Blue By Ninety - The Training Wheels Are Off

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

Justin and Tanner talk about Michigan's bounceback against Central Michigan and if they are prepared to let Bryce be Bryce.

All right, welcome back to Blue by 90, presented by Feldman Chevrolet of Highland. I am just joined by Tanner today. It's Victory Sunday for the Michigan Wolverines. Feels good to be back on track here. We were talking off air here, and I said it like a hundred times in the middle of the game as we were inside the big house yesterday. It was exactly what Michigan needed yesterday versus Central. It was, you know, zero stress, absolutely, like literally zero stress, good vibes all around. The team got the mojo back.

I felt like it was just a great, you know, ended up being beautiful weather, even though it was a little bit chilly in the morning. But like, all around great day in Ann Arbor yesterday. Yeah, the vibes were, you know, you try to, off of the loss, get back on the horse as a fan, which I think is pretty easy because I just love going to the big house. so it's some on there it's just a great day uh but yeah i mean it started to pick up a little bit and you know the first i mean michigan scored on four of four five or six drives in the the first half had a touchdown come back missed a field goal but like they were you know they had a couple penalties uh bring back long runs but otherwise was a very very clean game and uh you know was very dominant so yeah i think we all needed that i think michigan needed that brice needed that

It was fun to watch, man. I mean, you can just, you know, you can just see the, the talent, the ability, the, the potential, and kind of makes you realize that those scouts at 247 and on three and everywhere else were not wrong. You saw some flashes, you know, Bryce Rush for over 100 yards. Yeah, it was just good to see, man. Tailgate was fun, getting into the big house, you know. I thought it was going to be a little warmer than it was, but it turned out to be a perfect day. The sun came out a little bit. I got a little part.

It was classic. of like chilly in the morning it was supposed to be 80 and sunny and then it was just like overcast all morning during the tailgate which kind of sucked but then it was classic one of those uh you know mid-september days of like the sun comes out inside the stadium and you're just getting roasted yeah the back of my neck was just getting burnt to a crisp but yeah i mean uh had the woods and whiskey and the camp buck of water flowing uh the blue by 90 beer we had from North Creek Bruin as well. So the tailgate was great, even though, you know, I mean, it's, it's hard for a noon game

to get up. And it's always a later arriving crowd, especially, you know, when it's, you know, a lesser opponent a little bit and coming off a loss, like all that stuff. But shout out to everybody who came out. Appreciate it. Shout out to Woods and Whiskey. We had it all flowing again. So, no, it was good.

And just, I think, honestly, like. just to go back to it again the vibes from the team like i think that you know obviously after the oklahoma game you know social media and everybody's like down on everything the coaching the call play calling you know bryce and and the offense and all that stuff um but they you know i know that there was a kind of funny quote about being moderately pissed off uh about chrone more you know his suspension um they played like they had a little bit of a chip on their shoulder though and they wanted to come out and prove something yeah i mean that's the first time michigan scored 63 points since i believe against northern illinois in 2021 um and i saw a stat today that it was

uh the largest um largest margin of victory versus an in-state school since 1922 so yeah i don't We just don't score that many points that often, honestly. Yeah, you know, I mean, you know, a 60 point margin is more than a 49 point margin, you know, so like it just, you know, sometimes you can't get to 63, you know, and they were able to do that. Some teams struggled with in-state MAC opponents at home week three. You know, some teams are in a dog fight in the third quarter. This wasn't that game.

A little bit of, a little bit of, a little bit, I like to troll a little bit there, Justin. Well, I was honestly going to say something about it because, I mean, yeah, our friends over at MSU went back and forth all day yesterday. Well, that was a out-of-state FCS team. So a little bit different than an in-state MAC team, you know, but yeah, they gave up quite a bit there in the second half to Youngstown. And even Ohio State, too, of like, I know it was a fake blowout, by the way. It was never really a game, but it was not like a 63 to 3, you know, blowout. It's 13 to 9 in the third quarter. So, you know, but yeah, I mean, dude, 616 yards.

When's the last time Michigan has 600 yards plus? I don't know that I've ever seen. I'm going to chat GPT that at some point. We'll find an answer. But, you know, 381 rushing yards like that, that's what we've been accustomed to with Michigan against these kind of lesser opponents. And to your point about, you know, a noon game after a long, You know, kind of similar to last year that, you know, I'll say this real quick about the tailgate.

Last year against Arkansas State, there was like seven people. This year, it was still pretty lively, still a good crowd that came through to the tailgate. But the difference between last year's team, this year's team, I think Arkansas State's a bit better than Central Michigan. But, you know, Michigan got a, what was it? Wasn't it 28 to 3? And they let them kind of hang around. It was 2818. They went for two and got it.

