Blue By Ninety - ALL SMILES AFTER WEEK 2

Episode Date: September 12, 2023

BRANDON JUSTICE JOINS THE SHOW. JACK IS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND.

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

Touchdown, Wolverines! Alright, welcome back to Blue by 90. I'm Justin, joined by Jack and Kaylin. Oh. That's not me. I'm not Jack. Jack's not here still. Sorry, Jack. No, I'm here with Kaylin and BJ, Brandon Justice. How are you boys doing? How are you feeling? Good. I'm feeling great. I'm here with Kalen and BJ, Brandon Justice. How are you boys doing? How are you feeling?

Good. I'm feeling great. I'm good. Good. Another dub. It's Victory Monday here. Monday night we're recording this. Brandon, let's start off here.

You did not attend the game on Saturday. Was not your fault. Let's. It was not your fault. Let's start there. Not your fault at all. Give us the reason because I think we need to rant about this. Yeah, so my cousin, who I love very much and very happy for him to be married now, congratulations to Trevor and Bailey. However, the wedding ceremony started at 3.15, and the Michigan kickoff was at 3.30.

So, right. And obviously those two things. Not even an hour difference, like nothing. And then you go to the ceremony. Do they get married in front of a TV showing the game? Brother, there wasn't a TV in the venue the entire start to finish, nor was there any service. No service, no phone, and I was rocking like one bar of LTE,

refreshing the ESPN app like it was 2012 again. It was honestly a humbling experience. It was a humbling experience. It felt nice to be reminded of all the things that we have now that we did not used to have because i was refreshing espn looking at the play-by-play like oh jason mccarthy just had a pass for 12 yards i was like okay sweet let's go and then like 10 minutes would go by i wouldn't have an update i'd refresh they go for an important two don't get it i'm like i never even i don't even get the ball like i last i checked unlv punted because unlv was punting within like 30 second increments by the way i could tell so you know it was uh but it was a first for me i've heard all the horror stories about

college football saturday weddings got to experience my first again very happy for them however the timing was tough i mean i yeah i think you know for people who have fall saturday weddings um you know i'm sure you're great people just know that everyone that attends your wedding is angry at you and mad about the whole situation yeah i wonder is there a way to like appease both fan bases like can you have like tvs tvs going can you maybe like i don't know i don't even know how how can you help both fan bases i don't i don't know if you can't think you can i don't think you can i think you just it's uh you you absolutely just don't do it just don't do it there are 12 saturdays a year maybe the efficient is coach prime

oh wow that might come with a a pretty penny i would say he's a wanted man right now or or he would just do it and be like i'm recruiting i'm recruiting exactly i saw some potential prospects out there i mean i i wasn't recruiting i was being recruited by all sorts of alcohol i've never consumed before and i'll never consume again but it's not recruiting prospects i love it um yeah just don do it. Don't have your wedding in the fall on a fall Saturday. Even a fall Sunday. Like, my brother was at a wedding last night too. And then, you know, I don't know.

Just don't do it. There's plenty of other, you know, winter, spring, summer. There's three out of the four seasons that you can do this. I feel like that's plenty of options. Reminding everybody of the seasons and when they occur. Yeah, they do. So they go in that order, actually, as well. But anyways, big dub for Michigan.

I want to say this, too. Are you underwhelmed with Michigan through two games? because i've seen some people that are mad online now i want to say though before we i ask you guys i wonder are those same people would they be mad if it was 100 to 0 they'll be mad if it's not 100 to 1 to 0 you know like are they just mad just to be mad or is there a reason to actually be underwhelmed because michigan has only scored what 30 and 35 or whatever it was i mean i'm not underwhelmed i've i've loved everything i've seen i mean jj had a red dot on the whole game it felt like so it was that was fantastic i don't know what there is to be displeased about i think like the there is to be displeased about. I think, like, the only thing to be displeased about

is, like, the second team offense. The second team offense just isn't good, at least right now. I mean, I'm sure they might be long-term, but it's just not good right now. I mean, it's been through two games. They really haven't done a whole lot. They haven't scored a point, right? Both games?

Yeah, so that's bad. That's not good. Because last year, it seemed like yeah so that's bad that's not good because last year it seemed like when they brought the second teams in in the hawaii game and the colorado state game i think they i don't know how many points they scored but they had a lot more life in them now granted those two number two units back then had like kade and one and jj and the other but regardless like davis warren just looked better in general and you know the offensive line has no shortage of depth so it's not them i so i think it's the skill players i mean i just don't see a lot out of the second team wide outs and running backs to other than that i

mean when your depth is certainly important but for michigan to have a depth problem right now they're like some serious shit would have to happen they would have to lose a lot of guys because they rotate so many in their first unit as it is. Yeah. So for me, like, no, I don't think there's anything that's really underwhelming at this point

because a, how good JJ has been like that should, they should outshine everything. Like every single college football dynasty starts with a really good quarterback, unless you're Georgia and you have some sort of like generational once in a lifetime defense. And JJ like really fits the the bill to every degree.

Right now, anybody who watched Michigan football last year and watched it this year, there is a visible difference in how much better he is. Oh, it's easy to see for sure. When Blake – Blake getting three touchdowns is like the second coolest thing that happened for the offense. Like that's kind of like – That's true.

That is a good point. Like Blake had three touchdowns and nobody's really talking about it at all. That's when you know that your quarterback's pretty damn good. Last year was all the conversation last year is literally just the run game for them. Like even aside from, I guess the Hawaii game and obviously TCU JJ had to come on glued a bit, but I mean,

other than that, like all year, it was just the run game. And not to say that the run game isn't there, but now the run game, and at least in the first two games, the run game looks more like a complimentary type of role as opposed to being the featured, which is encouraging, I guess, to people who want sexy football. Yeah, for sure.

