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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 6, 2010

Ryan Van Bergen

Q. Ryan, all the offensive players have said they voted for Denard for team MVP. How about the defensive side of the ball?
RYAN VAN BERGEN: I voted for Mr. Shoelaces, as well. He obviously deserved it. He broke all the records, and he -- you know, when he was healthy, he was unstoppable. Unfortunately some injuries came to him mid season and that kind of were nagging at him the rest of the season. I would say that he probably didn't play up to his potential at the end of the season just because of the injuries, and he wasn't able to showcase how really spectacular he can be. He's obviously the most explosive player on the field when he's out there.

Q. Was there anybody else that would have gotten a vote from you?
RYAN VAN BERGEN: You know, you look at it, we had some playmakers at receiver that helped us out a lot. We had Junior Hemingway made some big catches in some big games, in the Indiana game and the Illinois game. He made some fantastic catches. But I think you have to base a decision like that over all play throughout the entire season. Roy had some great games. He had a great Illinois game and a couple other games where he was fantastic.
But for the most part if we needed a play made, Denard was the guy who got the ball in his hands and was going to make it happen for us.

Q. You used some four-man fronts. How did you think that worked?
RYAN VAN BERGEN: I thought it worked real well. There's been criticisms here and there about our defense for a while, the fronts and other things like that. And I think that the four-man front, we completely thwarted them that first half. They had 28 yards rushing on 14 attempts or something like that. I thought it was working extremely well, and I'm thinking it's probably something we're going to take a look at going into this game. Obviously I wouldn't have an idea on that, but I would think because of the results we had that it would be something we'd consider.

Q. You grew up in Michigan. Are you a hockey fan? Will you be there on Saturday?
RYAN VAN BERGEN: I can't wait for Saturday actually. Not only am I a Michigan fan, but I also used to really enjoy hockey. I didn't really used to watch Michigan, I used to watch Red Wings versus Colorado Avalanche back when Patrick Roy and -- I'm going to forget the goalie's name, when they got in the fight at center ice, I don't know what year that was, '96, '97 maybe, but I used to watch. Man, when the Avalanche played the Red Wings I was glued to the TV with my dad.
I'm excited, I've never been in the student section at Michigan before, but I'll be there in the student section of the Big House watching a hockey game, freezing, but I'm going to be all about it. It's going to be exciting.

Q. Any particular feelings on Big Ten versus the SEC? Do you have the SEC is the conference to beat in all respects?
RYAN VAN BERGEN: I don't know if they're the conference to beat, but they are definitely the conference I'd want to play against. If you really wanted to test yourself, I think you play a team in the SEC or you play a team in the Big Ten or the Big 12 or Pac-10, but I think SEC and Big Ten, I don't know what the statistics are, so I couldn't say I know for a fact, but I think we have the most teams in the top rankings, you know what I am saying. So I think an SEC versus Big Ten is the -- that's a prominent Bowl game, regardless of when it's played. Luckily we're playing in January, but I think that's -- if you want a real showdown, Big Ten versus SEC is going to be where it's at.

Q. You have experience obviously with the Bowl game in 2008, from the 2007 season. What do you tell the guys about that psyche that you need to have with five weeks between games and you go get ready for a game with that big of a layoff?
RYAN VAN BERGEN: The big thing is just kind of taking it in stride. No one needs to go home today and watch three hours of Mississippi State film. That would be a mistake. The first thing you have to do is focus on yourself. If you're injured, heal your injuries. That's step one, and get recovered and get in shape because none of us are in good enough shape right now. Everybody has got to hit the weight room and take it seriously and take their conditioning seriously, voluntarily or not.
We have to then focus your fundamentals because after three weeks off of football, your fundamentals go out the window and you've got to focus on that. Then you're sitting at four weeks and you realize, all right, now it's time to start game planning, focusing on my opponent rather than myself, but the focus has to be on yourself for the first three or four weeks. That's the only way to go about it because if you focus on your opponent that long you're going to overlook self-improvement you can make. It's a big window of time.

Q. Do you think the players sense that they could be playing for the coach's job in this game, whether you win or lose this game, that that could be quite a factor?
RYAN VAN BERGEN: You know, I think it probably could have crept into some guys' minds. It's not how I feel personally, but with all the media stuff circulating around right now it would be hard not to notice something, on ESPN "The Ticker," whatever, there's always something out there or some guy on campus is going to ask you, if you guys lose are you going to lose your coach.
You know, personally I'm all in support of Coach Rodriguez and everything he does, and being around the program for as long as I have, I'm really excited to be going back to a Bowl game. Some of the results we got this year, five losses isn't exactly what we wanted, but we played against some BCS caliber, some guys that are going to do some big things coming into the Bowl season.
I mean, I just didn't -- I would like to say that I want to be with Coach Rodriguez for the rest of my career. If I'm playing for him, if that's the case, then I'm going to play just as hard as if I was just playing for my teammates. But I hope that isn't based off a Bowl game.

Q. What do you guys like so much about him, because pretty much every player says what you just said, and fans, a lot of them are ready for him to be gone yesterday. What is it specifically that you guys are so drawn to about him?
RYAN VAN BERGEN: Well, me personally, I'm from a small town, Whitehall, Michigan, and Coach Rodriguez is from a small town, and sometimes all people see is the stuff that goes on camera, the stuff that goes out to the television sets, and you can't understand what happens over at Schembechler Hall when no one is there. Coach Rodriguez is -- from what I understand him to be, is a hard-working man that cares a lot about us. He cares about his players as much as any other coach in college football cares about his players, and he cares about the success of us.
And that's what we like about him, and that's why we embrace him, because we can see why we have to work so hard because he's working just as hard noticeably. Go see him on the StairMaster at 6:00 a.m. and you'll understand what I'm talking about. He's just a great guy. When you recognize somebody that has those leadership qualities, it's somebody you're going to want to follow, and I think the whole team takes up that attitude.

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