SCAR & DUE Episode 26 Indiana Recap 10/26/26

[My partner used to say, “Things are never as good as you think, and they’re never as bad as you think.” Football and coaching teach you mental toughness, and our players and coaches are really being tested in a lot of ways.

Whittingham has got—you know, that’s why you’re making the big bucks, man. You’ve got people wanting your coaches fired. You’ve got the quarterback situation. You couldn’t have more controversies and headaches to deal with. A great leader finds a way to pull this team together. It’s a real challenge for Coach Whit. But how are you doing, dude?

“Doing all right. Not pleased, like everybody else. Disappointed. Frustrated. Whit said it’s no time to panic. I disagree.

“Statistically, the rankings in certain offensive categories, the feel of it, the look of it, the results of it—I would say absolutely. After seven games, not being able to put up points, sustain drives, or cut out the negative plays, I certainly think this is time to panic. Not lose your behind and be an idiot, but it’s time to have a serious conversation. What are we doing here? What’s going wrong? Why can’t we get some of these things fixed?

“Start fixing them. Start replacing guys. Start replacing coaches if you have to. Already this week, NC State’s head coach, Dave Doeren, was canned. They canned the offensive coordinator at Oregon. Earlier, Illinois canned its defensive coordinator.

“In a game where everything costs millions and millions of dollars, and you’re paying a guy the most money any coordinator in the country is making, I would say, yeah, it’s time to panic, because it doesn’t seem to be working very well.”

Yeah, those are really tough decisions. Dude, I’m going to say this: I think my outlook might be a little different from a lot of people. I put it on the head coach. I put 90 percent of what we do offensively on the head coach.

“He does have the overall responsibility. I understand that he has the final word, but you hired a coordinator. I wouldn’t say 90 percent of the results are his fault. But now’s the time. Right now and going forward, anything that happens, yeah.”

I was actually looking at 2014 and 2015 against Michigan, running a lot of the same stuff he runs. Coaches have a belief system about what they believe in offensively and defensively.

Look at Urban Meyer. Urban Meyer had five offensive coordinators while he was at Ohio State. I would never have known the difference, who the hell the offensive coordinator was. They ran what they ran. They ran a lot of quarterback run. He had good players, and they ran what they ran. I wouldn’t have known the difference between his coordinators.

I think Whittingham has a belief system, and he’s got to be looking at it: How were we able to score so many points last year running the same stuff? Utah—I looked at their game against Houston the other night. They’re scoring 40-some points. They’re undefeated, and they’re running the same stuff we run. The exact same stuff.

“What conference do they play in again?”

I understand that, but the talent should be relative.

“I don’t think so. Not in the trenches.”

Okay, then Utah should have inferior offensive line talent if they’re in a smaller division and don’t have the money. It’s all relative.

“How many teams in the Power Four conferences are running this Rhino alignment? A lot of teams throw in an extra blocker, but when you’re running 11 personnel, how many teams are replacing a tight end with a converted defensive tackle or any lineman? That’s what we’re doing. Who’s doing that?”

I think the head coach—

“On occasion.”

Well, that’s where I think he brought him in from New Mexico. He liked what he was doing at New Mexico. He watched him coach. He saw what he did. He brought him here because he believes in a lot of the things he’s doing. He brought his quarterback with him from New Mexico, and they lit it up last year at Utah. They scored a lot of points.

“Okay, but let me ask you this: If they weren’t lighting it up, and it sucked, and you had a ton of drives that ended in a punt or a turnover, do you think he would have continued going on?”

You’re talking about last year?

“Last year.”

For one, he wouldn’t have gotten the Michigan job. It would have been a whole different world. He would have been an unsuccessful coach. But they scored a lot of points last year. They’re scoring points this year. I get it—it’s a different league, and they have a different quarterback.

Listen, I’m not going to defend all the missed assignments, the poor execution. There’s a lot of stuff I don’t like. This is my statement: I’m putting it more on the head coach. I’m putting a lot on the offensive line coach when we see a bunch of poor execution. A lot of those reads that are jacked up, I want to put that on the quarterback coach.

What I would ask our listeners to think about is this: What if we switched Harding and Beck? We say, “Okay, Beck, just coach the quarterbacks. Harding, you’re the offensive coordinator.” What does that change? Would you think that changes anything, dude?

“Yeah, I think so, but it’s going to be slight. What is Jim Harding’s history? He has never called an offensive game plan, so he’s going to go with, ‘Okay, you guys are familiar with this. Let’s work on this, and let’s run this.’ Maybe he’s got a tweak. Maybe he’s got an idea. But something needs to happen.

“We have had 64 offensive drives this year over seven games. Sixty-four offensive drives. Forty-seven of them have ended in a punt or a turnover. They’re 114th in red-zone conversion. We’re 17th in the Big Ten in points per game. We’re 17th in the Big Ten in yards per game.

“It’s gone on for seven games. Who looked better in the game yesterday than they did in the first game against Western? Who looks better? Who’s improved?”

You’re right. Good point.

“Nobody. Make a case for Beck. Is the team getting better? Doesn’t look like it. Are they winning games? Nope. Has the running improved? Has the blocking improved? You changed quarterbacks. Did anything improve there?

“We’ll go through this film. We brought out the Wildcat again. We brought out Bryce in the middle of a series to run a play. Does he think everybody else is an idiot? Seriously, you bring that out. Do you really think Bryce is going to do anything but run?”

As soon as he came on the field, I’m saying, “Please don’t run quarterback power.” And that’s exactly what they ran.

“Everybody watching TV or at that stadium said the same thing: ‘Okay, it’s quarterback power.’ Do you have that little regard for other coaches and their experience and mindset? You think you’re going to fool them with that? Jeez-o-Pete, man. That’s terrible.”

Anyway, dude, I’m going to go through a couple of things. Whittingham is challenged in so many ways. I’m hearing things about guys wanting to get in the portal. Recruits are already thinking things. Hey, man, if that’s how you feel—but it’s happening, and he has to deal with that.

Before this game, what were the two things I said? Secure the football and be great in the red zone. Our defensive coaches were listening to me because we were damn good in the red zone. But we did not secure the football, and our offense was pathetic in the red zone.

