MGoPodcast 15.1: It Started Here

2 hour and 15 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, HomeSure Lending, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, and The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros’ reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass.

EVENT NOTE: We're hosting a tailgate with the Sklars at Venue before the UNLV game for anyone who has a ticket to see them perform live at the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase that night. Venue will have the noon games on, and provide an a la carte tailgate spread, food truck with four beers on tap, and bar. Tickets will be on sale soon at the Comedy Showcase--stay tuned.

1. Offense vs ECU

Starts at 1:00

Michigan football has returned! The red hat guy chased Brian out of the stadium at the end of this game. ECU kicked The Sad Field Goal to keep their scoring streak alive. Train made all the right people upset so bravo for that. Initial results are that JJ McCarthy has made The Leap and has taken the training wheels off (and also has the ability to “extend the neutral zone”). Are teams going to continue to stuff the run and ask JJ to beat them, especially if he says “ok”? Running dive five times in a row just to get Donovan Edwards a touchdown probably wasn’t necessary. The play action approach in this game was much better than last year. Myles Hinton probably isn’t going to be the starting tackle once the starting line is set, Trente Jones came in and immediately started moving people. Barnhart at left tackle seemed a lot more smooth. It was an excellent day for the receivers. Roman Wilson doesn’t block like Ronnie Bell but can get over the top of a safety playing 11 yards off the line. AJ Barner’s blocking wasn’t encouraging, Bredeson is probably the second blocking tight end. Is Colston Loveland so good that he’s just boring now?

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

2. Defense vs ECU

Starts at 42:32

Michigan rotated five DTs and five DEs and there seemed to be no drop-off. Hausmann looked really good, he’ll be a dude. You could also move him at either middle or weak side linebacker. The secondary was missing Will Johnson and Rod Moore, Josh Wallace looked really good. The Almost Interception was a great play and an encouraging sign for the season. Sabb looked competent out there, ECU isn’t going to stress safeties much though. The way Derrick Moore moves around the field, you have to imagine he’ll break out eventually. Kenneth Grant - OH LAWD HE COMIN. Josiah Stewart is looking like a fairly one-dimensional passing down kind of guy.

3. Hot Takes and Special Teams

Starts at 1:05:57

Tommy Doman has a cannon of a leg, so punting is back in a good place. His kickoffs were also bombs. James Turner had a really weird game at kicking. Missed an extra point and a long field goal but made the best field goal of his career. We did not see Alex Orji returning punts, sadly. Jake Thaw as a punt returner didn’t look comfortable at first. Plenty of opportunities this season to field punts, at least. Nice to see Michigan notice a defense that’s aggressive at stopping the run and airing it out sooner, rather than waiting a couple quarters. Keep an eye on Kalel Mullings as the season goes on. The scoreboards are bigger but the replay part of the scoreboards are not. Do we need to keep cycling what 7:30pm games are on that night? Officiating was… kind. That targeting on JJ was egregious, it was exactly the kind of hit the game is trying to get rid of.

4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac

Starts at 1:33:48

Ohio State - 23
Indiana - 3

Ohio State really couldn’t do much against the Indiana defense… Egbuka and Harrison combined for 34 yards. This is not going to be the #1 offense in the country in SP+. They’re still getting stuffed on 3rd down. Indiana had a great defensive game plan but couldn’t do a thing on offense. McCord does not look comfortable being aggressive throwing downfield.

Michigan State - 31
Central Michigan - 7

We probably didn’t learn much about the Michigan State defense because Central Michigan has a freshman QB who can’t do much. Noah Kim had an awful first quarter performance. This was too much of a fight against a bottom half MAC team. Alante Brown was knocked out of the game and went back in later - it was a Shane Morris incident again.

Illinois - 30
Toledo - 28

Toledo held a lead for most of this game because Illinois couldn’t get out of their own way. 90 yards of penalties in the first half but they got a pick six in the second half.

Iowa - 24
Utah State - 13

Did not meet the 25 points required to save Brian Ferentz’s career. Cade McNamara resumes his role as a game manager, but they scored on their first two drives. Couldn’t do much more after that.

Penn State - 38
West Virginia - 15

Drew Allar’s first start went very well against a defense that’s not supposed to be very good, but an encouraging sign for Penn State. Penn State running game was okay. West Virginia could possibly be really bad? Penn State missed two field goals.

Minnesota - 13
Nebraska - 10

You can take Scott Frost out of the state but you can’t take the Scott Frost out of the football program. Nebraska had a 94% chance to win this late into the game. Minnesota could not run the ball at all. Nebraska threw three picks, losing in the most Nebraska way possible.

Maryland - 38
Towson - 6

Moving on!

Wisconsin - 38
Buffalo - 17

Wisconsin has moved to an air raid passing offense and put up 300 yards of rushing between their two backs. Air raid not fully installed yet. Tanner Mordecai was 24/31 for 189 yards and two interceptions. Braelon Allen had 7 catches for 25 yards. Mo Linguist is Buffalo’s head coach so they have a good secondary.

Purdue - 35
Fresno State - 39

Purdue is going to take some time to rebuild, it’s year zero. Despite just playing Purdue last year, we don’t recognize any of their receivers. Get Donovan Edwards to this game and let him feast.

Northwestern - 7
Rutgers - 24

Nope!

MUSIC:

• “Love T.K.O.”— Teddy Pendergrass
• “Potions”— Day Wave
• “Chosen to Deserve”—  Wednesday
• “Across 110th Street”