SCAR & DUE! Ep. 14 Bo’s Boys Breaking Down Today’s Ball 6/17/26

[It’s getting to be that time. Dude, you remember as a player mid June and you’re just, you know, you know what’s coming, man. You know the storm and what’s double sessions and the grind that awaits you and are those players are there. They’re trying to enjoy this little bit of time in Ann Arbor before the uh they get smacked in the face. How you doing, D? I’m doing great, man. Uh yeah. So your first year as a freshman in June, uh you’re just freaking out because in a month you’re going to be in the Michigan locker room suiting up in that helmet and in in the maize and blue knowing that you’re a freshman.

And so you got all that scrambling through your head. Then as a sophomore and a junior, the thing you’re thinking about in June is, am I gonna pass my my conditioning tests? Am I gonna am I going to run all them those 10 sprints or do my mile and a half in the time I got to do it in? Because you damn well sure do not want to be getting up at 6:00 in the morning going over to Ferry Field to run a mile before double sessions. So yeah, there’s a lot scrambling through your head, you know. Dude, you just I got to tell a quick story. You know, you talk about freshman year, you’re wondering, can you play? You don’t know. We’re all like, “Hey, man.

You know, you can run around in shorts and this and that, but when when the first practice with the varsity, I’ll never forget it. You will never forget your first time scrimmaging with the varsity. I’m on the Demo defense and I’m lined up across from Bubba Paris, you know, I all Big 10 type of played in the NFL. great guy, great player, you know, and I’m lining up across from Bubba, man, and I went six, eight, ten plays and I’m like, I can play. I can do it. I I knew it within, you know, 10, 15 plays. I was going I had actually ran around Bubba once or twice.

I pissed off Bo and um and and I I realized then that I’m going to be able to I’m going to be okay. You have your you remember your moment like that, dude? I’m telling you. So, you know, the freshman report a couple days early in the summer, right, for fall camp. Yeah. And then the veterans come in and we had dinner and then it’s down to the building for a meeting. And we went into that meeting room with you and Rodney Lyles and all the other outside backers, Milo up there. And I’m not kidding you. I got back to my dorm room and I was this close from calling my parents and saying there is no way I belong here. No way. Everybody’s bigger.

Everybody’s stronger. I just I don’t have what it takes. And uh thank God I didn’t make that call. But I was panicked, man. I was having a panic attack looking at all these players thinking, yeah, you walk by Jumbo Elliottt, you know, and it’s just like, I got to go against that guy. Yeah, these guys are facing it all over the country. They’re, you know, big- time, highly recruited guys, but guess what? No one cares when you put the gear on. But, uh, anyway, couple things going on, man. Um, you know, I’m I’m I’m looking at Bryce and our offense and I and pe I keep hearing people talk about our quarterback situation and this that or whatever.

And I I think what people have to look at is that Whittingham and Beck think Baltimore Ravens Lamar Jackson is is the prototype. I I really think that’s what he he wants a guy that can run. Okay. do not. He would never recruit Jared Goff, I don’t think, in a million years. No. So, you’ve got the Detroit Lions and the drop back accurate, you know, really, you know, cerebral guy, which is you can win with both of these systems. So, I think when as we look at Bryce, and I’ve said it a hundred times, but he’s going to have to show that he can do things with his legs. he’s going to be demanded of it this year a hell of a lot more than he was last year.

And I’m and we’re all hoping that he passed that test, that he’s a threat, that when people line up to defend Michigan, just like when you line up defend the Ravens, because I you know, you and I both coach defense. If I’m coaching golf, that means one thing. If I’m coaching against golf, if I’m coaching against Lamar, that means another thing. They’re totally different things and they’re both effective. They’re both tough to defend. So Bryce, what you know, he he I’m I’m I’m I’m really looking to see is what does he give with his feet?

He has to be committed to it and and that’s what uh I think when we look at our quarterback situation, people have to look at that’s what I think Whittingham wants. He wants the Baltimore Ravens uh more so than a Detroit Lions quarterback. Yeah. Well, Bryce has been the talk of a lot of people right now. A lot of talking heads got something to say about Bryce because frankly they see the spring game and think they didn’t score a touchdown. This guy’s he ain’t it. That’s just so shortsighted. Okay, the guy’s got talent. All right. Now, can he process everything under the new system?

And and I’ve mentioned this before, will he run like he wants to or is he gonna run like he’s forced to? Right? If he’s a willing participant in that and understands the value of his legs, that’s going to help his his passing game and it’s going to help our running game because now it’s 11 on 111 and we got a pretty good athlete at quarterback who has a lot of tools and if he if he’s 100% all for running, if that’s what the play is called, then we’re going to be in good shape. um expectations are low because you hear all these talking heads saying this that and the other thing and people who would overreacting to the spring game like that means something.

