Everything Kyle Whittingham said Monday after Oklahoma win
Michigan football head coach Kyle Whittingham met with the media on Monday to discuss the Wolverines’ win over Oklahoma and the week ahead with UTEP on Saturday.
Nate Marshall’s growth
Yeah, so proud of Nate. How far he’s come since I first met him, what, eight, nine months ago? And especially on the field, off the field. We’re making good decisions. We’re going to class. We’re doing things the right way. He seems to have got some traction in his life in that regard.
And to see him have success on the field is just icing on the cake. And it helps us. It makes us a better football team. Nate Marshall adding to what we’re doing. And like you mentioned, he closed out the game with that sack on Saturday. And we want to stay on the right road. And hopefully he’ll be back.
Offensive line improvement
They graded out better than we had Week 1. And they played hard. We shuffled the lineup because of injury, we hope to get Evan Link back. In fact, he did a nice job at left guard.
You may see a rotation there this week with those two, but that’s to be determined. But the effort level and the passion and the energy that the O-line played with was markedly different than Week 1.
A more physical week
The mantra last week was Do More. From Monday on, we did hydration and did more with the weight room. And they answered the bell, and they really took that to heart.
Practice was more physical than it was the week before. The week before, we had had a longer lead-in, things down a little bit, and got closer to the game.
But we felt as coaches that we needed to have a physical, intense week of practice, kind of a wake-up call week. The wake-up call began in the game two weeks ago. But the players responded, and they did everything that was asked of them, and the result was very positive for them.
What physical practice entails
More hitting, more finishing blocks, more contact drills, just in themselves. Yeah, just everything was ramped up.
Cutting down penalties
It’s a process, and we’ve got to get that corrected. That will cost us somewhere down the line. And we had another 80 or 90 yards of penalties this past week to match the 80 or 90 yards in Week 1.
And players got to understand there’s consequences with penalties. If you’re on offense, they’re essentially drive killers. I mean, the chances of moving the chains when you’re starting the series first-and-20 after a penalty is not real high.
And so, offensively, they’re drive killers. Defensively, they’re drive extenders for the opponent. And on special teams, they’re big factors in field position.
So we have got to get that reduced and under control. And personal fouls are more concerning. And it’s a matter of, again, continuing to teach and continuing to demand.
And eventually, we’ll get what we need. But right now, we’re too undisciplined in that regard.
Linebacker play
Yeah, I think the linebackers actually, relative to the experience level they had going into the season, have had two pretty good weeks. And Troy Bowles is leading the team in tackles. I think Nathaniel Staehling was number two.
And so, Chase Taylor is a guy that shows flashes of greatness. He still makes a few mistakes here and there. But I think that the linebackers are off to a good start.
Aisea Moa has contributed. Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng has contributed. He did some good things on Saturday.
So I think through two weeks, they’ve been a positive force, as has the whole defense.
Bryce Underwood’s running ability
Well, they were very vital on Saturday and almost got 100 yards for us. It was upper 80s, somewhere in there, and doubled up the Oklahoma quarterback, which, you know, that guy’s a really good runner at Oklahoma.
And so the Q run game is always going to be a part of what we’re doing. We can’t go too crazy with it because there’s a finite amount of times you carry the ball, and if you put yourself in harm’s way too much, then something will happen that’s not good.
But he definitely had a huge impact on this past game, and he’s a very good runner. And we utilize that in some capacity pretty much every week.
What beating Oklahoma means
Oh, there’s a lot, especially for the players and the buy-in. You know, what we’re preaching as coaches, that if they buy in and do what’s asked of them, then good things will happen.
There’s no guarantee, but the percentages that things will happen are much higher. And we’ve got a lot ahead of us, obviously, but right now the vibe in the building is pretty good.
Michigan’s identity through two games
For sure, it’s probably too early to know for sure about a lot of things, but I can tell you that the defense has been very consistent through two games. And one touchdown in eight quarters and still no touchdowns allowed in the red zone.
And so a lot of good things going on defensively. Special teams, you know, I think we’ve got a pretty good weapon in Cam Brown. I think we’ve been inside the 20-yard line for five or six — six or seven — but it was really an outstanding day for Cam.
And our placekicker only had one opportunity, field goal-wise. We drove it, hit it pure and had good trajectory and put it right through.
Offensively, we know we’re a work in progress. We’ve got guys playing hard. And like I said at the very beginning, the run game is starting to shape up and we’ve got to get the throw game coming along with it because there’s going to be some weeks that we’re going to have to be able to do that to a much larger extent than what we’ve done so far.
Getting Jordan Marshall going
Yeah, hasn’t gotten on track quite yet. But Jordan’s a great leader and he’s our RB1. And I expect as the season goes on, he’ll start to become more productive.
And when you look at last year’s tapes, he becomes more productive as the game wears on typically and the more carries he gets. And so we’ve got to find a way to do a little better job of getting him on track.
But Savion Hiter, we think, is a very good back as well and has a lot of potential. And then Kuzdzal is another guy that’s in the mix.
But Jordan is the lead guy and we need to try to get him in a little more of a groove than we’ve been able to do the first two weeks.
Jordan Marshall’s health
He’s good to go. Yes, sir. Yeah. No injuries.
He’s got some things that are bugging him, but nothing that would keep him from playing.
Priorities against UTEP
If we ended up with penalties, it would be a good start.
We’re never going to be penalty-free, but if we can cut it in half, that’s about what we need to do. If you’re in the 35-to-50-yards-a-game range, that’s acceptable. If you’re playing hard, there’s going to be some penalties.
