Blue By Ninety - Michigan is moving on from Texas and so are we

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

Justin and Tanner discuss what they want to see from Michigan in their game with Arkansas State with a massive match up with USC looming in the short-term.

All right, welcome back to Blue by 90. I'm Justin joined by Tanner today and it is September 12th. Michigan's one in one for the first time in a long time. We're heading into Arkansas State. It's homecoming week. So back in the big house, third, third, three out of five home games straight. So we're back in the big house though this week. And I don't know. I think that I would say I'd love to see a statement game from Michigan in terms of, hey, we're not just, you know, we're not just going to roll over and let the season go. We're going to, you know, come back and put something down on paper that we're proud of. Yeah, I need like a 2018 Michigan-Western Michigan game

where Michigan comes off the loss to Notre Dame and they come out and just steamroll Western Michigan. I think it was like 49-3 or something like that. I need that because when you look at Arkansas State, they beat Central Arkansas by three. I believe they beat Tulsa on Saturday, 28-24. They were down big in that game. I didn't realize they had came back and won. So, you know, like, I just need to see some sort of positive offensively, defensively as well

from this team, just to give me some sort of semblance of hope and like we talked about earlier in the week um on our post texas podcast this is a game and this is a week that is extremely important for the rest of the season because these guys have a lot of work work to put in they've got a lot to clean up and so this week of practice and next week of practice going into the usc game are extremely pivotal so know, you got to learn from the tape against Texas, but this is absolutely one of those scenarios is very cliche coaching talk, but you got to burn the tape, right? You just got to move on and you've got to, got to take your lumps and you got to learn from it. And there's a lot of things that need to be cleaned

up. Um, especially from the coaching staff's perspective. Like, I don't know, man, I was, it's early in the morning here on Thursday that we're recording this podcast. And, you know, I was at the gym before this. And, like, the thing that I do – I'm a biker. You work out. Yeah. What – yeah, I'm trying to get there. But, you know, daughter wakes me up at 545. Like, let me eat my breakfast and just go to the gym.

It is – it is like – I'll say this. It's important. It's September. Football season has started, right? The NFL was on. Lions had an unbelievable overtime victory. College football is on. It's important to get to the gym at this time because September is a,

you know, you go one way or the other in September. Football season, it's hoodie weather. There's, you know, all of a sudden there are beers to be drank on Monday night, Thursday night, Friday night, Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night. So, you know, you, you gotta, you gotta burn some cows, which I think I started to point that out. That's important right now. Absolutely. It's, you gotta, you know, burn the calories so you can drink them later. Um, but what I was doing, and I always do this, I just get on and do cardio and I just like something to watch and nothing

gets me ready to roll like some Michigan football highlights. So shout out to Parking God. Great YouTube channel. I'm always post like the condensed highlights of Michigan's perspective in games that they win. And so when I was watching last year's highlights, like I just was like, you know, let me let me go back to a more fun time. It was a great time. I was like, oh, look at J.J. McCarthy just slinging it around. But the thing that I noticed that's really disappointing, because, yes, Jim is gone, but Sharone is still here. Grant Newsom is still here.

Kurt Campbell is still here. I mean, the offensive coaching staff is pretty similar to last year and in 2022, aside from Matt Weiss. But, man, just the lack of creativity. I complained about this on Sunday after the game. There's nothing that Michigan's doing that is fun on offense. There's nothing that they're doing to get the ball in space to their playmakers. Now, you can sit here and say, oh, well, the receivers stink. Donovan sucks.

And it's like, whatever. But you can get the ball to those guys and let them run after the catch. That is such an important thing in college football because you're playing against college football players, right? Like, you're not going to have perfect angles of pursuit from everybody. You're going to get busted plays if you get just a ball out quick to Samaj Morgan. Like, let him run.

We know he's an elite athlete. Like, let him go out there and get it. So, I just want to see something. We watched the Lions game on Sunday night, and there was that play where it was a play action, and it was like a stretch play. And then everybody's going right, and Jamison Williams running across left. So that guy in the zone gets sucked down towards the run play,

and then Jamison's able to take it for like 25 yards. There's nothing that Michigan's doing that is fun or creative like that and that's not even that crazy I agree with you I agree with you it felt like you know it did we said this on on our last podcast it felt like you were just like kind of banging your head against the wall trying to do the same thing over and over it was definitely not working right um I I want to ask a question though I I I wondered, is it does it get it's a lot easier, I think, to be creative when you're already moving the ball and things are working and it opens up the playbook and you feel more comfortable. I wondered if Kurt Campbell got kind of stuck in a rut on Saturday being like, hey, we, we can't even, you know, run zone right now. How are we going to try to do something different? And then all of a sudden, like, you know, when you can't run zone on first down and it's second and 10, then that shrinks your

playbook. Right. And they were always behind the sticks. And so that's just my question of like, I I'm with you. They, you know, sometimes you need to do something different just so that that's just my question of like I I'm with you they you know sometimes you need to do something different just so that you can get something moving um but did did you think maybe it felt like that for Kirk Campbell where he's like listen I don't I don't know what to do there's there's nothing's working for us right now yeah I mean I thought it just feels like Michigan's making things very difficult on themselves you know and not necessarily playing to the strength of their team. Because when you look at last year, and it's really hard to nitpick a 15-0 national champion, which we did that shit, by the way.

We did. I'm enjoying that still. But when you look at last year's offense, there was a lot of times where, yeah, sometimes it felt very easy because Blake Quorum would make a jump cut and get you eight yards, and then you're in second and two, and it's very easy. But there'd be times where, hey, it was J.J. McCarthy bailing the offense out, making a play, extending the play, rolling out of the pocket, picking up a first down with his legs, or making some ridiculous throw to Roman or C.J. or

Barner or Colston or Donovan getting the ball in space and being able to go and pick up a third and 13 or whatever it is. When you don't have a playmaker like that or the playmakers at the skill positions that Michigan had last year and this year, you're just kind of like, I feel like they're trying to do the exact same thing as last year. And the unfortunate reality is that the offensive line is not as dominant as we would have hoped. You know, there's a lot of talk about, oh, this old line is like 2021, which I heard that.

I was like, hell yeah. Like, sign me up. Like, that's a great place to start. And unfortunately, I think that was very optimistic from the guys inside Shem. Well, I also think it's like 2021 in that they're new and inexperienced and didn't, you know, guys that have potential for sure.

You know, where I go back to this offense is I was actually going to talk to our guy BB's Big House about this because he dives into the charts and the PFF and the snap counts and all that stuff. I'd love to know collectively how many snap counts this offense has versus last year's offense, right? You know, especially together. Whereas, you know, last year you could shuffle the deck with that offensive line.

You still had an experienced lineman at every spot, right? And so, you know, listen, I know that we're all frustrated with how things are going. You're frustrated with the coaching staff. You're frustrated with the portal and recruiting. And how did it get to be like this? I get it. But at the end of the day, it really does, for me,

come down to experience. You can't expect that a guy like G.O.L. Hadi or,ppen or Dominic Giudice with essentially zero meaningful snaps outside of fourth quarters from 2023 when we're up 42-0 on Michigan State. They're not just going to roll in there and be able to beat Texas. They're definitely a national championship contender right and i think uh i was actually uh i was on the phone with seth uh seth fisher from mgo blog shout out to mgo blog humble there no they're they're awesome people, he's the man. I think the, the funniest thing I, the, the thing I love about Seth is I call him yesterday about a business thing that we're working on for, for, uh, for M go blog. And he's like, he just goes right into, you know, we went 15 minutes straight of him breaking

down wings defense and breaking down things. He physically cannot turn it off. And that is like, what's the best part about Seth forever is there's no shtick. There's no like, Oh, I'm doing this for the cameras on that's like, that's just him. Um, and that's what makes their, their stuff so great. Uh, so appreciate him. But, um, I was talking to him and a couple things came up. One was he was just talking about how last year you had a lot of time to figure things out for both sides of the ball. You really had until week, what, nine or ten, until you had to figure things out until Penn State?

You didn't have anybody that is, Michigan was so talented last year that they could get away with schemes being not great or having missed assignments because to your point, Blake Corham would just make a jump cut and make all the things better. Or, you know, Junior Colson, it would fill the gap that the D lineman missed. And Chris Jenkins would make the play on the outside. So they had a lot of time to figure this out. Michigan this year had to figure things out with guys with no experience by week two against the number two team in the nation.

Right. And so I think that you, you realize like you can, you know, shit on wink and you can have a lot of concerns and, and things like that. I get it. I definitely understand it. But I think that the schedule just doesn't allow you to do a lot of things that you were able to do last year. Yeah. I mean, I, I get that.

And that's why I said that I really just want to see some life this week on Saturday, you know, because this again is a team that Michigan should be able to smoke and beat by five plus touchdowns. Now, Michigan, again, as we know, is definitely content with running the ball and, you know, not really speeding things up. So we'll see what that looks like on Saturday. I just want to see something that gives me a little bit of optimism moving forward, you know, when it comes to the O-line and the run game. And, again, I really don't think that Davis Warren has been that much of an issue.

