Monday Presser Transcript 9-16-13: Brady Hoke Comment Count

Heiko

Bullets:

  • Boo boo watch: Courtney Avery and AJ Williams are improving. Devin Funchess had a cramp. Mario Ojemudia will be fine. Taylor Lewan is in a boot because it's fashionable.
  • Jake Ryan is getting closer every day. Hoke is more scared about bringing him back than he is.
  • Practice in full pads was held yesterday. Needed a kick in the pants.
  • Hoke thought about putting in Kenny Allen. Didn't end up doing it because he didn't want to crush Matt Wile's psyche. 
  • Jake Butt's pancake got called for a hold.

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Podium

Opening remarks: 

"Obviously there's some things that are pretty obvious. It's good to win the game. That's always important, and that's why you play. Didn't play our best football. We need to get that straightened out. You have to give Akron some credit. They came in and played very good. We didn't play as well as we can. We have to for the goals that we set for our program. That being said, we'll improve. We went back to work yesterday. Pointed out a lot of things we have to coach better and a lot of things we have to do playing better."

Seems like a lot of Devin's turnovers came from third and long. Do you have to stay out of those --

"Well yeah. Any time you get into those situations, people can make life hard on you, either by bringing pressure or dropping eight or spying a guy because of Devin's athleticism and all that. When they do drop eight, various things [happen], and we have to not self-destruct protection-wise, not self-destruct route-running wise, not self-destruct decision-making-wise."

What was your take on the offensive line?

"We need to play better overall. I thought we get too much push at times. They gave us a little bit different [look] than we had seen from them. A little bit more 46 or bear concepts that you had seen from them before. Had seen it, but not multiple times. At the same time, I think at halftime the adjustments as I sit in there and watch the offense adjust -- I think they were on top of it."

Why weren't you getting to the quarterback?

"There's more than you would think the other day. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot three times by not keeping the contain of the rush, to be honest with you. We changed the game midstream, two-man gam. Once, maybe twice, maybe the communication across the front didn't get there. The two guys knew what they were doing, but you need all four to make sure they know. And there was a little more push than I thought during the game, to be honest with you. I watched it Sunday morning and there was a little more push, but if you're getting push up here, then you better be collapsing the outside. It's one of the other. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot some. Do we want to get better at our games? No question. I think we're a lot better than we were a year ago at it. We just have to be consistent with it."

How do you think Jake Butt played?

"You know, Jake did a pretty good job. They called him for a hold that I'd like really for somebody to find. The guy must have seen it differently. Did you see it?"

It wasn't a hold.

"I thought he just dominated the block, to be honest with you."

Pancaked him.

"Yeah! Yeah. Maybe you're not allowed to do that. I don't know. But you know, overall I think for a young kid he did a pretty good job."

You've been one of the best defenses in the country at limiting big pass plays. Now through two games there have been 14 20+ yard passes. How do you shore that up?

"I think a couple things. You always want to have better pressure. How many of those are yards after contact when you should have had the guy on the ground, how many of those are fades or streaks or go routes, whatever you want to call it that get thrown over your head? We had two of them the other day. I thought the one was defended very well to be honest with you. The guy put it exactly where he had to. It was a tough one to defend. Now, we can't get run by. We got beat a couple times early. Underneath coverage on some of the dig routes, the skinny post, yards after catch from that hurts you. A combination of things. Underneath coverage we have to be better if we're playing man coverage, and we have to pressure."

How much different of a team do you think you'll see going forward?

"Gosh, if I knew that. I guess ... we went out and practiced yesterday. Shoulder pads, helmets, the whole deal. We usually don't. They were very receptive and very -- I wouldn't say excited -- but they were glad to get back on the field. I was excited."

With Matt Wile's struggles, is it mental or is he being stretched a little thin with all of his kicking duties?

"I think that would be an excuse if you said that, because he's done all of them since he was growing up. My only analogy is it's a lot like golf. His swing and his drop has to be constant and more consistent. He works very hard at it. Why he's had three punts that haven't been as consistent? That's what he's working on and that's what he's working through. I have a lot of faith in Matt. I kind of coach the punters because I really don't because I don't know, but I know what to look for. He'll be fine."

One punt almost got blocked. Do you think he's rushing?

"I don't think so. In fact I think he did a nice job and it should have been blocked, to be honest with you. That was poor protection. Something that we work on a lot. Why does that happen? I don't know, but we need to make sure we protect a heck of a lot better."

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Roundtable

You seem like a pretty positive coach. In a game like this, did you use any negative reinforcement at all? Any yelling?

