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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss Head Football Coach David Cutcliffe Music City Bowl Press Conference
12/8/2000 | Football
Dec. 8, 2000
Ole Miss Head Football Coach David Cutcliffe
Music City Bowl Press Conference
Opening Comments
It's a privilege to play a program and a team like West Virginia. I have a great respect for (head coach) Don Nehlen and what he has done in his career. I am familiar with him and his coaching philosophies. They are going to be a physical football team on both sides of the ball. They play extremely hard. It will be an emotional setting (at the Music City Bowl) with it being Coach Nehlen's last game. As I said earlier, all the coaches in the country have a great amount of respect for what he has done throughout his career. We respect not only for the coach he is, but also for the man he is.
We are going to get some work in before the players begin finals next week. We have a chance to be a healthier football team than we've been in some time-maybe even since the beginning of the season. We're going to have to have some intense work in practice, and hopefully we stay healthy through those physical practices. After finals, we'll resume practice on December 18, and we'll practice in Oxford through December 23. We'll then met again in Nashville on December 25 and resume our practice schedule there.
All of our coaches have been out on the road recruiting, so we don't know a lot of the particulars about West Virginia yet. We've done some tape work done on West Virginia. We'll look at some more tape this weekend, and then we'll break for finals and allows the players to finish their schoolwork. We'll look forward to getting started on December 18.
Q: What are your concerns about the layoff (time between regular season finale and bowl game)?
A: I'm not so concerned about our conditioning because we've been doing some conditioning and lifting. You do lose a little crispness and timing, so we're going to have to get some full-speed work in and we will. I believe when we get back on December 18 that we'll have enough time to get our rhythm back. It's a long time between games, but it's always that way with a bowl game. You just have to have great focus from the players and the staff. Once we start, we'll be focused. This year is a little different from the past couple of seasons when we practiced during the day and went out recruiting at night. We have a new calendar this year, so this time is a dead period from a recruiting standpoint. We can totally focus on the bowl game.
Q: Is the good side of the layoff is that the players are healthy and fresh?
A: The players are fresh mentally and are certainly fresh physically. We were a beat-up football team three-quarters of the season. We will be healthier, and we'll have fresh legs. We're looking forward to getting back on the practice field this afternoon. We'll have short practices before the final exams, but it will allow us to get the kinks out.
Q: Talk about Grant Heard and his comeback from his injury.
A: Like most players coming off a severe knee injury, Grant had to feel his way back into it. He had been involved in scrimmages and live contact in practice, but that's never the same as a game. It took him a little time to regain his confidence completely. Grant got better and better as the season went on. He finished very strong for us. He had an outstanding senior year. I'm really proud of what he accomplished. The most important thing that Grant did this year was that he practiced like he intended to play. His intensity and practice habits improved greatly. I think we all saw that paid off on the field.
Q: How much difference does Grant make in your passing attack?
A: (Ole Miss quarterback) Romaro (Miller) is very confident in Grant. Grant is able to get himself open, and he has better speed than what many think he has. He certainly has good size. Grant is a player who can get in position whether it's man or zone coverage. It's nice to have a player with his experience, and a player you can believe in. He certainly has had an impact in our passing game.
Q: Compare and contrast what you've seen so far between the two teams.
A: I don't know if I can give you a really fair answer because I've been on the road recruiting. I have not seen any tape on West Virginia to this point. However, I do know a little about Don Nehlen's teams through the years. We're probably more similar than you'd think. We both believe in running the football, but we will throw it and can throw the ball effectively. Both squads have aggressive defensive teams that will play hard and will hit hard. You are going to see two similar teams on the field.
Q: Do you have any history with Coach Nehlen?
A: We don't have any history of any significance other than in the recruiting trails. Through the years, I've run into Coach Nehlen quite often. I've known many members of his staff and have recruited against them. I know that he is a man of integrity, and he does things right and he has for a long time. It's good to see people like him who have integrity and believe in doing it the right way and have the kind of career he's had.
Q: Talk about the season Deuce McAllister has had.
A: He's had an outstanding year when you consider with what he has had to deal with. He suffered some injuries that would have kept other players out an extended period of time. Early in the year, he had a shoulder injury (vs. Vanderbilt), and that kept him out all but two quarters of the next three games. We weren't able to use him like we normally would. He suffered an ankle injury early in the Alabama game, and missed the rest of that contest. It would him awhile to get back from that, and he's also had some other nagging injuries. But, in the midst of all that, he did some phenomenal things for us. He had some games where he made the difference for us. He's a great punt returner, a great kickoff returner and an outstanding tailback. He can line up at wide receiver. He's a big guy who possesses great speed. He's healthier now than he has been all year long. He's a player who can have an impact on the game every time he touches the ball.
Q: How much did McAllister's injuries hamper the Ole Miss offense?
A: It's not fair to say that our team shut down when he was out of the lineup. However, it is hard to absorb the loss of a player the caliber of Deuce. We have other good players at his position, and we have other things we can do. So, we were not totally dependent upon Deuce, but he is not an average player by any means. When you lose a player like Deuce for that amount of time, it affects us. He also missed a lot of practice time as well. It just wasn't his injuries alone that hurt us. We had a year where we had several key injuries. It got to the point where we were losing somebody on a weekly basis. The practice time those players lost affected our team more than anything else.
