Wednesday Presser 10-11-17: Chris Partridge Comment Count

Adam Schnepp

36963916022_e8f8ccc2ce_z

[Fuller]

What do you say to Devin Bush when he gets caught retaliating after something that happened? Just you still can’t do that?

“Yeah, control your emotions. I mean, that’s unacceptable no matter what happens prior or what your frustrations are. You can’t do that. You can’t hurt the team like that, and he’s going to have to deal with that. He’s a phenomenal player and teams are going to try to do stuff to antagonize him. It’s a growing process in maturity. It’s unacceptable.”

Going up against Patrick Ramsey, the new quarterback at Indiana, what challenges do you see from Indiana’s offense?

“They’re very well coached. They do some good things to put you in binds. The quarterback can run, he can throw it. You’ve got big receivers on the outside. The running backs run hard. The line, they get after it. They obviously have a tempo to their offense where they’re going to hurry-hurry you. I mean, there’s a lot of challenges there.”

I guess Michigan State sent film in of Devin. Is that a concern? Do you talk to him about things like that?

“No, we just play football. Not going to get into them sending film. The officials are going to officiate the game. We’re going to play football and tackle like we tackle and it’s to keep our head out of it, that’s what we teach. But I’m not going to get into what they’re going to decide to do after the game.”

Your thoughts on how your group played in that game?

“You’re talking linebackers?”

Yeah.

“Um… I mean, we didn’t so… I don’t know. I mean, we were okay. Not our best performance, but, again, didn’t do things to win the game either. Think we’ve got to continue to get better week in and week out.”

[After THE JUMP: linebackers coming on recently, DPJ’s development, and hang time oh glorious hang time]

What does Ambry Thomas give you as a kick returner?

“Yeah, Ambry’s ready. He’s ready to go back there now. He’s explosive, he’s fast, he’s fearless. Really excited about him.”

Is there anything they did that you noticed to account for the lower numbers of sacks and tackles for loss Saturday?

“Well, yeah. Obviously hats off, they had a good gameplan. And in terms of their max protections, they got the ball out quick. I think it’s something where you can do things to limit that number of stuff and they did it. Again, we left some out there as well.”

Who’s playing behind Devin right now?

“You’ve got Mike Wroblewski, who is a tremendous fifth-year guy, and Elyse Mbem-Bosse, who’s another guy coming up really, really strong.”

Talk about him a little bit Elysse Mbem-Bosse, and what he’s been doing.

“He’s just practiced really well throughout camp. He’s getting really good with his hands and his feet. He’s learning the game. I mean, he was kind of a young player coming out of high school where he only had played a couple of years, had only played two at the linebacker position, so he had some learning curves. He’s developing and he’s getting to the point where we feel comfortable with him if he’s got to go in the game.”

As heavily involved in the recruiting aspect as you are, how do you divvy up your time, your commitments between coaching and recruiting?

“I just work as long as I have to as much as I have to. You just do it. You just get it done. It is what it is. Sometimes it’s early, early mornings and late nights but you’ve got to just get it done, figure it out. Time management: try to schedule calls with the guys, with the recruits and things like that rather than just freelance it because it can take up some of your time. You figure out how to get it done. There’s enough hours in the day.”

Saw a little of Devin Gil in the first game and haven’t seen him much since. Can you talk about his progress a little bit?

“Yeah, Devin, he’s doing really well. He’s practicing and he’s just kind of behind a fifth-year senior who’s been able to play and you want him in there, obviously. Devin is another guy who has come on really well in practice and is a guy that we wouldn’t be scared to plug him in if need be?”

Have you guys been pretty happy with Brad Robbins so far?

“Yeah. He’s really doing what we’re asking him to do. Think sky’s the limit there, too. He’s got to get better, but he’s progressing nicely and we’re going to see. We feel we’re getting more confident in that unit so we like what we see out of him, but he’s got to push, too. He had some miscues as well. But we like what we see out of him, for sure.”

How far has Peoples-Jones come on punt return and being aware of his surroundings since that Cincinnati game? 

