On his thoughts after watching film

Yeah, first, I mean, what an incredible atmosphere that was. The fans showed out, it was loud, it was impactful. We affected them, you know, from an atmosphere standpoint, and our kids had a great time, so it was an unbelievable atmosphere. You know, you watched the film, we looked physical, we looked fast, we looked dominant. On offense, I thought we ran the ball extremely well, obviously, 290 yards and averaging, I think, six yards to carry. Really, really good football. O-line played their best game, you know, really, with a front that is really good, that has some big, strong dudes that, you know, proven to have a really good defense in the weeks past. So, you know, I felt, I was really proud of those guys and how they played, and it really started from the first play. You know, we ran an iso play the first play, and you saw the holes, and you heard the pads, and that was part of my reasoning for going on fourth down the first time, and I think when you do that, the kids look at you like, okay, you're riding, you're with us, and they felt the confidence. So I thought those guys on offense did a good job.

On the importance of being aggressive

I think, you know, it's a mindset, dude. I go back to in 2022, we played Penn State here, and I think they were the number one rush defense, and I showed the O-line, the Kobe, like the segment of Kobe Bryant, where he's talking to, you know, they're talking about Kobe Bryant, and he knew Paul Gasol was going to screen him on the first play, and he was going to run through his face, and he didn't care if he knew that, he knew that he was going to do it, and that was kind of mindset we did. It was the same, it's kind of the same play we ran on Saturday, and you like to set a tempo and a mindset for those guys, especially up front. If they can get that first hit, and they can feel like they're the aggressor, you usually provide some confidence for them for the rest of the game.

On Kalel Mullings

I mean, he was an absolute beast. He played like a man possessed, you know, all the runs were really good. Every time he touched the ball, it felt like it might break, it might go, but that last run he had before the touchdown, long one, that's going to go on down in Michigan history as one of the greatest runs in Michigan history. That was a Michigan legend run that he had.

On Mullings' speed being deceiving

He's fast, man, and I think I've said this before, like he's a faster Hassan Haskins. He's like Hassan, he breaks tackles, he's hard to bring down, he can make you miss, he'll run you over, but he's faster.

On the difficulty of not constantly running Mullings

Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, at the end of the day, we're going to just try to do whatever we can to win, and you know, for a guy like that, obviously you can see the ability that he has, so you got to get him the ball, and you got to feed him, but we also got to stay balanced because, you know, just like they did in the third quarter, they're going to try to do things to take him away, take Donovan away, take the run game away, so we got to make sure we stay balanced as an offense.

On going to the bread and butter plays but not being predictable

Yeah, I think sometimes you can overthink it, and, you know, there's times, you know, that you want to just run it the whole time, and, but you also want to make sure the defense is guessing a little bit, so, you know, we threw it on second down, and it probably helped the third down and the fourth down play, knowing that, hey, they might throw it, so there's just a little tentativeness that they wouldn't come off the ball as hard, or those linebackers wouldn't fit as fast, so I think it was a good job by Coach Campbell and how he called it.

On Alex Orji's decision-making

I thought he did an unbelievable job of making decisions to take care of the football. Even when he took a sack, there was guys that were open, and he could have tried to progress and throw it, but he just said, you know what, I got nowhere to go, I'm eating the ball, and I'll punt it away, and I'll be in good shape, so, but the second down one, yeah, I think that was huge, because when he did that, I was like, okay, we're in good shape, like he's made an outstanding decision not to force it in an area, just throw it away, and we always talk about nail it or sail it, so he definitely sailed it when it wasn't open.

On the counter to being predictable with Orji

Yeah, we're definitely going to stay balanced, and I think you saw that he can throw, and he can throw the ball downfield, he can throw the short game, he had a lot of touch on the balls that he needed to, for us, we're just going to try to keep people off balance in any way possible, but if we have to run the ball to win the game, that's what we'll do, we've proved that formula has worked, and we'll do whatever we have to do to win.

On Colston Loveland's status

Yeah, trending in a good direction, so we'll see as the week goes, I think he'll practice a little bit tomorrow, and then we'll just let the, you know, whatever the doctors say, good, but we're in a good place.

On how he felt those who stepped up and filled his role performed

Yeah, I thought Marlin, first of all, did a really good job for his debut as a starter, never blinked, never flinched, a couple, you know, technique things he's got to clean up, but for the most part, especially in the run game, he did a really good job, and then obviously having Breddy there is a safe, you know, thing you have with him there, who knows it, who understands it, and he was a tone setter like he usually is.

On the defense setting the tone

Yeah, I think it was huge. I think the way the defense came out and handled, because I talked about in the team meeting the night before that, you know, they're coming off a bye week and they're going to have a script of plays that they think these are the best plays that they can use to execute against our defense, so if we can slow them down, and coach Wing mentioned handled that, like, will put us in a position to be in a good place throughout the game, and, you know, those guys came out firing all cylinders, especially the guys up front. It was a violent game, and they played in an elite level game up front.

On what the defense did to put USC out of the gameplan

I think it was a great mix of a couple of things. One, I think coach Wing called a great game. I think the mix of coverage, pressures, and, you know, we had four-man rushes, we had three-man rushes, we had five-man rushes, we had three deep, four underneath, three deep, three underneath, we had four deep. So, like, the coverage structures and confusions and disguises definitely confused him, whereas, like, he couldn't just chuck the ball, and the guys were back, and he had to, you know, check things down. But, I mean, the pocket was closing fast, super fast, and those guys up front, especially, you know, those guys all played well, but Josaiah Stewart was an absolute game wrecker. And, you know, he was a problem to the point that they had to change out their left tackle in the second half.

On what it must feel like to gameplan against Michigan's DL

Yeah, it's not fun at all. I see it in practice every day. So, I've, you know, I've got the... I've, you know, we have our answers that we... that I won't share, that we try to do to, you know, neutralize them, but you can't stop them. You know, you can just neutralize and try to not let them wreck the game. So, those guys are just unbelievable, and they work so in tandem together, which is a key piece.

On the growth by the DBs

Yeah, I think Jyaire Hill took a huge step. You know, he made some great plays in the open field tackling, and then in coverage, they challenged him on some deep balls, and he was stride for stride with guys, walling guys out of bounds. I thought he had an incredible game, probably his best game, and did a really good job. And then a guy that I really think did a heck of a job was Quinten Johnson because he played multiple positions in that game, played safety. He was a linebacker at times. Like, he was all over the field. So, I think overall in the second and obviously, Will with the pick six was unbelievable, but those guys played a heck of a game.

On Will Johnson's status

He'll be ready to go.

On anybody being better than Johnson reading a quarterback

Yeah, not that I've been around. I mean, he's incredible. I think the one he studies the game tirelessly, so he knows exactly like third down routes, fourth down routes, second down, like he knows what the route concepts are, but he just has an instinct. And we've seen it at practice. And it's like, dude, you throw it over there, you better know the receiver's open because if two's over there, it'll get picked. And there's been times where you throw that ball late, it's gone. So, you know, he's something he's done before and something that he's done in games.

On getting a big conference win against USC

Yeah. I mean, it means a lot. One, they're a really good football team, a lot of talent, but well coached great program, great tradition. But I thought it was not only good for, you know, good for us, but really good for our players to get that confidence and understand that, you know, they still are who they think they are.

On Tommy Doman being able to flip the field

Yeah. In games like that, it's huge. Cause that's the type of game we've got to play complimentary ball, offense, defense, special teams. And he was a, he was a huge weapon and part of that for, you know, for us to do that. So really proud of him and you could see it in practice. He took a lot of pride in it and the way he punted and the way he did things and every punt was a game rep for him in practice. And, you know, you love to see that, especially from your specialists.

On what trophy games mean to him

Means a lot. You know, we take a lot of pride in rivalry games around here. Take a lot of pride in, in every game, but especially rivalry games. So, you know, been a part of it a couple of times already and we don't want it to leave.

On Minnesota

Coach Fleck always runs a disciplined, tough physical program. So the running backs really good. They got two of them. They got to transfer Marcus majors and then Darius Taylor, the kid that's been there. Both of those guys are really good players. The offensive line is big, huge, but they got to transfer quarterback. They've always got some receivers somewhere that are going to make some plays, but you know, upfront, I know they really want to run the football and they do a really good job there defensively. They're going to be a open show quarters team, play some man. They've changed up a little bit cause they got a new coordinator, but definitely a team that's going to play with all out effort and physicality.

On being able to flip the switch from defending a pass-heavy team to a more physical team

Yeah, I think basically it'll be all, you know, we'll use our personnel how we need to, you know, last week we had a little bit more with more DBs on the field a lot of times to handle the speed. So this might be a week we have more linebackers, you know, or de-linemen depending on, you know, the situation. So, you know, coach Wink and the crew have already got that plan ready to go. So they've been locked and loaded since last night and excited to see what it looks like.

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