September 15, 2024 • 19 mins
Welcome to the Jolly Goodfellow podcast with your host, Jake Akers, diving deep into Michigan Wolverines football. Fresh off a 28-18 victory over the Arkansas State Red Wolves, Jake dissects the game that left fans with more questions than answers. While Michigan's rushing game shined, turnovers and sloppy play remain a concern.
In this episode, Jake awards the Michigan team the "Billy Madison Lunch Lady Award" for their extra sloppy performance and critiques the ineffective "Dinkin' Dunk" offensive scheme. He discusses the need for a more cohesive and aggressive strategy, especially with tough games ahead, like the upcoming clash against USC.
Jake also tackles the broader issues plaguing the team, from coaching decisions to player development, and what needs to change for Michigan to live up to its potential. Tune in for an in-depth analysis, critical insights, and a passionate plea for a turnaround. Go Blue!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to the Jolly Goodfellow podcast. It's Jake Akers, your host,
talking Michigan Wolverines.
We're coming off a 28-18 victory over Arkansas State Red Wolves.
28-3 felt a whole lot better, but they got the two late touchdowns.
(00:22):
And I asked in the preview pod, was this a get-right spot for Michigan?
Kind of. There was at least one get-right spot.
We rushed for over 300 yards, although they weren't facing the most robust rush
defense in Arkansas State.
Kalel Mullings looks like an absolute beast. I guess that question was answered,
(00:45):
but because of the way the game played out and some of the interceptions and
Davis Warren getting benched, I think we leave with even more questions that we had going in.
I do have four points I want to make.
The first one, I'm giving this iteration of the Michigan Wolverines team,
the Billy Madison Lunch Lady Award.
(01:06):
And that's because this team likes it extra sloppy.
Right from the get-go, the first drive, they elected to go on defense.
They go on defense, give up long third down conversions, including one which was on a a late hit.
The Arkansas State player was a few yards already out of bounds. We lower the shoulder.
(01:28):
On top of that, we had three interceptions by my count. That puts us on seven turnovers for the year.
We were at eight through 15 games all of last year.
So seven this year, eight all of last year. That's not good if you're keeping track at home.
The missed tackles, we still can't block, especially in the passing game.
(01:49):
A lot of those interceptions, at least one, I mean, Davis Warren is running
for his life off his back foot, about to get hit by seemingly four different defenders.
We got to do a better job up front, but this team, between the turnovers,
the missed tackles, the inability to block, the mistakes, this is just a sloppy
(02:10):
football team right now. We are not executing at the level that we need.
Penalties, I think we had seven penalties Seas for 75 yards,
but if you just took this team from those 10 boneheaded plays a game,
made it like two or three, all three of those games go differently,
and we feel a lot better about it. Now, is that enough to beat Texas?
(02:31):
Probably not. Let's be real, but are we competitive?
Do we blow out this Arkansas State team? Do we win by a few more scores against
Fresno State? Are we feeling more optimistic about how this team season will play out?
100% of course. But when you're shooting yourself in the foot,
averaging 2.33, whatever that turns out to be, turnovers per game,
(02:56):
all the third down conversions we're giving up.
You just aren't going to win playing that way, especially a team like this.
So I think the most disappointing part about the sloppy play.
This is the opposite of how we've played the last three years.
When we had Jim Harbaugh, we were a well-coached team.
We did execute. We weren't giving up the turnovers. We weren't having these penalties.
(03:20):
And so they've got to clean it up. There's no doubt about it.
But at least for this week, they win that extra sloppy Billy Madison Lunch Lady Award. board.
Point number two, the scheme is still atrocious.
There's no rhyme or reason to what we're doing. And I just have to say,
I'm naming this offense, the Dinkin' Dunkin' Shoot, or maybe we should go with
(03:44):
the Dinkin' Dunk Air Raid.
I'll come up with a better name, but the Dinkin' Dunk isn't working.
We've seen time and time and time again. The best example is maybe last year's Penn State team.
If you aren't going to throw the ball further than 10 yards down the field,
The opposing defense is going to bring their safeties up. They're going to camp out at 10 yards.
