Wow, job security for NFL coaches – be it head coaches or assistants – is not what it used to be. Probably better to rent a house vs. buying. SU is sorry to see Jim Harbaugh move on to the LA Chargers but he has earned the right to do so. He has checked all of the boxes at Michigan in his time there and you can only wish him well as he starts Chapter 2 in the NFL. He was very successful in SF with the Niners but the reality is that he is a high maintenance hire. He knows what he wants and is unafraid to ask and go for it. He wore out his welcome in SF and SU is certain he will do the same with the Chargers in a few years. The key will be if he can deliver some playoff success to LA and justify all that goes with it. SU has the over/under at 4.5 years for Harbaugh with the Chargers.

Meanwhile, Michigan will likely give the head coaching spot to the offensive coordinator, Sherrone Moore who has earned it. SU sees him as a great hire who will be highly effective on the recruiting trail. Good for him and he can hopefully hold on to his assistants – especially Jessie Minter for the defense. I must say that there should be a rule that college coaches who depart for the NFL are not allowed to poach their assistants from the school. Somehow that seems unfair although I suppose the new incoming head coach could choose to gut his staff anyway. Just feels wrong to me.

SU comment on college sports. Players should get paid – I have no issue with that. But the combination of NIL money and the transfer portal has ruined college football and basketball. It is very clear now that the top college football schools have to pony up millions of dollars to compete both for high school recruits and transfers. It is total free agency with no salary cap. Line up the boosters, give out the SUVs, bags of money. This is a good thing? As a fan, the disruption in rosters – especially for college hoops – with all of the transfers makes me less interested in watching. Part of the fun was rooting for your team’s freshmen to see how they develop over time. No more. SU is not loving this.

Djokovic went down in Australia to Sinner in a beatdown. He looked like an MLB starting pitcher who just did not have it – at all. Not to take anything away from Sinner who is a great, rising player but Djokovic had nothing. I cannot recall another time that he played that badly. Is it age catching up? Maybe but SU feels it’s a blip for him and something that will get his attention to not repeat it. Sinner is well coached and continues to add to his game. He is pure power but can now hit the topspin angle shots to move the opponent off the court. Tennis fans will be treated to the Alcaraz – Sinner rivalry for years to come. Fun to watch and both are good guys which SU appreciates.

Yankee fans remain in a holding pattern. This roster is a 90-win team. Are you excited?

At least NY fans have the Knicks who play hard every night and are a true team. They do need one more scorer to provide some cushion in the event of injury but they will contend in the East come April. And yes, NY fans have the Rangers! I know someone would have pointed that out to me.

Clearly, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic is reading SU. See what he wrote this afternoon about Marcus Stroman. 

Rosenthal: Yankees’ rotation additions must continue beyond Marcus Stroman – The Athletic

It is not a pretty picture.

So, the Yankees big move on the pitching front is to sign Marcus Stroman to a 2-year deal. He is the consummate .500 pitcher who is not a great clubhouse guy. And he is always injured. Otherwise, checks all of the boxes.

As a Yankee fan, SU does not see great things for the 2024 campaign – not with this rotation and not with a bullpen that is also in a rebuild. You can say the offense will bounce back with the trade for Soto and that may be true but they will need to be an offensive juggernaut this season to offset a really bad starting rotation. Cole was almost perfect in 2023 – it’s not fair to expect that level in 2024 although he will be very good. We still do not know if Rodon can pitch in New York, Clarke Schmidt may have reached his level which is OK, and Cortes is often hurt. Consider that starters are always getting hurt: is there any depth in the minor leagues? Or did they trade away 3 Major League starters in the Soto deal (the answer is yes).

Clearly, Cashman fully expected to land Yamamoto. A huge loss – just as not signing Ohtani originally was a huge loss several years ago. It’s become clear now that the Yankees can no longer outbid other teams for the top free agents, and that they will have to build talent through the farm system. SU likes that approach but they used many of the bargaining chips in the mid-season trades the last 2 seasons that landed Joey Gallo, Frankie Montas and other under-performers. 

The one guy who has value and is on the younger side is Gleyber Torres, and the Yankees have depth in the infield. Surely, some team has a younger pitcher and needs a solid 2nd baseman with power.

SU will be thrilled to be surprised and see Marcus Stroman win 15 games, pitch the full season and turn into a good guy. Just not feeling it, and not feeling like 2024 will be a season to remember. For older Yankee fans, it is starting to feel like the mid-late 1980s with a mis-matched team of stars and not being good enough to compete for a championship with a high payroll, i.e., the Don Mattingly era.

Prove me wrong.

Michigan put a bow on the season with a hard-fought win over Washington last night. As predicted by many, it came down to Michigan’s defense vs. the Washington high-powered offense, and the defense clearly won out.

Michigan jumped out early and then relied on its defense to hold the line in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. SU has seen games like this before this season – the Maryland game certainly comes to mind. Get the big, early lead and then rein in the offense by running it over and over again. As a fan, it is very frustrating (many on X would agree who were Xing last night about this. Btw, how stupid is the name X? Not a winning move). Washington loaded the box and dared Michigan to throw. JJ McCarthy was a bit jumpy in the pocket and seemed intent to always throw to the first option even though he had time in the pocket. After opening up the offense against Alabama, the game plan last night was overly conservative once they had the lead. I mean, at least run JJ McCarthy on the zone read plays as Washington was packing it in for the runs up the middle.

Penix had a few shots for big plays but he took a beating. He must have had bruised ribs by the end of the game as he was turning away after every throw to protect his mid-section. Washington is a fun team to watch with an imaginative offense and NFL-quality receivers. They were a deserving finalist but Michigan makes great defensive adjustments at half time every game, and last night was no exception. They held them to 3 points in the 2nd half which is pretty amazing for that offense.

