Blue By Ninety - Maryland was completely over hyped and Giles Jackson is a Gazelle

Episode Date: November 5, 2019

Discussion of Michigan's 38-7 win over Maryland.

Welcome to Blue by 90, your Michigan football podcast. We are three dudes who talk Maize and Blue, coming at you live from the Blue by 90 studio, right down the street from the big house. I'm Kalen, joined by Nate and Jack. Heyo. And guys, we witness the 38-7 trouncing of Maryland by our Michigan Wolverines. What are our overall thoughts here, guys? What do you think, Nate?

Take the W, move on to the next week. As Jim Harbaugh said, it's an improvement week, not a bye week. That's right. So just getting ready for the showdown with Sparty, and hopefully we can kind of make the score the exact same as it was against Maryland. Yeah, okay. There you go. Jack, what do you think?

Yeah, keep the momentum going. Good team win. Improvement week. Let's blow out Sparty. We still got a chance at a playoff, okay. There you go. Jack, what do you think? Yeah, keep the momentum going. Good team win. Improvement week. Let's blow out Sparty. We still got a chance at a playoff, guys. We still got a chance. Dude, it's done. There's always a chance.

I'm a resident outfitter. Overall, that was a good win, right? Yeah. I mean, I can't complain about a win, especially when you're winning by, you know, 30-plus points. That was actually a really weird point to me with this game. They lost the time of possession. They had 28 minutes, but they won by 30, which was...

If you win by 10, or if you win by a touchdown, and you don't win the time of possession, you can see that happening. But 30 points? That's a little weird. It's very strange. But, hey, winning by 30, I'm not going to complain too much. But I guess let's kind of look at this past game a little bit, right?

So looking at offense, Nate, what do you think about the offense in this past game? It just seemed kind of all right to me. The one thing that really was frustrating in the first half, so they had the fake punt, right? And they converted that. But if they decided not to do that, it would have been three straight

three and outs. Which to me is pretty concerning. I don't know what the deal is with that, but I mean, that to me is pretty concerning. You can't have three three-and-outs. They almost let Maryland back in the game because they couldn't move the ball on offense.

Jack, what do you think there? Well, I mean, going back to Notre Dame, I just kind of thought about this right now. Special teams has really set us up to build a lot of momentum and kind of keep us going in the right direction and kind of save us. With Notre Dame, it was the blocked punt that the Notre Dame player jumped on,

which we ended up recovering, which if you wouldn't have jumped on it, Notre Dame would have had the ball, and who knows what would have happened with that game. And then Giles Jackson starts off the game with a kickoff return. And then we had the fake punt for the first down. So special teams, I mean, it's come up huge. The pass offense, I think there's some good moments. I think Shea is only comfortable throwing a deep ball to Nico Collins. I don't think he's comfortable throwing it to anybody else.

Or maybe somebody else is running deep routes. I don't know. But it's only Nico Collins. But, I mean, Nico's proven to come down with the ball the majority of the time. Right. I mean, yeah. I mean, I kind of give the offensive line in this game like a B plus, A minus, because they did play well.

And there were some really good plays with Cesar Ruiz getting out to the secondary, making some blocks. My only thing, the reason they didn't get an A is because it's Maryland, and they didn't just absolutely dominate for the entire game, right? I mean, think about this Maryland team played Minnesota, right? And Minnesota just manhandled it. Defeated. Beat Penn State. So, I mean.

Week to week is always different though, right? That's true. That's true. But, I mean, when you're. My feeling with this Michigan team is that they play to the level of their competition. And if you want to be an elite team, you can't do that. You've got to put away the guys who are worse than you, and you've got to compete against the teams that are better than you.

So we haven't really crossed that bridge yet, in my opinion. You know what was the thing, too, about the offense? And I heard Urban Meyer talk about it, right? So, number one, we always hear him say, equate numbers in the run game, and then the other thing he said is, you want to make sure you have balanced run with balanced pass. In this game, the offense, they ran

the ball, mostly, and that was also concerning because even the announcers were saying, look it, there's eight in the box, and I don't know the exact numbers off the top of my head, but they ran the ball a lot more than passing. The numbers actually

look that way, but the numbers don't reflect that entirely. I think it was like 34 run attempts to like 29 pass attempts, which is pretty close. Oh, okay.

Yeah. But I know, I felt exactly the same way. I'm going like, why does it feel like we're running the ball all the time? It does, but that's

another thing. Like you're saying, when they have eight in the box, I feel like we're running the ball all the time? It does, but that's another thing. Like you were saying, when they have eight in the box, I feel like that's something where Shade's got to do an audible or we've got to have an audible or something ready to take advantage of that. With our receivers, if there's eight in the box and we can't do anything, we can't audible and feel confident. It also just feels that way, though, because there were a number of drops, too, on pass plays.

There were, even for McCaffrey. I thought he put a couple balls in the right spot. I thought McCaffrey actually had, he what? He had one almost interception? Or two almost interceptions? Something like that? One of them. He had one.

It was a little tight. But I mean, there was definitely a couple that were out there. Everybody should have been caught. Running backs. Running backs had a great day, honestly. True. Had that touchdown. True, that was sweet.

That was sweet. True looks sharp, man. He looks really fast. Or I guess he didn't have a touchdown, but he had a nice long run. He had a great day, honestly. True. Had that touchdown. True, that was sweet. True looks sharp, man. He looks really fast. Or I guess he didn't have a touchdown, but he had a nice long run. He had a long run. Yeah. And I liked. Truck stick some guy at the end.

I mean, right now I got kind of like a Haskins slash Charbonnet at number one, and then True at number two. Yeah. And I would feel pretty good about that. I feel pretty comfortable with anybody in the game. Yeah. But I do like having... Christian Turner, I feel,

slowed down. He, yeah. I just think he doesn't seem to have the ability to cut like the other running backs do. Which I thought

he was going to be the guy on all of them, right? Yeah, exactly. Like a speedy back, like a flash at and a forward He's definitely fast.

So I don't know. I kind of expect more on him. Yeah, I agree. Do you think Charbonnet's the guy, though? For me, Charbonnet's the guy. I don't. You don't? I mean, I'd like to. I think he on him. Yeah, I agree. Do you think Charbonnet is the guy, though? For me, Charbonnet is the guy. I don't.

You don't? I mean, I'd like to. I think he's good. I just think Haskins has looked, in recent weeks, I think Haskins has looked better. But maybe he's just gotten lucky where the O-line is creating better holes for him than there for Charbonnet. Why are they limiting Charbonnet's snaps? That's what I'm curious about.

Because he was the guy coming in. He started off the season, and he wasn't doing poorly. So I don't know. Maybe they were seeing something in practice. I'm not exactly sure. That's kind of a strange one. Wide receivers. Nico had... Why are we not throwing the ball to Nico more? It's ridiculous. He had like two targets

and a long of 51 or something like that. Big play came down with. Sweet. And the other thing was that big play, it could have been a touchdown if Shea had an arm. Shea underthrew him. He turned around, stopped, and made the catch. Can we talk about Sean McKeown? He caught that nice ball.

Dude, I was going to mention that to you. Dude, I was like, he threw it to McKeown. I'm like, God, no. I'm like, he's going to drop it. And he came down, and I was like, hell yeah. It's so funny that every time he catches a ball going off on this podcast. Oh, I have to. I hate him so much.

But hey, he caught it on the mat. Good for him. Back healthy. Dude, another tight end who I thought did a great job today, on Saturday, Nick Eubanks. Honestly, I thought he had a bad game. Yeah, I thought he had a bad game too. He had a couple drops, right?

I love Eubanks. He always finds his way over. Dude, he back-to-back had mistakes. He had a drop, and then he missed a block. Back-to-back plays. See, I saw that in the red zone, which is where they struggle the most, he had a nice block where he came across. Oh, that's true.

And made that block for Charbonnet. And then he had that nice little kind of almost Spider 2. Spider 2. I thought he had a pretty solid game they definitely have to make sure that they're getting

points in the red zone because that seems like where the offense can kind of struggle a bit yeah what did you guys think about

overall QB play on the offense nothing impressive just kind of you know I thought it was just kind of classic Shea. I'm going to find some wood here.

Yeah. We did not turn the ball over, what, for two straight games? Oh, that's true. Yeah. Right? Knock on wood. I mean, as long as we're not turning the ball over, I'm happy. You're happy.

Yeah, I mean, I'm satisfied. Here's a question for you. Who would you rather have as your Michigan QB? Shea Patterson or Devin Gardner? Shea Patterson. I don't know. I've got to say Shea. But also, I'd like to see what Devin Gardner would do in this system. Does Devin Gardner have more passing yards than Shea?

I think he does. It's a tough question. I don't know. It's tough, yeah. Here's another one. Who would you rather have in a pass-heavy offense playing Michigan quarterback, Denard Robinson or Shea Patterson? Sure. Shea.

I love Denard, but he couldn't throw the ball. I think he throws a better deep ball. Yeah. But I think Shea's a better passer than Denard. Like, Denard's completion percentage for his career, I think, was like 40-something. Like, maybe 50, right? It's not good. But he was so dynamic, and he was such a run threat that he was fine guys.

What did you think about Dylan's performance? I was saying earlier, I thought he put some balls where they should have been. There was a couple bad throws. He threw that deep ball that did not look anywhere near anybody. But the short, quick passes, he usually puts on the money. There was a couple drops. He's got a good arm. He's got a solid arm.

Seems like it's got a lot of zip on it. Seems like he can make some downfield throws. I feel confident whether Nysgier is him or Milton. I always reiterate this. I think he's got to learn to slide. He always seems to dive head first, and that's just exposing yourself. Especially when he's broken his collarbone already, and he's already suffered a concussion.

It's like, dude, you're an important player. We need you. So, yeah, I think he's got to improve on that angle. I mean, Shea also had a couple times where he could have kept the ball and he didn't. That's definitely something we've talked about before. We want to see him keep it a little bit more. I thought he'd done it better in recent weeks. But, yeah, I think he could have done a better job. I mean, yeah, I something we've talked about before, where it's like we want to see him keep it a little bit more. I thought he'd done it better in recent weeks, but, yeah, I think he could have done a better job.

I mean, yeah, I'm not trying to beat the drum here or anything. But, definitely, for sure. Let's talk about defense, on the defensive side of the ball. Six sacks. Honestly, dude, that was a great performance. We've got great things to talk about on defense, I think. I really liked the great performance. We got great things to talk about on defense, I think. I really liked the defensive performance.

The one thing that really stood out to me was that they made plays. It seems like they're making plays when it matters the most, right? They let up some yards, but in the red zone, they can really get to the quarterback on third down, make some plays, right? We saw Michael Dana had the... Dana looks good. He looks good. He looks like he's improving weekly. And then you had guys like Josh Uche making some really big sacks.

And honestly, he manhandled... Josh Uche. Dude. Beast. He had nice little speed moves. He was overpowering. He had a swing. Oh, my God.

He looked good. Man. I mean, he's just so explosive. He's so, like, He generates so much power. He's a great guy. Great player. He had seven total tackles. Five of them were solo tackles.

And he's a defensive end. That's pretty... He's like an outside linebacker. But he lines up. But he lines up as a defensive end sometimes, right? No, yeah. he's crazy. He's literally, like, blowing through people. He, like, blew through that tackle with a bell rush.

I mean, easy. I was like, oh, my goodness. He's just destroying guys. That's always good to see. Yeah, I mean, linebackers did a good job, I mean, blitzing, but also dropping back into coverage, playing some zone. So, I mean, you're seeing some variation here from Don Brown. You're seeing the players actually play well in that system, which is great.

Also, I mean, Aiden Hutchinson. Do you guys see that guy? He's a monster. Oh, my God. I keep talking about it. I can't wait to see him against Ohio State, man. Dude, Aiden Hutchinson was all over the field. There'd be like a tackle on the sideline, and you're like,

what is he doing over there? Dude, when Kayla and I were watching the game, they threw like a bubble screen out to the side. And then I was like, okay, play's done. And then it's like, did Aiden Hutchinson make that tackle? He's like a magician. He just like reappeared on the other side of the field and made that tackle. He's really impressive, man.

He is. That was so good. I love it. He has, so Aiden Hutchinson had a pass block. impressive, man. He is. That was so good. I love it. He has, so, Aiden Hutchinson had a pass block. Oh, yeah. He almost came down with a pick-up. Yeah, he almost came down with it. He looked like a catcher trying to find the ball.

He does a great job of that when he can't get to the quarterback where he's kind of back to the line. He gets up. Yep. Listen to this. That is his fifth pass block, pass deflection on the year. That's the same number of pass deflections that Chase Young had last season. Chase Young.

Uh-oh. You drawing some parallels here? I'm drawing some parallels. Uh-oh. I love it. I don't know if we can put a parallel there. Those are numbers. Those are numbers.

DBs. DBs played pretty well, too. I feel like we saw more Vincent Gray than we've seen. Because I feel like I didn't see him as much in the other games, but I feel like we saw him a lot last game. He did play a lot. No, he did play a lot. That's true.

