Blue By Ninety - 9 DAYS TILL MICHIGAN FOOTBALL

Episode Date: August 24, 2023

THE BOYS ARE PUMPED FOR SEASON. TANNER'S BIG BRAIN ENLIGHTENS US ALL.

This is the University of Michigan. Touchdown, Michigan! The beat of Michigan football! And they caught extra pass. And it goes to the wind! The three-pointer by Jordan Poole! Down the sideline! Peebles-Jones!

Touchdown, Wolverines! All right. Welcome back to Blue by 90. I'm Justin, joined by Tanner and Kalen today. Jack just never came home. Never came home today. Trying to, you know, he's living with Kal with kaylin kaylin's just a lonely wife sitting at home waiting for his husband to come home one is the loneliest number it's that's all his carplay broke um but you know what as coach harbaugh would say next man up so uh don't get bitter, get better. I'm not bitter at Jack, but I will get better today. So I guess we can just go right into that.

So this Harbaugh saga is the most roller coaster of emotions ever. Like what is going on? I just have like whiplash from like every corner, every twist and turn of the story. It is insane. I'm really ready to put this all behind us and not worry about it because it's the non-conference games that he is suspended for with the self imposed suspension from the university and from Jim Harbaugh.

It sounds like from some of the tea leaves that that was a combined kind of decision to do that. I think the one thing that I've seen a lot of people take away from this, and I have a similar takeaway, is that I think it says that he's here beyond 2023. There's no reason for him to take the suspension when the NCAA was going to seat this conversation until next year if he doesn't have any plans on being back for 2024 and beyond. So I think I'm looking at it from good news in that perspective. Good news to just get this story behind us. Very sick of answering questions from friends and colleagues who anytime they see me or talk to me, bring that up. So it'll be nice

to not have that be a talking point, but it's ECU. It is UNLV Bowling Green. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. And I tweeted this out, but I said this, nobody cares more than Michigan state Spartans fans about Jim Harbaugh being suspended. Even I got to give Ohio State fans props. I did not see much coming from Ohio State fans. I even checked a couple of accounts that I'm friendly with, and they weren't tweeting anything about it,

probably because Jim Harbaugh owns Ryan Day, I imagine. But Michigan State fans, this is literally all they have right now. And it's – I shouldn't let this get to me because there's no reason why I should care about their program at all. But, like, it is insane how much they care about this. What are they saying about it? I totally – I mean, they just care too much.

It's the death penalty to the program, essentially, is what it should be in their eyes. And I don't know why. Obviously, the rest of the – even a lot of people, when this first all came out, were like, this is stupid. The NCAA is stupid. What are we doing here? Everybody in the world is saying that except for Michigan State fans and now it's like been twisted and turned and they're like it's not about the burger it's about the you know all the the lying it's

like nobody even knows what happened I I'm sorry I I can't get over their fans. It's so annoying. Yeah, I think one of my least favorite things about the X app, since Elon has switched so many things around, is the For You page. Because I click on following. Because I follow people and I want to see their comments and their takes and their commentary and so on and so forth. And I just get all these recommended tweets and it's always from opposing fan bases, which is fine. I don't mind seeing differing of, of opinions,

but I, Justin, to your point, it's, it's, it's been like, when did this drop? Like this came out early in the year. We talked about this when there was snow on the ground and it kind of resurfaced last month when the NCAA kind of leaked it again that they were going to do this with a four-game suspension. And gosh, I think I've seen, like I saw the same tweet

twice. The first time when it happened, and then the second time, and it was a picture of like nine Michigan State coaches, and it was like zero combined suspensions. I saw that today. That's the second time. Yeah, we know who it's from. Yeah. That's the second time. Yeah. We know who it's from. Yeah. That's the second time.

And it's like we're just rehashing this. Also, the ability – this is going back to last season, but the ability to spin the tunnel incident into us versus them mentality when it was like a nine-on-one multiple times with two different Michigan players is just – I really respect the mental gymnastics to kind of get through that. I'm impressed. I wish I was that quick on my feet to just spin things that way. But yeah, I mean, once the actual football is played,

we're going to find out about all these teams, especially the one, you know, about an hour up the road. So, you know, they're going to enjoy the offseason. It's very funny how things have flipped. I mean, I don't know if you guys remember being on Twitter in the early 2010s and Michigan's the offseason champions and the recruiting champions, and now it's flipped to where Michigan's back-to-back Big Ten champs and Michigan State fans are boasting about the portal additions. They're also boasting – they'll boast when Michigan drops a spot in the rankings for 2024 recruiting 54th

even though they are literally not in the top 50 no um yeah yeah it sounds like you know when your own program when your own program is in shambles you need to like point at everyone else to like I mean look I've done this I've done it we had to do it for quite some time. Yes. We had to do it. But, yeah, I think that – all right, that's enough talk about Michigan State fans. They're literally not worth our time. I'm going to spin the Harbaugh thing back to how I did right away. I love it. I want revenge Jim on the sideline in game four, and we're going to literally beat Rutgers by a hundred points.

Like that might be the blue by 90. Like we, we win by 90. I just, I have this vision of us in the fourth quarter and like CJ Stokes or somebody goes in and runs it in and we go up 90 to nothing. And I'm there like drowning in beer just like you know it's it will be an incredible moment um but i really in all seriousness i i think this is like

i do think jim is is gonna be so pissed off at the world that he's gonna do everything in his power to win a national title and beat everyone by a million so for these like self-imposed suspensions like what exactly does that mean like where is he on game day good question I think we talked about this before how much would you pay for a live stream of Jim watching in his house or at a bar or something? Do you take Venmo, Zelle, Cash App, letter transfer? I mean, that should be what we do for the collective. It should be raise as much money as possible for pay-per-view by watching Jim Harbaugh on game day.

