Blue By Ninety - Michigan Football Heads Into 2025 With Wins Over Ohio State and Alabama | Basketball Is Hot

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

Justin and Tanner talk Michigan's Reliaquest Bowl victory over Alabama, the transfer portal, Michigan basketball, and the one-seed Detroit Lions.

All right, welcome back to Blue by 90. I'm Justin joined by Tanner today and we are officially in the offseason of Michigan football. We haven't talked to you guys in a while since the holidays before the holidays. So I hope everyone's holiday went well. Tanner, I hope yours went well. I'm tired, a little bit sick, you know, had a lot of drinks, a lot of cookies had a lot of drinks a lot of cookies a lot of food but ultimately at the end of the day i came out with a w uh over alabama which i was not expecting at all if i'm being totally honest with you no man it was a it was a good holiday first holiday was uh with emory and she was more interested in eating the wrapping paper than opening the presents but we got there little little assistance from dad but no man it was it was good and it was great to watch another

Michigan game um you know we watched at the pretzel bell in Ann Arbor in the basement had a great time um on the 31st and yeah I was not expecting Michigan to go in there and win that game with the amount of guys that were opting out or preparing for the NFL draft uh you know especially when you consider Alabama had their starting quarterback um they had a lot I mean I remember I don't know the exact name of the player um but there was a guy that got a little dinged up and it was like Mel Kuyper's 20th best player in the draft right like a lot of their guys were playing I mean Keon Sapp former Wolverine he was he was out I think he'd been hurt but a lot of their best players were in that game and so for michigan to go in there and you know got a little bit of aid from

the rain right it was a lot of fun with the slip that was absolute chaos at the beginning it was the best yeah we didn't like it was like holy shit that is this is an actual it was every play downpour and then the first 10 minutes of the game every single time milrow took a snap it was a turnover and we're like we're sitting there in pretzobel like looking at each other like what is going on what's happening right now yeah it was it was uh miraculous honestly the rain there's torrential downpour and you know i'll say this you know alabama it looked like they could hold on to the football but michigan guys were doing a great job of i mean they threw a back shoulder fade to freddie

moore in the rain right and wesley walker had the the tip drill interception like these guys they just you know they defy the odds a lot um especially in 2024 when things were looking pretty bleak sitting at five and five going into northwestern and then they play their three best games of the year by far. And we're dominant defensively, offensively, you know, we, we know what it is, but I just think it's such a credit to Sharon more and should give Michigan fans a lot of excitement that one,

he was able to kind of maneuver through this season, all the difficulties that we've talked about over the last, you know, about a year since Jim Harbaugh went to the NFL, the things that were kind of stacked against him him as far as hiring a staff in February, but trying to find anybody in the portal in that spring window. And the fact that he went and got Amir Hall, who should go down as a Michigan legend, right? Wesley Walker towards the end of the year played some fantastic football when he got in there. You know, it was just such a testament to what he was able to do with some of the limitations offensively but secondly i think even more exciting is especially in college i think this

matters a lot your ability to get your players to buy in when things are difficult shows that he is a great leader and is the right leader for this program so yeah you can sit here eight and five you know but how many times you go eight and five not Not only did you beat Ohio State and Alabama to close the year, but you also beat USC, who's a blue blood as well. I know USC was down, but like 8-5 year where you beat USC, Ohio State, and Bama, that's pretty impressive. So you got to feel good going into 25. You throw in Michigan State there too, so you're 2-0 against your rivals, right?

So Minnesota and Northwestern are trophy games now. Those are trophy games too so all the trophies still sit in ann arbor which is pretty incredible um despite being eight and five and i think you know to your point tanner that the number of guys i you know i know a lot of people have a lot to say about will johnson you know quote unquote opting out right and colston had to sit out uh that last game and so there there are a couple guys that you know, quote unquote, opting out, right. And Colston had to sit out that last game. And so there, there are a couple of guys that, you know, I don't know exactly what happened with them, but I think for the most part, these guys, even the, even the top five, top 10, top 15 draft picks

are playing their asses off against Ohio state, right. They they're they're playing down the stretch where you know those guys they've got a ring right they've you know 21 through 24 or 21 through 23 was like the run if you want to call it that they could have cashed it in as soon as they lost to Texas and realized hey maybe we don't have the same team that we had last year. And all those guys that are going in the first round or second round could have said, you know what, I'm going to get my NIL money, I'm going to get my draft stock, and I'm kind of chilling. But no, everybody bought in. And all the way down the stretch, even when, to your point,

it was bleak at times. There were times when we got on this podcast talking man we do not know if Sharone Moore is the right guy or if this team is good at all right but ultimately at the end of the year you kind of have a this is is you know hindsight's 2020 but you look back and you're like man eight and five with winnable games at Washington, winnable game against Illinois, Oregon, you're only down a score at a point, right? Like, I think that they're, you know, they were not that far away from being 10-2 this year. Yeah, I mean, they're, you know, Indiana as well.

I mean, you have a chance. Indiana, right? Yeah. You have an opportunity to go and win that game, and some mistakes cost you. And a lot of folks, and agree that michigan is not a job that is one where you can really learn on the job but i do think this year was probably really good not just from a team perspective of a lot of guys that we've seen develop over the season throughout the course of the season but also i think chiron and his coaching staff i think

you look at the way the defense played down the stretch i thought they were they were just phenomenal um i thought outside of the timeout that allowed Alabama to go down and get a field goal, that was not ideal. But, you know, outside of that, I thought Sharon's in-game coaching, you know, took a step forward throughout the last part of the season. And, again, the coaching staff, I think, you know, you've got to look at the players that are in those groups. I mean, you look at the defensive line,

they really started to figure it out with Luis Pacito. I thought the linebackers got a lot better throughout the course of the season. I thought Ernest House was playing some damn good football towards the end of the year. Barham was playing really good. I'm excited to watch him come off the edge. I think be kind of a – you know, he could kind of be a hybrid player. I don't know if that's going to be in the defense,

but he's a guy that you can really kind of put in a lot of different places on the football field to make plays and a secondary. I mean, we watched, we've watched Tennessee and Oregon get completely outclassed out man by Ohio state's passing game. I never happened against Michigan. And I know everyone's like, why do you do that against Michigan? Well,

maybe it's because Michigan's defense and the way that they play makes it so that it's difficult because Ohio State, I think, had their, I think they had the third most pass attempts in a game against Michigan. It's not like they weren't trying to throw the ball. So I think, and you bring it all together, we're Wink Martindale.

