Big Ten Network analyst and former Wolverine Marcus Ray gives some blunt takes on Michigan and Indiana.
Ray talks about how the Wolverines might react coming off a disappointing loss to Michigan State, and how U-M matches up against the Hoosiers.
Here is the podcast…
Here are some podcast highlights, including Ray on…
• How the Wolverines will respond to the first loss: "I really don't know. The former player in me wants to say everything will be okay, they'll bounce back. The coach, the analyst in me says I have to wait and see.
"I don't know, because they're a young team, and leadership now is what's important. They only have a few of those elder statesmen, like a [fifth-year senior linebacker] Mike McCray or a [senior left tackle] Mason Cole, [fifth-year senior tailback] Ty Isaac. Those kinds of guys, they have to become the glue.
"You don't do it with lip service, tweeting. You just close your mouth, you watch film, you practice, you travel, and you play ball. I don't know how the team is going to bounce back.
"They've got two really tough road games ahead of them, tomorrow and next week. It can go either way. When I played, after our first loss, we tanked it. We lost to Northwestern back-to-back years and just could not mentally recover. It showed later. We were a good team that underachieved. So, we weren't really a good team.
"So it can go either way."
• Straightening out the offense: "I think the absences of [former passing game coordinator] Jedd Fisch and [running backs coach] Tyrone Wheatley are really starting to show. I'm not sure how the receivers are being coached in practice. They struggled to get off the line.
"The offensive line is going to be a topic of discussion all the time, whenever the offense doesn't play well. If you don't run the ball well, if you don't protect the quarterback, then everybody points at the line. That's fine…
"I don't know if [having multiple offensive decision makers] is meshing. People say this team has a lot of talent. That's fine. But everybody wants to see what everybody says.
"The way I think you fix this offense is, they have to find a way to run the football against good teams. Sometimes you can't just give a person courage and toughness. You just can't give it to them. Either you have it or you don't.
"A team like Penn State is winning, but they're not very good up front. They can't the ball. But people think when you win, it camouflages all of your deficiencies.
"Nobody can fool me … Michigan is not very tough up front. I'm not sure how talented they are on the offensive line right now, either. Neither is Michigan State. But you know what they did? Found a way to block Michigan."
• Michigan's defense versus Indiana's offense: "Indiana doesn't run the ball very well. Their offensive line is not great at run blocking, either. Michigan should dominate them up front.
"But Indiana has the weapons and a mobile enough quarterback in Payton Ramsey. If he can move around a little bit … I know he's expecting pressure, expecting man. I would give the advantage to Indiana, as far as their receivers versus Michigan's defensive backs.
"They've got about three of them that can hurt you. I don't think Michigan has three guys that can cover all day, for four quarters. They have to rely on getting pressure. Michigan is not the same defense when they're not getting sacks and turnovers."
• Those who say they'd play redshirt freshman quarterback Brandon Peters and look to the future: "I don't see that at quarterback. First of all, the expectations are too high. They were going into this season. People got caught up in the coach, and 10 wins, thinking you've got a bunch of talent.
"People don't really understand what goes into winning the conference championship. I don't care if you're Penn State a year ago, or Ohio State. Ohio State has only got one, since Urban Meyer has been there. They've been the flagship program for the conference, other than Michigan State here and there.
"Jim Harbaugh is going to try to win games, and not play for the future. The future is right now. If you play a young quarterback, and you wind up 5-7, your record is going to be a reflection of your season, and there is no excuse.
"'Oh, we put a young quarterback in, playing for the future.' The expectations are so high, nobody wants to hear that. So everybody's greedy. Everybody wants instant gratification. They want, win now, beat everybody, no matter who is in the game. Let's go.
"That's not realistic. What Harbaugh has to do is shovel the driveway while it's still snowing. He's got to build a program AND win games. He's got to go with the senior quarterback and keep the redshirt freshman on the bench. Regardless of who is in the game, people expect you to win."
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