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Opening remarks:
“Well, let’s get right to it. Obviously disappointed that we didn’t win the football game and disappointed that we didn’t do a couple of things better on defense and we’ve got to work about correcting those right now. Our players came in with a great attitude and we as coaches I think have a great attitude and that’s one bump in the road that we have to get over and go to the next one.”
I’m sure there are a few things on your list but is not forcing turnovers to this point pretty high up there?
“Yeah. The thing about that football game, and I felt it on the sidelines- I don’t know if ever you played against a good opponent where you held them to fifty-some yards rushing, and usually those stats can be misled, but not when a team rushes thirty times or twenty-some times for fifty yards. That part of it you said, ‘Hey, we’re fine here.’ The thing that we didn’t do that we have to is the same thing we didn’t do in the first game: we’ve got to play better red zone defense. That’s really hurt us. We have to, when we get down in the red zone, and all it takes when you get down in the red zone is one bad play and that’s gotten us. I think in the red zone we went to third down one time, they scored. Next time it was fourth down. That makes a whole difference in a ball game.
“The other thing is we’ve got to get turnovers. That’s hurting our team and that was a big emphasis for us. And I think the other thing that we didn’t live up to what I expected us to was third downs. The stats, they’re misleading again. What were they? Eight- or seven-for-fifteen? They hit some really crucial third downs in the first half and, you know, third down is third down. You get it, you get it. And there’s a couple [where] the guy’s feet…just perfect throw, perfect catch. But that doesn’t matter. You have to stop them on third down to be a great defense. Those are three places that we have to get better and for us as a team our defense needs to do that and we didn’t.”
How much, if any, concern about pass rush is neutered by the fact that they were getting the ball out so quickly?
“Yeah, I thought our pass rush- watching the tape we had some guys that were doing some pretty darn good things and the ball was coming out really quick which is, again, I’ll say that that’s concerning because that’s like last year. I felt we’d have a little tighter coverage to be able to stop that when the pressure got close and he threw some in there. Again, we’ve got to keep working on it. I thought our pass rush, I thought our guys came after him pretty good and worked really hard up front to try and get to him. We didn’t get sacks. We didn’t get as many sacks. That quarterback probably played the best game of his life. He played good. He’s a good player, you know. I give that to him and that’s one of the reasons for the outcome was.”
[After THE JUMP: Greg Mattison explains what he should have done differently and why he thinks the defense doesn’t need a wake-up call]
Going back to rush defense a little bit, against Notre Dame it was 54 yards I believe. Going back though, one of the touchdowns was up the middle and then I believe in week one Marcus Cox of Appalachian State scored up the middle. Is that something that you’ve thought about?
“No. The one they scored up the middle, if you watch that tape, if you watch it, Jake Ryan almost makes an unbelievable play where he dives up over the top of everybody and he’s right on the running back and their back, not the biggest guy, squatted down and ducked under Jake and got in. No. Am I worried about them running up the middle? No. That was a play that I think there were some gaps that we could have fit better there, not because of ability and not because of a guy not trying hard. Obviously when a team scores on our defense I’m saying that we didn’t do something right and, you know, we’ve got to shore that up.
“I think one of the biggest things in that ball game, and I’m going to put that on me, is you’ve got to go into a game and get the what-if’s done. I think we have to have our bigger people ready to play all the time. We love to play sub, we love to play nickel and when we had a couple guys get nicked up in that game I would have much rather have some of our more experienced football players who are playing different positions be out there playing than have somebody who doesn’t have a lot of experience, because he plays that position he’s out there. And I’m going to put that on me. I should’ve ahead of time said, ‘Now, if this happens or this happens or this happens what are we going to do?’ We have enough talent at places that we’ve got to get them all out there when they need to be out there and I’ll handle that. That’ll be something that I’ll definitely work on.”
Willie Henry is somebody who you’ve worked with one-on-one. Talk about watching him develop and what specifically he’s doing well in run defense and on the pass rush.
“Willie Henry is like a lot of Michigan football players that we’ve all been fortunate enough to watch over the years. Growing pains, young early and I think that’s the difference between here and other schools. He’s had coaches care about him as a person and say, ‘No, that’s not acceptable to not go hard here’ or do like young guys do. Not Willie Henry is understanding that and he’s playing extremely hard on every play. You’ll see Willie Henry running to the football in times of the game where he wouldn’t have before and he’s just growing as a player and that’s Michigan. That’s what we really work with. Some other places you could play early and just let it go, but here you better earn the right to play by doing it the right way and he’s done that and I’m really, really proud of Willie Henry.”
Brady said you guys played a lot more zone in the second half. What was going on with the press coverage early in the game?
“Well, their wide receivers were doing a great job of getting off our guys and we were up. We were up on them. It wasn’t like last year where you’re playing way off and saying, ‘Go ahead.’ We were up on them and they beat us. Their wide receivers did a nice job of double moves and the ball was out quick and the quarterback was putting it right on the money. I mean, there were a couple where you’re saying, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ I mean, we’ve got a guy hitting him and the coverage isn’t awful and he put it right there. So I think that’s maybe one thing we have to do, go back and forth between some zone and man so they don’t know exactly what you’re in all the time.”
Is it a technique thing at the line? Were the releases too…
“No. It always comes down to technique and we’ve got to work on it. I mean, when you play man coverage you better be on your game or you’re going to get beat and they weren’t bombs but they ended up being touchdowns. I’m never going to blame the secondary. Like I said, that starts with me to be able to get who we feel are the best players at that time in there and that’s what my job is. The next thing is to make sure we have some adjustments to be able to do a couple different things and give those guys some relief if somebody goes down.”
For Jourdan [Lewis] to get two pass interferences on one drive like that, is that something that he’s just kind of grasping because he’s beat or is it…
“I’m never publicly going to ever say anything about officiating but when you play aggressive that’s going to happen. That’s going to happen. We all saw it that where you played off and watch people catch it in front of you and you say, ‘Okay, good boy. You played good.’ And all of a sudden pretty soon they’re right down there scoring. That can happen. The thing I- there were a few of the same things against our offense that weren’t called. I’m never going to complain about officiating. That’s just part of it when you decide to be an aggressive team. If they got them, they got them.”
You were talking about the what-if’s. Are there guys that have earned more time in those situations now if you had that to do again or doing forward?
“What I meant by that is if you’re playing sub defense or nickel defense and all of a sudden one of your best players, Raymon [Taylor] is on the sidelines and Peppers isn’t playing is it better to have James Ross be out there or Royce [Jenkins-Stone] playing a SAM linebacker rather than a nickel. A SAM linebacker and a nickel are the same thing. One’s just better at playing man coverage, you know. So I think if I had known all that was going to happen I would have worked a lot more with Big and Royce and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to play the guys who have played a lot of football.’ And then change our gameplan, maybe play a little bit more zone and these guys have been out here. They’ve done it and that’s what I mean by that. That’s my job. It’s my job to make sure you don’t ever put your defense or your team in not the best situation and that’s what I’ve got to make sure I do.”
How do you feel Jourdan responded after that first drive?
“Jourdan’s a competitor now. Jourdan’s going to be a great football player. You’ve got to have a short memory. If you’re going to ask a guy to go out there and play man coverage and go against one of their best receivers, a guy who’s having a great night, you see it in the NFL all the time. That guy better come back the next day and the next play and say, ‘Okay, that one’s over with.’ We as coaches have to make sure that you’re not successful isn’t because you’re not playing the perfect technique that we want you to do. Because of aggressiveness, that’s fine. But let’s make sure, and that’s what we all talked about as coaches, that when we watch the tape let’s make sure we’re playing perfect technique and we’re doing that.
“Like I said, on defense and in Michigan football it’s a group deal. It’s not a player. It’s not just a player and it’s not just a coach. It’s all of us. I’m the first to tell you that I felt bad for those kids. Those kids have given us everything and so when they aren’t successful we’re going to look at ourselves first and make sure we do our job and then they’ll do their job. I really believe they will.”
I’ve mentioned stats to you from last year. You know, you gave up 43 [Ed: ?] times but still finished I think No. 13 overall. Just quickly, looking at this game in terms of total defense and looking at this game do you feel this might be the shock and this was not the norm for the defense, do you feel like these guys can use that as shock therapy?
“I don’t think they need shock therapy. This is a different group. I’ll say the same thing I said when I talked last time or the first time I addressed it: I’m not worried about this defense. I mean, these guys, they hurt. It wasn’t because they didn’t prepare. It wasn’t because they didn’t want to. It wasn’t because their heads weren’t into it. This happens. This kind of thing happens and it wasn’t, ‘Oh boy, you got a shock and now you’re going to play better.’ No. Maybe you’re going to prepare the little things that you might not have done perfectly that we need to do. Maybe that part of it gets your attention but I don’t worry about this defense. This defense, they want to be a credit to Michigan. They want to be a great defense. They came in Sunday hurting just like everybody else and you’re going to see them play as hard- if you watch the tape, if you watch the tape I’ve never seen a defense play as hard as they played play-in and play-out for sixty-some plays. I’m watching the fourth quarter and I’m seeing Jake and Joe and Willie run as hard as they did in the first quarter. That’s all you can ask. The rest of it, that’s our job. We’ve got to get them to play the best they can play and they’ll do it. No. Not this defense. These guys, they want to be great.”
Given Jabrill’s athleticism and all the things that you said about him leading up, the fact that you haven’t really had him for two games- how much does that change what you planned coming into the season with this defense?
“When a guy has earned the right to be a starter, any time he’s not in there that hurts you. There’s a reason that hurts you and the thing that he brings is a lot of fire and a lot of physical play. More than anything I wanted him to be in there for him. For that stage, for his growth, for him to take it to the next step. For him to gain from this game. There’s another guy [who] if you would have looked at him and if you would’ve asked him, if you would have been around him when he knew in the warm ups that he couldn’t go and it just didn’t respond like we thought it would, I mean, the kid was crushed. He wanted to play as bad as anybody. That’s another learning thing for him so he understands don’t ever take this for granted. Not that he would, but you’ve got a kid there where he wants to be a great football player and wants to be out there on every play.”