I like to see him out there. He's good. A guy who kind of just came online, Josh Metellus. He was kind of flying under the radar a little bit. A little bit, yeah. And then, boom, Interception had a pretty good game. Yeah, and he would have had a pick against,. And he would have had a pick, what? He would have had a pick against

was it Penn State or Notre Dame? I think it was Penn State. That pass interference call that was awful? It was Penn State. He's just kind of been flying under the radar. So it's always good to see Batalas. I think he's a good player. And as always, like I was trying to say,

DB's played good in man. They also played good in zone. So I just love seeing Don Brown mix it up a little bit. One of the guys I want to talk about is Quiddy Paye. Oh, Quiddy Paye. Quiddy Paye, playing really well, junior. I look back through his last year's performance. In 2018, he had 28 total tackles and two sacks.

This year, he has 40 total. 22 of them are solo tackles, and he's had five and a half sacks. So he's pretty much doubled what he did last year. I know that last year we had Gary and Chase, but he's definitely stepping up and making some plays and taking more of this is my role in the defense. Even last year, when we saw him as a backup, we kind of were like, dang, he's got something there. So it's nice to see him actually showing that this year too.

No, that was good. Defense played well. Maybe there was a couple times where I was like, they kind of letting them move down the field a little bit. But they eventually came up and stopped. Yeah, Maryland had two had a lot of their time possession came off of two drives. It was their second and third drive. They did a really good job of limiting

some of that QB mobility from Jackson. He's not the most mobile guy, though. I thought that was his thing, right? I thought they did a great job taking McFarlane out. I didn't even hear about it. I was expecting to see him go off a little bit, but they shut him down. That's out. I didn't even hear him. That's what I was expecting to see him kind of go off a little bit, but they kind of shut him down.

That's true. I don't know his yards or production from the game, but, I mean, it seemed like 55 yards? 65. 65. That's awesome. That's pretty good, man, for them to rush. For a 60 net, a net of 60 yards.

Yeah. That's pretty good. Yeah, I mean, he's a top running back. I mean, the country. So, to see that is great. Yeah, I mean, he's a top running back in the country. So to see that is great. Yeah, so offense, defense, I mean, we kind of were rolling on defense. Offense, we were doing very well, but we still kind of left some to be desired, in my opinion.

Yeah, 100%. I don't know if you guys... We wanted to see a blowout, right? Right, yeah. You know, see everything kind of click. And there are definitely a couple drives that were, you know, if that happens against Ohio State, that's where we're losing,

you know, 14 points. Right. Right there, where they're scoring and we're not going to be able to, we've got to be able to keep up and we've got to be able to score.

We can't have drives like that. Yeah, and I mean, I know we kind of touched on this earlier, but special teams. Special teams had a great game, more or less.

Punt returns are still awful. I think we should just let the ball go every time. What's going on with DPJ here? I don't think he should be returning punts. What's the point? I actually feel pretty comfortable with him returning punts because everybody else who, at the beginning of the season when he wasn't back there, seemed like

nobody could catch a ball. So at least it seems like he can catch the ball. I don't like the fact that he's always running backwards. Running backwards is sideways. Well, I just mean, what's his deal where he's not getting targets at wide receiver, and then when he is doing punt return, he's scaring the bejesus out of you. Every time. So I'm just like, what is going on here? What happened to the DPJ from last year who you were like, oh, it's DPJ.

He's going to catch the ball, be shifty, and do something. Yeah. You know? I mean, that's something where I feel like we just need to get him more on slants, like quick outs. I mean, just like we were saying before, when we're throwing the ball quickly and we're just getting it out quick, and we're getting the ball out with a second and a half, that's where we can let our receivers kind of do some work

and run around. That's what we should be doing with Ronnie Bell and DPJ. And then Tariq and Nico can be our deep ball guys. Yeah, I agree 100%. But not to get too off the rails. Special teams. I would give them a grade of a B

because yes, Giles Jackson taking it back, great. Fake punt, great. They punt, great. They also let up a kickoff return. That's the only thing where I'm like, eh, you can't beat him. Missed a field goal, made a field goal. Right. It's like you've got to be consistent.

I think it's a fair grade. Yeah, exactly. Here's a guy who was kind of flying under the radar. Michael Barrett, the guy who had the— Yeah, the guy who took it. Yeah, so he had that run, right? The Army game, he threw that ball. Yeah.

To Daxton, yeah. Right? And then he also, in the Illinois game, had a 20-yard return. Yeah. Which is pretty weird. And then I looked back at his time in high school. He played QB, right? He played quarterback.

Came in as an athlete. And he had 45 touchdowns, passing, and 38 running. His total high school career, he had 7,293 yards of offense. It's cool to see a guy who's playing on special teams. Maybe we'll see him a little bit more

next year. He seems to be playing a role somewhere on the team. He's had a couple tackles here and there on defense. That's kind of one guy I just wanted to shout out. Michael Barrett, man. I think he'll be a guy next year that we'll see him do a little bit of everything and then maybe

he'll just find a spot and he'll kind of blow up in it. I think he's an awesome prospect and I want to see more of him. That also kind of leads, though, into the play calling, which I do think has been progressing to be a little bit more aggressive because of some of those fake fourth and short special teams calls or stuff like that.

There's that one possession we were in the red zone. We had three passing attempts in a row. That's a little bit outside the norm for us. Yeah, for us. I kind of like seeing that. It's less taking a chance. My touch of optimism here might just be us starting to peak at the right time.

If it's going the right direction, I still think the best offensive showing we have is the second half against Penn State. Like I said, I like those short, quick passes. Get it to our receivers, let them do something. As long as we have everybody blocking who you're supposed to be blocking, they're going to make plays. So I'd like to see more of that,

which I feel like we weren't able to see really against Notre Dame just because it was rainy and it was raining the ball and we were just crushing it running. I feel like we didn't see as much last week. But we'll see. We'll see what happens before. So, like you guys were saying,

we got Improvement Week coming up, and then we got Sparty. What kind of things do we want to work on in Improvement Week so that we can come out against Michigan State

and play very well? What do you guys think? Uh, I don't know, man. I think it's probably just making sure we can get a passing game going. You think passing is going to be it?

Yeah, because they have, what is it, three defensive linemen who are all seniors or returning or whatever. They're pretty experienced, so I think they've got to be able to pass the ball and get it going because there's going to be times where the run game is not going to be, you know, hopefully it's on point, but, you know. Yeah. Okay. Jack, what do you think?

I mean, yeah, I'm with you. I think we need to be able to, you know, get a passing game going, make sure, like, we can get something consistent going where we can build some momentum and kind of keep screen drives along. But definitely, like, our O-line. Create holes for the running game. Shade, make good reads on read options. Make quick decisions.

I think we'll have no problem with, um, the defense. I think, I mean, they just, you know, keep do what they keep doing. Um, but again, Sparty's at a point in their season where they got nothing to lose. So they're, I mean, they play, they're a very well motivated team, like when it comes to like playing Michigan. So, Michigan. That just makes me nervous. That's a good point. It's a rivalry game. Anything can happen. It's basketball season for these Spartans now. I think they're glad football season's

over. Go Green! For real though, this Spartans football team, I mean, they are kind of not in a good spot. They lost three straight games. And they're about to play an Illinois team that has kind of been hot lately. And their middle linebacker has just been –

Batchy or something. Yeah, Joe Batchy has been suspended on PEDs or something. Hearing that Batchy was – I mean, it makes me happy. I was like, that's great for us. Great news for us. So, I mean, they're not in a good spot, but that could also fuel their fire.

Exactly. They want to come in and make a statement. And that's kind of a real Michigan State move. Oh, yeah. Winning a game they're definitely not supposed to. I think in that circumstance, he's pretty vital to that defense. So having him out there, it would be different if it was Ohio State.

We saw Bosa get hurt. Oh, there's Chase Young. But Michigan State doesn't have that. So I really think them losing Bocci is going to be pretty huge for their defense. I'm hoping that they can beat him by 14 is what I'm hoping. Two touchdowns. You guys got kind of a way too early score prediction here? Man, I'm not going to see anything.

My hope is that they can win by two touchdowns. I want to see a big win. I'm not going to put a score prediction out right now, but I want to see a big win. I want to see a big win too. Who did they play this week while we were on bye? They had a bye. They also had a bye? I want to see a big one. I want to see a big one, too. Who did they play this week while we were on bye? They had a bye. They also had a bye? I think they had a...

Oh, this week when we were on bye. They played Illinois. Okay. That's what I'm saying. Like, Illinois, they're kind of high right now. I mean, they beat Wisconsin. Is it at Illinois? It's home versus Illinois.

Okay, it's at home for them. Yeah. But Illinois, their stat... God, I wish I could recall it. But there's something. Their defense is like... Dude. Kind of crushing it.

Lovey Smith, man. NFL guy. He makes those halftime adjustments, and they come out and play pretty well. Yeah, we saw it against us. So, I mean, that could be a game where they could lose four straight, and then they're losing another thing. Like, if they lose four straight, come in to play us. And if they lose that game.

I'm really excited to when we get the for next week's podcast when we get all the Spartys on there. Yeah. I'm interested to see their take on it because I don't really follow Michigan State besides just looking at the scores kind of looking at some highlights.

What is the the perception from their fan base right now with D'Antonio and like I don't know. That's a good question. We'll wait until all the viewers, if you're listening,

we'll have that next week on our podcast. We're just too entrenched in the Michigan fandom. Yeah. We just have the blinders on. Yeah. All right, well, let's kind of shift to some kind of, you know, college football news, right? Willie Taggart.

Willie Taggart got fired. See ya. What do you guys think about that? About time? About time. I was looking back at his record previously. He never had a great season anywhere. He was just hyped for no reason.

Which I don't get. I don't even know why. I also think being at Florida State didn't do him any favors. No. That program is so. It was so far. Oh, man.

In the gutter after Jimbo left. To me, the Florida State program, even if Willie Taggart is a good coach, right, there's sometimes when you go, if you're like a certain type of coach and you're maybe more of like a, I don't know, that culture is so bad. Even if you get a guy who's good, sometimes you can't even fix it. Jimbo couldn't even fix it. Like something happened with the players on his team, which created this terrible culture to the point where Jimbo's like,

I'm done with this. I'm going to Texas A&M. Yeah, you guys see that video of Kirk Herbstreit talking about how bad the culture is? Oh, he was lit up about it. He had a little drink in his hand. I was like, uh-oh, Kirk's off the leash. He was lit up about it. He had a little drink in his hand. I was like, oh, Kirk's off the leash. He's going. But, no, he was like, that team and that culture is so bad.

We've got to talk about it. Players chirping and they're down 14. I was like, damn, Kirk, like, what the hell? But, I mean, for real, who do you think should replace him, though? I mean, if they could get Urban Meyer, I mean, they're not going to get Urban Meyer, but who was, who did you talk about? Bob Stoops, right? I heard Lane Kiffin.

Ooh. I mean, it would be kind of a close move for him from FAU. Yeah. I mean, that'd be, I mean, I think that'd be great for him. I could see it. Another shot at the D1 program, you know? Yeah. Dude, they need, like, a drill sergeant to go in there.

Oh, yeah. Bob Stoops, yeah? Yeah, maybe. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, Urban would not be there. Urban's probably got his eyes on USC anyway. I read a different story here. I read this article from thespun.com

The Spun. And these guys are out of their tree, man. He said, Brian Kelly to Florida State, Urban to Notre Dame, Jim Harbaugh to the NFL, and P.J. Fleck to Michigan. That's ridiculous. That's just wacky, man. I don't know why people think Urban's going to take a Notre Dame job. He's going to take the USC job.

He's going to take that job, right? There's like certain things, right? Michigan, Notre Dame, and Ohio State, they're all so close to each other. If you just went to Notre Dame, right, that would piss off so many Ohio State fans, right? If he goes to USC, Ohio State won't think a thing they'll just the fans will be like look at

we know what happened with that whole deal but we wish Urban the best but yeah okay I think he was going to take

yeah they're far enough away they're in a different like I don't know even though Notre Dame doesn't isn't part of the Big Ten

it feels like sometimes they kind of it feels like they are yeah a little grouped into the Big Ten and ACC kind of yeah they kind of... It feels like they are. Yeah. A little group difference, Big Ten and ACC, kind of. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of early, but what do you guys think for a Michigan bowl game?

Depends on the rest of it. It depends if we can beat Ohio State. It really does. It's looking like they might play Florida again. I know. If we play Florida again, I just don't even know. It's just an annual tradition. We go 10-3 and we play Florida. It's like, that'd be cool to play Florida again, I just don't even know. It's just a... I'm sick of it. An annual tradition.

Yeah. We go 10-3 and we play Florida. It's like, that'd be cool to play Florida. Like, it's just like... Yeah, it's like... Yeah, I'll play Florida. Great. Yeah. It's not even exciting, you know?

Like, if we play, like, USC back-to-back-to-back years, it's kind of like a cool thing. Like, I don't know. I just don't... I don't know. I'd like for them to, like, play Auburn. I think that would be a good matchup. I'd love to see, like see a matchup like that. Yeah.

I want to see them play Texas A&M. Jimbo versus Jim. Jimbo versus Jim. That would be kind of cool. I hope that they can play maybe a Pac-12 team like Utah. Or, honestly, if they could just play like a, you know, like a SMU, I'd be happy with that. Just a bowl win.

Just a team win. But that's the way it's done this year. Yeah. I mean, they're their first loss, right, against Memphis. That was a pretty exciting game. That was crazy. I didn't really watch much, but I saw the highlights. I saw the highlights, too.

