PREDICTING Oklahoma vs Michigan! TOURING Iowa Football

This week on Trench Life, Aaron Taylor is on site for the Michigan Wolverines Practice & talk to former Tackle and ’97 National Champion Captain Jon Jansen. NFL Draft Analyst Lance Zierlein joins the show in the Big Ugly Spotlight to look ahead to the Oklahoma and Michigan game in Week 2 of the College Football Season.

Trench Life Episode 3:
00:00 – Aaron Taylor in NYC (Show Open)
00:37 – First Step (Recapping CFB Week 1)
05:25 – On Campus (Day in the Life with Iowa Football)
19:50 – Big Ugly Spotlight (Oklahoma vs Michigan)
28:38 – On Campus (Michigan Football Practice w/Jon Jansen)
37:25 – Wrap Up!

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Recognizing the Most Outstanding Offensive Line Unit in College Football

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From street meat in Manhattan to the meat grinders in the Midwest. This week on Trends Life, we do a film breakdown of the intriguing matchup between Oklahoma and Michigan. Take you behind the scenes for a day in the life of an Iowa Hawkeye and show you around practice in Ann Arbor with their offensive line coach and one of the greatest Wolverines to ever do it. So, make your plate and grab some extra sauce packets because Trent’s life starts now. [Music] All right, now it’s time for First Step, where every great show and every great block begins. And we saw some incredible football this past weekend. This was a monster slate of games, and it delivered. And even though my alma mater Notre Dame got their face curb stomped at the end of that game by a much more physical Miami team, they were in that game. CJ Carr, he checked every box I was hoping to see from him. We are going to win and win a lot with that guy. The lines of scrimmage have some work that they need to do. We’re just not big enough on the defensive front, but we’re super athletics. We’re going to have to scheme our way into some wins until we can get some bigger bodies up there in the trenches. and the offensive line, they’ve got some work to do, but Joe Rudolph, the O line coach, will be up to that task. And the tough thing, I was thinking about this, like that is a tough game to get whipped up front on both lines of scrimmage. And everybody in the world sees it. Your teammates see it, your family sees it, your opponents see it, your upcoming opponents see it. And you have to be able to fight through the human nature to get the sorryries and start feeling sorry for yourself. You’ve got to lick your wounds and get back to the drawing board. Football and ball don’t care. It’s a sport that requires you to get back to the process, but that’s incredibly hard to do when you’ve got expectations, when you’ve put in the hard work, when you have friends and family and coaches and teammates and student bodies that are counting on you. But the goal, the way that you erase it is go get a win against Texas A&M. If you’re Notre Dame, if you’re Clemson, look at what you did well, correct what you didn’t well, and go fix it. Texas, you got some work to do. But guess what? It’s a long season. Everybody, after weeks ones, your dreams, your goals, your aspirations in this new modern college football are all on the table. So once again, life ain’t about what happens to you. It’s about what you do about what happens to you. And there are some teams that have some work to do, but everything that they wanted accomplished is still within reach. With all that said, I’m talking to you, Alabama. Listen up. Come in here. That was awful. Not the way you played, not the result, the effort. Watching your defense loaf the way that you did is inexcusable. How that’s been allowed to continue and go on as long as it is, I have no idea. But in football, cliches are cliches because they’re true. And what you put on tape is who you are. So you’re either coaching it or you’re allowing it. But what we saw that weekend from you is inexcusable and unacceptable. And I don’t know if you can fix that with just a team meeting or a couple rah speeches. This requires you to look in the mirror and determine and figure out who it is you are and what you’re willing to commit to to play this game. What I believe we’re seeing happen, and it’s not just at Alabama, this is nationwide, is that human nature is starting to kick in and take over with a vengeance. It is hard. And I know this for a fact because when I received money as a first round draft pick out of Notre Dame and got all that money, there’s part of me after my senior year in the prep for the combine in the draft, I took my foot off the gas pedal just a little bit. Now, I’m not proud of that, but when I’m honest and I look back at myself, my human nature took over and got the best of me in that moment. And I was as good of a leader and as hard of a worker and had as high of goals and aspirations as you could want. These players in NIL, they’re having generational wealth or money or opportunities that makes that hunger just a little bit less. And what I believe we saw in Tuscaloosa was a bunch of guys that were happy to be there. A bunch of guys that put on that helmet, put on that A, and thought the other team was just going to lay down for him. The flip side of that was what Florida State showed. Man, tight end 13, come on. Transfer from UCF, that dude was taking people’s souls. The effort, the attitude, the demeanor. So, it’s not the money, it’s not the logo, it’s who you are as a person. And right now, Alabama needs to figure out who the hell they are. The X’s and O’s and the corrections and the offensive breakdowns, all that stuff can be fixed. But you can’t fix complacency. And in my opinion, that’s what Alabama’s struggling with. And if they don’t get that figured out, it’s not going to be good for anybody. But good things can happen when you commit to the process. And one of the schools that’s best in the nation that I’ve ever seen at doing that that has to do it are the Iowa Hawkeyes. And earlier this summer, I had a chance to go to Iowa City and spend a day in the life of an Iowa football player. Well, it’s 8:00 a.m. on a Friday, and we’re here in Iowa City to show you what it’s like to spend a day in the life of an Iowa football player. Hopefully, I won’t have to ice my knees and shoulders as much as I used to back in the day. Come on. First things first, and here at Iowa, that means strength and conditioning. So, here we’re at the warm-up portion before they go in the weight room to continue to develop and maintain that strength that they develop during winter conditioning, spring football, and all the summer lifts that they’re doing. Just walked across the rocks there. You can see with the tender feet. That’s to be able to activate the feet and massage them a little bit. It was a little tender for me, but these are the big guys over here, and they’re going to lift as a group. Everything that Iowa does here is bipositionally, and that’s just kind of what our sport is about. But this warm-up portion is a really important piece before they go do inside what this school is known for. The old foam roller. This by far will be the most comfortable thing that these guys do all day long. It’s rolling up, activating those muscles, breaking up that muscle tissue to get them warm before what we’re about to go watch them do inside. From here on out, the level of intensity and pain starts to increase. One of the things I’m seeing already is just how efficiently this practice is being run. No sooner did these players get done with the foam rollers and lacrosse balls rolling out and breaking up the muscle tissue, then you have another staff person that comes in and picks it all up. It’s all about efficiency and that’s a sign of a good program. You saw the side lunges they were doing with the maces. That’s to warm up and activate, but also illustrates the bend. For an offensive lineman, you got to be able to bend at your ankles, at your knees, and at your hips. The first thing the players did after they warmed up is they come on and get on what I like to affectionately call the lie detector. Let’s go see what the lie detector says about me. [Music] I’ll take it. [Music] Like in most sports, there’s a direct connection between what you do here in the weight room that translates out onto the field. the lifeblood of this sport. Not only is recruiting, it’s strength and conditioning. And here at Iowa, doing hang cleans is a critical important movement to help develop the strength necessary to drive defenders off the ball. So, what you’re seeing the players do is load the bar up. Now, my form is terrible. So, if you’re part of the strength and conditioning community, do not crush me for how terrible this is about to look. But the concept is to explode through the hips, lift the weight up, come up underneath and catch it. That explosive movement is what happens on the snap of the ball. What they do here directly translates out there. And I’ll show you what I’m talking about shortly. See these Viber plates are good for recovery. It’s critical important piece of the workout when you’re 52. I think I’m just gonna sit here and roll around on this bad boy for a little bit. So there it is. Just a very short 30 minute lift, but they got a lot done because they moved efficiently and you have to maintain or even gain strength in season if you can. And maybe nobody’s better in the country doing it than they are here in Iowa City. You just never know who you’re going to bump into. Greg Hudson. Come on in here, big dog. This was my grad assistant, Greg Hudson. All right, dude. You go all over the country and see weight rooms like this and strength and conditioning programs. What makes Iowa different? Well, it’s big. And hey, thanks, guys. Enjoy, America. Um, it’s impressive. Uh, you know, they’re they’re taking a lot of pride in the straight bar exercises. you don’t see a a ton of machines, bungee cords, so you know that these guys are going to be squatting and uh the flexibility. That’s the one thing that I learned coaching them. But then being around all the strength coaches, you know, the