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00:00 They were superior to us tonight.
00:03 Got my Buds kid.
00:05 Got to learn from it.
00:06 24-hour rule is still in place.
00:09 And we got Minnesota next up.
00:12 Coach, I'll be brief.
00:20 Just to correct my question, from where I sit,
00:23 you got a tough job in sports right now, not with the game,
00:26 but to come in front of us to have to talk.
00:28 I think there's some courage and nobility in that.
00:30 So with that being said, what life lesson
00:33 could you share with your team or just share
00:35 with people in general having to stand before us right now
00:38 after this experience?
00:40 Well, you got to be a man.
00:43 Being a man is taking responsibility in everything
00:45 that you do and accountability.
00:47 And that's a life lesson in itself.
00:51 You live long enough, you'll go through some things in life
00:54 that will make you--
00:57 it's just life.
00:59 All you can say is, it's life.
01:00 Nobody asks what's wrong, it's life.
01:03 And so you never want to turn anything down.
01:08 This too shall pass at some point in time based on my faith.
01:12 So I don't know when, but it will pass at some point
01:18 in time.
01:18 I'm believing it.
01:20 I'll never lose faith in that.
01:22 And that's where we are right now.
01:25 [INAUDIBLE]
01:27 Matt.
01:29 Harlan, obviously the report came out Thursday.
01:32 You guys were told Wednesday about the signs in Michigan.
01:34 I was wondering how were you able to--
01:36 I guess, how did you handle that?
01:38 And with a redshirt freshman making only a second
01:41 for his start, did that make it even more complicated
01:43 for him to come in and escape?
01:45 I wouldn't say complicated, but it was, as you saw early
01:49 in the game, I might even mention it,
01:51 he was going to the sideline.
01:52 Because this is something that our guys have done before
01:55 with teams that do it within the game.
01:57 There are some teams in our league
01:59 that are pretty good at doing it,
02:00 getting signals within the game, which is all part of it,
02:03 which is legal.
02:04 And we know that.
02:06 So running to the sideline, getting a call,
02:08 and then going back into the hotel and the guys,
02:10 as opposed to just getting a signal from everybody,
02:12 getting a signal from the sideline.
02:14 So there was a slight change.
02:15 But that's not an excuse.
02:17 That's not-- I don't like excuses.
02:20 We have to play better.
02:22 We have to play better.
02:23 And that's the goal.
02:25 That's the goal, to start playing better and not
02:28 beat ourselves.
02:30 Chris.
02:32 As a former player in the program
02:35 and having been here for some of his success,
02:38 seeing the last touchdown going, 49 to nothing,
02:42 biggest home loss in the history of the stadium,
02:45 I guess, how do you reflect on that?
02:47 And what did you tell the guys about how to move on from this?
02:52 Whether you lose by one or 49 is a loss, first of all.
02:57 So he was trying to--
03:01 what I told them was, hey, we need guys--
03:03 let me tell you what.
03:07 I told them, so I've been trying to make sure we stay together.
03:12 That's been my number one thing, my number one thing
03:15 since I got-- since I've been put in this position.
03:18 And so some of that-- and doing some of that,
03:23 I probably-- they're kind of like, OK, that's OK.
03:27 We did that.
03:28 We're a little bit-- nothing craziness.
03:32 Not really who I am as a person, because I was thinking--
03:35 I was trying to be compassionate towards the players
03:39 about making sense.
03:41 I told them, I said, now I'm just going to be me all the way.
03:45 I told them, I said, I was trying to be compassionate.
03:47 We've been through this now.
03:48 We know what it is.
03:48 We're in an adverse situation.
03:50 And now we've got enough time to think about it
03:53 and mull it over.
03:54 Now it's just like, let me be me far as, OK,
03:57 if you're not here where you're supposed to be on time,
04:00 every day, all day, like you're supposed to be, OK,
04:02 now you won't play, because that's me.
04:05 That's me.
04:06 But I am a compassionate person.
04:09 I understood the situation that we were in.
04:11 So I was trying to just make sure everybody stayed together.
04:13 Now it's going to be like, who you see out there are guys
04:17 you know that are all in, who give us everything, all day,
04:19 every day.
04:20 I'm talking on and off the field.
04:22 And it wasn't nothing super egregious before.
04:25 But I'm real--
04:27 I'm big on time stuff and respect.
04:31 So that's what's going to start showing up
04:34 over these next several weeks.
04:35 Coach, 11 penalty, 11 penalties, over 100 penalty yards tonight.
04:43 How much importance does that hold to you?
04:45 And how do you plan to address that going forward?
04:48 Very, very important.
04:49 So it's, like I told him, it's the second--
04:51 I don't know, it's 11 again.
04:52 But that's what it was versus Washington.
04:54 So you can't play top 10 teams in the country
04:57 and have 11 penalties.
04:59 So I didn't know the exact same number.
05:01 It was the exact same number against those guys.
05:03 And you saw the results, almost very similar results.
05:06 And so we got a ways to go to get to that level.
05:12 But we played top 10 teams and had our worst penalty games.
05:18 Can't do that.
05:19 Can't beat ourselves.
05:20 So still falling back in discipline.
05:22 We had started getting better at those things.
05:26 But we still got to continue to work on it, obviously.
05:31 Back here.
05:34 Two things.
05:34 Along those lines, you had the legal formation penalty
05:37 or whatever it was on the punt again.
05:39 Was it the same situation and continued?
05:42 How do you get that corrected so you're not retaking
05:45 and losing yardage or more?
05:46 Good question.
05:47 That was a different guy.
05:48 That was a different-- so last week
05:50 was a guy within the line itself.
05:54 And this week was a guy out wide, a gutter type guy.
05:59 And they check with the ref.
06:02 I got to watch the film, so I don't want to just see
06:04 any old thing.
06:06 But they practice.
06:08 We always check with the refs.
06:09 We have refs that practice.
06:10 They check with the ref and do all the things
06:13 they're supposed to do.
06:14 And then that's part of just being disciplined.
06:18 And you just got to continue to push that ground on our guys
06:22 and doing the little things right.
06:23 And can't continue to keep doing that.
06:26 Second, you've got a couple more top 10 opponents
06:29 and notable defenses on the schedule.
06:32 I'm wondering how you figure out how
06:34 to get enough juice out of your offense in the coming weeks
06:38 and playmakers and whatnot.
06:42 Well, we're going to have to really, really study up
06:44 who's available for us, who our playmakers are,
06:47 and try to get them the ball as much as possible
06:50 in any kind of way.
06:52 And we do have some guys, some talented young men
06:55 on the offensive side of the ball that
06:57 can make some things happen.
06:59 And so we have to figure out what's best
07:01 and what works best for us to be able to attack
07:03 those different teams that we're going
07:05 to be facing coming up and see if we can make some things
07:08 happen.
07:10 This team has gone through a lot of adversity this season,
07:13 but is this just the lowest point yet?
07:15 It might be.
07:19 I got a low--
07:20 I thought it was low last week.
07:21 I mean, lower, you know, so--
07:24 but you got to shake it off and keep fighting.
07:28 That's all I know.
07:30 That's all I know.
07:31 You got to shake it off and keep fighting.
07:34 Second round.
07:37 With Michigan's defense, what exactly
07:39 made them so hard to score on in this game?
07:42 Well, like I said, going into the week,
07:45 earlier in the week, they understand defense.
07:49 They understand where they're supposed to be,
07:51 their assignments, and their coach will.
07:53 And so when you're a sound, disciplined defense that's
07:57 been coached well, guys do what they've been coached to do,
08:00 then you have a chance to be pretty good.
08:02 And so that's who they are.
08:04 That's what they showed tonight.
08:05 [INAUDIBLE]
08:09 I guess just after a game like this,
08:11 the way things have gone the last couple of weeks,
08:13 are you concerned at all about keeping those guys together
08:15 the way you were talking about earlier,
08:17 changing some of your demeanor and everything?
08:19 Are you worried about this last stretch,
08:20 you guys sort of split the park up?
08:22 Right.
08:23 Well, from the locker room that I saw in there,
08:26 that was part of me saying what I said, too.
08:28 But there, they keep fighting, man.
08:32 They are.
08:32 You got guys speaking up, guys that are passionate, that care,
08:37 and correcting others.
08:40 They are.
08:41 Man, I love this group.
08:43 I love this group.
08:44 I know we're not getting the results that we want,
08:46 but I love this group.
08:47 I mean, I appreciate all they've been doing.
08:50 And I think we'll be fine.
08:54 I really do.
08:56 After tonight, as you try to move forward with the season,
08:59 do you go back to this moment in kind of this game film,
09:02 or is it kind of trash it and try to move forward to next week
09:05 and keep showing, like you said, the resiliency of this group?
09:09 You have to watch it.
09:10 You have to watch it.
09:11 Face reality.
09:12 You have to face what really happened
09:14 and then get better from it.
09:17 And like I said, it's still a 24-hour rule,
09:19 but you want to learn from it, just
09:21 like we watched last week's round,
09:23 and try to get better from it.
09:25 And look to finish out the season the right way.
09:31 We're we not beating ourselves?
09:32 Make others beat us.
09:34 Make them really, truly beat us.
09:36 And then I can come up and be like, oh, they beat us.
09:39 We didn't help them beat us.
09:41 And that's the goal right now, is
09:43 to finish up these next five games
09:47 without beating ourselves.
09:50 The sign-stealing allegations, how did you find out?
09:54 Is it something you already knew about?
09:56 And was the possibility of not playing this game ever real?
10:00 I got a call Wednesday night from my athletic director.
10:05 I learned he had got a call from the Big 10,
10:09 and the Big 10 had got a call from NCAA
10:11 from how I understand what happened.
10:14 And that's when I found out.
10:15 And it was talk of, well, I was asking,
10:21 well, could we possibly do to them just that little
10:24 what you think?
10:25 And I said what I said, but I wasn't really
10:29 expecting much of that to come from it, to be honest with you.
10:33 And one time somebody did mention possibly not possibly
10:35 play the game.
10:36 I'm like, let's play the game.
10:40 Let's play the game.
10:41 It don't get you till it gets you.
10:43 Just remember that.
10:46 Marlon, how is your team making this just a second career
10:48 start?
10:49 I was wondering what you thought about how
10:50 we played overall against the number one scoring
10:52 defense in the country, and then also Sam being put in there
10:55 from freshman, obviously, in a tough spot
10:57 and you're with Noah unavailable, I assume, still.
11:01 Yeah, I mean, but those guys are getting better
11:05 and are good players, Sam and Caden.
11:08 So I'm glad they were able to even get reps.
11:12 And obviously, Caden is a starter,
11:14 but even Sam getting some reps tonight,
11:16 I think that was good for that.
11:19 Any time you can get game reps, it's good.
11:23 It's good.
11:23 And so I'm glad Sam was able to get some,
11:26 and Jake said, hey, I'm thinking about putting Sam in.
11:29 What do you think?
11:29 I said, let's go.
11:30 Let's get him some reps.
11:31 And so you never know when we may need them.
11:34 So that's where we are.
11:36 Last one there in the front row, Chris.
11:39 Marlon, you mentioned about the need
11:41 to refocus and all of that.
11:44 I guess with this group and what they've been through,
11:48 how do you, as the leader, recenter them?
11:52 I mean, is there a way to come back from a game like this?
11:56 What is the way?
11:58 Good question.
12:01 Well, one of the ways, first of all, talking to them
12:07 and making sure they all understand that, hey--
12:12 and I think they do, but you've got to say it again.
12:15 You've got to make sure they stay there
12:16 and understand how penalties and turnovers and knocking off
12:22 the field on third down are things that you can't
12:26 do in football games, the people that you do on those games.
12:28 And so you've got to talk to them about the beginning,
12:31 put heavy emphasis on the beginning,
12:33 make sure they all truly understand,
12:35 because you can fill the room.
12:36 Everybody understands.
12:37 Yes, we understand.
12:40 If it's mumbling, then they don't truly understand.
12:42 But yes, we understand that there is mumbling.
12:45 Then you say, what is it that we don't understand
12:48 about what we're doing wrong to get better?
12:50 And then they may express themselves.
12:52 So you've got to have some dialogue with the team
12:55 back and forth.
12:56 But most of the time, I can already tell you,
12:58 I feel like most of them are going to say, yes, we
13:00 understand.
13:00 We're reading ourselves.
13:02 We've got to get it corrected.
13:03 And this is how we're going to get it done.
13:05 And then we stay together.
13:07 We stay unified.
13:08 We hold each other accountable on those things.
13:11 And then we have a chance to improve and get better
13:14 and possibly win some football games.
13:17 All right.
13:18 That's all the questions.