WTKA Roundtable 6/4/2026: Bratislava Hustles Harder

REMINDER: ONE WEEK TO GET THE VALIANT KICKSTARTER FUNDED

Things Discussed:

• The Weddle comment: What does Bryce have to show this year to show this is working?
• Craig: If they win more than 8 games.
• Brian: Get the running game down. If he can read out an option everything becomes easier for him. Early Vince Young.
• Seth: He's got to show us his Detroit Hustles Harder side. There's a misconception in sports that money equals softness, but Underwood was the #1 prospect in his class because he was as much a grinder as he was talented. Let that show, and he'll win hearts and minds. Get to where JJ was as a true sophomore. Terrelle Pryor Year 2.
• Sam: Shoulda paid for a QB coach last year. He's got to stop looking at the rush.
• Statistically he was better than he looked. We're overrating his dismal Spring Game performance and underrating how often he had touchdown passes that his receivers botched or interceptions they didn't fight for. Andrew Marsh wasn't even looking for the ball early in the season. JJ Buchanan isn't missing the plays Freddie Moore didn't make.
• Whittingham recruiting: They're serious and they're recruiting the way they do, but it's interesting that they're also doing things that Harbaugh did.
• Tank (metal name!) Watson wasn't a Utah-style recruitment; it's a Harbaugh trick to go to big Southern schools and look at the late-developing fifth guy the scouts aren't watching because there are 4- and 5-stars all over the field. Is he a pure linebacker? Might be an edge, might be a Cole Sullivan.
• Sam: Dakota Guerrant is leaning Oregon but Michigan won't give up on him; they won't lose an NIL battle, but they need to prove they can pass the ball this fall.
• Gabe Osborne is the best player in the country; don't care what it costs. Like that he committed to hometown Oklahoma instead of Ohio State.
• Sam shares how Michigan flipped an NCAA decision to screw over SMSB by inviting all the campers to Michigan. Reminds us of the early Harbaugh alacrity in recruiting.
• Milan Momcilovic: Sam is down on Pope, thinks you don't go to Kentucky for any reason but money. Brian gives him a mulligan because UK was injured; Sam says if they don't go further than Texas this year he's fired. Funny that BYU has money as soon as Pope leaves.
• Michigan to play an outdoor basketball game at the Marlins stadium, because Fox was mad they didn't get to broadcast it if they played at MSG. B10 has rights to those games. Whatever the rationale is, it's a sad statement about how the sport is structured.
• The latest frontier is streaming. Seth thinks this is a very bad turn; how many streaming services do you need to sign up for to watch every Michigan football and basketball game this year? Worse, putting games behind paywalls is putting them out of reach of fans, especially young adults, who will find something else, cannibalizing your future (and destroying smaller market teams) for a few bucks today. Can't fault Dusty May and Michigan because they're just playing the game. I do fault the commissioner of the Big Ten and the TV execs who can't see past what money sticks to their fingers.
• Seth Dream: Cut out the TV guys, develop your own streaming network and keep all of the money. If you put a tenth of the money the TV guys get into production you'd have it. Brian: You're crazy; they outsource everything, and when they don't they create Big Ten Plus.
• Seth: not crazy, because TV takes a greater share now than they ever have before, because streaming is a new frontier that hasn't calcified yet, sports fans would rather install a free app where they could watch all of their games for free than six apps they have to sign up for. What makes it impossible is Michigan and Ohio State etc. won't like it because it's too fair.