Blue By Ninety - Michigan Bounces Back

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

Michigan looks like the team we thought they'd be in a win against Oklahoma

All right. Welcome back to Blue By 90, presented by Feldman Chevrolet of Highland. I'm Justin, joined by Joel Honickford. It's Monday, September 14th. And I enjoyed watching Michigan football on Saturday for what felt like the first time in three years. There have been a few, you know, a few games here and there. But like thoroughly enjoyed a full football game of Michigan football in three years. and damn it it feels good Joel I agree I completely agree it feels so good it especially feels good when you beat somebody who you weren't supposed to or at least you know the media and Vegas thought you weren't supposed to there's there's no better feeling than watching the Wolverines do that which is also I mean probably back to Davis Warren beaten Ohio State in the shoe hasn't happened didn't happen last year right We pretty much lost to who we were predicted to lose to. So it feels good, especially after a week full of criticism about our team and our

quarterback. And we come out and execute at a high level and knock off the number 11 sooner's, go back into the top 25. We have arrived back in. So it feels good. Feels good. And honestly, the Saturday went exactly how we talked about it going with just get back to football. We got back to playing football.

And honestly, we got back to playing Michigan football. Like, it was guys are tough. They're flying around. We're physical. Like, I mean, nothing sexy about it by any means, but you get the job done. And I just like everything about it felt right in my inside, in my heart, in my heart. You know, I just, I loved how how we showed out on Saturday. And that is the type of team.

that I was sold was a Kyle Whittingham team, right? It's like, you're not putting up 500 yards of offense. You're not throwing for a hundred, you know, for touchdowns, blah, blah, blah. But you're going to be tough. You're going to go and grind it out. That's the thing that I was sold. And listen, after seeing that, if that's what we get from Kyle Whittingham, I'm all in. I'm absolutely all in.

Yeah, I mean, we completely. drained the life out of Oklahoma. Like, it seemed like any sense of momentum they thought they had would immediately get drained from them. A couple of things that I really was a big fan of

seeing was, one, just the adjustments we made offensively in terms of Bryce was running. He was our leading rusher with 87 yards. He averaged like 4.8 yards of carry, which is very good. That's a very good statistic.

So I was excited to see that, and he looked good running the ball. Now, one got away from him again, fumble. We ended up getting back miraculously because he didn't. Somehow under his own butt or something. He had no idea where that ball was, but he got it back. So, yeah, I think we should do like a ball security circuit in practice. Yeah. If any of the Michigan coaches are listening to this podcast,

probably be a good investment of your time. But it was fun to watch. he looked good running the ball obviously the long rushing touchdown 38 yards that was a fun one to watch j jay buchanan again he is that guy for us so it was fun to watch um it was fun to see michigan go back to that like nitty gritty football like you're talking about like we are just going to drain the life out of you we're going to beat you down um and and we certainly did right we certainly did well i think what Joel Klatt called the 23 team. Was it a Python or I can't remember exactly how he described it.

But it was something to that effect where it was just like, listen, you're going to think that you're in the game. And then all of a sudden, you're just like, there's nothing, you've got nothing left to give because Michigan has just drained you. And that's how John Mateer looked like at the end of the game. And I got to give credit to John Mateer. He's a baller, man. That kid is tough as nails.

and he did everything he possibly could. But by the end of it, you could just see, like, Smith Snowden and Rod Moore and Jair Hill, they didn't give him anything to work with all day long. I mean, he hit Rocky Beers for a couple times, on a couple broken plays as well. But outside of that, you know, their number one receiver didn't really do much at all.

Smith's Nodon had him on lockdown all day. And so I think by the time that you get down to those last couple drives where they're, you know, in desperation mode, he's like, what do I even, it looked like Will Howard in 2024 against Michigan in the shoe where he's just like, I can't do anything against these guys. Right. You know, and so that is, I mean, man, shout out Jay Hill. Like I felt like that defense. And now you're looking at the Western Michigan game too, like, okay, those are two really good football. football games that this defense played and really won it for us both times. Like, you don't win either of those games if the defense plays any worse than they did.

Yeah, 100%. It was nice to see John Henry Daley come to life. Obviously, in week one, we don't see a lot statistically out of him. And then against the Sooners, he had a sack, three tackles for loss. He showed up as that guy. Like, when you talk about people who we were sold on, like, that's who. we thought we were getting in John Henry Daly, and that's who we got on Saturday. Dom Nichols was the highest graded defensive player that we had, so he's continuing to all.

I mean, those two, I mean, that's just like hutching a jabba. I'm not going to say that they're hutching a jobbo, you know, but, man, that's what it felt like where it was just like going back to Mateer, like he had about two seconds before one of those guys was getting to him, and I think that that just disrupts, that disrupts everything. Right. And we spoke about that before the game, how in order for us to win, we were going to have to pressure material, get them out of the pocket. And obviously we did. We did a really good job at that. The one thing that all the critics were saying going into this game is, you know, Michigan's inability to be able to move the ball in this defense and how, you know, if I, they would say, you know, if I had a struggling offense, didn't know how to score, the last team or defense I would want to go against is, Oklahoma's defense. And there was nothing for them to say at the end of the game. I mean, we handled it well. I do have still the pet peeve of the rhino. We ran, I think, 63 offensive staffs, 29 of those were in Rhino again. I mean, you know what? Go ahead. I don't know if they

understand how much they're in Rhino. And I know that sounds crazy. I agree. Kyle Whittingham came out to the media and he was like, because I think somebody addressed it with him that, that week one, 60% of offensive snaps were in Rhino. And he said, I think that's a miscalculation. Like, I don't think they understand how much they're doing it. But like our tight ends, like we see them in the game more. But we had a tight end catch. Jalen Hoffman, Jalen Hoffman had catch over the middle. Great route, great catch, great throw. I literally said to the guys that were sitting next. I was like, we had a tight end in there. What happened?