We were, I will put my hand up. We were very harsh on the defense and the play calling and some of the ideas and the play calling and some of the ideas and the stunts and the twists that they were running and having mason graham line up as an edge defender wink martindale throughout the course of the year i think once he kind of finally figured out that like these are college kids i think a ton of people have said this i think he might have even said this but like they're i'm not going up against you know joe burrow or patrick mahomes in the nfl like they're college

kids on both sides so with your players you can keep it simple and you don't need to be overly complex or um you know sophisticated when you're when you're running your scheme because college quarterbacks for the most part and they're not as smart as nfl players so i think he kind of figured that out and it got a lot better obviously towards the end of the season i'm not gonna lie to you i hand up i have some tweets to delete about wink martindale that i put out there i probably do you know and i think a lot of michigan fans do too right it is you know it was things were not going well during that oregon game right and and oregon is you know up until ohio state they were the number one team in the country right um but then

i to your point watching that ohio state game uh the michigan versus ohio state game where michigan just clamps down will howard looked like he had no idea what to do right and chip kelly didn't he had no idea what to do jeremiah smith then goes out against oregon and i mean that was like i've never seen dominance like that right like they they were that was like ohio state playing against an fcs team and so it is just shocking i think all of us both during the michigan ohio state game and then more so during the ohio state oregon game we're like what happened on November 29th? Like that is just the craziest thing. But ultimately, you know, it's, it's pretty nuts because pre 2020, I was, was sitting there like, we'll never beat Ohio state, no matter how good our defense is. They've got these crossing

routes that put our guys in a blender and we don't know how to defend it now it's the complete opposite where it's like we've got this secret formula to beat ohio state not only just with the defensive schemes but you know we talked about sharon getting his guys up to play holy shit them coming out in ohio stadium where every ohio state fan and player and coach was out for blood going into that game. Their plan was to put up 50-plus points, give up nothing to our offense, and make an embarrassment out of Michigan football and have revenge for the past three years. Jerome Moore said, I don't care.

We're still going to come out fired up. They did. They had more energy the entire day against Ohio State they also had more energy against Alabama and they were fired up they were fired up while the rain's coming down you could tell Jalen Milrow has no no desire to be there at all but so I I just it is crazy but, at eight and five, it's about the best eight and five season that you could possibly have. And going into 2025, you're feeling really good about just the fact that I think the culture is there. I think that's the foundation you look at. We'll talk about the Lions in a minute here, but you look at what Dan Campbell's done there, and I put out a post about this today with what Jim Harbaugh did. It all starts with that culture. You can put guys wherever.

You see teams all over. You see the San Francisco 49ers. You see a lot of teams in college football that have unbelievable, talented rosters, but they don't play up to par. And I think you're looking at what Sharon Moore in this in this coaching staff is doing and I'm really excited about the culture that they're continuing and they're going to build on that I think going into 2025. No absolutely I think back to your point about Ohio State and Michigan and Columbus that day I mean Ohio State fans are spitting on

Michigan players as they're walking into the stadium. Everybody is, you know, pregame. They're jawing. They're talking shit. You know, I mean, I feel like Ohio State's always done that in the pregame. I thought he was going to have his day. I'll tell you that right now. I mean, he almost had his day. I mean, it's one of those things that is just still hard to believe,

hard to comprehend. I mean, that was the moment in that in that game in the game um and michigan found a way to pull it out but yeah i think to your point you know those guys they never lost they never lost faith um you watch that video i'm sure everybody's seen it of the one of the songs from the movie sicario which is pretty badass but um like even when you look at the guys in that just the individual players in that video, like, Jane Denigle, who's now transferred as a San Diego State, but, like, he's jacked up. He's not going to play.

He has no chance of flipping the field, right? Right. So these, I mean, from, you know, the best player on the roster to the worst player on the roster and everybody in between, like, he has a way, which I think, again, is extremely important in college football. I don't think that stuff works in the NFL. You know, we're going gonna talk about Dan Campbell but Dan Campbell's I think really good at what what he does beyond just being a pump up guy I think people mislead everybody well I think everybody is learning that right now right he's a really good coach like who's very involved in

the X's and O's that go on in that building um it's not just ben johnson i'll be honest though two years ago i didn't know that right two years ago i thought that he was just like all right i'm gonna be the rah-rah guy i'm gonna be you know get guys fired up and now you know i mean still having ben johnson helps a lot let's be absolutely absolutely but you know we show up and i just did did that because Sharon was the office of coordinator of a national championship team. And Jim Harbaugh was obviously very involved in Kirk Campbell as much as people kind of are, you know, have that taste in their mouth from the season was heavily involved with Sharon in 2023 and in 2022 as well. So, you know, I think he's a guy that is I mean, that's's honestly i think sometimes more important as a college head coach because you can kind of delegate to your coordinators to really run the X's and O's but strong is going to be involved in that um i think you know he has a particular style of football

that he wants to play he's not going to really kind of go too far off of the path that jim harbaugh had this program on as far as what they look for what they want to do kind of seeing that in the portal right to get the best running back in the portal. I love Justice Haynes. I would also like to get the best receiver in the portal. I'm sure that guy's already committed. I don't know who it is. But I do think that that bodes well for the future,

that Sharon is going to continue to be an elite recruiter, which he has been. I mean, even early on in his tenure, he was the guy, you know, he's from Oklahoma. He went and got Dax Hill, right? A five-star out of the state of Oklahoma. He got him to come to Michigan. And you've seen that on numerous recruitments. So he's going to continue to be a league recruiter. He's going to have a program that continues to develop players. And he's going to continue to captivate his team

to play very well in the biggest moments throughout the season. And that's what is really going to lead to the success of Michigan. I don't't know what's gonna happen next year i don't know what's gonna happen to 26 27 but i can tell you i feel very good about where things are they have their quarterback now who knows what that looks like we're talking about portal you know they're going to get mikey keen but as far as just the bigger picture beyond the 2025 portal additions you have bryce underwood you have a plan in place for nil to be competitive to be one of the best programs when it comes to which michigan should be with its alumni base with the i don't have a michigan degree but the michigan degree means something it holds a lot

of value and a lot of very successful people that come out of this university go on to work and make a lot of money and you would think that that should be able to come back into the nil kind of fund and it is right so And sometimes you have guys that go to Illinois and start Oracle, and their wife goes to Michigan, and they just dump a bunch of money in for Bryce Underwood. So I just, yeah, from a bigger picture standpoint, and we'll talk portal now, but just kind of put a bow on it. I feel very good about where Michigan is as a program with Sharon Moore, and excited to see what his staff continues to do. You know, we'll see what chip Lindsay coming in.

I think there might be one more staff move. You know, I don't know if there'll be a dedicated special teams coordinator. I don't, I think he might still be with the program. I just think they may move him back to an off field role. So we'll see what other hires he's made. But I mean, man, you talk about a slam dunk as far as some of his hires like well Monk Morgan is a dog Esposito's a dog like Wink Martindale's a dog you know what I mean so you got to feel really good about where things are at yeah for sure I I think that ultimately you know you what I what I try to

tell people all year long and and I know you made the point of like, well, Michigan's not a place where you can learn. You know, you can go to central Michigan and learn and do whatever you need to. But once you learn, that's when you should come to Michigan. But the reality was that the reality is that Jerome Moore is our coach right now, and he doesn't have a ton of experience right and the reality is too you were never not going to hire sharon more after what happened to end the 2023 season yeah right so let's just like you know put that uh to the side and assess where we're at right now um i i think that sharon is learning a lot as a head coach that he didn't know, right? Like it's the same thing of, you know, every head coach, the first time that they do anything, every quarterback,

the first time that they go out there and take a snap, they're learning things, right? And so experience matters a ton. And so I'm excited for what Sharon can bring to the table and hopefully, you know, some of those clock management and just in-game type stuff hopefully he can improve on that hopefully after going through a full year and having some time right he didn't have any time he's thrown into the fire in mid-february

last year and immediately had to go figure out all right how do i keep mason graham and will johnson colson loveland and how do I not have them hit the portal? Who's my quarterback? What's going on? Like, it probably felt like a whirlwind for him. So, I think right now he's going to have a few months to kind of figure some shit out. And it'll be good for Michigan going forward. And honestly, they've already figured a lot out in terms of recruiting, to your point.

