Everything acting HC Biff Poggi said after Michigan's 30-27 win over Nebraska

Opening Statement

I feel blessed. I feel so happy for Sherrone Moore because the building really rallied around him these last two weeks. And I’ll die a happy man somewhere.

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On the mistakes the team made despite the win

These kind of games can produce self-inflicted wounds. I mean, that’s a good football team, right? We’re on the road, we have a very young team, believe it or not, and so you’re going to get some of that, but to answer the second part of your question, it is another huge learning experience from this game for our team, which they will take and they will learn from just like they did at Oklahoma.

On the play of the defense

Wink Martindale was incredible, his gameplan was unbelievable and he’s a tactician. He was calling stuff out on the side on the sideline before it was snapped, and our team, they love to go get the quarterback and I thought they did an unbelievable job in the run game. I believe we held them to under 50 rushing, right? Which, in a Big Ten game away, that’s kind of good I think.

On how the team responded coming out of the half

Sometimes those things happen. What’s most important is how do you respond from them and, at halftime, I called them up before we went on the field, I told them, I said I know it’s 17-17 but physically we’re beating the snot out of them and we’re turning this into a heavyweight fight and that’s going to be our big advantage in the second half and I think it was.

On what he saw from the explosive runs on offense

I think Grant Newsome’s done a great job with the offensive line and if you were to look at the tape last year and then you look at the tape this year, it’s significantly better. That’s a young group too and we have injuries there, but I thought Grant did a great job. I thought those kids played their hearts out and we rushed for what Dave? 286, which is a lot of rushing yards in this league on the road.

On Justice Haynes breaking big runs

He has good vision, and he has excellent acceleration. We’ve played at some really good places with good and fast secondary players here and in Oklahoma. He has finishing speed.

On whether dominating the trenches is execution or mindset

Well, it’s both, right? I mean, you have to be able to execute but you can execute all you want, this is a game that’s not played on a blackboard. This game is played on the field between men, and it’s a mindset, really, I think Michigan mindset.

On Bryce Underwood’s performance through two road games with teams trying to slow him down

Oh, well, I wouldn’t go down that path. Honestly, I thought he played — look he had we had some drops, some key drops, but he made some excellent throws. He had some excellent runs. The thing you don’t see is his poise and leadership in the huddle and on the sideline, and I’m not exaggerating. There was not a doubt in anyone’s mind on our sideline at any point that we weren’t winning that game, and he was a big part of that.

On Ernest Hausmann’s performance and whether there was any extra emotions for him

I thought Ernest played his heart out, and Ernest used to be here. This was a very important game to him, he played a lot of snaps and he played his heart out. I think, what do they say, those who laugh last, laugh loudest, so I think he feels good about that.

On the ending of the half and not taking a timeout

We conferred on that, and we thought it was the best thing for the team to do that. We did not think they were going to call a timeout. However, thinking about it, maybe we could have called a timeout and gotten the back end set up better. We had plenty of players, there were plenty of players, they were in position, the kid made a great play.

On Jordan Marshall’s long touchdown run

Yeah, they’re different backs. Jordan’s a bigger, stronger back, but also, as you saw today, has breakaway speed. Jordan has been so selfless in the locker room, and Justice has gotten more reps. Jordan has played, but he is a guy, in future years, he has captain material written all over him. He just does whatever you ask him, so everybody was really proud of him and happy for him.

On Rod Moore’s return to the field

He came up and gave me a huge hug before the game was over by the way which was a bit annoying because we were still had to kneel it out but he said I’m so happy that my first game back is a Big Ten game a Big Ten win. I’m very happy for that young guy.

On what he thought the statement the team made against Nebraska

The statement was, I think, multifaceted. First of all, we love our coach. He’s our coach, he’s our coach for a reason. He recruited the team, he prepares the team. That was the first statement. And then the second statement was there’s this narrative going around that we can’t win on the road, and that was a statement. A little bit of a narrative like, hey, if it’s a really lively hard place to play, we kind of — we’re not finishing those games. I think a lot of that was a statement today. Greg Crippen had his best week of practice all week. I thought he was probably the leader of the offense this week in practice, and he played his best game. It was really important.