Blue By Ninety - Sweet 16 Bound!

Episode Date: March 25, 2026

Justin and Joel preview Michigan's upcoming Sweet 16 matchup, along with discussing what Year 2 Bryce Underwood will look like!

All right. Welcome back to Blue By 90, presented by Feldman Chevrolet of Highland. I'm Justin, joined by my co-host, Joel Honigford. Joel, how are we doing today? We're doing well. We're doing real well. We are two more wins into the tournament than the last time we spoke. And we look good. We look really good. It felt like this is, it went back to like January Michigan, right? Where, you know, we had talked about the last time we were on here, out of the Big Ten tournament. Nobody really felt good with where we're at, even though we had that one seed, you know, you're in the best position possible, but it just, we hadn't, like, played a good basketball game in a while, and then they turned it all around this weekend and changed the narrative. Yeah, and when we get that one seed, like, it wasn't an instance of, like, man, they're so powerful right now as a one seed. It was more like, well, they've been good enough. The record's good enough. Like, they were super powerful. But that kind of momentum halted.

So, like, that was the big question for us. This is, like, what are they going to look like going into the tournament? Are they going to get that fire back? Obviously, coming out of the loss from Purdue. And I think pretty much anybody can say that, yeah, they easily have. And, you know, now, like, I heard Charles Barkley talking about it. He was like, you know, they can pack their bags for Indianapolis. I did hear it say that.

I'll be honest, I hate hearing people talk like that because I'm like, You're just jinxing us like so bad. I agree. I was like, please. And he said it like four times because like obviously they review the game like three or four times when the next one's on. Right. And he was like, they can pack their bags.

I'm like, please stop. But along those lines, I do think like Michigan plays best when they know they're going to win when they like kind of have that mindset, which I think is where they're at right now. Like ultimately they're only going to beat themselves, which is actually the case too. But yeah, the boys look good. They look really good. I definitely agree with that where just like it felt like they got their swagger back a little bit, which they hadn't had, you know, for even before, I guess they did have it against Michigan

State in that final game in the year, right? But, you know, it just, it felt like forever ago that, you know, they had that swagger. from the early season where it's like, we're so much better than you and there's literally nothing you can do about it, you know, because I thought St. Louis was very good, in my opinion. I thought, you know, you look at what they were, they were 24 and 1 at one time and then had a couple injuries that made them go four and eight down the stretch, which dropped them down so significantly on the bracket lines. But, you know, they were very, very good. A lot of people going into that game had it.

Oh, upset alert, upset alert. And then I think Michigan, you know, they played with their food a little bit in the first half, you know. But then they, that was what they had done all year long where it's like, all right, once you get to the second half, that lead just balloons up to double digits. And then it's 20 really, really quickly. And you don't even really like notice. It's not like they go on some big run or whatever. It's just like, you kind of like, if you're casually watching, you look and then you, you know, go do some laundry or something, you come back.

And then all of a sudden the leads at 15, you're like, holy shit, what just happened? Right. And obviously basketball's game of runs. And like, you know, Howard went on their runs and St. Louis did too. But their ability to kind of like weather that storm for the period of time where that was happening and then just take off after was pretty fun to watch. And I texted you after watching St. Louis absolutely stomp Georgia. And I was like Larry Nerd is on the way. Mr. Rexpex is coming for Michigan.

And I mean, I wasn't like, man, like this is going to be questionable 50-50 game. But I was like, if they get hot, like this could be down to the wire. So it was pretty fun to see Michigan shut them down. And a couple guys catch a couple bodies along the way. Yeah, he's had a sick dunk. The like three-quarter court Alleyoop to... Backward to Alleyoop, right away off the bat too. I'm like, how do you defend that?