And it'll be interesting to see, like, you know, I think everyone out there, I would the hater the jj haters the michigan haters out there from other fan bases are sitting there saying all right you played east carolina unlv you know anybody can do that against them whatever and so it will be interesting to see how jj continues to play you know once they get into the Rutgers game and more Big Ten play and everything like that but I agree with you Beach he is like I mean he looks like a different quarterback super confident in himself and all that and as far as that second team you know you had Tuttle come in as a backup in week one and then Davis Warren was the backup in week two I believe we're gonna see Alex Orji as the backup in week three now here.

I thought Tuttle looked great in his one play this past weekend. Yeah. I mean, thankfully it was the non-throwing shoulder and everything, and he said he could have gone back in. But he had that little keeper. I was like, okay, Tuttle, he can move a little bit. He's played a lot of football. Like I don't think people understand that he started a lot of games at

Indiana. And I know they weren't like unbelievable when he was there, but that means a lot. And so I do think bringing him, I love Davis Warren. He's one of my favorite people on the planet, super nice kid and like just the best, but it helps a ton to have a guy with that type of experience come in you know to be a second or third string hopefully you know whatever they end up with the depth chart to JJ um so I I like that a lot um I will say a lot of people were seem concerned about the o line in the run game this year though, as well. They, they, you know, I,

is it just because we're not like running for 400 yards a game or are there actually, I, I saw some old line issues like missed assignments and stuff like that. But again, there's new guys on there. I don't know. Is that an overreaction as well or or is there some warrant there too i mean i think they're still gelling right there's obviously still kind of getting that chemistry going with the run game uh guys you know learning plugging guys in at the uh what is that the right tackle spot trente jones switching off um but i i was actually more interested in like blake i felt like blake was not he's 100 healthy but he's not 100 where he was last year right he's not like the dominant kind

of juke you out your shoes guy quite yet i think he's just got to get more reps and that kind of thing and get back in the groove. I think everything's going perfect. I don't have any problems with like the run game in the old line. Like the old line wasn't great in game one. Like I'll give you that, I guess. But like, if you look at the tape from game one, ECU had eight, sometimes even nine between the tackles. They were denying Michigan in the run.

They were forcing JJ to throw, and that's exactly what he did. And I think against UNLV, maybe it wasn't as black and white as, hey, they stacked eight in the box. But, again, Michigan sees how well they can move the ball. Anytime somebody plays a zone defense against Michigan this year, through the first two games, JJ has – and everyone's going to bring – here's the lazy conversation the lazy conversation as always UNLV as you see it was like it doesn't matter it's a scheme JJ's right he's going out there picking up that's not normal my cat make his appearance is the most annoying cat in the history of the planet anyway he's picking apart

his own and the point is we weren't seeing that as much last year out of him he was a little more erratic once he got past his first read he was bailing out of the pocket his pocket presence and just the way he goes through his progressions and the way to dissect where the soft spots are going to be use that with like how well corneal is johnson and uh roman willis are running routes right now like that's really dangerous michigan's receivers were its biggest weakness last year and it might be its biggest night and day difference besides the quarterback and those are two positions that if you have a night and day difference in a year where you went to a college football playoff it's probably going to end well for you in the second year from that so

i think everything's going well like no the run game's not going to have 400 yards the old line's not going to get 99 pff grades because of it but like i think everyone's going to be all right when michigan is able to go out and win a playoff game with a quarterback as its focal point on offense. Yeah, and I think the reality is as well that the reality is if you win back-to-back J-10 championships by running the shit out of the football, teams are going to load the box and try and get you to not be able to run the football that's just the reality of the situation so it's gonna get harder and harder for this o line you know as that's michigan's identity teams are gonna say all right we're gonna stop you you

know from running and force you to throw it and so i kind of love that JJ's now showing it because once we get into the Rutgers in the big 10 games of this season you know now all of a sudden you can't just load the box because you have to account for JJ's arm and you know he is as you said BJ just dialed like i i just i it's unbelievable it's unbelievable how well he's playing and how how well how good his arm looks um because he looks so comfortable he looks in you know he just looks like a different guy and so i think it's i'm just watching Beach just yell at his cat right now. I'm sitting here trying to like get – This guy is – This guy is off his fucking rocker. He had to go on mute just for the cat.

I love it. Sorry. But, yeah, I don't know, man. I just think, you know, Michigan fans, I get it. It comes from a place of love because you care so much. You want it. You want this product to be so unbelievable. But I'd say let's just enjoy the ride here.

You know, we're playing pretty good football. There's no reason to bitch and moan when your team is 2-0 and has won, what are we we now 27 and 3 in the last two years like just an absurd run that we're still on let's enjoy it a little bit well they forget they just they forget how bad it used to be so yeah true i loved on this offense seeing both blake and dono on the field at the same time. That was so fun. Yeah, absolutely. And I think a lot of people are like, oh, well, Donovan, he had a rough game. And, yeah, his stats didn't show it.

But I think Blake excelled a lot because Donovan was taking, you know, he was the decoy. And probably the same thing in the pass game, too. JJ excels a little bit because when blake and donovan are on the field well shit your linebackers are probably gonna be you know trying to take away them and that's gonna leave open a slot receiver or something like that so right they will even had blake in the slot for a couple sets i love that and it's like okay now what are we doing is he running out for a pass?

Is it a jet sweep? You know? And how about I like Colston Loveland had a jet sweep as well. I don't think it was super successful, but I love how, I mean, there are a lot of guys that can play all over the field for Michigan on the offensive side of the ball.

And it's going to be fun to see that, which speaking of colston i mean is he even a tight end at this point or is he just devin funches like what like i'm pretty sure he's just playing that whatever that position is he's just playing that position where you know he's listed as a tight end but he's very much a wide receiver that just kind of you know that plays tight to the line i love it he's i'm running colson loveland in my four verts call so i love that i love that um by the way we had a hell of a tailgate i would say um i had a good time kaylin i know you had a good time as well. Oh, absolutely. Always do. Always.

