Tag: Donovan Edwards

Availability 8/7/22

Weiss:
All right. Good afternoon, guys. Appreciate you coming out on a Sunday. Fire away

Q:
How was the quarterback competition looking early particularly JJ, considering we didn’t see him at all in the spring.

Weiss:
So JJ definitely working his way back into it. I think we’re blessed to have two guys that would start at most places. We have two really good quarterbacks and the best best players gonna play. And I would say, they’re both really improved. You look at last fall Cade has improved physically. Just like any player, he’s gotten better mentally with experience. He’s playing at a really high level. And then JJ has done the same thing. So we’re in a great position with with both those guys.

Q:
We were just talking to Sherrone about the system that you guys have for calling plays. How does that work with two play callers? And what are the mechanics of how that’s gonna go?

Weiss:
I think it’s really a blessing for us to have. It’s another another Jim Harbaugh stroke of genius. He’s found a way to have two where everyone else has one. And I think we work really well together, we’re very collaborative. I know, Sherrone is a great resource for me and I try to be a great resource for him. And I think so far, we’re really happy with where the offense is and where we’re going. We have the same vision, all on one accord. And I think it’s exciting. I know, I’m glad that he’s here with me, he’s a great coach. And hopefully, he would tell you the same thing.

Q:
Has there been any limitations with JJ in terms of his arm?

Weiss:
So we monitor all of our guys in terms of how many throws they have in practice even Cade, you know, we put a lot into that in terms of not only counting reps, but also making sure that everything they take out, they’re putting back in with, you know, exercises and you know, throwing it stress on the arm, just the act of throwing the ball. It’s a weighted object. And it’s the unweighted deceleration. So we do everything we can to make sure that they’re putting putting everything back in back into their arms and taking care of their bodies. And JJ is on the exact same plan as everybody else.

Q;
With JJ is work with Tom house, what did you pick up from him? In terms of treating a shoulder correctly and throwing mechanics etc?

Weiss:
Yeah, so I’ve tried to become a student of, of Tom and also, John back, it’s been a great resource for us. And they’re kind of from the same from the same tree. Tom taught John a lot of what he knows. And I’ve tried to learn as much as I can from from those guys, and just continue the process of learning. And it’s certainly it’s helped me be a better coach and resource for those guys. And I think that’s helped make them better quarterbacks.

Q:
Did he teach you I mean, you know, not overthrowing quarterbacks is that you know, like, JJ was talking about coming in after games and throwing until 2 in the morning- not doing that anymore?

Weiss:
That’s not something we’re doing anymore. Yeah, That’s right.

Q:
How much time is Kalel Mullings spending on offense so far? I know it’s early. But he’s still working both both sides of the ball?

Weiss:
Yeah, he’s splitting his time with both sides of the ball. I think he could be a talented guy, right, do anything that he wanted to. But I think he’d be a really, really high level back if he if that’s what he committed himself to. And right now he’s doing everything we asked, obviously, it’s hard when you’re splitting time to be kind of master both. But he’s finding a way to do that. And we’re spending extra time with him, we’re excited about what he can potentially add to an already talented backfield.

Q:
What are his attributes as a running back?

Weiss:
So he’s a bigger back, right, we have kind of an embarrassment of riches in the backfield with with Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards who, you know, both guys who will likely be playing at the next level, but they’re not 200 and however many pounds Kalel is, you know, he’s a really big physical guy. So he gives you that presence that obviously, we know, we had a lot of success with Hassan last year. You know, we’re not saying that Kalel is going to be a Hassan we’re just asking him to Kalel. But he adds a [different] element [from] the other two really talented players.

Q:
Sherrone mentioned the distribution of his workload when it comes to recruiting and being an offensive coordinator now relative to when he was just a position coach. I’m wondering from from your perspective, like with quarterback being such a individualistic type position, how involved you have to be with that recruiting given that you know, it is such a unique spot and what type of pressure is there because of how much attention is on that position?

Weiss:
So, recruiting is really important because we all understand that the quality of your players is the biggest input into your program. So that’s something that that we all have responsibility to do. And it’s something that I take pride in. It’s also something that I’m learning a lot about, it’s not something that I did. You know, for last 15 years, I was coaching football, and trying to get better at that. And that’s what I was invested in. And certainly if I was in college football, I’d have 15 years of recruiting experience, I’d be a lot better at that just like, just like any job, but I think I’m figuring out and learning fast and to answer your question with the quarterbacks yes, that’s what I’m focused on recruiting. And fortunately, we’re not in a position where, because of what we’re just talking about Cade and JJ, we have other guys who are really talented. We’re not not looking to take a transfer, like some other programs or anything like that we’re in a good place and happy with where things are.

