Blue By Ninety - Ronnie, we love you. Does Michigan's 2nd half gives us hope for the remainder of the season?

Episode Date: October 20, 2019

Blue by Ninety podcast episode 9. Michigan's loss vs. Penn State, final score 28-21.

Welcome to Blue by 90, your Michigan football podcast. Usually we're three dudes talking maize and blue, but our co-host Nate is out. So it's just myself, Kalen, joined by Jack. Heyo. And we just watched Michigan's loss to Penn State, 28-21. Bit of a heartbreaker. Jack, what do you think? I mean, we watched the game together last night.

I think what we can all agree and what Nate said too, we'll kind of jump to a little bit of his input, is watching us lose that game last night, just the way we competed, and it looked like Shea actually kind of found his swagger a little bit and the offense kind of put some drives together. I feel way more confident about this team after that loss than I have about any of the victories we've had so far. Right.

I mean, when they came online kind of in the second half of that game, that was probably the best they've played all season. Oh, no doubt in my mind. No question. They looked great, honestly, on the field at that point. So I think overall, even though we lost the game, there's a lot to be pleased about, honestly, on the field at that point. So I think overall, even though we lost the game, there's a lot to be pleased about, honestly.

Yeah, looking at that second half, defense helped us when we needed them to get a stop. There was one big play that they gave up a touchdown where Hamler just blew right by Metellus, but other than that, they had consistent, we could rely on them consistently throughout the game to get stops when we needed to come back and climb back

and get some points. And I mean, I was happy with the defense overall. I mean, first half kind of sucked where, you know, that interception that Shea threw on that screen pass. I mean, it's just, yeah, there's just some tough breaks that we didn't get, some dropped balls in the first half. Could have been a completely different game. But overall, second half, the way the team competed, I was pumped to see that.

Yeah, you can't be mad at that. Well, let's kind of separate it up and kind of look at the game, first half versus second half, right? I mean, first half of the game was, like like my worst nightmare, right? I was like reliving Wisconsin. When it was 21-0 at one point, I was like, yeah, here we go again. We can't stop their big plays. We can't score.

I mean, we were going like, even when I think our third possession, we were kind of starting to string it together. I think we had like 50 yards or so. Yeah. And I can't remember if that was the one we got stopped on downs or... Or the field goal? Was it after the big score already on that one? No, it was the first three possessions.

The first one we had like 28 yards and ended up punting. And then the second one was a three and out where we had like a negative one yard gain. And then the third possession, we had like 50 yards. But I can't remember exactly what happened. But it's just that was kind of the whole story of the first half. And then defense was just, it wasn't terrible. Honestly, the defense big place. It was just, it wasn't terrible, honestly. The defense. Just big plays. It was just. Just big plays. Yeah, all of a sudden, one-on-one coverage, throw the ball up, boom, 50 yards for them or whatever, right?

And that's kind of the same old story with Don Brown, right? Letting up big plays and then those come back to kill us. So. But, yeah, that third drive you're talking about where we. On downs. It was on downs. We were down we're off on downs yeah oh gosh and the also the first half drop passes man everywhere left right i think every single receiver had dropped every single receiver had dropped pass i know in that environment it can you know it can get to you especially if you're a young guy you haven't been there you know i understand but you just gotta if you're a young guy. You haven't been there. You know, I understand.

But you just got to clean it up a little bit, right? You got to come in there ready to play. And that's why, I mean, I sent you that article where Jim Harbaugh was saying, like, this is just another game. Go out there and play, right? I don't know if I agree with that, right? I mean, I think that works if you're a professional athlete. Like, yep, it's just another game. Go out there and earn your check. But when you're a college athlete, I think you've got to light a fire under some of these guys.

And that's what I'm wondering, too, is if it's just something where he's saying that to the media. And he's saying something completely different to the team. That's a good point. But we were talking about it last night. Like, what do you mean this is just another game? This is not just another game. The difference between us winning and losing that game or the different outcome for the rest of the season,

right now, it's just like, okay, we still got all our rivals. We competed. We have an opportunity to kind of mess up their season. But if we win that game, we still have an opportunity for a Big Ten title, playoff, all of that. So, I mean, it goes two completely separate ways where all of that's out of the picture now. Yeah.

