Michigan Friday: Luke Keeps Digging The Hole

Luke Fickell is very popular with Michigan fans.  He is the only head coach at Ohio State that Michigan has defeated in recent memory.   He was the interim head coach at the time but has gotten passed over twice for the full time gig in Columbus.   So he packed up his things and headed South  about an hour and now coaching The University of Cincinnati.

Now he is upset because he believes Jimmy didn't support James Hudson's waiver to get immediate playing time at UC.  Jimmy fired back that wasn't true and Luke still believes it is.

Tom Mars the lawyer for Shea Patterson's transfer and now a member of an NCAA Committee, has come out and said that Michigan had zero influence over the NCAA's decision.

Another example is Drew Singleton who transferred to Rutgers from Michigan.  His waiver was granted by the NCAA in May and will play this year for the Scarlett Knights.   Similar to UC, Rutgers also has a head coach who was an assistant coach at Ohio State.   The difference is, Rutgers is on Michigan's schedule this year.   Meaning, if Jimmy were going to try to block any transfer, this would probably be the one.

Luke needs to worry about his own team and stop blaming Jimmy for the NCAA's strange decisions.  I hope this is over now.

• Michigan has received the most impactful injury of training camp as potential RT starter Andrew Stueber has gone down with a leg injury.   We are not aware of how significant the injury is at this point.   This now pencils in Jalen Mayfied as the starter with Ryan Hayes as the back-up.    Jalen and Andrew were in competition for the starting spot, so at a minimum this hurts the Wolverines depth on O-line.   

• Another MSU trainer has been charged with domestic violence.

• Saturday night well be 2 weeks away from Michigan Football! 

Michigan Thursday: Jace Howard Gets An Offer

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Coach Juwan Howard didn't have to look very far for his latest scholarship offer.   It was actually just across the kitchen table, as he offered his son Jace.

Jace is a 6'7 SF in the 2020 class, he is unranked and weighs 200 pounds.  He has offers from the likes of Dayton, San Diego State,  St. Louis, and Northern Illinois.   So this isn't just Dad throwing a scholarship towards his son and the expectation is that Jace will play at some point.

Good luck to Jace and we look forward to seeing him in Crisler in a few years.

• With Jace getting offered, it got me thinking about what Tyrone Wheatley Jr. is doing now?  We know he left Michigan and transferred to Stoney Brook and caught 6 balls last season.  He will play his senior year at Morgan State where his dad is the head coach.   

• As I'm sure you heard, Ohio State is trying to trademark the word The.  

• Warde thinks the ND game could be another night game in the Big House.  Thanks to Warde's lack of negotiation skills, Michigan is playing ND in the middle of October.   The week before Michigan travels to Penn State for a White Out which also has a high probability of being a night game.    Which I'm sure Jimmy is going to love that.   Warde did say that the MSU has no chance of being a night game.  

• 2019 3 Star DT from Belleville Jalen Hunt was not able to qualify at Iowa and has joined the MSU Spartans.   Jalen is not on scholarship but can participate in practice and play if needed this season.   Jalen has been practicing with the team since Monday. Most believe he will not play in a game and be a part of the 2020 recruiting class with a full scholarship.   MSU's 2020 class is currently ranked 51st on 24/7 composite with 13 commits. 

Wolverine Wednesday: Jimmy Speaks a Lot

We haven't heard much Michigan's head football coach since camp started.   Yes, a few players have spoke and even the coordinators, but not much (as former head coach of the AAF Champion Orlando Apollos Steve Spurrier likes to call the position) from the head ball coach.

Until Tuesday, when Jimmy spoke to the BTN crew, dropped his podcast, and did a press conference.  That is a waterfall of information.   I will do my best to summarize new information for you.   We don't need to re-cap the guys are in great shape and that Josh Gattis is doing a wonderful job running the offense.

