Michigan
Ohio State football coach Ryan Day just flipped rivalry pressure onto his Michigan counterpart — Jimmy Watkins
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan coach Sherrone Moore wears his cap low, but he can’t hide the bleary eyes under his bill at the postgame podium.
He looks like he’s been crying. No surprise. When Moore dons the Wolverines headset, he bares his soul into the mic. When he first emerged from Michigan’s locker room on Saturday afternoon, he chest-bumped players and urged the Big House crowd to bring noise.
And when emotion fuels The Game, as it has over the last four seasons, Moore fits Michigan like his linemen fit Buckeye run plays.
But when talent wins out, as it did during Ohio State’s 27-9 win vs. UM on Saturday, Moore loses his rivalry aura. The Buckeyes widen the holes in his resume. You start to see him differently, and not just due to dried tears.
“It stings. Everybody stings,” Moore said Saturday. “You sting for the seniors, sting for the program. When we’re in this 24/7, when you’re in this for 365, this hurts. And you work tirelessly to make this be successful.
“… I’ll put it on me. I always put stuff on me and, (we will) self-reflect, self-look at what we need to fix, see what we need to do.”
Welcome to Ohio State coach Ryan Day’s world, minus the cushion earned by piling accomplishments next to a pair of gold pants. Over the last four years — and particularly the fourth — Moore and Michigan have made their names invalidating the Buckeyes’ would-be bullet proof resume. For every Buckeye bullet point, his Wolverines offered a rebuttal.
OSU won 12 games per season, but …
It made two College Football Playoff appearances, but …
It won the national championship (!) last season, but …
The Buckeyes — particularly Day — still couldn’t beat Michigan.
Now the rabbit has the gold pants, and he was already faster and stronger. Even sans Saturday’s win, Ohio State owns the nation’s longest active winning streak. It boasts the best gambling odds to win the national championship (again), and Day has built this program to sustain success.
Meanwhile, Michigan follows a blueprint designed to, um, good question.
What is Michigan football (and its coach) without the rivalry win?
Let’s self-reflect. In the two full seasons since Harbaugh left, Moore has won 17 games total, and 12 in conference play. Those numbers rank fifth (tied with Illinois) and fourth (tied with Iowa), in the Big Ten, respectively, since UM celebrated its third straight conference title in 2023. And they’ve only pushed Moore as close to the Playoff as his Wolverines crept toward Ohio State on Saturday.
Read: Not close and/or not good enough. Even Moore would tell you as much.
“… Nine wins is great a lot of places, but we want to be better,” Moore said.
To be fair, he inherited a barren quarterback room last season and a young roster this season. Freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood (8 of 18, 63 yards passing) represents both Michigan’s frustrating present and promising future. So does first-year receiver Andrew Marsh (0 targets Saturday), who broke the program’s freshman receiving yards record without real playing time until Week 5.
Add next season’s 11th-ranked recruiting class, and you can see the momentum building.
“I think he tried to keep the culture the same (as Harbaugh’s), and I think he’s done a great job so far,” senior linebacker Jimmy Rolder said. “And I think (today is) just on the players. I don’t think that had to do with anything that happened out there today. It just came down to execution.”
And talent. And temperament. Over the last four years — and particularly the fourth — Moore and Michigan dragged the Buckeyes into a street fight, where culture and emotion can meet talent. Over three hours on Saturday, however, Moore’s program looked behind.
The rabbit is faster, more accomplished and, apparently, moving past its Michigan mental block. The Wolverine lost its claws and its rebuttal in the same afternoon.
And without his rivalry glow, Moore’s own resume looks blurrier through two seasons than it appeared. No, those aren’t the tears blocking his accomplishments. They are tiers, as in how many Michigan has dropped since Moore took over.
Fall far enough, and blue-blood fans start tapping their feet. Just ask Day, who placed his rival in a familiar bind after Saturday’s streak breaker.
Going forward, Moore must either beat Ohio State or win something bigger. Because fans and boosters can’t hide their emotions, either.
Michigan
Police say Oakland County teen missing, endangered
Authorities are asking for the public’s assistance to find a missing Oakland County teen who is considered endangered.
Adrianna Smith, 15, was last seen in the 3500 block of South Fenton Road, just south of the city of Holly in northwest Oakland County, according to Michigan State Police.
She is believed to have left her home in a 2002 Jeep Liberty with an adult male, possibly a man named Derek Girtman, MSP said.
Smith is described as having blonde hair and green eyes. She is about 5 feet, 7 inches tall and 160 pounds. She has one tattoo above her right knee and another on her left ankle.
Anyone with information about Adrianna’s whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the MSP Metro North Post at either (800) 495-4677 or (989) 370-8926.
Michigan
US supreme court sides with Michigan in its fight to shut down ageing pipeline
The supreme court on Wednesday sided with Michigan in ruling that the state’s lawsuit seeking to shut down a section of an ageing pipeline beneath a Great Lakes channel will stay in state court.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for a unanimous court that the Enbridge energy company waited too long to try to move the case to federal court.
The case is part of a messy legal dispute about a pipeline that has moved crude oil and natural gas liquids between Superior, Wisconsin, and Sarnia, Ontario, since 1953.
Dana Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general, sued in state court in June 2019 seeking to void the easement that allows Enbridge to operate a 4.5-mile (6.4km) section of pipeline under the straits of Mackinac, which link Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Nessel, a Democrat, won a restraining order shutting down the pipeline from Ingham county judge James Jamo in June 2020, although Enbridge was allowed to continue operations after meeting safety requirements.
Enbridge moved the lawsuit into federal court in 2021, arguing it affects US and Canadian trade. But a three-judge panel from the sixth US circuit court of appeals sent the case back to Jamo in June 2024, finding that the company missed a 30-day deadline to change jurisdictions.
The pipeline at issue is called Line 5. Concerns over the section beneath the straits rupturing and causing a catastrophic spill have been growing since 2017, when Enbridge engineers revealed they had known about gaps in the section’s protective coating since 2014. A boat anchor damaged the section in 2018, intensifying fears of a spill.
The Michigan department of natural resources under Gretchen Whitmer, the state’s governor, revoked the straits easement for Line 5 in 2020. Enbridge filed a separate federal lawsuit challenging the revocation.
Enbridge won a ruling from a federal judge blocking the move, but Whitmer, a Democrat, has appealed to the sixth US circuit court of appeals. In March, the supreme court rejected Whitmer’s appeal claiming that she couldn’t be sued in federal court.
It was unclear how the federal ruling blocking Whitmer’s revocation attempt would affect Nessel’s case in state court. The company said in a statement that the judge in the Whitmer case had already decided federal regulators, not the state, are responsible for Line 5 safety and they had found no issues that would warrant shutting it down.
Enbridge also is seeking permits to encase the section of pipeline beneath the straits in a protective tunnel. The Michigan public service commission granted the relevant permits in 2023, but a coalition of environmental groups and Michigan tribes has filed a lawsuit seeking to void state permits for the tunnel. The state supreme court is weighing that case.
Enbridge also needs approval from the US army corps of engineers and the Michigan department of environment, Great Lakes and energy.
The pipeline is at the center of a separate legal dispute in Wisconsin as well. A federal judge in Madison last summer gave Enbridge three years to shut down part of Line 5 that runs across the Bad River Band of Lake Superior’s reservation. The company has appealed against the shutdown order to the seventh US circuit court of appeals, but it started work in February to reroute the line around the reservation.
The Bad River Band and environmental groups have filed a state lawsuit seeking to halt the work, arguing regulators have underestimated the damage the reroute construction will cause. That case also is pending.
Michigan
Hockey roundup: Three Michigan State recruits at U18 worlds; Bruins top Sabres
Porter Martone becomes first teenager to score game-winning goals in his first two NHL playoff games.
Porter Martone becomes first teenager to score game-winning goals in his first two NHL playoff games.
Three Michigan State recruits will represent Team USA at the world U18 hockey championships in Bratislava and Trencin, Slovakia.
The U.S. opens against Czechia on Wednesday (10 a.m., The Hockey Network).
The future Spartans are: defenseman Nick Bogas (Royal Oak), defenseman Tyler Martyniuk (Washington Township) and forward Brooks Rogowski (Brighton).
Other local commits include: defenseman Abe Barnett (University of Michigan) and goalie Luke Carrithers (Western Michigan).
Team USA’s head coach is Nick Fohr (Dexter) with Kevin Porter (Northville) and Dan Darrow (Livonia) among the assistant coaches.
The tournament features 10 countries with the final scheduled for May 2.
Bruins tie series with Sabres
The visiting Boston Bruins scored three second-period goals and held off a late Buffalo Sabres rally to post a 4-2 win on Tuesday and even their Eastern Conference quarterfinal playoff series at one victory apiece.
Viktor Arvidsson scored in the last two periods, giving the Bruins 1-0 and 4-0 leads. Morgan Geekie and Pavel Zacha also lit the lamp for Boston, which heads home for Game 3 of the best-of-seven series on Thursday.
Jonathan Aspirot, Casey Mittelstadt and David Pastrnak each dished out two assists for the Bruins, and Jeremy Swayman made 34 saves.
Bowen Byram and Peyton Krebs scored as Buffalo climbed within 4-2 in the closing minutes.
Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen allowed four goals on 19 shots before Alex Lyon entered in relief following Arvidsson’s second marker, which came just 16 seconds into the third period.
Buffalo had a 36-26 shot advantage, including 20-8 in the third period, but its power play went 0-for-5. Boston finished 1-for-6 on the man advantage.
The physical contest featured 47 penalty minutes for each team.
Following a scoreless opening period, the Bruins took over in the second, scoring on three of their 11 shots against Luukkonen.
Arvidsson broke the deadlock 4:54 into the middle frame, taking Aspirot’s lob pass in ahead of the defense and beating Luukkonen five-hole with a backhander from the left circle.
A gaffe by Luukkonen helped Boston double its lead with 3:31 left in the period, as Geekie’s high backhanded dump from the far side of center ice eluded him over the glove.
The Bruins’ power play got in on the action 1:41 later. After Geekie’s one- handed keep-in at the blue line extended the play, Zacha tipped in Pastrnak’s shot from the top of the right circle while stationed in the bumper position.
Arvidsson made it 4-0 early in the third, prompting Sabres coach Lindy Ruff to change goaltenders. Aspirot banked a long feed off the boards to set up the play, leading Arvidsson down the left wing to score on a 2-on-1 rush with Zacha.
The Sabres struck twice in a 1:14 span to make things interesting. Byram accepted Beck Malenstyn’s back pass for a wrister from the top of the right circle to break Swayman’s shutout bid with 6:06 left.
Krebs soon made it 4-2, batting down and scoring the rebound of a Rasmus Dahlin point shot that caromed off the post and back into the crease.
Detroit Red Wings received six A’s in The Detroit News’ final grades for the 2025-2026 season.
Grades and key takeaways for Finnie, Gibson, Seider, Larkin, Raymond and DeBrincat after the Wings’ late collapse.
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