Thanks Nadine. Didn't mention Bobek, or some of the other guys ( Cochran, Gentry, Jones, James, etc.)
I missed a lot today - but actually was dealing with some urgent work things, while at the presser. So here's the official transcripts:
Matt Limegrover
Q. Coach, I don't know if you know Flip Saunders at all, but with losing him over the weekend, did you have a relationship with him or did anyone? And what kind of impression did he leave?
COACH LIMEGROVER: No, I kind of wish -- I know we talked about it as a staff yesterday with him being a former Gopher and everything and being an icon here in the city. But you talk about something that touches, you do the deal where you have people raise their hand in a room of who has been touched by cancer, and it's just unbelievable and really sad.
It kind of brought us all, in a couple of minutes we got introspective about how -- he's a young guy, you know, and that was pretty sad.
Q. Talk about the passing game off of what you did against Nebraska.
COACH LIMEGROVER: Well, you know what? I think you look at it every day. You say, hey, what did we do well and continue to build on that. What we did against Nebraska wasn't necessarily something that kind of came out of the blue and had been building up over time. Trying to cut away the things that maybe we can't protect well or maybe Mitch can't throw the routes well or maybe we weren't as good at.
When you start doing that, it's the idea of trimming the fat. Trimming the things away that aren't giving you a chance to be successful. So you start out the year, whether it's run or pass, all these great ideas, hey, we can do this. We saw so and so do this. As you go along and get into games and see how people are going to play you, new opponents maybe or different people, and you get into this is the identity this team has. This is the stuff that we do well.
And I think we're starting to get there in the pass game. We're really starting to find the stuff that I think Mitch feels very comfortable with, and being able to hone in on that kind of stuff.
Q. Doing really good in the third down and leading the nation. Does that start with being good on first down for you guys so you're not getting into 3rd and long?
COACH LIMEGROVER: Absolutely. We cut up everything. And you look at your third and mediums, and then you look at that third and long. There are more third and longs against opponents than there are third and mediums. And when you look at those, there is a fair amount of third and shorts, large amount of third and mediums, and a small amount of third and longs. I think it's probably the most percentage-wise of third and longs that we've seen of any opponent so far this year and maybe even last year.
So the key is you don't want to be in 3rd and 8, and 3rd and 10 against these guys. You don't want to against anybody, but you definitely want to make sure that you're staying on schedule to get it to where 3rd and 2, you've got a nice big grouping of plays that you can go to. 3rd and 9, it gets real small, and they know that as well, so they start zeroing in on you, and I think they do a nice job doing that.
Q. What kind of shape is your offensive line this week (No microphone)?
COACH LIMEGROVER: Not going to be able to play. That's a shame because he's given so much and it's frustrated him. Not going to be able to go.
But hopefully Brian Bobek continues to be on the mend. Hopefully we can get him back and add him into the mix. An older kid, stronger kid. The week off last week with the amount of practice we did has helped a couple of those seniors, Jon Christenson, and Joe Bjorklund, I knew they were moving around well on Sunday, and we need those guys.
So practice started on Sunday, got yesterday off and had spoken with both of them today, they both feel good and are ready to go. So that's encouraging for sure.
Q. What was different from a pass pro standpoint versus Purdue against Nebraska?
COACH LIMEGROVER: Just the different things we did. We moved the pocket a little bit more against Nebraska. So we were able to get Mitch on the move some more. Maybe kept an extra tight end in at times to help with some of that and give our tackles a little bit of a breather. I think throwing more on first down helped us.
That's when the rush is going to be the least -- and answering Skip's question or Chip, excuse me, Chip's question, when they know it's 3rd and 10, they can pin their ears back. It makes it very tough on you. When it's 1st and 10, and they've got to play the run and those types of things. When you can throw effectively, then you're going to have your best protection, and you're going to have your best opportunity to hit things. So I think that was a big key for us.
Q. (No microphone)?
COACH LIMEGROVER: Keep going. Yeah, there's one more, and then I've got to figure out that part. Just I tell you what, they are extremely well-coached. I think what their coaches have done is they've said here's what we're going to do. We're going to do it well, and you're going to play like your hair is on fire, and they play hard. I mean, they play a lot harder than they did last year. That's a testament to the coaching staff, those defensive coaches, because they had good players last year. I don't think they always played hard, but now they play hard.
They're doing what our defense does from the standpoint of they play a lot of different guys. They'll roll through six, seven, eight defensive linemen. So when a kid's in there that's a quote-unquote backup, he's playing as hard as they can for however many plays they have him in there. If he's tired, they see him tapping his helmet and that starter comes back in, and vice versa. I think that's a huge key for them.
They have some players that are pretty special individual players, but the thing that strikes me is just as a group how hard they play and how they go and they chase the football. You'll see someone else come rolling in, and he'll play just as hard for as long as he can.
Q. What was the X-factor when a team loses a game like they did two weeks ago? How do you guys account for that or try to work that into the game plan or the formula that you anticipate when something happens like that?
COACH LIMEGROVER: Well, we're going to try to make them punt as much as possible. No, you know what? I think they've had the week off. They've been able to wash it out of their mouths, and I think they're going to be ready to go. They've got a lot of motivation coming in.
Then the same thing for us. We could take Nebraska, we could get through it, we can learn from it and move forward. So I think that anything in that realm would be more asked of their coaches, because I think it's all about us and it's all about us being prepared to go out and to do things, the little things we need to right at the beginning of the game to kind of tilt that thing in our favor. External factors taken out of the equation.
Q. Now that Demry has the red-shirt off, and Mitch has been playing really well since that day. How concerned are you, I guess, about Demry's development if things continue at this rate?
COACH LIMEGROVER: Well, I think probably the biggest thing with that is that Demry is our No. 2 quarterback right now, so the amount of reps that he's getting with regards to practice -- and to be honest with you, we wanted to use him in the Nebraska game. But there wasn't a point in time where we felt like, okay, this is the right time to do it.
Then that's always the challenge. That's a challenge with any freshman you have. But particularly to me it's centering at quarterback. It's tough, because those are a couple key positions as far as everything getting done on offense. I would have loved to have played Tyler Moore before I "had to" with Brian Bobek going down at center. But that's a tough transition to make. But that's something that you want to get involved with that.
So one of the things that we're working on this week is having some things where we can get them revolved. If Mitch continues, it's hard, it's hard to pull a guy out when you feel like there are things that are going right. But we've got to make sure that we have the plan in place and feel comfortable doing that when the time basically presents itself.
Q. Your two backs refreshed from the week off?
COACH LIMEGROVER: Yeah, yeah. They're ready to go. They were actually fairly beat up heading into Nebraska. So coach did a great thing. We didn't -- other than them getting in and doing some lifting, we didn't do anything with them until Wednesday. Even Wednesday and Thursday we're were not real heavy duty days. It was light work, keep your timing type of thing.
That is the one thing that I noticed was we had real good zip in our step come Sunday. Everybody was hustling around, moving around. That is the great thing about the off week. Not only do you get healed up and rested up, but you get an extra day or two to start implementing your game plan and having the guys work it. We were very fortunate Sunday was a great day and really felt like we got a lot done.
Tracy Claeys
COACH CLAEYS: We've had a good off week. Had a chance to work on the fundamentals and get some kids legs back. I think our kids are pretty fresh. We practiced on Sunday, and it went really well.
Obviously, we're excited to have the Little Brown Jug in the state of Minnesota. It's meant a lot to a lot of people, including our team, and it's been to a lot of events over the last year. So we've enjoyed having it around. It will be a big challenge, but we're looking forward to Saturday night on Halloween and keeping it right here in the state of Minnesota.
So with that, I'll take questions.
Q. When you broke down the Nebraska film and stuff, just what were some of the themes of what happened on defense?
COACH CLAEYS: Did a terrible job. Here's the thing: Here's where I messed up is that week we practiced Cody on Tuesday and Wednesday, which is our big two practice days. Also we're going to practice on Thursday and find out he's not ready. So now we're having to juggle our linebacker groups on what we were doing.
And knowledge gives kids confidence, you know? And we played hesitant because of having to switch everybody around, I believe that, on the run game. So we didn't get -- those kids got very little practice on the running game.
Thursday's a big passing day for us to work on the passing game. So I did a terrible job managing the injuries. I should have repped somebody else a lot more and then got Cody the reps at the end of the week. But we were pretty sure he'd be back, and then he wasn't.
Then we get to the game during warm-up, and Alex Keith breaks his hand during warm-up, and he's out. So now we're, again, we're taking somebody, Gaelin Elmore, who has had some reps, but not very many, and now he's got to go in and play also.
So up front we didn't play very well. When you don't do that, you give a team a two-way go. Anytime you give a team a two-way go, you're in trouble. You just are. If we had just taken away the run from the beginning, then we'd have been better or at least even take away from the passer in the game. But we didn't stop anything with that. Then we lost two jump balls. One we had a kid fall down, one got him doubled.
When you don't play well on defense and then you have -- there's always going to be those two or three jump ball plays that are going to go against you. We didn't give ourselves an opportunity to win. And I'm the one responsible for that.
