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Bobby Johnson’s Monday Press Conference
11/15/2004
Bobby Johnson’s Monday Press Conference
Coach Johnson addressed the media Monday to preview Vanderbilt’s matchup with Tennessee on Saturday, Nov. 20.
Head Coach Bobby Johnson’s opening statement:
“Well, obviously we have a very tough week ahead of us. We have a very fine Tennessee team that we have to play, and we have to play them after a disappointing loss to the University of Kentucky. We’ll ask our players one more time to reach down and get ready to practice and prepare to play a game the best way they know how.”
On Tennessee quarterback Rick Clausen…
“This will be their second week of preparation to get a game plan for Rick Clausen, versus a game plan for their other two quarterbacks, so I imagine there will be some tweaking. But if you look at that second half (UT vs. Notre Dame), Rick was 10-of-18 in that half just like Eric Ainge was 11-of-18 in the first half. It’s pretty similar. There was the one interception, but he (Clausen) was really pressured, so it’s hard to blame him for that one. I was pretty impressed with the way he went in, not having played hardly at all, and did a pretty good job.”
On attempting to bring defensive pressure on Clausen…
“That’s one thing you consider doing, of course. But you have to look and anticipate the whole game plan. I’m sure they feel like they can probably do most anything. We’re going to have to be prepared to play the run and the pass. Sometimes you can help yourself with more pressure, but sometimes you can open yourself up to big plays that way.”
On Volunteer defensive tackle Jesse Mahelona and the rest of UT’s defensive line…
“You try to figure out the best schemes you can, get the ball out quickly. Try to go around some of those guys, read them with the option maybe. He’s (Mahelona) not the only great player they have on defense. They’re very strong on defense. You see a lot of times, people will have some good looking plays develop that may break the line of scrimmage, but they don’t get real far. They’ve got great closing speed and great pursuit, and that’s what makes it so hard to drive the ball against them. That’s been the tough thing for us the last two years, especially last year — the first year we were so banged up, I think we had a walk-on tailback in there. It’s just hard to sustain drives against them. You need to have some kind of big play capability, but they have so many athletes it’s hard to get that, too.”
On playing at Vanderbilt Stadium instead of The Coliseum:
“Our guys don’t have any connection with The Coliseum. It doesn’t mean anything to them. I’m glad it’s back on campus, and I think our players are, too. I’m sure our fans are, too.”
On the decision to move the game back to campus:
“When we first moved it down there, I voiced my opinion that I wasn’t really fired up about it. Then, actually, [Vice Chancellor] David Williams came to me, after the change-over, and asked if I would prefer to have it on campus. I said yes, and he got it done. That was his initiative.”
On coaching the previous two years against Tennessee:
“The first year, we could have played eight quarters and we wouldn’t have scored. Last year I was really disappointed. That first year, we didn’t have anybody left — two tailbacks with broken legs and Kwane [Doster] had an injury and couldn’t play — it would have been really tough. But last year, we were coming off a win and thought we would play better. They just got off to a great start and put us behind the eight ball. We were trying to catch up, and you just don’t do a good job against Tennessee in a catch-up mode. They just lay their ears back and go, and you might get a positive play here or there, but if you’re in catch-up mode you’re in a bad position.”
On facing Tennessee after a loss, as opposed to last year:
“Hopefully we can turn the tables on the result of the Tennessee game, too. Coming off a win (last year), we did not play well. Hopefully coming off this disappointing loss will get our guys fired up and angry, and we’ll see if we can come out with some purpose and get ready to play the Volunteers. This is a great challenge. This is a team that had put themselves in position to have an easy way of winning the Eastern Division championship. They’ve had it one win away for the last three weeks, so they’ve got a lot to play for. We know we’ll get their best effort, because they want to get in a good bowl, and they want to win the championship and not have to wait until they play Kentucky to do that.”
On the crowd for Saturday’s game:
“I can’t control that. Unless we start winning games and get our people in the stands. That’s all part of the process. But I can’t control what’s going to happen Saturday. We’ll play, and hopefully our fans will turn up. I know the great loyal Vanderbilt fans will be there and we’ll have some people cheering for us.”
On the frustration of the staff after losses:
“We’re pretty frustrated. The players are frustrated. We’re all frustrated. We’ve analyzed it. We’ve been in the lead in four games in the SEC at halftime, three of them in the fourth quarter. It’s frustrating not to have other wins beside the Mississippi State win. Everybody looks for answers. When you look for certain answers, other questions pop up. It’s no easy answer. It’s just a matter of playing with confidence and getting the players in here that can make plays and do the stuff the whole game. And get more players. We need some more help. Our guys are pretty thin. It’s just all part of the process.”
Talk about the health of your quarterback, Jay Cutler?
“Jay’s good. He came out yesterday and I don’t think he was any worse for wear after the Kentucky game. He’ll be ready to go.”
Can you discuss the troubles with specials teams at Kentucky?
