Look at news analysis is an insight from around the Big Ten Conference. This
is Big Ten Paradigm, part of the College Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast network,
and here's your host, Mark Rodgers, Michigan cornerback Mike Sandra still may
disagree, but this is officially Big Ten Championship Week. Welcome into the Voice
of Pellet Football's edition of Big Ten Paradigm right here on College Gridiron Coast to
Coast win naing of Smart Rogers. You can join me on the Voice of
Pellet Football each end every day on YouTube. I refer to the Big Ten
Championship game, of course, coming up Saturday night in Indianapolis. Michigan a
perfect twelve and zero football team for a second consecutive regular season after defeating Ohio
State thirty to twenty four. Tons of coverage on the aftermath of the game
on both our Ohio State and Michigan channels and on the main channel with all
sorts of media contributors many you will recognize, so check us out there.
And Iowa reaches the Big Ten Championship game after a victory over Nebraska thirteen to
ten. The Hawkeyes didn't even need to win that game, but they go
to Indianapolis through the front door and again the Hawkeyes at seven and two in
the Big Ten. I refer to Michigan cornerback Mike sanders Still's comments about the
Ohio State Michigan game truly being the Big Ten championship game. But for the
last time with an East and West division, we will have a Big Ten
title game Iowa and Michigan. The Wolverines currently a twenty two point favorite the
over under point total at thirty five and a half. We welcomed in Steve
Das of Michigan Podcast to break it down with me, followed by a conversation
on our weekly Iowa show, Hawkeye five thirty Eastern time every Tuesday on our
Iowa Channel, where we break it down with Corey Bretta from the Hawkeye of
the Storm and Elliott Cluff of Rivals. Anyone who's not wearing maize and blue
is going to be rooting for Iowa. I'm okay, I mean I wouldn't
have it any other way. I mean, I like being the outsider.
I went to eleven different schools K through twelve. My first favorite team were
the old Oakland Raiders, and I mean I was seven years old, and
I'm watching Jim Plunkett in a single bar, you know, face mask win
a super Bowl, very first NFL game I ever remember watching. And he's
fat, he's got atne and I'm thinking I could grow up and be like
him one day. That looked like somebody I could become. Okay, and
and and I mean I've just I've had I've been the new kid in school
a lot. In my day job, I'm the outsider a lot. I'm
much more comfortable here than I am being accepted and praise. That's what makes
me uncomfortable. So I know in this era we live in where validation is
the is the number one source of self actualization. But I like Michigan versus
everybody. I love it. In fact, now, somebody like me would
have been in your life at the time and just said, you know,
Steve, you know, realize this guy won a Heisman Trophy and was the
number one pick. He's not exactly the ultimate underdog here, right, But
I was seven. I didn't know what a Heisman Trophy was. I hear
you, Yes, I always thought when I think of Jim Plunkett, I
always thought it was kind of odd his throwing motion it looked like he was
throwing his spear. Yep. I mean, I've got a collection of throwbacks
in one of them is Jimmy Plunkett's Super Bowl fifteen throwback you Jersey, So
yes, yeah, that is phenomenal when it comes to this situation. Before
we get to the game, the playoff implications across the country are maybe better
and more complicated than they've been maybe for the entire playoff era, because we've
got legitimately seven or eight teams that have some semblance of a shot. So
we'll go outside of the Big Ten because Michigan's in, or we can certainly
delve into what happens if they lose. Who do you think are the four
best teams in the country, because that's what the committee is supposed to be
selecting, Like anybody really knows that that's what they're supposed to determine. I
think it's really hard this year, man. You know, there's just feels
like it feels like something is wrong that the most consequential non conference game of
the year Texas at Alabama, and each of those teams only as one loss.
If Alan, let me put it to you this way, if Alabama
played Citadel that weekend instead, Where would they be ranked right now? Mark,
if they were twelve and oh they had played Citadel instead, where would
they be ranked two? Yeah, So we're essentially penalizing Alabama for playing that
game. This is why I said the last two years, when when we
got rid of everybody with a pulse on our non conference schedule, I said,
I'm not I don't a problem with it at all. You get no
credit for this. No one's telling you, Hey, twenty nineteen, we
played the toughest schedule in college football with nine and four and half the fan
base wanted Jim Harbaugh fire. No one gives you credit for it. Now,
if you want to add a strength of schedule component, they haven't told
us what the new measuring stick will be for the twelve team playoff yet.
I think a lot of teams are anticipating strength of schedule is going to be
a part of it, because you're seeing a lot now of a lot of
schools really up the any in terms of their non conference you know, competition
over the next few years. But we don't know that officially yet. And
so until they officially say that's going to be a part of it, I
have no idea why you would play a lot of these games. You gain
nothing for it whatsoever. Alabama's learning that right now, and I hate to
make it look like out poor boy Alabama. They don't need it. They
once made the playoff with a single top twenty five win, and then they
went and won the damn thing. Okay, but you know, if you're
Texas, you're like, Okay, I go twelve and one and when a
major conference, My only loss was on the last play to a team that's
ten and two and ranked in the top twelve. And I go down to
Alabama and win by double digits, and Oregon, with a strength of schedule
of sixty something gets in over me. I don't understand that it's a tough
year. It is. I cannot foresee a Florida State. I mean,
I Oregon's strength of schedules worse than any of these other teams. But in
terms of the eye test, I believe it is them. In Michigan and
Ohio State are the only three teams that are top ten in offensive and defensive
efficiency. When you look at Florida State, there's no way a thirteen to
zero Power five conference champion is not getting in, but I don't. I
mean, they weren't a top four team in the Power ratings, in the
Vegas Power Ratings before Jordan Travis Hurt, they were like eighth or ninth,
you know, So are they one of the four best teams? No,
but they're thirteen to zero and a Power five conference champion, and they'd be
setting a terrible precedent. So they're gonna be in. You know, I
think the I think if you're the committee right now, you are hoping the
four twelve and oh teams win and it's an early it's an early night,
see you tomorrow morning on ESPN roll this puppy out. It's pretty clean cut.
We're all good to go and see you next year with the twelve team
playoff. But any of those teams lose, and we're gonna have one of
the mother of all evaluation periods. We're not even we don't even have a
tiebreaker, Like, well, it's Ohio State and people want to watch them
over Baylor and TCU. We're talking teams with massive fan bases, massive cache,
ultimate blue bloods in many cases. I don't envy this committee really at
all, and I think they're going to really be sweating this thing out on
this weekend with these games, at the core of this debate seems to be
Oregon, Texas, and Bama, And for some reason, Bama and Texas
are the comparison point. That's for obvious reasons they played, but that Oregon
seems to be and we assume the championship game win that if they win the
PAC twelve, they're in, and there has to be some decision made over
Texas and Bama. I don't understand why the three can't be compared. And
if you need to take whether whatether the slot is one, two or three,
then that's what you do. But you compare all three of those teams.
I agree, But let me give you a scenario. All right,
Alabama beach Georgia. They're both twelve and one. Washington beats Oregon thirteen,
and OH Michigan wins thirteen, and Oh Florida State wins thirteen, and OH
Texas wins seven and one beat Alabama who beat Georgia. Who's getting in?
I think I think we recognize Washington and Michigan are in at thirteen and zero
as conference champions, right, Okay, who's getting those other two spots?
Florida State has to be selected. They just have to be selected, Okay.
And I know that there's a component about injury, and we've seen their
backup quarterback once and they flailed against all Right, that's a good point.
Let me let me clarify. Florida State wins. But it's like seventeen fourteen,
you know what I'm saying. Even go out in Cardale Jones Wisconsin.
Okay, it's like seventeen fourteen, twenty seventeen, Okay, and they win.
What happens. You can't deny an undefeated team. I tend to agree
that means. That means we're now talking about Alabama and Georgia at twelve and
one, and Texas beat Alabama at twelve and one. We're only talking about
one of those teams getting in, only one of them and very possible scenario.
Brother, Oh, it's it's It is very plausible. And I think
that most people are most comfortable with Texas just because of the head to head
win. Yeah, shouldn't the season matter? Yeah, So we're not gonna
have any SEC teams. We have two twelve to one SEC teams, including
the two time defending national champ and not gonna have. I mean, oh
my, I the best thing for that committee is just those four undefeated teams
win. I believe the four best teams are Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama,
and Georgia in some order. That's who I think are the four best
teams in the country. But I'm all into, first of all, getting
back to the original point about scheduling. That's the crux of this whole issue,
that's at least at the core, is that there needs to be parameters
given to a committee to comprise the non conference schedule for every team in the
country and take it out. I just think there needs to be some form
of an RPI like what college basketball has had for a long time, which
is a measure of your opponents and your opponent's opponents and and and you know
going in what that formula is, and you need to schedule. And now
we have the quad system, so it's even more specific specified. You want
to make sure you do not schedule a lot of games outside of that,
outside of the top one hundred, because if you lose one of those games,
you basically have to win two Quad one games to make up for what
that Quad two loss will do. And so You're welcome to schedule however you
want, but no going in. How this thing is determined by this selection
committee. We have nothing like that. This has never been a playoff.
I've told you that from the beginning mark. It's an invitational. All right,
there's no objective criteria for making this. Now, next year we're going
to get a playoff. There is an objective criteria. You win your conference
and you're one of the well they're saying six, but it's going to be
five when they get done with it. You're one of the five highest ranked
conference champions, you automatically get in. So I would argue the college football
playoffs first year is actually next year. What we've had here for the last
decade is an invitational. There was no objective standard for getting in. I
would have said the one objective standard was be coached by Nick Saban and have
one loss or less and you'll get in. But now we're sitting here saying
we're not even sure that'll hold this year. Okay, so there's no objective
standard for getting in whatsoever. That's an invitational, that's not a playoff.
Well, I'll put it this way, Steve, I think they're objective criteria
and standards. They're just used in different scenarios to different measures. They're used
at whatever point that they want to use them. They've got a list of
them and they just grab whichever ones apply to what they want. We've seen
that for sure, and they reverse engineer things. They set things up in
advance. The problem is this year there are so many talented, big name,
blue blood programs with one loss or less. It was impossible to do
that, absolutely impossible. So what they really need now they just need to
organically let the process play it self out, and they need those four undefeated
teams to win. And if that does not happen, and chances are it
won't, that's just not the way that you know, life works in college
football. But if unless those foreign defeated teams win, we're gonna have,
you know, at least as big of an argument as we had. I
mean, everybody remembers Alabama got in one year without winning beating a top twenty
five team. No one remembers the teams that they got in over though,
because it wasn't like that big of a debate. That's why they got in.
The one major debate we've had this entire time even the year Ohio State
got in in twenty eighteen with one loss or did not get in won the
Big Ten with one loss, no one really complained about what the rest of
that field looked like. Well, you might have because you're yeah, I
got you the Ara Buckeye too. But the one year that everybody agrees there
was a real argument was the very first year with Ohio State, TCU,
and Baylor. Okay, at the very least, if one of those undefeated
teams loses, we are looking at an argument at least as big as that
one, and maybe more so because TCU and Baylor don't have the clout that
names like Florida State, Ohio State, Alabama, Texas have, even Oregon
for that matter. They're a major TV draw as well. I don't understand
why twenty eighteen was not a debate. Oklahoma twelve and one conference champion,
Ohio State twelve and one conference champion. Ohio State had better wins. Yes,
they had the egregious loss, but there should have been more of a
debate there. Agreed that was kind of like to make good though for putting
in in twenty fourteen, I think that's I honestly think that's what happened.
Our guy bigs MIC's stepping up with a five spot appreciate that not everyone is
rooting for Iowa. Ohio State needs Michigan to win. They split. They
will not put Ohio State in over Michigan. I want to hear you say
it, Mark so I have. I think Ohio State needs Michigan to win.
They do, and needs needs Michigan and Georgia to win and East Texas
and Florida State to both lose. That's what I believe. What if Michigan
I was twelve and one or two, I don't believe there'll be a Big
ten team in the playoff of Michigan lost. Yeah, I don't think so
either. I think here, here's why everyone needs to be rooting for Michigan
Saturday, and I mean everyone. You want to see Tony Petiti on that
stage handing a championship trophy to Jim Harbaugh in one of the most cringe photo
ops in the entire history of college football. That's why you want to see.
And if you know Jim at all, Jimmy will be like completely oblivious
to it, like not even care. He'll like shake his hand, grab
the trophy, and then bring give it to Sharon Moore. And that that's
the beauty of it is Jim won't give a rip at all, won't care
at all, Okay, and so that'll appear to be like it was an
alpha mood. No, Jim just doesn't give a bleep, doesn't care,
doesn't care. Jim is impervious to cringe. He does not care. All
right, he's at home there. Actually, he'll just grab the trophy,
shake his hand. Thanks, commits, here's Saron Moore. We're great.
Yeah, it's Tony Pettit. Who's gonna be sitting there all right with his
toes curled the other way around. Yes, he's he's had to prepare for
this now for about four or five days, yep, leading into this,
and he did his dan dis to make sure he wouldn't have to do it,
but it didn't work out for him. Nevertheless. Yes, So if
Iowa wins, okay, so you have no path for Iowa to make the
playoff whatsoever. This is this is this is the biggest point spread in the
history of Power five conference championship games. Well, I know they're not gonna
win the game, but they're still playing football on Saturday night, Iowa wins,
they beat Michigan, Florida State loses, Texas loses. We can't find
a way, find a path for them. No, I think if we
get down to that, get down to that, you have the Georgia Alabama
winner, the Washington Oregon winner. Okay, I don't see Iowa leapfrogging all
those teams with two losses. I think at that point maybe your boys get
in at that point with that kind of carnage, but they can't trump the
Michigan record with a loss. Michigan would then say we have the same record,
but we beat them. Yeah. Yeah, So the more I think
about it, I think that it's a very slit thin, very narrow road
for Ohio State to make it. What is your thoughts about the Iowa football
program both on Saturday Night in trying to find in trying to find a way
a path to victory. We'll start there, so we'll focus on Saturday Night
first about Iowa's path to a victory. The problem that Iowa has and I
said this when we played them two years ago in this spot, it's really
hard to pull up sets. And we ran into this the very next game
when we played Georgia in the in the Orange Bowl. It's hard when there's
a talent gap and you played the same style, it's very hard to offset
that. Okay, and Iowa, I don't I like Kirk ference you know,
I've known him for many, many years. Okay, I don't believe
a single guy starting for Iowa would start for our team, Like, none
of them. And all the guys that would have competed for starting spots,
Eric all if we still had him, we wouldn't have taken Barner. He'd
be starting for US, Cooper, Dejean goodness, could you imagine a Will
Johnson Cooper Dejean Corner combo? I can, Okay, and then I can
imagine we're like a Bear's forty six defense every week because no one's you know,
we're covering everybody banda man, all right, he would start for us.
Most of the guys they have that would compete for time on our team
as a starter are not going to play. They're injured, you know,
And so there's a massive talent gap here, and it's and the difference is,
you know, like when we lost to Appalachian State, the zone read
offense was still relatively new in college football didn't really see a lot of it
in the Big Ten. I don't remember Michigan playing a team running that offense
and ever until we played Appalachian State, actually, and and that's a team
with that had a very prolific offense. Remember several guys in that team played
in the NFL. And so that's where you run into. Usually when you
get these kinds of upsets, one of two things happens. The team that
was upset had had an injury at quarterback, or it was early in the
year and the new starting quarterback was sloppy. Or it was the first game
of the year and we don't we don't have preseason games, and special teams
were really bad. Okay, well that doesn't apply here. The other scenario
where it happens is the other team has it has a terrific offense and it's
like college basketball. You caught them on a night when they make fifteen threes
and there was nothing you could do, you know, And I was not
that kind of a team. This isn't Hayden Fry running out there with you
know, Tavian Banks, you know, Ronnie Harmon, Chuck Long and exotics,
you know, and you've got to score thirty points to beat them,
which in nineteen eighty five was a lot of points for a big and football
game. Okay, that's not what this team is. You know, Iowa
wants to play in a phone booth, so to wait. Iowa wants to
win the line of scrimmage, so to wait, Iowa wants to play an
efficient, physical game of complimentary football. So to way. I mean our
our hell, our formations are going to look similar, you know, and
so I think it's just a really difficult path for them. I do worry
about a bit of a letdown factor, which seems odd in a championship game,
but I think that's offset by Jimmy's return. I think that that will
be a big emotional boost having him back. And I just think there's a
reason, and these are all the reasons why this is the biggest spread in
the history of conference championship games. Yeah, two years ago, I was
concerned about that on Michigan's behalf, having slayed the Giant that was such a
massive win and then turning around seven days later, but it was not an
issue. And your punter, Tommy Doman, with the focus of the team
being offense defense in the great quarterback play and everything that you've got. I
have lost sight of how good he was until the last couple of weeks.
And pinning those where Tory Taylor gets all these accolades and everything, because that
is a main intrucral part of their team. Well, Domans, Hey,
nothing against Tory Taylor is the best punter I've ever seen in a Big Ten.
But Tommy Doman won the Maryland game, dude, Yeah, I mean
him pinning them down inside the five yard line a couple of times there in
the second half won that game. Yeah. Absolutely, So for Iowa football,
Steve going forward, is there a way for them to stay competitive?
You know, they have just been so good at saying this is our competition
in the Western Division. We'll worry about the postseason at the end, but
this is what we do and we'll do it better than anyone else. But
in this new Big Ten, what is their best route of staying competitive?
Is it this? I think that the second to middle tier of Big Ten
programs I think are in for a difficult stretch now moving into where the league
is about to go no divisions and you're adding UCLA, Oregon, Washington,
and USC to even get to the Big Ten Championship Game. You need out
of these teams Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, USC, UCLA,
Oregon, and Washington. You need six of those seven teams I just mentioned
to not have top ten teams in the same year. That's just to be
one of the two teams in the Big Ten Championship Game, one of them.
I went back and looked, going back to the beginning of the college
football playoff era. I could only find two seasons where that occurred. But
keep in mind that's not actually relevant here because they were playing different schedules.
Then now they're gonna all be playing each other. Okay, so if you're
gonna if you're Iowa, you're Michigan State. These are teams that have had
a lot of success in this era, you know, Wisconsin. You now
just to get to the Big Ten Championship Game, you need six of those
seven teams to essentially not be top ten teams in the same year. I
don't know that we'll ever see that. And then that that that then assumes
you're then gonna be better than the other teams in your tier, but you're
now also gonna be better than Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa at all.
Okay, I'm not I'm not sure how many times we're gonna see any of
those teams in Big Ten championship games. I am sure it will happen.
Okay, I'm sure it will, but it's it's it's gonna be rare.
We're not gonna see what we saw when Hayden got to Iowa. He kind
of broke the Michigan, Ohio state of geminy and we had five different Big
Ten teams go to the Rose Bowl in the eighties. I don't think we're
gonna if you see five Big Ten teams go to the Rose Bowl or represent
the Big or win the Big Ten is really what that symbolizes, then we're
really just saying that five of the seven teams I just mentioned kind of rotate
it, all right. I just think it's gonna be really, really difficult
for those teams and then they're now on one hand, you know, and
then they're not gonna have the benefit of playing that West Division schedule every year.
So you know, I suspect, you know, a lot of these
Bowl games don't mean much right now, and I mean I think they're gonna
feel like the nit Yeah, I don't know what's seven and five and eight
and four in a college football season will matter in the era moving forward.
I don't you know. And I think it'll be fascinating to see how those
schools navigate that and what they do to what they do to try to to
break through. Despite that, we did this here live when the schedule was
released with the Big Ten in twenty twenty four and beyond, and it's a
good exercise to go through if you want to see the star contrast, go
through every team, take the current formula, and therefore, let's say a
twenty twenty three schedule and then replace the difference. Where an Iowa will play
six Western Division teams, currently they'll play only three or four, and those
are supplanted by maybe an extra Eastern Division team or two or three. Usually
two is pretty much the standard of what everyone is going to face from the
incoming teams from the Pac twelve. And it's just a significant upgrade. Agree.
I mean, I I don't know that. I'm sure it will happen,
but I don't. I don't know that most years we're gonna even have
an undefeated team in the Big Ten. Yeah, next year, at this
time we're gonna be talking about which nine and three teams get into the College
Football Playoff, When when you look at the depth that is going to exist
in the Big Ten, in the SEC, and then you look at the
the parody that's going to exist in the Big in the Big twelve, we're
gonna be sitting here a year from now talking about which nine three teams are
going to be in the College Football Playoff. I don't think people truly understand
how much different things are going to be at this time next year. Dramatically
different, dramatically. David Brown did an exceptional job at Northwestern. The best
coaching job I've ever seen. Yeah, incredible, never been a head coach
before. That was already the consensus last place team in the league. It
was one and eleven last year. The players didn't want to come to Big
Ten media days. They had four guys going the transfer portal that were starters
right away. He had to play his backup quarterback most of the year.
It's incredible what he did. There no question about it. Best single season
coaching job in the Big Ten I've ever seen. Before we get to the
Super chat, I want to lead from that into was there anything else that
surprised you from this current Big Ten season. Not really. I mean I
go back to my preseason power ratings mark, and they pretty much played out.
I had Michigan on a neutral field of point and a half better than
Ohio State, and I had Michigan and Ohio State each about on a neutral
field about a touchdown better than Penn State. And then I had Michigan,
Ohio State, and Penn State two touchdowns favorites on a neutral field over every
team, every other team they played. Well, that's pretty much the season
we had. I predicted I would have win the West. Now I thought
it was going to be because Kate mcnamaar gave them a legitimate, you know,
competent offense. But not really. I mean, the Big Ten standings
look really similar to what my projected Big Ten standings were back in July when
I released my preview. Yeah, I'm going to continue despite the four teams
entering from the PAC twelve. I'm going to continue to track the number of
how many games we have to go through before we're going to see an existing
Big Ten team other than Ohio State, Michigan, or Penn State defeat one
of those three teams. We're at about forty five straight something in that range.
Yeah, the big story this offseason mark there are two big three,
big three potential big stories. Does it? Does Ryan Day look at an
NFL job? Does Jim Harbow look at an NFL job? Those are the
first two and the other that no one's talking about is what are the league's
tiebreaker procedures going to be those? That's a massive story moving forward. What
does that look like. I'll tell you what I would do. Head to
head is number one, although I don't know how often that's going to come
into play with eighteen teams. I at that point, I would just let
the college football playoff rankings determine it and just take I don't want coin flips
or you know, we scored many none. I don't want seventy five tie
breakers head to head, if you beat, if you beat the other team
or teams you're tied with, that you otherwise, who are the top two
ranks? Because all this is about the college who will play off anyway?
That's why we're not doing divisions right, get the two best teams up there.
So at that point, then if the tie, if the head to
head doesn't apply then the top two teams in the college football playoff rankings,
among those that are in first place in the league, they play for the
championship every year. That's what I would do. Make it very streamlined and
simple. Bam, that's it. Well, what it's currently established to be,
as we've discussed, is completely ridiculous. Had Penn State found a way
to beat Michigan, then we would have been determining, yes, who played
the three best teams in the West, and there was really no three best
teams in the life. Minnesota Wisconsin would have mattered every bit as much as
a game for the Big Ten championship as Michigan Ohio State did. What a
stupid system that is? Yes, I agree, yes, yes, your
three teams win thirteen and fourteen. My three teams went twelve and fifteen.
That really really shows that's just a stupid system. I agree. Yeah,
we've got a super chat here, Jess. We appreciate you. Kate mcnamaras
said in an interview he is helping Iowa prepare for Michigan. He knows the
ins and outs at Michigan. Do you think it'll have an effect on the
game, Well, let's see. I think I think Michigan's going to probably
try to run over you. That's the scouting report. And then when they
think they've established that, they're gonna throw a play action pass, either to
Roman Wilson or to the tight ends. So I just said Kate mcnamarason time.
Oh, and he can tell I when Michigan's defense is really fast.
So there you go. That Michigan football program. They are known for their
complexities of ingenuity, right, They're known for that. Okay, I mean
if the Michigan offense is literally called run across the mother effort's face, that's
what the Michigan offense is freaking called. Okay, what the hell is he
talking about? He's gonna help? There's nothing to help. I mean,
it's pretty obvious what Michigan's gonna do. They're gonna run the ball and then
then they're gonna try to throw it over your head. Absolutely, Steve,
there's no doubt. However, if you've got Cave mcnamure on your roster,
are you not at least having a discussion more about probably personnel? What does
he tend to do, what are his weaknesses? He played for a different
offensive coordinator. Give me something on will Johnson, Mike Sanders still. Can
we gain any kind of advantage on that those guys? Something Mike standards still
is really good? Yeah, I know he is. That's the scouting report.
Yeah. I have not seen a pair of cornerbacks play the ball consistently
as well as those two have this year this season. Yeah, I agree.
I mean, I think Samers still is. Samer still is a guy
that someone's gonna draft next April, like sixty seventh in the draft, and
he's gonna play ten fifteen fricking years and make like a half a dozen Pro
Bowls. He's that, he's that kind of player. He will he'll be
five eight and a half, not five to eleven. He'll run a four
five five, not a fourth four to one. And so he's gonna get
picked sixty fifth instead of twenty fifth, and he's gonna he's gonna last because
of everything else he brings to the table. He's gonna he's gonna be he's
gonna get a third contract in the NFL. If you say sealthie Steve before
you go, I'm gonna put you in an uncomfortable position. I love that
you're in charge at Ohio State. What are you doing. Define I'm in
charge? What what? How athletic director? I'm the athletic director, okay,
I I I want to find out. First thing I do if I
take over is there's gonna be seven to ten job openings in the NFL,
including a franchise that has Ryan Day's former quarterback, and he's got an NFL
background. Is I want to find out. I don't want to get blindsided.
I'm gonna ask him point blank, art do you want one of these
positions? I want to I want to look him in the eye and know
the answer to that. Day one. That's that's the first conversation him and
I are going to have, and then the the then the second conversation.
Then if it's clear that he wants to stay, then I think my job
now is to help get him what he needs to be the most successful that
he can be. And that starts with I want, you know, let's
go through, you know, let's go through the last three years against Michigan,
a total audit of those games. Would we do wrong, would we
do right? Would we do over again? Which which do we wish that
we would not have done over again? And the reason why I think that's
necessary is I just don't think this game it's gonna get lumped into the other
two. It's not like the other two. This game is pretty much what
Michigan Ohio State was most of our lives, you know, most of most
of our lives. It wasn't Tim Biakabatuca run in for three hundred yards or
Troy Smith winning a Heisman. Man, it was a couple of teams just
sitting there punching each other in the frickin' balls, and then the last one
that stammers and makes a mistake, the other team wins. Okay, that's
most of two evenly matched teams to the best programs in the country. This
game was totally different than the other two. Totally. Ohio State played extremely
well in the game, and in the end, just Michigan got made one
more play, you know. And so I that's the other thing too,
about overreacting. If it was three years in a row and Michigan runs for
over two hundred on us three years in a row, clearly in the second
half they pull away, I'm much more concerned. If I'm your ad.
That's why my first question is do you want to stay? What do you
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or the ticket Smarter mobile app Think Smarter Ticket, Smarter Man. I've been
on a couple podcast this week, and the thing that I just keep coming
back to is that I always just has to be perfect. I mean,
like with the sheer amount of injuries they've had this season, throw in the
fact that their backup quarterback who has started I think like six seven eight games
now didn't play competitive football for like two or three years there, and he's
doing that finally this year, was completing thirty six percent of his passes prior
to a couple of weeks ago flipped it. It's now at sixty three,
which is obviously positive. There's a kind of a strange discrepancy between talent and
who's playing at the running back position with Caleb Johnson, Leashawn Williams, Jazz
Patterson. I think Caleb Johnson's the most talented running back in that room for
sure. Whether he's put it on the field or not is one thing.
And then you look at the injuries to their All American tight ends, potentially
all American tight ends, and Luke Lasche and Eric all those guys go down
for the season, and then you lose your best player in Cooper gen a
couple of weeks ago. So you can't bank on the fact that, I
mean, I don't necessarily know that you could bank on it anyway, but
that a little bit of hope where you have, Oh Cooper's on the field,
anything can happen, gone completely gone. On special teams and on defense.
I think you think more so about scoring on special teams, and especially
with the way he's returned the ball this year, just one one score should
be too punt return for a touchdown could very well happen again in the championship
game. He would have been more than likely defending Roman Wilson in the passing
game. But you gotta hope to get JJ McCarthy off his spot. You
gotta hope to force him to make turn or you know, make throws.
He's not a guy that throws the ball away. You got to hope that
he throws the ball and is intercepted. Frequently the ball ends up on the
ground, Tory Taylor. You hope and pray he can pin him deep depending
on the field positioning and such. And you can't have Drew Stevens have two
block field goals again or a block field goal. You've got to take all
the points you could possibly get. And with that said, the Iowa offense
has to finish drives. You can't leave drives. You can't leave points on
the board. And that's something they've done all season against teams that are far
inferior to seem like Michigan. You can't do it. The defense will do
their thing right like this is one of the best defenses in the country,
top ten defense in the country. Michigan is a top five defense in the
country. So you're hoping and praying and the offense can do something, can
get the run game going at the very least, and maybe that'll open things
up for Deacon Hill. They're gonna get him on the move, you know,
more so in the Rutgers game than anything past or or or I guess
previous or hither closer to this time. In the Rutgers game, that was
the first time this season where I felt like I didn't know what IOWA was
offensive tendencies were going to be, what they were going to be doing.
It's like, oh, it's a play action. I thought they were running
the balls first down, you know, Like that's something that I know Corey
has talked about a good amount, is their tendencies. And that was the
first time this season where I felt like I didn't know what was happening on
the offensive, you know, in the ensuing play. And that was the
first time I think we've really seen complimentary football from the Hawkeyes this season,
and we've seen it a little bit here and there. That halftime score against
Nebraska should have been twenty one zero, Like you can't you just can't leave
those type of opportunities on the field. I mean, I don't know if
you were able to watch the game, but Kayleb Brown had that would have
been touchdown. Ketch ye. And he catches it with his body or tries
to catch it with his body. Dog, you're supposed to be the most
talented guy on the field right now. What are we doing? I know
he used to do in the backyard, you know, right exactly. I
have how to catch a football. I have a vivid memory of fifth grade
tackle football where I missed an interception because I went like that, you know,
like, and I'm the skinny kid who probably weighed like sixty pounds at
that point in time, and that still haunts me, you know, like
that's something that Cayleb Brown has to know at this point time, whether he's
been a running back before or not. Some of those things, all of
those points can't be left on the board. It's just that simple. And
you gotta hope Michigan makes mistakes and you gotta play perfect in just about every
facet. That's the only way this game ends up in an upset. So
many funny things that you brought up there, Elliott, With all of that,
we could have been watching these games together, because yeah, that same
thing went through my mind on the Kayleb Brown. I thought this guy he
was signed by Ohio State, he was a top seventy five receiver and now
he's their best playmaker and that you know, it's not like I'm okay,
he's he's worthless, He's he's garbage like. But it was just kind of
strange. Okay, that was a bit. And I actually tweeted out something
about Caleb Brown missing that football, dropping that ball, and somebody shot back
at me, and it almost had a tinge of is this part and connected
to Caleb Brown in some way? Because then he said he's he's got some
of the best hands in the country. And I didn't want to make this
this like trash fest of Caleb Brown because I didn't intend it that way to
trash him in any way, but I did say something like, and I
just double checked myself. I looked up his stats. Eleven catches on the
season. I'm thinking I've seen him drop three passes myself, so that ratio
isn't the best the best hand in the country. What's your what's your like,
what's your sample size? What are you referring to when you say that,
Because like you said exactly and we've seen him, he had opportunities early
on in the season and just drop balls like what are we what are we
talking about here? And again, I have no desire to to talk crap
about Caleb Brale either. He's the best playmaker on that offense right now.
But that's a that's a silly point to think you've made against somebody who's watching
the games. You know, Corey, before we get to you, thanks
for dropping by. I wanted to hit Elliott with something else because he just
kind of ran down, you know. The progress of the Iowa offense steaken
Hill thirty six percent, sixty three percent in the most recent games. But
I, like Hugh Elliott, watching the Rudgers game, thought, Okay,
this is this is Let's not confuse it with some prolific passing offense or anything.
But this is probably Iowa not at its best, but something close to
its best, functioning at a very high level. Four hundred yards of total
offense I think was the best in two and a half years, since the
Maryland game a couple of years ago. But this is Iowa's offense functioning at
a high level, running the ball against a good defense, not a great
defense, good defense, mid tier big ten defense, and so this is
probably what it should look like. It's what they want to look like,
right, whether they have or not is one thing. When you've got a
lame dug offensive coordinator who doesn't want to wear Iowha eye logos. We'll see
if that actually continues to happen or not, or even happens in this game
on Saturday. But yeah, that Rutgers game was pretty much exactly what the
Iowaha Gys want to be offensively. Defensively, we've heard about complimentary football all
year. While they're saying that the offense was putrid when they were really hammering
that home compliment, Well, we want to be complimentary. Well you're not
being complimentary, you know, Like that is truly the only time all season
that I've that I've seen it and it really come into full effect. There's
been moments, there's been quarters, but there wasn't a complete game like that
where they did ultimately win that twenty two to zero. But Corey, how
long have they been selling complimentary football And it's that's not the definition of complimentary
football. That is your defense is propping up in your special teams propping up
the offense. Yeah, I think you'd have to ask Kirk ference what the
definition of complimentary football is, because he's been touting that for a long time.
But I will say it took me a while. And again, I
mean, these last three years have been fairly consistent, consistently bad offensively.
However it took me about I think I was up, we were up in
Madison, and I'm watching this game and how they approach that the short yardage
situations near midfield against the Badgers, And it was at that moment where I
kind of started to realize what Kirk is doing. And maybe it's just because
I'm really slow and really dumb, but like it does work more often than
not. That's what's crazy about it. So I think his definition of complimentary
football is different than ours in that we believe complimentary football means your offense scores,
your defense holds. Your offense scores, your defense holds, like that's
the simple gist of it, whereas his definition of complimentary football, I think
would be more so. Our offense gets a couple of first downs here and
there. Here, there, we rely on our punter to pin the other
team back. We really utilize our gunners to pin the other team back.
Then the offense gets into field goal range tax on three points on a short
field. You know you're right, though, Elliott, that's not I mean,
none of us want that as far as this team being able to take
the next step, and in a game like this, that approach is going
to be very hard to execute to the level it needs to execute at.
I think it starts there. I think they've got to control the field against
Michigan on Saturday. You cannot average forty two yards per punt with a potential
Ray Guy Award winner and Troy Taylor. I think he'll punt the ball better
with a warmer climate there indoors. I think Drew Stevens will Drew Stevens is
dealing with an injury. You know, you go back and watch some of
what happened on Saturday. I'm not making excuses for Drew because you know,
I think it was obviously the right move to move Meter into the lineup in
that second half, But there were some things if you go back and watch
those two blocks last week, there were some things about those kicks that Meter
didn't have to deal with, particularly a loaded up right side of the line
of scrimmage on that angle. I either. Do think it was a second
kick that he got blocked, and again he has been dealing with a groin
injury for the last week. I think he'll be fine. My guess is
warmer atmosphere again will help Drew Stevens to play better. I said on my
show with Don Patterson here that released half of it yesterday, and I think
the other half is going to be released this evening. What if I what
pops off a kick return? Like what if Kayden Wegen runs one back?
What if Kadenwgen runs a punt return back? You know, that changes the
game completely. And as great as Cooper Gene was, we haven't had any
kick returns for touchdowns. It's kind of a lost art in the game of
college football nowadays. But what if that happened somehow on Saturday? It's possible.
You know, Iowa plays with a slim margin for air. But at
the same time, boy, with as good as the defense is, if
you can get some sort of an unconventional or non traditional touchdown, I think
it changes the game. So you know, the only the only gripe I'd
have with what Elliott said is him and I disagree on on the running back
position. I think their best back right now is Lei shan And you know,
with that said, Corey, I don't, I don't necessarily I think
on field product, Lee Shaan is is definitely their best running back right now.
I was just talking about pure talent. I didn't think, Yeah,
do you agree with me there? Yeah? I mean when he's a four
starter. What's your definition of talent? How would you evaluate talent with the
running back when we're talking about uh, I guess talent generally. What I'm
thinking of and what I'm referencing, I suppose is is is potential? Also
Caleb Brown, when you're talking about top speed, that's what we're talking about
right now, Like in terms of the clear distinction between him and Lee Sean,
that's the first thing I think of, is that top speed too.
I think he'd be better at breaking tackles if he ran more aggressively, which
I think it's things that that he's capable of that he's just not doing.
In my opinion. Well, I guess, yeah, I see, I
absolutely see where you're coming from. My question would be, you know,
this is the end of year two, why why isn't he running with better
aggression? Why hasn't he shown the ability to lower the shoulder pads. I
agree with you. He's got size that you can't teach. He's got that
long stride, he's got the breakaway speed. I don't think lee Sean's breakaway
speed is that all that bad. We saw some breakaway speed on that long
run against Wisconsin and a couple other long runs this year. But no,
You're right, the fastest running back on this team is capable. I just
wish he would utilize his body better. He's you know, yeah, how
big he is and how impressive he looks. He doesn't put his foot in
the ground. You know, we haven't seen his ability to jump cut very
effectively entice face like we've seen from Jazz and from especially from Layshan. And
so you're you're I see where you're coming from on that. I I just
want to know if, if he's got the ability to do that, when
are we going to see it shine through? So as of right now,
like I'm I'm starting Layshan, he's the first guy out of the pin on
Saturday for me. I The thing I'll say about Leishan too, is he
has a knack for finding a crease and exposing it. Whereas Jazz is a
sehole hit hole, le Shan finds a crease. It's aggressive patience is the
way I described Leishan runs the ball. Yeah, is the most complete guy
right right now, He's just And that's from a vision standpoint too. I
think you're absolutely right, like Jazz and Caleb are like the almost the polar
opposites of one another, because Caleb is this really big back who doesn't hit
hard, uh, and Jazz is a guy who is not a very big
back, hits really hard sometimes I don't think is patient enough and it's just
gonna blast whoever's in front of him, which can be a good thing,
can be a bad thing, Whereas Lei Shan is kind of your well rounded
back, maybe with the least amount of upside of the three, but right
now he's your best, He's your most complete, reliable guy. So you
know, I wish we could have seen Jazz stay healthy after his performance against
Iowa State. You know, maybe that have made a difference for him.
I think he's got the potential to be really good. We've talked about him
on the show, but you know the bottom line is somebody asked him the
chat earlier. How does Michigan play Iowa. I cannot imagine a scenario in
which Michigan does not load up the box almost every down against Iowa. I
just don't see why you wouldn't because if you stop, yeah, if you
stop the run, Iowa has nothing. They have nothing nothing. Michigan has
two grade corners. Yeah, I mean, it would be absolutely ridiculous to
play Michigan the way or play Iowa the way Michigan kind of played Ohio State
because obviously the difference out wide, So that's what I expect, and that's
going to create long yardage situations on critical downs. And the good news is
Iowa has been better on critical downs over the last month, but they're still
not great, and collectively for the season there towards the bottom of the Big
ten. So, you know, Deacon putting Deacon in situations where you're you
know, obvious passing downs on passing situations on third down is not going to
be ideal. I don't know if the answer out wide is Caleb Brown.
I'd like to think it is, but like you guys illustrated earlier, he's
he's had a tendency to drop some passes Frankly, I think Deontay Vines has
done almost nothing this year. Frankly, can we just we'd be clear on
that he's given as far as as far as pass catching, I don't even
know how many yards he has in the season. He's been dinged up.
He was projected to be maybe the number one guy. He's given them nothing
out wide, like nothing over the top, nothing in the passing. So
I think it has to be Caleb Brown and Adison Astringa. It's been really
inconsistent from Deontay. We we're talking about the the production from him. The
first two things I think of are the what like two yard touchdown against Western
Michigan and then that absolutely freaking wild catch he made against Minnesota. He had
that first half against Minnesota where he caught like six passes or four passes or
whatever it was. And other than that, I for the most part agree
with you, Corey. He'll be back this weekend. I talked to him
on the field before the Nebraska game. I know Kirk wasn't exactly he's back.
It was, yeah, we expect him to be back. He'll he'll
play this weekend. But based on what he told me, and I mean
over these last few weeks with Deontay out. I'm sure you guys are gonna
agree with me, but offense has been better. You trust Caleb Brown to
make a play in the open field, and there were I don't know if
we had this conversation, Corey, I think we might have, but early
on in the season, especially when Deacon was first getting reps. What you
want for a guy who's inexperience like that, especially to start the game,
is to start it like wide receiver screens, running back screens, something that's
simple. Get him completions, get him confidence, get him in a rhythm.
They didn't do that. They did it maybe like once in a receiver
screen or a couple receiver screens with Deontay Vines and maybe one with Nico raggy
Eni. But why aren't you getting the ball to a guy like cayleb Brown
who can make a play in the open field, And now they're doing it
and they're doing it too much. They did it. He scored his first
touchdown I believe it was on a receiver screen, made a play, and
then they did it a couple times against Nebraska, and Nebraska read it and
snuffed it out like that well, I'll say this too as it relates to
what you just said. I absolutely think you're right. The passing game has
been so much better since Kayleb Brown's been playing, and that is not a
result. I mean from what it appears to us and based on you.
I'm not there for the press conferences like you are every Tuesday, Eliott,
but based on the lingo from Kirk ference, Caleb Brown's playing more because Deontay
vines it has been hurt. But here's what that tells me. That's an
indictment on our ability to evaluate the wide receiver position. Because if it takes
a guy getting hurt to see how much better is back, why was Deonta
starting in the first place. Yeah, Caleb's had an issue with drops,
but frankly, I'll take that risk of drops with his playmaking ability, with
his speed, with his out route running and the potential make big plays.
We just not have not seen that potential from Deontay yet. So you know,
it'll be nice to have a full state. Hopefully those both those guys
are electric on Saturday. I don't trust Deacon Hill, I'll be quite frank
I don't trust him in a big game. I don't trust his ability to
come out and maintain that level of accuracy we've seen over the last few weeks,
just because he doesn't have that groove throwing motion that you typically want in
a quarterback kind of throws from the hip. We've talked about that time and
time again, but we've seen him perform well on certain days and that's going
to happen. I mean, he can. I just don't know how consistent
it can be. So, yeah, I agree with you on all that
you mentioned the issues of drops of Caleb Brown. I mean, who that's
healthy on the roster hasn't had an issue with drops right now besides Addison Austranga.
Well, I guess consistently. Yeah, And as I've said over and
over again, who does that reflect on If everybody's having the same issue,
it reflects on the coaching staff to me, And it's you know, whether
you want to talk about Brian, I think it's more you got to point
the finger at Calton Copeland. So and those are the discussions you can have
after the season. But what has Calton done with this wide receiver room.
He's a nice guy. I'm sure his players love him, but they have
not gotten the production out of that room that they need to and the fact
that drops continue to be an issue even for a guy's talented is Caleb Brown,
If a guy as old as Nico Rakayini, you know that's a problem.
Tight Ends ain't dropping passes. Elliott you know, said yeah, I
mean when do we see as and Astringa and even still Yanods. I mean
he's meant targeted much, but certainly not Eric Hall or Luke Liche. So
you know they got to the key on Saturday. To me is just they
got to figure out a way to get on the board first, get a
lead, even if it's three zero. I know that doesn't seem like much,
but playing from behind against a team like Michigan with a guy like Blake
Korum and Donovan Edwards, that is just going to be almost an impossible task.
When you're putting a bunch of pass heavy scenarios with your offense, you're
you're gonna be in trouble. So I just hope they can figure out a
way. Maybe it's not on the first drive, maybe they don't take the
ball first, I get I'm guessing they will take the ball first, try
to get a couple of first downs, which is kind of how they play
the game. They're not trying to score that first drive so much is just
getting the field flipped and if you can pinsh can back, maybe you can
get a field goal or a touchdown that second drive. And Corey, that's
where I'll push back on your explanation of complimentary football or the way they would
see complimentary football. And I certainly appreciate your take when you came back from
that Wisconsin game, because you explained it on our show similarly to the way
you just explained it, and it kind of hit me as well as Okay,
yes, I get this to a better degree than I got it before.
In regards to them playing risk reward and placing that risk burden on their
defense and not their offense and saying just keep punting, just keep hunting.
We'll let them make the mistake. We don't want to make the mistake on
offense, I totally get that. But in regards to complimentary football being offense
scores defense shuts them down. Offense scores defense, well, that's a juggernaut,
is what that is. That's a fifty it's nothing. You know,
game, Protect the football, maintain the football, don't have the least number
of yardage stats in the nation, because you at least want to move the
football far enough to punt it and use Tory Taylor, which they do on
occasion. But even if you don't drive at seventy five yards for a touchdown,
maintain the football, protect the football, which they haven't necessarily done.
I've run the cops on the six opponents that they and Michigan share and I
was at a minus two turnover margin in those games. So they've been more
sloppy with the football than they should be considering their limitations, and they haven't
placed their defense in the best positions as they haven't the last couple of years.
And that's why I'm just pushing up back against the complimentary football being a
legitimate stance. Normally very very good in turnover margin because typically Phil Parker's defenses
create a lot of turnovers, specifically interceptions. They have not been as productive
with that this year. You know, could you argue part of that is
injuries in the defensive backfield. Maybe they always seem to get banged up back
there. Cooper's been out, Ja Murray was out for a couple of games.
Do to the betting stuff, and then they've been sloppier because I think
partly Caid was hurt when he was playing. Deacon is not very good,
I mean, frankly, I mean Elliott you said he's just not very good.
He's he's getting by right now, he's playing better, but he's you
know, he is a lower Big ten tier level quarterback. And so I
mean that's what makes it even more impressive that they've won ten games is because
what you just said Mark that they aren't dominating on turnover margin, and they've
had some issues with placekicking. Now they've been pretty good most of the year
with placekicking, but they've been you look at the years as a whole,
especially these last couple of games from Drew have been that good to the last
if I can err up Corey, just to quantify that ten of seventeen over
the last two months, that's fifty nine percent. That's a failing grade.
Yeah, And I don't know, I'm going to go back and look at
some of those. There have been several blocks in there. I don't know.
You know, again, everybody wants to condemn Drew for all the blocks.
There are multiple facets of getting blocked right and they give him. They've
given him longer kicks because they have confidence in him. Fifty plus he missed
a fifty three yarder. I think it was was it last week a week
before? Not to excuse that because he should be making those, but yeah,
I mean the fact that they've been able to accomplish what they've accomplished with
all that being said, is impressive. I think the better question and the
big issue that we need to dress here is Elliott, are you going to
hit up the beef house on the way out to Indy? What's the beef
househ? Sorry, guys, oh my goodness. Well, first of all,
Don Patterson will tell you back when he coached at Western, every time
they'd go out to Tara Hate for a game at Indiana State, they'd stop
at the beef House. And he actually told the story and again i'll publish
this this evening on the show, but he was stilling a story on the
podcast about how there was one year where they were not playing very well at
Indiana State. He told his guys at halftime, he said, well,
we can always just stop by McDonald's on the way home. We don't have
to go to the beef house. And he said, well, what do
you know, we played better and won the second half. Anyways, it's
if you go a long ice seventy five. I've never been there. I'm
gonna I plan on stopping there, but it's apparently an iconic thing. There's
big signs of long I seventy four mark. Have you done it before?
I have not. But where are we talking about exactly? I don't even
know if I've been in that part of the country. You haven't been in
that part of the country. Well, it's not that far outside of it's
in Covington, Indiana, So it's like east of Danville. Okay, I
guess I have. It's between Danville and Crawfordsville. I don't know that I've
been there either. I lived in Indianapolis for a couple of months for a
POSTCRAD internship. But uh, I'm I'm writing it down right now because I
might not stop there, either on the way there or on the way back.
Yeah, I've I've heard nothing but good things about it. So Covington,
Covington, Indiana, and the website is beef house Rolls dot com.
Anyways, I know that really has a lot to do with the game.
I just thought I'd add that in. So, what's your I'm curious what's
are you and Adam both you both credentialed for the game? Yep, yep,
we're both going awesome. Well, very much looking forward to it.
Safe travels, Mark, I wish that My only wish is that you were
also going. I said that to you a few weeks ago. I know
you've got other conference championship games to cover, but this should be uh an
experience. Unlike somebody said in the chat earlier, this maybe I was last
chance, like ever to go to this game, because frankly, let's think
about it, even if you didn't have divisions this year before the expansion,
how often would Iowa? Well, they wouldn't. When would they have ever
made the championship game? As long as Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn
State are playing, you would never make the top two of the conference twenty
fifteen technically, but their schedule would have been different, of course, Yo,
Well that's exactly right. The schedule would have been different. And see
who were their crossover opponents in fifteen? You want to do a quick trivia
Mark, they played was in Ohio State? I know that they played Maryland?
They played Indiana and they played let's see Maryland, Indiana. They did
not play Penn State, did not play Rutgers, did not play Mission.
Who was their other Oh wait, no, we had we had eight conference
games, so they only had the two so they played sorry Maryland and Indiana.
So there you go, Mark, Yeah, it was a light touch
that year. It definitely was. They played a total of two ranked teams
in the regular season, and one of them was Northwestern, where they won
forty to ten. Yeah, that was the game that Kirk brought up,
I think during his press conference isn't he Elliott this week? He said something
about maybe I know you weren't you weren't covering the beat back then, but
he brought up CJ kind of being hampered and they he was I think he
used the term concerned or worried. He was worried going into that game because
that was a good Northwestern team. That was I think a three touchdown day
for Akrom wildly and they just hambered Northwestern. And was were you going through
the regular season there or did that include Michigan State in the Big Ten the
regular season? Mission State was at the other one point. I think Stanford
was top twenty five, right, Mark, Yeah, I think they the
top twenty five. They got there. I think their running back was pretty
good. Yeah. That was a fake idea of college football era, wasn't
it? Tell you what? Uh? I'm surprised. I said this to
Mark the other day. I can't believe that Colin Calvert hasn't jumped back on
that this week this year because I think this this team, this is now.
This is going to sound controversial, but this schedule, relatively speaking,
I think was worse. The way they won games has been worse than they
won in fifteen. Quarterback play has been worse. Like if anybody's going to
call anybody the fake idea of college football, it would be IOWA this year,
not fifteen. This year. At least in fifteen they had guys like
Bethard and Kittle and King, and I mean they had got Josie Jewel,
They had dudes. They have dudes this year too, but I mean not
like those dudes on the sideline and crutches. Yeah, exactly, exactly right,
Lucas Eric Allin Cooper. Yeah. Absolutely. My guess on why Cowherd
hasn't talked about Iowa is because he only cares about who's competing for a national
championship. That's that's all his show deals with is if you're going to reach
the playoff, if you got a chance, if Iowa had won the Minnesota
game, if that would have been flipped, then just going to say that
they might be on his radar. Would you ever could you get calling on
this show? Mark? Have you had Have you ever reached out to him?
No, I have not reached out to Colin Cowherd. I would love
for you to do. Did you ever did you ever run into him when
you're during your time at ESPN? Sure, yeah, he used to talk
to him. Did you have a pleasantries or were they absolutely? It wasn't
like we were arguing in the hall or anything. No. Yeah, all
right, I'm just curious. I'd love to get him on this show.
I think what would be great is and I'll tell you what this show would
be, would take the next step Mark on your main channel. You get
like a panel of like Josh Pate, Colin Cowherd, Dan Patrick, Dave
Selling one of those Okay, we've had a few times there. Yeah,
Elliott, No, I don't know if we can if we can get him,
if we can get off I don't know if we can get him and
then get rest of those guys and then add Steve Days to the mix,
and you'd have a show right there. Mark, by the way, did
I haven't listened to the Steven process, But somebody told me that he made
a comment about nobody on Iowa's team would start for Michigan. Is that true
that he said that. He said something close to that. He said excluding
their injuries, taking those injured guys off the table. So Jay Higgins wouldn't
start First team All Big Ten wouldn't start for Michigan. I think Michigan only
starts two linebackers, and maybe he's going to play. I don't know.
I'm just curious. So I'm just I don't even know who they're lying back,
Michael Barrett, Junior Colson. There are they are? They both were?
They both first team All Big Ten. You got to understand, to
a certain extent, there's a difference between who votes for first and second team
versus who coaches are saying they're going to be playing. Okay, I understand
that, but I'm just simply saying, Okay, Jay Higgins is a tremendous
player. I'm not taking that away from him, and I'm not I'm not
in a position to evaluate Michigan's linebackers to the extent that I can compare them
to Jay Higgins. Yeah, that would probably be my one when I heard
that, that would be the one. If if he was taking injuries into
account, then I can kind of understand it. With the exception being I
think Jay Higgins is just exceptional. Yes, he was taking leche and all
out of the me and the gene. Of course, you'd really have to
think about Nick Jackson for a second as well. He's been phenomenal these last
especially these last few games. And I mean, you got a five star
safety on this back end. Grantedy's in his second year, but when you're
talking about top end and potential, especially he's ager Wampa. I mean,
I know he didn't get any conference awards or anything, but like and Sebastian
Castro was freaking amazing this year. I don't know how the coaches left him
off the All Conference Awards and it was just media that was insane to me.
Well, you guys are smarter than the coaches. Elliott. Let me
just say this as it relates to punter. Damn, right, are you
telling me that, Are you telling me that Tory Taylor wouldn't start from Michigan?
Mark, Am I telling you that he challenge Stevie on that? Yes?
I will know. I did not challenge him because I just thought I
just kind of scanned and thought offense defense that did the dell. Okay,
I'm not really going to challenge him. There. We know Sebastian Castro,
Joe Ebbans, those guys would be in the rotation. They'd be in there
playing a ton of football. Yes, I think we all know that.
But Michigan's got a really good punter. He's not Tory Taylor, but he's
really good. I also think it's fair to say, Mark that you know,
you could argue certain players like Joe Evans, had he spent his whole
career at Michigan, might not be as good as he is now. In
fact, there's a good chance he's not because I think iowas is it fair
to say Iowa is probably better at developing guys like I mean, you know,
I mean that's I know Michigan fans will probably get angry about that,
but you know who's taken two and three star guys and putting them in the
league at a high rate. Who's taken four and five star guys and putting
them in the league at at a high rate. So we just don't know
what Michigan's ability to develop quite like we do about it with Iowa's, So
like Joe and Joe Evans wouldn't have had the opportunity to play as much.
But remember we had this conversation about Ohio State when you found the numbers,
I forget who produced the numbers of schools that had produced the most three stars
to the NFL College Football Playoff era something like that, Like the statu a
year for me, and that Ohio State was number two was pretty significant because
they hardly sign any three stars and that tells me that they obviously can develop,
and that tells me they're pretty durn good at evaluating. They signed one
last year. They they are identifying any of the they are just identifying guys,
right, they're four and five star guys. It's like, yep,
there are four or five star guys. But then it's like, oh,
they missed this guy, this guy, this guy, and it's like,
yep, they sure did. That's that's a testament to Ahto State, who
is I was best offensive lineman. Don't ask. Yeah, I feel like
I don't have an answer to that question. Eli, do you have an
answer to that? I mean, that's the problem. There are several there
are several games this year where one of them looked atrocious, like Mason Richmond.
You'd think you're left tackle would be solid, but there. I think
it was the Penn State game. He was just taken to school. He
was. And Logan Jones, Yeah, go ahead, I know. I
mean, Logan Jones has been out and I think there was too much hype
around him heading into the year. Jennings Dunker is probably still I still think
he's not a natural tackle. I don't. I don't know he's playing right
tackle. Colby got pinned on his butt last week on field goal coverage,
so I don't know. I Rusty has been a pleasant surprise. I don't
think you could call him the best offensive lineman though either. I mean,
he was wrote Payton snaps with Nick the Young and like Tyler Elsbery in relief
of Logan Jones has been awesome. Yeah, he's been good. He's been
good. He was good at guard last year. I thought he played a
little bit. I don't think he played enough last year. I think he's
been dealing with I think he had an injury coming into the year or something,
but that that also might be completely wrong. But I think he's been
really good at center. Haven't had any really slip ups or anything with a
snap. Obviously, Deacon fell over himself a couple of times or over a
the Lions lineman's leg. I think that was against Illinois. No, that
was that was that was Nebraska twice yep. Yeah, the one would have
been a safety had he not made some acrobatic move to get that ball into
the hands of his running back. Right, So, Corey, did you
see the end of it? Was a presser? It might have been the
Rutgers game. Everything runs together with me at this point in time in the
season. It's just a tunnel vision going forward. But anyway, Kirk said
something about getting Deacon into a fitness program the off season. Yeah, I
did hear that. I don't know if that was said in jest. My
question would be, why was that not done during this last off season.
Yeah, that might have been a scenario where you're just trying to get him,
you know, integrated with the offense and so, but you know that
should happen over spring because he got there in spring. But and who maybe
they did try it, who knows, I don't. I asked the offensive
line question because of the Day's comment made me think offensive line, Iowa offensive
line. And even though that's the narrative, as there's nobody on that old
line that would start at Michigan. As Corey has schooled me on, that
narrative is an old one and it's outdated, and we've seen, yes,
subpar play along the offensive line. But it also reminds me that the Michigan
offensive line has not been stellar the last four or five games, and I
really think that Iowa has an opportunity there. I've been watching the Hawkeyes probably
five six consecutive games, and I think they really have an opportunity along the
defensive front to cause havoc make I'll put a promo in for the show with
Don because it's funny you say that he did say. I asked him specifically.
I think this was on the air, and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't
mind me repeating this. He said the right side of that line before what's
his face went down last week. What's the name of the guy who's out
was her guard as Zach Zenter. Okay. Before Zenter went down, Don
said that he had seen some vulnerabilities from I think the right tackle Barnhart.
Okay, and is he moving inside now? Did I hear that right he
moved to left guard? I might have that wrong. Okay. We talked
about this on my podcast with Trevor McHugh that went out today. I couldn't
tell you the specifics of it, but he said that, you know,
unfortunately, given the circumstances, but that might have made the offensive line overall
better. The moving around that's happened in this last week. Well that's interesting
because Don just said, you know, hey, if the right tackle didn't
look great before, and your right guard is now down and they're shuffling the
right side of that line, could have some vulnerabilities in there. So I'll
be interested to see how much pressure Phil dials up. I guess is he
won't dial up very much early. But and I wasn't. Let's be honest.
I was not gotten home much with a four man front. So they're
going to have to dial pressure up if they're going to get home on McCarthy.
McCarthy's not one. I think you said it earlier. He doesn't like
to throw the ball away, and you know, so they'll be interesting to
see if they can kind of coax him into making some poor decisions. And
just like you talk about unconventional or non traditional touchdowns, whether it's a kick
return or a punt return, what if you get a Joe Evans stripsack or
you get a you know, a Sebastian Castro, you know, jumped route
and he runs one in for ten yards. You know, if they pin
him back and you get an interception or something back there, boy, it
changes the game. How many safeties is Iowa had this year? You know?
So that's how i was won games. They just figure out a way
to get points on the board. You mentioned the right side of the field.
What I've been told as well, or the right side of the offensive
line rather so, what I've been told as well is if you can push
McCarthy to his left, that's what you're gonna want. You're gonna want to
get him out of the pocket and move and left as opposed to right.
Obviously, I mean that just kind of goes with right handed quarterbacks, right,
But so you know, there's there's something to be aware of right there.
Do you go the route of, Okay, we've got to play Iowa
football to the hilt, to the hilt meaning we run the play clock down
to one every time we snap the ball, we squeeze this and we just
play so conservatively and do our thing. Or do you just break tendencies left
and right and go crazy and throw the kitchen sink at them. You probably
need to do this in a calculated way. Is throw the kitchen sink at
Michigan because seven percent you don't. That's that reminds me of when Iowa went
to Ohio State. Were you covering the Hawkeyes last year? Or is this
year for year? And the beat first? They went to Ohigh State last
year. You know, in doing all the many shows Corey and I do
during the offseason, I remember telling him they're going to be a twenty five
point underdog in that game. And he just and I even thought that was
ridiculous me saying that to him, but I just knew the you know,
the the projection of both teams. He's like, no way, no,
no, no, there'll be a two touchdown underdog. There'll be a seventeen
point dog. It gets to the game, they're a thirty point underdog.
That's just a team that's as good as Iowa. They go to Columbus,
they're a thirty point under Well, they lost by forty four points. So
it's in this and I think of the psychological portion of this, and I
think, I don't know if you saw this out of the Michigan cornerback.
He said last week's game was the Big ten championship, you know, talking
about the Ohio but two years ago, if there would have been a letdown
spot for Michigan, it would have been two years ago. That's the first
time they beat Ohio State. You know, that game was just everything to
them to finally break through that. My thought that week was, oh,
they might have a let down here forty two to three. So I think
this is more in the twenty seven to ten range. I think it'll be
respectable. Yeah, you know, I think. I yeah, what I
said yesterday, I said thirty three six a couple days ago. Now I'm
down to twenty seven to six, just because again what I was told by
by Trevor is just that he thinks they're fully Michigan's fully comfortable playing Iowa football
in this game, like just running the clock down score. But they'll be
more efficient. That's the thing is Iowa football is not efficient. Michigan football
can be efficient with the way you're able to run the ball with Donovan Edwards
and Blake Corum, and with the way that JJ McCarthy. I mean,
you've watched the Ohio State game. I'm sure that ball that he snuck between
those to DBS to Roman Wilson, that was unreal. I haven't seen a
throw like that. I don't know the last time I saw a throw like
that. Throw it about three inches over the guy's helmet. It was wild,
and that was Elliott not to catch you off. That was even more
impressive when you take the shot behind the quarterback, because not only did he
lace it down the field when he threw it, there were like hands in
traffic in his face and he even like changed his arm angle to get it
through the window of the line to get it downfield. It's like Patrick Mahomes
type stuff. Yeah, do we have him on tape doing something like that.
No, I don't have to do any research to tell you that he
has made I think it was the Illinois game. He did make some pretty
wild throws into some windows that we did not see before. I was sitting
in a press box with Adam and a couple of the other media guys,
and I leaned back and I was like, I think Deacon Hill sold his
soul the death because like Deacon Hill six weeks ago, is not making these
throws. But again, that wasn't against Ohio State. That was against ILLINOI
right, like, and it was to Nico Ragga Eni, you know,
not Roman Wilson. They weren't scoring on places like this, So you just
there's only so much trust you can put in Deacon Hill to make plays,
right, I mean, like with Caleb Brown on the field, that makes
you more inclined to say that maybe something can happen. Thank you so much
for joining us on Big ten Paradigm right here in the college Gridiron Coast to
Coast network. We will talk to you next week when we've got college football
playoff teams selected and the bowl season as well as the transfer portal on a
full throttle right here on Big ten Paradigm. Enjoyed the games this weekend