His coach, he's got some coaches that are unbelievable at recruiting and then just in the portal you know to go get i'll list off the the list right now of who they've received because really i mean let's be honest they've lost lost a few uh linemen that really didn't impact that much dominant dom jadjadiz probably was the, you know, the guy that was involved the most. And then, of course, Orgy is in the portal, hasn't declared anywhere, right, yet. And then Tyler Morris, he just declared heading to Indiana.

We completed the trade with Indiana for Donovan McCauley. But ultimately, I'm not that worried about what Michigan lost in the portal. I'm more focusing on what they're getting. And so I'll just run down it right now. QB Mikey Keene, running back Justice Haynes, you mentioned him. That is going to be an unbelievable addition. We didn't even talk about Jordan Marshall's game against Alabama. Jordan Marshall in that Bama game was like –

A true freshman who didn't play a lot because he was hurt. It barely played at all this year. That run he had to get that, I believe it was when it was 16 to 10, and it put them up two scores when our boy Zavada nailed it through the uprights. But he had like a, what, 20, 25-yard run where he just sundered a dude and just kept, I mean, he, it's very corny right like a little bit you know he's not as big i don't want to put that on him like i want to say it but i don't want to put that on him because that's like you're not gonna listen to this i well i just don't want that

narrative to be out there you know but yeah unfortunately his high school film was was the jump cut the vision the ability to put your shoulder down he brings all that to the table he's not as compact as blake quorum was i mean what blake was like 5 10 200 pounds just i mean i would see blake quorum like i saw him at panera when he was like a junior and i was like jesus christ this man that's like what is going on blake um yeah so i don't think jordan marshall is that like you know big of a dude but like you see it right so you pair him with justice haynes that's a that you know depending on what penn state running backs do in the in the off season if they go to the draft or whatever like that's probably the best combo if you're basing off

potential because i think justice haynes was misused a little bit at bama i don't know if kaylin deborah is the most running back friendly offensive guy so you have to i mean we saw what he could do though he ran for a big touchdown against michigan in the rose bowl 2024 so yeah i think with those two that's that's a pretty dynamic duo that i'm excited about especially how good the offensive line played you know compare comparatively to you know throughout the season so yep so uh and then we get wide receiver Donovan McCauley. And then on the offensive line, you get two non-FBS guys, which is kind of shocking, right? You get Lawrence Hatter from Ferris State, three-time national champ.

Tony Anise approved, I am sure. Huge dude, 6'5", 330 or something like that. D2 All-American last year. D2 All-American, I love that. And then Brady Norton from Cal Poly. huge dude six five three four three thirty or something like that all american last year d2 all american i love that um and then brady norton from cal pally i think those are the guys that are going to be your guards probably and so i'm really excited about that and and i think that it it changes the the way that the line it you know i was worried about it uh a month ago i'm not that worried about it now um so excited about that and then on the defensive side of the ball troy williams

damon pain troy bowls is that linebacker that's a big pickup from uh from georgia um trey williams is from clemson damon pain from bama tevis metcalf uh metcalf sorry and TJ Metcalf both from Arkansas so and cousins of DK and cousins I mean that's not a bad thing to be cousins of the biggest like athletic freak out there yeah so you know by the way I just have to say I'm very interested in uh 247's uh portal rankings um like I don't know like a guy like troy bulls right who was a four star high four star coming out of high school i believe in 2023 uh top 100 number 67 player in the country goes to georgia where georgia maybe is the best is lbu right like we talk about w you know why she were you and qbu and rbu and all this stuff but like they're lbu yeah and so he doesn't see the field

as a you know by the end of his true sophomore year and he's a he's ranked as like a middling three star but like if you look if you look at last year there were there were dante moore was ranked ahead of cam ward what are we aiden chiles was ranked ahead of cam ward like so i just find it funny like you know a guy that was a big you know because you base you know what 247 does is they base it on nfl potential like i don't think anything troy bowls has done is gonna knock him down to like an 85 rating when he was like a 97 or whatever so it doesn't matter but i just find it very funny so anybody that's like a stargazer like i typically can be um you know sometimes you just gotta have some perspective like you didn't see

the field but why it's not because he wasn't necessarily good it's because look at the look at the dudes that are in front of it right yeah 100 i i agree i mean i think rankings matter at the end of the day you want higher ranked guys you have a better chance of winning when you have a higher ranked guys and more talent on the field at the end of the day you do have to take it with a grain of salt right you have to look at it in a 360 view um but ultimately i'm pretty excited i think the only issue that michigan is still like i that would still be the concern is wide receiver i feel pretty comfortable with where we're at with everything else i mean maybe d tackle you know, maybe defensive line,

but you get Payne and you get Trey Williams. They're not going to be all-stars. They're not Mason and KG, but they give you a ton of depth and big bodies there, which is good. I mean, wide receiver, though, you do. It's a little concerning because we're losing out on even, you know, can't even land. I don't want to say can't even, but they, they missed out on landing Skylar Bell from Yukon. Right.

So if you can't get a guy to come over from Yukon, I think there's, there's a reason to be concerned a little bit. Yeah. I mean, you know, it is what it is. I will say this room is a hell of a lot better than whatever was going on last year, I think. Yeah. But also, but also you know i mean who knows how much of that was truly just the lack of of being able to throw the ball downfield right like you know is some like because you know you think about what i thought about samaj morgan coming into last year right like he catches a back shoulder fade against ruckers from jj mccarthy you're like whoa this guy's not a slot guy but then the only opportunities he got were like in gadget type plays and remember the USC

game remember the USC game he's on he's on a seam route wide ass open yes just waving his hands and nobody gets him so you know is it I don't know maybe he's conscious obviously no more you'd like to get another I'd like to get two more bodies in that room to be perfectly honest with you. But, you know, I wonder like I w we did like, I think it was for Scott Bell's, um, sub stack where he like he asked you and you sent it to me. So I filled it out, but I thought like my breakout freshman last year, I thought I just went on a limb and I said, I'm Mario Stewart.

I really liked his high school film. Right. You know, so what does he have, uh, in the tank? Like what, what does he have in the tank? What can he provide to the offense? There's a lot of potential. There's not a lot of proven production outside of McCauley, which last year he was hurt. 2023, he was really good after switching from quarterback to receiver at IU. Then Andrew

Marsh coming in as a true freshman is a stud. A lot of people are excited about Jamar Browder. That dude looks like he's... There's a picture of him and Andrew Babalola. He looks bigger than babalola i know so these freshman receivers you know maybe change the dynamic for the coaching staff of like hey we don't need x amount of guys well and you saw what fred moore did against alabama and it's like okay can we can we do that more like you know this year obviously you know you you struggle with having people that can throw the ball down the field but we didn't even try you never until alabama we didn't even try to do

a back shoulder fade to anybody when's the last time michigan threw a downfield shot like was it literally alex orgy against arkansas state remember that one he overthrew and i was like oh well maybe it's better maybe we get better i well i i said to you guys at pretzel when we were watching at the alabama game just talking about everything i was like dude even if nobody's open can we just chuck it deep to make them think that we want to try to do that i'm just saying this is like minnesota like you know like just throw it down just throw it down field just just, I don't know. One of my friends that I was watching a game with during like at Michigan

stadium this year was he had the funniest thing. He's like, honestly, I need them to throw it. Just so my neck will like go like this. Yeah. My next time I'm getting a kink in my neck. Can I turn and look at the ball going downfield to stretch it out like yeah i mean as long as it's not like jared golf going deep to jmo last night it's just like i'll take it that that was that was the one like head scratcher of that game but

everything else i had a very good time watching that yeah but yeah so portal i mean they're still working on some guy i will say i love what they're doing on the defensive line i hope that's not indicative of which way ray sean benning's leaning yeah i'm sure would love for him to come back i thought he had another stellar performance i mean that guy you know i think he could probably make himself some even more money if he came back next year and potentially because i agree and i think trey williams and damon payne i think they're rotational guys you need guys on that line right and so yeah um yeah i that's that's kind of how where i'm at what are your thoughts on the quarterback situation i mean that's going to be

the the thing that everybody talks about i'm sure we'll talk about it from now until august until september until you know but right now you're looking at it without seeing you you've seen bryce underwood in a michigan uniform for like 30 seconds and a bunch of clips as quarterback we've had since jj and and like he looks the part right i mean you go out there and we were you know in person with him at somerset mall he's he definitely is all of six five there's yeah i was i you know i'd never i mean we went and did that event and we've got some content coming from that which was which was i you know i'd never i mean we went and did that event and we got some content coming from that which was which was i will say one one thing i'll share is like

justin you introduced me to mason grammy's like hey man i'm mason i was like i know brother like everybody's like everybody did that like uh by the way i'm i'm the biggest fan of donna edwards i don't know if you remember this justin he was for sure trying to get the hell out of there like there were like b reporters trying to talk to him and you went up and introduced me and he was like the coolest most kind uh dude and super gracious so always be a fan of dono but yeah so it was uh when we were there i was like damn like he's he's a big kid man and then you see him out on the field in those clips and you're like holy like he he is big like you know he's standing next to alex orgy and he is just a big dude right and i i i want to preface what we're saying right now with an example because you look at what um wow how am i blanking on the name uh this we're gonna have to cut this but uh who started

for the patriots yesterday oh joe milton you look at what we don't need to get that that's fine you you suppress 2020 from your brain and that's okay i well i did tweet about it it was just a total uh mind blank there but you look at joe Milton, I laugh because I saw a tweet today that multiple NFL teams are looking at Joe Milton for a start. Dude, I was watching Red Zone, and he rolls out of the pocket, finds a wide-open receiver, zips it there, and I'm like, this is what I thought was going to happen. So my point being, like, you can't be just mesmerized by a big guy

and a big arm because there's obviously there's a lot more to being a quarterback than that. But if we can just start there, he looks the part. And I want to say this. I'll let you chime in here in a second. But I just want to tell everybody, remind everybody, J.J. McCarthy did not look the part when he came in here. He was tiny. He was a little pole of a human being and was not ready.

He didn't look anything like Bryce Underwood did. And obviously he turned into, you know, possibly the greatest quarterback at the University of Michigan. But I'm just saying Bryce Underwood right now looks game ready and if you're worried about his development you shouldn't be yeah no i'm with you on that um and i think to the point about joe milton like i watched joe milton's film you could see it right but if you look at his high school stats he didn't have a great completion percentage. You're basing a lot of it off of potential. And you're doing the same thing with Bryce Underwood,

but like you hear the way folks that have been in attendance at these, you know, elite high school camps and seven on seven environments. But then you watch the way he plays football. He's he can throw a touch. Like, I think that was the biggest thing for Joe Milton was like, he just fired everything in there. Right right like there was really no ability to level the football in he can throw that 40 yard rope that he did for the patriots yesterday and then you ask him to throw like a seven yard out and he's still gonna throw that 40 yard rope yeah

which by the way this is completely on topic i topic. I can't believe that Anthony Richardson was the number four pick in the draft and Joe Milton was like a sixth or seventh rounder. Because they're the same guys, right? But with Bryce, I think, yeah, I mean, you know, as far as just the quarterback situation goes, you bring in Mikey Keene, who we saw. I mean, if you went to the game against Fresno State, you saw him in person already.

You know, he's got familiarity with Chip Lindsey. Chip Lindsey was the offensive coordinator at UCF when mikey keen was there as a high school coming out of high school as a recruit who's there for a couple of years and then transferred to fresno state um you know mikey keen has put up decent stats the last couple years at fresno i don't know how much he moves the needle for me i think his ability he's already gone in to hostile environments before you know coming to the big house right with fresno last year i'm sure he's already gone in to hostile environments before you know coming to the big house right with fresno last year i'm sure he's played some other big road games i've looked it up um but just thinking about going into oklahoma um but who knows i mean you know they've got a

new quarterback and new oc but like how hyped are those folks for oklahoma football under brett venables right so like how hostile is it going to be but i think you're probably your your thought process is okay we've got a guy who's in his, what, fifth year of college football at this point coming in who's going to kind of keep us steady and allow us to maybe be in a dogfight and not make mistakes like a true freshman would, no matter how good the true freshman is. I think what I'm probably hoping for is that Michigan's able to win those games, first and foremost.

I mean, that's obvious. But what I think I'm hoping for is that Michigan's able to win those games, first and foremost. I mean, that's obvious. But what I think I'm hoping for is that Michigan's able to get through. I think they go to Lincoln, Nebraska in September. It's early in the season in the big-time schedule. That's another tough place. I don't think people realize, like, if you've never been there, that place gets loud. Even at 23 when Michigan beat them by 38 points,

like they were loud until it was like a – And they're going to be hyped, you know, going into year, whatever. Is this year two of Rayola, right? Yeah. Year two of Rayola year three of Matt rule. So, you know, and they've made, I mean, they got Dane key from Kentucky. They've made, they've made some splashes, so that's going to be a tough game. But I think you're, you're probably hoping to get through those games with Mikey Keene.

I think eventually the talent will be inevitable, and there's just no way you keep him off the field. I think that's what will happen. Well, here, Justin, who do you think will be the starter going into Ohio State? I'll do you one better. I think – well, I definitely think Bryce Underwood will be the starter going into Ohio State. But I actually – even though I do like Mikey Keene, I think he's your safeguard.

I think that Bryce Underwood will start game one. I'm in. That's how I feel. I feel that you obviously put a significant financial interest in him, right? And you've only got a three-year window here with him so yeah i i think that unless unless he goes into camp unless he's in spring ball has a top like has a bad spring game and then goes into august camp and it's like really obvious that he's not ready then they'll go with mikey keen but i think if there's any inkling that he's not ready, then they'll go with Mikey Keene.

But I think if there's any inkling that he can go win you football games and if he's making unbelievable plays, I think that he's going to start. And honestly, I think that's the right decision for really one reason. How much better was J.J. McCarthy in 2023 than 2022? I think it was significant, right? It was. And it was, you could tell. And in my opinion, like, A, he did evolve physically. He, like, almost went into a growth spurt going from his sophomore

to junior year. But most of it was experience. He went through a full season as a starting quarterback. In my opinion i think even if you have some rough patches you want bryce underwood to start in 2025 so that he can get those games and then you have at least like let's say there are some rough patches of 2025 you have two years then of him with experience to go try and win a national title. That's kind of where I'm at.

Yeah, no, I like that. I like that for sure. Yeah, I think when you think about 2022, JJ versus 2023, I think it was just so much more decisive in his decision-making. When you, you know, the ball, he always had the arm talent, right? I mean, you saw that from his first game. I mean, I remember sitting there in the big house, like this dude just throw across his body on the run for a touchdown and waited perfectly in Baylen Baldwin's hands.

Sure. But yeah, I think you could just tell that mentally he was so much further along because of having started a full year of football. So I'm totally with that, I think. And maybe that's also part of the strategy of like, hey, like – and I kind of go back and forth on this because I think the schedule is so favorable in 2025, right? Like you go to – or you have a lot of state come to the big house.

You go to Oklahoma. You go to Lincoln. Trying to think. We did a whole damn show on this. It's been a couple weeks now. Let me just say something on the Oklahomalahoma game specifically yes that is going to be a hyped up game it's going to be a crazy environment at the end of the day though you can lose that game and you still have a chance you know it's you're not losing a conference game

right and looking at how the cfp panned out there's a chance that you can still go 10 and 2 right you still can lose a game in the big 10 maybe 2 depending on what happens here and still make the college football yeah i mean in the way this playoffs has worked out this year like are they going to be as willing to put in you know the two loss acc team in the future right i mean all these things so you know obviously the auto bids and all that stuff we don't have to get into that but um but yeah i think part of the reason to your point about the development of bryce underwood and where this program will be in 26 and 27 is maybe you're content with you know maybe being a little um selective this year knowing that in 26 and 27

you're going to spend big in the portal right and it's like okay then i would agree with that the only thing again is that schedule sets up to where you can win 11 or 12 games, right? With a couple more pieces, this could be an undefeated football team. I still think this team right now is probably 10-2. I don't know where those two come, but, you know, this is going to be, again, a really good football team. I think a lot of guys showed a lot in that bowl game, defensively especially. I think with Wink another full year of college football under his belt,

it's hard not to be excited. But, yeah, I think it all just comes down to the quarterback. I mean, we saw a true freshman, Trevor Lawrence, take over after, I think, the fifth game and go undefeated and win a national championship with Clemson. Now, do we have a Justin Ross or a T t higgins no of course so that's right that's the one downside where you're not going and finding those guys but who knows i mean you know justin ross i think was the same class both t higgins and justin ross were the same classes as uh trevor lawrence so maybe andrew marsh is that kind of guy maybe jamar browder maybe um jacob washington

out of louisiana like you just don't know so maybe they've seen enough i don't know um but i would still like another receiver or two if i'm being honest yeah um so all right uh so a lot of portal activity not quite done yet there are still a couple of those receivers as you're mentioning that um are it looks like are trending towards michigan but um we don't know quite yet and then i think i'll be interested to see the spring portal this year yeah because in in the past the spring portal has been like leftover guys right but i think that the way that nil continues to evolve you know you just saw it who was the guy that uh what was um that committed five star committed and then already hit the portal

um you know i can't remember he's going to oregon now i believe right oh uh the quarterback yeah yeah yeah uh he was committed to Cal for a long time. He was a guy that Devin Gardner was – I think Devin Gardner worked with him at a camp or something and was like, this guy – this was before Michigan had Bryce. So he was like, you guys got to recruit him, and Michigan didn't. Blows up, becomes a five-star. I'm not going to – his name's Jaron, okay?

I think his first name's Jaron. I'm not going to try to pronounce either of his other names. Yeah, so he goes to – he's committed to Cal. Signs with Oregon and is in the portal to go back to Cal. So that's my point of the spring portal, I think. These teams with tampering – tampering, there are no rules, right, around that currently. Well, there are are but nobody enforces

any rules left right and so my point being with the spring portal i'll be interested because i think a lot of teams are going to continue to recruit guys that have already signed and practiced with teams all spring and so it's not just going to be the leftovers anymore i think you're going to see some significant guys still flip because they're you know somebody just going to be the leftovers anymore. I think you're going to see some significant guys still flip because somebody's going to come in with a bigger bag at some point. So, I don't know. We'll see what happens. But ultimately, I think one thing that we've obviously –

this is like the X factor, in my opinion, to Michigan's season this upcoming season. Yeah, you've got Bryce Underwood. Yeah, you've got a good old line now i think you've got two really good running backs but how good is chip lindsey i i don't think that i don't know that this is like the splash hire that everyone you know i don't know if you're ever going to get that but i don't think it's good i don't think it's bad i don't or i don't know if it's i i don't know what i, I don't know where I'm at. Where, where's your head at?

Um, I don't know. I mean, I think sometimes as a, all as a coordinator, you're only as good as your players. Um, so, but there were also moments in 2024 where I was just like, what are, what are you doing? Yeah. Right. Like we talked pre pre-show about the Oregon game where Michigan should have been down 31-24 with like seven minutes left. And on fourth down, I think they had Samaj try to throw it to Alatorji. And then Alatorji almost killed himself on the camera. Yeah, because the ball was 10 yards out of bounds. And it's like people were mad at Samaj.

And I'm like, dude. So, I think a lot of it depends on the personnel um but you know what you hear drake may say about chip lindsey is that he was the best coordinator he had in college and helped him develop in a into a better quarterback in one year than anybody had before so you know uh the you know drake may stats went down his junior year or his sophomore year at UNC, whatever. I think that's a good sign from just hearing somebody like Drake May, who was the third pick in the draft, right? So, yeah, man, I don't know.

I just think, you know, he's going to have a lot more tools at his disposal than Kirk did last year. So it's going to be hard to really judge. I don't care. I just would like to see a downfield passing offense. It is 2025. It is not 1925, right? So, I don't care i just would like to see a downfield passing offense it is 2025 it is not 1925 right so i i don't know i mean i i don't know if there were any true big fish out there to your point like i don't know who you could have gotten i know um there's the dude from the lions who's

the past game coordinator uh tanner estrand i think is his name. Elite first name, truthfully. But, like, what are you going to do, sit there and wait for the Lions to get through their playoff run? Yeah. Right? You have to make a move. Right. So you're kind of limited in those moments of, you know,

especially if you're trying to look towards the NFL, you're really, unless they're, you know, everything lines up, like, you're kind of SOL as far as picking from the NFL. And then in college, I mean, is there anybody that really that really you know blows you away right i agree with that i that's why like i'm indifferent a little bit i you know i don't think he was a splash hire but i don't know that anybody was a splash hire um like maybe like denbrock from notre dame but like again like would he come here first of all and second of all they're in a in the midst of a final four run right so it's like you're kind of hamstrung but like you can't take forever you have to go and

find somebody out there and it's not like he was fired from North Carolina I mean Mack Brown was fired for being old and then they hired somebody just as old so like I don't know dude uh college football is crazy but yeah like I don't know if there's going to be any hire that they made where I was like oh my god yeah you know i agree i mean ultimately i think you know i know that this kind of got a bit of flack on on twitter and whatever but bryce underwood if he's good with it then you know i'm not putting all my chips on what a 17 year old thinks but ultimately i want him to be comfortable he's the future. And so, you know, I think if he's good with it, I'm good with it. I think you want to – let's try to get a balanced attack back.

And I think, too, like what I would want out of this, I want Sherone Moore to continue or get back to – I don't know exactly how much involvement he had in the offense in 2024, but he was a damn good offensive coordinator from 21 to 23 right so like i want that offense back where and maybe it's even a little bit more dynamic because bryce underwood's even faster than jj was and he's you know he is more okay to run with than he's better equipped to handle what comes with running the football as a quarterback in the big time for sure for sure and so um ultimately i'm just looking for

a dynamic offense here yeah i don't even need 50 50 like i just like 40 60 you know like a couple deep shots 80 20 is is the point no i mean sometimes you can beat teams doing that i don't know i don't know what teams but you can beat, sometimes you can beat teams doing that. I don't know what teams, but you can beat certain teams doing that. You can beat certain teams. So let's talk about the Commonwealth Playoff and how it's, for all Michigan fans, just a personal hell. Literally everything you didn't want to happen has happened.

