Postgame Presser Notes: Ohio State
Rich Rodriguez
"I felt good first quarter, first half. Really we moved the football, just didn't finish drives. Poor execution at critical times when we needed to. They made some plays, and to win a game like this you have to finish more drives." Worst game of the year finishing.
Denard - "I don't know what play it was, but he dislocated a couple fingers on his left hand." Third and fourth fingers. He likes to grip it with his left hand when he runs, so loss of feeling was a problem. Denard lobbied to go back in initially. He went in one drive, then realized he couldn't play like he wanted to.
"We had some drops, which hurt us." Denard was pretty sharp, but the window is smaller against very good coverage. Guys have to make some difficult catches. WR corps was a little thin today without Hemingway, and with Stokes going out. "You have to make those kind of plays to beat a good football team."
Tate's experienced enough to make plays. Ohio State's defense is good: "They're athletic defensively." They made plays in the passing game, breaking up passes "I mean some bang-bang stuff." In the first half, it was M shooting themselves in the foot. "Some of that was them, but a lot of that was us too."
Hagerup - "He violated a team rule, so he didn't make the trip."
Early in the game, the D was hitting the right gaps, tackling well. That faded later in the game. "That's just my view from the sidelines."
Kickoff return touchdown: "Yeah, it was awful." Didn't get the kick they wanted (maybe because of wind), and the coverage wasn't there.
Postgame speech: "I don't know if I need to share it with everybody. We talked about some things. I don't need to share everything with y'all."
"I'm ticked. What you want me to go jump out there and hold hands with all the Buckeye fans and sing kumbaya? I wish we'd played better." Will be mad for a while, then move on to the next one. "This will sting for a little bit, which it should. We'll think about it a little bit, which we should. But you can't replay it, unfortunately."
Has the defense improved over the course of the season? "Some. Not as much as I'd like." It's not at a Michigan level. He can't chew out freshmen, because they're going to make the mistakes. Need them to play like 3rd-4th year guys. "They are what they are, and they'll grow from this."
Job security: "I'm going to work tomorrow as always." No outside chatter will change how they work. "I took this job to make us the best program in America. And sometimes it takes a little longer to mold the program the way you wanted to mold it. Sometimes you get more obstacles in your way," but he's not deterred from the goal. "I think the worst is behind us. I know it is." People are entitled to their own opinions, but the coaches, players, and people in the program feel confident it will happen. "It's been a lot slower than our fans wanted, I don't blame them for that."
On outside perspective of the program's progress: "Sometimes people see what they want to see... I know what I see, and I'm in the middle of it. Maybe some people don't want me to have success. I would think most people that follow Michigan and love Michigan do, because they love our school and love our program."
Progress is being made. Rich sees it in practice, and can see the positive attitude. Likes how recruiting has gone last 2 years and is going this year.
Rich and his coaches aren't used to this either: "We're used to playing in Championships and BCS bowls, and all that, too. It's been frustrating as heck. But I'm not deterred, because I know where I'm at, I know what we're doing, I know what we have in the program, and I know what we need to do to fix it." He will evaluate everything with the program to improve it whenever he can.
Will have to watch film to see why turnovers have gotten worse over the course of the year. The team isn't at the point where they can overcome that.
"A couple personal fouls. The stuff after a play is silly. There's no need for extracurricular stuff after the play. there's enough intensity during the whistle." They haven't had many pre-snap penalties this year, but had an important today taking back a 20-yard gain because a true freshman was lined up wrong.
Team meeting Monday, talking about bowl preparation. The guys have their finals in a couple weeks. They'll lift a bit to stay in shape. Rich has a preliminary bowl practice schedule in mind, but won't finalize it until they know date and location of bowl game.
Jordan Kovacs
OSU is a good team, Michigan needed to take advantage of opportunities if they wanted to win, and it didn't happen.
On his interception: Knew a shot to the goal line was coming. "I just broke on the ball. I thought I might have a chance to return it, but didn't make it far enough."
Do they worry about Rodriguez's job security? "Not at all. We play for each other."
Ryan Van Bergen
"It obviously hurts a little more when it's Ohio State." They wanted to send the seniors out with a win. "You gotta take personal responsibility, everybody has to be accountable. Nobody played their best game for us today." Disappointing for today, but promising for the future and sending the seniors out with a bowl game.
Doesn't know why they didn't play well. Mentality and game pan were good. Mental mistakes "kinda plagued us a little bit in the second half of the season, and that definitely was evident today."
"Focus on controlling what we can control," try to execute, not worry about their coach's job status.
Used more of a 4-man front to get some size up against their line. Gave the OSU OL some problems, "I think we made some plays in the front 7 to stop that run... For the most part, we were pretty stout in the run game."
November 27th, 2010 at 9:08 PM ^
Stonum hasn't been returning kicks all year. Also this game he was playing with a bad ankle, was pretty obvious he wasn't 100% especially towards the end of the game.
November 28th, 2010 at 2:09 AM ^
Actually, Stonum returned kicks last week.
November 27th, 2010 at 6:31 PM ^
Who cares what the final score says? Did you guys watch the game? We kicked their ass the whole 1st qtr only to be undone by Roundtrees drops and Denards fumble and a shaky holding call on Schilling.
In the 2nd qtr we're right there and J. Jackson lines up wrong costs us a big gain, Hagerup being gone costs us the punt and maybe the kickoff..anywhere from 7 to 14 pts. Then we follow that up with Denard getting hurt.
They could have beat us by 50 or it could have been a nail biter depending on how the breaks went, but in terms of RR I look at how effective our plan was and how hard they played.
Prepared to play? We stuffed em to start the game and moved down the field on our 1st 3 possesions. Good game planning and good schemes.
D played pretty good. All we need to do is get Roundtree some new gloves.
November 27th, 2010 at 6:41 PM ^
A 30 point loss really is...
November 27th, 2010 at 6:52 PM ^
this one felt closer than the 14-3 loss in 2007.
November 27th, 2010 at 11:26 PM ^
Yes it did. If I recall, they didn't attempt more than 2 passes in the second half because it was clear that we were incapable of even threatening to score.
Come on people. We haven't had the lead against OSU since the first quarter of the 2006 game and we were on a terrible losing streak before RR came in.
It takes more than a couple of seasons to dig ourselves out of a hole that was years in the making. For fuck's sake, Tressel was 6-1 against Carr and that's a substantially larger sample size.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:24 PM ^
Clearly. Watching and remembering the whole game helps.
November 27th, 2010 at 9:56 PM ^
Yes, it's amazing how many close games we played this year in which we lost by multiple touchdowns. And conversely, we had so many blowouts in which the scoreboard said we only won by a few points.
A question -- when you have your glasses on, does everything look the same color, or can you detect different shades of rose?
November 27th, 2010 at 10:02 PM ^
Maize, and blue. It's like 3-D.
November 27th, 2010 at 10:00 PM ^
After it was 17-7.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:15 PM ^
The thing is a game is more than a quarter and a half.
November 27th, 2010 at 8:31 PM ^
November 27th, 2010 at 9:07 PM ^
We kicked their ass the whole 1st qtr
I appreciate the postivity, but I simply disagree. We were dominated. The game wasn't close after that 1st q. If Kovacs doesn't pick off that pass we're down big time at the half.
It wasn't close. Not even remotely close. UM got dominated 2 weeks in a row by superior teams.
I want to support RR, but it's getting so hard to do.
November 27th, 2010 at 9:29 PM ^
but at what point do we prefer results over reasons? This team will still be young next year. I like Rich Rod and I was thrilled when he was hired, but I'm having serious doubts. I don't envy DB's position right now. I thought the tackling was better today, but man I just don't know anymore.
November 27th, 2010 at 11:08 PM ^
You forgot this: /s
November 27th, 2010 at 11:17 PM ^
...3x Super Bowl winning coach Bill Belichick says:
"Stats are for losers. The final score is for winners"
November 28th, 2010 at 4:57 PM ^
a little more patience with that coach everyone now thinks is a genius.
November 28th, 2010 at 3:15 AM ^
One qtr. doesnt make a game. We had a few good drives in the first but after that they adjusted and stonewalled us the rest of the game. The D also had a few good stops but again its a 4 qtr. battle and we didnt play a full game. I seen Tressel take his foot off the gas because this could have gotten ugly in the second half if he wanted it too.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:42 PM ^
I think a coach's fourth year is the one he should be judged on, barring a serious regression (which we haven't had and if you think we have had then we disagree and I secretly probably think you're stupid but won't call you so publicly).
Our special teams murdered us this year. I haven't seen a worse kicking situation as long as I've been watching football. I don't blame Rich Rodriguez for that. This defense played their balls off in the first half and damn it I give them all the credit in the world for that. We should have been winning but our young offense just never really got it together the way they needed to if we were going to win. That unit, when it's playing up to its potential, is amazing.
Once Denard had his fingers dislocated it's kind of hard to throw blame around. There aren't a lot of teams that are very effective with their backup QB, especially when the refs are letting PI go all day and letting dropped interceptions stand without replay.
This team's WRs, OL, and QB have improved by leaps and bounds with Rich Rodriguez. Our RB situation is fine and getting better.
He motivates these kids to try really hard.
He can't coach defense and if he can he hasn't shown it. Hire a tip-top defensive coordinator. Install a rock solid scheme. Watch these kids turn into serious players with all the experience they've had.
To me, that's the best shot of seeing this team play well next year.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:44 PM ^
Maybe looking at some new receivers isn't a bad idea either. Roundtree has been awful the last two games, when we needed him to be good. You're not good if you keep dropping catchable balls in critical situations.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:56 PM ^
This.
When are our playmakers going to show up for the big games? Quite possibly the most frustrating aspect of todays game, if you ask me. Sure the kids are playing hard, but damn....why can't we get someone to step up in these marquee games and "be a hero?"
November 28th, 2010 at 3:08 AM ^
I think the real answer is that we don't have the horses right now, on either side of the ball. At least, I haven't seen anybody that I would consider a "gamer". Maybe it's inexperience, maybe it's something else, I'm not really sure.
November 27th, 2010 at 11:20 PM ^
I can search Google or YouTube and come back with dozens of WR-appropriate catching and reaction drills. Same results if I search for "ball security drills". I can do this in less than 5 minutes.
After all the drops and ball security issues Michigan has displayed during the past three years, I would be truly shocked if people who are coaching and playing football for a living haven't ever thought, "Gee, maybe we should have our RBs and WRs spend an hour or two a week working on catching and ball security."
November 28th, 2010 at 12:41 AM ^
that the coaches are completely forgetting to tell the players simple things like "look the ball in", etc. It's just an easy excuse when you don't want to believe the players on the team aren't as good right now as they want them to be.
November 28th, 2010 at 4:30 PM ^
They put their playmakers in a position to make plays and they didn't make the play. The offense played probably their worst game of the year (fumbles, interceptions, dropped balls, penalties, missed blocks, etc).
I guess we don't have to worry about anybody getting the #1 jersey next year.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:49 PM ^
of a UM VS OSU game. Wife wanted me to go shopping. I had no compelling reason to say no! RR should get through the 2012 season. Even with a new DC, I do not believe the D will be good enough to win more than 8 games! I can see potential home losses to OSU and NE. If were going to can RR after 2011, we might as well get Harbaugh now.
November 28th, 2010 at 1:49 PM ^
you don't have your wife trained to not ask you to go shopping IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MICHIGAN - OHIO STATE GAME?
Seek counseling immediately.
November 27th, 2010 at 7:58 PM ^
The biggest problem facing DB right now, is that there are no good options. Fire any of the coaches, and there is at least a year, maybe two or three, of getting adjusted to new staff. That doesn't matter whether we're talking just GERG or going for the whole smash and firing RR. On defense, maybe it doesn't matter. How much worse than The Worst can you really be? Then, there is the issue of the 2011 recruits, possible transfers, etc. What will the composition of the team be next year, and year after?
The question that DB will have to answer, however, is "What are the odds that the team does better than 7-5 next year with the current staff versus a new crew?" All things considered, you have to believe, that's a crap shoot.
In the end, the decision might come down to whether the program should cut its losses here and move on, on the assumption that RR isn't the long term answer.
November 28th, 2010 at 3:20 AM ^
This is not always true Paul Johnson came in from Navy to GT tore out the playbook and went from a Pro Style Offense to the triple-option and immediately led them to back to back 10 win seasons. So if you can coach you can coach and should be able to get the most out of your talent wherever you decide to man the sidelines.
November 28th, 2010 at 5:01 AM ^
There's always a chance that will happen, but a dramatic improvement in a single season with all new coaches strikes me as the exception to the rule, and a bit of a gamble. DB doesn't strike me as a gambler.
November 28th, 2010 at 8:29 AM ^
Paul Johnson had some nice players at Georgia Tech. Demaryius Thomas , Jon Dwyer, and Josh Nesbitt were good fits for his system. It all depends on the talent that a new coach has when he begins his job. RR was left with poor depth on both sides of the ball.
November 28th, 2010 at 11:25 AM ^
November 27th, 2010 at 8:07 PM ^
...that Dave Brandon said this:
As Brandon hurried from the team locker room to the buses, he was asked if anything had changed after the Wolverines' loss.
"Nope," he said. "No change."
There had been rampant rumors that Rodriguez could lose his job Monday after the Ohio State game. Brandon shot that down on his Twitter page last Wednesday, and reiterated that in a story in Saturday's Columbus Dispatch.
"Somebody spews something out there and, after it gets blogged around a couple of times, people start to accept it as fact," Brandon told the paper. "That particular rumor is just nonsense."
Brandon plans to be out of town Monday on business.
"I don't do public performance reviews," Brandon told the Dispatch. "I don't think that's fair or appropriate."
November 27th, 2010 at 11:36 PM ^
I love how they reference the rampant rumors about a Monday decision without acknowledging the fact that it was Lynn Henning who advanced those rampant rumors with his speculation following his interview with DB.
November 28th, 2010 at 1:12 AM ^
Lynn Henning is a dirt bag. Also, you have an amazing tag line.
November 27th, 2010 at 8:44 PM ^
There's no need for extracurricular stuff after the play.
But the Woodson, Boston facemask grab is such a fond memory.
November 27th, 2010 at 10:48 PM ^
Look, I like RR, but for me, a change should be made. I am sick of hearing "we just didn;t execute." We know that. Why not?
Even if we give RR a pass on the defense (which is undeserved, since his recruiting and hiring on that siade of the ball has been worse than terrible), and a pass on the special teams (not sure why we would, as he is directly involved in their coaching), what killed us today was the offense. As against Wisco, MSU, Iowa and PSU, our AMAZING, WACKO NINJA offense looked like shit. Sorry, I am not seeing the progress.
Some facts:
*we have not beaten a single B10 team that has finished with a winning record
*we have lost to every ranked team we have faced by multiple scores
*our games against decent B10 competition have not been competitive
*we are 4 plays away (one against ND, one against Indiana, one againsty Purdue and one against Illinois) from having a 3 win season. Think about that. Don't forget about UMass. You can't say thaty about any of the losses.
*OUr defense has regressed every year since RR has arrived
*Ditto our special teams
November 28th, 2010 at 12:37 AM ^
I'm sure eventually you'll find something we don't know.
November 28th, 2010 at 2:03 AM ^
Illinois has a winning record.
UConn is going to a BCS bowl.
November 28th, 2010 at 3:22 AM ^
I think he meant winning record in the conference.
November 28th, 2010 at 9:06 AM ^
I disagree, a change should not be made. Michigan is rebuilding. Arguments for instant results just show how impatient a segment of the fanbase is. Michigan had a lack of talent when RR took over. It will take time to rebuild the depth to compete with the upper echelon of the Big Ten. When Michigan reaches the level of depth that Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan State has built then we can better judge the results against high caliber top ten football teams.
To say that beating Illinois and Purdue this year when we lost to them last year is not improvement is silly. We have 7 wins, not 3 losses so that argument that we might have had 3 wins is stupid, we won the games! It's a sign of a young team learning how to win. They are guaranteed a winning season as the youngest team in the Big Ten, that says something. Looking forward to next year as our team matures and adds more depth.
November 28th, 2010 at 9:26 AM ^
I get the whole youth defense. And it is valid. If you look sat jst about every top 15 team, they are composed largely of upper-classmen at starter.
But there is a larger problem here that calls for a change in coach: the perception issue. At this point, RR has been on the hot seat for 3 years. For three years, we have heard the "will he / won't he" be fired story. It runs on ESPN, FoxSports, and just about the entire MSM. Recruits get their news via the MSM. This whole hot seat has, and will continue to, impact recruiting. It is not possible to effectively recruit top talent from the hot seat.
Whether right or wrong, I think that Michigan would be best served by bringing in new HC. Yes, there might be attrition (although this is not guaranteed, depending on the hire - Harbaugh, for example, runs a pro-style ofensse but has coached the spread in his prior coaching stops), but in some way, putting the RR era behind us will give us the stability to build back to where we were.
On a personal note, I feel for coach Rod. He really appears to be an all around amazing person. Great work ethic, good guy, amazing intangibles. He didn't get a fair shake in AA. I almost hope he gets fired for his sake - it is painful to watch him have to answer the same questions week in and week out. I hope that if he goes, he kicks serious ass wherever he ends up (outside the B10 please).
November 28th, 2010 at 10:58 AM ^
But who's to say the next coach would not be on the hot seat as soon as he arrived? Michigan has had 3 straight down years (altho there is a stench associated with 2007 even with the Bowl win over Florida) and the fan base is impatient for results NOW. The tolerance for failure (read, less than 9 wins) will be even shorter than when RR arrived. I get that JH is a Michigan Man but much of the MSM who beat the "Has RR coached his last game" drum ad nauseam will continue that same story until Michigan has "returned".
A final note to consider is to realize who keeps the chatter going about the head coaching job out OUR school. The loudest voices in this debate are not the "rich alums" calling for RR's head on a platter, rather it is all the talking heads in the sports world that are paid to "analyze" the game but choose to spend more time editorializing about things they have no control over, nor reasonable insight into, than the actual game of football.
November 28th, 2010 at 1:53 AM ^
Look, the whole "RR hasn't recruited enough defensive talent" argument is flat wrong. He's recruited plenty of talent. The fact is, however, those talented players are Freshmen and Sophmores. Take any other defense in the league, save OSU probably, and make them start 5 or 6 recruits from their last two classes and they would suffer in similar ways, especially if they began with as little talent as Michigan's current uperclassmen have.
November 28th, 2010 at 7:15 AM ^
I'm with the folks that are saying that winning 9 regular season games next year is the minimum.
My biggest concern is how the "whole package" is missing - we talk about the Offense (generally) looking good and the Defense (generally) looking bad - but the special teams sucked consistently as well. When the Offense was good, the Defense was bad and the Special teams were bad, when the Offense was bad, the Defense seemed more or less ok, but the special teams were attrocious (similar to my spelling).
Random other thought for anyone who thinks RR can't be kept - if RR were to go, we can be certain that there will be a degree of attrition. Keeping in mind the attrition for the past couple of years, can the school handle the attrition without suffering penalties due to the drop in academic points?
November 28th, 2010 at 7:46 AM ^
is on-field discipline. turnovers, critical penalties, blown assignments have killed this team for three years, and it's been happening for too long to just call it bad luck.
November 28th, 2010 at 9:18 AM ^
Michigan has had amazing discipline for a team of its age and inexperience. Michigan as the youngest team in the Big Ten is one of the least penalized teams in college football. Currently they are ranked 8th with only 51 penalties all year, only 7 teams in the entire FBS have fewer penalties and you can be sure they have much older teams. Wisconsin is number 1 and they are loaded with juniors and seniors. I actually expected more mistakes this year from a team with so many freshman playing.
November 28th, 2010 at 4:35 PM ^
Why are you using "facts" and "logic" to refute "gut feelings?" We are MICHIGAN. We go 18-0 every year. We have never had a bad season and have never dug out of it with grit, determination, and hard work. Everything we have is because we are the WINNINGEST PROGRAM IN AMERICA. We have won more Super Bowls than anyone, and our cheerleaders are the LEADERS AND BEST.
When you start introducing "facts" like the facts that (1) we were a surprisingly discliplined team despite our youth, or (2) whereas OSU has 25 seniors on its roster, we have 12, or (3) we are playing almost exclusively freshmen and sophomores (minus Mouton and Rogers) in the back seven, whereas Iowa has 17 upperclassmen on its defensive two-deep, or (4) whereas we return 18 to 20 starters, depending on how you count Dorrestein and Rogers, Wisconsin loses 17 starters, you cloud the issue.
Three years is plenty of time to completely revamp a program, recruit entirely new kinds of players, and win two national championships. If you think that 3-9 to 5-7 to 7-5 represents modest but acceptable progress, then you are a LOSER and you LIKE LOSING and are SATISFIED WITH LOSING and are a LOSER who is SATISFIED WITH LOSING. You do not have what it takes to be a MICHIGAN MAN and you do not UNDERSTAND THE RIVALRY. Also, it is likely that your SPARTY friends do not make fun of you at work and make you have a sad. So, to recap:
- UNACCEPTABLE;
- WE ARE MICHIGAN;
- LEADERS AND BEST;
- RIVALRIES--UNDERSTAND THEM;
- SPARTY MAKING FUN OF ME;
- MICHIGAN MAN.
November 28th, 2010 at 9:50 AM ^
Youth on defense, a few bad breaks, if only we didn't turn the ball over early . . . blah blah blah.
I know Brian will disagree, but I am now of the opinion that if Harbaugh will come, we should get him. Whether RR "deserves" another year is not the question. Harbaugh is probably the one and only guy that could be brought in that would totally unite the fan base. Who's going to try to argue that he's not a good coach or doesn't understand the job or the rivalries? if we don't get him now, he probably heads to the NFL.
Brandon needs to get to Harbaugh ASAP and get this figured out before the next week. If Jim wants the job, sign him and let's move on. That would give him time to work with the players before the end of the season and hopefully limit defections. All would have to be done quickly and quietly.
If JH doesn't agree to sign now, then Brandon needs to come out and say RR is my guy for the next 2 years. what's the purpose of waiting a month? the big pro of being bowl eligible is getting another week of practice, but that doesn't help if you are then going to change coaches or even defensive schemes. In that case, you've gained nothing.
Brandon keeps saying he knows everything that goes on behind closed doors, knows what the coaches are doing, understands how the players relate, etc. what's going to change in a month?
Time to sh*t or get of the pot. Another month of having RR dangle in the wind does nothing but harm to the program.
November 28th, 2010 at 1:52 PM ^
Maybe he has already told RR that he is the guy.. Why does he have to announce it to you? To make sure you sleep better at night? Who cares.
Comments