MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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?

• 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?

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

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”