On what it's been like at Michigan

It's been awesome. Before I got here, you'd always hear how Michigan is different in a ton of different ways than everywhere else, and it truly is. You have great people, great players, great coaches, great support. The whole Michigan community is unbelievable.

On whether being at Michigan changes the way he recruits

I don't think so. I mean, obviously, the talent level, the talent pool that you get to pick from is different, but as far as how it's all relationships, I still believe that. I mean, there's NIL involved, there's different things in that aspect, but when it comes down, it's relationships. Can you build a relationship with a recruit in a short amount of time to make them feel comfortable with you? And then the thing with Michigan that makes it different, the things that matter here, Michigan spares no expense. I've said it before, when it comes to preparing you, when it's fourth and two, when you need a stop, Michigan's going to prepare you better than anywhere else. When it comes to when you're 35 years old and you got to roll out of bed and you got a house full of people that depend on you, Michigan's going to prepare you better than anybody else. And that's the difference here. They spare no expense of the things that matter. Keep the main thing the main thing, and that's what they do here, and that's what we try to do in recruiting and talk about it. When you build the relationships with families and players, you want them to feel that same way. And it's easy when you walk through the building and you sit down and talk with people. I mean, people are blown away when they walk out of here. So it's been really, it's been fun.

On how he's been able to add value to the DL room

Yeah, I mean, they're still young. I mean, they're 20, 21 years old, 19, 18 year old kids that are still trying to get better every day. And that's the biggest thing that I appreciate about those guys is every one of those kids, young men, have tried to get better every day that I've gotten here. And the work ethic is second to none. And that's why they're good. It's no secret. You've been around football for a long time. The best players are normally your harder workers and the hardest workers. And that's what those guys are. So I just try to help them out in ways that maybe tell them the same message, just in a different way. And give them some tips on things that I've done in the past that's helped guys and things that I think they need work on. And you keep trying to pound, pound, pound, pound. Technique, technique, technique, technique. You know, hand placement. The difference of three inches in your hand placement is the difference between a knockback, a stalemate, or maybe getting knocked off the ball. And when you can show them that, and they get success with the techniques that you're teaching, it becomes, it's fun. And those guys are really doing a great job with that.

On developing hand work during the season

So for us, it's fundamentals. We have the EDDs, everyday drills, that we do every single day. And I think what's happening is you build a callous. You build a bank of reps. You know, before you get into a team situation or an inside run situation or a certain drill, you've already had 25 reps of throwing your hands in a tight space, at a key, with your eyes. Because your hands are going to follow where your eyes are. And if you can pinpoint a spot, and hey, my hands are going to be here, and I'm looking at my key, and my hands are going to follow my eyes, you're going to be in good shape. And I just think it's like anything else. At D-line, guys peek in the backfield. They want to make a play. All of a sudden, they play high. Their hands aren't exactly where they're supposed to be. Some guys get away with it sometimes because they're good players. But the great ones, like you watch Aaron Donald, his hands are perfect every time. And it's, I tell the guys all the time, it's so easy, it's hard. Like, it's so easy. Like, hey, if I put my hands on this point every time, I'm going to be good. But it's repetition, repetition, repetition. And it's one play at a time. It's not, hey, I did these other three plays, and now I'm going to peek in the backfield. It's doing the same thing over and over and over again. And I think that's the biggest thing that the guys see, and they've been doing a great job. And you're starting to see them play with more extension, play with better eyes, play with better leverage. You know, the thing that gets caught in the wash a little bit is your eyes. Your eyes have got to be great for your hands to be great. And I think the guys are doing a good job with that.

On the DL against USC

I think the biggest thing that I saw against USC is that those guys played as a group. The whole defense played as a group, and they played off of each other. There were times where you never see it, but he got pressure, or the D-line got a sack. The D-line got a quarterback hit because the back end was playing unbelievable. And I think that was the big theme all week. The team, the team, the team. Let's go do this together. And you had a bunch of guys being selfless. And then all of a sudden, when you play with a bunch of selfless dudes, guys start making plays, and the plays just come to them. And we talk about it all the time, like the football gods don't lie. The ball will find you if you're doing the right thing all the time. And Josaiah, you watch him practice, you watch him prep, you listen to him talk, you listen to the peers talk about him. He does all the stuff right, and all of a sudden, he's starting to make a bunch of plays. I think the biggest thing for him is he had an unbelievable rush plan going into the game. And it worked well for him because the three other guys, the five other guys, the six, the 11 guys on the field were all working as one. And I think it worked really well for him.

On developing the rush plan

Well, I think the biggest thing, it starts with them buying into what we're doing, but it's also the coaches. Coach Phee, Coach Wilkins, Coach Lewis, myself, we sit down on Sunday night and we try to figure out what's best. And then we run it through Wink, and Wink gives us the stamp, and then we go out and give it to the guys. And I think last week, the plan was good. And there's input too from them. I ask them all the time, what's your rush plan? What's your move that you feel most comfortable with this week? And we talk about it all the time with those guys. Because at the end of the day, if they're excited about the call and they're excited about the plan, they're going to go execute it at a high level. And those guys, everything's a setup. You got to start off the muscle. We talk about it all the time. And we got to go with some type of speed to power, some type of thing where you let the offensive lineman know, hey, you're going to have to anchor on me. And then all of a sudden, once they start anchoring, now you get the speed rush. Now you get the hands. Now you get an overset and you can come inside. And those guys did a great job with it. And I think that the thing here that's really been exciting for me is the football knowledge on the sideline. With the iPads, it's totally changed how what we do on the sideline. Now it's like, oh, hey, this is how they're blocking us. Coach, it used to be in the past. Where did that guard come from? With a tackle, it seems like he was sitting. Now we watch it. And what it is, is you can make in-game adjustments so much better in college football than you've ever been able to do because of the iPad.

On having the iPad's

Correct. You get live video. And it's been awesome for us because there's been some different type of protections, especially in the USC game, that they did that we hadn't seen before. And we can kind of make plans with it, change things that we're doing. And hey, this series, this is the movement we're going to go with. Hey, next series, this is the movement we're going to go with. So it's been really good. And those guys take a lot of leadership in that aspect and do a great job with it. You watch pre-snap, those guys talking to each other, those guys talking to linebackers, linebackers talking to the D-line, getting keys, tells, tips, tendencies, and over-communicating it. That was the best thing to me about the game is those guys playing as a team and over-communicating things.

On Derrick Moore

He's awesome. Like you watch every sack that Josaiah had, Derrick Moore was a step behind. And you work off each other. Like it's easy to apply pressure when you have three other guys out there that all can apply pressure. Somebody's got to get it, right? So I just remember the one, the first sack, Derrick Moore is walking the offensive tackle back to the quarterback, and the quarterback's looking at Derrick Moore and turns the other way, and Josaiah's there. And it can be, you can flip a coin on who was going to get the sack. And I think that's where it gets fun for those guys. Derrick Moore's so long, he's so twitchy. You watch him on the edge and everything is edge, edge, edge. You watch him versus tight ends. And he plays extremely square and extremely physical. And we're able to do a lot of the stuff that we do defensively because of how good Derrick Moore plays that C gap.

On Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant playing free but together

Well, it starts with those guys buying in and they've done an unbelievable job. And Coach Wink makes a plan for them every week. And those guys go out and execute it. And those guys have been steady getting better, right? As the season goes on, you want to improve every week. And I think those guys have. They've improved every week in a ton of aspects. They've improved on their prep. They've improved on their practice. They've improved on their play. And I think those guys are the things the things that they do in their football IQ is through the roof. So it makes it easy to coach them. It's more like a partnership with those guys and like, hey, this is what we're thinking. What do you think about this? And this is what Wink's got in and they get excited about it and they go out and execute. It's been awesome.

On practicing carrying the football

You know what? It's crazy you say that, but Coach Moore does an unbelievable job about teaching the game, TTGs. And that's something that we talked about in camp. And it's something that, you know, we take pride in, like our football intelligence is going to be high. And, you know, it was a bad deal. He made an unbelievable scoop, which we work all the time. We work, we talk about country fumbles and city fumbles. If it's a city fumble, there's a bunch of people around, get on it. If the ball's rolling to the end zone that we would score, scoop and score. And that's what happened. That's what he did. And I felt like, and you know, he'll come in and talk about it too. He just changed the ball's hands and he didn't even see the running back and the running back just grabbed it. So he'll learn from it. But you know, I think everything that happens, you learn from. And I think he'll learn from that and be great from it because it was a great play. It was a good sequence for us. And if he gets by that guy, we might be talking about a 6'4", 345 pound guy running for 80 yard touchdown too.

On what Kenneth Grant does well

He is, for a guy his size, he is so athletic and so explosive. I mean, he had nine knockbacks. He played 50 plays. He had nine knockbacks, five or six tackles, a sack. I mean, if you just go through that, I mean, there's 12 out of the 50 plays that he wrecked the play. Like you combine that with Mason and Demo and Stu and so many of the other guys on defense, like it becomes fun for those guys. I think he's so big and athletic when he plays with great pad level, which he does. He is like at times he's unblockable. And that's the thing that he just keeps working on tight hands and pad level. And all of a sudden he's doing it and he's knocking people back. He's having fun. Watch his mannerisms out there. He's coaching guys up. I mean, there was a play where he's pointing at the back end, talking about route tell that we had and talking to the linebackers, the safeties, the nickels. And he's just, again, it's a team guy. Everything is about the team with KG. It's really been a pleasure to be around. I appreciate his work ethic and what he does. I'll ask you the same thing about Mason Graham. Best thing he does on the football field. He plays with unbelievable leverage. You watch him, his wrestling background. He gets on guys so quick and he stays so square that he can control guys. It's like they run a zone and the cutback is there. He's staying in the B gap. He's staying in the B gap. He has great extension and then gets rid of the guy and makes a play. When he does that, he is a really, really handful to block and he's done a great job. His football IQ is awesome. Like when we give the rush plan, we do calls, it's like, hey, this is what I like. This is what we see. And he is awesome with it and he's really good. And him and Wink have a great relationship.

On TJ Guy and the DL depth

I think TJ Guy, I mean, you watch him. He plays a ton. He's like a third starter at end for us. He's done a great job. He could play coverage. He could rush the passer. He's good against a run. He's done a really good job. And then on inside, Ike has done a great job here in the last couple of games of really being the guy in practice, being square, coming off the ball. And then Enow and Trey Pierce have both been good. They didn't play a ton of plays last game, but they'll play this game because this game is going to be 12 personnel try to run down your throat game.

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