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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Nutt Speaks With Beat Writers
9/13/2009 | Football
Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt spoke with the media on Sunday and discussed the Rebels' bye week and the upcoming game with Southeastern Louisiana.
Opening Comment
We received a good report from our training room today and had most of our guys back. Raymond Cotton is the only one that is still lingering from the flu bug. Cassius Vaughn may not be at practice today. I think, for the most part, we're in pretty good shape. I'm anxious to see everybody out there today and get going with practice.
Q: What did your numbers top out at the flu?
A: I think 31 was the top number.
Q: Did you ever catch it?
A: No, I didn't.
Q: Did it spread to any of the coaches' families?
A: Yes. We had a few touched by it.
Q: What is the hardest part about coming back? Are you going to have to focus extra on weight lifting or conditioning to try to get some of that back?
A: I'm anxious just to get back and see where we are as far as our wind and how we're running. That's the thing about going through the entire camp. You get one game and all of a sudden you build to be your biggest improvement, as you know, to come to that second game. You missed all of that week. You're having to restart things a little bit. Hopefully, we won't be that far off. We'll run them real good today (Sunday) to see where we are and try to catch up a little bit.
Q: Do you have any lingering injuries?
A: Greg Hardy is still out. Gerald Harris is still bothered by the hamstring. That should be about it.
Q: Would you call any of those guys questionable or do you feel like they are all going to play?
A: I won't know until I see them a couple of days in practice. Greg and Gerald are not practicing today.
Q: What do you think is Greg's problem, the left ankle or right foot?
A: The ankle.
Q: You're top five in the AP poll and sixth in the Coaches. What do you think about that?
A: We don't think that much about it, really. It's nice, but like we tell our guys, it doesn't mean much right now. It's a long season. We're getting ready to go into 11 straight weeks of football. The most important thing we can do right now is concentrate on Southeastern Louisiana.
Q: Do you feel like this is a fifth-ranked team right now, just in terms of what you see?
A: I don't know that. We didn't have them all last week. I'm not concerned about what number we are. I'm more concerned about getting us out there at practice together and get our timing back, our fundamentals back and just keep going. If we spend our time worried about being five or six, I just think it's a lot of wasted energy. Let's just go play. We have to practice first to get better
and get ready for Saturday.
Q: What's the highest you've been ranked before?
A: I don't know. It's close.
Q: On those Sports Illustrated issues, it was you, Penn State, Oklahoma State and Oregon. Two of those teams have already lost. Do you think the SI jinx is something for real?
A: No. I don't look at it that way. I don't worry about it.
Q: Is Jevan Snead back from Texas?
A: Yes. He went to his grandfather's funeral, which was Saturday. He was really close to his grandfather. It was a sad deal, and it's been pretty tough on the Snead family.
Q: What are you working on this week? What do you feel like you need to get better at going into this second game?
A: It's everything. We haven't had them. You want to get everything, the timing, the offense, defense, special teams. You want to get everything going back the way we got started in camp. We had just enough first game to get on them and correct and we can improve. I'm just anxious to get back into a rhythm a little bit.
Q: The fact that you play another game five days after Saturday, does that factor into how you prepare this week in terms of how physical you are?
A: Yes. It does. It's a different couple of weeks in a row for us. You play on Thursday night. You still have to take them one at a time. We have to see where our conditioning is. I wouldn't probably have this much concern had we had all our guys last week. I would pretty much know. We don't know where we are physically right now as far as condition. We have to get ready. We'll do whatever it takes to get us physically ready for Saturday.
Q: Did you watch the South Carolina-Georgia game?
A: Yes. I watched them all.
Q: What did you think of South Carolina?
A: Much quicker than I anticipated. Very fast on offense and defense. Garcia spreads the ball around and has good tailbacks. Defensively, they rely on Norwood. He's so good. Those guys look fast and look real good to me.
Q: If you had played on Saturday, how many of those 31 guys would not have been able to go?
A: I don't think all 31 would have been out. There may have been a couple that would have come back. That was really a blessing, because we would have probably had six or seven starters out on both sides of the ball. That's not counting your special teams guys. That would have been a pretty big blow.
Q: Should the SEC have some sort of contingency plan when a team is hit by the flu?
A: That would be an interesting phone call. That's what you would try to get done. With no open dates, I don't know. I was thinking along the lines that if we had to play some of those freshmen, would they give us that redshirt back if they didn't play anymore?
Q: Have you watched film on Southeastern Louisiana, and what do you think of them? What do you have to focus on?
A: It's more about focusing on our team. They don't have the athletes we do, but we see it every Saturday. You saw it with Florida International and Jacksonville State. This ball bounces so funny and you have to be ready every single game. They spread you out and throw it all over the field. The quarterback is very athletic. They create problems and you have to be ready to go.
