I cut the film review from the podcast so for those who wanted to get right into it, the entire segment is below. Scar is really good at it.

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Fresno beat New Mexico State 48-0 last night.

Former Wolverine Jim Scarcelli breaks down the Michigan Arkansas State film from Saturday. Scar also looks ahead to UM/USC this Saturday with a new starting QB.
Breakdown
Open 00:00-1:49
Orji in 1:50-15:00
Keys to beating USC 15:01-22:12
Schedule 22:13-25:55
Film review 25:56-1:16:54
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Curious on game time? I assume it will be Noon.

Did Michigan's back to basics approach provide a path forward?
Who should start at QB?
Will Mullings be the thunder to Edwards lightning?
What's going on with the OL?
Concerns on defense, or figuring it out?
🔗🔽

Go Rockets 🚀
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Thanks

Been seeing some things pop up that Sherrone Moore said that Alex Orji will start on Saturday. He has NOT specifically said that Orji will start. He has strongly HINTED that Orji will PLAY, not necessarily start.

He told Jon Jansen on Inside Michigan Football after the game:

"I think, right now, Alex will play. We'll see how practice goes and go from there. Davis will be in there. Just gotta take care of the football. Our defense is going to be really good and if we put them into position we'll be even better."

It feels like it's a commitment to Orji but he appears to backpedal in the same sentence and elects to play it out in practice. I doubt we'll get anything tomorrow at noon or on the radio show that night that suggests what the plan will be.

We'll have to see what the week holds but no clear starter has been named yet.

Sherrone Moore was Jim Harbaughs hand picked choice for head coach.

So those of you propping up your trusted Warde Manuel pillow are propping up a Jim Harbaugh pillow as well.

21-0 Hoosiers with 2 minutes left in the first half. Indiana scored 70 something points in one of their first games. I’m betting Uclans and PAC 12ers are shocked. But UCLA did just complete a long pass…

Meet the first five-stars

Initial 2027 top 100

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Unreal

Tell me I am wrong all you want. The team seems to be lackluster no energy. It’s a reflection on Moore on sideline. Harbaugh was always showing intensity, hands on knees into the game. Moore shown on sideline looks like Hoke without the Clapping!

Let’s go One Pride! Time to get win #2 at home!

He's quietly carved out a nice career for himself in Minnesota. Good for him.

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This season is still a reflection on our coaches. We look silly, undisciplined in almost every facet. At this point, Warde needs to think long and hard about how he will deal with a 6-6 season, especially when the talent level on our team is playoff worthy.

Today was another win for the good guys, and we should celebrate all wins. There were plenty of good things to go around today, but there was a head-scratcher or two for every good thing.

The contrast from last year to this year couldn't be more pronounced.

Last year, we were one of the least penalized teams in the nation. This year, not only are we committing penalties, but they are stupid mental errors.
Last year, we won the turnover battle. This team is a turnover machine.
Last year, we didn't miss tackles. This year, we're missing all kinds of tackles.
Last year, we had leaders all over the place. This year, we are void of any obvious take-charge leaders.

Excuses:
Ten new starters on offense.
Five new coaches. New HC, OC, DC.
Everyone left for the NFL.

Reality:
Ten new starters on offense.
Five new coaches. New HC, OC, DC.
Everyone left for the NFL.
The QB situation is on life support.
The O-line has been below average and bad in pass-pro,
Play calling has been hit-and-miss at best.
Personnel decisions have me scratching my head.
The D is a huge question mark.

The questions:
What is the team Identity?
Is Sherrone in over his head?
Is the culture beginning to crack?
Is Wink the right hire?
Can this team improve enough to be a factor this year?
What players are going to step up and lead?

The hope:
I hope Sherrone is not in over his head.
I hope the team will get better and stop all the self-inflicted wounds.
I hope some playmakers will emerge.
I hope The team will be competitive in the conference.

Today:
Today, I thought Sherrone had a bit of frustration in his eyes. Who could blame him?
He will have time to grow into the job, but this looks like a rebuilding situation.
The run game worked, and the pass game didn't. The D looked bad, then good, and then bad again.
We had another 29-yard punt and successfully threw to the other team.
Neither quarterback looked great, but both showed flashes of something.
We stopped the run all day, but once again, we didn't put much pressure on the quarterback, and the back end of our defense looked weak.
We didn't see our best player because we didn't attempt any FGs.
Our second-best player hurt his shoulder and may be out next week.
Mullings is a surprisingly nimble back for his size and has excellent vision.
Don ran harder this week, moving the pile a couple of times. His vision is not as good as Mullings's.
Mullings looked gassed a couple of times, and maybe that's why he isn't an every-down back.
No one stood out for the receivers.
The Oline has a lot of work to do.

Harbaugh had some ups and downs here, but a trademark of his era was very limited mental mistakes. I remember a few. The punt vs MSU is the biggest.
My observation is that usually, when a team starts the season undisciplined, they remain so. After three games, it looks like there isn't a lot of steel in the spine with this group.

My three greatest fears are...
The wrong staff hires
Talent deficit.
No team leadership.
To some degree, all three have been on display.

Conclusion. The degree of improvement we need to be in the hunt is not impossible but unlikely.
There is no way Michigan should be in the QB position they are. That statement is true for several position groups.

If Harbaugh had one blindspot, it had to be his casual approach to recruiting. Maybe he was handcuffed by the AD, or maybe he just thought whoever he had could beat whoever you had. I don't know, but it left us in a bind.

NIL? Portal? Recruiting? Michigan needs to figure it out. We are no longer ascending.

I'm praying for massive improvement this week. USC will be a huge challenge. If we can find a way to win that game, it could propel us to a great season. I'm praying for snow.

Go Blue!

The talent we much build around him is obvious IMHO.

We DO NOT want to abandon the power rushing attack.
However, IMHO we need to push to receivers a NFL style passing attack.

Does that mean a 40-60 run-pass? NO NOT AT ALL. We use the system
to keep defenses totally off balance.

Michigan needs to be building towards this now. Why? How can Davis play in
this type of offense? How about Carter coming in next year?

Michigan needs to push this philosophy hard with recruits to re-build this team from the ground up.

This is the new B1G and CFB in general. This is how I see this going forward. Am I wrong?

Some takeaways here:

- Significant improvement in some areas, which is want you to see week-to-week.
- Pass game is what it is until they can figure out what they're doing with the QB
- Turnovers, man, they're killers

It's definitely possible with the way this team looks and no talent at QB. It would be quite an underwhelming season with all the talent on this team.

I didn’t see anything Saturday that would make me believe we are any better off than we were against Texas.
We ran well against the 104th ranked defense against the run.
No play-action to Edward’s. Passing very suspect. QB change?
Why can’t we have Mullings and Edward’s in the same backfield?
USC will stack the D line against our run.
We need some dramatic changes or we will lose 5-6 games this year.

We desperately need to pay big time in the Portal. Will we?

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