Will someone raid the braintrust this offseason? [Bryan Fuller]

Coaching turnover?

In your last UV you talked about how there's basically air behind Tom Herman as far as possibly available decent head coaches go. What are the odds that Don Brown gets poached by someone? Is that something he would be looking for?

DJ

Also:

What are the chances that one of our coordinators gets a look a high level job?  Jedd Fisch or Tim Drevno probably are most at risk?  Wheatley probably stays to fill in one of their roles if they go so he can be with his son for a few more year so that’s probably not a huge deal.  Is this something that is concerning to you?  I didn’t see it specifically flagged in your post today, nor did it really matter with Durkin moving on and the staff staying put.

Similarly, any shot at OSU getting some of their staff poached (and maybe less loyalty to Urban for a chance to move up the ranks)?

Go Blue!

-Jim Dudnick BBA ‘01

Don Brown is a minimal threat to leave. He's 61 and is a DC lifer in the same way that Bud Foster is. Nobody gets a first-time head coaching gig in their 60s unless they've been promoted from within. FWIW, when Michigan hired him Jim Harbaugh said he went into that hire trying to find someone who could provide some stability and Brown provides that. This is another reason grabbing Brown was such a good move.

Things are more uncertain on the offensive side of the ball, where both Fisch and Drevno could pop up on smaller schools' radars. Fisch has already been mentioned as a potential option at FIU by Bruce Feldman. Drevno hasn't come up yet. Meanwhile they're coordinator types under Jim Harbaugh, who runs the show on O. Usually guys like that have to put in at least five years before they start getting mentioned.

Meanwhile, these days the pay bump when you get a head job at a smaller school is small or even nonexistent. Ron Turner was making 550k at FIU; Drevno is at 800k. There aren't many non-Power 5 schools who could make a compelling offer to high-paid Michigan assistants.

Fisch is 40; Drevno is 47. Both have some time to find the right opportunity before their window of opportunity shuts. They're likely to be patient, passing up jobs like FIU as they wait for a Power 5 opening like DJ Durkin got. Even then, do you want to sign up for a meat grinder like Purdue? Probably not.

I can't say with certainty that both guys will be back but I wouldn't worry about losing them to an AAC team, and it doesn't look like there will be any plausible openings in the Big Ten this year. (Purdue: nope.) I'd bet Michigan gets everybody back.

[After THE JUMP: redshirts, Shelton Johnsons, omnipotence paradoxes]

Injury redshirts

Hey MGoStaff,
The big downer from Saturday is it looks like Jeremy Clark suffered a season-ending injury.  Assuming that is the case, is he eligible for a 6th year?  What is the process for obtaining that 6th year?  What are the odds he gets it?

Much has been made about how many redshirts have been "burned" so far this season?  I seem to recall that a player can redshirt even if they play a few snaps early in the season.  Is that true? What's the cutoff?
- socrking

Players can get a year back as long as they only played in the first four games of the season. One snap after that and it's over, as Mario Ojemudia found out a year ago. But anything up to four is fine. In the event that a true senior suffered the same injury Clark did, his return would be a slam dunk.

Clark already took a redshirt year, though, and that complicates things. To get a sixth year a player has to lose two years of competition to injury. Many freshman redshirts are voluntary and don't count. Clark will have to prove that he was hurt as a freshman to return next year.

Here is the part where I say that's touch and go since the NCAA is so persnickety about sixth years, but since MSU manage to scam one for Ed Davis—who dressed, travelled, won multiple scout team player of the week awards, and was the recipient of frequent press conference hype—maybe the doors are wide open? I don't recall news that Clark was injured as a freshman but at least his MGoBlue bio isn't selling him out by implying he was healthy.

The process for getting a sixth year is to wait until the guy graduates, assemble your paperwork, and apply. I couldn't tell you the odds because I'm not sure if he was injured as a freshman, how injured he was, or how Ed Davis got his sixth year. The latter suggests they're pretty good, as does Harbaugh's assertion that they'll try.

As for Michigan getting some redshirts back for players who have seen the field: yes, that is possible if they did not play against Rutgers and don't play the rest of the year. Guys who are definitely not getting that year back: Gary, Onwenu, Bredeson, Evans, Asiasi, McKeon, Crawford, McDoom, Kemp, Bush, Mbem-Bosse, Hill, Hudson, and Metellus. Players who have seen the field but could still be eligible for a medical redshirt: Eubanks, Nate Johnson, Kingston Davis, Dwumfour, Gil, Uche, and Long.

