sherrone moore

Earlier this week I put out a call on the internet for mailbag questions. Today I have answers: 

Higher 2024 (and 2024 - 2025) ceiling: UM football or UM basketball? (-zh2oson)

I feel like there are two different answers here, factual ceilings in an objective sports sense and fan enjoyment factor. The matter of fact ceiling is clearly still football, because the defense ought to be one of the very best in college football. That sets the floor pretty high and if the offense can be any degree of decent to good, Michigan is a top 10 team at worst, with even higher upside possible. Projecting men's basketball to be top 10 is extremely lofty, maybe a pie-in-the-sky scenario but one you don't think is likely due to how many new pieces are coming in and the likely growing pains. 

In a fan sense, I do think the upcoming basketball season could be more enjoyable than football, just because there's a fairly legitimate chance this will be the worst Michigan Football season since 2020 while it could be the best basketball season in a few years. Fan enjoyment of sports is often tied to the expectation game; an 8-4 season where you expected to go 11-1 is a miserable time while an 8-4 season when you expected to go 5-7 is a delight. Michigan Basketball being decent but not incredible could definitely be more enjoyable than Michigan Football being very good but not top five elite because one is coming off of 8-24 and the other is coming off of 15-0. 

Of all the football players who left for the NFL with eligibility remaining, who would you most want back? Where is your over/under for wins this year based on the turnover of the roster and coaching staff, the difficult schedule, and the holes on offense? (-AC1997) 

Going to take JJ out of the equation for the first question here because he's the no-brainer answer that needs no explanation. Beyond JJ, I think it's best to look at what areas of the team are a little weak right now. Corner could use depth but Josh Wallace and Mike Sainristil didn't have eligibility. DL depth is a little thin, but the starters are so good I don't think that one makes sense. The more pressing areas are at offensive tackle and wide receiver. Roman Wilson had eligibility remaining (Cornelius Johnson didn't), as did Trente Jones and Karsen Barnhart (Henderson didn't). Given Trente's recent retirement, I don't think we can pick him, so it comes down to Barnhart vs. Wilson. Between those two, you gotta pick Wilson because he was a significantly better football player. 

The Vegas lines put out this week had Michigan at 9.5. I think Michigan is clearly favored over Fresno, Arkansas St, Minnesota, @Illinois, MSU, @Indiana, and Northwestern, so that's 7. The remaining group is Texas, USC, and Washington at home, as well as Oregon and OSU on the road. Michigan is an underdog to me in the road games to me, probably favored over USC and Washington, and maybe a slight 'dog to Texas? I'd probably put the O/U at 8.5 personally, because I'm intrigued by USC and the trio of Texas/Oregon/Ohio State should be elite. Michigan will have a chance to beat all of them if they can put up a good offense, but I'm not entirely convinced at this point that that is going to come to pass. As it stands right now, I'm going with 8.5. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: More Questions]

1 hour and 47 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together.

1. Updated State of the Basketball Program and NFL Draft Stuff

Starts at 1:00

We’re not going to talk about basketball, but this is mostly a basketball segment. Discussing Sanderson’s departure from the program from Sanderson’s perspective. It’s unbelievable that Juwan didn’t get fired for this. Basketball standings are the Big Ten West’s revenge. There’s no reason to believe that Michigan will be good next year, teams that mainly use the portal have not been that great and Michigan probably won’t even fill the roster. This is year five, that’s on Juwan. If Juwan is retained, add it to the list of Warde Manual bag fumbles. Apparently Warde is good with speaking to people and managing non-revenue sports. Has he even had to make a hire in major sport? Sherrone Moore and Naurato were a given. Warde likes to just sit around and wait for whatever happens to happen. Even Craig Ross says this is one of the worst teams since he was in school. If Juwan gets fired it won’t be until the end of the season.
Do you enjoy watching the Combine? Dave does, Brian does not. The NFL draft will be fun to watch this year because there will be a lot of Michigan players getting drafted and every time they do there will be a lot of highlights of Ohio State getting dunked on. Mike Sainristil knew Washington’s plays because Mike Sainristil is football smart. It was Mikey all along!! According to scouts, all of Michigan’s offensive linemen are two years ahead of everyone else in terms of maturity. Cornelius Johnson tested out amazingly. He didn’t get a ton of targets but he bailed out JJ a lot, and that skill set will translate to the NFL. Blake Corum changed his skill set from speed back to inside guy based on what the team needed.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

1 hour and 44 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together.

1. The Final Coaching Staff

Starts at 1:00

Jack Tuttle has been approved for a 7th year, does this incentivize you to switch over your offense since he's so different from Orji? Whoever the quarterback is, they just need to have a Cade McNamara year. Sabb hitting the portal is sad. The coaching staff is final (other than what's up with Mike Hart). The average age of this coaching staff is too close to Alex Drain. The Tennessee message boards are like "RHWRRRGHREWRGRR". Things seem to be moving positively on the NIL front. Michigan is losing assistants at a higher rate because if you succeed at Michigan you go to the NFL. 

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]