[Barron/MGoBlog]

If you listened to The Michigan Insider Tuesday morning you heard them run interviews with some of Michigan’s assistant coaches, including Don Brown. We thought you, our beloved readers, might like reading a transcript of what coach Brown had to say. When you finish reading you should head to The Michigan Insider’s channel on Audioboom and listen to the rest of what Sam and Ira discussed. After all, the cool people like it.

What are your impressions of Jabrill Peppers, and talk about the various ways you can line him up and use him as a linebacker/defensive back.

“Great job, that’s what we’re going to do. Talented guy, very fast. He can get from point A to point B very efficiently. Extremely intelligent football player. Has a knack for handling concepts, so, you know, I said it in the spring and I’ll just continue to say it: we’re going to give this guy a lot to do. He’s going to have different jobs based on the package. And calling him a linebacker’s probably not fair. Calling him a hybrid’s probably not fair, because we’ll ask him to do a lot of stuff. That’s the beauty of guys like him, you know. You have to set them and they give you a unique ability to cover from the linebacker position and you don’t have to substitute.”

Coming in new to this defense, how big of an advantage is it to have a defensive line with some experience and depth because I imagine it all starts there?

“Always does. You know, first off, really excited to work with coach Mattison. He does such a great job with the guys. Great football coach. But we feel like we’re going to be, with Glasgow getting back in the mix and maybe some of the guys that we brought in, we’re going to let it play out but we should be eight to nine guys deep, which certainly allows rotation. It allows guys to play fast, be fresh, and take advantage of every repetition. If they’re knocking those guys back, that’s a good thing. It certainly will help with breaking in virtually a brand new linebacker corps right across the board. So that helps. It really does.”

Do you have concerns with that? That seems to be the question with everyone as far as the linebackers--

“No, not really.”

You like the guys you have?

“I like the guys I have. Obviously we’ve talked about Jabrill. Noah Furbush is working at the Sam position as well and, you know, he’s 238 pounds running a 4.5, too. That’s a pretty good thing. He’s just not—he’s not a household name, but, you know, I feel good about him. Ben Gedeon has played some. You know, his role has definitely changed because now he’s the guy. It’s his show. He’s got to run it. We’re excited about him. Mike McCray, again…I’ll knock on my head, I guess, for wood. Let’s keep him healthy. I think he’s a very, very good football player. And I can comment on Devin Bush because he was with me in the spring. Feel like I’ve got a pair and a spare, and hopefully that just grows with the development of the guys that we have here.

“I like Wroblewski. We moved him to Mike backer about practice six, and that ‘s a hard deal. You get about nine or 10 workouts of playing Mike backer, but I see him significantly growing throughout camp and hopefully Elysee Mbem-Bosse and Josh Uche and Devin Gil and those guys will just…they’ll have great modeling because the guys in front of them know what they’re doing, so that’s a beautiful thing. And we’ll see if we can get a couple of those guys in the mix and get them going at least in some of our packages.”

You talked about the linebacker corps. How important is it for them to have the secondary that you guys have?

“Unbelievable. You know, the first thing that we talk about on the back end [is] you better get your hands dirty in the run game now. It’s not those guys up front have the run and us guys back here have the pass. It’s an 11-man deal, and they have gaps to fit, run places to fit, and I see a willing group, so that’s important. But again, when you can lean on a veteran secondary that can play coverage one-on-one, defend ‘em one on one it allows you to be extremely multiple with what you’re going to do to kind of occupy the quarterback’s attention.”

[After THE JUMP: “If I tell ya, I have to take ya out.”]

So speaking of coverage, is there going to be more man this year?

“If I tell ya, I have to take ya out. Just have to wait and see, but we’ll have both components. We’ll have some zone components and then we’ll have man-to-man components, and I see us playing them both.”

With Jabrill, obviously that was an idea that you had and you’ve used guys his size at that spot but those guys haven’t moved around the field necessarily like he could as well to other positions, right? Does that kind of make it a unique situation?

“Eh, not totally true but in some respects. Milano was a safety, the kid I had a year ago that had great numbers. He started out as a down safety.”

But through the season didn’t he move from linebacker--

“Uh, no. We full-timed him. But he started as a safety and played it a whole year, so we could do some things with him. The nice thing with Jabrill is he can do a lot of stuff. You know, he’s done it. He’s played in man coverage out at the corner position. He’s played some safety. He digests information extremely well. Extremely efficient. Can get from point A to point B fast, and he’s got a demeanor and a degree of toughness where he’ll get his nose dirty in the run game.”

Did you guys get everything installed in spring or is there still more to do?

“Oh no. No. What we did is we covered each concept. We got a lot left. I mean, a lot of patterns and stuff left to do, but each concept with the exception of one is basically in.”

So you have the frame of…

“Yeah. In other words, they’ll be able to call on, you know, a specific concept because it’s similar. Maybe different guys doing it, different guys involved in the rush, that kind of a scenario, but the concept they’ll be able to draw on because the minute we start talking termitnology and how we go about playing individual techniques they’re all the same.”

What are your early impressions of Rashan Gary?

“Great kid. Hard worker. Has leadership qualities. You know, big, good looking, impressive guy. Works extremely hard. There’s nothing negative there, no.”

So is there an expectation he’s going to see the field early here in his career?

“We’ll have to see. He’ll have to earn it just like everybody else. But we’re excited about his potential for sure.”

He’s 287 on the list. Is that--

“Yeah. That’s about right.”

So is that an end because of his speed or…?

“You could…you’ll see him out at the end. That’s where we’ll put him. We like to put him over those tight ends and see how many of those tight ends enjoy blocking him because that may be a treat, you know, watching that happen.”

Is it—I don’t want to say easier because maybe that’s demeaning, but as a freshman to learn on the defensive line is it easier I guess to start on the outside compared to the inside or is there a difference in terms of information?

“I think it’s tougher because there’s more jobs. You know, there’s more reactions. They got to deal with the zone read. They got to deal with arc schemes and now they’re trying to get kicked out by guards and, you know, pulling tight ends in some of the spread run stuff. You know, we’ll get him his work. He’ll be good.”

You’ve coached a lot of defenses in your career. How does this potentially rank with some of the ones you’ve had in the past?

“I mean, spring-wise—and again, that’s what I’m going off of—I just liked our energy. I liked our leadership. I liked our approach, and we’re very athletic. I think our defensive line and secondary have guys that are proven, and linebacker-wise we’ve got to do our part to complement both the run and the pass, so I’m excited. I think it’s a great group. Been having a blast with ‘em since spring, you know. Anxious to get on that field tomorrow and pick up and let’s go. No one rises to low expectations and there’s certainly expectations, and I think that’s exciting. Good thing.”

With Lewis, Stribling, and Clark, is that sort of like the pecking order for the corners? Are there guys pushing behind them to see the field?

“We’ll see. We’ve got young guys behind them. Brandon Watson is another name that practiced in the spring that can do some things. We’ve got the two young rookies, David Long and Lavert Hill, so we’ll see how that all plays out. But having three guys that are all capable of playing and are really interchangeable parts—beautiful thing. Beautiful thing.”

How much of a luxury is it to have a guy like Jourdan Lewis who you can just throw out on the other team’s best receiver play in and play out?

“Guy’s a Dude. He can play. He can cover. He’s a great human being. Very excited about him. He’s a guy that lends of himself to his teammates. He’s got those guys movin’ and groovin’ in a positive way back there. It’s nice when one of your best players is also a tremendous technician.”

The depth of your defensive line: how deep is it? Seven guys? Eight guys?

“We think we’re going to be eight, possibly nine, which is a beautiful thing. So keep those guys fresh and keep coming at ‘em, we’ll have our own form of no huddle to keep it going.”

Jim sings your praises every chance he gets. What’s it like working with him?

“Outstanding. Tremendous, tremendously creative. You better keep your feet moving because things…we’re on the cutting edge with how we go about practicing and approaching. He’s got tremendous juice which provides leadership for our entire coaching staff. Unbelievable.”