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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 23, 2006

Lloyd Carr

COACH CARR: I think the Iowa game was the most physical football game we played this year, and I think our defense was obviously outstanding.
I thought our special teams did a great job making some big plays and creating some tremendous field position for us. I thought offensively we did a great job in the second half, and think we made some big plays in the running game that broke the game open.
I thought Steve Breaston had his best game since he's been at Michigan. He's a guy that his teammates, coaches, understand the value that he adds to this program, and certainly I appreciate the career he's had. He's a great football player.
We had a number of guys in that game, particularly in our special teams area, that really did a great job. So we improved as a football team. Right now, what we needed to is find the other things that we need to improve on. And we need to get healthy, because we are a banged up football team. There's no question about that.
Questions?

Q. (Inaudible.) I mean, is that kind of part of the plan in the coming weeks, to try to get Kevin and Brandon some more work?
COACH CARR: Well, the plan is to win.

Q. (Inaudible) How do you see that when you watch the film? Is it just impact? Is it something more?
COACH CARR: Well, the speed of the game, or the flow of the defensive teams to ball. I thought our defense came with just great effort and intensity. I think the contact, if you look at the backs, both quarterbacks took a pounding in there.
I mean, it was extremely physical. And the other thing, when you look at a film and you see the guys that are away from the play running and sprinting to the football, you know that they've come to play.
Iowa, I thought what they did on both sides of the football -- I thought they were the most physical team we played, and I expected that because I knew in watching the Indiana game that they got a lot of guys healthy and they and came ready to play. It was a great game. If you really appreciate the essence of the game, I thought it was an outstanding football game.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH CARR: Well, I think when you're patient with the running game and you have a will, then some days that's easier to run the football than others. But certainly, you know, there's -- it can take a toll if you're blocking them and controlling the line of scrimmage. That's a challenge every week.
As I said, if you have a will to run the football, then you're going to have a chance to be successful. And to me, it comes back to that.

Q. (Inaudible.) Is the reason for his increased accuracy this year? Or is it just being a senior and urgency?
COACH CARR: Well, I think he's -- I don't know. I can't answer that. But he's certainly having a great year. I think he's had a great career. He's like ever other guy. Everyone expects perfection. They don't understand. Field goal kicking, some of this comes to the protection, some of it comes down to the snap, some of it comes down to the hold. And if all those things aren't exactly right, you're going miss.
Sometimes you're not going to plant your foot exactly the way it needs to be to get the ball through. So it's an extremely difficult skill, and -- but there's no question that because of the experience he's had I think he feels comfortable. There's no situation that he hasn't a faced. He's won games at the last kick of the game. He's a confident guy.

Q. Have you ever had a guy come in and fill as important a role for four years and not be noticed doing it? I mean, it was a somewhat shaky kicking situation before he came in. He just walked in as a freshman and he's just done the job.
COACH CARR: Well, you know, if you remember, we missed an extra point out at Oregon because we had some issues Adam Finley, who did a great job for us as punter, did the place kicking for a while. And then after that game, I think Garrett got on opportunity to become a place kicker. He was really solid all year long as a true freshman.
He's one of the of those guys that likes the challenge and he likes the pressure. You know, he's having a great year and he's doing a great job on our kickoffs, which I think Saturday our coverage was outstanding. Part of that is where he kicked the football, so I think he's having a great year.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH CARR: I think he was the freshman of the year a year ago, wasn't he? He had an outstanding year. He's tough, he's durable, and he's got great balance. I think he's an outstanding football player.

Q. Can you talk about the job Adam Krous is doing teaming with Jake Long on the left side of your line?
COACH CARR: You know, I think he stepped in there and he came back in great shape. He's done an excellent job.

Q. Do you see Krous down the road as a center or a guard?
COACH CARR: I think he's a guard. I think you can play center, and you know, that's -- he's been trained to do that, but I think his best position is a guard.

