December 20th, 2018 at 9:09 AM ^
Sounds like the candy that is given away in white cargo vans with no windows.
I'll pass.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:11 AM ^
3 players is a third of the team? Maybe my math is off.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:15 AM ^
Well despite you expecting a loss, Vegas still has us as 7.5 point favorites and the line definitely has not been shrinking.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:17 AM ^
Michigan Depth-- including Transfers, Players sitting out > Florida Depth.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:21 AM ^
Plus there have to be some Florida players doing the same thing. Even when they are stepping on their own dicks, they recruit very well. Some of those guys have to be NFL bound and don't want to risk injury too.
December 20th, 2018 at 10:14 AM ^
Last I read they have 3 or 4 players who are projected to be drafted, with one early departure, and they are all playing. I think the Gators smell blood. I really hope we can match their intensity because I am quite sure they are going to bring it.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:31 AM ^
Why would you expect them to lose? There is no excuse to lose this game. Next man up. There are other players on scholarship other than those three sitting out. Its not an important game but i still expect to win.
December 20th, 2018 at 10:24 AM ^
You might not blame Harbaugh for the loss but 1-3 does not look good no matter how you slice it especially after the OSU blow out.
Can’t wait for the Bo pt 2 or Michigan’s John Cooper comparisons. Ugh.
This is a must win game imo. 11 wins looks way better than 10.
December 20th, 2018 at 10:36 AM ^
I don't think it is a "must win," but it is strange how bowl games are meaningless to the fan base until we lose them, and then all of the sudden they seem to take on much more meaning.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:04 AM ^
Seems strange for guys to go to the Senior Bowl, but sit out their own team's bowl.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:06 AM ^
Yes, it would seem to undermine the underlying rationale for sitting out the bowl game.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:15 AM ^
Careful, if you dare question a player sitting out a bowl, you'll get the usual "he's got to do what's best for him and his NFL career" replies.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:23 AM ^
I think the difference is that since the Senior Bowl is coached by NFL staffs, participating in it allows one to gain familiarity and create a favorable opinion directly with prospective employers.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:35 AM ^
I agree. That all important networking we all take for granted in the corporate world exists in the football world as well, one would assume.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:41 AM ^
The Senior Bowl is a job interview. That's why guys play in it.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:42 AM ^
Higdon seems like someone who could benefit from a strong showing in a couple post-season games. I know he rushed for a 1,000 yards in an offense that concentrates on the run, but he doesn’t do anything particularly well - he’s a straight line runner without great vision, he can’t block, and doesn’t catch out of the backfield.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:04 AM ^
Smart move - his body took a pounding this season. Rest up for the combine
December 20th, 2018 at 9:17 AM ^
"his body took a pounding this season."
Higdon had 224 carries in 2018.
For comparison:
Mike Hart 2004: 282 carries; 2006: 318 carries; 2007: 265 carries
Chris Perry 2002: 267 carries; 2003: 338 carries (the UM record)
Anthony Thomas 1999: 301 carries; 2000: 319 carries
Higdon's 224 carries is 19th in Michigan history for carries in a season. It's a good amount of work, but by no means is it unusual, or even close to the top.
From a career carries standpoint, Higdon has 471, which is 21st in UM history.
The top four in UM history are 1015 (Hart), 924 (Thomas), 811 (Perry), 806 (Morris).
I'm sure Karan would have wanted to carry the ball more often, but overall he's had significantly less pounding than a bunch of UM RBs who were every bit as physical.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:23 AM ^
The dead never forget
December 20th, 2018 at 9:30 AM ^
Somehow I suspect that if he had 994 yards on the season he would not be sitting out…
December 20th, 2018 at 9:05 AM ^
So help me god if we give the ball to Evans and Wilson up the middle 25 times.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:06 AM ^
Evans up the middle > tru end around.
Man that OSU game stunk.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:17 AM ^
Hopefully this, and the absence of key defensive players, will force the coaches to open up the offense more and actually try to win a game by scoring points versus preventing them.
This is our life next year anyway, might as well get used to it.
Our offense is going to have to win some big games on its own.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:39 AM ^
Since 1/1/1970, Michigan has played in 42 bowl games. We've scored an average of 22.6 pts per game.
Considering how many of those Michigan teams had high-powered offenses during the regular season, that's a pretty unimpressive offensive production over that history.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:45 AM ^
I think I saw all of them.
I think that 1970's and 1980's Northwestern and Indiana and Purdue and Minnesota et al had a lot to do with our high-powered regular season offenses.
Against USC, not so much.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:52 AM ^
Not to mention the MAC level cannon fodder
December 20th, 2018 at 10:12 AM ^
That came later. Every year but two from 1965 to 1992, the worst team on Michigan's schedule (per Massey ratings) was a conference opponent. In 1970 it was Arizona. Long Beach was on the schedule in 1987; I don't remember how or why that happened.
In 1993 we had Houston, who had been really good when the game was scheduled but had since fallen apart thanks to my namesake's recruiting shenaningans. It really wasn't until '98 that the annual crappy nonconference opponent became a thing.
December 20th, 2018 at 11:10 AM ^
Ditto. But go back and watch those games again. Dont ask me why but recently i did just that.
USC and Washington put literally 10 men in the box with a 1 high safety. The one game where Bo was forced to throw because we got behind 24-0, 78 Rose Bowl against Washington, they scored just fine.
If Bo would've just thrown to set up the pass they would've torched those PAC 10 teams. But he wouldnt.
December 20th, 2018 at 11:23 AM ^
"The one game where Bo was forced to throw because we got behind 24-0, '78 Rose Bowl against Washington, they scored just fine."
