Everything Kyle Whittingham said after Rutgers, ahead of Michigan State

Michigan football coach Kyle Whittingham met with reporters Monday following the Wolverines’ win over Rutgers and ahead of this week’s rivalry matchup with Michigan State.

Whittingham discussed Tommy Carr’s performance and status as the starting quarterback, Michigan’s improved offensive showing, the offensive line, the running back rotation, the kicking competition, the Michigan State rivalry, injury updates, and more.

On Tommy Carr’s performance against Rutgers

Wow, I liked everything about what he did. I know it’s only one game. We know it’s only one game. But if you project that one game out through the season, he’d be the best quarterback in the country statistically.

When you talk about QBR, which is ESPN’s analytic quarterback rating, it takes into account not just throwing the ball, but running the ball, taking sacks, the whole nine yards. He graded out, I think, 91 or 92, and the top quarterback in the country right now is like 90 or 89. The bottom line is he played a complete game and did so many good things. Completion percentage was up over 80%. Yards per attempt, 9.9, 10 yards. If you can get 10 yards per attempt, you’re having a monster game throwing the ball. 266 yards, no turnovers, key runs.

His running ability was as important in that game as anything. To rip off those key runs for us, he just really did a good job with his reads, his progressions, his decision-making. I can’t say enough good things about how he played. Again, it was one game, but that was a really good game that he put together.

On what he has learned about the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry

It’s intense, obviously. A lot of nastiness in it. I guess there was a fight a couple years ago. So, yeah, it’s a game where both teams throw out the records and whatever else is going on. You’ve got to be ready to play.

On preparing for the increased intensity of a rivalry game

There’s no better way to prepare. If there was, we’d use it every week. We wouldn’t save it for this week or any other week. We’d use it every single week.

So our preparation model will not change. However, there’s that element — not little, but an element — of emotion and intensity that takes care of itself as a coach. You don’t have to worry about getting the right mindset for a game like this. It’s obviously a huge game. Like I said, previous records really don’t matter.

On whether Tommy Carr will start against Michigan State

Yeah, Tommy will start this week and for the foreseeable future unless something changes. He played so well. I mean, it’s pretty much a no-brainer.

On Jeremiah Earby joining the team and contributing

It’s great to have him in the program. Better late than never, I guess you could say. He did get some snaps, not a ton, but he contributed. He’s a guy that’s played a lot of football. He’s got a lot of savvy for the position with all his experience.

That’s a position that we’re fairly thin at, so that really gives us a boost there. We’re excited that he’s here. We’ve got him for the next four games and anything that’s after that.

On Andrew Sprague’s status

No update at this point in time, but we’re expecting one later on today. There was another evaluation, reevaluation, I guess you could say, yesterday. We’ll get the results of that today.

If he’s good to go, then we’ll get him into practice and see how he looks. It’s been a long time since he’s played. If they say he’s not ready yet, then that takes care of itself.

On John Henry Daley and Dom Nichols

We expect them to play this week. That’s what we expect.

On Avery Gach

Avery stepped in when we had the injury at right guard and held down the fort, just like he did last time he was called upon. He played well and graded out very well. We’ll see what the situation is this week, whether he’s being pressed into duty or not. We don’t know at this point.

On Andrew Babalola

Slow progress. He’s healthy, finally, as we talked about a couple weeks ago. He’s got to get up to speed and crack the starting lineup. It’s just going to take some time.

On Tony Alford and the run game

Tony’s a heck of a football coach, and he’s a guy with a proven track record. He has a great reputation. We ran the ball OK on Saturday, not great. It needed to be better. I thought Savion had some tough runs for us in this last game. Kuzdzal chipped in with a few of his runs.

But the bottom line is we haven’t run the ball as well as we need to this year. We just haven’t, in its entirety. That’s not just on the running backs. We’ve got to continue to work that offensive line more efficiently, which is a different configuration this week than we had last week. We’ll see. Throwing the ball, the way Tommy’s been throwing the ball, at least in the last game, that opens up some things and can put fewer guys in the box.

On opening the kicking competition

Exactly that. We opened up the kicking competition this week. We’ll have a competition and see who comes out on top. Whoever is the better kicker in practice will kick and remain in that spot.

All three of them are involved, but primarily (Jacob) Baggett and Trey (Butkowski). Stuart (Blake) is in the mix as well.

On conversations with Lloyd Carr about the Michigan State rivalry

I just had the one conversation with him back several months ago, six months ago. We talked about pretty much everything. We talked about his takes on the rivalry and just Michigan in general. We talked about everything from A to Z.

On Trey Butkowski’s recent kicking struggles

No. We checked for hold issues and that. The holds were fine. The bases were fine. All that stuff. The snap was a little off on the first one, but nothing that was egregious in the operation. It all turned out pretty well, as it should have been. He just missed the kicks.

On what he knew about the Michigan State rivalry before coming to Michigan

First of all, I think everyone in the country knows about it. Anybody that understands college football understands it’s a rivalry. It’s in the state of Michigan. There’s a lot attached to it. There’s a trophy.

There are a lot of new guys on our team this year that have never played here and don’t know a whole lot about it. So a lot of this week will be educating those guys on what the rivalry is all about. Some former players will come in and talk to our guys and get them up to speed and give their background and their take on it.

We’ll do our very best this week to educate them without overdoing it. We’re not bringing 10 guys in here to talk. We’ll have two or three former players come and give their take on it. Essentially 50% of the team doesn’t know much about it.

On which former players will speak to the team

No, not at this point. I know a couple of them for certain, but there are one or two that are still maybe.

On the process of getting Earby into the program

That conversation, trying to get Earby here, has been going on since August. With all the red tape and the process and the injunctions, there were a million things that had to happen. It was just a process that got ridiculously long. I feel bad for the young man because he wanted to be here on Day 1 of fall camp.

But like I said, better late than never. He’s here now and he’s in a contributing role, not only on defense but on special teams. He’s a great young man. In the short time I’ve known him, I’ve really grown to like him and what he’s all about as a person and a competitor. Like I said, he’s a good addition for us. We do have a need.

On whether Michigan has enough in-state players who understand the rivalry

A lot of them do, but a lot of them don’t. You’re right, we probably don’t have enough Michigan players on the team. We’d like to get that number up.

Again, that’s the reason for bringing guys in — not guys from the outside, but former players — and trying to get them up to speed as quickly as we can, as much as you can in a five-day period.

On the offensive line’s physical development

Another cycle of lifting. You can’t do it all in one cycle. We closed the gap and definitely made progress, but we’re still not where we need to be.

Coach Harding is a really good offensive line coach, but it takes a little bit of time to get the full effect and full impact of a position coach. The first year is almost as much running off what’s transpired before as what’s going on now. We’re trying to make that transition.

It’s a process and it takes some time, but we have made progress. The offensive line play, I think, has gotten better, but it’s still not where we need to be yet. Same with a lot of positions. I’m not trying to pick on those guys.

On the rivalry getting “dirty”

I’ve heard that. I’ve heard it’s gotten nasty at times. Like I said, the fight or whatever went on in the tunnel, and there’s some bad blood.

There’s some bad blood, and that’s good. It intensifies everything.

On whether he prepared for questions about the Michigan State rivalry

I gave it no thought. I’m just right off the cuff. We went through that stuff in the summer and the term hatred and this and that. I don’t want to come across as if the rivalry is not important. It is.

This game is the Super Bowl, particularly for them. We don’t want to downplay it at all. I’m not trying to downplay it. But still, when all is said and done, you’ve got to keep everything in perspective. I guess that’s the position I’m trying to take.

Maybe weird isn’t the right word, but I don’t know. It’s different being at a school where they do have two rivals. I’ve been through that before where there’s an in-state rivalry. I don’t think that’s that uncommon. We have a couple teams that are targeted.

On whether Michigan-Michigan State compares to the Holy War

Oh, yeah. I would say so, based on what I’ve observed and what I’ve heard. Yeah, I would say it’s very comparable.

On entering November at 5-3

Not as meaningful as we would like them to be. Every game is meaningful, obviously, but it would take really weird circumstances to get back in the conference race.

Still playing for bowl eligibility and trying to get to a bowl game, and just winning, just the competitive nature of football. That’s always going to be a reason to prepare the right way and go out and play as hard as you can.

But I would say, no, we would have liked to have been in a different position right now. We’re really only one game, probably, away from still being in the conversation. That’s one way to put it.

On making the kicking competition more game-like in practice

It’s not quite as integrated into practice as the offensive and defensive players, but there are special teams periods dedicated where it’s full-team offense, defense, kick and field goal against the defensive block team.

Also, this week, much like we did all through fall camp, we’ll integrate opportunities for the kickers to kick in a team setting. When we run offense-defense drills in a team setting, then call for a field goal and get them out there.

We haven’t done that since fall camp. It’s unusual to do that during the season. Typically, that’s a fall camp or spring ball exercise. We have been having dedicated PAT and field-goal full-team sessions in the special teams aspect, but we’re going to expand that this week and give them a chance to kick in front of the whole team like we did back in the fall.

On how important the final month is for the future of the program

Every game is important and every month is important and every season is important. I don’t know exactly what you’re asking, other than we want to continue to — it’s not as steep of a trajectory as we would have liked. I think we’re still on an upward trajectory.

This game this week will hopefully be able to add to that. The season is important, obviously, from start to finish. I don’t see that we’re going to approach things any differently. Whether we’re 8-0 right now or 5-3, everyone is still going to practice the same way and compete and all that type of stuff.

On selling the direction of the program to the fan base

I’m not a used-car salesman. We are playing elite defense, and I hope the fans appreciate that. The offense has started to get some traction based on the last game. I know that was our best game of the season offensively.

It’s still a work in progress, but we are making progress. Not as fast as we’d like on that side of the ball, but there are still some good things going on.

We didn’t get here until January, after the recruiting cycle. We had some portal opportunity. We’re working hard and we understand that we want to put a great product out there for our fans. So far this year, it hasn’t been as good as it should have been.

On Savion Hiter getting more work than Jordan Marshall against Rutgers

The latter. Savion seemed to have a little more production when he touched the ball. He had six carries because he had some losses. One, he tripped over the quarterback’s foot.

We’ve talked about that at other points during the season — is it going to be completely by committee, or is it going to be a guy that’s got a hot hand? This is the first game, really, that I thought there was some separation in the backs. Savion was definitely the guy that was being more effective in this game.

On whether the Michigan State rivalry means more to Michigan State

I couldn’t tell you. You’d have to ask those guys. I’m not sure.

I know it’s very important to us, but there’s obviously a huge rivalry in a few weeks. I don’t want to downplay it at all. It’s a very important game, but they’re certainly in a different position at 2-6 than we are at 5-3.

This is the type of game that makes the season much more tolerable. I don’t know the word I’m looking for, but very impactful.

On why Jordan Marshall hasn’t gotten going this season

We’re down to the last four games. I have watched the tapes from last year. The first four or five games of the season, we were still trying to figure out who we were offensive-line-wise and getting our feet on the ground. I think that has a lot to do with his overall production.

I can’t give you a great answer on this last game why he didn’t seem to be in a rhythm or in sync at all, but it hasn’t been due to injury.

He’s been a little bit banged up earlier in the year. Nothing major, just some nagging things. But right now, I think he’s as close to 100% as anybody can be at this time.

On Michigan using RHINO less against Rutgers

It’s a week-to-week thing based on the type of defense we’re playing and where we think he fits. But you’re exactly right. He went from about 50% of the snaps to a little less than a third of the snaps in this last game.

It’s just matchup-oriented — what the emphasis of the game plan is for a particular week. I think 50%, that’s about the limit of offensive touches we’ll see. Somewhere between that and maybe a fourth of the time is kind of the sweet spot, depending on game plan and opponent defensive structures we’re facing, all those type of factors.