Blue By Ninety - The day before signing day

Episode Date: December 16, 2020

The boys talk about the Iowa game being cancelled, the season is now over so what are Harbaugh's options, basketball recap and a short signing day preview. Crack a cold one and enjoy the show.

This is the University of Michigan. Touchdown, Michigan! This is the University of Michigan! And they've caught extra pass. And it goes to the wind! The three-pointer! By Jordan Poole! Down the sideline!

Peebles jumps! Touchdown, Wolverines! no it's not game week and all of a sudden this season is officially over so quick thoughts yes or no answer are you happy or sad that the season is officially done for michigan football is it yes or no or is it happy or sad happy yes i'm very happy i i mean we talked about it last time we were kind of over football anyway right and so like just avoiding another crushing loss to a good iowa team is probably good that we are that we do get to avoid that but um still which like though, how many times in the past of your lifetime, even when Michigan was the worst, were you like, dang, I'm so glad that this season is over three and not often for me.

I don't know. Yeah. I mean, three and nine, that was really rich. Yeah. Other than that, I mean, I was at least with Brady Hoke, he had Denard. I mean, even Rich Rod, he had Denard. Like, there was exciting quarterbacks and shit to watch. Like, obviously, I still would have liked to see Dan Villari and just, like, whatever, see what he can do with no expectations.

But I think having Michigan football just be done and me not having to worry about watching them on Saturday it just makes my weekend better yeah I feel like in the past there's always been like something to root for like a a reason right and we're at the point with this team where I'm like there's almost no reason to even watch yeah I mean I don't disagree it was like the only thing for me is that I'm off the Harbaugh train at this point. And the less Michigan plays, the easier it is for them to extend Jim Harbaugh because the less embarrassing this season is. You know, if they if they have to play these last three games and, you know, even if they beat Maryland and go one and two, that's a three and what, six season, three and five season and or three and six. Yeah, it was in the ninth game. So it's like it was going to save his job a little bit because it would have been so weird if michigan goes out this weekend gets beat 42 to 10 or something

and then next week they're going to come on and be like yep we're extending jim harbaugh for the next three years it's like are you fucking kidding me but But now they can be like, oh, weird season. You never know what would happen in those three games. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then, you know, it's a lot easier for that conversation to happen with his extension. Yeah, totally agree. And hopefully, I mean, this is Tuesday night before signing day. We still haven't heard anything. Do you think we're going to hear anything before signing day happens tomorrow fuck no dude no chance god that's frustrating

so like i tweeted it out i was like oh yeah season's officially over that means shortly we should be hearing from them right because that's what they said but it's like you know they're just gonna keep dragging this on as long as they can for no reason you know especially i do think that there will be a decision by this weekend do you think there's like a plan to this at all because it seems like this is like idiotic yeah no yeah it's fucking it is it is fucking idiotic that's what one of the best academic schools in the country in their fucking athletic department it's it's ridiculous in regards to football everything else seems to be okay but with handling except for the marketing team the game presentation team is trash oh that girl's the worst the girl that does

at least she's seen lord of the rings which i respect that's true for anybody listening justin has not seen lord of the rings ever none of it he laughs at the references that i bring up and he's never seen the fucking movie guys any of them none of the movies so we'll have to fix that sometime soon i don't have a response i don't have it you shall not so fucking mad that's all i know that's all i know all right well maybe you know what we got nothing going this saturday so uh yeah whatever let's watch it is I was going to say, I should probably clarify that I actually do think Michigan's game presentation is good for people who don't know that reference. Why is he shitting on the game presentation?

I'm going to read an article about it tomorrow. Michigan game presentation, subpar. Is that the reason for their poor play in 2020? According to Blue by 90 reporter justin row it's just whatever like are you i'm i'm feeling like it's just like i'm so indifferent about that like in any other instance michigan gets a game canceled i'd be like fuck what do i do like what am i gonna do with my life this saturday at this point i'm just like eh whatever i'm over it makes no difference at this point i'd rather have them not play and then watch them lose well at this point this is like what the third game in a row that they've canceled so yeah it is kind of like business as usual you know whatever you've been doing over

whatever you've been doing the last couple Saturdays just keep doing that yeah I'm the only bad thing about this is that Michigan basketball still does not play till Christmas so we don't have anything to watch you know in terms of Michigan for two weeks now, and all we have to do is hear about Jim Harbaugh. That's why I hope they make a fucking decision just now. I don't want to have to keep lingering and hearing rumors. Just fucking do it. Rip the Band-Aid off.

If you're going to extend him, do it. If you're going to fire him, fire him. Just get an over with. There's literally no point in waiting. So why we're waiting, like everybody's scratching their heads. Even if there was a game this week, even if there was a game last week, even if there was a game the previous week, there still is no reason not to do it.

So I'm done trying to figure that out because, like you said, Kalen, there's literally no reason not to. So. So I don't, I'm done like trying to figure that out because like you said, Caitlin, there's literally no reason not to. So it's, it's beyond me. But I did want to get your guys thoughts on, you know, we've talked about Jim Harbaugh. Does he stay or does he go?

Let's just assume that he's staying. Who is there? Anybody on the staff that you want to keep on the staff or is it clean house? Get a new D coordinator, new or coordinator, new everything and just start from scratch. Yeah, I say new new OC, maybe even give Harbaugh back the reins to the offense. Definitely new D coordinator. I think you gotta keep sharon more like he was a pretty solid recruiter right i think he i think that'd be a big reason

to keep him like the number one recruiter in the nation yeah he i remember i remember seeing that like he was he was a solid recruiter so i mean as far as the guys to keep that are off the top of my head it'd be it'd be more and if harbaugh's staying obviously keep him but clean house for your coordinators gaddis i mean you you gotta go don brown you been had to go what about like a ed warner or something ed warner yeah that okay that slipped my mind definitely keep ed warner i mean he's proven um but yeah other than that i don't fucking know man yeah i was almost jane you just gotta go he hasn't really i mean he's proven. But, yeah, other than that, I don't fucking know, man. Yeah.

I was almost thinking. Ben McDaniel's got to go. He hasn't really. I mean, he's a QB coach, right? He hasn't fucking done anything with these quarterbacks. He fucking ruined what. We had six options at quarterback this year, and he fucked up every single one of them, essentially. Not him specifically.

Well, I don't know. I mean, fuck. Who knows? They all did. We literally ended up the season with our fourth string quarterback from what we're looking at in august so it's not great yeah what about like a like mike zordich a guy who has a history of producing some really good guys and maybe like just for whatever reason this season he was put in a bad position maybe. Let's go back.

We did see his guys improve. Did he produce these guys? Were they always already talented? I have no idea. You could say that about a lot of guys too. Right. I mean, you definitely could, yeah. Urban Meyer.

But he was the guy who was like i'm gonna get recruits and not worry as much about you know i mean obviously he was a good coach but his big thing was like i'm gonna get big recruits to this program yeah yeah but i'm just saying you know you could say the same thing about him right i i agree i agree with that caitlin because like for for zordich on the corners like we've had lockdown corners every single year except for this one anomaly of a year in 2020 and he has he is one good one transfer opted out you know so yeah and we saw his we saw the players that he was kind of forced to deal with not be good but we also saw them improve throughout the season and that's really the only position group i can think of where i've seen improvement like in real time

yeah i i agree with that i i thought the you know ed warner had done that in the past um with these with his offensive line this year this year they didn't really and then you see zach carpenter transfer so it's like but i still i it's see that it's so tough this year because it's a weird year, you know? And so, like, how much of these guys, including Harbaugh, how much do you get a pass for in 2020? And I think that Harbaugh doesn't get as much of a pass because of his past. But these other guys, I think, have proven to develop, you know, NFL talent, honestly, at a lot of different positions.

Don Brown, I think it's definitely time. I mean, yeah, been time. Josh Gaddis, what we learned was, dude, you never called plays and you don't know how to. And so that was a struggle. So I think we have to go get a more veteran type guy um but like i i think we got caught up on the offensive side of we saw lincoln riley we saw uh you know joe brady we saw these young guys come in with new offenses and the hot guys and then they did well we're like oh we got our guy let's go get him because he's young and coached at Alabama and all these things.

