On the passing game not being where it needs to be

Yeah, you know, it's not where we want it to be. We all got to do our 1/11th. From protection to quarterback to receiver, everything, even coaches, just being more detailed. Just everybody just doing it together. And that's how we want to get this thing rolling. And that's our mindset.

On whether he's surprised by how little production there is from the receivers

I am. I mean, obviously, two of your top receivers having that low of a production. But, you know, ultimately for us, in our receiver room, the one thing we constantly talk about is, when opportunities present themselves, you got to make the plays. And most importantly, do what you can do or do what you got to do for us to win. And we haven't done enough thus far this year. I haven't done enough. Collectively, we all got to be better.

On the inability to connect on the deep shots impacting intermediate routes

I don't think it affects the intermediate routes more so. I think it more or less affects having extra hats in the box in the run game. Right. If you can show the ability to throw the ball over their head, then you probably have, you know, less amount of hats in the box to, stop the run. That's something that we're constantly talking about. And like I said, it's all been addressed. We're constantly working on it.

On what Amorion Walker has done to climb the depth chart

It's comfortable. Right. I think the biggest thing for A-walk was, you know, him moving over to defense. When he was on offense, he was a young guy. He was a freshman, you know, when I had him on offense. And he moved over to the secondary. Then we didn't have him in spring ball. So during training camp the first couple weeks of the season was him transitioning back to being an offensive player. And he's going out there and he looks good out there.

On the learning curve of Walker blocking on offense

Yeah, I mean, he knows the system for the most part. It's just a matter of being able to whatever position he's playing, you know, understanding, who he's blocking, what his responsibilities are.

On what his day-to-day looks like as passing game coordinator and what his collaboration look like with Kirk Campbell

Yeah, I mean, every day, we talk about that. Getting together and me just giving suggestions, ideas of the way I see it. And just trying to figure out what's the best way. Obviously, you look at your players and look at what you're capable of doing and kind of give us suggestions from that standpoint.

On the main struggles of the passing game

Well, 1/11th. You know, it's usually a breakdown somewhere. We just all got to play collectively. We got to play together. And obviously, I say that word, and as a coach, you know, we got to do a better job just not on executing. I challenge myself every day to take a long, hard look in the mirror and self-reflect and how can I be better? How can we be better? And, you know, just to make sure we execute at a higher level.

On MSU trying to stop the run and whether that opens up passing opportunities

Yeah, I mean, those guys are—they do a good job over there. They're big. They're physical. They're sound. The guys are playing well. They're playing well on defense. And, for us, it's obviously, teams are going to try to stop the run. And, if you do that, then we have to execute in the pass game. Have to be more balanced so we can sustain more drives. And most importantly for us is taking care of the football just so that we can, obviously, like I said, sustain the drives and win.

On how much of the game is matching MSU's intensity

Yeah, I mean, the records, their records don't matter. You know, I've been here long enough to understand that. The records don't matter in this game. They have our full attention. I know we have theirs. And, you know, this is one of those games where who's going to execute at the highest level? Who's going to not commit the silly penalties that comes with rivalry games? And we have to play our best game of the year. Offense, defense, special teams and I think if we do that, we give ourselves a great chance to win.

On the QB rotation and whether there should be just one that plays

No, I think whoever gives you the best opportunity to win, you know, that's our mindset. From a receiver room standpoint, it's—you detail things out even more so. You've got to make sure you're precise. You detail in everything that you do even more so if there is a different quarterback in there, just so the quarterback knows exactly where you are and when you're supposed to be there. And like I said earlier, if the play presents itself, an opportunity to make the play, you know, we have to make them. I don't think for us it doesn't really matter who it is. Whoever, Coach Moore, Coach Campbell, say, hey, that's who we're rolling with. That's who we're rolling with. And then they got our 100% support, and the guys are going to play hard. It doesn't matter who the quarterback is.

On whether the changes in QB impacts the chemistry with the receivers

Well, I think if you have, we've been blessed with having J.J. the last couple years. You've had one constant quarterback, so obviously the chemistry is there. That hasn't been the case this year. But I said we've had so many reps together that it's not like in the NFL where a quarterback goes down and you get the guy off the street. It's not that, you know. The quarterbacks we have have been here, you know, for some time. Obviously, Jadyn is a young guy, but he's been here, you know, during spring ball. So there is chemistry with all of our quarterbacks. So it's not a foreign quarterback and say, hey, what are you doing on this particular play? And we all speak the same language. We watch film together. So, you know, there's continuity amongst the two groups.

On play-action deep passes

Yeah, I mean, the whole premise behind taking like play action shots, you want to have a married game plan is to, you know, when defenses are trying to commit to the run, you got to throw the ball over their head. And to be quite honest with you, you would like to complete all of them. But if you don't, you still put in the defense's mentality in their mindset that, oh, like they could throw the ball over our head. Like we can't be as aggressive, you know. So as you're game planning, doing different things to that nature, you definitely try to take advantage of things, like I said, that the defense, you know, trying to use their aggression against them.

