META: Submit your q's for a football mailbag

How many big ten championship games do you think Michigan will go to this decade?

I'm double-dipping here, since I submitted a question earlier.

Question: If we could replay the Michigan / Georgia game again, and we could be assured Georgia's plan would be the same as we saw originally, then what could the coaches do differently to make the game more competitive?

How much influence does the University of Michigan (the institution) have over how Michigan athletics will proceed with the NIL era?

What player(s) from the 2021-22 roster (IE, no incoming recruits or transfers) who didnt' see the field or played sparingly are most likely to be a starter/impact player next year?  

I am going to double dip too, feel free to skip both of my questions if you want. 

I think NIL is going to make coaches less important, as a lot of recruiting will be done for them. However, the transfer portal has made coaches more important, see Caleb Williams following Riley. Do we think coaches will start bouncing around for huge pay days and bringing their top end talent with them? Or will NIL keep players at their schools and make coaches slightly less valuable at the top? 

How might the defense change next year without Hutchinson/ojabo? Will there be more of the "team sacks" repeatedly referenced in the Ravens defense comps or does the staff think they have a replacement or 2 on the roster?

Michigans offense featured a limited QB and a good but not great (and young) wide recievers. The strength was the great run blocking Oline and running backs. Because of this the offense relied heavily on trusting Haskins to run into stacked boxes and turn nothing into 2-3 yards (especially in short yardage situations). Now with Haskins gone and no true power back on the roster (and no full back), do you anticipate a return of Gattis' speed in space basketball on grass offense (and therefore less manball power stuff)?

The strength of next year's team will be a more dynamic Qb and a strong core of recievers with Ronnie Bell back. It seems to me that the group of guys on next years roster will be less suited to the style played in 2021 and will be a strong group to play Speed in Space ball.

What are the chances that all of our receivers return next year, even with Baldwin leaving? 

If Michigan beats Ohio State 42-27 and wins the B1G, will they qualify for the CFP?

Which team on the 2022 schedule are we taking for granted? I'd say the majority of us think we will roll into Columbus with one or fewer losses. Who has the chance to sour our expectations?

What if Jay Harbaugh recruited Diabate or Dickinson - or just someone huge with leaping ability - to play on special teams strictly to block kicks? That would be cool.

Several here but really just two main ones with a couple offshoots:

With a loaded WR room, a "Mike Hart but Fast" RB, a crazy receiving threat RB and a QB that is fast and can actually make reads, is it safe to say that if we don't see full on "Speed in Space" next year it is never going to happen no matter the roster composition?  If JJ is the starter, do "fake reads" finally get turned off, or do you think we go right back to not running the starting QB?

From a holistic view, was last year really more of the same on defense with some more zone as opposed to an actual "Ravens Defense" transformation?  Do you think we have the parts to actually run the amoeba defense next year as needed, or is that dependent on Freshmen displacing current players?

I've posted here four or five times now offering my sense that the current changes in player compensation may bring more hurt than good. This doesn't mean that further changes won't rectify that or that the prior situation wasn't exploitative--only that allowing players to exploit their image or likeness isn't compensating them anyway (indeed, evades the responsibility to do that), and that NIL alone will only lead to greater inequality among players and schools.

But I'd like to know about your take. Offer, if you would, your sense of both the best and worst possible scenarios that may now emerge, and not just how they may effect Michigan football but the game. 

We won’t know who the starting qb will be next year, but how will the offense look the same and how will it look different next year with each qb? Losing Haskins, weaponizing Edwards, getting Ronnie Bell back..best guess at each version of the offense under Cade or JJ

Since I know you're going to read this, I just want to thank you for your efforts this season. You guys continue to put out quality stuff, and I hope you're all able to create a manageable situation at the blog.

My Q: As I understand it, the big-picture objective from the D was to put Hutch/Hill on one side of the field and scheme around the weaknesses elsewhere. With both gone, can you offer some predictions on a strategy we'll see next year and how much better/worse it will be? 

Two unrelated questions - pick both, either, or neither as you wish:

Based on known or anticipated personnel going into next year, what is one change you would like to see in the offense next year (ex: base play, zone reads, RPOs, etc.)? In particular, I'd be interested to hear any thoughts on 3rd down/short yardage approach without Haskins or a FB. 

On defense, what should we expect to see with Hutchinson and Ojabo off to the NFL? Should we expect to see even more mixing of coverages (now that players have been in the system for a year) to generate "pressure" from confusion rather than depositing linemen into the QB's lap? 

watching a coaching clinic and sparty's tucker just said something interesting.  the topic was recruiting and that all the coaches in his group have to be in agreement on a guy that they need/want him.  then he said, 'if we have to reach for a guy, we'll just go to the [transfer] portal instead'.    

so my questions are: how different is that approach than ours, and over the long haul, how much are we going to get hurt by our transfer policy now that's its basically an annual free-for-all portal policy, except at michigan?

fwiw, tucker presented well, not $95MM well, but he came across in a good way.  i did appreciate his take on how they coach kids up on contact for those that are contact-averse, and how they handle 'loafing', meaning basically any time the kids are on a practice or game field, they need to never be standing around and (like our program in our little town) nobody ever walks on the football field. you be runnin'....

On Harbaugh extension (assuming it happens):

Aside from the obvious pay raise for himself, more money for staff, and the NIL/academics debate (much of which may be outside of AD control).... what would Jim truly be asking for to make the program even better (or perhaps what *should* he be asking for)?

Toughest game for us after OSU next season? Seems like a pretty soft schedule overall.