UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 3, 2005

Lloyd Carr

COACH CARR: Some of you may remember, 1903, Coach Hills took the team up to Minneapolis to play the Golden Gophers. They left probably a Thursday night, traveled all night, got there late Friday, played the game on Saturday. Saturday morning they sent Tommy Roberts, the student manager, out to buy a water jug. Why, because he didn't trust that the Minnesota people would give good water. He thought maybe they would put something in that water that would make his players sick. And so the game was played. It was a brutal game. As you know, football was much different in those days, those of you that were there. And so after the game, it was a 6-6 tie. And the game was discontinued for six years. In the meantime, I have a quiz for you. Coach Yost, A, got on his cell phone and called the AD; B, he faxed the request for the water jug that would have been left behind to be returned; C, wrote a letter? John Falk wasn't there. So he wrote a letter and asked that the jug be returned, and they refused. And they said if you want it, come back and we will play for it, thus began the greatest tradition in college football history, The Little Brown Jug. We're going to play for it Saturday here in Michigan, and we're going to play a football team that is well coached, a team that has a great running back, outstanding offense line, and we're going to have to come up with our best effort. Any questions?

COACH CARR: I would accept water from Glen Mason for my own use, but if it was for our players, no.

COACH CARR: Well, you know, Glen Mason and I go back. We were on the same staff for probably a month or two in 1978. And I got the got to Illinois in January of 197 -- no, it would have been 1978, yep, and he left shortly thereafter. Woody Hayes -- Glen played at Ohio State and Coach Hayes hired him back to Ohio State. So I spent a couple of months with Glen. I think he is an outstanding football coach. I think he is one the best football coaches in this country. He has been a great leader. He was the president of the American Football Coaches Association. He has won at Kent State, he's won at Kansas, he's won at Minnesota, and he knows how he wants to play the game, and I think he runs a program with integrity. I have a lot of respect for him.

COACH CARR: I don't hold it up in front of the team, but for that reason. I don't trust myself and I certainly don't want to be remembered as the guy who destroyed the Little Brown Jug. You know, anybody who handles it, needs to be careful with it. Sometimes I worry about the games, about the players with it. No, that's not something I worry about.

COACH CARR: Yes, I did. And I will read -- I think it's very clear, the rules are very, very clear, and I expressed -- I am just thankful that that play didn't decide the outcome. But it is very clear when a Team A player is holding the ball to pass it forward toward the neutral zone, any intentional forward movement of his arm starts the forward pass. If the Team B player contacts the passer or the ball after forward movement begins and the ball leaves the passer's hand a forward pass is ruled, regardless of where the ball strikes the ground or a player, C, when in question, the ball is passed and not fumbled during attempted forward pass. It was clearly under the rules a forward pass. Now, with that said, because of the technology available with instant replay, I think this is obviously an issue that the Rules Committee may want to consider, and I think they probably will. But, make no mistake about it, that was a forward pass in my judgment.

COACH CARR: Well, I think Dave can speak for himself.

COACH CARR: Well, I thought it was a team effort. I thought every phase of the game was critical. I thought there were a lot of plays in there that determined the outcome, and had they not been made, it was the type of game hard fought. It was a typical hard-hitting physical football game which I think is very typical of this rivalry. I thought special teams -- I thought Grant Mason and Carl Tabb, gave us -- and Leon Hall did a good job in our return game. I thought we got some very good field position as a result of plays that those guys made. I thought our kick coverage was very good, and I thought the execution on the last play with everybody coming was outstanding. We had a good snap, had a good hold, and great protection up front. I think defensively, we gave up one -- two big plays. A 31 yard pass in the first quarter. But what I like defensively that there were very, very few yards gained after the catch. I thought we were aggressive. I think Brandent Englemon and Willis Barringer, two safeties, played as fine as any two safeties have played in any game since I have been at Michigan. I thought they were outstanding. And so I thought our defense -- we gave up a big play, a 61 yard touchdown pass and, you know, that's what happens when you blitz and there is no nobody in the middle of the field and every guy has got a man. One of the most effective plays is the quick screen to the flanker, where a man who is covering the receiver gets blocked, and they executed the play perfectly. It was a well designed play. But with that exception, up front I thought we did a wonderful job of containing and pressuring Stanton, not all the time, because they moved him. And so, one of the challenges any defense has with that team is first of all they're extremely well-balanced. They run the football. They move the pocket, but I thought every time they moved the pocket, most every time, we had great leverage on them. I thought we pressured them. (Indiscernible) made a great play to cause a fumble. I thought we did a lot of great things defensively. Offensively, we had to be able to run the football, because if you can't keep Michigan State's offense off the football field, you are going to have a hard time winning. So I think our offense played to our defense in that game. I thought we used the clock extremely well. I thought, of course, Michael Hart was outstanding. And I think Chad Henne was outstanding. So I think we did a lot of very, very good things. It was our best football game. We won the turnover battle, which I think you know, we all know the importance of.

COACH CARR: Well, I think our defense has worked extremely hard on mobile quarterbacks, and I think the difference between this game and a year ago was the job that we did in terms of his making plays when something broke down.

COACH CARR: Well, I think that ends this press conference.

COACH CARR: I didn't ask him.

COACH CARR: That's it. One more time. Three strikes and you are out. (Background noise.)

COACH CARR: I don't think anybody on either team played in that game was not sore. Rivas got knocked down. He is sore. So I would assume.

COACH CARR: Well, that I think is what I was speaking to, totally. There is -- he means a lot from an inspirational standpoint because he is a great competitor. And however you want to define that word, that's what he is. He is a guy that wants to win. He is willing to do anything to help his team win. I mean, if you saw, if you watched the film, you saw in that film a lot of times where he was blocking guys that weighed 300 pounds as a pass protector. If you saw the pass that was returned for a touchdown, that was a pretty impressive play. By the way, what a great football player he was on that day. But you saw an incredible effort by Mike Hart who finally got him down in the end zone. But it was a great individual effort, that's what he is all about. I mean he is -- I have limited vocabulary, as you know, and I certainly have run out of adjectives talking about Mike Hart, so I will just stop talking about him.

COACH CARR: I knew from the moment I saw him on film.

COACH CARR: No, I have said this from the beginning, you know, I would never have guessed anybody would come into the Big Ten Conference, and play like he did as a freshman. And of course I said the same thing about Chad Henne. But Michael Hart, you know, at both those positions, sometimes you take for granted all of the things that he has to know and do when he is not getting the football. Now, he is an excellent pass receiver, and that part will become more clear as we go forward, but there is nothing he can't do. I mean there is nothing he can't do, and he has a great will to win and to be the best. Great pride in who he is, and very goal oriented in terms the way he wants to play the game.

COACH CARR: Well, I don't know anything about Breaston. And Rondell was going to be out. I don't know when. I expect him to return, but I can't tell you.

COACH CARR: We will have to see.

COACH CARR: Well, I really would rather not comment except to say that every game that we play in the Big 10 at this stage is a championship game. We're in the race, but to win is paramount because the way I look at it right now is it's hard to think that anybody is going to lose twice. So I think, you know, we're trying to win a championship and those are two pretty good chances.

COACH CARR: Well, not really.

COACH CARR: You never know what -- (indiscernible.) I want to say this. I think in any season, there is disappointment. And sometimes -- and certainly injuries are always the biggest disappointment. But sometimes a guy doesn't play like he wants to. And on the other side of the ledger, there is always people during a season who really step forward in the greatest time of need, on critical points. On Saturday afternoon, Carl Tabb just gave us an incredible lift. And you know Tabb, he has been in here, he is very, very bright. He is a guy that is so consistent, and yet he has been in a position where there is a lot of competition. But Carl Tabb has never complained. He has just continued to work hard and be the best he can be. And I thought what he did was a great lift for our team. And he is a guy that you don't necessarily notice a lot, but in special teams, and certainly on Saturday he made some big catches. Pierre Woods I think was a guy that was in the same situation. And when Rondell went down, Pierre went in and I thought played very, very well. If he can continue to play like that, I think he is going to be a great lift for our team as we go forward here. Gabe Watson played, in my judgment, his best game at Michigan, and so that was exciting to see because certainly that game requires everybody playing to their best, and at least their hardest, and that's what I think he did.

COACH CARR: Well, Willis set a Michigan record in that game. He caught two passes and fumbled them both. So, you know, Willis Barringer has great character. He played a couple of years ago and struggled, and didn't get a lot of playing time a year ago. But he is one of these guys that persevered and he is -- I don't think there is a more likable guy on our team. And what he has done at a position where there was a lot of question about our secondary, and I think what he has done has just been outstanding. And I personally couldn't be happier for the guy, because it hasn't been easy for him. But during all that time, he is done a great -- a year ago, he was one of our very best special teams players. He kept working and he made a lot of plays in that game, I will tell you that.

COACH CARR: Well, I think, you know, it's that type of game. Maybe we should add some. I couldn't resist that.

COACH CARR: No.

COACH CARR: Well, I think it worked very well. I think -- you know, there is pluses and minuses and certainly I think with a young football team. Mario Manningham played a lot of plays in that game as well as Antonio Bass, and, you know, Kevin Grady is down there, Max Martin. And so there is some young guys on offense line that may have to play. So I think from a communications standpoint with the players, it was a very positive thing and I think personally I have always liked that.

COACH CARR: Well, I think it's always an emotional game, and I don't necessarily remember being emotional. But if I was, I was.

COACH CARR: Well, I think the truth is that very few people understand -- this is not a criticism. I didn't mean that as a criticism. I simply meant that very few people know and understand the pressures that these kids are under, the academic pressure of trying to compete in a world-class university and to become educated when they also have the demands that are placed on them within the world of inter-collegiate athletics. So I think for anybody who has a son or a daughter who competes, they understand, because it's more difficult by far than it's ever been and I don't see it getting any better. So I think in the case here, if you don't have good character, you aren't going to succeed here. It's just too hard, it's too competitive, and that's what I meant.

COACH CARR: Well, I think Prescott Burgess has really grown up. I thought he played extremely well, and one of the great plays in the game, and there were many, but, you know, Gabe Watson made one when he hit Ringer over on the sideline after we had great pursuit and missed a tackle, two guys missed him, which he will make anybody miss, and Watson came in and made a great stop. Prescott Burgess earlier -- I think earlier, they had run the ball around left end, and he was the right outside linebacker and he did a good job. And he just got a piece of the ball carrier's jersey, he slowed him down, and then our safety came up and missed the tackle. In the meantime, Prescott went to the ground. He was on the boundary and got up and got in on the tackle. And I think a lot of young players -- you know, one of the difficult things in coaching for some guys is to convince them how good they can be if they'll just practice as hard as they can and play as hard as they can because they don't know what you know sometimes. And Prescott, of course, moved from safety to linebacker, that's a different world. I mean that is a different world, and so he had a lot to learn. He had a lot of things to fight through because everything was new and yet he has fought through. And I think he is learning how to play from the snap of the football to when the whistle blows. And I know that's where Saturday I saw that play and I was delighted to see it because that's what a great player does. And I am not saying yet, that I am saying, if Saturday is any example the way he plays and will play, then he has a chance to be pretty good.

COACH CARR: Well, it depends. You know, that's one of the problems that Michigan State gives you. They're going to play a lot of different personnel packages. What that requires is if you don't substitute with them, you have mismatches. And when you have mismatches, they have ways in which they can find a mismatch. So when they get five wide receivers in the game, then you better have some guys in there that can cover.

COACH CARR: Alan Branch is really off to a great start. He is a very, very talented athlete. I will never forget turning the film on of one of Alan's high school games, and he was in the backfield. And once they gave him the ball, I think he ran 65 yards. But his mom and dad are here from the city of Detroit. And when I visited high school out there in Albuquerque, everybody in that school loved this kid. He played basketball. And you had a chance to meet him, you know, he is a great kid. And he is off to a wonderful start in terms of this season. I think he gets better every game. I think he's got a lot to learn, but certainly he made a significant contribution.

COACH CARR: Some day I think is a very good possibility.

COACH CARR: Well, I think, you know, one of the things that I am a proponent of that I wasn't a proponent of in the past is I think we need and I hope we will go to 45-second clock, and I think we need to really look at letting the clock run after first down, and marking and continue to run the clock if a guy goes out of bounds on a running play, because we play a significant more number of plays during a typical college game than the NFL does, and that creates more opportunities for injuries. It's a greater wear and tear on your players. And in my judgment, when you go to 12 games, one of the things that you need to do for the safety of the players is to cut back on the number of plays. There are a lot of people who will fight that I think in college. But in my own opinion, as we go forward here, that is something that I hope the rules committee will do. You know, there is so much tradition in college football as far as the rules that, you know, there is a very strong tendency to protect that tradition. But I think we're in an age where, first of all, regarding the ball goes out of bounds, in the old days, they only had one ball, so the guy had the ball. Now we got them throwing another ball in and they can spot it and get it going. So I just think there is, you know, some things that we need to do to protect the players. I think that's an important issue as we go forward here.

