Blue By Ninety - Top 5 Michigan QBs, 2021 Recruiting, and a look around The Big Ten.

Episode Date: April 22, 2020

Our top 5 Michigan Quarterbacks from our lifetime, 2021 recruiting class highlights, and top teams to watch out for around the Big Ten. 

All right, Blue by 90, episode 21. On this episode of Blue by 90, we talk about our top five quarterbacks. We then go on to our 2021 recruiting class, and then we go around the league a little bit, talk about some other Big Ten teams, and then we wrap it up with some defensive highlights, some of our best defensive players. Check us out on Instagram and Twitter at Blue by 90,

and also on YouTube at Blue by 90 podcast thanks and enjoy the show For an extra pass. And it goes to the wind! The three-pointer! By Jordan Poole! Down the sideline! Peebles jumps! Touchdown, Wolverines! Welcome to Blue by 90, your Michigan Wolverines podcast. We are four dudes who talk amazing blue.

I'm Kalen, joined by Nate, Jack, and Ro. Guys, I hope you're all doing okay today. I hope nobody's got COVID. I haven't tested positive yet. All right, you all look okay to me if you're at home. All right, well, let's jump right into it, and let's jump into the most exciting topic of the day here. Quarterbacks. Quarterback is the most important guy on the field, right? Michigan, we've all got a list of top five quarterbacks at michigan uh during our lifespan and going back it's

um not as happy as i remembered it when i looked at all the numbers but uh we've we've all got our top fives here and uh we do you guys want to go through like each of our number one and then two and then three and then four and then five let's do it yeah kind of like all go around or do you want to go through each of our number one, and then two, and then three, and then four, and then five? Let's do it. Kind of like all go around? Or do you want to go five first? We can go five first.

Let's start with five. Let's start with five. All right. So number five for me, in my lifetime, Michigan quarterback, I've got Jake Ruddock. He went 10-3 in his only season at Michigan. And again, this is during our lifetime. Honestly, I almost didn't put him in there because he didn't win a game versus Michigan State or Ohio State.

He only had one year to do it, but he lost to both of them that year. But the positive thing about Ruddock is he had the highest completion percentage out of all the quarterbacks that I have on here. And I believe he's either very close or he's number one for pass yards in a season in that year with 3,017. So that's my number five guy. Not much more to say about that. He didn't start off too hot with Michigan, but he definitely got better and better and better as the season went on uh but Jake Ruddock that's who I've got for number five Nate what do you got I got uh I got Drew Henson this is uh there's no stats for any of mine so you should know that this is just my vague memory over the past 20 years drew henson was like i just

remember uh as a kid going like oh yeah and i got my like number seven jersey um yeah drew henson that's it what do you got number number number seven for me was uh was henny but henson for me would have been on there but i don't i don't ever remember him playing so that's that's why i didn't have henson or brady henson or brady I don't have on there because of that for that reason but yeah Ro what do you got I agree I'm in the same boat I also I feel like I have recency bias big time here uh in my list so number five for me is the one and only Shea Patterson. He came in, I mean, without the, if you look at his time here at Michigan, without the hype that he was going to be a Heisman, you know, he actually did pretty well for us.

And so there's no way for him to live up to those Heisman expectations. You know, can't throw a deep ball to save his life, but he got the job done for us, and I think we're going to look back at it and probably be like, dang, I missed Shea. There's going to be times where he made plays happen that

maybe couldn't have happened without him at the helm. I agree with that recency bias. I'm with it. Right now, I'm like, you know what, I'm not a fan of Shea, but I think years down the road, I'll look, I'll look back a little bit more fondly on, on his time at Michigan. Yeah, I think the stats are kind of in his favor. I struggle with this list because there's a lot of QBs that I really like, and a lot of them at Michigan have performed very much in the same boat, especially in our lifetime. But I got to kind of agree with Jack on this one,

at least for my number five pick. Number five, I got Jake Ruddock. I mean, the guy was not really anything before he came to Michigan, and then he came here, and he progressively got so much better that by the end of the year, I'm like, dude, let's throw the ball, man. Jake Ruddock. And then I'm watching Lions games going like, dude, put Jake Ruddock in. Just the level of comfort that I felt in that Florida game.

It was insane. I was like, let's just throw the ball like, you know, 80% of the time. It was crazy. Unbelievable. Yeah. I really wish that he would have had more time at Michigan, you know, even just one more year and we're in great shape, I think. So, yeah.

Well, can you imagine him with the 2016 team? That's what I'm saying, man. If you put in Spade and you put in Rudak? Man, we're a dangerous team that year. I think we're in the playoff, no question. For sure. Yeah, I agree. I like that. All right, Jack, what you got?

Back from 2016. What you got for number four, Jack? So number four, I've got Shea Patterson. And again, like what Ro said, recency bias. When you look at the numbers, if we were to do this 10 years from now, and let's say there was just no Michigan football in the last 10 years, I think Shea might be higher on my list. But the reasoning for him to be even on there at all,

he went three and three versus the rivals. He was undefeated against Michigan State. We were actually favored against ohio state two years ago um but i i thought we were going to win that game i think a lot of us did uh but um and he and he split with notre dame so he was one of them with notre dame overall career record at michigan was 19 and 7 um didn't have the opportunity to win a bowl game, but he threw 45 touchdowns to 15 interceptions, had 5,661 yards passing for, and at a completion percentage over 60%. So like I said, based on the numbers, looking at all these guys, that's pretty,

that ranks them on the top. But the reason i don't have him higher on the list is he wasn't able to capitalize against ohio state when we should have you know i believe we should have won some games and it's not all his fault um the defense has to not give up 60 points so right right so that's why i've got him number four um so yeah i got patterson four number four for me nate what do you got i had jake rudolph but i mean we already talked about him so i'll let row what do you got it for row all right i think i have a little surprise here um but i'm gonna go with devin gardner at four i i think the talent he had was a phenomenal and And I actually watched him in the state finals in high school. He was unreal at Inkster High School, like just an unbelievable talent. And so I think he got a

bad shake here at Michigan because the coaching, the guys around him, you know, like it was, I go back to those games against Michigan State when we had, like, negative 48 rushing yards. I think he got sacked, honestly, 30 times in that game. Like, he didn't have an O-line that could save anything. So, he, I think given, you know, better opportunities and players and coaching around him, he could have been unbelievable for us just with the talent he had. He had a cannon. He was six foot seven, I think. I don't know what he was, but he was huge.

It seemed like it compared to Shea now, the last quarterback we had. And so, and he could move with his feet too. So that's my number four. Yeah, I saw Devin play at, I saw Devin play against Pioneer. And I was a junior at the time, and it was at Eastern Michigan Stadium. And we were playing Pioneer the next week. And then Pioneer ended up winning that game, even though Devin was just unreal. And I was like, okay, we're going to lose next week to Pioneer.

He almost beat Ohio State too. Remember that? Yeah, 42-41, man. And he did it on a broken foot. On a broken foot, yeah. That was the closest we've been to beating Ohio State in 15 years. Well, 2016, but we don't talk about that. Yeah, yeah. He was playing on like a broken foot too right one of the games yeah yeah that's what you're saying that's the one yeah

all right well my number four is john navar um honestly he could be ranked a lot higher on my list but um you know i just remember even being a little kid, just going like, dude, why are you overthrowing every receiver? So I just – No, you're killing me, Kaelin. You are killing me. How dare you. There couldn't be a more vanilla quarterback than John Navar,

like in the history of – Come on. Yeah, what the hell, man? Dude, I love John Navar. Ask that guy to move in the pocket. Show me a John Navar rollout play. You see his run with Minnesota? That was the best trick play of all time because nobody's getting –

nobody's expecting that. Nobody's going to be like, oh like oh yeah john navar on the play we need like a michigan football challenge where john navar races tom brady i want to see that that'd be a close one but john navar he's beat ohio state uh i mean he's a great michigan quarterback and that's my number four so i'll turn it back over to you, Jack, and keep going down your list. All right, number three. I feel like he'll be in everybody's top three, but for number three, I've got Denard Robinson.

His numbers were insane. And looking back when I was kind of going through it, I don't even think he – I'm trying to think who the quarterback was his freshman year, 2009, because I think he and Tate kind of split time. And I can't remember when Denard actually became the starter. So, I mean, his completion percentage wasn't anything to, you know, be proud i mean not it wasn't awful but he completed passes at 57 percent um total yards he had in his time at michigan passing and rushing he had 10 745 yards that's insane insane he had 91 total touchdowns uh 49 passing 42 rushing um he went he went four and five versus rivals but he beat ohio state although it was a down year i do not care he beat every single rival and he's he's one of the only quarterbacks in this

list um to actually do that so he's my number three he was definitely i think i put him number one as the most exciting quarterback i remember watching uh mich, but I've got Denard at number three. Nate, go for it. And the Sugar Bowl. Oh, yeah. And the Sugar Bowl. Forgot about Sugar Bowl victory. But, yeah, go ahead, Nate.

Sugar Bowl victory. That was crazy. That was one of the craziest games I've ever seen. That whole season was crazy. The Notre Dame game, that game, Jesus. I got Tom Brady um he's I mean I feel like it's just disrespectful to not put the goat somewhere in there and I I do remember I remember the Alabama game like I remember watching that at you know at my house growing up it was it was

insane so uh I don't know. That's more of just like a memory type thing. Like, oh, yeah, I remember. Like, this is like my – it's just such a long time ago. I don't know what I'm talking about, bro. No, but looking back, if you look back at that game, though, like it's crazy that they won that football game. He went lights out in the fourth quarter to come back against Alabama.

We're on three, right? All right. I had Rudak at three. I think even though he was only there for a year, he still had some of the best stats. And like Nate said, I haven't felt that comfortable with a quarterback, I feel, since, you know, early 2000. So, yeah, I had Rudak at three. Yeah, my number three is Denard Robinson.

Just crazy athlete, super fun to watch. I mean, he kind of epitomizes a lot of the Michigan quarterback that I remember, you know, when I was in high school. Just super fun to watch. Amazing athlete. Nothing much more you could say than that. I mean. He was like the only thing to watch in that time, man. Yeah, that's true. Wasn't much more to watch.

That's not a lie that time, man. Yeah, that's true. Wasn't much more to watch. That's not a lie. But, yeah, I see Denard now, and I, like, my heart skips a beat, right? I'm like, oh, my gosh, that's Denard. Good memories with him, for sure. Exactly. So, Jack, what you got for number two? All right, number two, I got Chad Henney. He went six and6 versus rivals, 2-2 versus Notre Dame,

undefeated against Michigan State, but then another one where, you know, wasn't able to beat Ohio State. They did have the game in 2006, which was a crazy game. I remember watching when they were 1-2. But his stats as far as his time at Michigan, he had 59.7% completion percentage, threw for 9,715 yards, had 87 touchdowns. He didn't, I'm trying to think, I think the highlight of Henning's career was probably his last game against Florida.

He beat Florida in the Capital One Bowl. That was Lloyd Carr's last game. That was Lloyd Carr's last game. In between Florida's two national titles. So that was my highlight of watching Chad Henney. But, I mean, like, he was the guy. Like, that's, like, when I really – it was a little bit after when I really kind of remember watching Michigan football and really enjoying it and kind of buying into all of it. So he's number two on my list. What do you got, Nate?

Dude, I got Chad Henney, Chad Henney. You know, he was there for four years. And I remember there was some times where he was a little inconsistent, but just having a quarterback who starts four years in a row at that time was a big deal. Even though it was only like, you know, a decade ago. I remember it was him and Mike Hart. And it was like, man, we got two freshmen in our back. It's like, it was crazy, but he did a great job. And he's still playing in the NFL, which is really insane to me.

He won a Super Bowl. He won a Super Bowl. He did. Yeah. It's crazy. great job and uh still playing in the nfl which is really insane to me you want a super bowl he won a super bowl he did yeah it's crazy so chad henny man right pat mahomes coattails yeah a lot a lot of good memories with chad henny and yeah at two i had denard uh mostly because of the excitement you know and and i think that if if um if rich rod wasn't so damn stubborn uh with our defense and he let the defense actually, you know, we didn't run the 3-3-9. We have, you know, somebody else come in, and somebody else can run the defense.

We have a decent team there because our offense, with Denard at the helm, was throwing up 50 points a game, you know, but we give up 55, our defense would. So if we have, you know, if Rich Rod changes his whole defense and lets somebody else run it, I think those years are much different. And Denard is seen, you know, I know as a quarterback, he's not, you know, he's not your typical quarterback like Jack said. His passing stats aren't great.

But he also, the same way, same thing with Gardner had a shit offensive line you know he was running for his life and thank god he could run so um and and and the biggest thing honestly uh the biggest reason why he's up there at number two for me is because he's a regular at my tailgates so that's really why I put him up there. I remember when he'd be walking in the tailgate. I'm like, is that Denard Robinson? He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't worry about it.

He's a regular here. Makes my day every time. Denard, too, when he put on some weight, man. Like, I saw him – I think Jack and I saw him at one of the games walking down. And I was like, oh, my God, dude. He, like – his, like, dude he like his like shoulders NFL running back man give me a break you had to put on yeah he's gotta put the dude i mean i'm just impressed man that's that's insane yeah all right kalen what do you got my number two uh it's got to be the

goat right i gotta mention i'm somewhere in this. And I only put him at number two because I really... Of course. Who else? Actually, it's Nick Sheridan, right? Oh, yeah. That's a good one. Stephen Three. Stephen Three.

No. Tom Brady, of course. Come on now. No, but it's really just because I have kind of vague memories of him playing i was pretty young i can't you know i can't remember a full game with tom brady in a michigan uniform that i didn't re-watch um but i have to mention him somewhere in this list so i'm going to put him at number two so i think that's fair jack bring us up to number one all right and i appreciate you guys mentioning brady because i wasn't going to because i don't remember him playing at all um i don't know what was going

on with me at that age maybe i was drinking too much pop and my brain was fried but i'm not watching or handsome play so that's why they're not in here but um this may not be a popular choice uh apparently to kaylin he's not he's not the number one quarterback but i got john navar john navar man i remember as a kid finding out his address i went to his college house i had to be i had to be 10 years old nine or 10 years old went to his college house had like a maize michigan hat and um I brought a football my buddy and I I don't know how I don't remember how we figured out his address we found his house knocked on his door pretty sure it was like a Saturday they're probably like darting and uh his like roommate or buddy or teammate answers the door and he's like

can I help you guys and I was like is john there yeah let me go get him and uh he came out and dude he was the friendliest guy he was like hey hey kids what's up he signed some stuff threw the ball with us for a little bit um that may or may not factor in to him being my number one but uh but honestly when you look at when you look at the years man he the 2003 season was one of the was my first really memorable year that i remember watching michigan football we were undefeated versus our rivals we beat ohio state notre dame and smarty all in the same year which doesn't happen a lot i think that was might have been the last time that it happened that's true um and we went to the rolls bowl i mean we lost but we went to the rose bowl and i remember getting one of those t-shirts that had like michigan versus usc rose bowl uh and that was like the first year that

really was like okay i'm like die hard i love this team um i love this university all that so um yeah john avar number one anybody who. Anybody who disagrees is wrong. Go ahead, Nate. Well, Jack, I think you'll be happy because my number one choice was also John Navar. Yeah, baby. Yeah. Like you said, man, he just seems like from a different era, right? It's just like when Michigan people talk about like, oh, man, like we used to beat Ohio State and, you know, Sparty was like, you know, kind of a nothing, right?

And it's like, it's just, that's what I think of. It's like John Navar, even though he like, you know, maybe he's not the fastest runner in the world. I just remember going like, man, those were like good times. Same thing with you, Jack. I mean, like um i just remember uh the ohio state game right my mom got me like a charles woodson jersey and i had the like 100th anniversary patch right it's like yeah they won it was a big deal like dude john avar he was the man he was the man do you guys remember those jerseys too like back when michigan actually went to the rose bowl they'd get like the the rose biggest rose ever oh dude that was the dopest

jersey on both sides i love that we need to like i come on jordan brandy's to hire me i want to redesign some of these uniforms get some of the old stuff back that was like the coolest uniform that was when the their shoulder pads were so big back then they could have that big of a logo on there you guys are wearing like youth size shoulder pads you couldn't fit that logo on the whole jersey at this point yeah i remember when i was like when i was in middle school, man, we had those shoulder pads, and you're just like this all day long. You're like, how am I supposed to hit somebody like this? And then in high school, I got my first pair of shoulder pads that actually fit my shoulders. I was like, oh my god, this is completely unreal.

So we went from John Navarro to shoulder pad talk. It was good. Tom Brady still got his shoulder pads though, right? Yeah. He does still have his shoulder pads. Name shoulder pads. That's correct. All right.

My number one, I actually – so I didn't have John Navar on my list. I know that. It's fucked up. I feel like I am going to catch some flack here for that, but that's fine. My number one was Chad Henney. I mean, I remember that those were like the good days of Michigan football. And I specifically remember, I mean, the throw to Braylon against Michigan State on Halloween. Like that was, I remember our power went out on Halloween like that was I remember our power went out um on Halloween and

so we had to go out to the car and listen to it instead but um I mean it it just felt like and I and I've watched back those um those games too of Chad Henney and being the four-year starter is big and and Braylon Mario Manningham man those guys could fly and I felt like Preston Steve Preston those were the times where we like truly had a great QB to wide receiver combo and he had you know for him to have those with all three you know three of those guys who are three probably of the greatest you know wide receivers in Michigan history. That says a lot about Chad Henney. Kalen, what do you got? Finish it up for us.

Yeah, well, my number one is undefeated against Ohio State. He's undefeated against Michigan State. It's got to be Ryan Mallett, right? I'm just kidding. No. I wish it would have been. If we would have kept Lloyd Carr, we would have had Ryan Mallett.

We would have been on a whole different trajectory. Yep. Yeah. That's in different universe somewhere where we've been Alabama 38 times. Oh yeah. I remember being so hyped to have Mallett come in and then just bring in Rich Rod, which is blow up the whole program.

Right? No, for real. Uh, my number one, I'm with Roe. It's Chad Henney. Um, I mean, I agree a up the whole program. No, for real, my number one, I'm with Roe. It's Chad Henney. I mean, I agree 100% with him.

He kind of represents that era of Michigan football where I was like, man, it just seems like we can actually win. We have a chance against good teams and all that kind of stuff. I say all that, but I bring the stats up, and we were 0-4 against Ohio State with Chad Henney. But I remember being younger watching him and just having that feeling of like man that's our guy man yeah yeah and dude ro not to not to cut you guys off but when you were saying like the good old days like we all remember that era as the good old days right like that was michigan football

that's who we loved that's who we rooted for in chad henney's first season they went nine and three so like a typical hard ball year like this year but they went to the rose bowl so that that's it's you know it changes the whole perspective right 2005 season they went seven and five really and lost to nebraska in the alamo bowl so seven and six in 05 in 2006 that's when uh we were 11-0 going into ohio state game um we finished up 11-2 we lost to usc in the rose bowl uh and in 2007 we were 8-4 after the regular season. And then we beat Florida in the Capital One Bowl. So, like, compare that to now where, like, everybody has these unreal expectations. And believe me, 100%, I am that person. If we look back at this, I'm just like, what am I thinking?

Why do I expect Michigan football to be up here when we've never been past, like, here, right? It's Nick Saban. Ohio State. Yes. Nick Sababen ohio state's dynasty like these years we were still losing the iowas we were losing to like northwesterns but it's because ohio state is up here bam is up here all these teams are up on this fucking top tier and we're just we're the same place if not a little bit better but because of that is everybody else we're that is michigan football though right that people don't understand they think we're the nick savin we're the ohio state we're the clemson we're but we're not we just have it's probably our fan base which us, thinking that we are those people, that team.

But we're really not. We're Michigan football. We're the team that goes 9-0 and then loses to Iowa. I remember in 2016 when we went down to Iowa and lost. And I watched it with my dad. And my dad's just like, I have seen seen i've watched that game a hundred times like that specific game i've watched happen to michigan every single year where they somehow hit the bed at you know sometime you know whether it's the last game of the year or

somewhere in the middle like we all get hyped up but we end up that nine and three ten and two you know that's michigan football if you really look at it how many we've gone you know 12 and 0 or 11 and 1 how many times one two three in the last 30 years you know we're just we're really not that team and so it's it sucks but it's the reality and yeah i think i too, like a lot of that stuff you hear is like, I got high school buddies who, you know, Michigan fans, right? Like I text them and see what they're doing. They're same thing. They're like, eh, you know, we, we kind of always been like that, you know?

So I think there's like, there is a lot of fans who have like some sort of like reality that they like, that they live in. And then there's another side where there's some crazy hysteria that just brings out the two-year-old in you where you want to... I get pissed, right? I hate to sound like the president, but i think a lot of this is fake news right manufactured by the media in a lot of ways how many times have you seen you're right seeing people on you know espn going like jim harbaugh can't get it done blah blah blah well if you look at the history he's already got done. So now he's in uncharted territory, right?

I will say the thing, if you do go back to Lloyd Carr and before that, Bo didn't win a national championship, I don't believe, right? But what they did do that Harbaugh hasn't done is they've won the Big Ten consistently or were, you know, in contention. So we haven't even gotten to that point, you know, where we have one year that we were second in the Big Ten East or whatever. You know, but we're third and fourth in the Big Ten East. So that's what they have done that Harbaugh hasn't done. But, I mean point all your points are completely true and and it's definitely you know we're the we're we're the fun team you know

we're the texas that you know when texas says texas is back you know like no you're not texas we're that team for the cowboys of the yeah. We have a gigantic fan base, right? So it's a target on our backs at all times. And it's easy to poke fun when we fall short. Very well said. Very well said. And I 100% agree with that. So I've got a trivia question for you guys since we were talking about quarterbacks.

I thought of something and I looked it up. So I figured it out. If you could each go around and guess, who was the last Michigan quarterback to beat all of their rivals, as far as Notre Dame, Michigan State, Ohio State, whoever we played that year, as far as a rival, to beat all of their rivals in a season and win a bowl game? That's tough.

Oh, man. I mean, it's – man, I don't think the 97 team beat Notre Dame. Beat all their rivals and win the bowl game. And they didn't necessarily have to play all three of their rivals that year. So they could have only played Michigan State or Ohio State to play all three of the rivals that year. Was it like someone... They could have only played Michigan State or Ohio State or just played Ohio State that year, but as long as they went undefeated versus the

rivals that year, that counts. Was it like someone on our list? He was on somebody's list, yes. He was on somebody's list. Yeah. Was it Tom Brady? Eh. K. Dylan. K. Dylan.

Was it Jon Navarro? Oh, Denard. Eh. Nope, not Denard. Bro, what do you got? Henny? Nope. Drew Henson.

Oh. Drew Henson, 2000. He beat Michigan State and Ohio State. Yep. He beat Michigan State and Ohio State. Yep, he beat Michigan State and Ohio State, and then he beat Auburn in the Citrus Bowl. Yep. That was the last time we beat our rivals in one season and won a ballgame.

Do you ever think about, too, that what if it were to happen today under Harbaugh if we did the same thing that Lloyd Carr did with Tom Brady and Drew Henson and just went like one starts the first quarter one starts the second quarter and whoever does the best in that game starts the second half that's literally what Lloyd Carr did back then with Drew Henson and Tom Brady. I'm just saying, if Harbaugh did that today, the media and probably his own fans, including us, some of us, would be like, what in the hell are you doing? We've got to stick with one guy.

You're insane. But Lloyd Carver did it, and it turns out it was the GOAT and Drew Henson who actually had a great career too. So did that happen every game? Yeah, he did that for an entire season. Oh. Yeah. Oh.

Okay, maybe not. Well, at least the first part of the season until I think Brady ended up taking over at some point. He started out playing Henson by quite a bit. But he did it for like a good chunk of the season i would almost kind of like that with mccaffrey and milton though we might be there against kind of like the you know the lower level teams like when we play i think ball state and arkansas state fuck it you know let me see both of them yeah but i thought lloy Lloyd Carr did that against Notre Dame. It was serious games. Yeah.

He did. You're saying that now, and then watch. We're playing Ball State in the fourth quarter. We're getting killed. What the hell, Harbaugh? Who thought he should have done that? We're going back in the tape. Oh, man.

That's a great question. Oh, man. That's some great question. Oh, man. That's some good trivia right there. Okay. Well, we'll take it from the best of a bygone era to the best of the future. So, Nate, I know you have some stuff to talk about in terms of recruiting and some recruits that hopefully will pan out. I do. Well, I butchered it last time, so this is our second team.

Okay, so I'll lead you through it this time. Okay? How's that sound? That sounds good, yeah. Okay. I know that we have some good linemen coming in because this is a great lineman class, especially because we have a lot of new linemen this year. We're going to be seeing a lot of new guys coming in who progress and probably take their spot in the next three to four years.

Tell me who's the best two to three linemen coming in in this class. Best two to three linemen coming in this class? I don't know. We got three commits. I think Giovanni Elhadi, like I really hope he does not decommit. I heard him in one of his interviews talk about LSU a little bit. And honestly, all of our guys, it seems like who we're looking at, are also getting looked at by Ohio State, LSU, Notre Dame. So I'm happy that

all these guys are being considered by big time programs, but we got three commits so far. Raheem Anderson, Greg Crippen, Giovanni Elhadi. And then we got to wait on these two other guys who are both from Clarkston, Michigan, Garrett Dellinger and Rocco Spindler, whose dad played in the NFL. So those guys have talked about being a package deal. I know Garrett Dellinger is currently – they're projecting him to go to LSU, so we'll see. But we got a lot of talent here. There's still other guys too. We got a whole bunch of four stars.

Honestly, this is going to be a great offensive line class and ed warner man he's obviously doing a great job so um really excited about that class and then you get a great offensive line and guess who you got as your quarterback jg mccarthy right super accurate um can hit tight windows um some of his some of his passes that he has where he's giving these back shoulder type of throws. Insane. I mean, so I'm really excited to see how that turns out. Wait, we have a hyped up quarterback

recruit coming in? We've never seen this before. Hey, stop it. I can dream. Well, it's funny you say that. He's really you say that. He's really good at that too. Yeah, he does.

Yeah. But Nate, imagine this. Go ahead. Another cool thing I like about J.J. McCarthy, and I don't know, maybe it's just my experience like when I played sports. Dude, hockey players are insane, right. They're just so tough. Right. He played hockey was like, you know, considering which which sport he should like choose. Right. So I love back. It's like a hockey player. I don't know. That's just like I like a guy who's tough, can stand in the pocket, take a hit, make a deep throw.

Boom. So i'm excited i think that's one of the yeah what i mean like back with the hockey players one of the i think one of the best athletes i ever you know i ever knew or played played a sport with um kaylin and i played baseball pioneer he played with travis mazies he was a stud hockey player, like was going to play USA hockey. He ended up playing baseball for Michigan, but one of the most unreal athletes I've ever played a sport with. But, Nate, what I was going to tell you is imagine we get all these offensive linemen. We got J.J. McCarthy coming in, possibly Donovan Edwards, and your boy Blake Corum. Your boy Blake Corum is back there. Yeah, man.

RBU. RBU is here. Dude, I'm telling you. Give them a good line. You know what's crazy, though? We're fourth in the Big Ten right now. But, I mean, like we still got to wait to see it play out. A lot of the – I think like Minnesota has a higher rank than us,

but they just got like a whole bunch of three stars. And we're looking at bigger guys, right? or five star guys hopefully commit yeah well the thing with the 2021 class is for a long time it was only jj mccarthy and giovanni el hadi um so those guys have been there for a really long time um and doing some of the legwork on the recruiting reaching out so i've heard that um what's his name, Rocco Spindler. I've heard that that guy talks to JJ all the time. I read some article that Rocco said he gets 80 to 100 texts a day from different recruiters and other players trying to recruit him. And the main rival for him is Notre Dame. So some of these other schools that, you know, we play against like

Ohio State, Notre Dame, Penn State, great schools are competing for the same players. I think that puts us in good company. What do you think about that? Agree a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. That was one thing that I put up on, um, on Instagram, little video, was when, you know, this whole JT Daniels thing kind of became popular. And talking about J.J. McCarthy, he's, I mean, not only the most talented guy in the class right now, but he's one of the best recruiters that we have in that 2021 class. And he can sway Rocco Spindler to come play at Michigan. Awesome. Yeah. sway Rocco Spindler to come play at Michigan awesome yeah I mean he's definitely JJ has been working his butt off to uh get a line in front of him I think he knows like I can't be the guy at Michigan if there aren't five big dudes in front of me that are gonna do the legwork

before me so um it's awesome to see that. I will say on a negative note, I'll be a negative Nancy here for a minute, but I feel like we're still just so far behind Ohio State in recruiting, man. It just hurts because I see them get five-star after five-star after five-star. And I think I saw something like they have more five stars coming in than the rest of the Big Ten or more maybe it was top 100 recruits coming in than the rest of the Big Ten combined you know that's yeah insane to me that's an insane stat and and it doesn't bode well for the future I feel like for us but you know what I think that there's also something to say for there's I feel like for us but you know what I think that there's also

something to say for there's something to say for those five stars but there's also something to say for us getting guys that buy into the program and work their butts off for it you know what Mark D'Antonio made a freaking living off of three stars that wanted to come play for him and bought into the program so if Jim Harbaugh can do the same thing, then we'll be all right with these not five stars. And I'll add in as well, like I talked about, we needed like an it guy. And I think all these great surrounding pieces with a couple dudes who are just incredible can surpass us maybe just in that one

game, you know, in November. So yeah, I'm with you. Yep. A hundred percent. Okay. Well it sounds like we got some good recruits coming in and it sounds like, you know, we got recruits doing the recruiting as well as some really great coaches doing the recruiting as well. So hopefully we get the right guys in the right spots to win the right games. So from there, I would like to move into we know what we're doing.

What is everyone else doing? What's going on around the Big Ten? Ro, I think you got something to say here. Yeah, so I'll give you guys like my top three schools or top three teams from each division in the Big Ten that I think will will be at the top next year. I'll start with the West, which is obviously not our division. It's still going to be Wisconsin, I think, in the West. They've been at the top for the past three, four years now. It's definitely a closer race than it has been in the past few years

with, I think, Minnesota coming up as number two. But I still think Wisconsin is up there. They're going to have Jack Cohn back there still as their QB. They do have to replace Jonathanathan taylor who was you know outside of um um what's his name i can't think who's their heisman uh guy melvin gordon melvin gordon and the um yeah so he he you know um jonathan taylor is up there as one of the best running backs in Wisconsin history. So replacing him won't be any easy task.

But they have the line. The offensive line is what really does it for them. So they have a junior, Nakia Watson, coming in, who's probably going to be a stud too. You know, they recruit, you know, the offensive line and the running backs and kill it there. Minnesota, though, I think is really close behind. They had an unbelievable year last year, ended up beating Penn State for P.J.

Fleck's signature win. And he's you know, he earned his contract there. I think they're really building something. And they've got a lot of guys on the offensive side that are coming back. Tanner Morgan is a stud quarterback that's coming back, and he's bought into that program, and he leads that team fearlessly. They've got two wide receivers that were unbelievable last year too, Rashad Bateman and Chris Autumn Ball, who have both been studs for them, so I think they'll be a close second. I really do think it's a toss-up um as far

as one two in the um who could be in um going to indy in the big 10 west um and then iowa i think is the third team there um iowa has to um they have to uh replace nate stanley at QB, which is not an easy task. He was there for a few years. So Spencer Petras will be the guy there. They've got Tyler Goodson at running back and Mika Sargent, who there'll be a one-two punch there. Last year they both had, I think, 700 and 600 yards or something like that. So they run the ball a lot, obviously, but they'll be taking probably the same amount of snaps there.

My sleeper for the West has got to be Nebraska. I mean, Scott Frost, he's obviously underperformed so far since he's been there, but I just think that he's got to be, you know, at some point he's got to put it together. Adrian Martinez is a stud at QB. They've got to be you know at some point he's got to put it together adrian martinez is a stud at qb they've got to figure that out i think that you know they're in year three now i believe with scott frost it'll start really clicking here um and they'll start moving forward um a lot better than they have in the past um and then on the east side which which is Michigan's division. So no surprise here.

I have Ohio State at number one. Justin Fields, he had 40 touchdowns and one interception last year. So I don't know if he can top that, then everybody in the whole NCAA is in trouble. Skim the Heisman. He probably is going to be the Heisman front runner going into the year, honestly, between him and Trevor Lawrence. But they do have some question marks for sure.

So they have to replace J.K. Dobbins. Master Teague has an injury, I believe, is the rumor. Who knows what's going on there. I saw Jack smiling when you said Master Teague. That's a Hall of Fame name man oh yeah you they his parents named that baby knowing he was about to go to the nfl for sure so um but they've got a couple other guys to mario mccall and marcus crawley who are both studs too you know they that's what Ohio State does. They have depth at every position nearly.

And so even if Master Teague isn't the guy, they're still going to be all right at the running back position. But they do have a lot more question marks on the defensive side. So they have guys that have come up, but guys that have not gotten snaps. You know, Jeff Okuda is going to be, hopefully he's going to the Lions, but he's going to be a top three pick in the NFL draft. So replacing that type of talent is tough in the secondary. And then, of course, Chase Young is probably going to go number one overall.

So those guys, you don't, I want to say you don't replace those guys just with anybody, but it seems like Ohio State tends to do that. But if anything, they have question marks in their defense. I would put Penn State probably at number two here. They're very close with Michigan. Sean Clifford had a great year last year for them, but they do lose K.J. Hamler. I know every Michigan fan knows who K.J. Hamler is after the year last year. He torched us on three different plays, and I think he had 300 yards. They'll have some new wide receivers coming in, but Penn state will still be

solid. I think with a veteran QB in there. Um, and then Michigan, of course, um, who knows who will be the quarterback, um, coming into the year. Um, and we have to replace some guys on the old line, but we are RBU coming up as you all know all know, according to Blue by 90. And so we'll be good there. We also have some guys on the defensive side that have come back, you know, Ambry Thomas and Vincent Gray. We have a solid secondary and Daxton Hill, who we're all very excited about at the safety position. The only thing that we don't really know about the defense is the D-line.

So our D-line is going to have some new faces possibly in Mozzie Smith and a couple other guys. So I have Michigan at three there. But I think that, you know, between Michigan and Penn State, it's a toss-up for the top two and three spots there. We'll see how the year goes. And then Indiana is my sleeper. So Indiana went 7-5 last year. That's their best record since 1993. So it's been a long time coming for them there, but I think that they could be moving in the right direction. It seems like we have a tough uh game with indiana every single year for some reason um but i think that they

could they could make some noise and maybe have some upsets coming up here um in the big 10 east you got you got a michigan at three man just like taking a very safe pick. You're like, eh, I don't want to get two down if it doesn't go the way I hope it does. I'm trying to manage everybody's expectations here. If I put us at one. Last year, I was that dude. This year, I think we got a shot, man. Dude, Nate, last year, you were like breaking my heart. Last year you were like, we might win six games. Dude, I've said it. I've said it before. I'll say it again.

I don't always agree with Nate right away, but his track record speaks for itself. If he's on the hype train, I'm on the hype train. He called that we weren't going to be that good last year. We weren't that good last year. He talked about, God, who did he talk about last year that I didn't think was going to be that good last year. We weren't that good last year. He talked about, God, who did he talk about last year that I didn't think was gonna be that good. And they were really good. And you know, I'm, you know, you talked about Chris Evans gonna be coming back and he's gonna be really

good. So I'm buying into everything Nate has to say. So if Nate thinks we're good, I say we're winning the big 10. At least get a share of the title. We'll get a trophy for it, right? Yeah, I'm now the only guy here with a beard, so I don't know if there's some magic to it. But, Jack, what was – you just leaving me hanging now? Just decided to shave my law?

I'm a weird guy, guys, okay? And when I get bored, I do some weird things. I'm honestly shocked. I still have hair on top of my head. So what happened is on the weekends, Heather and I eat out, all right? So we ended up getting B-dubs. We got some wings. They weren't boneless.

They were traditional wings. So Nate, as a guy with a beard, when you're eating boneless wings or traditional wings with sauce on them, they get all in your beard, and it's it's unbearable it makes me cringe like i feel like i have like nails on a chalkboard it's just it's it's awful so i um i ate half of my wings that were on my plate couldn't take it anymore went to the bathroom shaved my my beard off, cleaned off my face, ate the rest of my wings, and it was delightful. I was so happy for the last 15 minutes. And I went, like, I woke up this morning and looked in the mirror and I was like, Jesus. So I regret it today, but yesterday it was a great, great choice for me.

I've never heard of that, a pre-shaved chicken wing eating event. It's a move. It's a move. It's a move. The before and after. We'll put you on the new B-dubs commercial or something. Yeah. Give me up there with Bob Maneri. We'll have to see if any of our listeners have any weird eating habits like that.

I've never heard of getting away. That's great. It's awful. Like it's just, I'm the size. You can't like lick it off. So you gotta like wash your face. Like if you have like a face,

like you can like wipe it off with a paper towel. If you've got a beard, like the smell stays in there. I can't handle it. So I had, I had to do something. So what made you more uncomfortable eating the wings with a beard or watching shea try to throw a deep ball oh good question oh god i i'm gonna say i don't have this issue, so I just eat the chicken wings.

It's probably because I'm just like, oh, my God, okay, it's time to eat. You know, I don't even – I got to say the chicken wings. The chicken wings bothered me more. Oh, man. I think they did, yeah. Okay. Well, that was a great report from Roe.

Can we just acknowledge that? Like, I'm about to type that up and send it to Jim Harbaugh. That was great. I'm sorry I didn't have Michigan higher. I wish I could have Michigan higher, but, you know, I'm not on your hype train yet, Nate, because you know why? We have to go to Columbus, and I have been to Columbus way too many times and gotten my heart broken.

So I will be hesitant until we get past that. That's fair. Yeah, we got to move past Penn State. And then we got to move past the beast that is Ohio State. And that's just, at this point, I mean, I don't know. It seems not very likely, but I have hope. We always got to have hope. So you got to have hope. Yeah. It's about all we got. All right.

Well I'm going to move into the next part, our next segment here. Where I got to have hope is that we can stop the run at Ohio state and that our defense can actually stop, can stop them enough that we can put up some points, right? I think our defense has been the question mark in big games. Is that fair to say? It's more than fair to say, for sure. Okay. Well, I read an article from USA Today where ESPN predicted Michigan defense at number 11.

And their reasoning was that they're good, but they're not great. They can't stop the really good teams, the Alabamas, the Ohio States, even the Penn States, right? And so what I want to see is where is this team headed? Is there hope there? And I really think there is. I mean, yeah, we lose out like Khaliq Hudson, Uche, LaVert Hill, but we have some guys that I think we can kind of plug in and some guys that if we give them time to improve that we can plug them in and they'll really shine right um so right up right away up front I mean uh Aiden

Hutchinson, Quiddy Paye those guys are gonna be great um but there's also some other guys that could step up uh Taylor Upshaw, David Ajabo and I don't know if you guys remember this kid that they found in Germany that was just like a phenom athlete, Julius Welshoff. This is a good time for him to play some good defensive end if he can step up. The kid was like 6'4", 240, and he ran like a 4'5", or something absurd. I remember that. Yeah, it was crazy. Yeah. So this kid's just been practicing, and I'm like, Yeah, it was crazy. Yeah.

So this kid's just been practicing, and I'm like, dude, it's a good time to get him on the field. Why not? Well, and I will say, to add to that, you know, if there's one thing that Don Brown has done is he's created these guys that, you know, out of nowhere have become really good on our defensive line. You know, Chase Winovich, Aiden Hutchinson, you know out of nowhere have become really good on our defensive line you know chase winovich aiden hutchinson you know those guys aren't weren't huge recruits you know and they aren't

even the biggest guys out there but you know chase winovich is out there playing on the on the patriots and agent aiden hutchinson is one of the top defensive ends in the in the big 10 yeah and i hope he can take who i think is our guy with the best name on the team luigi villain i want to see that dude on the field just so that i can be like dude his last name looks like villain dude like come on love it yeah i think defensive end we got some good depth there defensive tackle um we kind of you could see us getting steamrolled there. I think a little bit we were playing that three-man front.

We had Carlo Kemp, who I think is a great team leader, but I think we might have some better athletes who have just really started to progress. And so that's where when we're talking about guys, I think you had already mentioned, Ro, Chris Hinton, Mozzie Smith. Those are some big boys, highly ranked recruits. And I think they can really step up. Even guys like Donovan Jeter, who's been there a little bit longer, he's also a big boy.

And he can step up in that defensive tackle spot. And I think we could even run a four-man front here. I don't know if there's any input on that that would be beautiful can you imagine to like mozzie smith and chris hinton like right in the middle there oh man with quitty pay and aiden hutchinson's on the outside oh god that like give me yes i would and what that what that does then is free up our linebackers so we don't have to blitz four downs every you know that's what it seems and i like that we blitz a lot because it puts pressure on them but you know why ohio state clemson alabama the ones with the big boys up

up front why they are so good is because they're they can do a three and four man rush and still get pressure on the quarterback and so i'm you know as much as i love jordan glasgow and i saw somebody talking about how jess spate is wilton spate's little brother who's a d lineman and he's a walk-on how he could be contributing you know what man i sorry, but I want those four and five star guys, the big boys, Chris Hinton and Mozzie Smith, to come up and plug those holes, man, and create pressure and create havoc, you know, right from the get go. And then we can allow our lineback defense to actually do their job instead of having to always the only time it seems like we can get a stop or get a turnover is if the quarterback's running for his life you know if the quarterback ends up has having time against Don Brown's defense we have there's somebody open that they end up finding so i like those guys for sure like you said caitlin to go in and

with a four-man front to to cause some havoc um up front and if we do have a four-man front like i'm i'm confident in the two deep right we've got at deep tackle we've got carlo kemp donovan jeter mozzie smith and chris hinton so right so we got the two deep covered at the edge for our edge rushers we've got quitty pay and aiden hutchinson uh ojabo um the lane we've even got uh taylor upshaw we've got the freaking guy from germany you guys are talking about like it sounds like we have some we have some depth there where if we can run a four-man front and get constant pressure on the quarterback that way, I mean, with the guys that we've got in the secondary, Brad Hawkins, I think it's going to be his senior year.

Vincent Gray, I'm super high on. Like, I love him. Ambry Thomas is back. Daxton Hill's got a year under his belt. Andre Seldon might get playing time. Obviously, we have josh ross and cam grown back like i'm i'm pumped man i'm really excited for this defense and see what can happen yeah but yeah i'm really i'm really not worried about linebackers to be honest just because i

mean we got camera grown we've got um i think josh ross and then I keep hearing great things about Michael Barrett. Anthony Solomon. Anthony Solomon. Yeah. So, I mean, I think that group is pretty well set. And based on what I've heard and read about, they feel very comfortable with the guys they got in that group. And the group we really need to step up is the secondary, right?

And, Jack, you already touched on a lot of these guys, Vincent Gray, Ambry Thomas. But another guy that I think might get a good shot is Jemon Green. I don't know if you remember those two brothers. The twins, right? Yep. So Jemon Green and German Green, I think is his brother's name. Those two guys will get a good shot is DBs.

Another guy who I think honestly has a really good shot to play, Andre Seldon. I mean, they need all the athleticism and speed they can have at those positions. And Seldon, based on what I hear, fast, super athletic. He can jump out the gym. So, I mean, I say put that guy on the field. Why not? We had great success with Dax. What do you guys think about that?

Whoever the best athlete is, throw him on there. Plain and simple. I think we've got to do some different packages to get these guys in. If they're good enough to be on the field don't make them sit you know we even though we've got too deep you know where we have studs at both you know the ones and twos I think you have to get these guys onto the field somehow and get them you know real live reps in big games that's where we I think we've struggled in the past is we have these stud recruits come in, and then they don't see the field until they're a junior or even a sophomore.

And then all of a sudden, they're a junior, they're a starter, but they haven't been on the road in Columbus or at Penn State. And all of a sudden, they crumble. That's what it seems like where we struggle the most so um getting these guys reps um and whether it be different packages or sub them in for a few plays get our guys some rest um you know i think we gotta help these guys transition into their roles yeah well said i think uh i think i think that's well said um i mean like i'm trying to point out here we have a lot of depth a lot of these defensive positions which i think puts us in

a good position uh to play against the highly ranked high level teams for sure that's what you got to have to keep up for four quarters. Oh, yeah. Well, I'll mention something, too. I think in years past, right, it's not necessarily been like, well, we've had some issues, I think, with our secondary and also trying to deal with the speed that guys, you know, teams like Ohio State have. I think this year, though, I'm a little bit more, I feel more secure or safe or, you know, with the DBs that we have. So, yeah, I think that this defense is going to be really good. We're going to be really fast. And I think Don Brown last year, even though Ohio State didn't work out the way we wanted to, like you did see him put some zone in there. So I think he's obviously aware of it. So I think the defense over the past several years is kind of like a learning process. And I think this defense with the amount of speed

that we have is really going to end up being one of the best defenses in the country. So I'm excited. And I think guys like Dax Hill, Cameron Grone, who are super fast, I think they're going to lead that on both levels. I'll say one more thing about the defense, too. And even last year's defense was, I thought it was a great defense, except for, you know, three plays a game. That's when we got hurt. You know, I think back to the Wisconsin game.

We gave up, you know, Jonathan Taylor on a, you know, 70-yard run or something like that. You know, and that's not even what Wisconsin does. They pound the ball. But same thing with Penn State. We gave up, you know, two or three big balls to KJ Hamler Ohio State we gave up long passes to these guys after you know we'd stop them on first down and second down and then all of a sudden they they throw it deep and make the big play and so you

know that's where we've gotten hurt and where we need to you know know, this is a, it's a great defense and it, and it, and it has been statistically over Don Brown's tenure here, but, you know, we just can't give up that big play time after time after time. You know, it seems like we, we are so good for 95% of the game and then we get beat on those 5%, but they end up in scoring uh you know in whether it's a touchdown or something or just a big play and so that's where they really have to um to um improve in my opinion i think you're 100 right um i mean yeah giving up the big plays has been huge for us obviously i mean I mean, I think of that big pass play against Penn State to Hamler from last season. That was a knife in the heart.

Jack, Nate, you guys got anything to add to that? No, man. Nope. Well, with that, I think we'll wrap it it up if anybody has anything else to say i mean nope doesn't sound like it so i think it's i think it's time to we'll wrap it up um so check us out on instagram and twitter at blue by 90 and check us out on youtube at blue by 90 podcast um everybody um everyone's good yeah go blue stay safe go blue yep go blue thanks