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10/16/2006 Bobby Johnson: Well it is certainly good to be on the other side of one of those close games and I am very proud of our team for making some plays in the fourth quarter and pulling out a good win. We enjoyed it over the weekend and then got started back Sunday afternoon working against South Carolina. We are going to have to play extremely well to have a chance to beat them. So we are back to business as usual. Q: Is this a win that is indicative that this program has turned a corner? Bobby Johnson: There are so many corners to turn that you have got to keep turning every week. We could have easily won the Mississippi game or the Arkansas game and you are still going to have to battle every week and do the very best that you can. But that is why we like being in the SEC. It certainly is a great challenge and our guys like to work against those odds. You just keep battling on. You are not going to get to a point where you say ‘We’re there. We are going to be able to win every week or we are going to have a great chance to win every week.’ It is just not going to happen that way. It is always going to be a work in progress. Our guys are going to have to understand that and I think that they do. They know they can compete and so we will get out there and do our very best every week. Q: Are you able to pinpoint some plays from the Georgia game that you feel allowed you to win a close game after three close SEC losses? Bobby Johnson: No I don’t think so. The good thing on the sideline after Georgia got the interception and ran it in for the touchdown, we just ran the defense out there to try to stop them on the two-point play, which we did. I thought that was a big, big play. I am very proud that they gathered their wits about them and went out there and made a good play. That allowed us to kick the winning field goal instead of trying for a touchdown to win. I think it was a mindset. We don’t need people running up and down the sideline to tell us we’ve got to get fired up and play. They just made up their mind that they were going to do it. Q: Do you think the win over Georgia will allow your team to gain some momentum that will carry through the rest of the season? Bobby Johnson: We hope so. A lot of teams go into Athens, Ga. wanting to win but have a hard time doing it. I think it tells you something about your team, that they had the wits about them to come up with the plays to do it. It ought to help us. Will it? Well, we’ll find out. The biggest thing that helps you is probably preparation on the practice field. If we can continue to do that then maybe we can reach back on some of these experiences that we’ve had and remember the good things and keep on going. Q: How important is it to follow up a game like last week’s with another win this week? Bobby Johnson: We want to win every game that we play — I think that is pretty obvious. We work hard every week. I wish everyone could understand the kind of hours the coaches put in and the players. They work extremely hard and they have to go to school. They want to win. They don’t want to go out there and do all that stuff just to come close. They want to win. The circumstances are different every week and the lineups are probably different every week. You just have to work through those kinds of things and keep fighting and keep playing and see what happens. You can’t guarantee it — nobody can. Georgia couldn’t. Look all across the country — you can’t guarantee victories anymore. Q: Does it take some of the luster off the Georgia game if you can’t come back with a win over South Carolina this week? Bobby Johnson: I don’t think it takes anything off of the Georgia win, but it sure would take something off of the South Carolina game if we don’t win. Georgia is in the past. That was last week and now we are going on to this week. Q: Since Georgia beat South Carolina pretty good earlier in the year and you now have beaten Georgia, how do you keep your guys focused going into this week? Bobby Johnson: I think South Carolina is an entirely different team right now, They have a different quarterback and they have a whole different mindset about how they are running their offense. I don’t think it will be too hard to show our guys the difference between the South Carolina team now and the South Carolina team at the beginning of the season. Believe me, we are not showing the Georgia film anymore. We are showing South Carolina and we are working on that. We’ve got fall break right now. We got guys in here watching film on their day off on their own and that is what you want them to do. I think they have their minds where they need to be. We haven’t had much problem with looking back, looking forward. Our guys can get pretty focused and we are going to ask them and demand that they do that. Q: Are you surprised at how well Syvelle Newton is throwing the ball this year? Bobby Johnson: No. We recruited the heck out of him. We wanted him to come here and play quarterback. We thought he could be an excellent quarterback, and I think he is just coming into his own. We fear the pass just as much as we do him running it. Of course, he has got some great receivers in [Sidney] Rice and [Kenny] McKinley and they have some great running backs. So they have weapons to threaten you all over the field on offense. So we are going to have to be extremely good on defense. Our defense has been playing well. In the second half we held Georgia to about 100 yards. [Defensive Coordinator] Bruce Fowler did a heck of a job calling the plays but he also had those guys ready to play. Q: Syvelle Newton is not the prototypical Steve Spurrier quarterback, though, is he? Bobby Johnson: I think if he had been playing quarterback the whole time that he has been there, he would fit right in with what Coach Spurrier wants him to do. I think he can do it all. Just because he was playing wideout for Coach [Lou] Holtz and some for Coach Spurrier, that doesn’t diminish his other skills as quarterback. Like I said, I thought he was a complete and quarterback and could do it all. So we are going to prepare to defend both the pass and the run. You’ve got to. He is good at both. Q: How much does a win and a performance like last week’s help Chris Nickson and the offense as a whole grow up a bit more? Bobby Johnson: I think it gives him some confidence. But Chris doesn’t lack for confidence. He is not your outgoing kind of guy who is going to tell you how good he is. He just wants to show you how good he is and how hard he works. When you do it, when you get it done, I think it is easier to do the next time. I think our offense will have the confidence that he can drop back there and make the big throw or, if it is not there, pull it down and run it. He made a big run — it was about a five-yard run. He was hit about a yard deep in the backfield and he wiggled through there and somehow put his hand down one time and that kept us in manageable situations. I think it was on the series where we had the fourth down pass. He can make a lot of plays in a lot of ways and I think our offense knows that and that gives him some confidence. |
