[Barron/MGoBlog]
Substantive injury and personnel updates? Substantive injury and personnel updates.
- Rudock will be sore, is dealing with a shoulder injury, and is going to test it out in practice today
- Godin is “working through something” and will hopefully be back sooner than later
- Isaac’s absence from this week’s depth chart is “an internal matter”
- Poggi was sick last weekend and will be fine if he follows Harbaugh’s push-ups-and-whole-milk recovery regimen
- Speight is listed as the No. 2 quarterback on the depth chart
“Hello.”
/silence
“No ‘hello’ back? I say it and just crickets.”
Hello.
“Good to see everybody.”
As somebody that talks about just pure, honest competition, did you enjoy watching that last play again?
“Yes. You know, always in a football game it never comes down to one play. The goal-line stand at the end was really set up by a lot of plays in the game. And if you go back, the play before James Ross does a great job staying on his man, keeping his eyes on his man, not getting fooled by the deception in the backfield. Covers down or we don’t get to that goal-line stand.
“Two plays before Channing Stribling was beat on the double move, but just the hustle to make that play competitive; ended up catching up, getting his hand in there, and we get the ball down just inside the one-yard line.
“Jabrill Peppers: quarterback keeps on a quarterback-driven run, and that was a hustle play to come back inside of a blocker, trip up the quarterback, keeping them from a real long play.
“The third-down play: Jourdan Lewis in competitive coverage keeps that inside slant from being a big, big chunk, and you just keep going on and on.
“Before that, Drake Harris- or, Drake Johnson made a really good play that probably went unnoticed in the third quarter when we were backed up. Wilton [Speight] threw a ball out to him and just a big-time hustle play to get a hand back in and break up that pass from being intercepted. Don’t know if you know the play that I’m talking about, but just numerous types of plays like that that you keep hustling, you keep battling and there remains a chance that something good can happen there.
“Then that last play was definitely a team effort there. Our guys did a heck of a job defending that quarterback sneak and we were able to win the game.”
[After THE JUMP: A Jabrilloquy, why Michigan wasn’t offside on the last play, and Harbaugh actually reminisced about his playing days]
What’s Jake’s [Rudock] health status right now and what do you expect for this weekend?
“He got treatment. We’ll see today. He’s going to go out and participate in practice. We’ll see how much he can do. He’ll probably be sore. He’ll probably be limited but that would be expected.”
Is the injury still what you thought after the game [a shoulder injury]?
“Mmhmm.”
Did they rule out concussion?
“They did. I don’t want to get into the whole debate of it, but that was never- concussion was never something that was mentioned.”
You mentioned James Ross made a nice play. What led to the decision to move him to that BUCK linebacker position this week, and how did you think he performed there?
“I think admirable. He did a good job.”
What went into the decision to move him outside of his regular linebacker spot?
“We got some injuries. Some of our best players have gone down. Other guys got to step up. Sometimes that’s changing roles or doing multiple roles, being a two-way player on the same side of the ball because of circumstances.”
How much Jake need to practice this week, or is he the type where he doesn’t have to practice all week to still be ready to go?
“It depends. There’s no magic formula other than that player is our best option and gives us the best option to win. Whatever position you talk about, whether it’s quarterback or cornerback, having the understanding that they’re not going to injure themselves worse, so not always- doesn’t have to be 100%. Sometimes it does. Maybe the next player, the next option’s…just depends, you know what I mean? And also that somebody’s not going to injure themselves worse. So that would be the two criteria. How good does he have to be to play? He’s not going to injure himself worse and he’s the best option, gives us the best chance to win with the percentage of his health.”
What did Wilt do to move up to the No. 2 spot? Also, we saw Wilton and Shane warming up. Was there a decision you made in that game or did you know it was going to be Speight?
“We plowed this ground pretty good. Back from the beginning of the season the decision was made with Shane’s input that we were going to go the direction of trying to get the redshirt if possible. He hasn’t redshirted since he’s been here and it’s just moved in that direction. I think Wilton’s improved and there’s not much more to elaborate on than that.”
A quick question to start: With Jabrill, how many plays did he participate in? Also if you could just talk about his determination for the all the skills he has. That seems to be really special, his level of determination.
“Yeah. That’d be one thing, yeah: special. Special level of determination, special level of talent, special level of instincts and intelligence. If you follow the different roles he played linebacker, running back, he lined up at receiver, he lined up at quarterback, he lines up at nickel on defense, he lines up at corner, he lines up at safety, kick returner, punt returner. He’s carrying a lot of water.”
How many plays did he get into exactly?
“I don’t know exactly.”
Was it pushing 100?
“Uh…I don’t know.”
Along that exact same line, with Peppers, you just mentioned all the different positions he’s played. In practice how does that even work to teach a guy that many spots on D, that many spots on O, special teams?
“Yeah. You know, it would seem hard. It hasn’t been that hard with Jabrill because he’s so…he’s so instinctual. Athletic instincts, you know. He’s a really intelligent guy.
“You can tell him things once- he can look at a piece of paper, and the really good ones like that, they can visualize it. They can visualize themselves doing it, they memorize it, they go out on the field and they do it just like they visualized it. I don’t know how many people are there like that in this world. Not that many. Couple thousand, maybe, but he’s one of them.
“To answer your question, it hasn’t been that hard. Just tell him what it looks like [and] he goes out and plays it. It’s rare.”
I don’t know if you noticed but there was another crazy ending in a college football game in Duke-Miami; you had yours, Georgia Tech-Florida State…do you think this is just a quirk or is it something you have to pay more attention to, special teams late in games, because it seems like something happens every single weekend?
“We pay much attention to it and always have, do, and always will. I’m very pleased with our special teams. Efficiency for special teams, we track that and we’re No. 1 in the country, so proud of that and we’re going to keep at it.”
Did you see the Duke-Miami finish?
“I saw the eight-lateral play, yeah.”
You guys got Grant Newsome in the game. You said the other week, I thought, that it was rare for a true freshman offensive lineman to be ready to play. What has he done to be ready?
“He’s physical mature-er than most. Mentally, really sharp, more so than most. And he’s a battler. He’s just tough. He hasn’t taken a back seat since he’s been here. Gives no quarter, takes no quarter. Like that about him, so all those things. I know he’s going to be good and he’s ready now, so I just go back with the instincts: any player, they’re better when they play football. You get better at football by playing football.”
Fair to say he’s the sixth offensive lineman?
“Yeah, that would be fair. Sixth, seventh. That’d be another reason.”
MGoQuestion: Henry Poggi didn’t play on Saturday. Any update on his status?
“Yes. Henry’s sick, and we believe that he’ll be okay this week. Had a bit of a pneumonia. Henry had to take a knee. See if we can’t boost his immune system. Do some more push ups. Drink some more milk.”
I thought there was some struggle on read options and containing the quarterback. I wonder if there was something structural you didn’t like or if the contain guy was just crashing too hard?
“Yeah, it wasn’t structural. Mistakes were made. That was disappointing. We’ll have to correct it, but…yeah. Not happy about it. We’ve gone over it. I don’t know what to attribute that to: lack of focus, or contain too loose, too tight, I don’t know what was it. Just did not execute the proper assignment.”
Matt Godin, too, didn’t play on Saturday night. Is that right?
“Yeah, he’s working through a little something.”
Do you expect to have him back sooner than later?
“I hope so.”
Ty Isaac’s not on the depth chart. Is that injury or a personnel decision? I don’t see him on there and he didn’t play on Saturday.
“That’s an internal matter.”
Your thoughts on Jehu Chesson as a developing leader and offensive weapon.
“Just can’t say enough about him. Doing so many things right. We’re not in the goal-line stand if he doesn’t make some really good catches in that ball game, contested catches, touchdown catches, and continues to block. He’s another one of our guys we can line up in multiple positions. If you watch him on special teams he’s one of our leaders there, and as a blocker he’s got to be one of the premier blocker in the country as a wide receiver. A++, Jehu Chesson.”
Can you put in perspective now that you’ve gone back and watched film what Wilton did? Just coming off the bench like that and having the early struggles like he did, I know you talked about it a lot on Saturday but to go in there and lead the team to a touchdown with all the factors that were against him.
“I don’t know if I can put it in perspective to be honest with you. I’ve never personally been in that position, to come off the bench and lead a fourth-quarter comeback. I had success just like that in such a dramatic way in all my times of…well, I take that back. Not the first time. Well…I’ve had some good ones, I guess. I had a couple good ones as a pro. Yeah, not the first time playing.
“The first time playing come in and it was disaster, whether it was first high school game playing and coming off the bench and first college game coming off the bench. First pro game was a disaster. Took a 13-yard sack. First time, I guess I can’t relate to that.”
If yours were a disaster then does that say even more that he was able to do what he did?
“Yeah, I’d say it’s great. It’s dramatic. It’s something really to build on. I don’t know who else has done something like that. Nothing’s coming to my mind right now, so we’ll use it as a growing, learning experience. I thin it’s really going to benefit him. It’s great for his confidence.
“I imagine when we go to practice today that No. 3 will have a pep in his step, a bounce to him. Chin up high, I would imagine.”
Isn’t that your preseason dream, coming in in the fourth quarter and leading a comeback drive?
“It is, yeah.”
I wanted to ask, too, how long is-
“I have done it. I’m not saying I never have done it. At least a couple times- eh, it’s not about me.”
How long do you expect Ty Isaac’s internal matter to keep him off the field?
“Oh, I would just…I’ll keep you posted. None of your business would be another way to say it.
“Oh, one thing. We’re just about done, right?”
/SID points to one more question-asker
Thought about Rutgers?
“Very impressed. Very impressed. Very much like the Minnesota team. They just- we play a lot of good opponents. Impressed with the athletes and the teams. Minnesota was outstanding. They were hitting on all cylinders and we expect the same kind of matchup with Rutgers.”
With how Michigan has been up until this far, do you have any predictions for how Ohio State will come out? [Go easy, this was from someone on a journalism class field trip]
“No.”
No?
“I’m not a predictor of things. We’re focused on winning our next game. That’s the most important game to us. Thanks for your question, though.”
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“I did want to say, somebody was showing me this picture of the line of scrimmage on the goal-line stand where we appear to be offsides. It’s a very interesting thing. I’ve studied this a lot, and I have really good clarification on this that centers will often times come up to the ball and move the ball forward, and that’s not a penalty but what the officials tell you is the defensive line gets the ground that’s coming to them. They won’t penalize the center for not picking up the ball and moving it forward, but the defensive line gets the ground that belongs to them, so optically it can look like that in a picture but the way I understand it from the officials is that is legal.”
What was the issue?
“Yeah, some people were commenting. I know some bloggers, fans and things saw the picture and said, ‘Hey, isn’t Michigan offsides?’ and this is a subject I know a little something about so it was good. Our defensive line took the ground that was coming to them, that belonged to them and executed that stop as good as you can.”