THING HAPPENING

2024 G Justin Pippen is announcing tomorrow. With several crystal ball picks for Michigan coming off Pippen's official and a very brief window between said visit and a commitment, this is almost certainly Michigan. None of the other schools in his final five (the others are GT, Stanford, Cal, and Texas A&M) are particularly known for basketball bags, and it's unlikely that the son of Scotty Pippen is prioritizing NIL in his decision.

THE LIMINAL SPACE BETWEEN HAPPENING AND NOT

FAU G Johnell Davis is the biggest name on the board for Michigan, and there's been general optimism about Davis eventually landing at Michigan. That ticked down yesterday after 247's Travis Branham posted something vague and negative about Michigan's chance to land Davis.

A couple hours later a youthful reporter covering FAU asserted that Davis would be on campus this weekend, which was subsequently confirmed by a couple other Michigan recruiting reporters. Then Sam Webb said that Davis was not going to be on campus this weekend, and the original tweet that set off the confirmations was deleted. Davis's absence from campus has now been confirmed, and there's widespread speculation that Davis is looking for bag first and foremost. On the roundtable this morning Webb asserted that Davis to Michigan was "fizzling," as Michigan's NIL efforts won't compare to places like Arkansas or Kentucky.

FWIW, Davis signed with Jay Z's agency.

[After THE JUMP: would you like a Ben Wallace]

Things Discussed:

• Filling the basketball roster. Expect to get C Vlad Goldin (FAU), CG Justin Pippen (HS), PG Trey Donaldson (Auburn), W Roddy Gayle (OSU), and another guy they're going after under the radar.
• Like Gayle if they can get his 3P% up better than Saint Mary's Aidan Mahaney, who took a lot of bad shots. C Justin Abson (App State) is Ben Wallace. Is he an either/or with C Danny Wolf (Yale)?
• What's the holdup? Guys want to go through the draft advisory board process. Sam thinks we'll get a drumbeat of commitments in the coming days and weeks.
• NIL: Dusty May needs a little more. How deep does the donor pool go? Well it's complicated; you're talking a quirky small subset of people who can afford this, and their individual circumstances matter a lot. There's a lot they're supporting: Football (which we're getting it done), Men's Hoops, Women's Hoops, etc. Seth: Don't forget Mott and the University of Michigan.
• Spring Game: What does the OL look like? Are there any guys standing? Sam thinks we won't be able to watch Hinton, Crippen, and El-Hadi, which that's three of your starters. Who's next? Seth doesn't like that Giudice is ahead of Efobi. That battle for RT is more iffy than we realized? Sam thinks they want a guy in the portal for Gentry or Persi to beat. Seth: If you're saying they Anderson we're at eight guys they trust now.
• Ohio State Spring Game: Their DL pushed their OL around so much it colors everything. QBs were throwing the ball into defenders; chests. Craig thinks their secondary is good. Seth says the offense is very Chip Kelly, they might have something with Julian Sayin down the road but he's skinny and mistake-prone right now.

[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]

The system for depth charting:

And if his name's in red they plan to redshirt him.

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Quarterback

Can your friends pull this out their little haaaat? [Bryan Fuller]

The question we're asking is: Would Orji be really mad if we look in the portal?

But they're acting like it's: How cool does Orji look in pads?

What are we hearing? Orji has some wow moments, and the next moment he'll throw another pick. Devin Gardner went to a practice then went on with Sam. Orji:

he looks like a GI Joe… like an action figure (with) a Michigan uniform on, and obviously a bigger version. This dude is built like a rock. When you say hey, what do I want the athlete to look like? That's exactly what it should look like. … The thing for Orji is he's got all the talent in the world, man. (But) you see some opportunities in practice where he missed some throws that… man… you want him to make that throw.

GI Joe like he's shooting blue lasers?

He has some things where his feet aren't always in the right place. His feet aren't as clean as you want them to be. Sometimes you lose accuracy, and you lose timing.

Then Semaj Morgan joined them.

I feel like every quarterback has their unique quality. Orji he just a freak athlete; anything you can think about in a football player he probably can do. Then we got Davis Warren like strong powerful arm, and he's really fast; he be running 22 miles per hour when we run Sprints. Then we got Jayden Denegal; he can throw the ball real accurate. And he big; he can run you over—he's gonna get that first down when we need it. Then we got Jaydyn Davis although very young he's very well-rounded. And I will tell you he's not scared to throw the ball, and that's that's something that I love about a quarterback. I don't care what the coverage is; I don't care who's on me; if you feel like the person in front of me's not better than me, throw me that ball! Jayden Davis understands that.

In the aftermath, Sam devoted a 3R Report($) that said they've been focusing on dropback passing with Orji, and also that Jayden Denegal's struggles didn't continue past the first four practices.

There was clear separation between Orji and him at that point, but not as much since then. He's closed the gap in recent practices with his improved accuracy and has shown better skills on the move than outside observers might expect at first glance.

Davis Warren has a cannon that can't hit the broad side of NCAA hypocrisy, and Jadyn Davis is not going to be put in a position to jeopardize his future, but his accuracy is excellent, especially on the run. From a practice insider, Orji is still in the driver's seat but there's going to be a major drop-off from McCarthy. Botched snaps, interceptions, and plays where the QB doesn't see anything and starts to panic are things that happen to teams that don't have JJ under center, in case you've forgotten, but they've been jarring to some of the used-to-JJ the people seeing them in practice.

Tuttle's still hurt, but Michigan is expected to poke around the portal, which opened this week, and wherein Chris Hummer thinks Michigan will have their pick of the litter. 247's Matt Zenitz adds that UCLA and Northwestern are the only schools currently desperate($) for a starter, but USC and Auburn might provide competition if an elite name enters. Henschke thinks Michigan will be in the market ($).

What it means? Michigan probably does want to add some competition from the portal, but going about it without triggering a tampering investigation or losing one of their own is tricky, and probably only worth the risk for a game-changer. Odds are just as good they stick with Orji and put Jadyn Davis, who could use a season to gain weight before facing Big Ten linemen, on the McCarthy plan.

Depth Chart? I'm still expecting them to redshirt Jadyn Davis unless he passes Denegal.

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[After THE JUMP: Let's talk about 4th tight end and 9th OL.]