10/24/2026 7:02:00 PM | MGoBlue Podcasts
Jon Jansen• 00:00
Michigan drops one in overtime to Indiana thirteen six. We'll continue to hear from coach Whittingham and players in the locker room as well as myself and Brian Boesch, all here on in the Trenches.
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Jeff Laurence • 00:12
Welcome to the official podcast of Michigan football in the Trenches with Jon Jansen, presented by Meijer, presenting sponsor of the twenty twenty six Michigan football season and proud supporter of hundreds of local sports teams across the Midwest. Nobody covers Michigan football better than the two time captain, national champion Michigan athletics hall of honor inductee.
Channing Goodwin • 00:34
Definitely tough, for sure. I feel like just from an offense's perspective, we just gotta play complementary football and just have the defense back. So I mean, we just gotta come back next week and be ready for next week for real.
Jeff Laurence • 00:47
This is in the Trenches presented by Meijer. Once again, here's Jon Jansen
Jon Jansen • 00:53
And at this time, I'm gonna bring in my partner, Brian Boesch.
Brian Boesch • 00:56
It's such a gut punch here, Jon, because there were opportunities for Michigan, certainly Indiana, its defense had a lot to say about Michigan's inability to score and move the football a ton. But still you're sitting there, goal to go. In the final couple minutes of regulation, all you got to do is find a way to punch it in and you win the ball game.
Jon Jansen • 01:14
Yeah, I mean, you'd like to be able to get a couple of shots in the end zone and see what happens and hopefully win that game in regulation. But hats off to the defense. They did an unbelievable job all day long of creating opportunity for the Michigan offense for creating opportunity for this team to. And it's a Zeke Beery with the first interception on Josh Hoover all season long, preventing them from getting in the end zone during regulation and the job. And we talked about this pregame, Charlie Becker and Nick Marsh, each of those guys throughout the course of the year, one of them had gone over one hundred yards every single game. And at times they would both be over one hundred yards. Charlie Becker had three catches on seven targets for thirty two yards. Nick Marsh two catches on four targets for twenty five yards. Neither of them found the end zone.
Jon Jansen • 02:04
It was an unbelievable job by the secondary and I thought it was a terrific job by Jay Hill, the defensive coordinator of switching up looks, creating some pressure at times, especially early on. You know, we saw Troy Bowles get in there. We've seen, you know, Zeke coming off the edge. I thought it was a great job by the defense.
Brian Boesch • 02:24
And Chris Bracy had thirteen tackles in this ball game. Nathaniel Staehling second on the club with seven. It is such a disappointment because of that defensive effort, offensively though only two hundred and twenty four total yards. Michigan's running backs only able to muster fifty two total yards. It's early, we just watched it in real time. But why wasn't Michigan's offense able to get things going enough?
Jon Jansen • 02:49
There's no push in the run game. If you can't get push in the run game it really. And then you're sitting there going, well, we've got a freshman quarterback, it's his very first start against the number six team in the country. He went twenty or thirty two and I know he had the interception, I know he had the turn turnover in the early in the game. But you're asking him to be the reason that you go beat the number six team in the country. He wasn't. You know, the, the turnovers obviously is, is really what cost him this game. But outside of those, you could see a poised quarterback, you could see some things to build on. But it all comes back to the offensive line. One protection breakdowns in the second half where you're not giving your freshman quarterback enough time. But it's also just the fact that you weren't able to find any consistency in the run game.
Jon Jansen • 03:35
And outside of that second half against Penn State, that's been, that's been what this offense has been and what they've struggled with all season long.
Brian Boesch • 03:44
And the defense maximized what they had in front of them. But offensively you had a drive where it was third and goal at the one and it's a play action that goes awry and it was a double digit yard loss. Michigan had to punch in a field goal. Special teams, with Trey Butkowski, first time in his career collegiately missing two field goals in a game. You said it before the game, it was going to take a near perfect ball game. And Indiana made some mistakes too, but gosh, Michigan had some big time blunders and still were right there.
