Scheduling Note: I popped back from a gnarly flu to discover I'm the only able person standing to care for a house full of people with the flu. Defense UFR will have to wait until next week, sorry.

Event Note: Saturday night we're watching the game at Venue (where Lucky's used to be, and where the MGoPodcast now records). You can reserve a table or squeeze in—our guests get Happy Hour pricing. Here's the menu.

Blake Corum had surgery. We already guessed Michigan is probably going to be without Corum on Saturday, given it didn't work out against Ohio State, and the Great and Official Big Ten Championship Game doesn't hold a candle to the de facto one. Whether he's done for the year is a lot less clear, and currently the subject of an online battle between Michigan insiders and [checks notes] an the NFL guy.

I interpret this to mean Corum had a simple scope and was told six weeks, which to some people means "that's after the season's over" and to others means "if Michigan's playing for the national championship and it's a week early I wouldn't count him out." Both are reasonable.

Mazi Smith had a gun, the internet had a fit.

[Patrick Barron]

Around 10am yesterday morning the Detroit Free Press broke the story that Smith was facing a felony weapon charge. The story didn't have any more than MiCOURT record, which at that moment showed the offense was a felony carrying concealed weapons charge on October 7, and the charge was filed on November 30. That was the full extent of information until Michigan put out a statement around 1PM saying they're aware but they're not suspending him.

Smith's arraignment was held (and streamed live) a little before 2PM, whence his attorney explained Smith was carrying his own gun and was in the process of attaining his license when he was pulled over. The judge gave him permission to leave the state to travel with his team and set his next hearing for December 8 over zoom. Via Josh Henschke($), Smith bought the gun himself, took all the training, and licensed it properly, but his application wasn't approved until a few days after the traffic stop.

Via his and my own source, Michigan expects the system to play out and for the charges to be dropped.

People wondered why it took the rest of October and all of November to issue the charge—EMU's Emoni Bates was issued two weapons charges (ultimately dropped) within a day of his arrest in September—but Washtenaw County Prosecuting Attorney Eli Savit told Angelique the "timeline for charging on this case was unremarkable."

"The incident involving Mr. Smith occurred on Oct. 7. He was not arrested at the scene, and we received a police report on Oct. 14. We approved the request for charges on Nov. 17, and the warrant was 'sworn out' before a magistrate this week. … If a defendant is in custody (arrested at the scene), we need to process cases faster, within 48 hours, and we have a separate queue set up to review in-custody cases. But when a defendant is not in custody, authorization of charges generally moves slower, and the timeline here was not remarkable."

So yeah, seems like there's not much to see here. That didn't stop certain deranged fans of recently disgraced athletics programs from going full CONSPIRACY!!!! on the office investigating the case of the 21-year-old who carried his gun before the wheels of the DMV turned, and the case of the team that cornered two opponents after a loss and beat the shit out of them:

The lesson here is if there isn't much information, wait for or go find more information. People hear "felony" and freak out, but anyone who isn't (like me) a naïve suburbanite who's never worked in the criminal justice system can tell you a "felony" gun charge in Michigan usually doesn't mean what you think it means. Bates had a family friend's gun with the serial number scratched off, and both of those charges were dropped. Seems like this will be as well.

[After THE JUMP: a little more roster news]

Good fit, let's not talk about their pass pro. Exit Cade McNamara to Iowa.

Be their Rudock. [Bryan Fuller]

It was inevitable after McCarthy won the battle of the nonconference schedule so weak Harbaugh literally used it to stage an official quarterback battle. It's also nice to see the former Michigan captain and Big Ten Champion go to a program that doesn't play Michigan, unless they meet in the conference title game again. This is the setup for what might be the most good-willed transfer away in college football history. Gonna be two whole stadiums rooting for the Hawks next year.

Hopefully the Hawkeyes can shore up their pass protection issues because he's a perfect fit for the kind offense Iowa should be running, as well as the one they actually run. He also might help them with that protection—Cade's superpower, at least before this year, is pre-snap reads and knowing where to put the ball safely. Speeding up the decision-making should take some pressure off the Iowa line and give them a chance to find someone other than a tight end.

Bigger than football. Purdue quarterback Aidan O'Connell found out his brother died before the Indiana game last week. Michigan fans spent Giving Tuesday firing the money cannon:

The group announced they'll be donating all the funds received to a charity of the O'Connell family's choosing. Aidan has been with his family since the end of last week's game so his status for the BTCG is unclear.

Today in people not appreciating Mikey Sainristil enough. End of regular season means awards roundup!

