MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast

MGoRadio 10.8: Not Okay Per Se But Curve-Okay Nov 01, 2024

The Sponsors

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Champions Circle, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Royal Oath Insurance Group, Community Pest Solutions, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast, and SignalWire where we are recording this.

Featured Musician: Mark Zhu

[After THE JUMP: Things said.]

---------------------

1. Oregon Preview: Offense

starts at the top

They got a quarterback in the portal, they did. Jordan James was a backup last year, already broke out but now he gets the carries to show it. Two great OTs especially Conerly, and a squirrelly slot. They normally run tempo and pass around but against OSU they went max pro and tested whether the WRs could beat their CBs one-on-one (they could!) Several TEs if they can't get Ferguson back but he's a difference-maker as a blocker. Interior OL might be a little sketch—IU transfer Matt Bedford was supposed to be their RG but has been out all year.

2. Oregon Preview: Defense

starts at xxxx

Dan Lanning knows what he's doing; Michigan does not. They run a 3-4 Georgia system (Lanning was the DC when we faced them) and have a lot of talent. They went to the portal at DT and got a couple of good ones but the old DTs are beatable if you can get to them. Is Jordan Burch going to be available? He's a major pass-rusher, but they've been blitzing successfully to cover for his absence. Excellent in the secondary. LBs rotate through three good ones. Special teams: dangerous returners (Noah Whittington and Tez Johnson) but not great kickers—Ross James 100th in FEI, kicker Atticus Sappington has a career long of 48.

3. Seth's Hockey Segment

starts at xxxx

Big series with #5 BU starts tonight, and Big Ten on the docket. Better team defensively but looking for chemistry. Last two series Night 1 has been good, Night 2 has been the same game but nothing goes in the net and they blow it. Hage is their one skill guy, next most skilled player is Schifsky. St. Cloud State game was an extreme example of that but shows they really needed Rutger McGroarty. USNTDP game.

4. MSU After Review

starts at xxxx

Quarterback wasn't as good as it looked—only a few downfield passes, concerning play given State has no pass rush to speak of. MSU was playing Dantonio Ball against the run and this led to a lot of going nowhere even when things were blocked up well. Defensively they're fine until 3rd & long, when Wink tries to do something. Tackling is an issue because they've moved usage to Paige and it's exposing his issues there.

About the Featured Artist: Mark Zhu

Drawing from the pain of love and loss, Mark Zhu (pronounced "Joo") explores relationships, mental health, and identity through his songs rooted in healing and emotional vulnerability. A Chinese American artist from Ann Arbor, he studies data science at the University of Michigan by day and plays shows by night. As an award-winning pianist with three performances at Carnegie Hall, Mark leverages his classical training in his production, creating piano-driven ballads, synth-driven R&B, and fearless pop anthems. Links: Website. Instagram. Spotify .

Song choices:

Dead or Alive
Paint the World Red
Slayin'

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

“The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
“Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

WTKA Roundtable 10/31/2024: I Feel Like I Should Say Something Else Oct 31, 2024

Things Discussed:

MSU: Craig is done playing them. Seth says that's crazy talk.
MSU internet fans are off their rockers again. They've got their AD from RCMB adding up made-up malfeasances. They have beatwriters like Graham Couch and Chris Solari making up a stomp and when they're told it's not true they double down.
The football: Played conservatively, Warren had three downfield passes. Oregon is going to have hard-triggering quarter safeties with better players. At least they ran Orji+1.
Wink Talk: He brought back the thing that didn't work against Texas, and it didn't work, and didn't work again, and didn't work again. You know the Fry meme: Not sure if serious? That's his playcalling modus operandi. If you run the thing that looks obvious, you've got him. Mattison had a similar formation in 2012 to beat Northwestern, but it was a trap. Wink's bluffing when he has bad cards and slow-playing good ones, and once you figure that out you can wreck him.
His results on 3rd and long are so bad that if he ran the same Cover 2/Rush 4 every play he'd be doing better. First of the long runs D-Mo was supposed to be in that gap but it's so wide that he wouldn't have been able to help unless he's slanting hard.
Oregon? Their weak point is backup DT, but Michigan doesn't have the guys to 2023 Penn State them. Sam: only shot is their front four eat and M gets off the field. If you try to get exotic with these dudes. They went max pro and took shots because they thought they could run by Ohio State, and they could.
Dan Lanning's a good coach. Reminds me of Michigan last year: You can come up with what-if-we…'s but they have answers for it. What if we're 2022 Illinois?
Will Bryce Underwood be at the game? Does Michigan have a shot? Sam isn't committal.

MGoPodcast 16.9 : On a Scale of Nothing to Donnybrook Oct 28, 2024

1 hour and 56 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics.

1. Offense vs Michigan State

Starts at 1:00

Introducing the MGoBlog post-game incident scale:
1 -- Kerfuffle
2 -- Fracas
3 -- Brewhaha
4 -- Melee
5 -- Donnybrook
What happened after the game on Saturday was a kerfuffle. It felt like Michigan State came into the game with a solid plan while Michigan was struggling. Suddenly, Michigan was leading at halftime. Davis Warren's job was to not lose this game and he didn't, the ball wasn't put into danger and it worked. Donovan Edwards is no Tom Brady but he's got a perfect QB rating.

2. Defense vs Michigan State

Starts at 35:15

Defense only gives up 17 points but it doesn't feel super great? But for the most part they did okay. Junior Colson set the bar for consistent tackling and now missed tackles are weird. They put Mason Graham at edge and got weird and then got beat by Michigan State 3rd down frippery. They're preventing their best players from making plays. Michigan State didn't put this game on Aidan Chiles' shoulders so we didn't get the full Chiles experience. Brian finally has a nice thing to say about Cal Haladay. Maybe Jesse Minter was just so good that no matter who was the defensive coordinator this year they would be perceived as bad.

3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams

Starts at 1:01:08

We gotta have a brewhaha level of takes at least. Tommy Doman has continued to be inconsistent. Was State's on-side kick a good idea? The weird fair catch rule is something a lot of us didn't know about. Going for it on 4th down, tougher decision than last year!

4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac

Starts at 1:29:51
Indiana 31, Washington 17
Yardage was fairly even but Indiana grinded it out very consistently. They're 8-0 for the first time since 1967. Kurtis Rourke had surgery on his thumb and might be back this weekend.
Ohio State 21, Nebraska 17
Indiana beat Nebraska 56-7, JUST SAYIN'. Ryan Day has a meltdown on the field and then tells fans to be happy about this game in his press conference. Ohio State fans are comparing their tackle situation to Michigan's QB situation.
Penn State 28, Wisconsin 13
Drew Allar went out around halftime. It doesn't look like it's happening for Luke Fickell at Wisconsin. Penn State pretty much dominated down-for-down.
USC 42, Rutgers 20
Pushed back til 11pm EST kickoff to accommodate the World Series?? How many of you sickos (me) watched this?
Iowa 40, Northwestern 14
They benched Cade McNamara! Northwestern only had 163 yards of offense.
Oregon 38, Illinois 9
Eek.
Minnesota 48, Maryland 23
Never competitive.

MUSIC:

"Rubberneckin'"-- Elvis
"This Is Why We Fight" -- The Decembrists
"When They Fight, They Fight" -- The Generationals
“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

MGoRadio 10.7: Easy to be Blogger, Hard to be a Coach Oct 25, 2024

The Sponsors

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Champions Circle, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Royal Oath Insurance Group, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast, SignalWire where we are recording this, and introducing Community Pest Solutions.

Featured Musician: Nadim Azzam

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: Things said.]

---------------------

1. MSU Preview: Offense

starts at the top

MSU goes as Aidan Chiles, which is in all directions. Some of those interceptions are freshman; some are just really not accurate. They're bringing him along in an interesting way, which is max protection and letting him look downfield. He has a threat in Nick Marsh who's really emerging in the back half of the season. Other targets are just dudes. OL has some big issues on the right side, look cobbled together. Alarming how well they were able to run the ball consistently against Iowa. Michigan needs to keep Chiles in the pocket.

2. MSU Preview: Defense

starts at 19:01

They're weak at defensive tackle but cover it up with their burly LBs playing downhill. Other than play-action pass, what can we do Alex? Probably need to get creative. Consider beefing up if they have Hinton back and can run out multiple OTs, but Evan Link as 7th OL? You don't have the dudes who are going to win those matchups as much anymore. They do give up a big long run per week so many we'll have a Mullings beastquake again. Or maybe just once we'll get an Edwards vs Cal Haladay throw.

3. Illinois After Review

starts at 34:30

Brian is NOT as mad at Kirk Campbell as he was before going over the film. There were a lot of good ideas in there that his quarterback just couldn't execute. Offensive line seems to be coming together—Gentry was actually *Good*. Priebe is rounding into a 2nd team all-B10 kind of player. Crippen eh but not terrible. Persi might just be what he is. Tuttle was BAD. The overturned interception was to a guy covering grass—it's not even *at* a receiver. Defensively, yeah, don't put them in a terrible situation. Barham had a great game, they covered a lot of the weird stuff that Bielema dumped on them, but were constantly starting drives at midfield or in Michigan territory. Dammit Wink things have largely disappeared save for 2-minute drills, where they're rushing high and playing soft man.

4. Hoops vs Oakland, and Toledo Preview

starts at 59:56

Exhibition showed what we wanted to see, which was not many bad shots against a tricky zone defense. The ball didn't stick: when you can see all of these former PGs together they can all get a little creative. It's not going to be no-turnover but they get very good shots, including free throws.

About the Musical Artist: Nadim Azzam

Says my friend Nadim Azzam, "You've got to hurt to heal." Through painfully honest self-reflection, Nadim Azzam addresses depression, addiction, and the dysfunctional realities of our times with his songs rooted in hope and connectivity. A Jewish Egyptian-Palestinian American born in Vermont, raised in Southeast Michigan and sent off to the Arizona desert, Nadim’s life is hard to pin down - as is his music. A singer, rapper, and songwriter who makes his own beats and plays multiple instruments on his tracks, Nadim's new single "$20 Gold Piece" is out now.

Nadim was voted Detroit's finalist in NPR's Tiny Desk Contest by WDET, performing at the Concert of Colors. He has opened for The Kid LAROI at Eastern Michigan University, Robert Glasper, Yebba, Raheem DeVaughn and Bilal at the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre. He has previously traveled the United States with Grammy-nominated reggae artist Matisyahu, on a unity tour to promote peace between Pro-Palestine and Pro-Israel students on American college campuses. Nadim's music video “The Come Up” won Best Hip-Hop/Rap Video and Audience Choice Award at the 2024 Michigan Music Video Awards.

Mystery Offer: Ope, there's an Autograph Mystery Offer in this article. Click HERE to open and claim your prize.

Song choices:

$20 Gold Piece
Revelations (LANDR gddt)
Get the Money

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

“The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
“Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

WTKA Roundtable 10/24/2024: Ball Don't Stick Oct 24, 2024

Things Discussed:

Dusty May's recruiting: A+. Grady should be Wisconsin-level hateable. Oscar Goodman has the most beautiful line in a shooter's scouting report: good not great athlete. These guys will be around 3-4 years
Craig: Grady has some Roddy Gayle, can shoot a midrange. Have pole position in the recruitment of impact Trey McKenney, fighting UNLV and BYU for a center who does everything they want.
Oakland Exhibition takes: The ball does not stick on this team. Three guys are point guards, and then Danny Wolf also sees the court. It got a little sloppy as they got to know each other.
Roddy Gayle's defense stood out. Sam Walters stood out, role this year is going to be a JAS.
Question: do they wear out their centers? If you want to play fast you're going to wear out your bigs, which is fine if you're going to play Wolf at the five for 15 minutes, but now you need a four. Think that will be matchup-based whether they roll with Walters or Tschetter or Jones in those situations.
If someone gets in foul trouble they can weather it. Weird to see a guard foul out (Cason) and not be worried. Means they can play more aggressively. Defense was impressive. They did play drop, but being able to flat hedge is important, and having huge guards is going to feel very different. So many arms!
Another takeaway: Wolf's rebounding is very underrated.
Toledo preview: they're a five-out team with a 6-7 center so we'll get to see a different configuration against a different challenge than Kempe's big guards.
Babalola: Good to see Sherrone Moore's recruiting is what we hoped it would be. Way more athletic than most guys we've had, reminds me of when the early internet sent around a video clip of Jake Long dunking.
Illinois review: Offensive line was better, Gentry had a couple of pressures given up (PFF missed one) but he moved people and it's hard to understand why he wasn't playing over Link. Crippen it's more clear why they were trying Giudice because Crip tends to get bulled back. Wasn't terrible. Tuttle was—some of his mistakes weren't on him but he fumbled, had two HORRIBLE interceptions, can tell he hasn't practiced much this year.
They found a major: split zone. Then they went away from it. When they play-action they get the reaction they want, but can't complete the pass. Game over.
Who's QB: doesn't matter.
Illinois had a good gameplan, but defense was good. Game was lost on offense, which is 94% the quarterback, so it's hard for us to break this down. Everybody can see this.
Special teams is the other issue: Doman's punts are giving up 30 yards on the exchange. Everybody knew Illinois was going to fake near the 50 except this team.
Defense: Got a better Wink. Starting to build blitzes around his players, and they're more effective.
Michigan State: Michigan has better players, MSU has better coaching. They got Chiles to not turn the ball over against Iowa and suddenly they look good. Fancystat numbers are based on horrible interceptions; down to down they're a decent offense. Marsh is a dangerous WR, wish we had a healthy Will Johnson. MSU's OL is not good, especially on the right side.

Michigan HockeyCast 7.4: Partly Cloudy Oct 22, 2024

1 hour and 3 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Sunshine and Rainbows

Opener
Struggled in the First
Flipped the script except for Posch
Made Plays!

Segment 2: Overcast and Rainy

Five for High Sticking?
Even Strength Struggles
Old Friends and the League
Early '25 Preview

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"Broken Horse" -- Freelance Whales
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 16.8 : Big Noon Hoosiers Oct 21, 2024

1 hour and 23minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics.

1. Offense vs Illinois

Starts at 1:00

It’s a lot worse than we expected. There are Dungeons and Dragons references and they aren’t even coming from Seth (we’re rolling 1s, folks). They’re not doing any of the things we thought they’d be good at in the off-season. They don’t have a plan and they never had a plan. Sherrone Moore isn’t getting fired after one year, so how do they get out of this hole? Kirk Campbell is in trouble. Is there something going on with this team in the background that we just don’t know about? Neither side of the ball is getting better throughout the season. What would YOU do if you were Sherrone Moore?

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

2. Defense vs Illinois

Starts at 26:59

All things considered, the defense did pretty good. They held Illinois to under 300 yards and Luke Altmyer only had 80 passing yards. Illinois’ draw plays worked really well. The defensive line has been struggling with mobile quarterbacks this season. The refs got Michigan for all their holds and DPIs.

3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams

Starts at 40:00

Takes hotter than a random post on any message board. Do you think you could punt a ball 33 yards? Welp, let’s talk about the fake punt. Michigan plays too slowly to be down two touchdowns. What is the maximum you’ve ever seen the refs get the spot wrong? Big Noon Indiana is a silver lining!

4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac

Starts at 59:38
Indiana 56, Nebraska 7
495 yards to 304, one turnover to five for the Hoosiers. Indiana’s backup quarterback comes in and it doesn’t matter! The Hoosiers have a 51% chance of going 11-1 according to Bill Connelly.

Maryland 29, USC 28
USC was up 28-14 in the 2nd half. They are now 1-4 in the Big Ten and have lost all four games by a combined 14 points (they led all of these games at some point in the 2nd half).

Michigan State 32, Iowa 20
Aidan Chiles is pretty good when he doesn’t turn the ball over and he only turned it over once. Iowa scores a 75 yard rushing touchdown and that’s about it for them.

UCLA 35, Rutgers 32
Congrats to UCLA for their first Big Ten win. The passing stats in this game are upsetting for Michigan fans.

Wisconsin 23, Northwestern 3
Just lean on Northwestern and they’ll fall over.

Oregon 35, Purdue 0
Yeesh

MUSIC:

"Losing It"--Fisher
"Heel Highway"--The Hard Quartet
"Casimir Pulaski"--Sufjan Stevens
“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

MGoRadio 10.6: Missing the Michigan Difference Oct 18, 2024

wsg UM Regent Jordan Acker

The Sponsors

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Royal Oath Insurance Group, which is Owen Rosen's new firm, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, Champion Circle, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast, SignalWire where we are recording this.

Featured Musician: King Lynxx

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: Things said.]

---------------------

1. Interview with Regent Jordan Acker

starts at the top.

UM Athletics recently put out a survey that fans found pretty offensive. Rather than have this out over Twitter, we invited a regent to come on and discuss what they're seeing as revenue tradeoffs versus what the fans are seeing in terms of asking us to pay more for a cheaper product.

2. Illinois Preview: Offense

starts at 37:46

They've got a quarterback and a receiver, but maybe not so much an offensive line.

3. Illinois Preview: Defense

starts at 49:39

The 5-1 defense is still alive post-Walters, and still has lots of cornerbacks playing man coverage. Can they stop the big run though?

4. Washington After Review

starts at 1:03:13

Coverage was wore than we thought. What can Tuttle do for the offense?

About the Music: King Lynxx

The latest album from socially conscious Detroit hip-hop artist King Lynxx, featuring Tez the Don, is a lot like Lynxx himself: grown up, witty, earnest, and honest. King has his own studio that rents out to a lot of local Detroit artists across genres, and has helped a lot of bands perfect their sound, so it's a bit of a local celebration whenever he comes out with a new album of his own. We've shared the radio versions.

Song choices:

"God Body"
"Walk It Better"
"Step Daddy"

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

“The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
“Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

WTKA Roundtable 10/17/2024: I Hope We Win Oct 17, 2024

Things Discussed:

Basketball talk with Seth: They're a fascinating portal team because they're not just the best players they could get; they're players who fit the kind of team May wants to coach.
How much do we take preseason rankings seriously? Torvik and Kenpom have good numbers but the more transfers you have the dirtier their data. Projection is a larger component than it was in the past.
Basketball talk with Brian: The one interesting spot is the four, because they want to play Wolf there, but not sure they can play against a small lineup.
That's the thing about this roster: they can morph to play any kind of team. Rubin Jones gives them the flexibility; he can be a point in a huge lineup or he can play the four against guard lineups. Use Wolf against Iowa, use a small lineup against IU, etc.
Basketball talk with Craig: Wolf and Goldin should work very well on the offensive end because Wolf has ball skills. Can Wolf guard a wing though? We'll have to see.
Tschetter is more important than you think: he's slimmed down, is a skilled offensive player. Seth wants him to be the microwave off the bench, but if he can keep in front of wings a little bit more he's your other 3/4.
Freshmen? Cason is going to be a starter next year probably so they're going to bring him in. Players might want to redshirt if they're D-I players who aren't NBA players (e.g. Brooks). Different math for Pippen, who could blow up this year or next, and is unlikely to stay in college if he becomes the player we think he'll be. Bigs should redshirt now.
OSU-Oregon: Glad OSU lost because it fixed a rule hole and both OSU's schedule's a joke. Penn State's schedule's a bigger joke. Seth: they're flat track bullies.
Football Talk: The coverage is in bad shape. Zeke Berry has me very worried.
Could have been more about the Washington surface as guys were taking 3rd steps to gather themselves instead of moving like normal. Last time that field was tested for traction they were right on the border of acceptable, especially mattered when Giles Jackson is stopped and Berry is still in motion.
Craig thinks Evan Link did better, Brian thinks the body of work says he's still the worst FBS right tackle so how much better can he get?
Iowa-Washington: UW always comes away with 0 points in the redzone, but turnovers were the difference, and that came from Iowa knowing their defense versus Michigan giving away early open outs to Rogers. After watching Rogers vs Michigan I wasn't surprised a defense that knows who they are were able to exploit that.
Guys coming along? Offensively no. Brian hasn't seen anything from the OL to think they can turn a corner, Orji stuff is tossed out the window, Tuttle's gonna get hurt. Brian is pretty checked out on football. Feels like modern college football has undermined how we invest in our teams, because once you lose a few games you're just looking at the portal instead of wondering who on your team you can develop.
Defensively: Seth thinks Brandyn Hillman is going to be a really good player.

Michigan HockeyCast 7.3: It Won't Happen Again Oct 15, 2024

1 hour and 2 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Ice Devils Melt

Opener
Goals in all different ways
Finally an Ice Devil Goal
Very Good First Road Game

Segment 2: 59 Minutes and then 1 Minute, plus scores and Preview

Sloppy, but Good Enough
Ugh
Friends and the League
Clouds Preview

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"Dumb Ways To Die" -- Tangerine Kitty
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 16.7 : The 2024-25 Basketball Preview Oct 14, 2024

2 hours and 25 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics.

1. Dusty May and Basketball Vibes

Starts at 1:00

It’s bye week which means basketball preview with Craig Ross! Dusty May inherited a roster with ~two players but hit the portal hard. He built Florida Atlantic into a Final Four team from nothing and it wasn’t a fluke. He wants to play tempo because he thinks it works but also because the players and fans will like it. May plays a different game from Beilein but the Beilein vibes are immaculate. He’s analytical in shot selection but also believes in player specialties. And he’s really into basketball podcasts!

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

2. The Back Court

Starts at 24:59

This will be an interesting arrangement of dudes. Rubin Jones is a fun pick out of North Texas, he’s 6’5” and can switch onto bigs. Dusty May went for the guys he hated to play against. He also wants guys who can play multiple positions. Roddy Gayle has a concerning turnover rate but gets to the line a lot. Tre Donaldson III comes in from Auburn with a very efficient jump shot. Nimari Burnett should play as only a three and may start some games. LJ Cason is the most likely freshman to contribute.

3. Hot Takes, The Front Court

Starts at 1:01:50

Takes hotter than Will Howard’s social media mentions. Vlad Goldin comes in from FAU and is what we want to see from a 7’1” center. He takes hook shots! Danny Wolf comes in from Yale and is the most interesting guy on the team (center sized with the skills of a point guard). He could get 5 minutes per game at the 5 and 10-15 minutes at the 4? Sam Walkers is Just A Shooter. Will Tschetter returns as a mini Danny Wolf.

4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac

Starts at 1:42:28
Oregon 32, Ohio State 31
Ohio State will be fine in the playoff implications race but in the meantime lolol. Oregon faced a tough choice taking the lead by kicking a field goal from the one yard line because Ohio State could easily get into field goal range (until they didn't).

Penn State 33, USC 30
Tyler Warren (a tight end who wears 44(!)) had 17 catches for 224 yards and took the snap for a play where he had the receiving touchdown. Is USC the new Nebraska of the Big Ten?
Wisconsin 42, Rutgers 7
Rutgers kept threatening to score and then turned the ball over. They had a lot of injuries on defense.
Iowa 40, Washington 16
Washington outgains Iowa in this game but just cannot put points on the board.
Minnesota 21, UCLA 17
This was a comeback victory in which Minnesota scored all 21 points in the 2nd half. A third of Minnesota's total yards came off their game winning drive.
Northwestern 37, Maryland 10
Maryland turns the ball over four times. Northwestern didn't look amazing but capitalized on their opportunities.
Illinois 50, Purdue 49
Purdue scored on every drive in the 2nd half. What does this mean for Illinois?

MUSIC:

"Roundball Rock"--John Tesh
"Roundball Rock"--SNL
"Roundball Rock Big Band Live"--John Tesh
“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

WTKA Roundtable 10/10/2024: The Dry Pellets Conspiracy Oct 10, 2024

Things Discussed:

Pre-show Tiger Talk: The trick is blowing out arms and managing your pitching staff. Tigers lost 4/5 starters from their expected rotation so they had to do the Bill James thing and do away with them. The way: counter the top of the order with a reliever, have your "starter" pitch 1.5 times through the lineup, go to your bullpen when you get back to the top of the order so the best hitters are never seeing the same pitcher twice.
What a year: Tigers, Lions, and Michigan won playoff games in 2024 and the Wings and Pistons did not.
Washington slip-ups: What can you fix, what can you not? Time to replace Evan Link—Persi is fine. Gonna go with Tuttle; that won't be a panacea but apparently they were preparing for him all along. Get Jyaire Hill some cleats.
Defensively what's the problem? On standard downs they're elite, on passing downs they get too creative, and they're creating busts. Zeke Berry is not Mike Sainristil. You don't play Jyaire Hill like he's Aamir Hall: have him roll up and play some man. Makari Paige: he's a senior but he's not a Peppers who can line up at the LB level and run with Giles Jackson.
Mitigating factors: Minter and Mac had long ramp-ups not Texas, USC and @Washington in their first three games. Wink came in thinking he gets to run an NFL defense and he's not used to playing with guys who have major holes in their games.
Similarity to early Mac defenses: It wasn't until Week 8 that they could adjust to tempo (and even then they got caught in late changes). Macdonald came in running weird stuff and then learned to trust his best players.
Evan Link: Brian still has him grading out terribly, Craig thought he's been better. Sam thinks Persi deserves a shot to start at RT.
The "HOT coverage"—coach Twitter can come up with some reason it makes sense, but if you're running something you can't run that's on the coaches. Also it was tempo and Guy didn't know what was happening.
Wink dialed it back for Arkansas State and Minnesota, but when he's under pressure he reverts to his weird stuff. Gotta know you don't have to be the answer; you can let your guys be the answer.
Last offseason was a failure. This offseason is going to make or break this staff.
Tuttle is not going to fix everything. He had a two-man route and a "you gotta throw that" to Amorion Walker in single coverage and didn't pull the trigger, then fumbled. His interception was way behind his target.
Washington was slipping too. But when they fell over it's just because they suck at this. Did they not water the turf? Was it on purpose to give UW an edge? Let's create a pellets conspiracy!
THAT WAS A JOKE; READERS I SWEAR TO G-D DO NOT CREATE A WET PELLETS CONSPIRACY.

Michigan HockeyCast 7.2: Screaming Eagle Split Oct 09, 2024

1 hour and 9 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Screaming Eagle Series

Opener
Uh-oh Defense, again?
Okay, Maybe Better Defense.
First Weekend Takeaways

Segment 2: Scores and League Preview. And an Ice Devil Preview!

Non-Con Scores...kinda
League Scores and Corresponding Previews
What Do We Know About Ice Devils?
Update on CHL/NCAA Agreement

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"Upside Down" -- Paloma Faith
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 16.6 : Back When Life Was Cheap Oct 07, 2024

1 hour and 55 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics.

1. General Vibes

Starts at 1:00

Despite the outcome, all the Michigan fans who went to this game seemed to have a great time. Are the “trophy go brrrr” vibes wearing off? The team seems disorganized at a macro level. Michigan was slipping all over field turf which was weird. They screwed up the off-season and it’s tough to tell who that primarily falls on. Was Tuttle the plan all along but he was injured? Is it worth morphing the offense around Orji at this point? Washington had the same off-season as Michigan but they recruited a quarterback. At this point, Michigan needs a portal off-season because they lose the last of their star power after this season. Can they get enough “Harbaugh guy” type players? It’s concerning that the offensive line is having as many difficulties as it is under Sherrone, he’s had them for years.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

2. Offense vs Washington

Starts at 29:52

Tuttle brings the offense some life but then he has two 4th quarter turnovers. It looks like he’s the guy moving forward though, he went through progressions! He’s going to be rusty coming off of injury, though. At times it looked like Harbaugh’s offense but it’s just too inconsistent. They’re figuring out the basics so they can’t add new wrinkles to the offense. They did have a nice orbit swing pass, we haven’t seen much “college crap.” Colston Loveland must still be injured.

3. Hot Takes, Defense vs Washington

Starts at 50:16

Takes hotter than VANDERBILT FOOTBALL (not a joke). The story on the defense seemed to be Jyaire Hill. He was getting exposed throughout the game and also had slipping issues. Every time they try to do something funky on passing downs or two minute drills it doesn’t work. How is Will Johnson out there committing pass interference? Giles Jackson ate Zeke Berry’s lunch. We miss Junior Colson. We’ve never had anything to say about Makari Paige until this season. There’s nothing majorly wrong with this defense, they just make big busts at the worst times.

4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac

Starts at 1:22:20
Wisconsin 52, Purdue 6

Wisconsin has 18 straight wins over Purdue with an average margin of victory of over 20 points! This game was the largest margin.

Penn State 27, UCLA 11

The Big Noon game for some reason. A bit of a rock fight all things considered.

Indiana 41, Northwestern 24

Indiana becomes the first team to be bowl eligible. #9Windiana cometh.

Ohio State 35, Iowa 7

Iowa cannot move the ball at all. Iowa held Ohio State to 7 points in the first half, maybe Oregon goes into next weekend with some confidence?

Nebraska 14, Rutgers 7

Nobody can do anything efficiently in this game.

Minnesota 24, USC 17

Controversy in the 4th quarter! Minnesota goes for a game winning touchdown instead of a game winning field goal. USC is getting a taste of Big Ten running.

Oregon 31, Michigan State 10

This is the 3rd game where Aidan Chiles has fumbled in the red zone. The first time in the John Smith era where MSU looked like last year’s team. Oregon looks ready to compete with Ohio State.

MUSIC:

"Whole World"--Goth Babe
"Go With Me"--Gene and Debbie
"Nearly Lost You"--The Screaming Trees
“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

MGoRadio 10.5: The Blitz Rate of Radical Acceptance Oct 04, 2024

The Sponsors

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Royal Oath Insurance Group, which is Owen Rosen's new firm, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, Champion Circle, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast, SignalWire where we are recording this.

Featured Musician: Julia Rose Pagac

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: Things said.]

---------------------

1. Minnesota After Review

starts at the top.

Brian feels crazy sometimes because he can't understand the though process of playing Evan Link after we see that Gentry and Persi are…fine? We aren't seeing practice but literally can't be worse. Only one (1!) designed run for Alex Orji. Clear that they haven't practice Orji offense because nobody is ready for the natural reactions. Maybe they're just focused on next year?

2. Washington Preview: Offense

starts at 26:03

Getting 500 yard of offense against live defenses like Northwestern and Rutgers, but offensive line is a trouble spot. Tackles are uptransfers who are struggling at this level, interior is an OSU downtransfer, a Portland State uptransfer, and a guard whose name is Gaard Memmelaar. Keeping it alive by having former air raid QB Will Rogers knowing where to go with the ball, and elite RB Jonah Coleman making yards out of nothing, and a very good tall and fast receiver in Denzel Boston who's broken out this year. Tendency to shoot themselves in the foot though.

3. Washington Preview: Defense

starts at 41:08

The Rutgers offense is unfortunately a good stand-in for Michigan. Interesting rotation at DE where they can play a 290-pound guy, or a 260-pound 4-3 DE, or a 225-pound edge, or a 230-pound tight end eraser. Washington likes to put their "WLB" Alphonzo Tuputala at the "Uche" position—IE off the edge—and bring down SS Kamren Fabiculanan as an extra LB. Stuffed Rutgers on most drives but they give up the badly timed big play, which is often an RB breaking a tackle. Star is MLB Carson Bruener but they ask him to do a lot and he's a modern NFL linebacker who can be clonked if a blocker gets to him. Free safety Cameron Broussard has tackling issues. Making do with an interior DL that we didn't expect much from and which took some injury hits to their depth, but they've held up so far. Corners are pretty good in coverage, which is going to be mostly Cover 1 against Michigan as they stack the box—their only other coverage is Cover 2. Top 25, but barely, and credit to Steve Belichick for putting it together.

4. Hockey Preview

starts at 1:03:44

A summary of Alex's hockey preview series. They're not a collection of 1st rounders anymore, Michigan Hockey Summer took its toll there but they got older and bring back a lot of good pieces. Might be more of a depth team at forward this year. Discussion whether they should load up same types (e.g. speed line, heavy line) or space out their skills. Defensively they have B+ guys five deep and two good additions who should battle with Luka for the 6th/7th spots. In this they seem to have a lot of varied abilities. Goalie is a Ferris State transfer in Stein who needs to be taken in Ferris context, and a 160(?)-pound build-a-Portillo who might take the job this season or might need a year to fill out. In the Big Ten there are two tiers: Minnesota/MSU/Michigan/Wisconsin who expect to make the tournament, and Notre Dame/Penn State/Ohio State who would like to. Michigan has a *tough* nonconference schedule.

About the Featured Musician: Julia Rose

THE BAND: Julia Rose Pagac is a Metro-Detroit musician with an eclectic list of influences: rock, funk, blues, folk and hints of country that are most in Julia's vocals. I heard of her because her session drummer is Reggie "Banga!" Williams Jr., a local legend in the metro-D music community. They'll be at the Pig on October 12th.

Song choices:

"Army"
"Butterfly"
"Pillow"

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

“The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
“Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

WTKA Roundtable 10/3/2024: Hamburger for Steak Oct 03, 2024

Things Discussed:

L'shanah Tovah. Sorry this was late to get up; I had to bail to get to 10 o'clock services.
Seth & Craig on early to talk Detroit Tigers vs Cleveland Indians.
Washington games past: origin of the The Wave when we played them in the '80s, played them a week before September 11th
Edwards and Mullings on the field together got the defensive reaction they wanted, but they blew the blocks.
Brian: Having trouble understanding the logic behind offensive decisions. They changed QB when there were constant obvious errors from the starter but not center, not right tackle? We're not seeing practice so something there has to make this make sense.
Why aren't they calling QB runs? There was one vs Minnesota, preserving hits makes little sense.
Orji missed some major reads, even when they were easy.
When they run the plays that fit their personnel it looks like they haven't repped them. They're running 9th grade versions of their wheelhouse things, and aren't running the constraints to them.
At the very least: called Orji runs, and have Donovan Edwards and Kalel Mullings on the field all the time.
Defense: fine. Took few gambles, none of them worked.
Sam: Only thing that makes sense is they want to keep hits off of Orji by not calling QB runs.
Washington: How is a team putting up 500 yards of offense not putting points on the board?
Craig's metrics say they should beat Michigan by 4 TDs.
UW's offensive line is Not Good. They have a QB and an RB and a WR but they shoot themselves in the foot with penalties and missed field goals and blocked field goals.
Brian: This is a trap for Michigan. Washington has been playing better than their record, Michigan's been playing worse than their record.
Husky Stadium: Very loud stadium. Michigan fans WEAR MAIZE to break up their purple-out. Another new challenge for Orji (but he played against Washington last year).
Matchup of the game: Michigan's defensive line has to do to UW what they did to USC.
Washington is going to tempo: Michigan wasn't lined up correctly when Minnesota did it.
Michigan: You have to play 4 quarters, can't fall apart in the 3rd quarter.
Officiating last game: Bad calls gave Gophers 10 points: hands to the face was one of the worst calls of the decade, can't fault them for missing the non-catch on the Hail Mary. Minnesota tried to make the onside kick a thing but they had two other reviewable penalties on that play so if they don't call offsides Michigan calls for a review and they still rekick it.
Washington defense: what you see is what you get.

Michigan HockeyCast 7.1: Michigan Hockey Summer Oct 02, 2024

1 hour and 36 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Forwards...March!
Starts at 0:51

Opener
Best Returners are Undrafted?
A lot of interesting wings
The Freshmen and Transfers

Segment 2: Defense, Goaltending, and some Schedule Stuff
Starts at 56:23

Returning Guys are Very Experienced
Complementary Freshman Options
New Tandem in Net
Very Fun, High Quality Non-Con Schedule

[Player after THE JUMP]

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"The Ghost Inside" -- Broken Bells
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 16.5: We Are in the Fargo Car Sep 30, 2024

2 hours and 6 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics.

1. Offense vs Minnesota

Starts at 1:00

This game was like losing the equalizer in British People Football. Alex Orji has 12 rushing yards which is concerning. They're not running QB power which is not even an expensive install. No we do not want Rich Rodriguez back! But they're not running the offense that optimizes this team's strengths. Alex Orji opened it up a bit in the passing game and at the very least kept the ball out of harm's way. The whole philosophy of this offense under Harbaugh was that you have an NFL quarterback and don't have to run a lot of College Crap™- but now they should. Offensive line loses Myles Hinton in this game. Semaj Morgan played very little of a role. Nick Sheridan is killing it at Alabama!

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

2. Defense vs Minnesota

Starts at 38:37

Not a whole lot of nits to pick considering they were down their two best players. A bit of a sharp drop-off with a lot of the backups. Not much to say about the starting defensive line - they're awesome. Zeke Berry had the play of the game. Barham always finishes his tackles, Hausmann was out of position at times, Rolder has been improving every game. Wink's defense blitzed less which was nice; had a bad one on a 3rd down conversion, though.

3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams

Starts at 1:00:50

Takes hotter than Nick Sheridan in the first half of the Georgia Alabama game. The Minnesota guy touched the ball before ten yards so quit your yappin'. The off-sides was very close. Is there a kicker in Michigan history you would take over Dominic Zvada? Going for it on 4th and 1 makes sense when you have Kalel Mullings. Tommy Doman: fine.

4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac

Starts at 1:36:00
Indiana 42, Maryland 28
Indiana is 5-0 for the first time since 1967. Will #9Windiana finally stop being an internet meme??
USC 38, Wisconsin 21
A tale of two halves, USC mostly shot themselves in the foot in the first half.
Nebraska 28, Purdue 10
This game was tied 0-0 at halftime, if you're a computer science major this spells NOOP.
Penn State 21, Illinois 7
Illinois scores six minutes into this game and decides that they're done. Drew Allar descends back into 2023 Allar.
Ohio State 38, Michigan State 7
The Jeremiah Smith coming out party. Sparty can't convert in the redzone.
Oregon 34, UCLA 14
UCLA is very bad!!
Rutgers 21, Washington 18
Washington outgained Rutgers 521 to 299! Washington is not as bad as their record but they may be limping a bit into the Michigan game.

MUSIC:

"For Beginners"--M.Ward
"Flowers"--Real Estate
"Superbad"--James Brown
“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

MGoRadio 10.4: But We've Got a Running Back Sep 27, 2024

WSG The Sklar Brothers who are PERFORMING TONIGHT at the Michigan Theater!

The Sponsors

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Royal Oath Insurance Group, which is Owen Rosen's new firm, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, Champion Circle, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast, SignalWire where we are recording this.

Featured Musicians: The Feeling

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: Things said.]

---------------------

1. Minnesota Preview: Offense

starts at the top.

Weird how they haven't even tried to run the ball. They don't have the OL for 37 pass attempts. Brosmer's stats fall off a cliff when he gets pressure—had a couple of really bad throws and ran himself into sacks vs Iowa. Probably one of those games where the opponent goes not-in-the-face and hopes to grind it out.

2. Minnesota Preview: Defense

starts at 14:03

Can Michigan run more zone reads and diversify from what they've been doing? Minnesota's defensive tackles are not good, their good pass rusher is now a meh starter at strongside end. Alex thinks their RS freshman safety (playing for an injured starter) is a good tackler. Brian thinks M will grind it out but Alex & Seth counter that Minnesota is a team that blitzes interior gaps a lot so this will have be a game where they crack explosives against the secondary on the outside a few times.

3. USC After Review

starts at 30:32

Defensively Seth gets some Wink gripes off his chest but tries to put this in context. Gripes: he's doing weird stuff on standard downs, blitzing nickels from Mars, and not covering the spot where pressure comes from. Highs: USC got caught a few times waiting for that nickel blitz that never came, and EVERY SINGLE TIME A DEFENSIVE LINEMAN WAS RELEVANT. Record day, and looked like it. Jyaire Hill is comin, folks. Offensively, looked worse than we hoped, because a lot of the big runs were USC being bad. Seth might have talked Brian into upping a Gio El-Hadi block to +2 when Michigan turned a pull into a double to create the Edwards TD. But on the first Mullings TD it's a safety drifting over when a LB has contain already. Michigan ran Bash one time, it was very well-designed, and they never went back to it. What gives?

4. Sklars

starts at 49:15

Sklars are in town so we got on the phone with them while they're walking across the Diag. Segment is mostly our general thoughts on the season, which is a slog. Every opponent looks tougher except Washington (which is Michigan going to the West Coast so that's a tossup) and Northwestern, whom Brian forgot we were playing. Meanwhile we're Iowa, and Will Johnson is our Cooper DeJean. We're all finding ways to accept this season for what it is, which is… a Spirit Flight? Maybe if they were given a train and figured they'd get it to fly somehow?

About the Featured Musician: The Feeling

THE BAND: My friends and I have been all about this British pop band since Twelve Stops and Home. We even have a dance routine for "I Love It When You Call." There's no Michigan connection but a friend saw them in Italy last year and learned they were recording a new album, and I said "OOOOH PLEASE SEND WHEN OUT." That album is called San Vito and It's out. And it's really good, even if you, like me, don't really go for pop that much. We'll get back to locals next week but humor me and try this. It might even make you feel happier.

Song choices:

"I Want You Now"
"I Love It When You Call"
"War's Not Won"

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

“The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
“Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

WTKA Roundtable 9/26/2024: More Fun to Experience than Break Down Sep 26, 2024

Things Discussed:

Love to Sam Webb, who's attending the funeral of his younger brother.
USC game: They couldn't pass the ball because they couldn't protect him long enough to drop back.
Craig: A whale came in late for Michigan in the betting markets.
Brian: Michigan not running zone read offense much with Orji, doesn't feel like they know what to do with a running QB.
Seth: You can play no-read, and they did some of that, but you need play-action off that and they haven't built any constraints into those plays. Harbaugh always recruited an athlete and a pro-style QB but usually the athlete becomes something else, doesn't seem like this program was prepared for the athlete.
Brian: the big runs were more USC blowing something, now that teams have scouted Michigan's Orji offense those cracks are going to go away. Time to celebrate the win was Mon-Tues but on Thursday we have to face the grim reality that there isn't much upside because it's not what this staff wants to or knows how to run.
Passing game? Orji got one dropback when he wasn't under pressure and he didn't see an open Marlin Klein.
Brian's pretty down on this offense staff's ability to adjust to their personnel.
Defense: Wink Martindale's presser pushed back against the narrative that he blitzes too much. Not a good look, not because he's wrong but because he's getting defensive—we think he was responding to Klatt not this site by the way.
Actual Wink complaints from this site: Design of his blitzes are leaving the spot open where the pressure's coming from, which is the thing Mac and Minter were very good at taking away.
Other issue is Wink doesn't have a feel for when to call things, IE on standard downs. Like, someone busted on the cover zero (minus-one), but why is that blitz coming from Mars, because there's no way for it to be relevant. Play before that they had Iwunnah set an edge. Big run on 3rd & 2 they slanted with Grant stunting, and two LBs taking the interior: it's a Barham-3 play, but why are we playing games? Play football.
Not saying don't do anything weird; if you want to get weird get weird but make sure it's a passing down.
Seth: This is all fixable. Macdonald had to make the same adjustment, he already
Brian: Probably not fixable, since John Harbaugh let him go and New York let him go. Is he self-correcting or this being forced upon him? Because it's not a good sign that he's accusing people of not knowing how many people are crossing the line of scrimmage..
Wink is right about one thing: If the narrative he's going to blitz it helps them. We saw this vs USC, which ran split flow to the TE in the flat three times hoping to get a nickel blitz and all they got was two zero yard plays in the red zone and the Jyaire Hill upending of a TE when Michigan sim blitzed the nickel.
Bringing Three: Works when your coverage is great. Josaiah Stewart was great in COVERAGE too: that guy's going in the first round.
Minnesota: If they can't run anymore they've lost who they are. If they can't tackle a running back I've got bad news for them against Michigan. Stewart has already had a great game against their star LT Aireontae Ersery.

MGoPodcast 16.4: Mike Hart But Huge Sep 23, 2024

2 hours and 18 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics.

1. Offense vs USC

Starts at 1:00

Who’s the biggest Kalel Mullings Stan?? Doesn’t matter, we were RIGHT. Where does Kalel’s big run rank among all time Michigan runs in terms of skill? Max Bredeson got his quintessential kick-out block on the touchdown that we will remember him by. It’s great to see Kalel do all of this despite how long he had to wait. The urgency of winning a national title is gone but we still have these stories of the players. Was that run what propels this team into the rest of the season? Orji was under siege pretty much every time he dropped back to pass, the pass blocking PFF grades aren’t pretty. The game plan wasn’t the greatest and they could probably utilize Orji better. The coaching staff might’ve gotten arrogant coming off a national championship season. Donovan Edwards had a lot of snaps but did it keep Kalel fresh for the final drive? He’s still a home run threat. Oh no we’re back in the police car in Fargo.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

2. Defense vs USC

Starts at 45:22

This team feels like it has six or seven NFL players and those players are why Michigan won this game. Five of those are on defense. The defense played really well and USC's good things that happened were Wink doing dumb stuff. Michigan's ability to weather the second half was encouraging. Will Johnson left the game but apparently could have returned according to Sherrone (then why didn't he?). Linebackers played well for the most part. "Hausmann is Devin Bush but big" is mostly out the door.

3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams

Starts at 1:12:43

Takes hotter than the servers hosting the Kalel Mullings fan club. Tommy Doman is back and the punters on every one of Michigan's opponents are awesome. Do you go for the kick return out of the endzone? Where else are the yards coming from? The urgency to score at the end of the game was poor but that's what happens with a QB's first start and when you can only run. 3rd down decision making is tough when you can't throw downfield. Michigan nailed the stripe-out and the atmosphere was electric.

4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac

Starts at 1:43:58
Penn State 56, Kent State 0
Penn State set a program record for yards.
Indiana 52, Charlotte 14
Indiana is #1 in EPA per play!
Ohio State 49, Marshall 14
Another non-conference blowout, meh.
Maryland 38, Villanova 20
328 passing yards for Maryland is solid against a good FCS team.
Washington 24, Northwestern 5
Yards were 391 to 112, Northwestern's offense is baaaad. -1 EPA per drop back.
Rutgers 26, Virginia Tech 23
Rutgers outgains Virginia Tech by about 100 yards.
LSU 34, UCLA 17
Not many people are expecting much from UCLA at this point after getting dunked on by Indiana. It was 17-17 at halftime, though.
Iowa 31, Minnesota 14
Cade McNamara gets 62 passing yards and shows that he can lead block.
Michigan State 19, Boston College 23
Aidan Chiles gets 241 passing yards and three interceptions. Sometimes this MSU teams looks like they're ahead of schedule and sometimes they just do something ridiculously bad.
Oregon State 38, Purdue 21
Purdue is Wisconsin lite.
Illinois 31, Nebraska 24 (OT)
Nebraska has gone eight (8!!) straight OTs without scoring points.

MUSIC:

"With a Little Luck"--Wings
"Devil's Gate"--Prof
"Big White Cloud"--JJ Cale
"Shameful Game"--Pale Jay

MGoRadio 10.3: If Only RG3 Had Lived to See This Sep 20, 2024

The Sponsors

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Royal Oath Insurance Group, which is Owen Rosen's new firm, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, Champion Circle, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast, SignalWire where we are recording this.

Featured Musicians: Lanternfly

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: The things to be said.]

---------------------

1. USC: Offense

starts at the top

They have TALENT at wide receiver, and the guy who developed four of the NFL's starting quarterbacks has a next guy who seems to be able to play air raid. LSU went man on them and got beat by the receivers making plays. Can Michigan's defense, designed to stop CJ Stroud, do the trick? Will depend on Wink confusing Moss and Moss not confusing Wink's linebackers.

2. USC: Defense

starts at 20:44

A lot of transfers for a new defense. Finally somebody else is running Amoeba and their linebackers are grading out poorly in charting because that job is hard. Haven't faced an Orji offense yet but neither have we run an Orji offense. They have talent in the secondary but front seven are mostly guys. Interesting 6'6" linebacker at WLB who's there to be a DE or a safety or an end or a tight end eraser. SDE was Don Brown's top anchor target once upon a time.

3. Gimmicky Top Five: Halftime Events Sponsored by Our Advertisers

starts at 37:09

Reid McCarthy of Ann Arbor Elder Law felt called out when we mentioned him in the same breath as the Purdue auto dealership that tried to cheat a student kicker out of his 2-year lease, so he came on the show for a segment on our ideas (some of them good!) for sponsored halftime entertainment.

4. Arkansas State After Review

starts at 56:17

It doesn't seem Orji and Crippen are a panacea, but if you're struggling at quarterback when you're running simple things you might as well put in the guy who can run. Crippen wasn't meaningfully better than Giudice; Mullings is meaningfully better than Donovan Edwards. But consider: Edwards can turn every play into a TD. Defensively Wink backed off. I crunched RPS numbers and found that new coordinators from the NFL think they have to playcall their way to victory—things are a lot smoother when you just play your defense.

About the Featured Musician: Lanternfly

THE BAND: Longtime MGoBlog reader Keith Salowich formed this intellectual pop punk outfit right before the world went and had its global pandemic. They reformed with a new lineup in spring of 2023 and put out their first single "No Vacancy" last February, with their first EP "Until There's Nothing Left Alive" following in June. Oddly for a pop punk outfit the drummer has real chops, while both Keith and Angie Salowich are gifted lyricists. Two shows coming up:

Wednesday, Oct. 2 at Parts and Labor in Melvindale with the bands I Are Citizen, Scum Queens, and Kids on Fire (they're on tour from Seattle). Music starts at 8 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 18 at Bowlero in Royal Oak (and people had better show up in Halloween costumes) with Social Meteor. Music starts at 9 p.m.

Song choices:

"No Plans"
"No Vacancy"
"Vicious Fishes"

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

“The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
“Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

WTKA Roundtable 9/19/2024: OCBC Sep 19, 2024

Things Discussed:

How would Offensive Coordinator Brian Cook attack USC? Threats to both sides of the field to stretch defense horizontally, use your base runs with the QB.
Add back the 2006-era spread-n-shred stuff: Inverted Veer/Power Read.
Craig: Add back the Zone Read/Split Zone/Arc Read/Belly offense. Good idea because that split zone/bluff block is Bredeson. Works well for Michigan because they have a TE on the playside who gets a 2nd level block.
Seth: Yeah, use their personnel to create matchups. Have Edwards as a receiver (this will raise his draft stock a ton) and have him threatening the outside while Mullings and Orji threaten multiple inside gaps.
Sam: Don't call Orji a simplistic passer; he's one of the smartest guys on the team. Seth: okay, but we haven't seen more than two dropback passes and both were very simple concepts: Drive and Shallow Cross.
Re: Drive and Shallow Cross, those are great concepts for a QB who's a vertical run threat, see: Virginia 2021 offense with Olu, where they had the center wait two beats then blast a DT to create a run lane and release downfield.
Running QB can help your pass pro, because they mush rush, see Denard, how Michigan reacted to Sean Clifford.
USC defense: D'Anton Lynn replaced Minter on the Ravens for 2 years before going to UCLA so they're in Year 1 of an Amoeba transition. Mel Kiper called for outlawing two-high safeties, so that defense is killing it at all levels.
They patched it together out of transfers (9/11 starters) after benching two of last year's starters already. Looked good against LSU but that LSU win has lost some shine after they were outplayed by South Carolina, and they did give up 400+ yards.
Offense: Lincoln Riley is a master at making X look like Y, is a finesse team that will get you at the skill positions. Moss will hit tiny windows and his receivers are monsters who will make him right.
Predictions? Huge deltas, could be a lot of things but USC has playmakers on offense who will be the difference. Brian wants to limit snowball effect; Seth says don't blitz—let your front

MGoPodcast 16.3: Accurate But Unpleasant Sep 16, 2024

1 hour and 57 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics.

1. Offense vs Arkansas State

Starts at 1:00

This game was functionally over [aghhhhh] at halftime. Davis Warren throws three interceptions, two are just horrible (his arm gets hit on the other), now what. Michigan self-sabotaged on wide receiver recruiting with how they run their offense the last few years and we’re seeing the consequences of that now. We still haven’t seen Michigan use Donovan Edwards outside, the staff just isn’t maximizing the strengths of the players. The run game feels different with Mullings in at running back. A full Orji offense would be expensive to install but do they bring him in with last year’s offense now? When will the coaches listen to the blogger offenses?? It’s tough to evaluate the offensive line against Arkansas State but they looked less confused this week.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

2. Defense vs Arkansas State

Starts at 40:02

Not much to say, Michigan dominated at the line of scrimmage which was expected. Rayshaun Benny played a great game, especially containing the quarterback. Jyaire Hill had an up and down game but broke up a slant really well, a nice bounce back after the Texas game. Martindale backed off from the funky blitzes in this game, there wasn't really anything exotic. Penalties on defense kept drives alive but this ref crew is a bit ticky tacky on penalties.

3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams

Starts at 57:41

Takes hotter than Michigan Stadium on Saturday. Butch Jones, why are you still signaling games from the sidelines? The football gods punished Arkansas State for kicking on 4th and 1 (you should still get points off doinks). Arkansas State punter, hello. There were zero punt returns and one kick return.

4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac

Starts at 1:22:23
Indiana 42, UCLA 13
Congrats, Jamie. This is Indiana's biggest win against a power [4][5] since?? This was not a fluke, this was a complete beatdown. Part of this was that UCLA is not good but still, Indiana is doing a lot of good things. Indiana may never play in the Rose Bowl but they can play at the Rose Bowl!

Nebraska 34, Northern Iowa 3
Nebraska scored touchdowns on their first three drives against an FCS team that has given teams fits.

Northwestern 31, Eastern Illinois 7
This one was close for about a half. Northwestern just doesn't have much offense. Cheers to the weird stadium games.

Michigan State 40, Prairie View A&M 0
Injuries are already starting to pile up for MSU, keep an eye on that.

Minnesota 27, Nevada 0
This looks like a rock bottom version of Nevada.

Illinois 30, Central Michigan 9
The score is bigger than how close this was, it may have been a hangover game for Illinois. There was a 59 yard field goal in this game!

Oregon 49, Oregon State 14
Oregon got healthy in a hurry and they looked fully operational. The odds of Michigan winning a rock fight against the Ducks just went down.

Purdue 7, Notre Dame 66
This was the worst loss in Purdue football history. They did average 47 yards of punting on 10 punts, though!

Alabama 42, Wisconsin 10
Wisconsin loses their starting QB to injury and the backup hurt his hand. They did stick around in this game for a little bit at least.

Maryland 27, Virginia 13
A nice bounce back after losing to Michigan State last week. Total yardage was fairly even but Virginia turned the ball over four times.

Iowa 38, Troy 21
This was close until the very end. Iowa gives up a punt return touchdown. Iowa, if you're not punting to win, what are you doing? Folks aren't thrilled with how Cade is playing.

Washington State 24, Washington 19
Wazzu's coach said they're never giving the Apple Cup trophy back! Michigan may have taken a step back but look at Washington, this does happen.

MUSIC:

"Kicking Back"--Mika J
"Back on 74"--Jungle
"Big White Cloud"--JJ Cale
“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

MGoRadio 10.2: Scaled Back to What? Sep 13, 2024

The Sponsors

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, Champion Circle, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast, SignalWire where we are recording this, and introducing Royal Oath Insurance Group, which is Owen Rosen's new firm.

Featured Musicians: The Missing Chums

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: The things to be said.]

---------------------

1. Texas After Review

starts at the top

The defensive story isn't that bad. Down to down they can hang. Jyaire Hill is a work in progress that Texas picked on and broke a few times. Their problem seems to be Wink, who has NFL ideas for 3rd down that are at fault for them not getting off the field. Busts go back to running too much stuff. They can fix this. Offensively they can't fix this. Their OL is just not good. Priebe's 2023 film was more honest than the 2024 offseason talk: he's just a guy. Link and Giudice are so far from being playable. Don't think we've ever had the program talk guys up so much and this be the result. ALSO the offensive brain trust doesn't know how to use their personnel. We're just guys on the internet but 13 snaps each for Mullings and Bredeson when those are two of your best weapons is inexplicable. It looks like they're just trying to be last year's offense with Donovan Warren.

2. Arkansas State: Offense

starts at 22:11

Return Jaylen Raynor who started as a freshman. He's a runner who will take off when his 2nd read isn't there. Tackles are in rough shape since losing LT Makilan Thomas to injury; he's questionable for this game. Dangerman is wide receiver Corey Rucker, who plays big for a 6'0/214 guy. Butch Jones offense: spread to dink with a few bombs to keep you honest.

3. Arkansas State: Defense

starts at 32:56

Defense has a lot of transfers, one guy that Alex liked was edge Bryan Whitehead, a Liberty transfer, but Seth notes that Tulsa has one of the worst LTs in the country; is Evan Link bad for a P4 player or bad for a football player? Safeties are a real weak spot: not fast and not big, they should be double-moved by Loveland.

4. Unverified Voracity Live

starts at 43:11

RIP to James Earl Jones, who was a tremendous flex and a tremendous Michigan story. RIP also to Greg Harden, our former guest who had a hand in creating the Michigan program culture. Less sad RIPs: the Big Ten being immune from lawsuits, as Denard Robinson and Braylon Edwards show House isn't going to settle this. In other legal news, the ACC seems to be winning against FSU's big threat of having the state of Florida declare sovereign immunity. Pac 2 is now up to Pac 6, but don't expect Cal/Stanford to join any time soon, since they culturally want nothing to do with Wazzu and Oregon State, and they're held by the same Grant of Rights as the other ACC teams. Maybe UNLV if they bring along Reno.

About the Featured Musician: The Missing Chums

Longtime MGoBlog fans—notably drummer Mike K (@outofthegates) of Michigan twitter—The Missing Chums (website) are an upbeat local indie with the name of a Hardy Boys novel that makes them ungoogleable. Their latest album Reveries just came out.

Song choices:

"No, Not Nancy!"
"Née Jones"
"Just Loretta"

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

“The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
“Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

WTKA Roundtable 9/12/2024: My Doctor Said Zvada Sep 12, 2024

Things Discussed:

Seth on early: Jyaire Hill isn't quite ready to come out of the oven.
Floor for the offense is vastly lower than we thought was plausible. If Evan Link and Dominic Giudice are your best RT and C then you can't move a mid defensive line. If Link is your right tackle and these are your receivers you can't be a passing team.
Think they expected their players to be different players. Feel for Davis Warren; it's not his fault when Texas is getting pressure with three guys. He also makes mistakes.
Defense: it can be fine. Wink put too much on them to NFL an elite college offense and guys made mistakes. That's not RPS, it's too much RPS to the point where your linebackers are not executing fundamentals.
If you can get Jyaire Hill to not bite at 9 yards, or get the LBs to not bite on play-action, you can get a team like Texas off the field.
Alarming number of mental breakdowns and Michigan didn't get a free blitzer the entire game. Cost of that seemed to be ability to execute a basic defense.
Sark had a good plan: put the RBs into patterns to take away the linebackers.
Example for Wink: he blitzes a safety vs a small RB which is an NFL win; in college it's a loss because it's Quinten Johnson who's 180 pounds, and that creates a conversion. It's one thing if you're rushing Jaishawn Barham. If you're dealing with a 28-year-old NFL safety the gap between him and a linebacker isn't that big.
Sark's big idea: these are college kids so let's make it easy for them to screw up. Wink's big idea was NFL thinking: let's put more on our guys so Texas is overwhelmed.
Where were the stunts? They already have the DT at end.
What do you do with the offense? Ideally they go to Orji and run out their best players. What we think they'll do is Iowa it and punt. Also if you switch directions now you're not going to be good at it; Ohio State…hell Michigan State will have the answers and shut it down.
Sam: they're gonna scale things back, not major personnel changes.

MGoPodcast 16.2: A Hell of His Own Making Sep 09, 2024

2 hours and 5 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics.

1. The State of the Football Program

Starts at 1:00

Oh boy, we haven't done a podcast like this in a while! The weather was nice. A lot of issues from the previous regime are resurfacing right now, especially QB recruiting. Jim Harbaugh ultimately is the one who ran Jim Harbaugh out of Michigan. How was Sherrone Moore going to get a quarterback given all the circumstances? This year is a cost of last year. How is this offense better with Kalel Mullings on the bench? It feels like Sherrone is coaching this team like it's still the 2023 team.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

2. Offense vs Texas

Starts at 27:06

Michigan has decided to put one of their best offensive players on the bench on almost every snap. Evan Link got pushed around a lot. The things they were saying about Alex Orji in the off-season feel fabricated. They’re not even giving Alex Orji the chance to throw. Maybe they made an offense for him and it just didn’t work out and they had to switch back. There are a lot of veteran offensive linemen that are getting passed by younger linemen who aren’t quite there. The floor is getting lowered. Sherrone Moore is a young head coach and younger head coaches have hiccups early in their careers. It’s not that any individual player is at fault every time but enough players make enough mistakes that a lot of plays end up not working. This game was the other side of the 2021 Wisconsin game.

3. Hot Takes and Defense vs Texas

Starts at 50:50

Takes hotter than Northern Illinois’ coach after beating Notre Dame. Jyaire Hill got picked on a lot in this game and Wink Martindale got his butt handed to him. They moved Mason Graham to defensive end on 3rd down?? Jesse Minter ran the good stuff, Wink is trying to run the “cool stuff”. The amoeba defense is nice in the NFL but just isn’t going to work with younger college players. The blitzes work because they’re weird but if you do them too frequently then they’re not weird anymore. If this game happened either of the last two seasons it would be doom but right now it’s fine, it’s not great, but it’s just whatever! We are kicker U!

4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac

Starts at 1:29:35
Rutgers, Minnesota, Washington, Ohio State, USC, and Indiana all had blowout wins.

Washington did have a zero yard punt, though.

Penn State 34, Bowling Green 27
Total yardage is pretty close in this one. Bowling Green was running all the right plays but just didn’t have the talent to finish the job.

Wisconsin 27, South Dakota 13
Wisconsin just doesn’t have any explosiveness out of the passing game and doesn’t dominate in the run game.

Oregon 37, Boise State 34
Felt like Boise State dominated both lines of scrimmage. Oregon is a mess in pass protection.

Nebraska 28, Colorado 10
Colorado has 16 rushing yards, they’re just fundamentally bad.

Illinois 23, Kansas 17
First ranked win for Illinois in (I’m not looking it up)

Northwestern 20, Duke 26
This was just a beautiful, beautiful, disgusting Friday night game.

Iowa 19, Iowa State 20
Ended on a game winning field goal, how all El Assicos should end. Cade McNamara completed more passes behind the line of scrimmage than in front of it.

Michigan State 27, Maryland 24
Aidan Chiles’ boxscore is everywhere (good and bad). Michigan State could be the chaos team?

MUSIC:

"The Loop"--Marlon Craft
"Gorilla"--Little Simz
"Save it for Later"--Eddie Vedder
“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

MGoRadio 10.1: Long Horns, Short Passes Sep 06, 2024

With Special Guest Ian Boyd from InsideTexas.com and America's War Game

The Sponsors

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, Champion Circle, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast, SignalWire where we are recording this, and introducing Royal Oath Insurance Group, which is Owen Rosen's new firm.

Featured Musicians: Ki5

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: The things to be said.]

---------------------

1. Texas Preview wsg Ian Boyd: Offense

starts at the top

They've added a lot of RPOs. Probably want to bypass the defensive tackles and attack the linebackers in space. Ewers is now pretty good every down but hasn't taken the step to great, has some tooly receivers to throw to but of them Bond is the one who can really do a lot of different things (the others can do one thing really really well). Think Michigan should play their base, keep guys back, don't get too creative. If you blitz them on 3rd down they're going to set up a makeable 4th down.

2. Texas Preview wsg Ian Boyd: Defense

starts at 22:13

They lost the best two DTs in CFB and their backups won the job; they don't really get low so Texas fans are a bit worried about getting bullied by Michigan's run game. Texas was playing light boxes vs CSU's Air Raid but Ian and Alex agree they're rolling safeties down: Ian would play single-high and have Michael Taaffe play off by 8 yards and check Loveland then attack the run. They've been quarters base but run a lot of switch coverages and mixed coverages. Michigan might have to use Marlin Klein. Decisive matchup will be if they have really fixed their DE and CB issues, but can Michigan pass that much? Probably going to be a cat-and-mouse game as Michigan wants to get back to their power run game and do enough to keep Texas from zeroing in on it.

3. Texas, Texas Fans, and Where are the Vibes?

starts 47:19

We talk to Ian about how Texas sees themselves, which is the Michigan with an ag school who hates them and a big rival who cares only about football and killing their rival. Also love winning their conference and booing the commissioner. Sark is very high among their list of coaches: move to SEC means the school has gotten more serious about football (and less serious about not being a degree factory). Think this era is a golden one for UT football because the SEC is going to give them Georgia and their rivals but not loading them down. We talk a little about the stickball ramifications for both conferences, and then talk about what factors fans should consider when projecting the future of realignment.

4. Fresno State After Review

starts 1:19:19

Let's do the Wink talk because I want to inject some nuance: they technically accomplished what they wanted, which was to get Keene throwing off his back foot. There were nine interceptable passes in this game. Wink could very well have been setting up a sim pressure-filled game after coaxing Texas to build an RPO gameplan. Or he could be the guy who just blitzes. Seeing a lot of awareness from Josaiah Stewart, Will Johnson was setting up his pick six. Offensively the Giudice thing is worrisome, Priebe and Bredeson were off from their usual but veterans should put it back together. We don't talk about Mullings/Edwards much because, well, you all saw, but yes: Mullings is their better running back at the moment and Edwards should be a big part of the passing game. Think Marlin Klein might be a secret weapon, because the receivers are not helping.

About the Featured Musician: Ki5

Ki5 is a songwriter and vocalist from Ann Arbor that makes music using only his voice and a looping machine. Kyler is releasing an EP on 9/20 called Lake of Gold, and will be playing at the Ark on Friday night April 26th, and at Venue on 9/27 (hopefully not during the Sklars show—I'll update when I have a time).

Song choices:

"Sunny Days"
"Spirit"
"Don’t Fade Away"

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

“The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
“Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

WTKA Roundtable 9/5/2024: Blitz Less, Smile More Sep 05, 2024

Things Discussed:

Vance Bedford (watch his breakdown) is a Michigan guy now. Texas fans haven't been good to him; Sam shares they were asking him why he's doing a Michigan show when we were down there for Houston.
Defense: Bringing five shouldn't be your base. We can talk about the zero blitzes—McBurrows needs to drive not back out—but this team allows 2 yards per snap when they rush four and 8 yards per snap when they rush five. That's what they have, and need to play like it.
Seth: If you're blitzing Mikey Keene you're just wasting coverage guys. Think it's the difference between Minter (a DBs guy) and Martindale (a DL/LB guy).
Sam: They need to deal with RPOs because Texas has a lot of them, and the LBs were dead on play-action.
Answer: do what you did last year: Drop linemen so you're impossible to read.
D-Tackles? Graham was good, KG had some contain issues.
Will Johnson: had to calibrate his pick six but it was coming all game. Did they stay away from Hill? No, Michigan put Johnson to the field because Fresno State throws to the side with easy reads.
The bad calls: They were *really touchy about Michigan. The overturned INT when they bought a flop was one of the worst calls of the decade, kind of thing that deserves a reprimand because he made a call he did not see.
Seth's answer: Now that the Big Ten has this great replay center, just have a dude with a DVR and a ref on the field with an earbud he can tell "pick that up."
Offense: Have to calibrate the fans because it's an all new QB and an all new OL, and JJ McCarthy was one of the best QBs in college football, and it's going to be a big downgrade.
Davis Warren: Was better than we realized. Needs help from his receivers; Tyler Morris stopped on the fly that was perfectly thrown. Sees his pre-snap reads but struggled with some post-snap reads. The interception was mostly on him, but Fred Moore needs to break that up at least—there are ways to get the cornerback wrong.
Everybody's hearts sank when Orji turfed it, because that recast the battle from fall camp.
Giudice: the wedge was a little on him, also Bredeson missing a block, also they can have a check to run Down G.

MGoPodcast 16.1: That 1950's Show Sep 02, 2024

2 hours and 14 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics.

1. Offense vs Fresno State

Starts at 1:00

This is a Fresno State team that could be decent, they’re not FAU. We’re not overreacting right now. Evaluating the quarterbacks: it felt like Davis Warren was pre-determining throws which is young quarterback stuff. He also wasn’t getting a lot of help, this wasn’t the best day for the wide receivers. How would you compare Davis Warren to Cade McNamara? Alex Orji still feels like a gadget player. Kalel Mullings is clearly the best running back right now. We didn’t see an RB3 which was interesting. Donovan Edwards needs targets, not carries. You’ve got to use Orji but how much? Sorry folks, there will be many 1950s games on the horizon. Offensive line had some communication issues that can get cleaned up. Feels like one bad but different thing happened on every drive, there wasn’t any one major issue.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

2. Defense vs Fresno State

Starts at 47:48

They are who we thought they were. Jaishawn Barham is a monstrous human. The run game was stuffed no matter who was in there. It looks like they want to keep rotating a lot but you probably can’t get away with it as much this year. Will Johnson gets to decide when he risks it for an interception. You don’t need to blitz to get a guy to the quarterback so why are we doing it? Cover zero?? To beat Texas you have to overwhelm the Texas offensive line (with the front four). Giving Aamir Hall #12 is convenient since he’s new Josh Wallace.

3. Hot Takes and Game Theory

Starts at 1:08:39

Are we Iowa now? Well the special teams are excellent! Dominic Zvada hit two 50 yard field goals in his first game! Tommy Doman punts high and non-returnable punts. Kickoffs are just putting it on the 25. Alex Orji for kickoff returns?? They’ve mostly caught the punts which is nice. Why is the music volume so loud?? Every opportunity to have a tv timeout they've had one. Alcohol sale takes: long lines that are tough to walk around. That was the worst personal foul on a quarterback in a minute, but the stadium was very loud.

4. Around the Big Ten with Alex Drain

Starts at 1:40:56

Rutgers 44, Howard 7
It took Rutgers a while to get competitive.

Illinois 45, Eastern Illinois 0
Illinois comfortably covered the spread.

Ohio State 52, Akron 6
Ohio State doesn’t really blow Akron out until the 2nd half. Surprise! They have a really good wide receiver.

Iowa 40, Illinois State 0
Iowa scored points! Lots of points!

Northwestern 13, Miami NTM 6
Northwestern’s beachside stadium is amazing.

Nebraska 40, UTEP 7
“The outlook for Nebraska hasn’t looked better since the day they hired Frost.” Dylan Raiola looks exciting at Nebraska for a true freshman.

Wisconsin 28, Western Michigan 14
Wisconsin did not look good against Western Michigan. They have angered the football gods by betraying their roots.

Oregon 24, Idaho 14
What the hell happened in the Oregon game??

Michigan State 16, Florida Atlantic 10
If FAU's QB was half decent it could've happened! He also slid all game and got annihilated, getting two guys ejected for targeting.

Minnesota 17, North Carolina 19
The Big Ten's only loss so far. Minnesota remains the middest team of the league.

Penn State 34, West Virginia 12
West Virginia just didn't look ready to start this game. Not sure how much stock to buy in Penn State from this but they looked solid.

MUSIC:

"I'm Good" — The Mowgli's
"Saturday Sun" — Vance Joy
"Fresno, California" — The Guy Who Sings Songs About Cities & Towns
“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

MGoRadio 10.0: The Annual Haven't Sleptisode Aug 29, 2024

The Sponsors

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, Champion Circle, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast, and SignalWire where we are recorded this.

Featured Musicians: Cut Worms

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: The things to be said.]

---------------------

1. 2024 Preview: What was Learned/Offense

starts at the top

Dominic Giudice ascends to start at center. We try to make this story fit bad stories past and it doesn't. What does make sense is they waited until it was fully happening to let people know it was happening. It's may just Giudice is that good. With Link there's a lot more evidence that it wasn't happening with Persi and Gentry—probably in pass pro—and that Link was just a matter of time recruit. Good news for him down the line. Never give up on an OL though. At quarterback, Orji threw three picks in a practice (after 1 all fall) to let Warren close some gap. Is it a ruse for Texas? Probably not, but we think Orji fits what Michigan wants to do better.

2. 2024 Preview: What was Learned/Defense

starts at 30:26

Depth is the question. Zeke Berry won the nickel job. He's more of a Peppers/Dax Hill than a Sainristil. They got a bunch of safeties so they could keep him at nickel. McBurrows is important depth there, also at CB, where Aamir Hall is Josh Wallace 2.0 so they're okay at 3-deep but 4? Linebacker depth is also a bit iffy after they played Rolder over Jaydon Hood, who's been playing well that Seth's seen. Gonna get LaMar Morgan a shirt with quotes from Wesley Walker about how practice is so different at Michigan. Appreciate the DTs when we have them; if Graham gets any better he's Suh.

3. 2024 Preview: What was Learned/Heuristics & Predictions

starts 53:49

Big Ten isn't sustainable if they're going to have Rutgers-Iowa play nobody and Michigan and USC play all the contenders every year. Takes on scheduling Texas: it gives you another shot because you just have to win 1/3 big games instead of sweeping your few chances. Season predictions.

4. Fresno State Preview

starts 1:02:58

They're pretty small, will have to pass quickly. Starting a Cade-like 5'11" quarterback who was efficient in the Mtn West last year and once backed up Dillon Gabriel at UCF. Also wee mite RBs and slots. Very small OL missing its best player. D is also small, though they have a USC transfer who graded out well to PFF for two years before getting benched last season. Lost an important LB and most of their secondary.

About the Featured Musician: Cut Worms

Cut Worms is a nova '70s project by Max Clarke, who sounds like Buddy Holly singing over found tracks by George Harrison and Neil Young. Check them out on Spotify.

Song choices:

"How Can It Be"
"Baby Come Back"
"Don’t Fade Away"

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

“The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
“Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

WTKA Roundtable 8/29/2024: What’s a Dom Giudice? Aug 29, 2024

With special guests Randy & Jason Sklar, here to promote their show on 9/27 (Friday before Minnesota).

Things Discussed:

Seth on early: Jaishawn Barham? He was a great player at Maryland. You don’t have to be your best self to be playing next to Ruben Hippolite, but you do if Michigan needs you to beast up. But remember this is a hard defense to learn at linebacker.
Is Wink gonna Don Brown it? No. He’ll run MORE man because he’s got the guys, but it’s part of the toolbox, not The Toolbox. They’ll show a lot of blitzes.
Dom Giudice? We all learn how to say it because he’s apparently the starting center, and Evan Link is the starting right tackle, as of last Sunday. Recruiting story: Harbaugh offered without telling the rest of the staff.
Link: Makes sense if they didn’t think the other guys were able to do it. If he’s even he’s ahead.
What kind of offense are they going to be? Alex Orji’s kind. But Warren has earned some snaps too.
During break: Name every player who was ranked below Giudice. Lowest was Emmanuel Casseus.
Sklars tell the story of good directing on Better Call Saul.

MGoPodcast 16.0.c: If FBS Got a Eurail Pass Aug 26, 2024

2 hours and 19 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics.

1. The Big Ten: Bottom Six

Starts at 1:00

Illinois: Has Luke Altmeyer back, not ideal. Defense has been de-Waltered. Purdue can't get Waltered because we keep picking off his recruits. Northwestern: going with the QB who can run some. Indiana: Not in the worst place now that they've become JMU. Michigan State: big rebuild, but on the right track. Every few coaches they get a Jon Smith instead of an asshole. UCLA got kicked out of the Rose Bowl, might be able to run, but don't have the OL, WRs or QB to throw at all. Defense got raided—4 returning starters.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

2. The Big Ten: Middle Six

Starts at 33:43

Minnesota traded with Rutgers again—now the QB is Max Brosner from New Hampshire. Kept Darius Taylor. Need to teach guys to tackle still. Rutgers: on the list of dark horse CFP contenders because their schedule is so easy. Maryland: has a QB competition, OL is very concerning. Washington: won't recognize anyone; Jedd's gonna have to come up with some good shit. Wisconsin: Tyler Van Dyke in from Miami, Chez is back, schedule is tough early. Nebraska new QB obviously: Dylan Raiola came to play, no viable backups, no viable line. They have guys to throw to, including two TEs (Fidone and Carter) Michigan loved. Defense has Hutmacher and some new LBs and questions in the secondary. Just don't turn the ball over all the time.

3. The Big Ten: Top Six

Starts at 1:05:30

Iowa: Locked in a QB controversy of bad vs awful, but Cade's coming back from a terrible scrimmage. USC: got the UNLV quarterback and are having him sit. Welcome to the Big Ten USC, because Woody Marks is a Big Ten running back name if there ever was one. Will the UCLA DC fix the defense with a bad DL? Penn State: the Drew Allar case is he's tall and was a 5-star. They can light up bad teams though, and they have a schedule full of them. Oregon: sniped Dylan Gabriel, Jordan James is a breakout candidate at RB, added big pieces in the portal, look like this year's Playoff team. Ohio State: All in. Bought back Henderson, bought in Judkins, bought in Caleb Downs: got a whiff of Ole Miss about them now.

4. Hot Takes, Non-Conf, and Lightning Round

Starts at 1:44:57

Might learn something about the OL in week 1 versus Fresno State. Texas is running it back with Quinn Ewars, but they got Isaiah Bond from Bama and two more plug-and-play receivers. Lost their defensive tackles though, and that defense relies on it. Lost all of the RBs so they're putting it on a lightning bolt. But can Michigan take advantage if they stack the box? Lightning Round: breakout players offense/defense, X-factors, records, Your Dude, etc. Kalel Mullings never has a regular play. Enjoy your Harbaugh shirts, Chargers fans.

MUSIC:

"Misery's Love Song"—Jesse Woods
"Piece of My Heart"—Delaney and Bonnie
"Blood Red Sentimental Blues"—Cotton Jones
“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

MGoPodcast 16.0.b: Not Just Trundling Aug 23, 2024

1 hour and 53 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics.

1. The Defensive Line

Starts at 1:00

Brian says we're not allowed to cackle through this or be hype the whole time, but we spend a lot of time talking about what to expect from Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant before getting into their depth. Benny has a road back to health but should have his breakout year about now. After him it's iffy, since Etta had to move inside. Pierce is Just a Nose for now. After them…not much. Edge should be deep and excellent again. Josaiah Stewart is younger than Derrick Moore and was in the process of turning into a complete Amoeba edge. Moore is on his way to Tacodom and the NFL Draft. TJ Guy has been waiting forever. Think part of the reason Etta moved was because they like Cam Brandt a lot.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

2. Hot Takes and Linebackers

Starts at 47:18

We are buying the Barham hype, yes. Because of practice and film and the talk. Hausmann was a nickel in high school and never lost that agility, played along with the starters last year and wasn't a drop. Think Rolder's end of the year isn't fair, that his freshman year was more telling. Seth likes Jaydon Hood, the last of the Don Brown backs. Cole Sullivan will probably be good but don't want to see too much of him this year.

3. Secondary

Starts at 1:12:38

This Will Johnson fellow, maybe you've heard of him. Can't afford an injury so no he can't play receiver and return puts you sickos. Was injured last year so this year could be special, or he could be avoided as Jyaire Hill gets his feet under him. Good news that he's moved up, always needed time to mature. Still younger than most of the freshman, and played safety in high school. Backups are the transfers-Hall has drawn comps to Wallace But Fast so that's your #3 guy—Seth thinks he's Gemon Green. Kechaun Harris could play too. Ricky Johnson might need a year. Safeties took a hit losing Rod Moore but Makari Paige will be nice and forgotten, Quinten Johnson had his light go on and we're glad they fished him out of UDFA'dom. Think the transfers will take time to learn the defense but should be in a regular rotation—Mangham is another Sabb, blow up next year. Zeke Berry won the nickel job over McBurrows, which is impressive. Will be more of a blitzer, won't be Sainristil, but they went portal shopping for safeties because they wanted Berry in the slot that much. Brandyn Hillman has a role as the hybrid if they want to go 4-3 against running QBs again.

4. Special Teams and Wink

Starts at 1:34:57

Tommy Doman might never punt again but he's good at it; the consistency is coming with age. Dominic Zvada is another good portal kicker, has two years to play, missed all of his bad ones early last year. Returns will be fun with Semaj. Wink is going to blitz because that fits the personnel.

MUSIC:

"Waves (Tame Impala remix)"—Miguel
"Gut Feeling/(Slap Your Mammy)"—Devo
"Better in the Dark"—Jordana & TV Girl
“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

THE USUAL LINKS:

WTKA Roundtable 8/22/2024: We Got the Guy Aug 22, 2024

Things Discussed:

NCAA solved tampering: they got Kirk Ferentz for Cade McNamara! Way to go NCAA. You solved the problem!
Evan Link/right tackle: Makes us nervous. When there's a battle that's good it looks like center; when you're looking in the portal, can't decide on two guys, then have a third guy late it's less likely you have three starter-caliber players and more likely you have none. But what level is this happening at?
Breakout season: What qualifies as a breakout? Because Tyler Morris?
Picks: Sam has El-Hadi, says he's another guy that people were coming at with big money to jump into the portal. Seth has him too but Marlin Klein has been generating legends. Brian: Mullings, but Semaj Morgan: Michigan incorporated him more into their gameplans, and screens keep safeties away from a QB run game.
Mullings: Always something extra. Can be another matchup problem, has INCREDIBLE feet for his size. Ron Dayne.
TE blocking: Loveland's effectiveness is extra
Defensive breakout player? Again, what's a breakout? If you say Barham is going to be the best LB in the country? Craig: saying it.
Derrick Moore? Seth says already broke out, Brian says if you're saying Moore's an All-American.
Brian's pick: Zeke Berry—seems like he passed a Guy in McBurrows.
Seth's pick: Also Berry because there's a lot of Peppers in his game. Not Sainristil's level in being a savant, but lets them play more man and blitz more.
But let's talk about Jyaire Hill. Sam: projecting him to start. Seth: had the furthest to go. Younger than most of the freshmen on the team, has Devon Witherspoon talent, and like Witherspoon, Hill had a long way to go before he could play in Michigan's pro-style defense. The more you hear his name the better the news, because the only question is when he gets the defense down.

MGoPodcast 16.0.a: Surfing the Thermals of Hate Aug 19, 2024

2 hours and 45 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and Champions Circle.

1. The Offensive Vibes

Starts at 1:00

We've beaten the college football game, now it's just side quests. Let's try to be chill about it now? New conferences: not going to get married to them because they're just going to blow this up too. "Big Ten Championship Game" is unlikely to be a game that solves anything. What is this Michigan team's route to a championship? 2021 Georgia: supreme defense, offense is a ridiculous tight ends.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

2. Quarterback & the Offensive Design?

Starts at 21:57

Michigan doesn't go in the portal because there wasn't anybody left worth getting last January when JJ was still here and Michigan was still going to a natty. Means they would have gone. Orji separated himself, Tuttle gets hurt too much so they're looking at Davis Warren as the second quarterback. What's the offense? Seth: Let's look at Cam Newton-era Auburn, with BASH/inverted veer and lots of pin & pull and motion to create matchups with all of our weird guys: the QB is a RB, the RB is a WR, the other RB is a FB, the FB is a TE, the TE is a WR, one WR is an RB. News: there's going to be a Washington UFR from Brian.

3. Running Back, Receiver & Tight End

Starts at 53:20

Donovan Edwards was pressing last year and it cut 300 yards off his totals. When he's in a groove (Purdue 2022) he's a touchdown waiting to happen. When he's not in a groove he gets LBs going insane and becomes also a touchdown waiting to happen. Mullings is That Dude: Every time he's involved in a play something interesting happens. It's a big deal for Jordan Marshall if he's RB3 because that's passing some big dudes. They say he's the Edwards backup and Ben Hall, who we love, is the Mullings backup. What does that mean? Not much because Marshall is Hart. Receiver: Tyler Morris should be a good, knows how to get open and catches it. Semaj Morgan is going to be fun, but ideally they had a Braylon type deep guy. Amorion Walker should redshirt finally. Colston Loveland is the key: they can move him around because he's a mismatch on everyone, has every QB in line at his door. Bredeson is the best FB Brian's ever charted, how many snaps for him? Marlin Klein hype: do you believe? We believe he'll be a fast TE but not a Barner blocker.

4. Hot Takes, Offensive Line and Style

Starts at 1:55:30

This is the most comfortable anybody's ever been after graduating all five OL. Myles Hinton was basically a freshman last year because Stanford coaching is that bad (attn: Babalola). Josh Priebe is a tough sonsabitch. Crippen is probably the center but Raheem Anderson is your next OL if someone inside gets hurt. Gio El-Hadi should ascend and be pretty good—usually you don't get to wait until he's this far along to start him. Right tackle is giving us bad vibes; if Gentry was going to get the job he would have seized it right? Persi makes more sense—Hayes took awhile to grow from a TE as well. Link competing now is good for Link, not for the other two.

MUSIC:

"Bring Em Out"—T.I.
“Piece of Me"—Lady Wray
“Get Up And Go”—The Go-Go's
“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

THE USUAL LINKS:

WTKA Roundtable 8/15/2024: GOATed with the Sauce Aug 15, 2024

Things Discussed:

Seth: FBS needs to take the season off to celebrate the recent champions and digest all of these changes.
They're not surrender cobras anymore; that's just relaxing.
VICTORS: bigger project than we thought, 95% written now. Yes you can still order one (I'm making 10,000, about 8,400 sold).
QB: Wish we'd seen more of Orji last year; saying he's the ideal leader, how consistent can he be with the throws. Don't count out Davis Warren.
RB: Jordan Marshall news is good for Jordan Marshall; they don't need him yet so if he's breaking into the lineup we've got a Corum on our hands. Need to see more 2RB with Mullings blocking because he got the Block of the Week three times in 25 attempts, including the one where he lit up Dallas Turner in the Rose.
WR: Semaj is WR2 we think.
TE: Loveland is going to split out wide a lot (watch the Rose again).
OL: Best you can be after replacting five (six!) starters. Do they have eight starters or four? Think Crippen/Anderson is a Barnhart/Trente situation. RT? Might not like what they have from Gentry and Persi, might just be a good sign that Evan Link is coming on. El-Hadi, Crippen, Hinton are Old Wisconsin replacements.
DL: Benny should be at his takeoff year, haven't talked about him because he was injured. Hearing the right things on Pierce: he can be not moved. Etta can penetrate, but neither can do both. Etta's position is like hearing Mike Morris is moving to DT: he can do it, but he'll be undersized, and it means they don't like any of their options past that. Kirby Smart is complaining about his 4th DT too.
Cornerback: Jyaire Hill probably rounds into a star over the course of the season, coaches are impatient for it to happen now. Aamir Hall is a find; Ricky Johnson is a loose cannon needs a year.
Safety: Need four, have four. Mangham will come along, is your new Sabb. Q-Jo will start earlier in the season but expect Walker to come along and rotate with Johnson.
Berry: Different player from Sainristil, think having him means you go man more often and let Wink blitz more.

WTKA Roundtable 8/8/2024: Reason and Law Talking Speak Aug 08, 2024

Things Discussed:

Story time with Craig: When did Pitbull become a thing.
NCAA's four-year show-cause for Harbaugh: It's the same thing they gave Pruitt for personally giving players cash. 0% chance they levy this if he's still the coach at Michigan; it's performative nonsense and you can tell because everyone, including Thamel, are calling it such.
Sam confuses Ohio State-hater Paul Finebaum for the similarly looking Michigan-hater Pete Finebaum. Both seem to know when you can make someone mad and you can't make Michigan fans mad right now. If you try to make me mad I just send you this photo.
Warde playing the long game: Gene Smith was around forever and appointed numerous Ohio State people into positions.
Who investigates NCAA leaks? NCAA. Don't hold your breath. NCAA is not the law; they're an organization that is set up on the premise of presidents will control their football programs.
Hockey recruiting: Michigan is Alabama. USA Hockey has done a magnificent job of building up its development program and it has led to better hockey in the NCAA than the OHL, where Michigan and BC and BU and Minnesota are taking the top OHL draft prospects.
Different? By degree. It's raising all ships too—the lower teams aren't getting NHL draft picks but they have overagers who are at the peak of their hockey. MSU is another program getting great players. Canadian players will come here now.
NIL? It means something because money under the table from OHL wasn't actually a lot; it was like $15k or $20k before. Development track is expensive, and parents get to the end of it needing to refill their bank accounts.
We love 5'9" defenders because they're awesome at offense.
Football: Are they still the #1 school for development? Yeah. Seth: It's Abigail, it was Herbert, it's Tress, but it's mostly they identify guys who can develop and WANT to develop, and the culture where everybody is doing it.

WTKA Roundtable 8/1/2024: THE Michigan Insider Aug 01, 2024

Things Discussed:

Storytime with Craig: some of the criticism of Dotman has gotten weird.
Also weird: people still trying to talk about a bowl ban. Sam asked people in Athletics and they've heard nothing about
Stalions on the CMU sideline: CMU fired a coach who was most connected to Stalions, which if you put 1 and 1 together means they figured out how Stalions got on the Chips' sideline. It also proves signs don't matter much because CMU couldn't beat a crap MSU team; in fact at no point did you think they knew what was coming.
Sam: Helps Michigan prove to the NCAA that Stalions was a rogue actor.
Phonebooks: Enow Etta is a tackle, a lot of young tackles are now big enough to be viable inside, Sam pumps breaks on whether the freshmen can help.
Barham was 230 as a recruit and 230 at Maryland, now 245. Reading tea leaves that suggests he got serious about weights at Michigan, versus when he was a near 5-star recruit in College Park they just said you go out there and do you.
Better defense this year? Question isn't up front, it's who's going to give them the play diagnoses that they got from Mike Sainristil and Rod Moore. Sam says Will Johnson and Makari Paige can do it.
Zeke Berry: players are seeing the athlete we saw as a recruit, but if they want to go with more blitzing they can get away with leaving Jyaire in man like they couldn't as much with Wallace. Berry is a blitzer in ways that Sainristil wasn't. Dax-like? Not pure speed but athleticism yeah.
Craig's hot take: 13th scholarship for basketball should go to Jamal Crawford.

WTKA Roundtable 7/25/2024: The Tim Beckman Spectrum Jul 25, 2024

Things Discussed:

Our golf outing interviews. Players are extremely mature.
Sherrone: Can see why he's the guy. Makes you feel comfortable.
Big Ten Meetings: Ohio State has to deal with the shit we've been dealing with. They shouldn't be trying to be Michigan; they should be trying to be a better version of themselves. OSU fanbase isn't used to having it be this hard. We know what that's like too.
What did Michigan change? There Will Be Hugs-style coaching is something we haven't seen for 100 years: It was CEOs (Saban) and before that it was generals (Schembechler) and before that it was godlike professors (Crisler) but Pete Carroll brought back a new style and Sherrone Moore brought that to Michigan.
New Big Ten CG: Many ways it's not going to work. Going to have a rematch between a 12-0 team and a 10-2 team where the 10-2 team wins. SHOWCASE SHOWCASE SHOWCASE!
#Iowatalk.
Hockey commitapalooza coming up.

MGoPodcast 15.28: It Wasn't Duo Jul 24, 2024

Most of this podcast was recorded outdoors at Sherrone Moore’s golf outing. We apologize for the sound quality.

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we usually record, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together and who put all these guys at our table.

1. Max Bredeson, Jack Tuttle, and Vibes

Starts at 1:00

Bredeson confirms Brian's take about the kickout detente. Tuttle names some Utes. After we discuss vibes for the season.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

2. The Safeties, Colston and Semaj Morgan

Starts at 27:29

How long does it take a freshman to learn Michigan's coverages? Learn or get familiar enough with to make one thing look like another? Loveland and Semaj talk to us about how they make decisions mid-routes, handled the pressure of being young players thrust into major roles.

3. Sherrone Moore

Starts at 48:32

It turns out there were hugs. We spend a good 17 minutes with Michigan's new head coach, half of it on his gameplan for Alabama, and a lot more of the rest on the culture shift at Michigan, and how they teach it. Also: how he and the team found out that Jim was suspended when they landed in Pennsylvania.

4. Hot Takes Starts at 1:09:23
No Brian but some of our readers who supported Champions Circle get their hot takes read by the Sklars. Ryan Day catches many strays. 5. Alex Orji, Davis Warren Starts at 1:23:43
Comparing how certain throws that guys are more comfortable with come up when they're under center. 5. Donovan Edwards

Starts at 1:37:24
The cover athlete. Was he pressing a bit last year due to limited snaps? What's duo versus inside zone and which were they running when he scored his two TDs in the natty?

MUSIC:

"Impressions of You"—Kelly Finnegan
“Piece of Me"—Lady Wray
“By The Lake”—Pale Jay & OkoNski
"Right Back Where We Started From"—Maxine Nightingale
“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

WTKA Roundtable 7/18/2024: Day Dynasty Jul 18, 2024

Things Discussed:

What’s bothering Michigan fans? Nothing. But it’s funny that OSU and MSU people try.
Will Johnson: how much better can he get? If he’s making the defensive calls that Sainristil and Moore were making.
Donovan Edwards: not looking for home runs? Sam wants the 85 yards to come from the 5 yards.
Seth wants them using Orji’s legs to create explosive opportunities for him because he’s their best big play threat.
Babalola: Sam can’t get Seth to watch the tape, but sounds like M is feeling confidence.
Hockey: Craig takes us through Michigan Hockey Summer.

WTKA Roundtable 7/11/2024: That's What Stanford Does to You Jul 11, 2024

Things Discussed:

Sam's squirrel problem. He wants a cat. Craig wants him to import mongooses. Seth suggests he put up a Michigan State flag and offer them all scholarships.
Recruiting: back on track! Lost 2 guys they wanted, got 2 guys they really wanted, actually doing a little better than Harbaugh usual because they used to lose the Isaac Nautas and top-50 safeties to Notre Dame.
Got themselves a Rod Moore comp in Ike Taylor. Seth: Michigan's free safety is a nickel—they want the SS to be a Paige so he can defend tight ends and when they motion a slot across the FS and Nickel swap jobs so FS needs to cover slots in space.
Holly: See him as a Jaylen Harrell who's responsible and athletic. Craig thinks he'll be Brandon Graham and we call him insane.
Babalola: Would be the #1 OT recruit in recorded M history.
Recruiting strategy: stagger guys? Right now it's free transfers so you want guys who aren't going to leave. In the future when you can sign them to contracts Ohio State's going to be in great shape. You always take best available, but your board isn't the national board, and shouldn't be. Example: I wasn't too high on the Smith twins and they might have missed out on Edokpayi and Devon Baxter whom I like a lot.
FSU and Clemson not talking to SEC/B10 anymore? Best guess if that's true it's because SEC/B10 don't want to be involved in the lawsuit.
What's the future of this? There's no rationality to it so there's no stability to it, so I can't care about it. Right now it's just grabbing schools. Eventually there has to be some reckoning, a separation of divisions, dropping some schools. The things USF cares about are not the things that Michigan cares about, and having them competing for the same national championship isn't good for either of them.
Brian: "Wait I would like to disparage, denigrate, and downgrade certain Big Ten members."
Seth: You can dream about dropping schools all you want but you'd have to basically dissolve the Big Ten to get rid of Rutgers. The Pacific Conference did this once and reformed as the Pac-8 without Idaho.

WTKA Roundtable 6/27/2024: Let's Eat. Jun 27, 2024

Things Discussed:

Commitapalooza: Looks like an average Michigan class. Takes on the new guys:
- Donovan Johnson: Hard to grade from tape when he was 14 years old. High ceiling/low floor. Michigan knows what he looks like post-ACL.
- Kaden Strayhorn: Jason Strayhorn knows more about the state of Michigan State, which is a story you tell if things are Not Good. Kid was also set on making his own path, wanted to be in football since 8th grade. Like Gach: MSU parentage doesn't change who the kid is or how that aligns with what Michigan does.
- Chase Taylor: Think he's ranked lower because in-state power wasn't offering, but BJM was all over him. Tell Michigan the guy's part safety/part edge and their eyes light up because that's what they need for their system.
- Jacob Washington: Toldya in 1998 when they got Ron Bellamy that this will get us into Archbishop Shaw finally. Sam: Washington ran a laser 4.5 forty at a camp. Likes to block.
Michigan's NIL: fixed? They're not involved in Players for Auction but they've really built up their institutions. Turned the former players tailgate into a support network. Using the recent grads as the ambassadors. Using donors to get donor level to understand what they're doing. Also coming from the top: Dusty May and Sherrone Moore are asking "What can I do?"
NCAA gets rid of all the rules they hit Michigan for, because nobody was following them and the only thing they ever did was screw Michigan. Let's go get Dylan Roney back!
Hoops: How's the defense gonna look? Your defense is what your players can do. Think they'll switch 1-3, up to 4 when they have a small 4 on the court.

WTKA Roundtable 6/20/2024: Transformational Ooze Jun 20, 2024

Things Discussed:

Storytime with Craig Ross: Transactional vs Transformational.
Recruiting: Class of 2025 is like Class of 2023, which was a pair of three-stars and Raylen Wilson out the door at this point in the cycle.
Brady Hart on Ohio State: "Not everyone's got the same culture as Michigan." Got the JJ to build a class around. Sam points out that's been their best classes (Henson, etc.)
Sam: Michigan had four QBs they were heavy on, #1 was probably going to Oklahoma no matter what, and they got Hart on campus early in case he wanted to commit before the other two.
Other guys. RB Jasper Parker has offers from everybody except LSU; do they think they can come back and get him? Has those great feet (like Karan) and is a good receiver.
Jordon Davison: OSU/Michigan battle despite OSU having 2 backs already.
Michigan really wants: S JaDon Blair, might be a ND lean (really likes Marcus Freeman, being next Kyle Hamilton but better, has known their staff longer than Morgan). But interesting thing from Blair re: Michigan: "They are lagging behind no-one on NIL."
Their #1 overall target is probably CB Shamari Earls, who's a Will Johnson-caliber dude. Other schools did a great job negative recruiting against Steve Clinkscale. Gonna be a fight with Georgia though. Seth: If you want to prove to me that Michigan's NIL is lagging behind nobody, win a battle with Georgia. Noted: Will Johnson is probably one of the best-paid players in the country. But UGA is going to pay a lot up-front. At least we'll know before the season it seems. If Michigan wins it's because they need a CB immediately in 2025.
Pac12 teams in the Big Ten: They're already Big Ten teams. They've got Jestin Jacobs at middle linebacker: that's a Big Ten team. A purple team with Michigan's former kick returner at slot receiver: that's a Big Ten team. USC's the weirdo, but as far as QB situations in the Big Ten go, a guy who played as much as Aidan Chiles did last year after being in Lincoln Riley's system for 4 years is pretty dang good.

WTKA Roundtable 6/13/2014: Hi, I'm the Problem It's Me Jun 13, 2024

Things Discussed:

Pre-Show: Seth & Craig are on. Craig says punk rock and opera are the same thing.
Preview of Texas: they thought they'd get DTs. Respect for Ethan Burke out there. Most concerned about our secondary making some mistakes because they're not Sainristil and Rod Moore anymore.
Paul Finebaum: Ryan Day is the king of excuses. Talk about his reaction to Erin Dunstan leaving OSU for a better job at Michigan where she has more connections (he cussed her out and had her escorted from the premises). What's up with OSU? They still haven't come to terms with the problem about themselves, so all of those expensive pieces are going to be less than they would be elsewhere.
Michigan slow recruiting? Had to replace the staff, Sherrone Moore has built an Alabama-level recruiting department but the proceeds of that are long-term, not going to prevent this from being a transition class.
Craig: Why is pass defense more expensive than rush defense? Seth: Because NFL offenses spend on pass offense.
Is Wink too aggressive? He talked about how he used more sim pressures on Mahomes, that it's a determination made on personnel and opponent, not philosophy.
Sam: Aamir Hall looks like Josh Wallace But Fast. Ricky is more of a nickel corner (read: dime).

WTKA Roundtable 6/6/2024: The Tale of Joe Blue Tony Jun 06, 2024

Things Discussed:

Analytics: You have to know how they're made to understand their value. FPI is going to punish Michigan for having a much tougher schedule than Penn State. SP+ is made from scrubbing play-by-play data and roster data, and isolating what different factors mean. PFF is made from pass-fail grading.
They are predictive up to a point, and then from there it's up to the analyst to understand how it applies to a specific team, e.g. defensive SP+ in the Big Ten West can't handle how bad B10 West offenses are, and measures that say 5-star quarterbacks in their third year of starting are good but not if they've spent that time behind one of James Franklin's OL.
Craig Ross tells the story of the gangs of his high school, and Joe Blue Tony. Moral of the story: Jim Harbaugh wanted love, it was over when they pulled the plug on the TRO case. Sam: makes some sense.
Seth: Michigan's mistake with Harbaugh is they decided to stay in the Big Ten and NCAA instead of joining the NFL, which has the Lombardi Trophy.
Two-loss teams in the Playoff? Depends on who they beat, if they win the B10.
I share my proposal for three showcase games to replace the Big Ten Championship Game.

BRIEF SEGUE: THE SHOWCASE PROPOSAL

Instead of a 1 vs 2 game for the championship we play the best three games that weren't played during the regular season. #1 plays the best team they haven't played, #2 plays the best they haven't played, etc. Where necessary the conference is allowed to make judgement calls so that there is always a *clear* champion after the games are played. The games are all played on championship Saturday in three major cities within the Big Ten footprint (New York, Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Seattle, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, etc.). Downside: it's another Big Ten game, not winner-take-all, although in many cases the #1 game will be winner-take-all. Upsides: three big games instead of one, opportunities to enhance resumes for six teams with Playoff hopes, no rematches, no weird Big Ten champions who finished behind better teams, lost to other teams, etc.

Jaishawn Barham: Like adding a 1st rounder. PFF coverage score last year was bunk. He could be an NFL DE, a lot of his Maryland tape he's not the guy making the sack; he's the guy causing the sack. His versatility is what Michigan's wanted from the LB position all along. Think he's going to be a star this year then go pro.
Is coverage more important than pass rush? That's what the Ravens were about. It's true in the NFL because the NFL puts most of its money into beating pass rush: QBs who read out everything and know what to do with the ball immediately, tackles to protect them outside, etc.

WTKA Roundtable 5/30/2024: The End of the July Monarchy May 30, 2024

Things Discussed:

PSU loses a lawsuit where Franklin was overruling his doctors. Let's not throw stones; Harbaugh never overruled his doctors but the case did reference a Harbaugh quote and it's not hard to imagine players were often pressured to play while injured. Ben St-Juste's story does exonerate him a bit. Solution: this is something the NCAA should be rigorously enforcing.
Utah State gets nailed for tampering: COI still doing what they do.
Seth's solution: formalize the system that used to be under the table: Scholarships (Tuition/Room/Board/Stipend) stay nontaxable if you're an undergrad playing at the school you signed with out of high school, once you're a grad student you get a 2nd school that's nontaxable. Incentivizes schools to invest in players' educations, incentivizes players to stay at one school and get their degrees, emphasizes the value that college sports have over all other professional sports.
NCAA's solution: get rid of walk-ons in football and basketball. This runs away from what they're best at, but it would help the USFs out there who want to play at being D-I without investing in more sports.
Torvik's early rankings like B10 teams: let's talk about how useful these stats are.
Opponent portal pickups. Fresno State got a nifty slot bug from Missouri State that I'm pretty sure we're gonna see. Texas lost a CB but picked up a better one, didn't replace the DTs like they wanted to. Oregon got better, look like the class of the conference this year.
Vibes: Oregon looks like a title contender, Ohio State looks like less than the sum of their parts. They'll always be good because they are never satisfied, but other than Caleb Downs they mostly just got better where they were already good. Think Michigan's worse than they were last year but they're not 10-point dogs.

WTKA Roundtable 5/23/2024: I Know the Sign for That May 23, 2024

Things Discussed:

DBs from the portal: went from no depth to great depth. Both pairs complement each other: Johnson can tackle, Hall can cover. Mangham incredible ceiling, Walker extremely high floor.
Relitigating retaining Harbaugh: can't ignore that he was expected to go to the NFL after winning a national championship a year ago. NCAA/Petitti were hostile, sure, but blaming Warde is overplaying the hand.
Break: Silly Buckeyes.
Settling House: Schools acting like getting the confs to sign off matters; what matters is whether the players agree to it. Getting involved with private equity/FSU getting some sort of loan.
At some point you need collective bargaining or it's not going to end.

StickballCast 0.0: Then and Now May 22, 2024

1 hour and 36 minutes

With Alex Drain and Craig Ross

Segment 1: 2024 Softball Season Recap

Season recap, month-by-month
Looking at the big picture
Key performances, top players, and areas for improvement
The incoming softball recruiting class

Segment 2: A Quick 2024 Baseball Overview

Pitching: improved, but still not great
Taking stock of the Tracy Smith era
Brief B1G Tournament preview: hard to know what to expect

MUSIC

"Not Strong Enough" -- boygenius
"Right Back To It" -- Waxahatchee
"Everybody Has A Dream" -- Billy Joel

WTKA Roundtable 5/16/2024: Nobody Likes a Kelly May 16, 2024

Things Discussed:

Craig tells a story about spelling pronunciation, like how people pronounce the 't' in often for the first time since it disappeared in the 15th century.
Nobody likes Chip Kelly you say? This isn't news. He's not there to bring the love; he's there to give them a running game because Michigan's been playing then six on eight on the box.
Meta Game evolution: Kelly is there to give them a QB run game. Wink is going to blitz more because he has different talent now. Brown's problem was not enough difference-makers at DT; Wink has WJ, Graham and Grant and doesn't have Sainristil/Moore to call opponents' plays for them.
OSU going run QB? They have time to develop Sayin, can afford to go slowly because they have a 2-game cushion with their easier schedule.
Portal recruiting: Seth wants Sam to stop giving us names—just do every recruitment like Rubin Jones. Lost a CB who got shredded in Texas's defense to Illinois, lost a DT to LSU, what's up Sam?
Answer is they're probably getting two of their targets at safety so they can leave Zeke Berry at Nickel and Ja'den McBurrows can give them corner depth. Problem is Michigan isn't recruiting starters.
Corner depth? Time is now for Jyaire. Want a guy from the portal. Sam thinks they have a dude in JoJo Edmonds coming in.
Why is Michigan not offering the same NIL as LSU/OSU/USC? Donors haven't been conditioned for this. They were all just at Chad Tough, which it's hard to argue that's not a better use of your dollars than a second-string cornerback.
After the break: Softball. Congrats on B10 championship. Next year looks great, with only Keke Tholl departing and bringing in JJ Putz's daughter. Got a lucky draw in B10 tourney, got a horrible draw in NCAAs.

WTKA Roundtable 5/9/2024: The Dayenu Roster May 09, 2024

Things Discussed:

LSU is out of NIL money? They got outbid for an MSU DT and Brian Kelly says "We don't buy players." That'll be news to Bryce Underwood; hope his checks clear.
Spartans getting in their feelings about Jaden Mangham possibly transferring to Michigan (or Ohio State or Minnesota). Want to prevent him from graduating. There's an intrastate program that allows you to finish your MSU degree at Michigan. Why can't this work for other guys? It's a formal in-state program. The reason academic programs like this don't associate with athletic transfers that much is schools other than Michigan are good at making exceptions for athletes. Michigan should have done so for Terrence Shannon; they probably were right to turn down Caleb Love.
Brian: Good time to be a Michigan fan; long-term prognoses for OSU and MSU not great.
Dusty May's presser: Best first presser ever? He's a great communicator/teacher who gave us a lot of information, addressed exact questions. He was watching OSU games for fun? Seth: He was probably watching OSU games because he thought he'd be coaching them.
Dusty's offense: two point guards, wants all of his players to be facilitators so the ball can't get stuck, can't get trapped. All of these guys have an out: good passers or at worst they can shoot it over anybody. Kinda like Beilein's where the PG with a 64-bit decision tree. Dusty May wants lots of guys with 16-bit decision trees. Tough part: lots of teaching to get it down.
Rubin Jones perfect glue guy. I'm calling this now: I'm the #1 Rubin Jones fan around here. No takesies.
Competition in the Big Ten? Oregon and UCLA will be decent, MSU standing pat with a bubble team, OSU is new coaching, Purdue graduated everybody. Michigan will probably be…top 4, 6-seed? Expect them to lose some games early as they learn to play with each other.
Roster May built is ideal but for a star. I call it the Dayenu roster because everybody's one flaw from being in the NBA. Craig: May wants to be fun as well as good. Seth: Sounds like he's one of us.
Football in the break: Terrance Brooks. Watched him vs Washington last year, when he was getting burned because he was in man all day. He's..Vincent Gray? Technically solid, smart, big, good ball skills, not a burner. Need to give him help; Michigan would be a good fit because they use so much poach coverage to take away the post. Texas was terrible because they were playing so much press quarters with no help on the double post and fade. Michigan takes that away.
Schools cutting sports because of paying athletes? They'll say that, but they shouldn't. They're paying just 10% of their budget to players; pro leagues pay 55%. Will happen at the mid-major level because their conferences don't make sense and football is already a massive expenditure that they finance with student fees. Brian: that's a marketing fee; they can just cut back on marketing.
What we want to see from Congress: your cap is based on how many scholarships you give out.

WTKA Roundtable 5/2/2024: I Wanna Go Back to Michigan May 02, 2024

Things Discussed:

Draft Takeaways: Nice that Saban kept being like "I love this dude!" Brian: Michigan and Iowa are the best two teams at developing talent; Michigan also recruits in an area where you win a national title if you outperform like that.
Seth: Harbaugh recruited at the same level as previous Michigan coaches but where they were getting 20% to 33% of their players to the NFL, Harbaugh is putting *60 Percent* of his players in the League.
JJ McCarthy: Threw as many passes in the first three Qs as the other guys. Would I trade Goff for JJ, Neil? Can't break up a team on a Super Bowl run, but JJ is more valuable than Goff by far; he's gonna be under team control for a long time.
Junior Colson: Sam shares that Minter told him to go pro after the championship because he and Harbaugh were going to the league and they're gonna come get him.
Amorion Walker: If he'd stayed at receiver he'd be the breakout player of the year, but he burned his redshirts both years and then was at cornerback and Ole Miss—that is a hard position to play, and it's probably gonna need to be next year before he's a breakout player.
CJ Charleston: He's here to be a veteran presence. Sinagosa brought him over from YSU. Tough sell getting receivers.
DT? Looks like PT wasn't there for their top prospect CJ West so they're moving on to the GVSU guy (Suggs).
Jaden Mangham? Seth: YES TAKE ALL THE FALCONS! Brian: I don't want anybody who thought it was a good idea to play for Mel Tucker. He's also against taking anyone from Belleville.
Break: Basketball recruits.
Post-break: NCAA has an opportunity with House negotiations to sit across the table from *somebody* and create a sustainable future. Brian: Pendulum swung too far, single transfer rule was correct. Seth: Best thing would be to create an incentive formula that gets small schools out of a huge tax bill and makes players want to stay put.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.26: April Lookin' at October? Apr 29, 2024

1 hour and 22 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Nametags All Around

Opener
Forwards: Hopefully a lot more depth
Defense: Many returners. Couple Freshman. One Eye-popping transfer.
Goalies: One Transfer. One Freshman. Still Question Marks.

Segment 2: A Mix, NHL, Stick/Ball Updates, Wrap-Up

Lines/Pairings?
NHL Series Updates
Stick/Ball Good?
Have a Good Summer!

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"Hit The Road Jack" -- Ray Charles
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

WTKA Roundtable 4/25/2024: Are You Afraid They'll Hate You More? Apr 25, 2024

Spring game takes:
- QB: Wasn't a good format (no zone reads, mostly under-center) for gauging Orji. It was him or Warren, and Warren wasn't a speed-reader upon further review.
- RB: Edwards is geared up. Tavierre Dunlap had a really good game.
- TE: Saw Marlin Klein's speed, has a good feel for timing blocks. Saw some Tonielli too.
- OL: Hard to judge Persi from guard, Gentry moved guys but also had some breakdowns. Big drop from there to Link, who looks like a future player. Like some young Cs, Raheem Anderson stood up to Grant, Guarnera looked plausible at guard.
- DT: Both Benny and Pierce were out so we saw Ike and some DEs they had to move down. Keep an eye out for Chibi Anwunah next year. Joey Klunder played hard.
- Edge: Guy is real.
- LB: Barham is big and can move. Hausmann looked really good. Rolder looked really good.
- S: Hard to tell, but Oden is a lot bigger than we thought, might be ready to contribute early.
- CB: Waller and Hill coming on.
Waller to the portal: Sam says sometimes a guy asks for way more than the pay scale. There's a lot of nodding and talking around without actually saying that Kentucky has a reputation for promising more than they deliver. Schools have got to be sick of this by now. Sam: Gotta live in today, which means you gotta go tamper.
Dusty May Builds a Dusty May Program Overnight! These guys were all primary creators for their teams; Rubin Jones is also an elite defender. Choosing to pursue Tre Donaldson of the two Auburn guys shows Dusty knew what he was doing, took the path of greater resistance. Roddy Gayle is in the draft if he doesn't shoot 28% from three, and he had a wrist injury to explain it. Sam Walters shot 43% on *contested* threes, because when you're a 6'10" pogo stick there's no such thing as a contest. Danny Wolf is a very underrated creator, should team with Goldin to be the best pair of Cs in the B10? Nimari Burnett can actually be Nimari now, and Tschetter can Tschetter.
Concerns: They all have elevated TO rates (should come down as they aren't all forced to be creators), they're a bit weak defensively at the four (Walters has length but he was a beanpole freshman last year), and it's going to take time for everyone to get used to playing together.
We're gonna LOVE Rubin Jones. Very good rebounder, very smart ballplayer, put Johnell Davis in a hell, which is probably why May wanted to go and get him.
NFL Draft? Sorry out of time.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.25: How'd I Do? Apr 23, 2024

1 hour and 27 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Goaltending and Defense

Opener
Mighty Mites
Up and Down Seasons
Good, Not Great

Segment 2: Forwards with News and Notes

Hero Line
New Guy Impacts
Bottom Six Plus
Roster Updates

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"School's Out" -- MEMBA
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 15.27: Your Ring Makes You Look Fat Apr 22, 2024

2 hours and 6 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together.

1. Spring Football Game - The Offense

Starts at 1:00

Brian has survived a science Olympiad and is ready to talk about the spring game. The number of takes we have are minimal, nobody really popped off. The offensive line wasn’t playing as a group and a couple starters didn’t play so it’s hard to project them. Kirk Campbell has said that they’re not looking for a quarterback in the portal. Alex Orji’s game would be to run a lot and he can’t do that in a spring game where you can’t tackle the quarterback. Denegal and Jadyn Davis aren’t ready for this offense, so it’ll be either Orji, Tuttle, or Warren starting. Maybe Michigan is creating a read option offense but isn’t putting it on film? Brian wants Orji to start but thinks it'll be Warren. Marlin Klein showed off a bit of what they were talking about. Gentry was either blowing a guy up or not knowing who to block so right tackle might be a problem spot. The running backs all looked great throughout the depth. All the snaps for Max Bredeson. Craig is banging the drum about Raheem Anderson.

2. Spring Football Game - The Defense

Starts at 36:03
Didn’t really see a defensive tackle stick out but part of that is because Wink Martendale blitzed a lot. TJ Guy might be a half step behind the starters but is going to be a contributor, the defensive end depth is great. The linebackers looked good, it was nice to see Rolder play well. Jyaire Hill looked fast and will be a star in time. You could begrudgingly be a cover-1 team this year. Zeke Berry was an excellent blitzer, much to Brian’s chagrin. McBurrows looked Mike Sainristil esque. The kicking was… at the point that they could potentially explore the portal.

3. Basketball Roster - Part One

Starts at 59:35
Takes hotter than Michigan message boards when Kirk Campbell said they don't need a quarterback transfer. The best part about winning a national championship is reading rivals' tweets four months later. We have a semblance of a basketball roster! Tre Donaldson committed mid-recording. Assuming Vlad Goldin and Roddy Gayle transfer, we know pretty much all but one player in Michigan's rotation so let's go through them! Donaldson is your starting point guard, then you have three guards. Brian is very high on Rubin Jones out of North Texas. Guard will be night and day from what we've already had. Unexpected and welcomed center depth.

4. Basketball Roster - Part Two

Starts at 1:35:39
Namari Burnett hasn't really announced anything so we're assuming he's back on the team. He should be a pretty good 20 minute per game backup. They should pick up Lorenzo Cason, an FAU decommit. Do they get another guard and what do the freshman minutes look like? What is going on at the 4? Will Tschetter is the only power forward. There's a basketball roster now and they're in a better spot than a lot of teams! Just got to fill it out now. This is a tournament team roster, can they gel together? What is their ceiling, maybe a four seed? In hindsight, Dusty May was the best coach available and Michigan hired him away from Louisville.

MUSIC:

"Riverboat" — Jesse Roads
“Vacations" — Midwest
“Sinner”— The Last Dinner Party
“Across 110th Street”

WTKA Roundtable 4/18/2024: Spinning Out of Others' Pockets Apr 18, 2024

Things Discussed:

Filling the basketball roster. Expect to get C Vlad Goldin (FAU), CG Justin Pippen (HS), PG Trey Donaldson (Auburn), W Roddy Gayle (OSU), and another guy they're going after under the radar.
Like Gayle if they can get his 3P% up better than Saint Mary's Aidan Mahaney, who took a lot of bad shots. C Justin Abson (App State) is Ben Wallace. Is he an either/or with C Danny Wolf (Yale)?
What's the holdup? Guys want to go through the draft advisory board process. Sam thinks we'll get a drumbeat of commitments in the coming days and weeks.
NIL: Dusty May needs a little more. How deep does the donor pool go? Well it's complicated; you're talking a quirky small subset of people who can afford this, and their individual circumstances matter a lot. There's a lot they're supporting: Football (which we're getting it done), Men's Hoops, Women's Hoops, etc. Seth: Don't forget Mott and the University of Michigan.
Spring Game: What does the OL look like? Are there any guys standing? Sam thinks we won't be able to watch Hinton, Crippen, and El-Hadi, which that's three of your starters. Who's next? Seth doesn't like that Giudice is ahead of Efobi. That battle for RT is more iffy than we realized? Sam thinks they want a guy in the portal for Gentry or Persi to beat. Seth: If you're saying they Anderson we're at eight guys they trust now.
Ohio State Spring Game: Their DL pushed their OL around so much it colors everything. QBs were throwing the ball into defenders; chests. Craig thinks their secondary is good. Seth says the offense is very Chip Kelly, they might have something with Julian Sayin down the road but he's skinny and mistake-prone right now.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.24: Deja Blue Apr 16, 2024

1 hour and 21 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: The Better Team Won

Opener
Mistake Capitalization
Upgrades Necessary
Quick, Overall Takes

Segment 2: Additional Mish-Mash

Title Game Rundown
NHL Award Race
Bat and Ball Sports
Roster Updates

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"Mr. Blue" -- Catherine Feeny
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 15.26: The 1983 Fighting Methodists Preview Apr 15, 2024

2 hours and 30 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together.

1. Basketball Bits

Starts at 1:00

We welcome Alex Drain to talk about Indiana football. But before that, filling up the basketball roster (coaches and players). Dusty May’s hires are recruiting focused, do they get an Australian?? Guys in the portal are guys the NBA doesn’t want, hence why they’re in the portal. Mark Pope to Kentucky is interesting but it’s probably a good hire overall. Would you rather play in the G league or get paid by Duke or Kentucky? Most of Michigan’s coaches look like A- hires. Getting a guy like George Washington III is a good get because they’re probably not going to fill all 13 spots, plus he could develop in his second year. They don’t have a recruiting class right now. Vlad Goldin feels like he’s in the bag, he’s on campus this week. Tre Donaldson has multiple crystal ball predictions for Michigan. Connor Essegian would hate Wisconsin which is a good culture fit!

2. Hockey Wrap-Up

Starts at 45:31
Michigan loses to Boston College 4-0, who would then go on to lose to Denver 2-0 after the Denver goalie played the game of a lifetime. Don’t think Michigan played poorly like the Quinnipiac game last year, Boston College was just at another level. Michigan got into trouble in 4-on-4s, especially after Dylan Duke’s bad penalty. Seamus Casey probably wasn’t 100%, this was one of his worst games. Who’s back next year? The bigger question marks are on defense. Still no rumors on goalie and anyone left in the portal doesn’t have a great save percentage. Put up an NIL bat signal.

3. Previewing The Big Ten Part One

Starts at 1:20:32
Takes hotter than Ohio State fans after losing to Oregon this year. Indiana football time! They essentially imported the whole JMU program plus a coach from Ohio. They landed four running backs from the portal, all of whom played significant snaps last year. Rutgers got a funny quarterback out of the portal. Minnesota and Rutgers like to trade their players a lot, apparently. Taulia Tagovailoa tried to get another year for no reason and didn’t get it. Maryland lost a lot and will have quite the drop off. We try to have Michigan State takes. Their defense has been hideous for years but they do return some of those guys. There are pieces on offense but the offensive line isn’t great., they’re a year zero. Penn State’s spring game had some concerning moments! Their top receiver is transferring and the shaky offensive line loses guys. Ohio State said “we’re never losing a football game again” so we’ll see if it works. Their QBs didn’t look good in the spring game. The defensive line dominated. Wisconsin hit the portal hard. Illinois' good defense is all gone.

4. Previewing The Big Ten Part Two

Starts at 2:02:19
Northwestern has gotten one (1) guy out of the portal. They're playing on a practice field by the lake this season and that might just sum up their season. Iowa has Not Brian Ferentz as their offensive coordinator, how's that going to look? Spencer Petras is in the portal! "[Team] is playing in the Rose Bowl!" is already an old joke. Nobody got picked apart by the portal as much as Purdue. Dylan Raiola to Nebraska is exciting but it probably won't start well. There's a path to 8 wins there. Minnesota will be okay. USC is finally making an effort to play defense. Their schedule is brutal, though. It will be interesting to see UCLA without Chip Kelly, also their travel schedule is wild. Oregon is a serious football program. Washington's roster and staff has been gutted.

MUSIC:

"Everyday Hustle" — Future and Metro Boomin
“What a Difference She Made" — Jaylen Ngonda
“Ready or Not”— Shakey Graves, featuring Sierra Ferrell
“Across 110th Street”

WTKA Roundtable 4/11/2024: Unsafe at Any Speed Apr 11, 2024

Things Discussed:

Frozen Four: Battle of the Blue Bloods. Usually you're counting on single-elimination hockey to off one of the impossibly good teams but NOT THIS YEAR. BC is fully of snipers—their top four forwards are shooting 18% to 21%.
Michigan's chances rely on controlling the puck, scoring on their cycling, and Barzo stepping up to cancel out the corners.
Past BC it's the #1 overall pick or a Denver team full of draft picks.
College hockey right now: draft picks will coalesce at a few bluebloods like BC, BU, Denver, Minnesota, and Michigan, but the mid-majors are filled up with overagers trying to stay in the game. Also the NHL is enamored with college hockey players, and the US development program has succeeded in keeping talent home that five years ago and beyond we were losing to Canadian Juniors. So there's as much talent and skill in college hockey now as there's been in a very long time.
Naurauto: He's on track for the perfect roster construction, which is two lines of highly skilled early NHL picks and Quinnipiac's top line, bunch of guys who are just on the cusp of NHL ability and are thus behooved to play out their eligibility in college.
Break: What's going on at tight end? Beetham in the portal—is that about money? Michigan doesn't seem to have an inline guy this year.
After Break: Women's basketball gone national. You can tell it's come on because sports fans are filling the hate boxes instead of being patronizing.
Michigan othersports: wrestling is #2 in the Big Ten (better than Iowa) and is full of transfers! We love softball, women's gymnastics has a following, debate won a national championship.
Is there enough NIL to go around at Michigan? Probably not, because we want to compete in every sport and donors are getting fatigued. The system doesn't work for anyone except the administrators who are getting the fans to pay out the nose for everything and want to shunt NIL on them too.

MGoPodcast 15.25: Chamberlain and I Combined for 100 Apr 07, 2024

1 hour and 49 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together.

1. Basketball Bits

Starts at 1:00

Seth is once again the biggest dork. Will Tschetter is returning, Terrance Williams II hit the portal and declared for the NBA draft (¯\_(ツ)_/¯), and Dusty May has made some assistant coaching hires. Mike Boynton and Akeem Miskdeen have joined the staff. These moves seem like they’re recruiting focused. All three of the big three from FAU are in the portal, Nick Boyd released a big list of schools that did not have Michigan on it. Michigan should get Davis and Goldin. Have you met Louisville’s fanbase? What about the rest of Michigan’s roster? Brian gives his guess on 10-11 roster spots.

2. Football Spring Bits - Defense

Starts at 38:36
As it turns out, the defense is better than the offense right now. They’re really high on Jaishawn Barham, the linebacker transfer from Maryland. Rolder is still dinged up and we don’t blame him for what happened against Ohio State. There is speculation on the CB2 chatter and why it’s more encouraging than this time last year. LB2 and CB2 should be fine. On the defensive line, TJ Guy is a guy (ahhh he did it). Etta is also encouraging. It won’t be last team’s defensive line but it should be a two deep we’re comfortable with. The last two questions are “what do we do without Rod Moore” and “who is the nickel back”?

3. Football Spring Bits - Offense

Starts at 50:20

Takes hotter than our Kickstarter. On offense, it feels like Alex Orji is simply the leader at quarterback so far. To be fair, the offensive line is probably having a bad time against this defensive line. Semaj Morgan has been getting talked up which is not surprising. Donovan Edwards has apparently gained 15 pounds (with no mention of him catching passes). Marlin Klein is being called the best athlete of the tight ends. Not really any surprises along the offensive line. Sure, some of the problems at quarterback could be the defensive line dominating the offense line but those talks could also be covering up limitations of the quarterbacks. It could all work out but for that to happen you have to run the Denard offense and win some Iowa games. What would you consider a successful season this year?

4. NCAA Hockey Tournament

Starts at 1:19:48
Michigan hockey reaches the frozen four for the third consecutive year. Michigan scores three in the 3rd period after North Dakota was arguably the better team in the first two periods. This is the opposite of what the season narrative has been. Of teams that have made the frozen four historically, the numbers one, two, three, and six are in. This is the bluest of blue bloods frozen four. Denver is 100 duck sized horses. Boston College has snipers, can’t get into a shooting match with them.

MUSIC:

"Miracles" — Alex G
“Time Waits For No One" — The Rolling Stones
“Will I See You Again”— Three Sacred Souls
“Across 110th Street”

WTKA Roundtable 4/4/2024: A Chip and a Chair Apr 04, 2024

Things Discussed:

Dusty May's new staff: got himself a D guy and a recruiter.
Good sign that he's addressing his first perceived weaknesses, bodes well for gathering the best players from FAU and bringing Khani Rooths back.
Akeem Miskdeen: Like Dusty May, nobody has a bad word to say.
Rebuilding a basketball roster: Feels confident they can get Davis and Goldin and others from FAU, adding Miskdeen gets them in the market for the Oklahoma State guys in the portal and Rooths, whom Miskdeen was recruiting to Georgia. Also after Yale's stretch C, Wolf. All of these guys are grad transfers or Yale. Say yes to a proven Big Ten player who's got a chip on his shoulder in Essegian, even if he's not a perfect fit for May's offense. Can add pieces from FAU's class to get some Zak & Stu types.
Will they come? They all like May enough that they didn't leave FAU after going to the Final Four. Trey Townsend (Oakland) probably goes to MSU, isn't much of a fit because he's not a perimeter guy (35% but on just a handful of attempts from the arc).
Will the NIL be right? Michigan won't commit the same mistakes again.
Hockey: Two of the best third periods in program history. Has this been a turnaround in focus or in luck? Kind of both, but also Marshall Warren has come on, and now they're getting good shifts from everyone down the roster.
The Michigan 2.0: GuloGulo reminded us Nazar did the same in his first game.
Now we just need the most iconic fight in college hockey history to have the Gordie Howe Hat Trick.
Ira: Most satisfying playoff win? Seth & Brian: Hell no! [both start naming bangers at Yost].
Seth: I don't hate MSU hockey fans. Brian: You must have a short memory. But rivalry doesn't feel hateful right now because MSU was so bad.
Can they win the Frozen Four? They're facing the three best one seeds after knocking off #4 and #5 in the country, have a puncher's chance but the Boston schools are loaded to the gills with NHL prospects and Denver is Denver. Twenty percent? Will take it.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.22: Not So Jolly Green Giants Apr 03, 2024

1 hour and 53 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Epic Showdown

Opener
Blitzed and Overpassing
Puck Luck For All
Best Period of the Season?

Segment 2: MSU Volume #6

Power Plays?!
Rushes and Even Play
Actual Best Period of the Season
Tournament Wrap-Up and Notes

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"Seven Nation Army - Glitch Mob Remix" -- The White Stripes, The Glitch Mob
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Michigan HockeyCast 6.21: Munn-Dane Mar 26, 2024

1 hour and 11 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Whatever That Was

Opener
Early Dominance
Whatever That Call Was
Goaltending and Other Oddities

Segment 2: NCAA Tournament Preview

North Dakota Fighting Not Sioux
MSU again?? Maybe Western.
The Other Regionals
Final Thoughts and Takeaways

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"I Don't Wanna Talk" -- Glass Animals
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 15.24: May the North Be With You Mar 25, 2024

1 hour and 58 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together.

1. The Hiring of Dusty May

Starts at 1:00

Brian let Seth out of his basement where he works on the UFRs so he’s off exploring the world somewhere (France). Michigan hired Dusty May as the 18th head men’s basketball coach, and the news was dropped in the middle of a hockey championship game. The rumor was that John Beilein played a big part in getting May. Good job, Warde Manuel! This hire was sniped from Louisville, who thought they could hire him this weekend. Whatever happened to Louisville? Dusty May really turned around Florida Atlantic basketball, which was basically a non-existent program before Dusty. He’s had a great track record everywhere he’s been. Dusty May is able to keep his players, even after a Final Four run.

2. Basketball - Looking Forward to Next Year

Starts at 29:58

What makes Dusty May appealing as a coach? He seems to be really well liked. His teams shoot a lot of 3s and they shoot them pretty well. There are a lot of Beilein parallels. Who comes back? Who do you try and get? Johnell Davis is his star and has a year remaining. Bryan Greenlee and Vladislav Goldin are the other two starters who could come over as grad transfers. Does Dusty bring over his coaching staff and do you retain any of the coaching staff from an 8-24 team? Who do you want to keep from last season’s roster? We’re completely happy with the hire but there isn’t a statistic that pops out consistently every year (except defensive assist rate). Expectations for next year are very low, fill a roster with guys you can build a program from. He’s going to have to hit the portal pretty hard.

3. Football Bits

Starts at 1:07:05

Wink Martindale’s contract makes him the highest paid defensive coordinator in college football. When’s the last time you saw a long-term NFL coordinator jump back to college? Greg Scruggs has resigned and the guy to keep an eye on now is Terrance Jamison from Illinois. DJ Waller and Jyaire Hill are the two names that popped up during Sherrone Moore’s press conference as looking impressive so far. It might be Jack Tuttle as the spring front runner at QB until someone comes in and takes it. Don’t take too much stock into his Indiana career. Michigan has lost good receivers over the last three recruiting cycles, they need to get some more guys. Will Michigan pass more under Sherrone Moore? Probably not. Cam Goode was not on scholarship, he was on NIL all last season. The era of scholarship limits is over!

4. NCAA Hockey Tournament

Starts at 1:31:49
Michigan hockey is a #3 seed and gets to play in an empty stadium in Maryland Heights, Missouri! They get North Dakota in the first game and are in an overall manageable draw. North Dakota's goalie seems like a guy. Michigan loses in OT to Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship game and Michigan State's game-tying goal might be the worst call we've ever seen. Michigan had a waved off goal that was also questionable. We've seen Michigan State many times, we're ok with drawing them as the #1 seed. When can we see the end of the tournament format of playing in empty neutral sites? The game is Friday at 8:30 on ESPNU.

MUSIC:

"Mayday" — Home Free
“Rum And Coca Cola" — The Andrews Sisters
“Ready to Go”— Republica
“Across 110th Street”

WTKA Roundtable 3/21/2024: I'm Going Where Eli's Pointing Mar 21, 2024

Things Discussed:

Favorite basketball candidates. Craig has some off-the-wall ideas (Cornell's HC, Eli Brooks) but we have four we're mostly focused on, plus a pipe dream. Lavall Jordan: no, but floated the idea (Sam's) of Beilein doing a year with Lavall as AHC. Seth: don't like that. Let's get a coach in and start building a program, because that's a long-term deal.
The four gettables (in probable order):
- May: We may be competing with L'ville? Downside is you'd like to see it go longer.
- Nedved: Seth & Brian like. Efficient from 2 vs Virginia: that's coaching.
- Devries: Comes with his best player (his son). Has been doing more with less a long time.
- Abdur-Rahim. Think he's an interesting idea, but after Devries, which is the "You can get that guy" line.
McDermott? Sam thinks you kick the tires, make him say no. Seth & Brian: Okay, and then he'll say no. But maybe not says Sam.
A fifth: Jerome Tang.
Our brackets: Seth likes Creighton, Brian thinks Purdue breaks through (that's what happens when you lose to a 16 seed right?), Sam hasn't made his picks yet, Craig believes in McNeese State.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.20: Mich... iucci Mar 19, 2024

1 hour and 5 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Owning the Gophers

Opener
Not CLOSE Enough
Turning the Game
Adding Another and Finishing the Game

Segment 2: Scores, Pairwise, Conference Tournaments, and MSU Preview

Old Friends and Around the League
Pairwise Talk with Alex
Conference Tournament Talk
All for Munn and Munn for All

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"How Far We've Come" -- Matchbox Twenty
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 15.23: Candidates for Long-Term Improvement Mar 17, 2024

1 hour and 41 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together.

1. Looking Back on the Juwan Howard Era

Starts at 1:00

It’s coachin’ search time, baby. Time for Warde Manuel to finally make a decision (unless it’s Beilein). One last look back at the Juwan Howard era. He came in with a good Beilein roster and brought in Franz Wagner. It felt like a seamless transition but then after that he just didn’t have a wing on his roster. Juwan was finding guys who were already shaped for the NBA and not having them prove anything. He also couldn’t play the portal well, it feels like he was too used to managing NBA rosters. It’s not a zero tolerance policy if you keep having incidents happen.

2. The Basketball Coaching Search

Starts at 27:30
Greg McDermott (Creighton), Randy Bennett (Saint Mary’s), Nate Oats (Alabama), and Tony Bennett (NTTB, Virginia) are off the table. John Beilein has been brought up but it feels like a pipe dream. He’s older and not familiar with the NIL era. Shaka Smart probably won’t be interested because football is king at Michigan. Is Michigan a better gig than Marquette? Richard Pitino Jr - needs a better resume than what he did at Minnesota. Brian’s guy is Niko Medved out of Colorado State who has improved the Rams tremendously. He can find weird guys from weird places under the radar and he coaches them up. Also, everyone seems to like him. Darian DeVries (Drake) is a candidate who coached under Medved. His teams seem to be really well coached but are short (they can avoid turnovers and can’t offensive rebound at all but can maniacally clean up their own glass). Dusty May at Florida Atlantic reached the Final Four last year and had a Kenpom top 20 team. This is his 6th year as a college coach but only the second where his team has been good. Amir Abdur-Rahim at South Florida built Kennesaw State from a one win team to a tournament team. Mark Pope of BYU has had top 20 Kenpom teams in three of the five years he’s been at BYU.

3. Hockey at Minnesota - BTT Semifinals

Starts at 1:02:25

Michigan beats Minnesota for the third straight year in the Big Ten Tournament at Mariucci. This will lock up an NCAA Tournament bid and now they play Michigan State in East Lansing for their third straight Big Ten Tournament title. This was probably Michigan’s most complete game of the season. The second period was extremely dominant but felt like they should’ve scored more. Michigan is 1-3 against MSU so far this year after winning their first game 7-1. They’ll likely be a 3 seed. Do you or do you not want to draw Denver?

4. Latest Football Bits

Starts at 1:27:33
Hey, did you hear Michigan sniped Tony Alford from Ohio State? What if he hates Ryan Day more than Michigan?? Who knows. This is a good sign that people want to work for Sherrone Moore. Wink Martindale is learning a lot about the defense from Rod Moore, so maybe the Mike Sainristil effect won’t be as big as we thought. Newly hired defensive line coach Greg Scruggs got an OWI, which was not his first. He’s been suspended indefinitely. Spring football starts today!

MUSIC:

"Fancy" — Drake
“If You Don't Want My Love" — Jalen Ngonda
“Gettin' to the Point”— Panda Bear and Sonic Boom
“Across 110th Street”

WTKA Roundtable 3/14/2024: Josh Wallace But Fast Mar 14, 2024

Things Discussed:

Tony Alford: What does it say about Ohio State? Ryan Day's program might have a culture problem. If he loses to Michigan [they get to play one or two more times but] he's out, right?
Seth checks OSU's schedule; somehow they got just @Oregon and vs PSU out of the Big Ten powers, so yeah, he could get to Michigan unscathed.
You'd think Alford wouldn't be worried about job prospects if Day is fired; he pulled the ripcord early, which means there's something making being the RB coach under Ryan Day/Chip Kelly intolerable. Brian: Could be the offense doesn't let the RBs do their thing.
Tony Alford: What does it say about Sherrone Moore? Guys wanna come work for him. Sam: They lost Adegoke because it got leaked so they kept this one quiet. Brian: That speaks to Moore's organization that they got the background checks and everything done.
Seth: Taking a coach 2 practices into spring is bigger than getting their signs because by this point they have a plan, and they've already started talking about what they're doing for The Game.
Sherrone: Good early signs. Had a competent assistants process, has a plan with recruiting, prevented Martindale from using up a staff spot. Making big baller moves, like how Harbaugh came in with satellite camps, etc.
Losing Hart: Plenty. He was a *great* RB coach, a great judge of talent, and a great Michigan player.
Seth: This exposes OSU culture issues. The Mattison comp: Matty got a title bump and $600k raise, but money can't buy the kind of Jerry Hanlon love he gave up to go to OSU, so there had to be something else. It turned out that something else was Don Brown was a Buddy Ryan, and as much as we love Brown it was a sign that Michigan needed a culture change.
Quinten Johnson: not a small deal. Good NIL (more valuable to college than pros), great for Michigan, not a replacement for Sabb but does allow them to maybe start Q-Jo and try Moore at nickel, which can ameliorate the loss of Mike Sainristil, who was the QB of the defense at nickel.
Wink Defense: Need to stop overplaying the differences between him and Minter, because Giants defense had more plays than any other NFL team inside their own 40, also once you have Jyaire Hill ready to go you can play a lot more man.
Break: Sam mentions more guys who wanted to come work for Sherrone.
Wink: You guys are doing stuff I wasn't even doing with the Giants. Brian: That's the Mikey Factor.
Pernell McPhee for support staff: Pahokee guy that Rich Rod wanted, Ravens guy under Mike Macdonald who can step into LB job in the future.
Lionel Stokes: Defensive analyst who worked with Morgan at Louisiana, been a DC and DB coach at Jackson State, gonna have big shoes to fill from Mallory.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.19: Go Back To Your Shamrocks Mar 12, 2024

1 hour and 26 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Close Game #1

Opener
Dominance
Wooooof
Thank You, Major

Segment 2: Close Game #2

Even Steven
Winning the Game and Holding On To It
Old Friends and Around the League
Do We Only Play Two Teams?

[Player after THE JUMP]

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"Not Dead Yet" -- Lord Huron
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 15.22: And Here Y'Are, And It's a Beautiful Day Mar 11, 2024

1 hour and 59 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together.

1. The State of College Football

Starts at 1:00

We are uh. We are out of content (still managed to record a two hour podcast). With regards to Ben Franklin's sex life. Craig Ross turns 3,008, wish him a happy birthday (still hasn’t seen a worse Michigan men’s basketball team). The Big Ten and SEC got together for a working group and the thing they were working on was screwing the rest of college football. They already want a 14 team playoff with auto bids. What would be different about college football right now if Dave Brandon was in charge? Nothing. College football is great for reasons that the people who only care about money could never understand. Adding Maryland and Rutgers was the beginning of the end, Brian is going to dance on Jim Delaney’s grave. What can you even do about it besides complain about it on podcasts.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

2. Big Ten Hockey Tournament vs Notre Dame

Starts at 23:41

They didn’t make it easy but Michigan hockey sweeps Notre Dame in the first round of the Big Ten tournament. Nobody played better than Notre Dame’s goalie, despite giving up nine goals. Notre Dame is 10-1 in games where they only score three goals, they can’t score but the goalie keeps them in games. Was it an icing? No. Another week, another discussion of the terrible major calls. The Ohio State vs Wisconsin game determines whether Michigan plays in East Lansing or Minneapolis (Michigan will play in Minneapolis). Michigan is at their ceiling in terms of RPI (#10), but the gap between them and 14 is very small. According to Alex, Michigan is a 99%+ chance to make the NCAA tournament, so they’ve basically punched their ticket. Who stays and who goes after the season? Make Brian an NHL GM, he plays Football Manager and won the championship in the Turkish league.

3. Warde Manuel and Juwan

Starts at 1:03:22

Takes hotter than Warde Manuel's seat if he retains Juwan Howard. Warde Manuel has become controversial amongst Michigan fans, and by controversial we mean everyone wants to fire him except Santa Ono. What is Warde doing if he wants to keep Juwan around? Seth has been told that Warde Manuel has repaired Michigan’s relationships with the NCAA and Big Ten, Brian has curled himself into a ball and crawled under Walter White’s floor and is laughing maniacally. R.I.P. paper tickets. If he doesn’t get rid of Juwan Howard, what is actually going on? There are a lot of Fargo references in this podcast. Warde is the head of the college football committee in charge of the worst college football playoff we’ve ever seen.

4. Gimmicky Top Five - Non-Michigan Fandoms

Starts at 01:29:22

Five non-Michigan things we are fans of. Oh no, how many of us are just fair weather Detroit fans? The National Parks are good and you should go but not when I go because they’re overcrowded now! Brian does not hate National Parks, why would you think that? Who is the bigger dork, Seth or Brian? Shout out to Lindsay Ellis, the Brian Cook of film theory and why The Hobbit Trilogy is bad. Brian turns down a $1300/month murder basement.

MUSIC:

"Gen X Cops" — Vampire Weekend
“Midwest" — Vacations
“Forget Everything”— BEL
“Across 110th Street”

WTKA Roundtable 3/7/2024: That's What the Money's For Mar 07, 2024

Things Discussed:

NCAA no longer regulating NIL: Brave New World? Ha. Maybe for Michigan. Sam has us make our case, which is the same we've been making forever. Craig worries about a Texas A&M situation, Seth & Brian push back hard.
How should Michigan do it? Supplement what they're doing now but don't lose *THEIR* guys because of money. Bryce Underwood is the classic example.
Schools can't afford to keep paying what they're paying out right now. Michigan included.
Warde Manuel: Absolutely wrong guy to show leadership. One thing he's doing is he's the leader of the CFP committee that's coming up with a 14-team disaster that's just the B10 and SEC forcing autobids for $$$.
Brian: Anyone who's an administrator at a college is expendable; teachers are not.
Sam: Time to get the collectives in on Bryce Underwood.
Sam: Trust me, Sabb didn't leave Michigan for money; he woulda had a Benz here too.
Seth: I'm bored by Sabb talk; we lost our 3rd safety to starting at Alabama. That doesn't mean there's a problem it means we had the best three safeties in America and football has two starting safeties.
Juwan Howard: Probably not getting fired until Warde Manuel is (everyone: so fire Warde!)
Who you hiring? Brian: McDermott (Creighton)->Shaka->TJ Otzelberger (ISU)->Mark Pope. Craig: Will Wade (all: !!???!!!)->Otzelberger (good defense!)->Anthony Grant (Dayton, fun offense)->Lamont Paris (SCar)->Mark Byington (JMU). Seth: Nate Oats->Fred Hoiberg->Darian DeVries.
Sam: Talk to me about Nate, but Bama has been supporting him well, and then you have Brandon Miller/Darius Miles in proximity to a murder. The other thing—put a hand on a player on the court—seems like nothing.
Seth/Brian: Details of the murder are important; the Missouri thing doesn't move the needle.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.18: Go-Fer Fish Mar 05, 2024

1 hour and 20 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Friday Flop

Opener
Sloppy Even Period
Penalty Period
Pointless Period

Segment 2: Saturday Roller Coaster

The First Two Periods
The Rest of the Game
Old Friends and Around the League
Oh No, You Again?

[Player after THE JUMP]

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"Gopher Mambo - Remastered 2009" -- Billy May, Gozzo, Yma Sumac, The Rico Mamba Orchestra
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 15.21: It Was Sainristil All Along Mar 04, 2024

1 hour and 47 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together.

1. Updated State of the Basketball Program and NFL Draft Stuff

Starts at 1:00

We’re not going to talk about basketball, but this is mostly a basketball segment. Discussing Sanderson’s departure from the program from Sanderson’s perspective. It’s unbelievable that Juwan didn’t get fired for this. Basketball standings are the Big Ten West’s revenge. There’s no reason to believe that Michigan will be good next year, teams that mainly use the portal have not been that great and Michigan probably won’t even fill the roster. This is year five, that’s on Juwan. If Juwan is retained, add it to the list of Warde Manual bag fumbles. Apparently Warde is good with speaking to people and managing non-revenue sports. Has he even had to make a hire in major sport? Sherrone Moore and Naurato were a given. Warde likes to just sit around and wait for whatever happens to happen. Even Graig Ross says this is one of the worst teams since he was in school. If Juwan gets fired it won’t be until the end of the season.
Do you enjoy watching the Combine? Dave does, Brian does not. The NFL draft will be fun to watch this year because there will be a lot of Michigan players getting drafted and every time they do there will be a lot of highlights of Ohio State getting dunked on. Mike Sainristil knew Washington’s plays because Mike Sainristil is football smart. It was Mikey all along!! According to scouts, all of Michigan’s offensive linemen are two years ahead of everyone else in terms of maturity. Cornelius Johnson tested out amazingly. He didn’t get a ton of targets but he bailed out JJ a lot, and that skill set will translate to the NFL. Blake Corum changed his skill set from speed back to inside guy based on what the team needed.

2. 2024 Defensive Line and 2024 Linebackers

Starts at 31:56
The defense only lost Keon Sabb to the portal, they look just as loaded this year as last year but without the ability to roll out nine defensive linemen. This should be Derrick Moore’s blowup year. Josiah Stewart came on in a big way after struggling a bit the first half of the season. Is it time for TJ Guy to get some serious snaps? Will he become “TJ Dude”?? Brian’s head almost explodes trying to talk about the defensive tackles. Mason Graham will be the best defensive tackle in the country and should be a 99 in NCAA 25. And then the other guy is KENNETH GRANT. Trey Pierce looked fine as a true freshman but not much you can tell about him yet. It should be the best defensive line in the country, just need 3rd string depth. Linebackers lose Barrett and Colson and is a little more up inI the air. Hausmann was a good rotational piece, Rolder looked like a player as a true freshman but was rough against Ohio State. Jaishawn Barham comes in from Maryland and is a good run stuffer. These three are the makings of a good linebacker corps.

3. Hot Takes and 2024 Secondary

Starts at 54:48

Takes hotter than JJ McCarthy's draft stock. Will Johnson will be the highest graded player in NCAA 25 (unless you use The Seth Roster, then it will be Mason Graham). He’ll basically be Charles Woodson. The safeties look stacked and apparently Michigan is looking to get Quinten Johnson back. Makari Paige started in 2020, Rod Moore started in 2021, they’ll be fine. Once again, the biggest question mark is the second cornerback. Also for as amazing as Mike Sainristil was, we might still be underrating him because he was the glue. Whoever you insert at the second corner spot is going to be the least experienced corner on the field and they’ll be replacing the most experienced corner in Josh Wallace. Will they go to the post spring roster and pick up another corner again? They’ll still be one of the best defenses in America. Martindale will be a drop off because Minter was running coverages Marvin Harrison had never seen before but it shouldn’t be a major drop off. Seth is Brian’s Mike Hart. It’s an Alex Drain-ass coaching staff (Alex if you’re reading this, Brian’s words. Not mine).

4. Hockey at Minnesota

Starts at 1:29:36
Michigan splits with Minnesota but there's chaos on the college hockey bubble. Michigan moves up from 14th to 13 in Pairwise and Pairwise Predictor has them at 69% in. In game 2, Michigan goes up 3-0 in the first period and ends up winning in OT. Michigan's goalie looked great in the first two periods of this game but gave up 5 goals in the 3rd. When things start to go wrong, everything spirals out of control. Is this team on par for what we expected them to be this year? Kind of.

MUSIC:

"Higher" cover — Randy and Jason Sklar
“It Was Agatha All Along" — Kristen-Anderson Lopez
“Rich Baby Daddy”— Drake, Sexyy Red, SZA
“Across 110th Street”

WTKA Roundtable 2/29/2024: The In-Between Times Feb 29, 2024

We lost a friend yesterday. Craig did a lot for us. They have a GoFundMe set up to help support his wife and son.

Things Discussed:

Michigan at the Combine: People who watch the games love the Michigan guys; stats people don't.
JJ looks like a first rounder. If (Will Johnson: "when") Sainristil runs under 4.5 he's going to move up too. Lions love having this program down the road because they draft on personality, and they know they can trust the guys who come out of this program are their kinds of guys. Also they can get in all these extra meetings.
Everybody's moved up: Wilson blew up at the senior bowl, Keegan's moving up, Zinter's leg is in better shape, Sainristil, McCarthy, Corum…
JJ vs other QBs: Williams seemed to wilt when his team did; you know JJ isn't built that way. Seth: Bust factor for QBs has as much to do with which franchise drafts you and how they bring you along.
Portal closed: Sabb was a loss but Michigan is virtually intact from the departure of Jim Harbaugh; well done Sherrone and staff.
QB competition update, Sam says Orji is the leader—he has to have the passing accuracy—but there's not going to be a lock until the portal closes. Denegal most improved. Seth: Leak/Tebow set up. Plan is redshirt Jadyn Davis (he and coaches both have this plan), Davis Warren was hurt but seems out of the conversation?
WR: They need to get size in the portal. Don't sleep on Tyler Morris.
Who's your best lineup? It's Edwards and Mullings and Loveland on the field.
Hockey: Pythagorean W/L shows they're a good team, but they've struggled to finish weekends. Swept ND put them in 14th, which is minimum to get in the Tournament. Need a good weekend in Minnesota to get in as an at-large; if they win Friday and get more points than Minnesota on Saturday they move past them in B10 standings and get Penn State in the BTT. Bad weekend and they need to get to the championship round of the BTT.
Reasons? Transition to Naurato damaged recruiting, injuries, lost their goalie to MSU hiring the goalie's dude.
Officiating has been a big part of the story. Lost Hallum for the year and McGroarty for a long time on non-called penalties. Uncanny calls were the only thing keeping ND in Saturday's game. It is appalling how this team has been officiated, and it's a big reason they're in the place they are.
Football defensive staff? Michigan is taking their time with background checks. After Stalions, Shemy, Shoop, Weiss…

(RIP) Speaking of RIP,
Craig Roh: Was a big reason we had anything to cheer about in the years between the titles. See GoFundMe above.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.17: Shaleighleh Brooms Feb 26, 2024

1 hour and 19 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Friday Shutout

Opener
Gift from Bischel
Special Teams Goals
Jake's Shutout

Segment 2: Saturday Drama

A More Defensive Affair
Marshall Warren and the Defense
Old Friends and Around the League
A Trip to Gopherland

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"Another Irish Drinking Song" -- Da Vinci's Notebook
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

WTKA Roundtable 2/22/2024: Monarchy is a Terrible System of Government Feb 22, 2024

Things Discussed:

NCAA as Romanovs? How to talk to your kids about systems of government.
How to fix the NCAA: Gonna need contracts and collective bargaining, but the NCAA should be at the point now where they realize they'll get more negotiating with the players than getting sued by them.
Transfers should NOT be open. You're devaluing education, which is still the best thing the schools have to offer.
Keon Sabb: hurts, but get that Bama was able to sell him a bill of goods on playing time.
Defense: Find a 2nd corner, McBurrows at nickel, gonna miss Sainristil lining everybody up and running their complex coverages, but Rod Moore knows his stuff.
Offense: Who's going to be the quarterback? Denegal talk. Seth: You need accuracy with these receivers, because you're taking advantage of the space you get from Tyler Morris or Donovan Edwards—no jump-ballers on the roster.
Basketball: Juwan will get another year, has to start building like Purdue not Calipari.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.16: Some Things Just Don't Change Feb 20, 2024

1 hour and 5 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Friday Win

Opener
The First Minute/Period
The Rest of the Game
The Escape

Segment 2: Saturday Loss

A Very Different Game
It's Always Something
Old Friends and Around the League
Notre Dame is Coming to Yost...Greaaaaaaaaat

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"Rusty Cage" -- Johnny Cash
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 15.20: May the Romanovs Find Reason Feb 18, 2024

1 hour and 44 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together.

1. The Final Coaching Staff

Starts at 1:00

Jack Tuttle has been approved for a 7th year, does this incentivize you to switch over your offense since he's so different from Orji? Whoever the quarterback is, they just need to have a Cade McNamara year. Sabb hitting the portal is sad. The coaching staff is final (other than what's up with Mike Hart). The average age of this coaching staff is too close to Alex Drain. The Tennessee message boards are like "RHWRRRGHREWRGRR". Things seem to be moving positively on the NIL front with Sherrone Moore in charge. Michigan is losing assistants at a higher rate because if you succeed at Michigan you go to the NFL.

2. Legal Talk With Bryan MacKenzie! (Part one)

Starts at 27:12

We discuss the myriad legal issues facing the NCAA. Tennessee, the university and state, are sticking it to the NCAA asserting that NIL restrictions are anti-trust and cannot be legal. The NCAA has said that you can talk about NIL but you cannot use it as an incentive. What? When was the last time the NCAA even won a lawsuit?? The NCAA is potentially facing a $4 billion lawsuit, how do you calculate that and does it bankrupt the NCAA or do schools have to pay for it?

3. Hot Takes and Legal Talk! (Part Two)

Starts at 41:31

Takes hotter than Travis Kelce in the first half of the Super Bowl when he was yelling at Andy Reid. Dartmouth men's basketball (yes it exists) is leading one of the charges. At private schools, we could be approaching athletes being employees with the ability to collectively bargain. There are 11,000 division I football players and 5,000 division I basketball players, how do you account for all of that under the tent? Signing a contract could help solve the transfer portal issues and sitting out bowl games. The NCAA is so paranoid about people being employees that they're hurting their own product. Legally, you may have to show your athletes as minimum-wage employees, can you show that with scholarships? Moving forward, how does the NCAA show a distinction between professional and amateur athletes? What should the final play be? We have no idea.

4. Hockey vs Penn State

Starts at 1:21:32
Hockey splits with Penn State which is not good, Michigan is slipping off of the bubble. The Friday game, Michigan won in the 1st period. The second game was extremely un-inspiring. They're running out of centers. Michigan has to be able to out-score their mistakes and they just don't have that right now. Michigan has a hero-line and it's getting held up and are gassed by the 3rd period. The inconsistency of major penalties in Big Ten hockey is ridiculous.

MUSIC:

“Sinner”— The Last Dinner Party
“Bottled in Cork" — Ted Low and the Pharmacists
“Rock.co.Kane flow”— de la Soul featuring MF Doom
“Across 110th Street”

WTKA Roundtable 2/15/2024: The Other Direction Feb 15, 2024

Things Discussed:

The coaching staff is finally all younger than Brian (this happened sometime in the Bronze Age; he was looking around like "I thought stone tools were fine, but okay I guess we're all going into this mining business.")
Clink: It wasn't about the money; he needed to be the DC, and Sherrone needed experience. If he was only staying for the buyout it wasn't going to be great for either party.
We're going with guys who watched the Usher performance at the Super Bowl and didn't recognize any of the songs.
Stephen Adegoke: Rising star. Getting a Mo Linguist a little earlier than we got Mo, but need to worry that an NFL team will come for him in a year or two. Guy is 28. Was a Michigan GA in 2021, NFL position coach in three years. Jesse Minter trajectory. Ryan doesn't want to let him go. When's the last time an OSU coach left for a better job?
Losses to coaching changes despite NCAA rule that allows your team to get raided in these situations: Amorion Walker (Ole Miss NIL), Jalen Smith (literally every coach he knew is gone), and normal attrition.
Casula: Great recruiter, needs to answer for his offensive analyst job in 2019, because Gattis was terrible.
NIL: Sea change. Michigan's new partnerships and hiring GMs for the football program and an NIL GM for Athletics are going to ward off the poaching efforts. Could have done it earlier and maybe kept JJ.
Saw how Alabama's roster got raided, and they had to hold off on announcing the Seahawks had hired away their OL coach and OC until their portal had closed—Michigan hasn't had that.
Huge impact. You hear what Bryce Underwood is making ($3M) per year at LSU and think what will someone pay for a one-year rental on a DT who changes the entire shape of your defense?
Michigan's NIL program can now show recruits they'll have sustainability. ROI for the investors too.
Why are our donors different? Because they're not money-launderers.
Basketba—oops we're out of time.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.15: They're BAAAAACK Feb 13, 2024

1 hour and 7 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Great Game, Same 3rd Period

Opener
Back and Forth
The Next Shift
Third Period Meltdown

Segment 2: Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Tight Game
Too Many DZTOs, again
Old Friends and Around the League
Are the Lions Asleep in Hockey Valley?

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"When Everything Went Wrong" -- Fantastic Negrito
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 15.19: Casula, Mammula, and Don Shula Feb 12, 2024

1 hour and 44 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together.

1. Coaches and Vibes

Starts at 1:00

Some of us would like to continue basking in the glory of the national championship and some (Brian) acknowledge that we must move on and start looking into the next season. There have already been some coaching changes since the last podcast. Wink Martindale's defense isn't that different from the Ravens defense (and it is not the Don Brown defense). Defensive line will still be elite, the big question is depth. Michigan's got too many safeties and not enough corners, move some? It's looking like Greg Scruggs, the Wisconsin defensive line coach, will be coming over. Linebackers coach positions is fuzzy. A lot of Michigan's offensive philosophy was probably coming from Sherrone Moore and Kirk Campbell so having that continuity is huge. Sherrone is helping tremendously at keep the team and culture together.

2. 2024 Offense Part 1

Starts at 28:41

Who is the quarterback and what is the philosophy of this offense? Between Kalel Mullings, Donovan Edwards, Semaj Morgan, Colston Loveland, Max Bredeson, and Tyler Morris, there's a lot coming back to play with. How do you pass the ball with Alex Orji at quarterback and what is the run/pass split? If not Alex Orji at quarterback, then who? Even though they turn over the entire offensive line, the backups are upper classmen so it might be a Wisconsin situation where it's just the next line up.

3. Hot Takes and 2024 Offense Part 2

Starts at 47:58

Takes hotter than Keisei Tominaga (and that's the only mention of basketball on this podcast). If you want continuity with the offense, do you make Kalel Mullings RB1? How much should Donovan Edwards motion out as a receiver? What are the alternatives at QB if you go with Alex Orji and it doesn't work out? Jayden Denegal is probably the floor and he's Wilton Speight. Making a case for why the offensive line will be good again, ideally Andrew Gentry is the left tackle. Tyler Morris will be a good WR2 (behind whoever they motion out between Donovan Edwards or Colston Loveland).

4. Hockey vs Michigan State

Starts at 1:29:51
Michigan has a sad hockey weekend and gets swept by Michigan State, losing the Iron D. These teams played fairly evenly but Michigan State has a goalie that can bail them out and Michigan doesn't. Michigan needs to be able to out-score their mistakes but they can't right now. Michigan basketball exists, goodbye!

MUSIC:

“Olivia”— Wolves of Glendale
“Flamingos - CARRTOONS"
“City Slicker”— Ginger Root
“Across 110th Street”

WTKA Roundtable 2/8/2024: The Antithetical NCAA Feb 08, 2024

Things Discussed:

Clink back! Outbid Harbaugh.
Wink Martindale: If you want a Ravens guy he invented the Amoeba. He's not young and not gonna stick around, but he holds this team together, and when he leaves he might have Clinkscale ready to take over, which he isn't now.
Matters if he's going to take one or two jobs (IE bring his guy) on staff because they need some recruiting juice if he's going to be a Mike Macdonald-level recruiter.
Lee Aaliya: This should be the last straw for the NCAA. NCAA strung him along for five then came up with ridiculous demands: wanted an 18-year-old to have all of his grocery receipts and pay $15,000 (was it $1500?). Jamal Crawford, Mitch McGary: The NCAA is preventing kids who want to come to Michigan FOR THE EDUCATION from coming here, and it's hard at this point not to believe it's out of hatred for Michigan. Michigan should have signed him and dared the NCAA to come after them.
NCAA vs Everybody: Dartmouth ruling will either stick if Dems retain White House, or get overturned by federal NLRB if Reps do, because of the party differences on unions (Craig: and grift!).
Expect to see some legislation in the near future in Southern states that protect the donors who were paying kids under the table for all these years, because they have some big tax liabilities.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.14: Just Like Football Feb 06, 2024

1 hour and 3 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Ctrl C, Ctrl V: Friday

Opener
Tyler's Statement
See Saw Second Period
Holding It Down

Segment 2: Brand New Saturday Night

Setting the Tone
Bounce back and Extension
Old Friends and Around the League
Home and Not Joe

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"Soldier, Poet, King" -- The Oh Hellos
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 15.18: Naming Some Dudes Feb 04, 2024

1 hour and 30 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, and introducing Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together.

1. Sherrone Moore and the Coaching Staff

Starts at 1:00

Sherrone is rounding out his staff - Kirk Campbell is the offensive coordinator, Grant Newsome is the offensive line coach, and Steve Casula is the tight ends coach. We're projecting that Ron Bellamy and Mike Hart are returning (Mike Hart's absence from certain events were just him going through some personal stuff, per Sam Webb). It looks like Mike Elston and Steve Clinkscale are back so far. There's a linebacker and defensive coordinator spot open (the 3rd Ravens guy is off the board). If they bring in long-tenured NFL guys, can they recruit? Could Michigan start pulling coaches from two NFL franchises moving forward?

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

2. Hockey vs Ohio State

Starts at 23:27

Michigan swept Ohio State, just like football as you might recall, but Ohio State is pretty bad at hockey this year. The Friday game felt like one that could fall apart but they came up ahead. The Saturday game felt like Michigan was on the doorstep and just had to finish it. They're looking like they're rounding into a tournament team, especially with their World Juniors guys back. Michigan was finally on the other side of five minute majors!

3. Hot Takes and... State of the Basketball Program

Starts at 49:34

Takes hotter than Rutgers basketball with five minutes left in a basketball game against Michigan. Rutgers went on a 37-12 run to end the game, and Rutgers has one of the worst offenses in the Big Ten. What is going on in the locker room? What is the culture of this team and who's even in charge of what? It's year five but there are only two guards on the roster and two open roster spots. There's no reason to retain Juwan.

4. Just Naming Guys

Starts at 1:16:15
No, really. They're just naming guys. It was this or another basketball segment. Seth's story about a football player with magic powers was critiqued by a Michigan football player. The Commissioner of this segment had to step in to vacate a #2 guy. Leave five guys in the comments (as in Michigan football players, not the food).

MUSIC:

“Just Like Football”— Brothers Keep
“My Heart Will Go On - Bad Recorder Cover"
“GUY.exe”— Superfruit
“Across 110th Street”

WTKA Roundtable 2/1/2024: It's Not Pay for Play It's Play for Work Feb 01, 2024

Things Discussed:

Lost Herbert: Recruiting against Jim is tough.
DC: Zach Orr has a couple of NFL opportunities now so figuring that out will be the most important thing.
Concerned that this administration is going to Bennie Oosterbaan Sherrone Moore's program. Needs to not just support but lead the transition to a new version of the college football landscape.
Beefing up recruiting department: can criticize Jim Harbaugh here because he spent recruiting jobs on hires like Stalions and Shemy.
Sherrone going hard for ND's Chad Bowden. Fended off Harbaugh for Grant Newsome, fighting for Elston.
Warde: His "transformational not transactional" interview was the end for us; he's not the guy for the future. Transactional means fair; when you say you don't want that you're saying you don't want the players getting a fair deal.
Michigan's culture doesn't have to be these 1930s ideas. Hunter Dickinson would be here if we had this working right.
There's more in the tank: Michigan's Athletics department doesn't need to be taking money for naming buildings.
NCAA dysfunction has to be part of this. We should be leading the way towards fixing the system, not pretending the old system still works. Players don't benefit from everyone being a free agent because it makes them all replaceable. That system sucks for everybody because there's no investment in the players, there's less time to get to know your system, and nobody's getting an education.
Right now we're hanging onto a system that's already dead, falling into a terrible oligarchic system. System should be one that forces the universities to be stuck with the players they get, because it makes them responsible for the player's education and development. Right now the NCAA is antithetical to the higher ideal the NCAA was set up.
Seth: communist economies—that's what the NCAA model is—require a black market. The cheating is part of the system.
What we're seeing is the fall of that system, and what Michigan should be doing is leading the way to a new system.
How? Pay our players to be in a Super Bowl commercial advocating for a player's union, which we start here.
Seth & Brian argue whether the history of Oosterbaan/1950s is relevant today.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.13: Badger Day Jan 30, 2024

1 hour and 4 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Ctrl C, Ctrl V: Friday

Opener
An Early Goal
Building the Lead
Finishing the Game

Segment 2: Ctrl C, Ctrl V: Saturday

Cocaine First Period
Obtaining and Blowing Leads
Old Friends and Around the League
A Trip to Columbus

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"Welcome to Janesville" -- Smoking Popes
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 15.17: Turns Out There Were Hugs Jan 29, 2024

4 hours and 26 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast.

1. Weird Jim Harbaugh Era Highlights

Starts at 1:00

There was too much to remember, so we crowd sourced. Sleepovers, satellite camps, the pope, and fun recruiting shenanigans. The Harbaugh era kind of starts and ends with Lou Holtz. There was a lot of diving into pools while fully dressed. People who cover the pope have been watching to see if he ever wears the Jordans that Jim gifted him. Don't drink out of the public fountains in Rome. You ever just grab a handful of meatballs? Character growth arc - Jim Harbaugh and chickens. He told a Peruvian Catholic priest "I'm in the Notre Dame ass-kicking business." Never forget "the white board", what's your favorite quote from it? He's directed traffic for hours. Jim Harbaugh war dad. Alejandro continues to be a real go-getter. Make sure you swipe Freddy P Soft off your shoulder.

2. HOT TAKES and Jim Harbaugh Era Highlight Honorable Mentions

Starts at 50:40

Takes hotter than the San Francisco 49ers in the 2nd half of the NFC Championship (SORRY SORRY. Brian's words, not mine). Talking about moments that weren't the top moments but still note-worthy. Ben Mason, Darboh, and good shit from Jedd. The 2015 BYU game had a lot of all-time single player moments. The evolution of Donovan Edwards' career at Michigan and running power on a kickoff return against Northwestern. Jabrill Peppers fielding punts was a safety blanket we miss. Jim Harbaugh evolved the run game and also brought us the TRAIN! Sad field goals, the emergence of JJ, and Mr. Brightside. The 2016 Indiana snowglobe game. Player development into 4th, 5th, and 6th years has been incredible.

3. Jim Harbaugh Era Top 25 Moments 25-11

Starts at 2:09:03

Everyone has something different that they love the most about the 2016 Rutgers game. Multiple Michigan State things at the expense of Michigan State, including Defeated With Dignity. There are so many stats in the Jim Harbaugh era that were some sort of "Michigan hasn't done ___ in ___ years" and now all those stats are reset. Remembering a lot of Jourdan Lewis moments, but especially that interception. The whole context of this year's Penn State game was to prove if this team was real. THEY SAID THE KID COULDN'T THROW THE DEEP BALL. They say you need a QB to win a national championship but Michigan won it with an elite run game and pass defense.

4. Jim Harbaugh Era Top 25 Moments 10-1

Starts at 3:09:41
Jumping around at Wisconsin was when this program really started to feel special. The 2021 Big Ten Championship Game was just a huge party, Seth threw a cat across the entire room. Ohio State makes this list multiple times. What can man do against such reckless hate. Aidan Hutchinson is coming for you. The top five could really be in any order. Michigan had to figure out how to win against Alabama, but against Washington, Michigan just had better players. The Rose Bowl overtime was like a dream, and it was a real Rose Bowl against Alabama. Mike Sainristil represents what this program was all about, and the pass breakup against Stover is the ultimate highlight of that. In life, hurdle all your fools.

MUSIC:

“Who's Got It Better Than Us”— Bailey
“Saturdays”— Broken Bells
“Jump Around”— House of Pain
“Across 110th Street”

WTKA Roundtable 1/25/2024: The Age of Culture Dudes Jan 25, 2024

Things Discussed:

Seth is on early to talk about the Lions, relates it to Harbaugh/Sherrone Moore: Dan Campbell is a culture guy, and that's a hole that the NFL left when it shifted to playcallers as head coaches.
Harbaugh to NFL: Seems the program is set through 2024, need to figure out their plan for 2025.
Where were you when you heard? I was about to start the final boss fight of a very long D&D campaign.
Expected? Yeah, said so in the previews. Michigan tried but Harbaugh was going to take a good NFL deal. When in history has someone gotten a successful NFL coach to come back and coach their college team for 9 years? This was the deal. There is no Super Bowl at Michigan.
Sherrone? Yes. When? They have to wait 7 days but will probably apply for a waiver so it could happen in a week or tomorrow.
Leaving: Minter, probably Jay Harbaugh. Brian: Spread your wings, Jay. Seth: He's not that kind of guy, but he may be the kind of guy who loves Michigan enough to want to stay. Herbert? There is nothing in the NFL for him like there is at Michigan, but Seth is worried because Bruce Feldman says Harbaugh plans to take him.
Staying: Clink (AHC?), Bellamy, Hart, Robinson, Campbell to OC, Newsome to OL coach. Need to find a DC, an LB guy, and new special teams coach. Is there a 3rd Skywalker on the Ravens (Orr?) or another guy that Minter and Macdonald know? Jim Leonard: No. Brian has good dude concerns because he couldn't do better than an analyst for Bert (Note: Leonard has a buyout from Wisconsin that would have been voided if he got a DC job but that shouldn't have mattered; knifing Chryst in the back seems to matter). Need to stay ahead of Ohio State in the metagame.
OSU: They could have gotten a guy as good as Caleb Downs if they'd just recruited Rod Moore out of their own backyard. This is what they're up against. Ohio State has always been the program that will do anything in the world to beat Michigan, and they're never going to stop that.
Is it bad for CFB that there's no Harbaugh and Saban anymore? Only if you're the person in charge of getting instant clicks by putting someone's name in the headline. What makes college football special isn't the character head coaches; it's the unique connection the fans have to their players.
Hockey: Young team that doesn't have the depth to overcome mistakes in a very tough league.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.12: False Hope Jan 24, 2024

1 hour and 25 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: You Got Us Believin'

Opener
Dream Start
Solid Second
True Finish with Fights

Segment 2: A Tale of Two Halves

Michigan's Half of the Game
Sparty's Half of the Game
Old Friends and Around the League
Talkin' Badgers

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"Bad Romance" -- Lady Gaga
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

WTKA Roundtable 1/18/2024: Jim is Gonna Jim Jan 18, 2024

Things Discussed:

Seth comes on early to talk Lions.
Jim Harbaugh: If the NFL is willing to give him everything he'll go. If they won't he's got leverage to get what he wants from Michigan.
Minter: Gonna be hard to keep him. Has the chance to follow MacDonald's career path. Worth keeping? Absolutely. Please offer him whatever you can to stay because he is incredible. But what can we offer other than money that NFL can match when he's already shown he's at that level?
Life after Harbaugh? Michigan was the 2nd team to win a National Championship with a majority Black coaching staff (2022 Georgia) and the only one with a Black coordinator or co-coordinator. These guys are as/more responsible than Harbaugh for creating the culture at Michigan.
Moore (to HC), Clink, Hart (to RGC), Newsome (to OL), Elston (title bump?) are all guys with a greater connection to Michigan than Harbaugh. If Jay was smart he'd stick around too (Sam thinks he follows his dad).
Need to think about the next 10 years of college football. Where teams are going to offer your backups $hundreds of thousands to transfer and your recruits more to sign. Someone here needs to leverage the school to make changes, and push to change the mechanism for player compensation from daddy moneybags to a share of TV revenue and contracts. How does Michigan compete in a world where you have to recruit your team each offseason?
If Jim stays is he here for good? No. He's a unicorn; unless he's not having success at Michigan the NFL is going to be interested, because there aren't a lot of Bill Walshs or Pete Carrolls who can have success at both levels.

Michigan HockeyCast 6.11: What is a Stonehill? Jan 16, 2024

1 hour and 39 minutes

With David Nasternak and Alex Drain

This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games.

Segment 1: Six Week Catchup

World Juniors Talk
Alex Talks Stonehill
Games Around the Country
MSU Preview

Segment 2: Wolverines in the NHL

Wings and Avs and Others
A couple guys have The Season
Some Defensemen Talk
Portillo and the AHLers

MUSIC

NHL on ESPN Theme
"Stone Free" -- Jimi Hendrix
Ice Hockey (NES) theme

MGoPodcast 15.16 Supplemental: The Hot Takes Jan 11, 2024

You know what we forgot to do? Splice the Hot Takes segment we recorded into today’s podcast. Sorry for the audio content explosion but we couldn’t have one without the other.

It’s also an opportunity to mention the Sklars are coming to Detroit at the end of February.

WTKA Roundtable 1/11/2024: A Team Full of Yzermans Jan 11, 2024

Things Discussed:

Michigan won a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP.
Anyone trying to take away from this is someone whose opinion never has to matter to you again.
Donovan Edwards: the passing down running back.
THE DEFENSE!!!! Penix under pressure. NFL defense vs NFL rookie.
Win in the trenches: Penix's third read was Mason Graham. That RT was under siege. Made Penix uncomfortable.
Break: Life after Harbaugh?
Post-break: Sainristil. One of the all-time greats.
Harbaugh? Sam is talking like he's definitely exploring NFL, that doesn't mean he's 100% leaving. Lots of guys are 100% staying if Harbaugh is, and 100% if Sherrone Moore is the guy. May not be true if Michigan goes outside for a Kalen DeBoer.
Jesse Minter: do whatever we can to keep the man.

MGoPodcast 15.16: The Perfect Season Jan 11, 2024

3 hours and 18 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast.

1. National Championship Feels

Starts at 1:00

"Bring us home, Blake." He did it just like in the Ohio State, Penn State, and Alabama games. And then Mikey got an interception. A perfect moment in a perfect season. JJ's tweet was right, everyone just take a breath and relax after the last 20 years. So many guys came back to make this possible, and that's the culture of this program. Everyone who stepped up did when they needed to. Michigan's diversity of what they do on offense might be unmatched anywhere else in the country, and part of that is because so many people stick around. We call Blake Corum a perfect human being but Mike Sainristil is the same thing. This program has developed so many dudes who are going to the NFL that most people would not have expected. If you re-ranked these recruiting classes, how much higher would Michigan jump? Michigan fans really showed up for all the playoff games and events.

2. Defense vs Washington

Starts at 45:54

We start with the defense this time because the defense was incredible this game. What more can you even say about Jesse Minter and the players at this point? Everybody eats. Penix was in bad shape by the end of the game, Jaylen Harrell chased him down after the game to congratulate him on a good game. Keon Sabb had a bad missed tackle on Washington's first drive but made up for it later. Michigan seemed to plan this season around playing 15 games with all their substitutions to keep everyone fresh. It also helped that a lot of starters didn't have to play most 4th quarters this year. Washington was not able to just toss up the ball and have their receivers go get it, which is a big part of their game. Penix was uncomfortable all game and it brought his game down. Washington had open guys but it wasn't the guys Penix were expecting to be open. Read 1 --> Read 2 --> Uh oh Mason Graham. Besides a couple misses, this team tackled so well and have all season. How did a wide receiver become the Honey Badger?? Washington does have a great screen game.
The best defense since 1997.

3. Offense vs Washington

Starts at 1:32:46

A re-run of the Rose Bowl but more explosive. They looked a little nervous about passing the ball. One of these Washington linebackers apparently has never seen duo before. Michigan never really fully incorporated a JJ run game which was frustrating. Donovan Edwards, you've been sandbagging us all year! We don't care when you cut, but please just cut. Seven minutes into this game, Donovan Edwards had won the national championship. According to SP+ this is the best Michigan team since 1902 and the first team to hold every opponent to under 25 points since 1904 Minnesota. How many teams are losing their best offensive lineman and not seeing a drop-off? Michigan's transfer portal scouting was nuts, so many dudes did so well. JJ didn't torch this defense but he didn't need to, he also had a good YPA.

4. Game Theory, Special Teams, and Feels

Starts at 2:10:52
WARNING: This segment gets really misty towards the end.

That was the most annoying punter Michigan has ever faced. The care for special teams feels like it really dropped off this year. Decision making was pretty much by the book, though. Onto vibes, nobody has ever felt as good as this because nobody else has ever felt as bad. Reminiscing on some of the bleakest times of the Harbaugh era because they're part of what make this so sweet. Now let us stop wallowing. An impromptu gimmicky top five of "favorite moments of the season."
We talk about how we're feeling right now. There is a very good chance you will cry during it. I did.

MUSIC:

“Win”— David Bowie
“Down, Up!”— BabyTron
“We're a Winner”— The Impressions
“Across 110th Street”

WTKA Roundtable: The Trente Jones Culture Jan 05, 2024

Things Discussed:

A Michigan Family reunion. If you've never been to a Rose Bowl, make sure you do the next one.
Michigan won on the lines. Trente Jones was excellent. Karsen Barnhart made the block of the game. When they had to go for 4th & 1 they moved them; when it was 4th & 2 for the game Alabama had to sell out.
Michigan used a ton of motion to create lots of openings.
Coaching: Alabama coaches were good; Michigan coaches were that much better. Two wide open throws to Corum. Saban ran into a buzzsaw.
Special Teams: Yips.
Talking about the last play: Did Sainristil get too high? Maybe. But Moore had it dead to rights even if they run it right.
Trente Jones: How important was it to the team that he came back. That he approached things like he did.
Harbaugh? Gonna have a fight on their hands. Gotta fight to keep this culture.
Washington preview.

MGoPodcast 15.15: Mountains In The Background Jan 04, 2024

2 hour and 30 minutes

The Sponsors

Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com.

Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast.

1. Rose Bowl Feels

Starts at 1:00

If Michigan wins the national championship, was the Rose Bowl still a bigger game? It was a real Rose Bowl. There is almost no piped in music so you can actually just hear the ambience of the crowd. It's the most beautiful stadium in America and you couldn't build it today. There are no stadium gimmicks, just the existential dread of playing Alabama in the most important game ever (this is a compliment). Michigan wasn't ready to be at this level two years ago, but now they're The Man going into the national championship game.

2. Offense vs Alabama

Starts at 21:21

Michigan puts up nearly 400 yards of offense and it feels like they left a lot on the field. Aside from TCU, the only game where JJ had to put up a game winning touchdown drive (featuring the dumbest Roman Wilson penalty of his career). AT LAST THEY RUN PLAY ACTION. Roman Wilson makes up for it by not only having a truly heroic catch but landing on his feet and he keeps going. Michigan had a great gameplan and schemed a lot of open receivers. Michigan didn't run dig but Alabama was trying to account for it. Michigan had counters to a lot of the stuff they've been putting on film all season. How did you feel about the trick plays? Overall, hard to criticize the gameplan. Mullings can catch! Blake's OT touchdown run is insane, shout out to Karsen Barnhart and Trente Jones. Semaj Morgan was probably in his own head a bit in this game but still had four catches.

3. Hot Takes & Defense vs Alabama

Starts at 1:03:25

Takes hotter than your blood pressure in overtime. You have to go after Milroe and Michigan did it as a team, that's how you stop Alabama. "Khaleke Hudson vs Minnesota" gameplan paid off. Josh Wallace was such a perfect fit for this defense - a senior with a billion snaps who is disciplined. Keon Sabb didn't get to play most of the day and then gets a huge hit. Josiah Stewart looked great. Michigan did a great job on their stunts.

4. Game Theory, Special Teams, and Washington Preview

Starts at 1:48:48

Jay Harbaugh was suddenly replaced by Parker Fleming. If Michigan lost this game, it would be because of special teams. Jake Thaw should've just let that punt go. Semaj Morgan had the yips, but he's a true freshman playing in the Rose Bowl. Was playing for a long field goal correct after the botched flea flicker? Let's just not talk about the last 40 seconds ever again. We briefly laugh about Ohio State. Brian can't stream a game from his phone in Michigan Stadium but he can stream a game on his phone on a plane. Penix played out of his mind against Texas. Michigan probably matches up better with Washington than Texas. Washington's offensive line won the Joe Moore award via pass blocking, not rushing. Should you blitz Penix or just play coverage?

MUSIC:

“Dixieland Delight”— Alabama
“Alabama”— Neil Young
“Deacon Blues”— Steely Dan
“Across 110th Street”

MGoRadio 9.14: The Playoff Preview Dec 29, 2023

The Sponsors

We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, SignalWire where we recorded this, and introducing to the podcast, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast.

Featured Musicians: Cracked & Hooked

The Video:

[After THE JUMP: The things to be said.]

---------------------

1. Alabama Preview: Offense

starts at the top

Milroe is a challenge—baby Vince Young who will destroy you with your legs if you let him. Georgia spied him and held him down; Brian wants to attack him, get got a few times, and keep them off-schedule. WRs are not as threatening as some we've seen; the Gattis generation is gone now. OL has blue chips but the center is wild and the left side is young, especially the left tackle. They use three TEs, one's a fullback, one's a Funchess, one's a Maryland transfer who's meh at both.

2. Alabama Preview: Defense

starts at 25:17

The secondary is the best in CFB; the guy opposite the headliner is even better, and Seth loves their nickel-hybrid. True freshman safety is also excellent, free safety is just out there to be the help. They went back to basics this year with Saban's Pattern-Match hybrid system; Georgia really put it to the test and found the LBs are the most likely to break down. The DTs are not so scary, the pass rushers are: Do not get in long downs against these guys because they'll bring in both 1st rounders. On standard downs they'll play a 290-pound SDE instead. Linebackers are the weakness; they're athletes but mistake-prone. Brian wants this to be the Donovan Edwards game, Seth wants to run down the middle with Corum and Mullings.

3. Iowa After Review

starts at 48:15

It was Iowa.

4. Texas/Washington Preview

starts at 57:04

Hard to figure out this game. Texas is probably the better, Washington is the better big game team because Michael Penix is a big game quarterback. We'd rather face Washington because Texas has the two best DTs in the country and that's how to beat Michigan. They'll also have Xavier Worthy back. Quinn Ewers is really more of a true sophomore—think last year JJ—than the guy ready to take them to the pinnacle, but our Texas friend says they're having a This is the Year season and Washington is the last foe to vanquish on the Revenge Tour.

About the Featured Musician: CRACKED & HOOKED

This year we are partnering with The Blind Pig for bumper music, since that's where I've seen most of the bands I've been pushing anyways.

Ypsilanti's David Freund didn't mean to start a band; he was just learning to play guitar during the pandemic. He started posting his songs, which are bluesgrassy with clever lyrics, on social media, gave himself a goofy name, and started picking up a following quickly. People wanted to see him perform the songs live, so he got some mates to play with him, and now they're a band. They recorded their first album, Wonder Out of Your Mind, over at Grove Studios a year ago Christmas, and put out a new song a few weeks ago. They're playing the Pig on January 31st wsg The City Lines and Good Man's Brother if you want to say you heard about them first.

Song choices:

Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro:

“The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark
“Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

WTKA Roundtable 12/21/2023: The Third Party Hates You Dec 21, 2023

Note: No Brian today; we got John U. Bacon to fill in.

Things Discussed:

Recruiting: Sam: look at the portal too. Seth: Barham is a GREAT pickup.
Mark my words: in 4 years Michigan's 27 players are going to wind up providing more value to Michigan than Miami's 27 players are going to provide to Miami.
But I would like to see us get better at the up-front bag game for cornerbacks and wide receivers and quarterbacks who have a lot of value on the open market because the skills you see in high school are more likely to translate.
You aren't winning a 5-star who takes the bag to go to A&M. You should be winning 5-stars against Ohio State and Georgia and Alabama who know they're going to win and get developed AND get paid. Up-front payments are a line we won't cross, and I wish that wasn't the case, even if it does lead to stress-free signing days.
Burgergate: Congrats to Ohio State for getting the #1 player in the country without using NIL as an inducement, because if you buy a cheeseburger and try to cover it up the NCAA is on the case. Releasing the NOA on signing day should erase any doubt whether this investigation exists for any reason other than a vendetta.
Harbaugh NFL Round Whatever This Is: Yes be afraid of the Chargers, be very afraid if by some chance Las Vegas doesn't stick with their guy, don't be so afraid of the Bears.
Contract: Craig says there's no point unless there's an assumption of reasonableness.
Seth: It's not Michigan or Harbaugh we're worried about being reasonable, it's the Big Ten and NCAA, who have demonstrated conclusively that they are going to use any means at their disposal to hurt Michigan as long as Harbaugh is around. Is that hate ta Michigan problem or a Harbaugh problem? That's the question they need to resolve, because there's no way to keep Harbaugh unless Michigan has his back.
Opinion: They'll probably hate any other coach who's as successful at Michigan as Harbaugh. Also this probably has more to do with how much Warde and some of the regents are tired of dealing with it than what's right for Michigan.

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