Blue By Ninety - In The Big House Ep. 5: Michigan Wins in Iowa City

Episode Date: October 6, 2022

On episode 5, Tyler & Brian discuss a much needed win in Iowa City, dive into snap counts and analysis of individuals, and the road ahead for the Maize & Blue. 

Michigan fans welcome to in the big house with your host Tyler Sealy and BB's big house from game day recaps recruiting player evaluations and all the latest buzz around the program we've got you covered now here's Tyler and Brian what's going on

guys welcome to another episode of the in the big house podcast this is episode five the jabril peppers episode brian how you doing tonight how are you let's get it i'm doing good michigan with a big win over iowa at kinnick's stadium 27 14 anytime you can go in there and win that's a big win isn't it brian absolutely absolutely as long as i've been a fan uh and that's been a long time you go to kinnick you just hope to get out of there with a win, regardless of what's on the line, regardless of what we're playing. And with a minute 10, minute 20 left, Michigan was up 27 to 7. I don't know guys have some dings, but I think we walked out of there with a really good flight home and in really good spirits. I think that was an outstanding win.

Yeah, I agree. I don't think there was ever really a point in that game where I doubted that Michigan was going to win other than maybe at the beginning, but the start was so damn dominant and so damn good. It really kind of didn't of didn't matter. They, they went out there, they punched Iowa in the mouth and there was no real response from Iowa other than the, you know, where JJ kind of fell down, he fell over the offensive lineman that was a Keegan or was it? Yeah. I stepped on him. I was at Zinter. I think it was Zinter. I may have stepped on it.

Yeah, Zinter. You're right. You're right. And, you know, that happened. And then, you know, the punt gets shanked there. And kind of, you know, Iowa kind of gets a little bit of momentum. The crowd gets into it. And then Michigan kind of stops them on fourth down.

And that's kind of the ball game, even though, you know, Iowa did go down and score afterwards. But, I mean, that's exactly what you wanted. You know, it didn't – Colorado State didn't teach you anything. Hawaii didn't teach you anything. And UConn didn't teach you anything. You learned a little bit against Maryland. And I think you really kind of learned a lot about this team.

Absolutely. I thought, you know, the game plan was make Spencer Petras beat us. And there were moments he had times where he could have made some big plays. That guy is a really bad quarterback. The plan worked and they put him in a position where if he could have made the right throw and the right play, he could have done some damage he just he did he did have uh yes on paper he had a pretty damn good game but it just like 21 to 31 for 246 yards a touchdown i know the average was only 7.9 yards per pass but like i mean he didn't have a horrendous game by any stretch of the imagination

on paper now if you watch the game some of these throws to guys that are wide open he's he's missing these guys by a ton and uh you know I mean Sam Laporta didn't even really have that great of a game I thought you know if if Iowa was going to win the game, it was going to be a lot of LaShawn Williams and Caleb Johnson and them running the football and then, you know, play action to Sam Laporta. That just never really materialized for Iowa. We're going to get the running game going. I mean, what were their yards per carry? It was like 102 yards a carry or something, right? Yeah, something ridiculous like that. I mean, LaShawn Williams had eight carries for 34 yards with a 4.3 average. And then Caleb Johnson had 12 carries for 32 yards with a 2.7.

And then Petras, you know, he was, you know, the surprising thing to me, and we'll get into it when we talk about the defense, but the surprising part is he was relatively clean, you know, not turning the ball over was Petras. Right. No turnovers in the game, right? For either team. You know, but talking about the game plan for Michigan, I thought, you know, the old guys and a lot of the people that like things tighter to the vest and, you know, especially guys like Jim Harbaugh, you know, that was a well-executed game. I don't want to say

it was perfect or greatly executed because I think there was a lot of meat left on the bone, for lack of a better term. But, you know, if J.J. hits a couple of those deep balls to Roman Wilson, you know, down the sidelines there, we're talking about maybe a 38-7 game. And, you know, the narrative of Michigan, this is what – I'm going to get on a soapbox for a second here. This is what really pisses me off about this fan base. It's not enough now to go into Iowa, a place you haven't won since 2005,

and, you know, just win the game. No, you have to go in there and blow them out. And I always see this same thing about the Michigan state game. Like you take it. I've always said this. You take it one week at a time because you saw what happened around college football. And you know, why, why is the narrative now? Like, Oh, Michigan didn't go in there and beat the breaks off Iowa. It's like, we haven't won there since 2005.

