Blue By Ninety - Michigan Has a New Offensive Coordinator & Transfer Portal Opens

Episode Date: December 11, 2024

Justin and Tanner discuss Michigan's new offensive coordinator and their wants in the transfer portal.

All right, welcome back to Blue by 90. I'm Justin joined by Tanner today. It is December 11th and Michigan has its new play caller hired chip Lindsay from North Carolina yesterday was announced. It's going to have Bryce Underwood or a portal QB. Not quite sure exactly who the, you know, who will be under center in 2025. But what are your first thoughts here, Tanner, as Michigan brings on a new offensive staff? Yeah, I think when the news broke last night, I hadn't really looked too much into Lindsey. I think a lot of it was leaning towards Jason candle, the head coach of Toledo. And that kind of faded Joe Craddock,

the office of coordinator down at Tulane that sort of faded. Dan Mullen's name was brought up. I don't know what he's looking to do. There was rumors. He was in the mix for the North Carolina job. That looks like it's going to go to bill Belichick. Belichick is coaching college football. Can you imagine Matt Patricia recruiting in the year 2024?

Like, I mean, I don't know what college football is anymore. I have no idea. Yeah. So, you know, he comes from, from North Carolina. I think, you know, a lot of people were kind of freaking out. But as I was looking, you know, some folks on, on two, four, seven, did a kind of in-depth look at the sp plus uh history of the programs he had been with um i think when you look at north carolina specifically

um you know in 2023 with drake may i think they were seventh nationally in yards per game um they finished top 25 in sp plus offensive ratings this year they finished 34th which i actually think is kind of impressive because you lose drake may i think they replaced four offensive linemen uh for this past season and their quarterback went down in week one against minnesota and they still finished top 35 so we're just looking for that level right that would be a obviously a lot uh you know better than what we saw in 2024 here i i think it's it's hard to like compare anything to 2024 because i mean i think you and i could be at at quarterback and probably yeah again no uh no shade at our our guy davis but

i think we could have been an officer you mean madden play sheets i yeah you know yeah i may be able to to drum up something i mean i guess like you know i i think uh my first thought is this guy was not on the radar according to anybody um and so i i guess my my like gut reaction i'm i want to be positive about this and be excited because i do think that he has a good reputation um i just think that with having you know essentially i would imagine the last three months to think about this right sharon moore had an at you know knew where things were going the writing was on the wall um and you have the number one qb coming in like i would have thought that maybe you get a

bigger name um and again i don't know who that big name is right but um that was just kind of my my first reaction was it felt like you know this is a guy that maybe could have been your second or third or fourth option instead of the first um so i don't know if that means chiron you know missed on a couple of guys i have no idea um or if this maybe this was his top guy right top target um you know to your point obviously he coached drake may and drake may went as what the third pick in the draft right uh and even though the patriots are a dumpster fire right now he looks like he has not been the problem um the entire time that he has zero weapons around him so um in you know looking at 35 points, you know, almost 500 yards of offense in 2023.

Pretty damn good. But I guess one of my concerns would be he just had a lot of jobs. He has not had a long stint anywhere. And so that, you know, could it can mean that you're moving up all the time. Right. That can be a good thing. So that, you know, it can mean that you're moving up all the time, right? That can be a good thing. It can also mean, you know, somebody doesn't want you to stick around. Yeah, I mean, if you look at his, you know, over the last decade plus,

you know, he's at Southern Miss and he moves up to Arizona State and then he goes to Auburn with Gus Malzahn to join his staff in 2017. I actually think when you look at who he's worked under in Malzahn to join his staff in 2017. I actually think when you look at who he's worked under in Malzahn and then also Jeff Munkin, who is the Ravens' offensive coordinator, won national championships with Georgia as their offensive coordinator, I like the guys he's been under. And if you look, I mean, you know, he takes a job at Troy. Troy, that was a dumpster fire. But being a coordinator is a lot different than being a head coach.

Some guys just aren't cut out to be head coaches. And I don't think that really necessarily speaks to his ability to call an offense and to run an offense. But then he works his way back up from, from central Florida, you know, the UNC and then obviously not a Michigan. So it sounds like he did really well in the interview process. I'm assuming that was, you know, a lot of X's and O's. I've never been in an interview uh for for a coordinator position

but i have to assume it's it's probably different than what we imagine an interview to normally be it's probably a lot of just breaking things down showing your plan of how you would use the talent that michigan has coming in offensively so i don't necessarily put too much into he's had a lot of jobs i mean guys move around they're trying to get to the top spot top programs in college football so that doesn't necessarily bother me um but again i think what he did with north carolina this past season after losing what they lost um pretty impressive to me and also you know when he was with a Auburn they had I think it's only happened eight times they had 3,000 passing yards 3,000 rushing yards he did that again running you a UCF's offense now Malzahn's got obviously a lot of input into that but um you know when he's when

he was with Gus Malzahn very good offenses so how much of that is him versus how much of that is Malzahn you know he was obviously the offensive coordinator when Auburn won a national championship with Cam Newton. So we'll see, man. But I think it's going to be just improved. I mean, the bar is very low. Yike. So. Also, fun fact.

He was at Hoover High School back in 2007, which if you grew up at the time that i did uh i was in high school then he that it was the year after they uh hosted the show two a days if you remember that was an unbelievable show i believe on mtv right i think um and yeah unbelievable show down there i mean that was like as a high school football player at the time you were just like i mean that was friday night lights essentially in real life yeah um so after he went there the year after that they filmed there which i mean obviously that's a you know funny uh funny thing but hoover high in general is just like a dynasty down in uh down in alabama so well and you know what's crazy is Jeremy Pruitt was on that staff. Not at the same time, but during the show.

If you remember, Jeremy Pruitt was the defensive back coach and then the defensive coordinator and then works his way all the way up to be a tenant, you know, the head coach. Yeah. See, kind of crazy some of the talent that Hoover High School has put out, not just players but coaches. So, yeah, that's an interesting tidbit i didn't know that uh you're telling me now for the first time justin but uh breaking news yeah

it's breaking that's very very interesting but yeah i mean again i i think you know i'm kind of indifferent still at this point um it's just no one's gonna happen i think to your point like and this is kind of where i'm at i'm also indifferent i'll wait and see i don't think it's like this exciting name right that you're like holy shit you landed a home run guy that isn't going to be an automatic upgrade right i think it's uh you know not great not bad and in any way um we'll wait and see uh and I think the big thing that I would say that's probably, I mean, this is obviously a very, very important hire. And this is also Jerome Moore's first hire, right?

Well, not technically because he hired Wank and those guys. But with the whole cycle, right right after a year, you know, the one thing that Jim Harbaugh was so good at is he almost had like a 100 percent hit rate on hiring hiring coordinators. Right. So we'll see, you know, how strong more talent in talent qualification is, right? And identification. So I think that, yeah, that's kind of where I'm at right now is just saying, you know, all right, we'll see how it goes. But what I was going to say is the other big piece of this is you got to fill out the roster, right? I mean, we learned, you know, this is probably part of the

Kirk Campbell thing, too, with like, you know this is probably part of the kirk campbell thing too with like you know yeah we have a lot we had a lot of issues with kirk campbell this year he literally didn't have anything to work with right like i mean you're on your third quarterback you have a very mid line at best you have no you know breakout wide receivers so i think just as important or more important to hiring this offensive coordinator is hitting the portal really hard and getting guys in here who can be ready to compete for a big 10 championship yeah i mean you're seeing a lot of movement the portal's been open for less than 48 hours i think or maybe it opened on some time some point on monday i don't know the exact, but you're seeing a lot of guys in the portal.

Michigan's had some guys enter the portal, you know, Tristan Bounds, Dominic Judice, Andrew Gentry. So, you know, they're going to have to find, you know, we talked about this during the national signing day podcast. Like I think I'm probably wanting more offensive linemen than I was before. I didn't necessarily expect Gentry to enter. You know, maybe Link kind of locked that job down. I thought he played a lot better at the end of the season.

You definitely saw some improvement from him at the right tackle position. But Michigan also in 2024 signed some really, really good offensive linemen. I think my take on so many Michigan offensive linemen, Jadis, Gentry, who else we got in there? Bounds is in the portal. Bounds is in the portal. So those guys are all older guys that I believe Sharon Moore went to this offseason and said, hey, I'm looking to add guys

that are going to start for us. And so I think it was a probably pretty real conversation to say, hey, just to let you know, like, you know, we'd love to have you here, but our plan is to go get guys that can be really good. And he learned that he can't settle for what he has in the room really quickly last year. Right. Uh, so, um, I see that as a positive, you know, I wish the best of luck to those guys in the portal, obviously. Um, but I, I think it's more a side of Cheryl Moore being aggressive and telling these

guys, Hey, listen, we're not going to settle for what we've got right now. We're, we're going to try to replace you to be honest um so yeah that's a conversation you have to have um in this day and age i mean it's just it's the amount of people that have entered the portal is astounding i think i saw that after the first day last year there was 500 players in the portal. I think after like eight hours there was that many this year in the first day. So I don't know what the numbers are right now, but there's a boatload of talent out there. It's just up to Michigan staff to identify who are we going to go after, who's going to come in and improve this offense and this defense

because Michigan's obviously losing a number of stars on the defense. Mason Graham has already entered the NFL draft. I assume Kenneth Graham will be soon. Obviously, Will Johnson's going to go. So you're going to need to find some star power on both sides of the ball in the portal. Where we don't need to see Michigan find anybody in the portal is at the kicker position because Zavada, our boy, coming back.

That's a big time because I think he could have been you know he might have been drafted in the same same route as moody was a couple years ago that's a pretty damn good contract uh coming in but for him to come back is huge uh for michigan's chances to uh you know just to be able to stay in tight games and make big kicks i mean they've lived off that over this last four year stretch i mean you go all the way back to 2021 jake moody hit what four field goals against nebraska to win the game um so and obviously he's hit a bunch of big field goals turner did zavada did so yeah i think you know don't have to worry about that you're gonna probably want to go find a punter tommy you need to find a punter but it is nice to not have to think about

uh the kicker situation because um it is i mean you you watch so many football games college and nfl both won and lost by kickers these days right and what michigan in the past four years they have won more games because of their kickers than lost it you know by a wide margin right um so real quick before we get into uh we'll talk about uh who's who michigan has lost in the portal and who michigan is looking at in the portal uh a couple more things on chip lindsey um so carry on john. If you remember him, lions and legend loved him. If I mean, that's like the biggest, what if guy I feel like for the lions or one of,

because he was a baller at Auburn felt like he always should have been breaking out and then injuries just never put it together. Can we blame Matt Patricia for that somehow? We shouldn't. And well, we should blame Matt Patricia for pretty much everything. so yes yeah the answer is yes um uh but he played for chip lindsey at auburn um and so what he said this morning on twitter great guy first and foremost will bring good energy and put the players in position to succeed the rest will be on the players he will do his

part um so that's a good testimonial right um good backing from uh from a guy that you coached uh that you know we all know um the other thing i wanted to ask you about just is talking about like what type of offense chip lindsey is bringing to the table? Because I saw some people talking about this and, you know, probably have my own concerns. He definitely leans more on the air raid than he does the run. And that can be a good thing for Michigan because obviously, you know, Michigan has, you know, especially in 2024, leaned 90% on the run because we didn't have an air raid. But what are your thoughts on could it go too far to the air raid and Michigan lose its ground and pound identity?

I don't think so. I mean, I mentioned the stats. He had two offenses that he was the coordinator of that had over 3,000 yards rushing and passing. I mean, if you look – and who knows who Michigan is going 3000 yards rushing in passing. I mean, if you look and, and who knows who Michigan is going to get in the portal. I mean, obviously Jordan Marshall is going to be a sophomore. We're very excited about him,

but I do think they need to get a portal running back. But Omarion Hampton for North Carolina has over the last two years run for over 1500 yards at almost six yards of care. Now, obviously, you know, you're probably not playing a style of defenses in the acc as you are in the big 10 um but i mean 15 touchdowns each of the last two years like he also i'm looking at this as and his stats right now and kind of wishing donovan might be back because uh you know 38 catches this year 29 catches last year uh looks like he likes to use the running backs in the past game so unfortunately that's probably you know donovan's best uh ability as a running back is running out of the backfield

catching the ball um for some reason nobody decided to ever do that except for the one time against maryland uh his freshman year so but no i i don't have any concerns about that um you know sounds like he's going to kind of implement a power spread which i think is a perfect mesh of what michigan has been and what football looks like today i mean you know power spread really came to be popularized by dan mullen and uh urban meyer at florida right so i think if you you know because bryce i think is perfect for that, right? I was just going to say, like, yes, do you – am I concerned about, like, getting away from Michigan's tough, gritty, ground-and-pound offense? Sure.

I love that about Michigan, right? I have loved that about Michigan. That was what won us the national title. We – you know, the way to beating Ohio State was running Hassan Haskins down your throat, you know, and and having him score five touchdowns. Right. And that's how we beat 90 percent of teams this past, you know, in this past three years, past four years. Right. But you also have the number one quarterback in the nation coming in and you have to account for that so you know i i think the one gripe you could have about the last about 2021 through 2023 was you had jj mccarthy and although you used him very strategically you maybe didn't use him quite enough right and you know it's hard

to say that when you go 15 you know it's like okay well we did what we needed to do to win 15 straight games pretty damn good right and so I'm not going to complain about that but when you have a guy that is as game ready right now as Bryce Underwood is I think you have to utilize him and you have to build an offense that works to his strengths right so that's kind of where i'm at where like yeah is are we gonna you know probably be more air raid than we have been in the past four years yes is that okay also yes because you've got a guy that can sling it that can run you know they're probably gonna run read option with him because he's bryce underwood as fast as fuck and you have two really good running backs i think in jordan marshall and ben hall um so uh yeah i mean what i think then the biggest question is like again to your point in the portal o-line and wide receivers you've got

to go get guys that can that can you know be the weapons around him that that he needs yeah i think you know with the portal i mean you you probably want to go get i don't know three receivers if it were me i know you're bringing in some freshmen who knows who's going to be holdovers from this past year's team um tyler morris was i think the best receiver and he's in the portal maybe kendrick bell can continue to develop um maybe maybe a guy that can play the slot um but yeah you got to go get receivers um you got to go get a portal quarterback unless you just want to rock with bryce underwood i mean that doesn't really work i i'm really hoping that they just land miller moss and then we can be really comfortable with what we have yeah and

then who's from usc gonna join moss i mean there's some rumors that there are guys that want to go play with him so i think if you're able to get miller moss i mean he's visiting missouri and louisville i don't know you know it seemed like michigan was kind of eli's a dork though eli drinkowitz is a dork no absolutely that guy is the worst um just cannot stand him so uh yeah man i i think you know, for Michigan to be successful on offense in 2025, they're going to have to bring in a number of transfers. And thankfully, there's a lot of guys out there probably why they didn't end up getting derrick meadows uh you know the kid from bishop gorman so i think they're gonna have to be strategic with who they go and get but any number of guys is going to just inject a ton of talent in this room that wide receiver and offensive line compared to last year right so whatever they do is probably going to be an upgrade. Probably the same thing here with Chip Lindsay.

Like the bar is not very high. So, you know, and if they can continue to, you know, play well on defense, they're going to have to replace a number of starters. But if they can get, you know, similar level of production from the defense, especially more so towards the later part of the year, then, you know, this could be a team that can make the playoffs,

but they got to find a number of playmakers, in my opinion, in the portal that are going to be able to let them do what they want to do offensively let chip lindsey do what he's good at um which i again i think it's pretty balanced like i'm excited about that like i think he's he's fairly balanced i mean 1500 year rusher the last two years is really impressive like michigan i mean blake war Carr has done that and then when's the last time they had that happen it's true it's very true um and so I guess my question right now is you're sitting with uh a number of guys from Michigan in the portal um are you sad to see any of them go just to be realistic and honest here? I mean, we can be sad in terms of, like, they're great kids at Michigan and they put in work.

But in terms of looking at the future, is there anybody in the portal for Michigan that you're like, damn, I wish she'd be on our team next year? Tyler Morris? I'll list them off right now for you i mean you have tyler morris he had 464 snaps last year right obviously a huge contributor on offense dominic judy's 317 snaps andrew gentry 115 tommy delman 26 snaps obviously, is the punter. Then you've got Miles Pollard, Raheem Anderson, Tavier Dunlap, Tristan Bounds, Christian Boivin, Jaden Denigle, Cole Cabana, Logan Forbes, and Micah Pollard.

I think I'm always going to wonder why Raheem Anderson didn't get more playing time. I thought he always was moving people when he was in the game. But as far as just sadness over pure production and projection to next year not really maybe gentry just because again i i remember this was pre-covid man he was class of 2020 but it was you know right before covid and i just remember watching his film like it's kids of mauler he's a road grader and it just never seemed to work out here i mean he was only

here for you know three years but would have loved to have seen if he was able to you know continue to develop but also he's 20 probably 23 years old after the i agree with that and i'm i'm just like yes i i would have loved to see him develop too but if he couldn't beat out evan like this year then i you know right no no yeah it's more about the idea of it right like you're in love with the idea of something rather than what would same with raheem though too you know raheem was at center right uh and we had a rotating center for the first half of the season and he didn't get anything any any shot so obviously you know sherelle moore and grant newsom are not seeing guys from those guys not seeing things from those guys that they needed to get repped because it wasn't like they were playing behind somebody and never got the chance uh you know i mean the only

thing that i would say is last year trente i thought should have been the right tackle all year right so maybe you don't know until you know right there's some sort of you know just i don't know i mean they're they're obviously at practice and they know a hell of a lot more than we'll ever know but sometimes you do question like well i mean i thought once andrew gentry got in there that the offensive line looked better than he got hurt so it's like what you know what what is the cause for that yeah um uh i definitely agree with that i think that um i don't know i think we probably have blindly followed what cheryl moore has thought about offensive linemen and grant newsome because

they've obviously had unbelievable offensive lines you know pre-2024 so um you know there there's they're always going to be misses right um so you just never know um all right let's talk about uh some needs uh we talked about qb is there anybody else other than miller moss that you're looking at thinking you know yeah would love to have him as a stopgap for bryson there's a couple guys um i think the quarterback from smu not jennings the one that got hurt he has had a productive college career he's got one more year uh he just entered the portal um honestly kind of curious about kurt warner's son who just entered the portal from rice i mean he's a bit undersized but you know that's like hey it's kurt warner's son um if anybody's ever defied the odds of

quarterback it was kurt warner so uh that's just i don't think michigan would go that route um i'm trying to think who else i mean caden slater from liberty is gonna be in the portal i think he's probably gonna go somewhere where he's like guaranteed start and not have the greatest prospects ever pushing him right that's that's one of the tough things i think with bryce is he's gonna push like he is going to push for the job whether it be week one week four week eight at some point it's going to click for him and it's going to be hard to keep him off the field well to be honest like the ideal situation for michigan is that you have miller moss in the first three games let's say it's miller moss whoever you have a portal qb in the first three games and then bryce underwood is so

damn good that you have to start them because you can't keep them off the field right like that is that is what you're hoping for so you're telling a portal qb right now as you're trying to recruit them hey you know we want you for a year but the reality is we're paying this kid a lot of money to come in and we want him to play so that's where like I struggle even with thinking that Miller Moss will come it's like yeah Miller Moss you know has had an up and down career but he's still pretty damn good and is probably looking to play in the nfl at some point right at least be in a backup qb or make a roster um so yeah i agree it you know i i think i just want michigan fans out there to not be like very disappointed if the

portal qb that we get is not some super flashy guy, right? It is a like, you know, a placeholder essentially until Bryce is ready is kind of where we're at. What about this guy, CJ Campbell from Florida Atlantic running back? I know you mentioned that you I feel comfortable with what we have at running back. I know you don't have any experience, so wouldn't be be bad, obviously, to go get somebody that has experience. C.J. Campbell, Jr. from Florida Atlantic. He is the number 199th running back, but he has only one year of eligibility remaining. So he's got a ton of experience.

He had 165 carries for 844 yards and 11 touchdowns last year yeah he's a 10th ranked uh running back in the portal according to 247 um i haven't had a chance to take a look at his film or anything any highlights or anything like that but i think you just kind of need a body to be honest like you just need a guy there um you know we all have high hopes for jordan marshall uh but i do think when you look at college football a lot of these teams have gotten just whether it be receiver or running back or tight ends like skill position players through the portal um that are making huge contributions to their teams so i think

michigan definitely um needs to go and get at least one i would just say one running back whether it's campbell or not i just want to see somebody who's got some experience um i would say a mark memorial hampton but i think he's projected as a second round pick so i think he's uh he's gone but that would definitely be somebody hey you know call up joe lynn and sky rush for 1500 yards back-to--back seasons, you know, what can we do? So yeah, I don't know who it'll be. Again, I haven't had a chance to really look at it. I mean, the portal moves so fast, Justin, as you know, I mean, crazy, it's hard to keep up. I mean, two, four, seven has a, has a thread on the portal entries and you try to keep up with that. And there's just so many guys in there. out to sean mcgee because i can't imagine his the whiteboard in his office i mean he's got to have you could have you could

cover shem beckler hall like the entire field house with this yeah and you don't have the time either like when you talk about high school recruiting you have three years to scout to develop relationships to bring guys in for visits like this is four weeks and mostly guys like once you enter the portal there are a thousand teams calling right it's like right you know how do you even decide all right who we're gonna really go after and then i think this is where it's the portal recruiting so hard because like if you go all in on a guy and you miss there isn't time to go find somebody else right like it it's the recruitment cycle's over um so um all right how about wide receiver i mean is it donovan mcculley or bust right now i mean i feel like last year it was this year

i don't know he visits right after after the Ohio State game on that Sunday, so about a week and a half ago. And I think he's taking more visits. I mean, at this point, like, I'm not going to be super bummed if he doesn't come, depending upon who Michigan is able to get otherwise. So, I mean, you know, he's a good player. You know, he got hurt last's a good player. You know, he got hurt last year and then just never saw the field again. I mean,

