Forever Saturday

Serena and Matt reflect on Michigan's weirdly eventful but ultimately dominant win over Bowling Green, break down J.J.'s three interceptions and our recalibrated expectations for the offense, briefly offer some appreciation for possibly the the best defense in the country, talk Big Ten takeaways (woof, Michigan State) and whether there's *any* great team in college football right now, and look ahead to Rutgers, which is still broadly Rutgers but will provide a real test for Michigan on at least one side of the ball.

Serena and Matt reflect on the Mel Tucker report, what to make of it, and what it means for Michigan State going forward, then revisit Michigan's obliteration of UNLV (including a dominant D-line performance and J.J. continuing to cook), then look ahead to Bowling Green and whether there's anything to be learned given the 40-point line.

Serena and Matt revisit Michigan's "perfectly fine" season-opening win and discuss the run game's relatively unproductive day, J.J.'s related surgical dissection of an ECU team that picked its poison, the defense's all-around dominant performance (with an "incomplete" grade for the pass rush), and some weird special-teams happenings, then talk Big Ten takeaways from Week 1 and what we're expecting against UNLV.

Serena and Matt briefly preview the opener against East Carolina, then talk feelingsball about a team that should be Michigan's best since [???] and debate the glory/agony of expectations.

Serena and Matt preview the Michigan offense position by position and bring it all together with the unavoidable overarching question: With possibly the best offensive line in the country (again), definitely the best running back tandem in the country (again), and a returning quarterback who's not only the best in the Big Ten but has functionally no ceiling, is this the year the offense goes from "very good" to "truly elite?" And perhaps just as importantly, is "truly elite" actually necessary for Michigan to win the whole damn thing?

Serena and Matt react to the self-imposed three-game suspension for Jim Harbaugh, debate whether/why it makes sense, share some intriguing fall camp updates from both Michigan and Ohio State, and then dive into a special teams preview that tries to unpack exactly what to make of the most uncertain unit on the team, from a new punter and kicker to a host of guys vying for return duties.

Serena and Matt briefly touch on the report that NCAA v. Harbaugh is being pushed to 2024, then preview the Michigan defense position-by-position (raving about Kris Jenkins, debating what exactly is fair to expect from Junior Colson, etc.) and bring it all together with three overarching questions, including whether the #2 corner spot is *actually* a problem and whether Year 2 under Minter can be even better than Year 1 (which might mean the best defense in the country).

Serena and Matt react to the Pac-12's sudden but debatably inevitable death, reflect on what we're all losing and why it matters, and share some thoughts on what it means going forward for Michigan, the Big Ten, the playoff, and college football writ large.

Serena and Matt continue the "Big Ten teams as 2023 things" theme with a Big Ten East preview episode that references Silicon Valley Bank, the Pitbull tour, Oppenheimer and more, culminating in the inevitable discussion as to whether this is in fact "Michigan's division" and some reflection on what the last two editions of The Game mean going forward.

Serena and Matt discuss Harbaugh v. NCAA (which appears to be coming to an appropriately stupid resolution that will make your brain hurt if you try to reconcile it with the rest of the current college football landscape), the Michigan-relevant portions of NBC's newly released night game schedule, the debate over the placement of the Michigan-Ohio State game, and other random thoughts from Big Ten media days.

Serena and Matt forecast the bleak-but-fascinating Big Ten West in its final year of existence, going in ascending order and giving each team its "2023 thing" comparison (ranging from Aaron Rodgers to Threads to Chat-GPT) before making an undoubtedly regrettable/possibly nihilistic pick for division champ.

Serena and Matt make their triumphant return from the wedding/honeymoon, briefly catch up on offseason items of note, talk Michigan's apparent lack of weaknesses following the portal pickup we'd all been waiting for, and play an extended game of "Michigan Fact or Cap" to debate just how good J.J. can be, whether a 50/50 run/pass split is even vaguely plausible, whether this will be Harbaugh's best team yet at Michigan, and more.

Serena and Matt talk Michigan's spring transfer losses and additions (including an answer at kicker), draft/state-of-the-program observations, and continued recruiting good vibes, then share some thoughts on the slightly-less-good (but subjectively delightful) vibes emanating from East Lansing as well as the announced format for the expanded College Football Playoff.

Serena and Matt talk spring game takeaways, including how we're feeling about Amorion Walker (and the #2 corner spot more generally), a loaded defensive line, J.J. being J.J. (in a good way), Benjamin Hall's ascension, etc., do a little "Michigan walk-on or professional golfer" quizzing, reflect on the Jadyn Davis commitment and what it means for a potentially special Michigan recruiting class, and more.

Serena and Matt briefly talk Michigan hockey's return trip to the Frozen Four before getting back to football to discuss the CFP equivalent of this year's NCAA Final Four, Michigan's newfound recruiting momentum (and why it matters), the handful of things we'll be watching for in the spring game, and possibly the greatest quote ever to appear in the Wall Street Journal.

Serena and Matt mostly skip the basketball post mortem, give some brief credit to hockey for another very fun (and still going!) season, and then get into the good stuff with SPRING FOOTBALL (WOOOO LFG etc.), specifically the five reasonably interesting spring storylines/question marks on a Michigan team with very few of them. There are also references to Chaucer and regional sports network bankruptcies, for reasons that can't be explained here.

Serena and Matt debate whether Michigan is in a "national title or bust" situation given the returning talent and two straight CFP appearances, discuss Chris Partridge's return and what it means (both now and going forward), talk Big Ten realignment/scheduling scenarios, and then try to come up with real-world comparisons for Brian Ferentz's all-time great nepotism situation at Iowa.

Serena and Matt briefly touch on Michigan's hire/promotion of Kirk Campbell as quarterbacks coach, the implied quasi-promotion of Sherrone Moore, and a couple potential roster additions, then turn back to 2022 with an audio-inclusive countdown of our 10 favorite/most memorable moments of the year.

It's been a hell of a week, so let's talk Harbaugh's return, what's going on with Warde Manuel, the only logical response to the NCAA investigation, the bizarre Matt Weiss allegations/exit, what the options are at (co-)offensive coordinator, and a bunch more "unfinished business" announcements on both sides of the ball that leave Michigan looking prettttty good (with one possible exception) heading into 2023.

It's Forever Saturday Episode 1 all over again, with Michigan coming off a (slightly more devastating this time) playoff loss and Jim Harbaugh-to-the-NFL rumors swirling, so Serena and Matt talk Harbaugh's future, how we think this ends, Corum's glorious return, what's possible for Michigan in 2023, Fiesta Bowl reactions and regrets, and whether Georgia was ever *actually* beatable.

After an excruciatingly long wait, Serena and Matt preview Michigan's semifinal matchup against TCU and talk Max Duggan fear levels, what we expect from the defense against a legit group of skill-position players, the big mismatch on the other side of the ball, how TCU's defense *might* make things difficult, whether a loss would be a true "disappointment," what's on the table over the next two weeks, and what we think will happen/want to happen on the other side of the CFP bracket.

Serena and Matt talk Signing Day, the Ryan Day/Dabo Swinney/Jimbo Fisher "Have Some Self-Awareness Challenge," Michigan's unexpected transfer portal haul (and what it means for the program going forward), Blake Corum's "50/50" comment, the best of the early part of bowl season, and what we're most looking forward to next week other than the Fiesta Bowl.

Serena and Matt talk Heisman ceremony (and the blasphemy of Michigan's beautiful, tiny running back not even getting a New York invite), the weirdly dramatic/salty transfers of Cade McNamara and Erick All, what All's exit means at tight end, and some interesting developing with potential *incoming* transfers, then turn back to real football and the upcoming bowl season with a brief game of "Bowl or Bullshit."

Serena and Matt reflect on 13-0, a second straight Big Ten title, and knowing you're in the good times while you're still in them, then get into the annoying-but-ultimately-decisive win over Purdue, vibes heading into a CFP matchup with TCU, and whether the committee got it right by avoiding a rematch of The Game and giving Ohio State the Georgia Monstars.

Serena and Matt revisit the best of the after-the-fact Ohio State nonsense takes, acknowledge some dudes who didn't get their full due in the initial revelry, and talk a little more shit (obviously) before turning to Michigan's second straight Big Ten championship game appearance: CFP implications, what to know about an all-around mediocre Purdue team, what we expect in terms of Michigan's approach, general fear levels, and more.

You know what this is about: Let's talk some shit after another dog-walking of Ohio State, revel in Michigan flipping this rivalry on its head, enjoy some Ohio State fan schadenfreude, maybe talk about the actual game and its three distinct parts (defense hanging on, J.J. taking over, run game putting it away), and then take a moment to appreciate where this program is at right now.

Serena and Matt say their prayers for Blake Corum, briefly look back at an Illinois game that really didn't matter (and was treated accordingly, for better or worse), and then turn to The Game: We know what these teams are philosophically, so what do we feel good about, what do we feel much less good about, and what's in front of Michigan as Football Armageddon 2.0 looms.

Serena and Matt reflect on the significance of Michigan's 10-0 start before getting into the boring-but-thorough beatdown of Nebraska, allocation of blame for the passing game's lingering issues, another Heisman-worthy day from Blake Corum, the defense's continued ascendance, and what we can expect/learn against Illinois, aka "Man Coverage Iowa."

Serena and Matt talk through a weird but somewhat familiar Rutgers game, Michigan's apparent 2022 m.o., the defense's takeover in an absolutely dominant second half, what makes the ground game so good (besides the obvious), the lingering question at receiver, and some special-teams nonsense, then pivot to the, uh, "uninspired" performances elsewhere in the Big Ten and the implications of the updated CFP rankings.

Serena and Matt react to the, uh, questionable" logic behind the College Football Playoff rankings and what (if anything) an initial #5 ranking means for Michigan, then turn to Rutgers and what we can expect/learn against a team that's basically Worse Iowa but will definitely do some things on defense that are much different from what Michigan's been seeing for most of the last month.

Serena and Matt address The Tunnel Nonsense and what happens next from a legal standpoint (with an actual lawyer!), put Michigan State in its place, then move on to the on-field ass-kicking Michigan delivered, including an all-around dominant defensive performance, a "take what you're given game" from the offense, another Heisman-caliber outing for Blake Corum, a lot of Money Moody, and the one thing holding this team back from being truly elite.

Serena and Matt designate a new Five-Star Iowa and declare Penn State not actually bad (but definitely worthy of Jim Harbaugh's dismissiveness), then turn to Michigan-Michigan State to discuss the unbearable discourse, the reality of good Michigan vs. bad Michigan State, fear levels, whether Michigan State has a realistic path to victory, and the genius of Mike Hart.

Serena and Matt look back at a thorough ass-kicking of Penn State for which no caveats are needed, give the run game its due credit, talk #CorumForHeisman, find a few nits to pick in the red zone, point out the defense's equally dominant performance against a pretty good skill-position group, and then turn to the month ahead and the potential for Football Armageddon 2.0.

Serena and Matt unpack an eventful Michigan-Indiana game, rant about the lopsided officiating, give some credit to the defense (and an adjustment), call out a potentially problematic schematic issue on offense, gush over Blake Corum yet again, dissect a pretty good J.J. McCarthy performance, and then spend too much time on Michigan State, dignity, and the Iowa-Illinois rockfight.

Serena and Matt celebrate the end of Kinnick juju, marvel at the beauty of Blake Corum and the (much larger) guys doing serious work on the offensive line, share their thoughts on J.J.'s efficient/Cade-like day, complain a little about the mostly-fine-but-occasionally-shaky defense, then revel in some Sparty schadenfreude and look ahead to an Indiana team that is, uh, not good.

Serena and Matt discuss Michigan's somewhat-uncomfortable-but-kinda-decisive win over Maryland, marvel at Blake Corum, debate J.J. McCarthy's performance, identify the couple of lingering issues that keep popping up on each side of the ball, and look ahead to Iowa to determine whether Kinnick juju actually exists and how much it matters against a team that has apparently opted not to field an offense this year.

Serena and Matt discuss the few relevant things that happened against UConn (including some additional data points from J.J. McCarthy), step back for a post-cupcake-season review of what we feel good about and what lingering concerns/questions exist, look ahead to a real(-ish?) opponent in Maryland, and then take a spin around the Big Ten (Penn State stock up, NFTuck value plummeting).

Serena and Matt discuss the decisive end of the Michigan quarterback competition, the most impressive/fun/meaningful aspects of J.J. McCarthy's "near-flawless" performance, what happened to Cade McNamara, what it means for the offense going forward, other takeaways from an obliteration of a terrible team, and the state of the Big Ten West (spoiler: it's real bad!).

Serena and Matt discuss Michigan's season-opening win over Colorado State, including an unexpectedly dominant defensive effort (complete with many sacks!) and a suboptimal Cade McNamara performance that left the door verrry open for J.J. McCarthy, then spend the appropriate amount of time on Week 2 and what appears to be a god-awful Hawaii team.

Matt and Serena discuss Harbaugh's plan for the quarterbacks (and other tidbits from the Jansen podcast), what it would take to deem this season a successful one, predicting overall records, and previewing Colorado State. Forever Sat Pod is recorded from the Balkans! Harbaugh announces his plan to start Cade week one and JJ week two. Does this mean Cade has lost the job? There are too many starters on defense to take his quotes about starters entirely literally What would it take to deem this season a success? Serena is adamant that a win over MSU is non-negotiable. Will Michigan have a successful season by whatever metric we've chosen? Previewing Colorado State Could be a nice early test for the DBs because CSU runs an air raid But, they also trot out a QB in his first start and a brand new OL so, yikes.

Serena and Matt consider the most interesting/funny/dumb possible storylines for the upcoming season, make their not-very-interesting national title picks, share a couple hot-take predictions, and then break down Week 0 with a discussion of whether there is anything at all to be learned from Nebraska-Northwestern in Dublin.

Serena and Matt break down the Michigan defense, discuss the lingering question around how to replace two irreplaceable edges (and the organic pass rush they provided), assess what's realistic given the personnel losses and D-coordinator transition, and briefly touch on a special-teams unit that should be among the best in the country.

Serena and Matt preview the Michigan offense (mostly excluding the quarterbacks, who already got their own episode) with a position-by-position breakdown and three overarching questions about the unit as a whole, including the big one: after seven straight Harbaugh seasons in which the defense carried a majority of the weight, is this the year the offense finally ascends into the "elite" conversation?

It's time for the Michigan quarterback discussion: Serena and Matt pick their sides in the Cade-vs.-J.J. debate and make their best arguments, then take a few minutes to discuss what they think Jim Harbaugh will *actually* do in terms of QB playing time throughout the first week/month/whatever of the season.

Serena and Matt talk through the narratives/superlatives heading into the season for each team in the Big Ten East: who "won the offseason," who's got the most to prove, who's most likely to take a step back, who's dealing with the saddest state of affairs, and more.

Serena and Matt briefly discuss what's next for the Big Ten (Notre Dame? Oregon?) and the remnants of the Pac-12 in Expansion Times, then dive into the Big Ten West preview to talk through who we're highest on, who we're most down on, who's being slept on, who's truly the most unwatchable (in a division of unwatchables), and more.

Serena and Matt react to the Big Ten's apparently impending addition of USC and UCLA and talk about what it means for the Big Ten (from alignment to scheduling to exposure to recruiting), whether the Pac-12 has any path to viability, and whether megaconferences are coming (or are already here)

In a grab-bag/mailbag episode, Serena and Matt discuss the Big Ten's likely move to a division-less structure, assess the options for TV partners (what would it mean to cut off ESPN? what about some streaming-only games?), briefly touch on Michigan's kind-of-fake budget, and share their thoughts on what Michigan should do about Bo and the continued embarrassing remarks from within the athletic department.Matt and Serena pat themselves on the back for being generally right about how it appears the Big Ten is going to handle re-alignment No word on the Championship Game structure yet What's the Big Ten going to do with the TV contract? Would you lock the conference in for decades right now? Probably notCBS might be desperate to retain college football now that it lost the SEC, if it outbids ESPN, do you close the door on ESPN entirely? Does that hurt you for the CFP?Do you lose out a lot on highlights, College Gameday appearances, etc.? The Michigan Athletic Department's budget is fake, because all athletic department budgets are fake Warde Manuel's recent comments about Bo: yikes Take down the statute and re-name the hall (obviously) If we won't get rid of all the Bo stans, the least they can do is shut up and stop valorizing the guy How do we work through our continued support of Michigan and Michigan athletics? Michigan is so much more to us than football or athletics Now more than ever we can support the players directly, so withdrawing our support mostly harms innocent people Is that maybe rationalization? Sure, but it's probably still true

For the numbers nerds, Matt and Serena run through an attempted calculation of how much Michigan's roster is worth in "NIL" money given Ryan Day's comments and James Franklin's response, then briefly touch on Michigan's announced NIL collective and the C.J. Carr commitment fallout.Ryan Day says it will cost $13M to keep Ohio State's roster intact Day also says that the going rate for QBs is around $2M, and top end edge talent and OTs are around $1M That seems in line with the whispers that we've heard about what top end QBs have gotten James Franklin responds and says it will cost "more" than the numbers we've heard What does the actual number look like for Michigan's roster?We try to extrapolate based on the (admittedly few) data points we have to determine what the going rate is, then compare to Ohio StateMatt tries to index the value of every position on the roster to the QB position (the position we have the most data about) One of the difficult issues is deciding when a player transitions over from getting paid on potential vs. paid on production We talk about the "Champion's Circle" NIL collective launched by Valiant C.J. Carr's commitment to ND (are we happy? No. Can we blame him? Also no.)

Serena and Matt do the Fox/ESPN thing and draft the best Big Ten games of 2022 to see who can come up with a more watchable schedule for the season overall, then discuss the implications of the Big Ten apparently taking down its schedules for 2023 and beyond.Ground rules: We flip a coin -- winner gets to draft first and they select a week (i.e. - Week 13, the week of Michigan/OSU) to get the first game picked Second person has to pick a consolation game in the same week as the person who gets to pick firstWe alternate and see who ends up with the better schedule Serena is a closet Penn State fan Serena's schedule depends a lot on whether Purdue remains funThe Big Ten West merry-go-round is kinda meh Nebraska could really make things more interestingWho ends up with the better schedule? We'll let the people decideThe Big Ten takes down its future schedules, signaling a change in alignment and/or scheduling is coming sooner rather than later. We have our preferences, but they will inevitably find a way to mess this upSerena is mad about the scheduling changing right when OSU gets stuck with Wisconsin for a half-decade