Connect with us

Published

on

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore will be suspended for this week’s season-opening game as part of the school’s self-imposed penalties for violating NCAA rules that also led to coach Jim Harbaugh’s punishment.

Harbaugh said Monday an analyst will be elevated to fill Moore’s spot on the staff Saturday against East Carolina.

The school announced last week that it decided Harbaugh would serve a three-game suspension to start this season because of NCAA recruiting infractions.

“I’ve heard people comment it’s a slap on the wrist,” he said. “It’s more like a baseball bat to the kneecaps.”

Michigan handed down Harbaugh’s punishment in an attempt to get out in front of potential NCAA sanctions related to an investigation of impermissible contact with recruits during the COVID-19 dead period.

Harbaugh and Moore, a rising star in the coaching ranks, will not be on the sideline when the second-ranked Wolverines start the season. Both will be allowed to coach on non-game days, following NCAA rules.

Harbaugh also will miss games against UNLV and Bowling Green at the Big House.

Four of Harbaugh’s assistants will have an opportunity to lead the team during his suspension, he announced last week. He also named his 84-year-old father, Jack, assistant head coach and gave strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert an additional title as associate head coach.

Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter will serve as head coach in the opener. Special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh will fill his father’s role with the team in the first half of the second game, while running backs coach and former Michigan star Mike Hart will take over the duties in the second half.

In his second game back from a suspension, Moore will be the head coach in the final nonconference game.

Michigan is expected to contend for a national title after winning two straight Big Ten championships and appearing in consecutive College Football Playoffs.

The school previously proposed a four-game suspension for Harbaugh as part of a negotiated resolution to the case with NCAA enforcement staff, but the association’s committee on infractions reportedly declined to accept that proposal.

Without confirming the status of the negotiated resolution, which was submitted by Michigan to the NCAA last month, the governing body put out a terse statement in response to reports that the settlement was in danger of not being accepted.

The negotiated resolution Michigan submitted to the NCAA also included one-game suspensions for Moore and tight ends coach Grant Newsome, who is not expected to be subject to a self-imposed punishment.

Michigan self-imposing a penalty for Harbaugh does not end the case. It is unclear whether Michigan has received an official notice of allegations from the NCAA. Without a negotiated resolution, the case would need to go before the committee on infractions before a ruling is handed down.

That process could take months to complete and likely would stretch into 2024. Schools usually self-impose penalties as a way to get out in front of the NCAA, show cooperation and mitigate some of the damages of an eventual punishment.

The investigation involved impermissible texts and calls — including some by Harbaugh — to high school prospects during part of a pandemic-related dead period for contact with potential recruits. The NCAA also has been looking at whether a member of Michigan’s off-the-field football staff violated rules by doing on-the-field coaching during practice.

Harbaugh previously told NCAA investigators in multiple meetings that he would not agree to an unethical conduct charge for not being forthright, according to two people familiar with the situation. The people spoke earlier this year to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because details of the investigation have not been shared.

Continue Reading

Sports

L.A.’s Betts day-to-day after stubbing toe in mishap

Published

on

By

L.A.'s Betts day-to-day after stubbing toe in mishap

LOS ANGELES — Mookie Betts stubbed a toe on his left foot during an off-the-field incident and was out of the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ lineup Friday night for the opener of a highly anticipated weekend series against the New York Yankees.

Betts was scheduled to undergo X-rays at Dodger Stadium before first pitch. Until then, the team will hope for the best.

“It’s day-to-day right now,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “So, that’s where we’re at.”

The incident — affecting Betts’ second toe — was believed to occur late Wednesday night, after the Dodgers returned from a six-game road trip through New York and Cleveland. Roberts didn’t find out until Betts called him Friday morning. He was vague on the details.

“I really don’t know,” Roberts said when asked how the injury occurred. “I think it was at home. It’s probably a dresser, nightstand, something like that. It’s just kind of an accident. I think that Mookie will be able to give more context, but that’s kind of from the training staff what I heard. So hopefully, it’s benign, it’s negative. Not sure, but I feel confident saying it’s day-to-day … but putting on a shoe today was difficult for him.”

Betts’ injury isn’t the Dodgers’ most serious at the moment. Late-inning reliever Evan Phillips, who was rehabbing a forearm injury, didn’t feel right playing catch earlier this week and will undergo Tommy John surgery next week, knocking him out for all of 2025 and most of 2026.

