MGoBlog’s channel featuring the very professional, very visual, podcast with Brian Cook, Seth Fisher, David Nasternak, and Alex Drain, plus The Teams history podcast with Seth and Dr. Sap, The Michigan Hockeycast, the MGoBlog Roundtable on WTKA.
MGoBlog’s channel featuring the very professional, very visual, podcast with Brian Cook, Seth Fisher, David Nasternak, and Alex Drain, plus The Teams history podcast with Seth and Dr. Sap, The Michigan Hockeycast, the MGoBlog Roundtable on WTKA.
Thank you toUnderground 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.
Good thing this is pivoting to being a snacks podcast. Combos are way up there as far as gas station snacks go. Every time Ohio State got into a 3rd down situation they would just drop back and throw it to an open receiver. When Michigan was in this situation, Ohio State would just man up and Bryce had nowhere to throw. Those substitutions that happened all season continued in this game. Is trophy done going brrr? You cannot have this many holes in your team and expect to compete with Ohio State. The offensive line didn't look as dominated as it seemed, if Jordan Marshall and Justice Haynes played the whole game they'd probably break some more big runs. It didn't seem like Chip Lindsey brought much into this game that was built off of what they had been doing all season. Maybe Bryce froze up (pun not intended) a bit. He only had five throws at halftime? Guarnera actually looked really good, Frazier and Sprague held their ground. The reasons this offense didn't shine this season weren't because of the offensive line. Who's even going to sit out on offense in the bowl game?
2. Defense vs Ohio State
Starts at 29:05
Giving up 27 points to Ohio State seems not that bad but we're still done with Wink. Ohio State's 3rd down conversions were the easiest possible. Neither Barham nor Derrick Moore got anywhere near Sayin all game. The 5-2 came back... It's year two, the defense shouldn't be this simplified. Yes, simplify it early on but it cannot be simplified against Ohio State. He learned nothing from the USC game, Wink needs to get fired and if he isn't then that's on Sherrone. There was a 20 play 81 yard field goal drive that took 12 minutes off the clock. That goal line stand was nice, though. Ohio State was at their own 10 but the backups were in?? Also it's a Fox broadcast, there's plenty of time to rest your starters during tv timeouts! There's a lot of work that needs to be done on the defensive line going into next year. The waves of elite defensive tackles has run its course.
3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams
Starts at 53:38
Takes hotter than... idk. I'm out of ideas just like Michigan's coaches. The first sign that it was over was when Ohio State declined a holding call and then held Michigan on 3rd and 5. Zvada made field goals and a mob didn't have to come after Brian (they would've been right to do so). Hollenbeck had an 11 yard punt. Keeping Andrew Marsh just to fair catch punts is a valuable skill, don't make him a kick returner though. Kicking field goals early on 4th down felt like the right thing at the time, it could've been a stupid blizzard game later. You'd trust Zvada to make these field goals more than you'd trust the offense to get six yards in the redzone. Apparently an Ohio State player had head butted a Michigan player and Barham was demonstrating - but also don't do that. Jeremiah Smith almost had the funniest application of the worst rule in football. There were a lot of Ohio State fans at this game, how does that keep happening? Were there Ohio State fans near you and if so what was the experience near them like?
4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac
Starts at 1:25:11
Oregon 26, Washington 14 Washington's hyped offense just never came true in any of their big games this year. Oregon locks up a playoff bid, they'll probably get the G5 bid or the ACC champions.
Penn State 40, Rutgers 36 Congrats to Penn State on getting bowl eligibility. This was a shootout. Tamper with the Rutgers receivers.
Minnesota 17, Wisconsin 7 Wisconsin is not good.
Michigan State 38, Maryland 28 Jonathan Smith was fired after this recording. There might've been 10,000 fans at this game but the weather kept a lot of people home.
Illinois 20, Northwestern 13 Snow game!
Iowa 40, Nebraska 16 Just a first half blowout without much effort in the 2nd half. A very disappointing ending to Nebraska's season. Nebraska is 2-10 the last three years in November.
USC 29, UCLA 10 UCLA lead at halftime and then USC ran away with it in the 2nd half.
Indiana 56, Purdue 3 A year after Indiana gave Purdue their worst loss in the rivalry they give Purdue their first home loss in the rivalry.
MUSIC:
"Colors Change"—Tanks and Bangas
"Too Good Too Bad"—Jason Scott and the High Heat
"My Girlfriend Doesn't Worry"—Jeffrey Lewis and the Voltage
“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra
Forecast is wind and snow, the real blizzard arriving after the game. Other than one guard they all range from solid to stars. They're back to what they were in 2021-'22, with a future 1st round QB in Julian Sayin who reads leverage on Ryan Day's standard multi-level drag routes and throws to the guys getting open. Those guys: Jeremiah Smith, the future #1 overall pick, and Carnell Tate, who will be a 1st rounder this year. Both have been banged up, but we think they're both going to play and more or less be themselves, with an excuse banked if they lose. Where they've advanced is they use a lot more two-TE sets, particularly Max Klare, a true blocky+catchy hybrid who may necessitate a hybrid response. They use the TEs in clever RPOs to create space for Sayin's throws, and are good enough in the run game with Bo Jackson to punish you for overplaying pass.
2. Ohio State Preview: Defense
starts at 16:59
Be afraid. Illinois gained 295 yards on 4.2 YPP and Washington gained 234 yards on 4.4 YPP. Alex Drain does not like Matt Patricia, but he's slimmed down himself and his playbook and has Ohio State playing at an elite level. That's Caleb Downs, the guy Corum juked for a touchdown in the Rose Bowl, and now the best player in football, who's allowed to rove around and make plays while they man you with everybody else. It's also the play of their linebackers; Sonny Styles was the guy Corum juked on the 6-5 touchdown, but was always supremely talented and is at the peak of his game. Arvelle Reese was another big recruit; he came on last year and is in the conversation to go 1st overall as a grow-a-Parsons. He can be a safety, a DE, a linebacker, or anything.
They can get away with all of that man and blitzing LBs because Igninosu, Matthews, and Styles are excellent athletes in coverage, and the Big Ten doesn't like to flag their grabbiness. The next generation of DBs is coming up—you remember trying to recruit Aaron Scott and Bryce West, plus #8 overall Devin Sanchez.
They replaced four superstars on the DL with a superstar, a star, and two Just-Guys. Kayden McDonald is the lone member who wasn't a top-50 recruit but he's the star, and is probably a step too far Crippen and Guarnera. Caden Curry made the leap; he's Jack Sawyer 2.0, a strong pass-rusher and a force against the run. Kenyatta Jackson is equally strong against the run but is a block-and-done rusher. Tywone Malone has been there for ages.
3 and 4. Hoops in Vegas After-Action Report
starts at 31:49 and 44:49
Beat Auburn by 30 and SDSU and Zaga by 40. Teams came into this thinking they could blitz Michigan's ball screens, Michigan came in having practiced their response to it. Zaga thruck? Look who took their shots—those aren't their shooters. The defense has been incredible; Morez allows you to be switchable when Mara is off the court and when he's on there's nowhere to go with the ball. Zaga had to take a bunch of push shots from 12 feet that are good shots for them, but that's not going to sustain an offense. Cason is coming around, though the offense is still much smoother with Cadeau. Turnovers are going to be the thing for this team again; when they get anything like even shot volume they're murder because their threes are open and they have all of these guys who score at the rim. Yaxel is becoming the Weapon that he was thought to be in the portal, but is extra dangerous because he doesn't have to be. Big-big actions are going to have to level up now that teams are sitting on them. This is where you bring in Tschetter, because a team that prepared for Johnson is out of sorts.
If it wasn't for Brad Dumont I might still be in the Rose Bowl parking lot. Brad recognized us, let us in his car, and took us to Randy Sklar's place in time to catch Washington vs. Texas. He also put on the music of his then-14-year-old son Nate. Part of this had to be the fact Michigan had just won 26-20 in overtime in Nick Saban's last game. Also these kids rocked. It's relatable catchy stuff with a funky rhythm that's way more advanced than anyone ought to be at that age. Apparently in the two years since these high schoolers have picked up a following in the Pasadena music scene, but were getting in at the bottom floor; these are the two songs they've recorded so far. Trouble in Paradise was the one we were bouncing around to like middle-aged Mikey Sainristils. Rewind hits right now. Also give it up for a four-piece band when all the stuff that gets pushed these days are from solo artists and collabs. You can make fun of me now then turn this on for the ride home after we win.
Songs:
Rewind
Trouble in Paradise
Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro:
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:
Opener: discussing thanksgiving foods. Michigan was much better than Ohio State on Friday but had to grind for a 3rd period victory. Talk about possible soft goals. Good goaltending from Eberly. Nice pass by Valentini --> Hughes wins it.
Segment 2:
Michigan scored a touchdown and got the 2 pointer on Saturday. 4th liners set the tone, skilled guys bring it home. Bad Eberly game. Sucked ruining the shutout. Discussion about B1G expected goals numbers and Michigan’s place in the conference hierarchy. College hockey’s west is way better than the east yet again. Checking in on old friends. When will Mercyhurst win a game? Michigan should pummel Harvard but Harvard’s goalie is really good. Michigan picked up a commit from Nic Sima out of the OHL so we check in on the 2026 recruiting class.
Thank you toUnderground 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.
It doesn't feel good to just beat up on Maryland the week before The Game. Dave explains a soft and gooey snack for all of you to enjoy. Bryce was okay! He's worked on a nice seam route with an arc to Marlin Klein that he didn't have before the bye. And a dig route! There was one bad pass which was a tough throw to make anyways. Can he go and win The Game? Probably if the defense can do enough. This was never going to be a challenge for the offensive line but they exceeded expectations anyways. The Ohio State game might be a bridge too far, though. Kuzdzal is a step down from Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall but he's got some juice. They succeeded on wedge! Andrew Marsh almost completed the Odell Beckham?? He's a star going forward. Marlin Klein hurdled a fool, Goodwin had a few catches. It was nice of Maryland to just run into themselves and let Michigan do what they wanted.
2. Defense vs Maryland
Starts at 34:09
There was an opening drive touchdown with various guys being offsides again, but then there wasn't much until the backups came in. Pleeeease do not be rotating the back-seven against Ohio State all game. Derrick Moore has 11 sacks, imagine if he played more! Ernest Hausmann did not travel, Cole Sullivan was back (and possibly a little rusty). This performance didn't build confidence in holding Ohio State to 10 points again, a lot of Maryland receivers were running open. Brandyn Hillman had another good game, maybe that mini-suspension was the best thing for his career. He was even directing players into position. Some of Maryland's drops count as triple drops. There's just not much interior rush from this defensive line, maybe play Barham at linebacker against OSU so you can blitz him. Does Wink actually call plays without knowing or caring which personnel are out there? This year you don't have the two best defensive tackles in America and you can't bait Ryan Day into running into a six man box.
3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams
Starts at 56:08
Takes hotter than yours truly after he got through the hot takes intro and had to re-do them because the Sklars dropped out of the call. Brian broke Zvada. Chase Taylor gets +4 on the onside kick recovery, that did not feel good. There was no punting from Michigan so we don't have to complain about punting. Marsh had some nice punt returns?? End of first half time management was less than ideal, Goodwin lined up in the wrong spot and they should've called timeout. Stop jumping offside! The late hit by Brandt was a weak call, so was the one on Bryce Underwood. Every replay angle was field-level and somehow they're contradictory?