"I wouldn't really call it negative. It's constructive criticism. Every guy you coach differently to some degree, and you always have. I could give Glen Steele a glare and it'd be fine by him. Everybody's a little different. One thing during the game -- I'm not saying in the locker room -- but in the game, if I'm a tyrant or an idiot on the field, that's not going to do anybody any good. I thought about putting Kenny Allen in to punt, but that wouldn't have been the right thing for Matt and Matt's psyche. And his next punt, he booms it. I don't know if that answers your question, but that was on my mind."

Is it easier to get your players' attention after this kind of game?

"Yeah. I would say because of the leadership and because how guys have taken this personal, in a good way, because you can take it personal in a really bad way, too. But from the leadership part of it, I think Taylor [Lewan] and Devin [Gardner] and Jake Ryan have been unbelievable. Courtney [Avery] and Cam [Gordon]. You look at senior captains, they have really pushed it a little bit."

When Devin Funchess limped off --

"He just had a cramp. He's one of those guys who ... cramps. He doesn't during fall camp or practices or anything. Only during games. He's been that way since high school."

What about Mario Ojemudia?

"He'll be all right. He just had a shoulder ding. He'll be all right."

Courtney Avery and AJ Williams?

"Courtney is a lot better, AJ is a lot better."

11 of Fitz's 19 runs went for two yards or less. Are you seeing that the holes aren't there?

"I think there's been a couple times where people have defended it pretty well. You're one guy away from a couple big ones. I don't know what the yardage was, but two penalties took away 40-some yards. If you add that in -- do we want more? Yeah. We want to be more consistent. I thought some of the lead plays with Joey [Kerridge] blocking. Joey will take on a linebacker."

Do you have a timetable for Jake Ryan?

"Not yet. Every day he gets closer. Every week. He's feeling pretty good. He's going to do more and more now with us than he has. I'm the one who's scared to death. I don't want to bring him back too fast. I think he's got a good gauge on how he feels."

Does he tell you that? Does he push for it?

"No he'll be honest with you. He feels good. The more he does football-wise, then we'll find out more."

Did you consider going for it on the fourth and one?

"I didn't and usually I do. I just didn't want -- our defense really saved us a bunch, and how many times are you going to go back and put them in bad field position and not give them a chance? That time I didn't. I judge a lot of that on the flow of the game and even though our defense was playing well enough to some degree, I just didn't feel that was the right thing. I thought if we could get good field position and let them play with 90 yards or whatever, if you get the punt you want."

Can you talk about the decision to play soft coverage?

"I don't think that was intended. I think we have to play a little tighter. I thought our eyes weren't as disciplined as they needed to be."

Is that a lack of confidence in your cornerbacks?

"I don't think it's confidence. I think it's concentration."

What goes into taking these guys on the road for the first time this year?

"Nannies. We'll take nannies with us. What do you call that?"

Au pair.

"I don't know. It's going to be a young team. It is a young team. Every experience will be different. Even the redshirt freshmen. They didn't travel besides the bowl game. Believe me, I've thought about this. A lot. So yeah."

Did Akron's defense anticipate your plays better than other opponents?

"I don't think so. In fact one time they were lined up wrongly but it ended up being lined up right. I don't think so. I mean when people say that, it's funny to me because they would line up right then they wouldn't give you the blocking angles and the leverage than how they lined up. Does that make sense to you?"

Does having a night game on such short notice change your preparation?

"We were kind of told a week ago, 10 days ago that it was going to be either eight or noon. Itinerary-wise we already had that plan in place."

We saw Jourdan Lewis a lot this weekend. Last weekend it was Delonte Hollowell. Two weeks ago it was Channing Stribling. Is it a schematic thing? Is it a practice thing?

"Practice. Competition. Who plays the best. That could evolve again, too."

Do you think Devin is letting his mistakes get to him?

"You know, it's a good question. I think sometimes when you make that first mistake you want to overcome it and make another good play, especially if you're competitive. Sometimes you force it maybe instead of just letting the game come to you."

What were you saying to him after the game?

"What did I say to him? You have to go forward. We're going to need you. You have to get over that one. I don't know why you didn't execute it as well as you'd like to have and move forward."

He said the pressure doesn't normally get to him, but for some reason it did against Akron. 

"You know, I haven't asked him that, so I can't tell you. That would surprise me a little bit."

You mentioned that he was banged up. Did that have anything to do with anything?

"No. I don't think so."

Do you have the same level of trust in him with regard to not committing turnovers in your own end?

"Yeah. We do. We're not going to shrink the playbook or anything like that. We'll keep it going."

Your run game is better when you involve Devin's legs but at the same time you want to keep him healthy. Seems like a complicated situation, huh?

"It is complicated. But I think what you see at times with the pistol game and with the reads and all that stuff -- those are times when we think we've got something good alignment-wise and everything else. I think some of the stretch plays have been pretty good. That play probably had more of the negative yardage plays. It's a little bit how you're trying to capture the line of scrimmage and the perimeter part. I think the iso and power plays have been pretty good for us. Fitz made really good cuts off the power play."

Akron was 9 of 18 on third down. How much of that was getting gashed on first down?

"It's part of it, but I think also we had some opportunities that we didn't finish." 

How much of your issues were concentration and focus issues across the board?

"You know, that's hard for me to say. We had too many targeting errors, too many errors, not necessary in alignment but the fundamentals. And coverage, underneath coverage. Tighter coverage. All those things."

In your postgame locker room speech, you promised you would coach your team better. What did you mean?

"Well the best way to put it is we want to improve every time we take the field. As a team, if you take a vote, they would have thought on Saturday we didn't make the incremental improvements we needed to. Since we missed that day, we better do it yesterday. That's what we did."

When did you decide to have practice yesterday?

"Saturday about 4:07."

When did you tell them?

"Yesterday about 12:30."

How do you change practice?

"We won't change a whole lot. We're going to do a little more inside drill with the full line. More than normal. Do two-minute on Tuesday. We do it always on Thursday, but we can get another two-minute in there."

Would your players have told you that they had bad practices last week?

"I'd say Tuesday they would have said they didn't. I think Wednesday and Thursday we made some strides. Tuesday's always a different practice because you're tweaking your game plan, formations offensively. You're doing some things different. Defensively your sub packages may be more of a part of it, so it may be a little different."

After your meeting with your assistants, did you decide this game was more of an anomaly or maybe a lasting problem?

"Well, you know, we did some good things Saturday, too. Our offense, when we got behind, came back and went right down the field. Defensively the different sudden-change situations, [whether from] the kicking game or turnovers, for a long time they hung in there and gave us a chance. The last series defensively. The last play. You've been around and I've been around where the team hasn't made the play and they had to, and then they made the play. We're not changing in our structure or our belief in what we do. Once in a while though, as a coach you have to look at where you are as a team and maybe do something different."

Comments

JohnnyV123

September 16th, 2013 at 5:04 PM ^

I'll give Hoke credit for staying relatively positive but making sure that the guys know that performance against Akron is not acceptable. Much easier to just yell at them and tell them to do it right.

Very, very interested to see how we play at UConn

wolverine1987

September 17th, 2013 at 10:15 AM ^

I think with Hoke what you see is what you get. Look at the video that was released of the post-game speech--even in that one he accentuated the positive. I'm not criticizing his approach, it seems to work, but for this near debacle I personally wished he would have lit into the team more, much more like Lewan did. 

alum96

September 16th, 2013 at 5:12 PM ^

What does this mean?  It was not intended?  He then says it is a lack of concentration - if that is it, don't you correct that on the sideline between the 1st and 2nd series? "Hey dudes - why are you playing 8 yards off? We didn't coach that this week, it is not Notre Dame" And then if they continue to play off you remind them again after the next series and rinse, wash, repeat?

  Can you talk about the decision to play soft coverage?

"I don't think that was intended. I think we have to play a little tighter. I thought our eyes weren't as disciplined as they needed to be."

jsquigg

September 16th, 2013 at 5:29 PM ^

I'm still in shock over this game and don't know what to think.  I honestly didn't see this coming and, of course, it had to be the game where I'm actually at the stadium with my dad and uncle and friend.  I hate the piped in music more every time I go to a game and especially the selection late including interrupting the band.  To me it's summed up quite simply:

They didn't respect the opponent in preperation.  Akron had the superior gameplan and it seemed like the team just couldn't wake up.  I put that mostly on the coaches.  Yes, you should be able to execute against inferior size and talent, but Michigan's gameplan most of the day was vanilla and/or predictable.  Akron seemed to have an extra safety in the box against the run and to have two deep safeties against the pass.  I realize execution is a concern, but it's hard to block that extra man every time.

Just my two cents on the worst win I've ever seen.

username

September 16th, 2013 at 5:35 PM ^

I was genuinely surprised to hear (while watching on TV) that they were playing Shout! before the final play (I think I have my timing correct).  I am coming to grips with the fact that the majority of sports fans around the country need to have their eardrums blasted to be entertained, but this really seemed like an inappropriate time for a participation song like that. Does the PA operator just stick to a predetermined playlist/schedule, situation be damned.  It was like they had assumed the game in Q4 would be out of hand and they needed to play a bad wedding song to liven up the place.  Given the circumstances, the music choice seemed really off.

robmorren2

September 16th, 2013 at 7:29 PM ^

Dude ... I thought I was the only one that caught that. I was shocked that they played that. It's like playing the wrong anthem at the Olympics. Horrible timing/selection. Nobody was "shout"-ing in the stadium. It was like a funeral in there.

Schembo

September 16th, 2013 at 9:28 PM ^

Yep, I remember them playing something just about when the student section started to rev up for the final play.  Totally inappropriate time to play something like that.  I don't think any music should be played period when the ball is down towards the student section.

lakeside

September 16th, 2013 at 10:07 PM ^

You ever gone there to watch a volleyball game? It's absolutely offensive. There's maybe three seconds of dead air between point and serve and they insist on cramming it full of god awful music cranked up to 11.  It seriously hurts your ears.

ca_prophet

September 16th, 2013 at 5:32 PM ^

"One thing during the game -- I'm not saying in the locker room -- but in the game, if I'm a tyrant or an idiot on the field, that's not going to do anybody any good."

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's Not-Brian-Kelly!

Seriously though, I'm glad he gets that.

Zok

September 16th, 2013 at 5:41 PM ^

Why 3 different CBs in as many weeks (on the outside no less)? Are they all really that even? Even if they are at some point we have to pick one and get him the reps.

Will the OL stay the same or shuffle the deck?

Will we keep lifting our best DL players Pipkins and QWash in the Nickel? QWash is banged up some it seems.

 

If there was ever a time to change it up its now. UConn, bye, then Minny. Not that any game is a gimme but compared to the rest of the schedule it would appear these are the only possible games where there might be some margin for error. Not 4 TO / pick six errors but some.

EnoughAlready

September 16th, 2013 at 7:21 PM ^

But I've wondered the same, not only about CB but about the DL.  As others have noted, the DL combos they're going with -- Wormley and Glasgow, in particular -- just aren't productive.  But I wonder if their playing time isn't a type of game-speed tryout.

Given how close the game was, IF that's the case, it's an interesting but risky strategy.

BlueFordSoftTop

September 16th, 2013 at 5:46 PM ^

We need a new donut vendor. Holes should open for our offense and close by our defense. Also, we need 'chocolate milkshake' from Weiners Circle delivered to Rentschler, I am working on it.

CR7

September 16th, 2013 at 6:27 PM ^

I get the feeling Coach is pissed. He knew half an hour into the game they were gonna practice Sunday and told them immediately after the game. Man oh man. He also mentioned the soft coverage and how that really wasn't meant to be part of the plan. Hopefully they actually challenge the WR's and QB to beat them instead of letting themselves get nickel/dime'd down the field.

jim48315

September 16th, 2013 at 6:27 PM ^

Butt's block was superior until he reached around with his left arm and put it on the Akron's player's back.  The kids need to get the message:  when the zebras see the reach around hand on his back, out comes the flag, almost regardless of how it happened, not excluding the other guy spinning around to present his back.  How to avoid it?  Keep your elbows in tight and keep your hands off the other guy's back, no matter what.  If I were coaching, I'd get a switch and whenever the elbows came out, whack! across the forearms.  Holding penalties on running plays are drive killers.

 

4godkingandwol…

September 16th, 2013 at 6:57 PM ^

I hope most of it is coach speak, but whenever things don't go well, there always seems to be an excuse.  You read that presser and it sounds like we won comfortably and there were only a few mix ups here and there.  While I like the even keel attitude, I sometimes worry about how laissez faire Hoke and Borges are in their pressers.  I hope it's only for show.

blusage

September 16th, 2013 at 9:53 PM ^

That sounds too much like AYSO giving out trophies to every player regardless of how the team did. This is supposed to be Man Ball, remember? These guys are supposed to be some of the best athletes around who have been doing this for many years. I don't want a Brian Kelly for a coach, but perhaps Hoke is going too far towards the coddling approach. What Would Bo Have Done? Better than this.

OneFootIn

September 16th, 2013 at 8:06 PM ^

I have been so jazzed (not to mention pleasantly surprised) by Hoke's positive coaching mojo since he came back to Michigan. I love his attitude, especially in contrast to people like Brian "Face Kersplosion" Kelly, who I would never ever let my sons play ball for. And so far Hoke has shown his mettle through many of the tough circumstances a coach has to face.

I don't blame Hoke (yet) for the team's horrid performance on Saturday - the emotional let down after the ND game I think is significant and tough to coach through. ND to my eyes also had trouble getting up for sad sack Purdue, also having to battle to the end.

But this sort of circumstance is a new one for him here at Michigan I think - an absolutely woeful underperformance by the entire team where Michigan was favored by dozens. I expect and will be impressed to see a team that cleans up its miscues, takes care of the ball, and closes out an inferior opponent early in the game as it should. If the team stumbles again I will probably give Hoke at least a partial pass. It could be after all that this team is a bit young to be as good as we want them to be.

But I will be watching - I will get tired very quickly of watching a team full of superior athletes play sloppy football.