Michigan Thursday: Jim is Going to Fix Himself This Off Season

Jim did a great job with the Chargers this year and got them to the playoffs.  Yes, his QB and offense went a little sideways on Saturday and they lost to an underdog Houston.  With everything going on in LA, you can't blame the players to maybe have their minds on that situation then the Texan's defense. 

Jim in this off season will need to add some playmakers.  When your #1 WR and playmaker is named Ladd, you have an issue with not enough playmakers.  A young RB would be good, a rookie WR, and free agent WR is a must.  

Not only that, Jim is planning on working on some health situations.  He will have a cardiac ablation procedure and have his hip replaced.   

Google AI has a summary of a cardiac ablation procedure as:  Cardiac ablation is a minimally invasive procedure that treats irregular heartbeats, or arrhythmias. During the procedure, a catheter is inserted into a vein in the groin, arm, leg, or neck and guided to the heart. Electrodes are then placed in the heart to measure electrical activity and identify the source of the arrhythmia. Heat or cold energy is used to destroy the abnormal tissue, blocking irregular electrical signals and restoring the heart's normal rhythm. 

Good luck with those Jim and watch out for those co-pays.  

• Michigan Basketball (-9.5) travels to the Barn tonight to take on Minnesota. 7:00 FS1

• Transfer Portal Punter? We need one! 

• Michigan OL Giovanni El-Hadi is back for his 5th year

Wolverine Wednesday: A Wink and a Smile

Reports started to surface yesterday that Michigan's DC Wink Martindale was interviewing with the Atlanta Falcons and is also expected to interview with the Colts.   This was not a shock to me.  Wink came to Michigan to rebuild his brand and in the last two games, he did just that by taking out both Ohio State and Alabama.  His defense has been the only thing to stop the Buckeyes in the last 60 days.  

It's not a secret of what I thought of Wink's overall performance this season.  Last 2 games A+, the rest of the season a D.  Michigan had a boat full of talent on defense this year and I thought that defense way under performed (outside of the final 2).  I don't know if Wink will be offered by these NFL teams or another, but if he goes, I wish him good riddance! 

Let's grab another NFL young guy, who can relate to the roster, scheme the shit out of the defense, and work the recruiting trail.  A Jesse Minter or Mike MacDonald type is the goal.   Yes, these guys might be in Ann Arbor only a few years, but I will take them everyday over a guy at the end of his career. 

• Jeff Daniels sings the "Curse of Bobby Layne" on Kimmel last night. 

• Penn State's top 2 RB's are staying in Happy Valley, but their top 2 WR's enter the portal.

Michigan Tuesday: Amor fati

If JJ stays for another year at Michigan, they might be playing on Monday night.  JJ would clearly be the #1 draft pick and Sherrone's first year would not have been the roller coaster it was.   Though, if his knee injury was going to happen in Minneapolis or Ann Arbor, then Michigan's 2024 season would probably been very similar to the same result.   Amor fati

The traveling man Sam Donald had a career year and took the Vikings to the 14-3 record.  Many have thought that JJ might now be tradeable as Sam was set up to sign a big contract.  Most thought the Vikings would "franchise tag" Sam as JJ develops.   Then for the Vikings most 2 important games of the year (last week against Detroit and last night's playoff game against the Rams), Sam played terrible.  Amor fati

JJ last night tweets: Amor fati

If your Latin is a little rusty it means: "love one's fate"

• On3 has Michigan as the top transfer portal class in the Big Ten 

• Michigan's top remaining 2025 recruit is 5-star OT Ty Haywood who is a long time Bama commit.  He de-committed from Bama yesterday and visiting Michigan this weekend. 

• Michigan's Logan Forbes has decided to stay at Michigan and remove his name from the transfer portal.  Logan's Twitter profile says, "route runner".

• Transfer WR prospect Tru Edwards commits to UK

• Former IU coach and current PSU DC Tom Allen is going to take the Clemson DC job 

Michigan Monday: Michigan's Rivals Play For a National Championship

I know Michigan hasn't played Notre Dame in a minute and MSU is on the schedule every year.   But for me (and I would imagine many Michigan fans) rank the Wolverines Rivals as follows:

1. Ohio State 

2. Notre Dame 

3. Michigan State 

The Michigan - MSU thing is more of a nasty distraction then a rivalry.   MSU fans know that and they hate that.   When ND was on the schedule every year, there would be two must wins for me: ND and OSU.  Some years it was the first game and the last game of the season.  

So now they match-up in a National Championship game a week from today.  As of right now OSU is a -8.5 favorite, I've seen it as high as 13.  So the money is moving to ND and the points.  Marcus Freeman plays his old team in the biggest game of his career.   

I was actually proud of Texas as they watched the Michigan game and played defense that took away the long ball and controlled the OSU offense.   The issue was they didn't tackle very well on the dump off routes and clearly didn't score enough points on offense.   I expect Marcus is smart enough to game plan like Wink and Texas did vs. doing their own thing like Tennessee and Oregon did.  

Lots of stuff happened this weekend so let's get to the news bullets:

• Orji transfers to UNLV.  They like to throw the ball, so not sure the play here.   I'm sure Dan Mullen has a plan. 

• Owen Wafle transfers to Penn State.  He is from NJ and this gets him closer to home. 

• Michigan adds UMASS WR Anthony Simpson his stops also includes Arizona.  Simpson put up some decent numbers at UMass in 2023 and less so at Arizona prior.  He only played in 2 games in 2024 before getting injured and jumping into the portal during the season.   He is also known as a returner. Simpson played for Michigan TE coach Steve Casula, so I assume Steve sees his upside.  If your looking for a comp, I would say AJ Henning.  Maybe a couple catches a game and a many touches as a returner.  Michigan needs WR's and this is an important pick-up. 

• Michigan adds Louisiana CB Caleb Anderson.  I don't know much about Caleb, but I like this pick up because he used to be coached by Michigan's DB coach Lamar Morgan.  He is 6'3 and this will be his 6 year of college football, so Yes, Please! 

• Robinson the WR from App State commits to UCLA

• Michigan Basketball has the top offense in the country over the last month as they beat UW at Crisler on Sunday.  Love that Vlad found his game after a slow start to the season. 

• RIP Bo assistant and Colorado Head Coach Bill McCartney