Q: Talk about football in Mississippi and the SEC.
A: The state of Mississippi has outstanding talent at the high school level. We also have an outstanding junior college football league. After learning the state since I've been at Ole Miss, I've found out there are a lot of communities where football is still extremely important. On Friday nights, everybody in those towns are in the football stadiums. It's a big deal to play football here. We have 67 in-state players on our team. That's our bread-and-butter, and there's no question about that. We have great crowds at our games, and football is a way of life. The Southeastern Conference has been a power league for a long time. From an attendance standpoint, the SEC is number one in college football, so we're playing in front of full stadium everywhere we play. I can't remember a game this year that we did not play in front of a packed stadium. There's great intensity surrounding the game. I've just completed my 19th year in the Southeastern Conference and I love the competition. I like shooting at whoever is out there, and there have been different teams leading the way at different times. Our tradition at Ole Miss is outstanding. We've had great football dating back to the beginning of the Southeastern Conference. Football is important to those who love Ole Miss. It's a positive thing, and not frustrating. I look forward to playing every week, and we're competitive. We feel like we can win every time we go on the field. We obviously didn't do that this year. Our players are beginning to believe that, and that's part of the battle in climbing to the upper tier.
Q: Talk about the SEC having nine teams in bowls.
A: It's a great tribute to the entire conference and certainly to the commissioner (Roy Kramer) and the leadership he provides. It's a tribute to the coaches in the league. We have outstanding athletes and outstanding coaches. We do compete and beat each other up quite a bit, but to still have nine teams in the postseason is a tribute to a conference that I have learned to love greatly over the years. It excites me that happened.
Q: Was this year the most balanced the SEC has been?
A: I don't know if I can say ever, but it was the most balanced it's been since I've been coaching in the league. I've also been watching this league for longer than 19 years, and I can't remember the balance we had occurring this season in the conference.
Q: Talk about Romaro Miller making All-SEC second team.
A: Romaro making the Coaches All-SEC second team was great for him. I believe he is very deserving of that honor, especially when you take the entire year he had and what he's meant to the program and what he has done. He's a senior quarterback who has started the last three years and led his teams to three-straight winning seasons and three-straight bowl games. He's the all-time passing leader here. He's had a great career. He's a humble team player. If there ever was an example of a team player, it would be Romaro Miller. I'm going to make him smile about the individual honor. That's great for him and his family. I'm real proud of him.
Q: Is it even more satisfying that it was the coaches team he made?
A: The coaches recognize which players are playing well. They saw how he competes and how he continued to compete and how effective he was for us in so many ways. All those postseason teams are important, but when you are named to the coaches team, that has a great impact, and it does feel good to me that those coaches realized how good Romaro played this season.
Q: With everybody healthy, will we see a more effective offense?
A: We are playing a veteran West Virginia team, and since I haven't looked at a lot of tape, I don't know all the problems we're going to have. I'm sure they are going to present us with quite a few problems. Also, bowl games are unique because preparation is different. You have to see what fits.
Q: Is there any more teaching to do?
A: Not really. We're not trying to do any more. We'll just try to do what we do well. We'll pick and choose some wrinkles that we'll pull out based on the opponent you're playing.
Q: Talk about Ole Miss' defensive effort this season.
A: Coming into the season, we knew we had lost outstanding talent at defensive tackle and also lost some linebackers and secondary people. We were hoping that we would stay healthy, but we didn't do that. We lost our biggest impact player (Eddie Strong) on defense for the season before we got started. The expectations were a little clouded. We had some outstanding games, but we also had some games that we would have liked to play better on both sides of the ball. Our defense will play hard and will be well-prepared. We had some players who had a tremendous year individually. Ken Lucas had as good a year as any defensive back in the country. Ken is a senior corner who will be an outstanding professional. Derrick Burgess, our defensive end, played as well as any defensive lineman in the Southeastern Conference. Personally, I saw no one play as well as he played. We need to still grow, and we have some young players in key positions. We've tried to add some depth. Hopefully, we'll be healthier on defense.
Q: How does the emotion of Nehlen's last game play in the bowl?
A: It will be a very emotional game for them. Their players will rally around them. I know the kind of job their coaches do, and I know their players are going to be very emotional. I've faced that before. I've been in a bowl game where we played Tom Osborne and Nebraska in his last game. It was not a lot of fun. I want our team to understand what we will be facing. West Virginia will play its best football game, and that's what I'm expecting from them.
Q: Do you have to get your team to a certain level to beat that emotion?
A: I think you do. We need to focus on our preparation for the bowl game--and not just focus on the game itself-to play our best. It will be a special game for our seniors. This is a special group of young men who have had an impact on this program. It's their last game, and no chance for another one. It's going to be an outstanding football game with a lot of emotional surrounding it. There will be a lot of intensity surrounding the game. I know our fans will come and we'll have a huge crowd. That will make a significant difference for our team. The emotions of the game are something we'll address in our preparations for the game.
Q: Talk about the Gulf Coast connection.
A: We're proud of our players from all the regions, but certainly from the coast where they play great football. We've got outstanding players from the coast area, and that's a big deal. Our chancellor (Robert Khayat) us from the coast, so I'm sure he would like for us to sign more players from the Gulf Coast. We recruit that area extremely hard. That's a very important region for us in our recruiting.
