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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 3, 2010

Rich Rodriguez

COACH RODRIGUEZ: You have to excuse my voice. I have a little bit of a cold. I've been on the phone quite a bit the last couple of weeks. We'll get through this.
I'm very excited, as probably every coach in America is today, with the new members of their football programs. I thought our staff did an outstanding job in developing relationships and signing some guys that will be great fits for our program and can -- I think we can help them have great years both on and off the field. What I'll do is briefly, because of redundancy and you guys can all read, I'll just talk about all the guys briefly and let you know who probably the primary recruiter was on the staff.
If you want to talk to them a little bit about that afterwards, I'm a little bit reluctant, like most coaches are. Everybody wants to rank a certain recruiting class or kind of put a stigma or something on guys coming in. Really, it sounds like coach-speak, but you really need to wait a couple of years and then determine how good the class is. I've had recruiting classes before that weren't ranked anywhere in the top five or 30, and they wind up leading the team to the top five ranking in the country and winning the BCS bowl. So I think you have to be careful about all that.
Obviously, if we signed them, we think they're a great fit here for our football program and for our university. We're excited to have them.
There's a lot of people I need to thank. Our football staff, both the coaches and our administrators. The administration at the school, who did a tremendous job from the academic center to the admissions to everybody that talked to our young men when they visited on campus. The people in the community -- it makes a big difference when -- we always feel if we get a young man on campus, we have a great shot to get him, not only because of our facilities and those things, but also because the people they interact with. Whether they stop at a store to buy something or whether they're at the hotel or at a gas station or restaurant, you know, the people here are, you know, are extremely friendly. That really helps.
You know, the whole deal on most recruits, a lot of times they make a decision on where they feel comfortable with. And not just with the coaches, which is a big deal, but also in the community. And this is a great community to feel comfortable with. So the people that are actually involved with our recruiting and the fans in general, when they see them in a basketball game or something, really helps. So that was all good.
The guys first off on the roll here in this semester. I believe there were seven. Devin Gardner. Devin got in a few days late. So he is -- only just doing academics to get caught up, which is now. He'll be participating in workouts probably starting today or tomorrow. He's a big, strong guy. A guy we think can have a lot of success in our type of system. And he's very eager to learn. Very, very competitive. Has had camp and watched him play. He's a guy that's extremely competitive and obviously has a lot of skills. So we're excited to have him. He's a great addition.
A lot of people say you have two young freshman quarterbacks. Why would you go after another one? Why would another one want to come? We want guys that want competition. And certainly we were going to try to foster that. We want to have guys in every position that are competing for playing time. And when you have guys that -- quality guys at every position doing that, your level of play is going to increase.
Devin is going to get some competition to those other guys in quarterback. He's already enrolled. Tony Dews and Rod Smith were the recruiters. Rod coaches quarterbacks -- were heavily involved. Those two guys were primarily.
Stephen Hopkins, Fred Jackson, position coach. Big back out of Texas. Big skills. We like to have in our offense. We can play two tail backs at a time. A lot of times we like to have one big back in there in certain situations. We think Stephen fits that bill. He has enrolled already and has been working hard. I think he's going to fill an immediate need for us.
The next guy Jeremy Jackson, familiar name. Primary recruiter was Fred Jackson. No surprise there. And I would like to say that was the easiest commitment we got. You still have to recruit him. I told Jeremy this back then. We're not recruiting you just because, you know, your dad coaches with us. That helps because we know what kind of character you have, what kind of family you come from. But he stands on his own merits. He's a good football player. Very good football player. Very hard worker. And I think he's a great fit for our offense.
You know we needed some big, strong receivers and guys that will go get the ball and can make plays down-field. And Jeremy fit that bill. And he won't be coached by Fred. But I think he will at times as well. I think he's -- he's been part of the Michigan family for a long, long time. So he knows this place. But he's helped us recruit some other guys. I think Jeremy is going to have a great career here. Ricardo Miller is another big receiver. Originally from -- spent most of his high school career in Florida in the Orlando area, then moved up here a year ago with his family and played over here at Pioneer High School and had a good year. He's a good, strong, physical guy. Kind of like Jeremy. Kind of gives -- he has a great personality. You guys have met him. Always has a smile on his face. He's very eager to learn.
Again, he's kind of like Jeremy and Devin and the rest of the guys. Very, very competitive. And so he's going to have an opportunity to help us at that position to win.
One offensive linemen last year -- the last couple of years we've taken a few more linemen. This year we didn't have as much a need for a linemen. We would have took maybe another one, but we were very excited about Christian Pace. He enrolled early. We have a need at center and guard. Christian is a very athletic tough individual. Good student. And played in a great high school program in Avon Lake in Ohio.
