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Doug, one more game this season. The offense…was it what you expected? Are you disappointed? Can you talk about the progress of the offense and what your expectations were at the beginning of the season and now heading into Ohio State, where you guys are 13th of 14 in total offense?

“Obviously our expectations are a lot higher than where we’re at right now. As I’ve touched on throughout the season you talk about individual improvement [and it] hasn’t necessarily led to total group improvement. Do feel good about the things that we’re progressing in. You talk about the ability to run the football. I believe in the last three we’re averaging like 207 yards a game or something like that rushing in the last three games. Really feel like that line’s starting to gel together. You talk about protection and the fact that we gave up two this week; one was an assignment error and we gave up one true sack on a zero blitz. We got caught by surprise. We’ve got to have a better plan down there as far as getting the ball out of our hands, and then a week ago we didn’t give up any sacks. The week before we had one coverage sack, so you talk about protection [and] I believe we’re substantially better there in the things that we’re doing.

“Talk about individual accomplishments and the development of Amara Darboh. I think [he’s] a guy that you look at what he’s done over the course of the season. A true left tackle, Mason Cole [and] his individual growth. We lose Derrick Green and see DeVeon step up and Drake step and what they’ve been able to [do]. Jake Butt coming off the injury has been limited a little bit in what he can and can’t do, but you go across the board you see a lot of individual accomplishments. Guys that are getting better, groups that are getting better. We still need to bring it all together and get to a complete game. We haven’t had that yet.”

What about point production, because it’s been a couple weeks since Devin’s had a touchdown pass?

“Well, I wouldn’t look at you’ve got to have a touchdown pass to say you’re successful. That, to me, is not defining success. Obviously throwing touchdown passes is a part of the game but if we’re going to run it we’re going to run it. You look at- like you said, we’d like to score more points. We need to score more points.”

What are the toughest venues in which you’ve ever taken a team to run an offense, because most would say Ohio State sees Michigan coming in and that’s going to be one of them?

“Well, obviously to go to the Horseshow to play in this football game is something special. Any time you play on the road and in situations where it’s going to be loud, where you know it’s going to be a hostile environment you’ve got to be prepared very well and you’ve got to be focused in and you’ve got to execute, and everybody’s got to be on the same page. There’s no margin for error.”

After the game Brady Hoke mentioned it was the first time Devin’s been healthy in more than a month. At this point is he still getting healthier, or in what ways can you use him differently now that you can run?

“You get to this point in the season and I don’t know that anybody gets healthier at this point in the season, and that’s one of the hardest things about playing this sport is that when you play at this level and type of conference we have here in the Big Ten and week in and week out have to go out and do it every week against the physical style of play we see it’s challenging mentally. And then like coach said Devin from the standpoint of his physical health had some ailments there, and we’ve gotten him relatively healthy. Obviously I don’t think anybody’s as fresh as they are week 1 of the season.”

[More after THE JUMP]

With Drake and DeVeon splitting carries, are you liking that system and the way it’s working out or are you hoping to have something more solidified for Saturday?

“LIke I’ve said before, we’re going to play multiple guys at that position and you see that Justice [Hayes] is going to play and Justice does a really nice job for us in third-down situations and some things, does a really nice job, so we’re going to play all three guys. Obviously Drake and DeVeon are two different styles of ball carriers and you see it and you see it in the way we play, and it kind of gives us a one-two punch and a different change of pace.”

But is that something you want to do, to be able to have those guys splitting carries?

“We’ve said all along we’re going to split carries. I think ideally you’d like to have one guy that really takes a substantial amount of the load, and right now we’re doing it with both of them and like I said before, we’ll play kind of the hot hand at the time. We’ll also use guys in specific situations for specific runs that they run maybe better than others.”

Just recently you just mentioned the week in and week out for the players. Can you tell us a little bit about what it’s been like for you, the week in and week out? It’s been a rough season. Can you just tell us a little bit what it’s been like for you, and then also you’ve been involved in big rivalries before. Talk a little bit about how Michigan v. Ohio State compares.

“Well, I’ll go to the first part of the question about the season itself, and it’s great to get up and come to work everyday to work with this group of kids because they’re an exceptional group and the adversity that they’ve faced this year and the way that they stood up and took it head on and continued to battle and continued to fight, I couldn’t be more proud of them. It gives you as a coach energy every day to get up and give them the best possible plan you can, give the best possible chance for success. I can’t say enough about how committed they are to getting it right, and we’re going to keep working and we’re going to keep pushing until we get it right.

“Second part of it, obviously this is one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports, so to get the opportunity to be a part of it as a coach or as a player, you ought to be blessed and you ought to be thankful for that opportunity.”

Has this season taught you anything yourself that maybe you didn’t know as far as-

“I don’t know if I’m that deep of a thinker. I think you’re always learning. In this profession if you’re not learning, if you’re not growing you’re in trouble, and always looking for a better way to do things. A different way to do things. How can you do something better to help the players enhance their chances for success. So it’s been a year that, like I said, the desire that they have, the want-to, the will to get better each and every day gives you energy as a coach to go find something, try and find something better you can do to help them.”

Brady tends to fall toward the aggressive side anyway in going for it on fourth down, things like that. Is this the type of game that lends itself to that? Not necessarily a nothing-to-lose, but nothing to hold back at this point?

“I think every situation you get into when you start talking about going for it is unique, and there’s a lot of factors that play into it. It’s momentum in the game. It’s weather conditions. Obviously when you’re in this league and it’s later in the year weather plays a factor in things. Where’s the ball at, field position-wise, those things. How do you feel you’re doing in certain matchups. There’s so many variables that when you make those decisions they’re well thought through and you make the decision and you go with it, and I think that any time you have those opportunities you always examine them and then you make a choice; do you go or not?”

It was touched on a little bit ago but JT Barrett coming in after Braxton Miller, and Michigan with a fifth-year senior quarterback…do you understand people’s frustration when they look at Gardner not being able to perform, but there’s a guy wet behind the ears [who] comes in and he’s being talked about as a Heisman contender?

“I’ll be honest, I really haven’t seen their offense play that much this year. Obviously he’s having an exceptional year, and I don’t know a ton about them [and] and their style. I do a little bit, but not having watched them and studied them so to say. I can say this about Devin. I’ve talked about it each and every week, and his commitment and his desire and the things that he does to prepare each and every week. We all know it hasn’t been perfect all the time, but also like I said when you look at our offense you can’t pin it on one guy or one position.”

But do you understand fan’s frustration when they see a new quarterback as opposed to- we know Devin’s been through a few systems with different coordinators, but do you understand the frustration because they’re seeing a new quarterback versus old [and] one guy’s having a great year and the other is not?

“I think that each situation is unique and each team’s unique. Teams are different. Teams play with different styles and do different things, so everybody is going to have an opinion and they’re entitled to have opinions. Some people will say, ‘Well, you need to do this. You need to do that’ and I think that each situation is unique for each quarterback at every school.”

You said earlier that you felt that individual improvement hadn’t necessarily led to team improvement. I just wondered why you feel that’s been the case and what sort of challenge that is when you’re seeing growth but it’s not coming together.

“Well, one, new system. It takes time. Everybody wants instant gratification. We all do, as coaches and as players. You want to show up and have everything go as planned. It doesn’t work that way. We’re playing a lot of young players. They’re growing, and when you see that a lot of times with young players you’ll get guys that will flash and play well maybe in one game, but once again then with young players you talk to them and I think one of the biggest things is finding consistency in performance. Veteran teams that you see, and you see the good teams in college football, most of them are veteran teams and they’re playing 18 to 22 guys or 16 of 22 are juniors and seniors or those type of things because you’re still talking about 18- to 22-year-old kids, and you’re talking about maturity, and you’re talking about being able to go into a venue of 100-some-thousand people and focus and channel their emotion and their energy into doing the right thing when you talk about execution each and every play.

“So when you see growth and you know that there’s a want-to and a desire there and there’s always positive things to look at, and things that you know, hey, we’re going to get better. We’ve just got to get this fixed and sometimes you work to the point where maybe you fix this and you lose a little bit of that, and you see a little bit of that in the red zone. We couldn’t get in the end zone the other night. We fixed this but now we can’t score a touchdown, whereas before we were having pretty good success down there scoring touchdowns. So it’s just one of those things [where] you keep slugging away and you get it right.”