10/31/2026 5:39:00 PM | MGoBlue Podcasts
Jon Jansen • 00:00
Michigan comes to Piscataway and gets a twenty eight to twenty one victory. And it's Tommy Carr throws for one touchdown, runs for another couple defense, a lot of a couple of explosive plays but tightened up when they had to have it. We'll continue to hear from head coach Kyle Whittingham as well as the players that Jason Avant gets. Doug Karsch, Brian Boesch. We'll have all of it on in the Trenches.
Jeff Laurence • 00:25
Welcome to the official podcast of Michigan football in the Trenches with Jon Jansen. Presented by 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 and Michigan athletics hall of honor inductee.
Tommy Carr • 00:47
Yeah, that's just something that we saw an opportunity is to take free access hitches a lot of teams, that's what we get from watching film and a lot of teams did that against them. So we did that a few times a day which were, you know, as you said, big, almost probably one hundred yards on. So that was huge.
Jeff Laurence • 01:05
This is in the Trenches presented by Meijer. Once again, here's Jon Jansen.
Jon Jansen • 01:10
At this time I want to bring in my partner Brian Boesch.
Brian Boesch • 01:13
Jon, let's start with Tommy Carr. Twenty two of twenty seven, eighty one percent passing, one touchdown through the air, two on the ground as part of a twelve carry, fifty four yard performance for start, two against yes, a Rutgers defense that has struggled all season long. A lot to like.
Jon Jansen • 01:30
Well there certainly is and yeah, there's a lot to like in those numbers. Twenty two completions, twenty seven attempts, but it's also the attempts that he didn't make. I thought his decision making from last week to this week in, you know, just being very judicious with the football, he was under duress at times throughout the game, being able to escape the pocket, whether it's to find JJ Buchanan, find Hogan Hansen as he did in the second half, or it was to pick up some yardage with his feet or throw the ball away like he did a tremendous job in that area. And you know, you hear coach on, on Mondays when he talks to us, talks about the poise of Tommy Carr. That's really where it, where it shows because in this game, because it was tight and coach, you heard coach talk about it like there's nothing comes easy this year if, if you got careless with the football just one time, it could have cost you this game.
Jon Jansen • 02:21
And so for him to be, you know, a good decision maker and a guy that just distributes the Football. I thought that was really a nice job of, of, of, of showing some growth and progress and you know, from the quarterback position.
Brian Boesch • 02:36
What else worked for Michigan enough here Again, four hundred twenty seven yards against Rutgers is not the same as four hundred twenty seven yards against some other teams, but it seemed like a building block type of an effort overall.
Jon Jansen • 02:48
Well, the ability to come out and start the game with fourteen points right those first two drives and to be able to get something on the board and start working on some other things. Now, obviously it would be nice to continue that throughout the first half, but you've got to find, you've got to start somewhere. And then in the second half, the same thing. You heard coach talk about it, the ability to go down in that opening drive of the second half, put a touchdown on the board and then the defense come with a three and out. To me, that was, that was huge for this team and building confidence in what they're doing.
Brian Boesch • 03:20
The other aspect, statistically, Michigan was twelve for sixteen on third down. Only twice did they have a third down opportunity of more than seven yards. And they were able to pick up a third and ten down the stretch in this ball game. The fact that they were able to stay a little bit more ahead of schedule offensively seemed to help in those spots.
Jon Jansen • 03:40
Yeah, and that's something that I've been talking about, whether it's on the podcast or through the broadcast throughout the course of the year, is if you can be good on first down and you don't have to pick up eight yards every first down, but if you could put yourself into a second and six, second and five, and then you get to a third and two, third and one, those are all manageable. And yeah, sure, you could pick up third and four, third and five, and they did at times. But when you are constantly working ahead of the sticks and you feel like you, you can attack in both ways, whether it's running past now, there still needs to be some improvement in the run game, but to be able to pick up some of those on the ground, to be able to pick up some of those by throwing the ball to a tight end. We saw one there at the end of the game. You know, we saw the one to Hogan Hansen.
