Opening Statement

First and foremost, congratulations to Michigan. They're as good as advertised. I said this on the radio a second ago, I think they're the best football team I've seen in 11 years of being a head coach. I've never seen a football team like that, that deep. I'm not sure if this is true, but I was told this walking off the field; I think they traveled 75 people and maybe played 74 of them. I don't know. I mean, they're one of the deepest teams, one of the best teams, one of the biggest teams, fastest teams, strongest teams, and they do not make mistakes. They are truly like a boa constrictor and they do not beat themselves. They're very good at each position. They're very aligned with everything that they do. They know who they are, and they go and execute that game plan. There were times they did it at will tonight. Number one, it falls on me, 100% They're a really good football team, though, so you can't take that away from them. We got beat tonight, period. We didn't lose the game, they beat us, period. In every facet of the game. Every aspect of the game, offense, defense and special teams. You can't win games by giving them two pick-sixes. You know, we were off schedule. The main difference was they were really efficient and we were off schedule. And it felt like we were behind the chains the entire game. I thought we ran the ball well, and then all of a sudden we'd be behind the chains. And the minute you drop back with these guys, and you saw that, they just suffocate your pocket. It's unfortunate. I love how hard our guys keep playing. I mean, we played, I think, ten freshmen and redshirt freshmen. That shows you what I'm talking about, that inexperience. And when you lose some more starters, you've got to play some other guys. Again, there's no excuses. There's reasons, there's no excuses. And those reasons are my responsibility to get better.

On Kaliakmanis' pick-sixes

Well, the kid makes a heck of a play on the first pick-six. We've got a protection route, and all he does is just kind of eyes it, eyes it, and falls off the protection. A protection route means it's a go route, it's protecting the inside out route. And he just falls off, makes a great play. I mean, it's a heck of a play. And the second one I don't think he even saw him, but he still threw it and the guy had to make a heck of a play. He had to jump in the air, make the play he did, and picked it. But again there was—we just didn't we didn't execute at a high enough level. And again, we were behind the chains. And we get it, possessions are everything against them. It's almost like playing a triple-option team that doesn't run the triple-option but scores at will. Every possession counts. And if you go three and out and punt, it's going to be a long afternoon. If you get a holding penalty on a long run, it's going to be a long afternoon. You get an illegal formation or illegal shift and we don't wait for him to get set, it's going to be a long afternoon. You get sacked, it's going to be a long afternoon. They're that good up front. They won the line of scrimmage, period.

On the challenges of Michigan's run game

Well, it gives you a ton. One, the physicality of it. Right? And I would say we're a pretty physical team. I would not say that we're not, so I'd say we are, but the physicality of it, the precision of it. And then the multiple ways they get to a lot of different things. And then having threats on the outside that can just flat-out fly, an accurate quarterback, big running backs. They run tons of gap schemes, I mean, multiple pullers, they're good. And those are big pullers, big athletic pullers. There's a difference between being big, and being big and athletic, and then strong on top of it. They're very good.

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