Opening Statement

Get to celebrate work on Labor Day. Thanks for coming. Appreciate it. A lot of positives with the win. Came out pretty darn healthy, too. Great start. Great to win the opener. Also, on a personal note, want to say Happy Birthday to two sons. I have a son Jim that was born September 4th and son Jack. Both both on September 4th. I remember it well. It was a warm, sunny day. Much like today.

On what it was like watching the game on Saturday and his thoughts

A lot of good. So much positive with the team. Like I said, the win, we came out healthy and step one in the process complete. We'll reset this week and we'll move forward.

On whether he watched the game with Sherrone Moore

I did. He invited me. I said, hey, let's watch the game together and he said why don't you come over? His wife Kelly had some sandwiches, his two daughters and my son Johnny. It was good. Excellent. I really loved what I saw out of our team. Colonel Minnick, who I am lifelong friends with, he sent me a message and he said that there's a military saying that the true sign of your leadership is what your unit does when you aren't there. For us, I thought it was really great. Our captains, our senior leadership, our coaches, all were phenomenal. When we started fall camp, I told the team that Moses had 70 leaders, how many do you think we need? More. We need a lot more. It's a building. Talk about turning a negative into a positive, love the way our team is doing that. It's a unique opportunity to build leadership because they have a chance to make those incredible leadership qualities. Personally, it was great. Great watching the team. They played fast, physical, smart, tough. Personally, I felt the love, too. Which was great from our team and the Michigan faithful. Good day.

On the free Harbaugh shirts and the train formation

I felt the love from them just doing them. I could see it in our players, I could see it in our coaches and that's what I want them to do. I want them to do them. Do you is the way we say it around here. I saw them having fun. Saw them execute and playing good. Felt the love from them and the Michigan faithful.

On advice he's given to Jay Harbaugh and Mike Hart about splitting head coach duties

Just that Jay is going to take them pregame and through the first half and Mike is gonna have the halftime adjustments and take the team from the start of halftime on through the end of the game.

On the run/pass ratio

It ended up being 31-31. 31 passes, 31 runs. That's what it was. Thought it was a great job by Kirk Campbell with the way he was able to get the ball, the touches, the targets, to our great players. Somebody coined feed the studs. I thought he did a great job with that. Some of the numbers showed that really well. Roman Wilson, 8 targets, 6 catches, 3 touchdowns. Cornelius Johnson, 6 targets, 5 catches, 71 yards. Colston 4 targets, 4 catches, 57 yards. Dono 16 touches, Blake 13 touches. It was great. Fred Moore, nice to see him get two catches on the two-minute drive. Max Bredeson and Kalel, CJ Stokes and Ben Hall accounted for 7 total touches. JJ was magnificent. That was 26 for 30. That's the highest percentage, 87.6, in the history of Michigan football for anybody that has thrown 30 or more passes. It was tremendous. Downfield, tough throws, tight-window throws. Could've had even more if JJ wouldn't have been flushed on the one because of the protection. Could've gotten the ball to Colston, he would've gone for a lot more. All that being said, tremendous. Really proud of him, the way he played. Pass protection was outstanding and it's step one. Step one in the process and J.J. will reset and go back to work this week.

On whether JJ has ownership of the offense

We've talked about it, he's improved in so many ways. Understanding the offense, coaching it to other players, I see that. Ever increasing and good step one. Reset and get back after it this week.

On when he expects Will Johnson and Rod Moore to return

I think there's an opportunity this week, we'll see.

On the EDGEs

Defensively, it was fast, physical, smart, disciplined. No penalties on the defense the entire game. I don't think we had any in the first half and then we had the five in the second half. One on special teams and four on offense. Pass rush was really good, they were throwing the ball quick. We were close on a few, especially Kenneth Grant who got two quarterback hurries and one led to the interception from Mike Sainristil. The run wall and the pass coverage I thought was outstanding. The linebackers played extremely well. Junior Colson, Mike Barrett was a real tone-setter in the game. You could see it right off the bat, the way he was playing. Two real good hits in the first two plays. Keshaun Harris, Keon Sabb, Josh Wallace, thought he played a great game. Tough technicality of a rule on an incredible interception. On and on. Mason Graham had a heckuva game. Mikey made the big play and was all over the field, coverage was great from Mikey. Really good, sure tackling. Missed some tackles, will be something to improve on this week. Overall, thought it was a heckuva game. Kept them under 250 yards for the game, another game where our opposing offense didn't get over 250 yards. So many good positives. Special teams, really good, especially Tommy Doman. First time punting, 45 net and had the one right where we were backed up on our two-yard line. Handled it well and got the ball out and we ended up hitting on the interception on the next possession. A lot of positive.

On head coaching responsibilities during the game

Be the guardian of victory. Probably the number one job you have. Make sure the decisions you're making are complementary on all three phases. No offenses, no defenses. It's a we-fense. Making sure you're putting the players in the position to have their hard work achieved.

On ECU's run defense

Watching other games, it's much of the trend right now in college football. Putting people inside the tackles, loading boxes and trying to get penetration, shoot gaps. Stop the zone play. That's something we saw from ECU which, you can tell, was their gameplan. Having the complimentary plays at our disposal, throw the ball, play action, get the ball on the perimeter was really good for us.

On Roman Wilson

I thought Roman was outstanding, he's been outstanding all fall camp. He is in great shape. Physically strong, running extremely well, moving well. Catching the ball extremely well. Getting separation, he's getting separation and when he's on a route he increases that separation. His detail and his route running keeps getting better and better. Definitely an ascending player. Cornelius Johnson, the same. Obviously, give a sticker and game ball to Roman Wilson and JJ McCarthy, very obvious. Also, Cornelius Johnson. Made big catches, made big plays down the field again and they were sometimes a little bit behind him or he had to stretch to make the big play across the middle. I was really impressed with the way he played as well. Obviously, our guys caught the ball. Only 4 incompletions on the day, we were catching them really well.

On Myles Hinton and Drake Nugent and whether he wants to see more combinations on the OL

I thought they played really well. Myles has had a great camp, it was great to see him go out there and play really well. The pass protection was as good as you can hope for. It was a blitz scheme, some good blitz plans and they were executing them well, too. We were picking them up. That was a huge, huge positive. All five, all that were in there, protected really well. The center has a lot to do that with that, making the calls and the adjustments up front. Both played really well.

On the backup QB situation

We'll do it like (the Michigan Method). Jack will be the first in this week. Jayden Denegal and Alex Orji, we still consider them right there in the mix. Take it to the games, just like we do. Hopefully we'll have the opportunity to play Jack, Jayden and Alex in this next game. Davis had a chance and I thought he was doing good, we got the penalties that stopped those drives, that was really unfortunate. Young mistake, lining up over the ball and the other false start Gio had, might've been somebody else involved in the false start as well. Get that cleaned up. Not really a reflection on him. The other guys are going to get the opportunity.

On what his morning was like

I was up early. I get up when I get up. Do all the things I used to do before games. Thinking a lot about it. That's what it was like. Watched it unfold, like I said. Went into pretty good detail about what I saw, how I felt and what I experienced. A lot of positives.

On the challenges of watching it at home

It was what it was. You do the absolute best you can to turn the negative into the positive. It's how I think about it, it's what I do. Just put the needs of the players, the coaches, the team, before my own.

On whether the coaching instincts kicked in while watching

Yeah. It was really cool thing, Sherrone and I both sitting there. It was like, time for a play action pass. Let's run this. It was uncanny how many times that's what Kirk would call or do. Both said, hey, to each other, time to get the starters out. Boom, the starters were out. It was cool that way. Both with Kirk and Jesse.

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