Blue By Ninety - Gophers at Night

Episode Date: October 15, 2020

Clayton Sayfie (TW: @csayf23) of TheWolverine.com joins us to talk game 1 against Minnesota, Michigan's strengths and weaknesses on the field, some interesting takes and more. 

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

Touchdown, Wolverines! Glad to be here. Awesome. Awesome. We're doing well. I know we actually have some actual news about Michigan football coming on right now, right? So right now in the news is Michigan kicks off at 7.30 at Minnesota for week one. How are we feeling about a night game on the road for Joe Milton inton in game one this week boys jay millie's time to shine i can't wait to see it national television i mean it'll be abc right do you think it'll be i mean that's their prime time game maybe game day will be there i don't know that's true that's true it could be i think game day is going to be in East Lansing for Rutgers, Michigan State. Hey, they might. That will be a fun game to watch either way. Yeah.

But can you guys picture the game? I was trying to picture it earlier. So night game, we finally know. The white uniforms, I assume the white pants. It's going to be weird. Number five, Joe Milton back there. I'm trying to picture it because 12 days away, it doesn't quite feel like it. I don't know.

It feels like it never was going to come, but here we are. I know. That's the weird thing. We didn't really know if the season was going to come, and it was kind of postponed. And now it doesn't feel like the normal hype because normally we're coming out of summer, getting ready for the fall, but now we're already in the fall, and it's a delayed start.

So I don't know. I'm sure next week, once Monday hits, I'll be like, okay, it's game week. It's time to go. But, yeah, it hasn't quite hit like normal. Today helped a little bit that we finally got, like, a game time. It was like I was on social media, on Twitter, you know, in and out today, and it was like there was some I was on social media on Twitter, you know, in and out today. And it was like, there was some buzz finally about, about Michigan football and just like college football in general, especially in the big 10.

So that definitely helped. What do you guys think about like, okay, obviously Michigan football on the road in prime time has not gone well, right? Usually Michigan lays an egg, especially, especially you know this is kind of like uh 2018 at notre dame right i think we've talked about this a little bit before um but like new quarterback and shea patterson at notre dame night game now we have new quarterback joe millen at minnesota night game ranked opponent all this No crowd, which should help Michigan, I would say. Definitely advantage because it's not going to be that hostile of an environment.

But do you guys see this possibly not going well for Michigan like it has in the past? I don't know, man. With Milton at quarterback, I've got obviously I've got high expectations, which I feel like a lot of Michigan fans do, which is not a good thing. But hopefully he lives up to them and we get a W out of it. I mean, Clayton, obviously you're a lot closer to the program and have a lot more information than we do. I mean, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, like I was saying, I almost can't picture it.

But at the same time, yeah, I was thinking about this earlier almost. I love that Notre Dame comparison where if Michigan wins, and I think that they're going to win a close one. That's kind of my prediction, and we'll do predictions on our site next week. And I'm thinking somewhere in the range of a 7-10 point win. At the same time, if they lose that game, which is certainly a possibility, which was your question, is it possible that they don't go in there and win? I think it's certainly possible, and I think that it is going to be similar to losing that 2018 game at Notre Dame in that the country's eyes are going to be watching now that we know it's a

7.30 game on ABC with probably Fowlerler and herb street and those guys calling the game so um they lose that game and it's going to be meltdown if you guys remember after that game oh yeah because they were coming off the 2017 season too in 2019 wasn't as bad as 2017 but you had a disappointing year you got blown out by wisconsin you lose to penn state ohio state bowl, same old story. So it's going to be the same thing where it's going to be disaster for probably a week until they beat up on Michigan State. And then, you know, in 2018, they won 10 straight games after that. So I think it's going to be a similar story. I love that comparison. I definitely think a disaster is possible, but I also expect Michigan to win again win again like i don't know what to expect

out of this game but we'll see i mean it's the nature of the game i guess and we know that minnesota is not a team to look over at all i mean this is flex what fourth year fourth or fifth year we saw we did with western we saw what minnesota did last year and their two best players are returning i mean i don't know i was talking to the guys last or two weeks ago and i'm shocked that right now we're ranked higher than minnesota is so i'm interested to see what the spread will be for that game uh going into it but yeah i mean we'll see if milton can pull it off that'll be a huge huge uh step in the right direction for that season well that would also just be a great way for him to start off his kind of Michigan legacy, right?

I mean, if truly Joe Milton doesn't have any starts and virtually no playing time, if he stepped out and won what is becoming a huge game at the start of his career, that would honestly make me as a fan feel like amazing right what would your expectations just from you guys be let's say michigan wins by 14 like 35 to um i don't know 21 i guess that's 14 yeah um quick math then it's then it's sky high expectations right especially if milton looks really good i mean there's no – Michigan fans will definitely not overreact either way, right? We'll definitely stay, you know, even-tempered and just kind of, you know, realize that it's his first start and it could, you know, no matter what,

it's not going to be, you know, one or the other. Either he's really good or really bad. Yeah, right. Right. It's going to be – what's going to happen is if he comes out and throws three or four touchdowns and Michigan wins by, you know, double digits or even just wins the game, everyone's going to be like, holy shit, Joe Milton for Heisman. This is a revamped offense.

