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The University of Mississippi Athletics
David Cutcliffe's Weekly Press Conference
9/11/2000 | Football
Sept. 11, 2000
Opening Remarks
It is good to get back to work after a tough loss. I think our team will look forward to getting back on the practice field. We competed hard in the last football game, but we didn't compete as smart as we would like and didn't play as consistently as well as we would like. In the fourth quarter, the field position flipped, and we weren't able to overcome that.
We are still learning a lot about ourselves. We have a lot of getting better to do, as all teams do this time of year. I am anxious to get back on the practice field with our team to see how we respond. We've got to get better quickly. We're jumping right back into conference play on the road against a very good Vanderbilt football team. They're obviously very hungry also. We have our work cut out for us, and we have no choice but to go back to work and get better.
Q. Talk about Ken Lucas' injury situation.
A. Ken Lucas will be on the practice field today. He's like a lot of other players who, after two consecutive games, get bruised a little bit. Doug Zeigler is a little limited still. Shawn Johnson will be limited to a point. It is still day-to-day with Eddie Strong. Ben Claxton is still out at this time. As I have said all along, that (dealing with injuries) is a part of becoming a good football team, regardless of who you have available. People have to step up and play well.
Q. What are the injuries on Doug Zeigler and Shawn Johnson?
A. Both players suffered leg injuries.
Q. Talk about Anthony Magee and the Chucky Mullins Award.
A. Anthony Magee is an outstanding young man. He is an outstanding football player. He's been a playmaker ever since he's been here. He is the epitome of the team attitude, and a really outstanding young man. I am really proud that he wears No. 38 because I think he is the epitome of what that award winner should be.
Q. Talk about Vanderbilt's defense.
A. They really have the same basic people as they did a year ago. They always have an outstanding defense. Vanderbilt is very multiple, and they do a lot of things. They show you a lot of looks, a lot of different coverage looks, a lot of different pressure looks. They are a very aggressive defensive football team. Certainly, they will be glad to see Jamie Winborn and Jimmy Williams back. They make a significance difference. Jamie Winborn has been the leading tackler in the Southeastern Conference ever since he's been in the league. Jimmy Williams is an outstanding athlete and cover corner. They played well with out them, and they'll play better with them, no question.
Q. Did watching film make a difference from what you thought during Saturday night's press conference?
A. Not necessarily. I think the inconsistency I saw was true inconsistency. We made plays in the kicking game, but then we gave up plays. We made plays on offense, but then we made poor plays on offense. The same is true on defense. Part of that Auburn had something to do with it. They were making plays, too. They're a good football team. I was pleased to see that I thought we fought hard in the fourth quarter. We really didn't let down from an effort standpoint. We've got to play smarter. We need to do a lot of little things better to be successful. We're showing flashes of becoming a consistent football team on both sides of the ball. We have to overcome a few things here and there. We'll get a lot better. We have to see that opportunity and believe that as a team.
Q. Talk about Romaro Miller's mechanics.
A. He got pressured and when you get off-balanced, you press, and he also had a little slight injury to his hand. I think it probably affected his throwing. I didn't know about it until after the game that it was bothering him. I don't think he knew it was bothering him as much as it was. When you get pressured, you have to work hard on your fundamentals. He played really well (Saturday). He made some great decisions and played like a senior quarterback in a lot of areas that you don't see, such as making decisions at the line of scrimmage. He just had the bad turnovers. As I said after the game, it's part of playing quarterback. Not everybody in the stadium knows when the defensive tackle or offensive guard doesn't play well. When the quarterback makes a bad play, everybody in the stadium knows, so you have to be tough mentally to handle that and he will be.
Q. Talk about Vanderbilt's Jamie Winborn.
A. Jamie Winborn is just an outstanding player. He's hard to block, and he's hard to keep away from the football. Anybody who makes as many tackles as he makes in a season is a consistent football player. When a guy is playing linebacker, you're not double-teaming him with the interior lineman like you could possibly do with a defensive lineman. He's a guy they move around and do a lot of things with. He's a force to reckon with. He was a difference in our game a year ago. I thought he made a lot of plays a year ago against us.
Q. Talk about Charlie Perkins.
A. Charlie did a good job. Charlie competed hard and was consistent with his snap, getting it up there. He was consistent with what to do and responded like you would like to see a senior respond in that situation. He played really hard, and he'll get better with every snap as he plays.
Q. Talk about Vanderbilt's quarterback Greg Zolman.
A. I thought Zolman played tremendous against us a year ago. He is very active, mobile and a good athlete. He has a good group people around him, and he has a good knowledge of what they are doing. He is a very consistent player at quarterback. He's a guy you certainly better take into account that he is going to make plays. He is a player who can operate their offense well.
Q. Do you want to see Romaro Miller keep the ball and run more?
A. I don't think he really had much of an opportunity to run the football. They (Auburn) contained him in the pocket pretty well. There are some things that we do with him where he can run. He's a good athlete and he has great mobility, but running the football is not something we're going to do a lot with our quarterbacks.
