Everything Jim Harbaugh said about Michigan football with Indiana up next

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan football is as good as it can be as it enters Week 6, with five games down and five wins. After the first road trip of the season, the Wolverines will stay out of Ann Arbor, traveling to Bloomington this week to take on a 3-2 Indiana Hoosiers team.

On Monday, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh both looked forward as well as looked back to the Wolverines’ Week 5 win at Iowa, sharing more about what he liked from that game, as well as what the maize and blue need to do to improve to 6-0 this week.

Here is everything Harbaugh had to say.

What he sees from the Indiana offense and QB Connor Bazelak

Throwing the ball really well, throwing it a lot. 250 some — 240-250 pass attempts, eight touchdowns. They trust him to throw the ball, really good receivers and running backs. And they’re throwing it more than they’re running, so I don’t know exactly what his average is, but challenge from passing game and the running game. And he’s big, tall, a guy that can make all the throws to all parts of the field and he’s not afraid to let her rip. Eight touchdown passes. He’s just having a good start to the season.

Did he see what happened to Roman Wilson injury-wise vs. Iowa?

Yeah, I saw it.

What happened on that play?

Same thing you saw.

Is he OK?

I think so. We’ll — once again, we don’t talk about everybody’s health status. That’s not my job to do.

Thoughts on Paul Chryst being fired by Wisconsin

I think he’s done a tremendous job there, that was really shocking. But I don’t have any comment on that. Just coach this team here, which I’m really pleased with. I’m really pleased with the way the guys are playing.

You can really see them — be interested to see if you see the same thing, if it comes through on TV, what I see on the field. Being around these guys in the locker room and the way they play, it’s just, I mean, they really play for each other. They care about each other and they play to win for each other. It’s really becoming evident with this team 143, and we’re just get back to work, get back to preparing like we do and get ready for Indiana.

Is he encouraged by Blake Corum's play?

Yeah, I think he’s checking every box he could check, as an every down back, as a short yardage back, as a versatile back. And he can run all the assortment of the runs. He can make the inside runs, he can run the outside runs he can protect, he can block, he can catch out of the backfield. He’s a five-tool running back, does it all.

How has Mike Hart impacted the running backs?

Just a really good coach and he’s really good football coach who works extremely hard at the game. Contributes in so many ways — game day, day-to-day, coaching guys in the running game, in the pass game, always has really good, sound ideas and really good teacher, communicator, expert at protections and blitz pickups. Coaching the guys how to play the running back position, but it’s a lot more than that. I mean, it’s a lot more than just being able to coach a position. Go-to guy for me and the rest of the staff. He’s really good at what he does.

Thoughts on Luke Schoonmaker

Just does everything, everything really well. I thought Luke — I mean, I talked about, at the beginning of the summer, Luke, I think is one of the best tight ends in the country. I thought his main competition would be Erick All, but he’s even better and I thought. He’s fast. He’s physical, a dedicated blocker, but also has really good hands and the ability to get good separation, get open, carry separation, make tough catches. And a team player all the way and he’s an outstanding player — he’ll be playing on Sundays. All really good stuff. Maybe before it’s said and done, one of the best tight ends to ever play here. That’s what I’m seeing right now.

Is Indiana a trap game?

Just attacking the day. We know it’ll be a big, big challenge. IU’s a darn good football team, always, always played us tough and good, similar to Iowa. Ton of respect for how they play. Consider them a blue-collar team that always has a lot of talented guys, and is really well-coached. So we’re gonna have to play good. It’s always gonna come down to that.

However, whatever tag you put on a game, it comes down to if you play good, coach good and make sure that we’re prepared good. All the teams we play — this week, next week, every week after — we play good, we got a really good chance of winning, if we don’t play good, we got a really good chance to get beat.

Would he rather start fast or build?

I don’t know about that. We’re just coming out of the gate starting fast. That’s something we definitely want to be about. And I thought we were in this game. For the coaches to put together that opening drive, just one play after another, positive play, just all the offensive coaches — Sherrone, Matt, Mike, Ron. I mean, just a really, really tremendous job — Grant Newsome, analyst Kurt Campbell was great. Brett Ingalls — all the guys. John Morookian — take a deep long bow and honor them — that was really good. Really good.  First, starting out that plan, it was well-prepared. It was well-thought out. It was well-practiced. That’s how we want to start it. That’s how we want to start a football game — offensive line coming off the ball. And I thought we did a good job, too. I mean, we made some adjustments as the game went on. And so yes, definitely want to be about starting fast.

On Trevor Keegan's return

I thought No. 77 out there was really good. As well as Gio El-Hadi has been playing, it was even noticeably really good with Trevor back in there. And the whole line, it’s a group that’s I feel like the chemistry is really coming together with that group. Selfless group. I mean they bring a lot of juice, bring a lot of energy to the team, but they do it in a really good, cohesive manner. Trente Jones, I think it’s the third week I’ve stood up here and said that was his best game that he’s played. And Ryan Hayes, as well. It’s just another that both tackles are really, really good in the game Olu also played really well. As a group, they’re continuing to gain a lot of momentum.

How the defense helps the offense prepare for different looks

The different looks, you get more zone coverage, more quarters, more coverage, more cover three. There’s also the man principles, the two-high principles. It’s definitely — not to compare but yeah. There’s definitely more looks, I think that’s a valuable, a credible statement.

Thoughts on Mike Sainristil

Mikey, really good. Mike Sainristil has been playing really good and there’s a ton of growth, he’s starting. And then there’s some learning experiences, too but it’s been very arrow up. Acquitting himself really good, better than you could anticipate and even better than we hoped for and continue to learn.

He gave up one in the game where he had outside leverage. He’s got to keep his outside leverage and he can’t go for that little stick move at the top of a route when he has outside leverage. And those are good, valuable learning experiences and the thing about Mike is he will learn from it. He will admit that’ll be a part of his game going forward and he’s never ever been an error repeater. Which is so valuable for any player.

Make a mistake once that’s OK. Make a mistake twice, shame on you. Make a mistake once, shame on me, make mistake twice, shame on you. I know it’s the other way around! Football, I think it’s that way. In life, I think it’s the other way. In football I think it’s shame on me the first time, shame on you the second time. See what I mean? We didn’t coach that well enough. Second time, no sense to be an error repeater and that’s what they say about Mike Sainristil, is he learns from everything and he is not an error repeater.

Thoughts on the Tua Tagovailoa situation in Miami

Like everybody, you’re not there, you don’t know. I’m sure there will be investigations. It’s not what anybody really wants, anybody want to have happened, I’m sure some heads will roll and deservedly so. But that’s just looking in from the keyhole, like we all are. And not knowing everything about it, but it should have never happened.

Does he weight culture vs. talent when bringing in a transfer?

Yeah, we weigh both those things.

Assessing Eyabi Okie before he came in

Yeah, talent, tangibles. Both those things.

Thoughts on Eyabi Okie playing more

He’s more and more each week — he had an outstanding game, him and Mike Morris. You look at the critical drive there at the end and I think all four plays were made by those two guys. Whether it was the sack or the pressure that led to the sack, or making the ball come out quick. Just really good.

Mike Mo — he led the way. At halftime, he was really getting everybody fired up. And then it’s one thing to talk the talk but then as I said, walk the walk. Way better. It’s awesome. I’m really happy for Mike, really happy for Eyabi. I know we had a stretch in there where the pressure kind of went away for a quarter or so, but it really came back right when we needed it.

He’s growing, he’s growing. I mean, anybody could tell that that definitely arrow up on Eyabi.

Story originally appeared on Wolverines Wire