[Fuller/MGoBlog]

News bullets and other items:

• There’s a chance Jourdan Lewis, Taco Charlton, and Bryan Mone play this week. As Harbaugh said, they might “graduate from the training room back onto the field.”
• Peppers is unlike anyone Harbaugh’s ever coached. He’s played 11 positions at Michigan, and Harbaugh said there are more that he could play well.
• Speight’s elbow was injured on the strip-sack early in the game, which was a result of a missed assignment. This raised Speight a rung in the team’s esteem because he walked it off and, as Harbaugh put it, “…this isn’t track, this is football and playing that quarterback position, that’s part of the game.”
• Harbaugh’s wife’s doctor described the punt block that was returned for a TD as a slippery watermelon. The ultrasound went well, by the way.
• Harbaugh loves his defense so much that sometimes he watches them play even when he feels like he should be preparing for the next drive

I wanted to talk to you first about Michael Jocz and what he’s bringing to special teams—I know he had a block in the last game—and also what he does in the classroom.

“He had his first catch last week. It was great to see. And he had a blocked punt this week that resulted in a touchdown—great to see. He’s consistently been our, second year in a row, smartest player on the team in terms of grade point average. He’s already graduated in mechanical engineering and he’s on track to do his master’s in one year instead of the normal two, so he’s cutting that in half. He’s really been figuring things out, as you’d expect from a mechanical engineer. Great teammate. Really happy for his on-field success now, as well.”

And then also Erik Magnuson, if you could assess his play through three games and also the spirit he brings to you team.

“Yeah, Mags is good in both of those regards. Has long brought a lot to our team. He’s probably been our most consistent, best pass protector so far. Likeable guy. Everybody likes Mags. He’s a good leader and a good guy. A genuine, down to earth, good person.”

Two turnovers through the nonconference, only 10 penalties—can you assess the job you feel like your team has done in those areas?

“Those two areas have been good. We’re getting…turnover margin has got to be on the plus side. Don’t know exactly what it is, but we’re on the plus there. I feel like we’re playing—we had a few penalties. More this past week than we have had, so I think we’re playing good, legit penalty-free for the most part football.

[Next person with the microphone thinks it’s their turn to ask, but alas, there’s more. Harbaugh’s taken this pause to reflect and wants to share his thoughts.]

“See, I don’t just give one word answers. That would have been a perfect time to just say, ‘We’ve been good in those two areas.’ I tried to elaborate. I hope to get some credit for that.”

[After THE JUMP: many multi-word answers]

On special teams, do you track deflections because your totals don’t show some of the deflections you’ve done, and also are you maybe forcing teams to now do different gameplanning? The splits that Colorado had on one punt was different. How much of an asset is special teams--

“What deflections are you talking about, PBUs or punt blocks?’

You get your hands on a punt and it goes 10 yards, that’s not a block. There have been some of those. Do you track those in practice or games?

“I know we’ve got three. Three deflections, right? They don’t count as blocks. That’s predicated on whether it goes over the line of scrimmage or not.”

Special teams is becoming--

“They can track everything else statistically. That seems like something that would be a good thing to track.”

And then how special teams so far has become an asset maybe other than the field goal attempts in the last game.

“Yeah. You set out to win two out of three phases in a football game—offense, defense, and special teams being the three phases. You’d like to win all three, but if you can win two out of three, usually in a football contest you’ll win the game. Special teams have contributed greatly. Was our best unit this past game.”

What do you like about your defense after three games and where do you feel you still have to improve?

“Just like our defense in all regards. We’ve gotten hit by a few post patterns. The post-corner-post move got us this past week. Just the big plays we’ve given up—given up some big plays but very pleased with how our defense is playing. Defense has generated big plays, big hits, momentum-changing drive stops, turnovers, and I think our defense is doing extremely well.

“I love watching them. I love watching, standing over there. There’s times where I should be thinking about what to do on the next series but I like watching our guys play. They’re really—I like the way our defense is running to the football and the way they’re flying around and hitting. It’s a fun unit to watch.”

You’ve encouraged guys always to be two-way players or three-way players if possible, but Jabrill being both a linebacker and a return man seems pretty unique. Over all your years either as a player [or a coach], have you seen someone with that combination? It seems pretty unusual.

