Blue By Ninety - Michigan OVERPOWERED in CFB 25? Michigan fans CONTENT with one title? STACKED BBQ at the Big House

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

Justin and Tanner are back to talk their experience with EA Sports College Football 25 and playing with Michigan. Some fanbases think Michigan fans are content with their national championship and Sherrone Moore's first BBQ at the Big House is stacked with four and five-star recruits.

All right, welcome back to Blue by 90. I'm Justin, joined by Tanner. Today it is July 17th and we have officially played college football again. NCAA, well, is it NCAA or college football? A lot of debate out there. You know, kind of like the read option in the game, it's muscle memory, you know, trying to switch from NCAA to cfb it just doesn't roll off the tongue uh but as we know no official ncaa licensing doesn't matter game's great i don't know what you thought i haven't really played a lot of the maddens i stuck with ncaa 14 for 11 years really i mean i played some maddens a few years ago and they just were so bad this game's awesome like i'm having a blast okay um so yeah so the game the video game is back whatever you want to call it it's back um it's just good to play with michigan i i mean honestly the game could be terrible and i still would enjoy it i think because i love college football that much but it is sweet honestly like the moment that we went into Michigan Stadium,

like if you're a Michigan fan and you didn't play Michigan-Ohio State in Michigan Stadium as your first game, like you probably have an issue or something. But when they did the opening and like they touched the banner, they go out, it was pretty freaking awesome. I mean, you know, we've gone to a lot of games over the years and you've experienced it. You know what it sounds like for a Michigan game day.

You know what it feels like. You know what it looks like. They hit on all three, in my opinion, because when you go to the big house, and I'm sure this is hopefully true for all 134 teams and their fans, right? But the moment I went in there i mean the home field advantage is incredible you know i've been playing a lot of online a lot of the road of the cfp the ranked mode so i've been trying to get better and just you know play

around with that i think i'm like 10 and 4 online so not too bad um but you don't get the home field advantage online but when you play like dynasty or play now like when they start playing the music when michigan comes out for a defensive series, like in the crowd, like the crowd sounds incredible when you score and you, they play the victors. You can hear the crowd singing the song when they, when you get a first down,

they play let's go blue. The stadium looks incredible. The graphics are fantastic. It feels so real. Like it honestly, I was like, holy shit. Am I in Ann Arbor right now? Like in, in the big house., I was like, holy shit, am I in Ann Arbor right now,

like in the big house? Because I feel like just the sounds, like it brought me right back, like immediately. I mean, I'm ready for week one. But, I mean, yeah. So the first game I played was Michigan-Fresno State at night just because that was, you know, that's the first game on the schedule. So I just wanted to get in there and mess around.

We were streaming it on our Twitch channel. And, yeah, I game on the schedule, so I just wanted to get in there and mess around. We were streaming it on our Twitch channel. Yeah, I mean, the crowd. The fact that the crowd starts to get hype on a breakaway run to the end zone is just fantastic. Because before, you wouldn't really hear anything. You'd score, and the crowd would go crazy after in the older games. I can't imagine it's too hard like tech wise to do something like that but the attention to detail is pretty impressive we already posted about it i found it that the slippery rock score gets announced um i almost expected them to have like carl grapentine's

voice in the game so like can we get you know like can we get his voice in the game that would make that would just take it over the top but The Slippery Rock thing is really cool because that's just like – I don't know. It's such a little thing, but it's something that I feel us Michigan fans hold near and dear to our heart every time. I feel like the Slippery Rock people have to be so pumped for that. That's got to be one of the cooler things, right? Yeah, I mean that's probably the closest the Division II school

has gotten to being in a video game unfortunately unless you create a team so yeah i mean you know the gameplay i find it to be very very fun i mean it's ea real real quick before we get into gameplay the only thing that i believe i have not heard is mr brightside yeah i'm sure that there's a lot like virginia tech't have InterSandman licensing rights. It's like Metallica. Come on, dude. The Killers, throw us a bone. Let us enjoy it.

I mean, how much money do you need? You know what I mean? I don't know. I feel like they've got to be rich enough that at some point you do this because it's cool. I will say, though, when it's third down and you hear the bells and then they start playing Welcome to the Jungle, like that's my favorite song. Like I love that song. I grew up near Fort Wayne, Indiana, Fort Wayne Comets hockey team.

They play Welcome to the Jungle. So it's near and dear to my heart. And so when I hear that and the crowd's getting loud and amping up, you see the pulse on the stadium meter. Like it's just they nailed the atmosphere of it. You know, I'm excited to see what they do moving forward. But, yeah, I think overall from just the atmosphere, the feeling of college football, they got it really, really close.

And they did a really good job. And that's one of the things I love the most about the game. I agree. I definitely think just the music, the vibes, it feels like you are in the game. I mean, the celebrations. Celebrations, phenomenal. We talked about it. Every time I score on line, I hit the Heisman on somebody.

You have just been beating the Heisman pose to death. That's the only one I know by heart now, and so I need to print off. I need a play call sheet of all the celebrations. I've seen someiktoks and stuff of people like completely dressed up we might go to fedex to get it get it laminated and just like get eight of them and just hand them out to the boys you have to have it like tucked into your shirt too or tucking your pants you know uh as well headset on we've got the headset so we're

good we do yeah i do have the you know now it's chiron's show but i do still have the jim harbaugh jordan crew neck his hat like i was him for halloween one you absolutely should you need to do that we need to do it that can i get can i get a necklace with a sharpie on it you know yeah oh yeah can a dip in my back pocket we'll be rocking and rolling some khakis just the full camera i'm not even sitting i'm I'm just standing bent over like him. Well, you have to have hands on knees, glasses a little bit down. Confused look. Confused look looking up at the scoreboard.

Even though he's one of the smartest people in football, he always looks like he's super confused. It's probably because his brain is wired completely different than anybody else's in the world but he's like always has that look he probably confuses himself because there's so much going on up there either that or jim harbaugh just it's like the biggest third down play and he's like thinking about the wreck of the edmund fitzgerald and like it just like pops into his brain or there's like some old war story that pops in his brain or, or he's like, I wonder what my chickens are doing right now.

There's gotta be, you know, I could see him either being like completely dialed or being like ADHD to the max where he's like, oh shit, I forgot to feed my chickens today. He's got to go on a halftime text, somebody like hey go check on the chickens but yeah i mean it's it's uh from a just from a presentation standpoint the atmosphere um i actually i don't know about you but i i've gotten a lot of reese davis and jesse palmer and david pollock i have not had i don't know if i've had a single game um with herb street and fowlers so i like that it's for big games in dynasty but I may have to just go into like a play now, switch it over just to experience it. But yeah, there's so many things. And, you know, look, it's not a perfect game.

And we'll talk about the gameplay. You know, there's some certain things that I wish would be added. And hopefully they continue to patch that in. I mean, look, like I was going to say earlier, it is EA Sports. It's not perfect. And I hate to give, hate to give benefit of the doubt

to multi-billion-dollar corporations, but it's the first iteration. They knocked it out of the park as far as my expectations were because when this was first announced, I was like, hell yeah. And then like a week later, I was like, oh, it's the same dudes that make Madden. But the team clearly shows that they care and love college football. And so I think that hopefully moving forward that we will continue to get improvements, not just from the gameplay, but, you know, the immersion aspect. That's why, you know, people are like, oh, why do you care about presentation?

Like it's all about the immersion and making it as true to college football as possible. So you can, you know, in your head, create your own like college football kind of universe. Like that's why I love the game, right? Like I've been playing online and that's fun because I'm competitive but like i want to go in go to a team you know recruit work my way up to different schools and all that stuff and like i want to just be like in it you know because i don't want something that's going to take me out of it you know because then i'm like thinking about things and i'm like well that doesn't make any sense so yeah

there's things to work on but i think we should get to gameplay because I'm having a blast, dude. I was going to say, let's talk gameplay. Okay, I think we are in different atmospheres of how good we are at this game. I think you're pretty dang good. You're a gamer in general. I'm a very amateur. I got the thumbs, baby. You've got the thumbs.

I'm an amateur gamer. I've thrown 1 a thousand interceptions i literally i can't stop throwing interceptions like it's five or six a game at least i give up multiple pick sixes i this can't just be me i i'm i'm like banging my head against the wall but i cannot score i i cannot i'm like just running head against the wall But I cannot score I'm like just running Off tackle all day long Because every time I put it in the air It's getting picked off

I don't think I've taken more than like 5 deep shots And every time that deep shot they're wide open Because I'm running I run mesh so much Also a Michigan tie in In Michigan's playbook they have mesh traffic which was the play on the fourth and two in the rose bowl and then also blake's touchdown on their first touchdown drive against alabama in the rose bowl so you get the mesh you got the running back

coming out from the opposite side of the quarterback going left or right and like that that is cool like to see some of the things in the playbook that are real. But I will tell you, like, I'm very conservative with my play calling. I run the ball a lot. I go online. Like, I put a guy – I was Michigan. I think he was LSU. He didn't run it a single time. Really?

It's like – I kind of love that, though. That's just, like, a true, like, college football. Like, no punting. We're just going deep every time. But he started to run the same play every single time so then i would bracket with rod moore and i got like two picks on him and he bounced he was out of there uh i was up 30 i scored to go 37 21 and he paused

it once it went to quit but um yeah the gameplay is is really fun it's really hard i'm on heisman um i always play on heisman and man it's got me questioning like do i want to go to all american yeah like but do i want to go to all american? Yeah. Like, but do I want to go to all American? Like it's, it's not particularly easy and the game can be really punishing. But what I like about it is, yeah, you've got to be able to read the defense, right? Like you've got to be able to read your keys. And then you also have to be aware because the defensive line is really good in this game. I want to just say something real quick from our friends down South, all the complaining about, oh, Michigan's in the trailer, and then Kyle McCord.

Brother, have you played against Ohio State? Jack Sawyer is basically Lawrence Taylor. The guy's not that good. They basically made Jack Sawyer the Missouri Cotton Bowl version of himself for the whole game. Like, I can't block that guy. I played Oregon versus OSU in ranked, and he was diabolical. version of himself for the whole game like i can't i can't block the guy i played oregon versus osu in uh ranked and it was i he was i played michigan versus ohio state that first game

and it was zero zero like going into the fourth quarter uh because neither of us could run the ball neither of us could throw i was just throwing i kept throwing interceptions uh and but they did too i kept picking the ball and i just michigan i'll say this so okay you were talking about ohio state's defense is incredible in this game michigan michigan's defense is fucking good luck running up the middle against michigan like i that part i was like oh my god this is so sweet i'm just like constantly stacking the quarterback with josiah stewart and derrick moore and these these guys are just getting to the q with Josiah Stewart and Derek Moore. These guys are just getting to the QB every single time.

How about Eric Madison III, though? Number 27. Generic guy. I love it. What did you say the other day? You had to triple-check the roster. You're like, wait, who the hell is this? It was easy to pick up on.

It's because Jair Hill didn't opt into the game. So he's not actually in the game at the moment. Hopefully some of these guys can still opt in. They had 11,000 plus people. So it's like, I can't imagine that's very easy to make sure nobody falls through the cracks. I don't know if that's a Jair thing, but hopefully they can get him in the game. But yeah, so Michigan has some generic guys on the roster. And like you do a double take. You're like, wait a minute.

This has the real players. I've never heard of this guy. So we were all in our Discord when the game came out, like, playing as Michigan and trying to figure out who is this guy, who is that guy. So, you know, I think I might need to get an Eric McMadison jersey. But the one thing I will say, that's not a real name. No one has ever been named that once,

let alone three times through lineage. That's ridiculous. What is it? It's Mick Madison? Mick Madison III. The third is incredible. Yeah, I don't know what their name generator is going through, but yeah. No, I mean, it's fun for sure.

