Everything Jim Harbaugh said on Inside Michigan Football pre-Purdue

On being 12-0

It feels great. Right where we want to be. So much appreciation for everybody in the program. Players, coaches, staff, fans, family. Everybody. It's a wonderful feeling. Great thrill of victory, wonderful, wonderful feeling of winning.

On the locker room after the game

Great. Just as great as you can imagine. It was really happy. It was a super happy flight home. Spiritual, guys were giving thanks and gratitude to God. It was, on so many levels, really, really awesome.

On J.J. McCarthy's first touchdown to Cornelius Johnson

Free blitzer, we had them all blocked but one but that was the one we couldn't block. H.J. hung in to the very last second. He took the hit in exchange for the touchdown. Hit Cornelius right on the chest and then what a job he did of breaking that tackle, kicking out of it and then made a second effort to get the feet. You look up and there's nothing there. He's gone because that extra guy that would've been back there was the one hitting J.J. That really got us going. That got us going and, of course, C.J. kept us going as well as J.J. and so many other guys.

On whether he saw McCarthy's confidence grow as the game went on

I didn't see it grow. Guys were, from early on, Karsen Barnhart said, 'Coach, we're going to win this game.' Then came off after a PAT early in the game, I think we were still behind, he was like, 'We're going to win this game, Coach.' I think the confidence level was high. Our guys were focused, they were determined. They felt like they had put in the hard work, they paid the price. They were going to trust their training and they were going to go out there and give it their very best. I'm going to do my best today and that should be good enough. Tend to see guys seize the moment. You talk about seizing the moment, seizing the day. Not rejecting the moment. Our guys did that. Some players played the best game of their life.

On Mike Sainristil

Total team guy, is an incredible team leader, it why he was voted captain. Do anything for the team. Replacing Dax Hill, who was a first-rounder. Remember how Dax was all over the field as the nickel back? When it came to this offseason, we're going to have to have a guy to replace Dax Hill because he meant so much to our team. Looking around, Mikey's got the talent to do that. He's got the team attitude to do that. He's really smart and super willing. The timing of that decision was because we had to have somebody replace Dax Hill. Now, he's done that. He's all over the field. Played the best game of his life. Two PBUs he had this game were touchdown-saving PBUs. That came from a guy that contributed a lot as a receiver. The days we needed a guy to catch the ball and score touchdowns for us. Can't say enough about him. Another guy that was all over the field was Rod Moore. All over the field. Three tackles, three assists, two PBUs, a TFL, great disciplined play when he got headbutted to not lose his stuff. Mazi Smith played the best game of his life, played the most plays he's ever played. 61 plays. Four tackles, got the most pass rush, effected the quarterback more than anybody did in the game. Ton of guys that just played unbelievable. Great football. Jaylen Harrell, the fourth down, he keeps his discipline, keeps his man eyes on his man he's covering, not looking into the backfield. Created the tight coverage and we were able to get the stop on fourth. So many, I could keep going. J.J., I loved his run for a touchdown. Even running ahead of his blockers, you don't teach that. Another guy that'll do anything for the team. On and on, a whole locker room of heroes.

On Braiden McGregor

I'll give a couple more. Mike Barrett, 11 tackles. Pretty much just stop there, he was all over the field. Braiden McGregor, he's the next guy. He's the next guy that's on the verge of stardom. He's had some adversity. I thought the pass rush he was giving, a lot of strength. Was putting up pressure, making the stop of third and three. Knocking down a pass that was thrown on the perimeter. You don't see that a lot. It takes some incredible reaction. He's just been so steady. Hasn't flinched, hasn't blinked. Completely stays the course. Just reminds me so much of those who stay will be champions that's prominent in our building and in a lot of places. Making that come to life.

On Rayshaun Benny

Making arguments for what plays of the game. That's right up there as a huge play in the game. Taylor Upshaw gets the interception but it was Rayshaun Benny that was on the pass rush. He had contain. C.J. Stroud, the quarterback, stepped up, was moving, he had a run or throw option and Rayshaun retraced, made the tackle, was bringing C.J. down and then kind of torqued him a little bit as C.J. decided to shovel the ball to the receiver. Offline by a couple of feet, stepped right into Taylor Upshaw. That stopped a potential game-tying drive right there. Then the next play Dono goes 85. Just awesome.

On how the team turns the page

First rule of champions, it's not even a principle, first rule of champions, do not let up. There's a risk but you've gotta follow that rule number one.

On the offensive line

Start with Olu Oluwatimi, I haven't heard the broadcasters call him the best center in all of college football, I think he sure is, in my opinion. He had a tremendous, tremendous game. Touchdown blocks. Super good. Ryan Hayes had a tremendous game. Keegan, one time I saw him out there playing the air guitar when they had some heavy metal. So Keegs. Zinter, another great game. Karsen Barnhart, just tremendous. Talked about him and the confidence he has. He blocked really well. The guys did incredible up front. The tight ends, selfless a group that's on our team. Schoonmaker was fabulous, Honigford, Seltzer and the kid Colston. Just great. Tremendous blocking receivers as they always do, selflessly blocking on the perimeter whenever they get a chance.

On Donovan Edwards

There's no doubt, the run game carried our team, especially in the second half. What I saw, they were crowding the box, it was zero coverage, everybody up, every gap filled. Our line gets a crease, a big one and Dono go through it. Like with Dono, as soon as he gets behind the defense and, in that case, he was probably behind them about six yards, you know it's over. Nobody is catching him. That's the beauty of Donovan Edwards, he's just so, so fast and determined to score. It's great. My favorite line of the week, in the press conference afterwards, it's so Donovan, so genuine, the, 'Mr. Edwards, tell us about your long run?' He goes, 'Which one?' That great deep voice that he has. Second favorite was J.J. when he said this is nice, this is alright but there's more work to be done.

On the defense

I thought it was really good. Every stop was like gold. Not a team that punts very much. Anytime we got a stop, we wanted to secure it. Any opportunity we had to get a stop, we wanted to capitalize on it. Didn;t want any offsides penalties, didn't want any personal fouls. Didn't want any offsides on the punt return unit. If we got a stop, we needed to keep it. Coverage-wise, Will Johnson was really good. He played a ton of plays. So good, in fact, I think they started moving Marvin Harrison Jr. away from Will. I don't know that for sure. Early, we missed some tackles, we were taking some bad angles. We got that fixed. We got that rectified. From there, we did a great job of—maybe locking them down is too strong of a word, probably is, but really did a great job controlling things from there. As I said, Michael Barrett, 11 tackles. Mazi Smith, played the game of his life. Rayshaun, McGregor, Eyabi, Upshaw, Rod Moore, on and on. D.J. and the guys. Just really, really good.

On Jesse Minter being a Broyles Award finalist

It's great. We're all about it. We're all about the awards. Try to win awards. Get good grades, excel at sports and win awards. We're super happy for anybody else's success, always happy for the other guys success. Ton of guys on our staff deserve that. Ben Herbert, Jay Harbaugh, Sherrone Moore, Steve Clinkscale, Matt Weiss, Ron Bellamy, there's so many guys. Mike Elston, the job that Mike Elston has done in the staff. Clink, great, great and a dramatic turnaround in our secondary in the passing game defense. Jesse is the one that Broyles picked and now he's a finalist in the top five, just to go to the banquet, we'll be praying and pulling hard that he wins it.

On Ben Herbert

He is the program. My, and the plays, X-factor. He's the X-factor of this Michigan football program. The center of player development and somebody that, it's like he's got a big syringe of positivity that he's just always giving guys and players. Anybody that comes in contact, he's affecting in a positive manner. He's the best at what he does, he's the only strength coach I've ever been around that is the perfect blend of old school, what I think is an old school strength coach, and cutting edge on every scientific nutrition, hydration, sleep study, GPS, technology. All melds into one.

On Purdue

First of all, it's a team that's playing for the championship. That invigorates a team. There's hope, just win this game and all the work you've done, all the sweat, blood and enthusiasm, everything that's gone into it, you're 60 minutes away from being crowned champion. There's no better accolade than being a champion. We know how that felt last year, nobody expected us to be there and then we were there. That gave us a tremendous boost in that situation. I know they're feeling the same. That makes them dangerous. Makes us dangerous because it's invigorating us as well. Two dangerous teams are going to be going at it. Tremendous passing game and they've incorporated the run, they've gotten good at that. That's been a huge part of their success. Thirdly, I've been watching them, we haven't played them since 2017 but we watch them either on TV or on the film exchange. They've beat a lot of good teams. A lot of really good football teams. The Jeff Brohm era, we've seen them all, we've watched them all. We know we've got to get really prepared. Going to be a big task for us. Get ready.

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