Wrath of the Righteous Power Builds: Best Summoner Builds

My summoners have real weapons, but you get the idea

I haven’t posted a build in quite a while, and I realized I’ve never done a build for those who want to build summoners. There are a couple of viable classes:  the Inquisitor/Monster Tactician and the Bard/Beast Tamer. Both get free access to the Summon Monster/Summon Nature’s Ally line of spells, and far more importantly the summons last for ten times longer than normal. There are other ways to get long summons, but I focus on builds that are viable and do what we want as early as possible. Inquisitors can also pick the animal domain for a pet, they get the Summon Tactics ability, and since we’re going Aeon mythic path the bane abilities stack. Beast Tamers get great synergy with the Azata mythic path, and by chapter 3 you’ll be able to summon seven Treants at a time and slaughter stuff–lots of fun. We’ll start with the inquisitor, which is great if you want an evil play through.

 

Build Progression (Inquisitor)

1. We go with Human which is important because we don’t really get bonus feats with this build. For background you can go with the classic Pickpocket, or if you want to build for the Gravesinger Greataxe go ahead and pick Lumberjack. I recommend going for fauchards due to their useful reach property, and high critical range means more free attacks for your summons

• Str 19 Dex 13-14 Con 12-14 Int 10 Wis 14 Cha 7+ (dumpable).
• Skills:  Athletics, Perception, Persuasion, UMD
• Feats:  Sp. Focus Conjuration, Augment Summoning
• Alignment:  Lawful Neutral
• Deity:  Put some thought into this. We need Animal domain, but the evil summons are by far the best, so pick Gozreh and make evil choices such that your alignment moves to lawful evil by level 11. This is definitely doable
• Spells:  I take Cure Light Wounds and Bless

2.  Not much. I like Shield of Faith here.

3.  Feat:  Superior Summoning, Precise Strike. Spell:  Divine Favor

4.  Increase Str every time.

• Pet:  dog, leopard, monitor lizard and wolf are all great because they trip
• Spells:  Lesser Restoration, Protect from Evil Communal

5.  Feat:  Boon Companion. Spell:  Aid

6.  Feat:  Outflank is great here.  Spell:  Cure Moderate Wounds

7.  Feat:  Exotic Wpn Proficiency:  Fauchards unless you’re really interested in another weapon, then take whatever feat you want. The idea here is to attack from behind your summons and pets and fauchards have a great critical range, which means a higher rate of granting attacks to others

• Spell:  True Strike, Prayer, Gr. Magic Wpn (great buff for summons)

8.  Spell:  Magic Vestment or Heroism, but I usually have a Skald for that

9.  Feat:  Lunge, Shake It Off. Extra reach is better, especially if you chose a non-reach weapon

• Spell:  Remove Curse

10. Spell:  Find Traps is one I like, and it’s time for Crusader’s Edge, and Restoration

11. Feat:  Improved Critical (your weapon). Spells:  Freedom of Mvmt, Gr Invis or Death Ward

12. Feat:  Back to Back, can increase your summons’ AC, remember they all have it now

• Spell:  Divine Power of course.

13. Feat:  it depends. Building toward Shatter Defenses by taking WF here can be great if you want, I prefer Power Atk

• Spell:  whatever you like, the Litany’s are nice as they are swift actions I like Resounding Blow, Communal Stoneskin

14. Spells:  whatever you like

15. Feat:  Combat Reflexes and whatever teamwork feat you want–Allied Spellcaster is fine

16. Spells:  I like Burst of Glory, Communal Protect from Energy. Get Heal

17. Feat:  Improved Init if you want, whatever spells you want too. Inspiring Recovery is fine

18. We’ve got everything we need, from here on you can multiclass if you want:  Ranger/Demonslayer, Alchemist/Vivisectionist, Fighter/Mutation Warrior all work well, but you can also continue with Inquisitor, which I will

• Feat:  Coordinated Defense
• Spells:  anything

19. Feat:  whatever you want… WF Fauchard I guess

20. Whatever you want

 

Build Progression (Beast Tamer)

1.  I do recommend human here if you want maximum ability to contribute to the party, even if all your summons die. You don’t have to be of course, practically any race is viable (many have innate resistances), but if you want an early game boost the extra feat helps. Background is Pickpocket

• Str 19 Dex 12 Con 12 Int 10 Wis 8 Cha 16
• Skills:  All Knowledge and Lore skills, then UMD, Persuasion, or whatever you want
• Feats:  Lingering Performance of course; Martial Weapon Prof gives you access to any line of weapons you want–summoners benefit from reach weapons but it doesn’t have to be. If you don’t want to be human don’t worry about it, and use longspears or something
  • Use lingering performance in battle by activating it, then deactivate it immediately. Most combats don’t go longer than 3 rounds anyway
• Alignment:  Chaotic Good
• Deity:  Desna is perfect
• Spells:  Grease is awesome, Cure Light Wounds