I mean, yes, he had a couple turnovers, you know, one just – Is that a hot take? I don't think he's been – I think he's been solid, honestly. Like, I mean, he's not involved in the run game, which is a downer, and that's, you know, you don't get to play 11-on-11 football that Michigan was able to last year. Tell me, you know, you saw him in that fourth quarter, right, where – actually, question for you.

Did they pull – I mean, we're down right there's like nothing to right nothing to lose at that point yeah um was that their second string at that point yeah i don't know we i don't know i haven't gone back and watched i feel like that is our that's our job so that's on that's on us on us. Yeah, I mean, we did not stick it out the whole time, unfortunately. I don't know if I'm making bad fans. I mean, so my point being, Davis, we'll cut that part. We'll cut that part. Nobody needs to know.

That's fine. But he shuffles. He steps up into the pocket, scrambles to his right, and makes the throw to Samaj. And he can move. Like that was a very – He had to throw to Colston too. That was a very athletic play.

So that was going to be my point on it is like he's not Cade McNamara. He's not where you're just stuck in cement in the pocket, and if the pocket collapses, you're just crumbling to the ground. That's not him. So why not? You know, I think you have to, even if it's not going to be a staple in your offense all the time, I think you have to have him pull it a couple times to showcase that it can

happen. So I wonder, and I want your thoughts on this. I wonder, do they feel that that much less confident in the backup this year versus last year and totals coming back and so you know it's i don't know it's so strange because all the talk was that orgy was playing well throwing the ball um and now it's like they don't have any trust in him to throw anything further than three yards downfield so my question is is do you think the reason they have not because again we've seen him you know in space and he's not a bad athlete at all talking about davis warren they have not i don't think they've had any designed runs for him and so with tunnel coming back do you think that

that's maybe something where they're able to implement that into the offense a little bit just to give the running back some breathing room because you've got to account for the quarterback I think you have to I think you have to you also um I I from what I know Jack Tuttle's even more athletic he is in Davis right so so I wonder if you see what he can do as well and you know who knows I I don't know I don't know what's going to go on with that but I think you absolutely have to um you know, who knows? I don't know. I don't know what's going to go on with that, but I think you absolutely have to. You know, I think the question about orgy where like, listen, if we're not confident in two games to see him truly throw a downfield pass, how was this a QB competition going into late August?

I have no, the only thing that I can think of is that they, I mean, because again, remember we talked about it, right? Who do you want to win the competition? And it's always been orgy because of the athleticism that he brings and the,

the headache that he can create for defensive coordinators on trying to game plan for him. So I wonder if the coaches felt the same way where it's like, yeah, I mean, Davis is the best option, right? As we've clearly seen, at least that, you know, from the games we've seen in these guys had what, 15, 20 fall practices to get ready for the season.

So they've seen a ton of, yeah, ton of tape, ton of, ton of reps. So it's like, maybe they were just like, you know, keeping him in the competition because they really wanted him to win. But it's still so weird to me, like up until like the Wednesday before the game it was and then it was like oh actually is Davis Warren same thing happened at the center position and the same thing happened to right tackle the center position actually went into that first game right yeah they had Crippen had like 13 snaps I think um I don't understand because I thought Raheem Anderson looked really good in the spring game like I don't know man I just it's really hard to know what's going on and you know same with the right tackle like and this is not his fault um because I just don't

think physically you know he's had enough time to mature and develop but I that right tackle spot man it's really tough and really disappointing that neither Percy who is I think a a fifth-year guy, and Gentry, who's a third-year guy but is like 23 years old because of the mission trip, weren't able to secure that job. That right side of the line was really tough. And Davis did, honestly, a pretty good job of maneuvering through the pocket throughout that game with the pressure he had coming. I also think, too, like this is another one.

You know, you're going to throw Evan link in there with zero experience against Texas's defensive line, which again is, is proving to be one of the top in the nation. Right. Like I, you know, as much as, as you want to shit on it and on link for that, I don't know that that's on him. It's not, no, it's not. I mean, he's a red shirt freshman.

Typically I don't want to see offensive line play unless they're like ultra mega five stars until like till like third year right unless they're getting proctor even though even like there's like two of those in each class right that are a five star that's ready to play at 18 years old yeah no 19 years old so i i don't put that blame on evan Link absolutely not you know I I think if you would have had him again in last year's schedule if all of a sudden he gets you know four or five games where he can get adjusted and doesn't have to play a you know a top team until later in the year that's different but throwing him into the fold is not on him, in my opinion.

