Football Weekly Press Conference 11.02

Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt and quarterback Jevan Snead met with the media on Monday and discussed the Rebels' upcoming home tilt with FCS-foe Northern Arizona.

Houston Nutt

Opening Statement

After watching the film yesterday, we got back on the field. The thing that is so disappointing is that we felt we gave (Auburn) so many gifts. In this league, you just can't gift-wrap things. It seemed to me that we just gave a lot of things away and really beat ourselves. I was really proud of some of the holes and running lanes. If you would have told me that we were going to rush for that many yards and have that many plays in the first half, I thought we would have won by 10 or 14 points. As well as we played defensively, I know we are better and we have got to improve. Our guys started out the right way yesterday.

Q: Do you think the secondary still has its confidence after a tough performance?

I do because they are seniors. Kendrick Lewis, Cassius Vaughn and Marshay Green have played good all year. I just know we can play so much better if we play at our highest level. They hate it and we hate it. There isn't anything we can do about that. We have to correct and we've got to go.

Q: What does the secondary have to do to improve?

It is the same thing that we talked about yesterday, (there eyes were just in the wrong places). That is what makes you mad about (the Auburn) game - it was a very winnable game. I felt like we are better in a lot of areas. The bottom line is that you have to do it in those 60 minutes and we didn't do it.

Q: What did Rodney Scott do to help prevent Aubrun safety Zac Etheridge's injury from being more severe?

It was unbelievable. I went out there concerned about (Etheridge), but I also saw Rodney (Scott) laying there and thought he may be hurt. Tim Mullins said Rodney was okay. What I couldn't believe was that Rodney, as a freshmen, had the presence of mind to not shove the guy a little bit so he could get up and get back in the huddle. We are always coaching to get off the ground and get back in the huddle. It was really a miracle that he didn't push the guy out of the way like we normally do. I was just really proud of the way he handled that. It is really probably a miracle that he didn't shove the guy a little bit to get up because the guy was totally on top of him. It was unbelievable. That was the weirdest game that I have ever been involved in when you look at everything from top to bottom, especially all the bad things. You take a kick off return back and then you don't catch the snap for the extra point. Starting with possibly saving a guy's life, which isn't an exaggeration from what the doctors have said, to everything else that happened in the game. It was just a weird game.

Q: Did you send any of the questionable calls into the SEC office?

Yes, I sent them in this morning.

Q: What does it mean having an FCS opponent coming in during the middle of SEC play?

We have just been watching Northern Arizona this morning and a little bit yesterday. They do a good job of coaching and have some good athletes on both sides of the ball. I am not involved in scheduling right now, but I know that this was a late contract deal. We weren't supposed to play (Northern Arizona) this year. We had another team lined up but it fell through. I am just proud to have them come out.

Q: What have you seen from Northern Arizona?

Starting defensively - they are very sound, well coached and play hard. They do some good things - mix up their blitz package and try not to give up the big play. They do a good job. Offensively they try to spread you out, throw the ball and mix it up with the run. They just do a good job from special teams, offense and defense. Being at Murray State, I can relate to what their coaches are trying to do and the team that they have. I respect that conference. We are excited to get back on the field - bottom line. The thing I like about basketball is that they play every two or three days and are able to get that bad taste out of their mouths (faster). We want to get back out on the field.

Q: Were you aware of the Michael Herrick situation - him coming back to play his old team?

I didn't know that. I didn't even know the young man when I got here. I was unaware. We are concentrating more on our guys - trying to fix some things and get better.

Q: How do your keep your team focused and motivated?

That was a tough ride home. It was tough yesterday because there was a lot of hurt, but that is the way it should be. The only thing that I know to do is to go back to work and roll up your sleeves. You've got a choice - you can hang your head and feel sorry for yourselves. This is the league we are in. Anybody can beat anybody in a three hour period. It is so true and I don't know many leagues that can always say that. No matter who plays who, you better be ready to go during that three hour period. I know we have not played our best game yet. I don't like giving things away and helping somebody else. It is a tough enough game as it is. Let's play fast again. We have relied on our defense pretty much the whole year. We expect a very high level from them and we want to get back to that. Usually our first drive tells a lot about how our offense is going to go. I don't know how we got that fumble back on the kick off return. If you look at the film, it was unbelievable. Then to take the ball 90 yards after that and go up 7-0; that is exactly what we wanted. We have to score more and be much better with the opportunities that we get. You have got to practice like that. We have a couple of illegal procedures during the week and it is amazing how that carries over to two in the game. That is the point we brought up. We had the ball on the ground last week, and we have one on the ground in the game. Practice the way you are going to play. I think that is really important and that has been our emphasis.

Q: What has caused the struggles in the passing game?

It's when you have penalties at the wrong times. We are not a good third-and-long team. We can't manage that consistently. When you look at how many times we've had third-and-long situations in each of our losses - it is too many. It is really what stops us. That has been our number one problem - stopping ourselves. You can't do that. We've got to coach that better.

