NFL draft will include many Michigan men, maybe enough to break record set by 2022 Georgia Bulldogs

Sport

NFL draft will include many Michigan men, maybe enough to break record set by 2022 Georgia Bulldogs

2024-04-19 20:24 Last Updated At：20:31

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — J.J. McCarthy is expected to be the first of many Michigan men drafted from its national championship team.

The Wolverines had a record 18 players at the combine, giving them a chance to be the first school with at least 16 prospects picked in one NFL draft.

“We definitely have a shot because we have some great players on the team — and we won the natty,” running back Blake Corum said. “We could break the record.”

Georgia's 2022 national championship team set the standard since the draft went to seven rounds in 1994 with 15 players picked, including a record-tying five first-round selections, in the 2023 draft.

McCarthy may be Michigan's only player taken among the top 32 next Thursday night in Detroit and some expect him to be among the top five picks after teams have gotten to know him off the field.

“This process is so unique,” McCarthy said. “They put you through so many different loops and hoops.”

A handful of McCarthy's teammates are projected to be picked in the second or third round next Friday night while many more will follow in the fourth through seventh rounds.

Defensive tackle Kris Jenkins, linebacker Junior Colson, defensive back Mike Sainristil, receiver Roman Wilson and Corum are candidates to get drafted in the second round.

Offensive linemen Zak Zinter and defensive end Braiden McGregor may go in the next wave of maize and blue, perhaps getting picked in the fourth or fifth round.

Sixth- and seventh-round selections could include edge rusher Jaylen Harrell, receiver Cornelius Johnson, linebacker Michael Barrett, tight end AJ Barner and offensive linemen Trevor Keegan and LaDarius Henderson.

“It just goes to show how many dogs we got on this team, and how many people are willing to play the role and humble themselves,” Jenkins said. “It’s special.”

The AP's mock draft has McCarthy going at No. 8 overall. The Athletic listed 14 players from Michigan in a seven-round mock draft.

If those players are picked along with All-Big Ten center and Rimington Trophy finalist Drake Nugent, the Wolverines will tie the Bulldogs' mark.

And if at least one of three others who were invited to the combine — offensive linemen Trente Jones and Karsen Barnhart along with defensive back Josh Wallace — are drafted, Michigan will set a new mark.

“Walking around, you couldn't do a 360 in Indianapolis without seeing a bunch of Michigan guys — or now that coach (Jim) Harbaugh is in the NFL — or coaches,” Nugent said. “It's definitely something to appreciate on top of the incredible season we had.”

Three of Michigan's prospects have fathers who played in the league.

Jenkins, whose dad has the same name, was a two-time All-Pro defensive tackle for the Carolina Panthers and New York Jets. James Harrell was with the Detroit Lions and Terry Nugent played for Cleveland and Indianapolis.

A father figure of sorts, Harbaugh will likely lobby the Los Angeles Chargers to draft some of his former players.

Harbaugh attended Michigan's pro day last month and though he may not be the most objective observer and he already has a franchise quarterback in Justin Herbert, the former Michigan and NFL quarterback was blown away by McCarthy's performance.

“I’ve been to a lot of pro day workouts and watched quarterbacks throw. That was the best I’ve ever seen a quarterback do at a pro day,” Harbaugh said.

Follow Larry Lage on X.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Police move in and begin dismantling pro-Palestinian demonstrators' encampment at UCLA

2024-05-02 19:38 Last Updated At：19:41

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police removed barricades and began dismantling a pro-Palestinian demonstrators’ fortified encampment early Thursday at the University of California, Los Angeles, after hundreds of protesters defied police orders to leave, about 24 hours after counterprotesters attacked a tent encampment on the campus.

Police detained a handful of people on campus, their wrists in zip ties. The action came after officers spent hours threatening arrests over loud speakers if people did not disperse. Hundreds of people had gathered on campus, both inside a barricaded tent encampment and outside of it in support.

As police helicopters hovered overhead, the sound of flash-bangs, which produce a bright light and a loud noise to disorient and stun people, pierced the air. Protesters chanted “where were you last night?” as the officers approached.

California Highway Patrol officers wearing face shields and protective vests stood with their batons protruding out to separate them from demonstrators, who wore helmets and gas masks and chanted, “you want peace. We want justice.”

Police methodically ripped apart the encampment’s barricade of plywood, pallets, metal fences and trash dumpsters and made an opening toward dozens of tents of demonstrators. Police also began to pull down canopies and tents. Demonstrators held umbrellas like shields as they faced off with dozens of officers.

The police action occurred a night after the UCLA administration and campus police waited hours to stop the counterprotesters’ attack. The delay drew condemnation from Muslim students and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Demonstrators rebuilt the makeshift barriers around their tents on Wednesday while state and campus police watched.

Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century. The ensuing police crackdowns echoed actions decades ago against a much larger protest movement protesting the Vietnam War.

In the Mideast, Iranian state television carried live images of the police action, as did Qatar’s pan-Arab Al Jazeera satellite network. Live images of Los Angeles also played across Israeli television networks as well.

The tense standoff at UCLA came one night after violence instigated by counterprotesters erupted in the same place.

The law enforcement presence and continued warnings stood in contrast to the scene that unfolded the night before, when counter-demonstrators attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment, throwing traffic cones, releasing pepper spray and tearing down barriers. Fighting continued for several hours before police stepped in, though no arrests were made. At least 15 protesters suffered injuries, and the tepid response by authorities drew criticism from political leaders as well as Muslim students and advocacy groups.

By Wednesday afternoon a small city sprang up inside the reenforced encampment, full of hundreds of people and tents on the campus quad. Some protesters said Muslim prayers as the sun set over the campus, while others chanted “we’re not leaving” or passed out goggles and surgical masks. They wore helmets and headscarves, and discussed the best ways to handle pepper spray or tear gas as someone sang over a megaphone.

A few constructed homemade shields out of plywood in case they clashed with police forming skirmish lines elsewhere on the campus. “For rubber bullets, who wants a shield?" a protester called out.

Outside the encampment, a crowd of students, alumni and neighbors gathered on campus steps, joining in pro-Palestinian chants. A group of students holding signs and wearing T-shirts in support of Israel and Jewish people demonstrated nearby.

The crowd continued to grow as the night wore on as more and more officers poured onto campus.

Ray Wiliani, who lives nearby, said he came to UCLA on Wednesday evening to support the pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

“We need to take a stand for it,” he said. “Enough is enough.”

Elsewhere, police in New Hampshire said they made 90 arrests and took down tents at Dartmouth College and officers in Oregon came onto the campus at Portland State University as school officials sought to end the occupation of the library that started Monday.

The chaotic scenes at UCLA came after New York police burst into a building occupied by anti-war protesters at Columbia University on Tuesday night, breaking up a demonstration that had paralyzed the school.

An Associated Press tally counted at least 38 times since April 18 where arrests were made at campus protests across the U.S. More than 1,600 people have been arrested at 30 schools.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said in a statement that “a group of instigators” perpetrated the previous night's attack, but he did not provide details about the crowd or why the administration and school police did not act sooner.

“However one feels about the encampment, this attack on our students, faculty and community members was utterly unacceptable,” he said. “It has shaken our campus to its core.”

Block promised a review of the night's events after California Gov. Gavin Newsom denounced the delays.

The head of the University of California system, Michael Drake, ordered an “independent review of the university’s planning, its actions and the response by law enforcement.”

“The community needs to feel the police are protecting them, not enabling others to harm them,” Rebecca Husaini, chief of staff for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said in a news conference on the Los Angeles campus Wednesday.

Speakers disputed the university’s account that 15 people were injured and one hospitalized, saying the number of people taken to the hospital was higher. One student described needing to go to the hospital after being hit in the head by an object wielded by counter-protesters.

Several students who spoke during the news conference said they had to rely on each other, not the police, for support as they were attacked, and that many in the pro-Palestinian encampment remained peaceful and did not engage with counter-protesters. UCLA canceled classes Wednesday.

At the University of Wisconsin in Madison, a scrum broke out early Wednesday after police with shields removed all but one tent and shoved protesters. Four officers were injured, including a state trooper who was hit in the head with a skateboard, authorities said. Four were charged with battering law enforcement.

This is all playing out in an election year in the U.S., raising questions about whether young voters — who are critical for Democrats — will back President Joe Biden's reelection effort, given his staunch support of Israel.

In rare instances, university officials and protest leaders struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies.

At Brown University in Rhode Island, administrators agreed to consider a vote to divest from Israel in October — apparently the first U.S. college to agree to such a demand.

The nationwide campus demonstrations began at Columbia on April 17 to protest Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which followed Hamas launching a deadly attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7. Militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to stamp out Hamas, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there.

Israel and its supporters have branded the university protests antisemitic, while Israel’s critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, organizers of the protests, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war.

Meanwhile, protest encampments elsewhere were cleared by the police, resulting in arrests, or closed up voluntarily at schools across the U.S., including The City College of New York, Fordham University in New York, Portland State in Oregon, Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona and Tulane University in New Orleans.

Offenhartz and Frederick reported from New York. Associated Press journalists around the country contributed to this report, including John Antczak, Christopher L. Keller, Lisa Baumann, Cedar Attanasio, Jonathan Mattise, Stefanie Dazio, Jae C. Hong, Colleen Long, Karen Matthews, Sarah Brumfield, Carolyn Thompson, Philip Marcelo, Corey Williams and Felicia Fonseca.