unverified voracity
jim harbaugh
ncaa: the scandals
ben herbert
kris jenkins
offensive line
sherrone moore
[Patrick Barron]

Unverified Voracity Isn't Even Mad... ok, Slightly Mad Comment Count

Brian July 25th, 2023 at 4:51 PM

Then, as farce. Jim Harbaugh is getting the relative book thrown at him for the Hamburger Incident:

Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh and the NCAA are working toward a negotiated resolution that is expected to see him suspended four games this season in penalties stemming from alleged false statements he originally made to investigators, sources tell Yahoo Sports.

This is the same number of games that Michigan State players not named Khary Crump got for the post-game assault on Gemon Green and Jaden McBurrows. For a couple of hamburgers to already-committed recruits. Also Mike Macdonald is receiving a one-year show cause penalty, which is hilariously useless since Macdonald kinda has a job lined up already—he's DC of the Ravens.

None of this matters. Michigan's most difficult game during the period of the suspension is against Rutgers; the national media is more or less ignoring the most blatant pay-for-play scandal to hit college football in a minute, so the only place that's even going to mention this for one second after the suspension expires is the RCMB. It is nonetheless irritating that the NCAA continues wasting its time on the little things they can find at the same time as NIL is rapidly obsoleting the association itself.

[After THE JUMP: Jeremy Pruitt as Nancy Pelosi in that one picture of her kneeling with Africa Scarf™ around her neck]

In tangentially related matters. Meanwhile, that scandal-type substance down at Tennessee:

The latest beneficiary of a kinder, gentler NCAA is Tennessee football. It was cited Friday by the association’s Committee on Infractions as having committed “hundreds” of violations in a case that it labeled “one of the worst the COI has seen.” The then head coach, Jeremy Pruitt, personally paid recruits and their families. Several former assistants and other staffers were involved in brazen violations as well. The Volunteers were a veritable rule-breaking factory, seemingly the only thing Pruitt was good at while going 16–19 in Knoxville.

The current NCAA penalty structure requires—not recommends, it requires—a postseason ban in this instance. Yet the COI deviated from established guidelines to avoid it.

One dollar says that this was to avoid a lawsuit. Tennessee's AG more or less promised one if the NCAA tried it:

"Tennessee law prohibits the NCAA from imposing such a sanction, and I will not hesitate to vindicate the rights of UT students to enjoy the full measure of their intercollegiate athletic opportunities. NCAA rules cannot supersede Tennessee law," he wrote the NCAA in a letter obtained by the Knoxville News Sentinel.

States will be rushing to pass laws that prohibit the NCAA from so much as glancing owlishly into their universities.

The NCAA did bomb the various staffers who committed the nefarious acts—primarily head coach Jeremy Pruitt, who was issued a six-year show cause. It is grimly funny that Pruitt was only hired after the Tennessee fanbase successfully stormed the Bastille because the athletic director was set to hire Greg Schiano. Would Schiano have done worse than 15-19 and hundreds of NCAA violations? Probably no.

Meanwhile the newspaper has FOIAed the legal proceedings and yeeeeesh:

Pruitt said a player’s mother showed up in the parking lot outside the UT football complex in tears because of financial hardship. She told him she had nowhere else to turn for money to pay her bills.

Pruitt admitted giving her the cash from his car, where he typically stored it.

He told investigators that he felt sorry for her because of the financial strain caused by the COVID shutdown and that UT’s Student Assistance Fund, which is used for student-athletes with hardships, was tapped out.

And Pruitt said his privilege, her race and social unrest were on his mind.

“Then you throw in George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, okay, so you sit there as a white man and you see all of this going on and you can see these kids suffering,” Pruitt said.

“… (It’s) pitiful when you sit in a room and you hear grown men, and I’m talking about our coaches too, when they talk about growing up and the circumstances that they’ve been under, because it’s hard for a white man to understand, right.”

Pruitt defended its actions to investigators for giving the mother $300.

On he one hand, I do not believe for one second that Jeremy Pruitt was meditating on the state of race relations in America when he decided to hand out cash. On the other hand, his transparently cynical attempt to grab a virtuous mantle on his actions… isn't actually wrong?

Ben Herbert things. I will listen to Kris Jenkins talk about anything:

Momentum wins. This is why it's good to have a Kenneth Grant or two lying around:

No substitute for being bighugelarge sometimes.

The guys were together. I would not necessarily have assumed that Michigan would come close to leading the country in this stat:

I would have assumed that a team that lost a starter halfway through the season and also had another guy out for a ~third of the year would not be the fifth-most cohesive OL in the P5, at least in terms of playing time.

SUBPLOT: yeesh, Peyton Thorne sure can pick 'em. He's transferring from the #57 team on this list to #69—dead last. Down that low you're rotating through a bunch of guys because no one can play; not fixable in a year.

PFF All-Conference items. No analysis here so I can't tell if this is just a list of the highest-rated guys who are returning to college or actually a projection, but FWIW:

  • First team: JJ McCarthy, Blake Corum, Drake Nugent, Zak Zinter, Kris Jenkins, Will Johnson, Rod Moore.
  • Second team: Donovan Edwards, Mason Graham(!), Josaiah Stewart, Junior Colson, Mike Sainristil
  • Third team: Roman Wilson, LaDarius Henderson.

That's a lot of guys.

Sherrone Moore talking technique. Enjoy:

Etc.: Congrats to Michael Woods, who went from cross country at Michigan to winning a stage of the Tour de France. Rutgers basketball don't schedule too good. The only Pat Fitzgerald ending post you need. Someone please un-break the internet.

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