Backing up to Ricardo, Rod Smith recruits Florida. Secondary area was his main recruiter. Christian Pace was Coach Tall. We signed several guys out of Ohio. Christian will be playing both center for us first and then learning the guard position as well. And of course he's enrolled early.
Jerald Robinson, another young man enrolled early. Another big receiver. Coach Tall recruited him out of Canton. One of the first commitments we got. I really liked him after his junior film. He had a great senior year as well. Another big, strong physical guy that can probably play safety as well. We think Jerald is like Ricardo, and Jeremy is going to have a chance to help us. Particularly because he enrolled early, learned the system in spring ball. He has great ball skills. Good athlete. He's an outstanding athlete. Jerald is here as well.
The last guy that enrolled early, Austin White, another local guy. Most of you who follow high school sports in the state of Michigan have known about him for several years. He's had an outstanding high school career. Comes from a great family. Another guy that we had in camp. We liked Austin, his ability. He, like the rest of them, the thing that stood out probably to me is watching him in camp, how he wanted to take every rep. He takes a rep at running back. You put him in slot receiver, he wants to take a rep there. He's always jumping in front of the line; always wanting to prove himself. That type of attitude is kind of contagious. So Austin is very -- I'm very excited that he's here. Coach Smith, Rod Smith was the primary recruiter on him.
Austin, being local, was able to come over here quite a bit. So we established a good relationship with him. We're excited about him. I think he has all the kind of skill sets that we need in our running back position.
Okay, the next group signed a letter of intent today. Obviously you all know -- we try to meet your needs first. You never want to turn down a great player at any position, either side of the ball. But you certainly got to go with the focus on your needs. What are your needs? Where are you lacking numbers at? And our defense last year, I think, had less than 25 scholarship players when -- normally the breakdown is somewhere between 38 and 40 scholarship players. So our numbers were way down.
We knew going in it was going to take us a couple of years to get caught up. And so we won't get caught up totally balance-wise, numbers-wise, scholarship-wise this year. But we will in another year. Again, this is really our second full recruiting class. Our needs were certainly need to be met on defense. And both on the front lines and the linebacker and certainly on the secondary.
Richard Ash -- and he starts up front, was one of those guys we felt was critical for us in the recruiting process. Rod Smith did a great job of recruiting him. Big defensive tackle from Pahokee. Obviously we have a few guys from Pahokee that helped show him around when he was up here. He had a relationship. I think he felt comfortable from the start. And we still had to battle with him. Even though we felt good about it, we still had to battle with him all the way up through this morning to make sure big Richard signed. He's athletic enough to probably play defensive end. Big enough to be a defensive tackle. And he played in an outstanding high school program. We're very excited to have big Richard up here as well.
Next guy, Courtney Avery. Bruce Tall was the primary recruiter with Courtney. He's a defensive back. Athlete out of Mansfield, Ohio. Outstanding high school career. Played quarterback on offense, cornerback on defense. Was a 1,000- point scorer in basketball. An outstanding student. Just a great young man. We kind of noticed him -- Coach Tall noticed him about a year or so ago. We -- again, another guy that we kind of tracked. He jumped in the fold early. And had an even better senior year. We're going to try him at corner first. He's a good enough athlete to help us at several positions. Again, he was an outstanding basketball player, and I'm excited to have Courtney on the fold.
The next guy was -- if you followed the recruiting trail, was probably new in the last several weeks. He was on our radar since a year ago, was Jibreel Black. A defensive linemen from Wyoming, Ohio. Coach Tall took over the recruiting on him. In the last several weeks he did an outstanding job. Jibreel has a brother, Larry, that plays at Indiana. I believe he's a starting defensive linemen for them. An outstanding player. Jibreel is a guy that we noticed early on, was one of the top guys we had on our board at defensive line. And very, very explosive. Can play end and can play tackle. Got a great motor. And we're very excited to have Jibreel in our program.
The next guy is Cullen Christian. Goes by the nickname of "Buck." Tony Gibson recruited him. He can probably tell you why they call him "Buck." I'm not sure why. Probably heard the story. Cullen is a defensive back. Again in a position of need. Got long arms, a very good athlete. Very coachable. We've seen him -- I've been tracking him really for a couple of years now. Played in an outstanding high school program, and we've watched him quite a bit. Very excited about Cullen.
He and all these guys, you know, we don't ever promise a guy to start. I think most coaches don't do that. But what we promised and guarantee him is opportunity. We tell guys we're not going to recruit guys to be backups. We're going to recruit guys to compete to play. How soon they play will be dependent on how ready they are physically and mentally and how soon we can get them ready. But all these guys are coming in -- some know that certain positions are because of their height and weight and strength, they may have a little work to do. All these guys are going to have a chance to compete. I'm excited particularly about those guys in the secondary. Cullen is one that will have that chance.
Next guy, Drew Dileo. The lead recruiter on him was Fred Jackson. Going down into his old homeland in Louisiana. Drew played for an outstanding high school program. Played slot receiver. Played all kinds of returns, kickoffs and punts. Was an outstanding athlete. Again, a guy committed to us for a while, but had another great senior year, which is kind of nice to see when you have guys who are committed or guys that you know are very interested in you and they come out in the senior year and play even better.
That's what we tell them. Sometimes I worry about guys that feel they don't have to prove themselves. You always want your guys to try to prove themselves every day. And Drew certainly proved himself this year. He had a great senior year. He'll play slot receiver for us in addition to returning punts and returning kicks. Calvin McGee was the lead recruiter.
Demar Dorsey. For the last few weeks he was committed to another school. But with some coaching changes and all that, he opened up his recruitment. He came up for a visit. Calvin Magee was the lead recruiter, Denard was the second lead recruiter. Denard looks like he's going to have a future in recruiting for sure. He's a great recruiter. Denard keeps telling us he's 100% on guys he hosts for recruiting visits. I think he may be right.
Demar is a very athletic guy. Very fast. Has indicated he may run track as well. So it will be good news for our track program. A fast guy. He can play corner and safety. We'll probably start him at corner first, eventually teach him the back end stuff as well. Also returns kicks. Runs very well. And we're excited about Demar.
Josh Furman is an athlete. Tony Dews is the lead recruiter on him. He had a great year running the football. We're looking at him to play defense because of our needs. He'll probably play a safety position. Outside linebacker, safety position. He's a big guy that can run. Again, he led his team to the state championship game. Had all kinds of yards. I think he had 400 some yards in one game. A great young man. I'm excited to have Josh here.
Next guy -- with the graduation of Zoltan Mesko, one of the best punters in our history, he'll be sorely missed -- we had a big need for a punter. Will Hagerup is going to fit that need. We thought he was the best that we saw on film. And he's a big guy. Very athletic. I think he's going to be a guy that -- we're going to have competition. Will understands it. I told him we didn't sign him to come here and red shirt. He's going to come here and try to compete for the job right away. He's one of those guys, like specialists are, that works on his craft about every day.
Every time I call him, he just came from a workout or he's getting ready to go do the workout, or something like that. Bruce Tall was the lead recruiter on Will. We're excited for Will. He certainly fills a positional need for us.
Carvin Johnson, the safety -- going back to Louisiana, Fred Jackson is the recruiter out of there. With his high school coach, he has known Fred and myself and Calvin Magee for many years. Used to coach down there in Louisiana a few years ago. He called us and said, "I got a guy that may be under the radar" -- this is a year ago -- "that I think can play for you. You may want to take a look at him." We looked at him. We liked him. He had an even better senior year. Fred did a nice job of recruiting him. Suddenly a lot of other people started recruiting him too.
Carvin, again, led his team to the state playoffs. Got great ball skills, very intelligent, tough, physical guy. And he fills a big need for us at safety. We're very excited about Carvin Johnson.
Cornelius Jones. Nickname is "Trail." I think it's short for his middle name. He's got a middle name something Trail. Tony Gibson was the lead recruiter on him. Tony Trail is a quarterback. Spartanburg, South Carolina. Another guy we noticed a couple of years ago. We've been tracking him. Had a great senior year. Can throw the football, can run. At the quarterback position. As we know what happened a couple of years ago, you can't have too many quarterbacks. We have to have quarterbacks competing.
He'll compete there first. If it looks like he can help us at another position, he's willing to do that. We may move him, whether it's receiver or somewhere else. Trail Jones is a big athlete. Tony Gibson did a nice job recruiting him. We're excited about having him in the fold.
The next guy, let me see if my sheet is the same way as yours. Tony Kinard is a linebacker from the same school we have Isaiah Bell, who you saw already on the team. Coached by Jeff Whittaker. Big tall linebacker. Another good athlete that has a great future ahead of him. Tony -- we call him TK -- he has a little work to do academically. He has a chance. He has a little work to do. If he doesn't do it, we're going to help place him in a prep school and hope to get him back. Prep school or junior college.
From a great high school program at Ike bell, he played at. Another good athlete. Tony Gibson was the lead recruiter there.
Next guy, Jordan Paskorz. Tony Gibson was the lead recruiter out of Western Pennsylvania. Hampton High School. Big defensive end. 6'3" 235. Probably close to 245. Has a brother who plays at Notre Dame. I actually met the family because we recruited Steve a few years ago when I was at West Virginia. Didn't get him. But they got Jordan. So we were 1 for 2 with that. He's a guy that's probably going to wind up being 255, 260 pounds. Got a big motor. Got a great high school career. We're very excited about Jordan, again, to fit in the positional need. We are replacing one of the best -- I think one of the best football players in the country in Brandon Graham, which, by the way, you all saw. Congratulations to Brandon on his MVP in the Senior Bowl. Saw him the day after, two days after, down in the weight room with his big smile, giving everybody a bear hug. I'm so proud of him.
