Afternoon Live is a daily podcast hosted by M&BR's Dennis Fithian. Former Michigan quarterback John Navarre appeared on the podcast on Wednesday to discuss the quarterback position and his time in Ann Arbor.
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On what he remembers about the first day of all camp
That was Tom's senior year and, obviously, back then, nobody had any clue what Tom was going to be today. We all knew he was pretty special. I remember him taking us young freshmen peons under his wing. The first practice, you don't get many reps but I had gotten in there for a rep near the end of practice. It was a simple 12-yard curl flat read and Tom kind of told me where to go with the ball. I was so jacked up in there and I think it was DiAllo Johnson was the receiver. I stepped back and he was wide open and I rifled one about 1,000 miles per hour, 12 feet over his head and sailed out of the practice field. Everybody went, 'Woah!' I was a little hot. Tom kind of gave me some coaching, told me to calm down but he kind of made fun of me a little bit, too. That was my first memory of my first real-live practice with all the big guys in a live stage at that level coming out of high school.
On whether there was anticipation about a Tom Brady vs. Drew Henson QB competition in the fall
It was evident and clear from Coach Carr that there was going to be some competition but I think a lot of us knew that Tom was the leader. Drew was a great leader as well but Tom was the leader of the team, and he had been there for a while and he built a good relationship with the guys. I think everybody kind of sensed that we knew there was going to be a competition and we know the talent and the opportunities that Drew could bring. Everybody knew this was Tom's team and this was his year. You see some parallels with what's going on right now with Cade and JJ. I think it's kind of the same type of deal. Sure seems like shades of 99. We all knew that, we all understood it. It was a good understanding. There was a right time for Drew to come in and you saw that throughout that season. Ultimately, everybody knew that was Tom's team.
On how reps break down during practice
In my time and the history when I was playing, it kind of started out early on as an equal divvy up. You got the sense as it went on and it got closer to the first week of game prep practice that whoever was going to be the starter, the reps would shift more towards that quarterback. It's not something that's really formally announced and they make a big team announcement, here's what we're gonna do. It's gradually picked up by everybody and it's a slower process that everybody picks up on their own that doesn't need to be said. Everybody sees the same film, they can all see the performance and they're all making their own assessment on who is playing better in practice. It doesn't need to be announced, OK, today Cade got five gold stars and JJ got four. Everybody knows. It's not a mystery when you're in that inner circle because everybody is watching the same film and they pick up, yeah, this is probably where it's leading. That correlates to the field on who gets more reps the next day based on how practice went and the evaluation of how the game film went. It just kind of happens organically. There's no real cut and dry turning point, everybody knows.
On if Cade McNamara is named a captain, does that translate to being a starter?
It doesn't mean that. A guy that is voted captain is because he is the leader, he's the go-to guy but it doesn't mean he's the starter. I think you'll probably see a similar set-up where there's split time just like last year. A captain is not voted on as the sole discretion on who is the starter. I'm voting captain so he's a starter at this position or he has to be a starter to be a captain, that's not a prerequisite. A captain is who is a leader of this team regardless of depth chart. That's really what it is. It's not an indicator—it could be an indicator of who is going to be the starter but it's not the sole indicator. It's more voted on by who is the leader.
On how you evaluate freelance capabilities of a quarterback
I think how you evaluate it is to give them enough rope to be successful until it stops being successful. If the kid's talented let them do what he's good at. The more repetitions of those off-schedule type of plays, the better those type of guys get. We've seen that in the NFL through to college, these coaches are letting these guys do those type of things instead of (staying in the pocket). That was frowned upon back in the day, it was taboo to throw across your body, against the grain, on the run. You got pulled out of practice for that kind of stuff. Now, when the players get away with it, the coaches are letting it happen and letting their talent play out. I think when it starts to get them into too much trouble if their successful more times than they are not and they keep getting better, let them roll. How you evaluate both players with the two different types of styles that they have, again, I sound like a broken record but I keep referring back to Tom Brady and Drew Henson, we had this back in 1999. You saw how it worked out there, I think it's a very, very similar situation. I think the coaches are probably going to do the same types of things that they did last year, similar to 99 as well.
On evaluating Cade McNamara's experience last season
That holds a ton of weight with me and I would anticipate that would hold an extreme amount of weight with the coaches. Experience is the ultimate highlight on the resume for a quarterback. It just allows you to become better, you become more knowledgable. It certainly helped me over the years get better each year. More live time I had in Michigan Stadium, the better I got week after week and year after year. Experience trumps all in my mind. I think that's so valuable and gives (McNamara) the benefit to be the starter with the coaches and with the players, really, no matter what happens, in my mind.
On how he would play a two-quarterback system (dividing time by quarters or at random?)
I think the Brady-Henson plan is a good plan. That way everybody knows what's going to happen and there's no surprises. Like, hey, why am I coming out? The starting quarterback doesn't have to say that, he knows what's going to happen. He can game prep mentally around that. One of the main purposes of Coach Carr doing that, is he can keep that backup quarterback live, keep him in the game, and keep him mentally engaged. It's tough to come in off the bench and be in the pocket, in the groove, right away and having that sprinkled in series helps with that. If it's talked about, it's openly communicated that this is what we're doing and everybody is on the same page, I think it's easier for both quarterbacks to be successful. You still have to have a little grey area there. Let's say JJ is scheduled to come in on the first series of the second half, let's say Cade in the first half hasn't missed a pass and has thrown for three touchdowns, you certainly don't interrupt that. There's got to be some exceptions and wiggle room that you have to have and I think everybody would understand that. He's got the hot hand. The other way, too. Let's say Cade has thrown three interceptions in the first period, maybe you move that transition up a little bit. If you start with the foundation, the schedule that everybody understands. I think that's the best approach rather than looking over your shoulder and nobody knows when except for the head coach that's going to pull the trigger. That's not, in my mind, the best way to go about it.
On what he's up to now
I work for Alro Steel. Alro is a company based out of Jackson, Michigan. I got very close with the owner of Alro, who has now passed, Al Glick. I'm sure that's a very familiar name to your fanbase and Michigan. I started with them immediately after my NFL career. Had a good relationship with Al throughout the years. He had a good relationship with Michigan football. The reason he loved Michigan football was because of the tradition and the values that Michigan was all about. He ran his business very similarly. There was a lot of correlation between the company I work for now, their values and their culture, in comparison to Michigan football. The transition was easy. I'm in a leadership position where I'm following and instilling those values and cultures I learned from Michigan, I learned from Al and I learned from Alro. It was very easy. It's been a good transition, I'm happy where I'm at. I think the foundation of those principles that I learned from Michigan, from the Michigan family, from Lloyd Carr, those mentors that I had would really set me up to be successful in, I guess, anything that I do. I think I got very lucky in the company that I'm with now with the history and the connection to Michigan football.
On his thoughts on Michigan's offense
The offense does look good in terms of, most importantly and back to my earlier point of senior experience. There's a lot of returning guys, there's a lot of upper classmen. That is so valuable on a team and the offense. It's so valuable to have these guys back, to have that game experience. Do it again. Learn from their mistakes last year and have some maturity. I'm very excited about Ronnie Bell coming back, I loved him, he was one of my favorite players over the last couple of years. I felt so bad for him last year, I'm happy he has another shot. He's going to do some great things. They have so much young talent that got a taste of it last year, showed what they can do and they're going to be that much better this year because of that mentality of maturity, I've been here before, there's no surprises. That is so valuable on a team.
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