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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 30, 2010

Rich Rodriguez

Q. Carvin won the starting job?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, we probably could have put -- it has not been solidified yet. We have three practices -- four. Yeah, it hasn't been solidified yet. We have four practices, but really three that will determine that.
But he's a young, athletic guy that's very quick learner. He's only been in that position, really, wasn't there at the whole camp the last couple of weeks but he's really a quick learner and gives us some athleticism at that spot.

Q. Every game is a big game obviously, but this one being the opener, the rededication, coming off the last couple of years, etc., what would it mean to win this game and start the season off right?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, I think it means a lot, especially for our players and our staff. The guys have been through a lot and they have worked very hard and there's nothing like the feeling of a win in the locker room and the momentum it takes for the following week.
So I just hope we play well. Our goal, we haven't talked about, in particular, the number of wins or anything like that, but we just want to play well and make sure that we give our best shot, and I think our guys will do that. They are very, very excited. Every team in America is excited about the first game. Without any preseason scrimmage games you don't really know what you have, and you work so hard to go get somebody else in a different-colored uniform. So they will be fired up and ready to go.

Q. How have you talked about it with the quarterbacks, or have you yet?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Oh, I have a little bit, but I will at the end of the week. We will tell them what our plans are for them. Again, the way our practices go, everybody gets reps, both the first and the second group, they all get about an equal number of reps. That's just the way we have always structured our practice.
So it's not like it's going to be a big adjustment, no matter who is in there. I will talk to them about it later in the week, and you know, I don't think, for our offense, they are worried about, like the old line, they are worried -- turn around and look and worry about who is behind them. Basically everybody has to do their job.

Q. Do you plan to play all three Saturday?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Don't know yet. I can see scenarios where all three play during the season. People say, oh, definitely going to be red shirted, probably not. Devon is probably going to play. His progress has been pleasing but all of the guys have been making progress. They are all better than they were a month ago or three weeks ago and better than they were in the spring.

Q. With Troy going down, you obviously had freshmen in this position, playing early, how comfortable are you with Cullin Christian and Terrence Talbott and Courtney Avery?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I guess as comfortable as you can be with freshman. Until you play a game, I think sometimes you really don't know spore sure. Thankfully we have some experience with James Rogers at that position and J.T. Floyd at the other corner. So those two guys have played a lot of football. But the young guys that have opportunity, and they have progressed well in practice. We have tried to put them in pressure situations. I think they will grow and get better as the season goes along and they get experience.

Q. For the opener is that why you have James up there on the chart, because he has experience?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, not just that. He's been more experienced in practice as you would expect a veteran to be. Some of these are tipified with "ors" on the depth chart and more of them probably should be.
We are going to play more people than we have been able to play the last couple of years, I think because we have more people that we think are capable. So I'm excited about that. I think it's got the players excited. You know, there's not been a set 11 on the offense or set 11 on defense. There's been a lot of guys rolling in and out and I think that's a good thing.

Q. What has Shaw and Smith given you at running back this fall?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: They have been the most consistent, everything we have asked our backs to do from a running standpoint, protection standpoint in the passing game, they have probably been the most consistent each day that we have done, and understand our offense the best. But there's a host of guys, looking at -- you say, how do you play six tailbacks, I'm not sure we are going to play six. But all six of those guys have taken reps with the first and second groups at various times. So throughout a long season, we are going to need a lot of backs, and thankfully we have the bodies that can do it.

Q. What is Fitz's injury status?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: He had a sprained knee. Not sure what he's going to be able to do today. We'll know more about him in the next day or two.

Q. The three running backs, will it be how one is doing? Do you have situationally where you will put one in? Is it based totally on how the game is going? ?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Basically a feel thing and how the game is going, and how we want to attack a defense or, you know, how they are playing.
I don't want to ever have a guy go in there and be afraid to make one mistake and he gets yanked because you want him to go out there and play with confidence. If a guy is struggling a little bit, if he comes out and he's able to see things from the sidelines, he can regroup his senses so to speak and go back out there and perform well.
So, I'm excited, they will play well, whoever is out there.

