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 WSJ says offer rescinded: False.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 38 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. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: HomeSure Lending, Ann Arbor Elder Law, the Residence Inn Ann Arbor Downtown, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, and Information Entropy, the Raw Power app for iOS by Gentleman Coders, and SignalWire, which is the virtual office platform we recorded on during the pandemic because we’d had it up to here with Zoom (use the code MUPPETS and they’ll buy your team lunch!) This episode was supposed to be recorded at Prentice 4M, on the other end of The Bridge, started by a couple of readers to have the perfect, affordable, safe, and clean living/renting/working space near campus. 1. Offense vs WMU starts at 1:00 Do we start with the good news (they can run), the bad news (Bell), or the future news (McCarthy). #SpeedInSpace is over—there were no reads and lots of fake reads that burned downs or delivered safeties and linebackers to the running backs immediately. In this game at least the RBs could put those defenders on their asses. JJ seems to be erratic. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 2. Defense vs WMU starts at 28:58 One drive of bleeding plus a Not Angry About That throw over Gemon Green (and a taunting on Ojabo) and then not much. Just a few gashes from LBs getting out of position. Hinton looked like their best DT, Hutchinson got to spend a lot of time on the sideline while they rotated a lot of guys. Mike Morris, hello there. Secondary looked okay but shaky—they’re better as a zone team. 3. Hot Takes, Special Teams, and Game Theory starts at 44:45 The hot takes are half the segment even though there was a lot of special teams, because the only game theory stuff was at the end of the 1st half (learn to manage a clock!). Much of the game was spent waiting around for Brad Robbins punts to land. Using Bell as a returner. Foug’ing it. 4. Around the Big Ten, wsg Jamie Mac starts at 1:00:35 We go long this time of year because there are so many games. Jamie does not recognize the existence of Iowa. MUSIC: “Stop Making This Hurt”—Bleachers “Stay High”—Childish Gambino “Nothing Else Matters”—cover by Phoebe Bridgers “Across 110th Street”

2 hours and 2 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, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where we recorded this.   1. Offense vs Oregon Starts at 1:00 This was a Fetty Wapping at the hands of Oregon. Davis Warren didn't really have negative throws but he's missing receivers and not pulling the trigger on open guys. Oregon's linebacker said in the post-game that when Orji is in the game it's pretty simple. Michigan isn't running stuff that looks like the other stuff they run, it's more of a grab bag. When was the last time they threw over the top of a safety? They don't really have packages, they just have plays. Gotta talk about The Razzles.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Oregon Starts at 35:15 Twitter had some harsh comments about Wink! But by the end of the game it was okay in context, especially with only one cornerback. Oregon has an extremely efficient offense that doesn’t have to attack downfield so they didn’t (much). You know it’s a good catch by the away team when they show the replay and the big screen and the home crowd goes “woah!” Linebackers/safeties missed some tackles but it was a much better performance than against Michigan State. You have to take this defense in context with all the injuries and transfers.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:01:08 Takes hotter than Jason’s immune system which is working overtime to make him better. Accidental hockey segment! What is the point of video replay if you’re not going to use it, Big Ten?? Is Dan Lanning scheming some of these miscues that Michigan had? Did the boos from Michigan Stadium convince Sherrone to challenge the Loveland drop? Shout out to Joe Taylor on special teams. 4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac   Starts at 1:29:51 Indiana 47, Michigan State 10 9Windiana has finally happened! Kurtis Rourke is back despite the injured thumb. They just played good, solid Indiana(??) football. Michigan State finished with -36 rushing yards.  Ohio State 20, Penn State 13 We’ve seen this game before. A lot of weird things happened, though. There’s always time on the clock for Frames Janklin. What was that goal line decision making? Minnesota 25, Illinois 17 Luke Altmyer didn’t put the ball into danger but didn’t add much. This was like the Michigan Illinois game but not stupid.  Washington 26, USC 21 USC throws three interceptions, they’re 0-3 when they throw more than 50 times. Are they even going to make a bowl game? UCLA 27, Nebraska 20 This came out of nowhere. Here comes the annual impending collapse of Nebraska.  Iowa 42, Wisconsin 10 Before the season started, we thought Michigan was good Iowa. Turns out Iowa is good Michigan. Wisconsin had only a 5% havoc rate and their linebacker factory is dismantled.  Northwestern 26, Purdue 20 Purdue gave up 302 passing yards to Northwestern!   MUSIC: "I Don't Love Anyone"-- Belle and Sebastian "Our Hometown Boy" -- The Hard Quartet "Mystified" -- Same Eyes “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

1 hour and 56 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics. 1. Offense vs Michigan State Starts at 1:00 Introducing the MGoBlog post-game incident scale: 1 -- Kerfuffle  2 -- Fracas 3 -- Brewhaha 4 -- Melee 5 -- Donnybrook What happened after the game on Saturday was a kerfuffle. It felt like Michigan State came into the game with a solid plan while Michigan was struggling. Suddenly, Michigan was leading at halftime. Davis Warren's job was to not lose this game and he didn't, the ball wasn't put into danger and it worked. Donovan Edwards is no Tom Brady but he's got a perfect QB rating.  2. Defense vs Michigan State Starts at 35:15 Defense only gives up 17 points but it doesn't feel super great? But for the most part they did okay. Junior Colson set the bar for consistent tackling and now missed tackles are weird. They put Mason Graham at edge and got weird and then got beat by Michigan State 3rd down frippery. They're preventing their best players from making plays. Michigan State didn't put this game on Aidan Chiles' shoulders so we didn't get the full Chiles experience. Brian finally has a nice thing to say about Cal Haladay. Maybe Jesse Minter was just so good that no matter who was the defensive coordinator this year they would be perceived as bad.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:01:08 We gotta have a brewhaha level of takes at least. Tommy Doman has continued to be inconsistent. Was State's on-side kick a good idea? The weird fair catch rule is something a lot of us didn't know about. Going for it on 4th down, tougher decision than last year! 4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac   Starts at 1:29:51 Indiana 31, Washington 17 Yardage was fairly even but Indiana grinded it out very consistently. They're 8-0 for the first time since 1967. Kurtis Rourke had surgery on his thumb and might be back this weekend.  Ohio State 21, Nebraska 17 Indiana beat Nebraska 56-7, JUST SAYIN'. Ryan Day has a meltdown on the field and then tells fans to be happy about this game in his press conference. Ohio State fans are comparing their tackle situation to Michigan's QB situation. Penn State 28, Wisconsin 13 Drew Allar went out around halftime. It doesn't look like it's happening for Luke Fickell at Wisconsin. Penn State pretty much dominated down-for-down.  USC 42, Rutgers 20 Pushed back til 11pm EST kickoff to accommodate the World Series?? How many of you sickos (me) watched this?  Iowa 40, Northwestern 14 They benched Cade McNamara! Northwestern only had 163 yards of offense. Oregon 38, Illinois 9 Eek.  Minnesota 48, Maryland 23 Never competitive.   MUSIC: "Rubberneckin'"-- Elvis "This Is Why We Fight" -- The Decembrists "When They Fight, They Fight" -- The Generationals “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

2 hours and 25 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics. 1. Dusty May and Basketball Vibes Starts at 1:00 It’s bye week which means basketball preview with Craig Ross! Dusty May inherited a roster with ~two players but hit the portal hard. He built Florida Atlantic into a Final Four team from nothing and it wasn’t a fluke. He wants to play tempo because he thinks it works but also because the players and fans will like it. May plays a different game from Beilein but the Beilein vibes are immaculate. He’s analytical in shot selection but also believes in player specialties. And he’s really into basketball podcasts!  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. The Back Court Starts at 24:59 This will be an interesting arrangement of dudes. Rubin Jones is a fun pick out of North Texas, he’s 6’5” and can switch onto bigs. Dusty May went for the guys he hated to play against. He also wants guys who can play multiple positions. Roddy Gayle has a concerning turnover rate but gets to the line a lot. Tre Donaldson III comes in from Auburn with a very efficient jump shot. Nimari Burnett should play as only a three and may start some games. LJ Cason is the most likely freshman to contribute.  3. Hot Takes, The Front Court Starts at 1:01:50 Takes hotter than Will Howard’s social media mentions. Vlad Goldin comes in from FAU and is what we want to see from a 7’1” center. He takes hook shots! Danny Wolf comes in from Yale and is the most interesting guy on the team (center sized with the skills of a point guard). He could get 5 minutes per game at the 5 and 10-15 minutes at the 4? Sam Walkers is Just A Shooter. Will Tschetter returns as a mini Danny Wolf.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac  Starts at 1:42:28 Oregon 32, Ohio State 31 Ohio State will be fine in the playoff implications race but in the meantime lolol. Oregon faced a tough choice taking the lead by kicking a field goal from the one yard line because Ohio State could easily get into field goal range (until they didn't).  Penn State 33, USC 30 Tyler Warren (a tight end who wears 44(!)) had 17 catches for 224 yards and took the snap for a play where he had the receiving touchdown. Is USC the new Nebraska of the Big Ten? Wisconsin 42, Rutgers 7 Rutgers kept threatening to score and then turned the ball over. They had a lot of injuries on defense.  Iowa 40, Washington 16 Washington outgains Iowa in this game but just cannot put points on the board.  Minnesota 21, UCLA 17 This was a comeback victory in which Minnesota scored all 21 points in the 2nd half. A third of Minnesota's total yards came off their game winning drive. Northwestern 37, Maryland 10 Maryland turns the ball over four times. Northwestern didn't look amazing but capitalized on their opportunities.  Illinois 50, Purdue 49 Purdue scored on every drive in the 2nd half. What does this mean for Illinois?  MUSIC: "Roundball Rock"--John Tesh "Roundball Rock"--SNL "Roundball Rock Big Band Live"--John Tesh “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

1 hour and 55 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics. 1. General Vibes Starts at 1:00 Despite the outcome, all the Michigan fans who went to this game seemed to have a great time. Are the “trophy go brrrr” vibes wearing off? The team seems disorganized at a macro level. Michigan was slipping all over field turf which was weird. They screwed up the off-season and it’s tough to tell who that primarily falls on. Was Tuttle the plan all along but he was injured? Is it worth morphing the offense around Orji at this point? Washington had the same off-season as Michigan but they recruited a quarterback. At this point, Michigan needs a portal off-season because they lose the last of their star power after this season. Can they get enough “Harbaugh guy” type players? It’s concerning that the offensive line is having as many difficulties as it is under Sherrone, he’s had them for years.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Offense vs Washington Starts at 29:52 Tuttle brings the offense some life but then he has two 4th quarter turnovers. It looks like he’s the guy moving forward though, he went through progressions! He’s going to be rusty coming off of injury, though. At times it looked like Harbaugh’s offense but it’s just too inconsistent. They’re figuring out the basics so they can’t add new wrinkles to the offense. They did have a nice orbit swing pass, we haven’t seen much “college crap.” Colston Loveland must still be injured.  3. Hot Takes, Defense vs Washington Starts at 50:16 Takes hotter than VANDERBILT FOOTBALL (not a joke). The story on the defense seemed to be Jyaire Hill. He was getting exposed throughout the game and also had slipping issues. Every time they try to do something funky on passing downs or two minute drills it doesn’t work. How is Will Johnson out there committing pass interference? Giles Jackson ate Zeke Berry’s lunch. We miss Junior Colson. We’ve never had anything to say about Makari Paige until this season. There’s nothing majorly wrong with this defense, they just make big busts at the worst times.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac   Starts at 1:22:20 Wisconsin 52, Purdue 6 Wisconsin has 18 straight wins over Purdue with an average margin of victory of over 20 points! This game was the largest margin.    Penn State 27, UCLA 11 The Big Noon game for some reason. A bit of a rock fight all things considered.    Indiana 41, Northwestern 24 Indiana becomes the first team to be bowl eligible. #9Windiana cometh.    Ohio State 35, Iowa 7 Iowa cannot move the ball at all. Iowa held Ohio State to 7 points in the first half, maybe Oregon goes into next weekend with some confidence?   Nebraska 14, Rutgers 7 Nobody can do anything efficiently in this game.    Minnesota 24, USC 17 Controversy in the 4th quarter! Minnesota goes for a game winning touchdown instead of a game winning field goal. USC is getting a taste of Big Ten running.    Oregon 31, Michigan State 10 This is the 3rd game where Aidan Chiles has fumbled in the red zone. The first time in the John Smith era where MSU looked like last year’s team. Oregon looks ready to compete with Ohio State.  MUSIC: "Whole World"--Goth Babe "Go With Me"--Gene and Debbie "Nearly Lost You"--The Screaming Trees “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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics. 1. Offense vs Minnesota Starts at 1:00 This game was like losing the equalizer in British People Football. Alex Orji has 12 rushing yards which is concerning. They're not running QB power which is not even an expensive install. No we do not want Rich Rodriguez back! But they're not running the offense that optimizes this team's strengths. Alex Orji opened it up a bit in the passing game and at the very least kept the ball out of harm's way. The whole philosophy of this offense under Harbaugh was that you have an NFL quarterback and don't have to run a lot of College Crap™ - but now they should. Offensive line loses Myles Hinton in this game. Semaj Morgan played very little of a role. Nick Sheridan is killing it at Alabama!  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Minnesota Starts at 38:37 Not a whole lot of nits to pick considering they were down their two best players. A bit of a sharp drop-off with a lot of the backups. Not much to say about the starting defensive line - they're awesome. Zeke Berry had the play of the game. Barham always finishes his tackles, Hausmann was out of position at times, Rolder has been improving every game. Wink's defense blitzed less which was nice; had a bad one on a 3rd down conversion, though.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:00:50 Takes hotter than Nick Sheridan in the first half of the Georgia Alabama game. The Minnesota guy touched the ball before ten yards so quit your yappin'. The off-sides was very close. Is there a kicker in Michigan history you would take over Dominic Zvada? Going for it on 4th and 1 makes sense when you have Kalel Mullings. Tommy Doman: fine.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac   Starts at 1:36:00 Indiana 42, Maryland 28 Indiana is 5-0 for the first time since 1967. Will #9Windiana finally stop being an internet meme?? USC 38, Wisconsin 21 A tale of two halves, USC mostly shot themselves in the foot in the first half.  Nebraska 28, Purdue 10 This game was tied 0-0 at halftime, if you're a computer science major this spells NOOP. Penn State 21, Illinois 7 Illinois scores six minutes into this game and decides that they're done. Drew Allar descends back into 2023 Allar.  Ohio State 38, Michigan State 7 The Jeremiah Smith coming out party. Sparty can't convert in the redzone.  Oregon 34, UCLA 14 UCLA is very bad!! Rutgers 21, Washington 18 Washington outgained Rutgers 521 to 299! Washington is not as bad as their record but they may be limping a bit into the Michigan game.  MUSIC: "For Beginners"--M.Ward "Flowers"--Real Estate "Superbad"--James Brown “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

2 hours and 18 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics. 1. Offense vs USC Starts at 1:00 Who’s the biggest Kalel Mullings Stan?? Doesn’t matter, we were RIGHT. Where does Kalel’s big run rank among all time Michigan runs in terms of skill? Max Bredeson got his quintessential kick-out block on the touchdown that we will remember him by. It’s great to see Kalel do all of this despite how long he had to wait. The urgency of winning a national title is gone but we still have these stories of the players. Was that run what propels this team into the rest of the season? Orji was under siege pretty much every time he dropped back to pass, the pass blocking PFF grades aren’t pretty. The game plan wasn’t the greatest and they could probably utilize Orji better. The coaching staff might’ve gotten arrogant coming off a national championship season. Donovan Edwards had a lot of snaps but did it keep Kalel fresh for the final drive? He’s still a home run threat. Oh no we’re back in the police car in Fargo.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs USC Starts at 45:22 This team feels like it has six or seven NFL players and those players are why Michigan won this game. Five of those are on defense. The defense played really well and USC's good things that happened were Wink doing dumb stuff. Michigan's ability to weather the second half was encouraging. Will Johnson left the game but apparently could have returned according to Sherrone (then why didn't he?). Linebackers played well for the most part. "Hausmann is Devin Bush but big" is mostly out the door.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:12:43 Takes hotter than the servers hosting the Kalel Mullings fan club. Tommy Doman is back and the punters on every one of Michigan's opponents are awesome. Do you go for the kick return out of the endzone? Where else are the yards coming from? The urgency to score at the end of the game was poor but that's what happens with a QB's first start and when you can only run. 3rd down decision making is tough when you can't throw downfield. Michigan nailed the stripe-out and the atmosphere was electric.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac   Starts at 1:43:58 Penn State 56, Kent State 0 Penn State set a program record for yards. Indiana 52, Charlotte 14 Indiana is #1 in EPA per play!  Ohio State 49, Marshall 14 Another non-conference blowout, meh. Maryland 38, Villanova 20 328 passing yards for Maryland is solid against a good FCS team. Washington 24, Northwestern 5 Yards were 391 to 112, Northwestern's offense is baaaad. -1 EPA per drop back.  Rutgers 26, Virginia Tech 23 Rutgers outgains Virginia Tech by about 100 yards. LSU 34, UCLA 17 Not many people are expecting much from UCLA at this point after getting dunked on by Indiana. It was 17-17 at halftime, though. Iowa 31, Minnesota 14 Cade McNamara gets 62 passing yards and shows that he can lead block. Michigan State 19, Boston College 23 Aidan Chiles gets 241 passing yards and three interceptions. Sometimes this MSU teams looks like they're ahead of schedule and sometimes they just do something ridiculously bad. Oregon State 38, Purdue 21 Purdue is Wisconsin lite.   Illinois 31, Nebraska 24 (OT) Nebraska has gone eight (8!!) straight OTs without scoring points. MUSIC: "With a Little Luck"--Wings "Devil's Gate"--Prof "Big White Cloud"--JJ Cale "Shameful Game"--Pale Jay

1 hour and 57 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics. 1. Offense vs Arkansas State Starts at 1:00 This game was functionally over [aghhhhh] at halftime. Davis Warren throws three interceptions, two are just horrible (his arm gets hit on the other), now what. Michigan self-sabotaged on wide receiver recruiting with how they run their offense the last few years and we’re seeing the consequences of that now. We still haven’t seen Michigan use Donovan Edwards outside, the staff just isn’t maximizing the strengths of the players. The run game feels different with Mullings in at running back. A full Orji offense would be expensive to install but do they bring him in with last year’s offense now? When will the coaches listen to the blogger offenses?? It’s tough to evaluate the offensive line against Arkansas State but they looked less confused this week.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Arkansas State Starts at 40:02 Not much to say, Michigan dominated at the line of scrimmage which was expected. Rayshaun Benny played a great game, especially containing the quarterback. Jyaire Hill had an up and down game but broke up a slant really well, a nice bounce back after the Texas game. Martindale backed off from the funky blitzes in this game, there wasn't really anything exotic. Penalties on defense kept drives alive but this ref crew is a bit ticky tacky on penalties.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 57:41 Takes hotter than Michigan Stadium on Saturday. Butch Jones, why are you still signaling games from the sidelines? The football gods punished Arkansas State for kicking on 4th and 1 (you should still get points off doinks). Arkansas State punter, hello. There were zero punt returns and one kick return.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac   Starts at 1:22:23 Indiana 42, UCLA 13 Congrats, Jamie. This is Indiana's biggest win against a power [4][5] since?? This was not a fluke, this was a complete beatdown. Part of this was that UCLA is not good but still, Indiana is doing a lot of good things. Indiana may never play in the Rose Bowl but they can play at the Rose Bowl! Nebraska 34, Northern Iowa 3 Nebraska scored touchdowns on their first three drives against an FCS team that has given teams fits. Northwestern 31, Eastern Illinois 7 This one was close for about a half. Northwestern just doesn't have much offense. Cheers to the weird stadium games. Michigan State 40, Prairie View A&M 0 Injuries are already starting to pile up for MSU, keep an eye on that. Minnesota 27, Nevada 0 This looks like a rock bottom version of Nevada. Illinois 30, Central Michigan 9 The score is bigger than how close this was, it may have been a hangover game for Illinois. There was a 59 yard field goal in this game! Oregon 49, Oregon State 14 Oregon got healthy in a hurry and they looked fully operational. The odds of Michigan winning a rock fight against the Ducks just went down. Purdue 7, Notre Dame 66 This was the worst loss in Purdue football history. They did average 47 yards of punting on 10 punts, though! Alabama 42, Wisconsin 10 Wisconsin loses their starting QB to injury and the backup hurt his hand. They did stick around in this game for a little bit at least. Maryland 27, Virginia 13 A nice bounce back after losing to Michigan State last week. Total yardage was fairly even but Virginia turned the ball over four times. Iowa 38, Troy 21 This was close until the very end. Iowa gives up a punt return touchdown. Iowa, if you're not punting to win, what are you doing? Folks aren't thrilled with how Cade is playing. Washington State 24, Washington 19 Wazzu's coach said they're never giving the Apple Cup trophy back! Michigan may have taken a step back but look at Washington, this does happen.   MUSIC: "Kicking Back"--Mika J "Back on 74"--Jungle "Big White Cloud"--JJ Cale “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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics. 1. The State of the Football Program Starts at 1:00 Oh boy, we haven't done a podcast like this in a while! The weather was nice. A lot of issues from the previous regime are resurfacing right now, especially QB recruiting. Jim Harbaugh ultimately is the one who ran Jim Harbaugh out of Michigan. How was Sherrone Moore going to get a quarterback given all the circumstances? This year is a cost of last year. How is this offense better with Kalel Mullings on the bench? It feels like Sherrone is coaching this team like it's still the 2023 team.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Offense vs Texas Starts at 27:06 Michigan has decided to put one of their best offensive players on the bench on almost every snap. Evan Link got pushed around a lot. The things they were saying about Alex Orji in the off-season feel fabricated. They’re not even giving Alex Orji the chance to throw. Maybe they made an offense for him and it just didn’t work out and they had to switch back. There are a lot of veteran offensive linemen that are getting passed by younger linemen who aren’t quite there. The floor is getting lowered. Sherrone Moore is a young head coach and younger head coaches have hiccups early in their careers. It’s not that any individual player is at fault every time but enough players make enough mistakes that a lot of plays end up not working. This game was the other side of the 2021 Wisconsin game.  3. Hot Takes and Defense vs Texas Starts at 50:50 Takes hotter than Northern Illinois’ coach after beating Notre Dame. Jyaire Hill got picked on a lot in this game and Wink Martindale got his butt handed to him. They moved Mason Graham to defensive end on 3rd down?? Jesse Minter ran the good stuff, Wink is trying to run the “cool stuff”. The amoeba defense is nice in the NFL but just isn’t going to work with younger college players. The blitzes work because they’re weird but if you do them too frequently then they’re not weird anymore. If this game happened either of the last two seasons it would be doom but right now it’s fine, it’s not great, but it’s just whatever! We are kicker U!  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac   Starts at 1:29:35 Rutgers, Minnesota, Washington, Ohio State, USC, and Indiana all had blowout wins.  Washington did have a zero yard punt, though.  Penn State 34, Bowling Green 27  Total yardage is pretty close in this one. Bowling Green was running all the right plays but just didn’t have the talent to finish the job.  Wisconsin 27, South Dakota 13 Wisconsin just doesn’t have any explosiveness out of the passing game and doesn’t dominate in the run game.  Oregon 37, Boise State 34 Felt like Boise State dominated both lines of scrimmage. Oregon is a mess in pass protection.   Nebraska 28, Colorado 10 Colorado has 16 rushing yards, they’re just fundamentally bad.  Illinois 23, Kansas 17 First ranked win for Illinois in (I’m not looking it up) Northwestern 20, Duke 26 This was just a beautiful, beautiful, disgusting Friday night game.  Iowa 19, Iowa State 20 Ended on a game winning field goal, how all El Assicos should end. Cade McNamara completed more passes behind the line of scrimmage than in front of it.  Michigan State 27, Maryland 24 Aidan Chiles’ boxscore is everywhere (good and bad). Michigan State could be the chaos team?   MUSIC: "The Loop"--Marlon Craft "Gorilla"--Little Simz "Save it for Later"--Eddie Vedder “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

2 hours and 14 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics. 1. Offense vs Fresno State Starts at 1:00 This is a Fresno State team that could be decent, they’re not FAU. We’re not overreacting right now. Evaluating the quarterbacks: it felt like Davis Warren was pre-determining throws which is young quarterback stuff. He also wasn’t getting a lot of help, this wasn’t the best day for the wide receivers.  How would you compare Davis Warren to Cade McNamara? Alex Orji still feels like a gadget player. Kalel Mullings is clearly the best running back right now. We didn’t see an RB3 which was interesting. Donovan Edwards needs targets, not carries. You’ve got to use Orji but how much? Sorry folks, there will be many 1950s games on the horizon. Offensive line had some communication issues that can get cleaned up. Feels like one bad but different thing happened on every drive, there wasn’t any one major issue. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Fresno State Starts at 47:48 They are who we thought they were. Jaishawn Barham is a monstrous human. The run game was stuffed no matter who was in there. It looks like they want to keep rotating a lot but you probably can’t get away with it as much this year. Will Johnson gets to decide when he risks it for an interception. You don’t need to blitz to get a guy to the quarterback so why are we doing it? Cover zero?? To beat Texas you have to overwhelm the Texas offensive line (with the front four). Giving Aamir Hall #12 is convenient since he’s new Josh Wallace. 3. Hot Takes and Game Theory Starts at 1:08:39 Are we Iowa now? Well the special teams are excellent! Dominic Zvada hit two 50 yard field goals in his first game! Tommy Doman punts high and non-returnable punts. Kickoffs are just putting it on the 25. Alex Orji for kickoff returns?? They’ve mostly caught the punts which is nice. Why is the music volume so loud?? Every opportunity to have a tv timeout they've had one. Alcohol sale takes: long lines that are tough to walk around. That was the worst personal foul on a quarterback in a minute, but the stadium was very loud. 4. Around the Big Ten with Alex Drain Starts at 1:40:56 Rutgers 44, Howard 7 It took Rutgers a while to get competitive. Illinois 45, Eastern Illinois 0 Illinois comfortably covered the spread. Ohio State 52, Akron 6 Ohio State doesn’t really blow Akron out until the 2nd half. Surprise! They have a really good wide receiver. Iowa 40, Illinois State 0 Iowa scored points! Lots of points! Northwestern 13, Miami NTM 6 Northwestern’s beachside stadium is amazing. Nebraska 40, UTEP 7 “The outlook for Nebraska hasn’t looked better since the day they hired Frost.” Dylan Raiola looks exciting at Nebraska for a true freshman. Wisconsin 28, Western Michigan 14 Wisconsin did not look good against Western Michigan. They have angered the football gods by betraying their roots. Oregon 24, Idaho 14 What the hell happened in the Oregon game?? Michigan State 16, Florida Atlantic 10 If FAU's QB was half decent it could've happened! He also slid all game and got annihilated, getting two guys ejected for targeting. Minnesota 17, North Carolina 19 The Big Ten's only loss so far. Minnesota remains the middest team of the league. Penn State 34, West Virginia 12 West Virginia just didn't look ready to start this game. Not sure how much stock to buy in Penn State from this but they looked solid. MUSIC: "I'm Good" — The Mowgli's "Saturday Sun" — Vance Joy "Fresno, California" — The Guy Who Sings Songs About Cities & Towns “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

2 hours and 19 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics. 1. The Big Ten: Bottom Six Starts at 1:00 Illinois: Has Luke Altmeyer back, not ideal. Defense has been de-Waltered. Purdue can't get Waltered because we keep picking off his recruits. Northwestern: going with the QB who can run some. Indiana: Not in the worst place now that they've become JMU. Michigan State: big rebuild, but on the right track. Every few coaches they get a Jon Smith instead of an asshole. UCLA got kicked out of the Rose Bowl, might be able to run, but don't have the OL, WRs or QB to throw at all. Defense got raided—4 returning starters. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. The Big Ten: Middle Six Starts at 33:43 Minnesota traded with Rutgers again—now the QB is Max Brosner from New Hampshire. Kept Darius Taylor. Need to teach guys to tackle still. Rutgers: on the list of dark horse CFP contenders because their schedule is so easy. Maryland: has a QB competition, OL is very concerning. Washington: won't recognize anyone; Jedd's gonna have to come up with some good shit. Wisconsin: Tyler Van Dyke in from Miami, Chez is back, schedule is tough early. Nebraska new QB obviously: Dylan Raiola came to play, no viable backups, no viable line. They have guys to throw to, including two TEs (Fidone and Carter) Michigan loved. Defense has Hutmacher and some new LBs and questions in the secondary. Just don't turn the ball over all the time. 3. The Big Ten: Top Six Starts at 1:05:30 Iowa: Locked in a QB controversy of bad vs awful, but Cade's coming back from a terrible scrimmage. USC: got the UNLV quarterback and are having him sit. Welcome to the Big Ten USC, because Woody Marks is a Big Ten running back name if there ever was one. Will the UCLA DC fix the defense with a bad DL? Penn State: the Drew Allar case is he's tall and was a 5-star. They can light up bad teams though, and they have a schedule full of them. Oregon: sniped Dylan Gabriel, Jordan James is a breakout candidate at RB, added big pieces in the portal, look like this year's Playoff team. Ohio State: All in. Bought back Henderson, bought in Judkins, bought in Caleb Downs: got a whiff of Ole Miss about them now. 4. Hot Takes, Non-Conf, and Lightning Round Starts at 1:44:57 Might learn something about the OL in week 1 versus Fresno State. Texas is running it back with Quinn Ewars, but they got Isaiah Bond from Bama and two more plug-and-play receivers. Lost their defensive tackles though, and that defense relies on it. Lost all of the RBs so they're putting it on a lightning bolt. But can Michigan take advantage if they stack the box? Lightning Round: breakout players offense/defense, X-factors, records, Your Dude, etc. Kalel Mullings never has a regular play. Enjoy your Harbaugh shirts, Chargers fans. MUSIC: "Misery's Love Song"—Jesse Woods "Piece of My Heart"—Delaney and Bonnie "Blood Red Sentimental Blues"—Cotton Jones “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

1 hour and 53 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics. 1. The Defensive Line Starts at 1:00 Brian says we're not allowed to cackle through this or be hype the whole time, but we spend a lot of time talking about what to expect from Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant before getting into their depth. Benny has a road back to health but should have his breakout year about now. After him it's iffy, since Etta had to move inside. Pierce is Just a Nose for now. After them…not much. Edge should be deep and excellent again. Josaiah Stewart is younger than Derrick Moore and was in the process of turning into a complete Amoeba edge. Moore is on his way to Tacodom and the NFL Draft. TJ Guy has been waiting forever. Think part of the reason Etta moved was because they like Cam Brandt a lot. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Hot Takes and Linebackers Starts at 47:18 We are buying the Barham hype, yes. Because of practice and film and the talk. Hausmann was a nickel in high school and never lost that agility, played along with the starters last year and wasn't a drop. Think Rolder's end of the year isn't fair, that his freshman year was more telling. Seth likes Jaydon Hood, the last of the Don Brown backs. Cole Sullivan will probably be good but don't want to see too much of him this year. 3. Secondary Starts at 1:12:38 This Will Johnson fellow, maybe you've heard of him. Can't afford an injury so no he can't play receiver and return puts you sickos. Was injured last year so this year could be special, or he could be avoided as Jyaire Hill gets his feet under him. Good news that he's moved up, always needed time to mature. Still younger than most of the freshman, and played safety in high school. Backups are the transfers-Hall has drawn comps to Wallace But Fast so that's your #3 guy—Seth thinks he's Gemon Green. Kechaun Harris could play too. Ricky Johnson might need a year. Safeties took a hit losing Rod Moore but Makari Paige will be nice and forgotten, Quinten Johnson had his light go on and we're glad they fished him out of UDFA'dom. Think the transfers will take time to learn the defense but should be in a regular rotation—Mangham is another Sabb, blow up next year. Zeke Berry won the nickel job over McBurrows, which is impressive. Will be more of a blitzer, won't be Sainristil, but they went portal shopping for safeties because they wanted Berry in the slot that much. Brandyn Hillman has a role as the hybrid if they want to go 4-3 against running QBs again. 4. Special Teams and Wink Starts at 1:34:57 Tommy Doman might never punt again but he's good at it; the consistency is coming with age. Dominic Zvada is another good portal kicker, has two years to play, missed all of his bad ones early last year. Returns will be fun with Semaj. Wink is going to blitz because that fits the personnel. MUSIC: "Waves (Tame Impala remix)"—Miguel "Gut Feeling/(Slap Your Mammy)"—Devo "Better in the Dark"—Jordana & TV Girl “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra     THE USUAL LINKS: Helpful iTunes subscribe link General podcast feed link What's with the theme music?

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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and Champions Circle. 1. The Offensive Vibes Starts at 1:00 We've beaten the college football game, now it's just side quests. Let's try to be chill about it now? New conferences: not going to get married to them because they're just going to blow this up too. "Big Ten Championship Game" is unlikely to be a game that solves anything. What is this Michigan team's route to a championship? 2021 Georgia: supreme defense, offense is a ridiculous tight ends. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 2. Quarterback & the Offensive Design? Starts at 21:57 Michigan doesn't go in the portal because there wasn't anybody left worth getting last January when JJ was still here and Michigan was still going to a natty. Means they would have gone. Orji separated himself, Tuttle gets hurt too much so they're looking at Davis Warren as the second quarterback. What's the offense? Seth: Let's look at Cam Newton-era Auburn, with BASH/inverted veer and lots of pin & pull and motion to create matchups with all of our weird guys: the QB is a RB, the RB is a WR, the other RB is a FB, the FB is a TE, the TE is a WR, one WR is an RB. News: there's going to be a Washington UFR from Brian. 3. Running Back, Receiver & Tight End Starts at 53:20 Donovan Edwards was pressing last year and it cut 300 yards off his totals. When he's in a groove (Purdue 2022) he's a touchdown waiting to happen. When he's not in a groove he gets LBs going insane and becomes also a touchdown waiting to happen. Mullings is That Dude: Every time he's involved in a play something interesting happens. It's a big deal for Jordan Marshall if he's RB3 because that's passing some big dudes. They say he's the Edwards backup and Ben Hall, who we love, is the Mullings backup. What does that mean? Not much because Marshall is Hart. Receiver: Tyler Morris should be a good, knows how to get open and catches it. Semaj Morgan is going to be fun, but ideally they had a Braylon type deep guy. Amorion Walker should redshirt finally. Colston Loveland is the key: they can move him around because he's a mismatch on everyone, has every QB in line at his door. Bredeson is the best FB Brian's ever charted, how many snaps for him? Marlin Klein hype: do you believe? We believe he'll be a fast TE but not a Barner blocker. 4. Hot Takes, Offensive Line and Style Starts at 1:55:30 This is the most comfortable anybody's ever been after graduating all five OL. Myles Hinton was basically a freshman last year because Stanford coaching is that bad (attn: Babalola). Josh Priebe is a tough sonsabitch. Crippen is probably the center but Raheem Anderson is your next OL if someone inside gets hurt. Gio El-Hadi should ascend and be pretty good—usually you don't get to wait until he's this far along to start him. Right tackle is giving us bad vibes; if Gentry was going to get the job he would have seized it right? Persi makes more sense—Hayes took awhile to grow from a TE as well. Link competing now is good for Link, not for the other two. MUSIC: "Bring Em Out"—T.I. “Piece of Me"—Lady Wray “Get Up And Go”—The Go-Go's “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra THE USUAL LINKS: Helpful iTunes subscribe link General podcast feed link What's with the theme music?

