On Jyaire Hill's game against Illinois

I think we were here last time talking about him. Just being able to get more reps, continue to see how the ebbs and flow of a game is, a season is. You know, when you're not feeling the best with your body, being able to refocus. You know, you're never going to feel 100%. Just working through some of the growing pains of being a starter here at Michigan as a young player. I think he had a good focus that week. I think he worked at it. We're in the middle of our conference season right now where our guys have to continue to just focus throughout the week. What can they do better? What can we do to help them out? What issues are showing up? Those different things. And I think Jyaire is a unique kid. He cares a lot. You know, he's silly, but he really cares when he gets down to the field. He doesn't want to make his team, not let them down, but he just doesn't want to let himself down in the team. He has a lot of self-pride, and he also has a lot of pride in the way he plays and practices. Great question.

On whether the defense being more aggressive was a change

Just some short fields where we were facing. You know, I think we challenged the guys to play a little bit tighter coverage at times. There's a couple of, I guess you could say penalties that I wish we didn't have to grab what Aamir had. And then he had another one where maybe it's questionable or not, but, you know, they called flags on both teams, so I don't really get caught up in that, but I thought the guys competed hard. I thought they tried to do a good job of challenging routes. I thought we had some short fields, as you know, kind of makes it a little bit more aggressive, but I do think the guys tried to challenge the receivers and try to be aggressive. Yes, sir. Yeah, I thought the guys did a good job. You know, at the end of the day, there's probably a couple of plays each week that y'all, myself, the players, wish they had back, you know, just, if you get a flag and then they get it on the one and then they score the next play, you have to understand, like, that's really a byproduct of what we kind of did that series. So, just trying to just continue to get better at practice, continue to get these guys competing, and I think they haven't wavered on that part, just being consistent each week. You know, you can't have one game where you play good or up to a standard that you have set for those guys and not just blown coverages and stuff like that, and then the next week. So we just got to be consistent, have the same product each and every week.

On whether Will Johnson practiced

Will Johnson, yesterday, two days ago, we have, you know, on Monday thing that we did some things where he did last week. Some of our guys are modified throughout the week. There's different things that they're doing. I think right now Will Johnson is just working through, you know, be his best all the time when he gets on the field. I think we have done a good job. I think he has done a great job. So right now, you know, Will is, you know, the game's not played today. There's a lot of guys that maybe didn't go full speed all the way until Wednesday and Thursday and had a heckuva game on Saturday. So that's kind of what Will's doing right now, just trying to get his mind right. He's always in the game plan, in the front row, challenging guys, coaching every day. So that's kind of what Will's doing right now. You know, we're excited about Will. I know when he gets on the field, he'll go 100%.

On Johnson's importance

I think Will Johnson, you talk about Will. I know you all asked last time about, like, Rod, just all the players. A lot of these experienced players that's been playing since the last two and three years, I think whenever they're not on the field, you lose the aspect of a coach. You lose the aspect of a guy that's experienced, a guy that can say one or two things to try to keep, the guys when they're on the field engaged. I think his leadership and all that. I think any team in the country is better with Will Johnson on the field. I would definitely agree with that. I think that's easy to say. Yes, sir.

On whether playing Mason Curtis and Jo'Ziah Edmond was part of the game plan

You know, I think really for us is, to me, if you get on the bus, you have to be ready to play. Or you get on the plane, you should be ready to play. I think those guys, you know, we talked about them as really good young players just trying to work them in and try to continue to have this long stretch of a season. I think there's a lot of injuries that happen in college football. I know you all follow it all over the place. It happens. And I think those guys get a lot of reps of practice, and I thought it was really good for those guys to be able to get in the game, in a conference game on the road, you know, try to get their feet wet. I know Mason and both of them have been playing special teams, but that was the first game that those guys played on defense, and I thought they did a good job. We just got to continue to get them better at practice, continue to get them, you know, they're both smart kids. They both want to be writers. They just got to get experience. You know, two freshmen, best conference in the world, Saturday night. It's a lot of pressure on these guys to want to perform and stuff, and I thought those guys did a good job. But moving forward, of course, those guys are part of the game plan. You know, they're getting tons of reps. We roll a lot of guys at practice, try to roll a lot of guys in the games, but I'm excited about those two guys.

On whether there's a clear directive to younger players that there is a path to playing time

I wouldn't say it's, like, clear that way. I just think, like, here, all of our best players here play young. You know, Will Johnson played young. Rod Chance played young. Makari Paige played young. Right? Like, all these young guys, they have to get – Will didn't start his first game as a true freshman his first year – I mean, his first game of the season, right? So I just think that's the progression of a program where you have a lot of really good players. You know, you have some young guys that are continuing to get better throughout the year. I think it's different when you go to a place like Michigan, just getting a feel for how everything is with academics, with school, winning and losing, and just trying to, like, figure all those different things out. So I just think it's a little bit of a process for young guys. I think if you're a young player here and you come as a true freshman and start the first game, I think that's – the kid's really special, as you know. I don't know. You know probably the stats with that. But, like, think about a guy that just started his very first year in the secondary, the very first game.

