Blue By Ninety - E76: Anthony Broome

Episode Date: August 6, 2021

Maizenbrew.com Producer, Anthony Broome, joins the show to give the boys a professional perspective on the B1G media days, renewed energy surrounding the football team and his takes on what michigan football may look like this year. Crack a cold one and enjoy the show.

This is the University of Michigan. Touchdown, Michigan! That's the beat of Michigan ball! And they've got one extra pass. And it goes for the win! The three-pointer by Jordan Poole! Down the sideline! People jump!

Touchdown, Wolverines! Alright, welcome back to Blue by 90. I am Justin, joined by Jack and Kalen as always. And today we have a special guest with us, Anthony Broom from Maize & Brew. Anthony, how are you doing? I'm doing great. It's good to connect, good to be here. Always like mixing it up with some of the other people in our little Michigan sphere of sites, podcasts, blogs, whatever you want to call it. So good to be here, good to chat with you guys. And this is great for us to actually have a professional on here,

so maybe we can actually have some good insight for once. So use that once super loosely professional so um yeah it's it's good to be here thanks i appreciate you guys asking me to come on for sure for sure yeah so i i know you know we uh we obviously have our twitter and you guys have your social media as well and and we see you guys putting out a lot of good stuff is it it's at maize in brew correct yep it's maize and brew there's no and sometimes people get it mixed up it's maize and brew and uh for anyone that has complaints about that that predates me so you can kick that up yeah that's where we're at we're uh you know we're kind of kicking back up into

podcasts four or five times a week with different stuff on our site maybe even more than that we'll see what the the fall brings but um yeah it's nice that i and i i have my fingers crossed i'm knocking on wood here that things feel like they're getting back to normal so happy to provide a an actual season normal season's worth of content for sure for sure uh yeah we're excited to you know i think we're like on the cusp of you know we've talked about it a lot as well but just between the three of us on this podcast and in real life that it's like all right we're hyping ourselves up a little bit more each day for Michigan football, whether we want to or not. We've been trying to put it off as much as as we can, because we know that that hype train can come quickly for a lot of Michigan fans out there.

You know, but with it just being such a weird season last year, you know, we're just excited for college football to get back and and to be back in the big house and all that stuff and so you know you were at Schembechler Hall this morning you've been around it's I know you guys don't get a ton of access to things with the team but what is the the general you know atmosphere like around the Michigan football team right now there's got to be a different energy. It seems like, which is what Jim Harbaugh talked about. And a lot of guys talked about at the big time media days. Is that, is that real? Can you feel that?

It feels like all I can tell you what it does feel like is that the reset pushing the reset button has been pushed and it feels like there's a, like a fresh slate a clean start for a lot of people um you know i can't sit here and tell you that everything they did either you know they overhauled the defense they made some tweaks on the offensive side of the ball really i mean something that i think isn't being talked about enough is that and i know the results aren't there right now but the recruiting department was completely overhauled. Some administrative stuff was turned over. You know, they, to Jim Harbaugh's credit, I mean, he's, he finds the extension.

He's coming back like that's at a certain point, people who were upset with that just have to realize that's, that's what the reality of it is. So once he does that, you know, he flips over just about every stone he can to overhaul the defense. What can we do a little bit better offensively? It seems like, and this just might be the natural cycle of what the offseason is. You know, the nice thing for them is that they had a full spring football to put in what they wanted to put in. They've had a normal conditioning cycle. They've had a normal conditioning cycle. They've done, and that's not excusing what happened last year, but that wasn't the case last year.

So it does feel like going back to a normal schedule, having new energy, new blood in the building is, you know, we talk, there's going to be a lot and it's going to be pounded into people's heads until the opener about this culture change and all that type of stuff. And I'm not quite ready to buy into that yet because we heard about a culture change last year after the Minnesota game. And then they got punched in the mouth. They didn't get off the map. But it does feel like enough has changed down there that if you're not totally excited for this season, you're like, know i'm i'm excited to see what happens one way or another so i think that there is kind of a a fresher vibe and some honestly so much needed new blood um in that building especially on the defense and while we're on the kind of subject

of culture change and new blood um i know and we've made a lot of you know hoopla about jim harbaugh hiring a bunch of young guys as well um have you been able to kind of feel that energy from some of the younger guys there i mean don't get me wrong right seeing don brown get hype in an interview got me super hype as well but have you been able to feel some of the some of the energy from the younger coaches yeah it's maybe because so we're at press conferences today in football building that's the first time we've been face to face with people since you know before the citrus bowl however many months you know almost two years ago that was so it's tough to like i can't say there's a palpable energy yet but just based on like uh we were in Indy for Big Ten Media Days a couple weeks ago, and when you hear the players talk know, I can't say that he's more of a tactician, but, um, you know, Aiden Hutchinson made, you know, made a pretty big point where he's like,

I had no idea what culture was or whenever, where any of those types of things were until I sat down and had a conversation with, with Mike McDonald. And it's about, you know, more, you know, kind of maximizing the reps effort of each day, as opposed to what your x's and o's are what your traditions are so you know the culture thing is tough because you could have the best culture and come out and smack western michigan around but then if washington comes in that next week and punches you in the mouth like to me the sign of that culture is how you would respond to that or just respond to being punched in the mouth in a game, period. So some of those early Jim Harbaugh teams had that.