They'd have to have medical documentation that those guys were hurt, and that might raise some eyebrows. OTOH, football is tough and everyone's always kind of hurt. I'd guess that at least a couple of the nominally burned redshirts get restored.

How to give us Amazon's money.

Hello,

At the top of your page, it says, "Support MGoBlog: buy stuff at Amazon." I really enjoy your website, the amount, quality, and variety of stuff you guys churn out every week is unmatched, in my opinion. Just wondering how I can use my avid Amazon shopping to help you guys out, because I'm a broke medical student without much excess cash to donate.

Go Blue,

Dillon

If you use that link anything you buy for the next day will be an affiliate sale that sends a decent chunk to us. If you want to avoid the hassle, you can install the Philanthropist extension on Chrome and set the term to "mgoblog-20".

The other Shelton Johnson.

Park ranger Shelton Johnson

For context to the following email, when I did Shelton Johnson's recruiting profile I noted that there is a famous park ranger named Shelton Johnson, which made the Google image search a bit of a surprise. Serendipitously, Shelton turns out to be a Michigan alum:

Hello!

This is Park Ranger Shelton Johnson. I had noticed that there's a football player with the same name who currently is on the roster for the UM football team.

I just wanted to communicate with you folks that yes, I am from Detroit, MI, but that I'm also a graduate of the Univ. of Michigan ('81) with a B.A. in English Literature. I was also invited by the Univ. of MI to give the commencement speech for graduating English majors back in 2011. I was a student in Michigan's M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing before I became a National Park Ranger. While I was a student at Michigan I also won a Major Hopwood Award in Poetry.

One of your bloggers did note that I worked with the film maker Ken Burns on his documentary film "The National Parks, America's Best Idea" which came out on PBS back in 2009. I also convinced Oprah Winfrey to camp in Yosemite in 2010, I'm a published novelist, and I've had quite a bit of media coverage due to my work to restore the once forgotten history of the Buffalo Soldiers who protected Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks over 100 years. That's why there are photographs of me on line wearing a Spanish American War era cavalry uniform.

If you go to my Wikipedia page you'll also find a photograph of myself with President Obama at the White House which was taken back in 2009. I was there with Ken Burns because of  his National Park Film. I've had articles/profiles about my work in media such as the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the L.A. Times, ABC News, the CBS Sunday Morning Show, National Public Radio, Sunset Magazine, and the New Yorker magazine.

The funny thing about all of this is that when I first heard about the "Other" Shelton Johnson, I wondered "who is this football player who keeps coming up when my name is googled?"

Please pass on my regards to Mr. Shelton Johnson, and let him know that I wish him all success in his career at Michigan, and beyond!

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

The "Other" Shelton Johnson

Yosemite Valley

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite CA 95389

This has been your Michigan Difference of the week.

QB futures.

Hi Brian,

Purely for fun, with Speight having two years of eligibility remaining, Peters redshirting, and McCaffrey part of the 2017 class, How would you handicap the qb situation playing out, say, over the next 5 years?

Thanks,

Troy Mamas
Hudson, OH

The most likely scenario is that Speight starts for three years. Voluntary removal of a starting quarterback only happens to Al Borges recruits—

*record scratch*

—oh, right.

While Speight starting for three years is still the most likely proposal, there was a ton of chatter inside the program about how impressive Brandon Peters was this spring and fall; since he is a true freshman he should get better faster than Speight and I would not put it past Harbaugh to install a guy he recruited if Speight continues playing like he has this season. If he hits that Rudock improvement trajectory then it's his job, obviously. It's say it's 60-40 Speight, with McCaffrey redshirting.

Uh....

Or maybe a question for a one-play one-on-one with him: If Michigan threw a bubble screen to Jabrill Peppers lined up out wide, would SAM Jabrill Peppers tackle him for loss, or could ball carrier Jabrill Peppers evade SAM Jabrill Peppers?

-Eric

Can God make a stone he cannot move? Did this email throw me down a Wikipedia hole after I googled and found the Omnipotence paradox article? I don't know, and yes.

Precursors and omens.

Hey Guys,

I'm afraid you are sadly mistaken on the Khalid Hill 7-10 Block... Similar blocks have occurred before. One particular in quite dramatic fashion! 

Ronnie "Sunshine" Bass accomplished a similar feat on the final play of the championship game in Remember the Titans! Enjoy:

Ye gods, I had never seen a second from this movie. It is a bad movie. The only good sports movie ever made is 8 Mile. I swear to God anyone who mentions Happy Gilmore in the comments will have had their eyes replaced by bananas. We took your eyes! We gave them to someone who can use them for good, like a sushi chef! You have to look through bananas now!