Monday, December 7, 2020

Michigan Monday: Rumor Mill Spinning Hard and Michigan's Bench

As Michigan Football cancels the media interactions today, the OSU game takes another step towards not being played.  OSU played in East Lansing last week, minus some 20 players and Michigan reportedly has 12 positives.   With a infectious disease expert leading U of M, there is about a 10-20% chance this game gets played in my opinion.   Can you imagine him approving a game between two teams that are currently in different stages of an outbreak?  Make that closer to 10%. 

Jimmy was part of 2 rumors this weekend:

1 - That he has already signed a 3 year extension at Michigan. 

2- He is eyeing a return to the NFL. 

We have heard #2 for 7 years, but #1 is a new rumor.   I think both could be true.   If Jimmy is going to try to hold on to his recruiting class, he has to prove to players and parents he is sticking around through this storm.  Warde doesn't want anything to do with a high profile coaching search and Michigan sure as hell doesn't want to pay for 2 football staffs after the COVID budget hit.   If I had to guess which one is truer?  I would go with #1.  Update: John U Bacon says expect some Harbaugh news this week.  Probably not today but later in the week.  This could be another reason for the media postponement to Wednesday. 

Update #2: Michigan will begin "limited workouts" today.  

It seems Rumors hit other programs as well.  The latest one is that Urban Meyer has turned down Texas because of his ongoing health concern.  Texas of course has a head coach and nobody knows if that is a play for more money or there is an actual health concern.   I don't think he is holding out for the USC job, because they are undefeated this weird season and recruiting has gotten much better.  

Michigan Basketball Beats UCF 80-58 with a strong 2nd Half

In a game where Michigan's starters struggled doing anything, Michigan's bench saves the day.   Michigan's starters are a unique group.  Livers went scoreless for most of the game and finished with 5 points, Franz had another poor performance, AD is a fish out of water this year, and Smith & Brooks have been about average.

I know it tough to decide between starting guys or having them come of the bench to give the team some much needed energy.  Dickinson might be the best player on the team and Brown brings a ton of energy and some offense.  

Case in point:  Michigan starters scored 31 points total, Michigan's bench scored 49.

Michigan finally has some depth and can go to other players when the offense takes a 10 minute vacation.  Williams saved them in the first half and Brown took over the game in the second.   Add Dickinson consistency to that and Michigan really has two starting squads.   The starters better be careful because there are guys coming for their spots.  

What I do like about this team is they make some adjustments and play better in the 2nd half.  Though they need to have some better starts when Big Ten play starts.   Michigan has the ACC Challenge when they host NC State on Wednesday,  who had to cancel their game on Saturday due to COVID.   If they have to cancel, I wonder if they can pick up a game against EMU or someone before the Big Ten starts?

Update #3:  NC State game has been postponed.  Michigan will look for another match-up this week, probably on Thursday. 

  • DPJ had a long TD catch for the Browns on Sunday. 

3 comments:

Goose said...

Why is the athletic department giving jim more chances? Rich Rod didnt get kind of lesh neither did hoke. I freely admit jim is monumentally better and has had more success but we must also acknowledge he has not meet the expectations he was hired to meet. Those guys were fired because they failed to meet the standard Harbaugh has also failed to meet the standard....its just that simple.Please stop the favoritism and cronyism. He is simply an employee not preforming to the standard. My opinion

Rudy said...

Manuel's contract is up in March, maybe he gets the axe and a new AD gets to deal with JH. He will be coaching next season but it remains to be seen who his staff will be. Would think he'd clean house, but that's trying to understand how this man thinks and that's a waste of time. Would like to see him lure Mike Hart back to town as an assistant coach. Even with a 3yr extension it doesn't mean he'll be around for long and that could be a challenge when trying to find new assistants. More than fixing the wins, I'd like to see how he's going to fix the attitude and culture. Obviously these guys are not all in.

EzmoB said...

Info out there stating coach H is getting a 3 year extension. Coach H needs to replace all his coordinators. Bring Jedd Fish, Durkin back. Man do I dare say this, reach out to coach Hoke to come back to the program at done capacity. He was an awesome recruiter. Coach H needs coordinators that can develop talent.