So I think there's a lot of that, though, right? I mean, even when you go back to Davis, you're throwing him, and again, I think there are a lot of reasons why we don't have a different quarterback if it's going into the portal or whatever. Let me clear that up too real quick is it can we talk about that for a second um sure i think i've seen a lot of people like how did we not go into the portal for a quarterback right let me take you back to december let me take you back to december we were in a national championship run. Jim Harbaugh was very focused on that, right? I think we can all assume that he was, at the very least,

leaning towards the NFL at that time, right? And so I don't think that Jim Harbaugh was like, hey, I need to go into the portal and build for next year. He was like, I have J.J. McCarthy and Blake Corham and all these guys. We need to win now. I'm going to cement my legacy and win a national championship, and then I'll evaluate the future. And I think that that is the situation.

And by the time they win the natty, you know, the portal's closed at that point. They win the natty, the portal's closed at that point. They win the natty. Then you have a J.J. McCarthy decision that you have to wait for, and you have a Jim Harbaugh decision that you're waiting for. They didn't have a chance. And then by the time the spring portal comes around, everybody who's worth a damn has already been picked up. Right.

Yeah, and you risk even more because, you know, that January to April, that includes 15 spring practices where you're able to have an additional, not only just three months of prep walking on a campus to learn the playbook and the system and to gel with your teammates and earn their respect, but you lose out on 15 practices. I mean, you are literally – you have your fall camp and that's it before you're ready. And honestly, looking at this transfer portal class, I mean, I know, you know, Dylan Gabriel,

I'm sure he'll put up stats, right? He's been okay. I don't know exactly what he did against Boise State. I know they, you know, they put up some points against Boise, but didn't really look too great against Idaho. But honestly, man, the only guy, I was real quick, the only guy that I see making a huge difference right now is Cam Ward. And let's be honest. Justin, if somebody offers you a few million dollars to go play quarterback at Miami, I'm probably picking that over Michigan. You could offer me a few million dollars to do a lot of things,

and I'm going to take that. Play quarterback at Miami and South Florida? Like, come on. And they're going to want to throw the ball. And, I mean, he's the guy that's impressed me the most. I don't think there was ever a chance he's coming to Michigan. And to your point, total close is January 2nd. Michigan played a game on January 8th.

So, like, you don't have any decisions from JJ or Jim, and it's very uncertain. And why would a quarterback commit to that situation? Not only why would a quarterback commit, but could Michigan commit to a – so are you going to tell me that they are going to – if $2 million is the number, is Michigan going to commit $2 million to Cam Ward with the possibility that JJ is still coming back? Like that doesn't make sense.

Yeah, the timing really stinks for teams that are in the national championship. They've got to figure that out because school starts like, you know, that, that week. So it's like, I don't know. It's very interesting with the portal and how that all works. Same thing happened with the receivers. Isn't it going later this year too, with the new, I don't understand how it could, because you know,

you got to get in classes. Like this is still college. I'm pretty sure it's like sure it's in the double digits. January 13th, something like that, is the national title. Yeah, Tuesday, January 7th, 2025 is the final day to enter the portal. But when's the national title game? I'd assume it's later. This is great podcasting uh i love it uh i

honestly do not know it's january 20th so like that's what i talk about this like why do you not just have the season like like kind of like the fcs just roll past thanksgiving into the championships for the conferences and then you play your playoff games like why do we need this massive break like i really i think it's got to be if the portal closes on january 2nd in my opinion the natty needs to be played on new year's day then you need at least give them 24 hours or something i mean it's it's ridiculous and now you have more teams that are playing later in the year with the 12 team playoff. It's, it's insane to me. And they're possibly probably going to get rid of the spring portal. So then the only time you can do it is during that winter.

Like it's crazy. I've got one thing to say. I want to quote the legendary poet, DJ Khaled suffering from success. Yeah. You know? Let's chalk it up to that. We've had too much success.

I take it. I will take that tradeoff. I'll take it every day of the week. All right. Let's get back into football here. I don't think we've barely talked about Arkansas State. I've had the banners say Michigan versus Arkansas State. I noticed that.

And I don't think we've talked about them at all um i mean we talked about a little bit like i don't think that we need to just break down arkansas state that much um but um we have talked about what what we want to see um i think what i want to see is let's talk about the defense. I need a shutout. I think I need a statement from both sides of this squad where I need the offense to move the ball, and even though it's Arkansas State, you've got to go out and bully them. You've got to get that feeling of what does it feel like

to dominate another team. 100%. On the defensive side of the ball, I want the same thing. I want them going nowhere i want three and outs all day long i want interceptions fumble recoveries like i i need to see i i can't see you know even though fresno state is a very different football team than arkansas state right they're they're solid and that offense is good and they've got a veteran qb um but you did notice, like, you know, Will Johnson made mistakes in week one, right? There were different guys making mistakes.

