OPENING STATEMENT...
“Another big week with a Pac-12 contest against Utah and they have been playing very well. They are 6-2 and 4-2 in the conference on a four-game winning streak scoring about an average of 41 points a game, which is very impressive. They have got a senior lated defense with a lot of experience over there. They don’t give up a lot of points, averaging about 16 points a game. They have done a nice job up there. Their coach has really done a fantastic job with this football team. They are big and physical up front, especially with their defensive line, and their secondary is pretty active. They will play a lot of man coverage - have some pretty good corners. Offense, obviously the quarterback is playing well, very athletic. Have a back that is really a downhill back. He's not going to dodge you, he’s going to run you over and you better tackle him. They do a lot of speed option and run the power and the zone schemes, but they run the football. They run with a purpose – very physical football team and they are leading the conference right now. They are 4-2 and 6-2 overall so they have one of the better records in the Pac-12 overall. As I said, big physical football team that reminds me of the Stanford team and as well as Michigan State - just a big powerful football team that is very well coached.”
ON HOW TEAM CLOSED OUT THE GAME AGAINST USC…
“I think it’s one that was kind of similar to Michigan state when you think about it, we won two games by three points. We have lost four by seven and we have two where we had substantial leads where we didn’t have to worry about the final outcome. It really didn’t turn out how we liked, obviously, as far as what happened there in the last two minutes of the game feeling that when we came to the sideline, I told the offense real simple, I said ‘you have to make the first down to close the game out and just end it.’ Low and behold, maybe I should have told them too after you close it out, Manny (Wilkins) don’t run for a touchdown but I couldn’t get that in. I didn’t ever image 45 yards away the quarterback was going to run for a touchdown. They brought a casino blitz. They brought everybody and Manny just ran the option and took the ball out and he was free running it. I think he realized when he was at the five that it was too late then – his momentum was going in and I go ‘Oh this is isn’t over.’ You just know its not over. And it wasn’t and we were able to win at the end, which was fun for the kids. It was really nice to watch them enjoy a win, especially beating a team like that that had won 19 in a row in that stadium. That’s an impressive win for these guys because it started out we got some points on the board early, but going in at halftime - look I had no delusions or grandure, I said ‘this game is not over, these guys have too many good players.’ They were able to make some plays and you have to give them credit. We also played some balls the wrong way, but you have to give them credit it was a good game to watch if you were a fan – a football fan. It was an exciting game.”
ON SATISFACTION OF OFFENSIVE GAME PLAN…
“We had a nice plan, give the coaches a lot of credit. We moved N’Keal (Harry) inside a little bit. We felt that would help us some and get him the ball inside and give us the matchups we wanted. I felt like we had to run the ball going on the road. You can’t have those guys tee off and come after the quarterback. We needed to protect our quarterback, which I thought was marvelous. The first time they brought a casino blitz was great pass protection. As good as you can get and hitting N’Keal with the big play and then we ran the ball. We ran the ball 44 times and that’s a good number for us. When I get into that, fans will think that he doesn’t want to throw it. No, we are trying to win. That was the best way to go about our business and once you get the run game going, it's much more easier to throw the football. For us, we made some plays and then they have some athletes too. They made their share of plays. It boiled down to at the end us holding on. It was a good win for us.”
ON N’KEAL RECEIVING RECOGNITION AFTER INCREDIBLE PERFORMANCE…
“As long as we keep playing on ESPN, everyone is going to know who he is. We have an ASU guy that works for them too so that helps. I don’t know if maybe the east coast people don’t know, but I think anybody who watches football and pays attention to it they know how good he is. He had a big day and he needed to have a big day. When he’s playing well and Eno (Benjamin) is playing well and our offensive line is blocking, and Manny has time our offense can be productive. It can be. We have some explosive players. All of the sudden Manny is out and Frank (Darby) gets a nice long ball and he drops it and he never generally drops those. He is one one of the better long ball catchers. You can imagine if he catches that one – I think he was one or two in the country leading yards per reception. And he drops it. We have some players that can make some plays, but it all starts with our protection and us running the football. If we can do that, then things open up for us in the passing game.”
ON IMPORTANCE OF WINNING THE GAME AGAINST USC…
“I think anytime you have lost the way we have lost games, it's easy to reflect on those things and when it gets tight thinking ‘uh oh here we go again.’ That was not the case. Anytime you can beat USC there it is always good. It helps you program too, let’s not kid around. When you beat USC in Los Angeles – College football is about one thing. Recruiting. You recruit year around and we are looking at 2020 already and so is everybody else. When you have that many young athletes because that’s their home game and that’s what happens at our home games. You have potential candidates that you are recruiting. Both teams recruit the same guys, everyone is going for the good players. When you win a game like that, it helps you.”
ON TEAM REACTION AFTER BIG PLAYS FROM N’KEAL HARRY…
“They expect it. Its like okay there is # 1 - #1 does it again. Big time players and I just learned this in my history of being around football at all levels – they like playing in big games. They do. They love the stage. They eat it up. You have to make sure that you put them in a position when they can get some matchups that you like and then give it to them. The punt return is a punt return. That’s just a couple really good blocks as well that we can't lose sight of that. That’s one of the deals with N’Keal. I keep telling him now – ‘N’Keal if it goes over your head that means you shouldn’t field that ball.’ That one he actually felt when he caught it he was okay, he didn’t back up. He kind of two steps back – that’s okay. The one where he goes five and six steps back and you're catching it on the one. Its like, you don’t want to do that one. That’s N’Keal. He's special with the ball in his hands. He's a tough out, he's tough to bring down and he’s competitive and that’s what I love about the kid. He’s one of the more competitive players I have ever been around at any level. He loves competing. When the game starts, he’s all in. This was a game last year that was marred with a lot of fouls and he got into it a couple times and I make sure to talk to him after every series – ‘don’t start or I’m going to pull you out.’ – ‘Coach I’m going to be good.’ I said, to just be good and keep your composure because that’s what they want to do. The punt return was one of the plays. The one-handed catch was fabulous and the one he came across the middle, it was a contested throw and he made a good catch. That’s N’Keal, you kind of expect it. We just have to find ways to get him the ball and a lot of the times he is being doubled, so moving him in the slot I thought helped him some. The touchdown was beautiful. Manny threw a great ball and the blocking was fantastic.”
ON RESOLVE OF THE TEAM AFTER TOUGH COUPLE OF WEEKS…
“That’s what I love about them, to be quite honest. They continue to compete. Our slogan is real simple - Leave it on the grass. Just leave your effort on the grass and you never have to worry about remembering what the score is. If it didn’t go your way, you left everything you can on the grass. That’s all I ask of the players. Whatever you got, you leave it right there on that grass. It all takes care of itself and you can live with yourself and you can live with your teammates. This game is about your team and it’s about the guys watching the film after the game. I have always said, the biggest critics are the guys you play with. They know if you gave effort. You try to build a team that runs itself. The teams that I have been affiliated with that have won a lot, you didn’t want to let your teammates down and you didn’t want to put it on the tape that you let them down. When you can build something like that, you have some something special and we will try to do that. That’s kind of important. Everywhere I have been, teams I have played on, teams that I have coached it was about the players and when you watched the tape you didn’t want to be embarrassed. You didn’t want to let the guys to the left continue to run you down when you watch the tape with your effort. You are going to get beat sometimes, you are going to make mistakes sometimes, but effort. It doesn’t take talent to have effort. It just takes a big heart. They have played that way and I am proud of them for doing that. It’s important.”