Can you imagine Jim Harbaugh sitting there thanking subscribers? Like, thanks, Hail Go Blue 1724 for the $1,000 donation. Welcome to the Harbaugh squad or some tacky-ass, like, streamer. Like a normal streamer. Yeah. Would he do the NPC stuff, too? Dude, that would be – there's a lot of things I would enjoy watching Jim Harbaugh do, like, in just every facet of life like just imagine him like trying to figure out playing call of duty

or something on on stream would be that would be an amazing charity stream honestly like once the gen z-ers have a lot of money like that may be something that's uh that's worth looking into although that's obviously a big age gap but like can you imagine the uh you know the money flowing in from you know some of the donors if they were like gen z like into twitch and stuff like that would be electric like i would pay so much to watch him try to figure out video games like that'd be so good oh my god i just like imagine that he's like you're like sitting in the waiting room right before the stream starts and then it like starts and like coach harbaugh's sitting at like the end of a table with like the joint chiefs like on either side just imagine him adjusting his glasses

looking at this looking at the twitch chat like oh dude just so many good mental images right now this is electric uh content by the way yeah absolutely um this that would be so good but him watching the game like just screaming at the TV. Imagine the refs make a bad call and he's just freaking out. Do you think he's drinking? Good question. Good question. Also, what's he wearing?

Does he still wear the getup? He's got the Lulu's. Yeah. I mean, you know what, though? He has really diversified the wardrobe over the last couple of years because he's got the Lulu's in there. Do you think that's what's changed for Michigan? They changed to the blue pants and won against Ohio State in 2021,

and he has changed his wardrobe. I think Coach is wearing a Michigan Snuggie in his basement. No, I think his wife has him. He's probably just got a stiff one, just poured, ready to go. I bet his wife's got him doing some chores. I mean, he always talks about it, right? I mean, he's just such a normal dude. I think that's the best part is he's such a normal cat,

and he's probably mowing. Obviously, he's watching the game. Guaranteed he's watching the game guaranteed he's watching the game um maybe keep it up i'll see some other teams as well i'm sure prepping for the next week things like that so i'm sure he'll be very busy on saturday still just outside of uh the stadium but i'm sure he's probably got some honey to-do lists to check off with his wife before do you think his wife she's like all, all right, at halftime, go mow the lawn.

100%. Is he like folding laundry as they go into the third quarter? She's like, honey, I need these done for tonight. He's like ironing. Yeah. Before we go to Sharon's house tonight for the party we've got

to get this done and oh god imagine if that amazon prime uh series they did like what 2017 was around this year that would be just amazing to watch i would they would have already like signed on the dotted line for that before all this went down. Oh, man, that would have been amazing. How surprised would you be if he just went like, you know what, I'm just not going to watch the game. I'm just going to go fishing. I wouldn't doubt that either, though.

It might be like a Billy Bean money ball situation where he can't physically watch the game. Imagine him in a game that he's obviously super invested in, but he's got to watch like Jake Butt. I love Jake Butt. He's my boy. But like I imagine him like watching in the announcers, and he's like, these guys are idiots.

You think he can get a – can he get an all-22 stream from the stadium? I guarantee they could. I don't know the rules behind that, but it's a self-imposed sanction, so they could probably do it however they want. We can do whatever we want. But instead of watching the TV broadcast, I guarantee there's a way to stream footage from one of the cameras there with all 22 of the whole field so you can just take notes.

I bet that's probably what would happen, to be honest. Does he come to a blue by 90 tailgate? Who's to say? I mean, I can't confirm nor deny that Jim Harbaugh will be at our tailgate. Throw that out there. Yeah. It'll be like when Scott Hanson had to do NFL Red Zone from his house. They did college game day from their houses during COVID.

Oh, yeah. It was a rough time. It was. Can we – Oh, that beautiful, beautiful pool area. They did what they could. I just want to say, because we have football. It is August 21st.

We have real football on Saturday, Augustust 26th so five days from now and we have michigan football what uh 12 days from now so just very very excited um and not taking it for granted because in 2020 this time of year i was like we we have like you know maybe a couple football games in early september and the SEC didn't start until late September. Big Ten didn't start until Halloween. So the last couple years have really just really appreciated this time of year, not taking it for granted. And the best time of year.

I mean, I just – it's amazing. So I know we're going to talk some football. I just wanted to throw that out there. Nowhere I'd rather be than in Ann Arbor, Michigan with the fellas. You're damn right. You're damn right. It is – it's right. It is. It's close.

It's close. I could feel it in the air a little bit this past week. Then it got straight up to 90, which was it last year, the first game of the year that it was literally the hottest day of the year? It was hot. It was 90 something. So wouldn't mind if it stayed maybe in, like, the low 80s for those first couple games instead of 95.

Like, usually it's like, oh, we go 95 straight to, like, 60. Wouldn't mind a little in between there. But I will agree with you. Like, football is so close. Even watching preseason has been awesome. And then for the NFL. And we've got what? Notre Dame next week?

Yeah, Notre Dame, Navy, USC, San Jose State, Hawaii Vanderbilt. There's some other random games. I know Jacksonville State, which is not in Florida, which is actually in Alabama, just joined the FBS. Is that right? Yes. It's not in Florida. It's not Jacksonville, Florida. It is Jacksonville State in the state of Alabama. They just joined the FBS this year. Their first game, they're on week zero. There's some storylines. Obviously, nothing super entertaining, but it's real football. It's college football.

You've got two of the biggest brands in college football playing, regardless of who their opponent is. So I'm going to enjoy that as well with some beer, some dips, perhaps some desserts. I'm ready. Wow. You're ready to go. I love that.

I love that. Also, let's just talk about September football in Ann Arbor. Does it get better than September football in Ann Arbor? The tailgating is fine, honestly. Correct. I mean, I'm still a big fan of one certain game in November. Absolutely. Tailgating, though, I can wear a tee.

I wear some shorts. Yes. I can drink a beer, and it's refreshing right i don't even need a koozie like exactly if anything you're using you're using your koozie to keep the drink cold and from your hand not getting one exactly so i i think it's tough to beat ann arbor in september and the way that i look at it is i have anxiety like late october thinking about the game i always have even when michigan was was just losing consecutive games in a row times 10 um so the first few non-conference games especially the last two seasons the schedule has

just been so weak that it's almost just like you're partying um with the expectation that we're going to win by 50, which happened a lot last year. But like even last year, thinking back to the Michigan-Maryland game, I was like – had some butterflies. I was like, oh, Big Ten football is here. Like this is the real start. And so the first three games are always just, you know, just a lot of fun. No real pressure.