Our kids didn't play as fast. Nebraska played very well. But our kids didn't play as fast, and I think a lot of it had to do because Thursday we're juggling people all over because of a situation I should have handled better on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Q. Michigan, just a great overall team? Are they a good passing team?
COACH CLAEYS: I'll tell you what, they are. They remind me a little bit of how we were last year in some games. Since the first game they've taken care of the ball. They move the chains. They're playing a lot more physical. I think they're back to the fact of, hey, we're a two-back downhill team. They have hardly any negative yardage plays.
The fullback carries the ball more than any major college football team the last 20 years, and they're good at it. They've gotten back to getting downhill, doubling you on the defensive line, not losing yards and keep getting in a manageable third down. That's what they've done. They have kept the ball away from people and scored enough to win.
Some people think nowadays if you win 21-17, it's embarrassing because you didn't score 40 points. That's not them. They'll gladly walk off the field with a 17-10 win. So it's a completely different mindset, but they're playing well together. Their defense is -- I think defensively they're only averaging like 60 snaps a game, which is unheard of today, but that's because of how well they're doing on offense, and their special teams have put them in some very good situations. So they're playing really well as a team.
Q. It's a different coaching staff, but Harbaugh said yesterday that you guys whipped it pretty good last year. What do you feel you can look back at last year and maybe bring over to this one, even though it's a new coaching staff?
COACH CLAEYS: Last year, like you said, they were a lot more one back and didn't do all the doubling. And you know, really just a completely different mentality. So you know, part of doing a great job of coaching is recognizing what you have and what they do best. I think after the Utah game that each game they've decided and done a little bit different, but committed a little bit more to the run and some things they're doing. They're what you would think a Michigan football team's built on. Now they're downhill, playing good defense. Running the ball. Takes occasional shots down the field.
But for the most part, it's, hey, let's not lose any yards, let's move the chains and take advantage and score when we can.
Q. Were there some surprises there with the gimmicks they'll run?
COACH CLAEYS: He does a nice job, yeah. He does it -- Michigan State, at one time they put their wide receiver at tight end, because Michigan State, like us, got some injuries. They had a true freshman at safety, and now when they released on the pass, took advantage of a true freshman. Hit a big play. So they do some good things to try to create some mismatches with their personnel.
Q. You had mentioned on the call that Cody's maybe still a little limited. Is facing a two-back offense like this, it seems that's one of Everett's strengths. If you need to go that route this week will you be in bad shape then?
COACH CLAEYS: Yep, Yep, and Everett didn't get as many reps last week because of what happened. You know what I'm saying? So he's another one that didn't get as many reps. So played a little bit hesitant, so, yeah. I won't make that.
We'll make sure that Cody knows what to do. But we're going to give the reps to the other guys until we know he's ready to go for sure. For sure.
Q. Is there anything you can take away from this three-game stretch of ranked opponents that you had from last year where you had four straight at the end of the year? Anything?
COACH CLAEYS: Kind of like they say, how you eat an elephant, one bite at a time, you know what I'm saying? That's all you worry about. So that's how it is. I won't want to look at it and look at those three, four, five games in a row. Just, hey, let's concentrate on this one and then we'll worry about the next one, all right? Because it's pretty -- well, it is what it is. You know, you get this time of year, it's a tough schedule. So you take them one game at a time and do your best and don't worry about those other ones yet.
Q. Going back to Michigan, is their personnel a lot different than last year?
COACH CLAEYS: They've got a couple kids that red-shirted because of injuries. They've got a corner there and so the bulk of it is the same. The bulk of it is the same. Like I say, they've changed the way they play. They're a lot more downhill, a lot more physical and not trying to spread the ball all over like they did in the past.
Q. The quarterback is different, but the rest of it is -- he recruited a lot of good players when he came in?
COACH CLAEYS: I think they got behind the eight ball. There's not a lot of freshmen playing. Most of them were kids that were there. Like I say, it's more the offensive philosophy has just went back to, you know, hey, we're going to run the football.
And like I say, they make you respect the fullback, no team in the last 20 years have you had to do that. Fullback is always a blocker, decoy, but they've got some awfully big fullback running game.
Q. How much do you think this group's history now winning some big games helps you going into Michigan now?
COACH CLAEYS: It always helps you. It really does. So, you know, you can tell all the time, the group that's ready and whatever team plays the best and makes the least mistakes and plays the hardest will end up winning the football game. We've been through those on the road and at home.
Yeah, I think our kids will play well. I really do. Give us an opportunity to win the fourth, and at home, Halloween. I heard the last time they had a night game here at Halloween, it was a lot of fun. So looking forward to it.
