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Coach Johnson’s Monday Press Conference
9/19/2005
Vanderbilt head football coach Bobby Johnson addressed the media Monday in advance of this weekend’s game against Richmond. An excerpt of Coach Johnson’s press conference can be found below, or seen by clicking the link above.
Head Coach Bobby Johnson
Monday, September 19, 2004
(Opening statement)
“We’re excited about being 3-0, but after watching the film Sunday we realize that we have a lot of work to do and we have a lot of room for improvement and that’s what we hope to accomplish this week. We want to get better as a football team and prepare ourselves to play Richmond, who I know will be extremely fired up about coming to Nashville and trying to spoil our day.”
(On areas of improvement)
“We have to be more consistent punting the football, and we did not do a very good job of coverage. We had a coverage breakdown against Mississippi that allowed them to get an easy touchdown and get back in the football game. The kickoff coverage needs to improve. We have got to do a lot better job with that. We actually played pretty well on defense except for a couple plays where we allowed them to cut back. They had two huge yard-gainers on those two plays and other than that we played very well against the run. But there’s always improvement available. The offense can play better, even though we had 523 yards. Everybody strives to get better every week.”
(On quarterback containment)
“We keep working at it. It ended up not being a containment issue Saturday, we would contain him we just wouldn’t tackle him. We’d just sit there staring at him. We just need to be more aggressive and trust ourselves that we can get in there and make the tackle. I think the guys were a little tentative because we were saying, ‘We’ve got to contain the guy, we’ve got to contain the guy.’ That’s probably my fault because you can contain the guy and never tackle him and that’s not very good either. So it has to be a little bit more of a mix of aggression and using the right technique. If you use the right technique and rush where the coach tells you to rush you can contain them and make the tackle.”
(On the renewed excitement on campus)
“I’m not stupid, I’m taking it with a little bit of a grain of salt because I know things can change, but I want our student body to be fired up, and I’m glad they are. We are enjoying it because it helps us. Our guys feel better going across campus, going to class. The atmosphere is better at the game. It was unbelievable after the game and we know what causes it — and that’s winning. (The Ole Miss victory) was extremely important because the students were coming out to see if it was all true. They had a good outflow of fans. The freshmen before the game, they were in the tunnel between our dressing room and Mississippi’s dressing room and they were extremely loud and that got our guys fired up. We’ll take advantage of it and we want to thank our students for doing that.”
(On how the 3-0 start has helped recruiting)
“I can’t comment too much on recruiting, but it certainly helps our pitch about being in the SEC and also being one of the Top-20 rated universities in the country. We like that combination and when you can sell that and the fact that if we get enough people in here and play consistent, then we can win. That really makes it attractive. So we’re trying to make hay while the sun shines, as they say.”
(On senior tight end Dustin Dunning’s big catches)
“They are impressive. He’s got great hands and Dustin is faster than most people think so he can get down the field and really stretch the secondary. He makes some good catches. But we thought that last year. We kept him in during passing situations where we would go four-wide instead of going three-wide. We’d keep Dustin in there and split him out a little bit and use him. It hasn’t been a secret with us. Obviously, he’s made some extremely key catches in the first three games that have helped us win.
(On SEC Defensive Player of the Week senior linebacker Moses Osemwegie)
“It is an excellent honor. We’re very pleased with that. Moses had a great game and made a huge play at the end, obviously, when he contained the quarterback, sacked the quarterback, caused a fumble and recovered it. I asked him why he didn’t pick it up, run and score, but he knew the game was going to be over if he fell on it. And he’s a smart player, just like when he intercepted the pass at Arkansas and he got on the ground.”
(On the closing of the gap between 1-A and 1-AA programs)
“There are so many transfers now that go from 1-A to 1-AA and they’re immediately eligible, so you can get some pretty good players. And if you look through the draft, over the years, there have been some excellent players come from 1-AA. And you’ve seen a bunch of upsets. Believe me, I’m well aware of all of that. That’s why we’re trying to prepare and make sure we get ready to play and we’ll take care of Vanderbilt first, and then we’ll worry about Richmond.”
(On the biggest difference in this year’s team)
“Probably a little maturity helps, especially in key possessions. We’ve got a quarterback who’s starting now and it’s his fourth year starting. And he’s seen just about every kind of blitz and every kind of zone-blitz package and defense that you can see. And you can see how well he reacted at Arkansas to those kinds of things, where he was getting them every play. People like Dusting Dunning and those guys coming through for us. Erik Davis, a senior; Moses Osemwegie, a senior. Those guys are coming through because they have a lot of experience and they’re leaders and it just sort of trickles down to the rest of the guys. And I think we have some talented young players who are stepping up and not resigning to the fact that, ‘well, I’m young, I don’t make plays.’ Jonathan Goff, I think, is one of those guys. Reshard Langford made some good plays. Earl Bennett, a true freshman, he returned a punt and caught about four balls. The combination of senior leadership, maturity and talented youngsters is probably the biggest difference.”
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