One last comment: When I’m looking at this film and thinking about this program, I’m thinking about how Bo would have handled this. I’ve been a head football coach. The mud—I can’t say that one word—would have been rolling downhill in Ann Arbor. It would have been rolling downhill big time. Everybody would be getting it.

People are obviously feeling pretty good about the defense. But anybody involved with the offense in any way, shape, or form would be getting it, from Whit and from Schembechler. Go ahead with that, dude.

“Whit looks like a great guy. When he got hired, everybody was excited. We have an adult in the room. We have somebody who’s going to organize. We have somebody who’s going to have discipline. These kids are going to go to class. They’re going to go to meetings on time or 10 minutes early.

“That all sounds great. That’s the information we have. After last year, that all sounds fantastic. But then we get into the games, and you realize they’re facing adversity. Your friend, the guy you brought from Utah, is struggling. You can’t be pacifying the guy, or guys who keep missing blocks, or a play call that continuously gets blown up or executed incorrectly.

“Somebody’s got to put their foot down, and somebody’s got to put their foot in somebody else’s butt. That’s what Bo would do.”

Yeah.

“That’s how it was back then. That’s how Jason Eck was. Did you see Jason Eck in that game over the weekend? They got a sack or a turnover—something good happened for New Mexico. It was a turnover. This kid who was on the field, instead of blocking for the interception return or fumble return, is standing over the quarterback and jawing at him.

“Eck went ballistic. Some people were like, ‘This might affect his ability to get another job because he went ham.’ You know what? These kids get pacified. They get paid. They’ve got people telling them how great they are. They’ve got posses. If you screw up, you deserve a chewing out. We need a chewing out now.”

Yeah, that guy will get a big job. Jason is a Barry Alvarez guy. Everybody should be looking at that New Mexico coach. He’s a stud. I’ve won money betting on him, by the way. [Laughter.] I’m not supposed to talk about that. We don’t talk about that. He’s good.

Let me say this about the quarterback situation. I don’t know how you can start making comparisons. We don’t need the comparisons. A guy makes his first start against a team that really was one play away from being the number-one-ranked team in the country, without a doubt the best football team we’ve played this year, with the best defense we’ve played this year.

I don’t want to hear comparisons between some kid who made his first start and some other guy who started 18 games. They made the change. You’ve got to let this guy play a little bit before you really start making comparisons.

“That’s a big question. What are you going to do? Seriously, do you go back to Bryce, or do you stick with Tommy and say, ‘We gave Bryce five and a half games, and we decided to make this change’?

“Like you said, it’s against the best-coached team in the country. They are the most disciplined team. We’re going to show you evidence of that on film. They’re the defending national champs. They should have won, or came damn close to winning, that game against Ohio State. This is no slouch. Michigan stood in there toe-to-toe with these guys, took their punches, and the defense never wobbled.

“What do you do? Keep going with Tommy? I think you have to. You can’t go back to Bryce and say, ‘You know what? Turns out, Bryce, it was me all along.’ They’re not going to do that.”

No, I think when they made that decision against Penn State, they knew this was the way they were going. I’m going to keep it real with you, D. I think those coaches are looking at where they’re at. They had two losses, and they’re playing Penn State.

Maybe I shouldn’t even say this, but I’m thinking, “If we’re going to get two or three years, tops, to prove we can win here, and we’re going to go down and get fired, we’re going to go down with Tommy Carr.” I think that’s what some of those coaches were thinking, because Whit said the coaches came to him with that suggestion.

“Whit said the kids suggested it?”

The coaches did. The assistant coaches came to Whit and said, “Let’s make the change.”

“Did they go to Whit and say, ‘Change offensive coordinators, too’?”

No, they didn’t say that. He said, “Make the change at the quarterback position.” That’s what they said at that time.

“Good. I’m glad they did, and I’m glad they made the change because now it’s on tape. Guess what? Two different quarterbacks, same results. Plays getting blown up.”

Well, I would not compare a guy who started 16 or 18 games, even though it was in a different system. He knows what it is to play in front of 100,000 people and the pressure and stress of that environment. I know what it is to start my first game compared to starting my third or fourth game. It’s a world of difference.

I wouldn’t compare them. He didn’t get UTEP or Central and some of these other guys to get a warmup. He gets to start against a team that is by far the best team we’ve faced. I just wanted to make that point.

“That’s a good point. Tommy said after the game—they did the interviews, Jason Avant did, on the postgame show—‘They ran more man than we thought they were going to.’ That probably threw Tommy.

“I told everybody, whether it was on my Low Hanging Fruit X account or with you last week, this is a really well-coached team. They’re going to throw things at Tommy. They’re going to confuse him. They’re going to confuse the line.

“First of all, we had to start a true freshman at right tackle because Sprague and Frazier were out. We had to play Marky Walbridge. You were talking about Urban Meyer before we went on. He used to say, ‘Find the fish.’ The fish was the guy they knew they could exploit. They found the fish right away in Marky Walbridge, and they ran a bunch of twists. They would send one guy in—”

I saw it looking at the film, dude. It crushed so many plays.

“Remember me saying two or three weeks ago, ‘Jason Beck, I’d like to see what counterpunch he has’? How do you counter what they do? He has no counterpunch.”

I put a lot of that on the offensive line coach. We’re going to see this stuff, and I’m like, “How are you teaching this?” I’m putting myself in the head coach’s position. If my guys aren’t blocking certain schemes people are running, I’m asking, “What are you doing, man? Are you coaching this stuff? What are we working on in practice, dude?”

Let’s look at some of the questions here.

“We’re going to read the comments, and it’s brought to you by OLIPOP. It’s fall. Get yourself a Crisp Apple. Go ahead. What does the comment say?”

“Beck has an ego problem.” I don’t know. I haven’t heard him talk in an arrogant way. “Three plays earlier, we had the same play with Bryce, and the kid played his guy.” Q, you’re right. They knew that was coming.

What else have we got here? Thanks very much. Dude, I’m going to get on the film as soon as we’re ready, because we’ve got a lot.

“Just real quick, talk about what’s going on in the Big Ten. UCLA leads the Big Ten. It’s 7–0, the only undefeated team in the league. Bob Chesney—you had talked about him in the offseason. I thought you were blowing him up a little bit. He was getting some recruits, and you liked him, but I never thought it was going to translate this quickly on the field. He’s 7–0.

“You never know. Somebody’s going to stub their toe when you don’t think it, but they could very well finish undefeated in the regular season.”

Yeah, they’re going to be a challenge. We play them at home. They’ve got to go four hours in a plane. Listen, dude, I’m big on guys who aren’t born on third base, period. This dude started at a Division III school, then Division II, and worked his way up. He understands coaching, how to outcoach guys with inferior talent.

He’s only got two players UCLA recruited out of high school. The transfers he brought in aren’t big-school guys. They’re from places like UAB.

When I look at Cignetti and the team he put on that field, Cignetti is a really smart coach schematically. He’s got coaches who know how to coach. He gives you problems, all that stuff good coaches do. But he has an eye for talent, and you’d better have an eye for talent. If you don’t have a big wallet, you’d better see that diamond in the rough the other guy hasn’t seen.

“I think Cignetti probably has that. Chesney coached under him at James Madison, right?”

No, they’re totally different. He wasn’t on his staff. He was a head coach at a couple of prior places.

“You’ve got to know talent, but I think it’s always been a combination. I’ve always been more about the coaches and the scheme than the players. You can take slightly less talented players and make them a hell of a lot better if you’re a really good coach.”

Absolutely.

“Good players sometimes make coaches look better than they are. Cignetti gets everything out of these guys. They are so damn well coached. The same thing out at UCLA.

“Minnesota goes there, kicks a field goal, and beats Iowa. Now they’re up there fighting for it. Northwestern, nice win.”

Yeah. Chip Kelly running the Wing-T, running things, being creative. Oregon loses, scores 10 points, fires its offensive coordinator.

“Yeah, that’s something we—”

Look, we’ve got to play Rutgers, a game we should win. They’ve got to have the wheels falling off over there. It’s going to be on the road, but they’ll probably have a half-empty stadium. We’ll probably have more Michigan people there for that one.

Then we’ve got the Spartans coming in. He’s got a lot of guys banged up. He hasn’t done a great job in the portal. I think Fitz is a smart coach. He hasn’t done a good job bringing in talent.

Then we’ve got Oregon, UCLA, and the Buckeyes. That’s where we’re at schedule-wise. Hopefully Dante Moore just says, “The hell with it,” and we won’t see him when we go out to Oregon. I don’t know what he’s going to do.

“He should be back. I would expect him to be back in time. Steve in the comments says maybe 5–7. We’re at four wins right now. We’ve got Rutgers and Michigan State. If we don’t win those two games, okay, you can start up the banter about who’s going to be the next coach. But they’ve got to win those two games, right?”

Yeah. A lot of our stuff is fixable. You’ll see some of these things. If the talent is equal, you’ve got to outcoach guys. You’ve got to be smarter. You’ve got to block the right guy. You’ve got to block their scheme. You’ve got to try to fool them if you don’t have better players. Against Indiana, they’ve got good players, man.

“Before we start the film, we absolutely need to take a moment and really praise the defense. They’ve been very good all year, but this game against this team, with those two wide receivers—those are two first-round draft picks at wide receiver.

“Remember last week when I had major concerns about all the penalties against Penn State, trying to contain that one guy, number zero? That was a huge red flag, I said. Then we come into this game with much better receivers, a better quarterback, a better line, a better coach, and the defensive backfield—Chris Bracy is an absolute stud. They never threw at him. Jyaire Hill, a couple of big plays. Zeke Berry, is that his best game ever?”

Yeah. Him and Shug made a lot of money Saturday.

“Their draft stock went way up, for sure. A hell of an effort. The majority of it was man-to-man coverage, which they play in the pros. Zeke Berry—we’re going to show that play where he laid out to deflect that pass thrown to Marsh, and then the interception. God, he played that so perfectly. All the praise in the world to the defense, Jay Hill, and the staff.”

My buddy was saying, “If we’ve got these players, why are we so much better coached on defense than offense?”

“Because Jay Hill’s a better coach.”

Look, dude, we watched a bunch of film in June, July, and August. I noticed how great these guys are in run support and how they do a lot of different things. The mental mistakes, some of the busted coverages or gaps, were pretty much eliminated. The run support is incredible. We hit the jackpot with Bracy. It’s an unbelievably great effort.

“That guy’s going to get drafted, right? He’s playing great ball.”

He’s showing he can support the run. He’s smart. You’ll see. There are so many things to talk about, but there’s just not enough time.

“To hold that team to six points in regulation is an incredible accomplishment.”

I think Etta, Big John, and Bracy have been my top three. Shug had a great game, but those three guys have played every darn week. Give your last thought. I’m going to get on this film.

“Unfortunately, Etta left the game about halfway through. He didn’t play the whole game. Injuries, on top of everything else that’s going wrong. That’s not the reason the offense sucked, because we’ve had the other players who are out in there, and the offense still sucked.

“But it’s getting toward that time when people are starting to get dinged up. We already had the bye week. From here on out, every week we’ve got to play, and we’ve got to get guys healthy.”

I just wonder, if you did make a coordinator change, what kind of change are you going to see in what he believes in as a head coach?

“Dude, that’s the million-dollar question.”

This is my thought: This is, without a doubt, the best football team, the best talent we’ve faced, the best-coached team we’ve played, and the best defense we’ve played.

I like these little things. There’s Tommy Carr at quarterback, and we get guys offside. This is a sign of intelligence. I want to see the little things. He’s getting guys to jump offside.

“They didn’t call that offside, by the way.”

Oh, they didn’t call that one?

“Nope.”

I had it marked thinking they did.

“They clearly were offside. They didn’t call it.”

We ran a lot of pistol. We have not run a lot of pistol.

“You’re right. We haven’t.”

This is option. This is speed option.