The sky is the limit for Michigan and him. If he comes out and lays an egg, and even if he's like decent you know throws a couple TDs maybe an interception um around 60 completion percentage basically what Shea Patterson was if he's like Shea Patterson people are going to be like this is you know what it's it's terrible this is going to be awful like it's just going to be it's a it's a classic michigan fan you know situation here where it it's going to be overreaction on both ends no matter what happens which is interesting too because i'm really at this point expecting very middle of the road qb play in this first game i'm not expecting jo Milton to throw six 80-yard bombs

for TDs or something. I'm expecting him to maybe throw some passes that made me go, wow, that guy has some potential, and also throw some passes that raise some eyebrows. I'm going to try to temper some of my expectations, even though my inner fanboy is going off.

I think we've got to approach the game with know with tempered expectations for sure for sure and although that's going to be so difficult obviously after all the things that are coming out of camp and coming out of practice is like you know and it's coming from his teammates and his coach and all this stuff. So I know that Michigan fans always create the hype, but now those guys are like fuel to the fire. It makes it really difficult as a fan to just sit there and not be hyped up. So we'll see.

The other part of that is it's going to be – I looked at the weather today. It's going to be 38 degrees with 20 mile per hour wind gusts. That's what it's predicted for right now. Obviously, weather changes. We're 12 days out still. You're looking at the last day of the forecast. Literally, literally. So hopefully, yeah, it's not like that.

The weather changes like two days out, let alone 12 days out. I'm pretty sure at that point, the weatherman is just flipping a coin. 100%, 100%. But if Milton has the wind in, what, 20 mile an hour? 12 days out i'm pretty sure at that point the weatherman's just flipping a coin 100 but if if milton has the wind in what 20 mile an hour i mean he could throw the ball throwing 120 yards 10 yard line he's gonna be throwing it out of the back of the end zone on the other side dude that's the other thing too the game's at 7 30 so how many beers are you gonna have in you at that point i know i'm gonna have way too many i'm gonna just be going like joe milton like in my living room i saw that tweet more hype at that point yeah okay yeah i saw that tweet i

i think i voted like pretty high but or but um if i wasn't covering the game i won be there, but I'll be covering it from home with limitations. If I wasn't, I'd probably have quite a few in me. Just a disclaimer in case my employer is listening. Just got to go two waters for every alcoholic beverage, you'll be golden. There you go. Yeah, it'll be, I mean, that day from when I wake up in the morning till 7.30 is going to feel like, you know, three weeks, right? We're going to be just amped up for that.

So that'll be exciting. We'll see how it goes, obviously. But, I mean, we're 12 days away. It's real. This is here now, and we're excited. We're like to the season boys. We've made it. It's been a long road, but yeah, I, I, I don't know about you, but I was just like, as soon as I saw that, I was like, holy shit, we actually got some football to watch. I mean, this is incredible. So, so yeah, I let's move on to kind of what we were saying as our first down.

So, you know, Clayton, you've analyzed the team a little bit, right, all summer. It's like usually you're saying all summer. Now it's like most of the fall as well. Right. You've probably been covering this for, you know, obviously since January 1st or whenever they played their last game, but throughout the summer and fall too.

Let's talk about the position groups because I know there's been a couple position groups that have gotten a lot of love. I think that the wide receiver group has gotten a ton of love. The linebacker group has gotten a ton of love. And then there's some spots that have not gotten so much love. So my question is to you all, we'll do a little roundtable here. What position group do you guys think will be the strongest at Michigan this year? And what position group do you guys think will be the weakest where we're going to really struggle?

Clayton, go ahead and start. Okay. Yeah. Strongest for me, I'm going to go running backs here. And I thought about this because you sent out the topics before. And I was thinking, okay, you look at the receivers and I know, like you said, everyone's high on the receivers. But there's some concern there. Is there really much concern with the running backs? I know they probably don't have that elite guy that's going to be like a top first round, second round, third round pick. Maybe down the road with a Zach Charbonnet type of guy.

But you have four different guys that can play there. Chris Evans, Hassan Haskins, Charbonnet, and then Blake Corum, the freshman, who everybody's talking about as well. So I like that group right there. I think there's absolutely no concern. They all can play a different role. I'm excited for Chris Evans. I've been higher on him than most guys throughout the offseason. A lot of people thought he'd come back.

You know, is he going to be in football shape, which is a buzzword. But I think he's going to be. I mean, that's a kid who kept himself ready, I think, in the last year. year i mean all he's had to do is work out so he better be in pretty good shape right exactly i think he's gonna be and so everyone's gonna play a different role i like the receivers but i still have some concern with how they're going to replace nico collins can ronnie bell be the number one outside receiver uh linebacking core i mean mean, if you count Josh Uche last year as a linebacker, that's a big loss. Khaliq Hudson was kind of that steady guy at the Viper spot.

I love Cam McGrone. Josh Ross is solid. He doesn't have a ton of speed and athleticism. But that's similar to what Glasgow gave you last year. So I like those guys. But there's kind of concern with how you lose the the pass rushing there from guys like hudson and uche i just don't have much concern about the running backs and that's why they're my pick all right kaylin go ahead yeah i i honestly wholeheartedly agree with you pretty

much on both um the only reason i guess i wouldn't say running backs is i agree that they are very strong but i think they have to deal with an inexperienced line, which could kind of come back to bite them maybe more statistically than anything really. So while I agree with you, I really have no answer for who's the strongest outside of them. But in terms of weakness, I guess I would try to dance around it a little bit and not go with the popular ones and say the secondary or something. I would say maybe like tight ends just because I haven't really heard too much about the tight ends. I mean, we got some guys who can do some stuff. Don't get me wrong.

It's just I haven't really heard too much about tight ends. And maybe you know something that I don't and you can kind of educate me a little bit more it is it is an interesting thought though because all you hear about with josh gaddis offense is speed and space so how does a tight end like nick eubanks fit into speed and space right so i think it fits in really well if if nick eubanks is going to be who we think he can be um we've seen kind of flashes of in the the past, but when you think back, look at Josh Gaddis' offenses at Penn State. They were a speed and space type team, but they always had a really good tight end. Penn State always has a really good tight end.

Alabama, the same thing you hear about the receivers, but a big X factor in those offenses has been the tight end. He's always been a tight end offensive coordinator. It's not double tight end. It's not two tight ends, but he uses them well. So if Nick Eubanks, I didn't love his blocking last year, which is obviously huge, but he's athletic. He can get out.

He's no Kyle Pitts for Florida who's just dominating down there, but I think I like him at tight end. You know, Eric All is a guy who is under the radar, who could be a breakout candidate this year. So I'm excited about those guys. They don't have a ton of depth, but those two are going to be big names. And we'll see. Because, I mean, we didn't see it with Sean McCune, to be honest.

So you're absolutely right to have some doubts about those guys. Yeah, I'm not a big Sean McCune guy, and I expressed that all throughout last year. But Eubanks, I loved Eubanks. Eric Hall is a freshman. I think he's got a lot of talent, and he had a lot of meat to put on his bones. So I'm very excited about what he can do this year. Well, isn't Luke Shoemaker still here too, right? Pretty good.

Yep, yep, he's still there um but i guess if i'm going for my strongest group i know uh clayton you kind of mentioned linebackers a little bit i'm excited to see what josh ross can do coming back from injury we know it sounds like michael barrett is going to be the viper and he's just i mean he's been an athlete they've been kind of he's been trying to find a position for ever since he came in. And then we know what Cam McGrone's done. His last season was similar to Bush's first breakout year. So I'm curious to see what Cam McGrone can do this season.

So that, I mean, obviously, like you said, the running back room is just stacked. We know the wide receivers are solid. I'm really excited to see what the linebacker and court can do. And I want to touch on the runningbacker court can do and I want to touch on the running backs real quick too because we've mentioned this you know it seems like two years ago but I think it was in the summer we did a little running back preview and I mentioned like it seems like all these other teams and I say other teams but like teams that do really well the Clemsons the Alabamas that

you know Clemson has Travis Etienne who's an absolute stud and he gets 20 you know 20 plus carries a game Najee Harris went for five touchdowns the other night uh for Alabama like does it bother you because it bothers me a little bit that we do this running back by committee and i'm hearing josh gaddis and jay harbaugh say yeah uh blake quorum's gonna get some some carries chris evans is gonna get some carries charbonnet is gonna get some carries haskins how many there's only so many carries to go around so how is one of those guys gonna get into a rhythm and really feel like they're gonna you know dominate or see the holes. I think that you really have to – four running backs actually going in.

You know, I can see running back by committee as in two, you know, and rotating in and out because, you know, most teams do two and maybe three with the third guy doing, you know, a lesser load but like if we're really doing four four guys rotating in and out do you guys think that that's gonna work or is it gonna be like nobody even knows who's going in on what play and like they can't even get a feel for the game i i'd be shocked if there's more than two guys getting real reps like i think they'll narrow it down to i mean shit i don't know man who are they gonna narrow it down to i know now that i'm thinking about it but i don't think quorum's gonna get that many reps i think i think that might just be talk i mean he's a freshman what's the point when we've got a room so stacked save his eligibility maybe put him in i mean he's

got four games that he can get a little bit of playing time, like put him in and like garbage time against other J. Harbaugh to get real reps. Is J. Harbaugh saying that just to, like, keep him around or something? I don't know. I thought this was a free year virtually in terms of eligibility. Yeah. So why not play guys like Blake Corum and get some of those guys some extra reps?

I don't know. Because we got other guys like I mean, it's just like it's one of those guys some extra reps i don't know because we got three other guys that are like i mean it's just like it's one of those things that i think that and i i don't mean to like go down this road too far but like you know at alabama at clemson it's like you got to earn those reps where it seems like michigan kind of hands those out just to see who can do it or like kind of pity reps sometimes to like have a kid hang around or like give him something that he's earned and in my opinion i'm like dude if zach charbonnet is as good as advertised and he's been good when he's been healthy he should be getting all these reps you know and like i know i'm not saying hassan haskins is bad i think chris evans

is great too i think they're really great running backs but like you got to go with your number one. If you think he's your best chance for the most yards on every play, you got to give him as many reps as possible. Two things on that. One, I think that we are going to see that a bit. I think Chris Evans is going to play a little bit in the slot too. And Jay Harbaugh has talked about that. I think Blake Corham can kind of do the same thing.