I was like, dang, that final score, I'm going to have to rewatch that. My hope is that at the end of the season, they're 10-3, and we can just go look at there were some issues at the beginning, but the final record, right, 10-3, and we can kind of build on that to next season. I don't want to see all these recruits just jump ship like they did when we went 8-4. So what is the minimum requirement of this season moving forward

for you to leave a good taste in your mouth? Beat Michigan State and beat Indiana and win your bowl game. That's it. I know people say, like, oh, they've got to beat Ohio State. Like, are you kidding me? Like, you know how many five stars are in their defensive packs? It's insane. Like, you look back at their, what, 2017 recruiting class,

like the same as DPJ, they had like five or six five stars. And even though Michigan, I think, like, when you have that many five stars all at once, and then I guarantee you they have a whole bunch of guys just sitting in the back waiting. Oh, yeah. There's just so much you can do. If they could keep the game close, I would be really happy.

But winning that game, I'd be like, this is amazing. But I think realistically, from what we've seen this year, they're going to just put eight in the box and they're going to say, Shea, try and throw the ball on our defensive backs.

That's exactly what I would do. Yeah. Why not? I mean, yeah. Sounds scary, right? I don't like the way that sounds, but that's exactly how it's going to go. Oh, man. So, yeah.

Sorry, that was a tangent. Yeah, that just brought me down. Sorry. 10-3. Let's get back to 10-3. 10-3 would be good. That'd be a good season. I'd be happy with that.

But we gotta, I say we gotta end the season either beating Ohio State or winning the bowl game. We're gonna end the season playing Florida and going 10-3. That's our annual tradition. If we win it, last game of the season. You know what would be great about beating Ohio State is, okay, if we beat Ohio State, they're still gonna make it into the playoff, like, no question. Right? The thing is, is that those fans, like Ohio State,

even if you win a national championship game, it doesn't matter. Like, if you lost to Michigan, the season sucks. You could win the natty and they'd be like, oh, this is great, but, like, we still lost to Michigan. Like, are you kidding me? So in terms of playing Ohio State and you're talking about how much depth they have at every position and all those kinds of

things, what would you say about maybe that's a good opportunity for Michigan to come out and have really aggressive play calling and pull out all their trick plays and really just kind of go for it and just let it all hang out. And either you lose by 45 or you make it a close game and something happens.

I think almost it's like, wait, they're going to have to do. Right. So you're going to have to roll the dice a little bit. Would you rather have them roll the dice or try some super conservative time of possession? You've got to roll the dice. They've got to roll the dice. Because, I mean, if we're super conservative time of possession, I don't think we'll be able to even be that close. We can't compete. We'll kind of have to roll the dice. Because, I mean, if we're super conservative, like, time of possession, like, I don't think we'll be able to even be that close.

We can't compete. Like, we'll kind of have to roll the dice on some stuff. Yeah. Try to make some big plays. Because, I mean, we've seen what Ohio State's done all year. I mean, their defense is good and their offense is good. Like, there's not really a hole anywhere there. So, like, we've kind of got to get lucky.

Yeah. You know? So, I think they've got to roll the dice. I think you guys are right. Yeah. I mean, we're going to have to go for it. And that's kind of the point in the season that we're at right now, right? We're looking ahead.

We're going like, okay, we've got this behemoth on the horizon. What are we going to do? So. But we've got to play the games in front of us first. Yeah. I think IU will be a tough game. Yeah. I think Indiana will be a very tough game.

They're always tough. And we're at Indiana, right? They're 7-2 right now. I'm shocked they're not ranked right now. And we're at Indiana, right? They're 7-2 right now. I'm shocked they're not ranked right now. I'm shocked they're not. They're 7-2. They've had some

quality wins, I feel like. So, I mean, by the time we get to them to play them, they more than likely will be ranked. Oh, jeez. Rank game on the road.

I'm going to see who they've got coming up. Honestly, they've probably got I think Penn State and Ohio State. I think they played Ohio State earlier in the season, right? I think they lost big time, like 38-10 or something.

Let's see. I don't know how to type. The Hoosiers. What is a Hoosier? It's a person from Indiana. Oh yeah, so they already played Ohio State. They lost 51-10. So 51-10, I don't know.

So they've got a bye week this week. They play at Penn State. So we'll see what happens there. I think that'll be a tough game for Penn State, too. I think it'll be, because I think it's, you know, getting near the end of the season. They're probably looking towards, you know, especially if they beat Minnesota, they're looking towards

you know, maybe we can get into the Big Ten title game with a win over Ohio State. So they might be looking towards that and they might get upset by Indiana. I think Indiana's a team that everybody's overlooking right now. I'm with you. We'll see what happens. Always play us tough.

So we gotta come to play on that game for sure. Here's a fun fact. I know last podcast we were talking about who has been the most dominant program in our lifetime.

25 to 26 years, right? I'm excited for this. I'm probably over it. Win percentage for Alabama in the last 26 years, right? I'm excited for this. So, I'm probably over it. Win percentage for Alabama in the last 26 years is 75%. It's pretty good. That's a long time.

Win percentage for Ohio State, 82. I would say, but Alabama, like, do you take out the pre-Saban years?

But that's what we're saying. But we're saying, like, in our lifespan. In our lifespan. I don't even want to read the Michigan. Saban years, I'm with you. Sababan years. But that's what we're saying. But we're saying, like, in our lifespans. In our lifespans. I don't even want to read the Michigan. Saban years, I'm with you. Saban years.

Oh, yeah. Since 2008, Alabama has just been on a tear. Oh, yeah. And, I mean, you look at... But in our entire lifetime. Their record, Alabama's like, you know, 13-1, 14-0, 13-3. It's like unfair. Right.

110. 100% true. Yeah. It's like, what is going on? Michigan's in our lifetime is 68%. Better than I thought.

It's actually better than I thought. I mean, it's like Brady Hokies. When you look at those last couple years and it's like,

10-3, 10-3, 8-4, 10-3, it's like, okay, I'll take it. So,

but, I mean, that kind of puts it in perspective, some of where Michigan is at in comparison to some of these, like, super programs that have just been killing it. So, some food for thought. Just leaving that out there. What are your thoughts on Chase Young?

Do you think he's going to win the Heisman? I think he'll be up. I think he'll be in New York. Ohio State could have multiple people in New York. That's scary. How crazy. They have three legitimate Heisman contenders. Chase Young, Justin Fields, J.K. Dobbins.

I don't see Dobbins as being as dominant as Fields. But he could make a run. He could. If he has big games against Penn State and Michigan. I think either of them. They'll be big games for them. They'll kind of miss their name. I see what you're saying. Is Joe Burrow still kind of on the Those are like big games for them. They kind of like make their name. Is Joe Burrow still kind of on the list as well?

Oh, yeah. I think he will be. I mean, if he beats Alabama, I think, I don't know. I'm hoping Joe Burrow just like goes off because honestly, I think if he doesn't do anything, Chase Young is going to win the Heisman. He's the best player on the best team. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

And I'll cry. You know how many Heisman winners that would give Ohio State? Like eight? Eight Heisman winners. I'd say, yeah, probably, yeah. That's kind of crazy. Got a lot of stops. Got to give it to them.

Yeah. Nothing's better than Tom Harmon, though, right? Yeah, Tom Harmon. That guy, they made a movie! They made a movie! All for that guy. It was called Tom Harmon's Heisman, and it was in theaters in 1950.

He was such a phenom. Oh my god. He's the only... We sound like some real Michigan fans right now. Back in the 50s, we had a movie. Ohio State gave him a standing ovation his senior season.

Where he had some crazy amount of numbers and all this kind of goofy stuff. Bring him back. Bring him back. Tom Herman, Tom Brady. Well, his son is an actor, right? Really? I can't remember.

He was in Independence Day or something. Oh, that's awesome. Dude, we're going off the rails. I'm going off the rails. Hey, man. Tom Harmon. Go blue. I'm quickly leaving. No, you guys got anything else? Tom Harmon Go blue No

You guys got anything else? No We gotta save some For next week I guess Oh bye week Oh go off Jerseys Should I wait for

Jerseys I just like to say The white unis Are badass They're so clean They're so clean But I would like to see them get some blue pants

and get the white top and the blue pants. We've jacked out on talking about this. I would love, if Adidas can do it, Jumpman can put together a crazy blue uniform. And we're not saying ruin the uniforms. We're just saying, just the blue pants. The clean blue pants. Green blue.

That's all I'm asking for. Bring it on against Ohio State. Yeah, they'd be done. We're blowing them out. 100% agree. 75-0.'m asking for. Bring it on against Ohio State. Yeah. We're blowing them out. 100% agree. 75-0. Blue by 90. Follow us on Apple Podcasts.

Follow us on YouTube. We need subscribers. No, for real. If you want to help us out. Yeah, if you want to help us out, check us out on Apple Podcasts. Leave us a review. Five stars. Subscribe to us on YouTube

leave us a comment if you have any feedback yeah other than that Go Blue Go Blue Go Blue