Blue By Ninety - Big 10 Play Starts I Trevor McCue Joins The Show

Episode Date: September 25, 2026

Trevor McCue joins Justin and Joel as they get ready for Big Ten Play and Iowa coming to town!

All right. Welcome back to Blueby 90. I'm Justin, joined by Joel Honingford for today. And we are presented by Feldman Chevrolet of Highland. At Feldman Chevrolet of Highland, our game winning drive starts with a new Chevy. Right now, at least the 2026 Silverado for just 179 a month or a 26 Equinox for only 219 a month. These deals won't last. Get to Feldman Chevy of Highland right off M-59 to drive off in the Chevy of your dreams. We're back. I mean, that's the first time I think I've done an ad read on here. So how do I do? It sounded good.

It sounded very good. Very official. All right, good. We're excited to have our guy Trevor McHugh joined today on Pump. Trevor has been manning up Blueby90.com with everything that we've got going on there. We've got Club 90. We've got a ton of info, a ton of articles going up. So, Trevor, it's good to have me, man.

You too. But it's funny seeing you again. We've been talking like every day, but I remember the last time actually saw your face. So good to see. I know. I know. We text every day. But, you know, it's one of those relationships.

It's funny because I had said this to Joel, I think, right before the season started, I was like, I'm so excited to see some of the people that I see tailgating that I would, I would call them legitimate, like, good friends. But I see them six times a year on Saturday as in Ann Arbor. You know. So yeah, I always have to tell my wife I'm hanging out with the boys, which is code for talking to friends in a discord. I love that. I love that.

Well, Big Ten play is finally here. You can, listen, I think it's funny because we had a really big game against Oklahoma, obviously week two. And there were some buzz around that game. But then this week has happened. and you just remember that this is old school Big Ten, Michigan versus Iowa. You're within, you know, somewhat driving distance. You're both Midwest teams. I go on Twitter and I see Michigan fans and Iowa fans talking shit like all day long.

And I'm like, we're back. We're so back. It feels good to be back in the Big Ten. Yeah, this is the type of game where if you are somebody who says, well, I don't like this new age football, you're going to want to tune in Saturday at 3.30. is you are going to find exactly what you were looking for, you know, back in the 80s and the 90s. Like that is what we are going to see on Saturday. And, yeah, I mean, we had that big game against Oklahoma, a team that everybody said, you know, their defense is one to be feared.

And, you know, if I was in Bryce Underwood's position going into that game, Oklahoma is the last defense I want to go to go against. But we find ourselves in that position again against a really stout Iowa team. looks a little bit different defensively, and we can get into that in a little bit than we've seen probably in past years. But nonetheless, you're not opening Big Ten play with the Rutgers of the world. You are opening it with a very good football team

and a very different Iowa team that we've seen in past years. It is. I mean, it's definitely, you know, listen, it's still Kirk Forens, though. Let's be, you know, I think that you can say it's different, but as much as it's different, it's still the same a little bit. But to your point, I don't think that this is, you know,

the throwing four touchdowns in 12 games, Iowa offense that we've seen in the past. But here's my thing. Trevor, you can say all that, but it's, they haven't done it against anybody that is worth really anything. So I think this right here, if you're, if you're an Iowa fan thinking, all right, what is this team? What is this offense really about? This is the first true test.

I, from a smack talk perspective, like, this is the cockiest I've seen Iowa fans ever, by the way. Insane. It's kind of indicative of the team, though, right? We had two players yesterday. Their wide receiver talking about going to the candy store because there's going to be man coverage. And then I don't remember which defender it was, but it was like, okay, we just got shut down the run.

I'm getting 20-23 vibes again, right? Where it's like, if we stop the run, we'll be fun. fine. Yeah, no, like you touched on it though, right? Like it's still a Kirk Farrant's team and it's still Phil Parker. We'll get into the defensive side. Like you said, Joel, it's not as experienced in the past. So it is a little different there. But they've got a stable of running backs. And then we were talking before we came on, Justin, like the hype around Hank Brown after an offseason of, oh my gosh, we don't have a quarterback is that juxtaposition is still really hard for me to accept. But yeah, the teams they've played arguably are two teams. worse than U-TEP and then an Iowa state team that I think people have to remember isn't Matt Campbell's Iowa State anymore literally 80% of the Iowa State players are now Penn State players and that could end up being if not the worst one of the worst teams in the P4 so granted like we're going to stay here and talk great about what Michigan did against U-Tap so we've got some strong points against a bad team too but yeah I don't know that we know what Iowa is yet so this is

going to be a big marker for both teams in terms of what they think they're going to do for the rest of the season. For sure. And I think that, you know, to your point, it's a test for both teams. It is, this isn't like, you know, Iowa's got to come in. I mean, they do have to prove a bunch of stuff. But the reality is very rarely has Iowa come in and dominated Michigan in the past, what, 20 years, you know, I don't, you know, going to Kinnick at night is a different story. Don't get me wrong. We all have bad, you know, PTSD about that. But coming to Michigan, they really have not won in the big house very often. And I just, listen, I'm not trying to brush Iowa off, but I just always get the vibes of Iowa. When they get to be, you know, ranked 18th in their 3 and 0,

4 and 0, something like that, there's always this type of a game that then it's like, oh, they come back down to reality of like, okay, we are still an 8 and 14, right? And that's what they've been under Kirk Frenz forever. And listen, don't get me wrong. Like, that is a great, you know, to be able to do that for 40 straight years is unbelievable because normally coaches have a six to seven year stretch and then, you know, faults are off or they're up and down. But yeah, I mean, I think, you know, going back to this matchup, you know, not only is it, is it the 10th? for Iowa, but I think it's a test for Michigan. You know, it's a test for Bryce Underwood.

It's a big test for this offensive line of Michigan because, you know, you watched what happened against U-TEP and the run game was nowhere near where we all wanted it to be. Yeah, certainly not. And, you know, I had mentioned that this is kind of a different matchup with the, with the Iowas of the world and of the past. than we've seen before, because normally we come in, Michigan, just leading up to that point, has had a lot more touchdown scored in the season than Iowa.

That is not the case this year. Now, Iowa has played Northern Illinois, Iowa State, and then ultimately UNI, but they have 14 touchdowns to hour 10 up to this point. So they're able to put points on the board. So I don't think it will be, it could be. I don't believe it's going to be the 13 to 10 end of game score or anything like that. Now, with that being said, both defenses are really the star of the show for both of these teams, right? So we could potentially end up in that area.

