Keith here from Lewis Jewelers, and I would like to take a quick moment to say how grateful and thankful we are to all of our local and online clients we have helped out this past year.

We truly appreciate your business every day and for making Lewis Jewelers one of the most talked about jewelers in Michigan with over 750 five-star Google reviews.

We appreciate the honor to keep celebrating your moments together.

Stay safe, be well, and go blue.

Welcome on into the wolverine.com podcast.

Clayton Safie here with Chris Ballas and Anthony Broome.

Happy early Thanksgiving. I guess this will come out on Thanksgiving, but we're recording a little bit early. It's also the game week, Michigan and Ohio State top five matchup for the 12th time in history. So we will obviously preview that, man. We were talking before we went on air. There's so much to talk about with hoops, but it's just too big of a week.

So we're going to stick to football and then talk about basketball next week as well. And we'll get to some college football picks. But guys, you wake up Monday morning. We had a late basketball game the night before, but it's pretty easy. You don't need the caffeine this week. The blood's pumping top five buzz around Ann Arbor. it's just been, you know, it's just one of those weeks.

You can just kind of feel it.

You know what the buzz is that I've the blood's pumping top five buzz around Ann Arbor. It's just been, you know, it's just one of those

weeks you can just kind of feel it. You know what the buzz is that I've heard is that, God, I hope we have a chance from the Michigan fans. And I was just at the gym earlier and they said the same things. It's like, didn't you see Ohio last week? And I said, yeah, but every week's different. You never know, you just don't,

especially when it comes to this game. And this team, I think, is a little different. I think you're going to see this team, like Jim Harbaugh said, we're going to beat him or die trying. Past teams have kind of folded, I thought, and rolled over a little bit, fellows, when things got bad. I don't expect this team to do that. Is it going to be enough? I don't know. I don't

think so. I think they'll probably lose at the same time. I don't expect this team to do that. Is it going to be enough? I don't know. I don't think so. I think they'll probably lose. At the same time, I expect Michigan play its best game for the first time and a long time in this rivalry game. Yeah, I'm with you. I mean, it seems like calling the spade of spade and the reality of the situation, you know, Ohio State is a program that's up there with, you know, the Alabama's and now Clemson's down this year, but on that level, Georgia's level. So it feels like, you know, not, it's not a defeatist mentality, but it feels like once every three or four years, you're going to have kind of the stars in the line where we have a shot at them. Had it in 2016. They had it in 2018. Those didn't go their way. But now you get them at home. And I know what the recent history has been, but even when you look at some of the matchups on the field, I think there's a there's definitely a path to winning this football game and things I'm sure we'll talk about here. It's not a, you know, all you can say is, given how the last few years have gone,

I think we've known that it's going to take a pretty special group to kind of go out there

and make it happen and change narratives.

And again, you can't, it's so hard to guarantee anything.

I mean, they're not guaranteeing anything in the building.

I think the message to media this week has been, hey, we're just going to go out there and give it our best shot. We feel like we're ready. And I think they're ready, too. We've seen them get better from week one to week 12. Week 13, Big Ten East is on the line. It seems like the mentality's in the right place. I think they have enough talent to make this a game. now, they have to play their best game of the year, obviously.

But the opportunity is there.

And like I said, we've seen them fight and learn from every experience they've had this year. So I'm not ready to count them out at all. I think this can be a really good football game and one that lives up to the hype. Yeah, and it's a, you know, seven and a half point spread,

eight, depending on where you look at it, moving around a little bit.

You know, like Michigan certainly has a chance to win this game. At the same time, you guys both mention it. Like, you are going to have to play your best game. You're going to have to play and expect them to make a couple of mistakes or even just not play their best game. It doesn't have to be huge mistakes that Ohio State makes. But if you can get them off kilter a little bit offensively where they have to punt a couple times, you take advantage, things like that, it's going to have to align. Even when Oregon beat them earlier in the season, that stuff happened. They were able to run the ball effectively, which hasn't really been the case for many teams on Ohio State, get some timely passes, get some red zone stops, get some stops in the middle of the field too. So even when Ohio State wasn't at its best, it took a hell of a game by Oregon and give them credit. That was in the horseshoe. But you're right, Anthony, the home field advantage is something I'm looking for this weekend. I mean, it's going to be one of the more raucous environments, in my opinion, if it's a game as it progresses, first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter. Like, one of the more raucous environments that I've ever seen, if it gets to that point where it continues to be a game throughout. So they're going to have a chance.

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