MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast (MGoBlog)

1 hour and 39 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Six Week Catchup

• World Juniors Talk
• Alex Talks Stonehill
• Games Around the Country
• MSU Preview

Segment 2: Wolverines in the NHL

• Wings and Avs and Others
• A couple guys have The Season
• Some Defensemen Talk
• Portillo and the AHLers

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Stone Free" -- Jimi Hendrix
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

With special guests Randy & Jason Sklar, here to promote their show on 9/27 (Friday before Minnesota).

Things Discussed:

• Seth on early: Jaishawn Barham? He was a great player at Maryland. You don’t have to be your best self to be playing next to Ruben Hippolite, but you do if Michigan needs you to beast up. But remember this is a hard defense to learn at linebacker.
• Is Wink gonna Don Brown it? No. He’ll run MORE man because he’s got the guys, but it’s part of the toolbox, not The Toolbox. They’ll show a lot of blitzes.
• Dom Giudice? We all learn how to say it because he’s apparently the starting center, and Evan Link is the starting right tackle, as of last Sunday. Recruiting story: Harbaugh offered without telling the rest of the staff.
• Link: Makes sense if they didn’t think the other guys were able to do it. If he’s even he’s ahead.
• What kind of offense are they going to be? Alex Orji’s kind. But Warren has earned some snaps too.
• During break: Name every player who was ranked below Giudice. Lowest was Emmanuel Casseus.
• Sklars tell the story of good directing on Better Call Saul.

Things Discussed:

• Seth comes on early to talk Lions.
• Jim Harbaugh: If the NFL is willing to give him everything he'll go. If they won't he's got leverage to get what he wants from Michigan.
• Minter: Gonna be hard to keep him. Has the chance to follow MacDonald's career path. Worth keeping? Absolutely. Please offer him whatever you can to stay because he is incredible. But what can we offer other than money that NFL can match when he's already shown he's at that level?
• Life after Harbaugh? Michigan was the 2nd team to win a National Championship with a majority Black coaching staff (2022 Georgia) and the only one with a Black coordinator or co-coordinator. These guys are as/more responsible than Harbaugh for creating the culture at Michigan.
• Moore (to HC), Clink, Hart (to RGC), Newsome (to OL), Elston (title bump?) are all guys with a greater connection to Michigan than Harbaugh. If Jay was smart he'd stick around too (Sam thinks he follows his dad).
• Need to think about the next 10 years of college football. Where teams are going to offer your backups $hundreds of thousands to transfer and your recruits more to sign. Someone here needs to leverage the school to make changes, and push to change the mechanism for player compensation from daddy moneybags to a share of TV revenue and contracts. How does Michigan compete in a world where you have to recruit your team each offseason?
• If Jim stays is he here for good? No. He's a unicorn; unless he's not having success at Michigan the NFL is going to be interested, because there aren't a lot of Bill Walshs or Pete Carrolls who can have success at both levels.

Things Discussed:

• The Game post-op: OSU was closer because they didn't play insane. Were conservative and that worked for them.
• Payoff for the light boxes all year.
• Seth's monologue: Ohio State has plenty of hate, Michigan swerved to love, and I'm so happy that they won so we can talk about how the players love each other and love Harbaugh, and how the fans uplifted them.
• Ari Wasserman comes clean: Signsgate was always just about hurting Michigan by changing the narrative.
• McCarthy runs: obviously injured, OSU had some ideas to stop QB run, but M didn't plan the counters for that because they weren't going to run with him.
• Michigan didn't learn the lesson of JTT: If you leave him unblocked for a second he will kill you.
• Play-action is still missing. They are using it wrong.
• Orjicat: OSU doesn't have numbers with a safety high.
• McCarthy's read: He studied film on the robber, knew that guy was turning.
• Last TD: Wasn't a bust, was Ryan Day adjusting to Michigan's Palms coverage.
• Michael Barrett: shoulda been 1st team All-B10. Tommy Eichenberg was the soft spot Michigan attacked to win this game, and all the other coaches picked on him too.
• Next year? Let's see what the portal brings, what the NFL takes. Michigan's D will be very good. Will JJ return? (25%?)
• Sam: Michigan will only be going after guys who are proven commodities (not Tobias Merriweather).
• Iowa: Atrocious offense, respect their defense minus their best player.
• CFP: We want to face FSU not Oregon.

3 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, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, 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, and Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast.

Starts at 1:00

"Bring us home, Blake." He did it just like in the Ohio State, Penn State, and Alabama games. And then Mikey got an interception. A perfect moment in a perfect season. JJ's tweet was right, everyone just take a breath and relax after the last 20 years. So many guys came back to make this possible, and that's the culture of this program. Everyone who stepped up did when they needed to. Michigan's diversity of what they do on offense might be unmatched anywhere else in the country, and part of that is because so many people stick around. We call Blake Corum a perfect human being but Mike Sainristil is the same thing. This program has developed so many dudes who are going to the NFL that most people would not have expected. If you re-ranked these recruiting classes, how much higher would Michigan jump? Michigan fans really showed up for all the playoff games and events. 

Starts at 45:54

We start with the defense this time because the defense was incredible this game. What more can you even say about Jesse Minter and the players at this point? Everybody eats. Penix was in bad shape by the end of the game, Jaylen Harrell chased him down after the game to congratulate him on a good game. Keon Sabb had a bad missed tackle on Washington's first drive but made up for it later. Michigan seemed to plan this season around playing 15 games with all their substitutions to keep everyone fresh. It also helped that a lot of starters didn't have to play most 4th quarters this year. Washington was not able to just toss up the ball and have their receivers go get it, which is a big part of their game. Penix was uncomfortable all game and it brought his game down. Washington had open guys but it wasn't the guys Penix were expecting to be open. Read 1 --> Read 2 --> Uh oh Mason Graham. Besides a couple misses, this team tackled so well and have all season. How did a wide receiver become the Honey Badger?? Washington does have a great screen game.  The best defense since 1997. 

Starts at 1:32:46

A re-run of the Rose Bowl but more explosive. They looked a little nervous about passing the ball. One of these Washington linebackers apparently has never seen duo before. Michigan never really fully incorporated a JJ run game which was frustrating. Donovan Edwards, you've been sandbagging us all year! We don't care when you cut, but please just cut. Seven minutes into this game, Donovan Edwards had won the national championship. According to SP+ this is the best Michigan team since 1902 and the first team to hold every opponent to under 25 points since 1904 Minnesota. How many teams are losing their best offensive lineman and not seeing a drop-off? Michigan's transfer portal scouting was nuts, so many dudes did so well. JJ didn't torch this defense but he didn't need to, he also had a good YPA. 

Starts at 2:10:52 WARNING: This segment gets really misty towards the end.

That was the most annoying punter Michigan has ever faced. The care for special teams feels like it really dropped off this year. Decision making was pretty much by the book, though. Onto vibes, nobody has ever felt as good as this because nobody else has ever felt as bad. Reminiscing on some of the bleakest times of the Harbaugh era because they're part of what make this so sweet. Now let us stop wallowing. An impromptu gimmicky top five of "favorite moments of the season."  We talk about how we're feeling right now. There is a very good chance you will cry during it. I did.

MUSIC:

• “Win”— David Bowie
• “Down, Up!”— BabyTron
• “We're a Winner”—  The Impressions
• “Across 110th Street”

1 hour 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, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, 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.

Starts at 1:00

Sherrone is rounding out his staff - Kirk Campbell is the offensive coordinator, Grant Newsome is the offensive line coach, and Steve Casula is the tight ends coach. We're projecting that Ron Bellamy and Mike Hart are returning (Mike Hart's absence from certain events were just him going through some personal stuff, per Sam Webb). It looks like Mike Elston and Steve Clinkscale are back so far. There's a linebacker and defensive coordinator spot open (the 3rd Ravens guy is off the board). If they bring in long-tenured NFL guys, can they recruit? Could Michigan start pulling coaches from two NFL franchises moving forward? 

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

Starts at 23:27

Michigan swept Ohio State, just like football as you might recall, but Ohio State is pretty bad at hockey this year. The Friday game felt like one that could fall apart but they came up ahead. The Saturday game felt like Michigan was on the doorstep and just had to finish it. They're looking like they're rounding into a tournament team, especially with their World Juniors guys back. Michigan was finally on the other side of five minute majors! 

Starts at 49:34

Takes hotter than Rutgers basketball with five minutes left in a basketball game against Michigan. Rutgers went on a 37-12 run to end the game, and Rutgers has one of the worst offenses in the Big Ten. What is going on in the locker room? What is the culture of this team and who's even in charge of what? It's year five but there are only two guards on the roster and two open roster spots. There's no reason to retain Juwan. 

Starts at 1:16:15 No, really. They're just naming guys. It was this or another basketball segment. Seth's story about a football player with magic powers was critiqued by a Michigan football player. The Commissioner of this segment had to step in to vacate a #2 guy. Leave five guys in the comments (as in Michigan football players, not the food).

MUSIC:

• “Just Like Football”— Brothers Keep
• “My Heart Will Go On - Bad Recorder Cover"
• “GUY.exe”—  Superfruit
• “Across 110th Street”

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, SignalWire where we recorded this, and introducing to the podcast, Autograph: Rewarding Fans, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast.

Featured Musician: Joe Hertler & the Rainbow Seekers

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: The things said.]

---------------------

starts at the top

The more facts begin to overtake wishcasting the better off Michigan looks. No news but the bullshit level has gone up considerably as Big Ten coaches take the opportunity afforded by media sensationalism to get the Big Ten to punish Harbaugh before there's an investigation. Why? Probably because Michigan's own investigation determined they're in the clear to give Harbaugh a major contract. So either they're such idiots they actually believe Connor Stalions is the reason Michigan won so many games in 2021-'23, or they're smart enough to realize the results of an investigation won't match their preferred outcome. MSU's AD is one of two people willing to put their names to the pearl-clutching, and he's saying he's worried about the health and safety of his players, which shows you exactly how unserious the people trying to make this serious are.

starts at 16:43

Ryan Walters brings his 5-1 "no-name" defense. They have two good pass rushers who are too big to drop into coverage, which they do on 40% of passing snaps. They bring five a lot, vary things by looping and bringing cornerbacks. Main structure is man everything: 5 DL for 5 OL, LBs or safeties for everyone in the backfield, and Cover 1 behind it. Giving up lots of yards because they tried to play this with Ohio State. Two best players in the secondary are true freshmen because it's a Year Zero situation.

starts at 31:45

Fourth straight quarterback that Alex cyan'd, but this is on the better end of the cyan quarterbacks and maybe not fair because you took Card out of an offense where he got to pass to the most talented receiver in America to not that. Still have Devin Mockobee who will hurdle fools but also fumble, so they're using Tyrone Tracy, the former Iowa WR, as their guy. Tackles went from bad to worse over injuries, which limits their ability to run the ball unless you let them double your DTs with stretch zone using three good interior OL.

starts at 42:47

New level of Seeing It from JJ McCarthy, still not seeing it from the running backs. Good game for Drake Nugent—haven't had a chance to chart him much before now but he did a great job handling MSU's twist blitzes. Defensively Michigan used MSU's unpreparedness against them, getting them to fall into easy traps. Often it was players causing these by seeing something and making calls or shifting where they stand. MSU was having someone run in plays for a bit then gave it up because it was stupid.

This year we are partnering with The Blind Pig for bumper music, since that's where I've seen most of the bands I've been pushing anyways.

This is the week we're featuring the grooves of Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers, who will be playing two back to back shows at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor on November 10th & 11th. I just love the energy of this band—wife and I have been shaking our shoulders from our opposite desks all day as I've had these guys on mix. They've played Bonnaroo, Electric Forest, and Summer Camp, but eluded me until I saw them on the Pig's schedule. Since then I leared Hertler and guitarist Ryan Hoger had a Motown-influenced thing going until they lucked into musical prodigy/plays everything Micah Bracken to find their sound, adding a saxophonist and drummer to complete the set. I haven't seen them live but they're supposedly one of the most entertaining groups that play around here so that'll have to change soon.

Song choices:

• What I Want
• Old Love
• Find Me

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

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.

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. 

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”?

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?

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”

1 hour and 3 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: 7-1, Michigan

• Frozen Frenzy!!
• Even Period
• Shooters gonna shoot...and finish
• Piling on

Segment 2: Game 2, Other Scores, Lions Preview

• Another Blown Lead
• Shootouts Should Be Coin Flips
• A Look Around the Country
• Alex Talks Lions

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Grace Kelly" -- MIKA
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

1 hour and 5 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Owning the Gophers

• Opener
• Not CLOSE Enough
• Turning the Game
• Adding Another and Finishing the Game

Segment 2: Scores, Pairwise, Conference Tournaments, and MSU Preview

• Old Friends and Around the League
• Pairwise Talk with Alex
• Conference Tournament Talk
• All for Munn and Munn for All

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "How Far We've Come" -- Matchbox Twenty
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

3 hours and 20 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, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, Human Element, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and INTRODUCING TO THE PODCAST: Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning.

Starts at 1:00

It comes down to Michigan being the type of team to go for it on 4th and 1 and Ohio State is the type of team to punt on 4th and 1. This game came down to blocking and tackling, not sign stealing. Ohio State is below the Ferentz line over the last three years (and are 74% of the way to Ryan Day's 100 points). Twitter has been so much quieter since Saturday. Is this the end of the line for Ryan Day? Should it be? Also who would you even hire next? Michigan's culture was built to beat Ohio State. This program brings out the mental fortitude of the players required to endure what the last six weeks has been.

2. Offense vs Ohio State

Starts at 36:19

Blake Corum's 22 yard run is what he came back to Michigan for, he ran duo and made Sonny Styles look silly. Trente Jones is blowing people off the line - so happy for him in this game. The Ohio State defense was as advertised, JTT is a monster of a run defender. Feels like they could've just used JJ instead of Alex Orji on the run plays out of the first half. Why didn't JJ run more? It didn't quite feel like the best game plan but it worked, also Ohio State's defense just played really well. Was the Roman Wilson touchdown throw the best throw we've ever seen a Michigan quarterback make? Playcalling on Michigan's last series wasn't great but otherwise it was great throughout the drive for draining seven minutes of clock. Cornelius Johnson didn't have the same explosive plays as last year but the catches he did have were arguably just as monumental. There's no question that Colston Loveland is going to catch the ball when the ball goes his way.

Starts at 1:18:31

Takes hotter than Ryan Day's seat. Michigan's defense did exactly what we expected, Marvin Harrison Jr said he's never been doubled like that before. Michigan did a good job containing TreVeyon Henderson, Chip Trayanum was more effective. The secondary got interesting after Will Johnson got hurt. Why was Jimmy Rolder out there? Marvin Harrison Jr made some insane catches, especially the downfield one where he was held. Ryan Day didn't want to run CJ Stroud and he doesn't want to run Kyle McCord. Surprising lack of frippery between both offenses. McCord played surprisingly well under pressure. Quinten Johnson's big hit made the Big House as loud as we've ever heard. Michigan's rotation of players all season paid off in this one.

Starts at 2:08:44

Let's compare Ryan Day to James Franklin! Discussing all of Ohio State's punting situations. What about Michigan's, should they have gone for it on the final 4th and 4? Maybe it's better to let Colston Loveland win it for you than to have to defend Marvin Harrison Jr without Will Johnson. Ryan Day on 4th and 1 - WHAT ARE YOU DOING? A monster game from Tommy Doman. There were far fewer Ohio State fans in the stadium this year. Shout out to the giant Mike Sainristil head in the field rush. Roman Wilson's touchdown was absolutely a touchdown. Stadium replay - DON'T SHOW THE REPLAY IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO SHOW THE BALL. WE WERE EMOTIONALLY DISTRAUGHT. Also it was an incompletion, not a fumble. 5. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 2:45:53 Iowa - 13 Nebraska - 10 The most Iowa win ever? They hit the game winning field goal with someone who has not kicked all year. The last ten minutes of this game was incredible. The Big Ten Championship Game should be about the same as two years ago. Northwestern - 45 Illinois - 43 In regulation! Northwestern amazingly finishes the regular season 7-5. Bert was angry at the end. Purdue - 35 Indiana - 31 Indiana head coach Tom Allen is fired after this game (and gets a $20 million buyout). Who does Indiana hire? Maryland - 42 Rutgers - 24 Maryland won this in the first quarter. Tagovailoa threw some dimes and that's all she wrote. Rutgers cannot play from behind. Taulia now leads the Big Ten in all time passing yards. Wisconsin - 28 Minnesota - 14 Hot seat time for PJ Fleck? Penn State - 42 Michigan State - 0 Total yards were 586 to 53.

MUSIC:

• “Winning”— Santana
• “I'm Gonna Be Myself”— The Sheepdogs
• “Too Young To Burn”—  Sonny and the Sunsets
• "Mr. Brightside" — Cloud Illusions
• “Across 110th Street”

Things Discussed:

• Commitapalooza: Looks like an average Michigan class. Takes on the new guys:
  • Donovan Johnson: Hard to grade from tape when he was 14 years old. High ceiling/low floor. Michigan knows what he looks like post-ACL.
  • Kaden Strayhorn: Jason Strayhorn knows more about the state of Michigan State, which is a story you tell if things are Not Good. Kid was also set on making his own path, wanted to be in football since 8th grade. Like Gach: MSU parentage doesn't change who the kid is or how that aligns with what Michigan does.
  • Chase Taylor: Think he's ranked lower because in-state power wasn't offering, but BJM was all over him. Tell Michigan the guy's part safety/part edge and their eyes light up because that's what they need for their system.
  • Jacob Washington: Toldya in 1998 when they got Ron Bellamy that this will get us into Archbishop Shaw finally. Sam: Washington ran a laser 4.5 forty at a camp. Likes to block.
• Michigan's NIL: fixed? They're not involved in Players for Auction but they've really built up their institutions. Turned the former players tailgate into a support network. Using the recent grads as the ambassadors. Using donors to get donor level to understand what they're doing. Also coming from the top: Dusty May and Sherrone Moore are asking "What can I do?"
• NCAA gets rid of all the rules they hit Michigan for, because nobody was following them and the only thing they ever did was screw Michigan. Let's go get Dylan Roney back!
• Hoops: How's the defense gonna look? Your defense is what your players can do. Think they'll switch 1-3, up to 4 when they have a small 4 on the court.

