Blue By Ninety - Game Week Monday with Whittingham

Episode Date: August 31, 2026

Whittingham says fall camp went about as well as Michigan could have hoped, particularly when it comes to staying healthy. Now he wants to see a clean football team Saturday — limited pre-snap mistakes, sound execution and maximum effort as the Wolverines adjust to everything that comes with an opener.🏈 IN THIS EPISODE:• It's officially Michigan Football game week• What Whittingham wants to see in Week 1• Bryce Underwood is “markedly better”• Channing Goodwin's breakout fall camp• Nate Marshall's emergence as a pass rusher• Michigan's incredible defensive line depth• John Henry Daley is back to 100%• Rod Moore will play against Western Michigan• Andrew Babalola OUT for the opener• What would make Saturday a successful opener?• Whittingham sets the expectation: Win the Big TenRise to the Victors is your daily start with Michigan sports on the Blue By 90 network.Join Trevor McCue and Darnell Porter every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. for Michigan Football news, analysis, recruiting, basketball and conversation about everything happening around the Wolverines.Subscribe to Blue By 90 and turn on notifications so you don't miss a show.〽️ Rise to the Victors🎙️ Trevor McCue & Darnell Porter📅 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday⏰ 10:30 a.m.📺 On the Blue By 90 network

Welcome in Rise to the Victors on the Blue By 90 podcast network. Sorry, we've been gone for a few days, but we are back back. It is game week. I can't believe it is finally here, but it's here. Michigan plays football Saturday against Western Michigan. Kyle Winningham, head coach of Michigan at the podium today for his game week press conference first at Michigan. And again, a consistent theme, Whittingham was candid, honest, and answered a lot of questions for us. So let's get right into it.

Darnel. I guess first off like, ah, it's finally game week. It's good to be talking about an actual game. We're not going to get into Western at all. But I think, you know, start with my big takeaway. We've been talking all offseason about what we want to see from Michigan on the field in terms of what looks like progress. And I think Kyle Whittingham echoed a lot of what I think we've been saying and fans have

been saying he wants to see a clean game offensively, get rid of some of the penalties and the pre-stant mistakes. He did point out tackling is going to be interesting because they did not have a lot of live tackling in fall camp, i.e. trying to stay healthy, which they have largely done except for a couple that will note. But yeah, Saturday's here and coach is hoping for a clean game, and I could not agree more. Well, I will say that. I mean, what you just said, let me echo this real quick. If tackling wasn't the thing in the fall camp, I guess that would negate some of these articles we hear in about. about Witt making people play through injuries.

That doesn't sound like a coach to me that would force a kid to play through injuries if he's being precautionary. They are so mad for a second. But, yeah, I'm excited at this game. We've been, I feel like the young lady Rose on Titanic has been 87 years. Some competitive Michigan football. So I'm super excited. I'm super excited to get in and talk about what we heard from Coach Witt today.

remarkably, am I tripping, Trevor? Or did he decide to go? Like, his press conferences earlier than what we normally get from a Michigan head coach? I, when, so Dennis Fithian goes to these for us, when he was texting me and sending the audio, I thought, I kind of thought the same thing. I'm like, huh, that feels early. But, yeah, it felt a little earlier in the day, which I'm good with. But Kyle strikes me as a early riser, gets stuff done.

kind of guy so yeah so let's get let's get right into it yeah so i i don't think there's much to say there as far as the clean thing we we want to see a team that looks better coached we've been talking about this all off season you know more game prepared less penalties self-inflicted wounds so not shocking to see him talk about that he did talk about us quarterback of course again continues to elevate his conversation about Bryce Underwood and how much markedly better he is, he said. His reeds commanded the offense, and he's way further ahead than they were during the spring. Again, we recently learned they pretty much just let him go out there in the spring mechanics-wise

and then started to work with him. So I guess we've talked about Bryce a ton, so this doesn't need to be super deep. but what are we looking for from Bryce in week one here? And, you know, I have a feeling if he has a huge game, anything like the Central game last year, where if he's coming out and he's whipping the ball around and running it, we're going to, the hype's going to, again, like we talked about in the narrative podcast, it's going to completely flip and go way, way, way higher. But for me, I think it just echoes the same thing.

