Blue By Ninety - E99: MONEY MOODY

Episode Date: October 28, 2021

Michigan Kicker Jake Moody joins the pod, the boys preview the in-state rivalry matchup with sparty, Mel Tucker to LSU confirmed and more. Crack a cold one and enjoy the show.

This is the University of Michigan. Touchdown, Michigan! The Beats of Michigan! And they've caught extra pass. And it goes for the win! The three-pointer by Jordan Poole! Down the sideline! Peebles-John!

Touchdown, Wolverines! All right, welcome back to Blue by 90. I am Justin, joined by Jack and Kalen as always. And today we have a special guest, Money Moody, Jake Moody from Michigan Football Kicker. Jake, how you doing? Thanks for joining us, man. I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. Yeah, so, you know, obviously it's a big week for you guys looking ahead to Saturday.

You know, give us a little insight into what the vibe has been this week for you guys in practice. So right away after the Northwestern game, all of our focus shifted to Michigan State. You could kind of feel like there's like a different energy. We like to approach every opponent like the exact same way, but you can kind of tell there's like something a little bit different about this week. Everybody knows what's on the line, and we're going to be ready for the game this week.

Nice. Yeah, I mean, we've heard that from a couple different guys, you know, in press conferences and stuff like that. Like, you know, I think you guys have had – it's pretty obvious you've had that, like, game-by-game mentality, right? Like, not looking too far ahead, but knowing what's to come still. So how do you guys balance that, that kind of mentality of this is just like another game.

We don't want to do too much, but obviously there is a more, a little more importance to this one too. Yeah. I mean, everybody's just kind of trusting their preparation. The coaches are doing a great job. We've got a good game plan for them, so we're not too worried. We're just going to take it like any other game, but obviously there's a little bit more on the line this week. So is the game plan just to get over the 50-yard line

and have you kick bombs all day or what? Hopefully I'm kicking a lot of PATs. Yeah, agreed. There you go. Is there a spot when, like, okay, when they get a certain part down the field, when are you like, all right, I can start my routine here because I got the leg for this? Usually when the offense crosses the 50,

that's kind of like my cue to start warming up. And then if it's nice conditions, anytime the ball's close to the 40- yard line, I'm ready to go. So 50, I start warming up and then like 40 yard line or close to it. Sometimes I make the target line 42, which is a 60 yarder. But that's that's with a slight breeze at the back. So need a little help there a little help we were talking uh i think it was joel or it might have been it might have been vistardis and uh i think

it was the washington field goal that i think it was that 52 yarder that that went through i was telling him i was like man i i feel like that would have been good from like 60 or 70 and he was like yeah yeah moody was saying that too. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that ball was smoked, and, like, I could feel it right off my foot. It was just, like, one of those no-doubters, like in baseball when you, like, hit one on the screws. Like, right when it came off my foot, it felt amazing. And it probably would have been good from 70, to be honest.

Wow. Crossing the uprights, like like at the top of the uprights so geez when you go back and look at the film of that and like distance it out a little bit from like the sky cam or something um i don't do that as much with uh field goals but i've had to do that with kickoffs a couple times this year um We've had a couple like going to the stands. And so we have our long snapper, William Wagner, he's an engineer. So yeah, like the math for that and then kind of figure out how far it would have

gone. Love it. That's awesome. That's awesome. And now is there, is there a time too, where like, all right, um, and now is there, is there a time to where like, all right, you, you're getting close and it's like, you're at the 42 or something like that, or maybe the 45, uh, or, you know, 30 anywhere in that range, right. Where it's like close to, all right. Are it's fourth and two, are we going for this or are we going to kick it? Or do you like stare down coach and you're just

like all right I gotta let's give me this give me this I want it yeah I mean obviously you gotta want every field goal if you're not confident in yourself then how do you expect your coach to be confident in you um so I always like kind of give him a look like like I'm ready to go like um he'll look down the sidelines for me and I'll always be staring him down. And sometimes he lets me kick. Sometimes he doesn't, but that's not my decision. Yeah. I mean, you gotta be pumped too. When, you know, you're obviously rooting for the offense to score too, you know, so pumped when they're going for it and, uh, you know, hopefully they, hopefully they're converting that fourth down as well.

Yeah, you always want the offense to do well and score a lot of touchdowns. I'm fine with getting a lot of points from PATs. That means we're blowing teams out by a lot. But I'm here if they need me for a field goal here and there. I was going to say, I don't know if you know this or not, but you are tied for fourth in all the NCAA with 70 points. Yeah, I figured it was up there. We've had a lot of high-scoring games this year, so.

Yeah. Well, Jake – or Jack, way to just, like, blow the cover there. Come on, man. That's like – I mean, obviously you're not throwing a no-hitter, Way to just, like, blow the cover there. Come on, man. That's like, I mean, obviously you're not throwing an 0-hitter, but it's kind of like throwing an 0-hitter and you're just, like, talking about it. Come on, man.