Things Discussed:

• Seth: FBS needs to take the season off to celebrate the recent champions and digest all of these changes.
• They're not surrender cobras anymore; that's just relaxing.
• VICTORS: bigger project than we thought, 95% written now. Yes you can still order one (I'm making 10,000, about 8,400 sold).
• QB: Wish we'd seen more of Orji last year; saying he's the ideal leader, how consistent can he be with the throws. Don't count out Davis Warren.
• RB: Jordan Marshall news is good for Jordan Marshall; they don't need him yet so if he's breaking into the lineup we've got a Corum on our hands. Need to see more 2RB with Mullings blocking because he got the Block of the Week three times in 25 attempts, including the one where he lit up Dallas Turner in the Rose.
• WR: Semaj is WR2 we think.
• TE: Loveland is going to split out wide a lot (watch the Rose again).
• OL: Best you can be after replacting five (six!) starters. Do they have eight starters or four? Think Crippen/Anderson is a Barnhart/Trente situation. RT? Might not like what they have from Gentry and Persi, might just be a good sign that Evan Link is coming on. El-Hadi, Crippen, Hinton are Old Wisconsin replacements.
• DL: Benny should be at his takeoff year, haven't talked about him because he was injured. Hearing the right things on Pierce: he can be not moved. Etta can penetrate, but neither can do both. Etta's position is like hearing Mike Morris is moving to DT: he can do it, but he'll be undersized, and it means they don't like any of their options past that. Kirby Smart is complaining about his 4th DT too.
• Cornerback: Jyaire Hill probably rounds into a star over the course of the season, coaches are impatient for it to happen now. Aamir Hall is a find; Ricky Johnson is a loose cannon needs a year.
• Safety: Need four, have four. Mangham will come along, is your new Sabb. Q-Jo will start earlier in the season but expect Walker to come along and rotate with Johnson.
• Berry: Different player from Sainristil, think having him means you go man more often and let Wink blitz more.

Things Discussed:

• What’s bothering Michigan fans? Nothing. But it’s funny that OSU and MSU people try.
• Will Johnson: how much better can he get? If he’s making the defensive calls that Sainristil and Moore were making.
• Donovan Edwards: not looking for home runs? Sam wants the 85 yards to come from the 5 yards.
• Seth wants them using Orji’s legs to create explosive opportunities for him because he’s their best big play threat.
• Babalola: Sam can’t get Seth to watch the tape, but sounds like M is feeling confidence.
• Hockey: Craig takes us through Michigan Hockey Summer.   

2 hour and 15 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, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, Human Element, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and INTRODUCING TO THE PODCAST: Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning.

Starts at 1:00

Michigan runs for 36 straight minutes of this game and still Penn State's defensive ends get out of their rushing lanes. Karsen Barnhart gets beat on three of the first four passes and Michigan decides "we're not going to do that anymore". The vibes were immaculate, though. The only way Michigan loses this game is by turning the ball over (fumble luck was on Michigan's side this game). Do you remember what JJ's one incompletion was? The implications of Penn State's pass rush probably doesn't apply that much to the Ohio State game. The noise of Beaver Stadium does play a factor. Would you still recruit Ryan Mallet in today's game? Anyone who can't get out of the pocket is not a modern Quarterback. Michigan should've just held up a giant board that said "run".

2. Defense vs Penn State

Starts at 38:57

Shall we play the Drew Allar completion game? What do Sean Clifford and Drew Allar really have in common? Neither have had a functional offensive line. Drew Allar is 70% in a clean pocket and about 38% when under pressure. There was a lot of Cam Goode in this game. There was never really a point where you thought Michigan should change their defense in order to win this game. KENNETH GRANT RUNNING, MY GOD. Michigan was tipping off what they were doing on defense a lot.

Starts at 1:08:10

Takes hotter than Penn State defensive linemen on 3rd and 11. We have shirts. Thank you, James Franklin, for giving us content for this segment! Penn State going for it on 4th and 6 in the 4th quarter was probably not a good idea. The first two point conversion was definitely not a good idea. Going for two is opening the box and finding out if the cat is dead or alive.  Officiating wasn't perfect but also didn't feel biased.

Starts at 1:35:22

Maryland - 13 Nebraska - 10 Three Nebraska quarterbacks threw interceptions in this game, Maryland had 92 penalty yards. This game had eight(!) turnovers. But hey, Maryland is bowl eligible.

Illinois - 48 Indiana - 45 Just a debacle from the Indiana defense. Illinois QB John Paddock had 507(!!) passing yards. An Illinois player got ejected for spitting on an Indiana player. Iowa - 22 Rutgers - 0 A slow motion blowout. Iowa gets 402 yards of offense! This game had an over/under of 27.5 which is the lowest in collegiate football... and it still hit the under. Northwestern - 24 Wisconsin - 10 Northwestern is a win away from bowl eligibility. Wisconsin is now so far away from what God wanted Wisconsin football to be that now they're being punished. Purdue - 49 Minnesota - 30 Purdue somehow pulls off over 600 yards of offense and has two 100 yard rushers. Ohio State - 38 Michigan State - 3 Michigan State looks like they're just packing in the season now. Many Ohio State fans apparently are more confident after the Michigan Penn State game.

MUSIC:

• “Leave Me Alone”— I Don't Know How But They Found Me
• “Confidence”— Ocean Alley
• “Power Man”—  The Kinks
• “Across 110th Street”

1 hour and 7 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Great Game, Same 3rd Period

• Opener
• Back and Forth
• The Next Shift
• Third Period Meltdown

Segment 2: Lather, Rinse, Repeat

• Tight Game
• Too Many DZTOs, again
• Old Friends and Around the League
• Are the Lions Asleep in Hockey Valley?

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "When Everything Went Wrong" -- Fantastic Negrito
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, SignalWire where we recorded this, and introducing to the podcast, Autograph: Rewarding Fans, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast.

Featured Musicians: 8-Bit Big Band

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: The things said.]

---------------------

starts at the top.

Defensively it was an NFL game. Michigan unleashed a dizzying array of coverages to hide McCord's leverage from him, and Ryan Day had all kinds of motions and switches to uncover it. The game turned on Mason Graham, who allowed Michigan to keep the pressure on McCord and play with an extra defender in the secondary because OSU could not run on him. Hutchinson-level? Not yet, but Hutchinson before his injury in 2020, where this guy is an All-American. Rod Moore was back to himself. Sainristil isn't a vet at outside cornerback, McBurrows is a good nickel.

Offensively there was a lot left on the table. Michigan maximized its RPS wins, Corum's run was RPS+1 but also the biggest play in Michigan football history? JJ almost had a TD on the throwback to Johnson, who didn't recognize he had a Daylen Baldwin opportunity. Run game limited because Tyliek Williams played out of his mind. Going to be a negative in the run game charting for the first time in years, Barnhart especially. But he was their best in pass pro. Do. Not. Leave. JTT. Unblocked.

starts at 22:44

Abominable, worst in the Power 5. Their receivers are a bad match for their QB, who needs a big target more than a good route. Injured TEs and OL who run a lot of stretch and counter trey: the kind of team Michigan should be best able to defend. Mitigator: Michigan likes to leave their safeties back and subject their DTs to doubles, while teams have been suffocating Iowa specifically because you can bring down your safeties and their RB will break a tackle for 50 yards once every three games.

starts at 36:59

Excellent as always, with a lot more talent than we're used to. Five-star safety is playing like one, safety-ish linebacker from Virginia is athletic and their best pass-rusher. Plus the usual array of Iowa types. We wonder if their big-butted WLB is grading out so well (87 to PFF, over 90 in coverage) because he's more than a match for Big Ten West competition, but will get dusted if he has to keep up with Donovan Edwards. Missing Cooper DeJean but CBs have been fine. Again: competition question mark, and their DL isn't great at pass-rushing, so there's an opportunity for explosives except they take that away by playing soft cover 2. If they do that Michigan will have to grind them down like last year, but can they without Zinter?

Their punter is incredible. Their backup kicker had to kick the game-winner against Nebraska.

starts at 56:41

We go in order, starting with Washington-Oregon, which is not a 10-point game like Vegas has it. Oregon has been playing fantastic of late and Washington keeps needing to TCU its way through Pac-12 teams. But remember back when they played Washington had that game until Oregon surged back. Texas-Oklahoma State is the biggest spread, want to root for our old friend at QB but also rooting for Texas to get in to keep out the unwanted SEC teams and Ohio State. Georgia could lose to Bama, which is chaos, and we talk more about the committee's choices than the game. FSU beating Louisville would mean FSU goes ahead of any 1-loss team, and if Georgia complains about getting Oregon as the 4-seed they should pound sand. We don't believe in conspiracies; the committee cares about who wins the games, not what ESPN talking heads say to prop up the SEC. A Playoff without any SEC teams would be right, glorious, and absolutely deserved.

We're back to letting Seth pick out the songs, so I'm going to nerd out and show you what I've been writing to for a lot of the year. It is this 25+ member orchestra of amazing jazz musicians who come together off their various projects to compose and produce big band versions of videogame music from our childhoods. I could describe further but Adam Neely, who's one of my favorite video essayists (one of the people worth getting a Nebula subscription for), has a 30-minute video on it. He also plays bass.

The 8-Bit Band is playing December 15th at Sony Hall in New York, and January 13th at the Ferguson Center in Newport News.

Song choices:

• Chrono Trigger Main Theme
• Bob-Omb Battlefield
• Still Alive

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, SignalWire where we recorded this, and introducing to the podcast, Autograph: Rewarding Fans, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast.

Featured Musician: May Erlewine

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: The things said.]

---------------------

starts at the top

It's funny but also not funny anymore that they keep empowering this asshat to go on a personal vendetta.

starts at 22:38

Not good. RB Nate Carter can run but Katin Houser is Noah Kim with more forgiving cornerbacks.

starts at 38:39

DT Simeon Barrow is the guy to watch on defense but most of them are just so mid.

starts at 53:35

More of the same. JJ and Graham are All-Americans. Offense is bringing out interesting counters to Duo as they develop that game instead of zone stretch. Defense's thing this week was snags. The TD was a situational awareness issue. Colson talk? No. Barrett talk: yes.

This year we are partnering with The Blind Pig for bumper music, since that's where I've seen most of the bands I've been pushing anyways.

This is the week we're featuring May Erlewine, who's got a show coming up at the Ten Pound Fiddle Coffee House on Friday, Nov. 3rd at Michigan State University in East Lansing. She's one of the most prolific singer-songwriters of the Midwest and has grouped with countless musicians around here. She's explored a lot of different sounds but she's at her best when just sitting on a chair with a guitar. Her voice on stage encourages connectedness and stresses the importance of environmental advocacy, social justice, creative empowerment and community building as necessary work for all of us.

Song choices:

• Anyway
• Never One Thing
• Like Moses (Malone)

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

Things Discussed:

• The coaching staff is finally all younger than Brian (this happened sometime in the Bronze Age; he was looking around like "I thought stone tools were fine, but okay I guess we're all going into this mining business.")
• Clink: It wasn't about the money; he needed to be the DC, and Sherrone needed experience. If he was only staying for the buyout it wasn't going to be great for either party.
• We're going with guys who watched the Usher performance at the Super Bowl and didn't recognize any of the songs.
• Stephen Adegoke: Rising star. Getting a Mo Linguist a little earlier than we got Mo, but need to worry that an NFL team will come for him in a year or two. Guy is 28. Was a Michigan GA in 2021, NFL position coach in three years. Jesse Minter trajectory. Ryan doesn't want to let him go. When's the last time an OSU coach left for a better job?
• Losses to coaching changes despite NCAA rule that allows your team to get raided in these situations: Amorion Walker (Ole Miss NIL), Jalen Smith (literally every coach he knew is gone), and normal attrition.
• Casula: Great recruiter, needs to answer for his offensive analyst job in 2019, because Gattis was terrible.
• NIL: Sea change. Michigan's new partnerships and hiring GMs for the football program and an NIL GM for Athletics are going to ward off the poaching efforts. Could have done it earlier and maybe kept JJ.
• Saw how Alabama's roster got raided, and they had to hold off on announcing the Seahawks had hired away their OL coach and OC until their portal had closed—Michigan hasn't had that.
• Huge impact. You hear what Bryce Underwood is making ($3M) per year at LSU and think what will someone pay for a one-year rental on a DT who changes the entire shape of your defense?
• Michigan's NIL program can now show recruits they'll have sustainability. ROI for the investors too.
• Why are our donors different? Because they're not money-launderers.
• Basketba—oops we're out of time.

Things Discussed:

• Sam's squirrel problem. He wants a cat. Craig wants him to import mongooses. Seth suggests he put up a Michigan State flag and offer them all scholarships.
• Recruiting: back on track! Lost 2 guys they wanted, got 2 guys they really wanted, actually doing a little better than Harbaugh usual because they used to lose the Isaac Nautas and top-50 safeties to Notre Dame.
• Got themselves a Rod Moore comp in Ike Taylor. Seth: Michigan's free safety is a nickel—they want the SS to be a Paige so he can defend tight ends and when they motion a slot across the FS and Nickel swap jobs so FS needs to cover slots in space.
• Holly: See him as a Jaylen Harrell who's responsible and athletic. Craig thinks he'll be Brandon Graham and we call him insane.
• Babalola: Would be the #1 OT recruit in recorded M history.
• Recruiting strategy: stagger guys? Right now it's free transfers so you want guys who aren't going to leave. In the future when you can sign them to contracts Ohio State's going to be in great shape. You always take best available, but your board isn't the national board, and shouldn't be. Example: I wasn't too high on the Smith twins and they might have missed out on Edokpayi and Devon Baxter whom I like a lot.
• FSU and Clemson not talking to SEC/B10 anymore? Best guess if that's true it's because SEC/B10 don't want to be involved in the lawsuit.
• What's the future of this? There's no rationality to it so there's no stability to it, so I can't care about it. Right now it's just grabbing schools. Eventually there has to be some reckoning, a separation of divisions, dropping some schools. The things USF cares about are not the things that Michigan cares about, and having them competing for the same national championship isn't good for either of them.
• Brian: "Wait I would like to disparage, denigrate, and downgrade certain Big Ten members."
• Seth: You can dream about dropping schools all you want but you'd have to basically dissolve the Big Ten to get rid of Rutgers. The Pacific Conference did this once and reformed as the Pac-8 without Idaho.

2 hour and 13 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, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, Human Element, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and INTRODUCING TO THE PODCAST: Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning.

Starts at 1:00

The annual "play like butt before the Ohio State game" game! JJ is banged up, how much did that effect him? Michigan turtled in this game after taking a convincing lead. The sun was brutal, looked like it made things difficult for receivers. Michigan's calls have been a bit predictable and they're not weaponizing play action as well as they could. The guards had a great game, the tackle situation just got more interesting. 

2. Defense vs Maryland

Starts at 33:30

This game was the full Taulia Tagovailoa experience - he does a few amazing things and then a couple terrible things. Ohio State's run offense isn't going to be much better than Maryland's. How much will Kyle McCord run against Michigan? Michigan rotated a lot this game but it feels like a lot of these guys deserved playing time. Would you rather go up against Taulia Tagovailoa or Kyle McCord next week? 

Starts at 1:02:15

Takes hotter than a Michigan fan watching a competitive game for the first time this year. It doesn't actually feel like the refs are out to get Michigan. The intentional grounding in the endzone never gets called so it was surprising. The two targeting no-calls felt right, the contact was not intentionally forceable on either. Tommy Doman earned 2 points on his punt that landed on the one. 31 points is too normal in a game where you scored two safeties. The wind must have been a factor on 4th down decision making for them not to kick field goals.

Starts at 1:29:03

Iowa - 15 Illinois - 13 Iowa scored a safety to start the game. Iowa has clenched the Big Ten West despite having lost all their offensive weapons. Tory Taylor punts for 413 yards in an emotional senior day. If Michigan plays Iowa in Indy it will probably be like two years ago. Penn State - 27 Rutgers - 6 This game was about what you would expect. Drew Allar only has 79 passing yards but Rutgers was just never going to move the ball on this Penn State defense.  Michigan State - 24 Indiana - 21 Michigan State's win expectancy in this was 12% with less than three minutes left. This has to be the end of Tom Allen. Who does Indiana get after this (or Michigan State for that matter).  Northwestern - 23 Purdue - 15 Northwestern is bowl eligible! Purdue turns the ball over four times.  Wisconsin - 24 Nebraska - 17 Chubba Purdy and Tanner Mordecai are back. Nebraska needs to beat Iowa to get bowl eligible now.  Ohio State - 37 Minnesota - 3 This was the Michigan games sans that one big throw. Can you name the Ohio State backup QB that threw twice? Michigan could have a lot of new packages for Ohio State becuase we've seen so few all season. 

MUSIC:

• “Debris”— Reigning Sound
• “Loving Cup”— The Rolling Stones
• “Unthinkable”—  Alicia Keys ft. Drake
• “Across 110th Street”

Things Discussed:

• Lost Herbert: Recruiting against Jim is tough.
• DC: Zach Orr has a couple of NFL opportunities now so figuring that out will be the most important thing.
• Concerned that this administration is going to Bennie Oosterbaan Sherrone Moore's program. Needs to not just support but lead the transition to a new version of the college football landscape.
• Beefing up recruiting department: can criticize Jim Harbaugh here because he spent recruiting jobs on hires like Stalions and Shemy.
• Sherrone going hard for ND's Chad Bowden. Fended off Harbaugh for Grant Newsome, fighting for Elston.
• Warde: His "transformational not transactional" interview was the end for us; he's not the guy for the future. Transactional means fair; when you say you don't want that you're saying you don't want the players getting a fair deal.
• Michigan's culture doesn't have to be these 1930s ideas. Hunter Dickinson would be here if we had this working right.
• There's more in the tank: Michigan's Athletics department doesn't need to be taking money for naming buildings.
• NCAA dysfunction has to be part of this. We should be leading the way towards fixing the system, not pretending the old system still works. Players don't benefit from everyone being a free agent because it makes them all replaceable. That system sucks for everybody because there's no investment in the players, there's less time to get to know your system, and nobody's getting an education.
• Right now we're hanging onto a system that's already dead, falling into a terrible oligarchic system. System should be one that forces the universities to be stuck with the players they get, because it makes them responsible for the player's education and development. Right now the NCAA is antithetical to the higher ideal the NCAA was set up.
• Seth: communist economies—that's what the NCAA model is—require a black market. The cheating is part of the system.
• What we're seeing is the fall of that system, and what Michigan should be doing is leading the way to a new system.
• How? Pay our players to be in a Super Bowl commercial advocating for a player's union, which we start here.
• Seth & Brian argue whether the history of Oosterbaan/1950s is relevant today.

• Spring game takes:
  • QB: Wasn't a good format (no zone reads, mostly under-center) for gauging Orji. It was him or Warren, and Warren wasn't a speed-reader upon further review.
  • RB: Edwards is geared up. Tavierre Dunlap had a really good game.
  • TE: Saw Marlin Klein's speed, has a good feel for timing blocks. Saw some Tonielli too.
  • OL: Hard to judge Persi from guard, Gentry moved guys but also had some breakdowns. Big drop from there to Link, who looks like a future player. Like some young Cs, Raheem Anderson stood up to Grant, Guarnera looked plausible at guard.
  • DT: Both Benny and Pierce were out so we saw Ike and some DEs they had to move down. Keep an eye out for Chibi Anwunah next year. Joey Klunder played hard.
  • Edge: Guy is real.
  • LB: Barham is big and can move. Hausmann looked really good. Rolder looked really good.
  • S: Hard to tell, but Oden is a lot bigger than we thought, might be ready to contribute early.
  • CB: Waller and Hill coming on.
• Waller to the portal: Sam says sometimes a guy asks for way more than the pay scale. There's a lot of nodding and talking around without actually saying that Kentucky has a reputation for promising more than they deliver. Schools have got to be sick of this by now. Sam: Gotta live in today, which means you gotta go tamper.
• Dusty May Builds a Dusty May Program Overnight! These guys were all primary creators for their teams; Rubin Jones is also an elite defender. Choosing to pursue Tre Donaldson of the two Auburn guys shows Dusty knew what he was doing, took the path of greater resistance. Roddy Gayle is in the draft if he doesn't shoot 28% from three, and he had a wrist injury to explain it. Sam Walters shot 43% on *contested* threes, because when you're a 6'10" pogo stick there's no such thing as a contest. Danny Wolf is a very underrated creator, should team with Goldin to be the best pair of Cs in the B10? Nimari Burnett can actually be Nimari now, and Tschetter can Tschetter.
• Concerns: They all have elevated TO rates (should come down as they aren't all forced to be creators), they're a bit weak defensively at the four (Walters has length but he was a beanpole freshman last year), and it's going to take time for everyone to get used to playing together.
• We're gonna LOVE Rubin Jones. Very good rebounder, very smart ballplayer, put Johnell Davis in a hell, which is probably why May wanted to go and get him.
• NFL Draft? Sorry out of time.

Things Discussed:

• DBs from the portal: went from no depth to great depth. Both pairs complement each other: Johnson can tackle, Hall can cover. Mangham incredible ceiling, Walker extremely high floor.
• Relitigating retaining Harbaugh: can't ignore that he was expected to go to the NFL after winning a national championship a year ago. NCAA/Petitti were hostile, sure, but blaming Warde is overplaying the hand.
• Break: Silly Buckeyes.
• Settling House: Schools acting like getting the confs to sign off matters; what matters is whether the players agree to it. Getting involved with private equity/FSU getting some sort of loan.
• At some point you need collective bargaining or it's not going to end.

1 hour and 26 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Close Game #1

• Opener
• Dominance
• Wooooof
• Thank You, Major

Segment 2: Close Game #2

• Even Steven
• Winning the Game and Holding On To It
• Old Friends and Around the League
• Do We Only Play Two Teams?

[Player after THE JUMP]

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Not Dead Yet" -- Lord Huron
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Things Discussed:

• Tony Alford: What does it say about Ohio State? Ryan Day's program might have a culture problem. If he loses to Michigan [they get to play one or two more times but] he's out, right?
• Seth checks OSU's schedule; somehow they got just @Oregon and vs PSU out of the Big Ten powers, so yeah, he could get to Michigan unscathed.
• You'd think Alford wouldn't be worried about job prospects if Day is fired; he pulled the ripcord early, which means there's something making being the RB coach under Ryan Day/Chip Kelly intolerable. Brian: Could be the offense doesn't let the RBs do their thing.
• Tony Alford: What does it say about Sherrone Moore? Guys wanna come work for him. Sam: They lost Adegoke because it got leaked so they kept this one quiet. Brian: That speaks to Moore's organization that they got the background checks and everything done.
• Seth: Taking a coach 2 practices into spring is bigger than getting their signs because by this point they have a plan, and they've already started talking about what they're doing for The Game.
• Sherrone: Good early signs. Had a competent assistants process, has a plan with recruiting, prevented Martindale from using up a staff spot. Making big baller moves, like how Harbaugh came in with satellite camps, etc.
• Losing Hart: Plenty. He was a *great* RB coach, a great judge of talent, and a great Michigan player.
• Seth: This exposes OSU culture issues. The Mattison comp: Matty got a title bump and $600k raise, but money can't buy the kind of Jerry Hanlon love he gave up to go to OSU, so there had to be something else. It turned out that something else was Don Brown was a Buddy Ryan, and as much as we love Brown it was a sign that Michigan needed a culture change.
• Quinten Johnson: not a small deal. Good NIL (more valuable to college than pros), great for Michigan, not a replacement for Sabb but does allow them to maybe start Q-Jo and try Moore at nickel, which can ameliorate the loss of Mike Sainristil, who was the QB of the defense at nickel.
• Wink Defense: Need to stop overplaying the differences between him and Minter, because Giants defense had more plays than any other NFL team inside their own 40, also once you have Jyaire Hill ready to go you can play a lot more man.
• Break: Sam mentions more guys who wanted to come work for Sherrone.
• Wink: You guys are doing stuff I wasn't even doing with the Giants. Brian: That's the Mikey Factor.
• Pernell McPhee for support staff: Pahokee guy that Rich Rod wanted, Ravens guy under Mike Macdonald who can step into LB job in the future.
• Lionel Stokes: Defensive analyst who worked with Morgan at Louisiana, been a DC and DB coach at Jackson State, gonna have big shoes to fill from Mallory.

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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”

wsg Richard Hoeg

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, SignalWire where we recorded this, and introducing to the podcast, Autograph: Rewarding Fans, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast.

Featured Musician: Desmond Jones

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: The things said.]

---------------------

starts at the top

Partridge is out the door; the rest broke during or after the segment. We scheduled our lawyer friend Hoeg (YouTube Channel) because we thought we'd have a hearing right now instead of things breaking that we were just hearing about last night. Michigan's case was stronger than the Big Ten's but the hole in Michigan's case for a TRO was they had to prove irreparable harm, and considering the Vegas line didn't move for Harbaugh being out they had a tough case to prove there. It's always better to settle than litigate; it's not clear that this was a legal settlement.

starts at 18:29

Hi Josh Gattis! Taulia Tagovailoa is the same player he's been for years. He doesn't ruin red zone drives by running backwards 30 yards *as often* but his accuracy still comes and goes because he's short and often throwing off-platform. OL looks like they can stop the pass rush but that's probably because the #1 way to contain Ta-Ta is to contain him. They also have just one really solid starter (LT Delmar Glaze) and a sub-FBS right side. Running game is awful. WRs aren't the dudes they used to be. Defensively they're kind of an MSU where everyone is meh. Some of the NFL prospects haven't matured into such, no real stars. Barham was supposed to break out but is having a Colsonesque sophomore year. Pass-rusher gets a lot of pressures but only on high volume. They will put five up and blitz.

starts at 36:30

Might want to pump the breaks on the 3-0 start if you're basing it on St. John's because we don't really know what Theseus's Pitino Team really is. Dug's the headliner—MEEP MEEP—and his speed was devastating to a defense that doesn't know each others' names. Shooting is due for a mean regression, probably, but they keep having someone go off every game. Defensively it's night and day from last year, and some of the breakdowns are because they're not yet used to the fact that they don't need to help each other. T-Will has slimmed down, and contextually he's a much better defender when he's not put on a court with a bunch of non-athletes.

starts at 52:46

Blocking had a lot more mishaps than usual, probably because of the crowd noise and their difficulty snapping it. Barnhart's troubles weren't necessarily his fault because those DEs were timing the snaps perfectly. RPS was +10 despite not passing for 36 minutes because PSU was incapable of stopping themselves from flying upfield. Defensively Michigan played their OSU defense on 1st downs which bled 5 yards before they tightened up. Paige had a good day flying down to stop that. Grant broke out. Will Johnson is the prince that was promised. Colson reverted to his Janus ways. Michigan could close the door when they needed to.

This year we are partnering with The Blind Pig for bumper music, since that's where I've seen most of the bands I've been pushing anyways.

This is the week we're featuring Desmond Jones, the five-piece Grand Rapids rock band with a sax and a tendency for improv. Yeah, I know, I've been doing a lot of funk lately—that's what I've been listening to, and this group's all over my Spotify recommendations, with a library that goes back to 2015.

who plays the Pig on Friday, December 1st.

Song choices:

• Sweater Weather
• Gone
• Poor Sylvester

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

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, 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.

Starts at 1:00

We are uh. We are out of content (still managed to record a two hour podcast). With regards to Ben Franklin's sex life. Craig Ross turns 3,008, wish him a happy birthday (still hasn’t seen a worse Michigan men’s basketball team). The Big Ten and SEC got together for a working group and the thing they were working on was screwing the rest of college football. They already want a 14 team playoff with auto bids. What would be different about college football right now if Dave Brandon was in charge? Nothing. College football is great for reasons that the people who only care about money could never understand. Adding Maryland and Rutgers was the beginning of the end, Brian is going to dance on Jim Delaney’s grave. What can you even do about it besides complain about it on podcasts.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

Starts at 23:41

They didn’t make it easy but Michigan hockey sweeps Notre Dame in the first round of the Big Ten tournament. Nobody played better than Notre Dame’s goalie, despite giving up nine goals. Notre Dame is 10-1 in games where they only score three goals, they can’t score but the goalie keeps them in games. Was it an icing? No. Another week, another discussion of the terrible major calls. The Ohio State vs Wisconsin game determines whether Michigan plays in East Lansing or Minneapolis (Michigan will play in Minneapolis). Michigan is at their ceiling in terms of RPI (#10), but the gap between them and 14 is very small. According to Alex, Michigan is a 99%+ chance to make the NCAA tournament, so they’ve basically punched their ticket. Who stays and who goes after the season? Make Brian an NHL GM, he plays Football Manager and won the championship in the Turkish league.

Starts at 1:03:22

Takes hotter than Warde Manuel's seat if he retains Juwan Howard. Warde Manuel has become controversial amongst Michigan fans, and by controversial we mean everyone wants to fire him except Santa Ono. What is Warde doing if he wants to keep Juwan around? Seth has been told that Warde Manuel has repaired Michigan’s relationships with the NCAA and Big Ten, Brian has curled himself into a ball and crawled under Walter White’s floor and is laughing maniacally. R.I.P. paper tickets. If he doesn’t get rid of Juwan Howard, what is actually going on? There are a lot of Fargo references in this podcast. Warde is the head of the college football committee in charge of the worst college football playoff we’ve ever seen.

Starts at 01:29:22 Five non-Michigan things we are fans of. Oh no, how many of us are just fair weather Detroit fans? The National Parks are good and you should go but not when I go because they’re overcrowded now! Brian does not hate National Parks, why would you think that? Who is the bigger dork, Seth or Brian? Shout out to Lindsay Ellis, the Brian Cook of film theory and why The Hobbit Trilogy is bad. Brian turns down a $1300/month murder basement.

MUSIC:

• "Gen X Cops" — Vampire Weekend
• “Midwest" — Vacations
• “Forget Everything”—  BEL
• “Across 110th Street”

1 hour and 5 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Friday Win

• Opener
• The First Minute/Period
• The Rest of the Game
• The Escape

Segment 2: Saturday Loss

• A Very Different Game
• It's Always Something
• Old Friends and Around the League
• Notre Dame is Coming to Yost...Greaaaaaaaaat

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Rusty Cage" -- Johnny Cash
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, SignalWire where we recorded this, and introducing to the podcast, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast.

Featured Musicians: Cracked & Hooked

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: The things to be said.]

---------------------

starts at the top

Milroe is a challenge—baby Vince Young who will destroy you with your legs if you let him. Georgia spied him and held him down; Brian wants to attack him, get got a few times, and keep them off-schedule. WRs are not as threatening as some we've seen; the Gattis generation is gone now. OL has blue chips but the center is wild and the left side is young, especially the left tackle. They use three TEs, one's a fullback, one's a Funchess, one's a Maryland transfer who's meh at both.

starts at 25:17

The secondary is the best in CFB; the guy opposite the headliner is even better, and Seth loves their nickel-hybrid. True freshman safety is also excellent, free safety is just out there to be the help. They went back to basics this year with Saban's Pattern-Match hybrid system; Georgia really put it to the test and found the LBs are the most likely to break down. The DTs are not so scary, the pass rushers are: Do not get in long downs against these guys because they'll bring in both 1st rounders. On standard downs they'll play a 290-pound SDE instead. Linebackers are the weakness; they're athletes but mistake-prone. Brian wants this to be the Donovan Edwards game, Seth wants to run down the middle with Corum and Mullings.

starts at 48:15

It was Iowa.

starts at 57:04

Hard to figure out this game. Texas is probably the better, Washington is the better big game team because Michael Penix is a big game quarterback. We'd rather face Washington because Texas has the two best DTs in the country and that's how to beat Michigan. They'll also have Xavier Worthy back. Quinn Ewers is really more of a true sophomore—think last year JJ—than the guy ready to take them to the pinnacle, but our Texas friend says they're having a This is the Year season and Washington is the last foe to vanquish on the Revenge Tour.

This year we are partnering with The Blind Pig for bumper music, since that's where I've seen most of the bands I've been pushing anyways.

Ypsilanti's David Freund didn't mean to start a band; he was just learning to play guitar during the pandemic. He started posting his songs, which are bluesgrassy with clever lyrics, on social media, gave himself a goofy name, and started picking up a following quickly. People wanted to see him perform the songs live, so he got some mates to play with him, and now they're a band. They recorded their first album, Wonder Out of Your Mind, over at Grove Studios a year ago Christmas, and put out a new song a few weeks ago. They're playing the Pig on January 31st wsg The City Lines and Good Man's Brother if you want to say you heard about them first.

Song choices:

• Kicked by a Mule (the new one)
• Before the Dirt Gets Shoved
• Writer

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

1 hour and 36 minutes

With Alex Drain and Craig Ross 

• Season recap, month-by-month
• Looking at the big picture 
• Key performances, top players, and areas for improvement 
• The incoming softball recruiting class 

• Pitching: improved, but still not great 
• Taking stock of the Tracy Smith era 
• Brief B1G Tournament preview: hard to know what to expect

MUSIC 

• "Not Strong Enough" -- boygenius
• "Right Back To It" -- Waxahatchee
• "Everybody Has A Dream" -- Billy Joel 

2 hour 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, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, 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, and Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast.

Starts at 1:00

If Michigan wins the national championship, was the Rose Bowl still a bigger game? It was a real Rose Bowl. There is almost no piped in music so you can actually just hear the ambience of the crowd. It's the most beautiful stadium in America and you couldn't build it today. There are no stadium gimmicks, just the existential dread of playing Alabama in the most important game ever (this is a compliment). Michigan wasn't ready to be at this level two years ago, but now they're The Man going into the national championship game.

2. Offense vs Alabama

Starts at 21:21

Michigan puts up nearly 400 yards of offense and it feels like they left a lot on the field. Aside from TCU, the only game where JJ had to put up a game winning touchdown drive (featuring the dumbest Roman Wilson penalty of his career). AT LAST THEY RUN PLAY ACTION. Roman Wilson makes up for it by not only having a truly heroic catch but landing on his feet and he keeps going. Michigan had a great gameplan and schemed a lot of open receivers. Michigan didn't run dig but Alabama was trying to account for it. Michigan had counters to a lot of the stuff they've been putting on film all season. How did you feel about the trick plays? Overall, hard to criticize the gameplan. Mullings can catch! Blake's OT touchdown run is insane, shout out to Karsen Barnhart and Trente Jones. Semaj Morgan was probably in his own head a bit in this game but still had four catches. 

Starts at 1:03:25

Takes hotter than your blood pressure in overtime. You have to go after Milroe and Michigan did it as a team, that's how you stop Alabama. "Khaleke Hudson vs Minnesota" gameplan paid off. Josh Wallace was such a perfect fit for this defense - a senior with a billion snaps who is disciplined. Keon Sabb didn't get to play most of the day and then gets a huge hit. Josiah Stewart looked great. Michigan did a great job on their stunts. 

Starts at 1:48:48

Jay Harbaugh was suddenly replaced by Parker Fleming. If Michigan lost this game, it would be because of special teams. Jake Thaw should've just let that punt go. Semaj Morgan had the yips, but he's a true freshman playing in the Rose Bowl. Was playing for a long field goal correct after the botched flea flicker? Let's just not talk about the last 40 seconds ever again. We briefly laugh about Ohio State. Brian can't stream a game from his phone in Michigan Stadium but he can stream a game on his phone on a plane. Penix played out of his mind against Texas. Michigan probably matches up better with Washington than Texas. Washington's offensive line won the Joe Moore award via pass blocking, not rushing. Should you blitz Penix or just play coverage? 