What's your plan there? Like, when you're watching film after that with your coach, what does the coach say in to these guys? Yeah, yeah. How was he teaching you to play that better? It was, that was like probably the most encouraging thing to see like to see them go against like a pretty strong St. Louis team, like you said, and then ultimately dominate them really in the second half and shut down anything that they had

going. Yeah. Makes you feel good going into Alabama. Yeah, 100%. And then that yaks dunk too. I think obviously the highlight is like unbelievable in itself, but I love just seeing him like he got the ball and was like there's literally no way I'm not dunking this, right? Yeah. That's the yaks that we wanted to see. I don't know that we saw that yaks all the time down the stretch of the season. You know, I love the way that he lets the game come to him. But there are times where it's like, hey, man, you're six foot 10 and super athletic. Like you can, you're better than anybody else go to the rim. And, you know, I mean, he took like two steps from the three point line.

There was, I think three guys opened on Michigan, three guys were guarding him and he didn't give a shit. It was just like, I'm, I'm putting this on your head, which, unbelievable highlight reel there. Some of those times with the X, I'm just like, how. You know, he had the one, I think, in the Michigan State game where he, like, jumped from the right baseline and dunked it underneath, you know, as a reverse. I'm just like, holy shit.

I can't relate. As a 6 foot 3 white guy, I cannot relate to that athleticism. Yeah, you know, as a 6'5 white guy, neither cannot. So we're in the same boat there. But yeah, fun to watch. They are on fire right now. Hopefully they can keep that fire. And the win on Saturday against St. Louis gave us 33 wins on the season.

It puts us tied for the single season record since 2018. This last time they had 33. Yeah. So a chance to break it this weekend, which, I mean, it's pretty crazy. I think that puts it into perspective. perspective for Dusty here. Like John Beeline had some of the best teams of all time at Michigan, right? And he brought Michigan from the absolute dumps to the top of the top.

And that was when the Big Ten was really good too. Obviously, it was really good this year as well. So for Dusty to be able to do that in year two is really incredible. when you're thinking about comparatively to a 2018 Michigan team or the Trey Burke years or the Nix Dowsk years are all those too. Yeah. And if you think about like going from Florida Atlantic to Michigan, your mindset going into games is completely different, like especially the NCAA tournament.

Like you're Florida Atlantic and you're like, hey, you know, let's go out there and do what we can do. We got to prevent them from being good at, you know, what they're going to do. But now you're at a Michigan team that's extremely done. dominant. So for him to be able to shift his coaching in a sense of like now, you know, we're going to beat ourselves. Let's figure out how not to do that is not a position that he was in prior to these last two years. And really this year, more so. I mean, we still went to the Sweet 16 last year. But like it kind of just shows how good of a coach he actually is to be

able to adapt that quickly and build such, you know, a powerhouse program with a lot of transfers and create what he's created. That's a great point. They were two, you know, obviously he had, he probably did put together like a quote unquote hodgepodge of kids at FAU too, right? Right. But still, your point is that, you know, there's a very different ideology of going into these games as the underdog where it's like, we've got nothing to lose.

We're the nine seed or, you know, whatever you are versus you're the number one seed. And they've had the target on their back. all year long, right? Because they were so dominant in November in the, you know, the players era and some of those non-conference games that everybody's tried to get them. I mean, they were, they led the Big Ten the whole way through, right? So it is, it is pretty impressive that he's been able to do it in the, in the, the different ways that he has. And now, I mean, in the last 24 hours, we're recording this on Wednesday. The last 24 hours, the UNC job opened up.

And people are talking, oh, you know, Dusty May is the hot name to go to UNC. So, you know, you're looking at the Michigan administration to make another move, probably another extension, somehow keep them here. But, you know, it reminds me of the Harbaugh years where it's like every year, when you're this good, every year you're going to have your coach talked about like they're going to poach him. I mean, they even did it with Izzo when he had said, like, I'm not going anywhere. There was talk about him to the Cleveland Cavs, you know, all these different things, whatever. So it reminds me of those Harbaugh days where you probably lived it more than most of us of like,

all right, January comes around, you know, is our coach leaving or not? A lot of people talking. Yeah, it's definitely part of it. Like you said, like when you're successful with a program, especially as fast as you have been as Dusty May, the confidence in you being able to do that at another program is pretty high. So people are going to seek you out. I know specifically with Harbaugh when he would go interview with NFL teams. Like we knew that he wanted to be in the NFL.

