Opening Statement

Just wanted to comment about, I made it after the game, about the post-game skirmish. Just unacceptable, not how we carry ourselves. We'll address that internally and that's not how we represent the University of Michigan, the Block M or the winged helmet, so we'll take care of that and that'll never happen again, so that's all I will answer about that.

On Kalel Mullings possibly kicking a MSU player

No, I mean, we'll handle it.

On whether there will be suspensions stemming from the scuffle

We'll handle all that internally.

On whether there's a concern that the rivalry is getting too heated.

I mean, I think it's a rivalry, things happen, but you got to control your emotions. Put our guys in an excellent job from the start all the way till when the whistle ended, after and before that, so there was a lot of talking, a lot of chatting, our guys held their composure and played a good game. Especially finished the game well. You know, look at the discipline, we had zero penalties, you know, so to be in that environment, to have that, have zero penalties, have any incidents, so that was good to see, and there was countless number of times of watching those guys help our guy up, our guys help them up, Donovan going over to one of their guys when he went down, you know, telling him, you know, just Lord be with you and help you for your injuries, so just got to calm the emotions down at the end.

On whether he's heard from the Big Ten

No.

On the OL improvement and how Myles Hinton's return factors in

Oh, huge, man. Having Myles back, he's a tone-setter, obviously he's a large human being with that skill set, but he did an excellent job for having the first game back, and I thought just as a group, those guys played well together and seemed to be in fast front, but that also comes with timing of the passing game. I thought the precision and the route timing was good. I thought Davis did a really good job when he was asked to do that, you know, missed a couple of throws and he was beating himself over it, but played well enough and played good enough for us to win and made some really good throws. I mean, that flea flicker throw was a dime, it was a dot, so he, the third down, he's rolling to the right, throws it to Kendrick Bell over the middle, so he made some really good throws, so that's part of the protection piece and timing piece, and I thought those guys did a good job.

On Davis Warren and Alex Orji contributing in the game

It was awesome. It's what you hoped it would be, you wish you started a little faster, but both of those guys, and they worked well and tamed them together, and you see that practice, you see that, really, you see them just walk around the building, that's how they are, and they really feed off each other, so it was cool to watch that come to fruition and not just see it in practice, but see it in the game, and I was really happy with that.

On how to carry the offensive momentum into the game against Oregon

Yeah, I think having that confidence, having that success on the field is huge, and just continue to prepare like that and execute the way we did.

On exotic looks on third down and teams running it

Yeah, I mean, you gotta be gap sound, that's the biggest thing, you gotta be gap sound, you gotta be able to understand what they're thinking as well, and adjust, and we gotta be better in those situations, and make the changes necessary so that we are better in those situations.

On Josaiah Stewart and what he's done to be elevated to captain

Yeah, first of all, the production that he's had on the field, but that's probably under the type of kid he is, the person that we hear he is off the field, he's a tone-setter, he does everything the right way, he takes care of his business off the field, and he just, I mean, he makes plays, and when he speaks, everybody listens, and he was, you know, we voted for Rod and Makari, but he was the next vote-getter for captain, and it felt like we needed somebody on the field with Makari to set that tone, and he's really done a good job.

On breaking the news to Stewart that he's a captain

Yeah, I broke it to him, I think I just called him, and I told him I was gonna wait until we got in the meeting and tell him, but I was like, ah, I gotta do it now, so I told him beforehand, and he was just super excited, and humble, and blessed that he got the opportunity to do this, because it's a big honor.

On whether it's the plan this week to play both Warren and Orji

Yeah, yep.

On the message to Warren heading into the game

Yeah, be you, do your job, don't try to be Superman, just do what you've been coached to do, and train to do it, and you'll be successful.

On Oregon players who stick out to him

Yeah, I mean, start with the quarterback, a guy that's played multiple games, multiple places, but he's elite in every way, reading coverages, making plays, making throws down the field, controlling the offense with his feet, so you gotta do things to confuse him and make him uncomfortable. The O-line is really, really good, one of the best in the country, and personnel-wise, from left to right, they're all really good. The skill guys are fast. Twitchy. Evan Stewart, really, really good. He stands out, so do the other guys. And then the running back, he's a violent runner. He's a smaller guy, but he's a violent runner, runs physical on the defense. They just play really good team defense. They've got good players, but they play great team defense. Coach Lanning has done a great job with the scheme, and their DC has done a great job. So it's going to be a challenge. We've got to go prepare and prepare to go win.

On whether there's extra novelty having the number one team in the country come to Michigan late in the year

No, I think for us, every game is a big game, and we're just going to approach it like it's another game. We know how good they are. We know what we have to do to go win, and we've got to go execute. We've got to prepare that way, get prepared with that mentality you get. They understand the situation. The guys know who the team is and who we're playing. So for us, it's going to attack our details and what we need to do to go execute to win.

On evaluating Greg Crippen's play

Yeah, he's been good. He's given us a good chance to win, and he's just got to continue to elevate his game in certain things, situations to make him better. But he's taken command of the group, and you've seen the success go in advance with him there.

On what Warren did that was an improvement over his previous starts

Yeah, I mean, first, obviously, he took care of the football in a high elite level way. He had one where he scrambled up the gut where the ball kind of was low, but besides that, the ball was never in harm other than that. And he made the throws he needed to make, made some key third down plays, which were huge, which we hadn't really got. And he just made plays where he needed to, and made some big plays down the field, so it was good to see.

On whether the plan is to stick with Warren the rest of the way

Yeah, I think Davis has earned an opportunity and obviously played a really good game and won the spot, and we'll continue to roll how we did last game.

On Andrew Gentry and Brandyn Hillman's status

Not sure yet. We'll see how they go this week.

