[Note: Mattison and Jackson’s availabilities overlapped so I missed the beginning, where Jackson compared Jabrill Peppers to Rodney Harrison. Luckily I managed to board the Peppers hype train after it left the station.]

With Jabrill, what are the things you see that are unique to him that other players might not have?

“Fire. His fire. His passion for the game. Relentless. His practice habits are off the charts. He’s coachable. He listens to everything you tell him and he tries to go out and do it each and every single day. He’s everything you ask for.”

He’s young, though. Does that emerge at all?

No. No. When you’re out there on the field you don’t even think of that with Jabrill. It’s funny you say that because it’s like he doesn’t even play like a freshman. I mean, he’s experienced out there. And the funny thing is that everybody looks up to him when he’s out there. He plays with a passion, he’s tough, he knows what he’s doing, he’s always around the football. What more can you ask for from a guy like Jabrill?”

How have you seen guys embrace or react to a new culture and all the newness?

“I think the players are excited and I think they’ve embraced it, and I think the most important thing is that the guys want to win. The players want to win. That’s the funny thing about it is that when you come in here as new coaches you’re [thinking] you’re going to have guys go this way and this way; nobody did that. Everybody came together, started listening to coaches, and starting doing exactly everything we asked them to do.

“That was the biggest thing is how when we got here everybody was coming and watching tape on their own and trying to learn the defense, which is great and that’s all you can ask for. Guys are wanting to get better, watching film with each other [and] doing the things that other schools are not going to do, and those guys are doing the extra [work].”

How big of a resource has Greg Mattison been?

“I think it’s been great, because when we first got here he told us about each and every player and he was dead on about each and every player. I picked his brain about each and every guy back there and he was dead on about each and every guy, and I think he’s been valuable.”

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest]

It could be a unique transition being the defensive coordinator and then being a position coach, but from the other coaches, including Durkin, it sounds like it’s been smooth for him.

“No, it’s been smooth, and I think it’s been great because he’s been in this conference. He’s been in the Big Ten, you know? He’s experienced. He’s been coaching forever. Why wouldn’t you embrace coach Mattison, because he can tell each and every coach and each and every position coach what’s best. I listen to him when he talks about the secondary because he knows so much. I think it’s been great for us.”

Every place is a little bit different. Did Jim kind of clue you guys in about Michigan in some ways when you were coming in?

“No, not really. Not really. We just knew to follow Jim [and] we’ll win, because Jim’s got a great track record. He’s brought some coaches along [and] the great thing is that all the coaches gelled together quickly. It’s been great so far.”

Have you done anything differently going from coaching NFL players to college players?

“No, no. I haven’t done anything differently. Everything’s been the same. Everything’s been the same.”

They can handle the same intensity as pros?

“Yeah. Yeah. You just don’t have them as long. In the pros you can have them from 9 to 5. Here you can’t do that. That’s what I miss; it’s all football. That’s the only thing I miss about it but it’s been great.”

You and Mike Zordich were both safeties. Was it something where you had to draw straws to decide who was going to get to keep that or how was that decided?

“Well, I don’t know. We just…it didn’t matter. We both do it. When you see us back there he’s on one side and I’m on the other side, so he’s coaching one side and I’m coaching one side. It really didn’t matter because I’ll be saying something to the corners [and] he’ll be saying something to the safeties, so we’re basically saying the same thing.”

You played together, didn’t you?

“We did.”

Did that help at all with this relationship?

“It did, it did. It did, because when we played together we worked well together. Yeah, it was great. When I found out he had an opportunity to come here I was all for it because I knew him as a player and knew what type of player he was and how we played together and understood each other. Thought it was great when we had an opportunity to come back here and work together.”