But there are guys from central or south Fla who go to Alabama. Although this is clearly closer than Ohio State or Penn State, it's not like the family can get there without either flying or taking time off from work, which is what they'd have to do to see a game up north. I suppose the one Florida game at Gainesville that MIGHT happen during the kud's college career makes the difference.

He announced a 12/1 commitment date - plenty of time for him to see Combs/Ohio State's development of the next round of great CBs, including the top-rated one for the 2021 draft.

A guy tells his doctor "it hurts when I poke here," (pointing to his neck) "and here," (pointing to his wrist) "and here," (pointing to his knee) "and here," (pointing to his hip) "and also here" (pointing to his chest). "Of course it does," replies the doctor. "You have a broken finger."

Quite frankly, I don't care. There ability and potential won't change based on where they are ranked.

I think the rules say that a player has to have had medical issues that kept him from playing for two years in order to get the sixth year. Not knowing what happened with him early in his career, I've always wondered what his rationale would be (not that the NCAA is known for consistently adhering to its own rules). Tough for him.

Yeah, I know. I forgot to apply.

I doubt it. He could very well be the backup at do it receiver, and that's where he has the highest upside.

Deepest, but mostly untested (unlike the OL which returns 3 starters).

You're probably right. I'm just hoping that, up in being put on a short leash after a 7 or 8 win season, he "turns it around" the following year, with 11 wins, or 10 wins while getting "this close" to beating Ohio State, making it to Indianapolis or winning a major bowl, so that his contract has been renewed and they're not ready to can him when he slides a bit to 9 wins the subsequent year. Granted, it's really walking a tightrope to be "just good eno7gh" not to get fired without actually achieving the sought-after accomplishments.

I hope he keeps winning 10-11 games every 2nd or 3rd year (winning 8-9 in most off-years, with an occasional 7-win season) so they keep him around for a long time. "Just good enough Jim." "Ferentz of the north" (but without the C.O.Y. awards).

Many top coaches have NEVER won the Pinstripe Bowl, so that's an accomplishment that can't be overlooked.

If Ms. James doesn't get several job offers after this, my faith in humanity will take yet another hit.

I think it depends in part on whether they can field a decent QB, perhaps via this thing called the transfer portal (i'm not sure if they have anyone with potential backing up Joey B). They have talent, but i'm not sure how that offense looks without a top QB (and without that offense, they revert back to 2017). Then to lo lose the DC and the guy not actually the OC but who really was responsible for the offense does give Orgeron a challenge.

I said previously that Mattison should receive credit for developing Winovich. He IS a good coach, just not as good a DL coach as Johnson (my opinion, backed by many others who consider him the best). But to compare his numbers (and therefore hid conference honors) to those of Winovich is unfair, because Ohio State was so stacked at DL (with players developed by LJ) that even as a starter he played little more than half the snaps. And there's a phenomenon when you have lots of great pass rushers - sometimes one guy loses a sack simply because another guy was a hair quicker, illustrated in one (admittedly extreme) case at the end of a PSU OT game when Hubbard, Bosa, Lewis and Holmes converged on the QB almost simultaneously - but only 2 of the 4 were credited with half a sack each, sort of like this year when Young 'stole' a number of sacks from teammates.

Sam Hubbard had no experience at DE (and inferior physical gifts to Gary's) and after bouncing from LB to TE to DE at Ohio State, and then 3 years with LJ, became a starting DE in his 1st year in the NFL. What it was at Michigan that didn't allow Gary to get developed I don't know - overall culture, strength and conditioning program, position coach, what he was asked to do in the defensive scheme. Maybe it was Mattison, maybe it wasn't. It just didn't happen. I still believe LJ to be the better DL coach. But I think that Mattison is showing positive results at Ohio State as co-DC. Although there are exceptions, there DOES seem to be a problem generally with player development at Michigan. That's not MY read as a Buckeye fan; that's the read of lots if Michigan fans at Mgoblog. A HC who is paid as much as Harbaugh should be able to fix it. That he hasn't is ok by me. Go Bucks!

How about comparing Gary to Sam Hubbard (who played safety, and lacrosse in h.s.) and has started and thrived for 2 years in the NFL? Or to Tyquan Lewis, a lower-ranted recruit who was a Big Ten DL of the year? On the interior, Dre'mont Jones is off to a great start in the NFL after a good college career, and Davon Hamilton who will likely join him this year (after starting as a 3-star recruit), and Adolphus Easington and Michael Bennet (the other one) who've had modest NFL careers. Snd then there is the girls of of talent he developed at PSU (sorry - I don't follow them closely enough to remember names. My point is not to demean Mattison. He had some great players in his career (like back when he was with Meyer), and should rightly get credit for developing Winovich at Michigan. My point is that, currently (and recently) LJ is pretty much the best there is at DL development, and that Mattison was brought to Ohio State as a DC (or co-DC). The right mix of coaches produced a dramatic improvement in the Buckeye defense.

I figured he was just upset about Tressell bullying Michigan.

Yes, and there's no doubt that Mattison us nowhere the DL coach that LJ is, but that's not what he was brought to Columbus to do.

In no way did I mean to imply by "second hand" that the players are second rate. "Second hand" merely refers to the program being their second stop. Clearly to be at Ohio State they were talented. Given the ceiling that you can expect for a non-P5 program recruiting players out of high school (how often does a non-P5 team ever rank above the 40s in team recruiting rankings?), Cinci (or any other non-P5 program) can upgrade its talent pool by finding these very talented players who just couldn't get on the field much at a top program. That's why having such a pipeline would be so valuable for Fick.

I'm sorry I missed that. What did he call him out for -bullying?

Bad coaching/player development is a collective thing, encompassing the culture established from the top, the strength and conditioning program, and then (of course) the individual coaches. You CAN have good individual coaches in a bad program, just as you can have bad individual coaches in a good program (in the latter case, a good HC will weed them out). I think Mattison's strength (in Day's eyes) was more as a DC than a position coach (meaning, essentially that Harbaugh used him the wrong way) and Washington was merely a short term staff member up north. So stealing these two is in no way contrary to the narrative about Michigan coaching.

If I were a player and got the kind of abuse he gets from the team's fan base, I might consider it.

This is totally different, 'cause "transfer portal" wasn't mentioned in your title.

Thanks, Joshua for your effort, for competing, and coming up big in your first start.

There will be others leaving. Just look at the depth chart to see who's buried already, in some cases with studs coming in who could jump them.