I got to get in the labs more. I tried to practice. I tried to go into practice. I still – so what am I doing wrong with passing, though? I'm supposed to lead with the left stick. Is that right? So when it comes to passing, the meter that you see – so it goes blue, yellow, red.

So blue is like more of a lob to touch pass right and once you get into the yellow that's got a little bit more more spin on a little more speed velocity and then the red's like a bullet but the red can be a little inaccurate so it's like i'm still learning it too man because before this i've planned dynasty with kansas i just threw a pick against illinois and uh but i mean i put up 35 at that point i'm feeling good i'm like let me take a little shot and i throw a pick um but yeah i, that's what I've been doing is just getting into practice mode, just putting random play out of shotgun and then random play on the defense out of like a four, three or three, four nickel or dime or whatever. And just get in there and

just trying different things and just, you know, getting the stick work in. But one thing I will say, it's more so online. It's not online, it's not as useful against the computer. But, man, that left stick, right, because the right stick's for juking and all different sorts of moves. But, man, that left stick, like, you know, you can make people look silly. And I had a great time doing that with Donovan Edwards. Like, he's a stud in this game, obviously a cover athlete. I talked to him yesterday.

So I was talking to him. I was like, yo, I played with you. And at first I was like, I don't want to tell Donovan that I'm playing with him. Right? Like, okay. I'm one of literally a million people that I'm sure has told him that blah, blah, blah. I was like, yo, you run like, just like you run in the game. And he's like, bro, I know.

Isn't it cool? So I don't know that. I don't know if they like did like the, you know, if they actually like had those guys run or something, but Samaj also, I swear, he runs just like Samaj does. So they did something. It's got to be some type of AI where they take film of them running and put them in there or something. Well, that's a different sports series, NBA 2K.

That's what they've done. They had a really – I mean, a lot of it's marketing, right? And it's like, oh, this is a new feature. But they were able to use AI, and that's what that's what they've done like they had a really it's i mean it's a lot of its marketing right and it's like oh this is a new feature but they were able to use ai and that's what has me really excited about just sports games moving forward is the ability for ai to like i don't know if they can motion capture with ai yet i'm assuming that'll come at some point now how far down the road i'm not an expert but like being able to like take film or footage of a guy running and his mannerisms and his cutting ability and all those sorts of things. And like get that in instead of it being some like, you know, I'm sure they probably hire guys that play D1 football and have them go in like the suit with the dots and all that stuff. But like in the future, I'm assuming they'd be able to get like pretty accurate to what the real players like.

So, yeah, man, I'm very bullish on this on this game. I mean, like I said, it's got a lot of work. Like Dynasty, I don't know if you've jumped in there. There's a lot of upsets. Like the teams, I feel like part of the issue is that they don't want to upset anybody that's opting into the game, right? Because that's the whole thing. You need to have the likeness.

But I feel like some of these teams are rated a little too high. Like I see FCS upsets. I see like App State in then playoff like winning it not saying they can't be the highest rated g5 team but like let's it's not it's a little too unrealistic for my liking because i'm a nerd i want it to be like real life and it's not quite that so i'm hoping with some updates you know pushing an update to the to the console that we download like maybe they can fix it but right now it's that's the one thing that's really just like ah man that's the one downer is like just this the simming you know the dynasty like georgia shouldn't be going six and six i'm sorry like they should be

going ten and two at worst like i want some realism in that well let's talk about some of the the most overrated teams um colorado i mean travis hunter is jerry rice in this game that that's number one is like i i don't i mean go go ahead talk about travis hunter because i know you were playing with him yesterday you're playing sorry no i have not used colorado i'm a big i'm a big hater in general of most things um and so colorado has you know really taken you taken one of those spots this year. Not even the game. Just some of the things that they say and how they've acted after going

four and eight. It's like, guys, a little humility. Just a little. You guys got smoked by multiple teams last year. You blew hugely to Stanford. Oregon could have dropped 100 on you like let's just take it easy you know let's stay out of the spotlight but that's not their mo i think i saw

travis hunter on stream like trashing his own own office yeah i do i i don't know that culture i mean they they talk about culture but it's like there's non-existent um but yeah colorado i mean shadur is the best quarterback in the game, which I don't necessarily disagree with that. I think that's fair. I'll say this. Here's the thing about Colorado, though, too, is Shadur and Travis Hunter are like video game figures in real life. They can do things that you can only usually do in a video game.

So there is something to that where it's like Orgy as well is like really, really good in this game, you know, and we definitely don't know if he's to that point in real life. Right. Yeah. So like, I mean, there is an aspect of just being like really super athletic people are always

better in video games. Like that's, those are the most fun guys to play with usually. For sure. And I mean, Travis Hunter, he's I think a 96 at wide receiver. I think he's a 95 at corner. I'm sorry, but he's not that close to Will Johnson. I know he's a freak athlete, all that stuff, but Will Johnson is the best corner in the country,

probably the best corner prospect in at least a few years, I would say. But going back to actually playing against them, I didn't really struggle with them. Like, I was super concerned. Like, we were in the Discord. I'm like, dude, I'm literally, like, taking one of the safeties, and I'm like, wherever 12 is on the field, I'm, like, bracketing him like myself, and I'm going to let the computer handle everything else in the zones and the man-to-man.

But I beat the guy 28-0 with Tennessee. So, like, you know, I haven't really come up against anybody. Yeah, no, it's fine. Yeah, and as a Michigan fan, it felt weird using Tennessee, but I just was trying a lot of different teams. There's only three teams in this game that I will never use, and that is – well, maybe four, I guess, but that's Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan State, Penn State.

Even Penn State, I might – I just want to try Singleton and Allen. I don't really have the hate for penn state like the other three um but yeah it's uh you know there's some there's some overrated teams for sure um there's but honestly dude like i think just in general sorry go ahead finish no no i was just gonna say like there's probably some guys who are higher rated than they should be but like that's the fun part about college football man because like you know some of these guys may not ball out in the nfl but like on saturdays like they may put up 10 catches for 200 yards and two touchdowns like you do in the game because college football there's so many players there's so many teams the level of talent discrepancy

like it it's a little arcade-ish in the game but i think that works for college much more than it does for the nfl right because nfl is like 24-21, 24-17, 20-14, like low-scoring games in college. Like you're getting shootouts a lot of the time. I was just going to say like Michigan's in 87, I think, right? And like I don't know if I'm just saying that they're underrated but there are a couple of teams that I was, I can't even think of who they were, but I was flipping through.

There are a couple of teams that are 85s that it's like they have, if you put them on the same field with Michigan, they're getting their shit. Yeah. Like I know, I know, I know you. So one thing I wanted to mention,

I forgot about this as we were talking about earlier, the attention to detail. If you play a home game at ucf at night you can see the spacex launches from cape canaveral like that's pretty sweet that's insanely cool right so like they again they crushed it on that but like ucs 84 but for anybody that's playing online ucf kj jefferson they're a blast dude i had so much fun playing with them i had a lot of fun playing with um virginia i had a lot of fun playing with baylor like i was like when the game first came out i played with a bunch of random schools on on the road to the cfp mode that was fun i did too i played one game with uh two lane uh i mean the green wave jerseys the jerseys the jersey

selection is unbelievable it's unbelievable um And I played against Boise State. So it was just like a jersey off. Yeah, that's when it's fun. And in that mode, if you pick – there's three tiers of teams. You pick two or three tier. You can select it to make sure you play a two or three tier. But, you know, I didn't have that luck because I selected Texas Tech. And I was like, I want to play another tier two team.

I went up against Alabama. Now, another humble brag, I made the guy quit on a pick six but you know like I don't want to play Bama with Texas Tech like you know if I'm gonna play Bama I'm gonna take Michigan or I'm gonna take Texas or one of the top teams in the game I don't want to go up against them with the Red Raiders no disrespect but like so shout out to the people that actually like try different teams and don't just run with Georgia. Like, all right, come on. How is – you've played online a lot more than I have.

Yeah. How are the people out there? Are other people good? Like has it been tough competition? No. Or are you going against like me out there? I don't know because the ranking system, like it starts you off as a recruit and then I'm in freshman right now. And I'm assuming that you progress up.

You play 10 games and then if you get into the playoffs, you have three playoff games against other people. I mean, I've had some tough matchups. Like I lost the first two games I played online and then I rattled off like – I think I rattled off like 10 of 11 after that. So I kind of got into my groove a little bit. But it's a little difficult. There are some really good players out there.

I'm not the guy that's like going and hot routing everything. Like I just – it's just too much time for me. Like I just want to play the game. So, you know, I'm not a super competitive like good player when it comes to like Madden or college football now. But I just like to go and have fun. I like to try to play realistic football. You know,

I like when I play, you know, against the computer, like I kind of want my stats and dynasty to be realistic. Like I don't want to throw for 80 touchdowns, you know, like I want it to be like, if I throw for like 38 touchdowns,

like, oh, that's a great year, you know? So that's kind of how I try to play. And I think that actually helps in this game because of how like dominant the defense can be. Like you can't just, you know, go forwards forwards all the time like you could back in the day like

you've got to think about things you've got to play complimentary football that's i think i mean i i'll say this the it was sometimes more fun when you could just like chuck it at all times for sure you know and like there were times, like that was part of the fun, I feel like, of NCAA 14 was just like there are times where you're just like, all right, pressing triangle to go hurry up offense and you're just going bomb after bomb after bomb, right? Right. And, but now like that's, and again,

I'm going to have to get better at it, but I think that's like a little bit of the tough part for me of like, all right, listen, as a Michigan fan, I have no problem with grinding it out on the ground. I enjoy it, in fact. But there are times where I just want to chuck it deep and just like go, you know, play action posts all day long. And it's very difficult it's very difficult see man

it's so funny like i've noticed a couple times like i typically select my plays pretty quick and i'm not looking at the menus but there was one time where i looked after i scored online and i had a 16 play 75 yard drive that took like i mean it took three minutes because i'm like not chewing the clock but i was like i ran duo for eight of those plays. And I'm just like reading, I'm reading the guard in the center and like where the double teams come in and then who's getting to the back and I'm just following it. It's so much fun. That's like so sick of you, but it's amazing.

Like that is, you have to be a real football guy. Yeah. To like really enjoy just going duo eight plays in a row. Yeah. And then, you know, like when the guy was starting to – you know, because it's the three tight end like bunch. And so the guy was starting to realize that when I called that formation that I was running up the middle.

So when I saw him shift his D line, and that's when I came with the quick toss to Dono and got him. Like I got him for like 20 yards. Like I like that stuff. Like I don't know football on that level, but like I like to kind of lull somebody in and then be like oh i'm doing this yeah i would love to and somebody should do this at some point is like get chereau more to like call your place for you like he he obviously i'm sure he can't like he's not great at actually playing the video game but if he could help you like run,

read the defense or like have, you know, orgy, have JJ, have whoever, you know, read the defense for you and know like, yeah,

that would be pretty fun to do. Maybe you, maybe that can be an aisle fundraiser, like $10,000 for a 30 minute zoom. And he's just coaching you. That dude, I might have to chalk it up. That's the only way i'm gonna complete a pass

honestly so uh i i gotta reach it deep into the pockets here but hey man it's a lot we got a lot a lot of time with the game it's not like you know like we got a lot of time with the game and we're gonna be playing it all year long alongside college football dude okay so i know we got to move on and talk about the some recruiting stuff but like i just can't wait for christmas time like the best i think my favorite thing about being an adult and like working the job that i do is around christmas i'm typically not super involved right like you know it's year end so there's things that need to be done but i'm not really the one handling it so i'm just kind of there in case of emergency so you know from like december 21st through

january 3rd or whatever that monday is like i'm really out of commission even without taking pto so you know little bowl game on you know little college football on like when i was a kid that's why you said i was a kid man i had the bowl games on on one tv and then i'd like bring my tv downstairs and like play in c double a so i'm looking forward to the, to those moments, man. It's, it's so nostalgic. I think,

you know, that's, that's my favorite part is just like, it reminds me of being a kid. It is. I mean, I, we got the dynasty group chat back up and running from my high school boys.