When you lose Brandon, you can't replace Brandon with one guy. Hopefully we replace him with several. Jordan is going to be one of those guys who has a chance.
Next guy, Marvin Robinson. Lead recruiter was Rod Smith. He's a safety. Committed to us for a while. Winter Haven, Florida. He's friends with Ricardo Miller, who, by the way, Ricardo -- Denard was one of the best recruiters on campus; Ricardo was one of the best in the class. He did a great job. I guess he called them quite a bit and wanted these guys to be a teammate. Marvin was one of them. Marvin is a very athletic safety. Runs well. He has great size. And he played in the Lake Region High School down there in Florida.
Okay. The next guy, Davion Rogers. Another guy from Warren Harding High School. A high school probably very familiar for you guys. Prescott Burgess, Pearl Digs, Alphie, who was on the staff there. Michigan man helped us with Davion and other guys at his school. He's a big, tall linebacker. We think he's a guy that's probably going to wind up being 235 pounds, eventually. An outstanding senior year at the high school. They all speak lovingly of him, his work ethic. Big, tall athletic guy. We're trying to get a little bigger athletically. He fits that mode.
Jake Ryan, linebacker on the Cleveland Ignatius High School. Bruce Tall was the lead recruiter. Bruce is a Cleveland native. Recruited Jake. Jake has a brother that plays at Bowling Green, I think. Receiver. Played at a great high school program at St. Ignatius for Chuck Kyle, a legendary coach. Everybody probably who knows the state of Ohio, you know who Chuck Kyle is. Great high school program. Jake we thought had a great senior year. He was one of those guys that -- I always tell the coaches there's so much recruiting goes on now. But you have to save some spots for guys that kind of have a great senior year. You don't want to give all your scholarships out, and all of a sudden you don't have a guy that grows two or three inches and gains pounds and has a great senior year. That's Jake Ryan.
He grew, talking to his family, grew two or three inches in one year. Gained about 25, 30 pounds in the senior year. Became a middle linebacker, and was all over the field. Became one of the most -- I think one of the best players in the State of Ohio. Certainly one of the best linebackers. A year ago, not many people knew Jake Ryan. Coach Tall did a good job of staying on him, following his progress. We're excited about having Jake on the program.
The brothers are next. Terrence and Terry. Terrence is a corner. Terry is the defensive linemen. Obviously, Terry grabbed the food before Terrence did at the meal table, because there's certainly a difference in size. Both of these young men again, Bruce Tall recruited them. Lead recruiter last several weeks with them. But we were sold on them after we watched them on film and they came to camp. That's why camp is so valuable for us. You get to know the kids and they get to know us. Not only as coaches, but as people, because you get a lot of interaction at camps one-on-one with them.
So Terrence and Terry came up to camp last year. They worked out, they did drills. We got to sit around and be with them a little bit and get to know them. And it was really neat. And they were eager to show themselves. A lot of times you take a guy like Terry, that has a lot of offers, sometimes kids don't want to go and work out because their coaches or somebody will tell them don't go work out. You already have your scholarship offer. Not these two. They played at a great high school program. Jay Minton I've known for several years. A West Virginia native. He loves to have his kids compete. So his kids, Terry and Terrence, came up and they got a chance to get to know everybody and see our beautiful place. So they committed. So we're excited about them. Terry will play cornerback, and then Terry can play both tackle and D end.
The next guy fits probably in the mode of Jake Ryan. Ray Vinopal, a safety from Youngstown, Ohio. Cardinal Mooney. Another great high school program. Ray had not just a great senior year; he had a great high school career. He was probably the leader on their team and just fits everything you want in a football player. He's smart, he's tough. He was a team leader. And he did anything and everything for that football team. He also was a running back. And very excited about ray. Probably was under the radar a little bit.
Again, that's where -- I hope people don't get too hung up in stars. I don't know what Ray's star rating was. Ray Vinopal I think is -- you know, valuable a recruit as anybody we have, because of what we've seen and what we think he's going to bring to the table. And I'm very excited about Ray. He's a guy, again, that kind of came out of nowhere in some people's minds, but not in ours. Tony Gibson did an outstanding job of reciting Ray.
Kenny Wilkins is another defensive end. Athletic enough to play outside linebacker. 6'3," 240. Played at Trinity High School. Their coach, Ed Dalton, a great coach does an outstanding job. We know guys who play for coach Dalton are going to be tough, physical football players. He has a big motor. Kenny has a big motor. Very great young man. I'm very excited about him and his ability to contribute. Tony Gibson was the lead recruiter for Ken Wilkins. The last man on the list, D.J. Williamson. Committed to us for a while. Fastest guy on the class. From Warren Harding. He can probably learn both outside receiver position and maybe eventually inside as well. Tony Gibbons was the lead recruiter on D.J.
I know it's kind of a brief synopsis, but I think it gives you an overhead on what these guys are. Again, seven on the roll early. All of them have been working out, going to class. They are doing pretty well. They have probably gotten home sick out of the way a little bit and talking to Coach Barwis, they all fit in well with the rest of the team. Questions?

Q. Can you expand a little on the defensive end? What positions might be impacted early?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Really, I knew what the numbers are. Defensively, we're down a little bit. And there may be some guys on offense that we switch over to defense this spring, just to kind of balance it out a little bit and give us some competition over there. But our need was at every position. You can never have too many defensive linemen, first and foremost. Those are usually the hardest to find.
So I think we addressed that need in this class. And then a couple -- obviously we need some linebackers, guys that can play in space. I think that was one thing we talked about, because it's not just, you know, in our league, even though there are more teams in our league that run spread formations. Everybody runs spread formations at some point. Some of them maybe used to do it on third and long. But you have to have guys that can play space.
So our back-end guys, linebackers and safeties and corners, are guys we felt we needed to play in space. And so we tried to address that with the athleticism. Again, these guys are young. Let's not put too much on too soon. They have to come and earn a spot and all that. I think immediately the competition has risen on the defensive side of the football.

Q. Can you give us two names that might have the best shot of getting out there?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: That's a fair question. But it's like I've got two beautiful children. It's like telling me which child do you like better? You love them all as much as you can. I've been surprised before. We've recruited, we've talked about it. All of a sudden this guy we thought maybe would be red-shirting winds up starting; the guy we thought would be starting winds up having to be red-shirted. Until they get here, and really I think until about two weeks into camp in August, you figure out what happened. The thing that I think that does benefit, the one to seven guys early have a little bit of an advantage. Most of them are offensively because they go to spring practice.
But I think nowadays with the ability for those guys to come in the summer and get the summer school and get oriented and get six or seven weeks of training with 100 other guys, I think that helps them as far as adjustment to the speed and the strength of what they need.
I would think anybody in particular in the positions on defense, where we have ten numbers, are going to have to get a real good look early. They're all going to get a look. Those guys at those positions defensively may get -- may be on the two D, just because that's all the numbers we have there.

Q. Do you have any idea of your linebackers coach, who that will be and how many -- (Indiscernible)?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, I'm really not done -- I've done some. I've interviewed some guys at the coach's convention. That was during the dead week of recruiting. I was in Orlando for the whole time. Four days. I talked to some guys there. I talked to some guys over the phone. And really, my focus now after today can go in that regard, to hire a coach. It's probably going to be more of a safeties coach than linebacker.
Right now I'm looking at putting Coach Robinson at linebackers. I think he probably wants to be there, and I think that's going to be the best fit for us. The next coach will be an outside linebacker, safety type position. So I'm open in some respects. Then again, I have an idea what I'm trying to do with that position. So hopefully -- my goal is to get someone hired within a week. I don't want to put a time frame on it. We've got -- you know, we have about a month and two weeks or so before spring practice. So we have a little bit of time.

Q. Did you find it any harder or easier to recruit with the rough seasons the last two years?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: It's tougher than it was if you were, you know, winning a national championship. There's no question. I've been on both ends. You know, if you're on this end, we've gotten a little better. So you see progress. But I think you also can see opportunity. Maybe I say selling -- as I told the coaches, you're not really selling. Sometimes recruiting looks like salesmanship. I've heard one time you're not selling anything. You're just giving people what they want. Maybe I sound like a salesman to tell you that, but really, when you're putting your school and your program out there, you're just giving people what they want.
What you think they want is a chance to play in a great atmosphere, big-time football, and get a great education and be around good people.
And so that part of it there -- you know, the negativity in recruiting is prevalent. But we didn't see -- I didn't see on their coaches saw it as much as maybe you would expect. It wasn't as bad in our league especially. The Big 10. Maybe other coaches can tell you otherwise. There's only one school I think in our league that we thought was negative recruiting quite a bit. Most of the rest of them didn't. The farther you go south, you go farther south in the southern states, there's a little bit more negative recruiting.
But a lot of times that turns kids off. It turns families off. Because like I talked to -- I tell my coaches, they better not negative recruit. They can present facts. But just you have a good enough place to sell your own place. Don't worry about bashing someone else. It's all about relationships.
I did not see that, as much negativity as you would think.

