	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 6, 2010

Rich Rodriguez

Q. Congratulations on the win.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Thank you. It was a good one. I was happy for our players, our staff, our fans and it was a great day at the Big House. From what I understand, everything went very well before the game. The rededication part, got to see just the last bit of Brock's walk, because we were halfway down the tunnel and that was pretty emotional and got to spend some time with his family after the game and that was pretty neat.
And of course the game itself, watching the film, we played hard. We played well at times, and we took care of the football offensively. Didn't have any stupid penalties other than the first one. But we can execute a lot better, particularly offensively. That's one thing about it. We are pleased with the win, but the guys, after they watched the film today, the coaches, they will know that we left some plays out there, particularly offensively.

Q. Any updates on the guys who got nicked up in the game?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, Roy Roundtree, he's I guess listed as doubtful. Have to recheck him later in the week, with some bruises, internal bruises. Carvin Johnson is very doubtful with a sprained knee. I think those are the two ones that we had out of the game.

Q. David Molk okay?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, he's fine.

Q. What are the internal bruises?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: He had bruises, I don't know if it's -- he had some internal, I don't know, some bleeding there. He was coughing up some blood. So for precautionary reason, he won't do any hitting at all this week, which we don't do much hitting in the week anyway. But we'll see and we'll re-evaluate later in the week.

Q. Do you expect Junior Hemingway to be able to go?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I hope so. We'll find out more today. We'll see how he does in practice today and tomorrow and then determine from there.

Q. You said after the game on the Saturday, about managing the game, there is a lot more coming; is that in the works?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Managing the game from an execution standpoint is always the first thing we want. We were able to run the ball pretty well and get first downs, but there were probably bigger plays out there. But there were just as many big plays out in the running game. If we had did a better job blocking down the field, we would have better plays in the running game. We didn't do a great job blocking down the field, whether it was our front guys or perimeter guys. We usually take a lot of pride in that and we didn't do as well in that first game as we would have liked.

Q. Were you satisfied with the play of your offensive line?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Pretty much. At times, I think again, I really like the effort and our offensive line guys, I think they really understand what we want to do scheme-wise but we didn't have a lot of high grades on our offensive line and usually Coach Frey and I are a little harder on those guys because they have such a tough job. I thought they played hard but we did not play as well as probably we are capable of, which is probably typical of most teams in their first game. But they were solid as a group.

Q. How did defense grade out on tape?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Pretty well. Again, there was a few plays that we would like to have back. But I think for most part, we got what we thought we would get, and there's a lot of room for improvement, and we'll have a bigger challenge this week with the skill guys. We are facing some very talented skill players and some big offensive linemen.
I was really pleased defensively that we tackled pretty well, and there wasn't a lot of missed assignments. There were a few but there wasn't a lot, which was what really worried me with so many inexperienced players.

Q. Denard seems like a pretty level-headed kid; is there anything you say to him?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, he's a pretty humble guy anyway. I'll talk to him about staying humble and staying hungry, but I think that's in his nature, anyway. I think he will be able to handle, you know, all of the pats on the back and what have you. But I'll tell the same thing to the team. You're just one bad day away from everybody else saying what they were saying about you last week.
So I mean, it's not, you know, the whole thing, it's like poison. It's okay, as long as you don't swallow it. They won't be swallowing it, because they will know it's still out there.

Q. Do you find that when your offense runs like it does with the quarterback running so well, do you find defenses adjust, and if they do, do they take away the quarterback?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Oh, sure, you can. You can play cover zero and bring them all down there and load up the box a little bit more and force you to pitch and catch a little bit. That's why we worked so hard on a lot of stuff in the passing game, because we know that happens.
But when you play -- when you load up the box and play cover zero and your quarterback can make somebody miss, then you've got a potential for some big plays out there, as well. I think offensively, as much as we would like to have had a few more big plays, I think it helped us control the game from the standpoint that we had some long drives and it kept their offense off the field. I think they only had eight possessions maybe, eight or nine, which normally, a typical game, you have 12 or 13 possessions.
So you basically took them out of almost a third of the game, just because our offense was able to get 28 first downs and kind of keep possession of the ball.
That's the one positive of -- I guess you would rather have big plays, but the positive, continuous first downs, it helped on the other side.

Q. What's the biggest difference between the spread that Brian Kelly runs and kind of what you guys do? Is there one notable difference?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: There's a lot of similarities. I think, studying them and studying us, I think every spread has a little bit different I am if a sis at certain times. A lot of people say we used to throw it a bunch in our spread. It really depends on the skill set of our quarterbacks.
Now we do a little bit of both with them. Cincinnati, when Brian was there, was probably a little bit more run -- or pass-oriented. At Notre Dame last weekend, looks like he was mixed pretty well.
I think most coaches that run a so-called spread type of offense, usually try to fit their emphasis based on the skill sets they have on not just the quarterback but the running back and the receivers. Judging on last week, it looks like Coach Kelly feels very confident that he has got a guy that can throw it but he's also got two really good running backs. They are going to be mixed quite a bit.

Q. Is it tough to get -- from what they did last year?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: We can study for personnel, but the coaching staff is all new, so you have just got to study what they did last week and what they did in previous years with defensive coaches and try to go from there. I'm sure there are some schemes and packages that they didn't run last week that they will run against us coming up and there are probably a few things that we will have to do this week that we didn't do last week.
But I think judged on what they did scheme wise last year, is not really going to help us.

Q. How do you characterize what they did last week?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, they went into their 3-4 look. They went to a four-man front sometimes, and as most teams do -- everybody is multiple defensively now. Nobody runs just one front and one coverage. The days of that are long gone.
So everybody runs multiple fronts, multiple coverages and they were multiple last week. They did bring some pressures and some blitzes, but they pretty much had a lot of control, did a great job of containing some pretty good players on Purdue's team. To me, I think they are probably pretty satisfied with how their defense played last week.

Q. Is Floyd the scariest thing they present offensively, especially against a secondary that's still gaining experience?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, and of course the big tight end, too, Rudolf. They are two big, strong physical players that go get the ball. Both their tailbacks are outstanding, and Crist can throw it. So they pose a lot of problems. They are very, very talented skill-wise.

Q. How did you think your secondary performed, especially the two corners, Floyd and Rogers?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Pretty pleased with it. I thought they were solid. J.T. has had -- continued his performance. We think he's going to get all-camp and had a really solid game and was proud of James, he made a few plays and he was in position and he got -- he was active. And I think the young guys got a little bit of experience, too, which helps.
We are really thin there. Losing Carvin Johnson for -- if he's out for this week or a couple weeks, there's another guy out. So we are kind of hanging on in the secondary a little bit. But we will put the next guy in and see what happens.

Q. Thomas Gordon, did he grade out?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Thomas played pretty well and Floyd Simmons will be able to play, too, and we have a lot of confidence in Floyd. He'll be the next guy in and spell Thomas a little bit if Carvin can't go.

Q. Do you expect the young defensive backs will practice this week in anticipation for --
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, they have been getting a lot of reps anyway. We rep our first and second groups pretty equally. So they have been getting a lot of reps and we are trying to get them to grow up in a hurry. As a group they are pretty mature and they are going to have great futures. It's just you don't really expect to play true freshmen, as many as we did, this early, but you have to do what you've got to do to try to win the game.

Q. Even with a young quarterback for Notre Dame, is that still your biggest concern with Kelly's offense and passing game?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: It's the run game, too. They are going to spread you out and you're going to have to tackle well in space. That's probably -- probably heard that -- we have talked about it with our offense. We want to make people tackle us in space, and it's the same thing for them. They are going to up the tempo and they are going to go quick and they are going to force you to line up, and then they are going to move the ball around a little bit and force you to tackle in space. If we can't get them on the ground and we can't cover them, we are going to be -- inaudible -- day.

Q. A lot of the guys have visited with you at some point and learned things, any direction from Kelly in the past?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I didn't know him until we played them, I guess just the one time, I think my last year at West Virginia. Brian was at Cincinnati and we played them at Cincinnati. Some of the guys on my staff, Coach Dews, I believe, worked with Coach Kelly for a year at Central. But we never talked. But I'm sure we have watched each other's film over the years, tried to get some ideas.

Q. Do you have some similarities -- is there something that you can learn at the lower levels that prepares you for a job like this or is it just so different?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: No question. I think it helps to have -- when you step in a job like this, to have Division I experience, which we were both fortunate to do. But I think, at least my experience, speaking for myself and I'm sure coach Kelly would tell you the same thing, it was invaluable coaching at the small school level because you get an appreciation for all of the stuff that you have to do running a college program. Back then, I mean, my wife was in charge of painting the logo on the field and putting together the video highlights for the team. The assistant coaches were also the strength coaches and the equipment managers as well.
Now I've got all of these people to help, and, you know, you just go out there and coach. But there's other responsibilities. When you come here, you have other responsibilities that maybe you didn't have at the small school.
I'm glad I got the experience and I think everybody on my staff has gotten experience coaching the small schools because you get an appreciation for what you have and then you also have to learn very quickly from a recruiting standpoint and from a coaching and teaching standpoint how to get your guys in position to have success.
Sometimes you have to be creative. I know speaking for myself and I know Brian has talked about the same thing when he was going up through, sometimes when you're a small college coach, you're forced to be creative, whether it's schemes or development and what-have-you, and I think that's really helped me. I'd do it all over again. I'm glad I did it that way, forced me to hurry and learn some ins and outs of the profession.

Q. Could you talk about Denard, playing on the road and is there a concern about maybe taking too much punishment with all of the times he runs the ball?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I think I said after the game, 29 times is more than we could run a quarterback normally. I didn't realize it was that many. Hopefully, I said, if we do a good job blocking downfield, won't get hit as much on Saturday.
But you know, he's a strong guy, and I don't know, you know, the plan is not to run him 20 times every game, 29 times every time, but we have got to do what we have got to do to win the game.
What was the other question?

Q. Just talk about I am had playing on the road?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, it's going to be loud. We will work on crowd noise. Denard has been on the road before and he played in games last year when it was loud. I think the one part that he has improved on is with his communication. I think that's just being a year older and more confident. He's still just a second-year player, and this is going to be a new experience for a lot of guys.
And it will be loud and they get into the games. But we will work on it all week. They should be okay.

Q. What did you think about what you got out of Shaw and Smith?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I thought they ran pretty hard. They ran better than they blocked and they are bother usually really good blockers for the most part and there's some things that we will get better at, but I thought they ran with a passion. There are a couple of runs we would like to have back that we had negative yardage plays on, but I liked their performance. But we have to play more of the other backs, and they have to give us the confidence this week in practice that we can put them in there, and I think they will.

Q. Talk about the offensive line and how they grade the out.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Solid, not great. It was not their best game across the board. We had a couple of guys did not play nearly as well as we thought they would. So we will challenge them in practice this week.
That's usually a very, very conscientious group up front. They know by watching on film and they have a little experience in that, knowing what to expect but we can play better, that's for sure.

Q. Inaudible.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Both.

Q. With Denard having so much success in his first start, have you pulled him aside at all to talk about the potential attention that he's going to get from local and national media?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Are you all going to give him any attention? Do the same thing you did last week. Are you asking me if he's going to play, who is going to be the starter, what he's working on, is he improving on his passing, do all the same things.
I mean, I think he's smart enough to figure out that, hey, you're just one bad play away from everybody saying you didn't do this or can't do that. He's a pretty humble guy but I'll talk to him briefly.
The way we approach all of our guys and it doesn't always work with all of the guys all the time, but the way we approach them anyway is that you've got to prove yourself every day, and not just game time. They get a lot of attention playing here. That's probably one reason some guys come. It's a big stage. That's good. That's a good thing. It shouldn't affect him.

Q. Can you talk about -- have you spoken to Tate at all since Saturday?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Why? Is there a reason to?

Q. The TV broadcast, they did make a big issue of him sitting by himself with a towel around, and it appeared that maybe he wasn't as into it. Do you think that's an issue?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Who was making a big issue out of it?

Q. TV broadcast.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Oh, TV, okay. (Laughter) Is the coach making a big issue out of it? No. Look, any time somebody doesn't play, whether it's Tate or somebody else, they are probably going to be disappointed. There's nothing -- you know, I don't see a problem with the guys being disappointed if they don't play.
Now, if it crosses the line from as far as not being a team player and all that, then we'll have a conversation. So if we need to do that, I'll do that. I'm not overly concerned with somebody else making an issue out of something, because I've been here a couple years and seen that happen, issues being made of stuff that I'm thinking, is that really an issue.

Q. So you don't think you need to have a conversation with him about it?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Oh, I probably will have a conversation with him, and Denard and Devin. I'm usually closer to those guys than the other positions because they meet right next to my office and I go in there on occasion to help coach.
So I'm sure we'll talk a little bit. There shouldn't be any problems.

Q. So far as keeping humble, is having the or still in the quarterback thing with Robinson?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Is it still listed there?

Q. Near as I can tell.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Do you think it will be a surprise if he doesn't start? (Laughter).
On a lot of levels. No, he's earned the start, for sure. But we'll keep those guy guys. They will still rep. Practice will still run the same way we have been as far as getting everybody prepared.

Q. Getting back to the tape thing, you did have a comment to one of the local publications --
COACH RODRIGUEZ: So we are not going to let that die, are we. (Laughter) So we want to talk about tape, okay.

Q. People are talking.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: They don't want to talk about Denard's performance.

Q. They are talking about Denard, too.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Oh, okay. Good.

Q. But does that concern you at all that he had a comment saying, 'all you need to know is that I'm out,' or something to that effect, maybe people insinuating that he might transfer?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Do I look concerned to you all? I'm concerned with all our players. Let me make it clear, every one of our players, I'm concerned with every one of our players, all the time. All the time. Both what they do on the field and off the field. That's what you do as a coach. You're concerned with your players, just like you think a parent would be.
So am I concerned that it will affect the team? No. But am I concerned with a player? Sure. I want all my players to be happy all the time, inevitably 110 of them probably won't be. But for the most part, if you win, you would expect most of them to be happy or fake it. But again I don't blame guys for being disappointed if they don't play. That's human nature.
I understand that, but I will talk to them if I feel compelled to.

