Tuesday Presser Transcript 10-15-13: Greg Mattison and Al Borges
Greg Mattison
What are you stressing in practice this week?
“Well, getting ready for Indiana and getting ready for the rest of our season. It’s playing fast. Teams we play send a lot of tempo at you, and sometimes the next play is in 7 seven. It’s guys getting back to the huddle, it’s guys getting the signal on the fly, all those things. The good thing is we’ve been working on the rotation all along. If a guy has to play five plays rather than three plays, fine, we’ll get them in and out that way.”
Some teams prepare for a high tempo offense by having two entire scout offenses rotate in and out. Do you do that at all?
“Well Brady does a great job with that. We’ve played against this kind of offense before. Brady does a great job getting the tempo as fast as it can be.”
How did Jake Ryan grade out, and what was his impact?
“Jake ended up giving us another rotating guy. It was his first game since the spring. I thought he played his heart out. I thought the defense played their heart out. They played extremely hard.”
Can you take us through the last drive in regulation?
“Well when you don’t stop them. When you want to be a great defense, that’s what you play for. And both those plays, the two plays – you’re sitting there on the sideline thinking it’s intercepted. The young man that was on both of those has more interceptions and more knockdown balls in camp than any corner we have. It’s just a situation where we didn’t get the football. As far as the kid’s playing and execution, I couldn’t be more proud.”
Will you be playing tighter coverage?
“We’ve seen it all along. Like I said, in the last two plays, you can’t be much tighter. There’s three guys around the football when he catches the ball on our sideline, and the other one, you can’t be anymore on the guy. God allows one guy to be 6-4 and jump real real high, and that’s what ended up happening on that play.”
Brady said Channing Stribling could play more moving forward.
“We love what he’s been doing. He truly has been a guy in ever practice, you see him get to the football. You see him intercepting footballs, breaking passes. I think now he knows the defense, he understands everything he has to do, I expect him to be a big plus.”
Looked like the pass rush made another step forward. You had a lot of sacks.
“I don’t worry about stats. We have great pass rush sometimes when you don’t have any sacks and you don’t have great pass rush when you have four. The thing about that game is there were a lot of times where you were almost on a sack. You just about have a sack. That’s what happens all the time in those games.”
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Al Borges
Not why Michigan lost.
Can you talk about your philosophy at the end of the game?
“Well we have the best kicker in the league. At least, we think. Especially inside of 40 yards. We were just trying to position it so we could finish, and we didn’t. The biggest thing is if you aggressively try to score and turn the ball over, you wouldn’t give him a chance. Then everybody’s going to second guess you. That was our approach. We threw the ball, what six times? Eight times? So it wasn’t like we reined ourselves totally in.”
MGoQuestion: Brady said that a lot of the blocking problems were because one guy made an error. How easy is it to identify those errors from the coordinator box?
“You can spot them. But what you have to do, what we have to do at this point is we have to obviously make it more competitive. Again, I’ve told you guys since day one that depth chart is in pencil. This week we’re auditioning more players. We’re going to see how they turn out. We’re going to iron these mistakes out one way or another and we’ll find the five guys that can do it. That doesn’t mean that the guys that are in there aren’t going to be in there. We’re going to give them a chance, too.”
But at some point you have to stop switching guys, right?
“I would have hoped that would have happened a while back, but it didn’t, so we are where we are. It’s like tailbacks my first season here. We didn’t really find Fitz [Toussaint] until six or seven games in.”
You can’t do this every two weeks, though, right?
“No, you don’t want to do this ever, but you have to find the best five. Whatever it takes to get the best five.”
Changing the offensive approach during the game?
“We did that. Because the power game wasn’t as good, you can’t just say, “We’re not going to do it anymore.’ You still have to sprinkle it in. What we did in the second half was we threw the ball more, created a few big plays, and did a pretty good job. The thing I was really impressed with was Devin Gardner. Devin’s footwork has jumped a quantum leap in two weeks. After getting a couple balls intercepted in the first half and having a fumble that really wasn’t his fault at all – he got blindsided – he recovered and showed composure throughout the football game. At no time was I in any doubt that he could not bring us back, and he proved me right.”
How much thought has been given to giving Derrick Green an entire series?
“We’re going to approach that – everything’s competitive. If we feel at one point that Derrick Green can do that, we’ll have Derrick Green in there.”
MGoQuestion: A couple delay of game penalties hurt you late in the game. What can you do to help Devin get to the line of scrimmage faster?
“That’s not all Devin, now. Some of it’s miscommunication, but it’s not all the quarterback when there’s a delay of game. They say it on the [PA], ‘Delay of game on number 98.’ But it’s not his fault. We have to do a better job of getting him in and out of the huddle, everybody in and out of the huddle, and get the play right.”
MGoIDon’tThinkYouUnderstoodMyQuestion: Is there anything systematic you can do to change how you communicate plays?
“No. This has not been a problem. How many delay of games have we had this year? It cropped up in this game. We played in a real noisy stadium. There’s some elements that could lead to that. Again, I’m not sure exactly what they were. If this were a chronic problem, I would be a lot more concerned about that.”
Devin’s your best running threat, but like Brady said, he’s one hit away from being knocked out of the game –
“Oh you hate it. I don’t like it. But you do what you have to do to win the game. End of discussion. Every week. How come your tailbacks aren’t getting anything? If no one’s getting any yards, you have a problem. I would prefer the tailback. But if the quarterback’s the guy that beats you, I don’t particularly like it, but we’ll do what we have to do to win the football game.”
Does that mean moving forward you’ll spread it out with Devin legs?
“No. I don’t want him carrying the ball 25 times. Nobody does. Because he ain’t gonna make it. Denard didn’t make it. We should have learned something from that situation. You guys have been Michigan fans for a while right? You saw what happened before we got here. It’s hard for a quarterback to carry the ball that many times and stay in one piece. But there’s going to be times in the heat of the battle, if those are the things that work and those are the things that help you win, you have to go do them. It’s that simple. And our power running game wasn’t that good, so we had to find a way. Put some pistol runs in, do some things to mix it up, quarterback draws.”
When you get less than a carry from your running back, is it more blocking problems?
“Oh yeah. We did a poor job blocking the line of scrimmage. End of discussion. Sometimes we targeted it well and still didn’t move the line of scrimmage.”
Have you lost confidence in running up the middle in third and short situations?
“No. No. We haven’t lost confidence in anything.”
MGoQuestion: Part of your problems in the run game seemed to be because Penn State loaded the box and played off your receivers. Did you ever consider doing something like, you know, throw a bubble screen?
“That’s your solution? A bubble screen?”
MGoIReallyShouldHaveBroughtThisScreenCap
MGo: Just something to get the defense to play you more honestly, right?
“We threw three balls over their heads, did we not?”
MGoWeAreNotGoingAnywhereWithThisAreWe: Yeah.
“Well there you go. The answer is yes, we did.”
October 16th, 2013 at 2:53 PM ^
October 16th, 2013 at 10:10 AM ^
"We threw 3 balls over their heads, did we not?"
Most of the time, anybody with sense will look at those "3 balls" and go "Hm, that really worked out for us. We should try throwing it over their heads 7-10 more times."
Borges says, "Trust me guys... you have to run 10 times for 10 yards before you can even think about throwing the ball over their heads."
October 16th, 2013 at 10:32 AM ^
10 times for 10 yards means you have a good chance of wasting 2-3 drives just so you maybe have a chance to get a big play over the top.
This will work great if you can always count on your D to keep the other guy from scoring while you're wasting drives.
Problem is, the other guy isn't playing along anymore like he used to. While you're wastin' he's scorin'.
October 16th, 2013 at 11:53 AM ^
We did it 27 times.
October 16th, 2013 at 10:13 AM ^
"but we’ll do what we have to do to win the football game"
I'm not sure I should hysterically laugh or cry at this statement?
ARE YOU KIDDING ME????????? What game were you coordinating?
October 16th, 2013 at 10:18 AM ^
MGoQuestion: Part of your problems in the run game seemed to be because Penn State loaded the box and played off your receivers. Did you ever consider doing something like, you know, throw a bubble screen?
“That’s your solution? A bubble screen?”
I want to know what his solution is. There's still 9 guys right in the box against 8 blockers. While the CBs are playing out in Scranton on the WRs. Better blocking doesn't solve that issue when the safeties are right in the D-linemen's pockets
October 16th, 2013 at 10:29 AM ^
October 16th, 2013 at 10:50 AM ^
What a dick Borges is.
Actually, asshole, YEAH, that would be a solution.
October 16th, 2013 at 10:51 AM ^
When he said "that's your solution" it would have been awesome to fire back with "Its a solution. When your offense is lining up with 8 blockers against 9 defenders, what is your solution to exploit that mismatch? Does the offense have options at the line of scrimmage?"
Would have put him on the spot and forced an answer.
October 16th, 2013 at 10:21 AM ^
Is there any chance that inside the Fort Brady is giving Borges the business I mean he has to see what we see. GM has to see what we see. I know that publically they are going to go siege but I am still hoping that it is as clear to them as it is to us.
October 16th, 2013 at 10:29 AM ^
I'm fairly convinced they think they are doing what is right. While Brady will at least admit to mistakes, I have yet to hear ALBORG admit to any. He just deflects like some smug politician. He speaks as if he is the know-all-of-offense, yet look at the product. I really don't believe he learns from games like this, he is just convinced in his own mind that it will just that more time to get it right.
October 16th, 2013 at 10:47 AM ^
There is NO space between Borges' position and Hoke's.
They really think that it's all about offensive ball control and your defense holding the other guy to 17 points. The offense's job is to sit on the ball and squeak out a score or two per half.
They are who they are. Behind closed doors, they are likely spending more time on why the defense did not hold Penn State on more drives so that they could keep playing three-and-out offense.
October 16th, 2013 at 10:21 AM ^
This answer was especially frustrating considering his refusal to consider taking advantage of the bubble screen.It’s hard for a quarterback to carry the ball that many times and stay in one piece. But there’s going to be times in the heat of the battle, if those are the things that work and those are the things that help you win, you have to go do them.
October 16th, 2013 at 10:34 AM ^
Exactly. It's not as if anyone is asking to run Gardner 25 times a game. We're asking not to be in a two-TE set with Gardner under center. You can run your RB out of shotgun/pistol/spread looks. When we're as bad as we are at what we're doing, the answer to how to balance the offence and keep Gardner in oen piece isn't to run a two-TE set or run gardner, it's to run less two-TE and spread out the defense to better utilize all of your skill players.
October 16th, 2013 at 10:25 AM ^
We have (statistically anyhow) a good run defense, right? So, when we execute these plays in practice, are they seeing better results than in the game?
I would think not. Wouldn't the same issues come up over and over? Is our O-Line just great in practice and then they fall apart in the game? Or maybe Greg doesn't simulate 8-10 in the box like we continually see in the game?
Do they not watch film together and say, "shit Al we're running into a sea of dudes can we try spreading things out a bit?"
Wouldn't Greg speak up? Surely he can watch that game and tell Al what's going on. I just don't get it.
I get that nothing will work or look good on tape if your offensive line can't execute, but are we just the most unlucky team in the country when it comes to O-Line personnel? Despite the fact that we should have at least an average O-Line unit in terms of experience and star ranking they, in reality, are terrible?
It's coaching right? The fuck is going on?
October 16th, 2013 at 10:40 AM ^
Based on my recollection of prior interviews, in preparing for the next game, the starters only play each other a couple times. Otherwise they're facing scout teams whose strategies are based on what the staff put together on tape.
What Borges doesn't seem to understand is that other teams are doing the exact same thing. So it doesn't matter what PSU did against Temple because we're not Temple's offense. They'll look at what Michigan did against Minnesota and prepare for that. The scout team never does what other DCs will do to shut Borges down; they do what the defenses did to shut down other teams.
So in all likelihood Borges' offenses aren't seeing stacked boxes in practice. But he sure as hell can see them from the box during the games, so I don't see it as an excuse.
October 16th, 2013 at 11:58 AM ^
we either don't load 9 in the box, or call the over thier heads. I suspect there is a probablity that Greg Mattison calls what he would call (we don't see a lot of 9 in the box do we). If they had this situation in practice, then they could plan for what to do in a game.
October 16th, 2013 at 10:25 AM ^
October 16th, 2013 at 1:10 PM ^
I said this on another thread, but in my observations about coaches most of them always default to execution as the be all and end all, which is understandable because they spend so much practice time going over that. But what it ignores is that poor strategy creates situations where the chances of executional success go lower than they would be with a different formation and play call. And it is a giant crutch that allows them to not question their own strategy as long as they can find a guy on the line who "didn't do his job."
October 16th, 2013 at 10:26 AM ^
We can all pitch in and donate like $10K to Mott's Childrens Hospital, if Borges calls a bubble screen when the defenders are 8+ yards off the ball.
What do you all say?
October 16th, 2013 at 10:30 AM ^
("Have you lost confidence in running up the middle in third and short situations?
“No. No. We haven’t lost confidence in anything.”)
What in the hell Borges? Did someone remove your brain after the game?
October 16th, 2013 at 11:06 AM ^
October 16th, 2013 at 11:10 AM ^
Any sane person that tried something 25-30 times and continually failed at it would lose some confidence. I mean shit, in the past, they've addressed Gardner turning the ball over and how that impacts their decisions and confidence in him. And that's only a couple of failures per game. How is the offense running into a wall of defenders 25-30 times a game any different? A pick and a 3 and out have the same end result -- other team gets the ball.
October 16th, 2013 at 12:39 PM ^
throw his players under the bus? They're young, they're going to keep growing. You need to show them confidence. Undermining them in public would not help anything. You want him to say "We suck, we're never handing the ball off again"? That's not a very sustainable solution. You can't just abandon RB handoffs forever (though, 27 times for 27 yards sure makes you seem a little crazy that you kept trying to do it in a game when it clearly didn't work)
Of course, he could have instead said "No, we haven't lost confidence in anything. But there is still much to work on and improve, obviously". But I feel like we're being way too nitpicky here.
October 16th, 2013 at 10:31 AM ^
October 16th, 2013 at 10:54 AM ^
Yes, the point of the quick pases to uncovered recievers is not just to get the LB's and DB's to play the recievers differently. It's to get them out of the box where they are flat out ignoring your recievers and saturating your run game.
It's to help the run game, not bypass it.
October 16th, 2013 at 12:16 PM ^
It helps the deep passing game. Those 3 to 4 shots work a lot better when a receiver blows by or pulls a move on a DB rather than having him out there waiting for him.
October 16th, 2013 at 11:38 AM ^
October 16th, 2013 at 10:42 AM ^
thy name is Borges.
October 16th, 2013 at 10:43 AM ^
I'm glad this isn't a bye week. I'm dying to know what the attempted corrections are.
October 16th, 2013 at 10:47 AM ^
Great question Heiko. Put it right in his face.
"THAT'S your solution?"
YES THAT'S A SOLUTION. It's better than running it up the gut, or - as you made perfectly clear you hate doing - run Devin.
Fuck, that answer really pisses me off. Pretentious son of a.......
October 16th, 2013 at 11:49 AM ^
October 16th, 2013 at 11:03 AM ^
October 16th, 2013 at 11:12 AM ^
Would have loved someone to bring up the worst rushing performance ever aspect of things. The whole damn collection of reporters glossed over that one though.
October 16th, 2013 at 12:27 PM ^
This is what I was looking for. People have commented and the kind of conversations they believe are happening behind closed doors between Hoke and Borgers. While I agree that they are usually on the same wavelength with this stuff, Hoke has to know something is fundamentally wrong with playcalling.
You don't record the worst running performance in the history of the program without several mistakes being made - on and off the field. Period.
There are problems with the O-line, we get it. Everyone gets it. There are also problems with playcalling. We get it. Hopefully Hoke does, because we know Al doesn't.
October 16th, 2013 at 11:41 AM ^
So well said. Feet need to be held to the fire. I don't think an internet blogger is going to influence much in a presser, but at least make him answer for the complete failure he has created.
October 16th, 2013 at 10:50 AM ^
Wow just wow. Thank you Heiko for having the balls to ask the question and then the even bigger balls to ask the follow-ups when he obviously tried to mock you with his dismissive answer. That could not have been easy or fun.
He are fucked gentlemen. The man at the controls of the offense has zero clue what to do and making matters even worse, he is laughing at the solutions.
Wow I didnt realize just how fucked we are until now.
October 16th, 2013 at 10:56 AM ^
This is my thoughts exactly. Al Borges is our version of Mike Martz. His offense isn't working - NOT because it's ineffective - but because everyone he has to work with is either shitty or stupid.
I believe we are fucked. What an absolute shame. Another season thrown down the tubes because a coach's ego is more important than winning a conference title.
Fuck.
October 16th, 2013 at 11:21 AM ^
Heiko: Coach, you have a picture you'd like to hang on a wall and a nail. Have you thought about using a hammer to hang the picture?
Borges: A hammer? What are you, an asshole?
October 16th, 2013 at 11:00 AM ^
Al if you would have done it 4 times we win the game.
October 16th, 2013 at 11:09 AM ^
Seriously, does Al Borges seriously think 3 times over the top is "enough"?
Do what works and keep doing it until they show they have an answer for it!
They obviously had an answer for tailback runs from under center...
October 16th, 2013 at 10:57 AM ^
Heiko: It's time to remove "bubble screen" from your vocabulary. Most of the time when we talk about bubble screens we're actually just talking about zero routes/laser screens/WR standing there and receiving the ball/quick throws of any sort. Borges clearly has a specific idea in mind when he hears "bubble screen", and he's obviously not interested in running it or hearing about it. Even when he called a few of those last year, they (at least most) weren't true bubbles.
But yeah, the guy has issues. He still seems to think that occasionally beating a stacked box over the top is sufficient. The point is that you're going to throw it laterally on every single play, picking up a guaranteed 7 yards or so, until the defense stops stacking the box. If they never stop, then neither do you. Makes for a boring game, but that's how willing you are to take what the defense is giving you (and it's no certainly no more boring than running into a stacked box).
October 16th, 2013 at 11:40 AM ^
I think mentioning the bubble screen was a big mistake and it submarined the question that I think we all want answered.
Because the question I would like to hear the answer to is
Is there some more efficient way to exploit the defense when they stack the box agaisnt the run rather than just running right into it?
The question I don't care about is
Why aren't you calling a bubble screen?
Because as we have discussed ad nauseam, the bubble screen is just an example of how one can attack that defense. It is not the only way.
No one is going to get anywhere by continuing into the 3rd year of demanding bubble screens. It is just one play.
October 16th, 2013 at 11:46 AM ^
October 16th, 2013 at 11:57 AM ^
The downside is if you mention a bubble screen then everything you said prior is wasted and you will get the same answer that Borges have given you for 3 years.
It also starts to make you look like you don't know very much.
I don't think asking someone the same question about one particular play for 3 years makes any sense.
But I don't think posting the same screen grab for 3 years demanding the same play call makes much sense either.
October 16th, 2013 at 12:11 PM ^
I agree that asking about bubble screens apparently isn't going to get Borges to change. He could, though, have simply said, "We're considering everything" or "Well, you never know." He's not in a position to be treating a fairly obvious possibility as if it's stupid. A lot of pretty damn good offensive minds think bubble screens are effective. Urban Meyer - he of two national championships and two undefeated seasons - thinks they work.
October 16th, 2013 at 12:32 PM ^
Mentioning a bubble screen and having the question seemingly ignored is not a problem of Heiko's, it's a problem of Al's. Heiko really shouldn't have to pussyfoot questions when he's talking to our 50+ year old Offensive Coordinator. If Heko suggest a play that would have been more successful against that defensive look (bubble screen or otherwise), Borges should address whether Heiko's suggestion is good or bad and then describe why. Shutting down because you heard the words 'bubble screen' is a character trait of a 7 year old, not a grown damn man.
October 16th, 2013 at 1:04 PM ^
LOL
Go to any place of business and ask them the same question for 3 years with the same hyperspecific criticism and see if the answers you get are more informative or less.
FTR, Borges gave Heiko a private interview where he fully explained his issue with bubble screens. It was glorious.
And I'm not trying to criticize Heiko, aside from removing "bubble screen" from his vocabulary, because he does a great job. But asking the same question over and over after it has been answered also sounds like the trait of a 7 year old.
October 16th, 2013 at 1:27 PM ^
Yes, Borges did answer the "bubble screen" question in his one-on-one with Heiko, explaining that he'd prefer a running game that can succeed even against a stacked box. Well, guess what? In year three, Borges hasn't developed this running game -- to the contrary, the running game is getting progressively worse. If he's getting the same question three years running, maybe it's because the question (unfortunately) is just as salient now (if not moreso) than it was in year one. Prove your answer on the field, Borges, and the question will go away.
October 16th, 2013 at 1:46 PM ^
I believe that Heiko's goal is to get information and not to insult the coaches.
It seems your goal is to insult the coaches.
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