MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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

With special guests Randy & Jason Sklar, here to promote their show on 9/27 (Friday before Minnesota).

Things Discussed:

• Seth on early: Jaishawn Barham? He was a great player at Maryland. You don’t have to be your best self to be playing next to Ruben Hippolite, but you do if Michigan needs you to beast up. But remember this is a hard defense to learn at linebacker.
• Is Wink gonna Don Brown it? No. He’ll run MORE man because he’s got the guys, but it’s part of the toolbox, not The Toolbox. They’ll show a lot of blitzes.
• Dom Giudice? We all learn how to say it because he’s apparently the starting center, and Evan Link is the starting right tackle, as of last Sunday. Recruiting story: Harbaugh offered without telling the rest of the staff.
• Link: Makes sense if they didn’t think the other guys were able to do it. If he’s even he’s ahead.
• What kind of offense are they going to be? Alex Orji’s kind. But Warren has earned some snaps too.
• During break: Name every player who was ranked below Giudice. Lowest was Emmanuel Casseus.
• Sklars tell the story of good directing on Better Call Saul.

Most of this podcast was recorded outdoors at Sherrone Moore’s golf outing. We apologize for the sound quality.

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 usually record, 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, and Champions Circle, the NIL fund keeping our team together and who put all these guys at our table.

1. Max Bredeson, Jack Tuttle, and Vibes

Starts at 1:00

Bredeson confirms Brian's take about the kickout detente. Tuttle names some Utes. After we discuss vibes for the season.

[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]

 

2. The Safeties, Colston and Semaj Morgan

Starts at 27:29

How long does it take a freshman to learn Michigan's coverages? Learn or get familiar enough with to make one thing look like another? Loveland and Semaj talk to us about how they make decisions mid-routes, handled the pressure of being young players thrust into major roles.

3. Sherrone Moore

Starts at 48:32

It turns out there were hugs. We spend a good 17 minutes with Michigan's new head coach, half of it on his gameplan for Alabama, and a lot more of the rest on the culture shift at Michigan, and how they teach it. Also: how he and the team found out that Jim was suspended when they landed in Pennsylvania.

4. Hot Takes Starts at 1:09:23 No Brian but some of our readers who supported Champions Circle get their hot takes read by the Sklars. Ryan Day catches many strays. 5. Alex Orji, Davis Warren Starts at 1:23:43 Comparing how certain throws that guys are more comfortable with come up when they're under center.  5. Donovan Edwards

Starts at 1:37:24 The cover athlete. Was he pressing a bit last year due to limited snaps? What's duo versus inside zone and which were they running when he scored his two TDs in the natty?

MUSIC:

• "Impressions of You"—Kelly Finnegan
• “Piece of Me"—Lady Wray
• “By The Lake”—Pale Jay & OkoNski
• "Right Back Where We Started From"—Maxine Nightingale
• “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

Things Discussed:

• What’s bothering Michigan fans? Nothing. But it’s funny that OSU and MSU people try.
• Will Johnson: how much better can he get? If he’s making the defensive calls that Sainristil and Moore were making.
• Donovan Edwards: not looking for home runs? Sam wants the 85 yards to come from the 5 yards.
• Seth wants them using Orji’s legs to create explosive opportunities for him because he’s their best big play threat.
• Babalola: Sam can’t get Seth to watch the tape, but sounds like M is feeling confidence.
• Hockey: Craig takes us through Michigan Hockey Summer.   

Things Discussed:

• Sam's squirrel problem. He wants a cat. Craig wants him to import mongooses. Seth suggests he put up a Michigan State flag and offer them all scholarships.
• Recruiting: back on track! Lost 2 guys they wanted, got 2 guys they really wanted, actually doing a little better than Harbaugh usual because they used to lose the Isaac Nautas and top-50 safeties to Notre Dame.
• Got themselves a Rod Moore comp in Ike Taylor. Seth: Michigan's free safety is a nickel—they want the SS to be a Paige so he can defend tight ends and when they motion a slot across the FS and Nickel swap jobs so FS needs to cover slots in space.
• Holly: See him as a Jaylen Harrell who's responsible and athletic. Craig thinks he'll be Brandon Graham and we call him insane.
• Babalola: Would be the #1 OT recruit in recorded M history.
• Recruiting strategy: stagger guys? Right now it's free transfers so you want guys who aren't going to leave. In the future when you can sign them to contracts Ohio State's going to be in great shape. You always take best available, but your board isn't the national board, and shouldn't be. Example: I wasn't too high on the Smith twins and they might have missed out on Edokpayi and Devon Baxter whom I like a lot.
• FSU and Clemson not talking to SEC/B10 anymore? Best guess if that's true it's because SEC/B10 don't want to be involved in the lawsuit.
• What's the future of this? There's no rationality to it so there's no stability to it, so I can't care about it. Right now it's just grabbing schools. Eventually there has to be some reckoning, a separation of divisions, dropping some schools. The things USF cares about are not the things that Michigan cares about, and having them competing for the same national championship isn't good for either of them.
• Brian: "Wait I would like to disparage, denigrate, and downgrade certain Big Ten members."
• Seth: You can dream about dropping schools all you want but you'd have to basically dissolve the Big Ten to get rid of Rutgers. The Pacific Conference did this once and reformed as the Pac-8 without Idaho.

Things Discussed:

• Commitapalooza: Looks like an average Michigan class. Takes on the new guys:
  • Donovan Johnson: Hard to grade from tape when he was 14 years old. High ceiling/low floor. Michigan knows what he looks like post-ACL.
  • Kaden Strayhorn: Jason Strayhorn knows more about the state of Michigan State, which is a story you tell if things are Not Good. Kid was also set on making his own path, wanted to be in football since 8th grade. Like Gach: MSU parentage doesn't change who the kid is or how that aligns with what Michigan does.
  • Chase Taylor: Think he's ranked lower because in-state power wasn't offering, but BJM was all over him. Tell Michigan the guy's part safety/part edge and their eyes light up because that's what they need for their system.
  • Jacob Washington: Toldya in 1998 when they got Ron Bellamy that this will get us into Archbishop Shaw finally. Sam: Washington ran a laser 4.5 forty at a camp. Likes to block.
• Michigan's NIL: fixed? They're not involved in Players for Auction but they've really built up their institutions. Turned the former players tailgate into a support network. Using the recent grads as the ambassadors. Using donors to get donor level to understand what they're doing. Also coming from the top: Dusty May and Sherrone Moore are asking "What can I do?"
• NCAA gets rid of all the rules they hit Michigan for, because nobody was following them and the only thing they ever did was screw Michigan. Let's go get Dylan Roney back!
• Hoops: How's the defense gonna look? Your defense is what your players can do. Think they'll switch 1-3, up to 4 when they have a small 4 on the court.

Things Discussed:

• Storytime with Craig Ross: Transactional vs Transformational.
• Recruiting: Class of 2025 is like Class of 2023, which was a pair of three-stars and Raylen Wilson out the door at this point in the cycle.
• Brady Hart on Ohio State: "Not everyone's got the same culture as Michigan." Got the JJ to build a class around. Sam points out that's been their best classes (Henson, etc.)
• Sam: Michigan had four QBs they were heavy on, #1 was probably going to Oklahoma no matter what, and they got Hart on campus early in case he wanted to commit before the other two.
• Other guys. RB Jasper Parker has offers from everybody except LSU; do they think they can come back and get him? Has those great feet (like Karan) and is a good receiver.
• Jordon Davison: OSU/Michigan battle despite OSU having 2 backs already.
• Michigan really wants: S JaDon Blair, might be a ND lean (really likes Marcus Freeman, being next Kyle Hamilton but better, has known their staff longer than Morgan). But interesting thing from Blair re: Michigan: "They are lagging behind no-one on NIL."
• Their #1 overall target is probably CB Shamari Earls, who's a Will Johnson-caliber dude. Other schools did a great job negative recruiting against Steve Clinkscale. Gonna be a fight with Georgia though. Seth: If you want to prove to me that Michigan's NIL is lagging behind nobody, win a battle with Georgia. Noted: Will Johnson is probably one of the best-paid players in the country. But UGA is going to pay a lot up-front. At least we'll know before the season it seems. If Michigan wins it's because they need a CB immediately in 2025.
• Pac12 teams in the Big Ten: They're already Big Ten teams. They've got Jestin Jacobs at middle linebacker: that's a Big Ten team. A purple team with Michigan's former kick returner at slot receiver: that's a Big Ten team. USC's the weirdo, but as far as QB situations in the Big Ten go, a guy who played as much as Aidan Chiles did last year after being in Lincoln Riley's system for 4 years is pretty dang good.

Things Discussed:

• Pre-Show: Seth & Craig are on. Craig says punk rock and opera are the same thing.
• Preview of Texas: they thought they'd get DTs. Respect for Ethan Burke out there. Most concerned about our secondary making some mistakes because they're not Sainristil and Rod Moore anymore.
• Paul Finebaum: Ryan Day is the king of excuses. Talk about his reaction to Erin Dunstan leaving OSU for a better job at Michigan where she has more connections (he cussed her out and had her escorted from the premises). What's up with OSU? They still haven't come to terms with the problem about themselves, so all of those expensive pieces are going to be less than they would be elsewhere.
• Michigan slow recruiting? Had to replace the staff, Sherrone Moore has built an Alabama-level recruiting department but the proceeds of that are long-term, not going to prevent this from being a transition class.
• Craig: Why is pass defense more expensive than rush defense? Seth: Because NFL offenses spend on pass offense.
• Is Wink too aggressive? He talked about how he used more sim pressures on Mahomes, that it's a determination made on personnel and opponent, not philosophy.
• Sam: Aamir Hall looks like Josh Wallace But Fast. Ricky is more of a nickel corner (read: dime).

Things Discussed:

• Analytics: You have to know how they're made to understand their value. FPI is going to punish Michigan for having a much tougher schedule than Penn State. SP+ is made from scrubbing play-by-play data and roster data, and isolating what different factors mean. PFF is made from pass-fail grading.
• They are predictive up to a point, and then from there it's up to the analyst to understand how it applies to a specific team, e.g. defensive SP+ in the Big Ten West can't handle how bad B10 West offenses are, and measures that say 5-star quarterbacks in their third year of starting are good but not if they've spent that time behind one of James Franklin's OL.
• Craig Ross tells the story of the gangs of his high school, and Joe Blue Tony. Moral of the story: Jim Harbaugh wanted love, it was over when they pulled the plug on the TRO case. Sam: makes some sense.
• Seth: Michigan's mistake with Harbaugh is they decided to stay in the Big Ten and NCAA instead of joining the NFL, which has the Lombardi Trophy.
• Two-loss teams in the Playoff? Depends on who they beat, if they win the B10.
• I share my proposal for three showcase games to replace the Big Ten Championship Game.

BRIEF SEGUE: THE SHOWCASE PROPOSAL

Instead of a 1 vs 2 game for the championship we play the best three games that weren't played during the regular season. #1 plays the best team they haven't played, #2 plays the best they haven't played, etc. Where necessary the conference is allowed to make judgement calls so that there is always a *clear* champion after the games are played. The games are all played on championship Saturday in three major cities within the Big Ten footprint (New York, Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Seattle, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, etc.). Downside: it's another Big Ten game, not winner-take-all, although in many cases the #1 game will be winner-take-all. Upsides: three big games instead of one, opportunities to enhance resumes for six teams with Playoff hopes, no rematches, no weird Big Ten champions who finished behind better teams, lost to other teams, etc.

• Jaishawn Barham: Like adding a 1st rounder. PFF coverage score last year was bunk. He could be an NFL DE, a lot of his Maryland tape he's not the guy making the sack; he's the guy causing the sack. His versatility is what Michigan's wanted from the LB position all along. Think he's going to be a star this year then go pro.
• Is coverage more important than pass rush? That's what the Ravens were about. It's true in the NFL because the NFL puts most of its money into beating pass rush: QBs who read out everything and know what to do with the ball immediately, tackles to protect them outside, etc.

Things Discussed:

• PSU loses a lawsuit where Franklin was overruling his doctors. Let's not throw stones; Harbaugh never overruled his doctors but the case did reference a Harbaugh quote and it's not hard to imagine players were often pressured to play while injured. Ben St-Juste's story does exonerate him a bit. Solution: this is something the NCAA should be rigorously enforcing.
• Utah State gets nailed for tampering: COI still doing what they do.
• Seth's solution: formalize the system that used to be under the table: Scholarships (Tuition/Room/Board/Stipend) stay nontaxable if you're an undergrad playing at the school you signed with out of high school, once you're a grad student you get a 2nd school that's nontaxable. Incentivizes schools to invest in players' educations, incentivizes players to stay at one school and get their degrees, emphasizes the value that college sports have over all other professional sports.
• NCAA's solution: get rid of walk-ons in football and basketball. This runs away from what they're best at, but it would help the USFs out there who want to play at being D-I without investing in more sports.
• Torvik's early rankings like B10 teams: let's talk about how useful these stats are.
• Opponent portal pickups. Fresno State got a nifty slot bug from Missouri State that I'm pretty sure we're gonna see. Texas lost a CB but picked up a better one, didn't replace the DTs like they wanted to. Oregon got better, look like the class of the conference this year.
• Vibes: Oregon looks like a title contender, Ohio State looks like less than the sum of their parts. They'll always be good because they are never satisfied, but other than Caleb Downs they mostly just got better where they were already good. Think Michigan's worse than they were last year but they're not 10-point dogs.