On the West Coast trip and how it went

Yeah, I mean, I think the first away game, first road game for us, so adjusting to that and making sure we were in the right mindset. I thought we were, and I think we still were, and the travel there, and a lot of guys slept on the plane, four hours and 55 minutes, I think the flight was there, and then a little shorter back, but guys adjusted well, just didn't play to our best.

On Big Ten teams struggling to win out West and how to adjust to it

Yeah, it's something we're just gonna have to adjust to, and we'll definitely look at maybe possibly adjusting and going a day earlier, just depending on how it goes, but I thought our kids and the schedule that we provided for them gave them a chance to recover and sleep in, and kind of get their bodies ready for the game.

On his thoughts on the game

Yeah, I thought offensively, definitely, Jack Tuttle came in there and gave us a huge spark, and that was a positive. The first three drives, touchdown, field goal, touchdown, and gave us a lot of momentum on offense, and he's beating himself up still. I had to call him last night and tell him, hey, we got your back, you're good, and he only practiced for a week and a half, really, and to get him back was a huge boost for us, so we'll continue to get better and build stuff around him to make him better and make our team better and let our other guys be playmakers.

On whether playing Jack Tuttle last week was a gametime decision or he would play no matter what

He practiced really well, so did Orji, but you knew how good Jack was and the experience that he had, so I felt at some point that'd be the play to put him in the game at some point, and then he just did a really good job and took advantage of the opportunity.

On who the starting QB is right now for Illinois

I mean, right now it looks like Jack, you know, we'll do everything we can to keep the competition going, but I think right now he gives us the best chance to win, and we'll continue to process that as an offense, as a team, but that looks like the direction we're heading.

On how he's seen the quarterbacks handle the changes at their position

I think the biggest thing is the culture, the leadership, the continuity of the team, and it talks a lot to the players and their character and what they're made of for three guys to play and all support each other in a huge way, and they talked about it in the offseason, but now you're seeing it actually come when the decisions have to be made, and kudos to them on how they've handled it.

On whether there is a chance Jadyn Davis will see the field this year if Jack Tuttle doesn't work out

We'll see, I feel pretty good about Jack, and we just gotta keep molding him, keep him healthy, and keep him going.

On the challenges of the offense and the priorities for the bye week

The biggest priorities for me is to make sure our run and pass game are complimentary, formationally, structurally. In the run game, we gotta continue to strain, get better. We're getting better in the run game, but I wanna see some more down the field shots, the play-action game come alive, and the passing game come alive more, and I think it will, but we have to work on it.

On how much the wide receiver position needs to improve

I need to see a lot of deep route detail. The urgency's been there. You can see it in the run game and what they do when they don't have the ball, but we really gotta get better in the route detail, and putting guys in the position to be successful. Amorion Walker is a guy that had a big catch on third down, and it was probably one of the better third down conversions we've had all year. It was third and long, so for him to get in that game and have that confidence was huge, and he's the guy that really needs to step up.

On the depth at TE being a comfort for the quarterbacks

It's been great. Obviously, Colston's one of the best, if not the best tight end in the country, and Marlin and Hogan, those guys are learning from him and doing a really good job, but we definitely need those wide receivers to step up, but it's been great for the tight ends to be a weapon.

On Donovan Edwards' touchdown

So much credit to him as a person, as a leader. You know, Kalel got to start the game before, and I mean, the guy just goes in and works. He just put his head down, and then he runs so hard in that game. He plays so well, and then you saw him as a leader take the whole offense to the side and that's what you want is one of your captains and one of your guys as a leader on your team.

On Greg Crippen's performance and the atmosphere impacting communication

I saw it actually pretty well. Crip handled the environment, and I think it's helped he's traveled. He's been around these environments. He's seen it. He's practiced all these times to be in those environments, so he handled it really well, and I was pretty happy with his performance and seeing him going forward.

On whether he's seen the offensive line gel and improve, what needs to happen during the bye week?

I think fundamentally we just gotta continue to work on the little things. It's a huge piece. This week's all about us getting better at the little things. The little things make the big things, and get healthy. Having Myles Hinton back is gonna be huge for us, and I think he'll be back for next week, but we'll see how practice goes this week, and it goes next week, and then being able to have Jeff Persi play a game and start gives confidence to him, so it gives him the ability to maybe swing in there and give us some work as well.

On how he saw Washington's defense adjust when Jack Tuttle went in

I think when Jack went in there, you saw the safeties a little farther back. You know, the box got a little lighter, knowing that there was a threat that the ball could go deep, or that it was gonna go deep. Not that I'd say it wouldn't go with Alex, but there was just less of that when he was in the game, and it just felt like the spark happened a little bit with Jack, and the defense, you know, they felt like they had their same plan, but they were just trying to adjust to who the quarterback was, and it was different with the new quarterback in there.

On whether he saw adjustments from Washington to shut things down in the second half

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't a lot of blitzing. It was just movement up front, things that they did in the run game, and then I think they adjusted with their safeties. They brought them back down in the box, and that's where we gotta do a great job of play actions and getting the ball over the head, and we tried, and that's when Jack tucked it, and unfortunately had the fumble. So, things to learn from, and we'll clean up.

On what he wants to accomplish during the bye week and the growth of the offense

I wanna see us be complimentary run and pass. I wanna see us, you know, I want the plays to look the same. I want it to be, I wanna be fundamentally sound. I want the O-line to play fast and faster and keep playing faster and strain, but then the route detail and everything we do on offense, I want that to be pristine and a lot better than it has been.

On what he's learned about himself through six games

I mean, I'd say this. I wanna be as poised as possible with our players. I wanna keep learning every week and making sure I push myself to learn and get better because I'm not a finished product and never will be, and I wanna make sure that I provide all the positive impact for our players and coaches that I can and criticism that they need. You know, all the things that we need to get better at, I gotta point them out and show them, and I'm gonna continue to do that this week.

On how to handle being critical with his assistant coaches

I think you just have to be real on what's good and what's not, and you can't sugarcoat it because it's not about feelings or emotions, it's about our team getting better, and that's the number one thing you have to do, and had some great conversations with some of my mentors and people, and got a chance to talk to Coach Harbaugh the other day and just about these situations and what you can do, and the only thing you can do is get better. He always said, never get bitter, get better, and make sure that the coaches are coaching their players like they wanna be coached, and that's what we're gonna go do this week.

On what he's seen from the defense

I think they've done a good job of initially stopping the run on teams. People have to do different things to get the ball moving on us, but the pass game, pass defense has to improve. And that's a collective group thing. That's not just Will, that's not just the DBs, but it's the pass rush. It's all the things tied together to make sure that we're aligned in the pass game. So we definitely have to improve there.

On how Will Johnson can continue to support the team with teams not throwing at him

I think for us, we just have to look at the things we do from a coverage standpoint, from a pressure standpoint to make sure that we support our players that need assistance or help at any point in time, and just be better at all phases. And Will will say that he's critical of himself, and he never thinks he's a finished product, too. So we have to make sure we do all the things we need to to help everybody.

On where he's seen Ernest Hausmann grow the most

Yeah, I think the biggest piece how Ernie's impacted is as a leader off the field. I mean, just keeping everybody accountable to the little things he does off the field. He's not a very talkative guy by nature, but he will talk, and when he does get talking, he does talk a lot, but you gotta force him to a little bit. He definitely has helped our team from a leadership standpoint, and just improved learning the game.

On how to coach non-vocal players to be more vocal leaders

Yeah, I think those are conversations you gotta have with them one-on-one to push them to make sure that they have the confidence that they can do it, and tell them that they're leaders and empower them to be leaders. I always thought you have to empower kids to give that quality, because some guys think they don't think they're leaders, but they really are, and they have to feel that moment for them.

On having conversations with Wink Martindale about what he wants the defense to be

Yeah, I mean, you look back at the stats, and I go through last year, and I go through this year, and looked at the comparisons of games, and the blitz percentages, quote-unquote, are about the same. They're not far off, so I think that it's a misnomer, because people are coming off the edge or blitzing, but really, sometimes it looks like a blitz, and it's four guys rushing, and for us, I think it's just, we have to have a balance of what we're gonna do, and use it as a weapon, but not as the foundation.

On Derrick Moore and Myles Hinton's health status

Yeah, I think he should be ready to go. He was trying to push through it and go, but we felt like it'd be better for him to just sit out and get ready for this next week.

On what he's seen from the edge players

Yeah, I've seen those guys are dominant players. Those guys can impact a game in so many ways, and they're great at holding the edge and stopping the run, because balls don't really get outside and on the perimeter in the run game, and then pass rush, those guys are impacting the quarterback all the time, so they've done a really good job of holding the edge and continuing to impact the game.

On how he's scheduling the bye week for the team

Yeah, so Monday, we'll have a, what we call opportunity practice, because the players played on Saturday, so Sunday's their day off. Monday, we'll practice with the younger guys and let the older guys really rest, recover, get their body, get the blood flow going, and then we'll practice Tuesday, Wednesday, and Tuesday, Wednesday will be a mix of practice with those guys and then some still recovery, soft tissue, flexibility stuff, with some conditioning to get their bodies right, but still practicing and getting fundamentals in.

On how he'll handle the weekend for the players

Yeah, we'll give them Friday and Saturday off, let them get some time to just get their minds right, relaxed, because you need that mental clarity sometimes to get better, and then we'll come back Sunday and get ready to roll.

On what mental clarity looks like for him, will he get some time off?

I wish. I'll probably be here. Watching film. I'll probably get a little time at some point, maybe dinner, maybe lunch, but my mind will be locked in on Illinois.

On who he's seeing step up during the opportunity practices

Yeah, guys that, I mean, guys are showing up in games, guys like Dom Nichols. He's a guy that's definitely gonna impact us in the future, but it's gonna impact us here as we go, and being here for seven years now, it's usually about week six or seven, these freshmen start to impact games, and he's a guy that's gonna do it. Another guy on offense is Andrew Sprague, O-lineman, that I think has a bright, bright future, and excited to watch those two guys work in the opportunity practices, but also in the games.

On getting the younger OL some reps as an extra lineman

Yeah, for sure. I think that's definitely a thing we can do to adjust to get those guys some game experience, because nothing like it.

On how big the bye week is for recruiting

Yeah, it's huge. We'll be out on the road. The coaches go out on the road, I believe Thursday, Wednesday night, Thursday, and we'll hit it hard.

On what he wants to see the team do in future road situations

Yeah, I thought in the hotel, we did a really good job of just being about business, and everybody's on time, doing the right thing. I wanna see us take the same detail we have in the weight room, in the meeting room, on the practice field to the game, and wanna see that just come to life, and watch our team play at an elite high level, because I think they can.

On what the message is for the team right now being in unfamiliar territory

I think the one piece is that all we can worry about is tomorrow. All we can worry about is really today, and get better today, and then it's a one-week season every week. Don't worry about the next week, because as you look at college football, it's chaos everywhere. Everybody's gotta play everybody, and these games will go all over the place. The Vandy to Alabama game, nobody would have ever thought that. For us, it's literally just worry about the game we gotta go play, and then worry about the next one, and put everything we can into this game, and then it'll work out in the end.

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