On Jalen Milroe

Jalen is a phenomenal athlete. First and foremost, a great football player. He can do a lot. I really think they've settled into what he does really well over the course of the season so give a lot of credit to Tommy Rees, Coach Saban, their coaching staff for — I think early in the year, any time you have a new starter you kind of maybe think you know what his strengths and weaknesses are and then you get out there and play in the big games that they play in. He's an elite athlete, an elite runner but he's a really good quarterback. He throws the ball better, I think, better than most people give him credit for. He's made a lot of big plays on deep balls this year. He's really capable of making that second play which, a lot of times, is dangerous for a defense. You stop the player, you cover the deep route, everybody is deep and in their zones and then he has the ability to take off. We've got to play really disciplined, really together, really as one in a lot of the things we're trying to do. We look forward to the great challenge that he is.

On the altered practice schedule

I think Coach Harbaugh, certainly, I think any time things happen you win or learn. I think he takes that mentality with everything. How can you always try to find a way to be better? He put a lot of thought into preparation. I think it's easy to look back and be like, well, we must have not prepared well for the game. I think that's a nonsense thing to say. That would discredit our players last year and their mentality. We certainly didn't play at our best. You look at it, you try to figure out why, you try to figure out the things you can do leading up to the game. Give coach a lot of credit for putting a lot of thought into it. To me, when the players believe in what you're doing, it doesn't matter what you're doing. If they really believe it's going to have them at their best and it's an advantage, then it's a great thing. I think our players are really bought into how we're doing it right now. There's a lot of mental work, there's a good amount of physical work, it's spaced out so I think they know when we want to go really fast. They know when they can walk through and slow it down. Major props to coach for looking at it, studying it and trying to put them in the best position to be successful on the first.

On how he thought Jaylen Harrell could be a traditional EDGE player

I think in 2021 he played SAM, which in base, he still plays. So he really still kind of plays the same position. He really didn't get any snaps in nickel that year with Aidan, David and some of the other guys they had. I think he has the size, the skillset, the strength to hold up as an edge player in the run game. I think he's really developed himself as a rusher. I think his flexibility has really improved. His takeoff, his get-off, his speed, he's relentless. A lot of our guys are but Jaylen, he has a relentless pursuit to get better. When I first got here, watched some of his tape, here's a couple of things to work on, you see him working on them all the time. Same thing after last year. I think it's a credit to him, his work ethic, his mentality. Hey, let's work on your flexibility a little bit, let's work on your ability to bend, let's work on your ability to work on the ball, let's work on your pass rush moves. I think he's really developed into a really good rusher for us. Super happy and proud with how he's developed.

On where his competitiveness comes from

I think both of my parents were involved in athletics. I was a good player as a kid, not like a great player. I think I've always been a chip on your shoulder, doubted mentality. When I was first trying to get into the profession and getting jobs, it's like, oh, he's getting that job because of his dad. I've always kind of heard that stuff and it's really just fuel, it's motivation. I think if you want your players to be really competitive and you want to play really competitive on Saturdays, you have to compete any time the ball is put down. That's really my mentality and I'm glad the players see that and feel that. They're really competitive as well and I think we're a good match together.

On his mother

My mom's name is Ellen. My parents split up when I was five, so I ended up in a split deal. Of course, my dad was the coach so anytime I was with him, I got all access to all these different football programs that he was involved in. My mom was an athlete growing up. Was a tennis coach, a basketball coach. Coached me and some of my teams as I was growing up because that's who I was with. Major props to both of them for instilling — I'm dealing with it with my son right now. My son is five, he's one of the most competitive people I know already, which is dangerous at that age because there's a lot of upset times where you don't win. My wife sometimes gets mad but I'm not upset that he's that competitive. I think it'll pay dividends for him in whatever he ends up doing. Just having that competitive nature, trying to be the best in what you do, I think, is a great mindset.

On balancing implementing Alabama-specific things versus throwing too much at players

I think it's a fine line. Personally, I try to learn from that from last year. In the amount of time you have, you gotta credit Tommy Rees and Nick Saban, they have the same amount of time. It's a balance of looking at yourself and maybe some of your own tendencies and situational stuff. Looking at them and their tendencies and also understand they're doing the same thing. I don't think you can put — some of the things you might do in a normal week of an 80% tendency you can put a lot of stock in, they're looking at that, too. They're trying to tweak some things and gauge some of those things. For us, we call a lot of these games training camp games, pillar games, where you kind of have to be ready for anything. I think the ability for us to go against our offense and multiple variations we see from them every day, I think really helps prepare for something you might not be preparing for that they do. Hopefully, we'll be ready and be ready to adjust to anything they throw at us.

On Alabama hiring George Helow

He left here, I believe, in January or February. Wasn't working for a team so props to him, he got hired by somebody. Coach Saban has probably done that all the time, probably every year. The guy is looking for a place to work, had worked with Coach Saban before so wasn't totally surprised by it. Happy for him that's what he's able to do. I think I've been here now for 27 games of film of our defense, so I don't put a ton of stock in. I think every week you may call somebody that worked with — I've tried to talk with people that work with some of their coaches and just try to figure it out. At the end of the day, what you see on tape is really who they are. You try to figure out how they operate their system. I think it'll be settled on the field by the players more than anything.

On what makes Mike Sainristil good in pass coverage and in run support

He has an elite competitive mindset to whatever he's asked to do — he's such a good teammate, he's such a good leader, he's really competitive. Whatever it is that the team, or coach or myself ask him to do, he attacks that with a mentality of I'm going to be really good at it. He has a knack, I think player receiver helped him, so he has a knack of understanding routes, patterns, sort of how routes work together. How one guy is going shallow, something else is probably coming higher. He understands that stuff really well from his offensive background. The thing that surprised me the most, doesn't really surprise me anymore, but was how sure of a tackler he was right away. As I was here, that really showed up right away. As I saw how we train special teams here and how everybody on the team is involved in that and does drills that really carry over to both sides of the ball and make you a better football player, it's kind of made sense why a lot of our guys are kind of good open field players. Good tacklers in that sense. Relentless mindset, competitor, wants to be good at everything that he does. The rareness of it, yeah, it's really rare for a guy to — I think there's a lot of times guys move over when they're not playing on the other side of the ball and say, hey, maybe you can help us here. For him to be a pretty good player on offense, make a bunch of big plays in key moments and in big games on offense just like now has for two years on defense, the Michigan legend thing is real for Mikey. There's not many more better than him.

On whether the top defenses in the Big Ten is a product of the offenses they're facing

You can certainly look at offensive statistical rankings and look at the Big Ten and it's factual, right, there's a decent amount of them towards the bottom of the list. Whether that's the defenses are good or they're bad, you could argue that every which way. Number one, we get a chance to go against a really good offense every day to help prepare us for these moments. There are some teams that have had some skill players that we've tried to match up with and try to defend. I don't think we've seen a quarterback like this. I think the closest thing we see is in practice with some of our guys. I think Taulia at Maryland, as a scrambler, kind of a similar type of guy. A guy like this involved in the run game, his ability to make off-schedule plays. To me, I think Alex Orji has done a great job, some of guys said this yesterday, he's done a phenomenal job. Davis Warren as well. It's hard to simulate their offensive line. You're talking about 6'7, 360, 6'7, 360, we don't have anybody. Myles Hinton is with our offense so we have nobody — that's the hardest thing to simulate and their speed of their receivers. While the quarterback is important and we're trying to do a great job corralling that guy, it's harder to simulate the other positons and the talent they've acquired over the years. Everybody knows they recruit at such a high level. That's the hardest thing to simulate. We'll find out on the 1st if we're prepared, honestly. Talking about it is really cheap at this point. We'll find out when the ball is kicked off, I'm confident in the way our guys have approached it, the way they're working that it'll give us an opportunity to, hopefully, have some success.

On zone coverage helping against a mobile quarterback

I think with a guy like that, there's times where you want to have really tight coverage that makes them hold the ball and there's times where you want to have as many guys as possible with eyes on him. I think it's a good blend of that. I do think we've certainly played a good amount of zone. Hopefully, when he does take off, we have enough people that see him in the open field and able to track him down, keep him from — he's gonna scramble. It might be a first and 10, drop-back pass where you might not have a spy or you might not have your third-down type of stuff schemed up, it's going to be our ability to limit those, keep them from becoming — he takes one against Auburn for 50 or plays like that. It's going to be our ability to limit those huge plays off that. I think it'll be a big factor in the game.

On how does the team create an underdog mentality when they're the number one team in the country

Well, I don't think it's taken much to create it. With the guys that we have, when we got back together, particularly as a defense and as a team, a lot of these guys, this is what they came back for. 13-0 is fantastic, nobody has ever won three-straight outright Big Ten Championships like this group has, like Coach Harbaugh has. But, at the same time, the group has been driven to get to this moment so pass failures often lead to that mentality, the chip on your shoulder. Even though we've had the success and it's great, nobody is ever going to take that away, it's really this moment, to a man, everybody said this is what we're gunning for, this is why we're coming back. That's why all the wins along the way are so crucial because it kept you on-path to get here. Now we're here and now it's on us to try and get further than we have and reach our ultimate destination. It doesn't guarantee that but I do think having that mentality of we feel like we're hungry, we feel like we're the underdog. This is the Alabama invitational, they've played in 8 out of the 10 playoffs, they've won a bunch of them. The SEC has won four or five in a row. Let's go. Let's bring on the best and let's play them and see where we're at.

On how much stress is on the middle backers when facing a scrambling quarterback

We actually use the Maryland game for our guys. That was, I think, in my opinion, one of our most unselfish, relentless pass-rush games. Particularly late when we needed to close out the game. This is a ultimate, ultimate group effort. Not trying to go rogue and do your own thing but fit within the framework of the rush lanes. Fit within the framework of the quarterback and then, certainly, the linebackers, particularly, on the normal downs, I would say, a lot when they're in zone and controlling the middle of the field. They've gotta have a really, really good sense of is he scrambling, is he past the line of scrimmage, if I come up too fast, he's elite at dumping the ball off to guys when he's close to the line. Those guys are going to play a huge part in our ability to contain them.

On Will Johnson's status

I'm not going to speak for Will but I think he's practicing really well. The extra little bit of time, he had about two-and-a-half weeks of non-football stuff after the Ohio State game because of not playing in the Big Ten Championship and the time that coach gave him. I think he's as close and as ready as he can be. I'm super excited to see him go out there and cover those guys. Him being at his best makes us a better defense. I expect Will to go out there and have a great game.

On how effective you can be as a linebacker with two casts on your hand like Junior Colson

I think he had 11 tackles and a TFL against Ohio State. The thing I love about Junior is his willingness to sacrifice, his willingness to lay it on the line for his teammates, for Michigan, for this program. He won the toughest player award. The guys have seen the stuff that he's dealt with this year. I think he's really athletic, really big, really fast and has still stayed as a really sure tackler. I'm excited to see him go out there and have a chance to play against these guys.

On why the defensive transfers worked this year

The three guys, Josh, Josaiah, Ernest, I was having a conversation with Coach Herb this morning, those three guys have completely elevated our defense in areas where we needed not only needed competition, we needed veterans, we needed experience, we needed depth. All three have been home runs in that regard. Josh Wallace, sometimes you look at the PFF stuff and it makes sense, sometimes it doesn't. But, I do know he was one of the highest-rated transfers at corner on the PFF stuff. I think he's played really well. Really steady. Exactly what we hoped he would be when we decided to recruit him. Feels like he started every game but I think there was a couple that he didn't, maybe we started in base or something. Key, key contributor. Ernest Hausmann, it's been well-documented but he came in and he made the other two guys better just by competition. He's elevated the depth in that room, he's allowed us to play more people. He went out there in the Big Ten Championship and I think he had 8 tackles. Played really well. Josaiah, I think he's going to be an elite rusher for a long time. I think he's got a really good skillset. I think he's settled in this year to learning everything, learning our defense. Splits time with Jaylen. You combine those two and those numbers and you probably have the Big Ten defensive player of the year if that was one person. It's two, they stay fresh, they stay healthy. He's played really well, he's been a great addition. The most important thing, they came in right away fit in line with the culture, brought their own personality to it and can't say enough about those guys and their addition that they brought.

---

Discuss this article with our community on our premium message boards

Not a subscriber to Maize & Blue Review? Sign up today to gain access to all the latest Michigan intel M&BR has to offer

Follow our staff on Twitter: @JoshHenschke, @Berry_Seth14, @TrevorMcCue, @DennisFithian, @BrockHeilig, @JimScarcelli, @lucasreimink

Subscribe to our podcasts: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify

Check out Maize & Blue Review's video content on YouTube

Follow Maize & Blue Review on social media: Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram