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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 29, 2008

Rich Rodriguez

Q. Can you talk about stimulating the bigger back? What will you do this week?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: We'll probably do a little more work with our offense against our defense. Good on good, because of similar styles and then obviously when we go to the Scout team, Justin Fagan will try to do his best impersonation.
The Juice, I don't think he's underrated. Everybody can see he can throw. He's a skillful player. They're so talented we need to go a lot of good on good this week as much as we can.

Q. When you step back and take a look at everything that happened on Saturday, what do you come away with that from to work on and build on?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Sometimes you just take the positives and maybe the second half come-back, whatever, focus on that. I don't think you can, because we're still in the middle of this process of training and teaching and coaching that we've got to take it all and figure out what went wrong and try to fix that and then what went right and try to accentuate that.
I like to say there won't be any more moments like the bad first half. But there may still be that. We're still in the middle of the process. We're still grinding away every practice. And we get frustrated every day. But at the same time we also are growing in some ways. That's the nice part about it. After winning, when you play so poorly as we did in the first half, particularly offensively, is you would rather teach off a win or loss, but either way you still have to teach.
We'll have a lot of moments this year we'll be grinding away. Not a lot of fun. You'd rather everything go smoothly, but that's not where we're at right now.

Q. Something like you guys are blowing out opponents like 46-19 in the second half. How much of that had to do with everybody is talking about with your conditioning and what other factors are going into this?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, I think conditioning plays a part in it. I don't think it's the only factor. But I do think it plays a part. I think our guys -- I think also part of it is there's moments where we're executing the first half. Some not. I think there's a couple of games, in our first drive early in the year, we did okay and then we kind of stalled for several series.
That's the most frustrating part about our offense, is any coach will tell you offensively they need to get in a rhythm. We've had a hard time getting in that. And we've got in it more in the second half in the last game. We got it some in practice. But I guess patience is not a virtue for a lot of us and certainly it's not a virtue for fans.
That's okay. But I do have to step back sometimes and realize this is the first time for a lot of these guys to be in these situations. And as long as they keep getting better. I think in some respects we took a step forward on Saturday's game but in some respects we didn't. And we can't take two steps back if we want to keep going forward with the way we want to continue to progress.

Q. The offense getting in that rhythm early on, what --
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Watching the film with the players and coaches yesterday, there were some plays that were close. But there were other times our technique was bad or our decisions was bad. And there was a lot of plays where we would like to have back and the players would like to have back.
As coaches, I don't want to say we want to expect to be perfect, but that's the goal. You've got to strive to be perfect. And you follow through with that you're going to be okay. But like I told the players yesterday in last night's practice, I was on them good, on them pretty good about not relaxing and keeping the pressure on.
Because I think there's still so much teaching we have to do. And not because these guys haven't been taught before, because they have. But as far as teaching these systems and what we want and the concepts. We want our players to understand the concepts offensively. Where the play is supposed to go, why it's supposed to go there, how the defense is going to respond to it and all that.
Until we totally understand the concepts, we won't be able to play as effectively as we want to. That's a process. And the first year, as I said a bunch of times, it's the most difficult.
And on defense it's the same thing. Even though we've run a similar scheme than what we've done in the past, it's still some ways you call it, some of the conceptual things are different. And when we get those down, we'll play a lot faster. We're not playing as fast as we need to play, not even close.
That's the most frustrating thing. But I would think we would get better at it. I know we will over time. What that time is, I don't know.

Q. You talked about reemphasizing ball security for two weeks.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yes. You know, I explained it to the whole team again yesterday. They've heard it before. They know it.
And I don't want them walking on eggshells or worrying about playing so tight, worrying about fumbles that they can't run fast. But at the same time, if it is a lack of discipline from carrying the ball in the wrong hand to not putting it high and tight when contact is getting ready to hit you, then we've got to do that as coaches to get them tuned up for that.
And it will be emphasized, continually emphasized. It's different guys it seems like a lot of times. If they continue to have turnovers and drop the ball, we can't put the ball in their hands.

Q. Saturday you said that Threet was pressing in the first half. Now that you've seen the film, what was he doing differently from one half to the other?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: He made better decisions in the second half. That was the first reason why we had a little bit of success.
Steve is a smart -- two of the most important attributes to be a successful quarterback anyway is you've got to be smart and tough. Steve's a tough guy. And he'll hang in there and battle. And he's very, very intelligent. But he did not make a lot of great decisions in the first half. And, again, this is his first year in it.
And the second half he relaxed and made better decisions, both in the run and the pass game. And he also, when he made his best throws is when he was better fundamentally. When his shoulder was positioned the right way, his feet were positioned the right way.
When he does the right things he's very, very effective, both making decisions and fundamentally. And that was a good teaching tool to come off that. And one thing I've always said is he's very, very conscientious, as a lot of our guys are. I'm proud of them. They are conscientious. We're going to continue to coach them and coach them hard.
Some people question that, say, how are you doing? I say, it's our job to coach them and it's their job to be coachable.

Q. You mentioned Michael Shaw?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Mike didn't get a whole lot of reps in the last couple of weeks. He was still a little bit sore during the open week. Last week he was a little healthier. The way the game progressed, we thought we needed to put a veteran in there. But Michael will play a lot more this week.
I think he's back or at least close to back to 100 percent. Carlos Brown had a little foot sprain, so we'll see how he progresses this week in practice, because he's had a lot of bad luck. We'll see how he progresses. But either way Mike Shaw will play more this weekend.

Q. On the offensive line, what do you see for this week?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: We're moving some guys around. Again, still trying to find the best. Perry Dorrestein will be healthier, so that gives us some options. Maybe playing Perry at left tackle and even trying Mark Ortmann at the left guard, just to try to find our five best.
But John Ferrara played okay, McAvoy played okay in the second half. But, again, to find the five best we have out there, this is the first time all year we've got them at least relatively close to being healthy, with the exception of Zirbel being out. So we'll play around with Ortmann at left guard and see if Perry can play left tackle and still rotate those guys in there.

Q. How do you see the right side of the line and center, back?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: They did okay. They can play better. David Moosman probably played his best game today and is probably playing at the highest level. He and Schilling have been pretty consistent. Dave Molk did some good things.
But to get them all to play at a consistently high level, we hadn't got that yet. At least to the level that -- but nobody has offensively. Nobody has played at the championship level each and every week. We've got a lot of work to do.

Q. Can you talk about seniors and captains for each game and how do you figure out how many to do each game?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I look at the roster. I say these guys have been captains, these haven't been. I talk to these coaches. Have these guys been representing the way you want, both individually and as a group, and then I announce it on Thursday. So it's solely a coach's decision. And then because we don't have a whole lot of seniors, several of the seniors will be multiple captains. At the end of the year the team will vote on the tournament captains. I like it that way.

Q. Physically McGuffie had a rough day Saturday. How much did he have to do with that?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Sam played okay. There were a couple of chances, maybe a misread here or there, but for the most part, he did okay or had some tough runs. He just didn't have an opportunity to get to the second level. That was the thing and any coach will tell you in the run game we have to secure the first level of down guys to get to the second level, and we couldn't even get to the second level. It was embarrassing.
But Sam is -- he's one of those guys that is very coachable and he continues to progress, and he's going to keep getting better in learning the concepts. I think he's making the right reads. But does he understand the total offense? There's no way as a true freshman to do that.

Q. Is he going to get bigger?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I don't worry about that. I don't even know what he weighs, 190 pounds. 185 pounds probably. He's a strong guy. Runs strong. But I want guys -- obviously particularly your freshman will gain a little bit of weight and get bigger, but we want don't want to sacrifice speed for anything we want to make sure they get faster.

