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Coach Johnson’s Monday Press Conference
8/30/2004
Coach Johnson’s Monday Press Conference
Coach Johnson addressed the media on Monday afternoon at the McGugin Center. Below is a transcript of his weekly press conference.
Coach Johnson’s opening statement…
“Welcome back. It’s great to be here on game week. We’re excited to get the season started. Our guys have worked extremely hard. It seems like it’s been about three years since we started practice here in the preseason, so they’re anxious to get started, and so are we.”
On the emphasis put on the South Carolina game by media…
“We’re putting a lot of emphasis on it, too. It’s the very first game, it’s a conference game. It’s against a team that wants to prove that they’re going to be a whole lot better than they were last year. I think it’s full of challenges for us, so I don’t think we’ll have trouble getting the attention of our players. As far as ‘make or break’, we look at every one of them that way. If you don’t win this one, you can’t go back sometime later in the year and say ‘let’s play that game again.’ You have to do it right now. That’s the type of urgency we have. I think our guys realize that this is a very important game for our program.”
On starting the season with a conference game…
“You look at the pros — they have four or five preseason games while they’re trying to things going. If you looked at the Southern Cal/Virginia Tech game, there were about eight penalties in the first seven plays, or something like that. It’s hard to be extremely sharp right off the bat. But both teams have to deal with that. They (the Gamecocks) have the same problems that we have. On the other hand, I think it does give your guys something to shoot for very early in the season. I think it has made our camp very lively.”
On scouting South Carolina…
“They sort of pushed us around in the first half last year. They’re very physical. They spread you out and make you do things — you have to make the choice to cover receivers or play the run. They’re going to try to make you choose and then beat you based on that.”
On the effect of history to the team psyche…
“I don’t think they’re thinking about that when the kickoff goes tumbling down the field. It’s all about preparation, remembering what you’ve done in practice and how much confidence you have in your teammates. I haven’t heard anybody on the sideline discussing the ’82 bowl team.”
On quarterback Jay Cutler…
“I think we have the weapons to allow Jay to use his talents. Jay has done a remarkable job, as a used-to-be young quarterback, of recognizing things that he had to improve upon. He took it upon himself to come to the coaches and say, ‘I want to do better at this; I want to protect the ball better; I want to make better decisions, get us out of bad plays.’ He came to us wanting to do that. That tells you how much dedication he has, and how much he wants to get better. We couldn’t ask for a better one. I wouldn’t want to trade him for anybody.”
On bowl talk in the media…
“Yeah, that’s premature. People keep telling me about this easy schedule that we have, but we’re playing four teams in the top 12. It’s business as usual, as far as the schedule goes. And you know, if you’re looking past the season, you’re not looking at the season. We’re trying to concentrate on what we’re going right now.”
On noticed player improvement during preseason camp…
“Probably Kevin Joyce is one of the guys that I think has really stood out, as far as improvement. First of all, he’s a little bigger, a little stronger. He’s learned his position a lot better. He’s making plays, he’s around the football a great deal. And off the top of my head, obviously, Trey Holloway. He’s gone from defensive line to center, and he’s done an outstanding job. I can’t say enough about his dedication to the team and his sacrifice for the team. He was probably going to start on the defensive line and there was no guarantee that he was going to be the starting center. But he gladly went over because he knew we needed him. He’s done a great job and hasn’t missed a beat. He’s practicing as hard as he possibly can.”
On defensive end Jovan Haye…
“Jovan will certainly garner attention, no doubt about it. People will do things to try and take care of him. They’ll probably chip him with some backs, double-team him in certain situations. Hopefully we can get enough people on the line of scrimmage at moments when they can’t guarantee that they’ll be able to double-team him, or they’ll have to turn somebody loose. Jovan would gladly take up two blockers if that would free somebody else up for the quarterback. He’s got a good handle on it, and I don’t think it’ll be a problem.
“He has so much pure desire, speed and strength, but the great thing I see about Jovan is that he has learned so much over the last two years from Coach David Turner. He is now taking it upon himself to help those young defensive ends — especially David Carter, who we think has a lot of potential. You see how much Jovan pays attention because he’s able to get all the details and then pass them along. When he’s doing that, you know he’s got it under control.”
On the team’s improvement from Johnson’s arrival at Vanderbilt in 2002…
“Well, we’ll find out, but I think this team is a good bit better. Obviously, it starts with a quarterback that now has two years of experience under his belt. I think we’re bigger, we’re faster, stronger — you can verify that on paper. As far as catching up to the schedule that we have to play, we’ll have to wait until the season is over to judge how well we’ve done with that. Most of the teams we’re playing are trying to improve just the same as we are, and a bunch of them have.”
On VU running backs Norval McKenzie and Kwane Doster…
“Right now Norval is the No. 1. That may change tomorrow. I don’t think there’s a magic formula. Norval is running well. I don’t think that in our system a tailback can go the whole game without being spelled. We need to keep somebody in there fresh, and they’re both very capable, so we wouldn’t hesitate to put Kwane in there. Kwane’s going to be returning kickoffs, so that’s a factor. We’ll just see how it’s going.”
On placekicking…
“Patrick Johnson is probably a little bit ahead right now. He’s got more height on his kicks. He’s been extremely accurate. His first year, it was a very difficult position to call. Greg Johnson was a good kicker and he won the position. Last year, Patrick was hurt most of the year. That kept him from being the best he could be and he was very inconsistent. But now, he’s feeling great, and he’s been kicking great.”
Junior quarterback Jay Cutler
On the expectations for the coming season and the importance on the first game…
“There’s some bowl talk around town about this team. But we’re focused on this game. We’re not putting our eggs in one basket. If we do lose this game, which we’re trying not to, we’ve got 10 more games to play. We’re looking at it like that. We’re going to do everything in our power to win this game. We’re just concentrating on ourselves right now and doing what we have to do.”
Junior safety Kelechi Ohanaja< P>
On defensive preparation for the opening game…
“The main thing is that we just want to play assignment football. Just read your keys and do what you have to do. We just need to play as a team and do all the things that we stress on a weekly basis.”
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