Blue By Ninety - Eric Rutter joins, Patricia sucks, Michigan recruiting update and more.

Episode Date: October 8, 2020

After a rambling intro covering all sports news, Si.com and Wolverine Digest's Eric Rutter joins the show to give us a recruiting update, Lions football talk and what we think should happen with Matt Patricia, Is Duncan Robinson going to be the best 3 pt shooter in NBA history? Crack a beer and enjoy the show.

This is the University of Michigan. Touchdown, Michigan! The Beats of Michigan! They can court extra pass. And it goes to the wind! The three-pointer by Jordan Poole! Down the sideline! Peebles Jones!

Touchdown, Wolverines! Alright, welcome back to Blue by 90. We are here this week with first ever recurring guest, Eric Rudder from WolverineDigest.com. Eric, how you doing, man? Hey, two thumbs up over here, guys. How's everything on your end? Pretty good, pretty good. We're happy to have you back on the podcast here. You are the first ever recurring guest with us.

So that is, yeah, podcast record of two appearances. I mean, you just shattered the previous record of one. So unbelievable. We've been in the clubhouse. Yeah. Great performance by you. I mean, we'll see how it goes obviously today um see if we can get you to three maybe here soon um but um yeah thanks for coming on again man uh a lot of stuff going on in the sports world right now which is crazy because we went so long without sports and so now we've got baseball postseason, MLB, NBA finals are on, NFL football, college

football in the Big 12, SEC and the ACC. So lots going on. First and foremost, I mean, we are in Michigan. So let's talk about how bad the Lions stink. I mean, was it just awful to watch? I don't know if you guys watched it or what, but my God. I did. S-O-L.

Same old Lions. I put a tweet out there when they were up 14-0, and I almost had it. I almost had, like, the guess prediction for the rest of the game. I did see that. As long as I didn't put the comeback in there, I would have been, I would have been right on the money. Well, they still did. They, they came back to put it into, you know, one score game, which is classic so that it caught you like still have to watch till the end a little bit, you know, even though, you know, they're going to fall short. Um, but as of right now, when we're recording here on Monday night, uh, Matt

Patricia still has a job, which kind of blows my mind. Do you guys think he's going to make it through the rest of the week? What do you think? Don't count the Lions out to continue to make mistakes, such as keeping Matt Patricia on staff. So, I mean, they're not going to fire him till the end of the year i say probably not i mean dear god he's got the worst record he's worse than what was it rod marinelli i believe he's got a he's got a the worst record and he took you know he inherited a nine and seven team and he's still you know what pisses me off the most is like, okay, every Lions coach is stunk normally.

But now he's being an asshole. Not Caldwell. Not Caldwell. Caldwell did well. That's how you get fired as a Lions coach. You do well. He's being an asshole at the podium being like, oh, it's not my fault. You know, blah, blah, blah.

I'm like, dude, at least just wear it. Like you've had 10 other people do this in front of you. Just do the same thing as them. Get paid out. I saw earlier today he mentioned when he inherited the Lions team that he had a lot of work to do. But this is this is his third season, correct? Yeah. That's not really a point that you can go back to when you've already played 35 games.

Right. And he progressed with him as head coach and i don't even know if they did have a bunch of work to do like you said they were over 500 yeah they had back-to-back nine and seven seasons right before he got there appearance yeah so what's your what work do you got to do like yeah he did a lot of work to take them from nine and seven to three and twelve i mean that's hard to do so hats off to him you know props to matt patricia for Yeah, he did a lot of work to take them from 9-7 to 3-12. I mean, that's hard to do. So hats off to him.

You know, props to Matt Patricia for putting in all this work to really tank for Trevor. I guess, are we tanking for Trevor now? I don't know, maybe. Yeah, I say if we are tanking for Trevor, you got to keep Patricia as head coach. Because we can't risk firing him and actually having a good coach there. Then we might win some games. Keep Patricia through the entire season. Tank for Trevor.

Get rid of him when the season's over. Now we're playing chess instead of checkers a little bit. That's right, baby. Kings and queens over here. All right. It's like the only franchise. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off there. You're good.

You're good. When they go up by two scores, 14 points early on in the game, your immediate reaction is, oh, geez, it doesn't look good. No chance now. Honestly, we're not even happy. It's like I'd rather start it off like we go down 14 or something. I don't know. It's a wild football organization. They'll never win anything.

What's the syndrome where you're, like, repeatedly abused and then you begin to like what your abuser stockholm syndrome yes yeah i believe so well we all got a movie i was gonna say they got a movie stockholm syndrome on netflix check it out solid flick is it just about the lions is it is that it's a documentary about the lion that we're gonna say pat patricia's stuck in a room with me and he just he just kills me and then i is that it's a documentary about the lion organization patricia's stuck in a room with me and he just he just kills me and then i love him it's it's pretty entertaining i love it all right but on the bright side we are only three weeks away from michigan football so i mean let's

be honest it's another team kind of stockholm syndrome they've just let us down a couple times but um i i still like i was thinking about it the other day like i haven't really been that invested in a lot of these sports lately but like i was thinking about i was like damn i'm i'm pretty hyped for michigan to play again like i i'm pretty damn excited to see them take the field and see what happens with joe Joe Milton and everybody else. So are you guys feeling the same way about that? Oh, of course. I mean, dude, I put the like Michigan highlights on my TV and like watch them just to like get in the zone.

Right. And I'm like, oh, man, it's coming up. So I'm I'm i'm excited i feel like the town isn't as like vibrant as it usually is around you know when football season is rolling in yeah so you don't like feel that outside your own house or outside your own head um i mean i don't know how you guys feel about that it'll it'll be interesting to see what happens in ann Arbor even on game day, or maybe the Thursday, Friday before that Michigan State weekend because I think there's going to be a ton of Michigan State fans coming into Ann Arbor, whether it's students. It could be Corona Central, to be honest, which is a little scary.

