Blue By Ninety - BEAT OKLAHOMA

Episode Date: September 10, 2026

Justin and Joel discuss Michigan's win over WMU, give their thoughts on Clock Gate, then breakdown Michigan's matchup with Oklahoma.

All right. Welcome back to Blue By 90, presented by Feldman Chevrolet of Highland. I'm Justin, joined by Joel Honingford today. It is Wednesday, September 9th. We are in Oklahoma week, week two after, I mean, I was really, I think I had said to you and said to all the boys in the group chat, I wanted to really enjoy Michigan football again and watching and being a part of you. of it. And then, of course, because we're Michigan, I don't know what the reason is at this moment, but we can't get through even week one without having huge controversy and like a painful game to sit through all of it. So, hey, we got stuff to talk about, though, Joel. Yeah, there's not a shortage of that. And I mean, this, the whole situation,

which we'll get into here in a little bit, could not have happened to a worse team. Like, worse situation. We have talked at length about the fact that we're like, Michigan football is back. We're going to be talking about football. There's not going to be any controversy. Clearly, that has aged like milk.

I mean, we are right back in the middle of it. The only difference, it's not about Whittingham. It's not about the players. It's completely external at this point. Although, although because of everything that's happened in the last three or four years, it gets pinned on Michigan, right? Like that's what's annoying me. I mean, it's a little self-inflicted. So, you know, you have to take that into account.

But I definitely, like, it's annoying me today that everyone's like, oh, it's, you know, cheaters, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, hold on, we didn't control any of what happened. Right. You know, so, but still, I'll be honest, I'm exhausted. I am so exhausted. I want to just be talking about the matchups of Michigan versus Oklahoma and how is, you know, how is our run game going to be against their defense and blah, blah, blah. Like, that's what I'd love to be talking about all this entire podcast.

And instead, we're going to, you know, we're basically forced to talk about, Not only what happened before the last two plays of the game, but then the last two plays of the game that caused controversy everywhere. But let's start with just the, you know, let's start with the first drive. Let's start with some positivity. I mean, it looked good. Like, that was like, okay, we, you know,

that was exactly what we were all looking for, you know, to be happening. And I think, like, I don't know about you, but I was just sitting there like, all right, This we figured like this is exactly what we wanted. Right, right. Yeah, I think I caught myself, you know, we said like, well, we're not going into the year with any expectations, but I caught myself at the end of first drive saying, yeah,

this is what it should be like. Like, this is what we expected. Like we got a lot of really good players. Bryce is back. We've heard he's matured throughout the off season. And we see him roll. Like they come on, he comes down the tunnel. They're all jacked up.

They're juiced. I know some people complain about that. I love that. I have zero issue with that. You're telling, I mean, does it suck in hindsight because then he didn't play well? Sure. But like, you're telling me that your quarterback that's still 19 years old isn't getting jacked up in his first time coming out of the tunnel as a captain for a night home game.

Right. Yeah, like Pat McCaffey comes out and he says, I've never seen a quarterback do that before. It's like, does it really matter? Like he's fired up to play in front of 110,000 people in the open. opening night game of the season. Right. I have zero issues with that. Zero.

I actually love to see it. I love to see that they're all like pumped up ready to go. And then obviously they come out on the first drive and they execute. Execute at a high level. J.J. Buchanan is that guy. Like even before the last play of the game, like we see him throughout the game just making insane plays and just being like our truly our foundational receiver right now to keep things moving. So a nice one-hand.

catch over the middle. It was a really hard ball to catch. So I can't say enough about him. He's not only a great player. He's a great dude. Yeah, he's got a great family. I was able to meet them on Sunday at our eBay Live event, which went well. Thank you to everybody who tuned into that and came out to see these guys. Great kid. I also think that he, J.J. felt like what Marsh was towards the end of last year where it was like, feels like her only option. You know, like that's kind of what it felt like on Saturday,

where it's like, all right, you need a play to be made. We're just going to find JJ. And sometimes Bryce did force it to him. But still, that was like, I think he did it for a reason because he felt like he was like

the one guy that he could go to and rely on. So that I love, I love you that you're looking at some. bright spots still. I like this. Yeah, yeah. I will say not to move off the positivity too fast, but I did have a pretty immense frustration with the lack of tight end play. Michigan is a school that has had great tight ends year after year. We have a great tight end room. We hear about the freshman Bonner coming up. He's obviously in for the last two plays of the game because he's six, but we talk with Zach Marshall and he's fired up for the season.

And I know that that Coach Beck is known for his rhino packages, right? Where he brings in an extra offensive lineman. But we played out a rhino for a majority of the game. It's like 60% of the snaps. Yeah. And it just frustrates me because, listen, this is completely impractical. It would be like me playing every single snap at tight end in the game. It doesn't make any sense. I'm not a past threat. We then don't ask them to defend

another person in the secondary, and we miss another option for Bryce to throw to. I don't, I truthfully don't understand that. We have so many great tight ends. Like, I get it. If it's, if it's third and short, if it's second and short, you want to bring Rhino out and have a short yardage run or maybe it's second and second and four. I mean, you want to take a deep shot. So you put your rhino in as a as a six-man protection to get the back out. I'm all for it. But I don't understand playing a majority of the snaps out of rhino. It doesn't make any sense to me. I agree. The other thing that is to your point, our tight ends are great blockers. Yeah. So that's where like Zach Marshall has been a phenomenal blocker. Jalen Hoffman's a half fullback. So he can

block. Like, that's where, you know, I think to your point, obviously the rhino makes sense in certain situations. And I like, you know, I mean, that's very Jim Harbaugh. I ask of bringing in six, seven, an offensive lineman at a time and just saying, we're going to shove it down your throat and you can't stop us. Except they did. They did stop them in the rhino a lot. And then, but then they, you know, it just felt like they kept going back to it. But I would have loved to see Zach Marshall and Hoffman and Bonner and those guys in keep them into block but then there's still the threat that Zach Marshall can leak out right and like that changes things for for Bryce too because I felt like you know as when you have Rhino in on 60% of the snaps well then your safeties are

flying up because there really isn't a past threat especially when Bryce had been struggling all day to throw the ball. So it just felt very, the game plan was really odd. It was, it didn't, I don't know, nothing felt like very easy. It felt like we made everything difficult. Right. And I agree with you on that. So we do play out of Rhino for 60% of the snaps and we still don't control the line of scrimmage. Like we're not able to have this insane run game with two great backs. And that's also frustrating. And we stay in it the whole time. The whole game were in it. Didn't pivot from it at all, at all.

No. So that was probably one of my biggest frustrations. And I think, like, pointing that out can maybe pull some of the heat off of Bryce. Now, I'm not going to sit here and say Bryce played a phenomenal game because he didn't play an incredible game. He obviously has a lot to work on. But, like, let's bring this into the picture, too, because now his options downfield are limited.

some of them are in double coverage, which we saw him obviously throw into, which were not great decisions. But I do think that the game plan and the play calling can also benefit Bryce. Now, we did see in the second half, they transitioned more into running him just directly, which I thought was good. Obviously, he fumbles the one ball. That's not great. But he's a good runner. He can run the ball.

And we've seen that now as well. Well, and think I love him being a run threat because that just adds, you know, then you have two really good running options in the backfield at all times, right? Sometimes three. And so, yeah, I agree with that. I think it probably probably was a combination of the game plan didn't really suit Bryce. It didn't come to fruition to probably what Coach Beck was thinking that it was going to. nobody thought that this game was going to go this way. But there's a combination of also, Bryce just straight up didn't play well. You know, like I, and nobody's, you know,

I'm not, I'm really, I've been a Bryce supporter. You know, since he got here, I've made a lot of excuses for him in terms of being young. And, you know, the, he didn't have a QB coach last year. And it's, you know, on and on and on. But as Coach Whittingham said in his press conference on, day, at some point you have to turn a corner. At some point, you know, and I hate to bring up the money, but like the money is a factor. When you're, you know, compensating somebody at a high level,

you expect them to play at a high level. And now, you know, you're sitting here in, what, game 14 for him of a starter. And it looks like he even, not only has not gotten better, but it felt like he took a step back. It's pretty concerning to say the least, I would say. Yeah, it's concerning and it's frustrating, too, because he is a $10 million quarterback. And so then, you know, our fans concerned with the fact, all right, well, are we sticking with this guy, even though maybe he's not performing like we think we should and all of that? And then, I mean, you bring up Whittingham at the podium, obviously saying that, you know, which is like an obvious statement, right? nobody is guaranteed a spot as long as they're not playing well. He didn't say anything like insane.

It wasn't like, oh, you know, if he plays bad next week, we're pulling him. He didn't say that. No, he didn't. And it's a very standard statement. Like, that's just how football works. Then we see Bryce go to the podium. And very clearly, he finds out that that's what Coach of Whittingham had said. He hadn't heard that before.

and his response was those were the comments. What did he say? I didn't hear that before. It's cool. It's cool. Yeah. I don't think that that is what you want your captain quarterback to be saying. Right.

You know, I think that one, if he really was like completely thrown off and hadn't seen or heard the comments before, I guess, you know, it's sometimes going to be tough to make a statement right on the spot there. But I also think as a captain, it's pretty simple. You've been to the podium plenty of times, right, Joel? It's pretty easy for you to have a statement prepared and say, you know what? I didn't play up to the level that I expect of myself. I'm going to go to practice today and do everything I can to get better.

I'm excited at the chance to go prove it to you all on Saturday against Oklahoma. Right. Yeah, exactly. Just give us something like that. And the thing, now that you bring that up, this just popped into my mind. Whenever we would go to the podium, right, they would tell us, hey, after practice, you have media tonight, here's what you need to prepare for. Like, these are a list of questions that they might ask you. This is just something to think about so you can formulate an answer. answer in your mind. It would it would be hard to believe that they would not have put that on there.

And if they did, did he review it? Because like, that's good point. Like that's something that they would prepare you for. I don't know. That's a whole another can of worms. I mean, obviously we know, we know the staff in, in Michigan who's handling that, right? And they're very diligent. Yeah, they are. Very diligent and over, over preparing players and coaches so that a sound bite doesn't go viral. Exactly how it just did. Right? Like it just did. Like, that's the whole goal, especially because it's Michigan, you know that the microscopes on it and every single news, you know, network and media will pick it up. And so the whole point of all that over preparation is so that that doesn't happen.

Right. And so I would imagine, I have no idea for certain. I would imagine, Joel, if the head coach made a comment about your star, highly paid captain quarterback, that they would make said quarterback aware of that. Right. Right. I would very much expect that. And I would expect even that they would go as far as give him a statement to respond to it or something in terms of bullet points to say here's you know here's an outline of how

you should respond if you get this question and so whether that wasn't prepared or whether that was or wasn't prepared I'm not sure and then to your point whether it was read by Bryce or not I'm not sure either but but it brings up some pretty good questions but ultimately at the end of the day you know, I think there's a lot of pressure on this kid. There's a ton of pressure, and I think he feels it more than ever right now. And I think, you know, it's, listen, I'm not trying to, like, give him an out or make excuses,

but it sucks when you feel like you have the whole world raining down on you, and everyone's, you know, give me Tommy Carr, give me, you know, blah, blah, blah, like, you're making too much, like, there's no way that can feel good when you feel like that's everywhere you turn, right? But guess what? I've said this to some players in the past four or five years. You want to make big boy money.

You've got to be a big boy. Right. Right. That is the reality of the situation. Even before NIL was about, Joel, being a captain at Michigan, being just putting on the uniform at all brings a high level of responsibility. And I just, I'm concerned that I'm not seeing that right now. Yeah, I agree with you.

I certainly agree with you. I mean, we talked about before how, you know, when Bryce gets to see on his chest, how is he going to live up to that? And there's still time for that to develop. Kind of got hit with a huge storm here in week one, just in terms of everything that had happened. we're not necessarily seeing what we would like to see. Right.

But I will say this, to pull out another positive, bring us back, I like it. Positive and a negative is, negative is we turn the ball over three times. The positive is that we won the game after turning the ball over three times. That is very hard to do. Now, I remember, here comes to Coach Harbaugh reference.

Here we're back. I remember Coach Harbaugh would have a, list of winning advantages. And winning the turnover battle was a pretty significant winning advantage in terms of percentage of if you win over the turn. If you win the turnover margin, you have a greater percentage chance to win the game. Now, it's hard to win the game turning the ball over three times. One of those comes really when we needed it most, right?

It was a do or die drive. Yeah, it was. And we turned the ball over. But we won the game. Now, yes, it's Western Michigan. Western Michigan's a good football team. We know this. They are not in the Big Ten, and that is really not by mistake.

So it is concerning, and we can dive into the final play of the game, final two plays of the game, really, because that seems like it's been what anybody has been talking about. Yeah, absolutely. The other thing real quick before we get to Clockgate, which, we just have too many gates now to me sign gate clock gate

I don't know what else you want to call some of these other gates I've tried to forget most of them but the other thing I want to bring up on the stat side they doubled us up on time of possession Western did they had a

14 minute drive and it was the whole third quarter that they had the ball so in terms of of, you know, bringing out a positive, like, finding a way to win that football game when all of this shit was happening is at least like something you can point to to say, you had a little bit of resilience, you know, and you fought through, like, I think that, you know,

you know this better than anybody. You have to figure out how to succeed when things aren't going your way. Right. Right. There's, there are games that you guys played when everything was going your way, right? Like there's, and then you just feel like untouchable and whatever. There are also games where it probably felt like it's like nothing's going your way.

And then you have to find a way to continue on. And, um, I do think that Michigan did at least show that a little bit of like, all right, especially on the defensive side of the ball that they were on the field. the whole damn game. I felt like I at least saw that from some certain people and from some groups on Saturday. Yeah, and our defense looked good. I mean, our defense looked pretty solid on the field,

especially for being out there for 40 minutes of the game. So can you imagine what it's like whenever they're not on the field for over the majority of the game? Hopefully we'll find out this weekend. Hopefully, yeah. But, yeah, so it really does come down to what can you do when things aren't going your way. And I will say a game like this where Michigan plays a team close that they really probably shouldn't have is not an uncommon occurrence. We see it all the time.

We see a Notre Dame team. Is that last year that they lose to northern Illinois? That was a few years ago. Two years ago. Yeah. They lost to a max school, right? And at the end of the year, they're one of the best teams in the nation. Right.

So don't go down the path of saying, well, this year's chalk, it's over, we're terrible, or anything like that. In 2021, when we win the Big Ten championship, we barely escape Illinois. Barely escape. Barely. Go for it on fourth down. Isaiah Gash. Isaiah Gash of all freaking people. Also, by the way, that was maybe the coldest day in Michigan Stadium history.

It felt like it. I was free, like frigid. Yeah, it was miserable for me on the field. But so this isn't, this isn't the end-all, be-all. It's obviously not what any of us wanted to see to start the season off. But we'll find out. I'm not going to say that we're going to be okay, but I'll say that we'll find out, you know,

especially a big game this weekend. Big game this weekend, obviously. This is definitely where I don't, like, if we would have U-TEP this week, I think that could have been favorable to, you know, figure some stuff out. But I've said this to a couple people. There's no way we're as bad as we showed on Saturday. Right.

Right. There's too much talent on this team for them to be actually as bad as they showed. Right. And so I think that, you know, there are plenty of mistakes that happen, but plenty of mistakes that can be changed, right? That can be corrected. And so it's just really, you know, I want to talk about Rod Mourins in the players meeting and stuff in a little bit after we get through clock gate here.

But it's just going to it's going to come down to what, who do they want to be? You got to look internally, right? And nobody's coming to save you, right? you got to step up yourself. So, all right, get to the last second of the, sorry, the last, I mean the last second, yeah, I guess. Yeah. Of the game, it's just like, I don't even know. It seems like now that after all these different angles and videos and et cetera, et cetera, have come out,

that there really was in the stadium one. second left on the clock. Right. Right. And so I hate that it even comes down to this, right? It shouldn't have come down to this. But the fact, I believe that the refs got it right. I think NBC was wrong. There was some, obviously, something was off there. But I'll be honest, Joel. At first, I was like, oh, shit, I think Western got hosed. And I think we got an absolute gift. Yeah, I was, so I was watching this game. Funny enough, I was watching it with my dad at home. And this is after Bryce turns the ball over, my dad leaves.

And I'm like, you know, I'm going to stick it out and I'm going to watch the rest of this game here. And obviously what happens happens. And so I'm watching it on TV. And very clearly from the TV perspective, the clock strikes zero before the ball has ever touched out of bounds. And then we find out, oh, there's another second added. How is that even possible? I agree with you in the terms of we've seen videos from the actual big house from some people who were in the opposite end zone who can show that, yes,

there was clearly a second left on the clock. This is not a mistake. One of the things that I don't understand is why do we have different, like, clocks that are synced differently? Why would that ever be a thing? It's 2026. Like, I feel like I could go to chat GPT. and say, sink all my clocks up and it would happen instantly.

Literally. It makes zero sense how that is even a possibility. And then they say, oh, well, you know, if this does happen, you should defer to the TV copy because that's what the people are watching, which I also don't understand that, because it's like, well, are you just saying, hey, listen, we won't actually follow what's going on in the game, but rather what people are seeing so they don't disagree with us. Now, obviously, the referees don't go with that. They go with what is actually on the clock.

We get the second back. But yes, to what you said initially, after we have reviewed all of the evidence behind this, there was a second left. There's no controversy behind that. There was a second left on the clock. And here's the other thing. Well, okay, yes, I agree with you. why would it ever defer to TV? The truth should be in real person, in real life, in the stadium.

There should be somebody that's keeping the real clock because guess what? What if the network goes out? And then like that's a bigger possibility than somebody keeping an internal clock in real life, right? But the other thing, you know, for all the haters out there, which there are many Michigan haters, there's no doubt about that. and they come crawling out any time that they can, is you still had to throw a 50-yard Hail Mary to win. Like, it wasn't like, oh, they get it on the one yard line

and just have to punch it in and it's a gift, right? Like, you know, if it was like, oh, they called a phantom pass interference on the one and you're in the end zone and then Michigan gets one chance from the one, that would, I would understand. understand, right? Like, I could totally see that. The reality is it's still a one in a million chance that you're going to convert a Hail Mary from the 50 yard line. We hadn't, right, we hadn't converted 50 yards in the entire second half. Right. So that's like my other thing to the haters out there. Like even, even with all that, the clock stuff happening, you still had to go

make a play. Yeah, right. This is not the 2002 national championship, right? Like, we're not in that situation. Yeah, I mean, honestly, what an incredible catch. Like, to think about how many Hail Marys are attempted in a season and how many are completed, it is a very small margin. And the one thing that I will, well, there's a lot to commend Western's head coach Lance Taylor on. I think he's a great head coach. I think he handled himself well. But he talks after the game and he says, listen, what it comes down to is we defended the Hail Mary, great the first time, and the second time we didn't. And that's the truth of the situation. Like, you have to defend a play that has a very low chance of being successful.

Bryce has to throw a ball from 55 yards out and get it inside of a 10-yard box where his receivers are. And he was getting drilled as he threw it. He had two guys from both ways were about to like, you know, punish him in the face, right? So you're staring that down as well. Yeah, go on. Yeah. So, I mean, Michigan won the game. Fair and Square, whether you like it or not.

Now, here's the thing about people is they don't like to defer to the facts, but rather their own opinions of what they think should have happened. The reality is that there was a second left on the clock we threw a Hailman. Mary, we win the game. I will say the one, and I can understand it to an extent, but the one thing that I was not a huge fan of was the field storming. Yeah, that's a tough one. I get it because emotions are high, right?

It is a game winning pass. Like, that's insane. What a crazy play. But then they interview Coach Witt on the field after, and he had mentioned he was like, you know, this will go down in history, whether positive or. negative. So, like, I would say that I look at it and I'm like, and that's, again, this has nothing

to do with the team or the players. They didn't say, hey, please come on the field and celebrate with us, right? Like, the fans jumped onto the field, but that, like, people will also run with that. They're like, oh, I can't believe you storm the fields. The players in the team had nothing to do with that. No, I mean, I think they dogpiled Buchanan, but, like, I'm. Obviously, you just won on an improbable, you know, catch and play. No matter who it's against, you're going to, whether you're celebrating or breathing a sigh of relief, you're doing something, you know.

And to your point, like, it is super emotional. There's still 110,000 people in the crowd. And then the storming is a bunch of students that have been drinking all day. I was about to say they are extremely inebriated. They're definitely just getting after it. And like, you know, I, the, anybody who, listen, would I have rather had them not storm because it's a bit embarrassing? Yes. But also, it's a bunch of college kids just having fun because their team won a game.

Who gives a shit? You know, at the end of the day. I don't think it's like, you know, my favorite thing are these like 40 and 50 year old media members that are just like, like, this is the most embarrassing thing of every, like, who cares? Go to bed. You know, like, I don't, it's, so I agree, like, I'm in agreement with you that I wish that it wouldn't have happened. And I wish that you would say, like, you know what, all right, let's just, we won somehow. Let's take our ball and go home and until next week. But the reality is you've got, you know, 40,000 students in the stands that are all, you know, ready to rock and everyone's

excited. Yeah, I mean, I think also to touch on Winningham in the post game, I think both on the field and then in his press conference after, you know, he's not pumped. I don't, I think I at least appreciated that about, you know, about Coach Whittingham was it was like there, he was not sitting there like, excited in celebrating. He's like, we got a lot of work to do, basically. Right. You know, so at least that's a good attitude. And I think I get so frustrated with the people who say, Wittingham should come out and say that Michigan didn't deserve this win. It's like, why would he do that? Do you want him to forfeit the victory? This makes no sense. That has nothing to do with the grand scheme of college football. I thought he handled it very well.

He came out and said, hey, listen, we got a lot to work on. This is, not to the standard of Michigan football that needs to be improvement, especially going into next week. Like, he handled it very well. Totally is. Obviously, the TV pans to him every so often, and I'm seeing him, and he's very calm, cool, and collected. And I'm thinking in my mind, I'm like, man, like, is this guy going to get fired up? Like, is he going to let it rip? And then we get him, I think it maybe it was after the Bryce fumble. I'm not positive. I think it was after the, illegal substitution or illegal formation?

Yes, yes, you're right. Yeah. And you can clearly see him saying, what is going on? Yeah. And he is frustrated. Yeah. Which I, okay, first of all, to the, to the, you know, we should have forfeited or he should have said that.

I think I threw a funny thing in the group chat. It was like, you know that commercial from, I don't know, 10 years ago? where it was like the kid and he's like, I touch the ball, coach. I touched the ball. Like that's what people wanted us. It's like go to the ref and be like, nope, it wasn't one second left. We're going to forfeit. We're going to take a knee at the 50 yard line.

They deserve the win. You know, that's not how college football works. And but yeah, I mean, I think you, you want to see coach, you know, I think there's a, there's a fine line of like, you can't just be screaming and. stomping on the sideline as a head coach all day long, right? Like, that doesn't help anything either. But at some point, to your point, you're like, all right, man, like, we've made a lot of mistakes.

You need to, like, lay into somebody to set the tone a little. Right. Yeah, like, we just needed to, at least I was looking for some life in him. Like, right. I've never seen, I've never paid close attention to him coaching, so I don't know what his style is. But I was looking for a little life, a little juice, a little passion. Now, I will say I have some insider information that he does get pretty passionate on the mic, even though you can't really tell.

I have heard that from a completely outside source of the program. So I guess that's good. Yeah, I mean, listen, coaches have different coaching styles, right? You know, not everybody is Tom Izzo that's like screaming at the. the top of their lungs, even though he's so hoarse it doesn't even really, like, project any sound. But, you know, when you were playing for Coach Harbaugh, there were times when Coach Harbaugh is super calm and collective. And then there's times when he's taken off the jacket and chucking this clipboard, you know, like, I think that my guess is that there's

times in practice where Coach Whittingham is, like, absolutely laying into guys, right? So, I don't know. I think that it's too early to tell. Like, it feels insane to me that we're going through this after week one. Like I, this is my actual nightmare of like, week one after Western, like, if we were saying all this after losing to a good Oklahoma team, I'd be like, all right, I can at least like swallow that. but having to do this after just one week, after nine straight months of prep and after of thinking about how we're going to be better and people telling me everyone's better. And we've got this new coaching staff. And then we're having to break it all down, you know, one week into the season, talk about the quarterback, you know, controversy.

And, you know, we have a play controversy and our coaching staff and on and on and on. Like it's just I'm so exhausted, Joel. I just want to be a regular fan of a regular football team. Right, yeah. I don't want to have to analyze everything all the time and decide which is the best movement forward. I will say this is going to be a really good opportunity for Coach Whittingham to really grab the reins of this team.

Like he has the opportunity to really kind of reel them in here and say, listen, this is where we're at, this is where we need to go, this is how we're going to get there. So obviously, the step up is large moving into Oklahoma this week. They're a really good team. They're a really good football team. I want to go back to, I mean, listen, should you at Michigan be a lot better than Western Michigan, no doubt about it. They're a really good football team too, I think. you know, I think it was a good test, obviously.

And I also think if you're looking at positives, which we're trying as hard as we can to do right now, right? You'd rather have this go down in week one and you have 11 weeks to then figure it out. And it's like you're kind of sounding the alarms. I think you'd rather have it happen in week one rather than halfway through the year. And then what do you do?

You know? So I think that to talk a little bit about, you know, Rod Moore came out and said that him and a bunch of guys called a player's only meeting on Sunday morning. I mean, I think it's mature of them. I also think it's super necessary for them to do that. You know, it's, I don't know that it's going to get anywhere if the coaches just come in on Sunday or Monday and start, you know, chewing everybody out, right?

It's got to come from the players. So I don't know. If you wanted to speak on any player-led type of things that you guys had and how you think that went, I'd love to hear your perspective. Yeah. Well, I think something important to note is that, you know, it's not all the time that when those guys go out there and play on Saturday, they are not, whether you don't like this or not. not thinking, I can't wait to go win for my coach. That's not what they're thinking. They are thinking,

I'm going to go win for the guys around me, right? Because it means the most because they are going through the same thing, fall camp, all of that. And the coaches are kind of directing them and leading them through that. So yes, for the coaches to come in and say, hey, listen, this is awful. This needs to change, all this or that and the other. It'll probably be met with a lot of resistance. Just coming from the top from guys who aren't on the field, right? But I've been in player-led meetings that are like that, where it's like, hey, we got to batten down the hatches, specifically in 2021 after we lost the Michigan State, right? We had a player-led meeting on that Sunday, remember very vividly. And the reason why I think they are so important is because you are surrounded by nobody else

other than the guys that are in the exact same position as you, guys who are going to go to practice on Monday, who have to go through, you know, a hard practice Tuesday and Wednesday, and then ultimately get back on the field on Saturday and perform. So I don't know what they would have addressed. I don't know how that would have gone. Obviously, you know, Bryce is a captain and what role does he play in that meeting? I don't know. I do like that it's Rod Moore who's calling it. That's a guy who's been around a lot of football, a lot of really good football and a lot of really bad football. And I always say, you know, half a life is knowing what to do and what not to do.

And so to have a guy in that position say, hey, listen, we got to figure this out. Like, instead of just saying, you know, we won the game, a little controversial, a little messy, but hey, on to the next week, he's saying, hey, that wasn't good enough. That was not to the standard that we need to be performing. I have a lot of respect for that. It also gives me a lot of hope that they're going to get this thing tightened down in time. Like I said, we'll see how it plays out. But you do like to hear that, that they are taking some initiative behind their performance,

rather than just this idea of, oh, you know, let's get to the next week. We've got to be better, play better. Like, that doesn't really mean anything to me. Like, what are you doing to get there? For sure. And I saw Rod on Sunday. It was after the player-led meeting. And I've known Rod since he was a freshman here.

and I walked out to him. He looked at me without saying anything. He just shook his head. He just shook his head at me. And he didn't have to say anything. I knew exactly what he was thinking. And I think that he, him and I chatted for a little bit. And, you know, the sentiment was just like,

that wasn't good enough. That wasn't what we, that's not the team that we are. You know, like he's like, I've been with this squad now, this specific one for the past nine months and through camp, like, we're so much better than that, you know? And so now it's their job to figure out how do we get the best out of everybody. And they're going to need the best on Saturday against Oklahoma. Even though it's at home, it's a really good squad.

But here is, you know, up for a Heisman, I'm sure. You know, really good mobile quarterback. And, you know, the other person that I heard speak on Sunday, which I really loved was Jordan Marshall, basically how he said it was, he said, the fans, the city, the university, they deserve better than what we showed on Saturday. And I love the thought that it's about more than them just in that room. Because it is, you know?

And that goes back to what we've talked about, just like the honor of putting on the winged helmet and the maize in blue. and I feel like he understands that. And so I hope that that was part of the message of like, listen, you know, we got to figure things out Monday through Friday on State Street so that we can put on a good show on Saturdays on Main Street and make our fan base and our school proud. Yeah, that makes me think back to the clip of Hugh Freeze

talking to Auburn team before they go out. He talks about how, you know, there's a father here with his little boy and they put together enough money to come to this game tonight to watch you play, so you owe it to them to put on a show. Like, first of all, that just gives me fired up. Dude, that's what it's about, man. Right. It is, like, whether you like it or not, you are in, in, I mean, you're in the entertainment

business. Like, that's what this is about. And in order to entertain people and have a successful season, you have to play well. And so to take a little bit more pride in what they're doing, I have a great appreciation for that. We've talked about so many times how it's important to acknowledge the people that support you. And Jordan Marshall, I mean, what a perfect guy to do it. That's a guy who we've seen throughout months be very even keeled and just streamlined in terms of his goals and where he wants the team to go.

Yeah, that's encouraging to me. encouraging to hear. I love it. I love it, man. That's exactly what I want to hear from these guys. And listen, like, as bad as things went on Saturday, you still ended up 1 and 0 somehow. And you still have plenty of opportunity. This Michigan team is good enough to beat Oklahoma, right?

Like, this is not some, you know, oh, we're going to, You know, I think back to, I think it was like 2012 or 2013, Michigan played Alabama the first week down in Cowboys Stadium. Yeah. And let's be honest. Like, even with Michigan, like, even with it being Michigan, no, they weren't on Alabama's level at that time. As much as they probably tried to convince each other they could win that game,

they weren't going to be able to win that game. You know, even no shade at you, but like, Georgia 2021. You guys were a really, really good football team. They were a next level football team. Yeah, they were insane. They were absurd. And they were bigger and fastened and stronger.

And it just like probably wasn't in the cards that day. Yeah. That's not the case. Sorry, go ahead. That game, just real quick against Georgia, that was the first time that anybody had lined up across from me. and I was like, oh my lord, I don't know how about to get my job done. Like that was the only time ever was.

I can't remember his name. He was like the first or second pick the following year. He was the D-N. Huge, dude. I mean, freak. And I was practicing against Aiden every day. I looked at like, oh, my Lord. Dude, insane.

Like, they were just the one play that I recall from that game where I was like, oh, shit, was an early, like, toss. sweep to Blake and their de-tackle like ran him down before we can cut the corner. That is the exact play that I'm talking about. Yes. Because I was like, all I have to do is stalemate. Like I just have to stalemate with him. And then it was like Jordan Davis who makes the play from behind. And I was like, oh, gosh. I was like, okay, Blake's like the fastest and quickest guy on her team. Their de-tackle just ran him down. We might be in for a long day. Yeah. It certainly was. But yeah, that's not the situation we're in now.

That's not Oklahoma. That's not this matchup on Saturday. They have a really good quarterback. Their defensive line is really good. It'll be a great matchup for offensive line. I hope that our response is not to say, hey, because there'd be line is so good, let's play Rhino every play.

God, listen, if that's the case, I'm going to be texting you in the first quarter, like ready to leave the stadium. But no, I'm choosing that we're going to make adjustments. I'm choosing to think that this team is going to dig down deep because I know that they've got it. And they've got talent all over the place, man. Our defense is really freaking good, I think. Like at the end of the day, you know, if our offense is able to score 31 and the game ends up being, what, 31 to 12, like,

we would have called that a great day, you know? And so if the offense can clean up some stuff and put some things together, like I have confidence that Michigan can make this a football game, right? And I think that here's what I'm asking for in the first quarter is come out firing, come out swinging, right? Like I think there was a point on Saturday where it felt like we were just like we're curdling. I don't know. We were turtling.

I don't like it just felt like we were playing like not to lose and then all of a sudden we were losing. Right. I want us to go and play to win the football game. Be aggressive. Yeah. And you would have to imagine that the mindset, I don't know where their mind was at going against Western Michigan. I mean, obviously you'd like to say, oh, you know, we're going to take him seriously.

they're a really good opponent. They were good last year, and their team is the exact same this year. But I think the reality of the situation that there was a little bit of the mindset that, well, it's just Western Michigan. I think the advantage for this week is that there's no room for that.

This is Oklahoma, and we played them last year, and here they are again. And so we'll see kind of how that comes out. Jim Harbaugh's dad always used to say that you need to be the first off the stool. right in like a boxing match you got to be the first off the stool um so i want to see that which we were last week but how do you how do we keep the spark and we the only reference that we have right now is one game which is a beautiful thing because it's only one game and so let's keep that

spark obviously we know as fans that there is it's going to be back and forth Oklahoma is a very good team. They have a very good offense and a very good defense. And so it's going to be back and forth game. We're not worried about that. We're worried about just sustaining the ability to score. Well, and let's be honest, they're going to score some touchdowns, right? How are you going to respond as Michigan's offense? Like, I think that's what I'm looking for. And even Michigan's defense, when you, when, when, when Mater goes and makes a great play and they score, guess what? You have another possession coming up in about five to ten minutes. You better get back to the bench, figure out what went wrong, and go get back out there. And then for the Michigan offense,

like, listen, if they're going to score, let's go score. Let's go match them. You know, like, that's what I'm looking for. I love that you mentioned Jack Harbaugh. Man, I would love if Jack Harbaugh could get in our locker right now and give a speech. Because, like, that's the kind of thing it feels like this team needs right now is a Jack Harbaugh, a Max Predison, a somebody, I'm looking for, you know, Rod Moore and Jordan Marshall and Bryce Underwood. Let's go. Step up to the plate. Come on.

This is big boy football. We've talked about it. They're coming for your lunch, right? They want everything that you have. All the NIL money that you're making, they want that. You know, like let's play like they're coming to steal your food. You know, so I'm looking to see that on Saturday, too, of just like, let's get some fight, man. Right.

And not to go back to Western, but I do want to shout out one guy who I was extremely impressed with in Dom Nichols. I mean, a ball player. He really showed up. And I know Oklahoma's got a really good tackle. And if we can apply pressure to the quarterback, it is going to be a game changer. We can't give him all the time back there in the pocket to make decisions. because we know he can deliver the ball. There's no question about that,

but can we pressure him into his decision making? Can we turn the ball over? Can we not turn the ball over? Can we get turnovers? Rather, I think that's going to be a huge game changer because ultimately, yes, the offense is going to have to score points. We literally have to do so to win the game. But if we can get pressure on their quarterback,

forcing to scramble, and then get turnovers off the fact, I think that we are going to have a lot more enjoyable Saturday than last. Hey, that's all I'm asking for, man. That's all I'm asking for. By the way, one thing that we, so I know there was controversy on if Michigan won or lost the football game. One thing I know for certain is we did not lose the tailgate.

I've never lost the tailgate in my life, undefeated. Phenomenal time out there. had a blast. Tons of Woods and Whiskey was consumed. And everybody who came out, we just had such a good time, man. It ended up being a great day. And yeah, we had, I mean, I think we had like over a thousand people there. It was awesome.

So shout out to everybody who came out. Worm was there having a couple drinks with me. You know, we had a great time. So we'll be back there again. 1,006 South Main Street. We've also got some, you know, we've got some VIP spots available if you're interested. So I'm excited, man. But, yeah, let's, hey, we'll see what happens.

This is like, all of a sudden it's do or die time. You know what I mean? Like, and it's all about how these guys are going to respond. So we'll have more content coming out this week. And hopefully we'll see you guys out at the tailgate on Saturday. For us, you can follow us on Blue By 90 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, at Blueby 90 podcast on YouTube and Blueby90.com. We appreciate you.

Go Blue. Go Blue.