bending, getting low, the hip strength, uh the balance, we called it when guys get in these racks, getting down in the well. When you’re getting low and pushing some steel around, cuz you’re going to be pushing bodies around, you got to push a lot of steel around to be able to do that. You got to take it to the field. Let’s go. I would have walked here if I had to. You’ll hear coach Barnett talk about pad underneath pad, bringing your knees. You want to see your hands inside the base and driving 10 yards until they’re on their back. When you overtrain and drive a player 10 yards, it’s not realistic. You rarely will get that opportunity in a game, but if you train it, when that opportunity presents itself, you’ll be able to bring it home. It’s interesting, man. We’re just watching these guys do base blocks before practice. And you were our GA back in the day. And I know Joe had a philosophy, Joe Moore, about not hitting sleds cuz he never saw him on the field. I’ve never been to an IR practice where I saw any sort of apparatus. You block people because that’s what you do on the football field. Yeah. Joe Joe told me if uh you use a shooting boards, I’ll disown you. But the day before I left to be an O line coach for the first day was still pretty clear. It was that was it. And he’s all right. Good luck and uh call me if you need me. And that’s what he said. I’ll disown you. But what’s so interesting, man, like you hear him say run off the football. Guys pitterpatter off the ball. That seems to be the standard. Not here. This is about running your feet and coming off. And it’s it’s about it’s teaching confidence, you know, is what what’s come first, success or confidence? They’re building confidence right here. And the other thing I like that you don’t is you don’t see a lot of places. The ones are playing defense. So, everybody’s working with everybody, which is important. That’s important for the young guys to see that early on. But Joe, I don’t know if you remember, Joe would get mad and he would say the key to the drill is not the offense. The key of these guys giving them the look. It’s hard to evaluate an offensive line in my opinion and know what’s good and what’s not good. Anybody can see a bad baseball swing. You know, everybody can see the great swing. They can see a bad baseball swing. So, they know with this, you think just cuz a guy’s big and he can push you around with some strength that that’s a good block. And, you know, a lot of times it’s not. We were in the weight room and we saw these guys doing hang cleans, a lot of movement prep before they went in the weight room. and they were only there 30 minutes. But that first explosive part of the block, that contact power is all those hang cleans. It’s all those deep squats. You look at the position that they’re in when they’re in a three-point stance. That’s basically about the knee angle of where they are when they’re at the bottom of their squat. I would teach guys both first with offensive line and I taught it the same with linebackers. I’d even out in air, I’d say, “What’s it like when you’re halfway down in a squat? what position are you in? And they would get in, they would get down like this and go like this and I’d say, “Drop your hands.” And I’d say, “Well, then go to a three-point stance.” So that’s how I taught stance that cuz they could recognize that in their head. One of the things I’m noticing here is how aggressive they’re working this drill without helmets. That’s a classic old school offensive line technique to teach you to keep your head out and not over lunge. Offensive linemen, one of the things we want to do when we’re passing is punch. That’s the equivalent to throwing a haymaker. Good offensive line play when you’re pass blocking, jabs, 6- in jabs, punch, punch, punch. So when you take your helmet off and you’re stepping down, it teaches you to do this versus do that where you can get beef. That ends the onfield portion of today in the life of an Iowa Hawkeye football player. But what’s next is the most important part of the day, and that’s lunch. [Music] I got here this morning and was watching you guys, you know, do your dynamic warm-ups and stretch and lift and that whole deal. And the whole thing was kind of like a day in the life of an Iowa football player. It’s one thing to take my word for it, but what was today like? How would you characterize it in context with what you guys have done from the beginning of camp? Honestly, like today’s practice is pretty really light. Like it’s really light. Usually we’re out there for, you know, what would you say 2 and a half, three hours. I think practice time starts at like 9:30 and normally we’re walking off the field to like 12:10 and that’s with like DVO too and we usually do work after young guys will like go out there and get their reps. We don’t really get up a lot of team reps so we let them go but pretty standard day for the most part. How would you guys characterize your room? What type of dudes are making up? Say it’s been awesome. I mean those guys