“Well, the short punt — we were trying to directionally kick, kick away from their returner because they had had some success, and that got off the side of his foot. And the block — we made a mistake in the blocking. Somebody picked up the wrong man and we had two people blocking the same guy. The extra point and the field goal were just pulled. He (Patrick Johnson) just pulled it to the left in both cases. And Patrick and I got the film out yesterday afternoon and we looked, and as far as procedure and everything, it looked on tape exactly like his others, we compared it. Something right at the last second affected both kicks.”
On the status of linebacker Moses Osemwegie…
“Moses has a knack for getting around the football and he makes a large majority of his tackles. Moses is one of our best tacklers. He plays hard, plays the way you want him to play. It will hurt us a great deal if we don’t have him in there. We are looking at this ankle, and hopefully he’ll get better and better every day, but if it looks the way it looks today, we’d have to say he’s very questionable to play in the game.”
On nickel situations without Osemwegie…
“We feel pretty good about Jonathan Goff being in the middle. So we’ll take the sam linebacker out and put a defensive back in there and keep Jonathan in the middle. Moses was moving to the middle and Kevin [Joyce] would go to the weak side. We’ll just keep Jonathan in the game. We think he moves well enough to play the pass defenses that we want to play. We’re really pleased with Jonathan. You can tell the way he moves — when Kentucky ran the fake reverse and ran down the sideline, Jonathan ran him down and was looking really good as he was running.”
On VU’s second half woes…
“We’ve addressed it every way we know how to address it right now. We talked about it, some games we’ve tried not talking about it. It’s just a product of not being confident enough right now. And I think fatigue has a little bit to do with it. If it’s not totally physical fatigue, maybe mental fatigue. I think confidence is the main thing.
“If you look back at the Kentucky game, I think there are several instances where our defense stepped up big time. We had a fumble on our first series and they got the ball on about our 30. We forced a field goal, which they missed. We had a short punt of about 10 yards, and we stopped them. They had a blocked punt on about the 20-yard line, and we stopped them; turned it over on downs and made a big play in the end zone. If you look at it, every little bit, there was progress. Offensively, we made way too many mental errors to be consistent in the second half, and we should have put the game away and not have been in that position in the fourth quarter.”
Talk about the upcoming Senior Day for several of your players…
“Some of those guys, the effort they’ve put out…. If I try to mention one or two names I’m going to miss out on all the rest of them. Some of the effort that those seniors have put out for us and this program, and endured all of the criticism and scrutiny of having those kind of seasons. I have a lot of respect for them. And they’re going to be great citizens in this country, and do great things in their lives. And I hope they appreciate that part of their experience at Vanderbilt. They gave every bit of their effort, and I certainly appreciate it.”
On mistakes…
“We’re making mental errors. We may not run the exact route that we need to run, or we may not pick up the right block that we need to pick up. Those mistakes are just as costly as physical mistakes like fumbling, or turning the ball over, or getting penalties. It’s masked by the fact that we don’t make a lot of penalties, but we are sometimes making errors at crucial moments that keep us from being as consistent. Now don’t get me wrong — people make mistakes all over the country. We’re not the only team that makes mistakes.
“Other teams can overcome them. We look at film every week, and there are people running wide-open sometimes, and it seems like every time we let one of them run wide-open, that ball is to them like a magnet. Other teams, they sack the guy before he gets a chance to throw it. Sometimes we just can’t overcome them, and some people do. It’s not an excuse, but I’ve said it before. We have a very small margin of error, and we have to be very good in just about everything we do. I don’t think we make more mental errors, probably less than most teams, but we can’t afford as many as we’re making.”
How would you evaluate Tennessee’s running game?
“That is a real worry on our part. It’s a situation where you can put a whole bunch of guys up there and they’re going to have a whole bunch to block you. We can’t play with 12 or 13 — we could try 13 because its an odd number and would be harder for the referees to recognize, but I don’t think they’ll let us do it. But UT will have the threat of the pass, and we’ll have to honor that. It’s very simple to say that you’re going to bring some more people up there, but it’s a whole lot harder to execute than most people think.”
On preseason expectations…
“I certainly did not want to squelch the enthuasiam and especially our players. I want them to aim high. If you look at it, we had a chance to do that (win six games). We didn’t get things done at the right time and the right place, but we certainly had our opportunities to win six games.”
On building confidence…
“We’re better than even they think they are. We’ve got some guys that have a high level of confidence, but as a team, we need to elevate that and make sure we play up to our abilities, and maybe just a little bit more.”
On Vanderbilt players going to the NFL…
“We know that. We’ve known it since we’ve been here. When we first got here, we had more linebackers and defensive backs in the NFL than any other SEC team. I don’t think that’s a secret. But this is a team game and you have to have everybody on the same page. One outstanding player is not going to get it done. We’re going to try to build our team from the bottom. We’re trying to get it done right now. But it is an inspiration.
“Some of these guys played with [Chicago Bears linebacker] Hunter [Hillenmeyer]. He’s not that much more of a physical specimen than some of the guys that we’ve got. It’s all a matter of what you feel like you can do, and how much you study, and how much you prepare yourself. I think it’s a great example for our guys to see a guy like that be successful in the NFL.”
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