On going from the hunted to hunter this season

We're always hunted, man. You're Michigan, you're always hunted, regardless of the year, the record, you're always hunted. So we're approaching it like every other day, and we have to go attack. That's it.

On whether he sees similarities between Michigan and Oregon

I see a really good football team, a complete football team that executes at a high level, and we got to go execute to go win.

On how close he's expecting Will Johnson to be able to play

Yeah, I think he'll, oh, yeah, for sure this season. We'll see how it works out this week and what he can do. So we'll just let the doctors handle that.

On what translated from practice to the field in terms of turnovers this week

I mean, I think a lot of things, the emphasis has always been there. It hasn't, like, it's been more of an emphasis or not an emphasis, but we just did a better job of executing when it came time to it. I think in practice, we continued to, the scout team did an unbelievable job of trying to rip the ball out and be aggressive and go get the ball in the air, and they're a huge piece of our success, so I'll challenge them, and I had challenged them already to continue to do what they did last week.

On what he's seen from his team to be ready for another Top-5 opponent

Yeah, I mean, I think the never-flinch mentality. I think regardless of the situation, all guys are always ready to fight, and that's all you can ask to start off, and then, you know, there's enough flashes of execution, especially in that second half of football, offensively, and I've seen our defense do it enough, and when we put our defense in a good situation where people don't have to drive, you know, people don't have short fields, it's harder to drive the field like that, and it takes time. I mean, the first drive they drove the field, missed a field goal, so I'll take that all day. No points on the board is the optimum of the goal, so obviously we want to get stops, and we want to get tackles for loss and all those things, but ultimately holding the no points is what we want, so I think our guys will be prepared and ready for this matchup.

On balancing winning now and preparing for the future in the final four games

Winning. That's it. Win. Win, win, win. That's it.

On whether no penalties and turnovers was all that was needed t win

No sacks either. Right. No sacks. Moved the ball in the second half, moved the ball in that. We won the middle eight. You know, we talk about the middle eight a lot, about those last four minutes in the first half, the first four minutes in the second half, and I think it was the first time we went in those time periods, and then we won. We came out second half and drove down the field and scored, and that was a huge momentum swing. Josiah with the strip sack, and KG falling on it. Didn't want to pick it up because he, you know, didn't want to think about the last time, but it's okay if he see-foiled it and tucked it. He would have been good, but he fell on it. It was a huge play for us, so I think winning that piece of the game was huge and led us to win the game.

On the receivers making plays

Yeah, everybody made plays. You know, Samaj made a couple third down plays. Peyton O'Leary caught the hitch and made the guy miss, and got that drive started. Tyler Morris caught the big pass. Kendrick Bell caught a third-down pass, so it was spread around really good, and guys just, you know, everybody's doing their job. Don't try to be Superman. Just do your job. That's all we want to do.

On Warren being used to adversity

I mean, I think anytime you win the job and the adversity that he's been through in his life and what he's done, I think he always wants to prove people wrong, and for him, it's just, dude, just be you. That's all you need to do. You don't need to do anything extra, and there's probably always some piece of that. He's got a chip on his shoulder for his life and what he's been through, so just giving him that support to know that we got his back, and even if he missed a throw in the game, he's like, dang it. I'm like, dude, calm down, and I joke to him, like, the last time you missed one, you threw a touchdown in this drive, so maybe it's good luck, but he's that type of guy. He's a competitor, and the cool thing about Davis is he sat down on his bench, and he was the same person.vHe's in here studying. He's in here doing the same thing, still doing the test, doing things right, so just very proud of him and the way he played and what he did, so it was huge for us.

On how to ensure a postgame scuffle won't happen again

I mean, I address it in the locker room. We'll address it again today, and we'll make sure it never happens again. Basically.

On Quinten Johnson

Yeah, I mean, I think Q, being an older guy, he's definitely taken steps, and he was fighting through some things and definitely pushed through it in this game, but he's a guy that's been here for so long, seen the ups, seen the downs, and really pushed through any adversity that has ever been his way, and he's just been the same guy, been a leader, been a culture provider that you need in the locker room and a guy that we're really glad we brought back. He's provided depth, obviously a starter for us, and he's a tone setter and a leader on that defense.

On the flashes of the offense being sustainable

It can be sustainable. It's how we practice and how we execute the plan and what we put together, and excited about the plan we're putting together right now and ready to go execute.

On why he thinks Will Johnson won't shut it down for the season

Oh, yeah. Will has no plan of just shutting it down or anything like that. Will, if he could go out there, he would go out there in a heartbeat, and I know that he'll be back out there at some point this season, whether it's this week, next week, whatever it is, and there's zero, zero doubt in my mind that he's a competitor that wants to be out there with his teammates, so I know he'll be back.

On whose decision it is to play or not play

Yeah, trainers. Yeah, I'm not making any of those decisions, so trainers and doctors, they say he can go, he can go, and then we go from there.

On Mason Graham's increased workload

He's an absolute game wrecker. I mean, dudes in the backfield, every other play, he plays so hard, plays so physical, and just does it all the time. That's how he practices, too. So a guy that's that gifted with that much ability to practice that way, play that way on game day, gives you everything he's got with all the other snaps he's played, is huge, so super proud of him and what he's done for us this season.

On Warren walking through the plays he didn't get in practice by himself

No, but I imagined it would happen. I know JJ used to do that last year, and I can only imagine he did the same thing, so it doesn't surprise me.

On whether he's satisfied with the defensive tackling

Yeah, I mean, I thought our angles were better. We just, when we get there, we've got to wrap up. It's not always about getting the ball out. It's about getting the guy down first, so that's the big thing we've got to work on. There's some guys that are steadily improving in it. You see Jair Hill get a lot of open field tackles, which I was very, very proud of him, but everybody's got to do the same thing as we were.

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