Everything Michigan DC Jesse Minter said during his camp media availability

On the pass rush

We're seven practices in, I feel good about where we're at. I think the biggest thing is you can tell the amount of work they've put into it in those individual sessions with themselves outside of here. They've worked really hard. I think the inside guys and the edge guys are working really well together. Particular Jaylen, he's having a really good camp. He's the same player, he's very dependable and does everything right but he also starting to become an even better rusher. Looking forward to seeing his production this year.

On the CB2 competition

I see a lot of guys just working really hard. We're trying to use a method where it's a different guy every day. Nobody has really taken it and ran with it. That's really because of the opportunity so far. We've had some practices without pads on, now we've had a few with pads on. I think as you go through more and more situational things, more and more scrimmage-type opportunities. I think someone will eventually separate themselves. Right now, it's a whole host of guys that we're playing. We're trying to find the best combination of five DBs in a lot our nickel-type stuff. We've tried a lot of different combinations. That could be a combination of multiple positions, corners, safeties, nickels, we're trying to find our best five combination. I think, early on, that battle will continue, I would imagine, into the season, maybe one guy one game, one game the next. Similar to how Coach did the quarterback competition last year. How you play in games, well the best players will show themselves as the season goes on.

On Josh Wallace

I think Josh was a great pickup. He's a pro. Number one, he's a pro. You can tell he's played a lot of football. He's played against really good competition. Everybody is like, oh, he's coming from UMass. They're an independent team so they have an interesting schedule in terms of the teams they've played the last few years. Every year they're playing two, three, four sort of way up there money-type games for them. He's played against good competition. He came in and I think the smartest thing he did was he jumped in Mikey's hip pocket from the day he got there. Those guys have become twin brothers, in the building all the time. The learning curve has been pretty smooth, I would say, for him and how he's picked things up. He's added a great value to that competition so far.

On whether he anticipates rotating DEs

I think that's a staple of ours, try to rotate a lot of players. Last year, in the first half of the first game, we played 22 players. Our goal this year is to have that upwards of 26 players to be able to be ready to play in the first half of the first game. Not in a whatever, that's the amount of guys we trust and that are dependable. Certainly in the EDGE position, I think there's really an upper four right now, you guys know who they are. Those guys are in competition. As much as they all accept and vibe with the rotation, they all want to be the starter, too. That's a big deal. I think that's another similar deal with competition where some of that stuff may go—Braiden and Derrick are both having great camps. One one day, one the next. It's a blessing to have both of them but you're also—they push themselves, they make each other better. They make the O-line better. Same thing with the other side, Jaylen and Josaiah have a little bit different skillset where you can kind of roleplay those guys both a little bit. Certainly excited about the depth. I think TJ Guy is also a guy so far in the week and a half roughly that is trying to push his way in to possibly be a fifth man in that rotation.

On Ernest Hausmann

Ernest is doing a great job. We've talked at length at depth at the linebacker position and the value that can add. In order to get to that 26 number, we've got to have multiple guys at every position. Ernest is doing a great job, he's picked up our defense. He's a film junkie, he has raised the level of play in that room. I think, really, just by him coming in and his mentality, the way he approaches it, all of a sudden, Mike B is playing at a really high level. Junior is playing at a high level. Competition is what breeds having guys going to get better. When you feel really comfortable at your position and you don't feel like the guy behind you is a challenge, that can do something mentally. When you feel like there's challenges—I told Ernest to go take their job. I told them to hold him off and keep their job. I feel like he's just raised the level of play in that whole room and very excited he's here.

On Derrick Moore's weight loss this offseason

I think a lot of freshmen come in, there's preconceived notions sometimes that I've gotta be the biggest, strongest, heaviest guy. I think he's just figuring out what's best for his body, where he can play the things we ask him to do. He is playing at a high level right now, I think as he progresses in his career, eventually he will probably get back to maybe the weight where he was at but I think it'll be better weight, it'll be the right type of weight. He'll move and rush and everything we need to do at that position.

On whether an identity is forming on the defense

We want to play defense as 11-on-1. I certainly think, and I talked about this last year, I think the no-star deal is just a mentality we want to create. A mentality we want to have where we want to put a lot of people in different positions to make plays. We certainly want to have the flexibility when a guy becomes an elite playmaker that we take advantage of his playmaking skills, similar to an Aidan Hutchinson. I really think it's a mentality and I think the guys have bought into it. It's more so about how we approach, how we play the game as a unit. How we play together and how we stick together. It's never about one person, it's about our group, our team. I think that's just our identity that we've tried to take on the last couple of years.

On DBs that can play multiple spots

I think some of our safeties have the ability to play maybe the nickel position. Makari Paige, Rod Moore, Keon Sabb. Then you have Mikey, who I think can do—there's times in practice where he lines up all over the field. I think some of the corners have the ability to play inside and outside. Ja'Den McBurrows, Josh Wallace even. It's mixing and matching and I think what that does is it creates depth. You don't get into the season and Mikey is the nickel and if Mikey goes down, it's like, what do we do? Right now, it's about trying to teach the defense as concepts, so you put guys in different positions to learn the concepts. Also, while you're doing that, you're creating a tremendous amount of depth because all those guys know how to play the different positions. You can throw them all down in there during a game. I think safeties, at times, are good at nickel. You may keep him out of some true man-to-man situations but you put a guy like Makari. I study Baltimore and what they do on defense. Last year, Kyle Hamilton, who is a 6'4, 200-pound freak show who played nickel for them. Just the ability to be in passing windows. I think a multitude of body types can handle that position and that's what we're trying to do. Finding that right combination.

On the impact of conference realignment on college football

That's probably way above my paygrade. It's driven by money, it's driven by TV. Those decisions are being made by the people that want to keep that flowing. More power to them.

On how he manages the competition at several positions while also keeping the team happy

I think the guys—the culture here that Coach Harbaugh, Coach Herb, the foundation of the program, is just whatever is best for the team. It's really what everybody sort of brings every day. The competition is great. There's competition with individuals at certain positions, there's competition offense versus defense and trying to make each other better. Iron sharpens iron. I really think the culture here, that mentality takes care of itself. The coolest thing here are the guys that are in competition are the ones helping each other the most. Some places I've been in even, you go and two guys are in a competition and they're not sitting next to each other in the cafeteria because they're in a heated competition. Here, these guys are great in the meeting room, they're always trying to give each other tips and advice. Mike Barrett has probably helped Ernest Hausmann more than any player here and that's the guy he's trying to hold off to be a starter. I think that's what I respect most about this place and the culture and how these guys operate. It's really special to see every day.

On what sets Mike Sainristil's versatility apart

He's got a really good football sense. Did play both ways in high school. I do think here, what we do on offense, what we ask our receivers to do. One, they have to know a lot, they have to do a lot of different things from multiple positions, multiple motions, multiple blocking, they block a lot. I think he came over with this really good football sense. Really good physicality that he's always played with. For him, to do that in one year was really. really impressive. By the end of the year, by the end of the season last year, he was able to line up in a bunch of different positions. His leadership, his football IQ, his consistency, you can't draw it up better than Mikey.

On Amorion Walker making the switch and the challenges

I said this maybe in the spring, the difference was that Mikey has been in these moments and he's made crucial touchdown catches in key situations and he's made plays before he moved over the defense. Amorion, while he has a tremendous skillset, very unique for a corner, when you're in the NFL and you're looking at players. Wow, this would be ideal to have a guy this big, this long, this fast, this quick. That's a very rare combination. The cool thing about Amorion is that he has a very unique skillset, some very unique traits for the position. It's going to be, for him, about playing in front of 110,000 people, handling that moment, handling the mental side of play, after play, after play. The ability to respond, the ability come back from good things, the ability to come back from bad things. I'm very pleased with the progress I've seen out of him so far.

On how moveable Kris Jenkins is

Kris is playing really, really well right now. The great thing about Kris is last year he got some accolades, he probably could've gone to the NFL and maybe been a day-two draft choice. He came back with a mission of these are the things I want to get better at. Number one, year, to really, really hold up, I need to get my weight up to a certain amount. Really, number two, to really, really be a guy who they want high up in the draft, not at a 325 maybe like Mazi but at 300, 305, I also need to be able an elite pass rusher. I've heard him say the obsession the guys have but that is real. Kris has been obsessed with being better as a pass rusher since the day he stepped back here on campus. It's showing up. He's moving really well, he's still the same player against the run with 20 extra pounds. Watching him battle with Zinter and Keegan, those are really fun, elite match-ups, that's really the best in college football. It's great every day to be able to go against those guys and for Kris to be able to iron his game against players like that. I expect big things from him this year.

On what inside DL and edge players working well together looks like

It's, number one, just an understanding. Certain rushes we may be running a gain over at one side where they have really execute. You may be letting those edge guys go and the inside guys understanding what that forces them to do. I just think Coach Elston, Dylan Roney, those guys, the players have talked about it but the coaches are obsessed with it, too. We want to be able to be a team where we can pin our ears back and rush four guys and really, really effect the quarterback. Once again, through seven practices and obviously saw some of it in spring but I like where it's headed. Still have a lot of work to do. Just the vibe amongst the group is really, really good and no one is worried about which room is going to do this, who is going to get turned loose, which coach wants to get the sack. They're all working really well together and it's about us putting the best four guys that work best together on the field in any given situation.

On whether he thinks Josaiah Stewart can be utilized on run downs

I think he is. I think good players—as you build an ideal roster, you start with parameters for that position. Size, height, weight, length but there's always an exception. There has to be a quality that boosts a guy up in order to fit that position. Number one, the tenacity he plays with and the pad level that he plays with, the power that he has, he may be a power rusher which sounds crazy but he is a very, very powerful rusher and a powerful edge-setter due to his ability to get leverage on people. So I expect him to play the run well. He's got a great guide who is helping him with all the nuances of the edge in Jaylen. I expect a combination of those two guys to get the job done for us.

On the idea exchange with Baltimore

When you can turn on the tape, they can watch our schemes and say, oh, did you tweak this? That's a really good deal, let me ask about that. We can do the same thing watching their film. It's a huge deal. Mike and I have such a good relationship and probably try to update like, hey, we put this in and it looks really good. Maybe you should try it type of stuff. We pretty much do that through the course of a season. It's family, first of all, obviously coach and coach. It's a great resource for us.

On looking for specific body types in recruiting

I think drafted to the NFL and recruiting, that's where it's really different. In the NFL, you want an outside backer, he's probably going to weigh a certain amount already. I think you look at high school players, you look at length, size, bone structure, how big could they get? We have the best strength staff in America so when you put him in that room for a year or two, what's it going to look like after that? Certainly have unbelievable confidence in Herb that we take guys that, hey, this guy is 205 pounds, two years from now he's probably going to be 240-245 and be big enough to do the things we want him to do. You set position-specific parameters for if you had the ideal height, weight, speed and tangible combination, this is what you would want it to be. You don't always get everybody to that exact deal, once again, it comes down to a trait that maybe overrides something. You certainly want to try and keep it within those frameworks. It's like picking ingredients to cook, you want to pick the exact ingredients you want to make that meal. Certainly want the guys to match up on how we play defense.

On Braiden McGregor's confidence

Braiden, I think his confidence is at a pretty high level. Confidence comes from making plays. Confidence comes from how those guys work with Coach Herb and they start to really see their bodies in the position to be able to do it. He made a fair amount of plays last year. Last year, we really rotated almost six guys on the edge. At times, the snap counts would be a little bit inconsistent and harder to get into a rhythm. His confidence has grown, number one, with how he trains. Seeing himself now, he's made some big plays in big games, if you look back at some of his biggest plays, he had a sack against Michigan State, he's got some big plays against Ohio State. These are big, big games that he's now made key plays in so that allows your confidence to grow. Now, you continue to come out and practice. You're rushing against the best line in college football and just continuing to sharpen your skills every day is only going to make you better.

---

Discuss this article with our community on our premium message boards

Not a subscriber to Maize & Blue Review? Sign up today to gain access to all the latest Michigan intel M&BR has to offer

Follow our staff on Twitter: @JoshHenschke, @Berry_Seth14, @TrevorMcCue, @DennisFithian, @BrockHeilig, @JimScarcelli, @lucasreimink

Subscribe to our podcasts: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify

Check out Maize & Blue Review's video content on YouTube

Follow Maize & Blue Review on social media: Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram