Coach Johnson Holds Weekly Press Conference

Coach Johnson Holds Weekly Press Conference

9/16/2003

Coach Johnson Holds Weekly Press Conference 9-16-03

Coach Johnson will address the local Nashville media every game week. Click below for live audio of the press conference, transcript, and game notes for the upcoming game.

Game Notes | Archived Audio of press conference

Bobby Johnson Press Conference in preparation for TCU

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Opening statement?

“We’re trying to work on some things to make us better, especially on first and second down offensively. I think we got in too many long yardage situations the other day and that really hurts us. We need to get positive yards on first and second downs and not put our quarterback and offensive linemen in that position any more. Defensively, most of the first half and most of third quarter I thought we played well. We had some missed tackles that created some big plays for Auburn. The first play that they scored on was actually a very aggressive play by us. We had two guys there and the third guy knocked the other two off. You just can’t fault them for that. We’re trying to get better. We’re going to go out and practice today and try to get ready for TCU, who is an excellent football team. They’re big, fast, strong and aggressive on defense. And on offense they do a lot of the things that we try to do, and right now they’re doing them better. They run the option. They have good running backs. They throw the ball effectively, especially if they’re running the football well. All things that we want to do.”

On TCU’s injury situation?

“I do not know for sure, but last week I think they said [quarterback Tye Gunn] was out. We looked in their media guide, and they say that his replacement (Brandon Hassell) throws better and runs better. I think with the running backs, the second-team guy is out. I’m sure it’s a situation where they have confidence in both guys and they won’t hesitate to run their offense like they have been running. I wouldn’t expect many changes.”

On making the defense more complicated against an inexperienced quarterback?

“I think we would end up confusing ourselves more than we would confuse [TCU]. Especially with our amount of practice time and their running the option, we have to be fairly simple and make sure we’re taking care of our responsibilities and not worrying so much about confusing them. I think this quarterback has played before. If you have a lot of changes, your players have to take up that much more practice time on that, and it takes away from the things that you do normally, so I’m not a big fan of that.”

Will Norval McKenzie start at tailback for Vanderbilt?

“Yes. As of today. If he doesn’t practice well, we could always change that. Norval practices hard, as does Kwane (Doster). We’ll probably start Norval right now. He’s doing a very good job. He’s very reliable. He gets positive yards most of the time and I think he has shown a lot of ability.”

On if sophomore tailback Kwane Doster is struggling?

“It seems that way, but I don’t see why. He works hard in practice. He’s as fast as ever. Maybe more people know about him now, and are concerned about him and prepare for him more. We feel like we have two good tailbacks and whoever is playing best is going to be playing. We still have a lot of confidence in Kwane.”

On Ralph McKenzie’s injury?

“He’s going to be iffy. Those high ankle sprains will drive you crazy — the player, the trainer and the coach. Clark Lea had the same thing and we thought he was going to be well. While you’re doing those exercises with the trainer, you feel fine. But when you get outside doing football stuff, you realize that it’s not quite well.”

On Curtis Brancheau’s injury?

“Curtis is day-to-day. We’ll probably take Curtis because I think he’ll be close enough.”

On the improvement of TCU’s program in recent years?

“I think they did it the way we are trying to do it — run the football, be tough on defense, give yourself the best chance to win. That’s what Coach [Dennis] Franchione did with them. I remember when [LaDainian] Tomlinson was running — they ran a lot of option and did some great things. People had a hard time defending them. They’ve had some success and started recruiting better athletes. Their front four is as good as anybody that we saw last year or will see this year. They’ve got a good thing going and it’s a good example for a lot of smaller, private schools that you can do it. [The state of] Texas has a lot of good football players and they’re doing a good job of finding them. Coach [Gary] Patterson was on the staff with Coach Franchione and he did a good job of continuing their rise. I think they’re better. They’re much more athletic. Tomlinson was probably a big gun then, but their talent level is much better across the board now.”

On going on the road for first time this season?

“We’ll try something new here and see if we can get things going. Road trips are kind of fun. You get together as a team, you’re with each other all day Friday. We’ll be waiting all day Saturday for the six o’clock game. It gives you a chance to bond as a team a little bit more and get ready and concentrate on the game, instead of having the distractions you may have at home. I’m not saying we do have any, but it’s possible.”

On correcting the mistakes of last week?

“Well, I think Auburn had a lot to do with our offensive struggles. They’re very good. Their problem in their first two games was not their defense. We’re not going to panic and say ‘we didn’t do well against Mississippi, we didn’t do well against Chattanooga, we just can’t move the ball’ — we’re going to work on fundamentals every day. That includes blocking, tackling. We’ll work on it every day. I think the competition had a lot to do with those mistakes. It’s hard to tackle 6-4, 257 pound guys when you’re 5-8, 175. It’s probably not a lot of fun either.”

On the return of Clark Lea?

“He’s a good blocker. That’s gonna help us. Right now we’re hurting a little bit at fullback. Zeke Brandon is day-to-day with his shoulder and that really prevents him from getting the work he needs in practice.”

On the reaction to Chancellor Gee’s departmental restructuring?

“It’s brand new, it’s fairly innovative, so there are questions about it. What disappointed me was how the message got out — if you looked on the opinion pages we were getting great press, but if you looked on the sports pages it was somewhat cynical and misleading. We’ve reached out to our players first, then our recruits, and told them exactly what was going on. We feel like it’s going to be positive. We feel like it’s going to be a better experience for the student-athlete here at Vanderbilt. But at the same time, we’re not de-emphasizing anything. We’re not going to take away their equipment or practice fields or weight room — nothing like that is going to happen. We’re not getting out of the SEC. Those things were floating all over everywhere within 30 minutes of the announcement, so, yes, we had to do some damage control.”

On preparing for TCU’s offense, which is similar to Vanderbilt’s?

“Well, they do it really well. That’s the part that concerns us most. We understand option– we’ve run it for years and we’ve played against it for years. It’s one thing to understand being in correct position, but it’s another thing to execute your defense, make the tackles and make sure you’re covering all the receivers. That’s what we like to do — run the option, throw some option passes and get people in the wrong place. You’ve got to be really sharp. That’s going to be a great challenge to our defense. The understanding part of it is not too bad for the coaches, but we have to get it communicated to the players and then they have to execute it during the game.”