On what he's seen from MSU

Yeah, I think their offense, you know, that's really what I kind of focus on. Sometimes on teams we have different areas that we worked on as too, as position coaches. But I think they do a really good job. I think the quarterback has gotten better throughout the year. I think that's something that you can watch and see. You know, I think he's strong. If you don't corral him in the pocket and you leave a crease, he'll go, and you might not catch him. I think the receivers do a really good job. They have the freshman that's really good. They have a senior that really worked – that did a really good job. I think they're really good on the outside, one of the upper receiver groups. I know you talked about the offense earlier. I think the running backs run extremely hard. I think when you watch them on tape, they're downhill runners. And I think they had a tight end from Oregon State that led the nation last year in all these stats. I think he's number 12 now. I think he's 87 there. But I think they have a really good offense. I think they kind of mix it up where they're under center or where they're not. I think they give the quarterback different options at the line of scrimmage. And I think, you know, the head coach and the OC that, you know, deal with the offense, they do a great job of just keeping you on your toes, mixing run and pass. Sometimes you look at different stats. A lot of times they're 50-50 on a lot of downs and distance, so they don't really give you a beat. Then they do a good job of self-scouting themselves. But I think their offense is really good.

On whether you have the same gameplan for when Will Johnson is out there or not

Yeah, I think as a coach, you know, I think you have to always ask. You have to kind of see what guys do well. And I think that changes each week. I think we have a big library of things that we can do here. I think each week you find out what opponents, what does this team do well and what can we do well against those guys. I think that's kind of where it's at. You know, like I gave you an example quick. You know, it's like if you love chocolate cake but your wife's not really good at chocolate cake, you're probably not going to ask her to make you that. But if she makes a really good banana pudding, which is just as good, she probably makes that. So I think there's things that all the guys can do. I do think there's some things that Will can do that's better than anyone in America that he can do. So I think we just kind of got to gauge it. You know, you can't throw out a whole game plan if he plays or not plays. I know he's working to play this weekend, but I think the game plan didn't change against Illinois when Will went out. We called the same calls that we would do when he's in there. So everybody gets the same reps during the week. We try to break it up evenly so guys are prepared and ready to go.

On Nick Marsh

I think he's really good. I think he's going to be a premier receiver in this league. I think he's aggressive. He's right down the street. As you know, those guys, whenever they get the opportunity to come back where they're home, they're going to play hard. I think he's aggressive. He's physical. I think he's one of our better receivers in our league. And they do it as a freshman, right? So, once again, if you're a freshman and you're playing at a high level, that guy's going to be a really good player in our league. And I think that's kind of what you see. I think he's good in and out his breaks. I think they move him around, inside, outside. I think they do a good job of having seven-man, eight-man pro, where it's longer developing routes, 20, 25 yards down the field. I think that's kind of their game. They get you one-on-one. They'll get you singled up. So, I think they do a good job with them.

On what play-action shots do for a defense

Yeah, I think you're spot-on with that. You know, I think when you do play-action passes and you get the ball thrown down the field, you know, that means you're running the ball really well. And I think that's where, when you're a run-first team, trying to be downer, runner, hard runs, eventually you're going to have to put the safeties in the box to go show up. And I think they do a good job of mixing those up. I think that's probably the secret sauce on a lot of these teams that are big-time run teams. It's like, are they 50-50? It's different if they're like 85, you know, 75, 25, but I think they do a good job of being 50-50. But you're exactly right. Hard play-action, quarterback turns his back to the ball, to the defense, and then they move the pocket, they move him away, and it's a two-man route. So they have a long time to get the ball off. We've got to be disciplined. We've got to cup the ball. We've got to play with good eyes. We've just got to communicate what we're doing when these guys are running deep crosses, whether it's a two-man route or a three-man route. But I think you're spot-on. That's their secret sauce. You look at their games, it's 30-, 45-place yards deep down the field. You know what I'm saying? Like, the big chunks, they're inside the 20. It's going to be tough. I mean, that's something we definitely have been harping on this week, film study, communication, walk-throughs, meetings, all those different things.

On Wink Martindale changing play calls and what he's learned from the staff

Yeah, I think the thing that Wink does, I think he doesn't change who he is and what he believes in. I think he has a big encyclopedia of different things that we can do each and every week. I think we have to pull from those things. I think, as all the kids can say, it's just different for the kids when you have different people every year, the last couple years. But I think the kids are buying into it. Football is about the players. Everything you do is really about the players. I think we're doing a good job of just trying to highlight our players down the stretch, trying to let our guys that can wreck the game wreck the game. I think that's what Wink does. He has a history in doing that of just finding out what our guys can do well. As a defensive staff, I think it's all about development. I know how it is in life. You want everything to be perfect all the time. I think you always have to just get the small wins of guys playing consistently and growing. I'm pretty consistent as a person. I'm not perfect, as no one is. But I just try to continue to make sure my guys are ready for the game, make sure the game plan is what they can do. Wink does a good job of asking our opinions. Then we have to execute. If they're not executing, how can we get them to execute? I think that's just kind of what we're as a staff right now, is just working really hard to make sure we have a great game plan, make sure our kids know exactly the checks and stuff that we're going to do, and then going on Saturday just roll the ball out and be ready to roll and play excited for a rivalry. That's one of our goals every year is this rivalry game. It's not like this is just another game for us. I know everybody talks about it's important to them. Well, hell, it's important to us too. It's a big-time game, a big-time rivalry. It's a state championship. We're excited about playing it.

On fixing the explosive plays

Quinten is a unique player. He's up here until 9, 10 o'clock at night, watching tape, him, Makari. We have great guys that help us in the secondary. He just is a film junkie. I think a lot of explosives, I know it doesn't sound as simple as this, but you would think that if they have explosive plays, it's not somebody made an error at the end of the day, whether it's a communication error, whether it's an eyes error, those different things. So we've just been trying to make sure that we cut down some of the stuff that we're doing, make sure the guys are communicating, and then making sure we have all the guys on all the same pages. I think that's where it's at. I think that's when a breakthrough happens, right? Whether you're gassed, whether the series is too long, that's when some of the breakthroughs happen. Double moves, if you have bad eyes, that's when it happens. One thing I am proud about our defense is whenever we do have a lot of – not a lot of, but whenever we did have a break, guys ran the guys down and they missed a field goal. They had the one where the quarterback scrambled. KG turns it on and tackles the ball, and then the guy misses the field goal. They double move Shook in the game against Washington, and Q runs it down, and then it's not a touchdown, it's a field goal. Just different things like that. Our big thing is to give us a place to stand. So explosives happen, but we have to get the ball down when they happen. I think that's been something that our guys take pride in. Me and you both know the percentages when they get the ball after explosive. They get two explosives at one drive. It's going to be hard to stop people in college football, especially in our league with the coaches that we go against each week. These coaches are good. They're not in this league in the best conference for no reason. These guys are good from top to bottom.

On his history with the Michigan-MSU rivalry

I'm not a big NFL film watch guy, so all I really do is watch just college football and then recruits in high school. So I just try to like all the different rivalries. I want to go to the Army-Navy game and Michigan-Michigan State, and when we get to play Penn State one time in a white out. Just different things that have always been unique to me that I always watch, like the Iron Bowl. I am a football guy, and I really like that. I haven't had like a ton of experience in this rivalry, right? But the good thing about here, we have a lot of alumni here that always talk about it with our guys. The record's thrown out. It's going to be two teams that hate each other that week. Some people are spouses. The wife went there and the husband went here. So this is a big-time game for everybody, and I think everybody realizes that. So that's kind of where I'm at on the rivalry. To me, I'm more like I don't know all the kids' names that we play against. All I know is numbers and what they do well. I know the head coach there. Not like he's a best friend, but when he was at Oregon State, I talked to him a couple times up there. He's an elite person. He's very mild-mannered. He's smart as I don't know what, and you all saw what he did at Oregon State. So that's all I really know about Michigan State. I know they have a really good offense. I know the head coach is an elite person, and he cares about the program wherever he's at, and I know this is a big-time game for us here. It's a big-time game for me, and our guys are really excited about this opportunity this weekend at home.

On being prepared for trick plays against MSU

Yeah, I think trick plays are something that is two-fold, right? The trick plays and all that is probably a really aggressive defense, right? They can get you going one way and do that. I think that's something when that happens up, or is it a certain field zone that these guys do the trick plays on, or when they take shots that he talked about being explosive? I think those are really important. I think if you always say that you're going to play that trick play, me and you both know they probably have a different one, right? So, like, I know you're all Lions fans, right? Ben Johnson, he talks about, like, I don't care if they see this trick play. I got something off of it. So I think that's where you got to always see that. So, you know, our guys have just got to be disciplined with our eyes, communication, understanding when the ball is thrown behind the line of scrimmage more than likely if it's thrown behind, alert double pass, different things. Anytime there's a full outside zone, remember, you got to get your eyes back to see if there's a reverse. I just think there's different things like that. But I do agree with you. Like, in this game, no one's going to hold back on their call sheet, right? Fourth down and two, it's going to be – it's going to let it rip. Everybody's going to be playing aggressive this game. And our head coach, our OCRDC special coordinator, they're definitely aware of, you know, of the different things that's going to go on this game. You know, we have all the film. We watch a lot of tape, whether it's Oregon State tape, whether it's Michigan State tape. Like, I mean, we're watching every single thing that we can to try to find different things that they'll do. But I think that's a great question. You know, it's a big-time game. I know you all know that. Everybody's excited about it. And we get the opportunity to do it at our house. And I think our guys will be fired up.

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