Notebook: Why CMU is traveling to Detroit this week, UM's QB timeline, MSU's strength at LB

Mt. Pleasant — It’s a big week around the Central Michigan program, with a road trip to Detroit on Thursday ahead of a planned Friday scrimmage at a local high school. 

While most teams will keep grinding at their respective facilities through this middle portion of fall camp, new head coach Matt Drinkall and his staff want to do a dry run of taking the team on the road for a game before actually doing so. Central Michigan opens the 2025 season with three consecutive games on the road: At San Jose State, at Pitt and at Michigan. 

So to have some of the rhythm of game week practiced prior to a trip west at the end of the month, the Chippewas will leave campus on Thursday and spend the night in a hotel in southeast Michigan before scrimmaging on Friday afternoon. 

It’s part of a broader mode of practice that Drinkall has put in place to simulate the ebbs and flows of a game day. 

Throughout fall camp, Central Michigan has kept a “TV Timeout” set of periods during practices. When the whistle blows for these periods, practice stops and the players get to take a knee and hydrate, and perhaps even get a quick snack. 

These stoppages mimic the TV timeouts that halt games, and have the team practicing in more of a game-like rhythm. 

And the urgency for Friday’s scrimmage — and the opener against the Spartans on Aug. 29 — was evident on Wednesday, as defensive lineman Malik Denkins pulled the team together for a brief pep talk after the early portion of practice wasn’t up to standards. 

No QB competition into the season for Michigan, seemingly

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore said on Tuesday that he plans to name a starting quarterback come game week. Michigan kicks off the season on the evening of Aug. 30, and Moore is scheduled to speak that Monday, Aug. 25, so an announcement could come as soon as that.

And regardless of who he names the starter — veteran transfers Mikey Keene or Jake Garcia, sophomore Jadyn Davis or heralded freshman Bryce Underwood — Moore has a clear expectation for what he wants out of his signal caller.

“Whoever the starting quarterback is, to raise the level of the team,” Moore said, responding to a question about what Underwood might bring as a starter. “For him, for Jadyn Davis, for Jake Garcia, Mikey Keene, to make sure that they put themselves in position to make — that they're the best version that they can be for Michigan football.”

While the competition will seemingly come down to Underwood and Keene, the former Fresno State quarterback has been hampered by an injury this offseason and hasn’t been a full participant in camp. 

When asked about it on Tuesday, Moore didn’t address whether or not Keene could be ready for Week 1, and said the coaching staff will continue evaluating how much Keene can do.

“He's done a good bit,” Moore said. “He's participating at his rate that he can and we'll see as far as how much he can do and what he'll do as we go through. But he's been doing a good job for us and managing everything he needs to do.”

If Keene can’t play, Michigan’s quarterback room gets thin on experience. Garcia has played in 15 career games and 310 passes since arriving at Miami in 2021, and Davis Warren — still recovering from a torn ACL suffered in the bowl game — would be the next most-experienced quarterback. 

And there’s always the premise of promise when it comes to Underwood. The top recruit in the country in the 2025 signing class, Underwood enrolled early and has the sort of physical profile to play early. But he still hasn’t played a down of college football. 

“Quarterbacks have been great, much improved, playing at a really good level,” Moore said. “We’ll see where it goes and how far we’ll go through that. As far as naming the quarterback, I know you guys want to know who the quarterback is. I’ll tell y’all on game week, before I get any questions about that.” 

MSU pleased with depth, talent in linebacker room

On a defense with no shortage of moving parts this offseason, one thing has been constant for Michigan State and defensive coordinator Joe Rossi: The linebacker room should be a definitive strength.

With a bevy of returners with loads of experience and some up-and-coming talent, the Spartans are bullish on what the room can do in 2025. 

“I think it's competitive for playing time and I think there's a lot of guys that have the ability to play,” Rossi said prior to Michigan State’s first scrimmage. “... I think the thing that it allows us to do is have guys stay fresh, and then in different packages we can kind of get different guys on the field and kind of get some guys in in their areas of strength.”

The strength of the room starts with returning experience in the form of Jordan Hall, Darius Snow, Wayne Matthews and Marcellus Pulliam. That quartet played the bulk of Michigan State’s linebacker snaps in 2024, and all four are back in 2025. 

And already the group has been strong in camp. 

“I think Marcellus continues — that inside backer room, but Marcellus had a really nice scrimmage,” Smith said on Monday. “He had a turn over there, that was — I thought he played at a high level.”

In tandem with the experienced returners are some new additions and up-and-comers for Michigan State. The coaching staff went out and added some experienced depth to the room by landing BYU transfer Aisea Moa. 

Fellow linebacker Semaj Bridgeman enters his second year in East Lansing after beginning his career at Michigan and could be a special teams contributor after a redshirt in 2023 and a minimal role last year. 

The biggest wildcard for the linebacker room for Michigan State in 2025 is likely second-year linebacker Brady Pretzlaff. 

A former four-star recruit, Pretzlaff played in four games and redshirted in 2024. But based on comments from Rossi and Co in camp, the arrow is firmly pointed up. 

“I think Brady's gonna be a great player for us,” Rossi said. “Obviously we've got a deep room there, but he's really talented.”

A former Wolverine reportedly beat a former Chippewa in a West Coast QB battle

The name Bert Emmanuel Jr. will be plenty familiar for Central Michigan and MAC football fans, while Jayden Denegal might’ve flown a bit more under the radar as a quarterback signee under Jim Harbaugh in 2022. 

But both of those quarterbacks transferred this offseason and landed at the same place: San Diego State. 

And on Wednesday, On3 reported that Denegal beat out Emmanuel for the starting job with the Aztecs. 

San Diego State hosts Stony Brook on Thursday, Aug. 28, to open its season.