Blue By Ninety - Blue By The Numbers: An Uninspiring Performance Against USC

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

Brian and Tanner recap Michigan's disappointing loss in Los Angeles and what’s next for the Michigan football program.

All right. Welcome back to Blue by the Numbers, presented by Feldman Chevrolet of Highland. I'm Tanner, joined by Brian. A lot less cheerful and joyous on this version of this podcast. Normally we come in here, and I'm pretty optimistic, Brian. I feel like, you know, we're realist, but I like to look on the bright side. And I don't want to steal anyone's thunder. But outside of Andrew Marsh, was there anything that you took away from this game feeling particularly good about? not really no um let me just say this it's uh tuesday afternoon i'm talking my buddy about michigan football things could be worse but uh yeah that game was uh you know it wasn't what we expected wasn't what we've come to hope for and you know look forward to seeing from the team

we root for it was a really frustrating game i think you know i typically try to come at things from a really positive and supportive standpoint. And there are some things upon a second, third watch that I saw that, like, a couple of moments that could have really shifted that game to be, you know, not saying when they win that game, but it's so much more competitive and we're not throwing in the towel with four minutes left. But, yeah, it was a very disappointing evening to say the least. Yeah.

I mean, in the first half, you know, Michigan cuts the lead or ties it. They tied at seven, about 2.30 to go, and then USC just gets whatever they want. And then coming out of halftime, Michigan against the ball goes three and out. So both of their first drives in the first half and the second half go three and out. And then USC was that? I'm trying to remember because I haven't watched it again. It was always tough to bring yourself to watch those NASCAR. Since you're to watch, those are really fun games.

Was that the 3rd and 26 drive when it was 14-7? Yes, it was, wasn't it? Yeah. So then 3rd and 26. I don't know, man. Normally we come on to this show, and we kind of position by position give our thoughts. I guess we can sort of do that. I thought there were growing pains for Bryce Underwood,

but I didn't think he was as bad as I've seen some people say he was. But I thought he battled. I mean, you're talking about Andrew Marsh maybe making that play at the goal. line and you're punching it in and you're 2114 late in the third right so it wasn't you know it wasn't all doom and gloom um and then obviously i think on that that series of downs i think it was on the third down he throws the pick towards mccoli where may or may not have been interfered with or tugged may or whatever may or may not he got i'm just saying i'm just i'm all the internet here i know it wasn't it wasn't you know there's nobody that and nobody that's

not being a troll that could watch that or just a blind USC fan that doesn't doesn't see Diamond McCulley get turned around. That should have been, you know, and that's where people are hard on Bryce. I thought Bryce had a pretty good game overall, you know. Yeah. He's still, like you said, having growing pains. But that play, turn that play around, and it's first and 10 inside the 15. That nine and a half times of a 10 should have been a pass interference, was a pass interference.

The guy grabs him. He turns him fully around, like not 360, but more than, you know, 270 around. And they don't call the penalty. and the ball goes right to where he would have been. Yeah. Instead, similar to the one that did get called in the Sunday night game against the Lions.

Right, right. On, I cannot recall, was it Yassin? I can't remember. Yeah, practice on you. Yeah, so I don't know. You go from that to feeling like, okay, you found a little bit of momentum in the second half.

And then, you know, it just, they get a field goal. And Michigan, you know, gets two turnovers within, the red zone otherwise this would have been basically the same as the michigan state game it's a little concerning yeah a little concerning for me um i thought the offensive line was a little discombobulated with geo coming back into left guard you know how much of that is on him being rusty uh versus you know just taking a guy out that you've played with for the last three or four weeks and feel comfortable with um yeah i don't know man it's just

We talked about it on our main show and I was pretty negative and I still don't feel a whole lot better in terms of like positives to talk about because not only was the play on the feel uninspiring. Some of the coaches just kind of looked like they were in a daze, got punching them out, didn't know how to respond. I thought Wink was completely outclassed in this game. like I mean 490 yards it wasn't even like they had the ball that many times either like they just they punted once they just moved up and down the field got whatever they wanted aside from a couple turnovers that you know michigan forced right um beautiful fortunate on the fumble i think i listened to the emgo blog podcast i think they were like 11 yards an attempt on screenplays they were so out of position on on run

run plays on screen plays they put houseman in coverage just way too often like that has to be a check anyone that watches tape if houseman's like outside of the tackle he's dropping into coverage it's so obvious i'm not a defense defensive group but you can see when you watch it if he's outside the tackle he's in coverage and if he's in coverage throw to wherever he is he can't guard people like it's i mean he's a great linebacker but that's just not his thing you know what i mean and so i don't put that on him i'm not even being critical of him i think if you're the defensive play caller you know what you have you know you know what's was it the sabin said uh when you in tough spots don't take a place think of players and you got to know the

guy that you're you're dealing with there don't put him in that position you know and then he got that tight in they have is walker lines former quarterback right they they kept putting him i mean just exposing him you know so i i yeah i thought wink was it was wink's worst day is uh defensive play caller for the wolverines he had a rough go at it We were out of position so much. We were still out of position so much. Yeah, and I mean, I know we upload YouTube and we also, Spotify, I'm sure

couldn't make sure people listen just on Spotify, so I don't want to make it visual or anything. But you sent me an image from the game. I can't tell what play it was. You'd have to go back and check the formation. But Michigan isn't a five-man front with two linebackers, four defensive backs. USC's got two tight ends.

Now, the way they're lined up, quarterback's got nobody, it's empty, it's got two receivers to the top of the field, one to the bottom, and then the two tight ends. One's kind of a wide split in a three-point stance, and the other's behind him in a two-point stance. If I had a guess at what we're looking at here, Brian, it was steam route for 25 yards.

I don't know, but if you look at it, you have two deep safeties, and you have nobody covering the guy in the slot. Nobody. No one's within 15 yards of them. Maybe you can tweet this picture out with the podcast for the visual learning section of the show. But you sent that to me, and I saw it,

and I couldn't believe what I was looking at. I just, and there's a lot of people that are very negative on Wink Martindale, and I thought he turned the corner late last year. You know, the Indiana game was kind of the start of that. Actually, the second half of the Oregon game, because they got smoked in the first half. I mean, yeah, they gave up the touchdown that maybe shouldn't have counted, but you come out with a three-man front, and you don't have anybody fill in the gap that Dylan Gabriel runs 25 yards through untouched.

but at the second half of that game it felt like okay he maybe found something maybe realized he needed to simplify things a little bit for these college players he's not coaching the Baltimore Ravens anymore right and all those great defensive players they've had during his tenure and before and then we come into this year after the success against Ohio State after the success against Alabama which Alabama did play a lot of their players they didn't have a lot of guys opt out and you come in and even in the New Mexico game, right? We're kind of like, what's, you know, yeah, they got us on some, some trick plays and whatnot. And you're just like, what in the world? And then, you know, the Oklahoma game, I didn't necessarily was on the defense. They got got a couple times, you know, maybe would have been able to keep that a little closer, give the offense a chance. You know it's going to, you're going to have to be in a dog fight to win that. I mean, they were dominant in the middle part of the game, majority of the middle part of the game against Wisconsin, but they, we saw what Wisconsin is. So against Nebraska too like the Hail Mary like it just is a constant theme of just like what are you doing

and we're just guys that sit on the couch or sit in the stadium and watch the game right right we digest a lot of football stuff I watch a lot of videos on on YouTube about football and scheme and try to not sound like a moron right but when I'm watching this yeah I didn't play I didn't play football at a high level but I'm like I know at least a little bit and it's like I don't think the defense that you're running is putting your guys in, you know, a place to be successful. Like, it just was the same things, you know, and it's not even just always schematic, Brian. It's fundamentals. It's tackling.

They don't tackle well. That's been two years of that. Coming off the team that, if you were able to go back 144 years of Michigan football prior, maybe tackled the best of any team in Michigan history. Right. So we're now at a. a point watching this defense where it's like, I don't have any confidence in them being able to get off the field. I hardly have confidence that when it's third and 26 that they're

going to get off the field. I feel like the tackling issue, I have so many thoughts to what you said, but I think the tackling issue, and this could be on the left field, but I feel like some of it is not knowing your responsibility. I feel like the, you know, you talked about the best tackling team in team history. That team was so disciplined. They all had specific rules, specific responsibilities, and they filled them. And I think when you're playing, playing with total understanding and total confidence in the role you're playing, you block out the noise and you just make the play in front of you. I think these guys, you know, you talk about playing sports, like the game slows down. I feel like the game is going so fast for so many of the guys out there that by the time it's time to make the play, their brain's going so fast.

I have nothing to back this up, by the way. But I think they're just racing to the ball and then like, oh, yeah, I have to make a tackle here. you know which leads me to um i saw something just today but michigan is the youngest team by a pretty good margin in the big 10 right and uh so for the sky is falling people it's like we're playing a ton of really young guys with the youngest team in the big 10 and we are you know as bad as we're all feeling right now we are far from you know the bottom half of the big 10 the question i have is we're playing a lot of guys like you know i send i set up the pff grades a snap counts for, you know, as long as PFS has been going out every week.

And what we, what I tend to see is a bunch of guys play when we play the, you know, the Rutgers of the old and the Western Michigan's of old. And then you play a team like USC, and that gets really, really tight. You know what I mean? Really, really tight. And against USC, a game on the road. I mean, maybe you're traveling. But we played a ton of guys.

And it's one thing to play a ton of guys, a few snaps. We played a ton of guys, a lot of snaps. When you look at the distribution, we, from. the most got most snaps for defensive tackle to the least of the guys that played the dispersion is not that um not that wide and so you know if you want to look glass half full we know we're not going to win the national championship win the big 10 this year we're getting a lot of guys on the youngest team of big 10 reps that's the positive negatives we all want to win they should want to win their job is to find the balance between putting out a product that wins and and developing the

guys that's building a program right you And so that's where I'm struggling right now the most is like I love seeing the development, right? It's been a hallmark of the program. But when I look at some of the amount of snaps these guys played, it really makes you scratch your head. You know what I mean? And it wasn't because of health issues. Like there's times you're forced to like a running back last night or last night on Saturday night. You know, when just people just say this goes down we're thin.

yeah well man we we might have jinx that you remember that last week talking about yeah that's the first thing i thought of when i saw him get up slow on the replay uh to your point though about the amount of guys that played so there were 69 snaps uh for the defense against USC Derek Moore played 36 so he played a little over half the snaps in this game I'm sorry that's malpractice I don't care if he's struggling. I don't care if he's not having a great game. Chances are that your fourth year, all big 10, leader, defensive end, is going to make a play for you in a game.

And so to take him out for effectively half of the snaps to get Dominic Nichols, 20 snaps, and Nate Marshall 5. I know, look, Nate Marshall is going to be a really good football player. It's a true freshman. He needs to bake a little bit, needs to get in the weight room this offseason, right? I just don't know why you would do that. I really don't. You know, TJ Guy gets 15 snaps in this game,

and I don't know what's been going on with him in terms of, like, the coaching staff, because that's a guy that last year, you know, he'd come in, you could feel his presence. He was great at setting the edge on outside runs. He had a couple stuffs against Ohio State. He played well in the bowl game. You know, he's maybe not the best past rusher in the world, but he's effective, and I feel like, you know, more often than

not stays in his lane, which was important in a game like this. I just, I don't know. I don't know what's going on at Schembeckler Hall. But it's really interesting to see some of these names in the amount of playing time that they got compared to some of your guys who are, you know, because all year we heard, all season we heard this team so deep, so deep. A certain point, best guys are going to separate themselves. Can I jump in there real quick?

I know you're making a point, but before we move on, like you mentioned T.J. Guy and Derek more. I encourage anyone, I did this, not to the folks that I'm about to challenge people, but look, there's plenty of like 10-minute recaps of like the highlights of each game. Go back and watch highlights of every game and look when we've given up big plays that have led to scores. Try to find T.J. Guy or Derek Moore. They're not in the field when those plays happen. USC, when, you know, it's not those guys.

There's guys that I thought had really tough games in terms of responsibility. Barham and Roller had his worst game since he's been a significant contributor. You won't see Derek Moore and T.J. Guy on plays where things go really bad. They're just not in the highlight. You know what I mean? They're not on the field. So the point, you know, it's validating the point that you're making. But you see kind of the same guys on the field and you see the same guys not on the field.

And if you pick up on that, like, you know, watch the, watch the bad plays against Nebraska. Watch there wasn't many bad plays against Wisconsin. watch the bad plays against Oklahoma, watch the bad plays against USC, and you're not going to see a lot of Derek more on the field. So that's validating the point you're making. I don't get it either. I really don't understand it. It's the same thing with the linebackers, right?

I never thought this was going to be a Jimmy Roller game. Wisconsin's a Jimmy Roller kind of vibe, right? Get down field, old school winebacker. Coles Holden gets 32 snaps compared to Rollers 48. Troy Bulls plays 15 snaps. I kind of checked out late in the game. You know, hate to say it. But so I don't know exactly when those came in.

Like I said, I haven't watched the game. I'd, you know, do this. It's not a full-time job for anyone that's complaining. I'm not working hard. I'd do it for fun. But, you know, I haven't watched a game. But I'd be curious to know when those snaps occurred. Yeah, I don't know, man.

I just this continuation of the amount of shuffling they're doing especially in the front seven it's like look in the back four i totally get it right like jaden sanders you know he only had he only played 16 snaps i didn't think he had a bad game he got the touchdown scored on him i thought he was in good position that's just a great position that's a perfect throw right so in the secondary i understand it because you do have you know you may have more receivers on the field right so you may be in your nickel or your dime package um i don't know if wink knows what that is because they had three receivers look like anything three receivers i think you're probably safe to bring your nickel back onto the field i would assume um just to match up

you know three corners with three receivers uh but they're still going five too so unless they're running the ball you're you're in a disadvantage uh and lincoln riley knows that because i know that and I'm just a guy so yeah I don't know man um I just feel like it's I don't know I don't know what it is if it's really just that wink reverted to what he was doing pre fall last like November last year and it's just too complex but something's got to give man because again like Michigan has out talented teams on this schedule so far um but that's not I don't know, I'll say this, I don't, that might be the best offense they play all year, but I don't think it's the offense with the most talent on the field that they'll play.

And if that offense with the most talent on the field figures it out, then it might be ugly, unless he pulls one out of the hat again. And that's the last thing that we all want. Yeah. So I don't know, man. I don't know where you go from that defensively. well i think uh you know just so we're not all doom and gloom please i don't want to be i hate it no no i got the helmets behind me you know the lions lost tigers lost michigan lost terrible sports

weekend in the same ocean yeah red wings brought it home one of their games so on the up and up so you're telling me i got it you know we the the team has lost two road games where they travel a long way you know what i mean like i'll if you think of the history of the Big Ten, you know, a long road trip was Nebraska, right? Like, they went to Oklahoma, which isn't that much further, Nebraska, and out to USC and lost, but they didn't, I mean, they, it wasn't like they lost by a field goal at the end of either one of those games. They've been pretty solid at home. You know, one thing about having all this gray hair and being a fan for so long, like you kind of can take a little bit more casual, a casual, more conservative approach

and not be so emotional on, you know, and then some of the chats I'm in, much people are just losing their minds and so maybe it's part of me just trying to balance that out but you know we got I think this game on Saturday is just enormous because it is Washington is clearly the best team on our schedule until Ohio State right and we need to win this game it's at home you know Washington and Michigan I think by most pundits if you look at most metrics out there they're very similarly ranked you know every excuse that we made about going out to USC that I just made about traveling really far, Washington faces. It's a noon game, which is totally in the favor of Michigan.

