Blue By Ninety - Funny Jim Harbaugh Stories from Brad Galli | Emmy Winner Brad Galli from WXYZ Detroit Joins

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

Justin and Tanner are joined by Detroit sports broadcaster and journalist Brad Galli from Channel 7 who shares some of his best Jim Harbaugh stories from his weekly interview with Michigan’s former head coach and talks all things Detroit.

All right. Welcome back to Blue by 90. I'm Justin joined by Tanner today. And we've got a special guest, a friend of mine from WX1AZ and all over social media these days. He's Detroit's own Brad Galley. Brad, thanks for joining us today. Appreciate you coming on. Thanks for having me on, guys. Tanner, you are just embodying the true spirit of every single human being in the state of Michigan, except maybe a few youpers right now. That Lions thing, man. Everybody's wearing Lions gear right now. Man, it's incredible.

We have a almost six-month-old daughter, and we went to the rally house yesterday or the day before and got her a Jared Goff jersey, which I thought I was waiting for her to start chanting. Your first words, right? Yeah, but very excited to see her in it and uh you know it's bigger so she can wear it over her uh you know layers it's gonna be cold on saturday thankfully the game's indoors oh man that's great that's really great yeah i mean just in general the the excitement around detroit right now and all of the whole state of michigan it is honestly something i mean we've seen it over the years with michigan Michigan state when that, you know, game comes to that weekend or whatever, you know, obviously the

state is always buzzing, but to have the whole state come behind one team, especially an NFL team, we just haven't seen it. I mean, I was talking to my dad the other day, like he hasn't seen it in his lifetime. Right. And so just crazy what's going on right now i'm starting to see some of the uh the car flags pop up you guys if you remember growing up in this state and seeing all the red wings flags in the 90s and early 2000s it's reminiscent of that and it was it's funny one of our news reporters at channel 7 yesterday told me he goes you know the beautiful thing about the lions he covered throughout the politicals you know calendar in 2024 he goes at different rallies just in the state of Michigan

at a Trump rally and at a Harris rally. He heard Jared Goff cheese break out. He's like the Lions. Everybody just loves it. It's the one thing everybody can agree on. And to your point,

Michigan and Michigan State. Yeah, there's passion behind both fan bases, but the Lions are really that great unifier where everybody can come together and say it means so much to my family, to your family,

to our family. And then you kind of just come together, toast. And here so much to my family, to your family, to our family. And then you kind of just come together, toast, and here we go. It's unprecedented territory right now. I love it. It's America's team, right? I think it goes beyond the state of Michigan a little bit. Amonrock kind of makes us the villain, you know, some of those guys now. But for a while, I still think we're one of the more likable teams

in the postseason i think the chiefs are likable and people want to throw darts in my face every time i say that i think when you get good people start throwing uh a little bit of hate your way there's jealousy that comes in people just assume you get calls because you're a you're a darling you get calls because you earn them because you're a smart football team i mean it's simple as a quarterback throwing at a guy who's being held um good teams know how to win in any possible way and covering Dan Campbell closely. All he says all the time, it doesn't have to be pretty. And this season, a lot of times with the defense they've had, the injuries they've had, he doesn't care how they win. Nobody in that building does,

as long as they put wins together. They put 15 together in the regular season and he loudly said it this week, you guys, we have the number one seed. We're not apologizing for it. We earned it. But now we have to go earn the next step. And it's going to be an exciting one Saturday night. Yeah, I think, you know, we've talked about this. I've talked about it. I'm very passionate about it because, you know, I have people that I know that are like, oh, I'm rooting for the Lions. And it's a little condescending.

There's a little drip of that in there, right? And it's like I want to be at a point where being a fan of the lions is similar to being a fan of the chiefs or the patriots back in the in the 2010s and 2000s because they're winning and it's not the feel-good story right like i don't think any lion shit fan should want like that feel-good tag placed on the lions no they're the number one seed the other 15 and two they swept the nfc north and they were dominant in Week 18. And, you know, for a franchise that the last time they won a championship, the Pistons were in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Like, yeah, I can see why people may get a little frustrated with Lions fandom right now. But to your point, Brad, it is really taking over the state, and it is a great bridge between Michigan and Michigan State fans with this being a more Michigan-centric podcast. But it's a fantastic time to be a Detroit sports fan right now. I will tell you, a lot of these guys in that locker room understand the history of football. They understand how bad the Lions have been for decades.

But honestly, you guys, I mean, for the last couple of years, Jared Goff especially has been so loud and almost frustrated and angered by questions about, you've changed questions about you've changed history. You've changed history. He's like, we've only been here for four years as a group. We don't care about what happened in the past. I'm sorry.

They'll make the point that they care about the fans and the suffering they went through. And that makes it that much sweeter. But these guys have come in and proven they're winners. And I think Tanner, if they go through this run, they get to the Super Bowl or win it, I think you go into next season and they are certainly not a darling.

The same way the Bengals a couple years ago, right when they finally made it with Burrow, they've not been back since, but they're viewed as a different type of the Bengals, a different sort of air, where the Bills have been under Josh Allen now and Sean McDermott for a while. I think once you get consistent winning that darling thing goes out the window

and people start to want to see you fall. Yeah, I definitely think they, they kind of, they don't identify themselves as the lions of old, right. It's that brand new lions type. And they, it's like, it's a, it's almost like a separate organization once you know sheila started and brad holds and and they've almost like left that chapter behind which is is has obviously worked out um so yeah so all right so lions this weekend i mean i'm super pumped it's definitely the most important game of the weekend, right? Whatever's going on in that national championship game on Monday,

who cares? Nobody cares. A lot of people care, but I just tell you, man, the scheduling, the CFP's going to have to figure it out. It has gotten so lost in the shuffle of NFL playoffs, man. It's crazy. It's weird. It is weird.

Honestly, the other whatever that semi-final on Thursday, I woke up. I was like, is there a semi-final game on today? It's kind of crazy. But, all right, let's talk some Michigan football, though. That's what this podcast is about. So, you have had the honor, I would call it, to get to go into Schembechler Hall once a week over the past. When did you start that?

Jim's first year. Jim's first year. So you got a behind the scenes look at Coach Harbaugh and now Coach Moore. Let's take it back a little bit with Harbaugh. Just, you know, I have been with him a few times behind the scenes, which so I get to see more than I would say the average fan I'm sure you've gotten a lot more than me but what would you say is that is there a big difference to coach Arbaugh when he's in public or in a press conference compared to when you're just hanging

with him behind the scenes yeah yeah definitely I think he also evolved at Michigan. I think it was going from Stanford to the NFL. You don't have to play the most competitive person. He wanted to win, and he wanted to win every battle. And I think that was in his head every time he stepped in front of a microphone, every time a camera was on, every time he did a radio interview from, what, five minutes after he was hired with Colin Coward, the infamous, where he blew up at him. Are you talking? Where's the dead space? His competitiveness fueled everything we saw. We got him at Schembechler Hall after the first couple of years.

But the first season, I think we did it at Chrysler Center. And we would go to the TV studio and we would always walk with him. I would wait and walk or sometimes I'd be in the studio waiting for him to come through. And he'd vent about questions, but you could just tell it was rooted often in rooted often in trying to protect his players and trying to, you know, if someone would say, you know, what was wrong with the scheme? And he'd come back and say, well, I don't want to out our freshman linebacker who stepped up for a guy who's been injured. But so I'm not going to do that,

but I'm going to sound like an idiot unless I have something planned. So yeah, he goes, he'd come back and get frustrated. And there was one time I remember there, it was, the room was dark and not well lit. And he kind of almost tripped over a wire. But one of his favorite lines, he stopped and caught himself. And he goes, a lesser athlete would have fallen. I've stolen that so many times from his presser, Brad.

I say it all the time to my wife. It's great. And then we turned the corner and the door was locked. And he just looks. He's like, come on. Mistakes are being made. He's a funny guy and i think we really got to see that out in front of cameras um especially the last few years at

michigan i think the nation once he got that michigan hat off and again like you guys were talking about people that are detractors of michigan he put the chargers hat on it was almost like every line we've heard for the last five six seven eight nine years that he said at charger press conferences people like that's so cute and funny. We had it firsthand. I got to get to really know the guy, and it was a treat. It really was a treat. I can share more stories as we get going, but I don't want to talk for 10 minutes without you guys jumping in.

Yeah, yeah. Well, Brad, I was going to ask, like, being there from day one through the end of his tenure, what was the biggest tangible change that you noticed in the way that maybe he operated? Because there clearly was a shift, right, of the earlier years through, you know, 2020 and then 2021 kind of seemed to revitalize. Was there anything that you noticed in particular, anything you could point to that kind of he changed, you know, more than some other things? He denied it publicly and I would even press him and he'd never admitted to it. But yeah,

I think we can all see it. Right. But I do think the talent changed a lot of it as well. I think that group that came back from that 2020 season and then having JJ in the building, I think changed a ton, a ton. Let's be honest. Like you're not going to win without a quarterback. And if you look at the first years of his tenure, with respect to all those guys that were there that have gone on to do great things, whether it's in football or otherwise,

JJ was the best quarterback he had um i think that changed a lot we were standing on the field of the national championship and his kids jim's kids um it was grace and uh james i said man what a night what a night and they're like yeah yeah it is i don't know how we're gonna get back to the hotel um there's not enough room i go what are you looking at they're like well we're not his favorite kid tonight i'm like he has a favorite kid yeah it's jj he tells us all the time jj's his favorite kid i think that team brought out such a life in him um at the perfect time right where his back was against the wall his contract had become so public there was a shift because he put so much trust in people um but i think, too, man, he would tell you he was the same guy. It was just kind of maybe not worrying so much about the perception of –

come here, dude – the perception of recruiting and just trying to win. This is my son, Matthew. Hi. What's up? What's up, buddy? What's your hot take? You got some hot takes about the Lions this weekend? Are they going to win?

We're talking Michigan football with these guys. They're asking me about Coach Harbaugh. Who was your favorite player from that championship team? J.J. McCarthy. Shocker. There you go. There you go. I love it.

He was my favorite, too. Emmitt Blair. I'm right. All right, Big Doc. I'm going to talk with these guys for a little bit. You go do your homework, brush your teeth, eat a good healthy – I'm kidding. Go take care of yourself.

Love you. Love you, buddy. So long. No, it was cool, man. Just a quick aside. I grew up in Michigan, won the championship in 97, watched Michigan State win the championship in 2000, and he got to see it almost the same age.

And that was pretty cool. My daughter is a year younger too, and they've got to go all in i will get back to the hardball stuff i think um he challenged me a lot because i did his radio show for two years and he got ticked at me sometimes and he almost had a point sometimes he'd go you're gonna ask the same question that everybody else is asking you asked me at the press conference you can ask me at the one-on-one with the tv and now you're gonna ask me on my radio show like dude come on can we get into stuff about the game like this is the chance to do it but he he at his heart was a competitive dude and when he saw the writing on the wall i think he finally could sit back and be like i can have fun with

this how much do we hear that just right like at the end like i'm having fun with yeah and it almost reminded him of why he loved everything so much well i think it honestly you know you mentioned the guys that came back after that 2020 season and i think you know he saw a lot of himself in aiden hutchinson and that started it obviously hutch was the leader of that team what i have always said too is that the the difference in that team or in this run was it was sandwiched with Aiden as the senior leader and then JJ and Donovan as the freshman leaders as well and you know it wasn't just seniors in all these freshmen were following but JJ and Donovan I remember them talking about them leading kind of from the back a little bit too and so everybody was pushing each other

um and a lot of the guys that we talked to at that time you know jake moody brad robbins joel huntingford like some of those guys would just talk about you know they would actually say too oh just no he's not any different that he didn't switch uh you know meetings or whatever it was just i think it he turned it over to his players and it was a lot more player-led and trust in his guys instead of the guys that I know from 2016 and 2017, 2018. It was a dictatorship. Jim Harbaugh led everything.

And obviously he was still, he loved telling people what to do and it was still hard for, but he gave, he, you know, gave his guys the opportunity to lead themselves. And I think that was the shift that at least I saw from, from my perspective. Yeah. I think Tanner, you want to go jump in? I let you talk too much here. I keep rambling on you man no man you're the guest um no you you go ahead and answer that because i think it you know i think it's um it's interesting to to look at the nine almost what nine years that the jim harbaugh was at the university of michigan and you know some of the shortcomings in the earlier years and you know a lot of that was perception based upon the fact that ohio state was essentially a juggernaut and it was tough to get past them because otherwise they were multiple times 10 and 1 going into that but you know that shift in allowing them to come off that covid season and you know go on that run they did i think

is just marvelous coaching job from from jim i think uh the question i got asked all the time what's it like interviewing him what's it like interviewing him i've loved it man i love he made he made me better at what i do um just on a professional black and white level from that way. But man to man, I really enjoyed the company. We talked football a lot off the record, especially as the years went on, we would talk off the record a lot after we got done recording. And then he got creative. And I will tell you, one of the funniest things that turned into one of the most fruitful things for both of us, we both benefited from it. We genuinely were getting emails, and I got a handwritten letter from somebody

and a text from a couple people in the business. Why do you guys keep going to the same spot on the practice field, standing there and talking? You've done the same thing for years. And I told him that, and his eyes lit up, and he goes, we have to get competitive. We have to be. What did he say?

We can't get stale. We can't get stale. And hold on, I got an idea. And that was leading into the first run after beating, leading up to that Aiden Ohio State win, the first win over Ohio State. And you guys, we bounced around his office after they beat Ohio State that year.

He's like, let's do the, I got an idea. We walked up his staircase. He goes, we're going to do the interview in our office. office and he walked us through we stayed in there for 45 minutes he was telling stories about every guy that he got drafted he that's been drafted under him i mean it was it was unbelievable but again it goes back to that like what are people saying absolutely not you know what that's a good point we gotta look at the tape we gotta be better we need to improve and the the amount of traffic those videos got, it was just bananas.

I mean, talk about like a recruiting tool for him, but just for the access that we were giving fans and for people to tune into us after that went over Ohio State. We went into that next season. He wanted to go everywhere and anywhere. It was a blast, man. We got to see so many parts of that building.

And then it was funny watching Charles Woodson and Fox's production team, ESPN's production team espn's production team a couple weeks after where we would go to a certain spot you know dave abloff and the great team at michigan chad shepherd those guys are great would would work with them to like go into those locations and we would kind of like we did it first that was great the first it is kind of funny because i think he you mentioned that he made you better at your job. He's one of those people that does. He wants to succeed so badly, and he does make everybody around him better

because when you're around him, you're like, I got to be as good as him. I got to keep working hard and doing whatever. Justin, I emceed his golf outing, and he comes to me, and I'm sitting on the chair. He goes, this is the heaviest you've ever been. Man, my wife just gave birth to our second kid in 14 months. Like, I haven't slept. No excuses.