Q:
You mentioned in your intro having the same vision, what is that vision?

Weiss:
Yeah, so our vision is directly from Coach Harbaugh, if you look at his history of teams, and the culture that’s here in Michigan, that’s the vision for the offense, I think you can see the evolution of that last year with what Sherrone did with the offensive line, and how physical they were last year. And the way he coached, you know, gap schemes. And I think that’s kind of the calling card of Michigan football- it’s an all weather conference, you have to be able to play in the cold, in the rain, and certainly running the ball, you know, as a part of that. And then running the ball sets up the pass game, you know, it’s a lot easier to throw the ball, when you can run the ball, it’s a lot harder to throw the ball when you can’t run the ball. And even when you look at the best passing teams in the NFL, which is more of a passing League, you know, they still run the ball, right? Because, because that’s part of the passing game.

Q:
Do you want to replicate what you did last year? Or do you want to expand beyond that? I mean, how are you?

Weiss:
Yeah. So I think any good offense will continue to evolve. So last year, you guys saw an evolution of the offense, right? We were different than previous years. And so that’s the starting point, right? There weren’t any wholesale changes, we still have the same system, same ways of calling everything, but there’s areas that we’re looking at to get better. And it’s going to be a continued continued evolution, you’re gonna see things since do things this year that you didn’t see last year, just like last year, you saw things that you didn’t see the year before. And I think you have to do that, because right now, you know, every team we play is looking at our tape, right? And they’re, they’re finding a way to exploit us and the stuff that worked last year, you know, may not be as good. But you know, we still want to, we still want to be great at that. And we want to have new things to be good at. So that’s kind of of the vision.

Q:
At Big 10 media days Coach Harbaugh talked about your perspective on football and the ideas you brought in, where did that form for you? And what about your time at Stanford contributed to the ideas that you bring to Michigan?

Weiss:
So I think my time at Stanford, obviously, I was really young, it was a formative type of coaching experience, where you’re still figuring out what you want to do as a coach and professionally that was my first introduction to coaching. So it helps, I learned kind of Jim’s vision for things, you know, his culture, and then that was like, kind of the core of, of what I started to believe and then I’d go to his brother, they’re a little bit different as people but they’re way more similar than they are different. They believe all the same things, all the core values are the same. Their vision for things is exactly the same. And so I’ve been fortunate to be indoctrinated my whole career with a great philosophy that works. And, you know, they’re both great head coaches, Jim, I think doesn’t really get the credit he deserves in terms of the coach that he is, and I would just credit credit both of them with anything that I bring is the only thing I’ve known for as long as I’ve been coaching.

Q:
How is the make-up of the team this year different? How is it similar?

Weiss:
Yeah, so the personnel is similar and that’s a lot of the same guys. And certainly, we hope that just like I mentioned, Cade is significantly improved, we hope that all our players are improved and that’s going to allow us to be more effective with better players even other the same players and and to do more and certainly, you’re gonna see very similar very similar personnel. It’s kind of the same guys.

Q:
With all the time you spent in the NFL and the NFL kind of being defined starter and backup quarterback league as opposed to timeshare type stuff. How do you feel about splitting the time at the position- would you be more comfortable if there was a defined starter and a backup- where the bulk of your experience is – would you be more comfortable with that?

Weiss:
I think the philosophy here, Sherrone and Jim would tell you the same thing, we will win by any means necessary. So the best players are gonna play, the best quarterback is gonna play, it’s true in any position. But then if there’s something that we can do, if somebody adds an element that we don’t have, just like we’re talking about with with Kalel, we’re gonna use that person. So like you can go back to last year now that’s over and really kind of explain what we were doing with that.

The first thing your backup quarterback had never taken a snap in college football, right? You don’t know when you’re gonna need them. You don’t want to be in a position where the first time you need them is on the road, in a close game against a ranked opponent, and the guy’s never taken a snap, you know that you can look through college football and see that happened to a big 10 team last year. So the first thing is we need to get them on the field, give him experience to develop our backup represents the only way to do that. And then the other thing we did is use him on a lot of quarterback runs- certainly he threw the ball effectively, also, but what that did for him is it controlled the defense, right, if you’re running a lot of quarterback runs, they’re not going to be running, you know, four-to-a-side blitzes and showing him all different types of coverages, but they’re going to make sure they have everything gapped down, they’re going to be more static, that that made things easier for him, right, he didn’t have to go out on, you know, 3rd and 15, with some crazy blitz coming and figure that out, we’re able to control when he was in the game, and what he was doing, and then help him have success, right. So it could build on success. So we were able to develop our backup. But then at the same time, he was able to do things athletically that that helped us, right, he helped us win games. And to his credit, you know, he earned the opportunity to go out there and do that. And he helped us, he helped us win win games, and he was really effective. And he’s a really good player, and he’s gonna be, he’s gonna be really good. So, you know, we’re excited about him in the future. And I mean, it’s hard to see, you know, him being anything, but really, really good at the University of Michigan, whenever it’s time comes, so we’re just gonna continue to develop him. And, you know, he’ll be playing for us at some point it’s just a question of when.

Q:
With regard to quarterback recruiting events, and how much value is assigned to creating an attractive offense for that position?

Weiss:
Yeah, I’m learning about recruiting, I thought that’s what it would all be about. The NFL guys want to go where they have, certainly money is a factor. Right? But, but usually, the money is pretty close on the teams are deciding between them, they pick between, you know, the place that is going to utilize them the best where they’re not the most opportunity to win. And that’s, you know, that’s where they go. And so I certainly thought coming in here, okay, if we can get the offense really good, recruiting would be easy. And then I think one thing I’ve learned is there is a lot of the relationship element to it. Right? Where if if NFL free agent, signed with a team and went to the press conference, and said, You know, I’m just here because I just love this position coach, I mean, this guy, we have a great relationship, we’re up playing like fortnight every morning, you know, every day or two in the morning, and this guy is just awesome. That’s why I’m here. Everybody would be like, what, like, wow, like, what’s wrong with this guy? But, but in college, that’s kind of that’s kind of what happens and something only thing that things are based on but it matters, right? And so I’m learning that figuring out how to do that now certainly, I’m not playing fortnight with anyone at two in the morning. But just like I tell just like I tell the recruits that it’s like the guy that’s playing video games with you at 11 o’clock at night or whatever that’s what he’s going to be doing when he should be trying to help you become a better player and should be game planning and figuring out ways to make the offense go he’s going to be playing fortnight with some 16 year old.

Q:
Do you find that the quarterbacks [recruiting prospects] are receptive to the kind of ideas that you have for the offense and what you’re what you’re planning to do and what they saw last year?

Weiss:
Yeah, I think the guys that fit us are the type of the guys who are successful here. We have a great culture here we have great guys on the team and it’s credit to the Jim obviously but you know it self selects- the guys who do well here the guys who like football the guys who just want to play football that’s what they love to do. And this is like a football like cathedral everything all the football you can you can handle and more. And those are the guys that play self selects for that so you guys are into other stuff, you know, whether it’s, you know, a locker that turns into a bed or flat screen TV and your Yeah, and your locker whatever it is, those guys usually don’t do well here. If they come here, they usually don’t come here. Right. So the same thing with the quarterbacks we get I think I think our types of guys they want to come.

Q:
We heard a lot about the freshmen receivers that in Indianapolis, where are they and their development and considering the breadth of talent, established talent already in the wide receiver room, what did they need to do to be able to see the field in year one?

Weiss:
So I think I think those guys all have great futures. The three freshmen are the ones we’re talking about, right? Omarion and Tyler, right, and Darrius. So all three of them have bright futures, all three of them are gonna play. If we can find a role for them, where they can help us we’ll do that right now. Obviously, this is week one, a training camp, they’re they’re trying to learn the offense, and we’re trying to see what they can do really well and how we can use them. And, you know, there’s guys ahead of them on the depth chart, but they all have bright futures. And I mean, they’re, they’re talking about guys, so we’re like our types of guys, there’s three guys who fit here are gonna who are gonna be really successful. Guys are all football- great, guys. Those guys are going to be good and we’ll find it we’ll find a role to use them. Anyway, we can

Q:
In your opinion, what are the top traits that makes a successful starting quarterback?

Weiss:
So the way I kind of look at it is so first of all, you have two things you can’t that or you can’t really do much about you know, you can improve them, certainly but but it’s hard to really move the needle which is kind of which is mobility and in arm strength.

You can either throw a football 70 yards or you can’t.

You can either run a certain speed and be able to cut or you can’t.

You always look at that and knowing that those things kind of aren’t gonna change right and then we also look at really accuracy timing decision making.

Those are things that you know, you can potentially improve more but that’s how you kind of look at the skill set so mobility and arm strength knowing that those things are a little bit more fixed accuracy timing decision making knowing you can kind of shape those a little bit more and then obviously the intangibles right leadership what type of guy is he?

Is he a winner?
All the things that you that you want your quarterback to be really all the stuff we have with our guys right with kid. Certainly say you say all this things about Cade. He’s a winner. He has all those intangibles. And that’s what you look for.

Edits made for clarity.