SCAR & DUE! Episode 17 7/29/26

[that time do when you got the Big Ten meetings, you got the coaches down there, and I like listening to everything they got to say. They invite the players down there, and I’ve been I’ve been tuning in trying to uh decipher what what they’re saying. And what do you think, dude? Wink said it on his uh one of his interviews there. He says, “It’s it’s like Christmas. The players are going to report mid next week.” and he says it’s like Christmas and I can’t wait to open our Christmas presents. They’re feeling good about things, man.

And uh you know, he’s been very candid on his interviews and uh watching that stuff. I just I can’t believe it. You know, basically in a month we’re playing football and uh what a great time of year. Yeah. You know, let’s just jump right on. Wink Wink said some things that he’s like Bryce is our guy. No question, no doubt.

It sends the whole message to him, the team, everybody, the fan base. This is our guy. But what’s interesting is Nicolo’s been there for a while now. And uh he didn’t mention his name. So I I would hope that I mean Tommy Carr has done some things as a as a kid, right? I know. I’m hoping that means that Tommy Carr, they just got so much faith in Tommy Carr, but I also hope that Nicoloi has really shown up.

I got to believe he has because I want three, dude. I want three that can play, but he mentioned Tommy Carr again. So, uh, quarterback room, they feel real good about it. Any thoughts on that? You know, you’re trying to decipher what they’re saying. you. So, he was talking to Rich Eisen, which I listened to that interview today, and he was Rich asked him, you know, what uh what has Bryce improved on? And Wink said, “Well, his footwork, uh mechanics, his presence, decision- making, right?

All the things that you want a guy to improve on.” Um and he said he’s just tightened up his whole game, which is what everybody is hoping for, right? He’s worked Bryce has worked with um Joe uh Burrow down there and he’s, you know, he’s putting in the time. He’s putting in the effort as Wink said and and Bryce has said himself, he wants to be the best quarterback at Michigan. He wants to be a champion. He wants to be an NFL first round draft pick. He has high hopes for himself, right? Uh, Wink has been working with him.

Ki’s been working with them. Ky Deetmer, uh, Jay Hill has been working with them. They are all on the same page. And they, and they keep saying, and Wink keeps repeating this over and over, that Bryce is there working on his own out on the practice field by himself, working on footwork and mechanics, eyes, shoulders, hips, stepping, throwing. You know, he’s putting in the work. Um, things change quite a bit when the guys across the line are coming to hit you, right? Just like Mike Tyson says, everybody’s got a plan until you get punched in the mouth.

Well, Bryce has gotten punched in the mouth as a freshman starting for Michigan. And then he got punched in the mouth again after that spring ball and it was all anybody could talk about. If he’s got the work ethic that Wink is talking about and he’s out there doing the things that need to be done, well, we should see a much better quarterback this year. So, all you can do is hope, right? All that’s what we got right now is trust the word of the quarter of the of the coach. Trust that what he’s saying is accurate and um then we just wait a month, a month and a few days and he comes out against Western. You know, I’m starting to come around to the belief that listen, I was skeptical, too, when a kid is constantly the biggest and best player on every single football field that he’s ever played on since he’s been a K-W, right?

And everybody’s telling you how great you are and then you’re the number one recruit and everybody’s just you’re great, you’re great, you’re great. Sometimes your feet get, you know, off the ground a little bit. Yeah. So, I think that he’s got u I think he’s in the right spot. Right. Just like we talked about along a couple times already. The 1984 team, we weren’t good.

We were six and six, right? Everybody wrote us off and uh the seniors took it upon themselves that’s over and we’re moving forward and it turned out to be one of the best defenses Bo ever had. Finished number two in the country and nobody expected anything from us. I think that’s in the same position that Bryce is in right now. Yeah. Anyway, Wink Wink really likes his running back room. He feels confident there.

Yeah. And uh I understand that and I’m I’m I’m I’m I’m a big believer in the edge room. I think the edge room is just totally complete. There’s going to be some hurt feelings. There’s got serious We got guys that can play in that darn edge. Uh that’s just my initial obser. So anyway, listening to these guys speak, you know, dude, I was a high school coach.

I was telling you, you know, you got eight guys in your eight other nine coaches in your table at your in your league and you’re looking around, you’re like, “Those three dudes are terrible. They can’t coach. These four guys over here, they’re nice guys. They’re going to be okay, but I can out coach them. We can out we could beat them.” And then there’s like two dudes that I got to beat those guys. You know, that’s that was my experience as a high school coach. But when I listen to these guys speak, I’m just, you know, I see I don’t see a lamp chop.

You got to come as a coach. You got to come every week. Uh you got to prepare. You gota I mean you the room for error is small. I listen to Schiano. He thinks he has the best talent he’s ever had. Shiano can coach.

And uh going to Rutgers ain’t no joke. We got to go to Rutgers. I listen to the dude at UCLA. All he’s ever done is is work his way up through the ranks. Small schools. Win everywhere. Win just like Cignetti.

Come from James. That guy ain’t no joke. He’s got money. He’s got players. Uh they’re gonna be a problem. We got them before we play the Buckeyes. You know, I listen to Fitzgerald at at state.

Um I we’ll get into him, but I listen up the uh the Penn State coach and looks like he’s scrapping that three. He was a 334 guy, whatever the hell, but he’s going to go back to the four-man front. And um you know, and then Ferentz has been there. he got hired to do. My freshman year was his first year at Michigan, 1981. But, uh, that’s something, isn’t it? Yeah. So, anyway, and then Oregon, he’s got his quarterbacks.

You listen to him. One thing about good about I like about Oregon do is they got to play the Buckeyes the week before us. That’s that’s that’s a highly emotional game. So, you know, these guys ain’t kids though. They’re going to be ready to play every week. But anyway, those are my some of my thoughts about because I’m I’m really trying to listen to coaches and any thoughts about about those other coaches. You talked about no lamb chops and um you know the Big Ten being now the three-time reigning national champ, right?

A rising tide lifts all boats and you can’t be stuck. this league is trying to do things and go places and they’re throwing their weight around um you know how they want the playoff to be formatted and you know how many people can be in the league and they’re holding on to their media. They are playing their hand as we’re the big dog on the block and we’re going to have some say in everything that happens. Well, you can’t have a bunch of scrub coaches at the at the lesser I don’t want to say lesser, but some of those other schools, right? Purdue comes to mind. Indiana finally gets a guy and they’re no longer the doormat. They’re the national champ. This league has really good coaches and they’ve got really good teams.

They’ve won the national championship the last three years. and Cignetti kind of laid down a a the groundwork for this is how fast it can turn around. And then Dusty May did it for basketball. This is how fast you can turn it around. In the in the days of NIL uh and transfers um things can turn your fortunes around overnight. And um yeah, it’s going to this is this schedule is no joke. Uh we it’s going to be tough, but those teams have to play us, too. And I think we’ll be pretty tough.

You talked about the edges and you talked about everything real quick. Speaking of the edges, John Henry Daley, uh John Henry Daly saying one, he’s 100% healthy. He’s full go right now. And Wink had said the same thing. So he’s uh that’s a huge get. That guy was leading the nation in sacks week 10 of the season before he got injured. If that guy’s full go and that leg is 100% man, that dude’s going to do some damage.

No, we got a great rotation there. Patterson. Yeah, I’m watching this kid. This kid’s explosive. He comes off the edge and you got do big Dom Nichols been paying his dues. We got four guys there and uh anyway, and PJ Fleck, too. We got to go there.

That guy ain’t no joke. He’s got 10 years. He can coach. He’s got a quarterback that can play. So I just, you know, you gotta play. You got to have a great game plan every week, man. Tell you there is no And the thing about it is there’s no weeks that we have one buy and it comes after the Minnesota game.

So that’s five games that we’ll play. And then we get a buy on uh October 10th and then it’s every week somebody bigger, somebody better until we get to Ohio State. This is going to be a tough test for everybody. Wink’s a good coach, man. Wink’s been into the big house three times. I think come out with three wins. Um so we’ve got the formula, we’ve got the personnel, we’ve got the coaching staff.

Now we just got to execute. Yeah. Speaking of big wins, man, uh when I next time I come to Ann Arbor, man, I’m going to Knight’s Steakhouse, dude. I’m going to go get me a big steak over at Knight’s and uh I it’s been a long time since I’ve been up there, but they’re they’re uh we got to check them out. They’re they’re uh supporting Hail Media. And then obviously OLIPOP, do talk to us. So, I ran out of the some of my OLIPOP.

So, I had to go I was at the store this morning before I went to work. I had to pick a couple things up at the store. So, I picked up a new flavor that I haven’t tried yet. Apple crisp. Right. But ginger ale. I’m a big ginger ale fan.

I like ginger ale. Right. And so, I picked these up. Again, this the ingredients on this. Go read the ingredients on these OLIPOP and then go read the ingredients on a traditional soda and you will never drink another traditional soda again. This is all natural stuff. It’s non-GMO.

It promotes uh good gut health, right? So, and it tastes great. I told you about the root beer float I had. Excellent. The I have grape here. I polished out my grape. I had about four or five grapes.

They’re all gone now. Uh I got strawberry vanilla on deck. My wife took all the cherry colas so she can have those because I don’t like cherries. But uh this ginger ale and the apple crisp. Good stuff. And then Knight’s Steakhouse. You had mentioned them.

We are going to do some things there at the downtown Knight’s Steakhouse right right across from the Michigan theater. We’re going to have some gatherings over there. uh inviting all the fans, talk about the game, talk about plays, talk about whatever you want to talk about, but we’re going to have a lot of fun and we appreciate nights and we appreciate OLIPOP for supporting me. So they can meet Doo in person. They can get a handshake and a high five after a Michigan victory. That will not be the highlight of their day, but yes, they will. All right. Uh hey, quick shout out to the legend Chris Howard.

He’s doing some old school stuff. He had Jamie Morris on there, dude. If I don’t know if you listen to his teammate. Yeah, he listen. He and he was so right. Jamie talked. Let me tell you, I never forget this.

And Jamie was absolutely right. When when you’re playing defense and I’m taking on big jumby jumbo Elliott, 6-foot-7, 300 pounds or Eric Kattus, 6-foot-6, you know, you’re taking on a big tall guy and you’re fighting that block and you’re fighting and now here comes this little 5 foot 8 inch whatever the hell Jamie is. you don’t even see him. Jamie talked about that and that was something that was really something that made defending Jamie Morris when he ran the football an issue because you didn’t see him. He was so he was small. So Jamie talked about that, but I thought that was a great episode. Go check out uh Chris Howard in his interview with 23. So Jamie and I came in at the same class.

We were the same years 1984 through 1987. And I will never forget I think our second game that so we beat Miami the defending national champions the week before. Um and then we played Washington and I remember this Jamie got into this game. He’s a true freshman. this is his, you know, second full week of of game practices and he’s in there and he was 5 foot six, maybe 150, 60 pounds, maybe tougher than iron and I remember him running the ball and those guys on Washington, it looked like they wanted to kill the kid. I remember them wrapping him up and him throwing him down and gang tackling him and he just popped right up. Jamie Morris was one of the great all-time running backs at Michigan. And when you consider how his size compared to some other guys like Tyrone Wheatley or Leroy Hoard or, you know, some Tony Boles, these are all guys that we played with.

Allen Jefferson, he was the smallest by a long shot, but man, he was so tough, so dedicated to his craft. 100% a team guy. That’s why he was a captain. just an outstanding player, outstanding teammate, and a good dude. Yeah, go watch that one. Go watch Chris’s interview with him. Yeah, I thought it was I thought it was really good. I just One more thing I like about Wink. The dude ain’t got time to shave, dude.

He’s coaching him up, man. He I like Wink because he rides a motorcycle. You think that’s psychological? He’s got that. No, no, no. I said I like him because he rides a motorcycle. I ride motorcycles.

I want to ride with Wink. I don’t know how I’m going to make that happen, but I would like to ride. We’ll go out to hell. There’s some great riding out by hell. There’s good places to eat out there. It’s not far from Ann Arbor. We’ll take an afternoon on a Sunday and, you know, get a couple hours in of road therapy.

So, uh, I saw Justin Tres. You just think about, you know, he I met Justin Tres. He worked under big, uh, the big fella that went with Jim. What was his name? Strength coach Herbert. Great guy. smart guy and he’s gets scrapped now. He’s he’s an assistant to the assistant strength coach at Purdue.

He just It’s funny how, you know, you get you’re tied to some other clown and he screws around and you just get you’re back starting at step zero. I just thought that was of note. He’s he’s coaching. He’s he’s at Purdue. So, you get 20 23 days before the first game is when you can officially start practice again. And uh we had three non-padded days and then we had two weeks of doubles and then one week of uh pretty much the same thing then and then one week of uh you know of game week. But I looked at this yeah they have to have like three or four days of non of just shorts and a helmet and then there’s like four or five days of of shells whatever the heck they call uh whatever that is. helmets and shoulder pads and then a certain amount of days of hitting and but there’s no double sessions and uh but there’s a hell of a lot more stuff that they’ve done that they don’t even count as they don’t count it as anything.

You know, these so much 7-on-7 and unsupervised stuff that these guys do more than when we played. But that’s where we’re at is a bunch of days with uh just just shorts, bunch of days with shells, and then um getting ready. I mean, then they go then they can hit. Just to give people an idea, uh when we reported the camp, we had a meeting the first night. We would have dinner and then we’d have that first meeting uh the first evening there. And you had an itinerary and Revy Bo always put it down. Revy 6:00 a.m., right?

