Jim
Harbaugh
knows
Michigan has to beat Ohio
State. Don Brown is falling
right behind him in line.
“I think coach (Harbaugh)
addressed the Ohio State issue
yesterday, am I right?” Brown
said on a Zoom call with
reporters. “So he’s the boss,
that’s what he said, that’s what
I’m gonna try to do.”
Speaking on Mike Tirico’s
show Wednesday, Harbaugh
said,
“Nothing
makes
us
angrier,” than losing to Ohio
State. Over the last decade,
though, that’s become almost
a yearly occurrence, as the
Wolverines have lost eight in a
row against the Buckeyes.
Lately, much of the issues
have come as a result of the
defense Brown coordinates.
In 2018, Ohio State put up
62 points on Michigan in
Columbus, and last November,
it was 56, both leading to
blowout victories for a program
that has become accustomed to
beating the Wolverines.
“I don’t blame players for
anything, OK?” Brown said.
“You blame the old guy, right
here. OK? I gotta do a better
job of getting our players ready
and I promise you I’m going
to.”
Last spring, Brown struck
a similar tone when asked
about the Ohio State game,
and it didn’t lead to much
improvement. His defense,
in other games, has been one
of the best in the country.
Michigan
ranked
11th
in
defensive SP+ last season
and has consistently been in
or around the top 10 since
Brown’s arrival in Ann Arbor.
But against bigger, better
teams — the kind Michigan
needs to beat to vault itself into
the higher tier of programs in
the country — the defense has
fallen short.
Last year, prior to Ohio
State,
those
shortcomings
came against Wisconsin and
Penn State, two road games
in which the Wolverines fell
short.
“We had four to five bad run
fits, two bad plays in the pass
game (against Wisconsin),”
Brown said. “And we’re out of
the football game.”
A few bad plays is all it takes
against a high-caliber team.
At Wisconsin, that meant a
72-yard touchdown run for
Jonathan Taylor, part of a 203-
yard performance on the day.
At Penn State, it was a coverage
miscommunication resulting
in a 53-yard K.J. Hamler score.
In the Citrus Bowl against
Alabama, it was an 85-yard
score by Jerry Jeudy on the
first play of the game.
That’s the gap Brown now
needs to bridge, between good
and great.
“We took all the pieces of
that (Alabama) game that
are negative, and I promise
you, we’re gonna practice
those plays against assorted
looks,” Brown said. “And we
took the same thing from the
Ohio State game and we’ll be
practicing against those plays,
too, because in that scenario,
again — it’s college football.
When you’re not successful,
it’s eight or nine plays, or it’s
a group of plays that you just
want back.”
There are positives from
which to build, and Brown will
talk about them passionately,
even from the spare bedroom
of his house in Cape Cod over
a video call. The Wolverines
came off that shellacking at
Wisconsin and held Iowa to
just three points, with eight
sacks and 14 tackles for loss.
They held Penn State to 72
yards in the second half and
came within a goal-line stand
of forcing overtime in a white
out. They hung with Alabama
for three quarters.
That’s not nothing. Neither
is winning nine games and
finishing just outside the top 10
as a defense. But it’s not where
Brown, or Harbaugh, want
to be. Especially if it means
another embarrassing loss to
Ohio State in 2020.
“Once again, the Ohio State
game was a huge negative for
us,” Brown said. “So I’m not
gonna live in that world. And
I don’t want the players to live
in that world. We acknowledge
it, we move on from it, and
hopefully I do a better job.”
Bakich spearheads proposal to change college baseball schedule
Michigan coach Erik Bakich’s motto of “You can’t get hot
if you don’t start cold” might need to change soon, should a
proposal he’s spearheading to change the structure of college
baseball be accepted.
The proposal, penned by Bakich and several other prominent
coaches, and released on May 21, is still in its infancy and has yet
to be formally presented to NCAA legislators. However, Bakich
feels optimistic that it will be met with a positive response by the
NCAA because Michigan Athletic Director Warde Manuel has
been very supportive of his ideas.
This proposal hopes to solve many problems within college
baseball, especially in the wake of COVID-19, by limiting the
budget damage of an incredibly expensive program to operate
and helping athletes thrive both on and off the field.
The proposal aims to push back opening day by four weeks,
from mid-February to mid-March, allowing northern schools
like Michigan to start their season by playing home games,
instead of spending their first month on the road. This change
would come with a corresponding extension four weeks later
into summer — with the Men’s College World Series ending in
mid-July.
This is not a new concept, and different ideas of pushing back
the college baseball season have existed for years. But with the
impending financial burdens due to COVID-19, this proposal
not only makes sense for cold-weather schools, but for warm-
weather ones as well.
A major impetus for this proposal is the large amount of
money that can be saved by eliminating the early season road
trips consistently taken by northern teams. Additionally,
warm-weather schools won’t need to hand out hefty financial
guarantees in order to make the travel feasible for the cold-
weather schools.
“Athletic directors and administrators around the country
have a concept of more regionalized scheduling, not just in
baseball, but among a lot of teams,” Bakich said in a video press
conference. “(This would help by) cutting down travel budgets,
improving student welfare by not taking these long trips and
jeopardizing their academics and missed class time.”
Over the last five years, Michigan spent on average $232,000
on travel costs during the first four weekends of the season.
Should the proposal pass, Michigan could add eight to 12 home
games each season, which would save approximately $60,000 to
$75,000 per season.
“It’s going to be really hard to invest in a sport that loses
money every year that operates at such a significant financial net
loss,” Bakich said. “And I’m not talking about a loss of 100,000
bucks. I’m talking about seven figures of net loss.”
The benefits for cold weather schools are obvious, but Bakich
emphasized in the proposal how the schedule change would help
warm weather schools as well. According to the data presented
in the proposal, teams across the country have much higher
attendance in April and May as opposed to February and March
— due to both poor weather and the finale of the basketball
seasons.
For Michigan, Ray Fisher Stadium rarely reaches capacity
until late April and May, when students have already left and
there’s only a couple more weeks left in the season. Bakich
argues that even the general baseball fan and families, which
make up most of the attendance at games and subsequently the
revenue, don’t associate baseball season until the beginning of
the MLB season.
The financial aspect of this proposal has helped it earn
attention, but Bakich emphasized that Michigan players, and
players across the country, stand to gain from this academically
and in terms of their overall well-being.
Michigan, for example, will benefit from fewer early-season
road trips because their student-athletes won’t have to miss
classes and won’t have the same level of stress on their bodies
from travelling.
With a pushed back start date, players will also have more
time to properly condition their bodies leading up to the season,
leading to fewer injuries.
“Student welfare should be enough to stand alone and make
it pass,” Bakich said. “But now that you have finances attached
to it that has real traction with athletic departments and athletic
directors and administrators looking for ways to improve their
bottom lines.”
Student-athletes would lose four more weeks of their summer
with the proposed schedule, but it allows players to have a longer
off-season in the fall, which would benefit their academics
greatly.
The change in off-season would also affect coaches’ recruiting
calendars. Coaches typically focus their recruiting efforts
through the duration of the summer and many expressed their
concerns about how the change in schedule would affect their
recruiting ability.
However, Bakich said that the teams that make postseason
runs, and thus would lose most of their summer, would actually
benefit from the exposure they receive. Bakich found TV
exposure was more beneficial than time spent on the recruiting
trail.
Having discussed the proposal with the team’s upperclassmen,
Bakich is optimistic about their response and those of other
players around the country and hopes it will translate to the
decision makers in the NCAA.
“(The players) were very, very excited about it, as they should
be,” Bakich said. “As a cold weather team, not that we need the
season moved back to have any type of success, but the idea of
packing Ray Fisher stadium with a game in June… would be so
awesome.”
Bakich and the other coaches that created this proposal set
an aggressive timeline to implement these changes, hoping for
them to be put in place before the 2022 season.
ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor
Don Brown says he has to do better getting players ready for OSU
LILY ISRAEL AND JACOB COHEN
Daily Sports Writers
12
Thursday, May 28, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTS
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Michigan coach Erik Bakich takes lead on proposal pushing back season.