Head Coach Ed Orgeron's Signing Day Press Conference Transcript

Feb. 1, 2006

OPENING COMMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank my coaching staff and their families. It was a total team effort for one year in getting this great recruiting class together. They bought into our recruiting system and did a very good job for us. I want to thank our support staff too. We had great recruiting weekends. When we went to restaurants, people were fantastic to us. The administration was supportive of what we were trying to get done. I would like to thank my team, as a lot of them were hosts. I received a lot of compliments on Sunday mornings about the attitude of our football team and the closeness of our football team. That really helped in our recruiting efforts.

We started this a year ago, and we have made some tremendous relationships with the families of our signees. They are some tremendous parents. Most of them got to come on the recruiting visits, and they loved Ole Miss. They loved the coaching staff and what we had to offer. In the end, that is what won for us with many of these recruits.

This class is tremendous, with not only great players, but guys with great character. The thing all of them have in common is they wanted to be at Ole Miss. We wanted them to be at Ole Miss to come in here and help us build a championship football team. The high school and junior college coaches were tremendous when we were out there.

At offensive line, Corey Actis (6-5, 295), who is already here, is going to help us a lot next year as a center. He will play right away for us. John Jerry (6-6, 340) is a tremendous prospect. We knew we had to get bigger and better at offensive line, and we did. Don Mosley (6-2, 295) comes off the ball well. Art Kehoe (offensive line coach) loves him. Aubrey McPhadden (6-6, 330) is another big guy. Those guys are going to help us along the line of scrimmage.

This is one of the best recruiting defensive lines I've been around, including the guys I signed three or four years ago. Hayward Howard (6-4, 300), who is already here from New Orleans, is a tremendous prospect. Kentrell Lockett (6-5, 225) is a great pass rusher. Greg Hardy (6-5, 235) from Memphis is a tremendous pass rusher. He can play wide receiver, tight end or defensive end. We started on Jerrell Powe (6-2, 330) the first day I got here as a head coach a year ago. He's a tremendous football player. I am proud we got Marcus Tillman (6-5, 250). Marcus had to work hard to get him, but we won. I am really proud of that.

At linebacker, John Cornell (6-1, 220) is a tremendous prospect out of California. We battled USC and UCLA to get him. We feel we got a great linebacker. Also, Roy Johnson (6-1, 235), a junior college linebacker (ran a 10.8 in the 100 meter in high school) is going to be a tremendous football player.

We have a tremendous running back class in Derrick Davis (6-0, 235), Marcus Green (5-10, 170), Reggie Hicks (6-1, 225), Dexter McCluster (5-9, 170), and we top it off with Cordera Eason (6-1, 235). When Cordera and the next guy I am going to talk about committed on that Friday, it was like a magic day. We are really excited about our running back class. It will enable us to have some depth at that position and maybe play some guys at other positions.

As you guys know, we lost our wide receivers from last year. Shay Hodge (6-2, 195), Terry Levy (6-2, 195), Kendrick Lewis (6-0, 180), Markeith Summers (6-2, 195), LaDerrick Vaughn (6-2, 195) and Allen Walker (6-1, 200) are some of the best players in the country. We are really excited to have those guys.

We named Hugh Freeze our tight ends coach, and he is our recruiting coordinator. He has done a great job for me, and we signed Cecil Frison (6-3, 235) of Memphis and Jason Hawkins (6-3, 255), a junior college tight end.

We had to get some quarterbacks. Back in December, there was a time when we didn't know if we would have a quarterback in the spring. We went out and signed Bruce Hall (6-0, 210). We are excited about getting him. A young man who committed to us a long time ago, and stayed with us, is Michael Herrick (6-1, 170). We really appreciate him staying with us. He is a tremendous young man and a tremendous competitor. The key to our recruiting class was Brent Schaeffer (6-2, 195). He saw what we had to offer at Ole Miss. He is going to be our quarterback. There will be no quarterback controversy. I told him that he is going to be our quarterback, and we need him. He's a great player, and he really gave us a boost once he committed. One of the turning points in getting Schaeffer was when Dan Werner and Art Kehoe joined our staff. Those guys gave us a little boost in getting Brent.

Right off the press at the midnight hour last night, we found a tremendous kicker, Joshua Shene (5-10, 170), to complete our class. He's ranked the second best kicker in the country.

I want to thank you guys who have written positive things about our program. I look forward to more positive things being written about our program.

Q&A
Q: You seem to get emotional when you were calling out some of these names?
A: We like recruiting, and recruiting is emotional. Football is an emotional sport, and I am an emotional coach.

Q: Do you think part of your success is that the recruits see that too?
A: We have a system here, and we believe in the system.

Q: You said last year that you wanted to improve on your Mississippi recruiting. Did you meet your needs?
A: We got the guys we wanted. We made tremendous strides in Mississippi. We got the guys who wanted to be at Ole Miss. That's what was important to me.

Q: Mississippi historically has not had any prospects commit early. How do you change that in such a short time?
A: We work hard.

