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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 28, 2009

Rich Rodriguez

COACH RODRIGUEZ: We have a couple of special teams. We have Jon Conover with turf toe. He's questionable for this weekend. And Zac Johnson did have an AC sprain of the shoulder, and he'll be out for a few weeks and he was on special teams. Obviously, David Molk's still out. Other than that, we've got a few guys that are sore, but should be good to go by Saturday.

Q. When you say Tate is limited?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, on Monday it's limited practice anyway. We'll throw a handful of balls. But he maybe not throw as much today because his sore shoulder, excuse me, is his right shoulder. So he'll probably do some of the hand off and maybe some of the shorter throws, but probably won't do any deep throws today.

Q. He was hurt on that second play?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: You know, not sure if he landed on it or when he jumped in the end zone one time or if it was when he rolled you know around the same time. But, you know, he made, whatever it was, he made the last throw with it. But you could see after the game it was hurting for him a little bit. The trainers feel pretty confident he'll be fine in a couple of days.

Q. You don't have any choice, but is it better to go on the first road game and not in a big rivalry game like this or will it play into your favor?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I don't know. You probably rather with -- I don't know if any road game is comfortable. Maybe if you went to a state and it wasn't going to be packed and intense or something it would be easier to ease the young guys into it. But that's not the situation we're in.
You know, when you get in an environment like that whether you're home or on the road, you get those competitive juices flowing, I think. It's a very, very intense rivalry. I think both teams will be fired up.

Q. In your experience, how do young players typically react to their first road game?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Usually the first road game usually does create some communication problems that you don't see at home. But usually it's the first game, period, that I get more nervous about because they haven't been in the arena.
So the first road game the biggest challenges are the communication. The quarterbacks and the plays and adjustments. Even on defense, being able to communicate and with the crowd noise and keeping your poise. I think that's the other thing. When you're on the road and things aren't going well, adversity strikes because we know it's going to. It's to not to panic and keep your poise.
These guys have at least shown in the previous four games that they've kept their poise and the adversity low.

Q. Michigan State certainly is viewed as a big, strong physical team. Do you buy that there is a significant difference between the physicalness?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: No, not really. I've heard that quite a bit over on the last 15, 20 years about if you're a spread team, you're not as physical. And I think that being physical is a mentality and a state of mind with your players, not a system.
You know, if you run for 350 yards or 400 yards in the spread on offense, you have to be a little bit physical at some point. I think that part has probably played up too much. I don't think it's a solid play. But there's no question that this game, you know, the physicality of both teams is going to be put out there.
We've played pretty physical at times this year. But we're going to challenge our guys this week to be more physical. Not just because we're playing Michigan State, but because I think we can play more physical.
We have at times, but other times we watch the films and maybe we're thinking too much and our guys aren't being as physical at the point of attack or down field or what have you. And we've got to get that corrected. That's part of the corrections that - ironic you mentioned that - that we have to make from this past weekend.

Q. The quarterbacks and tailbacks ran almost as many times in terms of carries in that game. Is that because the tail backs were injured?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: For us?

Q. Yeah.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I think some of it was where the play calls were going. And we were, again, Brandon was a little banged up, and so was Carlos. But sometimes it's related to how they're playing. How we split it for carries a little bit.
Ideally we'd like for our running backs to have the vast majority of carries. And core action quarterback runs will be less than maybe five or six. But in our system, in our offense, it may be a situation where the quarterback has to keep it based on on how they're playing us.

Q. But he's not afraid to give us his body to make a touchdown first down. How do you manage that as a coach? Do you just let him do it?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, Tate, we've talked about that. Interestingly during camp, we said when we get into the games because in camp they weren't getting banged too much for obvious reasons. But once we get in the game, these guys are competitive. They like to run a little bit. But they've got to be smart as well.
When the big hit is inevitable, you don't have to take it. If you've already got the first down, you can take a quick step out of bounds or if you're down field and you've already got the first down, you can -- you know, there are ways to slide or get down. And we don't really teach them to slide because I've seen a lot of quarterbacks that get hurt sliding.
The first one way back when was Sean King. He was the worst slider there was. I think he almost hurt himself sliding. I said Sean, you can just roll or something.
But Tate's got the ability to do that. What he's done, I think is a good job of recognizing when we need a first down or a touchdown, for instance, he's went and got it. You know, they're not real big guys. He and Denard are going to get bigger over the years as they mature and develop and are in the weight program. But they're not the biggest guys.
So, hopefully, I don't want him taking too many big hits from the big guys. But if they're down field the hit should be by the smaller guy not the big guys.

Q. Coach has talked about biggest improvement from week one to week two. Might Moosman experience some of that?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, in some of the snaps there were some that were off, and Moos is such a conscientious guy, almost to the point he worries about it probably too much. But some of the snaps were probably catchable as well. They may have been a little off here and there.
You know, he gets spoiled when David was there, because every snap was almost just right. We'll work hard on that. There are a few technique things after watching the film, a few technique things that Coach Frey and we'll work with on David on snaps to help it be a little bit more consistent.
I would think the second game would be a little bit easier as we go forward. Even though he's played center for us in practice, it's the first time in a game. It's different in a game.

Q. Would it have been hard to put Rocko in, because then Moosman's got to switch back to right guard?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: A little bit. But David was playing pretty well, really. I mean, blocking-wise and making the calls was pretty good. Now a few snaps may paint a different picture. But outside of that, which I don't know how big -- I think we lost 70 yards on snap issues. You know, David played pretty well. So I was pretty proud of the way he battled and hung in there and did a nice job leading up front.
And I have confidence in Rocko. Rocko gets better every day. And Tim McAvoy is another guy that get snaps. Last week he could have played if we had to, but he hadn't gotten a lot of reps, but now he has so he'll be ready as well.

Q. When is David trying to beat -- when they jumped off sides was he trying to get a free play?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, one of them. One was to try to draw them off sides. I didn't realize that normally if you don't get them the first time, you're not going to get them the second time. But it was close. But the guy, he may have been back, couldn't really tell until it was very, very close. But it was.
The communication between Tate and David wasn't there because Tate had turned his eyes when David snapped it. So, it looks like it's Moos's fault, when in reality it was a collaborative effort.

Q. Is it looking like it's going to be four weeks, six weeks, don't know yet?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Talking to David, it's closer to four. But you can't predict. The surgery went very, very well. They have a pin in place. He's got a neat thing called a bone stimulater that you put on for hours at a time, and it accelerates the healing process, so David is using that every chance he can.
He said it doesn't hurt at all, which, obviously, that's part of the deal. But when he'll be back I'm sure they'll probably X-ray it again maybe next week sometime and see where it goes from there.
But I know David, knowing him he has a great pain tolerance and he'll be out as soon as he can. But we're not going to put him out there with any risk of further injury.

Q. What was he doing so well?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: David?

Q. Yeah.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, you know, not only from the communication standpoint, and you know, the center sets everything up for us up front, but technique-wise he's continued to get it. The end of last year he was probably playing as well as any lineman we had. It was his first year playing as a red-shirt freshman. He had picked up the same way in this game. As I mentioned he was the player of the game in his last game.
Just technique-wise, and recognizing, and his foot work, it all starts up front with him. We just think that as a red shirt sophomore he's playing as well as we could have hoped.

Q. Is it more on the defense?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: You know, after the game I think I was almost boy I'm going to watch this film and probably not be real happy at times, you know, in all three phases. And I thought the same thing.
But after watching the film and evaluating the defense, we did have moments where we played pretty well. But what we gave up was a couple of big plays. And some of the other plays that we gave up, there were a few missed assignments, mental errors.
I think maybe there were points during certain drives where our guys were thinking so much that they weren't reacting quick enough, and weren't playing as aggressively as we need to. So they're all correctable errors. And the defensive staff is right on top of it.
One thing about it, like for our guys defensively as I mentioned, they take everything to heart. They'll look and try to get better with it. We have to play a lot better. I mean, Michigan State is very talented offensively. And going to present some issues of the so a lot of the things that we have to fix, and problems that we have to fix defensively, we'll work hard on that this week.

Q. How far away are you?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: How far? I don't know. Some of it is experience. Some of it, you know, we're not -- the lineup as you see and again, I apologize because it may change here by the end of the week. But we're going to challenge a few guys defensively and get some other guys some reps and try to get the best. See who is playing the best, the best 11.
We've always done that trying to make our practices and our performance competitive. That way if they're not performing as well as they can or somebody else is pushing them, then they get the reps. We've got to do that.

Q. Specifically the cornerback?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Oh, corner is one of them. You know, Donovan's been playing very, very well, but the other corner position is wide open. It's wide open during this week. So I couldn't tell you who is going to start the other corner until Saturday.

Q. Those two guys --
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, the young guy, J.T. Turner is a true freshman, so it's a little harder for him. But J.T. gets better every week. So he gives us a chance there as well. So it's going to be a competitive situation, and I think it needs to be.

Q. It seems like your team defensively has given up big plays. Is it the same thing?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: No, that's the thing that's perplexing. Some of it -- the one big run is we missed the lines. They made a call and got it cross-waved. And there was one that was a big pass that was just poor technique .
So we as coaches got to do our job and try to find something, find things that we can really execute well. Coach Robinson and the defensive staff know what we have to do to help our guys in that regard. And it's not always the same thing. Some of the big plays were pass interference, penalties, some of that was technique oriented as well. Things we can hopefully fix.

Q. If you look at Michigan State's defense, they've gotten off to a rough start.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: First off, they've played some pretty talented offense. We know about Notre Dame. I know quite a bit about central Michigan because we know their staff and what they do. So they've played some very talented. And there have been a few big plays that hurt them as well.
It seemed like they played great defense and made a few stops in a row, and all of a sudden, one big play gets them. They're very aggressive defensively. They'll challenge you. The corners get in your face and make you execute. They don't give you anything easy. So it poses a different challenge than we've had in some of the other games this year.

Q. When you were a player, did you guys play against Marshall? Did you have any in-state games?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: No, I coached -- that rivalry began three or four years into my tenure at West Virginia, and it's building. It's not the same scope nationally as our games here. Our rival games here are. But we didn't have our rivalries back then were West Virginia was Pitt, and a little bit with Penn State.

Q. Was it intense?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, it was very intense because there was a lot of build up. They had not played on a regular basis, so I couldn't speak to the intensity of it now, but the first couple of years that we played with Marshall because of the in-state and there was some intensity.
Some of it is made about the players. But a lot of our players know their players and vice versa. But more than anything it's the fans. You live with the ramifications for 364, 365 days of the year, and you hear about it quite a bit.
I've always said our uniqueness here with our three biggest rivalries are Notre Dame in certain factions of the country. That's the big rivalry. Ohio State, there is no question about how big that one is. And then in-state for a lot of our folks, this is the biggest game, the Michigan State game.
So we're unique in that we have those three huge rivalries. But this one is very passionate, and it should be. It's a great rivalry. Unfortunately, we didn't play well last year and they won and got the trophy. We got to try to play better this year.

Q. What did you learn about the rivalry last year?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, really I didn't learn what I thought going in was what it was. Very intense. A lot of emotion. You know, I think I didn't go into it blindly thinking this is going to be a normal game. It's not. It's not a normal game. It's just like Ohio State is not a normal game, and Notre Dame's not a normal game. Those are different.
We like to have all -- we try to preach the importance of the Big Ten games in particular how intense they are. Because some other schools in the Big Ten if you ask them they might tell you their biggest game is against Michigan in a lot of respects, even though it's not a traditional rivalry.
But Michigan State is very, very passionate. It is for our players and I'm sure it is for them.

Q. Going back to Tate for one second. I imagine he's not much of a complainer. Has he let on?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: No, he's a tough guy. But he'll tell you, too. Tate will have a little drama once in a while and tell you what's going on. But he loves to compete, and he loves to play.
Even though there were moments in the game where he looked like a freshman, Tate when it was crunch time, he was pretty focused. He'll do all he can to get ready.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, and again, not just with Denard, but some of those other young guys. We want to get to the point where we feel confident that we can put them in at any time with any play. But there is so much to learn. Particularly with a true freshman that's only been here for four ballgames and a camp. It's a little more difficult.
But Denard every week, he gets a little more comfortability with our offense and some of the things he's doing. He's going to do more this week as well.
Depending on how the game goes, we'll put him out there. Not just to run, but to throw and run.

Q. What do you think of the lineup watching the tape?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: It's pretty solid. I don't think we graded out poorly. We didn't grade out our highest. But I thought Mark Huyge was pretty comfortable at guard. And Perry Dorrestein did some nice things as well at tackle. We've got to get more depth.
We've been fortunate so far there's only been just David so far, but as these games get into -- we get into the Big Ten schedule and these physical games back-to-back to back and all that, we're going to need more guys ready.

Q. How have you managed with having such high hopes?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I don't want to speak for them, but I think in regards to what happened in the last three or four weeks this game's going to have the same type of intensity. Everybody says that. In rivalry games you throw out the record. Sometimes that sounds cliche, but it's really true.
The intensity of this one, Michigan-Michigan State puts everything else aside. So we're not -- our routine usually stays pretty normal anyway during the week. But they may not have told you, but we're closing ranks a little bit more this week, too. So there's no Wednesday for y'all at practice, sorry.

Q. Why are you closing ranks?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Just because -- not that I don't trust anybody out there, but we're so close to each other and, you know, being coaches, being paranoid, I guess. We just, hey, it's just us now. No, you know, you never know who is going to be people standing on the bridge trying to watch practice. I trust you all as well. But there might be someone that snuck in there from Lansing. You know, I don't know.
I want our guys to understand how much focus really has to go into this ballgame. Again, I don't think I have to do that particularly for our older guys. But our younger guys need to understand it is a little different. It is a little different.

Q. Are you going to send somebody up to the bridge to make sure nobody's loitering up there?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: We usually have Scott Draper or one of the administrators looking around. Usually I'm not that paranoid. And I'm not really that paranoid this week. But, again, the intensity of the rivalry and to get our guys understanding the importance, we kind of closed a little bit more this week.

Q. Will you do more with noise in practice?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, we do it every day anyway. But it's a friendly noise at home. So we'll do quite a bit this week with crowd noise, and particularly with the offense, and the young quarterbacks and communication.
Again, I hope there are no problems, and we'll work like crazy this week so there's not. But I'm sure it's going to be very, very loud. And we've got to get these young guys ready for that.

Q. Can you talk about Tate in the first game?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, the first game he just wasn't vocal enough. When you're really, really confident and there's everything going on on, you're louder. When you're not, even though you think you're being loud, you're not. So he's worked really hard at practice to do it. But this week is even more critical. You almost have to shout sometimes your communication offensively.

Q. Do you have a back-up just in case the cadence isn't working?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: We can go into silent cadence which we've done many times. We have not had to do it much in practice or in games this year. But we go both ways with it. We can go silent. We can do the quarterback. We have a few different ways we can do things.

Q. There was a lot of negativity around the program?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: There was?

Q. How much different is it coming into the offensive state?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: It hasn't been different at all. It hasn't been different for nine months. I've said that many times. It it's been a joy to come in ask work with the guys, the coaches, the staff members and players.
But I don't know if it makes you sleep any better, because you don't sleep very much during the season as coaches. But it's certainly given a little bit of confidence for our young guys and our players.
That's who I'm happy for. I'm happy for our fans if you've been out here the last four Saturdays, it's been tremendous. They've given 100-some thousand every weekend. It's been absolutely tremendous. The support they've given our team and given our confidence to our young guys, it helps.
But we've enjoyed them for 24 hours after the game, then we move to the next thing. But we've made progress, but we're still a work in progress, if that makes sense.

Q. You probably don't have a lot of time during the season, but did anybody point out to you the ad? Is?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I have not read it. I heard there was one. I'm awful grateful for the support from the fans. Again, they're people that have stood behind our program. There's been a tremendous amount of people that stand behind our program. Not just the last four weeks and not just because we've won a few ballgames. But really I've been here for almost two years, not quite two years yet, and a lot of those folks have been very, very loyal.
And I don't necessarily say they've been loyal to Rich Rodriguez, they've been loyal to the University of Michigan and the football program and what to do well and succeed. And that to me is what it's all about. You know, standing behind each other. That's all in principal. That's when we first talked about what is all in, that's what I'm talking about.
It's the support we have whether it's alumni or fans or former players, people that follow our program. They're all in for the best interest of our football program going forward. I'm just happy to be one of the guys that's working with them.

Q. Both Polls had a lot of upsets over the last couple of weeks. Do you have any theory on on that?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Again, this early, probably the first week in October would be a good time to have a first true poll. But I'm not surprised. You'll see a whole lot more. People referred to it a few weeks ago that there were a lot of upsets. Are they really upsets? I think you have to wait until the end of the year and say, boy, what we thought in September was an upset, was not an upset. It was probably what was supposed to happen.
But there are good players everywhere. You're going to see more and more every weekend. Particularly now when you get into league play. It's going to be competitive. It's going to be hard for a team to go through a season not just with zero losses, but with one loss. I think that trend is going to continue in college football, in particular because of recruiting and exposure.
It used to be just a handful of teams got on TV every week. Now you're seeing teams from all different conferences getting on TV all days of the week. They get exposure. Nearly everybody's made a commitment facility-wise and financially to their football programs.
So the wealth has been spread, so to speak. And it's -- I'm not saying that's necessarily bad. It's made everything more and more competitive each and every week.

Q. Michigan hasn't lost to Michigan State in back-to-back years forever. Do you use that?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: No. No. Because our guys and this staff, the only ones we're involved with in the staff was last year. Of and even last year was last year.
You know, the revenge factor is not something that I don't think many coaches use.
Players may say, yeah, we owe these guys and all that kind of stuff. They won the game fair and square last year. And we're going to try to win it this year. But I don't ever look back and say oh, this happened 20, 30, 40 years ago, it's really not relevant to this year. Every year is a new year.

Q. What is your relationship like with Mike?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I've known Coach Dantonio again, back in his days when he was at Cincinnati we played against each other. When I was at West Virginia we had a few games against each other. And we've seen each other around on, you know, some coaching circuits and a few functions here and there.
You know, they've done a nice job. He's a good football coach, and they've got a good football team.

Q. Are you friendly with him?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I try to be friendly with everybody. I'm a nice guy. No, I really I've got a lot of -- I'm closer with some other coaches. I mean, we don't share tea and crumpets. Is that right? Crumpets? Crumpets, it's like a little donut kind of thing.
Help me out here, Angelique. Yeah, we don't trade text messages every day or anything like that. But we're friendly. His wife knows my wife, again, from the days that we were doing things in the Big East together and in the Big Ten meetings.
I have other coaches that I talk to or communicate about weekly with. But, yeah, we're friendly.

Q. Do you think it's overblown the publicity that recruiting gets Michigan-Michigan State?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: We do. It's not always the same. I think sometimes that is a little bit overblown, Larry, in regards that they want to compare this guy. They want this guy or they've got him, and you've got him. And really you have to look at what their needs and wants are. And sometimes they're different. They may want this particular guy to fit their system, as we want a different particular guy to fit our system.
So sometimes we do compete for the same guy. But sometimes we don't. And just because they get a guy from here doesn't mean that we wanted them or that he fits what we do, and I'm sure they're the same way.
So we do compete against Ohio State and some others for recruits, it's very, very competitive. But there's never, to my knowledge -- again, that's talking to assistant coaches -- there's not a lot of negative recruiting that's involved in the two schools. At least there shouldn't be, and I don't think there is.
Now there are some other schools with more negative recruiting. But I have not sensed that with Michigan State or Ohio State or the other ones.

Q. Negative recruiting, you mean bashing?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, and I tell our guys that's not what we want to get into. You need to sell your own program. The good things about your university. You shouldn't have to resort to saying something bad about the other program or the other school. I think that backfires on you anyway.
I think we've got enough great things that we can sell in our program. I'm sure they'll tell you the same thing.

Q. Are you preparing for the different quarterback or the offense does the same?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Because they do more spread with one quarterback than the other, I think you have to be prepared for that. But I think you have to be prepared for the package as posed to the quarterback in particular. But knowing that because both quarterbacks will do both, you're not sure. But I think you do have to prepare for both packages because they have some spread principles that they'll run.

Q. Looking back, are you surprised, I guess overall this year at how far your offense has come?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: In some regards after lots of film on this, because for instance we lost last year's Michigan State game when we were prepping for them. So after you watch that you think, Geez, we're a little further ahead there. That's to be expected.
As I mentioned, we're scoring a few more points and getting a few more first downs. But it's not -- I guess there's also moments where like, Geez, I can't wait until we get this fixed. So we're not nearly where we're going to be. But there's no question the execution has been a little bit crisper. And it's been simply that the guys have made some plays. We've been very fortunate. In key times in late ballgames we've had some guys make some outstanding plays, and that's been the big difference.

Q. Can you talk about Kevin Graves and how he's playing at fullback?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, Kevin's played really well. He's a guy we're really rooting for. He's overcome some adversity. He's very, very unselfish. He's one of those guys that, Coach, just tell me what you want me to do? And we say we want you to rolling out and be a fullback, and help with that. And maybe some tailback, and do some special teams.
He's doing an outstanding job of that. He's blocking well, and he's caught a couple of big passes in the last ballgame. He's ready to run it, too. He's a pretty talented guy.
More than anything, he's really provided with our small handful of seniors, he's really provided some outstanding leadership. I think the guys respect what he's been through. He's been there for a while. He's one of the old men of the group. He's got a lot of leadership qualities going.

Q. Can you (Indiscernible)?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: No, we kept the same routine. Again, I've not seen our guys because we have Sundays off now and we practice Mondays. Our practice schedule will pretty much stay the same.
Now as we go and the season goes along, they'll get a little shorter. Practice will be a little shorter. We'll try to keep them fresh for Saturday. But other than just kind of I don't want to say closing the ranks, but kind of getting them focused outside their school work this week, you know, they really need to concentrate on their assignments.
But I don't think that's going to be a tough sell for me because they understand how intense this rivalry is.

Q. There are some rivalry games whatever, Ohio State, and back in West Virginia, people pulling fire alarms in the hotels?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Oh, I've heard that. I've heard some things. I don't want to divulge all the things. We had Pitt, we questioned some things in the rivalry games like as you mentioned. Some things like that.
But nowadays, it's a little bit when you go on a road trip or something, you've got a lot more security. You have a lot more I guess than the older days when it wasn't quite as transparent.
But you worry about during the week our players. Making sure that they're closing ranks and staying focused, you know, not letting people bother them.
That's why I worry about cell phones getting out there, and they're calling guys all hours of the night. I remind them. Listen, you've got your studies, you've got football. You need to get to bed early. Not let these distractions because there are some crazy fans that will do anything to try to help their team win the game.

Q. One story was somebody tries to get you off your game?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I don't remember. I know there were times where I've had quarterbacks in the past that in a rivalry game that -- I don't want to say they got harassed. But they had a long week. At the had to completely shut off their phone and stay at a different apartment just so they could get some rest during the week.

Q. Stay in different apartments?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Oh, yeah, people find out where they live. I don't expect any kind of crazy stuff this week. I don't want to give anybody any ideas, either. So we better cut this off.

Q. Are you relishing closing ranks and shutting practice?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, a little bit. As a coach you just get into a routine. I think our players want the same routine. I don't want to make it seem that anything's a whole lot different. We're going to have almost the same practice schedule and the same routine. So they're not thinking what are we doing at practice today. They're thinking what is our assignment this week as opposed to last week?
So we're not changing the whole thing. We're just trying to narrow the focus a little bit more. As much as we can. We try to do that anyway, but this week in particular.

Q. You said the team that loses the rivalry lives with it all year. Is there anything that came up in the last year?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, you hear a little grief. But we've heard a little bit of grief about everything. That was just that line goes across the street, too. So it wasn't like it was something unique or singled out. But it wasn't something that was unexpected. We lost the in-state rival, and that wasn't fun. So hopefully you don't have to do that too many times.

Q. And the fans?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, hey, Coach, we're going to beat Michigan State this year? We hope.

Q. Have you ever been there?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Been by it. I drove by it several times.

End of FastScripts

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