Everything Jim Harbaugh said during his first spring practice availability
On JJ McCarthy's status
JJ has a lingering arm soreness from the season. Just want to figure out, get some clarity on what was causing that and we did. Consulted all the top experts around the country. We’ve got a short-term plan, got a long-term plan for his arm health. Working on the plan. No surgery. People are reporting that there’s surgery. It’s a non-surgical plan.
On McCarthy's timetable to return
Being March 8, like we would be with any of our players, it’ll be the plan that the experts have put in place. The longer the better, for me. It’s March 8. Make sure that everything’s done in the best interest of JJ.
On whether McCarthy will throw this spring
I can’t say when he’s gonna throw, but we’re not gonna have him throw right now. Again, it’s March 8. JJ’s practicing, not throwing.
On the defensive line
Mazi Smith, right off the jump, Mazi Smith is playing really well. Expecting great things from Mazi. He looks tremendous. Kris Jenkins, Taylor Upshaw, a whole list of guys we’re really excited about. Braiden McGregor, Mike Morris.
The state of Michigan football is scary good right now. Mike Morris could be the next Aidan Hutchinson, Ojabo. There’s some really exciting things going on on the defensive line.
On Oluwatimi and the offensive line
Really good. Across the board, there’s some real veteran players there. Keegan, Hayes, Zinter, those are all veteran guys right now. At center, Crippen, Olu look to be extremely good. First impressions of Olu, just hasn’t missed a beat. Came in and hit the ground running like he’s been here for three or four years. Very good leadership, very mature guy, very strong guy. Great addition would be the first impression there.
Right tackle, Trente Jones is the front-runner right now. And some good young players (like) Atteberry. Quite a few. Offensive line looks good.
On the changes to the recruiting department
A lot of questions there, but we had some departures. Courtney left, Jerrett left, and Aashon. Feel great about Albert, Tom Gamble, and some of the hires we’ve made to replace some of those guys that left. That was the reason we made new hires.
On NFL experience and transfer portal an emphasis for the new hires
No, it was just getting the best guys. Tom Gamble is the one with the NFL experience. Know Tom from 49er days. Tom worked here at Michigan. Just felt like when it came to player personnel, the best person we could hire was Tom Gamble. Albert Karschnia you know. He was also here for two years, right out of college. Did a great job. Always kinda had plans to see Albert come back here. He went to Central Michigan, did a great job there, pretty much wearing a lot of hats. He’s come back and it’s been seamless. He’s doing a terrific job. I’m excited about Denard Robinson, as well. That’s where we’re at in the recruiting office, department. We know we’ve got good people and are good at what they do. That’s all I can ask for, really. People who are good at what they do and do a good job and really enjoying working with them.
On whether the program will be more active with the transfer portal
We definitely are always looking at it. If there’s a good fit, as you’ve seen, then we won’t shy away from that. To predict whether we’re gonna be more active or less active, I can’t make that prediction, because we’ve got a lot of players on the team that we recruited right out of high school, been in the system that we’re super excited about what they’re gonna do.
On when he decided to pursue the NFL
Yeah, when I came here February 3, 2012—came here in January 2015, signed a seven-year deal, seven years was up. That’s what precipitated it, to see if that was something I wanted to do, took a look at it.
On the process of pursuing the NFL
Just ultimately decided this is where I wanted to be. A lot of gratitude for that. Like I said earlier, right now it’s scary good. To try to define what that is, you know the law of averages is going to catch up to you at some point, but that’s the place we want to be. As I walk around our field, whether it’s our weight room, whether it’s out there with the guys, coaches and players, it’s people that are engaged, players come up to you, they’ve got a smile on their face. ‘What’s up, coach? What do we got today?’ It just makes the days fly by. We’re having a blast, gonna carry that on as we get going through spring ball. It’s three days, we’re four practices in. Three of them have been helmets only. One has been in pads, but now we’re gonna roll for four weeks, three practices a week. Practices will either be tackling practices, non-tackling practices, or scrimmages. Kinda feel good about the team getting forged in these next four weeks.
On the message to recruits about his future
Yeah, just signed a five-year deal. Like I just said, when you’re around this kind of team, these kind of guys, the days just fly by. I could coach a long time. I see no end in sight when you’re around this kind of group.
On whether recruits are less concerned about his future
Yeah, yeah. Definitely, when that was signed and said yeah, this is where I want to be, there was some quelling.
On whether his desire to win the Super Bowl has been quelled
Yeah, we could win college football’s greatest trophy, we could win the national championship and that’s plenty good. Like I just said, it would be great to win a Super Bowl, but yeah, completely focused on winning the national championship.
On whether him not pursuing the NFL again is accurate
Yeah, I did express that, and it’s how I felt, it’s how I feel.
On Ronnie Bell
He’s doing good, he’s on track. Doing a ton of coaching right now, so he’s like another coach out there. In a great place physically, and contributing a lot this spring in a coaching role.
On whether Ronnie Bell is running
Yeah, he’s doing some straight-ahead things, but he’s right on track.
On the importance of finding a new defensive coordinator with a similar scheme
That was a great positive, positive thing that coaches we had still on defense, the players, the structure and terminology would be very close to, and in a lot of cases, exactly the same. So it was a big deal.
On the early enrollees
They’re all doing good. Rright now, they really just come out and demonstrate more athletically, physically, what their traits are. What their talents are. You know they’re gonna—one week, they’re gonna be better than the last week in terms of their knowledge of the system and what they’re supposed to do, their assignment, their alignment, their technique. But yeah, it’s just great to see them out there and see what they can do, what they can do physically. Then you can project, yeah, this person is going to have a great chance to play early.
On the true freshmen wide receivers
Freak show. Really all three receivers physically, what we were just talking about, in terms of what they can do. Running, jumping, those traits are quite off the charts. Amorion Walker, Darrius Clemons, and Tyler Morris.
On Cade McNamara and who is backing him up
Cade’s looked good. Has really been just sharp. It’s been a nice continuation from the season. J.J.’s getting reps, and then all the other quarterbacks. Alan Bowman, the two freshmen, we get a lot of reps in practice. Our practices consist of a lot of reps and they all work in there.
On Mike Sainristil working at cornerback
He is right now, yeah. Mike has been playing corner and nickel corner for the start of the spring ball. Project him as a two-way player, maybe a three-way player.
On why Sainristil moved to CB
His skill-set. He’s got the skill-set for it. He’s got the skill-set for receiver, he’s got the skill-set for corner, for nickel corner. Skill-set reminds me a lot of Jimmy Ward and what he had in college. Yeah, skill-set.
On whether the offense is 'scary good'
Just the whole state of the program. There’s people that want to keep different stories going, love to hate us or hate to love us, but we’re having a blast. The word tumultuous was used in the offseason. If guys are bringing the energy and having fun and the momentum that the program has, whatever word you want to put on that, that’s what we’re having. That’s scary good because you know something’s gonna happen at some point. That’s the place you—the law of averages will catch up to you at some point, but it’s the place you want to be.
On whether the Josh Gattis departure caught him off guard
I just think we rolled. You’re quite familiar with Grant Newsome. A coach, a person, a player. He’s just checked every single box since the day he walked on campus, both as a player, you know the story of his serious knee injury. The way he worked to rehab that and when that door closed on playing, he turned to be a student-coach, which he was phenomenal at, promoted to graduate assistant, where he was phenomenal there. Assistant coach, full-time assistant coach, coaching the tight ends, he’ll be phenomenal there. That departure was replaced quickly and seamlessly and we’re rolling. I didn’t see it coming. But, now we’re rolling.
On how much the spring game will be a measuring stick
Oh, excited about that, it’s gonna be awesome. Yeah, we love the spring game. It creates a lot of energy, a lot of juice on the team because it’s actually a real game. Some guys that haven’t played in a game, they get that opportunity. Guys that have, we treat it a lot like an NFL preseason game, they’ll play a quarter or a half. Great to have the fans out there, it’s a great thing. Nothing but good to say about that. Did you hear about our trip? What did you think of that?
On the program's summer trip
We’re going to the upper peninsula, we’re going to go to Pictured Rocks, the waterfalls in Marquette, I can’t think of, can’t pronounce it. Tahquamenon. We’re going to Sault Ste. Marie, we’re going to Traverse City, Sleeping Bear Dunes, Detroit, it’s going to be a great enrichment trip. We’ve done three in the past and we’re looking forward to being able to do that again. And we’re gonna get suggestions, too. I’m sure Pure Michigan will have some thoughts and we’ll have some great people around the state of Michigan that will give us some ideas and have some thoughts as well. And we’ll welcome those!
On staying local instead of the overseas trips
Think about this: we’re going to go in July, so it’s going to be July 23-30, 31. Anything you can think of doing outdoors, we’ll be able to do. What better place to go to do those kinds of activities than Michigan in late July? And a ton to learn, too. I’d bet maybe 10-15 of our players have been to the upper peninsula. I’d bet it’s close to that. How phenomenal is that going to be? Have you ever seen Pictured Rocks, Angelique? Has anybody? It’s amazing! We’re gonna put them in kayaks, we’re gonna kayak out to Pictured Rocks. There will be rafting, there will be outdoor anything you can think of. You should really go to Pictured Rocks. The most scenic place to me was South Africa, the most scenic place I’ve ever been. Pictured Rocks is right up there with any of them. Sleeping Bear Dunes, I haven’t personally—I’ve just kind of been there and looked down at it. But can’t wait to get out there and experience that and so many things. Will probably have some pep rallies, too. Connect with Michigan, connect with our fanbase, do some camps, do some service work. All kinds of—possibilities are endless. Why Michigan? That’s why, the possibilities are endless.
On why there are so many former Michigan players on staff
It’s good, it’s something I think you probably noticed a little bit last year, too, right? With Mike Hart and Ron Bellamy and Doug Mallory. It’s been good, it’s worked, so we’ll keep that going.
On the reason why he's added so many former players
Going back to last year, yeah, I thought that was a good idea. Kinda reflected more of who I was. I love Michigan. I love everything it does for our players. It’s our university and just more people that have that love-love feeling about Michigan and the program as opposed to the love-hate. There’s people who love to hate us and hate to love us. So, just more people that love-love us.
On how co-offensive coordinators will work together and the responsibilities
Just completely collaborative with the entire offensive staff and the two coordinators. Matt’s coaching the quarterbacks, Sherrone’s coaching the offensive line, Ron Bellamy’s coaching the receivers, Grant Newsome is coaching the tight ends, Mike Hart is coaching the running backs, and together, they’re collaborating on the offense.
On who is calling the plays
That’s your question, you want to know who’s calling the plays? That’s going to be determined. In a collaborative way.
On whether any other players are switching positions
Eamonn Dennis is working on offense and I can’t think of anybody else that’s made a direct defense-to-offense change for the spring. There’s some other subtle position within the offense or within the defense that we’re exploring.
On injuries within the team
Rod Moore had a surgery from the season, a season injury. McBurrows, also. Ja’Den tore his—he had an injury during the season that required surgery. Jake Thaw is the other that had surgery during the season, had an injury during the season that required surgery.
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