WTKA Roundtable: The Trente Jones Culture
NOTE: The tracks on my copy got misaligned so I had to rebuild this episode. If you downloaded it before 11AM on Friday you should go back and download it again. If you can't tell what version you have, the latest version has a lens flare in the upper-left of the cover.
No Brian today.
Things Discussed:
- A Michigan Family reunion. If you've never been to a Rose Bowl, make sure you do the next one.
- Michigan won on the lines. Trente Jones was excellent. Karsen Barnhart made the block of the game. When they had to go for 4th & 1 they moved them; when it was 4th & 2 for the game Alabama had to sell out.
- Michigan used a ton of motion to create lots of openings.
- Coaching: Alabama coaches were good; Michigan coaches were that much better. Two wide open throws to Corum. Saban ran into a buzzsaw.
- Special Teams: Yips.
- Talking about the last play: Did Sainristil get too high? Maybe. But Moore had it dead to rights even if they run it right.
- Trente Jones: How important was it to the team that he came back. That he approached things like he did.
- Harbaugh? Gonna have a fight on their hands. Gotta fight to keep this culture.
- Washington preview.
[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]
You can catch the entire episode on Michigan Insider's podcast stream.
Segment 2 is here. You can watch the video here:
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Direct download link (right-click/save as)
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Saban's problem is he was coaching players who weren't as good as the players across from them.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:09 PM ^
"Saban ran into a buzzsaw." Imagine if at this time 3 years ago someone came from the future and told you that sentence was referring to Michigan
January 4th, 2024 at 12:10 PM ^
Time to power through some podcasts. I've got a lot of mgocontent to listen to before Monday
January 4th, 2024 at 12:50 PM ^
right? i get done with 2 1/2 hours of the gang, and when i go back to my player, there's the roundtable, waiting for me!
i'm not saying this is the best week, ever, but it's not NOT the best week ever, either.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:12 PM ^
"Talking about the last play: Did Sainristil get too high? Maybe. But Moore had it dead to rights even if they run it right."
The pulling guard was going to pave Moore. Would've come down to Mike making the one-on-one play.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:20 PM ^
Mikey was definitely anticipating the flair pass but was in good enough position to still make a play on a QB draw - he played that perfectly - he is fully weaponized and needs to be used exactly the same way against Penix.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:46 PM ^
I agree. Alabama had that play blocked if Milroe follows his guard. Mike was too deep.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:51 PM ^
I don't think the pulling guard gets to Moore; he overran him. Moore was already upfield of him and can probably still make the tackle if Milroe is able to run left. Two o-line mistakes on that play. Good thing we're just talking about hypotheticals here!
January 4th, 2024 at 2:59 PM ^
Part of the reason Moore was upfield was because he could see that Milroe had already committed inside, because Milroe rushed instead of waiting for the guard to finish his pull.
That said, Moore was going to be in a good one-on-one position to either beat or at least stalemate that puller block, and Sainristil was too deep but also getting inside FAST.
I think Moore would have held ground well enough to let Mikey recover… but could Mikey tackle Milroe from behind? Would have been a hell of a scrum.
January 4th, 2024 at 7:08 PM ^
The guard didn't overrun Moore. He was on a collision course with him on the edge until Moore headed in toward the scrum after seeing the run head up the gut.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:13 PM ^
At this point, I'm expecting Harbaugh to say mission accomplished, and jump to the NFL. I've made peace with it, and moving Coach Moore up to the big job, especially if they keep Coach Minter as DC, is a pretty good hand off. (I'd really like to keep Jay Harbaugh too, but he has Coordinator at another school written all over him; ditto Mike Hart.)
I hope like hell I'm wrong. There have been enough ambiguous signals from Harbaugh that I'm also prepared to be deliriously surprised. Either way, thank you Jim for your service.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:17 PM ^
You don't see Hart in the O Coordinator role in that scenario? I'd see a Co-Coordinator with him and Campbell at least being considered. My worry would be O-Line. Moore is one of if not arguably the best in the NCAA.
January 4th, 2024 at 6:11 PM ^
Newsome will make a great OL coach.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:20 PM ^
If Harbaugh leaves for LA or LV, he's taking Jay and Minter with him.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:26 PM ^
If we win on Monday, Harbaugh can do whatever he wants for all I care. He can ride off into the sunset or jump back to the NFL and go out on top as a Michigan legend forever. Warde's "believe me, we're trying" response about the contract situation, Harbaugh's noncommittal "I'm looking forward to a happy flight home" response when asked what his future holds, and potential NCAA punishments hanging over his head all point to him seriously considering an NFL job again.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:35 PM ^
Even if we lose him, I'm fine with it. I don't want it, but it's fine
Go back to your 2014 self. Tell yourself "okay we get Harbaugh. He immediately makes Michigan good again, in 2021-2023 he finally gets over the hump and beats #2 OSU 3 straight times, wins the league 3 straight times, and goes to the CFP 3 straight times capping it with an incredible Rose Bowl win over Nick Saban and Alabama. We lose in the title game and Harbaugh returns to the NFL. You in?"
Yeah we're all taking it 100/100 times. I hope the insider rumors are true and Harbaugh really would like to stay, but if he goes it's mission accomplished in my mind. This is pretty much what we hoped Harbaugh would do here
January 4th, 2024 at 2:01 PM ^
I might have taken that deal a week ago, but something important happened three days ago.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:37 PM ^
Yaup, exactly, and everyone should feel this way. He wins a natty Monday, thank you for your service Jim, we will now build a statue soon. He came here and did it all, can't be mad about him leaving for NFL now.
I have some birds over here in the Pacific Northwest and I hear that Deboar wants the M job BAD, heard he has a contract in front of him for an extension but wont sign it due the love/want for the M job.
But I would be shocked if they didn't hand it over to Moore.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:51 PM ^
Should Harbaugh return to the NFL (and i predicted that after the initial school imposed suspension, long before the Stalions revelations) I'd LOVE it if they hired DeBoer! That's a gangster move, not a "Michigan Man" move! I'd also prefer Jedd over Sherrone.
While they played well enough to win vs psu, MD & osu, there's just a lot more that goes into the HC role than Moore has proven in 4 games (2 of which were the team's worst 2 performances of the season, fwiw).
I don't expect Michigan to do anything that outside the box, but man imagine how shook the bucknuts would be if they did!!!
January 4th, 2024 at 1:25 PM ^
Very thankful for Moore but he was a substitute teacher for 4 days this year. The week was Harbaugh. I am not saying it was easy, but it does not reflect what it would be like to deal with parents, players, portal, alumni, boosters, politics all of it. Handing this over to someone with no HC experience seems very very risky. But probably what Warde would do vs opening it up to non Michigan men. :/
January 4th, 2024 at 3:54 PM ^
Agreed, and I'm also surprised Moore isn't taking any criticism for what was, save for a few good schematic wins, a pretty mediocre offensive performance. I think Brian's take that the offense needed to feature a lot of JJ runs and play action was spot on, and we made things harder on ourselves by attacking the perimeter, using our WRs more than our TEs, and ignoring JJs running ability until the last drive. IMO, this was another game where Minter and the D won the game for us, and our offense played below their capabilities because we didn't take advantage of their strengths.
January 4th, 2024 at 4:45 PM ^
Our offense was surely not mediocre Monday. There was so many new wrinkles...what everybody had been hoping for. The players didn't execute certain aspects but the plays/routes/trickery were all wonderfully scripted. I think thr end half rough stretch is leaving a sour taste for some but truly, there were 3rd down plays that should've been made to move the sticks and create more opportunity for more inside runs, TE routes, and eventual scoring.
January 4th, 2024 at 6:38 PM ^
This is nuts. Kicking and receiving corps don't glitch up and we win handily. People who make this kind of criticism, I'm convinced, just don't get what Harbaugh and company are about on offense. Complaining about undefeated is crackers, but--hey--people will complain about anything.
January 4th, 2024 at 10:12 PM ^
Sign me up for DeBoer. I just don't think it's wise giving Moore the job as a never before head coach if someone like DeBoer is an option.
The fact that Harbaugh has no desire to take Moore but did want to take Wise & would take Minter tells me who we should be keeping. Minter has been running the defense he would be the better option, IMO if you do the 1st time head coach.
Besides, Moore is in year 1 of play calling under Jim Harbaugh so handing him the keys could be a huge mistake. I like Moore don't get me wrong but it takes a certain type to win at Michigan because you won't have 5 stars galore and DeBoer has proven he can do it.
January 5th, 2024 at 10:23 AM ^
That seems strange that he would want to leave Washington. Listening to the podcast, I was wondering why they were mentioning DeBoer's name like he would be a possible candidate, but maybe there is a bit of smoke to this?
You have to think that if Harbaugh leaves for the NFL, there is going to be a shake-up regardless. Harbaugh will for sure take coaches with him from this roster. If DeBoer gets the job, he's not keeping every current assistant. If Moore gets the job, some assistants will end up leaving.
Let's just enjoy these last few days and hope Michigan wins it on Monday.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:45 PM ^
I get it, but I think it's a bit presumptuous to think Michigan will keep rolling if Harbaugh leaves. We don't know the secret sauce. We don't know what goes into player evaluations that has us unearthing gem after gem. Maybe Harbaugh has a great sense of what the kid and the family are about. Maybe he's able to tease out guys who are willing to do what it takes to see their teammates and team succeed. There's no way to know right now if that will continue.
January 4th, 2024 at 3:03 PM ^
All the more reason to not "settle" for a continuity hire!
If there were a way to hire a more proven HC & convince Sherrone to stay in his current role, that's Option 1A to me.
The obvious carrot is $$, but Sherrone may feel he needs to move on to the next challenge. That would suck, but DeBoer does have the current Joe Moore Award winning OLine... so he knows a few things about what Sherrone specializes in!
January 4th, 2024 at 5:14 PM ^
What secret sauce? There's no secret. It's just hard. Selling out is easy.
January 4th, 2024 at 6:35 PM ^
Disingenuous reply dragon.
There's certainly something besides hard work to why Michigan beat osu 3 straight after getting largely dismantled the prior 2 games against them. Because that would imply they weren't working hard enough before (OK, Shea may not have been 🤷♂️).
The team has bought into something - they don't need Garrett Wilson or MHJr to move the ball. Osu's OLine is certainly more starz laden than M's. Their DLine as well. But they're not as cohesive!
That's what Michigan could lose if Harbaugh moves on. But as the post you replied to said - no guarantee we keep this cohesion even if they try to retain as much of the staff as possible by promoting everyone.
So should he decide to move on, I'm for going bigger than just promoting everyone...
January 5th, 2024 at 11:17 AM ^
Look I ain't saying I'm right, but I can't be more genuine.
I've said many times now so I just didn't want to elaborate again here, but given MGoBlog's struggles to get any info on M commits, I strongly suspect the scouting services are vastly hollowed out, leading to a lot of "big fish in small pond" 5-stars. Michigan realized that and is finding talent on its own in areas they don't go anymore, like Idaho and New England. There's no secret to it. It's just doing the tedious work the scouting services used to do, in-house.
I think a big reason Alabama lost is that Saban mastered a system he helped create and trusted it too long. He runs football like a business, and in that sense those services are like vendors. But as I like to say, it's not a vendor if they don't screw you twice. They don't care about Alabama; they care about RoI, which means only scouting their own camps anymore. Alabama is vastly overpaying for a limited and shrinking talent pool, and that was finally laid plain in the Rose Bowl.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:13 PM ^
I thought I saw Jones playing LT a few times.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:45 PM ^
I saw him lined up on the left side at least once, but I think it may have technically been as a TE next to Henderson, with Hinton swapping in to take RT.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:50 PM ^
Seth,
Do you know that you were on the standard broadcast of the game when Bama had the ball in OT? It was right after Milroe's first down run...Anyway, we may need you to show up on Monday's broadcast too if Michigan find itself in another tight spot. Please prepare accordingly.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:20 PM ^
Vast network
January 4th, 2024 at 1:06 PM ^
I would love for JH to win a natty, stay here for 5+ more years, groom Sherrone for the HC (after Warde guarantees Moore the HC job after JH retires), pass Lloyd (122 wins) on the UM wins list and then just hangout in A2 as a living legend.
If we do win a natty and he leaves (for whatever reason) I'll be bummed but not mad at anyone, including Warde. JH will have brought UM to a pinnacle that even Bo never got to. Go win a SB in the NFL.
When I think of this team and what's (shockingly) evolved from the ashes of early 2021, it makes me more proud than ever to be an alum and former MMB member.
As to motivation, I still love the blackboard note Philly Flyers coach Fred Shero wrote before the Stanley Cup clinching Game 6 in 1974 for the Flyers 1st ever Cup. He didn't even say a word - just left that message on the blackboard.
Win today, and we walk together forever
Team 144, win Monday and walk together forever as champions!
GO BLUE!
January 4th, 2024 at 1:23 PM ^
Jim Harbaugh will never just hang around. He’s a competitive lunatic. At 85, when he’s well past his prime he’ll still be a coordinator or HS head coach somewhere.
Dude has no chill.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:07 PM ^
MOAR CONTENT!
It's like preview week on speed.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:11 PM ^
Trente Jones showed what a team player he is … lost his starting job when injured but didn’t cry and transfer … great character player and great talent as well !!!
January 4th, 2024 at 1:22 PM ^
He stayed, now he'll be a champ. Feel bad for Giles Jack too. That L is gonna sting on Monday.
January 4th, 2024 at 2:34 PM ^
So true! Full video of that interview Sam had with Trente (13 mins). For anyone's reference:
January 4th, 2024 at 2:18 PM ^
Perfect for my 3 hour drive this evening with the podcast also
Does anyone know if we should expect a similar amount of content as a normal game week with UFR/FFFF? I'm gonna guess yes for FFFF, but doubtful on the UFRs
January 4th, 2024 at 3:47 PM ^
The thing that never fails to impress me is that when coming up with these gameplans, these coaches can figure out what the opponent thinks and sees, and finds ways to not merely screw them up but create favorable matchups by Batman-ing the hell out of them.
Harbaugh, Moore & staff turned Alabama's defense into a weapon against them. You can't do that just by figuring out how it works; that's only the first step.
January 4th, 2024 at 6:40 PM ^
That was really hard to listen to. Nobody was allowed to finish their thought before Seth cut them off and talked over them until they gave up.
January 4th, 2024 at 7:03 PM ^
Agreed. I turned it off with about midway through.
January 4th, 2024 at 7:19 PM ^
I think the dialogue is misaligned, at least on the Apple podcast version
January 5th, 2024 at 1:36 PM ^
Me too, Seth sounds a few seconds "early".
January 4th, 2024 at 7:32 PM ^
What the hell is wrong with this WTKA broadcast? Is Seth on a delay? He’s talking over everybody the whole time like he can’t hear other people talking. This is so annoying. Is that a real radio station or are they operating out of their mother’s basement?
January 4th, 2024 at 7:41 PM ^
Came here to say the same thing. Either there’s bad audio or Seth just likes talking over everyone because he’s so excited. Poor Craig.
January 4th, 2024 at 9:00 PM ^
I have a feeling this is what happened. I was questioning for a bit if Seth couldn’t hear them but I’m pretty sure it was just his excitement cutting them off. As someone with ADHD I do this to ppl often but this was in excess. Just gotta be conscious about it.
January 4th, 2024 at 8:49 PM ^
Same here. It was as if all 3 audio tracks were recorded separately and merged together with random spots where they were push - pulled 5 seconds. Very poor quality. One of the worst individual podcasts I have ever listened to. But I plowed through it because I love mgoblog and WTKA.
This episode should have been shitcanned.
January 5th, 2024 at 10:10 AM ^
Shit. The tracks must have become misaligned. I'll have to recut the whole thing because I didn't save it.
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