Opening Statement

I was really happy for the kids. I thought that they played really well. Happy for the kids and the coaches. On the staff, they executed the game plan and I was really pleased for the outcome obviously. I thought we played some great complimentary football to win that game and we're really looking forward to this week. With that, I'll open it up to questions.

On what has surprised him about the college game and how he's changed his play-calling

I think every game's different. We've already talked about the strength of schedule that we had to start off with and everybody's fitting into their own role and you saw some players really excel in the last game and I kind of enjoy listening to everybody's comments on how many times you pressured everything out because a lot of them were wrong. I think that we played really well in situational football against SC. You saw it at the end of the half and you saw it at the end of the game but people don't understand that. There's actual calls that you call in those situations so you can get a sack before halftime or you can stop the passing game going right down the field on you when you're in there in the fourth quarter. I've been doing this for 40 years and yeah, Sark's a good offensive coordinator and he's got a really good quarterback and yeah, Lincoln Riley has another good quarterback. That's just the challenges of college football and it's the challenges of pro football, period. I think that we've adapted and played what we thought was best to win the game because at the end of the week we just want to be 1-0 just like this week. We just want to be 1-0. We're not going to get too high, we're not going to get too low because it's a constant grind for the season and it's a constant climb. Yesterday we had a really good practice and I think it was better than last week's Tuesday practice and that's our goal. Today we need to have another better practice. Just keep stacking them. I'm really excited where we're at and where we're going.

On the pass rush being successful against USC and how does that change against a physical run team

Credit goes to the players, first of all. They were playing really well and not just the first four who I thought dominated up front there in the first half and really throughout the game. Like everybody's talking about Jay Stu's pass rush, which is well deserved. They should talk about that, but D-MO had some great rushes too, which became hurries where he's taking tackles and throwing them in the quarterback's lap and Mason and KG together, that's the best that I've seen them play. As long as we come to every Saturday with that mentality, I think there's a lot of good things to come for those four. I thought our inside backers played their best game and Sug played his best game opposite of Will. We just got to keep getting better and keep developing players. I told you all about the depth before. We need to keep getting this depth better. It's an exciting time. Is it different? Sure, it's different. It's a different game, different quarterback, more match protection, those type of things. They're going to want to establish the run early with PJ. It's going to be a great challenge for us.

On evaluating Jyaire Hill's growth week-to-week

Statistically, you can just see how much it's grown. He's accepted the challenge. He's just going to get more and more confident. The biggest thing is you can tell he's having fun out there just playing football. He made a big hit in that game, SC's game. He had a couple pass breakups. Corner's a tough job. You've got to have the old mind of a goldfish. Ten seconds, you've got to forget about it and go play the next play because if not, you'll get exposed. I think he's done a nice job of doing that.

On Josaiah Stewart's play

I've seen it since I've been here. He's had a tremendous spring and training camp. The one thing you can count on with him, he is one of the hardest workers on the field, period. I heard Sherrone talk about his leadership skills. As a transfer, he was almost voted as a captain. That says a lot about who he is and how he is as a player. I'm really happy for him because his hard work is paying off. You can see it every day. I just said, keep practicing like this. He has no ceiling. He'll just keep going.

On whether Stewart is an NFL player

We'll talk about that at the end of the year, but I'd take him.

On what he learned about the personnel after the Texas loss

It was a really good team. It was a tougher fight mentally with the personnel because it's the first game they've lost in a long, long time. I think that they're a confident group of players. We have some great leadership with Makari and Will. On down the line, Mason, KG, D-Mo, Stu, Ernie. I started talking about those inside backers. I thought they played their best game with Ernie and Jaishawn. I know USC's Lyman and tight end knows Jaishawn now. That was a good way to start the game.

On predicting Will Johnson's pick-six and what he said to him prior to it

I just talked to him about it. I could see where they were going with some different adjustments from what pressures they thought we were going to run. We zagged when they thought we were going to zig. There's punches and counter punches to every game. I just said he's getting ready to bait them for one here. I told Will that too. Now, all credit, I bet Aaron Judge is going to hit a home run. It's all credit to Will and how he plays and how he studies the game. How calm of a player he is on the field. Calm and confident. He studies so much tape, he can probably tell the receivers what route they're going to run for when they run them.

On what he thinks people might miss when looking at his defense that isn't obvious

I think it's a narrative that people have wanted to create with myself personally, and that's fine because it keeps every offense up all night. There's different things that just because you send a nickel and you drop an end, that's still a four-man rush. You understand? I'm just saying whatever simulated you run, but all the great people and all the different I don't know what they are, where you get all the information from that have all these percentages, they're wrong. Just keep writing and believing and reading and keep doing all that stuff you want to do. It's just flat out wrong. Like I said, it really helps us.

On whether he looks at last year's tape and Minnesota's early run success

Oh yeah, you study that. You're going to see the difference. They have a lot of returners on offense. That's a really good tape for you to study too. They had some success running the ball against us. Like I said, they run the ball well.

On the mistakes in the backend of the defense

There's some communication errors to it. There's a couple things that we should have made the play and we just didn't make the play, but that happens.

On where he's seen Jaishawn Barham improve

The number one thing that I see with him is when he hits somebody, it's probably when you ask that player, it's the hardest they've ever been hit because you can just see it on tape. He sets the tempo for your defense when he does it. I think that he's just going to keep growing in this system. He understands it better every week. I think BJ, Brian Jean-Mary, his coach, I think he's done a great job with those guys on the inside and you're going to just see him keep getting better, keep getting better, keep getting better.

On using Quinten Johnson as a linebacker and what does his future look like

What does his future look like? Wherever we need him. He has that skill set that he can play wherever you need him. He's smart. We talked about Josiaah going to play in the NFL. I think Q has a tremendous chance. I don't know how he's going to get there, but once he gets there he could have a long career in the NFL because of how smart he is with football. He knows the spots. It's really cool to see.

On the two-high safety look debate and whether it limits offense

It really doesn't matter what I think about it. It really doesn't. Oh, Wink thinks this. They're not going to do that. I think that you just line up and play football. It's something for them to talk about, I guess.

On what he's seen from Michigan's offense behind closed doors not being one-dimensional

There we go again with that narrative, though. Do you realize what happened this past weekend in the NFL? The Baltimore Ravens ran the ball 45 times. I think they threw it at 12 and they beat the Cowboys pretty bad until the end of the game, but that's just the way the league is. The Saints, Derrick Carr threw for what, 12 passes in his first game, I think, and 16 in the second. Don't quote me on that. I'm not sure, but I know it was a low amount of passes. They were chewing up. Look what Washington just did to Cincinnati. The pendulum's swinging. Either way, you want to look at it. I think that with our offense and it can do, and our defense, and our special teams, we have the flexibility in our scheme to do whatever we need to do to win that game that week when we prepare for it. I think that sometimes the narrative about outs, one thing about being old, I do have experience. I've seen quarterbacks take over an offense and run with the offense. I think that's what's going to happen with this guy. I love the kid. I'm not evaluating anything or anything else offensively because I've got my hands full where we're at. I think that there shouldn't be a narrative put on it. There shouldn't be any limitations put on it. It's one of those things. Same thing I was talking about with the defense. Every day, you just try to get better, try to get better. You build it as you go. What happens is there's overreactions when you have a different schedule than what we've had here in the past few years. You stub your toe, which is Texas. There's an overreaction to it. Bottom line is it's just come in every week and be 1-0. Whatever it takes.

On having confidence in the defense being able to pass the ball

I have full confidence in our offense and Kirk. Everybody that's on that side of the ball. You've got to play complimentary football to win games. You're seeing it more now with the new Big 10. What is it? The Big 18. With West Coast trips and having West Coast teams come play you here. It's really turning towards the NFL. Every week you've just got to be 1-0. Let's just see what happens at the end.

On what he's heard about the pressure narrative and what is wrong

I don't even want to give credit to it. It's one of those things that everybody wants to talk about your pressure rates and everything else. The people that are keeping count of your pressures don't know the difference between a pressure, a simulated or a four-man rush. That's just where I stand on it. I think someone quoted last week 50%. It would be like me reading one of your articles and saying you use bad grammar. I'm not very good in English. You know what I'm saying? I don't know what's the difference between a good article and a bad article. Or a report or a podcast or whatever. It's the same thing. It's all part of the profession.

On whether he appreciates a guy like Max Bredeson as a defensive coordinator

Heck yeah. He's a tone setter. Especially as a defensive coordinator with experience. Those guys are going the way of the Buffalo. Everybody likes those pretty tight ends that don't block anybody. Too slow to be called a wide receiver. But the fullback, like you said, it's a tempo setter for the game. Just like I was talking about with Jaishawn, he is for the offense. Takes pride in it. Just like Jaishawn does. The old school football coaches love those type of guys.

On Colston Loveland

I think that it would be okay to be compared to some of those tight ends in the league. Which he's going to be compared to here in a little bit. Might be able to date Taylor Swift, who knows.

On guys like Tommy Doman, Brandyn Hillman and Jimmy Rolder helping out the defense

He helped us a lot on Saturday. With those two guys, they're just going to keep climbing. Jimmy's had a really good year. It's just once again the battle with the little dings and nicks. He's fought through those well. For me this year, I think he has. Just get him fully healthy. It'll be fun to watch. He's growing and he's getting it. He has really good ability. He can play the game. B. Hill is just going to keep getting better and better. He's like a heat seeking missile back there. He likes contact. He falls into that old school type football player. Brian Dawkins, those type of guys. The way he attacks the football. Going after the football when somebody's running with it. He's going to be fun to watch here the next few years.

On what he's seen from Ernest Hausmann

He's led since I've been here. He'll be the first to tell you that it didn't start off well for him. You can see him getting comfortable and playing better in the games. Like I said, his best game was SC to date. I'm really excited. He had a really good practice yesterday too. Whatever it was he needed to do, he did it. He and BJ did.

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