Monday Presser 10-20-14: Doug Nussmeier Comment Count

Adam Schnepp

Nuss

file

What’s it like seeing this rivalry from the other side? Obviously you’ve coached at Michigan State. What’s the view when you had never been a part of it before [at Michigan]?

“Well, it’s one of the classic rivalries in all of college football and I’m very excited to get the opportunity to be a part of it and I know our kids are very, very excited about the opportunity.”

When you were at Michigan State what was it like?

“Any time you play in a game, whether it be an in-state rivalry game or a conference rivalry game and some of them are out-of-conference rivalry games, the important thing is the focus on the game itself and you can get caught up and lost in the things that surround the game. Any time you’re on either side it’s about the players preparing. It’s about preparing them the best you possibly can and giving them the opportunity to be in the right situations to play well.”

Any of those games stick out to you from when you were there?

“I think any time you’re a part of these games they all stick out to you. Obviously probably the one that was played right here [Ed.- he’s referring to Braylonfest] was one that goes down as a great, great football game. Really was.”

 

They obviously play pretty good defense. Without giving away what you want to do, what are the key things that they do that you have to combat?

“Well, I think when you look at them they’re an outstanding defensive football team. They do a really good job of stopping the run and they get guys and they commit to the box and they do a really good job of tackling. They tackle well. You don’t see a lot of missed tackles. And then when you do have a play you see their ability to make an adjustment and take that play away, so I think that the biggest thing about the game is we have to understand the plan very well. We have to understand how they’re going to line up in the different blitzes and things that they’re going to try and approach us with, and then we have to execute.”

 

In the past Michigan has had a problem with Michigan State bringing linebackers through the A gap. I wonder if there’s a standard way of dealing with that or is that a pre-snap read the quarterback has to make or-

“Well, when you look at their base defense that’s one of their base blitzes that they run against everybody that they play against. One of the things it does [is] it creates obviously pressure on the interior of your line and pressure within the quarterback’s line of vision. A lot of people that run that- I don’t know their exact philosophy but it’s to create problems and pressure in the quarterback’s lap so he doesn’t feel like he has a real pocket to step up into so obviously it’s a blitz that’s part of their base package and something that we’ll prepare for.”

[After THE JUMP: Why were the MSU coaches covered in glass after the ‘04 game and some strategy talk]

Reviewing last year’s Michigan-Michigan State game: have you done that?

“Yes.”

When you watch that from an offensive standpoint, especially up front, in how that game went down?

“You look at it from the standpoint of how did they approach the game. What plays did they run, what was effective, what wasn’t effective, and obviously they did a very good job on defense. The biggest thing is when you look at games like that is is there any carry-over? What may carry over from last year to this year? What did they do well? What did they think they could do well again? Obviously they did a good job on defense against us. They stopped the run and did a nice job.”

Can you talk a little about what it’s like working with Devin Gardner in preparation? Not just how he plays football, but what kind of kid he is and the work ethic you feel you get from him week in and week out.

“I’ve said it all year long, Devin’s preparation has been outstanding and week in and week out he’s done the extra things to prepare himself to play well. Very, very intelligent guy. Really has spent extra time studying the game, and I think it’s important to him not only to understand what we’re trying to do but to understand what the defense is trying to do to take it away. Like I said all year, been very, very pleased with the way he’s prepared week in and week out.”

Especially among the offensive linemen, do you notice and increased sense of purpose heading into this game after what happened last year?

“I think there’s always a desire to get better and improve each and every week, and if you’re not improving- we always say ‘If you’re not getting better you’re getting worse. You never stay the same.’ So every time we go out on the practice field we’re trying to get better, and I’ve kind of hit on that throughout the year. We’ve had individual strides and progress and the struggle has been consistency with everybody doing it right at the same time.”

Brady mentioned wanting more explosive, big chunk plays out of the offense. I imagine during the bye week that’s been a focus. What does this offense have to do differently to create those kinds of plays?
“Well, you’re always looking at how do you create them and what schemes give you the ability to do it; where are your strong points, where are the places where you may be able to create a matchup? Where are your weaknesses where your weakness may get exposed when you’re trying to create an explosive play? We’re always looking for ways to do that and without giving away too much scheme stuff obviously we evaluated that very hard during the bye week and looked at ways to do that and do it better.”

Is that harder to do without Derrick [Green]?

“Well, any time you lose a caliber of player like Derrick…when you lose playmakers it hinders your ability to make as many big plays, so obviously when you look at it it’s what players can make them when we get them in those positions and then how schematically does that work against the opponent you’re seeing.”

How much does that fall on both Devins, Gardner and Funchess, to be those guys?

“I think it falls on everybody. It falls on, when you start talking about the passing game, the receivers have to be right at the right depths and making the right moves and the line has to protect for X amount of time, the quarterback has to throw the ball on time. When you talk about the running game you have to secure the line of scrimmage, the back has to hit the right hole. A lot of times on explosive runs your receiver may have to get an extra block on the backside of a run to create that extra space so there’s- once again, it goes back to you’ve got to have 11 guys doing it on every play. It’s not just one guy here or one guy there.”

The offensive line: when Erik [Magnuson] is health again, whether that’s now or whenever that is, are you going to try and get him back in there? Obviously he was a part of the line until the injury.

“You go through the process of evaluating each and every week, and we’re going to play the best five available linemen to us that we feel [we have] each Saturday.”

Is cohesion important?

“I think cohesion is important. When you get injuries and you take guys out you go through another growth process with somebody else playing a different position and obviously I’ve hit on this before, but you look at the best lines are usually lines that play together for an extended period of time, so obviously cohesion is a part of the factor.”

You talked about how pleased you are with Devin’s preparation. Where have you seen him make progress?

“I think the biggest thing he’s made progress [with] is his understanding of defense. It’s simple on paper to identify the plays offensively and what you want to do. The next step of that is, ‘Okay, what defense am I getting and how is that defense built? Where are the strong points of that defense and where are the weaknesses of defenses?’ Now how does that relate to the play that we’re running, and then you talk about repetitions within system and that’s why a lot of times you see quarterbacks in new systems [and] it takes them a while because they get it, they know what they want to do but it’s the process of getting it done. A lot of that’s repetition and tying your feet and eyes together and getting to the right place at the right time because there’s so much timing involved with everything.”

Without Derrick you’re obviously looking for more from Justice [Hayes]. Can you talk about what you saw from him against Penn State and how much more you can get from him in this game?

“Sure. Justice is a guy I think when you look across our offense may be the one player who’s improved the most throughout the season from where he was at the start of training camp to where he is today. Really been pleased with his day in and day out progress that he’s made, so obviously he’s a guy who’s been a big third-down part of what we do. [He’s] our best protector, understanding our protections and what we want to do there and obviously he does have some speed and some quickness, some things he gives us in the running game so the more we can get him involved the better we’re going to be.”

Can you share some of your memories from that ‘04 game?

“Is that what year it was? That seems like a long time ago.

“I’ll tell you guys a funny story. Now this is pretty good. I don’t know, but…DeAndra Cobb was our running back and DeAndra broke a- we were on a sprint draw and DeAndra broke a big run. I think we went up 17 with I think there was just over eight minutes left and we’re sitting in the box and one of our coaches got really excited, and it was back when those glass windows rolled up, and he jumps up and goes, ‘Yeah!’ And the next thing you know we’re sitting there and glass just ‘psssh’ everywhere, across everything. So we spent the rest of the fourth quarter and overtime just draped in glass so it was pretty interesting.

“So then the next story was that people thought we were upset because we lost [and] that was why the glass got broken but it wasn’t really the story. That’s one thing I’ll never forget about that game.”

Who was that?

“I can’t tell you who that is.” /laughs

What was it like to be so high in that game and then suddenly [have it] crash onto you?

“I don’t know that I remember. I just remember that it was a great football game. It really was. And two teams that left everything they had out there on the field.”

MGoQuestion: In the past Michigan State’s relied almost exclusively on zone blitzes. I know you can’t give away too much, but in general what can you do to counter some of the things in their blitz package?

“Well, obviously any time you’re getting pressured the biggest thing is protection. And then in the running game you’ve got to make sure you’re identified so you don’t have free hats, as we call them, in the backfield. You’ve got to secure the line of scrimmage, make sure you have a hat on a hat, and then in the passing game protect and the ball’s got to come out.”

Kind of to piggyback on that, when you know that a team wants to force your hand early is it more important to execute the quick stuff well or find ways to protect so that you can have those longer developing plays?

“Well, there’s a fine line there and you say how long can you protect for when you talk about creating explosive plays. When we design every play we design we talk to the quarterbacks about understanding is this play designed to be an efficient play or an explosive play? Your efficient plays are usually your quicker type passes where you should see a higher completion percentage, the ball should come out quicker. Now, can you get the ball to a player underneath coverage that can either break a tackle or find space underneath coverage to create an explosive play versus a play where you may block up eight offensive players and block it up and send two guys down the field and try to create an explosive that way, which in turn it can become an efficient play if you get really soft defensive coverage and the ball let’s say gets checked down to a running back or a tight end that’s leaking out that was in protection.”

Comments

westwardwolverine

October 21st, 2014 at 9:22 AM ^

Can someone ask Nussmeier whether it was his or Hoke's decision to purposely submarine the offense by not using Devin's legs? 

GOBLUE4EVR

October 21st, 2014 at 9:45 AM ^

you don't have a passing game that scares anyone, and your line doesn't block so well linebackers are just going to stay home and wait until devin takes off on a broken play or on a designed QB run, thats why they get blown up so often... as for the one TD he scored against Rutgers, he got that because he noticed right away that there was no defender on that side of the field and all he had to do was beat someone to the pylon...

also devin needs to take off on his own when he doesn't have anyone open down field, hes had this problem for a while now... the line can only block for so long and by the time he realizes that he needs to take off its way too late...

Drenasu

October 21st, 2014 at 9:46 AM ^

I think that is frustrating too, but can you really blame them?  If Devin gets seriously hurt, then we have almost no chance to win another game this year.  

 

I'd rather see if they can keep it close and then unleash Devin's legs in a final drive for the win or something like that.  Only use his legs if it is a clear chance to win the game in the end.

Magnum P.I.

October 21st, 2014 at 9:44 AM ^

Nuss, go watch the tape from our Ohio State gamed last year, and just do that.

Seriously, almost every first-down play was a fake run and quick hitting pass. Chewed right through them. Do it.

drewsharpnotsosharp

October 21st, 2014 at 9:48 AM ^

one of the espn commentators said devin's got an unusually high sack rate for a mobile qb..especially for being #1 dual threat qb coming out of high school.  he seems reluctant to run when his receivers are bottled up.

maize-blue

October 21st, 2014 at 9:52 AM ^

I'm hoping that they have been preparing for this game all season and devoting a small portion of every practice to this game. I hope they have a bunch of new looks and plays to throw at this game. I think this would be their best chance, to catch MSU off-guard and hope maybe they are a little too cocky going into the game. Perhaps they can jump ahead early and maybe, just maybe cling to a lead. If they do the exact same things offensively they have been doing all season, then this is going to be a "meh" game and probably go how we fear it to.

dragonchild

October 21st, 2014 at 10:10 AM ^

“Well, obviously any time you’re getting pressured the biggest thing is protection. And then in the running game you’ve got to make sure you’re identified so you don’t have free hats, as we call them, in the backfield. You’ve got to secure the line of scrimmage, make sure you have a hat on a hat, and then in the passing game protect and the ball’s got to come out.”

If you're trying to sound reassuring, Nuss, it definitely ain't working.

west2

October 21st, 2014 at 10:14 AM ^

Mich will try to run and sparty will stuff it.  3rd and long sparty will blitz and gardner will try to make a play and likely get sacked or throw an incomplete pass.  How much the Mich D can contain spartys run game will determine how close the game stays.  Likely it will stay close for 2 quarters unless M turns the ball over.   As much as its painful to admit but its not going to be a fun day for us lets face it.

GetSumBlue

October 21st, 2014 at 10:25 AM ^

If we consistently try to run through the teeth of the State defense, we're not going to score a TD. Reading what Hoke said and this doesn't give me the warm fuzzies about our game plan. Hopefully I'm wrong

SC Wolverine

October 21st, 2014 at 10:37 AM ^

 Has Nuss always been this way, or has Hoke taught him how to give complete non-answers to perfectly reasonable questions.  For the majority of the paragraphs above, I read the first sentence and just stopped.  "Well, you're always going to evaluate and prepare..."  

Notice the complete lack of fire, too.  I hope someone on the team can fire them up -- our emotional leader now is apparently the punter -- because the coaches sure aren't going to.  Remember how Dantonio looked like he was going to explode after the Mike Hart comments?  Someone on this coaching staff please bang your head against a locker or at least pound the podium!

dragonchild

October 21st, 2014 at 11:04 AM ^

Emotion is in many ways an absence of thought.  It's a trigger for release of energy (when you think "fired up" you don't visualize Zen monks contemplating their navels) but when you rely on emotion things often go badly.  I think people are honing in on the coaches' lack of emotion due to the results but I don't think they're correlated.  If the coaches were undefeated and mellow, no one would be complaining.

My feeling is that this game is going to be very, very bad, but it has jack to do with emotion and everything to do with the massive, massive gap in player development.  Obviously everyone's intimidated by their defense but lately their offense is no joke either.  They've been slowed down by ranked teams (Oregon, Nebraska) but no one's held them under 20 and it's highly unlikely Michigan's offense will even get to that.

maize-blue

October 21st, 2014 at 11:21 AM ^

Yup, if MSU's offense gets to 20+, we're screwed. The only way I see a victory is a 13-10 or 13-7 low score. The D will have to play out of their minds, MSU will have to have costly and momentum killing turnovers and penalites.

SC Wolverine

October 21st, 2014 at 1:37 PM ^

I can only wonder if you have played the game of football, which is largely about passion and intensity.  Bo had teams that were overmatched come out like crazed barbarians becuase of the intensity they picked up from him.  I agree that, without context, my remarks may be wide of the mark.  But the evidence in the case of Michigan football this season is a listless acceptance of defeat.  I am still reeling from the team-mommish remarks of our head coach after Michigan lost to Rutgers: "I know they did their best."  

Great football is driven by emotion.  And I just don't see any of it in any of our coaches.  Maybe it's there.  Maybe I would feel differently if we were winning.  But we are losing.  We are facing a likely beat-down.  And you would think the coaches were describing the installation of a new air-conditioning system.

DY

October 21st, 2014 at 2:17 PM ^

Did Bo give emotional Wednesday morning press conferences? I think that coaches have to use emotion wisely. It doesn't do any good whip the team into a frenzy three days before the game.

Jevablue

October 21st, 2014 at 10:53 AM ^

line up for next week at the Hoke presser.  I will never forget Pete Carroll calling something like 20+ consecutive pass plays, many of them 3 step drops,against M in the 07 Rose Bowl.  When asked why he said: "because nobody runs against Michigan."  No, he did not run 27 times up the gut and then decry a lack of execution later.  Why run even one single play into the strength of Sparty's D?  But just like every bad horror movie where the victims do the same stupid thing every time and meet the same gory fate, we will likely run another Picket"s Charge offense into the teeth of the firing squad, with similar results.

Why not dust off the scheme that Lloyd Carr found for his last game coached against Florida? The field was spread, and Henne was not exactly a running threat.  Whatever. I can handle losing, I've gotten really good at it lately, I can't handle the stubborn repeated repetition of failed schemes. idiotic.

 I would give practically anything to eat these words after this game. Not too worried about it though.

GOBLUE4EVR

October 21st, 2014 at 11:20 AM ^

team had an Oline that could block... IIRC Florida blitzed a lot in that game and they never hit home or they very rarely did which opened up the field for henne... you can spead the field all you want but if you can't block or pick up a blitz its not going to work...

like i said earlier in this thread Michigan does not have a passing game that anyone is afraid of... the reason why Oregon was able to do what they did to MSU is because they have a very good passing game and MSU couldn't just sit on the running game which they have been doing to Michigan since 2008...

M-Dog

October 21st, 2014 at 10:06 PM ^

That was one of the worst Michigan games ever . . . .because it did not have to be that way.  

In the first half, both teams wanted to run but neither could.  Halftime was 3-3.  In the second hslf, USC adjusted and went to the quick passes.  Michigan kept trying to run.  Ball game.

We could have adjusted the same way USC did.  We had the players.  We also did what USC did in other games like 2006 OSU and the 2007 season Cap One bowl.  But in the Rose Bowl we kept trying to re-live 1997.

This was my biggest fear about Hoke,that he would be DeBord 2.0.  For a while it looked like that would not be the case.  But here we are back to lizard brain under-center Manball.  Ball game.

You Only Live Twice

October 21st, 2014 at 11:19 AM ^

Enjoyed the humor, anyway.  When asked, "Did you watch the film from last year's game?"

"Yes."