Well, that makes me think, like, if he's saying this is just another game, do you think he says that when we play Notre Dame, Michigan State, and Ohio State? I feel like he can't. I mean, that's because, like, Penn State's not really, like, they're not, like, a rival, but they're a big, I mean, they're a heavy hitter in the Big Ten. Right. You know, they're, I mean, it is a big game. So, I don't know.

I think it's just something where he's trying to deal with the media and maybe the media doesn't hype it up. I think you might be right. Yeah, that's a good point. But what are your thoughts on the first half? I mean, I'm kind of down on that first half of this past game. What do you think? I mean, it's a struggle.

First half struggled. I mean, the end of the first half, I mean, you and I, I think we're both pretty confused on why they put Moody out there for a 58-yarder. Oh, my gosh. I mean, what was it, fourth and six? Either keep the offense on the field and try to get the first down,

or put Nordean in. Right. We know Nordean has the leg. Moody's a more accurate kicker. He doesn't have a big leg to make that. So that's where, like, if we're going to give them the ball at that spot anyway, try to get a first down. And then keep that play

keep that drive going. I mean, we had like I don't know how many, I think there was about two minutes left at that point when we tried to kick it to get it to 10. Moody's kick was short. If he was maybe 10 yards closer he might have made it. But 58 yarder, I mean

even in the pregame when they were doing kicks, I think they said Nordean must have traveled because Herbstreit was saying something about it. I was like, yeah, I don't know why they didn't have Nordean in there. He's the one with the big leg. He was throwing him from 60 before the game started, but Moody seemed to be hitting him right around 50 and couldn't get it too much further than that.

So I don't know. I think it's just a strange play call to have Moody in there for that one. I know they're doing the whatever, the switch off, or if they're still doing that, or if they're trying to go with Moody. But for those long kicks, put in Nordean. If you're going to go for it, keep the offense in there. Keep the offense going. Also, it wasn't very comforting when the first play of the game was delay a game.

Oh, my God. Oh, man. Here we go. Yeah, exactly. That was like, oh, my God. We have no idea what we're doing. Who's watching the clock? Who's watching personnel?

How do you not know? It was like from the moment the game started, I was ready to throw something. Oh, my God. No, yeah. But, yeah, I think we're in agreement. Overall, first half was not looking good. End of the first half, 21-7, I think. Yeah, with Penn State getting the ball.

With Penn State getting the ball back. So then we went into the second half, and yeah, it wasn't exactly looking good in terms of the optics, but all of a sudden we started playing pretty well. Defense was making those stops, and we needed them to. Yeah, defense came out. They put pressure on Sean Clifford, and all of a sudden he couldn't make the same kind of throws, right? I mean, I thought we still had a little bit of those issues

with some of that over-pursuit on some of the edge rushing, leaving a lane for Clifford, and he kind of peeled out a couple times. But we were very good in the second half. What's the stat? I think they only had 80 total yards in the second half. What's the stat? I think they only had 80 total yards in the second half. In the second half? Yeah. So, I mean, and one of those plays was that big play.

Big play to Hamler. Yeah. So, I mean, defense, yeah, they were killing it second half. So whatever changes Don Brown made. I mean, that's what you look for, right? Yeah. You look for the halftime adjustments. Can we make changes to be able to get us back in the game and do

what we have to do? And they did it. I mean, again, they left one big touchdown on a big play. Yeah. Which we kind of knew that's what they were going to do to us is kind of just score off those big plays with Hamler and Clifford just dropping dimes to those receivers. So,

live by the story, die by the story. And then Shea in the second half took command of the team. That by the story And then Shea in the second half Took command of the team That was the best he's looked all season That was literally where I was like Okay, you know what I stand corrected

Shea is actually solid Oh yeah, this is a completely different Shea Than we've seen the entire season I think we both have regained confidence In the entire team and definitely in Shea where he's making good decisions. He looks a little bit more comfortable in the pocket, moves his feet when he needs to, not seeing as much happy feet that we've kind of seen where he's kind of running around,

but making good decisions. I mean, the only bad decision I think he really made was on that interception. But even then, Charbonnet kind of slipped a little bit. It was kind of just like a ruined play from the beginning. But, you know, I like to see him where they had, like, designed runs for him where he was picking up some first downs. That was huge, yeah. If he lost some, you know, the play broke down,

Charbonnet was out there blocking for him. They were able to get, you know, 10 yards for first down. I mean, that I really, I think, will be at our best when we know Shea can do that. When a play breaks down, he can run and he can get some yards. He looked like he felt comfortable with the scramble, too, which is something that we hadn't seen him do this year so far. I mean, if there was nobody open, he would extend the play

or he would look for a lane and try to gain a couple yards, and then he would slide, right? Yeah. So, I mean, I was like, all right, he's here to play today. Yeah, and it's another thing the defense has to think about and worry about. Yeah. We've got to keep somebody down here. You know, that will kind of help out the passing game.

There's one less defender blocking receivers or trying to be on receivers because Shane might take it, you know, and run with it. And if they are on the receivers, then if we know he can kind of move around and get some yards, I mean, that's just another thing to bring the confidence back up in this team and something to look forward to. Yeah, great. I mean, I 100% agree with you.

Unfortunately, I mean, they had that shot at the end of the game. They were on the, what, the one-yard line or whatever. Where were we? It was fourth and goal on the, let's see. Yeah. In the red zone there. Had an opportunity to win the game. And unfortunately, Ronnie Bell dropped the ball. You got to feel for guys like Ronnie. Three-yard line, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, he had a good game up to that point. I mean, he had a real nice play on a, I don't remember if it was a fourth down or third down or what. But he had a big run. Yeah. With some good blocking with the receivers, and he got us down there. It's just tough. Yeah. I mean, you see how much, I mean, really reminds you that these kids,

they're kids and they're human. Exactly, yeah. I mean, you saw him on the sideline bawling his eyes out, which, I mean, you got to understand, like, he's like, man. He's invested in this game. Yeah. You know? He's bought in and, you you know he's bought in and you know

it's tough to see I mean Ronnie's one of those guys where I'm like it's the game didn't come down to you there was a series of events that came to that

yeah and it just so happened that there was an opportunity there and we weren't able to capitalize and we weren't able it was tough it's tough yeah

but you know such is the game of football you gotta move on. So I think Ronnie, I mean, I don't think he'll drop another pass all season after that. And he's been, I think, our most reliable receiver all season. Yeah, he's going to take it back to the lab and be working on his fundamentals there. What did you think about the officiating? I know Jim Harbaugh had some thoughts.

I know the one that really stood out to us when we were watching the game was, what was that offensive pass interference call? I think they threw it down to Nico and they called it back? Yeah, that was like, what? That was a very strange, like, where it offset. And even the, what was it? There was off-sides where I assume it was just a free play. And then, you know, I guess VPJ has offensive pass interference.

I mean, I'm, you know, not an official, so I don't really know the complete, like, rules or how that works out. But I assume it would be a free play. And, you know, if off-sides happens before the pass interference, it's just off-sides. Off-sides, they come, tweet, tweet, tweet. Yeah. All right, stop, you know, whatever. Well, and then Penn State's first touchdown, right, with the push-off, the tight end pushes off.

Yeah, tight end push-off on Kalik. No call. Yeah. So there's some calls there that make you really scratch your head. Jim Harbaugh was talking about the ineligible receiver downfield that kind of kept us from scoring a touchdown. Yeah, on that RPO for us where we were downfield blocking for the run. And then he was saying in the play where Brad Hawkins almost had an interception

that Penn State had a lineman downfield that got a hand on the ball. Technically, that's an ineligible receiver downfield. I don't know, but he brings up a good point. Questions to ask here. Consistent officiating. Yeah, so you can't blame him. But it's part of the game. It happens in every game. But, yeah, that's just another thing to look here. Consistent officiating. Yeah. So you can't blame the officials. But it's part of the game.

It happens in every game. But yeah, that's just another thing to look at. So, unfortunate that we couldn't get the win, but still a lot of

positive takeaways. Our co-host, Nate, sent us his thoughts on the game. Yeah, read that off. So I'll kind of read

through some of his thoughts. He says, honestly, I was surprised by the way Michigan played tonight. Losing sucks, but I felt way better after this loss compared to most of the wins we saw this year. He says, gave Shea some time in the pocket. Jack, what do you think about Zach Charbonnet? I thought he was pretty solid. He had some tough runs. We were watching the game last night.