But I still think there will be a little buzz once we get into the season. But, yeah, definitely not uh not normal uh of what it seems like eric what do you what have you heard like you've been to some uh some high school football games and stuff too is it feeling like football season for you a little more than the rest of us probably yeah last friday i was at um stevenson high school watching offensive line commit giovanni el hadid and even just the being in the position of on the sidelines for Friday Night Lights, that brought back a little bit of normalcy. There were still people in both sides of the stands.

So it didn't really feel that different. The only thing I noticed besides having to wear a mask during the game was afterwards talking to Giovanni. We were kind of far away. We were socially distanced in the interview. having to wear a mask during the game was afterwards talking to Giovanni. We were kind of far away. We were socially distanced in the interview. But football is back. It feels the same to me.

And I could care less if there's a crowd or not. Just bring back the game. You need one. I've seen the NBA and some other places do, like, those six-foot-long boom sticks with the microphone. So you need to get one of those for your interviews if you get one i'll carry it around for you i you you can be like harbaugh's got a cord guy you can be his core i'll be the boomstick guy you'll be the boom great yeah love it love it um well speaking of football season so the big 12

and the sec and the ACC have played, and we're only two weeks into the Big 12 season, right? Two or three? Three. Sorry. Three weeks into the Big 12 season, and they are essentially out of college football playoff contention. Texas got a loss. Oklahoma's lost twice. There's a couple undefeated teams that they're not going to do anything. Like, it's like I've never seen the Big 12 shit themselves this quickly, honestly. I mean, there's only 10 games in the season for them, right? And usually the Big 12 is either going to be Texas or it's going to be Oklahoma.

Oklahoma's already lost twice back-to-back weeks. Texas lost lost to TCU who I don't think is doing that well but maybe maybe TCU is going to come out and be a hot team but other than Texas and Oklahoma I don't even know who would be an option in Big 12 right now yeah that's a really good point with the Big 10 struggle or the the Big 12 struggling this early it kind of paves the way for a team from the big 10 to make the playoffs and what I've noticed is interesting so far is Michigan moved up three spots in the AP poll by not even playing a game so by the time the season rolls around in like two and a half three weeks Michigan might be ranked it could be a top 15 program yep and I've seen I mean Minnesota I believe is ranked 24th or 25th, I believe, too.

So both those teams could be in the top 20 by the time that opening game rolls around. So who knows? It's going to be a big game, obviously. We know that from our standpoint. But it could be on the national level as well. Isn't that shocking to you guys that michigan's ranked higher than minnesota right now or is there just me that is a little bit bizarre i feel like yeah they're kind of on equal footing in my mind minnesota has a lot more impact players

that are returning rashad bateman just opted back, and there's a ton of question marks with all the starters Michigan lost, but you'd have to think just from a talent perspective, the Wolverines have an upper hand in the quality of players for all four years that they have there. So it's really a toss-up, but having the game be on the road, it tilts the board in Minnesota's direction in my mind. It's going to be a tough matchup. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what the betting lines are on that one, if it'll favor Minnesota at home. I think it'll be interesting to see, especially on the gambling side, a little bit. I'm more into that than any of you guys, I think.

Yet you went 0-2 last week on our picks. Well, you know what? You win some, you lose some, all right? I'm bouncing back this week right i'm bouncing back this week i'm bouncing back this week who was undefeated there was a right caleb was you know i was uh one and one i was close to my upset bc almost had unc i you still owe me 10 bucks, bro. I do. Jack's texting me on, like, Saturday. I don't even know what time it was. But I'm like, dude, I've already had five beers.

And he's just like, yeah, let's do this bet, this bet, and this bet. And I'm just like, sure, whatever. I, like, didn't even know what we bet until I woke up the next morning. So, yeah, I'll send you $10. He's hustled you. That's right, baby. He's hustled me right i want to go back to the text because i literally said to him i was like you literally do whatever man you literally did because i think the first one was the line was uh 14 and a half and i said okay if unc wins by 21 or something

you'll get 20 or like unc covers you'll get 10 if they win by 21 you'll get 20 if bc wins i'll get 10 if they win by 7 i get 20 i was like wait that doesn't make any sense and especially when you came back so confident i was like i gotta look at this again and then try again on that i i literally didn't even look at the text i couldn't even i couldn't even follow it when you said it just now let alone when i was drinking it at the time reading trying to read my phone so i was just like yeah sure man i'm in so anyway so yeah i'll lend you 10 bucks right now don't worry about it yeah um so uh another thing that we put this out on our Twitter in the news, Rich Rod is in the podcast game now.

So it's actually a funny thing. So it's his daughter and him on this podcast. They've only put out like one podcast so far. And he had one of his old assistants, I believe, on there as a guest. His daughter is really good friends with my brother's girlfriend. So that's how my brother sent it to me. He's like, you guys got some competition now. So, you know, it was just funny.

And we put out some funny stuff on Twitter about that, too. But we'll see. You know, maybe we can get rich rod on the podcast here maybe we can do a little collaborative collaborative uh effort so is he like retired basically now like not coaching i think so he was at that could be on that dude i saw a video of him freaking out in the booth at old miss amazing dude his yeah his face used to look like it was gonna explode when he got heated just red row tomato face and just veins popping everywhere he was the original he was i just gotta get him out yeah i was kind of surprised that you know lane kiffin's like an

offensive guy i was kind of surprised he didn't want to have rich rod stay on at old miss as like an analyst or something. I don't know. I'm sure Rich Rod's very okay with, you know, how much money he's made in retirement now. Speaking of old Michigan coaches, I saw a picture of Brady Hoke looking real trim. Did you guys see this?

Dude, he's like very skinny. It's not even like he just lost like 20 pounds and he slimmed down but still fat. He's like really thin. It's wild. Brady Hoke's been on the keto diet, I heard, from the inside source. Nice. The sources are good. Sources.

And he's still the head coach at San Diego State, right? Last I heard. Yeah. So, all right. So. Old Michigan coaches out there making moves, obviously. And then Cam Newton has the Rona, guys.

Okay, I don't understand it. How does Cam Newton, the guy that touches the ball in literally every play and talks to everybody in the huddle, get the Rona and the rest of the team they had no other positives how does that they all held their breath while he talks must have been yeah i mean apparently it's super rare to get it from touching other surfaces yet we're still queening everything every surface we touch at all times but the fact that he's in a

huddle like talking to guys and nobody else got it, I don't know. That's amazing. Good for them. Kind of weird. Could be a false positive too. Who knows? Could be a false positive. They're playing right now without him.

Is it Jarrett Stidham is starting for him? Brian Hoyer. Brian Hoyer, MSU, Sparty. For all our Sparty listeners out there. There you go. There you go. Hoyer is the goat, obviously Hoyt doesn't Hoyer have Hoyer might have a couple of Superbowl

rings or something. I feel like he was a backup on the Patriots for a while when they won Superbowl. Yeah. Thank you. Right. So does Chad Henney though. Chad Henney won one with the,

with the chiefs last year. So. Oh, one Superbowl is worth two Brian Harder Super Bowls. Exactly. Actually, though, there's that one picture, Michigan State picture going around of, is it Cousins, Hoyer, and who's the other? Nick Foles.

They have, like, at one point, MSU had three NFL starting quarterbacks on their roster. Foles transferred, right? It was like Foles' only day on campus. Yeah. I barely remember Nick Foles being at MSU. No. No.

Just Arizona. Don't worry, though. I've seen so many MSU people claim him as a Spartan, which is comical. All right. All right. I had to get my one MSU chirping for the day. Um, let's get into our, one of our, you know, that was like the longest intro of all because there's so much going on, but let's get into our, our first topic here. Um, so Eric, you're obviously kind of our recruiting guy for uh wolverinedigest.com so let's do a little you know rudders recruiting update here what's going on in the michigan recruiting world so it seems like it's i think everyone expected recruiting to slow down with

the season like a month away and these high school kids are going through their games now too so they're not exactly as available as they were before but a couple minor what transgressions over the last week or so Michigan was still recruiting Jaden Thomas at wide receiver and he pledged to Notre Dame on Friday so he's off the board. But later that day, I talked to Giovanni El-Hadid at his football game, and he highlighted two specific guys that he's still going after. One of them being, you know, everyone's favorite uncommitted recruit right now, Donovan Edwards. And Drew Kendall, a kid who's kind of been trending towards Boston College the last couple weeks, he said he's still been on him too. So there's still a little glimmer of hope there.

And then for the third one, Elhady said he's looking for Michigan to pick up another wideout. He doesn't exactly have a target on who that is, but he thinks Michigan is still looking to add another guy at that position for the 2021 class. Okay. All right. All right. We'll take it. So, yeah, I mean, they've been on Donovan Edwards for a long time and, and it kind of seemed like Drew Kendall came on just in the

last month or two, couple months probably. And so those guys, you know, those are our big targets. What would you say, is there a position that you know Michigan really needs to to land somebody at right now still yeah probably two positions uh defensive tackle is a big one there's no DTs currently committed Rayshon Benny is probably the closest uh to picking Michigan and I feel pretty good about his chances in doing so. But George Rooks is a guy from the East Coast. He goes to, like, St. Peter's Prep, I believe. And there were rumors of him making his announcement on Friday also, but he pushed it back too.

So that's another one Michigan's going to have to fight off. I think Virginia, Boston College, Rutgers are in the mix. So on the surface, it would seem the wolverines have a pretty big advantage there but those schools out on the east coast they've been on him for a lot longer so that's kind of what a feather in their cap at least yeah and i i it it kind of has been out of the blue a little bit i know a lot of these guys that we're going after right now are on the east coast but boston college seems to have come out of nowhere and be the front runner for like multiple guys. And they've landed a couple of guys over Michigan, which I just, you don't see, you know, those two programs

on the same playing level. It's very hard for me to, to picture a kid picking Boston college in the ACC over Michigan, you know, where Boston College hasn't made a dent in anything in a long time. So what's the reason for that? Well, it's interesting. Just a couple of weeks ago, Boston College stole Casey Finney from Michigan. He flipped in favor. Right. Yeah. I honestly think that was kind of a mutual agreement type of deal. If there was one player that Michigan would be OK with looking elsewhere, it was Casey Finney. And Boston College is close to home. Drew Kendall, his dad played football at BC. So there's a huge connection there being a legacy kid and having the opportunity to continue that at the next level.

