On J.J. McCarthy's first Big Ten game as a starter
It’s his first real appearance, it’s the first time he’s ever played a full football game. So, I think for the first time playing a full football game, there’s a lot of positives to take away from it. I think he did a good job. Certainly looking at the stat line, it’s really good for a guy playing his first football game. At the same time, I’m sure J.J. would tell you, there’s a lot of stuff that we could clean up. And we’re focused on the process. We just love everything about J.J. and the way he goes about it. There’s so many things that we can fix and work on. We come away from it, even when he did make mistakes, we’re encouraged, because you can see it’s all fixable stuff. Really, it just comes down to coaching more than anything else. If he’s making mistakes, we’re not doing the right thing and that’s on us as coaches. So we’re really encouraged by his first full game. Yeah, we were happy with it.
On whether not running McCarthy was by design and whether they will continue rinning him
Absolutely. We will use them in that role. A lot of it has to do just with what the defense dictates that week. We feel like if we can use the quarterback runs successfully, we’ll do that. Absolutely. He’s really talented in that area. One of his many talents, he can run the ball effectively. So we’re going to keep using him that way when it’s called for.
On J.J. McCarthy's ball security
Ball security is always an emphasis. I think it’s really hard with quarterbacks just because they don’t get the contact in practice that other guys do and so I think we just have to do a better job as coaches and providing that forum and controlled settings that are safe, where you’re not gonna get injured. Classic J.J., he came in and said, ‘Hey, can you tell the defense to punch at the ball when I’m running through there?’ It’s kind of like, ‘You know J.J., it’s not the best idea to have them punching at your throwing arm and your hand while you’re running through the defense, so we’re not going to do that.’ But he’s willing to do whatever it takes to fix it and we’re gonna help him. We’re gonna help him do it. But at the same time, he’s improving in every area and we have no concern about him going forward whatsoever.
On why he thinks McCarthy's performance was good
You could also look at it and say if we connect on a few of those deep balls, he throws for 400 yards and he has four touchdowns. But that’s not the reality that we live in. He didn’t connect on those deep balls. So just like we were looking at a throw that could have been an interception, we’re looking at the throws that could have been touchdowns. So we’re coaching the process, not the outcome.
On McCarthy saying his arm has never felt better
He’s 100%. He can make every throw. We don’t have to limit his reps. He had a whole spring off, you know, so it’s just the process of making him really feel like he’s 100%.
On Joel Klatt's comments about Michigan's play calling dynamic
Joel is a really smart guy who knows football—playing experience, ton of experience, every week he’s studying the game, he knows what he’s talking about. So I guess I think a lot of times when people see something new or hear something new, their first reaction is to say, ‘Look, I’m not used to that, so that can’t be a good way to do it.’ I think it is a work in progress, just like everything in our offense. Whether it’s the run game, the pass game, the playcalling, everything can be better, everything is a work in progress. If we were out of rhythm or whatever he said, then yeah, I can’t wait to see what we look like when we’re in a rhythm and we all know we can do a lot better but I think the system that we have in place is really good. I know that Sherrone helps me a ton. I think I help him a ton and it’s really a great way to do it. I think we have a great rhythm. So far the results have been good.
On not having Cade McNamara available impacting McCarthy's runs
We’re always trying to protect our quarterback, no matter whether it was Cade when he was out there, whether it’s J.J. now. We’re always trying to protect the quarterback. We don’t want him to take any unnecessary hits, we want him to protect himself. But that’s not really something that’s a factor. We have confidence in our QBs, we have confidence in J.J. The football will take care of itself and then if we ever have to play somebody else, we have confidence that they’ll go ahead and do the job as well.
On J.J. McCarthy's maturation
I think one thing that’s great about our team right now is we have a lot of talented guys and so we spread the ball around quite a bit. The quarterbacks (have an) equal opportunity, they don’t discriminate. You look at some offenses, and the quarterback really only wants to throw the ball to one or two guys and we don’t have that. Throw to eight or nine different guys. Each week, you never kind of really know who’s gonna get the targets and how it’s gonna be. Last week, Luke did an unbelievable job. I mean, he’s a really great player. I think it’s not talked about enough how good of a blocker he is. He’s a really good blocker, yet he has speed, can run routes and catch the ball. Definitely gonna be playing at the next level. So I was glad he was able to show it in the last game and help us win.
On how much things change in the game when there's an expected target and others coming in the game
We want to be focused on our progressions, just going through the reads and that’s really what we’re talking to J.J. about more so than who we’re getting the ball to. That’s a great thing about having an offense with—I mean, I don’t even want to start naming guys, because there’s guys I’d leave out but Blake Corum, Donovan Edwards, Ronnie Bell, Roman Wilson, Cornelius Johnson, Luke Schoonmaker—we have all these guys and so we don’t have to sit there and think about like, ‘Hey, we really have to figure out how to scheme it up where we can get this guy the ball,’ we can just put guys in position to run routes that they run best, in position to do the things that they do best, and then the ball will find them. So it’s really a great thing that we have going.
On the Iowa defense
The Iowa defense is a huge challenge for any team. Any offense to face. There’s a reason why they’re No. 1 in the country in a lot of areas, but they play with unbelievable fundamentals, they’re sound, and they communicate really well. If you look at the defense, it’s all fifth-year guys, some fourth-year guys. The only guy that’s not is Cooper DeJean, who, when it’s all said and done, may have been the best one. The guy is an elite player, and certainly will be playing at the next level. I think it’s a misconception about Iowa, too, that they maybe are kind of like a bunch of no-name players. I mean, Riley Moss will be drafted, Jack Campbell, who will be drafted. Noah Shannon, John Waggoner—I mean, these guys are gonna play in the NFL, like, this isn’t a bunch of no-names. They’re really good players. They have a really good scheme. They know what they’re doing, they play hard. Just nothing but the utmost respect for what they do and how they do it. It’s a huge challenge for us.
On other team's offenses figure into Michigan's offensive gameplan
It’s totally valid. Iowa thrives off of turnovers. We know that we have to take care of the ball. We want to take care of it every week, but this week, I mean, that’s how they win games, right? They’ve scored four touchdowns on defense. So we know that it’s one of our biggest goals in this game is to end every drive with a kick and take care of the football and certainly, all those things factor into how aggressive you are in every situation. We’re going to take what they give us. If they give us an opportunity to throw the ball down the field, we’re going to throw the ball down the field. If they give us an opportunity to run the ball down the middle, we’ll run the ball in the middle. If they give us an opportunity to go outside, we’ll go outside. But yeah, for sure. You know, the nature of the game, we want to play complementary football and it’s about all three phases and we’re trying to complement the rest of our team.
On working with Mimi Bolden-Morris
Mimi is phenomenal. She has a great relationship with our guys, she really fits in well with the room. She’s working really hard, doing all the grunt work and busy work that a GA does. We really have a great support staff here, it’s probably not talked about enough. But one of the great things about a place like this, is we have the resources to have great support staff. So Mimi, Jack Clark, Andrew Goodrich, they all do a great job and then we have analysts like Bret Ingalls, and Kirk Campbell, who some of the best ideas every week come from those guys. So we’re blessed to have a great support staff, great team of coaches, and Mimi is just another shining, shining example of a future star in coaching that’s here, amongst many others.
On coaching in the press box
It’s been a few years since I’ve been in a box. But I’ve been up there before, obviously. I definitely see the whole picture a lot better. It’s a more sterile environment where you can think, it’s calm, there’s no noise or somebody bumping into you, you’re not dealing with the elements, and you have all your papers in front of you. I love being up there in this role. As far as communicating with the quarterbacks, we’re able to get them on the phone or on the headset and talk to them. Usually give them a chance to come off the field and decompress and disengage for a minute, give us a chance to really go through the drive and figure out exactly what happened and then get on talk to him and give him a clear, succinct, ‘This is what happened. This is what we’re going to do next,’ type of conversation.
On how Cade McNamara is handling his current situation
OK, now, given the circumstances. Obviously, it’s really tough to be out with an injury and not be able to practice. But that being said, he’s still the great leader that he is for our quarterback room, for our team. He’s fully involved in everything we do and is a great example for the guys and a great leader. Hopefully, he’ll be back soon. Definitely don’t think we’ve seen him the last time this year, we’re optimistic he’ll be back soon.
On who the backup quarterback would be on Saturday
We have two guys we feel really good about with Davis Warren and Alan Bowman. Obviously, we feel like we could win with both of them. They’ve worked really hard, they’re very well prepared. We love both guys. The only advantage Alan gives us is he started games in the Big 12. So if you get into an environment like that, we feel like he could handle it at the same time. Davis is extremely mature, intelligent and I have no doubt that he’d be able to handle those situations and flourish as well. Obviously, we have Alex, who can provide a whole different element for our offense, if you want to utilize that.
On whether the receivers have adjusted to McCarthy's arm strength
I think the great thing about our guys is J.J. will tell you it’s on him, the receivers will tell you it’s on them, and then I would tell you it’s on the coaching staff, right? Because if we’re missing those throws in the game, then there’s something that we’re not doing right in practice. So, certainly, we can throw the ball better and that’s something that hopefully will show up for us as we as we go forward. One of the many things that we want to improve.
On whether Michigan asks McCarthy to tighten up or be himself against Iowa
We love J.J., everything about him and him being himself is the best thing for Michigan football. The same time, you get what you emphasize. We’re going to definitely be talking to him about improving in every area and taking care of the football. Like we’ve said, this is a huge emphasis in this game.
