Everything Michigan DB coach LaMar Morgan said during his pre-Purdue press conference

On whether he’s had a chance to try any of Jyaire Hill’s baked goods

He has some cheesecake, like a cheesecake cone that he made. I had it like last year. He has some, like strawberries, that he dipped in white chocolate and all this different stuff. But during the season and stuff, I’m not eating that. But in the offseason, I have ate it. It’s pretty good. He’s always trying to bake something. And players say it’s really good. Cooks all the time.

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On balancing a hit stick mentality vs. wrapping up tackles with Brandyn Hillman

I think you have to show guys in the NFL. I think everybody wants to get the big-time hit. But if you look at a lot of the big-time hits in the NFL, a lot of those hits are when people don’t see them. A lot of times it’s like a running back doesn’t see you coming from an angle. You can knock the guy out. But a lot of times in the NFL, which is the highest level of this game that we play, the biggest thing is getting the guy down. So I think that’s the focus. Right.

If you can get him down, now you can talk about the intensity, the techniques, and all that different things like that. So you never want to take a guy’s stinger out of him, knocking people out and trying to be physical. But, being physical and knocking a guy out or missing a tackle, to me, it’s a very fine line and a balance. So I think we did a better job the last couple of games of trying to tackle in space. Especially in November when guys are getting tired and fatigued. You got to just work on your technique and fundamentals. So that’s something we always preach, especially on Tuesdays.

On the defense having more INTs this year and what he says to Hill about dropped INTs

Yeah, the thing with Shug is, I always tell guys the opportunities that you have change the narrative and the rankings, the accolades that you get. You got to catch the ones that they throw to you. Sometimes in a season, if you’re a corner or safety, you only get four or five opportunities where they actually throw the ball to you and you can get your hands on it. He has been fortunate this year. He has his hands on a lot of them. We just got to continue to work on catching them. Right.

So we doing jugs in the open field, doing them up close like the receivers. But we’ve been doing that a lot. The last couple of weeks, it’s every day just trying to get focused, just seeing it through. But you are right. He has a lot of opportunities and that’s the difference between being a first-team All-American and just being an honorable mention to me. So you got to catch the ones because, you know, stats that they do five Hail Marys and you catch all five Hail Marys at the end of the game. You still finish with five INTs in a year. Right. There’s no asterisk of how many or how you got the INT. So this is something that we’re trying to work on as a unit, trying to get the ball back to our offense, especially across the 50. So they can have a short field. And I think if we do that one or two times a game, that there should be points with our offense.

On what’s led to the defense having more turnovers this year

We always talk about the pillars here. And one of the ones is ball destruction. We try to show the guys good and bad opportunities that they missed and ones that they did. I just think takeaways and turnovers and all that is just contagious. Once a couple of them get in a game, usually we get two or three a game, not just one. I think the games that we do get turnovers, we have a great chance to at least give us an opportunity to win.

But I just think every position group can get one, right? You know, the D-lineman, TJ, with the one hand he had earlier in the year, linebackers have done a heck of a job there. Safeties and stuff like that have been doing really well. But I do think in the secondary, we got to continue whenever we get our opportunities to come up with those.

On Jyaire Hill’s performance in coverage vs. Michigan State

Like I told you all when I first came, right before the season is I think he’s a unique kid. And he’s doing a good job of his film study and working on that. I think he’s trying to become a complete football player, not just an athlete that’s playing corner. I think he knows routes and combinations and all that stuff. And that’s a lot of credit to him in his film study. And I think he’s done a better job just learning. It just takes time. I know everybody in society wants the kids to be ready right now. It’s a microwave society.

And I just think it takes time, especially in that position. You’ve got to get different looks. You’ve got to go against different receivers. It’s a different matchup. One week, you’re going against a guy that’s 5’9″, 180 pounds, and he runs 4.3. Then you go against somebody 6’3″, 210, and it’s just different things that you’re trying to take away. But I think Shug’s done a great job of just trying to focus and trying to be a leader. His lead is a little bit different than most. It’s not really as much vocal.

It’s just more about his energy and his personality and the way he attacks each and every day. And I think when he’s at our best, our secondary and our team is at our best.

On how he handles passing game coordinator duties with Wink Martindale and whether that’s changed

No, I think really we do everything by when we game plan, everybody has different areas. So whether somebody has normal down first and second down passes or first and second down runs, whether it’s third down, whether it’s red zone, whether it’s two-minute, whether it’s situations. So he does a good job of allowing everybody to have an area and be experts in there.

He might be in the game asking, hey, what do you think here? So I just think I have a great working relationship with Coach Wink. We’re fortunate on defense here that all three of the position coaches have been coordinators for multiple years. And then Lionel Stokes that works with me, he was a coordinator as well. So I just think that we have a really good defensive staff here. I know it’s not perfect all the time, but I do think we try to work together and try to see what we can do because you can have the best game plan.

Then you get guys injured. You have to change the game plan. So my area is just trying to make sure that we can do as much as we can to get the ball down in space. Do a good job of trying to limit the explosives in the passing game and then trying to take away whatever they do best. You know, sometimes it’s easier said than done. We play some talented teams here in this league, and our schedule is the schedule. So we just continue to, each week, it’s just a one-game series to me each week. That’s just college football. You just try to go 1-0 each week.

So new challenges, new team, different players. So, you know, my role has probably been the same here during my time here at Michigan.

On whether he has defensive coordinator aspirations in the future

Yeah. You know, yeah, I think that would be awesome one day. I’m not really focused on that kind of stuff right now. To me, I think I never really just try to get another job. To me, I just try to work with the kids that I have and do the best job I can. I want to be the best DB coach in the country. And you got to work on that every day. You know, I was with Coach Franklin. He said he wanted to be the first African-American head coach to win a national championship when I GA’d for him.

And that’s what I want to be. I’ll be known as a teacher, a mentor. This is a very transactional industry right now, with just the way college football is. I don’t really want to be that. I want to be transformational. So, you know, I just like to develop kids. I like taking kids that never played a position and get them better. I got guys that never played before I got here. And now they get to play, and they perform pretty well. And we got to get better. We got freshmen that got here in June and they started games for us. So to me, that’s kind of what I focus on.

Be the best coach, coach and mentor and co-worker, husband, dad, each season. At the end of the year, I sit back and say, what can I be better at? So, you know, I have a lot of responsibility here. We all do. So I’m enjoying my time here. I learn a lot from Wink, man. He’s been coaching 20 years in the NFL, coaching college football for 19 years. I’ve been coaching for probably 12. I GA’d for Coach Franklin. He was at Penn State the whole time through my whole career. I went to Western Carolina, Louisiana, Monroe, Houston, Louisiana-Lafayette, Vandy, back to Louisiana-Lafayette. And here he’s been at one spot. I’ve been in all those spots and brought my family all those different places. So I just enjoy what I do. It’s awesome.

On the challenge of coaching in this era of CFB

Yeah, I think, you know, everybody wants to play, right? You recruit these high-end kids, they get here, and they want to play as true freshmen. I got a room full of guys that want to play every game. And some of them get frustrated because they don’t get to play as much as they want to play. And I think at the end of the day, you got to be fair. You got to be honest. And you also have to understand kids got to maximize their role. I’ll give you an example. Elijah Dotson, he doesn’t play as much on defense as he probably wants to. He probably plays 10 to 15 snaps on defense a game. But he’s a four-course special teams guy in the last couple of weeks. He’s been amazing.

I think we don’t recruit these kids to say they’re just going to do special teams. But there’s guys that have long careers there. So I just think guys that young players that are very talented, it’s hard for them to realize what their role is coming in here. Right. One disadvantage, you have a freshman quarterback that’s a stud. Right. So you came in with that class. You see somebody that’s a freshman. They’re playing and you’re not playing. Why do they get to play? Why did I not get to play as much? And I just think everybody has to be case by case.

Some positions are different. So to me, I just think you just got to be as honest as much as possible. It’s hard to guarantee playing time because you don’t know how the game’s going to go. And I just think you just got to be truthful and fair and allow the guys to understand if you practice well, you have an opportunity to play, but there’s no guarantee. So but that’s just kind of where it’s at. That’s why you see so many young freshmen, sophomores transfer.

They go to a place they think they should start. They start comparing themselves to each other. Then they look up and understand that some guys just perform better than them. And then now we’re in the heat of the schedule. It’s hard to just throw a guy out there and see if they can figure it out. Now, I mean, we got to win games, and that’s kind of where we’re at right now. So I think that’s just hard. I think college football, if you keep the main thing, the main thing, which I told you earlier is mentoring young men, no matter what their background is, making them a better person, teaching the game of football and making them grow. I think you can get through any of the hard times that they might get frustrated about playing time.

And then the parents, when you call them, you got to tell them the truth. Sometimes your son is not practicing well. So it’s hard to trust them right now. But it is, it’s tough, man. And if you let society change how you think, then eventually it’s just transactional. It’s just, you know, this isn’t the NFL yet.

On Hillman’s big hits

I think he just plays with like infectious personality that he is always on the go. He loves practicing. He loves to be physical and all that stuff. And I just think there’s a lot of good, the way he plays. A lot of guys in the NFL play that way. But a lot of guys can’t get their mind focused to do that all the time.

This running back at Purdue. If you watch him, he runs hard. He’s been running that way since Rod played him in, I guess, the Big Ten championship. It’s the same kid. Number forty-five. He runs hard. And like B-Hill’s like the same way on defense.

He goes hard all the time. But I just think there’s some of the techniques, the techniques and understanding when you can take your shot and when you can’t. I think that’s something where he just has to show him on tape. Kids, they don’t understand until you show them. Right. No one thinks they’re going to get burned until they put their hand on the stove.

So I just think that’s what happened in that game. You know, we had some shots against OU. It showed up in that game. We’re in the backfield on the quarterback, and we don’t finish. That was the difference in the game. I’m not saying we would have won the game, but I think the game would have been closer on third downs and we hit him and he gets out of it. So I just think the kids just got to focus him as a big hitter. What else can you do to to challenge your game? And I think he’s he’s he’s taken that on full circle.

What can he do? What does he need us to do? And I ask the guys that, too. Like, what can we do better when you miss a tackle? It’s not just on you. It’s on the coach, too. And, you know, you just do the same old drills and it ain’t working. You got to change the drill. So I just think we kind of change some of the stuff that we’ve done. Did more stuff in space, and hopefully that continues to show up on tape.

On whether he’s surprised about how quickly the freshmen DBs have ascended

Yeah, I think to me, what I always told the guys, we do a thing where we always talk about our goals at the beginning of the season. And my goal was to play the most freshman on the football team here. So I know that sounds like a weird goal, but that is one of my goals. Right. To get a young player ready to play, have the team trust them, because we got some great seniors here that’s been here for a long time. They got to earn their trust, too, not just mine.

So that’s one of my goals. Now, those roles can change a little bit. And I think that’s kind of where you just got to try to fill in the right spots to put a guy in. You put a guy in and he gets beat. Is he focused enough? Is he wired the right way to keep going? Because young players mess up early in their career. They get in a slump, and it’s really hard for a young player to get out of a slump. Right. You watch on TV, the guy gets beat in the NFL. He’s so confident. He’s talking trash right after he got beat. Like, you know, it was a fluke in their eyes. And I think you’ve got to build that up in young DB. So I’m excited where we’re at right now.

I think we can continue to get better in the corners and safeties. And I think we have a lot of talent there, and I hope we can continue to develop those guys. It’s a long season, too. I always try to show them like Rod Moore. You know, he played 10, 11, 12, and then he started the last four games of his freshman campaign. And he wasn’t an early enrollee. So I just think those are some things that the kids just don’t see that. Like, you have to show them examples of players that did that. But I think that’s — I’m excited about them. And I think they’re very talented. Their parents done a great job with them. They’ve done a great job of getting bigger and stronger and faster and learning the game.

B-Hawk, Brad Hawkins that played here, and Lionel Stokes. They do a great job of meeting with those guys. If I’m in and out of meetings, and those guys have three coaches here that I think can get them better. That’s the reason why they’re better, because we got three coaches that can come up here and do this interview here. And I think the more you get really good players and you get more coaches around them, the better players are.

On Mason Curtis’ play on Saturday

Yeah, I think Mason’s a very unique athlete. You know, he’s 6’3″, 6’4″, and he’s a really big player. You know, the thing that you have to worry about with a guy when he gets that tall is just this pad level.

