Sept. 23, 2014
Mason | McIntosh | Townsend | Gameday Central | Game Notes & Depth Charts
Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason, safety Jahmel McIntosh and offensive lineman Joe Townsend met the media Tuesday to talk about the Commodores’ next game against Kentucky. Kickoff is slated for 11 a.m. CT Saturday at Commonwealth Stadium. The Southeastern Conference matchup will be televised on the SEC Network.
Head Coach Derek Mason
Opening Statement:
“This is Kentucky week. They are a good football team and I get a chance to go up against Coach Mark Stoops. I respect Coach Stoops tremendously. He’s a great coach and has a well-coached football team. He has built this thing from the ground up. They are 2-1 on the season coming off a tough, triple overtime loss to Florida. They are much improved and are tremendously talented across the board starting with their quarterback in Patrick Towles. They have as dynamic of a skilled group of running backs and wide receivers that we have seen so far. They are tremendously explosive defensively. Their 3-4 structure is very similar to us so we’ll have some crossover work this week. Their defense is a speedy, physical group. They make good tackles in terms of their secondary on the perimeter. They play well together and don’t make very many mistakes. Their defense is not giving up more than 17 points a game. When you have an offense averaging close to 36 points and a defense not giving up more than 17, that’s a good formula for success. We will have our hands full. In terms of us, we are coming off a tough loss to South Carolina. We are looking to rebound and get healthy. Our quarterback situation is still up in the air in looking at what’s happening with (quarterback) Patton (Robinette). He’s working through it but as of right now he’s still questionable so we’ll get a chance to see as the week progresses where we are and where we’ll go from there. In terms of our offense overall, we see where we are at and understand our identity. The skill guys are starting to wake up on the perimeter in terms of our tight ends and receivers. We still have to continue to be balanced in what we do and take advantage of explosive opportunities when they present themselves. Defensively, we look at our group now and they are still young and have to continue to be better up front. I think we are getting healthier as the weeks go by. Right now up front, we are still looking to shore up the defensive line and continue to be on the path of creating some knock back backers. We have to continue to fill gaps, run, and play out in space in terms of coverage. For our secondary, we just have to minimize the mistakes, close the gaps, have tighter coverage and just continue to get better. Overall as a football team, we have continue to eliminate the penalties and mental errors and give us the chance to get off the field on third down. The formula is not changing.”
Thoughts on Kentucky’s Offense:
“They are similar to Temple and have some remanence of Ole Miss in terms of who they are. We are going to see the same attacks. They are going to attack us down the seam, they are going to attack us outside. They are going to look to keep the run game balanced because they do a good job running the ball, whether it’s fly sweeps or inside zone. They have enough speed where they can gash you with a quick hit. They did it against Florida. What we have to is make sure we stop the run and defend the pass. If you allow a team like this to be balanced, it’s going to be a long day. You are not stopping anything. All you are doing is chasing the hole. We need to make sure to concentrate on the run, defend the pass and play top down so at the end of the day the balls down the field become bang-bang plays and/or interceptions, tips or overthrows. You saw it from Florida, they had had a good formula for it. We just need to look at who we are, structure it, make it easy, play fast and physical and get off the field.”
On the quarterback situation and the health of starting quarterback Patton Robinette:
“Bottom line is you go with the guy that is there in practice. As we are able to determine exactly what Patton can do, we’ll adapt and adjust. What you look to do is get the guy that is up and in a practice uniform ready to go. If Patton is out there in a practice uniform, he’ll be up in running. If not, it’ll be Wade Freebeck and he’ll be under center. I think you always have to error on the side of making sure that your guy is ready to go. Now a days, with what that position means to you, you need a guy, especially playing in SEC level, playing at 100 percent. Playing at 85 percent is not going to be good enough.”
On your offensive running philosophy:
“The philosophy is for us our run game is the strength of what we do. What we are trying to do is to create matchups up and down the line of scrimmage. A lot of defenses are gap defenses in terms of working to be gap sound. Sometimes with big guys you are able to create extra gaps. it’s not necessarily as you draw it up, but whether it’s zone scheme or gap scheme runs, what you are trying to do is create an extra gap and allow your back to play with enough vision and get the ball downhill and get a crease.”
Safety Jahmel McIntosh
On what they need to do better to get off the field on third down:
“I believe we just need to force more turnovers and take advantage of the turnovers we have. This past weekend, we didn’t come up with a couple balls that we had the opportunity to come up with, a couple of fumbles that we could’ve came up with that could’ve changed the game so turnovers are a big part of that.”
On the young guys and the communication in the secondary:
“I believe there’s always room for improvement, I’m a firm believer in that. We’ve been exceptional with that but I feel like we can do better”
On if they place a higher importance on the SEC games:
“We go in every week with the mentality that we’re going to win, so a win is a win. The only thing that matters is are you going to get that W that weekend, so it doesn’t matter if by three points, by one point, by 45 points – a win is a win.”
On coming out of a loss feeling a little better:
“It’s pretty obvious from Week 1 to Week 4 that we’ve made improvements. We played a pretty good game and we’re going to make improvements from today to Saturday.”
On difficulty of playing with so many freshmen:
“It’s not that hard at all, we have a bunch of talented guys they know the defense. They’re talented; they can make plays. It’s not hard at all.”
On Kentucky’s offense:
“Today in college football, everybody’s pass happy. Offensive coordinators are trying to scheme and think of ways to get their best players in space so they can make big plays. We just have to tackle in space and gain tackles and get turnovers.”
Center Joe Townsend
On the offensive line improving:
“We’ve just been improving every week and getting better, and it shows in all the games and on film. We watch it but we just have to continue to get better and keep doing what we’ve been doing and things will continue going our way.”
On why improvement has come:
“I think just the way we practice; we’re being more physical in practice. We’re having more best-on-best competition and I think that’s what’s really helping us.”
On Wade Freebeck looking more comfortable in the second half:
“I thought it was fine, he’s a young quarterback and I thought he played great. We rallied behind him and we’re going to be behind him no matter who the coaches decide to put back there. I thought he played well and I’m sure he’s looking forward to getting better this week.”
On shaking off Patton getting hurt:
“Next man up. That’s all that really was: `Alright let’s go, we’ve got a young guy back there let’s go ahead and protect him.’ We played the same way with Wade as we did with Patton. We just gave Wade `alright man let’s go, let’s play some ball’ and that was it.”
On losing but feeling like they played better:
“There are no moral victories, there’s not. Losing is not fun at all, but when you sit down and watch the tape and you look at the things we were able to do, they were good. They give you a little confidence going forward but we have to be more consistent. One thing that I’ll say is we drove the ball 95 yards and we get stopped on the goal line, and as an offensive lineman that hurt me and that’s something that we can’t accept. I feel like that was a really big momentum shift for them when they kept us to a field goal and we didn’t score that touchdown.”
On relationship between the line and Ralph Webb:
“We do our job and he does his job and we have a great relationship in the locker room and off the field. He makes us look good, so we’re going to keep doing our job for him and he’s going to keep doing his and he’s going to have a great year.”
On Ralph Webb and what makes him special at this stage in his career:
“He’s hungry. He’s a young guy. He’s never played college football before so he’s got these opportunities and he’s got all this motivation and I think he’s a great back. He’s bulked up. When you watch him play, he doesn’t go down on the first hit. He breaks a lot of tackles and he runs very hard. I’m excited to see how he progresses as the year goes on and I’m looking forward to watching him have a great career.”