You know, you're not worried about it. You know the boys are going to come out and do their job and do their thing. Honestly, the biggest – those games are where the tailgate is more important than the games usually. Yes, yeah, yeah. Which is sometimes the best days. You know, I'm all for the big games, obviously. But sometimes those days where you don't have to worry about it but you're still enjoying the environment, they end up with more fun.

Like when we had Clayton Anderson at at the michigan state tailgate last year you have to worry about we all you have to worry about is whether or not derrick jeter was going to show up at the tailgate which he did not and my boys are still mad about that by the way but hey that's all we can guarantee it it was clayton anderson that was guaranteeing it all day long i was like hey man i don't i can't tell you that he's yeah he he did go on he did go on the mic and say that he's like he's like what if we had derrick jeter here it was like and my boys were like play creed it just a lot of mixed messages uh with clayton in town look you know what i i i don't care clayton did his job that day that's for sure do we get clayton again

maybe the hoosiers are in town this season he's a bloomington ind day, that's for sure. Do we get Clayton again? Maybe. The Hoosiers are in town this season. He's a Bloomington, Indiana boy. That's true. Also, I'm sorry, I'm eating this Boom Chicka Pop, the sweet and salty kettle corn. Those are solid. I could eat this whole bag right now.

I mean, it's not an ad. No free ads, not an ad. It is not quite a Texas Roadhouse peanut that you just throw on the floor. But, yeah, these are pretty solid, so I apologize for eating. You got to do what you got to do. Yeah, all right. What are some other good developments here that have happened in the last week? I think Michigan has a bajillion guys who could start on the O-line that I'd feel comfortable with.

I was listening to the Wolverine 24-7 podcast. So it was Zach Shaw and Steve Lorenz, because I love to just listen to everybody's content while I'm driving as an outside salesperson. They mentioned that Michigan has 151 total career power five starts across all of its offensive linemen. So that's including Ladarius Henderson. That's including Drake Nugent, Miles Hinton. Let's do the math there.

If you just average that out to five starters, it's like two and a half years of starts. That's insane. Crazy. That's insane. Crazy. That's wild. I feel so – and you guys know, coming from the Brady Hoke era, where that entire like – and Steve Lorenz mentioned this too. Steve's one of the best in the business.

But one of the things he was talking about was that 2013 offensive line class and how all those guys were bust, no offense, but they did not pan out at Michigan. And how long – I mean, dude, think of how long it took Michigan to truly rebuild its offensive line because one of the biggest critiques of the Harbaugh era was we couldn't get fourth and two when we needed it. Yeah. And now it's completely flipped, and I think part of the reason

you've seen the turnaround is the depth at that position. And this year may be the best depth that Michigan has ever had. And it's almost 150 years of existence. And the depth is so important because last year, even though, I mean, this, that offensive line was unbelievable. All of them, all of them were injured at some point of the season. They were flipping spots, playing, you know, different, different positions and stuff like that.

So having that depth with, you know different different positions and stuff like that so having that depth with you know whoever it is whether it's miles hinton or ladarius or trente jones or you know carson barnard whoever to be able to plug it in you know we're not even saying any of the young guys either there's there's the raheem anderson's and you know Greg Crippins and like those guys are really good and they aren't even like getting attention right now um which is you know this is how the Bama's of the world build where you do have guys that are four stars that sit for two years three years sometimes because they're so deep and you know it's hard to get people to stay on board with that. But why, you know, right now Michigan is O-line U.

And so I think this is how you do it. And like you said, Jim Harbaugh realized that, and he knew this the whole time, but that football games are won in the trenches. And he's done something about it, not only just on the offensive side of the ball, but the defensive side as well. The other part of that that actually really excites me is like when you have that much depth, it's the same problem. Like when you have so many talented players, you want to get more of them on the field. Right. So it like also offers you the opportunity to like get kind of creative get you know six offensive linemen out there get maybe seven right you can do kind of weird stuff and

especially since we're such a run heavy team you know that bodes very well for us and the other part of that is with so many great linemen and so much experience. What I'm looking forward to is improving on like fourth and short, like in the red zone, right. Where we seem to struggle like at the goal line for whatever reason we, we couldn't seem to do like a QB sneak when it mattered most. I want to see us take that step this year, especially with all these offensive linemen. I think you may see,

and not even just because of potential improvement on the offensive line, which is wild for a unit that's won the best offensive line award two years in a row to talk about improvement. And Olu Oluwetemi is a monster thus far in the preseason. I don't think he's allowed a sack in quite a few snaps. But I think the one thing that you'll probably see unrelated to the offensive line is that Sherron Moore is going to basically have play calling at his disposal. I don't know if you guys can correct me if I'm wrong here, but I've read that last year Sharon was first and second down inside the 20s, the 20s to 20s. And then Matt Weiss was calling plays in the red zone. And I think you saw kind of a dramatic shift of ideology

once we got to the red zone. It was very strange how easily Michigan could move the ball. Now, obviously, the field shrinks, and the defense doesn't have to cover as much. I get all that. But my hope is that West Rhone more really kind of taking those play-calling duties into his own. I know Kurt Campbell's going to be involved as the pass game coordinator.

I feel like you're going to see an improved red zone offense from Michigan. And they started to figure it out towards the end. TCU game had some gripes with some of the decision-making there, potentially 14 or at least 10 points on the board with turnovers and turnovers on down. But I'm very excited to see Sharon Morneau kind of got off track there. But his offensive line unit's been fantastic since he took over, and I'm hoping to see that same transformation with the entire offense as he's now the the sole coordinator

well I think honestly one of the biggest things that I'm excited for there is just continuity of like I'm not going to change up an entire person to call different plays at this point you know I feel like that I don't know if that happens other places in college football or in football in general. There's always multiple people that are – that have a say in play calling. I'm not sure if it's broken up like that exactly with play, you know, first, second down versus third down or red zone versus midfield, whatever. But I think that like – i don't know i just like

the idea of like cheryl moore in a rhythm and he's like all right we're just gonna keep it rolling here instead of somebody else taking over and having something else in their brain and then the whole offense is like okay now we look at this other guy get a different you know vibe and like i just think that you know especially with how we without we move the ball down the field like we're grounding a pound in it we were very methodical last year of how we move the ball down the field it was you know especially I remember like the Iowa first drive was like one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen where we like, it was like an eight play drive and we never even got to third down, I don't think. And it was just like, perfect. You know, you're bump. All right. Here's this out route. Here's a, an off tackle. Here's this.

