Opening statement

Tough loss. Really good football tea, obviously. A team that will be contending for the national championship. They served it up pretty good to us today. Thing I was proud of was the attitude and effort of our young men. They kept fighting. This is not the situation that you would say you got to play a loy of young guys. You would like to be in a situation where you were up 59-0 but we did get a chance to play a ton of young guys and we'll move forward with those young guys. We brought in a good recruiting class and we're going to give them a chance to play. Not going to say they're going to start or they're supplanting anybody like that. There's some good, young athletes on this team that we're going to start forcefeeding. We did so today a little bit more in the second half. We gotta go back to the drawing board, we have to continue to work hard, believe that we can make progress regardless of the score. We've got to stay together, believe in each other, trust each other, support each other and hold each other to our standard. That's what we're going to do. It's a really good group of young men and they're determined to find a way and they're determined to maximize their abilities. I think this can be a game, as disappointing as this was, to grow from. That's what we're going to focus on.

On Michigan's defense impacting the offense

I hate to say that (Zion Turner) was overwhelmed, I think we were overwhelmed as an offense today. I wouldn't put it on Zion but I understand the question. It can be really daunting to be a freshman quarterback in that environment. I watched two defenses this year that absolutely jump out at me on film. That's Michigan and Georgia. They are elite defenses as good as I've ever seen in college football. They put the breaks on us today. I think it would be easy to say that Zion's overwhelmed. Maybe because of experience but I don't think emotionally overwhelmed.

On what makes Michigan elite on defense

Because they have 140 players that are big, fast, strong, physical. They're well-coached, they play with violence. They play with energy. They don't miss tackles. They challenge you. They run the ball well, they pass the ball well, their quarterback runs the ball well. They've got speed all over the field. I don't know if you saw it in the pregame warm-up, I looked down the field in pregame warmup and it looked like an Army down there. They had so many players and they're all great players. That's why I think—I don't think. They are a contender for the national championship right now. It's not in dispute, in my opinion.

On the gameplan for J.J. McCarthy

He was able to run the ball and pass it through the gaps in our zones. I feel like we just have to do a better job executing. I feel like we're definitely making strides to getting there and looking forward to the rest of the season getting over these humps.