MUSIC:

• “Dixieland Delight”— Alabama
• “Alabama”— Neil Young
• “Deacon Blues”—  Steely Dan
• “Across 110th Street”

Things Discussed:

• NCAA no longer regulating NIL: Brave New World? Ha. Maybe for Michigan. Sam has us make our case, which is the same we've been making forever. Craig worries about a Texas A&M situation, Seth & Brian push back hard.
• How should Michigan do it? Supplement what they're doing now but don't lose *THEIR* guys because of money. Bryce Underwood is the classic example.
• Schools can't afford to keep paying what they're paying out right now. Michigan included.
• Warde Manuel: Absolutely wrong guy to show leadership. One thing he's doing is he's the leader of the CFP committee that's coming up with a 14-team disaster that's just the B10 and SEC forcing autobids for $$$.
• Brian: Anyone who's an administrator at a college is expendable; teachers are not.
• Sam: Time to get the collectives in on Bryce Underwood.
• Sam: Trust me, Sabb didn't leave Michigan for money; he woulda had a Benz here too.
• Seth: I'm bored by Sabb talk; we lost our 3rd safety to starting at Alabama. That doesn't mean there's a problem it means we had the best three safeties in America and football has two starting safeties.
• Juwan Howard: Probably not getting fired until Warde Manuel is (everyone: so fire Warde!)
• Who you hiring? Brian: McDermott (Creighton)->Shaka->TJ Otzelberger (ISU)->Mark Pope. Craig: Will Wade (all: !!???!!!)->Otzelberger (good defense!)->Anthony Grant (Dayton, fun offense)->Lamont Paris (SCar)->Mark Byington (JMU). Seth: Nate Oats->Fred Hoiberg->Darian DeVries.
• Sam: Talk to me about Nate, but Bama has been supporting him well, and then you have Brandon Miller/Darius Miles in proximity to a murder. The other thing—put a hand on a player on the court—seems like nothing.
• Seth/Brian: Details of the murder are important; the Missouri thing doesn't move the needle.

1 hour and 40 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, Human Element, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and INTRODUCING TO THE PODCAST: Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning.

Starts at 1:00

The developments that have developed are basically nothing. Feels like we know pretty much what there is to know, it's just a matter of what happens next from the NCAA. Michigan could be the first program hit with the NCAA's new rule of "if a staffer gets in trouble, the head coach also gets in trouble". There's some failure on the part of Warde Manuel. What is the actual competitive advantage of stolen signals? College football coaches are the most paranoid people in America. Based on how the NCAA has handled these issues, it seems extremely unlikely that anything will happen to Michigan this season. Worst case scenario would be Jim Harbaugh gets a show-cause a year or two down the road.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

2. Michigan Men's Basketball Backcourt

Starts at 22:37

Dug McDaniel is the most established guard. Freshmen point guards can be shaky, McDaniel's trajectory for his sophomore year is encouraging. Jaelin Llewellyn is your next most established guard. We didn't see a lot of him last year since he tore his ACL but he should be full go by now. Hard to know how much we're getting back from him after his injury. Nimari Burnett transfers as a rotation player from an Alabama team that was the 3rd best defense in college basketball last year. His offensive upside is unknown, Charles Matthews is a good comparison. George Washington III was described by Dug McDaniels as a good shooter but probably won't see more than 10 minutes per game. Jace Howard is listed as a guard but it's unlikely that he'll be a lot more than he was last year. 

Starts at 45:38

Takes hotter than Edward Norton Jr. after seeing Connor Stalions on the sidelines at CMU and he's like "I GOT THIS ROLE. THIS IS ALL ME, BABY". Tarris Reed is your starter, who is also Not Hunter Dickinson. He was slightly better defensively than Hunter Dickinson but the offensive drop-off was much bigger. Also needs to be better than 40% at free throws! Olivier Nkamhoua was a big contributor for the #1 defense in the country last year. That is already a huge upgrade defensively at the 4. He won't solve all your problems but is a very good, veteran basketball player. Seth thinks the final starting spot is Terrance Williams II, Brian thinks it's Tray Jackson. Will Tschetter: exists. Youssef Khayat could be a guy. 

Starts at 1:21:19 Making the tournament is a reasonable goal for this team. Where is Michigan going to get their points from? This gets made up by the massive defensive improvements. Michigan loses Jett Howard to the NBA but Michigan was a better team without Jett Howard. Juwan Howard is still recovering from heart surgery and has not been available in the pre-season coaching. There are going to be some hiccups with this team but all the transfers coming in are very experienced players from good teams. The vibes were awful last year but should be much better this year. 

MUSIC:

• “U-Love”— J Dilla
• “Crosshairs”— Dangerdoom, MFDoom
• “Smooth Aisles”—  Michael Nau
• “Across 110th Street”

Things Discussed:

• Our golf outing interviews. Players are extremely mature.
• Sherrone: Can see why he's the guy. Makes you feel comfortable.
• Big Ten Meetings: Ohio State has to deal with the shit we've been dealing with. They shouldn't be trying to be Michigan; they should be trying to be a better version of themselves. OSU fanbase isn't used to having it be this hard. We know what that's like too.
• What did Michigan change? There Will Be Hugs-style coaching is something we haven't seen for 100 years: It was CEOs (Saban) and before that it was generals (Schembechler) and before that it was godlike professors (Crisler) but Pete Carroll brought back a new style and Sherrone Moore brought that to Michigan. 
• New Big Ten CG: Many ways it's not going to work. Going to have a rematch between a 12-0 team and a 10-2 team where the 10-2 team wins. SHOWCASE SHOWCASE SHOWCASE!
• #Iowatalk.
• Hockey commitapalooza coming up.

1 hour and 27 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

• Opener
• Mighty Mites
• Up and Down Seasons
• Good, Not Great

• Hero Line
• New Guy Impacts
• Bottom Six Plus
• Roster Updates

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "School's Out" -- MEMBA
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

1 hour and 4 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Ctrl C, Ctrl V: Friday

• Opener
• An Early Goal
• Building the Lead
• Finishing the Game

Segment 2: Ctrl C, Ctrl V: Saturday

• Cocaine First Period
• Obtaining and Blowing Leads
• Old Friends and Around the League
• A Trip to Columbus

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Welcome to Janesville" -- Smoking Popes
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Things Discussed:

• Al Borges has groupies.
• Iowa takeaways: 26-0 was good. Can't be 26-3, needed to come down after the intensity of OSU.
• Offense missed some opportunities: get a catch from Barner or Loveland and it looks different.
• Love that they gave Semaj Morgan another chance to get on the mic.
• Using Edwards: get him running, not reading.
• Sainristil: He's going to be drafted. Iowa: yes, but there were non-Iowa moments. He's playing cornerback very well.
• Portal talk: Not worried about Trente anymore. Walter Nolen? Sam says they need clarity on whether he's even in the portal. Hard to move on a QB when you don't know what you've got. They're in on the OL from A&M. Can't offer starting spots.
• CFP: Absolutely got it wrong. FSU had a better end to the season than Alabama, their 2nd string QB will be back, all of the arguments for Alabama are ridiculous post-hoc excuses for putting an SEC team in the Playoff. Michigan ends up better off because Texas is a tougher matchup than Bama for Michigan.
• How good you are is what you've done this season. They put Cincy and MSU in the Playoff; they've never chosen the S&P+ teams—always the most deserving.
• Brian: If Michigan wins out Harbaugh should offer to split it with FSU. If Alabama and FSU win out, FSU should be the national champion.
• Hoops: Defense isn't the sum of their parts.

Things Discussed:

• NCAA solved tampering: they got Kirk Ferentz for Cade McNamara! Way to go NCAA. You solved the problem!
• Evan Link/right tackle: Makes us nervous. When there's a battle that's good it looks like center; when you're looking in the portal, can't decide on two guys, then have a third guy late it's less likely you have three starter-caliber players and more likely you have none. But what level is this happening at?
• Breakout season: What qualifies as a breakout? Because Tyler Morris?
• Picks: Sam has El-Hadi, says he's another guy that people were coming at with big money to jump into the portal. Seth has him too but Marlin Klein has been generating legends. Brian: Mullings, but Semaj Morgan: Michigan incorporated him more into their gameplans, and screens keep safeties away from a QB run game.
• Mullings: Always something extra. Can be another matchup problem, has INCREDIBLE feet for his size. Ron Dayne.
• TE blocking: Loveland's effectiveness is extra
• Defensive breakout player? Again, what's a breakout? If you say Barham is going to be the best LB in the country? Craig: saying it.
• Derrick Moore? Seth says already broke out, Brian says if you're saying Moore's an All-American.
• Brian's pick: Zeke Berry—seems like he passed a Guy in McBurrows.
• Seth's pick: Also Berry because there's a lot of Peppers in his game. Not Sainristil's level in being a savant, but lets them play more man and blitz more.
• But let's talk about Jyaire Hill. Sam: projecting him to start. Seth: had the furthest to go. Younger than most of the freshmen on the team, has Devon Witherspoon talent, and like Witherspoon, Hill had a long way to go before he could play in Michigan's pro-style defense. The more you hear his name the better the news, because the only question is when he gets the defense down.

Things Discussed:

• Analytics: You have to know how they're made to understand their value. FPI is going to punish Michigan for having a much tougher schedule than Penn State. SP+ is made from scrubbing play-by-play data and roster data, and isolating what different factors mean. PFF is made from pass-fail grading.
• They are predictive up to a point, and then from there it's up to the analyst to understand how it applies to a specific team, e.g. defensive SP+ in the Big Ten West can't handle how bad B10 West offenses are, and measures that say 5-star quarterbacks in their third year of starting are good but not if they've spent that time behind one of James Franklin's OL.
• Craig Ross tells the story of the gangs of his high school, and Joe Blue Tony. Moral of the story: Jim Harbaugh wanted love, it was over when they pulled the plug on the TRO case. Sam: makes some sense.
• Seth: Michigan's mistake with Harbaugh is they decided to stay in the Big Ten and NCAA instead of joining the NFL, which has the Lombardi Trophy.
• Two-loss teams in the Playoff? Depends on who they beat, if they win the B10.
• I share my proposal for three showcase games to replace the Big Ten Championship Game.

BRIEF SEGUE: THE SHOWCASE PROPOSAL

Instead of a 1 vs 2 game for the championship we play the best three games that weren't played during the regular season. #1 plays the best team they haven't played, #2 plays the best they haven't played, etc. Where necessary the conference is allowed to make judgement calls so that there is always a *clear* champion after the games are played. The games are all played on championship Saturday in three major cities within the Big Ten footprint (New York, Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Seattle, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, etc.). Downside: it's another Big Ten game, not winner-take-all, although in many cases the #1 game will be winner-take-all. Upsides: three big games instead of one, opportunities to enhance resumes for six teams with Playoff hopes, no rematches, no weird Big Ten champions who finished behind better teams, lost to other teams, etc.

• Jaishawn Barham: Like adding a 1st rounder. PFF coverage score last year was bunk. He could be an NFL DE, a lot of his Maryland tape he's not the guy making the sack; he's the guy causing the sack. His versatility is what Michigan's wanted from the LB position all along. Think he's going to be a star this year then go pro.
• Is coverage more important than pass rush? That's what the Ravens were about. It's true in the NFL because the NFL puts most of its money into beating pass rush: QBs who read out everything and know what to do with the ball immediately, tackles to protect them outside, etc.

Things Discussed:

• Frozen Four: Battle of the Blue Bloods. Usually you're counting on single-elimination hockey to off one of the impossibly good teams but NOT THIS YEAR. BC is fully of snipers—their top four forwards are shooting 18% to 21%.
• Michigan's chances rely on controlling the puck, scoring on their cycling, and Barzo stepping up to cancel out the corners.
• Past BC it's the #1 overall pick or a Denver team full of draft picks.
• College hockey right now: draft picks will coalesce at a few bluebloods like BC, BU, Denver, Minnesota, and Michigan, but the mid-majors are filled up with overagers trying to stay in the game. Also the NHL is enamored with college hockey players, and the US development program has succeeded in keeping talent home that five years ago and beyond we were losing to Canadian Juniors. So there's as much talent and skill in college hockey now as there's been in a very long time.
• Naurauto: He's on track for the perfect roster construction, which is two lines of highly skilled early NHL picks and Quinnipiac's top line, bunch of guys who are just on the cusp of NHL ability and are thus behooved to play out their eligibility in college.
• Break: What's going on at tight end? Beetham in the portal—is that about money? Michigan doesn't seem to have an inline guy this year.
• After Break: Women's basketball gone national. You can tell it's come on because sports fans are filling the hate boxes instead of being patronizing.
• Michigan othersports: wrestling is #2 in the Big Ten (better than Iowa) and is full of transfers! We love softball, women's gymnastics has a following, debate won a national championship.
• Is there enough NIL to go around at Michigan? Probably not, because we want to compete in every sport and donors are getting fatigued. The system doesn't work for anyone except the administrators who are getting the fans to pay out the nose for everything and want to shunt NIL on them too.

1 hour and 53 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Epic Showdown

• Opener
• Blitzed and Overpassing
• Puck Luck For All
• Best Period of the Season?

Segment 2: MSU Volume #6

• Power Plays?!
• Rushes and Even Play
• Actual Best Period of the Season
• Tournament Wrap-Up and Notes

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Seven Nation Army - Glitch Mob Remix" -- The White Stripes, The Glitch Mob
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Things Discussed:

• Seth is on early to talk about the Lions, relates it to Harbaugh/Sherrone Moore: Dan Campbell is a culture guy, and that's a hole that the NFL left when it shifted to playcallers as head coaches.
• Harbaugh to NFL: Seems the program is set through 2024, need to figure out their plan for 2025.
• Where were you when you heard? I was about to start the final boss fight of a very long D&D campaign.
• Expected? Yeah, said so in the previews. Michigan tried but Harbaugh was going to take a good NFL deal. When in history has someone gotten a successful NFL coach to come back and coach their college team for 9 years? This was the deal. There is no Super Bowl at Michigan.
• Sherrone? Yes. When? They have to wait 7 days but will probably apply for a waiver so it could happen in a week or tomorrow.
• Leaving: Minter, probably Jay Harbaugh. Brian: Spread your wings, Jay. Seth: He's not that kind of guy, but he may be the kind of guy who loves Michigan enough to want to stay. Herbert? There is nothing in the NFL for him like there is at Michigan, but Seth is worried because Bruce Feldman says Harbaugh plans to take him.
• Staying: Clink (AHC?), Bellamy, Hart, Robinson, Campbell to OC, Newsome to OL coach. Need to find a DC, an LB guy, and new special teams coach. Is there a 3rd Skywalker on the Ravens (Orr?) or another guy that Minter and Macdonald know? Jim Leonard: No. Brian has good dude concerns because he couldn't do better than an analyst for Bert (Note: Leonard has a buyout from Wisconsin that would have been voided if he got a DC job but that shouldn't have mattered; knifing Chryst in the back seems to matter). Need to stay ahead of Ohio State in the metagame.
• OSU: They could have gotten a guy as good as Caleb Downs if they'd just recruited Rod Moore out of their own backyard. This is what they're up against. Ohio State has always been the program that will do anything in the world to beat Michigan, and they're never going to stop that.
• Is it bad for CFB that there's no Harbaugh and Saban anymore? Only if you're the person in charge of getting instant clicks by putting someone's name in the headline. What makes college football special isn't the character head coaches; it's the unique connection the fans have to their players.
• Hockey: Young team that doesn't have the depth to overcome mistakes in a very tough league.

Things Discussed:

• Reasons to respect MSU?
• Katin Houser vs Noah Kim: When Houser throws back-breaking interceptions Rutgers decides to drop them.
• IU after review: Michigan's running tweaks to their Duo game that makes it really hard to prepare for.
• McCarthy is readying defenses very very well.
• Penn State-Ohio State: rock fight.

1 hour and 19 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Friday Shutout

• Opener
• Gift from Bischel
• Special Teams Goals
• Jake's Shutout

Segment 2: Saturday Drama

• A More Defensive Affair
• Marshall Warren and the Defense
• Old Friends and Around the League
• A Trip to Gopherland

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Another Irish Drinking Song" -- Da Vinci's Notebook
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Things Discussed:

• Storytime with Craig: some of the criticism of Dotman has gotten weird.
• Also weird: people still trying to talk about a bowl ban. Sam asked people in Athletics and they've heard nothing about
• Stalions on the CMU sideline: CMU fired a coach who was most connected to Stalions, which if you put 1 and 1 together means they figured out how Stalions got on the Chips' sideline. It also proves signs don't matter much because CMU couldn't beat a crap MSU team; in fact at no point did you think they knew what was coming.
• Sam: Helps Michigan prove to the NCAA that Stalions was a rogue actor.
• Phonebooks: Enow Etta is a tackle, a lot of young tackles are now big enough to be viable inside, Sam pumps breaks on whether the freshmen can help.
• Barham was 230 as a recruit and 230 at Maryland, now 245. Reading tea leaves that suggests he got serious about weights at Michigan, versus when he was a near 5-star recruit in College Park they just said you go out there and do you.
• Better defense this year? Question isn't up front, it's who's going to give them the play diagnoses that they got from Mike Sainristil and Rod Moore. Sam says Will Johnson and Makari Paige can do it.
• Zeke Berry: players are seeing the athlete we saw as a recruit, but if they want to go with more blitzing they can get away with leaving Jyaire in man like they couldn't as much with Wallace. Berry is a blitzer in ways that Sainristil wasn't. Dax-like? Not pure speed but athleticism yeah.
• Craig's hot take: 13th scholarship for basketball should go to Jamal Crawford.

1 hour and 21 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

• Opener
• Mistake Capitalization
• Upgrades Necessary
• Quick, Overall Takes

• Title Game Rundown
• NHL Award Race
• Bat and Ball Sports
• Roster Updates

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Mr. Blue" -- Catherine Feeny
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

1 hour and 22 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

• Opener
• Forwards: Hopefully a lot more depth
• Defense: Many returners. Couple Freshman. One Eye-popping transfer.
• Goalies: One Transfer. One Freshman. Still Question Marks.

• Lines/Pairings?
• NHL Series Updates
• Stick/Ball Good?
• Have a Good Summer!

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Hit The Road Jack" -- Ray Charles
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

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.

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]

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.

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.

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

• Helpful iTunes subscribe link
• General podcast feed link
• What's with the theme music?

Things Discussed:

• MSU: Credit to the team.
• Signgate: SI article is interesting because it's the only one not part of Ohio State's orchestrated PR campaign.
• How much does it matter? Coaches say very little: give me run or pass.
• How much was Stalions working on his own? Probably all of it. Brian: Not hard to figure out where the money's coming from: Mom & Dad. He's the kind of guy who'd write a manifesto about how he's going to take over the Michigan.
• Problem is because the NCAA holds coaches accountable even if they didn't know. Hopefully Michigan has processes in place that show they were actively discouraging this behavior.
• Real scrutiny: their vetting process for low-level staffers needs to improve.
• Ryan Day: Only way I can get beat is if someone cheats, because I'm that brilliant.
• OSU-PSU: Drew Allar isn't that good and you can't put the game on him.

