Video courtesy of Orange and Blue News.
Opening Statement
"This is one, obviously I made a big point of it the other day... It's been awesome to see it culminate into what it is, into two ranked teams... I'm 3-3 against them and I didn't like the last one. Everybody has got their history, this game means a lot to me. We will put our best foot forward, excited about the opportunity."
On Michigan
"Michigan is a very scripted football team. They play very, very good football. They're sound fundamentally offense, defense, special teams. Their offense has been on the field, 74% of their snaps have been on early downs. Their defense, 77% of their downs."
On how big of the moment
"The last one was pretty big. The reason I just got choked up, you guys know what happened the last time we played. The last one was big, I thought we had a good enough football team to go up there and win. Unfortunately, we didn't. There was a lot of things that went into it, things we could've done better. We didn't get to rematch those guys last year so we get to rematch them this year. Those things mean, a lot, even in league play has changed a little bit now but this year we had six rematch games, we're through four of them. We're 3-1. Last year against those same four teams we were 0-4. I think our guys know the growth they've had. I told them last night, there's nothing more challenging to have a team that has continued to play well and continues to move forward to keep doing the same things that have brought you success. Don't get bored doing things well. That's why there's going to be a huge emphasis on Tuesday's practice... I know this is Michigan week for the outside world, but, for us, it's gotta be the same preparation day in and day out, as much as it was this past week against Purdue. Just as much as it will be next week against Oregon. All the things that matter."
On his history with Michigan
I've been in this conference a long time. I tell those guys all the time, the first time I played these guys I was a redshirt freshman. Saw Bo Schembechler on the other sidelines, saw him get a penalty in the first half which brought the whole place to a crazy, which I thought was crazy watching someone I'd only seen on TV. Have a huge respect for who they are, what they are. Lloyd Carr, when I first came into the league as a head coach, he was the head coach at Michigan and he and Coach Alvarez were very tight. He actually kind of grabbed me after the first year, the only game I lost my first year, we went 12-1, was to Michigan. I remember Lloyd grabbing me at spring meetings and talking about what I had in front of me and what I had to be aware of, just really took a young coach aside, him and Jim Tressell, probably treated me as well as anybody in that conference at the time. JoePa was still trying to figure me out. Those guys were really, really good. I've tried to do that for me as a head coach, I've tried to carry it forward with young coaches that have come up. Not saying I'm Lloyd Carr or Jim Tressell, I've been in this league a long time so I try to say those things to young coaches. Playing Michigan, I think from the outside world makes it a big deal. Going into this, it does to me too, I learned this from Coach Alvarez, I remember when he first began to teach me and instill some things to me, you don't get ready for Michigan or you don't get ready for Ohio State, you don't get ready for Penn State in one week. You do it 365 days a year. That's what you gotta rely on. If you try to make it something magical in a week, it's never gonna work. It's kind of what we do.
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