urban meyer q&a - 9/25
Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 9:45 am
"We've got a big-time game coming up, 8 o'clock, ESPN, national television. Our guys are excited about it. We can't wait to get involved in this week's preparation. The thing we have to teach this team how to do, and I've been warned about this many times, I've been warned by the athletic director (Jeremy Foley), I've been warned by (co-defensive coordinator) coach (Charlie) Strong, who knows, and I've been warned by other people who've worked here that you have a tendency, and it's not our coaches, but it's on the outside, boy, you're getting ready to play Ole Miss (and they're no good).
"Well, Ole Miss has some great players. You take a look at that receiver who ran by Joe Haden, who happens to be our fastest (defensive) player, and on the film I saw, Joe Haden looked like he was in reverse. There are some great players out there, and obviously Ole Miss has some great players. Young people sometimes think they have all the answers. Did we foresee that problem? Absolutely. How do we correct it? Some day you'll have a mature team that will know how to handle themselves. Great, great teams are up all the time. I anticipate we'll be ready to go this week. We will have a great week of practice."
There are already people talking about the Super Bowl next week. Not that you'd look past Auburn, but they are going to get some of that from the outside.
"I don't think we'll see that. There are a lot of terms, and some of them are curse words for all that stuff. I use the word "nonsense" because I don't think that's a bad word, but it's all nonsense, and I think our players will figure that out. The best thing that happened, and my nine assistants won't agree with this because they've been getting an earful for the last two days, is what happened. We walked out of there with a hard win on a hot day and are relatively healthy. There is some teach tape that's unbelievable. I'm not proud of that tape. I don't want to send it out to anybody because we didn't play very well, but as far as the task at hand, it couldn't have been a better day for what we need to get done this week."
Can you talk about the plan to take care of Tim Tebow? I know you don't him running 27 times a game.
"The first thing is we were four starters down on offense. You have (tackle Phil) Trautwein) and (guard) Maurkice Pouncey. You have Bubba Caldwell and Riley Cooper. However you want to color that picture, that's four starters down on offense. You're facing a team in an atmosphere that's starting to get a little ugly, and we've done this before with Alex Smith and with Josh Harris. You want to run the ball, but in the traditional run game you can plus them in the box any time you want. In the non-traditional run game, it's hard. That's single-win football. We can direct snap it to other guys, but he just happens to be one of our best runners, probably our best runner. Our plan first of all is to win the game, so whatever means necessary, we'll win that, but we have to have somewhat intelligence about us and not put our players at risk. Tim is my worst enemy and his worst enemy, too. He's screaming on the sideline, 'give me the ball to win the game,' and I'm somewhat intelligence, 'OK, Tim.' We'll put a little more thought into it."
Why did you keep Javier Estopinan and Clint McMillan in the Ole Miss pretty much the whole time, and do you see that changing?
"Our worst fear going into this game was that they would turn around and pound the ball out us. We thought they were the best team we'd faced to date rushing the football. They had an excellent running back and one of the better offensive lines in the SEC, and it's not even close as far as Javier and Clint being gap sound, like they played against Tennessee. How you give up big plays on defense is you're not gap sound and you have a matchup issue. That's what we try to do on offense. We try to force them to be non-sound or you create matchup issues. Obviously the long touchdown pass was a matchup issue. The guy ran right by us. We had several big runs where we were not gap sound. Our young players have not figured that out, so first and foremost we wanted to stop the run, and that's why those guys were in there. We just don't trust the young guys yet to go in there."
Is that a tradeoff you're willing to make – being gap sound but not getting as much of a push up the middle as you'd like?
"Obviously. That's the trade we made Saturday. We have to get those other guys ready to play at a much quicker rate. Brandon Antwine's been hurt, and we need him in that lineup. He needs to give us some stability. Torrey Davis needs to learn how to play against the run. He goes in there and gives us a little more pass rush, but our No. 1 objective always is to stop the run."
How much did all the penalties throw you off schedule?
"(Offensive coordinator) Dan (Mullen) and I did this study. We had 18 times of over 10 yards to go, and in the first three games combined it wasn't that. Penalties, lost-yardage plays. We didn't give up a sack but we had a couple of runs where we lost yardage, and the penalties were just awful. Against Tennessee, we felt like we were always second-and-2, second-and-3, second-and-4. Even second-and-6 is very manageable. Eighteen times doesn't include second-and-10. The result was 200 yards worth of penalties. We're not a dumb team, but just staying on schedule, if you want to win this game, that's the way we play. What you saw last week is not the way we play."
You were the most penalized team in the conference last year and won the SEC championship and the national championship. This year you're the third-to-worst team in the country being penalized and you're still winning. Can you explain that?
"That's not good. It's something we'll have to address. I realize that happened a year ago, and I believe before that we've always been decent at penalties. Some people say a lack of discipline. Whatever it is, we've got to get it fixed. It's not acceptable."
Given what Brandon James showed you Saturday, do you want to get him the ball more often?
"He's already been getting his touches in the kicking game, but he made a couple of great plays in the game Saturday. We flipped him the ball in the flat, and he made two guys miss and gained 12 yards. It's real clear on our team, the percentage of scoring if you have zero big plays is minimal. Once you start getting those 12-yard gains in there, the percentages go up, so people who physically touch the ball – Percy (Harvin) can make people miss. Tim Tebow can make people miss. Kestahn Moore is getting better at it. Jarred Fayson needs to continue getting better at it. Riley Cooper doesn't do great at making people miss, but he's a matchup issue. Those are all things that are well thought out before the game plan is put together. And to answer your question, Brandon James will get more involved."
Can you talk about the morning after the Auburn game last year and the thing from Danny (Wuerffel) you showed the team and what you wanted them to get?
"In the 101 years of Florida football, there have been two national champions, and what happened in that locker room after the game was loud. It everything from pointing fingers to threatening each other to fights to screaming at each other and crying. It was a tough deal. One of the coaches grabbed me and said you better this thing under control, and I said, 'no, let it go.' We let it go for about 15 minutes. I wanted to watch and I wanted to clear the air. Every good family has had that. Well, I don't know if (a family) has had those kind of issues. My family hasn't, not yet I guess. (Daughter) Nicole just turned 17, so watch out. But you have to let it go, and we did. We cleared the air, dried everybody's eyes and had a state of the union on Monday of where we were at and where we needed to be, where we wanted to go and how we were going to get there. Danny Wuerffel, there's a not a more respected player in Florida football history, and to have him say that and to say it the way it did. To play that for the team, maybe some of the ones in the back were sleeping, but the ones up front, the guys that counted and our coaching staff, my mouth went dry. It was a heck of a deal."
Can you talk about Kestahn Moore and the other injuries?
"He's fine. Two weeks in a row he's had some shoulder (issues). He's just a contact player. He's been fine. It's just a sore shoulder. Bubba's going to be a game-time (decision). He's very questionable. Bryan Thomas is very questionable. Markihe (Anderson) is very questionable. Everybody else should be good to go. Maurkice Pouncey's good. Riley Cooper should be good, although I thought he'd be good last week. Ankles on racehorses are hard to get back, but I think he'll be fine. Joey Ijjas (injured quad) is not going to kick until Thursday. That's a tough nut. I love Joey Ijjas. I need him. I trust him, so I'm going to give him until Thursday."
How did Major Wright grade out, and is the free safety battle still open?
"It's a game-time deal. Instead of saying names, our free safety position has to play much better. Obviously I just read off our champions, and neither were in there. That's a game-time decision, and it's a little bit like kicker last year. Maybe Bryan Thomas comes back, maybe Dorian Munroe (moves from strong safety), but that free safety position has to get better."
How did Tim Tebow's rocker step (the one-step forward as a run fake before stepping back to throw) develop?
"We've been doing that for a long time. Dan Mullen kind of started that. I think to have the ability for a quarterback, at times up to a three-step drop underneath center, so if you catch it, rocker up and rocker back, it gives you the chance to hold the football and still get it out on time. When you see the offensive linemen with low pads, we've had a lot of success with linebackers stepping up to the run. It's one of our.
Are you just trying to make the linebacker jump and think run for a second?
"Oh yeah. Any time with play action, you have to tie it in with the offensive line. If the offensive line's raising up, your are going to see depth from our linebackers. A lot of times we'll pull a guard and we call it waggle protection. The quarterback drops the pads, and that with the action of a fullback and the offensive line low hats, we ran Tim 27 times. Imagine we'll get a little sucked about the linebacker."
You've had injuries on the offensive line, but it hasn't seemed to miss a beat. Can you talk about the line's performance?
"Our line coaches have done a great job. Steve (Addazio) and John Hevesy have done a great job. It all starts with attitude. Steve Rissler started it last year. He was the apex of the offense, and Drew Miller is. I say that all the time. If you want a bad offense, just let your center come out there and not want to work today. It's going to be awful, and Drew Miller has done a fantastic job. I just love being around them. I love walking with them. I love going to eat with them. I love sitting in the meeting room with them because they love football. On top of that they're talented individuals, and it's going to get better. There are some young guys in here, Mike Pouncey is going to be a fantastic player. Maurice Hurt is getting better. Carl Johnson got some meaningful snaps. We need to get a couple tackles in here recruiting, but our offensive line is going to be the way it's supposed to be."
You've played at Alabama and Auburn and obviously you've been around here. When you look around the country, do those three epitomize the passion for college football?
"I don't think there's any question. You missed a couple other spots that are pretty tough to go play that we've been to. With all due respect to everywhere else in the country, those places you just mentioned, there's no harder place to play in the country than those places."
Can you talk about David Nelson's play on Saturday?
"He's getting better. David has ambition to go to the next level like everyone, and if he wants to go to the next level, he's not an outside guy. He's got to get big, strong and bang around and have great hands and be aggressive and he's doing that. He's really improved, but he's got to be a great blocker and he's got to get a lot stronger. He's got two years left after this year, so he's really made a move in the last three weeks."
Have you ever heard the story from last spring when he was on cruise ship and everybody thought he was Chris Leak? The DJ announced it at dinner that he was Chris Leak.
"I missed that one. I was up trying to game plan third-and-6. Was he signing Chris Leak autographs?"
He said people came up to him for autographs and he met the captain of the ship.
"Is that right? Good for him."
"Well, Ole Miss has some great players. You take a look at that receiver who ran by Joe Haden, who happens to be our fastest (defensive) player, and on the film I saw, Joe Haden looked like he was in reverse. There are some great players out there, and obviously Ole Miss has some great players. Young people sometimes think they have all the answers. Did we foresee that problem? Absolutely. How do we correct it? Some day you'll have a mature team that will know how to handle themselves. Great, great teams are up all the time. I anticipate we'll be ready to go this week. We will have a great week of practice."
There are already people talking about the Super Bowl next week. Not that you'd look past Auburn, but they are going to get some of that from the outside.
"I don't think we'll see that. There are a lot of terms, and some of them are curse words for all that stuff. I use the word "nonsense" because I don't think that's a bad word, but it's all nonsense, and I think our players will figure that out. The best thing that happened, and my nine assistants won't agree with this because they've been getting an earful for the last two days, is what happened. We walked out of there with a hard win on a hot day and are relatively healthy. There is some teach tape that's unbelievable. I'm not proud of that tape. I don't want to send it out to anybody because we didn't play very well, but as far as the task at hand, it couldn't have been a better day for what we need to get done this week."
Can you talk about the plan to take care of Tim Tebow? I know you don't him running 27 times a game.
"The first thing is we were four starters down on offense. You have (tackle Phil) Trautwein) and (guard) Maurkice Pouncey. You have Bubba Caldwell and Riley Cooper. However you want to color that picture, that's four starters down on offense. You're facing a team in an atmosphere that's starting to get a little ugly, and we've done this before with Alex Smith and with Josh Harris. You want to run the ball, but in the traditional run game you can plus them in the box any time you want. In the non-traditional run game, it's hard. That's single-win football. We can direct snap it to other guys, but he just happens to be one of our best runners, probably our best runner. Our plan first of all is to win the game, so whatever means necessary, we'll win that, but we have to have somewhat intelligence about us and not put our players at risk. Tim is my worst enemy and his worst enemy, too. He's screaming on the sideline, 'give me the ball to win the game,' and I'm somewhat intelligence, 'OK, Tim.' We'll put a little more thought into it."
Why did you keep Javier Estopinan and Clint McMillan in the Ole Miss pretty much the whole time, and do you see that changing?
"Our worst fear going into this game was that they would turn around and pound the ball out us. We thought they were the best team we'd faced to date rushing the football. They had an excellent running back and one of the better offensive lines in the SEC, and it's not even close as far as Javier and Clint being gap sound, like they played against Tennessee. How you give up big plays on defense is you're not gap sound and you have a matchup issue. That's what we try to do on offense. We try to force them to be non-sound or you create matchup issues. Obviously the long touchdown pass was a matchup issue. The guy ran right by us. We had several big runs where we were not gap sound. Our young players have not figured that out, so first and foremost we wanted to stop the run, and that's why those guys were in there. We just don't trust the young guys yet to go in there."
Is that a tradeoff you're willing to make – being gap sound but not getting as much of a push up the middle as you'd like?
"Obviously. That's the trade we made Saturday. We have to get those other guys ready to play at a much quicker rate. Brandon Antwine's been hurt, and we need him in that lineup. He needs to give us some stability. Torrey Davis needs to learn how to play against the run. He goes in there and gives us a little more pass rush, but our No. 1 objective always is to stop the run."
How much did all the penalties throw you off schedule?
"(Offensive coordinator) Dan (Mullen) and I did this study. We had 18 times of over 10 yards to go, and in the first three games combined it wasn't that. Penalties, lost-yardage plays. We didn't give up a sack but we had a couple of runs where we lost yardage, and the penalties were just awful. Against Tennessee, we felt like we were always second-and-2, second-and-3, second-and-4. Even second-and-6 is very manageable. Eighteen times doesn't include second-and-10. The result was 200 yards worth of penalties. We're not a dumb team, but just staying on schedule, if you want to win this game, that's the way we play. What you saw last week is not the way we play."
You were the most penalized team in the conference last year and won the SEC championship and the national championship. This year you're the third-to-worst team in the country being penalized and you're still winning. Can you explain that?
"That's not good. It's something we'll have to address. I realize that happened a year ago, and I believe before that we've always been decent at penalties. Some people say a lack of discipline. Whatever it is, we've got to get it fixed. It's not acceptable."
Given what Brandon James showed you Saturday, do you want to get him the ball more often?
"He's already been getting his touches in the kicking game, but he made a couple of great plays in the game Saturday. We flipped him the ball in the flat, and he made two guys miss and gained 12 yards. It's real clear on our team, the percentage of scoring if you have zero big plays is minimal. Once you start getting those 12-yard gains in there, the percentages go up, so people who physically touch the ball – Percy (Harvin) can make people miss. Tim Tebow can make people miss. Kestahn Moore is getting better at it. Jarred Fayson needs to continue getting better at it. Riley Cooper doesn't do great at making people miss, but he's a matchup issue. Those are all things that are well thought out before the game plan is put together. And to answer your question, Brandon James will get more involved."
Can you talk about the morning after the Auburn game last year and the thing from Danny (Wuerffel) you showed the team and what you wanted them to get?
"In the 101 years of Florida football, there have been two national champions, and what happened in that locker room after the game was loud. It everything from pointing fingers to threatening each other to fights to screaming at each other and crying. It was a tough deal. One of the coaches grabbed me and said you better this thing under control, and I said, 'no, let it go.' We let it go for about 15 minutes. I wanted to watch and I wanted to clear the air. Every good family has had that. Well, I don't know if (a family) has had those kind of issues. My family hasn't, not yet I guess. (Daughter) Nicole just turned 17, so watch out. But you have to let it go, and we did. We cleared the air, dried everybody's eyes and had a state of the union on Monday of where we were at and where we needed to be, where we wanted to go and how we were going to get there. Danny Wuerffel, there's a not a more respected player in Florida football history, and to have him say that and to say it the way it did. To play that for the team, maybe some of the ones in the back were sleeping, but the ones up front, the guys that counted and our coaching staff, my mouth went dry. It was a heck of a deal."
Can you talk about Kestahn Moore and the other injuries?
"He's fine. Two weeks in a row he's had some shoulder (issues). He's just a contact player. He's been fine. It's just a sore shoulder. Bubba's going to be a game-time (decision). He's very questionable. Bryan Thomas is very questionable. Markihe (Anderson) is very questionable. Everybody else should be good to go. Maurkice Pouncey's good. Riley Cooper should be good, although I thought he'd be good last week. Ankles on racehorses are hard to get back, but I think he'll be fine. Joey Ijjas (injured quad) is not going to kick until Thursday. That's a tough nut. I love Joey Ijjas. I need him. I trust him, so I'm going to give him until Thursday."
How did Major Wright grade out, and is the free safety battle still open?
"It's a game-time deal. Instead of saying names, our free safety position has to play much better. Obviously I just read off our champions, and neither were in there. That's a game-time decision, and it's a little bit like kicker last year. Maybe Bryan Thomas comes back, maybe Dorian Munroe (moves from strong safety), but that free safety position has to get better."
How did Tim Tebow's rocker step (the one-step forward as a run fake before stepping back to throw) develop?
"We've been doing that for a long time. Dan Mullen kind of started that. I think to have the ability for a quarterback, at times up to a three-step drop underneath center, so if you catch it, rocker up and rocker back, it gives you the chance to hold the football and still get it out on time. When you see the offensive linemen with low pads, we've had a lot of success with linebackers stepping up to the run. It's one of our.
Are you just trying to make the linebacker jump and think run for a second?
"Oh yeah. Any time with play action, you have to tie it in with the offensive line. If the offensive line's raising up, your are going to see depth from our linebackers. A lot of times we'll pull a guard and we call it waggle protection. The quarterback drops the pads, and that with the action of a fullback and the offensive line low hats, we ran Tim 27 times. Imagine we'll get a little sucked about the linebacker."
You've had injuries on the offensive line, but it hasn't seemed to miss a beat. Can you talk about the line's performance?
"Our line coaches have done a great job. Steve (Addazio) and John Hevesy have done a great job. It all starts with attitude. Steve Rissler started it last year. He was the apex of the offense, and Drew Miller is. I say that all the time. If you want a bad offense, just let your center come out there and not want to work today. It's going to be awful, and Drew Miller has done a fantastic job. I just love being around them. I love walking with them. I love going to eat with them. I love sitting in the meeting room with them because they love football. On top of that they're talented individuals, and it's going to get better. There are some young guys in here, Mike Pouncey is going to be a fantastic player. Maurice Hurt is getting better. Carl Johnson got some meaningful snaps. We need to get a couple tackles in here recruiting, but our offensive line is going to be the way it's supposed to be."
You've played at Alabama and Auburn and obviously you've been around here. When you look around the country, do those three epitomize the passion for college football?
"I don't think there's any question. You missed a couple other spots that are pretty tough to go play that we've been to. With all due respect to everywhere else in the country, those places you just mentioned, there's no harder place to play in the country than those places."
Can you talk about David Nelson's play on Saturday?
"He's getting better. David has ambition to go to the next level like everyone, and if he wants to go to the next level, he's not an outside guy. He's got to get big, strong and bang around and have great hands and be aggressive and he's doing that. He's really improved, but he's got to be a great blocker and he's got to get a lot stronger. He's got two years left after this year, so he's really made a move in the last three weeks."
Have you ever heard the story from last spring when he was on cruise ship and everybody thought he was Chris Leak? The DJ announced it at dinner that he was Chris Leak.
"I missed that one. I was up trying to game plan third-and-6. Was he signing Chris Leak autographs?"
He said people came up to him for autographs and he met the captain of the ship.
"Is that right? Good for him."