MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast

Things Discussed: Rundown of the ton of false reporting. NCAA is in town: False. WSJ says offer rescinded: False. Thamel says all the B10 coaches are repeating Ryan Day's talking points: False. It's one thing to sensationalize—ESPN sensationalizes all the time—but they're getting provable facts wrong. Getting it right means calling someone who could tell you your reporting is wrong. Craig Ross: Shares the time Sam had it from someone that Carr was against the Harbaugh hire and he checked on it with Carr who said he loves Jack Harbaugh and he'd be the biggest fan of the hiring of Jim Harbaugh. How much does it matter? Run-pass is the best you can tell; it matters, not as much as how the right tackle's foot is aligned, because the RT's half step is more important than hiding your intentions from the defense. James Franklin: Nobody needed your signs to know you were running a zone read on 4th & 2 vs OSU in 2018. Nobody said we need to start a federal investigation against Northwestern when they had Michigan's signs that day. Schiano's the biggest sign-stealer in the league, because nobody changes their signs. Sam: they're mad about Stalions though. That wasn't Schiano's halftime comment. Want to shut them up? Everyone turn in your sign-stealers and go to wristbands and microphones. Stalions on CMU's sideline? Possible that McElwain didn't know who Stalions was. Seth: Is it possible that CMU borrowed Michigan's sign-stealer to try to beat MSU? Would explain how he got a placard, how he knew how the coaches were dressing, etc. It wouldn't implicate Michigan, because they get no benefit from that, but would fit Stalions's profile. Brian: If Michigan's moving ahead with their contract for Harbaugh their internal investigation found no evidence that Balance of news is positive; now we're just down to coaches complaining. Do you think these guys are interested parties? The check? Ryan Day doesn't care about the check; the commissioner of the league is a TV guy, and a TV guy is not going to devalue the TV conference's most valuable property because they will get sued by Fox and NBC, and guarantee that Michigan will leave this conference for the SEC. Guy who said it's a three-touchdown advantage $1 it's Franklin. And you still lose. Ryan Day you still lose too. Why aren't OSU/PSU clamoring to play Michigan without their sign-stealer? Brian: "If you actually believe what you're saying you would be, but you don't because it's crazy." Maybe you guys need to get good; we're a TV product and you guys are unwatchable. This conference is Michigan and Ohio State and the four teams we're importing because the rest of you are unwatchable.

Things discussed: At Ohio State: The Devante' Jones Game. Craft in his game finally adapted to the Big Ten. His shooting changed OSU's plan to go under screens. T-Will: Unlocked by transition. Officiating was unacceptable. Not the usual bad Boroski stuff: They let Liddell get away with everything. Michigan defense: brought doubles from the baseline to generate 11 steals. Turnovers and ORebs were the difference in the game. Houstan: Not a guy who can shoot off screens. He needs to be set. His defense was strong but against just-a-shooters. Offseason work: Learn to finish. He can get to rim but he's terrible once there. Indiana: One good player team. Race Thompson is a guy who works on a better team. Bad matchup for Michigan at guard. Can we get these guys back? Houstan yes, other guys not likely? Seth: have to change their mindsets. If Michigan can put $1 million on the table for Hunter, sure. Is Michigan ready to do that? Makes the most sense if he's getting good advice. Diabate too. But what's the likelihood they're getting good advice? Break: Bilas thinks you should be allowed to dick punch if you're Boeheim's kid. Football: McCarthy injury, how it affects the QB competition. Hockey: Playing MSU is bad because you're surprised next series when you have to play hockey again.

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. [Writeup and Player after THE JUMP]   Segment 1: All About the Finishing An Opener Many Shots Against Scoring the Chances ALL OF THE GOALS AT THE END Segment 2: An Epic Comeback A BAD! Start Not Goals, Goals, and Penalties Whooping in the Third Old Friends and Around the League Wisconsin Preview MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" -The Tokens Ice Hockey (NES) theme

1 hour and 40 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs Howard and Saint Louis Starts at 0:51 This is part one of a part two podcast! Which Robbie Avila nickname was your favorite? Of the last ten times Michigan has made the tournament they've been in the Sweet Sixteen nine. Were Beilein teams built better for the tournament than for the Big Ten? Howard shot 48% from three, the only reason they were able to get to 80 points. What Wisconsin nonsense is this? Michigan shoots 84% from two, one of those misses was from Oscar Goodman. Roddy Gayle was uninspiring in the Big Ten Tournament but returned to his March form. Moving on to Saint Louis, they're a dangerous offensive team but there was no way they were going to be able to check Michigan. Somehow Saint Louis was the #1 field goal efficiency defense in the country, it's a good sign that Michigan shot 1.35 PPP. Avila fell for Mara's fake pass. Since they started counting blocks Michigan is the first team to have all starters score 10+ points and have a block. The Mara we're seeing now is night and day from what we saw at the beginning of the season. Could you convince him to come back another year? What was up with that non-flagrant foul that ended up being a foul on Burnett? Technically it was a cylinder foul. High Point isn't a real school, you should only schedule real schools.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Spring Football Bits Starts at 34:37 There are finally enough bits coming out of the spring! Ron Bellamy is back as director of player personnel, which makes all the sense in the world. Apparently Whittingham wanted to come back to Utah but he wouldn't have as much control over decision making so he left. What exactly happened here? We thought he was retiring but clearly he didn't. Manuel Beigel moved to offensive line, this is concerning because there are plenty of offensive lineman and this team needs defensive tackles. In more positive news, Savion Hiter is already running with the ones. His built is like Jabrill Peppers. The defense will "resemble the 2023 defense" in terms of style, according to Jay Hill. It will depend what they can get out of Zeke Berry and Rod Moore. Injured guys are still injured. Receiver depth is Marsh, Ffrench, Moa, and Buchanon. Defensive tackle tea leaves are... uhhh... concerning? You need four decent defensive tackles, they currently have three and there's no guarantee that any of them are good. Maybe that's why Hiter is getting so many yards in practice. The NDSU linebacker captain needs to simmer for a bit, he just got here. If one of the best offensive line coaches in the country is excited then we're excited. If Babalola actually starts he'll be an All-American. Sounds like they're kicking Link inside?  3. Hot Takes and Hockey Tournament Starts at 1:02:51 Takes hotter than Howard for the last 10 minutes of the first half. Michigan gets the #1 overall seed in hockey, their reward is a game against Bentley in Albany. They also won the Big Ten Tournament after a 7-3 win over Ohio State. They get medals but not stoats. Playing a team with tournament lives on the line was really good practice. They were so excited to win a banner. Did you know Gonzaga used to have a hockey team. Bentley is 23rd in NPI which is better than their conference usually does. Doesn't look like a team that will threaten Michigan but anything crazy can happen in this tournament. The matchup is there against Penn State but the vibes are annoying since Michigan has already played them five times (and lost once). Will the building have 12 people in it? Minnesota-Duluth had a really good nonconference run but fell off towards the end of the season. They swept Minnesota which doesn't mean much this year. Congratulations Western Michigan, you are a #1 seed and you probably get to play Denver at altitude if you win your first game. The committee doesn't want schools to have home games but then they either give schools "home" games or play in empty rinks. This game should be at Yost and it would be nuts, Michigan deserves the home advantage that they earned. If Wisconsin gets goaltending they're a top four team, if not they'll lose in the first round.  MUSIC: "Hard Dreaming Man"—Drugdealer "Honey Drip"—Long Island Railroad, Smushie and Ryan Gebhard “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 36 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. The Tourney Draw, Midwest Region Preview Starts at 0:51 Overall a fine draw for the 3rd one-seed, with several teams that did not want Michigan as their one-seed. Alabama as a four-seed is a fine draw. They have some big wins because they can shoot their way to a W in any game, but they're also a tempo team that gave up 40%+ ORebs to the three teams they faced with major bigs. The 5-seed is Texas Tech which lost star center JT Toppin but shot their way to a win over ISU without him. We think they're a good upset pick in a 5-12 with Akron but we are impressed with the Just-a-Shooterness of Donovan Atwell. The 8-9 are Georgia and Saint Louis. We want Georgia, another tempo team that's a year away from its maximum and has a center who just makes buckets and blocks shots, versus Saint Louis which is where Robbie Avila went; they're five-out, #1 in the country in average 2PT distance, but opponents also get to the rim (Avila is no defender). On the other side is 2-seed Iowa State, which doesn't block shots but they turn you over and sniper Milan Momcilovic can shoot over guards—a team with three bigs might be their kryptonite (see: 79-70 vs Cincy). Joshua Jefferson is a Danny Wolf (28 assist, 17 TO) PF. 3-seed Virginia has a couple of ogres they rotate at center that might prove tough, and their own Yax-like in Thijs De Ridder, who's not from New Jersey. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Hot Takes and Men's Basketball vs Purdue Starts at 33:39 Takes hotter than Brian when they refused to call a 5th foul on Oscar Cluff the fifth time. You're not insane; it was a ref show, and a clownish end to DJ Carstensen's career. But that only explains why Purdue won—they played Michigan evenly because Michigan had their worst defensive performance, unable to stop the PnR two-man game between Smith and TKR. M's offense is off the hook for the 1st half since Purdue was just fouling and getting away with it, but what's their excuse for not having any plans for a stretch in the 2nd half when Purdue pulled ahead? Hoping against hope that May has been saving all of his real sets for the Tournament. Brian's giving up on Gayle and his Knoblockian adventures at the rim. 3. Men's Basketball vs Wisconsin and Ohio State Starts at 1:01:40 Wisconsin goes 7/23 from two but 16/38 from three once they've given up on Boyd and Blackwell drives that worked for them in the first meeting. Their twos were earned—pushed back and forced to shoot over Mara. Only the Aussie going nuts from three got this competitive again, but we were still dismayed over Michigan's offense. They had a Mara advantage they only ran in the 2nd half, and didn't really give him help off of that. Tschetter minutes are not working. The OSU game was annoying for all the little reasons, but the big one is something from the whole Tourney, which was Morez Johnson not playing up to his standard. He got the first two series and second was a fallaway jumper. He's a bit limited when backing up people have found. Bruce Thornton was limited by length but his eyes lit up whenever he got Cadeau, who seemed to be tiring late, but Michigan is a TO machine without him. Maybe they're saving Yax usage for the Dance. 4. Hockey vs Penn State and Tournament Lookahead Starts at 1:22:35 They're now locked into the 1st overall seed with Ohio State knocking MSU out of the tournament, and North Dakota losing, which means YAY we don't have to play Denver in a Denver Regional (stupidest playoff format ever). Michigan-NoDak-MSU-WMU will be the 1-seeds, in that order, and Michigan will draw the worst the #16, IE the Atlantic Hockey champion (Bentley most likely?) and the worst #2 seed (Duluth? Cornell? Penn State?) in, likely, Albany. Penn State hockey is James Franklin Penn State football: can beat anybody except the big bads in their conference. Not afraid of facing them again after a thoroughly dominant semifinal. Good to see a snipe from Hage, and what Moldenauer has become. MUSIC: "An Ocean Between the Waves"—War on Drugs "This Could Be Your Lucky Day in Hell"—Eels "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger"—Of Montreal “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

1 hour and 44 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs Michigan State Starts at 0:51 Michigan is the best team in the Big Ten since the 1977 Indiana team. You can't say they didn't earn it, they had to win at Breslin, Carver, and Illinois. They would still win the Big Ten outright if you only counted the games that Michigan won by double digits. It was Yaxel's deep shooting that propelled Michigan when they weren't shooting well. Michigan felt mortal with Tschetter at the four but MSU didn't exactly take advantage of that time. There were a lot of 1-on-1 opportunities, Michigan only had 12 assists. 1.27 PPP is crazy against Michigan State. Where does Yaxel Lendeborg rank all time amongst all Michigan players? They had a reel prepared for when Fears would kick someone in the jingle jangles, and it did happen. Credit Dusty for keeping the team calm when things start to go wrong. How is Fears allowed to keep playing the way he does? Congrats to Nebraska for getting the #2 seed.  2. Men's Basketball vs Iowa Starts at 32:06 A very slow game and a very annoying win. Their thing is fouling you constantly and hoping the refs don't call it. They fired Fran and we hate Iowa basketball now. Michigan finally gets some calls in the second half and turns the ball over a lot. Bennett Stirtz's 4-14 from three feels optimistic for him given the shot quality. There was a "sink or swim" moment when Cadeau had to sit out and it wasn't great. Cadeau played 30 minutes but in an important tournament setting he'll probably play more than that. Roddy Gayle has some at-the-rim difficulties that have lasted most of the conference season. Fran McCaffery was a beautiful Big Ten coach and now he's in the Ivy League. 3. Hot Takes and Spring Ball - Offense Starts at 54:05 How excited is everyone for this spring practice? What will Bryce's role as a runner be? JJ didn't run much but in the championship season there were only 4-5 games where he would have needed to. Maybe Bryce looks a little better throwing downfield now that he has actual receivers. JJ Buchanan might have a Colston Loveland level catch radius. There was a moment of silence for Max Bredeson but we truncate silence on this podcast so you didn't hear it. What's the tight end depth going to look like? Evan Link to guard? We're expecting a big third year swing for Blake Frazier.  4. Spring Ball - Defense Starts at 1:22:09 Any sort of news about John Henry Daley being able to play would be high on the list. And Rod Moore. Also hoping to hear good things about Palepale and Cam Brandt. The North Dakota State linebacker (Nathaniel Staehling) transfer could be really good, he was a captain and these scenarios often work out nicely. Ideally he's the 3rd linebacker because that means some other guys popped off. How much much better will everyone look with better coaching? Unfortunately we won't be able to see if rotation on defense gets better in the Spring Game. Could Shamari Earls overtake Jyaire Hill? New kickers but kicking in April seems different than in the Fall. Looking forward to punting drills. Taylor Tatum for punt return?    MUSIC: "Any Major Dude"—Steely Dan "Believe"—My Morning Jacket "Broken Chair"—Luna “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 35 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs Illinois Starts at 0:51 Hail to the Big Ten champions... before March! Dusty in year two has won at Mackey, Breslin, and whatever Illinois' arena is nicknamed. This was supposed to be a scary game and it wasn't even close, the players loved the energy. The major bummer is that LJ Cason is out for the year with an ACL injury. Can Yaxel check a top five draft point guard? Yes. No turnovers for Cadeau! But he probably has to go from 26 minutes per game to 35 and needs to be much more careful about foul trouble now. It just felt like Illinois had to work so hard to get anything in the second half and they weren't used to that. Illinois played their much better defender for only 10 minutes. Shot volume was similar for both teams but Michigan was able to win from 2-point shots. 2. Men's Basketball vs Minnesota Starts at 25:20 Minnesota comes in with basically no basketball team, they're down on their luck. But they played zone better than a lot of teams on Michigan's schedule. In the first half Michigan had trouble getting to the rim so they kicked it out for open threes. Parts of it felt bad. This game felt like playing Maryland the week before Ohio State. Niko Medved did a great job with what he had, Brian is still high on him. Early in the season Iowa seemed like it would be a really tough game, now Iowa is tailspinning a little bit. Iowa's defense is improved from Fran but not in a way that will stop Michigan. Michigan is still probably a #1 seed if they lose out. They should raise the banner in Michigan State's face at pre-game.  3. Hot Takes and Hockey vs Minnesota Starts at 43:34 Takes hotter than Morez Johnson sitting in front of that crowd and being like "I don't care, I'm gonna be the Kenpom MVP in a 20 point win spiritually because I'm Morez Johnson and nothing phases me at all!" Michigan splits against Minnesota, which almost didn't matter until Michigan State only got two points against Ohio State. This team is a little too Jekyll & Hyde. Starting the Thursday game 1-9 in shots isn't great. Powerplays used to be more whizz-bang and they've been lacking lately. Michigan's defense is like Nebraska running the triple option - they always need to have a 5'2" puck wizard defenseman. MSU's coach tried to chase down an official on the ice which is a silly thing to attempt. Michigan is up two points in the standings but Michigan State has two more games. Time for another year of complaining about the NCAA hockey tournament format. 4. Stickball and Gimmicky Top Five Starts at 1:15:10 Baseball - good Softball - not good Gimmicky Top Five Things You'd Change in the Winter Olympics. Normal guy Olympics. Mountaineering should include getting a kid into ski gear. We don't talk about ski injuries. Winter beach volleyball?    MUSIC: "Don't Fight It"—Kenny Loggins and Steve Perry "Better Way"—Motenko "Take My Heart"—The Teskey Brothers “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 43 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs Purdue Starts at 0:51 The Duke game was annoying and non-impactful so let's start with Purdue. Purdue comes out to a 5-0 start, Michigan then goes on a 42-17 run. Mackey exploded no matter what, even when Michigan was up 16. Matt Painter is a dude who respects ball. Mara foreshadowed the Duke game by getting into foul trouble, but that wasn't until the 2nd half, otherwise he had a great 1st half. The other subplot of this game was they shot 57% from three, and almost all of them were good shots. Trey Kauffmann-Renn went off for Purdue, historically May has let him go defensively though. Michigan is doing a great job of making the non-contestable guys contestable. What was funnier, the Fletcher Loyer heat-check airball or Cadeau getting to the free throw line and not knowing what to do?  2. Men's Basketball vs Duke Starts at 22:55 A very frustrating game. Mara picks up three first half fouls, the first two of which were not fouls. Playing three bigs in the second half felt like an impulse. Will Tschetter has been a faithful companion for this program but this wasn’t the game for him. Duke went on their end of first half run when Michigan had their small lineup out there. Dusty is usually very calm but he was on the verge of eruption. The official in this game notoriously call more calls than anyone else and didn’t give us a proper Michigan Duke game. You can just give the coach an iPad to decide if you want to challenge calls?? Does Mara need a little more self-confidence? His body language is telling. Michigan didn't get a lot out of guard play. Their quality of looks in this game were nowhere near their looks in the Purdue game. They got out of balance with their lineup changes and shot 24% from three but still only lost by five to Duke so this really isn't that concerning. What was that travel call? LJ Cason is definitely a contested shot guy. Michigan's biggest win over the weekend was UCLA over Illinois. The Minnesota game is for a share of the title, two Big Ten wins means an outright title. Brian still can't believe how good Keaton Wagler is.  3. Hot Takes and Hockey vs Wisconsin Starts at 55:40 Takes hotter than yours truly after Mara's second foul against Duke. Michigan gets a split out of Wisconsin which ends any hope of catching Michigan State in the Big Ten standings. Wisconsin played their backup goalie and Michigan didn't do enough to threaten him. Kason Muscutt got his first goal. BTN+ has announcers that don't even know Michigan's roster. Michigan could get to 51 points after next week which would win the Big Ten in most years. They have a 99.6% chance of being a #1 seed, they would need to win the Big Ten Tournament to get the #1 overall. #2 overall could get Saint Thomas?  4. Potpourri Starts at 1:24:57 Hughe's got it better than us? Michigan shouldn't claim Jack Hughes. Great performances from Michigan hockey players in the Olympics and the gold medal game. Michigan doesn't have these guys on this team (Michigan State doesn't either, though). Canada was sad and then got handed a stuffed stoat. If you haven't seen the figure skating exhibition gala, you should. Michigan has a new general manager. Sean Magee sent Savion Hiter the wrong dollar amount for his NIL?? The new GM is Dave Peloquin who used to work at Notre Dame. Michigan baseball got another ranked win over Louisville. The vibes for Michigan softball aren't good right now. They're like Nebraska football.  MUSIC: "UFOs"—Phoenix and Alan Braxe "Evil Twin"—Cut Worms "Dug"—Dream Sitch, Michael Nau, Floating Action “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hours and 6 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs UCLA Starts at 0:51 Brian gets three minutes to talk about Mick Cronin, he hopes he never gets fired from UCLA. He's like a jolly caricature of Izzo. He's Sideshow Bob stepping on the rakes. Michigan would be up by 10 in the first half and it would feel like they should be up 20. Tschetter's really improved as a defender but this game wasn't for him. UCLA was turning the ball over a ton, Michigan didn't have any until the end of the first half. This was a responsible game from Cadeau, some of his turnovers have been boneheaded. He's at around the same turnover rate as last year. LJ Cason is becoming a reliably effective playmaker. Mick Cronin might not have forgotten how to coach defense but he might've forgotten to scout Xavier Booker. If they play a bad game that means only winning by 10.  2. Men's Basketball vs Northwestern Starts at 28:10 Similar situation in this game where Michigan played a dominant second half. The difference is they were down 16 points. Kenpom still had them at about 30% chance to win even down 16 in the second half! Michigan missed so many bunnies in this one. They started running NBA sets in their second half rally and that works because they have the size for it. The big story of this game was LJ Cason. Cadeau wasn't doing anything so Dusty put in Cason who stepped up. Who's the most random guy you've ever been thankful for in a game? Probably Kam Chatman. Michigan is rotating nine guys and the ninth guy was the MVP in this game. The six game stretch to finish the regular season features Michigan State as the second easiest game. Alex isn't scared of Purdue. Duke looms.  3. Hot Takes and Hockey vs Penn State Starts at 55:44 Takes hotter than the genius that came up with the two-man luge. Special guest, Seth daughter's Mira. Michigan takes 5 out of 6 points against Penn State, this was their first overtime that they didn't win this year. Michigan made it hard on themselves in the Friday game, Ivankovic sort of deflected a goal into their own net. These officials were fine because they degraded the game of hockey but they weren't as bad as some other guys! Penn State split their goalies but the better goalie gave Michigan a couple easy ones. Michigan has first round picks but the only one that has the sauce is Jayden Perron. You look at men's basketball and you think they could win a national championship. You look at hockey and you don't see it. Wisconsin has faded enough to not make the tournament but their forecheck also seemed like Michigan's kryptonite. If you want to win the conference you need six points against Wisconsin. You might need to win out. Michigan is still 96% to be a 1 seed.  4. Potpourri Starts at 1:38:22 Michigan replaces defensive tackle coach Lou Esposito with Larry Black out of Vanderbilt. He checks the recruiting boxes. He helped get Vanderbilt to respectable on defense which even Jesse Minter couldn't do. His resume is really good and still isn't as good a resume as the rest of the staff (complimentary). Women's basketball fell behind big to UCLA and got it to within one score. They're so close to the elite teams. Stickball! As of this recording baseball is 2-0 against good programs. USC and UCLA baseball hate being in the Big Ten. Softball is 7-2 overall, Alex was down after the Florida game. If you have six pitchers on the roster you have no pitchers. Brian has only watched curling. Olympic skiing discourse. Sweden pulled their goalie while up 5-2 to get the goal differential (did not get it).  MUSIC: "Idol"—Mind Enterprises "YUHDONTSTOP"—De La Soul "Brand New City"—Snocaps “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hours and 23 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs Penn State and Ohio State Starts at 0:51 Usually there's a segment for each basketball but that would just be silly. Michigan annihilates a short-handed Penn State team featuring two thunderous Mark Davis Kiwi dunks and a season high from Nimari Burnett. Is there anything else to say about this game? Michigan only had eight turnovers against Ohio State. Oddly they missed a lot of bunnies. Michigan is rounding into the elite offensive and defensive rebounding team we were hoping they would be. Nice to see Yaxel get to the rim, he doesn't do it enough. Another nice game from Trey McKenney. The balance of this team is insane. We're looking forward to what Mick Cronin says after Aday Mara stuffs him in a locker. A few more easy games before a brutal close to the season. Michigan State did Michigan a solid by beating Illinois.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Hockey vs Michigan State Starts at 25:16 Game one was one of the best college hockey games we’ve ever seen. Old Yost was dark and full of discontented engineers who just learned to swear. It was absolute hell for opponents and it’s just not that anymore in most games. Friday night felt like Old Yost. Michigan played great when they had their backs against the wall but you can’t just rally from down 4-0. Michigan could be the second best team in the country and still just not be as good as State. Michigan’s 4th string goalie looks just like Ivankovic and confused Dave in the press box. Why was Ivankovic suddenly ready on Saturday? Yost got HOT in the third period on Friday because of the missed calls. Michigan can still absolutely win a regular season title. Biggest concern in the NCAA tournament is also Michigan State, but the college hockey playoffs are weird. Has the modern era of college football reached hockey?  3. Hot Takes and Offensive Recruiting Class With Steve Lorenz Starts at 53:24 Takes hotter than Brian's face watching Seth come up with something that's hot. Usually we would do this on signing day but now nobody can remember when that is. Salesi Moa signed and enrolled at Utah and still ended up at Michigan. Brady Smigiel is one of your QBs but he's coming in injured, which probably effected his recruiting stock. He's a classic pocket guy, but Whittingham likes mobile QBs. QB Tommy Carr has Tate Forcier comparisons. Savion Hiter comes in as the most talented running back in this class, as well as the last few classes. What do you think Fred Jackson would call him? Jonathan Brown comes in as a generic three star RB but there's not much being said compared to Hiter. We'll count Salesi Moa in this class, he could play receiver and safety. He might actually be able to contribute in year one. WR Travis Johnson is just outside the top 100 but was very adamant about sticking to Michigan even after everything went down. WR Jaylen Pile also didn't waver but so far seems like just a guy, but with more scholarships available sure, bring him in. TE Mason Bonner comes in from Denver, might take a little time to develop. Should be athletic enough down the road. OT Malakai Lee comes in from Honolulu and might be the most excited about the coaching change. Comparisons to Mike Onwenu. Marky Walbridge is a late riser and offensive lineman late risers are often encouraging. Adrian Hamilton projects to center and centers don't rank highly usually. Tommy Fraumann is big enough to not care about rankings, born right after the 2008 Michigan Utah in which Kyle Whittingham beat Michigan.  4. Defensive Recruiting Class Starts at 1:45:41 Carter Meadows is a five star defensive end we're all excited about. He's not allowed to enroll early so he'll probably be a year two star. DE McHale Blade is one of the coolest names in this cycle. He has all the athletic traits, could be the sleeper of the defensive side. DE Tariq Boney is your Josh Uche, just let him go after the QB. Alister Vallejo looks like Mason Graham on the field and the kid from the Sandlot in his profile. DT Titan Davis is a Kris Jenkins guy, could be an anchor DE but will more likely fill in DT needs. Linebacker is where the excitement falls off. Nobody is anywhere near four star status. CB Jamarion Vincent is a developmental guy, expect him in year three. He was previously playing QB. CB Ernest Nunley is a former Cal commit and will probably be a safety. S Jordan Deck could me a sleeper, boring safety. Overall not a big fan of the back seven but it is the transfer portal era. It could be okay but it's sketchy.   MUSIC: "Bazooka"—Miami XO "Baby Steps"—Olivia Dean "Phish Pepsi"—Wednesday “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 49 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs Michigan State Starts at 0:51 Where's Tre Holloman at?? Michigan's first victory at Breslin since 2018. They managed to blow all of their 16 point halftime lead but only briefly. This year didn't have the same "helplessness" vibe of previous years. The grifting from Jeremy Fears was incredible. Michigan State's offense ended up being generating bogus calls and then hitting free throws. Their roster doesn't have the best athletes in the world but they have guys that have stuck around for a while. Trey McKenney is becoming a much bigger piece of this team, if Michigan goes on a tournament run it could be because he steps up as a major contributor. Is he the 6th man? They're running a lot of offense through Mara, maybe that should be going through Morez Johnson instead. Michigan is back to #1 in Kenpom and is projected to win the Big Ten outright but the end of the schedule is very tough.  2. Men's Basketball vs Nebraska Starts at 29:17 The vibes here were considerably worse! Nebraska was getting an alarming amount of open looks. Michigan wins by shooting what felt like 70% from two. Some of Cadeau's turnovers were just inexplicable. We can't pronounce Berke's name so he's just Berke Boyband. The studies say that every conspiracy theory you have about officiating is true. Pass blocking is not actually allowed in basketball. Nebraska is legit, this was a tough game that Cadeau almost gave away. Shout out to Fred Hoiberg for coming in with a great gameplan for confusing Michigan. The overturn on the challenge made no sense, how was that possibly clear? Should Michigan be going inside more when the threes aren't dropping? Michigan was missing open threes. They beat a top 10 Kenpom team while shooting 23% from three, that's impressive no matter what. Was LJ Cason unplayable?  3. Hot Takes and Hockey vs Ohio State Starts at 52:18 Takes hotter than Yaxel Lendeborg at the free throw line. Michigan gets five of six points over Ohio State in a frustrating manner. Stephen Peck played a great game on Saturday until the last five minutes. They're missing points here and there against teams that they're better than. Wisconsin somehow went from #1 to might miss the tournament. Michigan State is only one point behind in the Big Ten rankings.  4. Gimmicky Top Five Sports Villains Starts at 1:14:40 We're born haters so it's time for a gimmicky top five sports villains. There are a surprising number of ways to define "villain" in this context. There's a lot of NHL discourse because you used to just get paid to hurt people. Which Big Ten commissioners make the list (spoiler: all of them). Not posting spoilers here but yes there is a certain Wisconsin basketball player. Who's on your list?   MUSIC: "Moody"—Royel Otis "Silver Joy"—Damien Jurado "Sweet and Dandy"—Toots and the Maytals “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 31 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 0:51 Indiana Football won a natty. We say again: Indiana Football won. A natty. The Ohio State fans are crying Signs, it's great! Putting this in context because there hasn't been a more surprising national champion in any sport? Maybe Leicester but IU had the worst W% historically of any champion. Arc of college football is the big schools consolidate their chances of winning—last time a new school entered the ring it was Florida, which represented a demographic shift. What does this mean? Not a secret sauce but IU built similarly to 2023 Michigan: a base of players who played together a long time and some elite pieces added. They get better ROI by ignoring HS recruiting, put a lot of time and money into scouting. Similarity to Dusty May in that Cig knows what he needs and scouts the hell out of the rest of the sport. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Hot Takes and Men's Basketball vs Ohio State Starts at 27:20 Takes hotter than it's not outside. OSU game was annoyingly close. At one point Michigan was 2/16 from three and under 50% from the charity stripe. Biggest story of the game is the way Michigan held Bruce Thornton in check—the one hedge to center court that Mara got called for a foul was an awful call, but a proof of concept for how they defended OSU, which was to not give Thornton any space. Great Crisler crowd kept getting into highs and then a low-percentage event would derail, like their 17%-shooting big Christoph Tilly making a pair of threes (one a bank), 24%-shooting Amare Bynum making a deep contested jumper, and Mobley getting a bank three as shot clock is dying. Missed front ends made FT shooting feel extra annoying, somehow righted in the 2nd half. Big part of that was 21 good minutes from Trey McKenney. Liked Cason and McKenney more than Cadeau in this one: OSU has a 7'0" center and a 7'2" center but both of them are glued to the floor, which favors YOLO players. Annoying turnovers trying to figure out their zone. 3. Men's Basketball vs Indiana and a Nebraska Preview Starts at 54:03 Less annoying game, as Indiana was without Tayton Conerway for all but two minutes, and nobody else has the ability to get to the rim. IU couldn't even get the ball inside the three-point line. They finished 11/34 (32%) from three and that was because they made twice as many as they should have. IU only got five ORebs as they abandoned the glass to stop Michigan's transition game but terrible Nick Dorn shots that went off the back iron were their best way of getting the ball in the paint. Final score doesn't reflect the game because once Michigan got up 20-5 they put it in cruise control—this time it wasn't LJ Cason on the one drive for a layup. Will Tschetter's defense on Tucker DeVries was also a major factor. Nebrasketball is truly good. Very well-coached team, has a good system that turns everybody into Nebraska: 11th in taking threes, 6th in opponent 3PA/FGA. Have to slow down the game to protect stretch C Rienk Mask, who's the key to that offense. Might be without small four Braden Frager and been without SG Connor Essegian most of the year so there's a 23% shooting big in Berke "the Turk" Buyuktuncel that you can hide Mara on. The problem with that is it takes Mara out of the paint so you can't get away with playing as