[Upchurch]

Is he [Rashan Gary] working on the same side as you?

“He mostly works with Worm at the Anchor side. I usually keep it to the End unless I go—I switch back and forth sometimes. Right now he’s working hard. He’s getting into film with us. He’s never scared of putting in extra work, also. He has that mindset where he wants to be good and he’s frustrated when he’s not dominating. I love seeing that out of the kid because it shows me that he wants to be great, just like I want to be great.”

What about you? How are you doing? Don Brown singled you out as one of the guys that was doing well.

“You know, it’s my senior year so—my goal is always to be the best of where I’m at, and my father always taught me never be second best to anybody. My goal’s always to be the best defensive end in the country right now, so that’s why I go out every practice and try to prove it. So far Coach Brown’s been loving it and hopefully every coach will. Like I said, I just go out there every day and practice with that mindset and hope it carries over to everybody else.”

How different is this defense with Don Brown as the coordinator, especially for the defensive line.

“We love him. We play hard for him. I think the whole defense does. He gets four of us on the field at the same time with the 4-3 defense and lets us attack, lets us play hard, lets us play aggressive and as a D-line that’s one thing you want to be able to do is play aggressive. Don’t have to worry about anything else, just out there and play and play hard, attack and make plays, and he allows us to do that.”

What’s the biggest difference for you? Is it just more knowledge and experience or are you stronger, faster, quicker?

“A little bit of all—I lost a little bit of weight, got my speed back. Got stronger in the offseason. Watched a lot of film of NFL guys. Got smarter. Met with a lot of coaches over the offseason. It’s just been a season I know I had to step up and I’ve done a pretty good job in practice doing that and being a leader on the defensive side of the ball, especially defensive line.”

Did you drop weight because you knew you were going to be on that edge and rushing again?

“Yeah, it was one of those things I got to talk to our coaches about and it’s something I really didn’t do myself. Met with Coach Mattison and Coach Brown, then I met with Coach Tolbert. Then we figured out what was that weight that was kind of in the middle—not too light, not too heavy, and it was perfect.”

What are you running now? What are your speed times?

“That I don’t know. I never was really—I was always one of the fast guys. Got a little faster.”

[More after THE JUMP]

Back to Rashan: have you seen the flashes that we all heard that he has, that talent? Do you see that in moments?

“You see the explosion off the ball, the power, the aggression, how big he is. You don’t see that out of every 18-year-old kid and you see that out of him, so that’s definitely something that I definitely see and he shows the flashes of how great he’s going to be. Like I said before, you can’t put that much expectation on an 18-year-old kid. At the end of the day he’s still just a high school kid going to play his first college game. Expectations are really high for him but I just let him know to just learn and play your game and everything will fall in place.
Are those tricks from actually being on the field that you guys can teach him? Is that the kind of thing he doesn’t know.

“It’s a little bit of everything, mentally and physically. Going through four years of college, me and Worm and all the other defensive linemen but me and him especially since we both play that End position, we’ve definitely been out there teach him about playing the End position. Just the grind of four years and the also the knowledge that we picked up. It won’t come to you in one day. You won’t just come out here the next day after high school and just dominate everybody like you’re used to. It’s a whole different league up here.  It’s going to be a little better to incur, but I know at the end of the day they’re going to be fine.”

I know you said you can’t put too many expectations on an 18-year-old, but Tim Drevno said that Ben Bredeson is competing for the starting left tackle spot. As a guy that matches up with him, what have you seen from Ben?

“He has a promising future too. I definitely can see that. He plays tough, plays hard. Not a big rah-rah guy, but he still comes off the ball and plays aggressive. At the end of the day he’s still an 18-year-old kid. Like I said, I see the promise in him, though. I think he’ll be a real special kid in the coming years to look out for. Maybe even this year he’ll be able to help us win.”

When you’re rushing against him, not to say that he gives you problems, but is there anything that he does that maybe is a challenge for you, specifically?

[smiles wide]

I don’t want you to dog a guy, but what is it he does that’s good?

“He’s a guy who has good hands, strong hands. Once he latches on to you he does cause problems getting off. But for me…”

[smiles again]

What about Grant?

“Like I said, he’s going into his sophomore year, so he’s still working. They’re battling it out right now for that spot and he’s doing a good job of battling. He’s a guy who afterwards he’ll pull me to the side and ask me things that help him out, things I see that I kind of use against him and what he could do better. He’s a guy who loves to learn. He’s a smart kid and I think he’ll be fine, too.”

