Blue By Ninety - Harbaugh's rule proposal, Milton working w/ Devin Gardner, and Conference only schedule?

Episode Date: May 12, 2020

We go over Jim Harbaugh's rule proposal for College Football players. Does Joe Milton working with Devin Gardner give him an advantage to win the starting job at Michigan? What will the 2020 College Football schedule look like?

Thank you for tuning in to the Blue by 90 podcast. Today we talk about Harbaugh's role proposal involving college athletes. We look at Milton working with Devin Gardner in the offseason and how that may help him win the starting job at Michigan. And then we go into the conference-only possibility with the football schedule. Thank you for listening, and don't forget to follow us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, as well as YouTube. Enjoy the show.

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

Touchdown, Wolverines! Welcome to Blue by 90, your Michigan Wolverines podcast. I'm Kalen, joined by Jack, Nate, and Ro. Guys, how are you doing? Doing well. Pretty good out Ro. Guys, how are you doing? Doing well. Good out here. Awesome, awesome. Slow week in terms of sports, obviously, because there's no sports on.

But in terms of sports news, lots of news to report on, as always, right? So let's kick it off, getting right into it. Jim Harbaugh wrote an open letter to the NCAA slash NFL community. Lots to dissect in that letter. Does any of you guys have kind of a good general overview to kind of walk us all through it? Yeah, so basically what I got from it was that pretty much what he was saying, I kind of listened a little bit to his interview with John Jansen in the trenches, and he pretty much talked about how the average NFL career is three to four years. And he said if there's any way for these kids to be able to lengthen their career by possibly being able to go into the draft or be drafted sooner than, you know, three or four years out of high school. So basically he came to this proposal to be able to help, you know, some of these kids are ready to go their first year out of high school. You know, some guys like trevor lawrence right so they it sounds like they would only have to play one year of college or they could be able to leave their

school whenever they like um to be able to go into the nfl draft and essentially if they don't get drafted within the first 224 picks or um sign a free agent contract they would be able to come back to school with no penalty so basically if you're if you're an athlete or a recruit i think looking at looking at this and looking at a coach that um i'll save that for later but basically essentially that's what it is is any player will be able to leave school whenever if they're draft ready to be able to go into the draft and hopefully be picked up to be able to lengthen their NFL career where they can make money as soon as possible. That's what I got from it. Yeah, that's what it sounds like to me too. Now Harbaugh said that this was basically, he's trying to put this decision into the hands of like the family and the player is that correct right yeah

okay so what do we think i mean do we think that this is like this is a good idea i mean ro what's your thoughts on this yeah i i agree with him to an extent here um i think that when it comes down to it you know obviously there's a lot of talk about the same type of thing with college basketball, too. You know, with guys going straight to the G League or overseas. And actually, that'll probably be, you know, there'll be no one and dones coming up in the next few years. But it's similar to that where I don't think it'll ruin college basketball because there's only 10 to 15 guys maybe that are good enough each year, probably not even 15, more on the 10 range that are good enough each year to make that jump from high school to the NBA or G League or something like that. And I would be willing to bet it's even less in the college football world.

There are not too many 18 or 19 year old kids who are ready in physical shape, mental shape, all of that to play right away in the NFL. So it really takes, you know, it takes the NCAA and the NFL out of it as far as making that decision. But like you said, it puts it into the families, but I don't think it's going to impact that many kids there may be you know five I think tops kids that are ready at 19 years old to play for an NFL team and be drafted so um you know just because of the way football is so physical you know these guys need a college weight room experience to be ready for that next level. I think people don't understand how physical, how big these dudes are in the NFL, even at the college level. I know we've seen it with a lot of the guys at Michigan.

How much weight do they put on in two years or three years at Michigan? These guys are coming in. They look, you know, you look back on guys like Devin Bush, Khali Cudson, and, you know, all these other guys. When you look at their freshman pictures, they look like they're like squirrely little kids compared to when they leave grown men. And so I think those two, three years in college do help a lot of athletes. And so I don't think this would affect as many people as people would probably think.

Okay. Nate, what do you think about it? Well, I think, first of all, Jim Harbaugh did a great job of relating to families and players and stuff. So he opens it off saying, many young men and their families perceive college football as preventing them from earning a living as a professional football player. This is not an unreasonable perception given the rules currently in place. So I like how he talks about like the player's perception.