Most of this podcast was recorded outdoors at Sherrone Moore’s golf outing. We apologize for the sound quality. 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, Venue by 4M where we usually record, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together and who put all these guys at our table. 1. Max Bredeson, Jack Tuttle, and Vibes Starts at 1:00 Bredeson confirms Brian's take about the kickout detente. Tuttle names some Utes. After we discuss vibes for the season. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]   2. The Safeties, Colston and Semaj Morgan Starts at 27:29 How long does it take a freshman to learn Michigan's coverages? Learn or get familiar enough with to make one thing look like another? Loveland and Semaj talk to us about how they make decisions mid-routes, handled the pressure of being young players thrust into major roles. 3. Sherrone Moore Starts at 48:32 It turns out there were hugs. We spend a good 17 minutes with Michigan's new head coach, half of it on his gameplan for Alabama, and a lot more of the rest on the culture shift at Michigan, and how they teach it. Also: how he and the team found out that Jim was suspended when they landed in Pennsylvania. 4. Hot Takes Starts at 1:09:23 No Brian but some of our readers who supported Champions Circle get their hot takes read by the Sklars. Ryan Day catches many strays. 5. Alex Orji, Davis Warren Starts at 1:23:43 Comparing how certain throws that guys are more comfortable with come up when they're under center.  5. Donovan Edwards Starts at 1:37:24 The cover athlete. Was he pressing a bit last year due to limited snaps? What's duo versus inside zone and which were they running when he scored his two TDs in the natty? MUSIC: "Impressions of You"—Kelly Finnegan “Piece of Me"—Lady Wray “By The Lake”—Pale Jay & OkoNski "Right Back Where We Started From"—Maxine Nightingale “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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together. 1. Spring Football Game - The Offense Starts at 1:00 Brian has survived a science Olympiad and is ready to talk about the spring game. The number of takes we have are minimal, nobody really popped off. The offensive line wasn’t playing as a group and a couple starters didn’t play so it’s hard to project them. Kirk Campbell has said that they’re not looking for a quarterback in the portal. Alex Orji’s game would be to run a lot and he can’t do that in a spring game where you can’t tackle the quarterback. Denegal and Jadyn Davis aren’t ready for this offense, so it’ll be either Orji, Tuttle, or Warren starting. Maybe Michigan is creating a read option offense but isn’t putting it on film? Brian wants Orji to start but thinks it'll be Warren. Marlin Klein showed off a bit of what they were talking about. Gentry was either blowing a guy up or not knowing who to block so right tackle might be a problem spot. The running backs all looked great throughout the depth. All the snaps for Max Bredeson. Craig is banging the drum about Raheem Anderson.  2. Spring Football Game - The Defense Starts at 36:03 Didn’t really see a defensive tackle stick out but part of that is because Wink Martendale blitzed a lot. TJ Guy might be a half step behind the starters but is going to be a contributor, the defensive end depth is great. The linebackers looked good, it was nice to see Rolder play well. Jyaire Hill looked fast and will be a star in time. You could begrudgingly be a cover-1 team this year. Zeke Berry was an excellent blitzer, much to Brian’s chagrin. McBurrows looked Mike Sainristil esque. The kicking was… at the point that they could potentially explore the portal.  3. Basketball Roster - Part One Starts at 59:35 Takes hotter than Michigan message boards when Kirk Campbell said they don't need a quarterback transfer. The best part about winning a national championship is reading rivals' tweets four months later. We have a semblance of a basketball roster! Tre Donaldson committed mid-recording. Assuming Vlad Goldin and Roddy Gayle transfer, we know pretty much all but one player in Michigan's rotation so let's go through them! Donaldson is your starting point guard, then you have three guards. Brian is very high on Rubin Jones out of North Texas. Guard will be night and day from what we've already had. Unexpected and welcomed center depth.  4. Basketball Roster - Part Two Starts at 1:35:39 Namari Burnett hasn't really announced anything so we're assuming he's back on the team. He should be a pretty good 20 minute per game backup. They should pick up Lorenzo Cason, an FAU decommit. Do they get another guard and what do the freshman minutes look like? What is going on at the 4? Will Tschetter is the only power forward. There's a basketball roster now and they're in a better spot than a lot of teams! Just got to fill it out now. This is a tournament team roster, can they gel together? What is their ceiling, maybe a four seed? In hindsight, Dusty May was the best coach available and Michigan hired him away from Louisville.  MUSIC: "Riverboat" — Jesse Roads “Vacations" — Midwest “Sinner”—  The Last Dinner Party “Across 110th Street”

2 hours and 30 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together. 1. Basketball Bits Starts at 1:00 We welcome Alex Drain to talk about Indiana football. But before that, filling up the basketball roster (coaches and players). Dusty May’s hires are recruiting focused, do they get an Australian?? Guys in the portal are guys the NBA doesn’t want, hence why they’re in the portal. Mark Pope to Kentucky is interesting but it’s probably a good hire overall. Would you rather play in the G league or get paid by Duke or Kentucky? Most of Michigan’s coaches look like A- hires. Getting a guy like George Washington III is a good get because they’re probably not going to fill all 13 spots, plus he could develop in his second year. They don’t have a recruiting class right now. Vlad Goldin feels like he’s in the bag, he’s on campus this week. Tre Donaldson has multiple crystal ball predictions for Michigan. Connor Essegian would hate Wisconsin which is a good culture fit! 2. Hockey Wrap-Up Starts at 45:31 Michigan loses to Boston College 4-0, who would then go on to lose to Denver 2-0 after the Denver goalie played the game of a lifetime. Don’t think Michigan played poorly like the Quinnipiac game last year, Boston College was just at another level. Michigan got into trouble in 4-on-4s, especially after Dylan Duke’s bad penalty. Seamus Casey probably wasn’t 100%, this was one of his worst games. Who’s back next year? The bigger question marks are on defense. Still no rumors on goalie and anyone left in the portal doesn’t have a great save percentage. Put up an NIL bat signal. 3. Previewing The Big Ten Part One Starts at 1:20:32 Takes hotter than Ohio State fans after losing to Oregon this year. Indiana football time! They essentially imported the whole JMU program plus a coach from Ohio. They landed four running backs from the portal, all of whom played significant snaps last year. Rutgers got a funny quarterback out of the portal. Minnesota and Rutgers like to trade their players a lot, apparently. Taulia Tagovailoa tried to get another year for no reason and didn’t get it. Maryland lost a lot and will have quite the drop off. We try to have Michigan State takes. Their defense has been hideous for years but they do return some of those guys. There are pieces on offense but the offensive line isn’t great., they’re a year zero. Penn State’s spring game had some concerning moments! Their top receiver is transferring and the shaky offensive line loses guys. Ohio State said “we’re never losing a football game again” so we’ll see if it works. Their QBs didn’t look good in the spring game. The defensive line dominated. Wisconsin hit the portal hard. Illinois' good defense is all gone. 4. Previewing The Big Ten Part Two Starts at 2:02:19 Northwestern has gotten one (1) guy out of the portal. They're playing on a practice field by the lake this season and that might just sum up their season. Iowa has Not Brian Ferentz as their offensive coordinator, how's that going to look? Spencer Petras is in the portal! "[Team] is playing in the Rose Bowl!" is already an old joke. Nobody got picked apart by the portal as much as Purdue. Dylan Raiola to Nebraska is exciting but it probably won't start well. There's a path to 8 wins there. Minnesota will be okay. USC is finally making an effort to play defense. Their schedule is brutal, though. It will be interesting to see UCLA without Chip Kelly, also their travel schedule is wild. Oregon is a serious football program. Washington's roster and staff has been gutted.  MUSIC: "Everyday Hustle" — Future and Metro Boomin “What a Difference She Made" — Jaylen Ngonda “Ready or Not”—  Shakey Graves, featuring Sierra Ferrell “Across 110th Street”

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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together. 1. Basketball Bits Starts at 1:00 Seth is once again the biggest dork. Will Tschetter is returning, Terrance Williams II hit the portal and declared for the NBA draft (¯\_(ツ)_/¯), and Dusty May has made some assistant coaching hires. Mike Boynton and Akeem Miskdeen have joined the staff. These moves seem like they’re recruiting focused. All three of the big three from FAU are in the portal, Nick Boyd released a big list of schools that did not have Michigan on it. Michigan should get Davis and Goldin. Have you met Louisville’s fanbase? What about the rest of Michigan’s roster? Brian gives his guess on 10-11 roster spots.  2. Football Spring Bits - Defense Starts at 38:36 As it turns out, the defense is better than the offense right now. They’re really high on Jaishawn Barham, the linebacker transfer from Maryland. Rolder is still dinged up and we don’t blame him for what happened against Ohio State. There is speculation on the CB2 chatter and why it’s more encouraging than this time last year. LB2 and CB2 should be fine. On the defensive line, TJ Guy is a guy (ahhh he did it). Etta is also encouraging. It won’t be last team’s defensive line but it should be a two deep we’re comfortable with. The last two questions are “what do we do without Rod Moore” and “who is the nickel back”? 3. Football Spring Bits - Offense Starts at 50:20 Takes hotter than our Kickstarter. On offense, it feels like Alex Orji is simply the leader at quarterback so far. To be fair, the offensive line is probably having a bad time against this defensive line. Semaj Morgan has been getting talked up which is not surprising. Donovan Edwards has apparently gained 15 pounds (with no mention of him catching passes). Marlin Klein is being called the best athlete of the tight ends. Not really any surprises along the offensive line. Sure, some of the problems at quarterback could be the defensive line dominating the offense line but those talks could also be covering up limitations of the quarterbacks. It could all work out but for that to happen you have to run the Denard offense and win some Iowa games. What would you consider a successful season this year? 4. NCAA Hockey Tournament  Starts at 1:19:48 Michigan hockey reaches the frozen four for the third consecutive year. Michigan scores three in the 3rd period after North Dakota was arguably the better team in the first two periods. This is the opposite of what the season narrative has been. Of teams that have made the frozen four historically, the numbers one, two, three, and six are in. This is the bluest of blue bloods frozen four. Denver is 100 duck sized horses. Boston College has snipers, can’t get into a shooting match with them.  MUSIC: "Miracles" — Alex G “Time Waits For No One" — The Rolling Stones “Will I See You Again”—  Three Sacred Souls “Across 110th Street”