Give me a clean game. I don't even really care about the stats. See him stand in the pocket, look comfortable, deliver some throws. some variance of throws in terms of, you know, being able to layer the football, don't make any bad mistakes. I just want a nice, clean game. I don't think he's got to come out and have JJ versus Hawaii or anything like that. Yeah, I personally come out healthy, right? But we know weird things happen in these type of, I'm not going to say non-important games,

but he's clearly you're better than games. Go about it on a workman type thing. You don't need to try to run out and win the Heisman against Western Michigan. Like Coach West said, I want them to play clean. And I want to be able to look at that game and say, okay, we have something to build for going the next week to Oklahoma. We know, and for the fans, that's going to complain, we know how this goes, guys. We play Oklahoma next week. There will be a sense of vanilla to this offense.

So for all of the people that are super excited and like, well, they're going to empty the clip. It's Western Michigan. They're going to do what's needed to be done to get up two, three touchdowns. And then we're going to see a lot of Jordan Marshall and Xavierin Haider and Kuzdao and some of the backups, right? And so for me, I don't, I know you may be a little bit different, Trevor, but for me, I would prefer not to see none of the starters of importantness after the first half. right you should be able to go out there and really like handle your business i think it'll probably be

a driver to another third quarter or a full third quarter by the fourth quarter i would want backups in um i think michigan i think the line's 27 and a half so obviously you're looking for you know a four score game um yeah i'll be interested because you know i'm with you i would expect vanilla and there's there is a level of respect for this team because the the math is of, you know, of the G6, this is obviously close to the Big Ten in terms of style of play and being physical. You've got the defending Mac conference champs. There are a couple players on that team that literally were on Michigan. There are players on that team that probably grew up wanting to be in Michigan

and are going to come into this game with a chip and looking for something. So I do think they'll probably take them pretty serious in the first quarter. But yeah, I mean, there also could be, always think of the 2016 Hawaii game spate through that interception right out the gate. It was like, oh, no. And then they ended up beating them like 63 to nothing or something like that. So yeah, it'll be interesting the balance they find between super vanilla and actually testing some stuff out. Witt does not strike me as somebody who is super scared to show his cards, if you will.

Like, I think he feels like most college head coaches are smart enough to game plan and know, what Michigan has and is going to do and wants to do and doesn't think like they're going to do anything in this game that's going to give Oklahoma a huge tell per se. But yeah. So we'll see. But yeah, I'm with you. I'm not expecting trick plays or the full. I mean, they might not want to do.

Just to get to cry pie. It's a night game. Yeah. The crowd is going to be. Oh, God, it's a night game. I keep forgetting that. That's so stupid. Yeah, the crowd is going to be juiced.

So it wouldn't shock me if they do some little, you know, things to make the crowd. Yeah, but they are going to run the football. You're right. Jordan Marshall is clear RB1 at this point. Savian Hyder will get the ball. He is too good not to play. Kuzdahl's there. He mentioned Thomas O'Hern is RB4 right now.

So, you know. Oh, really? Mm-hmm. That's interesting. Okay. So obviously, Mike Kaupana out for the year. And then Jonathan's still coming back from his injury. I thought he'd probably be R before, but that might just maybe he needs some more run before he gets going.

Wide receivers. Patch yourself on the back, true. I know, I know. I always say, like, I love pat myself. I'm not right all the time. I'm wrong more than right. But anyway, I've been telling people off season. And the same thing I told them last year.

Like, do not sleep on Channing Goodwin. I mean, he is good at what coaches want wide receivers to be good at. It's not shocking from a legacy. It's not shocking from a coach's son. This dude is coachable. He is all effort all the time. He is a great route runner. He was the best route runner on the team last year.

I don't know if he still is with Marsh and JJ, obviously taking another step. But he blocks hard and he plays every play hard. So Witt called him out today. Sounds like, I mean, I don't know what wide receiver three looks like. I still haven't changed there because Moa's going to get shots. French is going to get shots. Johnson's going to get shots. Right.

So that's still there. But Goodwin is such a natural slot player and so good blocking where he can become a lead blocker in the run game that it doesn't shock me that he's going to get a lot of run in this game. Also, not shocking. He said that Andrew Marsh and JJ are expected to play 90 plus percent of the snaps when healthy. Dude, thank you, right? I'm so happy we're talking about depth in a wide receiver room, arguably six or seven deep. I'm excited about all the potential there. But there's been so many years where we talk about all these guys and then they rotate them like crazy.

And you never know who's on the field. It doesn't seem like it mattered if it was second or third down or short or long. It was like they were just constantly rotating. these guys. I'm excited about the depth. I'm excited about the potential. But man, I want Bryce Underwood to walk out there and go, there's three, there's six, 90% of the time. But excited for Channing Goodwin as well. Yeah. I think the good one thing is interesting because you know me, Trevor. I like Chenin, but I'm not as high on him as some of the younger guys. And so he had drops last year. He's got to fix that. That's a fact. Yeah. Yeah. And so the hear Witt say, hey, he's,

He's had a great fall camp. He's a camp riser. That just makes me feel a lot better about what that room looks like, right? Because if he can fix the drops and then you got the Jamie Frenches of the world and you got the Moas and the Travis Johnson. Now, if a guy, we look at that injury reporter, we get that midweek intel that we used to get last week like, oh, my God, Marsha's not playing this. week. What are we going to do? It's like, okay, Marsha's out, but we got some guys behind them

that can step up and maybe curious for a game or two. We're not rushing people back. That's the great thing about having great depth, right? And we know we play a physical game. People get injured. Sometimes they are for a week. Sometimes they out for multiple weeks. But the fact that you got some people in there that can really, you know, go in and you won't have great drop off, I think it's important. But it is interesting that, and I think I agree with your trip. 90, percent of the snaps means. We know one of our outside receivers, which is Buchanan, because Buchanan can play inside, outside,

but he's probably majority going to be on the outside. And we know Marsh is a Swiss Army knife. He can play inside outside. So we know when we see a lot of those formations we talked about last week, when there were only two receivers on the field, we now know that's going to be Marsh and Buea. Yeah, and it'll still be game dependent, right? I think there's going to be situations where Michigan goes,

hey, we really want to get JJ in the slot. Excuse me. He played, I think he was like 40% of his snaps in the slot last year. So he's one of those big slot receivers. But hey, we still want to have a big outside X. So Travis Johnson, let's go. Maybe Marsh in the slot makes sense. So I need a Z type receiver and Moa.

And, oh my gosh, why am I just drawing a blank French? It's such a great, such a great lottery ticket they have in him. again, it's game week. We're talking about week one. We're talking about this year, but it's hard not to look at that room and think about the future in that your top two receivers are sophomores. Your lottery ticket in French is a sophomore. Moa and Johnson are freshmen.

So anybody that's like, oh, good one. What about Moa? Dude, these are freshmen, right? They got time. They're going to come along. They're going to make plays this year. And we'll see how it goes. Anytime these guys get a chance.

chance, you know, if Mole gets some run and he's making big plays, I bet he plays more the next week. Like, that's how this staff operates. We're going to give you your chance. If you execute, we'll give you more chances, right? And if you see what they have coming in? Did you see that big game from Burrell this past week? Yeah, yeah. I mean, he went off. You still technically, I know he's committed to Oregon and before guys in the chat or anybody clips it. No, I'm not saying that Dakota Grant is flipping Michigan, but I mean, if, if, you know, if, you're going to, you know, he's committed to. He's, but I mean, if these receivers start to go off, right?

And then the national narrative is Michigan is now passing the ball because they have a competent quarterback. You don't think Dakota Grant ain't looking around like, wait, maybe I can stay home. Maybe they can't give me the ball. And then a Durant Braille class makes this room even crazier because now you can allocate money to the portal somewhere else because your receiver room is stacked. Good point. Yeah. And we talked about this last year with me. Marsh, if I'm a wide receiver and I see a freshman show up and get a chance to play and get to

play more, the more plays he makes, then I, because look, every recruit thinks he's the best player, right? He thinks he's going to show up and he's going to ball. So he wants to see other dudes that show up, get a chance, right? So the fact that Marsh and JJ are getting so much snaps because they're top dogs, I love that as a recruit, right? That means I can go. So even Lake Dakota might think, I might be wide receiver.

one at Michigan, but what does that mean? I'm still only playing 25 snaps, right? I want to see the top dogs play on the flip of that. Moa Johnson, freshman. I want to see them get a chance. And if they do well, I want to see them earn more reps. Right. So that's the kind of stuff the staff's going to have to show during the year is rewarding the dogs, dude. Right. And it sounds like common sense, but it's something that Moore and staff really struggled with and knowing who and actually knowing who their top guys were week to week, right? We saw so many decisions where an injury comes along and a new guy starting and we're like, wait a minute, why wasn't this dude playing the whole time?

So, that's a fair point, Rashad. Today's CFB climate only allows for me to live in the moment. Yeah, you're right, because who knows who stays in or go. That's a good point. But big takeaway here is Marsh, JJ. tons of them. Bryce is going to have his dudes out there. Good one.

Not shocked to see him rise. And we're going to see the other dudes again. That wide receiver three role is going to continue to rotate and be game dependent. So, yeah. Big one. Information given here. I think in the spring and summer, maybe the guy that most people expected hype from and I didn't hear a ton about and had people kind of nervous was Nate Marshall.

