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Jake Butt and Jabrill Peppers

Jabrill, you’ve been close several times. What did it feel like to get across finally?

“It’s undescribable. Man, I think I just laid there. I was like, finally, man. The guys did a great job of getting me a crease. They trust me enough to hit what I see and make something happen and that’s what I did.”

For both of you guys, level of concern when it was 21-7 early on?

Peppers: “We’ve been down before. There was no level of panic. It was just like a little adversity. That’s the biggest measurement of a team, how you bounce back when things aren’t going your way. We just had to dig deep and get back to our roots, start tackling better, you know, covering a little better and getting pressure on the quarterback.”

Butt: “We weren’t worried. We weren’t worried. We actually talked about it last night as a team. We knew the first two games we were really never punched in the face, everything was going so smoothly. It’s not going to be a fairytale the whole entire season. There was going to come a point in time where we were going to get punched in the face, where we were going to get backed in a corner and, you know, playing with these guys we bounced back when we were backed into that corner. We fought back and we stuck together and rode that wave and were good enough to get it done.”

Jake, having been backed into a corner, what was the conversation like with you guys on the field and in the huddle during that time when it looked like Colorado had a big advantage?

Butt: “Me personally, I was just trying to go up to guys like, Look, all it takes is one play. We just need a spark. We got that punt block and then they responded again, but we fought back again. We just kept punching back. We kept telling these older guys, this group of seniors and our playmakers, Look, we just need to start making plays. Toward the end of the half that’s exactly what we did, and then I think that a huge play was Darboh going in and punching that screen pass in to give us momentum going into the second half. The defense tightened up and they played a hell of a game down the stretch, too.”

Wilton had a shaky start. It seemed like once he started finding rhythm he was dumping the ball off to you. Seemed like he was getting a little bit of stability there. What did you notice about his comfort level throughout the game?

Butt: “Yeah, it’s Wilton, it’s the coaches, it’s the O-line. It’s never a one-man job. And again, yeah, we did have a shaky start. Again, they were making it really hard to run the ball. They were run blitzing us, loading the box up and the coaches adjusted. They started calling little dump off plays to get into rhythm. Guys were making plays, helping him get comfortable. We had a little package in there where we got some yardage with Pep and McDoom. We just kept making plays down the stretch. That’s all that really matters.”

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Jabrill, can you talk about giving up another big play? Two straight weeks; is that something you guys definitely need to work on in the Big Ten season?

“Oh, absolutely. We definitely have to get the big plays corrected, but the best part about it is they’re things we all can correct. It’s not like they were just flat out beating us. It’s—everything can be coached up and corrected. We took a couple lumps today, but at the end of the day when we go back and watch the tape, we know those big plays don’t happen if we spin to the deep middle. First touchdown was my fault, actually; I didn’t spin fast enough. And just eye discipline. That’s really it. It wasn’t that they were just flat out better than us on those plays. It’s all things we can correct.”

Did Colorado surprise you at all when they came out in the first quarter, maybe in scheme or size or speed or any way?

Butt: “I don’t know that they surprised us. We knew that they were a good team. They had the no. 1—I think it was the no. 1 ranked defense nationally. We knew it was gonna be a challenge. We knew they had some playmakers on offense and they were gonna do some things on special teams. It didn’t really surprise us, but, again, it goes back to there’s going to come a point in time where things aren’t gonna go well. That’s exactly what was happening to us. It seemed like nothing was clicking early on. We just found a way. It wasn’t pretty, but it was good enough to get the job done. That’s just the name of the game.”

This is the first game Tom Brady’s ever been back to the Big House. What did it mean to you guys and to the team to have him come back and just be involved in everything?

Peppers: “Whenever you have one of the greats come back and talk to you it definitely gives you a boost. We definitely felt what he told us in the locker room, it definitely honed in with us and we just tried to go out there and play our best. Started out a little sluggish, but like they always say, man, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish and when it came down to it, we toughened up and dug out a victory.”

I’m wondering about your level of exhaustion with how many plays you played, and for you, Jabrill, do you know how many you played and how can you keep that pace up?

