Comments from Former Michigan Head Coach Bo Schembechler
11/17/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Press Conference Comments from
Former U-M Head Football Coach Bo Schembechler
Previewing the 100th Michigan-Ohio State Game
On whether his perspective of the rivalry has changed ... "No, it hasn't changed at all. This is the 14th game that I've been out of, and I can tell you, during those seasons, I follow Michigan very closely, and I also follow Ohio State. That's the way I did it when I coached. I always wanted to know what they were doing. So I follow them. When you ask me a question about Ohio State, I know quite a bit about their team. It's not like I've casually watched them like I do the other teams in the Big Ten. I watch them closely."
On the criticism Ohio State has taken for not scoring enough ... "It's kind of like some of the games I was involved in, where there was not a lot of scoring. It was a defensive battle. I was on the treadmill yesterday, and they were playing the '74 game, and we missed the damned field goal. We played a helluva game C well, so did they. We got the ball late in the game and knocked it right down there to win the game and missed the field goal. I hope this doesn't come down to a field goal, because I believe Ohio State has an advantage in the kicking game."
On whether that field goal was good ... "Oh, it was good. It was good if it were kicked here. But it was kicked in Columbus. Down there, it wasn't good."
On the rivalry being for all the marbles again ... "Oh, I think this is great. This is like the '70s. At the beginning of the season, isn't that what all of us anticipated, that it would come down to this Both teams are pretty well endowed. It was sort of expected that it would be for all the marbles, and it is C that's great."
On whether he wanted his teams to go into the Ohio State game loose ... "I don't ever want to go in with a team loose. I want to go in with them fired up. I remember in 1969, they told me our team was going to get too high early in the week. I said, 'Nah, let's just let them get higher.' I don't think they can get too high. These are teams that have been in big games. They know how to be emotional and play hard, and still know what they're doing. They're not going to get a lot of penalties and things like that. The emotional aspect always balances out. Both teams are going to be pretty highly emotional."
On the rivalry being defined by the coaches ... "I think it has. With Ohio State winning the last two games, that kind of put a little fuel on the fire. I think it's always a great rivalry. You understand, I've been on both ends of it. For six years, I was coming up here on the Ohio State sideline, trying to beat Michigan. I know what it is on both sides. I don't think it makes any difference, really, who is coaching. I don't think it makes any difference what the situation is, although you people make it a lot more emotional when everything is hanging in the balance. That's probably the way it should be C that makes for a great football game."
On how he reacts to people who say Michigan's biggest rival is Michigan State ... "Well, Michigan State is a big rival of Michigan C make no mistake about that. I think the one thing about it is, we've had a little more success with Michigan State than we have with Ohio State. The Ohio State-Michigan series, in the last 30, 40 years, has been pretty much even. That is not true with Michigan State. The last 35 years we've played Michigan State, we've beaten them 26. If we'd have done that to Ohio State, that would have been wonderful, and maybe cooled the rivalry a little bit. But that didn't happen. The Michigan-Ohio State rivalry is 50-50, six of one and half a dozen of the other. That's the way it should be."
On whether the most recent loss in the rivalry gets remembered ... "Yeah, I think they remember that. I do. Back when I coached, in most cases, the team that won the year before had a hard time repeating the next year, because the other team would really come out after them."
On the series ... "Of course, the '69 game has always been a great rememberance, because it was Woody's greatest team. He admitted that. We beat them here. It was my first year, and I'm just trying to establish myself as a coach here. I know for a fact that Woody was kind of surprised when I was named coach here. Whether people realized it or not, that was going to add a little something to the rivalry. But I think the fact that we were able to win that game really set the tone here for my program. That will always be in the back of my mind, the way that turned out. Otherwise, every game I've been involved with has always been close. There have never been any big blowouts. They've always been very intense and everything, but I must admit, I probably enjoyed the 10 years with Woody more than any of the other games that I played against Ohio State."
On Hayes' surprise at Schembechler being named coach at Michigan ... "I don't think he anticipated someone who knew so much about him and his football was suddenly going to be on the other side, and especially at Michigan. Things were sort of going his way in that rivalry, and then all of a sudden, someone who really knew... You've got to understand, when I came here, I was sent to beat one and only one team. I only wanted Ohio State. That's the team I wanted to beat. Michigan could beat those other guys. But Ohio State was different. I talked about it all the time. I did something every day to beat Ohio State, and to beat Woody. That was the greatest challenge in my coaching, was to beat him. If that added fuel to the fire, so be it. That's the way I approached it."
On whether he was consumed by beating Ohio State ... "Well, coaching consumed me. The team that I pointed to the most was Ohio State."
On whether he felt more pressure coaching against Ohio State than anyone else ... "Oh, yeah. This is the pressure game. This is the big one. Just like at Ohio State, they always know your record against Michigan. Here, they always know the coach's record against Ohio State. That's the way it is. That's what makes it such a beautiful rivalry. I don't know that there's another one in the country that is as intense, and is as great a rivalry as this one."
On whether the rivalry defines every Michigan coach and player ... "Oh, yeah. You ask the guys, 'How many times did you beat Ohio State.' If you want to be recognized around here as a coach or a player, you beat Ohio State. That's what you're here for. I'm sure that's exactly what they say down there. Tressel was brought up in Ohio, and he knows exactly what all that's about. That's just like in recruiting in the Midwest here, particularly Michigan or Ohio. When you go in to talk to a prospect, he either wants to play with us against them, or with them against us. That's it. Now that has changed a lot, because there are a lot of other good teams in there. When you stop to think, in our league today, Ohio State beating Purdue was a great accomplishment. That was a wonderful Purdue team. Now we got the better of them here real quick. That doesn't mean they aren't an outstanding team. So there are a lot of other good teams in the Big Ten, maybe more than there were back then, when Woody and I were playing. But if this isn't a great rivalry, why in the hell are all you staying around here to listen to me. I haven't coached in 14 years, and you all come around to here what I have to say about the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry."
On what he likes best about this Michigan team ... "Well, I can tell you, it's a talented football team. They've done a lot of good things. I was very disappointed early in the year when they let the kicking game beat them twice. I would say that going into this game, the one area of their football that I would be concerned about would be the kicking game. Ohio State has a great kicking game, and they are smart enough to play defense and to have that kicking game and play field position, kind of like the old days. They are not a great running team. They try to run, but they're not a great running team. They're not a great passing team. They're just a team that has a great defense and a great kicking game. I like everything about our team except what they've done early in the year in the kicking game. That was very upsetting to everybody, that we couldn't do a better job in every phase of the kicking game. I'm sure there is going to be a lot of emphasis on it now. When you play a game like we're going to play, you can almost rest assured, when these two teams are pretty evenly matched, mistakes are going to determine who is going to win it. I can tell you, back when I played against Woody, there were very few mistakes made on either side, because neither one of us wanted to make a mistake. We both had good defenses, and we both could kick the ball, and we both could run it pretty well. We didn't want to make mistakes C let the other guy make the mistakes. I would say turnovers, missed assignments, botched plays, missed tackles, things like that are going to determine who wins. The kicking game will be very, very instrumental."
On the rivalry ... "When you play the same team 100 times, over 100 years, that's a traditional game. The 100th game, to the players, probably doesn't mean too much. But to you people, and to all of the fans of both teams, it means a lot."
On what makes it a great rivalry nationally, and not just regionally ... "We have historically played this game as the last game of the season. These are the two most dominant teams in the Big Ten Conference. The Big Ten Conference, whether you like it or not, or whether it is today or not, has always been looked at as the premier conference in college football. So here are the two best teams, they play in the clash, they win a lot of championships C it's a natural. It's just an absolute natural. There are a lot of people who would say Auburn-Alabama is. No longer is it USC-UCLA. There's always one team of a rivalry suddenly hits the skids for a few years. That hasn't really happened here. Both of these teams don't have a lot of losing seasons. There isn't a lot of that going on. Every time they play, one team can beat the other. I don't care if one has had a better year than the other C it doesn't make any difference. Anything can happen. It's always been that kind of a game, and that's probably caught the eye of the nation."
On players coming back ... "That's what college football is all about. The '69 guys, I didn't recruit. The team has always been a very special one to me, and I've been special to them, because I put them through a lot of hell. I wanted to establish a tough program. I didn't want to hear any more of that whispering out there that Michigan was talented but not tough. That never happened again. I wasn't going to let it. I put them through a lot of hell. Those that stayed won the championship. The Dierdorfs, the Mandichs, the Calderazzos, the Craws C the guys like that, that were here and were recruited by the other staff, finally accepted my type of coaching. When we won the biggest game that we possibly could win, that really brought us together. So we're still close. And that kind of relationship, coach and player, it would be nice if it could go on everywhere. There isn't an Ohio State football player that can't go into the coaching offices and talk to the coaches. They'd never be chased out of there. Once you have played at a program like that, you're there forever. It's the same thing here. These guys know they are welcome back here any time they want to come back. There will be 1,000 of them back here for this game. They will come from all over the country for this game, because of the magnitude of it. They'll all be here. You'll see more ex-Michigan football players than you've ever seen at any game that I can recall. That's what college football is all about. That's what you try to foster. We have it here. It helps that I'm around. But I'm not around C once football season's over, I'm history. I do come here for the football season, and I enjoy it tremendously. I try to not be in the way, and fortunately, Lloyd Carr was one of my guys. We have a very close relationship, and it doesn't bother him at all that I'm hanging around. Matter of fact, I kind of think he likes it."
On whether Carr is consumed by the game ... "(laughing) He's a pretty uptight guy. I don't know how he was at the press conference, but I think everybody will be ... he knows how to do it. He does a tremendous job with players. He knows how to handle players. He's very good at that. So I have no doubt that he will have this team ready."
On whether Carr enjoys the pressure of the rivalry ... "I don't know. I enjoyed it a lot with Woody, because he was doing his thing and I was doing my thing. I kind of miss the old guy. It would be nice if he were here today to talk to you as well. Although, when he would talk to you about what happened when he and I played, it wouldn't sound anything like what I would say that happened when he and I played. He always had a different slant on what happened in that game than I did."
On facing Hayes ... "Oh, I'd know him like a book. He stood out there chasing Jerry Markbreit up and down the field, cause he knew the game was over. He'd lost. He's setting the stage for next year. I know him like a book. He was out there on our hash mark, and his glasses were fogged up, he couldn't see, and he's looking over at me and chasing Markbreit and I'm saying, 'Why, you son of a gun.' He's going to go back to Columbus and tell everybody that he got screwed out of this game, so they won't think so badly of him, because he didn't have a good year. That was not a good Ohio State team. Then he was setting the stage for the next year. He was beautiful. Nobody could do it like him C nobody."
On whether he considered staying at Ohio State and replacing Hayes ... "Yeah C that was my goal in life, to replace Woody Hayes. Absolutely, that's what I wanted. I went down to Miami, and Dick Larkins told me, 'You'd better win down there if you go.' That's what he said. I said, 'Okay.' I went down there, and Woody told me I'd be foolish to go, because I would be the next coach at Ohio State. I said, 'Well, geez, how much longer are you going to coach' He said, 'Oh, four or five years, probably.' After I went to Miami, he coached for 17 years after I left. I don't think he was really truthful with me there."
On Chris Perry running 51 times at Michigan State ... "I never ran anybody 50 times. I ran 'em 40, but not 50."
On talking football with Carr ... "If he comes down to talk football, we talk. But I don't go up and ... oh, I joke around with the guys every once in awhile. After Perry ran 51 times against Michigan State, I opened the door to their meeting room and I said, 'What the hell happened to our passing attack'"
On Harbaugh's guarantee ... "Well, you know, that's not something you like to see a kid do. But if you ask our players when we met, I said, 'Harbaugh, you keep your mouth shut from now on. But we will have to back you up on this. We'll just have to win the game, that's all.'"
On Harbaugh being a candidate for the Eastern Michigan job ... "Jim's always wanted to coach. He's always wanted to be a football coach. I think he'd be an excellent one. What I can tell you about Jim is, most guys who have had a long professional career like he has, people think they can't get down in there and coach, and recruit, and do all the things everybody else does. Jim's already done that. He knows that. He knows what he would have to do, and that wouldn't bother him a bit. He's not a big ego guy. He's not that. And he would make an excellent, excellent football coach."
On Kolesar's catch ... "We were out of that game, then Kolesar brought the kickoff back, and caught the ball in the end zone for a touchdown. He covered the whole football field himself. Kolesar was a highly underrated football player."
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