[Upchurch]
What do you think Yost would think of your almost point-a-minute offense so far?
“Um…you know, it’s so far, so good.”
Can you talk about how the offensive line graded out on Saturday?
“Did well. They played a lot of plays, the offensive linemen. Really were in the most snaps of the game. Mason Cole was the best of all the linemen, and I thought the other four were real close, but I thought Mason stood out.”
I noticed at the satellite camps that you always told the campers don’t be Freddy P. Soft [alternate Chase Winovich-posited spelling: Fredeee P. Soft]. I’ve been trying to find out who is this guy, Freddy P. Soft?
[chuckles] “He’s a four-inch guy that wears a cape and a hat with a plume in it, and he’s just tall enough to talk right into your ear and tell you that ‘You don’t have to practice today. Why are you working so hard? Get over there in the shade. You don’t have to attack with enthusiasm unknown to mankind today. Take a break, take a knee.’ Yeah, he’s not a guy you want around. Want to get him off your shoulder as fast as possible.”
I know you guys do the practice where you have the guys spring and you race. You know what I’m talking about? Where you have them race in practice?
“Yeah, the race.”
Where does Eddie McDoom land in those heats with the skill guys?
“We don’t do those in the fall as much as we do in the spring. We’re real close to having a race between Jehu Chesson and Eddie McDoom. It’s been talked about, so when that official challenge is made, then we’ll race ‘em. It’s been close. There’s been discussion if Eddie’s faster than Jehu or not. That would be the guy that Eddie would have to dethrone would be Jehu.”
But he’s up there with the fastest on the team?
“To my eyes. My eye-time of watching him run, he’s right up there with Jehu. And I’m not the only one. There’ve been a few others that have commented on it and would like to see that race. It may take place. The gauntlet, the challenge has not been thrown down yet, so it’s just been talked about.”
Khalid Hill has obviously been helping you around the goal line. Can you comment specifically on how he’s done so far and on your fullbacks?
“Yeah, I’d say Khalid has been outstanding in all areas: blocking, catching out of the backfield, protection, and a special gift of being all around the ball. He’s got a real knack. Picked up some fourth downs for us and touchdowns. I mean, he looks like the most complete NFL-prototypical fullback on our roster.
“And the others, Henry Poggi, I think he’s coming along and he’s…they’re both real tough guys. I think of the hammer, rather be the hammer than the nail. A fullback is a guy we want to be our hammer. There’s a special place on our team for the fullback position. It’s the identity of the team. Both those guys, along with Bobby Henderson. All three have real courage, contact courage.
“I think of it as contact courage. How fast can you go from point A to point B to hit somebody? That’s where the courage shows up. Just how quick can you get there to do that aggressive act? Feel good about all our fullbacks right now. The most polished guy in terms of at an NFL-ready level, I would say that would be Khalid.”
[After THE JUMP: things that are obvious for anybody who knows football, cereal vaguely power ranked, O-line issues diagnosed, what to do after a QB’s inflection point]
You worked with Colorado’s defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt in San Francisco. What are you expecting to see from his defense on Saturday?
“Very aggressive, opportunistic. They dive on your mistakes. They create turnovers. Very sound. It’s already showing up; they’re already getting turnovers and playing with a lot of hustle and a lot of instinct and talent. I think Jim’s really brought out a lot of the talent that’s on the team. There’s some really outstanding players on their defense and he’s doing a great job bringing them together. They’re playing well together. Guys are playing well individually and as a team.”
How much of Saturday’s struggles after being up 31-0 is attributable to being up so much? Is there a thing where guys lose focus or they’re not as sharp because you have such a big lead?
“I mean, yeah, I guess we’re not agreeing on that. I thought we played—I thought we were very sharp throughout the game. Won every quarter and did what we had to do. Got the job done. Divisive questions, making a statement. I just don’t agree with the premise of the statement, so hard to answer the question.”
On Saturday, got some good play from Matt Godin on the D-line, Chase Winovich was working in there and Lawrence Marshall got some snaps too. Just curious your thoughts on depth and how much you and Don Brown are preparing with Taco and Bryan out knowing that you have other guys who can go in there.
“Yeah, prepare a lot.”
Do you expect Jourdan [Lewis] to play this weekend?
“We’ll see. Today’s the first practice. We’ll know better after today.”
With this offense, so far, so good, but are you not willing to get too excited because of the competition you’ve played or just early in the season or you feel there’s more you want to see?
“I’m excited. I’m excited. Want to keep getting better, finding things that we’re good at and keep working on those, enhancing those and any place that we can improve, I’m excited about that. I’m excited. Does it look like I’m not excited. The media sometimes gets it wrong.”
The tailbacks, it took them a while to break off some plays. Is that just because they were totally stacking against the run there?
“Yeah, I think it was obvious for anybody who knows football to see that there were a lot of guys at the line of scrimmage and a lot of run-type of blitzes which opened up some real good opportunities for us in the play action passing game.
“Thought our backs ran real hard, protected the football, and still rushed for over 100 yards. They acquitted themselves well.”
Is Taco Charlton also in the ‘we’ll see as it progresses’ camp?
“Yes.”
Wanted to ask you, you grew up with the McCartney family close to you here in Michigan. With Colorado coming back to town, do you have memories of Bill sharing an office with your dad growing up and what were they like?
“I do. Great family. Love the McCartneys. They had the best cereal of anybody in the neighborhood. We had Cheerios; no flavor. We had Wheaties, but you could go to the McCartneys, they had one of those little carousels under the cabinet with Captain Crunch and Lucky Charms and Fruit Loops—a wide assortment. Ten or 12 different kinds of cereal. And Lindy was great. If you were hungry you could just come in and get yourself a bowl of cereal. Loved ‘em for that.”
Coach McCartney himself, his legacy in coaching—do you have memories of him coaching?
“Yeah, great memories. Great coach, and looking forward to seeing him. I believe he’s coming to the game Saturday. I remember being on my official visit when I was going to Michigan and had a good, long talk with Coach McCartney the night before Bo offered me a scholarship. Coach had some really good things to say to me and was very convincing as to why I should come to Michigan. Always appreciated him for that, too. He ended up leaving like maybe a couple weeks after that. Less than a month later he went on and took the head coaching job, but he was there for my official visit. Always appreciated that he took that time to spend with me.”
How do you guys prepare for tempo in terms of scout team? I guess coaches all kind of do it differently.
“Try to simulate it best we can.”
Do you do full changes? Two scout teams?
“Two scout teams, two huddles, mmhmm. Yeah. We’re doing good. In practice we were getting a play off 13-17 seconds a play in practice, and we’ve been doing it now for three, three and a half weeks, four weeks almost that type of tempo on defense.”
With the number of tight ends you guys have used early in the year, have you thought about how many you could use on a given play? Have you ever done five on one play before?
“We’ve done four. Haven’t done five yet, but we could.”
Michigan-Colorado, they’ve only met four times since 1974. The most memorable obviously was the 1994 Hail Mary game. What do you remember about that game? Did you watch that game?
“I watched it, yes.”
What do you remember about it, besides the Hail Mary, obviously.
“Yeah, I remember that the most. Kordell Stewart threw an amazing Hail Mary pass. That’s what I remember the most.”
On some of the blitzes that they timed up really well and were able to get in, are those communication issues with the offensive line, Mason saying ‘We need to get this guy blocked’ or ‘We need to get that guy blocked,’ or was the communication there but just didn’t get the block taken care of?
“Both things occurred. Both things were—communication wasn’t right and then we physically didn’t slide our feet to the right spot. And the other thing was there was an issue with the eyes, where they put their eyes, looking out instead of looking in. Those three things all occurred on different plays.”
Fair to say those are points of emphasis for your players this week?
“Oh yeah, yeah, definitely. I’m very excited as a coach, that you can win a game 51-14 and then you still have things to go in and coach and feel like you can improve your play on. That’s…there’s probably no better feeling as a coach than to start the week that way. And it makes me very optimistic that there’s ways that we can improve, there’s things that we can fix and very confident in the coaches and players that we have that they’ll do that. It makes you feel like you can get better. That’s—always happy to be in that position.”
When a team does load up the box, eight or nine guys, and they never switch from it, do you like that test for your offensive line? Is that like one of those callus-building things you talk about where it’s an adverse situation they’ve got to get through? Do you like that they were challenged that way?
“I do. I do like that, and that’s—we continue to prepare for that because it does give the opportunity for Jehu Chesson, for Amara Darboh, for Jake Butt to be singled up in coverage and we like our chances a lot in those type of situations. We like the way our quarterback’s throwing the football, the way he’s got the ability to throw it downfield and be accurate. We know that we can—we’ve got the guys up front that can protect, we’ve got the backs that can protect, we’ve got the fullbacks that can protect, so yeah, that’s a part of the game we get excited about. It’s an opportunity for us.”
You mentioned the margin of victory. Is it surprising when an opposing coach says his team, in a losing effort, outhit your team?
“They hit well. That was a good, physical football team. I was impressed with the way they tackled. I was impressed with the way they played. I was very impressed with their speed. That was…I agree that they played very well. My view of it after the game and after watching the film was that we got the job done. We took care of business physically in the lines.
“I feel the same as I did after the game. As you noticed, I didn’t say that we dominated, but I thought we got the better of it. I thought we got the better of it not by a huge margin. Thought they have a very good football team. They’re very well coached and yeah, I was impressed with their aggression, their toughness, their speed. I wish them luck the rest of the way.”
Matt Godin had a career high in tackles and got around the field pretty well on Saturday. What have you liked about his play this season?
“He’s a steady, high performing guy. Tough guy, always in the lineup. Really, really impressed with him. And he is almost playing to the level of Ryan Glasgow, who, as a defensive lineman, played one of the best—played his best game this past weekend, and probably one of the better games I’ve ever seen a defensive lineman play. I mean, it was that good in terms of how he played the position and how he graded out. And Godin’s a very similar player. Not quite to the level of where Glasgow’s playing right now, but great having both of them.
“Also, Mo Hurst, had him back in the lineup and he brought some real energy and good play. Chris Wormley was outstanding in the ballgame. One of our top performeres on defense, along with Jabrill. Those guys—Glasgow, Wormley, Jabrill—were our top performers on defense. And Godin was up there. Godin was—”
He graded high.
“He graded high. Great man. Great guy to be around, too.”
As somebody that’s as close to the process as you are, is it gratifying to see Wilton Speight so much more in command of the offense and the situation than maybe he was a year ago?
“Yeah, we’ve talked about plenty, how far all of our quarterbacks have come in a year. Been seeing the command of the offense, the accuracy, the good play. Always felt like accurate in practice, you’ll be accurate in the game. If you’re in command of the offense in practice, you’ll be in command of the offense in the game. Usually that’s how it works. That’s just the way it is. But you never know until you actually get into the game. But to see him good in practice and do it in the game, sure, that’s an unknown that’s out of the equation. He can get it done. Keep going. Keep going onward with Wilton and just keep trying to find things that he can improve his game.
“And experience tells me it’s not going to be the real influx that he had from last year to this year. I mean, to go like that was a real inflection point, but there’ll be subtle things that he can do to keep improving, always. It’s just the nature of that position. There’s not a play you can’t look at in practice and say ‘I could have done a little bit something better, different.’ Sometimes a ball can be thrown as well as it can possibly be thrown, but there’s things before that in terms of footwork and eye placement and things that can be improved on, like about every position in football. Receivers another one where every single down you can find something within the play to improve on.”