Meet the Press: USF Game
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Head coach Al Golden, selected student-athletes and assistant coaches appeared at the weekly football press conference on Tuesday.
Al Golden Press Conference
USF Game
Nov. 13, 2012
Opening Statement…
“We’re preparing for South Florida, a team that we went 1-1 against the lasttwo games, and both games were three-point margins. We’re getting them after abye week. They lost their quarterback [BJ] Daniels in their win versusUConn, so I don’t know what direction they’re going to go in at quarterback.Certainly they’re going to have time to make some changes and put in somewrinkles for us. We have to be ready and prepared to adjust on the fly on offense.They’re very good in the red zone and excellent on third down on offense. Theyhave an explosive element in [Andre] Davis, I think he has six touchdowns and38 catches, and [Terrence] Mitchell on the other side. They went with the youngtight end [Sean] Price last week and he answered with three catches and atouchdown versus UConn. [Demetri] Murray, their tailback, is having a nice yearfor them, five touchdowns and 476 yards. I think we’re weary of their runninggame.
“On the other side, I think it’s an excellent defense. I really do. The inside tackles are outstanding, led by [Cory] Grissom. They rotate a lot of them through there; he’s a load to block. I said this last year about [DeDe] Lattimore and [Sam] Barrington – I think they’re excellent. They’re physical, instinctive and good in the run and pass game – two young men that have played an awful lot of snaps. We thought highly of [Kayvon] Webster a year ago, and he’s not disappointing this year at 62 tackles. Their safeties are rotated down a lot in their zone blitz packages, and in a lot of their quarter packages. They’re active and around the football, so we have to make sure weaccount for them.
“We’re expecting a fresh USF team with some new wrinkles andthings we’re going to have to adjust to on gameday. The biggest thing with ourguys is making sure we can be fresh, can prepare and really anticipate for agame that amounts to a physical rivalry year-in and year-out. We have to getourselves ready to go.”
On the potential for future matchups with USF…
“It’s going to get a little cloudy in terms of how we manage that. Are weultimately going to nine games in our conference? What’s the alliance withNotre Dame going to bring? Who’s going to play them and when? I think it’ssomething we have to continue to look at and identify what direction we’regoing to go in…We’re working right now with Blake to get it ironed out and getit fixed. We’ll do a good job with that.”
On how to schedule out-of-conference games…
“We have to construct to have the ability to win the Coastal[Division]. I think that’s the biggest thing. We have to construct, and we haveto make sure that everybody understands that when you walk in this building,the way out and the way to get to where we want to go is first through ourdivision – which we haven’t won – and then go to Charlotte. I would like to seeus play Kansas State and Notre Dame. In other words, if you’re going to playNo. 1 and No. 3, let’s play them in Charlotte and then let’s play them in theBCS game. Let’s not play them week two or week five on the road. We’re takingourselves out of the tournament pretty quickly by doing that. I thinkit’s important we understand that, moving forward. Our first priority has to beto get to Charlotte. Let’s all travel, let’s go to Charlotte and have a greattime. We’ll play Clemson or Florida State, or whoever is on the other side.Let’s enjoy that. Obviously you go from there in terms of taking the next step.We have a long way to go as a program. I’m no different than you guys…I seewhat you see. We have a long way to go. I’m dug in; I’m here to fix it. We havea staff that’s committed to it. We had 32 young Miami Hurricanes that joined uslast year that are making a difference and really joined to be a part of thesolution.”
On personal memories from Senior Day…
“It’s tough. When you return to the locker room, it’s over. Theanticipation of sharing that moment with – for me it wasn’t just my family ormom and dad, but my high school coaches came up – everyone that’s been anintegral part of your life is there, for the most part. When it’s over, you’rein the locker room, everyone leaves, and then it’s over. There’s a finality toit that, unless you experienced it as a player, it’s hard. You have to keepthose emotions intact and make sure that we control the elements as much as wecan, so they can go out and play fast and enjoy it. Not worry about what it’sgoing to feel about tomorrow or that night, just go out and try to concentrateon South Florida and win the game.”
On his personal message to the senior class…
“They have an opportunity clearly in this week and the next two weeksto right the ship. Their legacy will be that – that they fought through it.They didn’t quit. They didn’t leave. They dug in and fought through the tumult,the adversity, when it certainly would have been easier for a lot of them tosay ‘I’m out of here.’ They deserve that. They deserve to finish on a greatnote, a positive note. They have been through a lot. As a staff we’re gratefulto them and we appreciate what they have meant to our program, and hopefullythey go off on a positive note here.”
On Eddie Johnson’s expectations in returning to theteam…
“There’s a responsibility and a level of accountability that we can’tmove on without. It’s not ‘do this for me,’ (it’s) ‘do it because the rest ofthe team is doing it, because you want to be accountable and you want to beresponsible and you want to be a good teammate. I’ve been in this situationbefore. Hopefully he’ll come out of it stronger and respond. I’ve been insituations where, two or three years down the road, you look back and say thatwas a moment I finally realized what I’m giving up or what I’m costing theteam. As a coach, you can’t look the other way when those types of things aregoing on. Hopefully he learned from it, but I think the rest of it isin-house.”
On Allen Hurns’ injury…
“We have a cast on his hand right now. We’re protecting it. We’ll see how itevolves on Thursday. We want to protect him certainly through Thursday and seeif there can be some kind of soft splint or tape job he can go to. He has alittle crack and he’s working through it in his thumb. It’s not in his joint oranything that’s career-threatening. He’s been cleared to proceed.
“It happened on our first long kickoff run – he had anunbelievable block and finished the play. Then he goes out and catches fourballs, blocks his tail off and catches two touchdowns. You have to be tough todo what he did.”
On increased suspensions in college football…
“Back in the day you would leave a guy home or leave him off the roster. Nowyou have access to so much more information, but they’re dumb enough to tweetduring the game that they’re not there. I’m being honest with you – that’s whatwe’re dealing with. They don’t think that you guys are hooked up to whatthey’re saying on Twitter.
“I will say this, it does resonate and strike a cord withthe team when you come in here Monday and Jeff Fisher suspends two guys forcurfew violations before their game with San Francisco. They do understand nowit’s not something that’s just in college. You can’t operate a team if guysaren’t doing what they need to do.”
On his ‘Twitter policy’ with the team…
“Make sure you know you represent the university and our alumni and our administration and our football program. You can lose a lot of sleep in December and January if you are responding – physically or mentally – to everything you read or see. Half of it is not true…The only thing I feel strongly about from a team policy is that this is not going away. It’s not going away. You have to teach them how to make good choices, and the responsibility that goes along with it, and hope they make good decisions. I haven’t had to pull anybody’s social media rights. We’re trying to teach them.”
On what seniors Brandon McGee and Mike James havemeant to the team…
“They’ve been incredible. Both of them have been very resilient. I was justtelling somebody yesterday that Brandon McGee doesn’t get enough credit forbeing the leader he has been. Brandon has always been gifted and fast, he wasblessed with raw talent to play the corner position. I think what we’re seeingnow is that he’s a guy committed to working on his tools. He’s so much toughernow than he was when we first got here. I think he would be the first to tellyou that. He’s a leader for us. If you said that to me a year ago, on a scaleof 1-10, would Brandon emerge as a team leader or team captain, I would say theanswer is 2 or 3. I’m really proud of him. I can’t say enough about Mike James,I think you guys know that.
“But there are other guys in there like Davon Johnson.During one of those bye weeks, we were battling ‘am I playing favoritism?’ andall that. Davon Johnson, to me, is one of the greatest stories of the year -what that kid has done, and his development, and what he’s been through. Nowhe’s a guy that goes out there and he’s a real contributor, he practices histail off. I wish I had Davon for a couple more years. Jake [Wieclaw] had acouple bad weeks there, but he’s really straightened it out. Other than thosetwo games, he has been fantastic. And [Dalton] Botts is having a great season.There are other seniors, obviously, but those are some of the guys that come tomind.”
On the recent lack of playing time for Darius Smith…
“Nobody likes not to play. There are other guys that are playing better thanhim right now. He has an opportunity every day in practice. I think certainlythe emergence of Curtis Porter has taken some of his reps away; Earl Moore andDequan Ivery have taken some of his reps away. That’s unfortunate, but thathappens in college football. The only thing he can control is having a positiveattitude and going to work tomorrow and hoping to have another opportunity.”
On an increase in starters contributing on specialteams…
“I see it more often than not. I saw it certainly at Florida State, for twoyears in a row, we saw it with them. All their starters playing [on specialteams]. A lot of guys on Notre Dame that we played. I could go on and on. Theydon’t need to play on three units. If they’re a rotation guy, they play on twounits; if they’re a starter, they play on one. It improves your team. With guysthat are covering kicks, you want guys like Denzel Perryman and guys that aretrained in tackling and reading ball angles and things of that nature. Itreally helps you.”
On the importance of kickoff coverage and fieldposition…
“It wasn’t just that we let [Virginia] on a 16-play drive to lose thegame. We had two opportunities to close out on offense and gave them reallygood field position. That’s three weeks in a row. We’re working like crazy onit.
“A lot of it is personnel. We’ve had a lot of changes.Obviously when you lose Deon [Bush] and Gabe [Terry] and guys like that, elitecover guys in terms of speed and strength, it hurts. We’ve made a lot ofchanges there. We need some guys to step up and respond – [Raphael] Kirby andpeople like that…We just need other guys to step up. Dallas Crawford hasstepped up. We need other guys to step up.”
On Ladarius Gunter’s emergence in the secondary…
“There were no corners on the team. It’s not like there were some – there werenone. He went all over and came back with a really good group. He went allover. We got LG and he’s really developed and done a nice job. Most peoplethink he’s a junior because he came from a junior college, but he’s asophomore. We’re happy with his progress.
“Of course Tracy [Howard] has really grown up the lastcouple weeks. Antonio Crawford is going to be really good – he’s a competitor.After we were watching Plant playing Miramar, we kept saying ‘who is this guycovering Malcolm Lewis?’ We went up there and got him. I think Nate Dortch isgoing to be really good. It’s a good class – we needed it. We have Nate andLarry [Hope] that are redshirting, so there will be some separation there.Hopefully that group will help us turn the corner. As well as the safeties, Ireally like our safeties too.”
On the play of CurtisPorter…
“He probably played too many plays last week, to be honest. But hisconditioning is improving. His attitude has been great. We’re really trying topush him to get him basically eight weeks’ worth of conditioning in two weeks.I think he’ll be better this week. He was better last week, and I think we gotto a point where we played him too much. If we made any mistake, it was playinghim too much in the game. He is very effective when he’s in there. He’s a youngman that – if he can just stay healthy and buy into a process withconsistency – he can be as good as he wants to be.”
