On whether there's anything he can draw on from past experiences to help the team through a tough time

Well, first, it's great to be here, Jon. You know, I have a unique perspective, because I was here, I was a part of teams 140 through 142, and then was gone for teams 143 and 144. So I've been at the University of Michigan, albeit as an analyst, when things weren't, you know, at times a 19 and at times, you know, for the basically the totality of 2020, it wasn't good. As you know, being an alum and being a Michigan man, there's a lot of pressure, and expectation and a standard to being here. So I've been here when, you know, that hasn't been met before. And that's not something I brag about, but it's the truth. So helping advise and guide our young people through tough times here, you know, I've been through it. And I know, like, I've seen what it looks like to come out on the other side. So yeah, I do think there are things I can draw upon. You know, I've, you coach this, you do this long enough. You know, I'm not, again, I'm not proud to say this, you've been through some tough seasons or tough start to seasons, but we're made of the right stuff. This thing is built on the right stuff, and continue to advise and guide our young people and remind them, hey, we're at Michigan. This is what this thing's been built on. This is what we're about. This is how we're going to carry it every day But yeah, I do think I have a unique perspective.

On what it means to be built on the right stuff

Well, I talk to the tight ends, each and every position meeting, and we review what this thing's been built on. And it starts with the team, the team, the team. First and foremost, we talk about it every day. We, you know, we want to be about it every day. We talk about being the most physical team, being the most physical position group that's out there. We talk about being the most detailed position group that's out there. We talk about being the most fundamentally sound position group that's out there. And being about Michigan and how important this place is to us, the standard of being a Michigan man, we're playing not just for Team 145, but from Team 1 through Team 144 and Team 146 to Team 300, right? But yeah, we talk all the time what this thing's been built upon. And it's the team, the team, the team. It starts first and foremost with that. And we, you know, we're mindful of our history, because I think that's, you know, when you're at the University of Michigan, I think to me, one of the greatest things about being here is that, is the core values that this thing has been built upon. Being physical, playing with great fundamentals, playing with outstanding effort, but always being mindful of the team. This is about we, not me, and always talking about that.

On how to talk about adversity with the team

Sure. Well, Coach Harbaugh used to say this at times when things were difficult. There is no retreat. There is no surrender in a football season. There is no retreat. The games are going to keep coming. The days are going to keep coming. We talk all the time as a position group and as their coach. We fail together. We fly together. We've got to flush what has just occurred as fast as humanly possible. At the end of the day, there's two types of people in this world. There are those that stuff happens to, and there are those that make stuff happen. We get to choose each and every day. Putting it into practice, everything is about the effort you play with, the fundamentals you play with, and the physicality you play with. I've worked to educate the tight ends. The dash of a position group, the legacy of a position group within a season is not if Colston's an All-American. It's not if Breddie's all-Big Ten. It's not if Marlin's all-Big Ten. It's how hard did those guys play? How physical were they? That's all it's about. Of course, do we chase accolades and all that kind of stuff? Yeah, of course we do. But constantly impressing upon them that our legacy as a group will be about how we conducted ourselves in this moment, our actions and our words. Constantly working to educate and impress upon them. We've got to be about this every day. We're so fortunate and so blessed. The two veteran players in the room, you know them well. Colston Loveland and Max Bredesen, they're made of the right stuff. They are about Michigan. They are about being the most physical group, the most detailed group, the most fundamentally sound group. So yeah, I mean we're really fortunate in the tight end room. The foundation that was built, before we even talk about the talent type of kids they are, they're about it.

On the execution from the tight end room

It can always be better, right? You're always chasing that perfect game. You're always chasing the perfect performance. Pictures change. You don't know exactly how you're going to get defended. Is a guy going to be a seven? Is he going to be a nine? Is it going to be a read four-eye? Is a guy going to plug his gap? There's always going to be things that adjust on the fly. They are so willing to be coached and so into ball and watch so much tape that they conduct themselves like a ten-year veteran. They really do. And that's a credit to them. But we're always searching for a higher level of execution. And with great performance, like what you just said about Cole and what you just said about Brad, yeah, the expectation, particularly when you're going through tough times, is that, well, they're two of our best players or two of our most veteran players. We expect them to play virtually perfect. But my expectation pales in comparison to that expectation of themselves. But yeah, they're executing. They're both playing well. They're executing at a high level. But we're always chasing and searching for it to be better. And I've told them, I got to be honest with you, the physicality, yeah, that can be good enough. The effort can be good enough. But the fundamentals and execution, if you really want to be coached, in some ways, it's almost never good enough. I'm sure you had a coach at some point, whether it was here or in the league, where it was never good enough. Well, yeah, sometimes, yeah, it's just it's never good enough, right?

On how to manage the mental side of high expectations with Colston Loveland

Well, you know, he's unique, because we don't coach our room. It's not a skill room. But they're skill moments. And how we use Cole is it like at times like a skill position player. Listen, that fumble was it was an error. That was not something in that moment that I felt like this, like, Hey, what are you doing? Or how like, that's one of those things. And like, you've been around the game long enough. When a guy makes an out of character mistake, sometimes you just got to look at him and say, you're good jump shooter mentality, you're going to make the next one move on. And in the heat of the moment. I think sometimes you go like it's human nature as a coach, you want to over correct, or like over confront an error like that. We did some things the following week. And I'm again, not to sound like a broken record, we fell together, we fly together, we do reincorporate, you know, being more aggressive to coach and emphasize the tuck portion of a catch and ball security in general. But nobody was more upset about that moment than Colston Loveland. He's tough on himself. He really is. And that's, you know, I tell them all the time, my favorite guys ever coach or challenging the coach challenging don't mean bad. Challenging just means they're competitive. They're smart. They hold themselves to a really high standard. They study the game. They want to know exactly why that we're running this play exactly why we're doing it this way. Why are we using this technique? Why are we doing this fundamental? They're the fun ones to coach, man, because they're all ball all the time. He's all ball all the time. But you know, you just kind of got to look at him say, hey, you gotta keep shooting. Shoot the next jumper.

On where he expects improvement from Colston Loveland and where he's excelled

He's excelled in doing anything that's asked of him. You know, there's this narrative out there about he needed to grow or needs to grow in the run game. Colston Loveland plays his butt off in the run game plays pad level. He's a natural striker, understands leverage is physical, plays hard. He's excelled in really all areas. You know, I think we've targeted them 51 times, we've completed 36 of them. So I mean, you're talking he's almost in the 70s, then area where he's going to take the next step. And I know he's going to do this is as a ball-in-hand player, you know, and it's both right, like we have to create, I have to create, we have to create more circumstances where he has the opportunity to have some bigger place. But he's going to continue to grow and is growing as a ball in hand player yards after catch. You know, he is good with the ball in his hands. So we're going to constantly press him and challenge him to do that. He's played with outstanding route detail. Like if you go back to his first game, I mean, there's some stuff that when I'm teaching route running for the rest of my life, throughout this season will be a look at his details and fundamentals and technique displayed by Colston Loveland. But once you put that stuff on tape, people start saying, we have to cover this guy with a corner. You know, he's been covered by some really high level people. So continuing to take that stuff to the next level, not just against a nickel, not just against the down safety, because people are starting to cover them with corners, like, you know, the best cover guys covering 18. And that's great, you know, with great accomplishment comes great expectations and responsibility. But those two areas, continuing to be the best, because he is. And that's a credit to him, and Grant Newsome, and Sherrone and Kirk. And I mean, to be honest with you, I believe he was the best when I got here before I got to start coaching him. Continuing to be the best all the time.

On Max Bredeson

He's the glue. He's the glue, man. He's the glue to the team. He's the glue to the offense. Like when you talk about, if you sat down and listed, what do you want from Michigan man? It's him. It's him. He's a warrior. He's an absolute warrior. He's played with outstanding power angles in the run game this year. Great leverage and hat placement. He's a finisher in the run game. You know, I think his greatest skill set as a player is his foot speed never changes on contact. You know, he understands the drive phase of blocks so well. Plays with such great angles. His knees are always inside of his angles. He comes out of his hips on the finisher blocks beautifully, watching him block and move people. If you appreciate that part of our sport, it's like art. It really is, man. And he is so detail-oriented and plays with so much effort that like the impression is like that you're right. People don't talk about him enough. Max Bredesen in some of our biggest games has had some awesome, awesome, awesome performances. The plays work really good when he's on the field. We gain yards when we run behind him. That's why we run behind him so much. You know, he set some career highs and snap counts this year. You know, sometimes the circumstance of the game doesn't allow him to play a ton, but he's, I think he's three times has played the most he's ever played in his career this season. Don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure that's accurate. He is about all the right stuff and backs it up with his play. He doesn't win every play. He's not the perfect player, but in terms of you want to coach somebody at the University of Michigan who's about the right stuff, the stuff I was talking about, what this team has been built upon, the team, the team, the team, that's Max Bredesen all day, every day. Not just how he conducts his own business, but how he expects those around him to conduct themselves. He is about it. He is physical. He plays with great fundamentals. He plays with great detail. I love coaching Max Bredesen.

On Marlin Klein's growth and development

Yeah, if you would have told me before this season that Marlin would have been our best pass protector as a tight end and perform the way he has as an inline blocker, not that I doubted Marlin or questioned him, but usually as a pass protector at tight end, it takes some real seasoning and a little bit of- He's young in the game. He is. He hadn't played a lot before this season. Going into the last, going into the Illinois game, he'd played the most snaps in the room, which I don't know if everyone realizes that. He has really, and this is a credit to him, he has really grown as a physical football player, where he's really starting to understand a gap double team versus his own double team. He's performed at a super high level in pass protection where I got to get Marlin to play better than the pass game, but what's unique about our room, and you touched on it, we have so many different skill sets that Marlin's really latched onto his role and is working toward mastering it, and he's still got a ways to go, but really proud of Marlin for how he's performed and continues to perform, and he's not there yet. None of them are, but really happy with what he's doing for us.

On Hogan Hansen

Yeah, to be honest, yeah, and that's one of those things you're so happy to be surprised about. You never want to dim anybody's light, but there was a moment in fall camp, we were in beat Ohio, which is our inside run nine on seven, and we ran an insert isolation play, and it was just like this light went off, and he just went, man, and it was physical, and it was fast, and it was with good detail, good fundamentals, and from that moment, you've just kind of seen him taken off like an airplane, and he's gotten his toes wet on special teams. You know, he was called upon on Saturday to play and played 15 snaps, and I think he had four catches for 50 yards, but where the light first went off for him was in the run game out on the practice field, and Coach Ingles, who's a senior offensive analyst here, we call him the OG or one of the OGs, him and Freddie Jay, he looked at me, he's like, did you just see that? I said, yeah, coach, and he was like, wow, I think the light might have just turned on a little bit, so like there forever will be this moment with Hogan Hanson where we were like, yeah, remember that play, and from then, Hogan, he's a sponge, he's into this, he's coachable, he's really, really gifted, and he's getting better, man. He's been such a pleasant surprise, and he's going to be a really good player here. I want to talk about all the rest of these guys.

On what it's like to coach in a game like the MSU rivalry

I've lived in this state a long time, pretty much my entire adult life since I graduated college. My kids were born here. My wife has been here with me ever since. This game means absolutely everything. I think sometimes the national stage assumes it's about the other game. This game's every bit as important, and unless if you've lived here a long time, been in this state a long time, you have great sense for that. This is the state championship. It means everything, and we go win this game for 365 days. We stay state champs, and that's what we need to go and do, and that's what we're going to do.

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