But we cannot rely on the strength of our defense to win us the game, right? Our offense is going to have to put up points. We have to get into the end zone. We have to get in the red zone, kick field goals, do anything that we can to put points on the board. because we know that they're going to do the same as well, right? They haven't played Oklahoma or a team like that. But they seem to be a more productive football team. I know Ference said that their offense has a little bit more octane this year,

which, I mean, clearly they do, at least up to this point. Now, I would agree. This could be the game where they say, oh, man, we thought we were going to be this next generation team in the college football playoff, and they'll turn out the punt, you know, 10 times on Saturday. day and they're like, oh, yeah, that's more like it. But I think just like the summary of it is nobody really knows what we're going to see from

Iowa. We have no idea. Their defensive line is really good. Their secondary is good. Their linebacking core is not what it used to be. But still, we're going to have to run the ball and we're going to have to throw the ball. And I think at the end of the day, we'll find ourselves in a successful position. I could see Kirk Ferrets and Whittingham just smiling at a putting duel, right?

like see see what now that now that we have cam brown we can match there it looks like right but right no i'm with you joel i know a lot of people keep talking like this is going to be old school big 10 football 100 percent i don't think that necessarily means 13 to 10 though it could be a race to 20 in terms of who wins the football game but in terms of the iowa offense yeah they do have more octane but compared to what they were doing with brian ferrance like that's a low bar to be fair right like right Absolutely. When you're putting, you know, what was it, you have to score 25 points a game, job security measurement on your kid.

Like, that's pretty rough. And he still, I don't think he did it, right? Like, he didn't get there. And they had to, like, be like, well, if we take away the special teams touchdowns too, but look, we know a little bit about Tim Lester from his time at Western. So I'm not trying to downplay. Like, the Iowa offense is better. And I said that the running back room is elite.

and it sounds like Moutons can be healthy. So like the Michigan defense is going to have to be stout in the run game, which the interior, the defensive tackles and the linebackers was probably coming into the year the thing people were most concerned about. I think both Trey Pearson had of absolutely lived up to their hype and bigger roles. We've been really impressed with Bulls and Staling and even, I mean, Moa and his Sam linebacker role and N OB and Chase Taylor and their reps as well. Michigan is probably undersized there compared to where they've been in the past in the interior.

So that's going to be the test. And obviously the edge guys have been getting to the quarterback and creating pressure. We can talk about that. But they're going to have to be set in the edge too and impacting their own game. And guys like Smith Snowden too, who have done a good job getting off blocks in the perimeter. They're going to have to make some plays against the run game too. Yeah, I mean, plugging up the run game is obviously going to be the key because they'll need to do that right away. you know, you don't want Iowa to all of a sudden get some rhythm with the offensive line

and feel like they can get that going. But, you know, Trevor, you and I were talking about this before we jumped on. I think the key to this game is getting to Hank Brown, getting to the quarterback. You know, this is what Michigan does so well. And, you know, if you did it to John Mateer, you can do it to Iowa and Hank Brown. but Trevor, what was the stat that you pulled up? Wild. Earlier?

Yeah, I wish I remembered the guy's name to give him credit, but there was a message board post that's gone around. But Hank Brown has never played a road game. He's never been sacked, and he's only been hit twice. And this isn't like the master pocket escaper. It's because he's never faced pressure before. So like this defensive line in the, the big house is something he's never come close to facing before.

For sure. And I think, you know, honestly, so we've got stripe out on Saturday, 3.30 game. It's supposed to be like 73 and sunny. It's a recipe for the big house to be rocking. Big news, too, by the way. We know that now. Yep, yep. And so I think that, you know, I could see a scenario here where Michigan goes on defense

and gets to him early and then he's just rattled all guys. game long because he hasn't seen it before. And so that to me, like, I could, I definitely want this Michigan defense to pin their ears back and try and go get him a couple times, even if it results in, you know, oh, he slips out and or, you know, dumps it off a couple times early. Like, I want him to feel it early. That's, that's my goal. Because I think that that's going to change the game for, we can't let him sit back there, which we don't do very often, but we cannot let him sit back there and just, you know, have his way. Yeah, I completely agree. And one thing that I also like to bring up is Iowa, historically speaking, is very detailed on the world of special

teams. They've always had good returners. Their special teams have been on lock, probably more so than many of the other opponents that will play. And probably what they're doing is looking at our film, our special teams film, and seeing the mistakes that we've been making over the weeks, right? And the running into the punters and things like that. And they're going to try to use that to their advantage. And, you know, obviously we understand, yeah, they are very disciplined when it comes to special teams, but we cannot have those shoot yourself in the foot type of mistakes when it's third and five. We get the fourth down and then we run into the punter and they get another first down, right? Because they are going to drain the clock. Their run game is what they

hang their hat on. Now they will hit a deep ball every now and then. But they're going to drain the clock. And so we have to avoid those stupid mistakes of giving them free first downs, which I think they are going to really try to capitalize on. It's a really good point. I mean, the Western game in a way is a blueprint for them, right? If they can get long drives and limit possessions, those potential mistakes for Michigan are going to matter even more, right? So, yeah, I'm with you on the special teams part.

All three phases are going to matter more in this game than most. But, yeah, with Brown, I'm a big, fan of pressures over sacks like obviously sacks or drive killers you want them but if i know i'm getting pressure 25 30 40 percent of the time the impact that can have on a quarterback so going into the oklahoma game i kept highlighting look john mottier more than most quarterbacks the gulf between his clean pocket rate and his pressure rate was massive right completion rate drops under 50 turner worthy plays is like one out of 10 attempts um his scramble rate gets worse like he was significantly worse under pressure.

So that's why the hate for him now doesn't really make sense to me. Like that's just always the guy he's been. If you protect him, he's great. If he's under pressure, he's rough. With Brown, I'm assuming pressure is going to impact him, but we don't know because he's never faced it. And again, I don't look at that as a positive. I feel like this is a guy that if you can get to him,

even if you're not getting sacks, because look, Ohio, I almost said Iowa tends to have a good offensive line. They think they do this year. But if it's enough that either he's, feeling pressure early and forcing throws or dropping the completion rate, getting into some turnover worthy plays. We know how much Jay Hill wants to turn over and get the short fields for the offense. Any opportunities there, maybe a pick or two or turnover, that could alleviate some of those

Michigan mistakes, which let's be honest, if this is a 100% clean game from Michigan, we're all going to be thrilled because one, they've struggled with it and two, I was looking to force those mistakes. 100%. And so I think that, I mean, you look at it. You look at it. You look at it. You look at, what happened in the first quarter against U-TEP. And speaking of mistakes, the first half in general, I mean, that should have been a 14-0-0, probably 21-0-0 game, you know, at halftime, right? And the reality is you put the ball on the ground,

you know, to your point, Joel, the mistakes, but this one is on offense, you know, I know that they did have less penalties against U-TEP than they had in the first two weeks, which progress, right? Right. But there was still a scenario where you got a first down and it's holding and now it's first in 20. And then it just puts you behind the chains. I think it was on Jalen Hoffman at the time. But those little things I think are just going to be the difference in, is this going to be a comfortable?

You're up 14 nothing? Or is it still zero zero and you're making your defense battle this out again? Right. And so as much as we know, the defense can hold up there, I think the pressure right now is on this offense. That's no, you know, I'm not, this is not some revelation. I'm not that I'm coming out with here. But the pressure right now is on the offense of especially early on in the game, put together that first drive against Western Michigan that you did. Let's go back to that.

I don't care if it's scripted or not. Come on, man, we have to be able to put together an eight play drive for 60 yards in a touchdown. And you know what? You're going to have to be able to run. on third and four for a first down too, right? And so whether it's mistakes or just executing this offense, I think the pressure is on them,

especially early because you cannot get into the slow starts again. You're going to, I mean, it's already nearly bit us in the ass. And so once you get into Big Ten play, some team in Iowa could be it is going to come get you. And if you go down 14-7 against Iowa, you're not just going to be able to turn it on in the, second half and win 52 to 17. Yeah, I completely agree. And I think, you know, as I think about it more, the biggest focal point for this game is going to come down to Bryce's decision-making ability.

Iowa is the number one scoring defense in the country. Those guys know how to get turnovers. They know how to intercept the ball. They're just, they've always been a very detailed and precise team in terms of defense on how to get turnover. So punching the ball out. first guy's making the tackle, second guy's coming in to punch the ball out. And so I believe Bryce's ability to, you know, not only when he's throwing the ball, right, if he gets pressured, because their D-line, you know, is a good D-line. If he gets pressured, is he going to just throw it away or is he going to throw it to the route, which we've seen almost be picked off like four or five times this season.

And when he's running the ball, is he going to fight for extra yardage or is he just going to get down? Because when we've seen him fight for extra yardage, the ball comes out. There's no mistake to it. It's a recurring theme with some of our guys as well. And they're going to be trying to capitalize on that. So I think his ability to kind of keep his cool and not think that he needs to be the guy to make everything happen. Like he needs to be the game manager that we have talked about for weeks on end.

He needs to make smart decisions and understand that a ball thrown out of bounds is much better than a. a potential completion or interception, right? And they are going to be looking for these things. So I believe that his decision-making ability is going to be key in this game. Yeah, I would agree. And I was just going to say, too, to add on to that, I want him to run the ball, but an extra yard, when you're Blake quorum, an extra yard is everything.

And I want you to go get that. But when you're Bryce Underwood, I'd rather have you cover it up and not put the ball on the ground, right? And so I think that that's where, like, I, you know, I want him to make plays with his legs, but we've got to be smart about that, too, of, you know, you either cover it up when people come near you, you take a dive, you slide, all, you know, those types of things, to your point, Joel, of, you know, there's the, I think in his head, he still just wants to make the big play. And in, and I love this about him, because it's like a confidence thing that he has.

And quarterbacks need that level of almost arrogantly confident. You know what I mean? In order to be good in this game. And I think in his head, even when he's wrapped up by two guys, he thinks he's like, I could still wiggle out of this and go for 20 more yards. But I need him to, to your point, play to the next down. Let's get to second and two instead of trying to get a, first down and then, you know, putting the ball on the ground. Sorry, Trevor, go for it.

No, good. I mean, some of that, too, to that point is remembering this is a young dude that in high school, he could reach out like that. And the defenders weren't opportune to punch it out every single time, right? Totally. I do think you're right on that, Joel. Like, that's, he can't, he doesn't have to be the reason Michigan wins, but he can't be the reason they lose, right? Like, that's the big part of it. A great way to put it. I am very, optimistic though because you talked about like he can't be turning it over or even having the turnover worthy plays right he had five against western he's had one in the last two weeks the throw to Travis johnson against utep which you could argue johnson didn't you know i don't want to get in the

schematics of it but whatever he had the one turnover worthy play his last run against utap i don't know if you saw but he had ball chest and cross arm like you could tell they were like dude hold on to the ball right so i know that's been coached up and i think some of it is literally just again an thing, the more he plays and understanding. What intrigues me, too, though, is he showed he can win the game with his legs against Oklahoma. Last week, though, against Utep, and again, I know it's Utep, but against Western, that first pass to Marsh with conflict, we saw him revert back to some of those bad habits,

not just mechanics-wise, but also body language in the way he was executing. Down against U-Tep, the exact opposite happened, or he took over and had the third. throw to JJ, which was a really nice slant. And then we had the Marsh TD as well. And what I liked was Jason Beck used the passing game to open up the run game. We've seen when the run game is not working, not just Rhino, but Rhino with Jalen Hoffman, all this motion, excuse me, perimeter run. We saw against Uteb, we can use the passing game. And they allowed Bryce to not go downfield as much as he was against Western, but to hit that intermediate area where Marsh and JJ absolutely thrive.

And Iowa side, um, excuse me, Hank Brown last week was 12 for 12 and everybody's making a big deal about that. He had eight screens. His average depth of target was three yards, right? So they didn't take advantage of a poor opponent to like see what Hank

Brown can do where like, I feel like Michigan did take advantage of UTEP. And Bryce answered for you. He played arguably his best statistical game. And Boutros talked about this on our show yesterday. The guys were having fun, right? There was this whole talk about the halftime speech and bringing joy back to football. Joel, I know you can speak to this.

You guys work hard all week in practice. You want to go out there and make plays and have fun. Right. So when you trust your players to make those plays, I think it just, it's exponential of what it does for the team's mood. And then more plays come from it, right? Yeah, I think if we look back at the basketball team, right, they were masters at having fun. You could see it on the court all the time. And there's no mistake.

as to why they were so successful because they were having fun and what they were doing. They weren't putting so much pressure on themselves and they were just going out and playing. And to be able to have a football team do the same thing, which we've seen now at this point, to rinse and repeat that week after week and understand that you only have 12 opportunities, 12 Saturdays to go out and play this game that you work for for, you know, about 330 days of the year. And so don't put so much pressure on yourself and just go out there and have fun and play the game that you love with the guys that you spend a majority of your day with. And if we can do that, if we can keep that and kind of learn from the basketball team in that sense, I think Saturday will be a lot of fun for us to watch as fans. For sure.

I mean, you can tell, you can literally visibly tell when Bryce is having a good time and a bad time. Yes. You know, which I'll be honest, I think it's something that he needs to work on. As a quarterback, you can't show, you know, I want you to be emotional in some aspects and get fired up at times, but you have to be even killed. And you can more so probably tell when things aren't going right in his head in the way he responds. And so it's something, again, he's 19, you know.

And so I think we continuously forget about that because he's been in the spotlight for so long. but definitely something he needs to work on because you can tell it's contagious with the team too, with his offense, right? Where when he's down, other guys get frustrated. And then when he's up, other guys are pumped up, right? And so you kind of, that's where I'm looking to him to be the leader. Michigan's run game this week. I know this is probably going to be, you know, it's up there with Oklahoma and what test is going to be tougher,

what defense is going to be tougher. But how, you know, Trevor, I posted on Blueby90.com about my concern for the O line. I know that you came back with, you know, that they have played with a ton of different fronts. It was a completely new O line on this past Saturday. You know, I'll be honest, I watched the film a little bit. and yeah, the missed assignments were pretty concerning to me on the O-line. Joel, when you're on the O-line and Andrew Sprague is not available, the guy that's next to you is not available basically Friday afternoon,

and you didn't know that going into Saturday, tell us about how difficult that is and what that changes for the O line on Saturday. Yeah, well, you get so used. to playing to the guy next to you. And I talked about this on our last episode. You understand their tendencies and how they handle different blocks, how they address double teams,

and kind of how you fit in there. And so on a Friday, when you find out, oh, yeah, that guy that I've been working with for the last, you know, who knows how many weeks is not going to play. Now you're bringing in somebody else that, I mean, let's just be honest here, you probably don't have quite as much confidence in, right?

Especially when we're shuffling the O line around, trying to figure out who needs to go where. it makes it more difficult. Now, I'm not like, I don't care how much depth you have in your O line. You get so used to playing to the guys next to you that when there is somebody else there, you drop a little bit of confidence. That's just the way that it goes. It's why I think rotation in the offensive line is not a great idea because there is just

that variation in play style that you have to accommodate for. Now, it's great to have a guy come in when somebody, goes down, right? We want that, but we want to keep the main five, the main five, and keep them where they're at, keep them in the right position. And it seems like that's what we're trying to get to, right, moving to Evelink back to left tackle where he played a lot of snaps out last year. But it is very challenging in terms of, you know, do they know exactly what they're supposed to do on every play? Like, are, were they trying to understand the play from the left side of the line? And now they're moved to the right slide and they have no idea what's going on and they can't

seem to translate it to the other side of the line. And so our guards now helping our tackle, we just got a tornado of information happening three seconds before the ball's about to be snapped. So, yeah, I think it's, if you could look back and say, well, you know, Sprag's probably going to be out on Friday, likely what they would have done is not rep him nearly as much. Right.

To get somebody else in there to say, hey, listen, they need to work in, kind of figure each other out here. It is more of a drastic change than you would imagine, even though the talent level is, you know, the drop off is not great, right? We have depth on our offensive line, but when you don't understand the tendencies and what you need to say to that guy for him to understand what to do on the play, it changes a whole lot. So I was just going into nerd mode. If you aren't just talk offensive line all day, dude, that'd be it. it's funny because we're highlighting this, but in all honesty, Evan Link played one of his best games, period, at left tackle last week.

And Blake Frazier did really well that right tackle, right? The guard rotation, and this, again, not to beat a dead horse at this point, the staff obviously thought they could take advantage of the Western game and extend some fall camp things out with what they were doing with the guard rotation. And it didn't work. And it was a bad idea. At this point, I think you have to be able to say, look, Brady Norton has done enough to clear a phobia and whatever the guard battle is.

And whether that means a phobie's playing guard while Sprag's out because the Link Frazier swap did work or healthy Sprague means, okay, links back to left guard and Norton's due right guard. And this is our five. This is what we have to run with. I'm sure those conversations have already happened. And the players and staff, everybody knows what will happen depending on the different scenario, right? but it's been clear watching the tape exactly what Joel said like guys aren't peeling off of double teams and getting to the next level or they're not taking the edge rusher that's coming in. It's clear with the guards and the tackles.

They don't know each other well enough or how each other play to know who's going to do what and react. So Brady Norton talked about this in his media availability. The communication's got to go to another level. It's important always anyway. But especially when you've had these moving pieces, that 2023 group. had played together so much that, I mean, Keegan and Zinter, even outside the center, always knew what was happening. And that confidence for the center, whether it was Olu or Nugent, to have a guy like Keegan and Zinter on your side, right? They always knew what the other guy was

doing. And that's why those groups worked so well together. So you're already at week four, right? We're going to be a third of the way through the year. The offensive line has to start to jump. Look, injuries happen. It's part of it. But the rotation and that kind of thing. And even the rhino part it too that's kind of thrown another wrench into it. Yeah, this offensive line's got to be talking and hitting assignments. And ideally, again, getting to that next level, taking out some linebacker so Marshall and Heider have some room to maybe break one. Yeah, I agree. I think that, you know, through the first couple games and with different rotations, you can, that's an excuse, right? You can say, oh, you know, we've got some stuff going on that we're trying to still figure

out to your point, Trevor, we can't go into week five and week six now or, you know, even after week four here and be like, oh, it's the same stuff. You know, we're having the same issues, right? Then it's a pattern. Then it's a real issue and not just growing pains, you know, and so that's where I'm looking for, and it's a tough test. This Iowa defensive line is going to be really good. But there were times when I've literally watched an offensive lineman let someone

go by here and double team over here, you know, and then the guy has a free shot at Bryce, you know, or stuff's Marshall right up the gut. And like, those little things, I mean, listen, I know it's not as simple as I'm making it seem right now, but it's stuff that has to be figured out. So I'm looking, you know, it's not, it's not a talent problem at all, to your point, Joel. Like, I think we have plenty of talented guys. I just think that they, you can tell they're not talking on the O line. And it just looks to me the same way that it had looked, the game had looked sped up for Bryce.

It looked really sped up for the offensive line where it was like, holy smokes, this is all happening so fast. I can't figure out who to get to. Whereas, you know, if you look at those 2023, that 223 offensive line was like they knew exactly what was happening on every single play. Right. I struggle all lit to.

a little bit to understand why we are still shifting guys around. And in fall camp, you are not just going against the scout team every day. You are playing the first team defense. And our first team defensive line is good. And so what happened during fall camp that is not being translated to the season? Like, was Blake Frazier perfect at left tackle in fall camp? And then when he got 110,000 people in the stadium, they were like, maybe put link back there. Like I struggle to understand why we're doing that now.

I mean, I get it, right? If it's not working, it's not working, then switch. But there's no way that this just started at the beginning of the season. And so that's a little frustrating to me. I understand maybe trying to figure out who your best game day guards are. I get that a little bit. We shouldn't be doing that four weeks into the season. You could do it two weeks max. Oklahoma's a big enough test to find out, all right, this is our guy. This is who we need to rock with. But that all kind of confuses me a bit. Just as somebody who participated in that type of rotation, right? In 2020, it was myself, Mayfield, and Ryan Hayes competing for that. And by the end of it, they were like, hey, listen, it's going to be Hayes and Mayfield. Like, these are our guys. We knew.

Like, there was no question. And so I struggled to understand why we are still fighting this battle on the offensive line now. You know, a lot of the fall chatter tends to be positive hype, right? But when you hear some of the, I don't want to use it, it's not negative, but when you hear like maybe the opportunities that exist, I'm always interested when the season comes, what I can correlate to, right? So I think the offensive line, there's two things.

One, the fact that they weren't just allowing Norton and Afobi to battle at right guard in that first game, but literally rotating a phobia to both spots, shows, yeah, they weren't sure what to do at either guard spot with those three. Like to your point, they didn't settle on one and say, okay, maybe these two are still fighting it out. They clearly weren't confident with either of the guards. And I think that plays into what's been a real big indication of where they wanted this to go, which was a healthy Andrew Babelola at left tackle. And then Blake Frazier, probably at right tackle a sprague moving inside the guard. I think that was where they were hoping this would go. I understand that,

I agree. I'm not trying to make an excuse for sure. No, I know. I know exactly what you're saying. And you are 100% correct. You can obviously see that. But you can't put all your chips on one guy. This has happened a million times when in sports. Jackson Dart just went down in their whole seasons in the tank. You know, like, I mean, shit happens. Like that's where I'm frustrated, you know, going into week four of like, listen, I understand you think you got something with this one group of guys and it's working really well. So you're going to go through that. But, Like, I mean, it literally happens every single year that somebody goes down. There has never been a team who doesn't have an injury, you know?

And so, yeah, like, especially on all. I mean. I mean. Moving link to left tackle and Frazier to right. Again, it seemed to work. But that, that was a surprising move to happen in week four and that that wasn't, why wasn't that the starting, like, why wasn't Link at left tackle and Frazier at one of the guard spots to begin with then?

If that was where your confidence lies. Yeah, again, it seemed to work, but it's an interesting move to make, you know, once Brad goes down to swap both your tackles in response. Right. I mean, especially at a point in time, like, we're playing for a championship now. Like, we are in Big Ten play. We are playing for a Big Ten championship. And I hope that the offensive line that comes out on Saturday is what they feel great about

and they can mesh well together. They've been practicing together for a week at this point. I hope that we haven't figured out because, like at any position if you continue to play the game of let's keep testing guys here and here and here you're never going to have as solid of a group as you should have right so i think we have to pick our core five and settle on yeah and i i mean the stuff that i've seen so far feels like july it feels like july shit that's going on where it's like all right we we know this might not be exactly, you know, and it might not work exactly like we wanted to, but we're going to try it

out and see what happens because it's July and we have time to fix it. It's not July anymore. We're, I mean, next week, it's October, fellas, you know, and like you said, we're, you know, a third of the way through the season. So that's where I'm like, you know, I'm a little frustrated in just putting some pressure on, you know, I'm sure that the coaches are feeling the pressure from me talking into the void here on this podcast. Oh, God, do you guys see what Justin said? Yeah, exactly, exactly. But I mean, it just like, it just feels like, you know, we're going to get caught up in one

of these games here, you know, and to your point, Joel, you're playing like right now, every game is do or die, right? Like, you have to, you know, you know that Oregon and Indiana and Ohio State are looming on the schedule. And if you want to hit those goals of getting to the college football playoff, you have to win every game leading up to those, you know, because you never know. And so that's where I'm like, man, you just, I would have expected to be in a better spot. And I, again, I understand things happen and some things are out of your control.

You know, Andrew Sprague coming out on Friday saying he can't go is essentially out of your control. But, you know, these guys are paid a lot of money to come up with a backup plan. Right. Yeah, absolutely. On a positive note, here we go. I like it. This is a positive podcast. It looks like we're going to have Jordan Marshall for the game. He wasn't on the injury report, which is good, good news. And then a second positive note over something I've been ranting on for really since the beginning of the season is against U-TEP. We played 29 out of 73 snaps in Rhino. So the number is continuing to go down a little bit more tight end play. See 83 March. Marshall in there. That seems a little bit more back to normal. Let's keep progressing. Let's let Rino be something that is a tool in our tool bag, not our main offense. Because let me tell you,

seeing number 96, a 315 pound number 96 is not a passing threat to me. I'm not concerned about him. If I wasn't a passing threat at a 260 pound 84, then he is sure not a passing threat. So let's get more tight ends in the game. And we're progressing. So I like to see that. The tight end rotation has been kind of similar to the offensive line issues as well. You know, Eli Owens talked about this too, how like each one of these tight ends has a different skill set and something they're great at. And I feel like that hasn't been noticed in the first couple games because not just the rhino,

but how often Rhino was paired with Jalen Hoffman and putting him in line and asking him to block and pass. when his strength is more of an hback role as a lead blocker and power run, right? And to your point, Zach Marshall can be that inline tight end and be the passing threat. So if you want to come out, whether you're in 12 and it's Marshall in another tight end or you're in 11 personnel, we talk so much about wide receiver 3 and we haven't seen much wide receiver 3 until the second half against UTEP.

I don't have to make substitutions. I can go more tempo because Marshall can be my inline rhino tight. because that's really what the rhino is supposed to be right just an athletic it's not a jumbo because we still have jumbo package right but right yeah and i think you know in the past for them at utah j j buchanan was kind of that hybrid tight end for them and now that he's been a true ride receiver i think they've been trying to find their j j buchanan and now it feels like maybe after the utap game they're starting to go look this is what marshall's good at let's do that this is and hogan hanson being healthy clearly was a game changer

not only in the passing, but what a great job he did, Ron blocking as well. So having him healthy, both running backs healthy, this hopefully is the next step in the offense, and we're not talking about this anymore. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I agree. I think, you know, to be honest, we haven't had two wide receiver ones like we have right now pretty much ever. And so, you know, it was the offense in the past, I know this is a new coaching step,

but the offensive in the past was wide receiver one and tight. end one. Those are going to be your two top pass catchers every single game, right? And a lot of times, tight end one is your top pass catcher over wide receiver one. Now, I think that they, they're trying to figure out how to still work in a tight end while making sure that March and Buchanan always get the ball as much as they should. So I, but I think this is where I feel like I'm like the delusional, like our group debt's delusional every single year of like, yeah, we must be just saving everything for Ohio State, you know? Right.

It's like, it's like week 11. We haven't showed like anything. I'm like, yeah, we're saving that for Ohio State. We're going to break it out. Like, I can't attest. There are certain things that you save for Ohio State, but those certain things might be one package or two plays. Other than that, like, every.

Everything is, let's get it out there. Like, we almost lost the Western. Let's not save anything right now because we need to win football games so that the game against Ohio State means a little bit more. Exactly. Agreed. And you also, in order to be good at a play, you got to run it a few times, you know, unless it's this, you know, triple reverse pass that you want to keep. You know, there are a lot of these things that you are, you know, you're running, running, running. Sometimes it's to set up the second option to that play.

You know, sure, but to your point, like, you got to run it a few times, make sure it works because it does, you know, not everything works in a real game that you ran in practice and it worked. You know, in real time, in real speed, sometimes the timing is different, et cetera, et cetera. I'm going to be positive here again. This is a positive podcast. I also, I really, really like where, I know we talked about Bryce earlier, I really, really like where Bryce Underwood is after three games.

If you would have told me after that Western Michigan game that after week three, here's where he would be, I would have been like, yes, I'm taking that 100% of the time. Now, would I wish that, you know, a guy that we're paying a bunch of money to, and he's a five-star. Do I wish that he is, you know, an all-conference type quarterback already? Of course. Everybody does.

You know, he wishes that already. But I think he's in a good spot right now of making pretty much, for the most part, the best decisions for him. And then, you know, not doing too much. I'll let you guys respond to that before I go to my next point on Bryce. Well, I'll just say something real quick.

I think, what we heard about in fall camp, about how comfortable he was in the pocket, is not necessarily something we saw at first, but I think we are seeing it now. We are seeing his comfort level and his ability to kind of shift around, stay in the pocket when he needs to, and then scramble also when that opportunity is available to. So, like, even watching against, you know, Oklahoma and against U-Tep, we're starting to see that comfort level go up a little bit. And hopefully with a solid offensive line, it'll increase even more.

Yeah, and the numbers back that up, Joel. Shameless plug article on Blue By 90 talking about this with Price. We're not talking about the mechanics after the last two games, right? We're not talking about the reversion that we saw with some of the body language stuff. We already touched on that. But yeah, against U-TEP, we talked about the void that exists with John Matere, clean and under pressure. Bryce under pressure actually had a higher QB rating than he did in a clean pocket. So his completion percentage was still 60%.

he did have his one turnover worthy play happened under pressure. But he was still getting first downs. He scrambled for one first down. He only took one sack on eight pressure dropbacks. And he's standing in the pocket delivering the throw, going through the progressions. And Beck and the staff are seeing this, right? So I think that's indicative of everything that we've kind of put, not a negative light, but talked about needs to work on.

It's not a talent issue with the players or the staff. It's execution. And it's execution that can be fixed, right? And we're seeing that progress game to game. I'm really happy where Bryce is as a runner, as a passer, and his comfort in the pocket level. Pocket, excuse me. I agree. And you could see, I think it was, I can't remember there was a checkdown across, like over the middle that he had where he sat, sat, sat, sat, kind of did happy feet while he was like moving forward and then checked down to somebody.

You could see that he wanted to in his head just like take off. and that was why instead of like making progressions up, he like started to run. But he's like almost battling his inner monologue, you know, like his inner self of like, okay, wait, I can't do that. I let me, you know, be patient, be patient, blah, blah, blah. And so with that being said,

I want to throw out something to you that is going to go against basically everything we just said here. I watched Trinidad Chambliss on Saturday go crazy against LSU. you. And first of all, it was awesome. That was an awesome game. That gives me hope for the entire world. If that's how that game should go, Lane Kiffin should have to eat his own shit on, you know, this is what happened. He should have to, you know, he should have to be able, you know, the pictures of the Ole Miss players, you know, waving goodbye to him is everything. That gives me some hope about this world that it can't just be evilness, you know, prevailing forever.

But Trinidad Chambliss made some unbelievable plays, and it was a lot of times coordinated chaos of coordinated backyard bullshit. And I hate to say this because I know this is not what we're going to do, but I almost think that that's where Bryce would be unbelievable. Like he obviously is amazing when he's on the run. Like he feels so much more comfortable when he's rolling out whatever. And I think that you would get a bunch of mistakes that come with that, I'm sure. You know, with Trinidad, like he's, you know, what, a fifth year senior, whatever he is. And so he's played a lot of football. And so he knows when to, you know, force it and when to not.

But I don't know. I just want to your guys take on like, if we're in an alternate, alternate dimension and you were having Bryce just do that, would he be better off than us trying to put him into a box like we are right now? Well, I think just personally, if you're talking about Trinidad Chambleau, that guy knows how to deliver the ball exactly where it should be. Like, he puts it where his receivers can get it and nobody else can. Like, he's thrown into double coverage knowing that his receiver is going up

just a few inches above the defensive backs to grab the ball. that is not something that we see in Bryce Underwood right now. We maybe have, you know, spurts of it. And I think that also plays into the receiver, right, being friendly to the quarterback, not fading out on their routes. But if we could have that type of dropping dimes like Trinidad Chamliss in Bryce Underwood, then I probably would agree with you, yeah, that he would live well in that world. But I think that's the long-term future, right?

It's not a matter of one or the other. It's both. The reason Trinidad can be that extender and make those crazy plays is because he can't stand in the pocket and deliver those throws. You got to do that first. Right, right. The comp I keep making for Bryce is Josh Allen. I think Bryce is going to get to a point where, and look, you want to still have that threat of run because I want it to be me and a defender and get him in conflict. If he comes up, I'm hitting the receiver.

If he stays with the receiver, I'm running. I want to create those scenarios when I'm extending plays. So I do think, I mean, anybody that's watched Belleville tape knows Bryce can be the king of backyard football, right? But whether you're talking about Lamar Jackson going to the next level or even what Patrick Mahomes does, that stuff works because they can still be the game manager first when they need to be. And then in the bigger games and when the pressure gets home, they can be the X factor because they can extend the plays and do those things. So I do think Bryce will do those things. I do think he'll get to that level that just can't be his only game.

He's got to be able to stand in there and deliver those throws. And you're right, Joel, we've seen thrash flashes, flashes where he's starting to trust JJ at that upper level and be like, you can go get this. And he already has that relationship with Marsh too, obviously. But even the throw to Bonner, the toe tap that almost came in, he's starting to get to the point where you can see. He's like, I'm going to put this ball where only you can go get it and let you.

Right. Right. Well, and I think too, I do think that him knowing where to throw those balls does come naturally to him. He almost just doesn't have to think about it. Like, don't think about, don't think too much about where to place this ball. Right now, there's so much going on in his head, obviously. And especially after a tough first game in Western Michigan, that was like the worst thing that could possibly happen to a young Bryce Underwood, who had struggled last year, obviously. Like, I think that he just needs the confidence to be able to go out and do it without

thinking about it. Yeah, you're right. I think that if, you know, if you can get him to the point, to your point, Trevor, of like, he's making the basic throws so easily without having to ever think about it, then the next, the scramble throws, the extensions and everything else, then he can just go do the backyard bullshit and go, you know, without, having to be like, oh, blah, blah, I don't know if I should do this or, you know, it's like, it is, I think that's the hardest thing in real time for a quarterback to know,

when do I turn that on and when do I turn that off? You know, they're really, let's be honest, how many quarterbacks in the world can do it? Mahomes, Josh Allen, the three, right? Lamar, like, you know, Trinidad's obviously done it. you know, there have been a few different, but even like, go back to Johnny Mansell, he never turned it off. He was just doing backyard bullshit all the time. And it turned down to work well for him for like one season. Yeah, like literally one season. And then, you know, I mean, it all falls apart, obviously for different reasons probably than on-field play. But,

yeah, I mean, it's just, I don't know. I was watching that game on Saturday. And I'm like, I'm sitting there like, man, I feel like that's what Bryce wants to be. You know, I've sat and talked with him. I know him on a personal level, and I think that that's, he's like, I can do all that and make every play. And, you know, you're having to like reel him back to your point, Trevor, I'm like, okay, let, but you've got to hit the 10-yard out route first

before you can make the 50-yard scramble throw, you know, on the run. Yeah, I think. comes down to like we see him in the past struggle with reads and i would say it is because he's thinking too much right there's there's so much focus on make sure you're going through your reads that he he almost turns it to a robot right and then he kind of just malfunctions and ends up throwing the ball um but if we can get to a point where which we're moving to where he can just naturally go all right one two three other side of the progression and and and make those reads we'll be in a good spot because backyard football is mindless. Like if you're in scramble drill, okay, we have one guy

going deep, one guy's coming across, one guy's coming back to me. I just need to find the open one and throw it a run, right? And it's not quite as detailed or structured as a normal offensive set as where you're reading the defense and you're looking at one high or two high safeties and what's my read going to be here. And sometimes you don't really have a read. It's like, this is our option. If it's not, you need to do something with it. and don't turn it over, right? But if we can get to a point where, and like I said, we are progressing to where he is just nailing those reeds

and understanding the shift of the defense, we are going to be able to use the backyard football as a tool in the bag, right? Which is what you love to see like, man, this guy's so dialed in in the pocket that when things don't go well, he's able to make a play happen. I'll tell you my favorite throw from Saturday

was that wheel route to JJ. the drop it right in easy and there's a defender right there and it was just pure mechanics perfect throw in stride we know he can rip a spiral man right there's a reason he was the number one quarterback recruit in the country but like to your point that was anticipation and just making the throw you can tell when he's going through his reads like you said naturally because i know if the linebacker's creeping that means this or if i know they showed cover two but have actually brought one and switched to cover one. I know what that means versus he's covered.

He's covered. Uh-oh. And panicking before pressure even gets there because he's already accelerated his own decision making, right? Again, it was U-TEP, I know, but we're seeing those steps in his progressions and the way he delivers throws. But yeah, when I saw that throw to JJ, I was like, okay, like that was a comfort level.

That's a tough throw. When you start making tough throws look easy, that's when we're talking about one of the top echelon QBs where we think he's going to be. Right. for sure. After the Western Michigan game, I had said to a couple of people, last season, Bryce would make like two really good throws and then one really bad throw a lot of the times. During that Western Michigan game, he didn't even make the two good throws, let's be honest. And so that was my like biggest concern after that Western game.

I think you saw the last two games. He went back to, all right, he's making two, three, really good throws and then he would have, you know, one mistake, right? And I think it even got to, you know, having three, four, five good plays and then one mistake, you know. And so that's where we need to get him where it's like, all right, we still know that you're going to make mistakes, but you have to make some good plays to get us there and keep moving the chains too. Right. All right. Let's talk about this, this game. Before that, I want to give a little shout out. We've got We'll be at Hopcat tomorrow night. We're recording this on Thursday.

I think it's coming out tomorrow morning or tonight. So Friday night at Hopcat. We'll have Woodson Whiskey tasting, a chance to win a sign Charles Woodson, Jersey. And then the man the myth, the legend, Dinard Robinson will be doing an autograph signing there as well. So go check out. We've got tickets in our Instagram bio at Blueby 90.

So go check those out now. It's going to be an awesome night. So I think this weekend, like, it's going to be buzzing in Ann Arbor. Everybody took a week off last week because of UTEP in the rain. Now it's a 3.30 game. Everybody's going to be back. Big Ten play. I'm so pumped.

So Friday night, hopefully we'll see you out at Hopcat. All right. What do we think is going to happen this weekend? I know we've talked for about an hour. What exactly, you know, how do we see this game going? I would say personally, the way I see it going is Iowa's offense, which has scored more this season than they probably ever expected they would, has not seen a defense, a secondary or a defensive line like Michigan. And I think that is going to be extremely overwhelming for Hank Brown. I think he's going to get a lot of pressure on him, and he's going to have to try to make plays that he hasn't had to make yet this.

season and I think he's going to struggle with it. I think their run game will be solid. Their offensive line is always very detailed, as is the rest of their team. But I see that being a key factor in their scoring. I'll be honest, I don't know what's going to happen

with our offense. I don't know what that's going to look like, but I do think, again, our defense is going to force Iowa into the Iowa of the path where they are predominantly punt offense. I agree. Look, if this defensive line could do what it did to John Mateer, it can do it to Hank Brown.

If this secondary can do what it did to Satania, it can do it. Now I forget the guy's name, Davis, I think, the wide receiver that was talking about going to the candy shot, right? I believe in the defense, right? When we talk about the race to 20, I know they gave up 14 to Utep, but that's a short field after a turnover and a busted coverage on the fourth down play. I think the defense is going to hold Iowa to a touchdown and a field goal or something. something similar to what we saw in Oklahoma. And I am confident in this offense and Bryce because, look, after Western, you've got people asking him about if he's going to get benched and the narratives and the pressure

that's out there, plus all the clock stuff and everything that was going on to this team and that lead up to the Oklahoma game for them to come out and win that game and then bounce back again overcoming that first half against UTEP. I think they've just shown, all right, we figured it out. we've able to bounce back from the adversity. I like where the running backs are in terms of health this week. I like the conversations I've been hearing from the offensive line. I think the running game's going to take a step.

I think Beck is getting more comfortable with this personnel and how to call the offense. So I just like where this team is right here. And I think Michigan's got three or four touchdowns in them, and I don't think Iowa does. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I see, you know, listen, I don't think it's going to be easy sledding for Michigan on offense by any means. I could see this being a zero-zero or a three-three ball game at the end of the

first quarter. But I agree with you, Joel. I just think that I imagine we're going to get to Hank Brown. We're going to get to him very quickly and then he's not going to go, going to know what to do. And at that point, I think their whole game plan is like, off, all right, now what do we do? You know, because they haven't seen it yet. They They've only seen success. And you know how that goes, Joel, of like, you feel like you're in a rhythm, you're in a rhythm. And then all of a sudden you get smacked in the mouth.

You're like, shit, it takes, you know, you take a couple steps back and you're like, oh, I don't know what to do now. And then you're going to the sideline, you know, guys are yelling at each other because you're making a mistake, they're making a mistake, et cetera. That's how I see Iowa's offense going. Now, on Michigan's offensive side, I think. I just, I think you're going to have to just like piece it together. I don't think that this is going to be something where you're going to feel in a rhythm all day long

or even in the second half, you know, against UTEP where it's like, okay, everything's working for us. Right. This is where I'm looking at Bryce, obviously, the O line in these two running backs of, listen, you just got to keep hammering away. One of these is going to work. I promise you. You're going to get snacked in the mouth, but you just got to keep going.

And it's the guy chisling through the dirt that the diamonds all the way at the end, you just got to keep hammering and one of these is going to break. That's where I feel like sometimes this offense is like, well, that didn't work. Let's try something completely different now, you know, and you go and you take a complete pivot. Just run power again. You know, like, I mean, how many times, Joel, did power go for two yards, two yards, two yards, and then 75?

Right. You know, like, I think that that's where I'm looking for this offense to be a little resilient here because they're not going to see success right away. But by the end of the game, you might be able to get 28 points because you've squeaked out, you know, four good plays out of the 60 that you're on. Yeah. I think ultimately it will come down to the turnover battle. If we can win or keep it even, we will come out victors on Saturday. I think if we lose the turnover battle, we are going to make it a lot more difficult on ourselves. No, great.

And I think my confidence is high because I think they've cleaned that up. And I'm optimistic price is going to have that. And I'm optimistic Michigan can turn over Hank Brown. But yeah, you're right. If they're losing the turnover battle to nothing and I was getting long drives. and now we're talking about seven or eight possessions instead of double digits, then you're in the exact game Iowa wants to be in. Yeah.

I mean, that's historically, Iowa has won almost every football game from creating chaos in a turnover. And, you know, they're sitting there and it's a 7-7 ball game, and then they get two pick sixes in a row and blow it open. You know, that is how, that's how they've won almost every game in I, in Kirk Frenz's history. right and so you you cannot let that happen you cannot give into that even though you're on your you know in your home turf so um it's going to be an exciting one one more thing i want to shout out i've got the nine eight eight hat on here shout out sack the stigma um it is uh september

is suicide awareness month um you know i know that we i think a lot of us have had uh you know have been affected by suicide, whether it's, you know, somebody really close to us or you know somebody that's been affected by it. You know, my friend Duncan Robinson was very affected last year. His brother took his own life. And, you know, we've been building up his foundation here over the past year. I don't know if you saw. He wrote a, he did a whole letter.

Brennan Quinn did a great job at writing an article about Duncan, about where he was at. you know, where he's been at for the past, for the past year. So, you know, 9-88 is the suicide hotline. Feel free to open up. We've got football guys on here right now that, you know, I don't think any of us are afraid to show emotion. And I think that's important because, you know, it is, it's one of those things that's,

it's not easy to talk about all the time of how you're feeling. But wanted to throw that in there as September is coming to a close. Man, I'm excited to be out at the tailgate on Saturday, excited to be out at Hopcat on Friday. And for us, you can follow us at Blueby 90 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, at Blueby 90 podcast on YouTube and Blueby90.com. We appreciate you. Go Blue. Go Blue.

Go Blue.