1.) I’m told Manuel’s message to the team was the hope is to have the “search” over by the weekend. They weren’t told specifically that Manuel hoped specifically to hire
Sherrone Moore, but that was the assumption many in the room left. Some even believe the hire could happen as soon as tomorrow.
2.) I’d mentioned that Moore’s hire would protect Michigan’s roster from the portal, and while I still believe that to be true, it’s true to a point. Players won’t enter the portal immediately if Moore is named coach in the way many would if a totally fictitious candidate like
Brian Kelly were hired. But that doesn’t mean all of them would continue being able to resist the tampering/poaching/inducing (or whatever you want to call it) going on right now. The NCAA offers little to no protection from such efforts. The only protection against is to insulate the players as much as you can with your own NIL push. That effort is afoot by the collectives, especially The Champion’s Circle.
3.) In recent weeks I’ve mentioned the lack of big money initiative to keep JJ McCarthy around another year. More specifically, the lack of a pre-season or in-season big donor push to make it financially enticing for him to stay. I’m told The Champion’s Circle did its best to make a “one more year” push for McCarthy prior to him making his choice (and to be clear, I’m not suggesting a bigger offer definitely would’ve changed his mind or that he or his family made an issue of it, because they didn’t). Folks who love Michigan need to know the collectives are doing what they can. The Champions Circle had several successful fundraisers (with support from the athletic department) during the playoff run. I’m told they had a final tally well into the seven figures. That’s great, but I’m told Michigan fans shouldn’t be lulled into thinking that’s sufficient because the team won the title. What was highlighted to me is the need for more of the big check writers to understand that the NIL support, while improved, is far from enough. More money is needed
immediately to stave off the poaching attempts. Ironically, there was good news coming out of McCarthy’s decision to go pro. It left more money in the collective kitty for retention deals. That helps. And now some of the big money donors have heard the call and are looking to increase their involvement to meet the need. I hope to have more intel on that in the coming days, so stay tuned.
4.) Another oft discussed topic today was who Moore’s assistant coaches would be. At the moment, offensive players have a better feel for who would be running things on their side of the ball than the defensive players do. Consistent with
my prior reporting, offensive sources shared with me their expectation for
Kirk Campbell to be named offensive coordinator and for
Grant Newsome to be named offensive line coach (assuming Moore is named head coach, of course).
5.) There is less clarity on the defensive side where the players clearly expect
Jesse Minter to head to the NFL. If
Sherrone Moore is named head coach as expected, I’m hearing he’ll place a premium on maintaining the Ravens scheme that Minter (and
Mike Macdonald before him) confounded opponents with the last three years. That’s true even if a defensive coordinator is brought in from outside the staff and outside the Ravens tree. In that case, the defensive coordinator would be charged with learning the scheme so the players wouldn’t have to change anything. You should expect such a candidate to be a seasoned coach/play-caller for whom the “learn the scheme” requirement wouldn’t be a big a hurdle.
As always, stay tuned
Ravens scheme
. Young dudes haven't put in the work nor played a snap making a mil+
. What happens if injury hits? You created a culture of jealously
. That O-line will be about the same. We'll see how the rosters shake out after spring ball
The media was so ridiculous "Alabama was there to serve justice the judge &jury" Guess who the executioner was 