“He’s progressing every single day. He’s a guy who we’re obviously going to stay on and coach every second but he’s out there and he’s getting more comfortable back there for sure. Still some things that he can do a little bit better to help us out but he’s really, really exciting. You haven’t seen the last of him in the end zone. He’s getting more comfortable back there and I think we’ll have some big plays out of him going forward.”

J-Shun Harris has a couple of punt return touchdowns for Indiana this year. Is there anything that you guys do differently to keep him at bay?

“I think you’ve got to—yeah, Brad [Robbins] is going to be a big part of locating the punts really well and then we’ve got to cover. Our gunners have been fantastic and we’ve got to keep that going, keep that going. Ambry came on last game with his speed getting down there, so I think our gunners are important to us. Our overall coverage net is important to us. We’re just working what we’ve been doing since camp and having the punter end up [?] for sure but they’re explosive, and their kick returner too is explosive. We’re going to have to do a good job there.”

Going back to Donovan, what are his strongest assets as a returner and how does that go hand in hand with him developing as a receiver?

“Yeah, great question. That’s good. So, as a returner, he’s fearless back there. He wants the ball in his hands. He’s got a great ability to track it and then he can make one or two miss. You know as a returner you’ve got to make one or two miss. It’s not like you can block all of ‘em up, especially in college football where everyone’s covering. So he’s got that ability, and he’s big. He can run through those tackles. He’s fast, so he can break it open when he makes ‘em miss.

“I think it translates as a receiver, too. It’s the same qualities that you want. He’s a guy who can catch the ball on a short route and take it all the way by making a guy miss and outrunning people. He tracks the ball, so deep balls are something that he can do as well. They definitely translate.”

On kick return, does the blocking need to be better? Is it a combination of things right now?

“Yeah, I mean, the blocking always needs to be better. Yes, 100%. That being said, we should have broke a kick return. We had something there and we should have had one in the game and it was frustrating but we’ve got to continue to get better.

“Kick return is like one block. You’ve got to have 10 guys blocking everyone but if one guy misses or one guy takes a bad angle or they do something on kickoff and switch it and you don’t switch correctly, then that guy makes the tackle. That’s what happened in the game. We had one miscue and it affected us from seaming one and taking one through. Again, you’ve got to get cohesive. You have to have some experience there to do that, and we feel we have the right returners in place now. So, again, still, we’re close there. We’ve just kind of got to get some confidence and get it rolling.”

MGoQuestion: How have you seen James Foug develop during his time here?

“I mean, he’s developed tremendously. He’s a hard worker, great leg, has a great attitude to it. He’s a guy who last year was just behind Kenny [Allen]. And it was close, but we had the experience with Kenny so we went with him but James is having a great year this year and he’s doing a great job putting that ball up high and giving our kickoff team a nice advantage there, so hopefully it continues as the season goes on.”

Have you ever seen a guy with the kind of hang time he gets on those?

“No, no. It’s pretty impressive. It is. It’s good that he can do that and it’s something that he really, really worked hard on over the summer and kind of has perfected it.”

Josh Uche: can you talk about his progress a little bit?

“Yeah, would love to. Really love Josh. He’s a guy who played off the edge a lot in terms of in high school and when he came in had to get used to standing on his feet but he’s done that and he’s running around, he’s making plays. He’s getting us really excited every single day. I think he’s on the brink of providing a spark for us in certain things, so we’re excited about him. And he’s a guy, too, that you just love him. He’s in here every single day trying to get extra work in, extra film in. He’s earned every second, but he’s a guy that’s progressing rapidly.”

Has he settled at one position?

“Yeah, he’s—he could play a couple different things, but yeah, he’s for the most part settled. He’s settled into that Sam spot.”

Comments

SeattleChris

October 11th, 2017 at 6:44 PM ^

Great to see the pipeline of star defensive players continuing to grow and building on very solid star + diamond in the rough blend of recruiting. If only we could say the same O line. I'm in the hopeful camp, but man this week sucks!

HateSparty

October 11th, 2017 at 6:57 PM ^

The irony that the a-hole Dicktonio is sending video about cheap or questionable hits is beyond belief. I had to read that twice. Baffling audacity. I'm not even mad. That's impressive.

Ramblin

October 11th, 2017 at 7:18 PM ^

Gotta admire Dantonini...  I'm wondering if he might be completely bat shit nuts and really beleives his guys play clean when not raping people?  Partridge is right though.  Bush shouldn't have retaliated.  We should wait until the opportunity arises and cheap shot intelligently like they do.

  

Matte Kudasai

October 11th, 2017 at 9:13 PM ^

The refs screwed us bad on Saturday.

Numerous cheap shots that weren't called.

Numerous holdings.  Winovich was held or tackled on 3 or 4 occasions easily with no call.  Funny they didn't miss the marginal hold on Higdon that cost us 7.

Really sad that the refs missed numerous calls as it definitely had an impact on the score.

The Bush call was pathetic.  It was the possible difference between a TD and FG or no score.  Allen should have been flagged, not Bush.  Retaliation shouldn't be called when you get punched in the neck.

O'Korn getting planted late by Cooper, right in front of the ref.  Next play we throw a pick.  Huge no call.

The announcers even called out the refs on several occasions for missing big calls.

It was as bad as OSU last year.  It really was that one sided with 6 or 7 missed calls that hurt us.  We still played poorly, but the refs killed us.

 

 

 

 

Double-D

October 12th, 2017 at 12:18 AM ^

The OSU game last year was the biggest screw job against Michigan Football since the phantom holding call stole Bo's last Rose Bowl victory. And I think the spot was a 50-50 call. But the rest of it was pure bullshit.

MSU plays dirty. They earned their penalties. They are coached that way. I think the refs get tired of calling shit at some point.

BoCanHam15

October 12th, 2017 at 7:38 AM ^

Don't argue the case. It's like when a person gets robbed and the other person shoots. They say well maybe you could've done something different to diffuse the situation. It's a lose, lose argument. As a Michigan fan in the Big House you kinda get used to the bad PI calls near midfield that the referee right near the play didn't call. However, the ref 15 yards downfield threw the flag. Trust me to those that say cmon man not the refs. They say, it didn't happen. Oh well. On to the next one.

You Only Live Twice

October 11th, 2017 at 11:25 PM ^

That is why MSU pleads for respect they will never have.  They want to be able to take all the cheap shots and receive all the benefit but cry like babies even if they win.  Oh, you reached out and punched Devin Bush, but damn him for hitting you back!

Bush was provoked and it's human nature to respond.  Dantonio knows this.  Why should we have to school our team to not respond?  Marcus says we don't play tough enough.  We respond and get penalized.  They don't give a shit and keep right on doing it, although it did cost them late in the game. Not enough to influence the outcome.  That's the key - Mork and co. knew it was an advantage that the lesser team could use.  Take that low road, Mork.  

I guess..... don't fumble

Jon06

October 12th, 2017 at 5:25 AM ^

This isn't really the right thread for this, but whatever. The cheap shot bullshit is really impacting my desire to watch the games. Roid ragers and other dirt bags have coached their teams to try to injure our players. It already resulted in Speight's neck being broken, which was an act of completely ridiculous, violent criminality, and it will result in additional injuries down the line. If the NCAA can't somehow rein this in, I'm going to lose interest in the sport. If they can't even figure out how to pay the players, they can at least protect them from criminal violence on the field.

Pervez74

October 15th, 2017 at 4:30 AM ^

I'm sure very happy to read typically the content pieces from your very own blog. Typically the dissertation penning assistance I'm sure by using for the purpose of your preferred fantastic coaching. Such useful review articles are generally beneficial to be familiar with such content writing review articles not to mention dissertation penning suggestions for you and me. Nowadays follow this  www.usacheckcashingstore.com/Lemon-Grove Thanks a lot for the purpose of showing.