On the defensive response

The thing that hit me, Friday I had Coach Clink talk to the team after the Friday practice and had a lot of good messages. One was don't flinch. Repeated that a few times. As soon as that play came out, that's one of those plays right out of the start of the game that could make the normal, ordinary, person or team flinch. That; 's the first thing I thought of. Right when I got back into the locker room after the game, I was like, they didn't flinch Coach Clink. They did not. It was great. So much good in the defense. 77 yards on the ground on 23 carries, that's a run wall. That's big boy football. So proud of the guys Jaylen Harrell, the EDGE guys, Josaiah Stewart played really well, so did Braiden McGregor. Derrick Moore had a big tackle for a loss. Tight coverage all along in the secondary throughout the game. We were close a few times on getting interceptions but then we did with Mikey. That's a difference-maker. Mike Sainristil, a difference-maker. A guy that makes the magic happen. We needed the magic to happen and he made it happen. Beautiful thing.

On what he missed the most about not being on the sidelines

Everybody kept saying welcome back, welcome back, I never really left. I wasn't where I was supposed to be but it was great to be back in there in the action, where the competition is. That's always been the best part for me. Playing football, and second best is being able to coach it. Nowhere I'd rather be than on the sideline coaching our team. Marv Levy used to say that all the time, still resonates. Nowhere I'd rather be when I'd rather be there, something like that. I felt Marv Levy today, that was big. I was happy. Really wanted that win. Coach was happy but, our players, they wanted it more. You could just tell with the way that they're playing, how happy they were. Coach wanted it but the players wanted it even more. You could tell. It was great.

On whether you'll see J.J. McCarthy run more

It's what we've always really seen from J.J. He's tough to defend. He can throw the ball from the pocket, he can throw the ball out of the pocket, really accurate thrower. Can get the ball to any part of the field and he's super athletic. I wouldn't doubt that he could run a 4.4. Somewhere in the 4.4s, he's just that good and that fast. Talked to a few of the coaches after the games of the teams we've played, Scot Loeffler said the same thing, J.J. is just really hard to defend. 214 yards throwing and 50-some yards of running by J.J., that's a lot of production from the quarterback position and when we needed it. He really saved us on that fourth and one that we had. One of the ones that he pulled and went an d ran for the first down. Got us four our five, six, maybe, first downs using his legs. Pretty darn good. See Jack and Jackie Harbaugh there, love you. Love you. That's the kind of game I think Bo Schembechler would've been proud of. Grinding some meat, huh? 94-yard drive was huge. If you can use all four, five, six minutes of the clock at the end of the game, churn out, grind meat as Jack Harbaugh would like to say and then in with the football, that warms the cockles of the heart right there. Bo would've loved it, too. He used to always talk about every game we went into, he wants to see 200 yards of rushing. 200 yards on the ground and 200 yards through the air. That was accomplished today. 201 yards rushing and 214 passing. Really good. Really good. Fun. Fun. We'll enjoy this for another six hours or so and then get onward to thinking about Nebraska.

On the younger receivers

Oh, my gosh. Just love it. I think the Morgan family is standing right back there. Mom and Dad and brother right there. Just so happy. As I told Semaj in the locker room and the family afterwards, it's one of those things you'll never forget but there will be more to come. There will be more to come with Semaj Morgan. He's been really ascending since he got here. Especially the last three, four, weeks. Call it five or six. Been making plays but serious about being good at football but dead serious about winning and helping the football team. That paid off. A lot of hard work. Semaj has put in a lot of hard work as all the guys have. This is time to collect the dividends and it was great to see him make that withdraw today on a lot of effort and hard work put in by him.

On Colston Loveland

Colston Loveland, I've been thinking this for well over a year now, he's really great. Freak athlete and a team guy all the way, in every way. I think the cat is out of the bag. For a minute there, I was thinking, and he doesn't know it, he doesn't know how good he can be. He doesn't know how good he is, kind of always thought the longer it takes him to figure that out the better off he'll be. Cat's out of the bag. We had a play at Ohio State last year, just to describe what kind of guy that he is. He caught the touchdown pass at Ohio State and then he comes sprinting back from the goal line back to where we were all huddled up back there as coaches and I'm getting ready to go do something, I don't know what I was going to do, chest bump or something, but he was coming back to get back on the kickoff team because he knew he was on the kickoff team and didn't want to be late for that. Just incredible. I said, hey, take this rep. We'll get somebody else out there for this one. He's a true whatever, let's say it the way Jack Harbaugh would say, he's a football player and there's nothing better you can say about somebody or give them more of a compliment to say that they're a football player.

On what it was like in the locker room and 'Cool Jim'

Cool Jim, I think that's what most people refer to me is. Cool Jim. As we get closer to the game, somewhere between Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I turn into dead serious Jim. Just no better place to be than in the locker room after you win a game and everybody gets in there. You just think to yourself, who can have it better? Who can have it better than I do? Who could have it better than us? I get to coach these guys with these coaches. I was super happy, no doubt about it. I could tell. The coaches and the players were even happier than their coach. Tremendous run wall, have we talked about that? We did? The defensive run wall. KG, Kenneth Grant, Cam Goode, Rayshaun Benny really stepped up today and Kris Jenkins, he's always the difference-maker in there. The EDGE guys, every single one of them, played well and made a big contribution in the game and the linebackers are playing extremely well. Mike Barrett is having a great year, so is Junior Colson and Ernest Hausmann. Really cool, the way those are playing. Great to see Will Johnson back and playing. Rod Moore back. Just good. Maybe you thought me, Will and Rod Moore were on a milk carton, somewhere you couldn't find us. We've been found and we're back playing. Great player Mason Graham should out for maybe another week and then he'll be back. I thought guys really stepped up without him being there. I knew it. I knew KG would have a big game. It's awesome.

On the offensive line and tinkering with it

Yeah, the offensive line, I thought they played great. I knew they were good. It's like a lion, it has a roar. I've seen the roar and today you had teeth. That lion is not just a lion with a good roar, the teeth were shown today. That was great to see.

On waiving off the flag on Will Johnson and the pick-six

The one where Will kind of held him up and didn't take him and throw him on the ground and just held him? I thought that was terrific sportsmanship. Very mature play, very disciplined play. Just a very good sport play. Somehow they throw a flag, that boggles the mind. After I've already seen two where Roman Wilson got cupped around and thrown into our sideline. That was the right decision to wave it off. Good thing cooler heads prevailed and were able to show a different look. Can't see everything, I understand that as officials but I thought the crew did a great job of intervening and making the right call because that would've been—I'll think of a word as I'm driving if it's not coming to me right now.

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