2.  Spells:  Remove Fear or use scrolls

3.  Feat:  Superior Summoning. Spells:  Unbreakable Heart, Hideous Laughter

4.  Increase Str every time. Spells:  Heroism is great, and Blur or Mirror Image

5.  Feat:  Combat Reflexes. Spell:  Glitterdust is good

• Combat Trick:  Outflank–remember you’ll share this with your summons later

6.  Spells:  Cure Moderate, Sense Vitals, Rage are all good options

7.  Feat:  Power Attack or Improved Initiative, PA is where I lean because you’ll be getting buffs to offset any penalty from using it

• Spells:  Good Hope, Haste, Displacement is great too

8.  Spells:  whichever you didn’t pick from lvl 7

9.  Feat:  Lunge is perfect if you have any two-handed weapon. Spells:  Remove Curse,

10: Spells:  Sense Vitals, Cure Critical, Echolocation, Freedom of Movement are all great

11: Feat:  Improved Critical would be my choice. Spells: Gr. Invisibility

12: Spells:  Dimension Door to help with some areas in ch 4

13: Feat:  we will build toward Shatter Defenses, so Wpn Focus here. Spells:  Gr. Heroism, Gr Dispel Magic

14: Combat Trick:  Dazzling Display. Spells:  whatever you want

15: Feat:  Shatter Defenses, we got it! Anyone with Frightful Aspect will set you up beautifully

• We don’t want to go past lvl 15 as a Beast Master, because at lvl 17 you get SNA IX, don’t have a choice about it. Your summon options with SNA IX are all inferior choices–for instance the Mastodons are so big and wide they get in the way of everything. Keep SNA VIII for the Smilodons

16: I multiclass into Fighter: Mutation Warrior. You could also go into Eldritch Knight or Dragon Disciple if you want.

• Feat:  Improved Init

17. Feat:  Cleave, Cleaving Finish

19. Feat:  Wpn Specialization, and whatever else you want

20. Weapon Training into your weapon type

 

Mythic Progression (Inquisitor)

1.  Close to the Abyss if you’re going axes, otherwise Bit of Fun or Close to the Heavens. Ascendant Summons!

2.  Extra Ability: either Leading Strike or Mythical Beast, both have advantages, take the other one at 5

3.  Ever Ready, no question; Enforcing Gaze, Attack which will be your main gaze until mythic 6

4.  Improved Critical Mythic; Enforcing Gaze, AoO’s

5.  Leading Strike or Mythical Beast; Enforcing Gaze, Summoner’s Gaze

6.  Power Attack Mythic, the other gazes don’t matter now so pick whatever you want. Now we can active both Attack and Summoner’s Gaze at once

7.  You’ve got choices here. Taking an Impossible Domain is a good choice, or Mythic Charge or Abundant Bane

8.  Improved Initiative Mythic

9.  Anything you want, if you’re on Unfair I prefer Last Stand–not much need to take it earlier as this build isn’t in much danger of being hit by enemies that often

10. Whatever you want. Now you can use 3 gazes, I recommend:  Attack, AoO and Summoner’s Gaze

 

Mythic Progression (Beast Tamer)

1. I prefer Bit of Fun as it helps all of your skills. Ascendant Summons!

2.  You’ve got options: Mythic Power Atk or Extra Mythic:  Abundant Casting or Master Shapeshifter, because you get access to all of the Aspect of the … spells. I prefer Shapeshifter for the big boost but it’s up to you

3.  Ever Ready.

4.  Mythic Improved Critical. Superpower:  Life-Bonding Friendship (LBF): Precise Strike, and now we can share Teamwork Feats a bit like the Inquisitor

5.  More options:  Abundant Casting if you want, but if you have multiple spellcasters you may not need it. It might be more fun to pick Leading Strike

• LBF:  Shake It Off

6.  This is where I take Mythic Pwr Atk. Superpower:  Incredible Might. Pair IM with the Ring of Triumphant Advance (if you have the DLC) to double your bonus here

7.  Mythic Charge if someone can provide Pounce *cough Skald*, or Abundant Casting

8. Mythic Improved Init or Mythic Wpn Spec. Superpower:  Zippy Magic helps a lot, especially with Believe in Yourself

9.  Whatever you like here, if you’re on Unfair I’d go Last Stand here

10. Whichever ability you didn’t pick at mythic 8. Superpower:  anything goes

 

Equipment/Gear

Weapon:  Early game go for longspears for reach, and get the Stormcaller later–equip it, summon stuff, then switch it out. Later for fauchards, Imminent Demise; if axes, Grave Singer

Neck: Vellexia’s Magnifying Amulet (earlier the Amulet of Epic Songs–get from Nurah–for the Beast Master)

Chest/Armor:  Chainmail of Comradery (chain shirts for BM)

