MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast

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: Really Bad and then A Lot Better Who are we? A FAST Start BAD! A Completely Different Game Segment 2: What Else Happened? First Half Takeaway Old Friends Big Ten Scores We Try Not to Talk About Stones MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "She's So Mean" -- Matchbox Twenty Ice Hockey (NES) theme

1 hour and 34 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros' reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and INTRODUCING TO THE PODCAST: Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning. 1. College Football Playoff Discussion Starts at 1:00 The College Football Playoff committee putting in Alabama over Florida State is just awful. This isn't a Michigan thing, it's a college football thing. They're a 13-0 ACC champion team. Florida State did everything they could. This Alabama team has been erratic all season. Their defensive tackles are just guys but they have an outstanding secondary and two really good edge rushers. Michigan probably has an advantage in both trenches. It feels like Michigan should win this game. There's no clear monster in the playoffs (besides maybe Michigan?). 2. Offense vs Iowa Starts at 25:15 This wasn't nearly as bad as it felt when you rewatch it. Trente Jones keeps picking up the stupidest holding calls. Colston Loveland dropped some passes he never drops. They played very conservatively because once you go up by 10 points in this game it doesn't matter. JJ only goes 22/30 for 147 yards, if his tight ends don't drop some we're playing the incompletion game again. Michigan did some simple trick stuff but it's not the kind of thing that can fool Iowa, they're a very sound defense. They need to do some soul searching with Donovan Edwards before playing Alabama. Instead of "JJ's incompletions" we play "JJ's sacks". 3. Hot Takes, Defense vs Iowa Starts at 52:40 Takes hotter than every single Florida State fan until the end of all time. Brian should've just put "no" as the preview. Was it a fumble or an incomplete pass? Let's talk about how good of a human Mike Sainristil is (he's going to be president one day). Who's on the Mount Rushmore of these past three seasons? Kenneth Grant continues to consume. There's not much else to say about how Michigan's defense did against Iowa's offense. 4. Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:20:45 Michigan normally goes for it on 4th and short but when you can kick a field goal to go up against Iowa, you just go for it. How is Iowa so bad at QB sneak? Semaj Morgan did a thing, the guy who tackled him might be the most athletic person on the field, though. Jake Thaw was the "just field this punt" guy. How does James Turner compare to Jake Moody? MUSIC: “War Pigs”— Black Sabbath “Going Down South”— RL Burnside “Dyslexic Heart”—  Paul Westerberg “Across 110th Street”

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: Rewarding Fans, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast. Featured Musicians: 8-Bit Big Band The Video: [After THE JUMP: The things said.] --------------------- 1. Ohio State After Review starts at the top. Defensively it was an NFL game. Michigan unleashed a dizzying array of coverages to hide McCord's leverage from him, and Ryan Day had all kinds of motions and switches to uncover it. The game turned on Mason Graham, who allowed Michigan to keep the pressure on McCord and play with an extra defender in the secondary because OSU could not run on him. Hutchinson-level? Not yet, but Hutchinson before his injury in 2020, where this guy is an All-American. Rod Moore was back to himself. Sainristil isn't a vet at outside cornerback, McBurrows is a good nickel. Offensively there was a lot left on the table. Michigan maximized its RPS wins, Corum's run was RPS+1 but also the biggest play in Michigan football history? JJ almost had a TD on the throwback to Johnson, who didn't recognize he had a Daylen Baldwin opportunity. Run game limited because Tyliek Williams played out of his mind. Going to be a negative in the run game charting for the first time in years, Barnhart especially. But he was their best in pass pro. Do. Not. Leave. JTT. Unblocked. 2. Iowa Preview: Offense starts at 22:44 Abominable, worst in the Power 5. Their receivers are a bad match for their QB, who needs a big target more than a good route. Injured TEs and OL who run a lot of stretch and counter trey: the kind of team Michigan should be best able to defend. Mitigator: Michigan likes to leave their safeties back and subject their DTs to doubles, while teams have been suffocating Iowa specifically because you can bring down your safeties and their RB will break a tackle for 50 yards once every three games. 3. Iowa Preview: Defense starts at 36:59 Excellent as always, with a lot more talent than we're used to. Five-star safety is playing like one, safety-ish linebacker from Virginia is athletic and their best pass-rusher. Plus the usual array of Iowa types. We wonder if their big-butted WLB is grading out so well (87 to PFF, over 90 in coverage) because he's more than a match for Big Ten West competition, but will get dusted if he has to keep up with Donovan Edwards. Missing Cooper DeJean but CBs have been fine. Again: competition question mark, and their DL isn't great at pass-rushing, so there's an opportunity for explosives except they take that away by playing soft cover 2. If they do that Michigan will have to grind them down like last year, but can they without Zinter? Their punter is incredible. Their backup kicker had to kick the game-winner against Nebraska. 4. The Other Conference Championships + Playoff Talk starts at 56:41 We go in order, starting with Washington-Oregon, which is not a 10-point game like Vegas has it. Oregon has been playing fantastic of late and Washington keeps needing to TCU its way through Pac-12 teams. But remember back when they played Washington had that game until Oregon surged back. Texas-Oklahoma State is the biggest spread, want to root for our old friend at QB but also rooting for Texas to get in to keep out the unwanted SEC teams and Ohio State. Georgia could lose to Bama, which is chaos, and we talk more about the committee's choices than the game. FSU beating Louisville would mean FSU goes ahead of any 1-loss team, and if Georgia complains about getting Oregon as the 4-seed they should pound sand. We don't believe in conspiracies; the committee cares about who wins the games, not what ESPN talking heads say to prop up the SEC. A Playoff without any SEC teams would be right, glorious, and absolutely deserved. About the Featured Musician: 8-BIT BAND We're back to letting Seth pick out the songs, so I'm going to nerd out and show you what I've been writing to for a lot of the year. It is this 25+ member orchestra of amazing jazz musicians who come together off their various projects to compose and produce big band versions of videogame music from our childhoods. I could describe further but Adam Neely, who's one of my favorite video essayists (one of the people worth getting a Nebula subscription for), has a 30-minute video on it. He also plays bass. The 8-Bit Band is playing December 15th at Sony Hall in New York, and January 13th at the Ferguson Center in Newport News. Song choices: Chrono Trigger Main Theme Bob-Omb Battlefield Still Alive 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

Things Discussed: The Game post-op: OSU was closer because they didn't play insane. Were conservative and that worked for them. Payoff for the light boxes all year. Seth's monologue: Ohio State has plenty of hate, Michigan swerved to love, and I'm so happy that they won so we can talk about how the players love each other and love Harbaugh, and how the fans uplifted them. Ari Wasserman comes clean: Signsgate was always just about hurting Michigan by changing the narrative. McCarthy runs: obviously injured, OSU had some ideas to stop QB run, but M didn't plan the counters for that because they weren't going to run with him. Michigan didn't learn the lesson of JTT: If you leave him unblocked for a second he will kill you. Play-action is still missing. They are using it wrong. Orjicat: OSU doesn't have numbers with a safety high. McCarthy's read: He studied film on the robber, knew that guy was turning. Last TD: Wasn't a bust, was Ryan Day adjusting to Michigan's Palms coverage. Michael Barrett: shoulda been 1st team All-B10. Tommy Eichenberg was the soft spot Michigan attacked to win this game, and all the other coaches picked on him too. Next year? Let's see what the portal brings, what the NFL takes. Michigan's D will be very good. Will JJ return? (25%?) Sam: Michigan will only be going after guys who are proven commodities (not Tobias Merriweather). Iowa: Atrocious offense, respect their defense minus their best player. CFP: We want to face FSU not Oregon.

56 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 Sunny Part...Then the Cloudy Part Stories to Tell First Shutout Since A Wonderful Start And...........Again Segment 2: What Else Happened? Old Friends Big Ten Scores The Little Green Men MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Electric Love" -- Børns Ice Hockey (NES) theme

3 hours and 20 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros' reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and INTRODUCING TO THE PODCAST: Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning. 1. Thoughts on The Game Starts at 1:00 It comes down to Michigan being the type of team to go for it on 4th and 1 and Ohio State is the type of team to punt on 4th and 1. This game came down to blocking and tackling, not sign stealing. Ohio State is below the Ferentz line over the last three years (and are 74% of the way to Ryan Day's 100 points). Twitter has been so much quieter since Saturday. Is this the end of the line for Ryan Day? Should it be? Also who would you even hire next? Michigan's culture was built to beat Ohio State. This program brings out the mental fortitude of the players required to endure what the last six weeks has been.   2. Offense vs Ohio State Starts at 36:19 Blake Corum's 22 yard run is what he came back to Michigan for, he ran duo and made Sonny Styles look silly. Trente Jones is blowing people off the line - so happy for him in this game. The Ohio State defense was as advertised, JTT is a monster of a run defender. Feels like they could've just used JJ instead of Alex Orji on the run plays out of the first half. Why didn't JJ run more? It didn't quite feel like the best game plan but it worked, also Ohio State's defense just played really well. Was the Roman Wilson touchdown throw the best throw we've ever seen a Michigan quarterback make? Playcalling on Michigan's last series wasn't great but otherwise it was great throughout the drive for draining seven minutes of clock. Cornelius Johnson didn't have the same explosive plays as last year but the catches he did have were arguably just as monumental. There's no question that Colston Loveland is going to catch the ball when the ball goes his way. 3. Hot Takes, Defense vs Ohio State Starts at 1:18:31 Takes hotter than Ryan Day's seat. Michigan's defense did exactly what we expected, Marvin Harrison Jr said he's never been doubled like that before. Michigan did a good job containing TreVeyon Henderson, Chip Trayanum was more effective. The secondary got interesting after Will Johnson got hurt. Why was Jimmy Rolder out there? Marvin Harrison Jr made some insane catches, especially the downfield one where he was held. Ryan Day didn't want to run CJ Stroud and he doesn't want to run Kyle McCord. Surprising lack of frippery between both offenses. McCord played surprisingly well under pressure. Quinten Johnson's big hit made the Big House as loud as we've ever heard. Michigan's rotation of players all season paid off in this one. 4. Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 2:08:44 Let's compare Ryan Day to James Franklin! Discussing all of Ohio State's punting situations. What about Michigan's, should they have gone for it on the final 4th and 4? Maybe it's better to let Colston Loveland win it for you than to have to defend Marvin Harrison Jr without Will Johnson. Ryan Day on 4th and 1 - WHAT ARE YOU DOING? A monster game from Tommy Doman. There were far fewer Ohio State fans in the stadium this year. Shout out to the giant Mike Sainristil head in the field rush. Roman Wilson's touchdown was absolutely a touchdown. Stadium replay - DON'T SHOW THE REPLAY IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO SHOW THE BALL. WE WERE EMOTIONALLY DISTRAUGHT. Also it was an incompletion, not a fumble. 5. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 2:45:53 Iowa - 13 Nebraska - 10 The most Iowa win ever? They hit the game winning field goal with someone who has not kicked all year. The last ten minutes of this game was incredible. The Big Ten Championship Game should be about the same as two years ago. Northwestern - 45 Illinois - 43 In regulation! Northwestern amazingly finishes the regular season 7-5. Bert was angry at the end. Purdue - 35 Indiana - 31 Indiana head coach Tom Allen is fired after this game (and gets a $20 million buyout). Who does Indiana hire? Maryland - 42 Rutgers - 24 Maryland won this in the first quarter. Tagovailoa threw some dimes and that's all she wrote. Rutgers cannot play from behind. Taulia now leads the Big Ten in all time passing yards. Wisconsin - 28 Minnesota - 14 Hot seat time for PJ Fleck? Penn State - 42 Michigan State - 0 Total yards were 586 to 53. MUSIC: “Winning”— Santana “I'm Gonna Be Myself”— The Sheepdogs “Too Young To Burn”—  Sonny and the Sunsets "Mr. Brightside" — Cloud Illusions “Across 110th Street”

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: Rewarding Fans, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast. Featured Musician: Nadim Azzam The Video: [After THE JUMP: The things said.] --------------------- 1. Ohio State Preview: Offense starts at the top Let's talk football! Ohio State's offense has taken a step back from nuclear, but they can explode with a couple of 1st round receivers, including the first WR off the board in April, and Treyveon Henderson, who can turn a missed tackle into a 57-yard touchdown at a moment's notice. Stover has been a much bigger part of their passing game, but Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka are the stars there—Julian Fleming is another super blue chip who hasn't met his profile, and Xavier is  Their center is Not Good so if Michigan can get them in long downs they should be able to get pressure up the middle and dominate the interior. They want to run Stretch and Counter; Michigan has the players to limit their gap runs but their zone runs are going to be difficult to stop with those light fronts. We'll see some interesting blitzes to try to win more of those back. 2. Ohio State Preview: Defense starts at 28:18 They've been much improved, and ain't played nobody (just like us). Notre Dame was able to push around their front, which doesn't have a 300-pound DT and might not have their most explosive backfield transgressor available. Their DEs have improved from last year but are not the top-3 overall hellbeasts they were projected to be as recruits—more like heavies who are difficult to dislodge: JTT = Mike Morris. Do not block with Tight Ends. Their LBs haven't been great, Seth thinks they will blitz a lot (like 2018) though they haven't much this year because that's a better use for them than having them sit back and read. Secondary is much improved despite losing Lathan Ransom for the season; Sonny Styles plays the Tight End-locked "Bandit" role in his stead while Jordan Hancock is an excellent "Nickel Safety" (Sainristil role) and Josh Proctor is back as a 6th year guy to be a solid free safety. They are not blitzing those safeties as much, preferring to sit back and prevent big plays, which they are EXCELLENT at. But Michigan might be able to go back to the 2021 approach. 3. Basketball in the Bahamas starts at 1 hour precisely. A loss to Memphis and a win vs Stanford set up tonight's battle for 5th place (really tied for 3rd but the order of your losses matters) with Texas Tech. Surprised to find this team can score in buckets but can't play defense. They can't have Reed out there in the last 2 minutes because he can't hit a free throw, and then they get off-balance if Nkamhoua has to take a breather. Tray Jackson has not been good thus far. Can't autobench Dug—he only gets 2 fouls per 40 and the offense can't operate without him. They need another point and they need a wing, and that's on admissions because they had transfers who wanted to come both years. 4. Maryland After Review starts at 1:10:36 Defensively it was the same game we've been playing every week, where the opponent has some stuff prepared (in this case it was the old RPO that Locksley and Gattis ran at Bama) and Michigan is practicing their base defense for Ohio State. The defensive line could be the best in program history, with Mason Graham playing like an All-American and Kenneth Grant turning into a monster, but that takes weird extrapolation because they're only on the field for 50% of the snaps. Secondary played like butt against the first good passing offense they faced, which is not a good sign for this weekend. Johnson got beat twice, Wallace looked like he needed to be pulled, and it's a bit late to be falling back on Sainristil outside and McBurrows in the slot, but that's the answer if Wallace can't stay with Egbuka. Bad day for the safeties—do not like Rod Moore missing tackles given what's coming up. Offensive, it was a terrible game for JJ, who wasn't seeing downfield shots that were drawn up for him. We play whack-a-take with the excuses and some are good: JJ didn't practice as much this week after being injured, he lost Roman Wilson who's the guy he'd normally be going to in those situations, and Maryland surprised him with some shifts after the snap. Can't blame the wind. Really didn't like the gameplan: you run 13 times then put out a passing offense to pass—there's no subterfuge there! Why can't this team run play-action when they are great at play-action? WHY? There's no answer. About the Featured Musician: NADIM AZZAM 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. And now that we're at Ohio State week I have a reveal for you all: The man choosing the music all this time has been Nadim Azzam, who in addition to helping out the Pig is a rising star in the Detroit-Ann Arbor music scene himself. The Ann Arbor-based singer, rapper, and songwriter is soulful, witty, and technical, kind of like a blog you know. Azzam's new album Dreams For The Future is out now! Song choices: The Come Up Get the Money Night Walk 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

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. egment 1: A Costly Win What is going on? WHAT A START Building the lead A win, but at a cost Segment 2: Just Not Quite Enough Just Not Good Enough Where Do We Go From Here? Other Teams Played Hockey A Look to the Clouds MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "The Lotto" -- Ingrid Michaelson, AJR Ice Hockey (NES) theme  

Things Discussed: Maryland Game: JJ looked very off, felt like a Lloyd Carr game with the playcalling. Pressure: Either Michigan got two guys free or zero. Very vanilla. Maryland moved the ball underneath two-deep with well-planned RPOs. Frightening thing was Wallace and Johnson getting beat, Wallace even when they had a cushion. Saw them go with McBurrows at nickel and Sainristil at corner because of it. Maryland run game is like OSU's: stretch and counter. Michigan mostly shut it down with their light boxes. Best defensive line ever? Deepest certainly. Barnhart vs Jones? Think Jones acquitted himself well, showed he can play. Might be closer at RT than we think. JJ vs Ohio State: is that the game? Brian/Craig think it's a defensive struggle. Seth/Sam thing JJ will go out and win it. Missed Harbaugh wrt McCarthy: former QB who normally chats with JJ after every drive. Saw them move away from JJ after his breakdowns at the end of the 1st half, want the ball in his hands. Ohio State: Don't give up big plays like last year. Defensive line is improved, starting DTs are good, secondary has improved especially Denzel Burke. JTT is still more tools than production but DO NOT TRY TO BLOCK HIM WITH A TIGHT END. Gonna say that again: DO NOT TRY TO BLOCK JTT WITH A TIGHT END. Offensively they really miss that superstar QB. Stroud was lethal against Michigan last year. Their Ts and C aren't as good—they give up pressure on stunts and twists. Running game gets explosives with Henderson and 2 extra yards than the blocking with Trayanum, but blocking doesn't give them much. McCord: Gonna be under more pressure, Michigan is going to zone him and confuse him. OSU got some bailouts the last 2 years from Stroud. Problem: even playing off Michigan's secondary is vulnerable. Marvin Harrison is the best of some great receivers to come through there. Teams that man up on them get burned crispy; Harrison is going to burn a lot of NFL cornerbacks too. Weird zones are going to get McCord struggling to find them. Both defenses in this game have an Ain't Played Nobody problem. Notre Dame was able to run the ball on Ohio State.

2 hour and 13 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros' reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and INTRODUCING TO THE PODCAST: Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning. 1. Offense vs Maryland Starts at 1:00 The annual "play like butt before the Ohio State game" game! JJ is banged up, how much did that effect him? Michigan turtled in this game after taking a convincing lead. The sun was brutal, looked like it made things difficult for receivers. Michigan's calls have been a bit predictable and they're not weaponizing play action as well as they could. The guards had a great game, the tackle situation just got more interesting.  2. Defense vs Maryland Starts at 33:30 This game was the full Taulia Tagovailoa experience - he does a few amazing things and then a couple terrible things. Ohio State's run offense isn't going to be much better than Maryland's. How much will Kyle McCord run against Michigan? Michigan rotated a lot this game but it feels like a lot of these guys deserved playing time. Would you rather go up against Taulia Tagovailoa or Kyle McCord next week?  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:02:15 Takes hotter than a Michigan fan watching a competitive game for the first time this year. It doesn't actually feel like the refs are out to get Michigan. The intentional grounding in the endzone never gets called so it was surprising. The two targeting no-calls felt right, the contact was not intentionally forceable on either. Tommy Doman earned 2 points on his punt that landed on the one. 31 points is too normal in a game where you scored two safeties. The wind must have been a factor on 4th down decision making for them not to kick field goals. 4. Around the Big Ten with NOT Jamie Mac Starts at 1:29:03 Iowa - 15 Illinois - 13 Iowa scored a safety to start the game. Iowa has clenched the Big Ten West despite having lost all their offensive weapons. Tory Taylor punts for 413 yards in an emotional senior day. If Michigan plays Iowa in Indy it will probably be like two years ago. Penn State - 27 Rutgers - 6 This game was about what you would expect. Drew Allar only has 79 passing yards but Rutgers was just never going to move the ball on this Penn State defense.  Michigan State - 24 Indiana - 21 Michigan State's win expectancy in this was 12% with less than three minutes left. This has to be the end of Tom Allen. Who does Indiana get after this (or Michigan State for that matter).  Northwestern - 23 Purdue - 15 Northwestern is bowl eligible! Purdue turns the ball over four times.  Wisconsin - 24 Nebraska - 17 Chubba Purdy and Tanner Mordecai are back. Nebraska needs to beat Iowa to get bowl eligible now.  Ohio State - 37 Minnesota - 3 This was the Michigan games sans that one big throw. Can you name the Ohio State backup QB that threw twice? Michigan could have a lot of new packages for Ohio State becuase we've seen so few all season.  MUSIC: “Debris”— Reigning Sound “Loving Cup”— The Rolling Stones “Unthinkable”—  Alicia Keys ft. Drake “Across 110th Street”

wsg Richard Hoeg 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: Rewarding Fans, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast. Featured Musician: Desmond Jones The Video: [After THE JUMP: The things said.] --------------------- 1. Signs, Stalions, and the Law, wsg Richard Hoeg starts at the top Partridge is out the door; the rest broke during or after the segment. We scheduled our lawyer friend Hoeg (YouTube Channel) because we thought we'd have a hearing right now instead of things breaking that we were just hearing about last night. Michigan's case was stronger than the Big Ten's but the hole in Michigan's case for a TRO was they had to prove irreparable harm, and considering the Vegas line didn't move for Harbaugh being out they had a tough case to prove there. It's always better to settle than litigate; it's not clear that this was a legal settlement. 2. Maryland Preview starts at 18:29 Hi Josh Gattis! Taulia Tagovailoa is the same player he's been for years. He doesn't ruin red zone drives by running backwards 30 yards *as often* but his accuracy still comes and goes because he's short and often throwing off-platform. OL looks like they can stop the pass rush but that's probably because the #1 way to contain Ta-Ta is to contain him. They also have just one really solid starter (LT Delmar Glaze) and a sub-FBS right side. Running game is awful. WRs aren't the dudes they used to be. Defensively they're kind of an MSU where everyone is meh. Some of the NFL prospects haven't matured into such, no real stars. Barham was supposed to break out but is having a Colsonesque sophomore year. Pass-rusher gets a lot of pressures but only on high volume. They will put five up and blitz. 3. Basketball starts at 36:30 Might want to pump the breaks on the 3-0 start if you're basing it on St. John's because we don't really know what Theseus's Pitino Team really is. Dug's the headliner—MEEP MEEP—and his speed was devastating to a defense that doesn't know each others' names. Shooting is due for a mean regression, probably, but they keep having someone go off every game. Defensively it's night and day from last year, and some of the breakdowns are because they're not yet used to the fact that they don't need to help each other. T-Will has slimmed down, and contextually he's a much better defender when he's not put on a court with a bunch of non-athletes. 4. Penn State After Review starts at 52:46 Blocking had a lot more mishaps than usual, probably because of the crowd noise and their difficulty snapping it. Barnhart's troubles weren't necessarily his fault because those DEs were timing the snaps perfectly. RPS was +10 despite not passing for 36 minutes because PSU was incapable of stopping themselves from flying upfield. Defensively Michigan played their OSU defense on 1st downs which bled 5 yards before they tightened up. Paige had a good day flying down to stop that. Grant broke out. Will Johnson is the prince that was promised. Colson reverted to his Janus ways. Michigan could close the door when they needed to. About the Featured Musician: DESMOND JONES 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. This is the week we're featuring Desmond Jones, the five-piece Grand Rapids rock band with a sax and a tendency for improv. Yeah, I know, I've been doing a lot of funk lately—that's what I've been listening to, and this group's all over my Spotify recommendations, with a library that goes back to 2015. who plays the Pig on Friday, December 1st. Song choices: Sweater Weather Gone Poor Sylvester 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

Things Discussed: Petitti has to thread a needle because he's tied to Ohio State/Michigan State Twitter's version of events where having in-game scouting, video, and interpretations of a team's signs from coaches sharing it is fine, but having in-game video of a team's signs from a fan with an iPhone is a player-safety issue. He wants to say sign-stealing is this evil thing but the language he used in the letter very carefully pulls back right before saying it. Unprecedented things: NCAA sharing their investigation with the Big Ten, the Big Ten going after a member institution instead of protecting them from the NCAA, and the Big Ten commissioner allowing the other member schools to railroad him into sabotaging a member institution. Screwed up by going after Harbaugh with Malice. They clearly got Michigan's letter and had the lawyers try to get Harbaugh anyways. The midnight punishment and the maliciousness of Petitti's pursuit has turned Michigan into the sympathetic party. This is what scares a dishonest Buckeye bootlicker like Ari Wasserman the most: the haters are exposed, and people start to question where this "scandal" really comes from. Seth/Brian disagree on whether OSU wants to punish Michigan's players or get The Game canceled. Seth: Ryan Day still has to recruit at IMG. Brian: They hate Michigan that much, and the worst thing for Day is getting the brakes beat off of him again. Leaving the Big Ten? Sam says saber-rattling, Seth says take it seriously because there is no way Michigan can remain a member if Tony Petitti is the commissioner. When this is all over, how do we get a fair hearing? Possible future: show USC that they're in danger from this same thing (they are), see what Notre Dame is doing, maybe go after Texas, and then sad to say if this Ultra-conference gets any legs Ohio State will come. This is what the other Big Ten schools should be concerned about: other than OSU and to a much lesser degree Penn State, they all have sweet deals, and the way they lose it is if a Michigan or Ohio State no longer wants to share revenue with them. Rutgers, MSU, Northwestern, Indiana: if you are relegated to mid-majors in a decade, this is what you did. PSU game: Did you get the message? Michigan beat a Top 10 opponent by yelling "RUN" every down. Michigan had issues with their big OL package but extra gaps nerf Penn State's defensive advantages. They had to cancel their rush package entirely and the 5-star DEs they emphasize and stunts they practice are less valuable when those are happening many gaps away from the one we're attacking. Instead of the play turning on the athleticism of the PSU front seven it turns on whether a 210-pound safety can win a block against a 270-pound AJ Barner. After the show: We talk basketball but I didn't get a recording of it. We are very sorry we couldn't fit it in.

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: Chattings, Collapse #1 Schedule Problems Taking control of the game Giving it all away Protect the Slot! Segment 2: A shootout, Takeaways, Scores, and a Preview Deja Vu What Have We Learned Other Teams Played Hockey More Lions Talk MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Skyway" -- The Replacements Ice Hockey (NES) theme

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, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, Human Element, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros' reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and INTRODUCING TO THE PODCAST: Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning. 1. Offense vs Penn State Starts at 1:00 Michigan runs for 36 straight minutes of this game and still Penn State's defensive ends get out of their rushing lanes. Karsen Barnhart gets beat on three of the first four passes and Michigan decides "we're not going to do that anymore". The vibes were immaculate, though. The only way Michigan loses this game is by turning the ball over (fumble luck was on Michigan's side this game). Do you remember what JJ's one incompletion was? The implications of Penn State's pass rush probably doesn't apply that much to the Ohio State game. The noise of Beaver Stadium does play a factor. Would you still recruit Ryan Mallet in today's game? Anyone who can't get out of the pocket is not a modern Quarterback. Michigan should've just held up a giant board that said "run". 2. Defense vs Penn State Starts at 38:57 Shall we play the Drew Allar completion game? What do Sean Clifford and Drew Allar really have in common? Neither have had a functional offensive line. Drew Allar is 70% in a clean pocket and about 38% when under pressure. There was a lot of Cam Goode in this game. There was never really a point where you thought Michigan should change their defense in order to win this game. KENNETH GRANT RUNNING, MY GOD. Michigan was tipping off what they were doing on defense a lot. 3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:08:10 Takes hotter than Penn State defensive linemen on 3rd and 11. We have shirts. Thank you, James Franklin, for giving us content for this segment! Penn State going for it on 4th and 6 in the 4th quarter was probably not a good idea. The first two point conversion was definitely not a good idea. Going for two is opening the box and finding out if the cat is dead or alive.  Officiating wasn't perfect but also didn't feel biased. 4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:35:22 Maryland - 13 Nebraska - 10 Three Nebraska quarterbacks threw interceptions in this game, Maryland had 92 penalty yards. This game had eight(!) turnovers. But hey, Maryland is bowl eligible. Illinois - 48 Indiana - 45 Just a debacle from the Indiana defense. Illinois QB John Paddock had 507(!!) passing yards. An Illinois player got ejected for spitting on an Indiana player. Iowa - 22 Rutgers - 0 A slow motion blowout. Iowa gets 402 yards of offense! This game had an over/under of 27.5 which is the lowest in collegiate football... and it still hit the under. Northwestern - 24 Wisconsin - 10 Northwestern is a win away from bowl eligibility. Wisconsin is now so far away from what God wanted Wisconsin football to be that now they're being punished. Purdue - 49 Minnesota - 30 Purdue somehow pulls off over 600 yards of offense and has two 100 yard rushers. Ohio State - 38 Michigan State - 3 Michigan State looks like they're just packing in the season now. Many Ohio State fans apparently are more confident after the Michigan Penn State game. MUSIC: “Leave Me Alone”— I Don't Know How But They Found Me “Confidence”— Ocean Alley “Power Man”—  The Kinks “Across 110th Street”