4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac
Starts at 1:19:43
Oregon 42, USC 27 A close-ish looking boxscore but Oregon scored 28 first half points. Oregon has figured out some things after the Indiana game, they're in the 99th percentile in opportunity run rate. They're starting to look like the championship team they were hoping to be.
Iowa 20, Michigan State 17 Iowa pulls out a classic game that they don't deserve to win. MSU QB Alessio Milivojevic punted three times. Michigan State's 8 game losing streak is tied for the 2nd longest, the program record is 10. Tickets for MSU vs Maryland at Ford Field after the game are free!
Northwestern 38, Minnesota 35 An offensive explosion game! Northwestern wins at Wrigley for the first time in 8 attempts.
Wisconsin 27, Illinois 10 Neither team gets to 300 yards of offense. This was the first time all season that Wisconsin scored in the first and second quarter.
Penn State 37, Nebraska 10 The Grunk throws 12 times for 181 yards, that'll do it. Nebraska goes 1 of 6 on 4th down. Who is Penn State's number 1 coaching candidate?
Washington 48, UCLA 14 The Huskies continue to play without some of their stars but still blew out UCLA
Ohio State 42, Rutgers 9 Ugh
MUSIC:
"Feel It Again"—Winyah
"Drugs"—Philharmonik Live from NPR Tiny Desk
"DBZ"—Your Old Droog and Method Man
“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra
They have a kid quarterback too, but Malik Washington doesn't have an offensive line or a running game to help him. He does have a redzone threat in Shaleak Knotts and a couple of other productive receivers. That offensive line is the problem—their left tackle is from Central Connecticut State and he's not even their worst OL. Their TE room is banged up and bad at blocking. The RB and TE are good receivers but don't contribute much to the run game either, and somebody on this team has to protect the QB.
2. Maryland Preview: Defense
starts at around 12:20 PM
They're very young—younger than we are. Remember when Jalen Huskey picked off JJ McCarthy in the endzone? Hint: it was the game JJ threw interceptions in 2023 and made us feel bad briefly. They're opportunistic in the secondary, and won some games early in the season because they pick the ball off. They also have some transfers who make the passing game tough sledding: an Ohio vagabond who gets the backfield, a true freshman pass rusher that M had its eye on. Safeties are the returning starters and the best part of the defense, but have to hang back and clean up after the kids. Prescription: pound 'em.
3. Hoops: TCU and MTSU After-Action Report
starts around 12:40 PM
This team can be maddening. They have eight to nine starters who will take over a game or throw it away on any given possession. Aday Mara can be inconsistent even when his height isn't, and that's why they're 6th in Kenpom. Team fixed its rebounding issues and sprung some major turnover issues that allowed MTSU back into a game they were out of, before they were out of it again. The Blue Raiders settled for a lot of jumpers—contested threes or pullup other twos, while M is scoring 1.4 PPP at the rim. That formula is going to work against a lot of teams, but San Diego State and Auburn are going to be real threats.
4. Northwestern After Review
starts at around 1:00 PM
Andrew Marsh, come on down. Already on star watch and boy do we like that. Bryce was pretty good except when he threw a REALLY BAD freshman interception and an only kinda bad OC interception because they went to the well one too many times against Robert Fitzgerald, who balled out. Run game: Jordan Marshall is special but Bryson Kuzdzal is playable. Offensive line continues to do well against this level of competition; got 70% of their available yards against a very good defense.
Defensively Seth thinks he's figured out (finally) why Michigan's rotations are what they are, in part because Michigan finally figured out their rotations. They also tried a new 3-3-5 defensive strategy that uses Barham as a linebacker and Hausmann as a hybrid, but it suffered the same fate as a lot of Wink ideas when he springs something new. Fine games from Brandyn Hillman and Mason Curtis; not as mad at Bowles as I thought we'd be. Cam Brandt: that's still weird, at least in pass rush, but he did some things in the run game to justify himself again.
You know here at MGoBlog we're fans of the un-Googleable. The Band Feel, which will be at The Pig in a few weeks, looks, acts, and sounds like a lost act from the early 1970s. But man does it ever work now, and it's not like the psychedelic ideas stopped coming when all the Zeppelin knockoffs drank themselves into glam. The Band Feel picks up where Beck, Sabbath, Deep Purple, etc. left off, but they also work in all the threads that have been developed since. The hit is "Shoal Creek" which sounds like a long lost Led Zeppelin song, but I stumbled on "Fly Birdy, Fly" which weaves in some of the bluegrassy ideas that became country back into rock. Goodbye Virginia is off their 2024 EP but the others are from their newest album Into the Sun.
Songs:
Icarus
Fly Birdy, Fly
Goodbye Virginia
Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro:
When not being a terrible freshman Bryce was a five-star freshman. Some incredible throws in this one. Not that mad about 2nd interception because that was on the OC.
Lindsey's gameplan of RPOs (ten Split Flows!) was perfect against Dantonio-style quarters. Got 70% of their yards, which is more important for future performance.
RPOs were also good for getting Bryce feeling comfortable. We have a freshman but also a five-star, and he looked like one. Sam: Note the first drive was downfield passing!
That throw to Andrew Marsh: wow.
Shoutout to NW safety Robert Fitzgerald. Let's tamper with that guy!
Andrew Marsh: What a perfect guy to be coming through.
MARYLAND PREVIEW
They're young with no running game to fall back on so they lose games. Gotta win jump balls against their big receivers. Malik Washington will be a good one, but no OL and no run game. Their defense is also young and mistake-prone.
BIG TEN PRIVATE EQUITY DEAL ON HOLD, MICHIGAN AND USC FTW?
Why the other schools want it:
They're all in big debt because building debt (paid to their big donors) was how these non-profits made their revenue disappear while getting to keep most of it and making the ledgers balance for Title IX compliance (e.g. updates to Breslin are Women's Basketball expenditures.) Now you want to free the ledgers and the donors to pay players, so you need upfront capital to unravel the old system.
Lock down a portion of Michigan's revenue. MSU, NW, IU, PU, RU, IL need to lock in a share of M/OSU revenue now because if the conferences break up for a super league they're not going to be invited. The length of the media rights contract is 20 years. This is CRITICAL. Michigan State has a real chance of becoming a mid-major.
Ohio State wasn't on board until they got a clause giving them a bonus for selling more gear/stadium advertising. The way it's structured now they get more money than Michigan, which is all they wanted to hear.
Why Michigan and USC don't want it: Michigan already got itself out of the debt cycle.
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:
Extensive discussion on the extremely mediocre NHL. Michigan got bludgeoned in the first period of Friday’s game yet ended it up 3-0. PSU quit after that and Michigan dominated them. Guaranteed a fierce response on Saturday? Will Horcoff has been awesome this season.
Segment 2:
Michigan didn’t play a bad game but came up short. Good in-zone defense, less good rush defense. Didn’t love the 2nd goal from Ivankovic. Valiant comeback attempt included a sweet deke by Perron. More discussion of McKenna’s defensive effort effort problems. Overall an okay weekend. Should the Gophers tank for a good draft pick? How good is Ohio State?
Thank you toUnderground 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.
This doesn't even qualify as a top five weird Northwestern game (we list our top five). This week's snack of the week is organic pumpkin seeds. On one level, this kinda looked like Michigan's best game of the year on offense and defense. Michigan comes out slinging it and Bryce's confidence seemed like it was at another level, but he made young mistakes. What happened on Bryce's sacks? Playing Northwestern always kinda feels like they have your signs. Michigan was able to counter some of Northwestern's defensive counters. Most of the mistakes are coming from freshmen which is just something that happens. Missed cuts on zone is whatever but missed cuts on power isn't good. Bryson Kuzdzal came in and did just fine. Bryce's scrambles were pretty good and mostly improvisation, his interceptions were freshman stuff. Safeties were baiting him, can he anticipate that in the future? The first interception was not understanding how to read the coverage, the second one was just needing to throw the ball better. Andrew Marsh made the Michigan catch of the year, you have a dedicated receiver going into next year. You could have 12 of 14 boxes in a great position next year. Andrew Marsh is the best freshman receiver since... Manningham? How much does this performance mean against Ohio State? The reverse fumble is on Chip Lindsey.
[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]
2. Defense vs Northwestern
Starts at 44:15
Northwestern came into this game with a pretty good ground game and they got stuffed. This was a good game to run the 5-2 in, Northwestern is on the opposite end of the spectrum from USC. Northwestern's gamesmanship cost them two false starts, Michigan tipped what they were running multiple times. The defensive backs got beat a few times but sometimes a receiver just makes a nice play over you. You probably don't want to put Zeke Berry on Jeremiah Smith, Jyaire Hill is getting his star back. Brandyn Hillman tackled with his arms! He's grown as a much more mature player over the season. They're defending screens now! TJ Metcalf body-slammed a guy.
3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams
Starts at 1:08:55
Takes hotter than suburban Chicago in mid-November. There seems to be differing views on how much people liked this venue for a football game. The camera shots were weird. Seth and Dave think the inside of the stadium is magical, Brian not so much. It might've actually been 90% Michigan fans. They did the best they could with clock management at the end of the first half. What about timeouts at the end of the second half? Zvada kicked the ball into the street outside of the stadium. Brian takes responsibility for the missed field goals by changing the preview. Semaj got replaced, he's a better player than he's performed but he may be overdue for a mental health break. 4th down decisions. NFL calculator says there's a complete coin flip in decision making. It shouldn't be a holding call if you're getting your ass kicked. Semaj was on the ground with the ball but they didn't overturn the fumble? There's no transparency between officiating and the fans, other conferences and sports are getting better at it.
4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac
Starts at 1:59:37
USC 26, Iowa 21 Iowa jumped out to a nice lead but scored zero points in the second half. The Hawkeyes lost three offensive linemen. The universe is paying them back for all the 10 win seasons they had no business having. USC is now a legitimate playoff contender.
Indiana 31, Wisconsin 7 This was a sludge fart for Indiana in the first half but put it away in the second. Wisconsin is one of the worst Big Ten offenses ever contemplated. Most of Wisconsin's offense was off of a couple weird plays.
Penn State 28, Michigan State 10 A rock fight between two of the worst teams in the league. Michigan State had 15 wins over the last three years... well at least they did. Penn State won the very ugly trophy which might actually be the best trophy and they looked like they really wanted it.
Illinois 24, Maryland 6 Maryland is not even trying to run the ball anymore. Illinois ground them to a pulp. Don't throw at Maryland, just run them over.
Washington 49, Purdue 13 Washington doubles Purdue in yardage and most of that was likely garbage time for Purdue.
Oregon 42, Minnesota 13 This feels like danger zone for PJ Fleck. They could lose to Wisconsin??
Ohio State 48, UCLA 10 UCLA is without Nico in this game, their backup has never thrown a college pass. UCLA is moving out of the Rose Bowl??
MUSIC:
"Slow Burn"—The Rose City Band
"Swans"—Maston
"Optimism"—Jana Horn
“Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra
They're fine. Their offense plods but for one good receiver or when their QB throws an INT, which he's got accuracy problems that were visible when he was a Rhett Ashlee QB at SMU. Their defense is decent, rotates, plays sound football of a Lloyd variety. Alex likes edge Aidan Hubbard more than Michael Kilbane (whom PFF prefers). Their DTs are a little undersized so they jump behind the line of scrimmage, which Nebraska was able to exploit down the stretch.
2. Northwestern Preview cont. wsg Rodger Sherman
starts at 13:56
What's it like being a Northwestern fan these days? It's spending $800 million on an unnecessary stadium instead of players, because you can't put your name on players.
3. Wake Forest After-Action Report, and a short TCU Preview
starts at 27:45
How many ways can we say Mara is a star? Defensive ceiling is ridiculous. Three-big lineup needs a name. We also talk about Matt D's findings regarding the defensive play of Michigan's guards, which was not at all what we expected.
4. Purdue Upon Further Review
starts at 44:58
Young offensive line plus Zack Marshall and Jalen Hoffman continue to be good blockers—might meet their match vs Ohio State. Jordan Marshall is a beast. Bryce's second half wasn't great either—he was not feeling comfortable in the pocket, missed some RPO reads he made earlier. Need a bye to get right. Defensively, I wasn't mad about Wink. Don't say on the internet that I was mad. Defensively the kids were not alright and the defensive rotations were still weird, but more explainable given the injury circumstances. Long drives were explainable until Purdue figured out they were just running nail (where you insert a blitzing LB as a 5th lineman and play 5-1). Interested in Lugard Edokpayi.
I usually don't go for country music, but I do when it's made by Terry Klein (LSA 1995), a folk country artist from Austin who's been touring festivals the most hallowed singer-songwriter venues across the country for decades, and reading a lot of MGoBlog between stops. His last album Leave the Light On won a bunch of acclaim, making American Songwriter's list of the best records released in 2023. His fifth album, Hill Country Folk Music, just came out.
Songs:
I Used To Be Cool
The Dirty Third
The Job Interview Song
Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro:
Craig and the Half a Head story vis a vis Tarik Skubal.
Aday Mara holy crap. He was last year's on-off numbers while playing 37/45 minutes. When he was on the floor Wake Forest was 27% at the rim.
M needs to figure out the rest. Loosening balls but not converting them to turnovers. Have three bigs on the floor and none know how to box out because they were the rebounding alphas.
Three Bigs? Don't think it's going to work because Morez Johnson taking a three in the flow of the offense isn't going to work. The point of Yaxel is to make him a four, so you're effectively using Johnson at small forward. Maybe if you also make Mara a Wolf-level assist guy?
They won a game when they shot 16% from three; if they can be 33% from three and have Mara's defense it's over.
Don't overreact to Lendeborg's start: injured hand and Wake was a weird team that didn't have big tradeoffs from switching only 6'7" guy on Lendeborg to another.
Loose balls: not boxing out when they're not boxing out, the way they play is everyone can be aggressive on their man and you have a behemoth, so nobody's facing the ball when he knocks it loose. Defense needs to be more aggressive: You saw Gayle got it; he overplayed on the perimeter and got some turnovers because if they cut behind you you're still covered.
Wake's first shots sucked.
LJ's thing is he goes in the lane, but this team doesn't have a lot of perimeter shooting.
Tschetter's defense doesn't match well with this team, but he can get you threes. Was hoping he could be on the court with Johnson and Mara but he can't unless Morez can take threes.
Trey McKenney was a revelation on defense. He knows where to be, has that length.
Can they run offense without Cadeau on the court? Cadeau also needs to be more careful with the ball—deserved six turnovers.
FOOTBALL
Northwestern Preview: Low-scoring game. They're good on defense, they're interception-prone, they're best at putting two TEs on the field and running OZ and Duo; Michigan might be able to play two-DTs. When they do well they get movement on the front.
Caleb Tiernan: Always loved Northwestern.
If we're in a match of who can out-1950s the other give me Michigan's OL and Jordan Marshall.
If M gets an explosive they can look for it in the RPO game: NWern can't go to their 3rd safety and their SS is a 6'4"/220 hybrid guy. Maybe get him against Marsh?
Barham at edge or linebacker? I vote linebacker, because that makes them tell you how they're going to set up.
TONY PETTITI IS GOING TO END THE BIG TEN
Trying to pass their their "pay-day loan" (thank you Regent Bernstein) over the objections of Michigan and USC is the way they get Michigan to leave when the Grant of Rights expires. When all of these are mid-majors in 20 years remember this moment, and the idiots trying to solve today's problems with a cash infusion that future fans will have to pay for.