Q. On the offensive line, you had said that you hope to get a lot of guys in there, maybe as many as ten, and the only guy who subbed was when Molk got hurt?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, I think we probably could have played more. That was one thing looking back on it, I talked to the coaches about that, we probably should have got a couple of those guys in there more often.

Q. Offensive linemen?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, offensive linemen, maybe even another running back or two, or receiver. I wish we would have got more guys in there. That was the one thing coming back offensively -- defensively we played a lot of people but offensively I think we should have got those guys in there a little bit. We'll try to.
Again, they have to give us the confidence as a staff that we are going to have the same kind of execution and all that to put them in there, especially if he's a younger guy.
I think if they prove that in practice, we will be able to do that more.

Q. Seems like it's been a pretty constant concern over the last few years, at this point, what can you do to just --
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, this year is this year. Last year is last year. Two years are two years ago. I don't think you compare years. I mean, it was Jeremy Gallon's first action, and it was a windy day and it was a tough pump. But he's got great hands, fantastic ball skills, and he'll be fine. I have no concerns whatsoever. It's just that was a tough one. He should have got away from it if he couldn't get under it, but he'll learn from that. He'll be fine.

Q. Same with the kickers because of the windy day?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: We kicked some squib kicks but we did not kick them the way we are supposed to kick the squib kick. I think we kicked on too high of the ball where it didn't get on the back deep enough the way it was supposed to so we missed those. The wind was playing some tricks. The field goal, everything was good but just didn't power it through the wind there. That competition will be okay.
Brendan did okay for his first accurate, but I think Seth Broekhuizen has gotten better, too. Will Heininger only punted, what, one time? And it was a half-roll into the wind, so it wasn't much. But it was good to at least get those nerves out of the way.

Q. Did you like what you saw from Obi Ezeh on Saturday?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I thought he played well, really good. The linebackers, Jonas and Craig really had good games. I thought we played outstanding. I thought Obi and Mark were solid in the middle, as well.

Q. Extra points, even though there was an injury --
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, Drew Dileo is a true freshman and he held, and the last one, the snap was okay. He just miss handled it briefly and he tried to get it placed just right. He had it here and he tried to get it just perfect and I think that had something to do with it. But it was his first action. He was fine.

Q. Inaudible.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: No, Jarrod is out for the year.

Q. If someone asks you when Denard started becoming assertive, you said when you were recruiting him, what did you see from him at that time?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I think the question was, when did you know he had the skill set you wanted, and that was when we recruited him. You could sense early on that, this is a guy that, hey, not only does he have the physical abilities, but he's got the type of mental makeup that you want to have at that position but he's going to have to learn to grow into it. I've said this many times, I would have loved to redshirt I'm.
I'd love to redshirt Tate. Any true freshman that plays on this level, it's very, very difficult to expect a whole lot. Now they have played a little bit and they have got some experience, but they are going to get a whole lot better and Denard will get a whole lot better as we go forward. He'll still have some mistakes. He played well Saturday, and it got everybody excited. But it's one game.
But I think his future is very, very bright, as all the other guys. We have got three really good quarterbacks I think that will keep getting better.

Q. You say just one game, but when you have an opener like that, is there a different feel around the building, maybe some uncertainties are not quite as uncertain? Or do you still have a lot of uncertainties?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I have a lot of concerns because we are so young still and we are still getting beat up and we are still losing guys. We have not even got into the Big Ten portion of our schedule. So we have a lot of concerns.
But I guess, what I was telling everybody last week. It's a different feeling in Schembechler than was out there anyway. There's not really a different feeling among Schembechler haul today than there was last week because we have had the same kind of feeling. It's the outside stuff that everybody else has been saying, is it this, is it that, or whatever. When you go in our building, it's been a little bit different the whole time. So it's business as usual.

Q. Is Fitz going to be back?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: We hope. We hope that he can do Fitz -- he'll be in a Green shirt today so we hope he can do more. I'm anxious to see him because he's one of the more physical guys we have. We are hoping to get Fitz back. We are hoping junior can do more today and it would be nice to have him back, as well, particularly with Roy Roundtree being questionable.

Q. You said you would have liked to have red-shirted Denard or Tate last year, you're in a position where maybe you could have done that with Devin this year; why chose to not?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: We think that Devin has proven that he has ready to play and I think getting him some experience this year, he's progressed to the point where he's going to be able to help us win some games.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297