P.J. Fleck talks about what he expects to see from Michigan

Minnesota travels to Michigan on Saturday as part of Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff. Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt will call the game.

P.J. Fleck met with the media to talk about the upcoming matchup earlier this week.

How did your players come out physically?

“I know they're disappointed. Some bumps and bruises, but we came out pretty healthy. We went into the game missing some key guys in the secondary, and others who we could have used. But it gives valuable experience to young players, like Zaquan Bryan, who's playing at a high level as a redshirt freshman. Probably playing earlier than expected, but he's learning and improving every game. Some guys who hadn’t played all year are getting acclimated again, but you've got to perform from the start. Besides the disappointment after the game, I thought they were pretty good health-wise. But they were disappointed. The good thing is, as I said before, there’s a difference between disappointment and discouragement. They were disappointed but came out fired up and ready to practice.

We know our schedule, we know the Big 10—it’s a battle every week, and that’s exciting. Unfortunately, we've played two inconsistent halves of football in four games, and it’s cost us two games. We’ve got to fix that, and that falls on my shoulders. We have to make sure we play the way we start a game throughout—start fast, accelerate in the middle, and finish strong. If we can do that, this is a really good football team. I really like this team. We’ve played some really good opponents, which brings out the best in us, but those two bad halves caught up with us.”

You guys have been good at flushing results, win or lose. Is it easier this week?

“I love your questions because they're very similar, right? We talked about not letting circumstances dictate our behavior. After a loss, which hurts worse—a close loss or a blowout? They all hurt the same. A loss is a loss. Each game is its own entity, and you have to be trained to let it go like a goldfish—flush it and move on. Our team is really good at that. After the North Carolina game, they responded well against Rhode Island. Then with back-to-back shutouts, they responded again. The first half of football last week was really good, responding to being down 7-0 with 14 straight points. I don’t worry about that with this team. You're constantly training and looking for it, though. You’re always trying to tie things to the past week. But we don’t let the circumstances change our behavior.

They’re disappointed, but it’s not like they’re saying, "Oh, we lost, let’s move on." That game means a lot to a lot of people—our fans, our state, our alumni, players, university, student body, staff—everyone. It's hard to go through that, but they’ve been really good at flushing it and moving on, just like they did yesterday. Sunday night practice is great for getting a vibe of where we’re at, and then I can adjust things as we go through the week. You're constantly listening to your team—watching how they respond, how they react, what the training room is like, the team meeting, the position meetings, their body language in practice. You get a good vibe for the coming week, and then you adapt accordingly.”

Watch the full press conference below: