Opening Statement

Thanks for being here. First off, I want to say I am really excited and grateful for this opportunity that Coach Harbaugh has given myself and Mike Hart. It's great to be 1-0, would love to shout out Jesse Minter and Kirk Campbell, did a fantastic job taking care of their duties in the game. Jesse was on top of the game situations, was poised, he was really a natural and he set the bar really high for myself and for Mike. Kirk did a great job as well. He was on top of all the calls, seems like he was a play ahead all the time. We're really lucky to have him, he did a fantastic job. I'm excited for this opportunity. Any way you can serve the team is a great thing, any opportunity to do that is a privilege. Coach Harbaugh has set it up in a way that's really, we get the opportunity as a staff to walk the way in terms of what we tell the players. Hey, one guy is out, it's the next man up. You have a great opportunity to expand what you can do. As a coach, expand your experience and just really excited for that. I think it's a great testament to him and the culture that he's created. He's out and you can see everything function pretty much the same as when he's here. I think that's a testament to his leadership. It's easy to be a leader and being at the front and getting the attention, that's not how Coach Harbaugh is. If you've really done an effective job at leading the team, you can step away and you've created leaders, you've created culture and the expectation is understood and people know, hey, this is the standard, this is how it's going to be. I think we're showing that right now and want to try and carry that over another week and try to show it against a talented UNLV team that's coming in here. It'll be an exciting game. They're really good. They have a lot of really good players, they hit the portal really hard. Coach Odom is doing a really nice job, it's clear that he's got the Rebels on the move. A lot of speed, a lot of good skill players. It'll be a challenge for our defense. Certainly be a great challenge for our special teams. They have a lot of speed on the field, a lot of good returners. It'll be a challenge for us, really excited for it.

On how much Jim Harbaugh and Sherrone Moore is missed

I don't know if you can quantify it but we certainly miss them. It's like you have a family gathering for a holiday and you don't have a parent or uncle, or aunt or grandparent that's normally there. It's weird. You're accustomed to doing things with your family. That being said, you carry on. You have the meal as a celebration or whatever. Definitely makes you appreciate it even more when you don't get to do the thing you love with people that you love. Will be excited when that time comes. Excited to have Coach Moore back this week.

On Keon Sabb and the other young safeties

We were really pleased with them. A lot of great stuff, some PBUs, a lot of great angles to the football. It wasn't too big for them, that was exciting to see. Obviously, there's things to clean up as is always the case but definitely a lot to be pleased with those guys.

On the punt returners

The punt returners, they were put in a unique situation. They have played a different punter that was a lefty and the guy who was traditionally the punter was Australian so that was a little bit different. Different than they had prepared for. They handled it really well. There was a lot of low hangtime punts. A lot shorter than we're accustomed to seeing. A lot of times that really is a lot more challenging than a deeper, further pun because you have more separation, guys aren't in your face. For a new returner, that's really tough stuff because there's a lot of decision-making that has to happen in about one to one and a half seconds. Am I going to field this ball or not? Also, are any of my teammates at risk of getting hit by the ball? Gotta make sure they're out of the way. That's a tough thing, I thought Thaw handled it great, unfortunately, the first one hit one of their guys but the ball should've been downed back there but he did a nice job and it was great to get Karmello English a little bit of experience as well. Excited to build on that this week.

On James Turner's range

Turner has got tremendous range. The one he hit was into a pretty decent headwind. He's got a really strong leg. As he builds more consistency and that operation gets better and better, I think you'll see him continue to hit kicks from 50-plus.

On the collaborative approach between him and Mike Hart

Mike and I will have a great conversation, we've already had some thus far about the vision for, hey, how are things looking at this point? Aggressiveness, different situations, that kind of thing. A lot of those things end up being a little later in the week in terms of exactly how we feel about different parts of the game. Maybe how you feel about a fourth down plan or low red, situations where those decisions are going to be made, you don't necessarily know that on a Monday. As you rep stuff and see how you're performing, things tend to take shape a little later in the week. Mike is a fantastic coach, he's a great friend. Our offices are right next door to each other. We're going to have a lot of fun doing this and try to do the best job that we can.

On what players stepping up off the field look like

I would say it's the usual suspects. We have a really strong group of captains and senior leadership, older guys. You don't need permission to lead and our guys have—they have embodied that. You don't need the captain title to be a leader. The same is true of the coaches. Mike Hart is one of the best leaders we have. His title is, hey, he's not the OC or DC, et cetera. He's an A-plus-plus leader. All that stuff trickles down from the head coach. Everything is about the team. On the team, you are your brother's keeper and you are the keeper of the standard. I think collectively, players and coaches, you see that embodied week in and week out.

On how much is playing backups set during the week and whether it's something he and Mike Hart will decide on

Probably a process throughout the week, as it goes on.

On how he defines the responsibility he has on Saturday and whether he will give a pregame speech

I suppose I will, I haven't thought about it much. The work to winning a game, as you guys know, it's well done before that. It's something I'll think about beforehand. In terms of the responsibility, I think Coach Harbaugh said it best. He said it last week as well. Whoever is in that role, you're trying to be the guardian of victory and carry that spirit that the head coach has which is all about the team. It's not about the offense, the defense or special teams, it's not about any of the coaches or these players, it's about the team as a whole and try to do the very best that you can to put the team in the best position to win. Coach Hart and I are going to try to do the best that we can to prove him right and carry that spirit into this game.

On whether he has nerves

No. I get nervous before games anyway. I think it's a normal part of competition. You prepare and you get anxious and excited for what's in store. You have a lot of cool plays or cool schemes. Hey, how is this going to do? It's a very, very exciting thing and there's a lot of buildup to that. I think, for coaches, a lot of times it's the same as the players once the ball is kicked off. Oh, great, this is just football. Really, really excited for it.

On whether the messaging changes with James Turner compared to Jake Moody

No, I wouldn't say it changes at all. He's a guy that's kicked a lot at this level, tons of experience. You're not gonna—with that position, or any position, you don't get negative. You just go back and look at, hey, this is what could've been better, this is what we should do differently moving forward or these are the steps toward improvement. You just try to carry over that improvement into next week.

On how you don't get seduced by the pass and reemphasize the identity of the team

That question would probably be better for Mike. But I would say, yeah, being a run X-percentage and pass X-percentage, respectfully, that's not part of anything that we talk about. We just want to win and we the winning percentage to be 1.000 and that's the main one we care about. A really good offense, you have the ability to play however you need to play. If you can run the ball and dominate that way, you run to throw that way, great. Throw to run it, that's great. Mike can talk about it more specifically. I think the offense that they've built is very cool in that way and the kind of offense you need to have at a high level.

On Kalel Mullings and Alex Orji at kick returner

Yeah, they're huge, right? That's pretty exciting. It's kind of an ongoing competition. Kind of like Kalel, Orji is exciting. Would like to get Roman Wilson back there at some point again if we can. Little bit of a competition but it is exciting having a bigger body because a lot of times in the special teams world, you have guys playing defense that maybe aren't offensive players. More tackles than not are missed by offensive players on special teams than on defense which is probably to be assumed, right? It's not their day job. I think having a bigger body is exciting. Maybe not quite as fast as having a true speed guy but it definitely gives you a positive component of physicality in that play.

On the ways he's grown as a coach at Michigan

We don't have the time for that, it's a lot of ways. The way I would say it, and I mentioned this earlier, when you're on a staff like this, Coach Harbaugh coaches the coaches which is probably not talked about a lot. That's a privilege. For us, as assistant coaches, you're at your best when you are doing exactly what you ask the players to do, which is craving the feedback, craving coaching. Our head coach has been around football forever, he's seen all the mistakes that can be made, he knows better ways to do it. When he looks at something and says, hey, you can do it this way or I'd maybe consider this, we are wise when we listen to him. I would just say gradually, over the years, if you have that right attitude and you're working for him, you're gonna grow exponentially because he's giving really, really sound advice. It's a privilege to be in an atmosphere like that. The only thing i would add, too, is that he, as a head coach, he's super inclusive of us. A lot of times the head coach goes down the hall and does his thing and you might not know why. He gives us the why behind pretty much everything. The decision is made, hey guys, can we get together? It might be five minutes. This is what I'm doing, I'm making this move. This is why I'm thinking about it. Is everyone good? Great, got it. You accumulate enough of those over the years and you understand the reasoning behind what he does and, ultimately like I mentioned, everything is about what gives us the very best of winning the next game. Like the rest of us, being in that atmosphere has helped quite a bit with all of us and our growth.

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