Things Discussed:

• NCAA as Romanovs? How to talk to your kids about systems of government.
• How to fix the NCAA: Gonna need contracts and collective bargaining, but the NCAA should be at the point now where they realize they'll get more negotiating with the players than getting sued by them.
• Transfers should NOT be open. You're devaluing education, which is still the best thing the schools have to offer.
• Keon Sabb: hurts, but get that Bama was able to sell him a bill of goods on playing time.
• Defense: Find a 2nd corner, McBurrows at nickel, gonna miss Sainristil lining everybody up and running their complex coverages, but Rod Moore knows his stuff.
• Offense: Who's going to be the quarterback? Denegal talk. Seth: You need accuracy with these receivers, because you're taking advantage of the space you get from Tyler Morris or Donovan Edwards—no jump-ballers on the roster.
• Basketball: Juwan will get another year, has to start building like Purdue not Calipari.

1 hour and 22 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

• What is going on?
• WHAT A START
• Building the lead
• A win, but at a cost

• Just Not Good Enough
• Where Do We Go From Here?
• Other Teams Played Hockey
• A Look to the Clouds

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "The Lotto" -- Ingrid Michaelson, AJR
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Note: No Brian today; we got John U. Bacon to fill in.

Things Discussed:

• Recruiting: Sam: look at the portal too. Seth: Barham is a GREAT pickup.
• Mark my words: in 4 years Michigan's 27 players are going to wind up providing more value to Michigan than Miami's 27 players are going to provide to Miami.
• But I would like to see us get better at the up-front bag game for cornerbacks and wide receivers and quarterbacks who have a lot of value on the open market because the skills you see in high school are more likely to translate.
• You aren't winning a 5-star who takes the bag to go to A&M. You should be winning 5-stars against Ohio State and Georgia and Alabama who know they're going to win and get developed AND get paid. Up-front payments are a line we won't cross, and I wish that wasn't the case, even if it does lead to stress-free signing days.
• Burgergate: Congrats to Ohio State for getting the #1 player in the country without using NIL as an inducement, because if you buy a cheeseburger and try to cover it up the NCAA is on the case. Releasing the NOA on signing day should erase any doubt whether this investigation exists for any reason other than a vendetta.
• Harbaugh NFL Round Whatever This Is: Yes be afraid of the Chargers, be very afraid if by some chance Las Vegas doesn't stick with their guy, don't be so afraid of the Bears.
• Contract: Craig says there's no point unless there's an assumption of reasonableness.
• Seth: It's not Michigan or Harbaugh we're worried about being reasonable, it's the Big Ten and NCAA, who have demonstrated conclusively that they are going to use any means at their disposal to hurt Michigan as long as Harbaugh is around. Is that hate ta Michigan problem or a Harbaugh problem? That's the question they need to resolve, because there's no way to keep Harbaugh unless Michigan has his back.
• Opinion: They'll probably hate any other coach who's as successful at Michigan as Harbaugh. Also this probably has more to do with how much Warde and some of the regents are tired of dealing with it than what's right for Michigan.

Things Discussed:

• Filling the basketball roster. Expect to get C Vlad Goldin (FAU), CG Justin Pippen (HS), PG Trey Donaldson (Auburn), W Roddy Gayle (OSU), and another guy they're going after under the radar.
• Like Gayle if they can get his 3P% up better than Saint Mary's Aidan Mahaney, who took a lot of bad shots. C Justin Abson (App State) is Ben Wallace. Is he an either/or with C Danny Wolf (Yale)?
• What's the holdup? Guys want to go through the draft advisory board process. Sam thinks we'll get a drumbeat of commitments in the coming days and weeks.
• NIL: Dusty May needs a little more. How deep does the donor pool go? Well it's complicated; you're talking a quirky small subset of people who can afford this, and their individual circumstances matter a lot. There's a lot they're supporting: Football (which we're getting it done), Men's Hoops, Women's Hoops, etc. Seth: Don't forget Mott and the University of Michigan.
• Spring Game: What does the OL look like? Are there any guys standing? Sam thinks we won't be able to watch Hinton, Crippen, and El-Hadi, which that's three of your starters. Who's next? Seth doesn't like that Giudice is ahead of Efobi. That battle for RT is more iffy than we realized? Sam thinks they want a guy in the portal for Gentry or Persi to beat. Seth: If you're saying they Anderson we're at eight guys they trust now.
• Ohio State Spring Game: Their DL pushed their OL around so much it colors everything. QBs were throwing the ball into defenders; chests. Craig thinks their secondary is good. Seth says the offense is very Chip Kelly, they might have something with Julian Sayin down the road but he's skinny and mistake-prone right now.

1 hour and 3 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: 9-1, Michigan; 10-1, Michigan

• Frozen Frenzy recap?
• Blowout #1
• Blowout #2
• Any takeaways?

Segment 2: What Else Happened/Weekend in Madison

• Old Friends and Non-Conference
• Big Ten Teams
• Uhhhh...First Place Battle with Badgers Ken

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Daylight" -- Matt and Kim
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

1 hour and 3 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Ctrl C, Ctrl V: Friday

• Opener
• Tyler's Statement
• See Saw Second Period
• Holding It Down

Segment 2: Brand New Saturday Night

• Setting the Tone
• Bounce back and Extension
• Old Friends and Around the League
• Home and Not Joe

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Soldier, Poet, King" -- The Oh Hellos
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

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.

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]

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.

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.

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 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.

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] 

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.

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.

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    

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, SignalWire where we recorded this, and introducing to the podcast, Autograph: Rewarding Fans, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast.

Featured Musician: Nadim Azzam

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: The things said.]

---------------------

starts at the top

Let's talk football! Ohio State's offense has taken a step back from nuclear, but they can explode with a couple of 1st round receivers, including the first WR off the board in April, and Treyveon Henderson, who can turn a missed tackle into a 57-yard touchdown at a moment's notice. Stover has been a much bigger part of their passing game, but Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka are the stars there—Julian Fleming is another super blue chip who hasn't met his profile, and Xavier is  Their center is Not Good so if Michigan can get them in long downs they should be able to get pressure up the middle and dominate the interior. They want to run Stretch and Counter; Michigan has the players to limit their gap runs but their zone runs are going to be difficult to stop with those light fronts. We'll see some interesting blitzes to try to win more of those back.

starts at 28:18

They've been much improved, and ain't played nobody (just like us). Notre Dame was able to push around their front, which doesn't have a 300-pound DT and might not have their most explosive backfield transgressor available. Their DEs have improved from last year but are not the top-3 overall hellbeasts they were projected to be as recruits—more like heavies who are difficult to dislodge: JTT = Mike Morris. Do not block with Tight Ends. Their LBs haven't been great, Seth thinks they will blitz a lot (like 2018) though they haven't much this year because that's a better use for them than having them sit back and read. Secondary is much improved despite losing Lathan Ransom for the season; Sonny Styles plays the Tight End-locked "Bandit" role in his stead while Jordan Hancock is an excellent "Nickel Safety" (Sainristil role) and Josh Proctor is back as a 6th year guy to be a solid free safety. They are not blitzing those safeties as much, preferring to sit back and prevent big plays, which they are EXCELLENT at. But Michigan might be able to go back to the 2021 approach.

starts at 1 hour precisely.

A loss to Memphis and a win vs Stanford set up tonight's battle for 5th place (really tied for 3rd but the order of your losses matters) with Texas Tech. Surprised to find this team can score in buckets but can't play defense. They can't have Reed out there in the last 2 minutes because he can't hit a free throw, and then they get off-balance if Nkamhoua has to take a breather. Tray Jackson has not been good thus far. Can't autobench Dug—he only gets 2 fouls per 40 and the offense can't operate without him. They need another point and they need a wing, and that's on admissions because they had transfers who wanted to come both years.

starts at 1:10:36

Defensively it was the same game we've been playing every week, where the opponent has some stuff prepared (in this case it was the old RPO that Locksley and Gattis ran at Bama) and Michigan is practicing their base defense for Ohio State. The defensive line could be the best in program history, with Mason Graham playing like an All-American and Kenneth Grant turning into a monster, but that takes weird extrapolation because they're only on the field for 50% of the snaps. Secondary played like butt against the first good passing offense they faced, which is not a good sign for this weekend. Johnson got beat twice, Wallace looked like he needed to be pulled, and it's a bit late to be falling back on Sainristil outside and McBurrows in the slot, but that's the answer if Wallace can't stay with Egbuka. Bad day for the safeties—do not like Rod Moore missing tackles given what's coming up. Offensive, it was a terrible game for JJ, who wasn't seeing downfield shots that were drawn up for him. We play whack-a-take with the excuses and some are good: JJ didn't practice as much this week after being injured, he lost Roman Wilson who's the guy he'd normally be going to in those situations, and Maryland surprised him with some shifts after the snap. Can't blame the wind. Really didn't like the gameplan: you run 13 times then put out a passing offense to pass—there's no subterfuge there! Why can't this team run play-action when they are great at play-action? WHY? There's no answer.

This year we are partnering with The Blind Pig for bumper music, since that's where I've seen most of the bands I've been pushing anyways.

And now that we're at Ohio State week I have a reveal for you all: The man choosing the music all this time has been Nadim Azzam, who in addition to helping out the Pig is a rising star in the Detroit-Ann Arbor music scene himself. The Ann Arbor-based singer, rapper, and songwriter is soulful, witty, and technical, kind of like a blog you know. Azzam's new album Dreams For The Future is out now!

Song choices:

• The Come Up
• Get the Money
• Night Walk

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

1 hour and 11 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Chattings, Collapse #1

• Schedule Problems
• Taking control of the game
• Giving it all away
• Protect the Slot!

Segment 2: A shootout, Takeaways, Scores, and a Preview

• Deja Vu
• What Have We Learned
• Other Teams Played Hockey
• More Lions Talk

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Skyway" -- The Replacements
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Things Discussed:

• A Michigan Family reunion. If you've never been to a Rose Bowl, make sure you do the next one.
• Michigan won on the lines. Trente Jones was excellent. Karsen Barnhart made the block of the game. When they had to go for 4th & 1 they moved them; when it was 4th & 2 for the game Alabama had to sell out.
• Michigan used a ton of motion to create lots of openings.
• Coaching: Alabama coaches were good; Michigan coaches were that much better. Two wide open throws to Corum. Saban ran into a buzzsaw.
• Special Teams: Yips.
• Talking about the last play: Did Sainristil get too high? Maybe. But Moore had it dead to rights even if they run it right.
• Trente Jones: How important was it to the team that he came back. That he approached things like he did.
• Harbaugh? Gonna have a fight on their hands. Gotta fight to keep this culture.
• Washington preview.

4 hours and 26 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, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, 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, and Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast.

Starts at 1:00

There was too much to remember, so we crowd sourced. Sleepovers, satellite camps, the pope, and fun recruiting shenanigans. The Harbaugh era kind of starts and ends with Lou Holtz. There was a lot of diving into pools while fully dressed. People who cover the pope have been watching to see if he ever wears the Jordans that Jim gifted him. Don't drink out of the public fountains in Rome. You ever just grab a handful of meatballs? Character growth arc - Jim Harbaugh and chickens. He told a Peruvian Catholic priest "I'm in the Notre Dame ass-kicking business." Never forget "the white board", what's your favorite quote from it? He's directed traffic for hours. Jim Harbaugh war dad. Alejandro continues to be a real go-getter. Make sure you swipe Freddy P Soft off your shoulder. 

Starts at 50:40

Takes hotter than the San Francisco 49ers in the 2nd half of the NFC Championship (SORRY SORRY. Brian's words, not mine). Talking about moments that weren't the top moments but still note-worthy. Ben Mason, Darboh, and good shit from Jedd. The 2015 BYU game had a lot of all-time single player moments. The evolution of Donovan Edwards' career at Michigan and running power on a kickoff return against Northwestern. Jabrill Peppers fielding punts was a safety blanket we miss. Jim Harbaugh evolved the run game and also brought us the TRAIN! Sad field goals, the emergence of JJ, and Mr. Brightside. The 2016 Indiana snowglobe game. Player development into 4th, 5th, and 6th years has been incredible. 

Starts at 2:09:03

Everyone has something different that they love the most about the 2016 Rutgers game. Multiple Michigan State things at the expense of Michigan State, including Defeated With Dignity. There are so many stats in the Jim Harbaugh era that were some sort of "Michigan hasn't done ___ in ___ years" and now all those stats are reset. Remembering a lot of Jourdan Lewis moments, but especially that interception. The whole context of this year's Penn State game was to prove if this team was real. THEY SAID THE KID COULDN'T THROW THE DEEP BALL. They say you need a QB to win a national championship but Michigan won it with an elite run game and pass defense. 

Starts at 3:09:41 Jumping around at Wisconsin was when this program really started to feel special. The 2021 Big Ten Championship Game was just a huge party, Seth threw a cat across the entire room. Ohio State makes this list multiple times. What can man do against such reckless hate. Aidan Hutchinson is coming for you. The top five could really be in any order. Michigan had to figure out how to win against Alabama, but against Washington, Michigan just had better players. The Rose Bowl overtime was like a dream, and it was a real Rose Bowl against Alabama. Mike Sainristil represents what this program was all about, and the pass breakup against Stover is the ultimate highlight of that. In life, hurdle all your fools. 

MUSIC:

• “Who's Got It Better Than Us”— Bailey
• “Saturdays”— Broken Bells
• “Jump Around”—  House of Pain
• “Across 110th Street”

1 hour and 44 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, 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.

Starts at 1:00

Jack Tuttle has been approved for a 7th year, does this incentivize you to switch over your offense since he's so different from Orji? Whoever the quarterback is, they just need to have a Cade McNamara year. Sabb hitting the portal is sad. The coaching staff is final (other than what's up with Mike Hart). The average age of this coaching staff is too close to Alex Drain. The Tennessee message boards are like "RHWRRRGHREWRGRR". Things seem to be moving positively on the NIL front with Sherrone Moore in charge. Michigan is losing assistants at a higher rate because if you succeed at Michigan you go to the NFL. 

Starts at 27:12

We discuss the myriad legal issues facing the NCAA. Tennessee, the university and state, are sticking it to the NCAA asserting that NIL restrictions are anti-trust and cannot be legal. The NCAA has said that you can talk about NIL but you cannot use it as an incentive. What? When was the last time the NCAA even won a lawsuit?? The NCAA is potentially facing a $4 billion lawsuit, how do you calculate that and does it bankrupt the NCAA or do schools have to pay for it? 

Starts at 41:31

Takes hotter than Travis Kelce in the first half of the Super Bowl when he was yelling at Andy Reid. Dartmouth men's basketball (yes it exists) is leading one of the charges. At private schools, we could be approaching athletes being employees with the ability to collectively bargain. There are 11,000 division I football players and 5,000 division I basketball players, how do you account for all of that under the tent? Signing a contract could help solve the transfer portal issues and sitting out bowl games. The NCAA is so paranoid about people being employees that they're hurting their own product. Legally, you may have to show your athletes as minimum-wage employees, can you show that with scholarships? Moving forward, how does the NCAA show a distinction between professional and amateur athletes? What should the final play be? We have no idea. 

Starts at 1:21:32 Hockey splits with Penn State which is not good, Michigan is slipping off of the bubble. The Friday game, Michigan won in the 1st period. The second game was extremely un-inspiring. They're running out of centers. Michigan has to be able to out-score their mistakes and they just don't have that right now. Michigan has a hero-line and it's getting held up and are gassed by the 3rd period. The inconsistency of major penalties in Big Ten hockey is ridiculous. 

MUSIC:

• “Sinner”— The Last Dinner Party
• “Bottled in Cork" — Ted Low and the Pharmacists
• “Rock.co.Kane flow”—  de la Soul featuring MF Doom
• “Across 110th Street”

1 hour and 34 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, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, Human Element, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and INTRODUCING TO THE PODCAST: Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning.

Starts at 1:00

The College Football Playoff committee putting in Alabama over Florida State is just awful. This isn't a Michigan thing, it's a college football thing. They're a 13-0 ACC champion team. Florida State did everything they could. This Alabama team has been erratic all season. Their defensive tackles are just guys but they have an outstanding secondary and two really good edge rushers. Michigan probably has an advantage in both trenches. It feels like Michigan should win this game. There's no clear monster in the playoffs (besides maybe Michigan?).

2. Offense vs Iowa

Starts at 25:15

This wasn't nearly as bad as it felt when you rewatch it. Trente Jones keeps picking up the stupidest holding calls. Colston Loveland dropped some passes he never drops. They played very conservatively because once you go up by 10 points in this game it doesn't matter. JJ only goes 22/30 for 147 yards, if his tight ends don't drop some we're playing the incompletion game again. Michigan did some simple trick stuff but it's not the kind of thing that can fool Iowa, they're a very sound defense. They need to do some soul searching with Donovan Edwards before playing Alabama. Instead of "JJ's incompletions" we play "JJ's sacks".

Starts at 52:40

Takes hotter than every single Florida State fan until the end of all time. Brian should've just put "no" as the preview. Was it a fumble or an incomplete pass? Let's talk about how good of a human Mike Sainristil is (he's going to be president one day). Who's on the Mount Rushmore of these past three seasons? Kenneth Grant continues to consume. There's not much else to say about how Michigan's defense did against Iowa's offense.

Starts at 1:20:45

Michigan normally goes for it on 4th and short but when you can kick a field goal to go up against Iowa, you just go for it. How is Iowa so bad at QB sneak? Semaj Morgan did a thing, the guy who tackled him might be the most athletic person on the field, though. Jake Thaw was the "just field this punt" guy. How does James Turner compare to Jake Moody?

MUSIC:

• “War Pigs”— Black Sabbath
• “Going Down South”— RL Burnside
• “Dyslexic Heart”—  Paul Westerberg
• “Across 110th Street”

Things Discussed:

• Tony Petitti is an idiot.
• A little basketball.

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.

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] 

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.

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.

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    

• Helpful iTunes subscribe link
• General podcast feed link
• What's with the theme music?

We lost a friend yesterday. Craig did a lot for us. They have a GoFundMe set up to help support his wife and son.

