Previewing Michigan-Illinois with Illini Inquirer
The Michigan Insider
247Sports, Michigan Football, Michigan Wolverines, Michigan, Michigan athletics, College Football
4.6 • 855 Ratings
🗓️ 9 October 2019
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After receiving strong reviews from last week’s joint podcast, we once again invite an opposing beat writer to join us, as Michigan beat writer Zach Shaw and Illinois beat writer Jeremy Werner discuss the key storylines for both teams heading into this week’s game.Acknowledging that the game itself is rather predictable and that neither team is using the game as a measuring stick, they instead begin by breaking down how each team has fared to expectations. Werner notes that Illinois’ improved team talent has yet to translate to better on-field success, and that that falls on coaching, while Shaw opines the weird spot that Michigan is in with a clearly improved product, yet not full satisfaction with Jim Harbaugh and the team's 4-1 record. The go back and forth, looking at each team's offenses so far, what the primary struggles have been and the key playmakers who might be in or out of the game. They also break down defenses. Finally, they close with the discussion of what can be gained or lost from Saturday’s game beyond the result for both teams, and how the matchup can set up the rest of the season.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello everybody. Welcome to the Wolverine 24-7 podcast, your audio source for all things, Michigan football, basketball, and recruiting. |
| 0:06.0 | And welcome to Illinois listeners to the Lina Inquirer podcast, your audio source for all things, Illinois, football, basketball, and recruiting. |
| 0:13.9 | I'm Zach Shaw. Jamie Werner joining me on the phones here. And so last week for the Michigan listeners, we did a little mashup |
| 0:23.0 | podcast with David Eicholt. Got a lot of positive reviews. So we're bringing it back this |
| 0:27.3 | week as the Wolverines prepare to take on the Aligni. The Aligni Inquirer podcast also runs a couple |
| 0:33.8 | times a week. They have their whole deal as well. But Jeremy, we can just jump right |
| 0:38.1 | into questions if you're ready. Illinois, first thing that, first thing stands out to me, |
| 0:43.6 | at least, you know, when I'm doing the preliminary research is the talent has improved, the team |
| 0:47.7 | talent composite that our 24-7 sports site does, does a great job of where guys were ranked |
| 0:53.9 | as recruits. |
| 0:55.1 | That has drastically improved, at least from what I can gauge, just in the last couple |
| 1:00.3 | years, whether it's transfers, active transfers, getting recruits, some high-profile |
| 1:06.4 | recruits, both in-state and from other areas. How has that gone down? |
| 1:11.4 | And then has it translated onto the field yet? |
| 1:14.7 | Or is that still a work in progress? |
| 1:17.8 | Yeah, Zach, there's no question. |
| 1:19.5 | Lovie Smith has a more talented roster than he inherited. |
| 1:22.5 | I think he's done a pretty good job of getting Illinois into bigger recruiting battles, |
| 1:28.9 | whether that's, you know, |
| 1:34.3 | Isaiah Williams and Marquez Beeson to top, you know, 250 kids who signed this past year. |
| 1:36.5 | Sadly, both have been hurt, Beeson out for the year. |
| 1:39.7 | And Williams just kind of had nagging injuries here. But, you know, he's gotten top 500 kids, which for Illinois is a big deal. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from 247Sports, Michigan Football, Michigan Wolverines, Michigan, Michigan athletics, College Football, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of 247Sports, Michigan Football, Michigan Wolverines, Michigan, Michigan athletics, College Football and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.