And I can't wait. It is. It does feel like, like my, my buddy was like, Oh boy, we got the we got the band back together. And then he's like, we're doing Halo and Call of Duty after this too.

I mean, that used to be me in high school with all of our boys like, Halo party? Halo party? Like what? Girls and drinking? No. Actually, we wanted to just hang with the boys. Absolutely. I didn't partake in anything cool until my boy absolutely that's yeah that was like yeah i didn't partake in anything cool until like my senior year otherwise i was like playing

modern warfare 2 or whatever into the play like that was it so yeah it definitely takes you back to that and um it honestly like it's the same like it's kind of the same thing when i go back to the big house like it's just like this certain like and just takes you back to when you were a kid, but you get to experience it every single Saturday in the fall. And it's just – I don't know, man. It's really cool to see the game back. It's really cool with real players. I don't have to wait for rosters to get uploaded.

Remember that. I want to start a dynasty, but I'm not doing it with QB number 16. I need Denard Robinson in there. So now it's like everybody's in there. You gonna worry about it like that's really nice it is cool the one thing i said while we were in discord uh the other night was like how awesome would this be if you were in the game so this is awesome for us playing this but like how fun would this be if you were in college you're a college football player, and even if you're the Michigan guys, but let's say you're a central Michigan player.

Oh, that's so sick, dude. How cool would that be to be like, I'm playing this video game with me and my boys. Yeah. We're on the game. Yeah, and for those guys, it's super cool too because they get to, in the future, show their kids, like, hey, I was the game. Like, yeah. And for those guys, it's super cool too. Cause they're like, you know, they get to in the future, like show their kids like,

Hey, I was, I was the man. Like I was, I was 85 overall back in CFP 20 CFB 25, you know? So like it's, it's,

it's a, it was a long time coming with this stuff and all the things that, you know, people don't love about college football at the moment, which I get, but it also, when the NIL stuff was introduced, I was like,

hell yeah. Like we're getting, we're getting the game. Like we're going to get the game the game at some point right there's too much money to be made too many people want it so uh yeah last thought like i'm having a great time there's some things i want them to uh improve but um yeah i'm gonna play the shit out of it like i haven't played i'm a big call duty guy i haven't played call duty since uh monday uh sunday so like um yeah my boys that i play warzone with are a little upset with me, but I'm like, guys, I've been telling you this for

months that when this comes out, I'm out of commission. And then whenever the baby comes, it's baby and college football. That's it, bro. That's all I got to worry about. What's been tougher? You telling your Call of Duty boys that you're playing NCAA or are you trying to tell your wife that you are spending

literally all your time on the game? Yeah, Monday game comes out at four right so so Brandon Justice and I hopped in we do a little twitch stream for a few hours and then everybody else kind of got on we're just kind of screwing around in discord chatting it up and she came in at like 9 30 and she's like do you know when you're gonna come to bed and I was like wait five and a half hours later yeah well I played till one you were there I was there I mean I took like wait five and a half hours later yeah well i played till one you were there i was there i mean i took like an hour and a half break but um to hang out with her and eat dinner and stuff but she she knew i mean she knew what the deal was um you know i mean you know we got we got married uh after the game had been announced i don't know if she understood the

gravity of the situation but she you know dude that was a possibility but she came in and she's like do you know when you come to bed? And I was like, honestly, I'm just going to go with the vibes and see what it is. And I stroll into my bedroom at like one 15 and then it starts thundering and lightning. So I'm like, ah, shit. So, you know, that's what I get for stayed up late. Cause I was rough yesterday, um, on the, on the 16th on Tuesday. But, uh, no, man, it's, uh,

I'm just glad to have it back. I've been having a great time. We're going to be continuing to do more stuff with content. The unfortunate part is we can't do an Online Dynasty with everybody that's in Blue by 90 because you can't do PlayStation and Xbox cross-play. Madden has it, though. So I don't know if that's coming in the future. Who knows?

But definitely going to be doing some stuff, maybe doing something on Sunday sunday here as well maybe a little tournament so we'll be tweeting that out and uh streaming some of those games i think there'll be a lot of fun because honestly dude our discord chat was just we were wild now like it was just hilarious so i think people might just enjoy that like a little more filtered the best part was like we weren't even playing against each other no we're just i was just like hey what are you guys doing shit yeah and the best part too was like you did this was probably me more than most other people but it'd go quiet for a couple minutes of everyone just playing all of a

sudden you just hear somebody fuck you knew that they like threw a pick or something how about i know i've said last thing but how about brandon justice um playing his michigan dynasty recruiting one of his top center five-star target goes to my he was leading he was leading tushenberry was this guy's last name i think it was uh cliff tushenberry the third or something crazy but he he was leading or he was neck and neck with miami dude goes to visit the u commits and i'm like that's realistic he got the bag he got a hellcat he got it all man so uh but yeah like it's just been some funny moments already so we definitely want to stream that and let everybody his uh his text too i think we said hey does anybody want to like uh run dynasty this weekend or something he goes no i have an in-home visit with tush and barry that i can't miss oh man i wish like when

you dm a player you can see what's being dm'd you know but i've seen some photoshops online that are pretty good yeah it's uh some of that Georgia stuff. I don't think I want to say it on the pod. Just go look it up. It's funny. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

I have. Okay. Before we get into recruiting, I know we said we're going to get into recruiting, but I've got a little, little debate that the boys from no block, no rock, your boys,

Nebraska podcast. They are awesome dudes. We we've done some stuff with them. that the boys from No Block No Rock, your boys, Nebraska Podcast, they are awesome dudes. We've done some stuff with them. But they had a pod that they just tweeted at us. So they tweeted a couple clips at us and wanted to get our thoughts. So I thought, you know, you and I can just – we'll give our thoughts. So they were saying – they were breaking down teams around the Big Ten, I believe, and breaking down their season, upcoming season.

