On the players remarks of the offense barely scratching the surface

I just feel like we can get better at everything we do. Run, pass, play action, movements. Everything, every facet. They just feel like we're—you can see glimpses of it, it's up and down but it's not exactly where we want it to be. They know that we can more strides to get there. This first practice we had yesterday was awesome. A lot of great energy, guys are fired up. A lot of great detail and execution. Excited about the play and excited about where we're going.

On Penn State's run defense

Starts up front. Literally the guys up front. Obviously, starts with P.J. (Mustipher) who has played a lot of ball for them, coming back from injury but is playing really well. The guys on the edges do a good job of building a wall. Their linebackers run the ball, their DBs aren't afraid to run to the ball. All in all, it's a good defense. They do a good job of movement, a lot of blitzing, a lot of stunts to try to keep you off-balance. It'll be a big challenge but we're excited for it.

On the balance with playcalling between him and Matt Weiss

It's been good. There's a flow, we understand how we're doing it, we understand what the flow is and it's been good for us. Just continue to keep rolling.

On where he would like to see J.J. McCarthy keep improving

He's just getting better every week. He's progressing, obviously, this is really the first time he's been a starter. Went to Iowa, played as a starter for the first time in an away game. He's been really good. Just continue the progression, the patience and the poise that he has. We just tell him to be him, do the things that's going to make him successful and it's been successful. Just continue to do the little things. Find the open guy, make the proper reads and do the things that he's been doing. Obviously, he has all the talent in the world, so watching him progress has been really fun.

On whether the offense has been as explosive as he wants it to be

Not as much. You really want to have an explosive play every play but that's not going to happen, right? We've been pretty balanced and that's been the thing. You go back and look at our self-scout, it's super balanced with what we're doing, run, pass and all the areas. Not as explosive as we want it to be but we've controlled the clock, we've done the things to help ourselves get to this point of 6-0 and now the goal is to take the next step offensively to do what we need to do to win this game.

On the gameplan changing with Fred Jackson in at RB coach

Oh, man. Fred is awesome. Really nothing has been different, we've had Mike Zoom in. He's doing well as he's put out. He's Zoomed in on meetings so gameplan has been the same. Coach Jackson always has an input in the gameplan so it's been good and the gameplan has been solid.

On whether he thinks Mike Hart will be with the team on Saturday

I don't know yet. That's all to the doctors so whenever he gets released, we'll find out more.

On the biggest difference between first and second halves against Indiana

You watch the first drive, really good execution. You watch a couple of those drives in there and it's just up and down. I do think there was an emotional factor of the kids thinking about Coach Hart. It's not an excuse but it's real life. You've got 18 to 22-year-old kids thinking about a coach that just went down. It really was the execution piece, we did things that were kind of out of characteristics. We had penalties we usually don't get. Guys not in the right spot in the passing game. In the run game, not ID'd where we need to be. I think that was a big part of it. In the second half, we regrouped and you saw what you saw. I think it was a really great job by the kids to handle that situation the way you did and play the way they did.

On the Hart situation during the game

It's a little bit of both, right? It's human nature for kids, and for us as coaches, to think about it. You go into halftime, you're thinking about Mike Hart. He's one of our guys, he's one of our brothers. There was 100%, we were trying to figure out what was the next step and what was going on. Coach addressed it, which kind of gave it a little bit of ease to the players and us as a staff, what was going on. I think that was a huge part of just the emotional factor. There's always an emotional factor to this game so that really helped when Coach eased it in, told us everything was going to be OK, he was fine. He talked to us. The guys and the coaches did a really good job of settling in and executing the gameplan in the second half.

On Olu Oluwatimi

Since he's been here, its felt like he's been here for five years. He's just worked his tail off, he doesn't say much. Now, his personality, his vibe, his energy has meshed into the group and he's a leader by default because he's a center but he's also a leader because guys just respect him. They understand how much ball he's played but the way he's carried himself off the field and on the field. Now you see him in games, the respect is stacked. He's been phenomenal. As I've said before, he's like a Christmas present to the coaches. As a person, and as a player, he's been outstanding.

On how he's seen the offense grow from facing the defense

I think the biggest thing is when you play a team that has multiple fronts, multiple coverages that can show one thing and can give you another, when you see that on Saturdays, if you haven't seen that in training camp or spring ball, that can give you trouble because you have a week of preparation and one week can go into another thing, one week can go to the next team. Our defense gives you everything. There's not a blitz that's not been blitzed that hasn't been made that I haven't seen. They can do anything, they run up the field, they can bring more guys in, they can bring it internally, they can bring it in the secondary, they can bring it from the corners. They've done everything and then they play every front. For us, on offense, we're well-versed and prepared. We have answers for things when people do different things because we've seen it. It's really helped everybody, coaches, players, especially the quarterback being able to see those things in practice and in camp.

On what it's like going good-on-good vs. seeing it on a scout team

It's different. The speed is always going to be different when you go good-on-good. That's why we do a fair amount of it to help our guys. We're also very smart on how we practice and the physicality of it. There's physicality, no doubt, but when the guys go 1-on-1, there's a super competitive aspect because guys don't want to lose. They all understand how to practice. The speed is different but guys do a good job of taking care of each other.

On Luke Schoonmaker's growth as a pass-catcher

Not surprised me at all, I kind of knew how he would grow and he would do. Just to see it take form has been really cool because he's just such an incredible kid, incredible player. It's been awesome to see. Hasn't really surprised me to see what his growth has been. Just excited for the rest of these games.

On Michigan's offensive tendencies

We self-scout every game, self-scout every play, every game. So I already know the tendencies before the game even starts. To me, as a good play-caller, you're trying to tell a story. People call out things, they think they see things but they really don't. They really don't really know. It's opinions, that's life, people are always going to say something about you. Just go on and just work, and work. We have our self-scouting tendencies, we know what we do, we know how we do it. We've said all those things. It's all good, we're just ready to roll.

On whether J.J. McCarthy's interception was a teaching moment

It's a teaching moment. The ball, it was tight, tight coverage. It was really, actually, a good ball. It was a moment where you say, OK, ball placement, receiver alignment. It's two-fold, right? It's not just J.J., it's how you run the route to get open. It's all those things because he's been incredible with the ball and taking care of it. Great teaching moment for him. In those situations, it's just best for him to see it and learn it, understand it. He's learned from it and moved on.

On the deep ball

It's always everything. Timing, post-facing. All that plays into part. It's everybody working as one. He threw a few deep balls yesterday that was really good. It's all about spacing, it's all about the timing. Whether it's protection, whether it's receivers. All of it plays a hand. It's not just J.J. It's starting to grow and you can see it mesh really well.

On Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards on the field at the same time

They're both elite players, in our opinion. You just gotta deal with them. You have to figure out what you have to do, how you want to play them. They both can run it, they both can catch. Just kind of stresses the defense and makes them make a decision so we're trying to dictate what we want them to do now. It's a good tool for us. We're excited to have it.

On Mike Elston

They've done a really good job. Obviously, they've gotten to the quarterbacks these past couple of weeks. Those twists, those stunts are really helpful. They help our guys because, in games, it makes it easier for us to pick them up because they run them like our guys do. We see them a lot so it makes the guys second nature to them, knowing when they're coming, how they're coming, feeling which guy is going to twist, which guy is going to loop around. It's been really helpful for us but, obviously, it's done a lot for our defense so we're excited to have him.

On the philosophy on facing a defense with standout players

I think the biggest part of it is doing what we do best. They have really good players, we know that but we also can't play scared. We gotta do things that our guys are really good at and get them in positions to be successful. When we do that, we've got a chance to win. I think that's the biggest thing for us. You have to be conscious of guys like that and know where they are. That's part of the game planning and putting people in position. I think that's the biggest part for us, putting our guys in positions to be successful.

On Karsen Barnhart

He did great. He graded out really high, they all graded out really well. He did an outstanding job. Having a guy like Karsen is like having another starter. Putting him in us no hair off our backs. Just excited that we have him on the team, that he played the way he did. He's feeling better, he's healthy, he's 100%. That's really impressed.

On Trente Jones' status

No, we'll find out soon. He's working through it and we'll see what happens.