Shirt:  Source of Dividing Power, which is important because of the Holy/Unholy rider–awesome. Buy it from the merchant at Dresden from ch 3 on

Belt:  Belt of the Last of the First Humans if you have the DLC. Before that, increase Str

Gloves:  Jaws of the Jackal, outstanding synergy with evil summons–summon a ton of Frost Giants!. (Fencer’s Gift for BM, due to the fighter levels)

Boots:  Ronneck’s Sacrifice–check YouTube for how to obtain it, or Boots of the Stampede if you charge

Helmet:  +Wisdom are the way to go, and ultimately Hat of the Bitter End if you have the DLC. (+Charisma for BM, Hat of Heartening Song, later Darkness Caress)

Goggles/Eyes:  Broken Trickster if you have the DLC. Since you’re an Aeon you can equip the Lenses of Prolonged Gaze too

Cloak:  Bound of Possibility is outstanding for Aeons (Cloaks of Resistance for BM)

Rings:  Ring of Summoning of course–remember it doesn’t have to be equipped on you to be effective; Ring of Triumphant Advance if you have the DLC; someone should wear the Clemency of Shadows ring (from The Fate of the Stone of Ghostly Pathways decree)–the falling unconscious part works if your summons die too!

Bracer:  Bracers of Abrupt Onslaught–Sense Vitals gives you sneak attack. Can also go Lucky Bracers

Quick Slot:   Book of Dreams which stacks with Superior Summoning, Brazen Whip which stacks with Haste, you can become immune to Slow or cast Freedom of Mvmt, your summons are doing much of the fighting anyway, Tankard of Free Spirit, Duality of Conjuration/Summoning if the risk if worth it, anything else you want

• BM’s recommended to take Triceratops statuette because unlike the inquisitor, we don’t get a pet for free

Alright, those the two best summoner builds I could find. What do you think of them? Let me know in the comments below, or give them a try in the game and tell me what your experience was like. I have a bunch more builds and info back at the main Wrath of the Righteous page.

Michigan’s road to the National Championship, part 3

I released part 1 and part 2 before the National Championship game was even played. That’s how confident I have been that we would do it. Also, it ended up being a kind of blessing Harbaugh missed half the games this season because it added to our legacy. Could any team in the country go undefeated, including wins over Penn State and Ohio State, without their head coach for 6 of their 12 games? I don’t think any other team could have accomplished what we did. I will cover the last few games in more detail, they are against generally tougher teams and more important.

Michigan’s defense is like a boa constrictor

Week 10 was against #9, Penn State. Just the day before the Big 10 commissioner had finally made his decision to suspend Coach Harbaugh for the remaining three games of the season. Can you imagine the effect on the players? By this time the “Michigan vs Everybody” mantra had kicked in for the Wolverines.  This was one of the better known games of the season, and it seemed everyone wanted to see how the Wolverines would do against a good team, especially now that nobody was taking any chances on their signs. Sherrone Moore took over and played a terrific game against the Nittany Lions, beating them in their own stadium.

Penn State scored first with a field goal. Michigan scored a TD on their next drive, and it was back and forth for the first half. The second half will be in some kind of record book, as Michigan ran 32 straight run plays to defeat Penn State 24-15, who at the time had the best rush-defense in the country. In the 4th quarter our defense didn’t let them convert a single first down. Blake Corum was the star of the second half, and somewhat famously bloodied the bridge of his nose. To quote him, who carried 26 times, “Obviously we wanted Coach Harbaugh to be here, but we did it for him today. We’ve been going through a lot lately, but it’s only brought us closer together.” Here is a clip of the highlights of this game, it’s worth a watch.

Mike Sainristil in action against Maryland

Week 11 vs Maryland brought an historic win for Michigan: it’s 1000th victory, and the first of any CFB school to achieve it. This wasn’t one of our best games. Maryland struck first with a field goal, but after that Michigan scored off of Corum’s legs, and we scored again after Maryland’s QB lost control of the ball on their 10 yard-line. By the end of the second quarter we were up 23-10. Things started going wrong right before the half, when McCarthy threw what looked like a short TD pass, but was intercepted. The second half was mostly the Terrapins’, and I’m here to tell you their QB, Tagovailoa, can throw the deep ball! By the early 4th quarter it was 29-24, and we got two more points from a questionable call for Tagovailoa which resulted in a safety, to bring Michigan up to 31. If I was a Maryland fan I would’ve been upset. Sainristil was great with a couple of interceptions, but this was one of Michigan’s worst games of the season. Here’s a clip of the full highlights, see what you think. This was the first time Michigan has gone 11-0 in back-to-back seasons ever.

Week 12 was the big one:  Ohio State. In this game Ohio State had risen to #2 and Michigan was #3 (the third year in a row we were the underdog). This was the toughest game of the regular season, and it was once again without our head coach. Fortunately, Sherrone Moore did a terrific job. Halfway through the first quarter OSU threw the first interception, which Blake Corum scored on a couple of downs later and we were off and running–literally. We held OSU to a field goal, and on our next drive McCarthy threw an incredibly accurate pass from 30 yards out to Roman Wilson for another TD–some questioned it but it seemed pretty clear. The Buckeyes answered with a TD of their own and it was 14-10. We failed to score and Ohio State made a final drive with a terrific pass to Marvin Harrison Jr, but they got no points out of it due to a missed 50-yard field goal.

The second half started with Michigan making a 50-yr field goal, which was a surprise given that we didn’t have a great kicker this year. Ohio ran the ball for their next drive which resulted in a TD, tying the game 17-17. We answered with a drive full of passes, putting Michigan up again. We even pulled a trick play (similar to last year’s), with McCarthy pitching the football back to RB Donovan Edwards, who stopped and threw the football downfield to a wide-open Colston Loveland which netted us 34 yards. The 4th quarter was eventful, with our star offensive lineman Zak Zinter getting his leg broken and carted off–it was a powerful scene, the entire team was on the field. The very next play Corum ran in for a touchdown flashing 65, Zak’s number. Michigan did two things that sucked the life out of the Buckeyes: the first was a 7-minute drive in the 4th quarter which left them only 1 minute; the second was OSU’s QB McCord throwing a second interception. The hardest game of the season but a most satisfying win, 30-24. Three years of beating Ohio State, it doesn’t get much better than that! Here is a clip of the full highlights, it’s a great game.

Things didn’t get any better for Ohio State, by the way. They went on to lose the Cotton Bowl to Missouri, who deliberately wore their classic block M helmets to troll them. Buckeye football lost to block M twice in one season that day. The Buckeyes put in their worst offensive performance in nearly a decade, and their first game without a touchdown since they were shut out in the 2016 CFP semi-final by Clemson.

The Big 10 championship game was against #16 Iowa, and it was one-sided. Michigan was again #2, Harbaugh was back, and we shut them out 26-0. The end of the first quarter was capped by freshman Semaj Morgan receiving a punt on our 8-yard line and explosively running 87 yards–Morgan will be a guy to watch next year. Iowa had a stout defense holding us to two TD’s, the rest were field goals. Sainristil was awesome on defense, forcing two fumbles and getting a sack and was named the MVP. Corum, meanwhile, is the only FBS player this year to score in every game of the season and was the nation’s leading scorer. Michigan fans booed as Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti presented the championship trophy and couldn’t even look at Harbaugh as he became the first coach in league history to win three straight outright conference championships. Later Harbaugh said “I’ve got one question for the Michigan Nation: who’s got a better team than us?” Here is the clip from the game.

Just a beautiful shot

New Year’s Day 2024 brought us to the playoffs and a difficult game against #4 Alabama. I will go on record one last time and say that we should have played Florida State. I wrote an article on it so I won’t go into it here. Anyway, everyone knows Alabama’s history and their legendary coach Nick Saban, one of the best in the history of the sport. Having 18 5-star recruits on their team (versus our 2) didn’t hurt either. Most folks bet against us. Michigan lost the toss and went wrong right away, with McCarthy’s first play being nearly intercepted. Two minutes later our special teams muffed catching Alabama’s punt, turning the ball over and allowing them to score a TD. Michigan’s following drive resulted in a touchdown, and we were tied. Deep in the 2nd quarter we picked up a crucial first down after our RB Donovan Edwards threw a too-high back pass to McCarthy, who somehow made a one-handed grab before throwing a completion to Roman Wilson for a 20-yard gain. I don’t know how he threw it while falling down and getting tackled. A few plays later Morris scored a reaching TD for us, which only resulted in 6 points as we really screwed up the PAT, almost turning the ball over. Our defense fortunately held Bama to a field goal to end the half.

The second half was different. Our defense was stellar, forcing errors and holding the Tide, but our offense stalled and nothing really happened in the 3rd quarter. The 4th quarter started with Bama scoring a TD, and now they led 17-13. Our next drive failed and on Bama’s drive we got a turnover, but it turned into a missed field goal in the third failure by special teams. We stopped the Tide from getting a TD but they made their field goal and it was 20-13. Michigan was running out of time, but we rallied on a great play McCarthy made with his legs, then a beautiful pass to Roman Wilson tied the game at 20 with 1:30 left. We stopped Bama’s drive, but once again dropped their punt right next to the end zone, picking it up at the 1 yard line in the final, fourth mistake by special teams, whom I’ve never seen play this badly. In OT Corum made an extraordinary rushing TD, and then we got the stop to topple the Tide, 27-20. Here are the highlights of the game.