If he was first. If he was first, I wouldn't have said anything. Yeah, yeah, there you go. There you go. What's your record that you've put up in practice then? I've hit from 70 a couple times in practice. I mean, that's just stupid. That's insane. I mean, come on.

And I was a little frustrated because one of the 70s I hit, I had somebody else kind of record from, like, the goalpost to kind of see how far it goes over. And it probably had another couple yards on it too. So I was kind of mad i didn't move back a little further but whatever uh now have you always had like we don't like quinn ordine always had that big leg right have you always had the big leg too or is that you know something that you had to work on to increase your distance? Like you started out as the accurate guy and you've had to do that.

Yeah. So it all started when I was playing soccer. When I was younger, I was the guy that was constantly kicking the ball over the goal and scoring goals while I was playing goalie and stuff. Didn't really like all the running and soccer, so I switched to football. Not to be a kicker, actually, just to kind of, like, play another sport. And then one of my coaches, like, kind of told my mom he saw me kicking at practice, and he was like,

this kid's got a good leg. Like, you should probably invest some money in, like, a kicking coach and, like, kind kind of go from there and that's what we did and it worked out pretty well for me what position were you playing before kicker uh well that was back in youth ball so like everywhere so i was tight end linebacker wide tackle yeah exactly yeah I mean I don't think I've ever related to somebody more than saying they switched sports because they didn't want to run like I'm talking to the right crowd here yes absolutely absolutely so you know when you um like looking back to the nebraska game and you're in pressure situations right um and we talked to brad robbins about this as well right where it's like there are

times obviously as the punter is the kicker long sna, all of that, where it's, you know, you feel that pressure. And so Brad Robbins says that he just smiles all the time. Are you like that guy, too, that's just like shrugging off the pressure and just smiling through it? Or how do you handle that? To be honest, I'm just kind of like a pretty calm guy, like overall. And like I said, I can tell, by the way, I can tell. Yeah. So, I mean, I'm not one to like, get like real worked up in like situations like that.

And I always try and approach every kick the exact same. So I like take myself through like the same routine and uh I'm not really worried about like which kick it is and I just go out there and like do the same thing that I've always done well it's working so far so so we're not going to tell you anything different there but uh have you I mean obviously you're on the sideline for most of the game, right? So how do you keep busy? Like, I feel like I'm in the stands, you know, pacing and stuff like that, let alone you, you know, having to go in every so often. How do you keep yourself ready, too, at all times?

So obviously I don't want to be, like, moving around too much. Like, I don't want to be like moving around too much like I don't want to tire my legs out um so most of the time I'm honestly just like sitting down just kind of waiting for like the chance to like get up and start warming up um and then there's like some things that like I'll do with the other specialists like uh we'll make our own playbook where we draw a picture of a field goal post and put a check mark in the middle um draw a picture of like a stick figure that's supposed to be brad and punting the ball really far i mean we we just like try to stay well we we do stay focused uh during the entire game like we're always locked in um but during like the breaks and stuff when when there's some downtime we like to have a little bit of fun too

bring a deck of cards out there play some euchre i don't i don't think the coaches would like that we just have to hide out in the medical tent yeah Yeah, there you go. There you go. I don't know. Coach Harbaugh might come surprise you. He might be champion Uker player. Yeah. I wouldn't doubt that. No. I mean, no matter what he does, he's going to be competitive in it.

That's for sure. He's not going to go to, you know, play to lose. So, yeah. I think when we were talking to Brad, he was saying that he had been been practicing some like meditation and i see like jj on instagram is that something that you do as well um i don't do the meditation uh meditation specifically but um i do go through some like breathing exercises to kind of just slow my heart rate down um there's actually a lot of guys that are starting to do the meditation which is pretty cool um like they're they're taking a lot more um like importance to like not only like strengthening your body but like also like

kind of strengthening your mind and like your mind and body connection so it's it's been good to see all the guys that are doing all the meditation stuff. It's I think it's very interesting, the mental aspect that athletes are taking, you know, towards their game nowadays. It used to be something where I feel like, you know, you were supposed to be this hardcore guy. Right. And like not, you know, just not have any feelings and emotions other than run through a brick wall right but now there's like there are mental coaches you know and things like that and so um have you guys incorporated that as a team or had the opportunity to utilize those types of things um we don't have like anybody kind of like specifically like in the building all the time um but we do have a couple people that we have as resources that you can reach out to um and they've been

really helpful and uh they've kind of like taught like a couple kind of like courses on it to the whole team so um everybody kind of knows the importance of it and they have resources if they need it yeah it's cool I think it's I think it's important right and it's something that like you guys got a lot on your plate school life football like it's damn I mean it's it's crazy so it's a lot to handle for sure yeah lots of stuff as a college athlete for sure what was the biggest difference from you going from Northville to Michigan um honestly not too much just I mean adjusting to like a college lifestyle and just living on your own was the biggest thing obviously but um But as far as, like, classes and stuff, Northville was pretty good to me.

