[Fuller/MGoBlog]

The secondary and the front seven really seemed to work in concert defending the pass. Can you just talk about the job they both did?

“Yeah, heck of a job. Great to be a part of a shutout. Defensive staff, DJ Durkin and the guys did a great job; players, everybody. When you only give up 105 yards, that’s…I don’t know if I’ve ever been a part of one of those. That’s outstanding in so many areas.

“Picked up two third-down conversions early in the game and the rest of the game it was like 2-of-12, maybe. Thought we did an excellent job on third down. In all aspects, a great defensive ballgame.”

Could you talk about Jake’s [Rudock] day, and particularly his choice to throw the ball away or run if he didn’t see what he liked?

“Yeah. Hey, Mark! Yeah, good to see you.”

[Ed. (Adam): Mark didn’t ask the question. I’ve never seen Mark before.]

“Yeah, really good. I just glanced at the sheet after the game and he was 14- or 15-of-25, something in that area, and there must have been four or five throwaways. I thought he was having fun. I thought he was, you know, playing the game, letting it rip, and got two big scores scrambling, running the football. Great block by Jehu Chesson on the second touchdown. I can’t wait to watch that one on tape. Lead some good, consistent drives even in the second half. Thought the offense did a heck of a job controlling possession of the football; had an 11-play drive and a 12-play drive and scored on the first five possessions. Came out strong.

“Saw some really creative plays. Tim Drevno and Jedd Fisch, you know, really diagrammed some good plays this week and the fellas did a nice job executing them, so a lot of good things. Good team victory.”

Going back to the defense, obviously your guys were consistent from start to finish. What about the 11 punts you had on 12 possessions and seven three-and-outs?

“Yeah, the three and outs, I’m glad you brought that up. We scored the first five times we had the ball offensively, and four of those- four times the defense had three-and-out possessions and then to start the second half it was one right after the other, three and outs. It was very good. Good football team both sides of the ball, so it was good. And we go back to work now. Start conference play this week and we’ll attack it the same way. Big game this week.”

I know you don’t like to talk about yourself much but I’m interested, is the feeling of winning- today would be a day I’d guess that captures why you wanted to come back and coach this team. Is the feeling of winning in an atmosphere like this right now and what you’re going through different than the NFL, and do you watch NFL games anymore? Do you miss anything about it?

“Lot of questions there.”

[After THE JUMP: We had hamburgers it was crazy]

/room laughs

There’re a lot of people here. I wasn’t sure I’d get the microphone [again].

“I watch all kinds of football. Yeah, it’s a great feeling, winning. Great thrill of victory…whatever level you’re at. Winning a football game is a great thrill. Team victory all the way. Next six hours are going to be great. I’m going to enjoy them like probably nobody probably else does. I just really feel good. Feel really happy when we win a game. Then about six hours from now I’ll turn kind of gloomy and start thinking about the next opponent, and that’s Maryland and the start of the Big Ten season.

“It’s great. Had a couple opportunities to just see how inspired our crowd is, and out student section is. Full stadium, just so enthusiastic about our University and our team. It was good. Had a nice couple occasions to look up and go, ‘This is good. This is good. This is really good for us and good for football.’ Just looked good. Attitude of gratitude about that, and the way our team plays and the way they prepare.”

Do you watch NFL games?

“Yeah, I watch NFL games.”

You don’t miss it?

“Heh. Uh, get some good plays off ‘em, but…we had one in today. It got tipped, but it was a nice play that the Baltimore Ravens ran last week and scored a touchdown on. Yeah, all good. Still love football- all levels.”

De’Veon has that big run. What’s going through your head when you’re watching that?

“Just ‘Wow, can this happen again?’ We had another sixty- you know, plus-fifty-yard run for a touchdown. Those don’t happen [but] maybe once a season, again, at any level of football. I mean, they don’t occur that often. And then to see the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth effort spinning, just churning…heck of a job. It’s nice to see our backs hungry to do that and not wanting to go down. I think all our running backs are really…they’ve got that mindset right now where they’re not looking to go down, they’re looking to stay up and break tackles and get more yards, and they’re protecting the football.

“It’s all really good, from De’Veon to Ty Isaac…Derrick Green is running really hard; love the way he’s running, especially in short yardage and goal line situations. Drake Johnson is, you know, he’s hungry. Ross Douglas is- I know they all want the ball more because they’ve told me they want the ball more, but you can see the way they’re telling us they want the ball more when they get the ball, and that really speaks the loudest. Speaks volumes when you have your backs running like that, so yeah, it’s good.

“I think the news will be good on De’Veon. X-Rays were negative so far, so I think it’ll be good.”

They always say that the most improvement takes place from week one to week two, but can you get a feel for how much improvement this team has made from the start of that Utah game to where we are now after four games?

“Uh…no, not necessarily. It’s a good cliché. It’s been used a lot. I believe it, but see if we can’t get better each week, and we did that today. Got the win, and I think we improved as a team so…I don’t even know what the question was. What was the question?”

I was just asking, do you have a feel for how much-

“Oh, how much. Can’t really gauge that so much. Think starting to- getting to feel like we’re starting to know this team, and what stands out the most is they like to work. They like to work during the week; they like to work on Monday, they compete on Monday, they compete on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, and even Friday the hay’s not in the barn. It’s a good team to coach like that, because they come out and work every day.”

Pretty big week for Amara Darboh. Did you get a good look at his catch in the first quarter?

“Yeah, I got a good look at it. Another nice wrinkle Jedd Fisch put in. Jedd had a big day today. He created a little dump pass to the tight end. That was his idea, the touchdown pass. The touchdown pass was a nice wrinkle by Jedd. Feeling really good about our assistant coaches right now [and] the job all of them are doing. And, uh…but anyway.

“Back to Amara. Incredible week. He talked to the team Wednesday night before his swearing in on Thursday. The team was just so supportive of him, and had some hamburgers. Had a little party for him Thursday night. There was some ‘USA’ chants in the locker room today. He did get a game ball and broke the team down on ‘USA’ on Wednesday. It’s been a neat three days, four days. And he’s so good because he’s a do-stuff-right guy all the time.

“Having a chance to be around Amara, it meant so much to him. The picture David Turnley got of Amara with the 90 year old lady in Detroit…that’s powerful. It speaks volumes about how fortunate we all are and how much gratitude he has. I mean, somebody asked [and] I know he just felt he had an attitude of gratitude about it. Great thing. Great story, and everybody on our team appreciates Amara and has a great love for him. It’s good. Good stuff. So good.”

A brief question: in one word, how would you describe your team’s execution today?

“Good.”

/room laughs

“You said one word.”

Back to Amara’s catch, Dan Dierdorf said it’s one of the greatest catches in Michigan football history. You’ve seen a lot of great catches- and it’s not hyperbole, he threw that in as a qualifier.

“Ohhh, the one down the sideline!”

Yeah, the one down the sideline.

“Okay, I thought you were talking about the touchdown catch. Touchdown catch was a heck of a catch, a little behind him and Jake put it in a good spot. Yeah the one-handed catch down the sideline was a great catch. I don’t know if you can compare it to all the- had a lot of great catches. That was a great catch, yeah. Think there were some other great ones too, but that was a great one.

“That got us going, too. That was a timely, timely play here. Nice to see our guys out having fun like that. It was good.”

On your defensive line you had a lot of players coming back from last year with experience, but did you know what you had in this defensive line and secondary especially, and is it developing almost ahead of timetable the last three weeks?

“Um…it’s going good. Weren’t not, I mean, we’re not getting out in front of our headlights and all patting ourselves on the back yet. You know, just…but it’s been good.

“Felt like the secondary’s really been coming on. They’re playing with so much more confidence. Stribling; Clark, who was moved from safety to corner; Jabrill Peppers is a phenomenal player; Jarrod Wilson is a terrific player and leader; and Delano Hill is an outstanding payer; Jourdan Lewis is as competitive and as good as you’d want to find. Really, really, really a lot of talent. They’re playing really well together. You know, it’s competitive, but it’s not self-centered at all. Michael Zordich and Greg Jackson both doing a great job coaching them in she secondary. DJ Durkin, Greg Mattison; can’t have better coaches. So, they could probably answer that question better.

“But they’re just, they’re playing good as a team, and individually. I mean, they want to make plays and have a good game. I don’t know about on schedule, ahead of schedule; it’s been good. It’s a little early to start patting ourselves on the back too much. Just come back and start working again. Get ready for the Michigan Mile on Monday and get ready to compete again. Our week is really starting to- we’ve got battle rhythm right now, and if our team will just keep doing what we’re doing- and it’s great preparation during the week and competition- it’s coming. It’s coming together. Yeah.”

You mentioned you’re starting to get to know your team. What are you looking to learn next?

“Next? I don’t know what you see next. I mean, I just…yeah, you come to a point where you feel you start to know your team. You know they like to work. You know they like to compete. You know they don’t mind doing the dirty work, you know. They enjoy each other’s company. When you start getting at it, I don’t know what you put in that next- maybe the sky’s the limit. Who knows; you don’t know. Just move on with a humble heart and keep grinding, so, you know, what’s next is Maryland and we’ve got to have a heck of a good week of preparation but yeah, I’m starting to know our team and I’m liking what I’m knowing.”

You challenged them after weeks one and two to be more physical, play more physical. They seemed to take another step today. How close are they to realizing your vision in that area?

“Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t…get ready for Monday. Uh…”

Are they being more-

“They’re improving, yeah. They’re doing good. They’re doing good.”

Contact courage?

“Contact courage. It’s a good thing.”

Your quarterback has taken a lot of flack over the last few weeks. He looked great during the first half. Is this what you envision, and would you describe this as him showing you what he can do or more the team coming together and executing as you’d like?

“Both. Both things. He’s already showed me enough. I don’t know who you’re referring to or who- he wasn’t taking any flack from me. I think he’s been doing a good job, so, uh…thought he played very well today. He’s seeing things, he’s having fun, he’s letting it rip. That’s all I ask him to do, and then play good team football, winning football. He knows his job and he’s doing it well.”

Defense: no points in 10 of the last 12 quarters. You guys have given up no points in 10 of the last 12 quarters. Just your thoughts on that. I know you talked a lot about DJ [Durkin] and the defense earlier, but just your thoughts on a 31-0 shutout and being two drives away from possibly three consecutive shutouts.

“Uh, it’s good. I think it’s good. Doing a good job.”