Blue By Ninety - Game Week I Von Lozon Joins The Show

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

It's finally game week! Justin and Joel preview Michigan's opener against WMU and welcome Maize n Brew's Von Lozon to the show.

All right. Welcome back to Blueby 90. I'm Justin joined by Joel Honigford. We are presented by Feldman Chevrolet of Highland. Go check out Feldman Chevy of Highland.com for all the new deals on your Silveradoes and Tahos and everything there. Joel, it's Game Week, baby. It is. We are finally, finally here. I can't wait, man. I'm pumped. We are in Game Week. It's nice to be talking. about Michigan football from the aspect of about to play a game. We've talked about them in the offseason about a lot of things other than that. So it's good to, as Jim Harbaugh would say, some new buzz. We are in game. We're three days out, three days out from the game. I'm trying to think of some notable players with the number three. I can't. Andrew Marsh. Oh, yeah, Andrew Marsh. Andrew Marsh. Andrew Marsh, you changed. He was four. Now he's three. AJ Henning.

Yep, okay. Current Miami Dolphin. Shout out. How about him just having a low-key, decent career in the NFL? I know. He's doing well for himself. Yeah. I'm trying to think.

Who else do that? Yeah, it feels good. I'm glad to be back to your point. Just I want to talk about football. You know, like I don't want to talk about what we, you know, the investigations and scandals or what, you know, blah, blah, blah, like, you know, everything. Even even in this off season, just talking about like jersey patches and sponsors in the stadium and blah, like, I want to just be able to like, all right, how did the offense look?

You know, I'm so excited to be able to have that conversation here come next Sunday. Yeah, I am as well. It's going to be a fun weekend. you know from the fans perspective we'll get into this in a little bit but it'll be nice to watch at night right you can have your day Saturday get done what you got to get done but we got to game we got a game at night under the lights home opener season opener against the Broncos of western Michigan exciting time of the year like I said there actually is a tree on my street where the leaves are starting to change and fall it feels nice feels really

nice. Let me let me ask you about the the night game home opener. You know, I think we did just talk about the Washington game back in 2021. That one was crazy because it was coming off of COVID, et cetera, et cetera. But I mean, what's the, I know, I know every player loves a noon game because you don't have to sit around. You wake up and you're ready to rock rather than like sitting in the hotel all day and just thinking about things. But still, night. game home opener's got to give you a little juice, right? It does. It does for sure.

With the first game of the season being a night game, it is nice. As a player, yes, night games are not the most fun or enjoyable. And here's why, because you're going to the hotel on Friday. You're going there after your evening practice. You've had your team meal. You go to the hotel. You have some meetings. maybe watch a team movie.

We were big on that. We saw Top Gun before it was released. That's pretty safe. Pretty cool. But then game day on Saturday, this is what your day looks like. You wake up, you go get breakfast, and then you have a couple hours, and then we have a hydration session, hydration and stretching where our strength coach at the time, Coach Herbert would make us chug a bottle of water, and then we'd stretch out.

and then you got a couple more hours. And then Harbaugh is like, hey, maybe watch some games. Probably don't watch any football, like get your feet up, do what you want. You take a couple of showers, three, four showers, you know. Three or four showers? Just past the time. Just to pass the time. I mean, there's nothing to do.

There's got to be other stuff to do than shower. Just hop in the shower. Seriously. I mean, I will, like, early in the season, like an ice cold shower, stop sweating. You know, that is nice. Yeah. Yeah, but it's just a really long day until you get to the game. The game itself is fun.

The atmosphere is fun. It's not about the atmosphere of the night game, but more about just the length of the day. And then by the time it's done, it's midnight, right? So there goes your whole entire Saturday. But to your point, it is the opener of the season. The fans are going to be excited. The players are obviously going to be excited because they get to hit somebody else in a different color jersey. So I'm excited.

watch the game. It'll be nice. Like I said, Saturday night is probably most ideal time to watch a football game from a fan perspective. So it'll be fun regardless of who it is. And it just so happens to be the Broncos from Western Michigan. Yeah. Worm and Strack last night recorded with Nathaniel Owusu Botan starting linebacker. And he was just talking about like the getting antsy this week to be like, all right, I'm not lining up against somebody else in the maze and blue. Like there's light at the end of the tunnel. You've talked about how camp is so draining and so long, et cetera. But like now you get into actual game week, right?

It's a different style practice. You're done with camp. So it's not like the grind as much. It's more like, all right, we're prepping for an opponent, et cetera. And yeah, it sounds like the boys are buzzing. They're ready to rock. I think that they are very excited about showcasing who they are. Right.

And, you know, right now we're sitting here like, we don't know. We have no idea if this team is 11 and 1 good, 8 and 4, decent, 6 and 6 bad. Like all the possibilities are kind of on the table for this team right now. And I think that this squad seems like they're like, no, we're going to come out and show you what we're all about. Yeah, and that is what it's all about. Like you and I have sat on here and dissected the roster and gone through, you know, who we think should be good, maybe where some weak spots are, who's going to be the third receiver. But ultimately, these guys get to go play the game that they've been waiting for for so long.

Like, from the fan perspective, we are exhausted from talking about, you know, the offseason and the scandals of the off season, and all the change that's happened. But could you imagine being in that facility and just wanting to go play again? again, like just want to play another game. Like, those guys have got to be starving for that opportunity. So I'll be interested to see how it goes because typically the former Michigan teams have not always started super hot, which wasn't really an indication of what the team was going to be like later on in the season. But we're under a whole new regime here with Kyle Whittingham.

And we'll see how he gets these guys fired up. How is he preparing them for a night game against Western Michigan? What is he saying to them? And how is he, here's the bigger question, how is he keeping them focused on Western Michigan when they have Oklahoma next week? Good question. Very good question.