Had plenty of these Blue by 90 beers. I did say that I would commit to our listeners out there that I will be drinking one Blue by 90 and at least one Hail on each podcast. So here we go. I've already got a Blue by 90 beer down. Man of his word. So Hail IPA You gotta go to Plum Market in Bushes

And grab a six pack They're right there Beautiful packaging honestly They did have the Sparta IPA right next to it Which I almost bought one Just to like throw on the ground outside But Go grab your Hale IPA for this weekend

For the game day Shouts out Hale IPA for this weekend, for the game day. Shouts out Hale. Shouts out North Peak. Yeah. Love it. Love it. We appreciate them.

I've got the signage just got here, so we're going to have some new signage up on the tent this week. Love that. What are we thinking about the night game? It's a marathon. That's a print, boys. Oh, yeah. It's Bowling Green. Bow green bowling green good i'm not gonna lie i have not paid much attention to bowling green football in 2023 well you want to know why it's because maxion hasn't started yet maxion doesn't start till like october for those tuesday night games so that's when i'll be honest. I feel like once that starts, I'm like dialed into the Mac just because of that.

EMU. I don't even want to discuss what's happening right now. Just carry on. You get the fucking picture. This is, we should just comment. He's just screaming at his cat. He's an addiction to this.

I work from home and I get into Zooms and it's like he doesn't do anything. Then I get on a Zoom and it's like why? That's for sure how cats work. That's definitely how all cats are for sure, Beach. So we're all aware of the cats.

Bowling Green did lose the Liberty by 10. So that's impressive. I'm excited for the lights. That's going to sound really stupid. That'll be cool. I'm excited for a night tailgate. An all-day tailgate is very fun. You just have to pace yourself.

Pace yourself, for sure. And that's why we have, what is our percentage? The all-day tailgate is very fun. You just have to pace yourself. Pace yourself, for sure. And that's why we have, what is our percentage? Three point? We're 90 calories, 3.1, where ale is 7.2. So, you know, I think it's a good combo. You definitely have to only have, like, maybe one or two or a couple ale IPAs, and then you have to switch to the blue by 90 beer so you're a hard like hey let's hit the let's let's hit the runway hard and then let's

just hit cruise control you're like the guy who leaves at 4 a.m for vacation and goes like 95 until like 9 in the morning and then once rush hour hits you're like now we're cruising because we're like we took up like three hours of the ride right away. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I'll join you on that journey on Saturday. All right.

That would be fun. Hopefully my dad doesn't walk up and while I'm doing a beard bong to the worst of my ability. Why? That was fantastic. Yeah, it actually was probably one of our best core memories. But unfortunately, I definitely had to have not made him that proud by my performance because it was bad. Not that I've ever done. I know I look like a guy who's done a lot of beer bongs, but I'm a guy who actually never has done a beer bong. It was just an incredible moment.

Just Beej turns around, just his whole shirt is like wet. He just goes, oh, no. My biological father. Is that what I said? Is that what he actually said? Oh, okay. I didn't even know that's what I said, which is probably. That's amazing.

That's amazing. Shout out Ray Justice. Goat. Well, anyway, I'm hoping that doesn't happen. But as long as that doesn't happen, it should be a great time. And even if it doesn't, it'll still be a great time. We did it. Margaritaville theme was a hit.

We all got laid at the tailgate. We all. You know, I don't know many other tailgates where you can guarantee to get laid at. I don't know. It'sgates where you can guarantee to get laid at. I don't know. It's pretty impressive. It's great. I also – something I can also guarantee that you can't get laid at is if you're having phone sex. I can guarantee.

I don't – sorry, that just came – I don't know where that came from. It was just – it just came to me. But – This is a good one so far. I had to lose the headphones twice so far. We're 20 minutes in. One was because of my cat, but the second one was definitely that. Bro, I –

How much are we allowed to talk about this we absolutely have to talk about the mel tucker situation it's too wild of a story not to um i you know let's i'll preface the whole conversation with you know i we're not trying to make light of the situation you know if all the allegations that brenda tracy is saying are true out there it's disgusting and wrong and like being dead serious about that it's gross like all that um but i just i'll what i'll say is like you couldn't if if somebody like told me this fictional story and they said here's the timeline of how it happened. Mel Tucker is going to get paid $95 million.

They're going to make a slogan for him that's Tuck coming, and then there's going to be a sexual harassment thing against him the following year or whatever. I'm like, you can't make this shit up. It's outrageous. This is the wildest story that I've ever heard. It is a weird one in a lot of different ways. And I really am, I don't even know if this is the right way to say this.

I'm, like, curious to see what happens. Not in, like, a way where I'm like there's no exciting like i'm not i'm not sitting here like oh i hope bill tucker is fired or oh i hope these innocent it's like i'm not really shedding one way or the other it's like it's so like wild and there's so many different parts to both sides of the story that are so contradicting of both sides of the story that i don't know like it's like the johnny depp and amber heard trial. I'm just here to watch. Whoever says what, I'll just sit here and let it all unravel in front of me, and then I'll formulate my opinion.

Right now it's just an insane story, and I do think the insane part of it being at specifically Michigan State where there is a coach who has the phrase that involves coming in it that also does not help the situation to be taken more seriously however i like that we are taking it serious i think it's a great stand by the studious men of blue by 90 and women and women there are women out there um yeah man it's just like i don't know a lot of people out there are saying he's coached his last game. And I think that he put out a statement today that listed out details,

called Brenda Tracy out, saying she's lying about the whole thing. You know, I just – it feels like the way that this is going, that there isn't a way that he can step onto the field yet. That's just how I feel. that there isn't a way that he can step onto the field yet. That's just how I feel. Whether it's right or wrong, it just feels like this whole thing is just – there's just no way that he can be the coach. And it's – My understanding is that he's already been fired, correct?

