Ole Miss Football Media Day Transcript

August 10, 1998

Ole Miss Rebel Football Media Day August 10, 1998

Head Coach Tommy Tuberville Opening Remarks

Well it's good to see you all back. We appreciate you coming. We are looking forward to another miracle season. We started today with our varsity. I feel real good about our conditioning. This is the first time we have been close to 100 percent, not quite 100 percent on their conditioning test, but they did quite well.

It was fun to see a bunch of new faces come in with our freshman and junior college players who showed a lot of enthusiasm. This will be an interesting year. Don't know much about this group with the exception of those who played last year. We will have our ups and downs. The thing we talked about this morning as a team was to get better every day, try to eliminate as many mistakes as possible, not just in the game but in practice, because we have a chance to be pretty good if we put it all together.

Again, you need to get the chemistry right. The personality of your team has to come together through two-a-days, and that is yet to be seen, but I think we have the talent to be a good football team. We have to put it together, hopefully things fall in place and we don't have a lot of injuries. I'm looking forward to it, and our coaching staff is looking forward to it. We haven't gotten to the finish line on this probation, but I feel like this could be our last year of struggling with numbers or experience. We are back to almost 70 on scholarship, and that doesn't sound like a lot but it is. We are actually going to have a full locker room this year and that's going to be fun to see. If we can make it through this year, I think we have tricked a few people into getting a little bit better than what they thought we'd be.

We are looking forward to it, we are looking forward to the stadium expansion being completed, a lot of people say it won't be, but we have been assured that we will be able to use it our first game. I know our players are looking forward to it creating a little more excitement in the stadium with all the fans that will be able to be there.

Tuberville Q&A

Q: Coach, talk a little about Romaro (Miller) and his progress.

A: Romaro made tremendous progress through the bowl last year and spring practice. He has come back in great shape, and has been throwing the ball on campus over the past month to our receivers and backs. I think he has gained a lot of confidence, but I think he is going to have to gain a lot more. The players believe in him. The thing that we have to do is take it one step at a time, and make sure he understands everything that he is doing and make sure he is able to execute all those things before we move on to the next thing. We might have half of our offense before the first game, or we might have it all in. We just have to wait and see how much he can handle during two-a-days and how much the players believe in what he can do. Everybody has to help each other, he's not the only guy we have to get ready to play with. He is a big part of the offense and he will create the personality of the offense. We will have to wait on how he handles the two-a-days, his first as a starter.

Q: Can you talk about the offensive line, specifically about Terrence Metcalf?

A: This is going to be one of our better lines. We are still not there yet. We lost a couple of starters that are going to be hard to replace. We have good talent, we have some height, we will probably average 300 on the offensive line for is the first time. I think we are going to block a lot of people. I think how well they come together is going to be a big key to Romaro's success. Fortunately for us, we will have guys like Matt Luke, who is our true senior leader that will anchor our offensive line, along with Terrence Metcalf, who had a tremendous freshman season, but still has a lot to learn. Metcalf made some improvements in the off-season. Then you bring in Keydrick Vincent, a young man who started a couple of games for us last year and played quite a bit. He has lost around 30 pounds since spring practice. He will play at our right guard spot. Tutan Reyes is going to be our left tackle, and he also has a lot of ability to play tight end. He is going to be our left offensive tackle until he proves that he can't. That is a very important position because we have a right-handed quarterback. Todd Wade is back in the best shape he has ever been in, and then we have some young guys behind them. We have a talented offensive line, and we have backups that we feel good about for the first time. I think the offensive line is going to be a big key to the success of the football team.

Q: Most people, including yourself, thought that Romaro would get more playing time last season, which is one of the few things that didn't happen. Talk about what experience he did get on the field, what you expect from that, and what you saw from his performance.

A: The thing we did with Romaro was not to give him a definite time during the game where he would go in. I didn't want to tell him, "O.K. you're going to go in the first series," because he would have time to think about it. So what I did was tell him in a minute before he was about to go in the ball game so he wouldn't have to think about it and just go out and execute. He made some good decisions and some bad ones. Looking back at the Tulane game he made a bad mistake on an out-route that he threw to for a interception. But he made some good decisions, he made some good checks on the line of scrimmage. He still had a long way to go at that time. I think the big key for Romaro is that he had a chance to work with the first-team offense for 15 bowl practices before our bowl game last year. That gave him a chance to really be a sophomore going into spring practice last year. He has a lot to learn, he has a lot of ability and loves to play quarterback. He believes that he is a great quarterback and that is what it's going to take to be one.

Q: Besides game experience wasn't Romaro treated as the regular quarterback in practice and everything else.

A: The reason we didn't redshirt him was not because we were 100 percent sure he was going to play and beat out Stewart Patridge. I thought he had a chance to beat out Stewart during the year. The main reason that we played him at second team and decided not to redshirt him was so he could get all the snaps in practice along with the first team quarterback. He took as many snaps in practice as Stewart did during the week. He learned the game plan. He learned what was going on, and he wasn't on the sideline just guessing. We did that for a reason and hopefully it will pay off for us.

Q: Do you have a date in mind when you want to name a No. 2 quarterback?

A: We have some big decisions. We have several quarterbacks who we have been looking at, scholarship and walk-on. We will make a decision within a week on who will be our top three. Then, around the time school starts, we want that to be set for at least a week and a half of practice. We've had some bright spots at the quarterback position during the freshmen days and there could be some movement for some of those guys to other positions in the near future because of the numbers we have there.

Q: What about the linebacker position, the guys we lost, and the guys we have coming in?

A: The linebacker position is a big question mark. Armegis Spearman and Al Rice are really the two true guys who have been here the whole time. Both still have a lot to get better at to actually say that they are veteran starters. At least they have been in the wars before. They have the talent. Walt Hill had a good spring. We moved him from safety to play linebacker. Going through these two-a-day practices, looking at guys like Eddie Strong, who had an excellent last two days and has learned a lot about what's going. He'll have a chance to play. We signed a young man, Dexter Hines from Brownsville, Tenn., who has had a good two days of practice. He will give us some help at that position. We have another guy who will be on campus soon, Shawn Johnson, who we signed and are waiting on his transcripts to be cleared by our University so he can be on campus. We have some names, we have some young men who will be able to play. We are going to be a better team at the end of the year than at the beginning. We just hope that they don't make too many mistakes to a point that we can't recover.

Q: You didn't mention Ronnie Heard. Is he still at linebacker?

A: Ronnie is still at linebacker. He still has a lot to learn. We will make a decision on him in six to seven practice days whether he will stay there. It depends on the younger guys coming up and on how he plays. I don't want Ronnie to be a back-up linebacker. I want him to be a starting linebacker. If he is not a starting linebacker, he will back at safety where he has been the last two years.

Q: Last year your seniors carried you through the season. Are you concerned about returning only five seniors this year?

A: That's a big concern of mine because your team's personality is primarily made up from your seniors. Last year, we had a hard-working group, who were really dedicated to getting us to a bowl game which was one of our goals. We talked about it every day, but now we don't have as many seniors to do that. I do know these five will be vocal. I think that they are a good group, but they are going to have to have some help from the juniors, sophomores and even freshmen. I told the freshmen this morning that I expect them to be leaders because some of them are going to have the opportunity to play. If they can earn the respect of the older players by the efforts on the field and how they play in practice, then I don't think that there is any reason why they can't be leaders. I'm concerned about our leadership. That is something that we will have to develop the next two weeks. That will determine how successful we are going to be this year.

Q: Have you ever coached a team that has had only five seniors?

A: I don't think there has been a team in the country with just five seniors. One of those is from the previous staff. That's very unusual. We normally have more of that. The rest of the guys we either didn't redshirt or they were junior college transfers. It's just one of those years. We could play better this year than we did last year. It's yet to been seen. It will depend on the young players and the senior leadership.

Q: Do you like playing night games?

A: I like playing games early at night because of the weather but television dictates that and that's fine. We are getting a lot of respect from you guys and the rest of the media which is good. Our players really enjoy (playing on television), but your depth really shows (in day games). This is the first time we have to play six straight games. We don't have an open date. In the past, we've had an open date before the third game, and it was welcomed. We are not going to have a lot of experience or a lot of depth. We will have a little more than we have had in the past, so we might be able to handle it a little bit better, but I am concerned about the depth and the heat of the first six games.

Q: How much more important is conditioning if you are going to be playing at one or two in the afternoon?

A: We may not win a lot of games here, but we will be in shape. That's one of my pet peeves. We will do everything possible to win games in the fourth quarter. We won four or five last year. I truly believe that the team that is in the best condition will win most of the games if you have close to or equal talent. We will be a team that is in good shape whether we are talented or not.

Q: You referred to last year as a miracle season. Is that what you saw last year as and how is this year's progress compared to last year?

A: We are ahead of last year. We had guys who played above and beyond of what we and they thought they could at times. We had the ball bounce our way, we took chances, and fortunately they worked. That's just how the season went. We are still going to be an aggressive football team that takes chances. We are now closer to the point where players can take care a little more on the field instead of taking those chances. It's hard to explain that. I like to be a team that is very unpredictable, but we have had to take more chances last year than I would have liked. It has helped, but whether it will help us this year, I don't know.

Q: You haven't had a change in the coaching staff so far. How important is that to this program's continuity?

A: I think it is a major key personality-wise and for coaches to get along together. We don't have a lot of egos on the staff. They all work well together, they do things together and the main thing is that they understand each other. We talk together as a staff every year before the season. One of the things that I am a big believer in is everybody coaches everybody. We don't have a defensive line coach that has 10 players. I want the quarterback coach to be as much a coach of those guys in certain situations. If he sees that they are not doing something right or not giving the effort, then we are all in it together. I think that helps us understand each other. We haven't had to have a lot of prep for this season because we know what we want to do and where we want to go. Everybody's goals are the same. It's been a fun group of guys.

Q: Can you talk about the kicking game?

A: Kicking game....I don't know. That's a good question. We lost Steve Lindsey who had a very strong leg last year. He wasn't very consistent, but he got the job done especially on kickoffs. Most of our kickoffs went in or out of the end zone. We are searching for a kickoff person. We are searching for a guy who is going to be consistent within 30 yards. We had a young man who transferred in from a junior college, Carlisle McGee. He's got a lot of desire and a lot of leg. He just has to be consistent. One thing you can do is find out in practice is if a guy can kick under pressure. We put them under a lot of pressure in practice. There will be a lot of competition for that position in practice as well as at our punting position, where Ben Craddock and Reagan King will compete. We had a young man from Oxford High School who is one of the best deep snappers I've ever seen coming out of high school in A.J. Kiamie. He will give Bobby Killion a run for his money. There will be a lot of competition. We will have to play some of these junior-college players plus some of the freshmen this year on special teams, coverage teams and protection teams. It will be fun the next two weeks to see who will be on our special teams.

Q: One of your seniors Gary Thigpen is a walk-on. What does he mean to team leadership and what does he mean to your secondary?

A: He has meant a lot to this football team. We didn't have a lot of depth or defensive backs when we got here. I did not know Gary's name until the first two-a-days when he was here. Hard worker, dedicated, turned into a tremendous defensive back mainly though hard work. He is a role model for this team not because he's had to play, but because of the things he has carried on and off the field to our younger players. I glad that he is one of our seniors. I couldn't pick two better seniors: one for offense in Matt Luke who went through a tough year with injuries and played, and really turned our offense around as a center which is difficult to do, and in Gary Thigpen coming from where nobody really knew who he was to be our leader on defense. It going to be a fun year watching those two lead the team.

Q: You said this summer that if everything went as expected, we would have a great team next year. How do you balance that with the expectations the fans have from last year?

A: Everyone is expecting that we will win eight, nine or 10 ball games. That's unrealistic with what we are looking at. We don't have the experience, we don't have the depth, but the great thing about having a young team is that they don't know how good of a team they can be. You can put them through things that you can't with experienced teams. You can put them through more punishment or conditioning. I think this team can absorb more coaching then maybe an experienced team can. I think we will be better every week if we can just keep our confidence up because they'll work. This a group that, after seeing the young and old guys, this is a team that will work every day in practice and get better. If good things will happen to them, we can win those games. We are not a top 20 team right now. We are probably a top 50 team. We could be a top 20 by the end of the season and that is were it counts.

Q: Some people think this is a rebuilding year.

A: This is not a rebuilding year. I want to be better next week. If we are and we continue to keep going, then we will be a much better team next year because they will be all back except for five guys. We will have a better team next year. I hope we have a team that will win a lot of games this year and I think we do, if things fall into place. We also need some breaks and if that happens then we will have "Miracle Season Part II." We won't have to have as many breaks next year.

Q: Can you talk a little about Mitch Baker?

A: Mitch Baker is a lot like Devon Coburn. Coburn came in and added a little more depth. Devon could play defensive line and offensive line. We needed him a little more on the offensive line. That's when a head coach has to step in and make a decision that the assistant coaches don't like. I feel at this present time that Mitch could help us more on the offensive line, and his future is more on the offensive line if he has intentions to go play at the next level. It's not to say that in a week he will move back to the defensive line if we have injuries. Right now I think that he could better suit this team on the offensive line, depending on his work ethic, what he can get done over there, how much he can learn, and how much our younger guys can do on the defensive line. Its just one of those things that you have to take a chance and look and see. Devon Coburn did not want to move when we ask him two years ago and now he has a chance to make the squad for the Detroit Lions and have a future playing at that position. So sometimes you have to make a decision that some people might question, but I think this is one that will work out to our advantage. He'll probably start out at guard. We'll look at younger guys and see how they fit in to determine how he will fit in. He's older. I think he can pick it up better, and a lot easier, so he could end up at any of the three line positions.

Q: How about the defensive front?

A. I feel good about our defensive front with our young guys coming in. We have Tyler Williams and Kendrick Clancy. Comone Fisher has come back in the best shape he's been in, as well as Michael Boone and then you take Antionne Scott who we moved over in the spring. We have some athletes on the defensive front. They just don't know what they are doing yet. We felt like there was too much depth at that position. Thank goodness we are finally able to say that because we haven't had that over the past two years. If we stay healthy, that will enable us to move Mitch Baker to offensive line and be able to stay there. Right now, it is just experimental. We will just have to wait and see over the next seven or eight days how it works out.

Q: Did the loss of Joey Embry add to moving Mitch?

A: A little bit. The loss of Joey Embry was a situation where we thought he was going to come in with a chance of being a starter and play either position, but we probably would have moved Mitch anyway just to give us a chance to work the younger guys on the defensive line.

Q: Are you still looking at playing two backs?

A: We will still play two backs, but right now we are trying to find who our one back is. There will be some good competition from Tony Cannion, who is the probable starting running back going into two-a-days. We also return Deuce McAllister who had a solid freshman season. Joe Gunn had a good spring but needs to improve and come back in better shape than he was this time last year. We also have Charles Stackhouse, and we are waiting on Toward Sanford to clear the clearinghouse. We have some numbers, we just need to find out the right combination.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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