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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Head Coach Ed Orgeron's Weekly Press Conference
10/17/2005 | Football
Oct. 17, 2005
Opening Comments
I was proud of our team's attitude last week in preparing for Alabama. I thought we had a great week of preparation. I liked their attitude throughout the game.
Some of the positives that came out the game were the O-line and the way they blocked. Mico McSwain played well. Noel Mazzone started giving him the ball more on the screens and on the inside zone. Obviously he has to learn a little bit more about it but I thought he showed some improvement there.
The time of possession was a big improvement for us on defense. Obviously, Patrick Willis played fantastic football. Our tackling was a lot better. The defensive line play, especially against the run, was a lot better. Overall, the defense played tremendous, and I was really proud to see Michael Bozeman make that play on fourth and one at the beginning of the game. It was a momentum swing for us.
We did not allow any deep balls on our defensive backs, which we were very proud of. On the two sudden changes, when our offense turned the ball over, we only allowed three points. We are really excited about that.
On special teams our kick-off coverage continues to be spectacular and our punt team is doing a very good job.
As a staff, we went and looked at the mistakes we made on the goal line, and we decided we have to get our personnel in quicker and our quarterback has to have a better awareness of the play clock so he can call the time out.
I'm looking forward to another great week of preparation against Kentucky, playing at home and continuing to build our program and take another step.
Q: How do you keep the kids up after playing so hard last Saturday?
A: I don't think it's going to be a problem. We have faced some adversity already this season, and our players know how to act. They know what to expect today, and we are going to practice to continue to get better. Whether we win or lose, we have to practice and prepare for the next week.
Q: What makes Patrick Willis so good?
A: He is really instinctive, he knows exactly where the play is going before the ball snaps. He has a lot of courage, he's quick, he's strong, and he has exactly what we want. He has the mentality we want in a middle linebacker. He studies and works really hard.
Q: You said you guys needed to look at getting the personnel in quicker. Was that a problem you all identified?
A: It was one of the problems. The personnel came in a little bit late, and then obviously Micheal should have called a timeout. We attempted to call timeout from the sidelines, but the referee said he could not hear me. Those are the things we have to practice. We are going to practice that a little bit more and have a little play clock in the end zone and practice it with Micheal.
Q: On that timeout deal could you have ran to the timeout umpire and told him you wanted a timeout?
A: I need to find that out, because if I would have come outside the box, we could have received a penalty.
Q: If you were going to play USC would you have an advantage because you know their personnel so well? There are two coaches on Kentucky's staff that were on the staff here last year, do they have an advantage knowing your personnel?
A: I think you can use that as an advantage sometimes, but when it comes down to game time not really. I think you can over-analyze things. I've been on both sides of the fence in that situation and it tends not to matter as much as people pretend that it does.
Q: Sometimes when teams play really emotional games like the game you had last Saturday is it hard to turn your attention toward the next opponent? Are you happy with the way your guys are turning toward Kentucky?
A: Well we have not practiced yet. I have not seen them yet, but we are going to get their attention today. We are going to get after it. We are nowhere at the point in our program where we can over look anybody. We have to build this program day by day and that's what I'm doing.
Q: You made reference to the fits in our defense. Has that been the biggest challenge?
A: Yes, sometimes it's a big challenge. I thought we fit very well. We missed one fit, and you saw what happened on the big play (Kenneth Darby TD run). Besides that I was really pleased with the way our defense played.
Q: Why has that been so difficult to teach?
A: Well, I think every week we have a new scheme. Every week we see different fits. We are trying to play several fronts on defense and coverage's, and make it all fit together. I think the more experience you have with it, the better you become at it.
Q: Talk about Patrick Willis. Has he surprised you playing the way he has?
A: He is having a great year. I don't know if he surprised me or not. I noticed him back in the spring and thought he would be a great linebacker. But, getting 15 tackles a game, he's having a super season. He is playing like an All-American.
Q: Has his toughness surprised you?
A: He is the type of guy we look for on defense. He is a tough character. He is unusually tough. He is unusually committed. He is 110 percent at the football on defense. He is a great young man to have.
Q: Talk about Kentucky. What are some things that stand out in your mind about them?
A: On offense, they spread you out. They run a lot of draws. They run some screens, which has given us some problems. Mike Archer is a tremendous defensive coordinator. They are in the right places at the right time. I think they are very young. They are very battle tested. They gave Louisville a battle at the end in that game. They have had some unfortunate miscues during the season, like everybody else has. I expect it to be a battle.
Q: What are some of the reasons why the offensive line has improved?
A: First of all, I felt that there wasn't a lot of penetration in the backfield. We didn't many mental errors in the game. The offensive line did not have one penalty, which I was very proud of. Micheal did get sacked one time due to penetration. That was only one time against a supposedly great Alabama defense. I thought our guys did well. George DeLeone worked his tail off all week, and we gave them an opportunity to have success. Thomas Eckers did a fantastic job, he battled every play.
Q: What's the status of Andrew Wicker?
A: I don't know what's going to happen with Wicker, but I think Thomas is going to be our starting left guard.
Q: How is Jason Cook? They said in the pressbox he broke his arm. Is he out indefinitely?
A: Yes, I think he's out indefinitely.
Q: Do you know what you'll do with your kickers this week?
A: Practice them very hard. We talked about it this morning. We looked at it on film, We identified the problem and we're going to fix it. It was a mechanical problem with both of them and the fundamentals that Coach Rippon is very aware of, but we will continue to go with Robert (Bass) and Will (Moseley).
Q: With Jason (Cook) out for a while, is Brandon Jacobs any closer to being back?
A: I don't know that for sure, and I don't think he's going to practice this week. Our guys surprise us a little bit, but we're not planning on practicing him today. Pittman is doing a good job at fullback. We really like him at fullback, and he's a good athlete. He was disappointed, as was I in the catch he missed going out to the flat. Besides that, I thought he played a great game.
Q: Talk about Tre' Stallings.
A: He's a leader. He's improved his mental aspect of the game. He jumped offsides a couple of weeks. He took it to heart and said he was going to get it fixed, and he got it fixed. He leads us all the time. He was in here early this morning, telling me what he liked about the football game. Those guys really enjoyed the attitude of our football team. They felt the whole game they could beat Alabama, and I really enjoyed that aspect of our football team.
Q: With his strength though, he's kind of been a constant for the line.
A: Yes, he's very solid. I tell you what is very solid about Tre' though is his mental aspect of the game. He's in there early in the mornings studying. He has very good character and works hard in the weight room. His work ethic is excellent, He watches his weight, and he cares about football. That means a lot to us, that's why he's a team captain.
Q: Michael Bozeman made a big play against Alabama on fourth and one, which kind of set the tone for the defense. How do you think he's playing and how do you think he's done as a leader?
A: Michael Bozeman is fantastic. He's the bite of our defense. He's a great young man. I really liked the fourth and one play. I really thought that it set the tempo of the ballgame. We took a shot there, because we knew what they were going to do on fourth down. We had a little defense that we thought could stop the exact play that they ran, and we did it. Michael did exactly what he was supposed to do, and I thought that that set the tone for the football game. We told our team at the beginning of the week that this was going to be a big man's game and the big men had to win it up front. For the most part I think he did very well.
Q: Do you guys talk to your players and tell them to help other people out like that on the field? A couple of times (Trumaine) McBride was talking to some other members of the defense, saying be ready.
A: Yes, that's part of our defense. Our guys are coached tremendously well on formations and tendencies and what you're seeing. It's more of a confident football team understanding the system. At first they were saying, "where do I line up and what do I do here." Now they know the technique and they've taken it to another step. They understand the formations.
Q: I know this week I saw a free pass happen I hadn't really seen in the earlier games.
A: It's confidence of being in the defense and knowing where you're at and what you're doing. Now they've taken it to another step in understanding what the offense is going to do while we're staying in the same defense.
Q: Is that kind of the same thing for the offense?
A: Yes. Getting used to it. You know for me, I've been in this defense. So when I call the defense I know what to expect. I think the offensive staff, having been in this system for the first time, they are going to continue to grow and continue to learn the offense as we go throughout the season. And you can see that happening on the field. I was really pleased with most of the offense's' performance throughout the game.
Q: You mentioned last week getting off to a better start. You accomplished that. What did you do?
A: Well, I really thought that it happened on Monday when we addressed the football team and we really got after it pretty good. We made sure we were paying attention to details. We went back as a coaching staff and went over what we were doing wrong in the first series, what we were doing wrong in the second quarter, we attempted to fix that, and I think it showed.
Q: Talk more about the special teams.
A: They're doing great, Will Moseley is doing great with kickoffs. He's got a really strong leg. We're really impressed with the way Rob Park has come along, another good freshman. I think he'll be an excellent punter for us. Along with a good punter comes great protection. I think Shawn Slocum, who is in charge of our punt protection team, has done an excellent job.
