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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Pete Boone Press Conference: 09.19
9/19/2011 | Football
Sept. 19, 2011
Ole Miss athletics director Pete Boone met with the media on Monday and discussed the state of the Rebels' football program.
Opening comments:
"Like me, I'm sure that everyone that loves Ole Miss is clearly frustrated at this point in time. Houston and I met yesterday and had a good discussion. He is committed to correcting some of the issues that he sees as correctable within the program. That is what his job is and that is what he will be doing. My job is to give these coaches what they need to be successful. I need to make sure I do that. I would like to say that these are only the first three games. They have not met the expectations that need to be met. It is early in the season and I know that the main thing this team needs right now is for all of our loyal supporters to be there Saturday. This is obviously a big game for us and for Georgia, as all SEC games are. We need to have all of our fans behind us. I would like to encourage them to come to the game, be there early, be loud and wear red. Please be there to be excited and cheer these coaches and players on."
On Sunday's meeting with Coach Nutt:
"I think we have some rare circumstances here with the progression of the season. There are obviously some disappointments. As opposed to walking around on egg shells, it is time for he and I to have a good conversation. I want to help him with things and point out some things that I see that may be useful to him."
On the newspaper ad:
"I saw the ad. I have been in this business close to 15 years and I'm not paying that much attention to it. There are a lot of things that are more important to me than that. We have a big program here with about 350 athletes and a total payroll of 500-600 people that are taking care of the Ole Miss program. That is where my focus is. It always has been and always will be. We as an Ole Miss family need to be together and fight together. This is a tough world and athletics are tough. If your family can't fight together and stay strong together you have a taller hill to climb."
On topics of Sunday's meeting:
"I would prefer to let him address those things. Mainly from my perspective, I would like to see more fire and more attitude. It is about seeing fire in some of their eyes. That is not a technical approach to it. I don't get into the Xs and Os of offense or defense, but I do think our players and coaches ought to leave everything out there on field at the end of the day."
On expectations:
"I expect that our team will come out and fight. I expect our coaches will come out with a lot of enthusiasm. I expect our fans to come out with a lot of support. I think that it will be a totally different team than we had in Nashville."
On negative fan influence:
"I don't put a lot of worry or thought behind those kind of things. I have been around awhile. I think if I spend too much of my time worrying about that I won't focus on the things that are really important. I certainly am not arrogant and I'm not over confident. I feel every day I need to earn my keep, mainly because it's about Ole Miss. I am going to do whatever it takes for Ole Miss athletics to be successful. That is where my focus is and that is what I'm going to look at every day."
On helping the football program:
"I asked Houston if I could talk to the coaches. When times are like this and I have been around before, people can get tentative. I don't want our coaches to walk on egg shells if they see me. I want us to step on some eggs. I want us to come out with some fight and some fire. To the extent I can eliminate any barrier that they have to think about during the day and let them focus on coaching and motivating players, I want to do that. It isn't any specific thing, but just the attitude."
On the Forward Together campaign:
"I would say that there are not any broken bones, but there are bruises. This is certainly not the way that most successful campaigns take off. The campaign is bigger than a game and bigger than a season. It is about Ole Miss' future. That is what I think our fans are focused on. Where are we going to be five or ten years from now? We will have some times like this and this probably won't be the only one in the coming three years before we get kicked off. You have to look at what is in the best interest long-term for Ole Miss. That is what this campaign is about. We have had some very good initial success."
On the remainder of the season:
"I thought a lot not just about this, but about life. God doesn't guarantee us tomorrow, he only guarantees us today. We have to do the best we can with what we have today. I am really focused on what we can do today to be successful at Ole Miss. I am not going to focus too much on the future. We take it a day at a time and get better a day at a time."
On the Vanderbilt game:
"I was a typical fan, which would include being angry, puzzled and embarrassed. I would love to say that I am a bean counter that does not get emotional, but I am just like every fan. I go up and down with those emotions. What I have to do is as quickly as possible set those emotions aside and get behind the facts. During the game I had a variety of emotions."
On responsibility of the players:
"That is not where I judge. I have to stop right at the coaches' level. It is the coaches' job to motivate, teach and make sure they are prepared. I think it would be far reaching for me to talk about what I expect out of the players."
On return investments in coaches:
"There are a number of ways to measure success. There was a survey done for the number of wins for SEC coaches and how much they were getting paid per win. The lower that amount, the bigger bang a university was getting for its buck. It's hard to overpay a coach that wins consistently. Nick Saban was one of the coaches that had the lowest amount of dollars per win. At the same time you have to measure things in totality. We did have two really good years going to the Cotton Bowl back to back. I don't think you should ignore those things. This is our life nowadays. It is a life of instant gratification. It is about what you have done for me lately. I am not going to argue that. That is what our fans expect. The scope of two Cotton Bowl wins in a row probably lasted a week until everyone started worrying about recruiting, spring ball and who will be our quarterback. You can't judge a program on one season or one game. You have to worry about totality."
