MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast

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, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, Applied Fitness Solutions, The History of Michigan Football, an online course by Greg Dooley, and Venue by 4M where recorded this. 1. The Backcourt Starts at 0:54 Michigan beats Eastern Michigan in an exhibition game 87-62. Getting Elliot Cadeau and Trey McKenney back should form one of the best backcourts in the Big Ten. McKenney was a 6th man last year but was dripping with talent. Cadeau's room for improvement is suppressing the turnovers. McKenney you'd like to see improvement as a movement shooter and a finisher at the rim, it's okay for him to take mid-range shots (which aren't very prone to turnovers). The sky's the limit for the backcourt. Kenny Noland comes in from Columbia as a backup, he brings some Mike Smith vibes. His assist and turnover rates could've been better but you got to grade him on a Columbia curve. He brings beating full court ball pressure to the table as well as a structured offense. Roddy Gayle is your projected starting small forward, his 3rd year on the team. He's a glue guy and one of the better ones in the league. His three point shooting had a lot of streakiness to it. He can be aggressive going downhill, also he's an older guy who you can't intimidate. He shows his chest at the rim and makes his free throws. Brandon McCoy is out for the year. Ricky Liburd is most likely to get the backup 20ish minutes per game. He's projected to be a good 3 point shooter. Joseph Hartman might not be an impact player but he has a good bit of polish and is a play finisher. He has comparisons to freshman Isaiah Livers, maybe? Malachi Brown is just a little too small to be viable in conference play this year.  2. The Frontcourt Starts at 28:08 Moustapha Thiam comes in from Cincinnati and was the anchor of one of the best defenses in America last year. This was a vital addition to the roster. He's an anchor and a rim protector and looks the part. He takes a lot of bad shots but somehow makes them while having a low turnover rate. He'll have a better offense around him this year to hopefully make better shot opportunities off of. Thiam's a good defender but he's no Mara. J.P. Estrella comes in from Tennessee as the projected 4. He played a lot of 5 overseas but didn't look the part. Estrella was a great offensive rebounder at Tennessee but has some defensive issues that you hope Thiam helps mitigate. Estrella has been very efficient offensively but what happens when he gets extended play time? There are a broad range of outcomes here and we don't really know what to expect. Freshman F Quinn Costello was an excellent shooter in high school, even as a movement shooter. Can he handle all the switches on this Michigan defense? Marcus Møller looked fairly promising overseas. He's a bit underweight but give him a year and his skillset could be really good. He had some Mara vibes. Jalen Reed comes in from LSU, where if he stayed he could've been a starting anything. He reminds us a little bit of Morez Johnson. He's got the muscle mass and the skills if he can just stay healthy. Oscar Goodman has a Will Tschetter vibe - good glue guy but just not quite an established player. He's a guy for a different age of college basketball.  3. Hot Takes, Season Expectations, and The Big Ten Starts at 1:00:02 Takes hotter than the entirety of Michigan's 2025-26 basketball season. We are going to have to come back to earth a bit. They still look like a clear tournament team in the 4-6 range but it's not fair to compare them to one of the best basketball teams in the last few decades. There are a lot of Big Ten teams with high floors but not many that look like an amazing team (besides maybe Illinois). Michigan State is pretty much the same team from last year. The non-conference schedule is pretty brutal, including UConn, Marquette, Villanova, and Louisville. What will Boynton's coaching style be? The biggest conundrum is what does he do with Estrella? Last year's team needed to win a national championship, this year you need to just build a program. What's their Big Ten Tournament seed and NCAA Tournament seed?    4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:34:30 Indiana 20, Nebraska 17 Nebraska outgains the Hoosiers 391 to 365, Indiana just couldn't run the ball. Nebraska Jim Knowles'd themself and it came back to bite them. The winning touchdown was a rhino play! Colandrea is an annoyingly good QB at Nebraska, he's always doing something positive. Nick Marsh had 57% of Indiana's yards.  UCLA 17, Oregon 15 Oregon only gained 265 yards of offense, 179 of that was on their final three drives in the last eight minutes of the game. Oregon has to feel disturbed that this is the way their season is going because of a dirty hit against USC. Oregon did their "go for 2" on their first TD but missed it and it came back to bite them. The Ducks had seven (7!) turnovers in this game.  USC 31, Penn State 23 Penn State's run game is absent, will the Michigan game be "who has to rush less"? USC does not believe you need to cover tight ends (this would work well againt Michigan). Penn State's running backs don't have a run greater than 8 yards, Rocco Becht is the only one with double digit rush gains. Their center looks like David Molk with one foot.  Illinois 38, Michigan State 37 Ref outrage!! Pat Fitzgerald flips off the field. Fred Moore is Michigan State's top wide receiver. Purdue 41, Minnesota 13 Purdue ran for 305 yards, that feels bad! Minnesota ran for 27 yards. That also feels bad! When is the last time a Michigan team lost to a Big Ten team that didn't make a bowl game? Could Purdue make a bowl and be competitive against Indiana? Iowa 41, Washington 24 It was 27-3 at halftime, this was a blowout. Washington had -3 rushing yards, and this was a home game.  Lightning Round Northwestern 45, Ball State 14 Ohio State 45, Maryland 16   MUSIC: "Opening Night"—Arctic Monkeys, War Child Records "Backseat"—Balu Brigada "Crush"—Indigo De Souza “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 Hour and 12 Minutes 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. Segment 1 What can we learn from two Anchorage blowouts? Power plays, shorthanded goals, Drew Schock, and more. Then a look at interesting early results in college hockey.   Segment 2 Previewing all other 6 B1G teams in depth and an early estimate on how the power rankings stack up, MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Off To Dutch Harbor" -- Hobo Jim Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Things Discussed: Brian on the offense: The dysfunction is too great to be one thing. Media narrative that they're too perimeter-based isn't based in reality; they were an outside zone team last year. There isn't a one thing they can go to the lab and fix. Running base plays will probably help; too many constraint plays that are too easy to stuff. Don't see Beck scheming up any explosives. Part of that is it's because he doesn't repeat things that work enough to get a reaction. #1 thing that's hurting them are those explosives. Defensively they're fine. DEs were a little injured; Tariq Boney ran into an issue with long tackles if they get their hands on him because they don't call holding (except on Michigan) in this conference. A lot of the tackling issues were they were exhausted. Responding to Devin Gardner's assessment: It's wrong to say Bryce can't make zone reads. He's getting these right, even when they're complicated, except when Hiter clamps down, which is not speculation. Rhino: Gach is a 2nd year player who just moved here and doesn't know how to make the complicated reads yet. Sam: Teams are reacting to it belligerently. Lack of a counter. Seth: Problem is the Rhino is inviting safeties into the box to replace a linebacker who replaces a DE in complicated ways, and they don't have the experience yet to deal with that. Why is Rhino their most effective in YPC/YPA? Because they're not getting any explosives. Beck problem is he's not getting explosives. Ratio of meat & potatoes/fancy plays is totally out of whack—too much fancy and too many ways to diffuse them, so they're not getting guys in wrong positions. Michigan drives are stalling out inside the opponent's territory. Bryce problem is he falls apart when he gets uncomfortable. The Bryce hit + Marsh drop, Hiter clamp, Delay of Game sequence rattled him and he wasn't reading after that. Not uncommon for a 19-year-old quarterback. If you go Tommy you're just putting another freshman in. You can't bench Bryce right now. Sophomore Syndrome: Let's talk about Evan Link: he's a pretty good Big Ten left tackle now, and he was unplayable in Year 2. Bryce is Year 2. If they do use the Rhino what can they do to punish defenses? Slants to Buchanan and Marsh Where's Dagger? That would work great.

