2016 finishing 10th is fucking brutal. 3 games lost right at the end and no hardware to show for it. They were not a national-title level team because of the offense, but that should have been Harbaugh's first playoff team
Is this supposed to be plays that are designed as run or pass or plays that RESULT in run/pass? Because my hunch is that Auburn and Bama had many more plays that ended up in scrambles because of their mobile QBs and bad O-lines, which skews the run/pass ratio towards run even though they were "called" as pass plays
Oregon will be a very big test. Penn State is Penn State. They’ll hang around and feel like they have a chance, and then proceed to do 3-4 catastrophically dumb things in crunch time. They’ll need something miraculous like that blocked fg TD or a pair of pick sixes to overcome the true awfulness of their offense and Allar, not putting my money on that horse
I would like to bitch about the inevitable bevy of rematches that are in the near future of college football. Even before the expanded playoffs, you were getting teams playing twice a year (Oregon vs. Washington, Alabama vs. Georgia, Alabama vs. LSU, nearly Michigan vs. OSU, etc.) and it's going to get so much worse. In a sport with 134 teams and a maximum schedule of 16 games, it's so silly to play teams multiple times. It devalues rivalries like Michigan-OSU where individual games may not even "count" if the teams are set to play in the conference title game anyway. When I think of the expanded playoffs, I don't imagine cool, exciting matchups like LSU playing at OSU or Michigan at Clemson, I imagine Alabama playing Georgia for the umpteenth time followed by Penn State playing OSU in a rematch in the fuckin Peach Bowl, who carrreeesss
What weapons? By the time Penix is starting, Bijan will be on the downslope of his career, Pitts has been massively disappointing, and Drake London has just been ok his first two years. Even if Penix hits his relatively low ceiling, that franchise is so terribly managed right now.
I’ve grown more optimistic about May since he was hired (Medved was my top realistic choice), but we have no idea who he really is. He’s had one very successful year and one pretty good year back-to-back. It’s possible he’s an excellent coach and those teams were a culmination of his coaching acumen. It’s also possible that he’s a terrible coach who hit on a very successful group of players that all meshed together. Both of those scenarios have happened many times over in college basketball. I really think it’s best to have zero expectations (or at least aim for more than 8 wins) given how unpredictable the sport is in general, and especially now. A lot more data is needed before we have any idea of what we have on our hands
With NIL and unlimited transfers, there's absolutely zero reason to not have a top 15 nationally kicker on your roster when you're a program of Michigan's caliber. Grab a grad transfer, please and thank you
Texas also lost to an Oklahoma team that lost to Kansas, Oklahoma State, and Arizona. Texas will be very talented, but I’m not sold on Sark yet because I theorize that last year was a peak roster year for them (which it was for us too, but we made ours count)
The players aren’t broken, the coaches and culture are. Stroud is going to be the most successful Ohio State NFL QB ever and they wasted him because they couldn’t minimize his weaknesses and play to his strengths. You don’t think JTT or Sawyer would be in the NFL by now if they were at Michigan instead of Osu? If Hayden wants in, he’s a take
I would take him only because I like Edwards much more as a space player than a true running back. Mullings and Hayden would be a good 1-2 with Edwards doing Edwards things and the other RBs getting carries in garbage time
Can never have too many RBs, especially when you’re Michigan
- Purdue fans are annoying and I'm bitter about the Crisler takeover
- UConn fans are annoying and their absolutely dominant Final Four success rate (5 titles in 6 appearances before this season) makes me envious because Michigan's is terrible (1 title in 8 appearances including SIX runner-ups)
- I'll win my bracket pool if Purdue wins, will finish like 8th if UConn does
- Painter seems like a good dude and none of the Purdue players are aholes like a lot of college basketball
- I'm tired of MSU being the most recent Big Ten natty winner
In summary, probably leaning towards UConn still, but would be ok if Purdue wins
Love it. There was a douchebag at Wrestlemania 25 who wore a Terrelle Pryor OSU jersey front and center of the whole show so I’m glad revenge has been served 15 years later
I’m praying to God they were smart enough to include anti-Indiana contract language to dissuade him from going back to his alma mater if he’s successful here. Indiana will throw an absolute bag at him and he’ll be inclined to take it, so Michigan better cover their asses to keep from getting poached by a conference rival basketball school
When he transferred to OSU, every reporter said it was a genius move by Day because he would bring him in and convert him to guard so he didn't have to actually snap the ball.
Naturally, in the most Ryan Day move ever, he kept him at center and decided to blame the QB instead
Third DUI, he's done. Guy needs some help but is clearly a danger to himself and every person on the road. Should not be coaching football anywhere, let alone at Michigan.
Brian, curious why Shaka is your top choice. I know the fanbase in general has a fairly negative perception of him, but my biggest red flag for him is his tourney resume. Since the Final Four run in 2011 (which I chalk up as being unprepared for VCU's Havoc defense), he hasn't won more than a single game per NCAA tournament in 13 seasons. Unless you subscribe to the idea that NCAA tournament runs are more or less random/draw-based and that the only thing you can control is having a consistently good team, I can't say I'm too enthused by that resume. Beilein had Elite 8 and Sweet 16 runs before coming to Michigan, and it's clear that man is an EXCELLENT tournament coach.
Should more value be placed on post-season success than regular season consistency? I wouldn't trade any of Beilein's tournament runs for the entire tenure of Matt Painter for that very reason. With this criteria, my #1 pick is Otzelberger, who has already made a Sweet 16 and looks primed to get at least that far this season, too. Medved and Schertz seem like decent backup plans to buy a lotto ticket on.
What does Michigan offer that Alabama doesn't? You have unlimited resources, zero academic or character restrictions (his star player was the accomplice of a murder), and you play in the easiest major conference in basketball. Even if he did come, I think he would be a terrible fit for the aforementioned reasons.
No hate for the players, who have been given an untenable situation, but time to clean house. Now that Sanderson is gone, I can say without a doubt that nobody currently involved with the men's basketball program should be associated with the program next year. Next year is going to be ass regardless, at least build towards something fun to watch
Allow me to summarize the average game experience with theoretical additions of Love and/or Shannon: hero-ball garbage with awful defense, an insane amount of turnovers, and very few adjustments for when teams figure out how to stop our offensive “gameplan.”
The only thing we’re missing out in is an extra 3-4 wins from hero-ball variance when they shoot 8-10 from 3 or something (nobody on the team currently is talented enough or well coached enough to do this). Otherwise, the experience is absolutely identical to what we have now
It's one thing to be bad (and this team may be the worst we've ever had) but it's an even greater sin to be just plain boring. Beilein had some bad teams, God knows Michigan football in the 2010's had some bad, bad teams. But there was at least SOME entertainment value. This team isn't fun to watch. The players looks miserable, they play miserable, the most exciting player is Dug, and he's probably the 9th best starting PG of the last 10 Michigan point guards. The program needs to be turned over entirely, which is a damn shame to waste all of the good Beilein did for this program for over a decade; totally trashed in the span of 5 years
There are never 12 teams “good enough” to be considered in the running for best team in college football. Hell, before the last two seasons, you couldn’t even make an argument that there were 4 teams good enough to be considered.
The right number is probably 6 or 8. Large enough that everyone gets “a chance” and every conference is represented but not too big that we have to waste time watching a Bama-BYU game or an Ohio State-Miami Florida game in Columbus in January. Those games are just superfluous fluff
How they expect this to play out: “Nice, now good teams like Penn State won’t be punished for losing two games to the two best teams in the country!”
How it will play out:
*10-2 Iowa makes the playoffs with their best wins being a 2 point road win at Minnesota and a 6-3 home win vs. Wisconsin and their two losses being by a combined score of 84-6 vs. Michigan and Oregon*
What games has Day won that he wasn’t supposed to? Maybe they were an underdog vs. Clemson in 2019 (Urban’s team with Justin Fields)? Other than that, I’m counting four upset losses (Oregon, Michigan twice, Missouri) and two losses as underdogs (Michigan 2023 and Georgia) with no upset wins. The dictionary definition of doing the bare minimum with what you have
My guy, I have watched more Michigan basketball this season than any consenting adult should. Giving up open looks and missing box outs vs. Purdue is one thing, but don’t pretend they haven’t done the exact same song and dance vs. Long Beach State, McNeese, etc. for the last three years. Unless Juwan is making a conscience decision to tell his guys to never box out and leave open shooters against every team, I would say there’s plenty of evidence the team is poorly coached
Our most recent home game against every single Big Ten team? A win
Our most recent road game against every single Big Ten team? A win (READ THAT AGAIN, THAT IS INSANE)
Thank God they're adding some new blood so we can have some new challenges. Haven't won in Seattle in 54 years, have never won in Eugene, haven't won in LA in nearly 70 years, and haven't won a game at the Rose Bowl in nearly two months!
Recent Comments
I hate their athletic programs and their fans
I don't care about their academics or students
2016 finishing 10th is fucking brutal. 3 games lost right at the end and no hardware to show for it. They were not a national-title level team because of the offense, but that should have been Harbaugh's first playoff team
Uhhhh maybe 2026 but this is a peak roster year for the defense, they’re going to be brand new in 2025
Is this supposed to be plays that are designed as run or pass or plays that RESULT in run/pass? Because my hunch is that Auburn and Bama had many more plays that ended up in scrambles because of their mobile QBs and bad O-lines, which skews the run/pass ratio towards run even though they were "called" as pass plays
Heartbreaking, many positive memories of him and was a pillar to building the program back up. Thoughts with his friends and family
Speaking of which, does Michigan really play only 6 home games in 2025? That’s a joke
I ain't no fancy mathematician, but the number 7 seems different than the numbers 10 and 11, I reckon
Oregon will be a very big test. Penn State is Penn State. They’ll hang around and feel like they have a chance, and then proceed to do 3-4 catastrophically dumb things in crunch time. They’ll need something miraculous like that blocked fg TD or a pair of pick sixes to overcome the true awfulness of their offense and Allar, not putting my money on that horse
I would like to bitch about the inevitable bevy of rematches that are in the near future of college football. Even before the expanded playoffs, you were getting teams playing twice a year (Oregon vs. Washington, Alabama vs. Georgia, Alabama vs. LSU, nearly Michigan vs. OSU, etc.) and it's going to get so much worse. In a sport with 134 teams and a maximum schedule of 16 games, it's so silly to play teams multiple times. It devalues rivalries like Michigan-OSU where individual games may not even "count" if the teams are set to play in the conference title game anyway. When I think of the expanded playoffs, I don't imagine cool, exciting matchups like LSU playing at OSU or Michigan at Clemson, I imagine Alabama playing Georgia for the umpteenth time followed by Penn State playing OSU in a rematch in the fuckin Peach Bowl, who carrreeesss
10-4 Iowa with THREE SHUTOUT LOSSES, truly an unforgettable era of ineptitude
God, I miss this man so much already
What weapons? By the time Penix is starting, Bijan will be on the downslope of his career, Pitts has been massively disappointing, and Drake London has just been ok his first two years. Even if Penix hits his relatively low ceiling, that franchise is so terribly managed right now.
“Considering who the coach is”
I’ve grown more optimistic about May since he was hired (Medved was my top realistic choice), but we have no idea who he really is. He’s had one very successful year and one pretty good year back-to-back. It’s possible he’s an excellent coach and those teams were a culmination of his coaching acumen. It’s also possible that he’s a terrible coach who hit on a very successful group of players that all meshed together. Both of those scenarios have happened many times over in college basketball. I really think it’s best to have zero expectations (or at least aim for more than 8 wins) given how unpredictable the sport is in general, and especially now. A lot more data is needed before we have any idea of what we have on our hands
With NIL and unlimited transfers, there's absolutely zero reason to not have a top 15 nationally kicker on your roster when you're a program of Michigan's caliber. Grab a grad transfer, please and thank you
Texas also lost to an Oklahoma team that lost to Kansas, Oklahoma State, and Arizona. Texas will be very talented, but I’m not sold on Sark yet because I theorize that last year was a peak roster year for them (which it was for us too, but we made ours count)
His schtick doesn't work in college
Who could possibly have it better than us?
To be fair, there is a Lebanon, Ohio so maybe it felt more like home
Michigan football didn't lose to Seton Hall this year, though, did they?
The players aren’t broken, the coaches and culture are. Stroud is going to be the most successful Ohio State NFL QB ever and they wasted him because they couldn’t minimize his weaknesses and play to his strengths. You don’t think JTT or Sawyer would be in the NFL by now if they were at Michigan instead of Osu? If Hayden wants in, he’s a take
I would take him only because I like Edwards much more as a space player than a true running back. Mullings and Hayden would be a good 1-2 with Edwards doing Edwards things and the other RBs getting carries in garbage time
Can never have too many RBs, especially when you’re Michigan
Pulled in a lot of directions here:
- Purdue fans are annoying and I'm bitter about the Crisler takeover
- UConn fans are annoying and their absolutely dominant Final Four success rate (5 titles in 6 appearances before this season) makes me envious because Michigan's is terrible (1 title in 8 appearances including SIX runner-ups)
- I'll win my bracket pool if Purdue wins, will finish like 8th if UConn does
- Painter seems like a good dude and none of the Purdue players are aholes like a lot of college basketball
- I'm tired of MSU being the most recent Big Ten natty winner
In summary, probably leaning towards UConn still, but would be ok if Purdue wins
Love it. There was a douchebag at Wrestlemania 25 who wore a Terrelle Pryor OSU jersey front and center of the whole show so I’m glad revenge has been served 15 years later
This is Steven Threet and Nick Sheridan SLANDER
Russell Bellomy couldn't hold a candle to those two legends
I mean Zinter missed the three most important games of the season due to injury
I’m praying to God they were smart enough to include anti-Indiana contract language to dissuade him from going back to his alma mater if he’s successful here. Indiana will throw an absolute bag at him and he’ll be inclined to take it, so Michigan better cover their asses to keep from getting poached by a conference rival basketball school
When he transferred to OSU, every reporter said it was a genius move by Day because he would bring him in and convert him to guard so he didn't have to actually snap the ball.
Naturally, in the most Ryan Day move ever, he kept him at center and decided to blame the QB instead
It's weird, but you kinda want your top choice(s) to go out early. A deep run increases chances of contract extensions
Third DUI. Way past the point of forgiveness
Third DUI, he's done. Guy needs some help but is clearly a danger to himself and every person on the road. Should not be coaching football anywhere, let alone at Michigan.
Virginia has just been ACC Wisconsin except they won their national title whereas Wisconsin blew it. Their games are so hard to watch
Brian, curious why Shaka is your top choice. I know the fanbase in general has a fairly negative perception of him, but my biggest red flag for him is his tourney resume. Since the Final Four run in 2011 (which I chalk up as being unprepared for VCU's Havoc defense), he hasn't won more than a single game per NCAA tournament in 13 seasons. Unless you subscribe to the idea that NCAA tournament runs are more or less random/draw-based and that the only thing you can control is having a consistently good team, I can't say I'm too enthused by that resume. Beilein had Elite 8 and Sweet 16 runs before coming to Michigan, and it's clear that man is an EXCELLENT tournament coach.
Should more value be placed on post-season success than regular season consistency? I wouldn't trade any of Beilein's tournament runs for the entire tenure of Matt Painter for that very reason. With this criteria, my #1 pick is Otzelberger, who has already made a Sweet 16 and looks primed to get at least that far this season, too. Medved and Schertz seem like decent backup plans to buy a lotto ticket on.
The goal of college basketball is to win a national championship, not have weird hair and lose in the first weekend every season
What does Michigan offer that Alabama doesn't? You have unlimited resources, zero academic or character restrictions (his star player was the accomplice of a murder), and you play in the easiest major conference in basketball. Even if he did come, I think he would be a terrible fit for the aforementioned reasons.