But we you have to have some experience to Joe Brady is like the most unique person on Earth. He's like 32 with an NFL coordinator job right now. Yeah, that's like, you know, hiring Sean McVayigh or something like that that's that's not going to happen so expecting to just you know reach into the oc pool and pull out a winning hand is ridiculous right so i think you know whoever does the search for coaches for michigan really needs to do their due diligence and we need to be willing to get somebody who has some experience but also like personality wise like can you get along with jim harbaugh who's notorious for being difficult to get along with right because then if you guys are just constantly butting heads you know philosophically then the offense is never gonna gonna play well so you need to find

somebody who's not only the right fit in talent, but the right fit in culture that you're trying to build at your university. Yeah, and if Harbaugh's the guy, I mean, who thought we would have been saying this two years ago, or last year after Gattis came in, change the offense, change the offense. I think we've got to find a offensive coordinator with the same kind of philosophy that harbaugh has if they're going to be successful right you got two two minds thinking alike and i don't know man i never would have thought we'd be going back to

this conversation to change it back to the offense that we saw back in i don't think that the spread doesn't work though right i don't want. I don't want to sound like that. I agree, but I'm saying if Harbaugh's the guy, right, I feel like there needs to be a coordinator that's like-minded with him. Yep. And also, maybe the spread does work, and Gattis is just a shitty coach. You know, I mean. We don't have spread quarterbacks. Like, even Joe Milton is not a spread quarterback he's

he's not gonna run as if he's not reading if he's not uh running the read option not you know run out his reads um dylan mccaffrey's not a not a spread quarterback like none of those guys are justin fields none of those guys are kyler murray right like even baker mayfield you know so well you can run spread like lsu did last year right they weren't necessarily running uh read option yeah guy was based on blanking on but you can yeah joe burrow you could still have your spread concepts and have a pocket passer qb so that was what what I, you know, Matt Burns talked about it, and our guy Matt Burns, and he, we were talking about, we want to see Michigan be, their offense should be a replica of Alabama's.

It is still all based on the run. You still get Najee Harris 20 to 25 carries every single game, and he still runs up the middle, off tackle, things like that. They really dominate with that offensive line. But then they throw it deep. They actually open it up, and they have a good quarterback. They have stud-wide receivers, all these things. And so it's, I think the problem,

I loved Michigan's offense under Jim Harbaugh, honestly, because it was efficient. It soaked up time when you were in the lead. But then the problem is that when you get down, there's no way for that offense to move quick enough to score points and come back from down 14 points or something like that. So you can run the Alabama offense and run the Jim Harbaugh offense of pound, pound, pound and dink and dunk a little bit. But you still have to be able to open it up when you need to yeah what do you think about like the personnel that we have now though if we try to switch back to that now a lot of our personnel is geared

towards like a like a more quote-unquote speed and space you know uh kind of people but we don't have the the donovan people's jones and the oliver martins you know do you think we can make that work or what do you think i mean i think it all depends on the line on the offensive line i think i mean receivers are receivers right they're good or bad like there's not really i mean whether you have fast receivers or whatever it is i mean it all starts with the offensive line if you can't run the ball then you can't do shit right i mean that's what we saw is guys running up the middle and they're getting no yards so if that's what they're gonna run i mean if the offensive line can't create holes for these running backs i mean then nothing can happen so i mean as long as warner can develop the offensive line and we can control the line

of scrimmage and running backs can go for five ten yards you know every you know a couple carries then you're gonna be able to take deep shots so i mean i think this all depends on the offensive line and blocking and tight ends and and what they can do and and then you can have alabama's offense at that point i think it's i think it's more simple than it sounds, honestly. No shit. Well, first of all, it's really – I mean, we're not coming – if Michigan could run Alabama's offense well, they would fucking do it, right? But also Alabama's getting a different source of linemen than Michigan's getting. I'll tell you that.

That's what I was just going to say. You're working with Devontae Smith, who should be the Heisman frontrunner right now. He's unbelievable. Oh, 100%. You're working with how many five-star linemen? You know, and Najee Harris, who also should be a Heisman contender. Right, yeah. Five-star dude.

And then, like, Mack Jones also, like, steps in. And now he's being looked at by the NFL too. So like it's not, you know, we, we're not on that talent level, but I just think in terms of, I don't know, the play calling and everything that we saw this year obviously didn't work. So I, my point, I guess of it all is find something in the middle of Jim Harbaugh's offense and Josh Gaddis' offense. Right? We didn't need

to let Harbaugh give up the reins and go completely spread, read option, whatever. We could have... There were a lot of things that worked with his offense, but just bring that offense into the year 2020, basically. Yeah. I mean, I guess how would you change it, you know, going into the year 2020 basically yeah i mean i guess how would you change it you know going into the year 2020 from what from what he had before 40 yards more than once

every three weeks yeah i don't know that's the one thing just did to look back at like 2015 2016 and look at those offenses and kind of see how they how they played out because i feel like they ran the ball you know decent like it was still jim harbaugh very you know power run but i remember i mean i remember fucking seeing darbo chess in all these guys getting deep balls and spate and rudak were putting the ball in the money so i mean i think the thing that fucked us was 2017 peters got hurt who i thought was a solid quarterback he could throw the ball deep i mean he was a pretty highly rated recruit and then fucking okorn came in and fucked it all up and then everybody was like change the offense change the offense. I mean. I think there was, like, a level of predictability, though, with Jim's offense.

Because it did sometimes feel like, okay, you know, run, run, pass a little bit, right? Yeah, I did hate the, you know, you knew they were running on first and second down. I agree with that. I think maybe just mixing it up more. Maybe just getting more of your. I feel like where we lost out was not having like a super athlete on the field. Right. And well, when Jabril was here, maybe we did have a little bit of that. Yeah. But I mean, I just think of some of the explosive offenses.

They always have like one player where you're like, OK, if all goes wrong, they can give it to him. And at Michigan, I don't really feel that all the time. So Ronnie Bell last year, your boy, dude, Ronnie. Yeah, Ronnie Bell. I mean, he was kind of a go to guy, I felt like. But he's not like a, you know, like a huge difference maker in the game that I feel like a lot of other teams might have. The teams that reach that high level that we want to be. If we're like for somebody on Michigan's offense, I'd say it would be Ron a bit Ronnie.

Okay. Yeah. Well, I think that Nico could have, could have been that last year too, but we didn't get him the ball as much as we needed to. So I don't know, like this,

the thing that bothers me from 2019 is the fact that we had Tariq, DPJ, and Nico, and, like, none of them had – how many 100-yard games did they have, like, combined? Like, only a couple or something like that. Like, crazy. So, yeah, that part was just frustrating. So I definitely think on the assistant side, the offense, the defense, like you have to figure that out first and foremost. Because Jim Harbaugh, if he's going to be the guy,

you better have some studs in place in those spots on the assistant coaching side. Because otherwise, shit's going to just not, it's going to go the same. But I also think about like now we're gonna have a brand new defense and a brand new offense and like all this stuff that like those transitions are tough for players right so are we gonna like bring in a entire new coaching staff essentially except for the head coach and say all right we expect you now to get to 10 wins this year you know it's like is that realistic i'd i'd like for the athletic department as well as harbaugh and whoever to to put up front expectations and be like this is a transitional year we got new we got new. We're not expecting to win 10, 11 games and compete for the Big Ten.

We're looking at eight wins. Want to have a solid season. See how the defense works out. I mean, obviously, it's hard to say that as a fucking head football coach in a D1 school, especially at Michigan. But at least if you're putting, you know, your priorities as whatever they are, you need to announce that to the fan base. And you'll get a little more lenience that way from the media, fan base, whatever. I mean, Stanford's not coming out and saying, oh, we're going to win the fucking Pac-12 this year.

We're going to compete every year for a college football playoff berth and a conference championship. Why can't Michigan just do that? Dude, you're making your job easier at that point that is the best idea i've heard all fucking day dude if jim harbaugh hired a new staff imagine if he said hey we have a new staff and uh we're running a new system so we might not win the big 10 our one goal this year is beat Ohio State. Love it. Love it.

Who would be mad? We have one goal. Everyone would be so happy. Love it. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Kalen. Yes.

Hit the nail on the fucking head. Absolutely. I mean, let's make everything realistic, right? Let's focus on one thing at a time. And I mean, like you said, let's also get in front of everything that's going on and say, hey, here are my intentions. We may not win a national title this year. We may not even win the Big Ten, but I'm going to do everything I can to beat Ohio State and we're going to make progress every week.

Here's what I'm going to do to make that happen there are changes that need to be made culturally everything like that if he came out and like said i suck you know i sucked in 2020 or these are the things that we're struggling with right now and we need to change them i'd be like thank you Thanks for letting us know because we've been fucking skeptical for six years now and you never said a damn word about it. And that's something, too. I think half of the issue with Harbaugh is he just floats around. Every fucking question is asked to him.

He's just like, yeah, you know, we da-da-da-da-da-da. He doesn't really answer the question ever and it causes frustration for everybody and i think that's half the issue of people being like get the horrible the fuck out of here you know yeah he reminds me say what you're asked you know say what you need to say dude he reminds me of like when you're when i was in college like having a conversation with my roommate who would be like really high and you're like trying to ask him a question and he's like well you know like uh uh what's that thing uh uh you're just like dude i'm asking you like spit it out yeah like this isn't fucking rocket science come on it's like it's like you ask him hey jim what's uh what's one plus one he's like well you know you got two numbers you got you got an

addition sign you got an equal sign and you know we're gonna two numbers. You got an addition sign. You got an equal sign. And, you know, we're going to put pen to paper and we're going to figure it out. But, like, he addresses it, but he doesn't fucking answer it. It's the most frustrating thing in the world. Was that a direct quote? Did he actually say that? It could be. That's our highlight right there.

Put that out there. It's like politician talk. Like, you want to avoid every single thing so you don't actually give an answer but you just dance around it it's like but like dude you don't have to be a politician here you're coaching football like fucking just let us know like and you don't need to reveal everything i think that that was his mo from the beginning was like we're gonna be this secretive we not going to release a depth chart because it gives the other team an advantage. Like at this point, you now have the other team on the other side. You have your own fan base on the other side of you rooting against you.

Like you better come out and say something about what you're doing. Dude, I would be so hype if if Jim Harbaugh signed an extension and he came out there and he was like I'll see you in 350 days when we play Ohio State oh man dude just be transparent own the fact that all your job is is to be at Ohio State and I think the fan base will just be boom right back on your bandwagon yeah if he came out like he was in 2015 2016 and was fiery and at least just like seemed like a normal human being in these press conferences right and like yeah hey i just want to let you guys know like just admit your faults i understand that for the last six years we've come up short i have come up up short. I'm here because I know that we are better than that. And we could be, you know, at the top and I want to get there at some

point. It may not happen this next year, but we're going to work there. I've got a great recruiting class coming in. I've got great people surrounding me and I, and we're going to, you know, work as hard as we can to get there great i i like if he just gave that answer every so often i'd be like all right you know what i do think jim harbaugh's still the guy yeah and you know what he's he's a weird guy and i understand that i think he should like embrace that weirdness like be at a press conference and like chug a glass of milk or something like be yourself, but just turn it up an extra notch and people will love you for it. Well, you know what? He's got the weirdness of it.

But like usually when there's weirdos like that, there's a quirky, lovable side. Right. He's the weirdo without the lovable part right now, at least. Right now. Because at least like right now because at least early on yeah when he was like shirtless you know at the fucking camps and he's like the whitest man on the planet like i'm like that is funny as hell you know he's wearing cleats into the into the uh recruits living room like when he's doing the uh when he's with quavo with his iced out watch doing uh music videos like at least he was weird and it but it was like likable excitement yeah

yeah now he's just a fucking weirdo without us without any likable traits he needs a gimmick yeah exactly mike gundy is an asshole and mike gundy doesn't win every football game but he's got a mullet so everyone's like how about mike gundy though it's very true very true big fan of mike gundy great hair so all right so that's kind of all we've got i do want to touch on recruiting or signing days tomorrow, right? So this is going to come out, what, tomorrow morning, I think, or later tonight? Tomorrow morning. Save that.

Probably. So one thing. So obviously we don't know what's going to happen with a couple people. Brandon Jennings to Maryland, maybe. Xavier Worthy to Bama. And then Donovan Edwards. Yeah, we'll see. So Steve Wiltfong, who is the big 247 guy, right?

Oh, yeah. He came out in his last paid article. He said all three of those guys are going to Michigan. God, I fucking love it. I hope so. Is Brandon Jennings signing tomorrow as well? Yeah. Fuck. Oh, if we can get those it. I hope so. Is Brandon Jennings signing tomorrow as well? Yeah. Fuck.

Oh, if we can get those guys. Oh, God. So if that all happens and Harbaugh's the guy, are you like, all right, that's all right, Harbaugh can stay? If that all happens and Harbaugh gets signed in the same day, I'm good. I'm more so frustrated by the fact that we're sitting in limbo and we don't know what's going on. That's a big frustration for me. If Harbaugh's back, I'm like, all right, cool. I can ride with that.

Looking at his fucking numbers, obviously he's done shitty against Ohio State. A lot of the losses we can blame on don brown i mean i don't i if harbaugh comes back i won't be totally upset because i do think there's a chance that he that he has an opportunity to be the guy but just the fact that we're sitting in limbo where we don't know who it's going to be is what bothers me but if he gets a contract extension tomorrow and we get all three of those four of those three of those recruits the big guys that we're looking for i'll be fucking pumped man it'll be a great wednesday yeah i just i think that would be surprising though with everything that's gone down like something's going on then behind the scenes that we don't know about right

