Coach Hoke confirmed today the rumor that free safety Ray Vinopal has left the team to return to Youngstown for a family-related issue. It doesn't sound like Vinopal will be returning to school, this leaves a huge hole at free safety for Greg Mattison to fill. If Cullen Christian or Courtney Avery is able to step up and prove to be a starter at cornerback, I wouldn't be surprised if Troy Woolfolk is moved back to safety. The only scholarship free safety left on the roster is incoming freshman Tamani Carter, perhaps the staff would move Marvin Robinson or Josh Furman from strong safety to free safety.

Former Michigan starting quarterback Steven Threet has decided to give up football after sustaining two concussions last season at Arizona State and four concussions in the last five years. I don't know how the rest of you feel, but I can't help but feel sorry for Steven. If he didn't have bad luck, he seemingly would have no luck at all, at least when it comes to college football. First he committed to play at Georgia Tech under Chan Gailey. Gailey gets fired and replaced by Paul Johnson, who runs the option offense. Then he transfers back to Michigan to possibly start for a year or two after Ryan Mallett leaves for the NFL. Instead, Lloyd Carr retires and Rich Rodriguez is hired and installs an offense that Steven wasn't a good fit for all. Steven stuck it out for a year and then bolted for a third chance at running a pro style offense. Unfortunately for Steven, he chose Arizona State with its terrible offensive line and now he's out of football forever with one year of eligibility remaining. Best of luck to Steven in the future, it sounds like he still has post-concussion symptoms, hopefully he fully recovers soon.

[Bumped for informational purposes. At least one of us is keeping our heads about this whole thing. Probably helps that he's actually, you know, watched Hoke's teams play. Thanks to BSU Alum07 for a great Fan Post. - MnB Dave]

As a Ball State alum and Michigan fan who attended Ball State for four of Brady Hoke's seasons in Muncie, I thought that I would offer some observations about Ball State's offensive and defensive schemes during his time at Ball State.

The Offense

Coach Hoke's first offensive coordinator Ed Stults was a disaster. He ran a conservative Lloyd Carr style offense with a lot of I-formations and two tight end sets which would've worked well if Ball State had a running back who could carry the ball productively or two good tight ends. Add in the fact that Ball State had no capable option at quarterback and wide receivers who could reliably and consistently catch passes and you have a massive fail of an offense.The only bright spots of the Cardinals' offense was wide receiver Dante Ridgeway, running back Adell Givens (who flunked out after his only season at Ball State, and tight end Michael Steinhaus. After two seasons of this debacle, Stults got demoted to tight ends coach and was made assistant head coach to sugarcoat the demotion.

To replace Coach Stults, Stan Parrish was hired in 2006 as the new offensive coordinator. Coach Parrish junked the previous offensive scheme almost completely. He still employed two tight ends due to Steinhaus and Darius Hill being two of the biggest weapons on the offense, but also used a lot more three and four wide out formations and the fullback ceased to exist in the offense. Ball State ran a balanced, one back attack with Joey Lynch and the Nate Davis excelling at quarterback, MiQuale Lewis at running back, and Dante Love at wide receiver/running back/quarterback. The offense was the engine that drove Ball State, which thank God for that, because as you'll see after the jump, the defense didn't exactly put the fear of the God in the Cardinals' opponents.

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Tim from mgoblog is reporting that kicker Matt Goudis has switched his commitment from Boise State to Michigan. Matt is the 5th best kicker in this recruiting class according to Scout.com and has a strong and accurate leg and is reportedly a good punter too, although Will Hagerup makes that part of his game irrelevant. Matt's longest field goal this year was 54 yards long and he also had a 52 yard field goal. Matt will likely challenge for and have a very good chance of winning the starting kicker's job next season.

Recruiting kickers is a crap shoot, for proof just look at Brendan Gibbons. Gibbons was Scout's #11 kicker in 2009 and has been one half of the disaster that is the Michigan kicking game this season. Hopefully in a worst case scenario Matt is a moderate improvement over Gibbons and Seth Broekhuizen next season and will eventually become an all-Big Ten level kicker.

The University of Miami has announced that they have hired Al Golden to replace the fired Randy Shannon as the head coach of the football team. Golden is reportedly signing a four-year contract worth $8 million. Golden will have the task of turning around a once proud and elite program that has fallen on mediocre times in recent years. Needless to say, the rebuilding job at Miami should be much easier than the job of rebuilding Temple. This year's senior class is the first class to graduate from Temple with a winning record in 30 years. Miami can practically fill a recruiting class with players from the Miami area alone, and while the facilities are mediocre, they still are a step up from Temple's.

It was only a matter of time before Temple lost Coach Golden to a higher profile team in a BCS conference, it comes as a surprise to me that he left for Miami. I thought that he might stay at Temple until the Penn State job finally opens when Joe Paterno dies or retires. Who do you think will be likely candidates for the job? I won't pretend to know anything about who might be interested in coaching Temple, although I would assume that Temple would be looking for an assistant coach who has experience in coaching on the East Coach. Temple shouldn't have too much trouble finding someone to fill the position, Temple is still a program on the rise and there is the possibility that they might be invited to join the Big East at some time in the future.

For the purposes of this FanPost, we are going to assume that Michigan either wins or loses a close bowl game and that Dave Brandon has decided that Rich Rodriguez deserves another year as the head coach. Let's also assume that Brandon told Rodriguez that he has to fire Greg Robinson and let the new defensive coordinator pick his own staff members and install his defensive scheme, not necessarily the 3-man front that Rodriguez seems to prefer. So my question is who would you want Rodriguez to hire to turn around the defense?

My choice would be Randy Shannon who was just fired last night as Miami's (yes that Miami) head coach. Mark Stoops of Florida State and Justin Wilcox of Tennessee would also be excellent candidates, but I don't know if they would be interested in leaving secure jobs for a possible one and done tenure at Michigan. Shannon was the defensive coordinator at Miami for six seasons prior to replacing Larry Coker as the head coach and his defenses were ranked 6th, 7th, 2nd, 28th, 4th, and 7th in total defense. Shannon was also the linebackers coach at Miami and is a strong recruiter, which could help Michigan finish strong this season with defensive recruiting.

Kent State football coach Doug Martin announced today that he is resigning effective after the Golden Flashes' season finale against Ohio on Friday. Martin was the head coach for seven seasons and has a career record of 28-53. Martin's best season was in 2006 when Kent State went 6-6.

It's not surprising that Martin's resigning, Kent State has been mediocre at best for seven seasons and going nowhere fast. It'll be interesting to see who Kent State hires to lead them back as a program.

ESPN is reporting that Derrek Lee has told the Cubs that he will not approve any trades and will finish out his contract with the team. The Angels and the Cubs had agreed to a trade involving Lee, but Lee told GM Jim Hendry on July 21st that he would not accept the deal. What are your thoughts on the trade? As a Cubs fan, I'm torn between being relieved that we're still going to have Lee for the remainder of the season and wishing that he had agreed to the deal so that we could have given Micah Hoffpauir an extended tryout at first base for the remainder of the season.

Standout junior cornerback Donovan Warren announced today that he is leaving Michigan and forgoing his senior season to enter the NFL Draft. Mocking Dan from Mocking the Draft, the SBN NFL Draft blog, projects Donovan to possibly go late in the first round and most likely as a second round prospect.

Clearly this isn't good news for Michigan. The players have been raving at J.T. Turner, but he'll just be a redshirt freshman next season, Cullen Christian will be a true freshman and so will Courtney Avery, Terrance Talbott, and Tony Grimes. Brian at mgoblog mentioned this week that Boubacar Cissoko might work his way back onto the team, but that would require an Adrian Arrington- like turnaround and can't be relied on as a credible possibility by Michigan fans. Best of luck to Donovan in the NFL and lets hope that the secondary isn't as big of an issue come the fall as it seems to be now.

Donovan Warren said today that he is "heavily leaning" towards forgoing his senior season and entering the NFL draft. Donovan confirmed that he has submitted his name to the NFL's advisory committee for feedback on how the NFL sees his draft stock, but says that he plans on making his final decision within two weeks.

Obviously Donovan has been the sole bright spot of the secondary the past two seasons and it wouldn't be helpful, to say the least, for him to leave early and create an open starting cornerback spot. I think based on his comments today, that he's gone and in a way it's not surprising. He's been dogged by some minor injuries the past two seasons, but when completely healthy, he's shown he can be a shut-down cornerback. With the uncertainty of the NFL and the CBA, I would expect several junior players leave early for the draft with the belief that a new CBA will lead to a rookie salary cap.

If Donovan's gone, where does that leave Michigan? I think that Troy Woolfolk definitely stays at cornerback now, it would be nice to see his speed and athleticism at safety, but he's now Michigan's most experienced returning cornerback since Boubacar Cissoko was kicked off the team and Donovan's all but gone. The competition for the other starting cornerback spot should be high. Justin Turner might be the favorite, given his recruiting hype and the fact that he has a year in the system already, but Cullen Christian will probably be the other leading contender. Other players to keep an eye on would be Tony Grimes, a cornerback recruit who is all but a Michigan lock, and Teric Jones, who saw some playing time at cornerback this year. Players who are likely on the outside looking in are James Rogers, Adrian Witty, Terrence Talbott, and Courtney Avery. Rogers is a player who has bounced from position to position without ever generating much buzz and at least one of the freshmen cornerback will likely redshirt. The only upside in this scenario is that Michigan still has impressive depth at cornerback and I think that J.T. Floyd probably still moves to safety this offseason.

The Seattle Seahawks promoted former Michigan safety Jamar Adams to their active roster from their practice squad today. Jamar was one of their final cuts this preseason, it's good to see that he's finally getting a chance to prove himself as an NFL player.

I know this technically doesn't have anything to do with Michigan football, but given the fact that the Michigan Safety Hating God has returned with a vengeance this season, we could all stand to be reminded of happier times of competent safety play.

Wide receiver Mike Williams has left the Syracuse footbal team, as announced by head coach Doug Marrone today. Williams was the Orange's best offensive player, despite the lack of play makers on Syracuse's offense. My question for you is this: how will this affect his draft status? You have to assume that he's going to the NFL, it would make little sense for him to transfer to another program given the year he lost to academic troubles.

Extra added by Dan: Williams is a big target with 20 career touchdowns. He clearly has talent, but there are a ton of issues surrounding Williams. Before this, he was suspended for the Akron game for breaking a team rule. He sat out the 2008 season because of academic issues.

More from the great Troy Nunes Syracuse blog gang.

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Rich Rodriguez announced at his news conference today that Tate Forcier, Nick Sheridan, and Denard Robinson will play in the season opener against the Western Michigan Broncos.

I'm not sure why all three quarterbacks playing will help the staff determine who will be our starting quarterback. By all accounts from the fall practices, Tate has been doing quite well, Sheridan's improved over last year but still isn't a starter, and Robinson's talented, but very raw as a quarterback. In my opinion, it would make a lot more sense to start Tate and only play Sheridan if Tate struggles, so he'll build confidence as the starter. A platoon system with two quarterbacks almost never works out, I don't see how platooning three quarterbacks will work out any differently.

Bumped for obvious reasons - Ed.

Coach Rich Rodriguez announced today that Jason Forcier will not be rejoining the team as he had hoped. Rodriguez didn't give a lot of detail about the situation, but it sounds like Jason was denied admission as a grad student and will have to join the real world and get a job.

This isn't going to have much of an impact on the field, Jason would have likely been the fourth string QB behind his brother, Nick Sheridan, and Denard Robinson. Off the field, it would have been nice for Jason to be on campus to help Tate get used to campus life and as a sounding board for advice on running the offense, but it sounds like he plans on sticking around Ann Arbor and in any event he'll only be a phone call if Tate needs help or advice.

Yep, this is pretty much where we stand.  Thanks for the update, BSU Alum. - B2

Rich Rodriguez announced today that highly-touted cornerback J.T. Turner has been cleared to play by the NCAA and will start practicing with the team tomorrow. Given our iffy depth behind Donovan Warren and Boubacar Cissoko at cornerback, Turner could challenge for the nickel spot immediately. Speaking of cornerback depth, freshman Teric Jones has been moved there from tailback/slot receiver.

Two more players, junior linebacker Marell Evans and junior defensive tackle Vince Helmuth, have decided they no longer want to be a part of the program and are transferring to other programs. The Free Press didn't say which programs the two are transferring to, although the MAC is probably the likely destination. Evans never really made an impact on the field and the move to the 3-4 with only two traditional linebackers made it unlikely he would ever be more than a special teamer. Helmuth was supposed to be the next starting fullback, instead he got moved over to defense after being unable to pass Mark Moundros on the depth chart. Any chance that he had of being a contributor also likely ended with the new scheme, he was buried behind Mike Martin, Renaldo Sagesse, and freshman Will Campbell.

Rodriguez also said that the team was still waiting word on whether freshman cornerback Adrian Witty and senior quarterback Jason Forcier are eligible to join the team, but a decision on Forcier could come as soon as tomorrow.

Bumped for obvious reasons - MnB Dave.

Kurt Wermers has announced that he will be leaving the Michigan program to transfer to my alma mater, Ball State University. Like Justin Boren, Wermers decided to bash Michigan football and Rich Rodriguez, saying that he committed to Michigan for the family atmosphere under Lloyd Carr and that Rodriguez was too businesslike. Wermers also said that he didn't get along with new recruits, because they're "not from his crowd."

What is is about our offensive linemen being such babies about why they're transferring? First Boren left and cried about how hard Mike Barwis was working him in the weight room, now Wermers, and I'm sure we can expect a cry-baby article from Dan O'Neill any day now on why he's fleeing from the big, mean Michigan coaches to Western Michigan. As a Cardinals fan, I'm happy that we have a talented player like Wermers coming to our team, but it's disappointing that Wermers couldn't admit the obvious: he was recruited for another style of offense, was buried on the depth chart, and likely to get passed up by the 2010 offensive line recruits.