Yes. Penn State has won two games. Notre Dame has won two games. Ohio State has won two games. And you're just sitting there like, shit. But the solace that i take i would hate it absolutely hate well no it's not the worst possible because the michigan state was the other four it was yep it was the fourth team that would be the worst possible outcome but for this specific thankfully they don't really take football seriously yes um i'm

sure that that will go over well if any michigan state fans listen to us um but the thing that i will take solace with and you know what our boy connor moldowney kind of roasted me on this one because i bought in 2021 a michigan big 10 championship pint glass which is behind me somewhere i don't know i don't know if you can see it i don't know somewhere they're back there yeah right there um the one has the kenneth walker game on it at the score and it's like all right but so if they win they're gonna have memorabilia with 13 10 on it i i you know thick stauskas put out there he's like i will buy that ohio state mug with it on there because that's i i agree like i've told you this before. There's a sicko down deep inside of me. No, I don't agree.

That wants them to win just because of that. It's not my real self. It's just a little, there's like a little devil inside of me that's saying that. But I, go ahead. It's tough. I, you know, we had this conversation in our group chat. One of us, not you or I or Kalen, was saying that he was rooting for Ohio State. And I said, brother, you are sick in the head.

And he's like, no, it's hilarious because Michigan beat them. I'm like, I don't care. Dude, that is a trump card, right? It would be, I guess the best way for me to put it is, that's the silver lining if it happens. Yeah, otherwise it's like the worst possible because i've always said and people are always like oh you know keep ryan day and it's like i don't really i know michigan has his brain in a pretzel totally understand that but just from

like a rooting against ohio state every possible opportunity i get like firing ryan day would be a bad move because i selfishly want him just gone i hope he takes an nfl job he says f you guys i'm done because they like and it is unique to michigan and ohio state where these are the two universities that put the most emphasis on that singular game there's no other two programs there's no other programs in the country that have this even alabama auburn like auburn beat alabama the one year and alabama won the national championship and i was like okay but for for this for this one though i do think that if they won the national championship it would still feel a little hollow for them and you know you would still because i i we know what it's like to not be ohio state like

regardless of what happens after that you know obviously michigan has won national championship without beating ohio state just built different over here you know michigan beats their rivals and wins the trophies but like it would just feel super hollow and empty right so like but that would still be a trump card for them and it would help with recruiting it would just help with so many different things like i wanted them to lose the lose the Tennessee cause I wanted it all to fall apart. And I think it would have, but you know, Tennessee and the sec, I just, what are your thoughts? Cause I've been bashing the sec lately. Like I wasn't rooting for Notre Dame,

but I use their win as an opportunity to make fun of the sec. I'm so sick of hearing about the sec and like how good they are. And like, they should have been left out. And thenama loses the michigan tennessee gets rolled honestly georgia got their ass beat yeah like it wasn't really that close i know that i know that uh um what's his name wasn't playing but they didn't look like they wanted to be there and it was the college football playoff it was such yeah i don't know man that's it was a weird game in general with the tragedy that unfolded on the first like it was just so crazy i don't know crazy couple days down there in new orleans but yeah i i don't know, man. It was a weird game in general with the tragedy that unfolded on the first.

Like, it was just so crazy. I don't know. Crazy couple days down there in New Orleans. But, yeah, I don't know. And then Texas, you know. And Texas. But, like, Texas is not a real SEC team. Yeah, exactly. They're the one left.

And if you ask any of those real, like, true SEC teams, the Bamas, the Auburns, the whatever, they like they hated texas even when they joined they were like no you're fake you in oklahoma yeah you're frauds and the last one's standing there now that a lot of quality yeah hilarious i mean my take on the sec is is you know i know a lot of people have have chirped that oh you're broke you know and you can't pay players i i think that's real i think it's genuinely real that these teams have been paying players for under for a long time under the table long time and um and they've been doing it better you know if any northern teams were doing it at all they've been doing it better and so they were able to keep

a lot of uh talent down there now with the portal and with nil every team it has at least a fair shot at recruits right yeah well and i think you think about the sec in general you think about the texas schools they got a ton of oil money right so they're going to be good that's why a and m's class was so ridiculous a couple years ago and texas is recruited at a very high level under steve sarkisian so i think they've got it figured out so those i think texas a&m is going to be a team that we're going to start seeing in this playoff more and more i like mike elko uh but when you look at like auburn alabama like where's the like you you basically have a bunch of teams that just have, like, dealerships across the state, right? A Hellcat used to give you a time star, man.

Well, they won 10 Hellcats. So you think about the Alabama schools. You think about the Mississippi schools. I mean, Ole Miss has still kind of been – I think Ole Miss has surprisingly been one of the more elite NIL schools. They go kill it in the portal every year, but they don't win on the field. Georgia, University of Georgia is a fantastic school in Atlanta and Athens and that metro area is a very wealthy part of the country

for the most part. So I don't know. I think they'll continue to probably be. But you think about Auburn, Alabama specifically, I don't know. It's going to continue to probably be, but like you think about Auburn, Alabama specifically, you know, I don't know. It's, it's going to be interesting to see because basically they were just using like a network of dealerships to, you know, get there, get these guys. And now that's like a, that's like the low hanging fruit for these guys.

Like, Oh yeah, I'm expecting you to get a vehicle. It used to be, it used to be like, Hey, you get a car and then like play well and we'll have like five grand for you right and now it's like you need you know a million right so it's just different the the i if you're a friday night lights guy like the buddy garrity's of the world don't like that doesn't cut it and i feel like that's the sec is they've got like 20 buddy guarantees but they all like they are then i i don't know if i ever told you this but the reason why texas is different at pretzel bell at our at our uh podcast i met the lamborghini dealer owner of austin was he the guy putting it

out for the videos yes oh my gosh we should have uh we should have gotten him in touch with my friend uh steve that came up that played ball there because we talked about when that photo shoot dropped i called him like what's going on he's like he's like you know he he was like uh like a like an 06 or 07 recruit but he went there right after vince young played um one of my friends played football texas and he's like this he's like we used to just go for the love of the Longhorns you know not what he said but basically that is hilarious though man like the yeah so I mean that's my point though is like I think at Bama you had a couple like you know uh Ford and Chevy deep yeah and then in Austin it's like yeah we haveorghini dealers here so it's just a different world so anyways ultimately though okay with this cfb yes worst possible four teams uh

except for if msu was in it somehow i don't mind texas yeah i don't mind texas either that's probably who you're rooting for right especially you're rooting for them to beat ohio state no doubt are you rooting for them to win at all yeah for sure you you know I actually call me crazy I don't mind Notre Dame if it was Brian Kelly I would hate them but I didn't grow up in Indiana I know I didn't grow up in Indiana and I think if you're an older person listening to this like then Notre Dame was was a much bigger rival then we haven't played them in a while we have pretty much dominated that rivalry since for the last what 10-15 years um outside of maybe a couple years right but yeah it was like from like 03 on I think it was 03 like

I think they resumed the series in 03 there was a bit of a hiatus they were I think they won a majority of those games or like they were above in 03. There was a bit of a hiatus. They were – I think they won a majority of those games. Like, they were above 500. So, yeah, there was a couple years where, you know, they would get Michigan. But for the most part, like, Michigan was kind of dominant. I like Freeman. Like, he doesn't – I know.

I do too. I like him. Like, I'll just – He's a Buckeye. Like, how likable do you have to be for a Michigan fan to be like, I know, man. I coached Notre Dame, played college football at Ohio State he's a good looking dude too it's tough you know it's beautiful family seems like a great dude um no I'm with you on

that but I just still can't I know I still can't I'm still gonna root for Texas the thing that I just most don't want is either Ryan Day or James james franklin to be able to have a national title like i i cannot have their weenies they they just they don't deserve it you know the thought of james franklin winning a national championship just makes me sick like they want they want to the last like three years he's the most undeserving out of the four by far i don't i think notre dame is a much better team um i i just think that like you look at i mean even though notre dame is a bunch of weenies for not joining a conference and now they like it's still turning out to be a good thing to not be in a conference which is crazy to me um but like outside of what what was it 2016 when Penn State won the on the block kick

won the Big Ten like they haven't sniffed a Big Ten championship haven't been able to beat Michigan or Ohio State when it mattered ever right like they're the most undeserving they're they're the the only reason that they're in this is because they backdoored their way because of an expanded playoff, and then they got Boise and Arizona State. And it's just like, come on, man. I don't know how – them getting the five seed is terrible. Yeah, I mean, you play – dude, and honestly, SMU, like – well, I don't remember what the score was

but like they were moving the ball in the first drive they miss a touchdown on the fourth and two and then like they just turn it over a bunch they had a chance to make it 14-7 they were in the red zone or down near the end of the the penn state end of the field throw a pick like and then they play boise and like yeah it was hands to the face but boise gets a touchdown call back would have been a three-point game and you're just like i still just i will say i see the vision with drew aller i think he should go to the draft personally i think it's good like you can see the physical traits and it's starting to click for him like he's honestly i'm impressed i was not impressed last year this year i get it the talent is there he's matured um but yeah i just

yeah the thought of god sark Sark, I need you. I need you, Quinn. I would play Arch Manning personally. I think Arch Manning would win these games. That would be incredible if they just threw Arch Manning in there. Every time I watch Texas and Arch Manning's in the game, I'm like, wow. Look at that throw. It's a perfect spiral.

And it's like, oh, shit, he's a Manning. So, yeah, he's going to throw a perfect spiral. But then he can also run. And not just run. He's like Trevor Lawrence athletic. He's like 6 oh, shit, he's a Manning. So, yeah, he's going to throw a perfect foul. But then he can also run. And not just run. He's like Trevor Lawrence athletic. He's like 6'6", 240 too. Yeah. Huge.

And obviously he's a Manning, so he's going to be smart as hell when it comes to football. And it's like, yeah. So, I don't know. I don't think they'll do Quinn Ewers dirty like that. I mean, he has taken him to the playoffs in the last two years. But I think Arch would win the national championship i don't know if quinn will so i agree with that i i don't know i mean i'm i am still excited to watch i will be hate watching ohio state heavily and definitely hate watching

penn state i don't want to watch that game the notre dame penn state game it's just gross man that that doesn't give me for a shot at the national championship like i'll tell you what georgia had the chance to do the funniest thing and just beat all michigan's rivals and then just didn't do it yeah which sucks because like 21 georgia would have smoked these fools but they just they don't have it and back to that conversation earlier like they can't stockpile the talent anymore because these guys will leave and go get money elsewhere right so you don't have the depth you don't have the ability to just like get the best players and figure out which ones develop so uh but yeah i'll be rooting for the big 12 university

of texas uh in the playoffs not not the sec test they're still a big 12 team come on no big 12 team for a few more years um all right so uh we're an hour into this podcast, but let's talk about Michigan Hoops for a minute here before we sign off. We'll definitely have more Hoops coverage, I think, as, you know, this was a lot about post, you know, the post-Bama game, the portal, a lot of that stuff. But Dusty's squad is looking real good, man. I'm excited about this team. Danny Wolf is looking incredible they're

coming off of this a big win at usc i you know usc is not like a top the the big 10 by any means but winning at usc muscleman is a great coach in my opinion um i i feel like michigan's michigan's a good team they're they're like and they're built for the tournament i i really like what's going on right now yeah man i you know i may have an aneurysm you know in the middle of these games um i i gotta say this it's similar to so my uncle and i just text throughout games whether it's michigan or you know the lions and i just feel like i've similar to jameer gibbs like i'm just like gibbs is a stud i just say that every time he does something crazy like i'm running out of words and out of uh

adjectives to describe davey wolf it's just it's unbelievable at this point yeah some of the some of the ways he he's able to finish at the rim is just unbelievable like for seven footer seven footers should not be able to bounce like the things that he's able to do um you know him defensively you know what he had i think five or six blocks six blocks which was the most since 2008 or something like that epi udo crazy i always forget every time i'm reminded i'm like oh yeah I always forget that he played at Michigan. That's a name drop for sure. Yeah, man, I feel good. I feel like Vlad has like, you know, those first few games, he couldn't buy a bucket around the rim.

He has really calmed down and came into his own, which I like. Trey Donaldson played really well. I think Namari is coming around, so the guard play has gotten better. I think Roddy Gale and Reuben Jones need to still figure some stuff out themselves. But I'm liking the rotation. I feel like, you know, Michigan going into Big Ten play right now, so they'll – we're recording this on Monday night. If you're listening tomorrow, on Tuesday, Michigan plays tonight, i guess uh at ucla which is a big game

ucla is ranked 22nd michigan just came in at 24th in the a people um so that's a big game at some point to your point with the aneurysm thing like they're gonna have to figure out how to not go into stretches where you know they went from up 15 to tied within five minutes of play yeah and a lot of that's just unforced errors like you know you want to see ruben jones kind of figure it out but at the same time like i mean he had what i think two straight turnovers on two possessions where it just led to four or five points for usc and it's like they tied it and it's just like it's just no point there's no reason any like i forgive danny wolf on a lot of his turnovers because he's trying to make a play and sometimes it's not the best decision but like hey sometimes the ball gets

away from you or you see you know you're not on the same page as your teammate because you think they're cutting but they're actually coming back out to the top of the key so it goes into the stands or whatever but like a lot of these are just very unforced and when it's from a it's from like just making a lazy pass it just i can't do it right like i'm not a big i wasn't very good basketball i was okay you know i played like gb i'm not i'm not great uh but like you know just watching the game my whole life and you know being from the state of indiana basketball and y'all know the sport a little bit and it's like i just don't like when those turnovers come from a place of just like just being lackadaisical with the ball like the cross-court passes i feel like i've kind of kind of slowed down a little bit they're not doing that as often but there's just so many

times there's like that was just there was no need to do that um so if they can figure that i think that's people are like oh this team has a late game problem i don't really think so i think it's just that the turnovers and the missed free throws also. That needs to get cleaned up. But I think those things compound, and you really rear their head in the later parts of a game. Because that's where you see it kind of come out, unfortunately. Yeah, I do think that they can get a little bit more mentally tough.

I think that when a couple things go wrong, they got to be able to bounce back better. Right now, they're letting it get to their head. One or two errors turns into four, five, six, right? And so if they can clean that up, that makes sense. They have that though, right? Like, you know, you put yourself in a situation, but like against Arkansas, they're up big

and then they were getting blown out and then they come back and they almost, you know, have a chance to tie it at the buzzer and then you know the oklahoma game um i kind of erased that from my memory um but i feel like that was another game where it's like they were up and then oklahoma took the lead but they they hung around and they should have won that game um and so it's like one of those things where you know they you know they kind of have it um but yeah i mean undefeated in the big 10 at this point, you know what I mean? Shoot, they're averaging 84 points a game.