Right. And I think it's really dangerous for the sport or just for college football in general. if the people who are playing the game feel like you know they're not getting treated correctly I think if you the perception from players maybe in the 90s was maybe somewhat similar but maybe not as significant and I think for him to address this shows that he's trying to understand what families and players and stuff are going through. And there's a lot to it, but I think that's one of the key takeaways I took away. Nate, do you think this proposal will make college football worse?

Do you think it'll make it better because the players are currently feeling that way well i think if you like actually make some changes to the system the players won't feel like you know they're getting screwed over year by year right if they go like okay i have actual opportunities to go to the nfl and then not be screwed over if i get like if i don't get drafted um one of the things he talked about was uh hold up he said a clean clear and concise college eligibility of uh five years for football without a red shirt clause needs uh needed to be needed to compete for five years. He's saying that like even players who are five years, I think about like guys like Karan Higdon,

who didn't get drafted, maybe he could have came back and played a fifth year and then maybe had got drafted later. So I think he's he's trying to make it so that kids get the most out of it and so i think look it's just like anything and anything right if people feel like they have more opportunities and there's less like just rules placed on this for no reason um then they'll feel like they're actually getting something out of that um one thing that's like really kind of scary to me and i mentioned it in one of our uh like uh zero to 90 takes is the is the g league right that shows this this is exactly what jim is saying the perception of players is that going to college is screwing them over right and so do we want there to be some like you know xfl and it just becomes like a minor league and then essentially it's like european football or european soccer right where

you just go like okay the kid's 14 and we're gonna sign him like on our team and then honestly i i just commend jim harbaugh for actually like understanding these players like issues and concerns and actually like having the balls balls to write somebody a letter. I mean, it's about time. Good for him. That's all I got to say. I also – Go ahead, bro.

I was just going to say to that point, I think it's a great PR move for recruiting purposes for Michigan and Harbaugh. Once again, I think he has pretty much always been kind of a player's rights advocate and so once again it seems like he's trying to be on that side and so even if you know even if it is a publicity stunt you know I still think which I don't think it is but it probably a little bit there's something to that it definitely helps with you, you know, the recruiting side, I think. I don't think there's any downside of it on the recruiting trail. Yeah, what I was going to say, too, is like, I'm glad you said you brought up the five-year eligibility. So basically, what he's saying is,

if you're ready to go after a year or two, or NFL teams are ready for you after your first year, you can go. If you're a guy that maybe you had four years like karon higdon you could benefit from a fifth year then you can stay and you can grow even more great two positive ways for um college athletes to be able to improve or take advantage of the opportunity given to them and then also like you said ro with recruiting dude i mean who wouldn't want a coach that is looking out for your best interest and clearly with this letter harba that is looking out for your best interest. And clearly with this letter, Harbaugh is looking out for the best interest of players. And I think that's awesome, man. That is a big thing. I mean, as a player that would want to trust in his coach, that's huge.

Right. And giving you some of the academic benefits is definitely right up some of the Michigan sales pitch, right? With the 40 year plan that a lot of them have been pitching for so long. But I also want to share maybe a little bit of devil's advocate. And this is kind of getting into some conspiracy territory almost, right? So I was reading this article, and they were arguing that a lot of this was really to the benefit of Michigan because by enabling players to leave early, you're basically taking the teams that were unable to beat, the elite teams, the Alabamas, Ohio States, Clemsons, Oklahomas, Georgias, right? And you're letting the Tuas and the Trevor Lawrences and the Justin Fields leave early, thus leaving a less talented group on the field so that we can beat them. What do you think about that?

Perfect. Do you think some of that came into Harbaugh's thinking of why he's like, get rid of the really good players so that I can actually win? But I mean, that could also, you know, it could potentially hurt us. Like let's say we got peppers next year instead of five years ago. That means he would be gone after probably one or two years and then we lose that guy. So I can see that, um, that perspective for sure. But I don't know. I think it's, I love it's I love it I love it a lot because that just made me so happy and that just means we have a better chance of beating Ohio State it's a little bit yeah conspiracy theory out there but yeah Ro go ahead no I mean I I do think that it's you know there's something to be said for it does benefit Michigan specifically

because of that, because we're right on the cusp. But I still think if we're talking recruiting, we haven't been that far off in recruiting, I don't think. We've gotten those five stars. We've had those guys, but we've had the talent on the field. Look at all the NFL draft picks we've had. It just hasn't, for some reason, had the talent on the field. Look at all the NFL draft picks we've had. It just hasn't for some reason converted to wins on the field. So as much as that would make sense, I still don't think, you know,

