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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 7, 2011Brady HokeCOACH HOKE: (Recording in progress.) The thing I can tell you is I will say our guys played with great effort. I thought they stayed in the game. I think they managed the game from a standpoint of the organization, the sidelines, out on the field. I thought they did a tremendous job. We've got to execute better though in opportunities. That's the one thing that sticks out, because the effort was outstanding on both sides of the ball. We're moving forward obviously. Going on the road again down, going down to Champaign, and playing Michigan football. We had a good day yesterday, and plan have to a great week. Q. Wanted to ask you about Coker. Most of the time, handful of carries, ten, twelve carries, the 127-yard game, what was the difference on those carries? Was it a certain play? COACH HOKE: You know, not really. I think, you know, the one that got out for the over 20, you know, we didn't secure the gap, to be honest with you, the gap integrity. We got caught up a little bit inside, and then, you know, we needed to get off a block a little better back in the back end to get him on the ground. But, Tim, you know, I thought most of the game our guys did a nice job of putting hats on him and getting bodies to him. He's a strong, powerful guy, like we all knew going in, but there were some guys hitting him. Q. Brady, obviously you want to take some carries off of Denard, but his rushing numbers are down significantly. What do you attribute that to? Something with him? With the offense? COACH HOKE: No, I think some of it is -- you know, it's a combination of both, you know, Mark, what people are giving you to some degree, how they're going to defend you, and how they're defend that part of the offense. I thought Fitz, you know, he was banging in there for three or four yards. Those aren't bad on first downs. It's when you get the negative plays, you don't secure the catch, or you get a tackle for loss that puts you behind the stakes a little bit. But I think it's a combination of what people are giving us and allowing us to do. But he's still a major factor. I think there is a lot of good things he did the other day. Q. Looking at clock management in the last minute, there anything you look back and second guess a little bit in maybe changing the way the last four plays were called because of having no timeouts, limiting the Denard run-pass option? COACH HOKE: No. You know, we talked about that yesterday. You know, going into the two-minute at the end, you know, knowing where we were time-wise, timeout-wise, all those things. I thought Al really managed it well, to be honest with you. We had four shots at the end zone. You know, two of 'em we have it in our hands. I thought it was okay. Q. What went into the decision to take the ball on opening kickoff? You had scored on the opening drive for five straight games. Are you disappointed with the execution on this particular drive? COACH HOKE: Yeah, you're always disappointed when you don't score. It's nice to score. It's fun for you, fun for me, and fun for our kids. We made a decision -- because 99.9% of time we're going to defer when we win the toss, but we had made a decision on Thursday when there was going to be a significant wind called for. Wanting have to the wind in the fourth quarter was something that we really wanted to do. We just got lucky and won the toss, so we wanted to take the ball instead of defer thinking that they're going to want the ball -- they got first option in the second half. They're going to want ball, and then they can dictate us having the wind in the fourth quarter if you needed a field goal. So we thought that thing out pretty hard. Q. You used a timeout, I believe it was your first of the second half, before an Iowa punt, after their illegal step. COACH HOKE: Yeah. Q. What went into that? COACH HOKE: That was really -- I called timeout because I think it was fourth and four. I think we had 12 guys on the field. Q. Did you? COACH HOKE: Yeah. No, we didn't. I didn't count very well. Soon as I called it and counted, I said, You know what? I hope we don't need that one late, to be honest with you. I talked about the kids' effort. I had a pretty good effort, but I didn't execute very good on that one for them. Q. You could probably run the ball on of those final plays. COACH HOKE: Might be able to. Might be able to. Q. Brady, Toussaint was banged up you said towards the end. How is his health? Are you expecting him this week? COACH HOKE: Yeah, he'll be fine. He just got banged up a little bit. When we got into a situation where Vince is more of -- throwing situations, you really had the guy you wanted in anyway. Q. You mentioned that toward the end, that shock on the three wide receiver set, Denard seems a lot more comfortable in that almost whenever you're in it. Is that because he ran that for two years or is that just... COACH HOKE: No, because I think it's different. I think it's -- I think he -- when you go what we call NASCAR, which is not two minutes, there are two differences to it, you look at the defense a little bit. Iowa is not a huge substitution defensive football team; never have been. But you limit them a little bit to what they can do, because you've got it a little more engaged, a little more tempo. And so you limited them a little bit, which I think obviously helped us to some degree. Now, we've gone that same thing three other times this year, and in one game we were 3-0. So you use no possession time. We weren't in any kind of situation not to try and score quickly. Q. That set though, the three wide receiver shotgun, is that you feel like your team's offensive preferred set at this point in the year? COACH HOKE: No. No. Q. Mike Martin had an interesting observation after the game. Said he didn't have to stress to the younger guys that are playing how important it is to pull together and win, because he could see it in their eyes how much they wanted to win for the seniors. Has that been your experience? Talk the resilience of being able to bounce back? COACH HOKE: You've heard me say this a lot, and I wouldn't say it if I didn't believe it. I really like how or seniors have invested in the young guys on this team, into the program, how they've treated each other and challenged each other. You know, I think Mike has really blossomed as a senior, as a leader on the football team, the way he works every day, and how he prepares. Q. What did Troy do in practice last week to beat out Thomas Gordon, a free safety. And considering how much you guys have rotated defensively, is it a little strange that we didn't see Thomas Gordon at all on the defensive side of the ball the rest of the week? COACH HOKE: I don't know if it would be strange. I think we should have taken an opportunity to get him in a little bit, you know, and just didn't for one reason or another. You know, we just thought Troy was going to start football game. Once Jordan came back, we were going to go with those two guys. They'll compete like heck this week on who will be the guy. But, you know, I think there is no real reason for not. It's not like Thomas be had made some mistakes or anything. Q. When you're trying to bounce back from a difficult loss, is it more difficult to do it on the road than when you're playing in a comfortable situation? COACH HOKE: You know, we can't worry about being comfortable, to be honest with you. If the question is do you like playing at home better than away, I think 100% of the teams in the country are going to say it's always nice to play at home. But I think our kids are pretty daggone resilient, and I think they'll be in good shape. Q. You talked last week about the challenges of playing at Iowa. What are the challenges of playing Champaign? COACH HOKE: Well, I think it's very similar. I think it's going to be -- I know it's going to be a sell-out. In fact, I think they're bringing extra bleachers in or something like that. It's Michigan. I mean, if you're Michigan, you're going to get people's best. That's just the way it is. It's a good thing, so we'll be fine. Q. So Jake Ryan didn't start the game. COACH HOKE: He did start the game. Q. He did? COACH HOKE: Yeah. Q. But he played maybe less than half of the snaps. COACH HOKE: Well, he got a burner the first part of the game. Q. Back to the Gordon thing for a second. Is it difficult to take a guy who is at that point your third-leading tackler, recovered three fumbles this year, off the field in a starting position? COACH HOKE: It is, but you got to feel pretty good about the guy who's on the field, too. It all comes down and the competition to where guys are. Thomas is a competitor. Q. Does that send a message that it's more what you do in practice than what you do on Saturdays? COACH HOKE: You better do it in practice. Our guys are going to practice like they play. There is no game player. It's a myth. You know, if you prepare and you prepare the way you're supposed to prepare, then you're going to play well. Q. So it's fair to say that Troy outperformed Thomas in practice? COACH HOKE: Yeah, he had a better week. Q. Talk about expectations for a position. Can you talk to us about you expectations for the quarterback position and how things have or have not been met this season? COACH HOKE: I think we've progressed. I think -- I thought Denard played a really good football game. You know, he tried to make a play and lost the ball. End of the first half, he throws a slant in there. Whether was contact made or not - obviously there wasn't - you look how he set his feet and how he threw the football, how he managed the offense, and I think I said it after the game: I think he grew as a quarterback. In those environments, I think that's when you do grow. Q. This is not to ask you to comment on officiating, but can you give us an explanation of the call? Did it get called out of bounds? Did it get called that his hands didn't catch it? We were hoping you got a clarification and hoping you got one. COACH HOKE: Not completely yet have I gotten that explanation yet. I mean, being honest with you, on the field, you know, there is not enough time for them to come up, and they're not going to take the time, to come up and say, This is what we decided. You know, they reviewed it and went through the proper channels and all that stuff. I think it's just the way it goes. Q. Is there a person that this week -- I mean, not that you're going to look to the past and say -- but is there a person you say, Okay, I would like to know what the ruling was? Who do you get that from? COACH HOKE: We'll get it from the conference office. Every week there is a play here or there. You know, you called that a hold. It might be anything. It's just part of the game. We always try and get, Is that the right call? Why did they call it more than anything. Q. When you watched it on film, did you think he was in after seeing it? COACH HOKE: I thought Junior made a catch. Q. In bounds. COACH HOKE: Oh, yeah. Q. Did he finish the process of catching the ball? COACH HOKE: See, that's where everything gets diluted. Q. How do you perceive it? COACH HOKE: I thought he caught the ball. Q. And finished it? COACH HOKE: Uh-huh. Q. You've said that if somebody is going to make a mistake, you want to them to make it aggressively. COACH HOKE: Yep. Q. Did you put Denard's fumble in that category of just Denard trying to make a play? COACH HOKE: Yeah, I do. I mean, you've seen him make -- you guys have been around him more than me. How many times you seen him make a play from something like that? A bunch. And when you're confident and gifted, yeah, he's got to have better ball security and all that, but, you know, those things are going to happen now and then. Hopefully it's not -- and I don't think it has been -- you know, a regular thing. Q. And he's probably hard enough on himself that you don't need to say anything. COACH HOKE: No, I mean, he understands ball security and what we want to have as a football team. Q. Because the championship seems a lot more distant now, you talked about the seniors the other day. Do you change the approach you take about striving for that championship? COACH HOKE: No, not at all. I don't think anybody in here can tell you what's going to happen a minute from now, let alone four weeks from now. There is a lot of football still to be played, and we're guaranteed a certain number of opportunities. Our seniors, we're going to play for them. We got three more of those opportunities guaranteed with them that we know of. You don't know what's going to happen. I think ten wins is always significant. Q. Do you use some of things that happened this past weekend and some of the things that almost happened as ways to show that anybody can beat anybody? COACH HOKE: The only thing I asked our guys yesterday was, Did anybody think Northwestern would go into Lincoln and win? Only one guy said, yeah, they picked it. Q. Who was that? COACH HOKE: I'm not going to tell you. Q. What's the key this week to make sure that Iowa doesn't beat you twice? COACH HOKE: I think the honest approach that we take every Sunday with our kids, I mean, good or bad, you know, we'll move through that and move past it pretty quick. Today there will be a bunch of 'em over in the office watching film on Illinois. They'll turn the page pretty quickly. Kids are a heck of a lot more resilient than we are. You know, we've got to take that next step. Q. What has to happen for the (indiscernible) to become a consistent completion for you guys? COACH HOKE: You know, I think we've got to -- you could say we've got to put a little more air under it at times. I think that's maybe part of it. I think the one to Roy, there was a little bit of friction for him through the route that slowed him down a little bit. At the same time, there is also conditions of the game. You know, I'm talking about weather. You can throw it one way maybe a little better when you have the wind, and I think that's what happened the one time. Q. What's the unpredictable nature of the Big 10 this season? COACH HOKE: You know, I don't know. You know, you ask that, and I just think there are competitive teams. It's a competitive league. You've got to play your best. Q. (Question regarding Jake Ryan.) COACH HOKE: Yeah. Q. Was that persistent? Is he okay? COACH HOKE: He's all right. He came back in the game and made a great play on third down at the end of the game to get the ball back for our offense. Q. It's not lingering? COACH HOKE: No, just go like this and he'll be all right. Q. How is Fitz Toussaint? COACH HOKE: He's good. He'll be fine. He just got bumped up a little bit. And he could have gone back in, but we got into the two-minute and got into the NASCAR, and that's kind of Vince's deal. If you watched the game and watched him pick up the linebacker blitzing the one time, you know why he's in there. Q. It's been five weeks since you unveiled the (indiscernible). How have you seen that evolve in the last couple of weeks? It seemed like Iowa was able to kind of sniff it out there a few times. COACH HOKE: Yeah, I think we had the one boot; we had the one throwback; we had the one Denard on the Jets series. You know, I really can't tell you how much those opportunities we had. Maybe four. It's all right. I mean, I think it serves a purpose to some degree. Q. What are your biggest concerns for Illinois? COACH HOKE: They're very athletic as a football team overall. You know, from the offensive standpoint, their offense, I think quarterback's throwing the ball well. I think he's improved that part. You know, not that I watched him a lot a year ago, but I think he's throwing the ball pretty well, Scheelhaase is. Ford is a back who can get some tough yards, plus he's got a pretty good jump, you know, cut. I think they're a big up front offensively. Jenkins is the leading receiver, I believe, in the league. There are some other guys out there. They've got some weapons offensively. Defensively, I think they're a very athletic defense. I think they're ranked up near the top in a lot of categories. They're very athletic and move well and do a lot. I mean, they've got a lot of coverage, a lot of different fronts, a lot of different zone blitzes or man blitzes. So it'll be interesting to see. For our offensive lineman, you targeting issues that you have to are a big part of it. Q. Talking about difference between the two-minute and the NASCAR, what are the specific differences there? COACH HOKE: Just a little different in the play selection, calls. Q. Is NASCAR just as fast-paced as a no-huddle? COACH HOKE: Yeah. It might be even a little more tempo. Q. (No microphone.) COACH HOKE: Yeah. If they score, you know. I mean, Kevin Koger is a heck of a football player and a tremendous leader on our team. He does a great job at the point of attack and blocking. Tough guy. Kind of dinged up his ankle a little bit, and then went right back out there. So it would be nice. Q. Kelvin Grady appeared a little bit more than he had in previous games. Was that personnel? COACH HOKE: Yeah, some of it was personnel. Some of it was our receiver do lots of work down the field blocking, down the field routes, so you got to rest 'em some time. I think Kelvin, it was good to see him have some production. Q. Brandon and Morgan played a lot. What was your take on that? COACH HOKE: Both of them handled themselves very well. You know, I think I'm very happy with Desmond's flow to the ball and how he plays the game, and I think Brandon played a lot, you know, when Jake went out there for two series. He got his feet wet in there in a heavy package. I think both of those guys have a very bright future. Q. How did you think Blake played? COACH HOKE: Good. He plays pretty conscientious. He's a pretty good technician. Good hips, good feet. Q. This is a tough question, but do you pay attention to what's going on at Penn State? COACH HOKE: You know, believe me, I wouldn't even know how to you answer that question. We got Illinois to worry about, you know. Q. How did your offensive line play out? COACH HOKE: You know what? Not too bad, to be honest with you. The run game, there was a couple of other issues we had. We got beat inside once where we didn't feel we should have. But for the most part, they did a pretty good job on targets and on guys. You know, even at the end of the game when they were bringing, you know, everybody, they did a pretty good job of getting Denard enough time to set his feet and do those things. Q. How do you think Toussaint ran the ball? COACH HOKE: I thought he ran it hard. I thought he ran it well. A three- four-yard game is a good play. I mean, I think he did a good job. Couldn't tell you if every cut was the right cut. You'd like to see him accelerate out of a couple of those at times, but I thought he played well. Q. The issue with Denard's hand... COACH HOKE: Elbow. Q. Oh, elbow. Okay. COACH HOKE: He just hit it on a helmet and his fingers went numb. The humorous bone, the funny bone. Q. Got it. COACH HOKE: Was that funny? Q. Yeah, it's funny. Are you satisfied with the deuce formation, the production you're getting out of that? COACH HOKE: Yeah, you know, I think we're getting what we need to get out of it right now. We'll see what else there is to it. Q. You talked about the Hemingway catch/noncatch. What was the team's reaction to that? COACH HOKE: I don't know. Q. Do you feel like you were robbed? COACH HOKE: I don't know. I never carry much money with me anyway, so... Mrs. Hoke doesn't give me any. It's football. It is, it's football. That stuff happens. You know, our kids played hard. Q. In your experience, when you get a decision back from the conference office on something like that, are you happy if they call it... COACH HOKE: No, no. Never changes anything, so I don't worry about it. We're going to submit what we think we need to submit, and we got to move forward. Can't change either one of 'em. Q. What about the last play for Roundtree? COACH HOKE: Kind of a bang-bang play for that guy. Q. You seem very even keel about it, but did you have any moments about being angry? COACH HOKE: Maybe. Maybe. Yeah, believe me, you want your kids to win. You want 'em to have success. They work hard. They invest. Q. Barnum? COACH HOKE: He'll do more in week. Hopefully we'll get him back. Q. Seems like Schofield has really -- a lot is talked about this season the offensive line the key is chemistry. He's now sort of entrenched... COACH HOKE: I think because of all the experience he's had. I think that obviously is part of that. You know, he's done a pretty good job. Michael has grown up. That's a positive. With Ricky coming back, and he comes back healthy, then this makes us better as a team. Q. Do you go to sleep with nightmares about the offensive line? Your depth is so limited. COACH HOKE: Yeah, it is. Q. If Taylor couldn't have gone, how would that offensive line have looked? COACH HOKE: Well, Huyge would have gone over. Schofield would have probably -- well, Scho would have moved out and Huyge would have moved over. It would have been interesting. Q. (Indiscernible) Is there a boundary for Gibbons there? COACH HOKE: I think, you know, the kid's done a nice job. Pleased with him. I like the other guy, too. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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