Podcasts about orji

Things Discussed: Keep Bryce Home tailgate tomorrow at Belleville. Also Keep Avery Home as Groves faces Seaholm in the playoffs tomorrow. Oregon: Figured they'd get slaughtered when Jyaire was out but!!! Offense: Took awhile to learn not to run outside against the outside team. Mistakes are less important when you're a good team. Warren looked plausible in the 2nd half but you can tell they don't expect him to make 5 yards when they need him. Defense: Took them a half to realize they have to lean on their front four and spend a guy helping their CBs—they mostly helped Zeke so Hall got exposed. Uncomfortable for Wink to play the way this team was designed, also only works when you have your starters. Should they be more of a pass team? Craig: yes. Seth: play-action off what you do. Brian/Seth: They don't have constraints to stop teams from overplaying their runs. They have plays but they're one-offs. Used the example of the Orji at WR play where it shows they understand how the Lanning defensive checks work, and it gets them a 3rd & 5 on a screen. But there's nothing else off of that. Split zone should be their bread and butter, Indiana: They've had an easy schedule, they give up points, kind of built like Oregon in that they have two good tackles, a good QB and RB, may be a little soft on the interior. Defensively they imported Cignetti's JMU roster; CJ West at nose is a big pickup. They cascade. Stay disciplined and focus on your bread and butter, because the game runs away. Worried that IU is the kind of team that will really expose our coordinators' weaknesses. Officiating: It should be a guy with a DVR talking into the referee's earpiece. Basketball! The best opener you can ask for. Cleveland State was a good program but they had a lot of transfers and were discombobulated: throwing the ball out of bounds, missing threes. Still an awesome performance, especially from Danny Wolf. They were getting after it on D, playing upbeat. Used to be frustrated by Izzo teams that run out after you score, and Michigan was doing a lot of that. LJ Cason is a find! How was this a 3-star? He gets after it on defense, has length, is impossible to keep out of the lane. Roddy Gayle is faster than we realized, maybe smaller than we realized which could scare away the NBA an extra year. Tre Donaldson had a great game: zero turnovers as the primary initiator, 7 assists, looked like a real PG. Goldin: Not the best game, not reading much into it. Wake preview: Mostly road (Greensboro) against some names you'll remember from Michigan recruiting: Hunter Sallis the scoring guard, and center Efton Reid, both who came from Gonzaga last year to key a bubble team. Return 4/6 of their main rotation but struggled to score vs the team that was #360 in Kenpom.

2 hours and 2 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 we recorded this.   1. Offense vs Oregon Starts at 1:00 This was a Fetty Wapping at the hands of Oregon. Davis Warren didn't really have negative throws but he's missing receivers and not pulling the trigger on open guys. Oregon's linebacker said in the post-game that when Orji is in the game it's pretty simple. Michigan isn't running stuff that looks like the other stuff they run, it's more of a grab bag. When was the last time they threw over the top of a safety? They don't really have packages, they just have plays. Gotta talk about The Razzles.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Oregon Starts at 35:15 Twitter had some harsh comments about Wink! But by the end of the game it was okay in context, especially with only one cornerback. Oregon has an extremely efficient offense that doesn't have to attack downfield so they didn't (much). You know it's a good catch by the away team when they show the replay and the big screen and the home crowd goes “woah!” Linebackers/safeties missed some tackles but it was a much better performance than against Michigan State. You have to take this defense in context with all the injuries and transfers.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:01:08 Takes hotter than Jason's immune system which is working overtime to make him better. Accidental hockey segment! What is the point of video replay if you're not going to use it, Big Ten?? Is Dan Lanning scheming some of these miscues that Michigan had? Did the boos from Michigan Stadium convince Sherrone to challenge the Loveland drop? Shout out to Joe Taylor on special teams. 4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac   Starts at 1:29:51 Indiana 47, Michigan State 10 9Windiana has finally happened! Kurtis Rourke is back despite the injured thumb. They just played good, solid Indiana(??) football. Michigan State finished with -36 rushing yards.  Ohio State 20, Penn State 13 We've seen this game before. A lot of weird things happened, though. There's always time on the clock for Frames Janklin. What was that goal line decision making? Minnesota 25, Illinois 17 Luke Altmyer didn't put the ball into danger but didn't add much. This was like the Michigan Illinois game but not stupid.  Washington 26, USC 21 USC throws three interceptions, they're 0-3 when they throw more than 50 times. Are they even going to make a bowl game? UCLA 27, Nebraska 20 This came out of nowhere. Here comes the annual impending collapse of Nebraska.  Iowa 42, Wisconsin 10 Before the season started, we thought Michigan was good Iowa. Turns out Iowa is good Michigan. Wisconsin had only a 5% havoc rate and their linebacker factory is dismantled.  Northwestern 26, Purdue 20 Purdue gave up 302 passing yards to Northwestern!   MUSIC: "I Don't Love Anyone"-- Belle and Sebastian "Our Hometown Boy" -- The Hard Quartet "Mystified" -- Same Eyes “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Michigan figured out enough of a passing game, used Orji on +1 Runs, and beat Michigan State 24-17. Now #1 ranked Oregon comes to town. Sam Webb, Devin Gardner, And Daniel Horton discuss whether Michigan can pull off an upset? And is there an update on the nation's #1 recruit? Michigan is trying to flip Mr. Bryce Underwood, but is there receptiveness? Steady Droppin' Dimes has a new presenting sponsor, Underground Printing, and Ann Arbor original since 2001. Get your Michigan branded apparel, including your season t-shirt, and all of your custom t-shirts, sweatshirts, screen printing and embroidery from UGP! Get the Michigan season t-shirt here: https://shop.undergroundshirts.com/collections/michigan?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=wtka If you have ground transportation needs, ride like the 2024 national champions do, and ride with Golden Limo. Whether riding in southeast Michigan, anywhere the country, or even abroad, with their fleet of Luxury SUV's, sprinters, and charter buses, Golden can get you there! Book your reservation and support Michigan NIL by using the "Golden ticket" at www.goldenlimo.com/goldenticket, or call their team at 734-668-8282 and mention Golden Ticket to book your transportation reservations today! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Things Discussed: MSU: Craig is done playing them. Seth says that's crazy talk. MSU internet fans are off their rockers again. They've got their AD from RCMB adding up made-up malfeasances. They have beatwriters like Graham Couch and Chris Solari making up a stomp and when they're told it's not true they double down. The football: Played conservatively, Warren had three downfield passes. Oregon is going to have hard-triggering quarter safeties with better players. At least they ran Orji+1. Wink Talk: He brought back the thing that didn't work against Texas, and it didn't work, and didn't work again, and didn't work again. You know the Fry meme: Not sure if serious? That's his playcalling modus operandi. If you run the thing that looks obvious, you've got him. Mattison had a similar formation in 2012 to beat Northwestern, but it was a trap. Wink's bluffing when he has bad cards and slow-playing good ones, and once you figure that out you can wreck him. His results on 3rd and long are so bad that if he ran the same Cover 2/Rush 4 every play he'd be doing better. First of the long runs D-Mo was supposed to be in that gap but it's so wide that he wouldn't have been able to help unless he's slanting hard. Oregon? Their weak point is backup DT, but Michigan doesn't have the guys to 2023 Penn State them. Sam: only shot is their front four eat and M gets off the field. If you try to get exotic with these dudes. They went max pro and took shots because they thought they could run by Ohio State, and they could. Dan Lanning's a good coach. Reminds me of Michigan last year: You can come up with what-if-we…'s but they have answers for it. What if we're 2022 Illinois? Will Bryce Underwood be at the game? Does Michigan have a shot? Sam isn't committal.