Jon Jansen • 04:13
Yeah, and I mean when you get down, it's third and one on the end goal at the one yard line. Like if I'm an offensive lineman, I am over on the sidelines and I am telling or I'm yelling at the sidelines, hey, we've got to run the football. And that's a situation too where I think if you run the football and you don't pick it up, you run it again on fourth down and it, it just kind of, it shows the lack of faith in the offensive line that your third and goal from the one and you decide to go with a rollout and it's a play Action, pass, everything breaks down at that point. And then because you take a sack, you've got to settle for a field goal. There's no chance of going forward on fourth down. You got to put points on the board. That, to me, is if I'm on that offensive line. I am, I am. I'm mad at myself because we didn't do enough throughout the course of the game to make the coaches believe.
Jon Jansen • 04:57
But when you get down there, that's where you've got to be able to put, punch the ball in.
Brian Boesch • 05:01
Initial analysis without the benefit of watching film on what you saw from true freshman Tommy Carr.
Jon Jansen • 05:07
You know, it's obviously those two turnovers were costly, and they're. They're clearly freshman mistakes. Right. The fumble.
Jon Jansen • 05:14
Hey, just eat it. And he did. Later in the game, there were a couple of times where, you know, he wanted to make a play so you could tell that he learned from it. But in this game, it cost him three points. And then the pass, while it was deflected and it was intercepted by somebody that wasn't even near where the pass was intended. There were four Indiana defenders around. The Michigan receiver, I think it was JJ Buchanan. There was no chance that that ball was going to be completed. So two. Two mistakes by a young quarterback that is learning on the job the rest of the game. I thought that he did an admirable job of recovering from those and finding a way to help this team get in position to win at the end.
Brian Boesch • 05:54
Before we let you go, we preview the upcoming schedule brought to you by Meijer. Michigan goes to Rutgers next week. And Jon at three losses through seven games. You know, there's no discussion about what Michigan could accomplish. The goals outside of the rivalry games are done now, but now it's about getting ready for the rivalry games and showing what this group can do to. To bounce back. They've had basically every game has come down to the wire. It seems like now it's a matter of how do you hold on to the locker room, keep this group continuing to battle, because the next five games, there's not a whole lot to play for in terms of any obviously, Big Ten, playoff stuff. You're playing for this group and trying to find a way to salvage something.
Jon Jansen • 06:31
Yeah, I mean, every time you go out there, you're playing to win. And yeah, there might be other things externally that are riding on it, but you're going out there and you. You want to dominate another individual across the ball from you. You want to dominate another team as a team, and you've got to find a way to. And for those guys that, hey, they're not going to be back next year because they're graduating, it's about finding something that works and, and trying to build on it from week in, week out. What can you do against Rutgers that you couldn't get done today? And hopefully it's the rushing attack. And then can you build on it when you face Michigan State the following week? Can you build on it when you go to Eugene or to, or when you get UCLA coming here and there? Yeah, the playoffs, the Big Ten, that ship is sailed. But you go out there every single time and you try and win the damn game and you try and get better and that's where this team is going to have to rely on.
Jon Jansen • 07:21
Seniors, captains, guys that have, they've seen some success here. This is not how the season that they wanted to see. But you've got to find a way to rally the troops and continue to play for yourself, for your, your brothers that are next to you, and for Michigan.
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Brian Boesch • 07:37
Doug, the reality was Michigan just made too many mistakes. A lot of folks believe Michigan needed to play close to a perfect game to have a chance really outside of the defense. Yet again, there were several mistakes that Michigan made, yet they were still on the doorstep. Goal to go in the final minute of regulation.
Doug Karsch • 07:54
Yeah, the inability to finish drives. But, you know, I mean, we could talk about really a bunch of things that went wrong offensively. Obviously, you know, you, you never want to turn it over. Michigan loses the turnover battle and Indiana wins the turnover battle for what is it the thirty second consecutive or doesn't lose the turnover battle the thirty second consecutive game. And you know, those were both short fields that produced Indiana six points in regulation. You know, I'm sure they're going to take a look at the play calling inside the red zone. I'm sure they're going to take a look at, you know, some things that they like to do to get the run game going, which, I mean, it's, it's hard. Both starting tackles are out and, you know, Marky Walbridge getting his first career start at right tackle, obviously. Tommy Carr getting his first career start.
Doug Karsch • 08:38
And you know, that configuration, that's the fifth different O line configuration they've been forced to go to this year. And Indiana's defense is just too good. I mean, you can't say, you always look in the mirror what you'd like to do better as a football team, but you can't say enough about an Indiana team that's got playmakers at all. Three levels. And they really did the job against the Michigan rushing attack. You know, twenty six attempts by Michigan running backs netted fifty two yards today. And it was a negative play with a running back in overtime that really got Michigan behind the chains. Now Tommy Carr bailed him out with that, with that scramble on fourth down and five. But Indiana is an exceptionally good team. You know, the special teams, the two missed field goals were costly. Certainly one, anytime you attempt a field goal from fifty three yards, you know that could be a problem.
Doug Karsch • 09:25
But the thirty two yard missed field goal is the one that they'll really regret at the beginning of the beginning of the third quarter. But it's a team game, man. And the Michigan defense is playing championship caliber football. I'm sure they don't love what happened in overtime, the only touchdown they allowed. But you can't be too critical of the Michigan defense. They were, they were tremendous and continue to give teams problems, you know, with, with the, with the red zone offense and they keep getting the football back for the offense. And I mean, look, you know, the first career start for Tommy Carr, twenty of thirty two, one hundred and sixty seven yards, the one interception and the one fumble. There's a lot to work with there. And you know, the rest of the way I'm not sure he's going to play a tougher defense than he faced today. So you got to find a way to, to build on it, to capitalize and try and you know, put together a winning streak here with a schedule that could, you could navigate.
Doug Karsch • 10:18
But obviously disappointed because Michigan's third loss of the season and I'm sure from a coaching perspective there's things they'd want to do different. And you know, sometimes you just got to put the young kid out there and he's got to learn from his mistakes and that's the big thing. Right? I'm rambling now, Brian. He's gotta, he's gotta learn from his mistakes and I suspect that he will.
Brian Boesch • 10:38
As we spotlight today's best in the game brought to you by Old Dominion Freight Line. Doug alluded to the defense. Old Dominion Freight line works hard to be the best in the game and is proud to support those striving to be the best in theirs. Charlie Becker, a season low in receiving yards with thirty two. Nick Marsh, second fewest of receiving yards this year. He had seventeen in their opener. Just two catches, twenty five yards today. It was the first Josh Hoover interception for two hundred sixteen pass attempts. And then Indiana basically just said we're going to run the football the rest of the way. It was a unfortunately wasted defensive effort today, and based on how this season has gone, it could be a wasted and likely is a wasted elite defense over the course of the twenty twenty six season.
Doug Karsch • 11:20
Yeah, you know, the secondary was so good for Michigan today. We could sit here and talk a job they did in coverage, and they were great in coverage. And Indiana got him with a bit of a sneak attack in overtime. We'll get to that in a minute. But Zeke Berry with the interception. Chris Bracy had thirteen total tackles, including one tfl. He's just been a missile shot out of the secondary in run support. And Indiana hadn't gone to the tight end all day, and then in overtime they did. They haven't used the tight end much this season coming into today's game with just five catches from tight ends on the year. But they got that ball down to Brock, shot inside the five and that set up Indiana's touchdown by Josh Hoover. So, you know, they went to the guy at the right time. And I mean, for Michigan, offensively, it's been pulling teeth. It's hard when you're struggling up front and you know, those kids are, are doing the best.
Doug Karsch • 12:10
I know they got some guys up there that are playing hurt. They got some guys who are, you know, thrown into the fire, like Marky Walbridge. But, you know, I think they got to take a look and say, all right, what can, can. Can they do better from an offensive line perspective and from a play calling perspective to try and give this team a better chance offensively to compete against the elites like Indiana and I, I, collectively, they did compete. This is a national championship contender. And the Hoosiers and the defending national champ, losing to them in overtime, there's nothing to be ashamed of. But that's not, that's not the standard here, right? You, you're trying to win football games like this and it was there for the taking. They just couldn't get the offense going.
Brian Boesch • 12:49
Yeah. And the reality is now Michigan four and three, they are going to be basically off the national radar. They will be a, a trip to Rutgers next week. Now it's about what can you muster out of this season? Because any hopes at any sort of, you know, big runs, comebacks, renewals to this season, it, it's gone now. It's five games to figure out, okay, how can you get better to, to try to go and pull an upset in Columbus and, and how do you build a foundation on what right now is a pretty rocky one in year one under Kyle Whittingham.
Doug Karsch • 13:19
Yeah, I mean, let's start with hoping they get Blake Frazier back soon and, and get their best five out there offensively. I think maybe they'd like to see more of Avery Gach. He was on the field last week when Michigan got the run game going and, you know, how can he fit in? Is there, is there a spot for him on this offensive line? The competition, I suspect, will continue. They're getting Jake Guarnera playing hurt, but given everything he can to this team. So, you know, it's, it's hard to do what you want to do offensively when you can't run. And you know, we mentioned the running back carries twenty six for fifty two yards is again, you got to credit Indiana's defense. There's a reason why we talked about him in such glowing terms in the pregame show, but that's back to the drawing board here a little bit, but a chance to, you know, the biggest thing is getting better from here.
Brian Boesch • 14:08
Right.
Doug Karsch • 14:09
And if all that does is springboard you into twenty twenty seven, then so be it.
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Brian Boesch • 14:14
Jack Miller, this one stings for a number of reasons, but I can't stop thinking about how good this Michigan defense is and how much Michigan has been unable to take advantage of it today and all season.
Jack Miller • 14:26
Yeah, I think that's what's so disheartening about this whole thing is when you watch a defense play, I mean, that's elite. That's championship style defense. The way they play up front the secondary, the way they've been able to stop opposing quarterbacks and wide receivers from really getting any sort of momentum going and being able to come up with explosive plays. We talked in the pregame show about Indiana's ability to find those explosive plays and really get them out of games. That wasn't the case today. The reason Indiana was able to win is our offense wasn't able to convert.
Brian Boesch • 14:54
Right.
Jack Miller • 14:54
And actually did things to hurt themselves when they found opportunities. Half of them buy the defense playing so well. And I think that's the part that, that, you know, you leave here and you're, you're disappointed in, is that defense is playing incredible, incredible defense. And the offense, not only is it not producing at a high level, it's hurting the team. And, and that's the part where you kind of shake your head and go, geez, if we just were okay, there'd be some things to pull out of this. You probably would have won the game with an okay offense. And, you know, the blame doesn't fall on one individual or you know, one coach, one player, just collectively. It's been hard to find an identity. It's been hard to find anything that they can rely on. And even when things aren't going good, they find ways to hurt themselves. And that reflects on the scoreboard.
Jack Miller • 15:39
And that's why you get a loss today.
Brian Boesch • 15:40
What were your takeaways from Michigan's offense with Tommy Carr being out there?
Jack Miller • 15:45
You know, he's a young guy, right? I mean, and that was the thing. I thought it was the right decision last week to put him in. In the second half against Penn State, the team needed some juice, the stadium needed some juice. It was the right play to make that and put him in and he played well and was able to win. Now he's playing the defending national champions and you know, they're the number six team. Got a lot of veterans on that defense that, that team in general and that, that's a tall order for a guy to do like that and like we said, to put it on him, which that's ended up, that's what it ended up being, was that he had to find a way to, to win the game. And that's not what you want for a guy in that position, right? The offensive line, the running game, not, not good enough by any stretch. You know, the play calling is suspect at times. What do they want to do?
Jack Miller • 16:28
There's just nothing that they can rely on to make it easy for a guy like that. He just didn't look super comfortable. Listen, you know, he made plays, he played hard, he had a lot of heart. I appreciate that out of him. I don't, I don't really put that on Tommy Carr. It's the offense in general, just like it was under Bryce, that's really struggling to figure out what to do.
Brian Boesch • 16:46
Kyle Whittingham said leading into. I don't know if it was this week or previous week where he said this team has to develop a killer instinct. And obviously many of Michigan's games this year have come down to the wire. They've gotten a couple wins and they've suffered some gut punch losses. But I would say that killer instinct's got to come every drive, every play, defense has it. But to have a third and goal with the one and you end up losing more than ten yards, you miss a couple of field goals, you're just unable to finish off the goal. To go in the final stages of regulation with a chance to win the game. Michigan just has not been able to punch through whether it's zeroing in on a Play drive sequence or if you zoom out.
Jack Miller • 17:27
Well, I think that's what's hurt so much is like they get their opportunities to go put points on the board, even if it's field goals, and yet they go backwards at times. Right? And so there are things where it's like, all right, if you're just not good enough, you can live with that, right? And, you know, college football, it's kids playing ball out there. I know it's high pressure and high stakes, but sometimes you're just not better than the other team. And I think Indiana probably is a better team than Michigan. But when you do things consistently to hurt yourself and move backwards and feel like, man, if we just didn't, you know, shoot ourselves in the foot, we'd have a chance. I mean, this is kind of a strange game because in some ways you're like, boy, they should have won. And then in some ways, they don't really have a right to win this game at the same time.
Jack Miller • 18:09
And so that's what's so weird about this season and this Whittingham regime thus far. This team thus far is there's like two sides every coin. It's like you sit there and you go, my goodness, they should have found a way to win. And yet at the same time, it's like, boy, we are miles away from being a good football team. And so you sit there and you have to give credit to the defense because of what they're doing right now. And you're just really. It's just kind of a gut punch to say, if we just didn't hurt ourselves, we would beat the number six team in the country.
Brian Boesch • 18:39
Yeah, it's kind of been all season long. Just feels like missed opportunities. And obviously with the defense. Jack, always great stuff, man. Appreciate you.
Jack Miller • 18:46
Yep. Go Blue.
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Brian Boesch • 18:47
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Jon Jansen • 19:31
Coach, I know it didn't end the way you wanted. What was the difference in this game?
Kyle Whittingham • 19:35
Top three reasons we weren't able to come away with the victory. Number one, we didn't run the ball well enough. Not nearly well enough. It was our poorest performance of the year, rushing the football. Number two, we lost the turnover margin again, two, one, so we're minus one in the turnover margin. And number three, we were completely inept in the red zone offensively and we couldn't get the ball in the end zone. And if you want to win a game, you got to get the ball in the end zone. And so those are the top three things. We took four sacks on the day. Three of them were on big third downs. That pushed us a couple times back for field goal attempts to, you know, to make it more difficult. And so, you know, we just, we had our chances and right there at the end, we had the ball inside the what, the ten yard line or whatever it was, with a minute, something left.
Kyle Whittingham • 20:21
And what more can you ask for? And, you know, proud of our guys. I mean, there are no moral victories at University of Michigan, but they fought and fought and, you know, if that's the number six team in the country, then we're a pretty good football team. But we came up short.
Jon Jansen • 20:35
What were some of the struggles that you guys experienced in the rushing attack?
Kyle Whittingham • 20:39
Well, we didn't get any knockoff, didn't move, didn't move people around, didn't hit movement well. Enough. Just there was very. It was tough sledding in there and it wasn't a heavy box. I mean, we, you know, they were just playing extremely well with the front seven and we didn't get enough done, you know, in the run, the run blocking.
Jon Jansen • 20:56
Tommy had the two turnovers in the first half. How did you see, how would you evaluate his play in his first start?
Kyle Whittingham • 21:02
Yeah, we'll have to take a look at the film. As always, you know, had a couple turnovers. You know, the one on the option is questionable whether it was a forward pitch, which would mean it was a forward pass and not a fumble. But as I went to challenge it, they said, hey, it's already been confirmed and if you can challenge it, but you can lose a timeout and it's a waste of your time because of the ruling that's already come down. And then the interception was, you know, just unfortunate. It bounced off somebody's head and ended up in Their hands. And that's their mo. That's how they've won games for. For the last couple years. They just wear you down and don't make many mistakes and capitalize on your mistakes. And that's their mo.
Jon Jansen • 21:46
I know it's hard to find some positives in a loss, especially when that happens like this, but the defense, to only hold them to thirteen points. This is a team coming in here that had scored thirty six points. What did you see from your defense and why were they so successful?
Kyle Whittingham • 21:59
Elite play from the defense. That's an elite defense that we have right now. And through regulation, they hadn't gotten in the end zone. They had under two hundred yards, I believe, or thereabouts. And we just have done a great job every single game this year defensively. And unfortunately we couldn't get that last stop when we needed it. But, you know, Zeke got the big interception in the second half to give us some momentum and we played the run okay. Not great. And I thought we held up really well in the pass game. They didn't really get much chunk yardage up there the field at all.
Jon Jansen • 22:33
No, they didn't. And I do want to ask you about two guys, Jyaire Hill and Zeke Barry. You mentioned already. Zeke had that interception, but they had a tall task and as did the entire secondary. What did you see from them? And the challenge that they faced with Becker and Marsh on the other side,
Kyle Whittingham • 22:47
that was a big challenge. They were one of the best receiving duos in the country. And the quarterback is a good quarterback. And to have our corners and the secondary as a whole hold up like they did was. Was impressive. I don't know the last time that I think they had less than one hundred yards throwing, if I'm correct. And so they did an outstanding job. Could have been a little bit more with the pass rush. You know, we'd like to see the pass rush show up a little bit more than it did, but you can't take anything away from the defense at all. I mean, they did everything but score a touchdown.
Jon Jansen • 23:21
Coach, thanks for your time.
Kyle Whittingham • 23:22
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Brian Boesch • 23:23
To our player interviews. Let's kick things off with the quarterback for today, Tommy Carr.
Jason Avant • 23:28
Tommy, seemed like Indiana has some. Some looks that were a little bit different on tape. Tell me what they did in order to have some success defensively.
Tommy Carr • 23:36
Yeah, you know, coming into the week, they didn't give a lot of man looks and they ended up lining up man a few more times than we imagined. So that was a different thing than I'll film. But at the end of the day, you know, they ran a lot of what we thought they were gonna run, and we just gotta execute at a higher level.
Jason Avant • 23:55
There were some, some turnovers in the, in the ball game. Tell me some of the things that you learned from those plays.
Tommy Carr • 24:01
Yeah, the first turnover was just stupid. Just a bad decision on my part, you know, a bad play. You just gotta learn to eat that one and just live the next play. The interception, you know, unfortunate bounce, and it just ended up in their hands, you know, maybe could have been a better decision. I'm gonna have to watch that one more on film.
Jason Avant • 24:25
And the second half, you guys came out, moved the ball right down the field. What adjustments were made at halftime in order to have some success early in the first second half?
Tommy Carr • 24:34
Not even a lot of adjustments. It was just, you know, we just came out executing at a higher level. You know, we got some explosive passes and it just was a great drive there. We just got to execute on that and get seven, six.
Jason Avant • 24:50
How do you move forward after coming off such a tough loss, knowing that you guys had a chance late in the ball game?
Tommy Carr • 24:57
Yeah, you know, we got twenty four hours to, you know, be sad and be mad, but right after that, you know, we're on the Rutgers and preparing for that.
Jason Avant • 25:05
All the best going forward.
Smith Snowden • 25:06
Thank you.
Brian Boesch • 25:07
More from the Michigan offense after we ask you if you want to experience Michigan football like never before. Champion Circle gives Wolverine fans exclusive access to once in a lifetime experiences you cannot get anywhere else. Get closer to the action and support Michigan student athletes at Champions circle u of m dot com Champion Circle is an official partner of Michigan athletics. More offensive reaction with wide receiver JJ Buchanan.
Jason Avant • 25:30
Jj Tough loss. Tell me how you feeling afterward?
JJ Buchanan • 25:33
Not great. Offense just has to execute at a higher level. We weren't able to do so, so I put that one on us.
Jason Avant • 25:39
Was there anything that the Indiana dbs did that was surprises to you guys on the field or how were they able to have some success that way?
JJ Buchanan • 25:47
No, like Tommy said, a little more, man than we thought they were going to at the end of the day. I mean, I just. There's a couple plays I should have made. I usually, you know, routine plays I gotta make. So, man, just. Just me personally, I gotta. I gotta. I gotta play better in the second half.
Jason Avant • 26:02
You guys had some success on that particular drive. They hit you on a. Seems like an rpo. Can you talk about those plays that you had coming out of halftime? Had some success on that drive?
JJ Buchanan • 26:13
Yeah, I mean, sure. They gave us the look that we were we thought we were going to get. And I was able to find the open the soft spot in the, in the zone. So back to back plays. We were able to execute at a high level.
Jason Avant • 26:24
Game on the line. Fourth quarter, take us inside the huddle. Was there any angst, anxiousness or anything of that nature? Game coming down the stretch.
JJ Buchanan • 26:35
No. Practice that play, you know, over and over again. I made that play so many times in practice, so it just was routine. Routine.
Jason Avant • 26:43
Lastly, how can you guys continue to stay focused on, you know, winning ball games when you have three losses?
JJ Buchanan • 26:51
True. All of us, you know, we love to play the game of football. That's why we're here. We're in every single game that, I mean, every single game we lose comes onto the wire. Defense is playing there, you know, offense, we just gotta, we gotta find, we gotta start. We just gotta find ways and you know, I think, I think we'll, we'll do that moving forward.
Jason Avant • 27:07
All the best.
JJ Buchanan • 27:08
Appreciate it.
Brian Boesch • 27:09
Let's hear from another receiver. Jason Avant is with Channing Goodwin.
Jason Avant • 27:12
Describe the feeling. Tough loss, big crowd, came up short.
Channing Goodwin • 27:16
Yeah, it's definitely tough for sure. I feel like just from an offense's perspective, we just gotta play complimentary football and just have the defense back. So, I mean, we just gotta come back next weekend and be ready for next week for real.
Jason Avant • 27:30
What was the game plan as far as attacking Indiana this week?
Channing Goodwin • 27:37
Really just, I mean, nothing special, you know, just trying to move the line of scrimmage, be able to run the ball well, and then be able to throw the ball off of that as well. So obviously we didn't execute at a high enough load today, so we'll just have to bounce back next week.
Jason Avant • 27:50
Did they do anything defensively in the secondary in order to change up the looks for time me or make it harder for you guys?
Channing Goodwin • 27:58
I mean, I want to say it was nothing too crazy. I mean, a couple of spin, spin in with the, with the coverages and stuff, but overall, nothing that we weren't prepared for. We just got to execute at a higher level.
Jason Avant • 28:08
It seemed like you guys were able to hit the tight end a little bit more in the second half. Hogan, Hansen linking out of the backfield after a block. Was that something that was in the game plan or was that an adjustment that happened after halftime?
Channing Goodwin • 28:20
I say a little bit of both. You know, those guys put in a lot of work throughout the weekend. I know whenever their numbers call, they'll be ready.
Jason Avant • 28:26
You had a pretty big play on the fourth down over the middle. Can you describe what happened on that play.
Channing Goodwin • 28:32
Yeah, it was a little bit of a broken play, so kind of a little bit of scramble drill and fortunately Tommy was able to find me and was able to pick up the first down.
Jason Avant • 28:39
Being in there with the game on the line, overtime situation. What's the mindset for you guys? Does it change at all from regulation to overtime?
Channing Goodwin • 28:48
I mean, I think naturally it kind of picks up the intensity a little bit, but nothing too crazy. You know, we got to execute regardless if it's the first quarter or overtime. So unfortunately we didn't get that done today.
Jason Avant • 29:00
How do you stay focused? Having three losses going forward?
Channing Goodwin • 29:04
I mean, just continue to trust the coaches, trust and play for my teammates. Still a lot of season ahead of us, so we got to just put our head down to work throughout the rest of the year.
Jason Avant • 29:14
All the best going forward.
Channing Goodwin • 29:15
Yes, sir. Thank you.
Brian Boesch • 29:16
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Brian Boesch • 29:57
Visit mainstreet ventures inc dot com to select your culinary destination and make a reservation. Come hungry and ready for an unforgettable experience. Defensive reaction. Now let's visit with Trey Pierce.
Jason Avant • 30:08
Trey, you guys fall hard defensively. Tell me how you're feeling after. It's really tough loss.
Trey Pierce • 30:14
I mean, it's rough. We got to find a way to win those games. Defensively, I liked our effort and we just got to put some things together on the other side of the ball. We just got to continue to get better as a team and play complimentary football.
Jason Avant • 30:28
You guys were able to hold a very potent Indiana offense. What'd you guys do defensively in order to have so much success in keeping them out of the end zone?
Trey Pierce • 30:38
Show them a bunch of different coverages, get as much pressure as we can, stop the run.
Jason Avant • 30:45
Were they doing anything differently up front in order to get some, some, some yards In a run game through the middle?
Trey Pierce • 30:51
No, pretty much the same team we saw on tape. Not much different.
Jason Avant • 30:56
All the best going forward.
Trey Pierce • 30:58
Thank you.
Brian Boesch • 30:59
Two more player interviews. Let's talk to linebacker Troy Bowles.
Jason Avant • 31:02
Tough loss to Indiana. Describe the way it feels.
Troy Bowles • 31:07
Definitely heartbreaking. Feel like overtime, I mean, did a lot of good things, but obviously it wasn't enough to get the win. So definitely heartbreaking.
Jason Avant • 31:19
You guys were intense on the sideline pretty much the entire game. Defense was fired up. Talk about like that mentality and how excited you guys were to play this game.
Troy Bowles • 31:30
Yeah, we were definitely very excited. Obviously a great opportunity go up against defending national champions and that's definitely what had us juiced up. Obviously you can see that through how we played defensively and just coming to the game, we knew the offense was going to have to figure it out. Obviously new quarterbacks starting, but yeah, we definitely try to keep the energy up on the defensive side of the ball whole game.
Jason Avant • 31:57
They had some success with both of the running backs. Not a lot of success, but what were they doing in order to get some of those runs up the middle throughout the game?
Troy Bowles • 32:06
Yeah, definitely. I feel like just us playing with the fronts a little bit might have had some plays that were a little soft up front, but yeah, just playing with the fronts a little bit probably caused us being a little softer in the middle.
Jason Avant • 32:19
But when it comes to the quarterback, Hoover hadn't thrown an interception all year. Talking about like his completion percentage was way down. What was that about? Seemed like you guys had his number the entire time.
Troy Bowles • 32:33
Yeah, no, we definitely did. Coach Hill, who played him last year, told us about him and we felt like he, he was definitely due for one. He had a couple on film that people dropped. So we were saying it all week that we gonna get one from him and that's what happened. Zeke got one. So we weren't, we weren't surprised by it, but it definitely, it fueled us even more as a defense to just go out there, keep making, causing havoc, making plays.
Jason Avant • 32:59
Last drive for you guys in overtime. Can you describe like what happened on the seam throw to the tight end? They don't normally. Don't throw to the tight end.
Troy Bowles • 33:07
Yeah, no, I would just say it was a good call by them in the second half. They were doing a lot of running the ball, so they hit us with the wave concept on first and ten. I think that was a pretty good call by them. Then obviously the next play with the quarterback sending the running back out. Just good back to back calls by them.
Jason Avant • 33:28
And how do you focus going forward. Three losses, it's tough to to overcome. How do you stay engaged?
Troy Bowles • 33:36
Yeah, I think probably just hang our hat on what we're good at and just try to improve at what we're not so good at. We are at the mid season point but I mean all isn't lost. That's kind of the mindset you got to have going forward. So just get back to work next week.
Jason Avant • 33:54
All the best going forward.
Trey Pierce • 33:55
Appreciate you.
Brian Boesch • 33:56
Last but not least, here's Jason with Smith Snowden.
Jason Avant • 33:59
You guys had a plan for Nick Marsh and Charlie Becker. Describe the success that you guys had against them.
Smith Snowden • 34:07
You know I loved how the secondary played today. Obviously there's plays you wish you can get back but I think we made more plays at the end of the day. But you know, we just got to finish, finish the game with the W.
Jason Avant • 34:18
Yeah, it seemed like it was a tough loss. Talk about the last drive for them and what transpired for you guys in order to give up a late touchdown.
Smith Snowden • 34:29
Yeah, you know those are good players. They made a couple good plays, end up with a touchdown and you know, we just got to hope offense gets it done. And today that wasn't the day but he's got to focus on next week.
Jason Avant • 34:43
Now it seemed like you and Zeke switched positions at some point. Like Zeke was more outside than inside. Was that something that was for the game plan or something that I just missed throughout the rest the of of the season?
Smith Snowden • 34:53
Yeah, no, that was definitely something for the game plan. We wanted to. We had a bracket coverage this week and we thought we would want to bracket those guys on the outsides and do a one on one matchup in the inside. So I was on the inside this week.
Jason Avant • 35:07
All the best going forward.
Smith Snowden • 35:08
Like I appreciate it.
Brian Boesch • 35:09
Wolverines fall to four and three. Michigan loses in overtime to Indiana thirteen to six. Thanks to everybody who made this episode possible. I'm Brian Boesch. Michigan falls to the Hoosiers. They're at Rutgers next week. Thanks for listening and go blue.
[music builds]
Jeff Laurence • 35:22
Thanks for listening to this edition of in the Trenches with Jon Jansen. Presented by Meijer, presenting sponsor of the twenty twenty six Michigan football season and proud supporter of hundreds of local sports teams across the Midwest. In the Trenches is part of our Michigan athletics podcast network, MGO Blue Podcasts. The preceding is a Learfield presentation of the Michigan Sports Network work.