Jon Jansen • 04:23
So it's, it's, those are the, the moments where a defense has to pull back. They can't just be in attack mode because they don't know if it's going to be run or pass.
Brian Boesch • 04:34
Rutgers had four plays of twenty or more yards. They had an eighty yard touchdown connection outside of that they were around seventy total yards for the game. That was it. So a couple of blemishes here and there. Largely defensively they were pretty stout. What'd you see from that group?
Jon Jansen • 04:51
They were. And you know, throughout the course of this, this defense, I, I feel like we are holding them and they've set the standard extremely high. There's going to be times where a player slips and falls and we saw that with Smith Snowden on the eighty yard touchdown pass, like he just, he got run by and then he, as he tried to catch up, he slipped and fell. That's the reason that that play was successful. So it's not like a guy is out of position or somebody is. Has a missed assignment somewhere. That was just a guy that slipped and fell. Being a human being a player. So those things are, you know, this defense has shown that it's not characteristic of this defense. They haven't given up explosive plays. So it's not something that I'm particularly concerned about.
Brian Boesch • 05:32
And again, talk about third downs. Rutgers, three of ten. That was probably the biggest stat in this ball game. So Michigan gets it done, twenty eight to twenty one. This was certainly not a game where very often you felt like Michigan was, was in control, yet it never really felt like Michigan was the underdog. Rutgers did tie it at twenty one. And then Michigan had good response. Eleven plays, seventy five yards for the score. Run on, run in by Tommy Carr, a three and out. And then they earned victory formation. Again, small, not. I'm not getting carried away here, but you had to close out a team. They did it and they did in the ways you would hope for after dealing with some road adversity.
Jon Jansen • 06:12
Yeah. And that last touchdown by Tommy, you know, I thought that that one was very indicative of this season, like where there were some things that are not perfect up front. Yeah. Yet he makes something happen. And again it's scratching and clawing. And you could see one of the concerns that when you're out of the national title hopes or you're out of the Big Ten hopes. Yeah. You still have Michigan State next week. It's a rivalry game. You got Ohio State at the end of the year, but are guys going to start pulling back? You saw today that even though it wasn't perfect, this team was fighting all the way to the end. So I, I love the fact that the captains, the senior leadership council and, and this team is continuing to fight every Saturday.
Brian Boesch • 06:51
Doug, I love how you put it late in the broadcast. You're just used to this team playing close Games down the stretch. Fortunately there wasn't some crazy finish. Michigan had to have this one for a number of reasons other than the standings with where Michigan is. And they found a way.
Doug Karsch • 07:09
Yeah, look, I mean I'm sure there's going to be frustration that it was even a close football game. I get it. You know, fans aren't used to getting into battles with Rutgers. Rutgers has played Michigan tough a couple times out here. Look, the national championship team was trailing Rutgers seven to nothing at the big house the year before. Rutgers was winning at the half, seventeen to fourteen here. Sometimes, you know, you just got to find a way to win a football game and they did today and you know, they didn't, they didn't get the break of the fumbled punt which you know, we'll have to get an explanation on that call which would have set up Michigan and just on the brink of the edge of the red zone with a lead. But Rutgers ended up getting eight points out of that drive after that call didn't go their way. The touchdown, the two point conversion to tie the game.
Doug Karsch • 07:56
But what happens? Michigan gets the football back and goes the length of the field and closes on a Tommy Carr touchdown run. And you know, it's funny, he was under recruited. He had committed to Miami of Ohio and one of the first power four coaches to get in on him was Greg Schiano here at Rutgers. He wanted to get him to come out here and visit. And it says, you know, Coach Schiano said, you know, he loves the Carr family and he knows, he knows Lloyd Carr and was trying to get Tommy Carr to come here to Rutgers. And Tommy Carr on the other sideline kind of did that to Matt Campbell at Iowa State too. And Campbell now at Penn State. They recruited Tommy Carr, but Tommy goes to Michigan and he's beat those two teams that tried to get him in. And Savion Hiter had a great description of Tommy and his speed. He called him a roller. I hadn't heard that one before. So Tommy's apparently a roller, which means he can run a little bit.
