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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 1, 2010Rich RodriguezQ. What makes the decision on taking practice indoors versus outdoors? COACH RODRIGUEZ: Usually it's rain and cold. But wind is a big factor, especially because we do, like everybody else, so much kicking in every practice. Everybody does usually punt and field goal. Usually one or two other phases. We do three phases every day. If the wind is blowing hard to a point that it's not realistic, that will take you indoors. Our issue with that was as soon as we went outside, the video guy, Mike Parrish and I got together and said, You know, this is pretty heavy wind. I think it was windy both days, Tuesday and Wednesday. We went out partially for Wednesday. But we only went up 10 or 12 feet on the lift because of the wind. Q. Are you the one that makes those decisions? COACH RODRIGUEZ: I make the decision as far as going outside or inside. The video coordinator will talk about the conditions, whether it's safe or not to go up or not. He communicates that with me. Q. Denard looked like he ran similar to the way he did at the beginning of the year. COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, that was one of the positives of the game is I thought Denard played pretty well. He ran well. We were close to breaking a couple long ones. I guess he had 193 yards rushing or something. That was really a lot of long runs. He was close to breaking a couple long runs. He felt good. He landed on his hip on the sidelines, but he came back from that. His shoulder was better. It wasn't a hundred percent, but he got through it and made some pretty nice throws. He was running like he was in the beginning of the year. Q. Why do you think that was? COACH RODRIGUEZ: The knee bruise he had was bothering him somewhat, not from the standpoint that he couldn't run, but every time he'd fall on it, it would be sore again for a few plays or a few series. But it was no issues at all with that during that game. Q. (Question regarding Mike Martin.) COACH RODRIGUEZ: Talking with the training staff this morning, Mike, we're hopeful he can practice today. If not today, then tomorrow. Denard is a little sore, but he'll be able to do everything in practice today. Q. (No microphone.) COACH RODRIGUEZ: I don't know if he'll do everything in practice today. But he should be back by tomorrow. Q. Floyd? COACH RODRIGUEZ: Floyd is fine. He had a stinger. Q. Gardner was sore a little bit last week. COACH RODRIGUEZ: See him Monday, see how he practices today. Q. Do you think Shaw will be ready to take a little bigger role? COACH RODRIGUEZ: Shaw and maybe even Fitz Toussaint. Maybe he'll get back in the mix. Mike wasn't a hundred percent last week in practice. That was one of the reasons we limited his role quite a bit in that game. Q. (Question regarding defense in the fourth quarter.) COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, I remember I was just being a coach, maybe trying to fire 'em up a little bit. I don't think there was anything specific other than the fact that I think it might have been right after we scored, had a little bit of momentum going. I would like to think everybody understands the importance of every series, but that one in particular, try to get them juiced up a little bit. Anytime you do something well on offense, defense or special teams, it obviously lifts the whole team. At that moment I thought our whole team was getting lifted, trying to expand on the emotion a little bit there. Q. Pretty animated on the personal foul called on the sidelines. Having looked at the film, do you feel any different about that call? COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, I don't want to get in trouble here (smiling). There's some calls that we're going to send in. That's one of them, just to make sure what the clarification on the rule is. I was more impassioned there because I wanted the number. It's hard for me to correct something if you don't get the number. Usually you get the number right away. They're usually very good about that one. For some reason, they had a hard time getting me the number on that one. Watching the film, I could see where one guy saw it. But I don't think from where our player was, I thought he was inbounds. He didn't see the ball come out. I didn't think it was unnecessary roughness. I just thought he was playing football. Yeah, there were a few things that we turn in. We turn in a few things every week. There's a few more this week, but we'll see what comes of that. Q. I know you've been discussing with your coaches. Do you think there is something schematically you can do to help the defense, even if they are young guys? COACH RODRIGUEZ: We're going to try. The problem, we've talked before, if you add that, is it going to slow them down any further. You don't want their mind tying up their feet, so to speak. You don't want them playing slower than what they are because they're thinking. We're trying to simplify in some respects but give them an opportunity to be aggressive and not totally put them at risk, if that makes any sense to you. We're trying to find that balance between the two. It's easy to do. Again, it's easy to do with an experienced player because an experienced player knows this and this. If you add another thing or two, not a big deal. Inexperienced guys, I'm not sure what I'm doing. I'm finally get that right, then you're adding this. Offensively we can add a play a week, something totally different, and our guys won't panic because they already know this part of it very well. Q. That's not a talent thing, it's experience? COACH RODRIGUEZ: I mentioned, we got to get faster, more athletic. Some of that certainly you say, You can recruit guys that are faster and more athletic. But that's also in development. Guys in our program, any program particularly in college when you have the resources we have, the strength coaches we have, they're going to come in at a certain speed, a certain size, strength when they get here. They're going to be a whole lot different year two, three and four. They're going to make progress every year if you have a good development program. I think we have a great development program for our guys that have been in it. That's where some of these guys aren't going to be where they are now a year from now or two years from now. Q. (No microphone.) COACH RODRIGUEZ: More rotation this week. Last week was his first time full go in pads. We also had him in backup on special teams. You'll probably see him more likely playing going forward. Q. Has this season been an eye-opener at all as far as the defensive players you have to recruit? COACH RODRIGUEZ: No. We knew that. It's not like, I'm in the Big Ten. Listen, you're at that level. There's a certain player you need to have to have success in every league at this level. Usually it's big, fast, strong guys that can run and hit, and also can recognize plays, do all that. We've struggled defensively here the last three years. Last year, year before that, my first year, and the year before that we've had struggles defensively. There's a process to getting that fixed, just like there was a process to fix the offense and special teams in recruiting. I'm not sticking my head in the sand. I'm not thinking everything is all good and great. We know what we have, we know what we've got to have, and we'll do that going forward. Q. Can we ask you about that Illinois real quick? COACH RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, that would be refreshing (smiling). Q. You mentioned a lot of people think they're a surprise team. COACH RODRIGUEZ: No, I'm not surprised at all. I thought they were really athletic last year. They had some injuries. Things didn't kind of come together for them like they wanted to. But I thought coming into the season, particularly defensively with some of the guys they had coming back, I thought they would be one of the most athletic teams in our league. I think they're playing that way. They play with a lot of confidence. They have a couple new coordinators. Got a little rhythm going right now. Their young quarterback is playing very, very well for them. I think it's all kind of been well for them. They're probably playing their best football right now, so... Q. You mentioned the young quarterback. What kind of challenges does he present? COACH RODRIGUEZ: He's a guy doing similar stuff than we are: running with him a little bit, throwing the ball. He was redshirted so he was able to spend a year in the system, at least a year in development. He scares you because everything can break down, he can take off and gain 20 or 30 yards. You have to make sure you keep him contained. Those mobile quarterbacks, anybody that plays us I'm sure will tell you are a nightmare because you can have the best defense called and everything covered, they take off on you. Q. Is that hopefully a good matchup for you? COACH RODRIGUEZ: They see Denard. But we don't let them tackle Denard. They did in the spring, they did a great job. They did a great job in camp when we went good on good, at least getting to him. They've seen some fast quarterback play in practice. But doing it live is a little different deal. It's going to be a challenge. We'll work on it all week. Q. No defensive changes at all on your staff? COACH RODRIGUEZ: No. I just met with the defensive staff the last three hours or so. We all feel like we got to do all we can to have success. Our coaches work very hard, as you would expect. Q. When did you first hear all the rumors about changing staff? COACH RODRIGUEZ: About half an hour ago. Q. Your reaction to that? COACH RODRIGUEZ: Okay, some more rumors. We've dealt with quite a few of them over the last couple years, haven't we? I don't know. That happens. That happens in sports, life in general. You deal with it. I don't mind answering the question. We're working hard. We're all frustrated. The players are frustrated. But to everyone's credit, nobody's pointing fingers, nobody's got their heads down. What do we have to do to get it fixed? Q. What kind of back is Leshoure? COACH RODRIGUEZ: Well, he's a very fast guy and powerful. I don't think you realize how big he is, how strong he runs. That's the thing, he runs with a lot of power. In between the tackles, he can get outside a little bit. He's not a guy you can just hit. You have to hit and wrap your arms up. We missed a few tackles Saturday. That was disappointing. We didn't get off blocks well. This guy here, we better get more than one piece around him. Q. Inside Michigan, good piece about your kids. Do you do anything to shield them from stuff they might hear? COACH RODRIGUEZ: No. It's hard to shield, just like your players. We don't talk certain things in Schembechler Hall because we want to go about our business, all that. With the way the Internet is and everything, kids know. But my wife does a great job with our kids. I guess, for lack of a better word, they're more worldly than you would expect a 14- and 12-year-old to be, not just because they're here, what's going on here, but because they've grown up in this. I've been the head coach basically their whole lives. They've kind of grown up in that deal. So we talk to them. But they're pretty sharp. Rita says it's her education, not mine, that helped them with that. Q. How much do you play in your mind a 3-3-5? COACH RODRIGUEZ: How much do we play? We play it on certain downs, just like everybody plays. I know I've said this a bunch of times. The schemes are way, way overrated as far as 4-3, 3-3-5. I know fans say you can't win a Big Ten with a three-man front. Half the teams in the league run a three-man front. Whether you run a 3-3-5 or 3-4, it's a three-man front. It's not the scheme. The scheme itself has had success against a lot of good football teams in a wide variety of schemes itself. So it's not the schemes. It's the execution of the schemes. We got to coach the schemes the right way, we got to execute the right way, and we've got to have players to make plays in it. Q. Something you can do to get Craig Roh more involved? COACH RODRIGUEZ: We're going to try to. We're moving him around a little bit. That can help. We did that some in the last game. Didn't seem to help a lot in the last game. We're going to try to move Craig around a little bit. He's an active guy, he plays very hard. We'll see how that goes. Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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