Quotes and Video from Coach Muschamp's Monday Press Conference
Monday, September 10, 2012 | Football
Head Coach Will Muschamp met with the media on Monday to preview the Gators' second-straight Southeastern Conference road game at Tennessee (6:00 p.m. on Saturday).
Opening Statement
“I want to thank all of the Gator fans for coming out to College Station, obviously it was a great environment and we traveled very well. We were certainly well represented and I appreciate that. It was a great effort by our team. Very poised and a team win, I mean that in all parts as far as offense, defense, and special teams. It was not exactly what we wanted in all phases but we certainly picked each other up when we needed to throughout the game, and that's a credit to our players. Steve told me this after the game, it was the first time since '06 the Gators have come back from being down 10 points or more. So, that's a feat for our football team, I'm excited for them. We won the 4th quarter, and that's something we've emphasized to our players, making plays in those situations and the opportunities when they present themselves, and I thought we did a good job of that. Took the lead with 13 minutes to go in the 4th quarter and the offense, with 3:13 to play in the game, was able to kill the clock. That's something that you've got to be able to do in this league to be successful, to win those close games and those situations and to be able to end the game and that's credit to our offense.”
“We did have some guys go down in the game and we've kind of got a saying around here, 'Man down, Man up.' Chaz Green had some cramps, probably could have returned, but Kyle Koehne came in and did a really nice job for us. Gillislee strained his groin, he's going to be fine, he'll be fine for this weekend but Mack Brown and Matt Jones both stepped in and did a nice job for him in those situations. Both guys, for the first time, in a critical time in the game have stepped in and played, and played on the road and played well. Cody Riggs has a small fracture in his foot and is going to miss 4 weeks but Jabari Gorman and Valdez Showers came in the game and did a nice job for us. Matt Elam goes back to safety and Jaylen Watkins steps in and plays nickel for us, he'd been playing corner for us most of the game. Again, credit to all of those young men for preparing themselves well for the game, I told them when we left the hotel, 'You never know when your number is going to be called and you better be ready to step up and play at a high level. There are no excuses so you've got to be mentally ready to go'. Jelani had surgery this morning on his thumb, I don't know the time frame. Obviously he'll be out this week but probably 4 weeks is kind of what I've heard. He will be out for a fracture in his thumb, which is unfortunate for him because he's been playing extremely well but Antonio Morrison, Mike Taylor and Darrin Kitchens stepped in and did a nice job for us. Our depth is still not where it needs to be but certainly much better than it was a year ago. We're not having to switch guys from position to position in order to finish a game and prepare guys for a game, which certainly gives them a comfort level, which we like.”
“Offensively, 30 attempts running the ball for over 200 yards and if you take away the sack, which obviously you can't, but as far as truly running the football, that's over five yards a carry. We had eight runs of 10 yards or more so very pleased with the run game. We have some things we need to get cleaned up in short yards. We had two opportunities there, were able to convert the fourth down on the field goal fake but on the other one late in the game, we need to make that. Eight explosives, five runs, three passes and no turnovers, and we've got to continue to work on third down and converting in those situations.”
“Defensively, I thought we adjusted well in the game, obviously in the second half, not very pretty in the first half. 70% on third down, the second half they had six possessions and five were three-and-out's so our guys came in poised at halftime and understood what we needed to do to be successful. Didn't get any turnovers, we needed to start the game better. We need to play with more discipline on defense, that's the bottom line. Our effort and our enthusiasm and our want-to are off the charts, but we've got to play more disciplined as a group as far as doing your job. You can't cross face on blocks and it's out of effort of wanting to make a play, it's not out of defiance and not wanting to do something, it's just guys who are trying to do a little too much, we just need to do our job.”
“Special Teams, back to our standard, great effort, outstanding effort on special teams. We've got some guys who are straining their guts out there playing a bunch of snaps on a hot day in Texas and very pleased with them. Caleb Sturgis, I believe got the SEC Special Teams Player of the Week, and certainly deservingly so. Player of the game offensively was Jon Harrison. Thought he did a nice job up front on the road and getting us in and out of the right protection, run game and things, and directing all of those calls upfront. Scrap Iron was Xavier Nixon and Jon Halapio, Xavier played well and so did 'Pio, both of those guys continue to play well upfront for us. Defensively, Jon Bostic, made bunch of good plays, made a lot of plays in space and did a nice job in the run game and more than anything, getting us settled down the second half. Hard Hat went to Antonio Morrison, that guy will throw his stuff up in there and he's a physical player he's instinctive, he's tough, going to continue to learn, we're going to have some road bumps here and there but he's certainly worth it because he does make a lot of plays for us. Special Teams, obviously Caleb, and Loucheiz Purifoy, outstanding job covering punts against a guy that averaged 18 yards a return last year. I think he was third in the country in punt returns, and to be able to get down and make that guy stop his feet and let our coverage get there and tried to get a strip off the guy. He did a good job on all phases, but certainly on punt. The big play on special teams was Mack Brown. We scored to take the lead 20-17, we kick off to Trey Williams for them, very explosive guy, and Mack goes down there and blows the wedge up and makes a tackle inside the 20. What a momentum change for us to continue to have the momentum as opposed to letting them get to the 35/40 yard line, it's a field goal game, people don't see those things and what a huge play that he made right there; really proud of his effort. Scouts of the Week, Evan Holmes, Ryan Parrish, Darius Masline all did a really nice job, we can't do it without those guys, they did a great job on scouts for us.”
“Injury report, Jelani, I talked about, had thumb surgery this morning. Cody Riggs has a small fracture, requires no surgery, probably be 4-6 weeks, we're looking on the lesser end of 4 weeks but we'll see where that goes. Those will be the only 2 guys that will be out for this week that played this past week. Ronald Powell sustained a recurring knee injury during his rehab. He is being reevaluated next week. He's got some swelling on the knee, we took the MRI, probably a little too much swelling to really tell where he is right now, and we're going to evaluate him next week. Very disappointed for him, really a setback for him as far as where he is and where we thought he would be at this point, as accelerated as his rehab has gone. Talking to him this morning and his parents throughout the weekend, more than likely, Ronald will redshirt this year. It's just disappointing for him, he's a guy that's mentally been a rock and has been amazing with how he's handled the process and has handled it very well. The diagnosis is not totally final but we want to look at it again next week. This certainly has put a speed bump in the recovery process, disappointed for him.”
“Tennessee, very explosive offensively with nine starters returning. Jim Chaney, their offensive coordinator, they've gone to a no huddle tempo, they will hurry up at times and they'll look back at times as well. Tyler Bray is a guy that's very accurate with the football and can make all of the throws. You turn on the tape and he's got a touch on the ball, he can throw the ball downfield, he can throw it on the line, but he makes all of the throws. (Justin) Hunter and (Cordarrelle) Patterson are outstanding at wide-out. Two explosive guys that can stretch the field vertically and have very good ball skills down the field, they can make all the plays. Their tight end's back, got 300+ up front, 4-5 starters return on the o-line, certainly have been very explosive in their first two ball games. Defensively, Sal Sunseri is a new coordinator from Alabama, they'll be multiple in what they do and some odd and even fronts but they've been very aggressive in the first two ball games and I think they've forced 5 interceptions. They've done a nice job of getting the ball back to their offense.”
“(College) Gameday is going to be there, 6:00 p.m. kickoff there in Knoxville. We're looking forward to it and our guys I know will prepare well and understand that this is an SEC east opponent and the most important game because it's the next one. We look forward to getting to work this afternoon.”
Update on Patchan and Saunders
“Pop will be available this week, and Patchan will not be available this week. I'm hoping for next week, but again I don't know.”
On evaluating how well Driskel played after viewing tape
“I thought he played well. I thought he made some critical plays for us, the bootleg at the end, the 3rd down conversion at the end of the 3rd quarter, flipping the field a little bit, crossing the 50 on the 3rd and 5. He managed our team well. We didn't have any procedure or play call issues. He does need to get rid of the football in some situations. We had some guys open we could've hit down the field for some big plays but again, the game will continue to slow down for him the more reps he gets, the more experience he gets and that's what I felt like, for both guys, Jacoby and Jeff, as we work through this season. It was going to be the major issue, just getting experience. The game will continue to slow down, he will work extremely hard at it, he's hard on himself, he's a competitor, he's tough, he's shown all of the things that I've seen and we've seen throughout this time here for him.”
On Mike Gillislee's availability this week
“He's going to practice today. We just had a staff meeting and he should be fine. I mean, we probably wont rep him 40 times today but we'll make sure he's ready to go for Saturday. We feel like he's fully available.”
On mentality change of the team from last year
“I think the number one thing is experience. We had a bunch of guys playing for the first time last year. You look at our sophomore class from last year, I can't tell you the exact number of snaps they played their freshman year but it wasn't many. So for the first time, a lot of those guys were in that situation and playing for the first time. For Jeff and Jacoby last year, whether it was Jeff against Alabama, Jacoby against LSU, both against Auburn. For the first time, they're in those situations directing our offense. So again, I think experience is the number one thing. I think togetherness. This is a pretty close team. You didn't see any finger pointing at half time, you didn't have any of that, you didn't have the offense and defense divided in what we were trying to do. Matter of fact, Tim Davis said at the staff meeting yesterday how good it was that the defense came off the field telling the offense 'let's go, lets keep it going' so when you start to see things like that, and guys pulling for each other and understanding that its bigger than what's on the back of their jersey, that it's about playing for each other, I think that this team has shown that they're willing and able to do that."
