1998 FBL vs. Eastern Michigan -- postgame quotes

Michigan Head Coach Lloyd Carr

"We improved as a team. We played a lot of young people because we're banged up. We're getting a lot of guys some experience."

"We came out right from the beginning. Our backs ran harder. We did some good things at the end of the game. Justin Fargas played well; he's learned some things over the past couple weeks. We need to run the ball to be a good team because I don't think we have a dominating defense. But that will get better as we go along."

"Offensively, we rushed well, particularly early on. We ran harder than we have. We came out of this game with some positives."

"Our secondary, they're young -- Patrick McCall, Todd Howard, James Whitley. We're a very young team at a lot of positions. Our offensive backfield -- Justin Fargas, Walter Cross, Ray Jackson and Anthony Thomas."

"(EMU quarterback Walter) Church did a good job in there. We're primarily a zone team so we don't give up big plays. The problem is we've got to eliminate those big plays. We've got to tighten things down, that's the big issue. We're just not at times getting the pressure on the quarterback."

On Hayden Epstein:
"He's got a great leg. He has some things he has got to work out. Wednesday and Thursday he didn't kick the ball off, he was getting it to the 10-yard line. That's a tremendous asset though. He boomed the ball.

On Michigan's freshman receivers:
"You got a glimpse of what he (David Terrell) can do. Marquise Walker has also come along. He broke his finger in practice last week and he showed a lot of competitiveness. Our receivers have really come along."

On playing Michigan State next weekend:
"It's the opening Big Ten game. Michigan State is always a great game. There's not a more intense game we play all year long than the State game.They're an outstanding team. Anyone who saw them against Notre Dame knows what they're capable of. We have a lot of work to do to get ready for them."

Senior DE and Captain Juaquin Feazell

"Our approach was to go out and play our best regardless of who we were playing. That's what we do every day in practice. It was important for us to get a win under our belt before we started our defense of the Big Ten title."

Senior OL and Captain Jon Jansen

"We wanted to establish a running game early. Going into the Big Ten season, we knew we needed to establish a strong running game if we were going to be competitive. I think we did that today."

Junior QB Tom Brady

"We put some points on the board and we ran the ball -- that's our style of football. This week was more characteristic of Michigan football."

Eastern Michigan Head Coach Rick Rasnick

On the game overall ...
"Overall, we competed better than I thought we would. We had some mental errors that had nothing to do with the University of Michigan, such as two personal fouls. You cannot have those types of mental errors regardless of who you are playing. I was happy with our passing game, especially the way we threw the ball in the flat and dinked it around. We even went downtown successfully a couple of times."

On the performance of Walt Church ...
"Walt was good and after he made a couple of unforced errors early in the game he settled down and played well. He threw the ball in the flat real well and also threw the deep ball on the money. Walt gets better every week. He plays with good poise, has a strong arm and showed he can play at this level."

On Eastern Michigan's increased confidence throughout the game ...
"Our defense gained some confidence late in the first half after we held Michigan to a couple of three-and-out series. On offense, we put together a couple long drives for scores and that helped our confidence as well. If you move the ball 80 yards on Michigan's defense, you know you are doing some things right."

On the play of Eastern Michigan's offensive line ...
"Our offensive line gave Walt all day to throw and that is key in our system. Even when we went to a seven-step drop and threw the ball down field we had excellent pass protection. We struggled running the ball because they are bigger and stronger. We wanted to run the ball to develop some type of balance, but just could not get it done. However, I am pleased with the way we protected the quarterback."

Quarterback Walt Church

On the EMU offensive game plan ...
"Our game plan was to come out and make some plays offensively. We wanted to find the open receiver and complete some passes. To an extent, we were able to do that. Unfortunately, they were effective stopping stopping the run."

On the absence of Michigan safety Marcus Ray ...
"We were going to play our game plan regardless of who was in there. He's a great player and probably would have helped their defense."

On the EMU performance ...
"We were able to do some things offensively, but we made too many mistakes. You can't turn the ball over against a team like that."