00:01all right michigan michigan state back in action this weekend spartans hosting northwestern and
00:07i got you put something in your show sheet that intrigued me about michigan state we'll get to
00:11that in a minute uh spartans a seven and a half point underdog michigan a i believe a six point
00:17favorite playing host to penn state uh saturday at 3 30 at the big house um and yesterday kyle
00:24whittingham says expect the change of punt returner andrew battle lola is back at practice
00:29the big tackle five-star recruit who's been banged up and they certainly are still looking for answers
00:35up front and bryce underwood is the starting quarterback and and people were wondering if
00:40they were going to make a change in a bye week the twos already were scheduled to get more reps
00:44and
00:44tommy carr indeed got more reps with the ones which means tommy is gaining more and more experience all
00:50the time i'm constantly asked about this and the one thing i will say and then kyle whittingham said
00:56the reason he's starting bryce is it gives him the best chance to win the thing that i noticed when
01:03i was fortunate enough to get a role on part as part of the michigan network is i got a
01:11chance to go to
01:11practice and going to practice the one thing i will come away saying is after seeing practice over
01:20the years one thing that has become obvious to me is who's playing and why they're playing
01:30i have not seen practice lately okay so to be clear on that but when i do go to practice
01:40it oftentimes answers the question about why someone's playing over someone else in fact almost
01:47every time because you'll go to practice with an eye on a position battle where in your head you're
01:52thinking shouldn't this other guy be playing so i'll go watch some of that and almost always i walk
01:59away going oh that's why usually it's seen through practice now to be clear tommy's very talented and i
02:07think tommy carr has a chance to be an exceptionally good collegiate quarterback i've talked some people to
02:12some people to think tommy in fact could be better than cj and cj carr is one heck of a
02:16quarterback
02:18but the other thing about tommy carr is that tommy carr will be when he does get on the field
02:24in real
02:25game situations um if it's this year he'll be dealing with much of what bryce was dealing with
02:31last year and that is being a true freshman seeing things for the first time including the speed of the
02:36game and look you can you can replicate a lot um but when you get in the into game time
02:42situations
02:42the opponent isn't so friendly as they are in practice so that's another part of the challenge
02:50it's very rare to me that a coach will start someone that doesn't give him what he deems in
02:55that moment the best chance to win now can that change it sounds like it can
03:03any goodwill that bryce built where the fans started to get encouraged in the iowa game feels
03:08like it all went out the window of minnesota minnesota was a a a performance that you hope
03:15is the anomaly if you're a michigan fan moving forward but you know the the last two data points
03:20we saw was bryce turning a corner and then bryce taking a step back and i do doubt do i
03:26think this is
03:27an important start for bryce oh yeah i think this is an important start for bryce
03:32and an important two games here with penn state and indiana coming in the next two weeks
03:38um so anyway the answer is boring it's really boring but the truth is when i when i've gone to
03:46practice in the past and had to answer questions about why one player is playing over another
03:50usually when you're at practice you see it the the answer is obvious now i know what we're going
03:56to get we're going to get texts and people saying well what's what what about a guy who's just a
04:00gamer and that's a real thing that is a real thing because i know that there are guys that
04:05were starting because they look great in practice and then they got in games and they just they
04:12couldn't do it and there's the inverse of that as well and so that is that is worth a try
04:18i think
04:18it's hard though to get coaches to agree to do that because it feels like you're it's almost like a
04:24it's like a hail mary um but with that said it doesn't mean at some point bryce doesn't have a
04:31you know a leash that goes forever is my guess here and if if the turnovers and and some of
04:37the
04:37running into pass rush stuff continues which i thought was kind of weird um in the minnesota game
04:44it's a lot harder than it looks but when the pocket collapses he's got to do and when the pocket
04:49doesn't collapse he's got to do a good job feeling that and sometimes that comes with experience and
04:54sometimes it doesn't well if you're michigan this week you're hoping that you're able to run the
04:58football more than anything else because penn state does not defend the well the run well at all they're
05:02second to last in the big 10 ahead of only rutgers they allow way too many yards per game uh
05:08165
05:09yards per game um in in the five games in the six games they've played a ton of that came
05:15against
05:15northwestern but that's skewed the numbers quite a bit it does a little bit yeah but they still
05:20easier to run against if you're michigan you're probably thinking you can do that because
05:25defensively penn state's the best team in the big 10 i believe against the pass um or second i guess
05:31compared to michigan they're right behind michigan and defending the pass uh but it's a lower complete
05:36percentage against them they've got they've given up fewer touchdowns on michigan and they've got more
05:41interceptions than michigan does on defense but michigan gives up fewer yards in the air but it's
05:46going to be tough sledding to throw the football against them i guess is my point and they may have
05:52to this may have to be the the old get right game when it comes to their running game there's
05:56no excuse
05:57for why michigan is unable to run the football this year it doesn't make any sense this this team has
06:03got too much talent to be mired you know in the bottom third of the big 10 in in rushing
06:09with just 135 yards a game it just it's it doesn't make any sense uh when it comes to bryce
06:15underwood
06:17and and tommy carr is it is it simply right at this point is the most stark reason you can
06:24see why
06:24time of cars not out there is it lack of physical maturity i mean his body hasn't you know he's
06:29not
06:29there yet it's a real thing um i'll just tell them who the player was dylan mccaffrey when dylan
06:36mccaffrey was at michigan his spindly little arms was coming out from underneath the shoulder pads
06:41and i thought wow that kid needs to put on a lot of size and sure enough he got hurt
06:45he got hit and
06:46he broke a bone and he it was a talented player but you know the freshmen come in and they're
06:52playing
06:52against grown men and yeah you if some are more physically ready like sabion hider dude that kid
06:59looks like a fifth year senior physically so fresh out of high school and bryce very impressive
07:04physical specimen like they're ready for what is going to be a very difficult thing and tommy tommy
07:10needs tommy carr probably needs to put on weight and and again i i think he has a chance to
07:14be
07:15exceptionally good um but it you know i that that would be something i'd like i'd like to see tommy
07:22bulk up as much i'm sure he is i'm sure he is but yeah and look i don't think it's
07:26any malpractice
07:27of what whittingham has said and he's saying the right things we're going to play the guys who give
07:31us the best chance to win and but he also talked about turnovers being an issue and if they continue
07:37to turn the ball over then they're going to have to make some changes well where is that going to
07:40come likely at the quarterback position because that's the guy who's got the ball in his hands
07:45and if he continues to turn the ball over he's not going to have many more opportunities to do so
07:49and they're going to be forced to have to go with the true freshman uh that may or may not
07:54be pushing
07:55very well could happen i mean he got more reps because you got the the bye week and you get
07:59the
07:59second team reps is is what they say but i think two things can be true at the same time
08:03yes you get
08:05more reps during the bye week as a second unit because this is the time we can do that but
08:10also
08:10perhaps the benefit of that is we want to take a closer look at timey carr and see how he
08:14handles
08:15things okay um 2485-3997-97 if you want to get in on that in the meantime you put on
08:21your show
08:21sheet pat fitzgerald downplays game against northwestern says he's a spartan and then you
08:26write dot dot dot hmm yeah because i think when you say things like that you might think that you're
08:32saying the right thing but i don't think there's anything wrong with saying yeah it's a big game for
08:36me it going against the team that i played for the team that i coached obviously he didn't want to
08:42leave northwestern he was forced out of northwestern uh and then exonerated uh after the fact but by then
08:49it's too late so now he's moved on and i i can appreciate him saying i moved on i'm a
08:54spartan
08:54now but i would i have a hard time thinking that this game doesn't mean more and i didn't see
09:00the
09:01whole quote the whole press conference of him talking about it but that one thing just kind
09:04of stood out that he's a spartan now okay great i love to hear that but i i gotta believe
09:10deep in
09:11your heart you bleed purple as well i mean it's okay to to be bleeding green and white right now
09:15but
09:16i think you can acknowledge that this is a big game football leads to um weird marriages sometimes
09:21and and interesting situations and that you know not that there's anything wrong with coaches move
09:27around you know you almost almost invariably you're going to go up against a place that you used to
09:32coach or a place you used to play right and look and this is what and i love pat fitzgerald
09:37i think
09:37he's great for this program and i hope that moving forward that it's only going to get better and better
09:41and better but to your point yeah brett bielema coached at wisconsin after playing at iowa
09:47and you know goes out to win arkansas now it comes back and now he's coaching at illinois
09:51so yeah you can go ahead and coach other places along the way even though yet it seemingly had the
09:58you know the perfect situation of the hometown boy comes home that does good 248-539-9797
10:05if you want to continue with wolverines or spartans talk we've got a big old tub of pretzels coming up
10:10as
10:10well get your questions in for the tub which we will have next here on carson anderson on 97.1
