Oct. 6, 2008
MONDAY PRESS CONFERENCE COVERAGE All Access: Watch Monday’s Press Conference
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Head Coach Bobby Johnson
Quotes from Weekly Press Conference
Monday, October 6, 2008
Mississippi State Game
Opening Statement:
“It was good to get our squad back together yesterday, get the Auburn game behind us, and start concentrating on the Mississippi State game. It’s always going to be a tough battle for us whenever we have to go down to a tough place to play. (Mississippi State) is a team that has had a tough schedule and they’ve had a week off, so they’ll be ready to go. It’s going to be a tough game for us. We’re going to have to work hard to get ready, but I think our guys will be ready to do that. They’ve got great attitudes right now and I think they’re handling everything the right way.”
On the offense picking up in the second half:
“It’s never simple. It was just a matter of what we were trying to do to change at halftime. We tried to throw the ball more often and more effectively and it helped us on offense. We still missed a few, but he (Mackenzi Adams) helped us out tremendously. I think Chris (Nickson) could do that too, but we have two great quarterbacks, so we’re lucky.”
On Chris Nickson’s status:
“We’re hoping he’ll be able to play. We’ll be watching him in practice, seeing how he responds, giving him every test we can and let doctors do their job. Chris wants to be able to play and sort of assumes he’ll be able to get back in there once everything calms down. We’ll just have to see how his throwing motion is affected by this injury and how tender it is, because it was injured on a run, so we need to see if his shoulder could stand being hit.”
On the quarterbacks behind Adams and Nickson:
“We keep getting reps from Jared Funk and Larry Smith and they’re both doing fine. Larry has a huge amount of potential and he’s the younger of the two. It would be an eye-opening experience for either one of them, to tell you the truth. We’ll probably give them a few more reps to see how they’re doing and how they progress, and how they do with what the game plan demands. See how they react this week.”
On what impressed him about Mackenzi Adams:
“He went right into the game and performed well. He was anticipating everything, no hesitation. He practices hard and our staff has a lot of confidence in him. He did what he had to do to get us back into the game. He executed great throws, especially to Justin Wheeler, and I think that was a huge step for us. I don’t think you could pick a few things that would make him better than last year. I think he’s a year older, smarter, he’s done it, seen it, and he’s ready. He likes to do it and he’s ready to get in there.”
On having two proven quarterbacks:
“It is certainly a luxury. We have guys who are ready to play and we have two that have played effectively and we have two others who are ready when we need them. If you only have one, you’re dancing in the wrong area…with the devil. It’s going to bite you later.”
On Patrick Benoist:
“Patrick is really a student of the game in learning what he needs to do, where he needs to be. Our defense is all like that. We don’t have any huge stars, but D.J. (Moore) gets a lot of press because he makes huge plays. We just have guys who know what to do in the right spot and execute the defense and give our guys the opportunity to make a lot of big plays. Patrick started the second half for us in a big way.”
On George Smith returning to the field:
“He’s a great teammate, a great leader, and a great captain, a great guy to have around, he’s a great player. It’s hard for him to not have played all year and then jump in the game against a very fine Auburn defense and expect to be at the top of your game. He wasn’t (at the top of his game), but he made a great catch on the slant down near the goal line, got it down near the 1-yard line. It’s great to have him back and get him better and better as time goes on.”
On Mississippi State:
“Their personnel are very much alike and they are very confident. They won a bowl game, so they have a lot of confidence on defense and have a lot of playmakers. They have steady, hardnosed players, and it’s hard to complete drives and keep them going when they have such a solid defense. A lot of people are doing similar things with spread-out offenses and everyone has their own identity, so it’ll be hard to pinpoint any major similarities in their playing style to Auburn’s.”
On Alex Washington’s return from injury:
“Surgery on an ACL is not easy to overcome, especially the amount of time he had to get ready. We let him go through warm up, throw some balls, but he’s cleared to go and we put him in there when he was ready. It’s a hard step to come in after ACL surgery and it can be hard to gain confidence in your playing and your knee after that kind of surgery. We just have to make him as ready as we can and let him heal. He has to be ready to take a hit, we will let him back in at a gradual pace.”
On the success helping recruiting:
“The recruiting has been going well and it definitely helps when your team continues to win each week. I think the atmosphere Saturday in Vanderbilt Stadium was fantastic and I hope our fans will continue to come out and keep supporting us. It was a great crowd against Auburn and they stayed after the game, and our students were there early. According to ESPN, the College GameDay crowd was one of the best atmospheres they have ever had. All this stuff is important when you’re talking about recruiting.”
On the team’s defense in the second half:
“The best thing that we do is we are figuring out what’s not working well in the first half and we try to eliminate it. This gives our guys a chance to go out there in the second half and be confident in the calls we make. You know when you come up with a game plan the week before, you’re guessing what the other team is going to do against you and how they are going to do it. We saw that in the Auburn game for example. We didn’t see Auburn under center very much and they came out and lined up with two tight ends and two flankers and they just rolled over us for a while. So you have to make adjustments.”
