UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 10, 2005

Lloyd Carr

COACH CARR: We have an outstanding Penn State football team coming in Ann Arbor this weekend, a team that I think has great team speed. When I look at their defense, I see an extremely mobile front seven, a great secondary, a pair of defense ends that I think are as good as any pair in the country. And offensively, I think a great quarterback, outstanding speed at the wide-receiver position. Tony Hunt is an outstanding tailback, a guy that will play with or without the football. So we're looking forward to that challenge. I am delighted to take any questions.

COACH CARR: Well, I saw an offense football team that did not execute the red zone, did not execute very well on third down. On third down, I think 8 of our 14 opportunities on third down were seven yards or more. And when you're third and long that often, you are going to have a hard time executing. We didn't protect very well. We had guys that didn't get open. We dropped some balls. We missed some throws. We just didn't play the way that we would like to play.

COACH CARR: Well, I think we have been -- we've struggled in the red zone the entire season. And of course, when you have to settle for three instead of seven, you know, that always becomes a big issue. It certainly has been a major issue for our team.

COACH CARR: Well, I thought we did a very, very good job against Maroney who is a great football player. And the thing about him is that he is going to -- he has got enough speed to bounce the ball to the outside. We had a him a couple of times. One big third-down play we had him in the back field and couldn't tackle him. But I think one of the issues we had to deal with last week was when we lost Rondell Biggs, we had to -- and Jeremy Van Alstyne did not return. We had to move Alan Branch. Normally Alan plays in over the guard or over the center, and these last few weeks he really did an outstanding job. But we had to move him to over the tackle which was new for him. So I think the last play, the play, the 61 yarder that broke out, we had Prescott Burgess, who played his best football game, except for that play. I think he got caught looking into the backfield instead of at the tight end, and he was just unable to turn the ball back in because he was looking in the backfield and that part of his technique broke down and the ball got outside. But I think if you look at the number of defensive plays we were on the field, we were on the field 91 plays, that's 25 or 30 more than you would like to be. I think part of that in the third quarter was the fact that our defense made a great stop after a long kickoff return that gave Minnesota great field position, and then Steve Breaston ran the kickoff back and our defense had to go right back out. And so it was -- there were six minutes to go, only six minutes left in the third quarter when we ran our first offense play. So considering our inability on third down to keep drives alive, the number of plays that our defense was on the field, and the fact that Willis Barringer and Brandent Englemon went out of there, I give our defense some credit there. I think the most disappointing thing defensively was the drive before the end of the second quarter when they hit a big pass in there, and that drive hurt us because we had a 13 to 3 lead, but that's the way it went.

COACH CARR: Well, we are awfully thin. We lost Ryan Mundy earlier, so we're very, very thin. I expect that Brandon Harrison will start at safety, and Jamar Adams at strong safety this week. But, because of the packages that Penn State runs, we're as thin as we possibly could be, and we will just have to see what we can come up with.

COACH CARR: Well, I think you always have a role from a psychological standpoint because, whether you are winning or whether you are losing, you have got challenges there in terms of what your team is thinking, and sometimes it can be a problem of overconfidence, of complacency. Sometimes, you take the opponent lightly. When you are not doing well, then certainly confidence and, you know, all those issues that go with being in a situation you'd rather not be in take over. So it's challenging every week. The challenges do not change. They're just a lot more fun if you have to deal with things when the situation is positive.

COACH CARR: I don't see any lack of intensity. I think offensively, we have two tackles, Mike Lojay came back and played some snaps in there. But Rueben Riley is playing on guts and heart, and Mike has missed almost a month there. So we're struggling at that position. And I think when you look at dropped passes, receivers not getting open, you know, there is a lot of issues there. In that particular game, we didn't play like we're capable of playing. I don't think it had anything to do with effort and intensity. That was a hard-hitting football game. I thought Willis Barringer made a great hit on Maroney, knocked the ball loose, but we will see.

COACH CARR: I do not -- Rondell will not play, no. Willis Barringer won't play. So that's all I know.

COACH CARR: Well, I think I made my position clear there.

COACH CARR: Yes.

COACH CARR: No, I don't think Jim is bothered at all by the cast. We have thrown to him. Now, the first week he played, there was some soreness and tenderness in there. But the cast is very soft and he has been -- if he had not caught the ball very well in practice, we would not have thrown him the ball in the game.

COACH CARR: I think David Harris had a great football game on Saturday. I think Harris is having a great year. I think he is one of the real outstanding linebackers in this conference. There is a few of them, but David Harris is certainly one of them at this stage. He played great.

COACH CARR: No, there was no one loafing on that play. Now, we took two bad angles. First of all, we didn't get the ball turned in, and that's our corner on that side got blocked by an outstanding block by the Minnesota wide receiver. But we didn't turn the ball. Had we turned that ball in, it's going to be a no-gain play in my judgment. But our safety took a bad angle, and when he did, now he had to turn and -- if there would have been anybody loafing there, we wouldn't have run them down. And our linebacker got caught underneath. But no, that's not accurate.

COACH CARR: Well, Leon has been a starter here since he was a freshman. He started some games in there. Anytime you have a guy with that much experience, and, you know, the last two weeks Leon Hall has played extremely well.

