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Coach Johnson Holds Weekly Press Conference
11/10/2003
Coach Johnson Holds Weekly Press Conference 11-10-03
Coach Johnson will address the local Nashville media every Monday of game week. Click below for the press conference transcript and game notes for the upcoming game.
Game Notes
Bobby Johnson Monday Press Conference in preparation for Kentucky, Nov. 10, 2003
Opening statement?
“Another tough game for us in a pretty hostile place to play – down in the Swamp, with all those fans and a pretty good Florida team. I thought we did some very good things, but did not help our selves enough to get a chance to win the football game. There certainly were some key moments in the game where I felt like, if we’re going to win the game, we need to step up and do some things. We weren’t able to get that done in several key areas of that football game. We’re going to try to work on those things, try to make our guys aware of some of those situations, and keep working hard to try and get ready for Kentucky, because it’s our last home game. We want to have a very positive performance against Kentucky, and if we can do that, we think we will have a chance to win.”
On quarterback Jay Cutler’s play against Florida?
“Jay is a very good quarterback. Jay is put under a lot of pressure. One of the interceptions was right before the half, and it was a desperation attempt on our part. He did a great job just to get the pass off. Two of them were really bad throws. And I thought the last one was just a really great play by their cornerback, [Keiwan] Ratliff. Jay does so many things for us. When things happen to go wrong for him, they really stand out. But Jay is one of our most reliable performers.”
On offensive tackle Justin Geisinger?
“He’s got a hamstring strain. I think he is feeling much better than he did right after the game. We hope he is going to be ready to go. And certainly, we need Justin Geisinger. I think Justin Geisinger is one of the best offensive tackles in this league. He does a great job for us. He’s very consistent, and tough, and plays a lot of plays. He takes on whomever those other great teams we have been playing stick at him. We would love to have him back and be ready to go. That would give us a better chance to win the game.”
On wideout Erik Davis?
“Erik is making some big plays for us. He seems to find a way to get open. Erik would be the first one to tell you that he needs to improve on a lot of things — there are some dropped passes, he has to be a little bit better blocking. Those things will get better as he gets older and has more experience. As far as running routes, catching the football and making big plays, I think Erik is doing everything we thought he would do and hoped he would do.”
On Kentucky quarterback Jared Lorenzen?
“I can honestly say that he is not similar at all (to any other quarterback Vanderbilt has played), any way you look at it. I’ve seen big defensive linemen have trouble bringing him down. I’ve seen him make the most unbelievable plays. Somehow, when he throws the ball it gets close to a Kentucky guy, and he’s not even looking at [his receivers]. He knows where they are and where they are going to be, and he makes some plays for them. Their third-down conversion rate is about 43%, and that is a direct result of him making big plays in situations where people are hanging on him and somehow, either running the ball or passing he gets a first down. He’s pretty remarkable.”
“I quit a long time ago trying to figure out what the NFL wants and needs at any position, but I know this: he’s a competitor. He’s a good athlete. He’s a strong player. The best thing about his is that he just competes as hard as any quarterback I’ve ever seen. He’s tough.”
On Kentucky’s use of two quarterbacks, Lorenzen and Shane Boyd?
“That gives you problems. Both of them in the game, you don’t know what’s going to happen. Kentucky keeps you on your toes. They have a lot of things that they do to make sure you’re paying attention, like reverses. One time, Lorenzen was acting like he was directing traffic and then they snapped it to Boyd. It fooled everybody. It’s actually a lot of fun to watch.”
On Kentucky wideout Derek Abney?
“I don’t think he gets enough credit as a receiver. Everybody talks about his punt returning and kickoff returning, but I don’t think he gets enough credit for receiving. He does a great job. He’s another one of the guys that I think is responsible for their third-down conversion rate, which is pretty high. And with that punt return record, he has my respect, because most of those records were set back in the days when you couldn’t substitute freely and you had offensive linemen covering punts. Nowadays, when he’s been doing it, everybody gets their very best athletes on the field on punt teams and kickoff teams, so he’s done it against the very best. It’s a remarkable record.”
“We’re going to try not to (punt to Abney). Sometimes you get in trouble trying to place punts in certain situations. You kick it out of bounds and it goes about 10 yards. Sometimes it’s not worth it. But we’re going to study it. We’ll let you know after the game if it worked.”
On linebacker Moses Osemwegie?
“Moses is a very good linebacker. He had a great game against Florida. He’s very physical, but he can run. He makes plays against the pass and the run. He does exactly what we ask him to do. He seems to be very consistent. We are extremely pleased with his development and his play this year.”
“Hopefully he got his career limit last year on injuries. It is so much more fun for a guy like Moses, not having to nurse those things. It makes him much more effective. It’s amazing how much better it makes you when you’re practicing. Last year he was hurt so much that he couldn’t practice. Now, when you’re healthy and you get out there and get all the reps in practice it certainly makes you better in the game.”
On similarities between Kentucky and Vanderbilt?
“Sometimes they do (have trouble running the ball), just like we do. Sometimes they can run the football. The first drive when they played Florida, they came out in an I-backfield, just ran it right down the field and scored easily. At certain times, they’ve been able to run the football. They might have an injury in the line here or there, but I don’t know why they struggle sometimes and sometimes they don’t. We’re going to have to play well. We’ve had trouble stopping the run. I’m sure they’re looking at that, and I’m sure they’re going to want to run the football against us.”
On the coaching transition from Guy Morriss to Rich Brooks at Kentucky?
“Coach Morriss did a great job of establishing the run at Kentucky. They got hard-nosed and tough, and it helped their defense. Coach Brooks is certainly a defensive coach and wants to do that. I’m sure he wants to run. They’ve got weapons, too, at wide receiver and quarterback, and I’m sure he wants to use those weapons. I think they’re done a good job of continuing the toughness theme at Kentucky that I didn’t think they had several years ago.”
On Vanderbilt’s losing streak?
“We don’t talk about the streak. We talk about this week’s game. We’re trying to beat Kentucky. We’re not worrying about what happened at Florida, except for trying to correct mistakes — we’re just moving on. We’re trying to win this week’s game against Kentucky — period.”
On the rivalry between Kentucky and Vanderbilt?
“It should be good — we’re right next to each other. I’m sure it’s been sort of a natural rivalry. Both teams in the past probably looked and said, ‘hey, we can beat this team.’ So they played hard against each other and that’s what happens.”
On Kentucky’s 7 OT loss to Arkansas?
“I’m still watching [the film of that game]. It takes about four hours to watch it. If we spend all our time on that game, we won’t get to see any others. That was a tremendous game.”
On Abney’s 10 catches against Arkansas?
“Somehow he finds a way to get in the little openings, and when Lorenzen starts scrambling I think that’s his cue to get open and get somewhere Jared can find him and get him the football. When the ball is around him, he’s going to catch it. And he’s tough. He’s taken some licks — in the film that I’ve seen from this year and last, he takes it, then he gets up and just keeps on going. He’s a tough player.”
On addressing the losing streak with players?
“I try to keep them focused on the game at hand. People bring it up. I can’t worry about the other 23 games that happened before. We can’t do anything about them. We can’t go back and win those. We can just try to win the next one.”
On Jay Cutler’s confidence?
“Jay is hard on himself, but he’s hard on himself for a reason — he wants to get better. Jay is very confident in his ability. He knows that if he does the right things he is going to be successful. I think that sometimes Jay thinks he has to do something extra for us to have a chance to win, and he might try to make plays sometimes that aren’t there. But I’m not worried about Jay’s confidence, he’s one of the best things we’ve got going in my opinion.”
On spreading the ball around in the passing game?
“Sometimes you have to take what the defense is giving you. For example, the pass to the fullback: Against Florida, Matthew Tant caught several, one for a touchdown. Clark Lea caught came in and made a great catch. That’s a product of being able to take advantage of what you’ve got. And we run in receivers often to keep people fresh and take advantage of certain people’s ability to block, things like that. So we’re going to have some people in the game. We have several tight ends that can catch the ball, so we try to take advantage of that, too. I don’t think its that unusual with the substitution patterns that we have.”
On placekicker Patrick Johnson?
“Patrick was injured earlier in the year. We fully anticipated for Patrick to be the kicker this year after Greg Johnson left. He strained a thigh muscle early in the year, and it really affected his confidence, I think, more than the physical part of the kicking. He kept working, kept trying to get better. He gets it up high and is pretty consistent. He hit the first one he tried in college, which is pretty good, but he missed a big one when we had a chance to get within eight (points of Florida). He’ll be the first one looking at film and trying to figure out what happened and what went wrong. He says he’s already got it figured out and he’ll get it corrected. We’ll probably continue with Patrick right now. Hopefully he’ll get confident. That’s probably about 90% of kicking.”
On the SEC’s decision to use the BCS standings as a tiebreaker for divisional championships?
“I think it was the right decision. I think they used some common sense and did a good job.”
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