Josh Gattis, Mike Sainristil, Luke Schoonmaker, and Blake Corum take the podium at Monday’s Orange Bowl presser

The Michigan Wolverines’ football team had players Mike Sainristil, Luke Schoonmaker, Blake Corum and Offensive Coordinator Josh Gattis meet with the media on Monday morning. Check out some of the important quotes from the presser:

Josh Gattis on Blake Corum’s health and the overall depth of the team: “Blake’s healthy. We’re a healthy team and that’s where we’re fortunate. Being able to take the last few weeks and getting back to 100%, because as everyone noticed, the last few weeks of the season, we were playing some really tough teams and we got some bumps and bruises along the way. You know, certain players being out, but the good thing for us is the next man stepped up and was always ready, and so we’re excited now that we’re finally back to full speed and healthy. Just having great depth allowed us to be in this position. Other than the few weeks where we had to put a lot of Hassan’s plate, we’ve been able to have great depth, to have different guys step up, whether it’s Blake, whether it’s Donovan, and so we’re excited to finally get a chance to see a full speed Blake Corum and I think a little bit of what people saw of him in the Big Ten championship game was him kind of catching himself back up to full strength. He’s ready to go, he’s excited, and we’re glad to have him back to 100%.”

Josh Gattis on how Alabama’s success against Georgia could help Michigan: “It’s hard to say blueprint because if it only happened one game in a year, it obviously didn’t work too well for other people. It does give you a little bit of confidence. There’s no way around it, this is very talented Georgia defense. Dan Lanning has done a tremendous job leading this defense, creating its own identity, and he also put his own additional flavor to this defense, it’s not the same defense during the Nick Saban days of Alabama where you’ve seen Coach Smart really evolve and grow this defense. They’ve done a tremendous job, they have tremendous talent of the defensive front, even in the back seven, so we’ve got a tremendous challenge on our hands. Obviously we’re a very talented offense, so this is going to be a great matchup of two heavyweight teams offensively and defensively going against each other on Friday night.”

Josh Gattis on JJ McCarthy and Cade McNamara: “I think once JJ started to play calm and relaxed... I think there was a part earlier in the year where he felt like he needed to go in and create the wild play, and create the exciting play. That’s not necessarily the case, but getting him to play calm and relaxed... and he’s really grown as a quarterback. He’s such a phenomenal athlete and phenomenal thrower, but he doesn’t have to go in and throw a deep ball or create a play, but understanding that he can rely on the play calls and players around him to create those plays. He’s done a tremendous job and for him, he couldn’t have a better role model to look up to in Cade McNamara. You see Cade, who’s a complete quarterback, and Cade’s done a tremendous job leading our team, he’s very smart in how he approaches everything and his preparation, his leadership skills are phenomenal and he’s a guy who makes everyone around him better because they have tremendous support, belief, and faith in him. Cade’s done a tremendous job bringing JJ along.”

Josh Gattis on Michigan’s practices: “I think the challenge was after we won the Big Ten championship game, if we could just ball ourselves up and ship ourselves to Miami to play the next day, then we were ready to go. Leading up to our bowl practices, we had phenomenal practices back at campus, and then the next challenge came. Will we be able to carry that over with all the excitement, with all the different distractions that could potentially come with bowl preparations down in Miami, and I’ll tell you what I was blown away yesterday. The type of urgency, effort, seeing how fast our guys fly around. It’s different for us because we’re coming south so when you put us out in warm weather and we’re able to run around nice and fast, we look different. We’re used to practicing in 30 degree, 20 degree weather right now.... I think the maturity of our team and the leadership of our team obviously led us to having a great season, but its also prepared for us to have a great night on Friday.”

Blake Corum on his health and the Georgia defensive line: “Personally, I feel great, I feel like my ankle is finally back. I feel like I have my cutting ability, my speed, my burst, like I have all of that back. Georgia is pretty stout, they have a stout defense, they have a good front seven. We’ve just got to keep doing what we do, there’s no need to change anything, we’ve had a wonderful year, our offensive line has done great, our tight ends have done great, our receivers, everyone has done great. Just continuing to prepare and watching film on there, and just keep going.”