Let me ask you that question too then. It's Western Michigan. It's not a big ten opponent. It's not, you know, next week you have your marquee, non-conference opponent, but they're still pretty good. They were 10 and 3, they're top of the Mac last year, still a pretty good football team. How do you avoid overlooking somebody like this? Because to what we just talked about, you're excited to go play football and just like ball out,

but at some point you do have to play, you have to make sure that you're beating the other team, you know, if that makes any sense. Yeah. I think, you know, typically when you hear about like the catch games or the trap games, the way that it works is, right, you've had a certain period of time in your season where you've been playing some high level games and then you have one that's not quite as high level. So it's that drop down, easy to look past. But the thing about this, that plays to our advantage with not making this a trap game is the fact

that it is the first one. Like we have nothing else to compare to except for what they're going to do on Saturday. they are super excited to hit anybody else but the maze in blue because that's all they've been doing since what, February or March whenever spring ball started. So these guys, there's no denying the fact that they are excited to go out there and play Western Michigan on Saturday. I mean, I remember from my own experience. Like I can't remember my freshman year we started off with Florida. But other than that, it was always a game like this, like a Western Michigan or a Middle Tennessee State or something like. like that.

So that definitely plays to their advantage for the fact that this is something they wouldn't overlook because they are just so excited to go hit somebody else. Yeah, let me ask you this. From the perspective of a fan, how do you avoid from saying, well, I'm more excited to watch them next week against Oklahoma. I don't really care what happens this week. Well, let me phrase it like this. Sometimes it's less about that and more about my more focused on drinking

Woods and Whiskey during the day and during the game than actually focusing on football. So that's usually my conundrum. And, you know, instead of like when it's Michigan, Ohio State, I'm pumped, but like I'm definitely avoiding taking too many Woods and Whiskey shots so that I can get into the game and I'm getting in early and dialed in. And this one, it might be like 729 that I'm rolling into the stadium, you know, after a long day of drinking. But I do like, I think that for me, back to your point on the home opener, like, it's still the first time I get to see these boys play and get to watch Michigan football since last November. Right.

And so I'm pumped about that. And that, right, that is enough for me. You know, I've been saying to a couple people like this one and then Oklahoma, everyone's going to be pumped about. You get to UTEP. We might be singing a different song a little bit. You know, 330 U-TEP game, third game in a row at home and after, you know, a huge Oklahoma game, right? So this one, though, I'm still pretty pumped. I think for me, you know, we've got our tailgate, which will be on 1,0006 South.

Main Street. So everybody come on out. We'll have Woodson Whiskey. We've got Blake's Apple Pie Vodka. We've got Camp Vodka Water. We've got Hale IPA. We've got a lot going on. We also have VIP packages available if you're looking for your own spot too. So go check that out on Blueby-90 Shop.com. But for me, to be honest, it's the home opener game, but it's also the home opener tailgate. Like I'm pumped about that. too. You get to be back with your people. A lot of these people, it's funny.

Like, I would consider some of these people, like really close friends, but I only see them seven Saturdays a year. Right? But like you get back into that element and you cheer somebody and you're wearing mason blue and you give everybody a go blue. Like just being back in that environment is so awesome.

I'm that that's like half of what I'm excited for obviously getting into the stadium here in James Earl Jones for the first time which is just like unbelievable it's that is it's like that if that doesn't take you from six to midnight I don't know what well um but you hear the band come out band take the feel like all that stuff is is just like those are the things I've been thinking about for a long time um and another thing thing too that's new this year. They just came out and said that they're going to do the Wolverine Walk, which is, I don't know if you saw this or not, but they're going to, okay, I'm laughing a little bit about it.

But, um, so normally you guys would take the buses from Shem, go basically around the block and get dropped off right at the tunnel and walk in. And there's really like very minimal fan interaction, correct? Right. Now they're going to drop the buses off at like the corner of Chrysler and make like a 100 yard walk into the stadium. It makes me laugh a little bit because you guys could just walk across the train tracks through that parking lot and avoid buses at all. Like just it's another hundred yards like make it a 200 yard walk. I'd be like that you could have done that.

But I do like the idea of just like, you know, See the scenery a little bit. See the fans that are out there supporting and tailgating. Like, I don't know. What are your thoughts on the new Wolverine walk? I like it. I'm a fan of it. I would say I agree with you that they could just walk from Shem.

It's not that far. No, it's not that far. They do it all the time in fall camp. But the one thing that I always felt like we missed out on was that fan interaction. because when you're walking off the bus and you're going into the stadium, it is quite literally five seconds that you are in front of the fans and then you're right into the locker room. Right?

And maybe that's good for some people where they don't have to get distracted by that. But the fan appreciation aspect of it is very minimal. And then the other side of it is when you're walking down the tunnel and there's maybe 30, 40 fans that align the interest of the tunnel and you get to give them high fives and stuff like that but i think it's cool for both the players and the team um but dude just just walk from sham just walk from sham like you guys are premier athletes you can walk an extra 100 yards with a duffel bag um yeah i i think that that i just laughed at that like the fact that you're still doing the buses uh even though it's it's an extra 100 yards but um because it really is like a perfect

shot from the gates of Shem to the tunnel. Like you really don't have to deviate at all from your guys outdoor practice facility. But either way, I like that Whittingham is instilling this. It's something a little bit different. Something that I do like, we talked about this a little bit of like the honor of wearing the block M and, you know, putting on a Michigan uniform. To me, this is part of that, like the honor that you get to go into Michigan Stadium every Saturday and a 110,000 fans will show up for you every week.

Like, I think a lot of guys take that for granted. And it's just kind of insane to think about that you are a 19 year old, 20 year old kid, and 110,000 people will pay really good money to come watch you every week. Yeah. No, I, you know what? I think I found myself, like, taking it for granted at times, especially in a, in a a game like this where you would say that the stakes aren't as high, right? Because it's Western Michigan or U-TEP or something like that.

But it is crazy to think about. 110,000 people will get into the stadium to watch a bunch of kids play a child's game. It's sick. You know what I mean? That's what's so great about America and college football, right? It's like it seems insane that there are over 100,000 people that, will make their entire Saturday about this. And then there's another 10 million more

that are going to make their entire Saturday about watching at home too. Yeah, yeah. I think, you know, when you talk about the Wolverine Walk, I think that's something that's really cool is the way that Kyle Weddingham finds a way to make this his own, right?

He puts his own spin on Michigan football without changing the tradition of it. Right? He still respects Michigan for what it is. I mean, I say that now until they show up in white helmets and then we're talking a different game. Yeah, yeah. But he keeps it as it is, the tradition that that makes all the fans and the donor so happy, but then puts his own spin on it. So now it's, this is his Michigan team that's now doing the Wolverine walk, you know, and is this something that lives on forever? Yeah, potentially it could,

you know. Right. Well, and I think to, I, you know, I, I don't know Kyle letting them that well yet, but I think that, you know, I love Coach Harbaugh, but Coach Harbaugh, as much of a Michigan man as he was, he was about business. He was about, I'm going to, we're going to prepare our team and this outside, whatever, like, he wasn't like really, you know, into that, like giving the fans what they need or like playing into that stuff. He was like, I'm a football coach. We're about football. We're going to play football.

And I do think that Coach Whittingham is a little bit different where he's still about football, but he does want to appreciate the people around him that make these things possible, whether that be donors, fans, you know, parents, et cetera, et cetera. It seems to me that Coach Wittingham is a little more into that than Coach Harbaugh was. And so I really like, I appreciate that about him. And he's showing, like this is just one thing that he's showing. is a way for him to show that appreciation. Yeah, and if we flash back to basketball season,

we would constantly mention things like that about Dusty May and how good he was at appreciating the fans and making sure that they were acknowledged and felt included, and now we see Kyle Whittingham doing the same thing, which I think we can all agree that we appreciate. 100%. Yeah, I'm excited about it. If you are Bryce Underwood, right,

now. You're sitting here game week or even, you know, fast forward to Saturday morning. And you had your whole freshman year super hyped up, right? Five, you know, highest rated quarterback ever to come to Michigan from a recruiting ranking standpoint. To put it simply, pretty underwhelming season this past year, you end it with a weird way of, you know, your coach, you know, being disgraced. And you know, you, you end up coming back, but it's kind of a new roster, new coaching staff, whatever. What's your, where's your mental at going in when you, you know, whether it's this week or going into Saturday, you know, how are you, how, what are you thinking, you know, as you open up the

season? I think there's two ways this could go. I think, obviously we've seen in the media that nobody outside of Michigan football has been talking very positively about Bryce, right? People like to criticize him and for his play and say that, you know, he was overvalued. Making too much money. Right. And so if you're Bryce Underwood, you could take the approach of saying, you know what, I actually don't have anything to prove to anybody anymore. And you could hang your hat on that and not put any pressure on yourself or you could go the route of saying i have to prove everybody wrong and still place this

immense amount of pressure on yourself i believe based on how he's handled himself in the media that he will choose the former right he's not going to put pressure on himself he feels comfortable enough to go out and play the game at a high level and trust that his coaches are going to put him in a good position um so i i think that's what we're going to see i think we're going to see a more confident brys underwood short might take some time to figure it out but that's okay we're we're allowed to have a little bit of that time to figure it out. I have confidence that he's going to be just almost like flow state out there. Like he knows what he's doing.

He knows how he fits into the offense and how to work the offense, go through his reads. So I think that to answer your question that he's going to come out with no chip on his shoulder, no pressure, just going to play a game that he loves and play it at a high level. I think that if that is the case, that is best case scenario, in my opinion. It almost has to be. I know Jordan Palmer came out this week talking really highly about Bryce and his progression this offseason. Obviously, we've heard Coach Whittingham.

But he, in my opinion, what he needs to focus on, rely on your teammates. You don't have to do, this is not high school at Belleville where you've got to be Superman, you know, and try to win a state title on your own, right, and make every single play a superhero play. You actually probably have the best receiving core that Michigan has seen in quite some time. Absolutely. And so go utilize those guys.

You have two absolute dogs in the backfield. Hand it off to them and be okay when they, you know, score. You know, I was watching some highlights from last year. The number of times where Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall would break 50-yard runs. I'm not saying Bryce wasn't pumped about that, but I want him to go, be super excited when those guys make those plays.

Right. And be pumped for your O line when they block the right way. Go be pumped when your defense goes and makes a pick or has a strip sack or whatever else. I think that's what I really want him to be, is dig into your J.J. McCarthy and have a ton of humility and say, listen, if I go 12 for 17 for 140 yards and we win 35 to 7, that's an awesome day.

Right. Which is why we love J.J. McCarthy so much, right? He was so good at all of that. And we did see Bryce have a couple of J.J. moves where he would go out and block on an outside run or something like that. But I agree. I agree. Be involved with your teammates and be invested in what they have.

going on because I think that just makes a better team overall. 100%. So, yeah, I mean, he's got it in him. You can see, to your point on those blocks and like when he's, when he is excited for some of his teammates on some plays, he's got it in him. I really want him to like embrace that as much as possible. Yeah. Because, I mean, if you could touch on that just real quick, did you ever hear J.J. McCarthy

complain when he handed off 26 times in a row or whatever at Penn State in the second half? Yeah, no, not at all. No, you would never hear that guy complain. Actually, funny enough that you mentioned that in 2021, the year we lost to the Michigan State, there was a play where I forget how the ball got on the ground in the backfield. He mishandle, I think it was like a mishandle between him and whoever was, whether it was Blake or whoever at running. Right. So we were running a power play, and I was on the back side of it. And the guy that I was supposed to be blocking, like, if the play goes well, I don't have to block him very long. But unfortunately, the ball sat in the backfield.

So the guy that I was supposed to be blocking, ended up recovering it. And not once did JJ ever say, hey, you know, what the hell, man, why wouldn't you block that guy longer? We could have thought, like, he was like, in my fault, you know, a guy who takes ownership. Like, there's nothing better than that. And he was 18 at the time, right? Yes, he was 18. And he was also. He wasn't the starting quarterback. He was in and out all season and a guy that was just so mentally mature for what the team needed and for his age, quite honestly.

