Usual Links News Today

Things discussed: What are we looking for in a new QB coach? Brian: Harbaugh can be himself, need a recruiter. Seth: Shoot your shot because a superb OC/QB candidate, see if you can steal an arguably #1 person because they get a chance to run this machine. If you can't do that, grab Partridge and move Jay to QBs. Floor is still good, ceiling worth exploring. Jay Harbaugh Appreciation Hour: Funny how he's so much more like his uncle than his dad. Michigan on the bubble: Teams there are ...

Things discussed: Harbaugh returns. At this point they're probably close on an agreement and have recruiting to worry about. Broncos were definitely interested, but this is just a return to status quo from last year. Contract will matter. Harbaugh clearly has NFL interest still, also has interest in being paid like a top-5 coach for respect purposes. Not about respect though: Saban's contract, Day's contract, Mel's contract: they all say the same things, which is this guy is ...

Things discussed: Moving the Comerica Park fences: fine, but why do it AFTER Cabrera?! Blake Corum's return: Thank NIL that it's possible. Gonna be a Denard/Gardner/Braylon/Hart/Marlin whose name is etched in history. Jim Harbaugh's contract negotiation. Warde Manuel: Brian goes off. Sam clarifies it's a message board post that USA Today picked up on, and not everything in that contract negotiation timeline is correct. Seth: They're probably not arguing about the money b...

Things discussed: The Fiesta Bowl: Mistakes maximally punished—Michigan's game-swinging oopsies were worth two or three oopsies each, which turns the rest of the game into background noise. The rest of the game: Why does it take 3 quarters to get to McCarthy's legs? Why are we making the mistakes that defined the last month of college football? Why don't we keep throwing flea flickers? Break: Get back Corum? Harbaugh: Don't think it's coming from Harbaugh but from the ...

EVENT NOTICE: I had to cancel my trip to Indianapolis (Indy Alumni Club members, don't worry, they upgraded speakers!). So we're gonna all watch the game on Saturday night together at Venue. You can reserve a table now, and they're going to extend Happy Hour ($10 pitchers, half price cocktails) to anyone who mentions us. Menu here. Things discussed: Ohio State's hyper-aggressiveness on defense led to a high success rate and five easy touchdowns. Oh, Michigan just made five pl...

Things discussed: The Rutgers game: Is the passing game coming along? Defense: just a handful of breakdowns and a grind down. Need more help from the WRs. Running games are more consistent than long passing games; low-variance option getting 7 ypa is going to hold up better than 2 long pass plays on 3rd and long. Rutgers had a good gameplan. Donovan Edwards had a game. He's rounding into a star now. Vision is great, receiving is A+ for a receiver. Needs to get to be 75% of Corum as a pass b...

Things discussed: The Tunnel Assault: Michigan State has a program-wide culture problem and it's not going to change. Their media ecosphere is out there right now playing down this assault, waving it away as just 4 then 8 players, both-sidesing it, even valorizing it. They're taking their cues from the program. If you're a Michigan State fan, and you think what happened in the tunnel was wrong—and yes they are out there even if they're not being heard because that's no...

Things discussed: Respect for MSU's academics and history. Respect for MSU's performance at the 1 yard line. Respect for MSU's performance on 4th and 6. Respect for Jacob Slade and Xavier Henderson, who came back vs Wisconsin. Respect for Jayden Reed. They're not moving the ball with him regularly though. More that they're good at lobbing it up. Disrespect for Wisconsin. Respect for the weatherman, who says it will be good throwin' weather. Disrespect for Michigan&#...

Things discussed: Craig opens the door for Seth to go off on stuff you can read about on the John Hawks blog. Iowa's offense isn't caveman, it's an Australopithecus that evolved in a different direction. It's ugly football, but Michigan was correct to turtle into 1950s football and run out the clock. Seth: Makes a big difference that they scored some touchdowns. The first time Iowa walked down and tried to sell out against something they get gutted by the Ronnie Bell end-arou...

Things discussed: Offense: Let's talk about the tight ends! Putting three of them out there overwhelmed Maryland's size. They're spilling so when they run out of guys it's Corum versus a cornerback. Weird looks: pulling tackles messes with your keys. Duo with a counter step looks like Split is coming. McCarthy: A few bad throws, his footwork might be at fault for overthrows, Maryland used new coverages. OL did fine—don't know what PFF is doing to grade that. Extrapolat...