“For some reason, they wanted to run pistol against Indiana. If you watch my review on X, you’ll see I called out, ‘What the hell are you doing with the blocking scheme?’ While I was typing that, apparently Whit said in the postgame press conference, ‘Your quarterback and your running back went the wrong way. This play was meant to go to the right.’

“I don’t know how the quarterback, who had the play told in his ear, got the play and obviously conveyed it to Hayder. How did the offensive line not get it? Did Tommy not tell them? Did they not signal it in?

“Again, we’ll let that go because it’s Tommy’s first start. This is good stuff, him being able to move and pick up what he can. What’s not good is our pass protection sucks.”

That option, again, you’ve just got to learn. Take the loss, man. He said that. You hate to learn some of this stuff in a game. You’d like to learn it in practice.

I’m pointing out little things, man. I’m looking at their Marsh, throwing bubbles to their Marsh and what he does with it. Then you’re going to see our Marsh when we throw bubbles to our guy. Speed in space, and pick up three yards. Watch what their guy does. We’re spending a lot of money on guys.

Anyway, this is a mess. I’ve got questions about the blocking rules. This is jet. We’re going to run jet to the field. This play is called counter bash. I’ve got questions about the blocking rules to the jet side. If I’m coming after the offensive line coach, what the hell are we doing?

But the scheme, and this is a really well-coached thing, makes the read difficult. I think we might have quarterback power down here. Let’s take a look.

“Pause it. We’ve had problems with this play the whole year. A couple of times, Bryce has said Hayder took the ball from him, and I defended that. You said, ‘No, this is the quarterback’s fault.’ I have always thought there is zero room for error on this. You can’t ride it out like a normal zone read. This is give or go.”

Tommy’s got to look at this edge right here.

“He should be reading over here, dude.”

I’m sorry, that three-technique. He’s supposed to be reading that guy. This guy right here throws a wrench into the whole read, and I think it’s really well coached.

“We had talked about this before. That’s a tough block for Guarnera. What I think, and I mentioned this, is that Haines and Cignetti said, ‘If that guard pulls, run upfield right to the mesh point. Run straight up.’”

It’s to mess with this read.

“Yeah. Guarnera can’t get to that three-technique. He’s supposed to block back because the guard and tackle from the right side are pulling.”

People want to say, “Why are we running this play to the field?” I think it’s a couple of things. This is a jet-quarterback option deal. This kid right here is well coached by them. I’m yelling at my quarterback coach, “Are we giving our quarterback reps with this guy coming right at him, making that read difficult?”

“That’s dead no matter what he did. I don’t know how the hell we’re blocking this. This should be here and here, but they block it a different way. Let’s take the other look.”

I think that inside kid is making the read difficult for the quarterback.

“Then we don’t block. They don’t block anything out there. You’re right. Owens, terrible job.”

This guy right here has him. This is how we coached option 40 years ago against Auburn: Make it look like you’re here, then at the last second jump here. He has Tommy Carr in conflict. It’s the scheme they’re running. He makes a bad read, and our coach—

“How many times have we talked about counter bash getting blown up, the wrong read, the wrong pitch? Throw that in the garbage. You can’t run it. You stink at it. Don’t bring it out anymore. Wouldn’t you stop running it if it constantly got blown up?”

I don’t know if I would stop running it. I would coach it up, coach up the errors, and get them figuring out that damn read better. Or, if they’re going to run that scheme, make them pay for it. There’s got to be a downside to what they’re doing to stop it. If the guy blows upfield like that, there’s got to be some way you can put him in conflict.

“Yeah. The quarterback’s supposed to keep it and follow the blockers. It’s second-and-seven. What’s this? Fake power pass?”

No execution. Nineteen’s in the game. Everybody knows it’s second-and-seven. But there’s an execution issue here, too. We don’t get the backside sealed. Our left tackle doesn’t seal it.

We’ve got 19 in the game. The whole stadium knows it’s quarterback power. I’m going to let it run, and you’ll see this kid right here blow the whole thing up.

“Run that back, because I thought the guy you pointed at just got leveled.”

Watch this guy right here. This dude gets penetration, and he keeps this from running the gap scheme, running the power. He knocks the center back. The tight end can’t get this kid. That’s Link on the backside, and that’s Guarnera. They’ve got to block this kid and seal him at the line of scrimmage. He’s blowing it up. He’s getting penetration.

“This happens constantly. It feels like Beck gets caught off guard all the time. ‘That play looked great in practice. That play looked great on paper. How come it doesn’t look great?’ Because these people aren’t X’s on a piece of paper. They’re going to come barreling through.”

But I’m also yelling at my offensive line coaches: “Why the hell aren’t we stepping down in here and knocking this guy back?” Watch Link’s footwork. Does he get over there enough? No, it doesn’t happen.

“I get it. You’re supposed to have the best offensive line coach in the country. Let’s block dudes. I feel like we were sold a little bit of a bill of goods on that.”

Again, I’ve got Harding all over the place. You see that, dude? I coached a long time, and I always told my coaches, “If we get beat, let’s get beat blocking the right guy, and they’re just better. Let’s block the right dude, and they’re just kicking our butt.”

This is another mental error. Look at 96 here. He’s not getting off the ball. He’s in his stance.

“I know. He’s still in his stance.”

He doesn’t get off the ball. He doesn’t know the snap count. This play probably had a chance. If he reaches this guy, or even just gets out here and stays on him, we’ve got a chance. But we don’t block that dude. Look at that. We’ve got something going here.

“There’s room there. It’s always something.”

Watch him right here. The ball is snapped, and he’s still in his stance. He kills the play.

“I’m not ragging on a kid. He’s just not a good blocker. That’s not ragging on him. Those are facts. That guy gets more playing time than Hoffman and Hansen. Your converted defensive tackle, who you made an offensive lineman and are putting in this Rhino position, is not up to the task. How long do you keep riding him and hoping he gets it one time?”

Yeah.

“I don’t know, man. That really irritates me.”

I like this scheme because we’re making it look like run down here, and we’ve got an empty gap. We’re able to throw this crosser because the scheme actually helped us. They’ve got no one in that flat.

I like this, dude. You’ve been yelling about this. Let’s throw it to 42, 80, 13. Make them defend more than Marsh and JJ. This is a throw to somebody other than JJ or Marsh. It’s a little dink, but they’ve got to defend it.

“Could you run that play back? We’re on this hash. Run it until the guy at the top gets to the top of his route. I don’t think he goes far. Stop right there.

“This is the route, and everybody’s going deep. The linebackers and safeties are staying deep. What is the guy at the top’s route? You’re going to have a freshman quarterback chuck it to the numbers on the opposite sideline? I don’t see what that route does.”

I don’t know what the hell that is either.

“I don’t understand. Both guys on each end, Marsh down here and whoever that is up there, run this little five-yard whatever. It’s all on the outside. We need to run guys off more and bring others underneath it.”

The dig route.

I like this here, dude. This shows some good coaching and player discipline. It’s fourth-and-two, and this is something we have to compliment our guys on. We shift. We don’t plan on running a play. We show some motion, some more BS, and Tommy gets them to jump. We didn’t jump. They jumped.

“They really did a great job of selling this. It looked like they were planted. The motion man went in motion like he was running the play, and Tommy clapped at the right time. Everybody knows when the motion man goes right by the quarterback, we snap the ball every time. Got him.”

That’s good coaching. A lot of shifting, and our guys did not jump offside. Their guys did.

This is huge. We’ve got to block the stunt. We had a bunch of problems with this stunt all day. We didn’t do a good job. We’ll take a better look at it. Norton has an opportunity to pin this guy. If they could squeeze this guy in—they’re running a stunt here, dude.

“Yep.”

The outside guy is coming underneath. If you can get this blocked, you can get your quarterback outside the defense. But Norton lets this kid get upfield on him and work for contain. You’ve got to keep him from getting contain. This other view will show you.

“Watch this defensive guy who goes first. It’s more like a block. This guy’s a lead blocker, blocking the guard on his way out so the other guy can slide underneath.”

I understand it, but he should be repped and coached in this. If he can take him and smash him into this stunt—he lets him get upfield, lets him beat him there. If he could smash him and jam this up, our quarterback can get outside the defense. But that doesn’t happen. He gets through, and now we’ve got nothing.

It’s a little thing. You’ve got to recognize it, try to squeeze those guys in there, and make them pay.

“What was the time on the clock?”

They were moving along now. I’m not sure.

This is the end. I didn’t even know this, dude. Did you realize they ran this play at the end of the half?

“Yeah.”

I didn’t see it. You never know. You might fool somebody there. I give them credit for having something like that.

“I think this epitomizes Beck. ‘I’ve got this sneaky play. I’m going to get these guys. They’re not going to be waiting for it,’ just like that rollout on third down. ‘I’m going to sit here and have a big old smile on my face because I outsmarted them.’ You didn’t outsmart anybody.”

This is five-under, two-deep. What are we doing here? This is starting the second half now. Did we miss those plays, dude?

“No, they’re coming.”

I’ve got your plays in here. The goal-line stuff is in the second half, right?

“Yeah.”

Here’s where we get to the stuff you were talking about. It’s fourth-and-one here, on the 11- or 12-yard line. Go ahead.

“Start this play over again. This is fourth down. We’re going for it. Bryce is in the game. Watch this guy Scar circles right there. You have countless people on the offensive staff upstairs keeping an eye on players so they can see how a guy might react on a future play.

“They’re going to watch number 12. He’s a senior. Watch what he does. He didn’t look at the running back. He didn’t look inside. He had one job, and that was to eye the quarterback.

“Now I ask you people watching, Scar, if you saw that defender react that way, do you think you’re going to get that guy on a naked bootleg on the goal line?”

Terrible. You see my notes here, dude? Fire whoever the hell told them—listen, I’ve got to share a story. It’s funny, we were preparing to play Indiana. I was a starting edge player, and we looked at film before practice. My coach had coached under Bill Mallory at Indiana, and they had a running quarterback. They ran a bunch of bootlegs and reverses.

My coach told me, as we were looking at plays, “Listen, this coaching staff is smart. They will watch every single play you are in all year to see if you honor quarterback boot. Every single play.”

I always shared that with my coaches. If we’re going to run a bootleg, make sure you don’t run it against a guy who’s disciplined. You don’t run it against a guy who’s lazy, because a lazy guy will sit right here and make the play. You don’t run it against a guy who’s tired, because a tired guy will sit right here and come off on the quarterback.

This kid is smart, and you’ll see how he kills us later. Anyway, Marshall makes his best run of the year. This should have been a dead play.

“I don’t know what happens at the top. Hoffman hits a guy, bounces off him, and goes to somebody else. I don’t understand that, which left Owens—he didn’t hit anybody.”

Again, it’s execution. God dang, block the right guy. If they’re going to beat us, beat us. The moral of the story is this kid just proved he’s defending boot.

“He just proved he’s not dumb. Is he not running a physical football play because he doesn’t think we can move these guys? I was thinking about this a lot. I’ve watched this play a million times now. Beck did not believe in his offensive line getting this first down. What he did believe was he could outsmart Haines and that defensive end.”

Four plays earlier, that guy showed you.

“He gave you the answer you needed. Can we get this guy? That guy told you definitively no. Yet we run this play because the offensive coordinator wants to finally tell everybody, ‘See, we ran that Rhino because I knew this day would come.’ That’s the wrong way to look at it.

“You’ve got to have trust in the guys watching players. Like you said, your coach told you they’ll watch every single play of you all year. You got your answer four plays earlier about that kid. What did you just tell your offensive line and the entire team on that play?”

If I’m Michigan and Harding this spring, I’m working the hell out of this stunt. We actually run this stunt. Indiana killed us with it, with this little tackle-out, end-under. We had a hard time blocking it. This kid comes under and makes the play. These are things you’re looking at as a coach. This spring, I would run the hell out of that at our offensive line.

“Scar, if you were back coaching and you saw the other team running this twist quite a bit, are you telling your line on the sidelines while the defense is on the field, ‘We’ve got to address this twist. They keep running this twist on us’?”

Absolutely.

“Don’t you come up with something? They have iPads now that show you this stuff, I think. You see they’re doing this. At the end of the game, when we have a chance to punch it in for a touchdown, they run the same dang twist. Instead of getting a touchdown, we pick up six yards. We could have won this game, but that twist got us again.”

That play again. Yeah, dude. What’s the answer, coach? Have an answer.

I like this. You talk about this dude bringing in athletes. This kid is a defensive end, and he runs with our quarterback. Tommy Carr makes a nice read here. I like it. I want people to defend it. Tommy reads it well, but against an average kid, this would be a 15-yard gain. Look at the athlete they’ve got at the edge position. He reads it, runs with our quarterback, and runs him out. They’ve got some athletes, man.

“There’s more proof. That’s exactly how you should play the edge. When the guy blocks down, stay square, squeeze that hole, and be able to get something leaking out the back. They’re so well coached.”

I understand, but it’s so hard to find guys athletic enough to do this. That’s the million-dollar question. Everybody can teach that technique, staying square, but who has the athlete who can now get here and keep it to a minimal gain? Those guys are hard to find.

“I get it.”

Here’s an athlete. Smart. Will improve. Third-and-10. What did Tommy do here? Let’s take a look. I like this play. He’s getting outside the pocket, and things are breaking down. He throws back against the grain on third-and-10, keeping that drive alive.

“Good on Goodwin. He did not give up on the play. If you look at a couple of the other receivers, I don’t know if they made the same effort to keep it going.”

We finally block it right here. We seal the edge. I like how we sealed this. Our quarterback is able to—again, when you block the right guy, people have a chance. We’re blocking the right dude here, man. Let’s block the right guy, give our quarterback a chance, and get outside the defense. A little dink pass, and now we’ve got a first down.

Dang, if he could have stayed on his feet, the game’s over, man.

“Could have, would have, should have.”

I don’t have many more. A couple more plays, and we’ll get on this defense.

“Good on Tommy finding that guy.”

This is the play. Good call and scheme. You know why I like this play, D? This is first down now. We’ve just converted, and they run that same BS here. But I like this play because it looks like—to everybody in the stadium, at least I’m thinking—this is going to be option this way.

“Mm-hmm.”

That’s what I’m thinking, and I think Indiana was thinking the same thing.

“Watch the linebackers.”

This formation is when we like to run option, but we bring this guy in motion and run this draw scheme, whatever you want to call it.

“The first two steps look like option. That still looks like option. Pause it right there. So frustrating. God, they kicked our butts with this stupid thing.”

That stunt at the top. You’re right.

“Look at the safety and linebacker on the backside. They’re out of the play. This is a touchdown.”

It’s a touchdown, man.

“An easy walk-in touchdown right there.”

How are they coaching this? When do you pass him off? They killed us with that stunt, but we still pick up six yards. I like the scheme. We still pick up six yards. I don’t have anything else because there’s nothing else good to show.

“No, there’s nothing else. Go get some of our sponsors, and we’ll make the transition. Our friends at Valiant, John Wangler and his guys, offer great merchandise, and it’s for a good cause. They help Michigan’s NIL. We’re going to need their help this year.

“Knight’s Steakhouse—it’s an Ann Arbor tradition. Great steaks, a great place to hang out after a game, a great place to go to dinner if you’re looking for a nice meal. Really good people and good service.

“And Sheri Weintraub at eXp Realty, your A2 Homegirl. If you’re looking for a home, call Sheri.”

What a great defensive effort. Let’s take a look at their Marsh, speed in space. IU is winning in the portal, looking at film, and scheming it up. They’re doing a great job evaluating talent. Let’s look at their Marsh. Throw a bubble screen out here. We’ve got to tackle better, but I’m trying to make a point: eight yards.

Our coaches do a great job with run support, and Zeke up here—we saw it with BYU, the great job with run support. Watch Zeke take on a big offensive lineman and crush him. We still make a good play. I like Zeke in the run game, man.

“Like I said, I think it’s his best game.”

We’ve been watching Michigan football a long time, and I don’t know that I’ve seen a defensive coach do such a good job teaching run support from his secondary as I’m seeing from Hill.

“These guys come up. We talk about it all the time: Nobody outside the cornerback. Here is an offensive lineman coming at Zeke Berry. What does he weigh, 200 pounds? He makes sure he gets up there, maintains outside contain, and forces everything inside. The running back, for some dumb reason, decides to try to go outside that lead blocker, and Zeke eats it up. Great play.

“Here’s another situation. This is a big third-down stop early in the game.”

You’ve got to recognize it, go from pass to run. They’re in a funky formation here, and we give them different looks so they have problems blocking it. I think we’re doing some things that create confusion.

This isn’t by accident. Bracy makes the play, but they’ve got problems blocking it because whatever Hill is doing there made it difficult for them to block.

“Bracy, such a great game. God, is he good?”

He’s a good player, man.

“I feel bad for this defense. They’re doing so well, and they’ve got to go out there and cover the offensive failures, game after game.”

Shug probably heard it all week. This is sudden change, second-and-six after one of our turnovers. I like this adjustment, D. Let’s see what we did. I like seeing smart defense. They’re shifting over. We’ve got to try to keep them to a field goal. Be great in the red zone.

We get lined up, and now Shug is by himself down here. We’re adjusting, and he plays it. One of the weaknesses of man defense is run support. He’s got to go from playing man coverage—see their receiver? He’s smart. He’s well coached. He goes from blocking the guy covering him to, at the last second, picking up the safety, and we make the exchange.

That is good coaching and a good job by our corner, Shug, to recognize it and make that trade.

“It was, but it was a great job by Snowden as well.”

Yeah, the whole deal there.

“Again, I talked about Shug making some money. This is great coverage on a kid who’s probably going to be a first-round draft pick.”

He is.

“Not just my opinion, he is the best receiver on contested balls. He catches more contested balls than anybody else. Maybe that quarterback wasn’t completely on his game because he was hurt last week, but still, Shug had a hell of a game.”

This is a terrible call. Weak. Just had to show it.

“He didn’t rough the quarterback. That’s not roughing. The fact is, he hit the quarterback’s hand. The quarterback’s hand hit himself in the helmet first.”

I didn’t show the weak call on JJ, on that interference. That should have been interference.

I like this. This is coached up well. Hill does a good job coaching these corner blitzes. Our secondary coaches are good, man. This is timed up. He’s shuffling laterally, times it up, not offside. Left shoulder. This is coached well. Good job by the coach. Good job by the player executing it.

Anything, dude? Just jump in. More sudden change.

“I like watching these guys because they did so well. They played so hard. They played a tough team and held them to six points. Those DBs, Berry and Shug, held Becker to three receptions for 32 yards and Marsh to two catches for 25 yards. That’s dominating.”

I didn’t know Etta got hurt. I’m so happy for him. I met him when he was a sophomore. He wasn’t all that enthusiastic about how he was feeling about things.

“He was fifth string or something. He was way down the list.”

He has worked to become a great player. He makes a play here. He punches, takes on a double-team, comes off it, and makes a play for a short gain. Good player.

This guy is well worth it. He’s good, man. Big John punching this dude. He’s destroying a tight end down here, just destroying this kid. He’s punching him, playing on his side of the line of scrimmage, two-gapping it, coming off and making a play. That’s good football, man.

“Yep.”

I like number four and 10. Dude, I’m looking at 93 and 41 because I’m already looking at next year, who will probably be our starting edges. It’s probably going to be Patterson and 41 down here. I like how we stuff this perimeter play. Talk about that linebacker here.

“They fly around, man. Hustles, puts his head down to break through the blocks, makes that back have to move around the pile.”

You’re a former linebacker. What are you seeing here? Watch him.

“Yep.”

He just took on 700 pounds of dude.

“Yep.”

He’s taking on two big dudes and stuffing them, smashing them both so the corner can make the play.

“I said at the beginning of the year, Chase Taylor’s got a huge, bright future. He’s super talented.”

Then they hold our guy down here. I think they get a penalty on that, right?

“Yeah, that’s a penalty.”

I love that linebacker coming up and crushing those two linemen. That’s not easy, man.

Here’s third-and-10, and this is a turnover. We had to go take ours. Theirs were gifts. There’s a great play by Zeke. Talk about it, dude.

“He’s very patient on Marsh’s release. He doesn’t bite. He stays, looks back, and uses his inside arm to defend. Sometimes you would naturally think, ‘I’ve got to stick my right arm up,’ if you’re right-handed. He doesn’t do that. He puts his left arm up because it can reach farther than his right arm when you’re defending that way. He dives and knocks that thing right out of the air. Perfect.

“Michael Brooks: ‘Hoover only attempted one pass in the second half, Zeke’s interception. Hoover was definitely hurt.’”

Yep.

“Plus, I don’t think Cignetti wanted to risk it. There are two trains of thought. Cignetti could be running the ball and content to punt when he had to because he felt Michigan couldn’t move the ball. But he was never more than six points up. That’s an awful risky thing to do, right?”

Yeah.

“You don’t want to be up by six because any fluke play could put them down one. I don’t think Cignetti chose to run the ball because Michigan’s offense sucked as much as, ‘I’m not trying to throw because these guys are doing really well against my guys.’”

Yeah, that would have changed his play-calling.

This is one time I don’t think we’re defensively sound. They’ve got a lot of dudes here. There’s a lot of gap there.

“We’ll have detention for you afterward. Don’t be late again.”

I don’t like how we’re slanting away from this, too.

“They rip us in there because there’s a huge gap. Look at the huge gap.”

I think it’s a missed assignment. You don’t get it right all the time, man. There’s a mistake somewhere. That happens.

Punch again. These are the guys I’m seeing: 93, Patterson, and 41. What’s his name again?

“Forty-one is Tariq Boney.”

Get to know Boney and Patterson. They’re getting better playing the run. Watch Patterson play the run here, dude. Look what he does to this kid. He stuffs this tight end.

“He’s two-gapping him. Good foot placement, square shoulders, hands out. He’s going to get separation, make that guy bounce. The rest of the defense is there to cut all that off outside.”

He’s punching.

“A great play. This is a very well-coached defense and a very well-played play.”

There’s no tight end—or is that a running back? Nobody that size should be blocking our edges.

Third-and-five. Our turnover was taken. IU’s were gifts. Here’s your boy down here on this interception. We’re showing pressure.

“Really outstanding. We’re not getting any pressure on him. He has all kinds of time to throw the football.”

You know what I think is happening here, too, D? This is a guy who understands he has free safety help. It’s one-man-free. I’m reading this thing, and you take advantage of the help you have over the top.

“There’s that, and sometimes cornerbacks have to shoot their shot. Berry was in perfect position. He didn’t fall for the double move. He was in the right position when Marsh got to the top of his route, and there was still a little time. Like you said, the quarterback got it out a little late. He’s like, ‘Screw it. I’m stepping in front of this thing.’ That was a hell of a play.

“It’s a good thing he caught that interception, because if somehow Marsh got it and Berry tried to jump it and failed, Marsh is probably off for six.”

Yeah. Palepale.

“Sometimes that’s the risk you take. You’ve got to be a little bit of a gambler when you’re a cornerback.”

That’s right, especially with how the game is flowing. Palepale’s in. He hasn’t gotten as many reps as I thought, but this is probably the future for next year. You’ve got to figure these two guys probably—and Palepale had a pretty good play here. He stood up.

“He got a few reps.”

He gets double-teamed. He’ll learn how to do it, but he’s a guy in the plans for the future.

“He doesn’t hurt you when he’s in the game.”

No. What have we got here? Same IU stunt. Now we’re running it. Watch, dude. We’re running the same stunt they’re killing us with, and watch how they block it.

“We don’t execute it as well.”

Watch these guys, the left guard and left tackle. They’re not going to let that guy go anywhere. They’re shutting him off.

“They block it where our guys did not block that stunt. When you watched Indiana run it, that tackle slams out there and blocks the left tackle of the opposition. He gets upfield and blasts that tackle so the other guy can come around without having to jump around a pile.”

They’re blocking it. You know how I would analyze this talking to my coaches? They’re executing better on offense, and they’re executing better on defense running the stunt. Would you agree?

“Yeah. They’re running the stunt better on defense, and they’re blocking the stunt better on offense. Who is that at tackle that you’ve got the arrow on?”

I think that might be—he’s had a damn good game, but that’s a tough—

“No, that’s number nine. That’s Cam Brandt. Cam Brandt’s not a defensive tackle. They put him in there to give the other guys some air. He was an outside guy last year, wasn’t very good out there, just not athletic enough. Now they move him to tackle, and quite honestly, he’s not big enough. It’s a tough spot for Brandt to be in, but he got blown out there.”

Here’s another big third-and-three stop. Hill times it up. Good call. We execute it well. Everybody’s in the proper gap. I like how the edge guy is coming with contain. Right shoulder. Make him step up. If you miss him, make him step up in the pocket.

“You’ll never convince me Snowden didn’t stick his foot out on purpose and trip him.”

He knew the quarterback was stepping up, but he was coming.

“Watch. He stuck his foot out and tripped him, because at the last second he was jumping forward in the pocket, and Snowden couldn’t slow down. I think that’s a smart play.”

Yeah, chances of getting caught for that are pretty slim. Things are going bang-bang.

Here’s another huge third-and-two stop. Ninety-one, 95, big Pierce. He’s bringing the backers, but they both come up with punch and seal their gap. You’ve got a big, flat wall here. No one getting knocked off the ball.

Look at your boy down here, 91, dude. I don’t know if people like looking at this. I get excited. Watch this guy take this guy, punch him, and stuff him into the backfield.

“Bent him backward.”

That’s a third-and-two stop. Now they’re punting the football, giving our offense another chance.

“This is what you do when you’re well coached and what you’re doing is working. You build confidence. Your coaches get confidence in you. You get confidence in what the coaches are calling. You’ve got confidence in the guys to your left, right, and behind you. You play better. You just play better. The offense isn’t playing better like this because nobody’s trusting anybody right now.”

This is some type of man-combo coverage, but it ends up being somewhat of a two-deep coverage, with some man principles underneath. The tight end goes right down the middle, and that’s the weakness of the defense.

“A kid they threw three balls to all year. I think I heard he caught three passes. Michael Brooks was the one who talked about whether Cignetti didn’t want to risk it.

“I’m going to contradict myself, because I said, ‘Cignetti probably didn’t throw to the receivers because our DBs were playing very well.’ I think I just proved that wasn’t the case.

“Here’s the first play of overtime. Time isn’t a concern, right? Milking the clock, not having a turnover—all those things are out the window. This is overtime, so he goes right back to the pass. They threw one pass in the second half, and it was an interception. Now it’s a whole new ballgame. All those constraints I was worried about in the second half, I’m not worried about anymore. They throw this well-designed play. Again, that tight end has seen three passes thrown to him this year.”

You coordinate your defense on tendencies, but it’s a weakness of the defense.

“They probably anticipated it. I think they were figuring Becker and—”

We probably anticipated that, but they’ve got this two-deep coverage, and this is the weakness.

“Right up the middle. Exactly.”

They understand it, the kid runs a good route, and they throw it to him. I knew we were in trouble, dude, as soon as we lined up defensively on this touchdown. I didn’t like the way we were lined up. I saw two big tight ends over there. Before they even snapped the ball, I didn’t like it.

“Did you see? That was five wide, five receivers went out, correct? They sent a tight end down the middle of the field.”

Yeah.

“Have you seen anything that resembles this on Michigan? We haven’t had a 25-yard—well, maybe the bomb against Western Michigan, the Hail Mary. But this is such a good design. I don’t see this kind of design. I don’t see this kind of space. I don’t see guys working to open space. I see us working the outside edges all the time. Maybe a couple of times we’ll slip out a tight end on a delay because everything else is closed. I don’t like Beck’s route tree either.”

This is the young edge player here, D. We held them to six points in 60 minutes, which is a lot to be proud of. But the way I would coach my 260-pound edge player over this little receiver, you’ve got to abuse this guy, like Big John did earlier. Remember I pointed him out?

“Yeah.”

These guys are in man coverage, but we do have an edge player here. He’s a big edge player, and he’s got to crush this and keep the ball inside the defense. He allows this little pissant receiver—I don’t know how the hell he’s going inside here. I don’t understand it.

“Especially now that he sees the guard coming.”

This is the downside. A young guy can rush the quarterback and do certain things, but I guarantee you, if this dude right here, number 90, was over here, this would have been a dead play. I’m telling you that right now.

“That’s probably why they didn’t run it that way.”

If 90 was over there, I think it would have been a dead play. He would have stuffed that.

“He would have stuffed it. I harp about doing your job, and we’ve praised Indiana for being so good at doing your job. There’s no time like overtime to do your job. Boney saw the outside zone going the other way and figured, ‘The play’s going that way. The quarterback—’”

He’s a true freshman. I couldn’t even imagine playing as a true freshman. It was three years before I started, my fourth year. Carr’s out there, a true freshman. This kid’s out there, a true freshman. He’s making true-freshman mistakes. Hayder, a true freshman.

Anyway, look, man, that’s where we’re at. We go to Rutgers, and Whittingham has a lot going on, trying to keep the team together and keep the recruits together. Finish up respectably. Let’s beat the hell out of Rutgers. Let’s play a lot of guys. Let’s give our quarterback confidence. Let’s get people healthy.

Dude, that’s my final comment. We went through it. Keep the faith, and we’ll see what happens, man.

“All right. I don’t want to harp on that game anymore. I want to say thank you to these guys in the chat. A lot of these guys are here every week. I want to make sure we recognize them: Michael Brooks, Wami, Joe Blue, Steve Gund, Flint Truth, Nine Lives. These guys have been around. Locked On Michigan, and Big Play Ray 44.

“Thank you for being in the chat, watching, and commenting. We appreciate what you do, that you’re here and supporting everything. Stay Go Blue, man. You can be disappointed. I’m disappointed. I don’t like what’s happening, but it’s not like I’m going to throw away the helmet and all the maize and blue, right?”

We’re diehards, baby. We’re diehards.

“Go Blue. Over and out.”]