Michigan Friday: Bowling and The Big Ten Season Starts

The Michigan Football team will understand who they will play on Sunday afternoon in a Bowl Game.   We have heard anything from the Holiday Bowl vs. PAC 12 team, Gator Bowl vs. SEC Team, or to the Citrus against Alabama or Auburn.   The latest buzz seems to be the Citrus who would love a Michigan - Alabama match-up, which packed Jerry's stadium a few years ago.

Juwan Howard's program gets no rest for the weary as they take the floor at home tonight against a good Iowa team.  Tip is an early one at 6:30 and will be on FS1.  Iowa is 6-2 with loses to DePaul and San Diego State, they do have recent wins over Texas Tech and Syracuse.   Let's hope the team can shake off the cold from Tuesday night.

• Jourdan Lewis had a nice pick in a Dallas loss last night. 

• Chase Winovich is honoring Larry Prout Jr. on this cleats this Sunday.   Well Done Chase! 

• Michigan Basketball has started a new series with UK, that will kick off next year with a game in London and finish with a home and home.  This should be great for recruiting.   Scheduling difficult games in basketball is a smart thing, the opposite is true in football.   Ohio State's non-conference in football this year was FAU, Cincinnati, and Miami of Ohio.

Championship game TV Schedule

8:00 Tonight PAC 12 Utah vs. Oregon - ABC 

Saturday

Noon:

Big 12 Baylor vs. Oklahoma -ABC 

Sun Belt Louisiana vs App State - ESPN

MAC Miami vs. CMU - ESPN 2

1:30: Conference USA UAB vs. FAU - CBSSN

3:30: American Cincinnati at Memphis - ABC

4:00: 

SEC Georgia vs. LSU - CBS

Mt West Hawaii and Boise State - ESPN

7:30: ACC Virginia vs. Clemson - ABC 

8:00: Big Ten OSU vs. Wisconsin - Fox 

Where the hell did the college football season go?

Michigan Thursday: Loses 2 LB's

Michigan on Wednesday lost two linebackers, one to the transfer portal and another one to the NFL.

Anthony Jordan a former 4 star LB prospect in the 2017 class from IMG in Florida has entered the transfer portal.   The rise of McGrone and Ross's unexpected redshirt injury year pushed the talented LB to look for playing time at another program.    Jordan played in 9 games this year and 7 games in the 2018 season.   He will have two years to play at his new program.  Jordan finished his Michigan career with 7 solo tackles, 7 assisted, 1 TFL, and 1 sack.

The next LB to move on is Josh Uche who will leave Michigan to head to the NFL Draft.  This wasn't a surprise since Josh accepted an invite to the Senior Bowl about a month ago.   Josh did have one year of eligibility left and will play in Michigan's bowl game.  He will need to improve his draft ranking at the senior bowl and NFL Combine as ESPN right now has him the 9th OLB in the draft.

The Jordan loss is hard to swallow over Uche who was always going to leave Michigan after this year.  Still Michigan is in great shape with McGrone and Ross coming back for another year.

• TE Sean McKeon has accepted an invite to play in the Senior Bowl.  He joins Metellus, Bredeson, and Uche. 

Here are your Wolverine All Big Ten Team Members:

(from Mgoblog user Wolverine Devotee)

First Team All-B1G
Ben Bredeson (OG)
Lavert Hill (CB)
Jon Runyan, Jr. (OT)

Second Team All-B1G
Will Hart (P)
Khaleke Hudson (LB)
Kwity Paye (DE)
Cesar Ruiz (C)
Josh Uche (LB)

Third Team All-B1G
Zach Charbonnet
Will Hart (P)
Aidan Hutchinson (DE)
Khaleke Hudson (LB)
Carlo Kemp (DT)
Josh Metellus (S)
Michael Onwenu (OG)
Shea Patterson (QB)
Kwity Paye (DE)
Donovan Peoples-Jones (PR)
Cesar Ruiz (C)
Ambry Thomas (CB)