That game might be the most painful bowl loss for me, if for no other reason than we made a valiant comeback that ended when a pass bounced off Stan Edward's helmet in the red zone and right into the arms of a Washington defender.
Here's a fun fact you can win some free drinks at the bar with: What is the longest TD pass in Rose Bowl history?
76 yds, Rick Leach to Curt Stephenson, Jan. 1, 1978, Michigan vs Washington
December 20th, 2018 at 12:15 PM ^
USC and Washington put literally 10 men in the box with a 1 high safety.
TING!
They run-blitzed like crazy and they always knew when to do it, which was not hard to figure out.
I often say that if Bo had been willing to pass on third and short just a half a dozen times in his entire career, he would have won multiple national championships.
Someday when I have (a lot) of free time, I'm going to go back and re-watch those old games, and pick out some of those plays. They are there.
December 20th, 2018 at 12:34 PM ^
"Someday when I have (a lot) of free time, I'm going to go back and re-watch those old games, and pick out some of those plays."
Now that's some professional level masochism.
December 20th, 2018 at 12:40 PM ^
Yeah, it's not rational. But I really do want to do it.
Console my younger self, I guess, that it could have been different. We really did belong in those games. "You didn't beat us, we beat ourselves" kind of thing.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:22 AM ^
My money is on that I will be screaming at the television "why in the hell weren't we trying this against Ohio State?!?!?"
December 20th, 2018 at 9:59 AM ^
If we DON’T do things differently than the OSU game I’ll be screaming at the TV
December 20th, 2018 at 10:10 AM ^
Then prepare your anus...because Michigan is going in dry on that one.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:06 AM ^
The Team, The Team, The Team.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:21 AM ^
indeed. he is, or was, a captain. other guys can sit and i totally get it. but when you're the captain you don't abandon the ship. i mentioned earlier, if at the start of the year when they vote on captains there'd been a question about: if we're not in the CFP, are you going to play in the bowl?, and he answered honestly, i bet there's a different person walking to the coin flip this year.
love the guy, wonderful back, wish him wild success in the NFL, but i'd rip the figurative 'C' off of his jersey.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:29 AM ^
You wonder why guys don't just say nothing, go in for a quarter of light use, then have the coach quietly pull them out, and then go stand on the sidelines and cheer on their teammates?
It's de-facto sitting out the game without sticking your finger in everybody's eye about it.
Why not do it that way?
December 20th, 2018 at 10:25 AM ^
Except it would make fans even more upset than they are right now. If M is losing 0-7 at the end of the first quarter and Higdon pulled himself and M went on to lose, he’d be killed on this board for years.
December 20th, 2018 at 11:03 AM ^
I don't think so. If he was just part of the rotation and got 8-10 carries I think that most fans would understand and be good with it. The guy has played close to every game of the last 3 years and has not sustained a serious injury. The chances of him sustaining an injury that could legitimately cost him his pro career in light work one Saturday afternoon are almost negligible.
December 20th, 2018 at 12:22 PM ^
You wouldn't even know he pulled himself. It would look like a coaches decision or he's a little gimpy or any one of a dozen things.
It happens all the time, where the game is over and we ask "Where was (Gary), I didn't see him that much?"
No need to make a big production about it.
December 20th, 2018 at 10:05 AM ^
I agree, with him being a captain this really rubs me the wrong way. If he's so concerned with injury, why did he play in the OSU game? Or against Indiana?
Why not just play long enough to get some film and then quit the team and get ready for draft day ala Bosa?
The more I think about players skipping bowl games the more it bothers me.
December 20th, 2018 at 11:06 AM ^
I think you nailed it right there. It is not so much that I disagree with the advanced reasoning for sitting out the bowl game, it is that the reasoning advanced does not hold up to scrutiny. The accurate statement for a player to release in a situation like this is "I am going to sit out the Peach Bowl because frankly I don't feel like playing in it and the media has convinced everybody that it is cool."
December 20th, 2018 at 12:28 PM ^
Or more honestly:
"I played long enough to get some film, and that's the only reason I'm here. So now I'm done. I don't care about college, but I want a shot at the NFL and there is no viable minor league for me to go through."
Right or wrong, that is exactly how a lot of guys feel, but they are not allowed to say it.
Professional football is odd in that the training for it requires you to pretend you are there for another reason.
If you are in the minor leagues in baseball nobody is questioning why you would not play in extra meaningless games for free just for the love of the game and your team. It's a pathway to get though as quickly as you can make it happen.
December 20th, 2018 at 2:04 PM ^
Bosa was legitimately injured with a mid-December recovery date.
December 20th, 2018 at 4:06 PM ^
Because he was being a leader! He was trying to lead this team into the CFP. They had all their team goals in front of them at that point of the season. So it would’ve been really selfish to pull himself out of those games. The dynamics have since changed and I do not know if winning the peach bowl was high on the priority list.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:10 AM ^
Hopefully we get to see a little more Turner now. Good luck to higdon in the draft.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:10 AM ^
Jaylon Smith injury in '16 Fiesta Bowl made this the new normal. I hate it, but I suppose it's smart for the money. Just curious why every major player doesn't sit out every game his last year if his team doesn't happen to be in championship contention when injury can happen at any time.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:17 AM ^
Wasn't there some thought that Fournette would do this? Or was it Clowney? I think it was Clowney.
December 20th, 2018 at 9:20 AM ^
I think Fournette was the next year with McCaffrey.
EDIT -- my bad, was talking about bowls -- not whole season.