Monday Presser 9-29-14: Greg Mattison Comment Count

Adam Schnepp

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Could you please identify yourself for those of us who don’t know you?

“Oh, okay. Greg Mattison. I’m the defensive coordinator.”

 

Coach, you were playing in your half of the field the entire third quarter. That drive right before the half: talk about in terms of what it did maybe getting the momentum-

“Well, I don’t think it changed anything when we went in at halftime. I was disappointed in that. The thing I was looking at there was that if we could stop them and had a timeout left we could possibly get the ball on a short field for our offense, and that’s my mistake. We didn’t get it done and whenever we don’t get it done I look at myself first, and as I looked at the tape- you know, third down…that’s why I don’t believe in stats a lot. Our third downs were adequate. They were adequate.

“There were some second downs we had to do better that we gave up some chunks of yardage [on], but to answer your question you’re exactly right. As I was making the calls, as that was happening I said to myself, ‘We’ve got to stop them here and get that ball for the offense. They’re going to have a heck of a shot at possibly having a short field.’ And then they hit the screen, which they did twice, which was just a very well-educated play and that comes down to one guy making a tackle and the guy made us miss.”

 

Greg, Joe Bolden after the game Saturday talked about kind of a lack of execution and said that was a big problem. [He] mentioned wrapping guys up with David Cobb. What can these guys learn from that? He was really the first guy to run over you guys this season?

“I don’t know if he ran over us but he did better against us than we want anybody to do. He’s a very good running back. I’ve already addressed that with our linebackers and with our defense. We’ve got to play a lot more physical. That was the first time that I felt that we weren’t the leaders in being physical against that offense, and it was guys not getting off blocks, it was guys punching and things that we’ve worked very hard on all camp and just not being physical. I didn’t feel we were as physical as we should be and have to be and we’re working on correcting that right now.”

Is that a defense-wide issue?

“Yeah. It’s total defense. Not just one position, it was total defense. I just didn’t think…you know, we take pride and have all year, take pride in being a very physical team on defense and I just don’t think we did as well as we should have there in that game.”

[After THE JUMP: Greg Mattison scouts Rutgers]

Can you go through the process of Jourdan Lewis over the last couple of years and how you’ve seen him grow week to week, and maybe what this time on the field is doing for him right now?

“Jourdan Lewis is a very talented and very young corner, and I’ve seen him mature a great deal. I see him in practice going harder than he did initially. I see him taking steps every practice at becoming a Michigan defensive player, and I think he’s seeing now the one thing you have to do is do it play in and play out every single play. Last week, for example- two weeks ago when he made that great play on the tackle, he needs to make sure he’s doing that each time and I’m not saying he’s not, I’m just saying that’s the measuring stick and the sky’s the limit. We’ve got a lot of young guys like him on defense and they all have to come every week, and if you don’t you won’t be up to the challenge that we need to be this year.”

 

I guess just overall looking at the defense, is your level of confidence where it’s been this year or do you feel like the game against Minnesota exposed maybe some major flaws in the defense?

“No, no. My confidence in our guys is as high as it’s ever been. I haven’t lost one bit of confidence in this defense, and it just showed again on film that it doesn’t matter who you play, and that’s a good football team. Minnesota’s a good football team. You’ll see as they go forward, but we have to play at our very best each and every week and not doing that doesn’t lose my confidence in these guys at all because I know they want to and I know they’ll work to do it, and that’s what we’ll start out doing; we started out already Sunday, and we’ll start Tuesday again doing that.”

 

You’ve been good friends with Brady Hoke for a long time. Does it bother you when people attack his character?

“Well, yeah. Anybody that attacks his character doesn’t know what they’re talking about, and I don’t really even know much about what you’re saying on this. All I’m telling you is if somebody ever attacks that man’s character…I mean, they’re totally off-base and I don’t even want to talk about it because it’s such a joke. So to answer your question, yes. It’s ridiculous, but any other questions? Anything else on football? We got- I got [time?]- nobody else’s [Ed: he mumbled something. Maybe “gonna be”?] here. I love this!”

 

Rutgers.

“Yeah.”

What do you see out of them and what’s your challenge?

“Rutgers, I’ve been watching them all last night and we just got done watching them for five hours today. This is a very, very good offense. Very good offense. They’ve got a seasoned- all their offensive line is back. I think their quarterback is a very, very good football player. I mean, he’s a winner. He doesn’t get sacked. He gets out of trouble. He throws the ball [well]. They have very explosive wide receivers. I think this will be one of the best offenses we play. I’m very, very impressed with them on offense.”

 

Greg, I’m not sure if you’re aware but they’re missing their leading running back. He had an ACL injury. I guess Desmond Peoples looks like he’s going to be the next guy up. What do you know about him? What have you seen out of him?

“I got a chance to watch him, also, because he played last week and he’s quick. He’s a very good football player. He’s not as big, but he’s [a] very quick, hard-playing football player and very adequate. Very good football player.”

What do you guys have to do to stop him?

“Well, we’ve got to play our defense. We’ve got to swarm. We’ve got to have everybody get to the football. We’ve got to have guys getting off blocks. We’ve got to have guys fitting like they’re supposed to and that’s what we plan on doing.”

Comments

bronxblue

September 30th, 2014 at 2:18 PM ^

The weirdest thing is that Greg Mattison had to identify himself before they started questioning him.  Surprised someone didn't have him put on hand on a bible.

But yeah, surprised there was no discussion about Peppers, but I guess after last weekend the fact your 5* super-duper freshman not seeing the field is so low down the list that it was kinda forgotten.

Blue in Yarmouth

September 30th, 2014 at 2:56 PM ^

I know the press (with the exception of the blog staff) take incompetence to new levels, but who would take the time to go to a press conference in which they didn't know who they would be addressing? I mean if this is common practice no damn wonder the questions are so ridiculous, they don't even know who they're going to be asking questions of...

I can see in their heads now: sitting in a room adorned with UM logo's etc thinking "damn I hope it's brad pitt and angelina this time, I've tried every place else....Nope, just some old, bald guy in a Michigan shirt....Oh well, I'll try again tomorrow." WTF?

MCalibur

September 30th, 2014 at 2:42 PM ^

"I think their quarterback is a very, very good football player. "

Surely, he can't be talking about Gary "These Throws Aint Loyal" Nova. Someone please confirm.

dragonchild

September 30th, 2014 at 2:50 PM ^

That said, this was rather vague for Mattison.  Then again it seemed the press wasn't particularly interested.

I know Mattison is a personal friend of Hoke so he's probably taking this very hard, but I hope he sees the difference between hate and demand for accountability.  Michigan is a lot of things; I've heard us fans be described as everything from aloof to arrogant, but the one thing we aren't is stupid.  It seems to annoy the coaches that we demand answers but that's the price you pay when you coach for Michigan.  If you want a fanbase that won't ask questions about how you run the program, move to the Bible Belt.

gwkrlghl

September 30th, 2014 at 3:30 PM ^

 

Could you please identify yourself for those of us who don’t know you?

“Oh, okay. Greg Mattison. I’m the defensive coordinator.”

 

"Bro, I heard there's a press conference going on right now. We should check it out!"

"Who's speaking?"

"I dunno man, we'll ask when we get there"