On the bye week

Good, good. Needed it. Needed it. Needed it for recovery, physically, mentally, and I feel like we're in a good place.

On whether he misses the players when they're not in the building

Yeah, it's, it's weird. Like, it was coaches are out on the road and I went on the road as well. Even on Saturday when everybody was off and I was supposed to be home. I spent most of my time here watching film, doubling that with watching some of the games on Saturday. But yeah, I miss the players, man. They're like my kids. So when I don't see them for a while, I get a little anxious and worry about them. And it was good to see them yesterday and ready to roll today.

On not sticking to habits during the bye week

Yeah, it's different. But the good thing is I get to create it. So I kind of see it beforehand, whereas before I was kind of guessing what was going to happen. It helps me because I know frosty, I get to create the frostiness. So for me, it's not as bad as it used to be. But I like to be in that same rhythm every week.

On what he saw in practices during the bye week

Yeah, you saw a high competitive nature with the young guys. So guys striving to get better with the older guys. I think the focus on the little things was a huge emphasis for me to the coaches and the coaches to the players and felt like we got that. And you know, being complimentary. What we're doing in the scheme and putting all our guys in the best position. So moving guys around, doing different things, giving other guys opportunities so we can create explosive plays in different levels and think we'll be able to do that.

On whether Jack Tuttle will be the starter

Jack will start on Saturday.

On how much comfort Tuttle has with the offense having more of an opportunity to practice

Yeah, I think a lot more. I mean, you go in there, you get thrown in at quarterback and really, really true practices I think he had four or five true practices of knowing the scheme, understanding the scheme. I mean, he knows it, but actually, you know, participating and practicing is a completely different thing, especially at the quarterback position. So he, you know, he looks even more comfortable out there and he's very hard on himself. So I try to do a good job of keeping him positive and making sure he's in a good place.

On the comfort of creating a gameplan offensively around Tuttle

Yeah, I think it helped tremendously because you build the whole plan around Alex and his skill set and what he does great. And now that you have Tuttle, he's a little, you know, obviously a different skill set, different things he could do. He could still run, but do you want to run them a lot? You know, those things are different and throwing the ball different places, different areas of the field, how he can attack the field are different because he's got experience and he's done it. So really excited to watch this offense grow with him at the helm.

On whether to expect Alex Orji at all

Yeah, I think so. I think we'll still have some doses of him in there and, you know, we've got some cool little packages, so excited to put those on display.

On what Tuttle provides the offense as a leader

Yeah, I mean, obviously the experience is number one because he's done it at a high level at different places and played in the big games, played in the away game, played in those atmospheres. So I think that's huge, but also provides you a mentor to the younger guys that's done it. And from a playing experience and ability, I mean, he's got all the tools from a throwing ability and ready to see him put that to work.

On the points of emphasis for the offensive line during the bye week

Yeah, really, it was hand placement and getting your second step on the ground and finishing, you know, the strain to finish on every single play with your hands inside, such a huge emphasis. And I think we, you know, we talk about scheme a lot, but you got to harp on those things more than ever nowadays. And because of the schemes, you know, it's always going to be about blocking and tackling. So for us to do that and play with great pad level are the things that we needed to work on.

On whether Myles Hinton and Don Giudice will be available

Yeah, both of them trending in a really good direction. And I look forward to watching them practice this week. But it looks like they're both available. But we'll see how this week trends.

On what he saw from Jeff Persi

I mean, just a guy that's that's done it before that's been around that, you know, the moment is not too big for him. He played pretty well. Obviously could have played better. But for a guy that hadn't started all year, he wasn't noticeable out there that, you know, things were going wrong or that he was doing great. Like, you know, as the offensive line, as you know, it's it's all about when they don't notice you, it's probably pretty good. So he did a pretty good job out there for us.

On the relationship between Gio El-Hadi and Evan Link

Yeah, I think it's improved. You know, obviously playing together, it helps. And, you know, when you go into camp and you really figure out who the starter at that position is later in camp, then there's just a little bit less continuity. And you got to grow that through those games. And they started to do that for sure.

On managing the reps for Colston Loveland and getting others involved

We hired a sports scientist in the offseason, and that's really helped because we get the rep counts. We get the heart rate monitors. We get the force, velocity, all that stuff, the output. So the technology that we have now is crazy. So try to manage those guys in a way that they're not overloaded and that they get enough work, though, to be ready for the games.

On the data the sports scientist provides

Yeah, it's really just it's a sheet of data, different things that we have. And he'll tell me based on like this guy's velocity or force output. You know, this week is a little bit more than the last week or where is he compared to training camp of, you know, week three training camp? And you can go back and see what that look like. So trying to figure out like where the guys are and then how they feel, you know, how do they feel body wise and mentally to help you to put them in the best position to win. And, you know, you go back to try to look at the data of when they play the best. You know, how do they feel that week? You know, if that trends that way, that they they're in that range, then you probably want to keep them in that range. If they're going a little bit overboard, then you can take a tread off the tires a little bit.

On the development of the younger tight ends

Yeah, I mean, as you get into these games that, you know, the farther down the season that we know everyone counts, every game is a big game. You don't really want to take Colston off the field, but you're going to have to give him a breather at some point. So those guys have started to progress and made even bigger strides to get better.

On Max Bredeson not getting enough love

Yeah, he is. I mean, when he's off the field he's a leader. He's a culture enhancer on the field. He's just a violent human being that plays physical with as much juice as you can ever think of and love Max in every way. And that's why he got voted a captain.

On the captains and how they stepped up in the bye week

Yeah, I think the cool thing I've seen, especially in this bye week, is just watch guys not attack people, but attack problems. Anything that they see and they pointed it out. You know, I meet with the captains every week and different things that they're not afraid to acknowledge things are going on. And, you know, it's really cool to have a bunch of guys like that, that are leaders on your team. And, you know, we ended up, you know, we took the captain to one more. We added Josaiah Stewart as a captain, a guy that we think that, one, is a senior that has really done everything the right way, but plays as good as anybody in the country, but does it, you know, all the time with extreme energy. And he's just such a leader and he has a voice and I want him to use it.

On whether he expects more production from the receivers coming out of the bye week

Yeah, I do. I do. I'm excited to watch them progress as they have this week and they did in the bye week and continue to clean up the little things, the route depth, the precision, and then the timing in the throw game overall. So I think they'll definitely have a bigger role as we go through.

On whether the timing will improve with more practices with Tuttle

For sure. For sure. Just playing experience and playing the game and practicing together is definitely going to help that timing.

On what he wanted to see improved from the defense during the bye week

Yeah, I mean, to start off, the biggest thing we took away was angles and pursuit in football. We got to be better at tackling in space. We got to be better at just tackling, period. And I think our staff did a really good job of attacking those little details in the off week. And that was a big thing for me. You know, I went around and self-evaluated me, self-evaluated our coaches, our players. And, you know, you look at the defense and it's not a scheme. It's not this. It's really all the little things. And when you look at those big plays, it's really one thing. It's eyes, it's hand placement, it's angle. And you do those things, you eliminate them. Now, people are going to make plays because they always do. But for us to limit those explosives and limit the things that can, you know, help our defense is those little things.

On what he's seen from the seven

I think we've done a really good job overall stopping the run. You know, that's something we harp on. It's something they see a lot of. And, you know, I think those guys done a really good job and we can always get better at those things. But we got to continue to do a great job in our underneath coverage in the pass game. And then get home with our four-man rushes, with our three-man, with our twists, whatever it is. And maybe it's a five, maybe it's a four. But continue to get that pressure on the quarterback in different ways.

On Josaiah Stewart's reaction to being named captain

He's pretty surprised. You know, kind of shocked, but super happy and excited for the opportunity to be a voice on the team. And he deserves it.

On what Rod Moore has added to the team as a leader

I mean, sometimes I'm on the side and I'm hearing this person just yell. And I'm thinking it's a coach. And I look over, it's Rod. He's yelling at the players. And he's calling out what they're about to run because he studied film so much. He knows the tendencies. He knows the alignments. He knows the splits. He's just added another coach on the field. And he does a really good job of doing that. And obviously, hoping him back to a speedy recovery. But he's been an outstanding job off the field.

On the maturation of the secondary and what he needs to see

Yeah, the first thing is play together. Play on a string. Play together. Do little things. Play what your eyes see and don't guess. And if you do that, usually it's going to put you in a really good place to be successful. And then open-field tackling. I think if we do that, it's going to put us in a much better place.

On the experienced DBs helping out the younger players

Yeah, I think just continue to pull them along and show them how they do them. Show them the way. Because there's no better way than to see it happen. So I think those guys have done a great job of doing that.

On what he's seeing from Illinois' defense

Yeah, defense is a big, strong front. They're bare defense. They play three down or they can play four down. The back end, they play cover one, sometimes cover two. Last game, they played a little bit more quarters based on who they were playing. But they're a good football team. Physical, they run the ball. They're always going to be disciplined. Bret Bielema has done an outstanding job building the program forever. So up front, they're really good. And we just got to continue to harp on those little things in practice to help us be successful on Saturday.

On the challenges Illinois' offense presents

Yeah, I think offensively, schematically, they do a great job with the run pass, the play actions. But they got some really good skill on the outside. 13, Bryant. And then number four, I mean, both those guys are as good as anybody we'll see. So those guys are really good. And they got really big backs. So we got to do a good job of bringing the backs down and trying to keep them one dimensional.

On the special teams and how to stop Illinois'

Yeah, prevent all the returns. Make sure we win the field position battle. Then do a great job with our field position. Tommy's got to do a great job punting. Last time we were there, it was super windy. And it's not supposed to be that way. You never know with Mother Nature. And being able to make the field goals when we got them.

---

Discuss this article with our community on our premium message boards

Not a subscriber to Maize & Blue Review? Sign up today to gain access to all the latest Michigan intel M&BR has to offer

Follow our staff on Twitter: @JoshHenschke, @Berry_Seth14, @TrevorMcCue, @DennisFithian, @BrockHeilig, @JimScarcelli, @Jerry_Diorio

Subscribe to our podcasts: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify

Check out Maize & Blue Review's video content on YouTube

Follow Maize & Blue Review on social media: Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram