TRANSCRIPT: Michigan's Jimmy Rolder, Wink Martindale pre-Citrus Bowl media availability

Opening Statement

MARTINDALE: Okay. How’s everybody doing? I hope you had good holidays and continue to have them. Happy New Year. We’ve been preparing for this for a while now, and it’s coming all together, and we’re excited about playing this game. That’ll open it up for questions.

On meeting Kyle Whittingham

ROLDER: You know, it was more of a brief introduction, I think. Just getting to know him, he was introducing himself, his background. It wasn’t more than that, and I think the conversations that you’re kind of looking for are coming down the road. But for now, that’s all it was.

On what fans should know about this team

MARTINDALE: I can’t speak for the team, but I guess I can. Defensively, we take great pride in how hard we play, and to show the joy of the game. So, I think that’s why this game will be entertaining to watch.

You have some really good players on the field, both sides, and our guys love to compete, and they’ve been doing it all during bowl prep, and it’s nothing new to us. We don’t have to ramp up because it’s a game, because that’s just how we are, and how we do it.

On the leadership stepping up in the last month

MARTINDALE: I think a bunch of different guys. Ray, Benny, Jimmy, you know, which I knew that. I called that shot two years ago. Just each position group has somebody stepping up. I mean, Dom Nichols, a young guy that’s really prepared and has gotten better. The last two weeks even, and I’m excited to see him play. The secondary, Shug, Jyaire Hill, he’s a natural leader. TJ Metcalf.

On what stands out about Texas offense

MARTINDALE: You look at the quarterback. I mean, he’s a very talented young man, respect to that entire family for with his two uncles and his dad, which they said Coop was the better athlete out of all three of them. But their offense is explosive.

It’s one of those things, though, it’s like, remember, well, maybe, maybe, oh yeah, there’s people my age. When you had that box of cereal, you didn’t know what the surprise was. It’s the same thing going against that offense. You’re not sure who’s going to be there, but they’re going to be very talented and it’s going to be a great challenge for us.

ROLDER: I mean, you put it the best way you could. I mean, there’s talent in each position group, you know, there’s playmakers, but respect to the quarterback and just what they got because they’re a great team. We respect them. That’s pretty much it.

On the value of Wink Martindale’s NFL experience

ROLDER: Just obviously learning so much just in terms of football, but honestly, it’s more just life advice that, that I get from them, just how to navigate different things that happen and Wink will always keep it real with you. So it’s just nice being, like having someone to be honest and give it to you straight and just help you navigate through life. And that’s what he’s done so far.

On Jimmy Rolder’s NFL prospects

He’s gonna be a draft choice, a high draft choice. He’s an excellent football player.

On defensive players missing the bowl game

MARTINDALE: Well, I mean, that’s a good analogy to it. It’s about how the kids just love playing football. That ‘s a great analogy to it. But every year is different. I think we’re gonna be missing three guys off the defense and other guys have stepped right up and guys that everybody’s seen, Michigan people here that they’ve seen play all year. That’s one thing is we played a lot of different individuals. So it’s gonna be fun to watch.

On how the team has handled the last few weeks

MARTINDALE: I don’t know if you handle it is the right word. I mean, it’s a tough situation. It’s a tough situation because when, first of all, I know what we signed up for in coaching, in the profession itself, moving, my wife has moved enough, but it was tough.

It’s hard because of not only the relationships that you have, we’ve become family because we actually spend more time as far as the coaches themselves, the assistants, more time together than we do with our families, and I’m to the point where I want to look out for them. I want to get them a job and whatever, however, whatever else comes from it, but they’re professionals. They prepared the same way for this game as they have every other game, but it’s like, I was talking to Jimmy about it.

With Twitter and everything else, it’s entertainment for people to see, see all this, but I’m getting emotional talking about it. It’s real life, there’s little ones that have to be uprooted from school and things like that, so it sucks, but you can see how I handled it.

On whether college football is sustainable

I have no idea if it’s sustainable or not. You look at it as a fan, and you say, oh, there really was money there. You know what I mean? And it’s become so transactional now, and the transactional part everybody understands when I say everybody, the parents and the kids, they understand it, but they still have their, I don’t want to say high school mentality, but younger mentality. Now there’s kids getting NIL deals in high school, too. It’s crazy, but it’s going to be a challenge. It really is.

It’s going to be a challenge, and I think it’s good for the game. I do think it’s good for the game, but I think, one, like for example, one of the challenges are that the kids that sign these NIL deals, they’re going to be treated like pros. I mean, for long, you’ll see their NIL deals in the paper.

You’ll see all the different, just like the NFL and I think they have to have a salary cap, sometime, at one point, they have to do it. They have to cap it, I would think, but it’ll be interesting to follow it. I just know that it’s a great game, the game of football, and I reflect back now instead of looking forward, and I love this game, and I hope that it trends, it keeps trending in the right direction, but you’re worried about the money part of it.

On the EDGE position

MARTINDALE: Yeah, you’ve got TJ.A nd there’s other young guys that we’re gonna get to see live in action, and I’m looking forward to it, but the edge, they’re gonna be—we missed Jay Stu this past year, but we replaced, you know what I mean? It’s a fun group to watch.