probably say the same thing. Best friends just like getting to hang out with them all the time is awesome. I think it’s been built like I got to the room in 22 and it wasn’t like super close at that time but like we built it to what it is today and coach Barnett preaches on like the importance of having a close room like so like now they’re best friends. I don’t want to hang out with anybody else. It’s like know people always make fun of us. They call us like a what they call us. Um it’s literally just us. So they’re awesome. What do you think people don’t understand or appreciate not only about our position but what training camp looks like? I just I think like for us especially just how like physically taxing like it really is and it’s like we look at 2015 their schedule versus ours. It was ridiculous back in the day. Like I can Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No such thing as an off day probably. But like it’s still just so physically and I think probably more mentally taxing than anything. Just you got to show up. You got to compete against really good dudes every single day. And like you want to win the rep, you got to come back and do it the next day, the next day after that. Just the consistency taking on the wear on your body, like waking up in the morning, you know, wearing an outfit. Do you ever sit on the edge of the bed and contemplate whether or not you’ve made the right life choices? You’re like, you know what? I played enough football. I don’t have to go out there. I mean, I could shut it down today. Every part of your body is hurting. like your fingernails, your eyelashes hurt and somehow it takes you, you know, 2 3 minutes the first couple days of camp towards the end of camp and like 12 minutes finally you stand up and you’re ready to get after it. Yeah, it’s brutal for this guy. I mean, he’s carrying 350 lbs. So, I take a lot of creatine. I don’t know. Like, I love camp. I wish it was longer. Say more. I love it. It is better than spring ball. Like, all we do is just play football and then we just goof around. Like, it’s the best. It’s I have a blast. You’re like it’s you’re on recess. There’s no responsibilities. Literally like we just go down the locker room and we’ll play video like we’ll play Among Us together just like I’ll just lay on the floor and I have a blast. I love it. So describe your hoops game. Are are you do you take people to the hole or you back them down and body them and and turn? I mean it depend. In high school I can do a little bit of everything. You know I was more so down in the post but now especially if I’m playing guys in the O line room they’re all a little bit bigger and better than me. So I get to use He can’t hoop at all. I’ve never seen him touch a basketball. I know he can’t. Yeah, I’m going to shot you. There’s no shot. I can jump, dude. I’ve never seen it. All right, whatever. We’ll have to see after this season. Keep hitting. Yeah. All right. Oneonone to to 11 with Caitlyn Clark. What’s the score? She’s winning for sure. I’m not I’m not going to say she’s not going to win. I think I’ll get a It’s 6 to11. you would get six. How would you get those six? I’d have to take her down to the post this way. Yeah, just body. Now, she’s proven she can take some blows and and she’s physical. They try to be pretty physical with her. So, you might that might not throw her off her game as much as you think. That’s true. Hopefully, we have we don’t have any refs and it’s calling her own fouls. I’m going to be Only shot I got is to be as physical as I can. See what happens. But use what you got, right? Use what I got. Oh, man. Well, Kirk just sat down here and he and I shared a coach and a mentor and Joe Moore. I talked to you guys a little bit after practice about what he meant to me. What has coach Barnett meant to you guys? What have you learned from how’s he helped you develop as a player? I mean, honestly, a ton like kind of what you talked about today, he’s been preaching to us for the past, this is my fifth year, so for 5 years. Like, I mean, I came in and I came in from a 1A school in Illinois. So, it’s like coming here is my first time ever pass blocking. So, I had to learn from him how to pass, block, and then like our run stance is a three-point defensive stance. So, I had to learn how to get in a real stance for Iowa football. And I mean, he basically him and coach Franks taught me everything football-wise and then how to act too and just kind of how to carry yourself. I just follow him and do whatever he tells me to do. Yeah. You love playing online, don’t you? I do. Yeah. What’s the best part about it? I think it’s celebrating a good play with your guard. Like, as a tackle, like that’s my favorite part. Like, you crease them and then you look at your guard, you’re like, “Oh, yeah. I’m going to be Well, that about does it here from Iowa City. 1:40. Our adventure started very early this morning. We saw these guys getting warmed up to go work out, lift some weights, go to practice, do individual, get to team, do some one-on- ones in the run in the pass game, and then finally finish with every offensive lineman’s favorite part of the sport. That’s training table and getting some lunch. As you can see, these guys put in work. And it’s that work day after day after day all through camp that gets them ready for games like the Sihawk trophy coming up this weekend. It’s been a beautiful time. These guys are great hosts. Thank you to Kirk Fence and the staff for letting us be flies on the wall and be a big piece of this and we cannot wait to see what this Iowa Hawkeye team does this weekend and for the rest of the season. All right. A few people break down offensive line play like our next guest, but quiet is kept. His favorite food is nachos. The problem is he just doesn’t get to eat them as much as he’d like to. Lance Zerlin, welcome to the show, baby. I’ve been losing weight. I I can’t have as many nachos. I’d like as as many nachos as I can get, but you know, you take what you can get. Well, as many fans probably know, your dad was a longtime NFL coach. So, you grow up in your living room watching film and being able to evaluate. Now, you write every draft profile on NFL.com. Few people may be as qualified as you on the planet to be able to break down offensive line play, which is why you’ve been a Joe Moore Ward voting committee member from the jump. But to set this thing up in the in the scouting world, there’s an old saying, if you see a lot, you see little. If you see a little, you see a lot. And what that means is you have to spot the details that those tell the story. So without any further ado, let’s jump into some tape because Lance is going to break down some of the things that we saw not only with Oklahoma’s offensive line, but with Michigan’s as well for their big matchup this weekend. All right, Lance, let’s take a look at this first play from Oklahoma. It’s just going to be a simple power play in the deep red zone. The thing that I really like, I like rhythmic play, and that double team is a very rhythmic double team from the right tackle and right guard. Ag, I think that I think offensive line play I know the big boys don’t do a lot of big boys can dance better than people think. We don’t get enough credit for dancing. Thank you. That’s that’s cuz there’s rhythm. Offensive line play is rhythm, baby. You got to if you’re going to hit that gallop step and work up to the linebacker. That is a rhythm. See, I remember the fat boys. I got that’s a human beatbox and it’s kind of apppropo here, I guess, a little bit. Although the lean muscle mass looks pretty good for Oklahoma. Uh, but we’re talking we’re talking rhythm though, Aaron. Right. And so working up to that linebacker number 14. Look at 71. Gallop step. I love the gallop step in. Pretty good contact. Finds number 14. Eyes never, you know, his eyes were to a second level. Knew where he wanted to go and he sustained that block and helped to helped to create. The one issue I do have a little bit is that I think the tight end 81 rushes a little bit. You see I think the settle steps. You don’t see the same settle steps. He he gets in in a big hurry and then 56 kind of gets to his outside shoulder which causes a running back to cut it back inside. But so phase one I would say is it could be a little bit better for that that that tight end 81. I I’m going to take a little bit of different stance here. I think 81’s the key block here. Lance, you’ve got to step hard across his face because you know a double team working at this backside linebacker’s coming. So if 56 scrapes across the line of scrimmage, he’s going to cut that guard off. What I love about it is that he does phase one and two and almost three really well here. The play when you get to this position, he’s got his face across the defender, but he doesn’t give up on the play. Watch him fight and strain. And right there as the defender starts to come off. Here’s the lane. This play is supposed to break outside right here, but this unblocked defender who they can’t account for is in the hole and it scares him and he peaks backside. But because this tight end strains just like you did, that’s one of the best things you’ve ever taught me about this position and we’re never done learning are the three phases. You’ve got to win two of those three to be successful. And I think tight end 81 here wins those first two and that’s the key block that allows this to go. Now pass pro. I think this one’s pretty simple at but I want to mention some very uh some very basic. Let’s start at the left tackle. I love the fact left tackle doesn’t get in a hurry here. Watch his hands. I don’t want guys who are in a big hurry to punch when they don’t need to. What happens is they lunge and they get beat by spin moves. You see him keep his weight back here. Lets the tackle do what he’s the the the the pass rusher do what he’s going to do on the spin move, but because his weight is back and his hands are ready and he’s not, you know, he’s not lunging and and leaning with those hands. He’s able to handle that spin move. Really good job. Left guard, we’re gonna secure the B gap with our eyes. Make sure nothing’s coming inside. And he bounces back down to the A gap. We’re going to get a half slab. Let me get a half slab there. Not a It’s not full of barbecue sauce. We’re not slathering the rib. We’re just going to get the half slab with maybe some colelaw. We’re not trying to go too heavy with that slab. With that half slab, your right guard, he’s got long arms. And so I want to get on top of that little pass rusher as quick as possible. And we’re going to shoot those. Bang. Get that hand out there on him first. First in wins. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do. We’re going to use length and we’re going to use a firm right uh a firm right hand to start it. We go boom boom right left and uh in balance good nice width there. Center I think does a nice job at a little vertical set able to sit down on it. Uh you got to be careful because when they face tougher competition like Michigan you don’t want to let those that offensive line defensive line get get upfield with a whole lot of momentum because that you could get pushed back into the No doubt. So, here we are in the red zone again where games are won and lost in the trenches. This is just going to be a simple weak side zone where the play is designed where everybody’s bossing over. This left guard, believe it or not, is combination blocking with this guy to this guy with the center. So, everybody’s bossed over to this weak side. So, they’re basically fanning on this side and coming out. So, the play is going to stretch to the offense’s right, but end up bending back because of some key blocks on the backside, including one by the quarterback. What do you see here, Lance? It’s a team effort. So, as we watch that tight end, and Michigan does a good job of getting their tight ends involved, he’s going to step up and you see he’s looking to secure, looking to secure, but he doesn’t lose sight of number seven, a second block. And moving up onto number seven is wiped out. If seven if seven senses an early cut back, he could get across the face of number seven and go ruin that play. But seven, the tight end does a nice job of isolating him and then and watch the climb up, the patience. He maintains his his base and then he he connects with good inside hands. And that’s something a lot of tight ends and Aaron, you’ve seen it. Tight ends are either good or crap when it comes to hands on the second level. And Michigan does a good job of demanding their tight ends work with good hands. Yeah, I love this backside block here by 44. Man, this dude is quickly becoming one of my favorite players. Look, he’s got his hands on. He’s he’s he’s almost lined up like it’s pat right here, right? Well, that’s by design. He knows he’s got to cut off that defensive end and he wins with his head position right here. But he doesn’t. What’s key for young players when you have a position here, you’ve got leverage. So, you’re thinking, “I’ve already won my block.” And the lazy or easy or natural thing to do is to swing your hips around and try to wall off. But he doesn’t do that here. And that’s important because soon as you start to do that, you get your face crossed. and 45 tries to come across his face, but because he maintains his eyes and stays on this track, he’s able to wash him out and still get movement forward, which creates this little bit of room right there to allow the back to move from number six who’s unblocked right there. If the backside tight end gets washed out right here, it’s flat and six scrapes right off there and boom, makes the tackle right there. So, these are the little things. right backside where you stay on the track and you drive and accelerate. Look how tight his base is backside, Lance. That’s how you sustain. That’s what driving and finishing looks like. He’s got a tight base. He’s not pitterpattering his feet. He’s accelerating on contact and that creates enough room to give the back space to evade number six who’s unblocked. And then you got a quarterback who’s in the mix that’s a pretty big dude himself. And this is what Michigan football’s about. And how do you like this Bryce Underwood? This guy makes more in one year than you and I will make for for our entire lifetime. And he said, “You know what? Let me get a little taste of this.” Number 19, that guy is a stud, buddy. And what that does in the locker room, in the huddle, you see that on tape, it like you, you’ll go to battle and do anything for this dude. He’s one of you. He’s a bluecollar cat. They know how much money he’s making. He’s a quarterback. But if you’re willing to sacrifice yourself to be able to make a block and show that you’re also willing to get dirty, man, there is nothing more that a quarterback can do to endear himself to an offensive lineman than what we just saw Bryce Underwood do there. Michigan’s got their hands full. Early on in the summer, I had a chance to go hang out at practice, get behind the scenes, and learn a lot about their team. Take a