Blue By Ninety - Jarrod Wilson Joins The Show

Episode Date: September 25, 2026

Chris Wormley and Jordan Strack break down Michigan's win over UTEP and preview this week's matchup with Iowa. Former Michigan & NFL Safety Jarrod Wilson joins the show.

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We've got new episodes every Wednesday night throughout the year. We are teamed up with Blue by 90. That is Chris Wormley. I am Jordan Strach. Make sure you're sharing this pop with all your friends. Tell them about us. Tell them we're fun. We're nice. We're cool. And yeah, if you want to hop on, we appreciate that. Our Instagram is stadium and Maine pod. Worm, the Wolverines get ready to open up big tent play coming in 3 and O with a nice win over Utah. I think I had a little bit of PTSD kick in in the first half last week.

They started slow and I'm thinking, oh my God, please don't let this happen again. I can't do stress thing again. And they came out, listen, they came out second half and everything was good. And it felt like it was the most complete game they've played. And I was really happy. I thought it was a really good performance last Saturday. Yeah, I was actually at the game. And it was raining all, you know, all day before the game.

And then it kind of cleared up. And I was excited that I wasn't going to be rained on all day. But yeah, when it was 7-0, then 14-7, I'm looking like, man, not again. And you can kind of hear the groans in the, in the stand. and from the fans and all that. You know, those two kind of early turnovers, the fumbles, obviously, unacceptable, and that has to be kind of fixed right, you know,

before Big Ten play starts on Saturday. But after that, I mean, I thought Bryce had his best day of the season in terms of his passing game and his decisions. Some of the throws he made were really special. The running games picked up a little bit, but not probably where we all are expecting it to be. Offensive line looked somewhat better. Andrew Marsh came alive, which it looked like they were really intentional about that.

That was part of the game plan. First two plays were just screens and just having him create on his own. He scores a touchdown, which was great. The defense looked stellar all day. I got to give some credit to UTEP. I thought their offensive scheme was pretty good in terms of scheming up plays to defeat Michigan. Obviously on those two touchdowns, I thought those plays were really well. drawn up and schemed.

So I got to give some shout out to that. But I mean, Michigan's defense, I'm trying to think of when Michigan had a defense like this. And I mean, obviously like those Big Ten championship years. But just in terms of them, just how hard they play, they play so hard and fast. And they're always, they're always, you know, six, seven, eight guys around the ball.

That's the most impressive thing is just how hard they play. And then you put that, you know, with the scheme and with the talent that they have, have and it's a really nice, I guess, concoction for success. Yeah, for sure. A couple things. Jared Wilson, former Wolverine is going to be joining us here later in the show. So we'll talk to him, an Ohio guy who went to Michigan, which we always appreciate,

obviously. But Michigan hosting Iowa this Saturday, we're going to break the game down a little bit, but you're going to be in the big house and you're going to be on the pregame show for the radio. You're hopping in there, filling in for Jack Miller, right? Yeah, shout out to Jack. I think he has, he said he had a wedding to go to out of town. So I'm filling in for him. And I'm pumped, man, to be with Brian Bush, John Jansen, and that crew, Jason Avat,

Doug, it's going to be great, man, to be able to be up in the booth. Obviously, be at, you know, watch the game, talk a little bit pregame. It's going to be super fun. But yeah, man, what a crazy, crazy cool experience. So that's going to be. and, you know, hopefully Jack can have a few more weddings as the year goes on. I can fill in form a little more. It should be a lot of fun.

I love it. A Toledo guy helping another Toledo guy. It's great. It's good stuff. So, yeah, we're pumped for you. That's awesome. All right, let's look back at it. Michigan defeats U-TEP 5217 to go to 3-0.

So the slow start was frustrating. There's a couple things, though, that I think kind of set the tone in this game. one, it was an offensive line that was playing together for the very first time. Like Kyle Whittingham literally said that that combination hadn't played together or practiced together or anything all camp. Like this is the first time they rolled it out there because something happened to Andrew Sprague between Friday night and then Saturday's game. And we still don't know what that is.

And maybe by the time this podcast comes out, something will come out. But like we don't know what it was. And that's, I mean, that is a huge loss. you're talking probably their best offensive linemen, their right tackle. It's a major, major loss to lose Andrew Sprag. And so, you know, you've got Evan Link and native phobia, Jake Warner, Brady Norton, Blake Frazier, all kind of scrambling to play. And I think that kind of set the tone.

It's like, okay, hey, it's going to take a minute for these guys to get everybody get into a rhythm and all that kind of stuff. Eventually they did. The running game did get going a little bit. obviously the penalties are one thing and the turnovers of the other. They're better. They're better with, I think they only had four penalties this game,

which was, yes, they weren't. It was good. But what set the tone early, and this is the point I was going to do, they got into a first and 20. And after they had,

they had been driving and they got themselves to a first and 20. Michigan is just not built to overcome a first and 20. A lot of people aren't. I mean, it's really hard to overcome a first and 20. It just is. but Michigan's just not built for that. Like they can't put themselves in these situations. And then what happens is, you know,

you're trying to probably do a little too much. And then Bryce gets hit, fumbles the football. And then it sets up the, you know, what was kind of a gimmick trick-ish play on the, you know, the short yardage situation right near midfield for U-Tap.

And that kind of set the tone. And it was like, oh, no. But those are the little things. Like, listen, when you're Michigan right now, you have to, you have to limit those things.

You can't be in first and 20 against Iowa. You can't turn the football against over against Iowa. Like those are the things that cannot happen coming here into week four. Yeah, and I guess even to go back to Andrew Sprague's injury, which is so crazy because usually Fridays, you know, you have your walkthrough and you're heading to the hotel, especially if it's a home game, you head to the team hotel. And you're kind of in like a like a bubble wrapped situation. Like you're, there's there's really like I'm trying to I don't want to speculate it and kind of think of. how he could have gotten hurt, but it seems like it was just either something freak or something that happened at the walkthrough.

You know, I don't know. I mean, I'm not even going to speculate, but it just seems weird that that would happen after everything, like the walkthrough into the hotel, super weird. But yeah, the offensive line picked it up towards the end, you know, second, third, fourth quarter, obviously, and then you have the turnovers, which are just, no matter who's out there offensive line, the turnovers are unacceptable. And I think, you know, that's a point of emphasis. Obviously, if you're a quarterback, you're not getting hit in practice,

so you can't really practice that. But you can practice, you know, good ball security, high and tight, all that stuff, close to the body. The one thing that, I don't know if you caught Wittingham's presser, I think it was today, but he was talking about how the team is young and they also have to figure out how to play with passion and energy like early on. And you don't want to get punched in the mouth for this team to wake up. It's one of those things we're like, if you're playing football, you've got to have passion.

You've got to be able to come out. I get it. I get it was, you know, U-TEP and they were supposed to win by a bunch, but you should want to play and have that energy and that passion for the game. And if that's something that is a recurring thing, especially heading into Big Ten play, that's a little concerning. You know, you can teach technique and skill and a playbook and how to do certain things, but, man, it's hard to teach passion.

It's hard to teach energy and getting excited to play football. You know, that's a harder thing to teach. And I hope we can see that change over the next, you know, a couple games. But that was probably the most concerning thing when I was watching that presser. Not the injuries, obviously you don't want guys to get hurt. But having the head coach say, hey, we're. where's the passion and the energy. It's like that's got to be the first and foremost.

Yeah. And I think, you know, the overarching part was like, you know, it's easy to get up when you're playing Oklahoma. It's easy to get the juices flowing when you're coming out. You know, you're playing Oklahoma or even like, you know, you're playing Iowa. Generally, the juice of going, listen, it's human nature with 18 to 22 year old and sometimes older now in college football kids.

When you're playing Western Michigan, you when you're playing U-TEP in a game where everybody says you're going to win by 35. Like that's, unfortunately, that's the human nature part of this thing. You don't want it to happen. It does. We've seen it. It's been like this since the beginning of time where you can let your guard down a little bit. And yeah, you're right.

It's something that they have to be able to focus on. And now you're into big time play. Like you have to bring it every single time you come out for sure. One thing I want to touch on is the running game. And, you know, there's been a lot of talk. I noticed it right away, and I made a mention of it on Twitter. In the U-TEP game, it was very clear what their game plan was. They were going to load the box.

I mean, there were sometimes eight and nine men within one or two yards of the line of scrimmage. They made a concerted effort to take away Michigan's running game. They will not be the last team that does that to Michigan. So Michigan is going to have to learn how to still run the football a little bit when you face those loaded boxes. What can they do from a scheme standpoint or personnel standpoint to be able to help themselves in those situations? Or is it as simple as you need Bryce to be able to hit some passes to soften these defenses up a little bit? Because that is what happened against U-Tep. It felt like once he started hitting a couple passes, they had to back out just a little bit,

and that opened up the running game. What can you do or what can Michigan do now at this point when you know this is going to be the game plan every single week? Yeah, I mean, I think kind of all of that that you just said, right? Like when I look at this new offense that Michigan has under Jason Beck, a lot of the runs are like side to side. I think Savion and Heider is very well equipped for that type of offensive running scheme. Jordan Marshall maybe not so much. And I know he's a little banged up at Whittingham has kind of talked about. Jordan Marshall is a north and south kind of guy.

We saw that last year, saw the year before. So for him to kind of relearn a new kind of scheme in terms of a lot of the side to side, side stuff. You know, I would love to see a little more north and south, especially for Jordan Marshall, especially until he is 100%, and, you know, that's really hard to do midway through the season is get to 100%. But if that running game can get you, you know, four or five yards of pop, and they have to load the box, which is what I'm assuming that I was going to do.

I'm watching film on them right now, and that's, they have probably the most boring defense I've ever seen in my entire life. But they, it is, I'm like falling asleep midday. watching this. It's almost a compliment because of how well they play it. The two-corporonator's been there for 100 years, just like Kirk Farrant has. And for them to play as sound and as technically and fundamentally sound as they do, they can play a very boring defense. And they play just as hard as Michigan's defense does in terms of flying around. But if Michigan can gain four or five yards of

pop in the run and hit them with the play action pass, that sets up that defense to kind of loosen up a little bit. Take, you know, they can't have eight guys in the box. But I think that's all going to depend on Bryce's ability to, to throw the ball and what type of throwing game is he going to have. But, you know, Iowa's a very tough defense. They play really sound defense. But I think Michigan, when you look at the tape,

I think Michigan's offense matches up well with this defense. And we just have to see that kind of flourish and continue to take those steps. So each week they've taken that step. it's just really, you know, time to kind of put it on display in a big way. Yeah. This might not be sexy and it might not be a popular opinion right now. Bryce Underwood just played his best football game as the quarterback at Michigan, I think. I thought there were some moments in that game where, and I don't want to jinx this

and maybe he'll take a step back this week. I get it. But it felt like there were some, like a light ball went off a couple different times. I thought he, and I thought Jason Beck did a good job of getting him into rhythm with some of those early throws. Getting that ball out to Andrew Martian, letting him go make some plays. Some of those things are really going to help Bryce in the long term. I still want to see the tight ends be more involved. You have to start getting these guys involved in some way.

But like, listen, there were a couple throws he made. He made a layered throw. if you're looking at the broadcast down the left side line. I was about to say that. From the near hash to the far sideline, it was, it was an NFL throw. And there were a couple times,

I thought the touchdown pass to JJ Buchanan was terrific. There were just a couple times in the game where I was like, whoa, that's there, man, it's there. That's what we've been waiting for. It's just got to get the consistency of it. And if he does that, I'm telling you, it's going to be,

it's going to be scary because the kids, has the talent. It's there. You can see it. You there was to add on to the throws that you were talking about. Some of his rollout throws on the run were like, I mean, I never played quarterback. So I, but just the visual of it and seeing it tight spiral on time, on target, it was like, whoa, that that is that is what we're looking for. And if you can kind of come, come do it with, you know, the layered passes and staying in the pocket and doing some of the timing things and getting everybody involved like we kind of saw it minus the tight ends. This offense can continue to develop and grow and be an offense that can compete with any

defense, especially when Michigan's defense is playing so well and is going to keep this team in games. It's just we need to see it each and every week continue to take those steps. And so far, these first three weeks, we've seen it. But now we're getting into Big Ten play, which is a whole. whole new, a whole new beast. Yeah, for sure. All right, let's, now that we've talked about Bryce and complimented it a little bit, how about Tommy Carr? I, like, listen, I was excited to see it. And I said, I said this on Twitter the other day. The thing that made me the happiest watching

the game to see how excited Bryce was for Tommy Carr after the touchdown pass. I thought, I thought that was absolutely huge. I thought the weight that carries in the locker room, the weight that carries around the program, like to see your $12 million quarterback, be excited for Tommy Carr, the true freshman who people have been talking about wanting him to steal his job, all those things.

I thought to watch Bryce's reaction was awesome. They were, and I don't think this was a slight at Bryce. I definitely wasn't, but when Tommy got in, they were saying, they were cheering, you know, they were, everyone was clapping, but then they were saying,

Tommy, Tommy. And I'm, you know, I'm looking. I'm like, okay. And I was trying to see how, you know, where Bryce was, was he, you know, up at the sidelines? But then when he scored that touchdown or had that crazy touchdown past the Celessi Moa, and Bryce was right there super excited. It's like, okay, that kind of negates all of the negative talk about the quarterback battle. Are they friends?

You know, because a lot of the, I've been with a lot of teams that, that quarterback room because there's only one, you know, one quarterback is going to play at a time. that there's some real tension and there's some real beef. You know, I think back to my freshman year at Michigan with Dinar and Devin Gardner. Like that was the first time where I saw like two quarterbacks kind of get along. And then, you know, as I got older, there were some battles and some some tension between the quarterbacks at Michigan. And, you know, when I was with the Steelers, Ben Rotherstberger wasn't the most kind to the backup quarterbacks in terms of helping develop. And that's like not a, that's like one.

own. Yeah, yeah. You know, Joe Flackle gets bents for, for Lamar Jackson in 2018. And I think Joe held him handled it pretty well. But like to see Bryce, who was taking a lot of heat this, this first month of football, to celebrate that, I thought was huge, huge for the program, like you said, huge for everybody involved. I was, I was happy to see it.

And, and I mean, what Tommy Carr did in the limited time he had out there, like, I mean, he looks comfortable. You can see like the operation is smooth. Like, I mean, it doesn't feel like he's overwhelmed. It doesn't feel like it's rushed or he's not ready. Now physically, we need him to like, I think he's got to gain 25 pounds this off-season. He didn't look too bad.

I mean, he's, you know, he's tall. He's lanky. But yeah, I mean, yeah, he's not, I mean, yeah, 10, 15, 20 pounds, you know. Yes. From here next year, I think he'll do him wonders. Yeah. you throw 20 pounds on that frame. And I think just to be able to take the hits because listen,

he can run the football too. Like that's the other thing about his game is like he can get out there and he can run a little bit and he's going to take some hits. So especially in Jason Beck's offense, like you have to be able to run the football if you're going to play quarterback in this offense. So like he's got to be able to do that. But the throw he made to Celessie Moe and in the catch like I think everybody's kind

of talked about the throw that Carr made. And I don't think people are. talking enough about the catch that Celessie Milo made. That's a true freshman going up and I didn't think it was completed. I thought for sure it was incomplete, like obvious. I was like, oh, yeah, no question. And then I went back and watched and I was like, damn, like, that is big time stuff. And so that kind of transitions into like, listen, Michigan needs a third wide receiver.

You need somebody to step up and take that wide receiver three spot. And it's, I mean, it's Celessi Moa. Is it going to be Cheney Goodwin? Is it going to be Travis Johnson? Jamie French doesn't seem to be right in the mix with that right now, like for whatever reason. Michigan needs to get a third wide receiver going and playing. And listen, man, if especially if they're not using their tight ends, right? Like if they're not using the tight ends either, like you can't just have two receivers and a running back that, you know, can catch it once in a while.

Like you need, you need three legit receiving options. And if the tight ends aren't it right now, it's somebody. Yeah. Yeah. All right. let's go to that defense. And I mean, as a former defensive line meant for you, how much fun is it to watch what this D-line is doing right now?

The depth on this D-line is wild. I mean, it is, it's about as deep a D-line, I think, talent-wise as we've seen in a long time. I mean, yeah, I think all off-season, people were saying, oh, the D-line's kind of the question mark. And they don't really have like a star player. And man, when I'm watching this, deal. It reminds me of like the 2016 season when it was my last year. We had, you know,

four legit starters. And our backups were like Chase Winovich, Moherst, Brian Monet and Roshan Gary. And it's like all of us played in the NFL, all of us, except for one guy got drafted. You know, Brian didn't get drafted, but he played five or six years in the NFL. It's like, this is what I'm seeing from this deal. And from the edge rushers with John Henry, and Dom Nichols, obviously could rush their asses off. Trey Pierce in the middle with Etta in the middle are having a hell of a start to the season. But then Kanka, number 99, has come in and played really well. Nate Marshall, Carter Meadows played for the first time last week and looked solid.

I'm missing a few guys too because there were some guys. Penny Patterson, Jonah Leia. Johnalea with the pick six. That was. Yeah, that was. Tariq Boney. Tariq Boney, Tareg Boney, yes.

That's the name that we, that I'm watching the phone like, man. This guy knows how to play. Yes, yes. As a young guy, like, as a, that's not a three-star dude. Like, damn. It's crazy. There are some guys in there, though. That's, it's incredible.

And then, and John Henry, obviously coming off in Achilles, people don't understand how devastating rupturing your Achilles is. And that was less than a year ago. And now he's back playing at a high level. His motor is crazy. He doesn't look like he's limping or anything like that when I'm watching the tape. But yeah, this defensive line has been so fun to watch. And in terms of everything else that they're doing, in terms of letting these guys rush with four,

they're getting home with three guys, the twist that they do up in the middle. It's been fun to watch. And if they can obviously stay healthy, this group's only going to get better. Yeah. So let's look ahead a little bit to Iowa here before we get to. Jared Wilson, who's going to join us in just a few minutes here on Stadium and Maine. Wolverine's four and a half point favorite against Iowa, which basically tells me you're at home as a four and a half point favorite. That's kind of a coin flip.

I mean, Michigan's, I mean, they're this slight favorite. Here's what you know about Iowa. It's going to be boring. They're going to do everything right. they're going to play good defense. They're going to play good special teams. The offense is going to be okay. It's probably not great.

And you have to not make mistakes in a game like this because they will make you pay and capitalize if you do stupid stuff. And that to me is the biggest key this week is just take care of the football, take care of the little things and you will win this football game. But it's asking a lot. You have to do all the little things. things. Yeah, obviously from Michigan's perspective, can't turn the ball over because Iowa will make

you pay. U-TEP made Iowa, made Michigan pay last week with scoring 14 points off of turnovers. And the penalties, they were better this week, but they have to eliminate the penalties as much as possible. The one thing that scares me about Iowa's offense now is they got a guy by the name of Tony Diaz, who's a receiver. And he counted, I don't remember what school he came from, but it was a small school, maybe even like a Division 2 school or something like that.

But he can take the top off of a defense. And what Iowa does so well is that they'll run, run, run, run, bam, hit you with a play action pass for 40 yards to Tony Diaz. And as I'm watching this film, it's like, that's the guy. You know, they got solid tight ends. They got a, you know, their two starting running backs didn't play last week. So they had three running backs rush for 100 yards apiece. I know it was against Northern Iowa, but, you know,

And they got, you know, five running backs that can rush for 100 yards. So if those guys are all healthy, that's a little scary. But I like our defense against that. The one thing is if they can run the ball efficiently and then hit you with the play action pass to a guy like Diaz, that's where I kind of get a little nervous. But Michigan's, I think Michigan's defense can handle that. Michigan's offense has to be able to take what the Iowa defense gives them because this defense isn't going to make mistakes.

This defense isn't going to come with crazy. blitzes and leave wide open gaps for Bryce to run through. Michigan has to play sound on offense, be it'll run the ball. Kind of like what Iowa's offense is now, run the ball, run the ball, hit him with the play action. But Iowa's defense is so sound and so structured that it's, you have to take what they give you.

And it might not be a lot. It might not be the deep shots. It might not be Bryce trying to make a crazy play. Sometimes throwing the ball away is going to be your best option. I think it's a great matchup to start Big Ten ball. And I'm really excited to sit there and watch it. What I think I'm maybe most excited to watch is, so we just talked about that Michigan defensive line.

This will be their toughest test yet. This is by far the best offensive line they've played against. I think this will be your measuring stick, to be honest with you. Like it could be, I mean, this might be one of the best offensive lines they'll play all year long. This will be a great test, I think, from that perspective. And the other thing is like, listen, it's going to be limited possessions in this game. and so you have to take advantage of the chances you get when you do have the football because you're not going to get a ton of them.

It's going to be like, you know, against Western Michigan where they have that one of those really long drives. You can't let those things happen because Iowa would love to be able to just run it and, you know, chunky four yards every single play. And then like you said, take the top off the play action game. So to me, I'm very excited to watch this Michigan defensive line against Iowa's offensive line who I think is going to be maybe the best they'll play all year. But I think the one thing I'm very excited about is you don't have to play against a dual

threat quarterback this week. Thank God. Like I'm just tired of having to, you know, you have to defend the run all the time from multiple people. Like, and I think that's, that's one thing is like Iowa has not faced a pass rush like this. So I think that there's some little things in there that Michigan can do. to win this game, but I think you just got to do all the little things correctly. Before we get to Jared here, give me a prediction.

What do you think in Michigan, Iowa this Saturday of the big house? I think Michigan wins 24 to 13. And I think Michigan's defense is going to play a huge part in this game. Like they have the last three weeks, but I think Michigan figures out the run game. And Bryce has another solid day. but, you know, I don't think it's going to be a super high scoring game. But I don't know if Iowa's offense can match up to Michigan's defense. Yeah.

The way I was going, I was going to say 20 to 13, Michigan. I think if Michigan gets to 17 points, they win the game. So between 17 and 20, I think is probably your target goal. So I'll go 2013 Michigan in an absolute slug fest. Listen, I'm telling you right now, on Saturday when you sit down to watch this game, there are going to be points during the day where you want to bang your head through a wall. And I think I'm I think I'm talking to myself probably more than anything right now. This game is going to drive you absolutely bonkers.

There's going to be points where it looks ugly. It's going to be terrible at points. You just have to stay the course in this thing because it's going to be a slug fest throughout the entire thing. So buckle in. It's going to be a long day. And it's going to be annoying as hell. But I think Michigan will come away with a win. And like I said, 20 to 13 would be my score.

Absolutely. I agree. All right, perfect. All right. Let's take a break. When we come back, we will talk to former Michigan Wolverine, Jared Wilson. Stadium and Maine is brought to you by our great sponsors like Cherry Republic.

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Welcome you back. Jared Wilson is our guest today. Ironically, our sponsor Meltdown, they are headquartered in Talmadge, Ohio, just outside of Akron. And that is where Jared is from Akron, Ohio. Welcome in. You appeared in 48 games at Michigan, made 30 starts as a safety for your letterman, all Big Ten honorable mention.

back in 2015, undrafted that he played six years in the NFL from Buckdale High School. We appreciate you. Jared, how are things? Give everybody an update what's going on with you these days. I appreciate you guys having me. All as well. I'm still living in Florida right now. Married two children and involved in real estate. So all as well. And thank you again for having. I love it. First thing I want to ask you, Chris and I are both Ohio guys. We're from Northwest Ohio. You're from Northeast Ohio. I know your high school coach, Ricky Powers, played at Michigan, was a really good running back back in the day. But how did an Ohio kid like you end up playing at the University of Michigan? Well, going back to the recruiting days, Ohio State didn't offer me.

So get that out the way, first of foremost. Jim Stressel came down to a basketball game of mine. I didn't receive a scholarship. And I wanted to beat them, honestly. So my top three were in Michigan. Michigan, Penn State, Notre Dame, and I chose that. Definitely being from Ohio, wanted to stay in the Midwest, close to home, where parents could travel to the games and landed on Michigan.

So never regret it. I love it. Did your high school coach, did he kind of get in your ear a little bit? Like, hey, man, go to Michigan? No, funny story. That was like the first grown-up decision I made by myself. My parents didn't have much say, and then Coach Powers didn't either. He kind of just sat back and allowed me.

me to just go on my visits freely and never really gave his opinion. So I know he is a Michigan guy himself, but he actually didn't really help in that sense. He kind of just let me be a grown up about it and my parents did as well. That's a crazy. I mean, I feel like I was the same way too. Like I, you know, I took the visits and talked to different people and coaches and parents and guys that were already in college. But then like when it came down to it, I was, I made it at my own. And I remember I was at the barbecue. Remember, did you ever go to the barbecue at Michigan? No, I didn't. It was like a big recruiting thing. I didn't make it too, but I know what you're talking about. Yeah, and it was at the big house and we were up in the suites, I think it was. And I like had like my mom and I think Lex, my then girlfriend, my wife now, she was there at the barbecue and I was like, hey, can I talk to the coaches on my own? And I committed right then and there. And they were a little mad that they weren't a part of the commitment like me saying it, but I felt like it was one of those things. I thought I was a man at the time at 17 years old. But yeah, those are those are like those kind of those first steps of being a quote unquote adult, I guess. But, man, we had, we had a lot of guys

from Ohio in our class. I don't know. I think, I think Coach Hoke made that a priority, but, man, there was, you know, me and you, trying to think who else, Kyle Calis. Hey, Strobill. Strobill, my guy, stroves. Yeah, there were a lot of guys who came from Ohio. Yeah, Jews from Cincinnati, Bolton. And then even the class behind, you know, below us with booty and taco or cray. There are a lot of guys that came from Ohio. And maybe you can talk about this too. People from Florida probably don't think that Ohio has good football.

They think Florida is the top dog. But I tell people, man, like Ohio's got some good football players and especially in the high school levels. Definitely in both sports, basketball and football. Ohio is definitely. You were a hoop or two. I hooped. I hooped, yeah.

I hooped in high school. I hooped coming up playing some AAU ball. But yeah, Ohio in both sports and primarily, football. It's definitely one of the top sports, uh, top states. So when it comes to California, Texas, and Florida, they're just simply bigger. But Ohio's right up there with him.

All right. You're a hooper. Worm likes to say he's a hooper. He played in high school, too. Did you guys, did you guys ever play back in the day? No. A little bit. No. No. We might have hit the CCRB once or twice. I don't know. Yeah, we might, we might have hit the wreck, but, uh, not much. Not much. My hoop days were over once I, you know, with the college. But we did, you know, play around hooping and in the offseason and stuff like that. Oh, yeah. What was Worm like as a teammate?

What was Worm like as a teammate? He was a good teammate, you know? I always respected the guys in the trenches. What I remember about Worm is he came in and like how big he was, but then like how much he developed really early on. He had the red shirt because he tore his knee. And I could just remember from like our true freshman year to his pressure year, how much weight you put on. That's what I really remember about you. Because I know you were like, you came in already, like, huge as far as like your statured, but then like, like, yeah. And that red shirt year, you gained like 30 pounds. That's what I just remember about you the most part.

That was like, it was, yeah, at least 30 pounds, maybe even close to 40 at one point. And then you kind of have to trim down for football. But yeah, man, that was a blessing and a curse, I guess to blow my knee out the first two-day practice during camp, but then like have like that time to really develop. Because I think I was, I mean, like you did as a freshman, you played right away. And I think I was projected right away, but I don't know if my body was like ready. Like they were putting out like. I was not ready.

I was not ready physically. 200 pounds, 270 pounds, you know. And I was a buck 85 maybe, maybe even a buck 90. I was not ready physically. I was an early enrollee. So I'll say that's why. But I could have benefited from a red shirt here for sure. Mm-hmm.

What do people maybe not know about? about what it's like to play at Michigan. Can you kind of put it into perspective for some people that like don't understand what it's like to be a Michigan football player? I think it's just the magnitude of the program itself. Once I've like left and now moved on in life and now live in Florida,

it's just like the block em is everywhere. So like just how big and massive it is of a program and you get the opportunity to play with a ton of guys as you go pro and just did. different endeavors in life. And then like that block him always finds its way to be in front of you, whether it be a LinkedIn profile, somebody you're meeting, a door sign outside my neighborhood. You just never know. So it's just like how massive program it is and then the school itself. Yeah, I want to go back to recruiting. I forget, I'm trying to, I'm trying to rack my brain on.