00:00 High Five.13:15 Broncos-Saints highlights.35:10 Anfernee Orji made a play last night, and Rock Head of the Day.

Things Discussed: Basketball talk with Seth: They're a fascinating portal team because they're not just the best players they could get; they're players who fit the kind of team May wants to coach. How much do we take preseason rankings seriously? Torvik and Kenpom have good numbers but the more transfers you have the dirtier their data. Projection is a larger component than it was in the past. Basketball talk with Brian: The one interesting spot is the four, because they want to play Wolf there, but not sure they can play against a small lineup. That's the thing about this roster: they can morph to play any kind of team. Rubin Jones gives them the flexibility; he can be a point in a huge lineup or he can play the four against guard lineups. Use Wolf against Iowa, use a small lineup against IU, etc. Basketball talk with Craig: Wolf and Goldin should work very well on the offensive end because Wolf has ball skills. Can Wolf guard a wing though? We'll have to see. Tschetter is more important than you think: he's slimmed down, is a skilled offensive player. Seth wants him to be the microwave off the bench, but if he can keep in front of wings a little bit more he's your other 3/4. Freshmen? Cason is going to be a starter next year probably so they're going to bring him in. Players might want to redshirt if they're D-I players who aren't NBA players (e.g. Brooks). Different math for Pippen, who could blow up this year or next, and is unlikely to stay in college if he becomes the player we think he'll be. Bigs should redshirt now. OSU-Oregon: Glad OSU lost because it fixed a rule hole and both OSU's schedule's a joke. Penn State's schedule's a bigger joke. Seth: they're flat track bullies. Football Talk: The coverage is in bad shape. Zeke Berry has me very worried. Could have been more about the Washington surface as guys were taking 3rd steps to gather themselves instead of moving like normal. Last time that field was tested for traction they were right on the border of acceptable, especially mattered when Giles Jackson is stopped and Berry is still in motion. Craig thinks Evan Link did better, Brian thinks the body of work says he's still the worst FBS right tackle so how much better can he get? Iowa-Washington: UW always comes away with 0 points in the redzone, but turnovers were the difference, and that came from Iowa knowing their defense versus Michigan giving away early open outs to Rogers. After watching Rogers vs Michigan I wasn't surprised a defense that knows who they are were able to exploit that. Guys coming along? Offensively no. Brian hasn't seen anything from the OL to think they can turn a corner, Orji stuff is tossed out the window, Tuttle's gonna get hurt. Brian is pretty checked out on football. Feels like modern college football has undermined how we invest in our teams, because once you lose a few games you're just looking at the portal instead of wondering who on your team you can develop. Defensively: Seth thinks Brandyn Hillman is going to be a really good player.

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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics. 1. General Vibes Starts at 1:00 Despite the outcome, all the Michigan fans who went to this game seemed to have a great time. Are the “trophy go brrrr” vibes wearing off? The team seems disorganized at a macro level. Michigan was slipping all over field turf which was weird. They screwed up the off-season and it's tough to tell who that primarily falls on. Was Tuttle the plan all along but he was injured? Is it worth morphing the offense around Orji at this point? Washington had the same off-season as Michigan but they recruited a quarterback. At this point, Michigan needs a portal off-season because they lose the last of their star power after this season. Can they get enough “Harbaugh guy” type players? It's concerning that the offensive line is having as many difficulties as it is under Sherrone, he's had them for years.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Offense vs Washington Starts at 29:52 Tuttle brings the offense some life but then he has two 4th quarter turnovers. It looks like he's the guy moving forward though, he went through progressions! He's going to be rusty coming off of injury, though. At times it looked like Harbaugh's offense but it's just too inconsistent. They're figuring out the basics so they can't add new wrinkles to the offense. They did have a nice orbit swing pass, we haven't seen much “college crap.” Colston Loveland must still be injured.  3. Hot Takes, Defense vs Washington Starts at 50:16 Takes hotter than VANDERBILT FOOTBALL (not a joke). The story on the defense seemed to be Jyaire Hill. He was getting exposed throughout the game and also had slipping issues. Every time they try to do something funky on passing downs or two minute drills it doesn't work. How is Will Johnson out there committing pass interference? Giles Jackson ate Zeke Berry's lunch. We miss Junior Colson. We've never had anything to say about Makari Paige until this season. There's nothing majorly wrong with this defense, they just make big busts at the worst times.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac   Starts at 1:22:20 Wisconsin 52, Purdue 6 Wisconsin has 18 straight wins over Purdue with an average margin of victory of over 20 points! This game was the largest margin.    Penn State 27, UCLA 11 The Big Noon game for some reason. A bit of a rock fight all things considered.    Indiana 41, Northwestern 24 Indiana becomes the first team to be bowl eligible. #9Windiana cometh.    Ohio State 35, Iowa 7 Iowa cannot move the ball at all. Iowa held Ohio State to 7 points in the first half, maybe Oregon goes into next weekend with some confidence?   Nebraska 14, Rutgers 7 Nobody can do anything efficiently in this game.    Minnesota 24, USC 17 Controversy in the 4th quarter! Minnesota goes for a game winning touchdown instead of a game winning field goal. USC is getting a taste of Big Ten running.    Oregon 31, Michigan State 10 This is the 3rd game where Aidan Chiles has fumbled in the red zone. The first time in the John Smith era where MSU looked like last year's team. Oregon looks ready to compete with Ohio State.  MUSIC: "Whole World"--Goth Babe "Go With Me"--Gene and Debbie "Nearly Lost You"--The Screaming Trees “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

