Unverified Voracity Isn't Even Mad... ok, Slightly Mad
Then, as farce. Jim Harbaugh is getting the relative book thrown at him for the Hamburger Incident:
Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh and the NCAA are working toward a negotiated resolution that is expected to see him suspended four games this season in penalties stemming from alleged false statements he originally made to investigators, sources tell Yahoo Sports.
This is the same number of games that Michigan State players not named Khary Crump got for the post-game assault on Gemon Green and Jaden McBurrows. For a couple of hamburgers to already-committed recruits. Also Mike Macdonald is receiving a one-year show cause penalty, which is hilariously useless since Macdonald kinda has a job lined up already—he's DC of the Ravens.
None of this matters. Michigan's most difficult game during the period of the suspension is against Rutgers; the national media is more or less ignoring the most blatant pay-for-play scandal to hit college football in a minute, so the only place that's even going to mention this for one second after the suspension expires is the RCMB. It is nonetheless irritating that the NCAA continues wasting its time on the little things they can find at the same time as NIL is rapidly obsoleting the association itself.
[After THE JUMP: Jeremy Pruitt as Nancy Pelosi in that one picture of her kneeling with Africa Scarf™ around her neck]
In tangentially related matters. Meanwhile, that scandal-type substance down at Tennessee:
The latest beneficiary of a kinder, gentler NCAA is Tennessee football. It was cited Friday by the association’s Committee on Infractions as having committed “hundreds” of violations in a case that it labeled “one of the worst the COI has seen.” The then head coach, Jeremy Pruitt, personally paid recruits and their families. Several former assistants and other staffers were involved in brazen violations as well. The Volunteers were a veritable rule-breaking factory, seemingly the only thing Pruitt was good at while going 16–19 in Knoxville.
The current NCAA penalty structure requires—not recommends, it requires—a postseason ban in this instance. Yet the COI deviated from established guidelines to avoid it.
One dollar says that this was to avoid a lawsuit. Tennessee's AG more or less promised one if the NCAA tried it:
"Tennessee law prohibits the NCAA from imposing such a sanction, and I will not hesitate to vindicate the rights of UT students to enjoy the full measure of their intercollegiate athletic opportunities. NCAA rules cannot supersede Tennessee law," he wrote the NCAA in a letter obtained by the Knoxville News Sentinel.
States will be rushing to pass laws that prohibit the NCAA from so much as glancing owlishly into their universities.
The NCAA did bomb the various staffers who committed the nefarious acts—primarily head coach Jeremy Pruitt, who was issued a six-year show cause. It is grimly funny that Pruitt was only hired after the Tennessee fanbase successfully stormed the Bastille because the athletic director was set to hire Greg Schiano. Would Schiano have done worse than 15-19 and hundreds of NCAA violations? Probably no.
Meanwhile the newspaper has FOIAed the legal proceedings and yeeeeesh:
Pruitt said a player’s mother showed up in the parking lot outside the UT football complex in tears because of financial hardship. She told him she had nowhere else to turn for money to pay her bills.
Pruitt admitted giving her the cash from his car, where he typically stored it.
He told investigators that he felt sorry for her because of the financial strain caused by the COVID shutdown and that UT’s Student Assistance Fund, which is used for student-athletes with hardships, was tapped out.
And Pruitt said his privilege, her race and social unrest were on his mind.
“Then you throw in George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, okay, so you sit there as a white man and you see all of this going on and you can see these kids suffering,” Pruitt said.
“… (It’s) pitiful when you sit in a room and you hear grown men, and I’m talking about our coaches too, when they talk about growing up and the circumstances that they’ve been under, because it’s hard for a white man to understand, right.”
Pruitt defended its actions to investigators for giving the mother $300.
On he one hand, I do not believe for one second that Jeremy Pruitt was meditating on the state of race relations in America when he decided to hand out cash. On the other hand, his transparently cynical attempt to grab a virtuous mantle on his actions… isn't actually wrong?
Ben Herbert things. I will listen to Kris Jenkins talk about anything:
Momentum wins. This is why it's good to have a Kenneth Grant or two lying around:
Go Blue pic.twitter.com/Lgm1c6yoAt
— BUM CHILLUPS AKA SPENCER HALL (@edsbs) July 10, 2023
No substitute for being bighugelarge sometimes.
