Monday morning presser

Rich Rodriguez:

- Injuries: Brandon Minor has a shoulder bruise and still has ankle problem. Hemingway has back issues that limited him in the game Saturday. Odoms is day-to-day and not progressing as they’d hope. Dorrestein’s back should be better. Minor’s ankle is a nagging thing and won’t know more about his ability until tomorrow.
- Carlos Brown playing time was because of tendinitis in his knee and Minor running well.
- Offense played well in the second half but Purdue did things differently on defense in second half. A lot of execution problems.
- Omameh played hard and well for his first start.
- Offensively, team felt comfortable. A few reads would’ve been better. Tate knows when he makes a mistake immediately.
- Big plays on Saturday were mental lapses. Zone coverage when the defender takes his eyes off his man. Can’t have those misses and expect to stop anyone.
- No theme in the last three second halves. Team just needs to play better.
- Is second half conditioning? No, “Do we look out of shape?”
- Onside kick went 10 yards. Warn players about leaving early. Player didn’t leave early but didn’t react to the ball. A phenomenal kick and they made a play on the ball.
- Was Carlos out of bounds on the pitch play? Rodriguez can’t see out on the tape. “Nothing you can do about it. Time to move on.”
- Don’t know what LBs will start against Wisconsin. Depends on how they play during the week.
- Hard to bring down John Clay. The O-line and tight ends are huge. Clay is the biggest and one of the best backs they’d see this year.
- On 4th and 10: Wouldn’t do it differently. Maybe call a different play, but the defense hadn’t done a good job stopping them.
- Linebackers have been OK. Moments of disappointment. You can play a good game but make one big mistake and it change the whole perspective on the game.
- Wisconsin is a loud place and a good atmosphere. Not worried about playing on the road.
- Team has to just play better and eliminate big mistake, whether it’s on offense, defense, or special teams. Eliminate the big, big mistakes and they’re right there.
- On Robinson: Really likes the chemistry of the staff but the production has not been as good as he hoped. But there are a lot of things that go into that. A lot of smart coaches on defense, and there’s not just one reason for success on either side of the ball.
- Don’t have a reset button. Just have to learn from losses and move on.
- There will be happier times ahead, hopefully sooner rather than later. It’s just a bigger challenge than a lot of people think.
- Brandon Smith has moved around a little bit. He’s at safety right now but eventually will be a linebacker. He’s bought into that but he’s shown a few good things on special teams. Trying to find his role.
- Need to have another two and three years of recruiting classes that fit the team’s needs and the players pan out as they’d hope. There’s always mistakes made, but you want to minimize those mistakes.
- Feel good about last year’s recruiting class as the type of guys they want to go forward with.
- OK to talk about the potential to go to a bowl, but not too much. Would rather look at the first play of the game than the last.
- Denard was kept out of the game because Tate was in rhythm during the game. Coaches wanted to get Denard in more and had a great week in practice.
- Tate has progressed and regressed since ND. Had more positive moments than negative moments. Still a work in progress and has to learn a lot.
- May practice with more crowd noise this week because of Camp Randall’s environment.
- Any encouragement come from last year’s comeback? They’ll be watching cut up film from last year but won’t harp on it.
- Greg Robinson’s system and terminology is a little different from last year, but there are a lot of new players playing right now. New players are as much an explanation as the new scheme for defensive struggles.