Obviously, he wanted to win a national championship at Michigan. But he was very clear that his number one goal was to win a Super Bowl. Yeah, he had already been there and he was like this close. Right, yeah, yeah, he gets his brother. Yeah, and the lights turned out and that was the whole thing. but I remember, I think he was with the Vikings. He went to go visit the Vikings. And he told us, he was like, I'm going to go interview with the Vikings.

So we knew it. It was kind of like a weird limbo period because we essentially, in our minds, did not have a head coach at that point. And so we were going to lift. And our strength coach was like, you know, listen, like, as of right now, he's still the head coach. We're going to operate as normal. Yeah, I don't know, obviously, what,

in Dusty May's mind. I think he wants to win the national championship this year. I can't see that being any other way, especially kind of how he's conducted himself throughout the last two years. I see him fully committed to the rest of the season. Hopefully he stays and hopefully the Michigan administration gets it right to keep him. Obviously, he's a really hot commodity. Find some way to keep that guy here.

He's an incredible coach and he does incredible things for his university. Yeah, well, we just went from NCAA tournament to Harbaugh again, by the way. Yeah. Two for two there. You know, I think we might have to have like a tracker going on the bottom here. But, but yeah. So, you know, I think Dusty, like, I think it's hard right now with NIL, you know, pre-NIL, I think you would say, like, the Dukes, the North Carolinas of the world are

are a better, you know, job, right? Because you have more resources, the fan base, whatever. Now with NIL, I don't know that that's the case, right? I don't know that there's anything that Michigan can't offer you that North Carolina can. Obviously, you know, North Carolina and Duke in those schools, they're going to be a basketball first school, right, in an athletic department where Michigan just always is going to be a football first school. So that's like the one thing, which is a big thing. But now, you know, he's, if you look at what they spent in NIL, you know,

the reports on non-three and whatever else, like Michigan is higher than the, you know, than a lot of those ACC are like basketball schools, right? So, you know, he might just want to, you know, maybe UNC growing up was like the ultimate job at some point, right? That could be in the same way as, you know, Harbaugh with the. NFL, right? It's just like, all right, it's something that I've always wanted to do. Or the NBA, right? The NBA could be something, but I just, I have a hard time believing that he would do that after two years, you know, and be like, all right, I'm just unbolting.

But maybe you win an Adi, you check the box. You never know. You never know. It always, it never makes you feel easy when these things come about. Yeah. And I think it's hard to trust what they say in the media because they're going to tell you what you want to hear. And then ultimately when they have the contract in front of their face, it's a whole different ballgame. I mean, you look at Lane Kiffin and kind of how he navigated all that situation. Everybody's not Lane Kiffin. I don't think Dusty May is Lane Kiffin. Right. But time will tell.

Nonetheless, we're in the Sweet 16. We're dominating. We are looking good to make it to Indianapolis, but we got to get through Chicago first. Got to get through Chicago so that Charles can stop saying that stuff. Yeah, please. I mean, I think that I put on here as our second bullet, Final Four or bust. And I feel like that's probably pretty obvious right now. But my question to you more so is like, what is a disappointment at this point?

Or like what success? you're the number one seed, but you are in only year two. You've got this quote unquote super team, whatever you want to call it. You've got a path to a national championship. Where do you stop in terms of like, all right, it would be a successful season, even if they lost at this point. Yeah, I think Final Four is right on there, the bullseye. Because, listen, we have an Alabama team that is a three-point shooting team.

Like, that's what they do. They shoot threes and they make layups. They don't do a lot in between. So we, you know, theoretically on paper, should beat them. Now, could they get hot? Yeah, have they been hot? Yeah, I think they took 42 threes in the last game. It was insane.

Unbelievable. So we have Alabama. And then we play the winner of Tennessee and Iowa State. Iowa State's missing their big man, their star player. Tennessee is Tennessee. we should beat them as well. Like ultimately, when it gets to the final four, you have now boiled it down to the four best teams.

Now, if we lose first game of the final four, of course, it's upsetting, but it's the final four. Like, the graphic shows all four teams. Like, yeah, these are the big dogs this year. So I think it is kind of a disappointment if we don't make it to the final four. Obviously, we've dropped some games, but to really good teams.

Right. We have the capabilities of making it there and should make it there on paper and with all the analytics and everything like that. Obviously, I don't want to put this like crazy pressure. Hey, if you don't make it to the final four, it's a horrible team. That's not the case. But with all the pieces that we have, we should be there. I agree.

I think you have to make it out of your region here for this to be called a quote-unquote successful season, which, which you already hung one banner, right? You won that Big Ten regular season, which is great. But I think that you just, you know, being the one seed, even if you lose to the two, it just sucks. And so I think that with everything that they have on this team, you really have to get to that final four, get to Indy.

And then I think from there to your point, it's like, okay, at that point you're going against the four top, top teams in the country. And there are some big dogs. One of them, you know, Duke, you know, I don't know if they're going to get out of their region, but theoretically, they're the one seed. You know, you already lost to them. Houston, you know, there are some really good teams still in this that you wouldn't feel, you know, bad, I would say. You'd be sad, obviously, but you wouldn't look at it in hindsight being like, oh, that's a bad loss once you get to the final four. So the one thing that a lot of people are talking about now is a possible Michigan, Michigan State National Championship, which would, I think, break the world.

At least my world. Yeah, 100%. That would be absolutely electric and possibly the most hostile national championship game in the history of basketball, fans and players alike. Like that would be mayhem. In Indianapolis, like both fans are going to travel really well to Indianapolis, regardless. It's not far. You can drive there. That would actually be electric.

And Michigan State looks really good right now, too. I know we don't like Sparty, but they do look really good. I mean, Tom Isso, let's just talk about Tom Isso because everybody can agree that he is a fantastic coach. And I heard them talking about this on CBS that really for Tom Isso, his season starts at the Sweet 16. And like historically, that is true. I think this is like 17th, Sweet 16th, something like that. So, yeah, they are looking good. The Big 10 in general is looking really good.

I mean, we have six teams in the Sweet 16, which to me makes Michigan's Big Ten regular season championship look all that better. They won the league by four games. Like six teams that are in the Sweet 16. And then, you know, the one loss that they had is, was like the biggest upset of the tournament with Wisconsin, right? And so just crazy to me. I'm a little in hindsight. This is me being very greedy. But I'm mad that we lost that Wisconsin game because I think that they now looking back on it, like could have and should have went undefeated in the Big Ten, which would have been ridiculous.

But anyways, yeah, I think that, you know, you're looking at a lot of these teams. especially in the Big Ten, and you're like, man, Purdue, even though they skid it at the end of the regular season, they win the Big Ten tournament. They're playing really well now. Illinois going up against Houston, that's crazy. Iowa, Nebraska is the funniest and best, you know, Sweet 16 matchup ever because neither of them even know what basketball is, I don't think. Yeah, seriously. Yeah, they did. No idea.

Somebody said they're in Houston this week, which is like the opposite of Iowa or Nebraska. And somebody was like, these bars are like calling their distributors to see if they can get Bush Light in. Get Bush Light in and get a lot of it in. Get a lot of it. That's for sure. But I mean, Iowa upsets Florida, you know, Michigan State, Yukon. I will, that, I believe it's the DC, regional there.

So you've got Duke versus St. John's and Michigan State versus Yukon. Those are four big dogs and crazy fan bases all kind of from that area, you know, that I just think will be, that will be an insane one. And then you've got Arizona, Arkansas, Coach Cal's, Arkansas, you know, they outlasted High Point, which High Point was looking really good. Arizona played pretty well. Utah State played them pretty good, actually, too. And then Texas upsets Gonzaga. I don't think that Gonzaga was that good all year. Michigan dominated them. They really didn't have any good wins on the year.

