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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 20, 2008

Rich Rodriguez

Q. Is Steve's status about the same as last week?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, I think he's a little better than he was a week ago. Hopefully it won't be a chronic thing. The elbow is a sensitive issue, especially if it's the throwing arm. It was an issue in the game. After the feeling came back, he was able to come back in the game.
I think he's a little bit better today than he was a week ago.

Q. I know you're not a doctor, but is there a term for it?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: It's a bruise, yeah. It's just a bruise, which as everybody knows just takes time to heal. He should be able to practice tomorrow.

Q. Obviously Steve has gotten a bunch more playing time than Nick. At the beginning of the year, they were so even, it was almost a toss-up.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: The way we do our reps, the second quarterback gets almost - not quite as many - but almost as many. It's not like the plays are new to Nick when he goes in or anything like that.

Q. (Question about Nick.)
COACH RODRIGUEZ: No. I just think he's playing for the first time, too. You know, not all his struggles are all his fault. But there's been some times with the turnovers or a big play...
But Nick is very, very competitive. He's going to continue to fight back.

Q. If you're going to get Justin in the mix somehow in terms of reps, do you do it like you were doing at the beginning of camp?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: We'll mix him in with the second group. We've always tried to do it with a third quarterback, try to give him some reps. We've mixed him in there. And David Cone, got him a few reps, too, as well. But Nick and Steve are still our top two.

Q. (Question about early success and things not going so well now.)
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, lack of execution really in all three phases. Offensively we missed a few things. Defensively, we had a few moments, had some lapses. I think our secondary wasn't at its best at times in the second half in particular. Then the special teams, it seemed like, again, we've been struggling a lot with field position on returns, covering kicks. That's been an issue. Then we kicked a couple out of bounds, which didn't help. Didn't do it on purpose. It's just one of those things.

Q. Even though it's a loss, do you take more positive out of that than other games?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: There's some moments that are positive that you can take. We watched film. The whole offense watched it yesterday. I thought they could see how all the parts have to come together to make a play or drive successful. So we watched it as a whole group, which I do on occasion anyway. We did that yesterday.
I thought that was good for me anyway, just to get everybody in the room and see how it's all supposed to work together.

Q. What are the types of things you're seeing specifically on kickoffs that aren't quite clicking yet?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, you know, it starts with the kick. Some times we've been pretty good. Some times we need to get a little bit deeper and get more hang on it. You'd like to have a four-second hang time. Not that we have anybody that can run a 40 in 4.0, but you'd like to have a four-second hang time for our guys to get out there. A couple times, too, guys get out of their lane. We've tried to rotate guys to get our best 11.
Our return game, again, it's not been very good. We're doing all we can to get it better.

Q. How would you assess the emotional state of your team after a really rough stretch here in the last month going into an emotional game like this one?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, they're okay. I think a lot is always made out of the emotional part of it. I addressed that yesterday. I said, Geez, you know, it's a ballgame. It's an event. It's not who they are. It's not life-altering or anything. It's a game.
You know, unfortunately the games have not gone the way we wanted them to the last several weeks. You know, for them to walk around with their head down or think the sky is falling... It's an event.
I didn't want to hear anything about them, you know, being down or what their mindset is and all that. I mean, we got to be mentally and physically tougher. We've got some guys that are mentally and physically tough, then we've got others that probably could be a little bit better in that regard.
We addressed it yesterday, and then I won't talk about it again.

Q. In terms of home-field advantage, you guys haven't won all your home games, but do you think there's still an advantage here?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I think there always is. We got great fans. We got a whole lot of people in there that I'm sure will be passionate about this game. So there should be a little bit of a home-field advantage, in particular because not only do you get the big home-field advantage if you only got half your stadium full, but if you have it full like we do, I think it should be a great advantage.

Q. Do you think there's any psychological edge lost when Steve goes out of the game?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: No, not really. Normally sometimes you may get, you know, maybe a little bit of doubt or a little bit of a lift sometimes when the other guy comes in.
We don't talk about that. I mean, I talk about it doesn't matter. There's 11 guys out there, let's play. We're trying to. And that's part of coaching, is to get them to the point where, you know, you don't worry about the past, whether it's a past play or a past series, you focus on the moment. Whoever's in there, we're going to go with it. That's part of coaching, working their mindset so they just compete on every snap regardless of the situation.
That's still a work in progress. I mean, I think it's always something, a constant we have to do. I would hope they're not thinking, Oh, boy, who's in there now? What happened on the last play? That is part of some of the things that we're teaching.

Q. (Question regarding redshirting.)
COACH RODRIGUEZ: About now is when we're making a decision. We're still trying to do all we can to win every game. Justin is all game for that. So, you know, the whole thing about redshirting, obviously if the guy is not ready mentally or physically, it's not fair to put him in a game. Then if it comes down to the end of the season, we think he's more ready, you just play him for two or three plays, I don't think it's fair to burn a redshirt for just two or three plays a game. You have to weigh how many plays he would be in the game and also how mentally and physically ready he is. So we're still working with that each week.

Q. What do you know about this Michigan State rivalry or Michigan State?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, I know a little bit. Obviously I know about the rivalry because, you know, if you coach here, you coach there, you understand it. The big Paul Bunyan trophy. That sucker's pretty big. Been sitting in our hallway.
I think it's been going on since '53, I believe. The first year we weren't going to take it. After that we accepted it or something if we won. So that's a nice little deal they've got going on.
Even besides that, the proximity of the two schools, the long-standing rivalry is pretty neat. Obviously we have several rivalries, but that's obviously a huge one. I'm sure it's a huge one for them.
I've known Coach Dantonio for several years. Our teams competed against each other back when he was at Cincinnati and I was at West Virginia. So we played I don't know how many years, but a few years in a row, two years. So we've been a little bit familiar with each other.

Q. Martavious did well a few games ago, then got hurt. Is he still an option?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: We were going to initially put him in there because he hadn't taken as many reps because of the injury, but we did because we needed him. He'll continue to take reps back there as well, as will Sam McGuffie and some other guys.

Q. (Question about the Michigan State rivalry.)
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I want to make it clear, I don't ignore the past; I just don't dwell on it. I'm more about focusing on the moment, not even looking in the future. It I want our guys focusing on the moment.
The tradition and pride, more of a pride factor, having won a few years in a row, I think is a neat thing. I think if you just count on that, and you forget about the moment, you're going to lose that trophy.
So to me, you know, it may be mentioned, somebody else will mention it. But, again, it's not going to help you get a first down or make a tackle or anything like that. If it helps you focus on preparation, then that's great. But once the game gets here, it's a whole different story.

Q. Their team has been rolling along until last Saturday. What do you make of what happened against Ohio State?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, ran up against a pretty good team. Ohio State got a couple big plays early and got on them. From the film I've watched, again I've only watched it one time, they competed pretty well.
This is Mark's second year. They've got some really good players. They're getting great veteran leadership out of the quarterback. I think he's a good player, a great leader. I think obviously Ringer is one of the best backs in the country. They've got a good football team. They've played really, really well, last game notwithstanding. I think they got a couple plays that kind of skewed it there a little bit in the Ohio State game. I think whatever their best effort is, I'm sure we'll get that Saturday.

Q. Every week you talk about how your team's making progress; it's just tough to see on the field. What would you say to the fans to look for in the game to see where progress is being made?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Hopefully we score a few more points and make a few more stops. That's the thing you want. The consistency level is the thing that's really been missing, speaking to the obvious, for four quarters. That's in all three phases. Our team knows that. We have yet to put together four quarters of consistently good football. We're capable of doing it. I know we are.
I think, you know, we hopefully will have one coming up because we need to. If we want to win this game, we've got to play well in four quarters.

Q. You gave Brendon the majority of carries on Saturday. Do you see that continuing?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: If he continues to keep running like he did Saturday. He's been practicing really well. Brandon is a quick learner. Again, he's been with us since the spring, so he had the 15 practices in the spring, which I thought he had a really good spring. If you all remember, we talked about him in the spring, then he got nicked up and missed a little bit of camp, all that.
His knowledge of what we want offensively is probably greater than any runningback we have on the team. Obviously, he's head of the freshmen because he's been here a little longer. That will help.
Brandon is a tough guy. He's a talented, physical runner. I think him understanding what we want in our schemes helps his progress. He'll keep getting better. If he stays healthy as the season goes along, he's still an underclassman. Been really proud of the way he played the last couple weeks.

Q. You've been talking this season about having people make plays. Brandon Minor has been able to do that, touchdown against Utah, last week. Is that what you've seen?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, Brandon, again, he had some issues before taking care of the ball. He's worked hard at that. He's got to continue to do that. But he's probably our best pass blocker. We can have him in there for pass. He's got good hands. The biggest thing he brings, he brings a physical presence when he runs. He's a big guy that runs downhill pretty well, particularly now you have the true freshman like Sam that's been here the whole time.
I don't want to say they're hitting a wall, but they're getting to a point where they got midterms coming up, middle of the semester, all that. Sometimes if he can I don't want to say take a break, but if he doesn't have to be the focal point, be the guy all the time, I think it will be beneficial for us.

Q. (Question regarding Morgan's leadership.)
COACH RODRIGUEZ: He's been a really good leader. All our seniors have been outstanding. I've been proud of them. They've been good leaders. A lot of them are playing solid. Obviously we expect a lot more out of the seniors than we do the underclassmen. But I think they've all done a good job of coming to work. Again, we don't have any on offense other than Mike Massey. Mike, for the lone senior on offense, I think Mike has done an outstanding job. On defense we have a few more.

Q. How has Morgan played for you?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: There's been some plays probably he'd like to have over. Some other ones he's played pretty well. It's a little bit like our team has been: a little bit up and down, sometimes inconsistent. But he's capable of playing at a high level, and he has as well sometimes this year.
But we're trying to challenge especially those upperclassmen, this last stretch here, to play as well as they can, and they will. I mean, one thing about Morgan, all those guys, they're very conscientious. They know when they're not playing as well as they can, and they know when they are. I think they're committed to doing that.

Q. Your history has been a winning history. How frustrated are you right now to have to deal with this?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: It's not been easy. It's been a long time for some of us to have lost this many games, to not play at a high level. You probably get a little bit spoiled. Again, I'm not too reflective, but it goes back a few years where we've had this tough of a stretch.
You know, it's nothing that we should hang our head. We know we're in the middle of a process. We know what we're building here. We're confident we'll get it done.

Q. Do you feel like you're recruiting against Michigan State or recruiting the same kids?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Oh, sure, yeah. We recruit against Michigan State quite a bit. Obviously not only in-state, but in some of the surrounding states, and even other places. Certainly in-state you do. But even some of the surrounding states you're going to recruit against them quite a bit.

Q. Has the result of the game Saturday played any factor in that?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I think your overall program does. I think normally you sell to recruits a whole body of work, not just one particular moment or event. It's not only the games. I think you also sell your institution, your community, your staff, everything that's in your program, which is more than just a win or loss.
I've never felt that, win or lose, that one game is going to determine a recruit's decision. If it does for him, it does for him. But generally they pick the whole body of factors, the university, you know, the education, everything else involved when they pick a school.

Q. When you look at your tackling efforts, how disappointed are you with that?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, you know, there were a couple games I thought we tackled really well, but didn't in the last game. There were moments in that game, the first touchdown I believe was a result of missed tackles. We had them for a one-yard gain. He ran out for the touchdown.
The tackling in the last game was not our best, I certainly didn't think. There have been other games that weren't our best. There have been a couple games where I thought it was really good. I think the Wisconsin game and another game we tackled really well.
Really the only day we can work on that a good bit is Tuesday, which is tomorrow, because that's our full-padded, get-after-it day. That will be a point of emphasis for us.

Q. Is containing Ringer your biggest key this weekend?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, no, they do a good job with Hoyer, play-action passes. You have to be disciplined. He's the guy. You have to contain him. If you let him run wild, you're talking about tackling, if you don't tackle him well, he's a fast guy that's very physical, then you're going to have a tough day.

Q. For the record, would you call him probable, Threet?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, he'll be able to play. He'll play.

Q. Anything else that came up over the weekend?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Nothing new from the weekend. Just a few bruises. But nobody that played Saturday should be out for this weekend unless something happens crazy in practice.

Q. For you, what's been the most intense rivalry before coming here?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, you know, when I was at West Virginia, it was Pitt. Then we had a pretty intense one with Penn State, but that's back when I was a player. Pitt as a coach. Then Clemson, South Carolina. Then when I was at Glenville State, the Glenville State, Fairmont State game was pretty good. Those were two rival schools. Wasn't quite 100,000 in the stands. There was about 1,000, and I was related to half of them. But that was pretty intense (laughter).

Q. (No microphone.)
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Normally you talk about it a great deal in the off-season more the other games. I think that's one of the things of a rivalry game. Seems like everywhere you go, wherever you go, people talk about that game quite a bit. I think that's one. Then as you mention in recruiting, I think a lot of times that's brought up in recruiting. It's though probably a little bit overblown.

Q. Do you have to go through a game like this and Ohio State before you really feel that rivalry, that feeling in your stomach?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I don't think so. I think once you get into the job and you see the scope of it, talk to your fans and all that, you can sense the intensity of it. I don't know that you necessarily have to be in it to really appreciate it. I would think as soon as you got here and start working, start getting around.
I know players hear about it quite a bit and the coaches do. Like I say, we've got the three big rivalries, but we have more than that. Probably just about every Big-10 team we play considers us a rival. We're unique in that respect. Obviously this one is even more special, like I said, the location and the intensity of it.

Q. What have you heard from the fans about the importance of this rivalry?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Usually in our state, there's usually people one side or the other. There's a lot of passion involved in it. But to me that's what makes college football so great, you know, the rivalries that you have and the intensity and the passion the fans have. They not only think about that game the week of the game, but they think about it, as I said, for a long time afterwards.