Q. (Indiscernible) was very animated before Brandon Minor played. Did he call that play? Did he change the play?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, he -- they were just caught on plays. But we changed it for him. But I've said it, even though we call the plays and all that, the quarterbacks have to make a lot of decisions and that's what most people don't realize. Even in a run game, does he give it? Does he keep it out? Does he throw it? There's a lot on a quarterback mentally after the snap. So we don't try to put as much on him before the snap. He made a nice read on that play, and they didn't blitz a whole lot but that was the one time they did blitz. The O line did a great job picking it up and Brandon made a nice cut.
We were getting a little rhythm there as far as Steve making the decisions and that was a big key in our turnaround.

Q. Defense has given up a lot of points this year. What do you see from that group when you look at it?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I see them, in talking to our guys I remember talking to them in the summer a little bit and in the preseason. They were talking about how they thought Illinois was one of the best defenses athletically they played all last year. Of course a lot of them didn't play offensively, but talking to Schilling and some of those guys, saying who were some of the best guys you played against, some of the best fronts, Illinois kept coming up in conversation.
They got a lot of athletes, they played some very explosive teams. Missouri is scoring against everybody and Penn State is scoring against everybody. I don't look a lot into that in them having a lot of weaknesses.
Again, with our struggles offensively and everybody looks really good when we get stacked up on our match-ups. But I do think that our guys are getting a little bit more confident. But there's going to be -- as I said, if I had to sit here and tell you we won't have any more moments like in the first half, I'd like to tell you that. But I think there will, but I hope we don't have it for a whole half like we did.

Q. Why do you think Graham was so effective this game versus the last couple, what was so different?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: He got in a situation at the end where they were -- had to throw the ball to come back or try to score the last touchdown. We were able to turn Brandon loose on some pass rush things. That's when he's at his best because he's a tremendous pass rusher, he's got a big motor and he made some big plays. He made some big plays in the first half, too. But in particular in the end when we knew they were going to throw, you can turn him loose off the edge, he's pretty explosive.

Q. Do the returners on punts and kickoffs remain kind of an open thing?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, it's open. Until we get the guy that will hold onto the ball and get it up in there, it's a revolving door. You shouldn't have to do that four games in. But it's pretty obvious. It's obvious to us, we have to get somebody that can catch it first, then hit it up in the way we want to hit it up there.
We've got the guys who have the talent to do it. We're working extremely hard at it. But the return game is atrocious. And on the one punt return we had good field position and we laid it on the ground.
But we've got to get better on that. Because our offense is not good enough as you've seen to go 90 yards or 85 yards every time. We've got to have great field position. It opens up a little bit more some things we can call, plus it gives us a little bit better field position to be not so conservative at times.
But we've got to get better in our return game. So that's been a point of emphasis. We've just got to get better and do a better job coaching.

Q. Is it especially disconcerting when veteran players are putting the ball on the ground?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I think it's disconcerting when any of them do it. As much as we stress it. But the veteran guys are usually a little more conscious of it or have at least been in it, those arenas, so to speak. But it can't happen. You can't do I and expect to win.
I've said this a bunch of times and probably here, we're not good enough to play poorly and win. We play poorly we'll get blown out. Anybody we play, we've got to play well and in some cases we've got to play well and hope they play bad to win. That's where we're at right now.
Hopefully we'll get to the point even though we don't want to play poorly, hopefully we can get to the point we can play bad and still win. We're not there right now.

Q. Isn't that what happened Saturday?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: We played real bad the first half, offensively. But we played okay defensively. In the second half we played better. And we were lucky to win. And, again, it's a nice win and all that, and I told the team, I said: I hope you enjoyed it for 24 hours. It's over. And maybe people will be patting you on the back and all that, but it might be the same folks that were booing you at halftime.
That's part of the deal. They understand that. But they didn't leave. They hung with us to the end. The guys didn't leave. They hung in there until the end. I don't want to go through moments like that. We need to play better football.