And then so Texas, Purdue, then in our regional, you got Michigan, Alabama, Tennessee, Iowa State. You know, again, let's talk about Alabama. I know you've mentioned it a couple, a little bit. I was watching the first half. First of all, the Texas Tech Alabama game tipped off not until like 1020 in Tampa. And for two teams that are in Eastern time zone, maybe Texas Tech is central, but either way, it's like, what are we doing? I mean, I don't think that's good for anybody, you know, for NCAA, they're really about the student athletes, making them play, you know, on a Saturday night or whatever at 10.20.

It's Sunday night, I think it was actually. Yeah, it was a Sunday night at 1020. Like, what are we doing, man? So anyways, I stayed up to watch that game. I watched the first half and I'm like, they shot 263s in the first half of them. But they just watch. It's like legit.

That is their game plan. They're just going to launch and keep launching. And even if they miss, they just don't stop. That is literally what they do. And they're missing one of their best three-point shooters as well. Right. And it doesn't stop them. Like, they're going to throw it up there.

And ultimately, they're probably going to get hot at some point in time during the game. Yeah. But if Michigan can just limit the number of threes that they are getting up, right. It will be in a really good spot. Like Alabama scores on average like 90s. 92 points a game. And Michigan, I think, on average score is 87.

Alabama holds their opponents to 82 points a game, where Michigan holds their opponents to 65. So there's a huge gap there, which benefits Michigan a lot. Michigan's bigger than Alabama. So you get hands up on the perimeter and Adai Morrow grab the rebounds. I mean, there might be a lot of long rebounds, which could benefit Michigan, right, get out in transition, maybe some more three-quarter-court alley-oops, that'd be sick.

But, yeah, it's make or break by the three and layups. That's what they do. They don't do a lot of mid-range stuff. It is an interesting style of gameplay to watch. It really is. It feels like the Rich Rod offense, Rich Rod game plan of just like, we'll score 70. If you score 69, that's great.

You know, we'll take the W. but I just I'm not trying to put like put anything past Alabama but I just have a hard time seeing them you know unless we really just don't guard them on the three point line I have a hard time seeing Michigan lose this game because watching that Texas Tech game they Alabama got like a bunch of offensive boards they they were just every time that they chucked it up they'd miss, they'd go get the offensive board, and then they'd chuck it up again until they made it. And so Texas Tech just got defeated. They didn't score for like 10 minutes straight in the second half. It was really a struggle for them. But I just, I have a hard time unless they're,

I mean, unless like you said, they just go like unconscious, like, you know, a Wisconsin team did against us in the past, you know, which very well could happen. But I think that Michigan is such a good rebounding team that like we're going to we're not going to give them second chance points we defend the perimeter quite well um the only thing that scares me is they they could just go like all outside like they don't have like a huge post presence and so they could try to bring mara and res out on the perimeter and that's where mara is not good is he struggles when he gets you know brought out to the three point line and then um you know he just can't he's too big you know it just doesn't work so um but i think if i think michigan's defense is is

way better than texas tech um so i you know to your point i think it's like i wonder if if the strategy is like all right take your threes hit some but we're going to defend everything else and um you know and and you know we're still going to stop you and hold you to 70 points or whatever right yeah I think when it comes down to it, let's just call a spade of spade here. Alabama is not a national championship team. Right. It's pretty obvious. And if Michigan plays Alabama 10 times, they win at least nine of those.

But the reality is that this is still March, and Alabama is hot right now. I mean, they shot 45% from three last game. And what did you say? How many of them? 42 attempts. That's insane. It's crazy. So if they get hot, like, yeah, there is a chance. But I think the key to a successful game is Michigan getting off the stool first and just punching them immediately. Just shut them down, take control of the game, body them, get physical. They don't want to get physical with you. Like you said, they can go all outside, but they do not want to get physical with you where Michigan benefits a lot from. So if they can take advantage of that and play. from ahead will be in a really good spot.

I agree. Well, the bigger news is we will be back at Hopcat on Friday night. It was banging on Saturday, even for a noon tip off, full to the gills, which was awesome. So Friday night is going to be incredible. My guy, DJ Array, will be back spinning for us. We'll have Woodson Whiskey deals. I'll be honest, Joel. I may have had a few too many Woods and Whiskeys on Saturday.

But, you know, yeah, it happens. It happens to the best of us. We do the Heisman there, which is whiskey with lemonade. And it is incredible. It's really, really good. I'm sad that I missed on a really good time. Yeah, yeah, you might have to come out. But, but yeah, we will be there.

We've got food deals. They've got the chicken dunkers there with new sauces. They've got seven new sauces that are unbelievable dunk sauce. garlic parmesan. They've got a chili ranch that is ridiculously good. And then the cheese sauce with the cosmic fries, not crack fries, but the cosmic fries that are, I mean, again, I had way too many of those. My stomach was not doing well on Saturday.

So anyways, we'll be back there Friday. A bunch of people are coming out. I'm super excited. Even our old co-host Tanner is going to come up. from Kansas City to join. So I'm pumped. So meet us there. We'll appreciate you coming out and come hang and let's go get a W on Friday night

and hopefully play on Sunday as well. Pivoting to some football. So spring football is still going on here. We're probably what, a week and a half into spring practice now. So I feel like they're getting a little. little bit under their belt, I'm assuming, with this new staff, still a long ways to go. But it sounds like good things. I mean, there are never bad things that come out of the media in spring football. It's always like, this is the time where you get all the hope in the world.

Everybody is looking like, you know, this is where I don't, I don't know if you'll understand this reference, Joel, as an Ohioan, but, you know, for the last like 10 years of Miguel Cabrera's career, they would say in spring. training he's looking like in the best shape of his career and then he'd like get hurt like 10 games in and so that's kind of what spring ball is to me of like everybody is looking you know way better but some good things coming out though yeah and you know you look at the first week at week and a half of spring ball just from the organizational standpoint of it they have been in spider pads which are not real shoulder pads as a small padding and are starting

to transition to shoulder pads. So have the coaches been able to seriously evaluate them from a football standpoint minimally, but now is kind of where a lot of that evaluation is going to come through. And I think I can appreciate the transparency of the coaching staff on that. They were talking to Jason Beck in the media,

and they were asking about a savi on hitter. Hyder? Yeah, all right. We got to be careful there, too. It's very close to something. Very careful. Very careful. So they were talking, they asked him about him.

Like, you see him in the backfield with Jordan Marshall. And he very clear was like, listen, we are like three practices in. There has not been a lot to tell. We're going to do a lot of evaluating. He's got really great effort. But the evaluation is yet to come. And he was open to a two and three back potential system. ultimately what he said was that, hey, listen, if they're the best players on the field, they're going to get on the field.

And if you can take more hits off of a running back because, I mean, virtually getting tackled every play that they have the ball, right? Unless they have a breakout run. It takes a toll on your body. And we've seen success with Michigan in the past with a multiple running back system. So something that would definitely benefit us as a team, especially getting a couple different styles of running back in there, too. So I think that's huge for the guys. And yeah, the true evaluation will learn a lot more moving forward here in the next handful of weeks.

Yeah. I mean, I like the way that this staff is approaching things. It feels like right now they're in total evaluation mode. It's not like, you know, sometimes, obviously this is a new staff. So that's going to happen no matter what. But sometimes in spring ball, it's, you. jump to too many conclusions and the coaches are coming out saying this person is, you know, so so much better, this, whatever. And they're kind of like, we don't know yet.

And that's okay. Right. And we, and I think that they're utilizing that to put pressure on the players, too, to say, hey, you know, we're not, it is going back to the Harbaugh days of like, we're not naming any starters, you know, right now outside of, they named QB1 as Bryce, obviously. but I think most of everyone else is battling and anybody else can, you know, can emerge as the next guy. So I like how they're doing that. I have heard really, really, really good things about the internal staff, like the new chief of staff, her name is Elena. That is, I just think that this team is going to be so much more buttoned up from not just like an on- field play, but just like the structural piece of how you go through days and weeks of practice

and workouts and everything like that, and install and all that. So I really like the way that they're putting this together. It just seems like it's going to be a totally new look. And you and I were talking about this before we started recording here too. You know, I think that this staff is not as friendly, I will say, to the, to the, players and I think that's a good thing right. It's this these players, whether they like it or not, they are, they need a little culture change. They need to be held accountable.

They need to be told what to do and what not to do. And so I think that that is going to be ultimately a good thing, even though some of the guys might not like it right now. Right. Yeah. And in the grand scheme of like leading in general, you cannot be someone's friend first before you want to lead them. Right.

That was the problem that we faced before. We had a coaching staff that was very friendly with their players and maybe even a little bit too friendly with the guys to the point of where... Too friendly with a lot of people, some would say. Yeah, too friendly with a lot of people, yeah, obviously. But like you said, I think they're doing a really good job of that, of just being football coaches first to put in their culture that they want to install, right? And then once they're able to get that developed and now people understand, hey, this is how we operate.

Okay, now we can loosen up a little bit. They understand this is the way that it is. Now we can joke around a little bit more, have a little bit more fun. And it's not about not having fun, but you have to be able to take a group of guys that is coming from chaos and round them up and say, listen, we're going to be moving like this now. This has worked for us, and it's going to work here too. And I think they're doing a really good job about that. I can appreciate that.

I know they're still trying to pull the media. It's still trying to pull some things out of Michigan football. Or DC went to the podium. And I know you know, Angelique. I don't know if you saw this. I did see this. But also, before you say this, Angelique's like the nicest human being of all time, too.

Yes. She's so unbelievably nice. So like to understand who Angelique is, like he, what he said was she asked him a question or something along that lines. And he said, you know, you're the best looking one in the bunch. And people are like, oh, Michigan coach is flirting again. That is not what that was. People are just trying to pull things in from, you know, previous instances. So we're moving in the right direction.

And it was not, I looked at like the comments on that post. They're like, you're taking this way out of context. Yeah. You don't get them like, like, yeah. This is not the same. Stop trying to make it what it used to be. It's not like that anymore. For sure.

No. And the only people that I saw like making a big deal out of that were Ohio State people trying to stir shit up. Yeah. But other than that, everyone understands. She's the literal only woman in the vicinity there. So it was a, you know, a lighthearted joke that, you know, the rest of the media is, is not as good looking.

Yeah. And she's been there forever. She's been around Michigan football for so long. So she's not just this new media personality who has come in. She's been there forever. Everybody knows who Angelique is. For sure, for sure. She's the best.

Shout out, Angelique. Go check out her stuff. I believe she's with the Detroit News. So go check out of her stuff. But yeah, I mean, so the biggest thing that came out from yesterday from, you mentioned Jason Beck, the offensive coordinator's press conference, is him talking about Bryce Underwood. I think, you know, that's still going to be the biggest storyline of this off season is how does Bryce Underwood progress?

You know, we obviously, we're all, I think it's fair to say we're disappointed in how, you know, the end of the year, you know, panned out for not only the team, but for Bryce. I mean, he himself, I don't think he was thinking that that was going to be his stat line by the end of the year, right? And so now you have a QB coach in there. You've got a new staff. So we're really, I think people are dialed in on like, okay, what is Bryce Underwood going to look like in 2026, you know, in this new situation? And Coach Beck talked about him running.

I think you had that quote too. Yeah. So they asked him, you know, if they were going to use Bryce as a running quarterback. and his initial response was if it's a part of his skill set, we'll use it. And that was a very, you know, maybe Harbaugh-esque answer. You don't really get a clear answer. He's saying a lot, not telling you anything at all. But then he went on to say, and it is part of his skill set, which is encouraging.

We talked about this the last time we recorded that he can be lethal in the running game. And he has shown that in all of last season, the important part is that he gets down. He doesn't try to level anybody because, you know, he is our QB1. Out of all the players on that team, he's the only one who is currently a starter, and he needs to behave that way on the field because we do need him, especially with a coaching staff that is, you know, really building around him and also developing him because last year, you know, he's a $10 million quarterback who didn't have a $10 million season. And their job now is to turn him into that guy. And that is exactly what they're doing.