COACH CARR: Well, I think Robinson is a great player. I think he is a great quarterback. He is -- I saw him throw a pass this morning in a film tape I was watching. He threw the ball 70 yards. He's got a very, very strong arm. I thought against Ohio State he made some outstanding throws, and, of course, in the second half, I think Penn State buttoned it down and played to their defense. What I saw from him in the first half was outstanding. I thought he made some great plays. He made the play of the year for them on fourth and 15 against Minnesota or against Northwestern, a play that kept the drive alive and made a great play there at the end. But he is a great athlete, and he runs like a tailback. So I think he is really developed as a thrower. I think they're using him in the option. So when you are dealing with an option team, the stress that it puts on the end of the line of scrimmage, the perimeter guys up front, they don't block them on the option. If they get up the field too far, the quarterback darts inside. So they have to be disciplined. And where that really gets to you is you're thinking pass rush, and yet if that tackle doesn't block you, now you have got to come to a stop. So it really stresses the end in your defensive scheme because -- and then they'll run a different option where they block everybody and he either pitches the ball or takes it free depending on what he sees. So they use him in a lot of different ways and they have been extremely effective doing it.

COACH CARR: Well, I think he has always maintained a confidence that they were going to have a good team. I could remember last year, hearing him a few times on the teleconference, and he told everybody, you know, they built it around the great defense. And now they have had a two quarterback situation there for a couple of years. But I think now they have got a guy they're doing some things to take advantage of his ability. So they're back, that's for sure.

COACH CARR: Well, I think, obviously, you know, if you look at his career, he's had -- I mean who has done better? So he's done awfully well.

COACH CARR: I think it is certainly one of the better defensive teams in the country.

COACH CARR: Well, I think probably it's so much like golf, you know, that it takes -- there are so many things that you need to do to make a great kick. His first kick, he just miss hit it. The second kick was, you know, inches away from being good, being three points. So I think the main thing is he has to be able to control the things that are important to him, and that's not easy. It is not easy. But he's always been a guy that's very, very tough mentally and he will be okay.

COACH CARR: Well, I think we have been very, very ineffective in the red zone. I think that's the one thing that stands out in my mind. We just have not been able to get the ball into the end zone for different reasons, and that's something we have got to get corrected.

COACH CARR: Well, I think our stress is on trying to get better and trying to get ready for this game, playing an outstanding football team. And there is things now that are no longer under our control. So I think the approach, as it always is here, is let's do what we can to get the best game plan. Let's do what we can to have the best practices and let's get ready to play or best game this Saturday.

COACH CARR: Well, you know, I think we're trying to -- Steve Breaston came back so that limits some opportunities. DeBenedictis got an opportunity to play some in there. Dutch made a big block. We're trying to win a football game. I do think we should have played Grady, and we will play -- we're going to play somebody else this week because simply it's too much to play Mike Hart every down like we did in that game. So looking back on it, that's something certainly I would have done different.

COACH CARR: Well, if he isn't, that's good, because he looked pretty good on that kickoff return. So if he's better than that, if he is not full speed, then good because that means he is going to get even faster.

COACH CARR: Yes, I do.

COACH CARR: Yeah.

COACH CARR: Hoping. Hope. Hope.

COACH CARR: We will have to see tomorrow what happens.

COACH CARR: I think Adrian -- I think both those guys have really gone the extra mile to rehab those injuries. I can't -- I can't really tell you anything on them. I think certainly he could possibly come back.

COACH CARR: Well, I used those time outs because of a couple of reasons. No. 1, we had the wind. They were going to punt into the wind. Their punter did not have a good day. And so with the wind, and the wind was significant, I felt like if we could hit a couple of plays, get the ball back in decent field position, get a couple of plays, we might have a chance to kick a field goal. The other really critical part of that answer is that Cupito was out of the game, their No. 1 quarterback. And so we did not, and we had two time outs there, and we told our guys they were not going to throw the football because I didn't think in that circumstance, that deep in their own territory, that they would throw the football. And so I thought there was enough clock, had we stopped them, they would have had to punt the ball to us. And of course we got Breaston back there, so that was my thinking.

COACH CARR: I think that's -- I think that's fair. I think we have -- I mentioned this earlier I think in the season. Once we lost Jake Long, and once we lost a couple of other guys in there, Grant DeBenedictis, it really has changed the way we have been able to practice. And then of course, you know, we have lost Van Alstyne and Rondell Biggs. So our practices have had to change, and that has really slowed, I think, the development of our backs, because that's really where you really learn to play tailback. It's really where you learn to play the game; otherwise, if you are learning in the game, it's a hard place to learn.

COACH CARR: Well, I think the -- he made three throws, two -- all three to Jason Avant. On our touchdown drive on second down, we threw from the five yard line, second and goal at the five. We threw the ball outside to the right at the south end zone and he made a bad throw, but that did not hurt us there because we scored a touchdown anyway. In the third quarter -- actually, in I think the second quarter, he missed him by five or six inches on a play I think from the 20 yard line. The ball was just missed, on third and 10. And then he missed on a play at the north end zone where he had Jason and he threw the ball low. I think on that particular case, he simply rushed the throw. That's what it looked like to me, if that answers your question.

COACH CARR: No. Well, yeah, I think there are some things there that we worked on. But you know, those are -- I see those plays every week in the NFL. I see them in college. I see them in high school. You miss a pass, by the pass that he missed Jason in the south end zone, was the timing of that route is always a difficult thing because it was a stutter-and-go, and so he missed him by six inches.