I think we'd probably have a similar, maybe not on Alabama and Clemson's and maybe not even Ohio state's level of players leaving early, but we'd be still in that top 10 of group of most players leaving early for the draft, I think. One thing I want to say, too, on the negative side is this will probably create more busts in the NFL. Think about how many busted draft picks there are out there that were studs in college, put up all the numbers, you know, and then they get drafted in the top five

and then they still can't make it out there. You know, how I think you're going to create guys that think they have it, or that's just all potential really at 19, 20 years old. And they haven't, you know, you haven't been able to see them on the field and now that's just all potential really at 19 20 years old and they haven't you know you haven't been able to see them on the field and now it's just going to create more bust down the down the line i think what that does do row is that for the kids who like are the first ones to if this was implemented if they're the first ones to get you know draft and what you're saying we'd have to have some time five years maybe like 10 years and then kids start going oh crap yeah i don't want to even declare for the draft you know like i don't want i don't want to be you know this person like you know and then end up as a boss so it might work out better where kids end up going like, well,

now I know I should stay because statistically like only maybe like 2% of the guys who, who are like get drafted out of their first year. I don't know. Does that kind of make sense? I see where you're going. Yeah. Another thing that Jim Harbaugh said on In the Trenches podcast

he was like about to sign off and he's like wait John one more thing I just want to say that this is not a one and done rule so he wanted to make that very clear so how does that work then how would it not be yeah that's what I guess

I think he was just trying to make it like I think he's just trying to say like this isn't some gimmick i'm trying to really like help people and like you know help their families but i'm also kind of like jim come on let's be honest here this is a one and done rule i i do i do believe so i would okay i can see it also him being like it's not a one-and-done rule because it does possibly grant that fifth year as like a regular thing. You have five years of eligibility or whatever it is, regardless of redshirt or whatever. But it's a one-and-done rule.

Like that's what it is. I mean, that's who will benefit most from it, I believe. I think who will benefit most from it too is more than guys leaving early. It'll benefit more to what Nate said of guys coming back from the draft. There's, there are way more guys that don't get drafted and could come back than there would be that are NFL ready earlier than three years out of high school. Yeah.

Right. All right. Are we all ready to move on to our next topic or does anybody have anything more to tag on to that okay i just want to let you guys know i had my headphones plugged into my phone and they weren't actually plugged in and when you saw me fiddling around with my phone about five minutes ago i realized that that the audio was coming out of my phone and not out of my headphones. So I was just sitting here like an idiot thinking that my headphones were plugged in, and they never were. They never plugged in. Oh, my gosh.

But now we can move on. Now we can move on. It took him 13 minutes to regulate it. I'm like, it doesn't sound like it's coming out of here. That's what happens when you start with two strong mimosas in the morning and keep it going through the day. That's why you don't drink seven hours straight and then run to a podcast. Oh, my goodness. All right. Well, that's a perfect segue into our next subject here.

All of our favorite topic here, milton versus mcafree uh joe milton right is working with devin gardner has been working with devin gardner uh during this covid time um what now what is he doing exactly he's been practicing with devin and they've both been working with this uh qb camp for children, right? Is that correct? I believe that's what Gardner does. Yeah, he has a QB camp that's majority youth level. Youth, yeah.

But he's also, from what it sounds like, he's also been working with Joe Milton and Ronnie Bell. Oh, perfect. So you've got Devin Gardner. I'll save this for a little bit later, but he's a great quarterback working with Joe Milton, possible Heisman contender, and Ronnie Bell, who's our leading receiver. I mean, just add it together, guys. Add it together. Joe Milton's going to be our starting quarterback. I love it, man. I love it. I am all about it about it ro had gardner in his top five michigan quarterbacks of

you know since let's say 2000 which none of us did and looking back at the numbers man gardner was that dude gardner was that with a terrible o-line with a terrible o-line terrible coach like um like okay i'll go back through some numbers here so passing yards career ranking of quarterbacks devon gardner is number four all time really number four all time that is surprising behind chad henney john navar and elvis gerbach and remember his last year or two right he was splitting time, it seemed like, with Denard Robinson. So that took away from that. So he was still fourth all-time career passing yards.

Passing yards in a single season, he's fourth again all-time. He missed the number one spot by 400 yards. Single-game passing yards. He has the one and two spot. 503 yards in 2013 against Indiana and the legendary 451 yards against Ohio State in 2013 when he played on a what, Nate? A broken foot.

I mean, he's working with one of the greatest Michigan quarterbacks of all time. And given a different environment, could be even more legendary than, well, could be even reasoned as legendary. Because he's really not right now. So I don't know, man. Joe Milton working with that guy, I'm about it. Joe Milton's about to be a starting quarterback and win that Heismisman and maybe maybe a big 10 title for us so i'm pretty excited uh nate i know you're hyped up you might as well keep the uh hype train going here i don't

know man do you guys know my my take on joe milton i mean he's got an arm it's just a cannon i think he's got he's you can move in the pocket um dude one thing I did know is I was watching some of his high school tape he's got that like Jerry Judy like kind of juke he's got that little like head sway before he's about to do it so I'm I just kept getting more hype hyped I was like oh crap maybe throw him out there at receiver a little bit too no no McCaffrey's not getting in I will say I mean I think Gardner is a great guy to to coach him up because they're very similar body types um I think Milton's got a little bit more meat on him than uh than Gardner did when he was in college but um you know Gardner had a very strong arm too,

probably not as strong as Milton, but he did. And he could, you know, very mobile as well. So similar, they're both tall, tall, kind of lanky, a little bit quarterback. So I think that's going to help him too. But, but if you don't think that Dylan McCaffrey is at home with Christian and his dad Ed, probably with some other NFL guys doing work, then you're crazy, man. That's a whole NFL household.

They probably have a football field in a barn somewhere in Carolina or wherever they live. I don't know um but um yeah so if joe milton's working with uh devin gardner i'll one-up you and say that dylan mccaffrey is working with his brother christian who is an nfl mvp like that's a great take honestly i mean yeah that is let's let's be honest here i mean it's tough you know getting in work in these times right but mcafree is definitely you know he's been proven hard worker right the team loves him he's got to be at home putting in work uh you know going through the playbook doing whatever he's got to do to win that starting spot.

Honestly, the QB battle has not gotten any more clear to me. Whoa, whoa, it won't. In what way? What do you mean? You said it's more clear. How? I said it has not getting any more clear oh has not gotten more i thought you said it has gotten more clear oh no i thought you were saying mcafree's definitely taking it i was gonna i was ready i was ready with some facts to throw

at you i just hope we get a season this year so we don't have to keep doing this for another year if we have to just like talk about the possibility of who's going to start for 18 more months i'm gonna go crazy okay i'll tell you what to listen to you guys i'll tell you what true i've been running deep ai simulations in ncaa 14 and i will tell you i'll play mccaffrey and i'll score like two touchdowns i'll put in joe and it's just 70 yard bombs all day that's right baby four birds and you know who it is it's ronnie bell every time and he got he got haskins running the underneath route just in case of course i actually just throw them out wide and just say go five verts i love it i mean it's hard to argue with that that's obviously foolproof thinking right there facts nothing but facts coming at you i'm blue by 90.

uh yeah no but um in all seriousness those reps that uh that joe's getting with ronnie right building that you know that connection with your receivers that's huge right and building that level of trust um and that's definitely something that joe is can use this time to improve on because previously people were saying like dude joe's throwing way too hard right so if he can get that touch and the receivers can learn that touch that really improves his chances and that's and that's something too joe is throwing to a receiver that he's going to be throwing to during the season right where mcafree he might be throwing to christian who's an all an all pro running back or whatever you know whatever his accolades are.

He's obviously highly talented, but that may not translate to the guys he's throwing to at Michigan. I mean, you've heard the story of Tom Brady. They bring in a receiver for Brady, but he doesn't like the way the guy runs the route, and he won't throw to him. And he told Belichick, he's like, I will not throw to this guy if you put him in the game. So with Milton building that relationship with a receiver he's going to throw to, Nate, don't laugh at me, man. With Milton building this relationship with Ronnie Bell, I mean, a guy he's going to throw to, who was the leading receiver last year?

I mean, that just, I don't know, it gives him an edge. Now we've got Cam Newton, Pat Mahomes, and Tom Brady comparisons all for Joe Dillman. Our third string QB last year. Okay, okay, okay. To be fair, Brady may or may not have a better arm and be more mobile than Joe Dillman. I'll just say that. Nobody's going to listen to us oh that's great uh anybody have anything more to rehash on the mcafree milton debate here or uh or we get it all out for today milton 2020 i i will say i this is like

going against our our milton mccaffrey war that we have here but i do truly think that they will both get significant time uh in 2020 i think that just the way you know um mccaffrey coming on in 2019 for a couple plays when he split out wide, um, when Shay was in, I think they'll try and do a little bit more of that. Um, I think McCaffrey is not, uh, Milton would be a better receiver type than McCaffrey would, you know, so in that situation. So, um, I think they'll try to find a use, um, for Milton, even if he isn't the starter. Sorry, don't yell at me if I say that those with that sentence but I can see him coming in and you know running some of those QB loads

like Ohio State did with Tate Martell and you know I've seen it with a lot of teams before but I can see them both getting some significant time no matter what what do you guys think about maybe just some crazy idea like playing both qbs like uh not necessarily like a11 offense but you know using dylan as just a straight up wide receiver i mean i think if if that suits the team best for a victory, go for it. And whether that's Milton or McCaffrey, in all seriousness, the job is to win the game. Whatever gets us to that point, I'm for. That's fair.

Yeah. I think – I mean, I think Gattis is going to be ten times more creative than he was in year one. I think he probably had to hold back a lot in year one. You know, Harbaugh, as much as he says he let the reins go, he was probably breathing down his neck at all times and, you know, keeping his word and his ideology into that offense. And now that Gaddis kind of proved towards the end of the season

that he was you know guys improved the offense improved we're almost firing on all cylinders near the end of the year there on the offensive side of the ball that he's going to have more freedom and more creativity um i felt like honestly, probably three quarters of the season, even more sometimes, that we had half the playbook closed on the offensive side. So I think that they'll be opening up a lot more now that Gattis is trusted a little bit more. Hopefully, he's trusted by Harbaugh a little bit more with some of the play calling. Yeah, and hopefully we can start the season off on a much brighter note than last season where we're dropping the ball every other drive or whatever. Those kinds of things prevent you from opening the playbook because you tend to be focusing on other things and you don't want to progress, right?

So hopefully we can be creative, but we can also execute, and that will really drive our success on the field. But if we're all done with McCaffrey Milton, whatever, that will be discussed ad nauseum for the rest of the world. We've got how many more weeks until the season? That's how many more times we're going to talk McCaffrey-Milton every episode. Our poor listeners, man. I feel bad for them.

I have more to say, but I'm just not going to say it. Save them. Okay, well, we'll move into our next topic, which is kind of a brighter note. The season coming back right we've heard a couple of rumors about when the season is going to resume how it's going to resume what are all the restrictions going to be ro can you uh enlighten us please yeah um well first of all i want to say that nobody knows anything for sure you know just like the real coronavirus response and seems like nobody truly knows what's going on. And it changes every day. So take everything you hear with a

grain of salt. You know, I've seen so many takes from different broadcasters and analysts and things saying, you know, this, this and this is going to happen. And they may hear something, but it, it changes literally every day. But the latest that I have heard is that they are trying to plan out a season that is only conference games. So no non-conference, which makes a ton of sense because, you know, with Michigan going across the whole country to Washington for game one obviously is not you know the safest thing to do at this time and and who knows with you know a possible second wave coming which I think is most people's concern um coming in the fall um is that that you know keeping things regional it within the conference is going to be huge or going to be, you know, more, I guess, realistic than got teams traveling all over the country. So that's been the latest talk right now, which would help, you know, it would probably push the season back another month. You know,

I don't know what they would do with dates, but they could push it back a month if that was the case. so it gives you know the virus another month to everyone to you know get a handle on that and um and it'd just be interesting you know then to see how it how all that plays out um you can still do you know a conference championship and um and all those things with that schedule too. So what, what I was going to say about that is I love the fact that it's going to, that there's, there's a bright side in having a season,

right? Um, I guess I'll save the rest of what I was going to say for, uh, for a little bit later. I'm assuming we'll get to it, but, um,

I mean, it gives us something to look forward to as fans right like right now we're all in limbo where it's like shit are we gonna have a season are we not gonna have a season and it's michigan fans are we gonna have a season are we not gonna have a season or who's our quarterback milton or mccaffrey what is this what is that um but that's that's a good bright spot to be able to look forward to if that if that is able to come true. Yeah, and so when we talked about this earlier this week, Nate had said that they should add two more conference games then too, and I think that they are looking at adding a couple more conference games.

So who would you guys want to see? Say they're coming from the West side, then the West division. Who else would you want to see on our schedule possibly that maybe we haven't played or, you know, I don't know. I think this would be, so I'm just going to say this, this would be a good time to just eliminate Rutgers from the Big Ten. Like, I don't want our players, I don't want Michigan players traveling to New York. It's not the best spot.

Rutgers, I don't like them in the Big Ten to begin with. We could add Pitt. We could take Pitt. That's beside the point. I'd like to see us Well, actually, Nate doesn't like New York a lot.

Hold on. I got it. I just hate Well, actually, Nate doesn't like New York a lot. Hold on. Stop what I'm saying. I just hate Rutgers being the Big Ten. It sucks. I have a solution. My solution is, because guess who, if we're only playing conference games, guess who's not in a conference?

Notre Dame. This is their time. We delete Rutgers, delete, delete delete delete delete and add Notre Dame because they're cowards and they and they won't join a conference if we only play conference games they're gonna have to this is maybe that this may be it oh yeah that's a good point that's a great idea I still don't know how this is gonna work though with conference play because like yeah the Big Ten is like it still has like Rutuckers and then the acc has like boston all the way to miami so like i think it's i don't know if it's it's necessarily better but uh right i don't know i i would say it's i i agree with you but i mean it's better than going to Washington.

It's not an ideal situation, but on the optimistic side, I'm going to hang my hat on that update for now, hoping that we have something for a season. One of the things I was watching too was um this small team in italy the small professional team and they somehow went to the premier league um this is right before the or like the championship league whatever it is um and they were there was this huge event because they's such a small team and they were beating this uh like well-known uh premier league team and they scored like four goals and every time they're screaming and they're saying like how bad that was because there's huge like so many people that were a part of that event got coronavirus because when you think about it everybody's yelling there's all these like droplets going in the air right so i don't think i'm just being realistic like

having fans in there is it's i i'm not sure that's gonna happen man oh yeah that's just yeah yeah well i also read that they would rather had not having fans is equally as bad as just not having the season. I mean, the ticket revenue at Michigan is a huge portion. Football season ticket revenue is a huge portion of their full revenue for the year. So it's over 50%. I'll'll say that which is a wild thing and um it just it would be really tough the only thing that i i can think would make up for it is you know tv ratings maybe go way up then because um you know people are starved for something and you know you don't have a million people in ann Arbor on game day tailgating and going to the games and stuff like that.

So that's the only thing. Papa John's commercials. Yeah. Um, so one thing that they looked at too, was if, um, if you were to, to place, you know, one person, every six feet inside Michigan stadium. So six feet forward, six feet back, six feet side to side. What do you guys think? How many people do you think they can fit in there out of the hundred and whatever, 10,000 seats?

How many people, people do you think that leaves? 5,000. Let's say, yeah, five to 10. Yeah. I'm gonna go even lower and say like three. Yeah, it was six. So we're packed in there like fucking sardines, man. Yes, we are. There's, there's not even one foot to each seat at this point, let alone six feet.

So at that point, I don't I mean, when there's only 6000 fans, it's like not even worth it for them to deal with that. You know, I think they would maybe, you know, maybe just have families or something like that and player guests. And that would be it. But, i agree with you nate i don't i can't see a scenario where we have 110 000 people in michigan stadium next year could you imagine the wave with like 6 000 people in michigan stadium just looks so lame be a sad sad people aren't standing up anyway man i don't know what that wave would look like. Yeah, that's pretty much the student section to begin with. That's fine with me.

Only students. Put only students in the game. There you go. No, I'm saying this current student section, just how many of them are actually there at the start of the game. Just not enough to begin with. You know, it's funny. I actually heard that Wisconsin has a huge problem where their student body doesn't even show up to the game until halftime.

It's amazing. Well, for any noon games, that's an 11 a.m. start for them, central time. Right. Oh, yeah. So, I mean, it's tough. Anybody in the central time zone. I think when we played them this past year, it was 11 a.m their time because it was a noon start for us or something um but i mean i don't know how much that affects it because

kaylen and i like obviously looking at liza like our friend who's a who's a recent student at university of michigan and uh we'd see snapchats of her waking up at 6 a.m to go fucking tailgate like everybody all the students wake up like that early to go tailgate before the game. I don't know. Those kids are crazy, man. Students will find a way to get up and drink. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, but I mean, do you think that the conference-only schedule is the way to go?

Or do you think, I mean, what's our thoughts on that, I guess? I would like to see it moving forward just because of how much I hate how the SEC does week 11, you know, right before their last game. They always play some shitty team and give themselves – yeah, basically another bye week, right? So for me, I would love to see only conference games just to shit on the SEC. I would love it. Make them play an actual team before they play their big rivalry game. Like Auburn, Alabama, instead of playing the Citadel and Southern Columbus University. Like they're playing a real team and, you, and they have a real challenge to prepare for instead of having two weeks to prepare for their biggest rival.

