podcasts

Things Discussed:

• LSU is out of NIL money? They got outbid for an MSU DT and Brian Kelly says "We don't buy players." That'll be news to Bryce Underwood; hope his checks clear.
• Spartans getting in their feelings about Jaden Mangham possibly transferring to Michigan (or Ohio State or Minnesota). Want to prevent him from graduating. There's an intrastate program that allows you to finish your MSU degree at Michigan. Why can't this work for other guys? It's a formal in-state program. The reason academic programs like this don't associate with athletic transfers that much is schools other than Michigan are good at making exceptions for athletes. Michigan should have done so for Terrence Shannon; they probably were right to turn down Caleb Love.
• Brian: Good time to be a Michigan fan; long-term prognoses for OSU and MSU not great.
• Dusty May's presser: Best first presser ever? He's a great communicator/teacher who gave us a lot of information, addressed exact questions. He was watching OSU games for fun? Seth: He was probably watching OSU games because he thought he'd be coaching them.
• Dusty's offense: two point guards, wants all of his players to be facilitators so the ball can't get stuck, can't get trapped. All of these guys have an out: good passers or at worst they can shoot it over anybody. Kinda like Beilein's where the PG with a 64-bit decision tree. Dusty May wants lots of guys with 16-bit decision trees. Tough part: lots of teaching to get it down.
• Rubin Jones perfect glue guy. I'm calling this now: I'm the #1 Rubin Jones fan around here. No takesies.
• Competition in the Big Ten? Oregon and UCLA will be decent, MSU standing pat with a bubble team, OSU is new coaching, Purdue graduated everybody. Michigan will probably be…top 4, 6-seed? Expect them to lose some games early as they learn to play with each other.
• Roster May built is ideal but for a star. I call it the Dayenu roster because everybody's one flaw from being in the NBA. Craig: May wants to be fun as well as good. Seth: Sounds like he's one of us.
• Football in the break: Texas CB Terrance Brooks?. Watched him vs Washington last year, when he was getting burned because he was in man all day. He's..Vincent Gray? Technically solid, smart, big, good ball skills, not a burner. Need to give him help; Michigan would be a good fit because they use so much poach coverage to take away the post. Texas was terrible because they were playing so much press quarters with no help on the double post and fade. Michigan takes that away.
• Schools cutting sports because of paying athletes? They'll say that, but they shouldn't. They're paying just 10% of their budget to players; pro leagues pay 55%. Will happen at the mid-major level because their conferences don't make sense and football is already a massive expenditure that they finance with student fees. Brian: that's a marketing fee; they can just cut back on marketing.
• What we want to see from Congress: your cap is based on how many scholarships you give out.

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Things Discussed:

• Draft Takeaways: Nice that Saban kept being like "I love this dude!" Brian: Michigan and Iowa are the best two teams at developing talent; Michigan also recruits in an area where you win a national title if you outperform like that.
• Seth: Harbaugh recruited at the same level as previous Michigan coaches but where they were getting 20% to 33% of their players to the NFL, Harbaugh is putting *60 Percent* of his players in the League:
• JJ McCarthy: Threw as many passes in the first three Qs as the other guys. Would I trade Goff for JJ, Neil? Can't break up a team on a Super Bowl run, but JJ is more valuable than Goff by far; he's gonna be under team control for a long time.
• Junior Colson: Sam shares that Minter told him to go pro after the championship because he and Harbaugh were going to the league and they're gonna come get him.
• Amorion Walker: If he'd stayed at receiver he'd be the breakout player of the year, but he burned his redshirts both years and then was at cornerback and Ole Miss—that is a hard position to play, and it's probably gonna need to be next year before he's a breakout player.
• CJ Charleston: He's here to be a veteran presence. Sinagosa brought him over from YSU. Tough sell getting receivers.
• DT? Looks like PT wasn't there for their top prospect CJ West so they're moving on to the GVSU guy (Suggs).
• Jaden Mangham? Seth: YES TAKE ALL THE FALCONS! Brian: I don't want anybody who thought it was a good idea to play for Mel Tucker. He's also against taking anyone from Belleville.
• Break: Basketball recruits.
• Post-break: NCAA has an opportunity with House negotiations to sit across the table from *somebody* and create a sustainable future. Brian: Pendulum swung too far, single transfer rule was correct. Seth: Best thing would be to create an incentive formula that gets small schools out of a huge tax bill and makes players want to stay put.

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Things Discussed:

• Spring game takes:
• QB: Wasn't a good format (no zone reads, mostly under-center) for gauging Orji. It was him or Warren, and Warren wasn't a speed-reader upon further review.
• RB: Edwards is geared up. Tavierre Dunlap had a really good game.
• TE: Saw Marlin Klein's speed, has a good feel for timing blocks. Saw some Tonielli too.
• OL: Hard to judge Persi from guard, Gentry moved guys but also had some breakdowns. Big drop from there to Link, who looks like a future player. Like some young Cs, Raheem Anderson stood up to Grant, Guarnera looked plausible at guard.
• DT: Both Benny and Pierce were out so we saw Ike and some DEs they had to move down. Keep an eye out for Chibi Anwunah next year. Joey Klunder played hard.
• Edge: Guy is real.
• LB: Barham is big and can move. Hausmann looked really good. Rolder looked really good.
• S: Hard to tell, but Oden is a lot bigger than we thought, might be ready to contribute early.
• CB: Waller and Hill coming on.
• Waller to the portal: Sam says sometimes a guy asks for way more than the pay scale. There's a lot of nodding and talking around without actually saying that Kentucky has a reputation for promising more than they deliver. Schools have got to be sick of this by now. Sam: Gotta live in today, which means you gotta go tamper.
• Dusty May Builds a Dusty May Program Overnight! These guys were all primary creators for their teams; Rubin Jones is also an elite defender. Choosing to pursue Tre Donaldson of the two Auburn guys shows Dusty knew what he was doing, took the path of greater resistance. Roddy Gayle is in the draft if he doesn't shoot 28% from three, and he had a wrist injury to explain it. Sam Walters shot 43% on *contested* threes, because when you're a 6'10" pogo stick there's no such thing as a contest. Danny Wolf is a very underrated creator, should team with Goldin to be the best pair of Cs in the B10? Nimari Burnett can actually be Nimari now, and Tschetter can Tschetter.
• Concerns: They all have elevated TO rates (should come down as they aren't all forced to be creators), they're a bit weak defensively at the four (Walters has length but he was a beanpole freshman last year), and it's going to take time for everyone to get used to playing together.
• We're gonna LOVE Rubin Jones. Very good rebounder, very smart ballplayer, put Johnell Davis in a hell, which is probably why May wanted to go and get him.
• NFL Draft? Sorry out of time.

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