And one of the boys said that they feel like Michigan fans are just content with the natty and not hungry for more this year. Can I say something? Yeah, go ahead ahead it doesn't matter how content we are there's no bearing it's very we're very content with a national championship how long 27 years 20 27 years because we split it so you know it's been as long uh before january um yeah i'm close they've been close to an addy recently too you know four and eight four yeah yeah four and eight is like they're only like i don't know 11 wins away so that's like it's true that's close yeah i mean i don't understand that sentiment like yeah we we would love to see continued success more success success at this level the thing with that is though is that you're gonna have to kind of temper your expectations just all around the the big 10

you've got oregon coming in who's recruiting like nobody's business right now phil knight's just got a cannon for for money right now just the money's just got a cannon for money right now. Just the money cannon. Just throwing it at DJ Pickett. Trey McNutt, safety out of Ohio. I believe, I think he's a legacy. He's a five-star about to go out to Oregon. Right?

Like, Phil Knight's like 81. He's probably like, I want to see an Addy. Like, I need to see one. He's doing the Mike Illich Tigers dance of 2012. Absolutely. So I'm not sure what that take really means because I can't control anything that happens on the field. I follow recruiting. I follow the team.

I want to see continued success. And Michigan's recruiting at a level that's starting to rival some of these other programs, maybe not Ohio State, Georgia, Bama levels, but if they get some of these kids we're about to talk about. Go ahead. No, I was going to leave it at that. I just – are we not allowed to be happy with the natty? We haven't played another game since then.

We get that from Ohio State fans too, but we're content because we're boasting that we went 15-0 and won the match. You get the eight months of the offseason to talk your shit. What do you want me to do? And honestly, we're still going to – once August comes around and camp comes around, we're talking Fresno State. We're talking Texas.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I would love to watch it and camp comes around. We're talking Fresno state. We're talking. Absolutely. Absolutely. I don't, I mean, and I would love to watch it and see the context and I'm going with no context, but I know these guys, you know,

they're a little bit of a troll. You got a little bit of a troll syndrome on all four of them. There was a comment of like, what are they going to do without stallions? What are they going to do without Harbaugh? Blah, blah, blah.

I mean, wait, I have a question. What have they done without steroids in the last 30 years? That's a question I'd like to ask them. I lived in Nebraska. I heard the stories. There's a lot of stories about Nebraska and the juice.

I'm just saying. Good question. Good question. I don't know. I have to take a deep breath here. I quote tweeted and said, said you know i i put their quote on there and then i said this is a a comment from somebody who hasn't won 10 games in over a decade so like if you want to talk about being content with media like we're yeah we're

content with winning it all being the best is team in the nation. That is the highest level. There's no more beyond that. That does make me feel content that we are the number one team in the nation and won all of our games. And I'm not saying they're obviously firing their coaches and stuff when they're shitty because they're always shitty, but you've been content honestly the bo pollini era was being content with nine and four and then absolutely not content and honestly their whole

program thinks right now they wish they would go back to the nine and four they would take it in a heartbeat that's being content i mean and they did him, but there are a lot of Nebraska fans, if we want to spin this back on being content, there's a large portion of that fan base that would, in a heartbeat, go back to that era. I think a lot of them wanted Pelini gone, and not for the 9-4. It was more so losing the big games. But they've won – I think they might have won 10 games in 2016.

I can't remember. I looked it up. 2012 was the last time. They won nine games, I believe, with – With Mike Riley? With Riley one time. Okay. That was when they went to Ohio State and got absolutely demolished, I believe.

Or maybe – yeah, they went to – yep, they went to Columbus and got smoked. They were like number seven in the country in the CFP rankings I just don't understand that though because nothing has happened in the sport of college football in the last six months there's been no games there's been signing days there's been transfer portal openings there's been spring ball but what are Michigan fans supposed to do at this moment are they not supposed to be happy about their team going 15 and 0 and beating everybody on their schedule there's nothing more that they could have done last year and I think let's let's also can we separate like being content with winning the natty and like thinking oh we'll never win again

like we're not content with like oh, we just won't compete at all. We got our natty. We can go 6-6 this year. No, I want to go 12-0. Exactly. First of all, yes, we want to go 12-0. But there also is a difference between thinking, oh, yeah, we're going to go back-to-back.

But also, as you said, the conference has changed. Ohio State is loaded up. Like, there's tempering expectations a little bit. When you lose your head coach, you lose a bunch of guys. There's a difference between, like, being content and tempering expectations of, like, hey, you know what? Not very many teams have won the natty back-to-back. There's a really good chance that we don't go 12 and 0

this year because the conference is really fucking hard we lost a bunch of guys we lost our coach like those are different conversations right like he said they're not hungry for more and it's like i can't do anything i will go to the game and cheer. And also, when you look at college football, when's the last time outside of Georgia, Clemson, Alabama? And honestly, Clemson is a different conversation because they had two generational quarterbacks that really kind of masked some issues of recruiting at Clemson. I mean, Clemson recruits at a decent level.

Trevor Lawrence was a four-year starter, and people were talking when he was a freshman that he should sit – after his freshman season, just sit the rest of his college career. I remember that was a real conversation. Yeah, so outside of Georgia Bama, you have to go back to the mid-2000s with USC who won three national championships with one of those being split, and then they had them vacated. So it's really hard, they should know, to win in college football and to win at the level that Michigan has won over the last three seasons.

Again, I'm not sure. I'd like to watch the video. I'm reacting blind just to kind of what you've given me, but it just doesn't really make sense because, again, fans can't do anything. And also, they're not content because we know the money cannon's flowing. Michigan is winning recruitments that they were not winning a year ago. So I don't know how that comes to being content. And I think the word that they're really looking for is complacency,

not content, because there's two different things. Well, I agree with you on the recruiting side of things because literally they're more aggressive than ever under Jim Harbaugh in the recruiting world right now they are on the trail going crazy so I I think it's honestly the opposite well I mean do we want to talk recruiting and just kind of show how content Michigan is right now let's do it I mean so barbecue at the big house um probably the only good thing outside of Denard Robinson that Rich Rodriguez brought us here in Ann Arbor. Big time recruiting weekend.

I believe that's next weekend, the last weekend of July. So there's just a few names because there's not a free public list to be able to use. And I'm not going to steal anything from the paid websites. If you have a subscription, go look at it. But I'm not going to take their information that they work for. But there's a few guys that I just have seen on Twitter or know that are going to be there that I think Michigan fans should be pretty fired up for. The guy that I want to start with. So there was some talk about Derek Meadows, who's a five-star receiver out of Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas, Nevada, that he was down to Notre Dame LSU,

just reading all the tea leaves. But Michigan kind of came in and was like, what's up? And it kind of caused a delay in his recruitment. Now, I don't think Michigan will get him, but I think that there's a better prospect out there, and that's Jerome Miles out of Utah. He was an Ole Miss commit. And so he's visiting for the barbecue.

He is on 24-7 the 30th player ranked in the country, number five receiver, five-star, 98 rating. Quick question on that. What does that tell you about where Michigan is at or what they're going to be with their offense? So a couple things. With their offense specifically, that a five-star receiver is like actually Michigan might be the place I want to be well they just had two receivers drafted you know

so it's not like I mean yeah you may not put up you know Blitnikoff award-winning stats but you're going to be developed you're going to play in a pro style does it type of does it show you yes you're correct but does it show you that Kurt Campbell is selling these guys a little bit different of a style of offense? Like, hey, we're going to get you the ball. Because otherwise, I mean, I do think it is tough when you look at Roman's numbers and CJ's numbers. Like, to sell that to a five-star coming in is tough. So in my mind, I'm thinking Kirk Campbell is saying,

hey, you know, this is going to be a little bit different. Yes, we're still going to run the ball. There's no doubt. Jerome Moore is our head coach. But, you know, our goal, we've got some high-level QBs in our building now and coming up, and we're going to be throwing the ball, and we want to get it to you. No, absolutely.

And I think, you know, Ole Miss, decommit. I mean, you know, I think that says something about Michigan's willingness to be modern in recruiting, if you know what I'm saying. Yeah, well, I think that too is like not only this guy, there were a few different situations where guys were like heavily, heavily, you know, very warm on other schools. And then Michigan came in late and it, and it was like, oh, I'm actually interested in Michigan.

Like that shows a lot about where the NIL is, what's going on there. And just where, you know, that Michigan is just being aggressive. I think there were, you know, in the past few years, if a guy like we, Michigan would always be the situation where a guy would be warm on Michigan and like almost a verbal commit at that point, or that's what it would seem. And then somebody else would swoop in. It feels like it, the opposite is happening a little bit that we haven't had that many yet, but it feels like something's going to happen and we're turning the tide there where

it's like Michigan's the one that's making late pushes and being aggressive on the trail. No, absolutely. So I certainly think that Michigan is being very aggressive. I think a lot of Michigan fans got that taste last year and are not content with just one national championship and are wanting to contribute in any way that they can. I'm not a big booster. I donate here and there if I can.

Maybe later in life I'd like to. I appreciate any type of donor. I got you. Well, it's better than zero. But I think you have a lot of the wealthy alums that are like, no, I want to keep doing that. And I think one thing that just from what I've read, it seems like Sharon is much more willing to go and do the things necessary and to have the organization and the structure to be competitive in that space right like a lot of these schools down south had already been doing this under the table for years so they just ready to go michigan didn't really do that so they had to kind of get it you know build it from scratch so um but i'm extremely excited about the potential of drill miles i mean it sounds like michigan might be the team to beat there which is crazy when you're talking

about a five star from utah who has committed to old miss like i think that just shows that the times are changing you know andrew olesh alabama came in late and michigan was able to award him on ward them off he's a you know top 100 uh player from pennsylvania at tight end um ivan taylor you go flip notre dame's best prospect in the class like there are certain things nate marsh Kanoa Winston, like they're getting big time talent while also still getting kind of some of those developmental players that are going to be really good college players that may take a year or two of kind of, you know, just coaching upend guys at the top of the class and then some guys that may take a little bit of time to bake, but those guys end up being Mike Samerstall, Hassan Haskins, Ronnie Bell. You could go on and on about those guys that weren't big-time recruits,

weren't four and five stars, but are football players. And I think that Sharone's going to keep that strategy of recruiting while maybe going after some bigger fish, which is very exciting as a Michigan fan. You know, like it's nice to see. I love it. Yeah, I mean, I think you want to talk about being content or being complacent. It doesn't seem like this staff is complacent.

They're trying to build something big here. And the way that you build is you win a natty, which our Nebraska friends don't know a whole lot about that. I personally, you personally, we know. It actually

was just like, I don't know, seven-ish months ago that we did that. I popped champagne. Yeah. I smoked cigar. I went to downtown Ann Arbor. You were in Houston. I was there, actually. So they have this thing now that they introduced a few years ago.

It's the college football playoff. So, like, if you are good enough, you get invited. And then if you win two games, you win the national championship. Now it's 12 teams, but before it was four. Yeah, there's this whole thing. So we can maybe maybe we can just teach our nebraska friends about that um maybe they probably haven't heard about that yet so we'll we'll let them know uh and yeah you know we we wish them the best and

hopefully we can drink a beer with them i love those guys i love those guys but but you know sometimes you gotta step out and show fellas you know we're the kendrick lamar um so uh the other guy so there's two more guys i want to talk about because i know we're kind of getting almost to an hour which is crazy because we're doing a quick quick podcast here uh so jayden sanders uh corner out of texas uh he has gotten a bump in the ratings from 247 he's the 24th corner in the country um 215th in the country overall. He's going to be visiting for the barbecue, the big house, like I kind of like where Michigan sits. When you look at the other teams kind of recruiting him, Vandy, Baylor, okay. State Texas tech TCU is in there. They've

kind of faded. But I think just like last year with Joe, with the Josiah Edmond you know, Michigan lost out on one of his top corner targets with Shamari Earls flipping from South Carolina to Georgia. So they're able to kind of go and find a guy who's maybe a little under the radar, but is going to have a big senior season, is going to jump up the rankings. Not that it matters, doesn't make him a better football player, but it just shows the ability of this staff to continue to evaluate like they have in the past under Jim Harbaugh. So I honestly wouldn't be shocked.

I don't know when he's looking to make a decision, but it feels like he's a guy that might drop for Michigan at any point, especially coming to the barbecue at the big house. A lot of star power there. Like these are just – I have one more guy I want to talk about because, like I said, 247 compiled this list. There's a lot of talent. Like locally, nationally, there's a ton of guys coming in for that event, a lot of

current commits. So, you know, the pressure is going to be on to maybe get some guys to commit then and, or maybe at least think about Michigan and when they go back home. So, but man, Michigan, you know, they've got a lot of guys that are, that they're on the radar for and might drop at any point. So the last guy I want to touch on real quick here, Justin, is Andrew Marsh, number 10 wide receiver in the country, according to 24-7, 66th overall player. Again, I mean, the fact that Michigan is able to even be, you know, they have crystal balls in for Andrew Marsh. Like, it's not a foregone conclusion,

but, like, when he commits in August, it feels like it's going to be Michigan. You know, Texas, Oklahoma were in there, but I feel like Michigan's been able to kind of pull away. And I feel like to your point, that's just because of their ability to say, look, we know what we've done in the past moving forward, depending on what happens with this offense this year, because who knows who's going to be the starter, but like we want to be balanced. We want to throw the ball. We want our receivers to put up numbers to go in the first round. So I think that's – when you look at the recruiting board,

you can kind of see the philosophy shift a little bit, right, and being able to be a little bit more balanced and sling the rock a little bit more, which, man, I wish JJ was back for a lot of reasons, but, man, you'd be able to really just let him rip it. If JJ – man, if JJ gave us one more year – I mean, everything would be different first of all, but it would just be like, man, I don't know. I don't know, man. That would be incredible. I don't even want to talk about it.

We'd be, we'd be looking at like a top five Michigan team again. Not that I don't think they can be, but like just the, you know, having that position solidified is so important in college football. So very happy for JJ. Obviously, we've talked about it, but you just it's hard not to think about, man. Like, oh, what if nine was here? You know, like what if nine was here? Things would be different, man. I know, man. But yeah, so that's, you know, some of the key guys I'm looking at. You know, a lot of current commits are coming. Andrew Oles, we talked about. I believe he's going to be there. Nate Marshall, I believe, is going to be there, which is huge because, you know, other lot of current commits are coming. Andrew Oles, we talked about, I believe he's going to be there.

Nate Marshall, I believe he's going to be there, which is huge because, you know, other schools are still recruiting these guys. So any chance you can get them up to campus, it's a big deal. And, yeah, I think Sharon has done a great job of just expanding the recruiting staff. I think, you know, the personnel there, it seems like Michigan didn't have a lot compared to, you know, other schools and the amount of staffers they have. So I think Michigan has continued to kind of modernize its recruiting approach. And you tie that in with winning a national championship, the brand that is Michigan, that's really tough to beat, right,

for the right type of recruit. So you good over there? I'm good. I'm good. Sorry. No, you're good. I thought that was Whitney Houston for a little bit. Was it?

Perfect. What a great song. But, yeah, that's what I've got on the recruiting show, man. I think Michigan, you know, again, we talked about last week Andrew Babalola. It feels like he's – I just think he's going to drop at some point for Michigan, five-star off of the tackle. Like, you get a couple five-stars, man. Like, that shows you is is for real and is

committed to doing what it takes to get that shit dude that shit snowballs so quickly man like you get what even one of those guys and it's like people follow those people you know what i mean like yeah we talked about this with the quarterback where you get your quarterback landed and then like other things snowball well you get a couple five stars and things snowball too oh you mean to tell me that michigan wasn't going to stay at number 15 recruiting forever that's so weird in may we took screenshots of it in may and it didn't stay the same michigan all like other than last year's class 2024 class like they're always a little bit later to the party than getting their recruits and their commits like there was i mean when blake quorum the summer that he committed i think michigan had like 10 commits over like a two-week period like this is how michigan recruits

they're always they're not gonna load up immediately they're gonna evaluate guys and they're gonna make sure that that's somebody who's gonna fit the culture in the program and then they're gonna start getting some commits because i'll tell you what if michigan lands some of these guys they're not just gonna have a top 10 class they're gonna to start getting some commits. Because I'll tell you what, if Michigan lands some of these guys, they're not just going to have a top 10 class. They're going to be pushing for a top five class. And that's scary. That's scary for the rest of college football.

Don't get me started here. Don't get me excited. I mean, I'm just saying. Michigan is one with not always the highest rated classes, but they've hit on a lot of gems. But if you compare the gems with the guys who are highly recruited that are top 100 five-star level athletes, I mean,

that's, that's how you have the sustained success that us Michigan fans would love to see. I just can't do anything. I don't, I don't have any control. I can control it on its way, but I can't do it in real life to answer.

I'm going to end it here. I am content with Arnatti. I'm very fucking content. I'm content. You know what? I've been a happy man for the past seven months. I've had next to zero worries in my life. I've been able to jump on Twitter every single day and talk shit to every single other team.

Oh, yeah. It's just so good. It has me so content. When was the last time Michigan – when was the last time – never mind. I don't want to bring that up. I was just – when was the last time they lost a game in 2022? I mean, come on.

What are we talking about here? I mean, it's long. I don't want to hear it. I do not want to hear it when if you go to the Duke's Mayo Bowl, that's a successful, I just, I just don't love you guys. Come on.

All right. We'll end it there for us. You can follow us at blue by 90 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, at blue by 90 podcasts on YouTube and blue by 90.com. We appreciate you. Go blue, go blue.