On the tunnel being honored for Lloyd Carr

Tremendous amount of pride. I had dinner with Coach Carr a few weeks back. We really haven’t connected since I left because everywhere I’ve been when there’s been some type of function for the national championship team, I’ve had a spring game wherever else I’ve been. So we finally had a chance to connect and I shared with him how he impacted my life and I told him it’s gonna be a great tribute when all the former players come back and walk down the tunnel with their kids and their families. They’re gonna always have incredible stories to tell about Coach Lloyd Carr. That’ll bring it to the forefront when they’re walking down that tunnel and see his name on it.

On any particular stories with Carr in the tunnel

No, none of that comes to mind at this point. I don’t mean running out of the tunnel with him as much, it’s just the impact that he had on everybody’s lives while we were here.

On why his position group has had success lately

There’s been more focus on it, of trying to get off the football better, put guys in better situations, and not running by the quarterback. This week in itself is going to be an incredible challenge, because of the escapability of Penn State’s quarterback, Sean Clifford. I think that we’ve done some things in terms of line movements and stunts, but there have been a lot of really good one-on-one wins and that’s been great to see. We’re a very talented group up front, as I’ve stated before, with a lot of depth, and a lot of guys can go in there and create the pressure. Rotating guys in, keeping them fresh in situations. Against Indiana, for example, they were going fast tempo and were able to slow the game down with seven-some guys in and getting as many fresh bodies in as we could. Therefore, you had quite a few guys with the production that they had. I think it’s a combination of the guys starting to get into a rhythm of how they want to use their strengths and attack the weakness of the offensive line, along with some schematic things that Coach Minter and the rest of the staff have come up with.

On Eyabi Okie

The beginning is, what we didn’t want to do is put too much on his plate, that was evident. We wanted him to be able to be comfortable in the system. We do a lot of things defensively here. So, you can overload them by utilizing them in your base package and nickel package, and third down package. You have to pick and choose what you want to utilize them in just because it can become overwhelming, and you’re not going to get much out of a young guy like that. First time in the system and a few weeks in so the conversations were pretty general and just making sure that he understood the technique that we were going to use in certain situations. Now that we’re really this far into it, now it’s in-depth of aiming points and what we want to look at, just more in-depth detail of the actual plan.

On what goes into simulated blitzes

A lot of is based on the opponent, it’s gonna be what we feel is their weakness, and whether it be personnel, someone up front for them, or protection, weakness. Then obviously, combining that with the strengths of our guys and pressuring the guys that have had production or that can give us production. So it’s a combination of both, but you’re always trying to find the weaknesses and find what your strengths are and try to match those two together.

On the effect simulated blitzes have

It keeps the offense, for sure, from just being vanilla. They’re gonna have to really study how we’re doing things and where we’re putting people and it also it’s a great buy-in for the guys, like, everybody wants to get a sack, it’s not just for defensive linemen. So when you’re pressuring linebackers that are really good at it, and they can finish on the quarterback like that, that’s adding value to them but it’s also excitement. It’s pretty cool for a second-level or a third-level player to get a sack.

On Penn State

They have a really good offensive line. It’s very well-coached, arguably the best that we’ve seen so far. Then obviously, they have two to three talented young running backs, that’s been the biggest difference for them. The quarterback’s talented, so they can spread you out and throw the ball and hurt you there but they are very effective running the football. That's exciting for us because we enjoy block-destructing and defending the run and we’d rather play a game like that than spread us out, make us run all over the field. But yeah, they’re very good at running the football basically because the offensive line is really good and the running backs are very talented.

On the defensive line rotation keeping players fresh and wearing down offenses

I feel like it’s impacting that. For example, inside like Mazi and Kris Jenkins, they’re playing quite a few snaps, they’re still playing quite a bit. But I think that a team like Indiana whose fast-paced tempo, they can hurt themselves by wearing out their offensive linemen. And because there are five guys playing the entire game, if they have 80-something snaps and the guy across from him only has 20 or 30 snaps, it’s gonna be a big impact. So I think it impacts the game that you’re in, but it also down the line, game 11, 12, 13, when you don’t have as many reps on your body and you’re more fresh for the season, I think that’s going to make a big impact as well.

On whether he trades off coaching edge players

It’s myself and Coach Roney. Coach Roney takes those guys and works drops and we take them, we put them in seven-on-seven drills and skelly drills. So we and Coach Minter can grab the SAMs at times, and yeah, it’s a collective. Everybody’s working on it.

On who has been simulating Sean Clifford in practice

Brandon (Mann) has done a really nice job of simulating several quarterbacks this year. Because he’s got the greatest capability. Same thing with Jayden (Denegal). I don’t know who it was yesterday, to be honest with you. Sorry.

On the gameplan facing two different running backs

There are certain things that they do with different guys in the backfield but overall it’s pretty consistent so it doesn’t change our game plan.

On what Mason Graham has done to impress

He’s very well-trained. Like I said before, technique-wise, he’s right there, which helps him in block destruction. He’s very physical. He plays a good pad level, very smart young man, and can learn really well. We got a lot of things going on in our front and for him to pick it up like that as a freshman, it’s very impressive. He’s improved in his pass rush, just a tough, physical young man that learns well and plays really good technique.