On the running game

Things to work on. Just so impressed with the squad tonight, just a bunch of stalwarts. Where do you want to start, really. J.J. McCarthy 65%, 335 yards. Roman Wilson, 9 catches, 135 yards. Career highs. Will Johnson, big-time game. He was playing good down after down, right from the start. Big night for Tommy Doman. Really impressed, four kicks inside the 12-yard lines, four punts. Semaj Morgan and a whole lot of others. 41 points. Offense came out and got stopped a couple times and then Semaj broke the big one for us and got us going again. The astounding thing right now is the third-down production. J.J. McCarthy coming into this game third and seven-plus, believe he was 19 of 20 and was great gain tonight. I know we were 7 from 14 on third down but these are third and longs, third and 7, third and 8. The production, the throws he's making. Outstanding. I thought our running backs ran hard again. Specifically to your question. Four or five rushing touchdowns tonight. Blake was really good. I think Donovan, of course, he had the big catch earlier in the game. I thought he was running hard, running into form.

On the Big Ten commissioner meeting on Friday

I appreciate your question. Not allowed to talk about it, not talking about him, really want to talk about the game. The guys were such stalwarts. The comments keep coming about why they're good, how they're good. They're just good. If you know football and you watch our guys play, I've said it before, there's 20, 22, 23 guys that'll be playing on Sundays next year. I truly believe there's another 30, 35 right behind them that'll return and others that will be developing. It's just really good players. If you know football, just watch the game, turn on the tape, that's why they're so good. They're good at it.

On Ryan Walters and the postgame handshake

Typical postgame handshake.

On J.J. McCarthy's performance

Really good. If I look back at that, it might be a career night for most quarterbacks. Me included. 65%, 335 yards. Really great plays. Some things to clean up. Missed on a location of a couple balls and we had some drops. Great to get the win and still have a couple things to work on. I don't know what J.J.'s completion percentage was coming into the game, 77.8, something like that. 78.1? Now? Yeah, it might've dropped a couple points. Maybe three balls that would've been a little better location, three or four balls, that would've been caught, made the tough catch, it would've been close to 435 yards. That's a big, big night. As I said, judge a quarterback on third down. Judge how he—his numbers on third down. That's the money down. He's been lights out.

On what he tells his players on the outside noise

Stalwarts, savage warriors, yeah, go ahead and question them about why they're good, how they got good. It's practically a priceless gift to get to where we want to go.

On the improvement week and rust in the game

No, I didn't really see it. Offense came out clicking, defense was lights out right out of the gate. You talk about the first quarter, touchdown, touchdown, field goal. Defensively, the same thing. What was it, four three-and-outs? Maybe five including the interception. The amount of one first down and then outs. It was a dominant performance. Our defense dominated tonight. I didn't really see the rust. I saw our guys refreshed. They were ready to play and played great. Another 41 points. 41 to 6.

On the DL disrupting passes

Mike's done an incredible job. Looking at the timing on the twist gains, the hand placement, the knockback, the pressure that our defense puts on is exceptional. Good for us. Good for us on offense, too. We face it, we go against that every single day in practice.

On Semaj Morgan

He's electric. Ball in his hands, it's got a chance to go the distance. He's just strong. Not huge in stature, not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog. He's every bit—and a true freshman. The guys love him. It's a spark the way he competes. Every time he touches the ball there's a chance.

On whether he would accept a penalty from the Big Ten

I respect your question. As you know, I'm not in a position to answer that.

On whether the defense playing so well gives him the confidence to go for it on fourth down

It sure does. The way the flow of the game was going, from beginning to end, our defense was dominant tonight. Against the run, had a pass or two that broke out. Overall, I thought the fits were outstanding by the run fits from our defense. Junior Colson is a complete stud. What a player he is. Mason Graham, again, playing with the club. Run wall. Secondary, talked about Will. He could've had another interception, too. Just barely got tipped away, I think it was Rod Moore trying to make a play on the ball, just got a little bit—got a finger on it otherwise he would've had another one. We were near the ball a lot. The quarterback did a good job, talked about how athletic he was, you saw that tonight. He was able to get out of some pressure and some trouble. Overall, dominant.

On having Santa Ono's support

It's deeply appreciated.

On the run game and not facing third and longs

As you can tell, we throw it and run it on first down. I think that's a really good place to be. We'll look at it, clean a few things up. Just for two seconds, even, I just ask you and people who watch football and watch a lot of football who are expert evaluators of quarterback play—two seconds, just enjoy the ability of J.J. McCarthy and the talent that he is. As a passer, as a runner, as a leader. It doesn't come along every day, every year, every decade, ever. I think he's truly the best college Michigan quarterback that we've ever seen. I know that's more than two seconds, that was maybe 20 seconds. Man, it's special to watch.

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