Yeah, and that's the thing. Like, it's so surprising at this point. And I remember a couple of plays when we were a rhino, and I was watching it happen. And the defense was just so stagnant because they don't have to defend really anyone. And it makes it so hard. And Brady Norton goes to the media before the season starts. And he's like, well, would you rather have a 250-pound tied end or a 310-pound offensive linemen in there? I'm like, I get it.

Like, that makes sense from a blocking standpoint. but schematically, from an X's and O standpoint, you are putting a guy in there, even though he's wearing 96, who they don't have to defend. Like, when I wore 84, people did not defend me in the past game because I wasn't going to do it.

Just because you change the number doesn't mean you're tricking anybody. So that's still my pet peeve. And I like it in doses, right? Like I, and that's where, you know, I liked it with you in doses, right? But let's be honest, you yourself would probably admit if we ran you out there every play, then they're going to like take up on that tendency and be like, all right, well, we don't need to, you know, defend the tight end pass game. Right.

Yeah, exactly. And there's a reason we, like, when I was playing, we were so effective is because I wasn't in there the whole game. I was in there when I needed to be. And then when I wasn't in there, we were able to spread the field with guys like Eric All and Luke Schoonamaker, Colston Loveland. Like, we just, we're missing that piece to it right now. It is that tight end piece, the fourth receiver out and about. So that's really my frustration still from this past weekend.

I still think, too, like, that will help Bryce so much to get to the next step that I think he needs to take. And I just think that, I mean, hitting a five-yard outrout. to the tight end, like is unbelievable for everybody in the offense, right? You get some rhythm with your quarterback. You get your, you know, you get to second and five so you can run the ball. It opens up the run game. Like, I just, I just think that those little plays that it felt like we've done for the past 10 years, you know, they, they just help the offense keep the chains moving so much. And I'd love to see. Now, it did get better from week one. It went from what,

60% to 40% or whatever. But still, I'd love to see it. I'd love to see it at probably like 20% for Rhino. And the other thing, again, I don't want to be too negative because, well, we were overly positive on the last one, you know, when we probably should have been. Now we're, now we're being negative when there's a positive outcome. But I also just like, I don't know, maybe it's the Michigan in me of like, I have. I love just watching power all the time. The motion across and a lot of that bullshit, whatever you want to call it, I'm just like, you know, can we just go under center one time and hand it off and run power and see what happens?

Right. Yeah, I agree. And the one thing we're also seeing, I mean, I'm continuing the negative train here. We are very positive about this win. It's a great thing. Well, let's get them all out right now and then we'll go back to the positive. Let's get them out. The unnecessary penalties.

And we talk about, like, guys motioning from the line of scrimmage. Like, how is that happening? I don't know. This is not stuff that should be happening in the season. This is stuff you sort out throughout fall camp. You're like, hey, listen, just so you know, you can't motion from the line of scrimmage. Like, that makes sense. I learned that when I was in seventh grade, by the way.

Right. Yeah. Like, it's not that difficult. And like, that's happening over and over again. And it really should not be happening. And it's frustrating to see. Well, that and like, I mean, first of all, just the number of penalties overall on both sides of the ball on Saturday was like the it was so frustrating to watch as just a football watcher. You know, that, it was a great game, but that was like the only negative takeaway was like it felt like on every other play.

there was something going on that, that, you know, caused the disruption. But for Michigan, you know, one that I want to point out, and I hate, I hate, like, calling out a specific player, but, you know, you come out at halftime, Oklahoma goes down and scores, and then Michigan had, Michigan already went three and out, which I, the Bryson Cudsdall, like, go in after halftime, I plan.

I'm not really sure. I love Bryson. I love how hard he runs and whatever, giving him three straight right out of half time when you, I just don't really know, I don't know. But in doing that two weeks in a row, I'm not really sure. But then, so you go three and out. Oklahoma has a great drive down. They score on a miscommunication in the secondary.

And so then you're sitting there and it's a tie ball game, right? and so now or was it 10-7 at that point 10-7 10-7 at that point but it's like all right man like I don't know about you but in the stadium I was like oh shit they like got their shit together right at half time their offense looked like it's clicking we can't just like grind this out we're going to have to go score the football and immediately Nathan Fobie on the offensive line false start in your own stadium on your own accord like Nothing's going on. I mean, I think they shifted on the D-line, but like that stuff drives me up a wall.

Now, if you're at Oklahoma and they're going nuts and you false start because you can't hear anything or something, whatever, I can at least comprehend it. I can't comprehend having a false start on that. And then thankfully we did move the ball a little bit, but now you're at first and 15, you know, on your own 15-yard line. And you've got to, it's just those little things will be the deciding factor, I think, in this team being like taking the next next step of being a 10 and 2 team or an 8 and 4 team still. Right. Yeah. And I think, you know, we talked about Whittingham kind of getting the reins of the program and redirecting it where it needs to be. And he certainly did that, right?

Because he came out on the media said, I need more for my team. I need more. And even going into halftime and said, I still need more. I need more, which, like, as a fan, I appreciate. I like seeing that. Like, he still wants more out of his team. He's not complacent. But, like, truthfully, those unnecessary penalties, like, something is happening in the facility

or in practice that is translating to that happening. Like, you don't show up on Saturday and all of a sudden forget how to line up. Like, are we just blowing past it? Like, what's going on here? So, yeah, I hope that he. after essentially two weeks of that, we obviously saw a Jaya Herald penalty that was really, really dumb, really dumb.

So dumb. For a guy who played an unbelievable game, like you almost make that one mistake that thankfully he had the pick, that that is the huge play of the game. But like that dumb penalty was almost, almost negates his entire rest of the game because they, I mean,

they almost go win the football game on that game. Yeah. So hopefully we can, clean all that up moving forward but all and all very happy my question to you is so out of watching obviously the game last weekend who who for you stood out that you were very pleased with their performance that you you were pretty pumped up about um i've got a couple people um one smith snowden I thought played a phenomenal game. Is it Saratania, I think, is the Oklahoma wide receiver?

Yeah. And he's a very, very good wide receiver. Smith Stoden, zero, I believe he gave up zero catches on targets this week. So did Jair. But Snowden, I felt like it was just like all over Saratania all day long. That's where it just, you know, when you have. that combined with John Henry Daley and Dom Nichols, like

it's really hard to move the ball down the field, but he's just, I like to, he's like a silent assassin. Like, he's not doing anything crazy, you know, Rod is the captain back there, so he's obviously like everybody knows Rod.

Jair's like a loud guy, you know, whatever. Shamari Earls has every, every arm band and, you know, whatever on. And then Smith Snowden's just back they're like doing his job and i i love it man i and um people at utah like we're not fans of smith snowed i first of all amazing name coolest name out there yeah coolest name out there so that's that already gives you points um but then he just like gets the job done man and i felt like he was kind of the

key all day because he just man there was just like there weren't many times where i looked back and it was like, oh, he's out of position. It was always like he's just right on Saratania or whoever it was. Felt like he had an unbelievable game. Yeah, yeah, I completely agree. Actually, I had texted my friends during the game, and I said, Smith Snowden sounds like the name of a hitman. And he plays like it, too.

Like, he's a dog. He's fun to watch. Yeah, he was one of mine. John Henry Daley was one of mine, obviously, just for the way that he plays. played. But one guy that I wanted to mention was Sabian Hider. I thought he played a really good game. I mean, that guy, now obviously, you're not going to put a guy in the game who can't play at a high level, but he really does not look like a freshman. I mean, just the way that he runs the

ball and sees the defense is extremely impressive. Obviously, he's huge. Like, he's enormous. Right. But from the standpoint of running and receiving, I was thoroughly impressed with him. He's going to be a really good ball player for us throughout the remainder of the year. And I love Jordan Marshall. I don't know that Jordan Marshall is as effective in the past game, but I mean, Savion's ability to turn his body on that one play where Bryce kind of scrambled to the left and lofted it over, I thought that was phenomenal for a freshman that is as big as he is. Right.

Right. So I agree with that. I also think, you know, he's been really effective and hasn't really been in the game that much. You know, like he hasn't had a ton of opportunities. So I think he's just going to keep getting better, man. I mean, he's two games into his career, right? And already showing, you know, big sign. So I feel like he's going to break one at some point and be like, all right, now I know what it feels like.

And then he's going to just get even more confident. So totally agree with that. I think he's very dynamic, and they're going to keep working him in. The other one, which is, I mean, pretty obvious here, but Bryce Underwood. Like, I, you know, I laugh because if you're a box score watcher out there, you think Bryce stinks because he threw for 111 yards, zero touchdowns, right? And you're like, oh, they won again despite Bryce. But let's go back to what we said multiple times leading into the season.

he does not have to win the Heisman for Michigan to be good. He doesn't have to be Superman. And I got to applaud Bryce because in week one, I felt like, I mean, there's so many things that went wrong for him. It's hard to even pinpoint it. But in week two, he didn't try to be outside of himself. He was very calm. He didn't try to do too much.

He took his read. He went with it. He obviously ran the ball really well, but he didn't make mistakes. Like, he obviously fumbled the one time, but at the end of the day, he very much limited his mistakes from week one. And I just love the way that that worked, because if he can have that mentality of like, I don't have to hit a home run on every single play, and let's just take what they're going to give us that with how good this defense is, this offense,

can win us a lot of football games if they play like that. Yeah, I completely agree. And we spoke about how we were going to see his response from week one. And obviously, there's an incredible amount of noise from the media talking about how, oh, I think he actually regressed from year one. And then he comes out to do the humblest thing possible, which is run the ball as a quarterback. And he does it well. He runs hard.

He runs well. We see him excited for his teammates in the postgame interview. He acknowledges his teammates. the whole time. To me, like, that is, that's what we want to see. Like, that's the type of Bryce that we really want out there on the field. A guy who was there to uplift his teammates, you know, it would be nice for him to win the Heisman. I'm sure he wants to win the Heisman. Of course. But the reality is, is that's not what we need. Like, we don't need a Jaden Daniels who doesn't, has a team that's, you know, slightly above average, but he wins the Heisman. I would

rather have a great Michigan football team with a quarterback who is selfless, is composed. I thought he was a much better decision maker this week. I still think there's some areas to clean up. But, I mean, we can see him reading the defense and not forcing things, which is obviously what we saw in week one. And maybe that's first game jitters. You know, maybe that we can just count it up to that. We'll obviously see as we move forward. But I was very appreciative of Bryce under.

Wood this week against Oklahoma, just in the fact of, like, this dude is going to run the ball, and he can run the ball, and we obviously utilize that. And he ends up being our leading rusher by about 50 yards, you know? And so how important is that to this offense? I think it's unbelievably important because, let's be honest, and this is another shocking thing from a Kyle Whittingham team, but outside of Bryce, through two weeks, we have not seen the run game, be effective really at all, you know, for Jordan Marshall and Savion Hider. And so if he can do that and rip off one big one, but even get, you know, there were times where he's getting, you know,

five, six yards of pop, Bryce is. Like, I mean, that's just huge. And I think he's also pretty natural in that. Like, there were times where he was, you know, he had good vision and was making a cut and whatever. No, I love, I, I, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, I love, the way that you said appreciative because I was appreciative of him on the field physically and what he did there. But to your point, mentally it felt like he, I don't know, you know, if it was Greg Harden from beyond the grave or who talked to him, but, you know, it felt like he, something clicked in like,

all right, you know, Monday, the press conference was not good. Right? His attitude is everything. And I don't know who talked to him, but it felt like I even saw him say, like, I'll do whatever it takes for us to get a win, you know? And we said it, even if he's lying through his teeth, I don't care. You know, like at least you're putting on that persona. And I think that that, like, spreads. That is contagious.

And so, you know, I felt a lot of selflessness from Bryce Underwood this week that I definitely did not feel in week one. And so if he can continue to build on that, and if he can use this U-TEP game, both in his mental side and then the physical side to say, all right, let me continue to make some reads, let me not make mistakes. You know, I think that we can get to a point. You got Iowa, who is a great defense also in two weeks. You know, you're going to have to play another really good football game to beat them.

But I was laughing at looking at his stats. I believe, Joel, we said multiple times, how many times did you guys win with J.J. McCarthy when he was like 11 for 17 for 150 yards? Right. Yeah. Yes, yeah, we did, which was very frequent, quite honestly. And yeah, I mean, that's what we're seeing at of Bryce and carrying the ball. Now, he's running the ball more than JJ did, obviously.

But still, like that's almost more. and ask than to hand the ball off, right? Totally. Hey, listen, take a hit. Like, we're going to want you to take a hit here. And we see him actually get out of bounds, which I also like to see. Like, if he's close to the sideline, he's not going to lower his shoulder. He's going to just head straight out of bounds. We need you for 12 weeks this year, dude.

Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, he's exactly what we wanted him to be. Maybe not what he wanted himself to be, right? But right now that's what's working for us. And we need to continue to use that and utilize that as we move forward. So obviously we've talked about offense. We've talked about defense. Well, let's talk about some special teams.

I mean, okay, before you get into it, we talked about how important this was going to be this season. And I'll be honest, I was worried that it was going to be important in a negative manner. Like we, you know, I was worried about that. But how, I mean, how they literally, in my opinion, won us the football game. Yeah, 100%. So it's nice to see in terms of the seriousness of it. Now, obviously, week one, we have the muff punt, which is that's very easily adjustable. That's, you know, something you address in practice.

But we talked about how we would like to. have those core teamsers. And we do. We have them on this team. Just guys who can focus on special teams and keep that third facet of the game just as important as the others. Now, Carrie Combs, obviously, is a guy with a ton of experience, a lot of experience in Columbus, for that matter of fact. But yeah, I completely agree. I still think there's some things to tighten up on. Obviously, they had a very dangerous returner back there last weekend. He has a, had one return that was substantial. I ended up getting called back, which thank the Lord, because that was kind of coming down into crunch time. But yeah, I completely agree. I was very pleased.

I'll get the negatives out of the way before we go positives. Running into the kicker, again, something that you just like want to throw everything at the wall. Like, I'm just like, like, And actually I saw when Zeke did it the second time that thankfully didn't get called because they said he got pushed into him. Did you see Coach Whittingham say he got on the mic said, Carrie, what is going on talking to Carrie Combs? And like, I mean, that's something where your defense makes a great stop. You know, you have them pin and then you let it drive go on. And then the next, I think it was the next play or whatever.

they hit a big play or a couple plays later to beers, I think it was, or maybe that was after the Jaya one. I can't remember now. But anyways, like those things are, like you said, easily fixable, right? Like, just, come on, man, you got to be, I love the, I love the intensity of you getting after the punter, but you got to dive a foot in front of him. Like, that is, you know, again, things that they teach to teams. all day long. But Cameron Brown, the punter, I mean, phenomenal performance, in my opinion.

I thought that, you know, him pinning them back multiple times on the one completely changed the game. The only thing I would say, like, Marsh, let the other one go. So we get pinned on the one in a very critical moment. Just go grab it, you know, and run out of bounds or something. So I think Marsh is still figuring out the return game a little bit. But I thought our punter, our kicker was great. You know, I thought that we, overall, the special teams, in my opinion, gets a very good grade. Yeah, I agree with you as well.

Our kicking game is at a really good spot right now, which is huge, right? we've seen in the past that wins or loses you games. So it's nice to be on that side of things. But one thing I will say, first of all, the running into the kicker is it's completely avoidable. Like I don't, I do and I don't understand how it happens. The reason I say I don't understand is because they should be coached to be diving in front of the punter. so they're not making contact with the leg, but the ball. The reason I say I do understand how it happens is because nobody expects that they're going to be the one to block the punt until they're standing 10 feet away from the punter.

And they're like, oh, I just better go get this thing. I think it's literally just like the enthusiasm clouds their judgment of just like you see the ball. You see the punter right in front of you. And you're like, all right, let me take one more step. I think I can get this one. Right. Yeah. So we just got to get that out of their mind, right? Because it didn't cost us, but it could. And we don't want to have to get to the point in time where it does. So I think you can kind of bundle that in with all of the other unnecessary and easily avoidable mistakes that we kind of had throughout the past two weeks. And I would imagine they're putting some importance and some emphasis on that stuff. For sure. And again, I mean, there has. been a lot of mistakes through two weeks. Let's be honest. I think way more mistakes than I would

have expected and definitely would have wanted. Here's the reality. This is, even though Coach Whittingham has been around for a long time, it's still a brand new coaching staff, you know, in a new roster, right? So, you know, I think that, like, even though there are some veterans on the team, the reality is, you know, in, in 2023, you had a lot of fourth, fifth, some 60er guys on the team, right? Like, you know, those are the differences in those mistakes where you still have young guys that haven't been in these situations. And unfortunately, you kind of have to make the mistakes in a real game to fix them

because you don't realize the gravity until you screw it up for your team. And then it's like, oh, shit, I ran into the kicker and extended their drive. And if they go score here, we're going to lose the game. Right. You know, like that you don't understand that gravity when you do it in practice. And five minutes later, you're on to the next drill. Right, yeah, because it doesn't mean anything to you. It doesn't impact you at all.

People are just like, hey, don't do that. You're like, okay, yeah, I get that. But until you're like, oh, crap, like this is real. Yeah, I completely agree with you on that aspect. But all in all, we want. I think all and all will take that for sure. One thing I wanted to touch on here, too, Just the energy of the big house on Saturday.

I want to applaud the fans because based on the ticket prices, dropping from like $400 to $40 before kickoff, I was totally expecting, you know, A, people not to show up, B, even if they showed up being like, you know, all right, I'm going to come in at 1158 and, you know, we'll see what happens. I'm going to be gone at the end of the first quarter once we're down 21.

You know, that type of attitude. Michigan fans showed up still. And so after, you know, the weirdest week one of all time, it felt like, I got to give credit to our own fans. The ones that didn't sell their tickets, I'll say that. The ones that sold their tickets in that week, you got, you should have all revoked access. You shouldn't have access to purchase tickets anymore.

more. People that will buy tickets are, you know, they're there. They'll go get them. The other thing I want to say is Oklahoma fans were awesome. They were at her tailgate early on. It was awesome. They had a great time. They were super cordial.

Now, I think before the game, they thought they were going to beat us by 35. So they were a lot nicer. But even on the way out, they were fine. There was nothing, no issues. So that was cool. They did have a lot of their fans in the in the stadium um thankfully they didn't have a ton to root for um but overall i just want to say like the team and the fans fed off of each other i felt like and i think it truly impacted the

game whereas like week one there was no energy on either side it felt like it was like all right this is western we're just you know let's come in here let's beat them and get to the next week it felt like, you know, I saw so many players trying to hype the fans up on the field, on the sideline. I love to see that because it does make an impact. I love to see the appreciation of the fans from the players. And, man, by the end of the game, it was loud as hell, man. It was so, so loud.

So I just, that, that, that in my opinion is like why we do it. That is why we come out and tailgate. I was up at 4.30 in the morning on Saturday to get out there and drinking by 6.30. You know, like, that's why we do it. So I just, I love seeing that, man. That's the whole point. Yeah. And, you know, to your point, as being somebody who's played on that field and had the crowd involved, you're 100% correct.

the players feed off of the fans because we all know of the times where it feels like the fans are just watching and judging, right? There have been those times in Michigan football history and they're not fun to be on the field for. Like when you feel like you are just trying to not disappoint 110,000 people, it is incredibly different than when you are performing and they are involved and they're loud on third down. And also, Coach Whittingham comes out and mentions the crowd, right? How big of a difference maker they were. So that's cool to see. He wouldn't just say that to say that. He's saying that because it's true.

For sure. And so shout out to the fans, man. Shout out to the fans. I loved it. And I think that it, like, when the fans see the player, the defense was flying around from the get-go, man. And you could feel the energy coming. off the field and that was why I think the fans are like all right I can get behind that you in week

one I didn't feel energy any energy from the team and so I was like all right well I think most fans like I don't want to give my energy that because what are you know and then obviously you're you're booing I'm going into halftime which it sucks in my opinion but like to your point the players are like well this sucks I don't feel like I'm really excited to run back out that tunnel for the second half, you know. And so I just think that that, like, the, the energy in the big house was unbelievable. And I think it truly, like, changes the game when you can, when you can have that. Because it's like, you know, listen, I play pickup basketball three, four times a week. And, you know, I don't have, there's no crowd. There's no, nobody's watching. Actually,

if any, I would tell people to go away so that they didn't have to watch me miss layups and stuff. But the reality is like when I am playing decent and I'm making a few shots, I play harder on defense the next possession, you know? And like the energy's up. And so when you can feel it, when you go out for a big third down and you know the crowd's going to go crazy, like I can, I'm, I'm, you got a little pep in your step. You know what I mean? And so I think that it was just like that to me was exact.

That's what I was hoping for. week one. In week one, we're all hoping for the 2021 Washington night game, you know, and we didn't get that at all until the last extra second of the game. But this week, it was just like, I mean, I'll be honest, even from a tailgating perspective, people were there at 8 a.m., like knocking on our door ready to come in. And so it was, if we can continue to have that energy all season long, I feel like that's, it's just a game changer. Yeah, it definitely will be. We've seen it in the past as long as we can stay kind of behind our team, which it would

seem that this game would bring, I guess, a lot of people behind the team or a lot of people back who maybe have counted us out. Because there's nothing to say about last Saturday, except for the fact that we won in really in dominant fashion, right? And so, but let's not be quite as skeptical anymore of this team and more just supportive. Like, obviously these guys feed off of our energy. And we change the game for them as well. Like, if you think about momentum shift.

And if a team has momentum in the big house, the fans have the potential to take the wind out of their sales, right? Like on a third down, just getting loud. And then they play with energy. We see guys, you know, making big. place and celebrating this week, which was fun to see. Like, guys just getting jacked up. Totally. It's awesome.

And I always wonder what they're saying. And it's probably the same thing every time. So, but anyways, it's still fun to see those guys get after it. Let's get the tight ends in there, though. Let's get the tight ends going. Come up. Moving them around, man. Get them up in the bullpen moving around at least.

But even like one, one, I. I can't remember exactly what possession. It must have been after we scored to get to 17. We kickoff and the special teams run into the kickoff team runs into the end zone. And then they do the classic, like go to the kind of circle the wall, right? And go like this to everybody. And everyone's going nuts, you know? And like those little things legitimately change the game.

And like that to me is the sign of like, All right, they get it, right? Like they get it and they appreciate like, because you could be too cool for that. Oh, I'm only on kickoff. You know, I'm going to turn around and go back. But instead, somebody in the building said to every single one of those guys, I think this past week said, listen, we need to provide the energy.

You can't come out here and expect that these fans are just going to come out and do it. We need to provide it because I saw it all game long from the kickoff. team to John Henry Daily to Dom Nichols to Troy Bowles like guys are getting the crowd going and I mean I just love it because that is it's it's it's like to your point it's an all inclusive thing then it's all a 110,000 people together instead of the crowd and the team being separate you know and so I think if we can do that I mean in two weeks I you know let's hope we get through U-TEP and I definitely don't want to make this seem like a throwaway game because we need to make a lot of strides. But if you can get to Iowa and the crowds into it again, like it could be huge.

And I will say, Coach Harbaugh always said that your biggest improvement came between weeks one and two. And we certainly found that improvement. Hopefully we can continue to grow that. Let's get our past game more involved. Let's get Jamie French in the game. I don't think he even played a snap on Saturday, actually. So let's get those guys active and let's kind of diversify this offense a little bit more, QB run, running back run, tight ends in the past game. Let's get it all going. Let's keep people guessing on what's about to happen. We're not there yet, but let's get to that point. I agree with that. I think we got to kind of just go all around here. So, There's just like those little improvements.

Like I don't, you know, A, the improvement from week one to week two was substantial. Let's be honest. It was two different teams. They were tougher. They were grittier. They were better in skill positions. They were better in actually, you know, executing plays. They were better in their energy.

They were better in everything. But then now you got to keep building. You didn't win the full season. Now, I will say it's funny how much a week changes things. Everyone was ready for Bryce to be benched, fire winning him, blah, blah, blah. Now, you know, it's like, oh, we could win 10 games. Yeah, right. So I'm going to ask the fans to be a little less dramatic in how they approach things week to week.

But the last thing I want to say is I love Tommy Carr. There's going to be a time when Tommy Carr has his time here. It's not right now. We can't be week to week with Bryce Underwood. You have to just say, all right, he's our guy. And I think Coach Whittingham did come out and clarify his comments of the not, his job isn't infinite. He's like, no, none of our jobs are infinite.

You know, and so he did say he's like, he's our guy, probably easier to say that after week two than after week one. But I just think like the reality is there's pretty much zero percent chance, Joel, that we're going to throw a 195 pound Tommy car who has been in class for two weeks at the University of Michigan into the fold against Brent Venables and Oklahoma. Right. That was never going to happen. You know, and so I would like, my ask for the fans is just like, can we stick it out with Bryce and just try to get behind it? Because, you know, you mentioned how you guys feel the crowd. You know, he can be off social media, whatever.

You still feel the pressure when the fans aren't pleased with you. And so I'd love to just give him some support throughout the season. Yeah. And if if you want Bryce Underwood to go out and play as a confident quarterback, then it is also your job to not go slam him in the media. Like if you want him to be confident, why don't you have some confidence in him? It makes no sense. It's such a crazy thought to sit here and complain about a guy who you want to play confident

when all you do is talk negatively about him. Like, listen, he's banned his mistakes. Do you not think he realizes that? Like, do you think that he wanted to throw a Hail Mary to beat Western Michigan? No, you wanted to beat them in the first quarter. But the reality is where we're at. And still some confidence in the Bryce and build him up and stop tearing him down all the time. Like, there's enough people who are going to do that anyway.

Also, he's on your team. He's our quarterback. He's our quarterback. So how about we get behind him? You know, like, I, listen, you can, I'm not saying don't ever be critical of anything. you know, there's times to be critical. But the reality is he's on our team, man. Like, let's act like he's on our team.

Let's go talk shit on Ryan Day for blowing a 21-point lead in the fourth quarter. You know, like, I'd rather, let's still do that rather than tearing our own guy down. You know, so I just, I want, like, I just, I hate feeling like it is week to week still. So, like, I'd love for him to put two to three weeks together, and I think that can lift off the, like, you know, the pressure that's so, so much so heavily on his shoulders right now. Yeah, I completely agree. Yeah.

So last thing here, I do want to go. We got to talk about Ohio State, right? Yeah, we have a second here. Well, one, Oregon loses to at Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State's quarterback is an absolute. stud. I think he's going to be a decently high draft pick, to be honest. But still, you're, you know, 20 plus point favorites. You have the, you know, best quarterback of the nation probably or one of them in Oregon. Like, you have to go win that game. And now, I don't know, I feel like people have

questions about them. But Ohio State. So one, number one, Saturday was awesome because we went out at noon, one in dramatic fashion, and then you can just watch the rest of the day, knowing that you have Ohio State, Texas at night, and like, you can just be on your high horse, and it doesn't matter. And then so I was watching, I'll be honest, the first half, Ohio State dominated. Like, it was, I mean, in my head, I'm like, oh, shit, like, they are exactly who we thought they were of like they're the true number one team in the nation. Jeremiah Smith is like the, I mean, nobody, I still think this, but nobody's ever seen

anything like him. Um, Bo Jackson was running for like seven yards of carry. Um, and, and their defense was making arch look like he was an undrafted guy. Um, and then there's just something that clicks in my, in Ryan Day's head. When, when things get tight, man, I don't know. I was talking to somebody who is a very high-level guy in the NFL yesterday, and he was like, literally, nine things, out of nine things that had to go right for them, they only needed one of the nine to go right and they win the football game,

and they went 0 for nine, essentially, in the first one. Right, right. But what a disaster. Yeah, I will say, like, we see Julian saying be the most inconsistent, he's been all year or really all for his tenure at Ohio State because he's like been known as Mr. Consistent. So whatever happened, whatever Texas did to make that happen, let's adopt that. Let's figure out what they did to make that happen.

Yeah, I don't know what it is with Ryan Day in his inability to close on big games. Like, this guy has got like a choke button sitting next to his desk that he just keeps slamming. And I don't get it. And I'll tell you what, as quick as fans wrote off Bryce Underwood, Ohio State fans write off Ryan Day so incredibly fast. They will rip that guy apart. He does, he'll do a hundred unbelievable things. And then he does one bad thing and they're like, get him out of here. They just want him gone.

But, yeah, college football, we've seen it in the past years more than ever. It is anybody's game, right? Everybody has the ability to be good. The one thing I think is interesting, as you talk about Oregon, is obviously they play Boise State in a close game. And everybody comes out of that game saying, Boise State's good. You know, Boise State's a good team. But when Michigan plays Western close, everybody's like, Michigan sucks. Okay, well, week two. Oregon loses, Michigan wins over Oklahoma.

Like, so is Western good? Like, can we say that Western Michigan is a good? Rank Western, you cowards. Come on. So, I mean, the truth is everybody hates Michigan. Yeah, dude, that's just, it truly, like, the Michigan versus everybody thing is a little bit overplayed at this point, but it rings true every time something comes about, you know? It absolutely does.

It's crazy. But, I mean, going around the Big Ten here, so Oregon loses, by the way, they only drop from number two to number six, I believe. It's all that. Like, come on. And Michigan drops out of the, like, come on. That's whatever. The AP voters need to be like, I want them interviewed after every single. a week of like, why did you do what you did?

There were two voters who still ranked Oklahoma and didn't rank Michigan this week, by the way. Like, what are we doing? Penn State beats Temple 27 and 9. Penn State's now 2 and O. So that's an interesting team to me. I still don't know who they are under Matt Campbell, right? Like I think they're still trying to, they're still probably, you know, figuring out who

they are but um msu goes out and beats eastern 35 to 7 uh i think eastern stinks so i'm i'm not taking any uh stock in that um indiana does go out and it was like 41 nothing at half time versus howard so again it's howard whatever i still think indiana somehow reloaded and they're pretty damn good like they're they're a good football team um that that's one I'm circling, like there's a chance. I'm not trying to look too far ahead, but there's a chance that we're both six and oh going into that game, Michigan versus Indiana at home, could be a huge game come mid-October.

Maryland beats Yukon, Minnesota gets dominated by Mississippi State. Yeah, that was bad. I think Mississippi State's actually pretty good, surprisingly, this year. but Minnesota like does PJ Flagg just get a pass forever even though he's like incredibly average there? Yeah, I think their mentality is if he can get them to a bowl game, it doesn't matter what bowl game it is. I mean, it could be the, I guess we played in a Cheez-It Bowl not too long ago, but you get my point. If it gets them to a bowl game, he's got a job for another year. And it seems like now I'm not involved in the Minnesota fan base,

but it seems like everybody's just collectively like, yeah, this is BJ Fleck. There's a lot of stability of being average here, and we're okay with that. So I don't know. It makes no sense to me. But I rode the boat. Roll the boat, I guess.

Illinois loses to Duke. I don't think Illinois is very good. Washington, ranked 19th, beats Utah State 6th. 16 to 14. You know, Jed Fish, right? I like Jedd.

He's still at Washington, correct? Yeah, he is. Yeah. You know, I don't know. I think that they are, I just don't think that they're that good.

I don't either. And their quarterback doesn't even want to be there. Yeah, dude. Like what, I mean, which that is a whole other thing that, you know, I don't know how.

you deal with that of like how do you how do you come to practice every monday and they're like hey remember when you tried to leave like and sue our school this summer that was sick dude thanks for that yeah lead us on the field on saturday yeah you're our new team captain this week um Nebraska beats bowling green 56 to 7 uh UCLA beats san diego state 28 10 Wisconsin beats western in Illinois, 36 to 9. Iowa, who we've got in two weeks, 16 to 13 over Iowa State. You know, rivalry game. It looked like a gritty game. I think Iowa is basically what Iowa has been for the last 30 years. They don't have like an unbelievable quarterback. So I expect our game against Iowa in two weeks to be very similar to what we saw on Saturday. They're just going

to try to grind it out. It's going to be a low-scoring affair. But, yeah, now they've got, they've got their 2 and O had beat Northern Illinois in week one. So it's going to be another test for Bryce Underwood in two weeks, in my opinion. Yeah, I agree. And then USC beats Louisiana 49 to 30, giving up 30 to Louisiana. Like, USC probably should have just stayed in somewhere. in the West Coast in a different conference. Yeah, they did not fit the mold of the Big Ten at all.

You just can't be like a top Big Ten team and not fill your stadium for your open. Like it's just embarrassing. Not even close. No, like it was, that looked like what happens at Eastern Michigan down the road. Like, I mean, that looked like Maxion on a Tuesday night in November. Yeah, I don't. How, how do people like, USC is a historic.

program and it feels like there is no buzz around that program at all anymore like really since like sam darnald or caleb williams left like nobody cares about USC anymore even when kaleb williams was there they were like a top five team and he was the perennial heisman and they'd have they'd have like a half full stadium yes it makes no sense to me i i guess like people got more to do out there in l.a i suppose they go surf i genuinely think that that's like a thing. It's like though there's a lot better things to do. But man, at some point, you're like, you've got to draw a crowd. You know, when Michigan goes there every time, it's 90% Michigan fans, you know? But yeah, man, I don't know. It's, it is, it's funny how

a week changes everything. We, everybody was ready to burn the whole thing down last week. You know, I'll just say like I know it's Michigan. I know that, you know, this fan base is very hardcore. I, you know, Kyle Whittingham knew what he was signing up for in this. But like, man, can we give them two weeks, right? Like, like, I mean, the Fire Whittingham stuff after one week just seems insane to me. I just think that like the patience is not something our society has in the year 2026. And definitely not in college football and definitely not at Michigan.

But I think if you have some patience for this team by week 10, I think there's a good chance that we are like, man, this team's pretty freaking good. Like we're looking at, we're knocking on the door of a playoff. Yeah. And we talked about how, like, it is not uncommon for Michigan to start a little slower than people would like to see. It has happened many times in years past. But we just beat the number 11th ranked team in the nation in week two. And we dominated them.

Like, we looked good. So have some confidence that this team is going to develop throughout the year and be a high performing team at the end of November. Like, we're going to be just fine. Like they're all figuring it out for the first time together as a collective unit live in TV, on TV in front of millions of people. Let them figure it out. They got crowd noise involved. We've seen a huge improvement from week one to week two. So let's allow them to continue to develop and we'll see where this thing goes.

100%. I love it. Yeah. Well, we'll see. So you got UTEP at 330 on Saturday. We'll be at the tailgate. I think around 10 a.m. on Saturday. So come on out and hang.

I enjoyed a lot of Woods and Whiskey on Saturday. I'll be quite honest. Post game as well, I did. And the Blake's apple pie vodka, too, fire. I mean, just like a little too good, if I'm being honest. But yeah, man, it was Saturday was like just an awesome day. Just the tailgate, the vibes are great. Dinarre came through the tailgate and hung out with us.

And so did Worm. The thing is, so we had Worm week one, we had Dinar and week two, and everyone's like, I think we need Joel Honingford for week three to top it. Actually, funny enough, I'm going to be in Columbus this weekend. Oh. Yep, yep. I'm going to the Ohio State game. My brother-in-law plays for Ohio State.

So I'm going to get a bird's-eye view, see what we got ahead of us. And, you know, see how those guys bounce back from a Texas loss. That's true. Who do they got this week? Kent State. Kent State. Okay. So they're probably going to beat them 70 to nothing.

Yeah, the golden flashes. Yeah. I will be in attendance for the Penn State game. I will be there. Love it. That's going to be a great one. I'm pumped for that one. Homecoming.

That's going to be a good. good football game. Yeah, I mean, I think, so when you're on your way to Columbus, if you could just get some iPhone footage, you know, down there, we can send it in, send it over to Stallions and see what he has to say. Yeah, just to show him the stadium. Yeah, yeah. Zoomed in on their sideline.

Yeah, for sure. You know, that gives us a huge advantage. Yeah. So all right. Well, for us, you can follow us at Blueby 90 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, at Blueby 90 podcast on YouTube and Blueby90.com. We appreciate you. Go Blue. Go Blue.