So, Revy, which comes from uh the military, that’s your wakeup call. 6:00 a.m. we got to go downstairs, get yourself some breakfast or coffee or whatever you got to do, and then you’re down at the building. You’re getting dressed, put your uh lower halves on, you carry around your shoulder pads, your helmet, and you we got film meetings and film, practice for a couple hours, come back, shower up. We’re going to have a meeting, run up for lunch, get a little break, come back, get dressed again, meeting, get out on the field, practice again for a couple hours, come back, shower, dinner, back for meetings, and then we were in bed like I don’t know 9:00. These guys go all day though, still do. I don’t think that there’s any rules. I was reading the rules. They’re, you know, so they’re allowed, you know, a one one long official practice, but then they’re allowed what they call walkthroughs, right?

It doesn’t count as a practice, so you can just bring your kids out there and walk through. I bet they’re not doing much walking, though. Yeah. Well, yeah, that’s it. Um, there was a couple of things Wink was talking about that I thought was worth mentioning because there’s a lot of talk about, you know, obviously we’re talking about uh budgets, NIL budgets, and remember we were talking a lot about Ohio State’s $20 million roster in 2024 and making a big deal out of that, how much they paid and it paid off at a national championship. Well, Wink’s talking about we’re on the we’re on the cusp of $50 million uh NIL budgets per team. And he says it’s it’s just it’s this is not sustainable.

And what’s happening is you’re going to have the halves and the have nots. And pretty soon, if it keeps going this way, you’re going to have basically one giant or a couple of giant super conferences. And then who knows what happens to the rest of them. And he says unions um collective bargaining uh and salary caps. This is this is all this is all pro talk. But he says this is what we’re headed for. Uh if we don’t do something because there’s no way you can have somebody that’s got a $50 million budget and another team that’s that’s working on 10 million trying to compete.

It just won’t work. it’s impossible. And so he thinks that there’s u big changes on the way or or big problems on the way. He says we need his parents said the same thing. The go need guardrails. Well, and that’s what Dusty May said is just, you know, they got to because you know the I give these guys credit. They want to compete on a on a playing field where everybody in the all 18 teams can compete. You know, you can be a guy like Rutgers that can overcome or Dantonio over, you know, you can be a guy that can build a down program.

Uh because everybody’s got the same everybody. Well, they get the revenue. Yeah, they get the revenue share, which the Big Ten being the biggest boy on the block when it comes to revenue, TV rights, and everything. Uh so these schools are benefiting from the success of the league, whether it’s Indiana, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, whatever. everybody is uh getting rewarded for the success of the conference, but then it’s up to you and dust or excuse me, Wink made mention of uh the champion circle and he said without an entity like this the champion circle you can’t compete period flat out and Rich Eisen asked me he says how many times has a player come to you and said I need more money and Wink said more times than I can count. Imagine having to talk about that 5 years ago, 10 years ago. This wasn’t a conversation anybody was having. And now you have players coming in there.

That’s why you got a general manager. And he said he don’t even deal with him. He doesn’t deal with all Exactly what he said. He says, “Uh, well, we got a general manager. His office is right next to mine.” Yep. Go talk to him. Yeah.

He can be the bad guy. Yeah. And that way I You got to have that separate. It ain’t me, man. It’s not me. I’m the coach. So, so it just it’s interesting.

It’s a it’s a common uh theme. We hear it from a lot of coaches. We heard it from basketball and football. Um but yeah, we need to Oh man, I hope they don’t ruin college football. It’s very fun. College football’s had more viewers the last few years than they ever have. I mean, the numbers are off the charts, right?

So, it’s not like they’re ruining college football, but what they’re doing is changing what we believe to be is fandom for our team. You know, we want to root for guys and we want to root for the same guy, you know, a couple years in a row. You don’t want to have free agency every year. And I think that they need to do something about that. So, we’ll see how it goes. Dude, I got a just real quick. It looks like Warde Manuel’s coming out smelling like a rose.

He’s getting a nice little buyout. Looks like he’s going to get a good great reference, go on to do whatever else he wants to do. Uh not finishing his term, but he’s getting a buyout. There’s nothing dirty on his uh his legacy. Uh leaves Michigan on a good note. And I just I don’t want to dwell. That’s my take on it.

It’s uh it’s it’s he’s he’s going to finish it up. I want to get a good coach. I want to get a good AD that can line up with Wink and Wink that has to be locked in. That guy has to or girl woman. Uh so that position is so important uh to the uh to the coaches that guy’s locked in. But anyway, that’s my quick thought on Ward as we say adios at the end of the uh the year. We do and uh you know there is a lot of consternation and a lot of divided opinion about Ward.

Uh but there you know and you can we and I rattled off last time we were on some of the things that happened under his watch, right? And it’s easy to dwell on the negatives. It’s like airplane crashes. You dwell on those airplane crashes, but there’s thousands of airplanes that take off and land safely every day. Let’s not forget what Ward did do, right? So, we got 27 varsity teams at Michigan. We got over a thousand student athletes and they got a 96% graduation rate, which is fabulous.

He finished seven times in the top 10 of the Director’s Cup with a high of second place. There was 80 Big Ten championships across all sports under his tenure. Four national championships of course basketball this year, football in 23, men’s gymnastics in 25 and women’s gymnastics in 21 plus some individual national champions. U he hired Dusty May and I and I thought this was important too. John Beilein was instrumental in helping get Dusty May to Michigan. Now, if John Beilein had any ill feelings towards Ward and that was the reason he left Michigan, he’s got a funny way of showing it by helping Ward find the best coach out there. So, clearly John Beilein does not harbor any ill will.

Absolutely. He wanted to go on and coaching the pros. It didn’t work out and now he is every bit involved in Michigan and that’s a perfect example. There are a lot of good things that Ward did and there’s a lot of things that Ward did that we don’t see, right? We hear about the bad things and it gets repeated over and over and over and you know this Sparty honk out there on Twitter, which is why I’m not on Twitter in the offseason because you just get these Dolts that and it’s typically Sparty or Buckeye guy that just they can’t think logically. They just think anti-man to hell with them. Don’t listen to those guys.

Right. I just wanted to mention it. We got to get a great person. That person is huge. Uh Wink and um and Bo, all our coaches, man. You got to know that guy’s fighting for you so you can uh you can beat the enemy. And dude, I’m going to move on to the film unless you got something else.

Good. No, I just You know what I mean? I have been a defender of Ward. I’ I’ve always been that Listen, you don’t know. We can’t make a educated judgment on somebody without knowing all the details. And nobody, I don’t care what people say online. They don’t have all the details because they’re getting information from a biased source.

You wouldn’t be leaking information about Warde Manuel if you didn’t like, you know, if if you liked Warde Manuel, right? I wouldn’t be leaking any information to anybody about Scarcelli, right? because we’re pal. We’re my buddy, right? The only reason somebody would leak information is because they have an ulterior motive ultimately to get rid of the guy. And we know that the regents were doing that, at least one. Yeah. So, I mean, the the president just last the week before had given him a ringing endorsement calling him one of the best ads in the country.

So, whatever the case may be, Ward’s going to be fine. He’s taking $7 million plus $100,000 towards his retirement. Plus, he’s getting health care. Plus, he gets golf privileges. Plus, he gets tickets. Ward’s going to be fine. And he’s done he’s done plenty of good job that we could say thank you for the good things that happened.

And that’s that. Okay. Hey, just little side note, uh I just finished an episode with guys from the 1968 team. Yeah. So, that’ll be coming out in maybe two weeks, 10 days or so. But uh what was interesting is I got I did a whole I watched the film of that team for a good I watched four or five games. You know who was a hell of a player was Tom Goss athletic director I played with his brother Greg.

Tom Goss was a was a legitimate good defensive tackle problem. He was a good player man. A lot of good players on anyway that’s coming out. I just we were talking about athletic directors. I I give a shout out to Tom Goss. He was a hell of a player. Yeah.

You know, to people listening or or watching this later on, um you know, it’s the off season and you really Scar’s done a couple of these now. It’s really interesting watching the film and listening to a couple of guys who were on those teams recollect some stories and whatnot. And it’s just it’s a really neat insight uh from guys who were were there 40 50 years ago. It’s it’s worth a watch especially you got plenty of time in the offseason. You’ll be busy come uh September and on. Go watch those shows. I think you’ll be happy with them.

Yeah. He tells a story about how Mike Gittleson got hired. You know, he they Anyway, Gittleson was at Michigan. He was just the kind of a whatever. There’s some great stories. Tune into it. Let’s get on this film. do.

Yeah. And uh finish up this spring game. There’s so much so many little things. Hey, while you’re doing that, I want to go over a couple of We got some comments here, so let’s let’s take a look at them. All right. So, uh well, we got quite a few. So, Wall-E, go blue.

Go Blue to you, too, buddy. Thanks for tuning in. Nine lives. Another night with Scar and D is a great night. That’s very kind of you. Nine lives. We appreciate having you here.

Uh Jed65, always enjoy video with D and Scar. Go Blue. Nine lives. I need to try Knight’s Steakhouse. You absolutely do. Get over there. Uh at uh Blue Wolverine, gentlemen.

And then uh Nine Lives says, “Hey, let’s do a meet and greet.” That’s exactly what we’re going to do. Anyway, dude, we got to out coach people. I just saw this picture of these coaches. Special teams coach, Coach Combmes, get it done, baby. Running back coach right here. I’m drawing a blank on his name. Dude, you there?

Y, there you go. You broke out. You broke up. I didn’t hear what you said. Tony Alfred. Then you got our uh our uh defensive coordinator, Hill. He’s got to be great.

You got the guy we played against, Wink’s brother coaching tight ends. This is our defensive back coach. Man, I’m drawing a blank. Uh BS do he’s got to be this is the biggest big position for me. BS is you know he was a highly recruited kid at Georgia. Uh he’s gota he’s got to uh make it happen at linebacker. Anyway, I just saw that picture of all them guys.

It’s a good picture, man. We got to we got to out coach guys. This dude Patterson blowing things up coming off the edge. Looks like Kwity Paye to me. Uh look at the look at the punch. Uh, this dude’s an athlete. Edge.

Edge is going to be happening. Dude, I agree with you 100%. I think the defensive line is the strength of the defense. Although, Wink had said that they’re really happy with the uh the starting corners, the starting secondary. Oh, that would bring that reminds me because we’re not going to see him on the spring tape, but Rod Moore, Rod Moore’s feeling better than he has for the past two years. And I am an enormous Rod Moore fan. I hope and pray that he gets out there, he can go full speed, he doesn’t have to worry about that leg and can play because man, he’s a stud.

And there’s one thing that you want to have a fifth year guy at, it’s at safety because they’re man, they’re the general out there. That guy will get you in the right coverage. He’ll communicate. He’ll come up and hit. He’s fast. I pray that Rod Moore uh comes back full strength. Yeah.

You know, dude, spring game, you got to think like a coach. I sometimes you show stuff just to make them prepare for it. You know what I mean? Some of these trick plays. Oh, yeah. You know, you show some junk and make uh make Oklahoma prepare for it. But anyway, that’s Patter.

That one didn’t go so well. Yeah, Patterson blew it up. There’s Herbstreit there. Yep. Herby. Um, but yeah, look at 93. Look at the punch.

You could I’m anxious to see how that thing settles out, man. The edge position. Who are the top four or five guys there? Well, I assume we’ll see them all. So, yeah. Um, yeah, I should have clicked ahead here. Where we at?

I think they called a timeout. Yeah. Um you go ahead, dude. You got a three-man front here. Yeah. Looks like we’re running that 3-3-5. Ah, get the snap.

Come on. But see stuff like that. See Carl just chuck that away. Yeah, I know it’s nothing. I don’t want to make too much of it. But I think the reason the coaches are really excited about Tommy Carr is because he is he’s wiser than a true freshman quarterback should be. Right.

True freshman quarterback in the spring games getting some reps. He wants to do everything he can to try and advance the ball down the field and score. Yeah. He does this smart thing here. He’s been hearing quarterback for from grandpa was a quarterback. The old man was a quarterback. Yep.

Uh this kid Browder here, 6’5, number 81. Mhm. So we make a we throw a catchable ball. A quick story. He makes makes a hell of a catch here. Dude, I’m at practice one time, a couple years back. Jim was coaching.

You know, I know old man Harbaugh and we’re looking at Zack Gentry. I’m standing next to him. We’re watching practice and we’re talking about Zack Gentry. They had moved him to tight end. Yeah. And he, you know, coach was this that or whatever about Zack. I said, “Coach, let me tell you something about Zack Gentry.

That dude is always open. Zack is like 6’8, 67, something like that. You remember, right, 67?” Yep. Yeah. I said, “Coach, he’s always open.” Yeah. When you’re that tall and you’re going against a linebacker like Jimmy Ralder or, you know, you know what I mean? Yep.

Who’s who’s 61, whatever. So anyway, this this kid’s got uh you know, he’s a big kid and throw it up there to him. Makes him uh you know, make it happen. And you know, he missed a a throw earlier in the game. It bounced off his face, man. Would have been a touchdown up the sideline there. Makes up for it there.

Need guys like that to uh to make plays. You want that guy in there, but you don’t want him in there because he’s a big tall guy. You want him in there because he performs. And you know, we talk about, you know, we talk about the offensive line and there’s a one one player in particular, uh, Andrew Babalola, right? Highly highly recruited guy and, um, you know, obviously gets injured, but was supposed to be competing for a starting job last year, right? This guy’s got all the potential in the world based on size, speed, strength, whatever. But the fact of the matter is he has never played a college game.

So, it’s it’s a lot to ask an offensive tackle who’s never played a college game to come in and start. Yeah. After coming off an injury, I do not expect Andrew Babalola to be starting against Western. And I just with the way the line is is situated right now, I would be surprised if he started this year. And that’s contrary to what a lot of people think is that he’s just so good. How do you know how good he is? He’s never played.

Anyway, I thought this was interesting. He throws two balls in a row. Uh Big Owens. Yep. Um 44. Yeah, he’s thick dude. Eli Owens.

Eli Owens. So, you know, we want him Yeah, we want that guy looking like uh you know, the next match. Anyway, two two balls in a row to the same guy. It tells you that uh the quarterback trusts them, the coaches trust them. You know, you got to look at these little things. You Okay, back it up a little bit. You want to look at little things, right?

This is I know it’s little and we’re at the end of the spring game and we don’t know who’s even on defense, but watch where this ball is thrown down low and outside where nobody can get it except his receiver. He’s not throwing it inside. He’s not throwing it high. That’s a good ball. You were trying to pick up five yards, right? Throw it where only that gets outside and low. Won’t get picked off.

Not going to get picked off for a touchdown. Pick up the first down. This is just No, you’re right. That’s heady play by a freshman. Yeah. Here’s your three-man front on defense again. Yep.

Been running quite a bit of that. Surprisingly, that’s not something we’ve done. Who’s this receiver here? I can’t see the number unfortunately. Oh man, looks like 20. Well, Jaylen Pile is a wide receiver. He’s number 20.

Yeah, 20 dude. Anyway, nice catch. Shows some athletic ability. Yeah. Um, again, the three-man front, same guy. The defensive line is basically mailing it in at this point. Yeah, same guy.

Yep. It’s just interesting. Two two two two uh two throws in a row of the same guy. Yeah. Uh I really like this play here. Do again. Kanka, I’ve been high on him.

Watch this. Is Mason Graham like here. Watch what he does to this center. This is hard, man. He’s a A-gap. He might be a two-gap player here, but he might be a he might be a A-gap player opposite side, I think. You know, I’m not sure how what they’re asking him to do, but he takes this center and just tosses him.

Yeah, let’s watch that first step because he is playing him head up. It does look like he’s playing two-gap, but in a short situation like that, you’re inside the five yardd line, you got to believe that they’re playing A-gap scheme, right, on defense like he Anyway, I think it’s a hell of a play because he comes over the top and he’s punching the center. He’s he’s stuffing him and that’s Mason Graham type stuff. That’s not easy to do. And Kanka has been showing that kind of stuff. uh the what we’ve been seeing here. This kid comes up and tackles, man. This Winston kid is uh he ain’t afraid to hit people, right?

We’ve seen that. Um you I’m seeing what they’re doing here. Looks like everybody is a you know, these are a he’s a these are all inside gap players and he has to come and defend the perimeter. Um that’s what they’re how they’re coaching it and yeah, he’s got to come up and be able to tackle there. But that kid has shown toughness. He’s He’s a guy that can cover. Watch you come up and tackle here.

I Dude, I coached That’s one thing you don’t get. One of the hardest things to find is a high school safety that’ll come up and tackle like that. Oh, hard to find. This is a blown This is a blown assignment here. I think you got two guys outside here, dude. Let’s take a look. were they’re running to something and uh these two guys end up outside of this kick-out block. See how two of them are outside of that thing.

Anyway, it’s a missed assignment. Somebody should be, you know, one guy should be taking on this and the other guy should be underneath it killing the running back. Yeah. And they’re both But it’s also Well, that was, you know what I mean? Yep. That ain’t that ain’t designed like that. That’s a missed assignment.

Somebody got chewed. No. Yeah. So, it’s uh two guys outside. Uh it just made me think, you know, they we we score the touchdown there to decide this game. Dude, I remember reading a book by Alex Karras. He talked about the game of football.

He’s like, you know, you got these 300 pounders that beat the hell out of each other for three hours and then some guy that can’t even speak English comes in to decide the to decide the game. You know, there’s no greater example of that was in 1985, we were playing at Iowa City. It was number one Iowa versus number two Michigan. And uh we kept them out of the end zone. Rob Hton, I think that was his name, uh kicked three field goals. We were up 10 to nine, but at the last their last drive, they got into field goal range and out and kicked the game winner. They won 12 to 10.

They didn’t score, but the kicker Yeah. scored all their points. It made me think of that. You gota you got this close game, you know, and start deciding one one got to make a kick. That’s tough to take. Yeah. Um anyway, uh throws a dime here. Good to see Tonielli catching a football.

He’s he’s been a kid that’s been a blocker, but uh this Yeah, he should take a step forward. He’s He got plenty of time last year. That’s a good tough catch in traffic. Look, I saw Herbstreit play I saw Herbstreit playing in high school. He’s a He’s a kid that can throw the ball, man. He’s an athletic kid. That’s a good throw.

And uh tight end, we need those, man. We need catches like that. We need our tight ends. Uh, you know, we need Zack Marshall to be healthy. Tonielli, Hansen, Hansen’s got to be healthy. He hasn’t been healthy uh his whole career. Yeah.

Um I think the tight ends are going to play a big part because we’re going to have some receivers, but the tight end I think the tight end is underutilized. Yeah. More of the three-man front. uh you know, dude, this is the end of the game. Yeah. You got to bring your if you got to know, is it a right-handed quarterback or is it a left-handed quarterback? I don’t want a if the ball’s on the hash, I don’t want Kordell Stewart rolling out to his right. Nope.

You know what I mean? You want your right-handed quarterback escaping to his left. Yep. So, I’m sure we all these things are coached up, but uh Michigan’s rushing three guys just kind of playing it vanilla. Give this kid an opportunity to roll out to us. That’s exactly what you don’t want so he can set his feet and launch a 50 yard pass. But anyway, uh good game, a lot of enthusiasm.

Maze getting stakes, Blue getting hot dogs. I didn’t I never liked that, man, that we did that. I didn’t want to eat no damn hot dog. A dude hit here. You were just talking about I had him circled earlier on. This is after the game and this is Andrew Babalola. Yeah, he’s a he’s a he’s a big kid, man.

Right in the center of the picture right there. And he’s um you know, he’s healthy now and he’s competing. Chris uh Chris Robbins here on the on the chat wants to know, does Tonielli have three or four syllables? My understanding is his name is Tonielli, right? Not Tonnie Elliott, but not Tony Yelli. Okay. So, Tonielli, but uh I could very well be wrong, Chris.

I don’t know. You got to catch up. Hey, I wanted to go over We were talking about just real quick. I don’t know why I wanted to talk about this, but we talked about the defensive the edges being a strength, right? And then I mentioned that Wink had talked about the secondary and just this is a dang good secondary. You got Jyaire Hill who’s coming back for his third straight starting year. Uh Smith Snowden, the transfer.

Zeke Berry will be our nickel. And then Brandyn Hillman. This kid, not enough is being talked about Brandyn Hillman because he has had a heck of a a spring game practices. Kid is tough. He is physical. This kid can tackle. He’s not afraid of contact. big plus in our secondary.

He’ll play safety hopefully aside Rod Moore and then you have Jordan Young and Mason Curtis, both two young guys that got a lot of playing time. So, our secondary, although not a lot of depth at corner, plenty of depth at safety, but a really good starting crew. So, that’s a positive, too. So, you’re pointing out that we need the linebackers, you know, bowls. We do. We need him to step up, but we have some real strengths over there that can hold the fort hopefully while we get the linebacker crew up to speed. Yeah, that’s the big thing with me.

And we got some comments about the throwback games. Yeah, we did four episodes now. 87, 57, 64, and 68. Take a look at it. Good stuff. Old guys talking about uh the the development of college football and different coaches. I just thought it was interesting as hell listening to these guys. Yeah, we do.

We’re getting, you know, we’re getting closer. We’re fired up. And our players, our players believe they can uh I’m trying to think which one it was. Um Oh, big uh big John Henry. What’s his name? 90. John Henry Daley. Yeah.

He said, “Hey, we can win it all.” You hear him? He knows what kind of talent they have. We have here at Michigan. He’s like, so he’s confident and uh forget what the uh procrastinators are saying, the pickers, everybody. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, we got to play, we got to coach.

And dude, I’m my final comment is OLIPOP, Knight’s Steakhouse, Michigan Wolverines, we’re fired up. We’re counting it down and it’s all good. It gets uh it’s all go blue, dude. What’s your final comment? No, man. I can’t wait. I can’t believe that football season is a month away.

Excited to watch this. I’m excited to be with you. I’m excited to be with Hail Media. I can’t wait to interact with the fans once these games start. We get to talk some real football, watch some real film, break down some technique and some some tackles and all that, man. Oh, I love the fall. Go blue]