What they Said: Purdue HC Barry Odom recaps loss to Michigan

Opening Statement

We sit here close again and couldn’t quite get this one done. I’m tremendously proud of our team’s resolve about their preparation on what they did and displayed this week throughout the week. Leading up to the game, we talked about in all three phases trying to take the mindset of going on attack. And, you know, just making plays in tough, crunch-time situations, and I thought our guys responded. It certainly wasn’t perfect.

We came up short in a couple of areas, obviously. I think Michigan’s a really good team, and they won those situations that we weren’t able to and, therefore, won the game. So I do think we’ve got a locker room full of guys that are going to fight and do everything they can to try to go win a game. And we’ll keep on swinging. We’ll keep on digging. We’ll keep on trying to find a way to get in the winner’s circle.

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On his thoughts about how the defense played

I thought we did some things, created a couple takeaways, which was big. I don’t know where we’re at on third downs, but it seemed better. Thought on the line of scrimmage, there were times that we got pushed around a little bit. We’ve got to address those things and try to find a way to get an extra hat. There, when we get blocked, I thought the pass coverage, other than two plays off the top of my head, I thought they did some good things. And we tried to get the quarterback off the spot, you know, going into the week with the plan.

And we did that, but also we lost leverage and contained a couple times in an attempt to get him off the spot. So, I do think offense, defense are kicking. I thought we had a really good plan going into the game. Gave us an opportunity, and the kids, they did, from an execution standpoint, we missed some things, but they also, they made some things happen, too, which was good to see.

On whether the team missed Devon Mockobee

I think any time you lose a four-year starter that’s a captain, that’s a leader of the team, and his void is not, you know, he’s a void of him not being here, I think that would always be a miss. He brings so much to the program, to the team, but I do think that the offensive line, the tight ends, the receivers playing without the ball in their hands, Malachi, Antonio, Ryan, and Singleton, I thought that they stepped up and tried to fill that void when their number was called.

On the last drive before the end of the half

I think they had three timeouts, so I knew they were going to start using them at some point. We wanted to get the ball, at least try to get a first down, to get out of the backed-up territory, and then, you know, got in a situation where we had to punt the ball, and obviously, we didn’t have a very good punt, and then knowing they got the ball to start the second half, the middle eight, again, I’ve talked about that before, in a press conference, about how important that is, the last four of the first half, the first four of the second half. We didn’t win that in the last four minutes of the half, and obviously, I thought that, you know, starting the second half would be better, but those are every situation when you, you know, you come up and give away points in that situation. You know, if we didn’t at that time, you know, things maybe turned out different, but they made plays we didn’t.

On whether there were any second thoughts about the fourth down call

No. I was here to win the game, and I thought we needed to find a way to get points out of that possession, and we didn’t. We came up a couple inches short, but absolutely no regrets on the play call. If I had to do it again, I’d go do it.

On whether this performance can inspire the team

We’re going to learn from our experiences. We’ll learn from this one, the good, the bad, and then if we let anything prior to tomorrow when we start back to work, if we let anything other than learning from those experiences, if we let anything take away from what the preparation is needed to go play Ohio State, then we’re cheating the opportunity to prepare the right way, good or bad. So I will not question, and I have no… You know, we’re going to line up. We’re going to go compete our tails off. We’re going to prepare like we’re going to win the game. That is the mindset for us, whoever the opponent is. You know, we still talk all the time about a nameless, faceless opponent. Let’s go attack the week, prepare the way we need to with winning habits, and then cut loose and go play.

And, you know, I think our guys understand how close we are to winning a game, and we’re just going to keep pouring into it.

On the field goal unit

Yeah, I think the snap, the hold, the protection was really good. He continues to improve as the season goes on. We’ve got a trust factor in that, which is great. And, you know, the situation when they know the responsibility, when they step on the field, we should come away with points, and it was a big-time play for us.

On Bryce Underwood

Yeah, he’s a really good player and obviously has a bright future, and they got a lot of good players around him. So, you know, I think that he played well. I think he puts him in position to play winning football.

We were trying to do everything we could to confuse the pitcher and then also give him multiple looks that maybe would slow down his decision-making. But, you know, he’s a great player. For a freshman, you think in this league what he’s been able to do, he’s going to be a really good one.

On the gameplan for Michigan

Yeah, what we planned early on Sunday and Monday and then into Tuesday from a game plan standpoint. I thought our staff, again, did a really nice job on giving us, you know, the assistant coaches the plan they put together to play winning football. And there were things that we felt like that we could attack, and our guys did a nice job of understanding what we were trying to get done within the play call.

And for the most part, we were able to continue to stay on that path. We didn’t really have to get away from what our thoughts were going into the game because our guys kept executing. We kept extending drives, get a stop on defense, and it was kind of playing the way that we wanted it to unfold.

On Michigan’s run game

They’re damn good up front with really good runners. And sometimes one guy is going to beat the next guy, and we don’t get off the block and make the tackle. So they rushed the ball for a lot of success this year. I’m frustrated that we couldn’t get a stop there at the end. They made plays we didn’t.