Lloyd Carr Great Quotations

Whether things are going great or poorly, you have challenges. Challenges when things are going well are a lot more fun, but no less difficult. In our case, there's no question it's not as much fun. But if you have good people and good character like we have, you approach it thinking that together you can get through it. And if you have a good work ethic, you have a chance to fight your way out of it.

One of the things that this guy Collins says is, he measured great organizations, great businesses ... they lasted,

I can't imagine the excitement that Larry Foote is going through. He went to high school at Pershing, then to have a great career here.

He understands that I have great confidence in him,

He has really improved his throwing from the standpoint of seeing the field. He's doing a great job of looking off the (defensive backs) and finding alternate receivers. He's being very patient in the pocket and doing all the things you want a quarterback to do.

He felt a pop. It's really too bad because he's done such a great job. His family had moved to Texas, and his dad was going to get a chance to see him play, and he didn't play.

He's got great toughness. He's got great vision. And he's got great size.

His touchdown may be the biggest play of our season. Mario is an outstanding football player. He displayed that in high school. He came from a great program. But I guess I am a little surprised at how much he's done as a true freshman.

I think it's a great plus. Any time you can put two or three guys in there that have different types of abilities, I think it creates issues for the defense.

I thought Chad did some great things in there. That last touchdown, it was a great drive. He scrambled for significant yardage and on the touchdown; he did some very good things.

I think it starts - we always start in the state of Michigan. And we did not recruit a large number of guys from this state this year. It already is apparent that next year will be a very good year in this state. We start here, but I think our coaches did a great job. I was in 16 states in 15 days in January, and so we were spread out, and yet I think we've got an outstanding class.

I think they have great balance, and any time you have great balance, it's a much more difficult challenge to defend. Pittman has had an outstanding year; over 1,100 yards in ten games. I think he's tough, has great vision, finds the hole, and of course he's surrounded by a lot of good people. When you're complimented and you have the balance to both run and throw, then it opens everything up.

I saw Gabe make one great play and I thought we did a lot of great things inside. It was on the perimeter where we got hurt more than anything else.

Our players embraced him and Chad gets most of the credit for that because of the way he handled the pressure of the job and the praise he got for doing it. But (quarterbacks coach) Scot Loeffler did a great job of helping him get better every day and (offensive coordinator) Terry Malone did a great job of giving him things he could handle, not overloading him.

Marlin had a very difficult year last year, ... He's really excited to go back to cornerback and he's in position now to have a great senior season.

I think he's throwing the ball extremely well and I think he has the confidence of being in a lot of big games, the experience that comes with being in tight ball games, being in two-minute situations, being ahead, being behind, all of the things that you need to learn to be able to learn to be able to control the game and lead your team. I think he's done a great job of that.

I think he's a guy that can make you miss. He's a guy that has great vision. He's one of those guys that can hurt you in a lot of different ways.

We had some great drives, but we stopped ourselves every time.

We'd like to tackle the quarterback, ... Traditionally here, we've taken great pride in the way we played defense. Like every other program in the country, the spread offense creates problems. I've said this because when you use the quarterback, really in many instances like a tailback, and yet you have four wide receivers and you spread the defense out, you're going to give up some yardage, you're going to give up some points. I think that's fundamental.

With any change, there's great enthusiasm. It does create an opportunity for change, and new ideas, so I think it is going to be very good.

Year in and year out, on a consistent basis, the best teams in the country always have great defenses.

We had a great drive and some things happened there at the end. I have to see it on film. I think our players deserve better.

Antonio is a great athlete and a guy who has tremendous upside. He had a wonderful freshman year if you consider some of the nagging injuries he had. Yes, it will be a significant loss if we lose him.

At some point he will be considered with the very, very best offensive linemen that have ever played here and that's high praise. He is so talented athletically and he is so tough mentally. For anybody who was going to start a football team, Jake Long would be a great place to start.

They're very different offensively. They spread the ball. When you look at the statistics, you'll see great balance in the people that got the football.

There's a lot of great athletes, skilled athletes that are returning punts, ... The one thing I've seen in recent years at the college level is a tremendous and significant change in special teams play. The time spent obviously has increased in that phase of the game, giving those skilled athletes the opportunity to make big plays in the kicking game.

They're both much more confident, much more comfortable, ... By the same token, there's more pressure because everybody expects more. But both of them have had a great attitude, a great approach, and I think they'll equip themselves very well.

His father is a New York City policeman. And we had a great visit, and of course his dad told us a lot of stories about 9/11, as you can imagine, with him being there and having a lot of friends involved in that day.

He's so competitive, he's so tough, and he's so smart. Once he got a chance to play, he performed well, and he had a great career. I don't like the word 'overachiever.' I called him that once, and he said, 'What do you mean by that?' I said, 'What I mean is, I can't give a guy a higher compliment.' Sometimes when you get called that, it's like you don't have any ability, you just play hard. He had ability.

He's really improved throwing the football from the standpoint of seeing the field. When he's dropping back, he's doing a great job looking off, finding alternative receivers. His presence there is outstanding, and he still has the ability when things break down to make a play.