Q. You moved Teric to defense and now about a being to office?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, he asked to move and we needed him to move. There was a practice when I think Shaw was this class and three of the other guys were all hurt, and so Teric Jones and Kelvin Grady took a lot of reps, and Teric showed us that, hey, he's got a chance. He's still learning but he's only been there a week. We have moved him around probably too much already and just trying to get him settled in a position and I think he likes and can probably perform better offensively.

Q. Shaw's eligibility, has it been cleared up?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: No, finishes up in the next couple days.

Q. What has Darryl Stonum showed you in practice and camp this summer?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: It's been the most consistent that we have had Darryl, and this is his third year, and this has been the most consistent he's been on a day-to-day basis, which is what you expect from a guy who is a veteran.
Going into his third year and playing a lot of football, I've been really pleased with his camp. Him and Junior Hemingway and Martavious Odoms are the most experienced guys, and they have played like that in practice. So been really pleased with all three of those guys.

Q. Would Darryl have to prove himself to you again after some of the stuff he went through?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, but I think a lot of them did. Other guys, too. But Darryl, he knows he's had issues and he's had to reach a certain maturity level, and he's been very focused on it. I've been very proud of the way he's worked during camp. He came into camp in great shape, and he's going to be a big factor for us. He's a very talented guy that I think he's got a renewed sense of hunger as I would think all of us do, all of the players do.

Q. Can you talk about what concerns you most on both sides of the ball with Connecticut?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, they are a big physical team. They are very experienced on both sides of the ball, so I guess for lack of a better term, they are an older group of guys that have kind of been there, done that. So it's not a team that is probably going to make mistakes. UCONN is not going to beat UCONN.
If we want to win the game, we have to go win it. We can't sit there and rely on them making mistakes and hope that we can capitalize on it. So that's the one thing that, you know, we know we have got to play well because they are not going to make mistakes and help us out in any regard.

Q. Can you talk about -- the past experiences with UCONN; is that in the game plan for this?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I think a little bit, because we have different guys doing different things, I don't know how much, it's been years -- it's been three years or whatever it has been since we played them, and they have grown up. They are an older team now and we are a younger team. So I don't know how much that really relates.
But we certainly know a little bit about, you know, some of the things they do, but they have changed some defensively and they have changed quite a bit offensively since that time.

Q. Can you talk about what you've seen from their running game and your ability about to stop that run?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: One thing we have to do is tackle well. I know that sounds kind of simplistic, but you do a little bit of live tackling certainly, in August, but as you get close, you don't do as much live tackling as you probably need to do to get prepared for a game because you are tackling yourself.
I think the biggest key maybe for us defensively is getting guys on the ground. They have got an outstanding tail back. They have got great skill guys, so we have to tackle well. That's one key stat that I will be interested in seeing after the game, how many missed tackles we have and do we get them on the ground.

Q. Two years, what would you say in your experiences are the biggest differences between the Big Ten and the Big East?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I don't know if there's a whole lot. Scheme-wise it's very similar. A lot of people kind of paint the Big Ten as these big old Midwestern guys that just pound you, and the reality is, in every league, you have a variety of schemes both offensively and defensively. They are very similar in the Big East, which is in a lot of cold weather games late in the season and teams that will come at you downhill and a couple spread teams just like there is in the Big Ten.
I think talent wise, the Big East is probably underrated far as talent. I think for a number of schools in that league, there have been as many that go to the NFL as the other ones. It's just not as known, I think, because it's a newer league. I don't see it as a huge amount of difference except the Big Ten has more long-standing football traditions; from a fan standpoint, tradition standpoint, support standpoint, the Big Ten has had it for, you know, what, a hundred years where the Big East is obviously new.

Q. You mentioned Devon will probably not red shirt. Do you get a sense of how many true freshmen will play this fall?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Probably the ones on this depth chart and there could be others that, because, again, it's a long season. There are a few other freshmen that have a chance to make sneak up in there and. That's rare to have this many freshmen, true freshmen on a depth chart, but that's where we are right now.
But in a couple of years from now, maybe we won't, maybe we will, depends on how we recruit and how we develop. Everybody on this depth chart probably will play as freshmen and a lot of these guys that are freshmen and red shirt freshmen who have not played before are on special teams. We will give you a special teams depth chart but a lot of young guys on there, as well.