The guys were together. I would not necessarily have assumed that Michigan would come close to leading the country in this stat:
Offensive Line Continuity among Power 5 teams in 2022 pic.twitter.com/36OqjPSolW
— parker, is it football season yet? (@statsowar) July 6, 2023
I would have assumed that a team that lost a starter halfway through the season and also had another guy out for a ~third of the year would not be the fifth-most cohesive OL in the P5, at least in terms of playing time.
SUBPLOT: yeesh, Peyton Thorne sure can pick 'em. He's transferring from the #57 team on this list to #69—dead last. Down that low you're rotating through a bunch of guys because no one can play; not fixable in a year.
PFF All-Conference items. No analysis here so I can't tell if this is just a list of the highest-rated guys who are returning to college or actually a projection, but FWIW:
- First team: JJ McCarthy, Blake Corum, Drake Nugent, Zak Zinter, Kris Jenkins, Will Johnson, Rod Moore.
- Second team: Donovan Edwards, Mason Graham(!), Josaiah Stewart, Junior Colson, Mike Sainristil
- Third team: Roman Wilson, LaDarius Henderson.
That's a lot of guys.
Sherrone Moore talking technique. Enjoy:
Michigan Offensive Coordinator/OL Coach Sherrone Moore explaining why they had to rethink how they were teaching double teams after the 2020 season and why they now use Gallop technique...
— James Light (@JamesALight) July 17, 2023
- Gain depth & width
- Strike the hip with same foot/same shoulder
- Explode through hips pic.twitter.com/v3RAE2j3CP
Etc.: Congrats to Michael Woods, who went from cross country at Michigan to winning a stage of the Tour de France. Rutgers basketball don't schedule too good. The only Pat Fitzgerald ending post you need. Someone please un-break the internet.
Sherrone Moore is good and I am already dreading the day that he accepts the HC job and leaves UM. Who can replace him -- great teacher and recruiter.?
if you start reading the tea leaves with the NCAA stuff and what we've experienced the last 3 offseasons, he may accept the HC job and NOT leave UM
This is a massive year for Moore as it's his first year as a full-time OC. Especially if he gets a few weeks as acting HC.
If the offense doesn't live up to expectations, we might be less enthused about the idea of him being Harbaugh's successor.
Alternatively, he strikes me as more of an overall leader as opposed to a superstar OC/DC that gets elevated to HC. So maybe the play calling aspect won't matter as much.
Dude might be the next coach of Michigan at this rate.
I feel like realistic odds are that he will be the head coach next year. I cannot fathom that Harbaugh wants to stick around the college game after this.
This strikes me as by far the most consequential result of Hamburgergate. I can’t imagine Harbaugh wanting to stick around in an NCAA that condones pay-for-play and then turns around and drops the hammer on him and only him over a $10 lunch. At least the NFL had slightly more consistent and predictable rules.
I think Washington brings him back to the NFL after this season
As a childhood WFT fan who was forced into lapsed fandom by Chainsaw Dan Snyder and is cautiously considering putting his toe back in that water, I say, hell yeah go Commies.
Jim Harbaugh is not leaving Michigan because of this. If he leaves it will be to win a Super Bowl. At his age he needs to stay or maybe it's my age either way staying is what's best for all of us.
Michigan needs to do everything and I mean everything they can to keep him. Michigan has never been in this much of a power position in my lifetime. What Harbaugh has done considering with where OSU was at on the mountain has been unbelievable.
I'm still waiting for a massive contract to drop shortly after the suspension announcement
Oddly enough, winning a title this year would probably have him out the door.
I always kinda figured that Grant Newsome was the heir apparent there. Maybe not as OC, but as OL coach
Sounds like he may get some practice at it during the first four games of the season.
Apparently Ann Arbor Torch & Pitchfork was low on stock. Brian's take on the rumored Harbaugh suspension did not come in nearly as spicy as I expected.
Damn good thing that he didn't have a fried egg added as a burger topping, the NCAA grand poobahs would likely have made it an 8-game suspension for also buying them breakfast.
And some ice cream after the meal would have resulted in the death penalty of the program, crisis thankfully averted
Am I the only guy that thinks the $3 up charge for the egg on the burger is overkill? I mean it’s ok, but you give me a good enough burger with fresh toppings you can keep the egg.
kinda like the upcharge for cream cheese on bagels
great reference, right there.
