Blue By Ninety - Episode 110: Brandon Justice from Rivals.com

Episode Date: July 29, 2022

Brandon Justice from The Maize & Blue Review on Rivals.com joins the guys to recap his time spent at the Big Ten media days this week. They talk about Jim Harbaugh's quotes, preview the 2022 season, and review Brandon's trip to a sketchy fish truck. 

This is the University of Michigan. Touchdown, Michigan! That's the beat of Michigan ball! And they've caught extra pass. And it goes to the wind! The three-pointer by Jordan Poole! Down the sideline! Peebles-Johns!

Touchdown, Wolverines! This is a presentation of Blue by 90. Find us on Twitter at Blue by 90 and shop the merchandise at blueby90shop.com. All right. Welcome back to blue by 90 i'm justin joined by jack and caitlin as always it's been a little bit since we've recorded boys it's it's been a minute we've uh been enjoying our summers i got married i'm a i'm a married man now he's's gone. Sorry, ladies. For all three of you listening, which one of them is probably my mom,

I am... I'm down. I'm taken now. I'm off the charts. Off the... I don't even know what I'm saying right now. It was a hell of a wedding i will say like i'm gonna pat more more so i'm gonna pat my wife on the back because she planned like

95 of it or so um but we had a lot of fun great time i'm curious do you think more people care that you got married or really just don't give a shit? What do you think? Oh, I don't know. I mean, if you like, I don't know why you would care. I care. I appreciate that. I'm kidding.

I don't care. I do care. I care. All right. Sounds good. I'm just more so disappointed that crummy took your last name. I mean, what a,

what a, just like, that's like having your name be Picasso and changing it to Jeff, you know, I don't know. Do you, do you know that Picasso's first name wasn't Picasso? I know,

but that's like the recognizable part. Crummy's first name wasn't Crummy. Oh. Well, see, here's the thing. We thought about like if you hyphenate it, then it's just like it's the Crummy version. Like she's the Crummy version of Ro. Yeah. You know what I mean?

I don't know. Because doctors don't change your last name like i think she should have just like kept crummy i think i think you should have changed your name to mr jacklyn crummy oh take the first name as well might as well huh never thought about the first name and you should have wore a dress too i should have worn the dress. She should have. I mean, she 100% wears the pants.

So that would have made more sense. Yeah. I don't know. You did look good. You have a three-piece suit on. Thank you. It was killing it. Thank you.

Unrecognizable. Yeah, I'd clean up every once in a while. It's not terrible. It's not great terrible like it's it's like not great but it's like oh man he doesn't look like shit today wow yeah caitlin i got a question for you because you weren't there um let's say hypothetically you know you're walking back down the aisle after like escorting the mothers okay you know to their seats. And your best friend shouts something out to compliment you. Would you respond or ignore them? Oh, 100% I'm responding.

What are you talking about? Yeah. All right. That's what I thought. I expect no less. Justin apparently doesn't do that. His best friend compliments his haircut and he completely ignores me and i asked him at the wedding i was like oh like you must not have

heard me he's like no i heard you okay fuck you i mean you were the only person saying things it was like it you whatever when you're going up and down the aisles you kind of got to do like blinders like horse like blinders because otherwise i mean there's a lot of people there it was like it was kind of distracting i was very focused on what i needed to do you're just trying to trip over your own feet a thousand percent i was so worried that i'd be like oh jack and then i'd be like wham and. And it's over. Would have been great content, though. It would have been. Facebook.

I will say, I mean, how, Jack, I want to hear from you. Like, how cool was it, scale of 1 to 10, when we flipped it to Rochella? I thought that was incredible. I mean, just the incredible idea to even make that a thing. I know on the last episode you talked about how much you hate people putting up, like, concert videos and whatnot. Well, there are a lot of concert videos for Rochella at that wedding. So, I don't know. Can we believe anything you ever say?

Probably not. You know, I think you just kind of, like, shot yourself in the foot there. But Rochella was fucking sweet. I like that i like that i like like the logo and everything um i wish there were t-shirts i wish you guys wouldn't have cheaped out on that you know i would have liked to have a t-shirt come back with it that said rochella on it i mean we did give you a light up wristband with the inscription on it well i mean it's not like you know anyone who makes logos or anything yeah right i think honestly it would have been a smart move to review the the guests and be like hey would you rather have a light up thing or a t-shirt you know i would be able to put my input in there

okay light up little wristbands were cool they were cool everybody was like glowing around singing pump it up it was it was a good time yeah no. No, I mean, I definitely understand that. I figured that maybe that the free filet mignon and 15. Was that filet mignon? I wasn't sure. The drinks that you had would have been fine. No, it was great. Great meal. Great drinks.

No, that's okay. We had a couple extra because Kalen wasn't able to make it. Right. So it worked out. Kalen had COVID. Yep. Now I have COVID. So pissed. Now you have Right. Yeah. So it worked out. Kalen had COVID. Yep. Now I have COVID. So pissed.

Now you have COVID. Yeah. You're next, buddy. But I mean, you know, the couple things that were just out of this world lit were when the power went out, like somebody stepped on the cord. Power went out. You don't remember this? Oh, reaching bright side yeah and so that was incredible the the power goes out like somebody steps on a cord and like the music goes out for a second all of a sudden everyone starts singing

acapella mr bright side out of nowhere and it was like the most incredible thing of all time couldn't have been better timing people my like my dad jacklin's dad everyone's like i thought you guys like planned that everyone's like no i i thought that was like real and i was like no that was just on the spot it happened wow i love that and then pump it up was just it just it still fucks it is still fuck so hard it was electric um how was my performance of uh no hands you saying no hands it was pretty bad it was pretty bad yeah mean, I will, which verse 4.5 out of 10, 4.5. Okay.

All versus. No. I mean, me and Jacqueline were like, we were like back and forth with the mic. I'd say it was a struggle, but it was entertaining. I mean,

that's the point. You know who, I mean, Alex row, the best man, my brother fucking killed it. I mean, talk about a 12 out of 10. He's a, point you know who i mean alex rowe the best man my brother fucking killed it for no life i mean talk about a 12 out of 10 he's a he's a seven and a half uh he's he's hotter than a seven and a half

but he's a nine but he but he can wrap ice maybe 12 he's a 12 yeah yeah he murdered it uh no it was it was a hell of a time i had a feeling caitlin did you have fomo what did you do while you were at home i just cried i just sat on the couch super pissed just like this is bullshit i should be there i just like slammed beers by myself this is what they would be doing right now did Did you, did you like go up to the counter, like put a dollar in a tip jar and just like pull a beer out of the fridge. I put a couple of Mason jars on the counter, you know,

put a dollar in. I need you to stand at the bar for just like 20 minutes. Okay. I'm going to walk up to you pretending like I'm at a wedding and he just served me drinks. Okay. I'm just going to act like an asshole and order like a bunch of shots. You know, I'm ordering a bunch of drinks.

I'm not going to tip, you know, just, I just need to be aware of that. Go, go up to the, to the counter. So how many weddings have you done this weekend?

Pay with a $2 bill, like the whole nine. Right. Oh my goodness. Oh yeah. Um, so I mean yeah we're we're here i'm married um it's married life is good married life is great uh nothing really changed i just i don't tell my grandma but i have been living with jacklyn for quite some time now um so um yeah we just I will say this um like Jack I don't I don't know if you uh felt this and Caitlin you may feel this someday too

like the depression after the wedding of just like all right we had like a year and a half of planning this thing. And it's like, for me, like I'm very event-based, like love throwing tailgates, love throwing parties, that type of thing. And I was like, I've been thinking about the playlist and like how this night was going to go for every day for the last almost two years. And then like all of a sudden Sunday morning hit, it was like the biggest hangover anxiety depression of all time i was like it's fucking like we're not we're not doing

this again next weekend it's just it's just over i can i can relate to the biggest hangover anxiety of all time um mostly because i was hungover and anxious after we left your wedding. But, dude, I was fucking, like, ecstatic. I'm like, it's finally over. I mean, I didn't plan shit for our wedding. I did. I made sure the guys wore what they wore. Heather took care of everything.

And I was just like, thank God Bridezilla's gone. You know, she executed it to perfection. You're not supposed to say that out loud about your wife. No, you know, she knew what she was doing. I wasn't going to try to ruin anything. You know, I wanted to let her plan it all because I knew she'd do it better than I would. And she did. And it turned out incredible.

And I'm glad it was over. You know, we were able to do, you know, like our little mini moon in Traverse City after the first one. After the second one um after a second one we kind of just chilled and it was like nice to just enjoy it because we did all the stuff for the first one already um but no i just uh i look forward to the tailgates now i look forward to justin rowe being my uh event planner for tailgates i can do that what's up dude i can do that. What's up, dude? I can do that. Speaking of, I mean, I cannot wait to tell everybody what our plans are for tailgating. Dude, I don't even know what the plans are for tailgating. I'm keeping it under wraps from you guys.

I love it. It's going to be like LeBron, the, what was it, the reveal or what the hell do you call it? The decision. The decision, yeah. Promo video about to be lit. Oh, the promo video for what we have here. I mean, we've got another promo video coming out here probably towards the end of this week or early next week, depending on how things go.

Dude, you got to stop hitting your microphone. Jesus Christ. It is just like, sounds like a storm. You're in the wind or something yeah yeah my bad it's too sensitive um it's too good yeah yeah i guess um but um yeah i mean the the the things that we have planned right now, I am so fucking pumped for. Like, it's going to be ridiculous. I think we're, like, legitimately going to change the game a little bit. Like, I don't want to hype it up too much, you know, but...

Wow. That's crazy. That's big time. I like it, though. Hey, why not Can you give us a sneak peek seeing as I have no idea What's going on Well I'm talking about

Some things that you do know what are going on Oh yeah we got a lot Coming out That's a real question Jack do you know what's going on I know I was told to grow a mustache And now I'm like sticking to it taking a

little bit too far but i really enjoy it i think i'm a mustache guy now i think that's just my thing i think heather's gonna have to accept it and um i'm really excited about it so you know we'll see how it progresses yeah i mean it sounded like when she was just down there that she is totally for it. There was no pushback whatsoever. It wasn't like, I'm going to fucking kill him and he better grow everything back. Anything that was negative, I was kind of like...

In one ear, out the other. Yeah, she doesn't mean it. Positive vibes only. She's so negative. Take a look at the bright side here okay was that a teaser maybe i don't know was it all right i don't know we'll see we'll see what's happening i imagine people listening to this are really fucking confused right what the fuck are these guys talking about okay they just spent six minutes saying nothing.

Oh, shit. The last thing I'll say about my wedding, too, is I did the first. You're really just riding this train, aren't you? Let's keep talking about your wedding. Jesus Christ. 14 minutes into the podcast. We started off with it. Let's keep it going. What else you got?

What else you got? All right, moving on. No, now I need to know it's so important it's so important say it no i don't want to anymore it's only the biggest day of my life and you gave me five minutes to talk about it and now i can never talk about it again you told me that i'm depressed now and i told you that i'm depressed i. I told you. I told you that I'm depressed. I can't even talk. I'm so depressed. This is good.

We should only record every three weeks now. Yeah. There's a lot of built-up anger towards each other. Yeah. It's good. Great content. Yeah. Well, all right so uh the couple things that i think

i do want to touch on so we're going to talk to brandon justice from uh the maize and blue review rivals.com here in a minute he was at uh big 10 media days today and so what like do we want to save all that for brandon or do we want to talk a little bit about what happened i think we can talk a little bit about what happened if you guys have anything i mean i was just like i i just thought the edge of everybody there like it just doesn't feel like they are and we've talked to a lot of these guys behind the scenes too right like the feel from all these guys is like they are not satisfied after the last season like they are still like chip on their shoulder like ready to go to battle

again i think my favorite thing that i learned from big time media days um was zach shaw former third grade classmate um shout out and i'm open hated that fucking school what who was the teacher oh third grade fuck who's the teacher your third grade teacher yeah i want to say it's with a d the first two names that come to mind are doubtfire and dumbledore but i know they're both wrong i think you were in uh are you sure those are wrong i mean they might be right dale was it dale dale dale because we went by first names and i were open dude this fucking school was twisted okay so we went by first name so Arbor. Dude, this fucking school was twisted. We went by first names. So Dale. It was very hippie Ann Arbor.

