[Ed: Thanks to The Daily's Mike Persak for providing audio, since I am home for Thanksgiving]

Things Discussed

• Shea Patterson's development
• Ed Warinner's effect on the offense
• Karan Higdon, Donovan Peoples-Jones' impact
• The Game

[After THE JUMP: Two days]

You look at what (Don Brown) has done and (the Broyles Award) probably should’ve happened a couple times already, shouldn’t it?

 

“Oh, without a doubt. The numbers speak for itself. I think, the reason that our team is in this position is because of the position that our defense has had over the years. And in particular, the past two years. Just looking at Don Brown’s defense and the opportunities that they continue to give us on offense. The field position, and more importantly, the pssessions.”

 

In what ways have you seen Shea (Patterson) improve the most this year?

 

“I’ve seen him grow and develop more continuity with his teammates. Shea has played a lot of good football over his college career, even prior to being here at Michigan. But seeing him go out and make the plays that he’s made recently with Zach Gentry, Nico Collins, Donovan Peoples-Jones and the rest of our guys, that’s just a continual improvement over the course of the season, just based on time on task together.”

 

Same idea with — how have you seen the receivers grow to this point? How much more mature have they gotten?

 

“Well, you see it in the results and the production. I think, once again, it’s time on task together, it’s continuity, it’s trust. That’s one of the things that we see now in our passing game. Even compared to our first game of the season. Just the timing in which the quarterback’s pulling the trigger and getting the ball out of his hands. And then you’re seeing guys making plays.”

 

When you have someone like Shea, how does that change coming up with a game plan and play-calling?

 

“With all our players, we look to put them in a position to do the things that they do best. With Shea, he can make throws from the pocket, he can make the off-schedule plays. There are times where he’ll make a play that’s a wild play and I can't say that we rehearse some of the things that come about in the game. Especially the times when you see him scramble and make that throw across his body, across the field. I pretty much cringe every time that happens, but he seems to come out on the right side.”

 

Is he NFL ready?

 

“I don’t know. Haven’t thought about it in that way.”

 

How long did you have Shea before you realized that he was capable of handling a lot mentally and what you guys were giving him? Because it’s a lot.

 

“We knew it early on. Just because of how hard he worked at preparing himself mentally. I think that’s more than half the battle. A lot of guys can retain information, but they can’t always go out and apply it to their game. He’s a guy who is a film junkie. He loves watching film. He’ll ask the right questions. And you will see him go out and make those good decisions on gameday. ANd so, football is important to Shea. And he works hard at it. And he’s working just as hard as he’s always worked too prepare for any game this week. Try to make sure he don’t eat too much turkey on Thursday, but he’ll be ready to go on Saturday.”

 

How about Ed Warinner’s effect this year?

 

“Ed’s been great. He’s been great. He brings a certain level of expertise in the style f offense that Shea was probably most familiar with prior to coming to Michigan. So, Ed’s been great. The guys up front, they’re working hard, they’re playing together. And we’ve been able to run the football.”

 

When Dylan (McCaffrey) went down — Brandon (Peters) and Joe (Milton) — how have they developed in practice, rep-wise? Did that increase? How much did that increase?

 

“Yeah, of course without Dylan, our other quarterbacks were able to get more reps. Brandon has actually played in games for us and he’s won games. Foor Joe, getting additional reps, that’s been big for him.”

 

Where Donovan was a year ago, have there been many guys that have done improvement more in total?

 

“Well, you expect that guys are gonna make their biggest improvement from their freshman to their sophomore year. And I think, for Donovan, it’s probably been more so that he’s been healthier this year than he was last year at this point in the season. Not surprised at all that he’s making the plays that he’s making. He is a exceptional athlete. HE has a great combination of explosion, speed and just the will to go out and make plays. He carries it on his shoulder. I’ll tell you, he’s very proud of his Detroit roots and Michigan — it’s flowing through his blood. I think it’s important for him and his family to see our program have success. He’s putting it all out on the field for us.”

 

What has Karan (Higdon) meant for this offense? There’s not a lot of people talking about him — like Shea gets all the attention

 

“I think Karan — the true testament to how important he is to not just our offense, but how important he is to our team and our program, is the fact that his teammates voted him as a team captain. And that just goes to show you that they have the utmost respect for him in the locker room, he worked his tail off over the course of the offseason to make sure he would be in this position. To carry the load the way that he has and still be available to help us win a championship down the stretch. We count on Karan. He’s a guy that’s a bell cow for us. We look for him to continue to carry the load.”

 

Even now, you’ve got the depth chart in your hand, is this a week where you spend more hours in the building?

 

“We spend most of our hours in the building.”

 

But does this week feel different?

 

“It feels different, because it’s a holiday week. And my philosophy over the years, just with the players, I would tell them to always start with no. When someone offers you that extra serving of pumpkin pie, no thanks. Your cousins or your family and friends that come into town, want you to stay up a little later and talk and chat bby the fireside — ‘No, I gotta stay in my routine. I gotta get myself ready to get ready, play the game on Saturday.’ Hopefully my quarterbacks at least they’ve abided by that philosophy and policy Our guys are ready. They’re gonna be ready to goo. We still got a couple days of practice to finalize some things offensively. But they’ll be ready to play.”