Q. You started Mike Massey, he didn't see as much. What was behind that decision and how is Martell Webb doing?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Martell is doing okay. He's still working off some things. We think he's made some progress. We've asked him to be a little more physical. He showed that in practice last week. He didn't get much in the game. He didn't get in the game in the last one on offense. I think he did on special teams.
But it was a coach's decision, and we were going to consider Kevin Koger for redshirt, but we think he's playing at a high enough level he would have been in there. That's the way we continue. Koger and Massey will be our first two tight ends this next week, that's basically based on coach's decision what we think is best for us right now.

Q. You had the defensive line getting a lot of pressure. Talk about your progress (indiscernible).
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Brandon? Oh. Mike Martin has been -- for a true freshman to play at that position is very, very rare. There's some throughout the country. You're seeing more and more freshmen playing O line, D line, because they're getting coached well in high school, getting developed sooner. They're more I guess Division 1A ready than they've ever been.
But Mike is a guy that was obviously physically ready, mentally ready. He's got such a high motor, I think he played maybe 40 snaps, which is the most he's played since he's been here and he'll continue to do so. He's got a big motor. He's very, very intelligent and he's already off to a great start. But I think it starts with him mentally. He's been able to grasp some of the things we want to do very quickly for a young guy.

Q. This is a hypothetical. You can go back several years in your coaching career and say that you didn't run the spread option offense. Would you have gone to to find this kind of conditioning program you have? In other words, is your offensive style the root of why you condition the guys the way you do?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, I think so. This goes back 18, 17, 18 years, when we first started doing the spread and the no huddle that obviously we go to that, conditioning is going to be a huge factor for us in all three phases, particularly offense and defense.
Offense, if they happened to score fast or get a three and out fast, the defense is going to have to be in great shape to respond to it. Back then when I was first doing it at little old Glenville State, we didn't have enough players for a scout team, so it was offense against defense. So the conditioning got pretty good because everybody was always playing at a fast level.
Now we're a little bit more conscious of that because we do some scout teams. But we still do a lot of I guess good on good, offense against defense, because I don't want our defense not to be as good of shape as our offense because our offense practices at a faster tempo. But I do think it's a big factor.
And a lot of coaches, not just us, everybody stresses it, but as far as you want to list one of the five or ten key elements of our overall program, it is practicing at a fast tempo and making conditioning a big part of what we do.

Q. What's the link in conditioning and mental toughness?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, I think great conditions lead you to be mentally tougher. That whole saying fatigue makes cowards of you all, when you think about it, when you're fatigued physically, it will fatigue you mentally. I've seen it. Mike Barwis has seen it in his summer workouts, we've seen it in camp. When guys get really, really tired, sometimes they turn mentally good or bad. You want them to turn good and get tougher.
And it's always a factor. That's why these TV timeouts and these breaks in the action and two or three minutes long, you know, those, I'm like grinding my teeth. Let us play. You've got to do that, you have to pay the bills. Everybody -- like I tell the players, we're having two-hour practices. I like for them to be done in one hour and 45 minutes. If we're practicing crisp and fast, we'll get our practices done shorter than two.
Sometimes they last a little longer than two. And I tell them it's scripted, practice is scripted, so you'll determine how long it is. This first year, the first year, they're going a little bit over two hours. Hopefully in a year or two maybe year three, four, we'll get those suckers done in an hour and a half or hour and 45 minutes. They accuse me of holding that five-minute-period clock. I do sometimes. We have to practice faster and play faster, get our conditioning done in practice.

