Penn State Football
Michigan Head Coach Jim Harbaugh Postgame Press Conference
vs. Michigan – November 13, 2021
Q: Good things seem to happen when Hassan Haskins touches the ball, were you adamant that he touched the ball on that last drive?
A: Well, the whole game. He's got a quality about him where he wants to and will take the team on his back. That's his mindset. That's what he did. Over 100 yards rushing in the second half and 150 or so for the day. Obviously, they were keen on Hassan. You know how much I love Hassan. He's incredible. So, I'm just enjoying the incredible of what he can do.
Q: You talk about the poise of your offense at the end where everything turned around so quickly, and you put together that last drive.
A: I was really confident they would. This team doesn't flinch. They don't even bat an eye when stuff happens. You can see it in our defense when the turnover occurred, and they [Penn State] got the ball at the 16-yard line. They [Michigan] went out there and held them again in the red zone, which was really good all day for our defense. And then offensively I could see the demeanor in the offensive line. No flinching. You knew Hassan wouldn't. Cornelius [Johnson] isn't, Mike Sainristil is not going to. And neither is Andrel [Anthony] or Roman [Wilson]. And you know Cade McNamara is not. And I just said: "Hey Cade, you were born for this. Born for drives like this." And he went out and did what he does. Very cold blooded after that guy made a good play with a sack fumble, but they didn't bat an eye – just came back and took the team down the field for the winning drive.
Q: You and your defense got back to the point of it today, how impressed were you?
A: Those were habit plays by the defense. Six or seven of them were sacks; Aiden got three, David Ojabo got one, might have been some others creating havoc back there in the pass rush. Great game. Great game by those pass rushers. Inside pass rushers were really good too – Mazi [Smith], Christopher Hinton. They made a lot of plays, and we made a lot of plays. We made more. Great stop at the end. Four downs was really big. Special teams – I mean fakes were coming out, that was a big fake, twice they got field goals, once they faked and once they missed a field goal. So again, I think that red zone defense was big, and the offense was really good in the red zone too. How about those Wolverines?! If that's not great, then I don't know what is!
Q: On the pass to Eric [All] – did you have a sense when that play was called that it was going to be open and what made that play open?
A: That's a play we work a lot - haven't called it much. But when we got the man coverage, we were excited to call that one. Eric [All] took a really perfect pass on the crossing route and circled the entire defense. They were out of leverage, and that was good for us. Eric took it and went the distance coming back from a high ankle [sprain] and put that one to bed. He was rolling.
Q: How did DJ [Turner] and Vincent [Gray] do against Jahan Dotson? And how much did you have to scale up to try and slow him down?
A: Quite a bit. Not every down, but a lot of the downs he was in we were doubling him. He's just a really good player. I though DJ had a heck of a game, and I think Vince did as well. Press coverage and throwing deep balls - they weren't able to get him [Dotson]. You're not going to totally shut it down, but I thought it was an outstanding play by Vance and DJ.
Q: When the season began was this the type of team you envisioned your team becoming?
A: We're just going about it every day to have good days. At the beginning of the season, the middle of the season and now. We're just trying to have good days, good meetings, good practices and then go play the games. It's great. Love the team. It's really a team in its beginning when you think about all the young players. The amount of guys that have had their best or their first game catches, interceptions, forced fumbles, sacks, yards gained or touchdown catches. Roman Wilson got two today. It's certainly the type of team where you don't know who it's going to be [to make the big play, to step up this week]. You don't know who it is, but you know somebody is. And you're confident that it'll be you that steps up when it's your time to do that. We're all really confident that they're going to be ready. These guys trained for this, and they believe in each other, and they believe in their ball team.