Q. There were some reports that Demar Dorsey had had some arrests in his background. Can you tell us what you know about that?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: What I want to say is every guy that we signed we do our research on as well. I think sometimes people are too quick to judge on something they read on the internet. I think that's dangerous to do that. I don't think it's fair to the young man and his family to pass judgments on somebody before you know the whole story. And certainly as a coach, we get a chance to go visit these kids at the school. We go visit them at their home. We get to have them come here and spend a weekend. And you get to know them. And certainly you get to -- we get enough time to research and find out the whole story. Not just what somebody has written out there. So we feel comfortable with every guy we signed is going to be a great fit. For not only the football program, but for this university and our community.
You know, there's a lot of people -- I get a little upset when people talk -- they've labeled our coach, he'll bring this guy and that guy in. We've had one full recruiting class.
The first year was a half recruiting class. You always -- unfortunately you have guys that disappoint you and make a mistake. We've had a couple that have come and made a mistake, and God forbid they make a mistake. But unfortunately when they do, you have to have discipline. Enforce the decisions they make. Generally, for the most part, our guys have behaved pretty well. I think we got a bunch of good guys on this football team. I think one reason why we're able to recruit pretty well -- again I'll tell you better in two years -- is because of the guys on this football team. We've purposely -- when the guys come to visit, we spend a lot of time with their families and the kids. We want these recruits to spend time with their players. And then to get to know us. We ask our players will he be a good teammate? Will he be a good fit for the program? Will he be a good guy? Is he a good fit for Michigan? We ask every player that, when we host. That's as far as that goes. So they feel real good.
Our current players -- I can't speak highly enough on how they really helped in this recruiting process.

Q. Just to be clear on that --
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I was clear. Next.

Q. So the charges against him aren't true?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: All I'm saying is everybody should look at the whole story. Don't judge on something until you get all the facts.

Q. I understand that. I'm saying right now are you confident the charges aren't true?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I am confident -- if you looked at everything that happened and researched the whole thing, just researched the whole thing, don't just make it -- research what happened, the results of what happened, and find out the whole story. Just find out the whole story. On any young man. Find out the whole story before you pass judgment.

Q. Why would you take a chance on somebody who ran into the law to that extent?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Again, I will say this one more time. You're testing my patience. I understand why you want the question, all right? Anytime there's a situation, we look at it as well. We have found out the whole story. A lot of times there's more to the story than what people understand. You have to look at the whole story. If a guy is in the wrong place at the wrong time and made the mistake of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, all right, then you have to look at why he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But you don't pass judgment on him when he did that as a juvenile. Because there's nobody on this football team that we've assigned that has a felony conviction. So you have to look at the whole story before you pass judgment. Or misdemeanor conviction.
Look at the whole story before you pass judgment on a young man. Not everybody is perfect. Sometimes young people get in the wrong situation at the wrong time. They are found innocent or they're acquitted, or obviously somebody else saw the same thing, that maybe you're in the wrong place at the wrong time; you get to hang around with the wrong people -- hang around with the right people. That doesn't mean this person is a bad person. I'm not talking about an individual. I'm talking in general. I think you need to be mindful of that. I don't think we should pass judgment until you know all the facts. I think that's dangerous to do.

Q. You said in August that you weren't going to take chances on players like that. I can quote the exact quote.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: He just wants to be negative. It's amazing. We have such a great place here. We got wonderful people. We got a great university. We got players that are working their tails off. They're doing pretty well in school and all that. And everybody wants to be negative. Not everybody. Let's be positive. Let's be positive. You know, you got a great group here. We have a great recruiting class. We have good young men. Let's be positive. Can we be positive? Thank you?

Q. Are you going to talk about some of the guys you had to battle all the way up, with Talbott, until this morning? Is that a growing trend in recruiting? More and more battles are done within the last week? Is that kind of harder at getting a class?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Probably not as many go to the wire as it used to be. I would think five or six years ago there would be ten guys you may be waiting on. As opposed to today there's three or four. And several of these guys, some of these guys, you guys questioned, you know, everybody else is still recruiting too. So we're not the only ones who researched on it.
I'm going to bring it back. It's my last point on this. These other schools do the research too. And don't always believe when they say they drop somebody when they didn't drop somebody. Somebody has committed to somebody for a year, over a year, and they still recruit them last week? Still recruiting them last week? Then they didn't drop the guy. All right? Maybe the guy decided not to visit there. Make sure you get the facts. Everybody don't get the facts on everything and pass judgment on something.
Back to your question. I don't think there's as many battles at the end. There's a few. I think the difference is the battles at the end are more publicized now. They're making a big deal on it because they're showing it on TV and they're pulling hats out and all that kind of crazy stuff. Most of the time. You know, there's always a handful of surprises. There's not as many as there used to be five or six or seven years.

Q. Was there effective -- (indiscernible)?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: That was effective in several recruits. I think that had more of an effect than anything else in some players' decommitment. In fact, one of the guys you were asking about, I think the coach leaving had a big effect on it. We know that for a fact. One of the coaches used to coach here and was recruiting a guy, and when he left, it made a difference. Because, again, one of the major factors in recruiting is developing relationships. And they get a relationship with a school. So, obviously, they pick the school. But they -- let's not be naive. They also pick the coaches. Particularly the coaches recruiting. Because they develop relationships. When that coach leaves, sometimes it makes them reevaluate.
Am I going to be comfortable now? If they have more than one coach leave, it's like that guy left, I had a relationship with him. That guy left, I had a relationship with him. Is there anybody else I really know and feel comfortable with? So I think that probably made more drama and more stories in the last two weeks of this recruiting than would have been if it hadn't been in that situation.