SU will enjoy this one. The NCAA will do its NCAA things next season in the way of penalties, etc. Btw, keep an eye on the Catapult software scandal where some some college team or teams stole information from other teams. Both Alabama and Michigan were victims of this one which goes back a couple of years. 

Harbaugh may jump to the NFL now feeling he has restored the Michigan program and it’s the right time to fulfill his NFL dreams. He certainly has the right to do that. If he leaves, it won’t be that Michigan’s contract offer was not big enough ($12 million a year for 10 years or something like that?). For SU, it feels like the NFL style of play has passed him by and he is also very high maintenance so owners should beware. SU believes the smart move in the NFL these days is to hire the younger coordinators but for sure, some owners will be tempted to go after guys like Harbaugh, Belichick, etc. SU also feels that JJ McCarthy could certainly use another year of college ball as he is not as dominant as some of the other quarterbacks coming out this year. This is a QB rich draft and he will be better positioned next season.

If Harbaugh does leave, SU believes Michigan would elevate Sherrone Moore to head coach, and even though he might not be 100% ready, he can grow into the job. And I know high school kids will want to play for him. Of course, next year’s schedule features games with preseason top-10 ranked teams: Ohio State; Oregon; Washington; and Texas. For SU, I would much prefer to see those games against high quality teams vs. the Arkansas States.

Great season for the Michigan fans (and it will help to cover up for a bad basketball team this year). Go Blue!

A Happy New Year to the SU intergalactic subscriber base!

SU knows that the NFL is the pre-eminent professional sports league, and by far the most popular of the pro sports leagues in the US. But for SU, when it comes to what are really fun and memorable games, you cannot beat college football. 

Yesterday (and early this morning up to 1 am for those of you keeping score at home), we were treated to 2 epic games. Note to ESPN: these are 4-hour games. Maybe start the Rose Bowl an hour earlier? Michigan – Alabama was a true slugfest with the Big Ten, for a change, playing a physical game on defense against a powerhouse SEC team. Michigan’s defense won the game for them, the offense held its own and special teams tried to give it away. SU must admit that extra points were incredibly stressful the entire 2nd half and the punts? Whoa.

At the end of regulation, Harbaugh put in his sure hands punt returner after a huge muffed punt in the 1st half led to an Alabama touchdown. But he decided trying to catch it inside the 5-yard line was a good idea at that point. Crazy. But that is why SU loves college football. It’s the dumb plays made by youngsters on the big stage. These are not professionals and they are doing their best under pressure. It makes it unpredictable and so much fun. Now, truth be told, it was more “fun” that Jake Thaw somehow recovered his muff on the 1-yard line vs. losing the game in the last minute.

A few comments on the Rose Bowl:

1. The game was played on grass and no doubt there is some moisture on the grass late in the afternoon and early evening in Pasadena. The centers and long snappers had some issues and SU believes the grass was a factor. In overtime, there is no way that Michigan would have attempted a field goal under any circumstances. It would have been touchdown or bust.
2. Alabama made some good adjustments at half time and pretty much stopped throwing the ball down the field in the 2nd half. It was all quarterback runs and short passes from there on out. SU says Jalen Milroe is overrated as a passer and that was exposed last night. He is a dynamic runner though and on that 4th down play in OT, you knew he was going to keep it. You win or lose with your best player. Luckily, Michigan was thinking that way as well.
3. SU was happy that Michigan, finally, unveiled some more creative plays on offense vs. what they show in the regular season. Their execution on some was not there but credit them for trying. Putting players in motion on most plays also helped to throw off Alabama in the secondary as they struggled to figure out who to cover.
4. There is satisfaction in watching Nick Saban get pissed off on the sideline.
5. In a sport where technology is available, SU has to laugh at how referees spot the ball on the field after a play. It is so haphazard. On one play, the ref just dropped the ball on the ground while signaling for a timeout as it rolled away several yards. He went over, picked it up and just put it down in the vicinity of where it was. And ruling where the runner goes out of bounds on the sideline? It’s plus/minus one yard on many plays.
6. The refs let ’em play last night. Very few penalties and that was enjoyable. Sure, they missed a few plays but it was nice not see so many flags thrown.

The Sugar Bowl game was wild. Washington has an amazing offense and an amazingly bad pass defense. They were hurt late in the game when their top running back was hurt on a 3rd down run that would have run the clock down to about 15 seconds. That allowed Texas to mount one more wild drive to the red zone. If the running back did not get hurt, that does not happen. Bad luck for them and now he is likely out for the championship game.

A Michigan – Washington finals is actually an all-Big Ten final going forward. And these two teams play each other in Seattle later this year. Good stuff. While the SEC is still the best conference, the additions of UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington to the Blue Bloods of Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State put these two conferences on an even plane now I think.

Next Monday will be Michigan’s defense trying to stop Washington’s high flying offense. They failed miserably last season in a very similar situation vs. TCU. Very similar. But you have to figure they learned some things from that experience.

For Michigan, still unclear if Harbaugh returns next season as there will be NFL slots opening up, and he may still have the itch. JJ McCarthy may also opt out for the draft although next year’s draft has fewer top QBs in it, and he should probably stay one more year. He has his moments but also has his other moments.

Finally, a year from now, we will only be in the quarterfinals of the college football playoffs. The finals are slated for January 20th. But the 12-team format will be great. Perhaps players will actually opt in to play vs. sitting the bowl games out? Btw, given the number of injuries in football, SU has no issues with that.