Michigan Tuesday: Injuries, Head Coach, QB2, JJ, and More!

Always plenty to discuss after a Michigan loss but usually one of the concerns is not, who will coach the team the next two weeks?  Thus, this is Michigan Football 2025.  

Let's just get to the news shall we:

• Biff is the Michigan head coach for the next two weeks.  My guess is this was the plan all along and one of the reasons he came back to Ann Arbor.  This allows Biff to coach the game and the Coordinators to coach their groups.  Great decision! 

• Rod Moore has a very good chance of playing this weekend.  Yes, Please 

• Klein is getting better

• El-Hadi is day to day and it doesn't sound like a serious injury 

• Same with Berry

• Sherrone also confirms he doesn't have a solid QB2.  When asked if he would like to see Bryce run more, his answer consisted of: Yes, but you better have a second QB ready if your going to do that.  A moment of honesty from a head coach in a press conference is refreshing. 

• I have been disappointed we have not seen the true freshman CB Earls.  He showed up on the injury report this week.  Some rumors are he got injured warming up for the New Mexico game.

• Orji is out for the season at UNLV, he tore his hamstring on his only carry last weekend. 

• JJ started his NFL career rough last night, including a bad pick 6 to start the 2nd half.  Then rallies like the gamer he is and wins the game in the 4th.  

• Loveland also made his first NFL start and had 2 catches for 12 total yards for the Bears. 

• Nebraska game will be a 3:30 kick.  MSU - USC will be a 11:00 PM kick that weekend. 

• Bonus stat from the NFL:  J.J. McCarthy is the first starting QB with a 10+ point 4th quarter comeback in his NFL debut since Steve Young in 1985. He is the only such QB since 1950 to do so on the road

Michigan Monday: Too Early Look at The Chips

Michigan finally gets back to playing football in the daylight as the Central Michigan Chippewas travel south to Ann Arbor for a match up with the 23rd ranked Michigan Wolverines.   Both teams are 1-1 coming into this battle of instate teams.  

Central Michigan (1-1) 

Last week: loss to Pitt 45-17

Win: San Jose State 16-14

Pass: 146 yards per (118th)

Run: 138 yards per (89th)

Score: 16.5 per game (117th)

Give up: 29.5 per game (108th)

Next Game after Michigan: Wagner Power Painters in Mt. Pleasant. 

Central has a new coaching staff as its assumed the last coaching staff invited Connor Stalions on their sideline, but nobody knows if or how Connor got there. The NCAA believes the fix is in and Central's leadership let the Shark Hugger go after last season.  Saturday is  the 3rd straight road game for the Chips as they are stacking dollar bills as the MAC season approaches.  

Michigan is a 27.5 favorite 

Kickoff is Noon

TV: BTN

Big mystery is: Who will be Michigan's head coach on Saturday?

• Moody is struggling with SF after making 70% of his field goals last year.  I would not be surprised if he gets cut this week. 

• Nice to see Will Johnson back healthy and starting for the Cardinals.  Strange they played Vandy yesterday. 

• JJ makes his first NFL career start tonight 

• Someone is going to sign Jabrill this week right?

• Former Michigan QB Update: Orji has lost the QB starter role at UNLV to Anthony Colandrea, Alex had 1 carry for 1 yard in the upset win over UCLA.  Cade is sharing time with Jacolby Criswell at ETSU.  They got boat races by Tennessee last week but beat Murray State Week 1.  In a surprise, Jayden Denegal is the starter for San Diego State and is completing 50% of his passes and is also 1-1. 

Oklahoma Post Game: Don't Confuse The Start of The Journey to The End

College Football is now professional football.  Both Oklahoma and Michigan were not great last year.  Neither one had a good QB.  Oklahoma went out and got a transfer QB that has been playing college football since 2022, Michigan got one that had never taken a college football snap.  

Both teams today are very similar, but the better QB and better team won last night.  In Week 2, Oklahoma is the better team with the experienced QB.  They are closer to their ceiling where Michigan is closer to their floor.  Even a good team struggles in that environment last night.  I thought for a team just starting their journey, Michigan played pretty damn good. 

Compare this game to the Washington trip last season.  I felt Michigan after the Washington game last season was one of the worst teams in college football.   After lasts night game, I feel Michigan is close just not ready.  They will get there and I think they might be pretty good at years end. 

Bob, I get your a homer, but why do you feel this way?

Outside of a few penalties, Michigan played a clean game.  No turnovers.  Oklahoma had two major turnovers and two really bad special teams mistakes.  Michigan couldn't protect their QB in the pocket, couldn't tackle Mateer, and kicked 3 fields goals (2-3) when Oklahoma scored touchdowns.  That is the story of the game, it went exactly how I thought it would. 

