[even his wardrobe has a constraint play]

How do you keep your team from listening too much to all the good things they’ve heard about themselves in the last 48 hours?

“Outstanding game, congratulations, and hard work.”

Jabrill doesn’t play a traditional safety position, and he doesn’t play a traditional cornerback position. Why is that spot that you guys have him at best for him and best for you guys?

“Uh, well, it’s a nickel position. Takes an athlete who’s physical but has the ability to cover receivers in the slot. Can also contribute in the running game. Usually somebody who’s a really good corner and a good safety is ideal for that position. I mean, pretty much every team has that position so no, not inventing anything. It’s looked at as a starting position by just about every defense that plays football.”

You were optimistic about De’Veon’s health the other day. Are you still optimistic? Do you have an updated on De’Veon?

“Yeah, he’s gonna be sore. He’ll be working through the soreness.”

Is it a questionable situation for him Saturday?

“I don’t think we have to do that in college football, do we?”

What’s the diagnosis?

“He’s got something he’s working through.”

Is he still in the boot?

“I haven’t seen him today.”

[After THE JUMP: Philosophizing on polls, talking contact courage, and do fourth and longs exist in Australia?]

Last week you talked about Kyle Kalis and how he’s playing. How’d he grade out this week, and touch on how he’s done overall this season; where he’s come from when you first saw him until now.

“Better, better, and better. Yeah, he’s really on his assignments. He’s playing with better and better pad level, picking the right fits. He’s done good.

“Mason Cole’s another who played really well in this game. Good to see his progression throughout.”

Did Mason grade out the highest of the linemen?

“Yeah, he did good.”

Just curious, after Saturday what were some of your conversations like with Jake [Rudock]? Zero turnovers, 194 passing yards- what did you talk to him about this past weekend after the win?

“Um…mostly just we’re happy we could win. You talking about in the locker room?”

Yeah.

“‘Congratulations.’”

Just, with the zero turnovers and obviously 31-0 win, did you—any specific conversations about ‘Hey, you did this well’?

“Coaching-wise? No. No, the players were off yesterday and they’ll be coming in today for film review, so we’ll have a chance to do that later today.”

Saturday night?

“No, no. Players are off. There’re no meetings Saturday night or Sunday.”

What do you like about your fullbacks? Obviously they’ve had a pretty big involvement in the offense, and that’s something Michigan fans have not seen the past couple of years.

“They’re doing a good job securing the football, they’ve been running the ball, they’ve had carries, good tough yards, picked up short yardage situations for us, and also bled out some good yardage carries—four, five, six, seven, even eight. They’ve blocked extremely well, and they’re contributing catching the ball out of the backfield.

“Both Joe Kerridge and Sione Houma, Henry Poggi we put in that category. Wish I would have used Bobby Henderson in the game this past week. He’s doing a nice job. I think he’ll be able to contribute as well.”

You guys have 11 touchdowns on 14 trips to the red zone this year. What’s been the key to getting that part of the offense going?

“Good execution in the red zone.”

How important is it to have that to get this offense where it needs to be?

“Yeah, very important.”

Can you talk about Maurice Ways? We’ve seen a bit more of him lately. What has he done to put himself in that position?

“Yeah, there’s a good question. Moe is really asserting himself. I think he’s climbing the depth chart right now. He just- he’s showing up in the play. On the down, he is finding somebody to block. He is…most every time he’s done the right assignment. Maybe one or two errors the past game, but it’s getting good. But yeah, the way he’s blocking we’re really impressed with.

“Now, Jehu’s the best, Jehu Chesson is, uh…the effort and the aggressiveness he’s blocking with is the best of our receivers. You saw it on Jake Rudock’s touchdown. A real courage play, where he came back from running around, got into just effort to get a block to secure the touchdown for the quarterback. First two plays: one time he blocked the corner and blocked a safety, another where he had two cuts on the same play. Just real, real great effort plays by Jehu.

“And Moe is coming too. Darboh got in there a few times with real good blocks on the safeties, and that’s something for a wide receiver to come in and block a safety because those safeties are bigger, they’re stronger, they’re tougher than cornerbacks are and they’re the run supporters. I’m really pleased with that. I’m really pleased with the way our wide receivers are blocking right now. It’s been a real factor in the run game. And want to see more receivers doing it, but you can see our run game going when our receivers are blocking, especially when it’s Darboh, Chesson, and Moe Ways. When those guys aren’t in there we don’t run the ball as well. Coincidentally or not, they’re blocking better. And Moe is somebody who’s climbing fast because he’s doing a good job in that area.”

Looking forward to the coming up game against Maryland [and] opening up the Big Ten slate, any major points of emphasis as you head into conference play?

“Any major what?”

Points of emphasis.

“Oh, points of emphasis. Yeah, good week of preparation. Good week of…practice. We’re going to need it. This is a very good football team in all phases.

“High alert in the special teams. The coverage units are going to have to be great, both the kickoff coverage and the punt coverage. This return game that Maryland has is one of the best I’ve ever seen in college football, and so is their returner. It’s no secret, I’m just alerting everybody that we know. We know that they’re good, so great challenge for our coverage units this week. High alert.”

You had spoken a number of times last week about the size of BYU’s receivers and what a challenge they were given how physical they were. What did your secondary do to negate that?

“It was tight coverage. Thought they were anticipating well and using really good fundamentals and technique. Played well together as a unit.”

On Blake’s punt, how does that work? Is that your call, or is that something that Blake can read himself?

“Yeah, that was something that he could read himself.”

Obviously it didn’t work, but 4th and 16 seems like an unusual situation.

“I agree with you. I cannot disagree. I concur. I don’t- maybe they didn’t have 4th and 16s in Australia. We’re educating young Blake to..”

I was wondering, how do you go about filing your poll each week, and what do you make of rankings at this stage or at any point?

“I think they’re interesting. People have interest in them, therefore they’re interesting.”

You have to file one, though?

“Yeah, yeah.”

How do you go about that?

“Just go about it.”

Well, just, sometimes Dave helps.

“Just one of my duties.”

I didn’t know if you did them by yourself.

“Just one of my many duties. Just go about it.”

To go off of that one, you’re not a big rankings type of guy. You’re not about reading your own paper clippings. How important is that, though, that you got Michigan back on the poll? Got Michigan back on the radar. How does that make you feel about your progression here at Michigan?

“Well, the only relevant thing is onward to Maryland and the Big Ten season, the challenge we have ahead, proving we can win a road game; all those things are so much more relevant.”

You said a couple weeks ago you want to bring Drake Johnson along slowly to knock the rust off, things like that. Five carries these past two weeks, he’s looked pretty good. How close is he to being a guy you can give the ball to 10 or 15 times, like De’Veon?

“I think he’s ready to do that. There’s different parts of coming back from an injury. I mean, somebody comes back from an injury, they might be…just better than being able to walk around like a normal person; you want to compete in football. Then once they’re there then they can start participating in football. Then they have to be better than somebody who- there’s different stages to being all the way back.

“But no, all of our running backs would like to carry the ball more, and they’re stating their case every time they get the ball. It’s been good. They’ve been hungry for those reps, Drake included. I would say the same for De’Veon, Ty Isaac, Derrick Green, Ross Douglas, Drake Johnson; they’re all competing to be the guy carrying the ball. And then you’ve got to block. You’ve got to block when you don’t have the ball, and you’ve got to protect when it’s a pass so all those things factor in. Bodes well that they all want it and they have the chance to state their case.

“Just to answer your question, you’re not just going to say, ‘Hey, here’s 15 carries. There’s a bit of a process there.’”

In your estimation what does it take to win a road game? That’s something Michigan has struggled with over the past couple of years.

“Just being good. Being a good football team.”

Anything in particular?

“That’s the main thing. You asked what does it take, [and] I’d put that at the top of the list. By far.”

The past couple weeks offensively you guys have been talking about developing big plays. There were two 20-yard completions, a 40-yard completion, and De’Veon’s 60-yard touchdown run. Where is this offense at in terms of the big play capacity?

“It got better. It was nice to see. Real fine effort by De’Veon. Have you seen that play? It was…great block by Moe Ways. I mean, that was a touchdown block by Moe Ways, getting in and getting the safety. Then De’Veon kind of got- he was in the middle of a big scrum, a big pile and then when he popped out there was Moe Ways to get the touchdown block and off goes De’Veon. So what does it take? Team effort.

“Everybody doing their job and straining to stay on blocks, straining to stay in protection to give Jake Rudock the time to find Jake Butt on a nice route downfield. He was open, hits him with the ball and good hands by Jake, but it’s team effort. What does it take? That. I mean, those offensive linemen were straining up front and backs were blocking, and we had a nice play fake on the play, etc. That kind of precision will lead to big plays, and we definitely want them.”

To follow up,  I think Saturday you said you couldn't wait to watch De'Veon's run on tape, if I remember correctly. How many times have you watched that play?
“I said I couldn't wait to watch Jehu's block.”
Oh yeah. How many times of you watch that play?
“About three or four. Only takes a couple to see what I want to see. Great effort play by Jehu. Great contact courage. It's not like it was one of those where they don't see you coming. The defender saw Jehu coming and he still kept coming, and it was a good, hard collision and a very good contact courage play on both players' parts. Great effort played by Jehu to put himself in that position.

“You've got to understand, guys will assess pretty fast like you either go now from point A to point B and see how fast you can get there and make that block, or just a little bit of hesitation won't allow you to get there and nobody will even know it or not, but that was one of those plays where there was real contact courage. Just went and made a real hardy block. Just real happy to see that. And Darboh is doing the same thing, and Moe Ways is doing the same thing, at a higher level then most receivers you're ever going to find so really, really happy about that.”
Brian Cole and Dymonte [Thomas]: are those long-term injuries or are they just working through something?
“Yeah, two different things. Two different things.”

With having a night game after three straight noon games, do you have to change your preparation at all for that?
“Uh…not really. Not too much.”

Can I ask two since my last one went over so well?

“Which was your last question?”

About polls. I still want to know if you do your own.

“I thought I gave a good, professional answer on that one.”

I still don't know if you do it yourself, that's all. I just don't know if you actually sit there and – but that's not my question right now.

“Okay. Yeah, that was answered. We answered that one”

/smiles

If De’Veon isn’t able to play, would Ty be the starting tailback?

“I mean, I think we’ve thoroughly plowed that ground too. There’s a lot of players that are hungry to get carries, and multiple backs would.”
I understand, I was just wondering who would start. Sounds like it would be Ty then.

/furrows brow and stares

Okay, forget it.
“Well, no. I mean–”
No, forget it. I just wondered who would start, that's all.
“Two things, And number one is I'd love to have that information from the opposition each week: Who’s really going to start, what role are they going to be in, how are you going to use them, what will they be effective at. But we don't get that information, so why would we be in a position to give that information – I know you want it but I would want it to.

“And the other thing is really unless it's the quarterback we don't have any kind of who's the starter, who's not the starter. I understand completely people wanting to talk about the quarterback and understand that's a part of football, but when it comes to other-“

No right guard controversies.

“No right guard controversies. There's no who’s starting here or there.”

My last question is about this Michigan Mile. A couple of the guys have talked about it. What's your plan? Is that to reset the week? Is that how you approach the Michigan Mile? Every Monday, is that correct?

“I think it's a couple things. Number one, conditioning. Number two, just get the lactic acid out. Get the – make the body feel better. It's good to- what did you say? Reset?”

Reset.

“I think distance running does that. Kind of coordinate your whole mind, your body with some distance running.”

Do you run it?

“No, I don't. Of course, I didn't play a game. I don't have a whole lot of lactic acid buildup. But yeah, it's been good. It's been competitive. Pearson's been winning the last couple, and then today we've got a good idea. Think it'll make it more competitive. Kind of handicap it a little bit, let some of the bigger guys have a head start. I think that's the…what do you call it? Handicapping?”

Is what you're saying is that if we can get information from the opposition we can have a trade for that information?

“We might be able to come to some accord there, yeah. That's what I'm talking about.”