Rich Rodriguez Monday Presser Notes 10-25-10 Comment Count

Tim

Notes from Rich Rodriguez's Monday meeting with the press.

IMG_7907.JPG

Injury Updates

Denard - "Running-wise, everything's fine. We limited his throwing... Talking to the training staff, he should be able to do everything this week." The bye week helped him get healthy: "Denard can tolerate a lot of pain, but his issue with the last game wasn't the knee, but more the shoulder. He needed some rest, and he got that last weekend."

Martin, Molk, Shaw should all be good. "Mike and David Molk are... they should be good. Mike Shaw should be good as well."

Toussaint - "He did a little bit more last week, but the trainers think he'll be able to go." Not sure whether he'll contribute a lot, because that depends on how the RBs practice this week.

Gardner - "He's doing well. His back has been a little sore, so he's been a little limited." RR couldn't answer whether he'll try to earn a medical redshirt this season, and be a redshirt freshman next year.

Position Moves and the Bye Week

Will Campbell moved to guard, took to OL pretty well. See if he sticks after the first couple days this week. "Personality? I guess that's kind of an interesting way to put it... When we recruited him, I thought 'this is a big guy who can move a bit'" and could play either side of the ball. Will brought it up a bit earlier this year, but coaches wanted to wait for the open date.

"We're still a little thin [at defensive tackle] at times. We're playing around with Quinton Washington helping there a little bit on the defensive side." There's not a lot of time to let guys get established at a new position in just one week.

These position moves aren't permanent yet, they'll see how it goes this week.

Ricky Barnum is #3 guard, which allowed Washington to try DT. He can play all the offensive line positions.

Other moves - nothing substantive. Safeties should be able to play both S positions, Corners both CB positions.

"I think we've identified the guys we think are ready to play. We've gotta get them more ready." Not trying to mix in more new young guys during the bye week. Don't want to slow down the maturing process of some of the young guys, either.

"If anybody on our team could be a great field goal kicker, we'd have already found them and they'd be doing it." Hagerup was a pretty good high school kicker, but he wasn't as good as the other guys in fall camp. Kickers need to work on consistency.

"I'd hope that they have fresh legs a little bit after a couple days off." Enthusiasm may have been lacking in practice a bit, and that will hopefully be back. Coming off a bye, guys are usually more excited to be on the field. "I would think that our guys would be excited to get back out there and play a game."

Did defensive fundamentals improve in the last week? "I hope so. That certainly was our intent, to get better fundamentally." Getting off blocks was a bigger emphasis than working on tackling, which can get guys hurt.

Watched a lot of CFB Saturday, did some PSU prep. Yesterday watched his son play Pop Warner.

Penn State

PSU healthier now. "Offensively, they've got what's probably gonna be their all-time leading rusher. Rob Bolden is a very talented guy." They have a lot of youth that will improve over the season.

Preparing for 3 different quarterbacks isn't a huge deal. They'll run mostly the same offense no matter who's in there. "We may see all three, I don't know." PSU might run a bit more with Newsome in there.

PSU defense - "They've had a shell of what they wanted to play with because of injuries." They're getting healthy now. Their defensive staff does a great job, and they'll play well against MICH.

"We'll keep them pretty busy" the morning of the PSU game. They'll have a walkthrough, go for a walk with their position coaches, etc. "The hard part - and I'm sure the players feel the same way - is waiting around all day." Night game - "It's a great atmosphere, the crowd is into it, the band plays music, they pipe in music. The night game, they have all day to tailgate, so they're in pretty good spirits."

Nobody will be around as long as Bowden was and JoePa is, because it's a different era now. "I don't know if Joe's record will ever be touched." Paterno knows about his own health, and he's giving the same effort he always has. "What he's done over the years has been remarkable, and so has his staff."

Etc.

Should the Wolverines play a 2-QB system? "Denard's our starter. There's no controversy or anything like that." He may have "pressed the issue" too much on a couple plays in the last few games, feeling the pressure to make a big play. "He's just a second-year player, and he's going to make more mistakes going forward. The issue is minimizing them." QBs pressure on them because of the defense? "I think they do it naturally because we've had some success offensively, so if we're not scoring on every possession, it's disappointing."

Played poorly in the two losses, but there were positives: moved the ball, but couldn't finish drives, played some pretty good defense, but not enough to get the stops. "You learn: why did we lose? and correct the mistakes." Try to build on the positives, learn from the negatives. "If we just take care of the ball better than the last couple games, even with some of our other issues, we're right there at the end of the game."

Every week is critical. "One thing we want to be sure is that we have consistency in our approach." Tweak practices with focus, etc., but want to maintain the same routine and intensity. "We're gonna play as hard as we can every time... We're playing and they're keeping score, so we're going to play as hard as we can."

What do you think about fans demanding a certain numbers of wins? "I'm not listening." Worries about things he can control.

RR on Cam Newton: "What they do in their spread and ours is somewhat similar and somewhat different." Remembers watching him as a young guy at Florida. He's done a great job improving since then.

Helmet to Helmet - Any time you lead with the crown of your helmet, high or low, should be a penalty. Runners and blockers shouldn't be able to use the crowns of their helmet either.

Comments

CWoodson

October 25th, 2010 at 1:40 PM ^

This is like the least important thing ever, but there has to be a better picture of RR we can use for this feature.  He looks like he just had some bad Chinese food.

Crime Reporter

October 25th, 2010 at 1:48 PM ^

Like Notre Dame-Tulsa HUGE!

Seriously though, if the team can stay out of its own way (no turnovers, penalties) we should win comfortably. I do think Bolden will play most of the game.

grand river fi…

October 25th, 2010 at 1:45 PM ^

Gardner - "He's doing well. His back has been a little sore, so he's been a little limited." RR couldn't answer whether he'll try to earn a medical redshirt this season, and be a redshirt freshman next year.

I'll take that as a yes, and an awesome result.

mgoO

October 25th, 2010 at 2:08 PM ^

I'm a little bit concerned with Denard's health after hearing RR's answer in the presser. We've gotta hope this isn't something that will be fine until the next time he gets hit on the upper arm or goes down on it.
<br>
<br>If it limits his arm strength and velocity (causing him to hesitate, as against Iowa) the staff is going to have to be willing to use Tate if the situation requires it...
<br>
<br>At least he sounds confident the knee bruise is fine.

Yard Dog

October 25th, 2010 at 2:17 PM ^

Will actually mentioned moving to offense to the staff?  I find this interesting.  Maybe the young man sees an opportunity to contribute on the other side of the ball.  I just hate seeing a guy with as much physcial talent as Campbell struggling to contribute.

switch26

October 25th, 2010 at 2:32 PM ^

Only thing that worried me going into this game is when RR mentioned

"Enthusiasm may have been lacking in practice a bit"

 

God, i hope this doesn't turn out to be like when we went to ILL last year on halloween wkend

wolverine1987

October 26th, 2010 at 9:21 AM ^

unless you practice it. I totally understand the need to not get guys hurt, especially this team, with angry Michigan hating God looking down at all times. But you can't get better at a skill by just telling guys what to do in games. Every aspect of football takes practice to improve in but somehow we expect our guys to improve without work on tackling.

StraightDave

October 25th, 2010 at 10:06 PM ^

I don't understand his rotator injury.  How bad is this injury and why is he not getting it cut if he can't play?  I would think a rotator would impact a QB more than a RB.