Colorado head coach Dan Hawkins announced a few moves on his staff this week, the biggest being that he will add the role of receivers coach to his duties this upcoming season.
Hawkins will coach the Buffaloes as he prepares 13-year NFL defensive back Ashley Ambrose to take over the wide receivers position for the 2010 season. Ambrose, who is carrying the title of defensive technical intern this season, will be able to observe Hawkins but is prohibited from coaching the players until after the season when he will be named a full-time assistant.
With Rich Rodriguez taking over the Michigan football program from Lloyd Carr there are going to be plenty of changes made in Ann Arbor. Obviously, the biggest change the team and Rich will have to make is implement ing an entire new offensive system with a bunch of players who weren't recruited for it. That's not exactly the easiest thing in the world to do, but luckily the Wolverines early season schedule consists of cupcakes like Utah, Miami (OH), and Notre Dame. There isn't an Appalachian State in the bunch, so the Wolverines will have some time to adjust.
Another big change will come on Sunday mornings, as Rodriguez has no plans to appear on "Michigan Replay", a popular postgame show that's been running for 33 years.
The Michigan football coach's show, which reviewed the previous game and looked ahead, will no longer be on the air Sunday mornings.
Rodriguez has said he's not interested in hanging around after games to tape a show because he would rather use the time visiting with recruits and spending time with his family.
Not to fear, Michigan fans, just because "Michigan Replay" is going the way of the single wing formation doesn't mean there won't be a new show. Instead of having a weekly show taped after each game to review it and look forward to next week's game, the school is going to produce a weekly preview show.
What it's going to be called, or when and where it will be aired have not been announced yet.
The Justin Boren transfer saga continues to get weird. Did we say weird? We mean weirder.
Boren, as you'll probably recall, announced his decision to transfer from the Michigan football program on Tuesday. He tendered his letter of resignation or whatever to the media the next day, and it contained all sorts of ominous, nonspecific statements against the program's best interests, including the following excerpts:
I regret leaving behind my friends and teammates, but I need to stand up for what I know is right.
Michigan football was a family, built on mutual respect and support for each other from Coach Carr on down. We knew it took the entire family, a team effort, and we all worked together. I have great trouble accepting that those family values have eroded in just a few months.
I saw Rich Rodriguez throw Jimmy Hoffa into an active volcano in 1975.
If you want to get technical, the last excerpt may not actually exist in Boren's statement, but his decision to cite "family values" certainly leaves plenty of suspicion in a reader's mind. Sunday Morning Quarterback speculates further, and it reads like the "Woodland Critter Christmas" episode of South Park. SMQ also notes that this situation may be more closely related to the extreme duress of the no-huddle spread offense Rodriguez is implementing and the two offensive linemen who have already left, but let's not get bogged down on facts here folks.
It didn't take Ryan Mallett very long to find a new home after leaving Ann Arbor, and it's a home he nearly found himself in before choosing Michigan. Mallett grew up a fan of the Arkansas Razorbacks, attending football camps on the campus during his youth, and now he'll be playing quarterback there as well.
Former five-star quarterback Ryan Mallett has left Michigan and is taking classes at the University of Arkansas today making his transfer official, according to sources close to the situation.
Mallett will redshirt during the 2008 season and then have three years of eligibility remaining.
Obviously with Rich Rodriguez taking over for Lloyd Carr at Michigan, Mallett was the odd man out in the program as he's not the type of quarterback the team will need to run Rich Rodriguez's offense. Considering that there were rumors circulating on campus that Mallett was going to transfer to Arkansas before he ever even stepped foot in Ann Arbor, his decision to go there now is hardly a surprise.
Mallett had hoped to go to Arkansas after he graduated high school, but when the Razorbacks signed Mitch Mustain during his senior season, he turned his attention elsewhere and ended up at Michigan.
Other schools Mallett considered were UCLA, Tennessee, and Texas A&M.
Now that Rich Rodriguez is taking over in Ann Arbor, he's bringing with him a lot of his old coaches, and his offensive system. The changes have already taken their toll on MIchigan's offense, because aside from losing quarterback Chad Henne and running back Mike Hart to graduation, the school is also losing receivers Adrian Arrington and Mario Manningham who have decided to leave for the NFL.
Then there's Henne's backup, freshman Ryan Mallett. Ryan can't leave for the NFL yet, so he's doing the next best thing, he's transferring. Though it's not because he has anything against Rich Rodriguez, he just knows that he's the exact opposite of what Rodriguez looks for in a quarterback.
"I felt like I was forced out because of the offense that's coming in," Mallett said by phone as he left Ann Arbor and the Michigan program Wednesday. He was on his way home to Arkansas.
"I was recruited to be a drop-back passer. I have nothing against Coach Rod, but the system is forcing me out."
As for where Mallett is going to end up, I don't know yet, but the frontrunners for his services are UCLA, Texas A&M, and Tennessee. Not coincidentally, those are also three schools that are looking at Mallett's old quarterbacks coach at Michigan, Scot Loeffler. I'd be willing to bet that wherever Loeffler lands, Ryan's soon to follow.
Once he does announce where he's going though, he's going to have to sit out a year before he can play again.
I have to tell you, I'm offended. It seems as though the University of Michigan is interested in everybody (Brady Hoke? Really?) as Lloyd Carr's replacement, and I want to know why nobody's called me. You should see me on my Playstation. I've won back to back national titles with Baylor, people. Baylor.
