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News bullets and other items:

• Hoke found out from Brandon that he would be resigning on Friday
• Hoke will have a meeting with Hackett “sooner than later”
• Peppers is getting better but isn’t where he needs to be, and Hoke said he’d “…have something soon” on the situation. Read between the lines and it doesn’t look good for Peppers returning to the field this season
• Erik Magnuson “could” stay at TE, but he’s also first in at LT, LG, or RT if needed
• Hoke referred to a Devin Funchess toe injury when talking about Darboh getting increased opportunities, so if you’re reading this congratulations, the universe somehow hasn’t collapsed into itself yet!
• Hoke isn’t worried about his job. He says if you worry about it then you get distracted from the job itself, and that he’s never been worried about employment

Opening remarks:

“Thanks for coming. Number one, sorry I was late. I hate to keep you waiting. It was good to win last week. It's always good to win. That’s kind of redundant and obvious but for really how these guys of practice, how they prepare it's always good to be on the right side of the scoreboard when they do that. I thought when you look at how from both sides of the ball they played together it was truly a team win because we came over a little adversity. Defensively really thought guys played well up front. Tackles for loss I think we had 12 so the negative plays, that helped. Offensively 184 yards rushing, which is 5.3 I think it was per rush. Nice to see to be able to end the game to be able to possess the ball. They only had 53 or 54 defensive plays so opportunities weren't there because of time of possession. We did set up some short fields with the two fumble recoveries and that was very positive, but like anything else it's nice that you’re balanced and that's what we were but we've got another game on Saturday with Northwestern. We look forward to that. Came in and got some things done yesterday when you look at it more from a health standpoint but it's exciting to go to Chicago and play Northwestern.”

Has Erik Magnuson’s role change on an ongoing basis or was that something you did for one game because you were short?
“No, I think that something that we could stay with. Obviously it was we were short a little bit but he's a good athlete as far as a left tackle what he can do some things and I thought we put him in No. 81.”

Can you talk about the progression of your guards and how they’ve kind of gotten better as the year’s gone on?
“I think that’s- I think Kyle Kalis. A little concerned early in camp because he had a back issue that flared up and we were a little concerned about that but I think because a lot of it is his toughness and how he loves to play the game. I’ve been happy with him. He's going to get us a false start once a game it seems like, where we’ve got to do a better job and he's got to do a better job and he is, but the physicalness he’s played with has been good. I think Graham [Glasgow] over on the left side I think has been very good for us. I just think the development of all those guys has improved and Graham's played center a little bit at times.”

What is your reaction to Dave Brandon stepping down?
“Well, I think the one thing is I have a lot of respect for Dave and from a reaction standpoint he did a lot of good things for the University and now I'm really excited to work with Jim [Hackett].”

Have you met with Jim?
“I saw him after the game briefly. Just briefly.”

Did he talk to you about-
“No, it was just happy with the homecoming win, all that kind of stuff.”

Coaches are often tied to an AD. Does this make you any more concerned?
“You know, I've never been concerned about a job and I never will be because if I get concerned about a job then you get distracted from it. I threw brake drums on the assembly line for Dayton-Walther during the summer and I was never concerned because I knew I was going to outwork everybody. For this if I get distracted then I'm not being fair to those kids who haven't been distracted, so I've never, ever worried about employment.”

[After THE JUMP: bristling at player (under)development accusations and an ominous Peppers progress report you probably guessed weeks ago]

Was Dave’s resignation on Friday and all the distractions, I know you said this team has done a good job of clouding that out but was there a little bit of a weight lifted?
“I don't think so. This team has been close all year. They've stayed together all year. They’re unified, united. They work their tails off together. I don't think so.”

I know you said you met briefly with Jim after the game. Do you have plans to have a more extensive conversation?
“I'm sure we will.”

Sooner than later? Is that in the plans as of now?

“Yeah.”

When do you-

“Sometime sooner than later.”

Northwestern’s been struggling recently but watching them on film, offensively what challenges do they present?
“Well, they have had some- he’s had a rash of injuries. He’s had some things happen in the preseason that you have to manage as a coach and all that and I'm not going to speak for Pat. Pat's a great coach and a great man. He’s very prideful in his university. They beat Wisconsin. Wisconsin is a pretty good football team. They went to Penn State and beat Penn State there 29-6. Penn State still has Christian Hackenberg which is as good a quarterback as you'll see. They've [PSU] got maybe some other struggles but – you look at them on tape, Siemian has really good film. Really good tape. Justin Jackson, the running back. I think he had 99 yards rushing last week and I think he was going for either five or four games in a row of over 100 yards so he's rushed the ball. A lot of their offensive line men are guys who we've seen before and look, let's face it, the last two years that game has gone into overtime so it's been a tough game for us and we'll get their best.”

One more thing on Jim Hackett. Do you guys go way back? Do you know him from way back?
“When I was here before I had met Jim. Since being here I've met him. Did the Southwest Michigan Sports Authority thing he was a big part of.”

In terms of Dave Brandon, have you talked to him since and did you talk to him leading up to the resignation?
“I found out on Friday and the only thing-“

From him? From Dave?

“Yeah. And the only thing, to be honest with you, look, we're moving forward.We’ve got Northwestern. I'm not gonna – it's not fair to anybody who's involved to say when we did do this or when we didn't do this so I appreciate it but…”

Drake Johnson, obviously a big second half and end of the first half for him. Do you have a competition now for starting running back? Is he in the mix? How does that play out?
“Well, I think he's always been in the mix. I think here's what happened a little bit. You had a guy who it's the year of football. You had a guy who started a little lower then the other three guys on the depth chart. One of them gets hurt and now he’s getting a lot more reps within the system. He's getting a lot more reps with the offensive line, the first team and all that because of Derrick [Green] getting hurt and I think he's continued to progress. Yeah, they'll compete. They’ll compete for it like they always do and I would say right now DeVeon right now I thought he may be held back a little bit but he's fine so we'll see what happens.”

With Drake, did it take him a little longer to get over the knee [injury]?
“Yeah, I think that's part of it. And with an ACL, you don't – we had guys come back in eight months, we had guys come back in seven months but you're not all the way there, and part of that is a new system and if you miss all of spring in that system his development is probably where it should be. Darboh, same thing. Darboh misses a year, Funchess is hurt early in the year with the toe [Ed.- A: Did he just talk about an injury?] so he gets a lot of those snaps and you can see the development that he's made. Chris Wormley with Willie [Henry] being out. Chris and his development. Same with Matt Godin. Brian Mone has been here since January. He played a daggone good football game the other day. He's developing, and I would say Godin being the same. And [Ryan] Glasgow.”

With Drake Johnson, have you seen this coming in practice? Have you seen him continue to develop?
“You can see that he's a slasher. Little different running style and there's some reads and stuff that go into it, all those kind of things, but I think we all-  I don’t think we would have recruited him here if we didn’t think he had a chance to be pretty good. Now, I think they blocked the line of scrimmage pretty well but I think he made some reads pretty well.”

With the injury, when did you see him back to full health?
“Well, we thought in the spring maybe he could've done a little something but we were wise enough to keep him out. Once you get through that whole year cycle you feel a little better but at that time, I think it was the Central Michigan game from the year before, coming out of fall camp Derrick and DeVeon and Justice for a lot of reasons, protection being one. He was behind.”

What do you make or what do you say to the criticism of the coaching staff’s inability to recognize talent? You’ve been criticized in the development of talent. What do you say when Drake Johnson seems to come from nowhere, yet you’ve been riding running backs that have been unproductive.
“Well, what I would say is Jake Ryan is a semi-finalist for the Butkus award. You're talking about development of players, right? Frank Clark was 217 pounds when he got here. He'll be a draft choice.”

But running back in general.
“Well, we got a guy who got hurt who was a pretty good running back, too.”

What do you say to people who criticize the staff’s ability to plug in the hot player; an answer to the question of why did it take so long for Drake to get a chance?
“Because he had to get the opportunities from a practice standpoint of running with the first group.”

Mone came in with good size and everything, but what areas has he made the biggest strides in to doing what he’s doing right now?
“He's always had that striking ability for a defensive lineman. Very quick hands. Very big hands. I think it's confidence sometimes. I think he's more confident in what he's doing. The one thing with defensive lineman you don't want them to over-think the game. I think he did that a little bit, especially last week instead of just playing and so I think he just said ‘I'm just going to go play.’”

You finally got the defensive turnovers and obviously that impacted, that turned into 14 points. You said you work on it all the time but was there something you guys changed to get production?
“No, not really. It's sometimes how the game goes and I don't think we did anything different from what we always emphasize. You do some things – you study backs, you study receivers, sometimes they're a little loose with the ball so you may as you talk to your defense, talk to your group, say ‘Hey, you get an opportunity try to punch it or strip it or something like that’ but from that standpoint it just seems like sometimes it happens in waves sometimes.”

Jake [Ryan] was credited with two forced fumbles. Two years ago he had a lot of those too-
“Yeah. I don't think he was trying to strip the ball. I just think it's the way he's using his arms. I think that's part of it.”

Back to Magnuson, I remember in the summer you said he projects as a left tackle and then he played guard. Is he repping at left tackle right now?
“Yeah.”

Is that where you want him?
“Well, he's a really as well as anybody he's a guy who can play a lot of positions. Number one, he's really an intelligent kid. Number two, he's athletic enough to play guard, play center, which is the only position we haven't repped him at but he'd be the first guy in.”

At left tackle?
“Left tackle, left guard, right tackle.”

Is that where his future is?
“Yeah, I think I would say yes right now. Now, you've got to see how Mason [Cole] continues. Got to see how some of the guys who are redshirting – Juwan [Bushell-Beatty] is a pretty physical guy. I think Logan [Tuley-Tillman] is coming a long way.”

Two questions, Brady. Whatever message you were sending Jake Butt, do you think he got it?
“Yes.”

And how so? Did he participate in practice last week or was it a game suspension?
“He did not.”

He didn’t practice?
/nods

With Jabrill, has there been any more of a decision?
“No, but I’m getting closer to seeing where he is. I mean, he’s getting better but he’s not where he needs to be, and so that’s a very good question. I’ll probably have something soon.”

Your team has had a pattern of giving up late second quarter scores. How important was it to preserve the shutout going into halftime?
“Well, I think it was really important. I think the way the energy the guys had and the way they took the field, you knew you felt very confident about how they were going to go out there and play. And yeah, we talk about those situations being defining to someone to some degree.”