Brian Boesch • 08:47
Yeah. And hey, you look at both Tommy Carr and Savion Hiter for these two guys, true freshmen, obviously varying levels of expectations coming into the season, but they were able to go on the road and win a conference game. I know it's Rutgers, I know it wasn't pretty by any stretch of the imagination, but this felt like a modest one. But a step forward for the Michigan offense.
Doug Karsch • 09:07
Yeah, sure. I mean, look, people aren't going to go back and gather as a family over the holidays and rewatch this one is my guess. But at the, at the end of the day it's, they needed a win and they got to win. And you know, maybe offensively you could say they ran the ball better as the game went on. And Tommy is settling into his role as a starting quarterback. When you finish, what was he. I got his numbers right here. Well, maybe I don't.
Brian Boesch • 09:36
Tommy. Twenty two of twenty. You're talking Tommy or Savion?
Doug Karsch • 09:39
Yeah, Tommy. Yeah. Twenty two of twenty seven, two hundred sixty six yards and a touchdown, twelve carries, fifty four yards.
Brian Boesch • 09:45
Yeah, it's
Doug Karsch • 09:46
a good game,
Brian Boesch • 09:46
one hundred percent. And for this team to like you said down the stretch once Rutgers tied it, that was really the only juncture in this game that felt like it could have gotten away. Michigan never felt in command, but it also never felt like it was a Rutgers momentum swing. But eleven plays, seventy five yards for the score, the Tommy Carr run to finish it, a three and out defensively and an offensive drive that ended in victory formation. I think we both can agree again, these are very modest baby steps for this team. But the alternative would have been crippling.
Doug Karsch • 10:20
Look, you know when you're trying to figure things out and you need a long drive from your offense and you get it, an offense that's been struggling all year, they got to feel good about that. And that moment in time they came through. The fact that they were there in the first place is, you know, how do you avoid that in a game like this? But they, they got the win and that's what counts the most. And now it's, you know, get back to the drawing board with a game next week where you know that you're going to take a big roundhouse punch from a group up the road that doesn't, doesn't think very fondly of you.
Brian Boesch • 10:53
Yep, it's an opportunity in November with no championship opportunities, but still a chance for some feel good chances. And we talked about that pregame that matters. It doesn't matter the way it may be used to in the, the pre CFP realm. And I don't know what it would really do to swing people's opinions on the program. But again, the alternative is a lot worse. And Michigan has a chance with a couple of rivalry games. A really unique environment for a program that's also had a rough year in Oregon. And then they could play spoiler in the playoff with the UCLA team that's undefeated
Doug Karsch • 11:24
and somebody else after that. Well, that's the two
Brian Boesch • 11:27
rivalries. Yes, exactly.
Doug Karsch • 11:28
The one thing the One thing is this team is certainly used to fourth quarter football games.
Brian Boesch • 11:32
Yeah.
Doug Karsch • 11:34
The fact that they were in a fourth quarter battle here today doesn't, you know, it's not anything. It's not unfamiliar territory. They've had to make plays in the fourth quarter. Sometimes they have, sometimes they didn't. Today they did.
Brian Boesch • 11:46
And hey, you said on the, on the call that all of them have been tough but one, even UTEP was a little dicey for a while there. That wasn't smooth sailing in the first half either. It's. It's been an adventure.
Doug Karsch • 11:55
No well taken lives, years off people's lives with blood pressures rising and heart attack football.
Brian Boesch • 12:04
But hey, but your hair has maintained, Doug.
Doug Karsch • 12:06
Yes, thank you. It has changed at all. No, that's pretty. I looked in the mirror today. No gray hair. So.