Ah but if they're spreading it on...take my money. I've mangled many a bagel in my day.
And the Freep would rake him over the coals for murdering a chicken.
Headline: "Jim Harbaugh kills a poor, damn nervous bird"
Double post
I hate to admit it but while I want to be more than a little mad at Harbaugh's apparently upcoming suspension I am having a hard time conjuring that up. That the NCAA is full of hypocrisy is not news; Harbaugh wanting to give them the finger instead of admitting trivial wrongdoing makes him even more of a target than he already is. It's a pissing contest with no winners and it takes a lot of restraint to acknowledge what actually happened and accept minor punishment--which he did not do.
My concern is that while we play relatively weak opponents in weeks 1-4, that is one-third of the season during which we won't be operating under normal optimal conditions. This is the best opportunity of our lifetime (so far) to win a national championship in the BCS/Playoff era and while we're almost certain to win those first 4 games without Harbaugh on the sidelines, his suspension remains a distraction.
I don't expect things to play out perfectly, of course, I'm too old for that. But can we just get to the season with our basic shit intact?
I don’t think there will be a lot of JH media outrage. I think you will see more takes that the NCAA is a joke and Michigan should not have folded to them.
the point that the team has a legit shot this year is well taken. Ideally you would not have this side show bullshit. But I guess the NCAA wants to take a shot while it is in its death rattle.
I agree, other than the two trash Detroit news orgs who will try and capitalize on it, The NCAA will be laughed at nationally and no one will take it seriously.
If anything, the rest of CFB is figuring out the smart move is to not back down and respond emphatically. Unfortunately we don't have an AD that subscribes to that strategy.
I dont think people are looking behind the curtain. This is meant to be a huge push to get Harbaugh out of Michigan. There is real intent here and eventually someone is going to spill the beans. The fact that Georgia and Bama recruit like they do but are 100% cleans is wild. You sign 4 of the top 10 linebackers in one class? There is a chess game going on and we all see a checker board and go about our day.
He can still coach during practices. Those first 4 games are basically just glorified scrimmages
I don’t think this is true. I don’t think he can have any contact with the players in a coaching capacity.
That is true. He can be with the team throughout the week and is only removed from the team on game day.
Ok. That is inconsistent with two articles that I have read but it is entirely possible the articles are incorrect. It would not be the first time.
He's only suspended for Game Day. He'll be there all the rest of the time. I don't think that there'll be a problem.
You bring it up with Macdonald, but also worth mentioning for Pruitt that all this stuff going on was apparent back in 2019 (he took the job in Dec 2017), but they waited until after he was fired from Tennessee in January 2021, after he had a losing record through 3 seasons and just went 3-7, then waited further after he gets fired from the Giants in January 2022, to all the sudden now in 2023 when he isnt coaching in college to bring the hammer down.
Come on, railing about this being about hamburgers is a false flag. The severity of the consequences is directly due to lying about what happened, not what happened.
Whinging because other people broke rules and got less punishment is very MSU. Just don't. Also just don't lie to investigators.
NCAA rules enforcement is a shambles, which makes it even dumber to lie about minor violations.
It's kind of an issue though when for awhile the NCAA was incentivizing schools to lie to them. Think about the stretching stuff and the Fab 5 things. Michigan admitted it and got punished. Bill Self, Sean Miller, and Will Wade denied everything and were mostly fine. Bruce Pearl refused to cooperate and hasn't had any negative repercussions.
With NIL making all this not matter in the slightest, why is Harbaugh being investigated in the first place? 100k can be given to a kid for committing to your program, but buying that same kid a fucking meal is somehow worth an investigation and subsequent punishment?
NCAA is angry that he paid for a cheap burger! If it was a $1000 per burger, then it would have been okay.
How much of this is him lying vs not remembering?
In my work, as with many here I'm sure, I have business lunches and dinners a couple times a week, on average. If you ask me for a complete list of with whom I have dined over the past three weeks, I would probably miss one or two. And I definitely would not be able to remember who paid for what. Not that this excuses JH in a situation where he had an obligation to be more careful, but I definitely believe the "I'm not sure whether I paid" argument. Even when submitting receipts, which I do all the time, for something a few months ago I would definitely first need to be shown a receipt and then say, "Oh, yeah. I remember that now."