I agree the play calling was not aggressive enough but the coaches were trying to keep Michigan in the game.  If Michigan's blitzing Safety is able to sack Mateer, Michigan has a decent shot of winning that game.  He didn't and Michigan didn't.  

Cheers

• To a learning experience.  Michigan could have easily stayed home and played Ball State. 
• To our QB who couldn't vote two weeks ago to playing decent in his first hostile environment. 
• Justice Hayes long run to start the 2nd half
• To a well played 2nd half by the Wolverines 
• Zero turnovers 
• Michigan caught all the punts

Jeers

• The injuries are starting to be a problem.  Klein was really missed.  I think the coaches need to consider the amount of contact they are having in practice.  
• The offensive line was terrible, run game, blitz pickup, pass pro, awful. 
• I disagree with Herbie's take on Michigan's WR's.  I saw guys running butt naked open, Bryce just didn't have the time to see them. 
• The tackling on Mateer was really bad.  I'm sorry but they needed to spy on him the entire game.  That is on Wink 
• The pass rush was also bad.  Michigan had to pressure and hit him on passing downs and rarely did either. 

To me the difference in the game for the Wolverines were two major things.  Tackling the OK QB and bad pass protection from Michigan's offensive line.  Both can be fixed and I expect both will.   

Remember this is professional football now, one loss doesn't kill your season.  Michigan needs to focus on the Big Ten.  Even that team down South didn't win the Big Ten last year.  ND lost to NIU at home and made the National Championship. 

Let's get better this week! 

Oklahoma Preview

Time: 7:30

Location: Memorial Stadium 

Weather: 71 and clear 

TV: ABC 

Line: Michigan +5.5

Oklahoma is a legendary football program, there is no doubt about it, but they've had 2 losing seasons in the last 3 years.  The Brent Venables experiment maybe over if the Sooners have another poor year with a difficult schedule on tap.  You know my feeling on this, sometimes a great coordinator doesn't mean your a great head coach.   Sherrone is dealing with the same thing. 

Brent was known as a defensive genius at Clemson.  He turned down many head coaching jobs for a chance to coach the Sooners.  I expect he will have a crazy game plan for Bryce who is starting only his second game and first away from the Big House.   Michigan will have the same approach for Oklahoma's new QB John Mateer who was probably was the top pick in the transfer portal with Justice Hayes #2.  John threw for nearly 400 yards last weekend and has fixed the Sooners QB problem. 

Dear Sherrone,

You were right when you said Bryce was electric and plays way beyond his age.  I was very impressed with his performance on Saturday.  This week he is going to face another challenge.  A road game in a hostile SEC environment.  Let's not put a ton on his plate for this game.  There are two things that "travel" in football.  A great run game and a great defense.  Give the young man some easy reads and let him use his feet to gain a few first downs.  He needs to make sure he slides or gets out of bounds.  Venables will try to get him to see "ghosts", make sure Chip only allows him to see open Michigan WR's and TE's.  

The big question is how does Michigan win this game, when the Wolverines are just coming together as a team and Oklahoma really needs a big home win? 

1. This is a Wink game.  I was not impressed with the defense at times last Saturday.  Yes, I understand Wink is trying to find who can play and who needs to develop.  But giving up 17 to New Mexico was way too much.  I hope that experiment is over and Wink has a solid game plan to stop Mateer from throwing the ball all around the yard.  If Michigan is going to win this game, they will have to pressure the hell out of Mateer and the DB's will have to lock down the Sooner WR's.   I don't love blitzing a veteran QB a ton but we might have to on Saturday night.  If Michigan is going to leave Norman with a W, it has to be on the back of an incredible defensive performance. Ohio State 2024 like performance. 

2. Smart offense.  If the above strategy works, Michigan will need 24 points to win this game.  We have the best kicker in the country and I expect he will be busy Saturday night.  Michigan will have to limit mistakes and play as clean as possible.  Michigan can not over come turnovers and 3rd and 20 type of  situations on offense.   Oklahoma will fill the box with defenders to stop Michigan's running game.  I loved to see the long runs last weekend, when your offense spread out the defenders. 

Playing in an environment like Memorial Stadium on National TV is a great opportunity for your team.  Your squad is talented enough to win this game, but you have to have someone that can catch punts for example.  This game in my mind is all about Wink and Chip.  Wink has to shut down the Oklahoma offense, while the Michigan offense finds its footing.   This will be a 2nd half game for the Wolverines.

Play with confidence, enjoy the experience, play clean football, win the game. 

I'm interested to learn who I will be writing notes to the next two Friday's.  If you want my $.02 on the topic.  Biff is the coach to lead this program while you take a two week vacation to Northern Michigan. 

Oklahoma 24 Michigan 17