[Not Rocket Scientist Brad Hawkins / AP]

Just some things copied from my notepad.

I heard you like change. Xhibit A. The buzz word coming out of Ann Arbor this week is 'change.' Things are going to be different. When you're coming off a 2-4 season unlike any other, I doubt there are too many people pushing a status-quo narrative. 

The Freep outlines the most notable coaching change, on a staff of many coaching changes, comes from atop the defensive side in the form of Coach Mike MacDonald.

MacDonald eliminated Brown's hybrid Viper role in favor of a BUCK linebacker position, a hybrid linebacker and defensive end in his 3-4 base defense. His task is to revamp a Michigan defense that ranked 89th in the nation a year ago, allowing 434.3 yards per game. Only Illinois and Rutgers were worse in the Big Ten.

"It's kind of refreshing hearing different calls. It makes a lot more game-like (because) you're trying to game plan their new defense," Stueber said. "They're showing us a lot of different fronts, and a lot of different stunts and everything, but a lot of those stunts are ones that we're going to see throughout the season.”
 

I think we're all savvy enough at this point to know that more is more, it's not always better. But change from a 2-4 season was a must, and that is at least going in the right direction (theoretically). Different looks from the defense that confuse the offense is what you want to happen (at least from the viewpoint of your defense). A confused offense, maybe not-so-much.

Michigan’s offensive unit has seen a lot of movement, disguises, adjustments, switches and on-the-fly adjustments in practice that have confused some of its most senior leadership. Spring ball installations on the defense include several fronts and coverages with the hope of wrecking offensive flow.

“So being able to learn what they're trying to do and how they're trying to do it to such a different defense is really impressive," Stueber said. "I think that's going to help us go into the season, being able to game plan quicker and recognize the fronts to putting sand because we've experienced them already in fall camp.”
 

Brad Hawkins on Rocket Science... er the defensive change

“I don't think it is complicated at all. It’s just moving parts, different things. It's not rocket science or anything like that. (Macdonald) teaches it very, very well,” said defensive back Brad Hawkins. "If you get in your playbook, you study, it's going to come. That's the route that we're all taking on. Just studying amongst each other, putting in the extra work, and just going out there and executing to the best of our ability.”

 

Coach Speak. The head football coach appeared on Jon Jansen's In the Trenches Pod this week and The Wolverine did a little recapper.  

Talkin' Quarterback:

Freshman J.J McCarthy, an early enrollee, came out of the spring sitting No. 2 on the depth chart, and it appears that it remains that way nearly a week into training camp.

"That just hit me the other day, too — in camp, sometimes it takes a quarterback some time to get up to speed, get the repetition and get firing. But, I think our quarterbacks have, day one ... again, their preparation over the summer was big," Harbaugh said. "They stayed with it; they didn’t take any time off.

"Cade’s leading the way there, doing an outstanding job."

But McCarthy came out of the gate firing as well, and he continues to push McNamara. The light has gone on for the Illinois native, in a lot of ways.

"It’s real, it’s outstanding. He flashes all the time, every practice," Harbaugh said. "The plays are big plays, they’re excellent throws or using his athleticism.
 

Coach goes on to compare him to Ryan Tannehill, which isn't my favorite comp but it's better than Kirk Cousins I guess.  Like DB, it's going to take seeing a fully functioning set of WRs in action with my own two eyes, before I get sucked into a big ole preseason lovefest.

"This is as many good receivers that we’ve had on the team, at one time, since I’ve been here," Harbaugh said. "We’ve had … two really good ones. Now, I can talk about six guys that are all going to play and going to contribute.

"At the top of that list is [junior] Ronnie Bell and [sophomore] Cornelius Johnson — CJ and Ronnie, you can say it that way if you want. They’re both really good. They’re winners; they’re going to make plays and the block.

"The third best, it’s [second-year freshman] Roman Wilson with speed, [sophomore] Mikey Sainristil with his ability to block, get open — it just changes things with his ability to do so many good things. [Second-year freshman] AJ Henning — I think he’s really going to pop this year, and make some plays.
 

He goes on to compliment Baldwin, Andrel Anthony and a nod to Cristian Dixon as well. I think "as many good receivers" is a careful choice of words that doesn't cross the "best group of receivers" line. Speaks of top to bottom volume perhaps, but even then, I'm just waiting to see.

Running back nothing new. Haskins and Corum are great. Edwards is going to play. Schoonmaker at TE is fast. All "sets a tone." And the coaches are close to finding a top five on the OL. There's more, check out the pod. 

 

More Coaches Speak. This time from new DBs coach Steve Clinkscale and their breakdown of his public remarks over at The Athletic. It should be no surprise that this defense, and ultimately this team, will sink and swim with the success of the defensive backfield. After a rough season and then a tumultuous offseason, Clinkscale isn't here to talk about the past.

“It wasn’t that they didn’t want to talk about it; I didn’t want to talk about it,” Clinkscale said Thursday. “If Coach (Jim Harbaugh) is going to hire all these coaches, let’s be real: He wants a different mindset, different attitude, different approach. I’m not one of those guys who comes into a job pointing fingers.”

Clinkscale took the same approach to his career. He was known for recruiting Michigan and the Upper Midwest during a successful five-year run at Kentucky, where he helped Mark Stoops build a blue-collar program with players from the Big Ten footprint. 

“If DBs don’t play with confidence,” Clinkscale said, “they’re not very good.”

“We want to be able to play chess with the offensive coordinator and the quarterback, give them multiple looks,” Clinkscale said. “We’ll go from playing man to pattern-matching to playing pure zone, Cover 3. If you have all those elements, you don’t give the quarterbacks clean looks and clean pictures.”
 

The first name mentioned when it comes to this defensive backfield will always be Daxton Hill. It doesn't appear decided where Hill will be playing yet come fall season.

“He has the skill set of a corner with the ability to make plays as a safety and the mindset of a safety,” Clinkscale said. “I’m really, really excited about all the plays he can make.”
 

The Wolverine breaks down more Clinks-thoughts on other DBs.

On DJ Turner:

“I’ve coached a couple players that don’t make the same mistakes. D.J. is one of those guys. He corrects himself and challenges himself. We were in a couple situations, do two-minute situation … they went after him a couple times in a row, and he defended the ball very well. He knew, understood what was about to happen. He understands the situation."
 

On the rotation

“In life, nothing is locked up. I tell the players all the time, if I don’t get my job done, there will be somebody here to replace me,” Clinkscale continued. “I’m rotating everybody. We’ll get some of the young guys opportunities to show what they can do. Gemon Green, DJ and Vince [Gray] really have a rotation with each other. 

“But there’s nobody in my opinion who is solid where they’re going to be the guy, for sure. Gemon has done some really good things; I feel like Vincent has, DJ, a couple other guys. The more we keep it where it is a challenging situation, always competing, I think we can elevate everybody’s game.”
 

Freshmen Andre Seldon and Jaden McBurrows also get a little obligatory love. But right now a compliment about their attitudes seems like they're not likely to be ready to make an impact.

So, safety Brad Hawkins and likely Dax Hill. RJ Moten and Makari Paige are the backups and are "very, very good players" and "coming along very, very well" per Hawkins.

Vince, Gemon and DJ fighting for corner supremacy. Maybe the real story here isn't the bodies, it's the switch in defensive philosophy. Hoke springs eternal.

Clinkscale also wants to rebuild Ohio recruiting. He tells Sam about it.

 

One last DB note to be filed away for later. George Johnson gets a little love from teammates. 

“You never know what you’re gonna get out of George,” Bell said. “George is a very unpredictable and very good DB.

“His technique, how he plays the game, he doesn’t necessarily do it like the rest. He doesn’t play like the rest of them. So it’s either misleading or it’s — he can catch you off-guard because he’s unorthodox.”
 

I think these are supposed to be compliments, and so I'll read them as such. Ultimately, what we've learned over the years is super boring-ass DBs are pretty great. So words like 'unpredictable' and 'unorthodox' are ... interesting? 

If George Johnson becomes the Prince Naseem Hamed of defensive back play, you heard it here first.

 

The old new guy. We don't talk about Josh Gattis as much with all of our shiny new coach toys. 

MLive on Gattis

“It’s obviously my job as the coordinator to collect ideas and input from everyone, and I believe we have that,” Gattis said. “We have a collective group. I feel the best about our offensive staff as I’ve ever been. And that says a lot to the men in this room.”

 

Go With What You Know. UM and Florida in a Bowl Game? Is this really solving for P? 247 Projects Clemson, Oklahoma, Alabama and OSU in the Final Four, with Michigan playing Florida in a NYD game.

Why would tomorrow ever be different than yesterday?

 

Bill Connolly Puts Things in Numerical Order. First, Conn Updated his SP+ Projections for 21.

Michigan checks in at 17 overall, ranking 28th on offense and 10th on defense. Preseason SP+ is based on Returning Production, Recent recruiting and Recent history. 

Top 5 in order are shocking, hold on to your knickers (in order): Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, Ohio St., and Georgia.

Other Top 25 Notables: Wisconsin (6), Penn State (10), Washington (13), Iowa (16), Minnesota (24)

Next, he Ranked the Top 100 College Football head Coaches of the Past 50 Years

Wow. I don't even know where to start with a list like this. So, I have none thoughts. Here are some notable coaches names.

99. Frames Janklin, 98. Richard Rodriguez, 70. Jeff Tedford, 65. Mike Gundy (missed a real opportunity at 40 here), 52. John Cooper, 40. Bill McCartney, 15. Jim Tressel, 14. Pete Carroll, 11. Joe Paterno, 5. Urban Meyer, 4. Tom Osborne, 3. Bobby Bowden, 2. Bear Bryant, 1. Nick Saban

42. Lloyd Carr
Carr's Michigan tenure is defined primarily by what the Wolverines haven't done since he left: finish higher than 10th in the polls (he did it five times), win a Big Ten (he won five), beat Ohio State more than once (he went 6-7).

29. Bo Schembechler
A vaunted member of the Miami (Ohio) Cradle of Coaches lineage, Schembechler fought Woody Hayes to a draw in the Ten Year War, ripped off 16 top-10 finishes and 10 Rose Bowl trips and finished with either one or zero losses six times.

If you spend more than 10 seconds thinking about this list or debating its merits, you're part of the problem not the solution. I hope that bald guy who talks about SEC football on terrestrial radio gets 1000's of hours of content out of this. 

 

 

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Michigan and NIL, it's not good. Hunter Dickinson appeared on Stu Douglass' pod this week and spoke about NIL. As a topic, I don't particularly find NIL interesting, and don't get me wrong, I am definitely on the 'pay the man' side of things. I'm just not going out of my way to click on every Average BBQ Restaurant Sponsors Knute's Crotch link. But when I do care is when it becomes a competitive advantage for other schools; when it SHOULD be a competitive advantage for MY school. 

Hunter isn't happy

"We talk about what deals are on the horizon for us... we talk about that kind of kind of stuff. Seeing what we can and can't do. You know Michigan is not the most free of Universities, you know being a little restrictive of what we can do. Like we can't use the Block M for some reason. You would think, you know, you play for the University and make money for them, they would at least let you use the logo."

"They're trying to be like the NCAA and hold us back a bit. At least they're letting us do something."
 

He goes on to talk a little bit more about the process as far as a Michigan athlete and their specific requirements.

"I have someone who is advising me and helping me out . Someone sends me a contract or a DM on Instagram, I send it to them, and they guide me and give me helpful insight on stuff like that.  Then you have to send an email to Michigan's compliance, fill out a form just a couple questions basically, then you'll get an email back saying if you can or cannot do it. I think it's pretty pointless, I don't really care what they have to say. But you have to send the email and make sure you're in compliance with what they say, I don't know if everyone is, but at least I am... they'll email you back if it's against the NCAA rules or the Michigan rules."
 

Unsurprisingly, Juwan Howard might be the one thing that can help salvage Michigan from this situation.

"Ive had talks with him (Juwan) personally. He's been really open. He can kinda sympathize with us because he knows how much he would have made given this same opportunity with the Fab Five, so he's open and on our side. I really appreciate what he's doing for us."
 

Watch the interview, this doesn't sound like a kid who even thinks things might get better. Granted, he probably views himself as having another 8 months in Ann Arbor tops, but the Michigan Athletic Department should be listening loud and clear. This feels combative. Honestly, Michigan can be one of the schools that tries to fight this, and eventually just ends up relenting. Or they can actually try to be out on the forefront and lead. 

Right now it feels like the school is saying "ok, congrats on becoming an adult and welcome to the world of usage. Our logo is a highly sought-after and restricted trademark" Sure. They're not wrong, but who loses the fight between the man and his face. Spoiler: the nose. I guess we're the nose.

 

Je m'appelle Basketball. Michigan extended an offer to '22 four-star forward Yohan Traore.

Traore is one of the fastest-rising prospects in the country this summer. He’s a consensus four-star big man who is expected to flirt with five-star territory after a dominant month of July. Traore’s most recent offers are Oregon, Arizona state, Louisville, UCLA, Tennessee, USC and Arkansas.

Traore is a 6-foot-11, 227-pound French forward who came to the United States last fall to play at Prolific Prep.

I look forward to someday becoming the Arsenal of college basketball and featuring far too many quality Frenchmen. Maybe our new favorite slogan can be "We are a French Basketball school now."

 

NBA Rookie Chaundee Brown.  CB Jr Signs a Rookie Deal with the Lakers Congrats to Chaundee, and while this doesn't guarantee him an NBA roster spot, it's one step closer.

 

Etc.  2014 Michigan-Purdue Game heavily featured on latest episode of HBO's The White Lotus. Likely Spoiler: The series starts with a scene of characters reacting to a mysterious death. It's Purdue that dies 77-76 in OT by the hand of GR3.   Three former Wolverines make NFL Training Camp Standout List