Right. Former five star edge didn't play a ton last. year just because of the way they were using that position, another story. It's been slowly getting talked about more in the fall. You know, I've definitely heard and we've mentioned there's probably more names at defensive end than there are reps, which is a good problem to have, I guess. But hey, again, guys, there's no secret information out there, man. These guys are telling it to you.

You know what I mean? So winning him came right out and said, hey, Mark. Marshall had some spring struggles, including issues off the field. You know, we talked about discipline coming in and this coaching staff, but he said, hey, eight months later, Winningham said he praised his maturity, called him one of Michigan's best pass rushers, potentially its best pure pass rusher. That screams third down demon to me. But he said he's really proud of Marshall and how far he's come.

So I think we know, and I might as well include this in here, John Henry Daly is 100 percent. So for any doubts about the Utah transfer, the All-American defensive end and what he would be looking like he's at 100%. Dom Nichols, we've been hyping up since February. I still think he's huge, huge breakout candidate. If it's not J.H.D. number one, Nichols is right there. He had a couple of days where he missed practice this fall, but he's good to go. And then you get into it, man. You got Nate Marshall right there.

Carter Meadows, Lugard. It's, and Benny Patterson, I mean, we could get into it again. They said they've got, did I have it on here? Seven or eight deep on the edge. That's a lot, right? Because we're normally talking about rotating a top four. So I'm going to be interested in not only see rotations, but situational football.

Are guys going to have defined roles? again, we'd look out there and be like, why is Derek Moore not pass rushing on third down? What are we doing? So I'll be interested to see the rotation and how situational they are with that loaded defensive end spot. Please don't give me nightmares about how people were used last year because me living in Texas and I have friends that are cowboy fans and they text me like, hey, thank you for giving us J-Shown Barham. And I was like, if only we used them, right? Like, yeah, yeah, you're welcome.

So, yes, hearing Witt break down the D-Line because a lot of fans thought that defensive line may be an issue because it was an unknown, right? And to hear Witt say, hey, we're 8-9 deep at edge rusher. And y'all realize what 8-9 deep could truly mean even if you're truly just let's say 60 because you only playing two edges at a time if you can go 60 with edges that means that now you can bring in fresh guys when like Trevor said it's turned down and it's time to go hunt the quarterback and that fresh guy usually is going to have

a little bit more leverage than that tackle that's been taking a beat in all game right because the tackle don't get to get swapped out the guard don't get to get swapped out they're playing all the snaps. And so when you can rotate, constant pressure in, it spells for good things. And Trevor, you know, we're, uh, what, 19 minutes into the show. You haven't gotten a Rams reference, but you're going to get one now. You're going to get one now because Aaron Donald's right. And the one thing that I'm excited about. Shocking, he waited until training camp was over to announce that, by the way. It was almost like he just didn't want to go to training camp. It was the biggest murder mystery.

Scooby-Doo couldn't even figure this out. But when you're able to keep pressure on an offensive line like that, if somebody that played, I didn't play at college, but I played in high school, it's mentally draining. It is taxing to know that we're in the third quarter with three minutes left to go. And I play 40 snaps. And here come this kid that may only come in on second. and third down and he's only played 10-15 snaps.

He's been able to sit on the sideline and rest. Like, that's going to help us tremendously. And we ain't just got no dudes that can't get to the pass rush. Like, Nate Marshall, we saw flashes from him. I know you've been high on Dom Nichols. And I can't wait to see what John Henry Dayley does. So I'm super excited about this D-line thing because I'm a trenchist type of guy. I like to watch that type of stuff.

I lead the CBs and the wide receiving. I don't lead that to the finesse guys. But I'm excited to see what both sides of the ball look like in the trenches. And real quick on this part, the no experience at the moment. I think that can get so overplayed where, like, yes, you want experience, but people are looking at like DE5, like, oh, he hasn't played a ton. That's typical, man. You got to think about 2021, Hutchinson coming in a year after an injury.

Nobody was hyping up David Ajabo. Mike Morris had hardly played at all, right? John Henry Daley was an all-American defensive end last year. That's a lot of experience. Dom Nichols is a junior who should have played more, but he's in his third year. He's been in the system. That's experience. Cam Brand, I didn't even mention, has played a ton of football.

I think he's a high four. guy for you. Marshall, year two, former five-star, dudes, break out as five-stars in their second year. Carter Meadows is almost identical in recruiting rankings to what Colin Simmons was. He's 6-7-252, right? Like, these guys being able to contribute early wouldn't be crazy. So I get you on the experience, but like you have some experience there. And then you've got your breakout candidates as well.

I kind of glossed over and people have asked about hiter. I got to be careful here. I expect him to be fine. He will play Saturday unless something changes during the week. And I think I don't know if it'll be, I've heard from two people on this. I don't know if they're going to split, kick and punt, or if one person's going to do both. But Marsh or Hider. is my guy for returns right now.

So I expect to see Hyder and I expect him to make some plays Saturday. I know there were some concerns a couple weeks ago, but I think he's good to go. You got heard to hear from Trevor first, man. As far as I'll go out of order just because he mentioned, yes, Babelhoa will be out. He did confirm that. We're not shocked by that either.

we knew, you know, some of his mispractices impacted his ability to compete in that left tackle spot. And they're going to hold him out precautionary for a week one. They're going to hold him out. But, you know, obviously you hope you get him healthy and into a position where he's the next man off the bench. You know, we've talked about you need eight offensive linemen, not five. The five are pretty obvious at this point. I think, Frasier at left tackle, link at left guard, which. We've kind of glossed over, you know, how much experience Evan Link has coming into this year

and that he's now at his natural side on the left and natural position at Guard. We know how much we love. Jay Garnier at center. Nathan Afobee, when I saw pictures Denison from that press conference, he looked like a different human being physically, really impressed with the steps he's taken. And then obviously Sprague, same thing. It looked like a much different leaner, stronger guy.

at right tackle. So I think Malachi is involved here. I think Brady Norton's involved in terms of guys that can come off the bench. Avery Gatch is a guy at guard that can come off. And then obviously a healthy bavs when we get there. You got about 9-0 line. And so I continue to be very, very excited about the offensive line because you've got all five guys coming back have starting experience, link the senior of the most and then those three coming into their junior year. So excited to see Babs get healthy and what he can do when he gets on the field. But again, I think the sky's the limit for this offensive one. Yeah.

You know me, like I said, I'm a trenches guy. So I'll be watching that very carefully, very carefully on Saturday because it will be a physical game. I know you said to start a five, but show me who's going to be the big fella. Who's going to be the rhino? Because as we saw in the film breakdown with Toski last week, the rhino is important. The rhino carries the ball. The rhino sometimes catches the ball. So who's going to be that six guy that's going to line up?

Because they do a lot of rhino work out of their base. So I'll be interested to see if that's Malachi Lee, if that's Norton, if that's Gash, if that's Babs when he comes back, like who's going to be that guy? And I do think you could see, I think a lot of the passing to the rhino and stuff was very much because of who they had. I can't remember that dude's name, but what a freak he was. What an athlete. But yeah, I'm with you. We saw a lot of different names getting floated around in that spot.

I think that could be an inside tight end as well. You know, I know Zach Marshall's tight end one. We're hoping for a really healthy breakout from a Hogan-Hansden. A deacon Tony Ellie is a guy that could. lineup in line and give you some blocking and potentially fill that role in a weird way. And I'm still excited to see how Jalen Hoffman and Eli Owens get implemented into the offense. I know some people are like, oh, they're fullbacks. Both of those guys were past catching tight ends in high school.

We were putting into that Hback role. So both have potential, I think, to impact in the passing game. So I know I went off there from defense to offense because of Babs, but we'll touch on a couple defensive spots real quick and then get out of here. Linebacker is one of those spots where until we see it in the game, I don't think people are going to really, I know the level of concern has kind of gone up and down throughout, but he being winning him,

called out Defendio Staling again, said he's a tackling machine, which is kind of funny because they haven't done a lot of tackling, he said, so we'll see. But he's obviously a guy that's going to play a ton. Did call out Chase Taylor, said he's now functioning like a big time linebacker. He was probably a guy getting mentioned the least in the four.

Staling was getting a lot of hype and fall now that he was healthy. Troy Bulls again, fourth year guy, spent two years of Georgia, made some big plays when he was out there last year. And then your five star, or fringe five star, he fell in the ratings with N.O.B. So, yeah, I'm going to be interested to see not only how those four rotate, how much they play, where are they play? because we've talked about the three linebacker system and whether we see three of those guys on the field at the same time, whether a Mason Curtis comes up and fills kind of that hybrid role or if he's basically plug and play for what Fatula was at BYU and Jay Hill's defense.