This is right. Particularly during the pandemic. It was nuts. Time was just a theory. There were no rules. It was like living in an airport. You could drink at 8:30 am. Fucking thunder dome.
This is the most accurate and more importantly succinct accounting of the pandemic I've encountered
So let me get this straight you think a few minor violations plus lying to the NCAA about them is worse than the 100s of Tier 1 Violations that Tennessee committed and got a slap on the wrist for? The fact that "I don't remember who bought the burger" somehow boosts what Harbaugh did to be worse than what Tennessee did is absurd
Tennessee didn't commit violations and get a slap on the wrist.
Jeremy Pruitt committed violations, and Jeremy Pruitt got banned from coaching for 6 years.
In the Harbaugh case - the NCAA isn't punishing Michigan. They're punishing Harbaugh.
Pruitts 100's of tier1 violations ARE way worse - which is why he got a WAY worse (banned from coaching for 6 years vs. suspended for 4 games) punishment than Harbaugh.
I disagree. Suspending an active head coach punishes Michigan. Banning a former coach has no impact on Tennessee. And I find it very hard to believe that Tennessee as an institution had no idea what Pruitt was doing when we're talking about hundreds of tier 1 violations.
Tennessee fired Pruitt because of the investigation. He wouldn't have been a "former coach" if Tennessee hadn't fired him for these violations.
No, they fired Pruitt because he sucked and used the investigation as cover. If Pruitt was good, then he never would've gotten fired
Your logic that Harbaugh being suspended somehow isn't punishing Michigan is flawed. The NCAA punished Tennessee with nothing that actually mattered. Having 200 Tier 1 violations should frankly result in the death penalty of the program for allowing that to happen, but since Pruitt sucked, they got off easy with a scholarship deduction (that doesn't matter in the NIL age) and a fine that was the same amount as they paid their QB recruit from last class
On the one hand, yes there is more to the story than hamberders.
On the other hand, it’s another display of the NCAA being arbitrary and capricious at best. At worst, they have ulterior motives and go harder after schools that aren’t as bought-in to their ostensibly corrupt system.
And the whole thing hinges on the alleged lie. Having personally dealt with an unaccountable, seemingly arbitrary and capricious, yet likely corrupt in actuality, enforcement organization, I can tell you there is plenty to be pissed about in this situation, because they lie. They make up lies about you, put it in their report, and there’s nothing you can do - even if you can prove they’re lying, because to them accountability is a closed circle where they make all the rules.
At this point, I find it hard to believe that they could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Jim deliberately and knowingly lied to them. For someone who cares about truth and morality, dealing with an organization like that is infuriating, but if you dig in your heels it’s your head that’s at risk. I give Jim a lot of credit for standing his ground initially - but ultimately you have to bend or break, those are the options.
A four game suspension would be not too terrible for a Level 1 violation, and hopefully M’s AD can figure out how to circle the wagons, including pressing the state, to prevent future NCAA malfeasance. Because when it comes to “lack of institutional control” the only sort of institutional control the NCAA actually cares about is how well the institution can cover its tracks with a paper-thin veil of deniability.
The NCAA gives a fuck about USC, OSU, Penn St, and Michigan. They can give fuck all about any power house school in the southern footprint. Finishing well behind Georgia and Alabama in recruiting year in and year out but leading the way in NCAA penalties (concerning the schools above) isnt a red flag to anyone? I also love carrying the NCAAs water for them that penalties now attach only to coaches especially if that coach has been gone for 2 years. Honestly Im not even sure some process the hypocrisy of all this.
Don't lie to them, just tell them to go perform a physically impossible act on themselves.
And, I do not think Harbaugh lied. The story I heard was that the Brown Jug gave them free burgers, Harbaugh found out about it and sent $10 as a tip to the server and then forgot about the whole thing. Do you remember every $10 you spent in the last 6 months? I can't even remember stuff that small the following day.
The story I heard was the recruits, who had committed, were on campus of their own initiative. JH was like "Oh Hi. I'm going to breakfast at the jug. Want to join?"
There, the recruits ate normal breakfasts.
JH ordered two,1/2 lb hamburgers for HIS breakfast.
The entire check was comped. Harbaugh gave and expensed the tip.
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