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Coach Johnson’s Monday Press Conference
9/5/2005
The Vanderbilt football coaching staff worked through the Labor Day holiday in preparation for this weekend’s game at Arkansas (Saturday, Sept. 10, 6 p.m. CT). Midday, Head Coach Bobby Johnson met with members of the Nashville media for his weekly press conference.
Head Coach Bobby Johnson
Monday, Sept. 5, 2005
(Opening Statement)
“I think the key thing for us is we have got to be prepared to move on. We got a good win on the road, but the key thing for us is to concentrate on Arkansas. We don’t need to be thinking about Wake Forest, we need to move ahead and prepare to play a very good football team and a very athletic football team. That’s what we tried to do yesterday in what was really our first practice since the game last week and we had a good one. We’re a little bit ahead of schedule so we tried to take advantage of that and we got down to business yesterday.”
(On Celebrating the Wake Forest Victory)
“We celebrated on the way back from Winston-Salem and we celebrated on Friday when we watched the film. On Sunday, it was all Arkansas and that’s what we tried to get their minds on. I think it’s human nature to think about what you just accomplished and so you have to remind them that if we keep thinking about Wake Forest, it’s going to be too late to beat Arkansas. You have got to get on it right away. We’re ready to move on.”
(On Vanderbilt’s rush defense)
“We’ve been discussing that quite a bit. I’m sure they’re licking their chops. We have got to get better at stopping the run. Wake Forest’s slogan this year is ‘The Rush Is On.’ They like to do it. They build their program around it, but Arkansas does too. Even with Matt Jones, a great quarterback, they were a running football team. They smash people. So we have got to be prepared and we have got to do a better job. We don’t have a choice. We have got to be committed to the run.
“I think a lot of times we were a little too tentative. I think we need to attack more. Sometimes we’d beat a block and it was almost like we’re going to wait on a ball carrier to get to us before we were going to tackle him. We just have to go and attack more.”
(On game preparation)
“Sometimes you almost have too much information. We had so many tendencies on Wake Forest with all of last year’s film and I think we were just hunting around and saying ‘When are they going to run that play we practiced 43 times against?’ and they never did it. So maybe with just one game of statistics and tendencies and we’ll play Arkansas a little more wide open — I hope so.”
(On Arkansas’ running game)
“They had three of them rush over 100 yards, so pick your poison. We didn’t see a drop off on any of them. They’re quality backs and you’d expect that at a school like Arkansas. Plus, they’ve got a great offensive line with big ol’ guys who can move. They don’t call them Hogs for nothing — they are.”
(On Arkansas’ QB Robert Johnson)
“Quarterbacks in the SEC get to the SEC because they’re pretty good. Number one, the guy’s got a great name — Robert Johnson. You can look at him and see he’s got talent. He can throw the football, he can run and he’s got great mobility, he’s just inexperienced. The talent is there. I’m sure they’ll develop him and work their game plan to use his talents as best they can.”
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