The Michigan Wolverines reached a low point in the tenure of head coach Jim Harbaugh, falling to the previously winless Penn State Nittany Lions at The Big House this afternoon.
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Afterwards, a somber-looking Harbaugh met virtually with media members to discuss what went wrong during the course of the matchup, and where the team will be going from here on out.
“Hate losing, so we have to respond by pressing on and attacking it,” he said. “That will be the response from me and a bunch of our players. That’s our only choice.”
Harbaugh took responsibility along with the rest of the coaching staff for coming “up short”:
“We got hurt throughout the game with the slant route, the quarterback draw, perimeter screens and tackling wasn’t good enough as well,” he said. “Coming up with the right call at the right time to get the stop and also make the tackle to get our defense off the field, we came up short.”
“There (were) times where we didn’t have the edge set and we folded back in and let the play bounce, no question about that,” he continued. “We gotta tackle better. There (were) too many missed tackles. Got to take away what an offense is trying to do to you as well, with the right call at the right time. A lot of things came together that we didn’t, we weren’t as effective as we wanted to be.”
As far as player evaluations, Harbaugh had nothing bad to say about the effort being put forth by his team.
“I think the guys are working at it and we appreciate the effort,” he explained.
Harbaugh was also complimentary of quarterback Cade McNamara, who was injured in the 1st quarter but would soon return.
“It was a gritty performance by him,” Harbaugh said. “That’s a tough kid. A lot of respect for Cade coming back. Very gutty. But the shoulder did tighten up as the game went on.”
The Wolverines will look to get back into the win column next week when they host Maryland.