No hate for the players, who have been given an untenable situation, but time to clean house. Now that Sanderson is gone, I can say without a doubt that nobody currently involved with the men's basketball program should be associated with the program next year. Next year is going to be ass regardless, at least build towards something fun to watch
…
Michigan kid creators?
Giggity
I miss Jim :(
I don't "believe" in karma, but it felt cosmically justified that Trouble with the Snap went one way and Jake Thaw went the other way
I'm happy with that deal with the universe
Which game do you think was lacking in splash plays?
OSU game had:
- Corum TD run after Zinter injury
- Edwards RB pass
- Roman TD
- Will Johnson INT
- Rod Moore INT
- Quinten Johnson murder hit
- Sainristil murder hit
Title game had:
- Edwards TD run 1
- Edwards TD run 2
- Will Johnson INT
- Kenneth Grant eats the team
- Take us home, Blake
- Sainristil INT
- Loveland long catch
If the Orji in the endzone vs Staee isn't #1, we riot
Troy Smith, TP, Braxton Miller (kinda), JOE BURROW, Justin Fields, Stroud, and McCord never won a national title for OSU
You know who won a national title for Michigan? JJ fuckin McCarthy
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard
They've had all the talent in the world but their culture is shit and that hasn't changed one bit.
Allow me to summarize the average game experience with theoretical additions of Love and/or Shannon: hero-ball garbage with awful defense, an insane amount of turnovers, and very few adjustments for when teams figure out how to stop our offensive “gameplan.”
The only thing we’re missing out in is an extra 3-4 wins from hero-ball variance when they shoot 8-10 from 3 or something (nobody on the team currently is talented enough or well coached enough to do this). Otherwise, the experience is absolutely identical to what we have now
Michigan basketball beat #11 Wisconsin this year (so close to full circle)
It's one thing to be bad (and this team may be the worst we've ever had) but it's an even greater sin to be just plain boring. Beilein had some bad teams, God knows Michigan football in the 2010's had some bad, bad teams. But there was at least SOME entertainment value. This team isn't fun to watch. The players looks miserable, they play miserable, the most exciting player is Dug, and he's probably the 9th best starting PG of the last 10 Michigan point guards. The program needs to be turned over entirely, which is a damn shame to waste all of the good Beilein did for this program for over a decade; totally trashed in the span of 5 years
There are never 12 teams “good enough” to be considered in the running for best team in college football. Hell, before the last two seasons, you couldn’t even make an argument that there were 4 teams good enough to be considered.
The right number is probably 6 or 8. Large enough that everyone gets “a chance” and every conference is represented but not too big that we have to waste time watching a Bama-BYU game or an Ohio State-Miami Florida game in Columbus in January. Those games are just superfluous fluff
How they expect this to play out: “Nice, now good teams like Penn State won’t be punished for losing two games to the two best teams in the country!”
How it will play out:
*10-2 Iowa makes the playoffs with their best wins being a 2 point road win at Minnesota and a 6-3 home win vs. Wisconsin and their two losses being by a combined score of 84-6 vs. Michigan and Oregon*
What games has Day won that he wasn’t supposed to? Maybe they were an underdog vs. Clemson in 2019 (Urban’s team with Justin Fields)? Other than that, I’m counting four upset losses (Oregon, Michigan twice, Missouri) and two losses as underdogs (Michigan 2023 and Georgia) with no upset wins. The dictionary definition of doing the bare minimum with what you have
My guy, I have watched more Michigan basketball this season than any consenting adult should. Giving up open looks and missing box outs vs. Purdue is one thing, but don’t pretend they haven’t done the exact same song and dance vs. Long Beach State, McNeese, etc. for the last three years. Unless Juwan is making a conscience decision to tell his guys to never box out and leave open shooters against every team, I would say there’s plenty of evidence the team is poorly coached
Our most recent home game against every single Big Ten team? A win
Our most recent road game against every single Big Ten team? A win (READ THAT AGAIN, THAT IS INSANE)
Thank God they're adding some new blood so we can have some new challenges. Haven't won in Seattle in 54 years, have never won in Eugene, haven't won in LA in nearly 70 years, and haven't won a game at the Rose Bowl in nearly two months!