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 WSJ says offer rescinded: False.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”

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, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where we recorded this. 1. Chip Lindsey and Transfer Portal Starts at 1:00 The first half of this podcast is not just talking about how Michigan beat Ohio State 13-10. Imagine your season ending on December 21st in Columbus, Ohio. Mark your calendars for Davis Warren day on October 13th! Chip Lindsey is the new offensive coordinator out of North Carolina. The run game will be the run game, he's going to be the passing game coordinator. We are feeling exactly whelmed about this hire. Donaven McCulley comes in at wide receiver from Indiana, he's a legitimately good Big Ten receiver. Still need at least three more receivers. Billy Edwards comes in from Maryland and the worst offensive line in the country, he's a big guy. On the offensive line they bring in Jordan White from Liberty, need a tackle. It's been frustrating that Michigan hasn't brought in as many new players as we'd like to see. Derrick Moore and TJ Guy are back next year.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Basketball vs Arkansas Starts at 36:36 Arkansas 89, Michigan 87. This basketball game was three different basketball games. Michigan goes from a four point lead to an 18 point deficit once they start turning the ball over in the 2nd half. The boxscore is fun at least. There were some desperation zones. The shot distribution was as good as you could expect. Goldin's usage has finally gone up and Wolf is making the plays he needs to make. Roddy Gayle has been making some bad decisions. Should Michigan slow it down a bit? Are the turnovers mental because they tend to come in bunches? Wolf is the alpha on offense (get it?). The rest of the non-conference should be wins and then they ease back into the Big Ten conference play against USC.  3. Hot Takes and Hockey vs Wisconsin Starts at 1:03:45 Takes hotter than the Heisman voters who got it right for once. Hockey finally scored a goal! And they're still 9th in Pairwise. Take a breath into the break and say "it's fine." Michigan probably isn't winning the Big Ten but they're not bad, they're half of a gritty hockey team. Wisconsin is a good team, they've just been unlucky on their shots this season. Right now Michael Hage is really the only guy driving plays. 3-on-3 overtime needs a shot clock! They're good enough to be a tournament team and the shooting will probably get better.  4. Gimmicky Top Five   Starts at 1:30:24 Gimmicky Top Five worst bowl matchups! Marshall entered the transfer portal and opted out of their bowl game and now Louisiana Tech has to face a furious Army team.  Seth has real world bowls, Brian has hypotheticals. Don't play BYU in Miami. A bowl game in Middle Earth. PLAY A BOWL IN DUBLIN.   MUSIC: "Q4" -- Father John Misty "Love Town" -- The Glands "What's The Rush?" -- Jesse Woods “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

1 hour and 59 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. Michigan Men's Basketball vs Iowa Starts at 1:00 The first half of this game was a battle of mid-range jumpers and not turning the ball over (Iowa) vs going to the rim aggressively but turning the ball over a lot (Michigan). Michigan's amplitude of proficiency changes throughout a game are huge. This team is dead set on not taking mid-range jumpers. Addressing Michigan's rebounding woes. Did they play great against Iowa and Wisconsin? Not really. Are they still 2-0 in the Big Ten, though? Yeah. Danny Wolf turns the ball over too much by throwing the ball too hard. The play of the game played off of the big pick and roll. Michigan vs Iowa is an oddly friendly rivalry. Be careful with playing neutral site games when it comes to NET rankings.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Transfer Portal Needs Starts at 35:24 Michigan needs an offensive coordinator first. Jason Candle (Toledo head coach), Dan Mullen (former Florida head coach), and Joe Craddock (Tulane offensive coordinator) are among the biggest names rumored. Scott Frost mentioned! Michigan needs a quarterback and multiple wide receivers. Running back might be okay? Offensive line is a lot more interesting. Would like to get a defensive tackle since you're not getting either starter back. Linebacker is probably okay.  3. Hot Takes & Transfer Portal Names Starts at 58:13 Takes hotter than the fact that Georgia should not be in the playoff because they don't have their starting quarterback. Miller Moss would be the ideal scenario at QB. There's a case for Billy Edwards out of Maryland! The list falls off pretty quickly after that. Ideally you want someone to start for the year and then Bryce Underwood gets ~100 snaps. Michigan has some connections with Oklahoma Wide Receiver Nic Anderson. Michigan needs to get as many as they can. A biomechanical engineer out of Rice would be nice. There will be some players from playoff teams that hit the portal later.  