I think that I need to see a very, very sound game from this defense if I want to have any confidence in Michigan going forward. Do you want to hear some key stats regarding Arkansas State here? Yeah. some key stats regarding Arkansas State here. So their quarterback, Jalen Rayner, 57% on the year, 7.2 average per attempt, three touchdowns, two picks. He's been sacked four times. He's also their leading rusher at 3.6 yards per carry for 122 yards this season. As a team, they rush for 3.3 yards per carry.

So if there's any sort of movement on this defense, I'm going to be just pulling my hair out. This is a team – they're undefeated. They're 2-0. But this is a team that – if this defense is who we thought they were going in and we want to pin on last week the issues with the defense was the short fields and being gassed and on the field a lot because the offense wasn't doing their thing.

I need to see at least five at least five three and outs honestly like i need to see guys flying to the ball wrapping up breaking down yeah i mean how many times did we see texas get you know an additional 10 to 15 yards because somebody just made a horrible tackle attempt like that happened at least a handful of times against texas and so you know i think michigan definitely that's a great team um but you you know, unfortunately, Michigan, I think made them look a lot better because they had a lot of just simple mistakes that they need to clean up. You know, the thing that Michigan has been so good at since Jim Harbaugh arrived at Michigan in his tenure was the ability to tackle and not give up, you know, yards after contact. And against Texas, that was really concerning.

Like, that was, again, even more like than the scheme, than any of this stuff. Like, that's the issue that really bugged me the most. Well, the one thing that Seth and I talked about on the phone as well was his thoughts on Wink were, this isn't the NFL. He's an NFL guy coming back to the, to college football. And even though you have a ton of NFL talent on the defensive side of the

ball, right. You still are dealing with college kids and you need to focus on fundamentals and you can't get out of that. You know, you look, you hear that still from NFL guys, right.

It's like, you look, you hear that still from NFL guys, right? It's like, you know, I, we're just talking about the major league baseball and the tigers before we got on, you want to know what those guys do in spring training. They hit off of a tee, they go downstairs and they hit off of a tee to make sure that they're going back to the fundamentals. That's the same thing that I think that Michigan's defense and weight needs to get back to is yeah you know listen you can you can do some more complicated things because you've got experience on that side of the ball but you can't go straight into that in week two you need to build on that that's something that in 2023 I think they had the luxury of being able to build on schemes each week up until later in the year but it it felt like he was trying to throw, you know, NFL schemes in there week two

to try and, you know, confuse Texas. And they got away from just tackling in their assignments. I don't need to see Mason Graham line up on a tackle ever, ever. Because then Texas saw it and was like, all right, I'm just going to run the ball. What are you doing? Like, I don't know if this is him, but I really don't like people with the smartest guy in the room syndrome. Because, you know, as they say, if you're the smartest guy in the room,

you're just getting a different damn room, you know? And so I just don't – no, Seth is right. You're right. I mean, Seth has said that. I mean, I listen to the pod. I listen to the roundtable. Like, Seth has been saying that the whole time, even when it wasn't clear what was going to happen against Texas. But you can't come in here and think this is the NFL. You've got to come in and you've got to self-scout yourself.

And you've got to try to emulate what Jesse Minter did, which I'm sure is probably weird when you're thinking about your disciples and you're trying to kind of mimic what they did but mcdonald and mentor i mean mentor especially mcdonald had some issues um with some nfl stuff like the msu game there were some things that he did that i think led to kenneth walker's performance in that 2021 season but mentor was phenomenal i mean mentor understood what they needed to do and how to get his guys in the best position and i really hope that wink can i don't know if it's an ego thing like i really don't because he's been in the NFL for 20 years. You know, he's the creator of this defense. But you've got to be able to run the system that makes sense for college kids. And, yeah, you've got NFL guys on the roster,

but, you know, you've got guys that probably won't play in the NFL. And so you've got to be able to let them be in positions to make plays and be successful and not give up massive yardage. So, yeah, I don't know. I wonder, too, when they're doing this all in camp and all going against Michigan's offense, with what we've seen now for Michigan's offense being not ultra-talented, were they able to push them around?

Was Michigan's defense able to push them around in practice? And then they think that those schemes are going to work because of that. They're plugging up holes that they obviously didn't versus Texas. You know, I think there's probably something to that too. So I don't know. I I'm looking forward to you know, both sides of the ball. I, this sounds like very broad and it's not like diving deep into the weeds, but I need to see a dominant performance. I need to see confidence out of this program. I need to see them have a little swagger.

And honestly, maybe the most important person that I need to see that from is Davis Warren. Yeah, well, and so here's what I want to say about Arkansas State, and this is where if this doesn't go the way that we're talking about it going, like, alright, because it's, I mean, when you look at so just their first game against Central Arkansas, Central Arkansas, according to ESPN, had a 99% 99.1% chance to win the game. They had scored with 55 seconds left, and Arkansas State goes on a 7-play, 70-yard drive in 52 seconds.

But here's the thing that I want to point out when it comes to that game is that Arkansas State gave up to their leading rusher 176 yards and 15 carries for two touchdowns. And I really need to see the run game be able to move the ball because if they can't move the ball against this team, I don't know, man. I really don't know what we're going to come on here talk about if they come out and they win like 19 to 3 like i just you know what i mean like it's gotta be dominant even like one of those 30 to 3 games where we just gotta see efficiency like it you know the score is not super important you know because against ecu you know michigan scores 30 points

and it and it looks a lot better than the score indicates, which is weird to say about a four-score game. But, like, it's got to be efficient, and they got to come out and at least score, like, three or four touchdowns in the first half for me to be like, okay, I can see something. And it doesn't need to be big play after big play or something like that. Honestly, I mean, listen, I'm not going to be mad if they throw the ball down the field.

Trust me. I'm not going to be mad. You've got to take the top off the defense, man. These guys are getting eight guys in the box at this point. Because why wouldn't you? Yeah, correct. But I would love to see them, like, put together a drive. You know what I mean?

Like, I want to see – I would love a deep ball, but I want to see, you know, three runs that go for 15 yards and, you know, a couple chunk plays, and then you hit Colston down the seam, and then you hit Samaj on a bubble screen or something, you know, or you get him in the flats. Like, I don't know. I want to see them put together a job where it's like, okay, that was scripted, we did what we were supposed to do.

And we moved the ball down the field on every single play. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I want to know what your thoughts are. Cause I, I actually excited about this, but I, I think, I don't know where it came from. I think it was a press conference.

I didn't see the actual quote, but like everybody on my Twitter was like saying it, that Sharon is going to be more involved in the game planning and play call. I think that needs to happen listen though okay I I don't disagree with you I don't disagree with you but like isn't that oh wait like that's just like such a thing that every team says when things aren't going well I feel like you see the inverse a lot like I'm taking a step back from play calling and

you know like because like to like I get it because but as a head coach like you are truly like a ceo and your main priority is to make sure everything's running smoothly and properly right and and some head coaches are much more ceos like you look at dabbo sweeney you know people are talking about why is clemson falling off well it's because you've lost your coordinators and brent venables was a phenomenal defensive coordinator at Clemson for a very long time. Dabo is much more of a CEO. Then you look at a guy like Ryan Day, who's heavily involved in the play calling and the day-to-day game planning and those sorts of things.

You have different types of coaches. I don't know if Sharon knows what kind of guy he wants to be yet, but I do think last year there were some phenomenal game plans towards the end of the season. And obviously Jim was here, but I still think Chiron had a big input on a lot of those game plans and the scripted plays and those scripted drives that you mentioned. So I really do want to see what that looks like. Does that make a difference? Because maybe Kurt Campbell is not ready to be a full-time OC, right? Like, I mean, he was an analyst. Yeah. I don't know. How long ago was Kurt Campbell an analyst? So he was at

an NAIA school or maybe they were D2. I don't know. Then I think he was the old Dominion and then he was the analyst at Michigan for a year and then became the QB coach last year, OC this year. So like, you know, he's still got a lot to learn, right? Like he's been around the game, but it's definitely one of those things where pretty quick rise to being an offensive coordinator at the defending national champions. Right. So like maybe he needs a little bit of, of training wheels. I mean, no, it's also derogatory, but you know, I'm coming in my help.

I agree. And I think that, you know, you also have to realize that Kirk Campbell having input last year, A, J.J. McCarthy loved Kirk Campbell. Davis Warren, I know, loves Kirk Campbell. So there's something – he's doing a lot of things right, for sure. Yeah. And I know that he's more involved in the passing game, right? He's a quarterback's guy.

Yeah. Maybe Sharon needs to come back into the fold a little bit to be like, listen, I love us going into the passing game and getting that. You got to establish the run, and we need to get our offensive line working together to make sure that this works. So I think that maybe there's a little bit of like, let's get back to our roots here.

