Blue By Ninety - Both Michigan Football and Basketball Lose Winnable Games

Episode Date: November 11, 2024

Justin and Tanner break down Michigan football and basketball.

All right, welcome back to Blue by 90. I'm Justin joined by Tanner today and we just have to keep talking about a bad football team and I'm not happy about it. I'm not gonna lie. I'm the Stephen A. Smith. Like I am having a very bad time right now. Yeah, I've actually decided to become a Toledo Mudhens super fan. I love that. In November, I love that. Any up-and-coming prospects, I'm excited for. Any guys who have been a bust at the major league level going down to Toledo, I'll be your biggest supporter. For those that are listening on Spotify, I have a Mud Hens hat on that I got today.

It was on sale, and I was like, you know what? I've got to support the AAA club. I used to work for the Mud Hens. I have a few of their hats as well. Great squad. Yeah. Yeah. The way caps with the,

with the bird on it. Great. Um, no, just a disappointing weekend. If you're a Michigan fan, um, you know,

Michigan goes to Bloomington, which I was going to touch on and we'll touch on the basketball game as well. Close one to wake forest, but yeah, just a rough outing this weekend. I don't know, man. It's funny.

I made a phone call to my uncle who's a Michigan fan, and we talk ball a lot. And I called him to tell him there's so many coaches that just have no stones in this sport. And referring to Ryan Walters and Purdue on kicking a field goal, which they then missed. And then Michigan comes out and does the exact same thing. How many times did Michigan get to first and goal scenarios and run, run,

run, kick? It was, it was nauseating. It was, it was just, I have no words for it. It was brutal from, you know, we're people that have called another program soft for, you know, a few years now. And we've been right about that. Let's make that clear.

But we played very, very soft on Saturday and coached very, very soft. I actually don't want to say we played because I thought the players played very hard. They're dragging this coaching staff along at this point. I do, before we get into just being negative because there isn't a whole lot to be positive about. I do want to give a shout out to all these guys who, you know, especially the Mason Graham, Kenneth Grant, like the guys that could be mailing it in completely are battling their ass off in a game at Indiana where like nothing's going right in the first half. Right. And, you know, you could totally just say, you know what, let's just pack it up, get on the bus.

But they didn't. They battled their ass off, battled back, put themselves in a position to win. And unfortunately, I agree with you. This coaching staff let this team down once again. And this is the, you know know there have been a number of games that the this exact scenarios happen and so you know let's I guess start from the beginning of the game where you know you get down to you you force the three and out right right away you have a great drive honestly that was like a beautiful drive from davis warren uh from this

offense something that like we something we haven't seen a lot this year where it's like a seven eight minute type drive you get down to the five yard line it's third and whatever third and goal from the five and you bring alex orgy in again and this is nothing against Alex Orgy, honestly, at all. None of these are his fault. It is just, you could see it every single time. And other teams that we played earlier this year have said this. Okay, when he comes in, they all just, the safeties come up, the linebackers crash immediately at the snap of the ball,

and there's nowhere to go. The safety's come up, the linebackers crash immediately at the snap of the ball, and there's nowhere to go. And so it's like I'm just banging my head against the wall going, what the fuck are we doing? I'm sorry, this is not like some grand scheme and there's some loophole. This is basic shit, Tanner. It is, mananner it is man it is um you know and and i don't know if we want to group certain coaching items together or just talk about them as we talk about the plays but you know the alex orgy uh empty backfield receiver comes in motion like it is so clearly quarterback

power like anybody with a brain can see that anybody that's played any level of football from peewee all the way up through high school college or professional knows that that is what the play is he fumbles very clearly a fumble you know the announcers were talking about chiron potentially challenging for targeting which you know would have been like hey i get it you're trying to you know steal possession back and then in the post game he says that somebody buzzed down and said his knee might have been down on what fucking planet he was like ant quote tweeted it was like he was standing straight up it was like there was no it wasn't even close i was so confused and honestly the announcer saying that it was like their their thought was like the only thing he could possibly be challenging for would be

targeting that's two weeks in a row i know that is two weeks in a row that they've had a horrendous challenge. It's reminiscent of the early days of Dan Campbell. So maybe there is some sort of hope if that's one of your flaws. But I could go do that job. I can watch the replays and buzz down and say, hey, you probably should challenges or there's nothing to see here. It's incompetence. And that's just kind of a microcosm for what the program has been this season, where there's just a lot of things

that don't really make sense that they decide to do from a play calling perspective, from a personnel perspective, from a game management type of things. None of it makes sense. I just, I totally agree with you. I, it's like unexplainable. It's like unexplainable. It really is unexplainable. And I, once again, you know, I don't want to harp on Sharon as, you know, that much. But, man, it just feels like you're, you could then go to the podium and have no answers. And this is, again, a winnable football game. Yep.

Like, I hate, we just keep beating the same drum. I get it. But, I mean, this team should be 8-2. Yeah. We come on here, we say the same things every time. Like, it's the same issues, it's the same problems. And so it's like maybe that's just what this team will be this year. There's going to have to be a complete shakeup.

It's not a baby. It is. It is what this team is going to be this year. I use a lot of qualifying words when they don't – I know. Require one. I need to work on that. But this team should, to your point, be 8-2.

Their wins are kind of in spite of coaching. There's been a lot of really boneheaded decisions, all the way from the first game when they decided not to go for two when they were up 22-10 and kicked the extra point against Fresno State there's been a lot of kind of writing on the wall so certainly you have you know if you're sure on you have time to figure this out you I mean I don't even want to think about what happens if they lose out um that would be a much different conversation at that point in my opinion this is a this is a program that just won a national championship this year in 2024 we're nine months from the national championship and we're

just having the worst time ever which yeah i mean look you know from a vibes perspective yeah we just won the national championship that's sick that's awesome but like this team and the direction that things are going on the field are not ideal so and when you're best the best thing that happens to your program is an lsu gets boat raced by alabama because a quarterback you want is visiting there like that's kind of a problem to me um so there's a lot of other coaching items i want to get to but i mean there's always obviously room for improvement justin but it the it just feels like 2014 it does man it does it's it's stupid stupid mistakes that like i don't know i i mean you look at you even let's just look at let's look at the stats right 246 total yards for indiana like again if we want to focus on the positives wake actually had a

master class second half like balled out that defense was playing out of their minds in the second half guy was balling cameron brant the interior d line i thought barham was playing well i thought house was playing well secondary cleaned it up in the second half i mean it was an improvement now again there's still been a lot of problems with this defense and wink saying that tackling has not been an issue. And then you lose the game essentially, because you, you can't tackle on a, what would have turned into like a second and 12 ends up a second and three, and then they win the game. Literally just kind of, again, a microcosm of this program. So I just, you know, good for wink and for his guys, they played well in the second half. I thought in the first quarter, I'm like, wow, they're

going to pick their score in this one. They hunkered down. They played well. And honestly, I mean, we've been hard on Wink because of some of the weird things that he has done that have not worked. But, you know, he's put the team in position to win. If you have an offense that can just score 25 points, you know, you've got however many more wins on the season. You're probably at 8-2 with just a below average. I mean, last week this Indiana offense put up 47 unanswered points on MSU. They put up 56 on Nebraska.

They could have scored 77 if they wanted to. And so you held them to less than 250 yards and 20 total points. And, you know, honestly, like you get the ball back multiple times and you still – like 80 yards seems like 800 yards to go oh god dude when they showed like the the like the end zone shot i'm looking i was just thinking myself like that's so many yards we're screwed so far to go and so i you know i just feel like then let's talk about khalil mullings so chiron comes out at halftime and says that donovan edwards and ben hall ben hall who has gotten very few snaps i like him

in the future a lot ben hall is going to be great for us i really do believe that not right now you're khalil mullings has single-handedly won us the five games that we've won. Right? Not truly, but he has been the key piece. And you're going to see here. Tanner, if there's one thing that you're going to be like, yeah, that's one thing we don't need to change right now, it's getting the ball to Kalon Mullings.

And you give the ball to Donovan Edwards. I actually thought Donovan had a pretty good game too for what he could do like that's I you know that's not saying much right but like for what he was given I thought he ran the ball well he had good vision and he had a couple good cuts and made something out of nothing but at the end of the day you don't play kalel mollies you you in short-guarded situation on the goal line he's not even in the game he's our power back we're running ben fucking all man i and again this is not on ben hall but like he if you're gonna run it up the gut why are we not running it with Colell yeah man I I really don't know what the decision was there and uh you know I think again this kind

of the way it comes back to the same things and the same reasons why Michigan was so dominant the last three years is the offensive line play which is awful there was a screenshot I'm not sure if it was Jay do who put it out on Twitter, but I saw it and it was the close run where he kind of had an ability to cut back, but he had, he had kind of jumped cut to the right because of Evan link had gotten his block. He might've scored because there was one single high safety deep and

everybody else had done their job. And so again, we've, we've been tough on Evan Lincoln in this show, but I just, a lot of these personnel issues, you know, there's going to have to be wholesale changes moving forward. I mean, listen, I know that you're asking Blake Frazier a lot to play as a freshman. But, like, can things get worse? Or, you know, Andrew Sprague, like any of these. Sprague, Gentryry like i'm just saying

gentry's hurt but yeah sorry but like still just you know oh it's very very frustrating can we talk about the pivotal moment in this game and i don't know there's a lot to talk about and i'm kind of jumping around but i really have to get this off my chest this really pissed me off the punt when michigan i think is down i think they might have been down 17 15 at this point and the punt is short uh and so samaj keeps waving his hands and lets it bounce another 20 yards and then finally picks it up and it's like what what are you doing that was a huge swing and then so michigan has to punt and i believe this was was the drive that allowed Indiana to get a field goal. But Doman's punt was so bad.

Like it was like a 50-yard swing between the two plays, the punt and the punt return. Correct. And the guy caught it going 100 miles. The Indiana punt returner caught it going 100 miles an hour back towards our end zone. And, again, that was one time you needed a good punt to pin them back a little bit and flip the field and where's tyler morris i don't know what is samaj morgan done in this season as a punt returner to say you know what we gotta have him out there i don't know man it cost you 25 yards in a game where you have 206 yards of total offense or whatever the

hell it was putrid amount just and then we talked about this like just the fascination with oh my gosh we finally got inside the 10 yard line points are at a premium you're playing a team who is number one in the country and scoring a number two in the country like you've got to be able to put up six you can't just settle for field goals. So for Michigan to get into, whether it was from Zeke Berry's interception, Zeke has had a rough year, but that was a hell of a play. Really wish he could have stayed up and scored because that would have been nice. But you get the ball to Seve Nardole and what do you do?

Run, run, run. One of those is an orgy run and then you kick the field goal. Then you get down and what do you do? I mean, you have to, you know, you could kick a long field goal goal zavada's a dog uh that kid is a stud i wish we could just have him forever but like just this mindset of no we're gonna keep it close like it felt like they weren't actually trying to win the game it felt like they were just trying to keep it close against indiana i know they're number eight in the country but you should be able to go out and have a mentality of we're going to win this game that scares me for the future if that's the mentality in these types of games on the road when you're a 14 point dog

you have no cojones to say you know what i'm gonna ride or die with my guys i'm gonna let hey davis warren had two touchdowns in the red zone last week against the number one team in the country i know he struggled he regressed a little bit but hey i'm gonna i'm gonna give 16 a shot it was bailing out of the pocket so i don't know man it was a weird just a lot of weird things happened it was well i don't think he felt comfortable with how the o-line was playing as my it might got on i don't would anybody i i would i would literally be sprinting out of there as soon as i got the ball but i i have two things one if you're gonna go run run run why not just go tush-push with orgy from the seven, right? Three times if you're going to do that.

Screw it. I don't know. Just try it. Where's the outside runs, by the way? Where are the runs outside the tackle box? Everything is inside. Never run outside the tackle. Test their linebackers.

It was so easy for their linebackers to just immediately come up. And the other thing, too, how do we not try to get it to Colston Loveland in the red zone? Right? I know that they had the one play. I think it was a two-point conversion where we tried to get him on the out route, I believe. And then he had to go back to Peyton.

Yeah, right? But, like, we said this last week about like the Nico Collins thing how can you not try to get the ball to Colston like he is almost unstoppable and even if they're double covering like then somebody else is going to be open like it it drives me nuts that we aren't going to give that a shot in the red zone yeah i don't know man i don't know i'd rather just let just throw up and fade to 18 why not let them go moss somebody that's better than whatever the hell they're coming up with um again just you know it seems like this staff pisses down their leg anytime they get inside the 15 yard line

like anytime they get close to the to the, which is hilarious because the field's already shrunk. It's not like you have any space to maneuver when you're inside the 20s because you have 10 guys that are playing within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. You have a single high safety. And sometimes that safety's creeping down because you have no ability to even threaten to throw the ball downfield. You have no routes that go downfield. You have no threat of taking the top off the defense.