Q. What do you think at this stage is your expectation of this team, a fair expectation?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I don't know, that's usually what people give externally. I don't -- what are outside expectations and what are inside expectations, I think sometimes they mirror each other and sometimes they are different.
Our expectations every year is to compete for the Big Ten Championship. I mean, that doesn't change. I'm sure it's all been the case here and that always will be the case. I don't ever give a certain number of wins because even with a team that I coached in the past and had a lot of veterans and maybe 16, 17 starters coming back off a ten-win season, you still don't do that because there's so many variables that can happen.
I think we have to get to the point where we are winning some close games and not beating ourselves. I think that's kind of simplistic, but, hey, guys, we have to win this number or we have to win that number, I don't get into that.

Q. You saw the Connecticut program almost in its infancy; how much have you seen it grow?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Quite a bit probably recently because of their facilities. I know that they have got a fabulous new football facility right on campus with an indoor building and all that and I was able to see the new stadium which is not on campus but it was a nice venue, and played there a few times.
So you could just see from a level of commitment from the university and from their state and from their supporters, that they want to go as high as they can in Division I-A. So you can see that commitment from a facilities standpoint. Certainly they have had a lot of stability from their coaching staff, and I have known Randy for years. He has done a great job. Most of his staff has stayed intact, I believe, over the years.
So they have been able to build a program and get their guys from, you know -- to be playing maybe as freshmen, red shirt freshmen and now they are juniors and seniors.

Q. Having so many younger players in the two-deep, are you concerned about nerves with them in their first game?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Oh, yeah, always nervous but we are nervous, too, as coaches because we know they are going to be nervous.
But the only way to get those nerves out is to play them. They just have to play and the only way to get experience is it to play.

Q. Is that part of the logic of getting them in the mix early, too?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I don't know if it's part of our reason, but that's just part of the way it is. The way it is is we have young guys that are only two deep and have to play. Are they going to be nervous? I would hope. If they are not nervous, then there's something wrong with them. They are probably lying to you.
If you talk to one these freshmen and say, are you nervous and say they no, they are probably lying to you or trying to not think about it. And that's okay. Once you get out there and get hit the first time or take a hit the first time and, you know, they will adjust to it. Eventually you just get into the mode, it's 11-on-11 and everything else gets blocked out and veteran players are able to do that and some young players have to mature quickly. We have got quite a few young players who are going to have to mature quickly and then they will be fine.

Q. Have you talked to them at all about the rule tweaks in terms of celebrations including the fact they could get a touchdown call?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: That doesn't take effect until next year and we have talked about a little bit. We have a rule, once you score, you hand the ball to the official and celebrate with your teammates. I don't think we'll have any issues with that.

Q. How confident are or more confident are you now that you will win more than the past two years where they have learned the system?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Certainly two years ago we didn't have any quarterbacks and very few people on offense had any experience at all. So I'm more confident offensively that we have got a host of guys that have played some, even though our quarterbacks are younger guys, some of them have played some.
Defensively that's on the other side, with evident a lot less guys that have played a bit on the back end, but our front seven, we have a lot of guys that have played some. So we have got more experience, I think, of guys that played than two years ago and probably in some respects, more guys that have played than last year.
But every year is a new year. It's okay to look back, to try to learn, but as far as reflecting too much back, I've never been one to do that too much.

Q. You said at Media Day that Jibreel Black was not quite ready yet, is he ready?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Readier? Is that proper English, readier? He's readier than he was back then and he's really had an outstanding camp.
You look at all freshmen and say, geez, I would like to red shirt all of them but you have to play the best guys you have, whether they are freshmen or senior, we will play the best guys and right now Jibreel is good enough to play. He doesn't have any experience and he may make a few mistakes, but he's going to play this year as a freshman.

Q. You haven't tauted too many elements of your team, you don't come out and say, I think we have great receivers, we have great -- is that partly your style or do you really not know or do you know but you don't want to say?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: It's all about the team, the team, the team. That's why --

Q. Individuals?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: There's not a whole lot of people tauting a whole lot of our guys, anyway. It would be nice, but if we are on the watch list for this -- what is it? They have 80 guys on a watch list for this guy? How do you get on that watch list? I mean, I don't know, shoot. They have got a hundred some preseason Heisman candidates and 80 guys for the Mackey award; I didn't know there was 80 tight ends in the country. (Laughter) So we should put Koger and Webb on that, make it 82.
But we have got some good football players, and we have got guys that hopefully at the end of the year, people are tauting them. If you want me to taut guys, we'll taut them at the end of the year.

Q. Just wondering, I'm not asking you to, but just wondering if there was --
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Why I hadn't?

Q. Or if you're sandbagging us.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I would never do that. (Laughing).
No particular reason. We have got some particularly good players and a few guys that I think their performance throughout the year will be, geez, coach, you didn't tell us about that he was going to be this good. I hope there's about ten of them that you say that about.
But I think we have a bunch of blue-collar, hard-working guys that understand, truly understand what team is about. And I don't think there's anything wrong with a guy getting promoted. I think that's all fine and dandy, but our priorities and my priority has got to be about the team and that's why our approach has been that way I think so far.

Q. You said the rotation on the defensive line, or is a guy like Mike Martin out there for basically the whole --
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I think it's harder for the bigger guys up front like Mike that knows to play 80 plays and Mike is probably in good enough shape to do it. But inevitably to play that many plays in the middle of the storm so to speak is going to be a lot to ask somebody. So we'll play Adam Patterson, Will Campbell will have an opportunity, and Black, that's why I said Jibreel Black; even though Ryan Van Bergen is in great shape, Ryan is not going to play 80 plays. We have go play Jibreel and give those guys a rest.
I feel comfortable that the rotation there has enough guys.

Q. What do you like about bringing the defensive end role, as opposed to playing the tackle position a year ago?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Really the role he's in there is a combination, both tackle and the end. Ryan is a very athletic guy, he's got a knack in pass rushing, he's a tall guy, he bats fast -- he's athletic enough to play on the end and he is also play some on the inside of tackle, so he will play both.

Q. You know who the starting quarterback is. You said you're going to tell them --
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Do I?

Q. I would think, you're installing the game plan for UCONN and you probably have a good feeling, is that an accurate assessment?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, I don't know if the coaches know yet but I have an idea. But again, I have got practice today, tomorrow and Wednesday, and then Thursday's practice, that will be easy. So it could be a guy or two that I feel is going to go in there the next three days they totally lose their focus and go in the tank and I change my mind.

Q. That's not going to happen.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I would hope not. If it does, I'm going to be really nervous on Saturday.

Q. So are you sticking with the night before a game, telling them?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Telling the players? The kids?

Q. The quarterbacks.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I don't know. I don't even think about it. I only think about getting them ready to play. Maybe that's just me, but I don't -- I don't need no Dr. Phil moment with the guys. So let me explain the situation and, how do you really feel about it. (Laughter).
Hey, you know, this is the deal, go out and play. That's the way with approach practice. Here is the play. Execute the play.

Q. So we should not read too much into how that's listed, or, or, or.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: No. I wouldn't. There are some that should be ors and we didn't put ors on here on other positions.

Q. But even know I don't really care who is starting on quarterback, you do have or, or, or --
COACH RODRIGUEZ: You have ors there? That's good. Keep them off-base Dave, Dave and Bruce. Don't let them know anything. (Laughter).

Q. Off of what Joe said; there an element of surprise work for you in the opener, the fact that you have young guys and guys who have not been seen; can you use that to your advantage?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I don't know. I'd rather have the element of experience than the element of surprise for us. I'd rather be there less unknowns than there are right now.
It's exciting, too. It's probably exciting for the players. It's not exciting for the coaches.

Q. I mean more from the outside, you know what you have, but no one else does, so in that sense --
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I think. But we haven't had a game yet. I know eventually what we'll have, but in the first game or two, with all of the nerves out there and all that kind of stuff, big Johnny will probably have to bring a couple extra pairs of pants in case they make a little mess. (Laughter).
If you see somebody running up the tunnel in the middle of the first quarter, with big Johnny running behind him, carrying one of his books (Laughter). Wardrobe malfunction or something.

Q. Given the inexperience in the secondary, does that affect in any way the aggressiveness with which you are able to approach the defense?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, that's one thing we had talked about. I said, okay, what are we -- how do we limit the pressure on some of the young guys. Remember, James Rogers has played, J.T. Floyd has played so there's experience there but the safety positions, Jordan, Cam Gordon hasn't. So he's a young guy.
But I think, you know, we have to do what we have got to do defensively to win the game. And so if somebody is out there, we are just going to call our defenses with in mind, let's take as much pressure as we can if one of the guys, if true freshmen are out there and have that in mind a little bit.
So I think the defensive coaches have a plan for that, but we have basically just been running our defense in all camp and they have responded very well.

Q. Last year's UCONN's offense experiment was a no-huddle and ran more up-tempo. Do you expect them to do more of that and possibly even do a spread situation again?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I don't know, because our defense faces it in camp and faces our offense all the time; I think we are more prepared than for a team that never sees it. So that is not as much of a concern because our defense sees it every day.
I don't know what their plan -- I they will probably come right at us downhill, a couple play action passes, take a couple deep shots on our secondary early, maybe even the first play of the game. They will run the ball right at us. They do a lot of schemes up front. They have big linemen and they will see if we can hold up up front and tackle well.
But the no-huddle thing doesn't concern me because we see it every day.

Q. On defense, what you lack for in experience can you makeup for in speed?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: That's the hope that we are active. We have got to get a lot of guys to the ball, not only because of the experience, but you worry about tackling, even though we practice tackling quite a bit in camp, and the guys have done a good job of that and we have got to get -- if you don't -- if you are missing tackles but you get a lot of guys to the ball, you may be okay.
We have got to get a lot of guys to the ball in case somebody does get a tackle and we have preached that quite a bit of guys getting the ball, and we are fairly athletic. I think defensively, we do run pretty well. So I'm anxious to see how that works out.

Q. Were there specific games against Connecticut that stand out in your career? I think you played five times?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: I don't know how many times.

Q. Four.
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Was it four times? I think we won them all, didn't we? So they were all good. (Laughter).
You know, I can remember the last one, because we had -- that team had gotten ahead, we had gotten on a roll and we executed as well offensively than I think we did all year. They were always physical games. They were hard-playing, tough, and again, they were not games that they gave us anything. We had to go and get it.
So I expect, especially with their veterans coming back, this is going to be that same kind of game. And I will talk to the team about it already and say, look, you have to understand what we are playing against here. If you look at most projections across the country, most people have them projected higher than us and ranked higher than us for whatever that's worth. So this is a team we've got to play.
But our guys, I'm sure they are the same way. It's not hard to get your guys excited for an opener in college, particularly at this level. They are all excited. I hope we go out and play well and do what we are capable of doing.

Q. Any questionable?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Troy, of course. Fits is the one we are waiting to see how he progressed this week, Fitz Toussaint. Other than that, we are relatively healthy, if we can get through the next couple of practices. At camp, other than Troy's injury, we have been very fortunate throughout camp.

Q. Do anything special before the first game with the team at the end of the week, first game versus other games?
COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, yeah, we do Thursday, we practice over here at the stadium and usually the Thursday before the first game, the band comes out and performs for us. At the end of practice on Thursday, we have our band, as you all know, they are terrific. I think one of the best in the country. They will go out, because our players never get to see the band and they will do some performances for us and then we will all sing the Victors together. That's a big treat. We saw them Friday. They came over Friday for the Beanie Bowl but Thursday, they will do the performance for us on Thursday right after practice and that's always a fun time.

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