I can see how that would be attractive to him too. Gotcha. So give us a little insight too, and I'm always very curious about this. Nowadays, it happens 10 times more than before, but when a guy commits and he's committed, whether it's early or late or something, these other schools don't just say, all right, we're done with them. They keep going after them. You know, how does that, you know, how does Michigan say they get a commitment and how do they keep the contact moving with that kid to make sure that he's, you know, firmly committed and how do they handle, you know, maybe somebody who's committed elsewhere, how do they keep pursuing another kid if he he even if he's a commit uh to another school well you know that's about the exact position that michigan was in with marcus

allen because he was what the staff's first wide receiver commit this cycle and then the staff added christian dixon and xavier worthy and they were looking for a fourth one too and andrell anthony eventually entered the fold as well. So as Michigan kept picking up more wide receiver commits, Allen didn't feel that he was as wanted of a commodity. And that was a big reason why he chose to pursue other options. And right now he's looking at schools like Cincinnati and Kentucky are in the mix. He's been hearing from Ohio State, but they haven't offered yet. But each of those programs that are going after him, you best believe that they were

letting him know how many other guys Michigan had committed at the position and how many young, talented wide receivers are on Michigan's roster too. And they sort of played the amount of depth Michigan has against Marcus Allen. And eventually he did go look for other options. And kind of on the other side, when you said, how does Michigan pursue guys who are committed to other schools? We're seeing that a little bit here and there. Brandon Brown just put out an article of Michigan pursuing Florida State commit Omarion Cooper. And that's just staying in touch with him, seeing how the season is going,

sending him the graphics that the recruiting department puts out there. I think they look pretty nice. And not that that's a huge factor in a kid's decision, but Mike Zordich being the cornerbacks coach, he's done a really good job of identifying talent he wants. One of those is Cooper committed to Florida State. So he's going to stay in that kid's ear all the way until signing day, whether he signs on the early period in December or later on. And if recruiting visits are put back on the table January 1st, which it looks like that will be the case, Michigan still has another month and some change to host kids on official visits.

So maybe they could pull a commit if that were to happen. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. It's just so, it's so interesting to me. I mean, as a, as a coach, that's gotta be the most frustrating thing. You know, you do the, the amount of work that goes into land a commit is, you know, astronomical at this point in the year 2020, they, you know. They're spending so much money in recruiting. They're putting so much effort.

How many texts and phone calls and visits and attention a kid gets, and then you finally land them, and then you have them going well, and then maybe a month down the road or two months down the road, like Marcus Allen, they try to pursue other options. So, I don't know, that's just got to be one of those things that's just exhausting for a college football coach. Well, right now, Michigan has like 20 commits, I believe, and with so many, the coaches on the staff and the assistant coaches really do kind of have to juggle

which kids they're staying the most in touch with. So you're looking at Sharon Moore focusing on two or three main guys that are committed already. Ed Warner has his guys on the O-line. So when they break it up like that, it's a little bit easier, but they still have to balance that with recruits that are uncommitted that they want to land. So it's really an around- clock 24 7 type of job i mean it's just like when i used to do it on ncaa 14 right where it's just like you have a certain amount of calls you can make and you got to split them up right i i'm assuming they just have you know 20 phone calls on there and you can only put six to you know here and you know, you know, two to here. So I'm sure I would. To discuss it like that, but you're exactly right.

It is, yeah. I mean, I was stressing a lot about my dynasty. So I imagine it's just as stressful of a job as the real thing. All right. All right. So anything else that we should know about right now? I know, you know, things will probably ramp up a little bit more. Will they be hosting anybody on campus for games or is that all completely, you know, off the table right now? Yeah, I think there's a possibility. Recruits can still visit right now,

but they just can't have direct contact with the staff outside of a 60-minute FaceTime conversation, I believe. But just a few days ago, offensive lineman from the East Coast, his name is Sullivan Weidman, and I think he's in the 2022 class. He's a younger kid, but he visited Ann Arbor over the weekend. So kids are still getting out there, but it'll have to be a lot more of a concerted effort on their own to visit. And I know Michigan is planning to, well, Michigan commits. They're planning to come to campus for one of the games this year. J.J. McCarthy's parents are organizing that. So that'll be a big recruiting visit for both some commits and targets that they'd like to add. And Eric, I don't want to go too deep into the into the recruiting stuff i know we've been talking about it for a second but you went to the uh

stevenson game and obviously you were there to watch giovanni el hadid i guess what was the biggest thing that you saw to him because it sounds like just from following your twitter account that he was playing multiple positions and kind of making a lot of plays out there yeah geo's a kid that you'll never hear someone claiming that he doesn't play through the whistle and he doesn't finish his blocks because there were moments where so he started off at right tackle and then he bounced to left tackle later in the game but early on when he's at right tackle and pass protection he starts over there with the kid and then you see the play run in uh like to the strong side then he's

blocking the kid to the weak side for a solid 10 like you're kind of following the play a little bit and then you see geo just dart off in the other direction as he buries a kid and that was something that really stood out because he was giving kids the business and then even during uh downtimes when there were stoppages in play, he was helping to coach up some of his teammates, too. If he was seeing things in, like, the blocking area that they weren't seeing, he'd kind of coach them up a little bit. So that was nice to see. And like you mentioned, he was playing a lot of different spots. On defense, he was playing D-tackle and defensive end.

I thought he was a little more productive and made a bigger impact at defensive tackle. But it's cool to see a kid that's that versatile. You could throw him anywhere on the line, and he'll do well. And he even mentioned that he's open to playing offensive guard in college. So if you consider that, that's basically every position at the line of scrimmage. Yeah, huge. Yeah, he seems like an athletic kid, not only just big, but he can move pretty well, I think, which is his biggest advantage there.

And one thing, too, so I just want to touch on one more guy that I noticed from a couple either last week or the week before. I know you weren't there, but I saw Bryce Marich was there watching Alex Van Sumeren, younger brother of Ben Van Sumeren, before um i know you weren't there but i saw bryce marriage was there um watching alex van sumerin uh younger brother of ben van sumerin who's a wolverine um he looked just absolutely jacked i mean so big and could move he actually he's so he's was is he a d lineman or a linebacker but he was also playing running back too yeah he's a d tackle and that's probably where he's, is he a D lineman or a linebacker? But he was also playing running back too. Yeah, he's a D tackle.

And that's probably where he's going to start out at for Michigan. But you look at his brother and he played linebacker and fullback in a short time in Ann Arbor. So you can kind of see like they're pretty similar in that respect. Both really strong, hard-nosed dudes. And I think that's something the staff really likes about Alex and and he is I saw it was he 6'4 like 285 I think it is or something like that like on and he was like the things I saw he was like taking handoffs like 285 for an incoming freshman is absolutely insane I mean I my my cousin Craig, he came in as a DN at 235. So he ended up at, I think, 270, 280, something like that.

So for a guy to come in already at 285, I know D-tackle, you've got to be bigger, but I just think that that dude's going to be the real deal when he gets on to campus. And imagine, you know, at 6'4, two 85 or six, five, two 85, whatever he is, give him one year in a, in a college weight program. He's going to be over three bills easy. So that that's a, that's a, I'm pretty excited about, about Alex and Sumerian going in to to the future here. All right. So we've talked about the, the, you in to the future here. All right, so we've talked about the future here.

Let's talk about the current team that we've got. So we've only got less than three weeks away. The team has been practicing, obviously. I believe we saw they went into full pads this past week is what the coaching staff said. So probably some different things shook out in practice. I think the focus, you know, there's been so much focus on Joe Milton in the offense here, but a lot of people are forgetting about the defense. So, you know, on Michigan's defense, they've got a lot of returners on the front seven, the linebackers and the D linemen. Those should be strengths.

Do you guys think that the secondary, after losing a few people, including Ambry Thomas, who has said that he's not coming back, can they hold their weight to make sure that the defense does very well? Kalen, I'll go to you first here to start the roundtable. Yeah, I mean, the secondary is always a good place to start, especially for Michigan's defense under Don Brown, right? Because, I mean, we do have a modern history of giving up big plays in that secondary. So, I mean, so getting that secondary shored up is good. But I think Coach Z, who has been there for a long time, has a great history of producing some really great lockdown corners.

I mean, I just think of Jordan Lewis stretched out against Wisconsin. Right. I mean, I have full faith in him to get all those young guys prepared. So do I think the secondary is going to perform this year? Remains to be seen, but I have hope. And I think that's about as good as it can get. Yeah, Cale, and I think that's a good point because especially when we look at the offensive line, it's the same thing, right? But we know with the coaching staff at those position groups, they have a good proven track record. So it's a question mark. We don't really know what's going to happen um we've got faith in the coaches at those positions to be able to develop guys that are going to be able to produce but i guess my question to you eric is with um ambry leaving we've kind of heard some

rumblings just from just from the media about possibly daxton hill moving to moving to cornerback do you think that could be a real a real thing that may happen thisback, do you think that could be a real thing that may happen this season? Or do you think that they've got other guys lined up that are able to take that spot? You know, it's a really good option. And it's always nice to have that card if you're defensive coordinator Don Brown in the back of your pocket, that you can move Dax to the cornerback position. Because what if some injuries happen throughout the course of the year and the Wolverines find themselves really light at that number two corner spot having Dax Hill who can come down and play nickel we've already seen that happen having him bounce to the outside is a nice stop gap now I don't think that's the game plan for him to start out there if when week one

rolls around against Minnesota and he's not at the safety position, I'd be really surprised. But just before we hopped on the podcast, Don Brown was doing one of his own podcasts or it was a radio interview. I'm not sure. But he mentioned that Jermon Green is the leader in the clubhouse. Those were the words he used for the number two cornerback spot. So while it's honestly a position that really worries me who that other corner is going to be, it sounds like Green might have an advantage. And we've heard a lot about DJ Turner being a guy that can work in there too. Yeah. Yeah, I think that, I mean, if I'm looking at the importance of a position in the defensive

secondary, safety is probably the most important right i know don brown's a little bit different because you have to have those lockdown corners because he sends guys on blitzes all the time so they're in man but as far as being the quarterback of the defense you know that's the safety position so you probably want your best cover guy maybe not man-to-man cover guy but but Dax Hill being that fast, fast guy, you know, if he can handle calling the defense, he's probably going to end up at that safety position. And I actually do think that it's, we have a good, you know, Michigan's got a good balance

between Brad Hawkins that has the veteran leadership, you back there maybe not the the athletic ability of dax hill but then dax has that athletic ability to kind of balance that out to make the plays i think they have a decent uh job you know decent combination there um but i think we're all worried about that you know vincent gray i think is probably pretty good on one side but we're all worried about that other side um in in the cornerback position so it'll be interesting I I do you guys think uh anybody can hop in here do you guys think that Don Brown will adjust at all this year and be a little different in his schemes maybe not send as many blitzes and not put as much pressure on the secondary because they know they he knows they might uh not be able to handle as much no absolutely not solve your problems with aggression

we can try to read this we could try to do that fuck that we're going right that's what he said that's his philosophy that's what we're doing next question i don't know man um first of all i'm not gonna say he's probably pretty good he's one of the he's the best db returning even though ambry's gone if ambry was coming back vincent gray would have been the number one guy in my opinion from what i've seen i love what i see out of vincent gray but i feel like there's got to be pressure on don brown to change something right i mean he's been on the hot seat after two big blogs to ohio state and i understand it's ohio state but ohio state's not beating everybody with with 60 50 60 points so

i think there'll be some pressure for him to change his scheme a little bit maybe just in that game but i don't know especially with new guys too you feel like there's got to be he's he's i'm hoping he has something up his sleeve well speaking of speaking of Don Brown, though, he did say something this week about like we practice for Ohio State every day. Right. And that was good to hear because I felt like for a while now we kept hearing about Ohio State preparing for Michigan. And I wasn't hearing so much about that from us preparing for them. Eric, I don't know if you've heard any more than I have about something like that. Well, hearing that out in the media is really a positive sign because I think everybody who's followed Michigan the last couple years knows that if that game at the end of the season, if it goes the same way it has been the last couple years, it's not good for Don Brown's

