MGoPodcast 15.21: It Was Sainristil All Along
1 hour and 47 minutes
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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]
2. 2024 Defensive Line and 2024 Linebackers
Starts at 31:56
The defense only lost Keon Sabb to the portal, they look just as loaded this year as last year but without the ability to roll out nine defensive linemen. This should be Derrick Moore’s blowup year. Josiah Stewart came on in a big way after struggling a bit the first half of the season. Is it time for TJ Guy to get some serious snaps? Will he become “TJ Dude”?? Brian’s head almost explodes trying to talk about the defensive tackles. Mason Graham will be the best defensive tackle in the country and should be a 99 in NCAA 25. And then the other guy is KENNETH GRANT. Trey Pierce looked fine as a true freshman but not much you can tell about him yet. It should be the best defensive line in the country, just need 3rd string depth. Linebackers lose Barrett and Colson and is a little more up inI the air. Hausmann was a good rotational piece, Rolder looked like a player as a true freshman but was rough against Ohio State. Jaishawn Barham comes in from Maryland and is a good run stuffer. These three are the makings of a good linebacker corps.
3. Hot Takes and 2024 Secondary
Starts at 54:48
Takes hotter than JJ McCarthy's draft stock. Will Johnson will be the highest graded player in NCAA 25 (unless you use The Seth Roster, then it will be Mason Graham). He’ll basically be Charles Woodson. The safeties look stacked and apparently Michigan is looking to get Quinten Johnson back. Makari Paige started in 2020, Rod Moore started in 2021, they’ll be fine. Once again, the biggest question mark is the second cornerback. Also for as amazing as Mike Sainristil was, we might still be underrating him because he was the glue. Whoever you insert at the second corner spot is going to be the least experienced corner on the field and they’ll be replacing the most experienced corner in Josh Wallace. Will they go to the post spring roster and pick up another corner again? They’ll still be one of the best defenses in America. Martindale will be a drop off because Minter was running coverages Marvin Harrison had never seen before but it shouldn’t be a major drop off. Seth is Brian’s Mike Hart. It’s an Alex Drain-ass coaching staff (Alex if you’re reading this, Brian’s words. Not mine).
4. Hockey at Minnesota
Starts at 1:29:36
Michigan splits with Minnesota but there's chaos on the college hockey bubble. Michigan moves up from 14th to 13 in Pairwise and Pairwise Predictor has them at 69% in. In game 2, Michigan goes up 3-0 in the first period and ends up winning in OT. Michigan's goalie looked great in the first two periods of this game but gave up 5 goals in the 3rd. When things start to go wrong, everything spirals out of control. Is this team on par for what we expected them to be this year? Kind of.
MUSIC:
- "Higher" cover — Randy and Jason Sklar
- “It Was Agatha All Along" — Kristen-Anderson Lopez
- “Rich Baby Daddy”— Drake, Sexyy Red, SZA
- “Across 110th Street”
THE USUAL LINKS:
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct Download Link
- What's with the theme music?
"He's been in Tennessee, he could've impregnated a raccoon, we don't know. We gotta check."
Apparently Warde is good with speaking to people
Except Jim Harbaugh?
To be fair, the best administrator on the planet would probably also be bad at that given everything we know about Harbaugh. Don't get me wrong though, Warde is still mid at best.
Because it's Harbaugh.
I'll say it again, because for various obvious reasons Brian can't: Harbaugh is neurodiverse, almost certainly autistic.
Warde's smooth-talking schtick is apparently very effective on inflated egos like the Regents, Tony Pettiti, and CFP Committee, but it has the exact opposite effect on autistics. We're practically allergic to bullshitters. Harbaugh wants to see mettle, not honey on a forked tongue.
That's not to say it's impossible to get along with Harbaugh. Lots of people love him. But you have to drop the bullshit, which is impossible for someone who is entirely made of bullshit.