Uh everything we hear about Bryce is he’s very cerebral. He’s a team player. He’s there first. He’s out of the building last. All the things you hear all the time. And and I just I don’t believe that that’s made up stuff. I don’t think anybody’s just trying to talk him up to take the pressure off. Yeah. Um the offense, like you said, and and we’ve mentioned this a bunch of times, both quarterbacks, the starting quarterback and the backup quarterback rushed for 10 rushing touchdowns last year for uh for Utah. And and that’s what we’re going to need here. Yeah.

And uh I think once he embraces that, once he gets comfortable with that, I think he’s going to be in a good spot and things can just, you know, success breeds success. Yeah. No. Hey, look. Whit and Urban Meyer are buddies. Urban Meyer won a national championship, three running quarterbacks. Yep. Urban Meyer won a national championship with Tim Tebow down there. Okay, Whit, believe me, the mindset is there. So, don’t but he but he has to do it as a runner. Anyway, that’s that. We’re hope we’re hoping and looking for him his ability to run camps. D, you and I went to the biggest camp in the country for many years. It was the biggest one. 3,000 guys.

They’re down to one day. They do a oneday deal. Here’s what they do. Michigan, they have all the big fellas come in for about three hours. They any So, really, I think anybody they’re really recruiting, maybe they haven’t offered or they’re contemplating offered offering. I doubt the guys that are big- time offers are even bothering going, right? It’s the guys that are on, you know, hey, come up. Let’s see what you can do. So, they’ve got a lot of guy. They got linemen come in for one day. It’s like 60 bucks or and it’s only like three hours. So then in the afternoon they bring in the skilled guys.

They bring in the little fellas, the the wide receivers, the running backs and and the quarterbacks and they throw it around and run around and they so they’re going to take a good look at those guys for like three hours and then they bring in all the kickers that they might want to recruit, kickers and punters, long snappers. So they do the whole thing in one day, whereas you and I checked in on Sunday night and didn’t leave till Friday, right? And I I went in 1979, 1980. It was 50 bucks. I got to tell you that story. I think people might like this story. Did you Did you spend a night there? No. Here’s the program. I hate spending a night.

You talk about the rule changes. I think people might like this story. So, back in the day, you had two options. You could camp and spend like uh maybe 200 bucks, I think it was, to spend the night. This is 1979, 1980. or you could pay 50 bucks and just come in every day at whatever. I what Michigan did and it’s illegal. It ended up being illegal after a few years. Are you going to get us in trouble, Jim? They had a bus. They the univers Michigan football uh paid for a bus. It started at Grosse Pointe North High School. Oh. And it would go down 94. It stopped at DePorres. It stopped at Cass. It stopped at Murray-Wright. It stopped at uh McKenzie.

But I drove my car and I I started out at Grosse Pointe North, but then then we picked up all the studs. So these were all guys in Michigan was recruiting, right? So when that bus there was 3,000 dudes there, but Coach McCartney was waiting for that bus. You follow me, dude? Y.

So anyway, we I was on that bus with Kevin Brooks. a lot of guys that end up going to Michigan and uh it was uh but it after a few years they said you can’t do that that was illegal right but that was that was the camp it was such a big thing and the the I I thought maybe our listeners might be interested in that and that’s that camp I tell you what that was I went to two camps I went to three actually I went to uh Michigan’s and then right from Michigan I went to Notre Dame’s camp and that’s when Jerry F was there man that camp was a disaster and then I went up to Wisconsin. The Michigan camp was unbelievable.

Like you said, there was 3,000 kids there and coaches all over the place. Every coach around was at that camp. And you’re going up against some of the best high school players in all of the country, you know, especially the Midwest. And uh my goodness, what a camp. They ran a great camp for 3,000 guys. It was organized and it was a great experience. I’ll remember that forever. That was a really good time. I worked it for 15 years.

Then later on as a coach and the number one objective, the number one thing that our that that Bo and Mo and Lloyd, I worked it for all them dudes when they were coaching was we’re going to give these kids their money’s worth. We are going to give these kids their money’s worth. You’re going to coach the fivestar kid just as hard as the little ninth grade kid that can barely uh chew gum and walk at the same time. I mean, really, we were. So, anyway, they’re doing a camp. It’s it’s small, but they are still bringing in kids, I think, to evaluate them. They do a seven-on-seven camp where they bring in uh different teams and that’s going on.

I thought I this might be of note. I don’t know if you know who the calendar girls are. There’s two twin. They were beautiful girls. They play uh Trevor Keegan is dating one of them. I saw that article. I thought that’s my boy. That’s a Michigan guy stepping up his game on and off the field like Young Der. Yeah, right. No. Well, I wasn’t dating any Cavar girls. I was dating my wife. There you go. I was just thinking about that. I was talking to a guy at work who’s been with his wife for 50 years. And I got to thinking, my wife and I have been together for 4-3 years now. 4-3. That poor girl. Jeez. That’s a loyal guy, man. Hey, dude. Uh unofficial visits.

Uh I’m reading I’m reading about unofficial visits. It’s nothing new. uh players trying to uh finagle it a little bit, but these these kids are getting so demanding uh on what’s going on with unofficial. Now, an unofficial visit, the kid is supposed to drive himself, pay for his own gas, they’re not allowed to feed you. They’re not allowed to do nothing but show you around. And it’s getting uh it’s really getting out of hand where uh you know, these kids are there’s just so much money getting thrown around and they’re asking these coaches to bend the rules. And I I believe this.

I believe that our guy is telling these kids, “I’m sorry, but it’s not happening here in Ann Arbor.” I just don’t think Whittingham is going to screw around any of that. But I think a lot of guys are, you know, giving them paying for their gas, slipping a couple couple bills here, and and maybe feeding them. But it’s when when I when I was when I was uh getting recruited, you know, you couldn’t feed a guy. you they they weren’t allowed to give us a hot dog at the at the basketball games. I went to Michigan basketball game. I bring all my crew with me, man.

But I do remember one time I maybe I’ve told this story where I went to the Michigan Michigan State basketball game up at East Lansing. Yeah. And I got three of my boys with me. We’re just going to go see the game. It’s an unofficial visit and it just happened to be an official visit recruit weekend. And the guy that was recruiting me, I mean, they had a nice spread. They had the buffet, the nice spread there. And the guy says, “Hey, man. You guys go ahead. Just get in line, man.” So me and all my buddies, we ate like kings in the official recruit buffet line. And anyway, I end up I end up sitting next to the fridge, your boy William Perry.

But anyway, it went on 45 years ago. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time. But these these players are like demanding it. Uh they’re really pushing it, you know, that we want Listen, man. We don’t want to pay we want some reimbursement for gas. Any thoughts on that? No. You had mentioned that story before where a kid was asking for 15 grand. He wanted five first class tickets for his family. Wanted to be put up at the nicest hotel in the area. And uh you know, yeah, those are the kind of things that I think Whittingham is just like, listen, we like you as a player. We’d love to have you, but that’s not the game we’re playing.

Um, we’re talking about official. Okay. Yep. Yeah, he ran some. He He ran some. He He’s certainly more of a thrower than he is a Oh, yeah. So, all right. So, Joe Blue asks a question here. He says, “These stories are great.” Thank you, Joe. He says he has faith in the coaches and he expects Bryce to take that freshman to sophomore jump. What if Nicolosi has to fill in hopefully only in mop-up duty? Is he a dual threat guy? And uh he has legs. He’s not an immobile quarterback. He is not Jared Goff, right? But he’s certainly not Lamar Jackson either. Uh he throws the ball more, but he is definitely a willing participant in the run game.

And uh we saw what Tommy Carr can do. And I’m not 100% convinced that Nicolosi comes in as number two right away. Tommy Carr showed a lot of moxy in that spring game. I don’t care what the defense was. I don’t care, you know, anything other than his decision making and his poise. And that went a long way for a lot of people to think that this kid is a much better true freshman than you’d expect. So, yeah, I think Nicolosi, between Nicolosi and Carr, we got somebody that can step in there and function. Yeah, Nicolosi is absolutely a run threat, dude. I watched him play three or four times.

The dude is abs if I’m lined up on defense, I got to deal with that. I got to deal with that quarterback keep from a legitimate athlete. So that’s the fact of the matter fact of the matter is if he’s playing quarterback for Whit, he’s going to be running. So absolutely. He not even going to recruit him when a gonna bring that kid into Ann Arbor. So you when you when you ask questions about the type of quarterback Whittingham wants, he ain’t recruiting stiffs, man. Nope. There’s another comment here from Nine Lives. Hi Scar D. Love your channel. Thanks Nine Lives. Nine Lives, by the way, I went to an Aerosmith concert. It was the Nine Lives Tour.

That was one of the best concerts I ever saw. So, I like the name Nine Lives. Um, one day, do remind me to tell you about the concert me and Jumbo and all the guys worked back in ‘ 84. That’s a great story. Not next time. I’ll tell that one. All right. Uh, Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot, all the headbangers. Jumbo stood there. Big John Big John Elliott stood there in front of a 10-ft speaker like this for like eight hours. He used to walk on camp he used to walk on campus with those head, you know, you used to have a Walkman back in the day, right? And he’d have the the most thrash metal going on in that headset. And he was the quietest dude.

Just smiled and went about his business until he got on the field and then he wanted to Jumbo, you piss off Jumbo, man. He he was a nasty he was a great player. And anyway, dude, let me tell you something. Uh this is I’m I’m just looking at what’s going on since uh you know Whittingham got hired and I’m putting myself as Brent Venables and we got a lot of people talking in the media about Michigan this Michigan that this that or whatever you know what what do we got yelling at Bryce yelling at all this everybody’s all the everybody got their opinions and I’m just going to tell you what scar how I look at it if I was Brent Venables okay how how and this This is why I think people should tune in to scar and do because what did Scar and do this is what if I’m Brent Venables here here’s how I’m looking at it about 40% of my time I’m looking at Utah film both sides of the ball if I was Oklahoma because I’ve been that coach for many years where I got to go against someone blind or where’ they coach before this that or whatever.

So about 40% of my time I’m I’m looking at Utah both sides of the ball. What are they doing on defense? What are they doing on offense? I’m not listening to all these clowns other than scar and do maybe. But 40% of my energy is looking at Utah, both sides of the ball. Okay. I’m looking at BYU on defense 25% of my time. Yep. I’m looking at what what are they doing on defense? What are the similarities between what he he what guy did at Utah and what’s what is Hill doing at BYU? And you’ll see the more I look at our spring game film do the more I see BYU’s defense on this film.

And then the last then 20% of the of what I would focus on is I I’d be looking at the spring game if I was coaching 40% Utah 25% uh BYU defense 20% the Michigan spring game and then 5% I might listen to all this other riff all this noise out there but when you’re a coach you focus on what the film is what the guy is. I’m not listen if I’m going against Whittingham. I’m not listening to really a whole lot of what he has to say about certain players this that or those are curve balls. Those are the film is what a guy is. You know what I mean? The same thing if no matter what the who the hell’s coaching I never listen to Jack of what a guy said.

I’m looking at I’m looking at film. I I just I guess I just wanted to point that out that my the thinking is different when you’re a coach. Do any thoughts on that? Yeah. So, uh your math is wrong. You probably with a 15% you you came up short by about 10%. Hang on. I got 40. You had 40. 20. Yeah, you’re right. I got I’m 10% sure. So I should have added it to the spring game. So no. Well, no, you would also watch last year’s game and you would only spend about 10% of your time on last year’s game because it’s a totally different offense, totally different defense now. Um, so but you’re still going to look at the player. You’re going to look at Bryce.

You’re going to see some things on film that, hey, when I did this, look where his eyes went or look where his feet went or look what happens when the pressure came from the front side or the back. So, you make a good point, D. You know, even though it’s a different offense and defense, the Michigan team that went to Norman last year, you know, I’m going to look at some of the personnel and some of the those things, but uh but it’s going to be a different team. It’s going to be different scheme. There there’s actually a question that then this leads right into what you were talking about. This comes from Dan Vanam.

How different do you see the defense being this year than they were under Wink last year? Jay Hill said he will run very multiple defenses. What do you got to say about that? Yeah, I see listen as multiple that Wink was and and uh and Mentor and McDonald, those guys were all pretty foundationally pretty similar. Uh this guy Hill takes it to a different level. There’s a there’s a few more uh they don’t from what I’m seeing so far, you won’t see two big edge players in the game quite as much. There’s a lot of times you’ll have just one edge player in the game and four line. We’re going to see a lot of threeman front, four linebackers.

There’s there’s uh but they’re all over the place. But you got to be, you know, when you run multiple stuff and we’re gonna look at some mistakes here. When you run all that stuff, you do do guys really get good at things. Again, you do it with reps. But no, to to answer the question, we are going to be more stuff on defense, uh, more things to try to create confusion for the offense. And obviously the downside is, you know, are you going to make mental mistakes with all that stuff? And uh but the upside is you run so much stuff it prepares your offense by seeing a lot of different fronts and schemes because they see it from your defense.

So answer that question. Yes, we’re going to be multiple and uh I I think we’re going to be uh pretty damn hard uh to figure out and I think we’re going to execute well because I think our spring game was was something that should give us hope. Well, I think one of the things you’re going to notice is a little bit more technically sound on defense. One of the knocks on Wink was that he comes from a pro game. And when you’re coaching pros, you are coaching the absolute best football players on the planet, right? These are all NFL players. There’s only a handful of them in the in the world. And so, you can have those guys do things.

You tell them they can do it. They got speed. They got power. They’ve been around the league. They know what the speed is like and how to defend. Doesn’t work that well in college. You don’t You got some guys that are better than the others. That’s just the way it is. And Whit had a tendency to run uh a fiveman front, basically what it looked like, a 5-2, and with a with a quarterback like Mateer, say. and uh and and some slot receivers, they’d split out the tight end and we’d be lost. And it was easily exploitable. I think that that is a key difference. I don’t think that the defense is going to be as exploitable as it was last year.

And I already saw on film and has commented, we talked about a couple of things that come to mind. one the defensive the edges when they rush they’re not rushing up field and going around the quarterback. Okay. They’re also closing down that down block. So the tackle or the tight end down blocks the outside edge squeezes down shoulders square feet square so he’s mobile side to side. And we’ve seen that on film. And I’m telling you I complained about this all year long last year. The other thing that I’ve seen on film, I’ve been barking up this tree for 10 years now while doing my lowhanging fruit review on Sunday mornings.