Mason Curtis is a really interesting piece there. But yeah, the linebacker room for me, I know there's not, again, maybe there's not a ton of experience, but there kind of is. But yeah, that's one we've been talking about a ton. I'm just excited to see those guys play how they get used Saturday. Yeah, they're going to run a 425. And so usually when you see a 425, sometimes you deploy an extra safety into the box that acts like the big nickel that will come in and help you when they go heavy. And then that nickel pops out when they try to spread you out, right?

And so I can see what you just said about. extra safety on the field coming down being that third linebacker. But if it's four guys, I mean, who's swapping out with who? And apparently, I mean, we would assume whoever's wearing the green dot is going to be someone that's a starter that's going to be out there majority of the time. Well, on that note, the green dot will likely be safety. Right, because those are the ones that you're not going to swap out as much. That tells me that the linebackers are going to rotate because normally it'd be a little linebacker that's where they green back.

So we'll see. I'm trusting Jay Hill to play to his strengths. And if there's a little bit of worry in that linebacker, that he covers it up. Good defense of line play kind of helps your linebackers. They hold up those big guys that's trying to get to the second level to block you. So we'll see. I'm excited for all of the linebackers. I'm happy to hear that Chase Taylor is starting to come on.

I want to hear more. He's intriguing. Yeah, he's definitely intriguing, but, look, Boatine won me over with his commitment. So I'm ready. I want to be on the field so that I can dress up like him for Halloween and be an extra coming to America. No disrespect to his culture. I think it's beautiful.

And so he's got a fan. me. And I like Bowles, too. So just, I like Bowles a lot, man. And sometimes you have linebackers that's better at different things. Like Bowls may be good at blitzing. Boatay may be good at past protection. I may not pass protection, past defendant. So it just depends. Well, again, that's why for me, you know, the Mac, the Rover, Sam, do we see these guys interchange or is one guy, you know, is one guy looking like a true inside Mike most of the game, is Bulls outside, like you said, used more as an edge, either sealer or pass, right? That's going to be real interesting, but I like the group I have all offseason,

bowls to me again, give me a fourth year guy, coach's son, spent two years at Georgia. If there's, as a Michigan fan, if there's one thing I'm going to shout out as the best position group in football, it's been Georgia linebackers for a while. So not just a coach, your son, a DC. Yeah, I just, I think he's got a ton of potential. But we touched on safety. I didn't understand when he committed why people were,

maybe they just saw Memphis and checked out. But Chris Bracey has been getting a ton of hype since he got here, not shocked to hear Whittingham say he's safety number one. Players have been raving about him. Coaches have been raving about him. Every media clip thing that the school program puts out. Chris Bracey's in there making plays. So not shocked that he's going to be number one.

Did say Rod Moore will play quite a bit on Saturday, but I did acknowledge he's not back to his pre-injury form yet. Again, not to keep saying this, but we've been talking about it. Rod Moore's got to play football practice, play football practice, and we'll see. But it's going to be cool to see him get back on the field. And hopefully making an impact. and then obviously the value of a guy with that type of leadership and skills

set back there is massive. But Bracey Moore and then, like I said, Curtis, how they use Mason Curtis is going to be interesting in this defense. Jordan Young is another guy I think will continue to be a factor in play. And it was mentioned earlier, have not heard a lot about Winston. So until I see otherwise, those are those are the four for me. expect to play a ton of safety. Yep. I don't have much on that other than I'm on the brace

hype train. You gave me my ticket, told me to buy early when we were early at the early stops. And I'm happy now that I'm on the train. I got a seat. There's standing room only now, guys. So you can hop on now. But in a minute, there will be no more room on the bracy train. So I'm happy that he's panned out. I'd like his film when he committed from Memphis, and I think he's going to thrive in this Jay Hill, fly around type defense.

Well, and whenever I see a guy transfer in, if it's from a lower division or school or whatever, I like to look at who they played with because we see this all the time where we're like, I think about like Josh Wallace at UMass, what's he going to do? Josh Wallace was the dude. dude at UMS, right?

And when he's doing the right thing, maybe the guy next to him is not. And, you know, so when you take a guy like Chris Bracey, who's making plays in the dude at Memphis, and you put him next to a Rod Moore or a young, and, oh, his corners are now, Jire Hill, Zekeberry, Smith Snowden, Shemarerals. He's got this defensive front that we just talked about. That's going to elevate his game because now he can trust. all these other dudes to do their job. He doesn't have to be the only guy, right?

So I think Bracey's going to be an absolute stud. I've seen some people say they think he could be the best player on the defense this year. I've seen people say that about Snowden, Jair Hill. There's a lot of guys that could be the guy this year, which is exciting for sure. Josh Wallace, AK, don't forget, guys, another ram reference. Just made the Rams. Oh, my God. He plays on our defense.

So we got a couple. We got quite a bit of Michigan players of playing around. I walked right in that. Is Josiah still there? Is he still there? Josiah's up for a big year, buddy. Don't you worry. You're going to hear Josiah's night.

There was another guy, too. Coastal Carolina, people are like, I don't know. I'm like, dude. I don't know what they were thinking in his first place. Yeah. I don't know what they were thinking in his second year, Josiah. Dude had an amazing freshman year. And they're like, you know what, let's put him at a completely different role.

this year. It's bizarre. Anyway. All right. So I think that kind of touches on everything Witt said roster-wise. We've talked about our expectations for the game. You know, the way Whittingham has talked about this season at times,

the Ohio State comments, whatever has gotten a weird reaction from a, from a tense fan base that really wants Michigan to return to where it was at the tail end of the Harbaugh era, right? And you should have liked how Wittingham talked today. He made it very clear that the expectations this year and every year at Michigan is to win a big 10 championship. He believes Michigan has the leaders, the overall talent. He's excited about where Bryce is in his development, and he's really excited about the defensive front.

He thinks they have the pieces to be Big 10 championship contenders. And as far as the schedule, this was your favorite point. think darn out what he had to say about the schedule yeah he was very direct he said bring it on no complaints and no whining i like a coach why everybody's talking about how tough the schedule is with his saying i don't care about how tough the schedule is bring it on line it up let's meet at the 50 as our our quarterback coach tweeted out passionately after the uh the last grimace spot the damn ball and let's go out let's get after i mean you don't have to we're not going to relive the wick comments right i don't give it personally i don't give a rats you know what if he hates ohio

state or not just win the damn game that's what i care about playing for a big 10 championship that that it's always been the standard whether you've listened to old coaches like both whether you listen to the Lloyd cars, whether you listen to, even though you didn't have that grade of a career here, the Rich Ross, the Brady Hoax, and how the gym hard balls,

like everybody said the same thing. It's to win a Big Ten championship. Once you win a Big Ten championship, everything else falls in. If you're a Big Ten champion, you know you're going to make the playoffs, right? So I don't even have to say, make the playoffs,

because winning the Big Ten championship makes all of those other goals basically, right there in front of you. So I'm excited to hear that from Witt. Sounds like he's fired up and ready to go. And it feels like Witt, I don't know, Trevor, you can tell me if I'm a little off face with this.

But Witt went from cautiously optimistic at the Big T. Impresor about a month ago to now he's talking with a swagger. Like, he likes what he sees. He's a defensive-minded coach. He sees his defense. He sees what he has on offense. He's like, wait a minute, I might be able to do something this year, not two, three years down the line.

I was just going to say, I'll go further back than that. In the spring, he was talking about being a year away. Right. So to Rashad's point in the comments, he said, sounds like a man that knows what he has. Yeah, I think, again, if you don't want to buy into the hype, I get it. But I'm just, I'm going off a guy who's been really candid about what he thinks his football team is. and I think he's come out of this fall camp going, okay, we got some elite starters. Some of those depth concerns I have, I'm less concerned about.

I'm really happy with the strides my quarterback is taken. I obviously trust Jim Harding to do big things with the offensive line. That's why I brought him here. We have weapons at wide receiver and we have battles that are going to continue into the season with the third, fourth, fifth, sixth guy. I love the defensive front. This is a trenches guy. I want to get after the quarterback.

I think we can do it. I think we're deep on the defensive line. I was concerned about linebacker. I'm excited about the progress there. I think the secondary is elite, blah, blah, blah. You know what I mean? It's just coming together. So it's got to happen on the field.

We got to see it translate to Saturday. And that's obviously the piece. I'm not in the prediction game. I'm not guaranteeing anything's going to happen. But I keep talking about the 2015 season as my comp. I mean, look, the ceiling is a 20-21 type year where, you know, Harbaal comes out of the COVID year, refreshes his staff, he himself, you know, changes some things personally.

And the talent was already there. You just needed to kind of change the vibes around the program. And you're beating Ohio State and you're winning a Big Ten championship. So we've talked about how difficult this schedule is and gotten into the weeds on the nine and three, ten and two, eight and four. I mean, that's all just what we do in the offseason, right? But like, I'm not saying that the ceiling for this team isn't 11 and 1 or 12 and no if everything really, really clicks together, right? I'm going to be excited until this team doesn't give me a reason to be excited.

I'll put it back. Trevor, I'll just say this. I know we got to wrap up, right? You bring up that 2015 season. And I think this feels more like that than 2021, allow me to walk you down that path real quick. So that year, when Harbaugh came in, we played two out-of-conference games. But the big out-of-conference game was on the road of Utah, right? Yeah, week one.

Ironically against Kyle Whittingham, yep. Ironically against Kyle Winningham. This year, you're going to play at home, big conference game, non-conference game, right? If Harbaugh, we talk about this season a lot, right? Because we talk about what could have been that season. You remember, they were in that Utah game the whole game. I think the court of Rudok threw a pick late. Through a pick late.

Yep. They went on to lose by seven. That's also the trouble with the snap year. So just those two games, if the ball flips the other way, right? And you win those two games. Even if you lose to Iowa State, that's 11 and 1. Michigan would have made the playoffs. Or they would at least play the Ohio State again for the Big Ten championship,

and then you would have had to figure that out if you beat them or, you know, lose. What I'm saying is Witt can have that type of run. You play a Western Michigan, you then play Oklahoma. You beat Oklahoma that may propel you to get some Big Ten wins, and now you're looking at that Oregon game. Well, you're looking at the Indiana game in the Oregon and the Ohio State. you're like, hey, if I can go one out of three, right, I'm 10 and two with this schedule, I'm in the playoffs.

Whether I win the big 10 or not, I'm in the playoffs at 10 and 2. So I'm thinking, I think Witt is looking at this and he's like, hey, I win next week. We're in a pretty good position to have a pretty nice first year. Now, of course, you still want to beat Ohio State. You still want to win the Big Ten championship. And you never know. Some of those 50-50 games, maybe you go to Oregon, you get an upset. Maybe you lose to Oregon, but Ohio State drops the game.

And that Ohio State Michigan game at the end of the years for the Big Ten championship to go play Oregon. Like, it's a lot of stuff that can be, but you've got to take care of your business. And that's why I like with Bryce, even though people are picking on him. I like when they did that video, Jordan Marshall, Trey Pierce, circled Ohio State. Bryce said it's the whole schedule. I want to go win a Big Ten championship. Yes, I want to beat Ohio State. But I got these other people.

I don't have no soft schedule. I got these juggernauts I got to go through before I even get to Ohio State. Right. Yeah, I said with Witt and Bryce and everybody with that, like, I'll judge their approach to answering that question based on how that game goes. Right. We don't know if you're doing it right or not. until it happens.

So, but yeah, you bring up, you know, the Utah game in Michigan State. That's a non-conference road game. That's a rivalry game. Those are the games where your margin of errors smaller, right? And your mistake or the other team's mistake could determine the outcome. So in Oklahoma and Indiana, Oregon, Ohio State, if you're playing your best football and you've cleaned up the penalties and the self-inflicted wounds, you get yourself in a spot where maybe the other team makes the game clinching mistake.

Right. And then those games start to change in terms of we project. But obviously, it starts with Western Michigan, week one. And then we'll get right into Oklahoma. I know everybody's already looking ahead, but it starts week one, Western Michigan. So we've got a loaded, loaded week for you game week. Excited, Dennis Fethion, will be live on our channel twice this week. I believe today is one of those days.

I want to make sure you like, subscribe, notification bell. so you know when we do go live us Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday mornings, we will be here with Rise to the Victors. Dennis will be here, OG Blue by 90. Joel and Justin, if you haven't watched, I love watching those guys talk because there's just no room for BS with Justin Rowe. And then obviously, Joel's a former player. And I just love watching them talk about Michigan football.

So make sure you're checking out the OG Blue by 90 show. We're going to try cutups again this week. Yes. No, I'm going to hold it. I'm going to hold it. Yeah. You don't catch another copyright. Yeah, we figured that because it was already on the stream.

Yep. Okay. So we're going to. I'll hold it to next week because I feel like they, I feel like the reason why they copyrighted it just for you guys. I agree. Yeah, they were finding it on other ones. Yeah.

So we'll come back when we have updated game footage. That works for me. Cool. All right. So again, make sure you're following us here. Also head over to Spotify to listen audio podcast, et cetera,

etc. Who, football boys. It's here. Game week. We're excited. Also, yeah, if you're going to the game too, like I said, head over, Blue by 90 shop. Tailgate packages are still available right by the football stadium from 12 to 7.

There's going to be music food, drinks, full setup, can't beat it. You're looking for a spot to tailgate before Michigan Western. So other than that, we will. Nice. All right. We will be back tomorrow. More Michigan Football Game Week. talk here on Rise to the Victors Blue by 90 podcast network.