You think of like that Colorado game during that 2016 season where you go down a bit early and you have to rally late. You know, they haven't had that the last couple of years. I mean, obviously not last season, a couple times in 2019. But, you know, the results are what they are. So I just think that with Mike McDonald, you're getting a guy, and you talk about younger guys in general, I think we're moving away in the football coaching realm of this rah, rah, um,

hard ass type of mentality and more with guys who communicate, you can tailor your communication based on the different guys that you're coaching. You can, I think a big thing with Michigan's defense is they want to be a little more versatile in what they do now. So like they can, they can play man coverage, but they can drop into zone if the, if the game plan calls for that. So I just think the, the flexibility and the, maybe a little less of a hard line stance on what we are and what we want to be.

I think that that's a positive for them. Yeah, that makes sense. You know, I actually, I was hanging with a couple of the coaches a few weekends ago, and you can, I mean, you just can tell whether or not they know how to run a, you know, a scheme or X's and O's. It's not a Don Brown grandpa type of feeling that you get from, you know, a scheme or X's and O's, it's not a Don Brown grandpa type of feeling that you get from, you know? And so I feel like, you know, whether or not that works, that does vibe well and work with a 21 year old, right? And especially, you know, with the culture that they're bringing the guys, these are guys that played the game and coach the game, like that not too long ago,

were they players, whether it was at michigan or at another university or in the nfl and so to be able to bring that culture in instead of you know even you know we see it on in basketball going from john beeline who's the who's the grandpa type as well obviously that worked well for him, but Juwan Howard's the cool uncle. That's the type of culture shift we're going to, and I think it, in this day and age, works really well when you're trying to get guys that want to make money off NIL and want to be cool and be on Instagram and things like that. It's very different, and Don Brown, I just don't think, unfortunately, he, you know, switched well into – transitioned well into that. He wanted it to be 1980 where everyone just, you know, runs into each other headfirst as hard as they can. Yeah, well, and think about it too. Like, I'm not – Don Brown had some really good defenses at Michigan,

but they started to taper off when the talent got lesser. And when you're a guy who's coordinating a defense at Boston College or some of the other places he'd been before, you have to scheme up. You have to have kind of a weird, wacky scheme or lean on your tenants to be what you want to be. But a school like – and I'm not – I've got to be careful how I say this here but like a school like Michigan you it's more about the players that you have and I don't think they did a good good enough job you know later on and obviously like the recruiting isn't great now even

with the new staff but you know that'll change when you win football games and I think something that stuck out to me about what we heard from Mike McDonald during this press conference on Thursday was that someone asked him, I forget the reporter that asked him, but they're like, you know, remember all the terminology that Don Brown had in his defense, like the Viper position and things like that. And Michigan's going to what's going to be a base, designation you're going to give these guys that rush the pass? And he's like, they're outside linebackers or defensive ends. We want them to set the edge or rush the passer. It doesn't need to be more complicated than that. So I think that I can't say I can't say with confidence it's a back to basics approach, but it does feel like, hey, football is let's call it what it is. I mean, it's a it's a it's a back to basics approach but it does feel like hey football is let's call what it is i mean it's a it's a it's a sport it's supposed to be played you know there's there's some

tactician stuff you know game planning stuff like it doesn't need to be rocket science and i think that's kind of we talk about culture and vibe and the things that have changed i think that's kind of what's changed um with the way that Harbaugh has run the program since he took over. Like remember early on, I mean, he's talking about, Hey, we have aspirations of being the NFL's 33rd team in terms of the way we operate and things like that. I just think that, and I can't sit here and say with confidence that this is going to mean they

win more games or that they finally get over the top, but it just seems like they're getting back to this back-to-basics approach of, hey, let's just go out and play football. And I think that a lot of what Michigan's issues have been have been self-inflicted. I think it's been the product of overthinking, over-game planning, a lot of internal pressure on those guys in that room. I just think taking the pressure off and just being like, hey, listen, like we're going to put in what we put in.

We're going to wrap it during the week and go out and run it and have fun on Saturday. Again, I don't know what the final result of that's going to be, but the vibe there right now. And like I said, I'm not trying to sit here and sell that this thing is going to get turned around under Jim Harbaugh, but it just feels like they're in a lot healthier place than they've been the last couple of years. And with that defense, too, I mean, going from Don Brown to Mike McDonald and, you know. With even Aiden Hutchinson kind of saying what I love is like he's saying, you know, it's going to be pretty unpredictable what our defense is like compared to with Don Brown.

You knew there was going to be a lot of blips saying and and whatnot and putting um corners on islands I mean do you think we're still going to see a pretty like exciting defense do you think it's going to be more blips heavy do you think you know maybe we'll see better play from the secondary because it's not so blips heavy or like what are you seeing what do you what do you think will kind of happen this year? That's a, that's a loaded question. And a $4 million question in Jim Harbaugh's case. That might be the,

that might be what determines if he gets that money back or not. The man just had his pay cut in half, but you know, it seems like, I think when you look at what they want, what Michigan wants to be as a program, I think they want to be physical. They want to be aggressive. I don't think those types of things will change. You know, do I just I think they just want their guys to go out and play football now. As cliche as it sounds, it's tough to say what it looks like.

