Quotes from Tuesday's Press Conference
Sept. 29, 2004
Coral Gables, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) — – Quotes from the Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2004 press conferences:
Coach Larry Coker on the Georgia Tech game:“The game is sold out in Atlanta and we’re very anxious to have an opportunity to play a very fine Georgia Tech team. People here know Chan Gailey from his time with the Dolphins. He’s a tremendous person and an outstanding football coach and a good hire for them. We have to do a good job on the road with the crowd and we’ll spend time this week helping us do that. Tech does have seven starters back on offense, seven on defense from a bowl team a year ago. They have two outstanding defensive players. Henderson, the defensibve end, is just coming back I believe and is All-ACC, and Butler the safety is a little like Greg Threat, Sean Taylor, that type, very active. Offensively they have a trifecta in quarterback Reggie Ball, P.J. Daniels the running back and a great wide receiver in Calvin Johnson. Johnson reminds me of Larry Fitzgerald. We leave the Big East and get away from Fitzgerald and now we see him again. We need to have a great week of parctice, we had a good day on Sunday. We fought through the hurricane and had a little window to practice.”
(On the ACC tradition at Georgia Tech)“It’s a tradition that people go to the games, the student body will be there. nytime the University of Miami comes to town it will be a big event. It will be an exciting atmosphere. Georgia Tech is 2-1. They’ve had two weeks to prepare for us. Their students will be hungry and into it and it’ll be very lively at Bobby Dodd Stadium.”
(On the Miami running game)Frank Gore is the starter, and they’ll both play. Whoever has the hot hand will probably play more. Frank did not play that much against Houston. He has tendonitis and has a sore knee so we didn’t play him. I can be more cautious because I have Tyrone Moss playing behind him. But also we want a healthy Frank Gore. There is no structural damage. He was sore throughout the week, and it was a short week. He didn’t have any rest on his knee, that was most of it.”
(On Tyrone Moss)“He is starting faster in games. He has a lot more experience. He’ll only get better and better. The more repititions, the more games he gets under his belt, he is actually playing like a starter.”
(On allowing five sacks against Houston)“We better get it corrected. We gave up no sacks against Florida State and gave up five against Houston. That’s the mentality in college football now — blitz. Look at our team. If you can’t handle the blitz packages, you;ll be in for a long night. We have to do a better job with our protection, with our quarterback, it’s a combination of things. It’s not all the quarterback, and it’s not all the offensive line. One was the back not picking up a blitz. All of it happened the second half. You can write it off that we were ahead, the clock was ticking, but it shouldn’t have happened. We can be better and we need to be better to be where we should be. We have to get the ball into the hands of the receivers who can be playmakers.
(On whether there is a possibility another quarterback could play earlier than the end of a game)“Yes. There is that possibility. I’m not saying I expect it to happen. I expect Brock to play well and I expect us to play well on offense. I’m saying there is a possibility. Brock knows he can play better. There is improvement from last year. The interceptions are not there. It may be a little to early to tell how much we’ve improved. We’re still finding ourselves. We’re running the ball well, and we’re still finding our passing game.”
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Quotes from Georgia Tech Coach Chan Gailey:
Tech seems to play better as the underdog, is that something you feed off of or is that just circumstance?I think they enjoy the challenge of games like this. I know I do. I think most anybody does that is a competitor.
How much in the past two weeks did the North Carolina game come up?48-hour rule. Actually, it’s the 24 hour rule, but since we had an open date, it’s the 48-hour rule. It’s over. You learn from it and go to the next one. You mess with any game too long, a win or a loss, and it kills you for preparation for the next game. You can’t dwell on it.
How has the off week affected the team?You are able to get people well. You are able to scrimmage some of the young guys and see how much progress they have made. It really does two things; it lets you get well and it lets you get extra time on game plan for the team you are about to play. That’s basically what an open date does.
What is it about Miami that makes them different from other teams on your schedule? You obviously can look at the talent level. I think the other thing that really makes a difference on their football team is their depth. They have great depth. They can rotate people in almost everywhere and still have really good football players walking on the field. That’s the biggest thing. Their talent level and their depth. They do a good job.
Do you think the depth is a bigger distinction between the two teams?I don’t know about that. I like our football team and our first guys that run out there. We don’t have near the depth that they do. So it does make a difference in the ballgame especially if you get into a game with a lot of plays in it, if there are 80 plays on plays on both sides of the ball or if it’s a hot day. Then, depth does play a much bigger factor.
Does Miami raise the bar on speed in this league? Oh, yeah. From what I have seen from Virginia Tech, they both do. They both are teams that can run and have great speed and quickness on the field at all positions, not just at a couple of positions. They have upgraded the conference as a whole and they have made it tougher to find a way to win another football game.