If they don't win this game and look like they have a plan and look like they're playing together, then maybe my tone changes. But I feel like, you know, if Michigan comes out, wins by 10 on Saturday, it settles everything down, and then they can kind of work on improving and getting things right for a few weeks before they, you know, they finish off of the flurry. But, you know, that's a lot of speculation. We don't know what they're going to look like, you know. And so I'm hopeful for some reason this team for a while now has been a much better

home team. And so, you know, we have our two toughest games this year remaining at home. And so, you know, just in choosing not to be Pollyanna, but just to be the glass half full in an environment where a lot of our fans are losing their mind and want to throw people over the ship, you know, I think there's reasons to, you know, pause for a second, and let's see what this weekend looks like. What's that Tom Cruise movie where they can, they know if someone's about to commit a crime? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Is it, is it minority report? That's how our fans act sometimes. Like, yeah. And in their defense, I can see, you can

see signs, again, of what happened last year. Right. And last year, you know, with with this bright Underwood, do they lose those games to Washington and Illinois? I don't know. But I can, and I'm feeling it myself. Like, I'm having doubts about the direction of this program to be completely transparent and blunt. So I understand why, you know, I try to not be emotional. I get emotional during the game, like, because I'm just an emotional football watcher. I think it's more fun when you win. Like, I think it's more fun to just be a lunatic. But I will say, I've had this happen in a while, Brian. Game is in, I think it was right after the interception on the no-call late in the third.

I'm probably going to score again. I just felt liberated. I was like, I don't even, you know what, I'm just going to resign myself to the fact that this game's probably going to be an L. And I actually enjoy the rest of my night a little bit more than I normally would have. I'm probably going to the game. I'm like, hey, you know, score here, stop, score. I do that to myself.

But I do understand where fans are coming from. Absolutely. And I'm going to be, and we normally don't like talk about press conference stuff. we just talk about the games um i got to be honest shronmore had his press conference and they asked him what his message of the team was he says we got to go to work and that's why i have my blue collar jacket on you don't talk about it right you're supposed to be about it that's a jim harbottism right i'm sure somebody else came up with it and he adopted i don't know but like that to me is just like i don't that doesn't do anything for me like i mean i know it's not for us but like i don't know man like all i'm going to wear the blue collar jacket now we got

we got to get after it just it feels a little forced to 11 to 2014-ish to me i don't want to make that comparison right now but so i see where like i'm seeing things that i'm like jordan marshall's comments did you see those after the game about the stadium brother you got What are you talking about? Why are you saying these words? So I just see all these, I'll let you hop in here, but I just see all these things from the program. And I'm like, smiling on the sideline,

like you're down 18 and the fourth in a game that you, like if you want to achieve your goals on the year, look, everything's still in front of you technically. And we said this last trip to the Washington game, so I don't really want to do this again. Everything's still in front of you. You know, you wash your marquee non-conference. You wash your, I think,

it was four and one, two and no in the Big Ten, and then lost their third Big Ten game on the road, on the West Coast. It's like, well, everything's still there. It is. But they didn't, I mean, again, they beat Ohio State last year. It was amazing. They beat Alabama cool, you know, finish eight and five. But like, I just, Jake Butt was on the, the city of Maine podcast with Chris Wormley and Jordan's track. And as I'm, because I edit the podcast, so I'm listening through making sure I'm catching any, like, things that you edited or whatever. And one of the things he talked about was the amount of resources that are pumped into this program. And because of that, yeah, you may be a freshman quarterback, but the amount of money that pumps in and the amount of time and sacrifice from everybody involved, the expectations are just so high, right?

And so this isn't good enough. It's not. Like, yeah, I know it's year two, and you talked about it, and I'm going on a rant, I'll let you get your piece. And I apologize. I got a lot to say. Do your thing, buddy. Do your thing.

But you talked about going out west or coming across the country. I saw Oregon go do it with the first year. start i know dante more started some because you said but the true first year starter i saw indiana go do it near two under kurt signetti right like i saw ohio state go to washington and beat up on them it wasn't pretty but it was like a 2023 michigan win so look the previous head coach didn't do charon any any favors and i don't know why i said that with jim harbott i love jim harbott jim didn't do charon any favors post a lot of guys not poached but brought a lot of his guys to los angeles with him to go to the chargers

recruiting maybe wasn't the best in in 2023 coming into that 2023 class that would have been sophomores last year I don't know though man I just I don't get the warm and fuzzies right now I can tell you that the only point I was going to make it you've kind of moved past it but like it seems like when things are going rough and people are all in their feelings you nitpick things like the press conference like for being honest I hear everything you said is valid about that And I can get in line with that very, just as easy as I can say what I'm about to say. But a press conference has never won a game. Like you can go win the press conference.

Think of some of the press conferences where guys are like, oh, I love that coach. Like people, I saw people, Kenny Dillingham give a great press conference. And everyone's like, well, okay, we need a coach that press conferences like that. And Kenny Dillingham may be a better coach than Sharon Moore or may or may not be. But the press conference isn't what makes him better, right? And so I just feel like everyone's on their feelings and, you know, wants to pick on something. Was it a corny press conference? You bet it was.

But I mean, it's like, so what? If he comes out wearing that and they're six and oh and just, you know, the score was a flip of the score. You're like, let's go. He's getting back. You know what I mean? Like it's just, it's the sentiment. And everything you said is valid. I'm just saying, yeah, everything you said is valid.

I get it. I'm not and I'm not even disagreeing with you. I'm just saying there's just other ways to look at things. And so what my main point that I said earlier when I was talking with the Washington game is I may be right in the boat with you this time next week. I may be right in the boat with all those people that are upset about the press conference, all the people that are upset with lots of things. But I'm going to sit back and wait and see what happens on Saturday and see if they make adjustments that they do what they're supposed to at home. I think, you know, the point that you were making about the cupboard being bare, you know, let's face it, there was a point in the middle of Jim Harbaugh's tenure where things were. wasn't going that great. What changed? Do he change? He evolved a little bit, but he also,

I think what changed, the biggest pivotal thing that you can point to is he made some outstanding hires, right? We had a good defensive coordinator, a good offensive coordinator. We had good, you know, every coach we had was really good. They're all in the NFL, you know, we've had coaches out there and, you know, people are all over the place now, right? I think Wink was the right guy in the sense that we had had all the success with the former Ravens guys, right? And he was the guy that taught Mike McDonald. He's the guy that taught Jesse Mentor. It was his scheme that they were all working, but he just doesn't seem to make the adjustments there. So I guess, you know, for me, the reason I don't have the panic or the drive to want to see like sudden and immediate

change is because of what we said 15 minutes ago. And that is youngest team in the big 10, not the country. Youngest team in the Big Ten, recruited really, really well in 2025, have a stellar class coming in 2026. The resources that you mentioned to go, you know, hopefully address the portal needs that the team needs. Bryce Underwood, like, that plastic interference doesn't happen on McCulley. The perception of the game that he has and the outcome of that game may have looked a little different. You know what I mean? Like, there's, there's just, there's not, there's enough positives for me to still offset the frustration of what we're seeing. And some things are obvious and some things are, you know, more opinion-based. But I feel like there's enough really good

things happening in the program, enough good people in the program. I think, you know, he's going to have good leaders, good leaders make difficult decisions. Good leaders put the mission over relationships, put the mission over doing what's easy. And he's going to, you know, if he's, if he's the leader that this program needs him to be. He's going to have to make some changes in personnel, you know, particularly, I think that the offensive line coach, one of his best friends, Gran Newsom, great story, anyone that knows his story is great. They're just not getting it done. You know what I mean? And it's two years in a row and not getting it done. And did they recruit at the right level? They've had some injury issues at the offensive line. But,

you know, it was a hallmark of the program. You have an offensive line head coach. That's a, that's a position. Wink's just not it like that. He's going to have to make some changes. there's some really good coaches on that staff. It's some really good recruiters on that staff. But there's some ones that, you know, so I went on to rant. You went around and I want. Well, I follow recruiting pretty closely, and I know you do too. I think with Grant Newsom, I don't know,

because I thought the offensive lineup until Saturday had looked relatively good. I mean, even in the Oklahoma game, they weren't their best, but I didn't feel like they, you know, were inadequate or anything. And I thought that they were making strides with the group that they had. You know, and obviously GOL Hottie is a fifth year senior. He's, you know, he's paid his dues more than. And he's a leader on this team. So I understand sliding back in.

I don't know, again, if it was him just being rusty or if it was just, you know, messed with the cohesion and the kind of the way that these guys work together, the chemistry. But I don't know with Grant. It's tough because, like, I think Warrenera is a hit, right? I think they hit on him. It's tough because Link is still, you know, a red shirt sophomore, and I think he's made strides, right?

Spray. Definitely. Redshirt freshman. Like normally you don't play guys. Even Link, like, wouldn't necessarily be playing in an ideal scenario. Like you have a fourth year guy that's been waiting in the wings. Because I think offensive line is like really the one position that you don't want to just rely on the portal for. You really want to recruit guys develop them.

kind of build them up and then year three year four they're ready like if evan link was playing like if he was the a year older and he was at the right right tackle spot last year i think the offense would have been a little bit better because i don't think he would have been as much of a liability so i don't know how much to pin on grant newsome with wink i think it's i don't know man like again the end of last year if he if i mean you don't have mason graham or Kenneth Grant, right? But even when you had Will Johnson go out and you had to play some guys that were a little bit lower on the depth chart, you didn't see this level of just, this is the worst Michigan

defensive performance since, I don't know, it was pretty bad. From a gap responsibility and just being at assignment football, it just was a mess. It looks like 2020 Michigan is what it looked like. So there just weren't any adjustments. USC just killed Michigan in the screen game. Mistackles, again, we talked about. So I don't know what happens there. Special teams, I don't know how you trot that unit out,

whether it's punt, punt return. I really don't know how the University of Michigan, which is a program forever that has always had good special teams. It's part of the reason they won a national championship because they made big plays and key moments. Good to see Moody make that kick. Yes, it was. But I don't know how you dropped that out there, man.

How the guy they went and got in the portal, I think just started his career. It's like, I'm just going to go on LinkedIn. I'm just going to go apply for a job now. I'm good, yeah. How many times have we seen, I mean, we've seen at least once, but how many other times have we seen a bad snap or a bad hold? old and mess Zavada up, and we may need to go look at all those kicks and make sure it was actually

on Zavada. I don't know if he can do it, Tom. One of my oldest buddies, Todd, and shout out Todd, he's for like the last three years. He sends me notes like in our group that, you know, that we went to school with talking about punters. And so when Hollenbeck had that horrible punt on Saturday, I just texted Todd. I'm like, say it, say it. You know, I mean, it's just been bad you know like yes i thought it was a step forward against wisconsin again i was there the ball spiraling it was it kept going i was like this is great it didn't die after 30 yards um samaj catches one punt yes that was nice uh only forced one punt on the downside so yeah man i don't know this is um because it's a weird spot right because like if this is year four you know what

this conversation sounds like right like yeah but it's not but yes but it's not but it's not so it's a weird spot of like i'm frustrated you want to get i want it to work out with strong like i want him to have a long and successful career at michigan i think everything that he's doing in terms of expanding and kind of modernizing the recruiting department like obviously the guys he's able to to bring to michigan i just i want it to work but there's a bit of like um like look uninspired unimpressive. I think that's probably two words that I would use to describe this performance on Saturday. They never particularly looked excited to play. They didn't bring their own juice. It's a coaching, you know, coach-speak stuff. But I think it's true.

And for your point about Saturday being at noon, being a disadvantage of Washington, I actually think it might be a wash, because that is going to be a snoozy big house. You know how the big house gets, especially coming off a loss, a disappointing loss, a deflating loss it's noon haven't been liquored up all day no night game you can drink through and you're like i'm talking myself into it i did that last year uh for the organ game which i think was a 330 kick i talked myself into we can win out so you're not going to have those illusional fans like myself you know liquored up at noon maybe most of it so it's going to be they're going to have bring their own energy you know the thing for me is uh you know a lot of times we talk about pff grades

and different position groups, and we're not really doing that this week, but just going back to feeling good about trying to see some of the good in Saturday's performance and where this team is at. You know, PFF grades, I think people are, you know, all of us that went to school and tend to think like anything less than the 90s a bad grade, PFF, if you get anything over like 67, 68, you did have a pretty darn good game, right?

So the scale is much different because they, just don't, you know, in any given week, anyone, there's only one or two guys in any position that have over a 90 grade. So you got to move your scale. But when you look at the guys on our team that have the best grades, they're the young guys. Andrew Marsh, we talked about true freshman, 79.8. Jake Garnara, true freshman, 70.9. Andrew Sprague, was he a red shirt freshman, sophomore? 70.7. Zeke Berry, second year starter, we'll be back next year, 70.6. Cole Sullivan making his first time on the field, you know, first time playing this year's sophomore, 73.8. Trey Pierce, I think he's got a, he does. Yeah, he's a sophomore, I think.

Maybe he's a redshirt sophomore. 70.1. So Jordan Marshall, sophomore, 72.7. And Bryce Underwood, you take away his pick that was, we've already talked about. He was almost a 70 at 68.8. So my point is, is, you know, we already talked about it. I don't want to belabor the the point but it's just trying to find some optimism trying to find the positive outlook on the state of the program everyone just mentioned are guys that should be in the program for a few years um we were recruited really good there's a bunch of guys i didn't list babelola tie haywood young guys haven't seen the field yet that we know we're going to be good i was really surprised when haines got hurt that they brought up bryson kuzda a walk on instead of jasper parker i was young

That was one of the, for me as a guy that, like, knows the depth chart well. That was one of the things I was most frustrated with, which is silly, big picture. But it was like, why are we playing this guy? Like, I mean, you're trying to minimize damage and maybe whatever they were trying to do. They didn't feel like Jasper could handle. But, like, give that guy some snaps. He's got some pop, Bryson. Cousal's never going to do anything that's going to impress anyone other than, hey,

walk on, got some snaps and, you know, he hit that block really good. You know what I mean? Respect to Bryson. But, you know, this team is really young. and did I think we were winning the Big Ten title this year? No, I think we were going to the playoffs year. I really didn't think so. I thought if we got lucky and some things fell our way, maybe.

But I reserve judgment till next week, this time next week. You know what I mean? When I say, like, we're kids, like, same time next week, we'll be back talking about it. And if, you know, Michigan goes and wins by 10, 12 points, you know, the outlook's a lot different for the week. Now, you know, now everything's in front of you. You know what I mean? they go out and play like they and look like they did and coach like they did and you know the juice factor that you talked about was very obvious i think that's as

as much coach speak as that it was obvious for anyone that's watched a lot of football that they just didn't seem to have that pop you know out there uh if they come out looking like that and play like that and coach like that then you know my tone's going to sound a lot different next week but i'm i reserve optimism because everything i just laid out yeah you heard your own talk about it you know as a playoff game you may have said it but that sure was not the tone or what i got from the team no not at all and so that's why you know going back to the press conference stuff that's where i'm like okay you know um yeah you know they got to rain they i don't know they got to rein it in so you know

again i don't want to harp on that stuff but like that stuff i don't think you would have heard before you know from you know even 2020 i remember hearing some stuff from players like that so Yeah, man, it's going to be interesting. I think this is a really good Washington team. I'm going to present another challenge, a really good offense. Defensively, I think, can certainly, Michigan can certainly, you know, do some things. But, you know, if they go three and out and keep their defense on the field, like, it wasn't complimentary football, too, on Saturday.

So that was a problem. You know, your defense just, you know, they give up a long touchdown drive, but they need some time to breathe, too, and you go three and out. So I don't know, man. It's going to be interesting. to your point about Bryson Cusdall I don't even

okay here's another gripe that I have in that game that again reminded me of 08 to 2014 because and this team's a lot more talented than any of those teams right

but I think it was was it 20 31 1313 I can't remember what the score was But I think Michigan was down two scores. I don't think it was 18 points yet. And there's maybe 10 minutes left in the game.

And play clock's getting at 12, 10, 8 seconds. What are we doing? Are we trying to make it not look so bad? Because Rich Ardure, you guys did that. Remember when he punted against Michigan State in 2010? I definitely did that, yeah. That's the kind of stuff that worries me. It's small.

It's nitpicky. But when you get beyond just, hey, you got your head. ass kicked. There's also some things that you're like, well, it's not a great, not a great sign, not a great symptom of maybe what might be a bigger issue. Again, I don't want a minority report this as we talked about. I was thinking about it. I'm like, it's, it's not exactly one-to-one, but it's a little similar. And I think that's where fans are operating from, like, of their expectation now for the rest of the year after. Again, I don't, if this was 28, 27, Michigan fought hard lost hey man you know it's football right but to get your get your ass kicked up and down

the field the 490 yards and they probably could have scored 45 uh that's what makes it difficult i think for people so 100% well like you know i think i look at you know a lot of people listen to or alliance fans if you're not a lion's fan and follow football you know about dan campbell you know he's built his reputation on being a risk taker and taking chances and it's worked and so people love him but if early on all those fourth down tries he went didn't work we lost some of those games he may not be around anymore you know that would have been a mistake you know and i look at the going for two like i just felt like i i didn't understand it like i know analytics will tell you and i i try i was literally like googling like why go for it here you know like looking for some

analytics explained to me and analytics couldn't explain it you know uh google couldn't explain it to me but you know it it like killed momentum like you scored your it's 21 was a 21 was a 21 in 14 at the time? No, it been 24 14. 14, thank you. And, you know, it's kind of kills on me. Like, have all this, you know, excitement. And then it's like, uh, you know what I mean? It's like a little bit of a letdown. And so, you know, if you win that game, if that, if they get the two, then people are talking about, you know, gutsy big balls and all the thing, you're going to take the chances you got to pull it off, you know, like, like Brad, like Dan Campbell does. And, you know, it's just another thing. Like, it's just piles on,

piles on, piles on. And so they didn't statement game. I'll be, I'll be interested. You know, you talked about Gio and T.J. guys, some of these veteran guys that, you know, that haven't been that great for us or haven't played a lot for us. But it's up to, you know, we lean on them right now more than we have all season. Like, it's up to them, you know, the best teams are player-led teams, right? We talk about the coaching staff. But the best teams in college sports, high school sports, pro sports are player-led teams. And this is where your leaders got to step up and hold people accountable. And so I think, you know, for the, you know, Rod Moore, G.O. Max Preston, it's their job this week to say what we did this week wasn't acceptable, but

keep your eye on the prize. Washington's coming to town. We have another opportunity to show America, show our fans what Michigan football is, who we are as players, who we are as a program. And so, you know, I look to them. Everyone's looking at, to point at the coaching staff, and that's valid. They're responsible and they're part of this too. But I, I think, you know, a component that I haven't heard people talk about is the senior leadership. We may be the youngest team in the conference, but we have veteran presence of guys who have been in this program for a long time and seen a lot of success. And it's up to them to kind of hold people accountable.

And that's kind of where I'm at. You know what I mean? Like let's see how good leaders that I believe that they are, you know, it's up to them. Like the coach wearing the blue collar jackets, one thing, it's what's Max Predison and Gio Hoddy and, you know, gang, TJ Guy, and those guys doing, Rod Moore doing in the locker room to hold guys accountable. That's what I want to see. Yeah, no, I'm with you. And I'll make two points.

I want to go back to what you said about going for two. You know, one great thing about math is that it's an undeniable truth, which still sometimes you think about it too much. You're like, I don't know how we got to this. I don't know how we came up with this thing. Math is undefeated. Right? But you know what math doesn't account for?

The morale of 18 to 22 year olds on a road game. Amen. That's my point. That's 100% my point. I had that in my head. I had to say this now. Second thing, 100% with you, there needs to be difficult conversations from player to player, roommate to coach to coach, and all the above, all the way from Sharon down. There needs to be difficult conversations. There needs to be conversations in the mirror from a program perspective, from a staff,

from player personnel, all of it, individually, everything. There needs to be some heart to hearts. and I hope they stop having to do that. It seems like every other week the last year and a half. It's like they've got to have a coming to Jesus moment. If you win games, you don't really have to do that, right? Like you're going to get coached in film and you're going to be taught different techniques. Like, hey, you mess this up on this play or whatever, but you're not going to have to have these deep, you know, what do you want your season to look like moments?

Because you know what your season is going to look like because you're 5 and 1 instead of 4 and 2 or you're 6 and 0, right? Because you come ready to play. and you put guys in position to have success. So, yeah, I hope that they've had some difficult conversations so far this week. You know, it's Tuesday evening. So we've got, you know, four or five days till kickoff here. That's a big game. Huge.

That might be the, to this point, other than the Ohio State game, which is always the biggest game on the schedule, I don't care what the records are. This is the biggest game in Sharon's tenure. And who would have thought that when you looked at all the games on schedule this year that you'd be looking at this game? Like, I feel like we kind of said that last week of USC, and we laid an egg. And because if we win Saturday night, then this game isn't that big of a game.

I mean, it's still an important game. But because they lost USC, it becomes the biggest game, right? I don't even mean from, like, of this season perspective, yeah, yeah. Just from the feeling inside Shembeckler Hall, right? Because they're starting to skid a little bit. And it's like, well, you know, what are we? And then you go to MSU thethon. And they're not very good, but you know what gets a bad team ready to play is a rivalry.

game. Oh, yeah. So you're going to have to come, if you can get through to the by week with two losses, regroup, then you're sitting in a pretty good position. But I said last week before the game, if you win this game and you can get through to the biweek with one loss, you're in the playoff conversation. Right. You still are if you do that with two losses. You just have to win every single game. So it's going to be interesting. It was a fun show. no doubt anything else you'd like to add no um i'm excited for saturday nervous because i think i do think i'm putting a lot on this game you know i mean because i'm holding you know like my crew at bay like the folks that i you know mixed up with football all losing their minds and

i feel like i'm the one kind of saying hey guys it's all good and so i've you know put a lot of stock in it being good and so you know i need them to show up we all do but i mean it's like i want them to show up and, you know, I reserve the right to be a complete belligerent fool on the next Tuesday. I'm with you, and, yeah, I just, I, you know, it's, I want to see Michigan win. No doubt. You know, that's as, it's as simple as it gets. I just want to watch Michigan win.

I don't care what it looks like, for the most part, depending on who they're playing. I just want to see Michigan win. And that's why I watch. That's why I watch, man. And when they don't win, it, it stings. But to your point about, like, as I get older, too, like, you know, I've, I don't know if there's anybody that remembers. I used to do, like, Amazing Brew Podcast.

I was like 21. I was probably the biggest shithead, just super doom and gloom. Well, maybe not in that time because I was like 2016, but maybe 2017, you know, super doom and gloom, and then you get older and you have kids, and you're like, yeah, it doesn't matter that much. Just football, right? But for those three hours on Saturday, that is the most important thing in the world. You get that tunnel vision on it.

So it's going to be good. I hope it's going to be a good game. We're going to be 1,006, South Main Street, just northwest of the big house. If you know the maize and blue house, the blue house with maize trim, that opened a lot right next to it off of Maine is where we tailgate. We're going to have Feldman Chevrolet of Highland there. They're going to bring, I don't know, they came with a suburban last time, Brian, and I'm like, Claudia wanted that one. I wanted a truck the couple weeks before. So they're going to be there with some goodies with the vehicle you can check out.

I know they've got some great deals on their pre-owned vehicles right now in their lot. Also, a big shout out to Woodson Whiskey, of course. I've got my signed bottles and my helmet from Charles Wilson. I also got a couple of Redell Speedflex mid-sized helmets, Brian. They're pretty sweet. They're little bigger than mini helmets. So they're pretty awesome. I wish I could have got Charles to sign one of those.

But, you know, Wits and Whiskey, they just, they always hook it up. So they'll be there. We'll have some of their product at the tailgate. So come on by on Saturday, 8 to 12. Going to be a great time. So thank you all so much for listening. Brian, thank you for joining me as always.

For us, you can follow us on Twitter at Blueby 90, Instagram, Facebook, all social medias, as well as you can check out our podcast on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Blueby90.com. We appreciate you. Go Blue. Go Blue.