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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Hugh Freeze Grove Bowl Press Conference
4/11/2015 | Football
Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze met with reporters following the Regions Bank Grove Bowl, which saw the Blue team defeat the Red team 17-7.
Opening statement...
"We had a good spring. We battled through being short-handed at some spots. We had to fight through that. We got through today's game with the offensive line position. I thought that a lot of kids improved and the effort was good all the time. We are searching for more consistency at certain spots, wide receiver really jumps out to me. Quarterback does too, of course. We should be further ahead at wide receiver than where we are. We are having far too many drops as you saw today. Quarterback play was good. But then you missed a couple of touchdowns on plays you have to hit. Our kids know that and they get that. Saw some positives from all three that we can build upon going into the offseason. But, we have certainly got to get some more consistency at those two spots, particularly. There were some good runs I noticed by Akeem Judd and Jordan Wilkins. Not that the others didn't, those just kind of jumped out at me during the game. I thought that there was some solid play on defense. Tee Shepard was solid all day at corner. Tony Bridges got beat on one deep ball. He is a little too aggressive. We need to slow him down just a bit; he had a few too many penalties. All in all, I am excited about where we are. I think we have the chance to be a good football team. Like everything else, this league is so difficult and so evenly matched that you have to make the most of your time between now and the next opportunity you have to be a team. That doesn't just mean the time that you are in the weight room, the time you are studying film, or the time you are just working extra, but also the decision-making process in off-field situations in both social issues and academics. Both of these things play a role in what we will become. The great thing about it is that we have the opportunity to control all of that. The tough thing is that you have to depend on 120 guys to hopefully make right decisions for a long period of time. This is the period of time that is great for coaches in the sense that you get to enjoy a little bit of time with your family, go out and evaluate talent, have camps, enjoy a little fishing and golf, in my case. It is also the same time that you wake up at night hoping and praying that our kids are buying into making right decisions knowing that they affect everyone in this room.
On getting more offense today...
"In our last few scrimmages we have moved the ball. We probably would have gotten a little more if I let them go a little more tempo. We had made our mind up that they were going to go at our fastest tempo in the first quarter. I let the red squad do a little more when they got behind in the fourth quarter. Really, we had chances for some explosive plays that we didn't make. I think that would have put some more points on the board. You really never know though. When you divide up, there are matches that make you nervous. You would think, is this going to be a train wreck? But, our kids competed hard and I wasn't really surprised."
On the quarterback leader...
"I am very optimistic. I told ESPN yesterday, my mind would go back and forth from drill to drill. If I let you watch the drills you would probably agree with me. After one drill I'd like that one, after the next drill I'd like that one. So, I go back and forth. In the totality of spring, going back before today, I would say that Ryan Buchanan had a lead in my mind. That certainly doesn't mean that he is going to be the starter. After today I will go back and watch the film and put it with our cumulative stats and everything else that we are judging on them. We will see where it is after today. Again, even if we say that he has the lead, it is so minute and so small and so far from being over. That is everything being transparent and that is how I felt today. I might feel differently come Monday. I will watch the film this weekend and we will see."
On the receivers not progressing...
"We are going to shake out of it. They are going to be fine. With the exception of maybe two guys that I can think of, there has been very little continuity of who is working every day with the quarterbacks due to injuries. Hopefully that has something to do with it. These guys have to be one of the strengths of our team and I think that they will be. Derrick Jones has had an outstanding spring. Then today he drops two balls that he hasn't dropped all spring. Kids make mistakes. We will go out and play the next play. It is not what I want to see. I do not enjoy seeing that. I am a former receivers coach. We are going to make sure that they get ready."
On Tee Shepard's hamstring...
"Tee might have just been gassed. I'll have to go see after. I am not sure how bad it was, or how much he was just tired."
On having multiple quarterbacks...
"If they are as close as they are now, I could see us going a couple games making sure we have done due diligence in naming a starter. But, I do not want to do it beyond that or even if that. It wouldn't shock me to go into week one planning to give them all reps to look at how they do when the lights come on. We won't go too long like that. I don't mind playing a couple, but you need to have a guy that is your guy when the time comes."
On Chad Kelly's off-field decisions...
"I don't worry just about him. I worry about all 120 guys. In this world of social media that we live in, there are people itching to make a story about something. As you all know, a normal college student can make decisions that are not in the best interest of them, but they can make them in that moment. We have all been there. It can happen. It is certainly not just Chad Kelly, it is all 120 of them that I worry equally about."
On the middle linebacker position...
"We still have a ways to go. I look forward to Shawn Curtis getting here and adding some depth to that. There is no question that Temario Strong and Christian Russell made improvements. We think that C.J. Johnson can do a lot of things for us. We just have to plan exactly what we are going to do with him, come fall camp, and figure out what looks he is best at. That will be a rotation there. You need to do that anyway and we will play to our strengths at that position."
On Chad Kelly's growth...
"He has probably grown more as a person, than as a player. He had really good football IQ. He understands the game. Now, our stuff is brand new to him, so that is an adjustment period. He has been here a semester now. On that last play Kelly made at the end, I saw the call, and in his mind I understand why. We were in a 3-by-1 set and he totally thought that the route that was called was to the left side and it was really to the right side. Those are just some of the things that he will get adjusted to the more he learns our system. There is a transition period and I think that it is still ongoing in regards to football. I have been really pleased with how he has handled himself off-field, socially, academically and the decision-making process he has been choosing."
On Coach Werner and the players responding to QBs...
"I am going to meet with each of the position coaches after we get the grades in. We are going to look at the totality of the spring, the production and how pleased we are with each position. From there I will make my recommendations of what I see and what we have to improve on in the off-season so we can get a plan together for these men to do it. Coach Werner will be just like any other coach. I will have a conversation with him. We will go through the way he sees things right now and the way I see things right now. We will get a plan together about how to continue and how to help the quarterbacks grasp our concepts and get done what we want to get done in the off-season."
On Jordan Wilkins...
"Wilkins is going to be a solid player for us. He is a good pass protector and a hard runner. He can get the football out of the backfield. I think he sees that now is his time to start getting more reps and more opportunities to help this football team. He has been good this spring."
On the defense....
"I thought they gave up the possibility of too many big plays. But, with the blue team up front, Issac Gross and Breeland Speaks and those guys caused havoc all day on the red backfield. I was pleased with that front. The red defense didn't start with a great edge, but some of that credit goes to the blue offense at the start of the game with some good tempo. Defensively we caused two turnovers late, that I know of, but up until that point I thought the offense took care of the ball well."
On the faster tempo...
"We have gone back to my Arkansas State days. What I found out last year is that you cannot go from slow to fast, but you can go fast to slow. We have definitely made an emphasis on getting our tempo back. I think our kids handled it well. I think that it helped make us more effective and efficient."
