Blue By Ninety - Michigan Football Is Back! Previewing Week One vs. New Mexico

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

Justin and Tanner are back and so is Michigan Football.

All right. Welcome back to Blue By 90. I'm Justin, joined by Tanner today. And it is finally game week. We've waited all year long to be back here in Ann Arbor, heading to the big house. And we're just a couple days away here. Also, Tanner, like, I feel like we talk about the, this is us just being kind of old men now, but we talk about the weather a lot on this podcast. But it dropped down to football weather so fast. from the summer and it's going to be it couldn't be more perfect for saturday no it did um and and i'm i was just looking at this actually because it said on my apple uh weather app on my iPhone it says 72 is the high on saturday sunny there's no little clouds on the on the app but then if i go to google and i put it in arbor weather it says 68's the high on saturday but then if i go to the weather channel it says

72's I don't know what to believe. I do know that it's 62 degrees in Ann Arbor right now. It feels amazing. The entire Midwest has just been blessed. I got to bring a jacket Saturday night. I mean, it's going to be a little cooler. It's going to get to definitely dip it into the 60s at some point during the game with it being a night kickoff. It's going to be amazing.

I might need to warm myself up with a little fireball, a little cinnamon whiskey, quote, unquote whiskey to get me going. Yeah, well, I mean, it won't be Fireball. It will actually be Woodson Whiskey, the cinnamon blitz, the amazing blitz that we're going to have at the tailgate this year. So we will have that. We'll have plenty of opportunities to warm up with that. I just need some cinnamon, some warmth. The fact that we're saying this and it's still August is wild. Honestly, I took the dog out yesterday and one of my best friends, my best friend, I should say, he was the best man in my wedding.

high school football coach and so we always talk about you know these kids got it so easy he's like he's like we i mean when we were high school we didn't always get water breaks like which is crazy to think about you can't just get hydrated you know because they got water bottles coming to them all the time um i'm only joking about that but uh like i just was outside and i'm like man i remember it being 90 degrees in mid-august and late august and we're going through two of days or we're you know into game week and you know dropping 10 pounds of sweat every practice and I'm like man I could have used this you know I was an office of wine I could have certainly use this it it is nice um and I would say too though like honestly

the usually that first game this is where like I haven't really seen the sun in a while like not like I you know do in July and so that we all just get scorched during the game like you know so last year was hot last year was very like 88 and it was It was an all-day thing, and I was very red the next day. So I'm pretty pumped about that. Obviously, it's a night game, but we will be out tailgating all day. Let's talk a little bit about the tailgate before we get in the game. So I am freaking, I'm so pumped for this, dude.

So we've got a new spot this year. It's at 1006 South Maine. We've got an entire lot literally right across from the stadium. You're going to be able to see the stadium in the background. of our tailgate. And we've got a whole day ahead of us. So Feldman Chevrolet will be out there. They're our presenting sponsor.

So they'll have a whole setup. They'll bring in the Silver Auto out. So you, you, a couple of wits and whiskey shots in me. I might buy one. I might sign on the dotted line. If they have a salesperson out there, they're going to be making some sales just to us, honestly.

And then we'll have wits and whiskey out there as well. North Peak Brewing, they'll have a special new vodka water brand called Camp out there, along with the Hale IPA in our Blue By 90 beer. And so very, very excited about that. And then we've got, I mean, entertainment up the wazoo. DJ Array, the goat. We've got DJ Array, the Michigan Stadium DJ. He'll be there getting things ready for us. And then our guy, Clayton Anderson, from five to seven.

is coming on stage live band all of it i'm so freaking pumped it's going to be a hell of a day yeah i just remember the last time clinton anderson did a tailgate uh michigan state twenty twenty two night game um i think i shouted clayton can you take me higher maybe a dozen times uh and i think he did play it if i remember right a little foggy on that you you are you you kind of become a little bit of like the most annoying drunk girl like college girl ever like yeah play my song that's yeah i think everyone experiences that like you know ryan dj ray like it gets a little loud so what i'll do and i've been doing this since i was probably in my early 20s is i'll pull it up on spotify what i want to listen to

and then i'll just like be like yo because we can't communicate really because the music's loud and it's hard to hear and we're shouting i don't want to lose my voice anymore than i have so sometimes you got to go with the spotify show him the song you want Um, so with Clayton, yeah, I think, uh, I think we yelled freebird a bunch too. I don't know if that ever got played. That's a tough one. I mean, that's a tough one. Also, that's like the most overplayed. Overplayed shouting at a band thing. Yeah, but it's, it's, it's so overplayed now that it's kind of funny at this point. Um, but yeah. So hopefully, you know, I don't know what all the, the, the band that that Clayton brings has in their bag. Uh, but I'm going to be yelling for a lot of creed. He did do lose yourself at Eminem, which was like a rock. version that was electric i mean we're old now at this point because i think if you had like the gen z they're like oh you m and m lose yourself really uh but it was electric man and so we had a great time when clayton was here three years ago looking forward to getting after it and uh he puts on a good show man he does he does it's going to be it's going to be a great day um there's like

i think uh we talked about this on the last pot too just like the excitement of game one right and the possibility you know that's the best part of where we're at right now is like right now we Bryce Underwood is still in my mind the Heisman contender right like he you know he could be right until he throws interceptions and does poorly you know he's a Heisman contender right now same thing five years ago exactly i want to bring the negative energy in the air but i thought he was cam newton yeah i think bryce is cam newton but maybe we're a year away but we've seen freshmen like trevor lawrence come in and play well so we'll see how he does so um yeah So, I mean, I think there's just like the possibility of everything.

Like, we could be unbelievable, right? And let me actually ask you, what do you take from, it seemed like every single player that went to the podium and talked to the media this week, just talked about how excited they were to show off what they've been working on in the summer and fall camp and all that. How do you, is that like arrogance? Is that like just, what do you take from that? No, I don't think it's arrogance. I think you work, you know, nine months leading up to this from the moment that bull game ends.

And even before that, through those, you know, 15 practices for the bull prep, like, yeah, you want to win the bull game, but you are looking towards 2025 when you have a fresh slate and you don't have any losses, right? You don't have five losses on the record. So I don't think it's arrogant. I think it's, you know, I think everybody does that, you know, whether it's football players or anybody else that's, you know, maybe working out in the gym or, you know, that's, you know, that's, you know, that's, you know, that's. studied for a test or whatever like you put in that work you want to go perform you want to go show off and and show what you've you've been working towards so i love it um brandon helman by the way i sure we'll get to this but it's just an absolute lunatic and i love it um he's just i don't know the do you have the quote pulled up about the colors for new mexico because it

was electric and i don't want to misrepresent it it was essentially i i don't have it i can pull it up but it was essentially like at this point they have the same colors as fucking ohio state so that's just how I'm going to play against that. Yeah, yeah. Like the F-bomb was in there. Like every beat reporter had to throw it in there. Perfect use of an F-bond. Like, I'm sure he got yelled at by the coaches. But like, you know, that's just, if you're ever going to use an F-bomb in the media, it's before saying Ohio State. I love that. Yeah, I think everyone should be obligated to say, fucking Ohio State. Yes. I couldn't agree more. Couldn't agree more. But, yeah, I mean, I think it just feels like these.

guys are ready to unleash everything. And so I think that there are, you know, they're kind of in the same spot that we are where we're just ready, right? Like we've been waiting, waiting, waiting, ready to get to game week. And I think for them too, like, there are a lot of critics and questions and doubters and all that, you know, I think that people are excited about Bryce, but, you know, obviously and excited about our offense and about the defense coming back. But there are a lot of people outside of Ann Arbor and even in Ann Arbor even inside the Michigan fan base that are like

yeah like I don't think this is going to work out like I don't you know I'm not expecting anything like all that so I think they're just pumped to show everybody I think that also like let's kind of remind ourselves it's game one

with a freshman quarterback that turned 18 last year and a ton of new faces yeah yeah i think i'm super excited for the next few years of michigan football i think it's kind of a new chapter at this point after winning the national championship last year's you know essentially year zero right like there's a lot of coaches that get that leeway and i think sharon should be given that as well considering you know when everything happened when when jim left when those assistant coaches followed him or went to the nfl um it was like february mid-february

late february like you're you're getting ready for spring ball so um i'm excited to see what Chiron is able to do with a full year of coaching under his belt. I thought he got a lot more comfortable at points later in the season last year. I mean, they finished on a three-game win street. We certainly had some criticisms, but I thought those things got cleaned up. I thought he managed the game as a head coach a lot better in terms of clock management, situational awareness, a lot of things. So I'm excited to see what that looks like in year two.

And also just, you know, we talk about it all the time, but the recruiting aspect, I mean, the amount of talent. And Michigan is in the top 10 for composite talent. Like on paper, it's one of the most talented teams of Michigan's had in the last 10 years. Problem is the top six, I think they're all freshmen. So Sharon is flip-the-switch when it comes to recruiting for Michigan, and there's been a lot of people to thank for that champion circle

and all the folks associated with them. You know, Larry Ellison, that's been cool. But so, you know, this is kind of the start of a ramp-up period for Michigan football, in my opinion. see it this year as well with the 2026 class are getting the really highly highly rated guys and we talked about Jim kind of later in his tenure that 2023 class has been pretty disappointing and so those are supposed to be your leaders of the team those are your juniors this year so I'm saying all this because I'm very excited for this year I think Sharon's done a great job

of kind of getting Michigan back on track when it comes to getting in top flight talent it may take some time because it's a young team especially at you know obviously quarterback. There's some spots on the defense that they're very talented, but there's some depth that are young. So it's going to be fun. I think there's going to be a lot of growth this year, but there may be some growing pains at the start, too. Yeah, I mean, there's always going to be growing pains when you have a, first of all, in any new quarterback, right? The quarterback position in football is so important to the success of a football team. Any new quarterback there are going to be growing pains. But when you throw in the fact that he's barely,

18 you know it adds to that and then to your point i think that like you know you've got chip lindsay also right i think you know him coming into the fold there's going to be some new things he's going to call uh call plays from the booth um which you know i think we're excited to see that after some struggles in the play calling last year as well um so i'm i'm really looking forward to what they can do and i think also let's remember too like i bet you, they're going to pound the rock a thousand times on Saturday. You know, you still have Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall and GOL Hadi and Greg Griffin and, you know, those guys, right? So like, I think that, you know, if you think

that if you're looking for Bryce to throw for 350 yards passing on Saturday, I just don't know that that's going to come. Here's the thing, though, I think you need to throw the ball. I think you really need to take advantage of this because you go, it's not like 2022 and 23 where Michigan was playing cupcakes. It's not like Ohio State's schedule in the future where they're just playing, you know, three cupcakes. I think you really do need to allow for Bryce to get a lot of reps and make some mistakes and learn from those mistakes and do it against a team where the stakes are not as high because Michigan is 36.5 or 37.5 point favorites on Saturday.

So I think you really do, yes, you want the, you know, the Office of Volley's, line to get, you know, run blocking reps as well. I think, though, you know, because we've seen it with Jim Harbaugh teams in the past where, hey, they're up 45-0-0 in the third quarter and they're calling off the dogs. And I don't, I'm not, you know, I'm not a big run-it-up kind of guy, but I don't think allowing your true freshman quarterback in his first game to play all the way through, even if you're winning big, is running it up. You are trying to be the best team possible for the season.

Yeah. And I think, hey, sometimes, you know, maybe you need to throw 10 passing attempts in the fourth quarter. when you're up 30 points. I don't know. I don't think you're wrong there. I think it's very different from Michigan in 2023, where we pull our starters in every fourth quarter because we're up three, four scores. And it's basically like, just don't get guys hurt. Right. So I think you're correct. With that being said, if Bryce Underwood gets hurt, we are in trouble, I think. So I would, it's got to be a balance of that, right? It's got to be like, let's get him enough looks to feel good going into Oklahoma and also like let's not be stupid right so yeah so all right

new Mexico obviously this isn't like a top tier opponent that Michigan is playing they're coming into the big house with a brand new head coach Jason Eck from Idaho they've got a ton of transfers coming in this is let's just be honest it's not been a great football program right it is it's been an okay football program uh and um i think it is exactly the type of team i know we have to get into oklah quicker than uh you know you probably want to with a new quarterback but this is the game that you want to start off with for for michigan this week yeah it's definitely uh going to be an interesting team um so jason eck is the first year head coach for new mexico he comes from idaho

where, if you remember last year, Idaho gave Oregon a run for their money in that week one game. I mean, that was like 14 to 17, I think, in the fourth quarter in Oregon scored a touchdown to pull away and went at 2414. But he brings some of his guys from Idaho. Shout out the vandals, by the way. I do miss playing with them in NCAA. The dome was incredible. The kibby dome, man. But the quarterback is from Idaho, Jack Lane.

They did bring in Montana State running back transfer, Scotry, Humphrey. He rushed for 1,400 yards, 16 touchdowns last. year. And then they brought in a guy from Nebraska at 80 tackles at linebacker for the Cornhuskers in 2024. So kind of interesting that here's a big time recruit coming to the high school, top 150 guy from South Dakota. So he's going to be kind of the leader of the defense there at the linebacking core. And then they bring in a couple other guys that bring in a linebacker from Idaho and then an edge rusher from Idaho. So a lot of guys coming in from Jason X former program. You know, Montana State, I don't know how many folks follow

FCS football, that's one of the best programs in the FCS. They always are consistently up there. They've been a really, really solid program. So, I mean, that's a good get for them, right, for New Mexico. And I think those top FCS level players can certainly play at the FBS level. I just don't know what type of talent they kind of have around these guys. They have one offensive linemen returning that started last year. otherwise i think they're pretty young up there i have to imagine that's going to be a tough

matchup for these guys right um i think that the michigan d line is uh going to not make it a fun fun week for these boys uh for the new mexico offensive line um so that's where like i think that we've seen it before a thousand times in some of these lopsided matchups it's like okay you can have good skill guys you can have a lot but At the end of the day, like, if you can't run the ball and if you can't, you know, if you can't keep your quarterback off the turf, you're going to be in trouble. So that is one thing I think I'm looking for in this matchup is, okay, is Michigan's D-Line just going to give this kid, like, an absolute nightmare of a day? They might. They might.

I think I think Derek Moore is poised for kind of a breakout year. I think Michigan fans have known his ability and his talent the last three years. I mean, he came in as a true freshman and played a lot of football in 2022. But I don't know if it'll be that Aden Hutchison level step, right? Because that's, you know, that's second in the Heisman, all-American. But I do think that Derek Moore, you know, is going to have a really good year. And then T.J. Guy, too. I've been a fan of T.J. guy.

I mean, he hasn't played a ton relative to Derek Moore. You know, it's tough when Josiah Stewart and Braden McGregor and Jalen Harrell are all in front of you. But I think he's a guy that's gotten better every single year. I thought he had a really, really good game in the Ohio State game last year. He had a really great game against Alabama and the bowl game. And that was Alabama's starting offensive line. They didn't have anybody really sitting out in that game. So I'm excited for these defensive ends.

And then we know Ray Sean Benny. You know, he's a guy that is really well-rounded, can get to the quarterback. Obviously, great rush defender as well. And I'm excited to see some of these newer transfers, you know, Damon Payne, Trey Williams, Trey Pierce has been talked about as a guy that's going to play a lot of football coming into his third year. So I think this defensive line,

there's probably some guys I'm missing. I mean, they talked about Nate Marshall, the true freshman. Dom Nichols is a guy that's been talked about. He's in his second year at the program. They've just got a lot of talent at the edges and in the interior. It's going to be tough, even if they had all five starters coming back from last year.

That's going to be tough for, you know, offensive line at New Mexico to compete with the level of talent Michigan has stacked on the defensive line. Yeah, that's for sure. So I definitely agree with you there. I'm interested. I think I'm very interested to see how Michigan's secondary does, right? So you have Jaya Hill coming back. You have Zeeke Berry coming back. You don't have Rod Moore here in game one. you know, Mason Curtis is a guy that's been talked about a lot here. And so I think that's a spot where obviously you didn't have Will Johnson for the second half of the season last year.

So that's where Jair Hill and Zeke and all those guys got a lot of run. But I think it's a core that is still newer, right? Like very talented, but not tons of experience. So I'm definitely looking at like, okay, obviously you know that the front seven are going to get to the quarterback and are going to do their job. That's just what Michigan's defense does. But is that, I think that I would, here's how I would put it. If Michigan's secondary can be very good, that takes them from a very good defense to like a top five defense in college football. Yeah, there's a lot of youth there.

right i mean even jire hill is 30 year in the program second year is a starter but some inconsistency issues in 2024 but you can see the ability i mean right he feels like a guy that if he puts it all together he's going to be a first round pick this year and in next year's draft like that's the type of ability he has he's sticky and man coverage he made some plays on the ball last year i still think there's some room for improvement like ohio state he gets called for a pass interference because he doesn't turn around for the ball uh in that game so So I think if he puts it all together, he's going to be a guy that, you know, I'm not going to say boom or bust because I do think his floor is still relatively high just based on last year. But like his ceiling is all American first round pick.

Yeah. Like that's the type of talent that he has. That's the type of ability he has. So beyond that, Zeke Berry played a lot better at Corner than he did it at Nicola safety last year, which is interesting because he was a safety coming out of high school. Yep. But I'm excited to see Zeke with another kind of, you know, spring and fall camp under his belt at corner. And then, you know, the younger guys, like you have Shamari Earls. He's wearing number two.

I think we talked about that. You know, to me that, it's just a number, but to me, that shows that they do have faith in his ability to kind of blow up and become, you know, that kind of guy in the secondary when you consider some of the guys that have war number two at Michigan. Yep. And then Josiah Edmund, I mean, he was a late riser in his recruiting class last year. He's a freshman last year, you know, second year guy this year. kind of a longer, wankier, kind of rangier corner. So I'm excited about him. And then Jaden Sanders and Elijah Dotson, two freshmen that have been getting a lot of hype.

I know Sharon mentioned that by name at his press conference. So just at the corner spots, I think there's a ton of talent. But it's, again, like I mentioned earlier, it's a lot of youth. It is. And so I think that that's where, like, how is Wink going to use those guys? Also, you know, you talked about how Sharon kind of grew into his role last year. And, you know, once he, it felt like he got some, you know, just some time under his belt. Then it was like, okay, he's kind of getting into his rhythm.

That same thing happened with Wink, too. You felt that, you know, I think if Michigan, if Wink, if Wink's defense plays like they did down the stretch in the earlier part of the season, you know, that Texas game maybe goes a little bit differently. Now, you know, you still have to score to win, obviously. And Texas was one of the top teams in the country, obviously, also. But you just felt like, it felt like towards the end of the year, everything was clicking for Wink Martindale's defense.

So I'm really looking forward to, you know, watching him. Let's, I mean, I think we got to talk about Bryce. Obviously, we've talked about him already on this podcast. We've talked about, we've talked about him probably every. single podcast since he ended up flipping to Michigan back in September, right? And so that is something where it's like, okay, we've talked and talked and talked and you're finally ready to see him actually throw the football. What would you, I think we have actually asked this a little bit before, but like what would you call success for Bryce Underwood here in week one versus New Mexico,

his first game for Michigan. Yeah, I was thinking about this the last couple days. And like 225 passing yards, two touchdowns, no picks. I don't know what the attempts and completions are. And then, you know, obviously ground game, I don't know if he'll be activated in the running game yet. But maybe they want to put that on film, make, you know, Oklahoma kind of think about it. I don't know.

Or maybe not, yeah. Yeah, maybe break it out against Oklahoma. But yeah, I think two and a quarter passing yards and two touchdowns, no picks. I think, you know, like, if it's like 189 in the touchdown, I'm like, yeah, cool. I'm not, I'm not needing him to throw 400 yards. Well, here's where I am at. I don't want to be, I'm not, I don't want to be like the stat box watcher, like, the box score watcher, that type of person. because I think it's more for me like how comfortable does he look right I think it is you know all right are you getting to your second read sometimes are you if the pocket collapses do you panic immediately right like though um you know are your throws on target are you throwing it a thousand miles an hour to your tight end for a five yard out right like those little things to me I think are more important than how many yards and touchdowns does you have and obviously like that's a

going to be at the end of the day, like, everybody in the country is going to be like, oh, my God, he only had 137 yards and he, you know, had one touchdown and one interception or something like that. And it's an immediate, you know, bust calm, right? But I think for me, it's going to be like, all right, what does this kid look like when he runs the offense in that first drive? You know, is it clicking very early? And I think that Chip Lindsay, my guess is they're going to do, you know, some checkdowns. They're going to do some screens. They're going to do some, they're probably going to go to Marlon Klein, like, right away, right? I'm really looking forward to see, like, how does he just handle? All right, it's a night game. Everything's sped up.

Now it's game, you know, game speed. The lights are on. The sound is on in the big house. Everything just happens so quickly, you know, all that stuff. How does a fresh 18 year old, you know, kid with the weight of the program on his shoulders, respond to all that. Well, if I knew that's what you were asking, I want to give you stats. Yeah, no, I mean, you know, because you can tell a lot just by, you know, again, the stats regardless, because you may have drops, you may have an incorrect route that we don't know about his fans and the ball goes elsewhere where, you know, the receiver runs a wrong route or they're not on the same page communication-wise.

So, yeah, I think, you know, just, like, getting to the line and snapping the ball because there was a couple of those delay of games in the spring game, just, you know, seeing him be under control and, you know, just, I think everything we've heard, you've got to think that, like, he's in control of the huddle. Like, he's got the respect of the guys in that, in that room. And so you got to think that that's going to be, you know, hopefully something that he kind of learns in terms of, it's very basic, but just getting to the line of scrimmaging, making sure people are lined up right and snapping the ball.

that didn't happen a couple times in the spring game. Well, and that's, I mean, honestly, I think that people are like, you know, listen, I understand he's a big time quarterback and they should be able to do that. That is not the easiest thing to do, right? It's like, you know, when you're seeing it for the first time, you know, you go back, I'm sure we've all seen the clip of, I can't remember which quarterback. He's coming in and his hands are literally shaking while he's trying to do it. you know like it's a lot of pressure you got a hundred thousand people that are all waiting for

they're all watching you specifically right i i translate this to if you're a guy who's ever golfed and there's one group of other people watching you tee off my i my heart rate starts going a little bit right and so think about 110 000 people in that stadium and about 10 million more on tv just waiting to see what you're going to do right and so i think how he handles that pressure get up to the line i hope that they make you know let's get a scripted first drive right let's have max bretison helping him along you know just like he did in camp where he's his roommate you know those types of things i think let's try to make it easy i'm sure they're not going to do a thousand different shifts you know right away and and all that but um i i agree with you like get up to the line

don't get a delay of game because then people are going to start groaning in the crowd and then you know then it just gets the pressure mounts right and so um i think a lot of those little things are what i'm looking for rather than like does he have a 70 yard bomb to donovan mcculley i would enjoy that though i would i mean the place i will say let's go back to j jay mccarthy's first touchdown where he scrambles to the right against western michigan throws to bomb uh the bomb to baldwin yeah belmont um and like if anything like that how happens on Saturday, this crowd is going to go ballistic. Yeah, I mean, I really hope he doesn't have to scramble and run around against New Mexico.

I hope that the offensive line is able to give him a clean pocket, you know, make throws as designed, but, you know, it's football and things break down and there's miscommunication and you've got to play backguard football. I think that's probably one of his bigger skill sets at this point is just we watch his high school film. He is able to scramble, keep his eyes downfield and look, you know, run to make the throw, right? he's not just running to run he's running to make a throwdown field so i'll be curious to see how he kind of handles that uh because that can get a little dangerous like when things break down and if you're

not on the same page you throw it and it may be in you know a couple of defenders there so um but i mean look physically one of the most gifted quarterbacks probably to ever come out of high school at this point um of their careers like that spring game he through it was it was it like 62 yards in the air and it just seemed like he flicked his wrist it wasn't even like he had to crow hop or anything into it and we've seen that in some of the practice videos too right um again it's on air there's nobody coming at you it's a lot different right but um the other thing i wanted to say too to your point about the scrambling and running i you know obviously there's a ton of the cam newton um comparisons and all that uh for me it's almost the if you remember terrell prior at

Ohio State. I'm sure we all remember. But he, the way he ran looked super effortless, right? And it was like the long strides where it's like he doesn't look like he's running fast, but he is gaining a lot of territory. You know, and so I think that that's, that's what Bryce reminds me of is it never looks like he's in a full sprint, right? It looks like he's just kind of coasting. I'm very intrigued to your point. Like, okay, let's say, you know, there's a point where everybody's covered and, you know, the pocket does break down. Can he extend a play, but not make it an absolute panic moment, right? And also, can he just go get a first down for us with his legs every so often?

You know, that is what J.J. McCarthy, he didn't do it all that often, but when we needed to, he could. And that just makes an offense so much more dynamic. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you can use his legs to get out of sticky situations, right? if the play breaks down or free rusher comes through. I mean, we saw that. I was watching the 2023 Michigan Penn State game, and there was a fourth and one where JJ, it's a play action, sprint out.

And it wasn't necessarily a free rusher, but nobody was open. And he was just able to cut up field and get, you know, seven yards and get a first down and keep the drive alive. So those types of plays can be huge in football games. Because football, you can look at games often, and there's like two or three moments where, like, if you flip that outcome,

that might be a 20-point swing. Right. So, you know, with possessions and football and being able to keep drivers alive and make plays on third down, like that's crucial. That's why, according to Justin Spiro, even if Michigan stole one sign that everything should be vacated because that could just mean so much different in the season. What about other schools that stole signs?

No, that's, I mean, that's irrelevant. That is a relevant. Why would you bring? some accountant going with an iPhone. That's what we're worried about. I'm over that, man. We couldn't do this one last podcast before the first game without We're on to New Mexico.

We're on to New Mexico. What is that? Is that Bill Belichick? We're on that is. Yeah, we're on to. By the way, this is a Michigan podcast. Some of the things I hear coming out of Chapel Hiller. Did you see they trademarked gold digger for like a jewelry brand?

Like, I don't know, man. It feels wild. It's just, it is wild to me knowing, like, knowing what Bill Belichick stood for for 20 years in the NFL, which was like, I mean, I remember the Randy Moss video of him going into Bill Belichick's office to ask him to come to their Halloween party. I don't know if you've ever seen that on NFL films. And like, it's Randy Moss, who's literally the greatest receiver of all time. And he's still like shitting his pants walking. into Bill Belichick's office to try and ask him to come and like to go from that guy who wouldn't even crack a smile ever to all of a sudden having a 24 year old girlfriend who is like doing

all this side shit before week one like I it's just you know hey listen they they say there's a saying out there that something is undefeated and girls are the girls are undefeated they They always went. Dude, the picture of him, like, holding her up with his feet, like, when he's, like, in an L shape. Yeah, that's, again, we're a Michigan podcast. We're not talking too much about it. But that is, yeah, to your point, I mean, one of the greatest minds in NFL history, very no-nonsense. And now he's recruiting high school kids.

Like, it just seems like a, it seems just like the craziest thing. And they start UNC, because this is a college. Well, podcast, I guess we could talk about it if we wanted to. But they start their season with TCU on Monday night on Labor Day. That's going to be an interesting one. Shout out Ben Hall, too. Ben Hall transferred to UNC. I have no idea.

I don't know that he, I don't know where he's at on the depth chart, to be honest. But I would love to see him get some run for them. Ben Hall, one of the nicest kids I've ever met and deserves a chance. I felt bad for Ben Hall, to be honest, with that. them bringing Justice Haynes in because I, you know, obviously he pumped about Justice Haynes, but Ben Hall showed pretty, he was good when he got in the game, you know, for Michigan. So I'm excited for Justice Haynes. I feel bad for me because at some point I'm going to say Justice Hayes, former Michigan

gadget guy running back receiver of the Rich Rod era. But Justice Haynes, I'm very excited, man. That's another guy. I'm looking forward to him and Jordan Marshall, you know, very excited. I watched the, and I'm sure a lot of us did, but I watched the Big Ten Network Fall Camp Tour stop in Ann Arbor. I watched that when they posted on YouTube. And I really like Justice Haynes.

You know, kind of the way that he talked about coming in and, you know, it's tough when you come into a new place and you're an older guy. I mean, he's a junior. And you were established at a previous school and then you got to kind of reestablish yourself as a leader. But I think from what I've heard from him speaking on that program, I thought I was really impressed with him. And, you know, I think him and Jordan Marshall seems like they have a great relationship.

So I'm excited to see that one-two punch, man. Yeah. I'm really, you know, Jordan Marshall in the bull game had, I mean, he went over 100 yards. I mean, but again, the Alabama team didn't have anybody sit out, really. And I love that Chip Lindsay actually came out and said, like, he doesn't even know who's going to start. Like, I think that I love that it feels like Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall are both like one-a, one beat for Michigan. right they can be completely inter connected and both play on any down or any package right so i'm excited about them um you know i'll be honest i'm i'm a little bit biased because i've gotten

pretty close with donvin mcculley but man i i just see that six five frame and i'm like dude i am so pumped to watch him fly down the field in the number one like we I know Roman obviously was unbelievable in the number one for us. I mean, he, you know, obviously was a huge piece to the national championship for us. But like, just seeing a big body number one is different. And I'm so pumped. That is, if we're, look, if we're, you know, talking about what to look for on Saturday, the Bryce Underwood to Donovan McCulley connection, I am very excited to see what that is.

Yeah, I'm excited to, I mean, I think the last. well, Nico Collins was going to wear number one. Dude, the lead up to 2020 of Nico Collins wearing, possibly wearing the number one, like, man, and now seeing what he's become for the Texans is like what could have been, holy shit. Yeah, but hey, you know what, that after 2021 was a pretty good, pretty good stretch of football, so. Pretty good. We'll take it.

Yeah, you know, just a couple stolen signs. It's okay. I had to bring it back out. But, no, I'm excited. I mean, I think the last, I mean, who is the last, like, bigger receiver? Is it, is it funchus to my number one? Probably funchis. Yeah, that's a good call.

Yeah, I don't know how many guys. Yeah, because when Harbaugh came in, number one, wasn't really given to the upper classmen. It was just, it was given to that big body receiver. No, it was given to Kikoa Crawford. Oh, yeah, that was wild. That was a wild move. Yeah. And then Andrew Anthony wore it coming in as a freshman.

That's true. which he had a you know get that big game in east lansing um and then roman got it as a senior right so harbour kind of went back to that thing what do you this is such a wild question for me to ask two days before uh football um because this would be like a total june question but like yeah what what if michigan kept androw anthony on that on that uh national championship team like they have won the national championship still i don't know like it's hard for me like in 20 like i see people like oh if we had i'm like they went 15 to know me i don't care yeah no i think in 22 maybe would have what i think last year

nice but can you get the ball to him yeah i mean that's still you we would have literally been like jackpot 500 throwing it up to him probably um but um i'm just thinking about like obviously yes you're right we won 15 straight games and you know it all worked out but um what that received. You know, he was on that 22 team. That's how little I remember him. I was going to say, I'm like, yeah, I like, wait. Yeah, I remember he had, well, I remember he had a catch against Iowa and I think against Illinois, JJ overshot him or maybe he, I can't remember. But yeah, he didn't, he didn't really play a ton of 22 and then he transferred. So 24 is more than a year that maybe would have been nice to have him, but I don't know,

you might have Braylon on last year's team. I don't know if it would have held. That's a fact. But, all right, last thing I want to talk about before we, wrap up here is the New Mexico coach Jason Eck just headed I would say like I don't know that it was a bad press conference but kind of an odd one of like I don't know if I'm a if I'm a New Mexico type team coming into the big house I don't know what I would say but I probably try to fly under the radar like I don't want to make the headlines I don't think right that would be my goal is to like, hey, let's just not put any bulletin material up at all. And instead, he, like, he was just a quote machine.

Like, he, the one quote that he had when they asked him about Bryce Underwood was, oh, well, he's not Tom Brady. So, like, which I get it, you know, I think that he's basically trying to say, like, he's, you know, we don't know what he is and he's not like the best quarterback of all time yet. so like we can play with them but i'm mentioning tom brady's i don't know kind of while yeah i i you know you look at the transcript it's it's not nearly as bad as some of the headlines can make it out to be you know you can make things sound salacious if you just kind of cut what you want we're we're trying to do headlines here what do well we could do that in the we could do that

in the title but i'm saying here now uh as just a you know a person like i don't think what he said was all that bad i mean you know the the nil stuff was brought up uh by the reporters in the room um you know and i i i don't love coaches talking about it but it's not like he brought it up unprompted right i mean it was asked of him in that press conference so you know he's complimentary talked a lot about you know the great players that michigan has and you know when he says you know um he said that you know he said but not you know tom brady's not playing on saturday It's not like he's like, Bryce Underwood isn't Tom Brady. He's just like, it's not Tom Brady playing.

Like, it's college athletes, and we're going to go and try to win a game. And I can't hate on that at all. So I don't think it was necessarily the worst thing in the world. You know, I think, you know, he's a guy that, you know, played at Wisconsin. So he's been at the big house. Yeah. He's experienced it as a player. So, you know, now as a head coach going to experience it for the first time.

But yeah, I mean, I thought he was complimentary, but he, you know, was trying to keep his team like hey this is it's not like we're you know this isn't uh i don't know all the all the all like great like like david and goliath like david you know what i mean but like it's not that type of matchup to his players that's what he's trying to convey it may be in reality but he's just trying to keep his players hey we can win this thing so i don't hate it what do you what do you think about the spread um this i it seems high to me just not knowing what our offense can score, right? Like, I think, what was it at 34, something around there?

I think it was 37 this week when it opened from what I saw. I'm not a gambler. I don't sports bet. So, you know, people ask me, like, hey, should I bet on this? And I'm like, like, they specifically asked me about Michigan. I'm like, I don't know, man. If I knew and I had the right answer, I'd be rich. Right.

So. No, I think I, and I'm not, I don't bet on it either, honestly. But I'm more so just like from that being the experts, like, opinion right of what this game should look like um you know just to me it's like okay if they score seven points you know for michigan to cover cover the spread they're scoring in the 40s and that's a lot of points for a brand new offense no that's fair um you know when i look at i think michigan if they really are able to you know have success on the ground i do think that they could, regardless of the past game, I mean, we've seen Michigan in the past be able to run for

300, 350, 40 yards on these kind of cupcake opponents. Yeah. And, you know, basically, you know, drive the score up a little bit. I think about the N IU game a few years ago. Like, yeah, Kate had, you know, a couple, he had that long touchdown. The CJ hit a couple passing touchdowns, I think. But it was a lot on the ground. It's like it was like 400 yards on the ground. So again, I don't bet, but I think that's probably the road to that cover for Michigan. But maybe there's a defensive touchdown in there. Maybe there's a couple short fields from this defense, right? Maybe a strip sack or an interception or maybe some special teams play.

Zavada 70-yarder. Maybe the J.B. Brown said he was doing that in practice. I will say I'm very curious to see the special teams because, you know, outside of Zavada last year, I had some issues with the special teams play, which under Jim Harbaugh and Jay Harbaugh was. Never. And Chris Partridge was phenomenal for a decade. Like that was mission.

Michigan was always like a top three or five team and special teams to the advance, you know, ratings or whatever. So I'm going to be reinvested in taking a look at the special teams unit because that's one Michigan, a lot of football games. Right. Like field position and, you know, making plays, blocking puns, returning puns. I want to be very curious. And J.B. Brown says it's going to be much improved. We're going to see. I know.

Yeah. So it'll be interesting. But either way, I'm pumped. Um, we're, uh, we're going to be out there tailgating, uh, come out and hang out with us, 1,006 South Main Street, um, right across from the stadium. Right next to that maize and blue house. Right, right, right next to the, to the maize and blue house, um, basically like, uh, Maine and Pauline or main and, right across from Maine and Hoover.

So right there. Um, so if you're not, northwest side of the big house. Yep, yep. You'll see us. Trust me. You will see us there. Yes. Um, if you're driving along Main Street.

So come hang out. Again, we'll have Woods and Whiskey. We will have Slows Barbecue will be out there as well. Shout out to Slows, my guys there. They also have a brand new restaurant downtown Ann Arbor on Washington. So head there and check it out too. We will have North Peak Brewing, the Hale IPA, and the Camp Vodka Water. Very excited to get people to try that.

And, yeah, Feldman Chevrolet, obviously, we'll be out there. holding it down for us my guy jason over there the gm that's been hooking up every michigan athlete uh with uh with a car um and helping these guys out supporting the student athletes he'll be out there dominating cornhole uh maybe a couple shot skis you never know um so um want to i'm just i'm just pumped man we're here i can't wait to uh shout out ty uh he'll be here um he sent me a video of him and his little boy. It had to be like 5 a.m. that they were up because his little boy is, you know, what, two, three years old or whatever?

He gets up at the track it on already just rocking out to the victors, just like just dancing to it. I took Emory, we were in the living room, and I threw on the intro video with James Earl Jones, and it was electric. Also, can we just, I mean, we got, we got Mufasa, Darth Vader. doing our intro video. I mean, the rest of his soul.

We don't get an... I don't think we talk about that enough, how sick that is. Darth Vader, bro. Yeah. So that video is amazing. I watched, we were watching the Michigan

Penn State game. It like came up next. And I was like, I'll just watch this. Yeah. And that's when 30 straight runs for Michigan. So I get it with time, man. You got to,

you got to indoctrinate them early, man. You got to brainwash them. I love that. And that game also, just like going back to that is the most like fuck you game of all time like i you can punch me in the chest i did punch you in the chest like your sternum's probably still bruised from that it might be yeah and then we did those blue those those i'm not going to call amazing blue because

they were different shades but those blue and yellow shots at the pretzel bell i love i mean then we just went home it was like it's like three o'clock right we're old let's just go home it felt like we conquered the world and it's like okay what do we do now we just go home can i just say that as I get older, like the last however many years that, you know, we beat Ohio State, I'm like, dude, we're going to go out. Like, we're to go. We're going to celebrate. And I'm like so tired. Like that is just that game, even as a fan, that game, even if you're not at the stadium, that game, you feel like you play because you're just living and dying on every play. But, you know, like we're supposed to go to Skeeps after last year. So that has

not happened. That will never happen. I'm not. We agreed to it and then just never did it. I mean, listen, it's, it's fine. I, we're just to that point, I've seen this on the internet a few times and I, I feel it like, we're to the point where we can do all day or all night, but we can't do all day and all night, you know, like, that's, I don't, you know, where I'm at. I feel like they're at a certain point, like, I'm going to start looking like Steve Buscemi with a skateboard. Like, how do you do fellow kids?

Like, I don't want to be that guy, you know, what the, let the kid. test if we don't need to go there we can you know it was funny to think about and then if anybody's wondering this originated from our friend his sister is at u.m and she's like if michigan meets ohio state in 2024 you got to come to skis we're like yeah sure it's not gonna happen it happens and then it happened we have not we have not made good on that bet no i'm sorry maybe saturday you just never know you never know who's to say who's to say um 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.