Blue By Ninety - BB90 Episode 117: Recapping Michigan's Win Over Colorado State

Episode Date: September 4, 2022

The Wolverines dominated Colorado State in the season opener and the guys break it down. Will the defense be better than we thought? How will the Cade vs. JJ battle pan out? So many guys got in and made an impact on the game. A great day back in the Big House to start the year!

This is a presentation of Blue by 90. Find us on Twitter at Blue by 90 and shop the merchandise at blueby90shop.com. All right, welcome back to Blue by 90. I'm Justin, joined by Jack and Kaitlin as always. It is Sunday, September 4th, day after the Michigan game. What? Victory Sunday.

Victory Sunday, for sure, for sure. Yeah, it was a great day yesterday. What? Victory Sunday. Victory Sunday, for sure. For sure. Yeah, it was a great day yesterday. I have the worst tan line in the history of all tan lines. I was going to say, take that hat off. Show the people what you're wearing. You are on. Please go to our YouTube if you're listening to this. It is so bad.

Yeah, get a little bit closer. I had a backwards hat on all day yesterday. And so now I just have a white strip on the middle of my forehead and everything else is crispy red. It's a good look. Some people pay for that. You got it for free. Yeah.

This is, it literally looks like, like people that get like, uh uh like a fake tan and they like you know screwed it up or something yeah that's what it looks like i like i think it looks incredible it's it's so bad i don't like you guys didn't go in yesterday correct but even just at the tailgate it was so hot yeah but at least we had some shade in a little bit. I guess I didn't really think about that at the game. It's just a wide-open bowl for you to get fried.

Yeah. At the game, once we got into the stadium, like, mid-third quarter, oh, my God. There's, like, you know, photos going around of, like, empty stadium in the fourth quarter. A, it was 44 to nothing. B, it was 1,000 degrees it was a thousand degrees and i was just dripping sweat like the swamp ass was brutal

hope you're wearing shorts yeah plus those metal seats right don't help either oh my god nothing helped it's just like you're just and you're're just like packed in. So you're just like this, like next to somebody. It felt terrible. But, I mean, all in all, great day. Great day. The tailgate was elite. I'll say that for sure. Yeah, tailgate was great.

We got to figure out what we're doing. We might have to do a dual tailgate like we talked about, like maybe getting in the parking lot and then finishing at the turf spot let's figure it out but yeah next week will be uh the lot will the big lot will officially open at 3 p.m for an 8 p.m game um so we'll be there for for quite some time i'm that that'll be plenty i'm sure for us that's probably a good point yeah we need to get out there earlier than that. But we'll try and figure out something with a live show and stuff and what the timing of that is.

I would love to even stream some of the earlier games, honestly, while we're out there or something. Yeah, I mean, if our hosts brought the mics and stuff, it would be a nice thing. We'd probably get that done. Yeah, for sure. Some people out there just come

in unprepared. Showing up late, unprepared. It's shocking. I will say the tailgate spot was very cool because you could see everyone going into the stadium. It was very... I don't know.

It was a flow of just people walking by. If we could get the mic out and just start talking to people walking by, sing don't know, flow of just people walking by. If we could get the mic out and just like start talking to people walking by, sing Pump It Up, sing Mr. Brightside, you know, get some crowd work going. I've never been on Hoover because we've always been like either at the golf course or in the blue lot like in Chrysler. So I've never been there. It's just astounding how many people. I know there's obviously over 100,000 people in the stadium,

but when you see for 30 straight minutes just that many people coming by, it's pretty insane how many people that is. Dude, I'd say it was probably longer than 30 minutes. I think it was like an hour's worth of people just walking by. It's probably from like 11 a.m to afternoon right and it's just like the whole street is just full of students and fans coming through and the band walks right by our tailgate which was really cool as well yeah i set that up. So that was, you know, that was very nice of them to do that for our tailgate solely. And, but yeah, it was, it was awesome that the, I mean,

the food was phenomenal. Slows barbecue is just, it is top notch. Like I know that we, we have, you we have Ricewood and some other places too, but Slow's is still at the top in my opinion. It was a great test run for the tailgate. Great first run. I think we're going to step it up a notch next week and for the rest of the year now.

I think the one thing that people asked us a ton about was merch. That's the plan is to have some merch out there. We want to see people rep stuff. Let's talk about this game. Kind of a boring game. Let's be honest. Michigan's too good,

really. Michigan's too good. We can go a couple different routes with why it was boring, but Michigan looked good. Defense looked good. It was fun when JJ was in there. I feel bad for Cade, honestly. You know, I think just on top of him having the pressure to kind of keep his job, I'm sure that played a factor into his play for that day because for that day because we've never seen Cade play like that before.

But yeah, I mean, overall Roman Wilson, long touchdown. I'm happy with that. JJ's certified playmaker. I think he's kind of got the job locked up unless he just fumbles the bag against Wally. Yeah, i actually thought like i there was a lot to see because i had so many like unanswered questions and so many people played i was like oh okay like i forgot that guy was on the team but there he is you know that kind of defense especially for me i'm like okay who's that i'm like all right, Cole Mullings. He's a linebacker. He's out there. Derek Moore, freshman defensive end.

That transfer from – It's Bama. Bama, then UT Martin. Yeah. UT Martin and then Michigan. I mean, he had an awesome, awesome sack. I think one of the first – Can we talk about that real quick?

How I would love to know if there's anybody in like the history of college football that is just like transferred in and then played three weeks later. Like that is wild, dude. I mean, I know that like DN, like you're obviously most of the time just bull rushing. Right. So it's not like you have to like learn the defense, but to just get in gel and like, that's pretty incredible. Also Braden McGregor,

dude, I thought he looked real good out there. Yeah. He's going to be the next guy. Do you want to hear something funny about Braden McGregor? Lowest PFF grade of yesterday. Really? Yeah.

Really? Like just on the team or what? Of the guys who played defense yesterday at Michigan, lowest PFF grade. Are you looking at Clayton's tweet? I'm just looking at the PFF stats. Oh. Okay. Like I know that we love our PFF guys and they've come on our pod.

I don't understand the grading system like how do they know what their responsibility is on each play they're not in the they're not the decoordinator you know what i mean i like it when it works towards our narrative but when it goes against our narrative i really don't 100 that is how pff grades go they don't know what they're talking about that's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm. Yeah, no, I mean, I think one narrative to come away from yesterday with is like, I know it's Colorado State, but is our defense going to be way better than people thought? Because people thought it would they would take a big step back. Right. I mean, I think it I think I do think we still don't really know yet.

It'll it'll it remains to be seen. I mean, Michigan's got a pretty do think we still don't really know yet. It remains to be seen. I mean, Michigan's got a pretty keg schedule until Michigan State, right? Yeah. I mean, Iowa is going to be the – but Iowa's – they were down five. It was the weirdest game of all time. It was such an Iowa football game. Yeah, I didn't watch much football yesterday, to be honest. They won 7-3. I believe

it was 5-3 at one point. So how did they score? They had two safeties. They didn't score a touchdown against South Dakota State. Field goal in the first quarter, safety in the third quarter, safety in the fourth quarter, and won 7-3. safety in the fourth quarter, and 1-7-3.

So Iowa is exactly – Jackrabbits? Yeah. All right, I'll give Lingle a shout-out there. They're exactly the same team they were last year. They have no offense and really good defense. Yeah, 100%. Not too good.

Michigan scored, what, 42 against them in the Big Ten championship game? Very true. Well, they're a great Big Ten West team. Just a great Big Ten West team. Incredible Big Ten West team. Maybe one of the best of all time. Honestly. Anyways, yeah, I think the defense is, it'll be interesting with the defense to see

like, you know, maybe against that, we won't know against Iowa because that's like the worst offensive team in the Big Ten too so Maryland maybe I mean with little Tua I think that could be like the first test so we'll see but you know I think everyone wants to talk about the QB battle obviously right like that's the big thing on the offensive side of the ball um i i think to your point jack like i feel bad for kate too like if kate it was first of all just when jj even walks out of the field the crowd goes nuts right so it's like so hard for me to get number one yeah like it's it's

i feel bad for kade because of that alone. But then, like, I don't know. We said it with Jim, like, beforehand. How Jim did this is it put an immense amount of pressure on both these guys. I think especially on Cade in game one. So, but, like – Honestly, I think it put all of the pressure on Cade. I don't think it put any pressure on JJ.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's like finally getting an opportunity for a full game to show people what I can do. And he's like, I mean, just him being a playmaker will make the fans want to have him regardless of what happens, you know. Unless he throws like five picks and fumbles ten times. Right.

That's going to be the big thing against Hawaii is watching JJ get some more reps, like throwing the ball. Right. So that's one thing, even when he was in, in the second half, like,

I think there was a drive where the first four plays were past place. Right. He was four for four, but, but he didn't throw anything past like 10 yards. Yeah. They were, he was the same checkdowns that Cade was doing,

which was like, yeah, that's the thing. Cade didn't throw anything very far yards. Yeah, he was the same checkdowns that Cade was doing, which was like – Yeah, that's the thing. Cade didn't throw anything very far either. Okay, so Jack and I were talking before you hopped on, Caelan, and I was just like, I don't know, man. I know it's obviously the play calling, but at some point if you're Cade, don't you just like take a shot even if it's not fully there? 100%.

You got to show it off. Yeah. Yeah, got to let it fly, man. Otherwise, you know, what else are they really looking for, you know, in a quarterback? We know you can hand the ball off, you know. It was just like every time. And I know like JJ did do this too.

So I think people are like like, missing that a little bit because it's not like J.J. threw a 60-yard bomb, you know? But what he did do is extended plays with his legs. I mean, he had a, what, 20-something-yard rushing touchdown score. I thought that was a zone read, though.

Yeah, that wasn't even a scramble. It was just... Which is, like... But still, like, Cade's not doing it. Right, yeah. And, you know, he's just so dangerous with his legs. And the fact that Michigan scored two touchdowns on both of – what was it? I think Cade or J.J. was two for two in the red zone with touchdowns. And Cade, I think, had field goals in both his drives. You know, I mean, that's another thing, right?

You've got to be able to finish. Yeah, one thing I honestly didn't think about until it actually started to happen was for some reason I assumed that Cade would play the entire game yesterday and then JJ would play the entire game versus Hawaii. But they, like, were like, all right, like, you had a few drives. JJ, go in there. So you're going to see more Cade as well. Right.

Well, I hope so. I assume so. I assume so. To be fair. Wow. But it sounded like in the post-game comments that Cade had that he was, like, surprised that JJ got in too. He thought it was just going to be like, hey, here's your game. You know, you do that.

So I don't know. I wonder what was going on behind the scenes with that. To be honest, Cade sounded a little like salty in the postgame press. Yeah, man. I mean, understandably. Right. You know, I mean, there's a good quote that came out, I think, before last year, two years ago, where Harbaugh said something about like nobody owns this position. It's a lease. Like, you know, this isn't your job or whatever it was. I don't know if I'm butchering the quote, but I mean, he's definitely – Jim's definitely treating it that way.

I mean, he's the man of his word as far as that goes. I feel bad for Cade, man. I don't want to start any rumors or anything, but, like, I feel like, let's say J.J. does get the starting job and Cade's already been visibly pretty annoyed about what's happening. Yeah. Transfers out? I mean, in the middle of the season?

I think that's what everyone's worried about, right? Like, that's probably what Jim is worried about most is, like, keeping his guys in the locker room. I mean, I'll be honest. If I was in his shoes, see ya. I'd probably transfer out. I would understand it. Yeah, I'd get it.

Like, I wouldn't, you know. He isn't really. He's not going to be able to get to the NFL being a backup. He is in a really interesting position at Michigan where even if he doesn't start, he'll get way more reps as a backup than he would just like, you know, transferring and sitting out for a year. Right. That's a good point.

Like, I think entering the portal midway through the year doesn't benefit guys at all. You know, I think you're still like, go check out other schools. But then you're still in this awkward situation, right? Where you're just like, it's bad vibes. Like you're, you don't want to be there because of whatever reason. And I'm not saying Kate doesn't, but I'm saying if I was in that situation, that's how I would feel. I don't want to be here.

Like, I feel like they fucked me over. It's like you're in a bad job or something, you know? Yeah. It's just toxic, you know? I mean, it's tough. It's also tough. Like what if, what if JJ becomes the starter and then they, like, win a national title, right? And then, like, what do you say if you're Cade?

Well, if I was in, then what? You also would have won a natty? Like, we already did that. So you still get a ring. Let's not even say natty. Like, let's say Big Ten title. Let's say they repeat with JJ. Cade can still be like, I just did that.

You know? So, I don't know. It's a very unique and weird situation that they're both in. A hundred percent. What do you guys think about our good friend Don Thomas put out that

he doesn't like how Jim has handled this. Do you guys agree with that or disagree with that? I think Don's going to say anything to back up whatever's going on with Cade. If Cade

had a great game, I'm sure he'd be like, I wish it was handled differently, but this was great for people to see that Cade is the quarterback. Don's going to spend anything he people to see that Cade is the quarterback. I mean, Don's going to spend anything he can to put his own narrative in the most possible shape. And again, love Don. Respect the fact that he is just holding on for dear life. Through and through.

You know what's going on here. That man is loyal. Oh, God. He is loyal to a fault, man. But, yeah, that guy's in shambles right now. Yeah. I just, like, I don't know. I'll tell you this right now. I would not want to be the guy that –

I would not want to be, like, in the QB room on Monday. Shout out our guy Davis Warren. And as QB3, I cannot imagine sitting the tension that's got to be happening while they're doing film breakdown tomorrow. It's like, oh, God. Davis is sitting here like, oh, God.

Fuck you. He walks in. He's like, what's up, JJ? What's up, Cade? Everyone's just like, nobody's fucking talking. Nobody's talking. Can we talk about RG3's comment about Alex Orgy? That was incredible.

I'm glad somebody said it, man. Oh my god. It was perfect. I hope that's like a thing for the rest of the year. It's an orgy in the end zone. We'll have to rewatch the game before next week. Because I didn't really hear too much commentary.

Just because where we were watching, when we were watching it, we didn't really have the volume up too high. But maybe we do that. Maybe we make that a midweek thing. We re-watch the previous game and get a second look at everything. I think, I mean, we obviously need obviously need it's an orgy in the end zone t-shirt i think that's that'd be incredible incredible um yeah i mean like okay let's go back to the offense too um to be honest i didn't think like did you think the

running backs were super explosive or you know i, I thought I, I guess there were times when Blake like made some good moves and, and had been broke some for a few yards, but I don't know. I just thought I would see more out of that. From what I did watch. I mean, I didn't, I didn't dislike or, uh, you know, anything I, what I really did like is like is man dude i don't know what it is about donovan edwards but when he runs the ball like he like i don't know man he's just like a wrecking ball like i feel like he has to be and no disrespect to blake i mean he's one of the best running backs in the country i just think donovan might be better like i think dono has to be rb1 dude but i i will say it needs to be on the field i think dono has to be RB1, dude. But I will say this.

I think he needs to be on the field. I think Dono needs to be on the field, like, majority of the time. I'll say this, though. When Blake is in, he's just so shifty. And, like, he just plants and makes one move, and it's, like, gone. You know? Or at least. Same way.

I know. I know. But Dono's just not quite as like – dude, Blake is unlike any other running back I've ever seen where he like literally just gets as low to the ground as possible. And like it looks like he's about to fall on his face, and then he just keeps like – Yeah, it's incredible. Right.

He's just like got this – He did do a hurdle. He did do a hurdle. Yeah, you're right. He did. That was – he got up. Yeah. That was not like the guy was diving.

He just like – the guy was standing straight up, and he just jumped over him. Bounced over him. Yeah, I don't know. That was awesome. I would agree with your take, Kalen, on both sides of the ball. I think definitely on offense. And I think this is a good thing for Michigan.

There are so many people going in and out on every play. The number of packages that they have with, like, you bring the tight ends out. Then you bring more wide receivers out. And then, like, you have two running backs going in and out all the time. And it's like it would be a nightmare to be the linebacker that's calling the defense according to who's on the field. I'm pretty sure every tight end played. And not in just garbage time.

They rotated everyone in. Max Bredesen, our guy who is Davis he's davis's roommate he was in he's a freshman tight end i'm like how are these guys getting reps i don't understand is he is he not a freshman am i wrong i think he's been on the team for a year or two okay i just kind of think well maybe younger guy younger yeah um yeah either way i don't know there's just like it's hard to maybe you know some people i think you could argue that it's like a bad thing sometimes when you have like so many weapons or so much going on um but i think that they use it pretty well um and you just don't know who's gonna hit you you know You know, like, you have no idea who's going to be lining up across you.

Yeah. Although I don't feel like I saw any, like – well, I guess it's just because they didn't really take any deep shots. So hopefully they start doing that a little more, see some more wide receivers getting open downfield. Yeah, I assume we'll see a lot more of that next week. Yeah. I mean, this is kind of insane.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. 15 people had at least a catch. That's insane. 15 people yesterday had a catch. Wow. I mean, the top person, there were three people. Roman, CJ, and Loveland all had two catches. Yeah, I was going to say they couldn't have had more than two.

Right. That's it. So is that a good thing or a bad thing some people would argue that like how do you recruit wide receivers or tight ends to come when you're going to get one catch a game you know i mean first four games of the season i can't even really count it because they're like they're basically preseason games for mich. Yeah. I get your point. Like, if that happens later in the season, you know, maybe that's a concern. But I don't know.

Spread the wealth early on. You know, really test guys out in game time. And I'm sure as the season goes on, you'll see somebody kind of really just become that guy. And they'll have, like, a main four or five guys, right? Yeah. Yeah. I do think there were some drops had by the wide receivers

too that I was not expecting. Even Ronnie had one that was like literally right in his hands too. Yeah, there were three drops. CJ had a couple, I think, right? Yeah, CJ had one for sure. One of them was thrown behind him. Should have been a touchdown. Yeah, saw that.

Yeah, we had 200 passing yards, 234 rushing yards. I think one thing that we really struggled with that was pretty frustrating, honestly, to watch was third downs. We were three for ten on third down. Like, that was – that can't happen against Colorado State, you know. Yeah. Not a great look. Yeah.

Well, early in the season, you know, you see some of those early season issues. I'd rather work them out against Colorado State than be Ohio State playing Notre Dame. Yeah. Dude, they should have lost, too. If Notre Dame could have scored, like, one touchdown, you know, and made it a whatever game, yeah, that would have been a lot better. Notre Dame didn't score the entire second half.

Like, come on, man. And they were playing really well on defense against, you know't score the entire second half. Come on, man. They were playing really well on defense against arguably the top offense in the country. Yeah. If I was the OC at Notre Dame, I'd be

walking with my tail between my legs into that. Especially because Ohio State's defense is supposed to be not that good. I don't know, dude. That number 51, Mike Hall, Michael Hall Jr., whatever, he looked like a monster in that game. Their defense has to be better.

All right, fellas. I think I got to wrap it up. All right. Happy birthday today. All right. Happy birthday, Heather. Yeah, happy birthday, Heather yeah happy birthday heather what do you think maybe tuesday we do a live stream of the game if we can find a recording of it and re-watch it and do a little bit more pod talk yeah yeah i'm down um yeah we'll get some more content out for you guys

here uh soon i'm excited um it's like, I mean, we're full go with football season. I love it. It sprung on us, and I'm so happy for it. There's just games all the time. LSU, Florida State tonight as well. Sunday? Yeah, Labor Day weekend,

baby. There's no NFL today. By the way, I was at pretzel bell last night, chase Winovich and John Runyon were there. I don't know. What's chase look like? I'm not without the long hair. He,

I honestly didn't recognize at first. Like we were like, who's that? And then I realized it was chase Winovich. So yeah. Props to you for staying out. Jeez. It was tough.

It was a tough day. It's a marathon. It's a marathon. I'll tell you that. Yeah. Jackalyn's last weekend, so I had to go hard, you know? I had to, dude. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. Well, we appreciate you all. We'll see you guys later this week. But if you don't hear from us, or if we don't hear from you, I don't know. Give me a call back on my personal line.

We're trying to reach you for your car's extended warranty. We'll see you at the tailgate on Saturday. We appreciate you. You can follow us at Blue by 90 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, at Blue by 90 Podcast on YouTube, and blueby90.com. Go Blue.

Go Blue. Go Blue.