In the Trenches 612 - Minnesota Recap Transcript
10/3/2026 5:12:00 PM | MGoBlue Podcasts
Jon Jansen • 00:00
Michigan falls in Minnesota now a record of three and two trying to find answers. And we're going to hear from Coach Whittingham, we'll hear from Doug Karsch, we'll hear from Jason Avant, some of the players as well. As we try and sort through what's going on as we enter the bye week. We'll have more coverage here in just a moment on in the Trenches.
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Jeff Laurence • 00:21
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 pro supporter of hundreds of local sports teams across the Midwest. Nobody covers Michigan football better than the two time captain, national champion and Michigan athletics hall of honor inductee.
Kyle Whittingham • 00:43
This guy comes at a good time. We got some soul searching to do. We gotta figure out, you know, who we are and where we want to be and where we want to go and really lean on the leadership of this football team because right now is when we need it most.
Jeff Laurence • 00:55
This is in the Trenches presented by Meijer. Once again, here's Jon Jansen.
Jon Jansen • 01:00
At this time I want to bring in my partner, Brian Boesch.
Brian Boesch • 01:03
Jon, a second half that it's tough to fathom with how Michigan played.
Jon Jansen • 01:08
It really is. And I mean you go back to just the second quarter and the fact that Minnesota was trying to shorten the game and we felt like at the time Jason even said it like, hey, they're trying to get to halftime as fast as they possibly can shorten this game. And Michigan hadn't really been out there since the, the ten minute mark remaining in the second quarter. They had those two drives in the last two minutes, those were both three and outs. And then they came back in the second half and we thought, hey, maybe some halftime adjustments, maybe they'd be able to, to take this ball down and score. And they're just couldn't get any rhythm offensively and by the end of the game they couldn't protect Bryce, they couldn't run the ball. There just was nothing that was going right for Michigan and in terms of even just trying to possess the football
Brian Boesch • 01:53
and obviously Michigan's had some ebbs and flows to this season, but this just felt like an offensive failure at every level with the turnovers. When Michigan did have the football, nothing was really explosive. First time allse season, both JJ Buchanan and Andrew Marsh were held in check. They had a combined seven catches for seventy nine yard. It, it just felt like there was nothing for Michigan to rest its laurels on.
Jon Jansen • 02:17
No, and I mean the bulk of the row shards came from Bryce and, and the scat stats are a little bit skewed because of the sack yards that's taken off. Sure, but Jordan Marshall only with fifty yards. Savion Heider only had what, six carry, eight carries, nine yards. Like they're just wasn't room to run. And then when they turned to the pass, it really, I mean that took all the rest of the year out of the sales because the two interceptions on, on back to back possessions.
Brian Boesch • 02:43
Defensively, the time of possession was so slanted that I mean this defense for Michigan was in a really, really tough spot. Minnesota ends up possessing the football for thirty seven minutes, thirty six seconds. They have sixteen more offensive plays versus the Michigan offense. Michigan's defense has been the best unit of the three so far this season, but they didn't excel today. And they also weren't set up for any sort of success.
Jon Jansen • 03:08
No. And then when you look at what the defense was doing, hey, they were, you know, they were good. On third down, they only allowed four conversions. On fourteen attempts, they only allowed, you know, two hundred sixty two yards. You know, it just, it was, you look at the numbers defensively and you say that should have been a winning effort. This is obviously a team game and you've got to find a way to get some production offensively and put together some drive so your defense isn't out there for a bulk of the game.
Brian Boesch • 03:34
And this is a great example of what can happen when turnovers take place. Michigan, by, by no means. They were getting outgained by the Gophers in the first half, yet they led fourteen to seven. Felt like they could really muster some momentum there and try to pull away. And then Minnesota, two interceptions and a fumble, it just completely flipped this thing.
Jon Jansen • 03:54
Yeah. And I mean when you, you go into halftime and one of the things coach has been preaching and Jay Hill was preaching, we got to create turnovers. They get two of them in the first half. One of them is a pick six. One of them creates a short field. Michigan goes in and scores. Now all of you're thinking, hey, hey, you know, the defense is doing everything they can to give the offense an advantage. They're giving them a short field. They're giving them, they're stealing them possessions. And then you get into the second half and you have the, you know, the drop punt. You have the two interceptions thrown. It just at every turn, it felt like you were doing something from, preventing yourself from being successful.
Brian Boesch • 04:27
And then, you know, special teams, Michigan has the fumbled punt here again today. And you look on the Minnesota side, they for the most part took care of. It's got a fortunate bounce on what we believe was a tipped punt late in this ball game. But in a game that ends up being decided on the final possession yet again. Second straight week where Michigan special teams just was not able to win its battle with the opponent.
Jon Jansen • 04:51
No, but I mean we'll even go back to the first half. When you block a punt, you know there's, there's a lot that can go right for you and you know coaches will use the number. Hey, anytime you win the turnover battle and you block a punt like you're, you should win ninety percent of those games. Well, you ended up losing the turnover battle and the kicking game was kind
Brian Boesch • 05:08
of a wash. Doug, this is, let's face it, a sight we have not seen in this rivalry. It is jarring and as you said at the end, it was a disastrous second half that got us here.
Doug Karsch • 05:19
Yeah, I mean I, I, I will take my hat off to the Michigan defense. I think they did all the heavy lifting they possibly could and put in terrible positions all day by the offense and special teams forcing field goal attempts on multiple occasions. Create they scored a touchdown themselves. I think the defense did all that they could. And the offense though at this point it's, it's back to the drawing board. I wouldn't be surprised. You know, I mean I guess they got to think about some changes but I don't think they had their, their greatest game from a coaching perspective. Use of timeouts, you know, whatever happened at halftime, whatever they came out and wanted to establish in the second half, they fumbled a punt, they threw interceptions on back to back possessions and just can't get out of their own way. And you know, it, it's such a mistake prone football team.
Doug Karsch • 06:13
It's jarring because that's not the way Kyle Whittingham teams played at Utah and it's not the way Michigan teams played. Something hasn't translated here and I don't know what it is. I'm no football coach but I will tell you this is not at all what we expected when Kyle Winningham took this job because his teams were awfully buttoned up out there in Utah. So you know, I'm sure he's searching for answers as much as anybody but you know that that is a, you know to take a fourteen seven lead into the locker room and come out and lay such a big egg in the second half is, it's really stunning.
Brian Boesch • 06:49
Yeah, just some of the numbers from the second half. Michigan eighty two total Yards. They rushed for three yards a carry. They were O of three on third down, O of one on fourth down, committed three turnovers, two picks and a fumble. I mean this was a complete reversal. Michigan wasn't playing excellent in the first half by any stretch of the imagination. But it goes to show you the momentum shift of turnovers. Michigan led in half because they came up with two turnovers. And in the second half it just completely collapsed. I mean the, the Michigan defense was on the field for a ton in this game. It wasn't quite the Western Michigan versus Michigan time of possession differential, but Minnesota controlled the football for thirty seven and a half minutes.
Doug Karsch • 07:33
Yeah, and I mean coming off the Iowa game. Right. I thought that the, the Michigan offense and everybody said it, it wasn't just me, that was their most complete game. Offensively, it just still had its issues. They still committed too many penalties, the turnover in the red zone. But it looked like the playbook was opening up and maybe Bryce Underwood and the offense had turned a corner. And then today it's just a massive step backwards. I mean one hundred eighty yards in total offense. And the only, I mean the longest drive was what, thirty six yards? Thirty six yards for the longest drive.
Brian Boesch • 08:01
Technically thirty seven on the last drive of the game. And that was, that was pretty harmless from a Minnesota standpoint.
Doug Karsch • 08:09
Yeah. So as you said, we haven't seen. It's been, it's been forty nine years, forty nine years since Minnesota's won a home game. The battle for the little brown jug. So let them celebrate. They, they deserve it. But. And give them credit, PJ Fleck had a game plan to shorten the game. He and his staff figured out a way. And in some ways you have to wonder if teams are just going to think, just stick around and eventually Michigan will shoot themselves in the foot. Because it just keeps happening. And it is perplexing as anything I've ever seen.
Brian Boesch • 08:41
To your point, the first three Michigan drives, at least they gained some yardage. Twenty three, thirty six and thirty four. The thirty four being Michigan's lone offensive touchdown after that. Three and out, minus two yards, three and out, minus three yards, two plays in a pick, one play in a pick, nine plays, thirty three yards, four plays and a punt. And then that desperation eight play, thirty seven yard work. I mean the best couple of plays were runs on that drive. Unfortunately, by week, this is, this is gut check time for the entire program because nothing. It doesn't feel like Michigan has much to fall back on. Right. The running game has been non existent all season. Yes, the defense came up with some turnovers in the first. I mean, that's the closest thing to it. The defense has been, I think, pretty good, but obviously not flawless by any stretch.
Brian Boesch • 09:30
Offensively, it feels rudderless.
Doug Karsch • 09:33
I mean, it really does. You know, they're searching for something that they can lean on. And historically with Michigan, it's, it's the rushing attack and the running number. You know, Jim Harding comes in here, is a very well respected offensive line coach and produced two first round tackles at Utah a year ago.
Doug Karsch • 09:55
And he comes in and he's got some returning starters to work with. And for some reason, again, it perplexes me how these things haven't translated from, from Utah to Ann Arbor. But you know, they've, they've done a lot of good work in their days as coaching staff and they're really going to be pressed to figure this one out because I don't know what the answer is.
Brian Boesch • 10:17
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Brian Boesch • 10:59
Let's hear from the head coach. A tough one for the maze in blue. They lose to the Gophers. Here's Jon with Coach Whittingham.
Jon Jansen • 11:05
Coach, what was the message to the team after the game?
Kyle Whittingham • 11:08
Well, obviously disappointing. We weren't able to finish. Came in with a lead at halftime and couldn't put him away. And you know, I thought our defense played well from start to finish. Gave up, you know, two hundred sixty, two hundred seventy, something like that. Had a score, a couple other takeaways and so I think that, you know, they played with good effort there. Offensively, we just could not get anything going. Have no answer right now other than, you know, we weren't good in any area. We didn't run the ball effectively, we didn't throw the ball effectively. And so we've got some, you know, to say our work is cut out for us there is an understatement.
Jon Jansen • 11:50
Jay Hill came with a couple of blitzes in the first half, creating those turnovers. And what'd you see? What was it that created the first turnover that Minnesota threw?
Kyle Whittingham • 12:02
Yeah, well, let's see. The first one was, was it Smith's or was it. Yeah, Smith was the first one and looked like the ball fluttered out of there. And maybe, I don't know if it slipped out of his hand, if we tipped it in line or if we hit him as he was throwing. I didn't have a good vantage point, but it was a nice catch by Smith. It wasn't the easiest of catches and set up the offense for an easy score there. And so we scored with Staehling's interception off that screenplay and so scored and set up a score defensively, which is outstanding. Special teams, we put the ball on the ground again. You know, we did get our hand on a punt, but it was a net loss special teams wise because we turned the ball over and so this guy comes at a good time. We got some soul searching to do. We got to figure out, you know, who we are and where we want to be and where we want to go and really lean on the leadership of this football team because right now is when we need it most.
Jon Jansen • 12:50
What's the first thing you guys need to do in the bye week?
Kyle Whittingham • 12:53
Well, we're going to dissect this game and find out exactly why we're so inefficient offensively right now and decide if we, you know, any changes we need to make personnel wise, schematically, we got to work cut out for us. I mean, this bye week comes at a good time in that regard.
Jon Jansen • 13:10
All right, coach, thanks for your time and we'll see you back in Ann Arbor.
Kyle Whittingham • 13:13
Thank you guys. Appreciate it.
Brian Boesch • 13:14
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Jason Avant • 13:48
Jordan, tough loss today. What's the lesson that's learned?
Jordan Marshall • 13:53
I think the lesson that's learned is it's hard to win in the Big Ten. But also we have very high expectations of ourself. And when we don't meet those, I think it's like, oh, snap. And I think honestly, you just have to go look at yourself in the mirror. There's nothing else. You can't point fingers. You got to go look at yourself in the mirror. And that's what I'm going to do. And I honestly, I couldn't tell you all the wrong things we did out there. But we have to get better. And that's not. That's as a running back, as a quarterback, as an O line. Every single position group has to figure out a way to become better when
Jason Avant • 14:31
it comes to the offense. What can be done better, whether it be practice, whether it be attention to detail in order to turn the tide on Saturdays.
Jordan Marshall • 14:42
I think it's hard to say how to turn the tide when, like Coach Witt said, these problems don't happen at practice. So you're kind of left questioning your ability in yourself. What am I doing wrong? Or how can we become better at practice? And right now I don't have. Again, I don't have an answer. And because we, I've never. It's hard to be lead from the front when you haven't seen the problem because usually you have the answers to the problems or, hey guys, let's go. But we never practice. We never do things we do in the game sometimes. So it's I look at myself like, how can I still lead at a place where I'm like, I don't know how to help? And I think we have to figure out a way to either practice those situations or what we're doing in practice. But again, I think it all goes back to leadership and how hard are we practicing at practice? Because practice shows up in the game every single time.
Jordan Marshall • 15:45
Every rep is a game rep. And I don't know how many of our guys take every single rep as a game rep.
Jason Avant • 15:55
The Minnesota's defense, was there something they did today that wasn't seen on film? Because it seemed like they were able to get home a few times and confuse the front or get a hand on the ball, anything like that.
Jordan Marshall • 16:08
I just think they played harder, they strained, they had a lot of energy. Kudos to them. Again, their coach always has a lot of energy and they feed off of each other and that's what they did. And they fed off each other and we let them hang around. And when you let a team like this hang around like an Iowa team, it's just they're pretty much. They play the same. They want to melt the clock and that's what they did. They played good defense, got us off the field, held the ball, made us feel out of rhythm and we have to have an answer for that.
Jason Avant • 16:39
All the best going forward.
Jordan Marshall • 16:40
Appreciate it.
Jason Avant • 16:41
Jake, you're upperclassman. Tell me how you feeling in this moment. I know it's tough.
Jake Guarnera • 16:47
Embarrassed. Can't.
Jake Guarnera • 16:48
Can't leave the defense out there like that. As an offense, we got to put up more than one hundred fifty yards, so, you know that falls on us. And our defense played a hell of a game. So did Minnesota. But the offense has to do better.
Jason Avant • 17:02
What was the, the hardest part about the Minnesota defensive front? It seemed like they were able to figure some things out with their rush.
Jake Guarnera • 17:08
Yeah, I mean they're, they're a great defense. They're able to, to move and then be able to make plays with some of their guys looping around and all that. So I think their movement was tough and they just played hard and played a great game.
Jason Avant • 17:22
I know this is kind of a fast question. How can things turn around as far as mentality, guys, for you guys, I
Jake Guarnera • 17:29
think we just gotta, we gotta stick together as a team, focus on the voices inside the building and what we can do to get better individually and be able to put that together as a team and, and focus on the. The rest of the games this season. Can't dwell on the. The last two games that, that happened after the bye week.
Jason Avant • 17:47
All the best going forward.
Jake Guarnera • 17:48
Thank you.
Jason Avant • 17:49
It seemed like Minnesota has some things going on that first drive, but you made, you guys made some adjustments. How did you guys stop them going forward?
Troy Bowles • 17:57
Yeah, I mean they really. We. They weren't doing nothing special. And we basically said we either got a nut up or going to look like last week and we nutted up. We know what kind of defense we have. So like you said, they weren't doing. I mean, like I said, we weren't. They weren't doing nothing crazy. So we just adjusted and they had
Jason Avant • 18:18
a running back tandem. How was it, the game plan going in to stop those guys?
Troy Bowles • 18:23
Yeah, we definitely respected them as a good duo of backs, but I mean we've played against good backs before and they run their offense kind of like Iowa. So it wasn't really nothing new they were doing. We know that twenty three was their little scat back. He gets out of the backfield quicker. We know number one's more runs behind his pads. So felt like, yeah, we didn't prepare any differently for Them, but we definitely. We knew they were a pretty good duo of backs.
Jason Avant • 18:57
How do you guys, like, stay focused and not get frustrated when you're constantly going back on the field?
Troy Bowles • 19:04
Yeah, we. We just. We just pick each other up. We talk about it all the time. It doesn't matter how many times we go out there, we gotta stop them. It really doesn't matter. Doesn't matter what the offense does. It's really just about us, what we do, and we pride ourselves. And no matter how many times we go out there to not let up any points, whether it's a sudden change or whether they're at the minus twenty five.
Jason Avant • 19:28
So three and two, zero and two in the Big Ten. How do you guys write the ship of this season?
Troy Bowles • 19:35
Yeah, it's going to be definitely a lot of regrouping to do on a bye week. And we really just got to look within ourselves because respect to both the two teams from the last two weeks, but we definitely beat ourselves both of these games, and I believe that one hundred percent. So we got to take a look in the mirror, do some soul searching, and we can still turn the season around like all is not lost. But we definitely put ourselves in a predicament being three and two.
Jason Avant • 20:05
But yeah, all the best going forward.
Troy Bowles • 20:08
Yes, sir. Thank you.
Jason Avant • 20:09
Nate, you had to pick six. Tell me how you were able to get your hands on the ball in that play, but also take it to the house.
Nathaniel Staehling • 20:17
Yeah, it was just. It was a great call and had a good read on it. But it's. I was just saying earlier it's kind of hard to talk about it because if I could go back and take that play away, we end up with a win. Somehow, I would rather have that because all I care about is winning. So it's hard to reflect on that. But let's say it was a good call. I just was happy to celebrate with my teammates, but obviously not the turnout that we wanted.
Jason Avant • 20:44
You guys were defensed multiple times on the field a bunch. How do you guys keep your focus but also not get frustrated with the offense?
Nathaniel Staehling • 20:55
Well, it's one team. It's not sides. It's not offense, defense. It's one whole team. And we trust the offense. We're going to continue to trust the offense because those are our teammates and we trust the defense. And there's a lot of love on this team and a lot of connection and adversity is part of everybody's life. And, you know, how we're going to, you know, respond to it is going to be very important. I know we're going to respond to it the right way and we're going to continue to move forward.
Jason Avant • 21:19
When it comes to the defensive game plan, how were you guys able to stop a guy like Drake Lindsey who had a dynamite game versus Washington, but it seemed like he had a subpar game versus your defense?
Nathaniel Staehling • 21:32
Yeah, we just trust Coach Hill's scheme. He's got a very dynamic defense and whether that's, you know, disguises and whatnot and, you know, making his head spin, whatever we can do.
Jason Avant • 21:41
So all the best going forward.
Nathaniel Staehling • 21:43
Appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Brian Boesch • 21:44
That'll do it for this episode of in the Trenches, presented by Meijer. We'll have a Wednesday edition for you. Coming up in the Trenches with the Tuesday YouTube live stream to go along with it. No doubt a big time couple of weeks for a Michigan program in flux, to say the least. As you heard from Coach Whittingham, it is truly a potential pivot point here for the Wolverines. Five games in three and two after a loss twenty to fourteen at Minnesota. Thanks for listening to in the Trenches, presented by Meijer and Go Blue.
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Jeff Laurence • 22:13
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 Podcast. The preceding is a Learfield presentation of the Michigan Sports Network.
