11/5/2026 5:29:00 PM | MGoBlue Podcasts
Radio Network Scene Setter
It's woven into the fabric of college football. It's one of the things that makes college football as great as it is. It's in-state bragging rights. It's about establishing who runs the state. It means everything to the people here. It means everything to the people in the state. The magnitude of importance of this game. I mean, you just think of the history. Unbelievable. Made a spectacular interception and somehow landed with a foot in bounds. Lofting it right corner of the end zone for Braylon up in the air. Touchdown Michigan. Do you believe this comeback? Touchdown DPJ. Throughout the record books, you know, whatever you are to this point in the season doesn't matter because you're going to get both teams' best shot. We both play physical, we both play hard, and we're tough teams. Everything's kind of taken to the next level. It's real emotion out there. Violent, every place. Protect your brothers and play your tails off. I don't ever want to see Paul in East Lansing. Keep that trophy from bragging rights, ready to win.
00:00:57 Jeff Laurence
We're closing in on another Michigan game day.
00:01:00 Jeff Laurence
Now let's get you set for Saturday's matchup with our keys to the game edition of In the Trenches, presented by Meijer, presenting sponsor of the 2026 Michigan football season and proud supporter of hundreds of local sports teams across the Midwest.
00:01:14 Jeff Laurence
Now, here's Jon Jansen.
00:01:16 Jon Jansen
This isn't a matchup of top 10 teams, not like back in 21 where it was 7-0 and 7-0.
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Michigan
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and Michigan State have met 118 times.
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75 of those have been wins for Michigan, 38 losses and five ties.
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Michigan has won the last four meetings.
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And then the last 20 years
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It is tied.
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Ten wins and 10 losses.
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Another opportunity.
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7.30 in the big house.
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Michigan versus Michigan State for Paul Bunyan.
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Keys to the game in just a moment, but before we get there, hey, Michigan fans.
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Coming to cheer for your Wolverines?
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Stick around to explore more of Ann Arbor.
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Ensure, visit your favorite places.
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Then go see what's new.
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Hit up the downtown social district for award-winning restaurants.
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Take a stroll through campus and turn up the
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energy with live music.
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There's a lot to do outside of Ann Arbor as well, just like hiking the B2B trail and golfing on some incredible courses.
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That's because the Ann Arbor area is 7 communities full of year-round fun and plenty of fellow fans rooting for the maize and blue.
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Now that's a winning lineup.
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Start planning your trip at annarbor.org.
00:02:30 Jeff Laurence
Offense.
00:02:32 Jon Jansen
There's going to be some overlap between the offensive keys and the defensive keys.
00:02:37 Jon Jansen
But #1 offensively, it's run the ball.
00:02:40 Jon Jansen
You've got to find some consistency in the run game.
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And this is another opportunity to do just that.
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In fact, it's a must in this series.
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49 of the last 56 games were won by the team that won the rushing battle.
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So you want to know the secret to this game?
00:02:59 Jon Jansen
Go out there, be the most physical team, pound the football,
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and come away with the win.
00:03:04 Jon Jansen
You've got to be able to block movement.
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That's the one thing when we heard from Blake Frazier on Wednesday's podcast that they've struggled with.
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You've got to lock in.
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You've got to make sure that you understand where that movement is coming from, where it's going, and the key to that
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eyes up.
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You got to see linebackers.
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You got to see the edge of the defense.
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If you got a safety creeping down, if you got a corner on the outside, they will tell you exactly what that defensive front is going to do.
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It's the cheat code, right?
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You watch those linebackers where they line up and you can even look at the defensive lineman.
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Sometimes it's where they've got their hand and they will do this a lot where one defensive lineman is a little bit further up, one's a little bit back.
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Hey, I got a game coming.
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Somebody's moving.
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Which way are they going?
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You've got to be able to figure that out.
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You got to react, but you can anticipate
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that by the alignment of the defensive linemen linebackers and the secondary.
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Number 2, protect the quarterback.
00:03:56 Jon Jansen
And some of the keys in the run game also carry over to the pass game.
00:04:00 Jon Jansen
When you protect quarterback, you've got to be able to understand when are they going to run a TE stunt?
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Are they bringing a linebacker up to try and pick the tackle and wrap out around that defensive end?
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Keep your eyes up.
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Notice what is going on around you more so than just your guy.
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Give Tommy some time to push the ball down.
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And when we heard from Tommy on Monday night, it's all about timing.
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You got to give him the time and the ability to have comfort, know that he can sit in the pocket, go through his progressions.
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And if you got Andrew Marsh, you got JJ Buchanan downfield, this is an opportunity to take some of those big shots.
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It's all about the timing.
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So get that ball out quickly.
00:04:38 Jon Jansen
You can only do that if you're comfortable in the pocket.
00:04:41 Jon Jansen
Number 3, stay ahead of the sticks.
00:04:44 Jon Jansen
This is something that you did extremely well
00:04:47 Jon Jansen
against Rutgers.
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That was why you were so productive on 3rd downs.
00:04:51 Jon Jansen
They were all third and shorts.
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You were 12 of 16 on 3rd down.
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Why was that possible?
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Because you were good on 1st down, you were good on 2nd down, and you gave yourself a manageable third and one, third and two, third and four.
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Like that's where you get success on 3rd downs, making those manageable.
00:05:08 Jon Jansen
So stay ahead of the sticks, be good on 1st and 2nd down, run the damn ball and protect the quarterback.
00:05:14 Jon Jansen
You'll come out with a win offensively.
00:05:17 Jeff Laurence
Defense.
00:05:19 Jon Jansen
Now the defense has had a lot of winning efforts, all right, against Rutgers, still a winning effort, but not their best.
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All right, so it's a time to rebound.
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How do you do that?
00:05:29 Jon Jansen
And I'm going to mirror what I talked about for the offense.
00:05:32 Jon Jansen
Number one, stop the run.
00:05:33 Jon Jansen
And I'll say it again, 49 of the last 56 games were won by the team that won the rushing battle.
00:05:39 Jon Jansen
If you go out there and you stop the run, you make this offense one-dimensional, no matter who's that quarterback, you make them throw the ball downfield.
00:05:48 Jon Jansen
That is a huge win for Michigan.
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And when that happens, now we got to create turnovers.
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Got to take the ball away, attack the ball carrier.
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First guy there, wrap up.
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Really good at open field tackling this year.
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Not a lot of missed tackles.
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In fact, it's been one of the best in recent memory of the skill
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to complete those open field tackles.
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But here's the thing.
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The next guy there, and this is a defense for Michigan that is a swarming defense, right?
00:06:16 Jon Jansen
The first guy there, wrap him up.
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Second guy, punch at the ball, put your helmet on the ball.
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attack the ball carrier with ferocity because that's what's going to cause turnovers in the run game.
00:06:26 Jon Jansen
And then confidence and coverage.
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You got to have confidence.
00:06:30 Jon Jansen
You've earned the right to have confidence and coverage, but you also got to be disciplined.
00:06:34 Jon Jansen
Know where your help is.
00:06:35 Jon Jansen
That's one of the great things about this Jay Hill defense is you've got help everywhere.
00:06:39 Jon Jansen
Understand where that is.
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push your defenders or push the offensive player to your help.
00:06:44 Jon Jansen
And either it's an incompletion, can't get the ball out, or it's a turnover when you get the ball in your hands.
00:06:49 Jon Jansen
Come on, please catch the ball.
00:06:52 Jon Jansen
We had multiple opportunities at the end of that Rutgers game.
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Love the fact that the ball hit the ground, but it shouldn't have to.
00:06:58 Jon Jansen
Take that ball, take it to the house, put some points on the board, give us good field position.
00:07:04 Jon Jansen
Number 3, watch for the trick plays.
00:07:07 Jon Jansen
It's not a bit of offense that has had a lot of success this year.
00:07:10 Jon Jansen
Early on it was running the football, running back goes down, they struggle to run the ball.
00:07:14 Jon Jansen
So don't get greedy.
00:07:16 Jon Jansen
Just follow your keys.
00:07:18 Jon Jansen
And when I say don't get greedy, I know everybody wants to make a big play, especially in this game.
00:07:23 Jon Jansen
Rivalry game, you want to have, you want to put your stamp on the rivalry, but be disciplined.
00:07:27 Jon Jansen
Did a nice job against last week against Rutgers on a reverse.
00:07:32 Jon Jansen
You must stay disciplined in this game as well because they're going to try and steal a couple of first downs.
00:07:38 Jon Jansen
See if they can get a big play over the top by getting you to bite on something, on a fake, on a reverse.
00:07:45 Jon Jansen
on a flea flicker, something that is going to cause you to be out of position.
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So be disciplined and trust your teammates.
00:07:52 Jeff Laurence
Special teams.
00:07:54 Jon Jansen
Number one on special teams is when you have the ability to put points on the board.
00:08:00 Jon Jansen
And it goes from the process, snap, hold, placement, got to be good.
00:08:07 Jon Jansen
You've got to find a way to put three points on the board.
00:08:11 Jon Jansen
Offense, we want to put it in the end zone, but if we can't get there, we've got to know that we're in position to get points on every single drive.
00:08:18 Jon Jansen
And it's an open competition.
00:08:20 Jon Jansen
Coach talked about it on Monday.
00:08:21 Jon Jansen
It's an open competition for that field goal kicker spot.
00:08:24 Jon Jansen
So you got to have the points, seize the opportunity.
00:08:28 Jon Jansen
You get a chance to go out there.
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I don't care who it is.
00:08:30 Jon Jansen
It could be any number of three guys.
00:08:32 Jon Jansen
Go out there.
00:08:33 Jon Jansen
If you get that opportunity, put points on the board, take hold of that position and never let go.
00:08:40 Jon Jansen
And #2 on
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special teams, we need a big play.
00:08:43 Jon Jansen
We need something to happen on special teams.
00:08:46 Jon Jansen
No time like the present, whether it's a punt return.
00:08:50 Jon Jansen
Salesi Moa, you've done a great job of making good decisions back there.
00:08:54 Jon Jansen
But when you've got the opportunity, don't get lulled to sleep and think it's always going to be a fair catch or the ball's going to hit the ground.
00:09:00 Jon Jansen
Hey, be ready and be able when that opportunity presents itself, you get a chance to get a return, take it to the house, kickoff return, same thing, take it to the house.
00:09:11 Jon Jansen
block, punt or kick, create a turnover.
00:09:14 Jon Jansen
Any of the above, we need to make the special teams a weapon.
00:09:20 Jon Jansen
It needs to be the tip of the spear.
00:09:22 Jon Jansen
We got 3 phases.
00:09:23 Jon Jansen
Offense, talked about them.
00:09:24 Jon Jansen
Defense, we went through the winning effort for both of those.
00:09:28 Jon Jansen
What does that mean?
00:09:28 Jon Jansen
What does it look like?
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How do you get there?
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And for special teams, it is no different.
00:09:33 Jon Jansen
You've got to go out there and be an active participant in winning football games.
00:09:42 Jeff Laurence
Now it's time for Jon's locker room speech.
00:09:46 Jon Jansen
I gave you the numbers earlier about this matchup.
00:09:49 Jon Jansen
118 times these teams have met.
00:09:52 Jon Jansen
Michigan holds a decisive edge and I've gone through with the team throughout the course of the week.
00:09:59 Jon Jansen
How many national titles does Michigan have?
00:10:01 Jon Jansen
12 to MSU, 6.
00:10:03 Jon Jansen
Rose Bowls, 21 to 5 for MSU.
00:10:07 Jon Jansen
Big 10 titles, 45 for Michigan, 9.
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for MSU.
00:10:11 Jon Jansen
Playoff appearances, three for Michigan, one for Michigan State.
00:10:15 Jon Jansen
Consensus All-Americans, 88 for the University of Michigan, 33 for MSU.
00:10:21 Jon Jansen
All-time winning percentage, 733 for Michigan, 588 for MSU.
00:10:27 Jon Jansen
So you understand where that inferiority complex comes from.
00:10:30 Jon Jansen
You know that Michigan State, when they see this game on the schedule, it doesn't matter if it's in October, if it's in later in the season in November, this is their Super Bowl.
00:10:39 Jon Jansen
They want to go out,
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They want to save their season.
00:10:41 Jon Jansen
They want to hang a banner in their locker room, in their full team meeting room.
00:10:45 Jon Jansen
That's exactly what they're coming to do for Michigan, but it doesn't matter what they want.
00:10:50 Jon Jansen
It all comes down to Michigan and it comes down to composure.
00:10:54 Jon Jansen
This is a composure game.
00:10:55 Jon Jansen
You know they're going to take some shots at you while the play is going on.
00:10:59 Jon Jansen
You know they're going to take shots at you before the game, after the game, after the snap, after the whistle blows.
00:11:04 Jon Jansen
You've got to actively think to yourself, how am I going to react?
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Am I going to react in a
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selfish reaction and take a shot at one of those guys because the officials are going to see what happens second, not what happens first.
00:11:18 Jon Jansen
15 yard personal foul, unnecessary roughness, all of those things that either kill drives or extend them for Michigan State.
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Don't give them that opportunity.
00:11:27 Jon Jansen
They are going to need that to continue to move the ball downfield defensively or they're going to need it to stop you offensively.
00:11:34 Jon Jansen
So don't buy into it.
00:11:35 Jon Jansen
No, anticipate that it's going to happen and think about your mind.
00:11:39 Jon Jansen
It is the same.
00:11:40 Jon Jansen
Same thing as you get that opening script.
00:11:42 Jon Jansen
This is what we're doing on the 1st 10 plays.
00:11:44 Jon Jansen
You go through it, you visualize it.
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Same thing you've got to do when you know that you're going to get hit.
00:11:49 Jon Jansen
They're going to take some shots at you.
00:11:51 Jon Jansen
That's what this rivalry is.
00:11:52 Jon Jansen
That's what they have traditionally been, historically been.
00:11:56 Jon Jansen
So you got to be ready for it.
00:11:57 Jon Jansen
And between the whistles, when that ball is snapped to the whistle blows, you've got to go out there and be the most violent team.
00:12:04 Jon Jansen
That's the beautiful thing about football is you get an actual, you get a chance to do what you can't do anywhere else.
00:12:10 Jon Jansen
You get to physically dominate another individual.
00:12:12 Jon Jansen
When a Spartan lines up across from you on the offensive line, you dominate that individual.
00:12:17 Jon Jansen
Same thing on the defensive line.
00:12:18 Jon Jansen
You dominate that individual.
00:12:20 Jon Jansen
If you own the line of scrimmage, you will own this game.
00:12:24 Jon Jansen
It's all about violence, physicality, and composure.
00:12:28 Jon Jansen
You've got to know when to do it and when not to.
00:12:31 Jon Jansen
And if you figure those things out, you will win the game.
00:12:35 Jon Jansen
Go Blue.
00:12:36 Jeff Laurence
Thanks for listening to this edition of In the Trenches with John Jansen presented by Meijer, presenting sponsor of the 2026 Michigan football season and proud supporter of hundreds of local sports teams across the Midwest.
00:12:48 Jeff Laurence
In the Trenches is part of our Michigan Athletics Podcast Network, M Go Blue Podcasts.
00:12:54 Jeff Laurence
The preceding is a Learfield presentation of the Michigan Sports Network.
