Michigan

Niyo: Marshall plan keeps Michigan running on schedule

Published

5 months ago

November 2, 2025

Niyo: Marshall plan keeps Michigan running on schedule

Ann Arbor — One minute, Jordan Marshall was lying on the ground on the Michigan sideline, looking like another casualty on a night full of them for the home team.

The next, he simply disappeared. But not for long.

Because the game wasn’t over — much to the dismay of a chattering crowd of 110,517 inside Michigan Stadium on Saturday night — and the workhorse wasn’t done working.

So there Marshall went, plowing into the line one more time. And somehow, out of the pile, there he came again, leaving little doubt about how this night would end.

But questions? Sure, there would be a few.

Starting with the one Tony Alford greeted Marshall with on the sideline after that remarkable fourth-quarter touchdown run had finally given the Wolverines some breathing room.

“Coach Alford was, like, ‘What happened?’” Marshall recalled later, laughing, after he’d helped his team escape Purdue’s upset bid.

His answer: “I just kept running.”

He did, all right. All night, really.

Primary role

And the redshirt freshman might be the single biggest reason Michigan has kept winning these last few weeks, picking up the slack after starter Justice Haynes was sidelined by injury — or injuries, as it were — and practically carrying the Wolverines into their bye week with a 7-2 record.

Whatever you think of Michigan’s chances going forward — wins at Northwestern (Nov. 15) and Maryland (Nov. 22) could set up another epic clash with Ohio State at the end of November — don’t overlook Marshall’s role in getting the Wolverines where they are.

Saturday night, Marshall rushed for a career-best 185 yards on 25 carries, scored all three of his team’s touchdowns, and effectively ran out the clock on the Boilermakers, who haven’t won a Big Ten game in two years but easily could’ve won one here.

That’s because Michigan’s passing game feels like a disjointed mess most of the time. Freshman Bryce Underwood is still rushing too many throws, receivers are still dropping too many passes and the coaching staff is still lacking the kind of confidence you’d expect from a team that’s at least pretending to be a playoff contender at this point in the season.

Underwood followed up an underwhelming performance at Michigan State (7-of-18, 86 yards) with another one Saturday, finishing just 13-of-22 for 145 yards and a costly red-zone interception against a Purdue defense that just gave up 359 yards through the air to Rutgers a week ago in West Lafayette. And while neither the quarterback nor his head coach, Sherrone Moore, sounded any alarms after this latest outing, Moore did acknowledge, “We’ve got to be better in the passing game.”

They’ll have to be better all around, frankly. Michigan’s special-teams play remains an Achilles’ heel more than two months into the season. And a defense that was already missing a few starters lost another one Saturday when Jaishawn Barham exited with an apparent shoulder injury on the second play from scrimmage. But that’s no excuse for the way Purdue dominated time of possession through three quarters or the fact that the Boilermakers completed 77% of their passes and were only a third-down stop away from having a chance to win this game late in the fourth quarter.

Then again, Marshall made sure none of that mattered in the end. Nearly half of his 25 carries — a dozen, to be exact — came in the fourth quarter Saturday. And it would’ve been more if not for the cramping that sent him hobbling off the field in the middle of that final touchdown drive. Marshall missed a few plays getting treatment on the sideline — backup Bryson Kuzdzal filled in — yet he was determined to finish what he’d started.

“It can hurt tomorrow,” he said. “We’ve got a whole week to get our bodies right. But I gotta go out there for my team. They fought for four quarters, and I have to be out there to help seal the game and put the game away. And that’s my mindset.”

It showed, obviously. Just as it did a couple weeks earlier in the win over Washington here, as Marshall (25 carries, 133 yards against the Huskies) stepped into the starter’s role that likely would’ve been his all season had Michigan’s coaching staff not hit the transfer portal to bring in Haynes from Alabama last winter.

Waiting his turn

Instead, he was left to play a supporting role for the first six weeks, biding his time and waiting for a bigger opportunity. It finally came when Haynes missed that Washington game while nursing a rib injury suffered in the loss at USC. He returned last week against the Spartans and both backs went over 100 yards in that rivalry runaway. But now Haynes is out indefinitely with a different injury, one that had him using a knee scooter to get around on the Michigan sideline Saturday, his right foot stuffed in a protective boot.

Asked about Haynes’ status before Saturday’s game, Moore would only say “we hope to get him back.” But the back who’s shouldering the load in his absence certainly looks more than capable of doing just that.

Marshall has an impressive ability to absorb contact and gain extra yardage at the end of runs. And as Moore was quick to point out after Saturday’s win, of his 124 carries this season, only one has gone for negative yardage. But he packs more than a punch, too, and this career night against the Boilermakers amplified that, the way Marshall used his patience and vision to break off chunks of yardage time after time. A dozen of his carries went for 5 yards or more —Marshall gave most of the credit for that to Michigan’s young, improving offensive line — and the 54-yarder he took to the house for the game’s first touchdown was his second 50-plus yarder in as many weeks.

“But it’s not a surprise,” linebacker Ernest Hausmann said. “We all know what Jordan’s capable of doing. We go against that in practice every day. So it’s not surprise. We know who he is, and we know what he does.”

And for what it’s worth, Marshall says he knows he can do more.

“I don’t think I played my best today,” he said. “I think I ran well, but there’s some stuff in the pass protection I think I have to clean up, and our (running back) room has to clean up. And again, I’m very hard on myself, and there’s some runs that I wish I had back, things like that.”

And those aren’t just the kind of things coaches love to hear, either. It’s the mentality Michigan’s going to need when it gets back to work over the bye week, preparing for the stretch run.

“I promise you guys that we’re going to come out in two weeks ready to go,” Marshall said. “Next week is an opportunity. It’s not a week where we just get to sit around and relax. It’s a week to get healthy, fix things … back to the fundamentals.”

Saturday was a win, yes. But it was a “sloppy win,” Marshall added, “and we’re a way better team than that.”

john.niyo@detroitnews.com

@JohnNiyo

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Michigan

Michigan State basketball needs help from bench in NCAA Tournament

Published

6 hours ago

March 19, 2026

Press Room

Michigan State basketball needs help from bench in NCAA Tournament

BUFFALO, NY – Michigan State basketball’s battle cry of “strength in numbers” a year ago led to a Big Ten title and an Elite Eight run.

That depth has somewhat disappeared for Tom Izzo as he prepares to open his 28th straight NCAA tournament. But beyond the Spartans’ core-four captains and freshman starter, Jordan Scott, the key reserves know what they mean to this team as the games wind down and the intensity amplifies.

“It’s very important,” sophomore guard Kur Teng said Wednesday, March 18. “Kind of our motto here is strength in numbers. So coming off the bench, I want to be able to produce in any way I can.”

The urgency arrives Thursday, when 3-seed MSU (25-7) opens the first round of the East region against 14-seed North Dakota State (27-7). Tipoff at KeyBank Center is 4:05 p.m. (TNT).

While the attention and heavy workload will be on the shoulders of Jeremy Fears Jr., Coen Carr, Jaxon Kohler, Carson Cooper and Scott, the backups behind them with the potential for two win-or-go-home games in three days becomes essential to giving them breaks while also providing production.

“It’s not really about the minutes,” redshirt freshman Jesse McCulloch said Wednesday, March 18. “It’s really about having our role and going out there and playing as hard as we can for the amount of that we got and knowing that we can contribute to the game by playing as hard as possible.”

Teng and freshman forward Cam Ward have been the two most used subs this season for Izzo, particularly as his rotation has shrunk over the past month. But backup point guard Denham Wojcik still gets key, albeit brief, minutes replacing Fears. And both McCulloch and sixth-year senior guard Trey Fort have been called into duty at pivotal moments, be it with foul trouble or inefficiency from the starters.

Izzo said the NCAA Tournament, with longer and more frequent TV timeouts, allows coaches to further shrink their playing groups and give starters more minutes.

“But there’s always foul trouble, and there’s always things like that,” he said Wednesday. “I think your subs are always important. I think it’s hurt us a little bit not having Divine (Ugochukwu), for sure. Last year, our whole battle cry was strength in numbers, and we had numbers and we kept rotating people in there. It’s not been quite the same this year, even though we are utilizing our subs.”

Ugochukwu, who is out after foot surgery from an early-February injury, went through the public practice Wednesday but is not expected to be able to return during the NCAAs. That has left MSU’s guard situation thin at times behind Fears and Scott.

However, the 6-foot-5, 200-pound Teng has come on over his last nine games, averaging 10.2 points and making 43.1% from 3-point range. Teng also has picked up his scrappiness beyond scoring, adding 2.3 rebounds in that span that includes nine offensive boards.

“I think Kur Teng is really playing better,” Izzo said. “And if he’s making shots, that helps us.”

Ward also has gradually shown improvement after a wrist injury suffered in a Thanksgiving Day win over North Carolina hampered the midportion of his first season. The 6-9, 230-pound forward is averaging 4.9 points and 4.2 rebounds in the past nine games while shooting 58.1% from the field. He also has six blocks and four steals while playing at key times.

“We’re gonna be playing games with one day in between and playing great teams, high-level minutes,” Ward said Wednesday. “So it’s up to us coming off the bench to have an immediate impact, not really wait until the end of the game like UCLA to have an impact, and have an impact early. We play longer to give these guys a longer time to rest.”

For Ward and McCulloch, giving the Spartans’ big men a break and trying to keep them fresh and not playing 30-plus minutes is their primary mission.

“For me and Jaxon, it’s a lot different between us playing 35 minutes a game and 28 to 30 minutes a game,” Cooper said Wednesday. “I don’t want to have to play 35 minutes a game if I can help it, especially in this tournament where you’re playing a lot of games in a short amount of days.”

Both Kohler and Cooper also know what it is like to be in the position that Ward, Teng and the others are in – coming off the bench in the NCAAs, with Izzo’s intensity soaring and the magnitude of the minutes mounting. They’re also seniors in their final tournament. They want to leave their legacy with both on the court and by helping their understudies toward future postseasons when they’ll be the ones likely logging long minutes.

“I think it’s really important for me and Coop, especially with Jesse and Cam, to make sure that we kind of explain how this works,” Kohler said Wednesday. “How to manage the emotions that are going on and the way coach can react sometimes. Because when we went through this our first year, it was really nerve-wracking. I mean, it was terrifying at times – we didn’t want to make any mistakes.

“I think what we have to do is make sure that we guide them through that, especially on the court. And the more that we do that – on how to play freely but at the same time with a sense of urgency that if we lose, it can be one-and-done – that’s the thing I feel we can help them with the most. That’s something that we had to learn ourselves growing up in the system.”

Michigan State basketball vs North Dakota State prediction

The Spartans haven’t taken a step back from high-level competition in weeks, so they will welcome having the clear-cut physical advantages to bang with the Bison. The key at KeyBank Center will be MSU defending NDSU’s sharp-shooting lineup to prevent a classic 3/14 upset. The pick: MSU 84, North Dakota State 72.

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.

Subscribe to the “Spartan Speak” podcast for new episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts. And catch all of our podcasts and daily voice briefing at freep.com/podcasts.

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Pain at the pump: Michigan drivers squeezed as prices spike

Published

18 hours ago

March 18, 2026

Press Room

Pain at the pump: Michigan drivers squeezed as prices spike

DETROIT – Gas prices across the U.S. have reached a 2.5-year high, and Michigan drivers are seeing the impact at the pump.

Michigan’s average price rose another 12 cents overnight to $3.87 a gallon, nearly $1 more than a month ago, according to AAA.

On Tuesday, some stations in Metro Detroit are charging $4 or more.

“I just drive around, do little jobs for people — and the gas prices are making me not want to do it anymore because they are crazy,” said Tina, a Metro Detroit driver.

Other drivers echoed the frustration. Charlie Oleson, who washes cars at dealerships, said fuel costs are cutting into his earnings.

“It’s a little bit less money in our pockets,” Oleson said.

Diesel drivers are also seeing steep costs, with prices in some areas surging above $5 a gallon. Sean Moore, a truck driver, said filling a large tank can run hundreds of dollars.

“This one has a 90-gallon tank. It cost over $300 to fill it up,” Moore said.

So far, gas prices are still far below Michigan’s record high. In 2022, the statewide average hit $5.22 a gallon, according to AAA.

How drivers can save:

GasBuddy says small choices can help reduce costs:

Shop around for lower prices.
Fill up on Sundays, which are often cheaper than midweek.
Pay with cash when possible to save 5 to 10 cents per gallon.
Drive more efficiently by easing off the accelerator, using cruise control and leaving a few minutes early.

“Fuel efficiency is really dictated by your foot on your accelerator,” GasBuddy petroleum analyst Patrick De Haan said.

As for when prices will ease, De Haan said it’s not clear.

“There’s really no telling how high we will go. As long as this situation continues, we will continue to see prices advancing,” he said.

GasBuddy also notes supply is shifting from the winter blend to the summer blend as demand rises with spring break travel. Prices could climb through Memorial Day, though how high they go remains uncertain.

AAA also offers a “Gas Cost Calculator” to help budget for trips.

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Michigan Democrats request probe into Epstein’s ties to Interlochen

Published

1 day ago

March 18, 2026

Press Room

Michigan Democrats request probe into Epstein’s ties to Interlochen

Lansing — A group of Michigan Democrats has asked the Republican chairman of the state House Oversight Committee to investigate the relationship between sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the Interlochen Center for the Arts.

In a letter to Oversight Chairman Jay DeBoyer, R-Clay Township, seven Democratic members of his committee cited a trove of documents recently released by the U.S. Department of Justice and allegations that Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, used the northern Michigan arts school to “prey on girls.”

“It is our collective duty to ensure the safety of all children who have attended or will attend Interlochen by investigating these allegations to ascertain whether children attending this esteemed academy were exposed to Jeffrey Epstein, the extent of Interlochen’s awareness and response and how it intends to protect children from sexual predators,” the Democrats’ letter said.

Maureen Oleson, director of communications for the Interlochen Center for the Arts, said the nonprofit organization “has fully cooperated with all requests” related to federal investigations.

“We take these matters very seriously,” Oleson said. “We would respond to any additional inquiries from elected officials or oversight bodies as appropriate and remain committed to transparency.”

The center previously released a statement, saying it had conducted an internal review and found “no record of complaint or concern about Epstein.”

“We are appalled at what we have learned about the scope of conduct by Epstein and his co-conspirators, and we expect that a more comprehensive understanding of the full scope will continue to evolve,” the center’s past statement said.

The center, which is located on 1,200 acres in Grand Traverse County, is home to summer arts camps and what it describes as the “nation’s premier arts boarding high school.” The center’s website says it’s “the global destination for artists and arts enthusiasts of all ages.”

Documents related to Epstein and released by the federal government last year included a lawsuit that claimed he met his first known victim at Interlochen in the 1990s.

Epstein attended Interlochen in the summer of 1967 and was a donor to the organization from 1990 to 2003. His giving included the donation of a cabin on the campus that was referred to as the “Jeffrey E. Epstein Scholarship Lodge,” the House Democrats said in their new letter.

“Documents and survivor accounts appear to show that Epstein utilized the lodge on numerous trips to Interlochen over the 1990s,” the letter said.

In 2019, Epstein died in jail in New York after being charged with sex trafficking.

The Democrats’ letter said the House Oversight Committee should “utilize all necessary powers and processes to examine and investigate the Interlochen Center for the Arts and its relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.”

During a Tuesday House Oversight Committee meeting, DeBoyer acknowledged he had received a letter from Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou, D-East Lansing, and others regarding an investigation request. DeBoyer said there would be a discussion in the coming days about how to move forward.

Later Tuesday, House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, said he wasn’t aware of the request and would have to look at it.

Asked by a reporter whether it would be concerning for a pedophile to have a relationship with a school, Hall replied, “I am not familiar with what the subject is. So I’d have to look at it.”

cmauger@detroitnews.com

Staff Writer Sarah Atwood contributed.

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