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MGoBlog: The MGoPodcast
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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.
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WTKA Roundtable 7/30/2026: Come Together
2w ago00:53:26Tap to summarizeThings Discussed: Surprised how fast they're speed-running into a 24-team Playoff. They're on a gold rush now because they discovered they can draw out all the goodwill and passion obtained from 100 years of this being a good deal. Jordan Marshall: Excited to be a captain because it's about bringing people together. Said it's why we beat OSU 13-10, and that OSU had to become more connected to come back and beat them. THAT is what it's about. Seeing nugs of the good college football we're here for all over the place. M's front seven next year? Not natty-level because not enough superstars. LBs are so young—liked NOB and Chase last year more for freshmen. Staehling doesn't do it for me. Think their depth is shaky. Team is a work in progress. Who's the best player on the defense this year? We can't answer it. Reviewing Wink: Was too clever. I have a greater appreciation for the collaborative nature of football. Bring back Doug Mallory as an analyst. He's a nerd, like Kyle Church or Jay Harbaugh, just doesn't put himself forward enough. Nicknaming: Moustapha Thiam is Moose. Hockey guys all get a –y, except Seth who was Fat Fish. Boynton presser: seemed to have a handle on things. Confident, relaxed. VERY happy to have Kyle Church around; Brown was a Dusty guy. First impressions of new guys: Costello can SHOOT and is a real 6-10. Different types of dudes you encounter in different sports. What do you want to hear from Media Days? Bryce is getting it, mention guys we haven't heard before.
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Michigan HockeyCast 8.27: Brand New Paint Scheme
2w ago01:13:26Tap to summarize1 Hour and 13 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 The reason we did this podcast. A review of DuPont’s playing style follows- good fit with Michigan’s offensive system, will thrive with the creativity afforded to him. Some kinks to work out in his game but he should be great. After that, discussion of defense pairs, where DuPont fits, and whether this makes Michigan the odds-on favorite to win the national title. Segment 2 Much talk of many NHL trades and trade requests… yet did the balance of power shift in the league? Skip forward for some Yzerman firing talk and where the Red Wings go from here. Does this move even matter? Podcast concludes with a couple brief Michigan Hockey notes on the non-conference schedule and the loss of Rob Rassey. MUSIC NHL on ESPN Theme "In the Summertime" -- Mungo Jerry Ice Hockey (NES) theme
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WTKA Roundtable 7/23/2026: No More FAQing Around
3w ago00:50:50Tap to summarizeThings Discussed: Craig asks AI if any of us should be athletic director. Brian on Warde: Not an easy tenure to assess. The case against him is we're spending $11 million on an investigation because there were too many scandals that were explainable (Weiss) or went away (Shoop, Xavier Simpson crashes Warde's wife's car), on top of $30 million for the Stalions thing, on top of what it costs to send him on his way. There wasn't a lot of coherence. Mixed legacy, but there are a couple of national championships on his resume, graduated athletes, good hires. Seth: Ends as it lived: waiting around five months to write a big check. He accumulated enemies. If he won some of these battles—kept Harbaugh, kept Bakich, kept Dusty—or had a few more instances where he acted decisively on a scandal (like Weiss). Sam violates a confidence with Greg Harden to clear up something: the *SCHOOL* had a firm they use to vet people like Shemy; when they failed it fell on Warde, but he didn't have a choice which firm. Sam thinks Grasso told him "I've got your back, but I'm gone soon, so do you want to go out on your own terms or somebody else's?" Seth & Sam: The decision not to release the report doesn't look good for the president and regents. Warde was probably the target of the investigation, but they probably turned up things that the vetting org, where the people who commissioned the report are the ones who botched it. This is how Baylor handles things. Why would you spend $12 million when the buyout is $7.5? Is Warde getting more than his buyout? If so, what are we paying for? Is it to keep quiet about other things? Our rivals want to know, we want to know. Can't think of a good faith reason not to present all of the findings in a report, except to prevent, e.g. Shriver from fishing. Brian: Michigan has a policy of not complying with FOIA. Sam: Why would they release that? Seth: Grasso is independent now, because what are they gonna do, fire him? But the regents are elected by the people of the State of Michigan, and too many people who investigate Michigan are too good at their jobs. Not me, but we have real journalists around here. We just got the real story of the botched Shemy background check. Do you really want to wait for Kim Kozlowski to dig out more stories like that? Or the Daily? Because she/they fucking will, and you'll all look like idiots. Sam reacts to the "Warde is lazy" talk. He was very hands-on when he re-hired Harbaugh in 2020, e.g. there's no way Harbaugh hires Mike Hart. If you were to FOIA conversations about waiting to make a decision on Mel, he's sure you'll find Warde wasn't alone in sitting on the report. What if it wasn't (just) Warde? Talking about the next president. They're considering Duggan (a politician). Only if it's someone who got out of politics because they're too honest. Craig recommends Obama—he couldn't be *that* bored. Think it will be an academic. According to one donor, the AD's #1 job: fundraising. A lot of them are going to be super pro-Katie Fraumann, though she doesn't have AD experience. Sam: like going with a politician for president. Seth: no, it's more like raising the OC. It's not direct AD experience, but it's a lot closer to being an AD. Who are our candidates? We can do a better job of laying out what we want. Winning, obviously. Brian wants someone who *REALLY* cares about the university. Seth wants transparency, who changes Michigan's culture, where you know not to fuck around because we won't cover it up for you. Sam agrees that wasn't a strength for Warde, though he was doing better with it at the end. Craig: someone who really loves the university, because Santa Ono didn't. Sam needs someone who can manage the academic space and also fundraise. Fair to say politicians do more of extracting money without giving anything back. Fraumann? Donors' pick. Not a seasoned AD, but someone who's been next to the AD. Seth: Warde was very good at raising money without annoying me. I love nothing better than when donors give millions and millions, and I don't have to hear about it, and Katie must have been part of that. I've heard the same things from donors, which is important; I want Sam to find out what the coaches think, because that was a key issue w Warde, and it's important that they want to work for her. Brian: on the surface she looks like a good pick, notable that she was hired for an academic job at DePaul.
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WTKA Roundtable 7/16/2026: Al Capone's Secret Tomb
4w ago00:48:41Tap to summarizeThings Discussed: The Warde Report: Did they find anything? Apparently not. Do we get anything? Apparently not. Really? Eleven months of waiting and the answer is "nothing to see here?" Do we get a "report"? Does one exist? To avoid FOIA it's possible that the findings of the investigation were delivered orally so that they could not be used in litigation (e.g. Shiver's). That's a sad state of affairs, because we are interested parties who deserve access to the findings. The WSJ's thing: Claims Warde was aware of the relationship enough to warn Moore not to bring Shiver on a trip. Doesn't mean anything, unless you really want to stretch it, because the timeline shows the program conducted that investigation after it was brought to the university, and didn't have enough to do anything until Shiver came forward in December, at which point they fired Moore on the spot. Relitigating the scandals and "scandals." Craig says again he thought the Mel Pearson situation was handled correctly, which gets a lot of pushback. Seth says Warde wasn't playing the long game with the NCAA, and his indifferent approach to the buildup of Ohio State influence plus Harbaugh's inability to separate the little reportable stuff from the fights made all of it into a maximal storm over really miniscule events. The one thing that bothered in all of it was letting people into the building during COVID. That's a minor violation that should have been reported. The Bad Faith people—sparties, buckeyes, haters—don't need to be reasoned with. Just block and move on, because trying to reason with hate is a waste of time. Summary of status: They spent $X million(s) on an investigation, the results of which did not lead to the immediate termination of Warde Manuel, and which are not being shared. There is talk of a buyout, which means he's not getting removed now, and probably not for a year at least (there's 3 or 4 years left on his contract). There's clearly a faction that wants him gone, and clearly a faction that needs convincing, and this report did not do any convincing. I feel so....unsatisfied.
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WTKA Roundtable 7/9/2026: Don't Test Me on 1999
Jul 900:49:13Tap to summarizeThings Discussed: McKenny, Trey: Present. Cadeau, Elliot: Present. Thiam, Moustapha: Present. Estrella, J.P.: Present. McCoy, Brandon: Present. Reed, Jalen: Present. Liburd, Patrick: Present. Goodman, Oscar: Present! Cosby, Brown, Costello...they're rolling 'em out and we expect Moller and Cason back as well. Retaining staff, especially Akeem Miskdeen. Is he? Leaning that way, not entirely sure. Would you let Warde give staffers 3-year contracts? Yeah. If I'm Manuel and they just spent millions to investigate me I'm spending all I can because why not? If you fail it's somebody else's problem. It's an issue in the way we run institutions but that's not Warde's problem today either. If you have a coach on his way up, PAY. Odds are he's moving up and you're getting that money back. You also might get the Super Bowl-winning head coach of 2025 as your defensive coordinator in 2021. Credit to Warde for going with the interim route to start, because that pushes the period when teams could actually retrieve poached Michigan players into August, and by then it's really hard to change the chemistry of your roster, especially at guard. Do you give Boynton a 2-year contract? Not right now, because there's no need to, unless that's a prerequisite to holding your team together. Boynton right now has proven he can hold a roster together. Not new: He got Cade Cunningham to play for Oklahoma State. Can he DEVELOP them over the year is the question. People had Michigan a 1-seed even if they look like a 3-seed roster because they thought Dusty May could develop Thiam, Estrella, McCoy, McKenny, Liburd, Cadeau into that much more effective players over the season. OFFENSIVE LINE: What do you do if Frazier and Babalola are both able to play left tackle, because it looks like Sprague is a RT only. Seth gives the copout answer, which is the true answer: You play your best five each week and reassess. Sam things Frazier could be a 1st round tackle after this year, or at least his camp does. Seth says don't say that out loud, Blake; you have to be on the team you're on now before you think too much about your next one, or you diminish your value. Frazier to center? Sam thinks he can do it, which puts GWAR back at guard, and that would be a MONSTER offensive line. Like that this gives you redundancy, because nobody ever got through a season without injuries.
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WTKA Roundtable 7/2/2026: Retention Dominos
Jul 200:51:39Tap to summarizeThings Discussed: World Cup: When our nation needed rascally anti-slavery hicks with guns, Michigan provided. When our nation needed factories that could turn out more war machines than the rest of the world combined, Michigan provided. When our nation needs unfathomably pedantic sports lawyers, Mo Thiam returning: HUGE news for Michigan, because they needed a frontcourt. Sam: strategy is a retention domino effect: keeping Boynton helped the keep McKenney, which may have influenced Akeem Miskdeen to stick around, which means holding onto Cadeau, which was a big question for Thiam, and if everyone's here you have a shot to keep Estrella. Sam: needs to be more strategy here. Got to back Mike Boynton, let him sign his staff to long-term contracts so he can attract good people. Craig: Misrepresenting how Dusty left. Not okay with the way his players found out, don't think he left for the same reasons as Beilein, despite the interview, because the context of that interview was the NCAA issues were an aside and the main reason was the Mavs were willing to pour resources into him and it's the friggin' NBA. Seth: don't make the 2024 football mistake again by prioritizing keeping the roster together, because most of them—Cadeau, McKenney, Thiam, Estrella, McCoy, Reed—are only around for one more year. You can give Boynton a chance, but obviously Warde is working the back-channels. Sam: Need to support Boynton without boxing yourself in. Craig: Can't hamstring your current guy with less than full support. Ideally Boynton does a fantastic job, is lining up guys for beyond, wins again, and is Tom Izzo but with championships for 30 years. Craig: Schertz is this year's model. He isn't just the hot name; in Ken Pomeroy's article for VALIANT he showed which coaches were dominating in 2PAD: the top-six teams went Schertz, Schertz, Nate Oats, Dusty May, Dusty May, Dusty May. Dusty got Boynton because he defended the rim. Cason to return? Sam thinks so. Break: Craig thinks Dusty should have exited more gracefully. Seth says if you're getting a divorce because you fell in love with someone else, *how* you tell your wife isn't the reason she's mad at you. Football recruiting: Big deal that they can go into a Buckeye family in Cincinnati and get a cornerback that Ohio State wanted. Scouting report: Monsanna Torbert is FAST. Saban always talked about DBs with basketball skills because they can play the ball. Nickname is "Sookie" (sp? Suki? Sukki? Siucci?). Need to watch the film still—love when we get a kid from Cincy because the competition level is strong and the kids are so well-coached. Height: only 5'11 man in America who's really 5'11. Sam was thinking he'd be Smith Snowden's size. If Ohio State wants you that bad—was trying to get him to not even take a Michigan visit—you're probably something. Comp: DJ Turner II. Good to see how their GM is working with the coaches regarding what level they can recruit. Was an issue last year when they had Coach BJ recruiting linebackers that he didn't have the money for.
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WTKA Roundtable 6/25/2026: Napoleon But Good
Jun 2500:46:50Tap to summarizeEVENT: THIS SATURDAY EDSBS will be in town to celebrate Michigan fans once again dominating the Charity Bowl. Brush up on your shipwrecks trivia, find us at the library, and meet up for drinks afterwards at Venue. It's free but RSVP here so we can get a head count. BOOK: If you want a VALIANT, THE KICKSTARTER is still going on. If you want your name in it or need to add something to your order, email me. Things Discussed: Make Sam happy: We've got the #1 pick in the 2027 NHL Draft coming. Even better, DuPont falls under The Shouneyia Law: All Michigan stars should be 5'11" wigglers who score in droves. Dusty May reaction: We're blindsided that it happened in late June, but didn't expect Dusty to be here for 30 years. It takes a Tom Izzo who loves being the king of a tiny country to do that. Could be a Mike Macdonald/Jesse Minter thing: sometimes you get a legend on his way. Circumstances of college basketball today amplified Dusty's genius. His ability to put together a roster was especially effective in a situation where everybody's rosters are poachable. Converse of Bo, who was the right guy for a time when players were really trapped at one school through the course of their development. Sam: Dusty could have won in any era (point conceded). Boynton/staff? What does "interim" mean? Probably that it's a "you've got a year to show it." Will he be interim for the entirety of next season? Yeah. Then why aren't we calling Josh Schertz? Brian: Disabuse people of the notion that going from college to the NBA is a good idea. Brad Stevens is one man. Dusty? Based on history he'll get chewed up, because NBA coaches are disposable and not really in charge. Beilein lost his damn mind (yes, would say this to his face); he was a fundamentals-teaching college lifer. Counterpoint: Dusty's not as much of a college coach; he's a roster-builder and a locker room guy who loves to watch film, isn't interested in spending half of his time fundraising. Brian goes off on Warde for losing four great coaches to better jobs, Craig argues Dusty told Warde I'm staying and every one of those events is explainable. Sam: There was plenty of evidence you were going to lose Dusty next year, but not this June. Seth argues (borrowing from a commenter) is it doesn't look like we're being proactive (is there any AD in America who wouldn't give Dusty the best contract in the Big Ten?). Consideration: If you poach another coach, that's two rosters and coaching staffs you can build from rather than fighting Dusty for your staff and fighting everyone else in college basketball for your roster. Canham always had three coaches in his drawer. Being a leader doesn't just mean defending your tower; you have to be agile, and ready to make decisive, advantageous moves. From an outsider's perspective, does it look like that's what's going on in our athletics department, or does it look like we're making decisions on ChatGPT? Why Duke kept Scheyer: they grew him, and they have a basketball culture.
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MGoPodcast 17.35: What's Water?
Jun 2402:22:06Tap to summarize2 hours and 23 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. What Dusty Just Done Did Starts at 0:51 Not only did we have this team come out of nowhere to be the best in the history Michigan basketball. The Dusty May Era is now a fever dream. Takes a little bit out of it. This is college basketball now. Understand why he wouldn't want to be a college coach today; he explicitly said he never got to feel like they won a championship. NCAA can be blamed for letting it get here but also they have no power whatsoever to fix all the things that mean the second you win a title you have to recruit your new team. Second time in a row the college coach the NBA took was Michigan's. This is not the Cavs; Dallas is a good gig. [The rest of the writeup and the player after THE JUMP] 2. The Future of Michigan Basketball Starts at 19:04 They're promoting Mike Boynton to interim head coach, with a possibility of permanence. Greater that 50% chance he's the HC without the interim title, but might execute a search. Five days after they announce a hire the portal is open for Michigan alone, which is probably what scared them into this now. McKenney is back, probably Cadeau back, direction of things is a battle to hold onto the transfer bigs. Boynton: got tagged by the FBI thing, can see his tenure as not successful, or successful for the Minnesota of the Big 12. He has a trademark, which is defense: five of six years with a top-20 unit. Still relatively young, can recruit. Program: "What option do we have?" UNNNNNGGGGGHHHHHH. Actual option: Josh Schertz! Trademark is twos, built a real roster there, is Dusty's best coaching buddy. Don't care as much about roster continuity (Brian Ellerbe, Sherrone Moore) because the players won't be around long. Also if you poach a coach you have access to another team's roster and coaching staff, whereas right now Michigan and the Mavs are competing for Michigan staff and Michigan and the world are competing for Michigan's players. Other names to look at: Niko Medved was our next pick two years ago, did as well as possible with Minnesota last year. Where is Michigan Basketball in program rankings? Would Purdue swap with us? Purdue built their fanbase over years of having a program, just like Michigan hockey. 3. The Warde Talk Starts at 53:17 What are you supposed to do with a guy who alternates between asleep-at-the-wheel scandals and national championships? Push back against Brian's assertion that people "don't want to work for him" because these are all individual situations. He's not a bad guy, but he's also not a guy who *does* things, unless that's milking the fanbase or turning Michigan Stadium into an F1 race of ads. His oeuvre is not doing anything, because that worked with Harbaugh in 2020, and now that's a modus operandi. Talking ADs history since Canham. Push back against Brian's lionizing of Canham: he was a visionary, but his record also includes Dr. Anderson and trying to prevent/undermine Title IX. We end up preferring Bill Martin of all our lifetime ADs—he built the boxes to prevent ads in the stadium. Don't think missing out on Les Miles was a loss. Brian's Warde assessment: He typed "how to AD" into ChatGPT. Does losing Dusty May like this change your opinion on Warde Manuel? No. But it's weird that he keeps surviving (no president to fire him). 4. 2027 Football Recruiting Starts at 1:20:46 Doesn't look any different from a Harbaugh class at this point. If you're good at scouting and developing you're fine. OL class is small but Lipsey stacks another elite tackle and they had to fend off ND for Louis Esposito, Rouleau is a Frey-type. Xavier Muhammad is a very good DT, Tavares Harrington a find at CB, and they held onto some important guys in-state in a good Michigan year. LB recruiting is still underfunded, Brian is fine with that because it's very a "what's in your head" position with no consensus on what schools want. State of the recruiting industry: Paramount got bought and 247 is getting raided as incompetent ownership sets in. On3 is more reactive to scouting this cycle, and almost universally rate M commits higher. White whales: #1 is CB Josh Dobson, Seth Tillman would be a big, big deal because DTs are hard to come by, Monsanna Torbert would be a big win over Ohio State. Lincoln Mageo would be a good OL to finish with. Would like to have more TEs coming in. 5. World Cup Starts at 1:50:04 Takes hotter than Dusty May's agent. Count how many times Brian calls USA "Michigan." Are the Americans the most pleased with their performance in Group Phase (2nd to Canadians). Freeman (son of Antonio) is very reliable defensively, main thing is you can put Dest at wing. Sauciest player in US history? McKenzie is everywhere, runs into the box from deep were especially effective vs Paraguay. Pulisic injury: not going to play him in the useless Turkey game, should be fine. Tim Ream has been trying to play soccer for us forever, always been the best guy on the ball. Decent draw, should be favored (when they make the field) for a couple of rounds. Success point is get to the quarters; they can go into a game against a world power and expect to compete, not win, and not win three in a row. Four years ago they were too young. Don't mind the 48-team format; it saps a lot of tension out of the Group Stage when three teams advance, but a lot of "small teams" have battled. Brazil is still working back to being BRAZIL. Germany is Ohio State but not a peak year Ohio State. France is super talented. Alex: If you play Bosnia and Herzegovina you play two countries at once. Seth: Actually it's more like seven point eight. MUSIC: "Hit or Miss"—Odetta "Take Da Charge"—Project Pat "Love on My Brain"—Jim Ford "Dog Has Its Day"—Toledo “Across 110th Street”—JJ Johnson and his Orchestra
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WTKA Roundtable 6/11/2026: Don't Be Like Iowa
Jun 1100:50:42Tap to summarizeGET IN WE'RE BOOKING: THE VALIANT KICKSTARTER ENDS TODAY. If you want your name in the book, today's the last day to do that. Things Discussed: VALIANT: Sam's getting background to tell stories nobody's heard yet from Dusty May. Ken Pomeroy is going to walk us through the 2PA Revolution and how it led to some of the best basketball teams ever. John Gasaway is going through the history of his understanding of the game, and the Michigan fans who pulled him along that journey. Will Warren is going to get into the way strategy and analytics created a special team. Craig's book too. Alex Drain chopped it in half, and it's finally written. Texas Tech and Sorsby: Craig walks us through the judge's insane decision, notes there's still a four-judge panel (of all TTU grads) that it needs to get through before this really is a thing. The reaction of the league is loud, but they're not going to do 90% of what they threaten, for many reasons. Comparison with reaction to Signgate: Difference was anyone who knows ball was saying it's horseshit. What do TTU fans say? They say Texas has been getting players off for worse for a century. What's the fix? Probably one part of the story that eventually leads to a CBA, because that's how the pro leagues control this. In break: the 1950s NYU scandal in the context of 1950s NCAA and the players making no money as everyone was getting rich. In-state recruiting: Some big guys going out of state. Guerrant: let's see if Michigan passes the ball this year before we take an impending Oregon commitment seriously. Gideon Gash: TTU means Michigan can come back around; big loss for MSU. Whittingham has done a good job adapting to Michigan recruiting. Retaining Bellamy retained connections in Michigan and the East. Harding gives him credibility all over the Midwest. Way they reacted to the NCAA attacking SMSB was like early Harbaugh. Pat Fitzgerald's slow start means little; he's got some OL, and that's what you really need. Seth likes the Frey-type tackle they got from Brighton.
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WTKA Roundtable 6/4/2026: Bratislava Hustles Harder
Jun 400:51:39Tap to summarizeREMINDER: ONE WEEK TO GET THE VALIANT KICKSTARTER FUNDED Things Discussed: The Weddle comment: What does Bryce have to show this year to show this is working? Craig: If they win more than 8 games. Brian: Get the running game down. If he can read out an option everything becomes easier for him. Early Vince Young. Seth: He's got to show us his Detroit Hustles Harder side. There's a misconception in sports that money equals softness, but Underwood was the #1 prospect in his class because he was as much a grinder as he was talented. Let that show, and he'll win hearts and minds. Get to where JJ was as a true sophomore. Terrelle Pryor Year 2. Sam: Shoulda paid for a QB coach last year. He's got to stop looking at the rush. Statistically he was better than he looked. We're overrating his dismal Spring Game performance and underrating how often he had touchdown passes that his receivers botched or interceptions they didn't fight for. Andrew Marsh wasn't even looking for the ball early in the season. JJ Buchanan isn't missing the plays Freddie Moore didn't make. Whittingham recruiting: They're serious and they're recruiting the way they do, but it's interesting that they're also doing things that Harbaugh did. Tank (metal name!) Watson wasn't a Utah-style recruitment; it's a Harbaugh trick to go to big Southern schools and look at the late-developing fifth guy the scouts aren't watching because there are 4- and 5-stars all over the field. Is he a pure linebacker? Might be an edge, might be a Cole Sullivan. Sam: Dakota Guerrant is leaning Oregon but Michigan won't give up on him; they won't lose an NIL battle, but they need to prove they can pass the ball this fall. Gabe Osborne is the best player in the country; don't care what it costs. Like that he committed to hometown Oklahoma instead of Ohio State. Sam shares how Michigan flipped an NCAA decision to screw over SMSB by inviting all the campers to Michigan. Reminds us of the early Harbaugh alacrity in recruiting. Milan Momcilovic: Sam is down on Pope, thinks you don't go to Kentucky for any reason but money. Brian gives him a mulligan because UK was injured; Sam says if they don't go further than Texas this year he's fired. Funny that BYU has money as soon as Pope leaves. Michigan to play an outdoor basketball game at the Marlins stadium, because Fox was mad they didn't get to broadcast it if they played at MSG. B10 has rights to those games. Whatever the rationale is, it's a sad statement about how the sport is structured. The latest frontier is streaming. Seth thinks this is a very bad turn; how many streaming services do you need to sign up for to watch every Michigan football and basketball game this year? Worse, putting games behind paywalls is putting them out of reach of fans, especially young adults, who will find something else, cannibalizing your future (and destroying smaller market teams) for a few bucks today. Can't fault Dusty May and Michigan because they're just playing the game. I do fault the commissioner of the Big Ten and the TV execs who can't see past what money sticks to their fingers. Seth Dream: Cut out the TV guys, develop your own streaming network and keep all of the money. If you put a tenth of the money the TV guys get into production you'd have it. Brian: You're crazy; they outsource everything, and when they don't they create Big Ten Plus. Seth: not crazy, because TV takes a greater share now than they ever have before, because streaming is a new frontier that hasn't calcified yet, sports fans would rather install a free app where they could watch all of their games for free than six apps they have to sign up for. What makes it impossible is Michigan and Ohio State etc. won't like it because it's too fair.
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