listen. All right. What’s up? This is Aaron Taylor with Trench Life All Access. I’m with former absolute stud for the Wolverines. Offensive lineman John Jansen. Got out of here in 1999. He’s now the face, the voice, the body, everything. All Big 10 Michigan football. John, spent some time with you earlier today. We were talking about this team, but man, just spent practice today. We just watched the Michigan Wolverines. There’s a buzz. People are excited. give us some reasons why this fan base should be excited about the step that I saw today that this team could take forward. Well, I mean, for this team right now early on, because there’s so much development that has to happen on offense, it’s going to be a defensive wet team against New Mexico, against Oklahoma. You’re going to have to go in there and find a way to give your offense as many opportunities as possible. With those opportunities, we’re starting to watch an offensive line develop. We’re watching it. There’s a lot of moving parts right now. They’re trying to find the combination of the best five guys where they fit. And there might be a guy right now at left tackle that needs to move into guard or a guy at right that needs to pull over to left. That’s what they’re all ironing out right now. But every day that I’ve been able to watch practice, there’s a step forward and that’s really exciting. And then you talk about the talent that you have at quarterback on the way. That’s enough to get any reassignment. There’s a lot of hype following him coming to Ann Arbor. He’s a local kid. We know the recruiting battles and all that, but to be able to throw the ball down, to have that threat this year, this is a run first down. It’s always will be. That’s what Michigan is, but to have that threat really over Thanksgiving. What I was impressed with the young man is he had a nice calm demeanor about him. He didn’t seem like a young player. It certainly didn’t seem like it was moving fast, but there was a humility to him despite that spotlight that you mentioned. And I know for us guys that used to huddle up and and want to look in the quarterback’s eyes when they come in, that’s really important, isn’t it? It is. And it’s hard for you need leadership at that position. It’s hard for a freshman to come in. And you’ve probably had the same saying, a freshman or seen and not heard when that is the standard. What are guys looking to leadership? And it’s and he’s shown this since he showed up on campus. It is meetings, film room. You got to put in the work. You got to do what you’re asking your other teammates to do. He’s done all of that. And that Colamir that you see out there today, it didn’t just happen and it’s going to get better. But in spring ball and even the first couple of days of fall camp, there’s a couple of balls where he sailed because he’s excited. He’s eight, you know, 17 years old. He’s going to be excited. But now that he’s getting real comfortable with the environment around him, with his O line, with his receivers, you’re starting to see that calm demeanor that you talk about, we saw red zone, we saw O line, we saw a two-minute drill. Like all of these things are what will help him develop that fun demeanor when it matters most on Saturdays. We also saw Ohio period. Explain that. It’s uh it’s one that we do every day and we all know down in Ohio they are talking about the same thing. It’s about that deep. And quite honestly, with all respect, if you can compete with Ohio State, you’re going to be able to compete with everybody else on the schedule. So, when you’re preparing to compete with the best teams that you’re going to face, in turn, you’re competing against all those other teams that are going to be facing out. Any good team I’ve ever been around, the offensive lines had to lead that charge. as it comes to chemistry and in this unit that seems to have more depth. I’m talking the 2025 unit. Who are some of the alpha dudes that you feel can take that next step to bring everybody with them to get the standard back to where it was when Michigan was the first ever back-to-back winner of the Joe Moore award in 21 and 22. It’s always going to have to start with their veterans. And so Greg Krippen in the middle at the center position, Giovani Aladi at left guard. Those are the guys that have the most reps, the most starts, the most experience when things have gone well and when things haven’t been right. Those are the guys you got to lean on. Uh the one guy that I think is is going to be vital to this offensive line is the young right tackle, Andrew Sprag. Sprag is a guy that he’s he’s probably got the deepest mean streak of the bunch. And when you finish a play, we all know you get an extra beat after the whistle, right? the the referees are going to give you that when you take that every single time and you start wearing on those defensive linemen. It it sooner or later they’re going to lose patience and you’re going to get a free 15 yards. But you’ve got to know when to pull off and he’s kind of got that time at that max. I