4. The 2025 Recruiting Class   Starts at 1:39:02 Bryce Underwood is not allowed to be the answer to any of these. Favorite guy in the class? Most unlikely to be in this class? Sleeper of the year? Most Important? Michigan is 9th in recruiting but recruiting at the same quality as Ohio State. It revolves around one guy.   MUSIC: "It Ain't Easy" -- 2Pac "Vaping In Vegas" -- Wolves of Glendale "Let's Go Back" -- Jungle “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

3 hours and 9 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. Hahahahahahahaha Starts at 1:00 lol. lmao. An NIL booster in Dayton has no soul because MICHIGAN SUCKED IT OUT OF HIS CHEST. THE PUNTERS MOCKED YOU. There has never been a season like this that we have experienced. This is the most surprising win since we've started watching Michigan football. Ohio State probably wins easily if they just play their game but they played too conservatively. WE IOWA'D THEM. It was a little windy :( Michigan didn't get to knock them out of the playoff but now they have to regroup and win four playoff games instead of three. They should've gotten that QB that went to Syracuse. Ryan Day's insecurities are coming back to haunt him and they snowballed in this game, he's never had to learn how to lose. Ohio State is 10-2 and their fans are miserable.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Ohio State Starts at 32:56 Let's all apologize to Wink Martindale. Mason Graham does not play defensive end, so thanks for that. Was all the weird stuff all season a rope-a-dope?? Kenneth Grant had the best game he's ever had in a Michigan uniform. Ohio State's offensive line is one of their biggest issues and they played into Michigan's biggest strength, the defensive line. They didn't run their running quarterback. Quinshon Judkins was supposed to be that guy and Makari Paige cancelled that. Who on Ohio State has dat dawg in them? Ohio State probably could've dumbed down their offense and scored more than 10 points. Rod Moore was still the Sainristil of this defense even though he didn't play. They just didn't call holding in this game. 3. Hot Takes, Offense, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 59:36 Takes hotter than anything Ryan Day sits on. Kalel Mullings had the most hoss-like game since Chris Perry. On 3rd and long they still give it to Kalel even when the percentage of success was low. Michigan's last two drives before the kneel down ate up almost a whole quarter of time. Where will Davis Warren be next year? No matter what, he's entered the lore of Michigan football. Was Michigan playing too safe as a 21 point underdog or was their bag of plays just not that deep? Zvada is the #1 FEI kicker by a billion. Tyler Morris caught the punts, woo! College kickers are back and Ryan Day is haunted by them! Ohio State still just doesn't have it in short yardage. Ryan Day doesn't believe he can get that one yard, but he keeps trying. The first incident is a kerfuffle, the post-game was a level 4 melee. With respect to the pepper spray - now the wind is important! Michigan turned Ohio State into Michigan State. Gus Johnson had a horrible game. Three controversial non-PI calls that went against Michigan. Jeremiah Smith is going to be a physical athlete that drives Seth and Craig crazy for the next two years. Need a seppuku touchdown celebration.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac   Starts at 2:16:55 Indiana 66, Purdue 0 This game was one yard away from a total rutger. Ryan Walters was fired immediately after, he was 5-19 at Purdue. If you're Indiana, who do you want to play in the playoffs? Who does Purdue replace as their coach?  Iowa 13, Nebraska 10 Iowa wins with five total first downs and 49 rushing yards. Nebraska dominated this game all the way and still lost by one score. Michigan ended their season by finally being Iowa with upside. Cade seems to have left the program.  Rutgers 41, Michigan State 14 You've gotta really be nervous about Aidan Chiles moving forward if you're a Michigan State fan. After the game Chiles had some spicy quotes about the fans. Michigan State might not be able to just portal fix things. Jonathan Smith might not be mean enough to coach Michigan State.  Illinois 38, Northwestern 28 Northwestern outgains Illinois but turns the ball over four times. AJ Henning has 119 receiving yards.  