Brian Boesch • 12:12
Well, congrats. Feel good about that. But
Doug Karsch • 12:14
Hats off to the defense again. Today they had two major busts. I'm sure Jay Hill's going to read him the riot act. But Jay Hill's defense, when Ruckers had some opportunity, they came up with some pretty big stops. But those two busts are probably what he's going to focus on.
Brian Boesch • 12:27
Jack, we've talked a lot about Tommy Carr and we'll, we'll get to him. It was an interesting dynamic and, and day for the running game in this one. Definitely no big time plays. Michigan's longest run belonged to Tommy Carr of fifteen yards. But how was Michigan able to get enough push and do enough on the ground, especially on that last drive?
Jack Miller • 12:46
Yeah, I mean they did enough offensively in the second half to get the ball moving down the field. And a lot of it was honestly the hard running from the running backs. Kuzdzal, Hiter, Jordan Marshall struggled today a little bit. He looks a little banged up or injured just watching him down on the sideline. But those running backs ran really hard as the game went on. And look, when you're a big strong team like Michigan is or you know, wants to be, that's, that's how things go. It wasn't clicking all the time in the first half and then in the second half, you just wear on a team. You keep going, you keep going and you know, they were better on first down. They were great on third down today and I think they were seventy five percent or something like that. So when you're converting third downs, you're moving the chains, you get another opportunity to do it.
Jack Miller • 13:24
And so even though the stat sheet might not look great from a running perspective, the yards per carry probably aren't enough. When you stay on the field, there's enough opportunity to do good things and whether that's running or throwing, and. And Michigan was able to find a way
Brian Boesch • 13:37
from a quarterback standpoint. We talked a lot about. Tommy, I want to get your perspective, but I think something that's noteworthy. Ten different pass catchers targeted, nine different pass catchers, come up with at least one catch. We've seen a lot of Andrew Marsh and JJ Buchanan, deservedly so. They're Michigan's two best receivers. They're two of the best players on this team, and they had twelve of the twenty two catches and they combined for one hundred fourteen yards. But the balance there, leaning on your big guns but also having the ability to go elsewhere, that was a noteworthy change and a notable one.
Jack Miller • 14:09
Yeah, I think so. I mean, Greg Schiano is a defensive guy. That staff, that defense is well coached. And so, you know, with a young quarterback, what are you going to do? You're not going to allow him to find his easy targets or his big targets, which they did in the first half. They were throwing it up to Marsh and Buchanan. That's really the reason they were able to put up points in the first half. And so obviously Rutgers then adjust to that. And good on Tommy Carr. He was able to adjust himself, find guys that were open, make the right read. The offensive line did a really good job in the second half with pass protection. Tommy had a lot of time back there, and that allowed him to go find receivers down the field and then run when he had to as well, to pick up, you know, big first downs and a couple touchdowns.
Brian Boesch • 14:44
How do you interpret this defensive performance? Because, what, ninety five percent of the plays, they were dominant, but those five percent kept Rutgers in the game.
Jack Miller • 14:53
Yeah, exactly. I mean, look, it took all the way to this point in the season for them to give up a couple big explosive plays from an opposing offense. I. I think this defense is. Is playing really, really well. They're playing at a high level. You know, they were aggressive today. J. Hill called a lot of blitzes. They. They tried to. They didn't even really try to disguise it a whole lot. And so what that led to was Rutgers throwing up the ball and trying to make some big plays, which they did at times. They got a couple penalties, couple pass interferences out of it as well, which wasn't ideal. But, you know, by and large, the defense did play a really good game. When you blitz, when you play aggressive like that, you open yourself up. You better get home and get to the running back or Make a play on the ball because if you don't, there's no help anywhere.
Jack Miller • 15:30
And it burned him a couple times. But save for those few explosive plays, you know the defense is right on track. They're playing at a really high level still.
Brian Boesch • 15:36
Lastly, the fact that Michigan seemed to play hard. You never quite know these days in college football because once you hit that third loss, unless you've got one whale of a, of a strength of schedule and you got some big time wins, you're probably thinking about next year. And with the games in November and the one next week where you know Michigan State's going to come in with an opportunity to help salvage their season. I like the approach. Even if there's a ton to clean up, I don't want to, I don't want to misconstrue like this. This was not an a effort in terms of production, but they seem to still be locked in on the task at hand with some real building blocks offensively, two true freshmen really leading the way.
Jack Miller • 16:16
Yeah, they are. They're playing hard and they got a lot of heart. You know, it's not clicking on the offensive side of the ball the way anybody wants, including fans and including the folks in that locker room, both players and coaches and you know, if it were easy, if there were a silver bullet, they'd have it figured out by now. There's just a lot of strange things going on between penalties, a lack of good performance on the field and execution. Some, some play calls at times that they've just, they have not found their footing, they have not gotten rhythm. But you got a guy in Tommy Carr and you got that offense playing really hard. They're banged up. You know, you can just tell they're at that point in the season where guys don't feel great. Well, you know, nobody does at this point in college football when you're, when you're heading into November.
Jack Miller • 16:52
So they are playing hard, they're playing gutsy. They've gone down to the wire in every game besides one at this point and there's a lot of fight there. You'd like to see the execution level up a little bit, but you know they're willing to fight.
Brian Boesch • 17:03
Always appreciate the analysis from our crew. After a Michigan victory by seven at Rutgers, game day just got a style upgrade before kickoff for the Wolverines next game. It's against Michigan State on november seventh. Head of the Tommy Hilfiger Prep rally at fanfest on the corner of Stadium and Main street to check out pieces from their varsity prep inspired collection Get a free Tommy Hilfiger hat that you can customize with a patch if you sign up for Hilfiger Club. But hurry. Supplies are limited to the first five hundred fans. Then step inside their Airstream, strike a pose and snap a photo to remember the day. Do the pregame right with the Tommy Hilfiger prep rally. Find them at the Michigan State Fan Fest, open four hours before kickoff. We will now go to the Michigan locker room. Jon Jansen visited with the head coach, Kyle Whittingham.
Jon Jansen • 17:49
Congratulations, coach. It's. It's a win. What was the message to the team after the game?
Kyle Whittingham • 17:53
Well, found a way and it's. For whatever reason, nothing's easy. This season every single game has been a one score game with the exception of utep and so credit. Our guys did a nice job defensively. I think they only completed three passes in the entire game. Now those three passes did some damage. They were, they were, you know, deep balls. But I thought we played well on defense with the exception of not being able to create a takeaway offense did not turn the ball over. Ran the ball. Okay. I think we had one hundred fifty, one hundred sixty yards. Tommy had a really nice outing, eighty percent or maybe a little better completion percentage and over two hundred fifty, two hundred sixty six I think was his final. So a lot of good things going on. But penalties hurt us. Ninety yards worth of penalties. They bogged down some drives for us and extended some drives for them.
Kyle Whittingham • 18:43
So we what we had really cleaned up last week, penalty wise, resurfaced again this week.
Jon Jansen • 18:48
So let's talk a little bit more about Tommy Carr. Twenty two at twenty seven eighty one percent but he threw for a touchdown, ran for two mores. Your, your just evaluation of him. But also coming out of last week, how much progress have you seen him make?
Kyle Whittingham • 19:01
I think he made a lot of progress from last week to this week. You saw growth in, in his entire game. His pocket presence, his accuracy, his legs really helped. You know, he had fifty something really critical yards and rushing and a couple touchdowns and made that critical sneak right there at the end to put the game on ice. And so I think he took a big step this week.
Jon Jansen • 19:23
At third downs you guys were twelve of sixteen, but more importantly in the second half you were nine of eleven. What was the success that you, why was the reason for success on third downs?
Kyle Whittingham • 19:31
Well, I think we had more manageable third downs this week, which is probably the most important thing or the biggest reason why we're able to do that. It was really nice to see a Score on the first possession of each half. You know, we haven't started real fast this year at times, so to get touchdowns on both those drives was positive, and we only defended, I think it was, thirty eight snaps, which is like a half a game on defense, so. So those defenders will be fresh this week going into the next one.
Jon Jansen • 19:55
Well, and let's talk a little bit more about the defense. They've been very consistent throughout the course of the year. A couple of explosives today, but they came up big when they had to.
Kyle Whittingham • 20:02
They did and played third down pretty good. Did okay in the run game. Other than that. What was it, seventy, sixty yarder? I can't remember what it was, but it was a big one. If you take that one away, which you can't, then we. We played really good run defense, but we let that one out of the gate. And. But overall, defense, we just got to find a way to generate more takeaways. That's really the name of the game, as we've talked over and over about, is, you know, taking the ball away on defense and not turning it over on offense.
Jon Jansen • 20:29
How can you use this momentum to the rivalry game next week with. With Michigan State?
Kyle Whittingham • 20:34
Yeah, well, just that the rivalry game, first of all, should take care of itself as far as emotion and passion. Usually don't have to do much coaching in that area on a rivalry week, and so, you know, we'll be ready. We got them at. At our place, which is. Which is a big plus. And our guys are very interested to be a part of this rivalry. Man, I know it's not the biggest one, but it's a big one.
Jon Jansen • 20:58
Thanks, coach.
Kyle Whittingham • 20:59
Okay. Thank you. Touchdown.
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Brian Boesch • 21:31
Let's bring you some interviews from the Michigan players. Let's start with the quarterback we've been talking a lot about here on this show. It's Tommy Carr with Jason Devon.
Jason Avant • 21:40
First off, first win. How's it feel?
Tommy Carr • 21:42
Feels great. Big win. You know, offense was, you know, we could be better, but we were. We executed pretty well and, you know, just happy to get the win, really.
Jason Avant • 21:54
Seem like you guys have a lot of hitches in the game, playing to Start. You probably had one hundred yards worth of hitches in this ball game. Talk about that and how that was capitalized on.
Tommy Carr • 22:04
Yeah, that's just something that we saw an opportunity is to take free access hitches. A lot of teams, that's what we get from watching film. And a lot of teams did that against them. So we did that a few times a day, which were, you know, as you said, big. Almost probably one hundred yards on those. So that was huge.
Jason Avant • 22:23
You were able to make some plays with your legs. Talk to me about how you determine when to go and when. Not because it seems like you're never looking to run, but it seems like somehow you make the right decision every time.
Tommy Carr • 22:36
Yeah, I mean, you gotta have a, you know, a clock going on in your head. So you drop back, you get through your first two reads and you know that clock's still ticking. You got to go down and make a play with your legs. And that's what happened. I was dropped back. Didn't really see anything open. So, you know, it's go time. Gotta go make play.
Jason Avant • 22:53
It seems like it's a mentality because there's a lot of times if the quarterback doesn't send
Jason Avant • 22:58
anybody open and kind of throws it at someone's feet or throws it out of bounds, it seems like you're trying to make every play possible.
Tommy Carr • 23:03
One hundred percent. You know, I think that I. I have the athletic ability to make people miss. So when there's a play or when the play breaks down, I'm not trying to throw the ball away. I'm trying to get out of there and make a play for my team.
Jason Avant • 23:20
When it comes to the downfield throws, it seemed like there was a few under thrown to Marsh. How do you capitalize on that or get better in that area?
Tommy Carr • 23:29
Yeah, those are two under thrown balls. That's just. We got to continue to work that at practice. Continue to get reps between me and Marsh. That's done after practice or during practice. But yeah, I got to be better on those. And we'll definitely work on that this week in practice.
Jason Avant • 23:47
Now, you grew up Michigan family. You know the importance of this week. Are you, Are you excited?
