00:05okay it is karshen anderson here on 97 1 2 4 8 5 3 9 97 97 uh brad holm
00:12speaking at this hour
00:13we'll pass along the most interesting stuff he has to say uh in in the 11 o'clock hour also
00:20we've
00:20got fun with vegas odds at 12 30 we got the college football blitz thingy at 10 30 as we
00:26are ready for
00:27the college games tomorrow night rutgers umass at six gator i assume he'll be in front of your tv
00:33oh yeah yeah uh and then of course friday michigan state plays saturday michigan plays
00:39and um eastern plays friday night against san jose state a san jose state team that put up a bunch
00:46of points to score 26 against usc they got down big early um so that'll be a test for the
00:53eagles
00:53you got western michigan obviously playing at michigan i think western michigan is a
00:58a strong sleeper for a group of six playoff team uh central michigan uh they play at new mexico
01:09saturday night at 10 p.m great great start time there uh but anyway for those of you leaving
01:14michigan western michigan you can tune into that game when you get home um but we were just talking
01:21about guys down the roster that need to play well that are really completely unproven i'll start we
01:29should start with blake miller blake miller is it is so much is riding on brad being right with this
01:37rookie and it can go a variety of direction we for directions we don't know if he's going to be
01:43great
01:43or if he's going to stink they there hasn't been reason to believe that he will you know be a
01:49problem
01:49in year one but he kind of has to perform doesn't he yes yeah he does uh and i thought
01:56he looked
01:57good in the preseason with limited plays we saw uh of him i think he's a guy that has this
02:04um a very
02:05very very high floor i don't know how high the ceiling is but obviously it's certainly higher than
02:10what it is now um if people want to compare him to taylor decker and hope that he's or expect
02:17him to be
02:17the next taylor decker if you're upset by that don't be because that's a hell of a comparison i'd
02:21take taylor decker for another 10 years that'd be great um and he's over on the right side so that's
02:28even better because the guy at the left side protecting your quarterback's blind side is the
02:31best in the business so i yeah i think he's vitally important to what this team expects to do from
02:38from
02:38moment one of the season given the injury to isaiah pacheco and him being placed on uh injured reserve
02:48four weeks is the minimum that he will miss suddenly jacob sailors jabari small or sione vackey
02:59somebody's got to be hand be able to handle rb2 and you know what might give one of these guys
03:05tip the the hand in their in their favor is their ability to block to be a good in pass
03:12protection
03:14because you don't need to be a weapon when you're rb2 for the lions it's great that they've had david
03:20montgomery the last few years the minimum expectation has got to be protect the quarterback
03:27and you better be good in that regard which might give one of these guys a leg up on the
03:31other in terms
03:32of who gets the most snaps behind jameer gibbs yeah you're right um and you know jabari small is
03:38like 210 pounds uh sione vackey's 215 um and and then you've got sailors who's more of the running
03:46back of those of those guys at 195 pounds so i wouldn't expect him to be a guy who's going
03:51to be
03:51there in pass protection and hopefully they don't even have to to worry about it too much because
03:55they're efficient enough with jameer gibbs but yes a backup running back part of that skill set
04:01should be to protect the quarterback and then and know how to pick up the blitz and who to pick
04:06up
04:06is is the most important thing it's not just oh yeah i see this guy everywhere i'll get him well
04:11is
04:11that your responsibility or not you got to know the playbook but for me the guy that i look at
04:16this
04:16roster and i say he's gonna have to be good it's juice scruggs i mean you're the guy you're the
04:23guy
04:24who's playing at the starting center position which was you know a problem for this team last year they
04:29addressed it by signing cade mays but he's obviously out for a while probably for the first five games
04:34but we'll see so now you're uh you're thrown into this duty and you had competition at that position
04:40you had mclaughlin was taking reps there mason miller was taking reps there in the preseason they
04:46thought about moving tate ratledge over but juice scruggs had the experience and when they made the trade
04:52to acquire him with the david montgomery trade part of that give and take was that okay this guy's a
04:58solid backup player that has starting experience at guard and center okay well he's going to have to be
05:05the big part of this team right now and hopefully over the next couple of weeks what they're really
05:09working on is the center quarterback exchange because that's been a problem with everybody
05:13in training camp and obviously at playing center now you're thrusting the starting duties you have to
05:19know those calls you've got to know the protections and hopefully he's got the head on his shoulders
05:26he's able to accomplish that i go back to what john jansen has said about him that he's an upgrade
05:31at
05:31center over what they had last year with graham glasgow um and this isn't even the guy who's supposed
05:37to be the starter but he is huge yeah i agree with you gator i'd love to say somebody else
05:42but the
05:43offensive line is the engine that runs this team i know we all know the deficiencies with the safety
05:48position with the two guys being hurt we all know that uh there are there have often elite
05:53offensive weapons but those elite offensive weapons can't get going unless they can pass block and run
05:58block so juice scruggs stepping in right away is going to be huge and it's ironic that they trade
06:03we're talking about like the backup running back being hurt it's ironic that he traded their backup
06:07running back for juice scruggs and now he's gonna have to play a significant role the first part of
06:10the season i just feel like even during the regular or preseason sorry the the part i was watching the
06:16most was the center position whether it was seth mclaughlin or drew scruggs like who's going to
06:20handle this communication get the assignments correct with the offensive line also handle the
06:25blocking of course so to me that's the the guy i'm watching the most the first part of the season
06:30because we don't we all saw how bad it was when the offensive line wasn't clicking last year even if
06:35they were scoring points they just didn't look like the same offensive team i just hope they're getting
06:40their injury quotas in early in the year guys are going to miss they're going to miss man games early
06:45in the
06:45year and then have everybody fresh down the stretch that's that's that's what i'm really hoping
06:49uh from an unnamed i'm sorry from mickey and garden city rock ya sin needs to be good this season
06:56yeah guys who aren't considered their best players that need to step up like that entire secondary
07:04is filled with what i would call
07:09logical bets there's a logical bet that chuck clark
07:14rock ya sin avante maddox and christian izian who all might start for them in a nickel defense
07:22that those guys have shown that they can play in the nfl they've all got nfl experience starting
07:31experience from around the league with this team and with others none of them are considered
07:38like pro bowl caliber players are even pushing that but they're all pros not not all but they're
07:46all professionals they're all professionals who have played and made plays in this league before
07:51rock ya sin is a great call of a guy down the roster of in terms of how talented they
07:57are that needs to
07:58have a good season yeah and i'll go with another one in the secondary chuck clark
08:03yeah uh looks like he might have the the leg up to be the one of the starting safeties there
08:08um
08:08you know you're replacing all pro candidate type players uh whether it's it's branch or joseph both of
08:16those guys are all pro caliber players so can chuck clark come in there along with avante maddox
08:21both of those guys in the secondary can they calm things down can they alleviate our concerns about
08:28what on paper might be dreadful because you've lost these two high quality safeties
08:32here come two backups but you know they're guys that played a little bit in the nfl here so maybe
08:37we shouldn't be you know too much uh with the pearl clutching here maybe they're gonna be fine
08:42because we're clutching it pretty much
08:47more feedback of course the lions knew pacheco was going on our ir they like their rb2 potential
08:54of sailors they weren't going to go out and sign a name for any amount of money they didn't want
08:59the
08:59distraction of kareem hunt by signing him short term portals will ask why they didn't get he didn't get
09:04hunt over pacheco in the first place i'm not sure the point of that text i i don't i don't
09:10love either
09:10one i didn't love pacheco when they signed him in the first place and i don't love kareem hunt either
09:15so you know they didn't go for kareem hunt i'm i'm glad with that because his best days were his
09:21rookie season and as far as pacheco's concerned you know i i did i didn't like i didn't like that
09:29that signing i wish they had a better plan b for trading away david montgomery see i'm not super
09:35worried about the pacheco injury because jameer gibbs is going to be the bell cow this year and
09:41pacheco was brought in to do short yardage and you know just maybe give a breath a take you know
09:47breather to gibbs but overall gibbs is going to have to step up a little bit even more now and
09:51before they had like craig reynolds right guys but craig reynolds wasn't craig reynolds until we
09:55saw it i think maybe they're hoping one of these guys steps up and is the next you know hey
09:59guy we
10:00didn't know about really but he can fill in okay you're not asking him to take on david montgomery's role
10:04right you're asking him just to step in for every now and then because gibbs is going to be the
10:08guy
10:08this is why scruggs and miller are so vitally important because if the offensive line is opening
10:13holes on a running game like we saw the second and third team offensive lines do in the preseason
10:19if this offensive line is good and they can do that then gibbs is going to have a monster season
10:26and then whoever is the backup let's say sailors here sailors has a chance to have a real nice
10:32complimentary season uh could you guys please ask gator if yesterday was his final straw and he
10:39finally decided to give up on the tigers this season that's from nick at work and on twitch debt
10:43313 says yesterday has to be the final straw for gator right he has to have given up on the
10:48tags
10:48well there's a difference between giving up and stop watching right um i will say that uh yeah i mean
10:54as far as giving up hope think they're a playoff team that happened days ago yeah that's that's not
11:00even a concern anymore i'm just watching for the young kids to get their chance to play
11:04and i have some head-scratching moments of what they've decided to do with this team in the meantime
11:10but last night's game the 15 to 2 loss you know i hadn't it ended up being background noise
11:17all right straight ahead the nil transfer portal live animal mascot trophy game around the country
11:22blitz thingy we talk some college football next on 971
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