Michigan Friday: News and Notes

• Michigan Basketball will finally have a recruit in the McDonalds All American Game, Isaiah Todd was selected to the team.   So was Josh Christopher who has Michigan in his final group along with Greg Brown who is also considering Michigan.  Who was the last Michigan player in the game?  Daniel Horton hears a who.  The year? 2002.  Yikes! 

• Shea is having a very bad senior bowl experience: "He struggled with accuracy and had no zip to power through wind when throwin into it," draft analyst Matt Miller said on Day 1. "I don't think he's draftable". And then there were the muffed exchanges early on Day 2, which ground practice to a halt.  That does not sound good for the former 5 star QB and experiences Michigan fans can relate to.  

• Good feedback on Ben at the senior bowl:  One player Bears fans should highlight as a name to watch is Michigan offensive lineman Ben Bredeson. He looked the part on Tuesday. He has strong hands and the kind of powerful playing style that tends to lead to success in the NFL. He showed pretty good feet, too. He has a chance to rise up the board if he stacks two more positive practices together.

• Michigan seems to have offered Cade McNamara's brother in the 2020 class.  He is 5'8 and 170 pounds WR. Its unknown if its a scholarship offer or a walk-on.   24/7 reports two offers from Ohio State and CMU.   I can understand the Central offer but I'm pretty sure the OSU offer is no longer available.   He is rated a 2 star and #3195 player in the country.  Best guess this is a walk-on offer. 

• Where in the world is Anthony Campanile? He was not announced with the new coaches hired by the Miami Dolphins last week and is not on the team's website list of coaches.   Is this a timing thing or has AC cost himself his current job, two DC's offers, and an NFL gig for some reason?

• Shaq's son Shareef is transferring from UCLA, he has played limited minutes this season after sitting out last year with a heart condition.  Reports are that Josh Christopher and Shareef are good friends.   Shaq of course knows Juwan from his time in the NBA. 
  

Michigan Thursday: Not Good

Michigan's Basketball team is pretty good when everyone is healthy and hitting shots.  When one of their upperclassman goes out with injury and the 3 ball isn't dropping they are pretty bad.   Last night was another example as the Wolverines got embarrassed on their home floor by Penn State.

Michigan was lost on both sides of the court, Teske is struggling guarding anyone and Michigan as a whole is giving up way too many open looks.   The offense is turning the ball over and struggling to shoot the ball.   Those struggles make Michigan look like a bottom tier Big Ten team, which is exactly where they find themselves in the standings.

Livers better be sleeping in a hyperbaric camber!

• Todd Graham who has had a few head coaching jobs in college, got another one, this time Hawaii.   Not a bad place to land.  

• Boise State is suing the Mt. West over TV money.   

• Drew Henson is working with the QB's at the Senor Bowl and wants to be an NFL scout.   Don't go to the Yankees Drew! 

• From PFF's senior bowl notes:  Michigan’s Josh Uche, however, might be the one who actually sticks as a pass-rusher. He checked in at 241 with 33-inch arms and has been putting on a pass-rushing clinic the past couple days. He’s not only gotten around the edge consistently, but he’s gotten movement on tackles via the bull-rush.

• Coy Cronk the IU OT grad transfer that Michigan was kicking the tires on, has transferred to Iowa.   I doubt there was much interest from either side in Coy coming to Ann Arbor. 

Wolverine Wednesday: Everyone Cheats and Nobody Cares Anymore

This is where we are at in big time college sports now and maybe all sports.  Major League Baseball which is struggling to keep pace with other big time sports in the US just found their former champions were cheating during the World Series.  

Lets quickly look at college football, it's known that Alabama has a "system" that funnels money to players and even the National Champion LSU Tigers had a recent scandal that nobody noticed.   A LSU Booster named John Paul Funes  pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $800,000 from a hospital charitable foundation.  How did he get caught?  He paid $180,000 of the foundation’s money to the father of Vadal Alexander, a former LSU offensive lineman.   Not to mention OBJ handing out $100's after the NC game (which I really don't have a problem with), is just another example that times have changed.  

How about the College Basketball Scandal with the FBI Wire Taps?  How has that effected Kansas coach Bill Self or Arizona's Sean Miller?  The answer is, it hasn't and nobody seems to care.  

MSU's Mark Dantonio brought a known sex offender to his team and the MSU athletics department seems happy to employ him because he won a Big Ten Championship and went to the College Playoffs.   They seemed to have learned nothing from one of biggest sexual assaults' scandals in history of college sports.   Mark's program is in a steep decline and there are more reasons to fire him then to keep him.  

OSU's star transfer QB Justin Fields, hasn't really seen the Ohio State campus as he is taking online classes and heads directly to the football facility.    This isn't breaking the rules but another example of the student fading from the term student-athlete.   OSU is running a professional football program and Michigan isn't.

Why do we wonder why Michigan isn't competing with these programs?  Michigan of course shot itself in the foot for many years with the RR and Hoke hires and then have been on a long re-build with Harbaugh.  No of us are happy how long its taking.    We also want Jimmy and the program to be above the rules.   He admitted last summer, "that its hard to beat the cheaters".  Yes, it is.

Kids go to class at U of M, Michigan doesn't pay players, and you need to be elite on the field and in the classroom.   If you are an 18 year old 5 star and Bama offers you a chance to compete for National Championships, $100K in your pocket (or your parents pocket), have a great shot at getting to the NFL, and very light college class schedule.   How many of you are turning that down at 18?  I wonder why Najee Harris didn't get on the flight to Detroit.

I'm not saying we go Lance Armstrong but if something doesn't change we need to be happy understanding with losing to the programs that are.

Michigan Tuesday: Another Howard and a Transfer to Rutgers

Jace Howard made it official last night, as he will be joining his father for the 2020 class.   Jace is an athletic forward at 6'7 and 205 pounds.   He is rated 3 stars to all basketball recruiting services and 24/7 places him at #250 in country.

At this point we don't know if its a scholarship or a walk-on and probably depends on if Todd goes overseas and Josh Christopher's decision.  I expect Jace to redshirt and maybe sit a few years with a stacked roster full of forwards: including Wagner, Johns, Livers, Williams (Fr), and Todd (Fr.).

Welcome Big Man!

Feels like an inside job, when Mike Dwumfour made a quick decision to transfer back home to Rutgers .  Insiders are saying this was a joint decision between the Michigan coaches and Mike to look for a new place for his graduate transfer year.   He will leave with his Michigan degree and maybe even a graduate degree from Rutgers, which is a great way to take advantage of his educational opportunity.

We wish Mike all the best and hope he can stay healthy.  '

• Transfer season: QB Franks goes from Florida to Arkansas 

• Transfer season: QB King goes from Houston to Miami 

• Kerry Coombs is heading back to Ohio State as the DC after coaching the Titans DB's.  What's interesting, I have not seen any reports that its a co-DC role with Greg Mattison.