Tate Forcier caught America's attention with his game-winning, last-minute touchdown drive against Notre Dame, but Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said any doubts he had about his true freshman quarterback were answered a week earlier in the Wolverines' season-opening stomping of Western Michigan.

"I think the first game is more telling, because it’s in an opener and it’s a big crowd and it’s the first time in that kind of setting," Rodriguez said Tuesday on the Big Ten coaches teleconference. "I could tell the first time we went out there, there was a big smile on his face and he’s very calm and relaxed, so that that tells you right there. And maybe when a little adversity hit in the first game, he didn’t panic and he wasn’t flustered and he knew what he did wrong. So at that point I thought this guy, his makeup is suited perfectly for playing that position."

Rodriguez said Forcier reminds him some of former West Virginia quarterback Pat White, his last No. 5 to star under center.

“Some of the things that they have in common, and we think Denard (Robinson) has and I’ve seen some other guys do, is in the middle of the storm they’re calm," Rodriguez said. "They don’t get flustered. Actually, they almost seem like they improve their focus and their concentration in the bigger moments, and that's something that Pat White, I said that for years there. The bigger the moment, the bigger the stage, the better he was. Every time. And we’re hoping that our young guys have that same mentality."

Other highlights from Rodriguez on Tuesday's teleconference:

• Rodriguez said he expects his team to be just as dialed-in for Saturday's game against Eastern Michigan as it was against Notre Dame and Western.

"What I’ve appealed to them is to stay hungry," Rodriguez said. "They were hungry the first game, they were hungry the last game. I see no reason why we shouldn’t remain hungry."

• Defenses are usually ahead of offenses this early in the season, but Michigan and Notre Dame combined for 72 points last week, the most in rivalry history. Rodriguez's so-simple explanation: "There was some really explosive players on both sides of the ball."

• A reporter from Colorado, presumably writing about Dan Hawkins' miserable tenure so far with Colorado, asked about the pressures of building a program now versus when Rodriguez first got into coaching. The biggest difference, Rodriguez said, is the amount and intensity of public scrutiny.

"That's not necessarily a bad thing," Rodriguez said. "Being transparent is not a bad thing, you just have to be prepared for that as coaches and athletes that everything is out there and that if you’re going ot have a program that’s building, or you aspire to build at the highest level, you want to make sure that everybody knows that you’re doing the right things."