Jim Harbaugh, Don Brown Talk Iowa Win, More On Radio

Jim Harbaugh joined the Inside Michigan Football Radio Show tonight. He talked about his team’s 10-3 win over Iowa last week and looked ahead to his team’s road trip to take on Illinois in a noon game on Saturday. Defensive coordinator Don Brown also joined the show later on to talk about his defense’s dominating performance in last week’s win.

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Harbaugh recalled games against Iowa when he played against them and how hard fought they were, just like his team’s win last week. In 1985, Iowa beat U-M 12-10. U-M returned the favor in Harbaugh’s final year playing, 1986, where his Wolverines won 20-17.

“Thinking back to my years in ’85, ’86, it was like the first one to 13 won,” Harbaugh said.

Despite the win, the U-M offense struggled after a fast start. Harbaugh credited a lot of that to Iowa’s impressive defense.

“I think Iowa went into the game with the second ranked defense in the country … [They] played really good. Phil Parker — Iowa’s defensive coordinator — does a tremendous job. They have some really good players that played really well,” Harbaugh said.

Harbaugh talked about the struggles on offense in the second half and how they came down to just a few little things.

“We backed ourselves up a couple times — one by penalty and another by the trick play we tried to run, sack on the next play and then not converting on a third and three, a three and out in the fourth quarter,” Harbaugh said.

Senior quarterback Shea Patterson completed 14 passes on 26 attempts (53.8 completion percentage) for 147 yards and 1 INT. Harbaugh insisted, however, that Patterson is improving and giving his all.

“He’s taking what the defense gives,” Harbaugh said. “Quite a few times he had to throw the ball away. There wasn’t anything there to take. He’s been a lot better with ball security. He’s doing everything he can to help our team win.

“He is like every other player on our team right now that’s playing, they’re going all out. It’s tremendous effort from the first snap of the game to the end.”

He believes that the effort his team is giving is the first step to continued improvement.

“When you get that, then you can get everything else,” he said.

Defensively, U-M played what Harbaugh called a “masterpiece” last week against the Hawkeyes, a game in which the Wolverines gave up just 261 total yards and one total rushing yard. That performance won the game for U-M, as the defense continually came up big, especially in the second half.

“We decided to give a game ball to all the defensive starters in the game,” Harbaugh said.

Harbaugh gave mention to some of the players that stood out to him during the masterpiece.

“[Defensive line coach] Shaun Nua really has the guys up front playing extremely hard and well,” he said. “The corners were outstanding. That was a gem by LaVert [Hill], Ambry [Thomas] and Vince [Gray].

“Josh Metellus really showed up in a big way with six tackles and an interception. The two linebackers — [Jordan] Glasgow and Cam McGrone. Maybe eight or nine tackles for Glasgow, 7 or so for Cam McGrone. One down Glasgow is covering and the next down he’s pulling the quarterback down.

“Khaleke Hudson [had] 11 or 12 tackles, Josh Uche with hurries, Kwity Paye [had] 2.5 sacks. Dax Hill had six tackles, a pass break up [and] a tackle for loss.

“[Michael] Dwumfour is getting to the other side of the line of scrimmage and he’s causing havoc back there. That inside pressure is really helping us right now. Don’t want to leave out Carlo Kemp. He’s doing a heck of a job.”

Sophomore defensive end Aidan Hutchinson was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week for his performance that included six total tackles, one sack, 2.5 tackles for loss and a pass break up. Harbaugh said the entire team is happy for Hutchinson.

“You’re always happy for the other guy’s success,” Harbaugh said. “That’s a mantra on our team. We take a lot of satisfaction when we see one of our players honored in that way.”

Harbaugh is preaching improvement every week and staying focused on the task at hand as his team improved to a 4-1 overall record as they head into the road game at Illinois.

“Our philosophy is week to week,” Harbaugh said. “The next game is the most important game to put together a great plan, practice it and then go out there and execute on Saturday. One game at a time, brick by brick.”

U-M has had struggles recently in road games. Harbaugh pointed out that U-M has lost its last three contests away from Michigan stadium. Those games include last year’s 62-39 defeat to Ohio State, the 41-15 loss to Florida in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl, and the 35-14 drubbing to Wisconsin just weeks ago.

“Keeping your poise in that type of environment — that’ll be a big focus for us this week,” Harbaugh said. “We haven’t had a road win in our last three attempts.”

This is the third week in a row, Harbaugh pointed out, that U-M will face a player that transferred from its program to the opponent. Rutgers linebacker Drew Singleton and Iowa wide receiver Oliver Martin returned to Michigan Stadium the last two weeks and quarterback Brandon Peters will host his former team this week.

“I’ve been watching them all on film,” Harbaugh said. “I’ve taken interest and rooted for [Peters]. The only thing is, I’m not rooting for him the week that he’s playing us.”

Don Brown was the architect of the defensive gem that U-M played against Iowa. He was pleased with a number of things he saw from his group.

“Really pleased with our energy,” Brown said. “I thought we really competed at a high level from minute one to minute 60. Our guys did a great job of passing every test on Saturday.”

Brown noted that his team learned from the loss at Wisconsin two weeks prior and made adjustments that helped them against a similar style of play that Iowa plays.

“We did a really good job of learning from the Wisconsin game,” Brown said. “Our fits were excellent in terms of the run fits. I think we had one missed fit which, at the end of the day, usually breeds success.”

He was impressed, for a second straight week, by redshirt freshman middle linebacker Cam McGrone and what he showed in his first two games starting.

“The guy can run,” he said. “God’s given him that ability but he’s really taken to it. I’d like to take him and [former U-M and current Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker] Devin Bush in a 40 [yard dash]. Devin would probably win but not by much.”

Brown is excited for what’s ahead for his group after only allowing 3 points in the last nine quarters of play.

“We’ve put two good efforts together … I’m really excited to see how they’ll pop out. This [group] practices extremely well and they’re focused, locked in and we’re just starting to hit our stride, I believe.”

· Senior viper and captain Khaleke Hudson also joined the radio show. Hudson said the team has moved on from the Wisconsin loss and has gotten more confident.

“Guys are getting their confidence back,” Hudson said “Guys are flying around. It’s looking great.”

· Hudson was asked what his favorite thing about football is. He didn’t hesitate answering that question.

“When I hit somebody,” the captain said. “I love hitting people. I love hearing them groan when you hit them. When you’re just hitting them all game they eventually give up.”

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