Post by cviller on Oct 4, 2007 7:58:16 GMT -5
The seventh-year head coach reviews the USF game, while also talking about the upcoming game at Syracuse
Can you give us an update on Pat White?
“He is in treatment. He’s doing better today than yesterday and better yesterday than the day before, and we will see how he is at practice. He is day-to-day and will be for the next few days.”
Is it different getting a team ready to play after a loss rather it is after a win?
“It’s probably a little different initially. Sunday’s practice wasn’t very fun. The rest of the week will be the normal routine.”
Is there a drop dead time when you decided if Pat is ready?
“What time is our game on Saturday.” (Noon) “Then I will decide noon on Saturday. If I decide earlier than that, you won’t know until noon on Saturday. Nobody else will either.”
And if Pat can’t play?
“Then Jarrett will start, and you have Adam too, so we have two guys that are experienced and who can run the offense. Jarrett competed pretty well in the last game when we played really poorly and had six turnovers. He led an offense that ran some plays, and we could have won without the BIG EAST Player of the Year, who didn’t play in the second half. He wasn’t having his best game, but he is a pretty good player.”
Talking about the conference, how do you think a team like Syracuse beat a team like Louisville?
“It was Louisville at Louisville. I don’t know if it was because it was a conference game but Syracuse had an extra bounce in their step, and they were clearly ready to play. They played well, and they went after Louisville for four quarters. Louisville scored some touchdowns late, which they can do because they are pretty explosive, but Syracuse, in all three phases from special teams, offense and defense, they looked good. You have to assume that since it’s a BIG EAST game, and we’ll be at their place, that is the Syracuse that we are going to get.”
Syracuse held Miami at first and goal on the one. How has Syracuse’s defense changed from last year?
“They have a lot of big, physical guys up front. Their front four are all physical and no one can really move them off the ball. Washington had some big plays against them, and Louisville in the passing game, and Iowa had a couple, but they don’t get moved off the ball a whole lot. If they force you into a run situation, they can get you down. It’s hard to move those 300 lbs. they have. We have to do a better job of doing that and a lot better job from last game, obviously. Up until that point, we have been pretty good up front, but in the last game we didn’t get a whole lot of movement. We are working hard on that this week.”
What technically did Mike Dent do wrong and what technically are you doing to work with him?
“He had a few bad snaps, and he wasn’t getting a whole lot of help from the guards, and there were some fundamental things. Mike has played pretty well. Last game he didn’t have his best game, but it was a tough environment and particularly tough on the way things happened at times. I think it snowballed. He had one bad snap, and then he had another on but not ever snap was bad. Mike is a good player and a good athlete, and he’s working hard to do better this week.”
In dealing with the players after a loss at USF, what steps does a coach take to get the team back in the right frame of mind.
“All the fans are worried about ‘what’s their mind set, what’s their mood, they weren’t thinking right’. Listen, once the game is kicked off-as coaches we try to use psychological ploys to get them prepared not to get them through the game. Obviously, if you win you have more confidence and if you lose, you have less confidence. Outside of that, all of the psychological babble is just that. On Sunday, we had a long day. We had a long meeting, a long practice, and it wasn’t very enjoyable for a lot of folks. It wasn’t enjoyable for me, but yesterday we had a day of game-planning, and today, we will have regular Tuesday practice that we’ve had so far this season, and we will get ready to play a game at noon on Saturday. We aren’t used to losing a lot of games around here. Evidently a lot of other people aren’t either-that’s ok. I’m not going to jump ship or jump off my players’ ships either. I’m not going to discard them. I’d rather have my guys than anyone right now.”
WVU has some rhythm with Brown, do you think he’ll play a little more and is he ready”
“He played plenty. They will play as much as they are prepared and ready to play, as long as they are productive. He essentially played as much as any of the wide-outs out there. He did a nice job. He did a few nice things and a few things that weren’t so nice. There wasn’t anyone on offense that played championship football in that game.”
Interceptions: Were they all just bad decisions?
“Yes, some were bad decisions and others were just good plays. Interceptions happen usually because of a poor decision and sometimes they can happen because of poor technique or fundamentals of throwing. We had one interception where Pat got hit as he threw and that caused that one. There was one that was a bad decision; there was a fumble that was screwed up from the exchange and the snap, there were two, because they put the hand on the ball but even then if they make a good play and get a hand on the ball, we should be covering it and holding it high and tight so we don’t fumble. Why they all seemed to happen in one game, I don’t know. That just bad luck, or whatever you want to call it.”
Defensively, SU uses a lot of pressure packages. Are they continuing to do that?
“They are mixing it up a little bit. They are not a heavy blitz team, but they are not anti-blitz either. If they can stop you using some base defense and just crowd the box, I think they will do that a little bit. They will change their coverage. What they have done this year, and what we have seen is that they have gone from an even front traditional defense to an odd stack which is very similar to what we see, and our defense. That odd stack defense they have used more and more, and not just in passing situations. Fortunately for us, we see that defense everyday in practice. We really have to be prepared for two kinds of defenses; the even front and the odd stack defense which is something they have been doing more this year.”
The quarterback hasn’t had any interceptions.
“He has been pretty smart with the ball for a first-time starter. I have been impressed on how he has zero negative yard plays, and he has gotten rid of the football whether he is dumping it off or throwing it away. One thing we will expect and probably will see are a lot of deep balls thrown down the field. They have thrown numerous deep balls down the field and not just in the big plays. You will get a one-on-one match-up, and they will check right away to a deep ball. Because of Smith and Williams and the type of players they are, it makes sense.”
You have been against Greg Robinson’s defense twice now. The first time you didn’t get a touchdown and last time you scored pretty much every time you wanted to. I realize that there were personnel differences in the two but did they do anything differently?
“We executed better last year. We had three or four really long ones in last year’s game, where we had some great down-field blocking. Pat and Steve sometimes had a crease and that was a big difference. We didn’t really break any long runs in the game two years ago. Last year we had a couple of long runs from Pat and Steve at key times.”
Syracuse has said the key for them is to minimize key plays.
“Syracuse was pretty solid defensively except for a couple of those big plays, which of course you have to count. For us, that was the different between two years ago and last year. And for us and our offense, if you have a couple explosive players they will create opportunities for you. With Steve or Pat or Noel or Darius, whoever we have, I think we have the means to make those big plays and not to turn the ball over”
On Reed Williams …
“Reed has been very consistent. He’s a smart player, he recognizes things very well and he’s been a big help. Keilen Dykes at the nose tackle position has made Reed a better middle linebacker. Keilen has done a lot of things up front to allow Reed some freedom. Our defense and the way its structured, the middle linebacker has a little bit of freedom from sideline to sideline to make plays, and we rely on that. Reed has been playing so well, we don’t want to take him out.”
WVU is going on the road again. Does traveling wear on you or on the team at all? Is it frustrating?
“I would like to have more home games in October, and we don’t have any conference games in October. That’s when weather is half way decent and your fans aren’t as occupied with hunting season. I think most coaches will tell you that they’d rather play more home games in October than November just for weather reasons. The schedule was made up a long time ago so we knew what it was. It’s not like the old days when a road trip was 12-14 hours on the bus; that would wear you out. Now we fly in and fly out so it’s pretty nice.”
How difficult is the Carrier Dome to play in?
“It is probably one of the most unique, different atmospheres to play in. Even more than the Super Dome or the Georgia Dome because it’s a smaller, confined area. It is different and for our players that haven’t played there, we’ll probably take half of a practice this week and go inside to our indoor practice facility because it is a different environment. The crowd noise is very loud and it is different but once you get the game started it’s not bad. Most of guys have played there before. The freshmen haven’t, of course but you don’t have to worry about the weather. The flat field isn’t a big deal. The confinement is the big thing.”
You have had 17 sacks within five games. Do you have a perfect number in your head?
“I think that’s more than last year at this point. We’ve been doing a good job getting some pressure. We have a few new blitz schemes put in and our guys have done a good job. I think its going to be a big key in this game-can we put pressure on the quarterback. It was mentioned early that he hasn’t thrown a lot of picks or taken a lot of sacks and part of that is trying to get pressure to him. You then have to ask yourself do I give pressure and leave myself one on one with the wide-outs, who I think are the strength of the team? We have to play that balancing act. We don’t want to give up a big play but you can’t let the quarterback sit back and get comfortable.”
A lot of guys on your roster are ex-high school quarterbacks. Is that because high school puts their best player at quarterback?
“You’ll see in most high schools that one of their better athletes plays the quarterback position. Now with the number of spread teams, the team is going to put their best player at quarterback. One of your best athletes in high school should be touching the ball on every play. Sanders played quarterback, Mortty played quarterback, Hogan played quarterback. That’s the easiest way to evaluate and athlete while recruiting. You can see athletic ability in a quarterback easier than you can a wide receiver who may get the ball on three plays.”
Is the nose position one position where Dykes’ work goes a little bit unnoticed?
“Sometimes his job is to hold the point and occupy two blockers. Not that you can’t make plays, Keilen has, but if you are a very good nose guard you’re not going to get single blocked, you’re going to get double blocked by a guard on either side. He played a lot more than we wanted him to. Our defense only had 56 plays in that game and I think he played all 56 or close to it.”
Half of the Top 10 teams lost last week. Is that a credit to the amount of parity there is in college football?
“I think it has been parity. There is a lot of luck involved in winning all of your games; unfortunately we haven’t been able to do that. I told the team that there will not be a lot of teams finishing undefeated. I don’t know, there may be and if there are they will have a couple of close calls before it’s all over.
Offensively and Defensively; what’s the difference between a four or five yard gain, and a forty or forty-five yard gain?
“Sometimes it’s a missed tackle, sometimes it’s a safety or linebacker. Sometimes it’s an explosive player or a player that makes a miss or who has a bad angle. Sometimes everything just matches up right; execution was there. It was the right play against the right defense and it all matches up right. It’s a lot of variables.”
There are three undefeated teams in the league with Cincinnati, USF and Connecticut are also 1,2 and 3 in turnover margin. In your last three losses, you’ve had 13 turnovers. Why is the turnover so important?
“Not only is the change of momentum, but the change in field position is critical. There are other things coaches will tell you offensively when you have good field position as opposed to being backed up. There are so many things that are safer to do. Defensively you are more at risk when you are backed up, you have to blitz a little more and put more pressure and that leads to big plays. Turnovers and negative yards are two things that we stress more than anything offensively that we cannot have. The games that we’ve lost over the years are the games were we’ve been bad in both of those categories, turnovers and negative yards placed.”