1 Hour and 17 Minutes 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. Segment 1 Memories from Bowling Green, Ohio. Discussion of the opening night lines and pairs. Then recap of the first game, including a Hurlbert breakaway, power play scoring, and a pretty convincing win   Segment 2 The worst first period in memory? Then Michigan got their feet under them and took over. Had to dig deep to win, but a good game to win. Few other teams in college hockey played real games but we talk about the ones that did. Alaska-Anchorage preview includes discussion of NHLers from Alaska   MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Long Way" -- 7Horse Ice Hockey (NES) theme

2 hours and 22 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, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, Applied Fitness Solutions, The History of Michigan Football, an online course by Greg Dooley, and Venue by 4M where recorded this. 1. Offense vs Minnesota Starts at 0:54 We could just go home and not do this. Was this the least pleasant game you've ever watched? At least the last time Michigan lost to Minnesota it started the process of fixing everything. Young quarterbacks have big swings, you're fine one day and bad the next. The Marsh drop followed by a five yard loss followed by a delay of game followed by a gain of 13 that would've been converted if not for the five yard loss followed by the punt going into the endzone brought back shades of M00N. The numerous commercial breaks were the only break the defense could get. The offensive install continues to be a complete disaster. Teams are teeing off against the rhino that shouldn't be on the field. The Utah offense seemed like it would be a natural fit to install at Michigan, what is going on? They even have the players to run what they want to do. Is Kyle Whittingham washed? The assistants shouldn't be. Individually players are grading out fine but the whole is not working. Whittingham might not know how to coach a transition, he had so much continuity at Utah. Michigan couldn't get into a rhythm because they never had the ball on offense in the first half. When the game doesn't slow down for Bryce he goes into panic mode. The Western Michigan game scared them and now they're trying to build the airplane in the air and it's crashing. It's time for Jason Beck to do a little bit of soul searching. What personnel changes can you make on offense? Hiter has been costing drives, would you put Kuzdzal in over him? What's going on in the tight end room?  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Minnesota Starts at 50:01 The defense is fine. They had a PI from Mars against them. The holding calls in these games all feel one-sided, Michigan can't draw any. By the second half they got sloppier because they had to play pretty much the whole first half. The defensive tackles were not dominating the line of scrimmage enough. These are all nitpicks for a defense that only gave up 20 points despite being on the field for 40 minutes. Staehling struggles with wheel routes but blew up some plays and had the pick six. Bowles is a nicely physical blitzer. Chase Taylor got hurt but came back. Aisea Moa had a fair bit of play time (as did everyone else). If the offense would have even played an average game would Minnesota have even gotten 200 yards of offense?  3. Hot Takes, Special Teams, Game Theory, and Hockey Starts at 1:12:47 Takes hotter than the piss PJ Fleck drank out of the Little Brown Jug (Brian's words, not mine). Punting was fine but the first two needed to be downed. Kick returns - just don't do it. Kuzdzal wants to play but don't do it. Andrew Marsh shouldn't drop punts. Yay the blocked a punt. They took one good timeout. There were fewer penalties because the offense was barely on the field. Let's talk about hockey! They sweep Bowling Green 7-2 and 4-3. Bowling Green is not  Mercyhurst, they're a real team. Michigan got punched in the mouth Saturday night (at Bowling Green) in a hostile environment and responded. Perron and Hage are awesome as predicted. Much like 2023 football, this team has a lot of players that didn't need to be here, but they want to win a championship.    4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:46:24 Northwestern 34, Penn State 13 Northwestern ran for 413(!!!) rushing yards using a lot of the wing-T. Is this a legitimately good Northwestern team? Almost more shocking is Penn State rushing 22 times for 48 yards. Penn State just can't drive the field in the Big Ten.  Wisconsin 31, Michigan State 3 Michigan State throws the ball 34 times for 108 yards and lost the ball on downs five times. Their longest play of the game was 13 yards, Fred Moore was targeted 12 times. There might be some fool's gold here for Wisconsin, QB Colton Joseph was only 9/20 for 145 and was 141 of their 228 rushing yards.  USC 25, Washington 21 Both teams needed to pull themselves out of a rut and neither really did that. This was the battle of who can have the worse offensive line. Another poor performance from Washington QB Demond Williams Nebraska 48, Maryland 23 Yardage was not that different but Maryland was only 1 of 14 on 3rd downs. At one point during this game, Malik Washington had thrown three pick sixes in four quarters (going back to last week). 28 penalties in this game, Rhule went off on the officials. Iowa 14, Ohio State 31 Ultimately not very competitive. If you're Iowa and -2 in turnover margin you're not beating anyone. Jeremiah Smith gets over 200 receiving yards for the second straight week. Iowa's secondary might be a little too static this year. Better teams need to be bracketing Jeremiah Smith.  Purdue 24, Illinois 17 Purdue snaps a 19 game losing streak in the Big Ten. This is their first Big Ten win of the Curt Cignetti era. This was a low posession game, it feels like they sped up the game and now there's 20% less football. If you're not on it from the start you can get in trouble. Indiana 47, Rutgers 15 KJ Duff might be college football's most loyal man.  MUSIC: "Stilettos"—Victor Jones "No Cameras"—VictoryLand "She's Gonna Break My Heart"—Magnus Ferrell “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra