In the Trenches 607 - Tariq Boney Transcript
9/23/2026 10:24:00 AM | MGoBlue Podcasts
Jon Jansen • 00:00
Well, Michigan started the season off three and oh and a major contributor, not necessarily on the radar for a lot that aren't involved. The Michigan program is Tariq Boney, freshman edge defender, had one and a half sacks this past weekend against UTEP. Has been a tremendous contributor on defense as well as on special teams. He joins us today on in the Trenches.
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Jeff Laurence • 00:24
Welcome to the official podcast of Michigan Football in the Trenches with Jon Jansen. Presented by Meijer, presenting sponsor of the 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.
Tariq Boney • 00:46
That one, you know, starts in the film room knowing when you are going to get that pulling guard is, you know, detrimental to how you gonna take that on. And we seen it all week in practice and then I know I picked up some keys on the field to know that that was coming. So it helped me close that space.
Jeff Laurence • 01:02
A this is in the Trenches presented by Meijer. Once again, here's Jon Jansen.
Jon Jansen • 01:09
Welcome back friends to another edition of in the Trenches. And I want to let you know what's going on at MGO Blue Podcast. Already out the radio replay of Inside Michigan Football where I sit down with head coach Kyle Whittingham every single week. The special guests this week are inside wide receivers coach and you should have seen him squirm in his seat. I'm just going to say wide receiver coach. That's just exactly how it's on the on the website. But it's Marcus Hagens and the stud from last Saturday, Andrew Marsh, always excited to talk to him. Defend the block. That one's out as well. Marcus Moller, a freshman on the Michigan men's basketball team. Brian Boesch sat down with him. Still to come, we've got our conquering heroes on Thursday. That's going to come out earlier in the day. And the guest is volleyball coach Erin Virtue. And then in the Trenches, the Iowa preview.
Jon Jansen • 02:00
And I can't wait for Brian as he begins to edit this one may have to trim a little bit on the locker room speech. There's a lot of violence and a lot of physicality in that one. So we'll see what actually makes it out of the cutting room floor Saturday night. Also going to be another edition of in the Trenches and that will be post game and I believe we're going to be talking about a big time Michigan win over Iowa in the big house to start the Big Ten season. And I already mentioned his name Once for defend the block and our editor extraordinaire, mister Brian Boesch.
Brian Boesch • 02:35
Hello, Jon. Better to have the violence on the preview edition versus the post game edition. That is positive, but I haven't heard it yet. But that's a tease because if Jon's. Once we get to Big Ten play and you know, I, I know that the, the Iowa game in ninety seven obviously had some storylines. There's been a lot of storylines to Michigan Iowa games over the years. It's a fun series.
Jon Jansen • 02:55
It is.
Jon Jansen • 02:56
And so we'll get, we'll get excited about it and we'll see how, how things. Rock and roll indeed.
Brian Boesch • 03:02
All right, let's get into our seven from seventy seven here on in the trenches presented by Meijer. We begin with the quarterback Bryce Underwood as a passer. He seemed to take some strides back on Saturday against UTEP. Seventy six percent passer, two hundred twenty three yards through the air, two touchdowns, no picks, was not used a whole lot in terms of running the football. But to me, Jon, the most noteworthy part, both from Bryce and the game plan, was that all but two of Underwood's completions were went to Andrew Marsh or JJ Buchanan. The Oklahoma game was about seeing what Underwood could do. When you really focused as a runner, how significant in your eyes was his jump against a much different defense in UTEP, but still a passing performance that really didn't have very many issues.
Jon Jansen • 03:46
Well, it's so what UTEP was doing, much like Western Michigan was they wanted to keep everything in front of them. They didn't want to give any, any explosive plays in the passing game knowing that they weren't going to match the athleticism and the speed on the edge. So they kept everything in front. And I love the fact that this was a disciplined approach by the coaching staff as well as Bryce. Where I know right now it's, hey, you know, you throw it out wide receiver screen a couple of slants and I what, what I really liked about the slants was the accuracy when you're hitting that wide receiver on the run and you're anticipating where the linebackers are, how the, the corners are playing and where the safeties are. I love the fact that he was able to throw an absolute clothesline to the wide receiver and hit him in stride. That's, that's a big time throw.
Jon Jansen • 04:31
We just need to see more of those against the defense like they're going to face against Iowa and it's going to open up. I actually think it's going to open up a lot more because the scouting report for Michigan is those quick passing, those quick routes and get the ball in and out of Bryce's hands. Love the fact that they did that to get him comfortable. Now that he's got a little bit more confidence he in the connection between him and jj, him and Andrew, now all of a sudden, hey, if they're going to jump some of those routes, they're going to pray some, some pressed man coverage. Now we're going to get a chance to see what not just Bryce can do down the field, but Andrew, JJ and the rest of the wide receiving core. So I'm, I'm excited about what the possibilities are because of what Bryce has been able to do and love seeing
Brian Boesch • 05:16
Marsh get going because Michigan can ill afford to have him be as, I want to say non existent, but not as present in a game plan offensively versus what we saw against Western Michigan and Oklahoma. I mean Marsh, he is as good as it gets. And there's one thing to try to get a guy more involved. I mean that first drive right out of the gates, back to back throws, little wide receiver screens to Marsh on quick drops. I mean it was intentional.
Jon Jansen • 05:42
Well, it's intentional. And when a defense knows that you're trying to force the ball to a certain player and you can still do it and they're trying to make different reasons why you shouldn't be able to, but the receiver still wins on the outside, quarterback still puts the ball where it's supposed to be. That's where you know you've got a, a passing game against an opponent like UTEP that is starting to see some progress.
Brian Boesch • 06:05
All right, number two on our seven from seventy seven is Jordan Marshall and Savion Hiter. Marshall a little bit banged up. The noteworthy thing that Kyle Whittingham said on Monday's radio show, again, as Jon mentioned, you can hear it on the audio podcast feed MGO Blue Podcasts. He said Marshall felt better coming out of the UTEP game than the Oklahoma game, but he didn't really get as much playing time down the stretch. Part of that was score. But Hiter stepped up the true freshman. Eleven carries, sixty two yards, couple of touchdown runs. With Hiter specifically, it sounds like Marshall's going to be fine for this week and hopefully beyond. But how prepared in your eyes is Savion Hyder for Big Ten playing potentially a big role in Big Ten play?
Jon Jansen • 06:46
Well, you never want to see the ball on the ground and obviously Savion put the ball on the ground. However, there can be a lot of things that can be learned from A moment like that, obviously in terms of blocking, those guys make sure they don't have direct hits on the, on our running backs. But it just, it's a, it's a heightened sense that you go into a game knowing that you've done it, knowing that everyone is counting on you to protect the football. What you do with a moment of failure moving forward, what are you learning from it, how are you carrying the ball, how you approaching the hole? And one of the things that I said in the broadcast is I really liked after that moment because that moment happened in the second quarter. And then UTEP goes, you know, in one play, eighteen yards, they score a touchdown. After that, there was, it felt like much more patience by Savion.
Jon Jansen • 07:36
When he got the ball in the backfield. There was almost a little bit of a stutter, a pause, allowing the blocks to set up, but also allowing the defense to move and to start their momentum. And then all of a sudden Savion would hit the hole and it felt like it. Things were timing up better and he was allowing the defense to make some of those moves so then he could react to it. That's one of the things about that, that running back position, it's very instinctual. And if you're allowing that defense to start to move around a little bit after the snap, you're allowing those blocks to set up. Now you can use those instincts when you finally get to the line of scrimmage. And I thought in the second half he really started to do that much better. And some of that comes from, you know, hey, having laid the ball on the ground. Some of it just comes with maybe he just needed to get popped really good to get comfortable, you know, playing big time college football, he really hasn't had those pops because there really hasn't been much of a running game going up until that point.
Brian Boesch • 08:31
Yeah, and obviously a big part of Hiter and Marshall, this offense is the offensive line. Let's talk about that here. Number three on our seven from seventy seven. Interesting dynamic. Kyle Whittingham shared and expounded upon the Andrew Sprague situation that Jim Harding o-line coach informed him about the Sprague injury. Evan Link and Blake Frazier did not do a single rep in practice the way that they were lined up. Evan at left tackle and, and Blake at right tackle after Link has been in that guard rotation and, and Link didn't play against Oklahoma. A lot of ebbs and flows to all of this. And while coach Whittingham was optimistic about Jordan Marshall, certainly not as Optimistic about Andrew Sprague when we had him on Monday night. Don't know his status for this week. This will be the first week we will see multiple injury reports that'll be submitted because this is Big Ten action, not just the one right before the game, about two hours out.
Brian Boesch • 09:23
So how does all of this for the offensive line shape up when it gets to an Iowa team that is always difficult to handle at the line of scrimmage, whether it's offense or defense.
Jon Jansen • 09:34
So the context now after the game and a couple of days of finding out when Blake Frazier was moved from left to right, it gives me a little bit more context. That would have been great information to have before the game because we still watched an offensive line struggle in the first half, found their footing and some of that in the second half. The success that they found was just, hey, the. The sheer mass of an. Of a Michigan offensive line versus some smaller defensive lineman from UTEP. You start leaning on them and you're going to start gaining some more yards. But having learned that a Blake Frazier did not work that position throughout the course of the week, and I know that it. One thing I do know about Jim Harding is that throughout training camp, there were times where he would put Blake Frazier over at right tackle and he would put Evan at left tackle and he would move guys around trying to figure out what the best five are out there.
Jon Jansen • 10:23
But in, in, in turn, it was kind of that cross training to be prepared for any moment. It paid off. Now, you would love to have a full week of practice having that context. I actually liked what Blake Frazier was able to do. He's the type of athlete that can move from side to side. It's not ideal to be able to do that at the last moment, but he has that because he played a little bit of right tackle last year. We saw when he was called upon. When Evan Link went down last year, he played mostly left. He's played left all through spring, all through fall. And then you, you think about Andrew, you know, I'm sorry, Link, Evan Link. Last year he was the starting left tackle until he got banged up. So guys have had a chance to play those positions now this week, having a chance to practice them and work with, you know, for Blake, work with Brady Norton and talk things out, how they're going to block together, get a comfort level of each other as well as on the left side with Nathan Efobi and Evan Link, I expect that they're going to be much better prepared for seeing this Iowa defensive front and the Key for this, this Michigan offensive line is you are going to have to be physical.
Jon Jansen • 11:30
You're going to have to play with a violent streak. Because Iowa's very good defense. They're. They're really good at connecting what's going on up front with what's going on in the back end. Having said that, you'll get some clues of what the defense is going to do simply by the alignment of the linebackers, the alignment of the secondary. So you can get up there and anticipate a little bit more of where the, where the, where the defensive line is going to move to. Are they going to slant, are they going to loop all of those different things. You can get some keys because they are so well connected.
Brian Boesch • 12:05
It's fascinating because Jon, really the only spot along this line that has had any sort of, of consistency in personnel is at center, Jake Guarnera. Kyle Whittingham raved about him with all the chaos around him. How do you think Jake has played through three games?
Jon Jansen • 12:18
Jake has done a tremendous job and outside of that Western game, he took some of the things that happened in that game and really improved against Oklahoma and again against UTEP and they've put more on his plate. One of the Jansen visions I used on inside Michigan football Sunday morning was him actually pulling from the center position. So they're starting to expect more out of him because he's mastering some of the things that they've done early in the progression of this offense. If you can get a center that is shotgun snapping and is able to pull that snap, is accurate and he's able to get around on the outside. I think it was the first play of the second half where Bryce went on about an eleven or twelve yard run, picked up a first down and it's Jason Beck had constructed that one so that there were basically nine miners on the left side of the field, two thirds of the field, but there were only two defenders on the right side.
Jon Jansen • 13:11
They collapsed everything down, pulled a guard, pulled the center and we're able to get outside. There was literally nobody there to defend against the quarterback run. I thought it was a great play call, great play design. But you could only do that if you have a center that can snap a shotgun snap and pull at the same time. A lot of guys that that ball is going to be going every which way other than to the quarterback. And so I think Jake has really done a nice job of accepting that center position where I'd like to see him improve upon. And it was tough against the three, three five defense Is identifying, okay, what are the four guys that we're calling as down lineman? Who are we identifying as the mic? Who is going to be the one defender that we don't have enough to block? All of those things are starting to come a little bit more natural to him and hopefully that's the next step is identifying that front just a little bit better.
Brian Boesch • 14:00
All right, number four on our seven from seventy seven. Before we get into the initial overview of the Hawkeyes, I want to touch on some of the Michigan inconsistencies and some of the self inflicted wounds. Michigan lost a turnover battle again to UTEP. They've committed five turnovers. They forced three penalties, did get better against UTEP. So that was a step forward after it was a huge downside in the first two games of the season. So take out the personnel of Iowa just in terms of that aspect which can oftentimes decide big games. How can Michigan put itself in a better position than it's been most of the season in some of those areas that, let's face it, Iowa traditionally exploits that type of stuff.
Jon Jansen • 14:38
They do. And Iowa, I mean you're talking about turnovers. They've got three interceptions, two forced fumbles, one recovered. And this is an Iowa team. That is it. They have made their living. And it's not just this year especially went into the get into the Big Ten season. Typically they are a top three team in creating turnovers. Typically they're a top three if not the top defense in the Big Ten every single year because they do all the little things right and they've got big bodies up front, they play their gaps strong. That like I mentioned earlier, they're a well connected defense. You never see the linebackers and defensive line not doing the same thing. And by that sometimes it's hey, it's D line is slanting right, linebackers go left. Other times, hey, they're going to loop everybody out. Linebackers hit inside like they're a very well coached, disciplined defense.
Jon Jansen • 15:29
So they're not going to get out of position like some other defenses will where you could take advantage of that and get them running. Everybody gets out of a gap and then you cut back and you get a big gainer. You're going to actually have to block them up front. And when you talk about the turnovers, they're coached by Phil Parker and that entire staff. Punch the ball out, put your helmet on the ball. We saw that in the fumble by Savion Hiter.
Jon Jansen • 15:53
That was a helmet right on the ball.
Jon Jansen • 15:54
Ball. And it's tough to defend that, you know, so you got to make sure that as an offensive line, as an offense, you don't put guys in jeopardy by leaving guys unblocked. That's going to be a big key moving forward for this offense, not just in this Iowa game, but in the Big Ten season.
Brian Boesch • 16:12
You want the stat of the week that I've seen so far? This is since Phil Parker took over as defensive coordinator at Iowa. The Hawkeyes are seventy seven and five when winning the turnover battle. Seventy seven and five.
Jon Jansen • 16:28
Yeah, it's, it's, it's a defense that will absolutely strangle you. And I mean their offense, I mean, let's just be honest, the offense has been inept for a number of years. They haven't been able to score points. The way they score points is touchdowns by defensive, you know, fumble returns for a touchdown, interceptions return for a touchdown or short fields and giving them the opportunity to just get three points by where they recover the football or by putting them in short, short opportunities where they only have to go twenty yards or twenty five yards for a touchdown. So that's going to be that. That's always who Iowa has been. Our offense is a little bit better this year now, depending on what you think about the opponents. The only real opponent they faced was Iowa State and that was a sixteen thirteen win. So it's not like there's this huge offensive explosion, but they have a lot more confidence in their rushing attack and their multiple running backs.
Jon Jansen • 17:23
We'll talk about them in just a few moments. But you're talking about they could go four even five deep at the running back position.
Brian Boesch • 17:29
Yeah. Top two guys down last week, three through five, ran for one hundred plus yards. Now that was an FCS opponent in Northern Iowa. So anything offensively you're seeing has to come with probably several grains of salt or corn.
Jon Jansen • 17:43
But same thing for us in terms of what you saw against UTEP.
Brian Boesch • 17:46
And frankly, Michigan did not accelerate against UTEP until what, late second quarter. So no doubt this is we. What we will know about these two teams after Saturday will be a heck of a lot more impactful than what we know about them now. Just the reality of the situation and obviously it could be a great atmosphere. It is a stripe out for this one at the Big House. Even numbered sections. If you're coming out and you're in an even numbered section where blue odd numbered section where maze the stripe out worked two years ago. Jon. That was an incredible atmosphere for the USC game at the Big House. Even numbered wear blue odd numbered wear maze we'll get your keys to the game. And apparently a pretty fiery locker room speech on Thursday afternoon on the audio only edition. But just we talked a little bit about it, but anything else? Overview breakdown Initial thoughts on these three and oh Iowa Hawkeyes.
Jon Jansen • 18:38
So I'm going to give you their four running backs and one that we didn't see last week, but their number one running back, Kamari Moulton. He is as dynamic a running back as you're going to find. Now again, take all of these numbers with a little bit of a grain of salt. In the first two games, twenty six carries, two hundred forty yards. That's an average of nine point two per carry. Then you look at one of the guys that was over one hundred yards last week, Xavier Williams. Fifteen carries, one hundred and sixty two yards. That's over a ten yard average. Same thing with Braeden Jackson. He's only carried the ball fourteen times, but one hundred fifty five yards for an eleven eleven yard average. Nathan McNeil, a guy that was well over a hundred yards, twenty one carries. Now this seems a little bit more legitimate. One hundred twenty one carries, one hundred twenty eight yards, six point one per average.
Jon Jansen • 19:30
Like this is a very efficient rushing attack. So you're going to have to be able to defend the run and on offense it it some of it may just be about field position. If it's, if this is as stout of a defense as I think it is, they've got eight sacks in three games. I mentioned the three interceptions, the one fumble recovery. But they're stingy, like they're a stingy defense. So if this comes down to a field position game, you're going to have to take advantage. If Michigan is able to force some turnovers, you've got to turn those into points. If you have field position, offense drives down, maybe they don't score, but Cam Brown puts you in the inside the five. Hey, defense, go out there, get a three and out. Get good field positions somewhere around midfield. The shorter the better.
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Meijer radio spot • 20:16
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Brian Boesch • 20:45
We will continue our seven from seventy seven momentarily. We'll have Jason Avant stopping by in a little bit more than ten minutes as well, Tariq Boney is our guest on the audio edition. If you're watching live, be sure to check out Wednesday's edition of in the Trenches, presented by Meyer to hear from freshman Tariq Boney. But Jon, if you or someone you know is interested in algebra, biology or chemistry, U of M has the place for them.
Jon Jansen • 21:09
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Brian Boesch • 21:38
Very good. All right, number six on our seven from seventy seven. Let's talk about the Big Ten topics this week. Ranked teams take care of business. Ohio State rolls Kent State Big noon kickoff for that one. Indiana blanks Western Kentucky, Penn State all over Buffalo. Oregon most certainly took out some frustration against Portland State, the only ranked team that had a bit of an interesting one. USC and Rutgers. We were kind of following along with that one as it went on last week. Certainly interesting we mentioned Iowa over UNI, but anything ranked Big Ten team that stood out to you last week?
Jon Jansen • 22:15
USC's offense and I know they let up thirty five. It's a tough trip for USC going all the way across the country. But when you look Jayden Maiava and what he's been able to do so far this year, I mean, what is it, twelve touchdowns and to one interception. He's been very efficient and he's, he's not been under duress. He's only was sacked two times at this point this year and they're throwing the hell out of the ball. The other thing is his completion percentage. It's just, it's just about seventy six percent. So they're throwing it a lot. He's completing a lot. Yards are up, touchdowns are up, turnovers are down. And I mean that's, that's just something to keep an eye on when they take on the Ducks this week.
Brian Boesch • 22:57
Other notables Last week Michigan State hung around in South Bend falling twenty seven to ten. Tough one for Maryland. They lose at home to Virginia Tech and what felt like kind of a pivot point to try to make something out of their season heading into Big Ten play. Northwestern, despite the less than ominous environment according to the Buffalo players dominated Colorado and the last game at the lake that's the, the new Ryan Stadium opens up a couple weeks. I will say they made the most out of that situation. I, I, it was cool to go to Wrigley last year, but I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have minded seeing a game on the lake too.
Jon Jansen • 23:32
Oh yeah. I mean, yeah, the way that they had it situated right on the lake there. I mean every time you went to the old Ryan Field, right. You, when you're in the press box, you could see Lake Michigan. It was cool to begin with, but this one was actually on the beach and it would have been cool to be there. Even though I, given the choice, I
Jon Jansen • 23:48
would always go back to Wrigley.
Brian Boesch • 23:49
One hundred percent. Janssen was correct in attendance for UCLA's win over Purdue in an offensive slugfest.
Jon Jansen • 23:58
No, she didn't make the trip, actually. She went, she canceled that one and she went to see. Who was that? Is it the, the Fever that plays in Indianapolis with, with Caitlin Clark? Yep, Yep. She went there on Sunday instead. So she saved herself the, the trip out there just to see Purdue lose again.
Brian Boesch • 24:19
Fun game though. I didn't watch much of it. I did watch a little bit after the Ole Miss LSU game, which we'll, we'll talk about, but did watch a little bit. Did you get, did you stay awake for any of that eleven o' clock kick at the Rose Bowl?
Jon Jansen • 24:30
I did. I stayed up for a little bit of it and then I asked myself, what the hell am I doing? And then I tried to go to bed, but then Doug Karsch kept texting me during the game. Are you watching this? Are you watching this?
Brian Boesch • 24:39
He texted me at one in the. Am I the only one watching this game? And I texted him at seven thirty. Yep.
Jon Jansen • 24:46
So yeah, so I finally told him, I'm like, dude, stop texting me, go to bed.
Brian Boesch • 24:51
Yeah, there you go. This weekend, of course, Michigan, Iowa, that's a ranked on rank matchup. The other one, Oregon at usc. It does feel like a game where one of those teams will prove. Yeah, we're a little bit turbulent to start, but everything feels good. The loser of that game, it's going to be pretty much chaos.
Jon Jansen • 25:12
Well, more so for Oregon because they've already got that one loss against Oklahoma State. And I'm, I'm trying to remember for usc. I know they travel. They've got Ohio State, that one they host. The other two games are Oregon State. Yeah, Oregon is. Yep. And so it's, it's looking at their schedule. It's, it's going to be a tough Road. But if you're scoring as many points as they are, like, they may just be a team that just simply outscores other opponents because they've got one of the most dynamic quarterbacks.
Brian Boesch • 25:44
Yeah, it'll be interesting. Other notable games, Northwestern at Indiana on Friday, Illinois at Ohio State, Wisconsin at Penn State, Nebraska at Michigan State. Those are, those are pretty juicy in terms of just, you know, interesting brand name type teams. I don't know if any of those games will be close or all that interesting. Which one do you think has the best chance to be interesting?
Jon Jansen • 26:10
Northwestern has turned into that scrappy team. And Indiana last week going into halftime really only should have been up seven nothing. Ended up going up fourteen nothing and then walking away in the second half. I think there's a chance Northwestern, I don't, I don't think that they win, but I think they make it interesting for a little while. Is that the, Is it Northwestern at Indiana? That's the old oak and bucket. No, that's not it. It's. Maybe it's the brass platoon. It's, I think. But I do think it is a trophy game.
Brian Boesch • 26:43
I do not know. I don't know. We'll have to look it up. If only there was a way to find it. All right, number seven on our seven from seventy seven. Let's talk about the national stories. Ole Miss thirty two, LSU twenty four. The Rebels get revenge at home against Lane Kiffin. When you took that game in the aftermath, what was going through your mind? What's the, what's the thing that stands out?
Jon Jansen • 27:08
All is right with the world. Good conquered evil. And that's. It's why I watch Jon Wayne movies, because the good guy always wins. And you never know what's going to happen in college football. But I felt like justice was served. Who knows what happens the rest of the year. And the oddity of it is, and I know we'll talk about this in a minute, but you have a big win like that for Ole Miss and I understand, hey, you're flying high and it's hard to, you know, get back and refocused for a trip to Gainesville. But they're the number four team in the country. Florida is twenty one. Yet Florida is at three and a half point favorite over Ole Miss after that big win that they just had. And a lot of people are, and rightfully so, talking about Trinidad Chambliss as maybe the Heisman Trophy winner, maybe the best quarterback in college football this year. I mean, hell, he's what, thirty five years old?
Jon Jansen • 28:01
But it's I'm just not sure what the odds makers are thinking in that trip. Is it just simply they, they don't trust them to be able to re rebound and play two big games in a row.
Brian Boesch • 28:12
Yeah, it's an odd line but boy, when there are those odd lines it tends to hit because as we've said, I know I use this line a lot. There are those big buildings in Las Vegas. They tend to know. I think even Florida's coach in his press conference was like we're favored.
Jon Jansen • 28:27
Yeah, I know. Yeah. I love this response.
Brian Boesch • 28:30
So maybe that's a tell. We'll see. Yeah. But yeah, it's weird. And when you have to go immediately on the road after that it's a, it's a potential letdown spot. Speaking of a letdown, LSU's opponent this week is Texas A and M. The Aggies lost at a game that wasn't even this close to Kentucky. Three thousand one hundred and twenty one at A M. That one shocked me.
Jon Jansen • 28:54
Yeah.
Jon Jansen • 28:55
You want to talk about an absolute shocker that, that just I had no idea what was going on in that game or what Texas A and M was doing. But I mean we see it in the NFL a lot and I think we're going to start to see it more in college football as more talent is spread out and it starts to mirror more of what the NFL looks like is those bounce back games. And you know it, you we're talking about eighteen to twenty two year olds for the most part and it could have just been a bad day to have a bad day and they get a chance to rebound. So I would never count Texas A and M out. But yeah, that was, that was a stunner.
Brian Boesch • 29:33
No doubt. Alabama won a wild one at home over Florida State fifty to thirty six. Strange that Alabama, Florida State almost felt like a footnote on a college football Saturday that didn't have a whole lot of juice to it. But so much was taken up with that Ole Miss LSU deal. Did you see that? They literally moved the game from ABC to ESPN two because they wanted to get the start of that. That game didn't kick until like seven fifty Eastern time. But they moved it at seven thirty.
Jon Jansen • 30:04
Well, and it was also delayed by weather at some point, wasn't it?
Brian Boesch • 30:07
Correct. Well that's the point. Yeah. So they, they had to move. They had to do something. But it's crazy that Alabama got moved for almost anything. It's. Alabama might end up being pretty good and in a twelve team playoff era they might be fine. But Alabama is as under discussed as any time I can remember since before Nick Saban.
Jon Jansen • 30:27
Well, I mean you look at what Alabama has done so far like there's okay, they struggled a little bit with Florida State, but they had East Carolina, they had Kentucky, which we just, you know, talked about just a little bit ago and handled them with ease. We'll find out more against Mississippi State who's now a ranked team. They've got Georgia, who they're going to host at Tennessee, Texas A and M at lsu there's a gauntlet of five weeks coming up. South Carolina is going to be kind of their last quote unquote easy game and then they've got five ranked opponents for the next five weeks.
Brian Boesch • 31:01
Speaking of Mississippi State, Kamario Taylor, he's a fun, fun player to watch. Holy cow.
Jon Jansen • 31:06
Yes, yes.
Brian Boesch • 31:09
Louisville, who lost close to Ole Miss in week one, takes down smu. That's relevant in the acc. Back on Friday, Texas Tech held off Houston twenty eight to twenty six this week. Texas, modest favorite at three. Zero. Tennessee Longhorns outside of the fourth quarter against Ohio State haven't necessarily been this juggernaut. I'll be very interested to see on that one. Whereas Oklahoma, they were less than inspiring against New Mexico. Georgia is a two touchdown favorite at home against ou. Interesting spot there. And we talked about the SEC stuff. Ole Miss at Florida, LSU hosting Texas A and M, juicy matchups in the SEC this week.
Jon Jansen • 31:51
Yeah, and the thing about Georgia is if Georgia can ever be under the radar, number two team under the radar. We really haven't talked about much about them because they haven't really played anybody. Gunner Stockton, if you look at his numbers, again they haven't played anybody but he's an eighty five percent completion guy, nine touchdowns, no interceptions. And I think we all believe Georgia very similar to defensively like in Iowa where hey, they have always had a top notch defense and they just simply need a game manager at the quarterback position to distribute the ball, hand the ball off, put, just not to make mistakes. And Gunner Stockton to this point has shown that and I've watched all three games. He doesn't even put the ball at risk. And now they don't. They don't really allow him to. He's not going downfield quite a bit but I think he's done a good job of accepting his role.
Jon Jansen • 32:49
And when we saw Oregon lose to Oklahoma State they were my, what I thought was going to be, you know, far and away the best team in college football. That is proven to be absolutely wrong. My next up is Georgia and it's because of what they are defensively and the fact that Gunner Stockton, like I said, has accepted his role as. Just don't lose the game.
Brian Boesch • 33:12
Yeah. Be interesting. All right, transition time here. After our seven from seventy seven audio podcast listeners, you get a great conversation Jon had with Tariq Boney.
[music builds]
Jon Jansen • 33:30
Freshman standout. Tariq Boney joins us here on in the Trenches today.
Jon Jansen • 33:33
And Tariq, first of all, thanks for joining us. And I think I asked you this already, but how are you adjusting to your freshman year? It being college versus what you would be doing this time?
Jon Jansen • 33:44
Last year in high school has been
Tariq Boney • 33:45
good, as I don't think the switch is as, you know, dramatic as I once thought it would be, but it's good. I've been having fun. All the other guys have been leading me and, you know, schooling me on what to do. So it's been a smooth transition.
Jon Jansen • 33:59
So talking about some of those other guys, obviously you're watching John Henry Daley, Dom Nichols, Cam Brandt. A lot of guys with experience in front of you. You've earned the opportunity to be on the field.
Jon Jansen • 34:09
What have you learned from them?
Tariq Boney • 34:12
A little bit of everything. Just coming prepared every day, putting your best foot forward. And the main thing is, you know, no one cares how you feel. You got to, you know, just work each and every day.
Jon Jansen • 34:22
The three and out that happened right before half, and I noted this on the broadcast. I'm sure the coaches have talked to you about it already, but it basically all three plays, you blow up all three of them. And the first one was you took on a tackle, you shed them, and you made the play inside. Let's talk about that one for a moment.
Jon Jansen • 34:39
When you fire off the ball in
Jon Jansen • 34:40
a situation like that, what's going through your mind and what are some of the targets that you have?
Tariq Boney • 34:46
Really just get off the ball as violently as I can get hands on and, you know, try to make a play.
Jon Jansen • 34:52
Is there a trick to shedding those offensive tackles? I was a former offensive tackle, so I. I know some of the tricks of not getting shed. What are your tricks of getting rid of that offensive lineman?
Tariq Boney • 35:03
Just get extension as fast as possible. The farther you are away from, you know, offset tackle, the less likely they are to get their hands on you.
Jon Jansen • 35:09
Second down, they try and pull a guard and it's a little bit different because there's a little time, there's a little space. How do you approach that one differently than when that guy, the tackle is lined up from you and he's the one attacking?
Tariq Boney • 35:23
I feel like that one, you know, starts in the film room knowing when you are going to get that pulling guard is, you know, detrimental. How you gonna take that on? And we've seen it all week in practice and then I know I picked up some keys on the field to know that that was coming. So, you know, it helped me close that space a little quicker.
Jon Jansen • 35:41
You and Carter Meadows kind of going through everything at the same time. What type of relationship do you guys have now? And did you start to build that before you even got on campus?
Tariq Boney • 35:49
Yeah, Carter been my dog for a long time. You know, coming from DC we played on the same basketball team. And then, you know, coming here and end up being roommates, it's just been a long journey and we just help each other in whatever way. We can watch a film together early mornings, coming in, working out, you know, just talking when we get home. It's. It's been a long journey. It's been great.
Jon Jansen • 36:09
I've asked this, I think I've asked this like every podcast since the start of the season, but a lot of guys that are former basketball players are playing football. You just mentioned that you were on the same basketball team as Carter Meadows. Was that the most physical team that every time you took the floor, were you guys gonna bound to determine to be the most physical team?
Tariq Boney • 36:26
Definitely. I feel like every, every rebound was ours.
Jon Jansen • 36:29
One on one.
Jon Jansen • 36:29
Who wins
Tariq Boney • 36:32
As a competitor, I would say me.
Jon Jansen • 36:34
All right, so who's a better ball handler?
Jon Jansen • 36:37
Because if you're going to go one on one, right, you're going to have
Jon Jansen • 36:39
to, you're going to have to have some handles.
Tariq Boney • 36:40
I believe skill wise, I believe I'm, I'm better. But you know, he just got some intangibles that you can't teach.
Jon Jansen • 36:47
He does, he does. So there was a play, it was later in the game and it felt like it was a race to the quarterback. It was. And it was. The two of you guys, he was on the left side, you were on the right side, you beat an offensive tackle, you swam a chip and were
Jon Jansen • 37:02
able to get there first for your.
Jon Jansen • 37:03
For. I think they give you a half a sack on that one, but sack and a half in the game. What was, what was it like? Is that something that you just do naturally or are there things that you work on in practice to be able to do exactly what happened there?
Tariq Boney • 37:17
I feel like it's a little bit to both kind of like natural God given ability and then also, you know, getting reps all camp and all, you know, all the times being practicing in the scrimmages. I feel like it's a little bit of both.
Jon Jansen • 37:29
What's the biggest difference between what you're experiencing now as a freshman versus what you were experiencing last year as a senior in high school?
Tariq Boney • 37:40
That's a good question. I would say. I think the physicality is definitely a little bit more. You got to bring it, you know, every play. A lot of times in high school, I depended on my athleticism. I. More than anything. But now I'm. I feel like I'm thinking the game a little bit more.
Jon Jansen • 37:53
I think one of the things that I know is. Is probably a little bit different. Everybody watches film now, but watching film, and some of it's just the amount of time that you have, you got more time to watch film now. How has that changed your approach to the game, being able to see more on film?
Tariq Boney • 38:07
It changed a lot because it started to slow down a little bit. You know, different sets they were getting. Knowing what can, you know, come out of that. Sets help you play faster now that
Jon Jansen • 38:16
you've had some time on the field, both special teams and as a defensive end.
Jon Jansen • 38:20
When you look at those first three
Jon Jansen • 38:21
games, what have you learned that might help you in the Big Ten season?
Tariq Boney • 38:28
You know, Big Ten like to run a lot of run destruction. I feel like that's a big thing. And then also being able to, you know, keep the motor running on passing downs, I feel like that'll help me a lot. Going into.
Jon Jansen • 38:38
Going back to that Western game, you're running out of the tunnel for the first time. What were some of the emotions you had going through that tunnel and hit the banner man?
Tariq Boney • 38:47
It was unreal. It felt like, honestly, I tell everybody just to feel like a video game, like, I couldn't believe it, you know, all the hard work that I, you know, done until that point, and to be able to go out there and, you know, run out was unreal.
Jon Jansen • 39:00
If there's one thing that you could
Jon Jansen • 39:02
do better this week, what would it be?
Tariq Boney • 39:08
I would say just keep going, you know, stay ready. Always watch a little bit more film. You know, there's no such thing as, you know, too much film.
Jon Jansen • 39:21
What are some of the challenges that you've seen? I know it's early in the week, but what are some of the challenges that you've seen from that Iowa offensive line?
Tariq Boney • 39:28
They're very experienced. They come off the ball really well, you know, and they play. They really play together. I feel like those. Those are the biggest things.
Jon Jansen • 39:36
How much special teams did you play in high school?
Tariq Boney • 39:40
I actually played a lot of special teams, did you?
Jon Jansen • 39:42
All right, because I.
Jon Jansen • 39:43
There's not a lot of times you
Jon Jansen • 39:44
see an edge defender, a defensive end on kickoff, yet you're on kickoff. I see you on punt coverage. I see you in a lot of special teams. Why is it important for you to be a part of that?
Tariq Boney • 39:54
Because, you know, there's three phases of the game and wherever I can make an impact will, you know, be best.
Jon Jansen • 40:00
You know, Tariq, I appreciate your time. Best of luck as you continue to prepare for Iowa, but the Big Ten season as well.
Tariq Boney • 40:06
Yes, sir. Thank you.
[music builds]
Jon Jansen • 40:12
Well, thanks to Tariq for his time. Really excited about the combo of Tariq Boney and Carter Meadows. Both of them extremely exciting and they play the game in a violent manner,
Jon Jansen • 40:24
which I absolutely love.
Jon Jansen • 40:26
For everything that's going on in and around Michigan football, make sure you keep it locked in here on in the Trenches.
Jeff Laurence • 40:31
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.
