Everything Kyle Whittingham said after Penn State, ahead of Indiana

Kyle Whittingham met with reporters Monday after Michigan’s loss to Penn State and ahead of this week’s matchup with Indiana. He discussed the quarterback situation with Bryce Underwood and Tommy Carr, Michigan’s improved second-half offense, the offensive line, turnovers, Indiana, and more.

On the second-half play calling and Tommy Carr providing a spark

The play calling was, I thought, solid pretty much the entire game. We just had a lot more production in the second half. We went to Tommy. That provided the spark that we were looking for, and that was the whole intent of making the change.

We didn’t get much going in the first half, obviously. We had 80 yards total and zero points, and so it was good to see Tommy come in under pretty difficult circumstances for a first-year guy and respond. After he settled in — the first drive, maybe a little unsettled — but then he settled in after that and we proceeded to, I think it was, 220 yards in the second half, three touchdowns and no turnovers.

So a lot of good stuff going on in the second half, and the play calling was a part of that. But it always comes down to players and their execution.

On Avery Gach’s first start

He graded out well. He did some good things. Wasn’t perfect. A linebacker ran through a time or two that we needed to pick up and a few other improvements, but as far as the overall body of work, I thought he did a fine job.

We’ll know more as the week progresses if we’re going to get anybody back or not. Brady Norton is who Avery is replacing. If Brady is available, they might have to make a decision on what direction to go, but it was good to see Avery get a bunch of snaps.

On what Tommy Carr adds as a runner

I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but Tommy is a very good runner. He’s deceptively fast. When you look at the measurables — the short shuttle, the long shuttle, all the things you do at the combine — Tommy’s numbers are among the best on the team. The vertical jump.

So all his testing numbers really tell you how quick and fast and explosive he is, but he doesn’t look like it because he’s so smooth. He’s a real smooth guy and very efficient with his style.

He had the two big runs for us. The one that he almost scored on that got down to the half-yard line, and then the option down the other side where he made a nice fake and cut back.

On the quarterback plan going forward

We saw good stuff out of what Tommy did in that second half, and we know exactly what we’re doing and the plan going forward. We’re not going to tip our hand to the opponent, but we have a good plan in place, and that’s about all I can say on that right now.

On whether the run-game calls changed in the second half

Very similar.

The offensive line played their best football in the second half of that game the whole season. There was no question about that. They were coming off the ball, their combinations were outstanding and they came out with a purpose in that second half.

I think they wanted to make sure that they did everything possible, obviously, for a young quarterback. Not that they don’t always play hard, because they do, but that was an exceptional effort that they put out in the second half. Like I said, without a doubt it was their best 30 minutes of football this season.

On the energy Carr gave the team and crowd

It happens, and you’ve seen it happen before in football when the backup guy comes in and everyone gets a little bit of energy and excitement. It’s something that I’ve personally seen happen quite a bit through my career.

It did not surprise me that the team rallied around Tommy, I guess you can say, and the crowd was heavily involved as well. Great job by our crowd, by the way. It was another outstanding product.

On reports Bryce Underwood went to California during the bye week

We never have optional practices. We did practice or have meetings Monday through Thursday, and after Thursday the players were free to do what they needed to do Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

My understanding is Bryce went down to California and worked with a personal trainer, so he wasn’t just on vacation. He went down there and was working his tail off those three days — Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

On third-down offense

Depends on the length of the third down, obviously. Jason will do a good job. We’ve traditionally had one of the greater third-down offenses, and so it will be called as per the situation, but there are going to be times when we definitely need to push the ball down the field.

On Indiana

Wow. They’re a good football team, I’ll just say. They have all my respect. Coach Cignetti has done a phenomenal job there. They’re doing so many good things.

They’re very balanced with their offense, running the ball for over 200 a game, and in fact, the line of scrimmage — they’re very veteran on both sides. A ton of fifth-year players on the offensive line as well as the defensive line. They’re doing it exactly how we want to do it.

Running the ball 210-plus a game, giving up only 75 yards a game rushing with their defense, taking care of the football. They’ve got an amazing stat. For 31 straight games they have not lost the turnover margin. Thirty-one straight games.

It’s the longest streak in 30 years from what I understand. You’ve heard me talk about it ad nauseam, about the turnover margin, and you talk about why they’ve won more games in the last two and a half years than anyone in the country, that’s a big reason why.

On Michigan’s punt returner

I thought he did some good things. One time we had a fair catch where there was some room there. We would have liked to see a return.