You might complete some passes. Davis Warren actually didn't technically have
(04:07):
an incompletion because he was 11-4-14 with three interceptions,
so no ball hit the ground, so slow clap for that performance.
But, yeah, you might get some completions, and it might be second and 10,
and you get the three-yard out.
Great. That's wonderful. But you're never going to get the yards after catch
because the defenders are playing so tight in their coverage.
(04:29):
When you have a running game like we have, and you actually saw this when Orji
came in, we had a deep pass, 10 yards overthrown, right?
It wasn't completed, but you
have to at least have that as part of your game to make the team back up.
Now, I'm going to do that till late in the fourth quarter, and I think it was very telling.
Our receiver was 10 yards clear of the cornerback. It was so wide open.
(04:53):
We've got to make those deep passes, even if it's just to keep the defense honest, a part of the game.
Also, where is the read option, the RPOs?
We were told that Orgy was going to be the guy all year long,
and I know they never declared him starter, but that was the buzz around this
program, was how incredible his performance was in camp.
(05:17):
We were planning on going in and using orgy without having a real read option
offense, a real spread run offense installed.
Like that can't be the case. That cannot be the case, right?
We have to have some of these schemes in there and we have to be able to pull
them out and make that a staple of what we're doing.
That combined with some play action, some RPOs with the QB running with orgy
(05:41):
gives us essentially an extra blocker.
With the run game we already have. That's the path forward for not a great offense,
not a national championship winning offense, but an offense that can support
this defense and get us to seven, eight wins maybe.
How we're playing right now, I have a rude awakening for some folks.
(06:05):
This is a six-win team right now.
Seven at best. I watched Indiana last night, and granted, it's a UCLA team that's
not expected to be good at all, they're out there running a real offensive scheme.
They're out there trying to win.
They look cohesive. They look aggressive.
If we're going out and doing the dink and dunk and shoot, and then we have a
(06:26):
running back, right, the bright spot of the game, Columbo links 15 carries,
150 yards, 10 yards per carry.
Orgy averaged nine on three carries. Ben Hall averaged nine on,
was it six carries? Don't quote me on that.
Even Donovan Edwards seemed to get it going. He had 17 carries for around 80 yards.
Didn't get that explosive that would have put that yards per carry up.
(06:48):
But the running game was good. Now, it wasn't against the best competition, granted.
Our path forward is to run the ball, get some of this read option,
option offense, running quarterback that you have to hope is installed.
It doesn't seem like it, but you thought Orji was your guy. You had to be installing
this because clearly he wasn't going to run the offense as it currently stands.
(07:11):
You have to throw in some deep shots and now all
of a sudden we have the makings of an offense that can support the defense
and at least keep us competitive in these games along
with that of course to my first point we have to not get sloppy
with it but at least there's a scheme there we haven't shown it yet but that's
the path forward that's the only way i see of this team being competitive if
(07:32):
we aren't able to do that buckle up brace yourselves it's going to be a very
long year because this dink and dunk and shoot with no blocking is not going to work.
Third point, where does the blame fall on this performance so far this season?
Where does the blame fall?
Some of you think, okay, well, it's time to call for Sharon Moore's job.
(07:54):
I want to go out and preference. I'm not saying that, right?
I hope Sharon Moore can turn this around.
We're only a few games in. We're sitting at two and one. All the goals are ahead of us.
Am I concerned about our ability to turn around?
Yeah, because a lot of the things we're seeing just don't make sense.
But I want this guy to turn around.
What he did over the past three years, the Joe Moore winning.
(08:18):
Lines, winning the national championship. This guy's a forever Michigan man.
We want to see him succeed. And I hope he succeeds this year,
turns this around and has a long 15 year career here where he wins multiple national titles.
The fact is though, we got to get it together.
And so on the message boards, you see some people saying like,
this is full on panic mode. This this isn't going to work. We need to get rid of this guy now.
(08:41):
The other side of the coin is to get people, well, we need to give it some time.
Jomor needs to get his guys in there.
