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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ed Orgeron Weekly Press Conference
11/6/2007 | Football
Opening Comments
Obviously we’re looking forward to our open date. The guys had the day off yesterday. We will treat today as a Monday. We will have a light practice today, have a practice tomorrow, and will have the black shirts scrimmage. The guys are going to go to school on Thursday and Friday and have the weekend off to go see their parents. Then, we will start back Monday against LSU. The coaches are watching the LSU film now, preparing for a game plan. We are going to be out recruiting Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We have four evaluation days left, and we are very well prepared and excited to go out on the road recruiting. After reviewing the
Q: Have you started any work on LSU?
Sure. We watched their first down pass, first down runs. We are going to assimilate a lot of their stuff today in practice. We are just not going to start talking about LSU today. It’s two weeks away, and obviously we are excited that it is going to be on CBS, a national TV game. But we are just going to use as an open date to fix the things that we have to fix and sprinkle in some LSU stuff.
Q: What needs to you want to fill in these four days?
Speed. A lot of it is speed, especially on defense. Patrick (Willis) and Rory (Johnson) averaged 20 tackles last year, and we don’t have that on defense right now. So we need to find some outside linebackers that can run. We would like to find more defensive backs so we can get into five-man packages, five defensive back packages against spread offenses. We are not able to do it right now. We need some help at corner. We need to find a shut down corner for sure. We are losing two tight ends to senior graduation, so we need to find a fantastic tight end to catch the ball. Obviously, the big running backs we are losing. We feel that we have Jeremy McGee, and Cordera Eason, but we would like to find a big junior college running back, some offensive linemen and defensive linemen and always, a guy that can kick the ball off. I’ll tell you one thing I didn’t mention. We were really please with Justin Sparks. We felt that he did a good job, and maybe he can be the guy. We will see in the next couple of games.
Q: What does the black shirt scrimmage involve?
We are going to split the team up. Brad Villavaso is going to be the head coach for the defensive. Joel Rodriguez is going to be the head coach for the offense. The guys get into it. We have trophies and MVP’s, and a point system that is offense versus defense, but it’s a highly enthusiastic practice for tomorrow. The guys are looking forward to it every year. It’s kind of a college tradition all across the country. But it also gives the guys a chance to perform very well under a game-type situation. It also gives me a good look at our team right before I go out to recruit. I like to do that to see where I feel the needs need to be filled.
Q: Do you like the extra week or do you think that you can overthink your opponent?
No, I think this is much needed. If you think about it, the guys started somewhere around August 1 and have not had a weekend off. They have not had a day off. I think they need it. I think it will be good for them. I think that it will be good for the coaches. I like to use this week as a self scout. We are going to self scout ourselves on offense, defense and special teams and look at where our deficiencies are. This year, it’s probably a lot. We will look at defense and see what we need to fix. But I think its good, especially this time of the year.
Q: How do you balance high school and junior college recruiting?
We are not at a point where we can bring in a whole lot of junior college players. I think that if you bring in a junior college player, you want them to play for you right away. If he doesn’t have that ability or talent, you would like to get a high school guy. The key is to get guys with grades than can get in, that can meet academic standards, and realize that you’re not always going to be perfect on every one. So, there has to be a little leeway at what you do. But, we definitely have some needs where we feel some junior college guys can really help us.
Q: Are there any guys in the black shirt scrimmages that have stood out the last two years?
BenJarvus (Green-Ellis). He always looked good in everything he did. Last year’s MVP was Carlos Suggs, who is not with us, but he had a good day. I am expecting some guys to really get after it. I think our guys are going to hit. I think Jevan (Sneed) is going to do well. We have some good running backs. We have some good receivers out there, and I think it’s going to be really good. We are going to play some of the younger guys even though they may not be redshirted. We are going to play some of the young guys, and let them play.
Q: Talk about Cordera Eason.
I think he’s really going to be a fantastic back for us. I’ve seen him do a lot of things. It's just that Bruce Hall came into the picture and I had planned for Cordera and BenJarvus to be the backs. Bruce Hall just sort of beat him out. That’s all. Bruce does a lot of good things. I think Bruce will be an NFL back. He’s a good player. It's just hard to share the reps with all those guys back there.
Q: Are you surprised how good Bruce Hall has become since moving him from quarterback?
We recruited him as an athlete. At the time when we recruited Bruce Hall, we didn’t have a quarterback on campus. My recruiters went to the Mississippi Junior College All-Star Game, and he was the best guy. We thought maybe he could help us at quarterback. If he couldn’t he could play somewhere else. He’s certainly turned out to be a good player for us.
Q: How do you like Cordera's development?
I really think he has been fantastic. If it were my choice, I would have given him the ball 20 times against
Q: Will Greg Hardy play against LSU?
Maybe. I’ll review his situation. I gave him certain things to follow. I’ve been tracking it closely, and so far he’s been perfect. I've talked to him and his parents, and things are going very well. I look to review his case again this weekend, and we’ll see what happens. He is away from the team. He’s followed all the restrictions that I gave him. He’s not around here, and he’s had some time off to think about what’s going on. He’s definitely going to every class and every tutoring session. I’ve had nothing but great reports on him.
Q: What did you ask Greg to do?
Everything that he's supposed to do. Be on time for meetings. Be at every practice. Just do everything the team’s supposed to do and not miss anything. I wouldn’t expect anybody here on my football team to be perfect. But I expect them to adhere to team rules and follow them as close as they can. Sometimes we have to make exceptions to the rules because of school or injuries. There is some leeway in those situations. But once things get out of hand, we have to address them.
Q: Any changes in the quarterback situation?
We’ll deal with it a little bit this week. Seth (
Q: What does the bye week do physically and who could use it?
I think we’ve got some guys nicked and bruised. Reid Neely has been playing on a banged-up ankle all year. You’ve got some guys that need some time to heal. I also think the time away is good. It’s very demanding physically and mentally to play in the SEC and to prepare. Guys get time away to do some things that they like, like visit their parents, go out and eat supper, go to a movie, go to school and catch up on some school work. I remember last year when they came back, they were ready to practice. And we played very well. I expect them to do the same thing. I want them to have some time away, so they miss football and come back ready.