We're not asking Bryce to be JJ, but certainly the qualities that JJ possess, we would like to see as well because we know it's successful. Well, and I think that when your leader does have that mentality and has that, it rubs off on every single person. You know, we were mentioning JJ, but like, when it's Blake Corum doing the exact same thing and Trevor Keegan doing the exact same thing and, you know, Rod Moore at the time and all these different guys, right? Like, that was, you know, that's why I think that team was so good on top of obviously the talent that they had. And so I really am looking forward to Bryce, you know, those are the things I want to see.

I think we've said this a couple times now, but I'm going to beat this. this horse to death for sure. We know he can make a 50-yard bomb pass, right? And we know that he can, you know, have a QB draw and take it to the house. We know that. I want to see him put it all together, including his mental and see how that goes,

especially going into this Oklahoma game. Yeah, I completely agree. My question for you is, on Saturday, if there's one guy who you want, who you are most excited to watch play? Who would be your guy that you're like, I can't wait to watch this guy play?

I've been talking about this guy all offseason and a little bit of bias because he's a Feldman Chevrolet of Highland athlete as well and we were able to get him at Cardale. But Samia on Heider, man, I'm so excited to see him come out. And like, as a true freshman, one, how ready are you going to be?

because that's going to determine if this is like Jordan Marshall's year and Savion is a backseat or if it's like, man, we really have a true one-two punch. I think that these first couple games of how Saviang comes out and is he physically and mentally ready is going to possibly change the trajectory of this season. So I'm just super excited that the number of people that have been at practice telling me like, holy shit this guy is like pretty unbelievable is it's it's been a lot of people telling me that his size too right like i remember we had the signing event and i saw him there like if you've never seen him in person he looks like he's been at michigan for four years already like totally

he is stacked up and not very often do you see guys coming to college football built like that so i mean that that gives you a little something you're like let let's see this guy run let's see what he's going to have in store. I would say for myself, even though I said one person, I have two outside of the ball. The first being JJ Buchanan. I want to see, I want to see this guy ball out. Like we've been seeing clips of him in practice. I want to see what he looks like in the game. Like, is he going to be an electricity factory? Probably. Like, I sure hope so. So I'm really excited about that. But my second one is John Henry Daly. And in my real. And my real, Reasoning is because of this, we have always had good defensive linemen at Michigan,

and they have always been pivotal to the success of not only the defense, but the team, and they are so fun to watch. John Henry Daly wasn't all-American, and he's coming off an injury. They say he's in a really good spot, but to see another guy like that, another, like, true game changer is so exciting to see. So I'm excited to watch him tear up some offensive lines. and just truly rip people apart and create havoc in the front step. Well, think about how awesome that was, you know,

I don't want to say Aidan Hutchinson's name almost because I don't want to compare them to possibly the greatest D.N. that, you know, played for Michigan in recent history. But how much fun was that when Aiden Hutchinson and David Adjabo in 2021, they're just wreaking havoc on every single play? Like I agree with you. And we've had some great players, obviously, even past Aden. But I agree with you.

It just, it is awesome when your defense gets back to a quarterback so quickly. Like he has no idea what to do. Right. I mean, just a dude that offensive tackles everywhere will fear. Yes. Now that you bring up a favorite clip of him of all time is 2021 Ohio State. I think, I forget who the tackle was for OSU or something. thinking maybe it was thire month for i'm not positive it's this is the greatest gift ever by the way yes yes

where he he's pointing at him and you know like you want some of this and then just puts him on his ass if we get another guy like that like if john henry daily is is that guy which he he's likely to be right we're kind of expecting him to be a dog like that is going to be so fun to watch i love it i love it all right well we are going to bring in a special guest right now We've got Vaughn Lozahn from Maison Brew. Vaughn, it's been a minute, man. It's good to see you. Good to see you too, Justin.

How's everything going? Everything's great here. I've got Joel as my new co-host this season. So we've been talking a lot of things outside of football this offseason. We're very excited this week to talk football. But great to have you on, man. Yeah, thanks for having me, guys. I had a very similar conversation with a buddy of mine about a week ago with all these court things happening with football and basketball.

I was just like, we just need to kick off, man. I'm so sick of all the stuff that's going on around social media and everything with LSU and the SEC and all that stuff. And then obviously everything with basketball with, you know, maybe we get Roddy Gale back. Maybe we don't. We'll see what happens. So I'm just ready for football, dude. I'm excited. 100%.

Well, we just went through our one or two players to watch or the couple of players that you're most excited to see on Saturday. Do you have one that you're really looking forward to put on the winged helmet and either make some plays or crack some helmets on Saturday? Yeah, man, I'm excited for a few guys. I'll start on defense because I think I'm more curious about the defense. I want to see how these linebackers work. I know that a lot of the offseason talk has been that the linebackers are maybe a position of weakness or at least maybe not as strong as the secondary with guys like Chris Bracey, Rod Moore, Jire Hill, etc. Coming back for this season. So I'm really curious to see Chase Taylor specifically, really looking for a sophomore jump out of him.

He was a guy that the previous coaching staff really liked a lot. And now it sounds like Whittingham and all these guys like him quite a bit too. So really excited to see him and Nathaniel Staling, the transfer from North Dakota State. He's been getting a lot of talk this fall camp as well as a guy that has just played a lot of football, has a ton of experience transferred from probably one of the best, if not the best FCS program in the country. So I'm really excited to see how he fits in defensively with what Jay Hill and those guys want to do. And then offensively, I'm really excited for J.J. Buchanan, man. I mean, he is going to be a weapon, I think, on this offense.

He's like 6-3, just one of those red zone guys that if Bryce needs somebody to just go to a 50-50 ball to, he can probably feel pretty confident throwing it his way. So really excited for those guys. And then one more, if I could, Rodmore, man. I mean, final season, really excited to see him. You never know. It could be. He could come back.

He could sue the NCAA and just keep coming back. By the time next year, the entire rules could change. You never know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's what 2020 or 232 will be hearing about your senior Rod Moore. I think Joel might be trying to sue the NCAA to come back right now. Hey, yeah. Yeah, no, yeah.

I'm just, I'm getting my restraining order in check here and then I'll be back. I still got my pads all thrown back on and we'll be all said. Perfect. Perfect. I love it. No, man, I think it's funny. First of all, great picks, Vaugh. but it's funny, even when you're talking about the defense,

I think there are going to be a lot of people on Saturday, whether you're in the stands or watching from home, you're like pulling up the depth chart or pulling up the roster. Like, who was that that made that play? You know, there's so many new guys. And obviously, thankfully, we did bring a lot of guys back, but there's just so many new people, new names to know. It's tough to keep track of.

And I think that's probably going to be the case for every fan base across the country with the way the portal is working these days. It's like, man, who's number two, who's number four? Who's, you know, who is that? And so I'm excited to see a bunch of those new guys. Von, from your perspective, you mentioned that you were really curious about the defense. What is one thing that you're excited about, one thing that you're concerned about? Well, I think the concern is kind of what I was talking about with the line.

backers. It's just one of those things where I want to see it before I really start believing it. You know, that's certainly a position that was a certainly a position of strength last year with Jimmy Rolder, Cole Sullivan, all those guys, but they're all gone. So I kind of just want to see what these guys are made up, specifically the younger guys like Chase Taylor and Nate Owusu Boatang. I know he hasn't really had a ton of hype this offseason. So that was a little bit disappointing for me personally, because I was really high on him coming out of high school as a highly ranked recruit. So I'm a little concerned about that. But overall, I'm really excited to see this defense. I feel like this is going to be a very player-friendly scheme. I know Jay Hill has said

it's one of the more complex defensive schemes, but I think they've got a lot of really good coaches and teachers on the staff here that are going to be able to implement that. And it sounds like everybody is kind of bought in at this point. So I'm really excited to see, like I said, the secondary and then also the edge rushers. Sounds like they really like about seven or eight guys deep at edge rusher, which is really awesome to hear that. And then the interior guys as well. I mean, another step forward from Trey Pierce as a senior, from Eno Eta as a senior.

Jonah Liyah, Lea, coming over from Utah. I mean, he's an experienced guy that has played in this defense for quite some time now. So overall, I expect the defense to be better than it was a season ago, even though they did lose some of those pieces, specifically at linebacker. But by the end of the season, I think we'll be looking at one of the better defenses in the Big Ten for sure. Yeah, I would absolutely agree with you as well. One thing that Justin and I have talked at length about is Kyle Whittingham and kind of just the structure and the culture that he brings back to Michigan that we were missing, right? we kind of see that in the last two seasons. My question to you is what, at least for so far that we've had Kyle Weddingham,

what do you appreciate about his style or the culture that he's brought into, the team what the players are saying about him? What do you appreciate about him? Yeah, it's very much a no nonsense. Just, you know, put your head down, go to work. I mean, that's really what it seems like he brings to his teams. And he's been doing this for a very, very long time. So he's one of the better coaches in the country.

And I've always thought that even when he was at Utah, he was one of the more underrated head coaches in all of college football. So I really like his approach. Just no nonsense. Just, hey, just get to work, improve on the things that you need to improve upon. And he spoke about that in regards to Bryce Underwood as well. Kind of just, you know, we're going to get you figured out here. We got this quarterback coach in place. You got Jordan Palmer, your private quarterback coach.

We're going to collaborate. We're going to work together. and we're just going to solve the problems that you had last season, and we're going to make those solutions heading into 2026. So I think it's very much just, you know, he's no nonsense, like I said, knows what he's doing. I mean, he certainly knows how to rally a team together, considering that Michigan didn't really lose a whole lot in the transfer portal

this offseason with the coaching change, and it could have been a whole heck of a lot worse. So I really like that heading into the season. And yeah, I mean, I just think the leadership overall is drastically enhanced this this offseason for sure. And I 100% agree with that. I also, I mean, think about how many times in the past couple of years, it was like we were really worried about clock management and just like all those little things. I think that I'm excited to see how Coach Winningham handles that type of stuff. you know when you're trying to go get three points right before the end of a half or something like that,

how are you going to handle the two-minute drill and use your three timeouts? You know, the number of times we went into halftime with timeouts in our pocket, you know, as the clock runs down last year was just like so disheartening, right? And so those little things, I think, to both your points on the structure from Coach Whittingham, I'm sure that it's been in place in practice, but now in the game, you know, even when we were talking Joel about the pre-games, you know, set up, how is this going to work? Our guys locked in from, you know, from the moment they step into Shemp on Saturday.

I'm excited to see all that. And then that will really roll into the game. You know, I think that that's how you know that when you're in the game, everyone's going to be ultra-focused and make sure that you're not, you know, making mistakes. or we don't have 10 players on the field for a key, you know, a key play or something like that. But, yeah, I mean, Joel, wanted to ask you as well as a player going into, let's say you're a couple possessions in on Saturday, week one.

And this is the first time that, like we've talked about, you've hit another player, you know, or sorry, a player with another color. you've run some of your own plays against real speed, real time. After those first couple possessions, usually what are the questions being asked in the huddle? What are, you know, what are you guys breaking down when you come off the field? Walk us through that a little bit. Yeah, so with the game like this, right,

where Western Michigan is an underdog and a pretty significant one at that, what's going to happen is they're going to be preparing for what they think Western is going to do. Let's just talk offensively. They think Western is going to do something pretty standard defensively. But that's not what's going to happen. Western is going to do whatever they can to throw Michigan off. So what you thought you were going to get going into the game is going to be different. Maybe offensively not so much, maybe a little bit more trickery. But defense, there's going to be a lot of guys moving. They might be trying to disguise in different ways. And so after you get through those first few possessions, you can kind of sort that out. You say, okay, we thought they were going to be in

front or we thought that they weren't going to do so many end and tackle stunts on defense. This is how we're going to adjust. These plays are going to work a little bit better now. So that's typically how it'll go. It is interesting, though, in these games, teams will throw the kitchen sink at you. They will throw anything in everything. They've got nothing to lose, right? Exactly.