He was hit at the line of scrimmage, but he was like, I'm going to fight and we get three yards. Three yards is better than none. I see him keep moving the legs and try to get a couple yards. I was very impressed with that. He was falling forward. Yeah, falling forward. And he had some good runs too.

I think he was like 5.4 yards per attempt or something. Yeah, 5.4 carry at 81 total yards, 14-yard run. I mean, he was just consistent. Two touchdowns. I mean, I think it was a good performance by Zach. The numbers don't exactly reflect. Yeah. Back to Nate here.

He says, Shea was probably player of the game for Michigan. He looked good. Not perfect, but he seemed more comfortable and got the offense to move the ball. It's pretty apparent that the offensive, what does he say here? I know. Pretty apparent that the offense will live and die by QB's performance. So maybe all the criticism around him this year has been valid. Who knows? Either way, I was happy with the offense. There were times last night where I thought, this is what we wanted to see when we heard Gattis was hired back in January. Yeah, I agree.

They had 41 total pass attempts last night, and things were clicking. Maybe Jim Harbaugh was right when he said the offense is hitting their stride. Everybody got touches, and it's about time. Nate, I agree with you. The defense played well, too, despite some hiccups. They had a lot of three and outs, and Penn State from the second quarter on couldn't run the football at all. Huge plays by

some guys in open field on third down. I never knew Josh Uche had such great close. He got shot on a cannon. I was like, oh shit, he's up there now. Cam McGrown again made a big open field tackle on the running back, and it seems like he will be the key piece for Don Brown in the future.

I honestly felt like the defense played well, and I blame the coaching for the first quarter debacle. I love Don Brown, but he needs to stop putting this guy man-to-man with first-round NFL-type talent. K.J. Hamler is a stud muffin, and the times where he scored, it was because Don Brown put his guys man-on-man against him. K.J. made a huge difference in this game, and without him,

I think Penn State is just average, just like with Saquon Barkley. Too bad Don Brown hasn't learned his lesson. That falls on Jim, too, since he's technically the boss. I felt that if Michigan wouldn't have given up the big plays, they would have won, and that's honestly Don Brown's Achilles heel. It honestly seemed like Michigan was the better team. I agree. Let's pause right there, because I agree with that. I think that's huge. I mean, we saw in all their scoring plays, there were more, there were, what, 30 to 40 yards

or more where they're getting, you know, Hamler had two where he got open, just blew right by the defender, which was man-to-man coverage. And then there was the tight end or receiver, whoever it was, that, you know, had to push off on Kalik, and that was another touchdown. I mean, we see these big plays where it's man-to-man in the secondary, and I just think we, I mean, again, like Don Brown, he does have these blitzes, and that's like part of it and you know what does help us but when there's NFL type talent like KJ Hamler who just blow by

guys and guys have to throw it up I mean that's where we need to be able to adjust and just having a second defender back there to help out, I think that could have made a difference in the game but also I mean you know we're No, I mean especially when you got a receiver like Hamler who you know has a lot of speed, I mean, especially when you've got a receiver like Hamler,

who you know has a lot of speed. Explosive. And I think there was a play where he was... He ran the ball. They threw a ball up to him, and Uche was, like, covering him. Right. And I was like, what is it? Oh, yeah, Uche was on him, and then Hawkins came over and made the tackle.

Right. And you were going, like, I didn't even know Uche was a linebacker. Oh yeah, I thought he was a DM the whole time. You were like, yeah, he's a linebacker. I'm like, no way. Stuff like that where you've got that kind of a matchup, that is not favorable for us. That's part of the

matchup battle. But even that being said, we did look like the better team, so I'm with Nate. He says, will Michigan win a big game under Harbaugh based on the performance in the last three quarters tonight? Maybe so. You never know, especially after seeing Wisconsin's loss to Illinois yesterday. Maybe there's hope. Harbaugh will get a good amount of criticism after this loss today, but depending on how the offense plays the rest of the season, maybe next year they can put all the pieces together.

