Postgame Quotes: Michigan 18, Penn State 13
10/11/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Michigan Head Coach Brady Hoke
Opening statement ... "It was obviously good to win, and we had some tough times and tough weeks, but the resiliency of our football team, the resiliency of how they go about every day in practice and the hard work that they put in paid off. And it wasn't pretty at times, but things aren't pretty all the time.
"And what they did, though, is they played together, they stuck together. We had some guys who were banged up, obviously. That's just part of football. If you're not banged up, then you're really not playing, but we got guys who are tough, got guys who understand what it is to play as a team and play for each other and play for Michigan, and I'm excited for them, as much as anything for how they stuck together.
"Also the environment, the crowd; there's no place better in this country when you have a game like this than Michigan Stadium, and I can tell you our kids, they feel it, they feel it when those people are there cheering for them, and the students that were there, former players, them coming back and supporting those kids; you don't get that in a lot of institutions or maybe any institutions like you do at Michigan. So very excited for our kids.
"We're going to enjoy it, and then we'll get back to work next week Tuesday and Wednesday."
On the plays in the defensive second half and then the winning plays at the end of the game ... "I think a couple of things. Penn State had a week off, and as most teams do, you have a week off. You start looking at tendencies. You start looking at things and maybe patterns to it. In the first half, maybe they broke some tendencies they had.
"I think they -- Greg (Mattison) and the staff defensively -- did a great job at halftime. I think our kids had a will, and they willed themselves to keep going, and it was pressure on the quarterback with four-man, three-man rush that really worked out pretty well and maximum coverage. And part of that, you know, is he's gotta hold the ball a little longer, and we got off the field in third downs, which in the first half we really didn't as much."
On Devin Gardner coming back into the game ... "Devin's leadership has been outstanding, and he played a game a year ago with a broken toe for half the game. So you know he's got a toughness to him. He is turning in through his maturation process and everything into a tremendous leader. He was cheering the defense on when they were out there, and he wants to compete and play. And the trainers said, 'Yeah, he can go.'"
Of if tonight was a glimpse of where he expected the team to be at this point ... "Yeah. I think that's the expectations that we all had. I think there isn't any question about it. That's what Michigan has been about, and that's what it's going to continue to be about. And we talked about taking one at a time, and that's what we're going to do, and just see how this team finishes."
On pressure and play of Jourdan Lewis on the interception ... "They kind of go hand in hand, and I thought that No. 1, Jourdan has done a really fabulous job with coverage. And he's usually playing very tight coverage, but at the same time I think the pressure, no doubt, had something to do with it, but it was also, when you watch it again, I think a pretty daggone athletic play by Jourdan, too."
On what it means to see the support for the team today ... "I'm just so excited for those kids. I mean they're the ones who are doing the work. They're the ones out there playing. They're the ones who come to Schembechler Hall every day with an attitude to play for each other. It would be real easy not to be that way. It would be real easy for guys to say, I want to go get mine or whatever. But they haven't done that. And we've held them to a pretty high standard, but they've held themselves to that high standard."
On Devin Gardner's status ... "We'll figure that out because we don't talk about injuries, but we'll figure that out. But with Devin, I think the growth, as I said earlier, and the demeanor, and what he has done on and off the field has been really special."
On the defensive performance without Willie Henry ... "We've done a pretty good job, I would believe, in recruiting defensive linemen, going from three-man front to a four-man front. Chris Wormley, Matt(hew) Godin, Tom Strobel. I mean when you look at the three techniques that we have. And the same thing inside at the nose position with (Bryan) Mone, who started the day, (Ryan) Glasgow and Willie Henry and Ondre (Pipkins). Ondre is fighting something, and he'll be back, and he'll be ready. I think we're fortunate that we've got a lot of young guys in those classes that compete every day."
On the team's resiliency to pick up the win ... "I think the guys have character. I think they're guys who have a tremendous amount of pride in themselves and in each other as a team.
"I think they're motivated. I think when we haven't played as well as we think and know we can; I think they get ticked off. And so I think every day that they've gone out, I think they've gone out to get better, push each other, compete and challenge with each other. And that's what they've done. You know, I just think from the beginning I said this team has leadership in all grades, and they've shown that. And they've demonstrated that."
On if this is a good week for a bye with players banged up ... "Yes, it is. Believe me. It's happening at a good time as far as we get some rest. The guys get away from us a little bit, which is always positive, and probably more positive for them than me because I worry about them. But I think it's good that we have a chance for them to get rested up a little bit."
On if Gardner asked to be put back in ... "You know, the only time he said something to me was the series before, and he just said, "Coach, I'm going." I said, "the trainers say you're okay?" He said, "Yeah". I said, "Okay. Go."
On Frank Clark getting the final sack ... "Poetic. (Laughs). That's an assumption. Yeah. It was good for him to, you know, finish. Let's put it that way."
On Matt Wile's day ... "I think I've said it every time we've had a press conference since Notre Dame. He's been on. And he's been on hitting the ball well. Last week the field goal gets blocked, but he hit it well, and he's been hitting it well. I think his confidence is where you want it to be, where he wants it to be, where we want it to be. So really, really, really excited.
"And I think you forget about Scott Sypniewski, the snapper. You forget about Kenny Allen, who holds and how much they work together every day and how successful he was and a lot of it starts there, too."
On the other quarterbacks available other than Russell Bellomy ... "Well, whoever was dressed out was."
On if other dressed quarterbacks could have entered the game ... "Yes."
U-M Senior/Junior Center Jack Miller
On getting the payoff of everything you have been working for ... "It was an awesome feeling. It was great to get a win and get back on the right side of things. The locker room was ecstatic after the game and guys were really happy about it."
On Devin Gardner coming back to lead the team ... "He is a tough guy, a great competitor. He wanted to go back in. We were able to get it done with him in there. He is a great competitor."
On how much the team needed this win ... "It was huge. Whenever you can go out there in that kind of atmosphere and have a team win like that. Things were far from perfect but we stuck together and kept battling. Things worked out and it was a great feeling."
On the atmosphere tonight ... "I just want to say, on behalf of the players, to the students and the fans, that was awesome out there. We feed off that kind of stuff and we love it. They were there for us and we really appreciate it."
On the emotion of this win ... "I was thinking about that after the game. This one feels pretty good, for sure. Just to get back on the right side of things. We have a bye week now. To get off the schnide and be in a good spot feels really good at this point in the season."
U-M Fifth-Year Senior Quarterback Devin Gardner
On finishing the game while playing through pain ... "Yes (there was pain), but it's a team out there that needs me and they said that they needed me, and it's much bigger than just me. If I can be out there I'm going to be out there."
On Dennis Norfleet's catch to put the team in field goal range ... "I didn't see it. I was just hoping to God that he would catch it and God answered. I don't even know if it was a good pass. I'll get a chance to see it later. I was on the ground and I looked up and saw him doing his thing, so I thought 'Yeah, he caught it.' I took a chance, but I feel we can't play passive if we want to win football games. I took a chance there and he made a play for me."
On Devin Funchess' early touchdown ... "It was a great play by a great athlete. When you have a big guy down the field and he eliminates the corner, he's one-on-one with the safety and I gave him a shot. He took advantage of it."
On the emotions of taking a knee for the victory ... "I'm thankful. We've been through a lot of adversity, and I thank God for the opportunity. He put us in a position to be able to finish. The defense did it and then we finished, so it was great for us."
U-M Sophomore Cornerback Jourdan Lewis
On his interception ... "It was just staying technically sound, just doing what I had to do on the play, carry my man and he threw it to me."
On embracing his role as a cover corner on this team ... "I am pretty sure all of us have and that's what coach Mattison wants us to be, that's what he wants our mentality to be like."
On how comfortable he feels each week... "(I feel) extremely comfortable. That experience is just invaluable. It helped me so much."
On Dennis Norfleet dancing before returns ... "He does that every day. It's exciting every time we see it. He does that and it's great energy. It is exactly what we need every day."
On the energy of the crowd ... "They were in the game. They deserved that win and I am glad they were behind us 100 percent."
On the energy of the defense ... "That started from this whole week. We had a great week of practice and the whole week just carried on to Saturday and we just unleashed it on the field."
On the final Penn State drive of the game ... "We were going to stop them. That's the only thing worry about -- stopping them."
On if they embrace the pressure of making the final stop ... "Definitely. That is exactly what a Michigan defense does. We want the pressure. That is exactly what I want."
U-M Senior Defensive End Frank Clark
On the defensive performance in the second half... "It felt good to finally finish the game. We've been through a lot of scrutiny as a team, these last three weeks, especially as a defense. It just felt good. Against our last opponent, we weren't able to finish the game after the game was put on our back and just to finally get them back. They got us last year and (Christian) Hackenburg is a great quarterback. He won the game for them last year driving down the field. It felt good to cut that shirt and get the W tonight."
On the young guys on defense stepping up... "The young guys stepped up. As a senior, that's all I ask them for. I say 'you all be ready to play.' I tell them all the time, you got your starters in there. The two's, make sure you're ready to play football. They showed me tonight that they were more ready than I thought. Guys like Mario Ojemudia, my backup, he played a great game. Guys like (Bryan) Mone, he played a great game as a freshman. We're just going to keep it rolling."
On where this game stacks up in his career at Michigan ... "It felt good. I was frustrated in the first half. They were doing a lot of things to keep me away from the quarterback, a lot of sliding into me. I just told myself at halftime to just stay within your game plan and keep doing what you practice in practice; you knew this was going to happen. It happened all year. Just sticking to what my coaches taught me and my game plan within myself, we got that accomplished."
Penn State Head Coach James Franklin
Opening statement ... "It's a tough loss. I feel for the kids; we're frustrated. We were able to start the game early on and run the ball and mix it up. As the game went on, we weren't able to consistently do that. We've had a hard time protecting the quarterback all year long. We've got a pretty talented quarterback, and we haven't been able to protect him. Six sacks, probably a lot more pressures and hits than that. I thought our defense played solid, but we weren't able to get off the field on some the third-and-long situations, which was valuable. They made some plays when they had to. Every time we'd get a little momentum -- we get the big punt return, and it comes back for a penalty, we get the onside kick at the end of the game -- we took the safety because based on the time and the situation it was the only chance we had -- we kicked the onside and recovered, and we had a penalty. The bye week is coming at a good time, we've got a lot of work to do in a lot of different areas. We knew we were going to have some challenges up front, but there's been enough talking about that; we've got to start getting better, and we've got to get it fixed fast."
On Penn State's failed fake punt and what effect it had on the game ... "It did have an effect -- we had not been punting well, which is another big part of this game. We were in an area of the field that I thought we ran a fake that we could run against a safe defense. Even if they weren't at the line rushing, we've been practicing against that look all season long. We didn't block it and didn't execute it very well, but I thought in that area of the field we weren't going to gain a whole lot anyway (by punting), so let's a run a play to give us a chance. It did not work out well; obviously you'd like to have that one back."
On why Penn State could not run the ball effectively beyond the first half ... "I'm going to have to look at the tape, but we weren't able to run the ball effectively late, and we were still getting pressures on the quarterback. I thought we were able to run the ball well early on. I don't know if (Michigan) was rotating a bunch of guys, and they were able to stay fresh, I'm not sure. But typically in the running game you'd like to wear them down."
On QB Christian Hackenberg's interception and what he can learn from that ... "What we have to be careful of is we fall into bad habits because he's getting hit too much. He's getting sacked too much; he's getting too many pressures. Obviously on that we've either got to throw it away or take the sack; we've got to reserve the right to punt."
On DT Anthony Zettel's interception ... "He got his second career interception, both have come against Michigan. This one led to a touchdown, so it was a big play. (Michigan) has been a team -- give them credit, they played well enough to beat us -- they've been turning the ball over so we were hoping to get some turnovers. Last week, they didn't turn the ball over at Rutgers, and they made it a real competitive game. This week, except for that one, they pretty much protected the football. So that was a big play for us, but we'd like to get a few more and get our defense off the field on third down."
On how Hackenberg is reacting to the amount of defensive pressure ... "I think he's frustrated; obviously he's had some success here at Penn State, and he's getting way too many pressures and way too many hits. That's where you have to be mentally tough and physically tough, and you've got to make sure you're not falling into bad habits -- that's easier said than done. Overall, he's doing some really good things, but we've got to protect him and keep him upright, and we've got to keep people off of him. Typically a big part of that is the running game. We were able to have some success early on, but we still didn't protect him well."
Penn State Junior Cornerback Jordan Lucas
On Devin Funchess' touchdown catch ... "It was frustrating, but it was at the beginning of the game. When you look back at it, of course it could have been prevented. But if they didn't score that touchdown we probably would have won the game. We just have to capitalize on opportunities because we're only going to get so many per game."
On how he thought the PSU defense played ... "I feel after the first quarter and the first couple drives, we played pretty well. We didn't really let them run the ball, so I thought our run defense was very good. Our passing defense wasn't bad. They had some big plays, but they all could have been prevented, and they were all from minor mistakes that led to big plays."
Penn State Senior/Junior Defensive Tackle Anthony Zettel
On his interception ... "Our linebackers told us, the defensive linemen, that they were running a screen, and then when I came around I got the feeling it was a screen because the offensive line was blocking. And then the ball was there, and I was in the right place at the right time."
On his family and friends coming to watch him play in his home state of Michigan ... "I got 53 tickets, and then I know a lot of friends and family that bought their own, so probably around 80 people were here for me. It was a great feeling, knowing a lot of people from my hometown care."
Penn State Senior Kicker Sam Ficken
On the narrow loss to Michigan ... "A loss is a loss, it sucks. We've got to go back to what we know, and that is working hard and working on what we need to correct. Michigan played a good game."
On the mood in the locker room ... "We were in it until the end, the guys know to never give up and we didn't. We didn't give up until we couldn't play anymore. Obviously we're all disappointed, but we are ready to get back to work and as a team we are focused on that."