had the pleasure of blocking for Brett Bar. I had the unfortunate pleasure of having him block Reggie White in practice at times. But every superhero has their origin story. You had a chance to play with Tom Brady before he came with Tom Brady. give us some context on what that was like and just from a leadership standpoint, practice, preparation, what would the average fan not appreciate about how far he came to be what is inarguably the greatest we’ve ever seen in this sport? So Tom will probably tell you the same story and you probably heard it in regards to like he was always next in line and then when he was the starter in I think it was 96 u no sorry in ’98 um you know he he started a bunch of games had a great season and then we had a freshman come in in 99 which is going to be his his last year that competition was still there and nothing was ever handed to him and I think that those moments And right now, and Tom will tell you, you know, he doesn’t know what he would have done, but if the transfer folder would have been there, who knows what would have happened. But if he hadn’t gone through those trials, if he hadn’t been able to be forged by those moments, we may never have been able to have the opportunity to watch a guy play for 24 years and be the greatest NFL quarterback we’ve ever had. He may not have been the best college quarterback, and he was. I’d be the first to tell you that. But all of those moments of being able to learn, compete, and pick yourself back up made him who he is. Well, I’d be remiss if I didn’t invite our next guest, Grant Newsome. Come on over here, baby. Let’s crash the party. Get on in here, man. 277. Let’s go. Y’all looking like you’re weighing 277 between the two. Man, it was so fun watching your guys work today. Year over year, how have you improved as a coach? What did last year teach you and how are you putting that to play now to help get this room to where you know it can be and where it’s going to be? Sure. I think the biggest thing for us this year has just been kind of consistency um both on field point but also just this the swagger. I think there were times you know come out high expectations last year. You start the season slow not even a good enough job of keeping that kind of swagger up that confidence up in the room especially having a a young or less experienced last year. um we didn’t we weren’t as consistent as we needed to be there and there not until kind of the end of the season at Ohio State Alabama you saw kind of looked like off the sides goes to being so that’s been the big thing for us all right trap power counter or duo which is God’s play I would say it’s two back power get in the eye let that fullback kick out guard pull tightful plus one that’s uh to me punter I two back power is uh he’s is God’s play I I got to say I got to agree with you I know there’s going to be some of the duo crowd that might want to argue with that. It’s all the rage in football. Well, this is what we do at Trench Life. We have behind the scenes access. We’re going around to different camps trying to look at some offensive line. You’ve been part of a long heritage here. Smash when Chiron was the offensive line coach here. The first ever team to win back-to-back Joe Moore awards. The standard is high. Unfortunately for you in your room, that’s the standard. Notre Dame it should be. And Oklahoma and Alabama’s those teams that we’ve seen it before. That’s where everybody’s trying to get back to and you see the sprinklings that are here, man. It’s coming. Little sprouts. You got some young players, but that’s the development. That’s what camp is about. And it’s just fun. If there’s one thing you could guarantee Wolverine fans that they’ll see out of your unit, regardless of outcome, regardless of what it looks like, what can you guarantee what they’ll see from your home this season? Sure. I think first thing I would say is that we talk about just that there are high expectations each one. We talk about are you you viewing it as an opportunity or as a challenge, right? Is it a threat or is it an opportunity? And for us, like you have to have that mindset. This is opportunity. You get the opportunity to live up to high standards, too. And then uh the thing I would guarantee is to be physical, right? That’s what the Michigan offensive line has to be. You saw that down the stretch last year. That’s got to be us every single game. We line up. Doesn’t matter what the game calls for. Passing the ball, running the ball. Shoot. Could be played an entire game in two back power. We’re going to be focus fans. Physical football getting back to what it is they do. But the verdict of pass or two I saw today. That’s going to be an interesting little wrinkle to to the modern football game. [Music] A look at you. You made it all the way to the end. Grinding through like it’s play 18 and 90 on seven. So pancake that subscribe, smash that like button, and pull around the corner to share this with your buddy. Trench life rolls best when the whole crew’s in the huddle.