Posts under: homepage

Visitors: December 13-15, 2019

2020

Jordan Morant – S – Oradell (NJ) Bergen Catholic: Morant is committed to Michigan (LINK).

Makari Paige – S – West Bloomfield (MI) West Bloomfield: Paige is committed to Michigan (LINK). This is his official visit.

Andre Seldon, Jr. – CB – Belleville (MI) Belleville: Seldon is committed to Michigan (LINK). This is his official visit.

Dan Villari – QB – Massapequa (NY) Plainedge: Villari is a 6’4″, 215 lb. prospect with FBS offers from Buffalo, Kent State, and UMass. He was previously committed to Fordham, an FCS program. He’s a 247 Sports 3-star, the #40 pro-style quarterback, and #1239 overall, but the other major sites have not ranked him. He took an official to UMass last weekend and will take this official to Michigan, which means this is not a “blueshirt” situation. Michigan has already offered him a grayshirt opportunity, which means that he would not be on the team and start his eligibility until 2021. From anecdotal evidence, the majority of “grayshirt” guys seem to end up with straight-up scholarships by the following fall due to guys transferring out, getting injured, etc. The most recent example in Michigan’s case is kicker Jake Moody, who was supposed to grayshirt until some people transferred out; Moody then ended up on scholarship for his freshman year in 2018 and played quite a bit.

Hit the jump for more on Villari.

What I’ve Been Eating

I don’t talk much about my personal life and such, but after football season, I have a chance to delve into areas of self-improvement that I can’t necessarily address during the season. Honestly, it’s hard to eat healthy and exercise during football season when you’re busy all the time, up late, eating team meals consisting largely of pasta, etc.

Lately I’ve been really big into implementing some new health and nutrition routines. I’ve been listening to a lot of Ben Greenfield Fitness and Genius Foods podcasts from Ben Greenfield and Max Lugavere, respectively. I had previously been doing some intermittent fasting, but I’m doing that a little more intensely and messing with some new foods and supplements. I don’t do dry fasts, but my longest (water-only) fast has been 36 hours.

To incorporate some healthier fats, I’ve been cooking eggs in grass-fed butter or coconut oil. I’ve started supplementing with spirulina, as well as using pea protein (I used to use whey and/or casein).

A couple of my favorite items I’ve purchased have been a grounding mat and some blue-blocking glasses. I read some reports about grounding and have used that method to deal with some inflammation, particularly tendinitis, and it has worked really well. The blue-blocking glasses have been helpful; they reportedly help increase melatonin production in the evening, which helps you fall asleep faster. I’m regularly sitting on a computer, watching sports, and/or scrolling Twitter, so all that blue light from those screens can mess with my circadian rhythms.

As far as exercise goes, I’ve always lifted weights, done some cardio, and played a fair amount of basketball. Recently I set some personal weightlifting records.

Anyway, I’m always looking to improve myself and learn new things. What health and fitness choices have you made recently? What healthy food(s) are you eating? Are any of you doing intermittent fasting? Does anyone have any good book or podcast suggestions?

Tarik Black, Ex-Wolverine

Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Tarik Black has entered the transfer portal. Depending on whether or not he graduates by the time he departs, he may or may not need to sit out a year in order to play.

Hit the jump for more.

Who’s available in the 2020 transfer portal?

Some interesting names have popped up in the transfer portal recently. It’s impossible to keep up with this stuff – so don’t expect anything superhuman – but it’s something interesting to consider for Michigan, who could use some immediate help at defensive tackle (if Carlo Kemp leaves) and cornerback, if not other spots.

So here, my friends, is a list of players transferring who were offered by Michigan out of high school, as well as some notes on a few of them.

What I’ve Been Reading: Concrete Blonde

During football season I need a little bit of escapist reading, since real life is just so busy. It’s odd, but all (or most) of my football reading takes place outside of football season. I’m someone who needs a little bit of balance in my life, so I can’t drown myself in football books when I have practice and games for three hours a day – not to mention the football blog.

So that’s where Concrete Blonde, a Harry Bosch novel by Michael Connelly, fit into my days. I had read The Black Echo and The Black Ice previously, but Concrete Blonde finally got me interested in the Bosch series on Amazon Prime Video, which I binge-watched over the past couple weeks. I wondered how the show would match up with the first three Bosch novels, and it turns out the show just weaves a bunch of different book plots into each season. This particular book is about a serial killer who kills young blonde women. Bosch finds the serial killer and shoots him (this is not a spoiler), but then a copycat killer appears years later.

If you’re looking for a show to binge on, Bosch is a good pick. The reason I held off so long was because I just couldn’t buy into Titus Welliver as a lead actor. But after reading the books, I saw that Welliver was actually a good fit.

What am I reading right now? The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Black List by Brad Thor.