Speaker 1: A friend of mine, Chris Ballast does a wonderful job
Speaker 1: writing for The Wolverine keeping you up to speed on
Speaker 1: what's going on with the University of Michigan football. You
Speaker 1: can follo him on Twitter at ballast Underscore Wolverine and
Speaker 1: he joins us here on exus and Bros. Chris, hope
Speaker 1: you and your family are well. How are you, my friend?
Speaker 2: And you great to hear your voice, brother, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Thanks same to you. There's a lot of distractions from
Speaker 1: Michigan right now. How are they able to make sure
Speaker 1: they're focused on themselves and not hearing the outside noise.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great question. And we asked Eran Moore
Speaker 2: about that yesterday and you can tell that there's a
Speaker 2: sense of confidence with him that Hey, and he came
Speaker 2: out right away and he said, we can't talk about
Speaker 2: the NCAA stuff. He did say, you know, with our
Speaker 2: report a couple of weeks ago that there were fifty
Speaker 2: two texts that he had deleted between him and counter stallions,
Speaker 2: the alleged leader of the whole sign gate thing, that hey,
Speaker 2: there's nothing there and it can't wait till those texts
Speaker 2: are made public so that people can understand that there's
Speaker 2: really nothing there, so people want to keep this in
Speaker 2: the news. And it's like he said, when you're on top,
Speaker 2: the haters come out, man, And he said, everybody's gunning
Speaker 2: for you. And what they've done is what they did
Speaker 2: last years. They've kind of rallied around each other and said, hey,
Speaker 2: let's make this about us and about our season. We
Speaker 2: know we've got a talented team, he said, we have
Speaker 2: high expectations here. And every time somebody brought up the
Speaker 2: schedule ship and it's a big one. You know, you
Speaker 2: got Texas, you got Oregon, you got Ohio State USC
Speaker 2: it's one of the toughest schedules in the country. He said, Hey,
Speaker 2: they've got to play us too. So you can tell
Speaker 2: that there's a sense of confidence there. These guys are
Speaker 2: together and rallying around it and blocking out the outside noise,
Speaker 2: and they expect to have a good year.
Speaker 1: Shop how long will the counter stallion stuff hang around?
Speaker 1: Do you think?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what, they're in negotiation right now. And
Speaker 2: we broke a story a couple of weeks ago where
Speaker 2: you know what, the this NA draft coming out that
Speaker 2: was made public, and it's tough when you've got that
Speaker 2: hanging over your head to recruit, to really to concentrate
Speaker 2: on other things. But I think it's going to be
Speaker 2: a while. It's a negotiation, and they came out guns blazing,
Speaker 2: you know. Our sources told us, hey, we watch what
Speaker 2: they do to Jim harbaught here, and sure enough he
Speaker 2: gets this four year show cause and one year suspension,
Speaker 2: even though it's more symbolic than anything now that he's
Speaker 2: in the NFL. But you've got a Netflix documentary coming
Speaker 2: out on August twenty seventh where Connor Stallions is going
Speaker 2: to tell his side of the story. But to me,
Speaker 2: the best course of action here if you're Michigan is
Speaker 2: to get this thing out of the way as soon
Speaker 2: as possible. We've heard all kinds of things, like they're
Speaker 2: going to come at them with a postseason ban. We
Speaker 2: reported that and people ran with it like it was fact,
Speaker 2: and that's just something that's been thrown out there. That
Speaker 2: is nothing that is going to be any part of
Speaker 2: Anna or anything. That's going to be years down the
Speaker 2: road if it happens, and nobody expects that to happen.
Speaker 2: What I think you're going to see Chef is within
Speaker 2: the next year, hopefully sooner. You come to some kind
Speaker 2: of a settlement, maybe a big find, maybe some more
Speaker 2: probation and some scholarships lost. I think that's the most
Speaker 2: likely thing to happen, and I think the sooner the
Speaker 2: better for Michigan so that they can move on.
Speaker 1: Chris Ballace of the Wolverine Joiners here on Ex's and
Speaker 1: Bros fam on Twitter at ballast Underscore Wolverine. Jim Harbaugh
Speaker 1: came out in a press conference in Los Angeles defiant
Speaker 1: in knowing anything about the Connor Stallion situation. Why do
Speaker 1: you believe him or don't?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, there's been no evidence right number one. And
Speaker 2: the NCAAA said that last year they said, we have
Speaker 2: no evidence linking Jim Harbaugh to this, and he said
Speaker 2: he said from the get go, even after the National
Speaker 2: Championship game, they had a press conference and he said,
Speaker 2: we are innocent. He came out guns blaze and said,
Speaker 2: you know, you know what, I knew nothing about it,
Speaker 2: all of us. In fact, he said, all of us
Speaker 2: are innocent. And I don't know if that applies to
Speaker 2: Connor Stallions. There's a lot of evidence out there that
Speaker 2: he was buying tickets and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2: I think it's circumstantial, and there are some questions as
Speaker 2: to whether or not it even violates ncaaa's own bylaws.
Speaker 2: But I don't think they found anything other than circumstantial
Speaker 2: stuff with some interns, and they've said this, this was
Speaker 2: in the NA draft as well, that Connor Stallions maybe
Speaker 2: in some interns had this thing going on and that
Speaker 2: the coaches didn't really know anything about it. So there's
Speaker 2: no evidence there. So I believe him. He's always been
Speaker 2: a stray shooter. And it's funny. There was an article
Speaker 2: in The Athletic Chef that came out and they said
Speaker 2: a former disgruntled staffer said, well, the culture at Michigan
Speaker 2: was to always approach the line and sometimes cross it
Speaker 2: if necessary, And speaking to coaches at these at this
Speaker 2: program over the years that have come and gone, they
Speaker 2: said the exact opposite to me that Jim Harbaugh said,
Speaker 2: we aren't going to cheat, we aren't going to cross lines.
Speaker 2: And in fact, even when NIL came out, he said,
Speaker 2: we're going to be transformational, not transactional. We're not going
Speaker 2: to pay football players. So he has always been one
Speaker 2: of those guys that follows his dad's lead in terms
Speaker 2: of being honest and forthright, so I believe them. Schef.
Speaker 1: What have you noticed about Sharon Moore's camp that is different?
Speaker 1: I don't want to say better, but just different. Yet
Speaker 1: it's still keeping that Michigan focus compared to Jim Carbo's camps.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a little more fun. In fact, he talked about
Speaker 2: the music yesterday. He said, we didn't have music when
Speaker 2: Jim was here. He didn't want to play the music.
Speaker 2: He said, I love it. He said, I wanted to
Speaker 2: get out there and the kids have fun. But first
Speaker 2: of all, he wanted to make sure it was all business,
Speaker 2: just like it was with Harbaugh. And speaking to the
Speaker 2: people around the program, they say, you know what, it's
Speaker 2: a little bit more lighthearted. Sharona is a little bit
Speaker 2: more approachable than Jim. When Jim came in here, man,
Speaker 2: he came in and it was all business and it
Speaker 2: was tough to work for him. And I think a
Speaker 2: lot of people would agree with that. Most people would
Speaker 2: agree with that that it is not easy to work
Speaker 2: for Jim Harbaugh. Now he got he softened his stance
Speaker 2: a little bit as he went on. But Sharon Moore,
Speaker 2: I think is he wants to make it a little
Speaker 2: bit more fun a little bit more lighthearted. But let
Speaker 2: these guys know that, Hey, as long as you get
Speaker 2: your business done and you're taking care of business and
Speaker 2: you're serious, then we're going to have some fun too.
Speaker 2: And he used a cornerback ji Air Hill, a sophomore,
Speaker 2: as an example. He said, you know, this kid is
Speaker 2: kind of a goofball Off the field he goes, but
Speaker 2: when he's between those lines, it's all business for him.
Speaker 2: As long as he's doing that, I don't care what
Speaker 2: he does off the field. I love his personality and
Speaker 2: that kind of kid.
Speaker 1: They are pre season nine and some people I think
Speaker 1: they already have it in for Michigan anyway. But some people,
Speaker 1: when you say, which team ranked in the top twenty
Speaker 1: five will not finish in the top twenty five, Give
Speaker 1: me a team. Some people have mentioned Michigan. What's the
Speaker 1: attitude from within the football program on I hate to
Speaker 1: use the word disrespect, but on perhaps overlooking them a
Speaker 1: little bit considering what they accomplished last year and what
Speaker 1: they have returning.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're you know what, They're kind of used
Speaker 2: to it. But defense travels, and they think they've got
Speaker 2: the best defense in the country, and that's not embellishing anything.
Speaker 2: You look at what they've got, probably the best interior
Speaker 2: defensive line ship that they've had since I've been covering
Speaker 2: Michigan football, and that's a long time with Kenneth Grant,
Speaker 2: Mason Graham, Rayshawn Benny. Those guys are monsters in there.
Speaker 2: And then you've got a secondary that's got an All
Speaker 2: American and Will Johnson and veterans on the back end
Speaker 2: in Quinton Johnson and McCary page, a couple of linebackers
Speaker 2: they think are going to be playing in the Pros,
Speaker 2: and Ernest Hausman and jay Sean Barram, a kid who
Speaker 2: came over from Maryland. And it's going to be hard
Speaker 2: to move the ball on these guys. So what they've
Speaker 2: got to do is get some complimentary football from the offense,
Speaker 2: and it's going to come down to the quarterback play right,
Speaker 2: But there is a ton of talent on that side
Speaker 2: of the ball. People don't understand that. Everybody talks about
Speaker 2: the offensive lineman that they lost, but they've got four
Speaker 2: stars and guys that have been waiting their turn that
Speaker 2: are going to be just as good in some situations
Speaker 2: as they were last year. If you look at a
Speaker 2: guy like Giovanni Ohatti, who could have been starting just
Speaker 2: about anywhere in the country. Last year at guard. Josh Preeb,
Speaker 2: who came over from Northwestern, was a third team All
Speaker 2: Big Ten guy. If he'd played at a school like
Speaker 2: Michigan last year, probably would have been an All American.
Speaker 2: He's that good. So it's really going to come down
Speaker 2: to quarterback play. Jack Tuttle's been slowed by a shoulder.
Speaker 2: He had a great summer, so that has been a disappointment.
Speaker 2: But Davis Warren getting a lot of snaps, and then
Speaker 2: Alex Orgy is an outstanding athlete. They are going to
Speaker 2: play him. And Kirk Campbell, the offensive coordinator, has said
Speaker 2: as much. He said, you know what, even if he's
Speaker 2: not our starting quarterback, we've got to get him on
Speaker 2: the field. He's one of our best eleven eleven guys.
Speaker 2: But elite running backs in Donovan Edwards, Khalel Mullings. They
Speaker 2: love this freshman Jordan Marshall, and a guy in Tyler
Speaker 2: Morris at receiver who's going to be more than adequate
Speaker 2: as a number one and an elite All American tight end.
Speaker 2: If you look at the roster, there aren't very many
Speaker 2: rosters in the Big Ten better maybe Ohio State, maybe Oregon.
Speaker 2: Michigan's going to be right there as long as they
Speaker 2: get good quarterback play.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Chris, it's a hell of a schedule. I love
Speaker 1: what you tweeted out yesterday. You had a picture of
Speaker 1: Charon Moore and here was the saying, when you're at
Speaker 1: the bottom, they don't respect you. When you're in the middle,
Speaker 1: they ignore you. When you're at the top, they hate
Speaker 1: you for us. Were just going to keep on rolling.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that.
Speaker 1: Is That's just not football stuff. That's life stuff. I
Speaker 1: love that stuff. I eat that stuff up and I
Speaker 1: know you do too. But there's an influence coaches can
Speaker 1: have and a confidence they can project. Harbad did that
Speaker 1: he was a hell of a football coach even before
Speaker 1: he won a national championship. What kind of coach do
Speaker 1: you think Sharon Moore proved he was last year in
Speaker 1: filling in and how he can carry that over to
Speaker 1: create and continue that confidence with this team this year.
Speaker 2: You know what, there was so much pressure on him
Speaker 2: in that Penn State game last year's ship and that's
Speaker 2: when the emotion came out and everybody. Some people criticized
Speaker 2: him for cussing on air, and that was his pure,
Speaker 2: raw emotion, and that's the kind of guy he is.
Speaker 2: This is one of the best people that I've ever
Speaker 2: met in this business in terms of a man as
Speaker 2: a family guy, a guy who relates to his players.
Speaker 2: I have never heard anybody say a bad word about
Speaker 2: him and his coaching style. Guys love to play for him.
Speaker 2: You look at his offensive lineman and they just don't
Speaker 2: want to let him down. That's the kind of leader
Speaker 2: that he is, and he's learned from the best. He's
Speaker 2: kind of been groomed for this. You know. A couple
Speaker 2: of years ago, Jim Harbaugh in fact, was saying that, Hey,
Speaker 2: I want it in my contract that Sharon Moore is
Speaker 2: going to succeed me. And that's I think the ultimate compliment. Right,
Speaker 2: You've built this thing, and this is the guy that
Speaker 2: you want to continue your legacy here, to continue Michigan football.
Speaker 2: And make no mistake, Jim Harbaugh loves Michigan football and
Speaker 2: he wants the best for them after he leaves. So
Speaker 2: I thought that spoke volumes. But the confidence that I'm
Speaker 2: seeing from him each time that we get to see him,
Speaker 2: whether it's at the Big Ten media day, whether it's
Speaker 2: in front of the media yesterday like we got him,
Speaker 2: you can just sense that, Okay, he understands that he's
Speaker 2: got a good football team. He knows he's a good
Speaker 2: football coach, and he surrounded himself with some great talented
Speaker 2: coaches as well. You just get that sense that he's
Speaker 2: getting more and more confident that he's got what it
Speaker 2: takes in this job. Now, there are no guarantees here, right.
Speaker 2: Everybody's going to point to his lack of experience, and
Speaker 2: that's fair, but there have been guys that have been
Speaker 2: very experienced who have failed here, like Rich Rodriguez, who
Speaker 2: I thought was a bad fit from the get go.
Speaker 2: A lot of it is about fit and timing, and
Speaker 2: I go back to Lloyd Carr succeeding coach Gary Moeller,
Speaker 2: after bost Schambeckler, and you look at people like that.
Speaker 2: You know that Tom Izzo succeeding jud Heathcote, right, And
Speaker 2: sometimes it's just the best bit and the right guy
Speaker 2: in the right situation. I think charoon War is that, yeah.
Speaker 1: And I love Gary Mueller at Michigan. I loved him
Speaker 1: with the Lions as well. Just a good, good man.
Speaker 1: Chris Ballast or the Wolverine joining us. You can follow him
Speaker 1: on Twitter at ballast Underscore Wolverine. Let's talk about the schedule.
Speaker 1: I don't want how many games are they going to
Speaker 1: win because we don't know. We don't know what this
Speaker 1: team is going to look like. You don't even we're
Speaker 1: not even sure who the quarterback is going to be.
Speaker 1: Injuries can take place at any time, so you could
Speaker 1: see a team like Texas, you know, get get nicked
Speaker 1: and bruised a little bit. That would cause some problems
Speaker 1: to their national championship hopes. We were talking about this
Speaker 1: the other day. Penn State has a relatively easy road.
Speaker 1: I don't know how they've they've gotten away with the
Speaker 1: schedule that they've got. Michigan schedules really challenging. Where is
Speaker 1: where in lies the challenge? The biggest challenge for this team?
Speaker 1: Is it the stretch with at Champagne or Bana, at
Speaker 1: home against MSHU and then at home against Oregon? Is
Speaker 1: it early on with Texas? What's your overall read on
Speaker 1: the schedule and the biggest challenge that awaits.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know that's a great question too. And I've
Speaker 2: kind of pointed to that Washington game on the fifth
Speaker 2: of October, and everybody looks at them and said, looks
Speaker 2: at what they've lost. And I go back and Michigan
Speaker 2: on the coast. I think has won one true road
Speaker 2: game on the West Coast in my lifetime that I remember,
Speaker 2: and that was at UCLA in nineteen eighty nine, and
Speaker 2: they needed a non side kick late in that game
Speaker 2: to go their way to win that game. To pull
Speaker 2: that one out. It is hard to travel out to
Speaker 2: the coast and win. I go back to Oregon in
Speaker 2: two thousand and three, Washington in the mid eighties. That's
Speaker 2: how old I am, chef. But it doesn't matter the
Speaker 2: level of talent. You know, Jeed Fish is a good
Speaker 2: football coach and there's going to be some talent on
Speaker 2: that team. That's the one game that I point to
Speaker 2: where I say, okay, they play them after USC and
Speaker 2: USC home is not going to be a capewalk. I
Speaker 2: think Michigan's a ten point favorite in the preseason there.
Speaker 2: They've got a lot of talent, and they've got a
Speaker 2: new defensive coordinator who actually cares about defense now, so
Speaker 2: I think USC will be a better defensive football team,
Speaker 2: and they've got a lot of talent. So those are
Speaker 2: the two games right there that I'm looking at. Obviously Texas,
Speaker 2: you know they're coming in as a top five team,
Speaker 2: but Michigan is a tough to beat at home. And
Speaker 2: I think you see that on Sharon Moore's face when
Speaker 2: he was asked about the schedule yesterday's Jeff he said,
Speaker 2: you know, these teams have to play us too. Everybody's
Speaker 2: talking about our schedule, and we have to play organ
Speaker 2: at home. We have to play Texas, have to go
Speaker 2: to Ohio State, they have to play us too. And
Speaker 2: we still got a lot of talent and a lot
Speaker 2: of pride playing at home. So but those are really
Speaker 2: that's kind of the stretch right there, going out to Washington.
Speaker 2: If you get by that Washington game, if you get
Speaker 2: by Texas somehow and you go out to Washington and
Speaker 2: you beat them, then watch out. But it's interesting too,
Speaker 2: right because you're kind of playing for something different now.
Speaker 2: You know, you can lose a couple of games and
Speaker 2: you still make the playoffs. So and that's what they
Speaker 2: have in mind. And if you're playing good football at
Speaker 2: the end of the year, you still have a couple
Speaker 2: of losses still right there in the hunt for national championship.
Speaker 1: Hey, I brought you down to talk Michigan and I
Speaker 1: respect it and it's been great, but I do want
Speaker 1: I respect your opinion on the overall thought of where
Speaker 1: college football is right now. Kyle Whittingham, Utah head coach said,
Speaker 1: another big changes coming. He could actually see super conferences
Speaker 1: where forty to sixty teams are just playing one another
Speaker 1: every single year in rotation, and what that does to
Speaker 1: mid major programs and how it hurts some of these
Speaker 1: other kids who maybe not be on Michigan's radar. As
Speaker 1: a guy who's covered college football for as long as
Speaker 1: you have, how do you feel about that? Because it
Speaker 1: really disappoints and disturbs me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as a traditionalist, I hate at CHIP and to me,
Speaker 2: you know, your programs like Central Michigan and we all
Speaker 2: have family and friends right that have played that have
Speaker 2: had kids that play to some of these schools or
Speaker 2: followed them closely, and those are going to be theater
Speaker 2: programs for the big schools. What they need to do,
Speaker 2: number one is get rid of the one year transfer
Speaker 2: rule and protect some of these smaller programs as well.
Speaker 2: And I think we're headed that way. I think you're
Speaker 2: going to see contracts sign. Hey, if you're with us,
Speaker 2: you're with us for at least two years, with us
Speaker 2: four years, so that they can protect themselves a little bit.
Speaker 2: Otherwise there's going to be no use to even have
Speaker 2: programs at these smaller schools. And it's a disappointment, but
Speaker 2: it's professional football now, is how it was explained to me.
Speaker 2: I was talking to somebody with one of the collectives
Speaker 2: and they said, you know, the NCAA is going to
Speaker 2: be defunct in two or three years because they are
Speaker 2: one of those organizations that was set up to protect
Speaker 2: and serve amateur athletics. This is not amateur athletics anymore.
Speaker 2: This is professional football and that's where we're headed. Shep.
Speaker 2: And as a traditionalist, I hate it, but you know what,
Speaker 2: it's something that we're going to have to live with
Speaker 2: because it's definitely common.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right about that. Really, respect the opinion, love
Speaker 1: the work as always, You and John are the best man.
Speaker 1: Really appreciate the time. Have a great season, my friend.
Speaker 1: Hope we can talk again soon. All the best to
Speaker 1: you and the family.
Speaker 2: We will thanks, Shep. Take care