file, but he had the same pullover on so not really

Can you talk about the loss of Derrick Green a little bit and how it impacts you? He looked like he had one of his best games. Two really good carries and then the clavicle injury.

“Well, obviously disappointing to lose Derrick and it was one of his better games. Felt like he was really dialed in focused, ran extremely hard. So we’ve got great expectations for the other guys. DeVeon’s done an outstanding job all season, as has Justice. Some other guys have got to step up. Drake’s got to step up and we’ll continue to move forward and we’ll feel good about those guys moving forward.”

When you look at Devin, what were the changes that you saw from, I guess, the benching until Saturday? Were there dramatic improvements in his play?

“The biggest thing I think, Devin- I’ve talked about it all season. His preparation has been second to none. He’s done an outstanding job each and every week of preparing himself to play, and I felt like he played extremely fast in this game. Made some really good decisions. Obviously he had the one interception, but other than that- and that was a matter of circumstance more than anything else, but he played I thought extremely fast and effective.”

With Drake and Justice, can you talk about- you’ve seen them a lot more than any of us. Talk about what they bring to the field when they’re on the field.

“Well, I think you’ve seen Justice has played a lot for us in third-down type situations to date. Outstanding protector. Really understands defense. Understands how to see blitzes, recognize, and does a really outstanding job in protection.

“Drake has done a really good job in practice, so it’s just been more a matter of numbers than anything for him. He’s a slashing-type back. Has really good vision, and looking forward to having an opportunity to get him out there.”

With DeVeon, he hasn’t ever had more than 10 carries in a game. With this opportunity, how do you see him taking that on his back. Can he be a 25, 30 carries a game guy?

“Well he’s been preparing to carry it as many times as need be all season long, and just a matter of circumstance at times. Derrick’s done a really nice job and he hasn’t gotten as many touches, but if you look at the productivity in his touches it’s been really good.”

I know that we talked about Devin’s health and you guys want to keep him health obviously, but at what point do you make it a priority to sort of get him more on the move and sort of let him do things with his legs? Is that something you look at here going forward?

“Well, I think I’ve said it all along. You never want to take the caliber of player that Devin is with his athletic ability and really restrict that. Tried to, from an offensive standpoint, let him let the system work for him, and then when things aren’t there make plays with his feet but obviously any time you can use the quarterback as an effective running weapon it creates another dimension the defense has to defend. On the same side of that you’ve also got to be conscious of protecting the quarterback and making sure he’s not taking undue shots.”

[After THE JUMP: the Cheshire Cat’s response to the Darboh catch]

Can you talk about the growth you’ve seen in Kyle Kalis and what he’s done in particular that’s allowed him to play his way back into that starting lineup?

“I think Kyle’s done a really good job. A guy that at times wasn’t playing a lot for us but continued to work extremely hard in practice and really probably played his best game the other night and really see growth in a young player. I think he’s going to be a really, really good player. He’s got a very high ceiling. He’s just got to continue to improve each and every day.”

Devin Funchess had no catches in the second or third quarter Saturday. Is that something Rutgers did, or what was the difficulty in getting him the ball?

“You look back at the game [and] you’re always cognizant of who’s touching the ball and where, and I think it was of the 28 he was directly targeted 16 [times], I believe. By chance sometimes the ball doesn’t go- the quarterback sees another look and goes somewhere else with the ball or by coverage, those type of things. We had a little issue with some stuff in the third quarter there where we missed him for a series, but obviously we need to get him the ball more.”

Doug, I have two questions. Were you satisfied with the Big Ten’s explanation on the Darboh play…catch?

“We sent in the information. Follow proper protocol each and every week and we’re looking forward to playing Penn State this week.”

So you weren’t satisfied. Okay-

“I didn’t say that. I didn’t say that.”

I know you didn’t. Silence says a lot though, but I wanted to ask piggybacking on John’s question about Kalis, are you happy with that starting five and did you see some progress from the offensive line Saturday night?

“You know, once again, progress has been there I think week in and week out. Now, do you see it all the time and is it across the board? No. And that’s for every position on our offense. Consistency. We’ve talked about that a lot this season. You see maybe one guy plays better in a game than he played the week before. Do we play better as a group? Not necessarily. So the big thing is for us to continue to improve each and every individual and then to play better as a group and to play more consistent as a group each and every week.”

How is Derrick’s style different from DeVeon and Justice, and does that change the way you gameplan or call a game going forward with a different back?

“Always, as we’ve said from day one, want to put our players in the best position to make plays and do the things that they do best. Those guys all have a unique style. Some of them like different runs better than others. I think that DeVeon and Derrick are probably the most similar of the two. Justice and Drake aren’t quite as big as those guys, so there’s some unique styles to each and every one of them and without giving away strategic things that we want to do we’re going to do some different things with each one of them.”

Just to jump back to Nick’s question for a second [re: Gardner running the ball], when you say you don’t want to restrict Devin’s ability to move and run around and things like that, just based on the other night it looked like something you can exploit. What’s kind of the balance there of using him as that weapon or designed plays or making sure you’re getting the most out of those legs?

“Well, that’s a really good question. I think you also have to look at it from a strategic standpoint how defenses defend you, and if defenses are playing quarterback run then maybe necessarily you may be calling plays that could have a quarterback run tag with it and then the ball ends up going to the back because they’re playing the quarterback. You see a lot of that too.”

You haven’t been in a 2-4, fighting for six wins season since probably your first year with Sark[isian], ‘09 or whenever that was. Mentally, how are you handling the frustrations that may be inherent to being 2-4 and looking at six [or] seven wins if you can turn things around?

“Well, it’s a day-to-day process. It’s trying to find marked improvement each day in what we’re doing. We’ve got to coach better. Every day, what can I do better? These kids, I can’t say enough about how resilient they’ve been. You watch the way they fought in that football game the other night after the adversity last week and the things they went through; this is a unique group. Their commitment and their desire…that makes you as a coach every day want to find something else to give them something extra to have success, and I can’t say enough about how hard they worked, how hard the desire is there to be successful. We’ve just got to keep working and put it all together to be successful.”

Once the Darboh call is made, is it 100% Brady Hoke’s call on going for it on fourth down or not going for it on fourth down, or do you have some direct input at that point in time?

“We discussed it and obviously we felt really good about the opportunity to kick. We also felt like we had a good call too to go for it, so it’s one of those decisions that the head coach- the field goal goes in and everybody’s saying that’s the best call you’ve ever made. Give their guy credit too. That was a heck of play he made on the ball.”

Going back to the offense, obviously you guys showed a lot of positive strides I guess, or you played well on offense. Is it frustrating for you as an offensive coordinator? I mean, this was kind of the most complete the offense has looked all year. And then the second part; Jake Butt and that big pass down the middle. How are you thinking of getting him more incorporated into the play calling?

“Sure. Once again, go back to targeting and how often was he targeted and what was the production and we had Jake targeted six or seven times in the game. We were really only able to get him the ball the one time down the field vertically. Had another one or two we tried to. A lot of that [is] you put guys in certain positions like, see, I can’t tell you what defense- we try and get the best idea of what defense we’re going to get but obviously they have multiple defenses and that dictates where the ball goes. That’s part of reading and progressing in the passing game for the quarterback so obviously [we] want to get Jake involved more and more. And the other thing too is Jake continues to come off that injury. He continues to get better and better from a physical standpoint and gain strength.”

About Devin again; to use his word he said he was “pissed,” after the game he said he was “pissed” he got benched. Did you see, and you talked about how he’s been preparing all season, did you see a different fire in him though last week during preparations and going in to this game, a different level of preparation?

“I think that Devin’s always had a inner burning desire to be a great player, and obviously for numerous reasons things weren’t working great for us there for a while and felt like Shane deserved the opportunity, like we said before. Sometimes as a player it’s good to get a chance to step back, [to] get a different perspective on things and watch and get a feel. And I think the opportunity that Devin had in that game to kind of sit back and see how things unfold when you’re not right in the midst of it, it gives you a different perspective and a lot of times that can trigger some things and I just thought that he played well the other night.”

A lot of chunk plays with the run and the pass game. Would you say that was the most encouraging sign coming out of -

“Excuse me, I didn’t hear the question.”

A lot of chunk plays. Chunk yardage. Big plays. 28-yard completion, 17 yards, and the runs as well. Would you say that was the most encouraging sign coming out of this for your offense? If not, how big is that moving forward?

“Well, it’s a huge part of the game. When you look at winning football on offense, in my opinion the number one thing is turnover margin. We’ve not been good at that all season. We gave up one this week, which is better than what we’ve been. It’s improvement. We’ve got to get to zero. That’s our goal. We talk about it every day. We practice it. And then you talk about explosive plays on offense, because if you don’t turn the ball over and you’re able to create explosive plays if anything you’re going to turn the field over and force the other team to play on a long field. So that is encouraging. We had ten in the game. That’s one about every six plays, which is pretty good. We’ve got to continue to do that, and we’re always looking. You look at the games we’ve struggled [and] we haven’t created explosive plays. Why [or] why not? There’s a number of reasons but each and every week when we gameplan how do we put our guys in positions to create explosive plays.”