On playing Big Ten defenses
“Everybody in the Big Ten is going to play good defense. It’s why we’re all here. It’s why I’m here. It’s why this coaching staff is here, why a majority of our players came here – to play Big Ten football. The highest level of football. I’m excited about it. I dabbled in it last year for three games. It was awesome. I’m looking forward to nine of them. No disrespect to Mighican at all, I’m just excited to play. With that comes a lot of challenges. There’s a lot of really good defense that’s played in this league. Michigan certainly set the standard for that for a long time. I’ve never competed against them; that excites me. They have a great coaching staff, great players, and a great tradition. It’s something that we understand as well. Just really excited for the opportunity. It’s toughness, physicality. It’s typically low scoring games. Opposite of the Big 12, so to speak. I do think that we played some pretty good defense throughout the course of my last 15 years or whatever. It’s week in, week out. Everybody’s going to have a solid, physical defense that is sound and well coached with good players. Just really excited for the opportunity.”

On Dylan Raiola going into the environment vs Michigan
“He’s seen it a lot more than I have. I look back at the last two weeks and I’m like, ‘wow, this is incredible’. Game one at Cincinnati was incredible with our fanbase. The night game was something that I hadn’t experienced here. Then you turn around, and what’s it going to look like at 11 o’clock. I’ve been in that situation to where it’s been great and then 11 a.m. it’s hot. That didn’t exist here last week. I don’t know what to expect other than greatness. I know he’s looking forward to it. I know I am. I know Coach Rhule is. This is a big game because all of them are big. We know who the opponent is and it’s our job to know everything about them. What they’re doing defensively, who they are, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, and what their plan of attack is. On Saturday, thinking we know what they’re going to do and having to adjust to what they are doing. That’s just part of our job.”

On Biff Poggi
“I go way back with him. My son played for him for a while when he was at Saint Francis. He brings a lot of energy. He’s a good football coach. Kids play hard for him. That’s what I remember about it. I don’t know anything about what happened at Charlotte, but just from back when he was at Saint Francis. They had national teams and a lot of talent. I recruited from that school for a long time and took kids out of there as much as I possibly could because their talent was so good. They have some of those kids on Michigan’s team right now. He’s going to get those guys ready to play.”