Q: You said Bruce Hall would be the quarterback in the spring and then Schaeffer will be here in the summer. What are Hall's plans after the spring?
A: We'll discuss that after the spring.

Q: Who else will quarterback for you in the spring?
A: We haven't discussed that yet.

Q: How did you feel when Brent Schaeffer's papers came in today and everything was official?
A: We felt good about all our recruits today.

Q: You have a lot of versatile people on here that can play a lot of different positions. I know you like to experiment at different positions. Can guys like Marcus and Dexter play out wide?
A: We think they can. We recruited athletes.

Q: Was there an area that you wanted to concentrate, and how did you do in that area?
A: We had a great recruiting class, and we are excited about that.

Q: Last year you signed Billy Tapp (QB) after national signing day. Is there a possibility of another signee or two?
A: There is always a possibility of another signee.

Q: You seem like someone who is never completely satisfied. Is there anything about this class you would like to see different, more offensive linemen or defensive linemen?
A: We are satisfied with the recruiting class, and I am really satisfied with the way my coaching staff worked.

Q: You talked about moving some guys around with the depth at running back, maybe Mico (McSwain)?
A: We could. We want to put the best players on the field and it is going to take time to get these guys in our system and see where they fit. There has been some discussion about moving guys, but you can never tell until you get out on the practice field.

Q: When will Brent (Schaeffer) get on campus?
A: We plan on Brent being on campus in June with the rest of our signing class.

Q: Do you anticipate any problems with him not being a part of spring ball.
A: All junior college signees have to wait to graduate, and Brent is going to graduate in May.

Q: So he'll just get a crash course, when he gets there?
A: Yes

Q: According to the press conference transcript from last year, you were disappointed in the Mississippi recruiting. What was the difference this year? Was it a matter of having more time to evaluate?
A: We had more time to spend in the schools and get to know the coaches. We had a year to get to know the families and prepare our coaching staff to go out and learn their area.

Q: How important is it to do well in the state of Mississippi?
A: It's always going to be important to do well in Mississippi. There are tremendous athletes and coaches in this state.

Q: Talk a little more about the receivers?
A: We needed them. We needed some receivers who can make plays and score touchdowns. We battled some of the top schools in the nation for Markeith Summers. I have to give George DeLeone (former OL coach) some credit. He went into Olive Branch and did a tremendous job of creating great a relationship with the coach, Jamie Mitchell. He worked very hard on it. Coach Freeze followed up on it when George left. We stayed on Markeith, and this was the place he decided he wanted to go. Kendrick Lewis is a fine young man. He was our first commitment last year, and he stayed with us. He did not visit another school, although many tried to get him to visit their schools. LaDerrick Vaughn is really an athlete. He can play receiver, linebacker and even some quarterback. Terry Levy was one of the first players to commit to us last year. Shay Hodge came to our camp and did a great job. He is also planning to play basketball here. That shows you his athletic ability. Allen Walker was one of the top safeties in the country. We liked him at receiver. Allen can play both. We want to give him a chance to play receiver, or he can play safety. All these guys are touchdown makers, and we really like them.

Q: Where do you see Greg Hardy?
A: I thought he was going to play rush-end, and on his Sunday visit, he asked me if he could play wide receiver. Obviously I said yes (laughter). He wants to play wide receiver/tight end. We are going to see if he can do that. We need some help out there.

Q: How much of an impact did Art Kehoe (OL coach and Dan Werner (Offensive Coordinator) make when they got out there on the recruiting trails?
A: They made a huge impact for me personally. They are two tremendous young men and two tremendous coaches. They gave us instant credibility with a lot of our recruits, especially with Brent Schaeffer. There were a lot of connections with Florida. Everything just came together.

Q: Talk about the differences, now that you've had a year to recruit in the SEC versus the Pac-10.
A: Recruiting.

Q: Without getting into specifics about grades, is there anybody you are going to have to work with in that situation?
A: We feel good that most of our guys are going to make it.

Q: Talk about the recruiting process. I see you in living rooms designing plays with families. What is your experience when you go in the homes?
A: I love it. The difference between the head coach and the assistants is I only have one shot. I have to be prepared. We have a system when we go in the homes and different subjects that we cover. The first one is always going to be academics. We are very organized. I don't want it to be a regular home visit. I want to be in control of the recruiting. I want to know everybody's names in the homes. It's a challenge, but we love it.

Q: You've been a recruiter for a long time, how has it changed?
A: There is a lot more information going out, which is good. The internet is great for recruiting. It's brought the country closer. Guys know about everybody and where they are going. You have to be on top of it. The recruiting services are mostly accurate and I get a lot out of them. I like it. You still have to work hard, create relationships with the parents and believe in the university that you're coaching for.

Q: Did you get what you wanted on the offensive line?
A: I am really excited about the recruiting class.

Q: What kind of response did you get about the IPF?
A: They loved it. They love the facilities. The parents come here and they love it. It's a tremendous place. We've been selling it. But, we want guys to come here to play football not just because it's a nice facility. That's something that helps us.

Q: Do you foresee any issues that might affect the eligibility of (Derrick) Davis and (Cordera) Eason?
A: I think we are fine.

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