Nebraska Postgame Presser Transcript: Lloyd Carr Comment Count

Heiko

Lloyd Carr

Opening remarks: “This is a little nicer press room than I remember.”

What’s it like being at a postgame press conference? “It’s exciting. It’s exciting to be down on the field at the end of the game. I told Dave Brandon before the game, before the ceremony -- you look around that stadium, and there’s no place in the world like it. To see such a great effort, a total team effort today, a great victory over an outstanding football team was a great day.

Can you comment on the play today? “Well I agree with whatever coach Hoke says. But that was fun. I was hoping on fourth down down there that we would go for it. He sent the field goal team in and ran that fake. I thought that was a big, big play in the game. It was well executed. And there were lots of good plays -- kicking game, defense -- outstanding game. Scored a lot of points.”

Talk about the job Brady Hoke has done to get this team to a 9-2 record. “Well I think it’s remarkable. Any transition is about finding out a lot of things that you don’t know about your players, and the players finding out about the coaches. But I think, when I look at that team today, they’ve consistently played very good defense, and I think the transition offensively has been good. When you realize we’re two losses, both of which we had chances to win -- I don’t think you could ask the coaching staff and a team to do a better job than this team has done. This is just wonderful to see. I mean, you talk about every phase of the game … what I look at is the intensity with which they play. They’ve given up very few big plays this year, and here we go into the last game of the season with a lot to play for and great momentum. This team has started to believe in itself. Coming back here today, that crowd was outstanding, and they’ll be outstanding again next week.”

The fifth year seniors were players you recruited and were on the team during your last year. Did you get a chance to talk to them after the game? “Well I have run into a few of them during this season. I’ve just tried to tell them how proud of them I am, what they’ve done. They persevered. On any team your senior leadership is a critical issue, so I think it speaks to what those kids have done this year. It’s been exciting to watch them.”

Do you miss being on the sideline? “Yeah. Yeah. When you’re part of a great victory, there’s nothing like it. But I’m so happy for Brady and the staff and the players, because Michigan football is -- we’re where we want to be.”

Did you get any jabs from the Nebraska fans about the ’97 championship during your tribute? “The tribute -- and I’ve said this and it’s true, if you coach at a place like Michigan with great tradition -- and the players that played for me were outstanding players but great people and people who were unselfish who put the team first. That’s how a coach gets selected for the hall of fame. That’s certainly my case. I had great, great players and great, great people.”

(Ed: If you were wondering, the answer is no, Lloyd did not answer the question)

A lot has been said of “Michigan football.” Did today feel like Michigan football is back? “Yeah I think it was a loud statement. Great defense. I’ll tell you, that’s what I expected from a Nebraska team. They’ve always been a very very physical team, played great defense, run the football. But as I looked at this game, that’s a hard-hitting football team … it was what you want to see in a football team from the standpoint of our performance.”

Prediction for next week? “Whatever Brady says.”

[Hoke will be up shortly. Players tomorrow morning.]

Comments

Mr. Yost

November 19th, 2011 at 8:38 PM ^

We've had Rich Rod who answered anything and everything...we've had Hoke and his pointing and coachspeak and the coordinators with their "sit down sonny boy, let me teach you a little something" answers...that we forget about what it was like when Coach Carr was coaching.

I say we should stop whining and complaining and just appreciate what Coach Carr has done for our program and university...he's not going to say anything to steal the spotlight or undermine the current head coach (whom he likes).

So what he didn't give a great presser...he rarely has. At least he's consistent.

BRCE

November 19th, 2011 at 10:18 PM ^

Enough people to get on the New York Times Bestseller list, which is the official barometer for public relevance in literature.

I have made it known that I am no fan of what Carr did over that period, to say the least. And I wouldn't even think about booing if I was there today. But I wouldn't cheer.

 

M-Wolverine

November 19th, 2011 at 10:43 PM ^

Jobs book sold over 300,000 it's first week...so 1/1000th of population.  Doubt Bacon's book was close.  So even accounting for the far fewer Michigan fans there are, when you adjust for that maybe 50% who even have read it buy it all, yeah, it's a blip in the fandom. If you took a poll of how many of the 114,000 hav read it, I bet it wouldn't be that many.

And, oh, yeah-

Raoul

November 20th, 2011 at 12:50 PM ^

I don't think most people realize how few copies it actually takes to get on a best-seller list. This item, for example, says selling just 3,000 copies in one week can land a book on one of the lists. I've seen other estimates claiming that 5,000 copies sold in a week are enough to get on the NYT list. That gives an idea of how many copies of Bacon's book were likely sold during the one week it was in the NYT top 15.

