Lloyd Carr Team Quotations

Here at Michigan the goals are always extremely high and the expectations are always great. When you stumble early, that's when you really find out how tough your team is.

I think certainly the '97 team raised the bar at Michigan. They raised expectations, which were already enormous. But I think the goal of every Michigan team since then is to win the national championship. And I think we all recognize how difficult that is to do. And yet it's certainly a goal worth pursuing. I think we're trying to pursue that every day.

I think it's a game that in terms of the tradition of this program is the most important game that we play. I think for any team playing in it, it's a big game. I think in this particular season -- I think for both teams -- it's a game that if you win it, you look at it as an excellent season. If you lose it, it's probably a disappointing season.

The question I was asked before the season was, 'Would you be disappointed to not be in the Sugar Bowl?' ... I can tell you, I would never be disappointed to take a team to the Rose Bowl. To play in that stadium -- outdoors, on grass, in the sunshine -- how could you be disappointed?

We are never really certain what kind of intensity the team is going to come out with, (but) I am very pleased with the intensity and the fact we got a lot of guys some experience. I think when you look at the big picture, we got a lot of things done today.

We don't make any excuses and never will, but we've been a very unlucky football team from an injury standpoint.

I knew in my heart this team had tremendous motivation. They worked extremely hard going back to the way that season ended a year ago.

I'm certainly, during the course of a week, not always going to tell you about injuries because that puts our team at a disadvantage. I hope you understand that because if you don't, you should. Because, when a team knows ahead of time who's not going to play, that helps them.

It's certainly one of the strengths of the team because they all have different abilities and skills but are all talented. Three gives you the opportunity to go with who gets hot. If a guy gets banged up, you have someone equally talented to go into the game.

The most important thing is having the opportunity to prove what type of team we are against the best. We are a program with a lot of tradition and pride. Whenever you add that in as a motivator, your expectations are high.