Things Discussed:

• Michigan at the Combine: People who watch the games love the Michigan guys; stats people don't.
• JJ looks like a first rounder. If (Will Johnson: "when") Sainristil runs under 4.5 he's going to move up too. Lions love having this program down the road because they draft on personality, and they know they can trust the guys who come out of this program are their kinds of guys. Also they can get in all these extra meetings.
• Everybody's moved up: Wilson blew up at the senior bowl, Keegan's moving up, Zinter's leg is in better shape, Sainristil, McCarthy, Corum…
• JJ vs other QBs: Williams seemed to wilt when his team did; you know JJ isn't built that way. Seth: Bust factor for QBs has as much to do with which franchise drafts you and how they bring you along.
• Portal closed: Sabb was a loss but Michigan is virtually intact from the departure of Jim Harbaugh; well done Sherrone and staff.
• QB competition update, Sam says Orji is the leader—he has to have the passing accuracy—but there's not going to be a lock until the portal closes. Denegal most improved. Seth: Leak/Tebow set up. Plan is redshirt Jadyn Davis (he and coaches both have this plan), Davis Warren was hurt but seems out of the conversation?
• WR: They need to get size in the portal. Don't sleep on Tyler Morris.
• Who's your best lineup? It's Edwards and Mullings and Loveland on the field.
• Hockey: Pythagorean W/L shows they're a good team, but they've struggled to finish weekends. Swept ND put them in 14th, which is minimum to get in the Tournament. Need a good weekend in Minnesota to get in as an at-large; if they win Friday and get more points than Minnesota on Saturday they move past them in B10 standings and get Penn State in the BTT. Bad weekend and they need to get to the championship round of the BTT.
• Reasons? Transition to Naurato damaged recruiting, injuries, lost their goalie to MSU hiring the goalie's dude.
• Officiating has been a big part of the story. Lost Hallum for the year and McGroarty for a long time on non-called penalties. Uncanny calls were the only thing keeping ND in Saturday's game. It is appalling how this team has been officiated, and it's a big reason they're in the place they are.
• Football defensive staff? Michigan is taking their time with background checks. After Stalions, Shemy, Shoop, Weiss… (RIP) Speaking of RIP,
• Craig Roh: Was a big reason we had anything to cheer about in the years between the titles. See GoFundMe above.

Things Discussed:

• PSU loses a lawsuit where Franklin was overruling his doctors. Let's not throw stones; Harbaugh never overruled his doctors but the case did reference a Harbaugh quote and it's not hard to imagine players were often pressured to play while injured. Ben St-Juste's story does exonerate him a bit. Solution: this is something the NCAA should be rigorously enforcing.
• Utah State gets nailed for tampering: COI still doing what they do.
• Seth's solution: formalize the system that used to be under the table: Scholarships (Tuition/Room/Board/Stipend) stay nontaxable if you're an undergrad playing at the school you signed with out of high school, once you're a grad student you get a 2nd school that's nontaxable. Incentivizes schools to invest in players' educations, incentivizes players to stay at one school and get their degrees, emphasizes the value that college sports have over all other professional sports.
• NCAA's solution: get rid of walk-ons in football and basketball. This runs away from what they're best at, but it would help the USFs out there who want to play at being D-I without investing in more sports.
• Torvik's early rankings like B10 teams: let's talk about how useful these stats are.
• Opponent portal pickups. Fresno State got a nifty slot bug from Missouri State that I'm pretty sure we're gonna see. Texas lost a CB but picked up a better one, didn't replace the DTs like they wanted to. Oregon got better, look like the class of the conference this year.
• Vibes: Oregon looks like a title contender, Ohio State looks like less than the sum of their parts. They'll always be good because they are never satisfied, but other than Caleb Downs they mostly just got better where they were already good. Think Michigan's worse than they were last year but they're not 10-point dogs.

Things Discussed:

• Maryland Game: JJ looked very off, felt like a Lloyd Carr game with the playcalling.
• Pressure: Either Michigan got two guys free or zero.
• Very vanilla. Maryland moved the ball underneath two-deep with well-planned RPOs.
• Frightening thing was Wallace and Johnson getting beat, Wallace even when they had a cushion. Saw them go with McBurrows at nickel and Sainristil at corner because of it.
• Maryland run game is like OSU's: stretch and counter. Michigan mostly shut it down with their light boxes.
• Best defensive line ever? Deepest certainly.
• Barnhart vs Jones? Think Jones acquitted himself well, showed he can play. Might be closer at RT than we think.
• JJ vs Ohio State: is that the game? Brian/Craig think it's a defensive struggle. Seth/Sam thing JJ will go out and win it.
• Missed Harbaugh wrt McCarthy: former QB who normally chats with JJ after every drive. Saw them move away from JJ after his breakdowns at the end of the 1st half, want the ball in his hands.
• Ohio State: Don't give up big plays like last year. Defensive line is improved, starting DTs are good, secondary has improved especially Denzel Burke. JTT is still more tools than production but DO NOT TRY TO BLOCK HIM WITH A TIGHT END.
• Gonna say that again: DO NOT TRY TO BLOCK JTT WITH A TIGHT END.
• Offensively they really miss that superstar QB. Stroud was lethal against Michigan last year. Their Ts and C aren't as good—they give up pressure on stunts and twists. Running game gets explosives with Henderson and 2 extra yards than the blocking with Trayanum, but blocking doesn't give them much.
• McCord: Gonna be under more pressure, Michigan is going to zone him and confuse him. OSU got some bailouts the last 2 years from Stroud.
• Problem: even playing off Michigan's secondary is vulnerable. Marvin Harrison is the best of some great receivers to come through there. Teams that man up on them get burned crispy; Harrison is going to burn a lot of NFL cornerbacks too. Weird zones are going to get McCord struggling to find them.
• Both defenses in this game have an Ain't Played Nobody problem. Notre Dame was able to run the ball on Ohio State.

1 hour and 47 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.

Starts at 1:00

We’re not going to talk about basketball, but this is mostly a basketball segment. Discussing Sanderson’s departure from the program from Sanderson’s perspective. It’s unbelievable that Juwan didn’t get fired for this. Basketball standings are the Big Ten West’s revenge. There’s no reason to believe that Michigan will be good next year, teams that mainly use the portal have not been that great and Michigan probably won’t even fill the roster. This is year five, that’s on Juwan. If Juwan is retained, add it to the list of Warde Manual bag fumbles. Apparently Warde is good with speaking to people and managing non-revenue sports. Has he even had to make a hire in major sport? Sherrone Moore and Naurato were a given. Warde likes to just sit around and wait for whatever happens to happen. Even Graig Ross says this is one of the worst teams since he was in school. If Juwan gets fired it won’t be until the end of the season. Do you enjoy watching the Combine? Dave does, Brian does not. The NFL draft will be fun to watch this year because there will be a lot of Michigan players getting drafted and every time they do there will be a lot of highlights of Ohio State getting dunked on. Mike Sainristil knew Washington’s plays because Mike Sainristil is football smart. It was Mikey all along!! According to scouts, all of Michigan’s offensive linemen are two years ahead of everyone else in terms of maturity. Cornelius Johnson tested out amazingly. He didn’t get a ton of targets but he bailed out JJ a lot, and that skill set will translate to the NFL. Blake Corum changed his skill set from speed back to inside guy based on what the team needed.

Starts at 31:56 The defense only lost Keon Sabb to the portal, they look just as loaded this year as last year but without the ability to roll out nine defensive linemen. This should be Derrick Moore’s blowup year. Josiah Stewart came on in a big way after struggling a bit the first half of the season. Is it time for TJ Guy to get some serious snaps? Will he become “TJ Dude”?? Brian’s head almost explodes trying to talk about the defensive tackles. Mason Graham will be the best defensive tackle in the country and should be a 99 in NCAA 25. And then the other guy is KENNETH GRANT. Trey Pierce looked fine as a true freshman but not much you can tell about him yet. It should be the best defensive line in the country, just need 3rd string depth. Linebackers lose Barrett and Colson and is a little more up inI the air. Hausmann was a good rotational piece, Rolder looked like a player as a true freshman but was rough against Ohio State. Jaishawn Barham comes in from Maryland and is a good run stuffer. These three are the makings of a good linebacker corps. 

Starts at 54:48

Takes hotter than JJ McCarthy's draft stock. Will Johnson will be the highest graded player in NCAA 25 (unless you use The Seth Roster, then it will be Mason Graham). He’ll basically be Charles Woodson. The safeties look stacked and apparently Michigan is looking to get Quinten Johnson back. Makari Paige started in 2020, Rod Moore started in 2021, they’ll be fine. Once again, the biggest question mark is the second cornerback. Also for as amazing as Mike Sainristil was, we might still be underrating him because he was the glue. Whoever you insert at the second corner spot is going to be the least experienced corner on the field and they’ll be replacing the most experienced corner in Josh Wallace. Will they go to the post spring roster and pick up another corner again? They’ll still be one of the best defenses in America. Martindale will be a drop off because Minter was running coverages Marvin Harrison had never seen before but it shouldn’t be a major drop off. Seth is Brian’s Mike Hart. It’s an Alex Drain-ass coaching staff (Alex if you’re reading this, Brian’s words. Not mine).

Starts at 1:29:36 Michigan splits with Minnesota but there's chaos on the college hockey bubble. Michigan moves up from 14th to 13 in Pairwise and Pairwise Predictor has them at 69% in. In game 2, Michigan goes up 3-0 in the first period and ends up winning in OT. Michigan's goalie looked great in the first two periods of this game but gave up 5 goals in the 3rd. When things start to go wrong, everything spirals out of control. Is this team on par for what we expected them to be this year? Kind of. 

MUSIC:

• "Higher" cover — Randy and Jason Sklar
• “It Was Agatha All Along" — Kristen-Anderson Lopez
• “Rich Baby Daddy”—  Drake, Sexyy Red, SZA
• “Across 110th Street”

Things Discussed:

• Storytime with Craig Ross: Transactional vs Transformational.
• Recruiting: Class of 2025 is like Class of 2023, which was a pair of three-stars and Raylen Wilson out the door at this point in the cycle.
• Brady Hart on Ohio State: "Not everyone's got the same culture as Michigan." Got the JJ to build a class around. Sam points out that's been their best classes (Henson, etc.)
• Sam: Michigan had four QBs they were heavy on, #1 was probably going to Oklahoma no matter what, and they got Hart on campus early in case he wanted to commit before the other two.
• Other guys. RB Jasper Parker has offers from everybody except LSU; do they think they can come back and get him? Has those great feet (like Karan) and is a good receiver.
• Jordon Davison: OSU/Michigan battle despite OSU having 2 backs already.
• Michigan really wants: S JaDon Blair, might be a ND lean (really likes Marcus Freeman, being next Kyle Hamilton but better, has known their staff longer than Morgan). But interesting thing from Blair re: Michigan: "They are lagging behind no-one on NIL."
• Their #1 overall target is probably CB Shamari Earls, who's a Will Johnson-caliber dude. Other schools did a great job negative recruiting against Steve Clinkscale. Gonna be a fight with Georgia though. Seth: If you want to prove to me that Michigan's NIL is lagging behind nobody, win a battle with Georgia. Noted: Will Johnson is probably one of the best-paid players in the country. But UGA is going to pay a lot up-front. At least we'll know before the season it seems. If Michigan wins it's because they need a CB immediately in 2025.
• Pac12 teams in the Big Ten: They're already Big Ten teams. They've got Jestin Jacobs at middle linebacker: that's a Big Ten team. A purple team with Michigan's former kick returner at slot receiver: that's a Big Ten team. USC's the weirdo, but as far as QB situations in the Big Ten go, a guy who played as much as Aidan Chiles did last year after being in Lincoln Riley's system for 4 years is pretty dang good.

1 hour and 41 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.

Starts at 1:00

It’s coachin’ search time, baby. Time for Warde Manuel to finally make a decision (unless it’s Beilein). One last look back at the Juwan Howard era. He came in with a good Beilein roster and brought in Franz Wagner. It felt like a seamless transition but then after that he just didn’t have a wing on his roster. Juwan was finding guys who were already shaped for the NBA and not having them prove anything. He also couldn’t play the portal well, it feels like he was too used to managing NBA rosters. It’s not a zero tolerance policy if you keep having incidents happen. 

Starts at 27:30 Greg McDermott (Creighton), Randy Bennett (Saint Mary’s), Nate Oats (Alabama), and Tony Bennett (NTTB, Virginia) are off the table. John Beilein has been brought up but it feels like a pipe dream. He’s older and not familiar with the NIL era. Shaka Smart probably won’t be interested because football is king at Michigan. Is Michigan a better gig than Marquette? Richard Pitino Jr - needs a better resume than what he did at Minnesota. Brian’s guy is Niko Medved out of Colorado State who has improved the Rams tremendously. He can find weird guys from weird places under the radar and he coaches them up. Also, everyone seems to like him. Darian DeVries (Drake) is a candidate who coached under Medved. His teams seem to be really well coached but are short (they can avoid turnovers and can’t offensive rebound at all but can maniacally clean up their own glass). Dusty May at Florida Atlantic reached the Final Four last year and had a Kenpom top 20 team. This is his 6th year as a college coach but only the second where his team has been good. Amir Abdur-Rahim at South Florida built Kennesaw State from a one win team to a tournament team. Mark Pope of BYU has had top 20 Kenpom teams in three of the five years he’s been at BYU. 

Starts at 1:02:25

Michigan beats Minnesota for the third straight year in the Big Ten Tournament at Mariucci. This will lock up an NCAA Tournament bid and now they play Michigan State in East Lansing for their third straight Big Ten Tournament title. This was probably Michigan’s most complete game of the season. The second period was extremely dominant but felt like they should’ve scored more. Michigan is 1-3 against MSU so far this year after winning their first game 7-1. They’ll likely be a 3 seed. Do you or do you not want to draw Denver?

Starts at 1:27:33 Hey, did you hear Michigan sniped Tony Alford from Ohio State? What if he hates Ryan Day more than Michigan?? Who knows. This is a good sign that people want to work for Sherrone Moore. Wink Martindale is learning a lot about the defense from Rod Moore, so maybe the Mike Sainristil effect won’t be as big as we thought. Newly hired defensive line coach Greg Scruggs got an OWI, which was not his first. He’s been suspended indefinitely. Spring football starts today!

MUSIC:

• "Fancy" — Drake
• “If You Don't Want My Love" — Jalen Ngonda
• “Gettin' to the Point”—  Panda Bear and Sonic Boom
• “Across 110th Street”

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.

56 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: The Sunny Part...Then the Cloudy Part

• Stories to Tell
• First Shutout Since
• A Wonderful Start
• And...........Again

Segment 2: What Else Happened?

• Old Friends
• Big Ten Scores
• The Little Green Men

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Electric Love" -- Børns
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

1 hour and 11 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Whatever That Was

• Opener
• Early Dominance
• Whatever That Call Was
• Goaltending and Other Oddities

Segment 2: NCAA Tournament Preview

• North Dakota Fighting Not Sioux
• MSU again?? Maybe Western.
• The Other Regionals
• Final Thoughts and Takeaways

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "I Don't Wanna Talk" -- Glass Animals
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Things Discussed:

• LSU is out of NIL money? They got outbid for an MSU DT and Brian Kelly says "We don't buy players." That'll be news to Bryce Underwood; hope his checks clear.
• Spartans getting in their feelings about Jaden Mangham possibly transferring to Michigan (or Ohio State or Minnesota). Want to prevent him from graduating. There's an intrastate program that allows you to finish your MSU degree at Michigan. Why can't this work for other guys? It's a formal in-state program. The reason academic programs like this don't associate with athletic transfers that much is schools other than Michigan are good at making exceptions for athletes. Michigan should have done so for Terrence Shannon; they probably were right to turn down Caleb Love.
• Brian: Good time to be a Michigan fan; long-term prognoses for OSU and MSU not great.
• Dusty May's presser: Best first presser ever? He's a great communicator/teacher who gave us a lot of information, addressed exact questions. He was watching OSU games for fun? Seth: He was probably watching OSU games because he thought he'd be coaching them.
• Dusty's offense: two point guards, wants all of his players to be facilitators so the ball can't get stuck, can't get trapped. All of these guys have an out: good passers or at worst they can shoot it over anybody. Kinda like Beilein's where the PG with a 64-bit decision tree. Dusty May wants lots of guys with 16-bit decision trees. Tough part: lots of teaching to get it down.
• Rubin Jones perfect glue guy. I'm calling this now: I'm the #1 Rubin Jones fan around here. No takesies.
• Competition in the Big Ten? Oregon and UCLA will be decent, MSU standing pat with a bubble team, OSU is new coaching, Purdue graduated everybody. Michigan will probably be…top 4, 6-seed? Expect them to lose some games early as they learn to play with each other.
• Roster May built is ideal but for a star. I call it the Dayenu roster because everybody's one flaw from being in the NBA. Craig: May wants to be fun as well as good. Seth: Sounds like he's one of us.
• Football in the break: Terrance Brooks. Watched him vs Washington last year, when he was getting burned because he was in man all day. He's..Vincent Gray? Technically solid, smart, big, good ball skills, not a burner. Need to give him help; Michigan would be a good fit because they use so much poach coverage to take away the post. Texas was terrible because they were playing so much press quarters with no help on the double post and fade. Michigan takes that away.
• Schools cutting sports because of paying athletes? They'll say that, but they shouldn't. They're paying just 10% of their budget to players; pro leagues pay 55%. Will happen at the mid-major level because their conferences don't make sense and football is already a massive expenditure that they finance with student fees. Brian: that's a marketing fee; they can just cut back on marketing.
• What we want to see from Congress: your cap is based on how many scholarships you give out.

Things Discussed:

• Pre-Show: Seth & Craig are on. Craig says punk rock and opera are the same thing.
• Preview of Texas: they thought they'd get DTs. Respect for Ethan Burke out there. Most concerned about our secondary making some mistakes because they're not Sainristil and Rod Moore anymore.
• Paul Finebaum: Ryan Day is the king of excuses. Talk about his reaction to Erin Dunstan leaving OSU for a better job at Michigan where she has more connections (he cussed her out and had her escorted from the premises). What's up with OSU? They still haven't come to terms with the problem about themselves, so all of those expensive pieces are going to be less than they would be elsewhere.
• Michigan slow recruiting? Had to replace the staff, Sherrone Moore has built an Alabama-level recruiting department but the proceeds of that are long-term, not going to prevent this from being a transition class.
• Craig: Why is pass defense more expensive than rush defense? Seth: Because NFL offenses spend on pass offense.
• Is Wink too aggressive? He talked about how he used more sim pressures on Mahomes, that it's a determination made on personnel and opponent, not philosophy.
• Sam: Aamir Hall looks like Josh Wallace But Fast. Ricky is more of a nickel corner (read: dime).

Things Discussed:

• Dusty May's new staff: got himself a D guy and a recruiter.
• Good sign that he's addressing his first perceived weaknesses, bodes well for gathering the best players from FAU and bringing Khani Rooths back.
• Akeem Miskdeen: Like Dusty May, nobody has a bad word to say.
• Rebuilding a basketball roster: Feels confident they can get Davis and Goldin and others from FAU, adding Miskdeen gets them in the market for the Oklahoma State guys in the portal and Rooths, whom Miskdeen was recruiting to Georgia. Also after Yale's stretch C, Wolf. All of these guys are grad transfers or Yale. Say yes to a proven Big Ten player who's got a chip on his shoulder in Essegian, even if he's not a perfect fit for May's offense. Can add pieces from FAU's class to get some Zak & Stu types.
• Will they come? They all like May enough that they didn't leave FAU after going to the Final Four. Trey Townsend (Oakland) probably goes to MSU, isn't much of a fit because he's not a perimeter guy (35% but on just a handful of attempts from the arc).
• Will the NIL be right? Michigan won't commit the same mistakes again.
• Hockey: Two of the best third periods in program history. Has this been a turnaround in focus or in luck? Kind of both, but also Marshall Warren has come on, and now they're getting good shifts from everyone down the roster.
• The Michigan 2.0: GuloGulo reminded us Nazar did the same in his first game.
• Now we just need the most iconic fight in college hockey history to have the Gordie Howe Hat Trick.
• Ira: Most satisfying playoff win? Seth & Brian: Hell no! [both start naming bangers at Yost].
• Seth: I don't hate MSU hockey fans. Brian: You must have a short memory. But rivalry doesn't feel hateful right now because MSU was so bad.
• Can they win the Frozen Four? They're facing the three best one seeds after knocking off #4 and #5 in the country, have a puncher's chance but the Boston schools are loaded to the gills with NHL prospects and Denver is Denver. Twenty percent? Will take it.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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”

2 hour and 11 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, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, Human Element, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and INTRODUCING TO THE PODCAST: Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning.

Starts at 1:00

EDITOR NOTE: I am also spending a lot of time compressing Brian's voice. The worst night game to have is the crappy night game, especially when USC Washington and Alabama LSU are on! It says something that JJ hit 60% of his passes and threw for over 300 yards and everyone's like "what's wrong with JJ?" When do you want to save a play and when do you want to put it on tape? Donovan Edwards has not been utilized properly, are they saving a package for him against Penn State? Starting tackles gave up some sacks but otherwise played pretty well (Purdue has a pair of NFL defensive ends). Is the way to beat JJ by playing a lot of zone defense?

2. Defense vs Purdue

Starts at 43:20

Michigan wasn't getting sacks against Hudson Card but they were pressuring him on every play. It'll be curious to see who actually rotates against Penn State. Starting to feel like we're getting the 2021 version of Rod Moore, which is encouraging. Junior Colson took a step in the right direction, Josh Wallace also played well. All of the ends are a higher level than we predicted at the beginning of the year.

Starts at 1:02:36

Takes hotter than Santa Ono's letter to Tony Petitti. Why is Purdue football every five years just two NFL defensive ends and nothing else? The 4th and one felt like a good decision, the formation wasn't. Michigan hasn't kicked a field goal in forever so it was good to see it still works. Starters played well into the 4th quarter.

Starts at 1:25:22

Penn State - 51 Maryland - 15 Maryland turns the ball over four times and rushes for -49 yards. Yup, we're at November Maryland, they are no longer a trap game. When Drew Allar can set his feet and have time to throw he looks like the five star he's supposed to be, but when you pressure him he's shaky. They probably won't be able to run against Michigan but they still have one of the best defenses in college football.

Ohio State - 35 Rutgers - 16 Rutgers is leading 9-7 at halftime but throws a pick-six while driving in the 3rd quarter. Rutgers outgains Ohio State 361-328. We experienced for a moment what it was like being a Rutgers fan and it wasn't fun.

Iowa - 10 Northwestern - 7

Neither team gets more than 200 yards and Iowa is alone in first place in the West. He can't keep getting away with it. Indiana - 20 Wisconsin - 14 How did Indiana win this? Uhh, one good pass play? Wisconsin outgain Indiana 344-261. Indiana took the lead and just waited for the time to run out before Wisconsin came back. Michigan State - 20 Nebraska - 17 Nebraska gets back to their old self, turning the ball over three times. Illinois - 27 Minnesota - 26 Illinois wins on an improbable last minute drive with their backup QB. A disappointing game for anyone who didn't want to see Iowa in the Big Ten Championship Game.

MUSIC:

• “Make Me Thomas”— supercooper! ft. Jawn Legend
• “The Stones I Throw”— Levon and the Hawks
• “Are You Gonna Run”—  Low Cut Connie
• “Across 110th Street”

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, SignalWire where we recorded this, and introducing to the podcast, Autograph: Rewarding Fans, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast.

Featured Musician: Chirp

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: The things said.]

---------------------

starts at the top

No news unless the Big Ten hands down a suspension to a coach who's already in Happy Valley, which would on its owns be grounds for a judge to issue an immediate injunction. We infer from Michigan's letter that the B10's case right now is as substantial as your average Ohio State twitterer, and that putting this in the realm of courts where facts matter more than what amoral hypocrites want to believe dramatically alters the parameters. Local sports radio probably isn't where you should be going for investigative news—the thing about Michigan having other schools for Stalions operations feels bogus on the surface.

The Penn State defense is very good. The engine is the ends—even if Chop Robinson isn't full-go they have three more very good ones. DTs aren't bad; there's one whom Alex likes but Seth thinks he's exploitable. They blitz a lot, play a lot of man, got beat by Ohio State because Kalen King really isn't the star he's made out to be. Manny Diaz effect. The way Michigan loses this game is turnover.

starts at 26:39

They torch bad defenses who can't pressure Drew Allar, who's 39% accurate when off-platform and 78% accurate when his feet are set. We saw the same thing last year. Only have one receiver. RBs are having Donovan Edwards-like years—Allen can do RB things but Singleton is kind of a gadget guy. OL cannot run block; they can pass protect okay. Theo Johnson is having to be their 2nd receiver. Why pick Michigan over the spread on this one: PSU is bult to blow up a UMass but fall off a cliff when you can match up to them athletically. Stunts are a big problem for them. Wild that they can't develop OL; Seth notes he talked to recruit's dad who said his kid's already more developed than Fashanu.

starts at 45:27

They're scoring! Dug is seeing the court well, though he won't be shooting 60 percent with a 40 percent assist rate. Nkamhua has been a revelation—immediately a captain, exactly what we want for a one-and-done. Imagine Tray Jackson instead of Caleb Houstan or Jett Howard. Quantum leap defensively. Having athletic defenders out there means you can use a T-Will or a Tschetter because they're not so athletically exposed. Need a backup PG—gonna be a nervous few months waiting until Llewellen gets healthy.

starts at 57:36

Our Michigan homerism apparently extends to defending JJ McCarthy's performance as REALLY GOOD YOU GUYS, except this is a defensible position (and PFF agreed). His marginal throws are still very catchable, and when they're caught nobody notices. YMMV on 4 or 5 of them but even if then it was a excellent day from him. Not a good day from the OL; Seth thinks these guys are all guards recruited for a run-first offense and this is kind of what happens against an opponent who makes you pass-first and has two great edge rushers. Defensively it's really hard to beat Michigan because they can put five guys against your five guys and someone will win a block to get your back. It was the Will Johnson Show otherwise—he was doing things away from the ball as well as coming to it.

This year we are partnering with The Blind Pig for bumper music, since that's where I've seen most of the bands I've been pushing anyways.

This is the week we're featuring the four-piece Ann Arbor band Chirp, which has a funky rock/jazz fusion thing going on. Their live shows are the main thing; they have a dedicated fanbase who remind me of Deadheads of a generation earlier even if the musical style isn't any more jam band than anything else. The music is bright and catchy and keeps you on your toes; they're at their best when just getting lost in the music because there's some real musicians with proggy ideas under all the good times. They've been touring since 2015 and return to the Pig next week.

Song choices:

• Solo
• By the Book
• Move

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

1 hour and 23 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: 5-4, Wisconsin

• A roller coaster first period
• Taking control of the game
• Giving it all away
• Is collapsing a thing?

Segment 2: 2-1, Wisconsin and Other Games

• We talk about the game we did not see...again
• Old Friends and Non-Conference
• Big Ten Teams
• A Mediocre Minnesota Matchup?

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Old Wisconsin Jubilee" -- Charlie Berens
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Things Discussed:

• Favorite basketball candidates. Craig has some off-the-wall ideas (Cornell's HC, Eli Brooks) but we have four we're mostly focused on, plus a pipe dream. Lavall Jordan: no, but floated the idea (Sam's) of Beilein doing a year with Lavall as AHC. Seth: don't like that. Let's get a coach in and start building a program, because that's a long-term deal.
• The four gettables (in probable order):
  • May: We may be competing with L'ville? Downside is you'd like to see it go longer.
  • Nedved: Seth & Brian like. Efficient from 2 vs Virginia: that's coaching.
  • Devries: Comes with his best player (his son). Has been doing more with less a long time.
  • Abdur-Rahim. Think he's an interesting idea, but after Devries, which is the "You can get that guy" line.
• McDermott? Sam thinks you kick the tires, make him say no. Seth & Brian: Okay, and then he'll say no. But maybe not says Sam.
• A fifth: Jerome Tang.
• Our brackets: Seth likes Creighton, Brian thinks Purdue breaks through (that's what happens when you lose to a 16 seed right?), Sam hasn't made his picks yet, Craig believes in McNeese State.

1 hour and 44 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, 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.

Starts at 1:00

Some of us would like to continue basking in the glory of the national championship and some (Brian) acknowledge that we must move on and start looking into the next season. There have already been some coaching changes since the last podcast. Wink Martindale's defense isn't that different from the Ravens defense (and it is not the Don Brown defense). Defensive line will still be elite, the big question is depth. Michigan's got too many safeties and not enough corners, move some? It's looking like Greg Scruggs, the Wisconsin defensive line coach, will be coming over. Linebackers coach positions is fuzzy. A lot of Michigan's offensive philosophy was probably coming from Sherrone Moore and Kirk Campbell so having that continuity is huge. Sherrone is helping tremendously at keep the team and culture together. 

Starts at 28:41

Who is the quarterback and what is the philosophy of this offense? Between Kalel Mullings, Donovan Edwards, Semaj Morgan, Colston Loveland, Max Bredeson, and Tyler Morris, there's a lot coming back to play with. How do you pass the ball with Alex Orji at quarterback and what is the run/pass split? If not Alex Orji at quarterback, then who? Even though they turn over the entire offensive line, the backups are upper classmen so it might be a Wisconsin situation where it's just the next line up. 

Starts at 47:58

Takes hotter than Keisei Tominaga (and that's the only mention of basketball on this podcast). If you want continuity with the offense, do you make Kalel Mullings RB1? How much should Donovan Edwards motion out as a receiver? What are the alternatives at QB if you go with Alex Orji and it doesn't work out? Jayden Denegal is probably the floor and he's Wilton Speight. Making a case for why the offensive line will be good again, ideally Andrew Gentry is the left tackle. Tyler Morris will be a good WR2 (behind whoever they motion out between Donovan Edwards or Colston Loveland). 

Starts at 1:29:51 Michigan has a sad hockey weekend and gets swept by Michigan State, losing the Iron D. These teams played fairly evenly but Michigan State has a goalie that can bail them out and Michigan doesn't. Michigan needs to be able to out-score their mistakes but they can't right now. Michigan basketball exists, goodbye! 

MUSIC:

• “Olivia”— Wolves of Glendale
• “Flamingos - CARRTOONS"
• “City Slicker”—  Ginger Root
• “Across 110th Street”

Things Discussed:

• Clink back! Outbid Harbaugh.
• Wink Martindale: If you want a Ravens guy he invented the Amoeba. He's not young and not gonna stick around, but he holds this team together, and when he leaves he might have Clinkscale ready to take over, which he isn't now.
• Matters if he's going to take one or two jobs (IE bring his guy) on staff because they need some recruiting juice if he's going to be a Mike Macdonald-level recruiter.
• Lee Aaliya: This should be the last straw for the NCAA. NCAA strung him along for five then came up with ridiculous demands: wanted an 18-year-old to have all of his grocery receipts and pay $15,000 (was it $1500?). Jamal Crawford, Mitch McGary: The NCAA is preventing kids who want to come to Michigan FOR THE EDUCATION from coming here, and it's hard at this point not to believe it's out of hatred for Michigan. Michigan should have signed him and dared the NCAA to come after them.
• NCAA vs Everybody: Dartmouth ruling will either stick if Dems retain White House, or get overturned by federal NLRB if Reps do, because of the party differences on unions (Craig: and grift!).
• Expect to see some legislation in the near future in Southern states that protect the donors who were paying kids under the table for all these years, because they have some big tax liabilities.

Things Discussed:

• Craig tells a story about spelling pronunciation, like how people pronounce the 't' in often for the first time since it disappeared in the 15th century.
• Nobody likes Chip Kelly you say? This isn't news. He's not there to bring the love; he's there to give them a running game because Michigan's been playing then six on eight on the box.
• Meta Game evolution: Kelly is there to give them a QB run game. Wink is going to blitz more because he has different talent now. Brown's problem was not enough difference-makers at DT; Wink has WJ, Graham and Grant and doesn't have Sainristil/Moore to call opponents' plays for them. 
• OSU going run QB? They have time to develop Sayin, can afford to go slowly because they have a 2-game cushion with their easier schedule.
• Portal recruiting: Seth wants Sam to stop giving us names—just do every recruitment like Rubin Jones. Lost a CB who got shredded in Texas's defense to Illinois, lost a DT to LSU, what's up Sam?
• Answer is they're probably getting two of their targets at safety so they can leave Zeke Berry at Nickel and Ja'den McBurrows can give them corner depth. Problem is Michigan isn't recruiting starters.
• Corner depth? Time is now for Jyaire. Want a guy from the portal. Sam thinks they have a dude in JoJo Edmonds coming in.
• Why is Michigan not offering the same NIL as LSU/OSU/USC? Donors haven't been conditioned for this. They were all just at Chad Tough, which it's hard to argue that's not a better use of your dollars than a second-string cornerback.
• After the break: Softball. Congrats on B10 championship. Next year looks great, with only Keke Tholl departing and bringing in JJ Putz's daughter. Got a lucky draw in B10 tourney, got a horrible draw in NCAAs.

Things Discussed:

• Petitti has to thread a needle because he's tied to Ohio State/Michigan State Twitter's version of events where having in-game scouting, video, and interpretations of a team's signs from coaches sharing it is fine, but having in-game video of a team's signs from a fan with an iPhone is a player-safety issue.
• He wants to say sign-stealing is this evil thing but the language he used in the letter very carefully pulls back right before saying it.
• Unprecedented things: NCAA sharing their investigation with the Big Ten, the Big Ten going after a member institution instead of protecting them from the NCAA, and the Big Ten commissioner allowing the other member schools to railroad him into sabotaging a member institution.
• Screwed up by going after Harbaugh with Malice. They clearly got Michigan's letter and had the lawyers try to get Harbaugh anyways. The midnight punishment and the maliciousness of Petitti's pursuit has turned Michigan into the sympathetic party. This is what scares a dishonest Buckeye bootlicker like Ari Wasserman the most: the haters are exposed, and people start to question where this "scandal" really comes from.
• Seth/Brian disagree on whether OSU wants to punish Michigan's players or get The Game canceled. Seth: Ryan Day still has to recruit at IMG. Brian: They hate Michigan that much, and the worst thing for Day is getting the brakes beat off of him again.
• Leaving the Big Ten? Sam says saber-rattling, Seth says take it seriously because there is no way Michigan can remain a member if Tony Petitti is the commissioner. When this is all over, how do we get a fair hearing?
• Possible future: show USC that they're in danger from this same thing (they are), see what Notre Dame is doing, maybe go after Texas, and then sad to say if this Ultra-conference gets any legs Ohio State will come. This is what the other Big Ten schools should be concerned about: other than OSU and to a much lesser degree Penn State, they all have sweet deals, and the way they lose it is if a Michigan or Ohio State no longer wants to share revenue with them. Rutgers, MSU, Northwestern, Indiana: if you are relegated to mid-majors in a decade, this is what you did.
• PSU game: Did you get the message? Michigan beat a Top 10 opponent by yelling "RUN" every down.
• Michigan had issues with their big OL package but extra gaps nerf Penn State's defensive advantages. They had to cancel their rush package entirely and the 5-star DEs they emphasize and stunts they practice are less valuable when those are happening many gaps away from the one we're attacking. Instead of the play turning on the athleticism of the PSU front seven it turns on whether a 210-pound safety can win a block against a 270-pound AJ Barner.
• After the show: We talk basketball but I didn't get a recording of it. We are very sorry we couldn't fit it in.

1 hour and 3 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Really Bad and then A Lot Better

• Who are we?
• A FAST Start
• BAD!
• A Completely Different Game

Segment 2: What Else Happened?

• First Half Takeaway
• Old Friends
• Big Ten Scores
• We Try Not to Talk About Stones

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "She's So Mean" -- Matchbox Twenty
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Things Discussed:

• Howard/Sanderson incident: Now you have to let it play out. Subordination or HR issue?
• Howard other than that: assessment isn't good. Biggest issue has been LSA's admissions policies.
• Iowa: Best game they've played all year.
• Rose Bowl: Get to Milroe early. They're 2021 Ohio State except they'll bring an extra guy into the box every play.

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, Champion Circle, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast, and SignalWire where we are recorded this.

Featured Musicians: Cut Worms

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: The things to be said.]

---------------------

starts at the top

Dominic Giudice ascends to start at center. We try to make this story fit bad stories past and it doesn't. What does make sense is they waited until it was fully happening to let people know it was happening. It's may just Giudice is that good. With Link there's a lot more evidence that it wasn't happening with Persi and Gentry—probably in pass pro—and that Link was just a matter of time recruit. Good news for him down the line. Never give up on an OL though. At quarterback, Orji threw three picks in a practice (after 1 all fall) to let Warren close some gap. Is it a ruse for Texas? Probably not, but we think Orji fits what Michigan wants to do better.

starts at 30:26

Depth is the question. Zeke Berry won the nickel job. He's more of a Peppers/Dax Hill than a Sainristil. They got a bunch of safeties so they could keep him at nickel. McBurrows is important depth there, also at CB, where Aamir Hall is Josh Wallace 2.0 so they're okay at 3-deep but 4? Linebacker depth is also a bit iffy after they played Rolder over Jaydon Hood, who's been playing well that Seth's seen. Gonna get LaMar Morgan a shirt with quotes from Wesley Walker about how practice is so different at Michigan. Appreciate the DTs when we have them; if Graham gets any better he's Suh.

starts 53:49

Big Ten isn't sustainable if they're going to have Rutgers-Iowa play nobody and Michigan and USC play all the contenders every year. Takes on scheduling Texas: it gives you another shot because you just have to win 1/3 big games instead of sweeping your few chances. Season predictions.

starts 1:02:58

They're pretty small, will have to pass quickly. Starting a Cade-like 5'11" quarterback who was efficient in the Mtn West last year and once backed up Dillon Gabriel at UCF. Also wee mite RBs and slots. Very small OL missing its best player. D is also small, though they have a USC transfer who graded out well to PFF for two years before getting benched last season. Lost an important LB and most of their secondary.   

Cut Worms is a nova '70s project by Max Clarke, who sounds like Buddy Holly singing over found tracks by George Harrison and Neil Young. Check them out on Spotify.

Song choices:

• "How Can It Be"
• "Baby Come Back"
• "Don’t Fade Away"

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

Things Discussed:

• Draft Takeaways: Nice that Saban kept being like "I love this dude!" Brian: Michigan and Iowa are the best two teams at developing talent; Michigan also recruits in an area where you win a national title if you outperform like that.
• Seth: Harbaugh recruited at the same level as previous Michigan coaches but where they were getting 20% to 33% of their players to the NFL, Harbaugh is putting *60 Percent* of his players in the League.
• JJ McCarthy: Threw as many passes in the first three Qs as the other guys. Would I trade Goff for JJ, Neil? Can't break up a team on a Super Bowl run, but JJ is more valuable than Goff by far; he's gonna be under team control for a long time.
• Junior Colson: Sam shares that Minter told him to go pro after the championship because he and Harbaugh were going to the league and they're gonna come get him.
• Amorion Walker: If he'd stayed at receiver he'd be the breakout player of the year, but he burned his redshirts both years and then was at cornerback and Ole Miss—that is a hard position to play, and it's probably gonna need to be next year before he's a breakout player.
• CJ Charleston: He's here to be a veteran presence. Sinagosa brought him over from YSU. Tough sell getting receivers.
• DT? Looks like PT wasn't there for their top prospect CJ West so they're moving on to the GVSU guy (Suggs).
• Jaden Mangham? Seth: YES TAKE ALL THE FALCONS! Brian: I don't want anybody who thought it was a good idea to play for Mel Tucker. He's also against taking anyone from Belleville.
• Break: Basketball recruits.
• Post-break: NCAA has an opportunity with House negotiations to sit across the table from *somebody* and create a sustainable future. Brian: Pendulum swung too far, single transfer rule was correct. Seth: Best thing would be to create an incentive formula that gets small schools out of a huge tax bill and makes players want to stay put.

You know what we forgot to do? Splice the Hot Takes segment we recorded into today’s podcast. Sorry for the audio content explosion but we couldn’t have one without the other.

It’s also an opportunity to mention the Sklars are coming to Detroit at the end of February.

2 hours and 11 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, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, Human Element, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and INTRODUCING TO THE PODCAST: Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning.

Starts at 1:00

There was an initial reaction to be nervous about this game due to the history of this rivalry but Michigan does not care. Seth got an Epic Double Bird from a Michigan State player. We love this team. The story of Mike Sainristil and Michael Barrett are what this era of Michigan football are all about. They're such dorks (this is not a diss). Michigan fans absolutely drowned out Spartan Stadium in this game. JJ had a Tom Brady throw in his touchdown pass to Colston Loveland. When the pocket breaks down, JJ is like Houdini. If you let JJ sit in the pocket, he hits his dig routs and you die. If you rush him, it's even worse! Alex Drain's pre-season hot take about AJ Barner was accurate! The run game was a bit stagnant, though. MSU was prepared for the RPS. It's funny that JJ is having his Heisman campaign going on but opposing defenses are still saying "grr we gotta stop the run."

2. Defense vs Michigan State

Starts at 45:30

Michigan State was simply not ready for the smoke here. Michigan went back to rotating a lot because this was over by the 4th drive. Why are you not blocking Mason Graham or Braiden McGregor? Derrick Moore had a good game by beating tackles. You rotate out Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham comes back out so... how do you beat that? Rod Moore was in on the final drives of the game. Junior Colson played a great game, is he the only weakness on this defense? And if so, how do you approach this defense if he's playing well?

Starts at 1:05:19

Takes hotter than the seat of whoever put a seemingly innocuous video quiz up on the Michigan State scoreboards. If Michigan switched their offense and defense against Purdue, who should play what position? Clock management at the end of the first half is a point of discussion. Aside from the results, it was one of Jim Harbaugh's best two-minute drills of his career at Michigan. DENTAL PLAN. LISA NEEDS BRACES. We couldn't even get to Segment 4 without having to talk about James Franklin's game theory.

Starts at 1:25:47 Ohio State - 20 Penn State - 12 Penn State's offense cannot do anything. Ohio State has Marvin Harrison Jr., they win, the end. Penn State only gave up 20 points, was there anything they could have even done differently? Some of Penn State's play calls were incredible stupid, what are you doing, James Franklin? Penn State ran the Tecmo Bowl Flea Flicker but they ran it out of a play they never run. Ohio State backup QB Devin Brown went out of this game so if Kyle McCord gets hurt, who is even the next guy up? Minnesota - 12 Iowa - 10 The funniest and saddest game of the week. Iowa knew their best chance of winning this game was Cooper DeJean getting a punt return and he had an amazing return get called back because he technically waved his hand. Was it easily to interpret that as a fair catch signal? Could Iowa still win the west? Nebraska - 17 Northwestern - 9 Another hideous Big Ten West game, 257 yards to 248. Is Nebraska looking at possibly seven wins this season? It'll be interesting to see what happens when they go against Maryland. Wisconsin - 25 Illinois - 21 Illinois booted this one away. Wisconsin wins off of 18 4th quarter points. Wisconsin might still be the favorite to win the Big Ten West? Rutgers - 31 Indiana - 14 Rutgers is going bowling!! BryMac, we have tickets for you. "Penn State is Iowa with a finished basement."

MUSIC:

• “I Saw The Sign”— Ace Of Base
• “Signs”— Kodak Black
• “Signs”—  Five Man Acoustical Jam
• “Across 110th Street”

1 hour and 20 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Friday Flop

• Opener
• Sloppy Even Period
• Penalty Period
• Pointless Period

Segment 2: Saturday Roller Coaster

• The First Two Periods
• The Rest of the Game
• Old Friends and Around the League
• Oh No, You Again?

[Player after THE JUMP]

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Gopher Mambo - Remastered 2009" -- Billy May, Gozzo, Yma Sumac, The Rico Mamba Orchestra
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

wsg Steve Lorenz.

THINGS WE JUST JUMPED OVER:

• Hello: Lugard Edokpayi
• Maryland LB Jaishawn Barham committed.
• Early Signing Day Primer.

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, SignalWire where we recorded this, and introducing to the podcast, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast.

Featured Musicians: Champagne Saints

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: The things said.]

---------------------

starts at the top

This used to not be so boring, but Michigan put this class together awhile ago. We launched at the same time Jaishawn Barham and Lugard Edokpayi committed so we're going to do the defense first.

• Edge: Michigan lost a bunch of guys and still ended up with one of the best classes in memory. Baxter and Edokpayi are basketball player/Taco Charlton-David Ojabo like potential 1st rounders once they develop, and they got a Mike Morris in Dominic Nichols as well, and teams like Wisconsin were coming for him late.
• DT: Owen Wafle was a big ND flip, has a Kris Jenkins get-off/body, was a sneaky good pickup, didn't wear a jacket for the OSU game because he doesn't get cold. Manuel Beigel is a freaky German they need to see in pads for awhile. Ted Hammond committed so early we don't remember him but he was supposed to be a 3-4 DE or off-tackle. Deyvid Palepale had a weird recruitment, got booted from his team in Pittsburgh for a tweet, committed to USC over Michigan and PSU who both thought they were getting him, is Penei Sewell's cousin and grew up in Alaska. Story goes he got back in touch with Michigan after Kenneth Grant ran down Kaytron Allen.
• LB: Missed Aaron Chiles, got their Josh Ross in Jeremiah Beasley. Played a ton of football for Belleville, might also be a running back?
• DB: Only three guys after they couldn't pry two dudes out of Ohio, but moved on immediately to Jo'Ziah Edmond who was committed to Ryan Walters at Purdue and shot up to a 4-star after. Also got CB/Nickel Jeremiah Lowe after missing on Boo Carter, think if they bulk him up they have their feisty nickel with outside versatility. Jacob Oden is a safe safety in the mode of Tyree Kinnell.
• ATH: Don't sleep on Cole Sullivan, who's probably ticketed for the Jaylen Harrell position, because he is a crazy athlete, going to be on the punt block team immediately. Mason Curtis maybe was supposed to grown into an edge or stay a safety but isn't a linebacker. Don't forget about Jaden Smith (Brian did), because he's got Uche-level bend and the speed to play linebacker or safety—could be a Micah Parsons Lite.

starts at 40:57

• QB: Everyone has their take why Jadyn Davis fell from 1st overall when this class started to middle 4-star. Height, time, doesn't make enough big plays, doesn't have THE arm, isn't as high of a pro prospect. Very cerebral player. Brian thinks he's a slightly more athletic Cade McNamara.
• HB: Jordan Marshall is a dude. Not quite Blake Corum twitch but a bigger version of the same Mike Hart-like guy with great vision who churns. Micah Ka'apana is more of a home run hitter, like him in a stretch offense because he puts his foot in the ground and goes. Donovan Edwards as a running back.
• WR: Hard to recruit when you don't use them. Channing Goodwin is a legacy, sort of a Greg Mathews possession receiver who isn't that fast; Michigan wanted his teammate Jordan Shipp. But Goodwin is good enough that people knock Jadyn Davis so which is it? Seth is higher on I'Marion Stewart, who's a Roman Wilson or Ronnie Bell (7v7 star, can jump) fast guy who may figure early as a returner if that's not Semaj Morgan's role.

starts at 1:08:08

• TE: Brady Prieskorn and Hogan Hansen are more highly rated Michigan tight ends but still Michigan tight ends so they'll be great. Hansen is the guy Lorenz is stumping for; he plays in a Wing-T offense so he has a lot of blocking experience. Prieskorn is the more Lovelandesque as a 6'6" receiver who wins contested balls on the regular and needs to learn blocking.
• OL: Payoff for back-to-back Joe Moore awards. Headliner is Andrew Sprague, a Jake Long-prototypical left tackle prospect except Michigan suggested having him at RT and Blake Frazier, son of Steve, playing LT. Frazier is athletic and would work well if they want to do more zone. But the interior guys are not that. Ben Roebuck plays at St. Ed's with the Armstrong twins and that tells you the difference between what Michigan (brainy maulers like Trevor Keegan) and Ohio State (light-footed and lengthy pass protectors) are looking for at guard. Luke Hamilton is another pure Ohio mauler who's changed his body shape and helped them win so many battles in Ohio. Jake Guarnera was the #1 center on their board, is taller and stronger than the other guys they were looking at.

starts at 1:31:14

Best player, sleepers, top draft pick, guys who got away. We also discuss Jaishawn Barham who committed today, and Michigan's other portal targets and positions of need. Also discuss Idaho WR Gatlin Bair, a Xavier Worthy-level athlete who's probably deciding in February and then going on a two-year Mormon mission.

MGoReaders who haven't played a show since 2013, the Champagne Saints don't have a website, have two albums on Spotify, and a handful of mp3s have been in my Winamp rotation for ages. They've got a cool spacey thing going on in the empty spaces between the rock. I'd say check them out but I don't know where you could. Maybe in those wooden racks at Wazoo?

Song choices:

• Starbanger, Bang
• A Different Shade of Darkness
• The Winter Electric

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

• “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
• “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

Things Discussed:

• Story time with Craig: When did Pitbull become a thing.
• NCAA's four-year show-cause for Harbaugh: It's the same thing they gave Pruitt for personally giving players cash. 0% chance they levy this if he's still the coach at Michigan; it's performative nonsense and you can tell because everyone, including Thamel, are calling it such.
• Sam confuses Ohio State-hater Paul Finebaum for the similarly looking Michigan-hater Pete Finebaum. Both seem to know when you can make someone mad and you can't make Michigan fans mad right now. If you try to make me mad I just send you this photo.
• Warde playing the long game: Gene Smith was around forever and appointed numerous Ohio State people into positions.
• Who investigates NCAA leaks? NCAA. Don't hold your breath. NCAA is not the law; they're an organization that is set up on the premise of presidents will control their football programs.
• Hockey recruiting: Michigan is Alabama. USA Hockey has done a magnificent job of building up its development program and it has led to better hockey in the NCAA than the OHL, where Michigan and BC and BU and Minnesota are taking the top OHL draft prospects.
• Different? By degree. It's raising all ships too—the lower teams aren't getting NHL draft picks but they have overagers who are at the peak of their hockey. MSU is another program getting great players. Canadian players will come here now.
• NIL? It means something because money under the table from OHL wasn't actually a lot; it was like $15k or $20k before. Development track is expensive, and parents get to the end of it needing to refill their bank accounts.
• We love 5'9" defenders because they're awesome at offense.
• Football: Are they still the #1 school for development? Yeah. Seth: It's Abigail, it was Herbert, it's Tress, but it's mostly they identify guys who can develop and WANT to develop, and the culture where everybody is doing it.

1 hour and 25 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: You Got Us Believin'

• Opener
• Dream Start
• Solid Second
• True Finish with Fights

Segment 2: A Tale of Two Halves

• Michigan's Half of the Game
• Sparty's Half of the Game
• Old Friends and Around the League
• Talkin' Badgers

MUSIC

• NHL on ESPN Theme
• "Bad Romance" -- Lady Gaga
• Ice Hockey (NES) theme

1 hour and 58 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.

Starts at 1:00

Brian let Seth out of his basement where he works on the UFRs so he’s off exploring the world somewhere (France). Michigan hired Dusty May as the 18th head men’s basketball coach, and the news was dropped in the middle of a hockey championship game. The rumor was that John Beilein played a big part in getting May. Good job, Warde Manuel! This hire was sniped from Louisville, who thought they could hire him this weekend. Whatever happened to Louisville? Dusty May really turned around Florida Atlantic basketball, which was basically a non-existent program before Dusty. He’s had a great track record everywhere he’s been. Dusty May is able to keep his players, even after a Final Four run. 

Starts at 29:58 What makes Dusty May appealing as a coach? He seems to be really well liked. His teams shoot a lot of 3s and they shoot them pretty well. There are a lot of Beilein parallels.  Who comes back? Who do you try and get? Johnell Davis is his star and has a year remaining. Bryan Greenlee and Vladislav Goldin are the other two starters who could come over as grad transfers. Does Dusty bring over his coaching staff and do you retain any of the coaching staff from an 8-24 team? Who do you want to keep from last season’s roster? We’re completely happy with the hire but there isn’t a statistic that pops out consistently every year (except defensive assist rate). Expectations for next year are very low, fill a roster with guys you can build a program from. He’s going to have to hit the portal pretty hard. 

Starts at 1:07:05

Wink Martindale’s contract makes him the highest paid defensive coordinator in college football. When’s the last time you saw a long-term NFL coordinator jump back to college? Greg Scruggs has resigned and the guy to keep an eye on now is Terrance Jamison from Illinois. DJ Waller and Jyaire Hill are the two names that popped up during Sherrone Moore’s press conference as looking impressive so far. It might be Jack Tuttle as the spring front runner at QB until someone comes in and takes it. Don’t take too much stock into his Indiana career. Michigan has lost good receivers over the last three recruiting cycles, they need to get some more guys. Will Michigan pass more under Sherrone Moore? Probably not. Cam Goode was not on scholarship, he was on NIL all last season. The era of scholarship limits is over!

Starts at 1:31:49 Michigan hockey is a #3 seed and gets to play in an empty stadium in Maryland Heights, Missouri! They get North Dakota in the first game and are in an overall manageable draw. North Dakota's goalie seems like a guy. Michigan loses in OT to Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship game and Michigan State's game-tying goal might be the worst call we've ever seen. Michigan had a waved off goal that was also questionable. We've seen Michigan State many times, we're ok with drawing them as the #1 seed. When can we see the end of the tournament format of playing in empty neutral sites? The game is Friday at 8:30 on ESPNU.

MUSIC:

• "Mayday" — Home Free
• “Rum And Coca Cola" — The Andrews Sisters
• “Ready to Go”—  Republica
• “Across 110th Street”

Things Discussed:

• Michigan won a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP.
• Anyone trying to take away from this is someone whose opinion never has to matter to you again.
• Donovan Edwards: the passing down running back.
• THE DEFENSE!!!! Penix under pressure. NFL defense vs NFL rookie.
• Win in the trenches: Penix's third read was Mason Graham. That RT was under siege. Made Penix uncomfortable.
• Break: Life after Harbaugh?
• Post-break: Sainristil. One of the all-time greats.
• Harbaugh? Sam is talking like he's definitely exploring NFL, that doesn't mean he's 100% leaving. Lots of guys are 100% staying if Harbaugh is, and 100% if Sherrone Moore is the guy. May not be true if Michigan goes outside for a Kalen DeBoer.
• Jesse Minter: do whatever we can to keep the man.