Forever Saturday

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.