that um he's saying to guys or something's happening in a positive manner that would make these guys still want to come to michigan even with the shit show that was 2020 so um that would make these guys still want to come to michigan even with the shit show that was 2020 so um that would be awesome i think that's uh that's ideal obviously so then that would bump michigan up to like seven six maybe five fifth class in the country for 2021 so like you go two and four uh or what were we two and three at two and four two and four you go two and four and then sign the top you know seven class in the country it's pretty damn good so oh yeah yeah i'd be curious to see too what uh what the waiver or what do you call it the transfer portal looks like yeah uh after this year i'll i'll say this somebody broke it down by positions and there's like 125

defensive tackles already in the portal right now so if we don't bring on two three maybe four of those guys by next year like we need to hit that portal hard oh yeah who's um do you guys know who willie i think it's will Allen. Is he a tackle? He's an offensive lineman though, right? Offensive tackle, yeah. Number 73 he's going to be. Came from Law Tech, Louisiana Tech. Yeah.

He's working at the Emden warehouse right now, no joke. Is he? Yeah. I'll take him up. Because of COVID, like any new people can't come in because they're like, he's not enrolled yet. So they can't come in because they're like he's not enrolled yet um so they can't like test and stuff like that um so he's just chilling working in ann arbor until so is that like a gap year kind of for him then well i think he transferred like

because they louisiana tech is not playing i want to say because i remember i remember seeing him come out being like hey i'm gonna go to michigan next year and it came out like probably a couple months ago at least yeah i'm betting i think that what he did was like i'm assuming louisiana tech uh canceled their season and so then he was like all right i'm transferring to michigan so um maybe they started playing later but he still was already out or something watching Watching Michigan basketball yesterday was like a nice thing. They struggled a little bit. It was a little stressful for a second.

It was stressful. Jack and I were watching together in downtown Ann Arbor, and so it was like, oh, shit, are they going to pull it out or not? Terrence Williams is missing two free throws at the end. And I'm like, oh, boy, here we go back to, you know, struggling free throws at the end of the game because we can't close it out. But I was still I think that's here's the thing. Rule number one in the Big Ten is you take any win you can get, and an ugly win is still a win in the Big Ten, especially this year with it being so deep.

So I promise you that Penn State will beat some other solid teams this year because I think they're better. They're not like a walkover team in my opinion, and maybe I'm saying that just because we just barely beat them but still i think they're okay they've got some good guys but what were your guys thoughts on on hoops yesterday i mean fuck franz never really came out and you know had a big offensive game again another slow start for him but i mean if he continues to get rebounds and uh you know assists and whatever he gets you know close to nine points a game we've talked about

it before as long as he can kind of do that whatever but hunter dickinson big game for him when he had finished with 27 20.7 rebounds four assists and maybe a couple blocks so he had a good game eli brooks had a good game um really good defensive game from eli uh so i mean i was impressed again i mean i think the team just plays really well together. Yeah, I took a couple, you know, a closer look at trying to watch Mike Smith after we kind of talked about him. And I actually saw a lot more of kind of what you guys were saying. He did a good job of moving the ball around, you know, using picks and stuff. So I thought he played pretty well and then obviously i mean hunter dickinson i mean is he like three or four inches taller than every other player on the court

because yeah that's 72 that's how it felt so i mean i tweeted it out yesterday but literally michigan's game plan when if they're struggling offensively is just toss it into hunter at like without even a question and he's just going to go to the rack and either get fouled or or put it up or both i'm totally okay with that no it's a great right yeah i mean and i still i think first of all he's our leading scorer through six games which if you would have told me that i i was you know i thought he was going to be a contributor because austin davis is you know kind of uh you know we don't he's he's good but he's not like you know a starting center in the big 10 um and so i knew hunter was going to be a big deal but i did not know that he was going to be our leading

scorer six games in so So that's pretty sweet. But it's a great thing to just be able to go to him because I think this team struggles shooting, and they go into lulls sometimes. So if you can get out of that by just putting it down low all day, and then if Hunter draws a double team or something, that helps to open up the rest of the offense. So I don't know. Outside of Luka Garza, he may be the best center in the Big Ten possibly.

I saw something. I don't know who. I think Ken Palm. There's a Ken Palm thing. It's like the top five players in the Big Ten right now. I think Dickinson was number five. But, I mean, I'll go back to what I said before, and you gave me shit, but they look

like Greg Popovich's Spurs. They do a good job of passing the ball around, finding the open guy, and you know, when they can't, they get it down to Tim Duncan, a.k.a. Hunter Dickinson, and, you know, it makes something happen. So, obviously joking, but

they do a great job of passing the ball around, finding the open guy and taking good shots, in my opinion. And they are a very good free throw shooting team. Outside of Terrence Williams missing two free throws, there's only one other missed free throw. Brandon Johns went one for two, but Livers was eight for eight, Dickinson two for two uh wagner two for two and eli was four for four so i mean this might be one of the best free throw shooting teams in michigan at least recent history for sure i mean that was the one thing that b lines teams never had right and then john last year obviously with xavier too it struggled but i think it's so nice that you can you know if we do down the stretch have have to you know ice the game with free throws you can go to Mike Smith

Eli Livers Franz even Hunter is a good free throw shooter so like there are a lot of guys that you can go to in those situations um the other thing too, that I've talked about the versatility of this team. Like, it's crazy that some days Shondy Brown goes for 18 points and then the next day he goes for zero, but Michigan still wins, you know? So it's pretty sweet that they don't have to, like, even, like, every time it's different. Sometimes it's Liver's leading scorer. Sometimes it's different if sometimes it's livers leading score sometimes it's hunter sometimes it's shawndy sometimes it's freaking you know anybody else eli

like they're the best part about this team man you don't have to rely on one guy i mean like you said it's everybody it's only a different person every game it's blowing it up it feels like a real team effort when they're playing so and that's actually really fun to watch too and that speaks to juwan man as a coach a lot of people have question marks about about him they knew he could recruit well but being actually being a coach and i mean i feel like that proves it more than anything where you're not relying on talent you're just you've got a bunch of guys that are playing together and they're playing together really really well yeah i mean i'm still definitely annoyed of you because you you spoke franz wagner not being good into existence and now he like is trash um i wouldn't say he's trash because he's still by

far the best defensive guy on michigan and that will get him a long way. So, like, we can still put on any good small forward, like, honestly, the positions two through four, well, Eli will usually take the two, but, like, three through even maybe five sometimes, Franz shuts down those guys. So I know he's struggling on the offensive end, and we need him to get going to, like, truly be an elite team. But on the defensive end, and we need him to get going to truly be an elite team. But on the defensive end, he isn't getting as much notoriety as he deserves.

So, yeah, I think Franz needs to step it up for us to be truly elite. And I think Brandon Johns could have some breakout games in the next uh next time he looked really good at the five he did i liked him there and i mean then he's another big that can shoot um but yeah i like brandon johns man i've always wanted to kind of see him step up but to go back to your point about franz yeah if he can get rolling offensively, that's where Michigan takes the turn from a really good team to a scary team in the NCAA tournament. I mean, they're always a threat. But, man, if Franz can really step it up offensively and you know what you're going to get on Dickinson and Livers and the other guys that you can just plug in the rotation, man, that's going to be a really scary tournament time. Oh, yeah.

Then there's just too many threats, right? It's like, who do I guard? What do I do? I can't plan against this just match up city i mean the thing is like there really isn't very many weaknesses on this team right like defense on some aspects is uh is scary sometimes but like just i think it's not really like these guys are bad defenders. It's just kind of Juwan's philosophy is NBA type where you give up some things so you can go run and score on the other end. Right. And so it's just his philosophy is different than Beeline or Luke Yaklich, where it was like lockdown on defense. And then we're going to grit the ball and be efficient on the other end instead of trying to run and chuck up threes. But honestly, I don't hate that, though. grit the ball and be efficient on the other end instead of trying to run and chuck up threes but

um honestly i don't hate that though i mean that could be that could be some of the reason they're getting more of these open looks i mean they're getting you know five guys on five on four or four and three or two on one or whatever i mean i'm okay with that where are you seeing the defense laps i thought i saw like a number of times where they were getting some good like two on ones and stuff yeah i thought so too i honestly it wasn't this past game but in uh yeah in in the past like just it's not even where i can like point out where it is um but just the fact of like giving up let's see um giving up like 71 points even to Toledo or, you know, to Oakland you gave up 71 or Bowling Green you gave up 82.

But they've definitely gotten better each game on the defensive side. So now they're in a better spot. But, yeah, so I did want to ask you guys too about this going into next year so to me if franz doesn't like start scoring 12 13 points a game he may not go to the nba next year i don't know he'll be back so so that'll be interesting because next year's class is so unreal. And it's the same thing like with Hunter Dickinson. You know, at first it was like no chances he had won and done. And I still don't think he is because he is not an NBA. The centers in the NBA go inside and out and shoot.