On whether he sees any improvement in that area

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we, you know, we got to connect on it. Like I mentioned earlier, it's, usually, it's a breakdown here, there. You know, it's just we all got to be on the same page. And we're striving every day, every day in practice, meetings, practice, just to make sure that we're cleaning that area up.

On the disconnect between practice and games

I don't know. I mean, we got to take it from State Street and bring it to Main Street. You know, that's the biggest thing. And I do know, like I said, having played here, having, you know, been around, played a receiver position, it's usually you got to carry that over. You know, you got to carry that over to the stadium. And usually experience comes with that. But we're going to keep attacking it. There's no doubt about it. You know, we're not, we understand it. We're not shying away from it. And we understand we have to be better. We have to be better because it makes the offense better. And then collectively it makes the team better.

On whether he thinks they put too much on the players

Well, I think that's always when we're not executing at a high level, I think that's what, you know, as coaches you kind of look to, okay, can we make things easy for us, harder for the defense or whoever the opponent may be, whatever side of the ball we're talking about. But yeah, I mean, there's some merit to that, depending upon who's your quarterback, what receivers you're rolling out there, what tight ends, what backs, what O-line, whatever it may be, you definitely want to have some simplicity into what you're doing. But also, like I mentioned, easy for us, still hard for the defense.

On whether he feels like the receivers are getting open enough

Yes, they do.

On whether it simply comes down to a chemistry issue

Yeah, just, you know, we have to be better, just, you know, protecting, pitch and catch, you know, quarterback, receivers, collectively. 1/11, it's a breakdown somewhere and it has to get fixed. I'm not shying away from that and I'm giving you my honest assessment of what I see. And that's where we are. We're not good enough. We're not good enough. We've got to be better.

On what the pitch is to recruits about the offense

Yeah, I mean, they've seen it. They've seen it. From a scheme standpoint, we've been running pretty much the same scheme for years. You have quarterbacks in the NFL, you have wide receivers in the NFL, you have tight ends in the NFL. So it works. You know, we just, we're not at the level that we want to be right now. But the recruits know that. That's the selling point. They've been here and they've seen it. They've seen Nico. They've seen Roman. They've seen Ronnie. They've seen Cornelius, right? They've seen that. They've seen tight ends of the past. They've seen the running backs. You know, see O-linemen. They've seen the quarterbacks. So they understand that.

On where he's been lacking and how he can fix it

Yeah, just how can you get the kids to play with more detail, better detail? How can you get the kids to really be more confident out there? How can you get the kids to just be a better version of themselves out there? I've had great, I've had the fortune of having, you know, Eric Campbell here having a great coach. And some of the things that he challenged himself and he took pride in and, and that's something I take pride in is that, you know, you know, as a coach, the kid's a reflection of you as a coach. If you're not getting it done, then either I'm allowing it to happen. Or, I mean, I'm coaching or allowing it to happen. And that I have too much pride in this place. I love this place. I love Michigan. I love Michigan football. And I'm gonna coach my butt off. I'm gonna do whatever we need to do. And not just myself, but all of us coaches, staff, players, just to make sure things get right. This, we don't like how this feels, this is not what we're accustomed to. This is not what the program is built on. And believe me when I say it, we're working our butts off to make sure that we fix this problem.

On whether Davis Warren would be the next QB in at Illinois

That I'm not sure of.

On how the QB reps are being handed out

That's a, that's a Coach Moore question. Okay. Sorry. That's a Coach Moore question.

On how to keep the faith in the coaching staff when the results are dramatically different from last year

I just think the kids know we all pull in the same direction. You know, the, the ultimate goal for the Michigan program is always championships, right? You ascend to win championships. You beat your rivals, which, obviously we have a big rivalry game this weekend, and the kids see it. They see the coaches, you know, I just left, the guys come in, they're watching film, and it's, everyone's still spirited. Everyone's super-spirited, and they understand the importance of this game. They understand the importance of this rivalry. So no one's tapped, everyone's ready to roll. You know, everyone's ready to roll, and we had a great practice yesterday, and just got to keep building on that. But no, no one's wavering.

On whether the MSU game is coming at a good time

The focus was always there. Now you understand, like, no one's going to feel sorry for you. We lost two road games, and coming off a bye, and now you play one of your biggest rivals at home. So for us, it's, we understand what MSU—we understand when they come here Saturday, what they're trying to do, what they're trying to accomplish, and we have to meet that intensity and then surpass it. So our guys understand you can't be like a normal week of practice. You got to step it up, right? It has to be a fanatical detail in everything that we do. We got to bring the juice. It has to be excitement, and, you know, Coach Moore's done a phenomenal job of that this week. We got to have laser focus, and we can't worry about what the outside forces are saying, right? You know, can't worry about what people are doing. All we got to worry about is what's in our circle and then do our 1/11. If we do that, we give ourselves a greater chance to win the ballgame.

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