Yeah. It was, it was't won there since 2005. Yeah. It was – I think social media and all the hype and all shows and podcasts like this, people just hype everyone up and make them think that it's just easy, and it's not. What, seven or nine ranked teams lose last week, and Georgia for the second week in a row, and you and I both think Georgia is a really good football team. Barely beat a horrible Missouri team.

I mean, it's tough out there. It's every, like you said, week by week, it's, it's, it's a grind and everything's still right there for Michigan and it's exciting, but you know, the expectations on a week to week basis have to be a little bit more realistic. I think one thing that people don't realize right now, too, is they're not pulling the read option with J.J. McCarthy if they don't have to.

I think – did he have one rush in the game? He did. He did. It was very good. I hated – I absolutely hated the speed option that they had on – what was it, on third and two or something like that? They decided to have the speed option. And the offensive line didn't read it, on third and two or something like that, they decided to have the speed option. And the offensive line didn't read it, and so it just ended up kind of getting blown up. And not a good play by either of them.

But you're going to say if J.J. held it. Now, what I was going to say is for the life of me, and I feel like I understand football fairly well, is I will never understand why teams, NFL, college, run an option or spread play to the boundary. There's no field to work with. There's no space for your athletes. As soon as I saw that play, a tenth of a second, I'm like, what are they doing? I can see the play playing out. I just, I never liked that play. I will say, however, to anyone who listened to the podcast last week, you and I were both calling for jets, more jet sweeps,

more plays to the boundary. And the first touchdown of the game, Ronnie Bell, it was like you and I were both like, wah! It was just awesome that they utilized that play. I'm so happy for Ronnie. I don't know if you saw. There was a little bit of controversy on Ronnie Bell's touchdown. Did you see that?

I did not. No. Well, you know how Iowa does the wave, right? How Ronnie Bell celebrates his touchdowns, he's been doing it all year, is he waves to the Michigan fans on the thing. And, of course, social media, someone turned that into him mocking the wave, which he answered on social media. That was just ridiculous.

Such a good guy, Ronnie Bell. But we don't have to spend time on that. But I thought the play calling was outstanding on Saturday. I really did. Well, leave it to people on social media to get sensitive about something small like the celebration. It's not like it was derogatory at the celebration it's not like you know it was it was derogatory towards the wave or anything ridiculous like that um it's it's one

of those situations i i agree the play calling was good to get back to what we were talking about um it was a little vanilla but i think jim harbaugh is trying to keep i think that particular Ronnie Bell play is something we haven't seen all year. We have seen jet sweeps this year, but they haven't been – the offensive line hasn't – it's been out of different looks. Someone I was listening to pointed that out. So that was a new look, jet sweep know, what was ran before against Hawaii,

I think was the last one that they had, or maybe it was UConn. But either way, I mean, it was a different look. And then, you know, Blake Corum was fantastic yet again. And, well, you know, like I said, a lot of people said, can he be Hassan Haskins? I mean, so far he's been pretty damn good. Looks a little different how he does it. But, yeah, I mean, Hassan Hastings, one of the two or three best running backs in the Big Ten last year.

Blake Corham, one of the two or three best running backs in the Big Ten this year. I mean, right back at it. So I thought, you know, in terms of play-wise, I think J.J. had a pretty damn good game, really clean, except he put the ball on the ground once. I don't know that you could play a better game, to be honest. Yeah, I mean, again, I think for him, he was very effective. I think he made some really good decisions.

I think they pointed out in the telecaster the one ball that Ronnie wanted to throw to the outside, and he threw to the boundary, I thought was a really smart play because he was going right into one of their best defensive backs coverage. You know, I think, I think the thing that's separating this games from being really good to being elite is he's just got to connect on some of those deep balls and we'll keep saying it till he does it, or it'll go so long that he doesn't do it.

