Welcome back inside the Ann Arbor Studios of the Big 1050 WTKA online at the Big 1050.com. And a little over 20 minutes from now, Sam Webb one on one live in his TV or on the TV set and here on the radio with Michigan Athletic Director, Athletic Director, Ward Manual. But we have our regular guests that we're going to have on each and every day, of course, throughout the course of the year. And how would we not have them on when it's game week?

And my conversations, I think, with all my guests when I call them on the phone, start the same. And it's no different than it was when I called Mike on the phone and just excited about it being game week. Mike, good morning. Happy game week, my friend. How's it going? It's amazing. It's funny how fall the weather just kind of arrived in the last couple of days to greet us all and say, hey, just wanted to, if you didn't already know, it's football week. So pretty perfect weather here in Southeast Michigan. And yeah, I mean, absolutely geeked. We got a little bit of a taste of it last weekend, but starting Thursday night with, you know, four big 10 teams playing all around the same time. You'll have Michigan State on Friday, and then what a slate of college football games on Saturday and Sunday. So very excited, very, very excited about the new season. Yeah, you're not wrong. We had, Gracie had a clinic, a softball clinic outside last night, and we were definitely talking about how it didn't feel like August. It felt like football weather, which was perfect because we're getting ready for football season. And the weather, Mike, on Saturday. Oh, high is right around 70 degrees, perfectly sunny. Saturday is going to be a glorious day here in southeastern Michigan for the opening of the Michigan football season.

So let's talk about the open. 70 degrees, perfectly sunny. Saturday is going to be a glorious day here in southeastern Michigan for the opening of the Michigan football season.

So let's talk about the opening of the Michigan football season.

We have been talking about this for months and months and months.

I kind of feel like we were talking about this on Monday night.

It kind of feel like the offseason really started on November 21st when Bryce committed.

And every conversation since then has started the same way because I think every Michigan football conversation since then has started with Bryce Underwood.

Obviously, that was made official by Sharon on Monday.

So I guess we'll start there.

But just really the open ended, as you get ready for this game number one, what is top of mind for you?

Yeah, I mean, it's funny because I think like three or four weeks ago, Sam was asking

me about, you know, the quarterback competition. And I, I, uh, I kept up the ruse until I finally

said, like, what, you know, what competition. And, uh, and we all knew, we all knew that it was going to be Bryce Center would show and Sharon, you know, obviously confirmed that on Monday. You know, in this opening game, I mean, I think all eyes are going to be on that side of the ball. We hear so many good things about the defense, but we're expecting the defense to be really, really good. most of the new names, most of the people we don't have a good feel for are on the

offense, starting with a quarterback, you know, a transfer running back, a kid named

Jordan Marshall, who had a really nice bowl game, but, I mean, really, we've only seen,

you know, one game of his.

And then a wide receiver core that, you know, I know that a lot of the guys are

returnees, but nobody from last year that really stood out for Michigan.

And so, and even at the tight end spot, I mean, you just go through the list and there's

guys that you really want to see for maybe the first time or the first extended time

to see what they've got. And so, you know, I'm just excited to see for maybe the first time or the first extended time to see what they've got.

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