future with the team. If they weren't practicing for Ohio State every single week before or every single practice prior, they needed to this year. And at least for him to get that message, it's a step in the right direction. I think that if Don Brown doesn't have the linebackers and the secondary going up against crossing routes every single practice of this year then he should be probably out of here so um if i see a single one one more crossing route against ohio state um go for you know 50 yards or go for a touchdown i'm gonna lose it um it will be interesting to see you know obviously don brown brown hot seat i don't know if that's the right word but there's been a lot of pressure on don brown that's for sure

um so it'll be interesting that seat is cooking it is very warm so um we'll we'll see we'll see you know he's got some good offenses to play against this year. That's for sure. You know, four out of the eight games, I'd say, are really good offenses. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Penn State, and Ohio State, obviously. And then you throw in Indiana there, who's always thrown up a lot of points, especially in the passing game. So it'll be interesting to see how he handles this year and the patience that Michigan fans have for Don Brown by the end of the year because I think, you know, they've seen enough.

We know what Don Brown brings to the table. He does really well against the not-so-great teams, and then sometimes, you know, he gives up some bigger points against some of some some of the better teams so i could see do you guys could you guys see something happening you know developing throughout the season say say michigan gives up 28 points to minnesota in the opener um could there already be pressure on down brown week one i wouldn't say to minnesota no because we know they're a proven solid team but let's say hmm who do we play i mean sparty what if he gives

up 40 to sparty with a new head coach then you know but right but you know then i think it's more of like okay what the hell is going on? Yeah. Or you get pushed around by Wisconsin again, right? Or something like that. Well, speaking of Wisconsin, did you guys hear that their starting quarterback is out indefinitely right now? Yeah, Cohen is out. Yeah.

So and so that's interesting, too. But I've all heard good things about their backup. His name is slipping my mind right now. But their backup, I believe, is four-star like dual threat guy. So not, not was maybe not even dual threat, but he's, I think he's a really solid recruiter,

solid guy coming in. So there was even some people saying that they thought that he would kind of win the battle halfway through the year if, if Cone was average or so. So it'll be interesting. I don't know. It's just one of those things that I think that the Michigan fan base has figured out what Don Brown is, and it's not good enough for a lot of people out there. So, you know, in a shortened season, I can see some rumblings if things don't go that well. And you know the toughest mashups for Michigan, at least from a defensive perspective, to me they're at both ends of the schedule.

Opening it on the road against Minnesota is tough, and we're going to find out a lot about the quality of Michigan's defense this year. And then this is certainly not a hot take, but going against osu is never an easy venture so that'll be big yeah and especially opening up right against rashad bateman which last year in you know in previous years um like kj hamler has killed him kj hill has killed him you know it's like that even if even if the opponent has one speedy guy, it breaks down Michigan's defense sometimes. So it'll be interesting to see how Don Brown handles that at the beginning of the year

and then throughout the season. Let's move on, though, to some non-football talk. I know we're very close to football, there's some michigan uh basketball in the news right now um duncan robinson is in the nba finals what a state what a sentence duncan robinson is a starter in the nba finals would you ever have believed you know go back to 2018 where he was the sixth man in michigan's final four run if somebody would have told me that yeah duncan robinson will start for the for in the nba finals in two years i would have called anybody saying that crazy i mean kaylin you you know from when we were watching the the tournament run a couple years. I'm not going to say that I would have guessed he was going to be in the

NBA Finals, but I was saying Slim Diesel for Player of the Year. I didn't even know who it was until Jack was going like, dude, Slimmy D. I was like, Slimmy D. Slimmy D is my boy.

I mean, he's making an impact. Yeah, not only is he starting in the NBA finals he's hitting big triples over players like LeBron it's huge run why it is that's like a storybook like like you know life right there that's amazing someone's got a movie about his progression once his career is over right yeah who's gonna who's gonna play duncan robinson in the movie that's what i want what if this isn't even like his greatest height he's still really early in his career and especially with a guy with a guy who plays the way he does he's a shooter it's a three-point shooter you see guys like ray allen uh staff will

be able to play in the game forever because worst-case scenario, he can post up a three-point line and take a couple jumpers a game. Right now, Duncan Robinson is a top-five three-point shooter all time. All time in the NBA in his second year. Unbelievable. I think he had the best three-point field goal percentage this past season in the NBA. But, like I said said he's making an impact even when he's not touching the ball I mean you see guys are guarding him tight on the three

point line and he players are able to drive the lane without getting that second guy coming at him and it gives them an opportunity to score a basket so good for him man um I'm great to see I mean great story like you guys are saying going from d3 to Michigan basketball he has a great first year ends up being a sixth man is his senior year and now he's in the nba finals starting insane what was that thing on instagram where he was like sending out something to like get an internship like sending feelers out yeah he gets me playing it's amazing mark titus right yeah titus who's an ohio state guy actually but he he works with fox sports i believe and and does some college basketball stuff on them so duncan robinson was

texting him like hey my name is duncan robinson i'm play for the michigan basketball team i'd love to talk to you like basically doing you know uh trying to get an interview with them to to play because he was I'm sure in his senior year at Michigan like all right I'm you know I'm the sixth man on this you know roster and you know I he's probably just assuming he goes to the G League maybe has a couple tryouts and then you you know, it maybe is done. We all, we all assume that, right? Like I assume that he would maybe be a three point shooter in the G league for a little bit, but then like, you know, it just defensively and everything else probably not going to work out for him.

And then like, I saw some people like, okay, Duncan, you can probably delete your LinkedIn now. Like, you're okay. You don't need to look for any more jobs or internships. You know, I didn't see Mark Titus respond to him. How funny would it be if because Duncan is a Michigan guy, he just ghosted it from the get-go and then remembered a couple years later like hey i had this kid asking for me could have happened very likely i mean what maybe duncan doesn't if like if he gets

that opportunity maybe duncan doesn't even try to go to the nba i mean i feel like that's a very real possibility there's some alternate universe if he's got some opportunity to go work with fox sports or something like yeah a guy like that i wouldn't doubt it if he just doesn't even give it a shot because he thinks that's where he's at i don't know i don't know it's kind of crazy my effect with duncan robinson could go so many different ways oh yeah i i think too this is like a a hot take that maybe and it's it's a negative one to be honest with you about duncan robinson it may be just i i might be you can hate it you can hate it all right so he's done really well in the nba bubble in an arena with zero crowd, right? He's very used to playing in front of no crowds.

He played at the D3 level. He played at, you know, in the G League. He played at, you know, in high school. Michigan was the only real place that he's played in front of big crowds, and he ended up being the sixth man. So what if he gets done with his year and then he gets it like next year they go into real nba arenas all of a sudden he can't handle it and he can't shoot anymore i mean it wasn't like this year that he didn't play in big arenas and not have big games he was having big games before the bubble hit i'm pretty sure yeah that's true i don't even i don't even like do you even watch basketball justin have you well i don't remember life before the bubble all i remember is for blacked out i blacked out

under the dome covid has been going on for like at least 12 years i keep seeing these memes i keep seeing these memes on instagram have you guys be seeing these where like it's like man when lebron gets home brony's gonna get his ass beat he did brony put a blunt or a joint on his on his instagram story like bro come on you're brony james you gotta just stop sending pictures out, man. Oh, my gosh. You know people are viewing that, like, immediately and screenshotting the shit out of it. Yeah, it's Instagram Live. He was smoking, like, smoking a fucking joint. Dude, I mean, come on, man. LeBron's going to come home and whoop that ass.

Yeah, he's got to sit him down with a PR person like yesterday. Yeah. They should have had a PR person, like like coaching him up out of the womb are you kidding me freaking lebron james well yeah you shouldn't really need a professional to tell you not to do that yeah that's true very true that's true i did see two um jamal adams did you see that picture? Jamal Adams, a former coroner for the Jets, and he was in the league for a while, but he was watching the NFL from home and posted a picture, and there was a joint on the table.

He deleted it immediately and then reposted it with the joint photoshopped out but obviously somebody screenshotted it and then like immediately put it side by side it was very very funny that's amazing did he just put like a snapchat emoji on top of it yeah he should have it's medicinal it was a pretty good photoshop job i'll say that for as quickly as he did it, but still. Might not be the first time he's made that mistake. Who knows? Oh, shit. Photoshop team on speed dial. All right.

Anybody else got anything before we head to our zero to 90s here? No. We talked about quite a bit here. So, um, all right, so let's go to everyone has zero to 90. I don't, I don't.

We'll, we'll roll with the flow. All right. All right. Who wants first? Who wants first dibs here? I'll go first. Cause my internet just broke up and now it's good.

So I'm just gonna make sure I can get my words in While the internet is working Okay great Alright Jack You ready to go Yes sir Your 0-90 starts now Alright Matt Patricia you still suck

But I think If he If something miraculous can happen Where he can get the team to buy in, he's going to admit that he's an asshole and yada, yada, yada, the Lions are going to go 500 the remainder of the season. And Patricia will still get fired. Wait, is that a win or what? I don't know.

Is that like? I don't know. It is like – I don't know. It is what it is, you know? That's like the first example I've ever heard of subtraction by addition. There you go. It's a good thing because I want the Lions to go 1-15 and tank for whoever. But, I mean, if anything at this this point, keep Patricia trade Stafford. God, I just feel so bad for the guy.

He's so talented and he, he's not going to be able to win with the lions trade Stafford. I think this is one of his years where his salary is not like crazy high. Um, so it'd be a doable year. Um, I don't know, man. I mean, the lions got to rebuild somewhere and I think they got to get rid of the head coach. Stafford just deserves better. so get rid of him. Don't treat him like you did Calvin and Barry Sanders.

Let him get an opportunity. But, yeah, not a super positive hot take. No, I mean, anytime you talk about the Detroit Lions, it's not going to be very positive. But I do think, like, I think's not going to be very positive um but I do think like I think Stafford needs to be more of like we need to pull a Verlander kind of with them and I'm much higher on Stafford than I was Verlander to be honest I'm not a big Verlander guy but I think it's just like one of those things where like all right he's done his time here he's

given his all in my opinion if I i think if he's got a change of scenery he does pretty well and also then the lions can hopefully dump that contract which the contract definitely holds them back it's like they spent yeah so much money so i mean if he still had called well i think it would be worth it but you you get rid of the guy who he was most successful under and you bring in a defensive coach, but you still got this huge contract, makes no sense to me. Makes no sense. And you know it's just such an awful environment for a player to be in

when your description is, okay, he's done his time. Let's do him a solid and put him on a legitimate team. Right. 100%. It's where we're at. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you can't go in go in obviously like no matter where they're

at no matter if patricia stays or doesn't this year they're in rebuild mode you can't rebuild with a you know veteran quarterback you have to start fresh kind of if that's what your your mode is so all right good good depressing take now i want to go cry. All right. Who's next? I'll go. All right, Kalen. You ready? Yeah. Your zero to 90 starts now.

Okay. The average NFL linebacker is 6'2", 245. Joe Milton is 6'5", 240. So even if he's not running like a 4'4", dude, if Joe Milton lays the shoulder on some corner somewhere, that corner is going to feel it for a week. So I don't care how fast Joe Milton is. Just let him run the ball to the outside of the field,

lay the wood on some kid, and then let's just run teams over. I don't care. I just want to win games. Joe Milton, 2020. It's a first down. I love it. I love it. and then let's just run teams over i don't care i just want to win games joe milton 2020 it's a first down i love it i love it i love it i mean i really have been i know cam has the rona right now but i watched cam how they ran cam newton at the uh you know in new england and he like if they get anywhere near the goal line they just just snap it to him, and he just finds a lane and goes. And it's worked, like, 80% of the time.

So, I don't hate that at all. He's got to stay healthy, though, because, you know, I'm not super confident in Cade McNamara, but I still do. Dan Malari. Dan Malari, second-round draft pick. Future second-round draft pick. Oh, God. But I do love that, like, Michigan for the first time since, you know,

Denard probably has that option of a running quarterback. So that should be fun to watch. All right, Eric, you ready? Lay it on me. All right, your 0 to 90 starts now. So even without Nico Collins being part of the offense this year, which obviously that's a huge loss, but everyone's looking towards Ronnie Bell because he was actually,

even if Nico came back, he was the returning receiving leader like in yardage. So everyone expects him to be the top guy this year. And while he probably will be the number one option, I think Michigan will go to him on a more consistent basis. I've got Giles Jackson outperforming him in the yardage category this year. And we saw a little clip on, I think it was off of like a Snapchat story where Giles Jackson was running a go route, a little bit of a fade towards the corner and with you know uh big arm joe milton back there slinging it the ball just zipped out there fell right in his lap easy

touchdown six points and we're gonna see a lot of that this fall love it love it that clip honestly it got me so hyped that was i that was like the turning point of i saw him put it up to Giles, and I was like, oh, boy. Even if we see that every so often, I'm like, dude, I'm all in. I'm all in. Give me that four times a game minimum. Exactly. Exactly. They should have done that ten times a game to Nico last year.

So if you don't do it this year to anybody, either Ronnie or Giles or whoever else, I'm going to be pissed. I don't want to live in the past, but just imagine if you had Nico on one side, Giles on the other, and then Ronnie Bell working the slot. It's a nice thing. Don't even get me started. Don't even get me started. What could have been? All right.

Somebody got me here yeah i got you okay one second are we still doing the timer i've i've totally given up on it i've been i've been counting in my head honestly oh i do mississippi's real slow i think don and connor last week went over by like 30 seconds so i just i just let him. If I don't stop, Roe will be here all night. That's true. All right, Roe. Your zero to 90 starts now. All right.

Don Brown's gotten a lot of shit, right? I think this is going to be the year that he surprises everybody somehow. And I think it's going to be because he's had the talent, right? But he's going to have to he he's had the talent right but he's going to have to figure it out some other way so he's going to like almost trip into it somehow accidentally and figure out how to stop the crossing routes how to stop the big plays and he's going to use his other you know he's not going to be able to send everybody on blitzes i'm sorry caitlin every single time as much as i love it but he's going to have to uh adjust and then he's you know i think he's gonna surprise some people and

maybe even against ohio state maybe probably not but maybe yeah i'm with it okay i hope he figures it out i don't i don't feel believers in this group right now there's some awkward silence right there oh i hope it's true man shit i'm sorry i wish i could root for michigan like the way i root for the lions where like i just know there's no shot. But with Michigan, I just have so much hope. That's so true. And just so much belief that we can do it. But with the Lions, I'm like, all right, well, I'm going to watch it

because they're my home team. But, like, if they lose, like, whatever. It doesn't bother me. I'm going to start betting against Michigan. Imagine if you at least make money. At least I can have a happy day. Either I make money or Michigan wins. I'm happy to pay and lose money for Michigan to win.

I'm fine with that. I might just start doing that. Just bet on the over for the point spread. So even if Michigan gets outscored, as long as they put a bunch on the board, you're a winner no matter what. Okay. I like that. That's better. That way I can still root for Michigan.

Good call. And you're rooting for points and excitement. That's better. That way I can still root for Michigan. Good call. And you're rooting for points and excitement. That's a good call. That's an easy way to introduce people into gambling if they're not big on it already. Oh, just hit the over every single day. Love it. Love it. Hey, sportsbooks are open in Michigan, people.

You've got to hit up Greek Town. Greek Town. I saw Gun Lake, I think a couple couple uh places i think it's the barstool sports book at at greek town so you guys that was bad advice we're about to hear jack be like man i just got rid of my new house gambling yeah yeah yeah we're moving back into Pinckney. Jack gambles away his whole mortgage. He's got one of those virtual backgrounds behind him. It makes it look like a house. He's really like under a bridge somewhere.

What's all that noise? Oh, it's our, we got a sound maker. It's like white noise. It's just semis going over the highway. Skype can blur out your background so you can't see all the homeless guys behind you or whatever. All right, boys. Um, I think that's all we've got for today. And anybody else have any last thoughts that they'd like to, uh, like to put in here?

Eric, Eric, let's see where Wolverine digest.com are you eric rudder wd on twitter is that right yep eric rudder wd if you go on our website i put up a couple stories after talking to john jansen today we caught up over the weekend and i think those are pretty good reads all right check them out on twitter check them out at wolverinedigest.com check us out at blueby90 on twitter and instagram as well as youtube and subscribe and like

as far as anything else we'll see you soon I think we'll have a couple other people on here later this week or next week and with that go blue go blue thanks guys go blue week. And with that, Go Blue! Go Blue! Thanks guys. Go Blue! See you next time. Outro Music