• The highlight of the press conference is when Jimmy took Cincinnati Head Football Coach Luke Fickell to task over the James Hudson transfer.  Jimmy said, he told the truth about the position switch and had nothing to do with his waiver being approved or denied for immediate playing time.  The NCAA denied it, by the way.   Luke had mentioned to the ESPN's Athletic that Jimmy was "cold" when they spoke and inferred that Michigan didn't support the waiver.   Jimmy called that stance by Fickell "erroneous".

• Jimmy likes the Freshman: Mazi Smith as lost 25 pounds of fat, David Objo has put on 25 pounds of muscle, Giles Jackson, Dax Hill, and CJ Johnson are doing great as punt gunners.  "Zach Charbonnet is coming on like a freight train"

• The coaches review the depth chart and each player at 10:00 PM each night. 

• Practices 6-9 will have more scrimmage time built in.  Just completed practice #5. 

• The rumor of Ambry Thomas having Mono was incorrect, he has Colitis and is now gaining his weight back and getting back his conditioning.  There is no timetable for his return as he heals.  Expect Vincent Gray to replace him in the starting lineup. 

• Jimmy likes the depth on the defensive line?  CMU transfer Mike Danna is also a starter right now on the DL. 

• ESPN GameDay will do the it first location of the season at Disney World, next week for the Gators - Hurricanes match-up. 

Michigan Tuesday: Taters Are Going To Tate

Michigan for a short time had a famous Tate from California before he flamed out.  Ohio State recently had one until he transferred, Tate Martell.   Its a slow news day, so I'm going to give you a quick update on the former OSU QB.

Being Tate Martell:

Tate grew up in San Diego but decided to transfer to Las Vegas Powerhouse Bishop Gorman to become a nationally recruited QB.  That strategy paid off and Tate became a 5 star Dual-Threat QB in the 2017 class.

Let the recruiting process begin! Well sort of, when Tate was 14 he committed to the University of Washington.   Then in 2015 he de-committed from UW and committed to Texas A&M.  Then in 2016 he again de-committed this time from the Aggies and committed to Urban Meyer and Ohio State.   After playing in his senior season at Bishop Gorman, he transfers to Dessert Pines HS so he could join Ohio State early.   Not sure how that would work bit there is clearly some Urban Meyer magic in there.

Tate at Bishop Gorman also found himself to be a TV star, as he was the subject (along with Jake Fromm and Tayvon Bowers) of Netflix's QB1 reality series.   Tate threw up video game numbers his senior year and was named the Gatorade Player of the Year.  He passed for 41 TD's and ran for another 21, while posting a 15-0 record.   He was a rock star and knew it.

Tate joined the Buckeyes and found himself buried on the depth chart, mostly behind Dwayne Haskins and JT Barrett.  This offseason Tate's time was finally here, as Haskins entered the NFL Draft early and JT was gone the year prior.   Then things started to change in Columbus, Urban steps down and Ryan Day takes over.  Another 5 star QB decides he wants to be in Columbus and Justin Fields transfers from Georgia.  Justin also secures a waiver from the NCAA for immediate eligibility due to race incident in Athens.

So now what?  Tate like he has done in the past, decided to make another change and enters the transfer portal.   He finds a home at the University of Miami and gets a waiver from the NCAA to play right away due to the coaching change at OSU.   Miami is in bad shape at the QB position and also has a new head coach in Manny Diaz.  Tate again is ready to start, this time for the Hurricanes.   If you remember, Tate Forcier also tried to transfer to Miami but his grades stopped that transaction.

The time in now as Miami has a very early and important game against Florida in Orlando in 11 days.  ESPN asked the NCAA and both teams to move this game up a week so it could be the highlight of the weekend and the start of the college football season on 8/24.

Yesterday, Miami head coach Manny Diaz announced that freshman Jarren Williams would be the starting QB for the Hurricanes in their match-up against the Gators.   Tate doesn't show up for practice on Monday.

What is next for Tate?  Only Tate knows.