They don't respect you, and they shouldn't. No, they shouldn't. Why would they? We didn't take a single deep shot, did we? Nope. I understand the chances of it being completed are probably slim to none, but when you have a single high safety like that and you have 10 guys within 7 to 10 yards of the line of scrimmage,

I don't care. Just throw it. Just overthrow it why not we had the one to samaj late where he tried to come back to the ball he actually had him beat i think and if davis let there was a lot of uh poor passes from davis unfortunately he got happy feet and that affected his ability to throw the ball because the first drive he was phenomenal he was putting the ball in the money you know it was looked like a continuation from the Oregon game. And then there were a lot of times, I bet if you went back and watched the All-22, you would see a lot of open receivers.

But he was either drifting back in the pocket like he was playing Madden or, you know, would just had pressure and was trying to run and just had no ability to set his feet and throw. Because there was the one to Colson that Colson completely burned his man. And it just was high and wide to him. I think it was kind of on their side of the field it might have set Michigan up inside Indiana's 30 the one to Samaj you mentioned there's probably a couple others I'm not remembering off the top of my head but yeah it was just an atrocious offensive performance yet again and I just I don't know I think there's got to be wholesale changes.

You know, we'll see. I mean, Wink's got a big test in three weeks. So, you know, I mean, I've been pretty hard on Wink in a lot of the things that he's done. If they continue to play like that, then okay. Like maybe he's figuring college out a little bit. Don't need you taking a shot at the Giants. Just don't care for that. If you were 10-0, yeah, you could say it, but you're 5-5.

Why can't we just shut up and take our lumps like that bothers me like michigan is not the platform for you to get back to your former employer especially when you took a defense with four first round picks and are playing like this you know again they played well in the second half but up to that point after giving up 38 to Oregon um just don't need to hear it honestly so but I think special teams have been awful that's been a staple over the last 10 years with Michigan they've had good special teams this special teams unit across the board has been awful um I will say props to Jordan Marshall for trying to make something happen in the kick return game um I don't know why he's the only guy that they want to put back there other than keshawn harris like can we get an athlete back there to try to have some sort of momentum

in a game when your offense is bad like because if you started the 25 versus the 15 okay sure you're gonna go three and out anyways but if you on the off chance you break one out then maybe you have good field position you win the field position battle i don't know um i just don't understand some of the decisions that have been made in regards to any of this team but especially on special teams you have a guy solely dedicated to special teams and they're bad like that could be used elsewhere um i think with kurt campbell i i've seen enough at this point i'm there um it's just been so bad and i know he's not got a lot to work with, but the, some of the

play calling just when you, when you finally have gotten into a position to score, he can't. Right. So it's like, I agree with you. If it was like, Hey, you know, when he does have stuff to work with, then it, you know, he has a great play call. But but like it's not just a talent issue on the offensive side of the ball there's no doubt about that um so i think they've got a you know i don't know hey have we seen mesh yet have we seen any drag routes with our fast receivers like the two that michigan has no okay any screens any any bubbles anything that looks like a college offense in the year 2024 i know they ran a couple screens, but it's like, the only thing they have in the bag is a flea flicker,

and that doesn't work. Teams are onto that. But it's a flea flicker with one guy out there still. Yeah, it's a one-man route. It's like, all right, cool. It's just, it's nauseating. Should we talk about the last Indiana possession that I think pissed literally everyone else?

When they sealed it it when they didn't call a timeout for 30 seconds yeah so yeah go ahead I mean I don't really have much to add I think that tells the story itself um what you're not going to win but like what are you doing what possibly I I don't understand waiting like I I don't understand they Sharon said that they were discussing what the play call is going to be. Brother, you call the timeout so the clock stops, so then you have time to discuss what the play call in the situation is. So that is multiple times in a row, multiple weeks in a row, with just multiple bad decisions, in my opinion.

You talk about the timeout you take way too late you talk about the horrible challenges that you you throw the flag for um there were some other things that we talked about in the in the Oregon game last week that I absolutely hated so and it's just been again just a continuation of just like there's not been improvement from the coaching perspective. I think you've seen improvement on the field, certainly. I think Brandon Hillman played his ass off. That kid's a dog. We talked about Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant,

maybe some of their best plays in the season last night against Indiana. You know, Zeke Berry has had a really rough year. I think a lot of people have been really hard on Zeke Berry, and he's gotten got. But he made a huge play that Michigan's offense turned into three points uh so you know I think I've seen improvement from I think the offensive line outside of right tackle has gotten better I think they've been able to be a little bit more consistent in the run game past pro still work in progress but I just haven't seen anything from the coaches we're like oh okay we're getting it there's nothing there there's been no improvement from them and i don't know i mean sometimes you swing and miss when you hire

coaches you swing and miss on like four or five of them that's not great and i think you know i still try to give him some give chiron some grace because he did a hiring in febru right? For sure. I think that, you know, as frustrated as I am right now, this, this year, you should a be already in the portal, right? Essentially you should be, uh, I tamper. I don't, I do not care, right? Everybody's doing it. So I do not care. So they should be from a coaching perspective and a, in a talent player perspective, they, you know, there's no excuse to be like, Oh, well, we were playing in the big 10 championship and we were playing, you know,

in the Rose bowl. So we couldn't focus on it. No, if they are not focusing on that, then that's what I'm going to have an issue, but I'm going to give them a little bit of grace here. See what happens in Decembercember january february and they need to show me all right how are we going to go win football games next year and that means a go get a quarterback right whether that's bryce underwood praying i i pray to god every day for that um which it helped a lot that LSU got their shit kicked in because –

It wasn't even close. LSU fans were booing, throwing stuff on the field. Nussmeyer was terrible. Yeah, well, we know what Nussmeyers sometimes can do for you. Correct. I was actually just thinking about that as you were talking about potential – we were talking about potential changes here. Yeah, Bryce and a portal quarterback or high school

recruit and two like there's got to be multiple portal guys um and I think you probably need two or two high school recruits and a portal guy obviously you know Jaden Davis hasn't played and we'll see what that progression looks like um I think Justin not only just from a player personnel perspective I think you need to get the jump you need if you're going to make a change uh three weeks from today on you know the sunday after michigan ohio state you need to make that change now just promote an analyst i don't give a shit like whatever's happening right now clearly isn't working so promote somebody from within the analyst desk that has the most experience around college football offenses and just i don't know wing it right like ohio state did this with kerry

coombs and you know what you know what sucks is they still went 10 and 2 um so i think you need to get the jump on it though for sure like you need or you need to be back channeling two guys you want to i think i think that's how you do it i i think that you try to keep whatever is ready for because november 30th let's you know i think we all are aware of how we think that game is going to go but you have to give yourself a shot in that game and not just punt on it but what you need to be doing is calling people on the back channel and saying hey you know we're going to make a move on on november or on december 1st or whatever it is right and say you know this is we need to start looking around so that's how i i see it um and if i think it's going to be very telling if that doesn't

happen it's going to be very very telling um. But I also, from a portal standpoint, you probably need three new linemen at least. Yeah. Three new linemen. You need defensive, like you need a lot because you're losing a lot, you know, on the defensive side of the ball. But offensively, three or four old linemen, three or four receivers. You're hoping that you can, you know, pull off this gold mine of a recruiting class

and all the flips that will come with it, but you need to go and get experienced guys. Like a guy like Donovan McCauley, who was, you know, wasn't Indiana, I think would be a great addition to this team for next year. You probably would like to get a tight end, you know, is there an AJ Barner laying in the weeds somewhere that we can go find that was underappreciated. But yeah, I'm with you. I mean, you, you gotta go. You, I mean, again, I've said, I said this word before,

but like you have to make wholesale changes, not only from your player personnel, but your coaching staff. At this point, you have to flip the roster and flip the flip, the staff, you know, as great as you can do it. That is thank God. Cause you can do it in two months. If the portal didn't exist right now i would be in a bad place if we had to like hey we're gonna have to build and it's gonna be three years man we'd be in a

tough spot so um you know it seems like nils is going well and michigan so i think that that's good thing there's the front office sports report that bryce underwood's deal is now 10 million dollars every time there's an article it goes up at least three million like it's this it's out of control right now the how the media is covering this um but i would say if you're listening like and you're wondering if that's accurate or not just go there's if there's only ever one person reporting on things it's usually not very true i I'll say that. Did we miss our chance to go to the Belleville-Selene game

and sing Mr. Brightside in the stands? I'm not hating. I'm not a hater. Listen, I love my guy Dre. Was Dre there? Of course, Dre. That's amazing. I'm not a hater.

I personally wouldn't do that. I would go. I honestly kind of want to just go see Bryce Underwood just because it's like, it's like, you know, going to see LeBron in high school, right? Like kind of that, you know, so I would just like to watch him play football. I don't know if I'd be, you know, decked out. It's a little bit of a tough look, I think. But Hey, maybe he, you know,

maybe he saw that and then he saw the LSU fans leaving early and maybe that's, you know, his, one of his big time recruiting pitches it was an appreciation you know until until the lsu game went as it did it was a tough look that we had a whole bus of michigan fans that were at the game in like 12 hours later he's wearing the lsu chain in baton rouge and i'm like i mean what are you what are going to wear on your visit? Obviously. We'll see what happens with that. But, yeah, man, there's got to be something that changes. I think – is Biff Poggi about to be fired from Charlotte?

We need him back as director of culture immediately, dude. Yeah. No. Yeah, I'm with that. Get him a bunch of cutoffs. Let him roam around Ann Arbor just not even just for the football program just for vibes just we need a vibes guy we need new vibes yeah no like if i'm if i'm going to like you know downtown and i'm a little upset that it's not the mden anymore biff's just there like hey chin up you know just makes me feel good that it's rally house and we've got that person i'm done

um and then hoops hoops uh so we we're recording this on sunday afternoon uh they michigan basketball lost to wake forest really good game a great game i mean i i really like what I'm seeing from this Michigan basketball team. I think we got like a little too, maybe excited after a big win over what Toledo, right? Cleveland state, Cleveland state, Cleveland state. We've never been known to get excited about basketball on November. Have we never, I don't know the last time we did that. Yeah. So I think we got a little too out in front of our skis, but they're going to be good.

They're just not going to – it's not going to be a John B-line 2013 team from day one. No, and I think a lot of the problems that you see – I mean, the rebounding, you know, seven rebounds between the two seven-footers, Danny Wolfe and Vlad Golden, not ideal. I think there was a lot of – there was probably some,

some files you could have called on Wake Forest when Michigan was going for the, for the rebound. But Danny Wolf got murdered on one of them. That was just a no call. Yeah. So that, that aside, I think some of the issues plaguing this team, you don't really know who your go-to guy is. So when you have those, you know, Michigan had 25 points at the 10 minute mark like they were humming um they're up 13 and from that

point on you have a pretty long stretch where you cannot get the ball in the bucket you had a long stretch in the second half we couldn't get the ball in the bucket so I think you know this this is a group of guys that yeah they went through practice together in the preseason but you know probably need you know some more games and you probably wish that wake forest game was like in december to get your footing underneath you you play a couple more cupcakes i don't think it's i i obviously you want that for your resume right uh we'll come tournament time i don't think it's bad to play a team like that no no you see you are you know it's a good test so i think a lot of the things you know they had uh 16 turnovers you definitely want to kind of clean that up.

And then in the second half, again, the shooting went, went, went cold. They were eight of 17 from three in the first half. I don't know what they finished in the second half, but there were like three of 11 at one point just could not get the ball to go in. And then in the end you have that wet spot on the court. What are we doing here? How was that? Okay. okay i can i'll give you one right hey got you know wet or sweaty and you know nobody knew it twice in a row and we didn't we didn't clean it up i'm like what is going on um so that was tough to watch because that actually did change the outcome of

the game honestly um can i just uh i i don't know if this translates very well on the podcast but one of my homies parker definitely a great follow for michigan fans it's parker with a 3c um but he quote tweeted the picture of juwan cleaning up the floor and he's like michigan was this game if juwan's the head coach um yeah that's a really tough break um i thought was it was it ribbon jones with the ball at the top of the key? I thought he like tore something the way his leg slipped. I agree. But yeah, like, you know, and I think Wake Forest comes to play at LCA next year. So it's like a weird home and home off campus.

I don't know. Just, I would just rather have it be on campus at Chrysler, at Wake Forest's arena. Why are we, if, okay, if it's like a tournament or a round robin and you have four teams all at one spot, like that's cool. I get those things. But like playing these things, that's the cool part about college sports. Well, have you also heard of the other cool thing about college sports, Justin? It's called money.

How can I make – how can I squeeze the life out of this? Just every cent possible. I'm sorry, but are we squeezing the life out of Michigan versus Wake Forest basketball? Yes. If there's money to be made. If there's money to be made for the NCAA executives, for the conference executives, for the TV executives,

God damn the product, Justin. We are going to squeeze the absolute shit out of it. And we're going to just, from its lifeless soul, we're just going squeeze the absolute shit out of it and we're gonna just from its lifeless soul we're just gonna beat the shit out of that horse that's what's wrong with college sports now like it's a business like everything i dude i'll share this uh i think it's just a microcosm of like the greater world we live in in america like we went to the mall in novi today to go do some christmas shopping and take her daughter every turn i'm getting sold something just leave me alone you know so that's you know it's a part of american

culture and that culture is to just just live and die by consumerism and that's where we're at right now here's okay is it let me ask you this i know we're kind of going off on a tangent here but we are this is like old men yelling at clouds for sure but is it a better option money-wise for you to have a half full greensboro coliseum versus a packed wake forest you know arena somehow i'm sure they make that math work i don't know how but i'm sure that they do well uh you know what i i'm sick of it you can sell hey you sell it to the td execs you know talk to the people at abc disney espn and say hey and you know what i i'm sick of it you can sell hey you sell it to the td execs you know talk to the people at abc disney espn and say hey and you know we're gonna do this to this great greensboro arena that kind of stinks but like for some reason we're gonna get more money in america

there's nothing there i was there for the acc tournament last year and they stopped the acc tournament being there because it was so bad they moved moved it to DC. Yeah. I mean, honestly, the only thing I've ever known about Greensboro is the ACC basketball tournament. That's it, man. Or like, or they host like the first round there all the time. You know, no offense to the people of Greensboro. There aren't that many of them. You're not going to offend too many people. No ill intent here, Anyways, all right.

So, you know what? We are free for a week. Michigan football is off. I can take a breather. Thank God. You kind of needed it. And then we're back home against Northwestern, which I can't wait for the announcement of the 100,000 people in Michigan Stadium.

I'm so mad you're going to be gone from the tailgate. I'm very sorry, but not mad at all. Can I just bring a lawn chair and just sit there for a little bit? You guys should bring chairs that day. It's just like a classic. It's going to be dead, man. There's going to be nobody in Ann Arbor, sadly. This is what it's gonna be nobody in ann arbor sadly it's just this is what it's come to we you know

a year ago it was like you know even and even in this a year ago you're you're getting ready for ohio state and god you're freaking just be penn state dude a year ago today we i think well sometime around this time a year ago, Michigan would just be Penn State. Vibes are high. We're dealing with the sign gate BS, but Michigan's winning. It's all good. You know, you go win a crappy game at Maryland, you come back, beat Ohio State, and then we just take just rips of the bongzilla

at the tailgate until like 6 o'clock. Basically, they were like, you guys have to leave. That's, you know, I don't think that's going to happen after the Northwestern game, unfortunately. I don't know. A lot of things have changed in one calendar year which is tough but hey you know what we're here i do we are here i may bitch more than ever but you know and i i feel like a lot of people that i've met since moving in arbor they're probably going tanner's pretty chill michigan fan until mich Michigan starts losing and that I'm intolerable and you hate to be around me. And I apologize for that, but that's just how I am.

But yeah, it's going to be nice to just have some time. We're getting close to Thanksgiving. Probably going to be one of the more stress-free Thanksgivings we've had in the last couple of years, honestly, as crappy as that sounds or as crappy as it is to say. But, you know, I'm just going to be chill. I'll say this. I'd rather be worrying about my team. Yes. I would, too.

2022, worrying about, oh, my God, is Blake Gore going to play? What's going on? Like, that's way more fun than whatever the hell is going on right now. But, you know, it is what it is. And it's cyclical. College football is very cyclical. I just would like to be one of those few programs that's just steady 10 and 2 plus every single year that would be nice i just wanted that you know we got the national championship that was amazing and i'm not

i also can we can we have something in the middle of a natty and six and six you know like i again i think to your point earlier about the natty like the natty would have covered me for an eight and four or nine and three year which is where we should be yes yeah but it it's not gonna cover me i'm sorry for six and six that's not good enough no it's not not at a place like michigan not at a place where you hire somebody for continuity and continuity, you know, blown out by the, by our boy Jim, unfortunately. So yeah, that's, and that's another point like with Sharon, like I get pissy.

I may tweet things in the moment, but you obviously are going to give him time and you're going to allow him to go through a full off season where he has total control from the start to be able to go and find a guy in the portal at quarterback and go find guys at other positions. And, you know, hire up and coming hot assistants that are like the big names and like, see what happens versus it's February. I got to put together a short list of guys that I think could help because you're, you know, behind the eight ball. So, yeah, I mean, for everybody out there thinking, if you have any thoughts that like we're going to fire Schroemmer after one year, it's not going to happen. Rich Rod got three years and he went three and nine. Right. So you're, you're, that's not going to happen and it shouldn't happen.

You have to at least give the guy a chance. Yes. But I will say on the topic of like how quickly you can turn things around i don't next year want to hear you gotta wait for him to get his guys in i don't like that argument because what guys it's the same it's the same offense is the same team i agree i guess it's the same thing it's a different scenario than if you brought somebody rich not here in yeah it's not rich rod right like rich rods the reason you give rich rod time is because oh shit like this team has been a historically pro style of offense forever and now they're going to try to modernize and go to what rich rodriguez ran at west virginia with the

with pat white and steve slayton that's not this also it's a different era with the portal right can you imagine rich rod with the portal he might still be here he honestly that's that's actually a fact if you go to vine coming to michigan if you could have brought all those oh my god that would have been amazing but um i think that also like you just watched kurt signetti go 10 and 0 for the first time in indiana program history and he's in his first year look at what i've been a big hater but look at what deon's doing in colorado they're they're not bad i mean they're seven two it's possible so they're seven and two i i know so so you i want to give them leash but it can't be unlimited leash you know what i mean it can't just go right it can't just go completely unchecked yeah right we can't just be sitting here. If next year is anywhere close to this, we'll have that conversation.

I agree. I agree. And to be honest, I hate to say this, but we have to see what happens on November 30th. Right? Yeah. That has to be a barometer. It has to be. You have to show signs of life in that game, which is a tough ask

because they're obviously 100 times more talented and better coached than us right now, and they're going to want blood, so they're going to try and score. This will be Ryan Day's actually trying to score 100 points, right? But you have to show fight in that. Otherwise, I'm going to be in a bad spot yeah as much as i say i like don't care anymore i do and will that day oh i absolutely care like i still get nerves before games still i will every time no matter what we are but it's fun it's fun until

it's not but then it gets fun again one and terrible at the same time so yeah i mean i would just like to win a natty before 2049 i don't want another 25 year gap i agree with that but dude like we know what the ceiling is now the ceiling is the absolute best team in the country so this is this is one of those things where it's like okay like you can do it you've seen it i i agreed three years ago you know 2019 i didn't think we could ever get there i was like i didn't know if we could get there it's like can can michigan win a playoff game yeah and they go and do it and just it unlocks something within the fan base i think that's probably why you see a lot of these these movements within the nil skate uh landscape when

it comes to michigan you probably see people like oh we can't do that so I'm gonna you know spend my fun money here and try to go get a five star here and there so I mean think about even back to 2021 where you know it's our best team in a long time and then you get boat raced by Georgia and it's like okay we're not even on their level right so that was my thought for a long time but to your point now you're like okay it can be done you can win in this era with at michigan right you don't have to be in the sec and so i i think you gotta you gotta figure it out um i don't know bring stallions back who knows you know it's crazy and we've been going on for a while but this year in college football is

there like an actual elite team no there's like a lot of really great teams a lot of really good teams the sec is cannibalizing itself i agree and i love it i do love it i you know oregon even they're they're they're not untouchable they're really good but they're not untouchable dude i just i always think about and you know it's great if anybody has anything to say about this guess what my team did win the national championship last year so like it's not revisionist history but i think we put last year's michigan team in this season michigan's probably nine and one ten and oh and maybe the best team in college football wait if you 2023 michigan you put them in this season in 2024 they i don't think there's gonna be touching them they'd be they would be three point favorite favorites at least against everybody

in the country right now yeah i mean ah dude remember last year that was so sick that was so sick we should just do a podcast was like remember last year? We should just do it every week. We just get on here and we recap last year's game. Yeah. Remember last year presented by Sun Cruiser and Truly. And we just – Just like, bro, that was so sick when Blake Horne scored that touchdown. And you don't know what game we're talking about because Blake Horne scored it every game.

And all big games he had a huge touchdown in Penn State, Ohio State, Alabama, Washington. He just was a monster. Right now, I woke up this morning and I was the, what is it, the Wolverine meme of looking at the picture frame. And it's just JJ and Blake. I miss you guys so much. It's Jesse. It's just likej and blake yeah like i miss you guys so much it's jesse it's just like you're getting down to like support staff it's like you just miss some random person who like had nothing to do with anything uh it's like ben herbert it's like just only the psycho michigan

fans know who ben herbert is you know yeah yeah all right well that'll be it for us today for us you can follow us at blue by 90 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Blue by 90 podcast on YouTube and blueby90.com. We appreciate you. Go Blue. Go Blue.