I am sorry if you're in that ladder camp, you don't get that benefit of the
doubt when you are the former offensive line coach for the past several years.
These are your recruits. These are your guys that you've been developing in
a program that's been known for its outstanding development.
(09:04):
This was always the succession plan. We didn't lose a bunch of guys that we
weren't expecting to lose.
You maybe make the case for Trenta Jones, maybe we were hoping he'd stick around.
Yes, we lost the lot, but this was always going to be the case.
This was always going to be the succession plan. This line, even if we had Harbaugh,
this was going to be the line we were going to have.
And if this is the type of line that you're putting out there,
after you've been in charge of it for years, and you're an offensive line guy,
(09:29):
and this is your development, you have to take some ownership of that.
This is not, well, three years from now when I get my guys in, it's going to be better.
No, you haven't proven that up to this point, based on what we're seeing right
now, live and living color, right?
When the biggest hole on the team is position group, you've coached for the past three years.
That's not a good sign, right? And even the quarterback situation,
(09:51):
you get what people say, well, you know, the quarterback and the transfer portal,
we were in the playoffs and everything was sign gate and Harbaugh flirting with the NFL.
It's not really our fault. We didn't bring someone in.
Tuttle, yes, he sat behind Penix and JJ. He was a four-star recruit.
Jaden Davis, yes, he's a freshman. He's a four-star recruit.
(10:11):
Davis Warren, we all know his story. Super inspirational. You got to love the
guy and root for him so hard.
Was a walk-on, but he has, you can very clearly see, four-star talent.
He doesn't look out of place.
He has the size. He has the athleticism. He has the arm. This is a guy that
behind the right line can be a good, or average to good, I should say,
(10:32):
a big 10 quarterback, right? I would rate him as a four-star talent.
You have enough options there, right? And I didn't even include orgy with his athleticism, right?
You have the options there where we should be able to come up with a scheme
that maximizes and makes this team more than the sum of their parts.
I said this in the pod earlier this week about where's the problem?
(10:55):
What's the state of the program?
Are we beating more than the sum of our parts or are we doing less with more?
Right now, we're doing less with more. Make no mistake about it.
For the people saying, well, we lost 16 starters.
That's great. I get it. There's a lot of attrition.
And I think, in retrospect, 10-2 was a lofty goal. Making the playoffs was a lofty goal.
(11:19):
Winning the Big Ten was a lofty goal.
This team still has four projected first-round NFL starters.
I know I keep saying that.
But do you know the other teams that have had four first-round NFL picks on them?
2021 Georgia Bulldogs we saw that team and what they did the 2020 Alabama Crimson Tide 2019 LSU.
(11:44):
USC in their heyday, in the early 2000s, Miami.
These are all-time great teams. And I'm not trying to say this Michigan team
with four first NFL round picks, like there's not holes on the team.
I'm not trying to say they should be one of the all-time great teams.
But to say, especially when you sit back and you watch in that nice YouTube
TV, no, this is not a paid promotion, multi-view, where you have four games
(12:08):
going and you're watching these teams. These teams are trying to run real offenses.
These teams are out there trying to really play football.
And so when you have that much high-end talent, this is a team that should be
able to compete in every game.
This is a team that should be able to win eight games, nine games,
be flirting with the playoffs, maybe sneak in, maybe, heck, you get a good draw
(12:29):
and you win a playoff game.
There's enough talent on this team for that to happen, but we're not playing
up to that potential because we are doing less with more.
And even on the offensive side, you're like, well, all that talent is on the
defensive side. Colson Lovins is going to be a first-round NFL pick.
He's going to go on to have a great NFL career.
I mean, I think that's very apparent. How we're using him is criminal.
(12:53):
Donovan Edwards, yeah, he's been a little lackluster at times in his career
here, although he's had amazing big moments in the biggest games.
We all need to remember how great this player has been for us.
The fact is, he's going to go to the NFL. He's going to be used as a passing
back, and he's going to go on to have a good NFL career.
I truly believe that. Joel Mullings, this guy looks like a monster.
