Blue By Ninety - Roh joins Michael Spath on sports talk 1050 WTKA

Episode Date: July 22, 2020

Roh and Michael discuss position battles, possible players to sit out, and expectations for what the 2020 season could bring us. Crack a beer and enjoy the show.

Sports Talk 1050 WTKA, The Ticket. Welcome back Inside the Huddle. Like us on Facebook at Inside the Huddle WTKA. Hey, welcome back to Inside the Huddle. Joining us on the phone, one of the three co-hosts of Blue by 90 podcast, which we have partnered up with at Sports Illustrated Wolverine Digest to provide some extra content. They've got three guys that have got a lot of ideas about Michigan football. And so far, I have been really impressed with their analysis, with their humor. Had a good time on their podcast last week.

And if that wasn't enough, then our guest right now, Justin Rowe, actually even has some Michigan football connections. Justin, how are you today? I'm doing good, Spath. I heard you were a little tired over there. I don't have any children, so I got a full night's sleep. So I'll try to be a j so I got a full night's sleep. So I'll try to be a jolt of energy today for you guys here.

I appreciate it, Justin. Yeah, you know, I got some energy in that first 30 minutes as we were talking about some Big Ten potential scheduling. And I know I sent you some questions yesterday, some things we're going to talk about, but before we get to that and we learn a little bit more about Blue by 90, in case you weren't listening just a few minutes ago, one of my sources from the TV side of things really wants the Big Ten to play 12 conference games this year. They've eliminated the non-conference. They've eliminated 42 non-conference. They've eliminated 42 non-conference games. That's 42 games that the TV partners just got dropped from their schedule. And so they want to have those 42 games made up.

And since the Big Ten has announced this in-conference only scheduling, why can't they have 42 more conference games? So if they played a 12 game conference slate this year what are your thoughts about uh that that move by the big 10 yeah i think that it you know from the tv perspective obviously they want it from the conference perspective obviously they want it you know from somebody that i spoke to inside the the financial part of the university if football isn't played this year it's a one billion dollar plus loss for the big 10 conference so they want to have those games i think you know you had talked about it before about teams being

concerned about staying overnight and so i i would be concerned if Michigan or any other team, you know, was traveling to Penn State. You know, that's a 10-hour bus ride. Same to Iowa. So that would be what I would be concerned about with traveling that far and adding those games, as well as I've heard you and other people talk about, you know, adding a couple more bye weeks in there in the middle of the season to help out with if guys do test positive for COVID, they can kind of rearrange,

get things back up and running, hopefully get guys healthy. So I think it's a good idea from a TV perspective. As a football fan myself, I would love to see more football. I think you're in the same boat there but um i just i don't know if the schools are going to be on board with uh with the big 10 um there and getting more conference games talking to justin rowe one of the co-hosts of blue by 90 podcast and justin uh before we move forward here tell us uh tell the audience a little bit about Blue by 90 and the team there that you're working with.

Yeah, so we've got a podcast going with myself, Jack Scheel, and Kalen McKay here. And really, we listen to you guys there. We listen to a lot of other insiders. And our whole thing was we've listened to the insiders reporting news and you know you're just so boring on the radio spaz so we wanted some comedy some humor in it and and we wanted to hear people talk about sports the way that we talk about it uh just you know amongst each other so uh we we try to add some humor in it. And then for Michigan fans, I feel like we need to be lighthearted and not take everything so seriously because if Michigan fans take everything

so seriously, they're going to have a bad time come Thanksgiving every year. I'm a Torbay-bay-bay-bay-bay-bay-bay-bay- I'm a Torbay, bay, bay, bay, bay, bay, bay, bay, bay, bay, bay, bay. Yeah, we have fun, Miz. That was a low blow, man. Wow. Michael Spath. Juicy nugget. Goodness.

All right, I'll give you a little credit there. You guys are fun. We actually had a ton of fun with you on our podcast last week. I was the butt of most of the jokes so i will say you do have some humor in you spaz well you're right you were the butt of most jokes on your own podcast so if i can't be the butt of the jokes uh from you on the on the flip side then then i'm living up to my label of being a a not fun person. So feel free to have at it for this entire time that you're on. You know, Justin, you said if you're not having any fun with it,

then you're going to come to Thanksgiving and you're always going to be disappointed. And let me ask you this question. Even before the Big Ten announces whether it's a 10-game slate or a 12-game slate or a 13-game slate this particular year. Do you think it's fair to have the same expectations for your program in a COVID-19 football season than you would in any other football season? I actually don't think that's fair to say because there are so many other variables. There may be, you know, what happens if Justin Fields is out with COVID for, you know, a stretch here.