When a slot receiver runs, gets a free release off the line and the linebackers drop, but the linebackers are just dropping to a zone. They’re not looking that guy up. They’re not getting hands on him. They’re not rerouting the guy. They’re letting him have a free release. you watch on film, the linebackers are looking up the receiver. As soon as they read pass, they’re dropping to their zone, but they’re looking for that receiver. And that is so key. That disrupts the timing. You’re not going to be able to hit a tight end like they did like Oklahoma did to us last year.

They had a really good tight end, converted forback, fullback, but he was a really good tight end. And he’d just run up the scene, nobody was there. Yeah. You know, do uh Van Dam here has a comment about well that listen that’s the I played the damn position and I coached it. You you when you have a Dominic Nichols type 65 260lb kid you want those guys to be able to rush take on tight ends take on guards rush to quarterback but now okay now you want to ask them to drop in coverage because you you want to you don’t want to be predictable who’s rushing who’s dropping. And then that’s the downside. Uh Vanam you’re absolutely right.

It’s it’s it’s it’s the downside of the that’s why guys got rid of the 5-2 and went to the 4-3 when Jimmy Johnson was running. There’s there’s reasons for those things because they couldn’t find outside backers that could rush and drop. Anyway, that I don’t know if that answered your question. And another question about lack of experience at lineback Well, listen, my my experience is if you got young guys that are real good, real good athletically, if I got good linebackers, good players that are hellified athletes, the answer is to simplify things. You know what I mean?

Do that’s the answer is okay they’re if they don’t have experience and they’re good players. Uh I don’t know the D line. There’s things you can do. Yeah. Actually, we’re going to look at some film and things you can do with your D line to protect them. Yeah. But um actually dude, we’re going to we’re going to talk about the Texas Tech thing real quick and then we’ll we’ll get on the film. We can talk about that or we also if you wanted to touch on this recruiting that’s fine too, but if you want to talk about Sorsby, I mean they’re having a big recruiting weekend. and it’s their biggest recruiting weekend uh of the year. Uh it’s the victor’s weekend.

It’s official visits for a bunch of guys that uh they’re targeting. Uh to name a couple, Frederick Ford, four-star receiver. Uh Kane Brackchney. Uh I’m sorry, Ford. Yeah, is is the receiver. Linebacker. I’m sorry I said receiver. He’s a linebacker. Frederick Ford, fourstar, 6’5, 190b linebacker. Kane Recruiting News & New 2029 Offers Brackchney, three star, 6’1, 230 pound linebacker from Tulsa, and Demani Warren, a 6’4, 210 pound receiver out of Vegas. Uh, and his brother Thaddius Thatcher. So, these are guys that are that are coming in on official visits. These are guys that they’re really hard after.

Um, there’s a guy who’s going to announce to tomorrow, Ephani Amdobe. Uh, his decision comes tomorrow. 6’2, 210 lb edge player from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Uh, Michigan offered Mario Manningham Jr. You want to feel old? Mario Manningham Jr. Now, he’s a class of 2029 guy, but Michigan offered him. And then probably the biggest news in Michigan recruiting, the state of Michigan recruiting, is the number one player in the state, Dakota Gant, out of Harper Woods there. He did in fact, he was scheduled to be at this Victor’s weekend, this weekend.

Uh but Oregon probably threw a bucket of cash at him to say, “Hey, don’t go on that visit and uh he ended up committing to the Oregon Ducks.” Yeah, he’s got hurting him, but he’s committed to him. Yeah, you you know, you can you can see Oregon throws it. Dante Moore’s there. Uh Odin, his head coach Odin, his kid is playing with Michigan now. Yeah. And he’s not exactly playing a ton. You know, dude, those things are going on. you wonder uh you know we we’ll touch on Sorsby uh next time. Let’s get on this film. That’s fine. We got a lot of good film to look at and we’re going to answer some of them questions.

Uh like like here I mean you you were just you got me up here, dude. Yep. Okay. Like this is a this is a a point about the question. Okay. I already had it up here. The defense needs reps. Guards are not covered. Now listen, we’re doing different things on defense. Now, this is how it was when we played, dude. Guards were guards were not covered. You had to have bigger linebackers that could come up and take on guards. You know what I mean? Yep. Yeah. We read your guard. That was what you had to be big and strong enough to take on a big fat guard.

And the in the hurricane, the Miami Hurricane, Jimmy Johnson, the Shelonburg, and those guys, they’re running a 4-3. And now you got a one technique and a three technique. Guards are covered. Linebackers are free. You could play with Ray Lewis. He could be a 220 pound linebacker. Anyway, my point looking at this play, okay, we got uh we got Kanka here. Kanka’s done some good things. Kanka is going to be a player at Michigan. He’s doing some good things. Uh but anyway, guards are not covered. Tougher on linebackers. They need reps.

If you’re going to run this defense, you got to get reps because I don’t think this linebacker does a good job here stepping up. So, you know, Kanka is trying to two gap the center. Well, that linebacker uh you’re you’re uh right here, D. Yeah, he’s he gets nosy on the wrong side of the ball over here. He’s got to step up here. He’s got a gap that he’s responsible for. You got help there. Your linebacker is sitting right in the hole. You don’t have that gap. Yeah.

Well, see, dude, this is this answers the question that the that we had, you know, the guy asked earlier uh about linebackers and and you know, well, if when you’re running a lot of stuff, you’re not going to be good at nothing, you know. So you you these guys got to get better. Uh and this is not good. This is a technique thing. You know, they’re rip they’re ripping us in there. And uh but I like Kanka. The more I look at Kanka, uh he’s uh he’s a pretty good player, man. He’s uh when I when I watched him last year, I didn’t know how quick he was.

If he if he had the athletic ability in it, man, he looks uh you know, 99 looks a lot quicker this year, man. Look, you know, this this second year in. So, I thought a Phobe did a good job on that play. Him and Terbo uh on the left side of that line. Yeah, they they knocked him out of there. Yeah, they took care of business. Anyway, look at the records there. Pretty similar. Um anyway, here we go. Next play. Dude, you got uh Yeah, this second and five. Eli Owens. Am I looking at the Yeah. So, Eli Owens, watch Eli Owens. He’s the tight end at the top. He engages the guy right across the line of scrimmage from him, right?

Gives the tackle time to come over and take over that block and then he gets out and kicks that corner back. That’s a pretty good move by Eli Owens. Nice work. Yeah, because I think the uh I think this guy is a C gap player. I think I I think 38 is responsible for this gap playing with inside control and Well, when the quarterback’s out there over the edge and he doesn’t have a wide receiver, then yeah, he’s the contained guy. Yeah. And these two guys block these two is is what you’re saying. And they they do it. They get it done. Yeah. Those two block those two. That’s exactly how that’s good execution. And the uh the answer to that play. This is tough.

And this has to be on the linebacker. I mean, this kid looks confused. He’s he’s looking around. Yeah. You know, he don’t know what the hell he’s how he’s Something’s confusion and they’re not stepping up. See, he’s the wrong Thomas Omera running the ball again. the pride of Father Gabriel Rashard out of Ann Arbor. But dude, look at look just like you talked about earlier. Look at him. He’s taking a false step over here. Watch. See how he’s stepping the wrong way. Yep. And that’s that’s it. That’s all it takes. And again, these are um you got to if you’re going to run this stuff, you got to give these guys multiple reps, man.

You also have to realize that a couple of these guys, you know, are young a little bit down the depth chart. No, I get it. And they’re in late in the game. Yep. And uh you know, but but it’s uh I thought this was good run support by 24 here. Yeah. Jamarion Vincent. This was a great job by him. You know this if I’m Eli, you know, you got to smash these little corners, man. 100% was thinking the same thing. You know, you got to put this dude into the third row, man. Yeah. There is no way. This is a really good play by U. Vincent. He takes on a block from a pretty goodsized fullback and holds this play to a two- yard gain.

He tackles the guy while still being blocked. Yeah, but you’re right. Eli Owens has got to put that guy out of the end zone or off to the side. Yeah. So, you saw it the same. I mean, those little DBs are shifty and he did he did juke him a little bit, but um you know, you you’ve got to that was a good job by the DB there. All right. All right. So, I I’m wondering if Bell floats this route too far. See how he’s said I think this should have been cut more cleanly inside. It’s zone defense, right? You got two high safeties. You don’t want to carry your route to the safety. You want to find that spot.

The linebackers drop and he’s basically got his back towards you. Come back in here more instead of Yep. Right there. That’s what I think. I wonder if that route was supposed to be run more towards the middle there and not floated deeper where the the safety could make a play. Yeah. Well, this is the young kid, right? Which receiver is that? Oh, that’s that’s Bell. It’s Yeah, it’s Bell. Okay. And and nonetheless, catch the ball. Catch the ball. Help your quarterback. Help your team. Catch the ball. It’s a good play. Um, but still, hey, this 28, uh, dude, this dude makes plays, man. We see a lot of plays where there’s 28 is all over the place.

You’ll see some more plays here as we go on. I thought this was good protection here. Running a little stunt here. Again, I like 99’s athletic ability. Kanka, this kind of looks like a little t Cover 2 here, dut two-ish type two. Tampa 2 where he ran Tampa 2ish because you look at this linebacker he’s getting deput throw the ball right there. Hit Eli Owens on the 10 yard line right there. Throw it to him. It’s a spring game, man. Throw it to him. Yeah, but all right, dude. Look at this defense here. I think this is uh I think this is uh you’ve got five under. Where am I at here?

You got five under, two deep, and this guy is drifting a little bit over and through here, which is looks like a Cover 2. But if you Now, this is a good example. Watch him look up that receiver. He didn’t He does a good job. He actually, you know, I think he does. I bet you the coaches were happy with that. And we’re talking about what what D is talking about is this linebacker right here getting depth and keeping inside, you know, an inside position here, right, D? Yeah. I’d like to see him get hands on the guy, but yeah. Anyway, it’s it’s defended and makes the quarterback run cuz he I think that’s probably was defended exactly how they wanted it.

Yep. They gave him the first down, too. I think that was cheap. Yeah. You got the guy wearing a pink jersey. I mean, what the hell? Don’t you touch him, you touch him, you’re going to lose your scholarship. You’re going to be running the steps, you know. Dude, I was with the Raiders for a minute in training camp. Yeah. And uh Tom Flores, he made it real clear. You see that guy over there, Mark? The quarterbacks had pink jerseys and Marcus Allen. Don’t touch Marcus Allen or you’ll be on the next bus to the airport. Yeah. No, I mean, yeah. You got a Hall of Fame running back, you better not touch him as a as an undrafted free agent or anybody.

This Avery Gach is a mean dude. He’s pulling here. 74. Go ahead, dude. He has got a lot of spit and vinegar in him, man. He is uh he he blocks to the whistle. He is He’s an angry angry man. Yeah, this is this is coached up. I don’t know, dude. Are you thinking you’re seeing a little more nastiness nastiness from these offensive linemen at this point than last year? Yeah, I’ve seen it seen it from a couple of them. Look at how they’re just getting downfield and looking guys up and and um but no I what the guy I don’t like this edge player here. I mean we played this damn position and I mean come on man. You got to come and meet this guy.

You know this this edge player here. You you got to come and you got to meet this dude man and bring it. Well his man’s blocking. So see how he squares up. He does a good job of squaring up. But you can’t look where he ends up, dude. Right. No, I get it. Cuz what the hell is that? He defended uh what is that? Hill Street back there. That ain’t it. I think he he figures, hey, I took on this block. The guy’s cutting inside. I’m going to spin out of this. You got to smash his ass. Well, I’ll give him credit for closing that gap on a down block. He did. I I see his technique was uh he’s a little high. He’s just gota you gota you got to meet him, man.

Um but um yeah, Gach is a guy that is going to play, man. He’s going to work in and he’ll be a starter next year. He’s going to be a full-time starter. Um this kid here again, 28, making a play. Uh I’m I’m I’m reading this thing and I’m looking at how how we’re defending this. I just look at little things, dude. I I see, you know, when the the alignment of this guy right here, you know, I’m looking at that if I’m a defensive football player. I see his alignment. He has a little more depth. I see when he goes in motion, he has a little more depth. See, when you’re coming to block, you’re not getting depth. You’re coming here, right, D? Right. Yep.

And when you get And when you’re not blocking, you’re getting depth. So, you can get out in this pattern. And I think I think they have to be smart with uh uh because good defensive football players are going to feel that. You know what I mean? And I think this kid feels the depth. Yeah. And and watch how he reacts on this thing. Yeah. The safety is not fooled at all here. Yeah. Cuz because I think the little bit of tell the depth there. I know people the average guy ain’t looking at that, but smart football players are. They see they see him here opposed to here, you know. And then everybody’s reading the mesh point.

I got dots on all these guys that are reading uh car putting that hand in the gut and I got the weakness of man coverage down here. You’ve got our corner covering this guy and he don’t know if it’s run or pass and he doesn’t he’s not able to come off that block. But I think 28 here does a hell of a job reading this thing. That’s a great play. And what the heck’s his name again? 28 Kainoa Winston. Yeah. So anyway, uh yeah, I I think them them tight ends got to be uh nice play and that’s a again Eli Owens is no small cat. I mean that dude list 61 244 that’s a good hitting safety if you’re going to take on a big fullback like that.

It was a nice make plays in the pass game and the run game this way. We haven’t really, you know, this is why we’re watching the film, you know. We haven’t heard his name a lot, you know. No, but he’s going to make a play here in a second. Yeah. Um Oh, there’s my boy Freddy. Hey, dude. Did I ever tell you that, you know, he got the job at Ypsilanti High School for a couple years. Did I tell you he asked me to coach with him? Oh, really? Yeah.

He called, he got the job there, you know, he was at Michigan for 30 years, whatever. and um I don’t know who the whatever he he somebody didn’t keep him on or he just wanted to try it and he he asked me to coach I said you know I’m living way on the other side of town Freddy I’m that’s a lot driving all the way out to Ypsi I mean I coached at Ypsi back in the day but Freddy did it for a couple years and he he kept running into that guy at Belleville over there what was his name uh Jermain yeah Crowell yeah getting kids. You got a lot of kids. Got in trouble for getting in trouble for getting too many kids. Yeah, that’s right. Absolutely.

You know, th this is uh this formation is you got a lot of gaps to cover, man. You got a you got you got A, B, C, D, E, F. You got a lot of gaps out here. People see trips. You got more guys out there than they do, man. Yeah. But Michigan defends it, but not very well. They end up cutting it back. They they defend the trip side. Michigan defends this and the running back cuts it back. Linebacker’s unblocked. Makes a good play. Comes off a block. Yeah, does definitely makes a good play there. But now we’re what is it? That was third down. So now we got fourth down here. Dude, let’s take a look at this play. Your boy Kanka comes up big on this. Yes, he does, man.

Kanka and the line and and then the same guy. Uh that same guy, Winston. Winston. And you know, we’re going to look at it and um it’ll be the last play, but that’s a good tackle there. 59. Who is that? Uh whoa, that’s Widenbach. John Widenbach. Okay. Well, that’s a good, you know, this guy here 90 92. He doesn’t make the play, do you know, but you you have to uh is Ted Hammond. You know, you got to have flat wall defense. Okay, we’ll look at this play and and Kanka does a good job and the and the safety comes over and and cleans it up and they get us off the field. Fourth and goal. That’s a nice play by Kanka, man. He really quick hands um and strong.

Yeah, sometimes he only gets a left shoulder on it, but the safety of course is there to help. But I mean, I don’t care. This is fourth and one. Yeah, this kid’s too high. 7 72 is way too high. He he would have got his butt chewed, I’m sure. Yeah, he did not have good position. Yeah, I mean, look at it’s all about leverage down here and and Kanka is underneath him. And but but 92 here is holding his ground right here. See, if you got movement here, it’s a touchdown. This guy holds his ground. Hammond holds his ground there. See how he’s punching in here? Yep. And Kanka’s punching in there. This kid’s too high. 72’s high. And this guy finds the gap.

This tight end can’t get to him. And it’s one of the weaknesses of of the formation is really what it is is the weakness of the formation because you can’t expect that tight end to get to him and he comes underneath it. But Kanka is really the guy that makes the play. But all three of them, all three of them are a factor here. Yep. That’s 72 by the way. He’s 6 foot n. Yeah. You got to find a way to get down. You got to get down at all fours or something down here, man. Yeah, when you you are 100% right, man. You just bear crawl through it. Yeah, this is uh coming out like this getting all trying to reach a guy basically.

You know, you know, dude, I went to the uh I went and saw a Navy practice back in the day. These dudes, the offensive line starts practice firing out in a four-point stance. That that’s how they they just come out, you know, that’s the attitude of how they block. Anyway, that’s uh that’s a big fourth down stop and that’s all we got. A little bit of film and um let me get Joe Blue says your film breakdowns are the best. Thank you, Joe Blue. Uh Evan Van Vanam also agrees with me watching uh the five down lineman against Oklahoma and USC. Not a great situation to use five down linemen.

Uh yeah, it it depends on uh what the formation what it is you want to do. Uh there’s a lot of variables to to evaluate it at times. Wink liked a lot of 51 look, you know, times that do do like he would put two edge players in three down linemen with one linebacker and he did different things from that. So, there’s a lot of things that they did and um sometimes it paid off, sometimes it didn’t. But yeah, you got two big 260lb edge players, it’s obvious going to hurt you when you drop one of them.

When you’ve got offenses like Oklahoma’s and USC’s and they have, you know, really good athletic tight ends that are slot that are they’re lined up in the slot. Man, you cannot be in a 5-2. You can’t do it because you’re going to get cooked. You’re you’re asking a inside linebacker to get over to this fast athletic tight end and it’s just it’s a bad recipe. Couple more couple more comments here because I know we’re going to get going. Uh Goat since Yoast, these episodes with the film breakdown are my favorite. Appreciate you guys. Go Blue. Christopher Robbins can made the play of the spring game. Go Blue. scar and do and a hardy go blue. Go blue.

Hey, um my last comment is we got the 1964 team coming soon. We’re going to do a breakdown with a couple guys on that team. We got the Roseb film that’s coming soon, but we’re counting it down and it’s the quiet before the storm. I, you know, we’re putting our heads in the in the into those guys that are in are getting ready to play and it’s that u you know, get your body as solid as possible and in shape the best you can because you know what’s coming, man. Uh yeah, the stomach starts churning. You’re you’re getting in your your last bits of of lifting and conditioning and uh you know, you got high expectations.

Everybody here on that team has high expectations despite all the chirping that you’re hearing about their, you know, from talking heads. Um, they control their own destiny. Those guys in the locker room, that’s it. None of this other noise matters. Uh, and frankly, when you’re being somewhat overlooked, somewhat, you know, we’ve been there in 85, dude. We weren’t even raped. I got a lot of confidence for this football team right now. We We both went to practice. We got a hell of a coach. We got a great staff. We got damn good players. I’m confident as hell. I don’t give a damn about any ratings, any of that bull BS. We got a good team.

There’s not There’s not going to be a game we walk on that field where we’re outmanned and we’re outgunned. It ain’t happening. I’m all good. Go Blue. Over and out. Yeah, let’s go blue, man. We’ll be talking to you guys. Jim will be with the uh what? 64 team. Yeah. Coming soon. Coming soon. And then we’ll be back in two weeks. Got a little bit more film to talk about. And man, camp is going to be starting. Football’s days away. Toe meets leather. The words of Schembechler. Go Blue!]