SCAR & DUE! Episode 16 7/15/26

[Scar and Due. We’re back. We’re up here roasting up in Michigan. 100 degrees. We’re not We’re not We’re not ready for this stuff, man. You guys down south are can handle it. But it’s uh it’s getting to that time.

I I see the uh the team up the street. I see them running and uh and the whole team is out there running around. It’s that time of year, dude. How you feeling, man? 100° outside. I got in my car the other day on the way home. 110 it said because the car had been sitting outside all day get in at 110 degrees and I’m just like imagine have to go to conditioning right now.

Holy smokes. I don’t know how we did it. Yeah. As a coach you as a coach you want this weather. I I shared the story about uh my freshman year. I think I’ve already said that where Bo was all upset because it was 70 degrees in August and then and we weren’t practicing in hot weather. And he’s right.

You want this heat. That’s the truth, too, dude. Let’s jump in on Go ahead. Yeah. What does he say? If you’re going to fight in the North Atlantic, you got to practice in the North Atlantic. And in September, man, September games are hot.

We get some hot ones. I remember taking my wife, who was pregnant with my son, who’s now 32. So, this tells you how long ago it was. Took my wife. We went up for an early game. I September game. Geez, it had to been 95 degrees.

And you need to be ready for that. You better get used to running in that stuff. You put the pads on and make sure that you know how to handle it. And then that’s where your strength and conditioning coach comes in. I remember distinctly one time we were in uh summer conditioning doing some sprints, right? And it was hotter than hell. And Gdlesson standing there and Mark Ramirez, an offensive lineman, good guy.

Uh, he’s not sweating. Remember, we wore them grays, gray shorts, gray shirts, and our shoes. And Ramirez ain’t sweating. And Mike stops him, gets one of the other guys, says that man’s not sweating. Find out what’s going on. That’s how important your your strength and conditioning coach is because guy could overheat and have a serious medical condition because that guy had some issues after college was over. He’s they’re all behind him now.

But yeah, he had uh he had a good eye for that. That’s why your strength and condition coach get paid a lot of money. You know, dude, I’ve shared a lot of stories. I I got to you know, we’re talking about heat. A lot of people like old stories. So, I I remember my first start. We’re playing Miami, Florida, number one team in the country, 1984.

Yep. And it was a miserable hot day. Miserable. Probably 90 at kickoff. And I’m just This story is about how football has changed in terms of depth, uh rotations. Yeah. So, I’m about we’re about midway through the second quarter and they put a long drive together.

M Miami, Florida, and it’s hot and this is my first start. I wasn’t I was I was I was not emotionally where I needed to be before a game. I was too into the warm up. Wasted too much energy on dumb stuff. Anyway, I raised my hand so my coach could see that I can hardly stand out here. I’m just dying. Needless to say, he did not acknowledge it.

And we finished the drive. We got him stopped. But I’m like, I can’t, you know, where you can’t even breathe where you’re that just, you know, you know, you know what it’s like. And he he he grabbed me and he told me, “Don’t ever raise your hand again.” And he said a couple of words I can’t say over here on YouTube. Now I got the second string kid, Steve Third, highly recruited, 6’4, 235, sipping out of cold water there. And and the mentality back then, dude, was there wasn’t much of a they didn’t think about rotation. No, no, you’re you’re the guy and and it’s crazy the mindset and that game right there was a factor on how I coached football.

I always had develop depth. It’s one of the things we’re going to look at when we look at the schedule. But I know people like stories and I never raised my hand again. You just suck it up. And uh dude, let’s talk about recruiting, man. A lot of good things going on. I I I I I just love seeing us beat good people for good kids.

Yeah. In different parts of the country. This Magio kid, one of the top offensive linemen in the country. Top 20 offensive lineman. Big kid. Uh Utah, one of them. Washington, one of them.

He’s the 19th rate lineman. 19th ranked lineman. And I read I read what he had to say. And I’m I you know, I get it. Money matters. A lot of this stuff is, but it’s still education still matters. And Jim Harding has a resume.

Our offensive line coach is a guy that uh when when when when guys are close and they can’t make a decision or they’re they’re they’re really evaluating a lot of different little things. We’re not going to get beat because of Jim Harding’s ability to coach guys and get them in the NFL when it comes to recruiting offensive line. Any thoughts on recruiting D? So when you’re talking about a Harding or a Wit or J Hill or Beck, you know, other teams could have recruited against Sherrone by saying, “Hey, he he’s new. He’s got no experience. You know, he doesn’t what’s his track record for putting guys in the NFL or making Big Ten uh all-conference players?” you don’t have to you don’t have that that bullet in your chamber anymore when you’re talking about these coaches and that’s a huge huge advantage and selling everything that Michigan has uh wits ability to put together a great program , 1 secondin the in the weight room the academics um yeah man that’s when you have uh they’re these guys are pros I mean you know they’re professional coaches at the college level. And u that’s a that’s a big win getting offensive linemen uh to come here and fill in for these guys that are going to be graduating in a year or two.

These are huge wins and uh getting highly ranked guys paying guys enough where they’re happy to come here but offering enough that they want to come here. So I think it’s great. Yeah. when you’re recruiting the top level kids that have NFL aspirations, that wasn’t a thing that was a factor when we were get back into my day, you know, and if we didn’t talk about that too much. Yeah, it wasn’t it wasn’t that big. But listen, these kids and and there’s nothing wrong with it. They got big goals.