What happens, nobody knows what's going to happen here. There may be games fully canceled because a team can't field a full team or they're worried about an outbreak because so many guys get sick or get infected so i don't think you can have the same expectations this may be a year where somebody that we're some team that we're not expecting to be great ends up you know nine and oh it's at the end of the year just because of the way the schedule plays out so it's not your typical year i don't think i actually don't think it'll be, you know, Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State, Wisconsin at the top of the conference by the end

of the year. And I think that might be the same case in other conferences too, just because of how things are going. And then, you know, when it comes down to statistics and how your players are doing and how your team's doing, you your team's doing you know they don't they haven't had the same preparation all summer all spring so as as michigan goes you know as far as the quarterback position goes nobody knows what's going to happen there so how can you say that it's going to be a typical season you can have those same expectations when there's so many variables not as much preparation and all that going into it well justin i give you i mean you make two really good points and look all of us are maybe we're kind of keeping it off to the side not thinking a lot about it

but yes i mean we've already seen programs like ohio state and Clemson and LSU and Houston and Texas and on and on and on announce that they've either suspended workouts or they're changing something about workouts because players have tested positive for COVID. And while so many people, former players and, you know, current players and people in the media say, well, most of these players are asymptomatic. Most of these players won't get sick. We're playing a dangerous game by always saying most. Most is such a, it's not all, okay?

Players, like, players are getting COVID. Players right now are testing positive for the coronavirus, and for us to sit back and go like, well, but they probably won't have any very many effects from it or something like that. Like, that is a bad thought for us to sit back and go like well but they probably won't have any very many effects from it or something like that like that is a that is a bad thought for us to have like players are getting this and we just can't say like well they're young and healthy and so it's not impacting them it's impacting them in some capacity and so i think it's dangerous for us as fans and people in the media to think that you know just sending these guys back and if they get COVID, all is going to be fine. But to your point, when someone gets this, they're going to have to be quarantined for 14 days.

And so if you do lose Justin Fields the week before the Michigan game, if you lose Aiden Hutchinson the week before the Michigan State game, that's going to have a profound effect on the matchup between teams. And I think to your point, I agree with you that if you're going into the year saying, hey, it's Big Ten title or buster, I'm going to be super pissed at Jim Harbaugh, I think that's unfair because there's so many mitigating factors in this particular football season. Yeah, I 100% agree with you there. It's that you can't have the same expectations.

And I go back to, you know, as far as COVID goes, yeah, some may be asymptomatic. Some might have symptoms, though. And if it's, you know, if COVID, you know, maybe, hopefully they're not dying, obviously. But what if they have the flu-like symptoms? I don't think there are many players out there that can or would play through the flu. So not only, you know, yes, they are hopefully not dying, but it still is affecting them, like you just said.

You know, I go back to the Michael Jordan flu game. You know, I don't think that Aiden Hutchinson or Quiddy Pay can do that you know not Michael Jordan is a once-in-a-lifetime athlete so although these guys are the top you know one percent of athletes in the world and their bodies and everything are are you know ready for anything there's still so many so much that goes into it there and so many risks there and all the unknowns especially with uh the virus and so yeah i 100 agree with you there and you can't say i i don't want people to be saying if michigan goes uh you know six and three at the end of the year of a nine game schedule if that's what it is oh fire harbaugh you know know, we shouldn't have, as Michigan fans,

Michigan fans shouldn't have that same expectation, the same thing as a normal season. Well, and your other point about it was the quarterback sort of thing was a great point, is, you know, if you're coming into this year and you're Michigan and Ohio State, well, Ohio State has an established quarterback, and even though they lost out on spring practice and they lost out on workouts in May and early June, Justin Fields is a guy who has started,

what, 14 games for Ohio State in 2019? I mean, he's a guy who's proven. He's a guy who has had great success. Michigan's got two quarterbacks that they are optimistic about but didn't get a spring practice, didn't get early summer workouts. Who knows what fall practice is going to look like. And so, yeah, I mean, all things are not equal between the two programs, and they're not equal for other reasons too, but they're not equal because of the quarterbacks right now.

