"No one is more excited in the country to start coaching football than I am."
Lots of experiences, drama in the last two years. Fun to watch the team grow up with year three now here.
"We have some questions, certainly, on both sides of the ball."
Defense needs to player better.
Lots of guys coming back; team has much more experience now than it has in the past two years.
Proud that the team has stayed focused despite all of the distractions.
Answers to questions:
Wide open competition at quarterback.
Should be able to tell who has progressed since the spring in the first few weeks of practice.
"May take a couple games before somebody clearly separates themselves (at quarterback)."
Craig Roh is close to 240-250 pounds.
Mark Moundros is the starting fullback, but he has also brought a lot to the linebacker position and will compete for a middle linebacker spot this fall.
Asked about who has had a good summer, Rodriguez responded that he doesn't know a lot about what goes on in the summer. Clearly a little bit of a joke about one of the NCAA violations of monitoring things too closely in the offseason.
Seniors were at his house last week and are excited for the season.
All of the outside stuff has brought the team closer together.
"Our fans have been terrific."
"Fans have been overwhelmingly positive."
"Nobody wants to win more than the coaches and players."
"I think it's exciting to have a championship game."
There's pros and cons to championship games, but the Big Ten is so strong right now that it's in a very good spot.
"Don't have a preference on how they split divisions."
Wants to keep rivalries intact when divisions are created.
The Big Ten understands rivalries and can figure out how to keep them going.
"When we get better, we'll compete better."
Going back to the Michigan State game last year, Rodriguez wouldn't change his decision to play for overtime instead of going for two and the win.
"We feel really good about Cam Gordon and his role in the secondary."