aggressively on the perimeter. Think we saw the prototype for how they want to play against Nebraska in that Oregon game. Might be able to do what Illinois did, was to take shots but then crash the glass because they don't have a lot of size. 4. Women's Basketball wsg Ira Weintraub Starts at 1:15:12 Time to get to know the best women's team in school history. Three losses were all similar: got way behind in the 1st quarter, fought their way back, came up short. Defense is fantastic, play the full court and cause a lot of turnovers which creates offensive opportunities. Get bogged down a bit in the half court and struggle to make their FTs. WBB officiating is beyond atrocious. Washington loss was a schedule thing after 2OT late game vs Oregon, but UConn and Vandy losses showed they can play with the elites and just need one more big basket from the super sophs. Hockeybear is blogging the team and making Team Sheets (key). It's not so easy is it? Super sophs: Holloway runs the offense and sets the defensive tone, Olson is a bucket, Swordsy is hero, and then they're getting a year from a growing Delfosse and UCLA transfer Dudley. Mostly a seven-woman rotation with Sofilkanich giving them some size inside, BQD a nightmare of a defensive pest, and then growth from Crockett who gives them some more size when they need it. Can they compete with the ELITE-elites? Nobody's unbeatable this year; Michigan is a solid two-seed, feel like floor is Sweet 16, has the make of a team that ends up losing a Final Four game en route to a big run next year.   MUSIC: "Getting Killed"—Geese "Forever Never Ends"—Jeff Tweedy "Downhill"—The Delivery Boys feat. Goldwood, Max Gertler & LOSTBOYBK “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

2 hour and 10 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Transfer Portal - Offense Starts at :51 The portal is closed! The only windows remaining are for a coaching change and for Indiana/Miami after the national championship game. Transfers, NIL, and contracts have been weird this cycle. Will Diego Pavia be in college until he's 45?? Thank you Davis Warren for beating Ohio State in the Funniest Game Ever. Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi is your backup QB out of Colorado State where he threw for over 7,000 yards. That's a "we don't practice f*cked" pick-up. Jadyn Davis's recruiting profile was a huge miss. Georgia Tech is a cool place for Justice Haynes, we're still not sure if Kuzdzal is returning. Taylor Tatum comes in from Oklahoma after a case of fumble-itus and several other ailments. Now he might actually have a good running backs coach. They retained Andrew Marsh - massive. The wide receiver room looks great, the only thing missing is a dedicated slot receiver but Michigan hasn't really utilized the role in a while anyways. Marlin Klein declared for the NFL draft but is he going to get drafted? The remaining tight ends and fullbacks should be good and viable options, they didn't get anyone out of the portal. JJ Buchanon doesn't count since he's being listed as a wide receiver. The offensive line is mostly retained which has star power potential. Overall the offensive line held serve besides losing Haywood, overall an A-grade. Would you give the offensive portal recruiting/retention an A all across the board? Could this become a... top ten offense?  2. Transfer Portal - Defense Starts at 41:41 Defensively is more of a mixed bag. Defensive end lost a lot of guys to graduation but only Devon Baxter to the portal. John Henry Daley is questionable based on his health, but if he's healthy you get Derrick Moore (but who actually plays more). Defensive tackle doesn't lose anyone noteworthy to the portal. You get back Trey Pierce and Enow Etta. Jonah Leaea was like a young Mo Hurst, he needs another 20 pounds. Defensive tackle has depth, just not star power, this wasn't a spectacular portal season for them either. This gets a solid B. Linebacker is the trouble spot. They lose Ernest Hausmann to eligibility/spirit quest, Cole Sullivan to Oklahoma, and Jimmy Rolder to the draft. The guys they bring in are uhhhhhh. Aisea Moa knows Jay Hill's system so he could possibly play but doesn't seem like he'll be all-Big Ten. This is a D, it's close to an F. At cornerback, you get Jyaire Hill, Zeke Berry, and Snowden. Jayden Sanders to Notre Dame stings. Let's.... talk about the allegations of sabotage and blackmail? Cornerbacks situation gets a... C+. Safety loses Brandyn Hillam and Elijah Dotson. Is Bryce Underwood the only guy to come from Belleville and last for over a year? Is Rod Moore going to play? Who knows. Chris Bracy comes in from Memphis, who comes in with a historic tale of a fabled fumble. Safety starters could be Bracy and Rod Moore, Mason Curtis to linebacker. You have six safeties? How many are going to play in a Cover-1? Defense overall gets a C, they probably didn't get better or worse. How much of the Wink disdain will have been warranted? If Daley doesn't get healthy who is going to be the star on this defense? Maybe they'll be like the offense last year - lots of potential but not quite there yet.  3. Hot Takes and Basketball vs Washington and Oregon Starts at 1:23:58 Takes hotter than Utah's athletic director on Twitter. Michigan basketball sweeps their west coast tour, they don't dominate but give a solid beating in both games to not-great teams. Michigan and Oregon were close to identical at the rim. You're starting to see the cracks in the armor of this team. Sean Stewart is an elite flopper. What did Dusty possibly say to warrant a technical? Elliot Cadeau was pretty efficient but gets too close to the face of guys on the perimeter and then gets beaten. He tries things that are just a little too ambitious too often, these things usually don't work. Indiana doesn't match up with Michigan at all, Trey Burke to get honored at the Ohio State game. It's about to get real for Nebraska.  4. Hockey vs Minnesota Starts at 1:54:54 Michigan gets an almost-sweep of Minnesota getting 5 of 6 points. It's hard to believe this is what Minnesota's hockey team looks like, they've fallen a long way. Minnesota didn't go into the portal or the CHL and just doesn't have the same talent as they used to. Even the announcers were saying "oh, don't do that!" Seven saves in one minute is pretty incredible. Michigan State is still the one team that can match up with Michigan. Michigan is probably in the best spot since the 2022 team when they were number 1. Is there anything Warde Manuel has done that makes you think Michigan hockey will be on a local television station? Four Big Ten teams are in the top 10 of NPI.  MUSIC: "Secret Loving"— Dry Cleaning "Dancing In The Club"— This Is Lorelei & MJ Lederman "Random Rules"— Silver Jew “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 48 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Transfer Portal - Offense Starts at :51 Never doubt the law of conservation of vibes. The Penn State basketball game saved the offensive line. This was recorded on Sunday at noon so by the time you listen to this, things have probably already changed (hello, Jaime Ffrench). It would be nice to get a backup QB in the portal (hello Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi). Justice Haynes has hit the portal, might be going to Georgia Tech, and Oklahoma RB Taylor Tatum is in. So far he's struggled with fumbles and a hamstring injury but Oklahoma's RB coach is one of the worst in P4. He might be a Moneyball situation. Kuzdzal might be coming back? Jaime F-f-f-french is in and if JJ Buchanan joins then we have an actual wide receiver room. Still need a tight end? Offensive line got their guys back, we're un-mad now. Need some depth at center, though.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Transfer Portal - Defense Starts at 27:11 Not as sunny as the offense right now but it can change at any time. How we feel so far depends on the status of John Henry Daley's Achilles, he could be a Derrick Moore comparison if healthy. Defensive end looks pretty set. Defensive tackle... they get Pierce back. They do get Jonah Lea'ea from Utah who was a bit undersized and needed another year to develop. Enow Etta's return has turned from optimism to pessimism. Hopefully Alister Vallejo is ready as a freshman. At linebacker Rasheem Biles is off the board, they are hosting Cade Uluave from Cal, an all-ACC linebacker. Jimmy Rolder has declared for the draft and is #692 on the NFL Mock Draft database. The secondary isn't entirely in the portal but it's alarming, safety is now a concern. Surely we'll find out more about safety this week because you can't go into a season with three safeties. Per Trevor McCue, Jay Hill doesn't rotate the secondary at all! Kerry Coombs got his guys for special teams, they've got a kicker from Pitt, Trey Butkowski. This offense could be really good and not need to rely on a kicker who can hit field goals from the 37. Overall, get in a safety or two and ideally a good defensive tackle and this team is really close to being very competitive. When's the last time the offense was better than the defense, 2011?  3. Hot Takes and Basketball vs Penn State and Wisconsin Starts at 1:05:25 Takes hotter than Wisconsin three point shooting. Basketball is no longer invincible. This must feel the same as when Matt Painter had to play Mo Wagner. Michigan got out-rebounded pretty badly which feels like a major failing given the line-up. They need to play a little dirtier in the paint. Michigan and Wisconsin were shooting back-to-back threes until Michigan fell off. The offensive goal-tending ruling was the rule. Wisconsin doesn't send many guys to the offensive board, they tend to get back and trying to get transition baskets isn't worth it. A key for Michigan going forward is how stretch is everyone's five? Wisconsin shot 12 points higher than their expected for the number of threes they shot.  4. Hockey vs Notre Dame Starts at 1:28:57 Michigan escapes a bad Notre Dame team but loses goalie Jack Ivankovic for "some period of time" (possibly the season). The hit was unfortunate but probably not malicious. There are strong words said about these officials. Naurato has said in his press conferences that "I can't say what I want to say." Big Ten hockey is one of the best leagues in the world and the Big Ten treats it like the 4th most important sport. Freshman goalie Stephen Peck is now your starter. The defense needs to step way up to support their new goalie. If the season ended today they'd still be the number one seed in the tournament, though. Part of that is because of Ivankovic.  MUSIC: "One Tiny Flower"— Jeff Tweedy "Don't Do Me Like That"— J. Mascis "Falling Behind"— Laufey “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hours and 5 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs USC Starts at :51 Basketball gets to go first because they've earned it. They're the number one team on Kenpom by a full five points and the second highest rated Kenpom team of all time. Michigan shot 20% from three and still beat a top 25 USC team by 30 points. This was the Morez Johnson game. Michigan has three of the top five players in the Big Ten. What does a Michigan loss look like? Dusty May has done a great job working on Roddy Gayle, auto-benching with this team is fine. The cutoff for Kenpom to think you're a rotational player is 10% of team minutes, Grady and Goodman are both above this metric. The things that Michigan are good at are things that are very repeatable. There are different levels of Kenpom Time every time Michigan plays. It's weird to say this but it's good that Michigan gets Nebraska at home, they're spicy.  2. Football vs Texas Starts at 24:34 The Citrus Bowl came and went. We were hoping we could learn things about this offensive line going into the off-season then a lot of them went and hit the portal. Kuzdzal played an encouraging game but there were still a few moments of "I wish Jordan Marshall had hit that hole." Bryce Underwood did get some explosive runs, this will be nice for a new coaching staff that likes to run the quarterback. He was put in a lot of positions to fail towards the end of the game. Kerry Coombs did some things with special teams! Wow Michigan drew holds finally. We are done with the Wink Martindale era. Michigan had zero pass rush.  3. Hot Takes and Coaching Staff Starts at 40:11 Takes hotter than the basketball team, this will be the intro until any reason otherwise.  Offensive Coordinator - Jason Beck Came in from Utah, was at New Mexico before that. Has had some very successful offenses. Was a spread-heavy coach at New Mexico and became Whittingham-ized at Utah. Seems like a seamless fit, he should know what to do with Bryce Underwood. Running Backs Coach - Tony Alford It's working, good work keeping him around. Wide Receivers Coach(es) - Micah Simon and Marques Hagans Micah Simon doesn't have a lot of experience, he followed Beck. How much coaching does it take to get someone to catch the ball?  Tight Ends Coach - Freddie Whittingham He's developed some studs. Kyle Whittingham's brother, does not feel like a nepotism hire. Offensive Line Coach - Jim Harding Has two first round tackles this year. Probably could not have gotten a better o-line coach. Michigan has players trickling into the portal but you've got The Guy coaching next year's group. A lot of offensive linemen got recruited by Sherrone so it's not a shocker that some players are looking elsewhere.  Defensive Coordinator - Jay Hill Turned Weber State into a powerhouse. He has coordinator and head coaching experience, seems good. He has coached college his whole career rather than coordinate NFL defenses. Defensive Ends - Lewis Powell Specializes in Polynesians. Has a spectacular track record of developing defensive ends. Brian pledges to figure out how to pronounce all the Polynesian names.  Defensive Tackles - Lou Esposito Continued from last year. You can get more assistant coaches now so it makes sense to split DEs and DTs.  Linebackers Coach - Alex Whittingham Kyle's son, spent eight years with the Chiefs. Apparently Andy Reid played with Kyle Whittingham. This one is a bit more of a nepo hire but he has moved up the ranks.  Defensive Backs Coach - Jernaro Gilford BYU fans are upset that he's leaving which is a good sign. There aren't a lot of cornerbacks in the portal, hopefully he can find some guys.  Special Teams - Kerry Coombs Gets to keep the job he got right before Sherrone was fired. His previous Special Teams have been in the 30ish rank. He's not a slam dunk but should be solid.  4. Transfer Portal Starts at 1:42:43 It's Portal Takes season, we have not yet gotten to Portal Gives season. Guys who are in the portal are not necessarily gone. Jadyn Davis, Davis Warren, Ben Roebuck, Connor Jones, Devon Baxter, Semaj Morgan, Jaden Mangham, and Jasper Parker are guys who will probably get better opportunities elsewhere. Elijah Dotson, Brady Prieskorn, and Kaden Strayhorn are guys you'd like to keep around. Zeke Berry, Jake Guarnera, Andrew Sprague, Cole Sullivan, and Enow Etta are the "ouch" group. Some guys have left the door open. Would really really like to get Guarnera back, Sprague sounds like he's going to Texas. Most folks who are going to enter the portal have but we're not out of it yet. Keep an eye on Utah defensive end John Henry Daley, cornerback Smith Snowden, and safety Tao Johnson. Cole Sullivan would be a great fit in this defense, would love to keep him. They need guys (plural) on the defensive line, especially at defensive tackle. Even if you keep Andrew Marsh you would like to get a wide receiver or two. Might want to look into a punter or a kicker, maybe with a new staff we can finally move on from the 2015 Michigan State game.  MUSIC: "Nothing I Need"— Lord Huron "A Couple Minutes"— Olivia Dean "Cotton Mouth"— fanclubwallet “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hours and 45 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Kyle Whittingham Reaction Starts at :51 Brian can't make fun of the name "Kyle" anymore. Woah, Alex Drain is here! Did Kyle Whittingham get pushed out of Utah? He's 66 but could probably beat up several members of the current team, he doesn't feel too old. This might be the best guy to hit the ground running with Bryce Underwood. He's had a 20+ year stretch of success and it's mostly over-performing expectations statistically. Are there concerns about the way this would translate to Michigan? Utah folks are asking if we're prepared for limited media availability, a coach who can sound like a jerk, and a 300 lbs fullback. Yes, yes we are. Kyle Whittingham's risk for scandal seems extremely low. How many coaches in the Big Ten would you pick over him? His dad's nickname was "Mad Dog". A brief history of his success over his coaching career, which included two PAC-12 Championships. Kyle lets his QB run the ball, Bryce's output this season would've been the worst for Utah going back at least a decade. Harbaugh had a great hit rate on sleeper recruits, Whittingham should as well. He has some very Harbaugh-adjacent quotes as well. What's your letter grade for the hire? [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Assistants Starts at 42:48 The new staff is coming together pretty quickly. Jason Beck is lining up to be the offensive coordinator, coming in from Utah. Alex details his history as a coach which was mostly as an offensive coordinator and QB coach. He likes hybrid players and will love the tight end room. Jay Hill is lined up from BYU as defensive coordinator, BYU fans are not thrilled that he's leaving. He took a 100ish ranked defense and turned it into a top 25 defense. He also made Weber State a powerhouse while he was there. He'll play more man-defense than we're used to which might not be what we want against Ohio State. Jay Hill could also be a head coach in waiting down the road. It feels like the defense is going to be coached again. Jason Beck could be a QB coach but there are rumors that Koy Detmer Jr could come in as an analyst/QB coach. All signs point to Tony Alford being retained. Ron Bellamy will probably stick around, they still need a Michigan guy and he might be the most "Michigan Guy" on staff. Freddie Whittingham could likely come in at tight ends coach, he is not a nepotism hire. He could also be a recruiting coordinator guy if you want to keep Grant Newsome around. Jim Harding could be the offensive line coach coming out of Utah. Lewis Powell might be coming in as defensive ends coach out of Utah. Lou Esposito might stay at Michigan. Linebackers coach is the one area where we haven't heard anything. Whittingham has mentioned going after a coach that is still in the playoffs. Jernaro Gilford might follow Jay Hill as the defensive backs coach. LaMar Morgan is a good recruiter so maybe you keep him. What about Special Teams coach? Time to move on from Kerry Coombs already? How would you grade these potential hires?  3. Hot Takes and The Search, Revisited Starts at 1:38:48 Takes hotter than the Utah message boards. It was a wild ride getting from DeBoer, Fisch, or Dillingham to here. A lot of information was coming from agents getting names out there. A lot of people said "Biff Poggi could get the job" and it was never going to happen. Did Michigan really never go and try to offer Dillingham a job? It feels like his people really hyped him up. We might be having a very different conversation if that Oklahoma receiver would've just caught that ball. Everyone penciled in Dillingham after the Oklahoma Alabama game and then he signs an extension. Whittingham was unemployed, he probably didn't have agents hyping him up. Brian still likes Jeff Brohm. Interestingly Penn State never went after Whittingham but once the Michigan job opened up he said he was "in the transfer portal." Why was Biff Poggi on that podcast? He was shooting his shot for a job but it was never going to happen. How well did the "insiders" do and how clued in will they be on the new staff.  4. Michigan Football vs Texas Starts at 2:18:38 Oh yeah Michigan has a bowl game. The only opt-outs are El-Hadi, Derrick Moore, and Barham (and Ernest Hausmann). Maybe it's a good sign that a lot of players still want to play in this? Six of 11 defensive starters are sitting out for Texas, most of their offense is playing. Michigan's best hope is to watch Arch Manning turf five-yard outs. I guess we'll see Wink walk off the field as a Michigan coach for the last time. This feels like a zombie team right now. Does Michigan have a way to stop Ryan Wingo? The Ohio State game feels like four years ago. Are you excited for this game? A lot of big-name guys have at least remained in the recruiting class. The hope of the Sherrone era was "hopefully he just gets better at coaching" and it's a relief to just move on. What was the most enjoyable game of the Sherrone era? Not the highlight, but the most fun beginning-to-end? A lot of things about the last two to three years make a lot more sense now. A lot of paranoia and worry feels lifted, there are adults in charge.  MUSIC: "Medium Machine"—Sports Team "Inept Apollo"—Nation of Language "Where'd You Go"—Horsegirl “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 54 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. What Happened Starts at :51 Sometimes in December we don't have enough content for a podcast... this week there is enough for a podcast. Michigan football has been thrown into chaos following the Sherrone Moore firing. This is the third out of five Warde Manuel hires in the three most important sports to have left in disgrace (also Jim Harbaugh depending on who you ask). There have been too many red flags on too many hires. There is no oversight within the athletic department and then you have to do an investigation instead of preventing one. The only reason the WiFi is better at Michigan Stadium is because of the Zach Bryan concert, not because they cared about the fan experience. Fans are just a piggy bank. Michigan is way too much in the news right now. If "a lot of people knew about this" then why didn't someone say something sooner? Warde lost credibility after his handling of Mel Pearson and he doesn't get credit for Brandon Naurato. Grandmas in Peoria know too much about the Michigan athletic department.  2. Coaching Search Bits Starts at 27:41 Michigan needs a new head football coach. How good do we feel going into it? Probably about a B-. There's not an obvious slam dunk candidate. The three big names are Kalen DeBoer, Kenny Dillingham, and Jedd Fisch. If Alabama wins their first playoff game then DeBoer is almost entirely off the table, if they lose to Oklahoma then there's enough smoke to believe he might think about it. Would DeBoer really leave Alabama though? It's not a place that coaches leave and he's a long shot even if they lose to Oklahoma. Kenny Dillingham played for Arizona State and has a lot of family and connections in Phoenix, he might just be a long shot to convince to move from home. Kenny Dillingham is young, he watches Stranger Things and doesn't understand all the references. What about Jeff Brohm? Jedd Fisch is good at roster construction and handling QBs, something that would be nice for Michigan right now. Jake Butt had a strong endorsement for Jedd. Some coaches wouldn't have former players stomping for them. Jason Eck is a fun name but he's never proven himself at a major program. Based on everything so far, it feels like it's probably Jedd Fisch (PENDING A BACKGROUND CHECK). Which assistant coaches/coordinators would you keep?  3. Hot Takes, Men's Basketball vs Maryland Starts at 54:31 Takes hotter than... actually we need takes about half of where they could go. We need to dial it back this week. Thankfully we can now turn our attention to basketball! Michigan 101, Maryland 83, a strange game. David Coit was hitting threes from every heavenly covered shot. When Michigan was down by 9 Kenpom still had them 76% to win. Maryland went 14-27 from three and Michigan still covered the Kenpom spread. This game was the script for Michigan to lose a game and won by 18. Brian reads Yaxel's boxscore poetically because it deserves it. Solomon Washington got ejected for two technicals. Michigan navigated foul trouble and you probably didn't even notice. Michigan is actually top 50 in three point shooting.  4. Men's Basketball vs Villanova Starts at 1:38:12 They went up by 30 at halftime and only won by 30?? What are we even doing here. You look at some of these top 50, top 25 teams on the schedule, could they beat Michigan in Ann Arbor? No way. Being #1 in two point defense with this schedule is insane. Michigan is identifying their weaknesses and working on them, that's terrifying for opposing teams. What is this team's weakness now? Hey, shout out to undefeated Nebrasketball!  MUSIC: "PH Suite"—Curtis Dro and Lamar Woods "Man I Need"—Olivia Dean "I Got Flavor"—LaRussell and Lil John “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 42 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Michigan Hockey vs Michigan State Starts at :51 A very silly debate not worth publishing preceded the actual intro of this podcast. A split against Michigan State is a very fair result, the whole series was intense. The first period of the Saturday game was an onslaught that Michigan relatively survived, Jack Ivankovic has been solid. How many first and second rounders were in this game? The answer is in the double digits. Is the Big Ten the best hockey league in the world outside of the NHL? Most of the time this team looks dominant but looking back on that Wisconsin series and the first period against MSU on Saturday shows some concerning trends where Michigan can't get out of their own zone. Minnesota is surprisingly not what they've been in the last few years.  2. Men's Basketball vs Rutgers Starts at 26:05 Michigan is putting up demolitions not even predicted by Kenpom. If Michigan puts up a reasonable number of 3s there's just no way to beat them. What did Rutgers even do... get to 41% from 2? Well Michigan shot 72% from 2. They've played the 8th hardest schedule in the country, what even is there to say? Morez Johnson is shooting 3s now. Michigan had more offensive rebounds than misses from 2. Cadeau had an alarming turnover rate earlier in the season and most of those have gone away. Is Yaxel the alpha guy for scoring? Do you need one when you win games by 40? Roddy Gayle is rounding into the guy we originally thought he would be. The floor on this team is so high, if they shot 15% from 3 they'd probably still win by 10. The only teams that look mildly threatening on the schedule are Michigan State and Purdue. USC is also spicier than we thought. Michigan is now favored in every single game on the schedule.  3. Hot Takes, Football Offensive Recruiting Class Starts at 54:31 Takes hotter than Curt Cignetti walking off the field after beating Ohio State 13-10 to win the Big Ten Championship and reacting in NO WAY WHATSOEVER. Savion Hiter is the number one running back in the country and he has the tape to back it up. Brady Smigiel and Tommy Carr come in at QB, they won't see the field for a while but then you could have a redshirt sophomore starting after Bryce leaves. It's nice to see Michigan recruit like they have 105 guys in a class. Michigan loses a wide receiver but picks up Travis Johnson, also Brady Marchese and Jaylen Pile. Would've been nice to get a slot guy but nice to get a few receivers. They're all early enrolees. Matt Ludwig comes in at tight end and is the number one player in Montana, close enough to Idaho. Michigan should get tight ends from American Samoa and Alaska. Mason Bonner comes in from Colorado, keep an eye on him down the road. Malakai Lee is the headlining offensive lineman out of Hawaii, Bear McWhorter is an all-name nominee. Marky Walbridge is a quintessential under-scouted player.  4. Football Defensive Recruiting Class Starts at 1:20:32 Carter Meadows is the #6 overall player in the class, he could be the first overall player in the draft if he projects how he's supposed to. Taco Charlton comparison? Tariq Boney is the other edge, described as a violent high motor style. Titan Davis is Chris Wormley shaped but could move to defensive tackle, McHale Blade might be the most underrated guy in this class. Alister Vallejo, the Mason Graham comparison! He's a lot of peoples' favorite player in this class (a class with two five stars). Could he help next year? Many linebackers, mostly flyers and not an instant-impact class. Do not trust AI in your recruiting history research. The defensive back class is a little light, all four stars though. Jordan Deck is a Makari Paige kind of guy. They get a kicker who kicks and a longsnapper who long snaps, yay. Kerry Coombs comes in as special team coordinator.  MUSIC: "Train Love"—Yor Old Droog "MAGIC"—Vince Staples and Mustard "I Need a Lover"—John Couger “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 43 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs Ohio State Starts at :51 Good thing this is pivoting to being a snacks podcast. Combos are way up there as far as gas station snacks go. Every time Ohio State got into a 3rd down situation they would just drop back and throw it to an open receiver. When Michigan was in this situation, Ohio State would just man up and Bryce had nowhere to throw. Those substitutions that happened all season continued in this game. Is trophy done going brrr? You cannot have this many holes in your team and expect to compete with Ohio State. The offensive line didn't look as dominated as it seemed, if Jordan Marshall and Justice Haynes played the whole game they'd probably break some more big runs. It didn't seem like Chip Lindsey brought much into this game that was built off of what they had been doing all season. Maybe Bryce froze up (pun not intended) a bit. He only had five throws at halftime? Guarnera actually looked really good, Frazier and Sprague held their ground. The reasons this offense didn't shine this season weren't because of the offensive line. Who's even going to sit out on offense in the bowl game?  2. Defense vs Ohio State Starts at 29:05 Giving up 27 points to Ohio State seems not that bad but we're still done with Wink. Ohio State's 3rd down conversions were the easiest possible. Neither Barham nor Derrick Moore got anywhere near Sayin all game. The 5-2 came back... It's year two, the defense shouldn't be this simplified. Yes, simplify it early on but it cannot be simplified against Ohio State. He learned nothing from the USC game, Wink needs to get fired and if he isn't then that's on Sherrone. There was a 20 play 81 yard field goal drive that took 12 minutes off the clock. That goal line stand was nice, though. Ohio State was at their own 10 but the backups were in?? Also it's a Fox broadcast, there's plenty of time to rest your starters during tv timeouts! There's a lot of work that needs to be done on the defensive line going into next year. The waves of elite defensive tackles has run its course.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 53:38 Takes hotter than... idk. I'm out of ideas just like Michigan's coaches. The first sign that it was over was when Ohio State declined a holding call and then held Michigan on 3rd and 5. Zvada made field goals and a mob didn't have to come after Brian (they would've been right to do so). Hollenbeck had an 11 yard punt. Keeping Andrew Marsh just to fair catch punts is a valuable skill, don't make him a kick returner though. Kicking field goals early on 4th down felt like the right thing at the time, it could've been a stupid blizzard game later. You'd trust Zvada to make these field goals more than you'd trust the offense to get six yards in the redzone. Apparently an Ohio State player had head butted a Michigan player and Barham was demonstrating - but also don't do that. Jeremiah Smith almost had the funniest application of the worst rule in football. There were a lot of Ohio State fans at this game, how does that keep happening? Were there Ohio State fans near you and if so what was the experience near them like?  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:25:11 Oregon 26, Washington 14 Washington's hyped offense just never came true in any of their big games this year. Oregon locks up a playoff bid, they'll probably get the G5 bid or the ACC champions. Penn State 40, Rutgers 36 Congrats to Penn State on getting bowl eligibility. This was a shootout. Tamper with the Rutgers receivers.  Minnesota 17, Wisconsin 7 Wisconsin is not good.  Michigan State 38, Maryland 28 Jonathan Smith was fired after this recording. There might've been 10,000 fans at this game but the weather kept a lot of people home.  Illinois 20, Northwestern 13 Snow game!  Iowa 40, Nebraska 16 Just a first half blowout without much effort in the 2nd half. A very disappointing ending to Nebraska's season. Nebraska is 2-10 the last three years in November. USC 29, UCLA 10 UCLA lead at halftime and then USC ran away with it in the 2nd half.  Indiana 56, Purdue 3 A year after Indiana gave Purdue their worst loss in the rivalry they give Purdue their first home loss in the rivalry. MUSIC: "Colors Change"—Tanks and Bangas "Too Good Too Bad"—Jason Scott and the High Heat "My Girlfriend Doesn't Worry"—Jeffrey Lewis and the Voltage “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 45 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs Maryland Starts at :51 It doesn't feel good to just beat up on Maryland the week before The Game. Dave explains a soft and gooey snack for all of you to enjoy. Bryce was okay! He's worked on a nice seam route with an arc to Marlin Klein that he didn't have before the bye. And a dig route! There was one bad pass which was a tough throw to make anyways. Can he go and win The Game? Probably if the defense can do enough. This was never going to be a challenge for the offensive line but they exceeded expectations anyways. The Ohio State game might be a bridge too far, though. Kuzdzal is a step down from Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall but he's got some juice. They succeeded on wedge! Andrew Marsh almost completed the Odell Beckham?? He's a star going forward. Marlin Klein hurdled a fool, Goodwin had a few catches. It was nice of Maryland to just run into themselves and let Michigan do what they wanted.  2. Defense vs Maryland Starts at 34:09 There was an opening drive touchdown with various guys being offsides again, but then there wasn't much until the backups came in. Pleeeease do not be rotating the back-seven against Ohio State all game. Derrick Moore has 11 sacks, imagine if he played more! Ernest Hausmann did not travel, Cole Sullivan was back (and possibly a little rusty). This performance didn't build confidence in holding Ohio State to 10 points again, a lot of Maryland receivers were running open. Brandyn Hillman had another good game, maybe that mini-suspension was the best thing for his career. He was even directing players into position. Some of Maryland's drops count as triple drops. There's just not much interior rush from this defensive line, maybe play Barham at linebacker against OSU so you can blitz him. Does Wink actually call plays without knowing or caring which personnel are out there? This year you don't have the two best defensive tackles in America and you can't bait Ryan Day into running into a six man box.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 56:08 Takes hotter than yours truly after he got through the hot takes intro and had to re-do them because the Sklars dropped out of the call. Brian broke Zvada. Chase Taylor gets +4 on the onside kick recovery, that did not feel good. There was no punting from Michigan so we don't have to complain about punting. Marsh had some nice punt returns?? End of first half time management was less than ideal, Goodwin lined up in the wrong spot and they should've called timeout. Stop jumping offside! The late hit by Brandt was a weak call, so was the one on Bryce Underwood. Every replay angle was field-level and somehow they're contradictory?  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:19:43 Oregon 42, USC 27 A close-ish looking boxscore but Oregon scored 28 first half points. Oregon has figured out some things after the Indiana game, they're in the 99th percentile in opportunity run rate. They're starting to look like the championship team they were hoping to be.  Iowa 20, Michigan State 17 Iowa pulls out a classic game that they don't deserve to win. MSU QB Alessio Milivojevic punted three times. Michigan State's 8 game losing streak is tied for the 2nd longest, the program record is 10. Tickets for MSU vs Maryland at Ford Field after the game are free!  Northwestern 38, Minnesota 35 An offensive explosion game! Northwestern wins at Wrigley for the first time in 8 attempts.  Wisconsin 27, Illinois 10 Neither team gets to 300 yards of offense. This was the first time all season that Wisconsin scored in the first and second quarter.  Penn State 37, Nebraska 10 The Grunk throws 12 times for 181 yards, that'll do it. Nebraska goes 1 of 6 on 4th down. Who is Penn State's number 1 coaching candidate?  Washington 48, UCLA 14 The Huskies continue to play without some of their stars but still blew out UCLA Ohio State 42, Rutgers 9 Ugh MUSIC: "Feel It Again"—Winyah "Drugs"—Philharmonik Live from NPR Tiny Desk "DBZ"—Your Old Droog and Method Man “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra