Nov. 9, 2010

Watch Coach Zook's Tuesday Press Conference
Watch Tuesday's Player Interviews: QB Nathan Scheelhaase | WR Jarred Fayson | OL Graham Pocic | LB Nate Bussey | DB Trulon Henry

Opening Statement:
"All right, getting ready to play our last home game. I think the seniors, it's kind of really hitting home and we talk all the time about how fast it goes; blink of an eye and its gone. But this is the last home game and we have the opportunity to go 5-1 (in home games this year). And this football team is very excited to get back out there and play. Very, very impressed with the way we practiced last night. This football team understands that (we're playing) a football team that's very, very dangerous. This team will kind of switch positions, so to speak, from last year. So we are going to have to be ready to play them. What we have to do is what we said we had to do all year long: we have to go take care of us. We have to go out there and play the way we are capable of playing. They've got a quarterback that arguably - I mean, this guy has been around forever, it seems like, and I have said it every year - that he is a great player and does a lot of great things. So as I said, we're going to have to be ready to play. They are excited about playing. As I said, the seniors are, this is a big day for them and gives us an opportunity to go 5-1 at home, which I think is important for our fans and our seniors. We look forward to the challenge. They know they have to play well and I feel very, very confident that we will."

Is it important to manage emotions this week, the last home game and coming off of the game Saturday?
"Well, I think that is part of it. I think every week you have to manage emotions. I think the focus is this next game, is Minnesota. They understand the importance of the game. As I said these seniors - in fact, Eddie stood up and said a few things yesterday. Eddie's been here for a long, long time and if there's one person, and it means something to all of them, but Eddie said some things over the years. I can tell it's getting Eddie. I think Eddie will have a big day."

What has Eddie said to the team?
"It wasn't necessarily to the team. It was more just kind of important to this game and what it means."

What has been the idea over the past couple of weeks to substitute McGee for Scheelhaase?
"Give Nate a little break and you know, it's a change of pace. If affects the defense and I'll be honest with you, as well as Nate is playing, I think it helps Nathan. It gives him a chance to get his breath."

On how Eddie has been a mentor for Nathan:
"From the very beginning, Eddie has kind of been in that position where he played early, played as a redshirt-freshman. It's helped him. I think it was important, particularly the situation. I mean there was a forgone conclusion last year that Eddie was going to be the quarterback. Juice's reign ends, he's going to be the quarterback and it's his turn. And turn of events and all of a sudden Nathan is the quarterback. I think it was probably important, not only to Nathan, but to this football team that everyone saw that Nathan had Eddie's endorsement. Eddie was all for it. And to me, that was a big thing and Eddie did that on his own. He was the first guy that got behind Nathan, any time that Nathan has had any, not necessarily struggles, but things haven't gone exactly well, they way he'd like them to go, Eddie would be the first guy there."

Mikel Leshoure has been catching the ball well lately, why is he getting so open?
"I can't answer that, but he has always been a great receiver. A great back has to be able to protect, has to be able to catch out of the backfield, has to be able do it all. He has always been a very good athlete. He has always been a guy who can catch a ball and do those things. As I said, most good backs, they have to be able to protect, they have to be able to catch a ball in the backfield and obviously run the football."

You don't get overly concerned on how he doesn't have the rushing yards lately?
"I am more concerned - and I think Mikel will tell you the same thing - we are more concerned with winning the game more than yards. But he did have 120 last week, so that's not too bad."

Does an opponent keying in on Mikel help your passing game?
"I think the one thing the offensive staff has done a great job of, we're not one-dimensional, brain stretch of imagination?? (12:55) I think if you look at what Minnesota is trying to do a little bit, they're almost trying to do 50/50 as well. And that causes you some issues. If the defense knows what you are trying to do, they can gang up and make you go the other way. But I think that is the one thing that has helped us offensively is like with Nathan trying to spread the ball around and doing different things that way."

Most of your seniors that are leaving were here for five years. How hard is that?
"I think not only what they are going through, they have meant a lot more to this program maybe than what people think - maybe people down the road will realize what they did mean. In terms of the groove, so to speak, and holding people together and what they stood for. You are right, a lot of them have been here five years and this is really the first time we have had a bunch of fifth-year guys. They have kind of been through it all, they've been through the good and the bad, and kind of been the glue to the whole thing."

On the seniors' ups and downs since 2006:
"They have had an awful lot to do with it. As I said, they have been kind of to the top of the mountain and back down and trying to climb back up there again. I think they have done a nice job. And once again, they have done an incredible job. Never has this group with bringing in freshman or bringing in guys even playing in front of them, never have they been anything but positive and helpful and the young guys, trying to help them."

Is there anybody in that group that's more of a leader that we don't quite see?
"I think they all have; I don't want to single out one guy. They have all been involved and been part of it. It is kind of a close-knit group. The homecoming game, that is the game where we take the seniors to the pep rally and I'm on the bus with them. They are all kind of joking. Of course, Nate (Bussey)'s a true senior, and the majority of them are fifth-year seniors. They were all just making comments about what we have been through and what we've done. It was kind of funny to hear them talk."

Has the team been able to shake off the game Saturday?
"Yeah, I don't think you have a choice. You don't have a choice but to shake it off. There is no use dwelling on it. Nothing dwelling on it is going to do but hurt us. Right now the most important thing we can do is go play Minnesota to the best of our ability. I haven't shaken it completely off; that just shows you that . But we've got to go play the way we are capable of playing."

On how the tackling wasn't up to standard compared to previous games:
"Well, I think a little bit of that has to do with, just like I told the defense on Monday night, you don't just become a bad tackling team. It's energy, it's all those things that kind of enter into it. They played at a pretty high level the last few weeks. That's not the right offensive football team to have a little bit of a lull (against), but we did. We need to regroup and go back to it."

Minnesota hasn't looked too dangerous the last couple of weeks. Why do you think they are?
"Well first of all, offensively this is probably the biggest team we've seen. They have a quarterback that's capable of doing unbelievable things. They have two big receivers catching the football. Once again, the reason I say it's so important that we take care of us is because this team can very easily - just like any team in the Big Ten, anybody can beat anybody on any given day if we're not ready to play. Just like everybody is trying to say `Well, are you worried about what happened?' but last week's over with. If anything, the defense particularly because we have a bunch of guys who played a bunch of plays, we're backing off of them a little bit this week, just to fill the tanks back up. That game's over with. It's put away, it's on to the next game. There's no use even thinking about it or talking about it. It's going to be important that we go out there and play the way we're capable of playing. Like I said, on any given Saturday, I don't care who you play, you can get beat."

Do you tell the team not to look at the scores from the last two weeks by Minnesota?
"Well, also they've played some pretty good teams in the last few weeks and they know how good those few teams are, but if you go back and look at how the game started, they were in the game. They were up and down the field with Ohio State. That was the first game I watched, just because it was on my computer, the first game. They were up and down the field with Ohio State. Once again, it wasn't a shellacking-type score. With Michigan State, they went up and down the field a little bit. So I think, once again, they're capable of causing a lot of problems."

Nathan Scheelhaase has gone three games without an interception. Is there a big difference when he's taking care of the ball?
"Well, I think whenever you take care of the football, and I think everyone knows that you have to take care of the football. And I think on the reverse side of that, the defense is getting some turnovers as well, and whenever you can do that, the more opportunities you give the offense. I think you would expect the offense to continue to improve, we've said it from day one, and I think for a lot of reasons. Number one, just naturally you're going to get better. Number two, the coaches are doing a great job of putting the players in positions that they feel comfortable with, and I think as the coaches get to know the players in the heat of the battle and what they do best, that's what they're doing, and to me that's a sign of great coaching."

This is basically the first time in the Big Ten this year that you've played a team that has no chance at bowl eligibility. What does that do to your preparation?
"Nothing. This is a very, very dangerous team, no bones about it. Our guys understand that we have to take care of us, we have to be prepared to play the way we're capable of playing. Hopefully these guys are mature enough and smart enough to know that, and they are, they'll be ready to go."

How has the kick return game developed over the last several weeks?
"I think Coach (DeAndre) Smith is doing a great job of kind of putting the returns together that we have to do and the guys are executing. Once again, I think everybody is clued in on what they're supposed to do. You have to have good players, but they also have to be coached and I think that's one of the things that the coaches are doing a good job of coaching."

On the Michigan lateral that they did after the kickoff return the other day, the reverse, was that forward?
"I'll be honest with you, I looked at the play but I don't know if it was or not. What happens in a situation like that, there's two reasons why I wanted to squib the ball there. I wanted to squib the ball because of the time on the clock in the half and because of trick stuff like that. It's pretty hard to run a reverse, and poor Derek, I yelled at him, but he had a perfect squib right to the guy, and normally on a squib, they're not going to be able to run that play, but it was one of those things where the ball bounced that way. I saw it bounce in his hands and immediately my eyes went right to the other side, and then I saw the guy coming around. That's kind of the rub of the green."

Derek Dimke has kicked the ball very well all year. Did he maybe have a rough day because of the cold?
"Well, I think any time it's cold, the ball's going not going to travel as far and that's just part of it, and the wind was going in the one direction."

What's the mentality of the defense?
"I think probably more than anything, they're embarrassed. I texted most of them on Saturday night and most of them texted me back and they put it behind them and learned from it and we'll go from there. But as I said, I was very, very pleased and happy with the way we practiced last night in terms of trying to focus and zeroing in on what we're doing. Sometimes as a coaching staff, maybe we at times, we've got them thinking too much and they were thinking too much. Those guys wanted to do well - trust me, they knew that that was a pretty good offense, the fourth-leading offense in the country, and they wanted to try to prove a point and maybe we overemphasized that rather than taking care of ourselves and making sure we were doing what we're supposed to do."

What was the conversation when you showed that one play where there were three guys and it looked like the kid was all bottled up, then he went about 30 yards down the left side?
"The conversation was kind of like, `That's not our kind of football, that's not the way we play football,' and I think it was a perfect view of the way we were playing. Terry missed the tackle and you've got three guys that can make a tackle and no one makes a tackle and he goes 45 yards for a touchdown. Maybe more than that. Does it happen? Unfortunately it's happened, I've seen it happen before, but it's embarrassing because those things can't happen and haven't happened this year. Once again, you learn from it and you go on."

Do you get in situations sometimes where guys are trying to do things outside of what they should be doing and was that maybe the case there?
"Well, jumping out of gaps and things like that, that happens. Once again, that's not being zoned in to what we have to do. But we'll learn from that and go on."

Have you talked to (New Mexico head coach Mike) Locksley since he got his win?
"No I didn't. I saw he got a win. That's good, I'm happy for him."

Have you talked to him much this year?
"We've talked back and forth a couple times. I texted him and told him to hang in there. I heard one of his press conferences a couple weeks ago and I thought he did a good job. That's hard. It's hard when the bullets are flying. You've just got to kind of believe what you're doing. He's a good football coach, he knows what he's doing and he's got to weather the storm and keep going."

Have you seen much of a difference in the way Minnesota's playing? Do they look different under Jeff Horton?
"Maybe a little more 50-50 (run-pass ratio), but once again, you get into the middle of the season and it's hard to really change what you've been working on in all three phases. I think the biggest change is how you think in game-time situations."

Do you know him at all?
"I don't."