Reporter:
Ok. Um Ryan against Michigan. Um, I understand you guys want to establish the run. I mean, the stat, the team that's won the rushing battle the last 20 years, wins the game when that wasn't working though, there seemed to be a lack of adjustments. Is that fair? And, and what did you see when you watched the film?
Day:
Yeah. Um I think the first thing is just overall, you know, let me just quickly start with the defense. I feel like the defense, um, played excellent. I thought that, you know, really, from the Oregon game on some of those adjustments that were made have been excellent and I thought they played really, really hard in this game was everything perfect. No, but I thought they played really good.
I think when you look at the offensive side of the ball, um, you know, it was not a good day, it wasn't a good day across the board on offense and, you know, some of that had to do with the coaching and, and some of the game planning that went on there's no question that, you know, we could have done a better job getting the ball to the perimeter. I think one of the key points of the game though is when you have five trips to the red zone and you only get 10 points and, you know, in those moments there, you know, we, we had a couple of missed field goals, we had an interception, we had the field goal and we had the touchdown and, you know, we hadn't done that up to that point and, and that was a big deal. So, um, and then on special teams, you know, we, we had some other things that, you know, we wouldn't execute very well. A couple of, you know, uh, kicks that weren't fielded great down in the seven yard line which created coming out situations and then we had the missed two Miss Feld goals. So, ultimately, you know, that comes back on me as the head coach, you know, whether it's, you know, the right guys being in the right spot, the recruiting part of it, you know, the scheme, the coaching. So, you know, uh, you know, that's on me, but I, I think when you look back on it, there's definitely ways that we could have got the ball to the perimeter.
I think when you look at you, I think we threw it 35 times in the game, which is, I think will's second most throws.
But, um, you know that it certainly played into it being in the red zone and, and coming out.
Um, but there's definitely ways that we could have done a better job because it's the coach's job to put the guys in the best position to be successful.
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Reporter:
I know you're not gonna give us the insight of exactly on the headset. But what is that discussion like between you and chip there in the fourth quarter with every play call debating if you should run, stick to the run or turn back.
Day:
Yeah, usually it's, it's um between each series, you know, you get the, the script of, of what comes, um, you know, for the next drive, some, some thoughts that are going on and, you know, some of them are mixed with RP OS and some of them are just, you know, call it and run it, um mixture of all those things.
But when you, when you do call an RPO, sometimes if they're, you know, a too high shell, that ball is gonna get handed off and then obviously you just have passes. Um And so, you know, you, you go through it, you, you go through the list and see what you're thinking and, um, you know, there were a couple of them that, you know, we got to turn over there in the red zone and weren't able to turn that. I mean, that was very, very frustrating, you know, and that's, that was a big part of the, the, the game right there. So, um but that's typically how it goes.
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Reporter:
Ryan the two minute when you guys were, were taking time out to try to get the ball back because you re evaluate that situation. Do you think that you guys handled that properly with your time outs and using the two minute warning to your advantage or is that something that you guys have to go back through and be like, well, I think if you, um, if you wait to the two minute warning, you know, you was with three time outs left and you still need a, a touchdown.
Day:
You know, that's, um, that's plenty enough time to go down the field.
Um, and so, you know, we try to do the best we can to get with, you know, what, what's on the chart in terms of the analytics to get the feedback on, on what that should be. You know, I think uh we had plenty of time to, to come to go score. We didn't do that.
That wasn't the, um you know, the issue. Um but, uh, you know, we'll always look at it to see where we are on the field. What's it down in distance and then go from there. But, but ultimately, what you're trying to do is is, you know, get the ball back with as many time outs as possible. And, um, and as much time on the clock as possible,
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Reporter:
I know that you guys said that it was just a communication but I have there been conversations about that in particular and, and what just, what exactly went wrong there at the time out.
Day:
Yeah. Yeah, I'm not gonna get in all of it, but yeah, it was, it was a miscommunication from up top and, um, you know, once, once it got sent in, it was hard to, you know, it got loud and it got hard to get back, um, you know, off the field and, and so it was a miscommunication. It shouldn't have happened.
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Reporter:
Did you find yourself involved in the play calling? More so than any previous year? Did you ever get involved in that at all?
Day:
You know, I, I try to get my feedback and, and try to get, you know, involved as much as I can on both sides, you know, I click over on defense,
I click over on offense, um, and, you know, try to do everything I can to help you to be a part of it. Um, so,
but yeah, I mean, ultimately li listen, I, I mean, I'm responsible, I'm the head coach. So that's, that's, that's where the buck stops
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Reporter:
He was, he was fine as far as you're concerned and tempo, it really worked at the end of the path and then it just kind of went away. What obviously if you have to do it over again? Maybe you go tempo. Why didn't you go back to it? What was the thinking of going to it?
Day:
We had tempo plays going into the game. Um, you know, I thought early on we, you know, we, we kind of had a little bit of a pace to us, got in the red zone again and bogged down. Um, at the end of the half, we were in a two minute drill because it was more of a two minute situation than it was just tempo.
Um Looking back again. Yeah, I don't think there's any way you could argue that tempo would have helped us more in a game, talk about having to win the rushing battle in this game. And historically, what that's meant.
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Reporter:
Um Does it at any point become, I don't know, a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy like that's what Michigan builds, builds his team to do. Meanwhile, you guys are as talented and more talented than anyone in the country at the receiver position yet. It seems like you go into this game with the mindset of we're going to run the ball anyway. I don't know if that's the proof of point or, or, or what, but how much is that on your mind? And at this point is it on your mind to your detriment as you try to put together a good game plan against.
Day:
Well, I think there's two things there. I think, um, we certainly threw the ball more than we passed it.
I mean, uh, threw the ball more than we ran it. But that, I think, I don't think that's your question. I think the question is, you know, what we gotta do, what's best to win the game. Yeah. And, and that's, that's gotta be the number one goal. You know, I think there's certain things that you have to do and we have a list of like 10 situations. You know, the rushing yards is one of them turnovers is one of them X plays is one of them, you go through it so you don't just get stuck on one thing.
But when you see something that's like undefeated over 17 years, you gotta make sure the guys understand that that's important, but it doesn't necessarily mean like that's, you gotta do whatever you can to win the game, that's the bottom line. And so, you know, there's other ways to run the ball, you know, you can get the ball in a perimeter, you can, you know, do different things as you guys know.
So, um, you know, sometimes when you get down in there inside the, the red zone, you know, it gets tight in there, you have to, you know, be creative and I think we could have been more creative in those areas. You guys now are on year four of at least not reaching two of those stated goals. Obviously, the third one is still out in front of you.