Desmond Howard On Being BACK In Ann Arbor, Michigan Showdown With Texas, National Championship

you started your journey back with an emotional tweet last night I know that was just me having some fun it's good it's good but you know for the phrase you know one of an Arbor's favorite Sons when you look back on what your time here and how it shaped you into the player you became and the man you are today what stands out to you the most wow I mean there's a lot to unpack there I have tremendous coaches I had a great mentor so I had um some really good people around me who helped shakee me into the man I became you know then and But ultimately am right now so he had some great coaches and wonderful mentors well a wonderful mentor and my man Greg Harden so what what did you were you got to see a little bit of the game in person last week what was your impressions and how do how does that kind of trans do you think it translates at all to a game like this or do you think Michigan maybe holds some things back like what is your thoughts yeah well you know I don't know this from speaking to any coaches but if I was a coach and I knew I had to Longhorns coming in here the next week you I'm just not going to show a lot you know and then you at the same time you have a new offensive line you're trying to break in so you want to see what they have I mean a lot of coaches I mean around the country they're trying to figure out their personnel you there were a lot of games I mean you look at the Clemson game versus Georgia that game was 6-0 halftime you know second half they ran away with it you know the Ohio State game against akur I think 173 at halftime and they have the best roster in all the college football right now so I say this because there are a lot of coaches who are still trying to figure out what they have in Michigan included now you obviously new offensive line and new quarterback so it's it's going to take some time but you don't have a lot of time now cuz um these games are are are are alive and they all count have you spent any time with Chiron Moore and uh what are your impressions of him how excited are you for this era yeah I've spent some time with Coach Moore I think he's just a wonderful individual great human being um fantastic coach I love the culture you know and the good thing is that you know he was on sta with Coach Harbaugh so he understands what the culture is and how to maintain it and how to sustain it so that's always a good thing we talk about the quarterbacks in Michigan throughout two last week kind of rotating a little bit of them what did you see from that last week and do you think that would carry into this a bigger game like Texas or you think maybe some like sh Mo would go with one guy yeah well during Camp all the talk was who's going to be Michigan starting quarterback and I continuously said I think they're going to play two against Fresno State because it only makes sense you know and what you do is not only do you need to see what you have both guys live action but you also put um the defense that you're about that that's going to play against you in a situation where they have to prepare for two quarterbacks so I understood like to me um the mentality going into the Fresno State game and um you know we'll see how this week's uh practice has gone and how they're going to use the quarterbacks but I would assume we will see two again tomorrow afternoon against the Longhorns yeah would you uh yeah Texas coming into town how would you say like the build up like around Michigan is compared to like other like Big Time games at the big house because you have two um story programs in this sport who never really play each other it's very rare especially during the regular season it's as big as it gets to me during the regular season cuz just the because of the brands you know the Longhorns brand and the The Wolverine brand and to have this game for both programs so early on in the season obviously bringing you guys here just adds to the hype of it but how do you think the Wolverine specifically could benefit from getting this chall out of the way early I think now I love early challenges I love you know being um in competitive games early like when I was here I mean non-conference games we play like Maryland UCLA Notre Dame you know teams like that then we got into our Big 10 conference schedule so I'm a big fan of it I love it do you think this is the the biggest non-conference game they've had since kind of your time I mean around your tenure that was about when Florida State Miami those types of teams used to come here exactly Florida State Miami yeah we played those teams yeah so I'm not the historian so I can't say it's the biggest one so I can't answer that question yeah what was it like for you kind of living through this team last year as you know some a former player and and just seeing what they did I guess you know bringing the whole Michigan Community together it was beautiful because they were you know we we say the team the team the team and you could tell like that's what they were all about it had great veteran leadership from Blake corm to JJ McCarthy to Mike S still I mean you can go on and on and on so it was a player Le team and those are the best team like any team that I've ever been a part of that was like a great team or a championship um caliber team it was a player Le team they had great veteran leadership it was fun to watch more how much do you feel like it helps Michigan even though there's a lot of new faces but a lot of these guys were a part of that Rose bll team and thetion championship team how how much do you feel like it helps them in a game like this to be able to draw upon those experiences yeah I think since these guys were around a year ago and they understand the culture and they know what it takes to to win in big games like this I think it helps them tremendously as opposed to having like transfers in who don't really know the culture they've never been in situations like this and they may get a little spooked so I think it helps them a lot they they understand the language they understand the moment and they understand what it takes to go out there and play and perform at a high level all right thanks