Q. Did the 87-yard punt return gas Deuce?
A. I think it got him for a little while. It always does. When you are getting hit running between the tackles, it's like a boxer getting body punches. Those hits take it out of you. When you make those long runs later in the game, it always takes a little while to recover from it. He's doing a lot of things for us, and he's in great condition. I think he would tell you he's in the best condition of his life. He needs to be because he is going to continue to do a lot of things for us. But, it took him a little while to get his "jets" so to speak after that.
Q. How do you think the attitude of the team is in the aftermath of the last two games?
A. I think their attitude is good. I expect it to be nothing other than that. We've got nine regular-season football games left to play. I certainly have high expectations of our team. The way you play this game is one game at a time. Our focus is on Vanderbilt and preparing for Vanderbilt. We have no choice but to be as prepared as we can possibly be. The only way you can do that is go about having a great attitude on Monday. That's when your work-week starts as a player, so I expect them to have a very upbeat, outstanding attitude. We met with them this morning to review game tape, and I didn't see anything that would make me feel different.
Q. How concerned are you with the Ole Miss defense?
A. We're concerned, like I said, with every phase of our game being inconsistent. We are still learning a lot about ourselves. You'd like to have more depth, but we are who we are, and we'll be fine. We have to keep competing and try to be smart, and try to put people in the best position they can to make plays.
Q. Can you talk about Eddie Strong's injury and where he might be?
A. I've tried to explain this the best I can to everybody, while not sounding mysterious. His injury, when you have that severe of a bruise, can worsen if you go out there too quickly. He is in treatment, and he's getting better. Until he's to a point to where he's pain free, we're not going to create a bigger problem. You can't put him back on the field, so you just test him on a day-to-day basis to see where he is and if the pain may be gone. We have every kind of test, everything you can do. The indications are he's continuing to heal and get better but I don't want something to occur to create a fracture or create a bigger problem. We have to be smart. I don't know when it may happen, but it could happen that he plays this week. We'll judge that on a day-to-day basis.
Q. Would he have to practice this week to play?
A. Well, I would like him to. He hasn't played in quite some time. He needs some practice work. He needs to understand the game plan, what we're doing, the speed of the game and all those things. He needs conditioning work, and you got get a guy ready. We'll take a look, but probably the earliest we would go with him would be Tuesday as far as full practice. That's the point I want the trainer to get him to--where he thinks once he's out there, he's full go. He may get injured again, but he's going to injure something else, and not re-aggravate this injury because we put him out there too soon.
Q. Talk about the Vanderbilt football team, physically.
A. It's about the same team as a year ago. They are, obviously, more mature and more experienced. They are bigger and stronger. They are very much a faster team, and that's what Vanderbilt has done. They have improved their team speed. I've been playing against them a lot of years. They've done a good job recruiting people who can run. They've got a lot of playmakers. They are obviously throwing the ball much better than four or five years ago. They are much more productive on offense, and they have played outstanding defense ever since Widenhofer has been there. Their offense is so much more productive because of their talent and speed and because of a lot of things they're doing well.
Q. Talk about Deuce McAllister's performance.
A. He ran the ball well. There are not many teams in the country that have a guy who can do everything Deuce can do--in returning kicks, catching the football and all of those things. He ran the football real well. I don't think he's affected running the football by the other things he's doing. You can sit there and try to measure it, but you're not going to take him out of a situation where he could help break a game open. If he's tired and can't play tailback, I have 100 percent confidence in Joe Gunn and Robert Williams to go in and play tailback.
Q. Can you talk about the pressure of the Ole Miss defense?
A. We did a pretty good job for the most part in pressuring (Auburn quarterback Ben) Leard. We got in his face, and made him move right or left where he had a lot of errant throws in the game. This could be attributed to the defensive front. We knew going in that we're somewhat limited in experience and size. Again, our ends set the tempo, particularly Derrick Burgess. Anthony Sims played a lot of football and played well. We've got other people continuing to get better. We will get better as we keep playing more people. Josh Cooper and Charlie Anderson have a chance to grow and play a little more at defensive end. Our young guys at tackle--Kenny Jackson, Jesse Mitchell and Yahrek Johnson-are going to get more snaps. We're just going to have keep competing and playing there, but we have done positive things. Obviously, we gave up more rushing yards than you would like, but that is not just attributed to the defensive front. The linebacker and secondary need to help in that area also.
Q. Talk about the penalties.
A. We've addressed our penalties in general and we will continue to address that. We can't afford to be a football team that gives our opponents yards (on penalties). We had six penalties in this game and seven in the first game. I'd like to have none. I am a realist, realizing that there are going to be mistakes made, and that's what those guys in stripes shirts are out there to show us. Certain times, there are effort mistakes, but we can't have a mental breakdown and a penalty that becomes useless. We'll address that.
Q. Talk about the receivers.
A. We need to get our new guys in the mix. We've got some youth there, but first thing they've got to do is run in practice better and more consistently. When they do, you will see the lights come on that they're ready. We have some ability and we need to get some firepower out of them. I think that those guys will be ready to move in that direction. They've got to understand that they have to run complementary routes, they've got to block, they've got do every part of their game equally well, even when a ball may or may not come their way. I see improvement with our young receivers.
