Podcasts about champions circle

2 hours and 23 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, The Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, and Venue by 4M where recorded this. 1. What Dusty Just Done Did Starts at 0:51 Not only did we have this team come out of nowhere to be the best in the history Michigan basketball. The Dusty May Era is now a fever dream. Takes a little bit out of it. This is college basketball now. Understand why he wouldn't want to be a college coach today; he explicitly said he never got to feel like they won a championship. NCAA can be blamed for letting it get here but also they have no power whatsoever to fix all the things that mean the second you win a title you have to recruit your new team. Second time in a row the college coach the NBA took was Michigan's. This is not the Cavs; Dallas is a good gig. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. The Future of Michigan Basketball Starts at 19:04 They're promoting Mike Boynton to interim head coach, with a possibility of permanence. Greater that 50% chance he's the HC without the interim title, but might execute a search. Five days after they announce a hire the portal is open for Michigan alone, which is probably what scared them into this now. McKenney is back, probably Cadeau back, direction of things is a battle to hold onto the transfer bigs. Boynton: got tagged by the FBI thing, can see his tenure as not successful, or successful for the Minnesota of the Big 12. He has a trademark, which is defense: five of six years with a top-20 unit. Still relatively young, can recruit. Program: "What option do we have?" UNNNNNGGGGGHHHHHH. Actual option: Josh Schertz! Trademark is twos, built a real roster there, is Dusty's best coaching buddy. Don't care as much about roster continuity (Brian Ellerbe, Sherrone Moore) because the players won't be around long. Also if you poach a coach you have access to another team's roster and coaching staff, whereas right now Michigan and the Mavs are competing for Michigan staff and Michigan and the world are competing for Michigan's players. Other names to look at: Niko Medved was our next pick two years ago, did as well as possible with Minnesota last year. Where is Michigan Basketball in program rankings? Would Purdue swap with us? Purdue built their fanbase over years of having a program, just like Michigan hockey. 3. The Warde Talk Starts at 53:17 What are you supposed to do with a guy who alternates between asleep-at-the-wheel scandals and national championships? Push back against Brian's assertion that people "don't want to work for him" because these are all individual situations. He's not a bad guy, but he's also not a guy who *does* things, unless that's milking the fanbase or turning Michigan Stadium into an F1 race of ads. His oeuvre is not doing anything, because that worked with Harbaugh in 2020, and now that's a modus operandi. Talking ADs history since Canham. Push back against Brian's lionizing of Canham: he was a visionary, but his record also includes Dr. Anderson and trying to prevent/undermine Title IX. We end up preferring Bill Martin of all our lifetime ADs—he built the boxes to prevent ads in the stadium. Don't think missing out on Les Miles was a loss. Brian's Warde assessment: He typed "how to AD" into ChatGPT. Does losing Dusty May like this change your opinion on Warde Manuel? No. But it's weird that he keeps surviving (no president to fire him). 4. 2027 Football Recruiting Starts at 1:20:46 Doesn't look any different from a Harbaugh class at this point. If you're good at scouting and developing you're fine. OL class is small but Lipsey stacks another elite tackle and they had to fend off ND for Louis Esposito, Rouleau is a Frey-type. Xavier Muhammad is a very good DT, Tavares Harrington a find at CB, and they held onto some important guys in-state in a good Michigan year. LB recruiting is still underfunded, Brian is fine with that because it's very a "what's in your head" position with no consensus on what schools want. State of the recruiting industry: Paramount got bought and 247 is getting raided as incompetent ownership sets in. On3 is more reactive to scouting this cycle, and almost universally rate M commits higher. White whales: #1 is CB Josh Dobson, Seth Tillman would be a big, big deal because DTs are hard to come by, Monsanna Torbert would be a big win over Ohio State. Lincoln Mageo would be a good OL to finish with. Would like to have more TEs coming in. 5. World Cup Starts at 1:50:04 Takes hotter than Dusty May's agent. Count how many times Brian calls USA "Michigan." Are the Americans the most pleased with their performance in Group Phase (2nd to Canadians). Freeman (son of Antonio) is very reliable defensively, main thing is you can put Dest at wing. Sauciest player in US history? McKenzie is everywhere, runs into the box from deep were especially effective vs Paraguay. Pulisic injury: not going to play him in the useless Turkey game, should be fine. Tim Ream has been trying to play soccer for us forever, always been the best guy on the ball. Decent draw, should be favored (when they make the field) for a couple of rounds. Success point is get to the quarters; they can go into a game against a world power and expect to compete, not win, and not win three in a row. Four years ago they were too young. Don't mind the 48-team format; it saps a lot of tension out of the Group Stage when three teams advance, but a lot of "small teams" have battled. Brazil is still working back to being BRAZIL. Germany is Ohio State but not a peak year Ohio State. France is super talented. Alex: If you play Bosnia and Herzegovina you play two countries at once. Seth: Actually it's more like seven point eight. MUSIC: "Hit or Miss"—Odetta "Take Da Charge"—Project Pat "Love on My Brain"—Jim Ford "Dog Has Its Day"—Toledo “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

Maize and Blue weekend update including a Champions Circle event in FLSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2 hours and 54 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, The Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Spring Game - Offense Starts at 0:51 Seth has a hypothesis that you can define running backs by the sound you involuntarily make when they carry the ball. You can practice this in the shower. Ohio State had a high scoring spring game, also a lot of rain. Bryce's play was concerning. He didn't look comfortable in the pocket and scrambled a lot. The defense wasn't allowed to do anything fancy or blitzed, they mostly played in a Cover-2. That said, not ever having the starting offensive line together does not help the quarterback. Tommy Carr was able to sit there and do some three step drop stuff, which are throws that Underwood didn't throw. He doesn't have the arm strength but he was making better decisions. Who would you compare him to, Tate Forcier? Dylan McCaffrey? Alex Smith? Did Michigan lose a year of Bryce Underwood's development? Kyle Whittingham has a track record of developing good running quarterbacks, so maybe what we saw in the spring game was not super relevant. Maybe Bryce is like a freshman Cam Newton or redshirt Freshman Vince Young. Even if they don't have a great passing game they can still run a good offense with the running tools they have. Some of the scrambling may have been a result of pass rush and playing against Cover-2. Poor Jordan Marshall getting ruled down after four yards. Savion Hiter is absolutely going to be the real deal. It was an up and down game from the wide receivers but they also didn't get many opportunities. There has never been an elite wide receiver who has worn #3 at Michigan. Browder had a ball bounce off his face mask but then got a nice catch later. Hogan Hansen has barely been able to play football for the last year and a half. The gang argues over fullback snap counts. Guys getting wrecked against defensive tackles is fine because we want to see progress from the defensive tackles (in the spring game).  2. Spring Game - Defense Starts at 43:54 It was generally encouraging that the defensive line beat up the offensive line. Sprague lost to Edokpayi a couple times. Cam Brandt beat Frazier at one point. Nate Staehling hasn't been available at all so there's still some hope that he'll be really good when he arrives. All the linebackers are defensive backs right now. Palepale really stood out. Benny Patterson was a defensive end to keep an eye on. What did we see from the linebackers? Uhhhhhh. Taylor Tatum might be a real safety? Corner has four names for three spots which is a good spot to be in. A kicker missed a 29 yard field goal, they should've faked a field goal for the game winning touchdown since they weren't trying to block kicks.  3. Hot Takes and Basketball/Hockey Portal Starts at 1:06:36 Takes hotter than the Kitchener Rangers GM after the Michigan hockey team stole from them. The portal has been slow enough to include both basketball and hockey. The roof of Yost fell off to conserve the vibes of the roster. Perron remains the only question mark. They're also about to get the top two picks out of the CHL. The roster is pretty much done, they don't even need to go to the portal. This team should be the #1 team in the pre-season poll next year. Michigan men's basketball turns its attention to Cincinnatti center Moustapha Thiam. A 7'2" rim defender who could replace a likely Mara departure. Apparently there is a situation with a handler from Senegal. It's looking more like Mara is gone and Morez is back. Is there a chance Mara returns? Probably not, but he needs to make a decision. Brian doesn't want to throw the whole bag at Juke Harris. Overall it's been quiet and they need to start making some moves.  4. Gimmicky Top Five Moments of Basketball Season Starts at 1:48:33 Everyone's top five moments of basketball season, plus Seth's 74 honorable mentions. Elliott Cadeau going 2-15 and controlling the Arizona game, undefeated on the road, and Dusty sitting in front of the Michigan State bench. They didn't just boat race those teams in Vegas but they broke the point system. Oscar Goodman thunder dunks. Scooping up confetti is like the fan version of raising a banner. Jeremy Fears kicking a Minnesota guy in the balls signified that it was not just a Michigan thing. Then Izzo fouling Michigan for ten minutes and complaining about Michigan getting more free throws. The Arizona win stamps this season as "one of the best teams of the last 25 years." You can just sit on a couch in a certain way and piss off Michigan State fans now. McKenney's mid-range jumpers in Breslin were the coldest mid-range jumpers ever. What have been your favorite tournament blowouts? Michigan's mascot should be Mitch McGary in an oversized Mitch McGary suit.  MUSIC: "Spring Game"—Biz Markie "Going Shopping"—The Srokes "Baby Steps"—Olivia Dean “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 58 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Hockey - Recapping the Frozen Four Starts at 0:51 We gotta talk about the hockey tournament. The fake hockey tournament. Whether they won or lost, it doesn't change anything about who this team was. Michigan played well enough to win, but one shot in nine minutes ended it. Almost every year it's not the best team that wins, it's usually Duluth or Denver. Denver is like the UConn men's basketball of hockey. There's no emotional story to apply your fandom to when it's just randomness. Denver's lack of penalties that were objectively bad no-calls just doesn't make it feel fair, especially the way they called Michigan's penalty in OT. even Alex and David think it was egregious, the players that poured their hearts into this deserve better. There is something wrong with this tournament, there would be a lot more respect for Buccigross if he would say something along those lines. There's not something wrong with Michigan, there's something wrong with the tournament. Imagine if in basketball they just stopped calling fouls in OT.  2. Hockey - Looking Ahead Starts at 27:50 Moldenhauer and Hage have announced returns. Apparently players have been informed to avoid the AHL if they can, college is a lot more enjoyable. Jack Nesbitt is the 12th overall pick and could be coming in, he's a TJ Hughes replacement. He's in the OHL playoffs and might not make a decision right away. Cameron Reid could also be coming in from the OHL, 21st overall to Nashville. Perron is the biggest one on the fence, if you get him then all your holes are plugged. JP Hurlbert is coming in regardless but he might wait a year to contribute. Nick Seaman is coming in as a 4th liner, Cooper Dennis might get deferred (and is Alex Drain sized). A lot of teams will be better next season, but Penn State had Gavin McKenna and weren't that great. Michigan State isn't missing a beat. There are a lot more, and better, options than just going to the NHL these days. They should be a pre-season top three, or maybe even top one.  3. Hot Takes and Basketball Portal Starts at 59:16 Takes hotter than the Denver Pioneers. The Red Wings need to make David Carle their head coach so they can win while being out-shot 2:1. This information might be outdated by the time you hear it! What is happening in the portal right now? Not much. Michigan gets JP Estrella out of Tennessee. He's a high efficiency but low usage player which is weird. He's a moneyball play vs getting Flory Bidunga. Otherwise there's not a lot of chatter. We're starting to expect Morez Johnson to return. Michigan needs a true rim protecting center and could probably also use a starting three. Juke Harris is worth going after but not worth the big bag, give that to the Seton Hall center, Najai Hines. Freshman Brandon McCoy went to a camp and looks like a guy you could have for 20 minutes a game. There's a trust of Dusty in the portal that the fanbase didn't have with Juwan. The Big Ten runs college basketball now. How would Beilein have done during this era?  4. Spring Game Preview Starts at 1:38:41 Spring Game is this weekend at 2pm, 12-18 starters will be sitting out. Bryce will probably play since they don't have enough quarterbacks, we better see Savion Hiter. Position groups are going to be split into balanced squads rather than have a draft, making it more like a controlled practice than a real game. In years past it was frustrating to see future NFL linemen with a walk-on running back behind them, you can't learn much from that. We expect to see a more evolved version of the offense with more quarterback runs. There is Travis Johnson buzz at wide receiver. Brian doesn't want to hear about Kendrick Bell. Hogan Hanson is generating excitement and the offensive line has intriguing positional battles. Evan Link is back and might play, Babalola is not playing yet. Whittingham is good at running the quarterback, it won't be the 2011 offense but it should be effective. The coaches apparently like the depth on the defensive line and think it's the strength of the team, which, ehhhh. Brian breaks down why this is not true. They trust Palepale. Do you prefer EDGE or ED? Linebacker depth is a concern, they don't really have anyone to back up the three main guys. The secondary should be settled in. Shamari Earls is making a move at corner. Who's at nickel now? If Rod Moore isn't on the field in the spring game then enjoy a nice coaching career. Kerry Coombs brings a lot of old guy energy and gets mic'd up a lot. Jay Hill is like the mormon kid from South Park. Don't blame us if it rains. MUSIC: "I Root"—Michael Nau "Sitting Still"—Michael Rault "Sails Across the Sea"—Boz Metzdorf “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

Things Discussed: Seth shares his story in the hotel lobby: Thank you to Champions Circle!!! How this team was built: Michigan cared about fit and personality. If you're trying to copy this and you spend more in the portal you're doing it wrong. Would any of these guys be as good if they stayed at their old schools? Will Izzo hate this team more, or when Flint product Trey McKenney leads them to a repeat? Dusty May future: perfect for this era where you pick whom you play for. Portal: Can they get John Blackwell through admissions? If he can graduate from Wisconsin. Portal: Juke Harris? Craig said he's a four; Seth says he is not a four because he's 200 pounds, and Wake was wrong. Hockey preview: It's random, but the story is USNDTP won hockey this year. Best goalie, best route, best seed, get the nice locker room for both games. NCAA took CHL players and it turns out NCAA hockey is stronger. Denver's goalie is super hot, their goalie is the Hurley of college hockey. Who's favored? Nobody. 1/4ths.

2 hours and 9 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Just Won a Natty/Indianapolis Vibes Starts at 0:51 No crying this time, but we do think we can have nice things now. You get out of it what you put into it; the UMHoops guys are probably experiencing the highest of highs. The 2023 football championship was a thing no other fanbase has experienced; this is what a normal natty feels like. Some of us survived the 2023-24 team. The story begins with the Ellerbe years, the Beilein era absolutely helped build this. Don't resent the Fab Five, but they unfairly had to represent what Michigan could be. Reconsidering the Juwan era, the heart condition, how badly he needed a GM. Beilein was spiritually (and literally) present for this team; loudest the stadium got before Michigan hit a three was when they showed him. Very unselfish team. Built through the portal—Cronin was never going to be a good fit for Mara, Rez wasn't going to have a role after Illinois got the other Ivisic, Cadeau was struggling in a bad system at UNC, Yaxel used the portal to get here from JUCO via UAB, Roddy Gayle was the national glue guy of the year, Nimari was here three years through two coaching changes, and Will Tschetter was a five-year player who took a smaller role: nobody can make a good faith argument that any of these guys don't belong here. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. The UConn Game Starts at 27:50 Takes hotter than the rims during the final last night. Story of the game was UConn fouling the crap out of Michigan from literally the tip. Miss the first Cadeau and-one, then hit 24 free throws in a row to offset the terrible threes, until Roddy missed his pair. Snakebit shooting because Rez/Mara/Yax kept getting mismatches down low, but Michigan was able to play their bigs together, and that just made it impossible for UConn to score. Felt like Lendeborg was himself on defense; offensively he was obviously hobbled. Their communication was fantastic, and there weren't mismatches for UConn to hunt. A time or two they got Mara versus Karaban on the perimeter or something, but they didn't get backcut once. Tarris was basically shut down by Mara. Only thing they got were those ORebs, which were hat tips to them and also related to Michigan taking way the three. Next year Trey McKenney; graded on a curve he made 2 of Michigan's three jumpers, including the dagger. The Rube Goldberg three. Cadeau vs the Cadeau we thought we were getting. 3. How this Team Came Together Starts at 59:16 Revisiting how the roster came together, May's eye for talent, because every guy he got at FAU wound up a star somewhere. You can't actually build from the portal; if that's the lesson they're taking from this team they're going to get lit up. Cadeau cleaned up the TOs (but still commits them at the end of the game his banana peel). On the human to athlete personality spectrum, Mara is a normal human being, who never should have been paired with Cronin—all little guys who play basketball are born killers because you have to be, but it's common for bigs to be like that. Mara was the best player; he developed into a beast by the end of the year. Transfer teams: if you look at the rest of the top ten four didn't make the Tournament; Michigan was the only protected seed that took a lot of transfers. St. John's and Louisville were the others. Once you're been at a school a year you're not a transfer anymore. Cig vs May: Cignetti relied more on his JMU transfers. It's especially hard to recreate what Michigan did defensively, because at the end these guys won a title by doing the best job of anybody of playing with each other. Introducing the Bobby Hurley Index: How many photos do you look like Jim Carrey in The Mask? 4. Next Year Starts at 1:38:41 Are they looking at the portal list or the list of guys projected to the late 1st/early 2nd round? Mara and Rez are probably done—small chance they get Rez back. Cason going to redshirt. Gayle, Burnett, Yaxel are out of eligibility. Cadeau and McKinney: best backcourt in the country next year? McCoy is Charles Matthews-ish, going to be a major defensive presence; if you get two years out of him he's a big get but he doesn't have a deep shot, might be freshman Darius Morris or what we wanted Rubin Jones (PG who can guard 1-4) to be. Recruited lots of SFs: Grady? Liburd? Brown? All going to be 6'5" gumby-armed switchable guards. Backup PG: can McCoy or McKenney can play point for 10 mpg. Do they have a wing? Want that guy to be switchable; Seth thinks they're going to have a big war chest to find an NBA four who can play the three in addition to two bigs. Goodman will be next year's Tschetter. Need three portal bigs. Is Dusty May the #1 coach you would want to have if you were looking for one right now? UNC search was Tommy Lloyd and Dusty May right? MUSIC: "La Di Da"—Heavy Weighs the King "Don't Be Mad"—PiranhaMob    "Up and Away"—Cursive        “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hours and 3 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Final Four vs Arizona Starts at 0:51 Dave has a new nickname. Was this game... a let down? You could have maybe predicted that Arizona would struggle to score based on their over-reliance on twos. You probably could not have predicted that Michigan would put up over 90 points without Yaxel. Arizona was extremely physical which resulted in foul trouble, but when they got away with it they could score. Michigan forced Arizona into an ungodly number of two point jumpers off the dribble. They were 10-of-32 from mid-range. Arizona missing a dunk felt like the dagger. Michigan's maturity showed, they didn't seem blinded by the lights of the big stage. Elliott Cadeau had the greatest 2-of-14 half of basketball. Yaxel goes out the first time because of foul trouble and Arizona couldn't be more physical than Michigan's guards. Arizona has one way of playing that nobody else could stop, except for Michigan, and Arizona didn't know how to react. When shooting was tough, Trey McKenney stepped up. 16 points on 6-9 shooting, he has changed how we feel about mid-range shooting. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Hot Takes and National Championship Preview - UConn Starts at 33:42 Takes hotter than ADAY MARA. Connecticut is #9 in Kenpom which feels like a relief, but they do have weird tournament joujou. That's better than having to play Duke at least. Michigan vs Tarris Reed for a national championship is crazy. Tarris has matured into a hoss and is their center, his backup, Eric Reibe, is a freshman and a drop-off but still a good player. They don't really play a second big. Alex Karaban is their second biggest player and he's been around college basketball for forever but he's a big wing. This is a game where Tschetter can play. Michigan can play two bigs and put one of them on Karaban but it might only be for 15-20 minutes of the game. Should Michigan make this into a shooting fest and maximize possessions? Tarris Reed is very difficult to ware out. Braylon Mullens is a freshman 6-6 195 lbs wing that Michigan can overwhelm. Silas Demery is a transfer from Georgia, the point guard, top 25 assist rate, top 100 steal rate. Gets to the line a ton, not that great from two. Solo Ball takes most of his shots from outside of the arc, he has also been seen wearing a boot. Expect UConn to show a lot of different coverages. How much Yaxel will we get? Expect it to be a Blake Corum vs Ohio State situation. He came to Michigan to play in this game so you gotta feel for him if he can't play much. UConn's biggest advantages are blocking two point shots and assists, which Michigan should be able to take advantage of. Their path to victory is to replicate what Purdue did in the Big Ten Championship game. Once again, the difference in this game will be Aday Mara. No Paul Szelc won't be officiating this game!  ADDENDUM - Solo Ball was reported as being in a boot while this was recorded. If he's not able to play that is a huge drop-off. Even if he plays he's not going to be 100%, much like Yaxel.  3. Hot Takes and Gimmicky Top Five Commercial Takes Starts at 1:20:48 You know AI companies are running out of money because they can't even get Snoop Dogg on their commercials. Charles Barkley will say anything. Has Jennifer Garner acted in anything besides Capital One commercials in the last decade? AT&T did predict the Michigan Tennessee game. Are they putting the cocaine back in Coke? Tall Boozer looks like a normal Boozer, small Boozer looks like an AI recreation of a Boozer.  4. Potpourri: WBB, Hockey, and Football Bits Starts at 1:34:22 Women's basketball was dumptrucked, but at least we now can empathize with all the teams that played MBB. The game has gotten two chalky; it's the same four one-seeds, repeats of the same games. Is there a ceiling on this team, unless they suddenly double the money they put into it? David's hockey takes: Denver is not like or MSU who's going to take the puck off your stick, and those are the teams that Michigan struggles with. He likes Michigan with four lines and snipers versus a smaller goalie—shot quality game. Brian hates that it's Denver in the tournament. Is there a team that's looked better than Michigan in the Playoff? Wisconsin-NoDak is a pick 'em but matchup-wise Wisconsin would rather be playing Michigan. North Dakota got walked to the Frozen Four. If we lose Seth has to wear Denver jersey to the podcast. Football bits: We're in the ping-pong table removal phase. It's okay that Underwood's throwing interceptions, because he's trying them. Non-insane QB run approach. Next QB is Carr. Hiter hype continues, Salesi Moa is popping. Eli Owens fullback talk. Brian doesn't buy the talk of Babalola starting when he's been hurt, but Sprague at RG can only mean that because Frazier is securing a spot. Defensively the DT situation is good on Palepale and not good that Lea'ea is "smart" vs "much larger." Seth loves the Edokpayi talk, Benny Patterson is a Mike-Mo. Kind of a good sign the three young LBs are getting a lot of talk (albeit with a simplification). Good sign that Bracy is getting talked up for his coverage. MUSIC: "The Wino I Know"—Jimmy Buffett "Ruby"—White Denim "Long Weekend"—Cut Worms “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 56 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight Review Starts at 0:51 Almost a stress-free weekend. Michigan overwhelms a pair of top SEC teams that couldn't be any more different from each other. Brian credited March Roddy a little, Alabama preview a lot, as they got worn out. Labaran Philon was a hero: 39 minutes, 35 points, kept them in it. They didn't have bigs; they had one Morez Johnson-like object who got worn out. Wrightsell was hitting tough threes early but as he exhausted they were falling shorter and shorter until airball. 1st round picks Amari Allen and Nate Ament are freshmen not highly valuable college players, like Diabate, and can't get anything vs Michigan's size. Lendeborg is nailing threes since Dukes started going under screens; they're practice jumpers...against top-25 teams. Tennessee very different game: ball sitting on the floor for a minute and Lappas is so confused (how does he have this job??). Officials call bad foul on Mara then have to call everything; they get three incidents of goaltending or cylinder violations and went 0/3. Gillespie couldn't be Labaran Philon and that was it. Brief spasm of irritation when Vols are getting ORebs and Mara gets a 2nd foul, then 21 balanced points; it's over when JP Estrella tries to thunderdunk on Tschetter. Everyone was complementing Yaxel. Happy when Trey McKenney shoots a three. Salute to these seniors. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Final Four Preview Starts at 33:00 Meta game: Everyone is at the rim now because there's a much higher floor so you aren't (like Beilein) subject to the triple gods. Arizona is a lot like Michigan but they're even more extreme, and their jumpers are usually twos. When they do get a three (rarely) Bradley and Burries can knock them down. Concern is whether they can bully Mara; NBA people will be watching his battle with Krivas, defensive impact is understated because he's a mountain you can't move. Lost to Kansas because KU was able to muscle up and push them away from the rim. Everyone packs the paint against them; if you can actually push them away from the rim they're in the 100s in 2PT distance and they're not good at 2PJs, especially Koa Peat (34% on 130 attempts). Also: Jaden Bradley (46% on 157), Ivan Karchenkov (42% on 62), and Brayden Burries (46% on 92). Difference: Arizona has three freshmen, Michigan has one, and Michigan's three-big lineup can probably make Peat inefficient to be just enough. Burries is McKenney.  Game of the century? Illinois we know; they're huge and they shoot, and they play the wrong Ivisic. Alex pulled off one of the great jinxes to get UConn over the line. Tarris Reed's final form is the switchable five who is a monster shot blocker and scorer, could be major trouble defensively for Michigan because they don't have to go under screens, takes away Yaxel's threes. The rest of those guys though? Karaban is a 6'8 version of Nimari Burnett, have some shooting guards in Braylon Mullins and Solo Ball; Solo has gone full sophomore THJ from the arc; he can't hit one in the Tournament. Silas Demary was injured to start the Dance but is a wonderful creator. Illinois question: Andrej Sotjakovic is going OFF! Is that because he found something or because he can take advantage of space as a driver against unathletic teams like Iowa? 3. Hockey Starts at 1:11:12 Bentley game: didn't dominate them but once they got the free goal (Brian was even a little upset) at the end of the 1st period; the only way Bentley wins this is if Michigan gives that up. UMD game: Alex didn't like this draw—North Dakota got an engineered free trip to the Frozen Four and Michigan had UMD. Alex also dislikes going up 3-0 early leads because you stop trying to score, and UMD was getting a lot of good looks. Got great looks, Michigan gave up too many good entries, UMD hit a post and a bar, their top line was out there like 35 minutes, Ivankovic stood tall. Tyler Duke's defense was not good on those two goals. Asher Barnett's penalty shifts the momentum. Michigan's goals: great tip, Valentini scores on a dime of a saucer from Moldy—so happy he's activated his inner fullback. Schifsky's shortie. Frozen Four preview: four teams with the most national titles. Brian DOES NOT like to play Denver in the Frozen Four; are they the favorites now? They've been playing VERY hot. North Dakota hasn't been there forever; it's been 10 years. Wisconsin we know. 4. Hot Takes and Women's Basketball Starts at 1:38:06 Takes significantly hotter than Dusty May when Mara picked up a B.S. foul 30 seconds into the game. Worst day in MSU winter sports history. NCAA could find a way to put Duke back in it but that would kill Bill Murray. WBB plays TONIGHT against 1-seed Texas. Smoked Louisville: not one but TWO 16-0 runs. They weren't transition baskets because they didn't cross midcourt; they're just 'sition baskets. No points for 7 minutes then dominated for three quarters—gonna have to play FOUR quarters from here on. BQD has seven offensive rebounds, against a huge Louisville team. Delfosse has really come on the last few weeks, Olson and Swords carried offensive, very impressed with how they dealt with Laura Zeigler; Sofilkanich handled her. Good sign for Texas's size, though they have a midrange assassin. Michigan's going to have to shoot well from three and hope Booker isn't effective from range. Home game for Texas in Fort Worth. GO BLUE!!!! MUSIC: "Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy"—Devo "Baywatch"—Drug Cabin "Paradise"—The Mattson 2 “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra 

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, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. Segments 1-3 were in MGoPodcast 17.29a yesterday. 4. Sweet Sixteen Preview: Alabama Starts at 0:51 We hate facing three teams in the Tournament because of randomness. Bama is the Nate Oats show: he wad doing efficiency before it was cool. PG Labarn Philon isn't Aden Holloway but is lengthy can can get to the basket—Nick Boyd was his #1 comp on Hoop-Explorer. Darius Acuff was on that list too. SG Latrell Wrightsell is a shooter; he was 6/9 from three vs TTU, 38% career from three, hit 45% two years ago (on a team with Sam Walters). OLD.  Wing Amari Allen is a 6'8-205 and NOT JUST A SHOOTER. The book on Allen is don't let him shoot from the left side of the arc: 47% on 47 attempts from the left wing, 4 or 10 from the corner. But 32% straightaway on 31 attempts, 24% on 46 attempts from the right side. He's just 61% at the rim. The other wing is a timeshare between a JAS, a freshman, and an Egyptian stretch four.  At center they're lacking, sorta. Aiden Sherrell is a Detroiter—Seth sent a phot of him as a recruit to Brian once—McDonald's AA—kinda reminds us of Morez. Had major struggles at the free throw line last year (46%) that he's largely fixed. Backup is... can Charles Bediako play? No? Well Bucknell transfer Noah Williamson is actually Noa Viljamsons from Latvia; he was #1 in usage and #1 in defensive rebounding in the Patriot League but severe dropoffs all over the map in their few chances against better competition.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  5. Elite Eight Preview: Iowa State or Tennessee Starts at 22:13 Iowa State spent a lot of the season on the 1-seed line. HUUUUGE loss (unless it's better than it looked) in Joshua Jefferson (KPOY #2), who's high-usage Yax and really gave ISU their identity. PG Tamin Lipsey is Tre Donaldson. Wing Milan Momcilovic is the sniper of the year. Three different SGs with three different skills, and then they have some decent but not world-beating centers. It's really about stopping Jefferson. If it's Tennessee that's an easier matchup but maybe not a great one for Michigan because Ja'Kobi Gillespie gets his own shot, Nate Ament is mini Joshua Jefferson, and they throw these huge bodies at the offensive glass. 6. Women's Basketball: First Weekend Recap and Sweet 16/Elite 8 Preview Starts at 43:47 Firsts for Michigan WBB under Kim Barnes-Arico: 2-seed, 16-win season at Crisler, 27-win season. Muppets! Rote beatdown of Holy Cross was rote; the WBB Tournament is even more chalk as the top talent is so much better than the rest. Michigan is the best of the teams that doesn't have an All-American, but some teams have multiple. NC State game was a fun matchup that Michigan took over as soon as their threes started going down. BQD-ass game where she took over at times by swarming a team that normally doesn't turn it over with the press. Looking forward: Louisville is NC State but can shoot—they're all large and can stretch, though not very quick. Laura Zeigler was the top recruit in the portal, Taj Roberts is a tall sniper, Imari Berry looks like an undead from WoW. If they get past Lville it's almost certainly going to be 1-seed Texas, which just rolled Oregon, which is a bellwether (when not in a legendarily badly officiated game). Madison Booker is WBB Yaxel, Rori Harmon is a thief, Breya Cunningham and Kyla Odacre are way bigger than anyone Michigan can put on them. MUSIC: "Sunday Morning"—Alcatraz "Video Life"—Chris Spedding “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    THE USUAL LINKS: Helpful iTunes subscribe link General podcast feed link What's with the theme music?      

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, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs Howard and Saint Louis Starts at 0:51 This is part one of a part two podcast! Which Robbie Avila nickname was your favorite? Of the last ten times Michigan has made the tournament they've been in the Sweet Sixteen nine. Were Beilein teams built better for the tournament than for the Big Ten? Howard shot 48% from three, the only reason they were able to get to 80 points. What Wisconsin nonsense is this? Michigan shoots 84% from two, one of those misses was from Oscar Goodman. Roddy Gayle was uninspiring in the Big Ten Tournament but returned to his March form. Moving on to Saint Louis, they're a dangerous offensive team but there was no way they were going to be able to check Michigan. Somehow Saint Louis was the #1 field goal efficiency defense in the country, it's a good sign that Michigan shot 1.35 PPP. Avila fell for Mara's fake pass. Since they started counting blocks Michigan is the first team to have all starters score 10+ points and have a block. The Mara we're seeing now is night and day from what we saw at the beginning of the season. Could you convince him to come back another year? What was up with that non-flagrant foul that ended up being a foul on Burnett? Technically it was a cylinder foul. High Point isn't a real school, you should only schedule real schools.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Spring Football Bits Starts at 34:37 There are finally enough bits coming out of the spring! Ron Bellamy is back as director of player personnel, which makes all the sense in the world. Apparently Whittingham wanted to come back to Utah but he wouldn't have as much control over decision making so he left. What exactly happened here? We thought he was retiring but clearly he didn't. Manuel Beigel moved to offensive line, this is concerning because there are plenty of offensive lineman and this team needs defensive tackles. In more positive news, Savion Hiter is already running with the ones. His built is like Jabrill Peppers. The defense will "resemble the 2023 defense" in terms of style, according to Jay Hill. It will depend what they can get out of Zeke Berry and Rod Moore. Injured guys are still injured. Receiver depth is Marsh, Ffrench, Moa, and Buchanon. Defensive tackle tea leaves are... uhhh... concerning? You need four decent defensive tackles, they currently have three and there's no guarantee that any of them are good. Maybe that's why Hiter is getting so many yards in practice. The NDSU linebacker captain needs to simmer for a bit, he just got here. If one of the best offensive line coaches in the country is excited then we're excited. If Babalola actually starts he'll be an All-American. Sounds like they're kicking Link inside?  3. Hot Takes and Hockey Tournament Starts at 1:02:51 Takes hotter than Howard for the last 10 minutes of the first half. Michigan gets the #1 overall seed in hockey, their reward is a game against Bentley in Albany. They also won the Big Ten Tournament after a 7-3 win over Ohio State. They get medals but not stoats. Playing a team with tournament lives on the line was really good practice. They were so excited to win a banner. Did you know Gonzaga used to have a hockey team. Bentley is 23rd in NPI which is better than their conference usually does. Doesn't look like a team that will threaten Michigan but anything crazy can happen in this tournament. The matchup is there against Penn State but the vibes are annoying since Michigan has already played them five times (and lost once). Will the building have 12 people in it? Minnesota-Duluth had a really good nonconference run but fell off towards the end of the season. They swept Minnesota which doesn't mean much this year. Congratulations Western Michigan, you are a #1 seed and you probably get to play Denver at altitude if you win your first game. The committee doesn't want schools to have home games but then they either give schools "home" games or play in empty rinks. This game should be at Yost and it would be nuts, Michigan deserves the home advantage that they earned. If Wisconsin gets goaltending they're a top four team, if not they'll lose in the first round.  MUSIC: "Hard Dreaming Man"—Drugdealer "Honey Drip"—Long Island Railroad, Smushie and Ryan Gebhard “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

Things Discussed: Howard preview: Their center isn't a center, but he's mini-Yaxel. Takeaways from BTT: Brian/Craig/Sam: The Purdue game was just a ref show—Oscar Cluff is a a) Buffalo, b) Oaf, c) deliberately running guys over and cheating on screens. Michigan doesn't have enough galoots. Seth: I've moved on. Biggest concern is Michigan vs Wisconsin: bringing too much help to the rim when we have some five-out teams (Saint Louis!) in the first weekend. Georgia and St. Louis. Georgia is soft—they have a shot-blocker and a lot of guards who can get their own points. Robbie Avila looks like Seth Fisher—he looks like a gumnut out there—but he's very skilled, especially at setting his guys up. I really like their four, Amari McCottry. Yaxel, take over man! Lots of opportunities to get him vs a mouse in the house and they didn't make the read. Michigan seemed to want to use Rez in that spot instead and he didn't have an inspired week. Pickin upsets: UNI over St. John's? Can slow the game to a grind. Kinda think NDSU? They've rediscovered the lost art of the defensive-invariant floater—not saying I am picking a 14 over a 3 but that's the one. Craig: Anyone notice they got Hurley, Izzo, and Cronin all in the same corner of the bracket? Poor Johnny Dawkins: what did I do to end up with these guys? Going further than their seed: Arkansas and Acuff. He's going to be a lottery pick, Arkansas paid for him and it was worth it. Calipari teams are kids at the start of the year (when they played MSU) but by the Tourney they're not freshmen anymore. OT: [BREAKING NEWS: Cade Cunningham will be out 8-10 weeks with a collapsed lung.] Billy Donlon in at EMU. Why did he leave Michigan? Not saying. In break: Does Michigan get an NIL discount? Champions Circle doesn't want to say so but yeah, when the money is close it's about lifestyle. Texas should get a Tournament ban for getting in last year and this year. Their best nonconference win: NC State. Bubble was terrible this year but that doesn't mean a mid SEC team should get in. Miami University is the perfect Tournament invite: They understood the assignment. Whom to invite instead of bubbly major conference teams? Mid-majors who won their conferences. Illinois in the Final Four? Yeah, they've got size and Wagler can shoot them to Indy (I had Nebraska taking out Florida). Houston takes such ugly shots, Illinois will make them uglier. Who can expose their frontcourt? Well, Florida.

1 hour and 36 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. The Tourney Draw, Midwest Region Preview Starts at 0:51 Overall a fine draw for the 3rd one-seed, with several teams that did not want Michigan as their one-seed. Alabama as a four-seed is a fine draw. They have some big wins because they can shoot their way to a W in any game, but they're also a tempo team that gave up 40%+ ORebs to the three teams they faced with major bigs. The 5-seed is Texas Tech which lost star center JT Toppin but shot their way to a win over ISU without him. We think they're a good upset pick in a 5-12 with Akron but we are impressed with the Just-a-Shooterness of Donovan Atwell. The 8-9 are Georgia and Saint Louis. We want Georgia, another tempo team that's a year away from its maximum and has a center who just makes buckets and blocks shots, versus Saint Louis which is where Robbie Avila went; they're five-out, #1 in the country in average 2PT distance, but opponents also get to the rim (Avila is no defender). On the other side is 2-seed Iowa State, which doesn't block shots but they turn you over and sniper Milan Momcilovic can shoot over guards—a team with three bigs might be their kryptonite (see: 79-70 vs Cincy). Joshua Jefferson is a Danny Wolf (28 assist, 17 TO) PF. 3-seed Virginia has a couple of ogres they rotate at center that might prove tough, and their own Yax-like in Thijs De Ridder, who's not from New Jersey. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Hot Takes and Men's Basketball vs Purdue Starts at 33:39 Takes hotter than Brian when they refused to call a 5th foul on Oscar Cluff the fifth time. You're not insane; it was a ref show, and a clownish end to DJ Carstensen's career. But that only explains why Purdue won—they played Michigan evenly because Michigan had their worst defensive performance, unable to stop the PnR two-man game between Smith and TKR. M's offense is off the hook for the 1st half since Purdue was just fouling and getting away with it, but what's their excuse for not having any plans for a stretch in the 2nd half when Purdue pulled ahead? Hoping against hope that May has been saving all of his real sets for the Tournament. Brian's giving up on Gayle and his Knoblockian adventures at the rim. 3. Men's Basketball vs Wisconsin and Ohio State Starts at 1:01:40 Wisconsin goes 7/23 from two but 16/38 from three once they've given up on Boyd and Blackwell drives that worked for them in the first meeting. Their twos were earned—pushed back and forced to shoot over Mara. Only the Aussie going nuts from three got this competitive again, but we were still dismayed over Michigan's offense. They had a Mara advantage they only ran in the 2nd half, and didn't really give him help off of that. Tschetter minutes are not working. The OSU game was annoying for all the little reasons, but the big one is something from the whole Tourney, which was Morez Johnson not playing up to his standard. He got the first two series and second was a fallaway jumper. He's a bit limited when backing up people have found. Bruce Thornton was limited by length but his eyes lit up whenever he got Cadeau, who seemed to be tiring late, but Michigan is a TO machine without him. Maybe they're saving Yax usage for the Dance. 4. Hockey vs Penn State and Tournament Lookahead Starts at 1:22:35 They're now locked into the 1st overall seed with Ohio State knocking MSU out of the tournament, and North Dakota losing, which means YAY we don't have to play Denver in a Denver Regional (stupidest playoff format ever). Michigan-NoDak-MSU-WMU will be the 1-seeds, in that order, and Michigan will draw the worst the #16, IE the Atlantic Hockey champion (Bentley most likely?) and the worst #2 seed (Duluth? Cornell? Penn State?) in, likely, Albany. Penn State hockey is James Franklin Penn State football: can beat anybody except the big bads in their conference. Not afraid of facing them again after a thoroughly dominant semifinal. Good to see a snipe from Hage, and what Moldenauer has become. MUSIC: "An Ocean Between the Waves"—War on Drugs "This Could Be Your Lucky Day in Hell"—Eels "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger"—Of Montreal “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

1 hour and 44 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs Michigan State Starts at 0:51 Michigan is the best team in the Big Ten since the 1977 Indiana team. You can't say they didn't earn it, they had to win at Breslin, Carver, and Illinois. They would still win the Big Ten outright if you only counted the games that Michigan won by double digits. It was Yaxel's deep shooting that propelled Michigan when they weren't shooting well. Michigan felt mortal with Tschetter at the four but MSU didn't exactly take advantage of that time. There were a lot of 1-on-1 opportunities, Michigan only had 12 assists. 1.27 PPP is crazy against Michigan State. Where does Yaxel Lendeborg rank all time amongst all Michigan players? They had a reel prepared for when Fears would kick someone in the jingle jangles, and it did happen. Credit Dusty for keeping the team calm when things start to go wrong. How is Fears allowed to keep playing the way he does? Congrats to Nebraska for getting the #2 seed.  2. Men's Basketball vs Iowa Starts at 32:06 A very slow game and a very annoying win. Their thing is fouling you constantly and hoping the refs don't call it. They fired Fran and we hate Iowa basketball now. Michigan finally gets some calls in the second half and turns the ball over a lot. Bennett Stirtz's 4-14 from three feels optimistic for him given the shot quality. There was a "sink or swim" moment when Cadeau had to sit out and it wasn't great. Cadeau played 30 minutes but in an important tournament setting he'll probably play more than that. Roddy Gayle has some at-the-rim difficulties that have lasted most of the conference season. Fran McCaffery was a beautiful Big Ten coach and now he's in the Ivy League. 3. Hot Takes and Spring Ball - Offense Starts at 54:05 How excited is everyone for this spring practice? What will Bryce's role as a runner be? JJ didn't run much but in the championship season there were only 4-5 games where he would have needed to. Maybe Bryce looks a little better throwing downfield now that he has actual receivers. JJ Buchanan might have a Colston Loveland level catch radius. There was a moment of silence for Max Bredeson but we truncate silence on this podcast so you didn't hear it. What's the tight end depth going to look like? Evan Link to guard? We're expecting a big third year swing for Blake Frazier.  4. Spring Ball - Defense Starts at 1:22:09 Any sort of news about John Henry Daley being able to play would be high on the list. And Rod Moore. Also hoping to hear good things about Palepale and Cam Brandt. The North Dakota State linebacker (Nathaniel Staehling) transfer could be really good, he was a captain and these scenarios often work out nicely. Ideally he's the 3rd linebacker because that means some other guys popped off. How much much better will everyone look with better coaching? Unfortunately we won't be able to see if rotation on defense gets better in the Spring Game. Could Shamari Earls overtake Jyaire Hill? New kickers but kicking in April seems different than in the Fall. Looking forward to punting drills. Taylor Tatum for punt return?    MUSIC: "Any Major Dude"—Steely Dan "Believe"—My Morning Jacket "Broken Chair"—Luna “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 35 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs Illinois Starts at 0:51 Hail to the Big Ten champions... before March! Dusty in year two has won at Mackey, Breslin, and whatever Illinois' arena is nicknamed. This was supposed to be a scary game and it wasn't even close, the players loved the energy. The major bummer is that LJ Cason is out for the year with an ACL injury. Can Yaxel check a top five draft point guard? Yes. No turnovers for Cadeau! But he probably has to go from 26 minutes per game to 35 and needs to be much more careful about foul trouble now. It just felt like Illinois had to work so hard to get anything in the second half and they weren't used to that. Illinois played their much better defender for only 10 minutes. Shot volume was similar for both teams but Michigan was able to win from 2-point shots. 2. Men's Basketball vs Minnesota Starts at 25:20 Minnesota comes in with basically no basketball team, they're down on their luck. But they played zone better than a lot of teams on Michigan's schedule. In the first half Michigan had trouble getting to the rim so they kicked it out for open threes. Parts of it felt bad. This game felt like playing Maryland the week before Ohio State. Niko Medved did a great job with what he had, Brian is still high on him. Early in the season Iowa seemed like it would be a really tough game, now Iowa is tailspinning a little bit. Iowa's defense is improved from Fran but not in a way that will stop Michigan. Michigan is still probably a #1 seed if they lose out. They should raise the banner in Michigan State's face at pre-game.  3. Hot Takes and Hockey vs Minnesota Starts at 43:34 Takes hotter than Morez Johnson sitting in front of that crowd and being like "I don't care, I'm gonna be the Kenpom MVP in a 20 point win spiritually because I'm Morez Johnson and nothing phases me at all!" Michigan splits against Minnesota, which almost didn't matter until Michigan State only got two points against Ohio State. This team is a little too Jekyll & Hyde. Starting the Thursday game 1-9 in shots isn't great. Powerplays used to be more whizz-bang and they've been lacking lately. Michigan's defense is like Nebraska running the triple option - they always need to have a 5'2" puck wizard defenseman. MSU's coach tried to chase down an official on the ice which is a silly thing to attempt. Michigan is up two points in the standings but Michigan State has two more games. Time for another year of complaining about the NCAA hockey tournament format. 4. Stickball and Gimmicky Top Five Starts at 1:15:10 Baseball - good Softball - not good Gimmicky Top Five Things You'd Change in the Winter Olympics. Normal guy Olympics. Mountaineering should include getting a kid into ski gear. We don't talk about ski injuries. Winter beach volleyball?    MUSIC: "Don't Fight It"—Kenny Loggins and Steve Perry "Better Way"—Motenko "Take My Heart"—The Teskey Brothers “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 43 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs Purdue Starts at 0:51 The Duke game was annoying and non-impactful so let's start with Purdue. Purdue comes out to a 5-0 start, Michigan then goes on a 42-17 run. Mackey exploded no matter what, even when Michigan was up 16. Matt Painter is a dude who respects ball. Mara foreshadowed the Duke game by getting into foul trouble, but that wasn't until the 2nd half, otherwise he had a great 1st half. The other subplot of this game was they shot 57% from three, and almost all of them were good shots. Trey Kauffmann-Renn went off for Purdue, historically May has let him go defensively though. Michigan is doing a great job of making the non-contestable guys contestable. What was funnier, the Fletcher Loyer heat-check airball or Cadeau getting to the free throw line and not knowing what to do?  2. Men's Basketball vs Duke Starts at 22:55 A very frustrating game. Mara picks up three first half fouls, the first two of which were not fouls. Playing three bigs in the second half felt like an impulse. Will Tschetter has been a faithful companion for this program but this wasn't the game for him. Duke went on their end of first half run when Michigan had their small lineup out there. Dusty is usually very calm but he was on the verge of eruption. The official in this game notoriously call more calls than anyone else and didn't give us a proper Michigan Duke game. You can just give the coach an iPad to decide if you want to challenge calls?? Does Mara need a little more self-confidence? His body language is telling. Michigan didn't get a lot out of guard play. Their quality of looks in this game were nowhere near their looks in the Purdue game. They got out of balance with their lineup changes and shot 24% from three but still only lost by five to Duke so this really isn't that concerning. What was that travel call? LJ Cason is definitely a contested shot guy. Michigan's biggest win over the weekend was UCLA over Illinois. The Minnesota game is for a share of the title, two Big Ten wins means an outright title. Brian still can't believe how good Keaton Wagler is.  3. Hot Takes and Hockey vs Wisconsin Starts at 55:40 Takes hotter than yours truly after Mara's second foul against Duke. Michigan gets a split out of Wisconsin which ends any hope of catching Michigan State in the Big Ten standings. Wisconsin played their backup goalie and Michigan didn't do enough to threaten him. Kason Muscutt got his first goal. BTN+ has announcers that don't even know Michigan's roster. Michigan could get to 51 points after next week which would win the Big Ten in most years. They have a 99.6% chance of being a #1 seed, they would need to win the Big Ten Tournament to get the #1 overall. #2 overall could get Saint Thomas?  4. Potpourri Starts at 1:24:57 Hughe's got it better than us? Michigan shouldn't claim Jack Hughes. Great performances from Michigan hockey players in the Olympics and the gold medal game. Michigan doesn't have these guys on this team (Michigan State doesn't either, though). Canada was sad and then got handed a stuffed stoat. If you haven't seen the figure skating exhibition gala, you should. Michigan has a new general manager. Sean Magee sent Savion Hiter the wrong dollar amount for his NIL?? The new GM is Dave Peloquin who used to work at Notre Dame. Michigan baseball got another ranked win over Louisville. The vibes for Michigan softball aren't good right now. They're like Nebraska football.  MUSIC: "UFOs"—Phoenix and Alan Braxe "Evil Twin"—Cut Worms "Dug"—Dream Sitch, Michael Nau, Floating Action “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hours and 6 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs UCLA Starts at 0:51 Brian gets three minutes to talk about Mick Cronin, he hopes he never gets fired from UCLA. He's like a jolly caricature of Izzo. He's Sideshow Bob stepping on the rakes. Michigan would be up by 10 in the first half and it would feel like they should be up 20. Tschetter's really improved as a defender but this game wasn't for him. UCLA was turning the ball over a ton, Michigan didn't have any until the end of the first half. This was a responsible game from Cadeau, some of his turnovers have been boneheaded. He's at around the same turnover rate as last year. LJ Cason is becoming a reliably effective playmaker. Mick Cronin might not have forgotten how to coach defense but he might've forgotten to scout Xavier Booker. If they play a bad game that means only winning by 10.  2. Men's Basketball vs Northwestern Starts at 28:10 Similar situation in this game where Michigan played a dominant second half. The difference is they were down 16 points. Kenpom still had them at about 30% chance to win even down 16 in the second half! Michigan missed so many bunnies in this one. They started running NBA sets in their second half rally and that works because they have the size for it. The big story of this game was LJ Cason. Cadeau wasn't doing anything so Dusty put in Cason who stepped up. Who's the most random guy you've ever been thankful for in a game? Probably Kam Chatman. Michigan is rotating nine guys and the ninth guy was the MVP in this game. The six game stretch to finish the regular season features Michigan State as the second easiest game. Alex isn't scared of Purdue. Duke looms.  3. Hot Takes and Hockey vs Penn State Starts at 55:44 Takes hotter than the genius that came up with the two-man luge. Special guest, Seth daughter's Mira. Michigan takes 5 out of 6 points against Penn State, this was their first overtime that they didn't win this year. Michigan made it hard on themselves in the Friday game, Ivankovic sort of deflected a goal into their own net. These officials were fine because they degraded the game of hockey but they weren't as bad as some other guys! Penn State split their goalies but the better goalie gave Michigan a couple easy ones. Michigan has first round picks but the only one that has the sauce is Jayden Perron. You look at men's basketball and you think they could win a national championship. You look at hockey and you don't see it. Wisconsin has faded enough to not make the tournament but their forecheck also seemed like Michigan's kryptonite. If you want to win the conference you need six points against Wisconsin. You might need to win out. Michigan is still 96% to be a 1 seed.  4. Potpourri Starts at 1:38:22 Michigan replaces defensive tackle coach Lou Esposito with Larry Black out of Vanderbilt. He checks the recruiting boxes. He helped get Vanderbilt to respectable on defense which even Jesse Minter couldn't do. His resume is really good and still isn't as good a resume as the rest of the staff (complimentary). Women's basketball fell behind big to UCLA and got it to within one score. They're so close to the elite teams. Stickball! As of this recording baseball is 2-0 against good programs. USC and UCLA baseball hate being in the Big Ten. Softball is 7-2 overall, Alex was down after the Florida game. If you have six pitchers on the roster you have no pitchers. Brian has only watched curling. Olympic skiing discourse. Sweden pulled their goalie while up 5-2 to get the goal differential (did not get it).  MUSIC: "Idol"—Mind Enterprises "YUHDONTSTOP"—De La Soul "Brand New City"—Snocaps “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hours and 23 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs Penn State and Ohio State Starts at 0:51 Usually there's a segment for each basketball but that would just be silly. Michigan annihilates a short-handed Penn State team featuring two thunderous Mark Davis Kiwi dunks and a season high from Nimari Burnett. Is there anything else to say about this game? Michigan only had eight turnovers against Ohio State. Oddly they missed a lot of bunnies. Michigan is rounding into the elite offensive and defensive rebounding team we were hoping they would be. Nice to see Yaxel get to the rim, he doesn't do it enough. Another nice game from Trey McKenney. The balance of this team is insane. We're looking forward to what Mick Cronin says after Aday Mara stuffs him in a locker. A few more easy games before a brutal close to the season. Michigan State did Michigan a solid by beating Illinois.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Hockey vs Michigan State Starts at 25:16 Game one was one of the best college hockey games we've ever seen. Old Yost was dark and full of discontented engineers who just learned to swear. It was absolute hell for opponents and it's just not that anymore in most games. Friday night felt like Old Yost. Michigan played great when they had their backs against the wall but you can't just rally from down 4-0. Michigan could be the second best team in the country and still just not be as good as State. Michigan's 4th string goalie looks just like Ivankovic and confused Dave in the press box. Why was Ivankovic suddenly ready on Saturday? Yost got HOT in the third period on Friday because of the missed calls. Michigan can still absolutely win a regular season title. Biggest concern in the NCAA tournament is also Michigan State, but the college hockey playoffs are weird. Has the modern era of college football reached hockey?  3. Hot Takes and Offensive Recruiting Class With Steve Lorenz Starts at 53:24 Takes hotter than Brian's face watching Seth come up with something that's hot. Usually we would do this on signing day but now nobody can remember when that is. Salesi Moa signed and enrolled at Utah and still ended up at Michigan. Brady Smigiel is one of your QBs but he's coming in injured, which probably effected his recruiting stock. He's a classic pocket guy, but Whittingham likes mobile QBs. QB Tommy Carr has Tate Forcier comparisons. Savion Hiter comes in as the most talented running back in this class, as well as the last few classes. What do you think Fred Jackson would call him? Jonathan Brown comes in as a generic three star RB but there's not much being said compared to Hiter. We'll count Salesi Moa in this class, he could play receiver and safety. He might actually be able to contribute in year one. WR Travis Johnson is just outside the top 100 but was very adamant about sticking to Michigan even after everything went down. WR Jaylen Pile also didn't waver but so far seems like just a guy, but with more scholarships available sure, bring him in. TE Mason Bonner comes in from Denver, might take a little time to develop. Should be athletic enough down the road. OT Malakai Lee comes in from Honolulu and might be the most excited about the coaching change. Comparisons to Mike Onwenu. Marky Walbridge is a late riser and offensive lineman late risers are often encouraging. Adrian Hamilton projects to center and centers don't rank highly usually. Tommy Fraumann is big enough to not care about rankings, born right after the 2008 Michigan Utah in which Kyle Whittingham beat Michigan.  4. Defensive Recruiting Class Starts at 1:45:41 Carter Meadows is a five star defensive end we're all excited about. He's not allowed to enroll early so he'll probably be a year two star. DE McHale Blade is one of the coolest names in this cycle. He has all the athletic traits, could be the sleeper of the defensive side. DE Tariq Boney is your Josh Uche, just let him go after the QB. Alister Vallejo looks like Mason Graham on the field and the kid from the Sandlot in his profile. DT Titan Davis is a Kris Jenkins guy, could be an anchor DE but will more likely fill in DT needs. Linebacker is where the excitement falls off. Nobody is anywhere near four star status. CB Jamarion Vincent is a developmental guy, expect him in year three. He was previously playing QB. CB Ernest Nunley is a former Cal commit and will probably be a safety. S Jordan Deck could me a sleeper, boring safety. Overall not a big fan of the back seven but it is the transfer portal era. It could be okay but it's sketchy.   MUSIC: "Bazooka"—Miami XO "Baby Steps"—Olivia Dean "Phish Pepsi"—Wednesday “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 49 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs Michigan State Starts at 0:51 Where's Tre Holloman at?? Michigan's first victory at Breslin since 2018. They managed to blow all of their 16 point halftime lead but only briefly. This year didn't have the same "helplessness" vibe of previous years. The grifting from Jeremy Fears was incredible. Michigan State's offense ended up being generating bogus calls and then hitting free throws. Their roster doesn't have the best athletes in the world but they have guys that have stuck around for a while. Trey McKenney is becoming a much bigger piece of this team, if Michigan goes on a tournament run it could be because he steps up as a major contributor. Is he the 6th man? They're running a lot of offense through Mara, maybe that should be going through Morez Johnson instead. Michigan is back to #1 in Kenpom and is projected to win the Big Ten outright but the end of the schedule is very tough.  2. Men's Basketball vs Nebraska Starts at 29:17 The vibes here were considerably worse! Nebraska was getting an alarming amount of open looks. Michigan wins by shooting what felt like 70% from two. Some of Cadeau's turnovers were just inexplicable. We can't pronounce Berke's name so he's just Berke Boyband. The studies say that every conspiracy theory you have about officiating is true. Pass blocking is not actually allowed in basketball. Nebraska is legit, this was a tough game that Cadeau almost gave away. Shout out to Fred Hoiberg for coming in with a great gameplan for confusing Michigan. The overturn on the challenge made no sense, how was that possibly clear? Should Michigan be going inside more when the threes aren't dropping? Michigan was missing open threes. They beat a top 10 Kenpom team while shooting 23% from three, that's impressive no matter what. Was LJ Cason unplayable?  3. Hot Takes and Hockey vs Ohio State Starts at 52:18 Takes hotter than Yaxel Lendeborg at the free throw line. Michigan gets five of six points over Ohio State in a frustrating manner. Stephen Peck played a great game on Saturday until the last five minutes. They're missing points here and there against teams that they're better than. Wisconsin somehow went from #1 to might miss the tournament. Michigan State is only one point behind in the Big Ten rankings.  4. Gimmicky Top Five Sports Villains Starts at 1:14:40 We're born haters so it's time for a gimmicky top five sports villains. There are a surprising number of ways to define "villain" in this context. There's a lot of NHL discourse because you used to just get paid to hurt people. Which Big Ten commissioners make the list (spoiler: all of them). Not posting spoilers here but yes there is a certain Wisconsin basketball player. Who's on your list?   MUSIC: "Moody"—Royel Otis "Silver Joy"—Damien Jurado "Sweet and Dandy"—Toots and the Maytals “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 31 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 0:51 Indiana Football won a natty. We say again: Indiana Football won. A natty. The Ohio State fans are crying Signs, it's great! Putting this in context because there hasn't been a more surprising national champion in any sport? Maybe Leicester but IU had the worst W% historically of any champion. Arc of college football is the big schools consolidate their chances of winning—last time a new school entered the ring it was Florida, which represented a demographic shift. What does this mean? Not a secret sauce but IU built similarly to 2023 Michigan: a base of players who played together a long time and some elite pieces added. They get better ROI by ignoring HS recruiting, put a lot of time and money into scouting. Similarity to Dusty May in that Cig knows what he needs and scouts the hell out of the rest of the sport. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Hot Takes and Men's Basketball vs Ohio State Starts at 27:20 Takes hotter than it's not outside. OSU game was annoyingly close. At one point Michigan was 2/16 from three and under 50% from the charity stripe. Biggest story of the game is the way Michigan held Bruce Thornton in check—the one hedge to center court that Mara got called for a foul was an awful call, but a proof of concept for how they defended OSU, which was to not give Thornton any space. Great Crisler crowd kept getting into highs and then a low-percentage event would derail, like their 17%-shooting big Christoph Tilly making a pair of threes (one a bank), 24%-shooting Amare Bynum making a deep contested jumper, and Mobley getting a bank three as shot clock is dying. Missed front ends made FT shooting feel extra annoying, somehow righted in the 2nd half. Big part of that was 21 good minutes from Trey McKenney. Liked Cason and McKenney more than Cadeau in this one: OSU has a 7'0" center and a 7'2" center but both of them are glued to the floor, which favors YOLO players. Annoying turnovers trying to figure out their zone. 3. Men's Basketball vs Indiana and a Nebraska Preview Starts at 54:03 Less annoying game, as Indiana was without Tayton Conerway for all but two minutes, and nobody else has the ability to get to the rim. IU couldn't even get the ball inside the three-point line. They finished 11/34 (32%) from three and that was because they made twice as many as they should have. IU only got five ORebs as they abandoned the glass to stop Michigan's transition game but terrible Nick Dorn shots that went off the back iron were their best way of getting the ball in the paint. Final score doesn't reflect the game because once Michigan got up 20-5 they put it in cruise control—this time it wasn't LJ Cason on the one drive for a layup. Will Tschetter's defense on Tucker DeVries was also a major factor. Nebrasketball is truly good. Very well-coached team, has a good system that turns everybody into Nebraska: 11th in taking threes, 6th in opponent 3PA/FGA. Have to slow down the game to protect stretch C Rienk Mask, who's the key to that offense. Might be without small four Braden Frager and been without SG Connor Essegian most of the year so there's a 23% shooting big in Berke "the Turk" Buyuktuncel that you can hide Mara on. The problem with that is it takes Mara out of the paint so you can't get away with playing as aggressively on the perimeter. Think we saw the prototype for how they want to play against Nebraska in that Oregon game. Might be able to do what Illinois did, was to take shots but then crash the glass because they don't have a lot of size. 4. Women's Basketball wsg Ira Weintraub Starts at 1:15:12 Time to get to know the best women's team in school history. Three losses were all similar: got way behind in the 1st quarter, fought their way back, came up short. Defense is fantastic, play the full court and cause a lot of turnovers which creates offensive opportunities. Get bogged down a bit in the half court and struggle to make their FTs. WBB officiating is beyond atrocious. Washington loss was a schedule thing after 2OT late game vs Oregon, but UConn and Vandy losses showed they can play with the elites and just need one more big basket from the super sophs. Hockeybear is blogging the team and making Team Sheets (key). It's not so easy is it? Super sophs: Holloway runs the offense and sets the defensive tone, Olson is a bucket, Swordsy is hero, and then they're getting a year from a growing Delfosse and UCLA transfer Dudley. Mostly a seven-woman rotation with Sofilkanich giving them some size inside, BQD a nightmare of a defensive pest, and then growth from Crockett who gives them some more size when they need it. Can they compete with the ELITE-elites? Nobody's unbeatable this year; Michigan is a solid two-seed, feel like floor is Sweet 16, has the make of a team that ends up losing a Final Four game en route to a big run next year.   MUSIC: "Getting Killed"—Geese "Forever Never Ends"—Jeff Tweedy "Downhill"—The Delivery Boys feat. Goldwood, Max Gertler & LOSTBOYBK “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

2 hour and 10 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Transfer Portal - Offense Starts at :51 The portal is closed! The only windows remaining are for a coaching change and for Indiana/Miami after the national championship game. Transfers, NIL, and contracts have been weird this cycle. Will Diego Pavia be in college until he's 45?? Thank you Davis Warren for beating Ohio State in the Funniest Game Ever. Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi is your backup QB out of Colorado State where he threw for over 7,000 yards. That's a "we don't practice f*cked" pick-up. Jadyn Davis's recruiting profile was a huge miss. Georgia Tech is a cool place for Justice Haynes, we're still not sure if Kuzdzal is returning. Taylor Tatum comes in from Oklahoma after a case of fumble-itus and several other ailments. Now he might actually have a good running backs coach. They retained Andrew Marsh - massive. The wide receiver room looks great, the only thing missing is a dedicated slot receiver but Michigan hasn't really utilized the role in a while anyways. Marlin Klein declared for the NFL draft but is he going to get drafted? The remaining tight ends and fullbacks should be good and viable options, they didn't get anyone out of the portal. JJ Buchanon doesn't count since he's being listed as a wide receiver. The offensive line is mostly retained which has star power potential. Overall the offensive line held serve besides losing Haywood, overall an A-grade. Would you give the offensive portal recruiting/retention an A all across the board? Could this become a... top ten offense?  2. Transfer Portal - Defense Starts at 41:41 Defensively is more of a mixed bag. Defensive end lost a lot of guys to graduation but only Devon Baxter to the portal. John Henry Daley is questionable based on his health, but if he's healthy you get Derrick Moore (but who actually plays more). Defensive tackle doesn't lose anyone noteworthy to the portal. You get back Trey Pierce and Enow Etta. Jonah Leaea was like a young Mo Hurst, he needs another 20 pounds. Defensive tackle has depth, just not star power, this wasn't a spectacular portal season for them either. This gets a solid B. Linebacker is the trouble spot. They lose Ernest Hausmann to eligibility/spirit quest, Cole Sullivan to Oklahoma, and Jimmy Rolder to the draft. The guys they bring in are uhhhhhh. Aisea Moa knows Jay Hill's system so he could possibly play but doesn't seem like he'll be all-Big Ten. This is a D, it's close to an F. At cornerback, you get Jyaire Hill, Zeke Berry, and Snowden. Jayden Sanders to Notre Dame stings. Let's.... talk about the allegations of sabotage and blackmail? Cornerbacks situation gets a... C+. Safety loses Brandyn Hillam and Elijah Dotson. Is Bryce Underwood the only guy to come from Belleville and last for over a year? Is Rod Moore going to play? Who knows. Chris Bracy comes in from Memphis, who comes in with a historic tale of a fabled fumble. Safety starters could be Bracy and Rod Moore, Mason Curtis to linebacker. You have six safeties? How many are going to play in a Cover-1? Defense overall gets a C, they probably didn't get better or worse. How much of the Wink disdain will have been warranted? If Daley doesn't get healthy who is going to be the star on this defense? Maybe they'll be like the offense last year - lots of potential but not quite there yet.  3. Hot Takes and Basketball vs Washington and Oregon Starts at 1:23:58 Takes hotter than Utah's athletic director on Twitter. Michigan basketball sweeps their west coast tour, they don't dominate but give a solid beating in both games to not-great teams. Michigan and Oregon were close to identical at the rim. You're starting to see the cracks in the armor of this team. Sean Stewart is an elite flopper. What did Dusty possibly say to warrant a technical? Elliot Cadeau was pretty efficient but gets too close to the face of guys on the perimeter and then gets beaten. He tries things that are just a little too ambitious too often, these things usually don't work. Indiana doesn't match up with Michigan at all, Trey Burke to get honored at the Ohio State game. It's about to get real for Nebraska.  4. Hockey vs Minnesota Starts at 1:54:54 Michigan gets an almost-sweep of Minnesota getting 5 of 6 points. It's hard to believe this is what Minnesota's hockey team looks like, they've fallen a long way. Minnesota didn't go into the portal or the CHL and just doesn't have the same talent as they used to. Even the announcers were saying "oh, don't do that!" Seven saves in one minute is pretty incredible. Michigan State is still the one team that can match up with Michigan. Michigan is probably in the best spot since the 2022 team when they were number 1. Is there anything Warde Manuel has done that makes you think Michigan hockey will be on a local television station? Four Big Ten teams are in the top 10 of NPI.  MUSIC: "Secret Loving"— Dry Cleaning "Dancing In The Club"— This Is Lorelei & MJ Lederman "Random Rules"— Silver Jew “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 48 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Transfer Portal - Offense Starts at :51 Never doubt the law of conservation of vibes. The Penn State basketball game saved the offensive line. This was recorded on Sunday at noon so by the time you listen to this, things have probably already changed (hello, Jaime Ffrench). It would be nice to get a backup QB in the portal (hello Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi). Justice Haynes has hit the portal, might be going to Georgia Tech, and Oklahoma RB Taylor Tatum is in. So far he's struggled with fumbles and a hamstring injury but Oklahoma's RB coach is one of the worst in P4. He might be a Moneyball situation. Kuzdzal might be coming back? Jaime F-f-f-french is in and if JJ Buchanan joins then we have an actual wide receiver room. Still need a tight end? Offensive line got their guys back, we're un-mad now. Need some depth at center, though.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Transfer Portal - Defense Starts at 27:11 Not as sunny as the offense right now but it can change at any time. How we feel so far depends on the status of John Henry Daley's Achilles, he could be a Derrick Moore comparison if healthy. Defensive end looks pretty set. Defensive tackle... they get Pierce back. They do get Jonah Lea'ea from Utah who was a bit undersized and needed another year to develop. Enow Etta's return has turned from optimism to pessimism. Hopefully Alister Vallejo is ready as a freshman. At linebacker Rasheem Biles is off the board, they are hosting Cade Uluave from Cal, an all-ACC linebacker. Jimmy Rolder has declared for the draft and is #692 on the NFL Mock Draft database. The secondary isn't entirely in the portal but it's alarming, safety is now a concern. Surely we'll find out more about safety this week because you can't go into a season with three safeties. Per Trevor McCue, Jay Hill doesn't rotate the secondary at all! Kerry Coombs got his guys for special teams, they've got a kicker from Pitt, Trey Butkowski. This offense could be really good and not need to rely on a kicker who can hit field goals from the 37. Overall, get in a safety or two and ideally a good defensive tackle and this team is really close to being very competitive. When's the last time the offense was better than the defense, 2011?  3. Hot Takes and Basketball vs Penn State and Wisconsin Starts at 1:05:25 Takes hotter than Wisconsin three point shooting. Basketball is no longer invincible. This must feel the same as when Matt Painter had to play Mo Wagner. Michigan got out-rebounded pretty badly which feels like a major failing given the line-up. They need to play a little dirtier in the paint. Michigan and Wisconsin were shooting back-to-back threes until Michigan fell off. The offensive goal-tending ruling was the rule. Wisconsin doesn't send many guys to the offensive board, they tend to get back and trying to get transition baskets isn't worth it. A key for Michigan going forward is how stretch is everyone's five? Wisconsin shot 12 points higher than their expected for the number of threes they shot.  4. Hockey vs Notre Dame Starts at 1:28:57 Michigan escapes a bad Notre Dame team but loses goalie Jack Ivankovic for "some period of time" (possibly the season). The hit was unfortunate but probably not malicious. There are strong words said about these officials. Naurato has said in his press conferences that "I can't say what I want to say." Big Ten hockey is one of the best leagues in the world and the Big Ten treats it like the 4th most important sport. Freshman goalie Stephen Peck is now your starter. The defense needs to step way up to support their new goalie. If the season ended today they'd still be the number one seed in the tournament, though. Part of that is because of Ivankovic.  MUSIC: "One Tiny Flower"— Jeff Tweedy "Don't Do Me Like That"— J. Mascis "Falling Behind"— Laufey “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hours and 5 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs USC Starts at :51 Basketball gets to go first because they've earned it. They're the number one team on Kenpom by a full five points and the second highest rated Kenpom team of all time. Michigan shot 20% from three and still beat a top 25 USC team by 30 points. This was the Morez Johnson game. Michigan has three of the top five players in the Big Ten. What does a Michigan loss look like? Dusty May has done a great job working on Roddy Gayle, auto-benching with this team is fine. The cutoff for Kenpom to think you're a rotational player is 10% of team minutes, Grady and Goodman are both above this metric. The things that Michigan are good at are things that are very repeatable. There are different levels of Kenpom Time every time Michigan plays. It's weird to say this but it's good that Michigan gets Nebraska at home, they're spicy.  2. Football vs Texas Starts at 24:34 The Citrus Bowl came and went. We were hoping we could learn things about this offensive line going into the off-season then a lot of them went and hit the portal. Kuzdzal played an encouraging game but there were still a few moments of "I wish Jordan Marshall had hit that hole." Bryce Underwood did get some explosive runs, this will be nice for a new coaching staff that likes to run the quarterback. He was put in a lot of positions to fail towards the end of the game. Kerry Coombs did some things with special teams! Wow Michigan drew holds finally. We are done with the Wink Martindale era. Michigan had zero pass rush.  3. Hot Takes and Coaching Staff Starts at 40:11 Takes hotter than the basketball team, this will be the intro until any reason otherwise.  Offensive Coordinator - Jason Beck Came in from Utah, was at New Mexico before that. Has had some very successful offenses. Was a spread-heavy coach at New Mexico and became Whittingham-ized at Utah. Seems like a seamless fit, he should know what to do with Bryce Underwood. Running Backs Coach - Tony Alford It's working, good work keeping him around. Wide Receivers Coach(es) - Micah Simon and Marques Hagans Micah Simon doesn't have a lot of experience, he followed Beck. How much coaching does it take to get someone to catch the ball?  Tight Ends Coach - Freddie Whittingham He's developed some studs. Kyle Whittingham's brother, does not feel like a nepotism hire. Offensive Line Coach - Jim Harding Has two first round tackles this year. Probably could not have gotten a better o-line coach. Michigan has players trickling into the portal but you've got The Guy coaching next year's group. A lot of offensive linemen got recruited by Sherrone so it's not a shocker that some players are looking elsewhere.  Defensive Coordinator - Jay Hill Turned Weber State into a powerhouse. He has coordinator and head coaching experience, seems good. He has coached college his whole career rather than coordinate NFL defenses. Defensive Ends - Lewis Powell Specializes in Polynesians. Has a spectacular track record of developing defensive ends. Brian pledges to figure out how to pronounce all the Polynesian names.  Defensive Tackles - Lou Esposito Continued from last year. You can get more assistant coaches now so it makes sense to split DEs and DTs.  Linebackers Coach - Alex Whittingham Kyle's son, spent eight years with the Chiefs. Apparently Andy Reid played with Kyle Whittingham. This one is a bit more of a nepo hire but he has moved up the ranks.  Defensive Backs Coach - Jernaro Gilford BYU fans are upset that he's leaving which is a good sign. There aren't a lot of cornerbacks in the portal, hopefully he can find some guys.  Special Teams - Kerry Coombs Gets to keep the job he got right before Sherrone was fired. His previous Special Teams have been in the 30ish rank. He's not a slam dunk but should be solid.  4. Transfer Portal Starts at 1:42:43 It's Portal Takes season, we have not yet gotten to Portal Gives season. Guys who are in the portal are not necessarily gone. Jadyn Davis, Davis Warren, Ben Roebuck, Connor Jones, Devon Baxter, Semaj Morgan, Jaden Mangham, and Jasper Parker are guys who will probably get better opportunities elsewhere. Elijah Dotson, Brady Prieskorn, and Kaden Strayhorn are guys you'd like to keep around. Zeke Berry, Jake Guarnera, Andrew Sprague, Cole Sullivan, and Enow Etta are the "ouch" group. Some guys have left the door open. Would really really like to get Guarnera back, Sprague sounds like he's going to Texas. Most folks who are going to enter the portal have but we're not out of it yet. Keep an eye on Utah defensive end John Henry Daley, cornerback Smith Snowden, and safety Tao Johnson. Cole Sullivan would be a great fit in this defense, would love to keep him. They need guys (plural) on the defensive line, especially at defensive tackle. Even if you keep Andrew Marsh you would like to get a wide receiver or two. Might want to look into a punter or a kicker, maybe with a new staff we can finally move on from the 2015 Michigan State game.  MUSIC: "Nothing I Need"— Lord Huron "A Couple Minutes"— Olivia Dean "Cotton Mouth"— fanclubwallet “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hours and 45 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Kyle Whittingham Reaction Starts at :51 Brian can't make fun of the name "Kyle" anymore. Woah, Alex Drain is here! Did Kyle Whittingham get pushed out of Utah? He's 66 but could probably beat up several members of the current team, he doesn't feel too old. This might be the best guy to hit the ground running with Bryce Underwood. He's had a 20+ year stretch of success and it's mostly over-performing expectations statistically. Are there concerns about the way this would translate to Michigan? Utah folks are asking if we're prepared for limited media availability, a coach who can sound like a jerk, and a 300 lbs fullback. Yes, yes we are. Kyle Whittingham's risk for scandal seems extremely low. How many coaches in the Big Ten would you pick over him? His dad's nickname was "Mad Dog". A brief history of his success over his coaching career, which included two PAC-12 Championships. Kyle lets his QB run the ball, Bryce's output this season would've been the worst for Utah going back at least a decade. Harbaugh had a great hit rate on sleeper recruits, Whittingham should as well. He has some very Harbaugh-adjacent quotes as well. What's your letter grade for the hire? [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Assistants Starts at 42:48 The new staff is coming together pretty quickly. Jason Beck is lining up to be the offensive coordinator, coming in from Utah. Alex details his history as a coach which was mostly as an offensive coordinator and QB coach. He likes hybrid players and will love the tight end room. Jay Hill is lined up from BYU as defensive coordinator, BYU fans are not thrilled that he's leaving. He took a 100ish ranked defense and turned it into a top 25 defense. He also made Weber State a powerhouse while he was there. He'll play more man-defense than we're used to which might not be what we want against Ohio State. Jay Hill could also be a head coach in waiting down the road. It feels like the defense is going to be coached again. Jason Beck could be a QB coach but there are rumors that Koy Detmer Jr could come in as an analyst/QB coach. All signs point to Tony Alford being retained. Ron Bellamy will probably stick around, they still need a Michigan guy and he might be the most "Michigan Guy" on staff. Freddie Whittingham could likely come in at tight ends coach, he is not a nepotism hire. He could also be a recruiting coordinator guy if you want to keep Grant Newsome around. Jim Harding could be the offensive line coach coming out of Utah. Lewis Powell might be coming in as defensive ends coach out of Utah. Lou Esposito might stay at Michigan. Linebackers coach is the one area where we haven't heard anything. Whittingham has mentioned going after a coach that is still in the playoffs. Jernaro Gilford might follow Jay Hill as the defensive backs coach. LaMar Morgan is a good recruiter so maybe you keep him. What about Special Teams coach? Time to move on from Kerry Coombs already? How would you grade these potential hires?  3. Hot Takes and The Search, Revisited Starts at 1:38:48 Takes hotter than the Utah message boards. It was a wild ride getting from DeBoer, Fisch, or Dillingham to here. A lot of information was coming from agents getting names out there. A lot of people said "Biff Poggi could get the job" and it was never going to happen. Did Michigan really never go and try to offer Dillingham a job? It feels like his people really hyped him up. We might be having a very different conversation if that Oklahoma receiver would've just caught that ball. Everyone penciled in Dillingham after the Oklahoma Alabama game and then he signs an extension. Whittingham was unemployed, he probably didn't have agents hyping him up. Brian still likes Jeff Brohm. Interestingly Penn State never went after Whittingham but once the Michigan job opened up he said he was "in the transfer portal." Why was Biff Poggi on that podcast? He was shooting his shot for a job but it was never going to happen. How well did the "insiders" do and how clued in will they be on the new staff.  4. Michigan Football vs Texas Starts at 2:18:38 Oh yeah Michigan has a bowl game. The only opt-outs are El-Hadi, Derrick Moore, and Barham (and Ernest Hausmann). Maybe it's a good sign that a lot of players still want to play in this? Six of 11 defensive starters are sitting out for Texas, most of their offense is playing. Michigan's best hope is to watch Arch Manning turf five-yard outs. I guess we'll see Wink walk off the field as a Michigan coach for the last time. This feels like a zombie team right now. Does Michigan have a way to stop Ryan Wingo? The Ohio State game feels like four years ago. Are you excited for this game? A lot of big-name guys have at least remained in the recruiting class. The hope of the Sherrone era was "hopefully he just gets better at coaching" and it's a relief to just move on. What was the most enjoyable game of the Sherrone era? Not the highlight, but the most fun beginning-to-end? A lot of things about the last two to three years make a lot more sense now. A lot of paranoia and worry feels lifted, there are adults in charge.  MUSIC: "Medium Machine"—Sports Team "Inept Apollo"—Nation of Language "Where'd You Go"—Horsegirl “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 54 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. What Happened Starts at :51 Sometimes in December we don't have enough content for a podcast... this week there is enough for a podcast. Michigan football has been thrown into chaos following the Sherrone Moore firing. This is the third out of five Warde Manuel hires in the three most important sports to have left in disgrace (also Jim Harbaugh depending on who you ask). There have been too many red flags on too many hires. There is no oversight within the athletic department and then you have to do an investigation instead of preventing one. The only reason the WiFi is better at Michigan Stadium is because of the Zach Bryan concert, not because they cared about the fan experience. Fans are just a piggy bank. Michigan is way too much in the news right now. If "a lot of people knew about this" then why didn't someone say something sooner? Warde lost credibility after his handling of Mel Pearson and he doesn't get credit for Brandon Naurato. Grandmas in Peoria know too much about the Michigan athletic department.  2. Coaching Search Bits Starts at 27:41 Michigan needs a new head football coach. How good do we feel going into it? Probably about a B-. There's not an obvious slam dunk candidate. The three big names are Kalen DeBoer, Kenny Dillingham, and Jedd Fisch. If Alabama wins their first playoff game then DeBoer is almost entirely off the table, if they lose to Oklahoma then there's enough smoke to believe he might think about it. Would DeBoer really leave Alabama though? It's not a place that coaches leave and he's a long shot even if they lose to Oklahoma. Kenny Dillingham played for Arizona State and has a lot of family and connections in Phoenix, he might just be a long shot to convince to move from home. Kenny Dillingham is young, he watches Stranger Things and doesn't understand all the references. What about Jeff Brohm? Jedd Fisch is good at roster construction and handling QBs, something that would be nice for Michigan right now. Jake Butt had a strong endorsement for Jedd. Some coaches wouldn't have former players stomping for them. Jason Eck is a fun name but he's never proven himself at a major program. Based on everything so far, it feels like it's probably Jedd Fisch (PENDING A BACKGROUND CHECK). Which assistant coaches/coordinators would you keep?  3. Hot Takes, Men's Basketball vs Maryland Starts at 54:31 Takes hotter than... actually we need takes about half of where they could go. We need to dial it back this week. Thankfully we can now turn our attention to basketball! Michigan 101, Maryland 83, a strange game. David Coit was hitting threes from every heavenly covered shot. When Michigan was down by 9 Kenpom still had them 76% to win. Maryland went 14-27 from three and Michigan still covered the Kenpom spread. This game was the script for Michigan to lose a game and won by 18. Brian reads Yaxel's boxscore poetically because it deserves it. Solomon Washington got ejected for two technicals. Michigan navigated foul trouble and you probably didn't even notice. Michigan is actually top 50 in three point shooting.  4. Men's Basketball vs Villanova Starts at 1:38:12 They went up by 30 at halftime and only won by 30?? What are we even doing here. You look at some of these top 50, top 25 teams on the schedule, could they beat Michigan in Ann Arbor? No way. Being #1 in two point defense with this schedule is insane. Michigan is identifying their weaknesses and working on them, that's terrifying for opposing teams. What is this team's weakness now? Hey, shout out to undefeated Nebrasketball!  MUSIC: "PH Suite"—Curtis Dro and Lamar Woods "Man I Need"—Olivia Dean "I Got Flavor"—LaRussell and Lil John “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 42 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Michigan Hockey vs Michigan State Starts at :51 A very silly debate not worth publishing preceded the actual intro of this podcast. A split against Michigan State is a very fair result, the whole series was intense. The first period of the Saturday game was an onslaught that Michigan relatively survived, Jack Ivankovic has been solid. How many first and second rounders were in this game? The answer is in the double digits. Is the Big Ten the best hockey league in the world outside of the NHL? Most of the time this team looks dominant but looking back on that Wisconsin series and the first period against MSU on Saturday shows some concerning trends where Michigan can't get out of their own zone. Minnesota is surprisingly not what they've been in the last few years.  2. Men's Basketball vs Rutgers Starts at 26:05 Michigan is putting up demolitions not even predicted by Kenpom. If Michigan puts up a reasonable number of 3s there's just no way to beat them. What did Rutgers even do... get to 41% from 2? Well Michigan shot 72% from 2. They've played the 8th hardest schedule in the country, what even is there to say? Morez Johnson is shooting 3s now. Michigan had more offensive rebounds than misses from 2. Cadeau had an alarming turnover rate earlier in the season and most of those have gone away. Is Yaxel the alpha guy for scoring? Do you need one when you win games by 40? Roddy Gayle is rounding into the guy we originally thought he would be. The floor on this team is so high, if they shot 15% from 3 they'd probably still win by 10. The only teams that look mildly threatening on the schedule are Michigan State and Purdue. USC is also spicier than we thought. Michigan is now favored in every single game on the schedule.  3. Hot Takes, Football Offensive Recruiting Class Starts at 54:31 Takes hotter than Curt Cignetti walking off the field after beating Ohio State 13-10 to win the Big Ten Championship and reacting in NO WAY WHATSOEVER. Savion Hiter is the number one running back in the country and he has the tape to back it up. Brady Smigiel and Tommy Carr come in at QB, they won't see the field for a while but then you could have a redshirt sophomore starting after Bryce leaves. It's nice to see Michigan recruit like they have 105 guys in a class. Michigan loses a wide receiver but picks up Travis Johnson, also Brady Marchese and Jaylen Pile. Would've been nice to get a slot guy but nice to get a few receivers. They're all early enrolees. Matt Ludwig comes in at tight end and is the number one player in Montana, close enough to Idaho. Michigan should get tight ends from American Samoa and Alaska. Mason Bonner comes in from Colorado, keep an eye on him down the road. Malakai Lee is the headlining offensive lineman out of Hawaii, Bear McWhorter is an all-name nominee. Marky Walbridge is a quintessential under-scouted player.  4. Football Defensive Recruiting Class Starts at 1:20:32 Carter Meadows is the #6 overall player in the class, he could be the first overall player in the draft if he projects how he's supposed to. Taco Charlton comparison? Tariq Boney is the other edge, described as a violent high motor style. Titan Davis is Chris Wormley shaped but could move to defensive tackle, McHale Blade might be the most underrated guy in this class. Alister Vallejo, the Mason Graham comparison! He's a lot of peoples' favorite player in this class (a class with two five stars). Could he help next year? Many linebackers, mostly flyers and not an instant-impact class. Do not trust AI in your recruiting history research. The defensive back class is a little light, all four stars though. Jordan Deck is a Makari Paige kind of guy. They get a kicker who kicks and a longsnapper who long snaps, yay. Kerry Coombs comes in as special team coordinator.  MUSIC: "Train Love"—Yor Old Droog "MAGIC"—Vince Staples and Mustard "I Need a Lover"—John Couger “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 43 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs Ohio State Starts at :51 Good thing this is pivoting to being a snacks podcast. Combos are way up there as far as gas station snacks go. Every time Ohio State got into a 3rd down situation they would just drop back and throw it to an open receiver. When Michigan was in this situation, Ohio State would just man up and Bryce had nowhere to throw. Those substitutions that happened all season continued in this game. Is trophy done going brrr? You cannot have this many holes in your team and expect to compete with Ohio State. The offensive line didn't look as dominated as it seemed, if Jordan Marshall and Justice Haynes played the whole game they'd probably break some more big runs. It didn't seem like Chip Lindsey brought much into this game that was built off of what they had been doing all season. Maybe Bryce froze up (pun not intended) a bit. He only had five throws at halftime? Guarnera actually looked really good, Frazier and Sprague held their ground. The reasons this offense didn't shine this season weren't because of the offensive line. Who's even going to sit out on offense in the bowl game?  2. Defense vs Ohio State Starts at 29:05 Giving up 27 points to Ohio State seems not that bad but we're still done with Wink. Ohio State's 3rd down conversions were the easiest possible. Neither Barham nor Derrick Moore got anywhere near Sayin all game. The 5-2 came back... It's year two, the defense shouldn't be this simplified. Yes, simplify it early on but it cannot be simplified against Ohio State. He learned nothing from the USC game, Wink needs to get fired and if he isn't then that's on Sherrone. There was a 20 play 81 yard field goal drive that took 12 minutes off the clock. That goal line stand was nice, though. Ohio State was at their own 10 but the backups were in?? Also it's a Fox broadcast, there's plenty of time to rest your starters during tv timeouts! There's a lot of work that needs to be done on the defensive line going into next year. The waves of elite defensive tackles has run its course.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 53:38 Takes hotter than... idk. I'm out of ideas just like Michigan's coaches. The first sign that it was over was when Ohio State declined a holding call and then held Michigan on 3rd and 5. Zvada made field goals and a mob didn't have to come after Brian (they would've been right to do so). Hollenbeck had an 11 yard punt. Keeping Andrew Marsh just to fair catch punts is a valuable skill, don't make him a kick returner though. Kicking field goals early on 4th down felt like the right thing at the time, it could've been a stupid blizzard game later. You'd trust Zvada to make these field goals more than you'd trust the offense to get six yards in the redzone. Apparently an Ohio State player had head butted a Michigan player and Barham was demonstrating - but also don't do that. Jeremiah Smith almost had the funniest application of the worst rule in football. There were a lot of Ohio State fans at this game, how does that keep happening? Were there Ohio State fans near you and if so what was the experience near them like?  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:25:11 Oregon 26, Washington 14 Washington's hyped offense just never came true in any of their big games this year. Oregon locks up a playoff bid, they'll probably get the G5 bid or the ACC champions. Penn State 40, Rutgers 36 Congrats to Penn State on getting bowl eligibility. This was a shootout. Tamper with the Rutgers receivers.  Minnesota 17, Wisconsin 7 Wisconsin is not good.  Michigan State 38, Maryland 28 Jonathan Smith was fired after this recording. There might've been 10,000 fans at this game but the weather kept a lot of people home.  Illinois 20, Northwestern 13 Snow game!  Iowa 40, Nebraska 16 Just a first half blowout without much effort in the 2nd half. A very disappointing ending to Nebraska's season. Nebraska is 2-10 the last three years in November. USC 29, UCLA 10 UCLA lead at halftime and then USC ran away with it in the 2nd half.  Indiana 56, Purdue 3 A year after Indiana gave Purdue their worst loss in the rivalry they give Purdue their first home loss in the rivalry. MUSIC: "Colors Change"—Tanks and Bangas "Too Good Too Bad"—Jason Scott and the High Heat "My Girlfriend Doesn't Worry"—Jeffrey Lewis and the Voltage “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 45 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs Maryland Starts at :51 It doesn't feel good to just beat up on Maryland the week before The Game. Dave explains a soft and gooey snack for all of you to enjoy. Bryce was okay! He's worked on a nice seam route with an arc to Marlin Klein that he didn't have before the bye. And a dig route! There was one bad pass which was a tough throw to make anyways. Can he go and win The Game? Probably if the defense can do enough. This was never going to be a challenge for the offensive line but they exceeded expectations anyways. The Ohio State game might be a bridge too far, though. Kuzdzal is a step down from Justice Haynes and Jordan Marshall but he's got some juice. They succeeded on wedge! Andrew Marsh almost completed the Odell Beckham?? He's a star going forward. Marlin Klein hurdled a fool, Goodwin had a few catches. It was nice of Maryland to just run into themselves and let Michigan do what they wanted.  2. Defense vs Maryland Starts at 34:09 There was an opening drive touchdown with various guys being offsides again, but then there wasn't much until the backups came in. Pleeeease do not be rotating the back-seven against Ohio State all game. Derrick Moore has 11 sacks, imagine if he played more! Ernest Hausmann did not travel, Cole Sullivan was back (and possibly a little rusty). This performance didn't build confidence in holding Ohio State to 10 points again, a lot of Maryland receivers were running open. Brandyn Hillman had another good game, maybe that mini-suspension was the best thing for his career. He was even directing players into position. Some of Maryland's drops count as triple drops. There's just not much interior rush from this defensive line, maybe play Barham at linebacker against OSU so you can blitz him. Does Wink actually call plays without knowing or caring which personnel are out there? This year you don't have the two best defensive tackles in America and you can't bait Ryan Day into running into a six man box.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 56:08 Takes hotter than yours truly after he got through the hot takes intro and had to re-do them because the Sklars dropped out of the call. Brian broke Zvada. Chase Taylor gets +4 on the onside kick recovery, that did not feel good. There was no punting from Michigan so we don't have to complain about punting. Marsh had some nice punt returns?? End of first half time management was less than ideal, Goodwin lined up in the wrong spot and they should've called timeout. Stop jumping offside! The late hit by Brandt was a weak call, so was the one on Bryce Underwood. Every replay angle was field-level and somehow they're contradictory?  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:19:43 Oregon 42, USC 27 A close-ish looking boxscore but Oregon scored 28 first half points. Oregon has figured out some things after the Indiana game, they're in the 99th percentile in opportunity run rate. They're starting to look like the championship team they were hoping to be.  Iowa 20, Michigan State 17 Iowa pulls out a classic game that they don't deserve to win. MSU QB Alessio Milivojevic punted three times. Michigan State's 8 game losing streak is tied for the 2nd longest, the program record is 10. Tickets for MSU vs Maryland at Ford Field after the game are free!  Northwestern 38, Minnesota 35 An offensive explosion game! Northwestern wins at Wrigley for the first time in 8 attempts.  Wisconsin 27, Illinois 10 Neither team gets to 300 yards of offense. This was the first time all season that Wisconsin scored in the first and second quarter.  Penn State 37, Nebraska 10 The Grunk throws 12 times for 181 yards, that'll do it. Nebraska goes 1 of 6 on 4th down. Who is Penn State's number 1 coaching candidate?  Washington 48, UCLA 14 The Huskies continue to play without some of their stars but still blew out UCLA Ohio State 42, Rutgers 9 Ugh MUSIC: "Feel It Again"—Winyah "Drugs"—Philharmonik Live from NPR Tiny Desk "DBZ"—Your Old Droog and Method Man “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hours 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, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs Northwestern Starts at :51 This doesn't even qualify as a top five weird Northwestern game (we list our top five). This week's snack of the week is organic pumpkin seeds. On one level, this kinda looked like Michigan's best game of the year on offense and defense. Michigan comes out slinging it and Bryce's confidence seemed like it was at another level, but he made young mistakes. What happened on Bryce's sacks? Playing Northwestern always kinda feels like they have your signs. Michigan was able to counter some of Northwestern's defensive counters. Most of the mistakes are coming from freshmen which is just something that happens. Missed cuts on zone is whatever but missed cuts on power isn't good. Bryson Kuzdzal came in and did just fine. Bryce's scrambles were pretty good and mostly improvisation, his interceptions were freshman stuff. Safeties were baiting him, can he anticipate that in the future? The first interception was not understanding how to read the coverage, the second one was just needing to throw the ball better. Andrew Marsh made the Michigan catch of the year, you have a dedicated receiver going into next year. You could have 12 of 14 boxes in a great position next year. Andrew Marsh is the best freshman receiver since... Manningham? How much does this performance mean against Ohio State? The reverse fumble is on Chip Lindsey.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Northwestern Starts at 44:15 Northwestern came into this game with a pretty good ground game and they got stuffed. This was a good game to run the 5-2 in, Northwestern is on the opposite end of the spectrum from USC. Northwestern's gamesmanship cost them two false starts, Michigan tipped what they were running multiple times. The defensive backs got beat a few times but sometimes a receiver just makes a nice play over you. You probably don't want to put Zeke Berry on Jeremiah Smith, Jyaire Hill is getting his star back. Brandyn Hillman tackled with his arms! He's grown as a much more mature player over the season. They're defending screens now! TJ Metcalf body-slammed a guy.   3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:08:55 Takes hotter than suburban Chicago in mid-November. There seems to be differing views on how much people liked this venue for a football game. The camera shots were weird. Seth and Dave think the inside of the stadium is magical, Brian not so much. It might've actually been 90% Michigan fans. They did the best they could with clock management at the end of the first half. What about timeouts at the end of the second half? Zvada kicked the ball into the street outside of the stadium. Brian takes responsibility for the missed field goals by changing the preview. Semaj got replaced, he's a better player than he's performed but he may be overdue for a mental health break. 4th down decisions. NFL calculator says there's a complete coin flip in decision making. It shouldn't be a holding call if you're getting your ass kicked. Semaj was on the ground with the ball but they didn't overturn the fumble? There's no transparency between officiating and the fans, other conferences and sports are getting better at it. 4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:59:37 USC 26, Iowa 21 Iowa jumped out to a nice lead but scored zero points in the second half. The Hawkeyes lost three offensive linemen. The universe is paying them back for all the 10 win seasons they had no business having. USC is now a legitimate playoff contender.  Indiana 31, Wisconsin 7 This was a sludge fart for Indiana in the first half but put it away in the second. Wisconsin is one of the worst Big Ten offenses ever contemplated. Most of Wisconsin's offense was off of a couple weird plays.  Penn State 28, Michigan State 10 A rock fight between two of the worst teams in the league. Michigan State had 15 wins over the last three years... well at least they did. Penn State won the very ugly trophy which might actually be the best trophy and they looked like they really wanted it. Illinois 24, Maryland 6 Maryland is not even trying to run the ball anymore. Illinois ground them to a pulp. Don't throw at Maryland, just run them over.  Washington 49, Purdue 13 Washington doubles Purdue in yardage and most of that was likely garbage time for Purdue.  Oregon 42, Minnesota 13  This feels like danger zone for PJ Fleck. They could lose to Wisconsin?? Ohio State 48, UCLA 10 UCLA is without Nico in this game, their backup has never thrown a college pass. UCLA is moving out of the Rose Bowl??  MUSIC: "Slow Burn"—The Rose City Band "Swans"—Maston "Optimism"—Jana Horn “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra  