I've met Warde several times, once when he was himself. The persona he has for the public is not the one he has with players, and presumably not with Jim Harbaugh. The old football player is still very much there. I think Warde is uncomfortable making decisions, but I don't think he's an empty suit at all. He's a real person who has to pretend to be a suit.
I’ve also met him several times, and reached the exact opposite conclusion.
That typically happens when someone has no idea who they actually are and so they’re just everyone.
In other words, he’s the exact opposite of Harbaugh.
Some leaders don’t act until there’s literally no other choice. They let things drift and drift and drift until they’re forced into the one SINGLE path remaining to them.
That’s only a good strategy if 1) you think you’ll get fired for proactively doing something, or 2) you’re a character in the Foundation novels.
Organizations change in one of two ways: 1) strong leadership, or 2) crisis.
Looks like Warde is waiting for a crisis before he changes anything. That’s just great. Great strategy Warde.
+1 for bringing the Foundation reference out of left field and having it be 100% spot on.
I didn't know Hari Seldon was an alum.
Towards the end of the season, I debated which Star Wars bounty hunter best represented Michigan State. It was Bossk.
I’m a very consistent person lol
Some *people* don't act until there's literally no other choice.
Leaders make decisions they're confident in before it gets that far.
Wait, so losing Jim Harbaugh and all the BS that went at the football program last year and basketball being a dumpster fire on and off the court don't count as crisis'? What does for a sports AD then?
I wouldn't characterize losing Harbaugh the same as basketball's death spiral. No college football coach anywhere in the country would have turned down an NFL offer this off-season. That's baked into the general chaos level of CFB at the moment. "Losing" Harbaugh was the cost of being elite; teams who retained their coaches only did so because those coaches weren't in demand.
Absent a leader, organizations change through crisis.
Twits like Warde Manuel don't act until they literally have no choice.
They're not mutually exclusive. It's possible to sit through a crisis like the "this is fine" dog if circumstances make that an option (albeit a horrible one).
Basically Manuel won't do anything unless his career is threatened. And his career is not threatened.
I think the problem here is that Warde Manuel can't recognize that a crisis is underway.
More like he doesn't care.
He doesn't act in the interests of the University; Manuel is all about Manuel. Losing Harbaugh, for example, was terrible for UofM but it was great for Manuel getting all buddy-buddy with Pettiti and the CFP.
What's a crisis to him and a crisis to us are two different things. Like most "leaders" in this country, he'd happily burn the entire Athletic Department to the ground if it got him to greener pastures. And considering how much the B1G and NCAA loathe Michigan, there's opportunity in being a saboteur, so that's precisely what he's doing.
Now, the Regents should be all over him for that, but he's apparently good at slobbering their knobs.
Hockey nearly fell victim to the 3-goal-lead-trap... again.
Clearly the answer is to stop trying to score further after taking a one-goal lead.
The university can send me a check for this consultation fee.
I assume Graig Ross is related to Craig. Whoever he is, he's right; this is the worst basketball team since Bill Frieder's second season (7-20) when I was in high school.
(Odds that BlueBarron fixes the typo before I finish this and I look like a bigger idiot than I actually am: 50%.)
Graig has a black goatee and lives his life to thwart Craig.
BRB...creating a new spoof mgoblog account.
I have updated my 2024 MGoBlog music playlists with the songs from this episode - here are the links:
-
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/2024-mgoblog-music/pl.u-76bRptg9VE2
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Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6mqnQiv45tZOGYQjBRNLcP?si=04d75aefe8334ffc
Pro Blue!
"He's been in Tennessee, he could've impregnated a raccoon, we don't know. We gotta check."
Fine I'll ask the question everyone else is afraid to ask. Why was David sensitive about this joke?
I dont think he likes "blue" humor
Can anyone fill me in on the latest with Quinten Johnson?
I had thought he had declared and was gone for good. Apparently not the case?
I couldn't find any news searching around the blog or the Google.
Insider sites have said he's considering coming back. In the new age, declaring is not as settled as before, as college players are allowed to have agents in some fashion anyway, and paying back a couple months' worth of agent pay isn't as difficult.
If Warde wanted to actually be a leader in something, he should be out there promoting the idea of paying the players directly so that they can open up collective bargaining. It’s the only way to get some type of control over this Wild West bullshit going on right now.
But he won’t because he’s stuck in the 1980s.
I disagree. He's probably the most modern AD out there. He embodies everything about today's American executive: zero regard for duty, narcissistic opportunism, style over substance.
I'm baffled that people like this keep getting put in leadership roles, but I have an old-fashioned view of these things. The notion that someone should actually serve the job they were hired for is quaint. These days it's all about taking a gig to set up the next one.
I was recently listening to a news piece about narcissism and why many people who advance to leadership roles in politics and the business world have some aspects of narcissistic traits.
If more people understood the psychological and emotional divergencies which cause people to exhibit narcissistic traits, our society would be better equipped to address the internal deficiencies which often drive the behaviors.
I would think someone who has been publicly open about being nerudivergent would make less caustic comments about a segment of people.
No politics!
Reluctant upvote for speaking truth.
Boy was that Drake song at the end jarring...other than that, great episode per usual!
FYI, from what I've heard Saban calling his wife "Miss Terry" is a Southern thing in general and not just a Saban thing - in Alabama, "Miss ~" is an honoric for women of a certain age, and she's certainly universally adored in Tuscaloosa.
This is 100% correct. Born and raised in New Orleans and we always use Miss <insert first name here> as an honorific. I'm sure it's similar in Tuscaloosa.
You mean Tattaglia?
It was Barzini all along.
Tattaglia's a pimp!
But, I didn’t know until this day.
never thought i'd see a wandavision reference on mgoblog
Seriously? This pretty much seems like a good cross section of the WandaVision demographic...🤷♂️
Football season was the first six eps and MBB was the last two
Question about the new coaching staff. We have usually had two secondary coaches - CBs and Safeties. So far it seems like the guy from Louisiana is the only one, and by designating the ST coach as only that, there is no room for another DB coach. Jaybaugh would always lead the Special Teams AND (at least partially) coach a position: TE, RB or Safety.
I believe the new ST coach was basically shadowing Jay, and he'll do what Jay was doing (helping DBs along with ST work).
Nice back and forth hockey chatter
I'm more with David; as the team, despite all the injuries and meltdowns, should be comfortably in the NCAA tournament. Michigan hockey has given away maybe 6 wins?! If they land only half they are a 2 / 3 seed.
That said, I agree with Brian that this is the way the hockey puck bounces without greater analytics detail which will not happen for a long time for a niche sport like college hockey.
I don't understand the pro-Saban talk here. This coming from someone who has never hated Saban. In fact, I've always liked him for leaving MSU high and dry.
Saban had to preface his comments the other week with saying that he's not against players getting paid. He had to preface it with that because all of his other comments were, actually, about how players getting NIL has ruined the sport.
That doesn't make him wrong--player empowerment is hurting the sport--but it makes him morally wrong.
There's nothing in the rules preventing you from using the value of your school's diploma as a recruiting sales pitch. It's just not a very effective sales pitch. What is the NCAA supposed to do, legislate that you get an education? Guess what, they do. They also used to not allow people to go in the portal for any old reason at any old time. That was more fun for us fans, but not considered fair to the unpaid players.
All Nick is doing is saying "There must be a better way" without offering a real solution. In fact, he even added that he doesn't know the solution because it's very complicated and he's not an expert so smarter people will have to figure it out. Yeah, that's basically right and it's basically where we all are.
The system that exists where players are compensated for their services, bound to stay at certain programs via contracts, and that players give up certain rights through collective bargaining is what all professional sports are. That's "the better way." And we can't even make that happen with college kids because it's college and there are all kinds of laws getting in the way, plus the impact it will have on other sports.
No one has a solution. It will continue to be a mess.
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