mel tucker

SPONSOR NOTE: Trivia time! Leaderboard is here. Adam W maintains his #1 ranking with NeelV, mdmelvin, and jmer120 one point back. Round 4 is here and there are only 53 fans who've competed in all of them so don't be scared off if you haven't played yet. Complete by 5 PM Friday.

The State of our NIL. Deeply ironic that Michael Rosenberg is the one to write a story on Michigan's NIL program after the whole Freep investigation thing—which portrayed a series of minor envelope-pushes from Rodriguez as a program that was violating NCAA regulations on countable hours by a factor of three—but since he did and it has some insight into the murkiest thing in college football, link grudgingly deployed. Sounds like whatever deficiencies led Hunter Dickinson to Kansas don't apply to football:

[Corum] bought two rental properties in his home state of Virginia and invested in an apartment complex in Michigan to “make sure I have that cash flow coming in on a regular basis.” As he points out: “A lot of kids leave college, and they don’t have any money. They just have debt.”

Corum did not give out an exact number but asserted he is "in the 1%." And since NIL cannot be used as a recruiting inducement you get a lot of up front promises that are not backed by binding contracts. The result:

“I have a lot of friends from different schools and different programs where they’re getting promised money up front, whether it’s the [transfer] portal or in recruiting, and when they get to the program, they’re just not getting what they were told,” Keegan says. “That’s causing a lot of problems in other locker rooms.”

Corum says he has friends at other schools who tell similar stories: “They’d never signed anything, so therefore, they didn’t get it.”

Keegan says he made 50-70k between the Big Ten championship game and TCU and expects to bring in low to mid six figures this year. As a guard! Who is the second best guard on the team!

Also in the Blake Corum, perfect human files:

[Edwards and Corum] have done joint autograph signings and have talked about building low-income housing together someday.

Blake Corum may have opinions about downtown FAR premiums.

[After THE JUMP: Mel Tucker items.]

Now that's some good newspapering. Notre Dame, always losing to Notre Dame by 275.

This is some top tier transitive property thinking. https://t.co/UHhtDDYLWN pic.twitter.com/4DS3uNeUuh

— Sickos Committee (@SickosCommittee) June 2, 2023

Typical Notre Dame.

He's probably thinking about his roster. Excellent candid shot from a Harbaugh coaching clinic appearance:

Jim Harbaugh spoke at the National College Showcase Camp at Wayne State University before hundreds of prospects (and a few of his fellow coaches): pic.twitter.com/uKeUUFuzMP

— Alejandro Zúñiga (@ByAZuniga) June 1, 2023

I also enjoy Bielema looking like a popular meme cat from a decade ago.

There are memes old enough to be Baby Gronk, if you want to feel old. Please do not google Baby Gronk if you have never heard of him, you will die and not be allowed into heaven.

[AFTER THE JUMP: Otaku Kris Jenkins?] 

Previously: MSU Offense

After bringing you the MSU offense yesterday, we return with the defensive side of the football. The Spartan defense has been much maligned after being brutalized for the first four weeks of power five competition, but they are coming off a much better showing versus Wisconsin.

The Film: Though Wisconsin is the worst P5 offense that MSU has played, they are also the only P5 offense MSU has played with their two stars from last season, S Xavier Henderson and DT Jacob Slade, healthy. That left me handcuffed and forced to pick the Badgers as the team to chart, even if their QB is broken and their offense is a pitiful husk of a dinosaur so bad it got the coach fired. Therefore, I will be resorting to using some clips from games against functional passing offenses to get to the bottom of MSU's pass defense, but the charting data applies to Wisconsin. 

Personnel: Click for big or here for PDF.

[IF YOU ARE AN MSU FAN, PLEASE CLICK HERE].

Michigan State has mixed in a lot of bodies on the defensive line because injuries have rocked this group. Transfer EDGE Khris Bogle went down with injury, as did pseudo-returning EDGE starter Jeff Pietrowski. Both may or may not be back this weekend against Michigan, following MSU's bye week. In their place, youngster Zion Young and the more veteran Brandon Wright have stepped in as the nominal starters, but they're both rotating in and out. Michael Fletcher is in the mix, as was Avery Dunn, before he, too, encountered injury. If Bogle and/or Pietrowski return, then you can toss them in the bucket. Jacoby Windmon, who we will return to at the LB position, was an EDGE earlier in the year before sliding to the second level against Wisconsin. 

DT is the strength of the defense for what feels like the 19th straight season, despite the absence of Jacob Slade. He's back from injury, having returned for his first P5 game against Wisconsin, and after another two weeks to rest up, Slade should be back to full strength. Slade was the Dangerman last year and I'm keeping him there this season. MSU's other DTs besides Slade are not horrible either. They sorely missed Slade, but they have a stable of solid players. Derrick Harmon is the starter and he impressed me against Wisconsin. Simeon Barrow ain't a bad player either. I'm less enthusiastic about Deshaun Mallory, Jalen Hunt, or Maverick Hansen this season, but the fact I can tell you about the 6th DT on the depth chart tells you the trust MSU's coaches have in this whole group to rotate them in. If Slade is 100%, I would expect less rotation against Michigan. 

The LB level sees the return of Cal Haladay, an old-fashioned LB who eschews gloves for his dirt-stained knuckles. Haladay was a starter last season as RS Fr but has concerningly taken a step backwards. He's still a bit of an issue in coverage but the run defense that he was pretty strong at last season has regressed. Next to him is the aforementioned UNLV transfer Windmon, who started the season on a tear as an EDGE against such teams as WMU and Akron but cooled off some against P5 competition before shifting to LB. I thought he was alright against Wisconsin; PFF still loves Windmon, but we opted against the star given the position switch and everything else. Aaron Brule is the SAM that they used against a beefy team like Wisconsin, a Mississippi State transfer who also has a nose for pass-rushing. If anyone needs relief it will come in the form of Old Friend/New Enemy Ben VanSumeren, who got some run as a starter before they moved Windmon to LB, which was perhaps done to get BVS off the field. 

At corner, welp. There is still a parade of transfers and that is not a good thing. Georgia transfer Ameer Speed (our name of the week winner) has not solved the problem that existed last season and none of the returners have gotten better. Charles Brantley was mostly a reserve last season but has gotten a promotion to starter thanks to the demotion of Florida transfer Chester Kimbrough, who was disappeared after an abhorrent effort against Washington. He resurfaced for six snaps against OSU but has otherwise been missing in B1G play. Alabama transfer Ronald Williams, last year's #1 corner, is also still around but has been riding the pine, rotating in occasionally. D2 transfer Kendell Brooks from North Greenville University has also gotten in the rotation and he, like everyone else here, can't cover anybody. Brantley and Speed are the every-down starters. 

When they play in a 4-2-5, the nickel/HSP appears to be Tr Fr Dillon Tatum, who ascended to a regular job for the first time this season with 34 snaps against Wisconsin. Brooks has suited up at the safety level as well, and they can play any of the two normal safeties here too. The season-ending injury to Darius Snow seriously derailed the plans for this position. The main starters are FS Xavier Henderson and Angelo Grose, both of whom are (surprise!) better against the run than in coverage. Henderson was a star of this defense last year and retains his star as a result, having missed significant time with injury. Grose has not been good but avoided the cyan, with problems in coverage as the main issue. Jaden Mangham got time in Henderson's absence, while Tate Hallock is also listed on the depth chart in the two-deep here. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Too many open receivers that Wisconsin refused to throw to]