By Nick Cafferky, news editor

Defensive coordinator Bud Foster spoke at his press conference in New Orleans this morning and addressed an array of topics from his defensive scheme, to the challenges of going up against a player like Denard Robinson. Here are a few highlights.

ON KYLE FULLER’S SEASON THUS FAR: “He has really had a great football season for us.  In my opinion, I think he’s our MVP.  If I had my pick, he just made some big plays at opportune times, and some important times and key games for us.  And I’m really, really proud of him.  He’s just one of those ?? he’s just a complete football player.  And he’s had a heck of a year for us.”

ON HOW HE WOULD DESCRIBE HIS DEFENSIVE SCHEME: “You know, we’ve tweaked it over the years.  We’ve done a lot of different things. We’ve been very versatile over the years.  You know, I’d like to think that we have been an attacking aggressive style defense over time.  I think we’ve tweaked things because of what offenses have done and how offenses have changed.  I think we’ve done a good job over the years of changing with them and adapting to the different styles that you’re seeing today.”

ON QB DENARD ROBINSON AND HOW TO CONTAIN HIM: “Denard has had a great year and is a great athlete and dynamic player with the ball in his hand.  And unfortunately throws the ball a little better than I want him to. We played some guys over the years, the Pat Whites and guys of that nature when we played them they were dynamic ball carriers. If you stop the run, then I think you gained a huge advantage.”

ON HIS THOUGHTS OF MICHIGAN’S OFFENSE IN GENERAL: “Without giving away anything we’re wanting to do, we obviously have to get off on the football and be physical.  That’s what they’re going to do.  That’s one thing I’ve been impressed with, is just their toughness and their play.  They play for 60 minutes.  And that’s one thing we’ve really prided ourselves in over the years is being a team that’s going to play from the opening whistle to the final whistle and play hard. … Whoever wins the line of scrimmage is going to win the football game.  And obviously that’s a tremendous challenge for us, but as I’ve also told our kids it’s a great opportunity.”

ON HOW THIS YEAR’S UNIT COMPARES TO THOSE IN PREVIOUS YEARS: “I think we’re in the top 12 or 15 in a lot of categories, if not most of them.  But that’s still not where we want to be yet. But we’ve made tremendous strides from last year to this year.  Started back in January when we came back from our previous Bowl game.  I didn’t think we played a great second half.  But I think part of our youth we were very young last year, and I think it was exposed a little bit and our kids have ?? they’ve made a commitment and we made a commitment that we need to take that next step.”

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