But that would be something that right out of the gate needs to happen. Throwing the ball more efficiently. You don’t need to throw it for 350 yards, but we need to throw it efficiently and get more out of it than what we’re getting right now.
There wasn’t a real concerted effort to get a lot of throwing in this past game because that wasn’t the plan. But again, at some point it’s going to have to be needed for a little bit. So we’ve got to get that up to speed.
Getting Andrew Marsh involved
Yeah, we need to get him involved more. That’s another good point, something that we’re well aware of.
He’s a talented receiver, and he flashed a little bit on Saturday, but we interfered with it. Probably would have caught up to that and made the catch. But he’s a guy that made a lot of plays for him last year, and we need to have him become more involved.
Teaching discipline
Well, every penalty is a teaching moment, and you’ve got to address it obviously when it happens in the game. There are some bigger thoughtless penalties that that’s what you really want to avoid, is the ones that you go, why’d you do that? That could have been avoided so easily.
Then we harp on it again in films. We were at 6:30 this morning watching film with the players, and that’s another opportunity.
All throughout practice we have referees at some of our practices during the week. It’s just a process, a continuing process of educating the players.
They know. They’re smart guys. But we’ve just got to be more disciplined and get rid of those ignorant penalties.
Carter Meadows, Andrew Babalola injury updates
Carter should be good to go this week.
Andrew, yeah, setback. So we’re going to have to work through some things, and he will not be available in the near future, unfortunately.
Bryce Underwood’s development
Every week’s important, and not only for Bryce, but the whole football team.
We’ve got the whole team that’s adjusted to all new systems, new offense and defense, a new approach to practice, a new practice week structure. There’s so many things that are still new to these guys, and Week 2 is much smoother than Week 1.
And even the little things like the pregame routine, how we operate in the pregame, the more they get used to things and get comfortable with what we’re doing, we expect to continue to make improvements.
Convincing Underwood to run
Zero convincing. He’s eager to do it.
He said, whatever, Coach. Whatever the team needs, I’m willing and able and let’s go. So I think he kind of likes to really go. That’s the feeling I get.
Changing the plan for Underwood
Well, a lot. A lot was predicated on that. The essence of coaching is to put your guys in position to succeed.
And we, you know, as coaches, didn’t have a good plan for Bryce the first week. We readily admit that. And I think we did a much better job of tailoring things to his skill set, and hopefully we can continue to do that in the future.
Opening up the offense
Yeah, well, first of all, getting the ball down the field a little bit more, getting some more chunk-yard plays.
We’re not having an abundance of those, and that’s one of the most vital stats. The turnover margin to me is most important. And right behind that is the team that typically gets the most chunk plays — explosives, however you want to term it — is the team that’s going to win the game.
And so we’ve got to do — our defense is doing a fantastic job of limiting the opponent to chunk plays. But we’ve got to get more of our own chunk plays, hopefully.
Players-only meeting and Do More
It applied to everyone in the building, for sure, the whole building. But the player meeting was announced by the players the night of the Western Michigan game right afterwards in the locker room.
And then the Do More was my emphasis for the week, and so that’s what I brought to the table on Monday. I said I’ve got my whole advice for this week, and I’ve got two words: Do More. Everybody find a way to do more.
So they really embraced that, apparently. And we got some good results.
Whether Whittingham also did more
Absolutely, yeah. I worked 100 hours instead of 90.
What’s holding back the passing game
That’s a good question.
I would say, first of all, through two games, we haven’t made a big commitment to it. We’re just trying to figure out what gives us the best chance to win this particular week. And so it hasn’t been something that has been a major emphasis.
But, you know, Bryce is, what, mid-50s with his completion percentage, so we’ve got to get that number up. And it’s just a matter of what Jason Beck feels comfortable with. Taking care of the football is job one, and so he’s got to structure the plan and take care of the ball first and foremost.
And right now, where we are as an offense, we seem to be more suited to be a little more heavy run, but that could change as the year goes on.
Recruiting impact of the Oklahoma win
Oh, very positive.
We had a ton of recruits at the game Saturday, and they were all with us in the locker room afterwards, and it was a great locker room.
We talk about a contrast in locker rooms from week to week, and it was how it was supposed to be last week, and the recruits really had a good time participating in that.
Cam Brown’s performance
Yeah, he was outstanding. He was a big weapon, like we said, in the field-position battle. You pin an opponent on the 1-, 2-, 3-yard line, their chances of getting points are very slim.
So that’s a big deal, and Cam has a real knack for putting that ball there and having that backspin on it to kill it right there inside the 5, which is a very valuable weapon.
Also, he did a great job the last punt where they came with almost a max blitz. He got it out really quick and avoided any opportunity they had.
He’s a very heads-up player. He’s very savvy. He understands the game.
Tight end production
Yeah, we need to get a little more production from the tight end.
Jalen’s taking the majority of the reps. That’s something that we’re constantly evaluating, but that’s something that could make us better if we can find a way to get some more production out of the tight end room.
Mason Bonner, he’s got a big upside. You saw him catch that ball. He’s just barely out of bounds, but he’s a guy that we think can continue to progress and become more involved from week to week.
Right now, that’s on the list of a bunch of things to try to get more production. He’s playing hard. He’s trying hard. He just hasn’t had a lot of production yet.
Getting the run game downhill
Yeah, a little bit too much still, less than Week 1, but that’s still something we’ve got to continue to coach and design.
Schematically, it’s just getting more downhill because it appears that that’s more our strength than trying to get to the edges.
