Michigan Thursday: Convenient and Expected

I really don't believe in coincidences, there are too many smart people in the world to believe a lot of things in life just happened because things happen.  When people have the power to predict an outcome in their favor, they will put processes in place to complete that goal.  We got a couple of examples of that this week.

First, the NFL giving Colin Kaepernick a 3:00 Saturday workout for all the teams.   My guess is there is something in the settlement that made this possible and seeing the quality of NFL QB's playing in the league, Kap not being a roster was going to trigger bad things for the NFL in the settlement.  I also believe that other teams might want to look at Kap but didn't want to bring him in for a tryout Also why Saturday?  Are they busy on Sunday?  Setting up a workout when no decision makers are available is like a salesperson selling IT storage to the manager of the cafeteria.

Next is the Chase Young situation.   Chase asks a family friend (who may or may not be an NFL agent) a loan so his girlfriend can go to the Rose Bowl nearly a year ago.  Chase a full time student and Buckeye football player somehow re-pays the loan back and than this transaction leaks to the NCAA the week of the Maryland game.   The NCAA gives Chase a two game penalty against the likes of Maryland and Rutgers but back for Penn State and Michigan.   Herbie tweeted out that Chase's honesty was the reason the NCAA dropped the suspension from 4 to 2 games.  To quote Billy Joel, "Honesty, Is such a lonely word, Everyone is so untrue, Honesty, Is hardly ever heard"

We could peel this back, but it doesn't matter as we all knew the best college football player this year would be back for the Michigan game.  The next thing I'm waiting to hear is that the Bosa Brothers and Michael Thomas will also be playing.   OSU played the NCAA and won.  It seems schools like Arizona (FBI wire taps), Memphis (playing an ineligible player) and Kansas (FBI wire taps) are not respecting the NCAA's authority.  Why shouldn't Ohio State play with them a little bit as well.  

• Michigan Basketball News - Michigan has gone 1-3 on the 5 star recruiting trail for 2020.  We are now in the early signing period and Zeb Jackson has signed, Isaiah Todd hasn't  He may not sign until the next signing period, which doesn't seem like great news (I think the biggest threat is playing pro ball somewhere).  It also seems that Hunter Dickinson's girlfriend has signed a track scholarship with Michigan.  Hunter is a 4 star center that Michigan is after.  Ziyah Holman (Hunter's girlfriend) is quite the athlete herself and a two time Gatorade Player of the Year. 

• Michigan suits up against Elon on Friday at 7:00. 

• Speaking of signings, Gage Garcia has signed his NLI for Wrestling.  He will walk-on and play football as well.  If he gets on the field, I believe that scholarship flips to football.  

• Former Michigan Basketball signee Jalen Wilson has broken his ankle for Kansas and may miss the rest of the season. 

from The BIG HOUSE Blog http://mbighouse.blogspot.com/2019/11/michigan-thursday-convenient-and.html