I'm hoping that Sharon will do the same. And it's just, yeah, you change it up a little bit when you get into the red zone, but you don't want to like completely abandon what was just working to get you there. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, it's very similar. You talk about, you know, kind of losing your rhythm. It's like the same thing when you pull a quarterback to run the wildcat. All right. And that was very popular in the two thousands and Michigan had it with Josh Gaddis as recently as 2020. I don't remember seeing it in 21, but you know, you bring out your quarterback, um, and you lose all that rhythm. I think it's the same as a play caller. You know, you get into that rhythm, you know, you know, kind of how to play off the defense and play, you know,

play off the other calls that you've had on that certain drive, um, and be able to kind of counter off a certain things. Um, and I think if you have somebody who's controlling the whole field as a play caller, I think you're gonna see a lot more success in the red zone. Obviously, they kind of figured it out last year. I didn't have those queasy feelings after the Illinois game. To be fair, when you throw for however many yards and run for however many yards against Ohio State like they did, that makes you feel pretty good. But even in that Purdue game,

there weren't really any issues in the red zone that I saw. TCU game, there was a couple of red zone touchdowns. There were some turnovers as well that maybe were outside of the control. But I'm just very much looking forward to not worrying about, okay, Michigan moved it 68 yards on this drive. Now can they punch it in, you know, the next 12? Like that was always a concern. If it wasn't the big play, like they had to get it in the end zone somehow.

So I'm hopeful that with Sharon. And you don't have Jake Moody either. Right. Yeah. Confident in our kickers. I'm confident in James Turner. I'm confident in Tommy Doman. If he gets a crack at it as well,

or Adam Samaha, but you know, I think I, I wonder if that goes into how they play, how they call plays. Once you get into the red zone, knowing, I honestly think it was a little bit of like a,

a mental block where you're like, well, we got Moody and we don't have to take a risk ever in the red zone, you know, and it kept points off the board. But the reality is in that Ohio state game, what won us the game was us scoring in the red zone and us keeping them out of the end zone when they got into the red zone. In both games, the last two years, that was what the difference was.

They settled for field goals when they've never settled for field goals ever before. One point, Justin. 2021, absolutely. 2022, they didn't really have a chance to score in the red zone. There was just too many big plays. They had one red zone touchdown. Every other touchdown was over 45 yards. I just wanted to put that out there that people

know that that happened because it happened. It was amazing. They did have a couple long runs, I remember. But, I mean, JJ with around the edge, plowing himself in and then doing the LeBron. Like that's still, I wish we had a better video of that celebration because it was fucking awesome for him to do that.

That is so electric. I didn't even realize that's what he was doing. And I've seen, dude, I've seen that clip so many times. And I guess maybe the video didn't cut to it right away, but that is ice cold to do that in the state of Ohio. I'm fired up. Is it? Is it November 26 yet? Come the state of Ohio. I'm fired up. Is it, is it November 26 yet? Come on.

I want it to be. I got one question for you guys too. Speaking of the offense and how they're going to go, what do you think the tempo is going to be like? Do you, I could see them maybe picking up some tempo with JJ feeling more comfortable. You know,

I know Jim loves to grind clock. He loves it. There's nothing more than like what the, what he tells his guys, this is kind of their mantra for the O-line. It's like, there's nothing, there's no better feeling than watching the guy across from you slowly lose hope. Like that's how they think about it.

And, but I wonder if they switch it up a little bit sometimes because jj's on the run you know because they have donovan edwards back there um they've got some speed too what do you guys think about that i just don't see us being like like a like a shootout team you know what i Like, I don't see us being a, like, let's just score a billion points. I think just the DNA of this team is exactly what you said. Like, we just line up at the line, and I just, like, take the other team's soul slowly for 60 minutes. There's a thought that I have on this,

and I think it's going to affect how Michigan decides to run its offense as far as tempo is concerned. So just like the NFL starting in 2023, the clock will run after first downs. So in college, I don't know how old this rule is. I'm pretty bad about that. I hate that. Can we talk about that? I'm sorry. You know why they did it, right?

Why? Commercials. Yeah, it's stupid. They're shorting the commercials. I know that's how the whole world runs it runs on money i get it but you're taking away i'm sorry to just totally just no you're good because this is a conversation that needs to be had but i'm pissed off because what you're taking away you're gonna take away what five minutes total or something stupid like that i don't know what it's gonna end up being but it's the best parts of the game when it's down to two minutes and you're trying to stop

the clock that's when you want to have people invested and watch the game i wonder if that i was googling it because i remember that rule and i don't know the exact thing but that rule had been in college football since 1968 that is that predates the michigan ohio state game in 1969 where michigan upset one of the best ohio state teams ever that's how old that is that is 55 years old for a rule to change but the pac-12 was was over 100 years old and tv executives don't give a shit about that either so i have a lot of thoughts on the on the broader college football landscape as a whole that I'm not very happy about at this moment. We'll keep it to the Michigan stuff.

But I do think that Michigan, you know, you look at it like law of probability and statistics show that if you have a better football team than the team that you were playing, the more plays you run, the better chance you have to win because, you know, you have more opportunities to score. So I think from just like a competitive advantage standpoint that i think michigan should have a little bit more tempo into their system and you talk about breaking a guy's will do it after you know when there's 10 seconds in between plays because you're getting up to the line you just smack them in the mouth every single play like i think you can take somebody's will that way

so i'll be curious to see how michigan does, but I would like to see some tempo just because we're losing, you know, maybe five to ten plays a game. And that's not, you know, insignificant. So do you think then – do you think that that – even though Michigan is not an up-tempo team, which you would think like, okay, in the last two minutes when you're trying to stop the clock and they're not used to that, do you think that that hurts them, that rule change? Or do you think that they'll just run more and more clock all the time and it plays into it? Oh, I think they'll just be chewing clock clock i think this actually kind of plays better into

the michigan plan right we just want to chew clock we just want to run the ball right it makes the time of possession battle like way more important even than it was in the game right and so from michigan's perspective like even if it's late in the game, they're just going to keep doing their thing. Yeah, I mean, I think Michigan doesn't really trail in the last couple years. They haven't really trailed in too many games, you know, where really they need to get on their horse and get up tempo. I mean, the TCU game is the only one that really comes to mind. Georgia, but, you know, we've watched that game.

