Everything Michigan OC Chip Lindsey said during his fall camp press conference

Michigan offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey met with the media after the team’s first week of fall practice.

Timeline for naming a starter at quarterback

I think you always want to know as soon as you can — that’s the goal. We have a good plan for competition and getting guys reps. More than just reps, we’re putting them in different situations.

That takes time. For instance, you have so many days of what they call install — usually base downs and so forth.

But then as you get to third down, or red zone, you don’t do that early in camp. So for us, we’re trying to rotate those guys, put them in all those different situations, and see how they respond. The key to playing quarterback is understanding situational football and making great decisions.

They’re all competitive, they’re all smart, and they’re doing a great job when they get their reps. But when the heat’s on and you’re in tight moments, who can run the team and make the best decisions — that’s the key.

Comparing to UNC QB situation

We made a decision probably a couple weeks before we played, and then we had an injury in the first game of the season — lost him for the year. That’s why the competition was so important, to get those other guys reps.

As the season went on, we ended up playing two more guys and finally settled on the one who, coming out of camp, was our third quarterback. You have to be prepared. I had another season at Arizona State where we had to play five different quarterbacks due to injuries.

So getting them all prepared, getting them reps and opportunities — that’s important to us, and that’s what we’re doing.

Changes to the QB room since spring

We’ve got two new guys now in the mix. In the spring, with only two quarterbacks getting reps, it was pretty easy to rotate them. Now we’re getting all the guys involved, and it’s been good.

Jake’s new — he’s been here maybe a month — and you can tell he’s experienced. He carries himself well.

Mikey’s the same way. He’s really good with the little things — handling the huddle, communication, preparation. Both of those guys have helped the younger players, including Bryce and Jadyn, by showing them how to prepare.

If we’re talking about a specific play, I might make a point, and then Mikey, who I’ve worked with before, might add something too. It’s a collaborative room where everyone’s trying to help each other.

But at the end of the day, it’s still a competition — and everyone understands that.

What he’s seen from Bryce Underwood

I think very, very advanced for his age from a standpoint of, I think he had good high school coaches. I think he’s trained physically, obviously, he looks the part and all that. But really, I think the surprise for me, football knowledge really high for a 17-year-old or a high school kid that just got here, pretty impressive.

Now, learning our terminology and why we call certain things certain things and so forth, there’s been some learning process there. But the guy’s a football junkie, and really, he’s here early and stays late, and loves to study football, and this is a good place to do that.

On adding Jake Garcia

I think we’re looking for some experience, and with Mikey not getting to participate in the spring, and hoping, we weren’t sure at the time, and I think just adding some pieces to the puzzle. Davis (Warren) obviously being down for a while, now we’ve got some experience in that room that at least a couple guys that have played a lot. If not, then you were gonna be one less of that, and then if Mikey lingered or whatever, then you’d be in some trouble.

So I think really just providing depth in that room.

Michigan’s defense helping Bryce

We’re fortunate we have a defense coordinator here that’ll present a lot of things for the quarterback, so he’s gonna get anybody who’s playing quarterback for us. Wink’s been awesome to work with, though. We help each other, give each other the looks we need, and so forth. But I think it’s good.

We get to practice against good players every day in practice, and it’s hard. It’s not easy, and we hope if you make it hard in practice, you go into the games and you build some experience that way. Seeing the different looks, seeing different coverages, different pressures, and so forth.

But at the same time, the way we see it, it’s a team game. We want the quarterback to do his job and make plays when it makes sense. But at the same time, he doesn’t have to do too much, whoever the quarterback is.

Just make plays, make the routine throws, get us in and out of the right plays when we need to, and really take care of the football. If we do those things, we’ll be successful, no matter who it is.

Wide receivers taking a step

It’s a little early in training camp. But I think for us, we need those guys to take a step. But we also need to take a step at other positions to help them, right?

Quarterback, offensive line, and being able to run the ball like we need to, to help take some pressure. But I see those guys really, really pushing themselves to improve every day. Ron Bellamy does a great job with it.

There’s competition there that we’re rotating some guys. And in training camp, you’re still trying to figure out your team, right, okay, these guys are good at these things. They’re good at those things, try to get them to do them over and over and over.

I like that song. But I think that’s the key, is what do we do well? And then how do we do it over and over and over? And then how does it fit that week, schematically, who you’re playing? And right now, we’re just trying to identify that.

It’s good, you get a lot of guys, a lot of reps, mix them in with each other, different quarterbacks and different lines. And get a lot of reps, and then sit down and evaluate. I think tomorrow’s an off day for the players. So, as a staff, we’ll be able to start maybe doing some of that. But really, we’ve had one day in pads, so there’s still a lot to look at.

Guys who have impressed since summer conditioning

What’s been cool for me is seeing some of the guys that got here late. Like Jacob Washington comes to mind, a young receiver. I didn’t know much about him. Obviously, all through spring, I’d watched his film and seen who he was. These new guys that are getting here on campus was for the first time. That’s what’s been impressive, because sometimes you forget.

Now, the norm is guys come early, but some can’t do that. And so that’s been cool. All our players, they set goals, the strength staff, nutrition staff for the off season. We have the best in the country at doing that with our nutritionists and strength staff working together to try to help guys. Some guys need to lean up, some guys need to gain weight. As a unit, it’s impressive watching those guys grow.

For one guy that sticks out, I don’t know. We have some linemen that have changed their bodies. But at the end of the day, for us, it’s just a matter of finding that right combination of those guys up front as well. There’s no set weight. Each player decides what weight they play the best with the help of the nutritionists and staff and go from there.

More on decision to add Garcia

It’s just when you go through spring with two guys and you start looking around, wow, that’s a lot of reps. We had to cut individual in the spring because too many throws and the reps and so forth. So just really building some depth, and not just depth from bodies, but quality depth, guys that maybe have played a little bit.

Seeing our situation that we had at the moment with Jadyn and Bryce. Hey, we need a couple guys that have played. But at the same time, we want to take the right person too. There was some opportunity to take some guys earlier that we kind of passed on. But at the end of the day, I thought Jake was a great fit for us. And I didn’t really know him. I had recruited him a little bit a long time ago. But he’s been a great addition. He’s got a great attitude. He’s still learning, but a lot of fun to be around. He’s fit well in the room.

Mikey Keene’s health

He’s coming along great now. But at that time, I was worried about it. And when you look at pure numbers, we wanted to add one more anyway.

Can Keene win the job?

I think so. One thing, he’s got his experience, right? He didn’t miss those opportunities. But in some ways, we got Jadyn and Bryce a ton of reps because of it. Mikey has played in an offense that is similar from a passing game standpoint. So I think that opportunity is still there for him.
We’ll just see how it plays out.

Not looking ahead to Oklahoma

I’ll be honest. I hadn’t even thought about that yet. We’re just trying to go through our install.
And New Mexico is our first game. I know it sounds cliché, but it’s the first game. That’s what we’re kind of worried about.

How Haynes and Marshall complement each other at RB

I think they’re both great kids, and they’re good players, both of them. And I think they complement each other because they push each other, but at the same time, they’re supportive of each other. Two guys that have both—Jordan getting some carries there toward the end of the season. Obviously, that’s helped him develop for sure. I think Justice got a few more carries last year, but that’s a good duo to have.

We’re excited. They’re both every-down backs, in my opinion, that can be in there first, second, and third down. Protections are good, and they’re smart and competitive. They understand they need each other. When you’ve got two guys like that, and maybe some other guys coming along behind them, I think it’s a good issue to have because you’re going to need them. It’s a long season.

Adding CJ Hester and John Volker

Some depth. When you look at it, just having quality depth, not just bodies, is important to us. And we were able to do that. Those two guys, their head’s spinning a little bit right now as far as figuring everything out. But they both were successful at their previous stops, and hopefully they’ll add something to the room for sure and help us. And like I said, you never know.

We’ve got to prepare all of them to play just in case.

Experience and rotation at wide receiver

I think our goal is to have, if you were really trying to, if in a perfect world, you want six guys who you feel really good about playing all the time and letting them kind of rotate. Hard for those wideouts to play 70 snaps a game, 80, whatever it is.

Because it’s a lot of running involved in there. And here at Michigan, we’re going to go block some, too. So they’re going to have to be physical. So I think for us, it’s getting (Kendrick) Bell back, having the guys we had this spring. That was huge. That helps us some, I think.

But at the end of the day, it’s a really good competition. And they’re being pushed on, hey, do we get lined up right? Do we convert the route right? If it’s a choice route or something like that. And competition’s good for everybody. And I think that’s the key.

Donaven McCulley as a leader

He’s a former quarterback. He’s got a good demeanor about him from that standpoint. I think, too, for him, getting here in the spring, going through the spring with us and getting the opportunity to learn the offense has been huge.

He’s got a lot of talent. He’s rangy. He can run. So it’s just, for him, just becoming the best version of him, I think, is what we’re pushing him to be. And he’s accepting that challenge for sure.

Max Bredeson’s role

I think he’s one of the best blockers in the country, in my opinion. But what’s surprising is he’s got really good speed. He can get vertical quick. Big, rangy target. You like that as a quarterback. Obviously, a lot easier if a guy’s covered and throw it in the spot and let him go get it.

But the guy’s just kind of a dirty work, blue pale, lunch pale kind of guy, or blue collar guy. And just love his attitude and approach. He likes the physicality of the position. And I think that’s probably why him (Marlin Klein) and Max play off each other so well. They’re both wired the same way. But really talented kid. I’m excited to coach him, and hopefully he’ll have a big role in our offense.

Golfing with Wink Martindale

We talk football some. Most of the time, it’s an opportunity for he and I to spend some time together. And it’s a lot of fun.

He’s competitive. He likes to have a little wager on it every now and then, which is fun. But he’s been great.

Wink and I hit it off from the very beginning and spent a lot of time together. I think that’s important. You got to build that continuity and build that relationship. It’s a team game. We need the offense. We need the defense. We need the special teams. We all work together to win a game. And no egos, man. We’re just trying to win, and that’s the most important thing to us.

How Dominic Zvada impacts the offense

I think any time you have one of the best kickers in the country, which I believe he is, when you’re talking situational football, during training camp is a great time to do that. We get so much time with him right now. We have meetings.

We can go in there and teach different parts of the game in front of the whole group, the whole team. Talking about quarterback play — hey, we’re in field goal range. We’re going to be really smart with the ball. If we got a shot to throw it in the end zone for a touchdown, great. If not, check the ball down to the back, right? Don’t take a sack.

Those things you’re trying to teach, especially the couple young guys we have in the room. So he’s impressive. Dominic, he’s impressive. Can really boom it. So definitely it’s something that goes into game plans and understanding. And I think it’s important for our players to understand that part of situational football.

I’ve been in places before where you have to get a lot closer before you have really. So you might go for it on fourth down some and so forth. But I think, what did he kick, seven over 50 last year or something like that. It’s unbelievable. So definitely a big part of our team for sure.

Criteria for starting quarterback

I think whoever affects the other ten guys the best. Whoever can manage the whole offense, communication, like I said, getting us in and out of the right place, making sure our protections, we’re in the right protection and so forth. And just kind of who has that ability to affect the others.

I think playing quarterback is such a leadership-type position. Right? You’ve got to have the right mindset. You’ve got to have the right approach. The best guys that I’ve had, they’re not always just the loudest and guys that holler and scream. They’re the guys that can motivate the other guys.
And also learning what guys, how guys, certain guys are motivated. Some guys don’t like to be called out in front of people. Some guys, you’re better off getting them on the side.

And I think the quarterback, and all these guys we have lucky in this room, they’re smart, they’re great people, they’re great kids, and they want to win. But in the heat of battle, who handles those stressful situations the best? And I think Sherron’s done a really nice job of laying out practice and trying to put our quarterbacks and our team in those situations throughout training camp before we get into games.
There’s nothing that replaces playing a game. But at the same time, as a coach, you’re trying to do everything you can do to put them in those adverse situations. And I think the guy that does that the best will be the guy that we’ll go with.

Finding 10 guys for offensive line

I think we’re still trying to figure out exactly how those pieces work, but probably a little more solidified than we were then. We’re looking for those — we really love to have 10 guys that can play that you can feel good about without disrupting the other guys. What I mean is if you lose one of them, and you have to take a guy from another position, how much does that disrupt your communication up front?

Realistically, if we can get eight or nine guys that we can settle on, that can rotate in — you’re always kind of looking for three guards, three tackles, two centers, kind of a deal. And we may have the opportunity to have more than that when it’s all said and done. A lot of those guys played some last year, and they’re taking that next step, and that’s what we’re kind of pushing them to do.

House settlement on

Not really, I’m recruiting them, and trying to sell them on what we’re about, what Michigan’s about, and then we kind of let — we got other people that handle those conversations. I think it’s a good thing. I think it’s a good thing for a lot of schools that now we do have some regulation on it, and it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out moving forward. But just being honest, I don’t really have a lot of conversations about those things with the players. And really, a lot of those players don’t have those conversations.

They got representation. Some parents, but for me, it’s just, hey, here’s what we’re about. If you love football, you wanna come here, and who wouldn’t wanna come to a place like this and play? And we got a lot of people that are interested all over the country, but very little conversations from that standpoint.

On a potential game in Germany

I’ve never been to Europe, never been to that part of the world — it’s kind of cool. It’s a long ways away right now, but I did read that somewhere. For now, I’m really focused on what we’re doing each and every day, and just really blessed to be here and excited about what we’re doing. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.