M-Wolverine

December 9th, 2011 at 9:33 AM ^

After 5 weeks, he's sold a grand total of 30,000 copies. Or less than one third of the Big House.  But in the whole world. 

I don't think it's a grand influence on most people....because in the grand scheme of things, hardly anyone has read it.

maizenbluenc

November 20th, 2011 at 7:53 AM ^

or flamebait. Whether he actively advised players to leave, etc., the obvious elephant (unasked question) in the room is Lloyd did enough to help Rich in the transition.

Many people beleive he did not or are at least conflicted about it enough that it taints how they feel about Lloyd Carr.

BRCE says two things:

1) the book is on the New York Times Bestseller List

2) he (or she) is one of the many people. And rather than being down right dis-respectful (and booing), BRCE would just not cheer.

Both of these are resonable observations.

Surely the irony of silently not showing support for Lloyd Carr, rather than vocally supporting him is not lost on people?

Huma

November 19th, 2011 at 9:19 PM ^

Regardless of 3&Out it shouldn't be hard to support the things Lloyd did on the field. 120+ wins, 5 Big 10 championships, 1 MNC. He deserves our appreciation.

dahblue

November 19th, 2011 at 9:34 PM ^

What Carr did brought us a national championship. He wasn't the coach the last three years. It should be clear by now that we were a bad team during the RR era because we had a bad coaching staff who made bad decisions. Carr didn't choose the 3-3-5. Carr didn't push a speed offense with a weak defense. Carr didn't demand that ill-fitting players run his magical spread Every excuse of RR defenders is so entirely pathetic at this point.

We're seeing our team get BETTER as the year progresses. Know the last time we saw that? Under Carr. Show some damn respect and give up this nonsense of blaming the RR era on anyone but RR.

BRCE

November 19th, 2011 at 10:01 PM ^

Football is not chess where one man has control over all the pieces, you old codger. The players this year are the best combination of talent/seasoning since before RR took over. That kinda helps things out.

Yes, I do remember the team getting better under Carr. After completely underachieving and losing its way through September and early October, I saw them look like the machine they had no good excuse to not be out of the gate. Yay for "progress" with Carr.

SMFH58

November 19th, 2011 at 9:43 PM ^

The criticism of Lloyd Carr makes me sick. Blaming LC for Rich Rod’s failure is the biggest cop-out in sports history. It is almost as bad as giving Rich Rod credit for Brady Hoke’s success.

BRCE

November 19th, 2011 at 10:05 PM ^

Big difference between blaming and wondering if and how things could have been different if he was more graceful to him. You Lloyd fanbois clearly have NO idea how dominoes can fall in corporations and how easily it is for leadership figures to start factions and poision waters.

Carr did not behave honorably and never would have done it nor gotten away with it had Bo been alive. Denying that is ridiculous.

 

ClearEyesFullHart

November 19th, 2011 at 10:31 PM ^

What did Lloyd do that was so terrible?  He PAVED THE WAY for Rodriguez to come here.  

You're going to criticize him for leaving his door open to his former players?  Was he supposed to turn them away?  If you thought coach Carr was going to hold an office in Schembechler Hall , and just brush the players he recruited out the door...You dont know coach Carr very well.

Does it take that much of a leap in logic to figure out what happened here?  Why do you suppose coach Carr would facilitate Rodriguez's hire, only to change his mind after meeting with his former players.  Hmmmm.  Can anyone connect the dots for me?  I can do it for you.  It isn't hard.  But it'll likely mean more if you figure it out yourselves.

BRCE

November 19th, 2011 at 10:19 PM ^

The portrayal of Carr as someone who would close his door and pour over media, including little things he didn't like in the game program and demanded to be changed, was not surprising to me. He always seemed to burn with a white-hot passion for his critics (whereas Bo was confident enough in himself to give it a Corso-esque "ah fuck it") and he knew that if RR was a big hit here with an opposite style and his own ideas and staff, those critics would feel vindicated.

To me it's clear he never had an investment in seeing RR do well for that very reason. A tragically petty and insecure man.

BRCE

November 20th, 2011 at 2:09 AM ^

Time for UM to move on and not pull stunts like today with the cards (another one of DB's little cute ideas to pay tribute to one of his fellow Michigan elitists). We wouldn't be talking about it otherwise.

My vendetta against Carr is pretty simple: He quite obviously cares more about himself than about a program that gave him everything. He has also been a long-time favorite of the less knowledgeable segment of Michigan's fanbase and the praise is annoying.

Reader71

November 20th, 2011 at 11:29 AM ^

I played for Michigan under Coach Carr. I have a lot of knowledge of Michigan football, the Carr program, football in general, and anything else involved in this matter.

What are you talking about? How do you know more than me? Why shouldn't we support a guy who won an astounding 9 games a year? Who maintaned a culture in which his players would never run to the media about minor training excesses, creating a media frenzy and NCAA incestigation that could only hurt the program? Whose former players love him, so much so that there are now "factions" in Michigan-Mandom? Who represtented the program with class every day that he was the coach? Who is basically everything RR can only aspire to be some day?

Get over it. You got your chance at having the coach you wanted. He was bad. You were wrong. Carr was a great - Hall of Fame - coach, and Brady Hoke, a member of his coaching tree, has righted the ship after the RR fiasco.

And to think, it only took Hoke and his crew, not Vince Lombardi.

Reader71

November 20th, 2011 at 11:18 AM ^

He lost. A lot. At Michigan. The end.

To make matters worse, he was the worst PR man in Michigan coaching history, as even Bacon's rather friendly book makes clear.

I would have like Carr to vocally support RR. But maybe he saw the disaster coming, as a few of us "Carr fanbois" did.

uferfan1

November 19th, 2011 at 9:55 PM ^

Nice to let him have his day in the sun now the door can be closed on both regimes. Carr started strong got tired late and we slid, RR came in with a good idea but not for us and we slid hard.Both as most coaches are were stubborn and did not or could not change coordinators when needed. As a result like compound interest we were paying 60-75% then we filed chapter 7 and hired us a new sheriff. The rest is going to be like the 70s all over again. The additions of Penn State and Nebraska have been important 4 of the top 10 and when NBC runs out of cash and ND joins us giving us 5 of 10 All will bow to the Big 10. I know just let me be incredibly happy semi bourbaned up and dreaming my vision of CFB 2020. Thanks to all players especially you Mark , I work with Jim his dad , all you coaches, assistants,and you who give us this place to speak. Go Blue, Bob Ufer and Bo would be verrrrrrry proud.Thanks to all who have given of themselves Mo and your staff, Lloyd and your staff and Rich Rod and your staff

Time to place the buckeye back under covers, we have a winning record against the SEC and it will continue for the next two games after ohio.

BRCE

November 19th, 2011 at 10:04 PM ^

The fact that these were the "questions" just shows how under-the-thumb everyone in that room is to Dave Brandon.

I was shocked when I scrolled here and saw Carr hold a late-game press conference. I was even more shock when it became apparent how willfully the media let themselves be controlled in the environment.

And people wonder why today they get so much fluff out of their news sources...

Yeoman

November 20th, 2011 at 2:10 PM ^

You expect hostile questioning of a former head coach on the event of a stadium tribute to his service to the university and community, and the failure to do so is lazy?

Some of you folks live on another planet.

MichiganTeacher

November 19th, 2011 at 10:29 PM ^

It's hard to be cheerful about Lloyd after 3 & Out. HOWEVA, he did bring us a national championship. And due to some tremendous bar-lowering over the past year by other storied coaches, it's not hard to be forgiving. I know he likes Brady and that might be the reason Lloyd's falling all over himself in this presser to support the new guy (and make sure everyone sees that he's supporting him), but you know what? I'm just gonna take this "whatever Brady says" attitude and consider it the best apology Lloyd can publicly make.

lilpenny1316

November 20th, 2011 at 12:18 AM ^

No questions about him losing the last four to OSU?  That would seem relevant more relevant than these "hard hitting" questions.  After 3 & Out, I almost wish Drew Sharp asked him a question.

BRCE

November 20th, 2011 at 12:38 AM ^

Honestly, Heiko -- I'm not trying to be a dick here and I understand if you don't answer this question as it's aimed in the general direction of the media and not just you.

Why NOT ask Carr about 3&O? Even a non-response is note-worthy. Are people afraid of DB making their lives hard? Are they scared of an LC death glare? Is this another example of our soft local media instituting a polite presser decorum (though RR never got the benefit of that from them)?

It just really frustrates me how little the people in that room think about their readers these days. It's all about protecting their own working relationships and if boring stories come out of that, oh well.