Steve Brownlee

Looking at this University of Michigan football coaching situation, specifically a story we ran in Tuesday’s Sports section, got me thinking of parallels with what has happened at Northern Michigan University the past three years in both the football and hockey programs.

If you’ll remember, the Wolverines fired head coach Sherrone Moore last week for what it called credible evidence of an inappropriate relationship with a staffer, which spiraled out of control when Moore was subsequently arrested for allegedly going to the woman’s home, breaking in and threatening to kill himself.

None of that, nor the actual search for his replacement as head coach, really makes me think of NMU. Big-time coaches don’t really parallel what happened at just about any NCAA Division II school.

But the effort to keep both current players and incoming recruits did register with me.

Michigan had its interim head coach Jeff Poggi — who may not even remain with the Wolverines once a new head man is hired — get on a Zoom (internet) phone call “with the program’s signees and their parents just hours after Sherrone Moore was fired …”

That’s because every player in the program is, for 30 days after announcing the departure, able to enter the transfer portal, i.e., able to look around at any other school to attend.

Doubling down on that, the general NCAA transfer portal for football — that means any player from any school — opens on Jan. 2.

Now that second part would’ve been true even if Moore hadn’t been involved in all these rather shady dealings, but you’d think with a successful season with a stable coach there wouldn’t be a lot of that movement.

That’s all out the window now.

Poggi reassured players and parents that U-M athletic director Warde Manuel hoped to have a coach in place by the end of this month.

That’s kind of like the situation that Northern found itself in November 2022, when Kyle Nystrom announced his resignation, with Shane Richardson coming on board a little over a month later.

Without a whole lot of understanding of the transfer portal three years ago, I wondered at that time if it even applied to Division II sports. I found out it did.

And I wonder if anyone understood how many players might leave. While I don’t think it approached what happened to the Wildcats hockey team two years later, you have to remember the Northern football program was already a struggling team, at least in the win-loss column, and I remember hearing a year later that a couple former NMU defensive players had transferred to other D-II schools, one becoming an All-American and the other becoming a star for his new team in the D-II playoffs.

It came to light when those players — John McMullen and Tavion McCarthy — came back to Marquette to train at AdvantEdge Sports, hoping to catch the same “lightning in a bottle” that ex-Wildcat Jake Witt did in getting himself taken by the Indianapolis Colts in the NFL Draft in early 2023.

Those defections probably put Richardson behind the 8-ball for most if not all of his not quite three full seasons at NMU, where he went 1-30 before resigning prior to the final two games of last season.

At least when these football coaches resigned, their former teams had the general NCAA transfer portal in front of them to potentially pick up players from other programs to replace ones they lost.

Not with Northern’s hockey team, however.

When Grant Potulny left in June 2024, it was a good month AFTER the general NCAA portal closed in hockey, meaning that while every NMU player had the option of leaving due to the coaching change, the Wildcats really couldn’t pick up players from any other school, unless it was another school that had a coaching change at right around the same time.

I’m still in wonderment in how Dave Shyiak, not hired until just before the Fourth of July in ’24, was able to scour the college version of the “waiver wire” to fill last year’s team. Remember, he only had four players return from Potulny’s final team, picking up a full two dozen players in mid-summer.

One statement appearing well down in the University of Michigan story I thought was telling.

“Every day that a new coach isn’t in place, there’s a risk in more players asking for their released and current players planning to go in the portal,” said Allen Trieu, 247Sports national recruiting analyst.

Now let’s take a look at the NFL schedule this week:

Today, 8:15 p.m.

Los Angeles Rams at Seattle Seahawks — Wow, a really good game on a Thursday night; I’ll really miss not being able to watch it. However, if I make sure not to watch the internet or the ESPN crawl after about 11 p.m., I see the NFL Network will replay this game in its entirety at 12:15 a.m. Now that might be too late for you normal awake-during-the-day people, but my nightowlishness might pay off this time.

That has absolutely nothing to do with picking the winner of this game, however. Just a shot in the dark, give me the Rams, 28-24.

Saturday, 5 p.m.

Philadelphia at Washington — Aaah yes, it’s this late stage of the season when the NFL starts putting games on Saturdays. Will I watch today’s two NFL games, or the tripleheader of College Football Playoff games?

The answer — yes. As in I’ll be scrolling around at all these games for entire minutes at a time. I see myself watching one full scoring drive, and as soon as a player reaches the end zone, switching back over to the other game. This one might lose my attention fairly quickly, though, even if it’s competitive. Eagles, 33-26.

Saturday, 8:20 p.m.

Green Bay at Chicago — Aah, here’s the game to watch, even as a Lions fan, since the loser gives somebody for my Detroit team to try to catch. The combination of Packers’ injuries — especially Micah Parsons — and being in Chicago pushes me to take the Bears, 24-20.

Sunday, 1 p.m.

Buffalo at Cleveland — A number of bad teams seem to be perking up late in the season. But the Browns aren’t among them. Bills, 27-13.

Cincinnati at Miami — Put the Bengals in the unperkiness group, too, though I think quarterback Joe Burrow will try to rally them, just it won’t be enough, even with Miami starting Quinn Ewers at QB. Dolphins, 21-16.

Kansas City at Tennessee — With the Chiefs mourning the loss of QB Patrick Mahomes for the rest of this season and Tennessee being at home, I see the latter screwing up their overall No. 1 draft pick. Titans, 29-22.

Los Angeles Chargers at Dallas — Though the Cowboys are much better at home, L.A. has a lot more to play for — and a much, much, much, MUCH better defense. Chargers, 26-19.

Minnesota at New York Giants — If the Giants couldn’t even defeat struggling Washington last week, the same effort won’t beat anyone in the league. Vikings, 30-23.

New York Jets at New Orleans — New Orleans is blowing right past the competition for the No. 1 draft pick. Now they’re looking at No. 7 or 8 in the pecking order. Being at home, why not keep going? Saints, 19-14.

Tampa Bay at Carolina — The Bucs have been in free fall as of late, but Carolina isn’t exactly burning up the league either. So the home team makes the difference. Panthers, 26-23.

Sunday, 4 p.m.

Atlanta at Arizona — I guess when you have a lot of good teams playing each other, that leaves the dregs of the league also squaring off. Which dreg do I trust here? The Cardinals are in such a funk, I’ll take the road Falcons, 33-29.

Jacksonville at Denver — Teams that seem soft — or at least a little squishy — I wouldn’t expect to do as well against a hardened defensive unit like Denver’s. Broncos, 20-12.

Las Vegas at Houston — The Raiders could only hope to become squishy, rather than a slippery liquid like they have been and still are. Texans, 27-10.

Pittsburgh at Detroit — I somehow see the Steelers looking ahead to facing Baltimore for the AFC North crown when that comes along in two weeks. Especially at Ford Field, this Detroit unit better finish 3-0 for any chance at the playoffs. Lions, 35-27.

Sunday, 8:20 p.m.

New England at Baltimore — New England is licking its wounds after blowing it against Buffalo in the second half on Sunday. Just the reverse momentum they need. Patriots, 23-17.

Monday, 8:15 p.m.

San Francisco at Indianapolis — Grandpa Philip Rivers might be able to engineer a Colts’ touchdown drive or two, but it won’t make up for three or four interceptions it takes to do it. Ex-NMU player Robert Saleh will have San Fran’s defense locked in for this one. 49ers, 27-21.

Last week — 10-6, 63 percent. Season — 130-92, 59 percent.

Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.