Sabb going to Alabama
As mentioned in the podcast, this one kind of hurts. Maybe more NIL money? Thanks Keon for everything you did for the Maize and Blue, especially down the stretch
February 20th, 2024 at 9:50 AM ^
If Alabama offered him $5 million for one year of college ball he absolutely made the right choice.
February 20th, 2024 at 11:14 AM ^
There's no way they offered him that much. I'm pretty sure most quarterbacks make somewhere around that. They probably offered him something significantly more than what Michigan offered, plus guaranteed playing time. I see why he took it.
February 20th, 2024 at 11:54 AM ^
Downs is getting $900k. Top QB’s $1 mill-$4.8 million. Top defenders get around a million. In 2023 OSU paid $13.6 million in nil UM $11.6 million. Do the math. Shader Sanders got a whopping $4.7 million, Ewers $1.8,Arch Manning $2.8 million MHarrisonJr got $1.3million in nil in 2023.
February 20th, 2024 at 12:51 PM ^
Impressive wherever you're getting these numbers.
Perhaps you can share a link/source?
February 19th, 2024 at 10:05 PM ^
Commits to Bama within a week of entering the portal and their Director of Content for their collective made the announcement
Nope, no tampering to see here /s
February 19th, 2024 at 10:13 PM ^
NCAA: Cheeseburgers warrant a serious investigation.
Also NCAA: We don’t give a flying fuck about obvious tampering involving six or seven figures.
February 19th, 2024 at 10:25 PM ^
One can never be too careful when cheeseburgers are involved. So many variables to consider; what type of bun, one patty or two? Toppings choices are literally infinite.
February 20th, 2024 at 9:40 AM ^
Cholesterol.
February 19th, 2024 at 10:31 PM ^
o$u open bidding wars with other $chools... The NCAA nowhere to be found.
February 19th, 2024 at 10:50 PM ^
Courtney Morgan was Sabb's main recruiter at Michigan. Morgan followed Deboer to Washington and then to Bama. Probably got a text from Morgan after Downs left and Moore returned.
February 19th, 2024 at 10:52 PM ^
Soooo still tampering?
February 19th, 2024 at 11:16 PM ^
I have no idea what the tampering rules are, but what if Sabb reached out to him/them?
February 19th, 2024 at 11:33 PM ^
Didnt say it wasnt. Simply adding a little more information to the conversation. Im leaning tampering because I think it's a widespread issue, but it's possible he reached out to Bama.
February 20th, 2024 at 4:13 AM ^
Its Bama they could nationally broadcast the tampering live via Zoom and the talking heads would be like "Wow great get Bama" nothing to see here.
February 20th, 2024 at 7:33 AM ^
Per the rules as I understand them -
Bama coach (or other institutional stffaer) makes offer to Sabb before he enters portal = tampering
Bama coach tells Bama PLAYER to make offer to Sabb before he enters the portal = 100% legal
February 20th, 2024 at 11:15 AM ^
The NCAA is a joke.
February 19th, 2024 at 10:22 PM ^
Honestly, Alabama just lost their best safety to OSU and needed someone, and Sabb is good enough to start at Alabama. He's like a one-year rental anyway so I wish him luck and bring on down Zeke Berry (and possibly someone from the portal).
February 19th, 2024 at 10:25 PM ^
Haha, of course he is. Nothing to see here, folks!
February 19th, 2024 at 10:28 PM ^
Man. I mean, I get it, and if he's getting more money and more playing time, cool. Go blow up and be a star.
But still....our rival (who we beat) is on tilt (because we beat them) and throws money at a star safety from Bama (who we also beat, and their legendary coach retired, and then they hired the coach from the other playoff team we beat). Bama (reminder, we beat them, and is leaking players because of the coaching change), in turn, throws money at our not-quite-a-starter safety who just happens to be starter quality but can't quite get full starter snaps here because we have two returning starters (which is good), because they need to fill the vacant spot created by our on-tilt rival (who we beat).
It's kind of a good problem when even our backups are so good that Bama wants to poach them...but dang if it didn't play out in just the specific way to our detriment.
I guess we'll see if the supposed NIL improvements start coming through, and prompting some players from other teams to consider finishing their collegiate careers at Michigan...if they can get enough credits to transfer.
February 19th, 2024 at 10:30 PM ^
Getting doubled screwed by obvious portal tampering blows
February 20th, 2024 at 9:45 AM ^
A small consolation but when our guys are getting recruited off our roster to start at Alabama because they aren’t starting at Michigan we have built a pretty good roster.
February 19th, 2024 at 10:36 PM ^
Have we, as a fanbase, ruled out the engineering program at THE University of Alabama for reasons of transfer?
February 20th, 2024 at 4:15 AM ^
Im surprised Saab didnt rule it out.
February 19th, 2024 at 10:48 PM ^
Best of luck to Keon. Great landing spot for him.
February 19th, 2024 at 11:03 PM ^
A Michigan player who wants to start had to go to Alabama to do that.
Net win.
February 20th, 2024 at 2:19 AM ^
Oregon was in on him too, I definitely prefer him leaving the B1G. Next man up.
February 19th, 2024 at 11:03 PM ^
To everyone saying the kid left for money chill the fuck out because he didn't leave for money. If he wanted to get the biggest bag he would have gone to Oregon or maybe Ole Miss. Michigan had more on the table for him than Bama.
He was the 3rd safety with two other healthy locked in starters. Oh and there's also guys nipping at his heels from behind in Zeke Berry and Brandyn Hillman. It makes complete sense for him to move on for normal playing time purposes and be a locked in starter on a terrific Alabama defense.
February 19th, 2024 at 11:14 PM ^
Pretty bad batch of copium here. The reality is that we’ve lost a starter at an extremely important position as concerns the functionality of our defensive scheme. Same way we had 9 starters on the d-line last year, he was our 3rd starter (of four) at safety. No one was nipping at his heels for PT.
This sucks. We just have to admit it and hope that things still work out otherwise. Even w/o him, we have a roster that can compete for a BIG championship… for now at least.
February 19th, 2024 at 11:24 PM ^
I don't think he wanted to be "starter 3 of 4" at safety. My guess is he's trying to be a starter with as many snaps as possible for a year and then go to the league. Not everyone is going to be on board with the platoon concept. He knew there was a need for a safety at a school with some familiar faces, and he went for it. It sucks for us, but it makes a lot of sense for him.
February 19th, 2024 at 11:33 PM ^
In the end if Moore and Paige had gone to the NFL I don’t think Sabb would have left Michigan.
He definitely would have played lots next year, but we couldn’t offer as central a role as Alabama will be able to.
Sabb played a ton in the national championship, but I imagine he wasn’t thrilled to play 5 snaps against Alabama, 0 against Ohio State, and 11 against Penn State. Sucks to lose him but only so much you can do.
He’s someone I was worried about transferring as soon as Moore and Paige said they were coming back.
February 20th, 2024 at 9:54 AM ^
I didn't realize his snap-count was that low in those games - from some of the above posts I was under the impression he was basically playing as much as the other two safeties. Make even more sense that he'd look for more playing time.
February 20th, 2024 at 11:02 AM ^
I think he played a ton when the other safeties were banged up. They kept rotating for the easier parts of the schedule after they came back but then tightened up the rotation for the bigger games.
In the national title game he played a lot because Paige was banged up and Johnson was out.
It’s a loss because he’s good and he definitely would have played next year. But it’s not hard to see why he’d be not thrilled that he played so little in some of the bigger games.
Where it really could hurt is if we end up having any injuries, which hopefully we do not but are always a risk.
February 19th, 2024 at 11:43 PM ^
I'm not saying it isn't a loss. It is one. But it's not accurate to say we lost this kid because of money. It's an annoying excuse that gets thrown around too much when it's not always the case.
February 20th, 2024 at 9:38 AM ^
You don't rotate in the defensive backfield the same way you rotate on the d-line. Those big boys get GASSED down there with as much effort as they exert. Guys come in and out back there in certain situations, but that's about 10-15 snaps a game, tops. DBs usually play every snap, or close to it. Finally, he definitely did have people nipping at him for PT. Zeke Berry was a higher ranked recruit and was coming on strong behind him, in addition to being behind Moore and Paige. This is 100% a PT situation. He did not want to be the third or fourth of fifth safety. In the end, it's a good problem to have.