They want to get a great education. They want to play on a championship team. They want to get a guy that’s going to coach them up and he’s got these guys going first round. I mean, you talk about a resume. So, I I just loved hearing what this kid had to say because what he’s saying and thinking, the other guys, the other recruits are going to think the same thing when it comes to Hardy. Now, I want to hear the same thing about Hill. I want to hear the same thing about all all the other position coaches, too.

Yeah, because that matters, man. You know, I I you know, I I I get it. I uh Any other thing about any other thoughts on recruiting? Do some names you you’ve you’ve seen pop up? not necessarily recruiting, but I I I understand that our um our lead nutritionist, I think Abigail is her name, um I don’t think she’s with the program anymore. She put out a post on social media that just talked about, you know, how much she was grateful for her time here uh from the players, the coaches, the staff, and everything. And I think that she is no longer with the program.

And I think that she was a big part of the program. uh nutrition. You go back to our time, we did not pay too much attention to nutrition. Obviously, we didn’t pay too much attention to heat exhaustion either because your like your story just illustrated. Uh but nutrition became a huge thing after we graduated and uh you know, they finally come. It took a long time for these coaches, guys who were, you know, born and bred in in doing this. Their their dads or their uncles or they did or whatever have been that old school football just like you said.

Don’t put your hand up for water. Don’t bend over. You know, what are you yawning for? They didn’t put up with that stuff. Well, we realize that all of that stuff is important and all of that is signs. Are you hydrated enough? Are you eating the right things?

Are you eating healthy? and Abigail um she did some great things. Everybody that talked about her had glowing things to say about her contribution. So if that is in fact the case, it’s sad because uh man, she did well. Of course, I think Whit probably got somebody else in mind that , 1 secondhe prefers. So that’s coach’s prerogative. They do.

When you’re good, people know about you, man. Oh yeah, man. You know, just like you’re saying, she’s good. People know. Yep. The the enemy is always scouting. I want to know who’s good.

If I can steal a guy, you know, that’s reality, man. Listen, I’ve been I I’m a football nut. I’m a Michigan football nut. I was watching some old Michigan Ricky Leech 78, 77. I like looking at the old films. Bentley Library. I’m a nut.

So, I’m You know what made me think about Rick Leech his freshman year? He was not, you know, he was whatever. Let’s give Bryce a chance, man. I just Yeah. Let’s let’s give Bryce a chance uh because there was huge improvement from Ricky Leech and uh we’re going to see it from Bryce. I just want to throw that out there. Do the guy led us to three state three straight championships after his, you know, starting his sophomore year.

Yeah. I I just I I like our quarterback room. I just want to throw it out there. Yeah. Well, he’s he’s in a good spot here because nobody’s believing in him right now, right? There’s a lot of chatter out there. The spring ball film didn’t look great.

People are are are down on him. People are talking up Tommy Carr. You know, that’s kind of the perfect spot to be in. Remember, we were six and six in 1984. We were talking about that recently. And uh nobody gave us anything. As a matter of fact, they were talking about maybe it’s time for Bo to go.

They didn’t pick us to win anything. We weren’t picked to win the Big Ten or even close to the top whatever five or six teams. They had written us off in 1985 and that was a perfect spot to be in because we came out, we were the number one defense in the country. We finished number two in the country. Uh and uh went out there where we go to Fiesta Bowl and beat Nebraska in the uh in the Sun Devil Stadium. That was Bo’s highest ranked finish. Yeah.

Number two in the country. His whole career was number two in the country. Harbaugh Harbaugh in ‘ 84 was very average at best. There were a lot of people, you know, questioning him and then 85 he comes back his second year and you know I he was a different player. Jim was uh you know fourth year or third year to fourth year. But anyway, I just got to throw it out there. Hey, look, I did we did the 64 team.

Take a look at that throwback classics. I had Mike Bass played uh for Lombardi and u George Allen and and Tom Parkill. Great show. Take a look at that. Uh, basketball coach Boynton, he the first test is in my book, I said, is can he retain these guys? Because I know what it is to replace a guy. Okay.

I know what it is to face a room full of players after a 20-year veteran uh, coach retires and they’re they’re they’re looking at you, you know, can I play for this guy? Will this guy lead us? Is he a leader? So, it’s a combination of he he would have spoke to the all of them. He would have spoke to him individually. But I I just have to say that Boynton other than LJ Kesan. He’s the only one that’s left.

So, Boynton has passed Scar’s first test. Retain the guys. Uh they they uh they they were with him. Some some of them guys don’t know him, some of the transfers and the high school kids, but mission accomplished. Step one for Boynton. Well, if uh so we’re going to talk about Warde in a little bit, but Ward had an interview recently and he talked about this subject. Mike Borton for one, you know, they played it right by naming him interim coach first because that pushed back the transfer portal window.

If they would have named a head coach a full-time head coach right away, then that transfer portal window opens up in like five days. an interim pushes it out for like 30 days and 30 days is too long for anybody to add somebody to their squad at that point. Anyway, so a good strategic move by Ward and now Boynton’s got a contract so they can’t recruit against that. He retained all the players except for LJ Kesan which you know he’s doing what’s best for him. He he got into the transfer portal yesterday. Doesn’t mean he’s gone. he’s got to still find a team and and he’s injured.

So, you know, we’ll we’ll see how that shakes out. But, um you know, Boynton has head coaching experience. He coached Cade Cunningham at Cunningham at uh Oklahoma State. He was kind of in a crap situation because they had uh they had some probation or infractions that they couldn’t play in the NCAA Tournament for a couple years. Uh, and so, you know, if you just looked on paper and saw his record, you think, you know, maybe not overwhelmed by by that record. However, if you dig a little deeper, uh, he’s done some good things with guys. And clearly clearly he can recruit and and relate to players and and it’s not like he just came in off the street.

He was there last year, so these guys know him. And he’s a really good defensive coach. And our defense was a a key contributor to winning a lot of games last year. So, um, you know, I think maybe like a lot of average fans of basketball, I don’t know basketball as well as football. Uh, and when they said Boynton, it was just like, well, it seems like a, you know, a coaching hire of convenience. However, uh, I’m coming around to the fact that, uh, he’s a good coach, he’s good defensive coach, he retained a lot of players, and, uh, this is a national championship squad, right? So, they know how to win.

They know one they won the Big Ten. They won the Big Ten tournament uh last year and national championship. They have some pedigree and Mike Boynton might be the guy to to just keep that train rolling. We’ll see. Yeah. Hey, players recognize game, players recognize weakness. You know, I remember going from coach Bill McCartney, unquestioned, brilliant, flatout defensive stud, uh, defensive coordinator, and the next year, here comes Gary Moeller.

Guess what? Didn’t miss a beat, man. Stand up in front of that defense and, okay, we ain’t missing a beat. We went back to back, two studs. So, the players recognize talent. They recognize a leader. They didn’t leave.

So that’s my take on that. Joe Blue is talking about Abigail. He heard her speak. Believe me, people know about her. So somebody somebody stole her. She got uh maybe she’s in charge now or a bigger job. But that that’s the that’s the world we live in.

This is the US of a capitalist. Uh the best survive. Okay. We got to get on uh Warde Manuel. A lot of stuff going on. Dude, why don’t you just jump in there? All right.

So uh the report they the big investigation it was uh done by Jenner and Block. It was this huge law firm firm and they looked into everything all any information they had about what went down, who knew what, what was said, what was emailed, what was uh who called who. They dug deep. It cost $11 million. And so the report was allegedly going to come out tomorrow. Well, for one, there is no written report. Okay.

The only people that have a written summary of the investigation is Block and Jenner and they’re not releasing. So they’re not handing a copy to Michigan, uh, the president, the AD, the Board of Regents. Nobody’s getting a written copy. It will stay secured with the attorneys. , 1 secondI don’t like that. I just think that that’s, you know, trying to dodge something. I don’t know.

The report is not going to be very flattering. And you’ve all probably heard that uh the the regents and the president are working on a buyout for Ward. Uh John Bacon, who is the one of few guys that I would listen to if he had a scoop. and John put out on Twitter that uh his sources say yes, they are in fact working on a on a biop. Now, Ward went on to WTKA this week and had a conversation with Sam Webb. It wasn’t scheduled just because this news is breaking. It was something that they had planned and it just happened to break at the same time that he was showing up.

Anyway, Sam asks him, “Listen, all of these reports and all of these stories are coming out about the regents and the president are working on a buyout for you. Is there any truth to that?” And u I I I Ward kind of dances around that because the first question he asks is, “Well, in these stories, does it name who the sources are?” No, they’re all unnamed sources. And he says, “Nobody knows what’s going to happen in the future. I know what’s going to happen today. I might know what’s going to happen tomorrow, but I don’t know what’s happening in the future.” That kind of sounds like a guy who, you know, knows his future is in doubt. Then he goes on to talk about a lot of the positive things that have happened under his watch. the championships, gymnastics, uh, uh, hockeyy’s going to the Frozen Four, the the national championship in basketball, the national championship in football.

He talks about what happened and how he felt and what he tried to do with regards to Jim and Dusty leaving after winning titles. And he doesn’t begrudge them. He says he’s happy for them. a guy like uh like Dusty and Jim, they wanna they want to try themselves at the NFL at the highest level. So, he’s like, “I’m happy that we they were here. I’m happy that uh we had success, and I’m happy they’re off doing what they want to do.” None of the answers were really direct, and you couldn’t possibly expect them to be direct. There’s no way Ward was going to go on and say, “Uh, yeah, I’m not I’m taking a buyout or I’m working on a buyout or I’m not accepting a buyout.” Um, you know, I I I I think the last time we were on, we talked about we didn’t think that word was going anywhere.

And prior to the show going on tonight, you and I uh both agreed it sounds it sounds like this is probably the end. Um and you know what? Sometimes you just just like Dusty went on to the Mavericks and just like Jim went on to uh the Chargers and just like Backage went to Vanderbilt. Life goes on, man. You lose people. You just got to get somebody else that’s as good or better. Ward did a lot of good things, but there’s a lot of things that happened on his watch that should not happen at Michigan.

And one, you can chalk up to, well, you know, there’s some bad people out there. Two, you’re like, well, what the hell’s going on? Three or more incidents and you’re like, okay, who’s watching this storefront? Uh, I don’t think that Ward wasn’t paying attention. I really do believe he was paying attention. I don’t believe he knew things were going on and he let them go on. There’s just no way.

The guy I know, you know, from being teammates and running into him and talking to him when I’ve been up to Ann Arbor for games, there’s no way that he was negligent uh on purpose. Okay. But in the same regard, Jim, you know, you were a football coach. If if if you had a bunch of players that had gotten in trouble, right? One kid, all right, you understand? Well, you know, some kids make the wrong choice. Two kids, hey, Jim, we got to have a conversation with the team because this, you know, we don’t want any more of this.

Three or more and it’s like, hey, do you have any control over what’s going on? Have you talked to these guys? At some point, if that continues to happen, you know, the athletic director, the principal of the school or whatever, somebody’s going to say, “Look, man, we like you. We love what you do on the football field. We like how you’ve handled the kids over the years, but we’re going to go in a different direction. Yeah. You know, dude, I listen, I’ve led in business many, many employees, and I was a head football coach in high school.

I was an athletic director in high school. And some of these common themes come up. And you know what? You know what the and everybody listen that has a boss or you or you have responsibilities, you have people under you, you know what we all want from the guy under us that’s responsible for stuff? Keep it off my desk. You know, you know, you know what I wanted as when I was the athletic director? What I wanted from my coaches?

Hey man, your kids are going to behave in school. They’re going to act right on on campus. They’re going to we’re going to win games. Every teacher’s going to love them. You I’m not going to have anybody complaining to me about you and your program. So, you know, so that’s one thing I’m sure. And that’s what I as a coach that’s what I want.

I don’t want the athlet athletic director bothering me. Let me coach my team. Get my bus there. get my equipment. Let me compete with Ohio State. Give me what I need to compete with the best and get the hell away from me. That’s what I want as a coach and that’s what I wanted as an athletic director.

Okay. So, he delegates, you know, some of this stuff he’s not responsible for Matt Weiss. You’re not that’s you know, he didn’t hire, you know what I mean? Some of this stuff you I can’t put on Ward Emanuel, but he’s got to put out fires, man. You know, you got to put out fires when you’re the guy in charge. So, Sherrone Moore, I think, is going to be the biggest issue. the way he was getting him hired and and handling him and the the the meetings with Paige and Sherrone and it it lingered.

You know, I know a guy whose kid played on the championship team and there was there was rumors of that stuff when he was an assistant. So, those are the things that I’m sure they’re all aware of that, you know, what did we know? When did we know it? But what I want from my if I’m the president of Michigan or I’m a regent of Michigan, what do I want from my AD man? Put this stuff out. Okay. Get pe handle things and deal with it.

So, I don’t know that I I answered the question, but when you got Now you got Partridge, Chris Partridge chirping in. He He’s He’s piping up. How did we handle him? You know what I mean? Was it Did we handle Partridge the right way? Now he’s suing. He’s he’s chirping.

And it’s not good for Michigan. So, did that fire get put out? No. That fire did not get put out and we’re dealing with it. So, you know, you pay a guy a lot of money. We don’t just pay you to sit in the suite and schedule games. There’s there’s a lot of nasty stuff that you got to the the the great leaders figure out a way to be ahead of it.

Ahead of the curve, man. Same with coaches. Anticipate it before it happens, man. I I I’m just I’m just throwing it out there. I don’t want to keep beating it up, but that’s where I’m on that. Put out fires is what the president wants from your ad. Well, and um there was a lot of fires.

Let’s be honest. Yeah. And you know again if you have one or two fires you could understand some stuff happens but if it keeps happening keeps happening keeps happening and then apparently this relationship with Sherrone and um uh his assistant started like two Yeah. Paige Shyber two or three years ago. Yeah. , 1 secondAnd you’re okay. And there was rumors and people had been talking and you apparently called them both in and interviewed them separately and both of them denied.

That’s fine. Were they going to tell you the truth? No, they were going to cover their up covered up. But there was signs there and then there was some signs of other things in Cheron’s um social media that you could have dug in. And there’s just no way you couldn’t have found this stuff out if you dug deeper, right? That’s how that’s how we’re going to wash this all down. I’m getting hot, man.

It’s time. It is time. So, all right. Hang on. I’m rocking strawberry vanilla. I root beer is my favorite. O OLIPOP, baby.

Strawberry. You got the same. I got it. But so last week I or last time we’re on I told you I I’m like the lemon lime. That’s my favorite. But I drank myself out of it. But I told you last time that I was going to have a a root beer float, right?

And my daughter makes her own ice cream. My daughter is such a great cook and a really really good baker. And now she’s making ice cream at home and it’s Oh, it’s so good. Anyway, I’m like, “Give me some of that because I’m having a root beer float.” This OLIPOP Classic Root Beer is delicious, but then you throw some ice cream in it. It’s It’s over the top. It’s excellent. Now, we talked about this last time.

We try to take care of ourselves. We don’t want to put garbage in our mouths. And uh uh you know, pop gets a bad name. Well, OLIPOP, it’s non-GMO, right? And it promotes your biome, your microbiome, and digestive health. And it does that with prebiotics, plant fiber, and botanicals. Right?