signet he's going with his boys, right. His gym, you guys. So not necessarily shocking or surprising. I think a really solid football player, but I'm not going to cry or be upset if he goes elsewhere again, Michigan needs to go and find like at least one guy that you're like oh okay like we're we're playing some ball i think the tough thing for michigan with receivers they're probably gonna have to overpay just because you got in and i saw someone make this comment though because it's like hey come play with bryce underwood yeah i think you do because you gotta buck the trend of just not you know know, which is unfortunate because I think CJ and Roman had really good careers,

but it just seems like nobody cares about that. And it's what have you done for me lately? They're probably going to have to overpay at the receiver position just because it's not like, Hey, you're going to, you could tell a kid, Hey, you're going to come in and put up, you know, 70 catches for a thousand yards and 12 touchdowns. I i mean there's really no previous success to back that up so that kid's kind of taking a taking a leap of faith you got to compensate him for it yeah i definitely agree with that um i think yeah to your point i mean even with jj obviously it was like you know you have a top 10 quarterback

and you didn't use them. Right. So, yeah. So I definitely agree. All right. How about the offensive line? I mean, I think in my opinion, this is by far the most important position group that Michigan needs to, to reload. Again, we've said it multiple times on this podcast over set it over the years. This is howigan has won football games the past three years um so uh josh thompson northwestern uh i think is i mean key i know he's

visiting msu i think ohio state too um but i think he is you know you saw i thought josh pre played really well for michigan this year you're looking for like a culture fit. A Northwestern offensive lineman is a perfect fit. Well, and he's from Michigan, right? Yeah. He's from Fenton. So, you know, he's from the state. He gets it.

Pree was also from the state of Michigan. I saw someone say that they're friends with Thompson's family. And after Michigan beat Ohio State, his dad posted on Facebook, it's great to be a Michigan Wolverine. I i don't know i haven't confirmed that myself uh but that's probably if it's a rumor it's true so i mean i it's a weird thing to make a rumor up over um but if that's the case then you have to feel pretty good it seems like a kid who you know i don't know what his his original recruitment was like but maybe just wants to be wine and die i don't blame him right and a lot of these guys get to do the process over and now they're much bigger fish than they were coming out of high school because they developed

and coming out of high school 17 18 years old you're not a finished product so a year or two later you're coming out of the portal and it's like hey i'm all big 10 i'm this i'm that you get to go enjoy that get some nice dinners like i don't blame these guys and just in general now like waiting it out sometimes can can up that number right um you start taking visits and the number increases every single time possibly so especially it it does if you're one of the top recruits if if you're not, then you can get passed over. Right. But yeah, some of these kids, I don't know where they're getting guidance from you. You kind of screw yourself. If you go on the portal and you're not as, you know, you're not a take for a lot of big programs,

you may end up having to go down a level. I mean, some of these guys get terrible advice, unfortunately, but that's, you know, that's the way of the world, I guess. How about, how about this guy he is actually visiting michigan today we're recording this on wednesday uh jordan white from liberty uh offensive lineman he's from dematha hunter dickinson's uh hometown uh you know i feel like so he's a a six two feel like – so he's a 6'2", 300 guy, so he's not – He's a center.

He's a center, yeah. So he's not some 6'7". Is he on campus today? He's on campus today. Okay. Yeah, he's the third-ranked offensive lineman in the portal at the moment as of 10-23 on December 11th. So, yeah, I think he's one of the bigger fishes in the portal, especially as far as offensive linemen go.

I think with Michigan, you know, they had so much success with Andrew Vistardis, with Olu, with Nugent during that three-year run. So this is such an important position for Michigan. You know, Kripp and I thought looked better throughout the season than Jadis did. But I think if you have a chance to go get a guy like this, you have to get him right if you go get him you get thompson that's your center that's one of your guards um you know you see what if geo continues to uh to develop and then you've got some younger guys waiting in the wings right for that left tackle spot you know there'll be some competition at the right tackle i mean i'm sure they'll get at least one more but if you can start with those two that's a pretty damn good start on the offensive line and i'd be pretty fired up about it i i definitely agree um i i have

heard as well that geo is is getting attention from other schools uh i mean so i think he's a he's a take like and i i think that's a good thing for michigan and the fact that like you know he is a guy that can be a piece to your offense next year um and then um yeah i i think you're looking at blake frazier and some of these younger guys to step up obviously i don't know if babalola will be ready in year one but you've got a five-star guy coming in well you have you have uh you have sprague as well. Who's from the same area as Babalola. Andrew Sprague, I think, is a guy that's built to be a left tackle. I don't know if redshirt freshman year is when he should be taking the field. We saw what happened with Evan Link, but I think he was a lot further along.

He's a much higher-rated recruit and probably more developed and bigger at that same point than Link was. Link's problem, I think, was just from his strength and his size. He needs to put on about 20 more pounds this offseason, which hopefully he can do because I do think he can be a really good football player for Michigan. Yeah, they signed a big-time class in 2024. I mean, I know we're talking about the offensive line being so important

and having to go get some portal guys, but at some point you have to rely on your huge class that you signed a year, two years ago. Right? So you're, you're looking to have those guys developed you know, at some point here. And I know that, I know that Michigan, they love Blake Frazier. I know that. So, and I know they love Sprague. So, you know, you're looking at, if you've got Sprague, Frazier, Geo, you know, maybe Crippins in there still, I don't know. I mean, if you can combine those guys with the, you know, with the guys like Jordan White and Josh Thompson, then, you know, that's a really good offensive line, in my opinion. And then I think one of the bigger issues with Evan Lake this year is like, he didn't

have any, he didn't have much help either. Right. You know, it's not like they, he, he was thrown into the fire and it wasn't a great offensive line around him either. And it was a shuffling offensive line all year long um so yeah so i i mean i think michigan's got a really good chance uh if they can even land one of those two guys that we just talked about um to have a really good offensive line which changes everything sure um let's flip to the defense uh kishon silver from k from Kentucky uh he announced that he was down to four schools I

believe it was Michigan Miami Florida and USC um that he was targeting uh would be I mean he was a former five star right so um he you know this would be an awesome addition to the defensive line yeah i know he's looking to visit um very soon and michigan is going to be a factor there uh so yeah i definitely think you need to get a couple defensive linemen uh i don't know who those guys will be i think you'll probably get more clarity over the next couple of days and in the next week or so um you know a lot of these and i wonder what will happen, too, after the first round of the playoffs as four teams are done for the year. You know, are guys going to start entering the portal from those programs?

You know, it's – I just – just what do you think, man? I know we're – you can start my position by position here, but I just – broader scale, I just feel like the calendar and the timeframe for the portal absolutely stinks. It's the worst. I don't know how you rectify it, though, because ultimately, they're college students that are needing to be in classes by early January. But to have the College of National Championship played in the middle of January,

like, I don't know. We saw what happened with Michigan last year, and obviously they had a lot more variables because of Jim Harbaugh leaving and all the uncertainty around the program but like if you go to the national championship you're kind of SOL on building for the next year so I don't I don't understand how we need to see the national championship you're like nowadays you know they're talking about 14 or 16 teams in the in the CFP next year right if you're playing deep into december if you're playing a home game on december 20th you can't you aren't putting all of your chips towards the portal

right you you have you don't you have ohio state right now to use them as an example it is trying to win a game at home against tennessee you know now you have a recruiting staff that's obviously working on the portal but you know these kids are trying to talk to the offensive coordinator and the defensive coordinator and the head coach and you know I know recruiting is a thing during the season no matter what right and so you know coaches spend a lot of time with that but like honestly Michigan has the advantage right now right they're they're not prepping for their bowl game, let's be honest. They're going to have – they're going to lose almost all of their starters,

in my opinion, to either opting out portal or, you know, to the NFL, right? So they're focused right now on, uh, building for next year. Right. And there are 12 teams that can't do that. 12 of the top teams in the country, obviously. Right. So, um, yeah, the, the calendar, I don't know how you fix it either, but it is a shit show. Um, I, I, I don't know, man, it's, it's tough.

Um, the only other position I was going to mention, too, was corner. I wouldn't be shocked if Michigan loses a corner to the portal still. Who knows? But I think regardless, let's be honest, they need to add guys. You're losing the number one corner in the nation, and it just didn't go that well this year so i think you've got to add talent and depth there yeah no absolutely and i uh you know there's a guy from purdue very interesting recruitment michigan was in it he reclassified

to 2024 originally a 2025 kid reclassified went to purdue terry and grant um not sure why not not sure why he went to purdue i mean you know i guess in the odd what a dumpster fire i mean tough scenes over there in west lafayette yeah um but i think he's a guy that michigan was heavily involved in or involved with when he was a high school recruit so um you know i don't know if he played more than four games at least gonna have three years of eligibility and was a big time recruit again sometimes these these guys are classifying i get it from you know nil perspective but like wouldn't you want to continue to develop before you get to college so you could play your best ball in college well you can also i i understand you know know, the, this is like the, uh, the Brady Hart situation.

Right. Right. Um, and it's like, yeah, if you can, you know, make a couple hundred thousand dollars, like I'm not against that at all. That's a lot of money. Right. But you're 16 years old. Right. And so I, I, I don't know. I think that you can also maybe develop more in high school and go make more money once you are better and more built. And so I agree with you. I think that it's a classic situation of like kids thinking that they're ready and they're not. And they see money or they see opportunity, and it's like, you know what? Being in high school and being a kid for a little bit longer is not the worst thing. No, no problem, man.

I understand these guys early enroll and get ready, and it becomes a job, right, when you're trying to get to the NFL. So I totally get it. You're trying to create generational wealth beyond your wildest imaginations, right? I totally get that. But also, it's okay to have fun and mess around with your friends and be a normal high school kid. Actually, it's honestly great. Right.

Like you need to do that to become a good human being and like to become a well-rounded kid. If you're just this recruit that only does football, you're not going to be, you know, you're not going to enjoy life, honestly. So, all right, let's talk about hoops for a second. We can end the podcast on this. Wait, I wanted to bring up. Sorry, go ahead. I wanted to talk about this, but I wanted to talk about the OHIO sportsmanship.

Yes, yes. Which was introduced by a state representative in Ohio. And it's a bill, so it's not a law yet. I don't think it'll pass either from the sounds of what other lawmakers in Ohio are saying. But it's just too funny not to share. So here is the proposed law. No person shall plant a flagpole with a flag attached to it in the center of the football field

at Ohio Stadium of the Ohio State University on the day of a college football competition, whether before, during, or after the competition. Whoever violates this section is guilty of a felony of the fifth degree.

A violation of this section is a strict liability offense, and there's a bunch of other legal jargon um what are we doing i i love i think the thing i there are so many things i love about this but the thing i love most is it's specifically for ohio stadium like you have cincinnati you have the university of ohio you have miami of ohio they could have said like in any football field on uh you know college football saturday or something this was like we are so butthurt specifically at ohio stadium as buckeyes that we will not we're gonna make it a felony if you do this guy said i

don't give a fuck about bowling green like i it's crazy uh again i thought i saw there was another um lawmakers like yeah it's got it's got to go through and pass the the amount of votes it needs it's just it's not gonna happen it's it's honestly just the perception of it all of just like okay if you were ryan day i'm sure he had nothing to do with this right but he's really shut up dude it's that i would be like you're not helping us right now you are not helping the allegations that we are a soft football program because this is the epitome of being soft of we can't beat you so this is this is literally the same thing as my dad's a frat kid. My dad's a lawyer.

Do you know who my dad is? He'll get you. He'll sue you. That's literally the exact same thing, right? I mean, this is unbelievable. Can we real quick on the portal? This was from last night. It just got sent to our group chat.

So it's a Miami fan. It says December is at the University of Miami, and it's just palm trees. Kind of sick. Not going to lie. I would like Miami in December compared to whatever we're having here. Jair Hill tweeted, Jair shouldn't hill. Follow me back. So maybe that's the guy we were thinking that might.

Maybe. Maybe. i think that portal i i'm not sure that jair hill is the smartest kid on the team i i i don't i'll be honest i don't think he was academic all big 10 that's just that's just all i say hey man you know what though he tackled in the game and i i appreciate him that's what we talk about we you know we're going to get into basketball but guys guys, they may not have a crazy legacy at the University of Michigan, but honestly, I'm going to look back fondly on Jair Hill just because he tackled Jeremiah Smith. He didn't let him get out into the open field and then Jeremiah Smith hit

Lamar Morgan and nothing happened. It was kind of crazy. What kind of crazy these are all facts these are all facts i agree with you though they're like we're gonna watch the highlights of the 2024 michigan ohio state game and be like remember jair hill like remember amir hall made like the play of his life out of nowhere right like it's gonna remember wesley walker had a pbu you're you're automatically a legend in that game that's all it takes so yeah so so shout out to jerry sugar hill uh that's just wild gotta follow me back follow me better basketball all right hoops uh and in the first half i mean people were were tweeting as like we're a final four lock right and we were playing, like, we're a Final Four lock, right?

And we were playing unbelievable. I think we were up by 15 at one point, just dominating. Arkansas couldn't, you know, make a shot. Michigan's defense was playing well. Will Cheddar came in and hit three threes in a row off the bench. Like, he's like a sharp-shooting god, which I fucking love Will Cheddar, by the way like if there is a guy i mean obviously i love danny wolf too we can talk about him and vlad in a

second but but i mean will cheddar to stick with dusty to stick through juwan and the shit show that was 8 and 24 of that season right i mean you gotta love this guy he's the leader he's the vocal guy that jay bill is just talking about it last night but you know i i think that you're looking at like he's the glue guy to this team and if they're going to make a run come march it's going to be because will cheddar willed them to it danny wolf's going to carry them in terms of points, and Vlad will make a ton of plays, but you need Will Cheddar on this team to make it go. Yeah, no, I think he – I said this after their win against Iowa. I think Cheddar should get more run.

He obviously played very well last night. He had a big first half. He had, what, 13 points? It was like in three minutes it was absurd uh how well he played early in the game it was like a burst the the disappointing thing i think so michigan was up 36 to 22 and then i remember doing the math last night and i texted to somebody arkansas went on a 40-16 run after that point. Yeah, tough. But Michigan goes down by 18, and they come back,

and they have a chance to tie it or win it at the buzzer. So they need to clean up the turnovers. They need to work. They missed seven free throws, which, you know, you lose by two. Now Arkansas are missing free throws as well. But, man, I just thought, you know,'s the you lose by two now arkansas missing free throws as well um but man i just thought you know i don't know it felt like arkansas also just wouldn't miss it was annoying i mean they went on that run in the second half where it was just like wagner and whoever else just i mean they were just launching and um and i thought that like for a minute there we kind of lost our our intensity lost our grit in

uh and toughness and arkansas went on a run and they were like just bullying us um which happens to college kids right like momentum if all the the momentum isn't real crowd is the dumbest crowd of people ever because I think momentum is like one of the most important things in sports ever. You can watch the Ohio State game. I mean, yeah, the Ohio State game is the perfect example of it. Last night's the perfect example of it, right, of like a swing, right, where everything's going Arkansas's way, and it feels like, you know,

Michigan, even though they're like getting decent looks like nothing can go and then you just are you just don't end up playing as hard when things aren't going your way yeah but I I will say like down the stretch I mean Danny Wolf and Vlad it is a deadly duo Danny unfortunately, I think, going to be one and done here. There's no way that he doesn't get – He's a lottery pick at this point. I mean, he is – he's literally our point center. He brings – like, we are at our best sometimes when he brings the ball.

That's what we were doing when the game was on the line at the end of the game. So, two things that I'd like to say about last night. So, whenigan is down one point it's like 45 seconds left trey donaldson you know comes down he drives to the baseline steps out of bounds get danny wolf ball just get in the ball i mean also overthinking that you know let's get on the ball but the other thing is is i think danny needs to be a little bit more assertive i think late mid way through the second half, he had like four points. He ended with like 12, I think. So he, you know, started, but dude,

those drives were there. Like when he, when he's able to get downhill, he's a very good finisher at the rim or you create and get it to Vlad. Right. Um, unfortunate Vlad got that hookshot blocks, like just so many opportunities to win the game, you know, beyond just playing better throughout the game. But like in that last two minutes, there were so many opportunities to win the game yeah you know beyond just playing better throughout the game but like in that last two minutes there were so many opportunities for Michigan they just couldn't convert yeah I mean I I think the to your point on Danny Wolfe like not only is he going to create his own shot and get his but people have to help on him and so

it's it's impossible especially when you have him and blatt on the floor there there are very few matchups uh you know that defenses can can guard that so what he draws so much attention it ends up that you know namari or sam walters or whoever right is is open because of that um so that's honestly my main point of why you need to have danny wolf have the ball there uh no matter what i think in general too looking at trey looking at roddy gale ruben jones michigan has to have better guard play man it has to have better guard play because right now it just feels like if danny or vlad or cheddar doesn't have the ball like those guards are not making stuff happen yes they are making shots at times and sometimes they're the recipient of

something but it's because danny wolf or vlad or somebody is making it go uh and so right now you have to look at trey donaldson it's like, Hey man, we brought you in to make this thing go. Right. And he, last night, I think the biggest issue I have with him was three assists and four turnovers, right? You can not have a negative turn assist to turnover ratio, uh, as the point guard in a huge game like that. So, you know, we don't need Trey Donaldson to go for 15 points a game, right? He can have seven points a game. But you have to go and make the game, make the plays work. You have to get the ball to your guys that can score.

The other thing I was just going to say, I'm going to be honest, I've been pretty disappointed with Roddy Gale so far. I think when he comes in, he tries to make shit happen too much himself. And I just think that it's, it's, you know, he needs to let the game come to him a little bit more. Um, probably the same with Reuben Jones. Yeah. I know that, you know, Michigan has tightened up the rotation quite a bit since the early

parts of the season. You're seeing less guys get a run in key moments of a game. I think Michigan needs to continue to do that. There were moments where I felt guys on the plant were overwhelmed at times, especially during that big run at the end of the first half going into the second half. So I think obviously you want to get guys run because they're going to get better

throughout the season or you know you want as deep of a roster as possible going into you know march and into the conference tournaments and the incident tournament but i felt like michigan maybe shot themselves in the foot with some of their some of the guys that were in the game at points last night um i i don't want to be mean but but, like, I don't need Reuben Jones taking, like, floaters or long twos or threes. 100%. I just, it's not falling for you. And I don't know, I don't know his game from North Texas enough to be able to say definitively that he shouldn't be shooting. But, like, it just feels like trey jackson at times

with reuben jones like is that is that too mean um no no i think that's i think that's fair and accurate like you trey jackson had times where you're just like holy shit like he he'd you know dribble drive and and dunk and you're like okay where has that been and reuben jones has been the exact same thing of like you can see that he's got it right and i bet you in practice he shows that all the time but then there's so way too many times where it's like all right man you know i i like the drive but if you don't have the shot just kick it right you know keep the ball moving around so i i don't know i think my gut tells me right now there are so many guys in this rotation and so many guys involved that what is happening is all these guys whenever they get their shot they feel like they need to prove

it to dusty that they can be the guy and they deserve, you know, 25 minutes a game, because right now there are a lot of guys getting 12 to 15, you know, minutes a game. So, um, that's, that's kind of the vibe that I get. Um, so I, I think that, you know, I, I would like to see dusty kind of, all right, we've seen who the guys are that need to contribute here in these first you know 10 games or so uh let's restrict the minutes a little bit let's let's tighten up our lineup and go with the guys that can go i mean that i i think we said it on here before that's what john beeline was so good at he he gave zero fucks and was just like you you know what? We got a seven-man roster that we're going with, seven-man rotation. And, you know, sorry.

That's just how it goes. So, yeah, I mean, still at the end of the day, you lose this game, it would have been awesome to win. I think that that's a tournament Arkansas team. Coach Cal is Coach Cal still. He knows talent and knows how to coach. I'm still very excited at what Michigan is. They've shown that they can play with the big boys on the big court.

And so, you know, I think that's still early in the year. It's December 11th, right? So, you know, you want to be at your tip-top shape once you get into january and start playing consistent uh big 10 games and so you got about a month here uh to get things tied up um and i'm looking forward to it so basketball's fun again right i i mean i suppose you gave your heart attack but it was fun last night uh but I think the nice thing, too, about the way the schedule is now is that Michigan gets a week off. You know, they had played, I think, five games in the last two weeks

and three in the last week. So, you know, that's tough on the legs. And, you know, this is a team that's going to continue to get better. They've got a big matchup with Oklahoma in the Jumpman Classic. And then they play Purdue Fort Wayne, the Macedons, which, fun fact, they accepted your boy into college wow pretty far away shout out to the mastodons ran that acceptance letter yeah absolutely i didn't go there did not go there but they said hey you could come on down

uh so uh no it's uh it's my mom's alma mater times two so nice they used to be ipfw right yeah yeah so my mom's i don't know which one but one of my her undergrad is iu and then her master's is pretty kind of weird yeah so interesting now they're just purdue satellite campus um they're i think pretty solid like i think there's top 100 in kenpom so that's like not a cupcake necessarily michigan should win um i will be going to that game, actually. Looking forward to that. So, yeah, nice for these guys to get a little bit of a break,

get those legs up under them, and get ready for Big Ten play, man. Because, hey, at the end of the day, they're 2-0 in the Big Ten. They're one of three teams that are 2-0, along with Michigan State and UCLA. You've got to be really excited about the dusty may era so far i you know again i'm trying to temper expectations i a lot of people want to be like yeah we're gonna you know win the big 10 and in year one and and go to the final four you know those things are really really hard to do let's be honest with ourselves but you know you with him able to just come in and uh establish culture establish flow right his guys play hard obviously there's a ton of

talent on this roster to do that in year one and i think he's got nil figured out really well like you have to be really excited about what the future holds for Michigan basketball so um I know we're we're a month in essentially but really excited about this so um we'll have more uh coming this week I'm sure uh you know the portal is going to be heating up for Michigan football Michigan basketball next week obviously like you said playing Oklahoma and the Jumpman Classic so that'll be exciting um and you know we'll know more about Michigan's staff, right, as they brought on Chip Lindsey for the OC. I'm sure that there will be other moves being made as well. So, 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.