On Michigan's defense and the game from two years ago

"Seems like it's been more than two years ago. A lot of games, a lot of things have happened between now and then. Just watching the film and when you get to sit down and watch the film on Sunday, you see a very disruptive, fast, physical front. Some really high-level players across the board and a good scheme, well-coached. A very good defense that we're going to be playing against. Obviously, a good football team. I think that experience, not many of our guys were there two years ago, I think the experience of a couple weeks ago against Penn State, a similar feel, a similar type of attacking defense. Different, for sure, structurally but similar in how they kind of present themselves, personnel standpoint. The talent, the twitch, the power. Confident with what we went through a couple of years ago will help us prepare for what we're gonna see because this is an extremely aggressive, talented, physical defense."

On Michigan coming out of the bye week

"That's one of those things where you could go down the rabbit hole there of what ifs. There is a level of that, there's always a level of speculation and how they're gonna see us and how they're gonna manipulate and what are they gonna do differently. That's just part of the cat and mouse game of college football. I would fully expect what they are and who they've been through the first part of the season, they're probably just fine-tuning and tweaking certain things. Overall, I expect it to be a similar feel with some nuances that we haven't seen at this point."

On the game against Michigan

"First and foremost, we're going to be celebrating 100 years, right? I think there is a lot of history in that. Obviously, we get to come to this stadium and this facility every single day. I think the first thing is that there's a history here. Any time you talk about history, you have to talk about where this place came from as opposed to where it is now. You can't forget about the men, the players, the people that came before you. I think a big thing going into this week, the goal is to obviously play really, really, really good defense. But, more importantly, man, this is a magical opportunity that we're about to have in this stadium. You're talking about a Top 25 ranked match-up, I think it's on CBS is what I'm being told. It's on CBS, prime time match-up, two really good opponents. Obviously, Michigan is historically a blueblood program. They've been at the forefront of a lot of things in terms of football-wise, nationally. They're coming to Champaign, Illinois, we get a chance to play them. I'm hoping its a sellout crowd, in front of the world. One thing I spoke to our guys yesterday about is opportunity. You get these opportunities often as a young player in your career so you have to take advantage of them. I know every young man has aspiration of playing on Sunday. Before you can play on Sunday, you gotta play on Saturday. It's going to be a great opportunity for us to play on Saturday. Truly, you don't have to go out there and be Superman. I don't have to go out create some magical call, right? Just go out there and execute your job, do it as fast as you can and the success will come with that if we just do it repetitively and do it at a really, really high speed.

On Michigan's offense

Obviously they have talented players at every position. They've played three different quarterbacks this year. No matter which quarterback they play, I'll tell you what all of them can do: All of them can run. All of them have the ability to throw the ball to a receiver or tight end. What they do really, really good at is they run the ball at a very, very, very high clip. I'll tell you this: No matter who is at quarterback, I'm sure at some point through the course of the game, maybe the start of the game, they've got two tailbacks that are ridiculous. That dude is going to turn around and he's going to hand the ball off to them. Not to try to be funny but he's going to hand the ball off to him and the truth of the matter is, it really doesn't matter who is back there handing the ball off to him, they have to be able to manage the offense and make sure, because I'm sure they don't want to turn the ball over, I'm sure they don't want to, obviously, make mistakes and fumble the ball and that capacity. They're going to try and control the game, I would like to think, in the run game and try to open it up for explosive plays down the field. Obviously, going into a game of this magnitude, our goal is to make sure we contain that, limit that and try to create as many negative plays, as many takeaways as possible. I think with a team of this caliber, they have a really freakin' good O-line. Really good O-line. I'm talking from tackle to tackle. You throw in a tight end, right, I think, Colston Loveland. I thought the Penn State cat was ridiculous and he is a really good player, I thought the Purdue cat was really, really good. This cat is just as talented, he just may be the best one out of all of them. He creates his own match up problem for our defensive backs, for our linebackers, for anybody that's covering him. I tip my hat to Coach Moore and what he's done with that program. Obviously, he was the Co-OC when we played them a couple years ago, O-line coach. I think a lot of things have changed in terms of his mentality and what he wants to establish and do. Obviously there have been some personality things that have changed. Coming into an environment on the road and I'm sure their goal is to go out there and have success.

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