On Antonio Morrison's play and options at LB with Jelani Jenkins out
“Antonio played well, he plays well in space, he's a physical guy in the 2-back run game. He's a guy that came in mid-year and did an outstanding job in the spring, but right now he would start at the Will and Mike Taylor can play both and Jon can play both so we'll have a three man rotation there. Then Darren kitchens will also play the Will as well as Sam. So we've got a mixture of 4 guys that can rotate in there and if we get in a bind we can play Elam at the nickel and Sam, so we're going to be fine.”
On Josh Evans
“He's fine, he's going to practice today. Played well in the game.”
On Pop Saunders figuring into the secondary rotation
“He'll work in at safety but he's also a guy that can play the nickel and dime positions. He's an intelligent guy and can play multiple positions.”
On Jeff Driskel taking hits
“We want him to get down more in situations and be smart in the situation. If its 3rd and 8 and you're scrambling and you're two yards away, we need to get the first down. Be smart about the situation, and that's going to be hard on Jeff. He's a guy that's going to throw his jaw in there and get what he can get.”
On not wanting to take away Jeff's aggressiveness
“Just have to work through it and manage it the best we can. It's easy to sit here and talk about it, or sit down with him and talk about it, as opposed to when you're in front on 90,000 people and you're scrambling and you've got a 300-pounder chasing you and you know where the first down marker is and you want to get the first down. But with that being said, you've got to play smart and get what you can get and let's be smart about the situation.”
On Jeff's comment about locking into his first read being one of the main reasons he was taking sacks
“When you take the progression read and you read to the Z to the Y, or however the progression on the play, sometimes you do get locked in and hold it a little long to see if some guy is going to come open as opposed to taking it to the next progression. It's a very natural part of the process and certainly I think the game will slow down for him as we move forward.”
On Derek Dooley's overriding philosophy
“I think that he's done a nice job at Tennessee, especially if you look at their football team right now from a year ago, and obviously the injuries they had last year decimated their season; the QB position, Hunter getting hurt here, different positions that happened. They've got an experienced team back, they want to be physical and run the football, and they want to take advantage of their strengths offensively, which are at the QB and receiver positions at this time. He wanted to get more aggressive defensively and I think they've done that. His background has always been in special teams and they're really good on that, so I think you're kind of seeing a little more of his identity and personality in this football team as opposed to the previous two years.”
On Muschamp's recollection of the UT/UF Rivalry
“Well they were two of the top 5 teams in the 90's, basically the 3rd Saturday in September, whoever won that game had the leg up in the East. It certainly was not the answer, if you go back in history and look it up, the winner of the game didn't mean you were going to win the East, but it certainly helped you throughout the season. A lot of great players, great coaches, what Spurrier did here in the 90's has been unmatched as far as his success in a 12 year run.”
On playing the game as well as they did against A&M being enough to win against UT
“I just want to win. If you win, it's well enough.”
On Kent Taylor
“He had an injury this past week and was not able to travel.”
On Jelani Jenkins injury
“We're waiting for him to come out of surgery to see. You can always see something on the X-ray and say 'I think it's this or that', obviously there was a fracture and they felt like he needed to have surgery. How bad is it? I don't know yet, and they're going to let me know when they know this afternoon the time table will be a little more definite.”
On seeing improvement from receivers outside of Frankie
“Quinton did some nice things in the game, had a couple of open opportunities, probably could have hit him on. Andre Debose had a great block on the run that Gilly had on their sideline for about 30, an outstanding block to free us up there. I've said before, our passing game, when you talk in terms of the receiver position, you're going to count Jordan Reed in there who had 5 catches, really a big play to flip the field for us in the 2nd quarter, and Trey Burton and Omarius Hines had the big one there across the middle. So when I refer to the receiver position, in my mind, I kind of count them in there as well. Frankie and Quinton and Andre did some nice things for us.”
On already getting a road trip out of the way as they travel to Tennessee
“I think maybe for the freshman and the guys who have never traveled before it's a good deal, but most of our guys have traveled before and have been on the road and the majority of the team went to Knoxville 2 years ago.”
On Tennessee Quarterback Tyler Bray
“The guy has got great arm strength, he can make all of the throws. The thing that jumps out at you, as far as some of the vertical throws down the field to get there in a hurry, he's got a great touch on the ball, he's got a great rapport with his receivers, he throws the ball into tight coverage's. So it's not like he's throwing it against zone all of the time, he's throwing it against man to man and pattern coverage's, and those are the things to me. He's put up very impressive numbers when he's been healthy.”
On the play of Cornerbacks
“I thought we played solid in the game. Again, the throwing game vertically down the field is going to be drastically different from what we saw last Saturday. “
On problems Jordan Reed causes opposing defenses
“As much as anything, how can you count him? Can you count him as a receiver? He will line up in the core and play TE and create a 3 man block and gap control defensively, that's an issue. So that's where it's tough. You get a linebacker matched up on him in coverage and you're always going to be aware of those situations you don't want. You want a safety match up on him so you throw Omarius and Trey Burton in the equation, so it presents some issues as far as matchups are concerned inside.”
Why Gillislee hasn't been able to get on the field more the past few years
“I think last year we felt pretty comfortable with Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps, the running style in our running game schematically as opposed to what it is right now. You look and a lot of Mike's runs have been the A-gap power and the leads and the inside zone and obviously some nice perimeter runs which, there was fantastic run he made the other night. Again, I think that we were a little different schematically, offensively, there was never any lack of confidence in Mike Gillislee last year, we had confidence in Mike the whole time, but we were just a little different offensively because of our backs last year. The runs that they possessed strengths for were not necessarily Mike's.”
On Gillislee's preseason comment on wanting to run 1500 yards
“He's got a lot of confidence, I hope he keeps doing it.”
On any way that Jordan Reed fits better into this offense this year
“Confidence. He's another guy I'm talking about. Last year was his first time playing TE, ever. We all wanted him to be [Mark] Bavaro running around out there. Jordan is a fantastic athlete, really good ball skills, and it's not 'Add Water, Instant Player'. I know we all think that because Rivals puts 48 stars beside their name they're supposed to just be an outstanding football player the moment they walk on campus, but it's not 'just add water', it takes process to become a good player. Just because you're a great athlete doesn't mean you're going to be a really good football player, sometimes it takes time. Last year was his first time playing TE and he played extremely well. He was injured and missed 3 games at the beginning of the season with a hamstring injury. I think he had another injury later in the year and missed some time, but I think he had over 30 catches last year. He played well last year for us. He developed more toughness in the offseason, he got stronger so he got better at the point of attack as far as blocking is concerned and he's always been a good athlete and has always been good in the throwing game. You ought to see him throw a football. Again, this is his second year playing the tight end position, so the natural process is, the first year you do however you do and then you improve a little bit or a lot based on your dedication in the offseason, and he worked extremely hard and had a great offseason for us so again, this is his second year. That was kind of my point earlier when someone said 'what's the difference?' We had a lot of guys last year, Dom Easley, how much did he play his freshman year? Sharrif Floyd, Ronald Powell, Matt Elam? A lot of those guys last year, for the first time, were playing for a lot of minutes and logging a lot of minutes. In our league, especially late in the year, there's a wear and tear, not just physically but mentally. You wear out mentally in this league. He played well Saturday, he needs to continue to play well for us and play well offensively because he's a very important part of what we're doing.”
On handling Ronald Powell's injury
“It's been hard, it's been difficult. You're around these guys, and all people see is Saturday afternoon, but there's also Sunday through Friday, and that's where you really get to know a young man and you get to see how this young man has matured since I've been here. Not because of me but because of him, and going through a tough setback and handling it the right way, handling it better than me and anybody else would. He worked extremely hard, as hard as our medical staff has seen anybody dedicate themselves to rehab their injury, and we've got some folks who have been here for a long time. So it is a setback and as he said before, 'I'll be fine', and we're going to continue to work through this and through everything so that you gain something and were going to gain a little bit out of this. And that's the way his approach has been throughout the whole process. He was hurt and devastated when he first heard the news, but we still have some time to sort of see where it is. Just support him right now, that's all we can do.”
On luxury of having a consistent kicker like Caleb
“He's very accurate, very dependable, never gets shook, he just lines up and does his job. We should've thrown the ball well on third down instead of losing yardage but I said 'Were going to be fine, Caleb will go in and kick it.' In my two years as head coach, to have a guy like him, it's just been a relief.”
On what sold him on Brent Pease and difference he's seen in the offense under him
“The number one thing is just philosophically being on the same page and being compatible in working with someone that's willing to do the things you need to do to be successful. I've been in this league for a long time, not necessarily as a head coach, but I do understand what it takes to be successful in this league and I think there are things you need to do to be able to win a championship. Can you have great success doing other things offensively? Sure, I'm not debating that. But I do think there are certain things you need to be balanced in what you do, especially being at a place like the University of Florida and recruiting the student athletes you're going to be able to recruit here. I think that he and I are very much on the same page, just like Charlie and I were, as far as where we're headed with this. Is it where we want to be right now? No, but we're headed in the right direction and I see a lot of positive movement from last year to this year of where we are and what I need to see, progress. That's all I look for in everything in our organization is progress. I see a lot of positive progress in that unit from where we were a year ago and I think a lot of that has to do with maturity and experience. Tim Davis has done an outstanding job with our offensive line, but again, you just have to recruit well and know what you want and where you want to go with things and I think with all of those things combined I've seen progress.”