And maybe that's Cerrone's role if he's going to get more involved in the offense. Yeah, man, I don't know. I just really want to see something to cheer about, you know, offensively. That's where I'm at. Okay, we joked about it with my boys uh and like can we just they i had a i had a got a friend who's really not that big of a football guy he's a baseball guy and he asked me he's like okay even if you don't think you're gonna complete a deep ball what if you just throw a deep ball and throw it 50 yards,

10 yards past the guy just to see what happens? Just to see them, you know, throw it down the field. Like just have Mariano Walker just run a deep post or something. Like you see cover two, like just have a Mariano out there. You see cover two, just run a post. You see cover three, just, I don't know, have him just run deep. Make one of those safeties and make a decision, right? Let's put it on film.

His joke was like just so that he could turn his neck like this and watch the ball because his neck was like launching our offense. It's just stuck. So, like, honestly, though, like, you you know I want to see it it doesn't need to be completed every time guess what you have a better chance of completing those the more you throw them and Davis Warren you know he's not gonna if you only throw the ball down the field one time to Samaj Morgan on that route that he's open, like then you have to have a 100% completion rate on that. He was four or five on throws 20 yards downfield.

Like, I mean, he missed, you know, he missed one. He missed one. And so I think you need to give him the opportunity to be comfortable with that. Right? Like the reality is he only had a couple he's only had a couple of those you know he throws the the interception in week one to uh to fred moore you know now he knows you have to throw that ball to the back of the end zone throws a great ball to tyler morris who stops running in week one you know and then he struggles you know to throw that to samaj

it's all learning and i think that you have to keep going to that. Otherwise, if you take it away, he's not comfortable, and then he tightens up every time that you do need to throw the ball down the field. So I would love to just see them, like, take some shots. If it doesn't work, it's okay. Go back to it, right? Absolutely. And I think, you, it's okay. Go back to it, right? Absolutely.

And I think, you know, it's easy for us to say that right now. We're playing Monday morning quarterback for sure. It's easy for us to say that because, like, I think I still go back to Kirk Campbell being like, all right, I don't know what's working right now. Because you go to every spot on the play sheet and you're like, that's not going to work. This isn't working.

That's not working. So I think it's easier to say now. And in the moment, you're just trying to get like, all right, can we get three yards on something? The other thing I wanted to ask you about before we wrap it up here, we didn't really talk about Mullings and Donovan today. Yeah, we didn't. Are we going to continue? really talk about mullings and donovan today yeah we didn't um are we gonna continue like

i just feel like i've been asking for not only to be involved in the passing game for like two years that's just not gonna happen like do we just stop talking about it like and now i feel like i need to pivot my energy to bitching about colin mullings getting more than six carries and more than 13 snaps because i don't know what what are we missing i i agree i'm i'm i i was shocked when i i watched the game obviously in person i knew what was happening i knew that we weren't moving the ball with the running game but then i went back and looked at our stats and i was like eight carries for donovan six carries for colel like i i i don't have the stats in front of me but when was the last time that we didn't have a

double digit guy a guy running for double digits i i honestly got that's got to be years right it has to be and even not not even pre-2020 what like back in Jim Harbaugh days, you know, it's like back in 18, 17, 16, like we're always – Gerard Hayden's carrying the ball for 25 times. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, but I agree with you. You know, why can't you get Donovan involved in the passing game?

I just want him as a slot receiver. Why not? We saw it against Maryland, right? Yeah, his freshman year. A couple years ago. I don't get it. So, I think talking about creativity, like, what's holding you back from that? And then, to your point, what's holding you back from just running the ball with

because he's showcased like you have to go with the guys that are are that are working there's not a whole lot working so you have to go with the guys that are yeah well i think you're thin enough at receiver and deep enough at running back that you can literally just change him to be a slot receiver yes or even an outside receiver because that was like six one right and would give michigan a better alternative to what they're trying out there right now like i would much prefer to see him involved in running routes because let's be honest like again this goes back to my point that i think michigan really needs to just try to get things out quick and try to try to get guys in space and maybe just dink and dunk their way and try to do it that way

but i don't think there's anybody that's, you know, getting open consistently. I think Donovan would give you a better chance at receiver to win games than just lining them up at running back when you're under center or handing it off when you're in shotgun. And then the other thing is, is I think you have Ben Hall who, you know, again, last year looked really good in, in mop up duty. And then I thought had a really nice run against Texas. So obviously,

you know, not a lot to go off of from, from Ben, good in in mop-up duty and then I thought had a really nice run against Texas so obviously you know not a lot to go off of from from Ben but I think he can be a really solid player and I'll take Jordan but let me see Jordan Marshall he looks like he's got some bursts when he's returning the kicks so I'll take I'll take my chances with those three running back and Donovan receiver I think that's a better idea than trotting out some of the guys they've been running out their receiver um because well I don't even listen I I don't know if it's a better idea. Like, you know, we may – it may be an orgy situation where it's like everyone wants orgy, then you put them in the game to throw the ball,

and he throws it in the trip, and you're like, okay, that's why. So I don't know that throwing Donovan in the slot is better than what we have right now, but I'm willing to try it. That's my point. How badly can you mess up being a slot receiver? What's it going to hurt if you throw him out there and see what happens? I mean, at very worst, you're not moving the ball, which you're already not moving the ball.

Right, that's what I'm saying. Like, quarterback's a little different because you throw interceptions, but, like, what is it hurting to take a guy who's shown the ability to be a really good receiver? Why not just throw him out there and just see what happens? Okay, if we're going to go down this rabbit hole, again, this is like – we might be putting our tinfoil hats on a little bit of just like – Okay.

You know, but why not – if Alex Orji is not going to be your everyday quarterback throw him in the running back why not have an option with him at running back h back tight end wide receiver you know yeah i don't get it that's i don't think that's that conspiracy theory either because like what is the point like if you're just gonna bring the right word there but that was my first thought but like what like, what is the thought there? If you're not going to let him throw the ball, then what's the point? He's way too –

There's really none. He's way too athletic to sit on the sideline. A hundred percent. So I'm with you on that. Like, you've got to be weird this year. It's Devin Gardner-esque, right? Like, it's Devin Gardner where it's like, okay, well, Denard's way too athletic and too good not to have at QB.

He's way too big of a playmaker. But Devin's also really, really good. He's a freak athlete. Let's figure out how to have them both on the field at the same time. And, like, you know, for Orgy, listen, maybe they're thinking, okay, Tuttle's not back yet, so we can't have either of them go down and then just not have a backup quarterback. I get that. there thinking okay tunnel's not back yet so we can't have either of them go down and not and then just not have a backup quarterback i get that but like i don't know at some point you

you gotta use you guys well if you don't trust them enough to throw the ball right now then what what what difference does that make if somebody gets hurt and he's got to be the guy then are you going to put him in or you're going to put in denigola davis i don't get it i don't i really don't so we're at an interesting time um so i'm just going to sit back relax watch last year's highlights you know just live it up man yeah we'll see what happens i i think you know i i posted it on twitter got uh got some hate uh on twitter of i said this season is not over right yeah and i listen i get it that can be you got some you got some you got some hate from uh from a partner of ours i that's okay i i ignored that um i uh i i understand it can be a tough tweet and you know after week two i get it i get it i'm. First of all, I'm trying to spurn some, some positivity for the,

for the fan base. But I think that, you know, listen, this season is not, it really isn't over. All right. Like, I don't think that like, you know, there's still a lot of football to be played, a lot of football to be played. And the reason that i put that out there was honestly because like there are people out there that are doom and gloom and i get that sports fans that's michigan fans but you never know what can happen you never know what can happen um you know i don't know that we're 2023 Alabama against Texas that, you know, can turn it around like that. But I think there's a lot on the table still that can happen. So I'll leave it at that. Yeah, man, I'm with you.

Let's just see what happens. And let's just enjoy football season because, you know, we only get it. We only get so many seasons. And so I'm going to be enjoying the game. We're going to be doing, you know, just you're out of town game. We're going to be doing – you're out of town, but we're going to be setting up at the Pretzel Bell, which I guess Jack's also out of town. So I'm really hoping that I'm stuck.

We're trying to set up everything. But we'll be at the Chrysler lot, Blue Lot, tailgating, be a little bit lighter of a setup. But hopefully we'll still have everybody come through. And I just want to say a big thank you. I know not all of our watchers and viewers are Michigan fans, but our last podcast with Justin and I hit almost 10,000 views. That is incredible.

And our goal is to hit – we're at 1,300 subs. Our goal is to hit 2,000 by the end of the football season. So, if you guys enjoyed the video, enjoyed the podcast, man, leave a like, leave a comment, subscribe to the channel. I feel like a stereotypical YouTuber right now, which I just a guy that look like a camera exactly you know i'm just a guy with like a job but like sorry about michigan football but we really appreciate the support and uh you know even to the fans of the haters hey man do you want to if anybody is curious our our number one market uh for viewership is the det Metro. Number two, shockingly, is Columbus, Ohio.

So shout out to the Buckeyes. We appreciate you really boosting that revenue for the boys, and we just appreciate all the love and support. Appreciate you. All right. 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.

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