But I got, he's like, let's work on that. I'm like, you know, like, and then, but yeah, yeah, that's the kind of guy he is. That's so good. So, all right. So you flip the, flip then the chapter to Sheryl Moore after you win the national title of the best three-year run in Michigan football history you know coach Arbaugh raises the trophy and he moves on and what we all kind of knew what was going to be the end of his Michigan tenure I don't know that we knew that it

was going to be after raising a national championship trophy but I think we all knew he wanted to go back to the NFLfl um and then chiron really cemented himself obviously in that three game stretch there at the end of the 2023 season um while coach arbaugh was suspended what was it like then you know when you all of a sudden that that office is no longer jim arbaugh's it's chiron moores and he he watched Jim Arbos for a long time and that for you to go in was it ever like you felt like strong was like okay this is mine now I used to be on the other side of the desk like what was what was coach uh Moore's you know what how was what was he like when when he took that over I will tell you nothing about him was like that he very much knew he needed to be himself um and that was evident and he i that became evident to me very quickly he took me for the first interview we had

um into their recruiting center now and their player lounge not recruiting center it's the player lounge but obviously is what they show recruits the bowling alley the barber shop um and then all the all the trophies and the national championship and Rose Bowl jerseys. But no, it was very clear. And we know it. I mean, nobody's like Jim Harbaugh, but this is a different man. This is Sherell Moore.

And I think part of the tough thing of this Michigan football season, losses are always going to be the toughest part. But I think the toughest part for fans and for really football people was getting to know this man. He had never been a head coach before. And to take over the reins of this program after a national championship, we didn't know who he was. And I think that was by design. He didn't want to make it about him, one of the selfless leader type of outputs that he wanted out there.

But it took a while for, I think, us to get to know him. That's what my challenge was every week. And he just did not want it to be about him. He didn't want the anecdotes to be. And, you know, every coach will tell you that. But Sharon really, really, really wanted to, you know, separate and be like, I'm Sharon Moore. But this is not Sharon Moore's program. This is the University of Michigan.

I'm the steward leading the charge. I'm going to be my own guy. And I think we saw throughout the year, I think he became more comfortable in the way that he was designing the offense the way that he was leading the charge um in that now i think we can say clearly it's jerome moore's program um it is a michigan football program but he finally i think got the reins i think comfortably by the end of the year um they were humming in a pretty good clip you know halfway through that season figuring out what they were doing and we saw how they finished beating ohio state but no i think very very very quickly it became evident this is his office this is i mean it helped the

locker room look different and a lot of the buildings but no he um he took over and i was almost shocked of how quickly the page was turned from that championship era to basically say like we got to get going we got to start this thing over. We can't live in the past. Well, I remember too, Tanner, I'll let you go just in a second.

One note there too, was that there were a couple things, I think this season that people wanted, you know, are they going to do honoring national championship? Are they, you know, I think I texted you at one point.

Yeah. And Sharon's actually said i if i i don't know if i'm allowed to say this but i'm gonna say it that he didn't want to do any of that because it was a new era right it was you know he he wanted this team to focus on this year in the schedule that's ahead obviously it didn't go the way that they you know fully hoped you know obviously you're trying to to go to the college football playoff, but he really was focused on that. And they kind of wanted to say, all right, we won the natty.

That's great. But what, what are you doing for me now? You know, what, what, what can we do next? So Tanner, I'll let you jump in there. Well, one of the questions I had in my mind before we came into this Brad was to ask about the difference that you felt from you know working alongside jim for a number of years to now sharon taking over it sounds like sharon put emphasis on

you know kind of continuing that same level of standard and culture is that what you kind of felt with sharon taking the reins of it feels very very familiar And what was that kind of like when it shifted from Jim to then Sharam? I'll be honest, from my seat, what I would go into on those Mondays with Jim, those quirky moments were almost what people grabbed onto. Not almost. The quirky moments with Jim are what people grabbed onto more. So we would usually do an interview, unless it was really off of a loss, and I would always try to tack unless it was really off of a loss and we would i would always

try to top tack in like on the back end of the interview a topic of you know his family being on the cover of the mden magazine with their funny pajamas on um hey what do you do halloween's coming up any strategy for getting candy like i mean our clips were on espn gma things were going everywhere with chiron it was very clear like i don't want to be discerning there wasn't a monster appetite for quirky chiron stuff because that's not who he is you know so um that was the challenge for me of okay how do i best give the audience what they're looking for how do we best inform college football fans that either like this program that don't like this program that are in the middle that are just kind of observing you know what they deserve as a football audience here and yeah it was it was a challenge at first

but nothing against chiron but it was just me getting to know in a more intimate interview session who this man was and try to tell him who he all was i mean jim was as much as people thought he was you know mysterious and stuff pretty darn open book and he would tell you you know the most wild outlandish things with chiron it was i think at first a little bit more close to the best, but again, you saw the comfort start to pour out towards the end of the year, the things he would say about guys, what he would say about the program, the comfort to finally say, yeah, we just beat out LSU and we got Bryce Underwood and to kind of pump his chest a little bit and say, we got the quarterback. We went hard. I, in my interview, I remember I asked him one time, how much is NIL a part of your day?

And he's like, 50% of my day, every day. Working on guys, going to get guys, keeping guys here, making sure they're happy, but also challenging them, challenging the program. And then he said out loud, I think, I don't remember which game this was. It might have been seven, eight weeks into the season. He said, when I went into my interview, I said, we have to be better about all this.

I said, oh, okay. Like, here we okay like here we are like you know seven eight weeks right in that time of the bryce stuff starting to get hot where he is basically shouting to the world using our platform to say can we do a little bit more here what else we got like how can we get this thing going here this is the real deal this is what i want i'm not just some guy that's asleep on the job despite the tractor saying that um we got to see a guy who's, who's pretty darn passionate about what he is. And he finally got to put some results on it because it wasn't just talk. So I think that was the biggest thing, this man having to prove himself to a fan base that had just watched the national championship. He did it towards the end of the season in a big, big way. And I'm excited to see how he'll

walk and talk next year all right well that's a good transition to our next topic here um so they as you mentioned you know we kind of joked on here the last two months the last really like six more than six weeks of the season changed everything right you you you win uh the final three games of your season one against ohio state as a 20 plus point uh underdog on the road with no passing game and kalal mullings just putting a cape on and being a dog uh and then you go shock the world against alabama with their starters you have everybody opted out pretty much um and then you also get the number one quarterback in the nation, as you mentioned, you get Bryce Underwood.

And then all of a sudden it's like, okay, 2025 feels like we're rolling here. So what have you seen from the vibes inside Shem and from the coaching staff of going into this offseason? You know, the outside vibe and the perception throughout all of that, I saw behind closed doors when we would walk a strong, I told you, we talked with Jim as time went on a lot after the conversation, Sharon,

we talked after every conversation longer than we talked with Jim almost every time. Like he, he was so open and honest and thorough and he'd give details. And that was a man who behind the scenes, his confidence in the program, never wavered his confidence in what he was doing, never wavered.

And even when the rumors started to become a lot more public and the conversation started to get a lot, a lot louder about Bryce Underwood. And I said to him off the record, you know, what can you say? I can't say anything. I can't say anything,

but I'm just going to tell you what I've told you the whole season. We believe in what we're building here. We got what we're going. And when they finally got them, the excitement on that man's face to finally be able to talk about Bryce Underwood was remarkable. Dude, if this guy goes anywhere else, he goes out of state. This is a story. I mean, my kid just jumped in here and watched.

He's going to watch him at LSU, watch him get drafted in the NFL. I covered him in high school for four years. My daughter will say, isn't that the kid you interviewed? Yeah. Why did he go to LSU? Well, it's kind of complicated. Michigan went and got the guy, the in-state guy, the number one recruit in the country.

Doesn't always work out. You know, he's saying all the right things. He's putting the work in. They believe in him. It'd be really cool for the program, for this state, for this high school football community, if it does work out. It'd be awesome for the kid, for the family. They went and got their guy.

They went and got their guy, and I think it changed so so much we've seen what it's done to the what it's done to the transfer portal big donors jumping out publicly or through you know other mouths saying how much they're really supporting this thing how much has the conversation changed i think it's almost done a 180 i mean it couldn't have changed more than it had after jim left and people thought well michigan doesn't want to do NIL. Michigan doesn't want to play the game. They don't want to do the transfer thing. The complete opposite right now.

For sure. Yeah, it's definitely felt that way. And I think, I mean, I do think just the difference in the fan base's support and excitement changes a lot of what happens in that building too. I do think that, you know, as much as a coach or a player always wants to say like yeah we're focused we don't listen to the outside world i i think that's bs and that's just coach me uh it definitely affects it and you know the excitement you know you mentioned uh the the difference when jj mccarthy stepped

inside chad bickler hall and how much of a difference that made. You know, I'm sure that that's happening right now when all of a sudden, you know, Bryce Underwood shows up to practice in Tampa and he's throwing and everyone's like, whoa, what's going on? How are you doing with all those? And the other thing, too, Tanner and I saw him in person for the first time at the Champion Circle at Will Johnson's toy drive at Somerset he is huge he's all of six five and so I think that all that just changes the vibe that the vibe

changes and then to your point you know that's where you snowball you get your guy and then you can snowball that into bigger things and and really build this roster and with you know going into this offseason too you look at the schedule it's very doable it's very doable to go at minimum 10 and 2 and get to the college football playoff which we saw a lot of teams do this year so it feels like though you know those expectations all of a sudden are like very attainable instead of, oh, we don't know exactly what the season is going to look like. I'm curious to see what they do.

If they start them from day one or if it's let's massage and see how things are going to go. We'll put the veteran in there and kind of run with them. I will tell you the man has, and I call him a man. I mean, the way he's handled everything, he's a kid, he's a teenager. We've covered him since he's a freshman. And the environment around his season opener when we made it our Channel 7 game of the week to open this year. You guys, I've rarely seen that around college athletes.

I mean, the line to get an autograph from him or people try to take a selfie with him or a picture afterwards was 30 deep for about a half an hour as he tried to slowly make his way to the locker room it was insane and we had gotten an interview with him pre-game to run in our coverage and everyone where everyone was trying to get a post-game interview because he won on some late crazy run in the throw um to get the season opening win and so everyone's like we got to put the punctuation mark on our coverage and it was to the point where there were so many influencers and video people trying to get stuff and content, not influencers, but content creators and kids. It was double just shut it down. They just like hit him in the locker room.

But he came back out. And to his credit, man, like he has been handling the pressure and the spotlight, I think, pretty, pretty well. And also that video that he put out when he finally committed was pretty sweet. That was good. I watched it a few times, which I do follow recruiting, but that was kind of different. Brian, I wanted to ask you, I mean, with your pulse on just the area in Detroit Metro, do you think that Bryce Underwood at Michigan,

and if it works out the way, you know, like Trevor Lawrence, right, like three-year starter, national champ, like the way you kind that the that he can hit that ceiling do you think that that could help Michigan kind of create more of a wall around southeastern Michigan in the state of Michigan because I think about like Notre Dame has a number of guys on their team that are from the state of Michigan and we're always comparing you know Michigan to Ohio State and vice versa say to Ohio kids where do they go they go to Ohio State State, right? So, I mean, what do you think? I just always wonder that if Michigan has an opportunity to ever really build a fortress like some state programs do in their home state.

We cover Michigan very closely. We've had the deal. I also cover Michigan State, and I got to see firsthand how Mark D'Antonio built a winner to his credit and to hit with his words with three-star players, and then that started to build i'd never bet against michigan state i actually like john smith a lot i think what they're building there's really solid um and i so i i would say no right away just because

the biggest factor is the nil thing right i mean if if the ispias decide tomorrow that they want to start throwing a bunch of money at michigan state you know you could say all those things michigan but things could change right it's a different wild, wild world than when the three of us were growing up and so many of us are accustomed to. And I think it's also better when it's more competitive in the big time, when the rivalry is good and they're pushing each other, it's better. But I mean, to your question, to your point, when kids in this area think of a program as the program, whether's michigan football or when it was michigan state basketball forever you're good you're in michigan you go to one of those

programs that within that sport um there's definitely something to that how long it can ride out for a given you know number of years right i mean michigan just won the national championship and here we are a year and a month late not even a year and a couple weeks later talking about like okay can bryce swing it like if that doesn't carry momentum in this NIL age, I think it's really just shows the power of the dollar. Not to completely throw your point down. has you know atlanta if they want it on on on rap right even with georgia tech there michigan obviously with michigan state has a little bit more competition but it's just i will say it's a little frustrating when it's like there's a in-state kid and it's like come on and you know they go to notre dame or they go to another school okay to that point yeah leaving the state yeah that's always right too i've always been like what are you doing why wouldn't you stay right

because there's a there's a again there's a couple guys on notre Dame's roster that I know Michigan was after pretty pretty heavily in their recruit recruitment so I don't know I just like a little envious of Ohio State because you look at the roster and it's like all these five stars that just stay home and it's like obviously Michigan just did that with Bryce but the way I was kind of thinking about that with regards to Bryce is it's from the area stayed home you know again if he if he hits on the ceiling, it just creates a pathway of kids to be like, I want to be like Bryce. That was more where my question was coming from. I do get it.

I understand that. When I was in high school, I had friends getting recruited. I was the third-string tight end, bumped up the second-string tight end for our senior year. You're talking to an athlete here. Hey, state champion. No big deal. No big deal. I also won a state championship.

Justin, sorry, buddy. I did not. I did not. So you guys – What's that? Where'd you go? I went to a school in Omaha, Nebraska, Elkhorn High School, Class B 2011 state champ, second biggest classification.

So played with a couple guys that went to Nebraska. So it was decent football. It was fun. Brother brother rice 2005 shout out but what i was getting at was that i had so many warrior teammates getting college letters and a ton of them went to play college football i followed recruiting so closely and to your point of what you're trying to say yes you would like to see if there's a pipeline to say if you know that's the standard you you're here you stay here um but i think i don't know maybe it is just the competition between michigan and michigan state and then guys just look and say maybe i'll go elsewhere and right i don't know i do i do think nil just blows all this up in its face too

absolutely it definitely does all right so fun fact though i didn't i did not put two and two together you beat my school hudsonville in that state championship and i was on the other sideline as the ball boy because no way yes i was a bit younger than you still in middle school so i was the ball boy um so you you broke my heart 14-7 i think it was you know don't blame me i literally just played one game or one play in that game can i tell you a story about that game though yeah if people sit around this long they obviously care about us so thank you for watching um Don't blame me. I literally just played one game or one play in that game. Can I tell you a story about that game, though? Yeah. If people stayed around this long, they obviously care about us. So thank you for watching.

The day before, my brother, I don't know. Now I'm losing sight of it. Did my brother and I both go to the Thanksgiving game? My brother at least was there. And we were at the end of the game screaming for players throwing their gloves up. And my brother got Roy Williams to throw him his gloves. And Roy Williams had huge hands. And they were these awesome gloves that just slipped on like an oven mitt. players throwing their gloves up and my brother got roy williams to throw him his gloves and roy williams had huge hands and they were these awesome gloves that just slipped on like an oven mitt

and they were white on top black on the bottom and it was just this huge thing with sticky stuff all over him and he slipped it on and the next day my brother goes dude you gotta wear him to state championship i know you're gonna play but you always like you're the guy that like warms up the quarterback you're going to ford field you just got to be the guy wearing them so we're warming up the quarterback at school before we get on the bus to go to ford field right and kaunda hancock my teammate we called k had the biggest hands on the team he was a safety and a wide receiver and he comes up he goes i've never been able to find gloves that big for my hand can i try them on so he puts them on his hand they fit like a glove

what's up big dog you're back for more my son's back for more oh you're looking for your lego he puts these gloves on his hands he goes can i wear them like dude i'm not gonna play you're gonna play you play both ways he had two interceptions in the game including one-handed one of the back of the end zone to steal a touchdown and that that picture is the front page of the free press the next morning. My parents come running into my room. They're like, Brad, Brad, Brad. Cone just shouted you out in the free press article with Mick McCabe. It's all in here.

And my brother goes, he wakes up, he goes, Brad didn't give him those gloves. I got them for going to the end zone. Come on. That's so funny. I remember that specific interception. It was an unbelievable play in the fourth and zosh. Real quick, when you played

Catholic Central, was Mike Martin what he was? I mean, obviously not at that point, but was he on the other side? Was he wreaking havoc against you guys a little bit? Yeah, my senior year, he was a junior. And we beat him twice yeah that's that is my i think honestly sneaky pick for me of like my all-time favorite wolverine i just

he was about the only guy in that era before brady hope that was a good defender and so i wore 60 in high school because i loved mike barton so whoa yeah he was uh he was a beast man one of my favorite players wow but yeah i do remind him that we beat him in high school all the time i love i would do the same i would for sure so um all right so speaking of a couple minutes ago you mentioned things being better when things are competitive especially here in the state of michigan right now big 10 basketball is awesome yeah michigan is back you know feels like they're back under dusty may it's a long season we're only in mid-january right now but they're already you know they're

undefeated in big 10 play so is michigan state they keep battling every every time one of them has a game they jump to number one in the big 10 then the other team does it the next day because they went to um so i i don't know have you been around dusty much yet or not really yeah i'm gonna tell you like you don't like to say that people win the press conference but he won his press conference and it was almost immediate you could say oh my gosh this program's changing overnight it's changing overnight and then i started talking to people the program was changing overnight we did a one-on-one conversation um and then i saw him at the spring game right away and i went to reintroduce myself he's like no brad we talked

in the court i remember how are you man good to see you like oh this dude's smooth man he's really smooth and he's cool and just like just little things man the way he the glasses walking into fraternities trying to see kids like it was instant where again in this age of nil you need a coach who's buying in a lot of great coaches have stepped away from right from from the profession man this is like the perfect coach in this era right now to step in at a program like this grabbing guys in the right pieces that have gelled they're fun to watch which he promised they would be um wolf's a stud and uh yeah i i just think it's it's a night i mean it's wild how quickly this thing has turned

over yeah and and it's no shot at at juwan right you know things just unfortunately didn't work out i think that was like you know that's the storybook right it's it actually is you hoped what juwan could do what jim arbaugh did right come back to your alma mater um but you know unfortunately things just didn't go that way but i think it's you know i gotta give ward manual credit for making the move and and you know uh hiring the right guy it seems already um but what you've seen is exactly what i've seen as well and just he does everything the right way and it's like it's almost like okay when is he is human? When's he going to spin something up? But he's always seeming to say the right thing.

His guys are really good guys, too, that he brought in, which to bring in that many transfers and all of them are good human beings on top of just good basketball players. Even the little things that I noticed is guys help each other up after every play they're always high-fiving each other you know the huddles uh right before they go into the locker room at halftime it's a player's only huddle before they go in so it's just those little things i think he seems like the guy that's like you know it's a bit dan campbell-esque where it's like we're not focused on winning the national title right now. We're focused on

being the best we can be today. And once you keep doing it, if you keep doing those little things day after day, it's going to grow into something big. I don't know where John Beeline said it, but it just popped up on social media this morning. So I'm sorry if I'm not quoting the right outlet. I'm not quoting any outlet, so I'm definitely not quoting anybody.

I'll quote what I saw Beeline say. He was like this is a sneaky good team that reminds me of a final 14 that we had he's like watching them that we can go and i don't disagree i think actually and i know you you started it watching michigan state win against penn state they had a bunch of guys in double figures the same type of way these teams have both had stars over the years and not advanced it's gonna be really fun to watch michigan michigan state like we watched under those beeline iso rivalry years where they're just kind of a balanced unit of guys that can distribute the ball crash the glass play the right way

and it's also really kind of fun basketball to watch i think the last couple years michigan hoops was really hard to watch yeah for sure for sure they got me staying up man like i'm they got me staying up you know these nine ten I'm the old man. They got me staying up, you know, these 9, 10 o'clock tip-offs. The West Coast games, those are tough. Those are tough. But, yeah, I mean, listen, I, for one, I don't like watching Michigan State win. I don't like watching Ohio State win

or really any other team in the Big Ten for the most part. But I think when Michigan and Michigan State are at the top of the big 10 it is so fun once you know the spartans come to ann arbor and michigan goes east like it doesn't make for there there's no better environment out there um so i'm excited i think it's coming up here early february right uh around the super bowl time actually uh. It's the first Michigan-Michigan State game. And so, you know, I think that just in general, I'm excited for, you know, it feels like we're already, like, you know, gunning for a Final Four right now in year one.