Michigan falls to 4-2 on the season with a ten point loss at Washington. OFFENSE WR -- 8 MORRIS, 5 Charleston, 1 A. Walker LT -- 79 PERSI LG -- 68 PRIEBE C -- 51 CRIPPEN RG -- 58 EL-HADI RT -- 71 LINK QB -- 10 ORJI, 13 Tuttle RB -- 20 MULLINGS, 7 Edwards TE -- 18 LOVELAND, 17 Klein TE/HB -- 44 Bredeson, 42 Hoffman WR -- 12 BELL, 81 O'Leary SLOT -- 7 EDWARDS, 0 S. MORGAN DEFENSE EDGE -- 0 J. STEWART, 91 Brandt DT -- 55 GRAHAM, 26 Benny NT -- 26 BENNY, 78 Grant DT -- 78 GRANT, 92 Iwunnah, 95 Pierce EDGE -- 42 GUY, 17 Etta, 33 D. Nichols LB -- 15 HAUSMANN, 34 Hood LB -- 1 BARHAM CB -- 2 W. JOHNSON FS -- 28 Q. JOHNSON SS -- 7 PAIGE, 6 Hillman NICKEL -- 10 Berry, 7 Paige CB -- 20 HILL SPECIAL TEAMS PK -- 96 ZVADA KO -- 19 DOMAN P -- 19 DOMAN LS -- 49 WAGNER H -- 19 DOMAN PR -- 8 MORRIS KR -- 36 HARRIS Special Teams Contributors: 0 J. Stewart, 1 A. Walker, 2 W. Johnson, 3 F. Moore, 5 Charleston, 6 Hillman, 7 Paige, 15 Hausmann, 16 Edmond, 19 Doman, 20 Hill, 22 Dunlap, 22 R. Johnson, 25 Curtis, 26 Benny, 27 McLaurin, 35 Forbes, 36 Harris, 39 Taylor, 40 Boivin, 42 Guy, 42 Hoffman, 49 Wagner, 52 Bennett, 53 Guarnera, 55 Graham, 58 Ishmail, 62 R. Anderson, 71 Link, 75 Gentry, 78 Grant, 79 Persi, 80 Hansen, 83 Z. Marshall, 96 Zvada

The Sponsors We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let's not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Royal Oath Insurance Group, which is Owen Rosen's new firm, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, Champion Circle, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast, SignalWire where we are recording this. Featured Musician: Julia Rose Pagac The Video: [After THE JUMP: Things said.] --------------------- 1. Minnesota After Review starts at the top. Brian feels crazy sometimes because he can't understand the though process of playing Evan Link after we see that Gentry and Persi are…fine? We aren't seeing practice but literally can't be worse. Only one (1!) designed run for Alex Orji. Clear that they haven't practice Orji offense because nobody is ready for the natural reactions. Maybe they're just focused on next year? 2. Washington Preview: Offense starts at 26:03 Getting 500 yard of offense against live defenses like Northwestern and Rutgers, but offensive line is a trouble spot. Tackles are uptransfers who are struggling at this level, interior is an OSU downtransfer, a Portland State uptransfer, and a guard whose name is Gaard Memmelaar. Keeping it alive by having former air raid QB Will Rogers knowing where to go with the ball, and elite RB Jonah Coleman making yards out of nothing, and a very good tall and fast receiver in Denzel Boston who's broken out this year. Tendency to shoot themselves in the foot though. 3. Washington Preview: Defense starts at 41:08 The Rutgers offense is unfortunately a good stand-in for Michigan. Interesting rotation at DE where they can play a 290-pound guy, or a 260-pound 4-3 DE, or a 225-pound edge, or a 230-pound tight end eraser. Washington likes to put their "WLB" Alphonzo Tuputala at the "Uche" position—IE off the edge—and bring down SS Kamren Fabiculanan as an extra LB. Stuffed Rutgers on most drives but they give up the badly timed big play, which is often an RB breaking a tackle. Star is MLB Carson Bruener but they ask him to do a lot and he's a modern NFL linebacker who can be clonked if a blocker gets to him. Free safety Cameron Broussard has tackling issues. Making do with an interior DL that we didn't expect much from and which took some injury hits to their depth, but they've held up so far. Corners are pretty good in coverage, which is going to be mostly Cover 1 against Michigan as they stack the box—their only other coverage is Cover 2. Top 25, but barely, and credit to Steve Belichick for putting it together. 4. Hockey Preview starts at 1:03:44 A summary of Alex's hockey preview series. They're not a collection of 1st rounders anymore, Michigan Hockey Summer took its toll there but they got older and bring back a lot of good pieces. Might be more of a depth team at forward this year. Discussion whether they should load up same types (e.g. speed line, heavy line) or space out their skills. Defensively they have B+ guys five deep and two good additions who should battle with Luka for the 6th/7th spots. In this they seem to have a lot of varied abilities. Goalie is a Ferris State transfer in Stein who needs to be taken in Ferris context, and a 160(?)-pound build-a-Portillo who might take the job this season or might need a year to fill out. In the Big Ten there are two tiers: Minnesota/MSU/Michigan/Wisconsin who expect to make the tournament, and Notre Dame/Penn State/Ohio State who would like to. Michigan has a *tough* nonconference schedule. About the Featured Musician: Julia Rose THE BAND: Julia Rose Pagac is a Metro-Detroit musician with an eclectic list of influences: rock, funk, blues, folk and hints of country that are most in Julia's vocals. I heard of her because her session drummer is Reggie "Banga!" Williams Jr., a local legend in the metro-D music community. They'll be at the Pig on October 12th. Song choices: "Army" "Butterfly" "Pillow" Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro: “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

Things Discussed: L'shanah Tovah. Sorry this was late to get up; I had to bail to get to 10 o'clock services. Seth & Craig on early to talk Detroit Tigers vs Cleveland Indians. Washington games past: origin of the The Wave when we played them in the '80s, played them a week before September 11th Edwards and Mullings on the field together got the defensive reaction they wanted, but they blew the blocks. Brian: Having trouble understanding the logic behind offensive decisions. They changed QB when there were constant obvious errors from the starter but not center, not right tackle? We're not seeing practice so something there has to make this make sense. Why aren't they calling QB runs? There was one vs Minnesota, preserving hits makes little sense. Orji missed some major reads, even when they were easy. When they run the plays that fit their personnel it looks like they haven't repped them. They're running 9th grade versions of their wheelhouse things, and aren't running the constraints to them. At the very least: called Orji runs, and have Donovan Edwards and Kalel Mullings on the field all the time. Defense: fine. Took few gambles, none of them worked. Sam: Only thing that makes sense is they want to keep hits off of Orji by not calling QB runs. Washington: How is a team putting up 500 yards of offense not putting points on the board? Craig's metrics say they should beat Michigan by 4 TDs. UW's offensive line is Not Good. They have a QB and an RB and a WR but they shoot themselves in the foot with penalties and missed field goals and blocked field goals. Brian: This is a trap for Michigan. Washington has been playing better than their record, Michigan's been playing worse than their record. Husky Stadium: Very loud stadium. Michigan fans WEAR MAIZE to break up their purple-out. Another new challenge for Orji (but he played against Washington last year). Matchup of the game: Michigan's defensive line has to do to UW what they did to USC. Washington is going to tempo: Michigan wasn't lined up correctly when Minnesota did it. Michigan: You have to play 4 quarters, can't fall apart in the 3rd quarter. Officiating last game: Bad calls gave Gophers 10 points: hands to the face was one of the worst calls of the decade, can't fault them for missing the non-catch on the Hail Mary. Minnesota tried to make the onside kick a thing but they had two other reviewable penalties on that play so if they don't call offsides Michigan calls for a review and they still rekick it. Washington defense: what you see is what you get.