This might have been 2010, 2011. But I think coach Madison, went to your high school and did he tear his Achilles at your high school? Was that your high school in Akron? I don't. I can't remember. I can't remember. I'm not going to say for sure. That sounds about right, but I don't know. I don't think so. Because I don't know any other guys that they were recruiting out of Akron and I'm pretty sure he toured in at a high school in Akron.

And I'm like, how? I don't know. He was. If you ever seen Coach Madison's knees, man, they He had a lot going on. Yeah. They buckle in. I think he got a knee replacement. But I mean, back then they were, they were in, rough shape. I don't know. But then he would, he came to my track meet and he was in a boot. And I'm like, what the heck's going on? And he was like, I tore my Achilles. I'm like, man, you were, he was,

he had to have been, you know, 60 at the time, 65. Yeah. And for him to tear as a kid. But I thought it was an Akron. I thought it might have been at Bucktoe. I'm not sure. But I can't remember. Yeah. You know, that recruiting was think about it. Man, that's great. It was what, 15 years ago, 16 years ago when we were actually recruits. So time is flown. But. I remember him coming down, him and Brady Hulk, and then it came to my mother's job and then also to my home and I enjoyed their visit. Did you enjoy the recruiting process?

Did you like the attention and all those things? And how different was it 15 years ago to what it has become now? I didn't. I never really enjoyed attention, but I didn't utilize recruiting like I should. I didn't even take a official visit other than the team when we did as a class to Michigan. I took a bunch of officials. I committed July of 2011 and I stuck to my guns to just staying with Michigan. I did unofficial visits to in state, Notre Dame and Michigan. Then I also went to a Tennessee spring game. And I have

Facebook messages till this day of just unread messages. I was never like hitting coaches back. the people calling my phone, like all the reporters and things. I was always just like a reserved person. So I never let it get too much. I didn't want it to be that much. So I knew I was in control of the situation. And I've always just been grounded. So but looking back,

I wish I would have, you know, took all my officials and all that stuff. But I don't regret it now. I don't know if you remember this, but Willie Earl, he took an official visit to Ohio or not Ohio. Hawaii. And he said, he said, yeah, I had no intention on going to Hawaii, but I just wanted to, I wanted to go to Hawaii. I'm from Cleveland. I never been, I've never been to Hawaii. So he took that official visit out there and they paid for it, obviously. But I didn't take any of them, man. And I had UCLA, Stanford. I had like Arizona. I may have a few SEC schools, like Tennessee and

South Carolina, things like that. But I knew I wanted to stay Midwest and had my family be able to drive to the game. So I kind of already had ex those schools off my list. Well, I think Coach Hoke, too, had a thing. Like, if you committed to Michigan, like, you couldn't take another visit, like an official visit. I think that was a rule because, like, I would have, I would have liked to go on and see. That may have been. A lot of scores.

Once I committed, Penn State still reached out after I was committed. And again, it was so long ago, I'm not sure. You know, everything happened down there at O State around the time we were coming out. And Fickle had that Luke Fickle had that interim year. I wasn't able to make it to the Michigan versus Ohio State game or Ohio State versus Michigan that was in Ann Arbor. And I was so going to go to the game and I wasn't able to make it. And Urban Meyer got hired. Someone reached out.

but me being me, I ignored the call. But I could be like, I'm not sure of like the story. No one can probably validate this, but I was, again, I was committed in July and was locked in. I was going to Ann Arbor regardless. Did you like, when Ohio State didn't offer you, or did you grow up as an Ohio State fan, like as a kid? No, I grew up an NFL fan.

Okay, so you weren't like. I never had like a dream school. I just knew I wanted to play pro ball. had a fat head of Adrian Peterson on my wall. So I was just, and my brother had Reggie Bush when he was with the Saints. So I've always been an NFL fan. But obviously, you know, I'm in Ohio, so you're going to have Buckeyes on TVs on Saturday. But I played football, a little league football on Saturday.

So I didn't watch them much players, I would admit, like Tegan, juniors and Chris Gambles. Yeah, you know, there were two Akron guys in the backfield, Beanie Wells and Antonio Pittman. Those guys were from Akron, Ohio. So, like, I got guys that I would say, you know, I liked, but as a whole, no. I love it. You sure, yeah, you start talking about the NFL thing. Eventually, you made it. Like, you were an undrafted dude, and you went and played six years in the NFL.

That is really freaking hard to do. Was there a point where you realize, like, okay, I belong here in the NFL? I would say the moment training camp started because you go undrafted or you become drafted, we go through the OTAs and mini camp sessions, and I didn't get any reps. I was like, I felt like I was a 90, because it's a 90 man roster. I was a 90 of a man on the roster. So I wasn't getting any reps. And we went to training camp.

Guys like kind of went down with hamstrings and a couple just injury, you know, football is football. And I got the opportunity to get reps. And then from that point on, I kind of just knew I could do this because I caught on quickly to the playbook. You already go through a full install during the OTAs of the minicamp. So when I hopped in, it was kind of like not skipping a beat. And then I was able to pick up the playbook and then just make plays from there. So I felt like from the once training camp hit and then like those first couple preceding games, I'm like, I can make this roster. That was one of the.

Go ahead. were. Go ahead. No, I was going to say that was one of the things that I noticed about Jared is how smart of a player he was. And I didn't really realize that until after Michigan. And I'm in the NFL and I'm with other safeties. I'm like, these guys are, these guys aren't doing what Jared and some of these guys at Michigan were doing. But just his knowledge of not only what he was doing in the back end, but like what everybody was doing, it was a lot of fun being able to play with somebody like Jared because of his, not only his ability to play safety, but just how much he knew football, which helped all of us play at a higher level,

which was fun. Yeah, I appreciate that, man. I've always been able to just look at the bigger picture rather than just looking at my position. You know, there's 10 other guys that's helping me do my job. So how do I fit in the puzzle? You know, I'm just a piece of the puzzle. So run fits and things like that for safety are important.

And then also in the back end, it all works hand in hand. So I'm doing this. the guy on the side of me or left or right is doing this and it just kind of makes sense to me to look at it that way other than dialing in on my position and what I got. When you're watching a game at home,

like do you look at the game like from a safety's perspective and kind of walk me through like pre-snap, what is your process as a safety? What are you looking for and looking at? And is that how you kind of watch the game now still? Well, if I'm actually in the game, Now I watch from just the broadcast view.

I'm really just looking at the offense and seeing random tendencies. I like to watch from a fan, so, you know, we're no longer on the field, so I don't want to try to guess plays or anything like that. I just kind of watch and really enjoy it. I'm always going to watch NFL football primarily. But from on the field, I usually would just look at, depending on the coverage, I'm going to look at the uncovered linemen. That's going to tell me a lot.

And then from there, just your simple keys to the defense, whatever would take me to the ball the quickest. So I could see that on film as well now, just sitting on the TV, sitting there watching TV. So look at the, I'm uncovered lineman and then also look at the quarterback and his mannerism and all that stuff. What was, maybe this was already answered, but what was your like, welcome to the NFL moment as a rookie? Was it you not getting any reps in OTAs or was it when you first suited up for the Jaguars? What was that moment for you? Welcome to the NFL moment for me. Had nothing to do with me being on the field.

I would say I made the roster. The first game was against the Green Bay Packers. It was a home game. This prime Aaron Rogers. And we sent a nickel blitz. I believe Jalen Ramsey was a nickel. He came in with me, so he's a rookie as well. And Aaron Rogers just threw this football.

That was a touchdown. Like we sent like a five-man pressure and he just threw one up like a post route. And I don't even think his feet were on the ground. And I was just like, that's amazing. I thought it was like the greatest throw I've ever seen in my life. And I was like, I'm really in the league. That's what I thought I'm really in the league. Like that was an amazing throw.

Yeah. That's correct. Is probably one of the best, if not the best, one of the best pastors to ever play the game. Like is it was unbelievable. I could see that that's a thing too. was like when you're like you first get to NFL and you're like like I was a Steelers fan so I grew up watching like Ben Rothersberger all them guys and I'm going up against him in like one of my first NFL games I'm like I got to like snap out of the the fan and be like a I got to try and sack this man

like what am I doing like you know yeah like I'm like all struck almost and I'm like dang let me snap out of this real quick and uh that's like one of those things I think a lot of players have to go through but yeah my role was primarily like special teams to begin. So I'm a backup and I'm primarily playing special teams, but I still get the opportunity to watch the games. And I learn a lot. I learn a lot by watching people who've always been a visual learner. So my eyes would dialed in on our starting safeties to Sean Gibson and Jonathan Siparin. There's two really good safeties in the league at the time. And I was just watching them the whole time and how they worked and moved and made plays because I knew like one

day. I'm going to try to get out there and do the same. It's so crazy to think, like, you go from being an undrafted guy and then you're, like, on an NFL field and, like, that's, like, one of the greatest that's ever played the sport across from you. Do you, did you ever pinch yourself, like, thinking, you know, growing up having that dream and then be like, damn, I'm in the NFL. Like, did you ever have those kind of moments? I never looked up.

I never looked up because I remember, I can't remember. the guy's name, but the 53 man roster, I made it. And a guy, another guy made it, but then he was cut the very next day. So it was just like, the reality of it is like I never looked up. I never had the opportunity to. Reps were already limited for me. I'm here today, you know, and I took that approach longer than my rookie year, well into my second year and even to my third year. Like, I'm here today. That's all I got is today. So it was always like living in an unknown, but always just trying to put my best foot forward and I'd always allow me to do that because I knew that pressure was on me to execute at a high level every day or I could easily just be gone, you know.

What kind of message would you give to kids nowadays that are like, you know, they're really good players or whatever at whatever level they're at. And then, I mean, you were an undrafted guy who got to go and play six years and you had to play special teams to start and all those kind of things. What kind of message would you share to some of those young guys out there? It's possible. All things are possible for those who believe. So you just got to believe in yourself. And talent is the only thing that can get you there.

There's a lot of other things that you can do to put on tape to help guys in the locker room, just being a good person and understanding, you know, don't take it for granted. That's all. Because a blink, with eye, an injury could happen. Things don't go your way. Success doesn't look linear as far as just straight up, you know. know it's peaks and valleys so i just continue just keep your head down put your best foot forward and you'll get there you just got to believe in yourself uh every time we every time we have somebody

on that played with or played for harbaugh we always asked for a harbaugh story and i know you only got to play one season for him but do you have anything that like stuck with you that he either did or a funny story from from that harball year we were running something i don't know if we were running those gassers, but he pulled a hamstring or that Michigan mound, but he pulled his own hammy. It may even been in warm-ups, but I remember Harbaugh, Jim

pulled his hammy doing something, you know, but he was always engaging. I always like how he used to just do pat and go with the receivers and stuff. Just that player's mindset he had. I remember the four-hour practices that spring. I was like, wow, this is different. It wasn't anything

about a warm-up, like, together as a team or none. It's just like, be on the field at all. It's like being on the field at 245. So yeah, flash or whatever. It's just like, if you didn't warm up then, you know, we still did a warm up and stuff, but like be on the field, ready to go.

And then like all the pods and stuff, you know, there was like 9 on 7 at this end in the field. 7-0-7 at this end. And there was like guys in like a holding tank on the sideline ready to rotate in. So it was just a lot. He was a, he was a player's coach. I appreciated Jim

the year I had him. And got to get things going in L.A. They're on too. It's crazy how he's one of the greatest ever. He's won at every level. They lose two games and all of a sudden, like, you know, people start freaking out. It's hilarious to watch football fans.

All right. You kind of gave us, you gave us one, but give me one behind the scene story from your time at Michigan that you've never told anybody, like, publicly, peel back the curtain. Give us something good here. off the top of my head, a behind the scene story.

It could be anything. It's probably, I have to think for a second. All right. And don't get yourself cancel here either. No, no, no, no. It'll be something from our workouts. Okay. That are the most memorable things.

I was going to say a well, a wellman workout would. A wellman workout. Man. Remember the one where we were we spent the night at Shem? Yeah, that's a perfect one. So we spent the night. We spent the night at the football facility. We all slept in the indoor.

Did we work out that evening or no? It was like... I remember we worked out early in the... Obstacle courses and dodgeball and all that. Yeah. Yeah, we did that. Did we watch the movie afterwards or some shit? I don't know.

It was crazy. But then in the morning we had a workout. We had a bunch of just farmers walks, pull-ups, rope pools, you name it. That's like a memorable thing. The workouts were always funny. the Michigan quarters Wellman put us through Hobart put us through the stadium stairs

we were running the stairs my senior year it's all that stuff you know it builds character definitely builds character that was the that Wellman workout was the only workout that I've ever fought like fought somebody in

and it was you did? I like the guy yeah it was just like sleep deprivation and like exercise induced anger like it was just Um, exhausted from the night before got like four hours of sleep on this damn cot in the, in the,

and I think people were throwing like water bottles and shit just to like, you know, probably like glass guy on those guys, you know, how they're always goofing off. They were like, Kelaus and then Magnuson. The ball of them. Yeah. They were always like, I think they were throwing stuff at us or throwing stuff at people so nobody could fall asleep. Yeah, that was, you know, back then it was all about the mental toughness, right?

Like, Wellman was all about mental toughness and not a whole lot. I didn't, I don't know if I got stronger, but I was mentally tough. I can give you one about Wilman. Wellman told me by, he might have told the group by freshman year. He said, I don't care if you have to cut your leg off and walk to class on one leg or something to beat Ohio State. You better do it this week. And I felt that. I'm like, okay.

You know, we already had the clock in there and like, The clock was finally down to seven days left and stuff like that. He said something crazy like that. And I was like, I bet we went to Columbus that year, my true freshman year. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Gotta love college ball. I love it.

Was there ever, who was like, who was the one dude in practice that you hated to face? Whether, I mean, because they were really good or like, or anything. Who was the one dude in practice that you hated to face? probably an old lineman or a try hard Jason Winnovich was a tryhard he played a lot of he played linebacker tight in he was running back

one time uh Taylor Luwan you know when I used to be in my run fits and stuff it's like he was just like a really good football player was really sound so it's like nothing tricked him

and he talked a lot of shit too I'm sure oh yeah oh yeah he knew you know if I was blitzing or not and stuff like that I appreciate the battles against like quarterbacks. So going against Devangarner, going against Jake Rudolph, being able to kind of understand quarterback mannerisms, how to read the quarterback. He's looking me off here. He's going to throw it to his right. He's going to throw it to his left, face off his feet and stuff like that.

So those battles, like the mental battle for me with quarterbacks, I didn't really like office alignment. You know, I'm physical, but 300 pounds pulling around is, it's, it's. tough. And then did we have any try our receipt? We just had some good receivers. I always like like Jeremy Gallen, like back in those like first couple years, like he was always just so that's more like a corner thing. So like the corners are more involved with the white house like that. I would drop down in the slot and guard a couple of guys like Delio. He was shift here. I mean, Darnard our freshman year. Yeah. He was just a problem like in camp. Like I'm, never seen anybody faster than him

maybe him and Lamar. Guarding Jake Bud, garden deep punch, you know, because defunct was playing tight in. So like, he's definitely going to stress you, as he would say.

He's thinking to step around open, but it's not, like, it's not open. It's not open. So those battles are fun. Those battles are fun. I love it.

How much Michigan football do you watch these days? I watch. I watch. I always have to tap in on a Saturday, doing a little bit more in life, you know, as far as being in real estate. Yeah. I actually have a listing right now that's active. So I do open houses and things

on Saturdays and Sundays when people were off work, 9 to 5 Monday through Friday. So my days kind of, my weeks pick up during the weekends, but I always get an opportunity to just watch. I watch last week and I watched the first couple games as well. All right. How do you feel about this year's team? I like them. People may not, people may not be I think that's a popular opinion, but their battle tested early going into conference play. It hasn't been smooth.

They're 3 and O. You can put an asker. It's about the first one if you want. A W is a W. You know, I mean, we're not in it from moral victories. It simply says 3 and O if you Google it. So they're 3 and O.

One thing I would want them to do is just come out punching. You know, you feel like they have to get punched in the mouth first to then respond. Got to start fast. this will be there. They haven't had any home game or away games. So this is their fourth home game in a row. The head coach, the younger guys should be in that rhythm of understanding how

how game day on Saturday goes in Ann Arbor, you know, the whole hotel room, the whole process and stuff. So it's a battle test of team early. They've already battled adversity. Quarterback hears a lot of noise. And that usually helps a team come together. So I got high expectations. I think they'll be just fine.

I love it. I love it. Worm, you got anything else? No, man, Jared. I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to come talk to us for a little bit. Hope to see you in Ann Arbor soon. I know you got the little ones that are growing and doing all the fun stuff, but I appreciate you coming out, man. Go Blue.

Thank you, man. Thank you. Appreciate that. Go Blue always. All right. That's Jared Wilson, former Michigan player, spent six years in the league. Appreciate you, Jared. Thank you so much.

Worm, Michigan, and Iowa coming up this Saturday, 3.30 from the Big House. Looking forward to it. You ready to go? It's Big Ten play, man. This is what you play for. This is what real football looks like in the Big Ten. I know we played an SEC team a couple weeks ago, but nothing better than the Big Ten right now.

Absolutely. All right, we'll be back here next Wednesday. Make sure you're following us on Instagram and sharing this and telling all your friends to watch Stadium in Maine. We'll see you back here next week. Go-Boo.