ON FRESHMAN PLAYERS IMPACT…
“It's important when we recruited those guys, along with (Jermayne) Lole and Aashari (Crosswell). Now, Aashari gets maybe not as much credit because he plays in the back end and he’s had two dropped interceptions that he should have had. If he has those two, you guys would have been talking about him too. When you are trying to build a program, you never imagine that you have four freshmen that are going to play a lot. Three of them are starters. It’s a credit to them and a credit to the coaches. Them being good enough to play, it's hard for a freshman to come in and play. These guys are talented, but they like ball. They are all in, they are like my sons. I talk to them every day and I told them, this is going to be your football team. You are setting the foundation of this now and you have to understand it. They understand how hard it is and they make some mistakes, but their effort and just liking ball, just studying ball on the computer, just doing it when you are not in this building. The questions they ask – they want to get better. It helps you when you are recruiting. Kids see those freshman playing, and coach said they can play. They are the best players that they are going to play, I said that when I took this job. It's competitive, you have to compete. If you don’t want to compete, then wrong university to come to play football. You are weighed on your performance because in the real world that is how life works and were going to teach life skills that come from playing football. They all apply. You have to learn that and come to work every day. You are student-athlete, you have to make sure to handle that part. When you come to put yourself on the grass, you have to go compete and they know it. They flat know it and if you don’t do it, you will sit on the sideline and watch. That’s how it works and they know it. I think they are buying into it and I think that the more young guys that play for us and people watch us play, they will go, coach will give you a shot if you are a good player. He's going to let you play. That’s how it’s going to work around here.”
ON EVALUATING ROB LIKENS PLAY CALLING OF OFFENSE...
“Rob is like any coordinator. He was a wide receiver coach here last year. He knows the players some. It is easy to call the plays when you are calling Playstation. When you walk out into the yard and you sit up there as a play caller and it does not work, the fans think that it was a bad play. There is a lot that goes into a play. We actually practice plays that work. We go to work every day and practice plays that we think will work. Sometimes, teams just beat you at defending the play. I will not tolerate a coach to ever do this, but sometimes a coach will blame the player for not doing it right. Have you ever seen a coach do that during a press conference? They do not do that because they should sit there and take the blame as a coach. When you get in a meeting, you should tell the players what you have to execute. The coaches job is to fix the players’ mistakes and that goes along with our team. Is it too complicated? That is the first question you have to ask. Are we putting the player in a position to succeed or are we putting them in a position to fail? We have to figure that out. With that being said, it is part of the players’ responsibility to remember what to do. Sometimes they forget and go the wrong way. I think that is the respect that the coach and player have to have for each other. That is how it works in sports. It always works this way. As much as we want to say it is the play caller or design of the play. We can not get into that. But, it is about execution. Sometimes you call the wrong play at the wrong time and they defend it, sometimes they are better than you, and sometimes you actually put yourself in a bad situation. I have had our coaches after some series' tell me that they put the players in a bad situation. I told them it is okay and told players to bail out the coaches when they are put in a bad spot. We could have made a better call in that instance, but that was the call. As a player, you can not leave the huddle thinking that this is not going to work because you have to let everybody do what they do and let it work out. I’ve been doing this too long. I learned that as a player from Dick Vermeil. You just learn stuff and I think that he is a good football coach. When you have done it as long as I’ve done it, you just take it for what it is worth. That Playstation makes everybody a play caller.”
ON INJURY UPDATE ON D.J. DAVIDSON AND JALEN HARVEY...
“(DJ) Davidson is probably going to be done for this year. (Jalen) Harvey we do not know. He has got a chance to come back this week. But, DJ is a big blow because he was playing well. The good part is that he has some football left, but we are going to miss him. That was a tough one. So, we have got to shuffle some guys around a bit. But, we are okay. That is when your depth comes in. You have got to have depth. You never know, we might have another freshman show up this week because that is who we have. We do not have anyone else. They will get to play four games.”
ON FRIENDSHIP WITH DAVE STEVENS...
“Dave (Stevens) is a fabulous man and I have spent a lot of time with him at the worldwide leader. I remember meeting him when I first took the job. He is a talented person. When you think about the things that happen in your life, you can use those as a way to feel sorry for yourself. He has never done that. He has always been a positive guy. I was glad I got to see him again to be quite honest. It is kind of fun to see people that have touched your life in a certain way. He was always positive. When I first took that job, he was one of the first guys I met. He was always a positive energetic guy. I told him any time he needed me that I would be there for him. So, it was good to see him. Thanks for asking that question.”
ON LESSONS THAT CAN BE TAKEN AWAY FROM PREVIOUS LOSSES FOR UPCOMING UTAH GAME...
“You better be physical and it starts at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football. Defensively, we will have to tackle well because they make you tackle with the back end of your defense. Our corners and safeties are going to have to tackle. They put stress on your corners because of the way they block it up. They always will have one guy free. Anyone who wants to run the football, with or without the quarterback because the safety has to be removed from the middle. When you have eight guys in the box, the eight guy is the runner’s guy and they like their eighth guy to be a corner to tackle the big strong running back. If you are not a willing tackler, it will show up. Those are the things that we have to prepare for. Offensively, we will have to beat press coverage because they bring some five or six man pressure at times. Every once in a while they will bring the casino with seven guys, so we will have to be ready to get rid of the ball and beat man coverage. They are a sound football team.”
ON IMPORTANCE OF CONVERTING THIRD AND SHORTS AGAINST USC...
“It gives me confidence and it makes me relaxed too because otherwise, I would be sitting at fourth and short. Everybody would want me to go for it. I have to make the call depending on game situation and where the ball is on the field. I like when it gets to fourth down because I sort of know what I am going to do before it happens. We have a plan going into as the field is being changed offensively. There are certain situations where I would tell Coach (Rob) Likens that we are in go territory. He would know way ahead of time because this would give us an extra down in the back of his mind. That puts anxiety in your belly a bit because when it gets to fourth down, that decision is on me. I have to tell them whether we are kicking it, punting it, or going for it. They will know well ahead of time, but I still can make the call if we go backwards. It would have been interesting if we did not make that third and one. What should we have done? I know what they do on play station. They go for it.”
ON INCREDIBLE JOB ANTONIO PIERCE HAS DONE SO FAR...
“Well, he is juggling a lot of balls. He is doing a great job. We go way back. We worked in the studio together. It is unique because he was playing when I was coaching. I remember the history of Antonio (Pierce) and I remember us talking about coaching. He told me to call him if I decide to come back to coaching. It came to fruition eventually. He was one of the first guys I called. He said to me that he is ready. As far as understanding these young men coming out of high school, he is well connected and he has coached a lot of them. He has a lot of connections in the coaching world with high school coaches. He also understands the handlers. They all have handlers right now because that is just the way we live in, whether we like it or not. He is honest, truthful, and the players love him because he speaks their language. When you are at Long Beach Poly, you see a lot of guys and meet a lot of people. AP is a people person, but if you know him he is direct and tells it like it is. He is one of the types of people who I have to say there are women at practice and he has to watch his language. On the sideline, he is something else. He is fired up. He takes a lot of pride in recruiting because the three/four guys he brought all start. When the recruits come in, it is almost like they become your guy because the recruiter wants them to do good. We want them all to succeed. So, you can imagine in his first year of coaching, he has done pretty good. All of our coaches work hard, but it is funny that you mentioned that.”
ON WEIGHT PUT ON BOWL GAMES HEADING INTO FINAL FOUR GAMES...
“These bowl situations are a great way to send the senior class out. That is important, it is important for your university, and your fanbase. The problem now is if you are not in the national championship running, all of the other bowl games become not so important. To me, they all are important. A lot goes into preparing your city for a bowl game, regardless of what bowl. I am not going to say what bowl game because I do not want to get in trouble for not including all the bowls. Coaches like that. There is more time to prepare and coaches like practicing. There are more practice days. But, we are far from that. We have to win a lot more games. We have got to win this game this weekend if we want to have any chance to do anything in this conference. It is an important game because you find out more about your team. It is better to put your team in situations in a big game. You always want to play in a big game. When you become a winning team and you win a lot, every game is a big game. They all become big games. Alabama has a big game every week because of the pressure put on them. I should not mention them, but I am going to mention them. Every game for them is a big game and I think people sometimes lose sight of that. They are expected to win every week. That is a different anxiety. Sometimes when you sit in that seat or you cover the game, you do not realize the pressure that every week they are expected to win. Also, they are somebody’s big game. When they walk onto the ballyard, they are someone’s big game because everybody wants to upset those guys. Do you know how hard that is? But, that is a program that has been built. Any program that has been built over time that understands that the players understand that mentality. That is what we want to build here. We want all of our games to be big games because we are coming to town or we are playing in our stadium. When you win a lot of football games, that is what it looks like. That is the atmosphere that you want to be involved in week in and week out. It is not just us playing other schools. Other schools play us as well. We are trying to accomplish that and hopefully one day we will accomplish that."
“Another big week with a Pac-12 contest against Utah and they have been playing very well. They are 6-2 and 4-2 in the conference on a four-game winning streak scoring about an average of 41 points a game, which is very impressive. They have got a senior lated defense with a lot of experience over there. They don’t give up a lot of points, averaging about 16 points a game. They have done a nice job up there. Their coach has really done a fantastic job with this football team. They are big and physical up front, especially with their defensive line, and their secondary is pretty active. They will play a lot of man coverage - have some pretty good corners. Offense, obviously the quarterback is playing well, very athletic. Have a back that is really a downhill back. He's not going to dodge you, he’s going to run you over and you better tackle him. They do a lot of speed option and run the power and the zone schemes, but they run the football. They run with a purpose – very physical football team and they are leading the conference right now. They are 4-2 and 6-2 overall so they have one of the better records in the Pac-12 overall. As I said, big physical football team that reminds me of the Stanford team and as well as Michigan State - just a big powerful football team that is very well coached.”
ON HOW TEAM CLOSED OUT THE GAME AGAINST USC…
“I think it’s one that was kind of similar to Michigan state when you think about it, we won two games by three points. We have lost four by seven and we have two where we had substantial leads where we didn’t have to worry about the final outcome. It really didn’t turn out how we liked, obviously, as far as what happened there in the last two minutes of the game feeling that when we came to the sideline, I told the offense real simple, I said ‘you have to make the first down to close the game out and just end it.’ Low and behold, maybe I should have told them too after you close it out, Manny (Wilkins) don’t run for a touchdown but I couldn’t get that in. I didn’t ever image 45 yards away the quarterback was going to run for a touchdown. They brought a casino blitz. They brought everybody and Manny just ran the option and took the ball out and he was free running it. I think he realized when he was at the five that it was too late then – his momentum was going in and I go ‘Oh this is isn’t over.’ You just know its not over. And it wasn’t and we were able to win at the end, which was fun for the kids. It was really nice to watch them enjoy a win, especially beating a team like that that had won 19 in a row in that stadium. That’s an impressive win for these guys because it started out we got some points on the board early, but going in at halftime - look I had no delusions or grandure, I said ‘this game is not over, these guys have too many good players.’ They were able to make some plays and you have to give them credit. We also played some balls the wrong way, but you have to give them credit it was a good game to watch if you were a fan – a football fan. It was an exciting game.”
ON SATISFACTION OF OFFENSIVE GAME PLAN…
“We had a nice plan, give the coaches a lot of credit. We moved N’Keal (Harry) inside a little bit. We felt that would help us some and get him the ball inside and give us the matchups we wanted. I felt like we had to run the ball going on the road. You can’t have those guys tee off and come after the quarterback. We needed to protect our quarterback, which I thought was marvelous. The first time they brought a casino blitz was great pass protection. As good as you can get and hitting N’Keal with the big play and then we ran the ball. We ran the ball 44 times and that’s a good number for us. When I get into that, fans will think that he doesn’t want to throw it. No, we are trying to win. That was the best way to go about our business and once you get the run game going, it's much more easier to throw the football. For us, we made some plays and then they have some athletes too. They made their share of plays. It boiled down to at the end us holding on. It was a good win for us.”
ON N’KEAL RECEIVING RECOGNITION AFTER INCREDIBLE PERFORMANCE…
“As long as we keep playing on ESPN, everyone is going to know who he is. We have an ASU guy that works for them too so that helps. I don’t know if maybe the east coast people don’t know, but I think anybody who watches football and pays attention to it they know how good he is. He had a big day and he needed to have a big day. When he’s playing well and Eno (Benjamin) is playing well and our offensive line is blocking, and Manny has time our offense can be productive. It can be. We have some explosive players. All of the sudden Manny is out and Frank (Darby) gets a nice long ball and he drops it and he never generally drops those. He is one one of the better long ball catchers. You can imagine if he catches that one – I think he was one or two in the country leading yards per reception. And he drops it. We have some players that can make some plays, but it all starts with our protection and us running the football. If we can do that, then things open up for us in the passing game.”
ON IMPORTANCE OF WINNING THE GAME AGAINST USC…
“I think anytime you have lost the way we have lost games, it's easy to reflect on those things and when it gets tight thinking ‘uh oh here we go again.’ That was not the case. Anytime you can beat USC there it is always good. It helps you program too, let’s not kid around. When you beat USC in Los Angeles – College football is about one thing. Recruiting. You recruit year around and we are looking at 2020 already and so is everybody else. When you have that many young athletes because that’s their home game and that’s what happens at our home games. You have potential candidates that you are recruiting. Both teams recruit the same guys, everyone is going for the good players. When you win a game like that, it helps you.”
ON TEAM REACTION AFTER BIG PLAYS FROM N’KEAL HARRY…
“They expect it. Its like okay there is # 1 - #1 does it again. Big time players and I just learned this in my history of being around football at all levels – they like playing in big games. They do. They love the stage. They eat it up. You have to make sure that you put them in a position when they can get some matchups that you like and then give it to them. The punt return is a punt return. That’s just a couple really good blocks as well that we can't lose sight of that. That’s one of the deals with N’Keal. I keep telling him now – ‘N’Keal if it goes over your head that means you shouldn’t field that ball.’ That one he actually felt when he caught it he was okay, he didn’t back up. He kind of two steps back – that’s okay. The one where he goes five and six steps back and you're catching it on the one. Its like, you don’t want to do that one. That’s N’Keal. He's special with the ball in his hands. He's a tough out, he's tough to bring down and he’s competitive and that’s what I love about the kid. He’s one of the more competitive players I have ever been around at any level. He loves competing. When the game starts, he’s all in. This was a game last year that was marred with a lot of fouls and he got into it a couple times and I make sure to talk to him after every series – ‘don’t start or I’m going to pull you out.’ – ‘Coach I’m going to be good.’ I said, to just be good and keep your composure because that’s what they want to do. The punt return was one of the plays. The one-handed catch was fabulous and the one he came across the middle, it was a contested throw and he made a good catch. That’s N’Keal, you kind of expect it. We just have to find ways to get him the ball and a lot of the times he is being doubled, so moving him in the slot I thought helped him some. The touchdown was beautiful. Manny threw a great ball and the blocking was fantastic.”
ON RESOLVE OF THE TEAM AFTER TOUGH COUPLE OF WEEKS…
“That’s what I love about them, to be quite honest. They continue to compete. Our slogan is real simple - Leave it on the grass. Just leave your effort on the grass and you never have to worry about remembering what the score is. If it didn’t go your way, you left everything you can on the grass. That’s all I ask of the players. Whatever you got, you leave it right there on that grass. It all takes care of itself and you can live with yourself and you can live with your teammates. This game is about your team and it’s about the guys watching the film after the game. I have always said, the biggest critics are the guys you play with. They know if you gave effort. You try to build a team that runs itself. The teams that I have been affiliated with that have won a lot, you didn’t want to let your teammates down and you didn’t want to put it on the tape that you let them down. When you can build something like that, you have some something special and we will try to do that. That’s kind of important. Everywhere I have been, teams I have played on, teams that I have coached it was about the players and when you watched the tape you didn’t want to be embarrassed. You didn’t want to let the guys to the left continue to run you down when you watch the tape with your effort. You are going to get beat sometimes, you are going to make mistakes sometimes, but effort. It doesn’t take talent to have effort. It just takes a big heart. They have played that way and I am proud of them for doing that. It’s important.”
ON FRESHMAN PLAYERS IMPACT…
“It's important when we recruited those guys, along with (Jermayne) Lole and Aashari (Crosswell). Now, Aashari gets maybe not as much credit because he plays in the back end and he’s had two dropped interceptions that he should have had. If he has those two, you guys would have been talking about him too. When you are trying to build a program, you never imagine that you have four freshmen that are going to play a lot. Three of them are starters. It’s a credit to them and a credit to the coaches. Them being good enough to play, it's hard for a freshman to come in and play. These guys are talented, but they like ball. They are all in, they are like my sons. I talk to them every day and I told them, this is going to be your football team. You are setting the foundation of this now and you have to understand it. They understand how hard it is and they make some mistakes, but their effort and just liking ball, just studying ball on the computer, just doing it when you are not in this building. The questions they ask – they want to get better. It helps you when you are recruiting. Kids see those freshman playing, and coach said they can play. They are the best players that they are going to play, I said that when I took this job. It's competitive, you have to compete. If you don’t want to compete, then wrong university to come to play football. You are weighed on your performance because in the real world that is how life works and were going to teach life skills that come from playing football. They all apply. You have to learn that and come to work every day. You are student-athlete, you have to make sure to handle that part. When you come to put yourself on the grass, you have to go compete and they know it. They flat know it and if you don’t do it, you will sit on the sideline and watch. That’s how it works and they know it. I think they are buying into it and I think that the more young guys that play for us and people watch us play, they will go, coach will give you a shot if you are a good player. He's going to let you play. That’s how it’s going to work around here.”
ON EVALUATING ROB LIKENS PLAY CALLING OF OFFENSE...
“Rob is like any coordinator. He was a wide receiver coach here last year. He knows the players some. It is easy to call the plays when you are calling Playstation. When you walk out into the yard and you sit up there as a play caller and it does not work, the fans think that it was a bad play. There is a lot that goes into a play. We actually practice plays that work. We go to work every day and practice plays that we think will work. Sometimes, teams just beat you at defending the play. I will not tolerate a coach to ever do this, but sometimes a coach will blame the player for not doing it right. Have you ever seen a coach do that during a press conference? They do not do that because they should sit there and take the blame as a coach. When you get in a meeting, you should tell the players what you have to execute. The coaches job is to fix the players’ mistakes and that goes along with our team. Is it too complicated? That is the first question you have to ask. Are we putting the player in a position to succeed or are we putting them in a position to fail? We have to figure that out. With that being said, it is part of the players’ responsibility to remember what to do. Sometimes they forget and go the wrong way. I think that is the respect that the coach and player have to have for each other. That is how it works in sports. It always works this way. As much as we want to say it is the play caller or design of the play. We can not get into that. But, it is about execution. Sometimes you call the wrong play at the wrong time and they defend it, sometimes they are better than you, and sometimes you actually put yourself in a bad situation. I have had our coaches after some series' tell me that they put the players in a bad situation. I told them it is okay and told players to bail out the coaches when they are put in a bad spot. We could have made a better call in that instance, but that was the call. As a player, you can not leave the huddle thinking that this is not going to work because you have to let everybody do what they do and let it work out. I’ve been doing this too long. I learned that as a player from Dick Vermeil. You just learn stuff and I think that he is a good football coach. When you have done it as long as I’ve done it, you just take it for what it is worth. That Playstation makes everybody a play caller.”
ON INJURY UPDATE ON D.J. DAVIDSON AND JALEN HARVEY...
“(DJ) Davidson is probably going to be done for this year. (Jalen) Harvey we do not know. He has got a chance to come back this week. But, DJ is a big blow because he was playing well. The good part is that he has some football left, but we are going to miss him. That was a tough one. So, we have got to shuffle some guys around a bit. But, we are okay. That is when your depth comes in. You have got to have depth. You never know, we might have another freshman show up this week because that is who we have. We do not have anyone else. They will get to play four games.”
ON FRIENDSHIP WITH DAVE STEVENS...
“Dave (Stevens) is a fabulous man and I have spent a lot of time with him at the worldwide leader. I remember meeting him when I first took the job. He is a talented person. When you think about the things that happen in your life, you can use those as a way to feel sorry for yourself. He has never done that. He has always been a positive guy. I was glad I got to see him again to be quite honest. It is kind of fun to see people that have touched your life in a certain way. He was always positive. When I first took that job, he was one of the first guys I met. He was always a positive energetic guy. I told him any time he needed me that I would be there for him. So, it was good to see him. Thanks for asking that question.”
ON LESSONS THAT CAN BE TAKEN AWAY FROM PREVIOUS LOSSES FOR UPCOMING UTAH GAME...
“You better be physical and it starts at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football. Defensively, we will have to tackle well because they make you tackle with the back end of your defense. Our corners and safeties are going to have to tackle. They put stress on your corners because of the way they block it up. They always will have one guy free. Anyone who wants to run the football, with or without the quarterback because the safety has to be removed from the middle. When you have eight guys in the box, the eight guy is the runner’s guy and they like their eighth guy to be a corner to tackle the big strong running back. If you are not a willing tackler, it will show up. Those are the things that we have to prepare for. Offensively, we will have to beat press coverage because they bring some five or six man pressure at times. Every once in a while they will bring the casino with seven guys, so we will have to be ready to get rid of the ball and beat man coverage. They are a sound football team.”
ON IMPORTANCE OF CONVERTING THIRD AND SHORTS AGAINST USC...
“It gives me confidence and it makes me relaxed too because otherwise, I would be sitting at fourth and short. Everybody would want me to go for it. I have to make the call depending on game situation and where the ball is on the field. I like when it gets to fourth down because I sort of know what I am going to do before it happens. We have a plan going into as the field is being changed offensively. There are certain situations where I would tell Coach (Rob) Likens that we are in go territory. He would know way ahead of time because this would give us an extra down in the back of his mind. That puts anxiety in your belly a bit because when it gets to fourth down, that decision is on me. I have to tell them whether we are kicking it, punting it, or going for it. They will know well ahead of time, but I still can make the call if we go backwards. It would have been interesting if we did not make that third and one. What should we have done? I know what they do on play station. They go for it.”
ON INCREDIBLE JOB ANTONIO PIERCE HAS DONE SO FAR...
“Well, he is juggling a lot of balls. He is doing a great job. We go way back. We worked in the studio together. It is unique because he was playing when I was coaching. I remember the history of Antonio (Pierce) and I remember us talking about coaching. He told me to call him if I decide to come back to coaching. It came to fruition eventually. He was one of the first guys I called. He said to me that he is ready. As far as understanding these young men coming out of high school, he is well connected and he has coached a lot of them. He has a lot of connections in the coaching world with high school coaches. He also understands the handlers. They all have handlers right now because that is just the way we live in, whether we like it or not. He is honest, truthful, and the players love him because he speaks their language. When you are at Long Beach Poly, you see a lot of guys and meet a lot of people. AP is a people person, but if you know him he is direct and tells it like it is. He is one of the types of people who I have to say there are women at practice and he has to watch his language. On the sideline, he is something else. He is fired up. He takes a lot of pride in recruiting because the three/four guys he brought all start. When the recruits come in, it is almost like they become your guy because the recruiter wants them to do good. We want them all to succeed. So, you can imagine in his first year of coaching, he has done pretty good. All of our coaches work hard, but it is funny that you mentioned that.”
ON WEIGHT PUT ON BOWL GAMES HEADING INTO FINAL FOUR GAMES...
“These bowl situations are a great way to send the senior class out. That is important, it is important for your university, and your fanbase. The problem now is if you are not in the national championship running, all of the other bowl games become not so important. To me, they all are important. A lot goes into preparing your city for a bowl game, regardless of what bowl. I am not going to say what bowl game because I do not want to get in trouble for not including all the bowls. Coaches like that. There is more time to prepare and coaches like practicing. There are more practice days. But, we are far from that. We have to win a lot more games. We have got to win this game this weekend if we want to have any chance to do anything in this conference. It is an important game because you find out more about your team. It is better to put your team in situations in a big game. You always want to play in a big game. When you become a winning team and you win a lot, every game is a big game. They all become big games. Alabama has a big game every week because of the pressure put on them. I should not mention them, but I am going to mention them. Every game for them is a big game and I think people sometimes lose sight of that. They are expected to win every week. That is a different anxiety. Sometimes when you sit in that seat or you cover the game, you do not realize the pressure that every week they are expected to win. Also, they are somebody’s big game. When they walk onto the ballyard, they are someone’s big game because everybody wants to upset those guys. Do you know how hard that is? But, that is a program that has been built. Any program that has been built over time that understands that the players understand that mentality. That is what we want to build here. We want all of our games to be big games because we are coming to town or we are playing in our stadium. When you win a lot of football games, that is what it looks like. That is the atmosphere that you want to be involved in week in and week out. It is not just us playing other schools. Other schools play us as well. We are trying to accomplish that and hopefully one day we will accomplish that."