All-B1G Honorable Mention
Ronnie Bell (WR)
Zach Charbonnet (RB)
Nico Collins (WR)
Nick Eubanks (TE)
Jordan Glasgow (LB)
Hassan Haskins (RB)
Brad Hawkins (S)
Aidan Hutchinson (DE)
Giles Jackson (KR)
Jalen Mayfield (OT)
Cam McGrone (LB)
Sean McKeon (TE)
Josh Metellus (S)
Michael Onwenu (OG)
Donovan Peoples-Jones (WR)
Donovan Peoples-Jones (PR)
Ambry Thomas (CB)

B1G Sportsmanship Award
Shea Patterson (QB)

Wolverine Wednesday: Cold Night

It was going to happen at some point and it happened last night for Juwan Howard's team.  The ball just wasn't going in.  For a team that needs the 3 point shot the Wolverines struggled all night and only made 3.

Yes,  there was a lot of reasons why.   Louisville's defense and talent were big reasons, but so were the tired legs of the Wolverines.   The team looked like they have been playing a lot of basketball and taking a bunch of flights.

Teske did all he could with 18 points but was the only Wolverine in double figures.  The hot shooting Livers only scored 3 points and went 1-9 from the field.   Brooks wasn't much better and was 0-6 from the field only scoring 2 points from the line.

It happens and last night it happend to be against the #1 team in the nation in their own barn.  Mark it up to experience and move on.    The rest doesn't get any better as the Wolverines have a Big Ten game against Iowa on Friday at Crisler.   The week after they travel to Illinois and host Oregon.

After that the schedule lets up with Presbyterian and UMass Lowell to finish up the year.

#1 need for the team is to get Franz Wagner comfortable, he isn't part of this offense at all right now.  His defense and rebounding is improving game by game.

• With Alabama dropping out of the top 10, some now are prediciting a Michgian - Alabama match-up in the Citrus Bowl.   

• Michigan only dropped one spot in the CFP rankings to #14

• MSU also got beat by Duke last night in East Lansing

Michigan Tuesday: A Historic Jump

Juwan Howard's program jumped from being unranked to #4 in Monday's AP Poll.  It's reward for such a huge jump is to play #1 ranked Louisville tonight on the road.  I haven't watched one Louisville game, so I can't tell you how they match-up but I did watch all 3 games Michigan played this weekend and will give you a few thoughts on this team.  

#1 - Need to stop turning over the ball.  Zavier continues to do his thing, but he has been turning the ball over  more this season.  If Michigan is going to continue to win games they have to protect the ball better.   

#2 - Keep Teske out of foul trouble - Jon is playing great low post defense and you can tell the big guys he has faced don't want to shoot in the low post.   His improvement year over year is quite incredible.  

#3 - Get Franz comfortable - He played a lot in the Bahamas but looked tentative and even nervous.   He needs some easy looks and maybe a dunk to get him going.  Poor guy started his college career  facing Iowa State and 3 top 10 teams.

Just like when Coach B was here, Michigan is really good when they are making 3's.   This year they do have Big Jon to knock down some easy low post shots when the offense gets a bit cold or stagnant.  I still would like one more bench player (other then DD) to step up.   My bet is Brandon Johns, want him to get a ton of boards and play some good defense.

Michigan is a 7 point dog tonight in what will be their first true road game of the season.  No matter what happens, we need to flush the OSU bull shit down the drain and focus on Juwan and his program.  To quote Scott Bell from Twitter, Trey Burke's block was clean,  Pitino's program wasn't.  

• With coaches being fired, recruits are de-committing and players are jumping into the transfer portal.   Any talented DT's with good grades out there?

• The latest Bowl predictions from Brett McMurphy and The Athletic is Michigan vs. Auburn in the Citrus Bowl.   That is not a good match-up for Michigan.  After Auburn's upset over Alabama, I thought they might find themselves in a New Years Day Bowl.  

• The Michigan football coaches are on the road and trying to secure its 2020 class as the early signing day is getting close 12/18.