This was not one of Michigan’s best games but our offense was great, with Corum setting a record for the most TD’s in program history. Our defense was flat out awesome. Michigan sacked Alabama QB Milroe a total of 7 times in the game, and tackled the Tide for a loss 10 times! We sacked Milroe a LOT, and blitzing him was one of the key strategies to winning the game. I have to say, if our special teams hadn’t made so many big mistakes we would’ve never gone to OT. Why did they have such trouble? I can only chalk it up to nerves, and maybe an off-night on top of it. I don’t think it was until after we beat Alabama that we started getting real respect from everyone.

Donovan Edwards getting it done

Finally we come to the national championship, Michigan vs Washington. Most know how it turned out, with Michigan earning a 34-13 victory and our first national championship since 1997. We started out great, our first drive earning a touchdown on a 45-yard run from Donovan Edwards. UW came back with a long drive but we held them to a field goal. Michigan’s answer was a 50-yard TD run by Edwards to end the first quarter. We held the Huskies from a TD until right before the end of the first half. Michigan’s plan had changed from blitzing (vs Alabama) to simply disrupting Penix. Michigan was up 17-10 by halftime.

Disrupt him we did, and we wore him down, especially in the second half when Will Johnson intercepted him on his first play. Our offensive line was still missing the star centerpiece, Zak Zinter, but it didn’t matter. Washington’s O-Line won the Joe Moore award, but frankly Michigan’s was better. Meanwhile our defense is what held everything together and pressured Penix on practically every play. Make no mistake,  Penix didn’t just ‘have an off night’, our defense gave him have an off night. In the early 4th quarter Penix threw a beautiful pass to Odunze but it was called back for holding, and though he later did complete a long pass it was all but over. A few minutes later the Huskies’ defense missed a tackle and Corum scored again, making it 27-13 notwithstanding an ugly extra point. That should have been it, but Penix later threw a pass into coverage that Sainristil intercepted, turning it into an 81-yard run which we scored on two plays later to end the game. Here is clip of the extended highlights.

Another beautiful shot

Corum was the offensive MVP but I think Edwards was just as good, rushing for multiple TD’s. Our defense held Washington to just 46 rushing yards and conversions on only two of 14 third downs. In fact Michigan’s defense held Washington’s offense to one TD for the entire game! Will Johnson was named defensive MVP but I think Sainristil was just as good, he was everywhere it seemed. It ended on a classy note: Penix made an emotional walk off the field following the final whistle, and while he made his way up the tunnel Michigan defensive end Jaylen Harrell caught up with the Huskies QB to offer his best.

Some statistics for you. This is Michigan’s 12th national title. McCarthy is now 27-1 in his career as a starter for a winning percentage of 96.4, better than any starting quarterback in at least the last 20 years. We are the first Big Ten team to win 15+ games since 1899. The Wolverines’ defense dominated during the regular season, allowing just 9.5 points per game, the fewest in a regular season since 2011. Michigan is the first team to hold 15 different opponents to under 25 points in a single season since 1903. Blake Corum has 58 career rushing touchdowns, the most by any Wolverines player and fourth-most all time in the Big Ten. I’ve gotta say, the majority of this season was “Michigan vs Everybody” and you know what? Michigan won.

Who has it better than us? NOBODY!

Michigan’s road to the National Championship, part 2

JJ McCarthy and Blake Corum–my guys!

This is part 2 of my documenting Michigan’s record-breaking season. I’ll give some brief highlights as well as a link to some video highlights of each game. As I review these, ask yourself if any of these teams in the first several weeks are ones that Michigan needed to steal anything from in order to win. Also ask yourself if any college football team would be undefeated without their head coach for half of their games in the regular season. Has it ever been done?

You’ve got to see this insane interception to believe it

Michigan’s season started without a head coach and we began ranked #2 in the country, right behind Georgia. We haven’t started a season that highly ranked since 1991. Our first game was coached by Jesse Minter, the defensive coordinator. This was Michigan’s first time playing East Carolina and we steamrolled them, 30-3. The game began with J.J. McCarthy walking alongside his teammates in a single-file formation as each player raised an arm over their head, letting suspended Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh know his players were thinking about him. That was pretty cool, and would typify the unity this team had through the adversity to come. McCarthy completed 26-for-30 pasees, his 87% completion rate the second best in Michigan history. It would’ve been a shutout but ECU scored a field goal in the last 5 seconds. Here is a link to the highlights of the game–watch for the unbelievable interception by Josh Wallace in the 2nd quarter.

Week two we played UNLV (only the second time ever). In a strange setup, the first half was coached by Jay Harbaugh (Jim’s son and special teams coach) while Mike Hart (the running backs coach) coached the second half, becoming the first Black football coach of UM.  We more or less routed them, 35-7, the Rebels finally scoring a TD in the last 3 minutes of the game. Of note in this game, JJ McCarthy wrote the number 47 on his hand to honor his friend and teammate Ryan Keeler, who died in February of a heart ailment at the age of 20. Our QB put on a show today completing 22 for 25 passes, one of which was for 47 yards to Roman Wilson for a TD, which I thought was cool. UNLV’s best play was an interception early in the 4th quarter. Here is a link to the highlights of the game.

Week three we played Bowling Green (only the third time ever, weird pattern?). This is where offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore first served as interim head coach. McCarthy didn’t do very well in this game, throwing a career-high three interceptions. We also fumbled the ball for a turnover, the Falcons fumbled it a couple of times, we had an interception… it was a turnover-filled game, though we did have an outstanding trick play in the 3rd quarter. We won, 31-6, but McCarthy said he deserved the blame for the issues. Here is a link to the highlights of the game, warts and all.

During week four coach Harbaugh was back, as Michigan played against Rutgers in our first conference game. This game was a classic example of the Michigan style, establishing the run and slowing down opponents on the ground. This was also the 100th game Harbaugh coached at Michigan, in a pretty decisive 31-7 victory. We actually started slow, Rutgers getting a 7-0 lead before we took control. The best play of the game was an incredible interception by Mike Sainristil in the 3rd quarter that resulted in a 71-yard TD. I like the Scarlet Knights head coach, I think they’ll be a team to watch in the future. Here is a link to the highlights of the game, and they’re worth watching. One interesting stat is that Michigan’s defense had not allowed a 4th-down conversion all season.

How did he do that?

Week five brought us against the once-great Nebraska. This was a rout, no two ways about it. We killed them 45-7, and it felt like it was all Michigan, all game long. Roman Wilson had an unbelievable catch this game, maybe the best catch in college football all season, and it came in the first quarter. The Huskers were ranked 2nd in the country for their rush defense, but not after today–Corum alone rushed for 249 yards. Nebraska barely avoided a shutout with a terrific 74-yard run. Here is a link to the highlights of the game, including a brutal hit that Michigan lays down in the early 4th quarter you need to see.

Week six was another week of dominance against Minnesota. Not many know that the Michigan-Minnesota rivalry is the oldest in all of college football, and the Little Brown Jug is the oldest trophy I know of. We killed them 52-10. There were two pick-6s–the first one coming in just the second play of the game–and our defense was outstanding. The Gophers were missing their star running back but did have a beautiful pass to score a TD right before the half. After the game Minnesota’s head coach had some kind things to say: “They’re one of the deepest teams, one of the best teams, one of the biggest teams, fastest teams, strongest teams, and they do not make mistakes. They are truly like a boa constrictor, and they do not beat themselves.” Here is a link to the highlights of the game.

Indiana just can’t fly like we can

Week seven Michigan played Indiana and we started slow, similar to Rutgers. The entire first quarter the Hoosiers looked really good. They drew first blood in their only touchdown of the game, on a trick play that worked. After that Michigan stopped them cold in a 52-7 blowout. The Wolverines had a terrific punt return at the end of the 2nd quarter, and Indiana had an amazing upside-down(!) catch in the 3rd quarter. McCarthy put on another show, completing 14 for 17 passes including a 54-yarder resulting in a TD. At this point we were only the third FBS team since 2000 to win each of the first seven games by 24-plus points. Indiana played two QBs for this game which isn’t a good sign, while on the flip side our QB was sacked four times. Here is a link to the highlights, including Indiana’s trick play.

Week eight brought a big rivalry game, Michigan State, and we had a bone to pick. After last year’s game MSU started a big fight in the tunnel for which the Spartans were ultimately fined $100k. This is the first game we played after the sign-stealing investigation came out. This game might be our most complete performance of the season up to this point, in a 49-0 shutout. McCarthy was awesome, completing 21 for 27 passes and 4 TD’s and he left midway through the 3rd quarter! Sainristil had another interception which he ran for a 72-yard pick-6. This game broke a record for the most consecutive Big Ten game wins in program history, with 20, and it was our best win against MSU since 1947! The fact that we did that to them in their own stadium…sweetness. Here are the highlights from the game, worth watching for McCarthy and Sainristil alone.

Week nine we played Purdue. NBC, who broadcast the game, had us ranked #3 for the first time. By this time the sign-stealing story was all over the country and Connor Stallions had resigned, so if we were stealing anything previously it certainly did not happen from this week forward. This is also the last game Harbaugh coached in the regular season. Michigan again routed, beating Purdue 41-13. Blake Corum matched his season-high with three TD’s, and Roman Wilson also had a season-high nine receptions while McCarthy threw for a season-high 335 yards in some spectacular plays! Defensively, no opponent had scored more than one touchdown against the U-M defense all season. Purdue was held to just two field goals for most of the game, finally getting a TD in the last minute. Here are the highlights from the game.