(13:14):
He might be one of the best backs in America right now if we just gave him the touches.
But in the Texas game, he only got six touches.
Again, criminal. Ben Hall, looks like he's going to be amazing.
Marlon Klein, he got some play in this Arkansas State game. I think he had three
catches, 47 yards or something like that.
Supposedly faster, more athletic, and closer to the hub one.
(13:36):
You don't think this guy develops and has an NFL career, right?
All the tight ends we've put into the league.
There are pieces here. Samaj Morgan, an explosive guy, had, as a true freshman,
played and made plays for a national championship team in the biggest games.
This isn't a guy that can be a weapon on a serviceable offense.
(13:58):
There are pieces here. Even Miles Hinton, I think he, on the line,
he's going to go and play in the NFL and get a shot, I believe.
So when you talk about that and say, well, hey, we're looking,
Five years from now, we're looking back on this team, and there's six or seven
guys that at least got a cup of coffee in the NFL, but we have to be Iowa-level bad on offense.
(14:19):
That just doesn't add up. It doesn't. I'm going to call this the Nico Collins effect.
If you're watching Nico Collins, some of you, it's a Sunday morning,
are ready to start him in your fantasy league. I know I am.
He was such a great player, and we knew at the time he was a great player,
but we didn't do much with him. And that was obviously he was like the class before we started this.
(14:40):
Our great run and giving it to Ohio State, although he did have two touchdowns
in one of those Ohio State games, this guy was very clearly a baller.
And he gets to the league and you see what he's doing. You see the elite talent.
It's like, why couldn't we have used this guy better? Other teams find ways
to use guys like this better.
There are four or five Nico Collins-level players spread on the defense and
(15:02):
the offense that we're going to sit back years from now and like,
man, this team should have been better than this. I got news for you,
folks. Folks, the cupboard is not fair.
We've got to figure this out. Play clean football to my point number one.
Play a better scheme, point number two.
And then to my final point, looking forward to USC.
They opened up as a six-point favorite coming into the big house.
(15:24):
They're coming off a bye week.
If we don't do something and really play our best football, no mistakes,
and come out with a better scheme and really pound the rock,
USC's team, the defense looked much improved against LSU in their first game.
Game, had a cupcake game too, and just blew them out.
Lincoln Riley's going to score points. They're going to put up points.
(15:46):
Even if our defense plays their best game, we hold them to like 20 points.
Maybe that's like best case scenario. Maybe like truly best case scenario is
maybe, you know, 14, 17 points.
Like they're going to put some points on the board. How is this?
And by the way, our defense has been playing up to that level.
So like, that would be really great to see if they could hold them to 21 or
less. Does this offense have the talent to put up those points?
(16:09):
We're going to have to play some field position. We're going to have to get
Kalel Mullings really running through this USC team, helping them remember how
all of last year they couldn't tackle anything.
That's our path forward. We need
to get Donovan Edwards matched up with linebackers, get him some passes.
I'm not sure what Colson Loveland's injury status is. Run some play action passes
with him crossing down the field, the old 1990s Michigan play-action waggle
(16:35):
pass that we saw with Jeremy Tooman back in the day.
That's what we need to be doing. That's our shot to win. If we're running the
Dinkin' Dunkin' shoot, I'll be able to tell you right off the bat,
and I don't even know what quarterback we're going to start,
but I'll tell you right off the bat, if that's what we're doing,
USC is going to feast on us, and this is going to be a blowout.
This is going to be an ugly, ugly game.
I'm hoping for the best, but we have some soul-searching to do on this Michigan team.
(17:00):
I will say, bright spot. I don't want this to get lost.
Loved seeing what Kalel Mullings was able to do in the run game.
Even Donovan Edwards looked improved.
Orgy, Ben Hall, there are pieces here for us to have that run game.
Can we parlay that into getting some open deep shots like we saw late in the fourth quarter?
Can we parlay that into getting some play action passes?
(17:23):
Can we also open up this spread run game?
You had to have installed it. You thought Orgy was going to be the guy.
There's no way you went into this season thinking Orgy's your guy and you don't
have some Rich Rod, Urban Meijer style, read option, QB running spread plays,
like that would be unfathomable to me.
(17:44):
But through this, thus far through this year, I don't see that we have that.
So on that note, that's all that I have for you. I would love for you to hit
that subscribe button, the like, leave me a five-star review.
I'm really trying to get this thing off the ground. This is just a passion project for me.
And most importantly, go blue. anything.
Welcome to the Jolly Goodfellow podcast. It's Jake Akers, your host,
talking Michigan Wolverines.
We're coming off a 28-18 victory over Arkansas State Red Wolves.
28-3 felt a whole lot better, but they got the two late touchdowns.
(00:22):
And I asked in the preview pod, was this a get-right spot for Michigan?
Kind of. There was at least one get-right spot.
We rushed for over 300 yards, although they weren't facing the most robust rush
defense in Arkansas State.
Kalel Mullings looks like an absolute beast. I guess that question was answered,
(00:45):
but because of the way the game played out and some of the interceptions and
Davis Warren getting benched, I think we leave with even more questions that we had going in.
I do have four points I want to make.
The first one, I'm giving this iteration of the Michigan Wolverines team,
the Billy Madison Lunch Lady Award.
(01:06):
And that's because this team likes it extra sloppy.
Right from the get-go, the first drive, they elected to go on defense.
They go on defense, give up long third down conversions, including one which was on a a late hit.
The Arkansas State player was a few yards already out of bounds. We lower the shoulder.
(01:28):
On top of that, we had three interceptions by my count. That puts us on seven turnovers for the year.
We were at eight through 15 games all of last year.
So seven this year, eight all of last year. That's not good if you're keeping track at home.
The missed tackles, we still can't block, especially in the passing game.
(01:49):
A lot of those interceptions, at least one, I mean, Davis Warren is running
for his life off his back foot, about to get hit by seemingly four different defenders.
We got to do a better job up front, but this team, between the turnovers,
the missed tackles, the inability to block, the mistakes, this is just a sloppy
(02:10):
football team right now. We are not executing at the level that we need.
Penalties, I think we had seven penalties Seas for 75 yards,
but if you just took this team from those 10 boneheaded plays a game,
made it like two or three, all three of those games go differently,
and we feel a lot better about it. Now, is that enough to beat Texas?
(02:31):
Probably not. Let's be real, but are we competitive?
Do we blow out this Arkansas State team? Do we win by a few more scores against
Fresno State? Are we feeling more optimistic about how this team season will play out?
100% of course. But when you're shooting yourself in the foot,
averaging 2.33, whatever that turns out to be, turnovers per game,
(02:56):
all the third down conversions we're giving up.
You just aren't going to win playing that way, especially a team like this.
So I think the most disappointing part about the sloppy play.
This is the opposite of how we've played the last three years.
When we had Jim Harbaugh, we were a well-coached team.
We did execute. We weren't giving up the turnovers. We weren't having these penalties.
(03:20):
And so they've got to clean it up. There's no doubt about it.
But at least for this week, they win that extra sloppy Billy Madison Lunch Lady Award. board.
Point number two, the scheme is still atrocious.
There's no rhyme or reason to what we're doing. And I just have to say,
I'm naming this offense, the Dinkin' Dunkin' Shoot, or maybe we should go with
(03:44):
the Dinkin' Dunk Air Raid.
I'll come up with a better name, but the Dinkin' Dunk isn't working.
We've seen time and time and time again. The best example is maybe last year's Penn State team.
If you aren't going to throw the ball further than 10 yards down the field,
The opposing defense is going to bring their safeties up. They're going to camp out at 10 yards.
You might complete some passes. Davis Warren actually didn't technically have
(04:07):
an incompletion because he was 11-4-14 with three interceptions,
so no ball hit the ground, so slow clap for that performance.
But, yeah, you might get some completions, and it might be second and 10,
and you get the three-yard out.
Great. That's wonderful. But you're never going to get the yards after catch
because the defenders are playing so tight in their coverage.
(04:29):
When you have a running game like we have, and you actually saw this when Orji
came in, we had a deep pass, 10 yards overthrown, right?
It wasn't completed, but you
have to at least have that as part of your game to make the team back up.
Now, I'm going to do that till late in the fourth quarter, and I think it was very telling.
Our receiver was 10 yards clear of the cornerback. It was so wide open.
(04:53):
We've got to make those deep passes, even if it's just to keep the defense honest, a part of the game.
Also, where is the read option, the RPOs?
We were told that Orgy was going to be the guy all year long,
and I know they never declared him starter, but that was the buzz around this
program, was how incredible his performance was in camp.
(05:17):
We were planning on going in and using orgy without having a real read option
offense, a real spread run offense installed.
Like that can't be the case. That cannot be the case, right?
We have to have some of these schemes in there and we have to be able to pull
them out and make that a staple of what we're doing.
That combined with some play action, some RPOs with the QB running with orgy
(05:41):
gives us essentially an extra blocker.
With the run game we already have. That's the path forward for not a great offense,
not a national championship winning offense, but an offense that can support
this defense and get us to seven, eight wins maybe.
How we're playing right now, I have a rude awakening for some folks.
(06:05):
This is a six-win team right now.
Seven at best. I watched Indiana last night, and granted, it's a UCLA team that's
not expected to be good at all, they're out there running a real offensive scheme.
They're out there trying to win.
They look cohesive. They look aggressive.
If we're going out and doing the dink and dunk and shoot, and then we have a
(06:26):
running back, right, the bright spot of the game, Columbo links 15 carries,
150 yards, 10 yards per carry.
Orgy averaged nine on three carries. Ben Hall averaged nine on,
was it six carries? Don't quote me on that.
Even Donovan Edwards seemed to get it going. He had 17 carries for around 80 yards.
Didn't get that explosive that would have put that yards per carry up.
(06:48):
But the running game was good. Now, it wasn't against the best competition, granted.
Our path forward is to run the ball, get some of this read option,
option offense, running quarterback that you have to hope is installed.
It doesn't seem like it, but you thought Orji was your guy. You had to be installing
this because clearly he wasn't going to run the offense as it currently stands.
(07:11):
You have to throw in some deep shots and now all
of a sudden we have the makings of an offense that can support the defense
and at least keep us competitive in these games along
with that of course to my first point we have to not get sloppy
with it but at least there's a scheme there we haven't shown it yet but that's
the path forward that's the only way i see of this team being competitive if
(07:32):
we aren't able to do that buckle up brace yourselves it's going to be a very
long year because this dink and dunk and shoot with no blocking is not going to work.
Third point, where does the blame fall on this performance so far this season?
Where does the blame fall?
Some of you think, okay, well, it's time to call for Sharon Moore's job.
(07:54):
I want to go out and preference. I'm not saying that, right?
I hope Sharon Moore can turn this around.
We're only a few games in. We're sitting at two and one. All the goals are ahead of us.
Am I concerned about our ability to turn around?
Yeah, because a lot of the things we're seeing just don't make sense.
But I want this guy to turn around.
What he did over the past three years, the Joe Moore winning.
(08:18):
Lines, winning the national championship. This guy's a forever Michigan man.
We want to see him succeed. And I hope he succeeds this year,
turns this around and has a long 15 year career here where he wins multiple national titles.
The fact is though, we got to get it together.
And so on the message boards, you see some people saying like,
this is full on panic mode. This this isn't going to work. We need to get rid of this guy now.
(08:41):
The other side of the coin is to get people, well, we need to give it some time.
Jomor needs to get his guys in there.
I am sorry if you're in that ladder camp, you don't get that benefit of the
doubt when you are the former offensive line coach for the past several years.
These are your recruits. These are your guys that you've been developing in
a program that's been known for its outstanding development.
(09:04):
This was always the succession plan. We didn't lose a bunch of guys that we
weren't expecting to lose.
You maybe make the case for Trenta Jones, maybe we were hoping he'd stick around.
Yes, we lost the lot, but this was always going to be the case.
This was always going to be the succession plan. This line, even if we had Harbaugh,
this was going to be the line we were going to have.
And if this is the type of line that you're putting out there,
after you've been in charge of it for years, and you're an offensive line guy,
(09:29):
and this is your development, you have to take some ownership of that.
This is not, well, three years from now when I get my guys in, it's going to be better.
No, you haven't proven that up to this point, based on what we're seeing right
now, live and living color, right?
When the biggest hole on the team is position group, you've coached for the past three years.
That's not a good sign, right? And even the quarterback situation,
(09:51):
you get what people say, well, you know, the quarterback and the transfer portal,
we were in the playoffs and everything was sign gate and Harbaugh flirting with the NFL.
It's not really our fault. We didn't bring someone in.
Tuttle, yes, he sat behind Penix and JJ. He was a four-star recruit.
Jaden Davis, yes, he's a freshman. He's a four-star recruit.
(10:11):
Davis Warren, we all know his story. Super inspirational. You got to love the
guy and root for him so hard.
Was a walk-on, but he has, you can very clearly see, four-star talent.
He doesn't look out of place.
He has the size. He has the athleticism. He has the arm. This is a guy that
behind the right line can be a good, or average to good, I should say,
(10:32):
a big 10 quarterback, right? I would rate him as a four-star talent.
You have enough options there, right? And I didn't even include orgy with his athleticism, right?
You have the options there where we should be able to come up with a scheme
that maximizes and makes this team more than the sum of their parts.
I said this in the pod earlier this week about where's the problem?
(10:55):
What's the state of the program?
Are we beating more than the sum of our parts or are we doing less with more?
Right now, we're doing less with more. Make no mistake about it.
For the people saying, well, we lost 16 starters.
That's great. I get it. There's a lot of attrition.
And I think, in retrospect, 10-2 was a lofty goal. Making the playoffs was a lofty goal.
(11:19):
Winning the Big Ten was a lofty goal.
This team still has four projected first-round NFL starters.
I know I keep saying that.
But do you know the other teams that have had four first-round NFL picks on them?
2021 Georgia Bulldogs we saw that team and what they did the 2020 Alabama Crimson Tide 2019 LSU.
(11:44):
USC in their heyday, in the early 2000s, Miami.
These are all-time great teams. And I'm not trying to say this Michigan team
with four first NFL round picks, like there's not holes on the team.
I'm not trying to say they should be one of the all-time great teams.
But to say, especially when you sit back and you watch in that nice YouTube
TV, no, this is not a paid promotion, multi-view, where you have four games
(12:08):
going and you're watching these teams. These teams are trying to run real offenses.
These teams are out there trying to really play football.
And so when you have that much high-end talent, this is a team that should be
able to compete in every game.
This is a team that should be able to win eight games, nine games,
be flirting with the playoffs, maybe sneak in, maybe, heck, you get a good draw
(12:29):
and you win a playoff game.
There's enough talent on this team for that to happen, but we're not playing
up to that potential because we are doing less with more.
And even on the offensive side, you're like, well, all that talent is on the
defensive side. Colson Lovins is going to be a first-round NFL pick.
He's going to go on to have a great NFL career.
I mean, I think that's very apparent. How we're using him is criminal.
(12:53):
Donovan Edwards, yeah, he's been a little lackluster at times in his career
here, although he's had amazing big moments in the biggest games.
We all need to remember how great this player has been for us.
The fact is, he's going to go to the NFL. He's going to be used as a passing
back, and he's going to go on to have a good NFL career.
I truly believe that. Joel Mullings, this guy looks like a monster.
(13:14):
He might be one of the best backs in America right now if we just gave him the touches.
But in the Texas game, he only got six touches.
Again, criminal. Ben Hall, looks like he's going to be amazing.
Marlon Klein, he got some play in this Arkansas State game. I think he had three
catches, 47 yards or something like that.
Supposedly faster, more athletic, and closer to the hub one.
(13:36):
You don't think this guy develops and has an NFL career, right?
All the tight ends we've put into the league.
There are pieces here. Samaj Morgan, an explosive guy, had, as a true freshman,
played and made plays for a national championship team in the biggest games.
This isn't a guy that can be a weapon on a serviceable offense.
(13:58):
There are pieces here. Even Miles Hinton, I think he, on the line,
he's going to go and play in the NFL and get a shot, I believe.
So when you talk about that and say, well, hey, we're looking,
Five years from now, we're looking back on this team, and there's six or seven
guys that at least got a cup of coffee in the NFL, but we have to be Iowa-level bad on offense.
(14:19):
That just doesn't add up. It doesn't. I'm going to call this the Nico Collins effect.
If you're watching Nico Collins, some of you, it's a Sunday morning,
are ready to start him in your fantasy league. I know I am.
He was such a great player, and we knew at the time he was a great player,
but we didn't do much with him. And that was obviously he was like the class before we started this.
(14:40):
Our great run and giving it to Ohio State, although he did have two touchdowns
in one of those Ohio State games, this guy was very clearly a baller.
And he gets to the league and you see what he's doing. You see the elite talent.
It's like, why couldn't we have used this guy better? Other teams find ways
to use guys like this better.
There are four or five Nico Collins-level players spread on the defense and
(15:02):
the offense that we're going to sit back years from now and like,
man, this team should have been better than this. I got news for you,
folks. Folks, the cupboard is not fair.
We've got to figure this out. Play clean football to my point number one.
Play a better scheme, point number two.
And then to my final point, looking forward to USC.
They opened up as a six-point favorite coming into the big house.
(15:24):
They're coming off a bye week.
If we don't do something and really play our best football, no mistakes,
and come out with a better scheme and really pound the rock,
USC's team, the defense looked much improved against LSU in their first game.
Game, had a cupcake game too, and just blew them out.
Lincoln Riley's going to score points. They're going to put up points.
(15:46):
Even if our defense plays their best game, we hold them to like 20 points.
Maybe that's like best case scenario. Maybe like truly best case scenario is
maybe, you know, 14, 17 points.
Like they're going to put some points on the board. How is this?
And by the way, our defense has been playing up to that level.
So like, that would be really great to see if they could hold them to 21 or
less. Does this offense have the talent to put up those points?
(16:09):
We're going to have to play some field position. We're going to have to get
Kalel Mullings really running through this USC team, helping them remember how
all of last year they couldn't tackle anything.
That's our path forward. We need
to get Donovan Edwards matched up with linebackers, get him some passes.
I'm not sure what Colson Loveland's injury status is. Run some play action passes
with him crossing down the field, the old 1990s Michigan play-action waggle
(16:35):
pass that we saw with Jeremy Tooman back in the day.
That's what we need to be doing. That's our shot to win. If we're running the
Dinkin' Dunkin' shoot, I'll be able to tell you right off the bat,
and I don't even know what quarterback we're going to start,
but I'll tell you right off the bat, if that's what we're doing,
USC is going to feast on us, and this is going to be a blowout.
This is going to be an ugly, ugly game.
I'm hoping for the best, but we have some soul-searching to do on this Michigan team.
(17:00):
I will say, bright spot. I don't want this to get lost.
Loved seeing what Kalel Mullings was able to do in the run game.
Even Donovan Edwards looked improved.
Orgy, Ben Hall, there are pieces here for us to have that run game.
Can we parlay that into getting some open deep shots like we saw late in the fourth quarter?
Can we parlay that into getting some play action passes?
(17:23):
Can we also open up this spread run game?
You had to have installed it. You thought Orgy was going to be the guy.
There's no way you went into this season thinking Orgy's your guy and you don't
have some Rich Rod, Urban Meijer style, read option, QB running spread plays,
like that would be unfathomable to me.
(17:44):
But through this, thus far through this year, I don't see that we have that.
So on that note, that's all that I have for you. I would love for you to hit
that subscribe button, the like, leave me a five-star review.
I'm really trying to get this thing off the ground. This is just a passion project for me.
And most importantly, go blue. anything.
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