Phillips, 30, was released by the Baltimore Orioles in August 2021 and designated for assignment by the Tampa Bay Rays less than two weeks later. The Dodgers picked him up and turned him into a valuable late-game option. From 2022 to 2024, Phillips posted a 2.21 ERA and 0.92 WHIP, saved 44 games and struck out 206 batters in 179 regular-season innings.

But Phillips dealt with arm issues during last year’s postseason run and was left off the team’s World Series roster. He then went on the IL because of a rotator cuff strain in the middle of March, returned a month later, notched seven scoreless appearances, then went back on the IL on May 7 because of what the team called forearm discomfort. Platelet-rich-plasma injections did not take. Phillips never got better.

“As we started getting into it, it wasn’t really responding,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said. “We felt like this could be a possibility, so as he got deeper into the process and it wasn’t really getting better, the decision to do it was pretty much evident with our information.”

The loss of Phillips is coupled with the Dodgers having four other high-leverage relievers on the IL — Brusdar Graterol, Blake Treinen, Kirby Yates and Michael Kopech, all of whom are right-handed.

The Dodgers tried to backfill some of that depth by trading for former All-Star closer Alexis Diaz on Thursday. But Diaz, who struggled so badly this season that the Cincinnati Reds optioned him to Triple-A, will initially work out of the Dodgers’ spring training complex in Glendale, Ariz.

The Dodgers also have three starting pitchers — Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki — recovering from shoulder injuries, with Shohei Ohtani not expected to join the rotation until sometime after the All-Star break.

The lineup, at least, had been healthy. Until now.

Betts, 32, got off to a slow start but was still slashing .254/.338/.405 with 8 home runs and 5 stolen bases while slotting between the hot-hitting Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in the No. 2 spot. More notably, Betts had proven to be a capable major league shortstop after working during the offseason at the position.

But the toe injury could set him back, in much the same way a broken left hand robbed him of nearly two months in 2024.

At this point, Roberts said, “I don’t see it being long term.” But the Dodgers can’t say that definitively yet.

“We need to see the doctors and kind of get a better sense of it,” Gomes said. “It happened pretty recently, so it’ll take some time before we have a better understanding.”

Continue Reading

Sports

Jays put Santander on IL with shoulder injury

Published

on

By

Jays put Santander on IL with shoulder injury

TORONTO — The Blue Jays put slugger Anthony Santander on the 10-day injured list Friday because of left shoulder inflammation and recalled outfielder Alan Roden from Triple-A Buffalo.

Santander is batting .179 with six home runs and 18 RBI in 50 games. The veteran switch hitter has missed a handful of games because of left hip and left shoulder soreness over the past three weeks.

Santander signed a $92.5 million, five-year contract with Toronto in January after eight seasons with Baltimore. He hit a career-best 44 home runs for the Orioles last season.

The outfielder had an MRI after Thursday’s 12-0 win over the Athletics, when he was 0 for 2 with two strikeouts and two walks, Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. The team was still determining whether the next steps would include a cortisone injection or rehabilitation, the manager said.

“I think it just got to the point to where it was bothering him,” Schneider said before Friday’s game against the Athletics. “You can’t really put the work that you want to put in volume-wise, and we just think it’s best for him right now.”

Roden rejoins the Blue Jays after batting .178 with one home run and five RBI in 28 games for Toronto earlier this season, his first in the majors. Roden hit .361 with three homers and 12 RBI in 18 games at Buffalo after being sent down May 7.

Continue Reading

Sports

Twins reinstate Buxton after 11-game absence

Published

on

By

Twins reinstate Buxton after 11-game absence

SEATTLE — The Minnesota Twins reinstated center fielder Byron Buxton from the seven-day concussion injured list Friday before beginning a three-game series in Seattle, two weeks after he collided with shortstop Carlos Correa in pursuit of a shallow fly ball.

Buxton missed 11 games after the collision, which also sent Correa into the concussion protocol. Correa needed only the minimum seven-day stay on the injured list and missed five games.

To make room for Buxton, outfielder Carson McCusker was sent back to Triple-A St. Paul. Buxton was batting .261 with an .834 OPS and 18 extra-base hits, including 10 homers, before he was hurt. He also had 33 runs, 27 RBIs and 8 steals in his first 41 games.

Continue Reading

Trending