Maybe a change of pace type guy or a guy that flares out of the backfield and is able to catch some balls maybe he plays like the true wilson role where he comes in for 10 snaps and gets like two touches a game or something like that so they've always used a few at the same time i i agree with you that it's coach speak in a way they don't know how it's going to play out if you go back to that 2017 year not to bring that year up too much because it kind of sucked but um everyone coming into the year thought it was going to be split carries between chris evans and karan higdon that's the year that karan higdon became that workhorse back for michigan and chris evans kind of took a step back as a sophomore into more of a situational role so we don't really know how it's going to play I agree you one guy you can get at least like

15 carries too yeah I think it'll mostly be a two-headed monster between Charbonnet and Haskins you're going to see Chris Evans quite a bit situationally they could use two backs at times I mean I know he did that at not only Alabama, Josh Gaddis, but also at Penn State with the backs that they had. So you're going to see different things. I think this offense is going to look a little different than it did in years past, but they're going to use them all. He said Blake Corum's going to play. Now, what does that really mean? Going to play could be five plays. Yeah, exactly. And I think he deserves that probably if he's as good as advertised, but we'll just have to see how it plays out.

I think a lot of his coach speak and, you know, because in a game, let's say it's a tight game at Minnesota week one. You're not going to like have some quota for, you know, Blake Corum to come in and get a certain amount of snaps. Right, bro. Yeah, I think what you're touching on, too, is very much been a huge problem at Michigan as well, which is we haven't really found our it guy. Right. Like a lot of these other schools that go on to win, they have like a guy that they can give the ball to. They'll be like, oh, we're in a pressure situation. Just throw it to him and we'll win. Or hand it off to him. Yeah, either way. Yeah. And we just haven't seemed to find that guy. So I'm hoping that if we do go by committee or something like that, somebody just establishes themselves as being that guy.

Yeah, yeah. I think it's tough in an eight-game schedule, though. You don't have any warm-ups to find that out. You don't have any cupcakes right away. You don't have Middle Tennessee State to figure that out. And I think we all thought Nico Collins was going to be that guy this year so it'll be interesting to see you know how that pans out on the receivers too um and so i'll go back to you know the strongest position group i actually think and we're going to talk about this later in the pod

too i actually think it's going to be the d line. I think this D line is going to absolutely carry the defense. I think that there's going to be some other holes in the defense that we've actually talked about already and we'll probably talk about later too. And so it's like the D line is going to be the make it or break it for, for Don Brown this year. And do we, did we want to go up? Did we talk about our weakest thing yet? or did we want to go back around? I didn't mention mine.

I'm going to go with the – I'd go corner probably. I know whoever said that earlier, that's kind of a hot pick, but I do have some concern. I like Mike Zordich as both a person, a Philly guy, and a – I'm not from Philly, but he's got a great accent. And, you know, he's developed a ton of talent there. But at the same time, Vince Gray to me was solid last year as kind of that third corner. I don't know if he's ready to step up into that number one spot.

We hear those names, Jermon Green, DJ Turner, Jalen Perry, but we haven't seen those guys on the field. So for me, that's the number one concern. I don't want to go with the weakness word maybe, but I'd say the number one concern right now is who's going to be that guy who's going to be lined up at some point against Rashad Bateman in 12 days. You probably want to shadow him with a Vince Gray or even Dax Hill, depending on how you want to move him around. But at some point, that second corner is going to be matched up with Rashad Bateman. Do you trust him? I'm not sure I'm there yet. Clayton, I'm with you. I think it's – I do think the secondary will be one of the biggest positive surprises this year

because it is – I mean, it's a big question mark, right? The question mark is the secondary and the O-line, just because we don't really know what we're getting with those positions every other one that we believe to be strong we know exactly what we've seen and we like it so i'm with you on the secondary man i mean i do have a lot of faith in vince gray i think he's gonna be a stud this year um i'm excited to see what dax hill can do in his sophomore season uh it could be i think it'd be nice if we could see him at safety and db splitting time with you know with brad hawkins out there um and some of these freshmen that come in in safety jordan morant all these guys like we hear a little bit of hype about them maybe they'll

get some playing time and dax will be able to move the corner you know vice versa whatever they think is best i think there's a lot of talent in that room um but it's just the development i mean are they ready to play the d1 level so i'm with you as that is the biggest concern for sure. I am so scared for game one when Tanner Morgan sees whoever that corner is, he's going to call a hot route when he sees that new corner on Rashad Bateman and they're going to go deep like three different times. And it could be a KJ Hamler situation against Penn State last year where they just they beat us on three plays you know and so they the defense can play really really well for 97 percent of the game but those three plays end

up in touchdowns and Rashad Bateman ends up with 300 yards and three TDs. And so I'm really concerned about that. I think Don Brown's probably waking up in the middle of the night thinking that too, you know, with the cold sweats. So hopefully he can figure that out. I actually think that, and this is a no-hot take either, but I think the O-line is probably the weakest position that we have. I trust in Ed Warner, but to get four guys ready in this situation that he's been in, he hasn't been able to get them a ton of reps.

Obviously, they've been practicing now, but all summer and no spring practice, all this stuff. Thankfully, Jalen Mayfield's back, but I think people underestimate how important that line is for a new quarterback to be comfortable back in the pocket. And so for Joe Milton, he needs to, like, especially in game one, he needs to not be running for his life from the get-go. So if he can be comfortable in the pocket, he will do well. If the O-line doesn't do well in the first quarter or second quarter, first half, whatever you want to say of the Minnesota game. He could get uncomfortable and start running for his life like Shea did a little bit, but he would get out of the pocket way too early, not go through his reads.

He might go down. He might start throwing into coverage, that stuff. So I think the weakest position could be the O-line, and it might be the most important position to Michigan's success. Any thoughts on that? I think you're right on the money, honestly. I mean, if the line isn't up to snuff, I mean, Joe Milton, like I was saying before, doesn't have a wealth of experience, right?

Right. So it's very easy for QBs to kind of get the happy feet, start trying to make things happen, especially a guy like Joe who's got a rocket arm like that, right? I could see him trying to force a pass. So I think that's a huge concern and very valid. I think you're spot on, especially with the early in the game stuff, because so we got a guy doug skeen over at the

wolverine uh who's our analyst you know he's former michigan all big 10 offensive lineman he won five big 10 championships um and one of the things he always says is you got to keep your quarterback's jersey clean early in a game especially a guy who's making his first start like you said if it's the first quarter and there's guys flooding through that offensive line and getting after milton he's gonna force a couple balls we've actually already seen that early in his career when he came in um he's thrown a couple picks i know those are in garbage time late in the game but yeah you don't want things to go awry for him early so keep him clean keep the pocket clean let him make those decisions we hear so much about how much better he's gotten

making those decisions and understanding the progressions let him do that the offensive line is going to be huge especially early in that game yeah and there's something to say for him making those decisions and he maybe he's improved in that in practice until you're in tcf bank stadium even without a crowd the music's going the you know it's it's 38 degrees and windy you know things change so we got to keep his jersey clean that's for sure um all right well um that was that was pretty good on on uh the position groups let's move on to our second down topic here um so the nfl is scrambling right now. Absolutely. In like, they don't know what to do.

There's a couple of teams, um, you know, the Titans and the, who is it? Titans and bills, I believe are playing on Tuesday night now. Um, the, uh, I know the chiefs, the Patriots are like scrambling as well for, I don't, everyone's like positive for COVID and everyone's, they don't know what to do. Games are getting postponed left and right and all this stuff. How do you guys think that the Big Ten, you know, Michigan has done really well with the COVID tests and keeping people pot or keeping people negative how do you guys think it's going to go when we get you know after game one or week one of everybody everyone's now collided and traveled

to different places and all that stuff you know maybe we're a couple weeks in do you see it going smoothly and like the nba bubble just did or do you think that we're probably going to have some postponed games? Jack, we'll start with you. Well, I think you brought up bringing up the NBA bubble is great. We're not in that scenario, right? Like, it can't be controlled. You can't control anything that's going on. The kids are going back to campus and then playing teams from another campus across the country.

So I'm sure games are going to get postponed. I feel like there's no way to control that they won't we've already seen it within you know two weeks three weeks of the college football season now granted that's down south where things don't seem to be taken as precautionary as they are up north um but i think i think it's bound to happen all it takes is one case right to spread through the team. If there was a bubble-type situation, that would be awesome. But again, we're talking about college kids, so it's not really something we can do.

We'll see, man. We'll see. I mean, it's tough with eight weeks. You don't have any bye weeks. I don't know. It'll be tough. Hopefully everybody can stay clean, but I don't see it happening. I think that there's two different things working here um that's different than the nfl one of them is that these are college kids on college campuses uh as you guys mentioned so you know they're gonna say that they're going right from the building home uh they go from virtual class which they can do from what their apartment or their dorm or the football building.

And then they go home. But as we all know, I mean, those are college kids that have lives outside of football, even though they're busy. So I think some of them and I think, like you said, Michigan's done a great job with this. So they're going to continue to do a good job. But again, it's just tough on a college campus. And as you mentioned, it can spread. But the other thing working in their favor that's different than the NFL is that the Big Ten. So I was mad that the Big Ten canceled the season at first. But one thing that I give them credit for is they actually did find some sort of solution to bring it back. And that was the rapid testing that they purchased. So it's going to be daily, seven days a week, 15-minute results.

So those kids are going to get tested. They're going to be sitting there. They can't go any further in that building until they're negative for COVID. So it's going to be a little more of a bubble than the NFL. If you remember a couple weeks ago or what last week um with the lions where the saints had a guy on the plane find out he was positive from his test from i think thursday or friday so they had to wait for the results so and then stefan gilmore the other day for the patriots it was like oh they found out he was positive so they had to shut everything down again and he's like in pat mahomes mouth

michigan's gonna find out right away and same with these other big 10 teams but i agree there's gonna be postponements there's no margin for error with the nine games in nine weeks if you count the the last week so um it's gonna be interesting man it could be an absolute disaster but uh either way i think it's the right right choice try, especially given the age of these kids. But don't discount the fact that these are 15-minute rapid tests, so I think it's going to be safer than people are thinking. And the NFL comparison is apples to oranges just in that respect. But again, they're on college campuses, and they don't have families to go back to.

They have friends at different dorms and apartments and we all know how that goes yeah i think i think that's a good point i didn't know about the 15 minute rapid testing and that does make me a lot more comfortable so uh i i mean i wouldn't be surprised if games got canceled here or there uh i mean you know there's there's no telling what could happen so um i'm just gonna you know cross my fingers and hope that we make it through the eight game season and play every game yeah i here's how i see this going down is state will somehow get their game with penn state canceled or something and then Michigan will have to play every game except for Rutgers or something like that that's just how life goes for a Michigan fan and for an Ohio State fan they'll catch some break where like you know Justin Fields test negative for or test

positive for one week but they like get it get and it's against Penn State but they get it canceled or something he's back he's back the next week. That's just how it goes. They'll put a bunch of false positives out there to make sure the game's canceled. Exactly. Even though Urban Meyer is not the coach there, he's behind that all somehow.

Only thing is we can't have that Michigan State game canceled because they can't be off the hook like that. Automatic W. We've got to keep that going. Only thing is we can't have that Michigan State game canceled because they can't be off the hook like that. Exactly. Automatic W. We've got to keep that going. Halloween is going to be a haunted house for the Spartans here. He's been saving that one.

I have been. I have been. All right, yeah. I think that it's going to be – it's just – it's so tough because it is college kids. They're not getting paid, and they're 18, 19, 20, 21 years old. Like, we all know what we were like at that age, you know. You know, I'm sure there's not much keeping these guys from going over to a girl's dorm or something.

Like, it's just so tough. And especially, like, I think about the Halloween game. You know, how many MSU students are going to be on campus, you know, in Ann Arbor? Like, holy shit. It's going to be a madhouse. And so these guys, you expect, you know, after a night game against Michigan State when they beat the shit out of

them, they're just going to go back home when all they can hear passing their window is, like, girls partying and guys partying. It's like, I don't i just not i trust michigan you know i trust michigan student athletes i just don't trust any college kid of that age to like have that much willpower especially michigan state yeah yeah there you go. Exactly. The fighting Mike D'Antonio's. I miss that guy. Yeah, exactly. So, all right, let's move on then to our third down topic here.

So we've done some different previews of some different position groups. We haven't done one in a while, but now that we're pretty close close to the season let's do a little preview of the d line so um i know actually our guy brandon brown put out a good article on the uh on the defensive groups um today too so um check that out but um let's start with uh clayton here you got a little preview of what of who uh who we should keep a watch on on the defensive line yeah and i should have said this when we were talking about strongest position groups um if D-end was just a position group which I guess you could kind of consider it as I mean that's the strongest on the team yeah for sure so you got Quiddie Paye and Aiden Hutchinson there Aiden Hutchinson bigger stronger faster than last season from everything that we've been hearing and then quitty pay is the number one freak in college football i think he's gonna

have a huge year uh he talked to the media last week on a zoom call and he was saying you know i didn't come back just to say i'm coming back and then back out at the last second when everyone's opting out he's back to win a championship i know it might be far-fetched to some people we're used to the you know 10 and 2 i know this year what 8 and 2 or whatever it would be but the guys in that building are serious about winning including quitty pay so i think the two dns rock solid um keep an eye on chris hinton kind of at that defensive tackle spot the three technique he's going to be very good in my opinion i thought he started to come on at the end of last year played a little bit high but you know i think they're going to coach him up and he'll have a

big year um i talked to his trainer actually who trained him all of quarantine um and he said they're aiming for six sacks this year which would be incredible out of a d tackle also that was before we knew it was it was a 10 or a nine game season but um so i think chris if you got if you got even just you know three that'd be a big d tackle exactly and then at nose tackle carlo kemp and um he gets a little bit of criticism i think from people he's not playing his natural position he didn't come in as a nose guard by any means. He came in as more of a linebacker, pass rusher type guy. But I think he's going to be rock solid as well.

So solid would be my take on the defensive line and then explosive on the ends. But you can't discount the fact that Carlo Kemp's a fifth year. He knows exactly what he's doing. Don Brown loves the way he – I mean, he raves about Carlo Kemp, the way he can take on double teams and things like that inside. So I love Carlo Kemp in there. It's not – you know, again, the big hot topic is they need more D tackles, and they certainly do, especially in recruiting.

But right now I think they're solid. The future, they've got to keep recruiting defensive tackles. But with Carlo Kemp there for a fifth year, I'm excited about the D-line. I'm not too worried about what's going to happen. I don't think they're going to get pushed around like they did against Wisconsin and Ohio State and Alabama in that second half last year. So excited. I mean, Aiden Hutchinson can play himself into the first round if he wants.

And same with Quiddie Paye. For sure. Yeah. At that D- d line like you said d end we're very strong with hutchinson and pay coming back can't forget about luigi villain who is a guy who's hopefully he can stay healthy for an entire year um having carlo kemp even just as a leader as a fifth year senior um at the d tackle position to coach up the guys like hinton and mozzie smith who are two highly talented recruits coming in.

And it's only going to be their sophomore year this coming year. So, like you said, Clayton, Chris Hinton, he was getting playing time last year, and he seemed to come on a little bit at the end. We didn't see a lot about Mozzie Smith. And I'm really excited to see what kind of playing time he gets this season and if he can really kind of show out. He'd be an X-Factor for sure. Sean Nua said last week that he came in at 350 last year when he came in as a freshman. Now he's 310,

315. He called him a freaking beast was the exact quote. That could be coach speak. Again, a D-line coach is always going to that's a position group where you're always going to, like that's a position group where you're always going to call every guy a beast, basically. So I'll believe it when I see it. Mozzie Smith would be an X factor. A guy like Donovan Jeter, who he's another I'll believe it when I see it guy because he's gotten preseason hype before, would be a big X factor.

They like Jess Bate, who has earned his scholarship for sure. He started the bowl game when Carlo Kemp was out. So the depth is not as big of an issue as it was last year, in my opinion, which is huge. Yeah, I think that, I mean, you guys have talked about, what, seven, eight guys already? You know, that's pretty good when we're highlighting um you know seven eight guys and not like i feel like there's been times in the past years where we're like yeah by the sixth guy you're like kind

of stretching and going to a guy that has never really had any playing time or like freshman um that has some some hype or something like that but like there's like seriously eight guys that have either played or and done well or have not panned out yet and they people like Sean Nua or Don Brown think that they could come into their own this year so I'm excited about those guys um I really do think this is going to be the strongest uh position on the team, as I said before. And I think that it's very, very important because if the D line can do its own and bring pressure to the quarterback without having to bring the linebackers on blitzes all the time, that means those linebackers can stay back and help that secondary which obviously we've talked about as a as a weaker group so the d-line is very very important to this defense and so if they can run with four man fronts and still get pressure um without having to send a linebacker

every play or something like that i mean that changes everything for Don Brown's defense. And so he's going to have to be maybe a little bit more cautious and not just like sending guys every single down or something like that. But it'll be interesting to see how he handles that and he adjusts. I really think, you know, I almost said this as like my most important position group, but Don Brown, in in my opinion in the defensive coaching staff is the most important position group because they're gonna have to make some changes not only obviously have they struggled in the past against good teams but they're just gonna have to make some changes because he's had locked down corners in the past that can handle

being one-on-one all the time he's not not going to have that. So he's going to have to drop back some guys in the, in the, in the secondary. And hopefully that helps, you know, and so these, as good as these D line, you know,

D lineman should be, or could be, let's make sure that they can, they can carry the load, you know, before we get, we get going here. Kaelin, you got anything else i'm really just curious about some of the question mark guys right i mean jack i think you brought up luigi villain and then uh the guy who's always struck

my curiosity is julius welshoff like i heard that he was such a freak and i'm like man i want to see this guy on the field so i'm just curious to see if those guys get some playing time this year and then how they play yeah and welshoff actually moved inside to tackle this year so apparently he's huge and yeah like you said there's been talk of him i want to see it on the field too and i think they realize they need some of that depth to step up uh just, I was actually talking to your cousin Craig about that for an article earlier this summer. Well, it's not even summer anymore, as he said. And he basically said they got worn down.

As a former D lineman, he said they got worn down towards the end of last year. You could tell it's been the same thing a couple years ago without that depth. So depth is going to be massive. Julius Walsh is a guy I forgot to name earlier to be honest and it's again it's good that there's guys that are going to be like big time um possibilities for this team or a guy that could emerge that i forgot to mention so that's that's a good thing yeah and i think the mozzie in my opinion like the mozzie smiths and the chris hintons are so important. We haven't had – I feel like the 300-pound D tackles have not been thriving in Don Brown's defense.

You look back on Mo Hurst, how many other guys can you name that have been like just domination inside? And so that's where I feel like we get pushed around sometimes. And maybe i'm forgetting some so you know name them if you if you have them but um i i just think that as far like our dns in the past have dominated chase winovich and you know uche and other guys and then like the the middle i think about wisconsin is like you just get pushed around in the middle and and there's gigantic holes sometimes so i think those guys coming into their own is pretty important so

all right um anything else on the d line before we move on to our zero to 90s all right cool all right clayton you got you know what we do here for the 0-90s? Yeah, kind of give a take here for 90s. Yeah, absolutely. All right, so hold on, hold on. He's a listener, so we appreciate it. Yeah, so all right. So you want to go first or do you want to go last? It's up to you.

I feel like you got to go last just to savor the... Yeah, I'll go last. Save the best for last. I can already tell you, mine's not going to be good. We've got to end on a good one. I know he's got a good one already. I'm ready. Alright, Jack, your 0-90 starts now. Oh, shit.

Alright, I'm not ready. 38 degrees. 20 mile per hour winds. I'm saying Joe Milton will have at least two touchdown passes against Minnesota over 50 plus yards. Wow. Whoa. Hold that one out of my ass. He's just like superhuman. So I've been told. Sources say.

He throws the football so hard that 20-mile-per-hour wind gusts don't even change the course of the football. I was going more so at his back. Oh, okay. But we can stay at his face, dude. That works for me. I think he can throw it 50 yards with the wind in his face. Dude, I'll take touchdowns no matter what. Exactly.

I like to think I can throw a football probably about 45 yards. I can probably throw it 20 yards with 20-mile-an-hour winds in my face. Maybe. I don't think so. I mean, you were a pitcher. You were a pitcher. You got an arm. But you're also washed up.

Very. That's an understatement. All right, Kalen, you ready? That was a zero to ten seconds you did. I did not come prepared at all. Yeah. All right, Kalen, your zero to 90 starts now. Okay, this is not particularly a hot

take but i watched the red river game and it was so sloppy i was like scratching my head and jumping off my chair but uh i i thought that they would not be sloppy because i had so much time to prepare for the season so i'm thinking that when we start seeing some of these Big Ten games, we're going to see a hell of a lot of sloppy-ass play. So I expect every game we play up to maybe Game 8 to be hella sloppy. Up until Game 8, the last

game of the season? It's Ohio State. That's all that matters. It's Ohio State. You're going to be clicking on all cylinders by then. It's a big-time dooner. Yeah. Dooner. Big dooner.

All right. Who's got me? I'll go first, and then we'll end with Clayton. All right. Thanks, guys. Cool. I was just waiting for Kalen. Oh, man.

Oh, Jesus. All right, bro right here zero to 90 starts now all right so everyone's talking about joe milton's arm but it is going to be 38 degrees and the wind gusts are going to be you know high so joe milton is going to end up with in game one against minnesota with more rushing touchdowns than he does passing touchdowns. That's not going to be a bad thing. We're going to be running, running the ball as much as possible and doing the QB load. He might be scrambling a little bit.

It's going to be a cam Newton type, a type performance where he ends up running the ball more than he does throwing. I like that. I like that too. It's a great take. Thank you guys. I appreciate that. You're too It's a great take Thank you guys I appreciate that You're so nice Positive vibes

Now the one we've all been waiting for Alright now the pressure's on This better be good I'm nervous Alright Clayton Your 0-90 starts now Okay so It's been a weird year 2020 everyone talks about it once

2021 comes we'll be good but 2020 sucks um we had the season canceled now it's back um who is the one coach that has been having his guys practice throughout the entire thing. They practiced right after the decision came down. I'm a Jim Harbaugh guy. I've been a Jim Harbaugh defender, which I think in my eyes is kind of obvious in a way. But we could go in-depth on that. But I said this on our site. We did a little roundtable on Saturday. And I said coaching is going to be more important this year than ever.

Who has their team ready? Who has their team the most prepared? And Jim Harbaugh has been harping on that. They're going to be as prepared as possible so that if their opportunity comes, they're ready. You'd rather have that than, you know, your opportunity come in or, you know, you're ready and your opportunity never comes, if that makes sense. So like I said, I'm a Jim Harbaugh guy. I think coaching is going to be huge this year, especially in makes sense. So, like I said, I'm a Jim Harbaugh guy. I think coaching is going to be huge this year, especially in game one. And that's kind of why I have Michigan as the winner of that game. I think Minnesota is a really good team, but I'm not buying the row of the boat.

I'm going to buy Jim Harbaugh having his team ready for this game, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Take that ship. Yeah. And I think guys like Giles Jackson and those guys of the world, they're ready to break out. They're going to be ready for game one. Let's drink some Kool-Aid.

But Jim Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh, and Jim we trust. He's back. I like that. And that's a good point, too. Like you said, he's had him practicing, you know, ready for the season to start in September and continued that all the way through the first game, October 24th. So they've had a lot of time to practice and kind of get their schemes together. And everybody worked together.

Not always been in pads, but still, you're around your teammates. You're around the guys you're working with. I think you're right there. It'll make a big difference. Curious to see how that plays out game one. Yeah. I also wanted to say, you were talking about it right away, about how it's going to look.

You couldn't imagine kind of how it's going to look in 12 days. But I tweeted this out the other day. Imagine number zero is back to receive the kick to start in TCF Bank Stadium. They're looking clean and crisp in those whites. Joe Milton's on the sideline looking fucking huge. Just jacked out of his mind. I got chills. Oh, God.

He's going to be looking so sweet when he comes on. He's throwing the ball. They got the Chris Fowler and herb street are talking about him oh man god i've got chills already i am so ready for that and maybe giles jackson just takes it to the house you never know right you do know you do know before we've seen it before we have so you're going on record is he going to take it to the house he's taking it to the house okay he's taking it i like that he might honestly he might like let up on the five yard line so joe milton can run it in for a five yard touch i know they're listeners so they they want

to make my predictions come true so yeah he's been playing as himself in madden or whatever right gets up to the goal line and like starts running aside exactly exactly oh man all right well we we absolutely talked ourselves from being not ready really not knowing what it is to like we're ready for game time right now it's like if kickoff was now we'd all be we'd all be pumped but um all right hey clayton uh plug yourself here um on twitter you are at csafe23 c-s-a-y-f-2-3 uh then at the wolverine.com we're the rivals site for michigan, yeah, lots of stuff over there. If you guys want to subscribe, you guys too, but all the listeners, if you want to subscribe to the Wolverine.com, use promo code BLUE60.

You get two months for free. So make sure to do that good stuff over there. We got Chris Ballas, Austin Fox, John Borton, EJ Hollins, our recruiting guru. So lots of good stuff over there. Thanks for having me. We're happy there. I have a question for you. We're happy to have you on. Question for you. Now, if we use code BLUE90, does that get us 90% off plus three months free? I should have come prepared with a special promo code.

Should have. Should have. Next time. We'll have you back on. Sounds great, yeah. All right, perfect. Well uh go follow clayton go read his stuff at the wolverine.com check us out at blue by 90 on instagram twitter and facebook as well as on youtube uh at the blue by or what is it blue by 90 podcast i don't know who knows go check it out

I think we do a podcast Sometimes so if you have An hour or two a week check us Out we're going to have some good guests Coming up here and give you some more Content for This upcoming season so thanks And go blue

Go blue Go blue. Go blue.