TCU QB Max Duggan shares impressions of Michigan's 'tremendous defense,' J.J. McCarthy, Jim Harbaugh

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — TCU senior quarterback Max Duggan met with reporters Wednesday ahead of his team’s matchup with Michigan Wolverines football in the Fiesta Bowl. He discussed his impressions of U-M’s defense and team overall, and admitted that the Wolverines pose a big challenge.

Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh has called his defense a ‘no-star’ group, but Duggan sees plenty of talent all over the field, which — to Harbaugh’s point — is tough to play against.

“They’ve still got a pretty good amount of people over there that can play, a good amount of stars,” Duggan said. “It’s been a lot of fun to watch them, just because they’re so good at every level — whether it’s their front four, front seven, their ‘backers, at the nickel spot, corners and DBs flying around on the back end.

“Obviously, their D.C. understands that they are and how good they are, and lets those guys play loose, be themselves. There are a lot of things that make offenses difficult, and that’s why you’ve seen struggles against them and that’s why they’re one of the top defenses in the country right now.”

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Michigan ranks tied for fourth in scoring defense, allowing just 13.4 points per game, slots third against the run and 23rd versus the pass. There aren’t a lot of holes, which makes TCU’s job difficult.

“We’ve just got to make sure we’re doing our jobs, whether it’s us running the ball, making sure we’re hitting our gaps, getting our fits right,” Duggan said. “Obviously, when we get our chance to take shots down the field, we’ve got to hit them.

“They’re a tremendous defense. They’re going to make it difficult. They’re going to try to take away what we do best. We’ve got to make sure we’re balanced, do our job, making sure we’re not behind the sticks and letting them come in on third-and-long with their pass-rush packages, let those guys come in. It’s going to be a fun challenge for us.”

He admitted that it’s challenging finding ways to exploit the Wolverines while watching film.

“You see how guys try to attack them, and it usually doesn’t work against those guys,” Duggan said of the Michigan defense. “They’re giving up less than 10 a game. You try to find some ways of things that we do that we’re successful at, and then you try to go in and find some things that people have maybe had a little success against them with and see if you can pinpoint that.

“We’ve just got to do what we do, make sure that we understand what our bread and butter is, and just do that to our highest level.”

TCU’s bread and butter is leaning on Duggan, who’s thrown 30 touchdown passes and was the Heisman Trophy runner-up, while also having a balanced attack.

Max Duggan on J.J. McCarthy, Jim Harbaugh

The two quarterbacks won’t go head to head — they’ll both play the other team’s defense — but Duggan has respect for Michigan sophomore signal-caller J.J. McCarthy, though the two have never met.

“I never ran into him on the recruiting trail. He’s a little bit younger than me,” Duggan noted. “I’ve been able to watch him a couple games this year when we have some time. Dude’s a tremendous player. He runs that offense extremely well. Dude’s got a lot of talent in his arm. Can make every throw, make some big-time throws. Been able to win them a lot of games this year, so it’s been a lot of fun to watch him play.”

He doesn’t know Harbaugh, either, but has respect for what he’s built. Harbaugh has shared his praise for Duggan over the last few weeks, too.

“I haven’t really watched any of their press conferences, but Coach Harbaugh, I don’t have a relationship with Coach Harbaugh,” Duggan said. “I didn’t really get recruited by him, or Michigan was never really up there.

“But seeing what they’ve done with their program and their players, and the success that they’ve had with these past years that they’ve had at Michigan and past spots has been pretty incredible to see what he’s done to build programs and take them to national spotlights to be able to compete for national championships is pretty incredible.”