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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Head Coach Ed Orgeron's Weekly Press Conference
9/19/2005 | Football
Sept. 19, 2005
OPENING COMMENTS
It's good to get back to work today. I watched the film yesterday. The players are going to practice today, and we are going to watch the film later this afternoon. We are going to take the positives out of the loss to Vanderbilt and move on.
After watching the film, I thought Mico McSwain showed up as a playmaker on offense, and I was proud to see Larry Kendrick get a couple of snaps.
On defense Robert Russell had to play a lot of snaps because of the injuries to Patrick Willis. He lead our team in tackles and did a pretty good job there.
On special teams, our punt return by Mike Espy put us in a position to compete and win the game. I was really proud of Coach Chris Ripon and the long return. I think it was very nicely done, and we went on there and got a drive to score. We blocked a field goal, and I feel we competed to the very end. Those are the positives.
Obviously we made mistakes. We had a bad second quarter on defense. We could not stop the quarterback (Jay Cutler) on third downs. I am the defensive coordinator so I will take the responsibility for that. We did not put enough pressure on him, and when we did have pressure we could not cover the receivers. He (Cutler) made some good plays, you have to give him credit.
Offensively, we gained 400 plus yards, so our production was up there. The things that hurt us were the nine penalties. We shot ourselves in the foot when we were driving. We have to be more disciplined as a football team and start from the positives and move on to Wyoming.
We are excited about playing Wyoming. They have a wide open offense and a high pressure defense and we look forward to competing against them this weekend.
Q&A
Q: Could you comment on the condition of Micheal Spurlock and Patrick Willis?
A: Both of those young men were operated by hand specialists, and both of them came out fine. We will not have them this week, and we do not know when we will have them back.
Q: It has been a long time since you have been involved in a loss. How did you handle it, and how did it affect you?
A: I prepared to handle it the best way I could for my team and for my school, and I thought I did that. I was really disappointed in the loss, but mostly disappointed in myself. By getting the team ready to play, it is my job to keep this ship steered right, and I am going to do that in a positive way. We will continue to build a championship program here.
Q: Talk about the process of moving on without two of your players.
A: Well that's part of the game. We have to develop depth, and I am looking forward to seeing Robert Lane as quarterback. Robert was very close at starting for us. I want to give him a shot and see what he can do, and I think he will do a good job. Obviously we are going to miss Patrick Willis, but that's a part of playing football.
Q: How ready is Robert Russell for the challenge he is about to face?
A: Well he got ready in about two seconds on the sidelines. I think in about a week's preparation he will be as ready as we can get a freshman ready to play. He is physically talented, and he has been studying our defense. I think he will do a good job. We may not be able to do as many things as we could do with Patrick Willis, but I think we can run our defense with him in there.
Q: How long do you think it will take for those guys to come back?
A: It will take a little while for Patrick Willis. I talked to our trainer, and he is going to take a little bit longer than Micheal (Spurlock). He'll be out for a while.
Q: Do you know how long Micheal Spurlock will be out?
A: Next Monday we will see where both those young men are, and then we will check again the Monday after that.
Q: So now who will be the backup for Robert Russell?
A: We will have to move another linebacker up there. We talked about it this morning, but probably we will move Dontae Reed to middle linebacker. We have not made a solid decision on that, but he is one of the candidates we are looking at.
Q: How did Michael Oher grade in his new starting role?
A: Michael Oher played very well; I am very pleased in the way he played. Michael is a physical talent, and he can handle the physical job that he has to do on the offensive line. He made a couple of mistakes, but overall he did pretty well.
Q: Do you learn more about your team in a win or a loss?
A: I like to do a lot of learning during a win, but losing is a part of football. It is where we are at. We have to learn from this loss, take the positives and move on and not dwell on the negatives.
Q: With the loss of Micheal Spurlock and Patrick Willis, how does that affect your preparation for Wyoming?
A: Well I won't let that affect us at all. We have to move on. I was prepared for that, and we will run our offense and our defense the same. There may be a couple of things here and there that we can't do, but overall we will still run our offense and defense.
Q: I know you have started looking at film of Wyoming. You mentioned the wide open offense. What have you seen on film that impresses you about Wyoming and what do you think you can do against them?
A: Well I see that they are very well coached. Their head coach does a fine job. They compete hard when they went down to Florida. They give you some difficulty on defense with there zone blitz, and I think their kids know how to win.
Q: You played very well on defense against Memphis. Did you see Vanderbilt coming in and giving you problems with their defense?
A: No. In the first quarter we went out there and held them to 3-0. We had a plan on third down, and it worked on the first series. But, after that, he started lighting us up, and that changed our plan somewhat. We were caught off guard a little bit by the speed of the football coming out of his hands, and we were not able to put pressure on him like we wanted to.
Q: Coach you opened up talking about missed tackles. How do you correct that?
A: Starting with practice. I will meet with the guys who had that problem, individually, and we will start at practice. We cannot continue to have nine penalties. Some of the penalties really hurt some of our drives.
Q: So it's not a talent issue it's just a concentration issue?
A: It's a mind issue, it's a discipline issue, and it's part of protecting the No. 1 team rule.
Q: This is going to be your first home game coaching in front of the home crowd. Are you pretty excited about that?
A: I am. We are glad to come home after playing two away games, and obviously it is college football here in the South. It is going to be fun. We are looking forward to walking through the Grove and looking forward to coming home with a victory.
Q: You say you are looking forward to seeing Robert Lane throw. Where is he and Ethan Flat in the rotation?
A: Robert is going to start for us and he is going to play for us. If something happens that he cannot play, than we will put in Ethan. But Robert's the guy.
Q: Are their any similarities between Wyoming and Vanderbilt?
A: Yes, they both have a wide-open offense and their quarterback can throw the football. They create mis-matches out there. They can spread the option and run the football.
Q: Talk about Mico McSwain.
A: I am really happy to see Mico make that play where he reversed the field. He made some big plays out there, and he has a lot of speed on the edge. He has to learn how to run inside a little bit tougher and learn how to block a little bit better.
Q: I see you kept Jamal out of the game and kept Mico in. Is speed a factor in that decision, and is Mico our starting tailback?
A: Mico and Alan Abrams are to be considered our starting tailbacks, and from there we will see how the week goes.
Q: It looked like Corvelli Haynes had a good game with a breakout play in the second half.
A: That sack was a big play. He is a good pass rusher, but he needs to learn how to play a little more consistent. He has won the job at the defensive end position, and we are really pleased with his play.
Q: Are we going to have to be more forceful in our sack attempts?
A: We are going to have to create more pressure on the quarterback, and we are going to have to find ways to do that. We are just going to have to call it and get it done.
Q: With a guy like Jay Cutler, is it like a catch-22, where you get pressure, he goes hot and then he jumps.
A: Arkansas tried to pressure him and didn't get to him. We tried to sit back and he got to us. He is a good player. You have to give him credit. I was pleased with most of the second half defense. We stopped him when we had to in the second half. It was not always pretty, but I thought we did a better job of containing him in the second half.
Q: How does their (Wyoming) quarterback compare to ours, and what he can do?
A: He can throw the ball. I don't think he is quite the scrambler or runner and they do have as much option game in the offense. But, I need to watch more film to compare them. He is very well coached.
Q: How valuable is Coach (Matt) Lubick?
A: Very valuable. We have already discussed things with him because obviously he has played this team. He has an inside scouting report on them, and we are going to use it.
