Brian Ferentz Quotations

I fell asleep in the second quarter. Fortunately, I caught some highlights later. It didn't look like Michigan wanted to be there.

Hands down. He's done more for college football than anybody around today. He's like your uncle at Thanksgiving that everybody likes.

I think we were happy we were able to fight and at least give ourselves a chance at the end. Because we certainly didn't deserve to be there.

I think any time you have both programs having a lot of success, there's going to be a lot of attention. It's going to be tough for players on both sides to block out all that attention.

I think Clint will be the first one to tell you, he's embraced the mistakes he's made and has gone out of his way to help younger guys avoid those pitfalls. I think that says more about him than anything he'll ever do on the football field.

That stuff impacts the way guys play. I know this, we're ecstatic to be here. But, I'd think we would be happy with any bowl. Given how our season went, we're fortunate to be anywhere.

We don't get the headlines, we don't expect to see our pictures in the paper, that's not why we play. We play for days like (Saturday) where you really feel like the team put the game on your shoulders and it feels good to deliver. I've been part of offensive lines that didn't deliver. That doesn't feel very good.

When a team capitalizes on your mistakes, that makes it almost impossible to come back.

We still have a ways to go. I think we're making progress, but it's early.

We were ready to roll. They hit you with that fake punt and everyone was shocked on our sideline.

Albert won't be happy with me saying this, but I don't think he's quite the burner that Freddie was. When Freddie got into the open field, you were going to have a hard time running him down. Albert is the type of guy who's consistently reliable. Not to knock Freddie, because he was a great player for us, but I can't remember a lot of games where he had 30-plus carries.

They're not at all similar to the team we saw (in 2004). They're definitely the best football team we've seen since Ohio State.

They certainly never played the odds or did what would be conventional. When you make good on those risks, you're tough to beat.

I know we're a team that could be better than we are right now. I think that's the most important thing. As far as what we know right now, that's what we know -- we know we can improve, and we also know we need to improve.

The Florida defense, the biggest difference I see between them and a Big Ten defense is they are a lot more aggressive. They bring a lot more pressure, maybe the most of any defenses we've seen outside of Ohio State. I would say they are faster than most defenses we face in the Big Ten. ... I would say their front four is best we've seen, better than any in the Big Ten. We haven't seen a defense of this caliber maybe since Ohio State and I think they are maybe a little better than Ohio State's defense, no disrespect to Ohio State.