Michigan goes on the road Saturday ranked number 10 and finding themselves an underdog to Washington. It's the midway mark of the season and this team is still searching for a passing game, and maybe more importantly some confidence. Joining me today is beat writer Aaron McMann from MLive

I talk more about the Orji situation and I give my thoughts on how and why we will win this game. And other fun stuff --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/maniacpodcast/support

A little on Alex Orji and the offenseSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I try to find sense to this new trend of amazing 1st half and complete meltdown 2nd half. I'm still team Orji and think things will only get better --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/maniacpodcast/support

Things Discussed: Love to Sam Webb, who's attending the funeral of his younger brother. USC game: They couldn't pass the ball because they couldn't protect him long enough to drop back. Craig: A whale came in late for Michigan in the betting markets. Brian: Michigan not running zone read offense much with Orji, doesn't feel like they know what to do with a running QB. Seth: You can play no-read, and they did some of that, but you need play-action off that and they haven't built any constraints into those plays. Harbaugh always recruited an athlete and a pro-style QB but usually the athlete becomes something else, doesn't seem like this program was prepared for the athlete. Brian: the big runs were more USC blowing something, now that teams have scouted Michigan's Orji offense those cracks are going to go away. Time to celebrate the win was Mon-Tues but on Thursday we have to face the grim reality that there isn't much upside because it's not what this staff wants to or knows how to run. Passing game? Orji got one dropback when he wasn't under pressure and he didn't see an open Marlin Klein. Brian's pretty down on this offense staff's ability to adjust to their personnel. Defense: Wink Martindale's presser pushed back against the narrative that he blitzes too much. Not a good look, not because he's wrong but because he's getting defensive—we think he was responding to Klatt not this site by the way. Actual Wink complaints from this site: Design of his blitzes are leaving the spot open where the pressure's coming from, which is the thing Mac and Minter were very good at taking away. Other issue is Wink doesn't have a feel for when to call things, IE on standard downs. Like, someone busted on the cover zero (minus-one), but why is that blitz coming from Mars, because there's no way for it to be relevant. Play before that they had Iwunnah set an edge. Big run on 3rd & 2 they slanted with Grant stunting, and two LBs taking the interior: it's a Barham-3 play, but why are we playing games? Play football. Not saying don't do anything weird; if you want to get weird get weird but make sure it's a passing down. Seth: This is all fixable. Macdonald had to make the same adjustment, he already Brian: Probably not fixable, since John Harbaugh let him go and New York let him go. Is he self-correcting or this being forced upon him? Because it's not a good sign that he's accusing people of not knowing how many people are crossing the line of scrimmage.. Wink is right about one thing: If the narrative he's going to blitz it helps them. We saw this vs USC, which ran split flow to the TE in the flat three times hoping to get a nickel blitz and all they got was two zero yard plays in the red zone and the Jyaire Hill upending of a TE when Michigan sim blitzed the nickel. Bringing Three: Works when your coverage is great. Josaiah Stewart was great in COVERAGE too: that guy's going in the first round. Minnesota: If they can't run anymore they've lost who they are. If they can't tackle a running back I've got bad news for them against Michigan. Stewart has already had a great game against their star LT Aireontae Ersery.

I provide my key players and keys to victory. I discuss the Pass game and why Orji is the guy, and I rant a bit about who is to blame for the lack of passing game --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/maniacpodcast/support

On today's pod we see where Michigan fans are at after Saturday's thrilling win over USC. How much better does Alex Orji have to be at QB? Does UM still have a legit shot at making the college footbal playoffs Breakdown  Open 00:00-2:59 Where are you at after Saturday? 3:00-12:51 Fan reaction 12:52-24:52 Orji 24:53-31:23 Little Brown Jug 31:24-33:27 10-2? 33:28-59:20

Alex Orji meets with the mediaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2 hours 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics. 1. Offense vs USC Starts at 1:00 Who's the biggest Kalel Mullings Stan?? Doesn't matter, we were RIGHT. Where does Kalel's big run rank among all time Michigan runs in terms of skill? Max Bredeson got his quintessential kick-out block on the touchdown that we will remember him by. It's great to see Kalel do all of this despite how long he had to wait. The urgency of winning a national title is gone but we still have these stories of the players. Was that run what propels this team into the rest of the season? Orji was under siege pretty much every time he dropped back to pass, the pass blocking PFF grades aren't pretty. The game plan wasn't the greatest and they could probably utilize Orji better. The coaching staff might've gotten arrogant coming off a national championship season. Donovan Edwards had a lot of snaps but did it keep Kalel fresh for the final drive? He's still a home run threat. Oh no we're back in the police car in Fargo.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs USC Starts at 45:22 This team feels like it has six or seven NFL players and those players are why Michigan won this game. Five of those are on defense. The defense played really well and USC's good things that happened were Wink doing dumb stuff. Michigan's ability to weather the second half was encouraging. Will Johnson left the game but apparently could have returned according to Sherrone (then why didn't he?). Linebackers played well for the most part. "Hausmann is Devin Bush but big" is mostly out the door.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 1:12:43 Takes hotter than the servers hosting the Kalel Mullings fan club. Tommy Doman is back and the punters on every one of Michigan's opponents are awesome. Do you go for the kick return out of the endzone? Where else are the yards coming from? The urgency to score at the end of the game was poor but that's what happens with a QB's first start and when you can only run. 3rd down decision making is tough when you can't throw downfield. Michigan nailed the stripe-out and the atmosphere was electric.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac   Starts at 1:43:58 Penn State 56, Kent State 0 Penn State set a program record for yards. Indiana 52, Charlotte 14 Indiana is #1 in EPA per play!  Ohio State 49, Marshall 14 Another non-conference blowout, meh. Maryland 38, Villanova 20 328 passing yards for Maryland is solid against a good FCS team. Washington 24, Northwestern 5 Yards were 391 to 112, Northwestern's offense is baaaad. -1 EPA per drop back.  Rutgers 26, Virginia Tech 23 Rutgers outgains Virginia Tech by about 100 yards. LSU 34, UCLA 17 Not many people are expecting much from UCLA at this point after getting dunked on by Indiana. It was 17-17 at halftime, though. Iowa 31, Minnesota 14 Cade McNamara gets 62 passing yards and shows that he can lead block. Michigan State 19, Boston College 23 Aidan Chiles gets 241 passing yards and three interceptions. Sometimes this MSU teams looks like they're ahead of schedule and sometimes they just do something ridiculously bad. Oregon State 38, Purdue 21 Purdue is Wisconsin lite.   Illinois 31, Nebraska 24 (OT) Nebraska has gone eight (8!!) straight OTs without scoring points. MUSIC: "With a Little Luck"--Wings "Devil's Gate"--Prof "Big White Cloud"--JJ Cale "Shameful Game"--Pale Jay