And he's not to that point yet. He still he needs to put on some some weight and muscle and get to the Luka Garza if he truly wants to be like yet. He still needs to put on some weight and muscle and get to the Luka Garza if he truly wants to be, like, a top, top center in the nation. But, like, so if Franz stays, if Hunter stays, Moussa Diabate is coming in next year as a five-star center. Like, who's getting minutes? Brandon Johns isn't going anywhere either.

Like, where are these minutes going? I'm unfortunately going to see – I'm assuming some people are going to transfer. But, like, Hunter Dickinson is going to stay because he's going to be a focal point. But, like, how do you fit all those pieces into this with a number one class coming in? Yeah, and honestly, it kind of makes me think that we may be – I'll knock on wood here. We might be in Isaiah Todd's situation with a couple of those five stars, too. Like, we never know if they're really going to actually come to Michigan or not. But assuming they do, like you said, man, I mean, that's tough.

I mean, people might get pushed out. I mean, Franz might end up getting pushed out of the lineup, you know. I mean, most likely he won't, but he might. I mean, if he can't score offensively and, you know, play the two, I mean, that's where I think he'd really be able to stick in the lineup with, you know, Diabate and Caleb Houston. Caleb Houston is 6'8", power forward. So, like, that's kind of Franz's position. He's a little bit more of a big guy than Franz is more of like a

small forward or a guard type but yeah I mean I don't know Isaiah Barnes small forward Will Shetter small forward like always big news just either these freshmen are gonna sit the bench for their first year and uh but I the way that juwan is playing the freshman that came in this year i have to imagine that they're going to get a shot at some of these like even kobe buffkins a guard but yeah like all these dudes are good man yeah i mean what eli is gone next year right mike smith only has one year shawny brown only has one year When you're looking at the backcourt Who do we have? We'll have Zeb, Kobe Buffkin will be coming in

Who else do we have? Franz might just play the two Isaiah Barnes coming in Will Shetter, Frankie Collins Frankie Collins, okay, Frankie will be there Yeah I think that Zeb Jackson is going to be the point guard that's

gonna be a stud i think but um yeah i i don't it's something that we don't have to worry about but it's like a good problem it's a very good problem to have yeah but it's just interesting like when you're i think nobody thought that hunter dickinson was going to be this good and probably musa diabate didn't either. So he's like, wait a minute, they've already got his stud at center where he probably thought he was going to be able to come in and fight for that spot, but who knows. I mean, I know we talked about it too.

I mean, Hunter might even be able to go to the four. I mean, if he can shoot it a little bit as a big guy. I haven't really seen a lot of tape on Diabate. I mean, he might be able to shoot as well, but I really don't know. Hunter's bigger than him. He's definitely more, I think Moussa Diabate's more like athletic for sure. It'll be interesting. I mean, it's kind of crazy.

It's just year two of Juwan Howard, and we're like talking about who's good. What are we going to do with these recruits? Because I think that – I don't see 2022's class being much different than 2021's. So he could be forming this freaking powerhouse of a program here. That would be – hey, that would be so nice to be able to play. Football is whatever, but at least we have basketball to rely on. Now I know what the Spartans feel like. Oh, man.

Pow, pow. Oh, God. I know. We got to take our jabs at Sparty, but I can't even – I don't even feel good saying that. It makes me flash back to, what, 2013, 2014, Rose Bowl champs. Oh, God. I know. Michigan football is in a bad place.

Thankfully, so is Michigan State football, though, too. Yes. Yeah. I think they had a, like, four-star recruit flip today as well. Looks like he's going to flip to Notre Dame. Yeah. recruit running back looks like he's gonna flip to Notre Dame yeah so I it's sad because like yeah in 2015 uh like before their three and nine season like both basketball and football were both like top 10 programs for both schools like yeah it's fun when those teams are all really good like

yeah you know I I can rag on them and stuff but like it's way more fun when when teams are all really good like yeah you know i i can rag on them and stuff but like it's way more fun when when michigan state's good and you beat them but not that we've even beat them that we haven't beat them when they've been good that's for sure we beat them when they're terrible all right well thanks for listening to us ramble here and when i say us i mean myself god thankfully we can move on to just basketball but we'll probably take a little breather um before christmas i would imagine because there's not much going on um unless unless a deal gets done or something yeah unless we have to uh and we have to comment on it but probably won't do any and it you know too much lately so um all right thanks for listening follow us at

blue by 90 on facebook instagram and twitter uh blue by 90 podcast on youtube and then um yeah we will uh see you guys all later go blue go blue go blue