Nobody's even thinking about, like, okay, what happens under Dusty, you know, for five years or ten years. It happens fast in hoops. And by the way, I don't want to be one of those triple talking head boxes where Michigan state thing grabs it. And I'm the one smiling along as an accomplice to you saying that you don't like them winning.

I have affection for Tom as though I got people in that program. So I never root against Michigan state hoops, man. So just so you can get my talking head to all. It's a fun rivalry, man. Always the diplomat, right? Yeah, man. In this spot, listen, you can take it a bunch of different ways. You can be a homer for one program or another.

And, you know, me being so closely tied to Michigan football over the last few years because of the deal that our station has, it's easy for people to paint that picture. But, no, man, I grew up watching both programs. I was the first kid in my family to go to college. So no ties other than just I like people in both places. And I'm happy when schools in our state succeed. For sure.

For sure. All right. Well, we'll wrap it up here, though. I mean, you, like I said in the beginning, you've been a busy man. Every team is good. going from chrysler to the breslin to michigan stadium to chemekler hall to lca to ford field to the practice facilities so um it but what the way that you put it though in the beginning was it's a good problem to have right it's fun yeah come here dude my son's over here he's creeping he wants to get back on i love it i love it's a star. Who's winning this Lions game this weekend? Lions.

Okay, good pick. Good pick. There you go. I like his picks. Dude, it's a great problem to have. It's the best kind of busy. That's what I keep saying. When you ask me to come on, I'm like, dude, we're busy, but it's the best kind of busy.

Everybody in their life is busy. I'm a kid who grew up in Troy, and my wife grew up here. We have kids. We get to raise our family around our parents. And I watched for years this lions fan base suffer i watched what this pistons team could do to re-energize the city um and just different types of communities that the tigers awakened the red wings kept alive for so long this is a great sports town i am living the dream that i wanted to live and so um i'm never going to complain i'll complain a little bit about being tired, right, Matthew? My son's sitting over here, right?

But we just reach. We reach for a Celsius. We motor on and we eat it up. Like, I get to go to the Lions game and watch a divisional playoffs game on Saturday and cover it and bring to the people what these guys have to say. It's great. It's a great problem to have in this town right now where people are channel surfing and going, don't watch the Wings. Don't watch the Pistons tonight. Both are hot. Michigan's on. Oh, shoot, man. Michigan State's great. It's a great problem to have in this town right now where people are channel surfing going, don't watch the Wings, don't watch the Pistons tonight. Both are hot. Michigan's on.

Oh, shoot, man. Michigan State's on. Oh, my gosh. Dude, Michigan State and Michigan Hockey's on. Like, two great programs there contending every year. We live in a great town, and finally all these teams are cooking. They're red hot. But, Tanner, we started with you and that Lions hat, man.

And right now the attention is on that organization, rightfully so. The building is hot. I'll tell you what, if there's man and right now the attention is on that on that on that organization rightfully so the building is hot i'll tell you what if there's any doubt right now i mean famous last words when people pull this clip up but i i have full confidence in the world that they go take care of business this weekend i love it i love it well you did have a viral you had a viral uh clip last weekend i believe that it was on espn and everything else too so why don't we do that again let's win and you can get another viral i know i actually just asked the lions today i was like can we do that can we run it back on the tunnel thing and they said no we have too many responsibilities post game but we will find a way we will find a way

and that was the real rob olman man al-kudim muhammad if people didn't see it he walked up the tunnel with us and we had set up an interview with a player and he had that big third down sack ayton hutchinson's going crazy on the big board he comes down with the play to stop the drive they go back to eight on the video board he's going crazy he comes up the tunnel they're like you have al-kudim and he goes and my son's with me can you just stand here i was like stand here we gotta have him talk man so i am and he he says his dad he's i'm so proud of my dad we pray all the time for moments like this i'm just i love my dad i'm getting emotional everybody online once we put it out there it gets emotional people watching it on our air get emotional and even

get a knock on the door from espn they said can we run that interview yeah man that's great that'd be that'd be freaking awesome that's awesome oh congratulations to you congratulations to them uh and the lions um no appreciate all of your coverage honestly a you've been a good friend to me but b you know you've just been awesome covering everything uh michigan sports i i personally and i think a lot of people agree with this that they look forward to your take on whatever you're projecting it um so if you aren't already following go follow brad he's on instagram on facebook uh on twitter on all of it uh i don't know if you're tick tock's getting bad i don't know if you're a star but

you know what there are no brad does not dance here on tiktok i just provide more interview content there so if you like the stuff on different platforms and you're on tiktok more i am there with the same type of football content and you won't see me dancing. All right. Well, Brad, Gally, appreciate you, man. Thank you for coming on. Exciting times here in the state of Michigan. For us, you can follow us at Blue by 90 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, at Blue by 90 Podcast on YouTube, and Blueby90.com.

We appreciate you. Go Blue. Go Blue.