Monday Player Presser Notes 10-11-10 Comment Count

Tim

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."

Comments

michgoblue

October 11th, 2010 at 5:57 PM ^

It takes a lot of guts for a sophmore, after starting only 6 games and throwing three picks (the last of which effectively put a knife in any change of winning) to address the team like that.

That, to me, is a true leader.  Well done, Denard!

kind of a big deal

October 11th, 2010 at 7:45 PM ^

It's great to hear he's taking accountability for the mistakes - he's just a sophomore QB and a bad game was due.  A true leader backs up his words though, so we'll see how he handles things against Iowa.  I'm expecting their D to pose more problems than MSU's, so he's going to have to be on top of his game.

Durham Blue

October 11th, 2010 at 6:22 PM ^

talking about guys trying to make plays in the wrong gaps.  Wonder who he was referring to? /sarcasm

In all seriousness, Denard appears to be a natural born leader.  We'll see how the team responds to this setback.  I think (hope) we'll see the best team victory of the season on Saturday.

NorthFLWolverine

October 11th, 2010 at 7:44 PM ^

are saying they were prepared for what Sparty had coming for them but couldn't stop them. This leads me to believe that one, maybe the coaches are actually doing their job and two, but sadly, we just don't have the physical talent on defense to keep up with the better offenses across the country. Notice I didn't say league? That's because of UMass' and ND's offensive production against us. On a side note...Is it just me or does Matt Millen make you want to tear his fuckin' head clean off? When I turned on the TV and realized he was doing the color commentary I wanted to throw the remote at the TV. Now, the dumb son-of-a-bitch is doing the Monday night game in NY. Come on ABC...give us a break will ya! Matt Millen...what a douche' bag!

SC Wolverine

October 12th, 2010 at 3:18 AM ^

What you are saying about the defense is true and therefore unlikely to change. So we lost to Sparty bc the offense did not execute. They left at least 21 points on the field- enough to win. This is not to blame them, but the offense wins or loses for us, since this defense cannot stop a good offense.

this guy0531

October 11th, 2010 at 6:43 PM ^

that is what men do, they own up to their mistakes, we are watching a boy become a man… I so wish the espn hype train didnt come in and make this such a spectacle… I watched PTI today, and now denard has gone from run away winner, to not winning the heisman at all… i mean come on! Im not saying he deserves to win, but players have bad games. 

Tim Waymen

October 11th, 2010 at 7:38 PM ^

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.

I've actually been wondering about this.  Understand that this is pure speculation, but to me it seemed like the players on offense were a little nervous and jumpy at first, but also played like MSU's defense would just be like that of the other teams they played.

Again, just my read into it; I don't know if it's completely true.

TennBlue

October 12th, 2010 at 10:33 AM ^

What I saw from the offense was a bunch of young players overly nervous about their first big game.  Rather than executing with confidence, they started tryng too hard, each trying to do too much on his own, which damaged the team coherence, timing, and coordination.  MSU's defense was certainly good, but not awesome - we could have picked them apart if the boys had stayed inside their heads.

 

Against Iowa, I want to see them calmly and cooly executing what they know how to do.  I'm less concerned with winning than with seeing them rebound and show some self-confidence.  I think they will win if they do that, anyway, but good offensive execution is going to be my main priority.  The defense is of course going to be terrible, I'm long past getting angsty over that.

mgoSk

October 11th, 2010 at 7:40 PM ^

Denard is competitive, talented, and driven. I predict a great game out of him on Saturday, the team needed a wake up call, time to refuse to lose.

Go Blue!

blueblueblue

October 12th, 2010 at 3:31 AM ^

GIve me a break on the wake up call talk - You (and others) are telling us that after barely beating UMass and Indiana, this team was calmly resting on its laurels? If that is the case, they needed more than a wake up call. They got beat by a resoundingly better developed, prepared, and coached team. They needed something to fix that stark disparity. 

panderberg

October 12th, 2010 at 10:32 AM ^

Yesterday, I wrote about how I felt about Denard ina post on Mgoboard:

So often, we hear from coaches and/or players who try to say the "right" thing. Frequently, it's just crap. But Denard is for real!!! We are lucky to have the opportunity to see him blossom into a true "Michigan Man."

GOBLUE!!

 

 

(quoting myself - that oughtta be worth a few "negs," eh?)

 

I am proud of him, and am confident that he & the rest of our offense willl bounce back this week. The "D" - well, I'm not quite so sure. But I AM sure that all this experience will benefit most of our young players. Unfortunately, Ezeh is not ever going to learn/get better. Poor kid - but he should be benched.

Jack1968

October 12th, 2010 at 12:19 PM ^

To those who say we were outplayed or that State was better, I would point out that after our first two possessions we should have been up 14-0.  That would have had an impact on our feeling of confidence, it would have left our young players calm and it would have left State feeling a certain level of panic.  Instead, we were up 3-0 and were shortly thereafter down 7-3.  By failing to take advantage of our opportunities, we boosted our opponent's morale and put ourselves into a state of doubt and anxiety.  You see it happen every week in the pros where one team fails to take advantage of its opportunities and eventually bolsters the other team to the point where it is able to exceed expectations.  Some of that is what happened on Saturday.  So, it is not enough to say that if we took advantage of our opportunities, State might still have scored more.  The timing of our gaffes was critical in keeping State's hopes alive and making them believe they could beat us at least in part because we were so busy beating ourselves.