That was what originally came out and then was it bruce feldman i think put it out there right away and then he like quote tweeted it and was like no actually they're waiting until the hearing to to make a decision here um alan haller who's their ad uh went on a uh press conference yesterday um didn't have a great showing i'll say this he was just like speaking in roundabout ways and not really providing a ton of information um i don't know the like i you know i don't think there's a playbook on how to handle this situation here where what do you do with your $95 million man? It also feels like if there's one school that should have the answers for how to deal with a situation like this,

it's the school that just dealt with it, right? Right. I definitely agree with that. Larry Nassar obviously isn't your head football coach. So that's different. And it was years later. But like, they definitely just went through this. And from not only just a PR standpoint, but like, how to handle, you know, all this stuff, you would think that they would have a little bit better, I don't know. It sounded like there was some stuff where they couldn't know the details because it was an ongoing case or something like that. So that was the administration at Michigan State was like not allowed to know all of it until – but like they must have known something, obviously, and then for them to not suspend him until the story gets out, then it just doesn't look good.

It looks like you're being reactionary instead of proactive on it um so again i think like like you said bj like we got to get all the facts here and then we can formulate opinions but either way just an absolutely wild story and i'll say this like i think in this situation at absolute best mel tucker is an absolute moron for what has happened here right like even if he even if it was all consensual all this stuff i mean he was a married man i know he says that their marriage was estranged uh you know by the time but you're married you're and you know the head coach of a of a football program, that's a huge program in the country. You just got a contract for $95 million.

Like, you should be doing everything in your power not to lose that, not to lose that $95 million. Like, it's insane to me that you could possibly lose and fumble that bag. Right. It's like he's been watching Wolf of Wall wall street or something like trying to reenact it. Yeah, man.

It's, uh, I don't know. Like I said, you, you can't script this stuff. It's, uh,

I don't know. I don't want to make jokes and stuff because it is a sensitive subject. And, and, uh, but I, you know, I,

one thing I did tweet out today that I really, you know, there aren't many times where I feel bad for Michigan state fans. I do feel bad for them right now. Cause if this was happening to my school, like the, my team that I loved and that I like, you know, put a ton of effort into following all the time, I'd be heartbroken. What do you even do? How do you handle the situation as a fan? You still want to root for the kids.

I also feel terrible for these kids who now, like their whole college career has just been derailed completely. It definitely sucks for the kids and the fans a lot. Yeah, I'm 100% with you on that one. Yeah, I would second that just because, I mean, it's a very peculiar situation. Nothing you can do about it as a fan. Peculiar is an interesting way to put it.

I like that. Well, it's a very weird – I don't know. It's a one-on-one. No, I agree. You like to think it doesn't happen often because it doesn't happen often, not because it doesn't come to – doesn't eventually get broken. You know what I'm saying? So, I don't know.

It sucks for everybody involved that's hurt because of it. But from a fan perspective, for week three of the season, you're not even in conference play yet, and you've got a new head coach. And sure, in Michigan State's case, without any of this being considered, losing their head coach might not be the worst thing that's happening to the program right now. However, or yeah, it might not be the worst thing.

However, it's the way it's happening. The conspiracy theorists out there. Right. The conspiracy theorists out there say it was a plant to get him out because he wasn't performing at that 95 million dollars well he even said that i mean well well yeah i think that that letter yeah that was you're right that was in the statement right yeah and the statement he said i believe this yeah he said that he believes it's happening because of his contract and his race and gender. And he doesn't. And he name dropped, which I think was the most.

I honestly his statement, which I'm not going to get into the whole defense statement, but his statement was well put together. Well, evidence like I thought it was well written. I thought it was, you know, about as good as an attorney can make the situation to be. If, in fact, what you say is true. However, the one part of it where he name-dropped Nassar was like, yeah, they're trying to avoid another Nassar. And I was like, oh, okay. Like you, I don't know. I don't know if I would have put that. I'm not sure if I would put my situation up in the same category as that,

right, like voluntarily. Also, he name-dropped Harbaugh. Oh, yeah, that was a weird one too uh is hard so the way he the way that it looked like it was phrased is that harbaugh is in brenda tracy's report too now as i understand it is brenda tracy released a huge report or some sort of like huge like a memoir or something of the experiences she's had working in college football or something like that. And within that report, there was a lot about Mel Tucker, but there was also a lot about others, and he said including Harbaugh.

Which I don't think he had anything to do with. I don't think that was out of left field. I don't know. I thought so too. He's like blindly – I wouldn't say blindly. In his opinion, he's not, I guess. But he's referencing Harbaugh in the same report. However, everyone who is anyone to report on news like this has read that report and all they've gotten out of it is is the Tucker situation.

So I don't know if maybe there was some something negative said about him in a different way, because obviously, if it was anything of this, we would have already heard about it and gotten all uptaped. So, yeah, but yeah but yeah no that statement was i think it was like yeah i i really don't know what exactly he was referencing there it felt like he was like trying to like unite michigan the michigan fan base be like no this is brenda tracy against me and jack and jim harbaugh like it's like no don't don't drag don't drag jim harbaugh. It's like, no, don't drag Jim Harbaugh into this. Yeah, that was weird. So I will say Jim Harbaugh, I thought, handled it well today in his press conference. Of course, he got asked about it. And he pretty much just said, I don't know anything about this, so I'm not going to touch on it.

And that's, I think, the only way you can handle that if you're Jim Harbaugh, right? Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, it's the type of questions super piss that they ask. But, I mean, I don't know what it is. Like, everyone's going to ask it eventually. But that's about all you can do is what he did. And what, like, if he says anything at all,

if he does have a comment, it's going to be a headline on ESPN or something. It's going to get misconstrued. Like, that's the only way to handle that for sure. So, all right, let's get back to on-the-field football here. One thing I wanted to touch on that we didn't as well is the defense for these first two games. I mean, the reality is we should have zero points scored against us. The only reason that points were scored in the second game was there was a pick

thrown, you know, in the late in the fourth quarter. And in the first game, they pulled the James Franklin, right, and kicked a field goal, which apparently ECU had like – they had like a crazy streak going that they haven't been shut out in like 29 years or something like that. Got to keep the streak. I mean, that's – I respect it if that's the case. Yeah, that was crazy. I mean, I – that was crazy. Go ahead, Gal great go ahead caitlin sorry no no that's

that was a very sad field goal it was a sad field goal but i'll say it's way better to do it as ecu than it is to do it as penn state that's all yeah i'm sure we'll have some james franklin sad field goals approaching soon. They got a pretty good team. They scored. I mean, they played FCS team. But I'm looking at this power rating index system I look at a lot. Yeah.

Shout out to Tyler Shoemaker. It's actually got Michigan through two weeks as the sixth best team, which is, you know, whatever. It's sample size type stuff. But their defensive rating is 14.2 usc's defensive rating is 24.6 so i think we're just gonna need some time to let this marinate but i mean i don't know i think uh i think the defense looked really good i think the defensive front is is like the best part so far for me because michigan's always had good edge work but dude chris jenkins

and kenneth grant and mason graham are just like an absurd interior uh like not even absurd for michigan like absurd for like most schools not named georgia you know over the last couple years and uh you know kenneth grant looks like unbelievable uh like, unbelievable. Chris Jenkins just looks like himself, but looks like he doesn't have to do it himself. You want to know what I noticed about him? There was one – I was watching Classic, watching Jay Do on Twitter, his recaps on Sunday mornings. And there was one play where Chris Jenkins like he had to go to the go

to his right and then he was um he was rushing the quarterback who was dropping back and the quickness that he had to get like five yards to the quarterback the closing the closing speed there was really incredible for a guy that's 300 whatever pounds he is like to be able to do that is just impressive and then this is a little bit of a humble humble brag here but i i dabbed up kenneth grant today and he makes me – I'm 6'3", 215. He makes me feel like I might as well be 5'7". Like, oh, my God, he's so big. The defensive line this past game just, like, had how many – five sacks or something like that? Which everyone was bitching about after game one

because they didn't have a sack. And then they're just like, all right, we can do it, though. They just pinned their ears back and went for it this game, and it was awesome to see. And then I actually really liked the linebacker play from our veteran guys, Mike Barrett and Junior this past game. I thought they did really well. Absolutely.

Absolutely. They look a lot more complete as a linebacking core. I mean, Michigan's always had something missing with their linebackers the last few years. And I know I just kind of like raved about the defensive line being that way as well. I think the defensive line probably traded off a strong interior for a less strong edge presence.

I mean, I think Bennett will get there. But the linebacking group is really impressive. Houseman, we knew what we were getting with Houseman, but he just looked like the third leg that they really, really needed. Colson's play recognition is just astonishingly better, which is not necessarily to say he's playing astonishingly better. He is playing really well, but it was just like bad at times last year like bad bad he does a lot of things really well because he's so freakishly athletic and like he can hit through a freaking wall but the awareness and then the

pickups of like what plays were happening and which gaps to to go through he wasn't really as much there last year as it is this year so far um and i think that probably has to do with houseman taking some weight off his chest and michael barrett playing to a level that you know good for michael barrett like he's probably got to be one of the most likable michigan players in the last like 10 years i mean he's he's also just the most under appreciated i think too because yeah like he does so much good stuff but he because he's not the sexy name, he was never a high recruit, you know, he's been through so much.

I mean, shit, this guy was the viper of Don Brown's defense, you know, back in the day. And now he's in his sixth year just killing it. And, you know, he may very well not have a great pro career ahead of him but damn he has done a phenomenal job for michigan here in these past few years yeah he's been awesome he's that great uh fake punt pass back in 2019 or something like that yep yep uh they need to get him in that uh that pop pass play they ran against Ohio State with Mullings last year.

It might give it away. I mean, I would assume Ohio State would have a scouting report on Michael Barrett being a former quarterback, but he's definitely the ideal guy. I mean, he came in here as a QB. How about this defense, too, doing this? You know, Will Johnson did get in on Saturday. He had a series, I believe.

So that's encouraging to see him getting back there. I'm not sure if Rod Moore had a series. I don't think he did get in. But for this defense to be doing what they're doing, basically without those guys, is really impressive. Makari Page has been not 100 at all either so for for them to be doing this is is impressive you know it's nice jesse mentor i i just still think back to the fact that we had last year a brand new defensive coordinator after finally our defensive

took you know took it to the next level then you get in a new defensive coordinator well he's been really really good and i i'm loving what i'm seeing so far from uh from this defense again this year yeah i hope he sticks around longer than uh than uh our old defensive coordinator who was one and done right so yeah this is year two with mentor so i could see him going to the nfl though i don't know he does kind of seem that way it'll be interesting to see what happens with him because i mean he's young right but he's super experienced for how young he is i think he came in here with like eight years of college experience and he had coordinating

experience at georgia state and i think he was like 30 so he's got like 35 now maybe 36 he's not he looks really young yeah so i think they might be able to leg him out for a few because here's the thing like michigan's now at this level where you're at that clemson stage with dabbo it's like yeah you want to go go ahead go see how like a group of five head coach works out for if you think you can do it great but when it's time to come back you can call me back i got a new defense coordinators in that spot it doesn't have to be communicated that way but i mean how often do you see guy you think about the guy at boston college right now like who left ohio state as dc to go be the head coach at boston college and that's not gonna that's already numbered and then what he's gonna go bounce back and be a dc at this place or the other like if

you're comfortable where you're at in college football as a coordinator just stay just stay unless like you're like a born to be made head coach if you're just like you know what i've i'm gonna go be a head coach now i'm gonna try this out you better be sure of it in my opinion because like you're more than likely statistically speaking gonna end up in a group of five coordinator job next year so you know who i i actually do think like Sharon Moore and Mike Hart are doing it the right way where they're waiting that out. Sharon Moore and Mike Hart both could have coached somewhere, been a head coach somewhere, I believe, after last season if they wanted to. And they're saying, you know, no, either A, maybe there's a Michigan head coach at some point here in the, in the future, or they're going to wait it out instead of that group of five, then they go to, you know, in Illinois or, uh, you know, something of that where it's a better situation. Um, because it's so easy to, when you're making, what is it?

You know, an OC makes what a mill or something like that. You know, it's so easy to say oh i could make four million to go be the you know fill in the blank uh not so great job head as a head coach it's so easy to take that i would never blame anybody for taking four million dollars a year but i do think if you truly believe in yourself when you stick that out and you build it you know you're you're actually building a a program building an offense or building know, you're, you're actually building a program, building an offense or building a defense, you're going to end up in a better spot for the longevity of your career. Yeah, no, a hundred percent. I mean, it's all with college football. It's just, it's all repeated behavior. I mean, you can go back

and pretty much look at what any coach decides to do and go look at what the coach before him did. I mean, look at – what was the guy at Boston College before Halfley? I forgot his name. Adazio. He was there for a minute. Then he went to Colorado State, I think, and that didn't work. It's just you play the hokey pokey, and it's like you're bringing your family all over the country.

I don't know. Again, if you're going to do it, you've got to love it. Being a college football head coach is like a whole different ball game compared to doing pretty much anything in the world i would say because as an nfl head coach i mean you're backed by a franchise you have like a hundred staff members when you're a college head coach especially like group of five school where you're like maybe your funding isn't as great i mean you get your 11 assistants and then your support staff but your support staff is really contingent on how often or how much funding you get from the school.

It's like we talked about Michigan baseball a couple years ago when a package left and everything. And the whole story with that was like, yeah, Michigan could compete if it had the funding to get the support staff that all these other schools have. And you think about the group of five schools these guys leave for, they don't get that same support Michigan has here or that a lot of the power fives do.

And it makes your job way harder. You have to work 10 times harder to make three times as much money or five times as much money. And, you know, one in 10 times it works out long term. We'll put it that way. It's got to be a wild way to coach, right? Because, like, places like UAB where they didn't even have a locker room, you know, stuff like that.

You're playing your first game against Georgia or something. Cause you need the check, but it's like a game you'll never win. Like how do you, how do you build a, like a resume, a really good resume from that situation? It's tough. You use that money to, you use that money to go build your new locker room to recruit the next year. There you go. Yeah. I mean, seriously, that's really the game plan usually is you try your best to score once against Georgia.

And then you can say like, oh, we were one of their six touchdowns that they let up all year long. You know? So it is – I agree with you though it's it's so hard it's so hard and i think it's only getting harder in the ncaa because of nil and everything the gap is just widening between the top dogs of the the the country and the rest of college football. I feel like weirdly, though, like everyone has an opportunity, though, now, too. Agreed. Colorado, look at them, you know.

Totally. That makes it so strange. Now you can just, like, have some gimmick. Well, it's kind of, like, turned into college basketball a little bit where like all you need is one good lineup, you know, to make a run, and then you can all of a sudden maybe build a program off of that one run, right? Yeah. I think when you look at like the most successful, like the guys who do what like Deion Sanders is doing right now,

Deion Sanders is Deion fucking Sanders. He's doing all this stuff with an insane amount of evidence, a lot of proof of concept. He's recruiting these kids, and he's like, hey, here's everything. Yay or nay. It's not that simple, but he has so much evidence. I keep going back to Jeff Halfley at Boston College because he sucks, and he's having a hard time. And it's like he doesn't have that type of, like, repertoire.

He doesn't have that resume. He doesn't have the connections that Deion has to bring in. He brought in Tim Brewster to go coach at Colorado. Tim Brewster is one of the best assistants ever going to coach, at least in the last, like, 10, 15 years, especially recruiting-wise. He's just going to go to Colorado. Pretty much he was off into the sunset. I thought he was done coaching, and he just shows up at Colorado,

and now he's recruiting his tail off. He's a polarizing individual. But all the same, what Deion has done is pretty special. We're two games in, and he could go eight and four this year, and there will still be a lot of people respecting the fact that he, A, beat TCU on the road and then beat the shit out of Nebraska. But we could talk about the coaching tree and the path of coaching and how wildly volatile it is year to year,

especially with the new landscape of college football where it's like free agency every year. And recruiting is more so like, what have you done for me lately than it is, what are we going to do two, three years from now? Wild that the Pac-12 is like one of the best leagues in college football for some reason right now. It is crazy for a league that's quite literally disbanding in like eight months.

It's so, so strange. I mean, like without USCc like who else is utah oregon i mean they're good every year utah is great right now oregon's solid i would say oregon state playing well right now ucla yeah dj we on galilei look go look at that oregon state program they were absolutely awful two years ago oh yeah like one in 11 awful yeah right and now i mean all it took was you go get a quarterback a five-star quarterback who obviously didn't play as well as everyone wanted him to at uh at clemson and things are changing and also you go look at clemson with their new five star that they got rid of the old five star for,

and he, you know, didn't play well in week one and they lost. Right. So it's like, didn't they almost lose this week? They were down in the first half of the majority of the half. So it's,

you know, I will say like the whole landscape of it is hard i can't imagine being a head coach at this point because it's like the same way that the kids are looking at the grass is always greener you as a coach also probably are looking as soon as a guy is like struggling you're looking elsewhere for how are we going to replace him next year, you know, or what other transfer are we going to go get? It's got to be just a whole weird situation. So let's – you want to wrap up and go around the Big Ten in the country for a little check-in with some other teams here?

Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Let's see nebraska colorado that was the most boring first half of football we had that on in the tailgate there was zero points scored for so long i went back and watched i didn't realize there were like two fumbles in the like first quarter or something i was like what is going on it was sloppy football.

And then Colorado played a really, really good second half. Nebraska, just not good still. They're just – I don't know what cursed that program, but something got them by a freaking chokehold. They're so bad. Yeah, that game all of a sudden for Michigan doesn't look like it's going to be a contest. I mean, you still got to go on the road and play well. Like, I'll say that for every team on the whole schedule.

But I think it's not, you know, it's not a – That Sims dude is kind of shifty, though. What's that? That Sims QB at Nebraska, he's kind of shifty. Yeah,'s that at sims qb at nebraska he's kind of shifty you do yeah but he like he fumbled like three times he was making such stupid mistakes anyways um well it's funny though because they would like have like a like jet motion or something and then the center would like snap it right when the motion was in front of the qb so he's like oh shit they definitely were not all on the same page that's for sure um notre dame i will say they look really good um i mean

nc state's not like a powerhouse but they're scoring 45 i think hartman's good i don't know yeah hartman's fucking legit the clocks The clock stuff is still new to me. I'm trying to understand. There's a lot of people on Twitter who are like the clock, what I'm referencing for those at home. When the clock used to stop after first downs and no longer stops. So I'm trying to figure out how are we supposed to grade a team like Michigan who in the first two games, yeah, they've scored 35 and 31. And a team like Notre Dame, yeah, they've scored 45 and they've scored

but did Notre Dame starters start the whole game in all four quarters against NC State? Did they start? Who did they open up with? Navy? I don't think they started all four against them, but they might have. Michigan, they kept the starters in for longer than I thought in the first game. But the second game, again, I didn't see it. But based on the game cast, it seemed like they went out pretty early. And so it's hard to quantify.

Like, I know, like, the conversation is always going to be it's hard to quantify how good teams are for two weeks. But it's, like, really hard to quantify right now because of this new rule change where offensive production is kind of, like, skewed in a way. And a lot of people think, oh, no, it doesn't actually matter. Just score points. And it's like yeah but a team like michigan who is pretty much like all in on game management and clock management and just keeping the ball away from the other team it's all possession to them it does affect them because michigan really doesn't care if they score 40 points they care about the margin of victory it doesn't matter if they win by 30 by scoring 30 if they win by 30 by scoring 60 they want to win by 30 by scoring 60. They want to win by 30. And a team like Notre Dame has rolled in more competitive games,

more competitive opponents. But I do think they're good. I do think Sam Hartman's really good. I do think he's like their best passer since, I mean, shoot, who was the last really good Notre Dame quarterback? I don't even know. Tommy Reese? I think they've been in like a similar Michigan. Who?

Tommy Reese was, I don't know. He's a much better coordinator than he was a coach. I was just going to say he's a way better OC than he was a quarterback. Yeah. But – Yeah, I agree. Utah struggled with Baylor. I mean, Baylor seems okay.

Well, they lost last week to who? Baylor? They lost to some – They're 0-2 now. They lost to – last week to who? Baylor? They lost to some. They lost to. They lost to a bad team. Texas State. That's right. But then played, like, really well against Utah.

So, I don't know. It's a classic, classic hangover game for Utah. Classic. You have the opener on Thursday night against Florida in front of everybody who's watching. And then you go play a team that's off a really bad law. It's just like a – those were like common like when you're betting on games. Like those are two things you look at.

So like one of those things were in my head. I was thinking like, hey, Utah is probably not going to win by a lot this weekend, but I didn't say it, so I can't really claim it. But it's a typical thing, so I thought – I don't think it's like super surprising, but good for most teams classic where you where you're like yeah i you know i should have known that i would have if i would have bet that i would have you know i heard it up here like my inner self told me but i told him he was wrong and that it would be outlandish to think that Utah couldn't handle Baylor after losing Texas State.

But sometimes you got to trust your gut, I guess. Yeah. Ohio State, Youngstown State. Did you see that? Yeah. They're not scoring a lot of points either. I do know that their fan base is very mad. I will say that.

They're like complete panic mode because they're not scoring 70 points against Youngstown State. Oh, they're in shambles. They're in shambles. And I would love to have a whole episode on how Ohio State fans are, specifically Ryan, Big Ten Ryan. I would love to have a conversation about that. I mean, I think McCord looked a lot better in this game than he did in the first game, which I'm sure he's just going to keep getting better and better

because that's what happens with experience. But still, like, it's crazy to say this, but beating a team 35-7 is about half of what Ohio State of past years would do. They would put up 70 in that game. You know what I mean? So, I don't know. It's just interesting. Something to watch.

Something to watch. Iowa State, Kate McNamara straight up said, what was his quote in there? He said, I'm not used to defenses scoring points. That's what he said. Just everything that comes out of his mouth is trying to be a slight at michigan which i just don't understand because they went out against a very mediocre matt campbell team and yeah they their offense put up what field, field goal, and that's it. So 13 points. Good job, kid. Sorry. I'm not trying to be a hater, but if he's going to be a hater, then you're going to bring it out

of me. Yeah. I mean, he's just always been so damn arrogant. And I never, ever understood why I thought it was like, okay, he knows he's the leader of the team and he's trying to prove like when he's doing the media stuff, he's trying to just rally the boys a bit, you know? And Michigan was in a really, like a really tough spot where everyone was counting them out, even when they were winning games. And like, I thought that was just part of it. And, and, you know, he was just adopting this Michigan versus everybody thing

and I thought that was projecting onto the they're not projecting on the team I thought like what he was projecting was what the team kind of was feeling and maybe they were in a way feeling that way but seeing it now carry over to Iowa like in the exact cadence that he had it here just proves that he's actually just extremely arrogant and that's just the end of it. And I guess there's nothing wrong with that. If we had a conversation about people being arrogant, I'm not allowed on them, probably arrogant. I don't know. But this guy is like a special kind of arrogant.

