Press Conference Comments from Head Coach Lloyd Carr
12/16/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
Press Conference Comments from
U-M Head Football Coach Lloyd Carr
Opening statement ... "It is a very happy day at Michigan: Sophia English, the wife of Ron English, the secondary coach, delivered a baby girl this morning, Sydney. We want to welcome her. I want to congratulate Chris Perry. I am calling him Doak now, for winning the Doak Walker Award. It is the first time we have had a Michigan player receive that honor. It was well deserved and Chris has done a wonderful job. Terry Malone is a finalist for the Frank Boyles Assistant Coach of the Year award. Terry did a wonderful job coordinating our offense and is certainly deserving of that honor. David Pearson has been named the National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the state of Michigan. We are extremely proud of David and the 10 young men named to the academic All-Big Ten team. That says a lot about them. I want to give particular notice to Jason Avant out of Carver High School in Chicago. As a sophomore, for a kid to make that distinction is a wonderful statement about who he is and what he is all about.
"For those of you who have been to the Rose Bowl, it is one of the most beautiful spectacles and most beautiful scenes in this country, sitting down in the canyons of Arroyo Seco with the San Gabriel Mountains as a backdrop. The sun will be shining when the game starts. The end zone will be Maize and Blue Michigan and Maroon and Gold Southern Cal, and when we kick that ball off, we begin, on that day, I think the greatest event in our country. Of course our tradition at Michigan, going back to Fielding Yost 1901, his Michigan team played in the first Rose Bowl. To continue that great tradition is really exciting for us. We look forward to playing a great Southern Cal team, the No. 1 team in the nation."
On defensive choices against USC ... "We are going to play our defense. Southern Cal has a tremendous balance. The quarterback, Matt Leinart, is a guy I recruited here at Michigan. When he was here three or four years ago, I really felt like he had a chance to be one of the great quarterbacks in the country. When I watch film, I see a guy with great accuracy, great size, with great intelligence. He is going to be one of those guys that will have a career that we will all remember. They have outstanding running backs and great wide receivers. (Mike) Williams is a remarkable athlete, 230 pounds, 6-5, and a great competitor. He is not the only outstanding receiver. Great balance means you have to mix your coverages, disguise your looks and you have to tackle well. I think the biggest challenge for us is we have to prevent the big plays. We have done a good job of so far, but certainly this is the best offense and the best team we have played so far this year."
On if Southern Cal resembles any other teams Michigan has faced this season ... "In many ways, they are a lot like we are. They are a team that is going to throw the football and run the football well. They have a lot of formations and they may give us some gimmick plays. They are going to do a lot of different things. What I think in studying (USC offensive coordinator) Norm Chow down through the years, I think one thing he is doing with this team more than any of the team that I have seen of his in the past is they are going to throw the ball downfield. They are going to stretch you vertically, horizontally and that presents some real challenges for us."
On the status of Jason Avant ... "He is doing well. He expects to start practice on Saturday."
On how Norm Chow has changed through the years ... "He has always been a guy that understands the passing game. He is obviously a great teacher. His concepts are sound. What his offense does is attack, whether the offense is zone or man, with somebody to go to the football with. That is predicated all on a quarterback who understands those concepts. I think the impressive thing is that (Matt) Leinart, as a young kid, has been able to step in there right from the first game and execute that offense. They do a great job of protecting him. Leinart is a hard guy to get to. I was looking at his stats yesterday and by my calculations, he has thrown one interception for every 40 passes he has thrown, which is exceptional. They are going to run the football as well. Obviously everybody wants to have balance. There are a lot of things that happen for us at the line of scrimmage. They have a lot of time, as we do, to study us as we are going to study them. They are going to try to break our disguises and know whether to take the run or the pass. I think that is the key to what they do."
On having the Big Ten and the Pac-10 in the Rose Bowl ... "Playing against the Pac-10 really adds something to that game. I can't say I was cheering to play Southern Cal from the standpoint that it does become a home game for them. They don't have to travel, they'll have a huge crowd there, as I am sure we will. From that standpoint I wasn't cheering for it. From the standpoint of the Pac-10, from the standpoint of Southern Cal being ranked No. 1 in the nation, I think it really adds to the Rose Bowl and to the experience of this game that we all will be able to enjoy."
On if he thought Michigan would play USC after USC won against Oregon State ... "No, I didn't. I was surprised, absolutely. There is a lot of criticism with the BCS, and I have a vote in the coaches' poll. The truth is, the BCS was set up to get a meeting between No. 1 and No. 2. When we put the computer part of it in, it certainly had some ramifications that were not foreseen. I am certain there will be some adjustments in it. I think the controversy is great. It doesn't matter, unless you have a full-fledged playoff of 16 teams and then you will have controversy. Somebody is going to be left out or somebody isn't going to be seeded where they think they should be. We are not like the NFL where you can involve 32 teams. We always want to maintain the significance of the regular season. Right now in college football, every single game is important. That is why across the country when you play a regular-season game the stadiums are packed. The interest and the enthusiasm of college football never wanes from the beginning of the season to the end. I hope the bowl system never ends. This year I would be happy if they had a four-team playoff at the end, and I think someday that may happen. I think the controversy and the debate is going to go on throughout the year and into the next fall."
