Andy & Ari On3 - INSTANT REACTION: Texas CRUSHES Michigan in Ann Arbor | Quinn Ewers, Steve Sarkisian THUMP the Wolverines

Episode Date: September 7, 2024

Welcome to Andy & Ari On3's Instant Reaction, Presented by Wendy's!   Andy and Ari are LIVE from Ann Arbor, Mich., where Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns just hammered the defending champs. What does this mean for both squads in the weeks ahead? Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to your instant reaction. Live from Michigan Stadium. We heard the victors who were not the victors today. Then we heard the eyes of Texas are upon you ringing out. Bunch of burnt orange folks doing the hook'em sign right now after a just annihilation of the defending national champ. Sorry. Yeah, Andy, I think I tried to cover this a little bit on the podcast that we did during the week but you know there are two types of programs right there's the ones that have recruited and portaled well enough in a one-year period to have a really great season and michigan won the national title last year but then there are programs that are really really good year over year regardless of turnover mich Michigan reached the mountaintop.

Now Texas is trying to become the latter. But Texas has not been that. That's been Georgia. That's been Alabama. That's been Ohio State. You can make all the Ohio State loses to Michigan jokes you want, but they're in it every year. They're there at the end every year. This doesn't look like a team that's going to be there at the end, this Michigan team.

But this Texas team does. Yeah, so this Michigan team might actually turn out to be pretty good this year. We're not going to say that they stink or that they're going to lose five games, or I'm not going to say that. They have a quarterback issue, which you wrote about on On3, directly after the game. But the story today is Texas and whether or not they took that leap forward as a program where it's no longer they're back or making all these jokes.

It's about the tenants of this program, what they've built from a personnel standpoint. I thought Steve Sarkeesian called an amazing game. And it's when you expect to win these games to go into an opposing stadium of the national champs that's disimposing Andy and then just beat the crap out of them the way that they did. Like that is what great teams and programs do. And you mentioned what they've done in terms of recruiting out of high school and the portal. Like this is a good example of that. There was a second quarter drive that Texas had for a touchdown where they basically rammed it down Michigan's throat. And that was an offensive line that they recruited. Meanwhile, they're throwing to Isaiah Bond, to Matthew Golden, guys they got out of the portal. And they've been able to mix them both, and they've

been able to do it really well. Meanwhile, you got Michigan, which had been great at covering up spots that needed to cover up in the portal, like Josiah Stewart last year, Ladarius Henderson last year. But now, they don't have anybody really that they got impact player-wise out of the portal because of the situation with Jim Harbaugh leaving and the timing of that. And that's what I wrote about on three. This quarterback situation at Michigan, you can directly link back to that. We were watching Kyle McCord light it up for Syracuse today going,

well, what if Kyle McCord was starting in Michigan right now? What a story that would have been, but yeah. How different would this game have been? Yeah, yeah. And it's just like the timing of it, like you said, just didn't pan out. But, you know, I did get mocked incessantly in the past, Andy, for saying that you have to recruit at a certain level to win a national championship. Obviously, that's not true anymore.

Michigan, you know, was in the 10 range, but not necessarily in the Georgia, Texas, Ohio State range. But I do think that's still probably a definitive statement that you have to recruit at a certain level out of high school to maintain year-over-year success regardless of turnover. Because the thing is, Michigan lost a ton. There's no question. 10 out of 11 starters on the offense. And their head coach. So the expectation that they were going to come out and win this game or be a national championship caliber team this year

probably wasn't a rational one, but Texas lost a ton too. Exactly. And that, and that's the thing they replaced it. And it's not just, they replaced it out of the portal. Like Ryan Wingo had a 55 yard end around a day. That's a freshman that they brought just brought in. So they've done both really well. And we can make all the Texas jokes we want. We can say Texas is back in a derisive fashion. But this looked like a team that looked like last year's team that made the four-team playoff. They're in the SEC now. They look like they can compete with anybody in the SEC.

And I don't know that I'm ready to go out and say I think this Texas team is going to go win the national title. You don't have to. there's a lot going on. What I do think is apparent is that this Texas program has the roster and the look about it where you take them seriously every week now because you don't go on the road and play a team that I frankly still think Michigan is probably going to win 10 games this year. I don't know about that. I don't know. That defense is going to keep them on a lot of games this year. Okay, well, let's talk about that because that's what impressed me most about Texas is they were playing against this Michigan defense, which we know these players are good.

We know what Will Johnson is. We know what Kenneth Grant is. We know what all of these guys can do. Josiah Stewart, Mason Graham. We know they're very good. And Texas was having its way with them. Now, part of it was that Michigan's defense had to stay on the field

because Michigan's offense could not sustain drives. But that was happening at the beginning, too. Texas was having success at the beginning. So you look at that and you go, well, guess what? They might not see more first-rounders against Georgia than they saw against Michigan in terms of a defense. What happens when they play Georgia? They should feel pretty good about this coming out of this game. The Michigan standpoint that I'm coming from,

Andy, too, is that last week, it reminds me of the Clemson discussion of Clemson stinks, but it's like, oh, wait a minute. They just played Georgia. I'm starting to wonder whether or not Michigan just got done playing a Georgia-esque team. The difference is that this Michigan program isn't going to be like Clemson. Like, you know, Sharon Moore is not going to dabble wise it and be like, well, I'm not going to take anybody out of the pool. He just was in a situation where he inherited. So he took over the team on January 26th. By that point, everybody from the winter portal who was good, who could be a difference maker, was gone. And you're not going to get a difference-making quarterback

in the spring portal, and you're not going to get a whole lot of difference-making anything in the spring portal. So Sherone Moore basically had to work with the roster that he had at that point. And it just wasn't good enough to play against a team that probably is a real playoff team. But the point I was going to make there, and what you just said was absolutely true, but I just meant like on the field this year, we don't want to jump to conclusions about what Clemson may or may not be because of what happened to Georgia. I don't want to jump to any major conclusion as it pertains to Michigan right now, because they might've just played one of the two or three best teams in college football. So that is on the table from a talent perspective.

I will say that Michigan is at an interesting crossroads in their program, and that's not because of this game today, but when you lose the culture person, the face of your program, that's not something that's supposed to go on without a hitch. If Jim Harbaugh was as valuable as he clearly was, you can't pretend like losing him does not matter. But let me ask you this, Ari. If he's not flirting with the NFL the previous two off seasons, if he's not dealing with the NCAA stuff and sort of holding his spot at Michigan while trying to get an NFL job,

which is what delayed this whole thing. Would they not have perhaps better out-of-high-school quarterback recruits to work with right now? Because they didn't think Jaden Donegal or Jaden Davis were ready. Or would they have gone and gotten somebody out of the portal who could be the starter right now? Yeah, I think it's abundantly clear that the topsy-turvy nature in which he left the program over the course of multiple years probably hindered them from getting a few guys that could have made it. I don't know if it would have made a difference with CJ Carr. He seemed pretty determined to go to Notre Dame. I don't know if Dante Moore wants to play in his home state. He committed to Oregon, flipped to UCLA,

and then transferred to Oregon. So maybe he doesn't want to come back to Michigan. But it feels like if there'd been some more stability, if people had known, hey, either Jim Harbaugh's going to be here or he's not going to be here and Sharon Moore's going to be the coach, that they might have had a better chance to have a decent quarterback situation this year. There's 100% what you wrote in your column about the guys that were available or would have been available

had his coaching search been on a normal timeline. They probably would have and could have got one. It's not even just Kyle McCord. It's like all of them. Riley Leonard. Anybody who could be functional. I don't know if I'm ready to completely give up on Davis Warren. I'm not.

Okay, at the end of the game, he had an escape, 30-yard touchdown pass to Samaj Morgan. Looked great. This was the guy's second start, and it might be against one of the best defenses they play all year. You know one of my ailments as a human being is overreacting to literally everything that's in front of my face, so I want to be measured.

That's like a New Year's resolution in the summer. When I started on three, I want to be a more measured, less reactionary person. We need hotter takes, Ari. What are you doing? This is what we hired you for. I do think that my takes need to be based in absolute fact. And I'm not ready to say that I don't think he can be very good,

but I am ready to say that all of the things that I have. It could be better right now. But I am. And all the things that I've criticized Michigan for over the years that people have been upset about caught up to them too. Came home to roost. It's not just like, oh, they won the national championship. You're an idiot.

Maybe I am. I don't know. But what I do know is that they do not have the sustainability on the roster It's not just like, oh, they won the national championship. You're an idiot. Maybe I am. I don't know. But what I do know is that they do not have the sustainability on the roster when they lose as much talent as they did. And when you have a team that just lost Xavier Worthy and A.D. Mitchell to the NFL and then bounce back. And they're receiving correlates just as good. Just as good.

You know, like Ryan Wingo just coming in here with a 55-yard gain. You got John T. Cook who didn't even – I think he caught one pass in this game. He's going to be a stud. Like they have guys on their team to replace them because they are good in high school football recruiting, and that's always going to be important. Texas is trending upward. Michigan, I mean, Sharon Moore has to figure out a way to make this program his.

Yep. You're not going to be Jim Harbaugh. Don't try to be Jim Harbaugh. And he can't fix the roster until next season. So this is a big year. So figure it out with what you got because that's part of the job too. Let's talk about Texas though. You know who very much impressed me today?

Who's that? Quinn Ewers. Oh, yeah. Because I have had my doubts about Quinn Ewers over the years. And I've seen – look, we saw him go beat Alabama last year in Tuscaloosa. We've seen him play great games. But then we also saw him against Washington last year, you know, against Michael Pennix,

where Michael Pennix looked like the better quarterback. But Quinn Ewers against a very good defense, very good defensive line, very good pass rush, showed escapability, improvisational skills, patience. Yes, like all of those things. And the things that I was wondering about, I feel like he answered a lot of that for me today. Yeah, well, I mean, the thing, too, is that it's so easy to forget.

Maybe it's not, but he was the number one overall player in his class. Yes, by a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Arch Manning came into the picture. He also was a Buckeye. And he was a Buckeye. So he probably enjoyed this a lot. Yeah, but if you take the logical next step and you got to also

remember too that Quinn's been injured a lot in his career yeah like getting to this point this season if he takes that jump that's the reason why I included him last week before this game in my Heisman top three because if they do do what I think they're going to do in the SEC this year because that team is definitely primed for this conference like they're not going to go in there everyone's like oh when you get to the SEC, it's a new No, their talent level is right where it needs to be. Exactly where they need to be. I'm not saying they're going to go blow through it, but they need

a certain level of talent. They have it. If Quinn Ewers is the almost peak version of himself in his junior year, that's a pretty high ceiling. The ceiling is very high. I saw people tweeting about 2006 and again i don't want to go that 2005 2005 2006 rose bowl yeah um well he's not gonna run it like

that i feel safe in predicting that but he he looked awesome he looked awesome well this was a very impressive performance from Texas. They put their stamp on it. They said, hey, look, we are here to compete in 2024. Whether Michigan is here to compete in 2024 remains to be seen. They've got USC coming up. They've got to play Oregon. And obviously, they have to play Ohio State.

If they want to keep that winning streak alive against the Buckeyes, they've got to get a lot better between now and then. And I'm super excited, Andy, to really, really dive deeper into this because when we do the show tonight, this is going to be a major piece of it. I think that we just scratched the surface. Michigan's going to be a huge storyline. Texas is going to be a big, huge storyline. Let's dive into it deeper later tonight and listen to the show tonight when we go live.

11.30 p.m. Eastern when all the games are – well, not all the games will be done. There will be Big Ten after dark going on. But we'll know whether Coach Prime or Dylan Raiola came out victorious. We'll know whether Nico or Grayson McCall came out victorious. And Andy, if Oregon from last week shows up, we could have grab ass after dark. We should. Don't rule that out. That's a totally different kind of show.

People will tune in and be like, what the hell is this? But come see us 1130 p.m. Eastern time after the games. We'll talk then.