Wow - awful second week...I guess that would be us too typically playing Central Michigan or Connecticut. I'm anxious to see App State play Clempsum...love to see that upset happen and Dabo get the boot (I heard his buyout is close to $60 million this year and next so probably won't happen unless they have a billionaire alum).

Just talked to 2026 LB Cam Thomas, who was at Michigan over the weekend for the opener in what was a small list of visitors.

Will have a story up tomorrow morning, but the way Thomas talked about the attention the staff gave him and how he felt like a priority on the visit was telling to me.

He had extensive conversations with coach Moore, along with a sit down meeting with Brian Jean-Mary along with other activities as well.

A small visitors group makes it a bit easier to pay closer attention to all of the guys there, but I came away impressed that the staff really made sure they were making it a point to tend to Thomas and the other recruits on campus even while juggling Gameday responsibilities.

Anybody have anything. Have family in from Florida need two more tickets IM me.

It’s going to be a long season if this o line doesn’t step up!! This is hard to watch.

The offense got better as the game went on. I know Davis won't have the numbers, but he was okay for his first start ever. He was accurate on most of his throws. Unfortunately, he had some drops. For a little while, it looked like nobody wanted to help him. I've seen enough to have hope.

Donovan looked like Donovan early last year. The truth is, he needs some space to operate. Tonight, he didn't see much space. Mullings is a Hoss. He looks like the kind of back that gets better with more carries.

Loveland is a freak, but we need other pass catchers to step up.

Switching the center out made a difference for the o-line.

I wasn't in love with the playcalling. Some of Orji's insertions worked, and some killed drives. The drive where he threw the ball into the turf was a drive where we had serious momentum and wasted it.

The D was great, but why would you have #2 on the sidelines for half a quarter?

If I had to pick today, I would say TX wins in the Big House.

Last night I was fairly inebriated and was more annoyed than I typically would be. After thinking back on the game this morning, a few things stood out.

1. Warren wasn’t great, but he could have been taking a conservative approach. He’s gotta sort out the deep ball to keep Ds from crowding the box. At this point, and it could change, he’s not winning us a game. He just has to be a good game manager.

2. The OL still has potential. They struggled at times but to be expected game 1. Key will be to develop, and I trust Moore in that dept.

3. Mullings looked great. But I’m not as down on DE as others. He needs to get in a groove and he kept coming in and out.

4. Play calling was odd offensively. I almost feel like they were “working on stuff” as opposed to a typical game plan. Like trying to see what Warren can handle. The TD to go up 23-10 was more like what we have done recently. That felt “normal”, as opposed to the entire first half.

5. There is a chance Fresno is actually a good team. Some of it was us, but they also played well. And they have had success as a program in the past, like a poor man’s Boise State. I’ll be curious to follow them.

6. Next week will be telling. I do think the defense is elite, but we need to be a grind it out run team offensively. Take time off the clock and let the D do their thing.

"I feel like going into the season, me and Dono always viewed it as kind of a team thing."

Instead of worrying about who is "RB1," Kalel Mullings said he and Donovan Edwards have been focusing how they can get the job done together in the Michigan backfield.

Story on how that played out in Week 1 against Fresno State and why the Wolverines will continue to use both of their skillsets against defenses as the season moves forward:

So, I'll start with this and say that the performance was much closer to a 40-45-point offensive night than most people realize. I agree with Sherrone that they will get better. While there were a ton of mistakes, to be expected with Week 1, it was mostly one guy or one thing that took a chunk of play away.

Davis Warren
I am down more than initially thought on Davis Warren's performance. While I thought he was poised and threw a good ball, he was predetermining his throws and wasn't going through his progressions. He had a few plays that were there to Semaj and Morgan in particular that were developing with good protection around him. His internal clock was going off too fast - perhaps due to playing our defense all summer/camp. I do think he can be a good quarterback. This was his first real action in any game, as most backups at least get garbage time. From that perspective, he played well.

I'm slightly disappointed in the coaches with the personnel decisions and rotation. While I'm hoping that it was pre-determined for this game, that hasn't been the case historically. I have no interest in seeing other WRs besides Semaj and Morgan unless they need a blow. There is no reason to play Kendrick Bell or O'Leary while guys like Klein and DE sit on the sideline. You need to do a better job of formulating your game plan to maximize your best players as opposed to fitting a system.

Other random thoughts

- As Expected, Mullings will be our workhouse back - Edwards was fine, not great, but I thought it was telling that Mullings was the back in crunch time. Hoping those two can play together more
- Orji missed two chuck plays in the 3rd Q with his legs. Just needed to follow his blocks
- Loveland is now a complete TE - He does a much better job of inline blocking this year
- Giudice plays way too high. Got blown off the ball on a few plays, including that 3rd and inches. Surprised he beat out Crippen with that effort
- Priebe had a below-average game, too - expected better from a 3-year starter. El-Hadi was fine outside of that sack he gave up
- Link and Hinton had SOLID games - Link looks like he's going to be a stud and did a fantastic job on former 5 star Foreman
- When the O line decided enough was enough, they moved folks off the ball. A promising sign of things to come.
- Fresno is a good team, and we didn't take them seriously.