Yeah, so Zach Shaw was in my class then. I've known him from then. I actually tried to give him a hug one time because I was weird and I made him cry. It was a whole thing. It's very strange. But anyway, he tweeted out about how Eric Gall's due date for his kid is august what august

26 2021 i'll let you guys do the math and uh that's just beautiful literally nine months to the day of the michigan ohio state game i mean this is beautiful that kid is incredible it's like destiny right about the immaculate conception literally beautiful yes like he i don't even know it he might not have gotten laid that night it was just like it just happened you know you know jesus banged mary maryland monroe magdalene maryland monroe oh yeah magdalene maryland what was her name mary magdalene mary magdalene you know but he didn't bang her and there was a baby that's what happened we were just talking about how we went to a hippie school so you yeah you do know that jesus didn't bang her right because that's what i'm saying like he banged her but didn't it was like a whole like

well no type thing no you like i don, I don't think you're getting it. It was Joseph. Joseph banged Jesus? Who banged Magdalene? Marilyn Monroe banged Eric All, and they had a baby. See that? Now it's all coming full circle. All right.

That makes sense. That adds up. I'm cool with that. August 27th exciting stuff um so yeah um the other thing i wanted to talk about too before we bring brandon on here is it took literally like two or three statements from jim harbaugh and i was, I'm fucking back into football immediately. It's just like, bring football back to me right now. Were you just,

were you following it on Twitter or were you, did you have somebody dropping stuff for you or what? No, I didn't. I was just following on Twitter. I saw a couple of clips come up of him talking and it was just like, he just felt like it was so back. Well,

and Jake butt was there there so i was talking to him a little bit um because i've been talking to him in the past couple days he's trying to do some stuff with uh with some interviews with guys and coaches and so um like he was sending me some things and it just it feels like we're so close. 39 days, 39 days. Crazy how close we actually are. Like that's right around the corner. Yeah. Yeah.

Camp is like here for them. Like camp starts like next week or two weeks now. I think it's like first week of August. I got to talk to Jared about getting one of those blue with the maze pinstripe baseball jerseys. Yeah. With like what Jacqueline got you with the blue by 90 on the back. Yeah.

I think that'd be fire. I need to get that for tailgating season. I like that a lot. Tailgate season right around the corner. My God, it's all like. Very exciting. Yeah. I'm in.

I'm in. All right. Well, with that, let's just, let's keep talking about, Very exciting. Yeah. I'm in. I'm in. All right. Well, with that, let's just keep talking about some Big Ten media days and previewing the Michigan football season. We're going to bring out Brandon Justice of the Maize and Blue Review and Rivals.com, and we will see you guys in a minute. Another special guest with us today coming from the rivals website the maize and blue review brandon justice brandon thanks for joining us man i absolutely appreciate

you guys having me on i've uh been paying attention to the pod for a while so it's a honor to be here honor to be here yeah um yeah man we've uh you know, I think I knew who you were like a long time ago, even before us coaching baseball together. But just from like recruiting stuff, like how long have you actually been doing recruiting stuff at this point? So it's been interesting because I started with recruiting when I was 18 at Maize and Brew for Anthony Broome. And Broome replaced Henschke.

So it was like a passing of the torch type of deal. And then I think I was at Maize and Brew for like a few months before I went to Rivals for my first stint. So, yeah, since I was 18 was when I started. I was full-time for the first time, 19. So turning 26 next week. So it's like we're getting towards like seven, years at this point which is kind of wicked with a couple high like a hiatus there in the middle but nonetheless no it's cool it's cool for sure

um i think the first thing that everyone is really waiting to hear from you was how was the seafood in indianapolis uh that you from the side of the road that you said you were gonna get it was so good that it put me to sleep for 15 hours yeah i uh i got back to the hotel in like the middle of nowhere indy and uh i absolutely destroyed that like smashed it uh it was a fish sandwich they told me what kind of fish it was and i didn't even understand what they were saying they like they knew i wasn't understanding them so they followed it up with, it's a type of fish. And I was like, oh, all right, sure. So it was like, if you could see in the picture, and if you haven't seen it, I'll describe it.

It was quite literally a tin trailer, probably about 25 feet long. And they had a parking lot and a shed, and they were in between a bell tire and a hotel. So if you want to talk about like the perfect spot for someone like you're waiting for your tires to get rotated, like I'm going to head over to that tin can right next to this place. Oh, I'm at a hotel for the weekend. All right. Look at that perfect tin thing right there. So you walk up to the window and you have to pretty much just decide what you want.

The menu is huge. I have no idea what's going on. And I'm like, hey, what's the signature? And she says this fish i couldn't understand so i end up getting the fish sandwich hush puppies are a classic and i got candied yams and uh i mean whoa i mean it was delicious it was like the great they had this tartar sauce like signature tartar sauce that kind of had like some chick-fil-a sauce type of vibe to it and yeah i fell asleep at 8 30 and missed this spot the first try at this

and uh woke up and it was 7 30 in the morning and i was like oh my god and i and i still fell back asleep until like 10 so um unbelievable such a good experience that it was bad almost yeah i mean that's fucking unreal i love it i i honestly like i would be lying if i said i wasn't like worried for your health when all of a sudden we didn't get a response from you for a good 12 hours and it was like um okay like first of all at first i was like oh you know he's probably doing shit in indie like they went out with you know a couple of the other reporters or like you know something happened or he had to drive home or something happened and then all of a sudden like it was like 10 a.m and i was like um so like did he actually die from seafood intake or

or what happened here i uh i was getting to the point where I was worried for myself this morning. I got in the shower, and I was like, okay, I didn't drink last night. I didn't even go out. I didn't make it out. We were all kind of talking about potentially doing it. I didn't get to the point where I could consider it because I fell asleep before sunset. So that was crazy. And I'm in the shower, and I'm like, I haven't felt like this.

I don't even know where I'm at. I haven't felt like this. I don't even know where I'm at. Like I felt like I was like, I haven't felt like this since like 22. Like I haven't woken up this bad since pink brunettes and Mountain Dew. Like I, this is, this is tough. This is brutal. And dude, I, it probably took like 30 minutes on the road until I was finally like, okay, I'm human again. It was strange. Like I don't know if you guys have ever slept so long that you like,

aren't even a human being but that's like yeah that's how i felt like i was in a sim world at that point like my my life had completely done a 180 it was it was strange took you to a totally different planet like it was so good in the food or something you just floated away i didn't dude i couldn't even put into words how i felt this morning like it was so good good that I, that I, it was an out of body experience, but like it wasn't an out of body experience for like an hour. It was an out of body experience for like 16 and a half hours. Like the hour before I fell asleep,

the hour after I woke up and then the 15 hours I slept in between, it was like, if anyone is looking for a psychedelic experience, but they're not willing to like do things that are illegal go to fresh catch kitchen in indianapolis on the side of a road that i don't even remember but if you really want it i'll look at the hotel and find a way to drag my maps there because that is an out-of-body experience and you will learn some things about yourself along the way well when we go to uh the next Big Ten Championship this year, we're all going to do a live podcast, live review of Fresh Catch Chicken or Fresh Catch Kitchen.

They have two picnic tables out there, so it's the perfect place for a podcast. Perfect, perfect. I can't wait. No, it was hilarious. We're glad 24 hours later we're here. And so tell us about Big Ten Media Days then. So I've never been to Big Ten Media Days. Is this it?

That's it. Oh, yeah. Oh, hell yeah. That's it. There's like a ramp up to it and everything. Dude, it is everything like you would want it to be and more. It's four people in a trailer making seafood all day. There's one cashier.

There's three cooks. You don't know when your food's done. They say, hey, it's about 15 minutes. And you just go to your car. And then at the 15-minute mark, I was like, well, I mean, they said 15 minutes. They literally just go to Lowe's and they just buy aluminum siding and they just put it on a shed and then they sell you. That sounds incredible.

Blue by 90 fresh catch. That would be awesome. We should. All right. Big time media days. At some point, I promise we'll start talking football. but, um, so yeah, I haven't been to big time media days. It felt, I said it on, we recorded a little thing before we had you on here

too. Um, we, um, you know, it felt like this is the start of football season a little bit. This is like the kickoff camp hasn't started quite yet, but like it felt like people are gearing up to be in the football season. Yeah, absolutely. So my first big 10 media day was 2016, 2017. One of those two years, I can't really remember. I think it was 2016, but I went with like the rivals crew back then. Who's now the on three crew and uh like johnny bacon was in our car i was like 19 and i was like what the hell is going on right now um so that was my first experience and that was one chicago so this is the first year they've had it in indy and it was

it was on the field like on the field which was wicked to me as well uh i got turf still in my shoes so as far as but yeah i mean this is i've always said this is the gateway like big time media day is the gateway to the season it's like the arch that takes you right into fall camp and then from there the season and then it really all gets going uh you come back home and you got like a week to kind of because next weekend like this weekend coming up the weekend after is like the national holiday for reporters to go do all of the things they said they were going to do in between point a and point b that they didn't do like they have not they don't have two weeks to go do those things because as soon as it's over like it's time um so yeah media days is one of

those things where you know i really wish that michigan's day included state and ohio state because you would get some more bulletin board stuff now some people stayed for that second day i didn't but you know typically you at least get like a Mel Tucker or a Ryan Day mixed in with Harbaugh's day but it really yesterday was all about Harbaugh I mean yeah nobody really wants to talk to like the other coaches that were there Indiana had a bad year Maryland's all right you know Iowa's right like Iowa every year you're out there interesting but like they're still very much so Iowa. So there's just not a whole lot of like panache in that day outside of like Harbaugh. So, yeah, I mean, as far as how yesterday went,

like Harbaugh had an hour long presser and like, that's not going to happen again until next year's media day. So that's really the advantage. And then you get like an hour of Cade, an hour of Eric, all an hour of Mazzy Smith and DJ Turner. And and uh yeah it's it's a good way to to gateway everything into there and to kind of get an idea so uh tons of questions asked this year you know between how many things are new in college football this year between nil and super conferences and usc and ucla i mean it's endless there's just so many topics to cover that are new that you almost

forget about like oh how's your roster right so it's you know Big Ten media day is always I think the gateway yeah for sure um no I think that's it's it's one of those things too where you everyone's looking forward to Jim Harbaugh right and? And I mean, he makes headlines, whether we like that or not, especially some of the headlines that have happened very recently, which are like, you know, I'm not a stick to sports type of guy, but you know, you know, it's, it's some, some of those times you're just like, it wouldn't mind if Jim Harbaugh was on espn for something about football instead of something else um but anyways so i think that um with it just seems to me like jim harbaugh is still very like he's still buttoned up but he has loosened up it does seem like i mean he can now walk in there with a little

puff in his chest i mean he's probably fucking pumped to be at media days unlike every other year where he's got to walk in and say you know uh all right this is the year we're gonna do it type of thing right yeah i mean you could certainly tell there was some like relaxation there for him i think but i think that guy is and i've written this so many times like that that guy is exactly who he is like he he's he doesn't put on a show for anyone in any scenario he's pretty much always the same person the only time i really think that he gets a bit away from himself is if you see him in a post gamer that's a loss and it's a bad loss and like seldom does he lose games he's supposed to win right he loses ohio state games on the road and at home over the past seven years up until

last year he lost you know some some games against penn state michigan state he should you know maybe maybe he shouldn't have lost right especially 17 and outside of that like he doesn't necessarily blow games right like like the winnable games he's typically winning that's kind of always been his like narrative here is that he wins the one he should and loses the ones that he should right so uh it was interesting to see him in a, in a way that he's kind of the big man on campus, quote unquote, where he's coach of the year in the conference from last year, his team won the championship.

The banners are hanging inside of Lucas oil now. So he has that. And, you know, everyone wanted to know what that's like for him. And he was just kind of like you know it's it's great but now we're focused on this year right it's i do want to like i want to sit and have you know four bourbons with him or whatever he's drinking get him loose and i want him to just be like fuck yeah dude it was awesome you know like i want that Jim Harbaugh, honestly, at some point. Yeah, somebody asked him like, hey, I think it was Mozzie.

He was like, yeah, Mozzie Smith said earlier today that, you know, after the Ohio State game, like how happy you were, like couldn't not be equated. And Harbaugh responded, and this is paraphrasing a bit, but his response was something along the lines of, well, yeah, I think I'm a happy guy in general. Like, you know, I'm always laughing and having fun. But, hey, not going to lie to you, that day was a pretty good day.

You know, we were happy that day. We were happy to be at Ohio State that day. That's like the extent of it that he's going to – I mean, there is something like you can't just – you can't also – I want to see him be that happy and, like, express that. But also, if he comes out in this press conference and he's like, you know, that was the happiest day of my life or, like, something like that, people are going to give him shit.

Like, okay, you still lost, you know, the month later or whatever. So it's a double-edged sword as well. Yeah, there's no doubt i mean he uh you can't like make that day out to be like a miracle right right exactly they're trying to treat it like we did it now we got to do it again i think there was a really good quote out of dj turner from that for media day and he said we know how to do it now we need to know how to do it again or it was something like that he said like we we know how to do it now we need to know how to do it again or it was something like that he said like we know how to do it now we need to know how to do it again uh and again paraphrasing because i heard so many words yesterday and so many quotes but but again i think

that was a good way to put it was like this team understands like just because they did it last year it still took them eight years to do it right like it's it still took everything Harbaugh had for the past few years it took him getting rid of friends like you think about what led to that they had to get rid of Drevno who was a buddy had to get rid of Don Brown who inevitably became a buddy right and had to like root out so many different things so to get to that point it feels like a mountaintop to some people. And they're trying to make it out to not be. They're trying to make it out to be another checkpoint along the way.

And I appreciate the approach. Was there anything that Harbaugh said in particular that got you maybe like a little bit extra hyped for the season coming up? A little bit excited? A little bit like, oh, I didn't really think about it that way that way or i didn't know that now i'm kind of like geared up you know he said he thinks the defense is going to be better and like i know that that's some sometimes it's coach speak and all but like he said he wouldn't be surprised if the defense was better and like that's obviously a pretty lofty quote considering the defense they had last year right uh but i think what he is noting in that is like the the past defense we both we all know like the past defense

wasn't lights out last year like they played their asses off against ohio state and did some things that you'd never expect but like cj stroud still threw for over 400 yards like you know like we're not gonna sit here and pretend like he didn't chuck that ball around like there was no tomorrow and should he and they gave up sorry to interrupt but like outside of the iowa game they did give up points all year long too yeah no doubt so i think that was an interesting quote because i think so many people look at last year's team and point towards the defense but fail to realize that they averaged over 40 points a game and they had the most 40 plus yards plays in the country. Like, Michigan was so good last year, not because of their defense,

but a little bit of everything. Special teams was excellent, like, lights out. Offense was super methodical and, like, it was such a system that they, like, bought into and stuck with and never budged from. And usually that does not play for them, but it played so well for them last year. And then, of course, the defense was was great and the pass rush was tremendous. Like, don't get me wrong.

But I feel like, like national pundits, especially are always just automatically zeroing in on the defense and like fail to realize how many other things went right for them besides that. And then the Iowa game is like the perfect example of all three kind of like coming together. Right. But that Ohio state game is a good example because like how many times can a football team win a game

especially the way that they won that game by giving up as many yards as they did right like doesn't happen too often I think they understand that I think they get that like hey we can't do that again and get away and expect to get away with it and so I think that quote was really what got me thinking like, oh, okay, like if the defense can be better than last year, like all right, like game's on, like let's go. Yeah, and I think that, I mean, over the last eight years, I was always like, well, how do you beat Ohio State, right?

We're not going to outscore them is what I kept thinking to myself like you're not gonna score 60 points or whatever when they're beating a 63 to 32 or whatever it was or 62 to 39 um you know those types of scores uh and I was like you got to beat them with defense well they did hold them to 27 which holding Ohio State to 27 might as well be shutting out any other team. But they also did score 42. And they scored just about every time down the, you know, in the second half. They scored every time, you know, that they had the ball. So those things are huge.

So, you know, it is interesting to hear that. I like that quote. How about Cade McNamara? When you're hearing him at the podium, you know, I just had a conversation with him on the TNT Wolverine podcast as well, sat in studio with him after our trip to the National Guard base. I really like Cade McNamara. I know everyone wants JJ. I don't, you know, There's a lot of other things outside

of just sitting in a room with him. There's talent that obviously you need, but I love where he's at in terms of a mature leader. What did you think when you were hearing him? Yeah, I mean, Cade is just a right down the middle guy. He doesn really uh get too high or too low like he really stays so even keeled and like he's really like incredible with his words like like his dialect is like so far beyond his age and like the way he converses is so like beyond what most college athletes are at and um i think some people take that as like douchiness in a way sometimes, but like, he really is like this, this leader,

like, you know, you kind of described it, but he is a natural leader and he's kind of talked that way. Cause I talked to him as a recruit and had him on a podcast as a recruit. And even back then, like he, he was a good speaker. So he's always had that,

that leadership quality to him. And like, he had those Drew Brees comparisons out of high school, not as like a player, but just as a person. And then you combine the fact that he is the size of Drew Brees and his game is accuracy and game control. And he's a glorified game manager, but he's more than that type of deal. So he had those comparisons coming out of high school.

But he was talking at the podium and he said something that really struck me and it was, we're not going to be complacent because as soon as you get complacent, you either stay as good as you are or you get worse. And I thought that was a really mature thing to say because how easy would it be for the team that did everything no team before it has done for Michigan to get complacent and to think that, hey, this is just going to naturally repeat itself because we have so much returning production. And, you know, we add Olu and we get Ronnie back. Like, of course, we're going to be great.

It's really not his attitude. He can go up there and flaunt his chest and puff up all he wants. And he don't get me wrong. Like the whole I'm a Big Ten championship winning quarterback. I'm not worried about a quarter. Like, don't get me wrong with those quotes are like, all right. Right. But like, I get it. You know know he's defending his block like you know how

do you go out there win a big 10 championship beat ohio state be like the first quarterback to do that and everyone in michigan circles are questioning the fact that you're gonna go start again like i would talk my shit too and it's not even like he's like he is he's just defending his block i think just kind of saying, like, hey, I did what I did, and, like, I'm going to go try my very best to do it again. And so you see a lot of Harbaugh in him, really. You see, like, a much more rounded version, because Harbaugh is the most unique individual maybe on the planet.

So I wouldn't, like, say they're the same person. But you see that, like, selflessness. You see that, like, will to succeed and drive to win and the leadership that Harbaugh has. And I think that why like Jim loves him so much uh is because of that but I think that statement about complacency is like Harbaugh's got to be like sweating and joy over that one yeah I heard the quote from Jim I think it was uh goals the season, right? Beat Ohio State, beat Michigan State, win a Big Ten title, win a national title. I'm curious if you heard anything from Jim or any players that was maybe like a, I don't know, that resonated, kind of related to those quotes. One of those parts about, to me, that sounds like really interesting is the win a national title part because i think we all saw

what happened on the national stage granted against basically an nfl team but like to me that's kind of where i'm like oh i kind of wonder what the you know players take is on some of that those goals for the team i don't know if you had any insight on that yeah so well first off i think or i know like within the locker room what was the one thing they didn't accomplish last year was the national championship so that's the one thing that like that's the one bowl they didn't they didn't complete like that's the one plate that still has some food on it and they got to finish that plate like they and that was their big thing last year. Their MO was really just eating everything in front of them, whether it was Ohio State, whether it was national championship,

whatever. Well, the other plate that stayed full was Michigan State. And those are the two things they didn't do last year. They didn't beat Michigan State, and they didn't win a national championship. And the narrative coming off of last year was all about how they beat Ohio State and they won the Big Ten but nobody talked about the fact they didn't beat Michigan State nationally now I know Michigan

folks of course and Michigan State folks of course uh but you know nationally like nobody really cared that they didn't beat MSU it was just like they did everything else like oh they lost to a top 10 team on the road like that happens to every team uh but for Michigan I think that they they marked their calendars and the quote that I got from that was Eric Hall, who said, yeah, we have to take Michigan State more serious. Last year, I feel like we were all in Ohio State. We were so focused on things that needed to happen for Ohio State. We had the Ohio State drill. So he mentioned, maybe we'll have a Michigan State drill this year. We got to take that rivalry as serious as we take the Ohio State rivalry. And I feel like last year, we got too focused on one and not enough on the other and and of course like we should all scratch our

heads at that because they went to Michigan State and the Spartans were undefeated top 10 team like that's top 10 matchup I don't think there's any questioning the fact that the day of they took that game as serious as they took Ohio State but they had a drill dedicated to Ohio State that they ran every day of practice and so there's no doubt they took that rivalry serious. Now, granted, they hadn't beat Ohio state in a much longer time than they had since they hadn't beat Michigan state. So, you know, you understand the motive there. But again, like this team and this program, they're, they're very like, I don't know how to describe it. Like they're,

they're on their own Island and they don't care what anyone else has to like say about them or think about them. Because when you ask somebody, I say, oh, like, oh, what do you think about nobody picking you guys to repeat? Like it's consensus media poll that said Ohio State will win the Big Ten this year. Like, what do you think about that? And he laughed. He's like, I don't care what anybody thinks about our team. So they're very internal.

There's like there's no blinking for this team. I asked our Bob our ball like you know what's up with nil how is that gonna how do you um navigate that with your locker room like there's got to be some pocket picking type of thing like someone's counting pockets eventually right and and i didn't phrase it that way obviously but you know that's kind of what i was alluding to and he's like it doesn't affect our locker room at all everyone's happy for everyone everyone's rooting for everyone to go do better in nil but at the end of the day these just these guys just want to get better at football and they just want to

play football and they don't care about the extracurricular stuff we don't talk about hype we don't talk about nil we don't talk about recruiting they just want to get better at football today tomorrow the next day blah blah blah right so i think that's a really good way to kind of wrap up everything they said in regards to those goals it's you know the the first side of it is the fact they didn't complete all those last year and then they want to this year and they feel they're capable of it but at the same time like they don't care what anyone has to say or any narrative they have to create uh regarding it either so yeah i i think you know i've talked obviously i've been involved with the nil stuff a lot um with valiant and like talked with these guys a lot about it and do is everyone

trying to get a paycheck yes 100 but i think that they all see a bigger picture too like talking to zach's intern trevor keegan specifically you know they heard the oh everyone at the brass every lineman at nebraska makes 50k you know a year and they're like they don't really care they're like we get some extra stuff like more we get we get cash you know they they they're paid um you know whatever they're paying there's not a number against it right now i don't think but um they're like as long as we're kind of taken care of to an extent we're all here for a bigger picture and that's not bullshit you know there's there there are guys that are making a lot of money and they're also okay with guys making a lot of money like they everyone's pretty understanding why blake quorum gets paid what he gets paid you know and jj and

kate and you know go down the list right and so like i i really don't think it's an issue with with guys right now, which is a good thing. You know, and they just to me, I just think that's really rare in the year 2022. I would be willing to bet if you went around to most locker rooms, it's like, you know, yeah, we have issues with that. I most people would admit to that. I maybe not in a press conference at big 10 media days but behind closed doors yeah and you think about the addison the receiver from pit jordan addison i think his name is or something like that he transferred usc and now there's all these reports coming out that he's pissed off because he got to usc and he didn't get any promises through nil that he was promised in order to go to usc and then you start to think about a lot of the reports over the past couple of weeks where

like a multitude of recruits in front and they're now freshmen who are at the schools that they committed to go to because of the NIL promises. And when they get there, they're not fulfilling them and they're pissed off. So it can be as simple as like, okay, it's a locker room issue because X player is making more than X player, but that player thinks he's better than that. And all of a sudden there's that. Well, there's also the side of it where it's a locker room issue because X player is making more than X player, but that player thinks he's better than that. And all of a sudden there's that. Well, there's also the side of it where it's like, why would I want to be here?

If like, nobody cares about me, right? Like, like I'm, I'm being told I'm making X amount of dollars and then I show up and I don't even get a percentage of that. Like,

no, like, why would I want to, it's almost like you think about it. First of all, like amateurism is over, right? These guys are football players.

That's their job. Now their job now their job is to show up and be really good at football and hopefully get paid for it through nil right so like what what do you say about it when amateurism is over and you show up to your job and you're supposed to make 50k for your job you show up and you're three weeks in you're still only getting paid 38k that's a problem right so the fact that that's happening around the country is worrisome to most but michigan has done like an excellent job and making this sustainable and keeping it keeping everyone on earth and like understanding that there's a process to this

and everyone's is different but at michigan they're going to cross t's and dot i's and it might not be sexy like you know we might not see esp ESPN tweeting that JJ's making 2.5 mil this year. But, like, JJ's on the roster and he's a backup and no one's worried about him going anywhere. And, like, that holds more weight than him making a ton of money to be the starter, in my opinion. Yeah. In the long term, for sure. I just think they've done a good job. I mean, they get so much shit for like the nil stuff

and i just sit there and like i'm like do you understand like how fiscal like reality works like no one it doesn't make it quinn ewers just went to ohio state for nearly two million he didn't even stay like did anybody learn a lesson there like he was there for three months and was like i'm out of here thanks for the cash chevrolet, Dunning, wherever the fuck it was. Now I'm out. You know, and it's like, does anyone bleak an eye at that? Does anybody like. And I think, too, like, there's this bad perception that it's unlimited money.

That there's just unlimited money ready to go around for everyone. And that's just not the truth. Like, yes, there is there are there like boosters out there that are willing to come up and be like yes what do you need yeah absolutely but there's just like there's this idea that michigan football makes billions of dollars every year and that they can just like throw you know 75 of that towards n'm just like, there's also, there's a kitty too. I've got a cat over here too. But there's like, there's, there's just, you know, there's 300 employees that, you know,

at the athletic department that you got to pay. There's facilities that you got to keep the lights on at. There's like, you know, and, and there's this other part too where like there's a project right now for you know new facilities for you know export and export that's already paid for by donors for the year 2025 right and you can't just reallocate that money towards the starting quarterbacks nIL like it's already in place so shit takes time you know and um and so I I agree with you it's you know are there things that Michigan could be doing better at 1000% there's always that's always the case right but I think

in general like people don't understand how complex the whole thing is. And there's so many moving parts and nobody, I think there are a lot of people out there at other schools that are going to get caught with their dick out. And they're going to be, it's going to be like, Oh shit. Like the IRS is here. The fucking FBI is here because Congress is going to come in and do some shit and people are going to get in trouble. And there are not many people in Michigan are ready to be, are willing to like put that on the line. You know, Jared's come out and he's like, if anyone wants to come be a bag man,

come be a bag man. But he's like, I'm not going to be that guy, you know? And it's okay. Yeah. I think that's like the number one thing is that the people everyone who has the best idea and how to spend money are the people who don't have the money like there's there's people there's people who are sitting in their rooms on twitter with like however much money in their bank account which i'm not going to judge on but they're going to twitter and they're like what are we doing just throw millions of dollars at jj and kate and i want dante more and it's like hey paul you got six mil like because if you do boy do i have a plan for you like you know but the other side of the coin is like being a millionaire doesn't come by spending a million dollars right so true real like grassroot millionaires and i'd say if you have a michigan education the people who are millionaires

michigan educations more times than not are pretty smart people i would say right and not every millionaire smart there's tiktokers that are millionaires those people aren't smart all right so the people with michigan degrees who are trying to like take this thing to the next level all right we should probably like as a society um maybe like bring our feet back down to earth and our heads too and understand that like the the millionaires became millionaires for a reason and it wasn't because they wanted to spend a million dollars it's because they wanted to build the wealth to get to that point um so like going and throwing a million like people

are like let's give them to a mill like as if it's some sort of like i'm gonna go to cvs and buy a five dollar candy bar right which is expensive for a candy bar by the way but i it's just mind-boggling to me that we've gotten to a point where like our message board i like i love our board but we get to a point where like sometimes i'm like hey uh maize and blue 1994 like it's not that simple man like i don't know how else to say this but like throwing a million bucks ain't that simple so it's kind of of like when Vegas has the craziest line ever. Like think about that Ohio State minus 19 against Michigan State line, which I gladly bet on.

Think about that line. Oh, that's so crazy. That's so crazy. That's so – like there's no way. There's no way. So think about like when you see a report where it's like such and such players are getting three and a half mil. Think Dante Moore is going to get six and a half million.

Do we really think that? Do we really think that do we really think that because we all know that's a reported number so let's sit here and pretend like dante moore's ever in his human life gonna see six million dollars in between the age of 18 and 20 because it's not going to happen and if it does and i'll eat a hat i'll eat 10 hats like i don't even care dante moore can give me like 100 bucks for doing it too yeah so it's just one of those things people are just like you give them like never enough i've been reading this book right now called psychology of money and this chapter is called never enough and this fan base and every

fan base for that matter right now with nil stuff they don't understand like what's quote unquote never enough you know do we really do we think there's really human beings out there that want to pay an 18 year old six million dollars to go to the school that they just love? There's fans. They don't even have any control over the team. It's not like Harbaugh's like, hey, I'm going to let you control it. Do you think Harbaugh's going to let a millionaire control his depth chart because he paid Dante Moore to go to a school there? Because that's what's happening at other schools is millionaires want more control of the roster,

and they want more control of the school and they want facilities named after them and jim harbaugh is the last motherfucker on earth who's gonna allow that to happen it's just not gonna happen so i just don't understand where we're like getting this disconnect that this whole thing is gonna play out the way we think it's gonna play out where it's just where it's just keeping up with the joneses like this shit's gonna even out it's gonna calm down five years from now it's gonna be a regulated and normal thing and like we're gonna find a way to federally regulate it and we're gonna all come down to earth and be like all right amateurism was stupid but like so is making every single

18 year old a millionaire because they can throw a spinner 40 yards. Right. Yeah, and I think the biggest thing that is going to happen is, you know, maybe it's not Dante Moore, but somebody like that is going to not pan out. He's going to be the five-star bust, right? And then all of a sudden some donor is going to be like, well, fuck that. That was a bad experience. I don't want to pay $3 million for him anymore, you know, for those guys.

Like, shit like that's going to happen, and it's going to change college football a lot in the next few years. But, yeah, I mean, going back into, like, going into the season, what's the, you know, maybe something that's kind of off the wall that you're excited about everyone's excited about the new offense um you talked about uh not the new offense but just like reloaded offense um and then you you talked about the defense is there anything that's on your mind that you're like this could be an x factor for michigan this year uh i think it's their i think

it's their defensive tackles. They're exciting, you know, because I know everyone, like, hated Don Brown's defensive tackle recruiting, I mean, for obvious reasons. But you think about, like, Mozzie Smith and, you know, Cam Good comes in, and then you have, you know, Julius Welchoff is going to be good this year, possibly an NFL guy, right? And, you know, I know he might come off the edge some, but, like, he'll mix in in the interior then you got guys like kenneth grant who are like 300 plus pounds and like belong on a football field every day of their lives

uh mason graham who like we have heard a million things about ever since he committed and and you know more and more and more as we've gotten closer to the season so i think their defensive tackles are just going to be like a joy to watch this year whereas you know in years past it's been like besides mo hearst like me like even hinton like i get he went to the nfl and all that but like even christopher hinton was like kind of me like we didn't get out like people didn't get out of hinton what they thought they were going to get right so he should still be at michigan too let's be honest yeah and i mean yeah absolutely but and which is strange because like high education like high education guy like brother was at stanford and it was just kind of shocking to see him go and went but um yeah i think that's the exciting part i think the other side of the

coin is like i'm excited about the receivers like i think that um how that i guess what i should say what that's exciting about the receivers is like i wonder how it's going to shake out because there's so many different possibilities. Like there is a universe. And I know we live in this world where like multiverses are like every, every movie is about the multiverse now. So there is one out there.

Like there's a universe out there where Darius Clemens is like this unbelievable freshman, like all big 10 guy this year. And like, I'm a firm believer that Darius Clemens is really, really, really good. Like he's going to be the best receiver in a long time at Michigan, in my opinion.

That profile is like DK Metcalf, like the epitome. I know DK is like this once-in-a-lifetime type of profile, but Darius Clemens is 6'4". He ran a 4-3 out of high school. And Cade said at big 10 media days like he came he's like he came in here physically ready and he's only gotten more physically ready and like the biggest problem with receivers when they're young is what it's them not being physically ready they're too skinny like amari on walker hard to buy into that right now because

he's like 50 pounds soaking wet whereas like darius clemens is like a whole man like a whole man like he could probably be a bouncer at tin roof you know that guy is legitimately a whole man, like a whole man. Like he could probably be a bouncer at 10 roof. That guy is legitimately a machine. So I'm excited to see how that all shakes out because, you know, you think about Ronnie, you think about Cornelius Johnson, Sandra still playing both sides, probably more in the nickel, but like playing both sides. And as the list goes on with how many receivers they have and why else they

have in general, who can make an impact this year. I mean, think about it. I didn't even mention Roman Wilson. I didn't even mention Andre Anthony. There's so many guys who can find a way into that rotation this year realistically. And I think Darius Cummins is the most talented of them all and has the highest ceiling of them all. And I think that Jim Harbaugh is the coach who never keeps his best players off the field, as we know. And I think Darius Cummins has a real legitimate shot

to be the best player on the field this year for them. Notice no wide receivers were at media day either. And typically those guys end up being the captain. So I wonder if there's no like quote unquote leader in the clubhouse. We know there wasn't last year, like Cornelius Johnson's a great player, but he had a lot of drops last year

that he should have caught, you know, even against Ohio State. So I just just i wonder where that thing goes we know how good clemens was in the spring game and i'm not trying to do the whole spring game narrative like that's the worst that's the worst uh system ever like if we were to track spring game star systems like who ended up being actually good it's probably a very low rate but like darius clemens is every bit of what he was in that game and then some so i think those are the two most interesting like how good the tackles will be and then just like

i would love to sit on my couch turn the power button on and just watch the receivers like the whole thing shake out because it's just going to be super interesting there's so many ways it can go for sure man it's going to be fun to watch um you know we're heading into camp here soon so it's going to be there really will be i'm sure we're going to get zero information out of camp so it's going to be you know you and and everyone else out there are going to be just digging for information for any little uh anything we're going to be like the little birds in the nest, just like waiting for any tidbit of information from camp. But it's going to be fun to watch. So, hey, man, we appreciate you coming on.

This has been awesome. We'll have you on, you and Josh and Trevor, for sure. We'll be doing a lot more maybe with the tailgates. That could be coming as well, having you guys out there uh too so um we're excited about a lot of those things we're excited about um the season coming up and we appreciate you man thank you absolutely absolutely appreciate you guys having me on and uh bearing with me as i slept and then my wi-fi taking a shit so i appreciate that all good all good uh last but not least tell tell the people where to follow you at.

Twitter, BrandonJustice underscore. That's it. Don't follow me on anything else. I don't want Michigan fans on Instagram. I'm totally all set. That's where I get to still be my 26-year-old almost. There you go. So keep it there. Smart.

There you go. Appreciate you, man. And for us, you can follow us at BlueBy90 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, at BlueBy90Podcast on YouTube, and possibly blueby90.com. There you go. Thanks for following. Go Blue. Go Blue.