Michigan Football, Team 139, 2018 Season

[Jeff Buchanan]

First ..... M is 3d into spring practice and very little is being said about that or M football in general. I think having the spotlight off M football is a very good thing right now. Leave JH and the team alone. There is no doubt lots of things are changing on offense.

With that having been said, the link below is a decent dissection of what Harbaugh said in his Friday presser about how plays would be called in 2018. There was almost uniform criticism and doubt about the effectiveness of this so called collaborative play calling process that Harbaugh used in 2017.

The results of that process (points per game M ranked 95th nationally) were laughable if the comments from opposing defenses made during the season are to be considered. So, we want change ....... probably not going to happen although the faces will be different (Drevno, Hamilton, Harbaugh in 2017, Warinner, McElwain, ???Hamilton, Harbaugh in 2018).

Apparently, this controversial subject and how it will be done in 2018 is still under consideration.

http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2018/03/jim_harbaugh_no_decision_yet_o_1.html#incart_river_index

[Jeff Buchanan]

Speight may still be in the mix. He graduates in May. Reportedly he's looking around for a program that needs a starting QB as a grad-transfer but Harbaugh, when asked, said all options are still on the table for him.

My take is that if Patterson is ineligible, Speight will be a prime candidate to compete for the starting QB job at M and if Peters performance in 2017 is an indicator, Speight will win it.

https://www.landof10.com/michigan/wilton-speight-michigan-football-return-jim-harbaugh-quarterbacks

[iam416]

I’m just going to assume that the tl;dr take is HARBAUGH!!!!

[Jeff Buchanan]

You didn't miss anything.

I think Speight's return to a spot in M's program as a grad something has been percolating for 6 months.

I would not be surprised if he stays at M in some capacity. He's not likely to get a P5 offer. It would be interesting to know if he's applied to M's grad programs???

[iam416]

It's looking more and more like the O/U for M's season win total should be 11' -- regular season only, of course. If they were playing in the SEC West I'd put it at 12' -- with it a very real possibility that HARBAUGH!!!! could figure out how to go 13-(-1) against the Treasonous Conquered People of the Cinder Block Tires.

[THE_WIZARD_]

lucid

[Jeff Buchanan]

I missed this last week but Ol' Miss has responded to the NCAA re Patterson's request for immediate eligibility at M. The content of the response has not been released. Apparently, Sam Web has information that the Ol' Miss response is supportive of the request. To what degree is not known because that info is pay-walled.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/2018/03/28/lawyer-ole-miss-files-response-patterson-request/33370227/

Drevno's departure was probably an act of seppuku. He got three months salary ($250k) in exchange for his silence and quit claims. It appears M was released from any obligations under the $1M/y contract he signed in January 2017 by taking another position as RB coach at USC.

http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/index.ssf/2018/03/michigan_paid_former_oc_tim_dr_1.html#incart_river_index

[Jeff Buchanan]

Some discussion today at mgoboard about the Ol' Miss position on Patterson, et. al.

Seems Ol' Miss is going to fight the immediate eligibility request from Patterson and I assume the other 6 transfers. Nobody talking about this has seen M's request to the NCAA or the response from Ol' Miss to the NCAA.

The gist of Ol' Miss's circumstance is that they are already fighting the NCAA findings in the Freeze case and the penalties based on those findings levied by the NCAA. They can't very well say, yeah, we fucked over recruits because people doing our recruiting lied to them and all the shit we were accused of is actually true ....... Well, it damn well is true as far as I know and based on the evidence of violations that's out there in the public domain. They will lose that argument as far as I can tell..... except, well, the NCAA.

However, even though that fight is not likely going to get resolved before the start of the 2017 season, the pressure is going to be on the NCAA to rule one way or the other on the immediate eligibility thing.

I cannot imagine the NCAA ruling in favor of immediate eligibility in the case of the 6 guys requesting it without first making a determination as to whether or not O'l Miss is guilty of the violations that the NCAA charged them with. So, I see a possibility of ruling against Patterson that is higher today than it was last week. OK, I'll guess we'll screw the student athletes to protect the NCAA, Ol' Miss and the process (face palm).

You may also read that M's legal team handling this case may not have expected Ol' Miss's response and may not have presented the strongest case to the NCAA although Patterson's Lawyer said that M's legal team was presented with all the evidence and arguments they needed to potentially succeed with the appeal.

I'm not buying any of that. I can't imagine that the kind of detailed info needed about the case and specific documents supporting it to make that call is out there. M naysayers though seem to be piling on this take.

[Jeff Buchanan]

..... continuing from above., everyone probably knows that the NCAA asked M to provide additional information after Ol' Miss submitted their response. We don't know what M responded to or how they responded but the attorney for the 6 guys requesting eligibility in 2018 seems to be sanguine about the situation.

Brian provides a well supported argument in favor of Patterson being granted eligibility by the NCAA while a lot of negativism has been floating around.

http://mgoblog.com/

[Hannibal]

When in doubt, default to the prediction that has us getting screwed and/or the SEC winning. It's a model that predicts outcomes pretty much flawlessly

[Jeff Buchanan]

Also, Ben Mason (Sophomore FB also playing LB) has a tear in his meniscus and will have surgery to repair it. Remember JTB had a similar injury, had it surgically repaired and a week later played. Put this in the nothing-burger category.

[UMStan White]

"When in doubt, default to the prediction that has us getting screwed and/or the SEC winning. It's a model that predicts outcomes pretty much flawlessly"

Occam's razor

[Hannibal]

Spring game is cancelled. Meh. Insert shoulder shrug.

I wonder if you'll ever see OSU cancel their spring game.

[AlabamAlum]

Speight to UCLA? Is the Patterson xfer official? (Haven't kept up with it).

[hack]

I hope that's what it means, but, as far as any of us know, not yet.