And that's not as big a strength as we all think it is, but you know, he hits on he sits on one or two of those and his stats are ridiculous you know what i mean and so i think it's i think it's coming i think it's a really hard low percentage play to be honest with you i'm not saying that it can't be done or that it shouldn't be done but i think that the deep ball or taking a shot down field you've got to be really sure that you're taking a shot downfield, you've got to be really sure that you're taking a shot downfield and that you're throwing it. If anything, you want to overthrow it, not underthrow it, because you underthrow it in Iowa City, especially where you just played,

or even in Indiana. Bloomington can be weird sometimes. You know, you can be in the fourth quarter in a ballgame that you didn't think you'd be in. So, you know, but getting back to JJ, I thought he was fantastic. I really did. It wasn't overly flashy other than the Donovan Edwards touchdown that he had where he kind of rolled out to the right

and made a beautiful throw to Donovan Edwards. I mean, and the fact of the matter is, you know, the defense kind of came up because they thought J.J. could be potentially rolling out to run the ball, and he's got Donovan wide open in the end zone for the touchdown. What a great play by Donovan, too. If you watch the replay of that play, that play was designed for him to go to the opposite corner of the end zone. You know, they were loaded up on that side and the opposite side, and he was supposed to cross across the formation, run across the formation. He realized it, went to scramble drill mode,

and those two just both made excellent plays. And if you've seen the highlights, that ball's tipped. And Donovan still made an amazing catch in the back of the end zone. So, so nice to have him back. He's such a difference maker. He gives them such a good one-two punch. I mean, the difference between him and the other guys back there are substantial.

And so, really good timing for him to get back for the stretch run. a good one-two punch. I mean, the difference between him and the other guys back there are substantial, and so really good timing for him to get back for the stretch run. I wonder, too, I mean, because he came up limping a couple times. I wonder if he won't play in this Indiana game. I think he'll play. You know, they'll probably limit him, but I don't think

he'll play. I mean, he's healthy. He wants to be out there. I don't know if there's a guy on the team that loves playing more than he does. You can't keep a guy like that down if he's healthy enough. So I would assume he'd play. He might be on a hit count a little bit, but I think he'll play. Yeah, I think it's one of those things where you don't want to get him hurt, but you also don't want to get to the point where he's cold and coming into now a very important game, looking past the Indiana game just a little bit in Penn State. And that's another game where you're going to need him. You're going to need a wrinkle like that where you could throw the ball out of the backfield.

But JJ's PFF grade was 70.4. He had 67 snaps, obviously all of them in the game at quarterback. So we don't need to go much more into that. But in terms of the running backs, you kind of alluded to it already. Donovan Edwards only had 18 snaps, where Blake Corham had 50. And Blake Corham, as we talked about again, was fantastic with an 80.3 PFF grade. Donovan with a 73.9. He was very efficient when he was out there.

Oh, so good. The reality is when we get to Indiana, they have to play more guys. They were the only two running backs that got on the field on Saturday, and that's not sustainable. And God forbid one of them gets hurt down the road, and now all of a sudden you have to rush one of these other backs in that haven't played a lot. They need to get more guys' touches out there.

Yeah, I'd like to see Isaiah Gash get some more tread here. He's been solid when he's been out there. Yeah, I mean, obviously he's a walk-on guy, and he's gotten a scholarship now, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah, so – but it's interesting because you know the one time that he's been out there he's done good i know um not tavier dunlap um he's escaping my head yeah yeah cj stokes you know he put the ball on the ground and rightfully so he didn't see the field

the rest of the game which i mean that's kind of how it goes in football. But yeah, I agree with you. The running back situation is certainly one of those situations where it's got to be someone else has got to emerge, whether it's Isaiah Gash or CJ Stokes or even Tabir Dunlap. Your point about Gash, I think it's a good one. He's, if you've watched, he's been really solid when he's out there. People will often turn their nose up at walk-ons, but two things I'd say about that. One, Max Bredesen has been great. He's a walk-on. And if you just go back a few years ago with True Wilson, he turned into the third best back on that team,

and he was very reliable, and he was a walk-on. So we have history on this team under Jim Harbaugh having a lot of success with walk-ons. So I have a lot of faith. If Mike Hart and Jim Harbaugh have faith in Isaiah Gash, then let's go. I agree. I think the one low point on the team, I don't think they were awful, but their PFF grades seemed like they were maybe not below average,

but they just weren't fantastic. I don't think the wide receivers, I think we talk about the meat left on the bone. I feel like the wide receivers, there's a lot left to be desired at this point, I feel like, still. Yeah, I can't speak to – their grades do not look great, other than Andrell Anthony. You know, I said last week that, you know, obviously there's something mental going on there a little bit

that's holding him back from getting on the field more. But when he gets out there, he makes plays, you know. And so, you know, I'm sure we'll see a lot more of him. His grades are about there, have been solid quite more. Roman Wilson, you know, there's been some talk about him, maybe a concussion or something at the end of that game. So we'll see his availability this week. Harbaugh said he's fine. maybe a concussion or something at the end of that game. So we'll see his availability this week.

Harbaugh said he's fine. Potentially that gives a guy like Darius Clemens or Amarion Walker, maybe not Amarion Walker, but definitely Darius Clemens. I know he went out there and had five snaps in the game, but he did have a holding penalty. And, you know, Jim Harbaugh, there's nothing more that irks any coach in college football or the NFL more than penalties, especially when you're a freshman. And, you know, you can't do that if you're a freshman and think you're going to get, you know, snaps and playing time.

One thing I love about Cummins is if you watch that game close enough, he was out there on a lot of special teams units. So when you see a wide receiver on special teams units, it's a guy that loves football. You know, I mean that they're picky about who gets out there and they want guys that want to go bang and make plays. And like Sandra still at the last couple of years, you know, seeing him out in those units, I think that says a lot about the type of player he is and the type of player he's going to be. Yeah, I agree. You kind of talked about Max Bredesen, but, but Luke Schoonmaker quietly was, could have been maybe not the MVP of the game, but he was fantastic. You know, he had 62 snaps, a 78.8 PFF grade. He had a better grade than almost all the wide receivers

except for Andrele Anthony, who had 11 snaps and an 82.2 PFF grade. So, I mean, Luke Schoonmaker, Joel Horningford, Max Bredesen, Colston Loveless, I mean, they have an assortment of riches at tight end. And Eric Hall's not even playing. Harbaugh said this week that he thinks Luke Schoonmaker, when it's all said and done, could be one of the best tight ends ever to play at Michigan. That's a lot of good tight ends that have played at that program. So that's a pretty lofty statement. And Harbaugh is very complimentary of his players all the time, but he often doesn't throw around accolades in comparisons unless they're

warranted. So for him to say something like that shows you the type of player they think he is and could be in the last couple of weeks with Eric Hall. He's been like you said, one of the team's best players and not the best player outside of late corner on offense. Yeah. The other thing too, that we're kind of going to graze past the tight ends here

and talk about a real strong portion of this team. I thought the offensive line was awesome in that game. Had the best game for sure. Yeah. I mean, Zinter was fantastic. You know, Oluwatimi, who I can never pronounce his name. But, you know, he was great in the game. Trent A. Jones had a couple plays where I didn't particularly love.

But Ryan Hayes, good again. And Trevor Keegan had a 59.9. But there's rumors he's kind of dealing with an injury. So, I mean, for him to give you that, you know, potentially with an injury, is it better with him not on the field and have somebody else in that position? I don't know. But certainly I think, you know, the offensive line is, is really trending in a good way right now. Absolutely. And that, that PFF grade you see for Trevor Keegan, who was the lowest graded lineman, if you watch crunch time, who they're running behind, the biggest run plays,

the most important run plays, they're running right behind Trevor Keegan. So there's a lot to be excited about having all five, gotten the five starters back. Carson Barnhart is also healthy. So they have their top six linemen, as they refer to, all healthy. Again, heading into the Big Ten, the media Big Ten schedule, is something to be excited about. And I think they're routing into shape, you know.

Well, the other thing that I've noticed and, you know, you would notice watching the games as well, they all had 67 snap counts. So there was nobody else out there. It was Zinter, Oluwatimi, Ryan Hayes, Trent A. Jones, and Trevor Keegan. And those were the guys, snap after snap after snap after snap after snap. Yeah, these snap counts, they played a very shallow roster this week. It tells you who they trust the most, right? There's not any questions to ask.

That was a game that Harbaugh put a lot of priority on, and rightfully so. And you see the guys, this tells you, here's who they trust. Yeah, absolutely. Again, I think the offense as a whole was good i don't think it was fantastic i think it was good i think there's still a lot left there but again you know this is only week five and so we go to week six and we'll see what happens at bloomington but moving on to the defense uh mozzie smith a decent game not disruptive enough chris jenkins a decent game, not disruptive enough. Chris Jenkins, a decent game, not disruptive enough. Mason Graham, for only 30 snaps, I thought he had a pretty good game.

I got to be honest. He's a monster. And Mozzie, I thought, had a fantastic game. If you listen to the post-game interview with Mike Morris and Iyabi Oki, they both credited all their pressures, most of their pressures to Mazzi. They said Mazzi makes it so much easier for them. So, you know, whatever that grade is, he's made a big impact. And you don't hold those guys to under three yards of carry

without climbing up the middle. So he was, you know, very strong. That is true. Now, Jalen Harrell, Mike Morris, Yabiyoki, Taylor Opshaw, Braden McGregor, Derek Moore. I'm surprised Derek Moore didn't get more run, only five snaps in the game. But Yabiyoki, another really good game. Really good.

Really kind of put the team on his back in the fourth quarter. Both of those guys. I mean, Mike Morris we all knew at some point was going to emerge, whether it's on the interior part or it's on the edge part. You know, he's a beast. And there's no reason why he can't be disruptive and why this edge portion of the team and the interior defensive line can't be disruptive. There's no reason why. Yeah, the real promising thing there to me was, I mentioned earlier that the game plan was, let's make Spencer Petras beat us.

And early on, you weren't seeing much pressure, but they were shutting down the run and there were open passing lanes. Once it got to a point in the game where the running game, because of clock management, was no longer an option, they started dialing up pressures.

And those last few minutes, they were in the backfield all the time. Yeah, I agree. As we excited the weeks ahead of teams that are going to rely on the pass more. Absolutely. And to me, it didn't feel like they blitzed that much. I don't know if there's numbers for as much as they blitzed or not, but just, you know, on the eye test alone, it didn't look like they were blitzing a whole lot. Especially like, you know, when they needed to get off the field, it didn't look like they were blitzing a whole lot, especially when they needed to get off the field. It didn't seem like they had to blitz. It seemed like they could play some zone.

Iyabayoki with 26 snaps, that's the most he's had all season. So it seems like they're kind of have him on a pitch count, and they're kind of getting him up to speed. And it seems like he's quietly – we kind of talked about this at the beginning of the season. You know, it seems like he's quietly starting to, you know, become the number one pass rusher. Jalen Harrell, I know, had more snaps than Mike Morris too.

But Yabayoki 26 this week, does he get to 30 or 35 next week? Probably. I think it's going to be cranked. I think Indiana, the game could get out of hand, so you're going to see more guys play, but I think Morris and Oki are definitely the two primary I agree.

Harrell's more of a rush linebacker most of the time, but yeah, the only thing that I've observed or noticed with Oki is that team loves him. Whenever he makes a play, I mean, they surround him and give him so much love. So, I mean, he is quickly, you know, with all the baggage that he allegedly had from his time, you know, a couple other stops, he's learned his lessons.

And so that team has really embraced him. I don't think he'd be on this team if he hadn't, to be honest. I really don't think Jim Harbaugh wanted to bring – we talked about the culture. We don't have to get into that. But the culture has gotten so much better here at Michigan. Absolutely. The linebackers I thought were – there was a lot left to be desired there.

Junior Colson had probably his worst game. And that's not picking on him, but it's just the grades weren't good. He did have the most snaps as a linebacker. The linebackers as a whole, they need to pick it up and pick it up quickly. I agree. I think it's, I had a lot of, Nakai Hill Green being out is not doing that team, because it's not a real deep position group. But I really thought that this year Junior Colson was going to step into and have a Devin Bush-like impact year, and that just hasn't materialized. He is a solid player, obviously a great athlete, but you're just not hearing his name called that much.

I don't know schematically that it's not set up for him to make big plays, but with his speed and what we saw from last year, I just had so much higher expectations. And hopefully he's saving his best for the last half of the season. Yeah, you know, hopefully that's the case. And hopefully Jesse Minter starts to see his strengths versus his weaknesses and, you know, gets him into a situation where he can start being a heat seeker kind of like Josh Ross was. You know, Josh Ross is a hard hitter.

He hit those holes quickly. And, you know, he was good at reading the play. I know that's something that can be taught and it's something, you know, obviously instinct is important too. But a 31.1 PFF grade is not good as an offensive player or an offensive player. So, you know, Michael Barrett I thought was pretty good. I think out of those guys, I think he was pretty good. Khalil Mullings only had seven snaps.