So I think just, you know, Michigan's ability to kind of put the foot down and just kind of blow this game wide open was really nice to see. Which was a concern against New Mexico because they let New Mexico hang out. Well, hey, they went and beat the brakes off of UCLA. I know UCLA's bad, but that's a big 10 team. With a $2 million quarterback. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, just utter dominance. You know, CMU had the one drive after Bryce's questionable decision.

had the underneath route in the flats and uh i think you know you're up 28 nothing it was i was very upset for a second and then i was like now whatever you know get the and first get the pick out of the way get the first one out of the way right like you don't want him thinking about numbers and things just not he also he honestly could have let him if he just stepped into the throw but it was like okay nothing had gone wrong and i think he was feeling very invincible at that moment was just like i can just sling it to wherever and chuck it off my rolling out of to the right off my back foot 60 yards it's like all right let's come down to earth a little bit um and yeah to your point it's just like very dumb freshman mistake um that i'm sure they're

going to be like hey man don't do that ever again well here's a crazy so here's some crazy stats real quick on this game michigan had 35 first downs wow eight of 11 on third down uh one of two on fourth down. When was, when did they fail the fourth down? Was that late in the game? Yeah, I don't even remember that. I'm trying to think. I was out of there at that point. I, you know, wanted to go home. We were back drinking at the tailgate. Yeah. But yeah, you know, through the pick, but man, I mean, do we do we just dive into Bryce Underwood because he again made throws? Yeah. I just even, so in the stadium, there's a throw to McColley on, I think, the first drive. You don't notice it in the stadium. I don't know if you noticed it.

But when I went back and watched, the arm angle he kind of uses to get it back over the middle of the field. You're just like, God, damn it, this kid is just ridiculous. Like there's, I don't have words to say how impressive some of the throws he makes are at 18 years old. And let him, even if he was real quick, a senior, I'd still be like, damn. But this is a true fresh for making these stores on the run, put them on the money, let his guys go make plays. It's just impressive. Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more. And it just comes so natural.

like it looks so like effortless and natural and obviously there i think the the thing that you just really don't see from a ton of college quarterbacks especially at the freshman level is just the sheer strength to make those throws at the velocity that they're making and get it all the way across the field and also i mean a lot you know we we've all had our joe milton jokes around you know different situations but like the difference between Bryce and a Joe Milton or something like that, or even a dude, like a DJ Uwe-ungle-Lay-Lay, right, or something like that. It's like, he's got the strength, but he also has the precision.

It's not just, hey, chuck it a thousand miles an hour, which he did have one in completion yesterday short to, I think it was Channing Goodwin, that went off his hands that would have been a first down, and he did end up throwing it like 100 miles an hour. But you're ready for it, though. Yeah, right? But I think that overall, to your point, it's just like, man, when you do finally, quote unquote, unleash Bryce, it's like, wow, it is, it is just really fun to watch that kid slinging around. Yeah, I mean, the throw to Samaj was on the money. I mean, Samaj didn't break stride.

It like kind of, I was like, when I was watching it because I was in section 19, so that was going into the end zone that I was sitting closest to. And I'm watching the throw, and I'm like, it might hang up a little bit. And no, it just fell perfectly in the bucket. I mean, I don't know, man. This kid is something else. I mean, let's be honest, even with J.J. McCarthy, how many touchdowns did we have on a deep ball that hit the guy perfectly in stride? Yeah, that was the one thing with J.J. And there was a couple of Columbus, I think.

There were. There were a couple down there. But no, I mean, he, you know, there would be. times with a ball would hang up on JJ a little bit. Yeah. And, you know, again, he threw that pick on the, you know, with two deep safeties or a corner and a safety bracketing. Again, just probably thinking, like you, to your point, and he's invincible. But, yeah, I mean, some of the throws he made, he's already made this year, like, I haven't

seen, even counting JJ, right? Like, I don't know if it's ever been seen in that stadium. Yeah. So him just being able to, I mean, where was he? I think he was at, I can't remember where the ball was. I think I counted it, like, just off top of my head. I think it was like a 45-yard throw in the air. Yeah.

It just dropped in the bucket. It was a great route by Samaj. I texted our group chat. They might have figured out how to use Samaj without just doing screens exclusively because he also had on the scramble drill from Bryce that really nice catch. I think it was the first drive on the sideline where he tapped his toes, got down. If Samaj wouldn't have dropped that screen, by the way, as I just talked about, running screens. I would have been a touchdown. I think it was wide open. But yeah,

it's nice to see them kind of utilize him in a way that's not just the screen guy. Because I think he does have, I mean, you remember the Rutgers game? He had that back shoulder catch in 2023. I think he's got that ability to be a good number two behind McColley. I think if they can figure that out, that really opens the offense up, gives Bryce another guy that's running routes that are beyond the line of scrimmage versus just screens and bubbles. Well, and speaking of the screens, I think we're not going to fully go away from that, it seems like. And that's good. I like that. And, and, but you, you can't go full screen, right? No. So, um, what were your thoughts on Chip Lindsay? Because I think

that it's, it obviously looked different. It looked more opened up. It looked more trusting in Bryce. You know, again, you mentioned it's very obviously a different opponent than Oklahoma's defense. Um, but I think it felt like last week against Oklahoma, it was like, hey, we don't want to make a mistake. We don't want to put Bryce under this, you know, a stressful situation or get his momentum, you know, or is mental, you know, also off course with like if he's put in, you know, throwing an interception on the road. And like, it just felt like they were like, I think Biff actually said it. They were trying to take the ball, the air out of the ball and try to win on the ground and win with defense. And this week, it was like, all right, we're done with that. And Biff, I think

said it in the in the post game of just like we're never going to kind of handcuff Bryce ever again. So thoughts on the play calling and how they approached it this week. Can I also just add a couple Biff Poggi quotes? Can this be the Biff Poggi quote section? The goaded quote giver of all right. I've got two. I'd like to share just from, you know, searching Twitter. I have a Labrador retriever who can coach that guy. He's unbelievable. I'll put it this way. He's Tiger Woods and I'm his caddy. So I'll make sure the right clubs get played. And then to your point, that quote was, we're not taking the air out of the ball ever again,

not with this guy taking snaps. And then he said he might be Batman. I guess that's four quotes. He also said about J. Sean Barham. Somebody asked, because I think J. Sean got dinged up in the second half. And they asked him, like, do you have an update on his status? He's like, do I have an update? I think he might be a superhero.

So we're doing a DNA swab right now. I think that means he's okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But no, the offense, I thought, yeah, I think they just, you know, they were passed first. You know, they passed to run, it felt like, because you end up with, what, 235 yards passing, and you've got 381 yards rushing. So obviously later in the game, they're just running the clock out.

But no, I thought things looked open up for Bryce. I think they did a great job, but giving him some throws that got out quick, let him use his arm talent to get the ball there, let a receiver get. upfield. No, I love that. I love the, I love the reverse to Andrew Marsh. It was good to see him. Marsh looks good, man. Yeah, I mean, you could just tell he's, he's a, you know, big time physical talent. And I'm excited to see his growth. Hogan Hansen be back was nice, man. If Hogan Hanson and Marlon Klein are healthy and, you know, you can run some 12 personnel, because Hogan might be one of your best, best three receivers on the team. I mean, that catch he went up on

the sideline and climbing the ladder. That was a great throw by Bryce, too. I mean, just two guys making a play. Yeah, I mean, I was, for a tight end, that's like, that's a damn athletic play, right? That's not, it's like, hey, we can hit this guy on crossing routes and out routes all day. It's like he made a very, you know, turn around athletic play, get the toes down, all that. Yeah, it was very colson-level-and-esque, right? Like, that's the type of play that he's made over the years at Michigan going up, climbing the ladder.

Yeah, man, I just, I thought it was great. I thought the quarterback runs were very well incorporated. Like the first time Bryce ran, I was like, please slide. And then he just started like pinballing off guys. And I was like, all right, he's just going to do this. That one, he literally like, he hit the guy. Nothing happened to Bryce at all. And the central guy was like, he just got blown back.

I'm like, man, he is like three guys to tackle him. Yeah, dude. he's physically, you know, I, you, we watch John Mateer obviously, like, do very well against us running the ball. But John Mateer never looked like he was like going to, you know, push somebody down and all that. I mean, Bryce at some point is going to do a Cam Newton-esque or Terrell Pryor-esque, like stiff arm. He's going to have some unreal run. And it is, that is, adding that to the offense will literally change this. entire team.

Yeah. Makes you very excited for the next, you know, two and three quarters years of football, right? Yeah, you took the words on my mouth, man. I was going to say, like, he's a long strider. He looks like Cam Newton. Yes. Like, when he had that fourth and one,

which is just go play football, right? It's a play action. Nobody's open. The way that he just kind of shuffled back to the left side and, you know, made the guy men. that the three-yard line got into the end zone. But when he's running, it looks like Caminoot. Like, it's a long stride.

It looks effortless. It looks like Prior to, Prior had that long stride ability. Yeah, but I think he might be, I don't think might. I said this to my friend. He's going to be the number one overall pick after his junior. That's not getting ahead of yourself. He is going to be the number one pick. Yeah.

Barring, like him completely breaking down in some fashion, he has everything that an NFL team is going to be looking for right already and he's two these three games in i don't know how much football you got to watch yesterday being at the tailgate and and everything there but um and i watched i watched a lot of football yesterday when i got home there's not a lot i don't think there's many quarterbacks like even just right now like obviously you take the upset of bryce but i'm saying right now that i would take over brys like these quarterback stink, dude. Some of these guys are horrible. Just in general, there is, there aren't that many unbelievable teams in college football this year either.

No, it was, yeah. I mean, you know, Miami might be the best team of the country, bro. Because Texas looks horrible. Yeah. Arch looks awful, bro. Like that, you know, like, if you were told me, and again, I mean, you know, Bryce obviously didn't, you know, have the best game against Oklahoma. We don't know how much of that's going to be, you know, the play calling and all that good stuff but just if you were told me before the season like after week three you'd probably prefer to have rice over archmanning i would have been stunned like it is crazy man dj lagway they're hyping him up like i mean i think san is okay i don't think san like i think he's good but i think that ohio state offense could make a lot of quarterbacks look good just because they've also played

ohio and grambling the last two weeks where a lot of his stats are coming from so well and even you know who i honestly has looked really really good is dante more at oregon yeah they don't ask their quarterbacks to do a lot like it's a very simple offense let playmakers make plays Oregon sneaky going to be also one of i think they have a really good chance i mean they're number four right now but i would probably put them top three yeah um but yeah it is one of those years and it's like you know we talked about it last week like michigan's not going to win a national championship this year they can make the playoff though and then you never know what happens, right? If Bryce can continue to grow and develop, like that,

again, we got to see it against, you know, top competition, but do you know the next time Michigan, as of this moment, plays a ranked opponent? I think it's Ohio State, correct? It is Ohio State. Yeah. People are concerned about USC. They didn't look great against Purdue, right? Like, you know, six-hour weather delay, by the way, or something crazy like that. That sounds insane. To watch Purdue football. Yeah, that's tough. No, I agree with you. I mean, It is very funny. Let's, let's, I want to recognize the difference in the different tune that we're singing right now compared to last week, you know, after the Oklahoma game where it's like, oh, you might as well shut down the program. I mean, no, it's like it is, it's, it's fandom, right?

And in a nutshell. But I think just like this week was a very weird week, you know, Clemson loses to Georgia Tech. Tennessee goes, you know, down to the wire and loses to Georgia. um ls u loses or sorry beats florida in a very weird game so um you know again ohio state didn't look like completely dominant against ohio um i don't know it just it just doesn't feel like like a year or two ago they were like very clear top five top 10 teams and now it's like i think that there's maybe the first like two to three to your point and then four to 15 it's like nobody really knows what's what's what's actually there um and then to your point on the on the actual

quarterback like yeah i mean i think i said this after the new mexico game and um you know took it back a little bit probably after the oklahoma game but i think by the end of the year to your point it's going to be like who's better than bryce underwood as a whole i i don't know that that means that who's better than michigan right i don't think that means that Michigan's going to be the number one team in the nation by the end of the year. Could, I don't know. But I think that as a, like, in all aspects of the game, who are you taking over Bryce Underwood?

I just, I don't see very many candidates out there. And what does he look like with 10, 11 games under his belt in late November at home? I mean, who knows, right? Oh, man. You're getting me, you're getting me excited all right. Well, and look, like, yes, Michigan lost Oklahoma. And yes, we were, we were dejected and all that. but like it wasn't a question of his ability necessarily.

It was a question of are the coaches going to allow him to do what he does because he has shown the ability to make big time throws even in the Oklahoma game, right? He had some misses, but there were some nice throws. Right, sure. You know, some ability for him to, you know, try to run, but, you know, that was never in the playbook. So, you know, I have to, until proven otherwise, I'm going to sit here and believe Biff, you know, kind of as an extension of Sharon more during this two-week suspension or two-game suspension that, hey, we're not doing that again.

Like, you know, and that maybe that's throwing a bone to the fan base, right? Of like, hey, we know what we got, right? But to your point, sorry, go ahead. No, I was just going to say, I've said this before, but you're not winning the national championship against Oklahoma, right? So maybe you go into that thinking, hey, you know, and I think they thought the defense was going to play a lot better. I thought they, you know, maybe assume they could probably, you know,

play a rock fight type game and that just i mean they did they also gave up 24 points and uh and it was in going back to that oklahoma getting like i mean john meteer made some miraculous place to get them to the 24 points otherwise it is very close to a 13 to 13 game you know right um and it did you know Oklahoma made their own mistakes to keep michigan in it but um anyways i i think there's a chance that we look back at that Oklahoma loss, like, not a bad loss, right? Like, I think that that's, you know, going to, you, again, I feel like we're beating a dead horse, but you rolled out your freshman quarterback into a hostile environment in a second game ever with a new offensive coordinator that now looking back on it,

looks like they had kind of a weird game plan to try to win that dogfight type of thing. So I think, you know, a month or two from now, we're going to look back and be like, that Oklahoma loss is not that bad. And to your point, like with the schedule that remains, it's like, man, there is a clear path to 10 and 2 or even 11 and 1 possibly and getting into the playoff. Yeah, I mean, this Nebraska game might be the best team Michigan plays until Ohio State.

And then speaking of a hostile environment, like this is again, this is going to be a big, big test on Saturday. Yeah. Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing how Michigan attacks. You know, I thought there were some things from that, you know, because Nebraska's played Akron and Houston Baptist the last two weeks, so you don't really take a lot from the game against Cincinnati at Arrowhead. I thought Cincinnati did a really good job defensively.

I thought the QB run really hurt Nebraska when Sorsby would actually take off, and that was kind of the way that they got back into that game. So, yeah, I'm going to be really curious to watch Michigan in this one. I think having J. Sean for the full game is definitely going to help. I mean, he was a dog on Saturday, by the way. I mean, that first play, can we just talk about that? Yeah, we just get all over the place, but we just get so excited about these things. Were you, did that take you by surprise?

Can you imagine the quarterback? Because I'm watching, I'm like, oh, he's probably going to throw this away. Brother, he was sacked in a split second. I was, like, stunned. he so it was one of those routes where it's like uh i think it's like an option for the running back to either block or go out and i think the running back like hesitated for a second jshan took like one step with the running back which screwed up the quarterback to think that he was sticking with them and then to your point it was like there he took five steps in one second

and was on the quarterback and kuby's like what the hell was how did i even you know how did how did you get here the closing speed was ridiculous yeah for sure um no i mean i guess while we're talking about it before we you know dive deeper into nebraska um again it's central michigan but that defense was flying around and again i think that after watching that oklahoma game where they kind of got dinked and dunked a little bit and it was like you got to third down a hundred times and then you know mater in oklahoma would squeak one out to get it to get a first down you can feel pretty dejected after that right it's like man we had them on the ropes like time after time and they still kept getting up they kept

you know just punching you back and i thought i loved just seeing this defense come swinging from the get-go and having just like a lot of juice uh you know they're flying around making plays um you know i thought that it was really every facet of the deep defense too it wasn't like just dominating and one you know the up front or in the back it was like everybody was making really good plays yeah i thought again they had the one drive after bryce's pick um and it was really just the qb run that kind of hurt him for the most part on that drive and they ended up forcing a field goal on fourth and goal anyways so and then they went down on the two minute uh drive and scored so um yeah man it was uh i thought it was a dominant performance defensively um

I mean, at one point, it was like, it's like 150 yards, like negative nine or something. Yeah. Stupid in the first quarter. So, you know, they were pretty dominant. Even the second and third stringers, like, I want to talk about Troy Bulls. That kid just flies to the football. Like, I don't know where he gets playing time right now. But next year, him and Colesolvin, I know Chase Taylor, true freshman got a lot of playing time on Saturday, at least a little bit.

I mean, they played 36 guys on defense. like this is the kind of game you want get these guys some reps even early on it wasn't like complete garbage time but the secondary rotated in a lot of new guys which i think that was kind of wink being like all right who's going to make this leap who can you know in a real game situation who can we put in here um so i love them doing that in the first half in this game yeah yeah it was good to see shamari girls out there hit a really nice pb you on the last within the last five minutes of the game. Yeah, man, they were dominant.

They were all over the place. I thought the tackling was much improved. That was probably a point of emphasis during practice this week. Miss tackles last week was not great. And I think that they, I mean, how many times did they blow up a, you know, a screen, you know, get off the block and make the play. I mean, Brina Hillman had a huge play on a fourth and one to get the ball back. And then. Did Matt Calf.

Yeah, T.J. had a great play. shed the block it was on it was on that drive they forced a field go it ended up being you know first and goal at the 12 yeah because he made a tFL so um yeah man they made some good plays in the secondary there was a throw that um i don't know i can't remember who the safety was i think it was hillman came over top and hit him on the first drive and um that was the third down the only jair got beat on the double move yes that's pretty part for the course at this point but hey that's where you have a safety over top, right? Help out. Yeah, I mean, the one criticism I would say that I have from yesterday is still not really mistake-free football. You know, you have multiple

touchdowns called back for holds. And, you know, you had, you extended the play on a face mask on defense for Central. So I think that's something that, like we talked about before, like Jim Harbaugh was just unreal at that. And, you know, having just very, very disciplined teams and players and they never made mistakes with, you know, when Michigan was winning football games. That was one of the keys. So that's something that I think I'm just keeping an eye on of like, all right, are we going to get to a point?

I mean, if we get to, you know, Michigan versus Nebraska this week and you have a Justice Haynes, you know, 50-yard touchdown run that's called back. for holding that's going to hurt you you know you don't just get unlimited tries like he did on you know this past saturday so um so yeah i'm uh that's one thing i'm i'm uh keeping an eye on yeah it's definitely a concern because i think it was a phobia on both was it not yeah it's a young kid who hasn't played a lot of football and yeah i mean the the the haines run it's like dude he's already past you like you know and in in worst case scenario you're 10 yards downfield so just don't hold there because a you're out in the open

be worst case scenario it's a 10 yard game which will take on any given play you know so just some some guys that haven't played a ton of football making a few small mistakes there yeah and that's why you play the games right get that experience that's why it's important when you get these blowout type games that you know they didn't have this opportunity last year for nathanophobia to get into the game because you're up 2818 in the fourth quarter against Arkansas State, right? So these games are important, especially if they go according to plan where you're up big and you can play.

Again, on defense, they played 36 guys. On offense, they probably played similar. I didn't get a chance to see that number. But, you know, so, yeah, you don't have that opportunity last year. So you have guys that don't have as much experience coming into this season, you know, that we'll have next year. Can I say one thing on the offense for the number of guys that they played there, too? would have really liked to see Jaden Davis throw the ball.

We ran it a thousand times. I know you're up 50 whatever to three and like, you know, that could seem like you're pouring it on. But man, I mean, he's not the third string quarterback. He is your backup. And if anything were to ever happen to Bryce, that's who you're rolling with. So I would love to see him get some reps of in-game throwing the football there.

And I'd also just like to see how he, you know, for his confidence, obviously I want that, but I want to see him how he throws it. You know, we've all seen the practice film and some of the warm-ups. And, you know, I think there are some questions about his throwing form and stuff like that. Would have really liked to see that.

Yeah, I saw a lot of people asking for that. I don't know. It just, you know, I don't know. I'm kind of indifferent. I don't want to sound mean. I don't know, man. I just don't, I don't care if they do or not. I don't know.

That sounds like such a dick thing to say, man. I mean, you're probably right, though, because I think, like, and this, I mean, I'm not trying to, you know, throw shade at Jaden Davis right here, but I think there is such a large gap between Bryce Underwood and Jane Davis that it's like, okay, everybody knows that you're not going to be able to do the same things with Jane Davis that you could. And if, I mean, Mikey King was questionable yesterday. Right. So if he's healthy, he's the number two.

right so um it may not matter because again brys underwood might just truck everybody and just be like i'm fine like every time he get up he was like i was kind of nervous and every time he he'd get up he was just like dancing he also too i mean he's doing a tictox dance on the field all right cool which we started to talk about nebraska about 10 minutes ago and we that's fine No, I mean, there is really never a moment yesterday where it looked like Bryce was even sweating. It was like, did you ever put, did you put any effort into this at all? It's pretty incredible to watch. No, it was, yeah, man, again, he's just effortless running the ball, throwing the ball,

just make some throws that just, you know, your draw drops. Yeah, do we want to talk about Nebraska? mean I think we should talk about Nebraska just a little bit I mean I think we're going to record another pod to dive deeper into it but I just think that talking about just in general like a I don't want to say a real team right but like a big 10 team that is you know uh talent wise size wise all that up to par with Michigan right and so that is what I'm like just in general looking for Michigan, okay, you've got, A, another road game, which the last time that Michigan played two road games in the first four weeks, it feels like, you know, it feels like that never happens.

But, you know, how are you going to look when you can't just, like, truck everybody over, right? And do all that. Because I think that, you know, I did love the push that the offensive line got yesterday that we did not see in weeks one and two. I'm looking to see, like, can you do that against the Nebraska as well? Yeah, I'm a big fan of Jake Warnara. I think he's, I mean, he graded out high according to PFF. I feel like when he's in there, you can just feel a little bit more movement up front. But yeah, man, Nebraska's interesting, right?

Because the last two weeks, they've played Akron. They've played Houston Baptist, steamrolled them, just completely dominated them. You look at their week one game against Cincinnati. Now, that was three weeks ago, and this team is certainly improved, right? But you look at it, and they average 4.5 yards per play against Cincinnati. They had the ball for 40 minutes, put up 353 yards, but it took a lot of plays to get there. And so, you know, you look at it from that perspective. I mean, you know, Cincinnati actually had more yards per play in that game.

So I'm going to be very interested to see, you know, what Nebraska's offense looks like with Dana Holgerson, you know, because the one thing about Cincinnati is they got, I think it's Deontay Corleone. What a great name, by the way. Amazing name. Just a stud kind of nose tackle kind of guy who, you know, really, really helps slow down the run game for Cincinnati's defense. You know, I think Michigan's defense, you know, at all levels is better than Cincinnati. Cincinnati. So it's going to be interesting to see how they plan to attack Michigan with Ryola in year two. I've heard a lot about him. And he put up some good numbers the last two weeks against, you know, Akron and Houston Baptist, right? So, you know, he's a kid that they're expecting

to take that big leap this year. As far as Michigan's offense is concerned, it's kind of the same thing, right, with Bryce, you know, two games against, you know, nonpower opponents that you look dominant against and then, you know, more of a struggle against the power four team you've played so far. So, yeah, it's going to be interesting. I mean, I think, you know, Nebraska's defense, you know, they lost Nash Hutmaker, who was the big fell up front, I believe number zero, if I'm not mistaken. I think so, yeah.

Also wrestled for the heavyweight for the corner Huskers wrestling program last year. And then Ty Robinson, who's in the NFL. So those are two guys from their, you know, front four that are gone that were, big reason for Nebraska. Because Nebraska's had a pretty good defense under Matt rule. Yeah. And honestly, the defense has never, I mean, it's had his problems, but it's never been like the big issue for them recently. It's been the offense just can't, can't convert. So now they've got Dana Holgerson, right, came in last year looking to, you know, in his first full year, have some more success with Royola. Again, everyone's expecting him to take a big lead. This is a big

test for them. And this is a game they're going to be jacked up for. Oh, I mean, obviously through the fans but in that program because this is a measuring stick performance type of thing for them right for sure but if you're Michigan you can go in there and shut that shit down yeah right and you're still your same old Nebraska which is what I hope happens my wife's Nebraska grad I'd love

to you know I mean yeah we have to also I just can't lose to Matt rule so that's I dude fellow podcaster though who's a podcaster just like us he's just he's very similar to us um god i wish he had his podcast in 2023 just come on after michigan beat him 45 to 7

uh i mean the here's the funny thing is i really i kind of liked matt roll and then he just has progressively become whineer for whatever reason and like we know the reason it's because he just won't stop talking about connor stanes it's like brother you lost that shit was 28 nothing in the first half yeah bro like you could have rolled out we could have rolled out our our backups and still beat you on that day. Jay Denneville, first career touchdown against the Huskers. Satan O'Leary. Peyton O'Leary, dog.

Friend of the program. No, one thing I wanted to bring up to was just like the way that Michigan played under Biff. You know, you don't have Shrone more, which I think here's what, here, I'm going to say a couple things. One, not having Sharon. There were some takes out there. I don't think from like anybody significant. But there were some takes out there of like, oh, this is what the offense is like without Sharon. Like they now, you know, Sharon's gone and they can, they open it up and blah, blah.

It's like, do you think that he like leaves and they're like, all right, Sharon's gone. We can throw the ball now. Like, that's not how it goes. You know, he was very, I'm sure, integral in the game planning for not just this patch week, but the Nebraska game as well. but I do think like how lucky are we to have Biff where he has you know college football head coaching experience and he's not one of your coordinators so the coordinators can still do their thing and be coordinators and I think

Biff is just an all-time vibes guy I actually saw him on Friday rolling out of practice he's got a Rolls Royce like yeah I saw that creamed out Rolls that is so sick, he was just smoking the fattest stogie in his Rolls Royce as he rolled out of practice on Friday. I'm like, oh, my God, we're going to win by a thousand points. Yeah, I mean, he's worth half a billion dollars, I think, former hedge fund manager, right? Like, you know, you're managing that type of money for that long. Like, you're going to get up to coin yourself. So he does a club of the game, man.

You know, he just does it for fun. No, man, I think having him around, I mean, I think he was a big part of Michigan. his renaissance, just with regards to Jim Harbaugh. You know, he was here in 2016, left, came back in 2021. And then he was a head coach at Charlotte for a couple of years. But I think he's integral to Michigan's National Championship in 2023. So, you know, he's a guy that I think just happened around the program. I mean, his son played at Michigan.

I mean, he's been profiled. If you don't know, go watch the ESPN, E60 stuff on him. you know, the things that he did in Baltimore for some of those high school programs and those underprivileged communities is just awesome. So, I mean, he's just a guy that does it for the love of the game. He loves Michigan. Again, his son played at Michigan. So I think it's just a cool story. And man, it sure would be nice to see him go into Lincoln, Nebraska, and get a win because I got a lot of trash to talk if that's the case. I'll tell you that. I do as well. Yeah, no, I do think I love just the way that he approaches things. And I think the,

the players respond to it really well. So if we were ever going to have a replacement for Romer in these, you know, a couple weeks, I think we are lucky to have him. And especially coming off that loss, like I think coming off the loss to Oklahoma, you know, having a guy like Biff come out and be like, all right, we can get the vibes rolling again. I really like that. So, yeah, I mean, we'll see.

Obviously, I don't think it's ever really a positive to have your head coach out. I can't say that, but I think that, you know, it feels like you're still in good shape. And having a guy that has, you know, actually had that head coaching experience to be able to do it helps in the in-game coaching, you know, the timeouts, the game clock management, all that stuff. Yeah, man. I thought, again, another nice two-minute drill at the end of the half. I thought that was well done. Also, can we talk about, I don't know if you saw this, they never stopped the clock on the first down. People in my section were like, they were complaining about Michigan's coaches.

And I'm just sitting there like. It was a first down. It was a first down under two minutes. So then they said, please reset the clock to 12. Well, I just thought that was like, I was like, it should be at least at like 20. Well, I went back and saw it should have been at 24 seconds. Yeah. All worked out.

But Michigan honestly timed it perfectly on that drive, even without the mess up from the officials. So nice to see because we know that's been an issue in the, you know, post. 2015 era under Jim Harbaugh and then Chiron. So the two-minute drives in week one and week three have been nice to see. But yeah, I think that's got to be something you nail down, right? Like that has to be something you have a guy dedicated towards time management to timeout management to all those sorts of things. But yeah, man, I just thought, you know, again, Michigan with Bryce,

I think we were all concerned coming into this season in terms of the management of the huddle and the play clock and i haven't seen any really big issues there so that's been great yeah um there you know i didn't think there was any uh bad decisions necessarily um yeah it was a pretty clean game from the coaching staff right there wasn't anything that i was like up and arms over so yeah it was it was good to see from them ultimately this is all easy to say when you you know come out and win 63 to 3 right now that it was the players and the coaches that made that happen so you got to give them credit um but um yeah it's i i i think i'm obviously just hoping i think i see this nebraska game

as like i don't think it's a make or break right i mean for college football playoff probably yes right um it's not make a break for the you know the whole program um but it's more of a trajectory game in my opinion it's like all right you win this game you legitimately have that path to 11 and 1, 10, and 2, whatever, to a college football playoff, you lose this game and you're looking more at an 8 and 4, 9, and 3 type of situation, right? And so that's kind of how I'm seeing this. Yeah, again, with this schedule, I think this is one of your harder games, just with going to Lincoln, they're undefeated, they're fucking, they're hungry for this type of game.

right like they've been waiting for something like this to go their way for 10 years seriously like since they fired bocline they've been waiting for a game against one of the big 10s you know premier uh members to like go win one and they thought they thought they had it against us in 2021 right it's like that was which every player from that 2021 team has told me that that was by far the craziest environment they've ever been in and they had all played in gigantic games, right? So I think that on top of, like, I mean, you have the Scott Frost era where you lose, you know, a thousand one score games.

That has continued a little bit here with Matt Rule. Like, they haven't completely gotten over that hump. So to your point, like, I don't know why, but Nebraska fans, I mean, I know it's the it starts with the 97th thing, but like, they like hate Michigan so much. Yeah, it's kind of weird. it's definitely the madman meme of like like i don't even think about you right like we yeah i think about them because like i have friends like i had friends texting yesterday that are just trying to get a rise you know out of me but it's like bro i i couldn't tell you the last top 25 to win Nebraska's right

and i but i can't say that because we're like oh you're mad pussy you know like that's the type of friends i have um but yeah i do think about them a lot so unfortunately uh they're great people i mean they're a great fan base yeah you know they do they're not like illinois where they're like annoyingly hate us right like that whole thing doesn't make sense because at least Nebraska like at one point michigan Nebraska are equals they're still both blue bloods right like they're they're equals in terms of that recent success michigan's got the upper hand but um that's a program that should not be as bad as they've been for 20 plus years at this point correct um yeah no I mean, it's like you have, I mean, the whole, the whole state there is focused on Nebraska football.

Like, you know, you versus a lot of other school, I mean, you look at Michigan, it's like you have Michigan, Michigan State, you have the lions, you have, you know, like there's nothing else. This is not a shot at Nebraska, honestly, as a state, but like the focus is like everybody wakes up and they're talking about Husker football, right? And like, that's it, you know. and so you don't even have like Michigan has obviously like basketball and a lot of other sports that they're good at Nebraska volleyball incredible obviously but like I'm saying from a you know fun standpoint like you don't have an awesome basketball program no there's not there it is you go to the bars and drink this you do that there obviously but then you go to the bar and drink and talk about Husker football that's literally like every time I go on a basketball party I've got some friends who are like they're talking Nebraska basketball like they're sick of I love it. Nebraska ball is the coolest name ever, but they never were. They never want a tournament game. It's tough. It's tough. That's tough. But, yeah, no, I mean, I'm excited for it. It's going to be a good, going to be a good game, a good matchup. Good, I think, to your point, I think it's a great measuring stick for both sides. Honestly,

I think it's like, this is, you know, all right, where do you really stand? You know, for Michigan, it is, okay, you looked overmatched against Oklahoma, but are you, you know, is Oklahoma a top 10 team and you are top 20 team, right? And still can beat a lot of, you know, good, powerful teams, or are you not there? And then for Nebraska, it's like, can you play with the big boys?

Can you ever, you know, actually get to a point where you win 9, 10 games again, you know, I think a lot of Nebraska fans would kill for 9 and 4 Bopalini again, you know? Oh, dude, 100% they would. You know, I was listening to yesterday on, I was driving home, I was listening to Sirius, just kind of flipping through games. And one of the, it was, I was just kind of in between commercials. So I was like just flipping through.

And there's a call-in show on, you know, Mad Dog Radio or whatever. Yeah. And this guy was calling in about Wisconsin football. And they were talking about how they went away from that Wisconsin style that Barry Alvarez started of just running the ball down your throat, big offensive linemen, right? Line up, you know what they're going to do, but they're still going to have success. and they kind of made the point that Nebraska had suffered the same fate, you know, when they fired Frank Solich all the way back in the day. And then they went to Bill Callahan to do this West Coast NFL-style offense.

And that didn't work. And then they went to Bo Pelinian, had some success. They went to Big 12 championship games. And now since they fired him, they have been just trying to get back and trying different things. And we kind of went through that where you're like in purgatory a little bit where it's like, the fuck do we do? Like, how do we get out of this mess? So, yeah, they've been yearning for it, man.

it's going to be a measuring stick game and uh i'm excited man i've got a wedding um and uh two michigan grads by the way i was like you know what the 27th is the damn by week it's it's probably also like a four or five o'clock ceremony i'm sure yeah 100% with a 330 kick and i'm just like gosh darn it right mute my phone and at least you'll be at the reception for the end i was i'm assuming so you can start watching but yeah so it's uh it's going to be a good game game in. You know, I'm excited to see Bryce what he took from that first road trip. I do think that in terms of the talent level, I think Oklahoma is a better football team than Nebraska. But I will tell you, I think that that environment might be a little bit crazier.

Oh, for sure. Thank God it's not a night game. That might be. Still, 330 is a lot of time to get up and drink. So. Sure is. They were pretty loud in 23 for two drives and then it was just kind of like well i remember you talking about that and i had other friends that were there and they were like first of all it was the hottest day dude it was like 95 and then like super windy for no reason yeah it was like that and then they were all pumped up and then i like i don't remember a true ass kicking on the road from michigan like that like i mean well we did watch that at mfew but Minnesota, like every game that year

was an ass kicking for the most. It was. It was glorious. That game, though, legit was like MSU. It was like Michigan could have scored 100 if they wanted to. Like if we wanted to be like, all right, we're going to go like fast pace all game for four quarters. We literally could have, we could have scored 100. So, yeah. But all right, I'm excited.

I think I don't want to put it out there. Might be at Pretzel Bell for a watch party with some Woodson Whiskey and some camp back or water there. And I'm sorry to say. Sorry to say. We'll hold it down for you. But shout out to Feldman Chevrolet of Highland again. The guys and girls from Feldman were out at the tailgate yesterday.

Jason just is undefeated in Cornhole, I think, for the rest of ever. Had a couple of shots skis of Woodson whiskey with them, which was amazing. Yeah, we're excited. The football is with Gritvodka, where Citibodka were phenomenal. I had a couple of those. Yep. It was a great day. Great day in Ann Arbor.

Nothing to complain about. All right. For us, you can follow us at Blueby 90 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. I have Blueby 90 podcast on YouTube and Bluebyn90.com. We appreciate you. Go Blue. Go Blue.