News bullets and other important items:
- Desmond Morgan will play on Saturday and will start.
- Richard Ash and Stephen Hopkins are likely to play.
- Brandon Moore and Brennen Beyer are out.
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“You ready?”
Yessir.
“Thank you for showing up. I think we had a very good practice yesterday. The tempo was good. The learning was good. I think we played fast and we competed well against each other, so that’s a good sign. I think we’re excited, obviously, to play in a great venue and play great rivalry game. It started in 1887 and [we’ll] continue it and go from there.”
Does the intensity ebb and flow with the varying strength of opponents over the past few weeks or is it consistent?
“You’d like to have it consistent. I can’t say it’s always been consistent, but you’d like the consistency be there every week so you can improve.”
Has it been consistent?
“It’s been decent. I think it was very — a little more intense, but we’ve been talking about that a lot. The intensity and your focus and your concentration is at a higher level. Your speed of playing the game’s at a higher level. So I think that part of it has been good.”
You talked early on in camp about being impressed with the physical play. Has that translated to the games?
“I think in some — game time I’d like to see it more. I think we all would. I think playing faster, especially on the defensive side of the ball and some of that is youth related why we don’t. I think there’s still some paralysis by analysis going on. I think the tempo that we want to go about our business practice-wise is starting to relate a little more game-wise.”
As far as the injured players …
“Hop ran around yesterday, did some things. Beyer doesn’t look like he’s going to be ready. We’ll still hold out some hope, but it doesn’t look like it. Moore will be out. Morgan’s in.”
Ash?
“Uh, you know what? He’s probably in.”
When you watch Denard dropping back in the pocket, at what point are you okay with him tucking the ball and taking off?
“I’m pretty much okay 99 percent of the time, tucking it and taking it. He’s got such a gift, you know, that most of the time when he plants his foot and decides to go north and south, it’s going to be pretty productive with you, so I’m very comfortable with that.”
Would you like to see him do it more?
“I think it goes from game to game, play to play. Sometimes you do, sometimes you say, ‘Oh, now you’re moving up in the pocket and seeing things and getting rid of the ball.’ ”
Before you got to Michigan, did you follow Michigan and did you hear about Denard’s 2010 game against Notre Dame?
“No.”
Were there things that stood out to you last year when you were prepping for the Notre Dame game and watching the 2010 film?
“No because I’ve been around him enough. It’s not shocking or surprising.”
Scheme-wise, when a team tries to stop a quarterback like Denard who can run, what do they do differently than they might do to try and stop a conventional running game?
“It really dpeends on what they believe in. It depends on wh otheir personnel is. You wouldn’t want to take a guy who’s a 308 lb nose tackle and play him on the read part of it. It varies from team to team how much man coverage they want to play, how much they can play a six-man box, if you don’t have the ability to hurt them with the conventional run with the running back. I think it dictates a lot of what their personnel is and their respect for what you have.”
What did they do last year?
“They boxed him in a couple different ways with backers and a safety. If I get into it too much it’d be way over your head.”
It would.
“I don’t want to do that, but they did a nice job with it, but at the same time Al had some answers in the second half. We started running the ball pretty decent.”
How much of what they did last year contributed to the lack of success the non-Denard running game had?
“I think it was probably a little both. Remember, Fitz didn’t play in this game. Schmitty took about every snap I think. I don’t think Rawls played in the game. I don’t know if you guys remember or not. ”
Hopkins ran a little bit.
“Hop did. I forgot your question …”
How much of what they did last year contributed to the lack of success the non-Denard running game had?
“Um, I think us blocking attributed a little bit. I think just the lack of any continuity offensively. There was no rhythm. I remember that at halftime, just thinking we have no rhythm to it, and then we gave up some big plays. Two runs, three runs defensively that were like plus-25 on third downs that kept the chains going and they did a nice job offensively checking to different plays — so the rhythm of the game wasn’t there anywhere. There wasn’t any momentum anywhere. I think part of that was them, obviously, and give them a lot of respect, and part of it was we didn’t handle the line of scrimmage.”
Does Denard do anything anymore that surprises you?
“You know I’m sure there’s going to be something that happens during a practice or a game that you say, ‘Man, I didn’t know you could throw it across your body that far,’ or ‘He stopped on a dime here and accelerated so fast.’ Those kinds of things I’m sure are out there.”
Did that 90 degree cut last week surprise you?
“No. Not really. No. Because we chased him around, you know, the first spring. We were chasing him all over and when I knew we were coming around a little bit defensively, he said, ‘You know, a year ago I could run wherever I wanted against our defense. Now I can’t.’ So I mean, that was a year ago. That’s kind of as good as an endorsement as anything that our guys are understanding getting to the football.”
Is the chemistry on the offensive line coming together?
“Yeah I think there is. I think them playing together now through three, obviously communication part of it, obviously there’s things they expect from one another that they just have a feel for, so I think there’s a little more of that.”
When you watch the ND-MSU film, what jumped out about Notre Dame most?
“I think they did a really nice job managing the game. From an offensive standpoint of clock management, taking time off the clock in the third quarter. From a personnel standpoint, Everett Golson gets your attention because he made some plays, just manufactured plays with his feet and his arm. The playmakers they had, the amount of playmakers offensively, and then I would say their front seven on defense. You knew they were good, but they were really good.”
Do you think that Notre Dame playing Michigan State and now you in back to back weeks is an advantage for you?
“Well I don’t know. You know, they’re going to play at home and the first night game at their stadium ever — I don’t know ever — but in this rivalry. This is pretty intense.”
Between Desmond Morgan, who you’re getting back from injury, and James Ross, who is going to start?
“Probably Desmond.”
You had some struggles against strong front sevens. How will guys like the Devins alleviate some of that pressure?
“Well it depends how much respect they give those two guys and how they feel about their own personnel. You’re going to play a lot of man coverage. You feel they have the right matchups. It’s more of a concern — not a concern, but more where they have to visualize where their matchups are.”
What impresses you the most about Everett Golson?
“I think that’s part of it, I think it’s poise, I think how he handled the offense, how he threw the football. I hadn’t really seen him much to be honest with you before. I think he’s got a good arm, I think he mechanically is pretty good, and he’s got the ability to be elusive and run the ball.”
Bolden and Demens — has one climbed ahead of the other on the depth chart?
“They’re both playing. They’re both going to play. They’re two good players.”
Is Kenny still starting?
“Yeah.”
How’s Kenny handling that being a senior?
“You know, entitlement issues, he knows you have to perform and you have to produce every day. So there is no entitlement.”