That’s all I’ll cover for the season in this post. Week ten brought the absence of Harbaugh for the rest of the season starting against Penn State. I will cover that game and all of the post-season action in my third and final post of Michigan’s record-breaking national championship season next time. Click here to head there now.

Michigan’s road to the National Championship, part 1

I’ve been planning on writing this post for quite a while. While some of it was self-inflicted, I don’t know any college football team that has had to overcome as much adversity as the University of Michigan players did this year. I’ll cover the games and the controversies of Michigan’s magical season, and the return to their place as one of the preeminent teams in CFB. This first post will be about the controversies, before diving into the games. Why do I care about all this? Because even though I am originally from Washington state, I went to school at Michigan and I love their program. If you just want to skip to the games themselves, feel free to jump to part 2.

The last two seasons of Michigan football had been wonderful: two straight victories over Ohio State, two straight Big 10 championships, two straight playoff seasons. The chatter about Michigan in 2023 started before the season began. The talk was “their schedule is too easy.” Don’t ask me how the schedule is determined, all I know is that a combination of conference scheduling, non-conference scheduling and TV broadcasting determines college football schedules. Michigan State is usually a good mid-season game, but this year all of our tougher games were toward the end of the season. This is not significantly easier than the other elite football teams’ schedules this year.

The NCAA then investigated our head coach, Jim Harbaugh, who would not coach the first three games, voluntarily taking himself out because of the so-called “cheeseburger suspension.” Back in 2020 Harbaugh was accused of meeting with recruits during the “dead period”, as well as having too many coaches on the field during some practices during COVID restrictions. What happened was two recruits–who had already committed to Michigan–allegedly stopped by for an impromptu visit and while there Harbaugh bought them cheeseburgers. The NCAA found a receipt and said Harbaugh lied about it. Harbaugh stuck to his guns saying he did not recall the meetings with recruits on that date when speaking to investigators, and that he was never knowingly and purposefully dishonest. The NCAA and Michigan had agreed to a four-game suspension for Harbaugh, however the NCAA later rejected the plan and said the investigation was still ongoing when Harbaugh voluntarily took himself out. Why this came up this season instead of two or three years ago I don’t know, it’s ridiculous. It’s never been proven that he lied at any point.

None of this had anything to do with Michigan’s players, and with different coaches acting as interim head coach for these games we did just fine without him. Harbaugh came back in for week 4 and coached through the Purdue game in week 9, Michigan dominating in most games. Quarterback JJ McCarthy and running back Blake Corum were outstanding, and along with defensive stars like Mike Sainristil, the excellent wide receiver Roman Wilson, and Michigan’s famous offensive line headed by Zak Zinter opponents rarely had much of a chance. No team scored more than 13 points against the Wolverines during the first nine games of the season, and we shut rival Michigan State completely out, 49-0, in their own stadium.

That leads us to the famous–or infamous–“sign stealing” controversy, which was the biggest headline in college sports for months. In October of last year Yahoo Sports reported the NCAA was investigating allegations that Michigan had engaged in in-person scouting in an effort to steal signs. Teams are allowed to steal signs in college football — it is actually really common — however, it is against the rules to send personnel to scout future opponents and they are not allowed to use electronics to assist in stealing signs.

At the center of the investigation was Michigan off-field analyst, Connor Stalions, who is alleged to have created a network where he would buy tickets for games of future opponents and send people to those games, where they would film the opposing sidelines and review them to break down the signals. Multiple games were found to have tickets purchased by Stalions. He was investigated, and resigned in early November.

Interestingly two schools, Ohio State and Rutgers University, were found to have stolen Michigan’s signals in 2022 by the folks who were hired to do the stealing. They then shared the signs with Purdue ahead of the Big Ten Championship last year. No disciplinary action was ever taken. More recently, just before the Rose Bowl game this year Ohio State was the target of a cheating scandal for alleged “unauthorized access to practice videos.” Here is the link.

Did Jim Harbaugh know anything about the sign-stealing scheme? Attorneys have ordered him not to talk during the investigation, but he gave a statement: “I do not have any knowledge or information regarding the University of Michigan football program illegally stealing signals, nor have I directed any staff member or others to participate in an off-campus scouting assignment. I have no awareness of anyone on our staff having done that or having directed that action.”

It was widely reported that Big Ten coaches pressured new commissioner Tony Pettiti to discipline Michigan during the 2023 season, while Michigan argued in a letter to the commissioner that the conference needs to wait for the NCAA investigation to conclude and for Michigan to have the benefit of due process before a punishment is handed down. Pettiti folded under the pressure, perhaps not wanting to be seen as “soft.”

Pettiti announced a three-game suspension for Harbaugh on the day before the Wolverines were scheduled to play Penn State on the road, even though the NCAA investigation was not complete. As a result Harbaugh was out again as Michigan played Penn State, Maryland and most importantly of all, Ohio State. The press release noted that the Big 10 Conference has not received any “information indicating that Head Football Coach Harbaugh was aware of the impermissible nature of the sign-stealing scheme.” However, it described the punishment as a sanction against Michigan rather than Harbaugh. It said the punishment allows the student-athletes to continue competing while indicating Harbaugh’s position as embodying the “University for purposes of its football program.”

I want to give my opinion on all this as I’ve given it a lot of thought. I could not care less about the cheeseburger suspension, it’s ridiculous and incidental stuff like that happens all the time. I am embarrassed by this sign-stealing scandal, because it’s a breach of integrity. Did Harbaugh know about it? I don’t know, I don’t think so, football is a huge program at Michigan–we may never know. It certainly has not been proven. Everyone involved has been fired or resigned. Sign-stealing is going on legally all over the country. That doesn’t make it right, and my hope is this will mean it stops for every team, as Michigan had its signs stolen (and shared) as well. The timing seems awfully suspect, between the cheeseburger suspension at the beginning of the season and the sign-stealing suspension at the end of it. Do I think Harbaugh is being targeted? Yes, I do. Fortunately it doesn’t matter because we kept winning.

In part two I’ll discuss the games themselves, which will be a lot more fun.

The College Football Playoff travesty, and who should be playing in it!

I’ve written a pretty decent post below, but if you’d rather watch a funny video that makes all my points plus a few extra, simply watch it instead. Here it is.

I haven’t posted in a while, but I haven’t been this fired up in a while. I’m a college football fan, as most of my readers know. I’m a Michigan fan (and graduate), and like many fans of CFB I greatly disagree with the decision made by the committee today. According to them the new rankings and four teams playing in the playoffs are:

#1 Michigan

#2 Washington

#3 Texas

#4 Alabama

While I think virtually all of America agrees with the top two, I strongly disagree with the placing of Alabama. To be specific there are two things I object to: first, the exclusion of Florida State University, and second the inclusion of Alabama.

Florida State has an outstanding team and has had a banner season. Highlights include beating LSU when they were #5 in the nation, defeating Clemson and later beating Duke, ranked #16 at the time. Their primary quarterback, Jordan Travis, led them to these victories. However he had a season-ending injury against North Alabama late in the season. Tate Rodemaker took over as QB, however he suffered a concussion playing against Florida and the other backup QB, Brock Glenn, played in the championship game vs Louisville. Once again they won, and are now 13-0.

I strongly feel they should be in the playoffs, in fact it’s ridiculous they are not. While Heisman candidate Travis is out, even without him the Seminoles won every game they played, including against their rival, Florida, and yet another ranked team, #14 Louisville. They have earned their spot: they are undefeated, they are champions from a Power Five conference, and deserve a chance to play! Whether Travis or Rodemaker is ready to return in January or not, they have done everything any team can do. Isn’t that what you’d want for your team? Some would say FSU isn’t a top four team without Travis–you know what, even if they were the worst team in college football I’d still be advocating for their inclusion because they’ve earned their chance.

Alabama’s inclusion is also a big mistake. God forbid we have a playoff year without an SEC team! The only reason they are being included is because they narrowly beat Georgia. Let’s recall Georgia has had a sweetheart schedule, they haven’t played a good team other than Ole Miss until yesterday. Alabama meanwhile, has already lost to Texas and should have lost against Auburn–it was only a wild miracle catch that saved them in the final seconds of their game. They don’t deserve to be there, and neither does Georgia. It’s a little ridiculous to say Georgia should be in and Alabama out given that ‘Bama just beat Georgia yesterday. Either they’re both in or they’re both out. If the reasoning is Alabama is in because they beat Georgia, then Texas should be playing instead because they defeated Alabama!

One cannot argue that Oklahoma defeated Texas so why not Oklahoma, for the simple reason that Oklahoma has two losses. Two losses means you are disqualified from the playoffs, end of story. I have no problem with Texas being included, especially since they killed Oklahoma State, and the Pokes beat the Sooners in their rivalry “Bedlam” game. Sadly it’s the last time OU and OSU will play for quite a while given Oklahoma’s move to the SEC next year.

So who do I think should be playing in the playoffs? I think I’ve been making it clear, but to be be explicit:

#1 Michigan

#2 Washington

#3 Florida State

#4 Texas

Honestly it doesn’t matter to me which rank FSU and Texas have, as long as they’re both in. Some might say Michigan simply wants to play the Seminoles because they might be an easier team without Jordan Travis. That’s not why at all–in fact ranking Florida State #3 means we won’t play them in the first round, and it can be justified in that they have not lost a single game. Florida State is more than one great quarterback, as I think they’ve proven toward the end of the season. Alabama and Georgia are great teams, same as Ohio State, but they should be outside the bubble. And it ticks me off that it’s otherwise.

Feel free to comment below.