Everything Jim Harbaugh said during his pre-Penn State press conference
Opening Statement
In Schembechler Hall, ton of enthusiasm and excitement. My energy was already sky-high but then got a visit from the Nature Boy, Ric Flair, very close friend. Just brought the enthusiasm to a new level.
On whether Ric Flair's visit was planned
He let me know he was coming in this weekend, stopped by. Could he stop by? Of course. There's few people I'd rather see and be around than my good friend. It goes back to 1989, I was playing with the Bears, Brad Muster was a huge fan of the Nature Boy and wrestling. Said, hey, there's a show at—can't remember which arena it was, but, yeah, heck yeah, let's go. We went and first time I've ever been backstage for anything. Fight, concert, wrestling. His infectious personality, instant friends. The cool part was grab a towel, you and Brad are on the hype squad, and just remember him going out and cheering for Rick. Been to many of his shows and competition. He's one of a kind. The best.
On Stanford-Cal traditions and Ohio State
Tremendous. What I think of rivalries, trophy games, the tradition, just feel very blessed and lucky to be involved with them. This is a big game. Everyone is a big game. Every game you play. It's a huge game, how we're approaching this one is really the same as we approach all the games leading up to it. It would be a disservice, a discredit, for any game you didn't approach with everything that you had. Our guys, there's a bounce in their step. You don't have to talk about it much. Everybody is aware. Just can't wait to play. Looking for a time to play, a place to play and a team to play against.
On whether he feels like the team has been tested this season
Yeah, we've been tested. I jotted down a few things, things I was gonna share with the team. All the guys, it's been incredible. It's not just 9-0, the way they play for each other, the way they produce. Been a tremendous run, really. 21-straight wins, 21-straight Big Ten wins, 20-straight regular season wins. This past game, defense, one series over 6 plays, that was the last drive. Every other series was 1, 3, 4, 6 plays. 7 three-and-outs. 3 one first down and out, two of those were field goals. There's been 38 out of 98 drives, somewhere in that area, a third of the drives have been three and outs. Forced 10 punts on 14 possessions. No team has taken a snap inside our 10-yard line this season. Love the fact that's 314-straight games of having over 100,000 people at the game. Offense, career game for Roman Wilson. 9 catches, 143 yards. Got 10 touchdowns on the season. J.J., second-highest passing yards of his career, 335. Five-straight Big Ten games with 40 points, ties a Big Ten record. We have a school record, 12-straight games with 30-plus points. Blake Corum tied second all-time now in rushing touchdowns, 47 rushing TDs. Love the fact that we have two receivers, one tight end and one running back with 24 or more completions on the season. J.J. just passed Tom Brady in career passing yards. What a QB Tom Brady turned out to be. Passer rating, J.J. is 11 points higher than any other quarterback in Michigan history. His yards per play of total offense is 9.7, that's two yards more than any player in Michigan history. J.J. just passed me for completions in a career and I think I'm next up on the yards. 87 more and he passes me up in yardage, just tremendous. Dave (Ablauf) brought this stat, third-and-long going into the Purdue game was 19 of 20 for 335 yards. He's just been outstanding on the money down, the third down. Blake leads the country in rushing TDs with 16 and he also leads in touchdowns scored. Donovan Edwards, 200 yards from being the all-time leader in U of M in receiving yards for a running back. A lot of things speaks so good to the discipline of our team. 24 penalties on the season. Around 200 penalty yards, something like that. Leading the country. This past game, we had the one penalty, technically, that would've been the second game without a penalty we've had this year. It's been 30 years since Michigan didn't have a year, 30 years Michigan did not have a penalty in a game prior to this season. Really good. Also, special teams-wise, Tommy Doman had a great game. Game ball for him. 4 punts inside the 12-yard line. The 12, the 10, the 5 and the 3. Kickoff unit had a chance to cover a kick on the 12-yard line on the opening kickoff and really set the tone of the game. Had the 32-yard punt return, really happy JT made all of his field goals. 30 and 31. Net punt was 43.2 and after those 4 punts, the 7.5 yard line was their average starting field position. Tremendous, specifically to the game, Will Johnson, he's the guardian of victory once again. Just playing lights out. From beginning to the end of that game. 4 tackles, 3 PBUs and an interception. Mason Graham, 31 plays, 3 tackles but dominant. Dominant block destruction. Mike B had a monster game. Mike Barrett, 6 tackles, 5 QB pressures. Heckuva game. Braiden McGregor, 4 tackles, had a big third down TFL and he had a QB pressure in the end zone, great job by him. Rod Moore, really hitting his stride. 2 PBUs, big play in the red zone in the corner of the endzone. Makari Paige, his best game of the season. So physical, 4 tackles, playing his best ball. Josh Wallace had a great game, great, dominant game that he had. In the first half, had great coverage, had a TFL, 2 tackles and a PBU. Junior Colson, just a stud, there's nothing more you can say about him. Football player in every respectful way. J.J., talked about him. Another elite performance by him. Blake, just great and consistently great at scoring the ball. Give the ball and he puts it in the paint, just great at scoring the ball. Dono, he's running hard, Donovan Edwards is running hard, made the huge play in the game. Pass pro was excellent as well. Talk about Roman, career game. Makes the magic happen. It's been fun to watch him having the year he's having and scoring the ball. Zak Zinter, he's playing his best of any of the offensive linemen in the country, in our opinion. T-Mo, too, Tyler Morris, want to talk about him. He just gets open. He finds the space, he makes a play, makes the magic happen on third down and been fantastic. Can't leave out Semaj Morgan, we used to give a game ball to the freshmen of the week, offense, defense, special teams, but we take him out of that category to be fair. Just game ball, Semaj Morgan. Two huge plays in the game. As I said, the ball is in his hands it's a got chance to go the distance. Pretty phenomenal in all respects this past game and the season so far, up to this point. Having said all that, now you got at it again. You have to do it another time and put the puzzle together and get ready to play a team that hasn't had any points scored on them in the third quarter as well. Just be good. Be good. It'll be about us. It will be about how we're playing and we'll have to be good to win the game.
On how long he wants to coach for and any achievements he wants to accomplish
Really, the way I've really thought about that is might've been 5 or 6 years ago, we were at my brother John's place down in Ballhead Island. We were sitting there talking to each other, we're talking about how long you'd coach, what are you looking to accomplish, same questions you're asking. We're talking to each other but we really couldn't come up with anything definitive. So we asked the same question to our dad, how long do you coach? When do you know to stop coaching? He said, I'll tell you boys, here's what you do, you coach as long as you possibly can. You coach until you get to the point where you can coach another day. You can't make another script, you can't go out to the practice field and that's when you know. When you get to that point, coach for 2 more years. That's the advice. It seems like great advice. I share that advice, I don't keep that to myself. Different coaches that retire, I always tell them congratulations and gotta give you this perspective from Jack Harbaugh.
On how he would describe his passion for coaching now
It's always been high. Love the competition. At least I thought it was high. I'll tell you this, just these players, how they've been raised, their families, there's definitely a boost, an invigoration, just being around those guys. You know all the names. J.J. and Dono and Blake, Aidan Hutchinson. Just so many that—I've told them the same thing. It's given me a huge boost.
On the running game against Purdue
It's been these conversations, these football conversations about this all the time. You recall last year there was a real emphasis on could we throw the ball. Could we throw the ball down the field? Weekly that we address that in the press conference here. It got to the point, even last year, where teams were saying, 'We're going to stop the run and we're going to make J.J. McCarthy beat us.' We've seen how that has worked out. There's an ability, you could drop 8 or 9, and have a really good chance of shutting down or eliminating the passing game. You could put 8 or 9 in the box and have a really good chance, the safeties playing at linebacker depth, you have a pretty good chance of shutting down the running game. When you could do both, and you can do both effectively, it's where you want to be as an offense. The old sports adage, also, one of my dad's favorites, one of my favorites, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. That's what I would say to that.
On Drew Allar
It's been good. You can see all the improvement. Prototypical guy. Tall, smart, got great stature in the pocket. Very athletic, strong. He's hard to get down on the ground. Courage, stands in there and throws it. He's an excellent quarterback.
On how the team has responded to the outside noise
What I've seen from our players, what they do, no matter what happens, what it is, what emotion they're feeling, list one of the adjectives. They just work. They want to find some work, do some work. Something could be in their personal lives, something could be in the game of football or school, some kind of stressor or whatever, you just go to work. Find some work, create some work for you to do. It clears the mind, it cleanses the soul and, a lot of times, you get the clarity you need, not every time, but a lot of the time you get the clarity and, bang, that's where we go from here. Then you have the benefit, the benefit of the work that you did and it's always been my personal philosophy and I see our players doing the same thing.
On why J.J. McCarthy holds a special place with him
He's like a beloved son. Everything about him. The way he approaches everything, the way he treats young kids, the way he treats adults, the respect that he has, he'll hop off his chair and go shake somebody's hand. Gratitude for everything. The smile with the kids, my son Jack feels like J.J. is his best friend. That's a beautiful thing. That's Jack's role model and also J.J. makes him feel that way. I've seen that with dozens of kids. You just want to hug him. Hey, I just need one. That's the kind of guy that he is. Football player, in my mind, he's this Tom Brady in his preparation, his willingness to be coached, his wanting to do anything and everything that he can for his own personal growth and also for the team. He's got this side of him in only one other quarterback, Jim McMahon, which is the love of playing and the fun the guy has playing the game of football. Yeah, I've never seen that personality. An ultra-competitive but empathetic, come together, football quarterback and the way it does, he's like a blend of Tom Brady and Jim McMahon from what I've seen. Hard not to love that.
On wether he feels the spotlight on him and if it motivates him
Nobody wants criticism. That's why I work so hard to do everything from both on and off the field. It's been that way for a long time since I was 22 years old. If the criticism is directed to me and not towards my adolescent kids at home or the players on the football team, then I am OK with it.
On what have walk-ons meant to the team
It's hard to put a value on that. Priceless. Invaluable to the team when you start saying the names, the Joe Taylor's, the Jake Thaw's, Jake took a hit in that game that would've killed a lesser man. Joe Taylor continues to play through some of the football pains that a lot guys have without flinching. Danny Hughes, he's going to be working through something. He said, I don't care about my knee, I just want to play. Hey, Danny, we're going to stop you, right there, you'll be out for a few weeks, maybe more, we're going to have the next man go up. That kind of—when you talk about stalwarts, if you really look up that definition, that fits so many of our guys. Probably make the argument that the guys have walked on, paying their own way, there's even more of a special place in the heart. Could make that argument. Sure felt that way about my players at USD, playing for the love of the game, the love of the team and the loyalty and the contributions have made to the team are invaluable.
On whether he cares about respect within the coaching industry
I appreciate your question on that, respect it and I know you had to ask that, I've stated my position clearly. Just in a position to discuss it now.
On what makes a quarterback good at third and longs
I don't really have that list in front of me but it's the one that you can go and look at and say that is a real difference-maker in evaluating quarterbacks. That's the money down, they're really good at it and they can move their team. Or they're not as good at it. That's something when I was, more so when I was a pro coach, in evaluating quarterbacks to draft, that was huge. That was right up there with points per possession. In a lot of ways, even more important. Football is such a team game but if there's a time where it's like closer to baseball and you're counting on that quarterback to make the play, the throw, under pressure. Blitz percentage, you break all that down. How good is he in those pressure situations?
On Jimmy Rolder
I mentioned some guys working through some things now but there were some guys working through some things at the beginning of the season and tip of the cap to them for now they're back in position to play. Jimmy is one of those, he's fully healthy chomping at the bit. We're at the point where he can go and still redshirt. To where he can play the four games plus the postseason and still have that redshirt year. Great job to Jimmy attacking the rehab that so many guys have done. You've seen Rod Moore back hitting his stride, Will Johnson earlier in the season working through some. Makari, the same. Jimmy is one of those guys who has attacked it, he's rehabbed, he's had a couple of really good weeks of practice. He's ready to roll.
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