But I think he has done a really good job the last couple of games of playing low. He had a really good open-field tackle against the quarterback, if I remember right. He does a good job of communicating. He’s calling out plays before they happen when he’s not in the game. He’s always engaged. I think this kid is going to be a really big-time player here.

He’s continuing to get bigger and stronger. He’s already a huge kid, but just getting fast. You know, when you get that tall, sometimes your fast twitch isn’t as much as maybe like a 5’9″, 5’10 guy. But I think I’m really excited about Mason. His role is going to continue to grow, and he’ll continue to play a lot here for us.

On coaches taking responsibility after the USC loss

Yeah, to me, I always tell kids this, man. This is my motto for my whole career. If a kid doesn’t know what to do, it’s the coach’s fault. If the kid knows what to do and doesn’t do right, then I think it’s the coach. The kid has to have some accountability. And I think that’s kind of what I try to look at all the time.

Like, did we work this angle? Are we just doing a drill just to be doing it? Is there something that we can do better as a team? Do we have the right guys free? Can the right guys make the plays? Do we need to have the right guys in the right spot?

So I think Coach Wink and Coach Moore and our staff took a hard look and just said, what can we do a little bit better? What can we change up here and there? And I thought we did a good job of us coming together and just understanding just what we got to do.

And to me you got to play sound, and you got to play fast. Kids got to know the checks, and then you got to have high effort to the ball I think that’s what you kind of see in the Michigan State game, is if somebody missed a tackle, that play that they had. We was in a nickel blitz and they ran, I think it’s 49 yards on the right hash, if I remember right. And Mangham went underneath the block, he should have went over the top, and Jimmy Rolder ran the guy down and tackled him. Most teams, if you’re not running to the ball, that’s an easy touchdown.

You see it always on like that’s just that should have been a touchdown. But the effort to the ball gives us a chance to have another chance to play another down. So that’s what we try to tell our guys. Just get the ball down. I think that’s what you saw in the USC game. The ball broke. We didn’t get it down. If you don’t get it down, you have no chance to call another play. So but you’re right. Coaches, players. I don’t think it’s a dictatorship. Maybe when you played a long time ago, it is. I think it’s more a partnership and we got to do a good job. We’re all accountable for this thing and we’re all accountable for the results at the end.

On his concern level for Rod Moore’s status moving forward

Yeah, to me, I’m excited for Rod. I think everybody’s being cautious with him right now. And I think he’s in great spirits. And I think we have a great medical team here. We just want to do right by the kid because he’s done such a great job here for us here. So I think he’s progressing the right way, running and all that stuff.

We just want to make sure we do right by him. He has a bright future. He had a great career so far. I think his career is just getting started. So we’re just trying to do a good job and just making sure that he feels comfortable. He feels right when he gets back on the field. So to me, I think that’s just kind of what you got to do as coaches. Like I said before, right?

Are you are you transactional or are you transformational as a coach? Sometimes, as a coach, of course, you want the guy out there playing and all that stuff. But is that the best thing for him? And if it’s not, I think at the end of the day, winning games matter. But the kid matters a little bit more. So I’m just going to support whatever what’s going on. And I think he’s in a good spot. I think he’s moving in the right direction. And I think he’ll be back the way he wants to be really soon.

On whether there’s any thought of Rod Moore potentially redshirting this season

Well, I thought he redshirted last year. So I don’t know if he could he can do that anymore. He played as a true freshman. I think he played three games. I mean, he played three years straight. Then he redshirted last year. And then this year he would have to be like a — I don’t know how that works. But yeah, that’d be like a medical or something like that. I have no idea.

I don’t think we have talked about that at all. You know, Rod was a high NFL draft pick three or two years ago. I think he’s chasing, you know, trying to get ready for the NFL, and also trying to have a senior season that propels him to have a great Senior Bowl. A great combine. I think that’s probably his focus. Not like he wants to get back to play so he can be moving in the right direction, not shutting it down.

Does that make sense? Because, you know, some kids just shut it down, say I’m done, but that’s not what he’s doing. He wants to come back, play games, compete, help us win a championship and then and then get ready for the draft and all that stuff.