On how his responsibilities change as OC

Obviously, with a change in title you have an increase in responsibility. Super excited that Sherrone entrusted me to be the offensive coordinator at the defending national champs. Making sure practice organization is different, even though I had different roles last year for organization. Organization of practice plans, installs, I'm excited to be able to get in front of the entire team, get to know the offensive line better. That's something that is very intriguing to me. I'm a very personable person. Stuff like that. More for the players, organizational, planning, other than that I'm still the same person.

On his previous experience as an OC shaped him as a playcaller

I think the biggest thing for me in my entire career, I became an offensive coordinator, I believe, when I was 24 years old. I called my first game when I was 25. My experience has taught me so much through this process. I refer back to it a lot, you throw an infant into a pool and they learn how to swim. That's what I was doing. I was treading water, learning to keep my head above water. I learned what my strengths, what my weaknesses were. Where I had to adapt, where I had to get better and then having the opportunity to do it at the FBS level for a couple years and coming here the first game I was on staff, I had to call a game. It was a great experience. New vernacular last year for me as a playcaller in that game and be able to adapt there put me in a situation where I think — it's like riding a bike, just gotta get used to doing it. Very grateful to have that opportunity.

On the QB battle heading into spring

I don't think we'll have a timeline on that. I think when you put timelines on things you hamstring yourself with that decision that maybe you're not ready for and, or, don't make the right one. We're gonna make the decision when the decision needs to be made. Super excited about the room. We have five guys right now who are gonna have an opportunity to vie for that starting job. Just excited to see how it goes. We're going to take it one day a time, everything is an evaluation. From meeting, to practice, how they carry themselves in the weight room. How they get along with the team to completion percentage, to decision making. Just constantly evaluating that. We have a lot of talent there and it's my job to get the best out of them.

On whether he has a target number on completion percentage

We have a goal in the room, the standard is to always be above 67% completion percentage. That's a goal. We set goals. We won't define ourselves by the goals but it's a way to have a measuring stick in the room. As far as the best passer, I don't want to comment on who is the best at what or not, we haven't had a practice yet. Everybody has developed in the offseason. They all look good. Body-wise, structure-wise, they've worked on fine-tuning some things but I really don't know who is going to be the best singular passer because we haven't had a practice but we have our own opinions.

On whether he prefers the quarterbacks to be live in spring practice

When you're in a competition for a quarterback job, I prefer those guys to be live a lot more than they were last year with J.J., having guys stay away from him. The guys we've got in the room, you've gotta test them. How do they handle pressure, true pressure, in their face? Not guys just running by and not going to hit them. Live quarterback play will be extremely important to make the decision.

On whether there's a pecking order entering spring

The pecking order, there's two ways to do it. One, I'm the youngest of three boys so, to me, there's always two ways to decide to do it. One, you either draw straws so, guess what, I was the youngest so I didn't get to do that. I always went last, the oldest went first. The pecking order heading into the spring is who is the oldest? Then, if its the same grade, we go alphabetical order by last name. That's how we'll handle it on day one. We'll reevaluate that on day two.

On having Jack Tuttle back

Having Jack Tuttle is extremely valuable to the room as far as a veteran guy that's been a couple different places. I spoke on Jack ad nauseam in the past, just a great leader, great way about him. Really good passer of the football. Having him back is really good for the culture and the entire program.

On whether he's looking for his QBs to mobile and field generals

I think those are great evaluation tools, right? Any time that you can put a guy out there that's going to win a game, first off, and not lose the game, that's probably the number one thing. Being able to play within the confines of a system and extending plays as well is important. The guy that can play on time, deliver the ball accurately and then have a little bit to his game to extend are great criteria to judge a starting quarterback on.

On the offensive philosophy

I think any great coordinator on any side of the ball forms their style around the players. Who are your best players and how do you put them in the best position to succeed? As far as, if you're talking about run-pass scenarios, I can't tell how those are going to play out. Those are dictated by outcomes of the game, situational football, how the game flow is going. As for structure and terminology that we use, that's not going to change but how we use the players in the offense, that may change. We know Colston Loveland is a really good football player, how do we get the ball to our best football player? Donovan Edwards, the list goes on. We've got really good receivers, Tyler Morris. You gotta get the ball in their hands and to see if we're going to be a downhill run team, a perimeter run team. You don't know that yet, that's what spring ball is for.

On the new coaching staff

Offensively, not many new faces. I've known Steve in passing. Steve and I kind of assumed the same (analyst positions). So that's a new one and then we have Coach Alford coming soon. Steve and I have known each other for the past two seasons, that relationship was already formed. Excited to work with him. Great to have him in the room. Just getting to know Coach Alford more being the new face. The defensive guys walking around, couldn't be more excited for the people that Coach Moore has hired. They seem like great people, down to earth and they're all about their business which is what we're about as well.

On his relationship with Wink Martindale and playing complimentary football

I think complimentary football plays into the identity of a program. We know who we are, we're the University of Michigan. We know how we want to play football, we know how to win football games. That's not going to change at all. That's obviously instilled by the head coach and however Coach Moore wants us to go about that. Right now, we're going to be complimentary. We're going to make sure that we don't put the defense in bad situations, the defense won't put us in bad situations and special teams as well. Coach Wink, I've known him for about a month, awesome guy. He's the same guy every day. Smile on his face. You go in the locker room every morning, he's going to be playing his music, which is awesome having a guy like that around. I love the energy. He's going to test us offensively. We know what he's about, you can go back and watch him through the years. He's going to bring a lot of pressure, we're going to have to be able to protect it and we gotta know where to go with the football with the quarterback.

On whether he thinks the quarterback needs to fit the system or the system adapt to the quarterback

I think it goes back to what I said. To be a great coordinator you have to adapt around your players. What do they do best? Let's just talk about a couple of the guys. If Davis Warren was going to be the guy, he's going to do stuff different than what Jayden Denegal or Alex Orji would do. If Jack Tuttle is going to be the guy, it'll be different. The offense is going to be unique to those skillsets but also complimentary to what else other players on the team do well. I talked about it. Last year we were able to run the ball right downhill on people. We were really good on the offensive line. How is that going to be this year? We don't know. Are we going to be a downhill team or are we going to be gap scheme oriented. That's going to be dictated. We're going to play to our players skillsets. We're not going to pigeonhole ourselves into square peg, round hole.

On how much input did he have into the Tony Alford hire

The head coach is always the lead on that. His thoughts and ideas are often run through coordinators. But he's also going to make the decision on that hire.

On how strange it is to have a coach from Ohio State

We got the best man for the job. That's for you guys to talk about. We're excited to have him on the staff.

On whether the spring portal is in play for the program

I think a constant evaluation of your roster is always important. That's a daily process. We meet about it all the time as an offense. It's something we're constantly evaluating. How do you improve your roster? I think you're just open with the guys. We're not going to live in the transfer portal but we're going to add complimentary pieces. The culture we have to build around here is that we're honest, we're truthful, we don't deceive and players respect that and that's why we've been so successful with retaining players.

On adding a quarterback in the portal

We're going to evaluate the guys on our roster this spring. We're excited with them and I have no concerns that there's not a guy on this roster that would be able to lead Michigan next year.

On Donovan Edwards

Donovan has assumed a major leadership role on the team, which was needed. I saw him walking through the hall yesterday with a cutoff on, he looks good. He looks like he's in shape, he's ready to play, he's got a chip on his shoulder, he's got a way about him. I'm excited. He got to have the wise words at the end of practice yesterday, I thought his message could not have been any better. We've got to continue to work hard and develop. Don't be satisfied with anything. I'm excited about him, he's a guy we've got to put into a great situation to suit his skillsets. He's going to be different from guys we've had in the past and he's really good at those other things so we've got to put them in those situations.

On the offensive line

We don't have starters penciled in. The guy that, right now, I'm super excited about is Myles Hinton. Last year, early in the season, displayed a lot of potential. We moved him around. Right now he's at left tackle. I think we can have a staple there as he continues to improve that. The sky is the limit for him. If he goes out there and pushes himself to achieve what he wants to achieve, he has the opportunity to be a first-round pick.

On Josh Priebe

We're looking at him inside right now. Right now he's at guard. We can kind of cross-train him to snap a little as well as an emergency, that would be great. Obviously, we have Greg Crippen in there as well. Super excited about him. He's another one of those where he comes from a school that's high academic, high character. We're excited to have a guy like that enter the program. He's going to be trusted early to see what we can get out of him, put into those situations. Excited that he's here.

On his impressions on Tony Alford

I know that I've had a few people that have crossed paths with him and he's a man of great character, great coach. Great person to have in the room and, obviously, a great recruiter. Excited for that. He's obviously had great success in recruiting and on the field in production with his running backs. Super excited for the feedback I got from the people that have been close to him. Just seeing what he's done from afar.

On Kalel Mullings and the RB depth

I'm glad you asked because I think that room is loaded with talent. Kalel Mullings is due for a breakout as well. He's trimmed down a little bit of weight so he can move a little bit better. You guys saw, the run he had against Nebraska might've been one of the best — the jump cut, boom, exploded out of there. Excited about him. Then you go down the list. You got Ben Hall, Tavi Dunlap, Cole Cabana then you've got the freshman group. Hopefully I didn't miss anybody. It's a deep and versatile room which I kind of like. You've got guys who can do different things and that we can put them in different positions. Constant evaluation to see what they can do to help us win come Saturday's.

On Jadyn Davis

Jadyn is going to have an opportunity just as the others to become a starter at the University of Michigan and if he’s ready to do that, he’ll be awarded with that opportunity. He embodies what you want in a quarterback: leadership, command, the care factor, the it-factor. When you’re around him, his personality is infectious. It's good to have a guy like that. We had a walkthrough yesterday, asked him to do a bunch of checks at the line of scrimmage, he didn't miss one which is something he's never done before. Super excited. He's so coachable, he's got a bright future and we've just got to push him to be better every day.

On Alex Orji

Alex is also a great leader. It's a constant theme you get around here at the University of Michigan. Alex is a very good leader, a very good way about him. Great understanding of the offense. His development of throwing the football from day one that I got here as an analyst to now is vast. It’s not even the same guy. He looks like a totally different player right now, and the ball pops off his hand. He's playing with confidence, he knows what he's doing. He has a base of fundamentals around him to help him succeed. Very confident player right now. Just gotta keep him there.

On how long it'll take to vision what the offense will look like

I don't know if there's a timeline on that. It's a constant evaluation. We gotta make sure that's done by week one when we play Fresno State, that's all that really matters.

On what he would say to NFL teams about J.J. McCarthy

A-plus-plus-plus. There's not a can't miss with the guy. If you don't draft him, you're missing out.

On whether he's gotten calls from NFL teams

Absolutely and I've told them all the same thing. There's nothing you're missing, just love that kid. I'm just fortunate that he loves me too and we have great conversations daily. Excited to have him back. He'll be around soon. I think he's coming back tomorrow. Hopefully, he comes to the walkthrough and he'll be here the week through Pro Day and just excited to have him around. He's got a bright future, he really does. If they don't draft him, they're missing out.

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