Q. Are you aware that Hart referred to Michigan as the little brother of Michigan State?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: That was after last year's game?

Q. Yes.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I heard that. I don't know the whole details of it. I heard about it. Mike was a great player. He was a senior. So I'm sure he was just speaking from his own emotions, not speaking for anybody else. But, you know, Mike had a great career. From what I understand, he had some pretty good games against the Spartans. I mean, again, that was in the past. He's moved on to the NFL. A little different now.

Q. (No microphone.)
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, he asked to move around a little bit. That's not a permanent. I won't say that's a permanent move, but he wanted to try there a little bit. We needed some help on the scout team. He's worked his tail off, so we'll see if that's a possibility or not.

Q. Tackle, is that where he's been working?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, he's been working at tackle because he just doesn't have the body. That's one things when we build the program, we have about 115 guys, again, with a handful being out, I'd like to have about 125 on the roster and have more big bodies or more bodies for the scout team. That's one thing that you struggle a little bit, that we don't have as many scout team guys. We're going to really work hard on our walk-on program and try to get our numbers up this year.

Q. In addition to the rivalry, where you are right now, 2-5, it will be written and stated this game is now your season. Do you buy that?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: No. It's never one game. I mean, unless it's your last game of the year and then everything is riding on it, then you could say, Hey, our season's riding on this last game. But I've never ascribed to that theory.

Q. In terms of your offensive line combination, how much of that is determined by the opponents or is it based on chemistry?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Most of it's been based on health for us, getting not just the five best or who we think are the best at the time, but the five who are healthiest that we can put out there. And fortunately for us we've had that the last couple weeks, keep healthy.
So we probably will start with the same five we did last week, McAvoy at left guard, Ortmann at left tackle, Dorrestein and Ortmann both kind of alternating there.

Q. (No microphone.)
COACH RODRIGUEZ: From what I've seen so far, and again it's just a couple games watched from yesterday and this morning, which makes sense, because he has basically the same coordinators he had at Cincinnati. From what we've seen, from our summer scouting reports, so far this year it looks like a lot of the same things.
You add a few wrinkles and things you change every year, but for the most part they look pretty similar.

Q. How would you describe what a Dantonio coached team tries to do?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: They start with a run game, being a physical presence, see if you can handle that part. Then defensively they play a lot of press man coverage, get in your face, challenge you a little bit, put the safeties down low, get them involved in the run game. They've got some good coaches. They're well-coached. They play very hard.

Q. Do you feel a win on Saturday would alleviate any pressure you might feel from any of your critics?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: You mean I have some? Dag-gone (laughter).
I don't worry about a win relieving that. It would be nice to win just to enjoy the weekend, and for our players to have some success. But as far as the pressure from the critics, I mean, critics will be critics. They'll find something else to criticize even if you win sometimes.
I'd like for our coaches and our staff, and particularly our players, if we could win a game, to enjoy it. That's the most enjoyable part of a game, singing the fight song. We haven't done that in a few weeks. If we could do that, that would be great.

Q. Can you address the status of Mike Milano? Is he still suspended?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Suspended indefinitely.

Q. More to add to that?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Indefinitely. He's not working out, not practicing, nothing.

Q. When did Brandon Minor start feeling completely healthy?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: He actually played with some bruised ribs in the last game, and he still ran. But it's really been about three weeks. He had some groin issues, some other things. But it's been about three weeks in a row that he's not missed a practice.
You know, you could see him getting more and more comfortable. So, like I said, he loves playing. That's the one thing about it. He's got a great passion for it. I think it shows when he goes out there. He's on special teams. He's on offense. He bounces around pretty good.

Q. When he was having issues, dropping the ball, fumbling...
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I think some of the issues, when our guys do make a mistake once in a while, nobody's doing it on purpose. I think sometimes they do press. Sometimes it's fundamentals, not holding the ball high and tight. That's something we work on in practice. But sometimes a guy's pressing too much, they forget about their fundamentals, just trying so hard to make a play.

Q. What's the main area you've seen progress in your team?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, the main is the work ethic. I mean, that sounds like coach speak. But I think from the beginning of August to now, they're coming to practice. We used to have to prod them a little bit more to get on and off the field or to run and all that. It's starting to become habit. It's still a work in progress. We still have to get on them and coach them to work at a certain level. But it's slowly getting there.
And then the execution part has been frustrating but at the same time we see it. I just hope that we can put four quarters together like a quarter and a half of the last game. I know that's why as a coach you hold out optimistically that we can. We'll see.

Q. Has Lou Holtz reached out to you personally?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: For?

Q. For his comments.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: No. Again, other than what was said after the game, I haven't watched it, seen it. What he's referring to, who he's referring to, what that whole thing was, I mean, that's kind of a crazy reference, whatever that is.

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