Sept. 22, 2015
Mason | Pulley & Herring | Gameday Central | Game Notes
Head coach Derek Mason, offensive lineman Spencer Pulley and linebacker Darreon Herring met the media Tuesday to discuss Vanderbilt’s next game against No. 3 Ole Miss. The Commodores hit the road to take on the Rebels Saturday at 6 p.m. CT at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
Vanderbilt Coach Derek Mason
Opening statement:
“Ole Miss week – a really good football team. There is a reason why they’re No. 3 in the country. (Ole Miss coach) Hugh Freeze, great man. Even better coach. He has done a terrific job at Ole Miss in terms of recruiting and building that program. I have a lot of respect for him. He talked to me last year and we spent a little time together before the game and after the game. He just told me to keep doing what I’m doing. He’s been a good friend through this. I like exactly who he is and what he represents. He’s got an even more talented football team. They’re talented. They’re deep. They do a really good job of just playing football. They don’t beat themselves. The biggest stat that stood out to me is they’ve outscored their opponents 58-0 in the first quarter. They start fast. Our football team is definitely going to focus and concentrate on what we do. We’re going to try to do what we do well and try to play against a really good football team. But our guys are excited. They are up to the challenge. These are the games you live for. These are the big games. I love nothing more than the big games. Our football team wants to play this football game as much as they want to play any because it is the game of the week.”
Did you foresee this sort of Ole Miss team (highly ranked) back a few months ago?
“Having played this Ole Miss team (last year), they’re a good football team. Wherever they were ranked in the preseason, I don’t know if it really did it justice. But, in watching the game last week, what you had a chance to see was a football team that was prepared to go into hostile territory and play a great game. They didn’t beat themselves. They gave themselves an opportunity to win. That is a well-coached team. That is a talented football team and they’re well deserving of their ranking.”
With Ole Miss’ first quarter points for and against, are they tailored to their opponent or do they start in their base stuff and execute it really well?
“I just think they execute really well and do what they do. That’s the strength of who they are. They’re going to play great defense. They have athletes up front. They have menacing guys on the back end, who hunt the football. They do a good job of taking the ball away and they tackle well. That is the sign of a good defense. Offensively, they’ve been real efficient. They’ve done a real good job of not getting themselves in long third-down situations and staying ahead of the chains. That’s what you have to do. Any time you’re playing tight ballgames, you have to stay on track. That is what we’re going to have to do. We’re going to have to stay on track and play great defense, be really good on special teams and make sure we give ourselves a chance.”
How difficult is it to defend against their quick tempo?
“You practice. You practice tempo. You go through your tempo mechanics. You understand that getting lined up is the biggest part of what tempo is about. It is to get you rattled in terms of your defensive play call. What we have to do is make sure that we get our guys lined up. I look at last year’s game and we never got lined up. When you don’t get lined up you can’t play football. The biggest thing we are going to do is make sure our guys get lined up. This is the first time we played tempo. What we need to continue to do is make sure that we talk about communication, getting lined up, tackling. We do those things and you give yourselves a chance to play really good defense.”
What do you attribute the defense being lined up better to this year?
“It is starting with a simple base of what you do, and having guys understand the structure of what we do defensively. I truly believe that you start simple and you build on that. We started this season simple. I told you last spring we only had four defensive calls. Four base, four nickel – that’s all we had. Now it is much higher than that and our guys can handle more volume. It is certainly a crawl before you can walk mentality. As they show they can handle it, we give them a little more. With that we found, our guys are starting to take hold of the fundamental things we’re giving them and we can build on it.”
Inside Linebacker Darreon Herring
Benefits of playing a successful Ole Miss team:
“We’re going to be the underdog going into this game, but that’s just going to make it more exciting for our offense and defense to go in there and prove everyone else wrong.”
On hopes of generating a defensive turnover:
“We hope so. That’s the biggest thing for our defense now. I don’t think we have any turnovers now, so that’s going to be one of the big things to win the turnover margin this game. Hopefully we can get some hands on some balls in terms of interceptions and force fumbles.
How surprising is it to not have turnovers:
“Well that’s just more so on us at practice; working on it more, getting everyone to the ball, stripping the ball… just missed opportunities like we had a couple of games ago, so we just have to execute on some of the opportunities we get and try to make the best of them.”
What does it take to keep up with Ole Miss’ fast pace tempo:
“It just takes execution. We have to play every play like it’s our last, winning turnovers, tackling… different things like that. There really isn’t a secret sauce at doing it, we just have to execute better and come over on top.”
How Ole Miss takes advantage of their opponent’s defense:
“They execute really well and have a good quarterback, good running back and a couple of good receivers. They take advantage of opportunities to score. For us to stop them and slow them down, that tempo that they start to pickup during games, that’s our biggest key.”
Keeping up with fast paced offenses:
“We’ve played maybe two games where teams have played pretty fast against us and I think our coaches do a good job at practice of showing us that tempo. When we go against our offense, they go at a really fast tempo, actually faster than what game speed would be so we can get used to it.”
Adjusting defense without Nigel Bowden in at linebacker:
“The next guy just has to step up, whether it’s a younger guy or older guy. The next person always has to be ready, which is why we put emphasis on practicing hard, whether you’re second, third or first string, you never know what’s going to happen. The next person just has to step up and do their job.”
If missing Bowden on the field:
“I always miss Nigel (Bowden). That’s my guy, so it’s sad for him to be out right now, but like I said the next person just has to step up in his position and do his job.”
Stephen Weatherly’s transition to OLB:
“He’s a smart player. Of anybody, he’s the one that can handle it. I think he’s doing a really good job outside, as far as he wasn’t a coverage player two years ago, but now he’s dropping into coverage more. He’s doing a real outstanding job and is a fast, physical guy.”
On swapping out defensive wristbands:
“We pretty much do it every game. We come in and switch out our wrist bands to different colors and coaches tell us what colors to put on. If we’re on the sideline, we change them out just depending on the quarter.”
Center Spencer Pulley
On confidence boost from Austin Peay game:
“It was definitely a confidence boost. It was great to get that first win. It was just a game where we saw the result of our work and what we can do as an offense and what we can as a defense and special teams. It was a great confidence boost and really solidified what we thought about our team.”
On how helpful the game was for Johnny McCrary:
“I think everybody saw Johnny (McCrary) execute and saw a little snippet of what he can be. The thing about Johnny is he doesn’t break. He doesn’t get nervous. He doesn’t lose confidence. He is a guy who has extreme confidence, believes in himself, believes in the guys around him, and he brings the guys around him with him, which is why he is going to be a great player.”
On the team getting off to slow starts:
“There are always little things you can do here or there in practice to try and get started right away. It is really about the players going out there with the right mentality and just executing the offense from the first play.”
On Johnny McCrary starting at QB on the road:
“He is definitely excited to play the game. He loves this game. I say that every week when you guys ask me about Johnny. He’s a guy that really does love playing football. He’s not nervous. The venue doesn’t change how he plays or his attitude. This year, I think our team has a lot more experience of playing in that kind of environment as opposed to last year. I’m very excited about going to an away game and I think you will see a lot of confident players out on the field.”
On Ole Miss’ Robert Nkemdiche:
“That guy is a great player and Ole Miss has a great defensive line, a really great front seven. It is really just about us, focusing on the work this week, coming out to practice every day working hard, studying the film and then on Saturday going out and playing as hard as we can. I know they have a great defensive line, but I have all the confidence in our offense and offensive line to get the work done this week and come out on Saturday and play with everything they have.”