Peppers: “Oh, you know, just treatment. Our strength and training staff does a great job with us getting our bodies back. As far as our nutrition, keeping us up to par. I don’t really think about it as how many plays I played. I’m just doing whatever I’ve got to do to help us win the game. I think that goes for both of us.”

Butt: “Yeah, we were just talking about out there, we were so happy it was such a hot summer, hot camp. Our strength coach was pushing us to our limit all summer in conditioning. You know the story with Coach Harbaugh and how he does camps. He’s going to push us to our limit and then some. In a game like today it pays off. Honestly, you’re going to get tired in games like this, especially when our numbers are being called upon so much. But all that matters is winning and getting the job done. Whether you’re tired or not, you just find a way.”

Peppers: “When you’re tired, it’s just, ‘What do I gotta do, Coach, to get this W?’ Especially when you’re down. You don’t even think about being tired when you’re down. You’re just thinking about what I’ve gotta do to get this win. Dig deep. That’s why you fill your well in camp, so when it’s time to go back in that well and pull something out, if you haven’t filled that well the way you’re supposed to there’ll be nothing there. Luckily we were pushed to limits that we couldn’t even imagine and we dug deep and pulled out the victory.”

Jabrill, you mentioned earlier in the season getting caught by the Minnesota kicker. Take me through this run and was it a sense of relief just finally getting that touchdown?

“It was definitely a sense of relief. Man, you know, I felt like a couple of those punts I could have had. I definitely could have taken one back. They were a great tackling team. They were shooting the hip and wrapping up, but when you get a line drive and great blocking, man, if you don’t score then they gotta put somebody else back there. So that’s just how I felt, man. The hole was wide open. They leave it upon me to make a couple guys miss and I felt as though I did that. I started cramping about the five but I was like there’s no way I’m not getting in this time. I was tired of just being an ‘almost’ kind of guy, so it definitely felt good to finally punch one in.”

Jake, what was it like to walk out there with Brady as honorary captain? Was it a little bit surreal, and were there any nerves at the beginning of the game knowing he was watching so close?

Butt: “It was special. I went and shook his hand in the locker room before. You could just kind of feel his presence and you could look in his eyes and know. You could just tell, the way he carries himself, why he’s one of the greatest of all time. It’s special. It’s special to be a captain here already, but the lineup we’ve had with honorary captains going on, it just shows why Michigan’s such a great place.

“As far as the nerves go, not really. We weren’t really nervous because Brady was in attendance. You’re out on the field, you’re not really worried about who’s watching what of who’s doing what. You’re just focused on doing your job.”

Jabrill, do you have like a pitch limit, so to speak? Like a number of plays where you just can’t go any further, and do you know how many plays you ran today?

“There’s no pitch limit or whatever that you said. Practice is harder than the games because I’m bouncing around so much. I take practice as almost conditioning, so when I get out here things just slow down for me. I get little breaks when the offense is out there, the special teams units that I’m not on as opposed to in practice I don’t get those breaks. The level of exhaustion at practice is definitely greater than the games, in my opinion.”

Jake, you guys sort of touched on it earlier about the fairy tale season [narrative]. Did you guys need a game like this, a sort of kick-in-the-pants type of game?

Butt: “To be honest, I think we did. I really do think we did, because it’s only going to get tougher from here. Honestly, this was not our best week of practice. It really wasn’t, and one thing we stress all the time is you’re going to play how you practice and prepare. And it really wasn’t our best week of practice, but we found a way to get it done.

“We can look back and learn from this. If we want to be the best team in the country or one of the best teams in the country, we’ve got to practice like it, we’ve got to play like it, we’ve got to prepare like it and execute like it. So it wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t our best game by any means. It was good enough to get the job done, and thankfully we can go back and make the corrections knowing that we won this game.”

Peppers: “Absolutely. From the defensive standpoint, we definitely need that as a defense because the first two games, we definitely beat them up pretty bad on the defensive side of the ball early on. They came out here ready to go.

“You said, were we shocked? We weren’t shocked but we were just surprised how ready those guys were. They didn’t waste any time. They opened up the bag of tricks right bright and early. But, you know, like I said before, the measurement of a defense is how you respond to adversity. We dug deep. Guys made great plays at crucial times in the game. Special teams played a big part again in this game. We got a blocked punt for a touchdown and I definitely think that was the turning point of the game.”