We know what happened there. I could see it though, yeah, working in their favor. I mean, they get out to a lead. You saw it against multiple teams last year. Get out to a lead. You play Nebraska, no offense to my Nebraska friends. You play Nebraska last year, you're up 17-3 at half is there really a need to to go up tempo or you know why not just kill the clock so I think you know in certain situations you'll see it where Michigan is perfectly content not blowing somebody out that they could um but I think some of those bigger matchups you know depending on how the game's going um maybe you want to get more plays in there I don't know uh but if you jump out to a big lead you know who knows maybe you just try to drain the clock

yeah um also something uh michigan averaged 40.4 points per game last year that's significant it's pretty good that's pretty damn good i believe it was top five um i think it's been like 100 years since they uh had that many points per game is that it was like it's like it's like it's like fielding yost era i saw it on the uh the big 10 network it's like 1904 crazy that's crazy um and i mean you know i think it's just funny how we you know you look at ohio state's offense and you look at mich State's offense and you look at Michigan's offense and they're polar opposite, right? Like as far as I'm concerned, I know Ohio State still, you know, they, they run the ball a lot more than people think, but they do throw it a shit ton. But like, it's just funny

to me that Ohio State put up 44 points a game last year. Michigan puts up 40. Obviously Michigan wins the game and goes from there, wins it with their defense and that stuff too. But it's just funny how people are like, you know, Michigan's offense is slow and boring and doesn't score. Ohio State's got the greatest offense of all time that can score at will, and they're only four points a game off. Like, they're really not that far off at the end of the day i mean that's kind of true yeah i just think that where where that benefits ohio state versus michigan is like ohio state can get in a game where maybe their defense is a little outmatched and they can still hang in the game right with them with their offense i think michigan it's just a little bit more difficult to like hang in the

game if maybe your defense isn't quite, you know, matching up well against like a Georgia offense or something like that. It's tougher to like stay in the game and keep scoring points. Yeah, I mean, you know, you look at Ohio State last year, number two overall pick at quarterback, top five pick at receiver in 2024. Hella Buka might be a top 10 pick. So you have all these talented playmakers. And like you said, Kalen, in that Georgia game, the only reason they were even in that game was because of C.J. Stroup. I mean, that dude, for whatever Michigan fans want to say, I've always thought he's a stud.

I mean, you look at his college stats, they're ridiculous. Michigan got the better of him twice. I'm thankful for that but kid was a kid was ice cold in college and there was a lot of throws that he made that if you don't have him on your roster even watching the michigan ohio state game i probably watched it i've watched the highlights at least a handful of times since then if not more uh it's my it's like my go-to cardio uh you know watch the watch the highlights and there were many throws in that game that were just unguardable. You know, DJ Turner was right there. Yeah.

So I think you're right in that part of it, Kalen. But I do think JJ is going to take that next step this year. That's something that we talked about. The things that I've heard on the radio and read on the message boards, like he's got command of this thing, and he's ready to take that next leap to a potentially elite college quarterback. I cannot wait to watch this kid. I know we haven't really talked about J.J. much on this podcast,

but I am so excited. Let's get into it. I want to talk J.J. in a second, but while we're talking about Ohio State, I want to talk about their situation real quick and Ryan Day coming out and saying that they're basically at an equal tie, right? He gave it to a vote of his staff and it was, the vote was split even. So they're sitting here two weeks before a game and don't have a starting quarterback. Are we loving this as Michigan fans? Is this a smokescreen?

Is it, you know, are we like, are we getting ahead of ourselves because they've always figured it out somehow for the past two decades anyways? Or where are you guys at with this? Yeah, I mean, what? It's between Kyle McCord and who's the other? Devin Brown. Devin Brown. Devin Brown. Number 33.

They made fun of us for Devin Gardner. I know. At least there was like a meaning behind Devin Gardner. Right. I mean, I'm sure they're both studs. So, like, you're the QB at Ohio State. Like, you can't be a bum, right? Right.

I mean, are they both five stars? Or is one a four star? Both were, like,'t be a bum. Are they both five stars? Close. Both were top 100-ish. I think McCord maybe was close to five stars, but Devin Brown was top 150 to top 100. I think he was a former Ole Miss decommitted, goes to Ohio State. I think he's a redshirt freshman. McCord's a redshirt sophomore. McCord and Marvin Harrison played at the same high school in Philly. I know there's some folks. they went to the same high school don't love that here's the thing here was my here's my thought devin brown is very athletic um i thought mccord struggled in the spring game i thought the offensive line struggled and i think that's where this comes

into play for me is with the quarterback decision. I don't know how much it's going to look. They're going to, they're going to be good. They're going to win 10 games plus this year. I'm sure they just always have since I've been alive. But the thing that if I'm an Ohio state fan,

I'm extremely concerned about the tackles. I don't know how much you guys have dug into this. I think it's Josh Simmons and Josh Fryer are the left and right tackles. Fryer started at guard. Sorry, sorry go ahead i was gonna say fryer started at guard against michigan last year because they had an injury he was not great pff had about a 40 rating uh which is not great below average very below average and then simmons is a former san diego state player who played not great ratings either Not great ratings either. That's what I was just going to ask. Yeah. Not all conference, nothing in the Mountain West as far as accolades go.

Kidd looks the part, I will say. He looks like a legit left tackle type of player, but his PFF ratings were brutal throughout the year. And PFF does not adjust for opponent. So you're playing in the Mountain West, you're getting graded on the same scale as Michigan playing in the Big Ten, for example. So if I'm an Ohio State fan, that's what I'm concerned about. Donovan Jackson's a stud. But other than that, that O-line, I mean, they're talking about Ryan Montgomery, who's a true freshman, who Michigan was recruiting very hard.

I think he may be a true or a retro freshman. Either way, they're talking about some young guys getting in there. That O-line gives me pause. As michigan fan i love it if i'm an ohio state fan i'm a little nervous about that i i think so as well that's how i'm taking it too i i also like when i i think i put a tweet out there a couple weeks ago and about the ohio state quarterback situation and i prefaced it with i'm not banking on either of them being bad because they have literally figured this out for two straight decades every single season i went back and looked at it before i put that tweet out it was like even when they had some bad somebody bad they replaced them with jt barrett in game three or you know whoever fill in the blank Dwayne Haskins came in you know game four I think one year it's like okay even the backup comes in and becomes in

you know a freaking all-conference guy so right I think Cardale Jones Cardale Jones was a fucking third string and throwing bombs in the national championship what What are we doing here? You know, it's like, I, you know, so part of me is like, all right, we're, you know, until I see them be bad in like game eight, I'm still not going to believe it. You know what I mean? Cause even if the, even if let's say Devin Brown starts in, in for the first two games and he's mediocre, they will, first of all, the Ohio state fans will have his head. I mean, that's the only thing that gives me a little bit of hope is that fan base.

It's going to be like toxic for those first few weeks. If there are any mistakes at all. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I mean, I, I just, I I'll believe it when I see it. I'm as a Michigan fan. I'm just hoping that something happens

and their luck runs out for the first time in 20 years. Like, they can't be unbelievable every single year. Two decades plus, can they? Maybe they can. I mean, honestly, you know, Michigan has had their runs against Ohio State as well. But if you look historically, they haven't had really many down years in the last half century. I mean, it's really absurd.

I mean, because you look at everybody else, everyone's had down years. I mean, Bama has been unbelievable since Nick Saban took over, but when I was a kid, I remember being out. I never heard about Alabama. No. I never even knew Alabama was a powerhouse. I never knew that they were historic. Because as a kid, I was like, oh, they're unranked, ranked 22nd.

Kind of like Michigan in the 2010s before Jim Harbaugh. So every program's had its down years. But Ohio State, deal with the devil. But guess what? You want to know what that means? That's why it just felt so good these last two years. It felt so good because it was so long coming, and it was truly slaying the dragon.

And it was, I mean, the feeling in those stadiums the last two years was something I will literally never forget. Never forget. You know what's crazy is if Ohio State wins those two games, C.J. Stroud is the best quarterback in Ohio State history. Two-time Heisman winner. That's a fact. He would have won two Heismans.

You think they would have gave it to Cale Williams last year after he got smoked by Utah? No. He would have won two straight Heismans, and we would have never heard the end of it because they had Archie Griffin back in the day, which his second Heisman was a sham. He scored like four touchdowns um but michigan i mean truly like to take out you like that caitlin to take out that's a hell of a stat to pull out i love i don't know if it's true i'm

pretty sure it's true but to beat ohio state we can fact check it later where's jack you know with his uh with his with his computer um but to beat that program two years in a row, going into 2021, I had friends texting me like, oh, they beat Michigan State by 40. What are they going to do to you? The expectation going into those last two games was Ohio State has the best offense in the country. And so you're right, Justin, to that point. It feels so good.

Yeah, beating Ohio State when they were like 6-6 with Braxton Miller was awesome. But beating them when they were like six and six with Braxton Miller was awesome. But beating them when they are a foot away from the playoff and keeping them out one year and, you know, kind of taking the big 10 away from the next year. Like it's really impressive when you put it in that perspective of how dominant Ohio State's been against every other team in the country, aside from Michigan in the last two years.

You're right. He did have four touchdowns his senior year there. That's a sham. I mean, he, he rushed for 1300 yards though. He did have four touchdowns his senior year there. That's a sham. I mean, he rushed for 1,300 yards, though. He had four touchdowns? Yeah. What did they do?

Did they have a fullback or something? I guarantee there were other guys running for 1,300 yards back then. That's all they did. They threw it seven times a game. That's true. I mean, he had 1,620 yards his junior year. Okay, that's a legit Heisman. I'm cool with that, but it was like the Lifetime Achievement Award coming back. It's like

Miggy getting into the All-Star game. I don't know if he has, but that'd be like Miguel Cabrera getting into the All-Star game at age 40. Might as well. Alright, let's again, we can talk about Ohio State anytime, I guess, but I don't want to.

I do like talking about them when they're struggling. It's fun. It's very fun. Let's talk about our quarterback. So you are confident in our guy, JJ? Just anyone? Am I? Well, no tanner was bringing it up he said he oh well you just said you i didn't know caitlin first episode um yeah i mean like i said from everything that i've read everything i've heard um just kind of i don't know gut feeling like

you typically see quarterbacks take that big leap in college from year two to three. And I think, you know, obviously a guy like Caleb Williams is generational and goes from freshman year showing a lot of promise to sophomore year winning the Heisman and being fantastic and now is, you know, basically the number one pick next year. But I think with a guy like JJ, we've talked about it a lot. I think that shoulder injury that prevented him from participating in spring ball did not allow him to participate in any summer workouts, off-campus workouts with the receivers

and the running backs. And also had, hey, an incumbent starter, by the way, last year where JJ had to win the battle while still being a little bit hurt with that surgery, recovering from that. So I just feel all those factors, just increased trust in JJ and the offense. I think the quarterback room, I don't know if there was any animosity last year, but I can't imagine it's the greatest place in the world when you've got two guys battling it out that are both incredible competitors and are kind of in that position for a reason with that competitiveness. So I think you have guys like Jack Tuttle. Obviously all these. So, you know, I think you have guys like Jack Tuttle.

Obviously all these guys want to play, but I think you have guys like Jack Tuttle who I think is on record as saying I wanted to coach, I want to coach. I think he's going to definitely be just another set of eyeballs for him in that room. Davis Warren, obviously we all think very highly of him, but I think he kind of knows it's not his time yet. And I think you've got a lot of guys that are going to be rooting for the team. I think the culture in that room is probably as good as it's ever been so all those factors for me just lead to jj having a big year like i think he's going to throw for 35 plus

touchdowns this year okay that's a great segue then because i was going to ask you both if so he had he had 20 he's breaking it he had 27700 yards and 22 touchdowns last year. The record, which is still – the record for Michigan is a wild stat that it's only – It's so dumb, man. It's insane. It's only 25 passing touchdowns. I mean, Justin Fields literally almost doubled it. So, not to give him too much props, but it's just absurd how –

even like you would think the Chad Henny days, like it seemed like he was throwing for four touchdowns a game. You know what I mean? Like it's crazy. But the question was going to be, do you think he breaks that record? You know, I, my gut says yes, because if you're at 22 and we, you missed one game you know essentially uh but in the beginning of the season um and we ran the shit out of the ball which i know we're gonna do that again but yeah i'll let you guys take it here caitlin what do you think and and these are only passing touchdowns right correct

okay because i do think it's like three will a number of touchdowns in as well. Will he break the record? Yeah. I mean, why not? I mean, we've got so many weapons. And I think we're going to see both Blake and Donovan on the field at the same time, right? I mean, why not have, like, option passes and stuff like that? Same with Colson Loveland and A.J. Barner.

Exactly, right? Tight end, security blanket. I think there will be tons of guys to get reps passing-wise, and then I think we'll still run the crap out of the ball, but I think that will only help our play-action game. J.J. with another year under his belt, spring ball, healthy shoulder. I think he's just going to let it fly, especially early in the season. Like, why not?

Got to get those reps in. Yeah, I mean, you think about the beating that Blake took last year. And those hits add up, man. They absolutely add up. And, you know, against Nebraska, I think he had 30-plus carries because Donovan, that's when he initially broke his hand or his thumb, was in that Nebraska game. And I just remember being at that game, watching Blake just take handoff after handoff and just being like, please be healthy. And then the next week he gets hurt. I'm not saying it's because of the coaches or anything, but your body can only take so many hits. And unfortunately, that's what

happened to him last year. So I think there's going to be more of an emphasis on throwing the ball this year. I also think just from a recruiting standpoint, you need to be able to point to Bryce Underwood and say, hey, look what this dude did in our offense. Not 22 touchdowns, 37 touchdowns or something. I mean, hell, even if you only have two touchdowns a game passing, that's 30 in 2023, right, if you play 15 games, as I think Michigan will do. I just feel like you have to for perception's reality, right?

And Justin, you were talking about earlier, Michigan's the boring old school offense. Ohio State's the high-flying offense because of the five-star wide receivers. Unfortunately, we know that's not exactly the story, but a lot of these kids, there's so much that goes in the decision-making process that sometimes perception is all that they see. And so for Michigan, I think for the high level receiving recruits, the receivers, and Bryce Underwood, for example, in 2025, you got to be able to point to,

hey, our guy threw for 3,500 yards and 40 touchdowns. You have to. You've got to be able to show that you can develop and have guys that can go in the first round, can be top ten picks. So I'm looking for a big year from J.J. Take some of that pressure off of Blake and Donovan. And, yeah, the tight ends, man. I mean, A.J. Barner had a big-time touchdown in the shoot last year. So something the tight ends have in common. Facts. Um, so he had, so the thing is too, like for JJ 22 and five is it's a great TD

to interception ratio. That's, that's fantastic. And I still think, you know, people ragged on him, but, um, what is he? He was at 64%. Uh, I think for, for, uh, you know, people ragged on him, but what is he? He was at 64%, I think, for completion percentage. Like, that's very solid as well for a first-time starter, first-year starter. So, yeah, I think he only improves, and I think people are underestimating the impact of just having that leadership that you talked about as well. Having control and managing the offense and college football is so key.

And football in general. I watched the quarterback Netflix doc on Mahomes and Cousins. Cousins is obviously very talented, but he's probably one of the smartest people out there that have played the game of football. That's why he's successful more than anything. He doesn't make wrong throws very often. And, you know, J.J., he got away with you last year for sure. And, obviously, the TCU game sucked for everybody involved,

and he's going to learn from that. But thinking about him not only making more plays, but making more of the right plays is really, really exciting. I think for me as a Michigan fan. Absolutely. Yeah. I think, yeah. I'm just looking forward to seeing JJ like basically be Johnny Manziel 2.0, but like a little bit more like less anxiety. Yeah. On and off the field does he go to vegas mid-season too or what do you think that's true i watch that netflix thing oh my god he couldn't

be polar more polar opposite from johnny manziel in terms of like uh personality so he's a golden retriever let's not do that the last guy that we had at michigan who was compared to johnny menzel seriously i mean won 10 games one year but like i am better i mean i people would like shea if there wasn't somebody on the internet trying to um defend him every day um same with someone else this past year so um yeah that's kind of just where we're at with it so i have a off-topic question are we going to watch the swamp kings documentary part of that same untold netflix documentary the only thing is i've seen some reviews urban meyer is a part of it he's on camera they're not going to tell the whole story they're not going to get you whole story. They're not going to get to the nitty-gritty.

He would probably go to jail if they did. Was that too much to say? No, no. I'm excited to watch it, but who knows how deep they're going to dive is my concern. I mean, the stories on that team, Tim Tebow, obviously. Urban Meyer, some health scares scares is that going to be talked about how deep into aaron hernandez do they go do they talk about riley cooper

right like riley cooper's pretty infamous at this point for saying some very very gross things um i think uh brandon spikes got into some trouble i mean like a third of that team had been arrested at some point so how deep are they going to go? We were so good in 2006 and 2008 with Tim Tebow and Chris Leak. Is that going to be the whole story? I live that. I want to know the behind-the-scenes stuff, so that's my concern with it. I'm still going to watch it. We've got nothing until Saturday. I'm football-deprived, so I will be watching it, but that's my concern. Tanner, we're just going to give you a film crew, and then you can go ask the real questions. We'll see what happens just get me at a big noon kickoff and i'm just up there with a microphone

just somehow bypassing security just asking urban meyer the real questions has anybody asked urban meyer why there was like a naked man oh that's a good question long on his boat i have a question why was urban meyer like why did he stay behind first of all why did he stay behind when the rest of his team went back to jacksonville and he's like let me go to my local bar rocks of ohio state gear and just get after it on a thursday night like did did he not realize like nobody's gonna see him like what and also brother like you know nfl coaches don't just take a four-day weekend because they played on a thursday right like they're game planning for next sunday what are you doing these are the questions you should

be asking the wildest tenure of any i think of any employee in any industry was urban meyers jacksonville rent out your it's your bar you would. If you wanted to go to the bar and drink, you could shut it down, invite only your friends who aren't going to videotape you grinding on some girl. And, like, there are ways to avoid it. Grinding is certainly a word, though. He's, like, got his camera up like a TMZ paparazzi. He's going like, what was her name? What was her name?

No, I want to be like uh caleb presley just asking like extremely awkward conversations and have the camera pan to me just like staring into his soul it's like urban you said ohio state would stop the run they did not do you have any comments just get it just get into the heavy stuff right away um yeah i agree also people just kind of like brush over the urban meyer stuff with at florida because they won and then he won at ohio state and it's like i don't i mean there's way too many scandals that went on for it not to be like i know they're obviously making a documentary of it now but like i don but am I crazy or do people not regard Urban Meyer as the scandal guy, even though he's done it everywhere?

Harbaugh's quote. What was his quote again? Oh, man. It was something really good. It was something like something follows him everywhere. Yeah. Controversy follows him everywhere. And he's not wrong because at Florida,

it goes without saying, at Ohio State, I don't know. I thought at Ohio State it wasn't necessarily as bad. But until the Zach Smith stuff. That stops. Right. And then the Zach Smith stuff, which ended his tenure there. That came to light. I think without the Zach Smith stuff coming to light,

the whole town was like waiting for something to happen. And I think the worst thing that ever happened was Carlos Hyde got in trouble for an assault thing that got him suspended for a couple games, so that was it. Which, hey, credit to them for not getting in trouble, but the Zach Smith stuff

really turned the heat up in the Ohio State 10-0. He's a psychopath. He legitimately is a psychopath. I don't know who runs the Menace 2 Society Twitter that-0. He's a psychopath. I mean, he legitimately is a psychopath. I don't know who runs, like, the Menace 2 Society Twitter that he does. He's, like, come at me because I made fun of Denzel Burke once, and he just started, like – he's, like, bet on the Michigan-Ohio State game with me. And I was, like, I don't really care to.

And I'm, like, is this actually Zach Smith or is this one of his boys just going rogue on social media? I think it's him. I think he's that on him. There's, like, eight's like eight Menace 2, whatever his fucking podcast is called, accounts. I'm like, is he just controlling all of these? I mean, judging by the way he acted,

like when people were uncovering all this stuff, I think it's him. There's something going on there. Yeah, that was an interesting Twitter fight. I also got on a Twitter fight with Coach Jason Brown from Last Chance U, but we don't have to talk about that one. You can talk about a psychopath. That guy still goes on Instagram Live and stuff.

Yeah, I mean, he's got to pay for those Cadillacs somehow, and he's not coaching anymore. Yeah. Might be going off the rails. That dude is a money launderer for sure just so wild um the uh i don't know if you guys remember but the one season where he was berating the officials so bad that he got ejected um that happened at a school in council bluffs iowa my wife used to work at that college.

It was the same. Yeah, she worked there for two years. And I wish I had gone to one of those games to see Jason Brown just get ejected. Coach Jason Brown, Coach JB, just get ejected. Just what a wonderful time in just TV history with Last Chance U. Just a great series. Absolutely. All right. Speaking of TV, what are we going to be doing tomorrow, Tanner? Wow, we really buried the lead here. Justin and I will be going on Bleacher Report to do a 30-minute live stream talking some of the biggest storylines heading into the 2023 Michigan season. Be live at 3 p.m. Eastern on August 22nd.

Who knows if this will be out before then, but I'm sure there will be a video on demand of it somewhere, so go check it out. Justin and I are extremely excited. Hopefully the first of many. We don't really know too much. We've had some interaction with the folks at Bleacher Report and Turner and whoever else owns those companies.

But we're very excited. Justin, I don't know if you have any thoughts you want to add there, but I'm just super fired up for that. It should be a lot of fun. Yeah, we've been talking to the owner of Turner. Yeah, Ted Turner. Ted. Ted and our boys.

Good friend, Ted. He's been asking us to come on for a while now, but we've know we've been pushing it off we um but they finally finally convinced us to do it so we'll be there um what do you think the what vibe are we going for are we are we being serious or we i think we have to be serious but i think we got to be ourselves too you know i can't be i can't be anybody else i can't be the i can't be an overly analytical person that's not my d within within my DNA so I think we need to try to be intelligent, not sound like idiots but also have some fun with it

I think you guys should do a power half hour just get drunk absolutely I mean I've still got to work around this so I've got some meetings I had to switch around it's all good, we're going to make it work I didn't realize it was going to during the day um when just i had no idea yeah

it's like yeah it's three o'clock i'm like brother we have full-time jobs um it's fine at least like give us a heads up what if i had a meeting he emailed us like an hour ago it was like 7 30 monday night like hey we're doing this at three it's like okay cool, we're doing this at 3. It's like, okay, cool. Who's watching this at 3 p.m.? I don't know. Someone else at work, right? Probably. So the thing that has me really excited beyond just the reach of Bleacher Report, but I think – so whenever you guys – if you've created a Bleacher Report account,

you go in there, you select the teams that you follow. I always get push notifications to my phone. So I'm hoping that they push us to michigan fans that have michigan football as one of their teams that's where i'm hoping we get a lot of viewership because i guarantee there's probably more michigan fans on that thing than anybody honestly maybe except from like european soccer teams and stuff so that might be a huge draw for the audience i mean lionel messi intermessi intermessy all right we're wrapping it up here we're just like talking amongst ourselves yeah this one off the rails um apologies but uh for us you can follow

us at blue by 90 on twitter instagram facebook at blue by 90 podcast on youtube and blue by 90.com we appreciate you go Go Blue. Go Blue. Go Blue. All right. That was great. So, Justin, I guess we don't really need to do that.