So like their offensive. Yeah. The threes ever since we went, you know, we went to the pretty Fort Wayne game, almost my alma mater, shout out the Macedon's great school, great school down there for when, yes. Cause they found a mastodon in fort wayne way back in the day i think i think that's i think that's the story um but yeah when we went to that game man they just shot lights lights out and then same thing against western kentucky and then it continued against usc so you're not going to shoot that way second half

they kind of slowed down a little bit but what i loved about that real quick is when they did so they shot lights out in the first half. Then they didn't shoot lights out in the second half, but they went straight to the paint and were able to score. They're very good at doing that. Like there's been multiple games where shots aren't falling. And so it really just becomes Danny Wilson, Vlad just doing a two man game and getting to the rim.

Right. I also like, dude, I keep thinking I'm getting ahead of myself. It's only January 6th right now, but I keep thinking about March. Like who in the tournament is going to be able to stop them with like two days to prep? Like I just don't know who's going to stop two seven-footers doing that pick and roll. I feel like we can do it 100 times in a row.

Yeah, no, I'm with you. I mean, we got to get there first but i think michigan's i'll tell you what the you know they may be 24th in the ap poll uh i could tell you though i'm the analytics like the advanced statistics and love like ken palm bart torvik like all you know i don't know what their net ranking is but like they love michigan yeah um and if they could clean up the turnovers they would because i think the most recent i saw in ken palm they were 11th a couple days ago i don't know what they are now it was before the usc game um but i mean if they figure out a way to clean up the turnovers because that's you know not just accounting for the points you miss out on they score in transition a lot of times right or get your defense out of position and they're able to

put up a shot that's a favorable look so So, yeah, I'm very excited about this basketball team. Somebody's asking me about Dusty May. That's not a Michigan fan the other day. I was on a work call, and we're just – every time I drive past the CrossFit Center, man, that UConn's in there. That guy is grinding. He's a dog. He's a workhorse for sure.

Michigan is at 13th in the net rankings. The only team above them in the big 10 is illinois at 7th uh ucla is 18th who like i said they're playing this will be a big this will be a q1 win right yeah big time quad one win which would be great um so and i think the only thing about this it's a tuesday 10.m. Eastern game because you're playing at UCLA midweek. So welcome to the new Big Ten, I guess. It's at 10 o'clock tomorrow? Yeah. I'm going to throw up.

I can barely stay up for the 9 o'clock games. Dude, these games, the 9 – here's what I – okay, I can understand a 10 p.m. Eastern when you're playing on the West Coast because it's – I would like that they play that at 6 or 5 on Pacific time, so it's 8 or 9 here. But there's been a couple this year that are 9 or 9.30, and both teams are playing on the East Coast. And I just like, look, what are we doing here?

Yeah, I think they played Wisconsin at 9, which was 8 Central. They played Oklahoma at 9, Charlotte. It's like, dude, I'm old. I'm tired. And I was going to fix my sleep schedule last night, and I forgot that there was the night game because they flexed it. Oh, yeah. I'm like, oh, shit. So then I was up until midnight because the heart's, you know,

pumping after the big win over the Vikings. I checked my phone. It was like 1241. midnight because the heart's you know pumping after the big win over the vikings so i checked my phone it's like 12 41 i was trying to sleep for like an hour and i was like dude i just wasn't sleeping shout out to dan campbell shout out to detroit man i mean this is jameer this is so much so much fun dude i i can't wait for you know whoever comes whether it's so it's either la or minnesota right yeah yeah i'd prefer to see the r comes, whether it's – so it's either L.A. or Minnesota, right? Yeah, yeah. I'd prefer to see the Rams.

I think it's tough to beat a team three times. But I think, you know, Ben Johnson has just dominated that matchup with Brian Flores. Also, it would be hilarious to beat the Vikings again. I will say I've seen Vikings fans. You know the thing Ohio State fans do? They're like, like oh join date 2022 go figure and it's like yeah you're right do you think like when you join twitter is like

indicative of yeah so now vikings fans are doing that and they're like calling us bandwagon i'm like dude i got a fucking mike williams jersey and a charles rogers jersey in the closet from when i was like my first jersey ever was the joey harrington jersey i was i was yeah i thought that's what you're gonna say so it's like dude and if you look at the lions attendance like it's been consistent even during the matt patricia era yeah and it's like yeah of course lions fans are gonna be more vocal we've been waiting i've been waiting for this my entire life so literally like these people who are like and and it's so funny justin because i think i've said this on this pod but i've told people just in different conversations they're like oh i'm rooting for you

well i'm like it's almost condescending i don't like i don't want i don't need you to root for my team i don't want you to do it out of pity i want you to become just hate just feel hatred well i guess i think like last year it was like the feel-good story because we had never been there before right and it was like you know you'll like us dan campbell's a likable guy i still think i see a lot of national people that are like man the lions are fun to root for and i do like that the patriots were in 2001 too right so it's like eventually you will be the chiefs were were fun to root for i don't like i i want that to stop because that means that the lions are winning important games and are beating other people's

favorite teams but like i'm so like are we not allowed to be loud and vocal and celebrate i got shit on for my entire life for being a detroit lions fan and now that they're good it's like oh we're gonna oh you're a bandwagon i and now that they're good it's like oh we're gonna oh you're a bandwagon i don't really care either but it's like what are you what are you doing that's just like i feel like that is the epitome of of like every twitter user out there that's fair slash x user whatever you want to call it but i it it's like that's the that's the comeback it it's always like oh you joined twitter in 2021 you're a michigan fan oh makes sense like you must not have been you know whatever yeah i don't that's

still the weirdest weirdest argument to me because then i'll go and look and it's like oh they joined in 2015 right after they won the national championship weird you don't see the irony in that like yeah but twitter is literally the worst place now it's a wild place i i horrible i can't like open it in public anymore like i'm with this weird weird things yeah my for you page something's going on i gotta figure i gotta call elon i figure out what's going on at the for you page but it's annoying because it's like i'll go to my following and then i'll flip back over to the for you but it's like it's's like i'll go to my following and then i'll flip back over to 40 but it's like it's just like ridiculous like not safe for work stuff and i'm like i don't what are we

doing why is this on my page this isn't it's insane it's a lawless place at this point it's why yeah i don't know i don't know if that valuation is still 44 billy but uh yeah i'm not an economics guy so me either all right well um that was uh a lot of info we had to get what happens like we haven't also just personally talked to each other since like last week so like this is just like a dump of like everything we have not caught up exactly this is exactly how it goes and also if you're wondering out there, if you're listening, first of all, if you've made it this far, thank you. And I'm sorry. But if you're wondering, these are how our just normal conversations go.

Yeah, this is us at the bar. It is like the biggest example of ADHD. If a doctor was watching, they'd be like, this is like how I show to my med students what ADHD is. Send the Addy. Send the Adderall. Come on. Yes, exactly. All right.

We'll have some more content coming for you soon as the portal closes up and the CFP continues on as well as Michigan basketball. So excited for all that. For us, you can follow us at Blue by 90 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, at Blue by 90 podcast on YouTube and blueby90.com. We appreciate you. Go blue. Go blue.