February 19th, 2024 at 11:28 PM ^
I'm excited to see Hillman get some playing time. Amazing to think of the talent developed in the safety room, with Moore & Paige coming back - losing Sabb & QJ - with Berry & Hillman still left in that room. Going to miss ya Jay!!
February 20th, 2024 at 7:04 AM ^
That sounds like pure cope. Sabb was able to cover Odunze, in the middle of the field, with no help.
The guy could start in the slot today. Or over 7 who's solid but doesn't have Sabb's upside.
Hey I had everyone believing letting Dickinson walk was gonna make us a better BB team. I was extremely delusional too.
February 20th, 2024 at 2:27 PM ^
Dickinson was our starting center and one of the best players on the team, whereas Sabb was our third safety next year. Loosing Dickenson is more akin to if Mason Graham were to transfer.
It's a loss because he was going to play for sure, but our starting safeties were the starting safeties for a team that just won the national title. They'll be fine.
February 20th, 2024 at 7:32 AM ^
Think about what is being said here. A player from Michigan, left Michigan to play at Alabama because he has a better shot at playing time. Of all places, Alabama with all its 5 stars and 4 star players, a Michigan player has a better shot at PT...
Not for money supposedly because Michigan supposedly matched what Alabama is offering.
February 20th, 2024 at 8:00 AM ^
Michigan had more on the table for him than Bama.
Have you seen both $ figures?
February 19th, 2024 at 11:58 PM ^
Do we get Holtmann (a throw away) and an OSU receiver to be named later, and cash in this triangle trade?
Seriously good luck to Sabb and I'm sure the wheeling and dealing isn't done yet (both ways now that our staff is set). CFB has turned into a bad soap opera.
I'll still take the team with the best offensive line in most every game.
February 20th, 2024 at 12:30 AM ^
I'll take any team if both of its lines are better than the opponent's lines. That was every game last year. This year it's all about beating OSU. National championship aspirations are a crap shoot. Oh, and at least Sabb didn't go to OSU. Hopefully no-one else of significance does. Aren't OSU and Michigan currently in a virtual tie for the all-time best winning percentage?
February 20th, 2024 at 12:18 AM ^
I understand the reasons being discussed.
I also realize that just as the portal does giveth (no doubt we've picked up key players the last couple seasons), the portal taketh away .
And yet ...I sob 😭 at the loss of Sabb.
Thanks for your contributions to a wonderful National 🏆 Championship team. We shall miss you.
February 20th, 2024 at 12:18 AM ^
What is going on here??? Do we really need to worry about Will Johnson leaving? I also remember seeing like a week ago that the Oregon head coach started following him on Twitter.
February 20th, 2024 at 1:51 AM ^
UGA is after Grant. I think Grant will stay with us and help coach Moore. We could use a fast, quick 6'5 wideout. I wonder if we could pick one off from another team?
February 20th, 2024 at 2:31 PM ^
Will Johnson is one of the least likely guys to leave.
The guy is from the state, is a Michigan legacy, and committed to Michigan when things were at the lowest during the Harbaugh era. He's also one of the key players on next year's team who is going to play a ton. Of all our star players he's probably the least likely to go anywhere.
February 20th, 2024 at 1:28 AM ^
When is Michigan going to start dropping bags of money to pick off some top players from other teams?
February 20th, 2024 at 8:02 AM ^
Last year. :)
February 20th, 2024 at 2:20 AM ^
I wish the kid the best of luck but overall this just feels icky.
February 20th, 2024 at 5:36 AM ^
Replaces Downs, makes sense. I’ve always had an affinity for Alabama’s football history and prestige, not a fan just respect and like the long history. Now that Saban is gone it’s going to he easier to cheer for them. At least he didn’t stay in the Big Ten. Thanks for the run Keon, good luck kid!
February 20th, 2024 at 5:50 AM ^
So no last day to start a class at Bama. Or do they even take classes.