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News bullets and other items

• Hoke didn’t know whether Shane Morris was concussed or not
• He also didn’t see Morris struggling to get off the field after the hit
• No injury updates were provided
• Next week’s starting quarterback will be determined after reviewing the film and, presumably, after the next week of practice
• Hoke is surprised some of the same issues keep cropping up considering how hard the team practices and how good they look during the week

Opening remarks:

“Number one, Minnesota – give them credit and give Jerry [Kill] credit but at the same time we didn't… we’re disappointed in how we played football today. I think when you look at different aspects of our game I don't think we played as well as we can. I don't think we executed as well and that always comes back to me first as a coach and what we can do better to help ourselves and help our team. Didn't tackle well and that was disappointing and that part of it. And part of that [is] we needed to leverage the runs a little better. There were too many times where the ball got outside the defense and that's never good for you when you're playing defense.

"I think from an offensive perspective we struggled in a lot of different areas. DeVeon had some nice runs early in the football game but we struggled just in various different areas at times. Either a negative play that puts you behind the sticks– you've heard that; probably heard it too many times and I've said it too many times – or just not consistent in what we are trying to get done and that’s something that we have to make sure we are getting to that point where it's going to be consistency and so that's a big part of it. I think field position was a part of the game. We've got to do a better job. A couple of punt returns went for way too much yardage. I thought Will made a couple good punts and a pooch punt and kind of drove the ball a little bit but we've got to get better coverage and do a better job there.

“From the standpoint of our team and their attitude, number one, they’re disappointed and they should be. We all are. Secondly, I think the guys in that locker room, and I've said this before and you may think I'm not telling you the truth but they work their tails off and that's the sad thing is they've got to keep working and we are going to keep working for each other. We are going to keep pushing ourselves to be the best Michigan team we can be and our goals are still out there. There’s a lot of football to play and we talked in the locker room [how] there's two things you can do: you can quit, you can shy away from it or you can be honest with it and go back to work and that's what we'll do is a football team.”

Brady, can you share with us what you saw in Shane this week that gave him the start that we didn't see you today?
“Yeah. I think, number one, I've said this before and I'm going to say it again is we've got two guys who we have a lot of faith in at quarterback. Shane had a good week of practice. He's had a good practices throughout fall camp. I think that I talked about earlier in the year and he had a good practice last week.”
What do you think was wrong today?
“Well, again, I think sometimes we want to point the finger at one guy because he's the quarterback and I don't think that's fair. I don't think that's fair. Obviously we've got to do a better job with some protection things he had to step up in. Pocket closed a couple times on him. I think, you know, the interception was a tipped ball at the line of scrimmage that gets knocked up into the air. We've got to have better ball security. He’d be the first one to tell you that. A couple times the ball was on the ground but as far as how he practiced and what he did to deserve to start, he's been doing that throughout camp and fall.”
Is it still his job?
“We’ll evaluate it, like we do – like we did last week. We evaluate. For me to sit up here when you don't look at all the film yet, and believe me, you can't see everything from down there and we'll evaluate it.”

Brady, curious as to the decision to leave Shane in after he got hit. Might've had a concussion…

“Well, you know, I don’t know. I don’t know if he might’ve had a concussion or not. I don’t know that and that wasn’t something- Shane’s a pretty competitive, tough kid and Shane wanted to be the quarterback and so believe me, if he didn’t want to be he would’ve come to the sideline or stayed down.”

Was it your decision then to leave him in after the late hit foul?

“The late hit foul…yes.”

[After THE JUMP: more on Morris’ potential concussion, finding a spark, and Hoke’s feelings on the “Fire Brady” chant]

All week long you’ve been saying that it’s the Big Ten season and it’s time to get going.

“Right.”

What do you think happened out there? What’s your assessment of why you think this team-

“I think I just went over it, kind of. Right?”

I guess so, more or less.

“I mean, we’ve got to play better. We’ve got to execute better. We’ve got to coach better. This is a hard working group, I’m going to tell you, and you’ve got to do a better job tackling, leveraging the football. I think you look at field position and I think that will be an interesting study to look at. We didn’t have great field position, and we put ourselves in poor field position on some punt returns and then offensively, I think…I guess it’s right here (/looks down at stat sheet). We were 4-of-13 on third downs. That’s not sustaining drives.”

Brady, we’ve talked about the same things here the last few weeks and you said it again. Why do these things continue to appear? The same issues, I guess.

“Yeah, you know what? The way these guys practice you would not think these issues would appear, and how they work during the week. So I think as a staff you always evaluate did we give them enough of these looks, did we not give them this? It may have been a play that the defense didn’t see or something like that, so we’ll start there tomorrow- tonight- on making sure that we’re doing everything we can do to help these guys win.”

So you’re evaluating inward? You’re evaluating yourself?

“You always do. Win or lose, you do. So it’s nothing different.”

You’ve talked about the team’s keeping their faith and working hard. Have you seen that falter? Did you see that falter at all today yet?

“No. Nope.”

And then you talked about after the game telling the team you’ve got to be honest with yourself and assess where you’re at right now. What’s your honest assessment of what this team is capable of at this point?

“I think this team can still win the championship. I really do. But we’ve got to play much better and we’ve got to support each other as we do it.”

Brady, just to be clear on when Shane Morris got the hit to the head, did you see him kind of wobbling and fall?

“I did not.”

Okay, because it looked like he was out on his feet. Nobody saw that on the sideline?

“I didn’t see it. I can only answer for me.”

Secondly, do you feel you waited too long to put Gardner in anyhow, just based on how Morris was struggling?

“No. You know…you play him, you don’t play him…no. Shane was the guy who was our quarterback.”

So in retrospect you don’t think it was a mistake benching Gardner for the start of the game?

“No, I don’t. No.”

One more question-

“I would have started him if I thought differently, right?”

Yeah, but now you have 20/20. You can look back and realize it didn’t work.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t do any of us any good. You’ve got to be present in the moment, and we made a decision because of how both of them compete and challenge and we also believe that giving Devin a chance to watch a little bit and learn and that’s what we did.”

At the end of the game Morris was taken off the field on a cart. Do you know what his status is?

“I do not. I do not.”

One last question: with the struggles at quarterback and everything else are you concerned about losing control of this season and in some aspects of the team?

“No, I’m not. Not at all. Not with the kids that we have.”

There was a stretch there in the third quarter where Shane had a fumble that he recovered, then an interception, then a fumble that he lost. Any idea what was going on during that stretch?

“He had a fumble that he recovered, and what was the other thing?”

Interception.

“That was tipped at the line of scrimmage, right? Okay. I think obviously we have to have better ball security.”

Brady, you say that all of your goals are potentially still winning a championship for this team-

“Sure they are.”

Providing a spark for this team; you tried changing your quarterback, you tried some other things. Where else do you think you can look from within to find a spark-

“I think it’s within all of us. I think it’s in how we continue to go about our business and how positive the guys are with each other about what’s going on. Believe me, there are guys in there that are taking responsibility for what we’ve done. I’m talking about players, coaches, everybody. So when you look at what’s ahead of us we’ve got to go back to work and get better.”

Brady, when you look at the offensive line’s play, can you assess that and talk about-

“You know, I don’t know if I can give an honest, clear assessment. I think obviously there were some struggles today. I think the thing to look at is the communication a little bit. Making sure that we’re targeting things right. I think that’s part of it. Did we get our hat across a man like we needed to or did we get the movement we wanted? At times we did and so all that we’ll look at and evaluate.”

Brady, I’d like to switch to the other side of the ball, when Michigan’s on defense. Minnesota’s had a really difficult time throwing the football. They only had 10 yards, I think, last week-

“Yeah, they threw seven times last week.”

What did they do as far as those underneath routes that maybe caught you off guard as far as-

“I don’t think it caught us off-guard. Number one, they played a different quarterback last week and Leidner got healthy. He’s a guy who started against us a year ago. I think we lost a little bit with our discipline with our eyes on a couple of those routes and especially the ones that you’re talking about. They did a nice job executing on the slide screen to the tailback. One time we’ve got the guy in our hands and he breaks a tackle, so a lot of that has to do with your discipline with your eyes.”

Brady, a couple of guys said this week that you told them that they couldn’t be comfortable with losing.

“Correct.”

Is this program comfortable with losing right now?

“I would hope not. I would hope not.”

How do you assess that?

“Well, the good thing is we got to meet as a team after we got done and tomorrow we’ll meet with them. That’s how you assess it. And then how they to go to work.”

And then do you have any update on Peppers?

“No. No updates.”

Brady, in the third quarter the student section, or what’s left of it, are chanting “Fire Brady.” I know you say-

“They were?” /smirks, raises eyebrows

Does that stuff phase you at all? Does that get into your head at all, or how do you block that out?

“I didn’t hear it, and when you’re in the moment you really don’t.”

Does it mean anything now that you hear that?

“No, it doesn’t. I mean, hey, this is big boy business.”

Brady, if you could give a message to the Michigan fanbase right now what would you tell them?

“Well, I would tell them that number one, we know their frustration because we share their frustration, and I would also tell them that as a team we all take accountability for it and we also are going to work together to rectify it.”