Tommy Carr • 23:54
Really excited. You know, I've been watching this game for shoots my whole life. So just to have the opportunity playing is awesome. And we ready.
Jason Avant • 24:06
Congratulations on the win.
Tommy Carr • 24:07
Yes, sir. Thank you.
Brian Boesch • 24:07
One of his key targets in this one was Andrew Marsh. Here's a couple of receivers talking it up.
Jason Avant • 24:13
The receivers had a big day today.
Jason Avant • 24:15
Offensively, can you talk about like the game plan? To get you guys more involved.
Andrew Marsh • 24:21
I mean, really the game plan was just to do better, do more as a whole. Running the ball, passing the ball, and then when we get. When we get the ball, we gotta make, make plays with
Andrew Marsh • 24:30
it. Yards after catch and really just making the play.
Jason Avant • 24:34
It seems like they were able to give up like some hitches and a lot of cushion early in that ball game and you guys were able to take advantage of. Was there a particular player which you guys were targeting and
Andrew Marsh • 24:45
for that, not really like particular player, but really we just knew that they were gonna give us cushion, give us space. So. So we were going to take the hitches until they took it away and really just get whatever we could get, get the yards after catch.
Jason Avant • 24:58
It seemed like you are getting behind in defense. Ball's not getting completed to you. How do you stay focused and prepared for the next moment if you don't hit that big shot?
Andrew Marsh • 25:09
Really just got to keep going. It's one thing I always tell myself, one thing I always tell people, just got to keep going.
Andrew Marsh • 25:15
You're not going to complete everyone. So really just got to keep going. Ready for the next one.
Jason Avant • 25:20
You guys were coming off a really, really tough loss last week against Indiana. How does it feel to get a win in Rutgers with them playing as well as they did?
Andrew Marsh • 25:31
I would say it feels good. Obviously, to get a win. We still got to play better, in my opinion. I mean, you know how I go. But we really just got to play better. It feels good to get a win.
Jason Avant • 25:41
And Tommy able to do a lot of good things, extend plays with his legs. Is it a difference for you guys playing at all with him?
Andrew Marsh • 25:53
I mean, I would say it's always a difference. I mean, two different. Two different. Completely different people. But Tommy held his own today. I would say he made plays with his feet and he played with his head very well today. So I was proud of him.
Jason Avant • 26:05
Congratulations on the win.
Andrew Marsh • 26:07
Yes sir. Thank you.
Brian Boesch • 26:07
We'll pivot to the Michigan defense for some reaction, but first, a reminder that Foguth financial Group, the proud wealth management partner of Michigan athletics, is getting ready for its state second night out at the big house of the year. The first one sold out back in September, but with the increased demand, there's one coming up. Tuesday, november tenth. Learn strategies for managing the risks of retirement and enjoy complimentary dinner and drinks. Door prizes and you get exclusive access to tour Michigan stadium. Head over to mgo blue dot com Big house to sign up. That's mgo blue dot com Big House. Limited seats are available. All right, defensive reaction. Here's Jason Avant with Chris Bracy.
Jason Avant • 26:44
Coming off a loss. How does it feel to get a win?
Chris Bracy • 26:46
It feels great to get back in the win. Just good to get a win overall and just get back, get back on track.
Jason Avant • 26:53
You seem like you're a big part of the game plan, whether it's blitzing or tackling. Describe your role in the win today.
Chris Bracy • 27:01
Just being a guy that Coach Hill trust show my versus to do different things within the
Chris Bracy • 27:07
defense. Just maximizing his defense and putting the best effort out there on tape.
Jason Avant • 27:12
How much of the game plan was predicated on where KJ Duff would be?
Chris Bracy • 27:19
It was definitely a part of our game plan. Just, just. Just focusing on him. He ended up getting hurt and beyond the game. So we kind of went back to our
Chris Bracy • 27:28
regular basic things and
Chris Bracy • 27:30
good job getting away
Jason Avant • 27:32
When it came to them, you know, scoring some points and getting some big plays. What happened on those particular plays in order for them to get some yards?
Chris Bracy • 27:40
Just some explosive plays that
Chris Bracy • 27:41
we got to cut down. Just mishaps out of gaps. Unfortunately, we just had a DB fall down, so we just got to eliminate those explosives and we should be fine.
Jason Avant • 27:50
All right. Going to Michigan State week, kind of right away. Do you. Have you talked to anyone about what the rivalry means?
Chris Bracy • 27:58
Not as much as really just focus on the season, taking one game at a time, but it's definitely a big game for us and definitely trying to beat every opponent.
Jason Avant • 28:05
All the best going forward. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Brian Boesch • 28:07
Now let's go to that Michigan defensive line with Benny Patterson.
Jason Avant • 28:10
First off, coming off of a loss, how good does it feel to get a win?
Benny Patterson • 28:15
I say coming off a loss, it definitely feels good to get a win. It didn't go, you know, the way we completely wanted it to go, but to come out with a win is the most important thing, so feels good to get back in that one column.
Jason Avant • 28:24
You had a few guys down on the defensive front. Your number was called a little bit more. How did you prepare to be successful this week?
Benny Patterson • 28:30
I think just being at Michigan, we pride ourselves and you know, trying to have depth in that up front. So, you know, next man up mentality. So if a guys go down, you got
Benny Patterson • 28:37
to try and step in and, you know, play that role to the best of your ability.
Benny Patterson • 28:40
It shouldn't be any drop off.
Jason Avant • 28:42
It seemed like they were able to get some rushing yards in the second half, especially on that fourth one. Do you know what happened on that particular play?
Benny Patterson • 28:49
No. I definitely have to go back and look at the tape. But just trying to hone back in on everybody doing their job, being where they're supposed to be at. So yeah, it comes down to that
Jason Avant • 28:57
When it comes to their offense. What was the hardest thing to stop today?
Benny Patterson • 29:04
I'll just say sometimes guys is, you know, trying to make. Make plays that aren't. Aren't for them. So just again, hone it back in and doing your job.
Brian Boesch • 29:11
We wrap it up with a quick chat with Enow Etta.
Jason Avant • 29:14
Enow seemed like you guys came out and stopped them in the second half. What was the adjustment in the game plan?
Enow Etta • 29:19
We just got to do our job. We just got to execute. We know when we execute, we better than we the best. So we just got to continue to execute.
Jason Avant • 29:27
How does it feel to get a win?
Enow Etta • 29:29
It feels great. You know, we just got to keep going. I mean, we just gotta, we just gotta execute better.
Enow Etta • 29:35
Some things that didn't go our way that we feel like should have, so we just gotta execute better.
Jason Avant • 29:39
They were able to pop a big fourth down run. Can you tell me what happened on that particular play?
Enow Etta • 29:44
I don't exactly know what happened, but all I know is we gotta watch film and get better from it
Jason Avant • 29:48
All the best going forward.
Enow Etta • 29:50
Thank you.
Brian Boesch • 29:49
That's it for this victorious edition of in the Trenches presented by Meijer. November begins with the Wolverines and Michigan State. It is a big one on a rivalry standpoint and obviously for Michigan not playing for any Big Ten or national championship type prizes, they can get a rivalry win and that's pretty big. We'll have all the coverage for you this week. We'll also bring you defend the block recaps of Michigan men's basketball's first two games against Oakland on Monday night. And then of course, the matchup in Boston with UConn, the national championship game rematch Friday night up in Beantown. All right, that's it for me, Brian Boesch. Thanks to everybody who made the episode possible as the Wolverines win it at Rutgers by seven. Thanks for listening in the Trenches, presented by Meijer. And Go Blue.
[music builds]
Jeff Laurence • 30:34
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 as part of our Michigan Athletics Podcast network, M GO Blue Podcast. The preceding is a Learfield presentation of the Michigan Sports Network.