It's actually like – and forget the whole he's a kid thing. He's like 23 years old. He is going on national TV and saying, Oh, my defense is like... What? It doesn't make any sense. Literally, on his Big Ten championship team was the second

pick in the draft on his defense. They were one of the best defenses in recent Michigan history. A job just a sacked Stroud in the opener yesterday. Talk about how bad your receivers were and that's fine dax hill and dj turner uh they both were absolute studs like they're they're like there's it's not like he had a bad defense like just keep winning

please keep winning he had three on indy he had to just be like, I'm hoping for his sake, he was just in the moment and was just like, I'm just going to rip this one off. Because the amount of evidence discrediting that statement is just absurd. Just absurd. It's like, I don't even know. Not to mention, wasn't his completion percentage like 48.5%? Listen, I'm over it.

I'm over it. It's not even worth it. It's not even worth it. JJ's better than you. You don't like it. We get it. It's fine. Minnesota kind of struggled with Eastern 25-6.

It was 10-6 at halftime. So that's another away game for michigan that was like everyone's like oh that's gonna you know could be a tough one it's like i don't think so ruggers ruggers now who michigan plays in two weeks 36 7 against temple i mean ruckers is not like a terrible program right now under greg shiano was a good coach i love greg shiano man like they they've got their guy now he's back for what is it the second or third time now do you remember that statement i made earlier when i was like hey when you leave like you're pretty much just begging to circle your way back around there you go back like that's literally the Greg Sciano experiment.

If he never would have left Rutgers, hear me out. There is a multiverse where Greg Sciano never leaves Rutgers, and they're a national power. But I don't live in that multiverse, so I can't tell you what it's like. But I'm telling you, do you remember how good they were? I mean, they weren't like Oregon with with mariotta or anything they weren't like you know they were good though they were good they were really solid they were winning like double digit games a couple times i think but i don't care about that i just remember them being

good i don't remember them being and maybe that's like relative to them losing 78 to 0 to michigan in 2016 and that being like forever their shadow to me but he's just like playing the real life version of ncaa just like let me go like over here he is yes you know who else did that originally and who is kind of like we we i'm this is a good segue justin i promise ole miss tulsa what why did you say lane kiffin lane kiffin he's done he was the og ncaa player before you could even really do that in NCAA. He pretty much gave the developers the idea, but now he's settled into Ole Miss. How did they do against Tulsa?

Because I watched the game on my GameCast, and I never checked the score, and I'd love to know, honestly. They won Ole Miss. Did they win? Because I remember that game being real back and forth. That's why I said good segue, though, because I was like, you know, let's still talk about the scores. Yeah, Tulane.

Tulane, not Tulsa. Yeah, Tulane, solid school, but they lost 37-20 final score. You know, they're ranked. I think it was like 22 versus 17 or something. Yeah. Interesting. Wisconsin lost to Washington State as well. That's –

I don't know. Are they still – is that just rebuilding mode, do you think, for Wisconsin still? Or – I mean, they've got a great – they've got great running backs still there. They have really good running backs. Like, first of all, could you imagine if Braylon Allen was on this team? Second of all, yeah, I don't think it was supposed to be like a rebuild.

I think they weren't going to be great this year, but I didn't think they'd be – didn't they play pretty piss poor last week too and then they go lose this game to like a not good Washington State team, as I understand it? Yeah, man. I guess what we're just getting at in total was, like, the Big Ten is just not that good.

Like, outside of Michigan, Ohio State. What do you know? The Big Ten West is bad. The Big Ten West is so bad, man. It's so bad. Well, Cade's going to do this whole Iowa thing, and Eric Hall is going to score touchdowns against our lead. Then they're going to meet in the Iowa thing, and Eric Hall's going to score touchdowns against our lead. We're going to get to the end of it,

and they're going to meet in the Big Ten championship and lose by 80. So, I'm talking about. You can already see it now. Week two, and we already know the whole script. There you go. All right. The Big Ten sucks. The Big Ten sucks.

But Michigan's the best. That's all I know. That's all I know. Hour on the dot right That's all I know. Hour on the dot right here. Hour on the dot. I like it. This is my first pod in a while.

I know. Welcome back, Beach. It's good to have you. Making it in. Shout out to Jack for missing. I love taking your spot. almost love Jack missing at this point, just so I can give him shit for missing. He's got that phone

call. How often has he missed the last five weeks? We're going to have to start I'm kind of new to the crew here, but it might be Dom. Just leave it up hanging i love that might be down to what who knows he just got me on the end of my seat i'm like who knows what could it be might be down to there's a lot of things that you could have finished that sentence with

but you gotta yeah uh it was a really poor time for me to call for accounting meetings and then my wife i go out but i don't know sorry i deserved that it's all good it's all good um all right well we'll be back uh later this week and maybe you'll find out what BJ will be down for later on the next episode here. So if you've made it this far, I applaud you. And BJ

just straight up gone. Just gone. He just dipped from the whole episode. I love that. But I'll be having another Hail IPA on the next podcast. so if you're listening go get your uh go get one and drink one with me that would be nice that would be a nice little cheers me at the beginning um and yeah that would that would be nice head to bushes head to plum market grab your

uh your six pack of hail ipa and let's let's cheers and then come on saturday to the tailgate and then you can get a blue by 90 beer as well so we'll be back uh later this week for a little uh bowling green preview where you know i don't think we'll spend much time actually like breaking down bowling green so it'll just be uh Green. It'll just be us talking about drinking for eight hours. Maybe. Who knows? Depends how many hails we have. That's true.

That's a good point. That's a good point. All right, we're bringing BJ back up for this. All right, you can follow us at Blue by 90 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, at Blue by 90 Podcast on YouTube YouTube and blueby90.com. We appreciate you. Go Blue. Go Blue. Go Blue.