Still, apparently that's not good enough for the head honchos up in Ann Arbor, because my phone sits here silent. Instead they're trying to figure out a way to get Missouri's Gary Pinkel.
MU coach Gary Pinkel now could be coveted by many other schools seeking coaches, including Michigan, the winningest program in college football history.
So now we can add Pinkel's name to the list of candidates that once included Les Miles, and has had Greg Schiano's name floating around lately as well. Though just because Michigan's interested in Pinkel, it doesn't mean Pinkel is interested in Michigan, yet anyway. When asked about the job, Gary made that much clear.
"I'm not commenting on fiction," Pinkel told the Post-Dispatch, adding, "Nobody's contacted me."
Notice he never said that if Michigan did contact him, that he wouldn't listen. He'd be stupid not to, and Michigan would be stupid not to call Pinkel.
Over the last few years Pinkel has built a top program at Missouri, and has the team going to it's first New Year's Day bowl since 1970. Still, Pinkel is a loyal guy, so who knows if he'd really leave Missouri. Of course, loyalty is nice, but if Michigan drives a truck load of money up to his front door, Gary could survive without it.
"As far as the opening they have, the Michigan people will do a great job in selecting someone to carry on that tradition," Harbaugh said. "It's not going to be me. I am happy where I am."
It's pretty nice of Jim to let us all know he doesn't want the job, especially when you consider he was probably never going to get it anyway. He's only in his first year at Stanford, and even though the Cardinal upset USC this season, Harbaugh hasn't really done anything in Palo Alto to catapult himself up the list of possible replacements.
There is also the fact that Carr and the school aren't exactly thrilled with Harbaugh right now anyway. After the comments he made earlier this season about the school's academic standards (even though they're true for the most part), Bo Schembechler probably has a better chance of rising from the dead to take the program over, than Harbaugh does of getting the position.
Besides, every interview the school makes is just to kill time until Les Miles finally leaves LSU.
If those rumors circulating around right now about Lloyd Carr's retirement at the end of this season are true, then Saturday afternoon will be the last time Lloyd gets to experience the joy of losing to Ohio State.
Once Carr does retire, I'm sure he'll be asking himself, "I wonder if I'll ever be on a coin?"
It's something I'm sure Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler asked themselves a million times, and now their dreams are finally coming true, for the two legendary coaches will have an impact on the game from beyond the grave.
A commemorative coin featuring legendary Wolverines coach Bo Schembechler and iconic Ohio State coach Woody Hayes will be used in the pregame coin flip at Michigan Stadium.
Aside from honoring the two coaches who helped make this rivalry what it is today, it will also commemorate the one-year anniversary of Bo Schembechler's death. Schembechler passed away a day before the big game last season.
I've no idea if Jim Tressel and Lloyd Carr will ever be on a commemorative coin together, just that if they are one day, the coin will always land on Tressel.
The Wolverines had the much needed benefit of a bye last week since they got to play the mighty Golden Gophers of Minnesota. It was perfect timing for Big Blue as it gave the team a chance to rest Chad Henne and Mike Hart so they could heal from their respective injuries.
"I really have to wait and see," Carr said. "I really don't have anything other than that to say about that."
"I have said from Day One that daily they're getting better," Carr said. "So everything I say is interpreted one way or the other. I think they're both much better than they were, and yet until we get on that practice field this week, I can't tell you."
Left tackle and team captain Jake Long is a bit more confident in his teammates abillity to recover.
"I have no doubt in my mind that they'll play," Long said Monday during a weekly news conference. "They've been working hard in rehab, and they want to come back definitely for this game. So I definitely see them coming back."
I have to say that if you're going to listen to only one of them, I'd listen to Long. I don't think there's any way that either Henne or Hart will miss this game. It's against an in state rival in Michigan State, and unlike the Minnesota game, the Wolverines actually need their quarterback and running back.
All Lloyd Carr is doing is saying he isn't sure because he doesn't want Michigan State to know if the two are playing or not. It's not exactly a new tactic in football. I mean, Tom Brady is on the injury report every week in the NFL but he hasn't been touched in three months.
When Mike Hart had to leave Michigan's game against Purdue last week, it was a scary moment for the Wolverines. If it wasn't for Mike Hart this season, who knows what the Wolverines record would be at this point. The man essentially carried the team while Chad Henne was hurt.
So when Hart sprained his ankle last weekend, it quickly became the talk of Ann Arbor. His teammates say he's going to play on Saturday against Illinois. His coach, Lloyd Carr, isn't as sure on Hart's prognosis.
At times like these, there's only one person you can ask: The player's mother.
"No one will know until Saturday," Rory Rushlow said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "I just left Ann Arbor yesterday, and he says he's fine and if he's even 80 percent healthy he'll play.
"Hopefully, he'll play. But he if doesn't, I'm sure he'll play the next game against Minnesota."
Well she wasn't much help, was she?
If I had to choose, I'd say Hart does play on Saturday. A sprained ankle is painful, but Hart didn't seem to be in much pain on the sidelines during the second half of the Purdue game. Besides that, Hart is just a tough kid who I don't think will have any trouble playing through the pain.
And given Michigan's history of having trouble stopping spread offenses like the one Illinois employs, the Wolverines are probably going to give up a few points and they'll need all the offensive output they can get from their Heisman candidate.
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