So, yeah, he's, we're going to see him running the ball, which is going to be huge for the offense, huge for the running backs and for the passing game alike. Yeah. I think that's, I mean, that's where all of us watching the games last year were like waiting for when they were going to install that, you know? And you're like, you saw it. I believe it was the Nebraska game. You know, you see him scamper for a run. It was a design, like, draw. And nobody's even near him, right?

And it's like, why don't we do that twice, three times, four times a game, you know? And then they just never really did it. And, you know, I always like to joke around, too, with, like, our friends where it's like, oh, must be saving it for Ohio State, you know. And like, you know, that's like a half joke because it's, we just, we just don't have it in the playbook then. You know, and so I think that that has to be a big piece. Now, he's not going to be Denard, right?

Where it's like, you know, Denard right or Denard left is the play call. But I think in order to have him be as effective as he could be, that needs to be a significant piece of the playbook. And what that does, Joel, as you know, is it opens up, the passing game for him then. And that's going to make that so much easier when linebackers get sucked in and even DBs get sucked in on a little fake or whatever else, right? And so, you know, you just talked about possibly three running backs in the rotation.

Well, then you use your quarterback just as an effect of runner. You know, then you're like, holy shit. This feels like the sky is kind of the limit for this offense. Right. And then we can open it up to like running. into a run-pass option, right? He takes an outside run, but he's got options downfield, which is a nightmare for a defense. It helps out your offensive line because it slows down the pass rush. It's huge. When you're not, when your running game doesn't just come from your

running backs, it creates so much more for your offense. Like you said, he doesn't, he doesn't have to be DeNard Robinson to be effective in the running game. He just has to have that aspect of his game, which we know that he is capable of doing. It wasn't really taking advantage of previously, and it sounds like they are definitely taking the right steps to make that happen now. And they also understand, hey, this is part of his skill set. Let's use it rather than this is our offense, push him into this offense and make it work. 100%. So it's definitely speculate off of like a few quotes season in baseball, right?

Like we get about five sentences and then have to, you know, make up our minds on all the things that are happening inside the walls at Schenbeckler. So I did like, I don't know if you saw this. They, they showed a coach Beck miced up at practice, which I feel like we've never even gotten that before. So, you know, we had talked about possibly getting a little more insider look at practices and things with this new staff. That's one step in the right direction, in my opinion. But I do think that, you know, things seem to be going well. everybody that I've talked to are very excited. There's new energy in the building.

You know, there's a lot of good things that are happening. And so, you know, you're only a week and a half in a spring ball. You've got three more weeks. You've got a spring game coming up and then a full summer workouts. But it feels like, you know, once the final four is over and hopefully Michigan wins an addie, then everyone's going to be tuned into, you know, what's Bryce Underwood doing? Yeah, and we're going to have a lot more information, like I said, moving forward here because now the guys are in Pat's. So they're going to be able to do that true evaluation.

And hopefully, you know, we get a little clarity in the media as to how things are looking for certain guys. And also I'd like to stress that spring ball is spring ball. It is not fall camp. Yeah. So they have a whole entire summer to develop. Yeah, you might think a guy is going to be a starter who maybe, you know, they don't comment on quite as much. It's going to be fine. Like, they have a lot of time to develop.

I went from being an offensive line to a starting tight end and a matter of a spring ball to a camp. So trust me, there's time to develop. This is just an initial evaluation. And like we spoke on before, a chance for them to install their culture into the team. 100%. All right. Well, that's all we have today.

Big game this Friday. So meet us out at Hopcat. The Woods and Whiskey will be flowing. I can promise you that. Go to Feldman Chevy ofhylund.com as well. Check out the new deals that they've got going on for spring. And yeah, I mean, let's have ourselves a good weekend here. So thanks, Joel.

Appreciate you as always. For us, you can follow us at Blueby 90 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, at Blueby 90 podcast on YouTube and Blueby90.com. We appreciate you. Go Blue. Go Blue.