Q: Did you talk to Jevan Snead early in the season about the hype surround him and his NFL prospects?

We talked to him a little bit about it. I know Kent Austin talked to him and I talked to him. Going back to the last six games last year, we told him we were going to get a lot of attention. It wasn't going to be like last season when we could sneak into someone's stadium and get out with a win. Those days are gone. What comes with that is a lot more attention on (Jevan). We want him to continue to be Jevan and not feel like he has to be superman. That is one thing I think he does sometimes. He feels like he has to make a play and he forces things. You can't do that. Our protection is not as good as it was last year, but it has gotten better. You are talking about a first-year starter at left tackle and it is tough. I think Brad (Sowell) has improved as much as anyone and I have been proud of him and what he has done. It is all of us. We all have to get better and it is not one guy. It takes 11 and some backups to get what we want to get accomplished in the toughest league in America.

Q: Is part of your preparation not overlooking an opponent?

Yes it always is. If I had my way, I would love to have all four non-conference games in a row and then go play SEC ball. You don't get that choice. It is always very difficult jumping out of conference, especially after a physical game. Then we still have three more (SEC games) left after this one out of conference. I really look for our guys to come out with improvements and getting back to playing the way that we are supposed to play.

Q: Does you feel your team need to work on its hurry up offense?

We have a two minute offense, but we just feel that right now our execution has got to be better. If you look at some of things we had called and didn't drop those balls or don't get them called back because of a penalty - we are where we are supposed to be. We have to get in and out of the huddle much quicker and do that better towards the end. Some of the things that we had dialed up, we penalized ourselves and got back to dealing with third-and-long. That is what is really hurting us. We can do much better getting in and out of the huddle and we need to improve on that.

Jevan Snead

Q: What are your thoughts on your ex-teammate Michael Herrick?

First of all he's a good player and from what I've heard he's been doing really well. He's a good person too. I just remember him as a good guy and a good player. I look forward to seeing him.

Q: How do you make sure you don't overlook an opponent?

As far as I go, I try to prepare for each game the same. I try to give one hundred percent no matter who we're playing, whether it's a conference game or a non-conference game. So as far as my preparation and the effort that I put forth, I don't think it matters to me. As a team we're definitely going to prepare for them the same way, and just go out and have a great week of preparation and get ready to play as well as we can.

Q: Do you put extra emphasis during the week on not overlooking a team like Northern Arizona?

I definitely think that's part of the mindset. I feel fortunate to be on a team where everybody's continuously trying to improve. We're going to try to improve from last week and try to get better each and every day that we practice. There's really not much you have to say to this team I'm on because everybody is hungry to get better and everybody is looking forward to improving.

Q: What happed to the offense after the first drive against Auburn?

It's tough to say. I feel like we did have a great first drive. Throughout the game I felt like we were shooting ourselves in the foot. We'd have some good plays but then we'd hurt ourselves. One of the things we knew going into the game was that we couldn't get into a third-and-long situation or anything like that. We had to have some success on first down and second down in order to put ourselves in a good position, and unfortunately we put ourselves in some bad positions. We weren't able to recover like we need to be able to.

Q: Why do you think the passing stats rank so low in the SEC this season?

I don't pay too much attention to that stuff. The stat I really like to focus on is wins and losses. Of course, we have more losses than I'd like, so that's really what I'm focusing on and trying to improve on. Of course I'm going to do the best I can do be as efficient as I possibly can, and I know I can be more efficient than I am being now. It's just one of those things I'm going to have to work on and do my best to improve on.

Q: Does it seem like the offense has been in a lot more third-and-long situations this year?

I think so. I think last year we started off and kind of got ourselves in bad situations and as the season went on we corrected that. We played extremely well against Arkansas and did extremely well on (not getting in too many third-and-long situations), but last week we kind of shot ourselves in the foot and just put ourselves in bad positions. You get in those third-and-longs and it's hard for the coaches to call plays, and hard to get those receivers open when a defense knows you're going for the sticks.

Q: Did the coaches talk to you about the hype surrounding you and your draft status at the beginning of the year?

They really didn't say much. I just basically knew that I had to come out and not focus on that. I wasn't looking at that too much, and I just knew that I needed to prepare the best I could to do the best I could for my team and have a great season. It's just one of those things where they say you can't focus on the outside whether it's good or bad. You have to focus on the team and on improving.

Q: Have you though much about your draft status lately?

No not really. I'm just trying to improve and do the best I can for my team.

Q: Do you feel that you are locking in on one receiver too often?

I don't necessarily believe that's true. I think there are certain situations where I may have it in my head to go to a certain person or a person I think may be good on that certain route that they're running. Overall I don't believe that I'm locking into any receivers or anything like that. I'm going through my progressions. I think there are some times where I may hang on to one part of the progression a little too long and then may be a little late. As far as locking in on one guy and not reading the defense or not reading the coverage, I don't think there's any truth to that.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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