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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss Press Conference: 10.20
10/20/2014 | Football
Ole Miss football head coach Hugh Freeze and senior quarterback Bo Wallace met with the media Monday to discuss the third-ranked Rebels' upcoming SEC West showdown at No. 23 LSU on Saturday (ESPN, 6:15 p.m. CT).
Head Coach Hugh Freeze
Opening statement...
"It's always an exciting time around this place when you enter into a game that is considered to be one of your historical rivals like LSU. They've been extremely talented through the years. Coach (Les) Miles has done a phenomenal job there. Even though they've had some ebbs and flows this season, they seem to be figuring them out quite nicely, and they're playing their best football of the year. We're excited to be 7-0 going into that game, but we also understand that the same attention to preparation will have to even be heightened more going into that environment and playing in there against such an athletic, physical and quality football team. They have tremendous young talent on their team. It's going to be a great, great challenge for us. It will be one that we'll make our kids very aware of the history of this rival. They'll understand it quite clearly. Hopefully we'll have our best-effort plan. There were a lot of great things on film from last week. I'm proud of the way our kids continued to battle without getting frustrated when things aren't going quite your way as you would want them to. They pushed through and found a way to pull away another SEC battle."
On LSU getting better throughout the season…
"The last two weeks, they've gotten back to doing their bread and butter. That's physical, control of the clock. They're able to run the football with the outstanding backs that they have. Defensively, they're changing some things around that you haven't seen them do a lot of before. They've become very multiple the last two weeks, particularly last week. They're doing more odd fronts. They're giving you different looks in the back end, which you didn't get all of that in the past. They still could line up and beat you. They're making it even more difficult now by moving around and doing some of the things that they're doing now. We have a lot to prepare for of the offensive side. Defensively, I wouldn't think it's going to take a whole lot of extra time planning. They are who they are. It's very difficult to stop. There's not a lot of mystery to it. They can do that and still be successful."
On what to expect from LSU's offense…
"I'm sure they're game planning for us, too, and what they think is advantageous for them. They're going to turn around and hand it to their back enough times. Exactly what looks they're in, I don't know. They do have some tremendous weapons on the outside at receiver, also. You're always fearful of getting caught in too many precarious one-on-one situations against great players like that. Our kids will have to win their share just like every game comes down to one-on-one battles at times. There are critical plays that can happen in a game, and that can change momentum. You have to have a plan to stop the run. They're going to make you stop that. Then, of course, they'll try to take their shots when they can with their quality athletes on the outside."
On receivers…
"I'm really pleased with that group, between Vince (Sanders), Cody (Core), Quincy (Adeboyejo) and Evan (Engram). We know Laquon (Treadwell) is going to get his attention. We're not quite sure what different teams are going to do each week. We have to figure that out because it does have an impact on the things we want to do and the matchups we want to get. I'm big on trying to find the best matchup for us. Maybe that's why that group is a little bit different each week. Once we find production, we try to go after it. Last week, we felt like Vince had a good chance at winning some one-on-ones. We got in that scenario a couple of times. We felt the same way about Evan. If we could get him in certain looks that he could win, also, just because of the way they are aligned. It's not that we didn't think the others could. That's probably why it fluctuates between different people each week."
On Deterrian Shackelford…
"He's a tremendous leader. He's a grown man. He's a veteran. He's been around here and been through the ups and downs. He appreciates the things he has in this current season. He's a humble kid. Humility is a tremendous quality. Probably none of us have enough of it. Humility -- that's our character trait of the week, by the way -- doesn't mean you think less of yourself. It means you're looking out for your teammates. It's a great quality you have on your team. D.T. models that extremely well. He's a great model of what a student-athlete should be. He's playing great football. He's finally healthy. He has some beat up stuff. The knee has recovered. He's playing well, and I'm happy for him."
On Deterrian wearing No. 38…
"We could talk all day about the qualities that should be represented with wearing that jersey that Chucky (Mullins) wore. The one thing that I keep coming back to is when (Shackelford) was awarded it this time, Trea Southerland, a previous award winner, said it was one of the highest honors he'd ever received. That's a great statement, but the statement he followed that with really hit me. He said, "I wonder if Chucky would say they got the right guy." We can sit here and debate all day long the qualities that make up the right guy. One thing I know is about the right kind of people is that they finish. I don't think anybody can debate that one. That doesn't mean they don't fall off of cliffs, fall down or make mistakes. You get up and you finish. I think D.T. models that pretty dang well."
On the LSU freshmen…
"They're definitely getting better every week. I recruited a lot of those guys. They're quality kids and really quality players that are coming into their own. They're coming into their own and playing more comfortable in the arenas that they're in. They're doing what they're being asked to do. We've had our experience playing with young kids here and seeing the development of those kids. Theirs are doing the same thing."
On players throwing up Landshark symbol…
"It's perfectly fine for us to do that as long as we're not drawing undue attention to us or trying to show up anyone else. Officials obviously have the right, if they think we're going overboard at any time, to let us know. We appreciate that because that keeps us from getting selfish penalties, which we want no part of. We've been very good in SEC play in the penalty category. The last thing we want is a selfish penalty because we're overdoing something. We appreciate them telling us if they think we're getting out of hand. Ultimately it's their call. I appreciate the communication on it."
On Trae Elston…
"I'm really pleased with Trae. He's been very solid. I love his development as a young man. He's like any of us, when you make mistakes they get highlighted more than any of your successes. That's kind of the way our world works. It's not something that I like. It's just the way it is. I'd love to see some positive attention come his way. He's playing outstanding football and is one of our more solid players on defense."
On staff maturity…
"This staff has been together for a long time - the core of it. We know each other's strengths, weaknesses and hot spots. We just get along. There are no egos. The chemistry is great. As far as maturing on the field, all of us have. You adapt to what your strengths are. That's probably my high school background. All of us start maturing to where we're playing to each other's' strengths. Dan (Werner) is playing to his strengths of third-down preparation and us just dividing up and having great trust and confidence in each other. Our kids feed off of that. They see this staff is united. When they see us interact, they see those qualities within our staff. The longer you're together, the more that occurs. It helps us with the chemistry, also."
On not playing as much tempo…
"We're ready to go tempo. The people that want to critique things will look at it and say, 'He's not doing that anymore. That's going to hurt us in the long run.' Each game has a life of its own. Each play is a life of its own. I know that if the team is struggling to move the ball and score points, I think I should be smart in how we attack. That's really what has happened in almost every game. If we're struggling to stop them, that changes my thought process some and the way we'll go about attacking. The thing that I do believe is we manage the game so that we're around it in the fourth quarter and let's go from there. We still throw it in tempo every now and then. There are people saying we pulled back and went so slow last week. We still had 78 plays. That's pretty good, and we didn't convert third downs the entire first half and still had 78. Every game has a life of its own. We still practice tempo every day. Is it the smartest thing to do all the time right now with the way our defense is playing and getting turnovers? It hasn't been thus far. We've played it right thus far. The next game could change."
On Senquez Golson's success this year…
"It doesn't surprise me. I can't say I always expected that he would reach it, until fall camp this year when I saw he had really bought in. I expected him to have a much better year. I don't think there's any accident that the little things around his life, around academics and off the field that it's a direct correlation to how he's playing. Those things all matter in a team and in an individual. He's always had the talent and the athletic ability. It's really not surprising that he's playing this well."
On goal weight for Marquis Haynes…
"You'd like to see him in the range of 240-250 eventually and keep his speed. That's always a guessing game with Paul (Jackson) and his staff to kind of manage. He's probably in the 220 range right now. I would think in time he could get towards 240 or 250 and keep his same speed. That would be nice. With his frame, he doesn't need to be any bigger than that."
On injuries…
"Collins (Moore) had surgery. It was just not getting well. He will not be back this year. He had surgery last week. He says he's feeling much better. That's his status. Injury wise, Ben Still has a sprained MCL. Justin Bell and Aaron Morris have ankles that are sprained. We have a shoulder for Laquon. With the exception of Ben Still, I feel confident everybody will be ready to go except that one."
On loss to LSU two years ago…
"I remember that game having a blast. That game will always stand out as one of the most enjoyable games I've coached in. Matt Luke was having fun, which is rare. We were super competitive and right there in it. Had it not been for a punt return, who knows what the outcome would have been? I had a blast. It was, at that point, a moral victory. We go down there in year one and compete. Obviously we did not pull it off, but we had a lot of fun that day."
On how the message has changed since year one…
"We don't talk about going to play anybody close right now. We want to get a plan together and prepare like we're going to win. Hopefully have a chance in the fourth quarter to do so."
On Robert Conyers potentially starting at center and Kailo Moore on defense…
"Robert Conyers will go in. He played almost all of the second half last week, which he's been doing that. He's been rotating everywhere. He would be the guy if Ben can't go. Kailo Moore recovered a huge fumble against Alabama. He caused that one the other day. He played corner in the fourth quarter and graded out really, really high. He's just a tremendous athlete. He's new on the defensive side. It's kind of like he's a freshman over there. He's coming on nicely. He's a guy on our coverage units. He's a guy we feel like can keep us from giving up explosive big plays. We're really thrilled with his development."
Senior QB Bo Wallace
On in-game talking with A.J. Johnson…
"It was just a football game. We were two people talking. That's just what it was. It was all in fun."
On playing at LSU two years ago…
"I remember the atmosphere. We were playing really well. We were young and really didn't realize what we were doing. We were out there just playing as hard as we could. It's fun to play down there. I'm looking forward to it."
On not converting as many third downs…
"The last two teams we played had a good third-down plan. I haven't watched any of LSU so I don't know what they do. Tennessee came out with something we weren't expecting. They gave us two coverages. The coverage could stop us on two of the play calls we called. We have to get better on third down, for sure."
On Robert Conyers…
"When they're switching out, I really don't notice any difference at all in the snaps or the calls. I'm totally comfortable with both of them."
On comfort knowing coaches will figure out a game plan…
"We never panicked on the sidelines. We talked to Coach (Paul) Jackson. He talks to us Sunday before our workout and he talked about how he got kind of worried that we weren't going to get it going. The players were looking at him like, 'Calm down. We got it. We're going to open this up.' That's just a huge thing for our offense and our maturity. We don't' get down or nervous or anything like that. We know that we're going to come back and put points on the board."
On comfort level with defense…
"That's what it is. The big thing for me is I'm not trying to mess it up. I'm going in and trying to not have any turnovers. The defense is playing well. If we punt it past the 50-yard line, they're probably not going to get points. It makes me feel a lot more comfortable."
On throwing slant passes…
"It's what I'm seeing pre-snap. I'll try to throw it and the corner will jump it. We have to adjust this week so that they can't do that. That's all it is. They're jumping routes, and I have to do something else with it."
