This is the last in a week-long series sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011

This may not be the actual cover, but wouldn't it be sweet if it was? We're capping off our "Where I Come From" series today. It's been a lot of fun talking about everything from our favorite players and teams to tailgating to the coming season. What I've appreciated most about it has been the reaction I've gotten from you guys. The stories. The great snarky comments. Everything. we're going to close this one out with some canned copy from our homies at EA Sports, but first, here's the list of everything we've covered so far.

Monday: How I Became A Michigan Football Fan
Tuesday: Maize n Brew's All-Time Favorite Michigan Football Team
Wednesday: Maize n Brew's Michigan Tailgating Traditions
Thursday: Maize n Brew's All-Time Favorite Michigan Football Players 
Friday: My Most Memorable Michigan Football Moment
Monday: Maize 'n Expectations for the 2010 Michigan FootballSeason
Tuesday: Christmakwanzanukah in July, the Release of 2011

So that's it. If you're looking for the game, order it from the source. And now, a word from our sponsor.

When you go to a particular school or grow up around college football, you are more than just a fan. It’s who you are. We thought we could leverage this pride in your roots and show that "where you come from" is more than just a statement about geography. By positioning NCAA Football 11 as a game that understands this pride and is authentic to these traditions, the takeaway should be that anything that is in college football is in NCAA Football 11. And this doesn’t just include game play (though that’s a huge part of it). It’s rivals and mascots; it’s legends and stories. It’s those things that are at the very fabric of the game itself. Of course the game is great this year as well. With authentic entrances, mascots and specific offenses for each team, the term "where I come from" takes on a much larger meaning. While playing NCAA Football 11 is ultimately a great sports sim, it should also give you a sense of the pride and emotion one has for being a fan of a team they will never not be a part of.

Less than a month till practice starts. Thank god we've got somethig to pass the time with now.

This is the sixth in a week-long series sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011

Monday: How I Became A Michigan Football Fan
Tuesday: Maize n Brew's All-Time Favorite Michigan Football Team
Wednesday: Maize n Brew's Michigan Tailgating Traditions
Thursday: Maize n Brew's All-Time Favorite Michigan Football Players 
Friday: My Most Memorable Michigan Football Moment
Monday: Expectations for the 2010 Season
Tuesday: Christmakwanzanukah in July, the Release of 2011

Expectations for the 2010 Michigan Football Season

If anyone tells you the know what's going to happen to the Michigan football team this season slap them. Slap them hard. If anyone is being honest, they have no clue what's going to happen this year. As Adam Rittenberg has already said, this team could win ten games, but it could also lose ten games. The Sporting News has Michigan as the 71st ranked team and the Orlando Sentinel has the Wolverines at 68. Then there's Tom Deinhart and the Rivals.com crew who have Michigan ranked at least at No. 41. There are just far too many questions on both sides of the ball to give anyone a clear idea of what's going to happen this year on field for the Wolverines. So with that in mind, I'm not going to tell you how the season will play out (yet), but I am going to tell you what I expect to see from several key players and positions.

There Will be Improved Quarterback Play - This seems pretty obvious, but after the Iowa game neither quarterback looked very good. Denard Robinson wasn't allowed to throw because he missed spring practice and Tate Forcier couldn't throw because of a torn up shoulder. Both were turnovers waiting to happen at the end of the year as the defenses got more complicated and the weight of a full year of college football caught up to them. With the summer off and some time at home I expect big things out of both Robinson and Forcier. The time to heal for Forcier is going to be a huge difference maker for the incoming sophomore. Additionally, knowing the type of competitor and student of the game he is, I have no doubt that Tate spent a lot of time watching film so that he doesn't make the same mistakes he made last year, this year. As for Denard, for the first time in his life he had real quarterback coaching and the difference it made is undeniable. He was the star of the Spring Game and showed off his arm just as much as his feet.

What it all boils down to is experience is the best teacher. Tate and Denard will make some mistakes this year. But they'll be different ones and they'll be far less frequent. And with that experience will come ball security. As both quarterbacks cut down on their mental mistakes and limit their turnovers, production out of the quarterback position will skyrocket this year.

A Healthy David Molk Should Make the Michigan Line One of the Big 10's Best - Without question David Molk was the heart and soul of the Michigan offense. If you doubt me look at the precipitous drop in production of this offense the moment he went down. Molk is a special player that actually makes every player on that line and in that offense better because he is so damn good. Molk actually understands the offense, the assignments, and everyone else's responsibilities and his loss last year sent the whole offense into chaos. With Molk back, he, Stephen Schilling, Patrick Omameh, Mark Huyge, and Taylor Lewan/Perry Dorrestein should keep Michigan's quarterbacks upright and clear the way for a potent offense.

More after the jump........

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It's been a week already, but we've had such a great response to the posts associated with the campaign, I wanted to give everyone a chance to click through the stories, read the comments and contribute their own thoughts on our shared mania. I hope you've had as much fun reading these as I've had writing them.

Monday: How I Became A Michigan Football Fan
Tuesday: Maize n Brew's All-Time Favorite Michigan Football Team
Wednesday: Maize n Brew's Michigan Tailgating Traditions
Thursday: Maize n Brew's All-Time Favorite Michigan Football Players 
Friday: Most Memorable Moments
Monday: Expectations for the 2010 Season
Tuesday: Christmakwanzanukah in July, the Release of 2011

This is the fifth post in a week-long series sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011

via gregdooley.com

It's funny how rough mornings always follow good nights. In 1997 I was a senior (actually, an LSA redshirt junior) at Michigan with I presumed graduation in sight and too much time and money on my hands. "Too much" of either remains a relative term. Back then $26 was enough for lunch, dinner and a night of heavy drinking at Mitch's Place, and time meant there was just enough between last call and class that I could get a full four or five hours of sleep before I started the whole cycle all over again.

But Friday evening, October 24, 1997, was one of those nights where time was truly in abundance. I had no plans for the following Saturday morning/afternoon other than to sleep off a well deserved hangover, order a Bell's pizza and watch whatever portion of the Michigan Michigan State game I was conscious for. So, that night my friend Todd and I went out to the Ann Arbor bars, dragging our poor, screaming livers along with us.

Todd was and is an old friend. We'd known one another since the first day we both set foot in Bursley hall. He a Jersey Shore kid. Me a mixed up kid from Chicago by way of a six year sentence in Dallas. We had little in common on the bat, but that didn't seem to matter. For whatever reasons people become friends and stay friends, we did. The only time our friendship was tested was when we would chase after the same woman or I'd pick Dale Hunter and the Washington Capitals on NHL 94 just so I could make Pierre Turgeon bleed on his 14 inch tube television.

Several pitchers into the night we decided we would drive up to the Michigan Michigan State game the next morning and scalp tickets. Michigan was undefeated and dammit, we weren't going to miss the opportunity to rub someone's face in it. It was the kind of plan that hatches only after the point in an evening where the alcohol in your system has hijacked your neural pathways and diverted every warning signal your brain would normally produce to Cleveland. At the time, as well as I remember it, 2:30 am, it sounded like a great idea. Of course this was also the kind of bargain that can be hatched and memorialized only when at least one party to the agreement doesn't truly believe the other will follow through on it. Some time around 4am wwe parted ways, assuring one another that yes, we would make the game. I walked into my apartment and immediately fell asleep on my couch, full intent on carrying out my original plan, mentally wagering that Todd would easily sleep well past 2 in the afternoon and forget about the whole thing.

Notsomuch.

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This is the fourth post in a week-long series sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

No discussion of fandom is complete without talking a little bit about the players that made us so fanatical about our beloved Wolverines. I've got two that stand out, but a handful that may surprise you. I'm curious to hear about your favorites as well.

Maize n Brew's All-Time Favorite Michigan Football Players

Charles Woodson- As if this is even up for discussion. Woodson was and is greatest football talent I've ever seen in person. Many people with his type of talent are content to go through life simply living off whatever effort they're willing to put forth on a given day; Woodson is not one of those people. Having talked to him, watched interviews and read statements about him in the press for years, Woodson is a person who will never be satisfied with his on-field performance. And that is what makes him great. He never took a play off. And if you beat him, he was damn well going to make sure you didn't do it twice. Whether on offense, defense or special teams Woodson was always a difference maker. Now, as a professional, Woodson spends his time fundraising for Mott and other charities when he's not being sent to the Pro Bowl. He's just one of those guys. By far, my favorite Michigan defensive player of all time.

Desmond Howard- If Chucky is my favorite defensive player, Desmond is my favorite offensive player to suit up for Michigan. Every time the ball went anywhere near him you held your breath, knowing that something special might just happen. And when Desmond was on the big stage, whether against Ohio State or Notre Dame, he found a way to raise his game another notch. If anyone can pull off wearing a cape, it's Hello Heisman. If it's fourth and a foot, who are you going to go to?

Zoltan Mesko- The Space Emperor. It is very, very rare that you find a personality in sports that matches the hype you build up around it. Zoltan was one one of those rare exceptions. An All-American level punter and an All-American person, the smile on Zoltan's face never seemed to go away while he was at Michigan. Whether he was doing his weird little layup jump after returning to the sideline, falling down while touching the M Banner, or goofing around Newserbann, Zoltan always seemed to be enjoying himself. His performance on the field belied that state of mind as he boomed punt after punt into the stratosphere. We had a lot of fun with Zoltan over the years and he was incredibly gracious with us when we approached him. The top two slots in our Michigan hero cabinet might be taken by Des and Chucky, but we're more than willing to make some space for Zoltan.

More names and some surprises after the jump...................

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This is the third post in a week-long series sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

Tailgating.

It's strange that a nine letter word can instill so much passion, excitement and anticipation in a fan. But it does. Tailgating drives normally sane men and women to purchase mobile homes for no other reason than to use them as mobile kitchens and bathrooms with which to pre and post game party at a college football game. It drives us to find new and creative ways to deep fry a turkey, slam a Natural Lite (ICE), and pass the time by throwing things onto other things. It turns the Tennessee River into a floating dock of alcoholism, fried food, fat people, and insanely hot southern belles in sun dresses. It also makes the normally reserved Purdue Alumni base do this.

At Michigan, tailgating is an art. Art in the "is that an elephant feces version of Mona Lisa" sense. We party. It ain't always pretty. But we party. And we're pretty damn proud of it. There are literally thousands of places to tailgate in Ann Arbor, but if you're doing it right you're probably on one of Ann Arbor's golf courses, and within walking distance of the Big House.

For me, nothing beats tailgating on the University of Michigan Golf Course. Depending on the game time, the second those gates open off of State Street I try to be one of the first people on the course. If I'm lucky, I get a spot under a tree to shade my pasty Irish ass from the September sun and I start my set up.Now remember, a good tailgate, especially a Michigan Tailgate, is nothing without preparation and adherence to tradition.

First, you need to determine your ride. If possible, you should arrive in this:  

Now not everyone can possess an "ultimate" Michigan Tailgating rig such as this, but that shouldn't stop you from trying. Believe me, after tailgating for six hours the presence of your own, personal bathroom is worth it's weight in whatever illicit substance or monetary unit you prefer. After that third bratwurst and a slice of Aunt May's mayonnaise and bacon pie that you just ate to be polite but secretly liked, the presence of a toilet seat that hasn't been peed on (recently, depending on proximity to game time) becomes more important on an instinctual basis than procreating. In addition, a rig such as this allows you to decorate and modify it to your hearts content. Want to paint a Michigan version of Rembrandt's "The Night Watchman on the side? Go for it. Decide that your tailgate isn't complete without deep fried snickers bars? Add on a double-barrelled blast of two friers in the luggage compartment that slide out to reveal one frying up Oreos and the other preparing a turducken. Yeah... you feel me.

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via graphics8.nytimes.com

This is the second post in a week-long series sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

For someone who graduated from Michigan in 1999 (on the 5 year plan, of course), this should be obvious. The 1997 National Championship and 1998 Rose Bowl Champion team would be the logical choice. Hutchinson. Woodson. Greise. Ray. Streets. Steele. Sword. Gold. It was one of the most vicious defenses the school has ever seen and one of the most underrated offenses ever to suit up for Michigan. They won the Big Ten outright, a share of the National Title, the Heisman Trophy, and the Rose Bowl. I even ran out onto the field when the final gun sounded on that sweet day in November when Michigan clinched its trip to Pasadena against Ohio State.

But the 1997 Rose Bowl winning Michigan team isn't my favorite. To be honest, it'd be pretty disingenuous of me to say it was. Especially when I spent more time following the hockey team in 1997-1998 than I did the football team. While I loved Michigan and followed the football team, I wasn't invested in that team the way I should've been if it was going to be my favorite team.

When you're picking a favorite, you have to dig a little deeper than just discussing trophies. There has to be something about that team that connects with you in an intangible way, such that sanity and logic are foreign notions when discussing it. For me, my all time favorite Michigan team is the 2006 Michigan Football squad.

I know it's probably strange to read that, but bare with me. The 2006 team was the first Michigan team that I was truly and fully invested in. It wasn't just passing season that bridged the gaps between Baseball's last and first pitches. It was something more. Michigan was something special that year. But they weren't perfect, and maybe that's why I love that team so much.

Heroes are a difficult thing to explain. No one ever seems to cling to the perfect hero. The man or woman without fault is rarely the object of our adulation, instead the insanely talented, charismatic person with the critical flaw seems to garner our spotlight. Why else do people prefer Batman to Superman? These imperfections make these characters interesting. More importantly, these flaws make them human and accessible to us. And so it was with the 2006 team.

It was a cast of imperfect heroes. Steve Breston. Mike Hart. Chad Henne. LaMarr Woodley. Leon Hall. Mario Manningham. Jake Long. Adrian Arrington. And so on. All of them with their faults. All of them the object of our praise and affection.

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This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA Football 2011.

It must have been something about the winged helmets.

Growing up I had no connection to the University of Michigan whatsoever. My father was a Harvard grad and my mother went to a tiny bible college in Kansas. Even my grandparents had no affiliation with Michigan. The closest I got to Ann Arbor on any familial path was through my grandfather, and he did his undergraduate and doctoral work at Minnesota (Da U, as he would call it). So, as you can see, it's been a strange and wonderful path that's led me to this moment.

Moving from Chicago to Dallas as a petulant tween, my interest laid in the diamond rather than the gridiron. I considered myself to be a pretty good baseball player, and at that age no one felt it worth their while to quash my dreams just yet. So I played baseball incessantly, pausing for a brief moment in time to try out for the junior high football team while trying to adjust to my new football mad surroundings. As you can guess, it didn't go so well. Being, in some cases, three full years younger than the other competitors put me at somewhat of a disadvantage and my time in pads and cleats quickly came to an end as I pursued other endeavors. But that time did instill in me a respect for anyone who was crazy enough to smash heads like that six days a week as a hobby.

I'd been a Chicago Bears fan since I could crawl, but with no family ties to college football I rarely watched the college game. That is until high school and everyone started talking about where they were going to college and my Friday nights were become dominated by flood lights, aluminum stands, and crappy astroturf. All of a sudden I was watching college football. Regularly.

Many friends in high school were Notre Dame fans. I couldn't tell you why a bunch of teenagers in the late 80's early 90's liked Notre Dame so much, especially in Texas, but they did. As an Irishman myself, it would've been the logical thing for me to pull for Notre Dame, but I never did. For some reason the team they played every early September captured my imagination and has held it to this very day. When I watched Michigan play, watched those beautiful winged, maize n blue helmets march up and down the field, I was hooked.

But "Hooked" is a loaded term in Dallas, where you're either Hook 'Em or Gig 'Em. Maybe something bang bang for Tech, but who can recall at this point? Kids from Dallas didn't go to Michigan. It was too far. Too expensive. Too not Texas.Thankfully, that didn't faze me. I wasn't a Dallas kid, nor did I want to remain in Texas. Based solely on what I'd seen on television, Michigan had entered my consciousness and that was a school I wanted to apply to.

The more I learned about Ann Arbor and the programs Michigan had to offer, the more I wanted to go there. But it was a trip to Ann Arbor in February that finally sealed the deal. As I walked around Ann Arbor, talked with people, and breathed in the cold winter air, I knew that Michigan was the place for me.

Strangely though, when I got there football wasn't that important to me. I spent most of my time at Yost, playing or officiating hockey games, going to Michigan hockey games, and generally enjoying myself. Sure I went to all the football games, but it wasn't until after I left college that Michigan football truly took control of me.

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