That's true. Because we don't get that in the Big Ten, right? So I'd love to see it. I don't know how much it would actually affect the playoff picture, but it could, right? So I'm all for it. I hate that Week 11 in the SEC. I hate it so much i actually think the

big 10 should just copy it do the same thing now if we did that i would be okay with it but we're not so this is why i'm reasoning that way i think it's actually i commend the sec for that honestly because it gives their teams you know when you're in week 11 week 10 of the season like that is you're hurting you know I think everybody's banged up there you know you got injuries at nearly every position it seems um every even if you're not banged up you're sore you need a week off so I think it's a it's a great thing for the SEC to do because it helps their teams prepare for the playoffs or whatever's going on there, too. Yeah, that's a good point, too. Something I at least haven't really thought of.

What kind of impact will this have on postseason play and like bowl games um i mean if you only play conference teams is that i guess that's a fair assessment of your like the strength of your team but just what what are you going to do if you they weren't allowing you to travel and then they're just going to say like okay go travel now i think for the purpose they're trying to serve um with you know limiting um you know travel and whatnot and like teams traveling all the way across the country i think what it what could be a thing and i don't even know if they thought this far yet but if they're only doing conference tournaments maybe we only see a playoff we don't see bowl games maybe it's just a playoff because if you're playing a season you're gonna have the playoff otherwise what's the point right um but i think

maybe they just get rid of bowl games maybe they do playoff in new year's six and that's it but i don't see them playing the tax layer bowl like i just think that's ridiculous yeah well maybe they'll fall back and have the uh you champions based on reporter vote or something, right? Maybe, yeah. Well, the thing about that is, though, that the big reason that every department in the NCAA is fighting to have a season at all costs is because football pretty much runs every athletic department. It is the money backing for everything so whether it's the non-revenue sports or the um the staff the faculty it pays for everything so um that's the reason why they're doing it and bowl games are a big chunk of that

money actually so i would actually argue that they would want to do the bowl games and i know it's more travel and stuff but if the money is enough like sad to say they'll put people at risk um to make enough money if they if it means to keep a department afloat that's a great point yeah so they're going to do anything in their power to try to get the football season going so that they can at least fund some of these other sports right and the stat i mean they wouldn't be able to pay for anything without without football 90 of athletic departments are that way yep yep i i read something that um there's only a few schools that really even generate like profit from uh their football team most schools like lose money and michigan's one of

the few schools that does profit do you guys know this yeah i think it's actually it's actually the athletic department as a whole it most most of them are run at a deficit. But I think the football is the majority of that. And then most get bailed out by the academic side with tuition and everything like that. Gotcha. Okay. Well, that's all I kind of have for that topic. Does anybody else have any more to share on that?

No? No. Okay. Well, does anybody else have a topic that they want to bring up? I actually do that we hadn't talked about. But going to basketball. Ooh, okay. So Cole Bajima is in the transfer portal.

Um, something I think we didn't see. Um, but you know, honestly, what that means to me, which is if he didn't think he could beat out Adrian Nunez for a starting spot or a role spot in next year's team, then he wasn't that good and probably not good enough to play in the Big Ten, sad to say. Because I'm not a fan of Adrian Nunez. I'll say that right now. He did not do well or anything for us last year. So I'm just saying if he didn't think he could beat Nunez out,

which that is kind of the probably seventh spot right now in the rotation. If he didn't think he was going to even get to that, then he probably wasn't good enough for the Big Ten. And I think most of it from what I heard was he was a liability on defense and just didn't know angles and couldn't, you know, couldn't stay with guys. But the scheme, more of the scheme stuff, he couldn't grasp know couldn't stay with guys but the scheme more of the scheme stuff he couldn't grasp it at the college level so um unfortunate to see him go because he was unbelievable shooter and i he had a ton of potential on the offensive side um but it does leave michigan and you know before before that day of in or 48 hours of josh christopher and isaiah todd we didn't know how we were gonna you know dwindle down our roster to fit the scholarships now we're like ready to

take anybody to fill our roster so it's like everything's flipped completely um so i don't know if you guys had anything on that and um i mean there there's a there's not many people out there that we are looking at i think there was one grad transfer i can't remember who it was that had us in his uh top five now um but other than that i mean we're our depth is not not going to be ideal i don't think next year um the other thing sorry i'm just gonna keep rambling is um xavier simpson is grad transferring so is he grad transferring or is he not because that post was very very like contradictory he said he was ready to go pro and then in the

like writing he said he wasn't and i'm like what so what's happening it was like i it was like a code that we had to break or i don't it was the weirdest instagram post i've ever seen um but i believe the second the caption was a typo so i think he is grad transferring um which that makes more sense i feel like that would make more sense for him as as a player yeah he i don't think he's nba ready he's not on any type of draft board um you know he i don't even know if he's ever gonna make it in the g league or nba just because he doesn't have a shot um it's improving that's what that's a good reason for a fifth year, right? Yeah. Why would he be transferring, though?

That's what's confusing to me. I don't think he can play a fifth year. Yeah, it would be a grad transfer. Yeah, he has no eligibility left at Michigan. But he could go play one more year at some other school. It's a fucked thing. Dude, that's so stupid. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

What I will say is, honestly, I will ride with Xavier anywhere he goes, man. He was an absolute bulldog for us, and, you know, he gets ragged on for his shooting and stuff, but, like, we would have been screwed in so many situations and so many games when the offense wasn't clicking, and he just took it to the rack 15 straight times. So he's a little bit of a dick, but I loved him at Michigan, and you know what? He got us to a Final Four, won Big Ten championships for us.

He's the man, I think, and it would be weird to see him um see him in a different jersey but i'll i'll root for him nonetheless so i'd be shocked if he did but what if he goes to ohio state or sparty that would be still rooting for him uh i mean no that's even honestly a different big 10 school like spike did it makes it tough when spike went to purdue i know it's tough yeah but i do too but um yeah it'll be interesting i think it'll be weird because he's like he's not a guy obviously that's going to come into another team and just be like you know an offensive help like he's like an integral part so coming in for just one year somewhere will be kind of weird for him you know will they accept him as the leader that he is as a grad transfer it's going to be interesting to see what he does i think it definitely be it has to be a team that needs

a leader on the court majority of the time yeah so i doubt it would be a big school but maybe it could be who knows yeah yeah best of luck to xavier simpson wherever he chooses to go as long as it's not ohio state or sparty yeah um well what do you guys say we jump into our final segment zero to 90 love it i've been ready i've got it written down and everything oh what a cheater all right jack let me pull out my stopwatch here make sure you're uh time you won't need too long. Alright, are you ready? Yep. Okay, 30 seconds starting now.

Give Devin Gardner all of his eligibility back. Put him back to when he came to Michigan and make it right now. He wins the Heisman. We get a Big Ten title. We're going to the playoff. Wow. That's it? That's it. That's the playoff. Wow. That's it? That's it. That's a bold statement, baby.

That's what I'll take. He said, I don't need any more time. Look at the numbers. Look at the numbers. I'm just saying, passing yards, completion percentage, yards in the single game, look at the numbers. Tell me that won't happen. I was very surprised at those numbers that you rattled off earlier.

I would never have guessed that he was in the top five in a lot of those things. Yeah, that's crazy. Look at the numbers. Dude, that's a good hot take. I like it. It is hot. It is flaming hot. Hot Cheetos.

Let's go. All right, Roe, are you ready? Yep. Okay. Your 30 seconds is starting now all right so i think that we've kind of said this before um but i think that the playing only the conference games would be great for michigan because i looked at a tweet the other day top 10 loudest stadiums by decibel number one washington at 133.6 decibels so so not going there as our first game would be huge also number 10 on that list is Michigan so you can take all the quiet Michigan takes away

there you go 30 seconds hey you guys are doing good today squeeze it all in I want to disagree with that quiet take. You can't take it away. We have the biggest stadium in college football, and we're still number 10. How? How? It should be number one, no doubt. But I'm just saying it's not.

Take away the quiet takes. Take away the quiet takes. Get out of here. That upper deck, that's all we need, and we're golden. Put us in a dome. Maybe that'll help. All right, Nate. You're 0 zero to 90 are you ready yep okay 30 seconds starting now so jim harbaugh mentioned in his letter he said when a player's pro career is complete he could return to college to finish his

degree he is then not denied his professional opportunity and is more mature and likely more motivated to finish the college education. So I think this is a really smart thing. I think kids, once they're done playing professional ball, do have like more maturity. And I think if people really care about the education, right, this is a better way for these guys to to get that. OK, well, look at that i was nervous man i was nervous he was getting close i saw caitlin i was like oh i know i'm like sitting here like is he gonna get it is he gonna get it that was great you guys actually uh you did good today wow was it third time's a charm fourth time's a charm? Fourth time's a charm? We all got it? Everybody got it.

Great work, everyone. Good job, guys. Obviously, I do want to put out there that there's a lot of Michigan football recruiting news. We'll cover that on a separate episode. So keep an eye out for that. Otherwise, guys, great hot takes. Good job. Check us out, Blue by 90, on Instagram and Twitter

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