It was a gamble, and Mike Danna knew it.
All things considered, Danna had it good. In three seasons at Central Michigan, he tallied 27.5 tackles for loss and 15 sacks. Nearly half of each came in his junior season in 2018, a year which ballooned his national profile.
Pro Football Focus graded him as the nation’s 22nd-best player in its preseason top 50 rankings — noting his 24.3 percent success rate on pass rushes in 2018 as the second-highest in the country.
Still, while Michigan’s quarterback depth is one of this team’s biggest strengths, that doesn’t justify using it on some milquetoast gimmicks. This is not a position in which an excess of quantity on the field generally translates to quality. Frankly, if there is a single important play this season in which Patterson isn’t under center, something has gone wrong or someone has erred.
The early returns? Some good, some bad and plenty to digest.
Still, Hastings knows what he saw that first bit of Black’s freshman year. He knows his capabilities. While he wishes he could have seen a full year in 2017, he expects big things this year.
This year, Eubanks’ redshirt junior season, also presents a chance for him to take that favoritism to another level. It’s his golden opportunity to translate his vast talent and athleticism into production — and he knows it.
I was at the doctor’s office the other day — stay with me here — and we started exchanging pleasantries. We got into school, what I was trying to do in a year (because no good conversation ends without some existential dread) and then Michigan football. It was then that he uttered a sentiment I’d heard dozens of times before.
This one’s make or break for Harbaugh, right?
It’s time to bring the phrase “run-pass option” — “RPO”, for short — into your football vocabulary, if it isn’t already. You should expect to hear it plenty on your television when the Michigan football season kicks off in just over a week.
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh fired back at Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell on Tuesday evening, after Fickell scolded Harbaugh for his role in the handling of tackle James Hudson’s transfer and immediate eligibility waiver.
Hudson, who transferred from Michigan to Cincinnati last October, was denied his petition for immediate eligibility after speaking out about his struggle with depression while at Michigan.
It must be August already, because fall camp is just starting to ramp up under the distinct whiff of optimism. The possibilities for the Michigan football team are endless and the hope, as it always does about this time, springs eternal.
The Michigan basketball program is entering a new era by harkening back to an old one.
Miami Heat assistant coach and former Fab Five star Juwan Howard has been hired to be the Wolverines’ next head coach, as first reported by Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports and officially confirmed by Michigan spokesman Tom Wywrot on Wednesday. Howard is set to replace John Beilein, who accepted a head coaching job with the Cleveland Cavaliers last Monday after 12 seasons in Ann Arbor. It will be a five-year deal, according to Jeff Goodman of Stadium.