I do expect a much better game plan/product next week, and Once Warren slows his clock down, the offense will show much better. UT is going to have to be one-dimensional to beat us.

If the offense can control the clock and get Semaj, Morgan, and DE more involved, we will win next week.

Nothing earth shattering but...

- Thought Fresno's WR's made a couple of touch catches which helped keep some of their drive alive. Not much you can do as a DB when they make plays like that but tip you cap ad get them on the next play.

- Thought our DB's played very fast early in the game and when they arrived, they hit the WR's. Took it's toll IMO and was nice to see we still flow to the ball, not that I expected anything any different.

- Good to see Rolder get some PT. Good compliment to our LB starters.

- Granted Fresno is a pass first offense, but our run defense was very strong. Some good play by Benny too, which was nice to see

- Doman is a great weapon on KO's and punts. No deposit, No Return is always welcome.

- Nice to have the transfer portal players contribute. While they will all play an important role, Zvada is a special weapon offensively.

- watching Warren's interception, it looked like he didn't step up or into throw but tried more with just his arm as he was sort of spinning left to right. a mistake often made by younger QB's.

The opposition D would be freaked…I hope.
What say you?

For others that were at the game, am I correct in observing that they completely removed Jim Harbaugh from the pregame video narrated by James Earl Jones? If so…that’s a choice.

Lots of things to improve on. Offense looked better in the second half. Baby steps today. Next week will be a tough game. Defense will have to play lights out. Mulling in RB#1 to me
He just moves the ball better.

Just comically ridiculous. That's Oscar worthy stuff right there by Mikey. Refs were bad.

Sec 24, Row 78. Less than anything on Seat Geek, no Fee but over face.

IM me if interested.

Looks like quite a few teams have some work to do I will say Penn State QB looks pretty good. Oregon certainly didn’t hold their offense together like a top rank team.


It’s going to be a very interesting season Michigan looking for new offensive outlets and strengthening the defense.

Rave reviews on our new kicker he was phenomenal.

Might be first game jitters for the coaching staff too. Others have discussed the rotations which look… uneven ! A lot of small things seemed baffling… one example is having Mullings run bacon KO and then hand him the ball on the first play.. he was gassed ea time. Plenty of others but that was silly and wasted 1st down ea time

Despite offensive struggles, Michigan used a strong defensive effort and a big fourth quarter to pull away from Fresno State and come away with a 30-10 win at the Big House on Saturday night.

Here are three takeaways from the victory:

A new report about the Michigan sign-stealing scandal has left more questions than answers regarding the situation.

On Wednesday night, The Washington Post’s Will Hobson published a report regarding the circumstances of how the NCAA opened its investigation into Michigan’s football team for allegedly stealing opponents’ signs using illegal means.

The report states that an “outside investigative firm” began investigating Michigan this season. The investigative firm somehow gained access to “computer drives maintained and accessed by multiple Michigan coaches.”

The firm used that access to build evidence against the Wolverines. The outside investigative firm then met with the NCAA on October 17 and effectively handed over the case against Michigan on a silver platter. A day after the firm presented to the NCAA, the NCAA opened its investigation. The Big Ten and NCAA both publicly announced on October 19 that Michigan was being investigated for an allegedly illegal sign-stealing operation. On October 20, Michigan announced that it had suspended employee Connor Stalions with pay. Stalions was named as the person allegedly behind the sign-stealing operation.


There are a few pressing questions that have arisen as a result of Hobson’s story.

Who hired and paid for an “outside investigative firm” to look into Michigan’s alleged sign-stealing operation? And how did that investigative firm gain access to the “computer drives maintained and accessed by multiple Michigan coaches”?

Were these computer drives just cloud-based drives, like Dropbox or Google Drive, where anyone with the link could easily access it? Or were these more proprietary/internal drives that only people with the proper credentials should have access to? If it’s the latter, some wondered whether the access was somehow obtained in the August hack of University of Michigan computer systems. Some also wondered whether the drives were somehow accessed through Matt Weiss, who was fired in January over computer access crimes.

Someone wanted to get Michigan in trouble, built an entire case, and handed it over to the NCAA. Who was behind that outside investigation, and how they accessed the computer drives, are important questions.

ARTICLE LINK

?

If you give the job to Warren, then sprinkle in Orji, it’s effective. You can’t start Orji, then sprinkle in Warren on passing downs. The defense would tee off on any play that Warren enters on.

This is the smart play. But it also means they don’t have a ton of confidence in Orji throwing the ball yet.

Maybe this is stating the obvious, but I do respect Moore for making the decision. Some coaches would have forced the decision to start Orji and if it failed, turned to Warren. If that didn’t go well, you have a qb controversy that could split the team. This way, they could both be in a position to succeed.