Florida State came into the league and went something like 48-2 in their first 50 games. Do you see Miami and Virginia Tech being that devastating in the conference?I think our conference is stronger. I have a hard time relating to ’92 and everything that has happened since then. I think our conference is a lot stronger and it would be hard for someone to do the same thing Florida State did. Anybody can do it, but I think it would be harder.
How much did Miami and this game come up before the season?All summer. All spring and all summer. Everyone was talking about the new ACC and playing Miami and Virginia Tech at home.
Is it a distraction when all the team hears about is the upcoming Miami game? I don’t think that was the case for us. Some people may think that. You have to get ready to play each week. I have said that thousands of times throughout my coaching career. It never entered my mind and I don’t think it entered a lot of people’s minds. I don’t think it served as a distraction.
After last game, you said that the players would watch the film and be able to see little mistakes they made so they would be able to correct them. Do you think they have? We will find out if we corrected them. We don’t know that. In practice it all looks good. You have to get ready to play. We will find out if we have improved or not. I have always said I thought that a team gets better from its first loss to its ball game. We will find out if we have gone out and gotten better though the course of these two weeks.
Do you think you will try to shorten the game as much as possible?We always have been a ball control offense. We try to do that every week anyway. Every now and then, we may try to change the tempo a little bit with something, but for the most part we are trying to control the clock, control the ball and have more time of possession. I think right now we are at 31 to 32. We try to do that. That’s part of our philosophy.
If you had your choice would you like to play Miami every year?As opposed to what? Playing the Steelers? The great thing about a conference is you are going to play. The way it is situated now is really good. You have two divisions. You know who you have to beat to win the division and if you win the division, you go to the championship game. If you win the championship game and win it, you have a chance to probably go play for it all as strong as this conference is. That’s what you like about it. It just so happens we are going to play Miami every year. That’s great. Let’s find a way to beat them because they seem to be at the top of the heap right now in our division for next year. That’s what you are trying to do, win that division. I can’t do anything about it so what good does it do to sit about worry about who I am playing and who I am not playing. Whoever is on the schedule we will play.
Nate Curry made a point to say that the statistic that Miami has only given up one offensive touchdown wasn’t that it wasn’t that important to the offense. Do stats like that, to a coaching staff, mean anything?Not really. What you are trying to do is find a way to move the football until you get to the red zone. Then you are looking at red zone defense and how you attack the red zone defense. Then if you get to the goal line situation, how do you attack the goal line? It is in segments. You attack each segment of the field, each down and distance scenario. You are, and this is a phrase coaches use all the time, you are trying to play it one down at a time. Let’s move from here to there and then lets move from there to there. What someone else did or didn’t do is sort of irrelevant for what is going to happen. All you can do is learn from what they did or didn’t do and then you are ready to go to your game. If stats where the key to victories and losses, then every fifth game we shouldn’t even play because we know who is going to win before we go out there.
When you go into a game do you have a certain number of big plays on offense and defense you would like to get accomplished? No, I don’t think so. I think we talk about is how many shots during the course of the ball game or if we are going to run a trick play that we might have. I don’t go out there and say this game we have to throw it deep this many times or for this game we have to have three trick plays. That varies from week to week with who you play and the match ups you have.
Do you use the fact that you are an underdog and picked to lose as motivation? I address that people don’t think you can win the game. It goes back to if you’re a competitor. It gets your juices flowing. You bring it up. You tell them the people who think you can win are in the room and maybe immediate family. Nobody else does.
Would winning this game elevate your program or is it just another game? What would this win mean? It would mean we are 3-1.Do you see anything different in Nate Curry’s eyes this week (Curry is from Miami)?No. He competes every down he is on the field. You won’t see much different from him.
How does Eric Henderson look after missing the first three games?He looks rusty. Today will be the first day he will be in pads going and doing things full speed. He looked rusty in the walk through and the half speed and three-quarter speed stuff that he has done so far. I’m sure it will be a little different for him to get out there get hit and hit.
What do you think of Brock Berlin on tape? To be honest I have not watched Brock Berlin a lot. I have been watching their defense and their special teams. I have not spent a lot of time watching him. They put a stat up the other day and it’s a pretty interesting stat; what his win/loss record is as a quarterback from high school and college (59-2). That’s the stat. Last time I looked as a quarterback, if you lead your team to victory, you have done well. So he is doing something mighty well.
Miami has done a good job of scoring on special teams. Do you put more starters on special teams? How do you adjust? No, I think you challenge those guys who are on special teams to accept what is getting ready to happen during the course of the ballgame. The thing you always say on special teams is, there is no second down or third down remaining to make some thing happen. It is a one-time shot when you walk on the field. That’s what you have to get them to understand. You have to get out there and play lights out for that one play.
