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The Sponsors We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let's not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklar Brothers, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, and SignalWire where we are recording this. Featured Musician: Rawhide THE VIDEO: [After THE JUMP: Things discussable.] --------------------- 1. Washington Preview: Offense starts at noon, we hope Massive respect for their skill positions, not so much their offensive line, which means this game will mostly be a test of whether Wink learned anything from last week, or cares to now that he's put his football career on life support. 2. Washington Preview: Defense starts around 12:15 PM Not the offense. D'Anton Lynn is on the Ravens tree but he's not having the same success, mostly because they can't seem to get the defensive line up to size. Devan Thompkins is 290, Jide Abasiri is 295. Edges were highly ranked (Anthony Lucas was a pre-Elston Michigan target) but sophomore Kameryn Crawford isn't panning out like a top-100 is supposed to. They added Portal #25 Keeshawn Silver from Kentucky and a 5-star freshman, but they haven't changed that math, and are getting pushed around. We do still like Kamari Ramsey, who came with Lynn from UCLA and has been playing nickel this year. Cornerbacks are tall. 3. Hoops and Hockey Check-In starts around 12:30 PM Hockey is off to a hot start after a two-game road sweep of Providence, though having to come back against Robert Morris last night put the first little damper on it. Basketball starts tonight with an exhibition against Cincinnati at Crisler that will be our first look at the transfers. Question #1 is how physical will they be up front, because Cincy has a brawler. Will they try three bigs? 4. USC After Review starts around 1:00 PM I had three RPS-3s, two for screens and one for the Power after the 3rd & 26 and TD, which were both Power, when Wink ran an exotic that had no chance against Power. If they can cut out half of their shit and get their best players (read: seniors like TJ Guy) on the field, they should be able to get righted. Offensively it was a better performance than 13 points. There weren't that many drives, and Bryce struggled. His passes might be flat because he's getting sped up (Gardner has been in that position). Marshall missed two big cuts that Haynes makes. OL was okay; El-Hadi's return wasn't great, there were some mistakes from Guarnera, but USC's defense didn't ask Sprague to do too much and he did well, and Link had MAs but wasn't straight-up beat. Brian doesn't blame Bryce for the interception—once the WR wins inside he's going to win the route—but the throw to Marsh could have put him in the endzone if Bryce is feeling confident in his throw. Maybe give him some max pro to Featured Artist: Rawhide (formerly Girl Fight) Last May someone was carrying a tom into Ziggy's with a bumper sticker that read if "If you don't like Motörhead Fuck you" with American and British flags on it. My one friend snapped a photo and sent it to our group for commentary from the guy who founded (and sold) an MGoBlog-sized site about metal music. This thread of college roommates/bandmates/best friends is like 10% Michigan sports, 20% Xennial parent shit, and 70% music shit, meaning music prompts can result in 42-message threads that the college football guy in the middle of writing a college football preview magazine might not get to until he's trying to clear unread notifications many months later. This is how I found I had missed the group discovering a new genre/EP called Michigan Fuzz Punk by Rawhide, a two-piece (Ellen Cope and Jacob Bloom) Michigan band formerly known as Girl Fight. What I know about them comes from this column. The EP is pay what you may ($13.10 is fair). Anyway this is me talking about Michigan Fuzz Punk, which is both an excellent description of the genre and the EP's title. I am a total tourist in this genre so I'll refrain from talking about it like I know shit about shit, except I'm super intrigued to see what this is actually like live since the recordings only hint at it. I'll say the song Reach Me kicks and it's hilarious that "Greta is a Punk" and "Paige's Song" are the same song. Songs: "Stone Cold" "Reach Me" "Clocked In" Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro: “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat
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THE BOOK: Is done. Yes you can still get in on The Kickstarter (but not the name/sentence levels). Also a Kindle Edition is now live. MGoBlog.com/25 Lineup: Sam, Seth, Craig, and Miz. Brian's still on dad duty; Ira's on a plane. Things Discussed: Wink Martindale criticism: The Emotional Rollercoaster sweatshirt from Sack the Stigma is great but Wink is cutting off the sleeves, which are the best part. Wink Martindale praise: His defensive approach changed to be much more college late in the season. Can't be in his head but we think he was having guys make reads that they were missing (examples: Zeke Berry nickel blitz from nowhere on the USC TD, or Barham leaving an RB wide open in the flat) and trying to play attention games with Mason Graham (see: the 3rd down sets). That's how the game is played in the NFL but in college it's much more straightforward. This is praise because he realized what was happening and changed what he was doing, which is extremely hard for people to do. Everybody was coming from success, so they had to get comfortable with each other. Was a big thing for the player as well. Will Johnson noted some of these players need the A and B explained before you tell them to do C. Rod Moore: Expect him to play, not sure how rusty he's going to be and what's the timeline. We'll hear from Rod when Sam interviews him. Mikey Keene vs Bryce Underwood: VERY different offensive planning. Kinds of passes are different, how you use his legs is different, how much pre-snap reading you're doing is different. Having Keene out in spring gave the offense clarity. Chip Lindsey offense: He uses RPOs and running QBs but he cuts back on the running and focuses on making the QBs more efficient. He also will turn regular routes into long bombs—they missed one to Channing Goodwin in the spring but it was open. RPOs and screens? Well you have to show you can beat man coverage to access those, and that means dropping back with a QB who can be safe in the pocket long enough to find his leverage and deliver an accurate pass all over the field to receives who create their own space. Do we have that QB, those WRs, that OL? OL: Sam's discussion with Sherrone started with Blake Frazier (because Sam asked) but he also said Andrew Babalola and Ty Haywood are more athletically talented than ANY guy they've had at Michigan until now. Link is battling with Frazier and Babalola for LT. Crippen: Not sure how much better he can get because his reads are spot-on, but versus top-of-the-line DTs who knew what's coming Crippen got physically manhandled. He's alright, but you need something on this offense that is better than alright if you want to take the pressure off of Bryce/his protection/his receivers. That said, centers pop late—how many times have we seen an Anderson or Bihl or Kugler or Vastardis have a great 5th year. WRs: Are probably a lot better than their stats last year (fewest WR yards since 1973, would have been bottom-third among Bo teams.) But there could be a player or three in there—they didn't have the passing. Warren didn't know what he was looking at half the time and wasn't accurate. Orji had no downfield accuracy at all. Defense knew it. Link vs Ohio State/Alabama? Did well, but the context was Michigan took dropbacks out of the offense.
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THE BOOK: Kickstarter is still active. MGoBlog.com/25 REMINDER: Michigan fans won the Charity Bowl, so we'll be getting together with Spencer, Holly, and Jason on JUNE 28, 6PM at the Ann Arbor District Library, then going to Venue for drinks at 8:00. Signup is here so I can give them a final count (we're at ~200 right now), or go to pizzawestern.com. THE LINEUP: Brian still on break. Seth & Craig & Sam today. NO SHOW NEXT WEEK: July 4th. Things Discussed: HTTV 2025: Craig's article on 1898 has a surprise for Buckeye Fans, because the NCAA is going to vacate Michigan's 1897 wins ANY DAY NOW. Warde with Sam last week: Credit to him for being more transparent. Sam notes he specifically came out of his no-comment stance to put to rest any ideas of vacated wins/championships. Our favorite recent commits. Seth loves Alister Vallejo: he's incorrigible. Even has Mason Graham's baby face. Craig likes Bear McWhorter. Titan Davis: really good example of the type of player you see from Lou Esposito: good length and good burst. Marky Walbridge: Most Massachusetts name ever. He looks like a TACKLE—reminds me of Blake Frazier. Sam: I think Blake is going to be the starting LT. Philosophy for how to spend your money? Seth: Baltimore Ravens. Start by putting more money to your top players. Positionally, you look at what system you run and where you can get value. Michigan runs the Ravens system, which spent less on Edge and LB to get big-time athletes in the secondary. Spend on a cornerback. Sam: Spend on a cornerback every year, because Ohio State is a receiver team, and cornerback is mostly about talent. QB, Edge, and Cornerback. Seth: if you can develop edges you can save money there. If you're struggling to develop something you spend on it (e.g. OSU with (Break: Naming the people who are in our chat) NIL Clearinghouse. The ADs don't even know what the standard will be. Guessing it will be like every other NCAA enforcement attempt, IE they will ignore 99% of it and then come down hard on Michigan when they're mad. Next battleground is in legislatures. NBA Draft: Wolf slipped to 27th but only because the Nets had 1/6th of the picks and could slot him lower. Took another Jewish guy right before him. Top of the draft: Ace Bailey was the last difference-maker; if he won't play in Salt Lake they can trade him, but the value dropped after that.
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Note: Do you hate it when politics are discussed in places you go for sports? Then skip this episode entirely or skip to 36:19. Things Discussed after 36:19 Leak to Thamel says NCAA told Michigan they'll suspend Sherrone for CMU and Nebraska. Sam: Leak is overblown—it's part of the back and forth with Michigan, not something that's been accepted. Would we take it? Brian thinks it's harsh but if this ends it, fine—you kowtow to the power and move on. Thamel aside, let's go over what Sherrone did. Facts we are relatively certain of: Sherrone deleted all of his texts off his phone around the time the Stalions thing came out, knowing he still has a copy of them. He then went and retrieved the texts for the investigators, and there was nothing incriminating on them. Seth: The question I have is whether he deleted those texts because he regularly cleans his phone, or was that unusual behavior? If it happens regularly this is just trying to make an innocuous thing sound as bad as they can. If it was unusual, then yeah, considering he's the coach now (he wasn't then), and considering how important we value transparency from people in positions of power, a two-week suspension (week->not an Urban Meyer suspension where you just sit out the game) is appropriate. Craig: Is it? If he did nothing wrong, why should he deserve a punishment? It's not a crime to not cover up what's not a crime. [Hit the JUMP for the rest of the discussion, the player, and video and stuff] Things Discussed before 36:19: Santa Ono's departure and academic freedom (from start of the show): Turns out he was just another suit. Taking $3 million and taking his name of something he signed 2 weeks ago and go do what Ron DeSantis tells him tells you all you need to know. People are going to try to pretend this was taking a stand against the regents or because The Hammer is coming down or that this is about Warde's stance on NIL—whatever stupid narrative they want to believe in. People try to make everything fit the story they want to tell. You'd have to be a quisling to work at the University of Florida. Some empathy because becoming the face of something like that is a life-defining choice, and the nature of the job is you're going to have unreasonable people mad at you because, e.g., they think divesting Michigan from Intel will stop Netanyahu from killing Gazans to placate the far-right members of his coalition that are keeping him out of jail. Part of being the president of Michigan is you are going to have to take a stand for liberalism (as defined). Justice, knowledge, freedom of study: these liberal ideals are the foundational principles of our school, and our school is the best public university in the country. When those ideals are challenged, as they are now by an illiberal authoritarian administration in Washington, you have to tell them "No." And no, this isn't about their DEI policies either. The DEI Office was already was already the midst of being rearranged. And to be clear (Brian said, and I generally agree) we're in favor of that, because the expense of the university's bureaucracy (1 administrator to 5 students—don't quote us on that) is too much, and that money is better off being spent on housing, on improving the Go Blue Guarantee, and on more and better instructors. The most direct parts of the policy (e.g. student housing assistance) were also better off shifted, along with their funding, to parts of the administration that were already doing the same things, and the layers of forms and oversight were probably not the best way of accomplishing the admirable and necessary goal of taking responsibility for an equity of experience for students of certain minorities. Need to be clear: When the White House says "DEI" they aren't talking about Michigan's DEI office nor which books are in the library; they're talking about things like whether I can give a lecture to Dooley's class every semester on the history of integration in college athletics, or whether Women's Studies can be a subject matter. Next president, next on NIL (17 minutes) Next president: what do we want? Brian thinks it'll be another administrator off an expensive search. Seth thinks there are going to be big names calling the school because it's a prestigious job. We need someone who has values, someone who is going to stand up for the university, and (let's not forget) someone who is going to value athletics as an essential engine of the school's value. Brian's not concerned about that so much because the donors won't sit around long if we drop to 126th/134 teams in passing. It's not the donors worrying about that; it's the parts of the school that usually get lots of donations making that a concern. NIL: House settlement is going to include some sort of auditing process that is going to curtail the amount you can directly spend via NIL on players. Don't know how enforceable that is going to be. Congress is going to step in eventually to provide them an antitrust exemption or they're just going to keep getting sued. They might have done it by classifying the players as labor but that's unlikely if it happens now given the party in power who'd be crafting legislation right now is extremely anti-labor. We should say what we want in a president for Athletics: stand up for Michigan when the NCAA goes after them. Brian: Probably won't be facing any significant decisions since the big sports all have relatively new coaches (Why do you always say that?) What they need is someone who will have a spine. The Michigan community will support you. Seth: I'm not just looking for someone who'll rebel; I'm looking for someone who's going to win. Losing funding—which the government gave to the University not as a handout but because the People of the United States want, e.g., a cure for cancer and Michigan can put together the tools and best people to do that. Losing that funding would be devastating. It's not like they just stop doing the research—they already built the labs and financed it, so they'd be under water and lose capability to get it back. Brian: It's going to happen anyways. This is an administration of idiots making decisions based on wanting to hurt the people they don't like, and the University of Michigan is a bright blue beacon of every kind of value and kind of person they want to eradicate. Seth: So we don't just need a fighter; we need a uniter—someone who is going to get all the other institution's administrators (sorry, the faculty isn't the same thing), so when war comes they can win, or at least make it hurt. The towns that resisted the Danes got slaughtered and the towns that paid a danegeld just got more Danes; Alfred beat them by forming England. In the break: MGoBlog's readership, based on Google Analytics on how people voted for national offices, was about 55-45 Democrats to Republicans when I took over advertising in 2012. It's now close to 75-25, without shifting any other metrics about our readership, meaning we're still talking to (a lot more of) the same kind of (educated, hyper-curious) person, but that kind of person, if they ever were a Republican, is leaving the party now.
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