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News bullets and other items:
- Hoke says what they tell recruits hasn’t changed. Added that most kids are “…going to be committed to what this place has to offer”
- Hoke thinks that the staff is developing young players and points to guys like Chris Wormley, Kyle Kalis, and Ben Braden as examples
- Jabrill Peppers is “frustrated” about being unable to play, but Hoke said there’s not a point of no return as far as whether he plays again this season
- Hoke added that one of the things to consider when discussing a redshirt with a player is whether it looks like they’ll stay four or five years or whether they’ll be gone sooner
Opening remarks:
“Thanks for coming. Obviously it's been a very exciting week with homecoming this weekend. Michigan is such a global University that people all over the world, they pick a game to come back for and a lot of them pick homecoming so that part is exciting, to have them back in Ann Arbor. Another opportunity for us to play at the greatest stadium in this country and play in front of our fans, our families, our students, who I thought with the Penn State game were excellent and really the energy they supplied to the team was great.
“Indiana – obviously we practiced yesterday. We had a good practice. I thought the energy was really good. I know you got to talk to some of the guys afterwards. The competitive nature of our team has not changed. The hard work has not changed and so it's great to be back out on the field because once you start putting in game plans you obviously move quickly from game to game but I thought that's been real positive.
Indiana offensively: Tevin Coleman, Shane Wynn, Stoner – Nick Stoner, the receiver. They've got good playmakers and obviously Colman, with his ability. They've got an offensive line that I think between the two-deep there’s 160 starts, so there's quite a few guys who have a lot of experience. Coleman himself [is] very explosive. I'm sure you've watched him closely but he does a nice job at the point of attack, at the line of scrimmage and he’s explosive off the ball and that part of it is something when you see a lot of long runs, a lot of big plays that he creates.
“It's important for us to do a great job with cupping the ball, leveraging the ball or however you want to call it. That means cutback players, chase-contain players, plug support players being in the right position and having the right fits and getting off blocks from the interior. For us this week it's about getting better and getting better every day we go on the field.”
Obviously when you hired Doug [Nussmeier] you expected a lot more from the offense than you've gotten. What are the things in terms of your evaluation of him you haven't gotten as much or –
“I think he's a tremendous football coach. I think we've had some things not go the way we’d like them to whether it's points, rushing, all those things. I think from when we hired Doug, and I’d say the same thing from [my perspective] right now, he's a great football coach, a great communicator, a great mind.”
Did he tell you that it was going to take longer to-?
“I don't think he knew the personnel as well. I think that's always something, but I think I don't ever see a coach who was not confident in what they can do saying, ‘Well, it's going to take four years or five years,’ something like that. To me you're just setting yourself up for excuses. Doug is very sure of himself and he projects that. I think he's added a lot to our offense and our personality offensively.”
What do you think is the biggest issue with the offense?
“Well, we haven’t blocked it all the time as well as we can. I think we’re a lot better there. I think you can go game by game and probably start with turnovers. The turnover thing is huge in pro football, in college football and so I think that – you don't get drives, all those things.”
[After THE JUMP: Recruiting and Peppers substance-like stuff]
When you look at the passing offense, you guys haven’t passed for over 200 yards in a game yet. What do you have to do to remedy that or what do you have to do in practice to try and fix that?
“Well, and I think that's a good question. Number one, I think the one thing we've done practice-wise is we're doing a lot of ones-on-ones to get that competition and the speed you want to play so that's – I know we do a blitz drill and that's ones-on-ones and I can tell you from being behind the quarterback it can get pretty scary. I'm not scared, but because of the speed of those guys are coming. Justice Hayes, he'll stand up and hit a linebacker in the face and it's really helped us and it's helped us because of the speed of the blitz that you can't simulate. It's like playing a spread team or a tempo team. You don't quite get that simulation during the week and usually with a team like Indiana it'll take a series or two for our defense to get used to the pace a little bit even though we practice at a high pace. So in the passing game routes being cut short, routes not being exactly what we want. Again, we've got to do a good job of catching the football. There's multiple reasons. You could probably go game by game.”
In the summer when we talked you said the staff needs to do a better job of developing the roster. How do you feel that job is being done?
“I think it's being done. I think it really does. When you look at our roster, we had a meeting the other day with the first and second-year players and there's 54 of them and those aren’t counting redshirts. So you look at the guys who’re getting on the field [like] Chris Wormley, I think Kyle Kalis, his development. Guys who are young. Ben Braden. All those guys are young.”
Are you waiting for a leaps from some of these guys now at this point, from the offensive line especially? They've been taking small steps but at some point feel like leaps are needed?
“Well, I think there's some steps that have been taken. I don't know if you want small, big, whatever. I think as a team this team has stayed together and growing together but I also think they're playing like it. You don't practice the way we practice, and again I'll go back to it because you guys, most of you think I'm nuts anyways, but it's amazing to see how they go out every day. It really is.”
Talk about the role of the tight end in your offense. Do you still see that expanding as you continue to progress?
“Well, I think we'd like to and there's times where his number’s called and the quarterback looks another way or he's not in the progression as much, but a tight end is always going to be, especially in this offense – you know, it really hurt when Khalid [Hill] went down. No excuses because everybody has injuries but he was really coming [along]. He was really doing some awfully good things and AJ's [Williams] been banged up a little bit so it's kind of tough there but specific role wise, yeah, we'd like to get them as involved as you can.”
Can you talk about Jabrill’s attitude and state of mind battling through the injury?
“He’s frustrated. He wants to play football. He’s highly competitive. He’s doing really well in school and those kind of things, but he’s competitive.”
With that, Jabrill came in here and we talked to you in the summer [about how] there were going to be expectations on him, fair or not. You say he’s frustrated. How hard has it been for you and him to get through this day-to-day?
“The good thing is our relationship has been built on trust and it’s always been a great relationship so when I see him getting a little frustrated or not happy, whatever you want to call it, I’m going to approach him on it but he’s a competitive guy. [You’re] pretty well thought of coming out of high school and all of a sudden you have two things that set you back. It’s hard. It’s difficult.”
Just wanted to ask you a general question about recruiting. You sort of joked last week on your coach’s show about rumors and are they out there. What are you telling kids or recruits who you’re talking to about committing to the program and sticking with commitments here?
“Well, I don’t think it’s anything that I haven’t said in previous years. We’ve got a great place here. We’ve got, in my opinion, the best university in the country when you look at what it does for you after football. I think the same way, competitiveness from a football standpoint. Most of the kids, they’re going to be committed to what this place has to offer.”
You said the other day about Desmond [Morgan] that it was late in the season and that was part of the reason you made the decision. For Jabrill it’s also late in the season. With that decision do you make it or he makes it or how does that work?
“I would always and always have talked to the young man and counseled with his family and all those things. I don’t think it’s my place to say even when you do it, ‘Okay, we’re not going to redshirt you early in the year.’ I want to make sure the parents, the guardians, whoever that might be, the high school coach; I want them to know that we’ll make a good decision on it and what’s best for Michigan first and then what’s best for that guy.”
What’s the point of no return?
“I don’t know that there is a point of no return. I think the one thing that you look at [is] how good a guy is. Will he be here five years anyway? Would he just be here four years and would he be here three years?”
Can you say how close he is to coming back?
“He’s closer. You know, he’s closer.”