UCLA 20, Fresno State 14 UCLA gets to 5-7 after looking absolutely terrible at the start of the year. They're a team to watch out for in the portal, though. It'll be a whole new team.  Penn State 44, Maryland 7 Maryland goes up 7-0 and then decides not to do football. They're a dead fish right now but hey they still beat USC. Penn State earns a spot in the Big Ten championship game in a year where they don't beat Michigan or Ohio State. Would they be the #1 overall seed if they win the Big Ten?? Notre Dame 49, USC 35 Notre Dame gets TWO ~100 yard pick sixes. Does USC need to think about moving on from Lincoln Riley?  Oregon 49, Washington 21 Oregon is the team that combines the west coast passing attack with a running attack better than anyone. The ducks crunch the OW game. Oregon gets 10 sacks!  Minnesota 24, Wisconsin 7 A slow motion blowout. How does Wisconsin recover from this season? Fickell is on contract until 2029.   MUSIC: Carry Me Ohio"-- Sun Kil Moon "Crybaby" -- Cults "Bloodbuzz Ohio" -- The National “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, 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 Northwestern Starts at 1:00 We got in a time machine and went back to 2023 and it felt pretty good. Michigan and Northwestern were about even in yardage towards the end of the first half and then Michigan runs the worst two-minute drill to result in a touchdown ever. Can you do anything Michigan did in the 2nd half against Ohio State? No. A rare compliment to Kirk Campbell. Looking ahead to Bryce Underwood. Michigan is also going to portal a quarterback. A few guys who will contribute next year got to play in this game. There's a vibe about upcoming coaching/coordinator changes.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Northwestern Starts at 34:01 Michigan was playing one of the worst offenses in America and made them look like it. Who comes back next year? The defensive tackles are gone but some ends are probably back. Will Johnson is gone but Hall is probably back. Zeke Berry is a safety playing corner so he has his limitations.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 48:06 Takes hotter than Tavierre Dunlap. What would be this team's record against last year's schedule? What would this team's record be with last year's coaching staff? Zvada is 6/6 on 50+ field goals this year. The transfer portal opens in one week and is only open for three weeks! Evaluating next year's offensive line. It will be interesting to see how a new offensive coordinator would evaluate the talent. They're probably fine at linebacker next year but the secondary is a concern.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac   Starts at 1:19:27 Ohio State 38, Indiana 15 Indiana's offensive line got destroyed which doesn't bode well for Michigan! Indiana's coaches are great but they played this game with James Madison's talent.    Michigan State 24, Purdue 17 This one was fun to watch after the Victors signing event. This was being enjoyed by anyone who wasn't a Michigan State or Purdue fan. Michigan State has a "win and you're in" against Rutgers! Illinois 38, Rutgers 31 A wild ending to this one. Rutgers just stops playing defense on Illinois' game winning touchdown.  Penn State 26, Minnesota 25 Penn State just hanging on by the skin of their teeth all game. There's a blocked extra point for a 2-pt return! This was a very MGoBlog score.  Nebraska 44, Wisconsin 25 Nebraska is bowl eligible for the first time since 2016! Another poor performance for Wisconsin on both sides of the ball. Wisconsin hasn't had a losing season since 2001 (they're 5-6). Iowa 28, Maryland 13 Iowa runs their running back 35 times, naturally. Is it time for Maryland to move on from Locksley? Iowa Nebraska on Black Friday is now a fun tradition we're excited for. USC 19, UCLA 13 One of the Big Ten's all time greatest rivalries! There was a kickoff at the 5 yard line. The decision to bench Miller Moss is weird because he didn't appear to have been the problem.  MUSIC: "Life Is"-- Jessica Pratt "Lou's Tune" -- DARGZ, Moses Boyd "The In-Between" -- In This Moment “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

2 hours 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, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where we recorded this. 1. Basketball After TCU Starts at 1:00 Gee golly willickers that was a lot of turnovers. Michigan’s team of point guards has none, unless you want to call Danny Wolf the point. Weird game where they turned the ball over 16 times, most of those steals, and still led at the half because when they do get a shot it’s always at the rim or an open look from three. How to get Goldin involved? He’s not really into the game, not just on his teammates not seeing him, but it’s that as well. Walters is the most efficient offensive player in CBB but he’s playing the same position as Wolf. Trying to figure out how the lineup shakes out because we’re not going to have an eleven-man rotation all year. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Big Ten Basketball Preview: The Bottom Nine to Kenpom Starts at 29:14 Washington: Great Osobor was a great portal pickup but they can’t keep C Franck Kepnang healthy. Rice transfer Mekhi Mason and NoDak transfer Tyree Ihenacho are uptransfers who had high usage at the 3 and 2, Butler transfer DJ Davis doesn’t really do to for us either. Injuries already. Predicted finish: 18th. USC: They got Terrance Williams and they’re all Terrance Williamses: 6’7” guys who can shoot save for “PG” Desmond Claude. Already injured. Projected finish: 16th. Minnesota: Speaking of injuries already; Year 4 for Johnson is another Year Zero after the guy they spent on in the portal got hurt. Seth likes (and pronounces) Lu’Cye Patterson at PG, and we all respect Dawson Garcia, but with their only other returner being carried off the court it could be rough. Predicted finish: 17th. Nebrasketball: Welcome to The Great Mid: Every basketball team from here on save Purdue is ranked closely together. Close loss to St Mary’s in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Injury to stretch 5 Rienk Mast really hurts them. We like Brice Williams and Juwan Gary, think Rollie Worster from Utah is a decent PG, but lost too much to make the tournament. Predicted finish: 15th. Rutgers: This is where I’m mad about the Kenpom format. Two top-5 freshmen join a very good backcourt of Williams and Derkack, but the loss of their center looms large. Problem is spacing. Predicted finish: 5th. Northwestern: Respectable loss at Dayton (71-66) and nonrespectable OT win vs #324 Eastern Illinois. No more Boo, and you can’t make Ty Berry into that guy. Matthew Nicholson is a truck driver, Brooks Barnhizer has a bad stache, Nick Martinelli will have to drive the team. True freshman PG? Ew. Predicted finish: 12th. Iowa: Payton Sandfort is going to have to shoot, and shoot he shall. Josh Dix is going to have to take on a lot more usage unless Brock Harding can learn to score. Will be bad on defense but mid their way to wins with Owen Freeman the latest yucky C. Predicted finish: 13th. Michigan State: What are they doing in this section? It’s a very Izzo team, with no idea what they’re doing at C because nobody gets developed, and nobody making threes. But they do have athletes and Izzo will make them play defense. Frankie Fidler from Neb-Omaha was the top transfer in the conference, Jaden Akins and Jeremy Fears have talent. They’ll be…MSU. Predicted finish: 5th, deservedly 8th. Maryland: I don’t know any of these guys –Brian. Julian Reese at center you know. They’re heavily reliant on a #12 overall Derik Queen, a one-and-done at the wing, but that’s working so far, got a 4-point loss to Marquette out of him. Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Selton Miguel are a decent backcourt. Very mid. Predicted finish: 11th. 3. Big Ten Basketball Preview: The Top Nine to Kenpom Starts at 1:01:27 Penn State Way high at #34 due to a win over (very bad, no PG) Virginia Tech. Ace Baldwin is the latest PG who carries them, though there’s some upside in Tennessee transfer Freddie Dilione. Predicted finish: 14th. Oregon is also rated too highly. Altman gets the kinds of guys who get rated for NBA purposes but makes decent teams out of them. C Nate Bittle and SF TJ Bamba are good enough to carry them, got an efficient PF from Stanford and upgraded PG Jackson Shelstad to a sophomore, so they’re mid. Predicted finish: 10th. Indiana got some decent portal pickups but let’s say it again: no shooting! We like former 5-star Stanford transfer Kanaan Carlyle and PG Myles Rice from P12, Oumar Ballo is 5-star from Zona to rim protect. So athletic, so little shooting. Predicted finish: 9th. Michigan 6th. Wisconsin: Back to being extremely Wisconsin including a 103-88 win vs Zona that featured a parade of whistles. Steven Crowl is now a point center extraordinaire, Nolan Winter is the next 6’11” shooter and rebounder, John Blackwell, Max Klesmit, and former CSU guard John Tonje can all play but not well enough to go to the NBA. PG Camren Hunter injury could set them back. Predicted finish: 4th. Ohio State: Led the year off with a win over Texas and a closs loss at A&M. Kept Bruce Thornton out of the draft and got back Meechie Johnson from a two-year lease to South Carolina. Added bigs from UK and Duke so maybe they can defense their way through the season. Predicted finish: 7th. Illinois: Only returning starter is burlyguard Ty Rodgers but they picked up two internationals who are Working Out: see threeing the hell out of Bama in a surprising road win. Ivisic is a 5-star little bro of the UK/Arkansas one, Kasparas Jakucionis is a lottery pick, Evansville transfer ben Humrichous is a stretch 4 with range, and backup PG from Zona Kylan Boswell and L’vile transfer Tre White have evident talent. Upgraded to predicted finish: 2nd. UCLA: Have a loss to New Mexico (not too bad and UCLA shot 5/23). Might be a defensive nightmare. Got Eric Dailey who we wanted, also Tyler Bilodeau, an Iggy like PF. Skyy Clark is not a good basketball player but Mick Cronin manages to win in ways Brian hates. Predicted finish: 3rd. Purdue: Matt Painter is the best coach in CBB. Braden Smith it turns out is much better than “guy who lobs it to Edey.” They found three more huge centers, though none are 7’4”, and the new freshman Gicarri Harris fits right in, looks like a find. Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn round out the most complete roster in the league. Predicted finish: distant 1st. 4. Hot Takes and Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:36:13 Guys I want to get this out: you know the scores. Northwestern shot themselves in the foot, MSU has no pass rush, Purdue is dead as a door nail, Washington-UCLA is how we learned UCLA lost their 4th eligible year of a starting quarterback to being the holder in 2021.  MUSIC: "Moving Without Touching”—Rubblebucket "Old School"—2Pac "Water Underground"—Real Estate    “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

1 hour and 39 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 Indiana Starts at 1:00 When the head coach makes a completely obvious bad decision about something, that's when your patience gets especially broken. Let's talk bout Sherrone's game management. Sorry to Drake Johnson for catching strays in this segment. If he has the best players, would he even realize it? Why is Ben Hall coming in over Kalel Mullings? Davis Warren is just not good enough, he missed too many passes that should've been routine. All problems at some point go back to the offensive line. Kirk Campbell seemed to have a good gameplan for Michigan State but this was bad. How would you compare this to the Threet/Sheridan offense? Kalel Mullings' flea flickers are beautiful.  2. Defense vs Indiana Starts at 26:05 Defense completely dominated the 2nd half at least. They didn't give up 8 yards on the first play of a two-minute drill! Indiana turtled at the end of the first half and it almost cost them the game. Shout out to Zeke Berry for having a great game. Michigan ran blitzes but they weren't six man blitzes. Cam Brandt looked like Taco Charlton for a moment there! Michigan is in a reasonably good spot for next year's defensive line. Hillman came back from the dead on a MISSION. It gets Italian for a second. Indiana's punt return was a Jabrillian return. Special Teams have done worse than regress, they've become disorganized.  3. Hot Takes, Men's Basketball vs Wake Forest Starts at 49:39 Takes hotter than the flu fever that struck CJ Stroud in the 2nd half of the Lions game. Statwise, it was a very even game between Michigan and Wake Forest. Michigan is a team of passers without a total dude and they're still getting used to each other. Goldin was underused in this game and is getting shots that are outside of his game. It's a competitive loss against a good team at the start of the season so no need to panic.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac   Starts at 1:14:03 UCLA 20, Iowa 17 UCLA ran the ball, Iowa did not! Iowa is down to their 3rd QB since Cade has a concussion. There are six total turnovers in this game. Suddenly UCLA is eyeing down a bowl game! Rutgers 26, Minnesota 19 Rutgers gets a safety. Greg Schiano has one of the most egregious uses of the word "literally". The Rutgers train horn grinds Seth's gears. Oregon 39, Maryland 18 Oregon with only 363 total yards of offense. The ducks killed the clock with a 3(!) minute drive. Penn State 35, Washington 6 This might mean something for Penn State because they completely dominated an offense that has been at least decent all year. Where was this Penn State offensive gameplan against Ohio State?? Washington kicked back-to-back sad field goals in the redzone. Ohio State 45, Purdue 0 Nothing to see here. The Michigan Indiana game did raise some red flags for the Indiana Ohio State game.    MUSIC: "Cruel To Be Kind"-- Nick Lowe "Favourite" -- Fountains DC "We Gonna Make It" -- Jadakiss “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

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