Q. You're not playing out on the field, but in these first four games, how many times have you looked up in the fourth quarter and noticed like our guys have a step on their guys?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, a little bit. I mean, I felt we were a little faster at the end. We were playing faster at the end and part of that is due to execution. That's always the key on offense and defense. If you're executing well, looks like you're playing faster. If you're not, looks like you're not.
At the end of every ball game this year at least I felt we could continue to go on. If the last game happened to go to overtime, I felt like we were still fresh enough at least from what I saw out there that we could go on.
I couldn't speak for their guys. They looked like they were playing pretty hard at the end, too. So I don't think any team we've played has not been in shape. But obviously from our own team, I think we could continue to go on.
But as I told the team last night, I would expect us to get in better shape as the season goes along, not worse. That's what hurts. When guys get injured more than anything they lose a lot of conditioning. So we try to do a good job at least keeping that up, if they're missing time practicing.

Q. Has coming to a state where there's another major program altered your recruiting strategy?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: No, I think no matter where -- if you're coaching at this level, no matter where you're at you're trying to recruit the best quality student athletes you can regardless of who is in your state or conference or who you play.
I think wherever you coach, you don't specifically say, well, I'm in this state so I recruit this guy. We try to get the best quality student athletes we can. If you're in a state or area where you're surrounded by more, like when we're in an area surrounded by more than I was at West Virginia because of population, then that's a bonus.

Q. Did you make a concerted effort when you got here considering you didn't have the local ties to get out there, as far as recruiting?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: No, I think we did as normal. We've got some of the coaches that I've hired or rehired have local ties. We've recruited some in the area before. We have at places I've been to. We're at a place that's an easy sell both from an academic and athletic standpoint.
What I wanted to make sure, because I wasn't from here, that we would be open and receptive to at least all the coaches in the state and the people in the area as far as our coaches being accessible and recruiting their young men and all that kind of thing. So we want to make sure.
It was harder the first year because we have to train new system to the team and get acclimated and all that. But we had a tremendous amount of coaches at our clinic. I think that will continue to grow. We had a lot of guys up here at camp. I think we'll have more. I told them last spring we'll have more coaches come visit us this following spring because we'll be situated.
So I'm looking forward -- we know a lot of coaches in the state. We know a lot of coaches in the area and they've been outstanding to us so far.

Q. What is the change between Bryan Wright and Gingell on the kick-off?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Jason has been kicking really well in practice. So after the first kick-off I thought let's give Jason a shot. He's a senior been kicking well in practice. He gave us a little lift, kicked the one out. He did a nice job with some hang time on the other one. He and Bryan have probably the strongest legs on there. And so we thought Jason gave us a little bit of lift there.

Q. What about the secondary? The numbers, they had a lot of dropped passes, do you think your secondary was improved?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yes, improved from a tackling standpoint. Played pretty physically. We did some nice jobs. I don't think we were dominant or anything like that. But I thought they played okay. Stevie Brown, who had struggled some in some of the other games, played better. And Chuck Stewart got his most significant playing time. He played pretty solidly.
So we did okay. I think we can play better. But for the most part, we challenged them a little bit as far as tackling more physically, and I thought we did that.

Q. Even after losses this team doesn't quit. When you look at the first half, I know the offense played well, but what do you owe their resiliency? This is a young team. Is it the coaching?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I would hope that every coach -- I would be sure every coach tells you that a team that don't quit -- if I ever had a team that did, which I haven't, I mean, I would be more embarrassed, if I ever had a team that somebody said they looked like they quit or they were soft, or they were lazy, that would be the most embarrassing thing somebody could tell me.
I've told the team that. Worst thing somebody could tell you is that you're soft or lazy. If you run the wrong route or have the wrong technique or make a bad decision or something, that's not good we can get those corrected. But if you're soft and lazy, that's something you can control every day in every game.
And fortunately it's easier as you get in your program or establish your program that that's a mindset that's there every day. Right now these guys have had it built into them before. So I'm not the first coach that's ever told them that.
So I think they're accustomed to playing hard and all that. But I say it every day probably. Every day about playing hard, all the time. And playing physically and working hard. And it's not something new to them. So that's a good thing. But it is something we continue to stress.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.

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