MGoPodcast 14.3: The Joy of My Body
2 hours
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The Sklars are coming into town next week! Friday night there's an MGoBlog afterparty. Brian and Seth will take the stage, there will be pizza and drinks. Asking those attending to kick in $10 on top of their ticket to cover the pizza and renting the place.
1. Offense vs UConn
starts at 1:00
Name a random Michigan walk-on QB in the comments! Eight quarterbacks participated in this game, seven of them completed a pass. Lots of Speed in Space in this game because UConn allowed it to happen, the coaches adjusted to the opposing defense which is encouraging. Receivers might need to get used to scramble drills with JJ. Offensive play calling is by committee again. Oluwatimi looks great at center, the rest of the offensive line has stuff to work on. Isaiah Gash may actually be the short yardage back? Otherwise it's Corum. Ronnie Bell knocked the rust off, only target he didn't catch was almost the coolest catch ever.
[The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP]
2. Defense vs UConn
starts at 36:05
Not sure how much to take away from this game. UConn completed four passes, Michigan had seven players complete passes (we haven't decided what this rutger is called). Mike Sainristil looks like he was recruited to play defense. Continued production from Rayshaun Benny and Mason Graham is encouraging because no matter who you're playing, you're still pushing back a 300 lbs guy. Lots of rotation along the line, probably less of that as the season goes on. Braiden McGregor started and got a lot of play time into the second half. Default defensive passing down package looks to be a dime package. Defense as a whole is progressing better than we thought they would. No standout star but everyone is doing their job.
3. Hot Takes, Special Teams, and Game Theory
starts at 1:03:09
Takes hotter than RGIII after he hears something vaguely sexual. Michigan has ten quarterbacks that could start at Rutgers. Punt return touchdown will probably happen again, Jay Harbaugh continues to be amazing at everything he touches. Jake Moody's field goal attempt would've been good from 55 but hey, that was fun. There is... not much game theory to actually discuss.
4. Around the Big Ten With Jamie Mac
starts at 1:26:46
SMU had 85 more yards than Maryland but lost on fumbles, interceptions, and missed field goals. We thought Maryland was a team with a good offense and meh defense and that opinion has not changed. Penn State looked impressive against Auburn without much Sean Clifford action. Nicholas Singleton could be a problem. Shout out to Sean Clifford for lasting this long without being completely Hackenberg'd. Could Michigan actually end up not beating a ranked team and get bumped out of the playoffs as a result since everyone but Ohio State is bad. Michigan State gets two goal line stands and still loses by 11. Pretty alarming that they gave up nearly 400 passing yards. Kenneth Walker might've been more important than even we thought. Northwestern is probably the 3rd or 4th best team in the state of Illinois. Purdue outgained Syracuse by nearly 200 yards and gets beaten by a dime at the buzzer - how did they lose this? Indiana is 3-0 but can they get to a bowl? It took Iowa seven hours to score 27 points.
MUSIC:
- "Skinny Dipping"--LA Exes
- "Selfish"--Slum Village
- "Play Me"--Neil Diamond
- “Across 110th Street”
THE USUAL LINKS:
- Helpful iTunes subscribe link
- General podcast feed link
- Direct download link
- What's with the theme music?
"If you could run that fast you'd be happy all the time, too."
September 19th, 2022 at 7:31 AM ^
David Cone
September 19th, 2022 at 9:10 AM ^
Nick Sheridan!
September 19th, 2022 at 12:06 PM ^
HE'S MY FAVORITE WOLVERINE EVER!!!
...EVERRRRRRRRR!!!!!!
September 20th, 2022 at 5:35 PM ^
How many years in a row did we have a lame QB or a back up going into the game? Seemed like a lot. From Henne and his deadarm, to Denard, Speight, or having to play O'Korn. Even the game that Gardner played like a GD hero he had a broken foot. I have no doubt I am forgetting some of them.
Makes the snow and flu excuse ring a little hollow. I tip my hat to Nick for playing his heart out in a really bad situation.
Go Blue!
September 19th, 2022 at 6:51 PM ^
I think Cone was a scholarship because he mentioned it in his rap and I remember seeing his Tom Lemming write up.
But his name is definitely worth a mention.
September 19th, 2022 at 7:46 PM ^
He mentioned it in his what
September 20th, 2022 at 3:27 PM ^
Back in 2009 or so, Brian posted a myspace video of the Coner rapping in his apartment. Seems like the video no longer exists, but here's the audio http://mvictors.com/audio/2009/mrdave.mp3
September 19th, 2022 at 8:22 AM ^
Staee lost by 11. Not 9. Gotta give full credit where its due. Washington did not seem to accept that the one definite defensive strength of that team is their interior DL. Maybe try a run off tackle, or a throw next time. Do that and the game doesn't feel so tense at the end.
Penn State looked good in spurts but Auburn did everything they could to make them look better. Auburn's QB situation is a mess with their offense simply handed the ball over 4 times. Harsin is absolutely toast, probably before the end of the season. Would not surprise me to see him end up somewhere that is a better fit and be very successful. Maybe a place like ASU?
September 19th, 2022 at 9:38 AM ^
I can math
September 19th, 2022 at 8:25 AM ^
Ever think the line might miss Vastardis? Because it seems odd the rest of line got worse. Maybe Olu isn't making the right calls?
September 19th, 2022 at 9:24 AM ^
Yeah, this--curious about the blown assignments on the Cade sacks. This week, there's a stunt that goes unblocked on the A gap (right?)--at first it looks like Keegan whiffed, but was that a missed pick-up by Olu? Austin Meek of The Athletic seemed to think so, but I don't think much of his analysis.
September 19th, 2022 at 8:36 AM ^
Posted too late this morning to listen to on the way into work. Dammit - I DEMAND MY FREE CONTENT BE POSTED NLT 6:00AM!!!!
On the bright side, I'll have all day to think about listening on my way home! So much for getting any work done...
September 19th, 2022 at 8:58 AM ^
"Everyone" is complaining about that opening schedule-not me. What a huge advantage it is to get to see, perhaps literally, every single player on your roster in on live action. Saturday, when #10 went flying across my screen and blew up that runner who was about to turn the corner for a big gain..."Oh!!! That is who Zeke Berry is!!! WOW!!!". One can continue to question the pre-season, "questionable" defense...but the nature of the questions have been flipped on its head. This team is not lacking for play-makers.
JJ is a difference-maker and the offense is loaded...and the OL will, very likely, still be better than last year.
September 19th, 2022 at 9:15 AM ^
What a huge advantage it is to get to see, perhaps literally, every single player on your roster in on live action
You would still be able to see this in 2 cupcake OOC games. We don’t need to watch that 3 times. It is much better, for the fan experience, to be able to watch a P5 matchup because it will more often provide a game with real excitement and suspense. 78 straight years coming into this year (not counting 2020 obviously) Michigan played a P5 opponent or Notre Dame in the OOC schedule. It was a mistake to stop that streak.
September 19th, 2022 at 9:45 AM ^
Agree. Playing 'P5' doesn't always have to mean one of the top 20 teams in the nation - although that would be awesome. But it does mean you don't scratch cupcake UCLA for the crumbs of UConn.
September 19th, 2022 at 11:49 AM ^
Uh, UCLA almost lost to something called South Alabama on Saturday. Not sure playing them instead would go much differently than it has against CSU/UCONN.
Also, these games are scheduled so far in advance it's impossible to know how good they will be when you play the game.
September 19th, 2022 at 12:42 PM ^
Sure UCLA is not very good, but the argument was not “all scheduled games against OOC P5 opponents will be super competitive with down to the wire finishes”. The argument is that those types of games are more likely to happen when scheduling P5 opponents OOC. And fans want to see more exciting and suspenseful games. That’s why we watch this sport. Would it be cool to watch Michigan blow out every opponent 50-0 every season? I mean, probably. But I have a feeling it would get boring pretty fast. Even if Michigan were to have steamrolled UCLA, I can guarantee the starters would have played nearly the whole game, instead of them only playing about 2.5 quarters. I don’t need to watch 4th stringers and walk-ons playing in three straight games. Those guys deserve some in-game-time during at least a game during the season, but three times in a row is a terrible experience for fans. Like most people, I was fairly checked out midway through the 3rd quarter of each of these first three games.
September 20th, 2022 at 5:44 PM ^
I get both sides of this argument, but Michigan has not traditionally done this. Typically they have one of the tougher SOS in the nation. As long as the Big Ten wants to play 9 conference games (which I like) and the other major conferences play 8 this type of scheduling makes sense. The SEC gets 3 super creamy cupcakes plus one other game that may or maynot be a cupcake depending on what they want to do and when. College football is all about playoff contention, no one will give a damn about this schedule if Michigan is undefeated heading into the Game.
I live in Knoxville and UT plays UT-Martin this season. At least Michigan schedules group of 5.
I will give UM a pass based on their history of not shying away from tough schedules.
September 19th, 2022 at 9:51 AM ^
“Could Michigan end up not beating a ranked team and get bumped out of the playoffs as a result since everyone but Ohio State is bad?”
The thought has crossed my mind given how bad the big ten has looked. And our bad non-conference schedule will not help either. However, it should be noted that the SEC sent two teams to the playoffs last year (Alabama and Georgia) despite the fact that the conference was bad overall. Arkansas and Kentucky were ranked in the 20s but everyone else was horrible.
Likewise, Georgia and Alabama were chosen for the playoff a couple years ago as well despite the fact that the SEC was probably the worst it had been overall in my lifetime.
Granted, this could all be a result of obvious SEC bias, a luxury Michigan doesn’t have. But really all we can do is win our games at this point. Unranked teams are pulling off upsets left and right so far this season. We can worry about the playoffs later.
September 19th, 2022 at 12:11 PM ^
If Michigan's undefeated, they're IN. No question.
Whether they do or don't beat Ohio St., a 1-loss Michigan team is going to be sweating it out awaiting the CFP announcement.
September 19th, 2022 at 12:25 PM ^
I think PSU (as long as Clifford stays upright) will stay in the top 25. They've rounded into a solid team.
September 19th, 2022 at 2:17 PM ^
If Michigan doesn’t blow the Iowa game in 2016, there’s a very good chance we get into the playoffs as the # 4 seed over Washington
September 19th, 2022 at 3:53 PM ^
Yeah, Michigan has given itself absolutely no leeway when it comes to making the playoffs if they lose a game but right now the teams most likely to give them a run for their money (Clemson, USC, Oklahoma) don't have particularly tough schedules either. Clemson played a terrible Georgia Tech team, OU played a terrible Nebraska team (which UM will also play) and USC is playing what looks like a bad ND team to end the year. All of them can lose at least one game in-conference this year, and if you told me Clemson lost 2-3 I wouldn't be shocked. USC doesn't play a lick of defense and has survived with an outrageous TO margin that is unlikely to continue, and Oklahoma still feels like a bit of an unknown though they may have the best pedigree. But none of them play in particularly tough conferences, and unless they go undefeated they'll all have a worse loss than UM's possible loss to an undefeated OSU on the road.
It'll create a lot of debate either way but Michigan versus basically anyone else with 1 loss is likely to get the benefit.
September 20th, 2022 at 5:47 PM ^
The Big Ten East has lost one game combined. Not saying the big ten is an absolute buzzsaw but that is still something. Even Rutgers has looked decent.
September 19th, 2022 at 9:53 AM ^
Yeah, the on-field announcer was super annoying. So was the DJ music, so was the piped in music in-between lots of plays. I could barely talk to my dad sitting next to me.
I had a very 'You kids get off my lawn!' feeling this whole game. Just an annoying experience, honestly. Must we be assaulted by noise at all times?
There are people around that seem to like it, so I guess it's here to stay. But jeebus, I've been the frog sitting in the boiling water the last couple years as this stuff crept in, but I realized I was boiling yesterday. Very annoying.
September 19th, 2022 at 10:51 AM ^
About a decade ago I had a similar response to a Diamondbacks game in Phoenix ... way, way too much noise. Oh, and those jumbo-tron message things that ring the stadium were flashing all the time. It was a complete sensory overload. I haven't been to a pro ball game since.
I grew up in the 1960s listening to Ernie Harwell, and my memories are of the "sound of the ballpark" being allowed to come through the radio.
Now, get off of my lawn. :-)
September 19th, 2022 at 6:11 PM ^
Totally agree with you. I've been going to 1 game per year/every other year for the past 5-6 years and it crept up on me too. I took my son to the Orange Bowl and we got there early and the BLARING music etc. was constant for 6 hours...but it was a playoff game in a pro stadium so I sucked it up and wrote it off to the venue and experience.
I took my son and my 87 year old dad, a lifelong Michigan fan since his undergrad days in the early 1950's, to the UConn game. We got lucky with the sun being slightly muted by occasional cloud cover, some nice breezes and of course a blowout win.
But the constant loud noise put me over the edge of my proverbial lawn chair. My dad was putting his fingers in his ears at times b/c he couldn't stand it and I almost did the same. I've been going to Michigan stadium since 1973 which was a very long time ago and obviously times have changed. But this Michigan fan certainly does NOT need constant stimulation. A nice day outdoors with 110K like minded fans does the trick for me.
September 19th, 2022 at 6:14 PM ^
Totally agree with you. I've been going to 1 game per year/every other year for the past 5-6 years and it crept up on me too. I took my son to the Orange Bowl and we got there early and the BLARING music etc. was constant for 6 hours...but it was a playoff game in a pro stadium so I sucked it up and wrote it off to the venue and experience.
I took my son and my 87 year old dad, a lifelong Michigan fan since his undergrad days in the early 1950's, to the UConn game. We got lucky with the sun being slightly muted by occasional cloud cover, some nice breezes and of course a blowout win.
But the constant loud noise put me over the edge of my proverbial lawn chair. My dad was putting his fingers in his ears at times b/c he couldn't stand it and I almost did the same. I've been going to Michigan stadium since 1973 which was a very long time ago and obviously times have changed. But this Michigan fan certainly does NOT need constant stimulation. A nice day outdoors with 110K like minded fans does the trick for me.
September 19th, 2022 at 10:29 AM ^
I vote for the obvs: a “Passing UConn”
Sainristil: seriously good so far. Wow! And great for him & team, given the receiver depth
Should we have no concern, lots of concern, only a little concern, or what level concern that no pressure to speak of from D against the worst and 10th worst team in college FB? Same Q re: O line w.r.t. protection last 2?
to answer my own question: for me, I have a little concern, if there’s any weakness seeing hints of so far, those are it, but not too concerned because: scoring & preventing scoring at will as should do against these two. But who cares what I think, what do you guys think?
September 19th, 2022 at 12:46 PM ^
Hard to get sacks when the other team is more concerned about getting the ball out than actually completing a pass to an open receiver. Hawaii in particular was not holding on to the ball long enough to reasonably get home. UConn did have a couple of attempts with longer drop backs that I would have liked to see better pressure on though.
September 19th, 2022 at 12:49 PM ^
It says something that Hawaii and UConn were game planning to get the ball out.
September 21st, 2022 at 1:38 PM ^
Interesting article in the Athletic yesterday. Main focus is Georgia being elite but only having one sack this year. Michigan is another example in the article. Below is an excerpt and the link (if any of you subscribe, which I highly recommend).
https://theathletic.com/3609086/2022/09/20/college-football-sacks-georgia/
And yet, through three games, here is Georgia’s sack total: one. That’s not an outlier: Despite the increase in passing in college football, sacks are not increasing with that trend. The percentage of plays ending in a sack is down this year (5.5 percent) more than a percentage point from last year (6.6 percent).
“That’s not the game anymore,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said. “The game is not to sit back there and have a guy be a sitting target.”
There are a few obvious reasons:
• More quarterbacks have running ability.
• Offenses are calling more quick passes.
• Defenses are combating the spread by using more defensive backs, which usually means dropping a linebacker.
September 19th, 2022 at 11:32 AM ^
Ronnie Bell with another drop! What a fumblefingers!
/s
/s
September 19th, 2022 at 11:32 AM ^
If we don't beat OSU, I really don't care too much about the playoff to be honest.
September 19th, 2022 at 11:40 AM ^
I'll throw my hat in the ring for the passing Rutger...
"UCONNdemnation."
September 19th, 2022 at 12:11 PM ^
I believe this Rutger should be called the Civil ConnFLiCT
September 19th, 2022 at 12:13 PM ^
Schlessinger. I think that is the Lions Fullback, who was pretty good. He played for Nebraska IIRC.
September 19th, 2022 at 12:44 PM ^
YES! That's exactly the guy I was trying to remember.
September 19th, 2022 at 12:15 PM ^
Since they technically didn't give out scholarships...benny friedman
September 19th, 2022 at 12:20 PM ^
Regarding the Purdue Syracuse game, they lost because of penalties and an incredibly egregious Stanley Jackson-esque pick 6.
When looking at who won a particular game, I always look at total yards. This is not total offense. It is total offense + punt yards + kick off yards + return yards (including interception and fumble returns) - penalty yards.
I couldn't do it for this game because ESPN didn't have the play-by-play and therefore I couldn't get the kick off yards and couldn't tell if Purdue failed on downs while in scoring territory.
Total yards almost always tells you who wins. The rare times it breaks down is when teams settle for chip shot field goals or even fail on downs in scoring territory. Turnovers in the opponent's end zone are particularly damaging as well. Red zone touchdown percentage is important, but touchdown percentage when you have first and goal is critical.
September 19th, 2022 at 12:43 PM ^
How was “Tell me to shut up again” not the episode title?
September 19th, 2022 at 1:01 PM ^
Because the body thing was delightful
September 20th, 2022 at 3:15 PM ^
How much coffee did Seth drink before the recording?
September 19th, 2022 at 12:48 PM ^
Nobody sitting around me likes the MC at all for the reasons mentioned on this podcast. We don’t need anyone other than Carl Grapentine telling us anything.
Im glad this blog made a big deal out of standing O for Cade. I more readily remembered to do it. Yes - we shouldn’t have to be told but I’m glad I was reminded all week.
The volume in the stadium feels a little quieter to me compared to last year. I did move my seats about 60 feet closer to the field. It may be the higher up you are the louder the speakers sound.
September 19th, 2022 at 1:26 PM ^
A podcast that's the Roundheads and Cavaliers all over again! Amirite?
EDIT: A callback to Seth's reference to the English Civil War, and no response?
September 19th, 2022 at 1:43 PM ^
How many key bumps did Seth do before the 3rd segment?
September 19th, 2022 at 5:25 PM ^
Autman-Bell is out for the year for Minnesota. Bummer for that guy and Minnesota.
September 21st, 2022 at 1:35 PM ^
Few days old now but JJ had a near INT and two plays where he had to be corrected by a teammate as to what the set/motion was. One of these is clearly caught on camera where he cues the TE to motion and they fervently correct him that the movement is the WR...as the WR does it. I can't recall if that was one of the TOs taken or not.
One bad run read on rpo, one bad pass read on rpo, one bad throw in general and two plays where he was not on the same page with anyone up to the snap.
There will be growing pains for him in B1G play. For sure. We just have to hope he gets through them quickly and they don't cost the team much.
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