What OC Kirk Campbell said after Michigan's spring game
On the spring game
Just tried to stay pre and post-snap penalty-free. We didn't want any post-snap penalties. There were a couple of those, a couple of snap infractions. We wanted to stay turnover-free, we had the one. Then we had a couple of balls in jeopardy, those were the two main things. Overall, when you can take the summation of the entire day, I thought there was good things from every guy out there. You've got to see Alex run around a little bit, you got to see Davis' arm. Jayden Denegal made some really nice throws. Jadyn Davis, the young buck, kept the play alive on the fourth down and gave Peyton O'Leary a shot. All four of them did something that was good but there were other things that needed to be cleared up as well.
On Davis Warren
What I saw from Davis is what I see from Davis every practice. Nothing rattles him. He's been through a lot in his life and his career and that's how Davis plays and practices every day. He's got a great arm as you guys got to see on display today. Really proud of him and the efforts that he does. He was able to shine in the Big House and make two big throws. He puts in the work just like everybody else and for him to get the opportunity is great.
On how the reps were allocated during the spring between the QBs
All throughout spring practice we rotated different guys with the ones and the twos and the threes. They all got different kind of reps. The big thing is, you have to evaluate them with the starting o-line, the backup o-line, the third-string o-line. It's not fair to evaluate a guy with the third-string o-line, the starting line. We rotated them all through, all of them had those opportunities aside from Jadyn Davis, he had reps with the twos. Did not give him many reps with the ones, he had a couple. That's how we allocated them and they would change by practice. Obviously, in-helmet communications, we had to change stuff too.
On what he is looking for from the QBs when looking over film from the spring
For me and the University of Michigan, one, is the production on the field. They gotta be low-turnover, high-completion players. There's stuff off the field that we're looking at. They're all great leaders but who is the best guy to go out there and lead this team. We were fortunate enough to have a guy last year who was outstanding at that and we need to see a guy who can replace that. There's stuff on the field and off the field that we're evaluating.
On whether a two-QB system a possibility
I've been a part of that in the past in another school and I don't think it's out of the question of what we will do. I'm not sure yet and we haven't made that decision. I've said this in media probably a month and a half, two months ago, we will make the decision when the decision is right and we will do what's best for the entire team. We have really good players in that room. I think you guys got to see that today and it's my job to make sure we get them in the best situation come Saturdays.
On adding a transfer portal QB
That's not part of our thought process right now. Roster evaluation is always part of the process but, right now, it's not something that we're looking at.
On Jack Tuttle
Jack is throwing some objects right now and he is going to be cleared for the summer and moving forward.
On whether he's satisfied with the progress the QBs have made
I am. Absolutely. We'll just go right down the list. Alex has been much better of a passer, he had a couple today he would probably like back but you can see, he can throw the football. Davis, his knowledge of the system is through the dang roof. He's like me out there. Jayden Denegal, he had a really bad start to spring and he was exceptional in the last 11 practices. I know today meant a lot to him. Jadyn Davis is like a sponge out there. You tell him one thing and he goes and does it. Everyone got better which is what you want to see out of spring ball, nobody got worse and that's credit them and their belief in themselves
On where he thinks the offense is right now
I think we're an extremely explosive offense. We have really explosive players.
On the explosive players
Fred Moore, Semaj Morgan, Colston Loveland, Donovan Edwards, Tyler Morris, the list goes on. Really good football players.
On whether he believes this offense can sustain drives like last year
We've got really good running backs, we've got a really good offensive line. The names on the name plates will change, the Zinters, the Keegans, the Barnharts won't be around but we've got really good players that are coming back. Guys that are chomping at the bit for an opportunity. I don't think that will change. We're still going to be aggressively with the same mold but we have players that are more explosive than we have in the past.
On how he evaluates the offensive line
You evaluate them all individually. Whether it's a double-team block or a single-block, you still have to do their proper footwork, step in the right direction, execute the assignment the right way. It's easy for us to pop on the film to see if they did the right thing.
On whether he saw everything he wanted to see from the OL
There's some guys that we're excited (for). Obviously, didn't see Josh Priebe out there today. He got a little banged up, cut his lip at the end of spring, nothing major at all. Just to get him back out there. I would've loved to see him out there today, that guy is a warrior. Gio El-Hadi wasn't out there, that's another guy that is going to be a big part of our offensive line. We've done a lot of evaluation on a lot of guys but those two, we need to get them back.
On the depth at receiver and whether they need to address it via the portal
I think we've got some explosive guys. I think it's a top-loaded room and we need to get some guys to help out there. We will probably look at some guys at that position. How many? I'm not sure. We just need to have numbers. You look at the roster depth, you need enough guys. Hamstring injuries are going to happen, quad injuries, we just need to make sure we have enough guys to field a roster.
On how much Alex Orji can run the ball during a game
I think that's a loaded question, I can't answer that. Nobody knows. If I say 20, I don't know how many times he can run the ball. It could be play-dependent, game-dependent.
On whether he believes in running the QB philosophically
If it what's makes us the best offense in the country, absolutely.
On Kendrick Bell
Kendrick, his development this spring was outstanding. He's a playmaker, he can go get the football. He probably has the biggest catch radius of our receiver room. He was more raw at the receiver position than Ronnie was coming in so he's probably a year behind Ronnie but excited. He's got a high, high ceiling. He's going to have a great career at Michigan.
On how long he expects the QB competition to go
I said this before, I think if you ever put a stipulation on that, you kind of hamstring yourself. If a guy emerges, we're going to roll with that. If a guy doesn't we have to push somebody to get there. Ideally you'd like it before the first week of the season. When we're ready to make that decision, we'll make that decision.
On whether he believes separation is happening
I think all of them have done really good things. We'll sit down this next week, Sherrone and I and the rest of the offensive staff, to get everybody's input to kind of see. They've all done some really good things but we'll see where the depth chart stacks up, we'll do that evaluation next week.
On how comfortable he is making a TE-centric offense with the WR numbers
I love tight ends. You look at my history, I know some of the stats out there but when I was offensive coordinator at Alderson Broaddus, my tight ends has 197 catches in three years. My tight end at Old Dominion had 70-plus catches. I love throwing the ball to tight ends. Again, it's my job to get the ball to the best players on your team. Right now, Colston Loveland is one of those guys. Marlin Klein is going to be one of those guys. We've got a lot of them so it's my job to get them the football.
On Colston Loveland's flexibility
I've said this about J.J. McCarthy, Colston Loveland is the best tight end in the country, we've gotta move him around because teams are going to have a gameplan to stop him. We'll be creative making sure we have an opportunity.
On Donovan Edward's added weight
I love Donovan, all the time. Donovan is just a stud, just his personality and his character. How he's built. His added weight is going to be much better for him, help him break some more tackles. I thought he ran extremely hard today. I know it was short, I thought he ran the hardest I've probably ever seen him run. At halftime, I was proud of him.
On whether he'd like to see Edwards split out wide
Donovan is a matchup problem and just that goes on the list of things we kind of talked about. Yeah, if the teams want to play defense like Purdue did, we can motion him out there and get a linebacker with him, that's going to be advantageous for us.
On whether he likes having guys that people don't know their names
The staples at the receiver position, Roman Wilson and Cornelius Johnson were here for a long time and some other guys didn't get to shine. It's an opportunity for them to go out there and do it. We've got some really explosive players, they'll get the opportunity.
On whether he saw any surprises today
Off the top of my head, watching it out there. No. I haven't paid attention to both sides of the ball. Nothing super surprising. I know I'm from Pittsburgh but the kid who showed up on the defensive side of the ball is Cole Sullivan. I saw him make a couple of plays. That was surprising. Not surprising to me, but I was proud of him. A true freshman, I think he blew up a guard on one play and had a couple of tackles in the backfield. I know I'm an offensive coach but that stuck out to me.
On whether the offense will still be run heavy
I've expressed in the past, I think you're a poor offensive coordinator if you say this is what we do. You evaluate your roster and then you do. We'll be what our players are capable of doing. To tell you that we're going to go out there and, yeah, we're going to be a downhill, physical run football team, that's not going to change. That's our DNA. That's how I was raised, I'm a blue-collar guy. We're not going to change our identity. How many times, I don't know. Every game is dependent on that.
On how different it is competing against a Wink Martindale defense vs. Jesse Minter
Wink, he has some wrinkles out there. It's different but those challenges are great for me, it's great for the players. He does everything under the sun which helps us prepare for any opponent we play this season. We love him, we embrace him.
On whether he has a sense of what he has now vs. the beginning of spring
I think we have a lot of guys that have developed. The big question, I know you guys hit on it and I kind of talked about, is the offensive line. I think we made humungous strides there with guys that we have more depth than we probably thought this spring. Guys like Dom Giudice, Raheem Anderson who had outstanding springs. We already knew about Jeff Persi and Myles Hinton. Josh Priebe was huge. So that's probably a huge proponent of spring for us.
On how he evaluates the work he saw today vs the work the offense put in during the spring
We are evaluating today just like we would evaluate practice. One rep at a time. Just evaluate the proper footwork, the fundamentals, how they execute the plays. Making sure their assignments are right, their alignments, the details. I thought, overall, from the naked eye, there was a lot of good out there.
On whether it was surprising to see the game low scoring
I don't think it was the defense, I think it was the playcalling setup. There's only four possessions in the first half and we had three scoring opportunities. I don't think it was the defense, I think it was the opportunity of the playclock.
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