Do you have to encourage those guys? You guys are a pretty good defensive line and those guys are young players. Do you have to pull them aside and tell them to keep their head up if they get beat?

“We really just take care of the defensive-line guys. The offense, they take care of their guys so, I mean, it’s kind of their learning curve. They gotta tell their guys—right now we just worry about dominating and basically doing what the best defensive line in the country needs to do, which is come together, and it starts all in practice.”

[Fuller]

Jourdan Lewis

How do you measure yourself coming off last year? What are the thing you need to get better at?

“Honestly, just tracking the ball. That’s probably one of the biggest things I have to say I wasn’t too good at, getting my head around and making plays on the ball. Besides that, just being consistent with what I do and hoping everybody stays healthy.”

Does that affect interceptions? Do you think that that’s part of getting more interceptions?

“Definitely. If I get my head around quicker and believe in my team and my ability, that’ll help a lot.”

Channing was telling us about the freshmen corners. What’s your take on them?

“They have the ability to play, honestly. They came in and learned the playbook pretty fast. They’re going to make some mistakes because it’s their first time around, but they look really good. They look really fluid out there and look like they’ve been out there for a while, learning the playbook and knowing some of this stuff. Especially when we get in the meeting room. Coach always asks them questions and they always answer them, so it’s a really good things to see. It’s encouraging to see those guys understanding it and understanding the way to play college football.”

I think Don Brown called David Long a ‘professional’ in the way he prepares. What’s he like--

“Definitely. He definitely is a very smart kid, very smart guy, and he prepares like nobody I’ve ever seen as a freshman, honestly. He takes notes like…it’s unbelievable. Unbelievable. He’s just a great student of the game. He understands that to be good you have to prepare, and so does everybody else in that room. Coach Z holds us to a higher standard. We have to understand the playbook, understand our help, and understand the defense. They’re doing a great job with it.”

You’ve talked about the confidence that young players don’t necessarily have. Do he and Lavert [Hill] have that confidence that took some time to develop with you?

“Yeah. They’ve always had the confidence. Those guys, you can see those guys confidently playing out there and not holding things back. It’s really just understanding the playbook, and that’s where your comfortability comes from. It’s understanding what you have to do and knowing what you have to do. Once you know what you’re doing every play, that’s when you see confidence.”

Thoughts on the freshmen receivers?

“They’re pretty good, honestly. Those guys are really good. They’re adapting to camp really fast. They’re working their butts off, just like everybody else in the room.”

We’ve heard a lot about Eddie McDoom. How fast is this kid?

“He’s really fast, honestly. I don’t know how to measure it but he’s out there giving his all every single play. You can see the effort matches his speed, honestly, and that goes for a lot of those guys. Those guys are willing to go out there and do whatever they have to do to go out there and play.”

This freshmen class as a whole, you pretty impressed with them?

“Yeah. Those guys can play, honestly. Just—if some of us can help them learn the playbook a little bit more, those guys will be able to play.”

Chris Balas asked about a chain link in the meeting room, that you add links after every Big Ten championship. Are you aware of it, and is there a sense of urgency about finally bringing a championship here?

“There’s been a sense of urgency ever since Coach Harbaugh got here. There was never a dull moment where he said we’re going to rebuild or anything like that. It was always where it was the expectation to win. That’s just Michigan’s reputation. That’s just the Michigan tradition, to win. So for us to say we’re not pressured to go out there and win a national championship, a Big Ten championship, that’d be a lie.”

How much do you guys think about it? It’s been a pretty long drought.

“Honestly, we don’t really think about just winning championships, we think about winning every single game. We go out there and prepare like how we know we can prepare. That’s how you win championships. You can’t just assume that this is the year to get a championship. You have to go out there and show people that you can win every single game—in an impressive way, too.”

Chris [Wormley] mentioned Taco Charlton as a guy who has really impressed in this camp. What have you seen from him?

“I knew Taco’s always been a freak, honestly. It’s just a good thing to see that he’s confident in his ability. It’s really just amazing to see how his potential has caught up with him.”

What’s the difference between quarterbacks? Is there a difference in style?

“All those guys are aggressive, honestly. All those guys are willing to throw the ball around and all those guys are willing to compete. We haven’t seen any separation in those guys yet, and I don’t think Coach Harbaugh’s ready to make a decision.”

How about you? You ready to go? It’s your last year and a lot of people expect big things for you. You ready for this to get going?

“Yeah. Honestly, every season. I was just talking about last season. That’s in the past. Honestly, I’m just ready every single time football season comes around. I always get those butterflies because I’m just a gamer, honestly. That’s what it is and that’s what I’ve always been. I’ve always been a gamer and I never really think about the past. I think about going forward and playing each and every game like it’s my last.”

Hard to believe this is it for you?

“Yeah. These four years went by so fast, man. I keep telling the freshmen it’s going to go by so fast. They just [go] ‘Oh yeah.’ They just ignore me like I did when I was a freshman. It’s really crazy to see these four years fly by and how much everything has changed.”

Is Jabrill as good as you hoped he’d be at the linebacker position?

“Jabrill’s as good as everybody wants him to be at every single position that he plays, honestly. He’s really an amazing athlete and it’s unbelievable to see him out there every single day playing every single position.”

You guys talked a lot last year about how much of a leader Jarrod [Wilson] was in the secondary and how important he was. How do you replace a guy like that?

“Honestly, it’s just as a collective unit going out there and making sure we communicate as a whole. Jarrod did a lot. Jarrod took a lot of the load last year, and a lot of us are all seniors so honestly just going out there and communicating with each other. I think that’s what I guess [is different] compared to last year.”

Have some of you guys tried to take on that load in terms of being a leader? Have you tried to do that?

“Honestly, we just go out there and work together. Honestly, I haven’t been the most vocal leader. I’ve always been the guy that leads by example or go out there and show that I can go out there and lead. Honestly, we just go out there and communicate, and that’s what I can see in the secondary moreso since last year because everybody was kind of leaning on Jarrod. I know I was. But honestly, we go out there and communicate with each other. That’s a big thing that our offense said, that our secondary’s going out there and communicating.”

Do you have individual goals for this season?

“Um…”

Or is that all-

“I just want to win, really. I really just want to be successful. I want our team to be successful. That’s…that’s really what I want to do. I always wanted to win at Michigan. I plan on doing that. I plan on trying to bring some of those championships back.”

Is the clock already ticking, that you’ve got four more months or whatever it is as your last shot?

“It’s always in the back of your head, but you’ve got to remember that you’ve got to take it one day at a time, one rep at a time, and just go out there and prepare.”

You said on the BTN show about the rivalry games that you don’t think they’re rivalries if you guys aren’t winning basically. Is this a conversation that happens among the players or are those just your own thoughts?

“No, we all understand that if we don’t win the games that people say we’re supposed to or win every single game or go out there and compete to win every single game, we know that those games aren’t going to mean as much. Especially for us they won’t mean as much, because if we don’t take care of business we won’t be where we want to be.”

When you grew up, though, those were the two marquee games, Ohio State and Michigan State, and Michigan won those games when you watched them as a fan. Is it personal to you at some point in terms of the tradition and upholding some of that because you guys have struggled?

“Yeah, but you’ve got to win every single game. Without that, if we go 3-10, if we win those three games, I mean, what does it matter?”

As you get to these last few months, Chris and Taco were talking about how the next level starts to creep into the back of your head and preparing differently for the season as you get ready for that sort of thing. Is this staff more open to guys talking about setting themselves up for the future past--

“Yeah, definitely, since you have so many experienced guys that came from the NFL they’re talking about the NFL, but that’s never been my mindset. I never talk about going to the NFL. I never talk about going to the next level. I always think about what I have to do tomorrow, honestly. That’s how you have to think If you want to be successful. You can’t think about the future too much. You have to live in the present and take care of business.”

Is that a more accepted conversation now here than it used to be?

“Definitely. We have a head coach that went to a Super Bowl. He understands a lot of things that go on at the next level. He understands what guys go through in this position right now. He wants to ease that a little bit as we proceed in the season.”

Can you talk about your friendship with Channing [Stribling] and what we can expect to see this season from him?

“Honestly, me and Channing, we go back to Bridge time when we got here in the summer and we were both pretty good. We both expected to play as freshmen and things weren’t—didn’t go as expected. We saw that that freshman year, but honestly, I’m just excited to see him go out there and do what he does.”

He says that you’ve motivated him to try to do great things.

“Channing’s been doing great things since he got here, honestly. If you could see some of the footage as a freshman that he had versus Jeremy Gallon and Devin Gardner, some of the things he was doing, it was unbelievable to see. He already had great things in him. I’m just excited to see what he does.”