Someone in the media paid attention! [Barron]

Corum, Olu, Zinter, and the line as a whole were named 1st Team All-Big Ten. On defense & special teams, Mazi Smith, Mike Morris and Jake Moody were the honorees. The full list (coaches):

Michigan's honorable mentions were Karsen Barnhart, Gemon Green, Kris Jenkins, Mike Sainristil, Jaylen Harrell (media), Makari Paige (media), and Rod Moore (media). The media also moved Keegan, Hayes, Turner, and Colson down a notch, and dropped Barrett and Schoon to HM.

The only really glaring thing in there Mike Sainristil not getting the love—how anyone could watch The Game and decide an Ohio State safety goes on the list over Michigan's nickel is beyond me, and it's not like Sainristil wasn't playing at that level all year. The other thing that rankles is not giving Brad Robbins his due among the greatest punting class since the Big Ten claimed the play as its own. Olu also won the Big Ten's sportsmanship award. Corum was top back. Harbaugh was the coach of the year.

A bunch of players were named finalists for various national awards:

• Blake Corum is a finalist for the Doak, and probably the favorite.
• Moody was named to defend his Groza. By the way he leads the nation in scoring (131 points) and is 7 shy of Desmond Howard's school record.
• The reigning Joe Moore Award-winning OL is also a repeat finalist.
• Jesse Minter is a finalist for the Broyles Award after Harbaugh learned he can't nominate his strength coach. Minter's name is also one of those being considered by Cincinnati, since the name "Minter" carries there the way "Carr" might in A-town.
• Olu Oluwatimi is an Outland Finalist. The Rimington hasn't announce its circle yet but he's a lock for that too.
• Ronnie Bell is one of 15 for the Comeback Player of the Year. Mo Ibrahim and Michael Penix Jr. are on there too so don't get your hopes up.

Mason Graham and Will Johnson made PFF's Freshman All-America team. Also Blake Corum was their #1 RB with a 95.9 grade. Donovan Edwards was 8th. Former Wolverine Zach Charbonnet (4th) and former commit Eric Gray (7th) also made the top ten. Also in not-as-subjective things that PFF knows: Michigan's defense is #1 in the nation at tackling.

So obvious the Big Ten couldn't get it wrong either. The powers that be finished their investigations into the Spartan Tunnel Assault and unsurprisingly found the athletes who cornered and criminally assaulted two opponents in a tunnel responsible, not the tunnel. Washtenaw County announced a felony assault charge against Khary Crump, who was the player swinging his helmet at Green's head, and misdemeanor assault charges on six of the other seven players MSU suspended after the incident (the remaining player was reinstated).

MSU was fined $100,000, the largest ever levied by the conference, as a repeat offender. They upped the suspension for Crump to eight games into next year, and called the rest of MSU's now-served four-game suspension decisions appropriate. MSU also had a staffer tagged for sportsmanship, but did not name the staffer, calling his role "sufficiently addressed by Michigan State University." Since all of the named players but Crump had already served those suspensions, MSU immediately reinstated the players. Since they didn't make a bowl game, the matter's moot.

Michigan was dinged for a fan being able to touch Mel Tucker's head, as Warde Manuel explained in the report:

"We accept the Big Ten Conference’s findings in full. The conference office’s reprimand of U-M was in response to a fan making physical contact with the MSU coach - which is wholly unacceptable. The offender was quickly identified and swiftly ejected from the Stadium by our Event Team. In addition, to reduce the possibility of future incidents, we proactively implemented changes ahead of our final home game by increasing security personnel in areas around the playing surface. Security and procedural reviews will remain a constant focal point of future event planning and reviews.

This was enough for national headline writers to include Michigan among the disciplined, though at least on ringleader of MSU's manifest grievance culture recognized the difference between reprimand and punishment:

By "How those players ran in there" and "the two player that ran in there" he means Green and McBurrows. Izzo, the most recognizable person at the school, then referenced the last time MSU was fined for its football players attacking Michigan players--Dantonio's march. So no, I don't expect the culture to change soon. Izzo should get a reprimand though.

The seven players facing charges met the court this week. Washtenaw County justice tends to go heavy on the charges and easy on the pleas, so I expect, unless the two who hired a crackpot lawyer from California follow through with attempts to blame the victims, that the players will end up with sentences far below what it looks like now.

MSU's going through a whole thing at the top, so opaque statements by the interim president aren't worth parsing to see whether they get that their athletic culture plays well at RCMB but is becoming an embarrassment to the school, and a hazard to the objects of their hate programming. One thing that won't happen, despite some support inside Michigan, is having the conference separate us from playing every year when they remake the schedule with USC/UCLA. Even when one or both teams are bad, that game is a tentpole stadium-filler.