Michigan Football, Hoops & Softball LIVE at Knight’s! With Carol Hutchins, M RBs & More!

[We’re live. We’re live. We’re live, Chris. We’ll do it live. We’ll do
it.

Hey, you know what? Listen. We’re here at Knight’s Steakhouse in
downtown Ann Arbor at the corner of Maynard and Liberty. It’s really
bizarre because Chris Howard and I’m Doug Cohen. We’re the co-founders
of Hail Media and tonight is the first time we’ve ever shaken hands and
been in the same room together that we were aware of.

That’s right. Well, it’s been we’ve been working on this for almost a
year and all of our conversations have literally been through FaceTime,
Google Meets. by the way, Google Meets, if you want to sponsor us, you
definitely can. but yeah, so it was good to finally meet Doug. I mean,
we’ve been talking, like I said, for over a year.

And uh when we say that we put this together with duct tape and elbow
grease, we literally mean that. But we’ve seen Hail Media Network grow
in general. And it’s because of you guys who supported the network and
all the work that we’ve been putting into it. So it’s been a it’s been a
crazy adventure, but a good one. It really has.

And uh you look around the room here, you can’t see it, but this place
is packed with a lot of our friends. There’s some there’s some current
student athletes, there’s some former student athletes. Everybody’s got
a connection to Michigan, people that we’ve connection to. couple of the
hosts of a couple of our shows and you’re going to hear from them
tonight. I’m fired up, man.

I couldn’t be happier. Yeah. And, uh, onward and upward, man. Hail Media
is in the house. Literally at live at Knight’s Steakhouse.

In the house. Yeah. At Knight’s Steakhouse. Right. I mean, the food here
is fantastic.

It’s the one downtown across the street from the Michigan Theater at
Maynard and Liberty. It’s 600 East Liberty. food is fantastic. They’re
an Ann Arbor institution, familyowned, and they’ve been great sponsors
of ours, and it’s just a fantastic venue for us to all gather, eat some
great food, and have some fun. So, with that said, should we uh
introduce our our host with the most?

Yep. guy that I played with uh from 1994 to 1996, he graduated. Guy
named Thomas Dwines. he still looks the same. He’s still as big as he
was.

when I got to Michigan, I didn’t even know they made offensive linemen
that big. You can tell I got here, but but he’s going to be awesome,
man. You’re going to love uh we call him Big Hezy. So, he’s going to be
our host, and he’s going to introduce um our guest, Tim McCormick, uh
who’s also going to be interviewing Trey McKenney’s dad, John McKenney.
We have a host of other people that’s going to be on the show.

So, get ready. All right, let’s do it. You’re up. Good evening, ladies
and gentlemen. My name is Thomas Guynes and I’m going to be your host
tonight for hail mediator importing here right here at night steakhouse
good old Ann Arbor Michigan right here at 600 Liberty on the campus of
the University of Michigan the food is great the atmosphere is awesome
we have some great Michigan greats here tonight and uh we’re definitely
looking forward to having a great show with you so just a little bit
about me again my name is Thomas Guynes I’m class of 1996 played
offensive line for the Michigan Wolverines as a offensive lineman.

Started at both guards, both tackles, played a little bit in the NFL,
been all over. Did you get a paycheck and play football? So, tonight as
we get ready to rock and roll, we’re going to have some greats in the
house like Tim McCormick. We have Billy Taylor and a host of other
Michigan great. We got Coach Hutch from softball, some of our lady
Wolverine hoopers looking to have a great time tonight.

So, please stay tuned. And we’re back, ladies and gentlemen, at Knight’s
Steakhouse at 600 Liberty on the great campus of the University of
Michigan in good old Ann Arbor, Michigan. Coming up next, we have Macy
Browns and Ashley Sulkanic. And guess what? Macy’s coming off of a
injury four months ago.

So, it’s going to be interesting to see how the Lady Wolverines rehab is
going and how they’re looking to bounce back for the upcoming season.
So, I’m going be turning it over to Ashley and Macy. All right. Hi
everyone. My name is Macy Brown.

I’m a senior on the Michigan women’s basketball team. And I’m Ashley
Senic. I’m also a senior on the Michigan women’s basketball team. And
we’re here here with Hail Media just to chat. Yeah.

So Macy, I’ll start. Okay. I give you a question. All right. So second
round of March Madness right before we our bowl game.

Macy suffers a season ending injury to But now Macy is four months
posttop. Macy, how’s that recovery process going? It’s been good,
thanks. it’s been going really well. I just got like my return to
running and jumping.

My athletic trainer, shout out Miss Chris, she’s amazing. She’s the go.
So, she’s been pushing me along and it’s been really fun. I mean actual
like right after it happened the team was like so amazing and it like I
reflect on this situation like so much and it was obviously like very
unfortunate timing and it was really really hard in the moment but just
like seeing everyone rally around me it was like so amazing. It like
makes me em I mean thinking about it like makes me emotional.

but yeah, I just it makes me love our team so much. And yeah, and also I
was talking to Miss Chris about this today, but I was watching practice
and I was like, “Oh my gosh, like that sucks. Like I just I just want to
be out there right now.” And she’s like, “Well, at least you know, like
you miss it. You know that you miss it.” And so what do you have to say
to athletes who are struggling with injury who are out and having to
watch their team play? Like what any advice?

Boom. I would say enjoy the little winds. Like I jumped the other day
and Miss Chris and I were like jumping up and down swimming [laughter]
and so um just enjoy the little winds and like there’s always a light um
on the end of the t a light at the end of the tunnel. and just keep
going because there’s really really hard days and you’re never alone.
There’s always people that are supporting you.

So try to be around your team as much as you can. Yeah, that’s great
advice, M. Okay, Ash. Okay, now your is your second year here. So, Ash
transferred from Bucknell, which is a mid major in um the Patriot
League.

Patriot League. Yes. Patriot League player of the year a couple years
ago. Y um now that you’ve have like a year under your belt here, how do
you feel like going in? Wow.

Yeah. I feel like they really they kept telling me last year like your
first year is always the hardest and I feel like when you’re going
through it, you don’t really believe it. You’re kind of like okay, like
it’s just hard. But no, it has gotten so much better. This summer
session has been great.

I’ve had so much fun with our team. We have such a great group of girls
this year and like just having so much more fun playing basketball. I
feel like now that I’m so comfortable knowing the drills, um, knowing
what the coaches expect from me, it just like creates such a sense of
safety in practice. And yeah, I love it. Having that year under your
belt makes such a big difference.

You’re just so much more comfortable and confident yourself. Like I
remember coming in sophomore year and I was like, “Okay, I know what I’m
doing. Like I know our plays and like it’s just it makes a big
difference and you make it so nice and even like student life, you know,
like I can get to my classes now without a GPS. So yeah, no more Google.
No more Google Maps.

No, that’s actually a good point. Okay, so you’re a political science
major. Yes. What do you want to do with poly? I feel like this is like a
question I keep getting asked cuz when you’re a senior, everyone’s like,
“What are you going to do?

What are you going to do?” So much pressure. But I’m not too sure yet. I
definitely want to play overseas basketball or pro basketball somewhere,
but Oh, yeah. You can take a photo. Yeah, of course.

Of course. Brief. Go. Go Blue. Brief intermission.

Sorry. Picture. Are we talking [laughter] now? Yeah. What we want to
do after college with our majors?

So, I want to kind of work into government. uh security probably whether
it’s like federal agency or homeland security something along those
lines. We’re going to see honestly at this point it’s wherever the wind
takes me. I feel like Michigan connections will carry me super far. So
Macy sports management.

What do you want to do? Okay. So I’m getting my undergrad in sport
management and then next year I’ll get my master in I have to apply
still but fingers crossed so I get in. Oh, but that’s just like Rapster
is amazing. So, super prestigious, by the way.

Yes. She’s she’s so smart. But I did an internship this summer. Yeah.
Tell me about that with the credit union.

It was amazing. I I loved it. Like, I’m obsessed with everyone that
works there. They’re so amazing. So, I took Brandon Marketing there.

And then I’m in another internship this fall. So, it’s been crazy. But I
need two internships to graduate. So, I’m just like grinding those out.
but having fun doing it.

It’s been a lot of fun. And so I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s been like an
outlet outside of like rehab and basketball, which is good. and actually
my coach helped me in some of the internships too, which shout out. but
yeah, so I want to do something in marketing.

I honestly have no idea exactly what I want to do. Well, we’ll figure it
out. We got time. That’s what I like to say. That’s a problem for later.

And all right. I feel like we’ll kind of close with this question. Being
roommates. It’s not. Okay.

But look, me and Macy are actually roommates here, too. We’re the only
class that’s been to like in our grade. I Okay, so I’ve been here all
four years. I was I had one other person in my class freshman year.
Sophomore year, I was alone.

Yeah. And then junior year, Ashley came in and now senior year. So, we
I’ve made it the longest. Yeah. going strong.

BFS forever. Yep. So, okay. My big question. Okay.

How excited are you for the big football game tomorrow? I’m really
excited. Really excited. Like going back into the big house. I’m excited
for like when the James Jones video comes on like I remember my first
game last year, Macy was like, “You need to listen to this video.” I
said, “Macy, what are you talking about?” And it was awesome.

She understood. Chills. Chills. The whole stadium I feel like goes
silent. So, it was amazing.

Oh, awesome. He should say for Mr. Bright Sides, too. Like always have
to first game. Oh yeah.

I’m excited. So it never gets old. Like I obsess. It never will. It
probably never will.

No. So that this is Ashley and Macy reporting from Hail Media. Shout out
Nights for hosting this great event. So many Michigan alums. So many
Michigan supporters and fans came out to come and see the Hail Media
podcast and just hang out and have fun.

So we had so much fun. Thank you guys. Thank you. All right, everybody.
So excited for the opportunity to talk to one of my favorite people.

Remember, this is not a basketball story. This is a fatherson journey.
John McKenney is Trey McKenney’s father. I don’t know if you knew this,
but you were named first team all Big Ten on the dad team because of all
of the good stuff you’ve done with your son. Thank you very much.

It’s good talking to you. talking. So the one thing that I want to ask
you about is when did you first realize that Trey was different than
other kids? He was special. He had some skills that nobody else had at
that age about 11 years old.

But at that point, you’re just like he’s still so young. You think, hey,
maybe he’ll grow out of it. Maybe he’ll get burnt out of out of it. And
as he got older, he just started applying himself and disciplining
himself more and more. I never had to say, “Hey, we got to go work out.

We got to go lift. We got to go shoot.” He always was a selfarter. And
the same thing as when he came to college, he was the first one in the
gym. John, were you hard on Trey? Were you always constantly pushing him
or was he more of the self starter?

He’s always been a selfarter. I always tell parents if I got I have to
tell my child, hey, you got to do this, you got to do that, there in
lies the problem. That means the parent wants it more than the child. So
I never ever had to say, hey, we got to get shots up. We got to this.

He’s always done all that stuff himself. What um what about Trey made
you feel like it was a great connection with the University of Michigan?
It seems like it’s a really good fit between the two of them. I think
it’s a multi-layered answer. I think part of it is, you know, he’s a
third generation Wolverine.

So, his grandparents, you know, were graduated from Michigan. My
youngest sister graduated from Michigan. He grew up watching the shot
that Trey Burke did on Kansas to get to the Elite 8 as a seven-year-old
and it just drew him in. And being from Flint, you know, everyone tends
that’s Spartan country. I mean, he respected the guys, he liked the
guys, but for him, it just wasn’t for him.

I want to talk about the national championship. What was it like being a
dad and enjoying that journey? all the sellout crowds and all the
hostility towards Michigan and and they did it. What What was that like
for you? It was a great feeling.

But honestly, when we got to the final fourth, I knew we had won it. I
never told Trey that. I would tell the parents that like when they were
talking, they’d be anxious and different things. I would say, “Hey, guys
need to relax. They beat everybody playing the opposite team, playing
the opposing team style.

This isn’t going to be easy, but they’re going to win because they know
how to play multiple way. They know to win multiple ways. I I want to go
back to before the Arizona game. I thought Arizona was the second best
team in the country.” And before the game, John told me, “Don’t even
worry about it. We’ve got this because Trey has played against those
Arizona kids and he’s owned them.

Share that. Yeah. So, growing up, Trey grew up playing against Braden
Bry and Ka Pete, which were their two best players from as young as 9
years old. So, and not only that, they played in USA training camps with
and against each other. And I knew Ka Cole was always the guy who
bullied the smaller guys, but when he had to go against guys like size,
like Cam Boozer, like AJ Debonsa, like Tyron Stokes, like Caleb Wilson,
they always knew, hey, if I if I hit him first, then a lot of times he
checks out.

So I would, when I saw the Reds, I say, “Look, first time he comes up,
hands up, chest out, and see the reaction, see the body language.” And
it worked. The first time he came in the hole and he went against Morz
chess, he came back. He jumped back like five feet. At that point, he
just started settling for floers and offensive rebounds, but he never
attacked us again. I knew at that point we won.

So, I I’m excited to ask you about the best shot in Michigan basketball
history. 6256 Michigan against Yukon. Michigan was one for 15 from three
and Trey got the ball from Rody Gale and nailed that wing three-pointer.
Tell me what went through your mind when that happened. Funny thing is
me training him since he’s been eight years old.

As soon as he had that quick dribble onto the shot, I stood up with my
hands up and I remember my dad and my uncle and his mom and everyone
looking at me real quick. Next thing I know, they were up and Rob Pelica
was sitting in the row ahead of me. same same seat turned around and
jumped in my arms. [laughter] I love it. And u like I said, soon as he
shot it, I knew it because he’s a guy.

Wow, he can catch and shoot it. Well, yeah. He stoops at a much higher
clip off the drill bit. 74 days ago, Dusty May left for Dallas. Were you
shocked?

Did you talk to Dusty? And what’s that conversation with Trey right
after you guys both heard the news? Well, I’m going to take you all the
way back. So 8:00 that night, I get a happy Father’s Day text from
Dustin, our play. Happy Father’s Day to you, coach.

Tell the family I said hi. Fast forward 14 hours to 10:09 a.m. Monday
morning, I’m watching first take. I usually try to watch like maybe the
first 15, 20 minutes just to see, you know, just what’s going on in the
sports world, whatnot. And at 10:09, I’ll never I’ll never forget the
moment.

I’m on the phone the phone with a friend of the family. and Sam’s they
report was Sam’s Shay Cornet reports Dusty’s taking a job at the Mavs
and I just look dumbfounded for about five minutes. I was I was I was on
the phone. He saw it the same time I saw it and he was like John I said
what? He was like you see this?

I said did you know? I said I had no clue. So at like 10 to 15, I get my
faculties together. I hang up. I said, “Let me get a hold of my son.” So
first I text Tra’s mom and I’m like, I to screenshot the TV.

I said, “This is what happened.” I put in our family chat. I go from
there. And then literally I called my son. He went, he didn’t pick up.
So I called him back to back.

You know, usually for us parents now, you call to get back to back. They
know it’s important. So like 10:35 he calls me and his mom and he’s like
what’s going on? I missed like 30 calls. I said listen I said I’ve
gotten like 10 calls and I’ve left got like 10 miss calls from other
schools.

Yeah. [laughter] He was like you serious? I said yeah they’re all
telling me just get back to them if we are interested. And he’s like
yeah I got to meet with Ward and um I said what you want to do? He’s
like either boy or I’m gone.

And um thank God they they kept they kept MV and this is where we’re at.
But blown away. Yes. Mad no. And then we still he still had to go speak
at the U of M alum golf outing in Good and him in church with a straight
face.

What about Mike Boynton? You mentioned him. Yeah. A lot of things to be
excited about him. What are you looking forward to seeing from Mike
Boynton this year?

I think he’s going to win with some of Dusty style, but some of his own
style at the same time. He knows he’s not an offensive guru. That’s why
he hired offensive coaching. I think he’s kind of going to let these
from watching overseas trip, he’s going to let these freshman figure it
out and play. When when you look at the reasons that you’re optimistic
for next year, what’s at the top of the list?

What What do you like about this team? I think JP and Norz are the same
kind of player, similar um what’s it? Motors, similar skill sets. I
think is a lottery field guy has some MB to him where he can shoot it
from three. He can he got a little floater.

He can shoot. He can play back to the basket. He can play above the rim.
He can block. He can move.

So, I think this back court is electrifying that we have coming back
next year. I’m not saying that because my child’s there, but I just
think they’re electrifying. He’s electrifying. Yeah, [laughter] I
didn’t want to say that, but okay. I think at the wings I think where I
think we have a lot of depth.

I think you have Quinn Costello. He’s a bigger, faster, more athletic
version of Duncan Robinson. You have Rody Gail, who’s the continent glue
guy. You have Ricky, that’s a 3 and D guy. He’ll probably shoot 38 to
probably 42% from three.

Very bouncy, very athletic, quick twitch. I think Joseph Hartman is
slept on. I like him. Yeah, I like him a lot. tell me a little bit about
Lithuania and Montenegro.

You went on the trip. Yes. I want to hear your favorite sightseeing
adventure and and what you walked away from with Trey. And I ask it this
way. Can Trey become that alpha dog?

Like he was a great support guy last year. Can he become the go-to guy,
the scar? What did you see from him? So I want your favorite sight scene
and then also can Trey become that alpha dog? My favorite sight scene
was literally all of Croatia.

I stayed across the street from the sea. So it was like every morning
you wake up, you see the sea, you see beautiful boats, beautiful yachts,
water that you can see to the bottom of other that Croatia and Hawaii
might be the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited. Now going back to
Trey, I think it’s in him. Anybody who’s watched him since high school
or middle school know that’s what he that’s what he is. He is an alpha.

He kind of had to kind of shackled himself a little bit last year for
his roles because that doesn’t come natural to him. Yeah, I think like I
said, I think the guys on this year trust him to be the alpha. I wrote
down some quick hitters were towards the end here. Okay. Your favorite
Big Ten venue on the road.

Purdue. What did you like about Purdue? The fans were cheering for them
as if they were 20 points up when they were 20 points down. What’s the
most points you ever scored in a game? And what’s the most that Trey
ever scored in a game at any level?

Trey 41, IMG, me 17. [laughter] so the most famous and impactful
person you’ve ever met in basketball? LeBron James. What was that? Trey
played um for his team with his youngest son, Bryce, for three years.

huh. Who’s the breakout player for Michigan this year? somebody that’s
that fans are going to be blown away by how good they are. I think I
don’t I can’t answer that with one person. I’ll say Joseph Hartman Ricky
Leornne.

I like both a lot. Okay. When was the first time that Trey ever beat you
one-on-one or playing horse? He’s never beat me in a horse, but the one
time we played oneonone, he beat me eight to four. So you you were
smart.

Yes. I bowed out early. Eighth grade. If not Michigan, where would Trey
have gone to school? Georgetown.

I think that’s a good call. A good competency. And then the last things,
what’s something that drives you crazy about Trey? We know he’s a great
kid. We know he’s an unbelievable play.

There’s got to be something about him that’s not perfect. He’s so slow
and methodical. He’s an overinker. [laughter] Final question. When
when you think back about his journey, he was just a little kid that
loved to shoot baskets and dribble around.

And when you look at how far he’s come and how far he will go, what
makes you the proudest of your son? Yeah, this going to sound crazy and
people look at me crazy when I say this. when he was in 10th grade and
he was offered by Stanford. He was the first kid in his class nationally
offered by Stanford and offered by Harvard and Princy because that let
everyone know he’s more than just a basketball player. Good.

John, you’re my friend, my awesome dad, first team all Big Ten. Did they
send you a trophy or anything for that? [laughter] No. Thanks very
much for joining us and can’t wait to watch Trey McKenney tear up the
Big Ten next year. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, everybody. So, we are now joined by a coach who
needs no introduction. She’s the GOAT. She’s won like 567 championships
or something like that.

But actually, it’s it’s 22 regular season Big Ten championships. She was
a softball coach here for 38 years. Won a national championship here.
Carol Hutchins, thanks for joining us. Thank you so much for having me.

I could not be more thrilled to be here. Yeah. Well, we’re happy that
you’re here to join us and we’ve got something important to talk about
today. A lot of things about your illustrious career have been said and
and we could talk about that for hours, but I know, you know, this is
something that’s very important to you and to us. Hail Media, we’ve been
thrilled to be able to get involved with promoting women’s sports at
Michigan.

And I know this is an event, the elevator elevates her summit at Crisler
coming up. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about this and why people
should be interested in this? Well, first of all, our women’s sports
here, I all have maintained for years that everything that our young
women get to do here is as meaningful to them, as important to the
university as anything our young men do. Yeah. And we are promoting that
because it we’re a little bit under the radar and we’re promoting how
great our women’s sports have been, how great our women alumni are.

They have been so successful and we’re putting them on a platform to get
people to actually educated about what we’ve done here with the women.
Not just we all love football, basketball, but we also want people to
know about our women and it’s an educational piece. But it also talks
about, you know, the why is why being an athlete is so important to
women. Yeah. The values and the work ethics and all the things that it
does for men, it does for young women.

No. And then we also need to talk about how we can help because in
today’s landscape people ask me all the time. Well, what about the women
like they do NIL? Do they do the transfer portal? The answer is yes.

It’s not at the magnitude of some of the men’s sports, but it’s there.
And we need help. We need people to invest in our women. Our women have
never been better. Since Michigan began investing in women’s sports, you
know, we’re 54 years old.

We were a little behind the bucket for a while. We have doubled the Big
Ten championships with any other Big Ten team because once we invested
in our women, our women have shown that being a Michigan athlete
matters. So, we’re trying to showcase that and bring it to the public
side. Yeah. Well, and I think a conference like this to me just
demonstrates that leadership in on this topic to have a to have a summit
like this at Crisler.

And there’s going to be people, I would guess, coming from far and wide.
It’s not just like a closed doors Michigan get together. This is
something to elevate women’s sports overall. Correct. Our hope is that
people will come from far and wide.

We want to see what we’re doing and get to know our kids and get to know
the landscape of today’s world. And the landscape of today’s world is
like nothing we have ever seen. But um we’re we’re very excited about
it. Andrea Joyce is coming in. She’s a worldrenowned journalist.

Michigan grad. Michigan grad ABC. you know, Olympic sports journalist.
and she didn’t bat an eye when we asked the Toms. She goes, “I’ll do
it.” She didn’t even know the date.

I’ll do it. She wants to be involved so badly. So, we expect to be a
amazing evening and we just want to get it out there. So, I appreciate
you getting us here to get it out there. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, and we’ll do our part. We have from day one, it was important to
us from the day that we conceived of Hail Media that we were going to
cover women’s sports and uh and we’ve had a great time with Jordan Hobbs
and Maddie Nolan, two great Wolverines who have done a great job
covering the women’s basketball program. And now, you know, without
spilling too much of it, we’ve got some exciting announcements coming up
on the softball side, too. Awesome. With with your GOAT player.

So, we’re excited. Way able here. Yes. and we really appreciate, you
know, your support on that as well. So again, it’s ElevateHER and uh
we’re going to have this posted on all of our socials at Hail Media
Group so that you can register and come to Chrysler on October 15th.

Man, my eyes are getting bad. I know. October 15th, 5:30 to 700 p.m. at
Crisler Center Elevate Her Summit. Be there and Go Blue, coach.

Be there. All right. Well, the guests just keep on coming because now
we’re going to stick with women’s sports and softball. And we’re joined
now by Bonnie Tholl, current softball coach at the University of
Michigan. Hey, Bonnie.

How are you today? I’m good. So, you know, you and I actually over
overlapped here at Michigan. We didn’t know each other. I don’t think I
know, you know, I talked to a few of my teammates who said, “Oh, yeah.

You know, remember Bonnie, I don’t know if our paths were crossed very
much and but I was here from 88 to 92 and so I know you’re a long time
Wolverine. It’s in your blood and now you get to run the program
yourself and how’s it I mean I I I have some thoughts on how it’s going,
but I want to hear from you. How’s it going? How you feeling? Well, you
know, every day is a new adventure.

And that’s fun because I love that freshman come into a program or come
into college and they’re so excited because they don’t know necessarily
what’s around the current so they’re like puppies and I kind of feel
like that because the landscape of college sports changes so often. you
have a new challenge as a coach bringing a team together every single
day. So, it’s fun and I can’t think of one one thing that is bad about
being a Wolverine. So, every day is a great day. Absolutely.

There isn’t a bad thing. And actually, I just saw you recently appeared
with um with Haley Pul on Hail to Her on Champ Media. Big fan of
Haley’s. So, I got to see a little of that and that was pretty cool.
Well, Haley is such a great young talent and um you just when you have a
good chemistry with somebody who’s interviewing you, it’s easy to take
answers and to provide answers.

So, there’s a lot of great things to come. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And,
you know, I was just talking to Coach Hutch about ElevateHER the summit
coming up. So, we’re pretty excited about that.

And we’ve always been very uh you know intent on shining a light on
women’s sports here at Michigan from the day that we started Hail Media.
It was something that was important to us even as former football
players that all of our sports especially our women’s sports need that
spotlight because there’s such great things that are going on here.
We’ve got such great history that people need to know about. So uh I
guess there’s really no question there. Well, I think it’s because I
even hear the stories of back when Bo was the coach and Hutch has told
me the stories of when he would walk into the practice and and maybe not
every softball player was wearing the right uniform or the Michigan uh
t-shirt issued gear and both said to her one day like, “What’s everyone
wearing?” And she goes, “You know what?

we don’t have practice uniforms. And sure enough, by that next week,
Michigan softball had practice uniforms because coach Bo Schembechler
thought it was important that we represent Michigan in the right manner
always. And so, and then I can go down the line to Lloyd Carr, right?
Lloyd has been such an advocate uh through his coaching days for women’s
athletics and such a supporter. and you know, I think it’s really
important that the biggest faces and names in men’s sports here at
Michigan are the biggest fans of women’s athletics.

I think it’s really important. Yep. Well, we’re doing our part to try
and make sure that that happens. and lastly, let’s talk about, you know,
I know you have a couple of senior leaders that are coming back on this
team this year that you’re excited about. And, you know, it seems to me
that you added a couple of pieces.

The roster looks to me like it’s coming together. So, uh, if you want to
talk about that a little bit, I’m excited. Well, we are excited as well.
We’ve only been in practice for two days. but we do have some new
pieces.

Yeah. Entering freshman and, uh, some transfers. And, you know, we’re
going to lean on some of the transfers who are pitchers in the circle,
right? Arms in the circle that we really needed. And I think it’s a
really good blend.

And, and I think that more than anything, the culture of our program is
really strong. And so, for those of the whole time. Those people who
have not been in the program and are just being introduced to Michigan
Softball, um they’re going to acclimate quickly and they’re going to
help elevate our program. And so, you’re right. We have Janisa Conway
and Lauren Woods who are upper classmen who have been all the fans for
us.

That outfield is um is one to be reckoned with at the especially when
they can rob people at the fence like Janisa did. I saw that play.
Everybody saw that play. She’s like Junk Man, right? We call her Jump
Jay because she has those special talent.

Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, hey, I appreciate it. We’re going to be
talking more and more softball because without spilling too much of it
yet, we’re about to do something on Hail Media with the goat around
here, uh, Sierra Romero. So, we love it. We’re excited about things to
come and we appreciate you taking the time.

Well, thanks so much. Thank you. Go Blue. Go Blue. All right.

Hey, so we’re back at it over here with Hail Media Group. Thomas Guynes,
offensive line, your favorite offensive lineman, number 75 in your
playbook, number one in your heart. Go Blue. So, I’m over here with Ira
Weintraub. And Ira’s been doing some really big things right now with
Michigan Insider.

Ira’s kind of been doing some some connective work with Hail Media. Ira,
I’m going to turn it over to you. tell the feds about what it is that
you do and how that relationship with Hail Media could all these things
are coming together. All right, so I’m Ira Weintraub from the Big Ten50
in Ann Arbor for those that don’t know me and a couple weeks ago I
reached out to Doug and I was like Doug I love what you guys are doing
with Hail Media. I love all the different podcasts that you’re doing
whether it’s the women’s basketball with Thor and Mattie, whether it’s
Timmy Mack who’s here and obviously the football stuff.

I want to get more exposure for you guys. Okay. And I wanted a little
more content on my station, right? Selfishly I wanted a little more
content on my station that my listeners want to hear, which of course
are the same people that are watching, right? These are Michigan fans,
right?

So, I wanted to be able to get more content on the show, you know, 15
minutes here, 20 minutes there. But what I wanted to do was take those
pieces and then put them on the air for the listeners go, “Yeah, you
heard that, but there’s still 40 more minutes of that great
conversation. Correct. You want to go listen to it? Go to hail media.tv
or Hail Media Group on social media.

go to YouTube, etc. And so I wanted to, you know, the mutually
beneficial partnership. I get great content cuz they have great content
and we get to give a little bit more exposure to what the Hail Media
Group’s doing. And I love the fact that the group is not just obviously
football’s important, men’s basketball is important, but they have this
they’re focusing on all the sport. I’m a girl dad, right?

I am a girl dad. And so it’s one of the reasons my my wife when she was
reached out by Maddie Nolan, she’s like, “You know what? I want to
sponsor.” Okay. So expl like she want like it was no offense to the
football guys, the basketball guys. It was actually the women’s
basketball podcast that is why we wanted to get involved on her side and
I wanted just the whole package.

I think that I love everything they’re doing. So basically we’re looking
at a more global or holistic view of sports information, sports
entertainment, Michigan brand. Yeah. So what we do every day, 5 days a
week, is we obviously Sam Webb and I talk to Michigan football and talk
college football and Michigan basketball and college basketball and
everything that comes off of those conversations. And anything I went to
a symposium, that’s a great way to explain it.

I went to a workshop a bunch of years ago and they said, “Do what you do
best and pump the rest.” Really, they said link to the rest, right? And
I’m like, well, we do a lot of really good things, but so do other
people. Correct. And so Hail Media Group doing a lot of good things. I
wanted to be able to link to what they’re doing to kind of tap in to add
on to what we’re doing on the Michigan Insider to add on to all of our
other great programming on the Big Ten 50WPA, including tomorrow.

I should shameless plug, right? 3:30 p.m. tomorrow. The countdown to
kickoff starts on the Big TenWT games. We get ready for the first game
of the season.

Can’t wait to get rolling. I go on the air after the games for a
postgame show. Okay. And it’s I can’t football season, man. We’re here.

It is, man. It’s what we live for. Michigan sports in general. How has
it been? because I know Chris and Doug have never done this before in
the same space, same time.

How has this been for you being able to work with both Chris and Doug
and to be a part of this personally, not just via Zoom or or whatever
links that you want to use, but to be here oneonone. What’s funny is I
learn Doug told us a story this morning on the air that they had not
been face to face and Sam and I got a kick out of it and I realized that
I mean I’ve spent a lot of time I’ve known Doug for years. I mean, my
wife and I’ve had Doug dinner with Doug and Ally. Like, I’ve spent time
with them. Chris used to be a regular on our show, done stuff with
Chris.

I’m like, I’ve spent more time in person than they spent together. Like,
these are guys that I’ve known for a long time. The analogy would be we
had this conversation about we all hate Notre Dame. But it’s a little
harder to root against them right now because DJ Carr is the starting
quarterback. And I get a Michigan guy going, “Yeah, but hell Notre
Dame.” And I go, “But we’ve known the Cars for a really long time.

It’s personal. It’s not just someone, right, that’s from the area that
just like obviously you know Lloyd really well. It’s his grandson. It’s
personal for you. You know Jason, it’s personal.

And so I feel the same way. And it’s kind of like it’s the same thing
with Doug and with Chris. I see guys that I know putting this thing
together that over the course of the year of really hard work, I’m like
I really like what they’re doing. And yeah, it’s it isn’t just about
Sure, there’s a lot I want the content for my my listeners and I want to
spread the word for them, but yeah, it’s because I’ve known Doug now for
a bunch of years and I’ve known Pierce. Absolutely.

I want to share the love of what they’re doing with everybody else and
they’re good guys, so why not spread the word for what the good guys are
doing? Many hands make for a little work pretty much. Ira, appreciate
your time, brother. Anytime. Good to talk to you.

All right. Thanks. So, yeah, this is Ira and uh again, Thomas Wise with
Hail Media. We’ll be back with you momentarily with some past Michigan
football greats. And we’re back, ladies and gentlemen.

Again, Thomas Schwin’s here for Hail Media. Sitting to my left, Michigan
great running back Clarence Williams. Ladies and gentlemen, I had the
honor and the privilege for blocking for this young man for a few years.
Thank you, brother. Thank you.

Thank you for keeping me safe. Yeah, we try to keep the big fella safe
over here. So, Clarence, you’re back in town. We’re in town for uh
tomorrow’s the first game. It’s Freddy Jay’s birthday.

For those that don’t know Freddy Jay, Fred Jackson, historic, legendary
Michigan running back coach, 1992 was my first year. Was Freddy Jay’s
first year as well. And uh Clarence, tell me what is it like to have
been in that running back room with that stable of horses that we had
back in the mid ’90s? Well, that’s a great question. And first of all,
shout out to Fred Jackson.

Yes, sir. An absolute legend um in Michigan history. And when Chris
helped coordinate this dinner tonight, you know, I Yeah. I said I
wouldn’t miss it for the world. It’s been a few years since I fought off
with Fred and I know um this is his 28th year at Michigan and we were
just laughing and joking about all the great running backs that have
come through that room and and from my vantage point, you know, I’m
obviously just, you know, thrilled and excited that I could be a part of
that and uh so many great players and great people and it’s such a
great, you know, tradition and camaraderie between all the guys.

So, anytime we get a chance to come back and get together and share some
memories and laugh, it’s always a great time, man. It’s always a great
time. And so, you said you came back. So, from an earlier conversation
prior to being on camera, you said you caught a red eye. Didn’t be here
today.

I caught a red eye. man, I left Seattle on Thursday night at 9:59. Got a
little bit delayed. I think it took off around 10:30 and I landed this
morning um at Detroit Metro at 5:30 a.m. ring the car.

Thankfully, they let me check into my hotel room in Ann Arbor. Okay. At
about uh 8:30, 9:00 and uh had a full day’s work. Yeah. And uh was able
to make it to dinner.

Okay. Certainly. So, so would miss it. What that says to me is that not
only time, it’s not only convenience, expense, what it means to be a
Michigan Wolverine football player, what it means to have a guy like
Fred Jackson that you had the uh honor of having the tutelage of. And
you said something else that speaks volumes.

28 years. How many college football coaches do you know have been able
to say that they spent almost three plus decades at one university under
what I came in under Mhler. So we had Mohler, we had Lloyd, we had uh
Rodriguez, we had Hope, and we had um Jimmy left five head coaches. If
we all know that during that time frame when you have head coaches come
and go typically they bring in their own staff. There’s something to be
said about Fred Jackson.

Also we have coach Whittingham right now. So that’s six head coaches
that Fred Jackson has worked for. So that’s super awesome and thank you
for coming on today. Let me ask you this though. I can’t I can’t let you
leave without asking this.

Who’s the best running back? Oh, get out of here. Who’s the best running
back? Wait, that I’ve seen with my own eyes in Michigan or No, who was
the best running back during our tenure in that early to mid 90s when
you were a player? Who’s the best running back?

Yep. I’m putting you on the spot. The best running back in my tenure
that I saw with my own eyes, Tim Bataka Batuka. Touchdown Tim, ladies
and gentlemen. One of one of a kind.

And I was actually just one quick story. I was joking with coach Jackson
and uh I I remember this vividly. I didn’t quite understand it at the
time, but as the years went on, Coach Jackson was so adamant about how
Jamonga was preparing pregame and he saw something that, you know, he
was ranting and raving to Lloyd Carr that, you know, Tim was ready to
play. He was really ready to kind of put on a kind of performance that
ultimately became legendary. Right.

but I asked Coach Jackson how he knew what gave him the confidence that
he would have that kind of performance and he he gave me a technical
answer which basically a technical coaching answer which just kind of
lends credit to um coach Jackson’s expertise and understanding an
offense and understanding the complexity of a run game. But you know
that was a day to be had and uh again I’m just happy that I could be
here and share those kind of memories and kind of laugh and joke um
about uh you know some of the stuff we had over the last 28. Yeah. Part
of happy to be a part of that 28 years. Yes sir.

Definitely that. Definitely that. Hey Clarence, it’s been an honor and a
pleasure first of all blocking for you back in our younger days. Younger
days. It’s also been an honor and a pleasure to have you on the show
today as well.

Great, man. Thank you, brother. Much love, baby. See you, brother. Next
time.

All right, guys. Welcome back from Live Advice. And uh again, we
appreciate you guys tuning in and watching our live podcast. Today, I
have um with me, literally one of the legends of this Michigan uh
brotherhood that we call the University of Michigan and Dr. Billy
Taylor.

Thank you for coming on, brother. Anytime. We did a podcast a while ago,
man, called Legends of the Big House. You were actually our first guest
on Legends of the Big House. And one of the reasons we wanted to do
Legends of the Big House was because especially for myself, a guy from
Louisiana who really didn’t know much about Michigan sports, didn’t know
much about Michigan, the history that Michigan has.

And I really was kind of embarrassed in fact that I didn’t know all the
great guys that came before me. And so when I popped on your tape, man,
I was like 20 minutes. I’m like, “Oh, see it was real.” Yeah. Quite a
history here at Michigan. You know, it it was awesome, man.

So, I want to talk a little bit about your time at Michigan and and and
your career and bullsh Yeah, definitely. my career go way back before
you were even born. Dating myself, actually, I came to Michigan one year
before Bo Shimbecker came. Oh, wow. Okay.

I came in 68. Bo came in 69 although I’m only 39 you know and holding
but uh but yeah it’s it’s been an experience you know and Bo and I both
from Barbon Ohio we both graduated from Barbon High School. Wow. Okay.
and uh couple times we were doing interviews together me and both.

And he was telling people the same thing that I just said. Billy and I
both from Barbon. We both graduated from Barb High School. When I took
to Mike, I said, “One thing Coach Shimbecker failed to tell you is he
graduated 100 years before I did.” Better see my young. Yeah.

So, uh, it’s just happened to be a Wolverine, man. Yeah. again. Talk
about that year before O got there because you know I always try to tell
people that like like the success of Michigan as it speaks in Dallas,
right? Like few years were on top, few years were not as good and then
we kind of bounced back.

What was that year like in ‘ 68? It had to be a transition year because
all of a sudden you get a a new coach, right? It was actually uh I came
to Michigan uh Bump Elliot was the head coach. Bump recruited me and at
that time freshman players could not play varsity football. Yeah.

So we had one year of freshman football. I think we play we I know we
played two games. I think it was Bowling Green and Toledo. And but we
practiced all year and we hit we hit we hit, you know. So, we were glad
for that freshman year to be over.

And uh during the week, they called it, I think, the toilet bowl or
something. We would come down and they would have the first team uh
freshman offense, uh which was me and my teammates. We would be really
dummies for the first team varsity, you know. So, man, I felt like Astro
Boy jacking me up, you know. Every now and then I made a big play and
got up out of there, but it was kind of a rough first year.

We practiced the whole football season for two games. Wow. Two freshman
games. And it was really a big time scrimmage. I mean, it didn’t go in
the record books.

Didn’t count for anything other than getting something serious. But, uh,
I had a great career here at Michigan. I wouldn’t trade it for anybody.
What was your big takeaway from listening to uh me at postgraduation?
Yes.

Well, I got a degree, you know, and that was the focus because back in
the days in the 60s when I’m being recruited, a lot of athletes,
particularly black athletes, were not graduating, right? And my mom
always focused on one of her children, I’m being the youngest of seven,
going to college and graduating, right? You know, in fact, my older
brothers and sisters were grown and gone. It was just me and my mom in
the house. And sometimes she walked through the house, one of my
children going to go to college and graduate.

I said, “Mom, I know you talking about me. I’m the only one here.” You
know, so so that was huge, getting a college degree. and uh you know
playing some good football and like most kids I was looking forward to
uh playing in NFL after college. Yeah. But coming here uh I just felt
like a part of what was going on.

You know had great relationships with other students. Football was tough
but I liked it. I visited a lot of schools uh before I signed at
Michigan, but this just seemed like a perfect fit for me. Now, you were
also part of a very famous group. Yes, indeed.

I’m not talking about rock group. I’m talking about the mellow men of
Michigan. Michigan. Talk to me. How did you guys bring that together?

You know, it’s just faith. you know, I’m a teacher, not a preacher, but
I’ve all I was taught to pray from a early childhood on, but it was a
God thing. because none of us knew each other uh and before we were
being recruited in ‘ 67 and 68 to come to Michigan. And uh back in those
days a popular saying uh among uh uh African African-Americans was
mellow man. What’s up me Melo?

How you doing me? You know you passed each other on campus and we’re all
on the football team practiced together went to classes together and we
decided that we should stick together. We had some mentors uh Sam
Carpenter uh Mr. Dowy, Mr. Darden and and uh particularly Sam Carpenter
say the alumni are going to be you know kind of shocked to look to see
all of these black players cuz when we came uh Michigan had I don’t know
about five blacks and they were in different classes you know on campus
and here we come in the largest class of African-American scholarship
athletes ever seven of us, you know, uh that was quite a cultural change
here, you know, but uh we talked our mentors, Mr.

Carpenter would say, call him Pop Carpenter, you guys got to stick
together. You can’t be getting in trouble. you got to get good grades.
You got to play good football, you know? Right.

But uh we were all staying as freshman in the dormitories and that was
kind of like a requirement for the football players to stay in the in
the dorms, you know. Yeah. But we became so close during our freshman
year. we said let’s get a house together, one big enough where we could
all be roommates, the seven of us. We found the house.

Coach Shimbeckler wanted us to stay in the dormatory. You know, Don
Cannon was the athletic director. So, we found this house and we went to
to uh Don Canam and we were asking for our scholarship money so we could
rent this house and he asked us, did Bo know about it? And we all lied.
We said yes.

You know, he didn’t know anything. He he never would have approved it.
So, but anyway, we got our money. We moved into the house and we said we
have to identify ourselves, call ourselves something. So we decided
we’re going to be the mellow man.

And um we moved into the house uh at the end of our sophomore season and
uh one day after practice uh you know one of us said to the other cuz we
used to have house meetings to talk about what we’re all doing academics
and anything relevant you know and so one of us said to the other I
forget I don’t know if it was me or Tom Darden uh Dowy We said, “Hey,
let’s have a meeting at the Dan at the house, you know, after practice.”
Bo overheard us. He said, “What are you talking about? What game? What
house?” You know, now we said, “Oh, we just talking about the dorm, you
know, when he found out about it. He he had a meeting with us.

She says, “Listen, if any of you guys grades go down or I hear you
getting in trouble, or I hear you having wild parties, you’re going to
be back in the dormatory as, you know, as fast as you can blink your eye
or whatever, right?” And uh but we never had a problem. we all uh had
good grades and we all graduated on time. We never had fights and you
know sometimes we had some heated discussions wasn’t really an argument
right but we had heated discussions uh we just became brothers you know
right and uh on and off the field we looked out for one another but uh
that’s the history of the mellow man and we uh we have a website uh the
historic mellow man just one of the greatest times of my life, you know,
but right, who knows life’s itinerary, right? You know, we had no idea
it was going to evolve into what it did and what it is today. I can’t
bring on a legendary running back without talking about the current
running backs on the team, Jordan Marshall and Savon Hider.

What do you think about those guys? I think they are some really good
running backs. I got to meet uh Jordan at the golf outing that we had
here a few weeks ago. I’m real impressed with both of them. Everybody
was uh contributing and it was like a good competition.

You know, everybody came in, did their job, but I think I think we’re
going to have a great season. and I’m really looking forward to seeing
the progress that they have made from last year to this year. I think
it’s going to going to be really good. I like him and I got to meet
Coach Kyle. I think I said he’s a chip off the old block.

He’s a lot like Bo. Yeah. I remember when I I went up in one of the uh
other alumni were introducing me to him and and I said, “Coach, you
know, Bill Taylor,” he says, “I know who you are.” I was shocked, you
know. I said, “Man, he did his homework.” But from what I know about
him, he’s a disciplinarian. he believes in hard work and guys being in
shape.

Mhm. And uh no nonsense just like Bo. Yes. You know, Bo pushed us and we
lost a lot of guys because practice was so tough, right? I don’t know if
that’s happened here with coach, right?

But uh from what I understand, he has been working the guys really hard.
Yeah. You know, and building a lot of strength and uh toughness. So
that’s what it takes, you know. But I was happy about the hire.

because behind a lot of the controversies and stuff, you know, right was
surrounding the athletic department and all that. And I just said to
myself, the next coach is going to have to have a an impeccable
background, right? And I think that’s what we have with Coach Cotton.
Yeah. No, that that’s awesome, Gucci, man.

And again, you know, for me, it’s always a pleasure to be able to sit
down with our legends, guys like BT. So, I appreciate you coming out.
Appreciate everything that you’ve done for University of Michigan. and I
appreciate you and I love you. I’m proud of you, too, man.

You know, you you fall into that legend category yourself. So, I’m
honored to be your friend and uh be a part of what you’re doing. I
appreciate it. I appreciate it. Keep up the good work and Go Blue.

Go Blue, baby. All right. So, I’m here with the man, the myth, the
legend, the guy who sweet talked my mom into letting her son come from
Louisiana to all the way up here to to Michigan. So before before we get
into it though, I don’t know if you remember this, but you remember what
you told me about how cold it get in Michigan? Yes.

I sort of remember two or three things I told. One thing was when the
guy from Florida was sending you to what the temperature, I always told
you it’s only 10° Yeah. only 10° hotter in Florida than it would be in
Michigan at the same time. Yeah. And I told you uh it never got to the
point where you couldn’t handle the weather because it was something
that uh God gave us weather and it was no way possible we can do
anything about the weather.

Now I don’t know other champions but I do remember saying those things
to you. Okay. Well, let me let me go ahead and refresh your memory.
Okay. What did I say?

For anybody that don’t know, this is the legendary coach Fred Jackson
who coached me and countless other running backs at the University of
Michigan, whether it’s Anthony Thomas, uh Tyrone Wheelie, Tim Baka Pata,
I mean the list goes on, Ricky Powers, all those guys and including my
myself. But you told me it don’t get cold in Michigan and my freshman
year it was the coldest in Michigan history. And all I had was a
windbreaker coat and that was it. I did not tell you don’t get cold. I
don’t recall saying I was It don’t It doesn’t get that cold.

That cold. Yeah. Because it’s only 10 degrees. Yeah. Different in
Florida temperature and in Michigan at that same time of the year.

Yeah. By by that time of the year, he summertime, not winter time. But
but I but again, coach, man, I appreciate you coming on. we wanted to do
this event for you because you’ve had a long incredible career. we
wanted to honor you and and have this moment for you and bring back some
guys to sit around and just share stories and and talk a little bit
about your career and um you know we probably should have did this a
long time ago.

I will tell you for you to have this and to tell my wife about this a
month ago and for her to know it without telling me and you talking to
me without telling me and Tony Alfred the running back coach knowing
about it without telling me. I don’t understand how y’all could pull
this off because usually everything you somebody tell Teresa and it had
something to do with me she would tell me. So she didn’t tell me. So it
it’s it’s incredible to know that this happened to me and I want you to
know I haven’t felt this good about anything in a very very long time
and I and I want you to know Prince I appreciate it with the bottom of
my heart. I appreciate it coach.

well listen I want to talk a little bit about your your career coach. I
mean you know it’s it’s over 20 years you’ve been coaching for for a
long time. Yeah. What has been the biggest takeaway from your your
journey that you’ve learned from coaching? Okay, maybe not learn from
coaching, but what I thought about more than anything else was what I
can do to help other people, help my backs, help them to be the very
best they could be.

And I and I and I got a lot of pride out of helping. I got a lot of
pride in feeling that I did something to help make that young man go
from 18 to 22 and being the best that he could be. Yeah. And that made
me feel the drive that I wanted to coach in terms of what I took away
from it was that I actually did some of those things. I did help people
be better, better husband, better fathers and that meant so much to me.

And that’s more than X’s and O’s and all that kind of thing. you guys
playing in NFL. I wanted to make sure I did something to make you better
me. Yeah. What’s funny is because I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve
I’ve obviously matured, but as I’ve gotten older, I also realized like
how much personal responsibility, personal accountability, cuz you know,
when you get kids who are four stars, five stars, everybody think they
should be starting.

Everybody think they should be playing. And then but when they’re not
playing, they never look at themselves at why they’re not playing.
That’s right. I think one of the things I had to look at in my career
was, did I really do everything that I needed to do to stay on the field
to get on the field? Was I really better than those guys?

And you know, once you really look at yourself and you have that that
conversation, I was like, “Yeah, coach was right. Like I really wasn’t
playing up to my potential. I really wasn’t doing the things that I
should have been doing. Okay, let me give you example. Great example
about you girls.

I saw tons of high school film. I saw tons of highlight films. I thought
you had the best highlight film I’d ever seen out of a running back. I
knew where I got you, but I also knew I was trying to get you. And I I
think some of the things like some of the runs you made one just the top
of my head when you bounced an outside zone against Penn State for
example for a long touchdown the things that I saw you do I saw you in
high school but I was trying to make sure you got better at the things.

Yeah. And then and and I think what a lot of people don’t understand a
development process changes. Some guys can develop faster than others.
Some guys develop later than others. But for you to get drafted high in
the NFL and play, you had to have developed more than you did in high
school.

And I think you did that. Just the fact that sometimes you just don’t
know if you if that was something you left behind. I doubt I don’t know
that. But I doubt it. But I do know this that you did get better and
better.

Yes. I knew that. Yeah. I think uh my turning point really was my junior
year. And I think after Tim was gone, after Tyro was gone, Yeah.

I think you start to, you know, you start to see that clock ticking like
I only have two more years to make make it happen, right? And and I
think that’s the two years where it’s like, all right, let me take on
accountability and personal responsibility. Yeah. And do the things that
coaches asking me to do and trust in what he’s telling me that I need to
work on. And I think that was the big jump that I saw my junior and
senior year.

Yeah. And what I and what I try to tell people, it’s a developmental
process. like you as you develop say you mentioned Tamonga and Tyrone
you had them there a little longer than I had you there so they
developed a little bit more and as you caught up to them as they were
leaving you were where they were when they were juniors so it was ever a
drop off so that’s what I was trying to build I was trying to build a
stable that continue to have horses in it and that’s why I can look at
you and saying you were right at the right time at the right place and
you’re a great player just like they were great players so ain’t much
different to where I looked at it in the development process. Correct.
Okay.

Well, speaking of the development, coach, you got two running backs,
Jordan, Savon Haidider. Yes. I watched uh Savian Hider’s uh film before
he even got to. Okay. And he is far advanced as a freshman than I most
players coming out of out of high school.

I agree. He uh I look at same way Chris. see you his advancement of what
he did his last two years in high school and his size. He’s already 6′
215 pound. Yeah.

So, he’s already physically developed. But I think what happened to him
was he had people in that was in in front of him when he was even in
high school that before they that they would actual starters. He was
learning football and being developed in the football and and he’s got a
lot of raw talent. So I think what happened is because of his size and
speed and everything, he caught up to a development process quicker than
a lot of seniors in high school would have because of the situation they
was in when he was a young player. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And then Jordan Marshall proved himself, right? Everybody
thought there was going to be kind of a drop when when Justice Haynes
got hurt and then you put Jordan Marshall in the game. He popping off 50
yards, 60 yard runs.

talk a little bit about Jordan and his development as you’ve seen him.
Yeah, I saw Jordan in high school. I saw what the type of back he was
just like I saw Sabian and what I saw in Jordan as a freshman. Jordan
was banged up a lot. Yeah.

And he never got a chance to really show you much as a president. So the
only time he actually got to show you something was the Alabama game u
in the bowl game and he showed you a lot of ability uh to break tackles
and run through players, stuff like this. But he didn’t really start
getting to be who you thought John Marshall would be until after that
game because he didn’t know could he run around you, could he run
through you? What he what he was trying to develop was to see he was
trying to find out what kind of back he was. And so what I found out
about his development, he got a little bit better each week because he
didn’t really know what type of back he was and he was trying to get
different skill sets, right?

And as he got different skill sets, he got better and better. And not
necessarily that he got different skill sets, but he worked hard to be
able to make you miss as opposed to just running through those kind of
things made him better. Yeah, he definitely seemed like his confidence
like like once he was able to kind of be the guy, right, and not kind of
be the second guy behind Justice, seemed like his confidence kind of
went to to another level. We started to see a much different stack out
of it, a more physical, confident running back. what do you what do you
antic I mean the game is tomorrow, coach.

What’s uh what do you anticipate tomorrow out of out of the running
backs? Okay. I look at uh Jordan Marshall, you know, you look at Savior
Knight and you look at name Bryson Cool. All three of those guys, you
will see them and all three are totally different. What I expect out of
running back tomorrow is to play very very physical because they’re all
physical backs and being very uh elusive in terms of being able to get
the ball to the second level because they they are a group of guys who
know defenses.

They they can read defenses and Wesson has an excellent defensive
football team. Yeah. These young men has the ability to read and and get
to the second level. And I think once you get either one of those three
guys, if you can get him to the second level, they going to have a
successful game. I I agree.

I’m especially excited about Bryson, too, cuz I hear he has like elite
tracks feet. So, I can’t wait to see him break one. Yeah. But coach,
man, I appreciate you. I love you.

I can’t tell you how much you’ve uh impacted my life. Not just my life,
but everyone you come in contact with. And I just want to tell you how
much we appreciate you, man. and and I love you. I love you, Chris.

the things that you guys did for me today really helped my heart because
it made me feel something that I hadn’t felt in a long time. And it I
want you to know you really touch me. I love you for doing it. I love
your beautiful wife for letting you come up here and be with us. And uh
just thank you, man.

I just want to thank you. Appreciate all you man. I love you. Ladies and
gentlemen, Thomas Wines back with you with Hail Media. To my left, I
have a Michigan great Michigan legend, Jamie Morris.

Jamie Morris, happy to have you on the show today. Thank you for
blessing us with your presence right now. Jamie, my question to you was
this. We are on the precipice. I just wanted to say precipice.

I know you did. I know you did. [laughter] We are on the precipice of
coach Whittingham’s inaugural game here as the Michigan head coach.
University of Michigan, one of the historic blueb blood programs
nationally. Coach Whittingham coming from the Mountain West Pack 10,
Pack 12, Pack 12 over Utah, but has a storyried career at that
university, turned out a lot of great players.

Can he replicate that same level of success here in Anna? He can. And
the reason why he can is it’s similar. Okay. It’s it’s something that he
had instilled from his father.

Okay. the discipline, everything that he has endured. He moved around
with his dad when for the 10 years that his dad was in the NFL and
everything like that. But you know what? This man, like it or love it,
he spent 21 years at Utah and made Utah a national a national attention.

Right. Not everybody knows about Utah, but they’ve learned about Utah
because now he’s at Michigan. Correct. This is his opportunity and these
kids are thriving for that discipline. That’s the thing.

I had an opportunity to go down to the building and watch the watch the
kids work out. I love what they’re doing as far as a strength
conditioning program. I know last year that kind of was a knock on us.
Coach Winningham bringing his guys in, bringing a very unique strength
conditioning philosophy, making it more uh specified for that particular
uh group or skill set, which in turn hopefully we’re going to have great
turnover on the field as far as that being able to be transitioned over
to the field. My other question to you is, does Winningham now get
Michigan the credibility based off the shenanigans that took place in
the offseason?

Do we now have the credibility again with a Whittingham type for him,
his coaching staff to go in this nation’s young men’s homes, look their
moms, their dads in the eye, and say, “Give me your son four or five
years. I’m going to take care of him and make sure that he is not
necessarily raised but but definitely prepared to move forward either in
football obviously obviously University of Michigan great academic
institution but we also look to make great men as we’ve always said
those who stay will be champions right it’s not just a moniker for sport
but it’s more so an ethos for life exactly and I think Kyle Whittingham
is the is the guy who can do that I think he’s the wellrespected coach
in the country. Okay. I mean, this is a guy that’s he’s never done
anything wrong. He’s he’s straight up the good guy.

That good guy. So, when he walks into your room, you can’t find anything
on this man, okay? Because there is nothing bad about this man. He He
travels with his family. He’s he’s a good family man.

His kids work for him. His brothers work for him. his the coaches that
he’s the players that he bring he brought in his coaches correct they
they they want to follow him. So he’s got everything he that Michigan
wants. He’s an in-house guy.

Yes. That brings credibility. Also I I think it’s also a huge plus. You
play for Bo. I played for coach Mohler.

I played for coach Carr. During our time as Michigan football players,
we played for old it was an older coach, right? We had a older coaching
staff. So it lent itself for us. It was a lot easier to have that
distinction coach player and also at least for us based off the time
frame in which we were raised their age alone garnered a level of
respect.

Exactly. Yes. And so I think that to your point with coach Whittingham
being a little bit older but also having all the years of great success
um bringing that that work ethic back bringing the high expectations
back. I think we are in a good space but as I like to tell people I’ll
tell you on Saturday how we’re going to be No, you’re right. But the
best thing that could have happened to us happened to us and it fell
into our laps because when Utah said it’s time for you to go and we’re
going to give you $15 million but not the coach in the state of Utah.

Right. Kyle Winningham did the right thing. His agent found this
opportunity and said let’s go. Okay. And he wanted the funny funny thing
about it is this man framed wanting to be at Michigan at one time.

He wanted to coach at Michigan. He wanted he wanted to meet Bo Shimbeck.
So I mean his principles are under Bo Shimbeck. So all the things that
we’ve experienced in your my years and your years, correct? He’s already
learned this.

I’m looking forward to it. I have very high expectations, but I’m also
very optimistic based off of everything that we just expounded upon. J
Mo, obviously your your record doesn’t need to necessarily be spoken
about anymore based off the work that you’ve done here in Ann Arbor
wearing the Wings helmet. But I will ask you this. As a very educated
sports, not just football, but sports guy, where do you see, not maybe
this year, but let’s say three years.

Where do you see this Michigan Wolverine football team in three-year
projection? I see them being very successful. I think we’re going to
wake up some people um this year. Okay. I think you’re going to you’re
looking at a team that could be nine and three, 10 and two.

I mean, I’m looking at this team. They’re they’re going to they’re the
sleeper of the bunch. They’re the sleeper of the bunch in in the Big
Ten. The Big Ten. I know that a lot of people have USC, have uh Penn
State because of their because of their schedule or different things
like that, Iowa, but Michigan is where it’s at.

Michigan is that team that’s hunger. You got you got Whittingham wanting
to show he hasn’t lost it as a coach. Yes. Yes. Because he was
disrespected by Call it what you want, but he was disrespected at his
home.

Exactly. And then you got these players who they still point the finger
at saying you guys were on that team, right? And it wasn’t it wasn’t the
kids, but it was a grown ass adult. So the players and the coaches are
going to meld together and they know what they need to do. Roger that.

Ladies and gentlemen, that’s going to be it for us tonight for Hail
Media. Again, I want to thank my great guest that came on today, Jamie
Morris. Nothing le nothing more needs to be said, but Jamo, I will let
you. And you know what? I’m sorry.

Shameless plug. Bottom line with Thomas Guynes’ WTKA 1050 a.m. Check us
out this Thursday at 1700 hours. That’s 5:00 p.m. for you firefighters.

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