TheWolverine.com's Anthony Broome, Clayton Sayfie and Chris Balas discuss their final thoughts from the USC game, including Michigan's offensive identity and if Alex Orji can improve from what we saw this weekend. We also recapped Sherrone Moore's Monday press conference that included an injury update on Colston Loveland, the plan for Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards and much more, including your questions.Thank you to our sponsor, Homefield! Use promo code 'Wolverine' for 15% off your first order at https://www.homefieldapparel.com

Former Wolverine Jim Scarcelli joins the show and breaks down the film after UM's big win over USC on Saturday.  Watch or listen to the entire pod or zoom foward with the breakdown below.  Breakdown Open 00:00-3:38 On the win 3:39-7:25 Orji 7:26-11:29 ​Scar's notebook 11:30-25:08 Film review 25:09-1:29:12

The Sponsors We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let's not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Royal Oath Insurance Group, which is Owen Rosen's new firm, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, Champion Circle, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast, SignalWire where we are recording this. Featured Musicians: Lanternfly The Video: [After THE JUMP: The things to be said.] --------------------- 1. USC: Offense starts at the top They have TALENT at wide receiver, and the guy who developed four of the NFL's starting quarterbacks has a next guy who seems to be able to play air raid. LSU went man on them and got beat by the receivers making plays. Can Michigan's defense, designed to stop CJ Stroud, do the trick? Will depend on Wink confusing Moss and Moss not confusing Wink's linebackers. 2. USC: Defense starts at 20:44 A lot of transfers for a new defense. Finally somebody else is running Amoeba and their linebackers are grading out poorly in charting because that job is hard. Haven't faced an Orji offense yet but neither have we run an Orji offense. They have talent in the secondary but front seven are mostly guys. Interesting 6'6" linebacker at WLB who's there to be a DE or a safety or an end or a tight end eraser. SDE was Don Brown's top anchor target once upon a time. 3. Gimmicky Top Five: Halftime Events Sponsored by Our Advertisers starts at 37:09 Reid McCarthy of Ann Arbor Elder Law felt called out when we mentioned him in the same breath as the Purdue auto dealership that tried to cheat a student kicker out of his 2-year lease, so he came on the show for a segment on our ideas (some of them good!) for sponsored halftime entertainment. 4. Arkansas State After Review starts at 56:17 It doesn't seem Orji and Crippen are a panacea, but if you're struggling at quarterback when you're running simple things you might as well put in the guy who can run. Crippen wasn't meaningfully better than Giudice; Mullings is meaningfully better than Donovan Edwards. But consider: Edwards can turn every play into a TD. Defensively Wink backed off. I crunched RPS numbers and found that new coordinators from the NFL think they have to playcall their way to victory—things are a lot smoother when you just play your defense. About the Featured Musician: Lanternfly THE BAND: Longtime MGoBlog reader Keith Salowich formed this intellectual pop punk outfit right before the world went and had its global pandemic. They reformed with a new lineup in spring of 2023 and put out their first single "No Vacancy" last February, with their first EP "Until There's Nothing Left Alive" following in June. Oddly for a pop punk outfit the drummer has real chops, while both Keith and Angie Salowich are gifted lyricists. Two shows coming up: Wednesday, Oct. 2 at Parts and Labor in Melvindale with the bands I Are Citizen, Scum Queens, and Kids on Fire (they're on tour from Seattle). Music starts at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18 at Bowlero in Royal Oak (and people had better show up in Halloween costumes) with Social Meteor. Music starts at 9 p.m. Song choices: "No Plans" "No Vacancy"    "Vicious Fishes" Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro: “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

In this episode, Zach Shaw and Alejandro Zuniga preview the Michigan football team's matchup against No. 11 USC, and what it will take for the Wolverines to score the high-profile win. They open with a look at Michigan's offense, which for the first time will be led by Ale Orji this week. They dig in to the Wolverines' potentially risky decision, how Orji can help Michigan, and what the Wolverines can do around him to be successful. They also look at the holes in USC's defense, and the role Michigan's run game must play for the maize and blue to win. In the second half of the episode, the two dig into how Michigan can slow down the Trojans' offense, particularly the passing game. They look at what USC does well as a passing attack, how the run game can complement that pass game, and where the Wolverines need to improve to slow the group down. Along the way, they make six prop bet picks for the game, and close with their final predictions for the matchup. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Things Discussed: How would Offensive Coordinator Brian Cook attack USC? Threats to both sides of the field to stretch defense horizontally, use your base runs with the QB. Add back the 2006-era spread-n-shred stuff: Inverted Veer/Power Read. Craig: Add back the Zone Read/Split Zone/Arc Read/Belly offense. Good idea because that split zone/bluff block is Bredeson. Works well for Michigan because they have a TE on the playside who gets a 2nd level block. Seth: Yeah, use their personnel to create matchups. Have Edwards as a receiver (this will raise his draft stock a ton) and have him threatening the outside while Mullings and Orji threaten multiple inside gaps. Sam: Don't call Orji a simplistic passer; he's one of the smartest guys on the team. Seth: okay, but we haven't seen more than two dropback passes and both were very simple concepts: Drive and Shallow Cross. Re: Drive and Shallow Cross, those are great concepts for a QB who's a vertical run threat, see: Virginia 2021 offense with Olu, where they had the center wait two beats then blast a DT to create a run lane and release downfield. Running QB can help your pass pro, because they mush rush, see Denard, how Michigan reacted to Sean Clifford. USC defense: D'Anton Lynn replaced Minter on the Ravens for 2 years before going to UCLA so they're in Year 1 of an Amoeba transition. Mel Kiper called for outlawing two-high safeties, so that defense is killing it at all levels. They patched it together out of transfers (9/11 starters) after benching two of last year's starters already. Looked good against LSU but that LSU win has lost some shine after they were outplayed by South Carolina, and they did give up 400+ yards. Offense: Lincoln Riley is a master at making X look like Y, is a finesse team that will get you at the skill positions. Moss will hit tiny windows and his receivers are monsters who will make him right. Predictions? Huge deltas, could be a lot of things but USC has playmakers on offense who will be the difference. Brian wants to limit snowball effect; Seth says don't blitz—let your front

Steady Droppin' Dimes with Sam Webb, Devin Gardner, and Daniel Horton is a sports show featuring real talk, and real views, from three real dudes. College football, college basketball, NFL, and NBA topics drive much of the debate, but discussion of other sports will enter the fray some days as well. Non sports topics aren't off limits, and neither are celebrity guests. In part one of this week's two part episode, Sam, Devin and Daniel discuss Michigan's switch at quarterback to Alex Orji. (Will Devin admit he was wrong in predicting Orji would NOT be named the starter?) Was the move made too late for him to still be a spark for the team? What might a gameplan look like? The crew has one of the liveliest debates in the short history of Droppin' Dimes. Steady Droppin' Dimes has a new presenting sponsor, Underground Printing, and Ann Arbor original since 2001. Get your Michigan branded apparel, including your season t-shirt, and all of your custom t-shirts, sweatshirts, screen printing and embroidery from UGP! Get the Michigan season t-shirt here: https://shop.undergroundshirts.com/collections/michigan/products/michigan-wolverines-football-season-24-t-shirt-maize. If you have ground transportation needs, ride like the 2024 national champions do, and ride with Golden Limo. Whether riding in southeast Michigan, anywhere the country, or even abroad, with their fleet of Luxury SUV's, sprinters, and charter buses, Golden can get you there! Book your reservation and support Michigan NIL by using the "Golden ticket" at www.goldenlimo.com/goldenticket, or call their team at 734-668-8282 and mention Golden Ticket to book your transportation reservations today! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alex Orji will finally get his shot. On today's episode we discuss Michigan's change at quarterback, the fallout and what it means for the offense moving forward. Plus, we discuss Colston Loveland's status for the game, Donovan Edwards' comments and preview USC.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The guys close out the third hour of the show with a discussion on Michigan football head coach Sherrone Moore's decision to bench Davis Warren in favor of Alex Orji at QB.

From '5 Star Zone with Rico Beard and Howard Griffith' (subscribe here): Sherrone Moore has made the change Michigan fans have wanted to see. Alex Orji is now the starting QB. Rico Beard discusses how different the Wolverine's offense will look with Orji under center. Download the latest episode of the 5 Star Zone today. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

HOUR 4: Expectations for USC-Michigan, Orji's First Start full 1737 Wed, 18 Sep 2024 22:02:27 +0000 L0hZ9xOmCk3kytHDIBBvC6VQiW5U6VPE sports The Valenti Show sports HOUR 4: Expectations for USC-Michigan, Orji's First Start The Valenti Show 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc.

FULL SHOW: Tigers' Odds To Make Postseason & Michigan's Decision To Start Orji full 6955 Wed, 18 Sep 2024 22:06:30 +0000 Y1GnySXzraTvgRSkSSlvGydaWgMaHe21 sports The Valenti Show sports FULL SHOW: Tigers' Odds To Make Postseason & Michigan's Decision To Start Orji The Valenti Show 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc.

Former Michigan offensive coordinator Al Borges and TMI's Sam Webb assess Michigan's offensive showing in its 28-18 victory over Arkansas State. Borges then gives a thorough preview of what an Alex Orji gameplan might look like. There's also exciting news. The Michigan football film study with Al Borges in now available exclusively on Tom Brady's free app, Autograph. It's available on Android and iOS, and it aggregates what you already do as a fan -- reading blogs, listening to podcasts, and watching film studies - all in one place. And it earns you rewards for every act of fandom that you do. Film studies go live on Autograph Wednesday morning. Download the Autograph app now here: https://link.ag.fan/samwebb And there's even more great news. Al is going to be doing Ohio State offensive film studies during both Michigan's bye weeks, but we need your help to fund those Buckeye Breakdowns! Do that here - https://www.paypal.com/donate?campaign_id=B3C9TZAD48Y8N To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of Shot of Michigan Sports, the guys discuss: (0:00) WEEKLY CHECK INS + TIGERS UPDATE   (27:00) WINNERS AND LOSERS OF THE WEEKEND (42:00) TOP 10 COLLEGE FOOTBALL RANKINGS (50:00) DETROIT LIONS (1:26:00) MICHIGAN STATE FOOTBALL (1:41:00) MICHIGAN FOOTBALL We'd really appreciate it if you followed, reviewed and shared our podcast with a friend. If you would like a question answered on the show, please text or leave a voicemail at 984-444-9286. Be sure to follow us for weekly show clips and other content. TikTok: @shotofms Instagram: @shotofms Twitter: @shotofms YouTube: Shot of Michigan Sports

It's another huge week for Michigan football with the Wolverines set to host Big Ten newcomers USC for the first time. However, headlines this week have been dominated by Sherrone Moore announcing that he's making a change at the quarterback position. Out is Davis Warren, winner of the quarterback competition in the offseason, and in comes Alex Orji. Tony and Rainer debate whether this was the right move and if it signifies a strong change or a sign of further concern. Then after the break, the guys talk about the matchup with USC and what problems the Trojans present.And last but not least, Andrew joins the show to take a look across college football this week and the crew shares their predictions for Michigan vs. USC. Read all about the Michigan Wolverines, including some great pieces by Tony and Rainer, by heading to our website at freep.com/sports

Sherrone Moore joins us to talk about Alex Orji starting at quarterback, finding the right guy to anchor the middle of the offensive line, and who they will have to account for on the Trojans' defense (Photo Credit: © Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

Serena and Matt on Michigan's uninspiring but never-in-doubt win over Arkansas State, the switch to Alex Orji and why it's happening now, what it means for the offense going forward, questions about the coaching decisions through Week 3, and a game against USC that feels like a potential turning point (for better or for worse).

Show open - Orji is the new QB1See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alex Orji is the starting QB See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sherrone Moore has made the change Michigan fans have wanted to see. Alex Orji is now the starting QB. Rico Beard discusses how different the Wolverine's offense will look with Orji under center. Download the latest episode of the 5 Star Zone today. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New starting QB at Michigan.

We were joined by Jim Comparoni from SpartanMag.com in our second hour so he and Huge could talk about the Spartan Football team. Jim and Huge gave their thoughts on if this team is for real, talked about all of the good that Head Coach Jonathan Smith has been doing, gave their thoughts on if MSU can beat Boston College this weekend, and more. We were then joined by Anthony Broome from theWolverine.com to get his thoughts on the 2-1 Wolverines. He and Huge talked about Orji coming in as QB this weekend, discussed the weaknesses and strengths of this team, talked about how they think Michigan will do against USC, and more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1 hour and 57 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics. 1. Offense vs Arkansas State Starts at 1:00 This game was functionally over [aghhhhh] at halftime. Davis Warren throws three interceptions, two are just horrible (his arm gets hit on the other), now what. Michigan self-sabotaged on wide receiver recruiting with how they run their offense the last few years and we're seeing the consequences of that now. We still haven't seen Michigan use Donovan Edwards outside, the staff just isn't maximizing the strengths of the players. The run game feels different with Mullings in at running back. A full Orji offense would be expensive to install but do they bring him in with last year's offense now? When will the coaches listen to the blogger offenses?? It's tough to evaluate the offensive line against Arkansas State but they looked less confused this week.  [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Arkansas State Starts at 40:02 Not much to say, Michigan dominated at the line of scrimmage which was expected. Rayshaun Benny played a great game, especially containing the quarterback. Jyaire Hill had an up and down game but broke up a slant really well, a nice bounce back after the Texas game. Martindale backed off from the funky blitzes in this game, there wasn't really anything exotic. Penalties on defense kept drives alive but this ref crew is a bit ticky tacky on penalties.  3. Hot Takes, Game Theory, and Special Teams Starts at 57:41 Takes hotter than Michigan Stadium on Saturday. Butch Jones, why are you still signaling games from the sidelines? The football gods punished Arkansas State for kicking on 4th and 1 (you should still get points off doinks). Arkansas State punter, hello. There were zero punt returns and one kick return.  4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac   Starts at 1:22:23 Indiana 42, UCLA 13 Congrats, Jamie. This is Indiana's biggest win against a power [4][5] since?? This was not a fluke, this was a complete beatdown. Part of this was that UCLA is not good but still, Indiana is doing a lot of good things. Indiana may never play in the Rose Bowl but they can play at the Rose Bowl! Nebraska 34, Northern Iowa 3 Nebraska scored touchdowns on their first three drives against an FCS team that has given teams fits. Northwestern 31, Eastern Illinois 7 This one was close for about a half. Northwestern just doesn't have much offense. Cheers to the weird stadium games. Michigan State 40, Prairie View A&M 0 Injuries are already starting to pile up for MSU, keep an eye on that. Minnesota 27, Nevada 0 This looks like a rock bottom version of Nevada. Illinois 30, Central Michigan 9 The score is bigger than how close this was, it may have been a hangover game for Illinois. There was a 59 yard field goal in this game! Oregon 49, Oregon State 14 Oregon got healthy in a hurry and they looked fully operational. The odds of Michigan winning a rock fight against the Ducks just went down. Purdue 7, Notre Dame 66 This was the worst loss in Purdue football history. They did average 47 yards of punting on 10 punts, though! Alabama 42, Wisconsin 10 Wisconsin loses their starting QB to injury and the backup hurt his hand. They did stick around in this game for a little bit at least. Maryland 27, Virginia 13 A nice bounce back after losing to Michigan State last week. Total yardage was fairly even but Virginia turned the ball over four times. Iowa 38, Troy 21 This was close until the very end. Iowa gives up a punt return touchdown. Iowa, if you're not punting to win, what are you doing? Folks aren't thrilled with how Cade is playing. Washington State 24, Washington 19 Wazzu's coach said they're never giving the Apple Cup trophy back! Michigan may have taken a step back but look at Washington, this does happen.   MUSIC: "Kicking Back"--Mika J "Back on 74"--Jungle "Big White Cloud"--JJ Cale “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra 

TheWolverine.com's Anthony Broome, Clayton Sayfie and Chris Balas discuss Michigan's decision to name Alex Orji the starting quarterback to kick off USC week, Sherrone Moore's Monday press conference and more.Thank you to our sponsor, Homefield! Use promo code 'Wolverine' for 15% off your first order at https://www.homefieldapparel.comFOR USC WEEK ONLY: 50% off an annual subscription to TheWolverine.com using promo code GoBlue for new members: https://www.on3.com/teams/michigan-wolverines/join/

Orji Time!

TheWolverine.com's Anthony Broome and former Michigan Wolverine Ryan Van Bergen discuss the 28-18 win over Arkansas State to close out non-conference play. Discussion includes offensive and defensive takeaways, game balls and your questions! Join us live from Regents Field after every home game for the postgame show.

Things Discussed: Seth on early: Jyaire Hill isn't quite ready to come out of the oven. Floor for the offense is vastly lower than we thought was plausible. If Evan Link and Dominic Giudice are your best RT and C then you can't move a mid defensive line. If Link is your right tackle and these are your receivers you can't be a passing team. Think they expected their players to be different players. Feel for Davis Warren; it's not his fault when Texas is getting pressure with three guys. He also makes mistakes. Defense: it can be fine. Wink put too much on them to NFL an elite college offense and guys made mistakes. That's not RPS, it's too much RPS to the point where your linebackers are not executing fundamentals. If you can get Jyaire Hill to not bite at 9 yards, or get the LBs to not bite on play-action, you can get a team like Texas off the field. Alarming number of mental breakdowns and Michigan didn't get a free blitzer the entire game. Cost of that seemed to be ability to execute a basic defense. Sark had a good plan: put the RBs into patterns to take away the linebackers. Example for Wink: he blitzes a safety vs a small RB which is an NFL win; in college it's a loss because it's Quinten Johnson who's 180 pounds, and that creates a conversion. It's one thing if you're rushing Jaishawn Barham. If you're dealing with a 28-year-old NFL safety the gap between him and a linebacker isn't that big. Sark's big idea: these are college kids so let's make it easy for them to screw up. Wink's big idea was NFL thinking: let's put more on our guys so Texas is overwhelmed. Where were the stunts? They already have the DT at end. What do you do with the offense? Ideally they go to Orji and run out their best players. What we think they'll do is Iowa it and punt. Also if you switch directions now you're not going to be good at it; Ohio State…hell Michigan State will have the answers and shut it down. Sam: they're gonna scale things back, not major personnel changes.

Things Discussed: Vance Bedford (watch his breakdown) is a Michigan guy now. Texas fans haven't been good to him; Sam shares they were asking him why he's doing a Michigan show when we were down there for Houston. Defense: Bringing five shouldn't be your base. We can talk about the zero blitzes—McBurrows needs to drive not back out—but this team allows 2 yards per snap when they rush four and 8 yards per snap when they rush five. That's what they have, and need to play like it. Seth: If you're blitzing Mikey Keene you're just wasting coverage guys. Think it's the difference between Minter (a DBs guy) and Martindale (a DL/LB guy). Sam: They need to deal with RPOs because Texas has a lot of them, and the LBs were dead on play-action. Answer: do what you did last year: Drop linemen so you're impossible to read. D-Tackles? Graham was good, KG had some contain issues. Will Johnson: had to calibrate his pick six but it was coming all game. Did they stay away from Hill? No, Michigan put Johnson to the field because Fresno State throws to the side with easy reads. The bad calls: They were *really touchy about Michigan. The overturned INT when they bought a flop was one of the worst calls of the decade, kind of thing that deserves a reprimand because he made a call he did not see. Seth's answer: Now that the Big Ten has this great replay center, just have a dude with a DVR and a ref on the field with an earbud he can tell "pick that up." Offense: Have to calibrate the fans because it's an all new QB and an all new OL, and JJ McCarthy was one of the best QBs in college football, and it's going to be a big downgrade. Davis Warren: Was better than we realized. Needs help from his receivers; Tyler Morris stopped on the fly that was perfectly thrown. Sees his pre-snap reads but struggled with some post-snap reads. The interception was mostly on him, but Fred Moore needs to break that up at least—there are ways to get the cornerback wrong. Everybody's hearts sank when Orji turfed it, because that recast the battle from fall camp. Giudice: the wedge was a little on him, also Bredeson missing a block, also they can have a check to run Down G.

2 hours 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, Venue by 4M where we recorded this, The Sklars Brothers, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to this podcast, Champion Circle, and returning this season Winewood Organics. 1. Offense vs Fresno State Starts at 1:00 This is a Fresno State team that could be decent, they're not FAU. We're not overreacting right now. Evaluating the quarterbacks: it felt like Davis Warren was pre-determining throws which is young quarterback stuff. He also wasn't getting a lot of help, this wasn't the best day for the wide receivers.  How would you compare Davis Warren to Cade McNamara? Alex Orji still feels like a gadget player. Kalel Mullings is clearly the best running back right now. We didn't see an RB3 which was interesting. Donovan Edwards needs targets, not carries. You've got to use Orji but how much? Sorry folks, there will be many 1950s games on the horizon. Offensive line had some communication issues that can get cleaned up. Feels like one bad but different thing happened on every drive, there wasn't any one major issue. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]  2. Defense vs Fresno State Starts at 47:48 They are who we thought they were. Jaishawn Barham is a monstrous human. The run game was stuffed no matter who was in there. It looks like they want to keep rotating a lot but you probably can't get away with it as much this year. Will Johnson gets to decide when he risks it for an interception. You don't need to blitz to get a guy to the quarterback so why are we doing it? Cover zero?? To beat Texas you have to overwhelm the Texas offensive line (with the front four). Giving Aamir Hall #12 is convenient since he's new Josh Wallace. 3. Hot Takes and Game Theory Starts at 1:08:39 Are we Iowa now? Well the special teams are excellent! Dominic Zvada hit two 50 yard field goals in his first game! Tommy Doman punts high and non-returnable punts. Kickoffs are just putting it on the 25. Alex Orji for kickoff returns?? They've mostly caught the punts which is nice. Why is the music volume so loud?? Every opportunity to have a tv timeout they've had one. Alcohol sale takes: long lines that are tough to walk around. That was the worst personal foul on a quarterback in a minute, but the stadium was very loud. 4. Around the Big Ten with Alex Drain Starts at 1:40:56 Rutgers 44, Howard 7 It took Rutgers a while to get competitive. Illinois 45, Eastern Illinois 0 Illinois comfortably covered the spread. Ohio State 52, Akron 6 Ohio State doesn't really blow Akron out until the 2nd half. Surprise! They have a really good wide receiver. Iowa 40, Illinois State 0 Iowa scored points! Lots of points! Northwestern 13, Miami NTM 6 Northwestern's beachside stadium is amazing. Nebraska 40, UTEP 7 “The outlook for Nebraska hasn't looked better since the day they hired Frost.” Dylan Raiola looks exciting at Nebraska for a true freshman. Wisconsin 28, Western Michigan 14 Wisconsin did not look good against Western Michigan. They have angered the football gods by betraying their roots. Oregon 24, Idaho 14 What the hell happened in the Oregon game?? Michigan State 16, Florida Atlantic 10 If FAU's QB was half decent it could've happened! He also slid all game and got annihilated, getting two guys ejected for targeting. Minnesota 17, North Carolina 19 The Big Ten's only loss so far. Minnesota remains the middest team of the league. Penn State 34, West Virginia 12 West Virginia just didn't look ready to start this game. Not sure how much stock to buy in Penn State from this but they looked solid. MUSIC: "I'm Good" — The Mowgli's "Saturday Sun" — Vance Joy "Fresno, California" — The Guy Who Sings Songs About Cities & Towns “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra    

The Sponsors We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let's not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Human Element, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Venue by 4M, Winewood Organics, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Autograph: Fandom Rewarded, Champion Circle, who just launched an app where you earn rewards for things like reading MGoBlog and listening to our podcast, and SignalWire where we are recorded this. Featured Musicians: Cut Worms The Video: [After THE JUMP: The things to be said.] --------------------- 1. 2024 Preview: What was Learned/Offense starts at the top Dominic Giudice ascends to start at center. We try to make this story fit bad stories past and it doesn't. What does make sense is they waited until it was fully happening to let people know it was happening. It's may just Giudice is that good. With Link there's a lot more evidence that it wasn't happening with Persi and Gentry—probably in pass pro—and that Link was just a matter of time recruit. Good news for him down the line. Never give up on an OL though. At quarterback, Orji threw three picks in a practice (after 1 all fall) to let Warren close some gap. Is it a ruse for Texas? Probably not, but we think Orji fits what Michigan wants to do better. 2. 2024 Preview: What was Learned/Defense starts at 30:26 Depth is the question. Zeke Berry won the nickel job. He's more of a Peppers/Dax Hill than a Sainristil. They got a bunch of safeties so they could keep him at nickel. McBurrows is important depth there, also at CB, where Aamir Hall is Josh Wallace 2.0 so they're okay at 3-deep but 4? Linebacker depth is also a bit iffy after they played Rolder over Jaydon Hood, who's been playing well that Seth's seen. Gonna get LaMar Morgan a shirt with quotes from Wesley Walker about how practice is so different at Michigan. Appreciate the DTs when we have them; if Graham gets any better he's Suh. 3. 2024 Preview: What was Learned/Heuristics & Predictions starts 53:49 Big Ten isn't sustainable if they're going to have Rutgers-Iowa play nobody and Michigan and USC play all the contenders every year. Takes on scheduling Texas: it gives you another shot because you just have to win 1/3 big games instead of sweeping your few chances. Season predictions. 4. Fresno State Preview starts 1:02:58 They're pretty small, will have to pass quickly. Starting a Cade-like 5'11" quarterback who was efficient in the Mtn West last year and once backed up Dillon Gabriel at UCF. Also wee mite RBs and slots. Very small OL missing its best player. D is also small, though they have a USC transfer who graded out well to PFF for two years before getting benched last season. Lost an important LB and most of their secondary.    About the Featured Musician: Cut Worms Cut Worms is a nova '70s project by Max Clarke, who sounds like Buddy Holly singing over found tracks by George Harrison and Neil Young. Check them out on Spotify. Song choices: "How Can It Be" "Baby Come Back" "Don't Fade Away" Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken now now, the opener and outro: “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

In this episode, Zach Shaw and Steve Lorenz preview the strengths, question marks and expectations for the Michigan football team's quarterback room. They open with a look at with the strengths of the room. They discuss the group's maturity, selflessness, leadership and the relative interchangeability of its top three quarterbacks, even if Alex Orji, Davis Warren and Jack Tuttle bring different skills to the room. They then turn to the biggest question marks of the room, including the room's inexperience, lack of proven downfield passing ability, the intriguing possibilities Orji's legs provide and the potentially low floor of the room. They close by looking at some X-factors for the room, and make bold predictions for the group in the 2024 season. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices