor check it the next day.
I see you switched to…
Seth,
I see you switched to Streamable rather than Youtube for practical reasons, but if feasible it would be nice to make this switch permanent - I love how it auto replays (helps me breakdown the play from all the different contributors) and the quality is really good.
It's hard to see the problem of bowl opt-outs going away. The systematic way to prevent them would come when college football players are contracted employees (and thus, skipping a game would be a breach of their contract).
However, in a system of contracted employees we would see the Marvin Harrison/Aidan Hutchinson-level players' contracts worth millions but 98% of FBS players worth maybe a few thousand per year each. What happens when you are a university employee making $15K a year pre-tax as a backup tight end but are contractually obligated to play in the OnlyFans.com Bowl in suburban Omaha, risking injury that could drastically impair your future earnings potential???
Stay tuned!
There already have been multiple lawsuits where CFB players sued for the right to enter the NFL draft early. Maurice Clarett and Mike Williams (USC) come to mind, both ended up mostly shut out of football after an appeals court overturned a lower court's ruling that they could enter the draft.
In the ~20 years since, the courts have shifted away from legal precedent and in the direction of the political preferences of the judge(s) involved so it's unclear if the result would be the same today. This isn't such a left/right issue so anything could happen.
No. If he goes pro and is a top-3 pick, Harrison’s first year take home (pre-tax) would be close to 35M. The signing bonus cap hit is spread out across the length of the deal, but it’s a signing bonus fully paid out at the time of signing, not gradually. That’s what OSU boosters have to contend with.
If a group of OSU booster(s) are really crazy enough to offer MHJ $35M to play one more season with the Buckeyes (and I'm skeptical), he still shouldn't take it.
With that amount of money, why not actually go play in the pros, work on your craft full time and generate even more income on the side? QB is projected as a weakness for them next year, whoever it is, and it isn't like he's some kind of lifelong Buckeye fan.
It's really incredible how terrible the adidas uniforms were, especially in football and basketball.
I understand that back when that deal was signed in like 2006, they were paying orders of magnitude more than Nike was to top schools at the time, but the quality and look was not befitting an athletic department of Michigan's stature.
I know they rotate home and away annually between the divisions for B1G championship game, but I really wish (as the higher-ranked team) we were able to wear the iconic blue top, maize pants that's the signature of our program.
I have no idea if it still exists, but in my day UM had a formal Wikipedia Club which met regularly to write and update Wiki articles about the university and its many facets.
Read any article about the history of the school, random athletes, buildings on campus, etc. and it will be super detailed, well-researched and accurate...this group is probably why.
Can someone please explain to me why the buckeye trolls are celebrating this story coming out as some type of win? There's a rabbit hole to be gone down on twitter that involves disgraced ex-OSU troll/coach Zack Smith and (fake reporter who shall not be named) who think this is good for the buckeyes, but not one i'm going to pursue myself...
Night game
The NCAA is not a police force and has no subpoena power. If I were in charge of this, all their requests for documentation would be politely ignored.
Chris Balas caveat here (the guy has been wrong way more than he's been right, question his sources), but that's a touch schedule if true.
This is never going to happen. The entire economics of the media ecosystem that makes big-time D1 college athletics so lucrative would have to be discarded for a system like this. A fun thought exercise, but nothing more.
The US News has zero relevance or meaning in any way, with the exception of their college and graduate school rankings, which are the industry standard. Colleges and alumni care deeply about where they rank in these things despite their flaws.
And perhaps a better opening would be "the title says most of it" but alas, this here site does not appear to allow edits of OP's.
Uhhh my dude, I don't think you really get what "streaming" means....
also (until a premium ad-free version of mgoblog exists), those of you using ad blockers on this site are cutting off Brian and co.'s primary stream of revenue, so if you really appreciate what they provide for free, maybe consider allowing this site as an exception to your ad blocker, or contribute another way if/how your means allow...
The #1 jersey isn't really a *thing* anymore...Andrel Anthony was given it as a freshman, we have had multiple non-WRs and defensive players wear it in recent years and IIRC the whole "only for an elite game-breaking WR" thing was only while Braylon was actively endowing a scholarship for that player, which I believe he hasn't done in years.
Favorite - both NYC airports have recently completed major renovations and are now great in terms of dining, comfort and other things I care about. DTW is also good.
Worst - Kansas City, and I don't think it's particularly close.
Zingerman's
Nebraska is by far the best gameday experience of the three and by very far the worst of the three at everything else. A very long trip to the middle of nowhere without much to do other than the game itself.
Maryland is a pretty sterile gameday experience but if you're making a weekend of it, College Park is just minutes from Washington DC so there's plenty to do there if you want to go out, good restaurants etc. Bonus from having been to several UM vs UMD games there is that their student body and fan base are apathetic about football so it's like 80% Michigan fans.
I've never been to a football game at Minnesota, but the Twin Cities are a lot of fun and early October should allow you to miss their worst winter weather.
Point of order, TCU was not the Big 12 champ, Kansas State was.
We probably would have lost in a game where the score is somewhat respectable but makes it look closer than it really was...a big step forward from 2021 vs UGA but something like 38-21 maybe.
The reality is that we were a better team than TCU and probably would win a semifinal matchup with them 7 or 8 times out of ten.
I'm personally salivating as we look towards this season because things are really lined up, I think this year has the potential to be better than both the 21 and 22 teams on both offense and defense (not special teams), and there doesn't project to be a UGA juggernaut like there was the past two years standing in our way. That's not to say the playoff is a guarantee, we had to win a close one against Illinois which there's no guarantee would go our way again, but it's a good place to start from.
Gyro II…was that the one on 7th Ave a block or two north of MSG? If so, I also remember it fondly. Their food was Greek-adjacent at best and their take on the tzatziki sauce was way too sweet but unique and tasty to be sure
Good to know. Virtual lock one of our early-season non-conference games will be on Peacock then. NBC isn't paying the B1G billions not to put their premier brands on the streaming service they're trying to grow.
Bars and restaurants have to pay commercial rates for streaming services like Peacock and those costs can be very steep. Unfortunately some places will pass those costs along to customers, either through upfront cover charges or indirectly by raising prices on food and drinks.
Many here (myself included) are going to REALLY mad when 1 or 2 Michigan football games each year are exclusive to Peacock starting in 2024!
In all seriousness, the school is named after William Colgate, one of its early trustees and donors, and the founder of the toothpaste company.
I don't think he got a redshirt. He appeared in about 5 minutes over 2 games as a true freshman (against UNC was one of them, I remember being furious about how we wasted a potential 5th year for that) and a handful, maybe even most, of our games this season off the bench.
Is this one of those things where Michigan retroactively applied for a redshirt for his freshman year? Basketball has not yet moved over to the football redshirt model, so as of now appearing in any part of any game disqualifies you for a RS that season.
They should do it. The PR boost and attention the school will get for Davis breaking the record is more than worth the $50K it will cost them.
Hard to say that I would change anything, good or bad, that happened in the 2012-13 season prior to March Madness. Because say Michigan wins that game at Wisco, maybe we end up with a 3 seed instead of a 4 in the tournament, maybe we run into a better 1 seed than Kansas or a draw a worse matchup and don't make it all the way to the end.
Because hey, no matter how we ended up there, we were the best team in a year where there was no national champion (due to Louisville's shenanigans).
I think these team names are a lot more modern and normal than some of the legacy ones that the more established leagues have. For example, if the NFL was starting up today, they would never name a team "the Browns" and don't even get me started on half the MLB franchise names that date back to the 19th century.
Really seems a lot more legit than the upstart USFL, if there's going to be a clear cut #2 pro football league in a few years, I think it's going to be the new XFL. Having The Rock as the face of your league is a good thing.
No real geographic ties to any team so I've decided I'm going to be a DC Defenders fan, plus root for any ex-Michigan players to do well.
Wait, so PSU's poor performances against Michigan the past two years weren't because Michigan was a more talented and better-coached team, but because they were surprised by our uniforms?!?
Looks like he's been a depth player so far with a chance to start next season as a redshirt sophomore.
Definitely a good player we would have loved to sign out of metro Detroit, but given the results the past two years, hard to say I'd rather see any changes on the OL vs what we actually ran out there.
College hockey refs, man...I remember in the old CCHA days they had to remove the ref's last names from the back of their uniforms because the fans started coming up with chants directly targeted at them.
If his #1 priority is to be an Olympic track star, Oregon is probably the right fit. UO's facilities, and investment in that sport, leave the rest of division 1 far behind in the dust. Just a completely different level of commitment than anyone else has put into indoor and outdoor track and field.
That said, Michigan is no slouch there. In the non-Oregon universe, we have some of the best T&F resources, not to mention an impressive roster of Olympians for various countries in recent years. And if he is still serious about football, it's no doubt that the better combined opportunity is at UM.
User name checks out.
IMO, Balas' track record is not great with recruiting or program inside info. He has been wrong too many times to be considered a real 'insider' though I'm sure he does have some sources on the periphery of the AD. Agree that Sam Webb does sometimes feel overly optimistic, this could be the outcome of trying to maintain his relationships with sources, but he's virtually always right when he speaks definitively about something and his team has broken a lot of news.
You lost me on the Harbaugh/Tucker comparison...Tucker's 1 good season can't even sniff what Harbaugh has achieved in each of the past two.
If JJ goes pro after next season, I think it's safe to assume our 2024 starting QB is currently playing elsewhere and will portal in next winter - otherwise it's (hopefully) a highly-touted true freshman.
I guess he'll get to play back in Michigan at least once a year depending on how the B1G schedule works out after expansion.
It's easy to forget with how the past few years have gone, but for the first half-decade of Nebraska's B1G tenure, they were actually a tough team! They consistently beat Brady Hoke teams, and then we didn't play them for a good while until Harbaugh had things up and running here.
This is such a tired argument from Tennessee fans. The more deserving player won the Heisman, both went on to become pro and college football hall of famers, Super Bowl champions and make many millions of dollars, both teams won a national championship before the 90s was over and Phil Fulmer even got his revenge by voting UM 4th to prevent a coaches poll national title. Move on with your lives.
Last time UM faced that season's Heisman winner in a bowl game: 1/1/2008 vs Tim Tebow and UF, Capital One Bowl...yes please