Monday Player Presser Notes 10-11-10

Kelvin Grady

Dropped passes: "We were frustrated, but it happens. Unfortunately it happened in a pretty big ballgame." They'll catch some extra balls this week, and avoid it happening again. "There's nothing that happened on Saturday that's not fixable." Even the best players drop the ball sometimes.

The offense has high expectations for each week, and had more mistakes Saturday than they've probably had for the rest of the year. "We had to make some changes, and unfortunately some of those changes didn't work."

Denard was poised, but got caught in a couple situations he's not used to being in. He spoke up in the locker room after the game, and got a message across to the whole team. Said that the team had to work to avoid feeling that way again. "In his eyes, you could just see it. He's hungry."

Iowa's a great team with a great defense. "We've gotta be ready for it and we are."

"We're 5-1, not 1-5. Even though we lost to a pretty good Michigan State team in a rivalry, we've gotta move on."

"Sometimes when you're winning and everything's going perfect, we don't see the things we need to work on."

Patrick Omameh

"I feel like we were doing pretty well early in the game, and they switched up some looks on us." Michigan adjusted, but wasn't able to execute as well. Being unable to get the pass game going hurt as well. "If we executed the way that we should have, it would have been more favorable on our side."

Team had grown accustomed to 500 yards of offense every week. They learned they can't just expect it, they have to work for it.

The team should respond well coming off a loss. "It's going to be something to grow from."

Iowa defense - "They have a talented front four. They have a talented defense overall." Big, strong guys on the front. "They're a sound defense. They won't throw a lot of different things at you, but they're really good at what they do."

Denard "was clearly upset after the game. We all were." He told the team that it's going to be unacceptable for them to play that poorly again.

Greg Banks

Resolve going into this week's game. "It's a learning experience." They'll recuperate and go into the week with the same focus as last week.

"Losing is losing. Every game for us is a big game." Trying to prove that they can accomplish their goals despite setbacks.

Leaders - seniors all have to step up. "There's some things I could have done better myself."

It was hard coming in as a young guy, the freshmen this year will get it soon enough. "You just gotta bring them up to speed. The game's gonna go how the game goes." Seniors need to help keep them up to speed on the field. Off the field, they lead by example in the weight room, etc.

"We have the players to defend anybody that we play. It just comes down to execution and keeping a clear focus."

"We aren't blind to the fact that we have some glaring weaknesses, but we're working hard to get on those."

Ryan Van Bergen

"We just didn't play gap-sound football" against the run. Guys were trying to make plays in the wrong gaps.

Hard for the young guys to come in without seniors to teach them the ropes in the secondary. "I think that as they grow, the defense is gonna get better and better." That improvement can happen from week-to-week. Once a couple different guys "click," the defense should be good.

In the locker room after the game, Coach Rod said that one loss can't deter the team from their goals. There's a lot of season left. "We still have a lot of opportunities to prove ourselves as a good team."

Fewer injuries than last year, losing Molk was a big deal. The losses started snowballing. This year, the seniors have made the underclassmen understand that there can't be a letdown.

Molk and Schilling, Roundtree, Denard are offensive leaders. All three D linemen, Jonas and Obi "try their best." And Craig. J.T. Floyd and Jordan Kovacs are the leaders at DB.

"I'm very confident in the gameplan." They knew what Michigan State was going to run, and that's what made it so disappointing, because they knew what was coming. "We were prepared for it all week, and unfortunately we just didn't get it done when it came time."