So there's a lot of meat left on the bone, for lack of a better term there. But I think they can get better at linebacker, and hopefully at some point they get Nikai Hill greenback, and that would certainly help solidify it. Defensive backs, you know, DJ Turner had an okay game, I thought, but overall, the defensive backs have been really good. Mike Zayn had his worst game, though. Yeah, he did not seem to be... I saw a couple plays in particular where he was grossly out of position, but

he's been great and a couple bad plays kind of stood out for me with him, but like you said, overall, the defensive backs have been really solid. I continue to love what McCarty Page brings to the table. The two corners are just really, really good.

Yeah, one thing to talk about just as a defense as a whole, I mean, they just – they don't have enough takeaways. When you talk about playing one of the worst quarterbacks in the Big Ten and Spencer Petras and not being able to turn the ball over at all against him i mean that that is concerning a little bit i wonder if that has to do with the pass rush not getting there just yet uh but i think once that starts to come on i think the defensive backs are good enough and the linebacking court maybe not as great but i think those guys can catch the ball and And especially the guys like Mike Sanders still, you look to him to have a couple picks.

It doesn't even have to be picks, just turnovers in general. They're not forcing turnovers. And I think that is one concern for sure. Yeah. I mean, I think turnovers, the water kind of finds its level. And that can be a blessing that they don't have turnovers yet because, you know, that means they're going to come in flurries at some point and hopefully they come in some of the games that matter the most to the team. So I'm not,

I hear you, I hear you loud and clear and would love to see more turnovers, but you know, I'm not that as concerned, you know what I mean? That's kind of segues into turning the page to that Indiana game running on the corner. Yeah, I wouldn't say it's like my major concern. Like I don't think, you know, I'm going to lose sleep over it. Nothing that I saw in that Iowa game tells me that Michigan's a fraud or anything like that.

But, you know, that's just one thing to keep an eye on. And, you know, they still don't have a ton of sacks on the season. I know it's gotten a little bit better. The pass rush is starting to get home a little bit more. So I think, you know, as time goes on, that will get better. Around the Big Ten, man, you know, Sparty hasn't looked good. Frost was out a couple weeks ago at Nebraska. Paul Crist is out at Wisconsin.

That's a thing I never thought I would see happen. Although you can kind of talk yourself into it if you're a Wisconsin fan. You know, they had a bad year in 2020. 2021 wasn't much better. They got the brakes beat off of them against Michigan at home, something that never happens if you're Wisconsin. And they always usually play Ohio State tough, and they got the brakes beat off of them by Ohio State.

The wheels are starting to fall off of Wisconsin. Yeah, you know, the Big Ten this year, I mean, there's no easy way. There's no way to share a coin. The Big Ten is not as strong as it typically is. I think, you know, there's some promising things in the Big Ten. Illinois, Brett Bieleman's doing a great job there. Loxley looks like he's finally figuring it out at Maryland. Rutgers, we know Shannon's going to turn them into at least a respectable program there. So some of the teams that haven't

been that great the last five, six years are starting to come on. But man, the Big Ten West is just miserable. I think anyone at Northwestern has a chance to win it still. That could be an exciting finish, but it's just down. I think obviously Michigan and Ohio State are top five teams. Then Penn State, we'll see how good they are. I think they're pretty good. I'm very nervous about that game. Outside of that, there's only three ranked teams in the conference. It's not a great year for that. If you talk about an ecology football playoff in terms of the Big Ten West,

yeah, no, I mean, there's no chance for the most part. I mean, unless Minnesota goes 11-1 and gets the Big Ten title game and wins the Big Ten, then maybe there's a chance. Yeah, that's the only scenario. I mean, you talk about the Big Ten West being a dumpster fire. I mean, you have Nebraska that fired Scott Frost, tied for first place in the Big Ten West. I mean, that's how big of a joke the West is right now. It'll be crazy if Wisconsin or Nebraska wins the West.

And it's possible. It's very possible. They're two and three right on the season. And, you know, I mean, they're 0-2. Everyone else is 1-1. They could rip off 10 in a row with who's the coach now is Jim Leonard, right, the defensive coordinator that took over there. And, you know, they could easily – I'm not saying easily because, you know,

most of the time when a coach gets fired, teams check out. But it could be the opposite way where Wisconsin just finds what they have. I mean, Graham Mertz is supposed to be this great five-star recruit, and it just has not turned well for him at Wisconsin. Yeah, a change of coach is not going to make that guy a good quarterback all of a sudden. He just doesn't. I happen to agree with you. But, yeah, I mean, we talked about this before.

Michigan State doesn't look great either. You know, I mean, they kind of got smoked there by Maryland. We kind of called that. We thought that would be the case. We turned out to be right. You know, around college football, I mean, you had, what, 10 teams in the top 25 lose or something like that? Kentucky, NC State, Washington, Baylor, A&M, Oklahoma, Arkansas,

Minnesota, Florida State, and Pittsburgh. And then a close game for Georgia, two in a row. I mean, it's unbelievable where college football is. And this is after Joel Klatt had a podcast basically saying that, you know, the top three, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State never struggle, but everybody else seems to struggle. And the reasoning behind that, and, you know, we talk a lot about recruiting on this podcast. A lot of that has to do with recruiting. He said 50% of the last three years of five-star recruits have chosen Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State.

That's the difference in college football right now. It also says, whatever the number was, I don't know if it was 10, but a lot of great teams lost last week. That's why when you go into Kinnick and win by 13, you know, I think I predicted 24-17 and the score was 27-14, so I just had the seven and the fours in the wrong places. But, you know, that kind of win, you got to be happy with in college landscape now.

Yeah, I agree with you. So Michigan has a trip up to Bloomington. That game can be found on Fox at noon. Another big noon game, Joel Platt and Gus Johnson and Jenny Taft. I know a lot of people love them. A lot of people hate them. I love them. I like them too too to be honest with

you i didn't like gus johnson for a long time and then i saw this video on youtube of how like big of a michigan fan he is i don't know how fox allows it to be honest with you but you know what it's uh it's certainly a thing that that i it turned me uh into a kind of a Gus Johnson fan, although, you know, it kind of – I don't know. Whatever. It is what it is. But a 22-point favorite on the road in Bloomington, your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, Indiana, if you look at their team, they're just not that great.

You know, their quarterback is their counter, Bazelak. You know, he's throwing a lot of yards, throwing TDs, but when you're down all the time, you're playing against, you know, Prevent D, that's where all that comes from. I mean, I think he's an adequate, competent quarterback. I think he's a lot better than Spencer Petras, but I just think those are misleading stats. I think this game's going to get ugly, I believe.

Indiana seems to be having a down year. If anyone remembers during the COVID year, Michigan lost in Bloomington. That'll give Harbaugh just enough motivation and the team just enough motivation. Mike Hart returns to where he was a coach before he came to Michigan. I think Michigan wins that game 45-13. Yeah, I think it's one of those games where you're going to see J.J. McCarthy swing the ball around the field a little bit, especially if they get the lead.

I don't think the play calling is going to be as conservative in terms of the play calling and everything like that. Hopefully you see more players play, which means, you know, Michigan wins comfortably. I take nothing for granted going to Bloomington. I think, you know, Tom Allen is, whether you like him or not, and I don't like him, I think he's kind of a cocky asshole, to be honest with you.

But, you know, his teams play hard. They play tough. They play to the end of the game. Michigan smoked them in Ann Arbor last year, 29-7. And Michael Pinnock Jr. was hurt. They had a bunch of players hurt in that game. I think they were without their top three receivers. So Michigan is going to have – I think it will be a game for a little while

and then Michigan will dominate and, you know, the skill set will kind of take over. I'm going to take Michigan win this game comfortably 38 to 7, the score that it should have been last week against Iowa. I love it. You know, it's funny as we're both sitting here saying we have to take, you know, each game and get a win and not try to hype up, you know, and have these expectations. And we both just said they're going to seal club them. So I don't see a lot in that Indiana team. I don't either. They were a pretty decent team. You know, they were, what were they three and oh, at one point.

And then their last two losses are to Cincinnati. And then they kind of got boat raced by Nebraska at Nebraska, which I guess could be a little bit skewed because it was a night game, but yeah, definitely not a good Indiana team, I wouldn't say. But, again, you know, never say never in college football. My big question for that game is, you know, what approach does the staff take? Do they play it super vanilla?

You know, Penn State's sitting at home this week on a bye week, so they'll all be tuned in to watch that game. And then, you know, they come for the maze out the following week. Do they, do they try to throw the playbook at them? So Penn State has to prepare for everything and throw all kinds of crazy stuff on that in the game. And so Penn State has to prepare for it, or do they keep it really vanilla and save the crazy stuff when they play them? That's, that's, I mean, as I look at it, I just want them to stay healthy. I want them to play clean. I want them to, you know, come close to it. But that's the thing I'm most interested in.

Yeah, it's one of those situations where you think that they should go out there and they should kind of beat the brakes off of Indiana, kind of give you – not everything out there, but, I mean, kind of open up the playbook just a little bit. And, you know, it's one of those situations where you do, right, you have Penn State kind of at home waiting, you know, to go to Ann Arbor, where historically, at least recently, it hasn't gone well for Penn State. But, you know, they have a chip on their shoulder. No one's really paying attention to them.

They're actually the only other team in the Big Ten that's ranked other than Ohio State and Michigan. So, you know, that should be an interesting game, but we'll get into that next week. In terms of Michigan and Indiana, this will be the 70th meeting. Michigan won the last one, obviously, last year. And then the first meeting was way back in 1900 at 12-0. Michigan went in Ann Arbor against Indiana.

So they have quite the history against the Hoosiers. Typically, it doesn't go well for Indiana. But, again, like I said, you know, anything can happen in college football. Well, how many in a row had Michigan won before the COVID year? It was some crazy amount. I think it was 18 in a row or something like that. 19 in a row or something like that. Because the last win by Indiana was in 1987, a 14-10 win in Bloomington.

And then Michigan won on October 22, 1988, 31-6. And then the last win was in Bloomington, 39-14. And then the loss came in 2020, that COVID year, which actually that Indiana team was pretty damn good. Yeah. Yeah, they were. I think it was 23 straight, 24 straight, something like that. Is that what it was?

Michigan leads the series all-time 60 to 10. So it's been a lopsided matchup for sure. As Brian knows and as the listeners know, my math is not my strong suit. So I'll take your word for it. The last thing I want to just kind of touch on over under this game is 59. I think it goes over that, to be honest with you. I do too. Unless weather comes into Bloomington or something.

Although my prediction isn't over that. So maybe it does go under. I don't know. I guess it kind of depends. You know, it depends on how badly Jim Harbaugh wants to win this game and, you know, what they want to do, what they want to pull out. Yeah, fluke plays lead contribute so much to those over-unders, right, like a scoop and score late. You know, two games in a row we've given up garbage touchdowns

with under a minute left. You know what I mean? So there's those types of things, you know, that's hard to predict. But let's stay healthy. Let's win. Let's be clean and get ready for Penn State. Yeah, you kind of talked about injuries. Well, this will be the last thing we touch on. Caden Colasar seems like he could be out a little while. He's played the most snaps on special teams. He's been kind of a rock back there other than the kicker and the punter there. But, you know, that could be a huge loss potentially, you know.

But, you know, next man up. That's all you can do here. Well, another thing to watch, a tease to keep your eye on, and I'm drawing a blank for his name, but Michigan's long snapper, who is a vital part of the team and special teams, one of the best special teams units in the country is out. And so I think they're playing a true freshman at long snappers, just something to watch, you know, that those are clean.

Those exchanges are, are good. That's just something we can circle back and talk about next week. But I'm glad as well. That's another something we can circle back and talk about next week. I'm glad Jake is on track as well. That's another important thing. I just want to get your final thoughts, Brian, because I don't think we have much more to talk about here. Yeah, no, I'm really excited. I think that everything's right there. I think, you know, Georgia, after two weeks, everyone thought this team's Georgia's better than last year. They look so great. And now two weeks in a row

they have looked very vulnerable and the season is not about Georgia my point is it's about finding a room and peaking at the right time you know this team seems to be getting better every week you know whether it's the offensive line gelling the pass rush coming together you know if they keep can stay healthy and keep getting better and JJ can, you know, he's still once he has three career starts, four career starts, still a learning player. So, you know, let's keep improving and let's peak at the right time. Yeah, no, I think, I think that's the biggest thing.

And with the schedule coming up, you have, we said, Indiana this week, Penn state next week, the bi-week then at Michigan State, which – sorry, at home against Michigan State, which could potentially be a night game at Rutgers, home against Nebraska, Illinois, and then that Ohio State game. So we have a lot to talk about still going forward, but I think that's where we're going to end it tonight. For Brian, I'm Tyler. You guys have a good night.

Go Blue!