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

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.