On Michigan in his opening statement
Moving forward to Michigan, a ton of respect for this program, for this team. You don’t go to three straight College Football Playoffs if you don’t have a great program, and they’ve got a great program — obviously, capping it off last year being national champs. I think about some things about this team: they’re 41-3 in their last 44 games. They’ve won 16 games in a row. They’ve won 23 straight home games. So these guys know how to win. You can see it in their style of play. They play with a great deal of confidence. They believe in one another, so it’s a heck of a challenge for our team. But this is why you come to Texas, is to play in games like this, and to think this is the first time in the history of college football that Texas is going to play Michigan in the regular season is pretty awesome and pretty humbling to be part of that. And so we’re definitely looking forward to the forward to the opportunity.
On Michigan's defense
First of all, I have a great deal of respect for Wink Martindale, their defensive coordinator. You know, he and I worked together way back in 2004 with the Oakland Raiders. And he’s a great defensive mind. He’s very creative and I think a lot of times people think, Oh, they just blitz and they’re reckless or something. They’re not. There’s a method to all of the madness that they do. They’re very sound from a coverage standpoint. They’re a really good defensive front with some elite players on the defensive front, but also some elite players in the back end, too. And so when you put together scheme with great players, and then they play with a great deal of confidence because of who they’ve been over the years, that’s the challenge. And so you just start thinking about all the great defenses that have ever come along the way. Again, they’ve got good schemes, got good coaches. You got pride in that defensive style, but yet, they’ve got some elite players, they got first-round draft picks on that defense, too, so it’s a heck of a challenge for us.
On preparing for Alex Orji at quarterback and whether he's similar to Jalen Milroe at Alabama
I think I’m going to be Alex Orji this week (on the scout team). OK, I don’t — dude, I’m not going to tell you how we prepare. OK, so, very similar. This guy is a problem because you have to treat him like a runner. He’s got size. He’s got speed. He can change the math on you quickly when you start adding into the quarterback runs. Yet the arm talent is there to where he can affect you, especially down the field. And if you remember, in that game last year at Bama, Milroe made a couple big-time throws down the field to create explosive plays, and that’s something in this game for us that’s going to be critical. Yeah, I mean, clearly we’ve got to do great stopping the run, and we need to be better at stopping the run than we were a week ago. But we surely don’t want to do that at the expense of giving up explosive plays in the pass game. And I think that’s that fine line that we have to walk going into Saturday.
On what he can take away from the Alabama game last year to prepare for this one
Well, I think so, you know, we have, I think it’s 46 guys that are going to be traveling this week with us that were at Tuscaloosa a year ago. And so, that’s about half the guys that will be on the trip were in Tuscaloosa a year ago. And I think one of the keys is that is one, you have to have great poise and composure when you’re on the road in these types of environments. This is a game of emotion, there’s no question, but we need to make sure that we don’t get emotional in the arena. That’s the first part. Two, is playing with a real sense of confidence and belief in who we are, in our style of play. We know this is a heck of a challenge. We know this will be a four-quarter game, but staying the course, especially when adversity strikes, because it will strike. People forget last year in the fourth quarter, we were behind in that game, and then we ended up scoring 21 points. We ended up finishing that game on a seven-minute drive to close the game out. And so staying the course, keeping our poise, keeping our composure, having a real sense of belief, playing as one as a team, and pulling for one another. There’s going to be over 100,000 people that want us to play bad, and we’re seeing about 100 of us that want us to play good, and so we need to lean into that 100 and making sure that we’re as strong as we can be.
On defending Michigan's run game
I think a couple guys that stood out for me. I think Alfred (Collins) and Vernon (Broughton) played well, like they do, you know? And that was a good sign. I think Jermaine Lole was a guy that definitely showed us some things. And a young guy that kind of was a pleasant surprise, was Alex January did some things for us in there as well. So, but we’re going to need all these guys in this type of a game. I don’t know how many snaps this game will be, generally a Michigan team, and game averages right around 60 or so snaps. And so it’s got a little bit more of an NFL feel. And so it’s maximizing those snaps when those guys are on the field as much as it is rotating just for depth purposes. When you’re playing a team that you think might go 85-90 snaps, you need that rotation just to stay in shape. In this instance when you’re on that field, you got to maximize that rep. And if you get eight reps in the game, you got to make those eight count, and whatever that looks like. And so that part’s probably more important to us than anything, is just making sure that men, we exhaust all that we have for that one play, knowing that we have the rotation we have.
On Sherrone Moore being in his first year as head coach and how he prepared in his first year
I would say one, man — he got great experience a year ago with the situation that they were in. And to think as that season was going on, at the tail end of that season, every game he was coaching in mattered. And there were some big games — it wasn’t like he was just — they weren’t cupcake games. He had to get to go into Penn State and win that game. He had to coach against Ohio State and win that game. And so he’s got great exposure. And, he worked for a really good coach in Coach Harbaugh, and so I don’t think it probably for him that it feels new to him just because of the experience that he got a year ago. I felt like I was drinking out of a fire hose at that time. We were trying to build a program that was 0-12 the year before. We were just trying to find a way to get another first down at that point. So probably a little different, little different format than when you take over for a team that they’ve got such experience. They’ve got a really good developmental program that they have, and they’re not really having to change schemes and coaches. That’s probably a different transition for him than it was for me when I went to Washington, and it was a brand new staff, and we were really trying to change a culture at that time.
On playing at Michigan Stadium
Yeah, I’m super pumped, like, I am, you guys — again, I say this maybe for reporters or people watching that don’t know me. I love college football, and even as a kid or watching Michigan play, them taking the field and all jumping up and hitting the ‘Go Blue’ sign, like I love that. There’s all these little things along college football, at different teams, different stadiums, that are the pageantry of the game. And so The Big House is one of those things. The Michigan helmets, them taking the field is one of those things. And to think like these two iconic programs with those iconic uniforms and those iconic helmets meeting for the first time in the Big House, man, it’s awesome. I mean, I’m getting goosebumps right now, you know? And we got, we got five days to go. So it’s pretty special, definitely.
On Michigan being the underdog
Three straight College Football Playoffs, national champs, 41-3 in their last 44 games, have won 16 games in a row. They’ve won 23 straight at home. So we’re gonna be in for a dogfight.
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