And we send, like, 90 kids from Northville to U of M every year. So it's kind of like a university. So it's only 20 minutes down the road, too. So I kind of feel like I'm just kind of, like, in, like like somewhat of an extension of Northville right how what did you graduate with in high school how many people um so I had a graduating class of 585 I think so it's usually around 600 geez that's an impressive percentage of people going to Michigan, man. Yeah, for sure. Did you grow up a Michigan fan?

Yeah, I grew up in a house divided, actually. So my dad went to Michigan and my mom went to state. Oh, big week this week, huh? Oh, yeah. Huge week for my family. My mom's been talking about how she's going to pass out and stuff. Yeah. So I grew up a Michigan fan, like with my dad and then my younger sister, she was a state fan with my mom and I've slowly transitioned them to all being Michigan fans.

All right. They gotta, they gotta be, you know, rooting for you at least. Right. Yeah. That's good. That's good. So, so is your mom wearing a uh amazing blue booty jersey to the game or what's the plan here yeah she's gonna be rocking amazing blue don't worry good for her good for her yeah we'd have to talk to mom if that wasn't yeah freshman year she was uh gonna do like the michigan state shirt under the michigan jersey yeah now she's just full-blown michigan which is good all right all right that's good that's good that you've converted them good work good work keep keep that work up um and so um you know

on the uh on the michigan state topic too you know, we talked about the heightened energy and focus and things like that. You know, what does over the years, obviously, you know, you've been here since 2018. There have been wild games and it's just you've been a part of this rivalry now for for a few years and so what um what's your biggest takeaway from and you grew up in it right so like is this something that is like this is the week you look forward to each year or what does this mean to you I mean it means a ton to me obviously because like I grew up in the rivalry. We'd decorate the house with Michigan and Michigan State stuff. My mom's a teacher, so she would decorate her room with all Michigan State stuff.

But now she's got kind of half and half in there. So, yeah, I've always taken this rivalry really seriously growing up. And it's actually going to be my first year that I get to kick field goals in this game. Surprisingly, like, all three years where I kicked, like, partially during the season, I never got to kick against State, which kind of sucked. But I'm really looking forward to being able to kick against them for the first time. That's interesting. I mean, it just kind of worked out that way huh yeah just bad timing bad timing okay um all right and uh so yeah i mean this is like i feel like you know in i grew up on the west side

of the state with a lot of sparty fans on side. And I was like a lone Michigan guy. Right. And these two guys are from Ann Arbor too. And so, you know, for the state of Michigan, this is just like, this is that, that day, this is that week that it's like, everybody talks about, right. And the rest of the year you have those bragging rights. Right. And so do you have any friends that from like high school or stuff like that too that are get that give you shit and like are are talking shit this week oh yeah and that's that's the other thing northville sends probably

300 people to michigan state like half my high school goes there. So yeah, there's a lot of people that knew me in high school that are rooting against me this weekend. And there's also a lot of people rooting for me this weekend as well. Yeah. That ratio makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense. Did you ever, did you ever consider Michigan State? Yeah, I actually did.

Michigan wasn't really recruiting me that much in high school until my senior season, actually. Michigan State was recruiting me pretty heavily on the other end. They kept promising me a scholarship and just what you'd expect from them. They never actually gave me a scholarship offer. But then Michigan was kind of late to the party, but they were all in for me, and they were truthful with me, and they said that I could come as a gray shirt. I actually ended up coming as just like a normal scholarship guy because a

spot opened up for me late in the summer. But honestly, all through high school, I was kind of disappointed because Michigan wasn't reaching out to me. And I was like, Oh, I might have to go to state. Might have to settle. I like how you put that. I have to state might have to settle but I like how you put that I have to settle have to settle there you go so I'm I'm definitely really happy yeah um well we're we're obviously happy that you made it here too it's kind of it's kind of a little bit of a revenge

game for you then that they they didn't uh extend that that scholarship offer not that there needs to be any more like you know things out there for this to be a special game that's for sure um so have you guys has there been you know with an extra focus there's an extra focus it seems just because it's michigan state right has there been been talks or have you guys, you know, had had a focus on, hey, this is a top 10 matchup. This is another Big Ten East team. We got to beat this team if we want to win the conference. Like what? You know, I know Coach Harbaugh talked about those things like it's kind of an elimination game. Right. What's that attitude and mentality been like in the locker room and in practice yeah exactly like what you said uh coach harbaugh kind of told us it's like a kind of like