“I suppose. I can’t think of another player like Jabrill.I know there’s not another player I’ve coached like him. The unique thing is all the positions. If you start counting them, it’d be safety, it’d be corner, it’d be nickel, it would be outside linebacker, it would be slot receiver, it would be wildcat quarterback, running back, kick returner, punt returner, gunner, hold-up. That’s 11 or 12 right there, and I know there’s others he could do and do well, but those are all the things he’s done already here for us. And that being said, he’s done them all well. And also, that being said, there’s other positions he could do and be good at.

“Yeah, he’s a special, special type of athlete. Special type of football player. Happy for his success this past game. He was our defensive player of the game and he was our special teams player of the game. Also, he was the Big Ten special teams player of the week and defensive player of the week, and deservedly so. Rare. Special.”

With Shane entering the game, what was the logic to having Shane in there so early?

“It was just to—I think people expected we might rotate quarterbacks the first game and we didn’t, or the second game. So didn’t think they’d expect it as much the third game. Wanted—there’s some things that Shane does well and some things John O’Korn does well and we wanted to highlight them and get them to do some of those things. We always have those options going forward, and it’s good for your opponent to know you have those options going forward. Want them to think that all things are possible.”

How is preparing for a Big Ten opener any different, if at all? Is there a different type of energy, a different type of enthusiasm, a different type of feel at all when you prep for a conference opener?

“The way we’ve looked at it, we were out to be at our best every single week. As we assess the schedule from the start of the schedule, every opponent that we play was going to have to be treated with the utmost respect. Preparation was going to have to be precise and locked in and focused to give ourselves the best chance to be successful in the football game. So that’s the way we’ve treated game one, game two, game three, game four now and then we’re going to have to treat every team on our schedule with that kind of respect. As a big game, as a championship game. That’s how we’ve been going about it. Every game is a big game. Every game is a championship game.”

Grant [Perry], on the punt block touchdown, he was actually about 35 yards down the field from when that ball was blocked, then to come back and get it—and on Darboh’s touchdown he had two and a half blocks, maybe. Can you just talk about how important he’s become for this team. Seems like he’s making a lot of big plays that maybe we don’t see, but he’s there doing it.

“Yeah, you know, it comes to mind because my wife, Sarah, we had our doctor’s appointment this morning and our doctor, Deb Berman, did the long appointment, the hour ultrasound. Proud to report everything is hitting right down the middle of the strike zone, but she was talking about that play and she called it the slippery watermelon. I thought that was really good, so I’m kind of still laughing to myself about the way she phrased it. The ball was loose, a lot of people had their hands on it—it was kind of a slippery watermelon. By the time Grant got there, it was still loose and he picked it up and put it in the end zone.

“If your special teams can score a touchdown for you or your defense can, those are huge plays in the ballgame. We’ve gotten that in a couple different ballgames now. Special teams put up 14 points. Special teams put up 14 points in that ballgame. That’s outstanding. Really proud of our guys, players and our coaches, that are just doing a fantastic job on special teams. You hope to count on that now weekly as a weapon. Now, you’re not going to get 14 points a game, but they’re really playing well—coverage units, return units, and we’ve been kicking the ball really well. This game we were a little out of sync kicking the ball, but I think we’ll get that improved this week.”

I saw you had Jourdan warm up again Saturday. Was that a game-time thing for you to hold him out, or is he close?

“We knew he wouldn’t be playing this past ballgame, but hopeful that he’ll play this week.”

Zordich said that maybe he was a little frustrated last week, Jourdan, because he’d worked so hard this offseason? What are you sensing from him? We know he’s a pretty levelheaded kid, but mood-wise, how’s he been through all this?

“Just personally, I’ve found that the only time football isn’t fun is if you don’t win and also if you’re just not 100%, and it’s not—if it was a broken leg that’s one thing, [or] a broken arm. It’s just bad luck and you’re out, but when it’s that thing that’s just, that nagging thing that you’re dealing with, it’s not something that’s broken but it’s just as real.

“He’s doing a fantastic job. The guy’s been a stud. Jourdan’s been a real stud in everything that he’s done, every preparation he’s made in the offseason and everything that he’s doing now to put himself in a position to have success. It’s all been A++, and very hopeful that this is the week that he can get back there out on the field and play, reap some of the rewards of all that hard work he’s put in.”

What have you noticed chemistry-wise between the offensive line and Wilton, and even kind of going with that lot of experience, he seems to know what he’s doing, does a good job there. What have you noticed in the chemistry between those guys?

“I think it’s been good. I think they work well together. Sorry, not every answer’s a great one, I guess.” [laughs]

Is there anything specific?

“No. I mean, chemistry, that’s such a hard thing to define, really. I think that’s an easier question to ask than to answer. They get along good.”

What would be a better way to ask that question?

“I think they get along good. They do their jobs and they have mutual respect for each other. It’s good.”

Is it good to see a guy with such veteran leadership—Erik’s a fifth-year guy and the line, what does he mean to the offensive line? How much does he help that quarterback relationship, having an experienced guy like that?

“Uh…I think it’s mutually beneficial for them. It’s good that the quarterback, the new starting quarterback, has a veteran offensive line, and it’s good for the offensive line that they’ve got a quarterback who, though he hasn’t had a lot of game experience, is more mature beyond his game experience. [smirks]. We get that one? Got it?”

Got it.

Penn State has changed to a no-huddle spread and they’re not completely dissimilar from Colorado and UCF—they don’t option as much, I don’t think. I wonder if that puts extra pressure on your defense by having to change stuff up so that you show somewhat different looks, or do you just try to execute the things you’re trying to execute and it doesn’t much matter?

“I mean, those are real options for us to change things up. You like to do that. You don’t like to just come out and show the same alignment, assignments, and techniques game after game after game. You can count on changes, adjustments being made. It’s a good system—the no-huddle system’s a very good system, and it’s got its pros and cons.

“Penn State’s offense, they’ve got a very good quarterback, they’ve got a very good running back, they’ve got very good players that I think are very good for that system so it’s another challenge for us and why we treat every game like it’s a championship game. It’s a big game. Every opponent on our schedule comes in with a strong will to defeat us and good coaching and good players.”

Some of your players last week mentioned that you encouraged them to be conscious, at least, of the rankings and the fact that they were in the top five and wanted to get higher. I’d guess that’s probably different than a lot of head coaches’ approaches, that they’d want guys to ignore that type of thing. What’s your philosophy on [inaudible, but I think you get the drift]?

“Yeah, we’re--we’re trying to see how high we can climb, how far we can go. Striving to be the best.”

You mentioned earlier showing them the Shane Morris package there right out of the gate. You said you liked that to let them know that everything is on the table. Explain that philosophy as opposed to maybe the element of surprise, to make them think a little bit more ‘Oh shoot, they might do anything on us.’ Is that kind of what you were going for there, as opposed to just throwing something at them to make them think?

“It was…I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. It is the element of surprise to put a different quarterback in the game. And I think it is a good thing to also let your opponent know that there are a lot of plays that are options. I don’t know what else to say about it.”

Does that make them think a little more, in your eyes?

“I don’t know. Why don’t you think on that and let me know. That’s all I got.”

You talked about the joy of seeing Wilton work through that first interception. What did you take from his performance Saturday where he clearly had an elbow issue, and how is the elbow?

“Yeah, that was…impressive. He got hit. He got hit hard, and we missed a protection. Not him, not Wilton. The other guys missed their assignment and he took the brunt of it. But, you know, got up and there wasn’t any crying victim. There wasn’t any grabbing of body parts. He walked it off like a tough guy and kept playing. Never said anything about coming out. I asked him after the play how he felt and he said he was good and trotted right back out there like tough guys do.

“As we went through the game you could tell he wasn’t 100%, but this isn’t track, this is football and playing the quarterback position, that’s part of the game. Thought he showed a lot to his teammates. It’s another rung you grab and raise yourself up in the respect of others. That was his opportunity to do it and he did it. Yeah, he goes up another rung in our esteem.”

Anything on Taco [Charlton] and Bryan [Mone]?

“No. Getting better, though. Getting better.”

You expect them to play this week?

“Could be. Could be graduating this week back out of the training room and onto the field. We’ll see. We’ll hope. Again, we talk here on these Mondays and haven’t seen them practice yet.”