If you look at the ingredients on this, this is a lot of it’s all natural ingredients. Okay? So, this isn’t bad for you. This is refreshing, good tasting pop that’s actually good for you. All right, so this is the root beer. I had the same root beer with the float last week. Uh I don’t have any ice cream now, but I will have a nice root beer.

You guys should try this. It’s excellent tasting. And then if you have some ice cream, it’s even better. Yeah, I love it. Dude, I’ve been punching one down before I go to the gym. It’s uh it’s got me uh juiced up, fired up, and ready. I meant there was something on this root beer can I wanted to read because All right, so our oldfashioned root beer melts just the right mix of classic bite and creamy sweetness with extracts of sweet birch, smooth vanilla bean, and real bock root.

That’s all natural stuff. And it’s it’s I’m telling you it’s great. I love it. Get some. All right, dude. We’re we’re we’re now we now we’re cooled off. We heated up talking about war.

We’re cooled off a little bit. Let’s get on this film. Well, before you start that film. Okay, go ahead. I want to read a couple of these comments. All right, we got a fair amount of comments. I’ve been slacking here.

Okay, Jed said he was looking forward to tonight’s show. Thank you, Jed. Nine lives. It’s a great night for Scar and Dw. Thank you very much. Very much. Nine lives.

Again, my favorite concert, Aerosmith, Nine Lives Tour. Listen to that album. It’s awesome. It’s my favorite. Uh Doug, go Blue. Welcome. Uh Chris, go Blue.

Uh love your show, fellas. Especially your stories. Joe Blue. Nine lives. I love hearing the stories too. Very interesting. Joe Blue.

Abigail was a speaker at a couple of U of M club lunches and she was great. She was great. Uh the interviews with the former players have been excellent. Keep them coming. Uh do you guys think the person like Beline might be a good interim AD? I don’t know how much he wants it. I I don’t know how much he wants that job.

Yeah, I don’t think he wants that thing at all. That I think one of Yeah, you know, dude, I think I don’t know that he’s down with all this money for players and I think it’s something that he probably uh I think he’s ready to go. He got a place up north. He’s up there. Uh, you know, I think he’s on a different program. Yeah. No, I just don’t think he’s willing to take that day-to-day responsibility at this point in his life.

Uh, uh, if you guys go to www.drinkallipop.comglue, you get 20% off your first online order. 20% off. www.drinkallipop.com/goblue. Yeah. You know, my last comment about the AD, dude, the the the next the AD in college football now, you better be a , 1 secondguy more than anything that can talk to big money donors and they like talking to you. You are a personable uh connecting guy and you make those people happy, man. You know what I mean?

I don’t think that Yeah, man. I don’t think that could be understated because you can’t understate it in today’s game. Let’s get on this film, dude. You got the film up. I do. Okay, let’s look at this first play. We got some young guys in here.

We’re trying to find diamonds in the rough. Uh Avery Gad, 74, keeps showing up right here. 74 punching, meeting guys at the line of scrimmage, keeping defensive players go. Okay, do p bring that up, dude. And anyway, um I don’t like how we’re losing contain here, you know. I I don’t like seeing a dysfunctional defense. This is uh like what what is this?

You know, there’s nothing there. Now, you got a quarter coming up. So, I I don’t like seeing that. What else do I have here on this play? But I I like uh the the dude, look at this. You know, again, these are young guys. I don’t like the jam.

Where are your eyes? We’re playing zone. Get a jam. See the quarter. I mean, look at this, dude. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Got to turn around and look what happens. It opens it up for 89. He just hasn’t played enough. He hasn’t played, but they’ll coach You got to coach him up. He’s a young guy, but uh dude, what about nights in, baby? Ah, we got a new sponsor, fellas. Uh, Nights in in Ann Arbor.

Uh, if you haven’t been there, what are you doing? What are you doing? Knight’s Steakhouse in Ann Arbor is a new sponsor for us and we got big plans to do some things live from out that way. Uh, we might do this show from there. We might do uh some pregame or some afterame something. We’ll put it all together. We’ll let the guys in charge handle that.

their people will get in touch of our people and uh we hope to have something planned where we’ll all meet Jim, me, Doug, Chris Howard, uh some of the other Hail Media personalities. We’ll go out there. We’ll host something out there at Knight’s Steakhouse. Yeah. I can’t believe I screwed that up. I’ve been there. I used to go on Happy Hour when I was living in Ann Arbor.

Knight’s Steakhouse. Great uh great vibe, great food. Yeah. Uh glad we’re they’re they’re giving us a shot here to give Yeah, me too. to hang with Hail Media. Anyway, dude, what are you seeing here? So, this one I like.

Watch the edge here. I don’t know what’s going on to be honest. Now, listen. I know we’re running a basic defense, right? Uh, and so we’re not going to be probably doing this in this situation when it comes to, you know, anybody else besides a spring game, but we kind of get our our edge hemmed in there by the tackle. And then there’s a there’s a tight end out there, offset tight end, and he’s got a free shot to the linebacker. I don’t know whose gap was whose, but yeah, you know, dude, the you know the story I gave about my coach not wanting to sub out the Listen, the upside of playing guys is you keep guys fresh.

The downside of playing a lot of guys is mental rep mental mistakes, you know, when you you don’t always get as many reps in practice. Uh, you know, I just I don’t like the technique of this edge player here. He gets crash crushed. 44 is Owens, right? This Yeah, the second. Yes. Eli Owens.

He I mean this is terrible technique by this edge player. Uh I don’t like I don’t know what our lang lot of mental you know this is why these guys are in here a third group. You know what I mean? You’re seeing a lot of mental mistakes, but you you if you want to get out of the third group, you got to you got to be in the right spot. You can’t get crushed like that. So yeah, I like that’s Dabney number 23. I like Dabney’s physicality on this receiver, right?

He gets in front of the his route, he reroutes him. I love that. Okay. Got hands on him and everything. Now I think Carr should have thrown it already. That guy’s back was to him and the outside receiver was running a slant. You got to you got to tuck that in there, man.

Yeah. Um, I think when you look at the replay here, I think they show it from behind. I can’t see. I think he he tapped the ball, right? You know how quarterbacks sometimes do that? They get in the back of their drop, they tap it. , 1 secondYeah.

And I I think if he would have just thrown that to the outside receiver slant, the inside receiver was underneath and inside his guy, so he took him out of the way. There was a lane there. I think he could have thrown that sooner. Yeah. You don’t do the uh the player that got crushed. You remember film session how that would have gone for that player. 50 guys looking at you coach pointing it out.

Yeah. They right there on the film for everybody to see. What do you see here? D. Yeah. So again, I think that this same thing. I think he taps the ball there.

This So watch the overhang the nickel player right there. You have him circled, right? He bites on the play fake. So that opens it up. Throw that in the window right there. Bang. Right there.

And I think what happened is Carr tapped the ball again and it threw off a little bit of a rhythm. I don’t know why he sailed it so far and high. Well, you got this linebacker there. He sees the linebacker. The linebacker is getting his hands up. This guy gets his hands up. This guy is uh you know, it looks like he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

whether he’s supposed to rush or drop. He just looks because I think he he bites on the play thing. He thinks that the ball’s Yeah, that’s that’s Yeah, you got to have discipline. You got to read the uh I mean, you got to read that mesh point. You you know, you got you can’t do anything right right there. You got to sit tight. You got to sit tight until you clear run.

You got a clear run and now you you know, you can’t bite up field. So yeah, just that’s two young guys who just are, you know, learning. That’s and that’s something that it takes time, man. You’re not going to This is Carr’s what, 15th practice. Yeah. Well, you know, looking at some of the defensive guys, they got to um you know, you gota you got to read your keys. The mesh point, it all starts with the mesh point, man.

Whit’s a guy that likes the uh he likes to put that whistle. I couldn’t coach like that, dude. Did you coach like that? I never, man, I couldn’t wear a whistle. I hated him. I I mean, I had a whistle, but I couldn’t wear it in my mouth the whole time. He likes to chew on it.

Um I I never I couldn’t I just yelled. Yeah, I I continue to be impressed with Kanka. We’ve talked about Kanka. He smokes this guy. They’re moving uh Nico around. He’s a safety and he’s a tough athletic kid. He’s not a big kid, but here Nico is coming off the edge.

And Andrew, I forget. I got Andrew Jetty. Andrew Jetty. Anyway, he comes off the edge here. And you know, he he gets contained. Fast kid. You know, you got to teach him how to rush.

But um I’m watching. Let’s take a look at Kanka 99 right here. What’s he doing? I got him circled. He did something. He just he he wrecks this block. Yeah, he just beats this He beats this guard or center.

That’s the center. Yeah, he just swims him, beats him. You know, that’s Oh, that’s the kid that that’s the transfer. Where did he come from? Oh, , 1 seconddog gone it. Um, Houston is his name. Oh, shoot.

I can’t remember where he came from. Anyway, uh, he gets beat pretty bad there. Yeah, Kanka continues to impress. Yes, for sure. What about this guy here, D? That’s our man, man. We’re all We’ll be watching him closely and I’m expecting big things.

I really You talk about You talk about uh substitutions, right? And we had talked about this before. How much Michigan substituted last year to the point where people were like, “What the hell are we doing? Keep your starters in there. Why is your best player on the on the feet on the sideline? It’s it’s not that hot. He hasn’t made that many plays in a row.

Keep him out there.” But man, so much a lot of these guys, you know, you wonder all the things that are going on. Do you or do you want to keep you don’t want to keep you don’t want them to transfer? I you know, I listen, I played a lot of guys and if I was coaching now, I would I would play 22 guys. I would I would Yeah, but I mean, you can’t do that to last. So, we played a lot of the freshman last year. And you’re right. You and I’ve heard that before is Yeah.

You got to keep them happy, man. You can’t just stick them on the sidelines until they’re an upper classman. It doesn’t it doesn’t work like that anymore. But man, you can’t do that and leave a guy like Derek Moore on the sideline. Yeah. Well, you know, you know, also what my thinking do when I was coaching would also to I’m going to go 22. I’m going to go 22 on defense and as we get into crunch time throughout the game when there’s key plays or c crucial times I can put a guy in and he’s going to have something in the tank especially in the fourth quarter.

Yep. So listen, I want to first of all I want to give you the guy’s name because it just pisses me off that I forget stuff like that. How about h how about these girls on the sideline? We we never had a female in any role at all. Look at this. Well, it’s it’s a different time, my friend. I know they just, you know, I don’t know what they do, but it’s just a different world, man.

We Anyway, I So, Houston, Kayahana, I don’t know how to say this. Torres, he’s the guy that came from Nebraska, right? Yes, he came from Nebraska. Listen, I don’t know all the guys names by their numbers yet, but I promise you come the season, I after doing the reviews and everything and watching the games probably two or three or four times, I get to know their names uh just by looking at their number. I’m not there yet, so I kind of stumble around with that. Ticks me off. I know it ticks people off like, “Come on, you dumb old man.” I’ll have it down.

Okay. Anyway, I don’t know if we’ve seen his picture yet. This is the head strength coach, Alisia. Yeah. And he’s a bad man. I shook his hand. Yeah.

He He’s a bad dude. So, I just want to point him out. He just looks like a tough so, you know, he he he’s got the respect of the players. I That’s That was the vibe I got. All right, we got a few more plays. Let’s see what we got here. Zone and we got a little stunt.

Looks like this is what first and 10 235. Yeah, this is outside zone to the right. Left, right? Yep. Yeah, we’re we’re blocking it pretty good up here. Well, the left guard’s got to get his head across the bow. You cannot let a guy If you’re going if the play’s going to the right, you cannot be in that position.

Your head has to be out there. Yeah, you got to cut him off. Yeah, that’s not good by him. No. Again, the front side was good, but yeah, it would have been a much better run. So, this is the Nico we were talking about. This guy plays safety.

You’ve been around a long time. Yeah, he plays safety. They had him come off the edge there a second ago. Uh he’s a grad. I tell you some of these tackles, they hate blocking those guys. Those little 195 pounders, you know, safeties. Tough guys, man.

They just, you know, they just want to work a speed move off the edge. Yeah. Remember we had blocking those guys. Remember we had Jordan Glasgow, one of the Glas the last of the Glasgow brothers. Man, that kid. Dude, listen. Go ahead.

I want to talk about this when you’re done. Yeah. No, he just you get a guy that’s got experience. It’s a lot of playing time. He’s been around for four, five years. Uh they just have a head for the game. They’ve watched enough film that Nico Andrew Jetty is just like that, just like Jordan Glasgow.

you know, the closer we get to the season, do and I will I’ll go over some uh some individual games, but I’m just looking and if as a as a coach looking if I’m leading this team, I’ll tell you in just some as a player, I think uh one of the you look at this schedule, Oklahoma, I mean there is no jokes. We got to play we gota, you know, we got to play we got to go to Rutgers. That ain’t no that ain’t no lamp chop, you know. No, there ain’t there not a lamb chop on the schedule other than, you know, maybe these people. Okay, so number one, you got to develop depth. You’ve got to develop, you know, I heard Whit talk about do when I was coaching, I wanted three guys for for two positions. I you know, I can’t be like these guys.

I don’t have guys on scout. He wants five. Whit Whit wants five for two positions. He talked about two and a half. Did you hear him say that? Yeah. So, he wants five for two positions.

That’s that’s the way he wants. Now, when you play this kind of schedule, depth is like number one. You got to develop depth as you go through the season. And then you got to improve every week. That’s a big thing. You got to improve and develop depth every week. So, it it gets back.

See, that’s the contradiction like you talked about playing a lot of guys, you know what I mean? And and and and then you’re wondering, why isn’t Derek? I get it. There’s a downside to developing depth and then you want to improve. And then the big thing is, you know, you got to play, you got to get these guys ready to play mentally tough every week. Every week. Mentally tough.

Uh no lamb chops. I mean, you got to buckle up every week. Every single week. So, I just wanted to point that out. D a general observation of the schedule from SCAR. Depth improve uh mentally tough every week, players and coaches. I like the way the schedule sets up and it, you know, it didn’t dawn on me until I see this graphic up there, but um, you know, you’re bringing in a new coach, new offense, new coordinators on both side of the ball.

You open up with Western Michigan. Western Michigan won the MAC last year. I don’t think it is a lamb chop. I think that’s going to be a good competitive game. And then you have Oklahoma, and we know all about Oklahoma, and they are going to give us everything and then some. That’ll be a tough one to to go with. UTEP a nice comeback from you from the Oklahoma game, but then you got two tough games.

Um, uh, including Iowa. So, and then going to Minnesota. We’ve been to games up in Minnesota and we’ve been in some dog fights in Minnesota. Jim had some Jim had a goal line stand. Yeah, man. Um but anyway though I just wanted to give some general if you just had some general points do uh I mean you you know you I gave my three. Yeah.

Well I just like I like the way that that the the schedule sets up because you know we have couple tough games there but then we get a buy then we can re-evaluate where are we at right now after these five games. Uh what do we really need to work on? Do we need to make a change someplace uh on the line or you know tight end or hell even the quarterback? Uh and because after that man it is a dog fight. Penn State, IU at Rutgers, Michigan State at Oregon, home UCLA and then at Ohio State. That is that’s what’s that seven games. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven games and not one of them is a cakewalk.

That’s going to be a tough schedule. However, if they make, you know, a good impression and and show some stuff in those first five games, get things right, get healthy in the bye week, then I think they can make, you know, make they’re going to have give their best shot right. I don’t know if they’re going to win them all. I don’t know if they’re going to lose six, but uh the schedule sets up where we can take that by week, evaluate what’s going on, tweak some things that need be tweaking, and then uh let’s go. Yeah, I think this our last play. I like this stunt and I like the width that this tackle gets, understanding, you know, how how fast the quarterback is. They’re working a little stunt here.

Talk about that, dude. What do you see? Yeah, he does. But again, that’s the center. And uh you can now So this is a zone read. Just pause this for a second. Right there.

Okay. So if the zone read, so the ball can either go to the right, right? Or the quarterback can keep it go to the left. The offensive lineman can’t see what the quarterback’s doing. They have no idea if the ball’s going to the right or to the left. So, this is a tough ask because the defensive lines got their eyes on the ball carrier. The center, you can see right there, and this is Houston again, the guy that transferred from Nebraska.

He’s kind of let that guy get outside of him, and he’s got to feel that. You can’t see. So, you got to use some sense of feel. Hey, why is this guy trying to get over there? Well, because the quarterback kept the ball and he’s got it. You got to keep going, man. Keep them legs turning and try and get that head across the bow or get that do something to get that guy away from your quarterback.

You know, dude, the way they block this though, this is a tough ask for that kid. He’s a really tough ask. You know what I mean? It’s a reach block to start with. Yeah, he’s he’s he’s he’s beat the center’s beat by alignment. The guy’s in the A gap. So, yeah, this is uh and I don’t again I this is basic stuff.

They’re running basic defense. were running, you know, 5% of the the the uh playbook. That’s Herbstreit out there, right? Yeah. You know, you’re not doing anything exotic. You’re not changing the play at the line of scrimmage. You’re not making calls or anything like that.

So, this is not something that you’re going to see uh during the season. You’re right. It’s a tough ask, but you want to see guys give the best effort they possibly can. You don’t want to see them get their butt kicked. Yeah. So, anyway, we’re we’re trying to find diamonds in the rough. Uh Kanka is a guy we keep seeing.

I don’t Hey, here’s somebody. Joe wants to know because we’ve already talked about this guy and I know he’s a f one of your favorites is Palipali. Yeah. What do you think? Well, listen, I I mean he looks he looks uh he looks he looks leaner, faster. Um you know that I questioned his ability to rush. You know, these guys are so big that they they you know, Warren Sapp is the ideal three technique.

play the double and can give you speed. You know, Aaron Donald, those are the guys you want to find. Who’s the big, strong, tough kid that can play a double team and then still rush the quarterback and Well, it would be helpful if you could find a couple of Hall of Famers. Yeah, but I mean I mean that’s what you want at that. You want guys that are big enough, but they can also give you some pass rush. Hanka is starting to show us that Palpali I I question his ability to rush in the past but he looked quicker and he looks quicker and more athletic where you know he can be more of a Mason Graham type. I thought he looked good man.

I thought he looked like they did a job with you know he’s a he’s he’s a three-year now kid in the program. The strength coach I think did a good job with him. Um and he’s definitely just like you said Whit is looking for for five guys for two positions. So, you’re going to see Pali, you’re going to see Kanka, you’re going to see Patterson, you’re going to I totally understand what what Wit’s thinking. You know, you want five. That way you That way you got If one guy gets dinged up, now you’re still where you want to be. You got 22 guys for, you know, for 11 positions.

Hey, hit the thumbs up, subscribe one. I got one story. People like stories. I was talking about Big John and I was a freshman and and trying to, you know, you’re going to school. Explain who we’re talking about here. Big John. Big John is the equipment manager.

le legendary equipment manager and you’re, you know, dude, you’re swamped, you’re going to school, you’re going to practice, you come home, you’re wiped out, you got game on Saturday, you got a film on Sunday, and you got to try to do laundry. And I’m watching some of the old-timers, Jared Dioro, Vince D Feliz. We had the big bag. We threw our sock and jock and t-shirt in every day after practice and he would just and Johnny would wash it. You come back, you get it, your bag is washed. It was a big mesh bag. And I’m watching Dioro and these guys are stuffing and defel they’re stuffing their blue jeans in there.

They’re stuffing their pillow cases in there. They’re stuffing all kind. They bag of stuff and and and they’re like, “Scar, you got to get with the program.” Dude, you ain’t got time to do laundry. I figured it out. Those guys hooked me up. Dude, if I would have tried that and tried to put my personal items in my black bag and send it through the laundry, Johnny would hang it in my locker for a month without washing it. Anyway, that’s another Michigan football story.

I I didn’t do it every day, but I snuck a few things in there to keep uh you know, lighten up that workload of having to do laundry. But man, we’re fired up. Ain’t no one on our schedule we can’t beat, dude. I’m sitting back with a OLIPOP. Fired up. Ain’t no one on our schedule. I firmly believe it.

We can beat everybody on our schedule and we got the coach. I’m fired up. Over and out. Go blue. Any last thoughts, dude? Yeah, man. We are 52s 52 days away from Western Michigan.

It’s going to fly by. Uh we’re going to get on some film of these other teams that we’re going to play. But man, I Yeah, the closer you get to August, you really start to realize we are going to be playing football in a month and then before you know it, toe meets leather. I’m excited for this year. I’m I just I don’t know what to expect. I don’t know. Like it’s a I’m confident.

We’ll see you at at Knight’s Steakhouse, baby. Go Blue.]