Q. You guys are first in the nation in least turnovers given up. Can you talk about the things that have gone into that?
COACH CARR: Well, I think Fred Jackson, I think it all starts with the quarterback-center exchange. And a year ago, we had a couple, and one of them cost us a game. So, you know, it's one of those things that you take for granted, or you can take for granted, and yet it's the most important part of any play.
And if you're in the shotgun, it's the same and probably a little bit more difficult. It all starts there, and it starts when the quarterback hands the football. It starts when the quarterback goes back to pass and those people that are protecting him, when they let people through there, then that's about ball security.
Because that's when fumbles happen. That's when interceptions happen. So it's all about protecting the football. If you're the guy handling it, it's your job. It's the most important job you have. If you catch a pass, it's the most important job you have. If you pickup a fumble on defense or intercept a pass on defense, it's the most important thing you do.
Because if you don't do your job then you turn it over. So it all begins with, I think, a fundamental approach that allows you to understand as a team and as a player that if you look at winning percentages related to turnovers, then winning has a lot to do with taking care of the football.
We've done a great job of that, and I think even the turnovers we've had, you know, were in situations -- for example, on Saturday you know, Chad threw an interception on 3rd and 21. You know, that -- we called that pass because we had great confidence in him. He threw it because he was hoping to get a pass interference call, which he should have gotten, because they held the tight end as he went down the field.
And a couple of his interceptions have been as a result of throwaways late in the game. So thus far, we've done a great job with the football, as good as any team I've been around.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH CARR: Well, I think, you know, it gets down to being in favorable down in distant situations. Because if you can stop the run, then you're going to be in third and long. And when you get sacks in college football, I think that's what you need -- the average fan who is into statistics maybe doesn't understand that rushing yards come off of sacks.
So to be in the statistical area that we're in means that you've had a lot of sacks. Because, you know, it comes of the rushing yardage. But fundamentally, it means that you're playing together as a team and guys are doing their job.
Because in the running game, everyone's looking for a crease, everyone's looking for a gap that's been vacated by somebody who either can't stay in his gap or misses an assignment.
So I think the credit goes to not only the guys up front, but the fact that we haven't had a lot of big plays. That's the other thing that distorts rushing defense. If you allow big plays, you can still have decent stats. But it's when you don't give up big plays, then it gives you a chance to have a great defense.

Q. You talked on Saturday about your goal in the next couple weeks being continuing to get better. Can you talk about one thing on offense and one thing on defense that you'd like to get better at?
COACH CARR: Every game it changes, because the challenge you have every week is different. I thought coming out of this game -- and part of it is the Reuben went out; he's a veteran guy. So when you bring in two guys at different positions, it creates some situations from an experience standpoint that you expect.
But coming out of that game, I think we have to do a better job of protecting the quarterback on offense. Defensively, I think we lost contain there late in the game against mobile quarterbacks. You need to keep them in the pocket where you can either force them to throw it or knock them down.
There are some areas in the kicking game. We had a couple plays there where we mishandled a kickoff deep. It bothered me at the time, because we put our defense in a terrible position. Although I think our offense got two first downs there. So we got it out of there, which was a good situation for our offense to be in, but Brandon Minor will learn from that experience.
We had another apply in there where we ran into -- one of our guys was trying to hustle back to make a block on a punt return and ran into Steve Breaston. So there's always things that you need to correct and improve on.

Q. What did you see in (indiscernible) at tight end when you were recruiting him?
COACH CARR: Well, you know, you think about it, two years ago at this time he was starting at wide receiver and defensive end in high school, and it was -- there's no question in my mind that he would be a great defensive player, because he's got the temperament. He's extremely athletic and he can run. He's got good hands.
I think we just looked at him, and I asked him what he preferred to do. He said he preferred to be a tight end. Because I asked him when we recruited him that I felt he had the ability to play on either side of the ball, and I think he would be a, you know, a potentially great player on either side of the ball. He has a long way to go and a lot of things to learn, but he's really stepped up and played an important role and played it very well.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH CARR: I think he did extremely well. I don't think you could ask more of a true freshman lineman than what Justin did in there. He made some mistakes, but he'll learn from that. And to be able to -- you know, the thing about getting an opportunity to play, in most cases you don't know when it's coming. And so often -- because you maybe don't expect to play, or you go out there two, three, four games and you don't get to play because nothing happens.
All of a sudden somebody goes down and you got about three seconds to think about it before they call your name and tell you to go in the game. So to be prepared and do as well as he did, I think, speaks highly of his motivation.
He would be much further along had he not missed the last six weeks. He's missed a lot of practice this fall. I don't think he could have done what he is doing or what he did Saturday had he not been here last spring.

Q. Can you talk about the excitement of the Michigan program being in the hunt this late in October?
COACH CARR: Well, I think we're just excited to play again this week. Because those rankings, you know, they're impacted by what you do every opportunity you have. I don't mean to downplay it, but I'm not going to stay in here and talk about it because everything is predicated on what you do this week.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH CARR: Well, we'll have to see. You know, he's had yesterday and he'll have today to rest and get treatment, and then we'll have to see. I have not had a report from a trainer. I talked to Reuben yesterday, and he feels much better. I think he's optimistic, but we need to see what he can do.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH CARR: I don't think so.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH CARR: Well, I thought, you know, he came to me on the sideline line. There was some type of delay on the field. He had been out, and he was in there at half time trying to get it taped up.
And he came up to me and he said, "I can go." And I said, "Well, go." And he went in, and then -- it's an interesting deal, because it was 3rd and 1, and of course, they drew us offsides, so now we got 3rd and 5.
So Reuben's in there and we're throwing the ball. I think he would have been fine on 3rd and 1, but on 3rd and six he had to back pedal and protect the quarterback and he was a little bit slow.
They hit Chad and knocked the ball loose, but Reuben made a great play, great hustle. Because, you know, otherwise you lose the ball. We ended up losing it there anyway, but he made a great play.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH CARR: Well, what I try to challenge them to do is "Hey, can you play better?" And that's really an attitude that Leon and a lot of these guys, particularly the older players, they understand that. You know, I was teasing LaMarr last week. I said, you know, I don't think you can play -- I don't expect you to play as well as you did against Penn State. You're probably going to go downhill because you'll be listening to all the people telling you how great you played.
But I can tell you he played a great football game. So I think the deal is, you know, you better understand that that guy across from you is going to give you his best, and you can't -- you got move on, I think. You know, you got to move on.
Whether you win or loose, you got put it behind you and try to get ready for the next one.

Q. (Inaudible) on the how much interaction you had with him and if you have a memory or two?
COACH CARR: No, I really don't. I really -- you know, not really.

Q. What do you remember about Fitzgerald as a player? And how do you think you would have been as a head coach in your 30s?
COACH CARR: Well, I remember Pat Fitzgerald as being an outstanding player, a great competitor, and a leader on the team. They won the championship. Went to the Rose Bowl. So he was a guy that I thought represented himself and his school, the Big 10 conference, intercollegiate football, I think in a very positive way.
It was obvious that, you know, he had some special ability, and I'm sure that's a big part of why they felt confident enough to name him the head coach there despite the fact that he's so young. And the rest of that question I'll pass on.

Q. Any interaction with him this year? Did you talk to him since he got the job?
COACH CARR: I congratulated him. I talked to him at the Big 10 kickoff luncheon. We had a short time together. We didn't have any meetings, but I congratulated him and wished him well.

Q. (Inaudible) What is it about them and the way they operate that will get your team's attention this week?
COACH CARR: Well, the spread offense is an assignment -- requires an assignment, a concept on defense. Somebody's got to be assigned to the quarterback. Somebody's got to be assigned to the pitch. You can't just go where you think the football is going. If the ball goes to the right, if you're on the backside, you better make sure the ball's not coming back before you pursue.
You know, a lot of teams, they're going to hand the ball off. You know where the ball is going in most cases as soon as the quarterback comes from underneath center. In this offense it isn't that way. Because the option is a take off of the old veer option principals.
So it requires discipline, and you know, if you're spread out to begin with -- I guess that's why they call it the spread offense. So you have to -- if you don't do the things in pass defense that you needed to, then you create huge scenes with your coverage, and, of course, that creates other problems.

Q. (Inaudible) Do you have a better feel for where he is in terms of (inaudible) and where he is in his rehab?
COACH CARR: I think he's making very rapid progress, and you know, I think all I can tell you is that he's -- I think he's ahead of schedule.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH CARR: Pardon me.

Q. Do you expect him to come back this season and play?
COACH CARR: Absolutely. I've said that before, haven't I?

Q. You have? I mean --
COACH CARR: I always tape these so I have evidence.

Q. So can you -- do you have a gut feeling for this week?
COACH CARR: No. I don't trust my gut feeling.

Q. (Inaudible) In looking at replays, do you think those were the right calls, that both of those were just misses?
COACH CARR: You know, it's impossible on my copy to tell. They say it's a game of inches, and we made two very good plays there. Chad made a great throw on the first one, and Adrian ran a very good route. We were inches away from a touchdown.
And then the same on the second one. So I cannot -- I think, you know, both of them -- the first one was called -- to expect either one of those to be overturned based on the film I saw, I think would be expecting too much. And they probably got it right because they were right there.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH CARR: Going up here to see him in a few minutes. But he had -- he had a procedure this morning, and the reports are that it went very well. So I'm sure he's going to be going home here in the next day or two.

Q. (Inaudible.) Is he ahead of schedule?
COACH CARR: He's way ahead of schedule.

Q. What does that mean when you say Mario is ahead of schedule? I mean, is he running?
COACH CARR: I just expect that he's going to come back pretty soon.

Q. (Inaudible.) Has this almost been a blessing in disguise getting more reps for Adrian and a little more for Greg Matthews?
COACH CARR: I'd never say that it's a blessing because of what happened. But as far as, you know, the depth and the confidence that because the -- obviously Adrian Arrington's role expanded significantly. Steve Breaston, I think, is -- you know, has always had an important role. But Greg Matthews got an opportunity to play more. So I don't think there's any question that overall, as a team, that, you know, we've been able to gain some confidence at certain positions because of the increased playing time in big games.
I mean, you know, the last two weeks those were big games, tough games, hard fought. So I think there's no question they gained confidence.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH CARR: No, I don't think so. Because you have to factor in that Mario hasn't played.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH CARR: Oh, I did, yeah. In keeping with my policy of always keeping you informed on injuries, Steve Schilling, who had -- he had some discomfort last spring when we recruited him with one of his shoulders. And then, of course, he had the mono. So he had some surgery last week because the doctors felt like it was something that just wasn't going repair itself. So he'll miss the rest of this season, and -- but we're very confident that he's he'll be back practicing during spring practice, which we all look forward to.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH CARR: Yep.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH CARR: Noticeable?

Q. I couldn't tell.
COACH CARR: I think he'll be back this week.

Q. Mike Massey?
COACH CARR: Mike Massey, you know, I don't expect that to happen.

Q. (Inaudible) sort of sounded like he was throwing Mike Hart's name into the Heisman (inaudible.)
COACH CARR: Well, I wish I had a vote because I'd vote for him.

Q. Can you expand on that a little bit?
COACH CARR: No.

Q. You know, I know we talk every week ad nauseam about him, but...
COACH CARR: Well, you know, Mike Hart is a great football player. I think what he has done here, I think what he's done this season -- you know, and I'm not promoting anyone, because right now we're just trying to win a game this week. But certainly he deserves all the accolades that he's received, and I just want to, you know, answer a question. Put my two cents in, maybe one cent.
THE MODERATOR: Okay.
COACH CARR: All right. Thanks.

End of FastScripts...

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