COACH CARR: I think they're both young players, and you know, there is -- you gain experience. It has been very difficult for us in practice this year. It's one of the toughest issues we have had to deal with from a practice standpoint. Because of our injuries, the situation in the offense line, we have been unable to do some of the things in practice that can help a young back or a young lineman, develop. And those are things that historically we have done, and as a result of that, we have had a lot of young players develop more rapidly than we're able to do when we don't practice in certain ways. But Kevin Grady is going to be an outstanding football player. I have a lot of confidence in Max Martin. But you know, it's hard to gain experience.

COACH CARR: Well, I don't think there is any question that -- I think they're trying to be consistent, but I think holding -- for example, in that game, you know, I don't know how many holding calls there were. I know there was only one. And I think, you know, in a game a lot of times there is two holding calls. I think now offense players feel they can get away with it and I think we need to do something because it's not just because of the kind of offenses that all these yards, all these points you know. I think we have made it more difficult to play defense. And Chris Chrysler was a great coach here at Michigan and important coach in the Rules Committee, you know. He always went to the philosophy that the rules first must protect the player and be fair to the player. And you know, I think we're in an era, where you could probably call a holding play on every play. I don't know the answer, but I do think defense players are at a disadvantage in college football today and I think that's an issue, something that we need to address.

COACH CARR: Well I think Maroney is a great back. I didn't mean a good one. He is got great speed. He's got great toughness. He's got great vision. He's got great size, 210 pounds. And when he gets free, as we learned a year ago, he can hit the home run. So Maroney is a great player. We're got a guy -- Glen always find guys that can run it, and he is committed to running it, and they do a great job with their offense line. And our challenge -- we were much better a year ago, but two years ago, we were on the ground most of game and if you are on the ground and he has the ball, then that score board is about to be lit up. So we have got to stay or our feet. If we get knocked down, we have got to get up. Because this game is hard ball of a different type than Wisconsin, Notre Dame. They're very, very effective offensively doing it.

COACH CARR: Well, I think it was frustration. I think he -- you know, one of the real lessons a leader has to learn, and we're all built differently emotionally, and after a football game, a guy is 21 years old and he is disappointed, then he is going to react emotionally. That's human nature. I have done that. I think I remember doing that once, but I learned from it. So I have never done it again. But I think Jason Avant is a great leader. And because he is so committed to his team, I don't think there is any kind of an issue because he said something that he doesn't. But I think we're dealing with college kids here and there is all kinds of opportunities to learn. That's what the game is all about. And when you are under the microscope like they are, there is going to be some lessons and some of them are difficult and some of them aren't and I don't think that's a particularly difficult one.

COACH CARR: Well, I don't there is any misunderstanding on our team that the Little Brown Jug is as important to Minnesota as it is to Michigan. You are talking about the oldest trophy in college football. It has meaning and you play hard for it. If you look at our last two games against Minnesota, two great football games that went right down to the last minute, so we don't expect anything different, but our biggest issue is let's improve. We did a lot of great things last Saturday, but there is a lot of things that we can do better. And the goal is to get better. If you are not improving, you are regressing, and we don't want to regress. So we got a lot of work to do.

COACH CARR: Well, no. You know, I think -- I just want to make it clear on that issue. I think the rule is very, very clear, and I don't know -- I know this, the guy in the box is an outstanding man, wonderful official when he works in the Big Ten Conference, and I am not sure what his thinking was and I am really not totally sure of what he saw. But I know from what I saw on the film, and I know what the rule is, and to me, it's clear. And I think the real issue is across the country now, as you know in terms of college football, we got to make sure that everybody understands the rule and from an officiating standpoint that the rule is enforced consistently. And I think one of the things is, when you get in a film, they got a tuck rule. Maybe we want to do that. Maybe the rules committee will want to consider that. But I think the most important thing is we can't have games being impacted across the country because it's being enforced different ways in different conferences. And certainly in the Big Ten Conference, I think we want to enforce the rule. I mean, there is -- the rule is not arbitrary. I mean the rule is clear.

COACH CARR: Well, Eslinger and Setterstrom. Eslinger has never been the biggest guy, but he is a great athlete. I think, you know, they are what they are. They're guys that are very athletic, and very, very quick. And their tightends are both experienced guys. So you know, the quicker a guy is, the tougher it is to protect your leg and you have to react quickly. I think that's the challenge that we have.

COACH CARR: I think you would have to ask -- well, I don't know. Glen I think was an offense lineman. Okay. Thanks.