And, you know, there's going to be conversation, and I hope I'm not guilty of it saying like well you know once again jim harbaugh can't develop a quarterback but it's like well he didn't have he didn't have uh the the the 15 practices of the in the spring he didn't have the summer he didn't have the normal opportunity to develop these two quarterbacks yeah and i think that you that you look at Dylan McCaffrey and you look at Joe Milton, they have all the talent in the world. To me, it looks like both of them could come in and step in and be a great quarterback. But there's so much more to it than just having that talent. These guys need the reps in the spring, in the summer, together.

I know Dylan McCaffrey is wherever with his family, with Christian and his dad Ed going out and running routes, but he's not in Ann Arbor, in Schembechler Hall, running routes with Ronnie Bell and Nico Collins and handing the ball off to Hassan Haskins and Zach Charbonnet. That means a lot because you need to get that rhythm and chemistry with those guys to know when Ronnie Bell's coming out of his break, where exactly is he going to be? How hard do I need to throw that ball?

He's going to come out of the break different than Mike Sainer still or Giles Jackson. So it's the chemistry part to me that's going to be really hurt because those guys haven't gotten those reps. I do know Joe Milton has been working in Ann Arbor quite a bit with some of these guys. So maybe he has a better chemistry and maybe gets the nod because of that. But between that and that leadership where neither of these guys have been the guy running the offense.

So it's hard for all these other guys maybe to buy in to a guy while he's trying to lead the offense and say, oh, yes, I trust in everything he's going to do, just because they haven't seen it at all. We're talking to Justin Rowe, one of the three hosts of Blue by 90 podcast. Justin, talking about some of those players and quarterback will certainly be the position everybody's paying attention to in fall practice, as we always do. What other position battles are you most invested in as both a fan and as a podcast host when fall practice begins?

You know, there's two of them here, and they're both on the offensive side of the ball still. But the first one is just the running back room as a whole. I actually talked about this with Brandon Brown the other day. And the running back room, our running back, Michigan's running back room now is actually more talented from a recruiting standpoint, recruiting ranking standpoint, than Ohio State's is.

So it is very talented. And what I worry about is, is it too crowded now? Are there enough snaps to go around? Because in my opinion, there's always been, you know, when I think of Travis Etienne or, you know, J.K. Dobbins, they were the guy. They're getting 70% to 80% of the snaps, and they can get in a rhythm and they can feel comfortable in that backfield.

When you go 50-50 with Hassan Haskins and Zach Charbonnet, I don't think those guys can get into as much of a rhythm. And then you add in Chris Evans and you add in Blake Corum, who's supposed to be a stud coming in. Where is that going to end up? Is there going to be a guy that emerges, or is it going to be kind of a running back by committee? How is Josh Gaddis going to analyze that

and work all of them into some plays there? And then the other one is the wide receiver position. I know you're very hot on Giles Jackson, and we talked about this on our podcast last week too, but where was Mike Sainer still this year? Where will Mike Sainer still come into the fold here? You know, Ronnie Bell obviously got a ton of reps and catches last year and really broke out as a star.

Is he going to move to the outside? How do those guys, you know, obviously Nico is going to cement himself on the outside as well. How do all those guys fit into the mold here? Because you only have 70 snaps a game for these guys to get in. How can you spread the ball around enough that everyone's happy and it's working in rhythm and it makes the offense successful? Justin, switching to the defensive side of the ball,

and one of the big conversation pieces that came out in the last 24 hours, the Hintons, Chris Hinton's parents, have been some of the leading advocates across the country for football players and essentially have penned letters, have created this amazing network among parents. Essentially saying, like, what is being done? Like, we want to know protocols. And Letters have created this amazing network among parents. It's interesting. Like, what is being done? Like, we want to know protocols. We want to know what the NCAA is doing to protect our sons in college football.

And yesterday it came out that the Hintons were discussing a little bit about, you know, maybe not letting Chris play. Now, Chris is 19 years old. He's a grown man. But if they made a family decision that Chris Hinton would sit out this year because they didn't trust the protocols in place, A, what do you think about that from just a perspective of players deciding to sit out on their own? And second of all, how would that michigan football if chris hinton

sat out the 2020 season well you know what i don't blame the hintons at all for doing this i think that is actually fantastic for them to take control of the situation and say hey we as parents and our sons are putting themselves in danger here, whether we like to, you know, admit that or not, there is a risk obviously of them playing. And, and I think from, you know, some people would say the exploitation from, by the NCAA of these student athletes, because they aren't paid and the NCAA makes billions of dollars off them.

So why, why wouldn't you, if you're the Hinton say, my son's not making any money yet. Why am I going to put him in risk here when I could say, let's sit, let's have him sit out and then he can go to the NFL, you know, the following year or, or play again next year in the NCAA, whatever he wants to decide. But I know you talked to Craig Rowe a few weeks ago, and he said most guys would do just about anything to play this game of football, right?

And I think Chris Hinton is probably in that same boat, and so are the majority of the players on Michigan and throughout the country. But from the parents' perspective, you know, that's their boy. That is their son, their pride and joy. So I don't see any problem with them doing that, and I can see it happening more and more, especially with guys that are even, you know, above a Chris Hinton,

where it's, you know, Trevor Lawrence, or it's somebody who is a lock for a top five, top ten draft pick and doesn't really have much else to prove, why would they go out and play and risk something when they could sit out and still be a top five draft pick in 2021? Well, you mentioned Trevor Lawrence. I can't understand in any world why Trevor Lawrence plays football this year. Even if, as Craig said, as Devin Gardner has told me, football players play football,

and he's a quarterback, you have got the overall injury factor. He's going to be, if he's not the number one pick in the 2021 NFL draft, he's at least in the top three. He's won a national championship as a true freshman. He's played in two national championship games overall. He's got nothing to prove and if he were to put himself in a position where

he gets COVID, even if he's asymptomatic, I would not, if I was Trevor Lawrence, I would 100% not play football in 2020. And I'm honestly a little surprised that more big-name guys have already not come out and said that they're just going to sit out the season. Maybe that's the football culture of, like, hey, I can't show any weakness.

Maybe it's the football culture of, you know, I certainly understand, like, the idea of, like, I'm part of a team and these are my brothers. Maybe they just don't want to be the first one to do it. But I think after the first one does it, you're going to see other players do the same thing. I 100% agree with you. We've seen it so much in the past few years with guys sitting out bowl games.

Nick Bosa sat out half the season because of it. And I don't know what his injury was actually like, but it's been trending that way that guys are sitting out because they see the value of money in the NFL and there's not as much value for them to play in the NCAA once they have proven themselves. So these big name guys and i actually think it'll be not even that top five top ten it'll be some guys that are like you know what i am good with a first round draft pick i don't really see myself getting up to a top ten or you know improving my draft status jaylen mayfield might be one of those guys he's a guy that's kind of pinned in there as a mid first round late first round draft pick and so maybe he says you know what i'm actually good

with that the money's there for me i don't want to risk it not only risk getting covid but also risk playing and then playing not as good as people think and then all of a sudden he's dropping in the draft board. So there's all that, especially with all the variables that we've talked about, just with the schedule, with everything else, with not enough preparation for these guys that they normally would. So maybe they don't play as well as they could have with all the preparation of spring practice and summer. I can definitely see these guys sitting out more and more and more.

Well, it'll be interesting to keep an eye on. Justin, for those out there listening, how do they see, how do they listen, how do they watch the Blue by 90 podcast? Yeah, so we are at Blue by 90 on any podcast streaming spotify apple podcast google podcast anything out there um you can find us on instagram at blue by 90 twitter at blue by 90 and then on youtube as well at blue by 90 podcast we put up some videos up there too um so give us a follow i promise we'll try to make you laugh. Come over, crack a beer while you're listening and enjoy some humor while we put in at least a little bit of analysis into some of

our sports takes, too. All right, Justin. Well, thanks very much for joining us. Really appreciate it. You will be invited back, but probably not until I have the other guys on because I just want to be fair to everybody. That is fair. They would love to as well. Thanks for having me. This was awesome. I'd love to be back soon.

All right. That was Justin Rowe of the Blue by 90 podcast. You can read his stuff at wolverinedigest.com too.