Season Moving Fast For Danna; Haskins Making The Most Of Opportunity
Michigan football takes on Penn State this weekend and two major contributors, fifth-year senior defense end Michael Danna and sophomore running back Hassan Haskins joined Jon Jansen on his 'In The Trenches' podcast this morning to talk about their seasons so far and about what's ahead.
Fifth-year senior defensive end Michael Danna:
On transferring from Central Michigan...
Danna is already halfway through his final college football season after four years at CMU and now being at U-M as a graduate transfer.
"A lot went into it," Danna said. "Being at an institution for the last four years, you build a good resume there, you know a lot of people, you know the whole town.
"Just moving on and trying to make a new chapter in your life is tough but I had to do what’s best for me. Coming here to Ann Arbor is probably one of the best decisions I’ve made in my whole lifetime.
"My teammates really opened the door for me so I haven’t really faced any challenges that made me step out of my character because my teammates made the whole transition 10 times easier for me.
"It feels like I just got here a week ago. One minute it’s may, then the summer went by in a snap of the fingers, fall camp went by in a snap, now we’re already halfway through the season.
"I’m just trying to enjoy the most out of all these opportunities. It’s coming to an end, unfortunately, so I’m just trying to make the most out of every opportunity I get with my teammates, coaches and everybody."
" I like the classes, I like the programs, the professors are great, treat me well and we talk about a lot of things that are going on in this world today and it’s really interesting."
On his goals coming into the season...
Danna recorded 15 career sacks at CMU and has two sacks and a forced fumble this year for U-M, but he didn't share that he had any goals stat-wise for the year coming in.
"My goals were to be the best football player I can be for this team," Danna said. "Whether it’s on the field, off the field, just be the person that can hold people accountable, people hold me accountable, respect the game, be coachable, be understanding.
"I feel like I’m at a good point right now. Since I’ve been here, I feel like I’ve been coachable. I don’t want to give anybody a hard time. I’m not trying to act like I know everything. I try to be humble and respect the game because you never know when the game could be taken away from you.
"The defense is great, I love being apart of this defense and it’s an honor to be a part of Don Brown’s defense because it’s about physicality, aggressiveness, being quick, being relentless."
On his strip-sack against Illinois...
Danna sacked the quarterback and stripped him against Illinois, with the ball flying straight into the air. Senior defensive tackle Carlo Kemp caught it and returned it to the one yard line before senior quarterback Shea Patterson sneaked it in for a TD on the next play to put the game out of reach. Danna gave what his thoughts were after being able to make the big play:
"It’s just great to be on this team," Danna said. "God is good."
"Just all the hard work pays off and you just have to keep pushing the extra mile.
"If you fall eight times, get up a ninth, if you fall nine times, get up a 10th. You never know what play can change the game. You just gotta give it your all."
On preparing for the excitement of the big matchup with Penn State...
U-M heads into Happy Valley for a matchup with the seventh-ranked Nittany Lions, a game that will have big implications on the Big Ten east division race.
"[We have to] stay poised," Danna explained. "Just try to do what you’re coached to do.
"We don’t need no superhuman effort to beat Penn State. We just need everybody to do their 1/11th.
"It’s another football game, it’s another faceless opponent. We gotta come in here and play our game. We just have to play our best football regardless of who we’re playing.
It's not just the excitement and the tough environment on the road that U-M is preparing for, Danna says there's a lot in PSU's game that will challenge the Wolverines.
"[They run] lot of RPOs," Danna said of PSU. "We have to stop the run.
"Eventually we have to get after the quarterback but the main thing is always to stop the run and execute when we need to.
"It’s a different challenge when you go into a different week because not too many quarterbacks are the second leading rusher on the team. It opens up a wider challenge for us and we just have to stand up to the challenge, face adversity, stand up to that.
"You test a man by adversity. We just gotta work hard, prepare this week and take care of business."
Sophomore running back Hassan Haskins:
Haskins is coming off a career day against Illinois, a game in which he has 12 carries for 125 yards and one TD. Haskins was one of two U-M rushers in the game to eclipse the 100-yard mark, along with freshman running back Zach Charbonnet. Haskins says it's been a long time coming to score his first career TD at U-M:
"I’ve waiting on this touchdown for a minute," Haskins said. "It’s a good feeling.
"[I had] giant holes. My offensive line created them. It makes it really easy.
"I’ve just been trying to stay focused on the plays that I get into. I just try to do my job exactly how they want me to do it. I just go hard in practice.
"I’ve just been preparing like crazy — workouts, meetings, practice. I just go twice as hard as last year when I didn’t get the chance to play how I wanted to.
Now that Haskins is getting a taste of personal success on the field in games, he says he still has things to work and improve on.
"Just working on my second level moves and try to get my speed a little up," Haskins said about areas he wants to improve in. "I’m just focused on that in practice.
"I just felt like I just gotta be myself. It goes along with being focused in practice and just executing my job."
As for a style of running back, Haskins said it's a little bit of everything.
"I feel like I’m everything, for real — speed, power, I got a little juke move. I just gotta keep working on that how I did in high school."
On learning from Karan Higdon
During Haskins' freshman season, it was Karan Higdon who was the feature back. He says learning behind Higdon was a good experience for him.
"He used to challenge us to stay focused," Haskins said. "You never know when you can go in. Just do your job to the best of your ability, he always told me that."
On upcoming game with Penn State...
"A lot of guys told me that it’s crazy," Haskins said. "A couple of them said that’s one of the loudest games they’ve been to. I’m looking forward to it. I’m still gonna be me.
"I just try to block out the crowd and all the outside noise and just stay focused, do my job and do it great. I just try to block out every extra noise.
"I think it’s going to be a good fight against Penn State. I’m just looking forward to doing my job and we’ll see how it goes."
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