Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast
SportsBasketballFootballHockey

MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast

MGoBlog

MGoBlog’s channel featuring the very professional, very visual, podcast with Brian Cook, Seth Fisher, David Nasternak, and Alex Drain, plus The Teams history podcast with Seth and Dr. Sap, The Michigan Hockeycast, the MGoBlog Roundtable on WTKA.

Play
Open in
  • 34 episodes
  • a few times a week
  • Avg 1 hr 21 min
  • English

Episodes 34

NewestOldestLongest
All20Unplayed20In progress0Played0
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • #557
    Thursday · 48 min

    WTKA Roundtable 10/8/2026: The Sophomore Slump

    Things Discussed: Brian on the offense: The dysfunction is too great to be one thing. Media narrative that they're too perimeter-based isn't based in reality; they were an outside zone team last year. There isn't a one thing they can go to the lab and fix. Running base plays will probably help; too many constraint plays that are too easy to stuff. Don't see Beck scheming up any explosives. Part of that is it's because he doesn't repeat things that work enough to get a reaction. #1 thing that's hurting them are those explosives. Defensively they're fine. DEs were a little injured; Tariq Boney ran into an issue with long tackles if they get their hands on him because they don't call holding (except on Michigan) in this conference. A lot of the tackling issues were they were exhausted. Responding to Devin Gardner's assessment: It's wrong to say Bryce can't make zone reads. He's getting these right, even when they're complicated, except when Hiter clamps down, which is not speculation. Rhino: Gach is a 2nd year player who just moved here and doesn't know how to make the complicated reads yet. Sam: Teams are reacting to it belligerently. Lack of a counter. Seth: Problem is the Rhino is inviting safeties into the box to replace a linebacker who replaces a DE in complicated ways, and they don't have the experience yet to deal with that. Why is Rhino their most effective in YPC/YPA? Because they're not getting any explosives. Beck problem is he's not getting explosives. Ratio of meat & potatoes/fancy plays is totally out of whack—too much fancy and too many ways to diffuse them, so they're not getting guys in wrong positions. Michigan drives are stalling out inside the opponent's territory. Bryce problem is he falls apart when he gets uncomfortable. The Bryce hit + Marsh drop, Hiter clamp, Delay of Game sequence rattled him and he wasn't reading after that. Not uncommon for a 19-year-old quarterback. If you go Tommy you're just putting another freshman in. You can't bench Bryce right now. Sophomore Syndrome: Let's talk about Evan Link: he's a pretty good Big Ten left tackle now, and he was unplayable in Year 2. Bryce is Year 2. If they do use the Rhino what can they do to punish defenses? Slants to Buchanan and Marsh Where's Dagger? That would work great.

  • S9 · E2
    Tuesday · 1 hr 17 min

    Michigan HockeyCast 9.2: Maltese Schmaltese

    1 Hour and 17 Minutes With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. Segment 1 Memories from Bowling Green, Ohio. Discussion of the opening night lines and pairs. Then recap of the first game, including a Hurlbert breakaway, power play scoring, and a pretty convincing win Segment 2 The worst first period in memory? Then Michigan got their feet under them and took over. Had to dig deep to win, but a good game to win. Few other teams in college hockey played real games but we talk about the ones that did. Alaska-Anchorage preview includes discussion of NHLers from Alaska MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Long Way" -- 7Horse Ice Hockey (NES) theme

  • S18 · E8
    Monday · 2 hr 22 min

    MGoPodcast 18.5: The Fundamental Incompetence of Man

    2 hours and 22 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, Applied Fitness Solutions, The History of Michigan Football, an online course by Greg Dooley, and Venue by 4M where recorded this. 1. Offense vs Minnesota Starts at 0:54 We could just go home and not do this. Was this the least pleasant game you've ever watched? At least the last time Michigan lost to Minnesota it started the process of fixing everything. Young quarterbacks have big swings, you're fine one day and bad the next. The Marsh drop followed by a five yard loss followed by a delay of game followed by a gain of 13 that would've been converted if not for the five yard loss followed by the punt going into the endzone brought back shades of M00N. The numerous commercial breaks were the only break the defense could get. The offensive install continues to be a complete disaster. Teams are teeing off against the rhino that shouldn't be on the field. The Utah offense seemed like it would be a natural fit to install at Michigan, what is going on? They even have the players to run what they want to do. Is Kyle Whittingham washed? The assistants shouldn't be. Individually players are grading out fine but the whole is not working. Whittingham might not know how to coach a transition, he had so much continuity at Utah. Michigan couldn't get into a rhythm because they never had the ball on offense in the first half. When the game doesn't slow down for Bryce he goes into panic mode. The Western Michigan game scared them and now they're trying to build the airplane in the air and it's crashing. It's time for Jason Beck to do a little bit of soul searching. What personnel changes can you make on offense? Hiter has been costing drives, would you put Kuzdzal in over him? What's going on in the tight end room? [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 2. Defense vs Minnesota Starts at 50:01 The defense is fine. They had a PI from Mars against them. The holding calls in these games all feel one-sided, Michigan can't draw any. By the second half they got sloppier because they had to play pretty much the whole first half. The defensive tackles were not dominating the line of scrimmage enough. These are all nitpicks for a defense that only gave up 20 points despite being on the field for 40 minutes. Staehling struggles with wheel routes but blew up some plays and had the pick six. Bowles is a nicely physical blitzer. Chase Taylor got hurt but came back. Aisea Moa had a fair bit of play time (as did everyone else). If the offense would have even played an average game would Minnesota have even gotten 200 yards of offense? 3. Hot Takes, Special Teams, Game Theory, and Hockey Starts at 1:12:47 Takes hotter than the piss PJ Fleck drank out of the Little Brown Jug (Brian's words, not mine). Punting was fine but the first two needed to be downed. Kick returns - just don't do it. Kuzdzal wants to play but don't do it. Andrew Marsh shouldn't drop punts. Yay the blocked a punt. They took one good timeout. There were fewer penalties because the offense was barely on the field. Let's talk about hockey! They sweep Bowling Green 7-2 and 4-3. Bowling Green is not Mercyhurst, they're a real team. Michigan got punched in the mouth Saturday night (at Bowling Green) in a hostile environment and responded. Perron and Hage are awesome as predicted. Much like 2023 football, this team has a lot of players that didn't need to be here, but they want to win a championship. 4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:46:24 Northwestern 34, Penn State 13 Northwestern ran for 413(!!!) rushing yards using a lot of the wing-T. Is this a legitimately good Northwestern team? Almost more shocking is Penn State rushing 22 times for 48 yards. Penn State just can't drive the field in the Big Ten. Wisconsin 31, Michigan State 3 Michigan State throws the ball 34 times for 108 yards and lost the ball on downs five times. Their longest play of the game was 13 yards, Fred Moore was targeted 12 times. There might be some fool's gold here for Wisconsin, QB Colton Joseph was only 9/20 for 145 and was 141 of their 228 rushing yards. USC 25, Washington 21 Both teams needed to pull themselves out of a rut and neither really did that. This was the battle of who can have the worse offensive line. Another poor performance from Washington QB Demond Williams Nebraska 48, Maryland 23 Yardage was not that different but Maryland was only 1 of 14 on 3rd downs. At one point during this game, Malik Washington had thrown three pick sixes in four quarters (going back to last week). 28 penalties in this game, Rhule went off on the officials. Iowa 14, Ohio State 31 Ultimately not very competitive. If you're Iowa and -2 in turnover margin you're not beating anyone. Jeremiah Smith gets over 200 receiving yards for the second straight week. Iowa's secondary might be a little too static this year. Better teams need to be bracketing Jeremiah Smith. Purdue 24, Illinois 17 Purdue snaps a 19 game losing streak in the Big Ten. This is their first Big Ten win of the Curt Cignetti era. This was a low posession game, it feels like they sped up the game and now there's 20% less football. If you're not on it from the start you can get in trouble. Indiana 47, Rutgers 15 KJ Duff might be college football's most loyal man. MUSIC: "Stilettos"—Victor Jones "No Cameras"—VictoryLand "She's Gonna Break My Heart"—Magnus Ferrell “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