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: Rewarding Fans, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast. Featured Musician: Chirp The Video: [After THE JUMP: The things said.] --------------------- 1. Sign-Gate and Penn State Preview: Defense starts at the top No news unless the Big Ten hands down a suspension to a coach who's already in Happy Valley, which would on its owns be grounds for a judge to issue an immediate injunction. We infer from Michigan's letter that the B10's case right now is as substantial as your average Ohio State twitterer, and that putting this in the realm of courts where facts matter more than what amoral hypocrites want to believe dramatically alters the parameters. Local sports radio probably isn't where you should be going for investigative news—the thing about Michigan having other schools for Stalions operations feels bogus on the surface. The Penn State defense is very good. The engine is the ends—even if Chop Robinson isn't full-go they have three more very good ones. DTs aren't bad; there's one whom Alex likes but Seth thinks he's exploitable. They blitz a lot, play a lot of man, got beat by Ohio State because Kalen King really isn't the star he's made out to be. Manny Diaz effect. The way Michigan loses this game is turnover. 2. Penn State Preview: Offense starts at 26:39 They torch bad defenses who can't pressure Drew Allar, who's 39% accurate when off-platform and 78% accurate when his feet are set. We saw the same thing last year. Only have one receiver. RBs are having Donovan Edwards-like years—Allen can do RB things but Singleton is kind of a gadget guy. OL cannot run block; they can pass protect okay. Theo Johnson is having to be their 2nd receiver. Why pick Michigan over the spread on this one: PSU is bult to blow up a UMass but fall off a cliff when you can match up to them athletically. Stunts are a big problem for them. Wild that they can't develop OL; Seth notes he talked to recruit's dad who said his kid's already more developed than Fashanu. 3. Basketball starts at 45:27 They're scoring! Dug is seeing the court well, though he won't be shooting 60 percent with a 40 percent assist rate. Nkamhua has been a revelation—immediately a captain, exactly what we want for a one-and-done. Imagine Tray Jackson instead of Caleb Houstan or Jett Howard. Quantum leap defensively. Having athletic defenders out there means you can use a T-Will or a Tschetter because they're not so athletically exposed. Need a backup PG—gonna be a nervous few months waiting until Llewellen gets healthy. 4. Purdue After Review starts at 57:36 Our Michigan homerism apparently extends to defending JJ McCarthy's performance as REALLY GOOD YOU GUYS, except this is a defensible position (and PFF agreed). His marginal throws are still very catchable, and when they're caught nobody notices. YMMV on 4 or 5 of them but even if then it was a excellent day from him. Not a good day from the OL; Seth thinks these guys are all guards recruited for a run-first offense and this is kind of what happens against an opponent who makes you pass-first and has two great edge rushers. Defensively it's really hard to beat Michigan because they can put five guys against your five guys and someone will win a block to get your back. It was the Will Johnson Show otherwise—he was doing things away from the ball as well as coming to it. About the Featured Musician: CHIRP 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. This is the week we're featuring the four-piece Ann Arbor band Chirp, which has a funky rock/jazz fusion thing going on. Their live shows are the main thing; they have a dedicated fanbase who remind me of Deadheads of a generation earlier even if the musical style isn't any more jam band than anything else. The music is bright and catchy and keeps you on your toes; they're at their best when just getting lost in the music because there's some real musicians with proggy ideas under all the good times. They've been touring since 2015 and return to the Pig next week. Song choices: Solo By the Book Move 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

Things Discussed: Tony Petitti is an idiot. A little basketball.

1 hour and 23 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: 5-4, Wisconsin A roller coaster first period Taking control of the game Giving it all away Is collapsing a thing? Segment 2: 2-1, Wisconsin and Other Games We talk about the game we did not see...again Old Friends and Non-Conference Big Ten Teams A Mediocre Minnesota Matchup?   MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Old Wisconsin Jubilee" -- Charlie Berens Ice Hockey (NES) theme

2 hour and 11 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros' reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and INTRODUCING TO THE PODCAST: Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning. 1. Offense vs Purdue Starts at 1:00 EDITOR NOTE: I am also spending a lot of time compressing Brian's voice. The worst night game to have is the crappy night game, especially when USC Washington and Alabama LSU are on! It says something that JJ hit 60% of his passes and threw for over 300 yards and everyone's like "what's wrong with JJ?" When do you want to save a play and when do you want to put it on tape? Donovan Edwards has not been utilized properly, are they saving a package for him against Penn State? Starting tackles gave up some sacks but otherwise played pretty well (Purdue has a pair of NFL defensive ends). Is the way to beat JJ by playing a lot of zone defense?   2. Defense vs Purdue Starts at 43:20 Michigan wasn't getting sacks against Hudson Card but they were pressuring him on every play. It'll be curious to see who actually rotates against Penn State. Starting to feel like we're getting the 2021 version of Rod Moore, which is encouraging. Junior Colson took a step in the right direction, Josh Wallace also played well. All of the ends are a higher level than we predicted at the beginning of the year. 3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:02:36 Takes hotter than Santa Ono's letter to Tony Petitti. Why is Purdue football every five years just two NFL defensive ends and nothing else? The 4th and one felt like a good decision, the formation wasn't. Michigan hasn't kicked a field goal in forever so it was good to see it still works. Starters played well into the 4th quarter. 4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:25:22 Penn State - 51 Maryland - 15 Maryland turns the ball over four times and rushes for -49 yards. Yup, we're at November Maryland, they are no longer a trap game. When Drew Allar can set his feet and have time to throw he looks like the five star he's supposed to be, but when you pressure him he's shaky. They probably won't be able to run against Michigan but they still have one of the best defenses in college football. Ohio State - 35 Rutgers - 16 Rutgers is leading 9-7 at halftime but throws a pick-six while driving in the 3rd quarter. Rutgers outgains Ohio State 361-328. We experienced for a moment what it was like being a Rutgers fan and it wasn't fun. Iowa - 10 Northwestern - 7 Neither team gets more than 200 yards and Iowa is alone in first place in the West. He can't keep getting away with it. Indiana - 20 Wisconsin - 14 How did Indiana win this? Uhh, one good pass play? Wisconsin outgain Indiana 344-261. Indiana took the lead and just waited for the time to run out before Wisconsin came back. Michigan State - 20 Nebraska - 17 Nebraska gets back to their old self, turning the ball over three times. Illinois - 27 Minnesota - 26 Illinois wins on an improbable last minute drive with their backup QB. A disappointing game for anyone who didn't want to see Iowa in the Big Ten Championship Game. MUSIC: “Make Me Thomas”— supercooper! ft. Jawn Legend “The Stones I Throw”— Levon and the Hawks “Are You Gonna Run”—  Low Cut Connie “Across 110th Street”

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: Rewarding Fans, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast. Featured Musician: Joe Hertler & the Rainbow Seekers The Video: [After THE JUMP: The things said.] --------------------- 1. Sign Stealing Scandal-Like Substance starts at the top The more facts begin to overtake wishcasting the better off Michigan looks. No news but the bullshit level has gone up considerably as Big Ten coaches take the opportunity afforded by media sensationalism to get the Big Ten to punish Harbaugh before there's an investigation. Why? Probably because Michigan's own investigation determined they're in the clear to give Harbaugh a major contract. So either they're such idiots they actually believe Connor Stalions is the reason Michigan won so many games in 2021-'23, or they're smart enough to realize the results of an investigation won't match their preferred outcome. MSU's AD is one of two people willing to put their names to the pearl-clutching, and he's saying he's worried about the health and safety of his players, which shows you exactly how unserious the people trying to make this serious are. 2. Purdue Preview: Defense starts at 16:43 Ryan Walters brings his 5-1 "no-name" defense. They have two good pass rushers who are too big to drop into coverage, which they do on 40% of passing snaps. They bring five a lot, vary things by looping and bringing cornerbacks. Main structure is man everything: 5 DL for 5 OL, LBs or safeties for everyone in the backfield, and Cover 1 behind it. Giving up lots of yards because they tried to play this with Ohio State. Two best players in the secondary are true freshmen because it's a Year Zero situation. 3. Purdue Preview: Offense starts at 31:45 Fourth straight quarterback that Alex cyan'd, but this is on the better end of the cyan quarterbacks and maybe not fair because you took Card out of an offense where he got to pass to the most talented receiver in America to not that. Still have Devin Mockobee who will hurdle fools but also fumble, so they're using Tyrone Tracy, the former Iowa WR, as their guy. Tackles went from bad to worse over injuries, which limits their ability to run the ball unless you let them double your DTs with stretch zone using three good interior OL. 4. MSU After Review starts at 42:47 New level of Seeing It from JJ McCarthy, still not seeing it from the running backs. Good game for Drake Nugent—haven't had a chance to chart him much before now but he did a great job handling MSU's twist blitzes. Defensively Michigan used MSU's unpreparedness against them, getting them to fall into easy traps. Often it was players causing these by seeing something and making calls or shifting where they stand. MSU was having someone run in plays for a bit then gave it up because it was stupid. About the Featured Musician: JOE HERTLER & THE RAINBOW SEEKERS 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. This is the week we're featuring the grooves of Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers, who will be playing two back to back shows at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor on November 10th & 11th. I just love the energy of this band—wife and I have been shaking our shoulders from our opposite desks all day as I've had these guys on mix. They've played Bonnaroo, Electric Forest, and Summer Camp, but eluded me until I saw them on the Pig's schedule. Since then I leared Hertler and guitarist Ryan Hoger had a Motown-influenced thing going until they lucked into musical prodigy/plays everything Micah Bracken to find their sound, adding a saxophonist and drummer to complete the set. I haven't seen them live but they're supposedly one of the most entertaining groups that play around here so that'll have to change soon. Song choices: What I Want Old Love Find Me 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

Things Discussed: Rundown of the ton of false reporting. NCAA is in town: False. WSJ says offer rescinded: False. Thamel says all the B10 coaches are repeating Ryan Day's talking points: False. It's one thing to sensationalize—ESPN sensationalizes all the time—but they're getting provable facts wrong. Getting it right means calling someone who could tell you your reporting is wrong. Craig Ross: Shares the time Sam had it from someone that Carr was against the Harbaugh hire and he checked on it with Carr who said he loves Jack Harbaugh and he'd be the biggest fan of the hiring of Jim Harbaugh. How much does it matter? Run-pass is the best you can tell; it matters, not as much as how the right tackle's foot is aligned, because the RT's half step is more important than hiding your intentions from the defense. James Franklin: Nobody needed your signs to know you were running a zone read on 4th & 2 vs OSU in 2018. Nobody said we need to start a federal investigation against Northwestern when they had Michigan's signs that day. Schiano's the biggest sign-stealer in the league, because nobody changes their signs. Sam: they're mad about Stalions though. That wasn't Schiano's halftime comment. Want to shut them up? Everyone turn in your sign-stealers and go to wristbands and microphones. Stalions on CMU's sideline? Possible that McElwain didn't know who Stalions was. Seth: Is it possible that CMU borrowed Michigan's sign-stealer to try to beat MSU? Would explain how he got a placard, how he knew how the coaches were dressing, etc. It wouldn't implicate Michigan, because they get no benefit from that, but would fit Stalions's profile. Brian: If Michigan's moving ahead with their contract for Harbaugh their internal investigation found no evidence that Balance of news is positive; now we're just down to coaches complaining. Do you think these guys are interested parties? The check? Ryan Day doesn't care about the check; the commissioner of the league is a TV guy, and a TV guy is not going to devalue the TV conference's most valuable property because they will get sued by Fox and NBC, and guarantee that Michigan will leave this conference for the SEC. Guy who said it's a three-touchdown advantage $1 it's Franklin. And you still lose. Ryan Day you still lose too. Why aren't OSU/PSU clamoring to play Michigan without their sign-stealer? Brian: "If you actually believe what you're saying you would be, but you don't because it's crazy." Maybe you guys need to get good; we're a TV product and you guys are unwatchable. This conference is Michigan and Ohio State and the four teams we're importing because the rest of you are unwatchable.

1 hour and 40 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros' reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and INTRODUCING TO THE PODCAST: Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning. 1. The Latest on Signgate Starts at 1:00 The developments that have developed are basically nothing. Feels like we know pretty much what there is to know, it's just a matter of what happens next from the NCAA. Michigan could be the first program hit with the NCAA's new rule of "if a staffer gets in trouble, the head coach also gets in trouble". There's some failure on the part of Warde Manuel. What is the actual competitive advantage of stolen signals? College football coaches are the most paranoid people in America. Based on how the NCAA has handled these issues, it seems extremely unlikely that anything will happen to Michigan this season. Worst case scenario would be Jim Harbaugh gets a show-cause a year or two down the road. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 2. Michigan Men's Basketball Backcourt Starts at 22:37 Dug McDaniel is the most established guard. Freshmen point guards can be shaky, McDaniel's trajectory for his sophomore year is encouraging. Jaelin Llewellyn is your next most established guard. We didn't see a lot of him last year since he tore his ACL but he should be full go by now. Hard to know how much we're getting back from him after his injury. Nimari Burnett transfers as a rotation player from an Alabama team that was the 3rd best defense in college basketball last year. His offensive upside is unknown, Charles Matthews is a good comparison. George Washington III was described by Dug McDaniels as a good shooter but probably won't see more than 10 minutes per game. Jace Howard is listed as a guard but it's unlikely that he'll be a lot more than he was last year.  3. Michigan Men's Basketball Frontcourt Starts at 45:38 Takes hotter than Edward Norton Jr. after seeing Connor Stalions on the sidelines at CMU and he's like "I GOT THIS ROLE. THIS IS ALL ME, BABY". Tarris Reed is your starter, who is also Not Hunter Dickinson. He was slightly better defensively than Hunter Dickinson but the offensive drop-off was much bigger. Also needs to be better than 40% at free throws! Olivier Nkamhoua was a big contributor for the #1 defense in the country last year. That is already a huge upgrade defensively at the 4. He won't solve all your problems but is a very good, veteran basketball player. Seth thinks the final starting spot is Terrance Williams II, Brian thinks it's Tray Jackson. Will Tschetter: exists. Youssef Khayat could be a guy.  4. 2023-2024 Men's Basketball Overview Starts at 1:21:19 Making the tournament is a reasonable goal for this team. Where is Michigan going to get their points from? This gets made up by the massive defensive improvements. Michigan loses Jett Howard to the NBA but Michigan was a better team without Jett Howard. Juwan Howard is still recovering from heart surgery and has not been available in the pre-season coaching. There are going to be some hiccups with this team but all the transfers coming in are very experienced players from good teams. The vibes were awful last year but should be much better this year.  MUSIC: “U-Love”— J Dilla “Crosshairs”— Dangerdoom, MFDoom “Smooth Aisles”—  Michael Nau “Across 110th Street”

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: 9-1, Michigan; 10-1, Michigan Frozen Frenzy recap? Blowout #1 Blowout #2 Any takeaways? Segment 2: What Else Happened/Weekend in Madison Old Friends and Non-Conference Big Ten Teams Uhhhh...First Place Battle with Badgers Ken   MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Daylight" -- Matt and Kim Ice Hockey (NES) theme

Things Discussed: MSU: Credit to the team. Signgate: SI article is interesting because it's the only one not part of Ohio State's orchestrated PR campaign. How much does it matter? Coaches say very little: give me run or pass. How much was Stalions working on his own? Probably all of it. Brian: Not hard to figure out where the money's coming from: Mom & Dad. He's the kind of guy who'd write a manifesto about how he's going to take over the Michigan. Problem is because the NCAA holds coaches accountable even if they didn't know. Hopefully Michigan has processes in place that show they were actively discouraging this behavior. Real scrutiny: their vetting process for low-level staffers needs to improve. Ryan Day: Only way I can get beat is if someone cheats, because I'm that brilliant. OSU-PSU: Drew Allar isn't that good and you can't put the game on him.

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: 7-1, Michigan Frozen Frenzy!! Even Period Shooters gonna shoot...and finish Piling on Segment 2: Game 2, Other Scores, Lions Preview Another Blown Lead Shootouts Should Be Coin Flips A Look Around the Country Alex Talks Lions MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Grace Kelly" -- MIKA Ice Hockey (NES) theme

2 hours and 11 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros' reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and INTRODUCING TO THE PODCAST: Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning. 1. Offense vs Michigan State Starts at 1:00 There was an initial reaction to be nervous about this game due to the history of this rivalry but Michigan does not care. Seth got an Epic Double Bird from a Michigan State player. We love this team. The story of Mike Sainristil and Michael Barrett are what this era of Michigan football are all about. They're such dorks (this is not a diss). Michigan fans absolutely drowned out Spartan Stadium in this game. JJ had a Tom Brady throw in his touchdown pass to Colston Loveland. When the pocket breaks down, JJ is like Houdini. If you let JJ sit in the pocket, he hits his dig routs and you die. If you rush him, it's even worse! Alex Drain's pre-season hot take about AJ Barner was accurate! The run game was a bit stagnant, though. MSU was prepared for the RPS. It's funny that JJ is having his Heisman campaign going on but opposing defenses are still saying "grr we gotta stop the run."   2. Defense vs Michigan State Starts at 45:30 Michigan State was simply not ready for the smoke here. Michigan went back to rotating a lot because this was over by the 4th drive. Why are you not blocking Mason Graham or Braiden McGregor? Derrick Moore had a good game by beating tackles. You rotate out Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham comes back out so... how do you beat that? Rod Moore was in on the final drives of the game. Junior Colson played a great game, is he the only weakness on this defense? And if so, how do you approach this defense if he's playing well? 3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:05:19 Takes hotter than the seat of whoever put a seemingly innocuous video quiz up on the Michigan State scoreboards. If Michigan switched their offense and defense against Purdue, who should play what position? Clock management at the end of the first half is a point of discussion. Aside from the results, it was one of Jim Harbaugh's best two-minute drills of his career at Michigan. DENTAL PLAN. LISA NEEDS BRACES. We couldn't even get to Segment 4 without having to talk about James Franklin's game theory. 4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:25:47 Ohio State - 20 Penn State - 12 Penn State's offense cannot do anything. Ohio State has Marvin Harrison Jr., they win, the end. Penn State only gave up 20 points, was there anything they could have even done differently? Some of Penn State's play calls were incredible stupid, what are you doing, James Franklin? Penn State ran the Tecmo Bowl Flea Flicker but they ran it out of a play they never run. Ohio State backup QB Devin Brown went out of this game so if Kyle McCord gets hurt, who is even the next guy up? Minnesota - 12 Iowa - 10 The funniest and saddest game of the week. Iowa knew their best chance of winning this game was Cooper DeJean getting a punt return and he had an amazing return get called back because he technically waved his hand. Was it easily to interpret that as a fair catch signal? Could Iowa still win the west? Nebraska - 17 Northwestern - 9 Another hideous Big Ten West game, 257 yards to 248. Is Nebraska looking at possibly seven wins this season? It'll be interesting to see what happens when they go against Maryland. Wisconsin - 25 Illinois - 21 Illinois booted this one away. Wisconsin wins off of 18 4th quarter points. Wisconsin might still be the favorite to win the Big Ten West? Rutgers - 31 Indiana - 14 Rutgers is going bowling!! BryMac, we have tickets for you. "Penn State is Iowa with a finished basement." MUSIC: “I Saw The Sign”— Ace Of Base “Signs”— Kodak Black “Signs”—  Five Man Acoustical Jam “Across 110th Street”

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: Rewarding Fans, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast. Featured Musician: May Erlewine The Video: [After THE JUMP: The things said.] --------------------- 1. Sign Stealing Scandal-Like Substance starts at the top It's funny but also not funny anymore that they keep empowering this asshat to go on a personal vendetta. 2. MSU Preview starts at 22:38 Not good. RB Nate Carter can run but Katin Houser is Noah Kim with more forgiving cornerbacks. 2. MSU Preview starts at 38:39 DT Simeon Barrow is the guy to watch on defense but most of them are just so mid. 4. Indiana After Review starts at 53:35 More of the same. JJ and Graham are All-Americans. Offense is bringing out interesting counters to Duo as they develop that game instead of zone stretch. Defense's thing this week was snags. The TD was a situational awareness issue. Colson talk? No. Barrett talk: yes. About the Featured Musician: MAY ERLEWINE 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. This is the week we're featuring May Erlewine, who's got a show coming up at the Ten Pound Fiddle Coffee House on Friday, Nov. 3rd at Michigan State University in East Lansing. She's one of the most prolific singer-songwriters of the Midwest and has grouped with countless musicians around here. She's explored a lot of different sounds but she's at her best when just sitting on a chair with a guitar. Her voice on stage encourages connectedness and stresses the importance of environmental advocacy, social justice, creative empowerment and community building as necessary work for all of us. Song choices: Anyway Never One Thing Like Moses (Malone) 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

Things Discussed: Reasons to respect MSU? Katin Houser vs Noah Kim: When Houser throws back-breaking interceptions Rutgers decides to drop them. IU after review: Michigan's running tweaks to their Duo game that makes it really hard to prepare for. McCarthy is readying defenses very very well. Penn State-Ohio State: rock fight.

1 hour and 10 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: 7-2, Michigan How would Michigan do in the NHL? Slow 15 Minutes A Bunch of Goals Segment 2: Game 2, Other Scores, OSU Preview Good Two Periods One Bad Period A Look Around the Country OSU Talk...kinda MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "The State of Massachusetts" -- Dropkick Murphys Ice Hockey (NES) theme

2 hours and 11 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros' reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass, and INTRODUCING TO THE PODCAST: Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning. 1. Offense vs Indiana Starts at 1:00 The first quarter was annoying but no one was ever worried, it ended up being a transitive property victory over Ohio State! “JJ's incompletions” is once again a short segment. “JJ's sacks” are a more interesting conversation. Credit Indiana's defense for playing smart in this one. The offense scores on eight straight drives and that was that. JJ is elite when he has to go off script, exactly what you need to be a national championship contender. How Michigan football is like watching a ferret get drowned by a psychopath. Should Blake Corum be selling the flea flicker more? There were some run block errors. Is AJ Barner actually the best tight end on the team? Benjamin Hall looked great and is an encouraging replacement for Mullings right now. Apparently Semaj Morgan's nickname is "Jukebox", which, yeah.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]   2. Defense vs Indiana Starts at 48:30 This was annoying for a quarter. Linebackers and defensive ends are still not doing great in drop backs. They're practicing their Ohio State defense every week, might as well practice it against Indiana. There was a receiver running wide open on the first interception. Linebacker play wasn't the greatest, Junior Colson doesn't have all the right instincts. Michigan is trying to develop depth by rotating defensive players a lot, this probably goes away against Michigan State. Mike Barrett is a tremendous blitzer. Mason Graham club hand fumble recovery! Can we get a FB Wheel touchdown to Kenneth Grant next year? Sounds like it's ride or die with Josh Wallace at CB2. Rod Moore played good, hopefully he's back to mid-season form.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:11:21 Takes hotter than Marcus Freeman after he defenestrated USC. Is Michigan football listening to this podcast?? Tyler Morris should be the go-to punt returner, Semaj Morgan is the go-to kick returner. KYLE, YOU AGAIN? Going for it on 4th and 2 near the endzone felt like the right thing to do. 4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:30:11 Rutgers - 27 Michigan State - 24 One of the greatest comebacks in Rutgers football history went mostly unnoticed. Michigan State has Trouble With The Snap. The Situation Trophy is in Piscataway! Michigan State isn't a good team but they always show up for Michigan so Michigan can't have a slow start again. Iowa - 15 Wisconsin - 6 Iowa gains 237 yards, 82 of them on one run. Deacon Hill goes 6/14 for 37 yards. Wisconsin throws the ball 50 times. Iowa has a clear path to the Big Ten title game despite being down a starting QB and their two top tight ends. Their punting is still top notch. Iowa is 10-1 in games where Tory Taylor punts at least 8 times.  Illinois - 27 Maryland - 24 We're in the transitive business until it makes us feel bad. Given how Ohio State looked against Maryland, this has to look good for Michigan.  Ohio State - 41 Purdue - 7 Purdue, buddy, you can't one-on-one Marvin Harrison. They have Purdue Don Brown as their defensive coordinator. Ohio State might have some concerning depth issues at running back, Trayanum went out with a possible concussion. Cade Stover has stepped up this year.  Penn State - 63 UMass - 0 Apparently Penn State just doesn't throw downfield. UMass also got five sacks. Their game against Ohio State might be a rock fight. MUSIC: “Evicted”— Wilco “The Ruminant Band”— Fruit Bats “Catch a Glimpse”—  Aaron Ross “Across 110th Street”

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, and SignalWire where we recorded this. Featured Musician: Pajamas The Video: [After THE JUMP: The things said.] --------------------- 1. Indiana Preview: Offense starts at noon Might be the worst we face, despite a few nice pieces. QB situation is awful: Tayven Jackson won the job because Brendan Sorsby is worse and the guy they were hoping to use is probably out for the season. They really miss AJ Barner as they have a group of TEs who are all pretty bad. A couple of longtime starters on the interior. Jaylin Lucas is a jitterbug to be wary of, and the one thing that's really been working. Seth thinks Cam Camper is a star, Alex refuses to Dangerman more than one player on this awful offense. 2. Indiana Preview: Defense starts at 12:15pm Tom Allen knows how to coach a defense. Watch out for cornerback blitzes and funky stuff, but they're pretty rough in some places. Don't know how they got Andre Carter from WMU—their other transfers are bad and there are many of them. Aaron Casey at MLB is the guy to watch as a squirrely LB who get his nose into places. How did they give OSU fits? 3. Seth's Hockey Cast starts around 12:30pm First weekend results are mixed. The 4-on-5 and 5-on-6 units need work. Goalie situation: not great. Defense is three deep—three dudes not lines—even though the top is great. Grittiness is a check but speed lacking from previous talent-overloaded teams. 4. Minnesota After Review starts around 12:45pm More of the same. JJ and Graham are All-Americans. Offense is bringing out interesting counters to Power as they develop that game instead of zone stretch. Defense's thing this week was stretches, because they will spread out their edges and leave the DTs with no linebacker help. Understandable, but exploitable. Also it only got them a 54-yard FG attempt. The TD was a situational awareness issue. Colson talk? About the Featured Musician: PAJAMAS 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. This is the week I've been saving for personal fave Pajamas, an Ann Arbor jammy quartet that creates a psychedelic improvisational rock and funk music. Since forming in 2015 Pajamas has played hundreds of shows across the Midwest and beyond. They've opened for big touring acts across the Midwest and are coming to the Blind Pig on October 28th (the bye week) for two sets. The second is a bunch of Pink Floyd covers. Song choices: Time & Place Where the Story Ends Soothe Your Groove 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

Things Discussed: Brian's serve game. Michigan seems like they can hit another gear. Outside zone: Michigan thinks they can get away playing 2 DTs + 1 LB vs 4 blockers and an RB because the DTs are that good. Maybe they're right and #75 for Minnesota is just good at run blocking. Sam: You can't play your NT at 2i like that. But Michigan is going to play those games inside because they are going to have their edges outside. JJ: So cool. Loved the re-Mike on the Loveland TD. Sam: he got Loveland a touchdown because he almost got him killed earlier. Mason OMG Graham. We do the Chris Farley thing for awhile. Pick Six: Johnson and Moore sold Cover 3—Sam notes they were in Quarters coverage. The one TD: Sam agrees it was –1 for Sainristil and –1 for Sabb. But note the only catch when Minnesota was on offense after that was Sabb's. Hoosiers: Have some players on defense, have a terrible quarterback but we like scatback Jaylin Lucas and go-get-it WR Cam Camper. Hockey talk: banged up on defense and it's showing in 5-on-4 (and 6-on-5). Goalies are mid. Why can't we fix these schedules so the football games don't undermine fandom. Playing Ohio State at home during the MSU football game is ridiculous. Move it to 4:30. 

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: Roster Talk Top 6 Dudes Some 4th Line Battles Is Frank Nazar the difference? Will the Defense be better at Defense? Segment 2: Goalies and Opponents Is there a definitive starter? How many Lindenwoods do we play? Minnesota? MSU? Wait...Wisconsin? Is this the end of Jeff Jackson? [Player after THE JUMP] MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "The Lotto" -- Ingrid Michaelson, AJR Ice Hockey (NES) theme

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, The Phil Klein Insurance Group, Winewood Organics, Human Element, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, and The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros' reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass. 1. Offense vs Minnesota Starts at 1:00 Brian hit someone with a tennis ball in the schwangle-dangles. It wasn't a passing rutger because Michigan didn't have more points than Minnesota had passing yards, they tied (but they had an Iowutger?). Another short game of "JJ's incompletions". No flea flickers, what are we doing?? JJ looked extremely calm and collected against zone coverage, which was a direct contrast to Kyle McCord. Myles Hinton came in during garbage time and can't redshirt, also Henderson is the guy. Kallel Mullings is for real and really fun to watch. Michigan is leading the country in penalty yards (in the good way). Jack Tuttle looks awesome during Tuttle Time! [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 2. Defense vs Minnesota Starts at 34:26 We start with good things! Mason Graham played out of his mind with one hand. Braiden McGregor had a great game, he adds two more pass break-ups. So many guys had great games that we don't even mention Kris Jenkins for a little while. Goode, Grant, and Benny got moved a bit so maybe Minnesota's run blocking was decent. There were some tactical issues with the linebackers that can be fixed. Discussing Minnesota's touchdown play.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 57:24 Takes hotter than Mario Cristobal's hot seat after the dumbest thing we've ever seen in a football game (TWICE). What was PJ Fleck doing at the end of the first half? James Turner hit a routine field goal, yay. Tommy Doman kicked a kickoff out of bounds, boo. After the personal foul hit on JJ they should've kicked an on-side kick and then brough out Jack Tuttle. Brian talks about the Ohio State game since he has to miss the Jamie segment, brings up that Ohio State can't run the ball. A lot of the bad things that happened to Maryland were caused by Maryland.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:24:21 Ohio State - 37 Maryland - 17 Maryland had this game in hand but then Maryland'd. Ohio State is 81st nationally in yards per carry vs P5 teams. Ohio State's offensive line can't really move people, their go-to run play is stretch and they don't run it well. Lathan Ransom has looked better, though.  Nebraska - 20 Illinois - 7 Nebraska's run defense looked legit in this game, which makes Michigan's performance look better. Illinois is in a bad place right now. Rutgers - 13 Wisconsin - 24 Rutgers just didn't have enough fire power or downfield passing threats to stay in this game. Wisconsin continues to appear to have a free trip to Indianapolis.  Northwestern - 23 Howard - 20 No notes. Iowa - 20 Purdue - 14 This is one of the ugliest football games we have ever barely watched. Purdue cannot stop an inside run. Iowa turns everyone they play into Iowa. The Hawkeyes had zero completions to wide receivers.  MUSIC: “Young Hearts Spark Fire”— Japandroids “Porch Boogie”— Rose City Band “Henry in Forever”—  Luke Temple “Across 110th Street”

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, SignalWire where we recorded this and INTRODUCING TO THE PODCAST: Sharon's Heating. Special Guest: Professor Greg Dooley, whose podcast is The Professor & the Pundit. Featured Musician: Kyle Mack The Video: [After THE JUMP: Dooley arrives so we get off-topic.] --------------------- 1. Minnesota Preview: Offense starts at the top Do they have Darius Taylor or not? If so they run the ball. If not, they will try to run the ball. WR Daniel Jackson is a threat. What's up with Brevyn Spann-Ford? 2. Minnesota Preview: Defense starts at 17:42 They're just guys up front, with some transfers who aren't cutting it at this level to replace better transfers out. Somehow though they held on to Tyler Nubin, who's a dude. Tricky coverages. 3. Jug History and NIL with Professor Greg Dooley starts at 34:18 We start off with some of our favorite Jug stories but of course we also have the guy who teaches the biggest NIL class in the country so we also talk about the direction things are going with collectives, who are moving away from that term to being more like agents. We also get into the landscape once revenue-sharing comes into play, how realignment is basically all about lining things up for that, and how that might spell doom for a lot of non-revenue sports. 4. Nebraska After Review starts at 56:33 One JJ keep is all it takes. Discussion on the offensive line vs a real opponent and a lot of twists. Defensive line is comprehensive. A little concerned about the secondary. About the Featured Musician: KYLE MACK 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. Detroit's own Kyle Mack (not to be confused with Detroit's own snowboarder Kyle Mack) will be performing at The Dojo at The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor on Thurs. Oct. 19th. The beats behind his lyrics are worth listening to on their own, but the vocals are awesome. There's a lot of Detroit style in there, but also a lot (maybe too much?) of Lin-Manuel Miranda, and also some very on-purpose MLK gospel (can't share explicit lyrics on the podcast but listen to "Still I Rise" if you're trying him out. The fusion feels really…I dunno…us. Song choices: Jiu-Jitsu About Last Night Millions 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

Things Discussed: Urban Meyer: The next coach of Michigan Sta….lol. Maybe he was on the same drugs as the MSU fans? Other MSU coaching candidates they're never going to get. Michigan offense vs Nebraska: Neb's DT is great, M's performance on the ground was real. Read options: reps are helping. It's like a PG in basketball; you have to read the edge's intent not his positioning. Seth: They can stretch you so many ways, because you're coming down on Max Bredeson crossing the formation and your FS has to get way high to be over Roman Wilson and they slice you up in the mid-range. Ran an RPO! Henderson is good at the guard things. Edwards: concerted effort to get him right. Think it will happen. Guys who wear numbers in the 40s. Max Bredeson! MULLINGS! DeVeon Smith? Next year's OL, left to right: Gentry, El-Hadi, Crippen, Anderson, Hinton/Persi? Jenkins: Got him blocked ONE TIME. Defense: A couple of those sacks need a Corcoran's backup discount. One thing that doesn't need a discount: Derrick Moore's size and dip. DEs need to practice their coverage—Harrell and McGregor are better at it, Moore and Stewart were rough. Secondary concerns: Sainristil was a little hurt. Rod Moore at nickel is fine—he was doing some Peppers things. Will Johnson struggled; need to see him this week vs Minnesota's good WR. Notable that Rod Moore is on the field up 45-0—that says he's the Donovan Edwards, needs snaps. Minnesota: One good receiver, one really bad guard spot. Defense are just guys except don't throw it near #27. Theory of Iowa: the starter wants to throw short, the backup wants to throw long.

2 hours and 10 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: Roster Talk Top 6 Dudes Some 4th Line Battles Is Frank Nazar the difference? Will the Defense be better at Defense? Segment 2: Goalies and Opponents Is there a definitive starter? How many Lindenwoods do we play? Minnesota? MSU? Wait...Wisconsin? Is this the end of Jeff Jackson? [Player after THE JUMP] MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "San Francisco" -- The Mowgli's Ice Hockey (NES) theme  

2 hour and 12 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, and The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros' reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass. 1. Offense vs Nebraska Starts at 1:00 There are people saying Michigan runs TOO MANY flea flickers?? It's hard to win 45-7 when you play at the pace that Michigan plays at. This game was domination. Kalel Mullings emerged, De'Veon Smith but fast? Donovan Edwards showed improvement, despite what the stats might show. LaDarius Henderson played most of the game, maybe he just needed some time to get broken in since he played guard last year and wasn't at Michigan in the spring. JJ McCarthy didn't seem phased by the windy conditions. The Nebraska run defense might hold up against Penn State? The passing game bread and butter is a 15 yard dig route. Bredeson and Barner are A+ blockers.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 2. Defense vs Nebraska Starts at 46:06 There was a Nebraska highlight reel at halftime that involved three plays. Kris Jenkins was not blocked at all. Nebraska's left tackle scored a zero in PFF two years ago. Will Johnson got beat in man coverage which isn't great! Ernest Hausmann played a great game in his old stadium, was called a traitor by someone in the stands. Zone drops need improvement by defensive ends. Otherwise not much else to complain about.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:08:57 Takes hotter than Lincoln, Nebraska in October (for some reason). Dave attended this game and describes the Nebraska experience. Their fans are as nice as advertised and have great shirts. JJ was also very nice in this game for reasons discussed. Per Blake Corum, this game was buttery and sweet. Dorks! Tommy Doman startled the commentators with a punt. Not much to discuss in terms of game theory (besides Nebraska timeout usage).  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:37:49 Minnesota - 35 Louisiana - 24 Louisiana outgains Minnesota, that can't feel good with Michigan coming up. By the 3rd quarter, Minnesota took control. Based on Minnesota vs Northwestern and Nebraska, this probably won't be a competitive game coming up.  Iowa - 26 Michigan State - 16 Iowa gets 26 points but their offensive net contribution is 10. But hey, they got their goal of >25 points! Michigan State outgains Iowa but throws three interceptions. This was just a hideous game.  Penn State - 41 Northwestern - 13 This game was tied at halftime but Penn State really put it away in the second half. It's hard to think that Penn State's offensive line will do much against Michigan. 31 of 63 of Northwestern's offensive plays went for one yard or less. Penn State sort of ran a fake kneel down to beat the spread. That doesn't seem like a team that seems confident enough to beat Ohio State.  Purdue - 44 Illinois - 19 Lots of penalties for Illinois. One third of Illinois' yards came in the last nine minutes. This is a year zero for Purdue which makes this more impressive.  Maryland - 44 Indiana - 17 This was ugly, feels like Tom Allen's swan song. Maryland is 5-0 and is looking decent, but they probably won't have the lines to compete with Ohio State this weekend.  Rutgers - 52 Wagner - 3 MUSIC: “Dead Fox”— Courtney Barnett “Eye On The Bat”— Palehound “Find Me in the Air”—  The Builders and the Butchers “Across 110th Street”

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, and SignalWire where we recorded this. Featured Musician: MYNA The Video: [After THE JUMP: The saidening.] --------------------- 1. Nebraska Preview: Offense starts at the top They finally found something that feels Nebraskan: option offense with a walk-on quarterback. Still haven't found an offensive line, a passing game, or success against a real defense. 2. Nebraska Preview: Defense starts around 12:15 Their 3-3-5 is interesting, their personnel is not so much. Getting much better play out of a couple of DTs from last year, which is a major development. Will Michigan play into their strengths? 3. Seth's Hockey Preview starts around 12:45 Alex has to stick around this time so we can dive into what the hockey team looks like without any Hughes. 4. Rutgers After Review starts around 12:30 They respected Rutgers. Linebackers are doing well but still haven't seen a major passing team. Stewart isn't passing Harrell. Rod Moore was in a lot more than we realized. About the Featured Musician: MYNA 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. Ann Arbor's own MYNA (Spotify) is an Indian-American R&B singer songwriter on the Metro Detroit scene, and a previous winner of the Motown Musician Accelerator Program. Her sound changed in 2020 to more of a personal gospel. She will be performing at the Neutral Zone's 25th Anniversary Concert on Oct. 7th in Ann Arbor. Song choices: "Lemon Tree (Yellow)" "Feel" "Gemini" 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

Things Discussed: Offense vs Rutgers: Double SZ returns, that's going to work well with Arc. Zone reads add an outside threat to Duo. Defense vs Rutgers: Missed Mason Graham: his absence nerfs Grant; Goode and Benny are decent players but opposites and can't play together. Rutgers thought they could Iso Barrett and he was was awesome. Harrell's been awesome, Stewart has to stop giving up edges. What's so sad about that Rutgers TD is McGregor was dropping back into that slant. Nebraska's defense: After seeing Colorado's OL it's an ain't played nobody situation. Colorado had answers for all the things Nebraska was doing. Michigan is going to have to gameplan for them though because they like to play Rock, Paper, Scissors. Loveland is the difference in this game: they have nobody who can match up with him. Is Nebraska's defense like TCU? Different: Nebraska's LBs are fast and small; TCU's LBs were slow but thicc. They're very "Don Brown" in that they have runts who are going to be flying to the ball. You've made it when you've got a haterz name. Nobody ever wrote "$eth" before. One bad half. Marcus Freeman: why are you insane? Penn State vs Ohio State: Craig thinks it's an OSU blowout. Seth thinks PSU has a QB who's making up for their OL issues and they've got the DBs to hang. Iowa: Poor Cade, at Michigan he was sitting on his ass behind one guy he hates, now he's sitting on his ass behind five of them.

2 hour and 34 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, and The Nose Bleeds, which is the Sklars Bros' reboot of Cheap Seats on UFC Fight Pass. 1. Offense vs Rutgers Starts at 1:00 Traditionally, this podcast has always started without Lou Holtz, but we challenge him to come here. JJ kept the ball a lot, it felt like Michigan took this game seriously. We're starting to get worried about Donovan Edwards' run game, he's leaving yards on the field. Blake Corum looks like he's all the way back, though, the offensive line will probably grade out well overall. LaDarius Henderson was playing on and off. It feels like we're at the floor at tackle as far as preseason expectations go, we're in game four and don't know who the starters are. JJ's first few throws were questionable or inaccurate, but then he leveled out. When's the last time they threw a tunnel screen? Semaj Morgan looked good but he's small out there. We think the cyan worked? The flea flicker was from Super Tecmo Bowl. Get Trente Jones the ball! The amount of times JJ ran felt about right also, good that he always got out of bounds. Max Bredeson's blocking has been great.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]   2. Defense vs Rutgers Starts at 39:34 Rod Moore lets a 69 yard touchdown get by and then gets benched for a bit, Quentin Johnson came in and looked pretty good again. Rutgers got the edge a couple times. The only other time they were able to move the ball was when Wimsatt was possessed by the ghost of Unstoppable Throw God Trevor Siemian for half a drive. Rutgers couldn't move the ball against the starting defensive line but were able to push the backups around. Linebackers played great, Mike Barrett looked like a fully weaponized middle linebacker. Haussmann had a really good game, Junior Colson is just not making mistakes in the run game. Mike Sainristil absolutely dump trucked Junior Colson during his interception. Everyone thinks the play is dead except Mike Sainristil and Kenneth Grant, who is impossibly fast for his size here. Michigan defeats the number one thing Rutgers had, which was a running back lead block for the quarterback. Rutgers felt like a much more functional football team this year.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:00:38 Brian's Hot Takes voice was actually just a Ryan Day impression this whole time. Aussie punters are annoying, we don't like it. Thaw needs to get to that ball, someone else should be spotting it. Tommy Doman kicked a punt that still hasn't landed yet. The officials had a day, good thing it was a Ref Day in a game where it didn't matter. The Loveland first down was really bad, they marked a clear 3rd and 1 from Donovan Edwards short, they called a pass interference after a receiver gave up on the route. Why do you hate Michigan, KYLE?! They've been slow out of the huddle and had to call timeouts twice. Kalel Mullings could very well be the starter next year, and maybe even take some carries away from Edwards this season.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:27:45 Ohio State - 17 Notre Dame - 14 Defensive battle with a lot of drives that end on 4th down. Notre Dame bottles up Ohio State's passing attack and short yardage runs. Sam Hartman throws every possible 4 yard pass en route to 175 yards. The ending was wild and is discussed. JTT and Sawyer look like they haven't developed at all but Notre Dame has two great tackles. Notre Dame puts 10 guys on the field for the final two plays. The way Ohio State runs this game is how they lose to Michigan. The bad half Ryan Day was referring to was not even the one we were thinking of. The Lou Holtz thing is even funnier in context.    Nebraska - 28 Louisiana Tech - 14 Nebraska's QB had more rushing yards than passing yards. They've discarded the forward pass, as God intended. Nebraska has a 330 lbs defensive tackle that wears zero. This next game will be a test for Michigan's rush offense, Nebraska may give Michigan some answers about where they are.    Maryland - 31 Michigan State - 9 George Blaha said what?? Michigan State turned it over FIVE times, even though they outgain Maryland. There were some positive signs that they might be able to hang with some of the middle to lower tier big ten teams but we also saw what happened against Washington. It might be a worse sign for Maryland.    Penn State - 31 Iowa - 0 Cade McNamara, 5-14 for 42 yards. Iowa's running backs combine for 27 yards. Penn State runs almost 60 more plays. It's about if Kirk Ferentz is getting fired at this point, not just Brian Ferentz. Four first downs to four turnovers, the stats just keep getting worse. Not sure you can extrapolate much from Penn State's defense in this. Penn State ground game was bottled up, passing game seemed fine.   Indiana - 29 (4OT) Akron - 27 Indiana's safeties are terrible. Akron outgains Indiana 474-282. Indiana has combined for 8 rushing first downs against three FBS teams this season. Akron is a bad MAC team.    Illinois - 23 Florida Atlantic - 17 Illinois outgains FAU 510-353. Still a little skeptical of this Illinois team but they looked a lot better in this game, even got out of a scoring hole. They're not good but they don't seem dire.    Northwestern - 37 (OT) Minnesota - 34 Northwestern comes back from a 21 yard deficit and gains 492 yards. AJ Henning has a game tying touchdown. These are the games Minnesota usually takes care of and helps them eek out 8 wins. Doesn't look like that will be the case this year. Wisconsin - 38 Purdue - 17 Tanner Mordecai had 13 rushes that weren't sacks. Wisconsin is probably going to sleepwalk to the division title because nobody else is even trying in the West. MUSIC: “Bug Like An Angel”— Mitski “Rock 'n Roll With Me”— David Bowie “Let's Go Out On The Town”—  Cut Worms “Across 110th Street”