Thursday, November 30, 2023

Michigan Thursday: Big Ten Offense Honors and Championship Week Preview

Since the Big Ten season is over for most of the conference, I thought I would do a quick preview of the Championship games around the country.  


Friday Night:

Oregon (-9.5) vs. Washington:  Round 2 in this match-up that Washington won earlier in the year.  This is top 5 match-up on a neutral field and Washington is a 2 score dog.  That is surprising to me but the Ducks are playing some really good football since they left Seattle with an L.   I like The Ducks to win but Washington and the points.  Oregon 34 Washington 28

OK ST vs Texas (15.5):  To me this is a story of Michigan's 4th string QB last season leading a team to the Big 12 Championship game.  That right folks, Oklahoma State is lead by Alan Bowman.  Still, Texas should win easily.  Texas 41 OK State 21

Miami OH vs. Toledo (-8):  The winning head coach gets the Indiana job.  Toledo 24 Miami 20 

Boise State (-2.5) @ UNLV:  Who said that Michigan's non-conference schedule was bad?  UNLV 19 BSU 17

App State vs Troy (-6):  App State continues to be a dirty word around these parts.  Troy 21 App State 17

SMU @ Tulane (-3.5):  Tulane at home.  Tulane 34 SMU 30

Alabama vs. Georgia:  This is the 2nd best match-up right behind Ducks - Huskies.  Alabama is not the all powerful Tide as they have been in the past.  Georgia has won 29 games in a row but they haven't been dominating folks like they the last 2 years.  Both teams got a lot better as the season went on.  For a minute, I though Bama was going to drop a rain game to South Florida.  I want a winner that doesn't get Ohio State into a playoffs.  Georgia 30 Alabama 21

Louisville vs FSU (-2.5): Last week was a mix-up mix-up for both of these teams.  Louisville was supposed to beat UK and FSU was supposed to lose to Florida.  The opposite happened.  Now FSU is undefeated with a back-up QB trying to beat Louisville who has had a nice 1st year under Jeff Brahm but a head scratching loss to a terrible Pitt team.  The committee doesn't  know what to do with FSU.  FSU 21 Louisville 20  

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Michigan dominated the Big Ten Teams on both sides of the ball.  The offense was announced yesterday:

JJ was named QB of the year 
Blake was named the RB of the year 

1st Team: Both JJ and Blake of course, LaDarius Henderson, Colston Loveland, Drake Nugent, and Zak Zinter. 

2nd: Karsen Barhart, Trevor Keegan, & Roman Wilson

HM: AJ Barner 
  • Duke coaching candidates all have some ties to the Big Ten or Michigan:  Manny Diaz PSU DC, Jim Knowles OSU DC, and Tony Gibson, NC State DC.  Tony was a former Michigan assistant. 
  • Every D1 starting QB is in the portal.  😃
  • Justin Scott 5-star DL flipped from Ohio State to Miami last night 
  • Why do people keep hiring Bobby Petrino?  He is back at Arkansas now as the OC.  
  • Franz tracker: 31 points last night in 31 minutes.
 

9 comments:

Ron said...

The Nebraska head coach says it cost 1 or 2 million, for a transfer quarterback 🤔 it's free agency in college football now

Chowman said...

Ron,

Yeah Valenti did a bit on that yesterday. In theory, if that's true, you can have guys that are being paid more than some NFL starting QB, Brock Purdy for instance. I guess, from my perspective, I'd rather pay a TP player as I know what they can be as opposed to some HS recruit that you know nothing about. But there has to be limits. Michigan, and more specifically, Harbaugh got punished for breaking a NCAA rule that was meant to prevent teams with lots of money from having a competitive advantage. Well that's what's happening with NIL. Programs like Texas A&M, Oregon,etc that have deep pocketed boosters can out pay other programs that don't have the same deep pockets. Michigan should be fine, it has a huge alumni/fan base with lots of money. But you do have to feel for programs like Indiana, Minnesota who not only won't be able to pay for TP players, but stand to lose players to teams with lots of NIL money.

Brady2017 said...

I wonder if Jimmy (or any other Head Coach) calls a former player and wishes them good luck? Especially for such a feel good story as Alan Bowman. I don't see Jimmy calling Cade or Erik All in such a situation, but I think Bowman and Michigan both got what they wanted when he came to UM and things worked out well.

Brady2017 said...

Chowman- That's why the NCAA is a hypocrisy. They will penalize schools for having a competitive advantage, but allow schools like Texas Tech to pay every member of its football team $25,000 a year. How can Indiana or Purdue compete with that? They can't.

Brady2017 said...

Franz is rolling. Too bad the Pistons couldn't identify his talent, and he was right here under their nose. Troy Weaver is clueless. He's assembled a bunch of square pegs that don't fit into round holes. Weaver has to go, but I don't think the owner even knows he owns an NBA team.

Brady2017 said...

Not sure every QB in the NCAA is in the portal, but every QB from Michigan State is. Lol Jimmy should be looking at that MSU roster to bring over to the good guys.

szanreno said...

Remember the drive at the end of the 96 game? Very reminiscent of last Saturday. Still reveling in it. As SI once said ending a story on this game in 95,"somewhere in the night three buses roll toward Columbus, the occupants painfully educated"...

Goblu said...

Dante Moore is in portal and is talking Mich. I say no thank you.

Rudy said...

Chow...you lost me at Valenti! Dude is a total dbag. The NCAA is the minors for the NFL now as a business model. Truly sad.