I mean, you have to dive a little deeper into and even Mike McDonald said this is like you can go back and watch the Ravens film, but that doesn't mean that's necessarily what we're going to do either. So I just think they want to be, I don't think they're going to stop being aggressive. I don't think they're going to stop dialing up different ways to get pressures on the quarterback and to, to disrupt the offense. But I do think that what you'll see is them just kind of – they want to be positionally flexible too. That's where we're going to see Aiden Hutchinson play. He's going to play a bit of a stand-up linebacker role, and he'll play up front with his hand in the dirt too.

It depends on what the front looks like. So Daxton Hill, I mean, a guy who might play safety, and then in certain spots maybe he flexes out to corner or is inside playing the slot. It just kind of depends on what what it calls for. And I think what I can safely feel what I feel like I can safely say about what they're doing without having seen it. Like I said, media didn't get to see nobody really got to see spring practice, spring football, any of that stuff. They didn't have a traditional spring game, but it just seems like they want to be a little more pliable in everything they do, whether it be schematically, whether it be man versus zone coverage,

whether it be the fronts that they come out with. They want to be able to zig when the other teams zag, and that's something that the Ravens have done pretty well. I mean, one thing you can't argue about Mike McDonald impact in Baltimore is that, you know, him and a guy like wink Martindale were guys that kind of modernize that defense a bit and, and changed it into, into kind of what it is today. So again, not saying here, selling you that this is the guy things are turned around. Like we're on the campaign trial trying to sell a vision here but um it just feels like there is

more of an openness to be um i mean you guys we've all we all watched the 2018 ohio state game we all watched the 2019 ohio state game we know the things that have ailed this defense and it it seems like there's a little more openness to tailor that and make adjustments in game. Cause I think what Don Brown could have been guilty of, if anything, was that it's like, Hey, this is what we've been working on and repping on all year. And maybe they'll beat us this time, but they're not going to beat us on the next rep. And then they beat you on the next rep and it just,

it snowballs from there. So, you know, like I said, the pliability, the flexibility, I think of what they want to do is, I think that's the biggest takeaway. And again, they they have some talents. They have some pretty notable talent deficiencies on that defense. Still, I'm not crazy about what they have at linebacker, at least depth wise on the back end. I mean, cornerback is what it is. We saw how that those guys played last season. You know, there's it's going to take time. That's not going to be perfect this year. But it just seems like it might be.

And something I'll shout out this guy here, Stephen Ostentoski, who works for our site. Love him. Don Brown tended to scheme around what he felt the best version of Michigan's defense could be. As opposed to maybe a new regime can scheme around the deficiencies of some of these other guys. So that's what I'm hopeful to see. I don't, we'll see if, how that plays out, but it's impossible to say right now. I know it's going to take them according to Mike McDonald, probably 10 to 12 practices to fully install this new defense in camp.

They'll get 25 or so uh practices before they get into that first game week and from there they start repping everything after that so you'll kind of know you'll know what it looks like so it does like it seems like it seems like they're kind of gonna they're kind of going to you know have these kids drink from the fire hose and see later on in camp what can be built on and retained so i know for me personally i mean just seeing the defense make adjustments mid-game like you were saying if they can do that i'll be happy and i i think i'm going to be watching steven's uh stuff more than ever because i i need to see the x's and O's in the film of what this defense is doing because you know from what you just said from what we've seen and heard and everything nobody knows what the

hell is going to go on on the defensive side of the ball and so I need Steven Ostentoski to break it down for me uh I've watched a lot of football film in my life but still he does a really good job of it. So I'm excited for that. Well, I need it. I need it too. You know, that's why I'm glad he's with me. I need that stuff too. As much football as I've seen, like I said, this is your eight of Michigan stuff for me. There's still, that's the great thing about that sport is you're still kind of learning stuff as the game moves forward and pushes it forward. So thank God for resources like that and you know, making it digestible too. I think they're not picking on anyone in particular,

but just the industry of like film study in general, I feel like it's not super, you know, it's not like, it's not super accessible. There's a lot of difficult terminology and you know what i liked about steven when i brought him in is that he makes everything um it's digestible and you learn and that's a resource that you know instead of people yelling on twitter hey why didn't they guard this this crossing route here like okay let's let's take that and let's let's look at it and see what happened here. To be able to explain that, I think it's a pretty valuable resource.

Yeah, he does a great job of dissecting it. I mean, we had him on one time where he broke down film for us and we're like, yeah, that sucked. What the hell were they doing there? And he's like, well, you know, they were supposed to run this way and then, you know, that happened and that's why it didn't work. For him to be able to dissect it. And like you said, make it digestible for the average fan is helpful for sure. Yeah, I wonder in terms of Mike McDonald. Yeah. Like, oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. No, go ahead. You're good. OK, I kind of wonder in terms of Mike McDonald. Is he going to be able to install his defense and have it be successful year one because like i think back to like greg madison in 2011 for whatever reason he was able

to bring his defense and it seemed like in one year it was there but obviously we see guys like josh gaddis on the flip side of the ball installing his offense his offense. And I'm kind of like, I don't know if his offense has ever really come to fruition. I mean, this is kind of a prediction. Right. But, I mean, do you think that Mike McDonald's defense will show up year one or are we going to be waiting for a few years? Well, it's all relative, right? Like, are they going to be better than being the worst,

one of the worst defenses in the big 10? I think they should be because they were too, they were too talented to do what they did last year. You know, there are still, there are still good players there. I mean, Mozzie Smith, Chris Hinton, I could name all the guys, you know, up front, you know, Mike Barrett is going to move from Viper to kind of an inside linebacker spot. Josh Ross, they feel pretty highly about.

So like, I feel like they're too talented to be running around the field like chickens with their heads cut off like they were last year. But again, I think when you do these big schematic changes, especially at any level of football, I mean, we see it in the NFL all the time when these teams switch to a three four it takes time so like and i'm not like i said we've talked about before how i'm not crazy about like what they have at cornerback and i think that the depth at linebacker there's still a little bit there's still some inexperience and some greenness there as well so they they're going to struggle a bit. But like I said, it will probably take them until – and this is what I found so fascinating about bringing in a guy like Mike McDonald

is that Jim Harbaugh has to win football games now. They can't go 6-6 and 7-5 and keep going down this path. They need to win games now. And when you bring in a guy like McDonald who is doing a total doing a total top to bottom scheme change those things take time i mean even you know it's actually probably rare when things when there is a switch that's flipped like a madison coming in um you know on the offensive side of the ball i mean look at um you know lsu changed offenses the year before they broke out with Joe Burrow and things were things weren't great there like Joe Burrow wasn't what he was and it took a second kind of season to install that and put it in place and do. And then look, year two you break out everyone's figured it out to.

There's still, I still think there's talent there I again. Can I say, can I safely say there'll be a top half of the Big Ten defense I think so question mark but I don't know I mean I just they're too talented I just think they're too talented to be like what we watched last year was just completely unacceptable and not, not good. So I think there's the fact that there's nowhere to go, but up inspires a little bit of confidence, but you know, they're going to need help from that other side of the ball too,

which to me I don't know if we might get into that here, but I think that might be a bigger key to what this season winds up looking like yeah i you know we we're all talking about how we don't know what the defense is going to look like well last season it looked like josh gaddis didn't know what the offense was supposed to look like and so that's where you know what i want to see we heard it from you heard it in person we heard it from you know through social media today josh gaddis talking about the offensive play calling and how you know we all had there were so many times where i literally said what the fuck to what josh gaddis was doing on the opposite side of the ball you weren't alone

trust me and so you know whether it's it's running uh a wildcat on the uh 50 yard line or whether you know in or whatever it was you know for him to then come out today and say yeah i think you you know he didn't say the only problem but for him to pinpoint it on today and say yeah i think you you know he didn't say the only problem but for him to pinpoint it on that we didn't run the ball enough everyone's like what are you talking about you were supposed to bring speed and space and get us throwing the ball and and all this stuff use guys like the the slot receivers the speed guys that you have, and now you want to actually go away from that and ground and pound? So to me, I don't know how you, you know, in person took it. To me, it was like, I still think your head's all over the place,

and I don't know if you really know the direction you want this offense to go. Is that how you felt as well? I mean, yes and no i'll say this when you look at their skill position groups on the offensive side of the ball you've got hassan haskins you've got blake quorum who again has been kind of a workout warrior guy but someone who we think can be a nice versatile like i think and donovan edwards as well that might be their best skill group on the entire roster so the idea that they might still want to run the ball 30 to 35 times a game is not like i'm not resistant to that i think that there's value in that i think that those guys um you know i think the bigger like i think the issue does kind of lie in sort of the play calling

in that but part of it too i mean the play calling wasn't great but then when you start every game down um your defense gets punched in the mouth you know let's just say 10 play 70 yard drive score first first drive of the game offense comes back out and goes three and out or joe milton throws an interception like there was never all of a sudden you look up and you're down 21-0 and you can't run the football so i i just think that there's um it there's got to be an emphasis on just maybe starting games better across the board uh i i don't i don't think this like the the biggest misconception about speed and space or whatever that little catchphrase was, I think a lot of people thought that meant,

oh, Michigan's going to line up and go four and five wide, and they're going to air the ball out all over the field, which they should have done with all the receiving talent that they had, but that's neither here nor there. And they still have a good room of receivers still. I mean, you know, they'll probably go five to six deep there this year so again I mean it's running the football when you when you break down no matter what iteration the game takes no matter how modern the game gets I think when you boil it down you

still need to be able to at your core run the football and stop the run. And I don't know. I mean, I think the offensive dynamic is going to change a little bit with, like I said, this is still the biggest misconception. This is the funny thing, is that whenever Josh Gattis' offense has done well, people have gone, man, there it is, speed and space, finally. And then when they hurl a linebacker at the line of scrimmage, like he's a desk chair or something like that, it's, oh, well, Harbaugh clearly took the play sheet away from him or something like that. So it's like there's been polarizing reactions to that.

I think that, you know, the biggest thing for them to figure out is, one, you need to get your offensive line sorted out because last year i don't know how many people know this or not but the starting offensive line wasn't always practicing together last year because they were splitting the groups up due to covid because they didn't want someone to get covid wipe out an entire group and then your starting offensive line is gone so the first time a lot of those guys would play together would be on on game day which is just i get the idea behind it but like chemistry is so much more important on offensive line than how talented the five guys lining up are so um hopefully that's something that is sorted out this year um you know the offensive line play and you're um just getting good quarter like quarterback play I don't even need like Shea Patterson had the skillset and Joe Milton had the big arm,

but like those guys, Shea Patterson would miss reads, you know, on the quarterback runs, Joe Milton, like it seemed like they ran the quarterback run stuff against Minnesota and then totally went away from it. I think that it's just so important that you're, and you saw a little bit of this with Cade McNamara like he the value of what he brought to the table and and this isn't me declaring him the savior the issue or the no we want to hear all their problems say it right now

I just when he came into the game whether it was you know the Rutgers game whether when he was healthy during the Penn State game which I think he he got hurt, you know, hurt pretty early on. He just came in and ran the offense. And that's a pretty baseline expectation to like have. But to just come in, make a read, make a throw and not be spectacular, like that feels like a good place to start from. I'm not setting the bar super high here. So I just feel like getting your offensive line and that best five figured out, finding a little more game flow with the running backs, and I think that's where Mike Hart might wind up being arguably the most important assistant coaching hire they made this offseason.

And then getting your offensive line, you know, the best five offensive linemen and having your quarterback sorted out, which they, you know, it seems like it's cater can't say cater bus, but they certainly seem to be leaving it open for they're leaving it open for someone else to take the job, but it seems like they're pretty open in saying that it's his and they don't think he's going to give it up. So more or less, that's what your, your offense looks like this year. So again, it's just a, you know, if Hassan Haskins has eight rushes for 60 yards and a drive,

Hey, maybe let's feed the hot hand a little bit instead of, okay, let's go to this other guy and get him his as well. I think that having a little bit more experience at running back and running back head, you know, running back coach, I think it's going to be hopefully a big deal for them. So on paper, it looks good, but you know, this has been an on paper program for 17 years now. So we'll see. Yes. And, and we've definitely been, you know, as a group,

we'd love to see a number one running back. And then, you know, when it's time for him to rest, you put another guy in, like you said, feed the hot hand, don't take him out after he just got three straight first downs or whatever it might have been. And what I love about that is, like, the last time we, most Michigan fans would remember us seeing that would be, like, Mike Hart. I know Fitz Poussaint had a really solid year one year, I think it was 2011 or 2010 um but Mike Hart was that guy and now he's a running backs coach so that kind of brings some hope hope to that um to go back to kind of the quarterback talk I did I did have a problem with your article man you you didn't give a lot of love to Dan Valari you kind of glossed right over Dan Valari

well I mean listen Dan Valari is is he's Taysem hill like he's he's gonna be that they want to do that they're married to that and i think that that's we'll see i mean i've never i've never gotten the impression that dan like tasem hill is on the field for the saints because like he's too good to not be on the field doing something if we saw this a couple years ago when they did the two qb stuff with shea and and dylan mcafree like okay if there's a package for that fine but let's not get too cute here right um you know i think of stuff like the michigan state game last year you run hassan haskins out of the wildcat on the goal line when it's like you have a quarterback that's capable of running that could have run the same it's let's not get too cute with all that um

listen I mean Dan like if they had played that Ohio State game last year with the COVID stuff going on like it would have been um and I think this is out there now like it would have been a combination of Dan Valari and Mike Barrett and Hassan Haskins playing wildcat quarterback. Oh my God. Would have been incredible to watch. That's how they, that's how they were, you know, it's all right.

I'm okay with waving the white flag then. Yeah. Let's come on, bro. Let's show some love to our guy. If they, if they can find a role for him and he can be a tight end, like Zach Gentry was,

that's great. That's I mean, they're not particularly deep there, but I don't know. I mean, you start talking about this to QB stuff. I don't even think I don't even think the Taysom Hill stuff works that well. So, like, is that a template for success that you're looking to replicate? I don't know, but I don't know. It's going to be. When you have a talent like Dan Valari, who we've said that he's going to be a NFL draft picks in the second round, you know, and we've never been wrong before. So, I mean, I would definitely just like throw him in there.

I don't think you can keep him on the sideline with that type of talent. Have you seen his highlight tape, his little, uh, like, I mean, that's all you need to know. All right. It's, it's funny. We had, I had somebody asked me the other day, there was like, why are you guys so obsessed with Dan Valaria? I was like, hold on, let me, let me show you this video that he put up a year ago. Oh man.

Well, I mean, I've been wrong before. And like I said, I think I tweeted this out recently. Part of what I do and part of what we all do kind of to a certain extent is eat crow. It's become an acquired taste for me. And it's not terrible. I don't hate the taste of it anymore. So I'd love to be wrong on Dan Vallari. We'll see.

Love to see if they can find a role for him. Great. We'll see what happens. Let if they, I mean, if they can find a role for him, great. We'll see what happens. Let's get weird. Love it. Love it. I mean, we've already. Keep me entertained.

Yeah, exactly. We've already kind of talked about like, what are we going to do if Dan Valari scores a touchdown this year? Like if Dan Valari scores a touchdown, do we, you know, give away like a million dollars or, I mean mean something's got to happen here we got to do a lottery i don't know it's our guy for sure i will say that pretty much you guys get you guys can put money in you guys can put money in his pocket now if you if you believe in dan valari you go to the m den you get that custom jersey and you put money in that man's

pocket well i will say that pretty much everything you said is going on one of our shirts now i mean i love the taste of crow um you know i've been wrong before you know yeah oh well listen i mean i better get it i need a cut of that too i'm on a blogger salary here so whatever you can do to work uh all right i mean that's this is uh yeah that's good stuff i mean it's i think that i don't know what we're gonna learn a lot from camp that's starting here you know pretty much right now right and you know i guess one one question that you probably know better than a lot of people out there is in the past it's been like all right nobody look at what we're doing you know i've even been around michigan stadium uh you know during the fall and like cops get called on me and because i'm like in and around the

stadium and it's like all right dude your your stuff isn't in practice isn't that private or unpredictable that you need to be putting up FBI agents to check on it. Actually, funny story there. Jim Harbaugh asked for a wall to be put up on Stadium Boulevard so nobody can look on the highway to the practice field. And it was going to cost like $5 million or something like that. It's like, all right, I know Zach Shaw, our guy, Zach Shaw goes and watches practice. But no, you know, Greg Madison isn't going to steal your plays from watching on Stadium Boulevard. So with that, that was a long winded. But the question is, do you feel like they're a little more open to talking about what's going on inside practice and inside the program? Because

at media days, they I felt like Harbaugh was more transparent than I've ever seen him before. He was like talking like a regular human being instead of long, weird, awkward pauses and like, you know, not giving out any information, all that stuff. Is that vibe changed a little bit as well? I think to a certain extent it has. It's like you're not guarding the nuclear launch codes like you don't have to be so guarded and i don't think that michigan is i don't think they've done anything well enough to where you can say like let's button this up and make sure nobody sees it like michigan football hot take has not exactly been pushing the game forward into new directions over the last really the history of the program honestly so i mean the the idea that that they could be so guarded is, it's always

kind of been a little odd to me. Like there's, first of all, I mean, and you could use me for an example, I'll throw myself under the bus. Like there's a lot of media that doesn't know enough about football to be able to like report on what they're seeing actually, you know, accurately, like it's the gospel and, and, you know, guys from Ohio state are gonna be taking notes based on what they see on Maize and Brew, you know. So, I mean, it does seem like there's been a change, a breaking down of, listen, like we don't what we want to do. We don't think it's that complicated. So we just have to run it well. And I think whether someone knows what's coming or not, if you execute what you do well, better than the other person does,

it doesn't matter if they know what's coming or not. So yeah, that's there. There has been a little more openness. I mean, I kind of talked about it earlier in that they named a starting quarterback coming out of spring football, which even when we knew like in the years, like we knew that the two years Shea Patterson was at Michigan, he was going to be their starting quarterback, but they would still be like, well,

the battle's ongoing. You know, we'll see what happens in the opener. And they've still left it open for like JJ or Alan Bowman to come in and maybe take the job. But it's the bar has been set pretty high in that. This is our guy. It doesn't look like they're going to,

you know, waiver from that. It doesn't look like he's going gonna give it up unless he has a really bad camp which doesn't seem like is in the cards based on what they're saying and based on what we've been told so it seems like they're just kind of like hey listen we know we know what we are we know what the narratives have been we know that uh a lot of people are sleeping on us so yeah we'll uh here come on in we'll they're not going to be show us everything they're not going to show they're still not going to show us anything but i think there is less of a a guarded nature to it and i think that's i think that's good i think that's that's positive for them you know to be like you said talk like

a human being talk to us like uh you know it's a two-way street and you're not you know guarding the location of some secret treasure or something like that so again these are all things like i can't speak to whether what type of difference it's going to make but i just feel like it's everyone's weirdly at ease with where they're at considering what's on the line the next i mean i know people will say this is kind of the year the make or break here but it could be over the next couple of years but um everyone's just kind of oddly at ease where with everything's at right now which is kind of great doesn't it just doesn't feel as buttoned up as it has yeah yeah um no i i get

that i mean you got to play like loose and and stuff you can't just be like tight at all times right but still i'm sure these guys are feeling the pressure um but yeah so i mean we've talked a ton of of football and x's and o's and you you know, personnel and all that stuff. But we really, you know, we need to talk about tailgating and the atmosphere around Michigan Stadium here. I actually, funny enough, I was at a work conference out west this week, and there were some people from Ole Miss, and they were, like, talking about – they didn't have – they literally said nothing about how good their football team was going to be but they talked about how great tailgating was and so

the one lady said she said we never lose a party that was her that was her line which i love and so i think that's got to be our uh our slogan for the year uh we're going to try and throw some pretty good tailgates and stuff. And if you want to come, I don't know if you can come have a beer beforehand, but you can – we'll probably be there after the game too, and you can come enjoy a beverage after the game as well. But you've got the invite for sure. But I wanted to do a little snake draft here.