Q. How much more of a shot does Gardner have to compete at quarterback this year --
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I think it helps he got in early. I don't know if 15 spring practices can really give you a whole thing. But I know it helped Payton last year. Devin is going to have pieces around, veterans that know what we're trying to do offensively and all that. But again, until I see him at spring practice and how quickly he picks up the plays and all that, I couldn't tell you. I know he's very competitive. He's one of those guys eager to learn. We'll see.

Q. Midterm Ohio, is that where you found --
COACH RODRIGUEZ: We recruit pretty much the whole state of Ohio. We have our primary areas, which is Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, the Midwest, and then probably the state of Florida and parts of Texas and Louisiana. But we're fortunate to have enough of a brand name, the University of Michigan, that we can go to other areas. But we try to cover pretty much the whole state of Ohio and Michigan in what we call our core region.

Q. The regions you got an update on the NCAA investigation, did that come up in your recruiting?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: It wasn't as much as I thought. You figure that some people would ask questions or try to use that in a negative vein. But it really wasn't an issue at all. I don't think so.

Q. Did you find out that one of the schools was negative recruiting?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: You see it all the time. The kids tell you. The kids or the parents will say they said this, they said this, coach. That's nothing new. That's been going on and will go on for years. I'm not going to whine about it. That's part of the business. You have to be prepared to deal with that. It usually backfires. Most of the cases in -- what we did in our case is it did backfire.
Why would they worry about talking about you and not brag about their own school? I think you are always better off giving a positive about your own school and not worrying about the other school. I'm not talking about they run this system or that system. That's all -- that's common in recruiting. What kind of offense or defense they run or whatever. You have to be used to negative recruiting, because there's no rules against it. It's not a big deal. You just deal with it.

Q. What school was it?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I'm not going to tell you. You mean one of the Big 10?

Q. Yeah.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I'm not going to tell you.

Q. You mentioned earlier about other schools. Last year you guys had a number of players that decommitted. This year not as much a problem. Did that change in your recruiting philosophy do you think helped to produce a better result?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I don't know. I think it was just the way it fell. You're always disappointed when someone decommits. But I don't know -- normally you're not totally surprised when that happens. I think last year when you know you had a couple of guys that decommitted who said they were truly committed. I said this before. If a guy is committed to you and he still visits other schools, he's not truly committed. He's just interested. You have to understand that going in. Guys accused us of going after somebody else recruited, that's committed. If he's committed or so-called committed to your school, he shouldn't be visiting us. If he's truly committed.
So I think sometimes you have to look at every situation differently. But we didn't -- all we told our guys is we know that they're committed, truly committed to us, they're visiting. Not visiting other places. And we tell them that. Before you commit, you understand you have something else to compare it to. Make sure you know all the facts and all that when you truly commit.
So we've kind of maybe emphasized that a little bit more. I don't think it's -- I think it's just one of those years where guys, when they truly committed, they felt comfortable enough with their decision.

Q. Is that also because most of your core of your class is from close. They are able to come in for unofficial visits and build stronger relationships?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, no question. I think the multiple amount of times they were here, the more comfortable they felt. I think that's the key. Any coach would tell you that. The more you can get a young man on campus and the more you can develop that relationship with him and his family, the better you're going to feel about it. A lot of these guys, we know them for not just a year, but for a couple of years. You knew when they committed, it was going to be pretty solid.

Q. When you combined the year at defensive back, (indiscernible) the guys you got today, is that maybe one position you've gotten better than before?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: That's a fair question. But I probably couldn't answer that for another seven or eight months, or something like that. There's so many positional needs. I don't know how many defensive backs we have on scholarship right now. Our numbers are way low. We've probably doubled our numbers of scholarship kids in the secondary. Makes you nervous, because now the young guys have to be prepared to compete. But at the same time, they will all have that opportunity.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Recruiting has taken on a life form. Some coaches complain about it. It's not all bad. I think as long as the kids understand, that's still high school. When you come to college, you have to prove yourself no matter what rating you have. It doesn't mean anything once you get on campus. You have to prove yourself all over again. I don't think it's created too much of an entitlement on most of the kids. But I think it has created some on some of the kids. And that's what you have to be careful about. I don't feel there's any sense of that with the guys we signed to have that entitlement. We tell them we're not into the star rating. We make our own judgment based on film and what we see and know.

