Sherrone Moore's No. 9 Michigan looks shaky ahead of show down with No. 4 Texas

with Michigan coming up with a win 30-10 against Fresno State in their season opener but it was touch and go there and I had to ask myself a couple of times am I seeing things or is Will Johnson getting torched by something called Jaylen Moss because that's what was happening six catches 97 yards for the Fresno State Bulldog and of course yes will Johnson had the pick six to seal it but let's be honest about this as the defending national champ you shouldn't be needing to seal a damn thing against Fresno State in the season opener and you should probably have your head coach locked up for the rest of the year if nothing else and that's kind of where I want to have this conversation start this conversation around Michigan as we talk about them getting the win them keeping up their end if you will before they're supposed to host Texas and what is going to be a top 10 matchup that we're all looking forward to and we've been looking forward to basically since the season ended when both of those programs finished in the college football playoff Michigan of course winning the national championship Texas winning its first conference championship in over a decade and making his first trip to the college football playoff and they looked the part meanwhile Chiron Moore USA Today reported is working without a contract which I thought was kind of interesting as you're going to the first game of the season so according to USA Today more than seven months ago after you know they hire him and they announced the deal that's going to be five years worth about $6 million annually he still hadn't signed a contract like a formally fully guaranteed fully executed contract and yet still they're working under a memorandum of understanding or in mou in the parliament of the legal Lees that he signed back in January when it was be clear that he was going to be the next head coach at Michigan and as USA USA day reported the document outlined some of the basic parameters of Mo's future deal including salary figures and bonus Provisions but it lacks some of the specifics and legal leads often serves as the backbone of a coaching contract such as the circumstances in which Moore who is facing potential punishment from the NCAA as part of the investigation into an alleged sign stealing operation and could be fired for cause there's that's an interesting way to look at this because while the University of Michigan has the notice of allegations that they received a week ago about what they believe Michigan had done along with sign stealing is not the crime here Advanced video scouting lying about it cheating that's the crime here and it looked for all that were watching against Michigan Fresno State that it it looked like Fresno State was actually in a dog fight with a very good Michigan Wolverines program and all the jokes were where's Conor stallion right I think even Maurice Claret threw out a tweet out there that was Wolverine petting the photograph of Conor stallions and that's perfect because you know Michigan is the Wolverine and Logan is a wolverine yada yada yada but that's a interesting place to have this conversation because if I'm the head coach of the University of Michigan and while you might not care I damn sure care the first blackhead coach at the University of Michigan I would like to see my contract fully executed and to their credit Michigan has told USA Today hey we're working on this with his representative and we hope to have this thing resolved pretty quick fast in a hurry Moore's agent told USA Today no comment right they just did not respond to any of this I think once you figure out what the NCAA thinks it has and what the NCAA thinks this punishment is going to be then you are going to try to come up with a way to either refute this if you are Michigan fight this for the course of 90 days and then figure it out but in limbo is Chiron Moore right like we've already seen the NCAA give Jim Harbaugh a show CA four years for lying about recruiting violations that amounts a little to nothing like it's it's not the recruiting violation so much as it is the lying about what you did and how you did it and this is all around a Michigan football program that is 15-0 last year and is off to a 1 and0 start in 2024 with this win against Fresno State again it's 16-10 and Fresno State feels like they got a shot here at Michigan Stadium against a top 10 team and this is with Davis Warren as a starting quarterback many folks inside of Michigan got word later this week that Alex orgy was not going to be the guy but that it was Davis Warren and some folks were like hey you might see some Alex orgy both ended up being correct here Alex orgy didn't start the game but it was very clear that they want to get him involved because his ability as a runner is just unparalleled so much so that when they got into the uh Red Zone area they let that dude throw the first TD pass but it was clear to me that Davis Warren has Chiron Moore and Kurt campell's confidence in running the offense he got to throw the most passes he played the most plays behind Center and frankly it looked not unlike it might look if Kade mcamera was still the quarterback at Michigan you're dinking you're dumping you're not pushing the ball down the field but you are also putting wink Martell's defense in a position to go make some plays that said seeing will Johnson who is supposed to be the next Charles Woodson get cooked like yesterday's brisket getting fried like bacon in a skillet it's not exactly what you want to see again the pck six is there I get it he's athletic he can make up for some of his mistakes but when you got short fast dudes that are able to twist you around and get by you that's not what Charles Woodson would allow as the number one corner at the University of Michigan and at the top of DNE Bugler's NFL draft board at the athletic like that's he's the best available in the 2025 draft ahead of guys like I don't know Carson Beck at Georgia for starters right shidu Sanders at Colorado Travis Hunter at Colorado we can keep going down the list here I'm really interested to see how this continues to unfurl because Texas got to feel good about what they saw against Fresno State especially for what they put on tape against Colorado state which wasn't a lot and they still put up 52 points in their win the last thing I thought was interesting about this part of Michigan's offensive plan is we're still not getting what we said we should be getting from Donovan Edwards for the last three years like it's a man that is on the cover of EA sports's College football 25 which is the most successful Sports video game of the last decade and continues to break records because we've been thirsty about this game for so long and I need to underscore here name image and likeness exists because this game went away that is how powerful this game is we were so Overjoyed that the NCAA finally decided to relent on players making money from their name image and likess that we just want to play this game and what you got out of all of that is a fundamental shift in how college football teams are formed you will pay the most money to get the best players now because this video this video game went away and Edwards is one of the three players on the front of it and he ain't the best tailback in his own tailback room right now like I'm I'm really looking at this going how does khle uh Mullins not believe that he is rb1 after this game he had 15 for 92 Donovan Edwards had 11 for 27 Donovan Edwards also didn't do damn near a damn thing in the regular season last year all of the Yards that he mostly accumulated were in the postseason particularly against Washington and national championship game which is great if you get to the national championship game but as far as I'm concerned seven is supposed to be the engine that powers Michigan he still might be but he wasn't tonight and I would want to know what that means for me if my last name is mullings okay that's that's not long and the short of that does this Michigan team feel like the kind that can beat Texas not to me not right now and I I thought that there would have been great reason to underestimate Texas if you will because they went into this first game without two of their three best tailbacks and it did not matter Jaden blue got it Trey Weisner got it Quinn Ur got it Silas Bolton looked good like they got dudes on both sides of the ball and again they did what they're supposed to do to Colorado State they shut them out and they put up 52 that's what I wanted to see Michigan do against Fresno State that is a I mean that that's that's what you're supposed to do against a Mountain West team that's what you're supposed to do when you have them at your stadium in a season opener and certainly that's what you're supposed to do when it is your first opportunity as a head coach to lay down the law okay that's what I would expect from them I'm also looking at a Texas has got to feel better about its quarterback situation than Michigan hello Quinn ERS is one thing right Davis Warren is one thing but seeing Arch Manning get in there get game and look good is something else entirely okay Arch Manning out there making playground throws to wide receivers for his first TD of the game and everybody's over over the moon about him getting in there but it's it's not a guy that's out of place not even a little bit everybody at Texas feels like they know what they're doing they know what they want to do and because of that I'm giving them an edge going into this weekend like this this next weekend it feels like it's Texas is to lose and they could go up to Michigan and be the first team to beat them at Michigan Stadium since 2020 and that will really shake up the math for the top 25 even now I'm having to rethink my number one team based on what I saw from Ohio State what I saw from Georgia but I'm not having to rethink whether or not Texas is any good I know Texas is good Michigan you still got something you got to show me and and and while I'm not interested in doubting the kids because the kids seem not to they go out and get W you get a w against Texas we we'll treat it that way right you'll beat a really good football team as far as I'm concerned and that might be the best you got to show me until November 30th full stop right but the the days of you being able to Cakewalk through your non-conference schedule are definitely over you're getting scared by Fresno State and that's just not something that's supposed to happen to the defending national champion Michigan wolverin let's take a look at the chat