But for a first-year guy that hadn’t done it at all this season, I thought he did a nice job.

On possible future College Football Playoff changes

I haven’t thought much about that. Just trying to figure out how to win the next game.

But it looks like it’s coming. I guess there are some hiccups that could sidetrack it, but I think it’s going to be in place for next year. We’ll worry about that in the offseason, what it means to us and everybody else.

On when he first noticed Carr’s ability to lead

It started from really my first chance I had to observe him in the winter workouts. He’s a leader in that respect. He’s working his tail off. He’s interacting with his teammates. He’s got good rapport with his teammates.

Then when spring ball came around, he really, from Day 1, was playing very efficiently. He just got better all through spring, and that carried through the summer, through fall camp.

When he had his opportunity to have his first extensive live work, he made the most of it.

On Lloyd Carr’s reaction to Tommy’s performance

I did not see it, but it doesn’t surprise me. I’m sure he’s a proud grandpa.

On Andrew Babalola potentially entering the offensive line rotation

We hope so. That gives us a little more flexibility, and he, although he was available, was not quite ready in our opinion to jump in yet.

He’s only had that week of practice, but getting that week of practice under his belt was big. Going forward, we’re going to try to start integrating him in whatever is the best situation.

Left tackle is where he’s been, and so we’ll see. Jim Harding is obviously going to make that call and we’ll see what direction that goes.

On the defense forcing takeaways

It helps immensely, and those three takeaways in the second half were really the difference in the game. That gave us a plus-one for the game and set the offense up on a short field — a very short field one time.

We should start having prop bets on how soon it takes me to talk about turnovers. It’s so valuable and was so valuable in the previous game, and without them I’m not sure we win the game.

On when Michigan settled on its quarterback plan

The plan that we’re not revealing was talked about last night, well into the night. We’re evaluating everything on Sundays and giving everyone a chance to — we all watch the film separately, then we watch it together.

Then I go into the offense and defense and talk about the game with each unit. It was toward the end of the night last night when we came to the conclusion.

On playing two quarterbacks

It’s something that has worked for some people through the years. I’ve never been big on it.

I think, percentage-wise, you hear the old adage: If you have two quarterbacks, you don’t have one. Everyone’s heard that thing.

So we’ll see what happens, but as far as teams I’ve coached, it’s never been a real prevalent thing for us.

On Michigan’s 211 rushing yards

A lot of explosive runs. It was about time we got out and had some explosive runs in the run game.

Kuzdzal’s run was outstanding. He showed some real speed, some top-end. It was good to see Savion get loose out in the open.

Then Jordan Marshall didn’t have any real big runs but was very steady throughout the game. He was very positive.

Again, we try to be balanced. Us and Indiana have the same blueprint of what we try to accomplish. They’ve obviously done a phenomenal job. It was good to see the running backs get those creases, and again, it starts up front with the offensive line.

On Chris Bracy

Chris Bracy is a heck of a football player. Had the two takeaways, the interception and then the strip-sack. Didn’t actually recover that, but he’s a vicious tackler and a very efficient tackler.

We only missed four tackles in the whole game, which is our season low. So that was another thing that led to our success.

We tackled well, and obviously yards after contact are nullified, and that keeps the yardage down in the game.

On whether outside pressure affects his decisions

Zero. Our job as coaches is just to give us the best chance to win, as I’ve said before.

If you start trying to listen to outside noise and pay attention to that, then pretty soon you’ll be on the outside and won’t be coaching.

So we just do our thing in-house and what we think is best. There’s no, “Well, what are the repercussions in the press?” or any of that. We can’t really pay attention to that.

On Bryce Underwood

I’m a fan of Bryce Underwood. He’s a great person. He’s got a great personality.

He’s going to go far in life no matter which path he takes. He’s a very confident young man, and he’s still got a lot of football in him.

On turnovers affecting the quarterback plan

Big impact.

You’ve got to take care of the football, and you’ve got to take it away on defense. If you’re not doing that, it’s a pattern, it’s consistent, and you’ve got to take whatever measures you’ve got to take to try to get it corrected.

On whether Carr will get more first-team reps this week

If I told you that, I’d be revealing the secret plan.

On Zack Marshall’s status

More of a non-injury situation.

On what Whittingham knew about Carr before taking the Michigan job

I had not known of Tommy until I arrived here on campus — well, when I became a viable candidate for the job.

Then I started, but I did not see him in the recruiting process. I’ll tell you what, he’s a heck of a football player.

When you watch his high school film, it’s like, why didn’t he have more offers than he had? So that was surprising.

On Michigan’s pass rush against Penn State

It was not quite as ferocious as we’d like it to be. They did a good job getting the ball out quick.

They didn’t hold the ball very long, so that was part of it. But I thought our pass rush, if there’s something that we need to get back, that’s one.

And we did bring a bunch of pressure. It’s not like we just relied on a four-man rush. We brought pressure a good portion of the time.

So that was something that we needed to get better at. But again, give them credit for getting that ball out.

On the defensive line depth

Yes, we’ve got several tackles. There are four or five guys that are giving us reps in there.

The big three — Jonah, Trey and Enow — are the guys that are playing the most by far. Then we’re supplementing that.

On the edge, the emergence of Tariq Boney has really been a plus for us. He’s a guy that we’ll continue to figure in as we go through the rest of the season, second half of the season.

On whether Michigan has decided its starting quarterback

We sure have.

On how Underwood handled being replaced

He handled that as well as he possibly could have and as well as I’ve ever seen a starter that got replaced handle it.

He was supporting Tommy. He was thrilled when Tommy scored. He was helping him on the sideline, talking through things that he saw on the previous possession.

I don’t think there’s a way that he could have handled it any better. He’s very professional on his part, too.

On why Michigan’s offense has struggled to sustain scoring drives

I think a couple things. More chunk yardage would help.

It’s tough to sustain a 70-, 80-yard drive four or five yards at a time. That’s really difficult. Without us getting chunk plays as often as we need to, that bogs things down.

We’ve got to be a little better on things to tick up some percentage points.

Then fourth downs. That was such a defensive battle. There were some fourth downs early on where it could have gone either way.

Do we go or do we punt? It’s either we win the field-position game or try to outscore the other guy.

That was a reason for it. Some of those fourth downs, in a lot of weeks, we would have gone for, but we didn’t.

On Indiana’s ability to avoid mistakes

It magnifies all the things. Absolutely.

Like I said, that’s incredible to go 31 or 30 games or whatever without losing the turnover battle. That’s how impressive it is.

It makes it all the more important. They do not beat themselves. They do a great job of eliminating bad football.

They’re playing solid across the board. They’ve blocked 10 kicks in the last two and a half years, which leads the country as well, so their special teams are right in line with what they’re doing offensively and defensively.

They’ve got a tremendous punt returner, the big receiver. He’s so talented. The running backs are probably the best — I don’t think probably, they are the best backs we’ll have seen this year.

One of them returns kickoffs as well. They’ve got a lot going for them. They really do.

On whether Carr has the full playbook available

Full playbook.

Tommy is not a quarterback that I’ve ever been around that studies any more than Tommy Carr. His football IQ is off the charts.

He’s got a football mind. He’s a football junkie, and he is a real student of the game.

On Michigan’s offensive self-scouting

A lot, and that’s week to week. We don’t wait for the bye week to measure and make sure that we’re on top of that.

If we don’t know what our opponent knows, then shame on us.

That goes on both sides of the ball, defensively and offensively, making sure we don’t have any tendencies in play calling.

It also goes with the little nuances — stances or the alignment, are we giving something away there? That type of thing.

We look at everything intently on a weekly basis.

On whether Michigan could go back to Underwood after making a quarterback change

If we do that, and we have a guy in Bryce who we go back to, I have full confidence that he would handle that very well based on everything I know about him and everything I’ve seen.

I don’t think he would flinch. I think he’d go right back in and start competing.

Maybe he’s the starter. Who knows?

I don’t know.

I do know.

On why Jay Hill’s defense has translated so well

It’s sound, first of all. Fundamentally, technique-wise, X-and-O-wise, it’s all very sound stuff.

He’s not making stuff up. It’s proven — stood the test of time, I guess I should say. The players have really bought into it and are executing it.

It goes back a lot of years. The basis of this defense that we play goes back 30, 40 years. We’ve tweaked it through the years and modified it as the game changes, but it’s a very sound scheme.

They’re excellent teachers of technique and fundamentals, which is really the basis of it.

Fundamentals and technique are the basis. You’ve got to block. You’ve got to tackle. If you can’t do that, no scheme’s going to work.

Like I said, we’re tackling really well. Four missed tackles in a game is really off the charts, outstanding. I think that’s a big reason why.