Q. From a coach's standpoint looking back, and say this kid is a four star kid, maybe look at him, especially with the way the fans, all that stuff --
COACH RODRIGUEZ: What the fans think, I don't care. We're going to watch them on film, watch them in person, get to know them, find out the whole story. That's something that's important, being that sometimes you look at a guy that's a four star or five star and say, I don't really see it. Sometimes you look at him and say, yeah, I see it. Sometimes you look at a two star or three star and say he should be ranked higher. Who gives those ratings?
I don't want to dismiss the recruiting service. I think they do a good job. They do a great job of, as far as of film and kids names out there and helping coaches get started on their job. They're not helping coaches do their job. They're helping coaches get started on their job. Recruiting service, whether scouts or rivals, have done an outstanding job of expanding that base that coaches can draw from, and get them some attention to the kids. But once they get here, once they get to college, they all have to prove themselves all over again.

Q. Wouldn't you be vitally interested in knowing where that stands?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: We're all interested in them. We'll all know in due time. They'll let us know in due time what's going on and everything like that.

Q. You talked about building guys up. Is that what you point to, as far as not having a ton of guys that are 280, 290 under roster?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I think, as far as building the D linemen up, some of them are already pretty good size. But I think it's important that even though a lot of them come from great high school programs, when they come here and work with coach Barwis and his staff around nutrition -- they're still developing young men 17 and 18 years old. Most of them haven't met the maturity yet. They're going to grow. It's important they grow the right weight. We put on the right weight.
Patrick Omameh, a couple of years ago he was in our first half recruiting class. Two star guy. 250 pounds. Now he's 295, or something, and still looks like he weighs 250. Strong as he's ever been. I think he plays -- started last year a few games. I think he's going to have a great career. So I think building them up the right way is important. Once we're confident we have them in our program, we can do that.

Q. How important was it to get Dorsey on the final day? And when did you know that you had that sewn up? Or were you on the edge of your seat?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: There were several of them. Demar was one. I don't know, three or four guys we were unsure this morning because, again, there was multiple schools still working it all the way until they signed. The schools they were recruiting keep calling them, just like we would do. So I think until they sign the letter of intent this morning, you're battling other schools. You're calling them every five or ten minutes like we are.

Q. Is there any chance that you will be offering anybody who has not signed? Academic?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: We're pretty filled. We may have spots for one more. But I don't anticipate that. I never say never.

Q. You go over the 26th --
COACH RODRIGUEZ: They have one or two that -- one in particular you think may not qualify, be ready to play. We're able to count one back because we didn't fill up the allotment account to last year's class. This is not as big a class as I think I've ever had. Pretty excited about that part.

Q. You mentioned it yourself, and a couple of other analyst have mentioned how fast and athletic this class is. Can you talk about what kind of emphasis you put on the athleticism on the class?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. We had a question earlier about the change in philosophy. There's really no change in philosophy recruiting. Everybody wants big, fast athletes. They like to run and hit. We're no different than anybody else. We did need to get faster. I think that's obvious. We needed to get faster, particularly defensively. We need to get more competitive. From that we need to have competition at every position. So if a guy goes down with an injury or something happens, the next guy in, there's not as much of a drop off, there's not as much worry as far as that goes. You kind of -- it's very nerve-racking as a coach you think, I have to have the perfect play called. I'm not saying we do. You would rather have guys go out there and be athletic enough to overcome a bad situation or something like that.
Speed is something that -- you can make guys faster. But you can only do that so much. If a guy can run a little bit when you get him, you hope he can run even faster after he's in the program.

Q. Kind of relates to the feeling, do you go after more guys with higher ceilings?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: That whole thing about potential, you have to look -- sometimes you recruit just off potential is dangerous. You have to get guys that can play. Some guys you can look at the situation, maybe he's young. Maybe he's -- hasn't had as much experience in the weight room, or something like that. So you can see more potential and all that. You want to have guys that can have production. If you recruit just on potential, I think it's a dangerous thing. You better get guys that have shown they can play.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: You always like to have a couple more. It's easier. I have always said it's easier to recruit locally, whether it's Ohio or Michigan. You don't have to worry about them getting homesick. They're going know you better, because hopefully they've been to the campus and surroundings more. But we've got to get the right fit for not only our program, but for what we need in our offense and defensive schemes. But also the right fits for the university and guys that want to be here.

Q. With only one offensive linemen in the class, can you emphasize the numbers?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Because we got three last year and the couple before that. We'll take -- this year there will be more emphasis on it. I would have probably took one more. If I took one more, I would have taken a spot away from a receiver or something like that. I didn't want to take any spots away from defense, because our numbers are so short. It wasn't a huge need. But certainly next year's class there will be a bigger need. Don't assume that everybody is going to Ohio State. Jim and his staff have not seen a negative recruiting. They don't do it. The Big 10 is very classy in recruiting. I will tell you that. Very classy.

End of FastScripts

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