Everything Jim Harbaugh said after Michigan football beat Maryland

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It wasn’t a pretty win, but Jim Harbaugh isn’t about to apologize for a win.

Much like in Week 4 in 2022, Michigan football struggled in the Big Ten opener, this time, with Maryland giving the Wolverines everything they could handle. The maize and blue pulled away in the second half by two scores, but with the game getting out of reach, time-wise, the Terps came back with a late score, needing an on-side kick to attempt to get back in to tie or win the game.

But there were some good things. The defense settled in, except for the late drive by Maryland. Blake Corum rushed for 243 yards against his hometown school. The Wolverines had two timely turnovers.

Here is everything Jim Harbaugh said in his postgame press conference.

Thoughts on J.J. McCarthy's game

I think he did a lot of great things. Game on the line throws to Roman, to Ronnie Bell, just to name a couple. Thought he worked the ball to the tight end Schoonmaker. He had a great game, seven catches, career high for him. And then it just kind of settled in, played good, fundamental football.

And Blake Corum — an amazing day for Blake. A lot of guys made big plays. Talked about Ronnie, Roman, DJ Turner comes up with the big interception in the first half, RJ Moten in the second half. And the opening kickoff. it’s a great way to start a game. Great recovery by Matt Hibner. Can’t say we drew it up like that. But it’s great we jumped on their mistake.

Getting punched in the mouth

Getting off blocks, adjusting to tackling their back lower. He runs high and runs hard and they were bleeding out some yardage. Some of those first downs are going for five or six or seven but thought Mazi Smith was exceptional. Stepping up and getting off blocks and creating that run wall, especially when we needed it. We got the key stops when we needed them. s

So it was a great win. I’m super happy about it. I always feel like I do which is best win ever. May never have a better win. And then we’ll get on to Iowa.

Any update on Erick All?

No, no update. For now. He wasn’t able to go today.

Offensive playcalling

Great job, really. Blake’s 243 was seventh in school history, fourth in Michigan history against a Big Ten opponent — in the history of Michigan football. When a back does that now, there’s a lot of — there were some great calls, I thought great, timely third down calls and in red zone calls. I thought was really good.

Before we go too much more, I really want to give a tip of the cap to Olu, Zk Zinter, Ryan Hayes played really good, as expected. But I thought Trente Jones had — this is his best game. I thought last week was his best game. And now this one I think he was even better. And that’s tremendous. Gio El-Hadi — I’m so proud of him. I mean, there’s a local guy for you that stepped in there at left guard. Trevor Keegan wasn’t able to go this week. Four quarters of  really good plays, just ask Ryan Hayes who was playing next to him. Some of those short-yardage plays that went the way for touchdowns. They’re big people in and they had no depth to the defense. But just to stop the penetration from the extra D-line that was in there and then Blake’s great vision. Was able bouncing and see the hole and take it for the touchdown. Those were huge. We needed them all.

Game planning without Erick All and Luke Schoonmaker's play

We always think that Luke is right there with Erick and Erick, right there with Luke as being the top guy in the conference, if not the country at the tight end position. I thought the guys responded great. Luke knew the team needed him and had a heck of a ball game. And then Joel Honigford, he blocked really well, missed a couple, got inside that inside penetration on one. But Max Bredeson really stepped up and so did Colston Loveland — was in there for some key downs. And when Colston is in there, it does not feel like that’s a freshman out there playing. Neither does Max, does not seem like a young player. I mean, they’re really good, really talented players. And they do their jobs. And they do it really well. That was Cole Loveland at the end there, getting the onside kick. That’s being in a high pressure situation. I mean, you’d be nervous a lot of times, that was a freshman doing that but not for Cole.

We’ve got some things to work on, no doubt about it. Always feel good to have something to work out when you get to win. And 4-0 is as good as we can be. Now we will get the answer to the question of can we go on the road and play our first road game in the Big Ten and be successful. And we’ll turn our focus to that. But look for a great week of practice and preparation. Onto Iowa.

Did he learn more about the identity of the offense?

Yeah, I mean, you learn more as you go right? I mean, every single game, every single test, you learn more about your team, you learn more about yourself as a player. So yeah, I think we have.

Jesse Minter's third-down defense

Yeah, so it’s been really good. Jesse and Mike Elston — there were some really good stunts and there was some really good twists and stunts that we do. We like being able to, like any defense, get a team into third down. And they were really good, too.

Taulia was great. Getting out of the pocket, extending plays, stepping up in the pocket, a lot of things to learn from there. We were getting past the quarterback a few too many times. And there, he proved to be really slippery and good. We had some shots to get him back, get him on the ground. But he was tough. It was tough to get him on the ground. And receivers were making plays, and then so did our guys. DJ Turner’s interception was huge. It was a great, great play. So was R.J. Moten’s interception. Mike Sainristil, he got his hands on the PBU he had. Itwas great right there, midfield, important time.

But yeah, we’ll just move onward. Feel like things to improve. Young C.J. Stokes didn’t quite realize it was just how much guys are going for the ball, coming from angles where you don’t see them. And, Blake knows — I mean, Blake had a couple of where they were coming from behind where he didn’t see him, and how he held on to the ball. J.J. had one like that, too, when he fumbled, when he held onto it, which was was really good.

So good things to coach and good learning experiences across the board. Special teams was on point once again. I mean, our special teams unit is really good. I don’t think we’ve had a punt return go over 10 yards in the last five years. Right? It’s incredible. A lot of credit to Brad Robbins and the cover teams and Jay and the staff. You feel like you go into these games motivated with how much pride these guys take in special teams and how hard we worked at it. That’s going to be — you expect win it, you expect to win the special teams battle and our guys did again today, and that was huge and we needed all of it.

We need to clean up some of the calls, some of being in the right spot, being in the right technique or leverage. And we will. That’s probably the biggest thing to clean up. We got ourselves picked a few times. And being in the right leverage, there wasn’t much being called out there today. But to avoid some of that, and where we were lining and getting the call and getting it lined up right.

But it was gritty, just go back to that. Four quarters of every possession — every possession mattered. Every possession was like a basketball game. Every one of them mattered. And, guys hung in and fought and you have character-type building games, and a product of the club today.

Blake Corum carrying the ball 30 times

30 carries, I mean, we knew very well that he could handle that. I mean, nobody trains like he’s trained. This isn’t something that he just goes out and does. I mean, it’s a seven days a week thing for him, year-round. You know, train himself to be in a position to do what he does it’s just great — so proud. Just imagine how proud James Corum is. And I saw him, right behind the bench. There’s a button on the shirt popped. That was really cool. And yeah, the branch doesn’t fall too far from the tree in the Corum family. James Corum being the tree, Blake being the branch.

Story originally appeared on Wolverines Wire