Welcome back to another edition of the Wolverine.com podcast, our TV version with Doug Skeen,

Michigan's former All-Big Ten Offensive lineman, five-time Big Ten champion. And, you know, one of the staff pick winners this week was supposed to be able to wear one of your rings. And I don't think you won. So you're going to have one out in top. Didn't I win? Didn't I win? You might have, actually. So maybe I was confident that you were going to win.

So I promised I didn't tell you.

I'm sorry.

I forgot to tell you that you have to get that ring out of the safe deposit box. But anyway, another huge Michigan win, 59 to nothing. It was boring. I'll be honest with you. And you can tell right away that that game was going to be over in the first quarter skiing and uh first

thing's first man what do you learn from a game like this from a schedule like this you guys had

some always you always played Notre Dame didn't you play them five years in a row yeah we always

played Notre Dame yeah right that was not only it was Notre Dame and two others and then the

big 10 started yeah and then the two others were good teams I think UCLA was on there when you, I'm not mistaken, on the road. So you guys had a gauntlet. And I know that Doug, that Doug Karsh and John Borton have had gone back and forth about this. The benefits of playing a tough schedule compared to three tomato cans. Your opinion, would you like something in the middle there? Yeah, absolutely. I think I'd like something in the middle. You know, and so we'll probably talk about it later with what's going on in the Big Ten, but I was really interested to see what Michigan State was going to do. They trounced Akron and whoever else they played, and then all of a sudden, well, let's see how they do in a tough environment a tough environment and against a team that I think is decent. Yeah, all of a sudden I have a totally different opinion of the Spartans. I thought they were, you know, feeling pretty good about what, what, you know, people had seen out of them. And so absolutely, ballast. I, as a fan, yeah, hey, running up to score, that's all fine and great we're three and oh i still until i see it

in you know in the right environment i'm going to have questions and i can tell you these these games

you know two out of three fine make two out of three against uh yukon and hawaii whatever but it can't be

three out of three and i know i think you mentioned there was some scheduling problems in the past,

which led to this.

But there's got to be somebody and somebody better to do this.

But next year, I think we didn't you already peek forward?

East Carolina and a couple other tomato.

Holy green or something like that.

And so next year's September is going to suck too for opponents. After that, things get a little bit better. We get into the, well, we hope. Assuming things stay. You're right. Exactly. Let me ask you this. Yeah, but not as a fan. As a player, does it prepare you? I mean, would you rather play better competition knowing you're going into the Big Ten and going to face, theoretically, you're going to face better competition? We'll talk about how lousy the Big Ten is here in a minute. But as a player, would you rather have a game like that to prepare you for the Big Ten? I think in hindsight, I can only go off of what we had. One of the three, yes, because you go up against a Notre Dame like we did those years. You really measure up against a peer performing football program out there. And you kind of see how good you are. And you know, it's a big game and big environment. And there's a lot on the line. And then you go out and you play, you know, somebody like these opponents. And as a player, it's like, okay, we're going to go. We're going to do this stuff. But the juice is just not the same balance. And what I would tell you, you were there, you watched the game. And anybody watching this podcast, whether you were in person or whether you were there at the game live, I could tell the players are like, okay, whatever. I mean, it was, there was some excitement on the field, but I'm just telling you,

from watching these guys play, the second touchdown they scored, it was like,

eh, all right, hey, way to go.

All right, let's go to the sideline, an extra point.

Here we go.

...