2 hours and 26 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Men's Basketball vs Oakland Starts at :53 Everyone said "nice" at the halftime of this game. At first it didn't seem like the results meant much because Oakland looked really bad, but then they went and had a close game against Purdue. How much can you gather about Michigan fromhere? Trey McKenney was 6-8 from three and looked the part. He also had four assists and no turnovers, there were some Darius Morris qualities about him. Do they go with the very big rotation with Yaxel out? Will Tschetter seems to get more minutes when Yaxel is out, would like to see him step up as a four year player. Wake Forest was a bubble team last year and look like one this year, that game will tell us more about Michigan.  2. Previewing Men's Basketball in the Big Ten Starts at 21:31 In reverse Kenpom order Penn State They're bad. Rutgers How is this team even going to score a basket? They have seven teams scheduled in the 200s.  Minnesota Niko Medved's first year at Minnesota, but the roster does not look good. They'll compete with Rutgers and Penn State for the bottom spot. Oregon 35th in the preseason but have fallen considerably after a one point win over Hawaii and a four point win over Rice. They have a transfer from Elon, the Oregon NIL budget must be focusing on football.  Maryland The only Big Ten team with a loss. They shot terribly against Georgetown and were only in it because they scored 30 points off of free throws.  Northwestern They bring back Nick Martinelli, the guy who makes the worst shots you've ever seen (complimentary). They've blown out Mercyhurst and Boston, which would be impressive if it was hockey. Their center looks like Elvis. Washington Very young team starting two freshmen and two sophomores.  Nebrasketball Sam Hoiberg is still playing a majority of minutes, but at least the mustache is gone. They bring in the Icelandic Unicorn.  Iowa Ben McCollum's first year. Tavion Banks looked great at Drake last year but will probably hit a wall against the Big Ten.  Ohio State They beat IU Indianapolis 118-102, eek. They've retained a few players which is a big thing in college basketball now.  Michigan State More continuity and the best win in the Big Ten so far (69-66 over Arkansas). They're very experienced. They were awful at three point shooting a year ago and so far they're at 20% this year. This doesn't seem like a team that's going to win the league by three games but they didn't look like that last year.  Indiana Year one for Darian DeVries. They bring in a lot of new players and we don't know what to expect. This team is loaded with seniors. They're going to do what they do and then go away.  UCLA Mick Cronin is awesome, actually. How can a team starting Xavier Booker at center be? They have shooting but defense and rebounding are big questions. What if Mick Cronin yells at them more? USC Hey it's Terrance Williams. USC is surprisingly putting together a basketball program. Wisconsin They're 18th in Kenpom and looking at the roster doesn't make sense. There's no bench, either.  Purdue They bring back Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn. Fletcher Loyer is also back. Their 10 point win over Oakland was awkward. Jack Benter is an interesting freshman at guard. You can't second guess Matt Painter but they're missing their classic giant center that they build around.  Illinois This team is huge. They absolutely blew out Jackson State and Florida Gulf Coast. Pronounce Ivisic, or Petrovic, or Stojakovic, or Jakstsys.    3. Hot Takes and Hockey Updates Starts at 1:15:30 Takes hotter than the opposite of Kinnick Stadium, that looked miserable. Michigan split with Wisconsin over the weekend in a return to reality series. But it felt like worse than a split for what got exposed. Michigan couldn't get out of their zone but most teams on the schedule won't be able to replicate what Wisconsin did. Goalie Jack Ivankovic also just had a bad weekend which happens. Friday was such a fun game that was getting ruined by piped in music. They're being told to turn it down. Wisconsin seemed to really get under Michigan's skin and the frustration came out. The Big Ten is one of the best hockey leagues in the world and the league barely broadcasts games.    4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:45:28 Indiana 27, Penn State 24  Absolutely bonkers ending. The final two catches were amazing. This game raised questions about Indiana's ability to block next-level guys. Mendoza was pressured on 50% of dropbacks. Penn State did start the season with a group of players you would've thought would do that, though. All Penn State quarterbacks are now "The Grunk". Indiana was 2-25 against Penn State coming into this game and this was their first ever win in Happy Valley, the feels are still amazing for Hoosiers fans.  Oregon 18, Iowa 16 Oregon went into Kinnick during a rain storm and got almost the full Iowa experience (except that the safety happened to Iowa). The only stat that matters is that Oregon survived a November night(ish) game in Kinnick, survive and advance in that scenario.  Wisconsin 13, Washington 10 Played in similar conditions as Oregon vs Iowa, except this game sucked! Wisconsin's lead passer was the punter. This was a Big Ten West game and someone had to lose. If this wasn't in a sleet storm then Demond Williams probably gets more than 134 passing yards.  Nebraska 28, UCLA 21 Nebraska QB TJ Lateef goes 13/15 for 205 yards and 3 touchdowns. Dylan Raiola who? This was a very Big Ten game with limited possessions because both teams ran the ball a lot. Nebraska goes through so many running backs but might've finally found a guy. Rutgers 35, Maryland 20 Rutgers' running back Antwan Raymond rushed for 240 yards but Rutgers got outrushed. Maryland had six explosive plays and had a -0.4 EPA outside of those. Rutgers rescued their bowl hopes. USC 38, Northwestern 17 The boxscore is a blowout. USC had a fake punt pass that wasn't even legal. Why did they pull that out against Northwestern? It was close at the time. Ohio State 34, Purdue 10 merp MUSIC: "Feel For Love"—Michigan Rattlers "What's It All Mean"—Philharmonik "Sin Triangle"—Sidney Gish “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

1 hour and 55 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs Purdue Starts at :57 This podcast starts out telepathically but then Brian's intrusive thoughts got telepathed so it had to stop. Dave introduces the Snack of the Week. Would you rather talk about this game or Dunkaroos? Bryce Underwood - not good in the first half. A fumble on the sideline is usually harmless unless it involves the silliest rule in football. His scrambling was good but you can't build a business in this industry by scrambling, that will get you killed against Ohio State. Too many missed passes, he doesn't really settle in. By the Georgia game, JJ was probably where Bryce is now - many mistakes but you can see the talent. On the flip side, the offensive line had a great game. Purdue loaded the box but Jordan Marshall rushed for 185 yards anyways. You can't tackle him with just one guy, he will emerge from piles. This is the fourth straight game where Sprague has been incredible. Bryson Kuzdzal had some nice runs on the game-sealing drive. Tight ends were fine, more catches by Zack Marshall. There's not a lot of separation between Marshall and Klein. Semaj had way fewer snaps, Goodwin saw more time. You have six 2nd or 3rd year players on this offensive line that can absolutely play in this conference. The future of the offensive line is bright.  2. Defense vs Purdue Starts at 41:43 How do we even feel about the defensive performance? We've seen Purdue all season be an offense that moves the ball down the field but can't score. That happened but it felt bad. Cam Brandt was too far upfield on a couple big run plays. Why are the good defensive ends not on the field for 70% of the snaps that they should be out for? Why are the starters rotating out so much throughout the game? Assuming he's healthy, do you put Jaishawn Barham at DE or LB against Ohio State? Michigan didn't commit to a position for him and it's hurting his play. Way fewer three defensive tackle sets, yay. If your name is going to be "Michael Jackson" you need to go by "Mike". Jyaire Hill got sealed a couple times but was otherwise fine. The endzone DPI was DPI. Metcalf got sucked in during the touchdown.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:06:04 Takes hotter than the amount of trouble Jason would get into if he did the Hot Takes voice at a golf tournament where he was during recording. Michigan has not been good at Special Teams Things, why are they running kickoffs out of the middle of the endzone? Another punt that Semaj didn't field that gave up 20 yards. Did Jay Harbaugh have a heat map for punting? We've never had to talk so much about shield punting positioning but now we have to. Clock management at the end of the first half was pretty on-point. Purdue's 4th down decision making was aggressive which you do if you want to try to win the game. Shout out to Michigan fans for feeding energy back into the team in the 4th quarter. The students did the shirtless thing that's become a college football thing. Also shout out to Barry Odom for getting the Purdue bench fired up.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:28:22 Indiana 55, Maryland 10 This is a typical Indiana game these days. Indiana's offense is a machine. The defense is... also a machine?? Every week, Indiana has some weird defensive stat that's historical and worth tracking. Mendoza threw and interception on his first play, the game was wobbly for about a quarter.  Ohio State 38, Penn State 14 Briefly competitive in the 2nd quarter. Penn State is the first top five team in the history of college football to lose five straight games. Julian Sayin had 14 yards per attempt. Ohio State finally catches a break and gets an obvious targeting call to not get enforced.  Minnesota 23, Michigan State 20 (OT) MSU benches Aidan Chiles for Alessio Milivojevic. The Spartans lose this game despite outgaining Minnesota by about 160 yards. The final two minutes of this game are worth watching. Northwestern QB Aidan Chiles?? Alessio had a better EPA than Chiles any other game this season. USC 21, Nebraska 17 If you like offense, don't look at this game. We are suddenly having feelings about Wink Martindale. Dylan Raiola is done for the season and USC is able to grind out a win. Raiola's backup went 5/7 for 7 yards.  Illinois 35, Rutgers 13 A solid victory for Illinois, most of Rutgers' yards are when it was 35-6. Bert: "I put us as good as any 6-3 team out there. That doesn't mean anything." Bowl eligible in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2011. Illinois is the new Wisconsin.  MUSIC: "On & On"—The Marcus King Band "Husbands"—Geese "Don't Forget That I Love you"—Pale Jay “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra 

2 hour and 30 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs Michigan State Starts at 1:05 They watch games in Craig's garage but to be clear it's a very nice garage. This game means different things based on if you're from Michigan or not. This game is like "Jerry Springer: the Rivalry". Michigan went back to the 2023 "we can just run the ball and get away with a win" gameplan. 'Road Bryce' seems to be a real thing. Every time they show Jonathan Smith he looks like he doesn't want to be there. Should there be an ingrained hatred of Michigan if you're going to be the head coach at Michigan State? Bryce doesn't have a good game but both backs go for over 100 yards. Bryce looked great last week, what happened? Or is this just the case of a true freshman in a road environment again? Sprague and Guarnera had great games, El-Hadi maybe not so much? The pieces for the 2026 offensive line may already be in place. Let's talk about Semaj... We're mostly out on Semaj, do you bench him now for his own good? Jordan Marshall: runs through guys and runs through guys. The Crippen high snap was unfortunate. Can anyone play fullback better than Max Bredeson?  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Michigan State Starts at 59:04 We've been down on Wink but this was a good game for the defense. You can't take much on this based on the performance of the opposition. Chiles was awful in a vacuum, Michigan was not forcing his problems. Hillman had a really good game, he's been given a lot of criticism but this was a chaotically good game. Jimmy Rolder was a little bit of everywhere, he's a playmaker now. Derrick Moore is pretty good, he should start! Everything around the defensive tackle position is fine but we're used to a defense designed around great defensive tackles. Defensive backs should have as equal right to the ball as wide receivers.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:26:57 Takes hotter than the bacteria and/or virus that really got up in Brian's business this week. Glue the hat and pants on, Michigan State's not getting the trophy back. Some of us don't think that guy was off-sides... or was he? The hold on Crippen is not even remotely a hold. If that's a hold then we need to talk about Jaishawn Barham. Why are we accepting a fair catch on the 20?? We are out on J.B. Brown as special teams coordinator. Hollenbeck had a nice game at least. Semaj gets run over by Goodwin?! Should they have taken a shot in the endzone before the end of the half?   4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:51:10 Rutgers 27, Purdue 24 The Purdue QB catches his own pass and spectacularly hands the game over to Rutgers in dramatic fashion. Rutgers gets yards, not points. Purdue wins a game they probably shouldn't have. This game kind of saved Rutgers' season, they could potentially compete with Penn State for bowl eligibility.  Nebraska 28, Northwestern 21 Northwestern outgains Nebraska and Dylan Raiola was un-inspiring. That said, Raiola was still the better QB. Northwestern always seems to find the worst QB in the portal. Nebraska seems to think they can solve their offensive line problems with the portal but they can't.  Indiana 56, UCLA 6 There was a pick-six a minute into the game and that's all she wrote. Last year Indiana was a fun story, this year THEY'RE SCARY.  Washington 42, Illinois 25 Road Washington is a thing. The worst roughing the passer call we've ever seen is in this game. Could Oregon be a play-in for a playoff spot for Washington??  Oregon 21, Wisconsin 7 Wisconsin doesn't get shut out three games in a row! All things considered, the Wisconsin defense is playing their hearts out.  Iowa 41, Minnesota 3 Iowa had 274 total yards. How do you get 41 points on 274 total yards? It's Iowa. We need a Floyd of Rosedale pose on touchdowns in this game. Playoff Iowa??? No, that's silly.  MUSIC: "Chokkan Way"—Haku "My Girlfriend Doesn't Worry"—Jeffrey Lewis "Nausea"—Jeff Rosenstock “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hour and 10 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs Washington Starts at 1:05 Pay no attention to the background noise from the drag show at Venue. This game was vanilla and we like that. Bryce Underwood had a fabulous day despite losing about 50 yards from drops. There seems to be a big difference between Road Bryce and Home Bryce. Michigan didn't take many deep shots because the short stuff was working great and Washington has tall corners. The remaining road games shouldn't be nearly as threatening as the previous three. The game is over but they have a designed run for Bryce? Jordan Marshall isn't Justice Haynes but he gets a lot of yards after contact. He's still working on re-gapping but overall an excellent first start for him. Jasper Parker looked fine. Under Harbaugh not much changed between offensive coordinators, but with Chip Lindsey a lot has changed already. He was dealing in the first touchdown drive. When's the last time we came out of a game thinking "oh wow they nuked the defensive coordinator?" How do we feel about going for it on 4th down and passing it to Mr. Dropsies? Running it up the middle is probably a 70% conversion, throwing it to Semaj is also a 70% conversion but for different reasons. Evan Link looks to be done for the year. Bryce's first scramble was Frazier getting knocked backwards, he seems fine but doesn't quite have the oomf that Evan Link does. Zack Marshall had a great game, what happened to the starting tight ends? Overall the offensive line was fine.  2. Defense vs Washington Starts at 34:40 The defense only gave up seven points but everyone is still a little mad. Michigan runs a pretty vanilla defense and it works nicely because college quarterbacks are going to make mistakes. Oden did intercept the ball but uhh... it was not because of his performance. Washington shot themselves in the foot but also Jaishawn Barham was much more responsible. Wink is not forgiven but it was nice that this game plan was simplified and it was fine. A lot of defensive tackle rotation but not everybody is a play maker. Is Lou Esposito the one rotating the tackles so much? Maybe part of the chaos on defense is you don't get used to playing next to the same guy every snap. This will not be a -33 RPS day. Jyaire Hill is not getting targeted very much.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 58:19 Takes hotter than the bangin' drag show going on during the recording of this podcast. Brian apologizes once again for changing "AHHH YOU PUT IT THROUGH THE UPRIGHTS" and disrupting the cosmic balance. Zvada misses another field goal but gets the game sealer. Punting was a 35 yarder and then a rocket. No major complains about Semaj on punt returns except that he hit the spin button at the wrong time. The 4th and 1 drop to Semaj was unfortunate. What about the 4th and 2 on the 6? The whistle blew too early. Max Bredeson's holding call is the worst holding call since that Northwestern holding call. Stadium vibe: some people could actually use their phones! It should not take nine minutes to get a $9 coke, the athletic department doesn't pay close attention to the small things. Apparently concession people at Yost don't get paid but the athletic department can finally install cell phone towers at Michigan Stadium after 11 years under Warde.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:26:57 Iowa 25, Penn State 24 The nicest thing you can say about Penn State is that a lot of big programs are in collapse. Drew Allar's career is over, Ethan Grunkemeyer throws for 93 yards and throws two interceptions. Iowa threw for 68 yards but ran for 245 yards, Iowa should just run the triple option!  UCLA 20, Maryland 17 You gotta respect Maryland's commitment to one Army drive and then not doing a thing after. UCLA looked like the better team all game. This was a Big Ten [wild wild] West game. This is Maryland's third straight heartbreaking loss, they can't finish games with a freshman QB. There's still a path to a bowl.  Indiana 38, Michigan State 13 Shout out to everyone who listened to this on Spartan Radio. Indiana's offense was extremely efficient. Fernando Mendoza was 24/28 for 332 yards and four touchdowns. Indiana football fans were mad that they weren't winning by more. Did Indiana give up enough passing yards to be concerned with playoff implications for the Hoosiers? Northwestern 19, Purdue 0 Northwestern gets one 76 yard scoring drive and that's about all the scoring in this game. Don't let the score fool you into thinking that Northwestern has figured something out.  Notre Dame 34, USC 24 USC takes a 3rd quarter lead followed by Notre Dame getting a kickoff return. Then USC just falls apart in the 4th quarter. This was frustrating to watch as a Michigan fan.  Ohio State 34, Wisconsin 0 134 total yards for Wisconsin and that's generous. Oh god they play Oregon next weekend. Minnesota 24, Nebraska  Dylan Raiola is sacked nine times, that's too many times. Nebraska had just entered the top 25 and has now exited the top 25. A left tackle was ejected for targeting! Shout out to Minnesota fans for really filling the stadium on a Friday night.  Oregon 56, Rutgers 10 14 different Oregon players went for at least 10 yards on a play. Oregon was very upset about their Indiana game. Somehow there wasn't a rutger. Oregon had 233 breakaway yards, Rutgers had 202 total yards.  MUSIC: "Brand New Second Hand"—Peter Tosh "It's Not Easy"—Ofege "Plain as Your Eyes Can See"—Jim Sullivan “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hour and 21 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Defense vs USC Starts at 1:00 Seth reads off an ominous message from Brian from earlier last week. USC's success rate was typical of a good offense against a MAC team. This was the dumbest game plan we've ever seen a Michigan defensive coordinator execute. Wink Martindale coaches like he looks down on college and Brian is officially done with him. Is Wink just Charlie Weis?? What happened between The Meeting from last year and this year? Mike McDonald made a lot of the same mistakes in his first four games but he was able to adjust to what was around him, Wink can't change. Would things be better if they fired Wink Martindale and just made Rod Moore the defensive coordinator? His answer to the question "are you spilling or setting the edge" was "it depends on the playcall" which raises a red flag. How much actual player development is being done? They're playing their subs in the first quarter, Brandt had more snaps than Derrick Moore. USC was running a lot of really easy stuff but they may legitimately be one of the best offenses in the country. Why are they subbing so much against such a good offense? His buyout is head coach money to be one of the worst defensive coordinators in the Big Ten. It's not just younger guys making mistakes, it's older guys, too. At some point you gotta think "maybe this is a tunnel screen?" USC had a 66% standard downs success rate.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Offense vs USC Starts at 40:07 There was a limited number of drives in part because USC ran the clock a lot. Bryce Underwood just wasn't quite up for it in this one. His deep passes were too flat but he had some good moments too. Denard talked about how in big games we was so amped that he couldn't hit his targets, maybe Bryce is still a little nervous in big games. USC's nickel is nicknamed "the angry giraffe" because he's so tall. Andrew Marsh is getting better rapidly and is becoming the next best option #2, maybe that's why the tight ends got fewer targets. The pieces of a solid offense are there, they're still developing. The tackles weren't getting whipped consistently. Despite the issues, Bryce is developing as expected for a freshman, he has a lot of added pressure when the defense can't stop the opposing offense. Based on limited snaps of Jadyn Davis, maybe you can't run Bryce as much to risk injury. El-Hadi was back and looked fine.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:04:56 Takes hotter than the eternal flame in the Los Angeles Coliseum (which does get put out at the conclusion of the game). The game might've been going a bit fast which caused the false starts. The OPI was a bad call. Michigan drew a holding call!! A lot of extracurriculars went uncalled. Hollenbeck's punting started promising but eventually resulted in a 28 yarder. Do you punt or try for a 60 yard field goal? That two point conversion is apparently the thing you do now? The USC cheerleaders were on the field when Michigan was running a play!  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 128:41 NOTE: This was recorded just before James Franklin was fired. Indiana 30, Oregon 20 This was a defensive masterclass from Indiana. This is how 2023 Michigan would've beaten Oregon. How the hell does Indiana have one of the best defenses in America?? This was really the first game all year where Dante Moore was under pressure and didn't seem to know what to do. Indiana has signs of... a championship winning team?! Penn State 21, Northwestern 22 Drew Allar is out for the season. This wasn't a fluke, Northwestern just outperformed Penn State. Linebacker U has completely fallen apart and Jim Knowles doesn't seem to know how to be aggressive with this roster. Will... Penn State win a Big Ten game?? James Franklin was fired immediately after this recording so there's still speculation on what to do with this situation. The situation at Penn State just seems toxic all around.  UCLA 38, Michigan State 13 Michigan State scores on their first drive and then that's all, folks. October UCLA is the opposite of October Maryland. Michigan State can't move on from John Smith for stability reasons... can they? What do the Spartans do well? What Big Ten teams would swap their QB with Aidan Chiles? Nebraska 34, Maryland 31 Nebraska had control of this game down-to-down but Dylan Raiola threw three interceptions. October Maryland can't get out of their way again. Raiola isn't quite there yet but has a shot at it next year.  Ohio State 34, Illinois 16 Ohio State was never really threatened. Illinois outgains Ohio State 295 to 275 but three of Ohio State's first four drives started in Illinois territory.  Iowa 37, Wisconsin 0 Sim to basketball season. This wasn't even an Iowa offensive explosion, Wisconsin threw two interceptions and lost a fumble. You can't fire Fickell but you also can't afford not to? Washington 38, Rutgers 19 A fun first half but Washington blows the doors open in the second half. Total yards were 590 to 493. Rutgers is 0-3 in the Big Ten but had a halftime lead in each of those games.  Purdue 20, Minnesota 27 Minnesota is outrushed 253 to 30 rushing yards but Purdue throws three interceptions and loses a fumble. If you rewatch this game, we will have to call 911. MUSIC: "Au Pays do Cocaine"—Geese "See You Again"—Tyler the Creator "Havin' or Not"—LaRussell and Lil Jon “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hour and 18 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs Wisconsin Starts at 1:00 Are Michigan fans turning beet red or was it just hot? This game looks better on rewatch and followed the preview fairly closely. Bryce Underwood took a leap forward in this game, he has the occasional accuracy issue and isn't testing the middle of the field, but he's starting to hit guys downfield. Andrew Marsh and Donaven McCulley also took a huge lea. This is encouraging considering Goodwin was barely targeted, Semaj has been having catching issues, and Frederick Moore is off the team. You can rotate most positions but not the wide receivers. Russel Bellamy has been getting unfairly judged for the receivers. Wisconsin has a very good rush defense and Michigan put up pretty good numbers. Underwood needs to get the ball out a little quicker. Sprague will grade out negatively but he generally does it well when he knows the right assignment. The offensive line is young, they need some time to get better. Lindsey plays off the screen game really well. Has Michigan gotten a holding call all year on defense? [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Wisconsin Starts at 39:33 10 points from the opposition but three came from a sad field goal. They barely got to 200 yards of offense until "kill the clock mode". Rod Moore being back instantly makes this defense much better. Don't rotate him and just keep him on the field all game? Zeke Berry is back from injury, he missed a tackle but was otherwise fine. This defense seems like they miss a lot of tackles but we're comparing it to the best defense in recent school history. Jimmy Rolder was in his element, one time he almost picked up a fullback and threw him. Michigan goes cover zero in a situation that makes no sense. Everyone in the stands keeps turning towards Seth when this happens. Brandyn Hillman is reckless which is helpful sometimes, sometimes it hurts you. Please don't be weird against USC. 3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:05:20 Takes hotter than Michigan Stadium this Saturday. Michigan missed a 27 yard field goal, was it the hold? They did (just barely) block a punt and almost blocked a second one. Hollenbeck was blasting them in this game. What is up with Semaj's punt returns? Is he being told not to take any chances? Should you run a QB sneak on 4th and inches near your own red zone? Luke Fickell is Brady Hoke. They weren't trying to win the game in the 4th quarter, you can't have a six minute field goal drive in this situation. Seth is about to start charting an umpire's spatial awareness. 4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:34:02 UCLA 42, Penn State 37 UCLA has been awful all season but they looked like the #7 team in the country in Pasadena. James Franklin partially blamed the travel. Coming into this weekend, UCLA never led in any of their four games. In this game they never trailed. Tim Skipper has as many wins over top 10 teams as James Franklin. Penn State was a playoff team but now they have to beat Ohio State to have a chance, Was this the biggest Big Ten upset ever?  Nebraska 38, Michigan State 27 In most weeks this would be the funniest game of the week. Michigan State ran for 2.3 YPC and Chiles threw two interception into Nebraska chests. Their backup looked pretty good so is there a QB controversy?  Washington 24, Maryland 20 Maryland took a 20-0 lead but road Washington dominated October Maryland. Washington is still without their best defensive end, linebacker, and defensive back. Mike Locksley is 0-10 coming out of bye weeks.  Illinois 43, Purdue 27 The Purdue offense is actually functional. Each QB threw for over 300 yards.  Northwestern 42, ULM 7 One day we'll have something to say about Northwestern, but not today. Ohio State 42, Minnesota 3 They let Julian Sayin cook. MUSIC: "Cobra"—Geese "God's Country"—Thomas Dollbaum "How To Kill Houseplants"—Spacey Jane “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

aka The 2025-26 Men's Basketball Preview, Part 1 2 hours and 26 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. The Backcourt Starts at 1:00 Out: Tre Donaldson, In: Elliot Cadeau, who is a much better creator, and that's what this team needs. Cadeau and the general UNC'ness of North Carolina are hard to separate but he was a five-star who plays hot and should benefit from not having to fight for usage with RJ Davis. Defensively his size puts a cap on what he can do but he gets after it: more Xavier Simpson than Eli Brooks. LJ Cason is the backup point, we guess, though he may defer to Gayle as the on-ball player in those sets just because Cason is more of an off-ball threat than Roddy. Cason was a three-star because he was coming in unready, but could take that huge jump. This year is the freshman Jordan Poole year, not the sophomore Jordan Poole year, IE frustratingly forgivable. Gayle isn't going to shoot 9% in the Big Ten again, but he's what he is at this point: a guy who can get to the rim and create fouls/hit his free throws. We kinda want him coming off the bench since he can fill in for a lot of what any given starter leaves, but isn't a great fit with the other projected starting four. The other wild card is their new five-star. Trey McKenney lost 20 pounds in the offseason so he might not as much of a burly 2/3 as he seemed at OLSM. He's still Gayle at this point in his career, though with some big point upside. Not a one-and-done but should be ready by Tournament time. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Hot Takes, Wings and Frontcourt Starts at 32:15 Starting at the three again will be Nimari Burnett, who is Nimari: a usage soak who is there to end good possessions not start them. He began to show a bit of creation late last season but that only got him from 90% points assisted to 84%. He is very good at what he does, and unlikely to do more. His backups are extra guards, and Winters Grady, who should be Just a Shooter at this stage, and more down the road. Oscar Goodman arrived midseason last year, but he's supposed to need another year of development. Patrick Liburd is the kind of guy we wish was 2 years older right now. At the four is Yaxel Lendeborg, the #1 player in the portal, who is going to be a cross between Danny Wolf and Johni Broome, though not better than either of them. He is very strong and impossible to stop once he has you off your feet, but he's coming from an offense where he had to be the alpha creator every play and he's better as the second option. Can he guard up to three? Probably in the Big Ten; there was some distance at the Combine between him and Wolf in the agility drills, but Yaxel came out like Johni: agile enough to be among the who can play the four in the NBA. Backup to Yax is Will Tschetter, the rarest bird in college basketball these days as a five-year player who stuck around despite the likelihood of less playing time than last year. They were working on making him a shooter on the move. He has to be hidden away defensively, but this lineup has plenty of defenders to do that. Frontcourt is two guys instead of 1.5 now. We are obsessed with the upside of Aday Mara, who is 7'3" with impossible length. He would have had the highest block rate in the country by some distance if he played enough to qualify; he didn't because he got sick (Mono?) but when he returned they had him playing 21 mpg and UCLA got much, much better. Then he got benched. Sometimes he plays soft—was that a sick thing, a Cronin thing? He's also got a soft touch and a good feel for passing. May be as good as Yaxel if he hits his ceiling. Mara's platoonmate, and the probable "starter," is Morez Johnson from Illinois, a crazy rebounder with great ups and shot-blocking ability. Offensively he's a finisher. Defensively there's some hope he can be switchable. Going to make it very hard to go inside and give Michigan an edge from the five that they haven't had since...? 3. How It All Fits Starts at 1:11:34 Can they play the bigs together? Matt D says the NBA is going back to three forwards, and Michigan's best attribute is they're Old North Carolina, where they're just going to out-size everybody. That's doable if they can get Mara to be the player we think he could be, since he can create and so can Yaxel, and you can get away with blow-bys when you have a guy like Mara who blocks shots without leaving the floor. Speaking of floor, this team at worst looks like a four-seed, with considerable upside if a) Mara can play more and maintain his numbers, b) Cadeau cuts down on turnovers, c) Gayle finds his shooting, d) Cason blows up, or e) McKenney blows up. Think they can cut down on turnovers from last year because Wolf just had a bunch that were unforced, and because instead of forcing everything to the rim they can shoot bad twos and rebound them. They also just have more room to pass to. 4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 2:02:19 Oregon 30, Penn State 24 Penn State could do nothing on offense until the 4th Q when they had went on an Oregon-is-exhausted march, then hit a great PA shot. The INT that ended it was that pyramid formation Lanning loves. Frames punted from the plus-36.  Ohio State 24, Washington 6 Went about how you might expect a team whose OL/DL are their issues would go against OSU, IE they got six points out of three red zone trips and then it was 17-6 in the 4th Q and they had to go for it on 4th down. OSU did a great job containing the QB run. Indiana 20, Iowa 15 I know that touchdown; that's the Anthony Carter play!  Iowa had chances to win this but lost their QB near the end and also went Cover Zero one too many times.  USC 32, Illinois 34 This felt like two good teams going at it, though USC was short on guys in the secondary and played bend-don't-break until they either broke or Illinois pulled out a Philly Special. Coulda been a blowout but Illinois fumbled in the endzone twice. Minnesota 31, Rutgers 28 Rutgers hits their program high when they have to play a Big Ten West schedule. Good solid quarterbacking until Athan Kaliakmanis had to face pressure, which is like Pedro Serrano trying to hit a curve. Northwestern 17, UCLA 14 Down 17-0 to Northwestern was probably UCLA's best shot at winning a Big Ten game this year. MUSIC: "Surefire"—Wilderado    "See You Again"—Tyler the Creator "I Believe She's Lying"—Jon Brion “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hour and 26 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs Nebraska Starts at 1:00 Is yogurt, honey, and granola a snack? Dave Nastersnacks will give us the answer. Oklahoma was a 24-13 loss but it felt worst than that, this was 30-27 win but it felt better than that (but also worse!). The domination on both lines was more notable than some of the silly, bad things that happened. Between Oklahoma and Nebraska, Michigan hasn't had a complete touchdown drive (but this game had an 8 minute drive to go up by 10). Caveats aside, we're on the verge of saying Greg Crippen is good after he blocked three guys on one play. Running stretch is hard and they're running it quite well. McCulley had a great game but was to blame on Semaj's throw being incomplete. Zero drops otherwise and ran guys over. Everyone else? Not so great. Gotta catch the ball on a slant, get used to passes from Underwood. Should they throw it to Peyton O'Leary? The running backs sure toughened up in this one. Max Bredeson blocks everyone like they're Caleb Downs in the Rose Bowl. Not many Bryce critiques. Catch the ball. Guarnera is just not making mistakes. What's the next good defensive line that Michigan will play, Ohio State? Michigan consistently got a play in, saw the look of the defense, and got a new play in.  2. Defense vs Nebraska Starts at 46:58 Time for a Wink Martindale argument? He doesn't need to do anything fancy. Just run the Iowa defense, you're not going up against an NFL offense. Brandyn Hillman is being asked to do things outside of his base job. 27 points, seven are on Biff, seven are on Hillman taunting, three are on Mangham missing a sack. Otherwise it was pretty good? Raiola was getting sacked every other play. Too many safeties missing sacks. Complaining aside, they got to the quarterback a lot and tackled well. Sanders has been playing a lot and there haven't really been any negative feelings about him. Wink would be a better poker player than Mike Debord but not as good as Jesse Minter. This game felt like Trey Pierce arrived. Cole Sullivan has absolutely emerged, he's little bit of everywhere and has freaky long arms. Defensive backs played well. The Shamari Earls PI was a bit weak. Brandyn Hillman needs to grow up, that was the most obvious personal foul in a minute. Brian usually defends players celebrating and even he says that's an obvious foul. Was it a targeting call at the end of the game? Let's talk about the Hail Mary. Why was TJ Guy dropping? Why was there a spy?  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:25:17 Takes hotter than a Wisconsin fan looking at whatever the shit that was on Saturday. If you're Nebraska, would you go for it on 4th and 2 on the opening drive? Should Michigan have called timeout at the end of the first half? Maybe Sherrone could make a better call here but we can't know that. Zvada hit a 56 yarder and a chip shot to seal it, yay. Punting was okay, how do you recruit punters? What's with Semaj at punt returns? Punt returning has been a problem for a couple years now. Kendrick Bell got the onside! Gary Danielson and Brad Nessler are washed. The turf was a little slippy?  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:51:48 Indiana 63, Illinois 10 This is the most points a top 10 team has been beaten by. This looks like Michigan's boxscore against Central. Cignetti is vindicated. How much is this Indiana being legit and Illinois never being top 10 team? Maryland 27, Wisconsin 10 The boxscore shows a relatively even game, BUT Maryland blocks a punt, field goal, and gets one of the easiest interceptions you've seen. Luke Fickell is done. The boo birds were just apathetic, which is worse than booing. 61 rush yards for Wisconsin on 42 attempts.  Oregon 41, Oregon State 7 Oregon State has fallen on hard times since college football ejected them. This game looked like a controlled scrimmage. Is Oregon really good or just beating up on bad teams? We'll see how Oregon does during a whiteout at Penn State next weekend.  Notre Dame 56, Purdue 30 Purdue's defense is really bad. Purdue is Purdue.  Iowa 38, Rutgers 28 Iowa returns the opening kickoff for a touchdown and could not stop Rutgers' QB. Both teams went up and down the field, what is happening??  USC 45, Michigan State 31 The boxscore looks a little close but MSU gets a 75 yard drive down three touchdowns. Mostly a blowout. The Spartans' defense did not have answers to USC's running game. Aidan Chiles had some explosive plays.  Washington 59, Washington State 24 Another Pacific Northwest rivalry that college football has ruined. Does Washington have the best complete package for skill position players in the conference? We don't trust Ohio State's run game.  MUSIC: "Wave Goodnight"—Jeff Rosenstock "Alien With a Sleep Mask"—Batboys "Big Dipper"—Built to Spill “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hour and 25 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs Central Michigan Starts at 1:00 Michigan's biggest blowout since the 2016 Hawaii game. This game was trending towards a total rutger for a while and was a nice palette cleanser. More Biff Poggi interviews, please. Listen for the Chip's chips. Do we think "Sherrone's not here so let's play with the kids"? Who's your Crippen comparison, Andrew Vastardis? David Molk? This is what Bryce Underwood looks like when he's not under siege. What did Bryce see on the interception? He had someone open. One of the special things about Bryce is he can just go and get you 20 yards on the ground. Is he putting a little extra zip on the ball? McCulley had a couple nice catches, other guys need to catch the ball. Running backs did a better job of re-gapping in this game. The offensive line had a nice day with some [redshirt] freshman mistakes. Jadyn Davis played several drives with no passes.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Central Michigan Starts at 44:32 Couldn't quite get a total rutger but felt like it would for a while. They played a 3-4 for most of this game. Jaishawn Barham found the backfield a lot. Manuel Beigel had some meaningful time in the first quarter. Central Michigan ran a lot of down G. A lot of guys were hurt in this game but backups looked good. Michigan has a little Channing Stribling now. Rolder was up and down but had some good stops. Does Biff even understand Batman's hero abilities work??  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:05:11 Takes hotter than the Georgia Tech radio announcer after the bees hit a fire drill field goal from 50 yards and they SOUNDED EXACTLY LIKE THIS. There's a list of things you can't bring into the stadium but they're handing out versions of the thing! Someone teach the students how to do the wave and when to do it, we didn't even get a fast or slow wave. And not when the game is happening! We like Jake Butt as a commentator. What's Semaj's plan when he's fielding punts? Definitely a sad field goal.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:38:31 Too many Big Ten teams so notes are reduced. Nebraska 59, Houson Christian 7 Maryland 44, Towsend 17 Penn State 52, Villanova 6 Penn State is struggling to convert on 3rd down on Drew Allar's arm. Rutgers 60, Norfolk State 10 Iowa 47, UMass 7 Indiana 73, Indiana State 0 ISU with 77 total yards, not a total rutger. Oregon 34, Northwestern 14 Most of Northwestern's yards were in the 4th quarter while down 34-0, but Northwestern had a pulse at times. Alabama 38, Wisconsin 14 No Billy Edwards in this game. Wisconsin couldn't do anything, this was a debacle. If they don't beat Maryland, do they get a win the Big Ten? USC 33, Purdue 17 It wasn't particularly close, but Purdue had some long drives (that ended in picks).  Michigan State 41, Youngstown State 24 This was a bit of a game for a little while?? Michigan State was always in control but gave up some big plays. The Spartans lost some starters to injuries. Ohio State 37, Ohio 9 The score looks close but it was not. Ryan Day's decision making kept the scoring low. Illinois 38, Western Michigan 0 Is Illinois really a top 10 team? Which Memorial Stadium is the real Memorial Stadium? California 27, Minnesota 14 A game that was fairly even statistically except for a couple turnovers.  New Mexico 35, UCLA 10 UCLA is BAD bad, and they fired their coach. This was not a fluke. New Mexico got pressure on 52% of Nico's dropbacks. The Big Sky says "no thanks" to adding UCLA. 

Season 7, Episode 36 of the California Sports Lawyer® Podcast with Jeremy Evans features an in-depth conversation with Jared Wangler, former Michigan Wolverine football player and CEO of Valiant Management Group, the team behind the Champions Circle NIL collective. Wangler shares his journey from the gridiron to entrepreneurship and how Champions Circle has become a national model for supporting student-athletes in football, basketball, and across University of Michigan athletics. The episode explores how NIL is transforming opportunities for athletes, reshaping fan engagement, and redefining the business of college sports. This episode is a must-listen for professionals, students, and fans interested in NIL, athlete empowerment, Michigan sports, and the future of collegiate athletics. Copyright © 2025. California Sports Lawyer®. All Rights Reserved. (www.CSLlegal.com) Try ZipRecruiter for FREE at ZipRecruiter.com/work.

1 hour and 48 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs Oklahoma Starts at 1:00 How bothered/upset are you right now? Seth says this game was 2004 Notre Dame. It feels like they're playing for 2027 but you need some momentum if you want to get more wide receivers. You want Bryce Underwood to let it rip but instead the offense played way too conservatively. Michigan didn't keep it close, Oklahoma kept shooting themselves in the foot to keep Michigan in this game. Oklahoma knew Michigan would run a bunch of freshman quarterback plays and blew them all up. It's possible that Michigan didn't drop back much because they offensive line couldn't give Bryce enough time and the coaches knew this. Maybe the coaches are just trying to keep Bryce from getting hurt and that means playing conservatively in a non-conference game. Why are there so many runs and screens on 3rd down? Just throw it on 3rd and long and see what happens. How much of the Jim Harbaugh stuff is sustainable without literally Jim Harbaugh? Sometimes Crippen just isn't strong enough for his assignment.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Oklahoma Starts at 29:45 That felt like it should've been about 24 points. John Mateer also did some incredible things and came up positive in the random number generator game. Michigan wasn't able to get after Oklahoma's freshman left tackle. There was some cute Wink stuff again that the personnel couldn't execute. He reverted back to some of his ways from early last year. When Oklahoma did run it up the middle the defensive line was what you wanted it to be. Overall, the defense was okay, just not #1 defense in America okay. TJ Guy getting shut down by a true freshman tackle says "we're just not there." Was there much of a difference with and without Jaishawn Barham? Oklahoma seemed to adjust to his absence but Michigan didn't.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 53:11 Takes not quite as hot Billy Napier's hot seat. Number changes must be approved by a sickos committee (unless it is to make the quarterback #98). Michigan elected to kick from the plus 38 yard line, this is indefensible when you have Zvada. The point of being Michigan is that you can get that 4th and 2. Sherrone should be old and young enough to have played Madden from the age of six. Go let Zvada (and all the guys who make plays) go make the plays they're supposed to make. There was no mention of Semaj getting targeted and looking woozie. In case you're wondering the difference between running into the kicker and roughing the kicker... that was roughing the kicker.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:21:51 Too many Big Ten teams so notes are reduced. Penn State 34, FIU 0 Indiana 56, Kennesaw State 9 Minnesota 66, Northwestern State 0 Minnesota running back Darrius Taylor went out with an injury. Ohio State 70, Grambling 0 Nebraska 68, Akron 0 It should be a little bit easier to run against Nebraska than Oklahoma at least. Wisconsin 42, Middle Tennessee 10 This game was actually close for a while. Wisconsin couldn't run the ball well at all. USC 59, Georgia Southern 20 USC with 11.3 YPP through two games. They have one touchdown per 6.5 snaps. Washington 70, UC-Davis 10 Northwestern 42, Western Illinois 7 Purdue 34, Southern Illinois 17 Illinois 45, Duke 19 Duke is not a terrible ACC team, they outgained Illinois. How valid is Illinois being ranked #11? Duke had five turnovers. Illinois got a first down after Duke had two guys wearing the same number on a punt. Iowa 13, Iowa State 16 This was a perfect rendition of ¡El Assico!. Zero explosive plays between both teams. Neither team got to 300 yards of offense. The same guy kicked the same game winning field goal for the 2nd year.  Rutgers 45, Miami (NTM) 17 Rutgers has scored on 12 of their 16 drives this year. There's a legit passing attack here. Oregon 69, Oklahoma State 3 Mike Gundy complained before the game that Oregon spent a lot of money on their players. Then oh no! Oklahome State is an OSU that looks too much like Oregon State apparently. Michigan State 42, Boston College 40 (2OT) Aidan Chiles can be anything in any given week and this week was Good Aidan Chiles. Is Michigan State's pass defense worse than Fordham's? UNLV 30, UCLA 23 Going to UCLA is telling on yourself. UNLV's first win over a "Big Ten" team in 22 years. Alex Orji's only appearance was one running play. Maryland 20, Northern Illinois 9 Would you rather take the Maryland job or the Virginia Tech job? Would you rather have mayo dumped on you or lose the Mayo Bowl? MUSIC: "What's the Move"—Friendship "After the Flood"—Jesse Woods "Take My Heart"—Florry “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hours 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, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Offense vs New Mexico Starts at 1:00 When's the last time you've ever seen an offensive lineman run away from a fight? Probably the funniest thing all night. New Mexico came out like they wanted to make a statement for a new era of New Mexico, and they may have an endless well of College Crappe that they can run. Let's talk about Bryce Underwood, it took one game for Brian to become a believer. Bryce just turned 18 but we're making critiques that you would make about juniors and seniors. He's got a thing for parabolic arcs. We're finally seeing the Semaj Morgan we hoped to see when he was a sophomore. The whole stadium stopped and turned to Brian on the play action pass to Max Bredeson. Bryce is very accurate when he can throw in the pocket, if Channing Goodwin hadn't put his hands up the ball would've just gotten stuck in his facemask. They're not running Bryce but then he's throwing a monster block with his throwing shoulder. Offensive line kept Bryce from getting lit up so that's a W, especially against a couple decent transfer edges. So was Justice Haynes worth the price? Overall, Channing Goodwin was encouraging. Fred Moore had a bad drop.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs New Mexico Starts at 51:04 A little tricky to grade the defense. They gave up some stuff but some of it was aided by the officials. Wink seemed to struggle with the College Crappe a bit, but Ohio State doesn't run that and you need Wink to beat Ohio State. QB Jack Layne was a fearless dawg who kept getting back up all game. Michigan had a lot of rotation all game. Brandyn Hillman hit a guy hard enough that you didn't need Grapentine to tell you who it was, Jyaire Hill got beat. Enow Etta played more than was expected. Seth got deported from the Vatican once. Jaishawn Barham is probably the worst person to get hit by on this team. The defensive line doesn't have a superstar but it's deep like the 2022 line.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:17:56 Takes hotter than Michigan Stadium after Jaishawn Barham got ejected. Michigan punted on 4th and 1 on their own 49, three thumbs down. Andrew Marsh fumbled a kickoff and hesitated on one he brought out but he's a true freshman so it is what it is, it'll get better. Hudson Hollenbeck was fine, there's room for improvement. Discussing the targeting call, note that this was recorded before the "upheld" decision. Oops, we've been pronouncing "Sprague" wrong apparently. Maybe we midwesternized his name.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:58:00 There are too many Big Ten teams so there are fewer notes for some games. Purdue 31, Ball State 0 Maryland 39, FAU 7 The Maryland freshman QB looks pretty decent. Total yardage was somehow even. Penn State 46, Nevada 11 Penn State might be a boring team to watch until they play Oregon. Iowa 34, Albany 7 The Iowa QB was still pretty pedestrian. Oregon 59, Montana State 13 USC 73, Missouri State 13 Welcome to the FBS, Missouri State. Illinois 52, Western Illinois 3 Northwestern 3, Tulane 23 Preston Stone had -42 rushing yards. The Northwestern head coach says to "believe in this quarterback". Indiana 27, Old Dominion 14 This Indiana team feels less explosive compared to last year. Washington 38, Colorado State 21 Jonah Coleman had 177 rushing yards on 24 carries, the Huskies are looking more explosive this season. They could be Pacific Chaos Team but their defense is still suspect.  Utah 43, UCLA 10 "Committing to UCLA is telling on yourself", Nico Iamaleava was 11/22 for 136 yards, 1TD/1INT. UCLA is still who they've been. Utah was 14/16 on 3rd down conversions. Michigan State 23, Western Michigan 6 Michigan State struggled to stop Western's edges. 138 yards in the last nine drives isn't great. MSU did get a 21-0 lead early, though. Rutgers 34, Ohio 31 Not a great start for Rutgers. Overall, an exciting game. Minnesota 23, Buffalo 10 This is much more of a blowout than the score indicates. Minnesota QB is 19/35 for 290 yards (2TD/1INT). Buffalo is a good MAC team, too. Wisconsin 17, Miami (Oh) 0 Billy Edwards is injured and Wisconsin struggled to move the ball. But Miami struggled more. Nebraska 20, Cincinnati 17 Dylan Raiola was 33/42 for 243 yards but it was mostly to the backs. Former Indiana QB Brendan Sorsby was the Cincy QB that threw the final interception. Half the event was that Taylor Swift was here. Ohio State 14, Texas 7 336 yards for Texas, 203 for Ohio State. The Buckeyes can't really run the ball. There was some "oh no" from the Ohio State fans. Texas got stopped four times on 4th down, twice inside the 10. Texas also has two massive facemask penalties. Ohio State also had weird drops from the receivers. When's the last time Ohio State had less than 200 yards of offense? MUSIC: "Sunday Eve"—Bonnie Calista "Spin Me Around"—The Marias "River Song"—Dennis Wilson “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hours 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, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Noncon and Big Ten: The Bottom Four Starts at 0:54 New Mexico. Former Wisconsin player who was at Idaho takes over, brings the QB and the DE who gave Oregon problems last year. Keegan Johnson used to play at Iowa. Oklahoma. Spiderman pointing game. Their defense was great and their offense just as terrible. Mateer the savior doesn't have WRs and his OL is highly recruited and young. They spent a lot for Damonic Williams at DT, have a great FS and iffy corners. Punting and arm-punting is winning? CMU. New coach is the former Army OL coach, interesting dude who sends his coaches home at 5pm, got all local coaches because he wants to be there a long time. Got an Iowa QB. #18: Purdue. Odom: Why? Team was falling apart already under Walters and got gutted. Multi-year rebuild. #17: Maryland. Walking Locksley to the gallows season. Inexplicable receiver depth is gone. Jalen Husky (from Bowling Green) and secondary is the relative strength of the defense. How much will Maryland seriously try to compete in this sport or just throw their House money at basketball? #16: Northwestern. The2021 running backs are still there. Caleb Tiernan how do you not come home? Edges Hubbard and Anto Saka (getting draft hype) are good. Dillon Tatum late transfer followed Harlon Barnett. Receivers are gone though. #15: UCLA. Encouraging second half last year, new belief in Deshawn Foster. But they're back to rebuilding from the portal, look like they have to do that every year. Only 2/15 players with 200+ snaps returned. Did get Nico Iamaleava. They have some access to money, but where's it going? Jalen Berger is their RB!   [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. The Big Ten Middle Starts at 34:54 #14: MSU. Defense takes a step back, offense takes a step forward, Aidan Chiles could be a budding star. Jonathan Smith probably didn't understand what kind of fanbase he's walking into. #13: Wisconsin. Is this the last hurrah of Fickell? They dumped the spread and their best player is a huge RT so that's good; their defense is kind of falling apart so that's bad. #12: Rutgers. Schiano has done it: Rutgers is a perennial bowl team! No more Monangai but plenty of parts are back, especially on the OL. #11: Minnesota. High-variance offense, Koi Perich is an All-American. If a few of the transfers hit it's a strong defense. Could win 10 games vs a bad schedule, could also be just fighting for a bowl. #10: Nebraska. Raiola year 2 has a lot of weapons. They really spent to get him some WRs, Dane Key and a contested catch guy from Cal. Still going to be a 3-3-5 but playing tiny. The problem is their DL coach left and took the DL with him. #9: Washington. Only Big Ten RB to return, really like them. Also got back Boston. Upgraded from Stephen Belichick to Ryan Walters at DC, have a dual-threat QB who took over last year. Opposite Michigan: no kicker, weak in the trenches.  #8: Iowa. Mid! Offense improved quite a bit under Tim Lester, rose to 69th in SP+, had fewer wins because that's not Iowa. "We have a quarterback now!" /runs a waggle. #7: Indiana. Cignetti is tough to play for but he was able to rebuild through the portal again with guys who don't have to get to know Cignetti, including a new QB who might be pretty good.   3. The Contenders Starts at 1:10:38 #6: Illinois. Brian is wearing an Illinois shirt after a 10-2 season that was really lucky. Lose their playmakers from a team that was really lucky last year and did most of their work. Paid all these guys to return because they have a very weak schedule. Circle Illinois-Indiana. #5: USC. Ewebwuddy Woves Waymond. Scott Frost season where they lost to Maryland, banking on a massive, sorta overrated 2026 class. Have their choice receivers, have their QB in Maiava, have a magic wand to turn their secondary into poop. (#4 is Michigan) #3: Oregon. Dan Lanning is our top coach in the league but in-game management in Rose Bowl scares us. Doesn't lose bad games. Will be some talent drop-off, do we trust Dante Moore? He's had a year in the program and they didn't import someone. Probably spent the most of anybody in the portal. Bear Alexander at DT is a reason to doubt them; this team has a big potential to come together or completely fall apart with locker room issues. Easy schedule: Play two OSUs but not THAT OSU. #2: Ohio State. Have the best player on offense (Jeremiah Smith) and the best player on defense (Caleb Downs) in the country, but do they have a quarterback? Their OL is kinda iffy, but the LT situation looks like a hit, and then two transfers are battling for RT. Run game is meh, trust the pass game. People underrating how much they lost on the DL, but we like Beau Atkinson pickup. LB and secondary have a ton of talent: Sonny Styles and Igbinosun are back. S&P+ #1 because there's talent everywhere. If you're looking for reasons to hate on Ohio State: Matt Patricia is there to ruin their defense. #1: Penn State. Drew Allar started very low in our eyes, has improved to okay or mid, and then had a great bowl game. RBs can run in a straight line. TE lost Warren. Receiver is a little iffy, but best OL in Franklin's tenure (not saying much). Kotelnicki is a factor in the offense though. Reasons they're not overrated: defense is filled with talent and experience. Think national pundits see last year, see Big Ten teams that returned their quarterbacks and a strong defense won the last two national championships.   4. Hot Takes & Lightning Round Starts at 1:49:41 Takes hotter than this summer. At seven hours of podcasting we are getting loopy but we still answer most important, breakout players, biggest x-factors, who's your dude, and final predictions. MUSIC: "None of My Friends"—Liz Lawrence    "Pages"—Credit Electric "A Cold Sunday"—Lil Yachty “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

2 hours and 8 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. Quarterback Starts at 0:54 Quick rundown of all the options: it's Bryce. Expectations for Bryce: Vince Young as a RS freshman, who doesn't quite know what to do with the ball and gets jumpy when the pressure's on, but you can see the talent. One thing in his favor: he isn't jumpy at all in the pocket, and the overthrows in the Spring Game were out of character. Michigan has to roll with it, but Big Ten average with huge swings. Will he be more like a sophomore by Ohio State perhaps? [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Skill Positions Starts at 35:36 Running back has two really good players and then a drop to ???. On the very goods, we love Jordan Marshall and might be underrating Justice Haynes—he's got a lot of Corum in him. He's also got a lot of experience as a lead blocker for a running QB, but that's probably not what he came here for. WRs are Donaven McCulley and then a big drop to Just-Guys who probably were better than they looked last year. Think Semaj Morgan should be the #2 since he gives you something—F.Moore, Bell, O'Leary just guys, hearing things about the freshmen doesn't give Brian happy feels. Tight end is the strength of the offense. The spectrum goes fullback: Max Bredeson, h-back: Jalen Hoffman, inline: Marlin Klein, flex: Hogan Hansen. Bredeson kickouts force defenders to overcommit, create bounce opportunities. Klein is an underrated blocker (watch the Reliaquest Bowl). Hansen was open last year, Davis Warren was allergic to throwing at him. Hoffman might be Underwood's secret binkie, can run WR routes and block like an OL. 3. Offensive Line Starts at 1:18:36 PLEASE do not activate our rule that if two guys are battling for a job and it's won by a third guy it's a very bad sign. Concerning that OL was an issue, and player evaluation was an issue, when the HC was the OL coach. It's not a hot take that Andrew Babalola is going to start at Ohio State, Brian. If Evan Link gets fixed and Gio El-Hadi truly feels more comfortable at LG that'd be great; the latter is more likely than the former, but they don't have better options so Link to start. Crippen is who he is; if his issues were mental then could see Juan Castillo having an effect, but Crippen is mentally there and just gets physically dominated. RG and RT are two really good stories for the future, as Efobi and Sprague (especially Sprague) are on track for excellent careers. Depth at G. 4. Hot Takes, Special Teams and Chip Starts at 1:46:36 Takes hotter than Sabrina Carpenter. Thank you to the Michigan fan who left Dominic Zvada out of the Groza semifinalists so he would come back to be the best kicker in Michigan history again. Punter…wasn't great last year but it's not like Hudson Hollenbeck was better in the one game we saw him, and attempts to get more guys in the portal is a little concerning. Returns should be Semaj, I'Marion Stewart, and hearing things about the UMass transfer Anthony Simpson. Chip's offense is about building his passing game onto your running game. They'd like to be an outside zone one way/rollout the other way team but they probably can't run outside zone. Need to hit the downfield shots to keep safeties off their screen game; last year they were set up at 7 yards. MUSIC: "Small Worlds"—Mac Miller    "Memo from Turner"—Mick Jagger "Is the Hugeness Translating"—Floating Action “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra   

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, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where record this, and Introducing this season: Radecki Oral Surgery, and Long Road Distillers. 1. We have to talk about the NCAA NOA Starts at 0:54 A great exercise in bad faith, and deeply insulting to Mike Sainristil. NCAA doesn't want to go to court because they'll lose, so they produced a blustery document to make it about money. Clearly Stalions should not have been part of any organization. If Jim Harbaugh is still the head coach when this comes out they would have had to fire him. But these are clearly minor violations hopped up as an extension of Harbaugh's reaction to telling them to go to hell for Burgergate, and part of a pattern of the NCAA coming after him personally. We're actually shocked at how bad all of their evidence is: 1) Stalions who's a liar. 2) Joey Velazquez, who recorded Stalions, tried to entrap Partridge, and Partridge proved was lying about their interaction, and for the Level II recruiting violations 3) a player who was broomed from the class whom the NCAA also admitted didn't have his stories straight. The only evidence they had of an atmosphere of noncompliance was an assistant (likely Stalions) saying screw Compliance. When they say the benefit was not marginal they don't even try to justify that take—Michigan got better without Stalions. The report makes its conclusion on the value of this entirely on the basis of the lengths that Stalions went to trying to get film when the guy goes to extreme lengths to pump up his own importance as a rule. Their defining piece of evidence is Harbaugh gave him a game ball, when they also say they found Harbaugh gave out 15 game balls per game to try to make sure everyone on staff got one, and Connor's value was so little that he a defensive ball from Iowa. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 2. Defensive Line Starts at 16:16 Rayshaun Benny was grading out like Mason Graham—see: the end of the OSU and Alabama games. He is not Mason Graham, but should be able to keep up that sort of ratio because they are so deep they can keep him fresh at the end of games. Tre Williams is a Mazi Smith, M valued him more than Clemson did; he isn't a pass-rusher. Damon Payne is an innings-eater. Ike Iwunnah too. Trey Pierce and Enow Etta are the ones we want to see emerge because they have eligibility for next year. Pierce is on that track while Etta gained weight after getting pushed around last year, is ticketed for the Jenkins role. If a 7th DT plays we think it's Palepale, who looks huge and athletic. Edge has a floor of All-Big Ten and a ceiling of Derrick Moore turning into a Day 1 pick. He is that freakish combination of technique, length, and athleticism, got better at dropping into coverage last year, has a Mike Morris style of pass rush that should work. Last year he was getting to the quarterback but everyone else got there before him. TJ Guy is possibly the smartest guy on the field, had the most dip of last year, underrated strength, lots of versatility, though hit a ceiling when it came to carrying Flex TEs. Saved Michigan vs OSU. Cam Brandt is the established backup to D-Mo; we're a little iffy on him, but he might be on the Morris track. Backup to Guy is Nichols—clearly the program likes him but unproven. Would like to see Nate Marshall used in a pass rush only role this year. Would like to see Baxter and Edokpayi playing more this year too. 3. Linebacker Starts at 50:02 Everybody came back/is healthy after they prepared to lose everyone, so there's a lot of age and a lot of depth. Ernest Hausmann is the glue of the offense, another very underrated player who moves like a nickel and reads plays well. Had to get in better shape because when you're the button you can't be breathing hard between plays—you have to yelling. Barham is the Problem for offenses, because you can't block him with a RB and you have to block someone with the RB. Been caught "covering grass" as we say but has the ability to blow up. Can also spend time at edge if need be. Depth is incredible. Rolder is your Braiden McGregor-memorial back-from-injury senior who's going to play plenty and play well but start losing time to Cole Sullivan, the next Barham who's rocked up and earning a ton of practice hype after being under-ranked out of high school by 247 and ESPN (On3 moved him up to #112 so I couldn't make him the Sleeper of the Class). Also got Troy Bowles who's got a role as the Coverage LB. And Jaydon Hood has shown he can play. AND they really like the freshmen: Owusu-Boateng is a future Hausmann while Chase Taylor is a Class Sleeper. 4. Secondary Starts at 1:16:28 Replete with options, but each has a question mark. Is Rod Moore going to play? Maybe 2nd half of the season—was 85% at start of fall, has to backpedal, IG video shows him jogging. Assumed he's a nickel but TJ Metcalf is stepping in for him; Metcalfs (Metcalves?) can obviously play, precognition is Sainristilian. Brandyn Hillman is a hit stick, the person offensive players are most afraid of despite Barham on the team. Free safety is either Jaden Mangham, a glider whom offenses didn't throw at when at MSU (probably because you could throw at anyone else), or Mason Curtis, who is a very weird player. Curtis has an extra role as a Big Nickel, i.e. a hybrid OLB who comes in for Guy against 2TE sets to take away those Flex TEs. Might see something from a young guy but unlikely. Cornerback is the iffiest position on defense but has a super high ceiling with Jyaire and Zeke both with considerable runway. Hill just needs to not bite on double-moves. Berry got comfortable last year, still can clean up his zones and turn getting a hand on passes into interceptions. Depth starts with Jo'Ziah Edmond, a Ryan Walters special stolen from Walters. We think Shamari Earls looks like an immediately viable corner but is on more of a Jyaire development track (also ran track) as opposed to Will Johnson, who was super developed at this stage. Caleb Anderson did not impress us as much as the two #12s who preceded him. Jeremiah Lowe showed some things in spring; Seth thinks Jayden Sanders is going to play more than Lowe. MUSIC: "Turning Heads"—Dem Franchize Boys "I Got You Babe"—Etta James "Needles in the Camel's Eye"—Brian Eno “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

2 hour and 6 minutes This episode was recorded at Champions Circle's third golf outing, on a golf course outdoors, so apologies for the background noise. Huge thank you to Alejandro Zúñiga for his production assistance and for sitting in on the first segment while Brian was stuck behind a funerial procession. The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Venue by 4M where usually record this, and new this week the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, and the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre. 1. MAX BREDESON, DOMINIC ZVADA, & MARLIN KLEIN Starts at 1:00 Zvada explains why kickers are so much better today: access to technology originally developed for golf that shows their spin rate and trajectory and distance, plus training techniques. Bredeson discusses The Game last year and how they went hunting for gaps, says anyone who plays TE can do all the things they do. Klein turned it up in the bowl game. We get a crash course in kicker and TE lingo.  2. BRYCE UNDERWOOD, JADYN DAVIS, & JORDAN MARSHALL Starts at 21:36 Underwood and Davis set up challenges for each other, how they make each other better. Marshall and Haynes were full go in spring, happy splitting reps. Least favorite guy to get hit by: Brandyn Hillman; Marshall was happy that he and Jaishawn were on his team in spring. What role the fans played in Bryce's recruitment. How does money play a role in the locker room these days? How they see the Martindale defense. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  3. MIKEY KEENE, DAVIS WARREN, & JUSTICE HAYNES Starts at 39:43 Keene on preparing to play Michigan: what they could teach each other. Haynes similar thing: what was it like playing against Michigan in the Rose Bowl. Thing they prepared for Michigan: wow, the blitzes! Haynes lists all the reasons he came to Michigan until we tell him "It's okay, the quarterbacks are aware we run the ball." On platooning: I want to be able to run around with my kids after football. Warren on playing Ohio State. New faces in the QB room: type of guys on the team. 4. DONAVEN MCCULLEY, SEMAJ MORGAN, PEYTON O'LEARY, & JOE TAYLOR Starts at 59:01 McCulley also shares what it's like to be a (true Fr) quarterback facing Michigan (not fun!). O'Leary and Taylor talk about the walk-on experience, what's going to happen with the 15 guys who used to be walk-ons. Other walk-ons who are impressing (Andrighetto at safety). Learning to play WR: you get a feel for where you need to be for the quarterback, playing in space. How much has the offense changed. Who's come along since last year: Tevis Metcalf for sure.   5. ERNEST HAUSMANN, TJ GUY, & DOMINIC NICHOLS Starts at 1:26:05 HONESTLY THIS WAS OUR BEST INTERVIEW. Ernest and TJ are starting a podcast. Guy on how many positions you need to know to play OLB. How he and Nichols feel about dropping into coverage. Hausmann shares he's got to be in better shape to be the dot because he can't be breathing hard between plays as he's giving the calls. What were they seeing versus Ohio State. "Ern was going crazy in that game." How do you grade LBs? It was quiet.     6. GREG CRIPPEN, GIO EL-HADI AND ANDREW BABALOLA Starts at 1:30:14 Crippen how it feels to be The Guy finally (not counting his eggs; he's got to win it). Why El-Hadi is just more comfortable on the left. Babalola on the difference between HS and college, and how he compares to the other guys as freshmen. What's it like being a five-star recruit. How they see the fronts and make the line calls. Why is OL hard: gotta learn the playbook first, including all the adjustments. How to make decisions on the fly: all about communication. Gio doesn't play with a mouthguard so he can communicate better. If Michigan football had to make a basketball team: PG: Semaj Morgan SG: Bryce Underwood SF: TJ Guy PF: Lugard Edokpayi C: Babalola/Sprague       8. ROD MOORE, ZEKE BERRY, TJ METCALF AND SHAMARI EARLS Starts at 1:43:41 Rod Moore recovery: 85%. Had to come back mentally before but he's staying as locked in as he can. TJ Metcalf on the portal experience. Zeke Berry on the transition to corner: switching up to #1 was a little iffy at first, but the look is the same, got used to it. Did he see the IU pick earlier in the game? No it was in practice the week before. Still a jack of all trades. Shamari on track, he's picking up all the calls. Receivers to watch? Marsh, Goodwin, Semaj. Who's the fastest guys out there. Who's the biggest hitter: B-Hill, then TJ then Rod. Transition to Wink last year: had to get comfortable with each other. 9. TRE WILLIAMSON, DERRICK MOORE, AND RAYSHAUN BENNY Starts at 1:55:39 Rayshaun going into this year: he's been out there, acted like a starter from previous years. Tre on difference with Michigan. He loves the depth, no other school had the type of talent he was playing around. D-Mo on playing Edge, started with two of the four positions (Rush, End, Buck and SAM). What would he say to his freshman self? Biff Poggi made this program the same program as at St. Frances. He was injured last year, the production was always there, leading the team in pressures early. Benny on coming back from his injury last year. MUSIC: "Intro (A Star in the Sky)"—Heavy Weighs the King "Stand Well Well"—Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 "It'll All Work Out"—Blake Mills “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

2 hour and 14 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Spring Game Vibes and Offense Starts at 1:00 Michigan didn't televise the spring game so now you have to listen to this one! Shout out to men's gymnastics on winning a national championship. Blue team won 17-0, yay. Did Michigan have enough offensive players to reasonably fill out two offenses? Both QBs threw deep balls, most of them weren't particularly close. Bryce had a few Freshman moments as well and everything over 10-15 yards was very flat. There aren't very many receivers but Donaven McCulley wasn't even on the same team as Underwood and was benched after the first quarter (along with most starters). Marlin Klein and Hogan Hansen didn't play. The spring game is delayed on broadcast for a week because of the portal deadline. Haynes and Marshal are it at running back, Micah Ka'apana was slippery like Chris Evans but Michigan hasn't thrown to a running back since 2016. Bryson Kuzdzal looked pretty good! The receivers aren't adjusting to the ball much, Semaj also didn't do much. The 2nd string fullback (Jalen Hoffman) has gotten more targets in a spring game than Max Bredeson has in his whole career and is the highest stock rise of the spring game. Maybe they can stack two wide receivers on top of each other like Vincent Adultman. When Michigan had three tight ends on the field they ran the ball pretty well. According to Sherrone, the three offensive linemen who are locked in are El-Hadi, Crippen, and Sprague. Babalola is big but made freshman mistakes (which is fine).  2. Spring Game Defense Starts at 50:17 Michigan looks like they'll be very tough once again and has a lot of depth. Defensive end is loaded with Big Ten starters. Rayshaun Benny is established where we want him to be at this point in his development. There's going to be a drop-off from Graham and Grant but it'll be fine. It felt like the lines were two good units going against each other. We like the way Deyvid Palepale is shaped, he might be Brian Mone. We didn't learn much about the linebackers but Cole Sullivan was in the backfield a lot. The defensive backs played really well without Jyaire Hill. Shamari Earls is wearing #2 and is looking like #2. All of these defensive backs seem plausible, McBurrows hitting the portal makes more sense now. The secondary might not have any real stars but they won't have any holes, even without Rod Moore. Safeties don't have a real rock like we're used to.  3. Hot Takes and Michigan Hockey Roster Starts at 1:14:49 Takes hotter than the one guy across the aisle at the Spring Game who is already mad at Bryce Underwood. The hockey roster is in a state of flux, we're all awaiting what will happen with the CHL kids. Michigan gets four defensemen back and brings in some transfers and CHL players. Ben Robertson comes in from Cornell after averaging 21 minutes per game. The defense has nine players on roster currently which is probably too many. They could use a goalie! Right now they have 10 forwards on a team that usually carries 14. They have a roster spot for McKenna (the Bryce Underwood of hockey), can they get him? The Big Ten might be top-to-bottom the best quality hockey in the country that isn't the NHL.  4. Potpourri Starts at 1:52:20 Danny Wolf is officially out and headed for the NBA, Aday Mara commits. They're waiting on Lendeborg but they'll still be a good team without him. One more summer of polishing Will Tschetter could make him a really good 4. In football, Luke Bauer comes in as a punter from Missouri - he's an average punter. They get CJ Hester at running back from UMass to replace Ben Hall. He's a little bowling ball. The concession lines at the Spring Game were long! Michigan Stadium isn't catering to the average fan who wants to bring their kids. There are now kids who have attended the Spring Game and didn't have a good time and now they probably won't want to go next year.  MUSIC: "Let's Get Down"—Toni Toni Tone "Bendicion Mami"—Fat Joe "Check The Technique"—Gang Starr “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

2 hour and 14 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, the Autograph: Fandom Rewarded app, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, and Venue by 4M where usually record this. 1. Men's Basketball Transfer Portal Starts at 1:00 Yaxel Lendeborg sounds Belgian but isn't, this starts out as a World War I podcast. Cadeau is a former five star who started for UNC, he has a Xavier Simpson assist rate but is not the most productive shooter. He also has an elevated turnover rate. Why this move feels like a wash coming from Tre Donaldson. Morez Johnson Jr. fits in well with Cadaeu, also he can thunder dunk the ball into the center of the universe. Illinois' offense would take a slight hit when Johnson is on the floor, but they get a +10 rebound rate with him. His best basket is a dunk. Unfortunately, the day Yaxel Lendeborg committed to Michigan he gave an interview where he said he wants an NBA contract and Michigan is the backup plan. Theoretically he's Danny Wolf but mean. Michigan needs a backup center but is otherwise in good shape. All signs point towards Nimari Burnett coming back. Brian is mad that Duke went 20 minutes without a turnover. We discuss Michigan's projected seed with the Yaxel situation and without the Yaxel situation.  2. Hot Takes and The State of College Athletics Starts at 42:40 Takes hotter than the best night club in Yaxel Lendeborg, Belgium. The state of things seem a bit perilous. Tre Donaldson hit the transfer portal with a broken heart emoji, what happened? It sucks that you don't really get to know players for multiple years up until their graduation. Part of the joy of college sports is watching players step up that you didn't expect to step up. The Big Ten needs an angry coach now that Fran is gone and Mick Cronin will step up. They should give schools incentives for keeping/graduating their players. The 1-4 seeds are all getting better and fans might get frustrated that more upsets don't happen. People want the chaos. Even Michael Jordan played three years in college, imagine if all the best players did that. This doesn't effect football quite as much. Fans and coaches all want roster continuity. Dusty May seems relatively well-positioned to maintain a lot of players. 3. Spring Football Bits Starts at 1:19:47 Spring Football is still happening. Updates on the offensive line, Evan Link has turned a corner after the Ohio State game. Crippen will be just fine at center. Andrew Babaloa won't be ready because he's a freshman and that's okay. Donaven McCulley is the real deal at wide receiver and everyone else is competing for the remaining spots. The running backs are good. The defensive line is not replacing Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant but it has depth. Are the redshirt freshman defensive ends turning the corner? It's being said that they are. Safety updates, with and without Rod Moore. They'll probably look for a punter in the portal.  4. Michigan Hockey Updates Starts at 1:55:27 Who hit the portal and what impact does that have? Michigan needs to get high-end defensive players. Does Gavin McKenna come to Michigan? He could be the number one overall pick. Why is Cameron Korpi in the portal? Is Michigan trying to get a CHL goalie? Or other CHL players? The CHL isn't happy about NIL.  MUSIC: "Consideration"—Rihanna ft. SZA "I'm Allowed"—Buffalo Tom "When I Get There"—Grady Strange “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra