00:0025 minutes away from $2,000. Can you get all 10 right? The two grand slam. Good morning, 97.1.
00:07Keep saying it's Tuesday. That feels like a Monday for some of us.
00:11Oh, pretty much like a Tuesday.
00:13John, you were here yesterday with Stoney doing the business day to the week.
00:16But for a lot of people getting up and starting their work week, we want to hear from you guys,
00:20not only on that Michigan football ending, but Bryce Underwood.
00:23Let's start with Kyle Whittingham. Kyle Whittingham's thoughts.
00:26This is how he addressed Bryce Underwood's status as QB1.
01:10I thought that was fair and honest a little more than I expected because he definitely opened the door for
01:16Bryce to lose this job.
01:17Oh, right. And I'm glad he threw in the coaches. I'm glad he threw in a lot of other things,
01:21but it all starts and ends with your quarterback play.
01:24We've got to turn a corner and see improvement. I mean, that's putting him on the hot seat.
01:29Go play better, kid. Your job's not forever. It's not infinite, as he says.
01:33Well, I mean, as I think we all understand, you're only penciled in, right?
01:39And it just takes one eraser to move you down the depth chart and pencil in someone else.
01:44And whoever that next guy is, and we know that Tommy Carr is the number two quarterback, but...
01:48Tommy Carr, is he related by any chance to...
01:51Yes, he is.
01:52Lloyd? CJ?
01:53He is also penciled in.
01:55And then we'll go through the...
01:58Because it's always clamoring for who's next, all right?
02:01And then when Tommy is there, because he's a freshman, he'll get a little bit of leeway,
02:04but it's always going to be, well, if he doesn't, then who's next?
02:08Oh, hey, Chase Herbstreit.
02:10You know his dad, right? Is he related?
02:12I've heard of him.
02:12Is he related?
02:15So it's...
02:16You're saying that the mystique, the allure of the backup quarterback.
02:20Sure.
02:20I'll say it.
02:21It's more so, though, with the name Carr at a place like Michigan.
02:25Sure.
02:25With Bryce, he didn't play uneven on Saturday night.
02:28Uneven would be generous.
02:30He played awful.
02:31He was abysmal.
02:33The opening drive, you spotlighted this.
02:35Everyone's going to say, boy, he was in rhythm.
02:37He made some plays.
02:38Even on that opening drive, you saw a mistake.
02:41Well, yeah, I mean, obviously, I mean, the ball that's on the ground that he throws to J.J. Buchanan,
02:47you know, one-handed catch that went for eight yards when they needed six, it felt like it was a
02:51lot longer
02:52because he was throwing the ball from so far back.
02:54That was on the center, right?
02:55Hey, I'll give him the props of gathering the ball, getting the ball off, and putting it in the range
03:02of where somebody can make a catch.
03:04But it's the fifth play of the drive where he is in the shotgun position, watching everything,
03:11and then all of a sudden, it's, hey, the running back goes in motion, linebacker goes with him.
03:17Instantly, I'm thinking, well, I'm not going to throw it to Jalen Hoffman, who he ultimately did,
03:21because a linebacker's going that way.
03:23If you do that against Oklahoma, Cole Sullivan, old friend, is going to take that to the house.
03:29It was almost tipped and batted down, but it was completion.
03:33Everybody looks at that going, hey, tight window, nice job.
03:38No, his eyes should have instantly gone from my number one is Jalen Hoffman to backside where the linebacker vacated.
03:47It was a successful play, not where the ball should have gone.
03:52But it was foreshadowing.
03:53So the drive ends with Bryce having three different runs in the red zone.
03:56That was an added wrinkle everybody wanted to see.
03:58So everybody's puffing up their chest.
04:00Hey, here we go.
04:01So that throw that you're referencing, locking in, staring down people, got him burned as the game went on.
04:10He got away with two other throws that should have been picked.
04:12And then he had the one before halftime, staring down the receiver on the out route.
04:15I don't know why he cut that loose.
04:17I don't know what he's thinking there.
04:19And then the fumble in the fourth quarter.
04:21So he had two turnovers.
04:22He could have had at least another two turnovers.
04:24John, there's a third down.
04:25You know the play I'm talking about where his footwork's all mangled and he can't step into it.
04:29Wide open running back in the flat and they don't convert the third down.
04:32It's like, this isn't Belleville High School anymore.
04:36No, but it's also when Coach Whittingham says, coaches got to get better.
04:42So do the play calls because you look at the one where it was intercepted.
04:48But Western Michigan had stepped out of bounds.
04:51That's the player that tipped it.
04:53You've got the extra offensive lineman in there.
04:56So you've already got six in protection.
04:57You keep in a tight end.
05:01So now you have seven in protection.
05:02With the quarterback, you have eight in the backfield, which means you've only got three receivers.
05:09They rushed four.
05:10So let's do the quick math.
05:13Three receivers options down the field.
05:17And you have seven defenders between linebackers and defensive backs.
05:21As a quarterback, that's not a great position to be in.
05:25Now, the decision should have been, I run out of bounds.
05:29I eat the ball.
05:30I take a sack.
05:31I sail the ball.
05:31Whatever it is, that should have been the decision.
05:35Ultimately, he decided to throw it.
05:37Thankfully, it wasn't actually an interception.
05:40So last year, I felt this way, and I felt like it was absolutely unfair to a freshman to say
05:45this about a player.
05:46And you let him enter year two, and it should change.
05:50I think the game is too fast for him.
05:52I really do.
05:53And when the game is too fast, you get out of rhythm.
05:55Things start breaking down.
05:57And then you stop doing, you know, like you were talking about the footwork.
06:02Footwork, it all starts to crumble when you're processing other things.
06:06It's too much.
06:07That's staring down at receivers because you can't see the field and process it fast enough, right?
06:12Your footwork is a result.
06:14You're right.
06:14Maybe it all comes down to the game is still too fast for Bryce.
06:17I felt that watching him last year.
06:18I felt it was unfair to criticize a freshman college quarterback for that, even with the hype he had.
06:23You know, he's playing out to the narrative that people, you know, questioned where he played at in high school
06:29in the competition that he played.
06:30And that he looked like a five-star in that situation, but he's really a three-star.
06:35And that narrative seems like it's playing out.
06:38248-539-9797.
06:40Let's get to Antoine in Detroit.
06:41You're on 97.1.
06:43Hey, man.
06:44How you doing this morning?
06:45What's up?
06:47Honestly, I know we're putting a lot of the blame on Bryce, man.
06:50Let's just be honest, man.
06:51Michigan has been declining these last two years to where they're not putting the product of football that we're accustomed
06:58to on the field.
07:00Western Michigan came out and played the best ball they probably played in a long time against them.
07:05But at the same time, we can't just sit up there and put all the blame on Bryce.
07:10In my eyes, I honestly feel like ever since Harbaugh has left, they've been declining.
07:16It just hasn't been showing as prominent.
07:19Yes, they didn't score as many points, but you can't really put that all on Bryce.
07:23The offensive line looked terrible.
07:26The defense allowing 12 points against a Mac team, that's not something that's going to cut it in the Big
07:32Ten this year.
07:33I feel like everybody else has got better, and Michigan kind of stayed status quo.
07:38We got too many good teams in the Big Ten.
07:41I don't really think that this was a fluke, per se.
07:44I think, honestly, if we want to be real, I think this was college football saving a legacy team to
07:50where that, you know,
07:51if Western Michigan would have beat Michigan in an opening week, it almost would have been worse than Appalachian State
07:56because they were definitely a huge favor.
07:59They paid them almost a million and a half dollars to come play.
08:02Every other team in the top 25 who does something like that, they put BTA, excuse me, if you understand
08:08what that means.
08:09So I just honestly got to say, like, yes, Bryce is a sophomore, a true sophomore, but he doesn't have
08:15the tools.
08:16Yes, you guys have a great tight end.
08:18Michigan has been producing great tight ends over the last few years, but I feel like all the other skill
08:22positions, the defense,
08:24like, I just hate to say it this way, I think this might be the only win,
08:27or I think they might go about 2-9 this year just because of the competition that they have to
08:32face.
08:32I feel like everyone's gotten better, and Michigan kind of just stayed where they were at.
08:35So I wouldn't put this loss all the way on Bryce.
08:38Bryce, I would honestly say, like, coaches, staff, play caller.
08:40Oh, it's not all Bryce.
08:42Antoine, first of all, I'll say this.
08:4512 points against the team is good.
08:48They didn't get into the end zone.
08:49Even though they did allow a drive of 13 minutes and 40 seconds, 20 plays,
08:54they showed a backbone of not letting him into the end zone, forcing a field goal.
08:58But, and I don't think we have put this all on Bryce.
09:01No, but I want to be very clear about this because we're going to get more calls of people trying
09:05to kind of deflect the blame all around.
09:07There's plenty to go around.
09:08But what I don't want to do is treat Bryce Underwood like he's a child.
09:12We're not going to do kid gloves for a player in his second season of college football making millions with
09:18receivers from the portal,
09:19with a coaching staff that brought in a QB coach to work with him.
09:22I'm just not going to do kid gloves anymore.
09:24No, I think the bigger problem on Saturday was the offensive line.
09:29I did not expect the Western Michigan defensive front to handle Michigan's offensive line the way they did.
09:36You should be able to run the football.
09:39Even if, and we've seen this at times, even if you have sub-par quarterback play,
09:45what has Michigan done early in seasons?
09:48They've been able to run the football, and they've been able to win games like that game.
09:53They didn't have that on Saturday night because they were just outplayed up front.
10:00We talk about the play calling and the coaching, and one thing that stuck out to me,
10:06and I'm going to do this in a bit of a quiz for you guys, so let's hope this translates.
10:10I'm going to list a series of plays.
10:12Just play selection, run pass, out there.
10:14But these all have something in common, and I want you to tell me what these all have in common.
10:18Okay.
10:18It goes, and we'll do it in sequential chronological order.
10:23Pass, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, pass.
10:32Do you know what those plays are that I just mentioned?
10:35It's probably the second half.
10:37No, those are the first plays of each of Michigan's drive.
10:44They still tried to stubbornly run the football.
10:47Oh, yeah.
10:48They wanted to.
10:48They couldn't, and I think that's where John is right, former offensive lineman, but just
10:52right because it's true.
10:54They couldn't get a push.
10:56And I said pass twice.
10:57Those were the two possessions they scored on.
11:00Interesting.
11:01They couldn't get a push, and if you're going to get plays of, let's just get wild and crazy,
11:08four or five yards, you have to be able to get up on the linebackers.
11:14Western Michigan did a nice job of occupying the offensive linemen.
11:18It was like Michigan linemen were wearing Velcro.
11:20They were sticking to the defensive linemen and couldn't get up on the second level.
11:25If you can't get to the second level, you're going to have a whole lot of two and three
11:29yard runs.
11:30We got open lines.
11:31We'll take some phone calls, read some texts, then get to the two grand slams, 725.
11:36Overreact Jim's going to make their appearance at 735.
11:38It's 97.1.