a playoff mentality now um like it's a single game elimination like we can't lose from here on out um because we know we know what our goals are uh we want a big fat ring on our fingers at the end of the year oh yeah so it we got to take it one game at a time. We know it's at stake, like top 10 matchup against a pretty good team. So we definitely got to take it one game at a time. We're still looking forward to the last game of the year, obviously, but we got to get through all the other teams first there you go there you go yeah I mean it's it is uh it's obviously the talk of Michigan but I think it's the talk of the country too you know you you've got game day there you've got Fox there Barstool's there it's like everybody's there um i i think it's it's cool too and um have you

guys have you made a focus you i know you've made a focus to embrace things on the road right and like you know you talked about taking their songs and things like that have you have you had a focus to embrace the moment too that it is like such a kind of big moment and and you know relish in that for a minute yeah um I can't really speak on like the whole team's behalf but uh like for myself I don't really try and get too caught up in that kind of stuff um like I just kind of see it as another game just go out there and do the best I can. But we're definitely going to appreciate this rivalry in this huge game. We're going to try and go in there and kind of like take their crowds energy and use it to our own advantage.

So we're excited for this weekend. I know we've heard the make their song our song kind of deal. What's Michigan State's song? You guys got to have been playing something all week. Yeah, I don't know if they have a song. We've been playing Thunderstruck a lot, which I know is kind of like their walkout song, I think. But, yeah, I mean, whatever song they play, no matter what it is,

like right when we hear it, like we're going to get pretty hyped to it. Based on your response earlier from from Justin's question, are you the chillest guy on the team? Like, is it not even close? I mean, yeah, I would say so. You ask a lot of other guys, they'd probably say so, too. Like, I got guys that come up to me and they'll just ask me like, like, please like smile for me or like,

but yeah, I mean, I, I think it's like a good thing for my position, honestly. Right. Yeah. So I'll just go with it. I love it, man. Stay true to you. You use it to your advantage that's for sure uh but do you I are you you know there have been times on the sideline that the sidelines gotten hype as hell so are you getting hype when when the uh the moment is hype too I mean yeah I like try to stay like kind of calm and collected, but you can't just like sit back and watch that kind of stuff.

Like you want to be a part of that. And like, it's a great like team energy and like, it's fun to be a part of. So like I'll, I'll kind of like jump around and do all that stuff for a minute and kind of go calm back down and just get ready for it. You throw in a towel when they play pump it up or what? then kind of go calm back down and just get ready for the next game. You throw in a towel when they play pump it up or what? Yeah, I usually kind of throw a towel around and stuff.

There you go. There you go. I feel like you and Joel Honigford have to be the two most opposite personalities that we've met. Yeah, Joel, he'll talk your ear off like very outgoing for sure um he's one of the coolest guys i know on the team for sure um he's one of the guys blocking for me too so um like we we kind of share some like funny moments like after kicks and stuff like we'll say some stuff and i'm not gonna share it here it's like kind of like a secret i guess but uh yeah me and him we're pretty close we've gotten closest here

for sure nice he's a good dude great dude so we we've had him on a couple times we enjoy joel uh so yeah and uh so when you i mean obviously there's a lot of different personalities and a lot of people hyping hyping you know things up who's let's let's move forward to Saturday hypothetically who's given the pregame speech before you guys head out there definitely either Aiden or Ross like those guys like you you'd want to run through a brick wall after they give a speech. Um, like they, they give their all for the team and like, you gotta be willing to give your all in return. Um, so like those two guys, uh, especially they get everybody fired up. Love it. Love it. Is there somebody on the offense that kind of takes that

role too because I know I mean we've seen it from Aiden he's like a he's a borderline psychotic I think for football which is perfect for what he does obviously Josh Ross playing linebacker too um anybody on the offense that kind of has that mentality as well yeah uh like obviously kade he's a he's a great leader for the offense and uh some of the o-linemen are a lot more vocal and a lot louder and obviously a lot bigger and scarier than kate yeah it's kind of like a whole group effort for the offense like they they they get fired up as a unit pretty well love it it. Yeah. They, I mean, it's, we've seen them. We're, we're pushing for the celebration that we saw in the spring game where they all shotgun beers after a touchdown. So we're,

when we talked to the starters and Joel, we, we tried to push them for that, but we need some help from you too. Yeah. I mean, I'll, mean i'll i'll let them know celebration too uh i don't really have one so if you guys could think of one for me too i'd appreciate that i think the money moody money come on go there go there that that would be epic if you ever do get a 60 yard or something like that, like what's coach going to say if you go to the money and you're like, coach, I just hit a 60 yard. Come on now.

If I got flagged for it, like I'm sure you'd understand if I made a 60 yarder because I mean, at the end of the day, like I'm the one that's going to have to deal with the 15-yard loss on a kickoff. That's true. I'll just make sure the wind's at my back. And then I've hit a touchback in high school before from the 20-yard line. So I could try it again in college.

There you go. You guys got to plan it right. There you go. I'd say 60-yarder or a game winner you got to go go crazy with something there with the money moody i think is the go-to all right well uh you know big game this weekend obviously uh so we appreciate you coming on here uh we uh you know it's it's a fun week we We've been on social media and the fans are freaking excited, man. It's like people going back and forth.

The banter has already started and Saturday is just going to be electric. So we're looking forward to that. And, you know, I think I've found my person to look for when I get too stressed. And I'll be in the stands. So when I get too stressed in the stands, I'm going the stands. So when I get too stressed in the stands, I'm going to look for you and just be like, all right, he's calm as shit. I need to be like Moody. Yeah.

I'll usually be in like the, uh, like corner of like our sideline, just kind of chilling on a bench. So if you can't find me, just look to like one of the ends by the kicking net. I'll usually be chilling there. All right. Sounds good. Sounds good. Before we lose you though, Moody. Yeah. look to like one of the ends by the kicking net i'll usually be chilling there all right sounds good sounds good before we lose you though moody yeah you've been kind of involved in this rivalry growing up in it a little bit and everything do you remember the mike hart little brother comment

um i don't remember it from like back when i was watching it but uh obviously I've seen it a lot now um and like I agree with coach Hart like I mean now that he's a coach for us it's like especially cool because like I grew up watching him and he was like one of my favorite players so um having him as a coach now is pretty cool also does he give any uh pre-game speeches at all typically? I'm never really close enough to the running backs during pregame stuff, but, yeah, he's pretty intense. I'm sure he gives some pretty good pregame speeches, especially this week. I was going to say, I'm hoping that somehow a camera finds its way in there and he gives a speech to the whole team because he was undefeated against Sparty.

So that would be pretty cool for him to say something his first year back coaching yeah that'd be awesome yeah i was gonna ask you has he has he talked at all to the team yet this week or maybe they're waiting a little uh till a little bit later uh not yet this week but uh when we have like a coach come up and kind of talk to the team, it's usually on like a Thursday or Friday, a lot closer to game day. So hopefully he'll go up and talk to us either tomorrow or Friday. There you go. There you go. I do want to be there. I want to be there. So I might have to sneak into practice or something for that one. Get a fake press pass or something. You got to have an extra jersey or something I can put on.

We look enough. I got to grow a beard out, though. I just shaved it. So, shoot. Go buy, like, a helmet at the end, Dan. I'll give you an extra jersey. There you go. There you go. you go it is

halloween so i can pat i you know it'll just be my halloween costume right yeah two for one there you go all right man well thanks for joining we appreciate you um we'll uh you know there may be a shirt in the works here maybe maybe a shirt in the works on the Blue by 90 shop that we might put up for you. So we're talking about that still. But, yeah, man, we appreciate you. So obviously go out there, kill it this weekend. You know, hopefully we can have you on here again at some point down the road. But we've had a ton of fun watching you this year and, and you know,

we got to finish this thing out. So, so go get them in. Yeah. Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me. It was a lot of fun. All right. Thanks for Jake Moody coming on. All I can say is I am glad that man is our kicker because he is literally the chillest man of all time. The absolute chillest dude. Like it's not even close. I mean, he's cool dude. Super chill. I mean, it's that's, that's awesome. You need that guy on the team, especially to have him as your kicker.

Like you said, that's, that's always good to have. High pressure environment. That guy is making the right decision every time nothing can face no i i feel like we could have thrown anything at him and he would have just been like yep yeah so uh yep i almost i just wanted to ask him almost like because because we see you know some of those uh obviously hockey players do it and some football players like smelling salts. I'm like, have you like, you know, take a hit of weed before, you know, you go for the kick. Like what works best for you? Yeah. It's, it's, I feel like he's, he's naturally like that,

but it definitely seems like something's going on there. Whatever works, man, whatever works. So it's a, it's a town. going on there whatever works man whatever works so hey man yeah yeah uh michigan state week though holy shit this is a big week i don't know about you guys but ever since the end of the northwestern game it's been like all i can think about i i literally have to like try to find things to do so that to you know obviously i put in a little bit of effort of work i would love to see the like productivity ratings of in the working environment across the state of michigan for this week alone they have to just plummet for this week right people just scrolling through twitter going to uh all the sports betting apps putting their bets in going through all the analytics and everything yeah no but the productivity

has got to be down the shitter at this point at least for myself i know it is sorry brett if you're listening i walked by our our project management office this morning and somebody put a big Michigan flag out there so I was like all right this is how I know love it love it yeah I I mean it's it's uh it's that week it's that week in the state of Michigan and for this week it's also on the the national you know uh plan too so everybody is is honed in on East Lansing this week, and it's a big opportunity. We kind of joke about the biggest games of Jim Harbaugh's tenure and how there's been a hundred of them, right? There's like every week is the biggest game. It's the most pivotal game.

It's the most must-win game. This has got to be up there, right? This might be it. I think this is number two behind 2016 Ohio State, right? It's got to be close, man. I mean, it's – What else would be ahead of it? I don't know.

The crazy thing is that, like, I don't think from a talent perspective, either Michigan or Michigan State in 2021 are anywhere close to 2016 Michigan-Ohio State. But with everything that's leading up to it at this moment in the season, yes, I still think so. I think you're correct with it being right behind that. I think just especially what it does for Harbaugh's legacy at Michigan.

This is number two. You're in East Lansing. It's a top-ten showdown. Both teams are undefeated. You're fighting for a top-two spot in the Big Ten East, obviously, with Ohio State. I'm assuming Penn State's out of that running after the Illinois loss. I mean, it's a huge game.

I'm fucking excited. I'll tell you what. And I'm nervous as hell because for those of you that know i married a sparty and if we lose this game i've got nothing till basketball season i can't listen to that i can't listen to that for another few months yeah this game i mean this game has huge implications right i mean the winner of this game controls their destiny for the rest of the season yeah i mean the loser of this game has huge implications right i mean the winner of this game controls their destiny for the rest of the season yeah i mean the loser of this game i mean still has a shot but they're just they're not in control right no um so i mean and i think you're right this is this does maybe feel like the second biggest game of the hardball era which, which is insane, right? There are reports of fake tickets going around.

I saw that. I haven't heard anything like that since 2016, 2018, maybe Michigan, Ohio State. There hasn't been a hot ticket like this in quite some time for Michigan football, especially for Michigan State football as well. I think that for, you know, for Michigan fans and for the team and for Jim Harbaugh, it's like, man, we cannot have these Spartan fans talking shit that Mel Tucker is 2-0 against Jim Harbaugh. And then, you know, maybe this is the last year of Jim Harbaugh

if he loses this game. Who knows what happens after that? But, like, I don't know. From my perspective with my friends that I know that are out there, let alone the Spartys that interact with us on Twitter who I'm ready to drop kick at any moment right now it just those I I think that that is the like the nervous part of me worries about that for us moving forward yeah bragging rights I mean it's bragging rights how is how is an MSU coach going to start off 2-0 against Michigan?

I'm curious when's the last time that that happened. But think about this. Do you think if Michigan, knock on wood, do you think if Michigan loses to MSU at MSU this year and then loses to Ohio State at home but they go 10 and 2 it's Harbaugh done oh that's such a tough such a tough thing I I mean you would you would if you asked any single person hey if Michigan goes 10 and 2 this year, you know, would you take it? You're saying yes. You're absolutely saying yes, right?

Most people had them at 7-5 or 8-4. So that's, you know, that is exceeding expectations. But if you lose to those two teams, then I don't know. It's just that's where it becomes those, what are those must-win games, right? But, you know, I want to ask you guys this. Are, you know, what's your level of confidence going into this game?

Realistically, for me, it's, I'm nervous as shit, but I don't know if that's just because of everything that's gone on or I don't. If I just like looked at the talent of the teams and what's going to happen on those, I'd be much more confident. But with all the other variables, that's what makes me nervous. Do you guys agree with that? Yeah. I mean, for me, on a scale of one to ten i'm at a five

i think this game's a toss-up i mean obviously it's a big rivalry game they're both top 10 teams doesn't help us but it's in east lansing you know i just don't know and i mean i don't think we know what either if either that's the fucked thing it's like they're both seven and oh undefeated over halfway through the season we still don't know who these teams are because they haven't really played anybody yet. This is the real test game for both teams. For me, I think it's a toss-up, and I think you learn a lot about both teams in this game. My confidence level is I'm halfway, man. I'm not super confident.

I obviously think Michigan has a chance, and I think they're going to win the game, but if they lose, I guess I wouldn't be super shocked. I do think Sparty's pretty good this year and they have a lot of big playability and that's what makes me really nervous I don't think they're going to like chip down the field to beat Michigan I think it's gonna be big plays that beat Michigan in this game and that's the that's the biggest thing that's bothering me that kind of has my like heart racing yeah i'm definitely nervous but i would almost i would say i'm more like anxious than nervous right like i'm just it's been building up so much that i'm just like ready to see it at this point and like yeah i'm nervous because there are some things that could happen but i feel like there's been a lot of things in regard to this Michigan team that

they you know kind of know what their issues are they know what their strengths are and I feel like they're pretty well prepared for this game so like am I nervous yeah but I'm just ready to see him go on the field and do their thing, right? Yeah, I think that the confidence that I have in this team in terms of being able to live up to the moment is better than I've ever had, you know, under a Jim Harbaugh team, right? I think that that is what's helping me feel better about this. Like, I think they want this type of moment. They're living for this type of moment. Whereas in the past, we'd kind of cower at this type of moment and go in deer in the

headlights type of thing. I think they like, love it, you know, a little bit. And so I, I, I think the energy is, is different. I don't know if you guys have heard us talk about energy before. But, you know, I do think that the attitude shift is different, which I'm excited. I'm truly excited to see them go into Spartan Stadium with, like, that chip on their shoulder.

You know, Vincent Gray's talking about it like you know hey we aren't letting them do what they did last year to us again right and and aiden's talking about ben van sumer in and like hey you know there's a lot of different things like that like these guys i feel like aiden specifically know, I just believe that that guy is not going to let this shit go badly. You know, he's doing every single thing in his power to make sure that they're going to win this football game. And there isn't a single person that we've talked to or heard from on this team that is not following Aiden's footsteps I mean it feels like a revenge tour type year without the publicity behind it right like they're probably talking about that kind of stuff in the locker room but it's not

being publicized like it was back in 2018 which I'm fine with yeah totally fine with um and I'll tell you what after the Wisconsin to Nebraska game I do have a lot more confidence in them going into East Lansing and winning because it does feel like this team has really stepped up to the plate in those big games where in past years and we've heard players say it feels like they cower at that opportunity so I do have more confidence in them winning the game in past years where I feel like they were facing a number eight Michigan State team that's undefeated in east lansing i'd be like okay yeah no there's no fucking chance we have to win this game um but i'm still nervous and kaylin i think you you said it you said it uh pretty well it's it's a lot of it's i'm very anxious as well like i'm very excited for this

game but i'm very nervous it needs to be saturday fucking right i need it to be noon saturday right now right now exactly i i cannot deal with the next three days that come now it's just like oh my god it's just gonna drag on friday's gonna come and it's just gonna be like holy shit there's i i mean i've already chalked it up there's really no chance that i sleep on friday night like no shot and so yeah i i want to ask you guys uh one other thing too with our personnel you know what we kind of talked about it i had i had said some things on our last podcast about kade and jj and that i think there may be a tough decision involved there. What are you guys' thoughts going into this game after we've had some time to watch the Northwestern game and analyze and think about it?

Are you guys feeling confident with Cade, or do you feel that JJ may have an elevated role or may need to have an elevated role this week? For me, I know I mentioned it last podcast. I think it'll go a lot like the Northwestern game. J.J., you know, it'll kind of go kind of along like how it has, like, all season. J.J. will get in the game. He'll have a couple plays.

If he has a throw and he connects on it, I think he stays in. If he has a throw and he misses it and it think he stays in if he has a throw and he and he misses it and it's not really close i think he comes out of the game so i think it all depends on how jj plays while he's in i think if he's playing well i think he'll stay in i think if not they'll all right like all right okay go back in i think it really just depends on how jj's passing the ball because we know he can move it with his legs. The read option, you know, he's got it and he's the guy to go to with it. And Cade's, you know, Cade's really more of a pocket passer.

But that's what I think will happen. I think if JJ has the ability to really take advantage of the moment and capitalize, I think he'll stay in the game. But if not, then I think we'll kind of see the back and forth that we've seen all year yeah I think the coaches are in the like if it ain't broke don't fix it kind of play calling personnel mode right and so they're like we've won seven games with Kate why would I you know and putting JJ in sporadically why would I change that up and i think that they're you know just stubborn enough to do that nobody's gonna do nobody's gonna be like oh we're gonna put jj in to start for a quarter right that would be like whoa what uh and well i as a fan might be like, hell yeah, they'll never do that. Yeah, and I think after I had some time to think about it,

I think I walk back my take that JJ needs to be involved more. I think that, like you said, Kalen, Cade's gotten the job done seven times, right? It hasn't been pretty all the time, but he's gotten the job done. And I think that Josh Gaddis has game planned week by week by week so that, you know, he doesn't have to utilize Cade all the time. But when Cade's been called upon in pressure situations, he's made those plays you know and so I that's where like yeah his stats aren't gonna jump off the table at you that's for sure um but I think you know I I believe in Cade McNamara that he can get the job done on Saturday and there are so many things

outside of just his deep ball talent that he brings to the table you know that can help Michigan win he's got to lead the team he's got to you know make audibles at the at the line he's got to do what he does right you know is Michigan gonna win or lose on three deep balls if that's the case then I don't know I mean then I I'm not sure if if we're able to put ourselves in a better in the best position to win but you know I don't think JJ's I think JJ's proven himself to be you know he's going to be really good someday I don't think he's really good today you know I don't think he's proven to be really good someday. I don't think he's really good today. You know, I don't think he's proven to be like this unbelievable guy that you have to, you know, get in right now. He's shown his own flaws too. But I, I'm,