  • #556
    October 2 · 1 hr 16 min

    MGoRadio 12.5: It Jug O' Clock Somewhere

    The Sponsors We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, SignalWire where we are recording this, and introducing Applied Fitness Solutions, and The History of Michigan Football, an online course by Greg Dooley. Featured Musician: Bump THE VIDEO: [After THE JUMP: The show notes.] --------------------- 1. Minnesota Preview: Offense starts at the top. Fleck and Harbaugh (no relation, pronounced Har-Bo) have been rolling their system back towards pro-style, have an old fashioned 6'5"/230 arm who doesn't run in Drake Lindsey, was getting draft hype that we do not understand. They still run the #collegecrappe offense: RPO slants, Power/Zone with huge OL, and lots of WR screens, because Javon Tracy—an excellent returner—is good at YAC. Darius Taylor is beat up, and they're without their starting C, but big-ass Greg Johnson has shifted to C and will maul. Get them in 3rd & long and we should be okay; RT Daniel Shipp is a weak spot and backup LG Jaden Ball—who never saw the field at Purdue—is hurt as well as bad. 2. Minnesota Preview: Defense & Special Teams starts at 16:54 One step forward, one step back for a defense that's been solid but can't quite get to elite. One thing you can expect is for them to be very responsible on the edges (and for Fleck to LOSE HIS SHIT) if they don't call holding on anything that breaks outside). Best guys are a giant DE, Anthony Smith, and a giant LB, Maverick Baranowski. Alex not super impressed with their Iowa CB John Nestor but Seth is. But their other LBs are pretty good. Have some issues with their Zone defense under 2nd-year DC Danny Collins, a longtime Fleck assistant who finally got the callup after serving under all the journeymen that Fleck's brought through. Defensive line is big but moveable, and a banged up Riley Sunram at nose may be the spot to attack them. Special teams notes: Javon Tracy has been the best PR in the country this year; has two TDs and nearly had a third when he accidentally stepped OOB. Do not kick to him. Punter is an Aussie averaging 40/punt. They stole New Mexico's kicker and got him eligible for a 5th year. Until then they were going with Beckham Sunderland, whom we could have used on kickoffs. Gotta suck for him. 3 Iowa After Review starts at 40:27 It was a very good day from Bryce, who was reading coverages, moving guys with his eyes. Beck finally dumped the Jet Motion stuff that opponents have downloaded and the run game started to move. But he's got to stick and move. Injury to Frazier meant they were heavily left-handed in the 4th quarter. Iowa's offense was in "get it OUT!" mode. Zero dropback passes that weren't on passing downs or 2MD drives. First-look passing offense that just tried to clear out or space and throw to the first read, covered or not, which resulted in nerfing the pass rush and a lot of defenders getting their hands on the ball. Middle distribution was three, Michigan extremely unlucky not to come down with at least one of those. Lauck was as advertised. What would you have done for the last play, because going man-lock was not a "let's kill this" play at a "let's kill this" moment. 4. Jug Tales wsg Greg Dooley starts at 1:00:27 The Professor returns to get us pumped for The Brown Jug. You know the story, but what was the context? Why was this such a big rivalry in the 1930s and '40s? I want to discuss Crisler, a former Minnesota head coach, Bernie Bierman, and the last time Michigan switched from a messy handpicked successor to a legend to an establishment oldster. Featured Artist: Bump Here's another band we played with—possibly in an earlier form—for this empty battle of the bands at the I-Rock in Detroit during the 2003 Michigan-Minnesota game, which was moved to Friday night at the last minute because the Twins made the playoff. The I-Rock didn't have TVs so all the bands were crowded into someone's band van with a 9-inch black-and-white TV to watch the ending. When I saw them again it was at The Pig in 2005 and they had demos for what became Incredible Consequence. The thing that really made Bump was lead guitarist Chris Sterr, who's now touring with Billy Strings for his Heartbeat of Eternia project. Sterr's been doing an Allman Brothers cover band, and playing around Traverse City, and I'm really happy this is happening for him because if he had any ego he'd be a big deal already. When I met him he was with Bump, which was an early project Yorg Kerasiotis, a musician/filmmaker/unfortunate Sparty who's been going from one project to another in the Detroit-Ann Arbor music/arts/film scenes since the early 2000s. Bump wasn't his first project, but it's still my favorite, because they took the music seriously and nothing else. They were genre-benders, a sort of electronic funk garage that would have worked better in the 1990s Alternative scene. The album is here on Spotify; the demos I have seem to be close. Songs: Don't Be the Sunrise A Million Reasons Why Wait a Minute Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro: “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

  • #555
    October 1 · 48 min

    WTKA Roundtable 10/1/2026: More Guys Named Bob

    Things Discussed: When was the last time M averaged 70 yards/game? Craig: At least 20 plays. This was as bad as it gets. Three holdings that weren't holding, five really bad spots, block in the back on their return. Seth: The holds on runs that go outside are the outlier. Bryce: INT he's expecting Marsh to stop. To go from someone who was staring down the play to someone moving defenders w his eyes was great. Throwing dots all game. Flea-flicker to Buchanan was great. Moving the pocket to get the Buchanan TD was a 30-yard throw on the move downfield; he flicked one that was incredibly catchable. Two Duos in this game, Iowa does the Jet Kill thing on one, next time they don't do it and they get a good gain. In the break: Kanka is a great development. He killed a power play, got that sack with Boney. His emergence means Lea'ea gets to be a specialty 3-tech not the backup nose. Minnesota: Not impressed with their OL. Defense is one good one one bad one at every position. Hoop preview with Noland/Gayle: will be a good team, not the defensive nightmare they were last year. Go watch this video by Jess Speight—who's got some directing chops apparently—about Rez for the part about building last year's team. They knew they were going to be special when they found lottery guys going underused at Illinois and UCLA. Hockey: They're going to have a 1st rounder on the 3rd team, will have to scratch a good defender every night, M/MSU the top two teams again.

  • S9 · E1
    September 29 · 1 hr 47 min

    Michigan HockeyCast 9.1: Back With A Vengeance

    1 Hour and 47 Minutes With David Nasternak and Alex Drain This Podcast Has a Sponsor: Michigan Law Grad Jonathan Paul is the guy with the C you want skating next to the ref and pleading your case. He's also a good guy to sit next to at the hockey games. Segment 1 A brief discussion of the US Open in-person experience. Then season preview part 1, running through all of the forwards. Returning stars like Hage, Horcoff, Perron, and new faces like Hurlbert, Nesbitt, and Sima dot a loaded group of scorers Segment 2 Season preview part two looks at defense. Reid and DuPont join Mews, Robertson, Barnett, Schock, and DRM to form the Avengers. Ivankovic is back and somehow Stephen Peck is too? Discussion of lines and pairs + a brief look at the schedule. Is this the year? MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "Don't Let's Start" -- They Might Be Giants Ice Hockey (NES) theme

  • S18 · E7
    September 28 · 2 hr 22 min

    MGoPodcast 18.4: It's Not Funny When It Happens To Me

    2 hours and 22 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, Applied Fitness Solutions, The History of Michigan Football, an online course by Greg Dooley, and Venue by 4M where recorded this. 1. Offense vs Iowa Starts at 0:54 The way we feel about this one is probably the way you felt about the Trouble With The Snap game. But in this game it wasn't one play that makes you go "oh come on" it was like eight. The team looked vastly improved and Iowa's defense will probably end up as a top 15 unit. Bryce was able to integrate into the run game and take advantage of that in the passing game. The defense did everything you could ask except for some tipped passes. Underwood had two huge errors - the QB sneak and the interception. Whose fault was the interception on? Are we in an inverse Wile E. Coyote year? Bryce had ways to attack the zone that were effective, it helps that he has two NFL wide receivers. They were crushing the defense until they shot themselves in the foot. There was consistent movement from the offensive line, injuries are becoming a concern. We started seeing some real production from the running backs. These holding calls are getting ridiculous, in part because they're holds that rarely get called. They ran Kuzdzal with Bryce as the lead blocker again. They only rushed for 3.8 YPA but that's enough when you're throwing for 9.9 YPA. Hogan Hansen is alive! Hoffman looked much improved. From a Bryce standpoint we're back on track to where we wanted to be. Throw it to a Rhino at least once! 2. Defense vs Iowa Starts at 38:22 There's not much more you could ask. There were multiple tipped catches for Iowa that are usually more likely to get picked. Hill had a little bit of a rough game. Trey Pierce dominated a lot in this game and Bobby Kanka made some nice plays. Iowa's biggest run of the game? 8 yards. There was more Staehling in this game which was nice to see. Do you want Hank Brown to make a fade on the final play? They ran press man. Iowa also ran perfect offense on the final play, what can you do. Iowa hasn't had a solid Big Ten quarterback in a minute, they have one now. 3. Hot Takes, Special Teams, and Game Theory Starts at 57:47 Takes hotter than Brian on the stairs in Michigan Stadium for 20 minutes after losing to Iowa on the last play of the game. Special teams made field goals, yay. Punting was okay, not Cam Brown's best game. Are you on team "don't return kickoffs"? A lot of Iowa kickoff players were out this game. You can't give up a straight line kick return, don't squib kick it. Kirk Ferentz still doesn't know how to call a timeout to call a Hail Mary. Kirk Ferentz isn't going to suddenly decide to go for it on 4th and 1. Run Hiter inside the five yard line? The play before Michigan's 4th down that Bryce lept was spotted short. Was he supposed to do a QB sneak and made his own decision to leap it? He learned a harsh lesson and he won't do it again. Was running the ball on the final 3rd and 5 the right move or do you let Bryce go and win the game on that final drive? He has thrown picks and screwed up a QB sneak earlier. You don't assume that Iowa's offense can go 91 yards in 1:40. All of these holding plays have been on defenders who are already out of the play. Zeke Berry's personal foul - a really soft call. There should have been three seconds after John Henry Daley got hurt so Iowa didn't just get a free play. 4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:33:01 Revenge of the Big Ten West Oregon 41, USC 27 Ban baseball slides. Desman Stephens should have played his last college football game. Sometimes you have sympathy for the defender but this was head hunting. But Dylan Raiola comes in and Nebraska fans get to watch him be a good quarterback! 19/25 for 289 yards and two touchdowns. Indiana 29, Northwestern 23 A score that would not have been surprising three years ago. "Trophy go brrrr" -Jaime. Free Aiden Chiles! Northwestern stayed in this game by throwing to their tight ends. Indiana might only be good not great on both sides of the ball. Wisconsin 24, Penn State 20 Penn State takes a 17 point off turnovers, but their offense got put in a locker. Was that the slowest 71 yard touch down pass you've ever seen? The Badgers are 12-4 under Luke Fickell when the expected starting QB starts and finishes a game. Minnesota 27, Washington 24 Washington had 40 yards on 27 carries, they just can't run the ball. Washington fans are starting to turn on Jedd Fisch. Minnesota also can't run the ball, QB Drake Lindsey played alright but Washington's defense is suspicious. Nebraska 31, Michigan State 13 Michigan State only has 257 yards of offense, turns the ball over three times, and gives up six sacks. State doesn't look badly coached, they just don't have guys this year. Milivojevic's skill position players are... Fred Moore? How real is Nebraska, actually? UCLA 54, Maryland 3 Total yards are 475 to 181. It did take UCLA a quarter to get going. Mike Locksley might not get fired, he might just leave and see if anyone would notice. Should the next team with a coaching vacancy just hire the James Madison coach? (No, their head coach is Billy Napier). Could UCLA make it to the Michigan game with only one loss and have playoff conversations?? Lightning Round: Rutgers 58, Howard 7 Notre Dame 49, Purdue 10 Ohio State 42, Illinois 19 MUSIC: "Gravity Blues"—Geese "Neverr Everrr"—Viallgerrr "I Missed Again"—Phil Collins “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

  • #554
    September 25 · 1 hr 25 min

    MGoRadio 12.4: Iowa is French for Iowa

    The Sponsors We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, SignalWire where we are recording this, and introducing Applied Fitness Solutions, and The History of Michigan Football, an online course by Greg Dooley. Featured Musician: Madison Ambush THE VIDEO: [After THE JUMP: The show notes, eventually.] --------------------- 1. Iowa Preview: Defense starts at the top They shut down two bad teams and an unknown in ISU. We know they're historically good, run Cov2 and lots of Cover-6 and Cover-8. Seems like the DTs are soft and LBs are making them hold up, which should be exploitable. Cam Buffington is a young Jack Campbell. What's going on in the secondary? Lutmer emerged last year, Anthony Hawkins might be losing is job to a JMU transfer. ISU got them on the edges because the LBs were stepping down and the ISU LT got out on the LBs. 2. Iowa Preview: Offense starts at 20:11 Alex has a hard time getting a bead on these guys. Return two OL from last year's Joe Moore OL, Seth thinks all three interior OL are centers but they have a great LT (should be a G in the NFL) in Trevor Lauck. Kamari Moulton was great last year but banged up, so is transfer RB LJ Phillips. Tony Diaz has emerged as TE DJ Vonnahme has been hurt. Hank Brown: meh. Fast straight-line speed. 3. UTEP After Review starts at 42:20 Encouraging play from Bryce Underwood. Made better decisions than it looked, might be a beat late but can get to a better look. Defense: Tariq Boney was amazing, hard to learn more from the DL against this. Earls and Bracy both at fault for 1st TD. Bracy was not at fault for the 2nd TD. Weird to have a DC who just presses the "NOPE" button. Noticed another bust between Earls and Mason Curtis. 4. Roddy's (and Noland's) Eligibility, Rivals Payola, and the PCSA starts at 1:10:55 ...is what I think we are talking about this segment. Roddy wins Round 2; Round 3 is the NCAA's appeal and that's the most important. Rivals is charging $500 to come see your kid—it's gross but also they're getting in on a world that's been exploiting athletes for tens of thousands. They pay for camps already. They pay their own travel to visit and work out for schools. They pay tuition at private schools or buy houses built by boosters to go to the big programs where they'll get noticed. This isn't "you have to pay $500 or we won't look at you;" it's another option. Where it damages is the Rivals rankings. But Old Rivals got a reputation for favoring the guys who went to their camps. Featured Artist: Madison Ambush I know nothing about these guys except this sampler kicks. Also they were probably listening to Frank Marino around the same time my friends and I were. The only way I can describe it is it's from some alternate reality where hair metal got to keep developing as a music form without veering into glam or getting upended by grunge. There's so much energy here, and also so many ideas buried, especially in Stray Time Bomb, which has what I think is a guitar wail recorded backwards behind the chorus? This sampler came home with me from a 2005 trip to New York, a night I was bouncing around the music scene with a friend who was working for Atlantic (the buddy who went on to found Metalsucks) and others he knew from work, but that's all I remember about its acquisition. The back cover says they're four guys: Marc Andrew (vocals/acoustic), Joe Brannan (electric guitars/keyboard), Don Donnerund (drums), and Frank Ruso (bass), and then there's a fifth name: David Geschwendt and a fifth guy in the photo further down. It says it was recorded in Astoria, NY, but mixed in Copley, Ohio. The website is offline. The internet has one other CD by them, but Brannan is now "guitar, keyboard" and Geschwendt is replaced by a guy named Fatcat. They're here on Spotify. Songs: Versus Good Day for a Change Stray Time Bomb Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro: “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

  • #553
    September 24 · 44 min

    WTKA Roundtable 9/24/2026: Have A Boney Boney Day

    Things Discussed: Iowa: are they going to zone us? We think Michigan has that in the arsenal, just haven't had to use it yet. Michigan's run game: TEs and RBs have often been the guys screwing it up. Problems haven't been moving guys off the LOS. Tactical issues with one-man power because defense isn't buying it. Offense hasn't punished safeties triggering on run action either, because they haven't really had to. Hardly any shots downfield at Buchanan vs quarters safeties. Attacking Iowa: they can really key down on your best WR, might not be able to hand two. Hansen's return: looked good. Might be a difference-maker with Beigel out. Tariq Boney: HOLY COW. He was blowing up runs at the EOH drive to give Michigan a chance to drive for a lead at halftime. He got to the QB before Meadows. Sam: He's just a dude that plays angry. NFL has been underrating smaller guys because they've been obsessed with measurements, and then B-Graham wins a Super Bowl. Against most defensive lines Michigan should be able to move people. Wish we had Sprague and Beigel for this game. Hoffman struggled early in the year, next man up: Eli Owens? Roddy's trial: Don't know. Think he gets good news this week, could be bad news next week. NCAA is just shooting themselves in the foot trying to fight this: they gave everybody a 5th year who was on a roster in 2020, and they give everybody a 5th year in the 2023 class and beyond, so it's just the 2021 and 2022 guys who have to live by the old rules? Why stand so hard on this? It's just a small class of players who make your product better.

  • S18 · E6
    September 21 · 2 hr 28 min

    MGoPodcast 18.3: Okay Guys I'll Do The Thing

    2 hours and 26 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, Applied Fitness Solutions, The History of Michigan Football, an online course by Greg Dooley, and Venue by 4M where recorded this. 1. Offense vs UTEP Starts at 0:54 Well eventually that's what it should've looked like. UTEP had a lot of their yards on one drive but negative yards in the second half. If the events of this game had happened in a different order, it would've felt better (Michigan's win % on ESPN only got down to 92.7%). Beck made some nice technical decisions, the offense adjusted a lot to what the defense was giving them. From experience, Brian thinks Sprague has Norovirus. This would've been a nice game to give Babalola a chance. Michigan simplified things to reduce the frippery in the run game. UTEP tried to be Oklahoma on defense and it worked for about a drive and a half. Michigan saw a stacked box and started throwing it. Travis Johnson saw his first real play time and looked nice. Even when Bryce's throws aren't perfect his receivers are night and day from last year so let them go and make a play. Is some of the blocking a result of Playbook-Itus? Andrew Marsh wouldn't have been practicing sweeps much last year. Is stretch also an under-practiced play? The Marshall-cat worked all three times. How much of Hiter's fumble was his fault? It was helmet to ball but his posture was high. Bryson Kuzdzal came in after the fumble because Jordan Marshall was dinged up and on a pitch count. There was an Owens cat! Beigel does move people but doesn't combo. They were eventually so good at stretch last year and it feels a little bit like they threw away its development. Their best lineman isn't utilized in power. It seemed pretty clear that they were intentionally trying to give Andrew Marsh the ball, he's not been targeted much in the first two games. Catch and run slants could be a dangerous tool and help out the rest of the run game. We're seeing the extent of the wide receiver depth chart and getting more guys involved. Poor Ffrench. Tommy Carr probably would've started on either Sherrone Moore team. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 2. Defense vs UTEP Starts at 56:43 Defensively that was what you would've wanted to see. There were a couple big plays and other than that UTEP didn't do anything. Michigan's defensive line got held up a bit in the first two drives and then after that the defensive line had free paths to the quarterback. They run into Tariq Boney twice and he blows up the play. Is he more like Josiah Stewart than Josh Uche? Cam Brandt is a defensive tackle now?? Suddenly the defensive ends are like seven deep? Lea'ea touchdown because he back-tracked on a screen! We will still be complaining about Wink Martindale 20 years from now. The Mouton comp of Troy Bowles is prevalent. The linebackers had a slow day since the defensive line was having their way. Zeke Berry was injured so Shamari Earls started, he's almost there. You can see why Snowden was a star. Was the second UTEP touchdown supposed to be Bracy's guy to cover? Give Tommy Carr a number that looks like Cam Brown's so you can do a fake punt. 3. Hot Takes, Special Teams, and Game Theory Starts at 1:20:15 Takes hotter than Michigan's offense in the second half for the first time all year. 49 yard field goal feels good, we thought Butkowski would max out at 45 yards. That was a silly opening kickoff where Kuzdzal had to field it. Andrew Marsh fielded a punt over his shoulder with a gunner that could've gone poorly. UTEP, you can kick a field goal or onside it but don't do both! Michigan had nice time management in the first half. Only four penalties! Most of these holds wouldn't be called if Aidan Hutchinson was on the field. It's fun that the kickoff team pumps up the crowd now. What was up with the roughing the passer penalty? UTEP went through all of their timeouts faster than we've ever seen. Let's talk about Ole Miss going for two against LSU since it's interesting. 4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:54:59 Lightning Round: Minnesota 41, Akron 7 Penn State 55, Buffalo 13 Wisconsin 54, EMU 10 Ohio State 59, Kent State 3 Illinois 48, Southern Illinois 10 Iowa 55, Northern Iowa 0 Washington 48, Eastern Washington 16 Indiana 38, Western Kentucky 0 Nebraska 34, North Dakota 7 Oregon 84, Portland State 0 USC 43, Rutgers 35 This was... not a fluke?? Rutgers was moving the ball all game. USC won this because of a pick six at the goal line. This might be the most stunning indictment of Lincoln Riley's ability to build a defense. We're comparing USC to Boston College and UMass?? This seems to say a lot more about USC than it does about Rutgers. Northwestern 41, Colorado 7 This was not listed in the lightning round because the yardage here was much closer than the score. Colorado was -3 in turnover margin. If Aidan Chiles can throw the ball then that changes things. This was Northwestern's last game at the beach stadium! Michigan State 10, Notre Dame 27 Closer to what we expected from Michigan State this year. MSU had 167 total yards and 53 of them came off of one pass play. They're running the right plays, they just don't have the athletes to run them. UCLA 52, Purdue 38 Nico Iamaleava is a gazelle of a human. Purdue's defense looks abominable. Semaj Morgan had four catches for 72 yards and two touchdowns. This game had 1133 total yards of offense. UCLA's defense looks as shaky as USC's. Maryland 26, Virginia Tech 35 Maryland has 2.8 YPC with their running backs. They can't get away from James Franklin. Sorry Maryland, this is just who you are. MUSIC: "El Paso"—Howdy "Backyard Lover"—Merce Lemon "Indu"—Greg Freeman “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

  • #552
    September 18 · 1 hr 31 min

    MGoRadio 12.3: The Salt Mines of Weber

    The Sponsors We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, SignalWire where we are recording this, and introducing Applied Fitness Solutions, and The History of Michigan Football, an online course by Greg Dooley. Featured Musician: Natives of the New Dawn THE VIDEO: [After THE JUMP: The show notes, eventually.] --------------------- 1. UTEP Preview starts at the top Offensively they're a Rich Rod spread 'n shred with a running QB and not-good guards. Did some nifty things to Oklahoma but once they run out of ideas they're not much of a threat. Defensively they're a 3-3-5 Tite or 3-3-5 that is probably going to play like TCU did to mitigate a very small DL. Problem is they can get crumpled. Also their secondary can get ripped. Start with PA, practice your stretch, maybe figure out some counters to the ways they will take away the QB run game. 2. Oklahoma After Review: Defense starts around 19:41 The Oklahoma offensive line was butt, maybe. This allowed Jay Hill to play 3-3-5 and trust JHD/Nichols/Pierce/Etta/Lea'ea to dominate. Review of the young DEs is positive, with caveats. Linebackers are doing too much, Staehling is coming out positive but he's limited. Bowles is Moutoning it out there. Is this a 3-3-5 thing? Chase Taylor still a puppy, Beers was too much for him. Hopefully that's a Beers is Good thing (he got Bracy as well). Secondary is as advertised except Rod Moore. Advertised is VERY VERY good. Last talk about the switching issue. 3. Oklahoma After Review: Offense starts around 40:13 Fixable issues. They made things easy on Bryce and ran him, which was playing to win, but he's still someone they have to shepherd along and Venables is excellent at doing the aggressive things to shut that off. Lots of "I don't know how that was supposed to work" plays, and people not climbing. Next step week. Running back: DO SOMETHING! 4. The History of College Football with Greg Dooley starts around 1:05:47 Dooley's course has long been a favorite among students; now you can come too. Got all the Michigan history nerds to come in and do our parts. We discuss some of the parts I came in to speak about, and what Part II might entail. Featured Artist: Natives of the New Dawn I used to work the merch table for my best friends' band (Oblivion) and would often trade their CDs with the other bands for their albums. After a few years of this I had quite an extensive collection of the Ann Arbor/Detroit music scene of the 2000s. A die-hard Tally Hall fan sent me rummaging through the collection, and while I still can't find the damn CD she wanted that I took a photo of when I put them all on iTunes, I've have begun transferring the collection to .flacs, and figured I can get a season out of sharing my finds as they come up. There was little question which band I'd feature first, since their literal tagline is "Your favorite band's favorite band."* Natives were kind of a Super Band. We played with Vince Mann's prior group really early—I want to say Move-In Day on Palmer Field in 2001—and then caught his new funk/hip-hop/rock fusion group Natives of the New Dawn a few times after he formed it by picking up a couple of session musicians, a local DJ, and other well-regarded musicians from the area. I remember them being the best dudes, and I remember they were blowing up quickly in 2006-'07, which was after one of them finally stopped wearing a Spider Man suit to shows. This was a weird era after Napster but before legalized streaming, when Payola ruled the airwaves and major labels only wanted Nu Metal bros who were too dumb to read their contracts. The result were these super-groups that formed out the glut of local talented musicians all trapped together at various 200- to 300-person venues like St. Andrew's, the Magic Stick and the I-Rock in Detroit, the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, Clutch Cargo's in Pontiac, Ypsi's Tap Room, and of course The Sanctuary in Hamtramck, which was where the bands all would go to play for each other. The songs here are all from Bliss, which the internet says is from 2007, which sounds late to me. * [Actually it's At the Drive-In]. Songs: Your Boy Good Day People Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro: “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

  • #551
    September 17 · 46 min

    WTKA Roundtable 9/17/2026: The Otter, The Weasel, and The Rat

    Things Discussed: Offense: The things they did made sense; that's an unusual thing for us. I'd take all five WMU starters over Oklahoma's. Huge respect for Venables. Defense: You could tell Jay Hill learned to coach at Weber State not the NFL. Can we run a 3-3-5 as a base? Only if you can get away with it. Jay Hill put on a coaching clinic. Lea'ea gets his laurels. He balled out in 19 snaps. Have to see if this holds up for Iowa because the true freshman RG was their best IOL. Only a few of those were runs. Might work as a 3-3-5 end because Nichols isn't quite there yet vs the run. Hat tip to Rocky Beers. That dude can play ball. Put Chase Taylor in hell all game, got Bracy too. Offense: execution was much better. Bryce is Vince Young-level runner. Hiter was ruining some of the zone reads by seizing the ball. Issues with guards: some of that is OU DTs are great. Issues with kickouts: some of that was OU is super aggressive. Manuel Beigel: plays heavy, doesn't combo through guys. Promising but not a pass protector. A year away from being not just a Rhino. Difference this year is they were willing to run Bryce and willing to take a shot downfield. Bryce progression: big step forward but they were still giving him half-field reads. Sometimes didn't have anybody because Venables knew the stopgap was coming. Comp for him was Vince Young, who redshirted as a freshman. Being rich doesn't suddenly change the fundamental rules about developing a quarterback. UTEP gameplan? System defense, so you have to climb and get to your second block. Keep having Bryce carry the ball.

  • S18 · E5
    September 14 · 2 hr 56 min

    MGoPodcast 18.2: What Would The Bloggers Do

    2 hours and 56 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, The Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, and Venue by 4M where recorded this. 1. Offense vs Oklahoma Starts at 0:54 That... went better than we expected. Seth was right about Oregon's offensive line. Michigan won this game by listening to the MGoPodcast! Or at least they looked at the film and did the obvious thing to do. Offensively it looks like they tightened it up and simplified things, they looked at things Bryce was good at a year ago and emphasized his legs. It looks like Bryce went through some progressions and then decided to scramble a couple times. There were some plays that could've gone better but it wasn't on Bryce's decision making, Oklahoma was just covering the field well. Savion Hiter screwed up a zone read twice, freshman mistake (that had us and Bryce rattled). If you want to win a game against Oklahoma you need to run Underwood 18 times a game and that's what they did - Whittingham wished he ran more. Bryce seems more comfortable rolling out - that lob to Hiter on the sidelines was right out of his high school film. Fumbles need to be cleaned up, QBs aren't active in practice so they're probably not practicing ball security as much. Don't pitch the ball over a defender's head. They won by game-managing and being content with 17 points. Jason Beck had a fantastic gameplan with what he had against a hyper-aggressive defense. The Marshall-Cat seems redundant when you have Bryce's legs. Savion Hiter has it and is making pre-season All-SEC players look silly. They're finding ways to get Marsh the ball. JJ Buchanan is... really good. They really only used the starting wide receivers, Goodwin, Travis Johnson, and Ffrench did not contribute. Pass protection was generally very good, they were also going against one of the best run defenses in America. Michigan doesn't quite have the mental processing speed yet but all things considered they did pretty well. We go about 47 minutes before complaining about the rhino, which means it went a lot better. 2. Defense vs Oklahoma Starts at 54:15 Can't ask for much more than only giving up 10 points. That said, it was apparent that Oklahoma's o-line was very banged up, they had two guys rushing back from knee sprains. Michigan ran a 3-3-5 because they only needed to run their two good defensive tackles, this probably won't translate well against better offensive lines. Dom Nichols has earned his star. Jay Hill's gameplan was a weird hybrid of Don Brown and Jesse Minter - we're a man-to-man team but we're also confusing the quarterback? Bracy punching the ball out was reminiscent of his play at Memphis. Nate Marshall is Josh Uche. He was a great pass rusher but got baited on some run plays. Cam Brandt only had six snaps, they're giving the snaps to guys who make plays (this didn't happen last year). Palepale didn't play but Lea'ea did. Overall the coverages were excellent and even zone (which they don't usually do) was good enough. NOB made a play. There were a lot of hugs with Cole Sullivan after the game, would've been nice to have him at Michigan on this defense. Snowden was excellent, you've got three NFL-ready defensive backs on the field (not including Earls yet). Jyaire Hill - stupid penalty, don't do it again. Pretty interception. Defensive tackles were nice, Pierce was the best to stand up to double teams. Defensive lines will be graded on a curve. 3. Hot Takes, Special Teams, and Game Theory Starts at 1:30:34 Takes hotter than Brian predicting the Oklahoma gameplan. We saw a field goal! What was the biggest punting EPA above expected? Punting might become a dangerous weapon on this team. Should the caught punt have been a touch back? It's when you have possession but that feels wrong. They go for it on 4th and 1, Bryce is a big guy for sneaks. Are the penalties partially because there's a new coaching staff with new schemes they're thinking through and also some "Sherrone"-ness leftover? Don't rush the punter on 4th and 5 or less. Remember, if you touch the ball you can assault the punter. Should that helmet coming off been a penalty? Certain penalties should go away over the course of the year, it's a very young offense learning new things. This crew was an SEC crew that was a bit more ticky-tacky about holds. The Oklahoma fans were great and everyone we've talked to said they had a great time. Home and home games like this are so fun and are what college football is all about. Everyone is going to remember this game, Michigan beat Oklahoma. Oklahoma fans will probably always remember the game last year. 4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 2:04:31 Lightning Round: Indiana 55, Howard 0 Wisconsin 36, Western Illinois 9 Nebraska 56, BGSU 7 Michigan State 35, Eastern Michigan 7 Maryland 38, UConn 14 UCLA 28, SDSU 10 Minnesota 13, Mississippi State 38 Rutgers 21, Boston College 28 Purdue 35, Wake Forest 38 Oregon 31, Oklahoma State 39 The score was close but Oklahoma State dominated. Seth was right about Oregon's offensive line being a problem. Oklahoma State snaps a 21 game FBS losing streak (they still have an 18 game Big 12 losing streak). Oklahoma State outgained Oregon 554 to 281. Ohio State 23, Texas 24 Texas goes into the 4th quarter down 23-3 and rallies back. There's a hilariously missed 45 yard field goal. The Ohio State offense was Jeremiah Smith and that was about it. 16 of Julian Sayin's 32 passes went to Jeremiah Smith. This is Ohio State's third straight loss to a P4 team, in which they've scored 10, 10, and 23 points. Iowa 16, Iowa State 13 The most El Assico score possible. Iowa had a coherent looking offense at times, that's scary! Iowa has a wide receiver, Tony Diaz, who already has 15 catches on the year. The Hawkeyes did only rush for 3.2 yards per carry. Illinois 27, Duke 31 This was close all game and was the opposite of El Assico until the 4th quarter. Katin Houser looks better at Illinois than he ever did at Michigan State, Collin Dixon is a dangerous wide receiver (11 catches for 166 yards, 3 TDs). Washington 16, Utah State 14 This is alarm bells going off for Washington. The second week in a row that Washington QB Demon Williams is the lead rusher, their one-two punch is gone. No Denzel Boston? They just can't seem to score in the redzone. Washington was +3 in field goal margin and only won by two. Penn State 27, Temple 9 Penn State controlled this game but it was very un-inspiring. Temple had a 91 yard drive that ended in a field goal, Penn State was giving up 50 yard drives. USC 49, Louisiana 30 USC still looks like USC under Lincoln Riley. Louisiana's QB is named Lunch Winfield. MUSIC: "Rein Me In"—Sam Fender and Olivian Dean "The Rising"—Bruce Springsteen "4EVER"—Clairo “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

  • #550
    September 11 · 1 hr 7 min

    MGoRadio 12.2: Something Less Appalling

    The Sponsors We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, SignalWire where we are recording this, and introducing Applied Fitness Solutions, and The History of Michigan Football, an online course by Greg Dooley. Featured Musician: Jacob Givens THE VIDEO: [After THE JUMP: The show notes, eventually.] --------------------- 1. Oklahoma Preview: Offense starts at the top John Mateer is back; we got to see the Real Mateer last year—they ran him 15 times—before he got banged up, and that unfortunately is probably happening again. Still have Isaiah Sategna, the graduated slot who's going to be a handful no matter what, and three other WRs they like plus a rising sophomore who's going to be a star eventually. Run game is no longer hampered by the old RB coach, but they've got a lot of new cooks in the kitchen, and it's not clear who's running the show. There was a lot more under-center, they've imported blocking TEs and FBs, and they're playing 3 of them at a time. Last year Arbuckle ran his Wazzu RPO-heavy passing spread; this year the linemen are going downfield. Their OL situation is messed up right now with a lot of injuries clouding things at LT, C, and RG, and insiders are skeptical about the program's report that two of their ~6 starter-caliber guys will be fully back. So...true freshman center against Trey Pierce, eh? If Oklahoma turns this into a blowout it's because they are winning the TE vs Michigan LBs battle, which is a real concern given the LBs have to respect Mateer's legs and arm. 2. Oklahoma Preview: Defense starts at 18:45 Last year Michigan tried to ease Underwood in by doing the things you do with freshman QBs and Venables was sitting on them. You know he can coach a defense because he took over a Lincoln Riley/Cale Gundy outfit and made it an elite outfit. Took him a few years to do that of course, because he had to raise his own elite recruits. But yo: Cole Sullivan isn't even starting. They've made him the more linebacker option at CHEETAH, the VIPER equivalent. Secondary are all returning starters, front are all experienced guys. Alex was surprised however how much the UTEP run game worked on them, especially on Stone, the DT expected to be the first taken in the Draft. That was a Rich Rod 2008 effect somewhat: UTEP spread out and ran the QB and did interesting things to mess with the way Oklahoma defenders get upfield quickly. Michigan can't do what they did last year: NEED to hit some deep shots on 1st down. 3. WMU After Review: Offense starts at 38:04 4. WMU After Review: Defense starts at 55:24 Not great, actually. Big mistake scores in the LBs, John-Henry Daley was JAG. Did find a lot of +1 or +0.5 events for Dominic Nichols, including playing AROs well, and think Bowles is exciting in a Don Brown death marmot kind of way if they can have him not blow Day 1 things. But want more at 3rd DT than Lea'ea being a supreme effort guy—got two plays from Palepale in six snaps so there's upside here. Cam Brandt getting crushed is bad news for all of the young DEs. Nate Marshall had a young guy mistake so you see why they preferred the senior, but these guys are going to have to get a lot better. Secondary not much to say: they were fighting screens but not a lot downfield. Featured Artist: Jacob Givens I'm only barely on Instagram, but when I'm on there I'm usually sharing music stuff with my besties, who were all in an Ann Arbor band that tried to "make it." Jacob Givens is us, minus the Michigan football text chain. He also was making music around the same time as my friends, and finally shared it online. He's not as good at singing, but the composition and lyrics are so good I want to make a Jacob Givens video of me and my friends listening to Jacob Givens for the first time. Probably of Fluorescent. If you've got music and won't issue a takedown notice on YouTube, I'd love to feature it on future episodes. Songs: Tabula Rasa Fluorescent Pendulum Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro: “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

  • #549
    September 10 · 39 min

    WTKA Roundtable 9/10/2026: It Was Bad

    Things Discussed: Offensive line: one guy issues. Disappointment high, recalibrating, but not 3-9 bad. Bryce had a hand in everything that was wrong. Staring down the receiver isn't just a problem; he shouldn't even be looking there. Making decisions before the snap and not coming off them. Why is there a State Street/Main Street discrepancy? Don't know. Sam: They didn't have a plan for Bryce to be that bad, which tells you they didn't think he would be? Brian: Last year he was very up and down. Look at him like RS Fr Vince Young. He wasn't the Rose Bowl winner until that Rose Bowl. Guys like this don't come fully formed. Not writing him off. You need to do what he can do now and lean on it. Run the Dampier offense. Seth: We set up the expectations, Bryce and the program and the system did too, and maybe that's just wrong. What to do vs Oklahoma? They're a next-evolution Don Brown defense built to suffocate a QB run game (Cole Sullivan at CHEETAH sometimes). Hit them deep: slot fade, JJ down the sideline. Hockey hazing lawsuit: Not surprised because that was widespread in hockey and at Michigan in that era. Seth points out it was a massive historical success that we conquered that culture 25 years ago. It was brutally hard to do that. Open that can of worms. See how ugly things were. People should know we can fix this. Not naming Mel and Red in lawsuit: Figure UM will settle, if you add them they'll fight to preserve their reputations.

  • S18 · E4
    September 8 · 2 hr 13 min

    MGoPodcast 18.1: Try To Think About Your Children

    2 hours and 13 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, The Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, and Venue by 4M where recorded this. 1. Clocks and Vibes Starts at 0:54 Brian left early. The clock said zero so he left the building. Spiritually the result of this game doesn't matter, they lost the game spiritually. After Zapruder Film Analysis, either NBC showed the wrong clock or the clock in the stadium is bad. The seconds weren't the same length?? Does college football need tenths of seconds? Was this the most disappointing game you've seen as a Michigan fan? The plays don't look coherent, it doesn't look like players are running the same thing. The run game was disappointing and Bryce Underwood does not look like he's improved from a year ago. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 2. Offense vs Western Michigan Starts at 19:30 Bad. Bad in ways that make you scared about where the program is. Bryce is still zeroing in on one receiver without seeing the field. Manuel Beigel is not one of the best eight offensive linemen, why is he on the field as the rhino? He can't block. Half the line ran stretch and the other half didn't. They didn't try to just run power down their throat. It felt like they were trying to run frippery without establishing the basic stuff first. The coaches are from Utah and BYU, programs that have been established for 20 years. Are the coaches running plays like Michigan has the stability and continuity of Utah and BYU? We were hearing that Bryce's footwork was improving, is he just not learning/processing fast enough? He's got the talent but if he can't read a defense then it doesn't matter. Age-wise, Bryce is still a freshman. Why did Bryson Kuzdzal start the second half, the other two RBs barely had any plays. JJ Buchanan is pretty good! Jalen Hoffman looked good, put him out there instead of a rhino. Evan Link came a long distance last year but was disappointing this week. 3. Hot Takes, Defense, and More Vibes Starts at 54:57 Takes hotter than the internet at about 10:30pm Saturday night. Can't be too mad at the defense because functionally they only really gave up six points. You can see things happening on the defense, the young linebackers have talent but they're making mistakes. On the ground game there's a huge difference between the starters and everybody else. They don't think they have a 3rd defensive tackle. Pierce and Etta looked pretty good. Too much Brandt. Salesi Moa didn't look terrible out there, he's an... interesting player. Defense tried to be heroes too many times. Punting was really good, Zeke Berry was an excellent gunner. Let's talk 4th downs and clock management. Nine penalties is concerning. The uniforms have got to go. The stadium volume was really low, the music wasn't deafening but you also couldn't hear the refs. The stadium experience felt "very generic". They replaced the Rose Bowl logo with a Google Gemini ad. They had to put the corporate logos on the banner that had the national championship logos on it. It feels like every year that you go to the stadium the experience gets worse. This is important to us and not to the people who are selling it. There's nothing about it now that wouldn't be materialistically different than if Dave Brandon was currently the athletic director. It looks like Michigan didn't let Western bring their band. Fans rushing the field might've been the most organic thing to happen during the game but players wanted nothing to do with it. 4. Around the Big Ten with Jamie Mac Starts at 1:46:06 Lightning round: Indiana 52, North Texas 16 Nebraska 49, Ohio 21 Ohio State 56, Ball State 3 Penn State 45, Marshall 0 Iowa 40, Northern Illinois 0 Maryland 62, Ham 0 USC 39, Fresno State 0 Minnesota 59, Eastern Illinois 7 Northwestern 34, South Dakota State 18 Illinois 42, UAB 23 Purdue 44, Indiana State 19 Washington 24, Washington State 10 Sadly this is probably how the Apple Cup will go from now on. Washington really struggled to move the ball but Wazzu has no offense. Notre Dame 41, Wisconsin 13 Wisconsin's uniforms looked like Rutgers. This was not the blowout that the score suggests. Neither team could really run the ball. Wisconsin looks like a team that could make a bowl game again. Oregon 34, Boise State 27 Oregon almost doubles Boise State in yardage. Remember Seth's hot take about the Oregon offensive line? Dan Lanning is not building strong up front. UCLA 42, Cal 24 Could UCLA maybe be 7-3 when they come into Ann Arbor? They rushed for over 8 YPC. Michigan State 30, Toledo 20 This game was funnier Saturday morning. Toledo had some explosive plays. Doesn't move the needle on Michigan State much. UMass 37, Rutgers 21 UMass rushing rutger'd Rutgers. MUSIC: "Too Much Time On My Hands"—Styx "Against All Odds"—Phil Collins "Walking On A Thin Line"—Huey Lewis the Names “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

  • #548
    September 4 · 1 hr 2 min

    MGoRadio 12.1: Upon Further Preview

    The Sponsors We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let’s not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, SignalWire where we are recording this, and introducing Applied Fitness Solutions, and The History of Michigan Football, an online course by Greg Dooley. Featured Musician: The Unsustainables THE VIDEO: [After THE JUMP: The show notes, eventually.] --------------------- 1. WMU Preview: Offense starts at the top It's a Walt Bell offense! They're going to put the WRs and TEs at the sideline to draw the secondary away from a running game that goes tempo, shifts late, and has a great backfield to punish any mistakes. Big OL includes a returning all-MAC guy and two 6'6" heavies at guard. Expect the WR screens to be the main passing attack, and if it's 3rd & long they dead. 2. WMU Preview: Defense starts at 15:27 The front seven got raided. They're finally out of Lou Esposito defensive linemen, went to the portal for an OSU walk-on and a weird DT/LB hybrid from LIU. Linebackers were formerly blitzy types, now 5th years. Secondary has one star in Joshua Franklin, the corner who returned when he could have gone to Ohio State or something, and another decent returning starter in former UConn/CMU CB Jarvarius Sims. Turner's been moved to nickel however and they're starting Presbyterian CB Willard Ferrell, who's listed at 6'1"/155, which: I believe you if you say you've gotten bigger but if that's your starting point woah. Ditto for returning free safety Joey Pope, and former Michigan walk-on, who also started for WMU last year. 3. Upon Further Preview starts at 28:41 Things we learned while doing the previews. One is that people are calling Bryce Underwood a bust: uh, too early folks! Linebacker panic in spring was probably because they saw nine walk-on caliber players with three young guys and zero Nate Staehlings. Also Chris Bracy's arrival was like Dani Rojas. 4. The NCAA's Eligibility Crisis starts at 53:32 Is LSU trying to corner the market on most unlikeable coaches? They are pushing this thing so hard it's turning people in favor of the NCAA. Such an incredible own goal from the NCAA to not grandfather this properly, because there were guys waiting and they drew a harsh line. Because they gave everybody the 2020-21 season for free it's really only those two classes—2021 and 2022—that didn't get a free fifth year, and all they had to do to make this make sense was extend it to players who 1) Didn't do anything pro after this rule was an option (read: not the guys LSU tried to sign, who were trying out on NFL teams); and 2) Would have eligibility under the new five-for-five rule (read: only recent grads who played four in four). Michigan would like them to play anyways because Roddy Gayle is now crucial with the McCoy injury, and it would be nice to bring back Ernest Hausmann as well. Featured Artist: The Unsustainables From MGoUser TxWolverine44: My band is The Unsustainables and we're based out of Chapel Hill. We're a rock-steady ska group and recently released our first album Every Broken Heart Will Mend (we have sent out the opening title track as our unofficial single). Worst case, I hope you enjoy it! The loose Michigan connection is that I'm an alum (c/o 2012) so tenuous Best case, I enjoy it, listen to it a bunch while writing the previews this year, and use it for our first MGoRadio episode this year. They say rock-steady ska, but if ska is a confluence of jazz and pop-punk, the jazz influence here is a much bigger part of the mix. Seeing them live up here probably isn't an option, but they have a couple of EPs that preceded this album so you can turn this on and leave it boppin' while you go through a bunch of linebacker film or whatever it is you do during the day. I used three thematic songs but the Chesterfields song was my fav when I had this on. If you've got music and won't issue a takedown notice on YouTube, I'd love to feature it on future episodes. Songs: Every Broken Heart Friday Nite Honeydrippers Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro: “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

  • #547
    September 3 · 49 min

    WTKA Roundtable 9/3/2026: The Otter is Right

    Things Discussed: Smart, old secondary. Can play those Fangio games where you recognize patterns in how they align and switch coverages. Going to be special to watch that. DTs: Lea'ea and Etta are not doubles-eaters, so we may have to play differently than we have in the past up front. Can you play 3-4? Sure but that will wear out Pierce. Would love for Palepale to come online Utah best offense in Whittingham's tenure last year with Dampier, who is not remotely accurate. Bryce: Surrounding cast much better (28 drops last year!), his legs included. Dante Moore at UCLA was the comp to last year. Okay gets you to 20th in SP+, better than that needs Bryce to step up. Can he? Yeah, think Gardner is too low on Bryce's ability to read a defense and hit tiny windows. DB on Marsh was scared and that gave breathing room. WMU: Not the kind of offense you expect to see from a MAC team. Big offensive line, Walt Bell runs a complicated run offense that really tests how well your defensive rules work inside. WMU Defense: I love their nickel, but they have some tiny guys in the secondary who are just not going to be able to handle JJ Buchanan. Expect Bryce to look better in this game than he will most of the year. Roddy Gayle litigation: NCAA shot themselves in the foot, but not certain how the court will rule. TRO is a good start, next step is a preliminary injunction it's important to win so he can keep practicing, but the emergency ruling will be the ballgame, and it's not certain the judges will side with him. Sucks because the McCoy injury means they need Roddy now.

  • #546
    August 27 · 51 min

    WTKA Roundtable 8/27/2026: The Lies of August

    Things Discussed: Online Q&A Tomorrow hosted by U-M Club of Fairfield. Detroit Kickoff Dinner on Monday at Ford's Garage, and the following day I'm in D.C. Pre-show, Sam & Ira were talking NFL doing away with Pro Bowl. Seth suggests they have college alumni games. Certainly there are some NFL players from Ohio State who want to beat Michigan at something once in their lives? Pick different rivalries every year. Best Fred Jacksonism ever: Anton Campbell is Gayle Sayers. Sorting the camp facts from camp lies. Tariq Boney is believable because he's probably getting to the quarterback, could be used in an Uche role this year, but isn't going to be on the field in a run situation. Use what you know and how players develop. Lea'ea has gotten bigger, but can he get so much bigger to be one of the three, or isn't it more likely he's just going to be who he is and what you're hearing about Kanka and Palepale is they're not impact guys right now, and Moten etc. are not playable yet? Linebacker is where this gets scary, because once you start talking about Max Alford: I know what Max Alford looks like. Basketball trip to Lithuania takeaways: Quinn Costello is a movement shooter. Taller Foster Loyer. Brandon McCoy is going to be a problem on both ends of the court. Think his shot is busted; his free throws are not that close. Craig: teach him some midrange. Center: Can't play without Thiam. Estrella looks like a four, Moller is not ready this year. New rules to prevent pros from coming back: schools will punish coaches and schools, hope to muddle things for inevitable lawsuits. Big Ten hasn't promulgated a basketball rule, football rule means no Ernest Hausmann though, because (before they made the rule) his name was in the Draft. Roddy would be ineligible if they extend this to basketball because he played in summer league, which is a pro league. NCAA won some recent cases.

  • S18 · E3
    August 21 · 2 hr 21 min

    MGoPodcast 18.0.c: Someone Always Has To Die

    2 hours and 21 minutes The Sponsors Thank you to Underground Printing for making this all possible. Rishi and Ryan have been our biggest supporters from the beginning. Check out their wide selection of officially licensed Michigan fan gear at their 3 store locations in Ann Arbor or learn about their custom apparel business at undergroundshirts.com. Our associate sponsors are: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, The Sklars Brothers, Champions Circle, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, The Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, and Venue by 4M where recorded this. 1. Michigan's Nonconference and Big Ten Teams 18-15 Starts at 0:54 We welcome in Alex Drain to go over Michigan's nonconference games and the rest of the Big Ten. Western Michigan Pretty good for a MAC team, they won the MAC last year. Last year they were an offensively driven team, but they've lost their defensive coordinator to the LA Chargers. They have big offensive linemen (including Ben Roebuck). Michigan's questions at defensive tackle and linebacker will get an early test. UTEP It's bad. Like... really bad. They're starting over with FCS guys. Oklahoma They get John Mateer back (which can be good or bad at any given moment). His stats in the second half of last year weren't great, how much of that was because of injury? He's an athlete when he has to run the ball. They bring back All-SEC WR Isaiah Sategna. Their run game overall was really bad, it brought down their overall offensive SP+ to 51st. Current SP+ projections are 27th. Cole Sullivan might not even start. The starting line is Michigan -2.5 so consider it a toss-up. 18 - Purdue 7-29 in the last three years since losing Jeff Brohm, and there's not much optimism going into this year either. Their schedule might be a little easier at least. This is year two of a coach starting over for Baryy Odom. Can you name the Michigan player who is a projected starter for Purdue? 17 - Michigan State Pat Fitzgerald is... a weird hire. They bring back QB Alessio Milivojevic for some continuity, also PFF really likes UConn RB Cam Edwards. The offensive line looks okay-ish. However, Fred Moore is a projected starter. Do they get four wins? 16 - Rutgers Nobody cares about them except for Bryan Mac. Last year they had their best offense since 2007 but their defense was 131st in success rate. They have KJ Duff who has a claim for the 2nd best wide receiver in the Big Ten. The offense is projected at 37th in SP+, the defense at 90th. 15 - Maryland Someone always has to die in the Maryland preview. They're #2 in returning production in SP+. Give Locksley some credit for returning a lot of young and talented players. A nonconference game against James Franklin's Virginia Tech could be exciting. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 2. Big Ten Teams 14-8 Starts at 38:57 14 - Northwestern They have Chip Kelly and a new stadium (we all liked Ryan Field, though). They start with South Dakota State and then get a week two bye, oddly enough. Can they fix Aidan Chiles? They have some returning wide receivers that are decent. 13 - Wisconsin The shell of Wisconsin, the week they though Luke Fickell would get fired he got an extension. They bring in QB Colton Joseph, the Sun Belt player of the year. Old Wisconsin would never have to go into the portal for a running back. By extending Fickell they gave him a bigger NIL budget which he used to get seven defensive starters. 12 - UCLA They have a new coach. The weird Deshaun Foster era ended before it started. Bob Chesney comes in from James Madison. Nico Iamaleava comes back (for better or worse). James Madison was in the playoffs last year, you might recall. There is a lot of reason to be optimistic about this hire. Semaj Morgan is there! 11 - Nebraska They did not get year-three Matt Rhule, there was no lift-off and Raiola left. They picked up QB Anthony Colandrea from Virginia. They need a new RB. They're on their 4th defensive coordinator in five years, despite a soft schedule they still finished 7-6 last year. It feels like another 7-5 ish season. Is that Matt Rhule or is that just Nebraska now? 10 - Minnesota 68% returning production. They're always around here and they always win a bowl game. QB Drake Lindsey is appearing on 1st round mock drafts?? They're projecting 71st on offense and 24th on defense. They're Minnesota. 9 - Illinois They lose Luke Altmyer to the Detroit Lions and bring in Katin Houser (MSU plays three of their former QBs). Only one starter returns on the offensive line. They bring in Bobby Hauck as defensive coordinator, he left Montana claiming college football wasn't fun anymore and then took this job five days later. He might be their Wink. The defense needs to be fixed up a bit. 8 - Washington They forcibly detained QB Demond Williams for another year so... I guess we'll see how that goes. Last year he could just toss it up to Denzel Boston but he's out the door. They bring in a RB from Oregon and Christian Moss from Kennesaw State. Four of five starters return on the offensive line which could be solid. They lost some pretty good guys in the secondary, defensive tackle is still worrying since they have FCS and MAC guys to plug in positions. Their schedule is very favorable, they could even sneak into the playoffs (and get demolished). 3. Hot Takes and Secondary Starts at 1:19:11 Takes hotter than the hottest hot take that anyone has ever given the Sklars after one of their shows. 7 - Iowa They're Iowa. They haven't had an SP+ defense worse than 6th since 2018. They got all the way up to 37th last year in offensive SP+ (turns out Brian Ferentz was not good at offensive coordination). There are some all-Big Ten guys on the offensive line. Do they have any receivers? Ehhh. They have tight ends. Seth read three preview magazines and they all listed different starting QBs. They lost a lot on defense but they always rebuild. This could be a worrying game for Michigan (if Iowa can score). 6 - Penn State Well, the good news is last year they weren't as bad as they looked. Despite everything that happened they were close to beating Indiana at the end of the season. Matt Campbell comes in with Rocco Becht. A lot of players came over from Iowa State, it's just a matter of how quickly they can fit it all together. Their schedule is a joke, they could even sneak into the playoff or the Big Ten title game. Michigan should still be a favorite. 5 - USC They bring back QB Jayden Maiava, but they replace Makai Lemon. The receiver conveyer belt is moving. Everybody loves Waymond (and they bring back King Miller). Their new defensive coordinator is Gary Patterson (yeah that Gary Patterson). Too bad they don't play Northwestern. They always have a top 10 offense and they just need the defense to be okay. The schedule is brutal, though. Are they just permanently the 15th best team in college football under Lincoln Riley? 4 - Michigan? See: all other content. 3 - Indiana They are the portal team now. Despite losing so many players they recruited the transfer portal like an SEC team. QB Josh Hoover comes in from TCU, he's a good conference starter. They also bring in Nick Marsh (MSU) and Shazz Preston from Tulane. Add that to Charlie Becker and their WR room is stacked (also two time winning national champion Tyler Morris!). They bring in a RB named Turbo! They reload on defense and keep their defensive coordinator. Brian is not a believer and predicts 8-4, Alex thinks they'll be really good, Seth is somewhere in between. 2 - Oregon They get Dante Moore back with the regular trope of skill position players. The offensive line is a big question mark and they replace both of their coordinators with in-house hires. The defense has some good players including one of the best corners in the country. They have a Rimmington-quality center but that's about it for the line (the starting right tackle is a true freshman). Their talent is undeniable, but can they win the big game? 1 - Ohio State Last year they had the Penn State schedule of this year. Sayin's stats looked unbelievable through 12 games, then they couldn't score against Indiana and Miami. That needs to improve. Jeremiah Smith is a generational wide receiver, Chris Henry Jr will be really good but probably not quite Jeremiah Smith's level. The offense will need to make that next step. The defense was what was considered generational on SP+. They lose 9 of 11 starters on defense but they always have a conveyer belt. They had to portal some guys, though. They'll probably take a step back on defense but the offense stepping forward probably cancels that out. The schedule is pretty brutal. 4. Lightning Round Starts at 2:09:30 Predictions! List yours in the comments. -Who will be offensive MVP? -Who will be defensive MVP? -Breakout player on offense? -Breakout player on defense? -X-factor on offense? (Most variable in your estimation) -X-factor on defense? -Biggest strength on offense? -Biggest strength on defense? -Biggest concern on offense? -Biggest concern on defense? -Who's your guy on offense? -Who's your guy on defense? -Michigan's record? MUSIC: "The Latter Teens"—Vansire "Black Bear"—Hey, Nothing "Funky Fanfare"—Keith Mansfield “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra

Showing 1–20 of 34 episodes