I don't know. Jack doesn't really know what a snake draft is. I finally figured it out out i know what it is now i did fantasy baseball this year okay i got it but i wanted it so snake draft we all get maybe let's do three choices and we'll go through it of best drinks to bring to the tailgate if you you've got you're you've got the responsibility for bringing the drinks to the tailgate what do you bring in and so well the order let's go let's go and well anthony will give you the first first choice we'll go jack kaylin and then myself i'll get two and then we'll go back around sound good okay sounds good to me all right go for it start us off oh god all right so we're like just to make

sure the parameters are clear like we're talking just i mean the weather changes right like we could have september 4th it could be 80 degrees and then a month later it could be 40 degrees so like let's just assume we're talking fall tailgates here. That's the one stipulation I would add. I think, and I love the tailgate. I'm a central Michigan guy, so we always used to say, if we can't beat you, we're going to out-drink you. That's right, fire up chips. That's a long-winded way of me saying that I think pick number one for me

for fall tailgate is probably the fireball and cider damn that was what i was going to say staple yeah well you know i had the first pick so yeah it it does it's got the burn on the way down it's it also depending on what if it's colder if it's in the 40s or 50s it's got you know kind of puts a little warmth in the belly for you um so yeah that's that would be my first pick i like it can't remember who's going second i think you were go for it um so i'm since we're we got to go around this three times i'm gonna not going to be super broad and just say beer but uh a nice a nice crisp bud light i would say oh yeah definitely number one

choice old faithful i feel like it's versatile you can shotgun it you can drink it just out of you know out of the can you can you know chug thunderstruck. Very versatile drink. It's the Dan Valari of tailgating. I love that. Alright, Kalen, what do you got? I would say that every great tailgate that I've been to, I've never

brought them, but somebody has brought out some jell-O shots. Oh, God. Definitely. Great pick. Definitely a staple. Fantastic. Fantastic.

Yeah. That's usually Sam Wilson at my desk. Yes. Yeah. Force feeding them. Yes, exactly. It's like way too many. They're usually way too strong taste like

literal vodka you know that's how it goes um all right i am gonna go with the white claw so i feel like for a while there it was like oh guys can't drink a white claw they can't bring it to the tailgate you're not a man now i'm there's you can't don't judge me i love the taste it goes down easy especially if we are talking september 4th that's a refreshing drink to have if it's going to be 75 so is this there's absolutely there's no shame in that whatsoever um it's it's like it doesn't sit heavy that's's the big thing about tailgating and drinking beers is those will sit heavy. And you'll feel it later on in the day. Like a white claw.

White claws, I should say plural. We're tailgating here. Yes. That's the stuff. So, yeah, that's a good pick. Now, the real question, are you going to shotgun it? Oh, that hurts going down. that hurts going down i'll stick with the blood light too much flavor yeah yeah um and then all right so i'm going back i'm going again right right away so all right this

is kind of a newer one but it's because it's starting to become a staple pink whitney i don't know anthony if you've ever had pink whitney vodka the the pink lemonade vodka but it's i mean it's very dangerous i'll say that but like you don't need a a chaser really you know it's definitely it's a it's a pretty solid thing there. Yeah, no. No, I haven't had that before. It'll get you in trouble real quick. That's for sure. You should have seen Ro on his birthday.

He had a little bit too much Pink Whitney. And we thought he wasn't going to make it when we got to the bar. But he got a second win. I rallied. Best comeback I've ever seen. All right, Caitlin, you're up.

All right. Jack, you know, we have to bring the cherry Burnett's. I've got it. Oh, can't not have that. Sure. Burnett says,

I mean, I'm not going to touch that until tailgating season. It's very top shelf. So we'll have some, that's for sure. Very exclusive. We should be sponsored by Cary Burnett's. So I'll go back off of the White Claw mention to bring the seltzers into it. Vizzy has got antioxidants and I believe vitamin C.

So it may even be a little upgrade from White Claw. It's basically like drinking vegetables, right? I mean, you're just like health. It's a V8 without alcohol in it, you know? And it's flu season, cold and flu season. You know, you got to keep yourself tip top. Love it. Love it.

Oh, man. All right, Bruin. Round two for you. Oh, man. I got to Broome. Round two for you. Oh, man. I got to. This is tough. I got the back to back here. We're going to stay.

We're going to stay in the seltzer family. And this will be an earlier season tailgate seltzer because weather's still hot. A little more refreshment here. I'm a big fan of the pineapple high noons. Oh, guy myself. So. Well, any flavor big fan of the pineapple high noons oh guy myself so um any flavor not just a pineapple but that's a good that'd be a good pick for me nooners nooners for the noon kickoff love that that's right that's right see there's a grand plan here i got i i'm on back to back i'm not back to back here right i got one more yes oh goodness um

oh this is tough uh we'll bring it back to we'll bring back the beer i'm a uh we talk about fall beers i'm a sam adams octoberfest type of guy oh okay a couple of those in the tailgate yeah mix it up a little bit yeah that's right flavor a bud light out of your mouth for a second all right so back i mean we gotta i've gotta bring some uh some sort of bourbon like you gotta switch it up every now and again the charles woodson uh bourbon. You've got to switch it up every now and again. The Charles Woodson bourbon that he's got. I'll bring that to the tailgate. That's for sure. That was pretty good when we had it the other night.

It was solid. It was solid. It's no bullet. I love my bullet, but it's game day. You've got to get as much Maize and Blue as possible. So I would say the Woodson Whiskey Bourbon. That would be my final pick. Very nice.

Yeah, I would say for my final pick, you can't just drink. You got to have a little bit of food. So I would go chips and guac. I love to have the guac, not the salsa. What a piss poor effort on that choice. Jesus. Come on now. I mean, you definitely have to have some food. And I've gotten in trouble by not having food, but that's all right.

That's all right. That's not part of the category. Yeah. That's why I tailgate with you guys, and I just run upstairs and get my press box food. Yeah, there you go. That's a thing I don't know post-COVID, but not to flex or anything, but that's why they still do these things for that free meal. Yeah, right. All right.

I will. I'm going to end it with we're going late, like Ohio State game or some November game and bringing it out with. I've done this before, it's not easy to keep everything hot, but like either a coffee or hot chocolate with some peppermint schnapps. Ooh, I've never done that, but that is something I need to try this fall, that's for sure. I love that pick. It's outstanding. It's a good one. Yeah, we've done that. Even without the hot chocolate or coffee, too. But if you just have a little bottle of Hershey's chocolate syrup.

I've done those shots, yes. It is so good. So good. So, yeah. That's how we're going to end the season this year. No matter if we're 6-6 or 12-0. So, we'll be there. Win or lose, we still booze.

We're not losing a party. That's right. All right. Well, Anthony, thank you so much for joining us. I know you had a day here. You enjoyed some Tigers baseball. You enjoyed Schembechler Hall. You know, plug yourself here.

Give us your at on twitter give us some content that may be coming up on your twitter or on maize and brew at all we want us to know where to go there all right yeah i mean you can follow me on twitter at anthony t broom um because someone else has my first name, last name handle, and it pisses me off. So we work with what we have for now. Anywhere, I mean, this is the blanket spiel usually when we close out our podcast, but Maize and Brew is wherever you guys are at on social media. Sands like TikTok. We haven't quite made it into that sphere yet, but we're on Facebook, Twitter, at Maize and Brew, Instagram, you know, the YouTube channel.

Steven's doing great work over there. The podcast feed, Maize and Brew podcast, like I said earlier, I think we're kind of kicking back up into the five, at least five shows a week. We're probably going to be kicking that up even a little bit more once we get in season. So a lot of stuff coming there. I mean, yeah, just, I think it's great that, you know, and this is where I kind of turned the praise to you guys. Now I think that it's great that when some, sometimes things can be adversarial in terms of, Oh, this outlet does this,

this podcast does this, like, you know, we've never done that with like we want to be friends and good and connect with everyone. And like I said, to be able to do some cross stuff, you know, cross talk stuff here is awesome. And I hope it works for everyone. So if you're someone who likes what these guys do, we feel like we kind of do a similar thing with our site and do our own thing as well. So, yeah, leave a subscribe, leave a review. Only good reviews, though. The bad ones, personally, we'll figure it out. But, yeah, I just I just appreciate the conversation.

Appreciate your guys's time. And, you know, we don't know what this football season will hold, but we'll make, we'll make from like, it'll be what we make of it. So if we can all just kind of, whether it's 10 and two or, you know, two and 10, like we just all have fun with it. Like everyone's kind of in this together and we're not going anywhere, like no matter what happens. So to have a good time and have fun with it. I think that's pretty important. So, yeah, I'm excited for that. I'll definitely, Maize and Brew will be working on maybe doing it.

Like, I hope we can do a tailgate for the Washington game, some other type of events around town. But, yeah, we'll be there. We'll be on the front lines because that was kind of taken away from all of us last year. So to connect and to shake hands and to hug people that want to be hugged. Of course, you know, COVID is still kind of a thing, but, um, you know, to connect is, you know, we're looking, really looking forward to that this fall. So hopefully we can all kind of bring that out of each other. Well, we'll, we'll definitely be out there tailgating.

So we'll have to, we'll have to hit you guys up, see if we can, uh, get, get the parties close together. Oh, for sure. That'd be a good time. For sure. For sure. good time for sure for sure maybe maybe maybe maybe there's something we can work out with that we'll have to talk about that all right um well even yeah no it's it's no it's we're looking forward to it for sure for sure we were even thinking of doing some uh some like live uh saturday morning podcasts or shows or something. So we'll have to get you on for that too. So of course, that way we force you to come by and have,

it's not lip service. I'll, if you guys, you guys call, I'll be there. So assuming something else isn't going on. So for sure. I got you guys covered. Perfect. All right. Well, thank you again for coming on. That's Anthony Broom from Maize and Brew. We appreciate you. Go check out a site, Maize and Brew dot com. And we will see you guys next week. Go blue.