They have nothing to lose. So that will be interesting as well to see the adjustments that are made. Like, are we still going to struggle with problems that we see early in the game? and especially going into halftime. How are they going to adjust and adapt in close games moving forward and games when we're down if that happens? That's a big tell of the coaching staff. It's funny that you mentioned just the situational football.

When Harbaugh was there, he had a binder. And it was just like his analytics binder that had every down, every distance, and then also had time on the clock to determine and what he was going to do on that play. And so it was Sean McGee, who would hold this binder. And any time we got in a situation where he was going to need it, like if it was, you know, fourth and two and we're on the 45-yard line, he's like, Sean, what do I do here?

Like, it is something that we're already pre-decided. And so he was like, all right, this is what we're going to do. I don't think there was a binder on the sideline last year. No, I really don't. I don't know that a binder existed or anything, any plan of any. you have any structure. Not for football at least. Yeah.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. There was binders of some magazines or something. But, no, I love that. I think that I'm assuming coach Whittingham is similar to that where he's like, I have it down to the second, down to the yardage of this is what we're going to do. You know, I wonder for these guys, like a coach Whittingham who's been doing it for 40,

years and he's nearly 70 years old at this point. How do you fit the analytics in that's all come about in the past five years, you know, into your football brain that, like, I think if it was mean, I'd have a really tough time to be like, I'm smarter than these stupid analytics, right? Like, I think that I would always think that if I was a coach that had been doing this for 40 years. Yeah, I think you're right. And I think Harbaugh would override him from time to time. You know, if he was feeling a little gustow, he would say, all right,

let's switch this up a little bit. But yeah, you're right. The game, if you would think back to the first time that he, that Coach Whittingham started coaching the game of football, the game then and the game now are two completely different games. Right. And the fact that he is still at the top of the game, considering that fact is a testament to him, right?

He is able to adapt with it over the years. And not only that, like towards the end of his career here, he takes another step up from Utah to Michigan. Now he's coaching one of the premier college football programs that just won a national championship. So I'll be interested to see if there's anything that he does differently at Michigan than he did at Utah. Like, does he change some of the way that he handles the game,

just knowing that the athletes that he is getting, there are maybe a little bit better than what they had at Utah. I don't know. I mean, that's something that only time will tell, so we will see. Yeah, Vaughn, you know, with you and your crew going to Coach Wittingham's press conferences and seeing the other coaching staff, members of the coaching staff speak, what are the big things that stand out to you? Obviously, other than just like having structure and, et cetera, you know, the typical ones

that we've talked about, is there anything that you have seen? seen or heard stand out with this coaching staff that you're excited to see? Well, it's funny that Joel mentioned, like, analytics and how Harbaugh would use it from time to time, sometimes just go off a gut feel. That's essentially what Whittingham said earlier this week was he was asked about analytics and he said, well, you know, we definitely use them, but I also go by my instinct. Like, how am I feeling in that situation? I'm sure that it varies from what Joel was mentioning with.

how much time's on the clock, what down is it, how many points are you down, how many points are you up, et cetera. So I'm really curious to see how, how all, if there are any similarities to how Harbaugh used to do that. So I'm very curious to see that on Saturday if there's any situation like that. But I'm also curious to see, you know, just with the way that they've been communicating within the media, it seems like they aren't really afraid of the step up in competition. And not to say that Utah was just playing a bunch of non-conference Cupcake games every single game, every single day in the Big 12. But, you know, this season, they're going to play Oklahoma week two. They got Iowa at home. They've got Penn State and Indiana at home.

They've got Ohio State on the road. So they've got a lot of challenges on this schedule. So it doesn't seem like they are really afraid of anything along those lines. I mean, they're ready for the challenges in store for them. them this season and next season for that matter because next season's schedule, I don't want to talk too much about 27, but. Well, if we play Texas. Yep, over and over and over again. So they're prepared, man.

I mean, it just seems like they're dialed in. I mean, we used to talk about with Harbaugh, how, you know, the submarine, you know, they went in the submarine for the fall camp and very little information would be trickled out and things like that. It seems like this new coaching staff is taking a, uh, uh, a similar approach to that. So, yeah, I'm really stoked about this coaching staff, man. I'm excited to see how they operate on game days.

I love it. And Joel, for you as a player, when these guys here, you know, I know that they don't pay attention to the press conferences quite as much as we do, you know, or at least I hope not, to be honest. But I'm sure they still see and hear some things. But when your coach is out there saying, we're not scared of any schedule. We're bringing it on.

We're happy to play the top dogs in the conference. We're a top dog in the conference. How does that affect how the mentality of the team is inside the building? Well, what you have to consider is we know that when coaches or players go to the podium, they're not revealing the full depth of the messages that they're conveying. So if that's what he's telling us, then I'm imagining at least what he's, he's conveying to the team is that times 10, right? He is pushing that message across the team, which I think is so sick. Like, we see Harbaugh go to the podium in 21 where he's like,

we're going to beat Ohio State or we're going to die trying. And that's how he would behave with us in there. And it, like, it fired us up. We were all about it. That was like the true mentality of your entire program at that point. Exactly. Exactly. And when you see Kyle Littingham bringing that that was not quite to that extent of wanting to die for it but to the extent of saying hey listen like we were about this we are we're serious about it we're taking everybody one step at a time but we're knocking them all down um like that that fires me up as a michigan football fan to be able to watch a team that has that kind of focus like bonn i i don't know what you think but we talked about previously how brys underwood said you know last year where he was like

it's over for Ohio State when he said to LeBron to this year where he says, you know, they're just another opponent. To me, as a guy who, you know, played against Ohio State, I can appreciate what he said in the fact that he's like, listen, they're just another opponent because if my quarterback can go out there and he doesn't create a mountain out of a molehill and he can play at the same level, he's been all season and it wins the game, hey, whatever you've got to think, go for it. And I know that that works. I want to know what your take is on that.

I agree. I mean, I didn't overreact like a lot of Michigan fans and people on social media did to his comments and especially to Kyle Whittingham's comments. I mean, he doesn't know this rivalry, like how us three do and how Jim Harbaugh and so many other people that have come through the program know the rivalry. So I don't think he quite understood at the moment what his words were going to do on social media. So I think that's why he felt the need to clarify things. I still didn't, like I wasn't upset or mad or I didn't take offense or anything to those. And I do agree with your comments in the sense that as long as they go and get the job done at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what they say in the media. It doesn't say what they put on social media or anything like that. If they win the game, Michigan fans are going to forget all about those sorts of things that they said in July at Big Ten Media days. And in August during these preseason train camp press conferences. So, yeah, I mean, I wasn't, I'm not in a tied up in a knot or anything like that as far as the Ohio State comments go.

Because we know once Thanksgiving week rolls around, all of those things are going to be kind of out the window. Everybody's going to be laser focused and prepared for the game that Saturday. And none of the words or anything really matter at the end of the day, in my opinion, at least. Well, as you're saying, you know, there's been a lot of things said, a lot of questions. questions asked, a lot of that all in the offseason. Finally, it's game week, right? And we're here. I know this isn't like the premier opponent where everybody knows everything about the Western Michigan roster. But I do want to talk about the matchup a little bit because I believe Josh Pate actually said he put us on upset watch a little bit here for week one, which is a

a bit surprising, but the reality is when you go back and look at what Western Michigan did last year, they started the season, oh, and three, lost to Michigan State week one, lost to North Texas. That's not a great loss. And then Illinois, who was ranked number nine in the nation at the time, then they rattled off. From there on, they went, whatever, nine and one, and won the Mac. And so, you know, it's a different team this year, no doubt about it. But, You know, this is no, like, this is not the cupcake that maybe sometimes we're used to. This is a pretty good football program. Yeah, it's definitely a good MAC program for sure.

I mean, it hates, I hate to say it being a CMU Chippewawa, but they are one of the premier Mac programs for sure. And, yeah, they've won the Mac. And they've always kind of been that way. So I fully expect, like you guys were saying earlier, I expect Western to give they're all on Saturday. They don't have anything to lose very much like last year against New Mexico or New Mexico State, whichever program Michigan played week one last year, where I believe they had a trick play touchdown on third or fourth down right in the red zone there,

kind of caught everybody off guard. So I would fully anticipate things like that on Saturday against the Broncos as well. So I know that I think Vegas is given Western 27 and a half points or something like that. But I would not be surprised if Michigan did not cover that spread just because of those variables at play and just because of all of the newness on the team as far as the coaching staff, the playbook, some of the new players as well. So there's just a lot at play, week one, just too much new newness, I guess, is the best way for me to put it. So I wouldn't be surprised if Western covered, but fully anticipate Michigan to win the game at the end of the day. but I do think this is a pretty formidable non-conference Mac opponent for the first week of the season.

Well, and go ahead, Joel. I was just, I guess to your point, I was just going to say before you go into a Joel, like you probably want that a little more than just like a true rollover opponent. You want somebody that gives you a little pushback, right? Yeah, I would say most definitely. the one thing that I think would be interesting is a Western Michigan team that last year opens up the season, the season 0 and 3 does not go into a game like Michigan feeling very confident, right? But when they finish the season 10 and 3, they do go into a game feeling a little bit more confident that they can make something happen. I'll be interested to see how they show up.

Like, are they going to show up in the big house and punch us in the mouth? I don't know. I would agree with you, Vaughn, that it might be a slower game for Michigan, considering the fact that they have not played in the big house as a team with all of those guys once. They haven't done it. And so it's going to take some figuring out. I do think we'll win. I don't think it'll be particularly closer. We have to worry. But I'm sure some Michigan fans still will worry. you know but but 27 and a half is a lot that's a lot of points so we'll see it'll be interesting but i'll be interested to see how they come out knowing that last season they were as good as they were and what they think going into this season 100 percent i i think that um and one of

the key things to me is you have a qb that i believe we'll be going into his his fourth year at this point i don't know if that means he he's a senior or Redchurch Jr. He might have six years left. I don't even know how to calculate that at this point in 2026. But he started his career at Indiana, played the last two years at Western. Last year, he had a really good year at Western. Throws the ball. He rushed for almost 1,000 yards last year. So he's a dual threat in Brock Lowry. And so I, that also is something when you see, you know, we see it in NCAA March Madness all the time. You've got the mid-major with a senior point guard that ends up making a run.

You know, when you've got a quarterback that has, that's been there, done that, you know, that's where they can be dangerous, right? And so, you know, you guys both said it, like, they're going to throw the kitchen sink at us. It's going to be one of those situations where they might come out with a punch early. You know, these are some of those games that it feels like it's seven to seven at the end of the first quarter. Everyone's, like, groaning a little bit. like why aren't we up 21 points already? And then Michigan ends up pulling away because it's just overpowering.

And, you know, the Western can't keep up. But that's definitely what this game feels like is going to be where it's a, all right, seven to seven or 10 to seven at the end of the first. And then it ends up being, you know, 42 to seven at the end of the game. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And the individual performances from Western's guys, like you said, the quarterback. I'm going to be interested to see how he plays for sure because this is certainly a situation where he could end up having a nice game and it could get him on the radar of some

power four programs for next year if he decides to want to enter the transfer portal. It makes me think of Colton Joseph, who's the quarterback for Wisconsin now. He was the Old Dominion quarterback last season and played not very well passing-wise against Indiana in week one, but he ran for over 150 yards and a few touchdowns. So I mean, there's a lot on the line individually for these guys on Western Michigan as well, if they want to parlay that into their next opportunity at maybe a better program next season. Not to take away from the team aspect of things as we are about to start a season, but I feel like there's a little bit more of that in play in college sports these days as well.

So that's an interesting perspective that I really haven't heard that much is, You know, when you're at a mid-major, you know, obviously you're trying to, to your point, be a good teammate and win football games. But there are a lot of mid-majors who are six and six. And those last six games, you're like, all right, I'm trying to go get picked up by an SEC or Big Ten or Big 12 team and go make $200 grand. You know, like that's a big difference in your life. You know, so it's an interesting perspective for sure.

Yeah. I also, to your point, like, I think this first game is also a tryout for some guys on Michigan. I think that there are spots that are not completely solidified quite yet. You know, the linebacking rotation here, I know Jay Hill just came out and said, Chase Taylor, Nate Staling, and Troy Bowles will start with ISA Moa and NOB and Max Alford are also expected to play. Those got, like, these are, camp is where people separate themselves, but I still think it goes into week one and maybe even week two of, like, who's actually going to be your starter throughout the entire year.

So that's where I think even on Michigan side, even if this is, you know, a 28 to nothing game, let's say, there still are going to be guys that need to play their asses off to make sure that they're the starter against Oklahoma as well. Yeah, no, for sure. I do like that perspective of the Western guys. Like this is almost like an NFL preseason for them, right? They're getting tape out there against a high-quality, powerful opponent.

But yeah, isn't that a great situation to be in, though, where we have the depth to be able to have a game like this where we say, hey, listen, let's sort this out a little bit. Let's figure out who our wide receiver three is going to consistently be and who's going to rotate in, you know? What a great position to be in heading into an Oklahoma game, a game that's, you know, arguably a college football playoff resume builder, you know. So I am, that's some people might see that as a problem.

Oh, we don't know who it is yet. Well, actually, we have enough depth to not know yet. Like we have talent at those positions. Let's just figure out where we're at right now. Yeah. Yeah. Funny you bring up wide receiver three because that was another position. that I'm going to be looking at the next few weeks, honestly.

I mean, Chaining Goodwin might be wide receiver three today. He might not be wide receiver three tomorrow just based off of some of the things that we saw from him last season with some issues with drops and route runnings and things along those lines. So I'll be curious to see if they're able to get Celessi Moa, Travis Johnson, some of these other wide receivers into the game on Saturday as well. And then even the offensive line, a couple guard spots, it seems like, could be up for grabs. as well. So curious to see how Evan Link looks, how all those guys look. Natifobie is a guy that's been around for a while. Brady Norton has been here for a couple years now. So I'm going to be really curious in on those positions specifically on offense for sure. Yeah. And I did see, I thought it was funny. When they named Channing Goodwin as wide receiver three, I saw a lot of

people out there like, wow, that's terrible, that that's terrible for our wide receiver room because he was bad last year. That means bad things. The rest of the, these guys, you know, might not be good. What if he got better? Is there, is that, is that, is that not an option that you can make improvement over the off season, uh, going into your junior year, right? Like, I mean, I, I think that that's where my head is always at is like, you know, sometimes, let's be honest, a position battle means that nobody is separated themselves, so it's two guys that are still struggling a little bit. Also, sometimes when you win a battle, you win the battle. You got a lot better over the off season. All those problems that you just mentioned for Channing Godwin last year, he figured it out.

There's a chance that that's the case, right? And so I know there's a lot of doom and gloomers out there on Twitter that still don't want to have that as their thought process. But But that's something that just in general I'm excited to see is like the Evan Links of the world. I think Evan Link is really good, in my opinion. I think he struggled at times. And in his freshman year was thrown into the fire with zero, like had nothing, you know, no coaching, no help, no whatever. And now he's finally, in my opinion, this year going to be like, all right, I'm going to take a huge stride.

right so there's going to be a ton of those guys i think that we see that didn't have the support the last two years that now through one off season with coach whittingham could be like all right we're we're taking it from here to here and i'm really looking forward to see some of those situations yeah i completely agree i like your perspective too because what what it's not fair at all to overreact to chaining goodwin winning wide receiver three when we haven't seen him since last season. I don't understand why. Because I saw the same thing that you did, Justin. People were on Twitter and whatnot saying, oh my gosh, like this is bad news. This is horrible for the program, yada, yada. And it's like, well, let's pump the brakes a little bit. We have not personally seen him

play. And he was injured in the spring as well. So like you said, it's very possible that he improved over time. He got healthy and he got better. That is not linear for everybody. Everybody progresses at a different stage. So I'm very much in the same mindset that you are. I just want to see these guys play, man. And can we also, can we trust that our head coach is going to put the right guys in the right position? I think, normally I would say yes, I do, I will, for the doom and gloomers, I hate to give them any type of support here. But the last two years, I do think, put everybody in a bad spot of trusting the coaching staff.

That's fair. But yeah, I'm always with you on that, Joel. It's like, you know, who knows better? The coach that's coaching them every single day or Twitter user 6-9-420 that's only reading the message boards out there and getting second and third-hand info. You know, who knows better, right? So until I'm proven wrong for this coaching step, I'm going to trust them. You know, we've got a coach that's been around for 40 years.

I think he kind of knows what he's doing. And so, you know, we'll see. I'm excited to see it all. Saturday night, 7.30. We'll be tailgating at one, starting at 1 p.m. at 1,0006 South Main Street. We've got VIP spots available. DJ Array, shout out him. He'll be out there.

We'll have the whole Feldman Chevy of Highland squad. Woodson Whiskey. We've got a lot going on. So I'm pumped for it. And Vaughn, tell everybody where to go follow you at for Mazing Brew as well. Yeah, you can find us at Masonbrew.com. We're on Twitter, Facebook, all that good stuff. And SB Nation, which houses Mazing Brew, actually just came out with its first ever app,

brand new app that you can download on Google, iTunes, whatever. Just search SB Nation. and you'll be able to see all of our stuff on there as well. So a very user-friendly app to download. And yeah, everything's going while over here. So really excited. And I'm going to have to come out to a tailgate at sometime. Hell yeah.

Justin, I'll hit you on, man. All right. I can't wait, man. Can't wait. Well, all right, 730 Saturday night, Michigan versus Western, NBC. It's Michigan. So it's prime time with, you know, that's how we roll around here. but for us you can follow us on blue by 90 at Twitter Instagram Facebook at Blueby 90

podcast on YouTube in blueby 90.com we appreciate you go blue go blue