file

News bullets and other items:

• Hoke wouldn’t take any questions about Dave Brandon; he said he’d address that on Monday
• Hoke seemed pleased with the defense with the exception of two drives. He said the defense lost their intensity on Indiana’s last drive.
• Hoke attributed Drake Johnson’s success in part to getting increased reps with the second unit after Derrick Green’s injury
• Jake Butt will rejoin the team for the Northwestern game
• Devin Gardner is slowly recovering from his ankle injury, though Hoke said it limits the designed runs they can use
• Hoke chose to kill the clock at the end of the first half because they had just thrown an interception and didn’t want to put the defense in a bad position, and they were getting the ball to start the second half

Opening remarks:

“It was good to see the kids, as hard as they’ve worked – I see that weekly. Some of you believe that, some of you don't but what I can tell you it they work their tails off every time we go to practice. They work their tails off as a group. They really are accountable to each other and that's important and that's the way they came out and played. Obviously we got some good performances from some guys that haven't played as much but part of that is due because, talking about Drake [Johnson] probably as much as anybody, he's got a lot of second reps now since Derrick [Green] went out. So I think when you look at it from that side of that we've always thought he was talented but he took advantage of an opportunity and did a heckuva job.”

I was going to talk about Johnson and Darboh. They had 122 and 170 yards, respectively. Can you talk about Darboh and his receiving today?
“Yeah, you know, Amara played a little bit as it as a freshman, a true freshman, and then sat out all last year but I think the confidence, and again, for both of them being in a system for the first time and then learning a little bit of a different system– they both are very talented, we believe. They both work extremely hard and it's nice to see those kind of kids when they get rewarded because of the hard work and what they do and Amara, you know we have Devin [Funchess] on one side and Amara on the other, it maybe opens up some things a little better.”

[After THE JUMP: evaluating the defense, what’s left to play for, and a couple of comments from players]

You tackled well. Was that one of the keys to slowing Tevin Coleman?
“Yeah. The one thing we talked about was keeping the ball inside and in front and I think the guys up front defensively, you could feel them. The Wormley’s, Ryan Glasgow, Mone, Godin, I mean you could feel those guys. Ondre Pipkins, he played probably 8 to 10 snaps but you could see at the line of scrimmage and that helps our linebackers and that helps the whole defense. I've got to give credit with how the kids leveraged the football and that's the biggest part of it. You know, if you were a cutback guy be a cutback guy. If you were the force be the force guy. If you're a chase-contain you've got to chase-contain, so from that standpoint I thought it was really team defense. We had two possessions in there that I know we’ll spend a lot of time on tomorrow but really, really think the kids went out there and played hard.”
Can you talk about the Glasgow play real quick?
“Ryan's play? Ryan is one of those guys who he's kind of fun during practice because it's him and his brother pounding on each other, and it's the competitive nature of those two. And then tonight he's a guy who he's going to try and give second and third effort and to some degree he needs to because that's what he does best. You know, he's not the quickest guy and probably not the most athletic of the guys in there he knows, but he always goes over and above when you talk about the effort that he gives. It was an effort play.”

This late in the season are you discovering some things about some individual players, and also how much of the motivation can getting a bowl bid be to the team?
“Yeah, I'll answer that first. I think that's always something you should think about. It's nice to get, as coaches, those extra days of preparation and practice with youth. In some ways that's good, but the other thing is I think because of injury a little bit, necessity a little bit you start finding some guys and just developing the guys in the system. I think that's part of it too.”

A little off the game topic, Dave Brandon resigned yesterday. What's your reaction to that?
“I'm not going to talk on that because I want to talk about what those kids did today between the white lines. We’ve got all day Monday we can discuss that, but this is about these kids going out and beating Indiana. And I appreciate the question.”

From a different perspective, did you meet with Hackett today or-?
“Look, we can talk all about that on Monday.”

With Drake, can you talk about the journey that somebody who's had a setback like he did physically to have to work their way back to getting the kind of opportunity that he did today?
“Well, I think if you know anything about Drake he's always been very motivated and a hard worker. I would say that he, because he's getting a little more chance with the repetitions in practice and those things, I think that's helped him quite a bit and then he made some very good cuts, he accelerated through cuts, and that’s some natural ability there that he has.”
Just to build off of that, what style of running does he bring in practice or today?
“You know, he's more of a slasher than the others and I think the one thing he does have is I think he has a very good burst when you look at the gears and then he's got the ability to take it the distance, also.”

If you could talk about the fumble recovery you had in the first quarter; Jake causes it, Mone recovers it. What kind of an impact does that have?
“Well, you know, it was a huge impact, and he had fumbled the ball to please earlier. I think it was two plays, it may have been three but it was a guy [who] punches the ball out, again is playing hard trying to get to the football and short fields are good for your offense, and that happened a couple times and turning the ball over. As you all know we haven't done that very well and so it was good to get some of those turnovers.”

Do you have anything to add on Jake Butt? Can you comment on that?
“No, just that he'll be back with us next week.”

DeVeon – did he come back in the game after the injury?
“Yes.”

So he’s ok.

This isn't a question about Dave Brandon specifically, but the distractions you guys have had over the past month, do this week’s events lift a cloud or take the weight of some of those distractions away?
“Like I said, let's talk about what those kids did because there's only so many opportunities they have and have they stayed together, been accountable? Yes, that's what they've done.”
Did this weeks events have any affect on the kids?
“Like I've said, we'll talk about it on Monday.”

MGoQuestion: Against Michigan State you had trouble keeping the linebackers clean. What did the defensive line do differently tonight to help out the linebackers?
“Well, I think they played– Number one, I think they did a nice job with their gap integrity. I think that's a big part of it. I think when you get combination blocks from a visual to a pressure key or whatever you're teaching, I think that's a big part of it and I thought they did a nice job with it.”

In the third quarter with the game still in reach obviously Indiana's pass offense didn’t have the best of games and there was one drive in particular in the beginning where they were going up and down at a fast pace. How big was it for you guys to get that stop on that first drive?

“Well, there’s no question that was one of the possessions I didn’t think we were disciplined enough in getting lined up, which we had done a good job all day and the communication, because we got caught once not exactly how we needed to be. That’s a big part of it, so we’ve just got to keep working so it was disappointing but it was good to see how the guys came back.”

 

Earlier this week you and Greg [Mattison] praised Joe Bolden’s energy. It seemed like he came out and had a big game. The missed tackle weren’t a problem. Seemed like he was a little more focused. Can you just elaborate on what you saw from Joe today?

“Well, Joe’s always focused, number one. There’s a guy who comes from a football family. His uncle was his head coach, his dad was a coach, I mean, the whole family. He understands the opportunities that you have, which there aren’t many so he’s always ready to play. He’s probably as intelligent of a football player as you’ll find when you look at getting the front right and getting people in and out of things and he’s also very good at diagnosing things, so it was good to get him going. Again, last week some of that problem was on the defensive line. They were better today which made, I think, the linebackers better.”

Was it satisfying for you as a coach to have him rebound from that? Because last week, missing tackles and stuff…

“Yeah, there’s no question but that doesn’t surprise me either.”

 

With Devin [Gardner], just watching him walk around the field and things it looks like he’s pretty banged up at this point in the season. Do you look at him as being a little bit limited in any way in some of the things that he can do?

“You know, when he- I think he’s getting better every week from the initial…injury and he was better this week than he was last week. Has it hurt some of the designed runs? Yeah, and I think he’s a little more cautious when he does take the ball and run so we’ve got to just keep getting him healthier.”

Does that caution in any way translate to passing yardage? At times when he’s back there it seems like maybe the ball’s not getting out fast enough.

“Yeah, I mean, there’s no doubt we’ve all got to get better and we all have to do a better job and he’s got to get a little better at getting the ball out. I thought the third-down conversion to Darboh was a great throw and even the touchdown, he really powered through it but we’ve got to do a better job there.”

 

You had contained Coleman quite well throughout the game minus their last real possession near the end of the game where they really pushed the ball down your throat. They ran the ball I think the entire scoring drive there late in the game. What was different on that particular drive? Different from the rest of the game.

“You talking about the last drive?”

It was their last drive where they scored the touchdown.

“Well, I think we lost a little intensity. To be honest with you, I think that can’t happen but I think that happened. We’ll address that really, really tomorrow but we can’t lose that edge that you have.”

 

Going back to Drake, does this performance today make him a little bit more of a primary focus and in practice will he get more reps with the ones?

“Well, I think we’re very happy with his performance. Very impressed with it. I know we’ll look at the tape and make those judgments, but pretty excited about what he did today.”

 

Was there one factor more than any other that was the reason you didn’t go for points at the end of the first half there?

“Yeah. Number one, we had just thrown a pick and set up three points, so there was not much in my mind that wanted to go two-minute drill and the other thing was that we were getting the ball at the start of the second half. Our defense had been playing too well to put them in a bad situation and [we decided to] just calm ourselves down a little bit, come in at halftime and make some adjustments which I think the coaches did a nice job with, especially in the running game, and then so I wasn’t looking forward to the defense having to be challenged again at that time.”

 

Erik Magnuson at tight end out of necessity?

“Yeah, that a little bit and we’ve done some things with six offensive linemen before and that’s part of that package now. Erik’s a pretty good athlete, pretty good hands so he gives us a little something different.”

 

What do you think right now your team’s motivation is and what are they playing for? I mentioned the bowl but what are they playing for?

“I think number one they play for each other. You don’t work as hard as they do. How many times have I said that?” /laughter

You’re saying I don’t work as hard?

“Did I say that? I never would say that. I just think they really have done a nice job of going to work. They’re no different than any Michigan fans, coaches, or anybody else. They have high expectations and they’ve been able to be, for some of the youth, they’ve been able to keep focusing on what’s next and that’s what they’ve done. Wish I could tell you there’s some secret to it but that’s what they’ve done. That’s what I’ve seen them do. That’s what I feel them do.”

 

You said you may change up practice a little bit this week and I was wondering if you did and how so? And do you think it worked?

“Well, I don’t know.”

Helped, not worked.

“I think the one thing we did is we backed down a little bit on Wednesday, which is always a fight. Do you get to see enough reps with this play against this defense? So it’s always one of those things, and usually at this time of year you start to back down a little bit but I think that part of it may be a little fresher. We’re really into these GPS things that tell you how far a guy runs, how much intensity each thing is, and I’ll be very honest with you, it’s very telling because you can kind of structure practice of- I’ll use Darboh as an example. If he’s at 8,600 yards and running during a practice, which he is, which is a lot of running then okay, where can we take him out and limit his reps? Believe me, me talking about this is probably not something I should talk about because I don’t understand it like Aaron Wellman and the strength staff do but it’s great information.”

Do you wear one?

“Do I wear a GPS? Can’t you tell?”

 

BONUS- Players

Amara Darboh

On breaking up the potential pick-six:

“I ran my route and then they tell you, the route we ran you’re supposed to just sit there but then I saw I think it was a linebacker kind of jumped it so then I was thinking just hit the arm because I hear the DBs coach say that all the time so I just tried to swipe and hit the arm.”

 

Drake Johnson, truth-teller and anti-Jon Horford

“Like I said earlier, whenever there is a hole I’m going to get as fast as I can through it because if I’m going to sit here and juke around I’m going to get hit so, like, I don’t want to get hit. I figure the more I run without getting hit the farther I’m getting down the field so really it’s just hitting the hole as fast as I can any time I can.”