Michigan coaches past and present are in the headlines, along with good vibes in Greece and bad vibes at Jamal Crawford’s pro-am. Welcome to Blue’s News.
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Later today, Ace and I are starting up Michigan football position previews. What we do on The Bucket Problem is the tasting menu; these new previews are full dishes. Our colleagues on the OSU side of things are also hard at work, if you’re into scouting the enemy (like one school in Blue’s News today). Plus, if you want national college football content with real effort and detail, we’ve got that in spades.
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Enough of the sales pitch. Onto the fast-pitch…
COACHING TURNOVER THAT DOESN’T INVOLVE SCANDAL. SURE!
Michigan’s best is calling it a career.
Longtime softball coach Carol Hutchins announced her retirement after 38 seasons leading the Wolverines. The announcement came yesterday (Aug. 24), along with athletes, former rivals and friends flooding the #ThankYouHutch hashtag.
Michigan faithful may already know her accolades, but she’s a goddamn legend so I’m gonna list most of the highlights anyway.
- .755 win percentage (1,707-555-5)
- Winningest NCAA softball coach
- Winningest Michigan coach – male or female
- Led the Wolverines to win the 2005 National Championship and 10 Big Ten Tournaments
- 22 Big Ten Conference Championships
- 29 NCAA Tournament appearances
- Never had a losing season
I could keep listing her accomplishments, but we’d be here all day and you’re here for a quick news roundup.
Suffice it to say, Hutch has shaped the landscape of women’s sports and changed the lives of the athletes she coached immeasurably. It’s certainly a bummer to see her retire, but here’s hoping her next chapter is as kickass as her time at Michigan.
But who’s going to coach the softball team now?
ONE MINUTE LATER…
A whole hot minute after Carol Hutchins retired, Michigan Athletics announced the promotion of longtime assistant Bonnie Tholl to assume head coaching duties for the softball team.
Tholl has worked under Hutchins for 29 years – long enough to be around for most of Hutchins’ accolades I just listed. She also served as recruiting coordinator, helping reel in 63 of the 69 All-America honorees Hutchins coached.
Tholl’s promotion is a quintessential “Michigan” move. She’s a U-M alumna who literally played for Carol Hutchins (that’s how long Hutchins has been at it), and later returned to join her staff after working as a GA and assistant coach at Indiana. She has tough shoes to fill, but one assumes – and hopes! – she has some new ideas up her sleeve despite her long tenure under Hutch.
Speaking of Michigan coaches…
AH, SHIT, WE GOTTA TALK ABOUT RICH ROD.
Sorry. This is way too funny to ignore.
Former Michigan Head Coach and current Jacksonville State Head Coach Rich Rodriguez is in the news, I guess. Rodriguez alleged the team’s week zero opponent, Stephen F. Austin, has been *checks notes* conducting a long espionage campaign against them:
…[Stephen F. Austin] had a couple staff members at our spring game, which is kinda like, that’s not really supposed to happen. But we’re making plans accordingly, you know. So if they’re over there thinking they have our plays or what have you, or signals, or something like that, we’ve changed it since the spring.
Rodriguez then claims someone spied on a recent to capture video. In his brave retelling, he sent “the biggest guy in [their] program” who “benches, like, a thousand pounds, or something,” to scare the spy away.
What a guy.
(Earlier this week, there was a genuine discussion on the boards about Rich Rod’s ill-fated tenure at Michigan, and, well… here we are.)
FROM THE MAIZE AND BLUE THINKING CHAIR…
- Remember that thing about Seattle’s finest? Chet Holmgren may have suffered ligament damage at Jamal Crawford’s pro-am. This was cool and fun while it lasted.
- Calibrating expectations, part three. Football Outsiders has ranked Michigan fourth in its 2022 FEI ratings for the preseason. Numbers!
- Fine, yeah, sure. Bronny James is considering a recruiting visit to Ohio State for their Sep. 3 matchup against Notre Dame.
MICHIGAN-ADJACENT VIDEO OF THE DAY
The boys are buzzing in Mykonos.