Everything Michigan ST coordinator J.B. Brown said during his pre-Washington press conference

On working with Semaj Morgan to improve punt returns

We’ve been working on correcting it the whole season. He’s done a much better job as the season has progressed. I think we’ve put him in a better spot in alignment purposes pre-snap.

The other thing is some balls have been falling short, some balls have been going long from the punters, just average and norm. So, again, he’s got to continue to work on tracking them. But he’s done a good job of saving field position for us in that sense, though.

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On the lack of explosives from punt returns

Yeah, no doubt. Definitely, we can’t wait to get some more return opportunities, and kick off (opportunities). A lot of the guys, as we go deeper into the season, are kicking the ball out of the — hitting touchbacks, kicking it out of the end zone. When we get an opportunity, we just need to take advantage of it in the return game.

And then continue to work on the consistency of punts, of getting it downfield a little bit further. But I think we’re doing a better job of covering this year than we did last year, even.

On the struggles in the punt game

You watch Hudson in practice, and he’s doing a phenomenal job. He’s becoming that guy. He’s working on the transition from becoming the backup to now the starter. I think you see 13 out of his 22 punts this year have been where we want them to be. The other three were in coffin situations where we’re trying to pin the ball.

So the distance doesn’t need to be there, it’s just accuracy at that point. And then you see about five that we probably want back, at the end of the day. But overall, he’s starting to get accustomed to the starting role. I think you’re going to see the consistency these next six games from him, though.

On whether Hudson Hollenbeck’s preparation has changed or if he’s being coached differently

Yeah, I think we’ve tried a couple different routines with him, and I think he’s finally settled in on where he wants to be. So we’re excited to see how it works this week and how he goes from now.

On the backup punter

Beckham and Marlin both can get in there. So, I think we have plenty of options. The biggest thing about our room is that we love to compete. They’ve been doing a great job at practice and competing with one another. And then we want to put the best product on the field for game day.

On Luke Bauer leaving the program take them by surprise

A little bit. A little bit. At that point in the recruiting season, it was hard to get back onto somebody else. But we got Hunter Robertson out of it, and he’s done a great job. So love Hunter. I’m glad he’s here. We’re excited with where our room’s at right now.

On Hunter Robinson being the fourth punter

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He’s also working in the mix as well. So, you know, I’m sorry to (not) put him out there. But yeah, Hunter, Beckham, all those guys are in there.

On whether he speaks to Dominic Zvada about missing kicks

Yeah, no doubt. I think there’s a fine line on how you deal with it, right, at some point. Dom’s great. I mean, he’s the most accurate kicker in Michigan history at this point in his career. He just needs to continue to do and be him. We have full faith in Dom. And, yeah, we do talk, and he also has a sports psychologist that he works with and whatnot. So he’s been doing great. He’s in good spirits.

We have a ton of faith in him. We’ll put him out there for anything right now.

On whether he’s been pleased with the kickoff unit and whether he wants every kick in the back of the endzone, or whether it’s situational

It’s kind of a bit of both. Obviously, we play some of the best returners in the country. I mean, we have great ones coming up this week with 24 and 1 back there. They’re very good players. And Chris and Greg do a great job at Washington putting really good players back there in position nine. They have also Boston as the punt returner.

So, yeah, there are some times you want to kick it out, but there’s also times where you want to let our coverage play. And we just want to create the best field position as possible for the defense, trying to pin them as deep as we can and make a big play for them.

On the return man having something to do with how kickoffs are handled

It does, yeah. I mean, I think you’ve got to take everything into it, how good their kickoff return unit is and how good the returner is, how good the blockers are. I think you take all that into consideration, how good their offense is as well, and defense, and the flow of the game as well.

On the bad snap on the last Zvada missed field goal

That’s on all of us, right? I got to continue to help them become more consistent, first of all. And then, yeah, it could be a little bit higher, but it still got down.

You know, we got to trust each other in that sense. But, yeah, I mean, we all got to be better in that. I don’t think it was just one person that made that happen.

On how difficult it is to have a clean snap

Yeah, I mean, it seems very simple because it’s always done, repeated, and it’s such a repeated motion. But at times, I mean, weather affects it, wind affects it, everything. There’s an effect to everything that we do. So it is challenging at times, but you just got to continue to go through it and be as consistent as possible.

On whether Hudson Hollenbeck being a professional athlete help him

It is, it is, because he brings a different mindset to the room in that sense. Being a professional athlete prior, you have a different work ethic, you’ve seen things from a different side.

So I think him having that background just helps our room in general, not just himself, because you see how he prepares, you see how he takes care of his body. It’s just a little bit different than a normal kid coming from high school. And to have that within a room, it’s awesome.

On whether he feels there will be opportunities to block punts coming up

We definitely want to be aggressive. We have an aggressive mindset, we want to be aggressive in the return game and in the pressure game. We kind of want to be good at both fronts, if we can.

But yeah, if the game allows us to, the game situation allows us to, we definitely want to be able to do that.

On Troy Bowles’ impact on special teams

He’s been awesome. He’s definitely a four-core guy for us. He’s playing all the units. He’s great, he’s a leader in the room. He comes up for extra film study. You can just see how well he’s done and how he’s progressed throughout the season. He’s become one of our biggest factors to our success.

On whether he wished Joe Taylor had unlimited availability

There’s no doubt I do. I really do. He’s probably one of the best gunners in the country. I mean, obviously, you saw him this whole season. He’s been doubled over and over and over again, and he continues to make plays. He’s great on kickoff. I mean, he’s been great as an off-returner. He’s been a staple back there.

And then on punt return, he’s a guy that handles a lot, that gets everybody lined. He’s able to be a part of everything from the return game to the pressure and all that. So he’s definitely one of our captains.

On whether he believes the special teams unit has played up to his standards

Yeah, I think the kids are trying their best. I think they’re working as hard as they can. We want the results on paper a little bit more, but at the end of the day, we’re going to continue to strive to work on our fundamentals.

Secure the football and create the field position for the offense and defense.

On where he expects the biggest special teams strides to be made

Definitely continue in the punt game within the specialist room. And then obviously continue our coverage, and then in the return, try to create a little bit more explosives with that as we go down the stretch.

On what goes into a player learning how to be a starter

It’s just your routine changes from last year. As the backup, he’s kicking every single day. He’s doing different things. He’s working other scout looks. And then now he’s just solely focused on what we do.

So there’s a little bit of a learning curve, and then your routine changes from what you’ve done from year to year. And then your mentality changes from game day to where it’s now, it’s okay, I could have a punt every 30 minutes. I could have a punt every 10 minutes.

I could have a punt not in the game, right? It’s just learning to be that starter and to be able to control all aspects of your game now.

On when he studies other special teams unit, is it more looking at the college game or the NFL?

Yeah, we look at both parts. We look at both college and NFL. I do think that you can learn a lot from anybody, even high school coaches at that point.

I’ve seen some of the best coaches ever in my life have been high school coaches. So I try to learn from everybody, and we try to take everything from somebody.