I believe in Cade McNamara. That's where I'm at right now. Positive vibes only. I love it. Positive vibes only. And I did want to touch on too. You know, when we're looking at the defense versus MSU's offense, too, I do think we'll bully them around quite a bit. I think our defense will will, you know, stop the run for the most part outside of Kenneth Walker being maybe slippery a couple of times. couple times and that's what my major concern is I can see what I can see happening is we are we have the play contained contained we make the right play 99 of the way and then one percent slips through and they break one here or there that's what my concern is and we've seen that happen and you know not even Kenneth Walker but I can see Peyton

Thorne doing that as well where it's like you have him sacked essentially but he squeaks through and goes for the first down we saw Brian Lewerke do that a few years ago Connor Cook would do that like you know those that's the way that Michigan State has won football games and beaten Michigan specifically in the past and so I'm hoping that Mike McDonald is game planning for that but I think there's enough you know edge and chippiness from this defense led by Aiden Hutchinson that they're they're going to be out to to make an impact on this game. I could see the defense having – it's not going to be a 2018 performance where they have 94 yards, but it could be that vibe of that where they're just like constantly stopping them.

I do think them taking a very unexpected loss at the big house last year is going to fuel that fire a lot. Yeah. Yeah, and especially in these, like, rivalry games where it's like a close game, I think special teams plays a huge part in it too, right? So, I mean, you've got to shut down MSU's ability to return punts and return kickoffs.

But also, you know, don't sleep on Blake Corum returning some kickoffs too, right, like, and A.J. Henning out there. So, like, that's another facet at play. You know, I was talking because I think it could come down to a couple weird plays like that, a punt return or a fumble or an interception or something like that. And I was talking to a buddy, and he put it very well. And he's actually said this for the past few weeks now,

but I think it pertains to this too. Somebody's going to do something stupid, and we got to hope it's not us. Yeah. There's going to be a mistake. There's going to be some crazy, something wild. We've seen it before and it's been Michigan doing it. You just got to hope it's not us because at the end of the day, they're college kids and they make mistakes. Right. And so that could be the end of the day, they're college kids and they make mistakes. Right. And so that could be the,

the end of it. So that, I don't know. I also, I just want to beat the shit out of Mel Tucker. I know. God damn it. I'm sick of seeing Mel Tucker's fucking face with a cigar and all this

shit. I know we put that shit trolling them on, on Twitter and Instagram, but like, I'm just sick of it like to be honest and i'm sick of people talking about how great he is i hope he goes to lsu just because that would be so freaking funny for them to think they found their guy and then him leave immediately i'm i'm ready for us to pound them and and just fucking end it all for them

and ruin their day, ruin their year. Bring it back to the Mike Hart years. That's what I need. Bring it back. I'm ready for Aiden Hutchinson with the passion in his face. I can see him in the locker room where it's just like this is war. This is absolute war. We're going into battle and there is nothing going to stop us from winning

this football game. That is what I'm feeding off of as a fan. And like, I, I'm going to be like ready to run through a brick wall with Aiden on Saturday. And I know, I feel like there are so many people out there with me too, that are just like antsy for this and just like ready to go.

Like let's strap up the helmet with them. For me, how I'll get hyped. This is if he hypes up the team, I'll be like, God, I'm gonna drink so much beer today. I'm going to win. I'm going to win at the bar. That's how I'm going to compete. I love it.

I was thinking about that uh that news interview probably from like 2014 with like the warren bayless south football team yeah i don't know if you guys remember i think i got my slacker back yeah i was thinking about that guy going like we're ready to hit him every play like Like that's why I imagine Aiden Hutchinson. Oh my God. Well, I think back to what Valari said too, where he said, what Aiden says is we just got to smash them and the mother fucking face.

Oh, fucking day. Smash him in the face. Like I am. Oh my God. I'm so ready for that. I'm so ready. Get up in the morning on Saturday morning.

Get up bright and early. Get to East Lansing. Plant our Michigan flag right in their shit and get ready to go. Crack a beer. Take on the Spartan Nation. We're raiding the woodshed. It's a maze out in the woodshed. We're taking over East Lansing, and we're going to win the fucking football game.

Is that your pregame speech? Because I love it. I love it. I love it. I'm ready to drink a beer. I was like, do we have a beer now or what? Alright. That's what we got for you. I hope you can take that and fire yourself

up or you're just laughing at me. Either way. I hope you can take that and fire yourself up. Or you're just laughing at me. Either way, you know, I hope you enjoy the content. But, hey, we appreciate you guys listening. Huge week. Huge week. This is, you know, enjoy it. Enjoy the fact that, I mean, enjoy the fact that it's Michigan versus Michigan State in a top 10 matchup and

both undefeated that is pretty freaking cool too yeah man that is like nobody in their right mind would have predicted this so a let's be happy to be here right and enjoy the moment and b let's win a football game because seven and oh it's pretty sweet but eight no is even better you can follow us at blue by 90 on instagram twitter and facebook at blue by 90 podcasts on youtube and with that we say go blue and fuck state go blue fuck sparty i love it fuck sparty