On if the Rose Bowl is more interesting than the national championship game ... "I think that depends on your perspective. Certainly from my perspective this is always the greatest experience a college football player can have. To play in the Rose Bowl, in Southern California with all that tradition, I do not think you can match that. I think Oklahoma vs. LSU will be a great football game. I think every football fan in this country is going to watch both games and that is good."
On USC playing for a national championship ... "I think we have a lot to play for as well. It is a championship game between the Pac-10 champion and the Big Ten champion. As I recall, they give a trophy at the end of this game to the Rose Bowl champion. I think we have a chance to be one of those teams at Michigan that leaves a legacy that everybody can look back on with pride. We have ample things to play for. With Southern Cal, there is no question that Coach (Pete) Carroll has announced that this is a national championship game and I am not going to argue with him."
On the coaches' vote automatically going to the winner of the BCS ... "We as coaches agreed that we would support the winner of the BCS championship game as the national champion. That is what I intend to do. Remember 1997. The writers proved to be much smarter about their choice than the coaches did. Regardless of how it ends up, I think as coaches it is not something that we envisioned. It is not something that I would like to do. I would like to vote for the team that I feel deserves the national championship. By the same token, we've agreed to this system. Until it is changed, that is what we should do."
On if Michigan defeats the No. 1 team, should it share the national championship ... "The New York Times, I think, by far had the best poll because they had us ranked third. In that scenario, certainly there would be an opportunity there. The main thing for us is that what we want to do is play our best game of the year. That is where our focus is. We do not have any control over the polls from the first day and certainly we do not have any control over them now."
On if he saw Oklahoma, LSU or USC play this year ... "I only saw Oklahoma play in the Big 12 Championship game. Unfortunately, the networks had to put those two games on at the same time. I think that was not a good thing, at least for a college football fan. I watched that game. Southern Cal, I saw the end of their game against California. I saw them some other times maybe for a few minutes, but that's about it."
On Pete Carroll's defense ... "Pete was an assistant coach at North Carolina State with Monte Kiffin and a very good friend of mine, Bob Sutton, the former coach at West Point. What really impresses me most is that they are giving up 1.9 yards per rush. That is what it is all about. They don't give up a lot of big plays. They are very well coordinated. You do not see people out of position. If you make a play, you are going to have to earn it. They play a lot of two-deep zone. They get great pass rush with their front four. One of the challenges for us, and anybody who plays them, is protecting the quarterback. What they have been able to do, however, is to do a great job against the run with seven guys up front. That enables them to play two-deep zone, which is very difficult to throw the football against. Now they bring the safeties down and give you a lot of movement up front, but they are a very well-coordinated, team-oriented defensive football team."
On how to recapture the momentum of the regular season ... "That is really the challenge we have. The one thing that does concern me is the fact that UCS played the Saturday after Thanksgiving, they played the following Saturday against Oregon State. Their season was two weeks longer than ours. Their timing and all of those things will be much less disrupted than ours was. That is a concern for us and it is always a challenge, if you play away at the end of the season, to take some time off. I don't think there is any solution to that, but we will take what we have and we have had some success. The one thing I have found, since 1997, when we first decided to not practice during final exams, that this system is a great advantage for our kids academically. In the past we always had to do that. We changed that and we are going to the bowl site on the 20th. We have some time to devote to special teams and regaining their timing and to get the game plan in before we get up to Los Angeles. This will be the first time we have stayed downtown. We stayed somewhere in Pasadena. Now we are closer to Rodeo Drive so there will be traffic and a lot going on. Those are the other challenges we will find."
On why USC's run defense is so good ... "It is both their personnel and what they do. This is a great defense. They are very much like Ohio State, except that they may be more athletic up front. They move a lot up front, they give you a lot of stunts and that creates problems in the running game and it causes protection problems. When you talk about USC's defense, you begin up front, but their linebackers are athletic, the secondary is very well schooled. They play within the concepts of what they are supposed to do. They do an excellent job of jamming the wide receivers when they play two-deep. Their safeties do a great job of reacting to the run. Of course, when you're playing two-deep, if you have safeties that don't react, now you have big seams in the defense and that is how big plays develop. I don't see any big plays against USC's defense. When you talk about USC, I felt like Ohio State's punting game, with their punter -- B.J. Sander punted as well as any punter I have been on the field with -- then I watch their (USC's) punter and this guy was the leading punter in the nation. When you talk about their defense, he has put them in unbelievable field position because I have seen two punts that looked like they went 80 yards in the air. I do not know what is in that ball or in his leg, but I'd like to find out. They have a great kicking game as well. They are a team without any apparent weaknesses."
On if he has watched the film from the Cal game ... "I think you study offenses, but you study teams that do some of the things that you do in terms of formation or scheme-wise. California is certainly a game that we have watched and we have some ideas. You know you don't watch just one game. You take three or four or five games and really match up against what you do and try and get some concepts from that."
On having a 50 percent graduation rate to play in a Bowl game ... "I think I have spoken on this a number of times. I think the first thing the NCAA has to do is get a fair and accurate assessment of graduation rates. Today, if you get a guy that leaves school after three years in good standing it counts against you. If you have a guy that transfers out of your program and goes to another school and graduates, it counts against you. We have to come up with a fair way to determine this. The excuse has always been that we cannot track these people. In this age of technology, it seems it would be pretty easy. I think what the Knight Commission is doing, there is always ways to improve what we do and I think that is what we are all interested in doing."
On playing the No. 1 team in the country ... "It's going to be a special game regardless of their ranking. It will certainly add a lot to the game and it will add to it on a national level. That's why people talk about the future of football. As long as they play games like the Rose Bowl, there will be kids who are in front of that TV and dreaming of doing something like that. That's what the Rose Bowl means to me. All of the other things are great, but the game is special in its own way."
On his memories of his first Rose Bowl as a coach at Michigan ... "My first Rose Bowl was against Washington in 1980. We won the Big Ten championship down in Columbus that year. It was Bo's (Schembechler) first Rose Bowl victory and it was exciting to be a part of."
On the team's attitude heading into the game ... "When you play here, you go into every game with confidence. We played a very good schedule in a very competitive conference and we played our best football towards the end of the season. I've always believed that the bowl game is really another season. What happened in the regular season doesn't really have an impact because of a lot of factors. So, it comes down to a one-game season and your preparation and focus. It's the coaches' responsibility to come up with a good game plan and the players have a responsibility to play as hard as they can and execute. That's what it all comes down to."
On how quarterback John Navarre has handled all the criticism this season ... "One of my heroes, Jackie Robinson, said that the greatest revenge is massive success. I always put that in our playbook. You have to realize that you're always going to have critics. What John had to endure is beyond anything that I've ever been familiar with. What I admire is that he had the toughness to ignore it. I'm not saying that it didn't bother him, because I assure you that it did. He did not allow it to distract him from what his goals were. I asked him two years ago if he was sure that he wanted to do this and he never hesitated once. He can look back and look negatively upon that segment that criticized him, or he can understand that during that time he also had a tremendous amount of support from a lot of people. The critics always make the most noise, but if you're doing your very best, a lot of people will support you. I think John looks at it from that standpoint. His teammates and his coaches never wavered. He can look back at everything and understand that everything that happened enabled him to do something special. Had it not been difficult, he wouldn't be nearly as proud of what he has done."
On the team's upcoming schedule ... "Were all going to leave here Saturday morning and arrive in California around 12:30 p.m. We will have a lunch and a meeting and then we'll have practice. We will have short practices in the morning between Dec. 21 and Dec. 23, which will be devoted to special teams. The afternoon sessions will be more of a regular practice. On Dec. 24, we'll go up to Los Angeles. From then on, we'll have Christmas off and have the regular bowl preparation from that point on."
On offensive coordinator Terry Malone ... "I was very confident that he would do a good job because I've been around him long enough to know that he is a very bright guy. He makes very good decisions and he's very passionate about the game. If you met him, you wouldn't think he was a football coach. But he's very smart and he's a great teacher. He's just done a magnificent job. We've scored more points this season since Fielding Yost's teams. He's done a good job of knowing when to get the football to the right people. He's done a great job with formations and he's also got a great group of coaches working with him. It's never about just one guy; it's a team effort. But he has certainly been a great leader."
On his thoughts of leaving to coach in the NFL ... "I've been tempted. One time I stayed because of my family and not wanting to move. The other time I stayed because I already had the best job in college football."
On the team's training since the Ohio State game ... "We continued our running and lifting from the time we got back from Thanksgiving break. They'll work out on their own if they are here. For most of them, once their finals are done they will have an opportunity to go home."
On moving Marlin Jackson to safety ... "I think it was a great move for us as a team. I'm extremely appreciative of Marlin's attitude because he made a move that was in the best interest of our football team. Its unfortunate that he did miss some time because I think he would have had a great year as a safety."
On being with the team over the holidays ... "I think there's a part of all of us who want to be home on special holidays with our families. There are many kids whose families are not able to get to the bowl game. There's a special bond on a football team and you are able to understand that opportunities like this don't come very often."
On whether Michigan has a shot at a national championship ... "We don't have any control over that. The only thing we have control over is the way we prepare and the way we play. Regardless of how it turns out, hopefully we'll be able look back and feel that we did our best and gave it everything we had. We won't leave any regrets on the field."
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