00:00Hello, sports fans, and welcome to another edition of Coffee with the Coach of Michigan
00:04Wolverines Edge Coach, Kyle Whittingham. Kyle, after a bye week, that first half
00:10looked a little bit rusty. How are you doing today? I'm doing a lot better than I was a couple
00:17weeks ago, and you're right, we didn't do much offensively. Now, defensively, we're pretty sharp,
00:22and we played from start to finish very well on defense, but a little sluggish on offense,
00:27to say the least, in that first half. Couldn't get in the end zone, turned the ball over a couple
00:32times, and fortunately, in the second half, we caught a little bit of lightning in a bottle,
00:37and were able to finish the game. Well, as you know, I like to look at some of the positives.
00:42You had two sacks, and you held Penn State to just three points. So, offense-wise, we had zero, but
00:52it had to make you frustrated after the bye week, and just trying to get the ball
00:57going. What were your thoughts during that first half? Were you frustrated? Did you swear on the
01:03sidelines? Very frustrated. You know, we had two turnovers, like I mentioned, and really couldn't
01:12sustain a drive, and of course, at halftime, there was conversation of how we can generate a spark and
01:19some energy for the offense, and try to get things going, and ultimately, we decided that we're going
01:24to give Tommy a chance to take control of the offense, and to his credit, he came in and did
01:30a
01:30fine job. He was a little unsettled in that first series. Not unsettled, but it took him a little bit
01:34of time to get his feet on the ground, and after that first series, he really got the offense into
01:38high gear, and ended up scoring 21 points, and when we had 80 yards in the first half, I think
01:43we had
01:43220 in the second half total, so we really created that spark that we were looking for.
01:49Well, you were there, and I'm sure you heard the 110,731 fans cheering really loud like you had just
01:56beaten Ohio State. Yeah, exactly, and that's not uncommon. I mean, the most popular guy, you know,
02:02any college team or NFL team is the backup quarterback a lot of the time, and with Coach Carr,
02:09Tommy's grandpa being a legend here, and, you know, the car name, it was, they were eager to see what
02:16he could do, and he delivered. Now, it's just, it was towards the end of the third quarter, you
02:22notice, Penn State did not get called for a delay of game penalty. Yeah, that was. Did you notice that?
02:30I thought, did I notice? Yeah, I noticed that. It was by like two seconds. It wasn't even close,
02:34and we had a PI on that play, which, of course, never would have happened if they would have shut
02:38it
02:38down like I thought they should have, but they didn't, and, you know, if you're in the game long
02:44enough, you come out on both ends of those type of things, but that seemed to be a very egregious
02:50miss as far as that goes, but you just, you know, play on and keep going. You can't sit there
02:56and
02:56worry about it, but yeah, that was something that I did notice during the course of the game and
03:00thought, you know, what the heck's going on with that? Now, second half, the rushing game just seemed
03:06to be on all four cylinders. I'll tell you, hats off to the offense and those calls to move that
03:13ball down the field. Absolutely, and hats off to the offensive line. That was their best 30 minutes
03:18of the season was the second half of the game this past weekend, and their blocking combinations and
03:24how they rolled off the ball and got movement and created seams was the best we've had, and it was,
03:30you know, the end result was chunk yardage by the backs. You know, Kuzdal had the big touchdown run,
03:35and Savion Hyder got out a couple times, and Jordan Marshall's yards per carry were very good in the
03:40second half, so credit to the offensive line for making that happen. And with that, with the defense
03:45and stuff, Penn State had three turnovers, which really helped things. You can't win games by turning
03:53the ball over. The only thing still, we got those pesky penalties and stuff. It's just the worst part of
03:59time, the penalties, the face-masking penalty, the roughing the passer, the holding. What is being addressed
04:07on those penalties? Well, they're all being addressed, and we had 63 yards and penalties. If we try to keep
04:12it under 50, if we're under 50, that'll put us in the top half of the league, and that's doable.
04:19But, you know,
04:19we had, I think it was eight for 63, and it's a few too many penalties and a few too
04:25many yards. And so
04:26we address it each week, and it's not off the charts bad. I mean, you see games and teams have
04:32over 100 yards, you know, here and there. And so we haven't, fortunately, been in that boat for a while.
04:38But we do have to continue to work on it. It is addressed every single Monday and coached and
04:44corrected. And so hopefully we can keep getting better in that regard. Well, Tommy Carr with that
04:4912-yard run touchdown, just weaving his way through the Penn State line and scoring that touchdown. How
04:55did you feel when you see him cross that goal line? Well, I was elated. And Tommy is a much
05:00better
05:00runner than it looks like. You know, he's very smooth and very, you know, efficient when he runs.
05:06And he's moving a lot faster and quicker than what it looks like when you're just watching him. And
05:10it doesn't surprise me because when we did our testing in the offseason, you know,
05:14the vertical jump, the 40-yard dash, the short shuttles, all those things that you test. He came
05:19out to be one of the top on the team in many of those tests. I'm noticing a lot more
05:24options for
05:25him when he's passing and also with the running plays also. Yeah, he's a student of the game. He
05:30studies and prepares as well as any quarterback I've ever been around. And there was no doubt that
05:35from just a schematic and knowledge of the scheme point of view that he was going to be ready to
05:40go
05:40because he spent so much time in that film room. Well, Penn State at the last ditch effort tried the
05:46onside kick. Your special teams is right on that and contained it and victory format. That was so
05:53neat watching that. And then boom, Michigan wins 21 to 18. Congratulations. 21 points over 200 yards in the
06:03second half alone. That was amazing. Yeah, well, we need to take that and then run with it and hope
06:07to get that every week. Nice week. Tommy Carr had fun with the commentators on TV right after the
06:15game. I don't know if you heard the interview. They interviewed him and they asked him how he felt
06:20about the game. And he said, quote unquote, we ran the crap out of the ball. Well, that's a very
06:27succinct way to put it because that's true. And the CBS commentators have a new nickname for him.
06:33Did you hear what that was? Did not hear that. Clutch Carr. Clutch Carr. Okay, we'll go with that.
06:39I'd like that. We can go with that. Yeah. Indiana comes in. They're ranked number six. It's going to
06:44be a Big Ten Conference clash. What could be the confidence booster for this week for the team?
06:51Well, we just got to continue to pick up where we left off in that second half offensively. I mean,
06:56that was who we want to be exactly. I mean, we were very balanced and physical in the run game.
07:01We got to continue to play good defense. We've been consistent every single week defensively and
07:06what will really help our cause if we can come away with multiple takeaways with our defense. And
07:12Indiana's got an amazing streak going. I think it's 30 games of winning or being even in the
07:18turnover margin. They have not lost the turnover margin in 30 games or 31 games. And that hasn't
07:24happened for 30 years. It's been 30 years since a team has been on that type of a run. And
07:28so that's
07:29going to be the biggest key to the game, as it is most weeks, is coming out on the positive
07:34side of
07:34that turnover margin. They haven't let that happen, like I said, for about three years now.
07:38And of course, you've got the hometown crowd cheering you on. That's got to help also.
07:42It sure does. The crowd was great on Saturday. And boy, did they get excited when Tom came in the
07:47game in the second half? And our crowd has been awesome all season long. We haven't always given
07:53them what they want to see, but we're working on it hard every single week. And they continue to
07:58support this team. Then that's going to be a big boost for our guys. Well, the Hoosiers come to town
08:02against Michigan. Kickoff will be at 12 noon in Ann Arbor at the big house. Coach, hopefully you'll get
08:10some time to jump on that Harley and check out the fall colors sometime this week because
08:16the weather is supposed to be perfect. But good luck this Saturday. Have a great week. And
08:21of course, as always, go blue. Okay. Thank you, Scotty. Go blue.
