On the bye week
Bye week was great. You know, we had an opportunity to work football, to get better and, you know, got a chance to get on the road and recruit and see some of our committed kids and got a chance to go to my son's football game.
On what recruiting during a bye week looks for him
Yeah, for us, you know, majority of us got on the road Thursday, Friday, just to go watch some of our kids playing their football games and just to check in with the coaches and teachers at the school and make sure all is well. And it's fun. It's good. It's good to, you know, get a chance to travel the country and watch some football.
On some red flags and other things he wants to hear discussing with committed players' teachers
Yeah, it's about first and foremost character, right? You want the student-athletes to have a rapport with their teachers that, you know, they're getting the check marks there like, hey, this is a great kid. You know, this kid's going to flourish at the University of Michigan and the kid can compete in the classroom. Kid's going to compete on the football field. And, you know, that's one of the first things you're looking forward to is that vote of confidence from the administrators or the teachers or coaches. And, from there, obviously, we're there because we know the kid's a good football player. And you just check in just to see if anyone is trying to recruit your kids, especially the committed kids. And the kids that aren't committed, you want to see where they stand, where you stand with them. And that's what our bye week was for. And like I said, that's what makes recruiting special.
On seeing his son play football
It was awesome. You know, awesome experience for me. Twelve. Twelve. First year of tackle football and just awesome just to go out there and just watch him in his element, having fun celebrating with his teammates, congratulating other guys when they make plays, you know, just watching the look in his eye when he makes a play. It's pretty awesome.
On what position his son plas
Plays wide receiver and safety. So I obviously got to ask how much, because my son plays O-line and D-line.
On how much he coaches his son or whether he waits to be invited
A little bit of both. A little bit of both. You know, he has his own coaches and one of the things that I make sure I do is first and foremost, be dad, be dad, be a fan. Don't be overbearing, but, you know, obviously, I can't help myself. I'm sure you're the same way.
On how Tim Biakubutuka (his brother in law)
Yeah. Tim, Tim's doing great. Doing, doing awesome. He's flourishing, lives in Charlotte. He's an entrepreneur, owns a few restaurants and he's doing great. My sister-in-law, who's a Michigan grad, she came with him and my two nieces and nephew. The cool thing is Tim got to throw the opening pitch at the Tigers game, which is pretty cool. It was Michigan night at at the Tigers game a few weeks ago, the week we played Minnesota.Tim really embraced that. He loved it. Got a chance to get some practice throws in. He had fun. It was a great experience for him.
On the goals he had for the WRs during the bye week
Yeah, just get better. Be consistent and we know when opportunities arrive, you got to make plays and that's the thing that we talked about is just making sure like we detail everything up. Guys are going to continue to grow in our room. Fairly young group and looking for some of the younger guys to step up. Healthy competition, you know, that's what this week was for. And make sure we're on the same page with the quarterbacks and just get this thing rolling.
On how different it's been for the receivers with three different QBs
Honestly, all those guys are great leaders. You know, those guys are special talents and, for us, it's, it really, for a receiver, it really doesn't matter. It's just a matter of making sure we're at the right place at the right time. Working to get open constantly. And, you know, when, like I said, when you have an opportunity to make a play, you got to make them.
On how receivers create separation
Yeah, I think the biggest thing about creating separation is just using your tools that we work on a consistent basis. First starts with your alignment, starts with your release and, and now using the tools at the top of the route, depending upon what leverage the defensive back is giving you. If it's a man team, a zone team, we see a little bit of everything how well we run the football here and we're utilizing Colston and whatnot, but that's the big thing for us is we always talk about creating separation and, you know finding the matchups that are favorable and attack them.
On the best run blocker ont the team
Ooh, we got quite a few, um, guys that they, they, they take pride in blocking. Who's the number one head hunter? CJ Charleston. It doesn't matter if it's a backer, a safety, a 200 pounds, 220 pounds, it doesn't matter. He's on attack mode all the time and all the guys are, but CJ, he comes in there, he takes pride in that. They all do, but, but CJ is probably the most violent out of all of the guys.
On whether he sees more players willing to do the dirty work in run blocking
Also, I think it's the culture in the room. You know, the guys understand that we have a high success rate of run blocking and for our running backs to spring long runs, the receivers have to have to have great second, third level blocks. And the guys take pride in that. CJ came in and he saw the emphasis that we put on a run game and bought into the culture day one.
On some of the challenges the team has had with the pass game
No, I just think it's just making sure we all on the same page and just making sure, like I said, receivers, we're doing our part to get open and create the separation. And, you know, when plays are there, we got to make them. We got to keep growing, just got to keep growing in that area. I think the bye week really helped us, just a matter of just put it on the field now.
On how to handle coaching two different levels of experience (older guys vs. younger guys)
Yeah. When you get a guy like CJ Charleston, who's, he's played four years of college football. Detailing things out and you show them the way we do things, but also like a guy like Channing, you start from the ground level, you know, he's watching a guy, a kid like him. And what I love about Channing is he's a sponge. He's watching the older guys, the way they do things and adding that element to his game. You could see him, he's flourishing every week.
On what he's seen from the young receivers
Both of our incoming freshman receivers, I'Marion Stewart and Channing Goodwin, they did not get a chance to do a spring football. So those guys, fall camp was the first time that they did anything as far as a scheme and whatnot, and just to watch where they've grown from camp to where they are now, it's pretty awesome to see. And those kids are there, they're sponges. They sit in meetings, taking great notes, staying at the practice on the jugs with the older guys, grabbing guys like Tyler and Peyton O'Leary and Fred and those guys. And just asking questions and just consistently working on their game.
On what Peyton O'Leary brings to the offense
Veteran leadership. Knows the scheme inside and out. Been here for quite some time and, you know, Peyton's a guy, he's playing quite a bit on the field and just does everything right. He's a guy that, in the run game, he shows up, you can move him around in the pass game, he's big body receiver that can create separation and get open. Peyton's a guy that we like a lot. We trust him and his teammates love him as well.
On Amorion Walker
Yeah. So I think the big thing for Amorion is simply moving to defense his sophomore year and then coming back to offense, then going into the portal and came back and missed spring ball. Just getting himself reacclimated to the offense. And he seems like he's more confident and ready to roll.
On the benefit of having experience on both side of the ball
He speaks the language, you know, there's times when we start talking about things and, he might say, it might add something on like, hey, their plan is leveraged. Here's the help right here. Or, you know, pressure's coming from here. And he's played in this, played in his defense where we do a lot of things and he sees that. When we're talking, he understands exactly what we're talking about as coaches. And I think that's the benefit of him. He understands the type of techniques that DBs are playing with and is able to exploit that.
On creating more big moments for Tyler Morris
Just create opportunities for him and when opportunities present themselves, I know Tyler's gonna take advantage of it. He works his tail off. Tyler's a guy that we have the utmost confidence in as a coaching staff and just ready to see him make some plays.
On Semaj Morgan
He's a great receiver, especially with the ball in his hand. We know when Samaj gets the ball in his hands, it's something special can happen and just trying to create more opportunities for him in that regard. Like I said, the more guys you have to step up and make plays, the more explosive the offense is going to be.
On what Fred Moore brings to the offense
Yeah, big play threat. You know, he's a vertical guy. He's got great speed. He's twitchy, gets in and out of his breaks, great separation at the top of his route. We're going to need Fred to continue to do that and just keep growing as a receiver. He's in a good place now. We just got to continue to push him to keep growing each and every week. He's rising to the challenge.
On understanding the why and just not the what with what they're doing
Yeah. They understand the why, the how and what am I doing to get open. Throughout the course of the season, you could see them growing in that direction. And it's like, oh, it's that aha. Like, okay. All right. I got this. All right. I see it now. And like I said, they've been thrust in a role that, they're ready. And we knew that it was going to take some time to get those guys rolling. And hopefully we can see a great show on Saturday.
On Illinois' secondary
Yeah, they're going to be tough, you know, physical, they're going to play man coverage. They're going to dare you to get open, dare you the quarterback to hold onto the football and, say, hey, your receivers against our DBs. They've done a great job this season. Those guys are pretty good in the secondary and Coach Henry's done a great job. Corey Parker has done a great job with those guys back there. It's gonna be a great challenge for us. We have to bring our A game in. We'll be ready for the challenge.
On the challenges of the receivers on the road
A lot of nonverbal communication and the guys understand like what the players, whether we huddle in or signaling, whatever, you know, whatever it may be, just got to be locked into what the play call is, do it with detail and just play fast.
On what he wants to see on Saturday to show they've grown over the six weeks
The biggest thing you want to see is you want to see growth. You want to see the guys go out there and get open, make plays. You want to see the guys play at a high level. Execute, no missed assignments and be physical. If this is one of those games that the run game is rolling we got to run block, let's go block, you know, whatever, whatever we need to do to win this game, but play at a great level and execute.
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