It's also very possible that they win against Notre Dame and MSU this year, and they need to after this loss. They're not really playing for anything the rest of this year except the momentum next year and spoiling OSU's chances for a natty. We'll see how things play out. At the end of the day, I finally felt some hope. Go Blue. Go Blue. Yeah. Agreed. At the end of the day, I finally felt some hope. Go blue. Go blue.

Yeah. Agreed. I mean, I think Nate said it perfectly. You know, if we can – I think that's the big thing for the rest of the season. There's a positive outlook where we saw the offense kind of hit its stride a little bit. And we have an opportunity to ruin Notre Dame's season. We have an opportunity to ruin Ohio State's season. We have an opportunity to ruin Ohio State's season. We have a very good opportunity to beat Michigan State.

We still have all of our rivals to look forward to. I love how Nate's our pessimist, but he came out pretty upbeat. We've definitely all taken turns throughout the season, but I think right now we are all on the same page. After last night's performance. I mean, we could always be better, but I'm really pleased with the improvement we've seen in the last three weeks. I mean, it's pretty crazy. So, I mean, we're kind of at the season midpoint here, right? You're saying going forward, how do you

feel like 1-10? 10 being we're going to beat all these teams, 100%. 1 being we're going to lose. I'm a 6. You're 6. I think we'll beat every team we're supposed to beat. I think there's two teams the rest of the season

that we're not supposed to beat. Being Notre Dame and Ohio State. But I think we've got an opportunity. After watching that game last night, if our offense can compete and our team can compete the way they did, we were down 21-0 at one point in the game. And we were able to come back, and the offense looked like there was energy. When we looked at Wisconsin, they gave up.

There was no energy on the side. They were walking on the field. It was awful. We saw a completely different team last night against Penn State. If we can have that team, I think we have opportunities to at least keep ourselves in the game to give ourselves an opportunity to win against Notre Dame. I think Ohio State will keep a...

I think it's a rivalry game. Anything can happen in that game. Anything can happen, yeah. So I think we will win four games. I mean, we'll have at least nine wins this season. I'm confident in that. Okay, yeah. Or, sorry, the next three games

without not counting Notre Dame and Ohio State. So we'll have at least eight wins this season. I'm confident in that. And then I think we have an opportunity to beat our Notre Dame and Ohio State big rivals. I season. I'm confident in that. And then I think we have an opportunity to beat our Notre Dame and Ohio State, the big rivals. I'm kind of in agreement with you here. We've got Notre Dame at home and all that good stuff.

But I mean, I kind of just agree with you generally. Especially after the second or third game of the season, we were talking about, I don't know if we'll win against Maryland. We'll make a bowl game. Yeah. But I think Nate had said, like, this team might go 6-6 or something like that.

But now seeing that Maryland has imploded and they're not the team that they were when they beat Pioneer High School in the beginning of the season. You know, so they're not a team that we're worrying about too much anymore. Indiana's always a tough game for us, but I still think if we play the way we did last night and where we're getting the receivers the ball quickly. We got a shot. Yeah, we got a shot. I mean, I think I can confidently say we'll win that game. But, you know, we win.

I say we guarantee to have eight wins. We're going to make a bowl game. We have opportunities to beat all of our rivals if we can compete. So midpoint reflection, early in the season, not a good team. I think we're growing and getting to a point where, like I said, it's fun for me to watch again now. Last night I had fun watching that game

where early in the season we're fumbling, throwing picks, we're making all these mistakes and it's just not fun to watch. But when we're competing, we can actually come back in the game, even at a loss. That was the most fun I had watching a game all season. So, I am looking forward

to the rest of these games and enjoying watching a team that I love play. I mean, just for fun, is there any way that we can make a Big Ten championship game? No. No way. Because if you look at it, Penn State would have to...

They would have to implode. They would have to royally just, like, screw up their entire season. I don't know how they would do it, but that's what they'd have to do. They're undefeated. They're undefeated in conference. Even if they lose to Ohio State and... I'm going to look at their schedule and see who they even have left. But they have to lose three games in conference for us to have an opportunity, which would

be they play at Michigan State, they play at Minnesota, who's undefeated right now. Yeah, that's weird. And they play at Ohio State. So looking at it, and Indiana's always a tough team. They play Rutgers. They're not going to lose to Rutgers. But there's four games where there's an opportunity, being completely the most hopeful person in the world, that that's what would have to happen.

And Ohio State would have to lose a game before we play them. Because if we... Not impossible. It's not impossible. If we can be two losses in conference, Ohio State has one loss, and we beat them, we would have a tiebreaker because we beat them. But Penn State would have to just implode. So you're saying there's a chance.

I'm saying there is a chance. Always a chance. But, yes, Penn State would have to just completely just die off. For all you optimists out there. That's the opportunity. Just keep the hope alive. Keep the hope alive, yeah. All right.

All right, let's look ahead a little bit to Notre Dame. We do have Notre Dame at home at night. I mean, that might be a good little bounce back time for us, right? Yeah, and what I've got in here is, I mean, you know, the team we saw against Penn State, which is the team I expected to see coming into this season. Right. You know, we competed. We were able to get a run game going a little bit.

Our receivers got the ball quick to our receivers where they can go make a play. You know, I have a regained confidence in this team. Yeah. A regained confidence in offense, defense. I've been confident in them all season. If we can limit big plays, which I think Notre Dame, it'll be the same kind of story as Penn State. They're going to have some big plays.

But if our offense can compete and our defense can stop them when we need them to, I think we've got a big chance to win that game. Again, it's a rivalry game. It's at night. We haven't played Notre Dame. We played Notre Dame last year, but that's like a renewed rivalry where we were off from them for a little while. I think we've got to come out and play fast on offense

because that was a huge thing for us. We can't be playing catch-up in the second half. We've got to come out and establish this is the pace that this game is going to play. How do you think we should do that? You were saying, like, we'll finally sell some wide receiver screens, we'll get some wide receivers blocking, just get them all quick and let the receivers make plays.

We were getting lined up with a sense of urgency in the second half of Penn State. So I think against Notre Dame, we've got to come out from the get-go, throwing the ball, and Shea has to keep it on some of those reads, and we have to come out and get lined up fast and get as many plays off as we can, honestly, because when we were doing that, it seemed to be working. Offense was clicking. They were ahead of the defense.

They weren't giving them time to get set, and we were just going, going, going, footing the gas pedal. I think that's why I feel that confidence now. Where, you know, okay, they can put something together. You know, I like these little quick throws. Give them to the playmakers. Let them make a play. Right.

And, I mean, I think, at least based on how we feel, I hope the rest of us Michigan fans out there feel that confidence. And I hope we have an electric crowd that night. That's going to be huge, too. Student sections show up. I do not want to see a game start where there is empty seats in the student section. No, they can't be. They need to be packed in.

You know, be loud. Mess with Notre Dame. I just want to see a big – Harbaugh needs this more than anybody. This team needs this for confidence going through the rest of the season. We need to get a W against Notre Dame. I want to see us compete. And I think there's always a chance in rivalry games. I think this Notre Dame team that we're

playing is very good. But I think we've seen some of the cracks in their scheme start to appear. I mean, they barely escaped USC. USC is not an amazing team right now. But also a rivalry game, right? But it is a rivalry game for them. And so that's kind of what I'm saying.

I mean, the cracks have started to appear in this Notre Dame team. And if we can take advantage of a lot of that, we got a good shot. I mean, Ian Book is pretty mobile, which we usually struggle with. They are pretty explosive, which we also struggle with. But that's where Don Brown's got to, you know, scheme up. So, I mean, like we're saying, I think they got a shot. You got any more thoughts on Notre Dame? I mean, let's show up at the big house, make some noise. Yeah, let's go.

Fans bring the energy. Team brings the energy. Let's go Jordan brand. Let's see that all blue concept. I want to see those all blue Jordan uniforms. Come on, let's go. I just want to see a sweet, that'd be cool. I want to see those all blue Jordan uniforms. Come on, let's go. I just want to see a sweet,

that'd be cool. I hate these Maze ones. I can't believe people like those Maze uniforms. I think they're awful. Yeah, no, I hate that. But I think they'd be cool. You know,

Under Lights, when we played them, when Adidas put those all blue units together. If Adidas can put an all blue unit together that looks nice, Nike and Jordan

should be able to put something together that looks way better. Yeah. You know, that'd be a to put something together that looks way better. That'd be a fun thing to see. Hopefully we can get the win next weekend. We look forward to that. That's kind of

our story with Michigan. Let's just look around the college football landscape. Or Wisconsin. Man, Wisconsin. What do you think? They're looking to head to Ohio State a little bit? Probably. That's my guess. That, Wisconsin. What do you think? They're looking to head to Ohio State a little bit? Probably. That's my guess. I mean, that's tough.

That's rough. Either way, they're still going to go to the Big Ten title game because they're in the West. Yeah. That Illinois team was a little scrappy when we played them. Yeah. And they got Brandon Peters back. They got a starting quarterback back.

Yeah. So, I mean, that was kind of weird. Tua got hurt yesterday. Tua got hurt. You think Alabama is still going to just roll or what? I think they're fine. They're so talented everywhere. I mean, like Michigan, man.

We say get the ball to our playmakers' hands. Get them in these receivers' hands. Bama's got the best receivers in the country. All these guys are fast as hell. Just get them the ball. If you don't have a backup at Alabama that can throw a ball to a receiver that's going to be wide open, I mean, I'd be shocked. I would be shocked.

So I think Bama's going to be fine. They got Tua's little brother in there as third string. Their defense is looking a little... Not as good as it has been. Not as good as everybody expects. Maybe there could be an opportunity where Tua would be able to make a play

at this backup camp, but I think they'll be fine. I guess LSU would be the big worry. Can he be backed by LSU? He should be, I would assume so. I still think either way, I think they'll be fine. I guess LSU would be the big worry. Can he be backed by LSU? He should be, I would assume so. I still think, either way, I think LSU wins that game. Ohio State is still just murdering teams. Just rolling over everybody. I think that'll be the story of the season. They're going to blow out

everybody and hopefully we'll get an opportunity where we can make up for last year's awful, ruining... We don't even talk about that. And then Clemson, I mean, they kind of ended up blowing up Louisville. But Trevor Lawrence had two picks in that game. He started off slow.

He hasn't looked, you know, as good as everybody expected. I mean, as I expected. I mean, you saw him against Alabama, you know, in the title games. They just rolled over him. Yeah, it was crazy. So, I mean, it might be a little bit of something they're playing down to their competition, but even being in the ACC, they cannot do that. Especially with all these good teams that you see coming out of other conferences that

are actually tough. What do you think Michigan's record would be if they played in the ACC? Undefeated. I think any of these teams, go to the ACC, they're undefeated. I mean, again, are you saying switch Clemson with Michigan? Or something. Like, take Clemson out and put Michigan in there? Yeah.

Yeah. Just a what if. Yeah. What do you think Rutgers' record would be if they were in the ACC? Man, they'd win a couple more games. Yeah, you think now. Rutgers is kind of lost. They might not change at all.

But they'd be better off. Three and four or something now. Maybe. You know this guy. I mean, ACC, I mean, UNC, I think they're going to put something together with Matt Brown. change it all. But they'd be better off. Three and four or something now. Maybe. You never know. I mean, ACC, I mean, UNC,

I think they're going to put something together with Mack Brown. I mean, they're looking at their recruiting class.

They've got some big recruits. I think they just recently signed a five-star guy. So, maybe Mack Brown's going to turn

that around. That would be sweet. Yeah, get some competition. Florida State sucks.

Florida State just, geez, Willie Taggart. I don't know if he's getting hyped, though.

It was around him. He never had a great season. But people loved him. I don't know if he's getting hyped that was around him. He never had a great season. But people loved him. I don't know. He's a bum. Oh, well.

Okay. Well, you got anything else? That's kind of all I got. No. I'm looking forward to next week. I mean, I'm excited. I got to work on Saturday, but luckily it's a night game, so I'll have plenty of time to tailgate and get ready for the game.

Go Blue. I think we have optimism looking forward, positive outlook. Yeah. All right. Follow us on Instagram. Like us on Facebook. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Blue by 90 Podcasts, and keep listening. Yeah.

Go Blue. Go Blue.