Head Coach Greg Robinson's Press Conference Transcript (Nov. 7, 2006)
How did you spend the bye week?
“As I mentioned to you last week, Monday and Wednesday were work out days where they ran and lifted. A lot of the guys would come by and take a look at film. It was interesting to see how they have been conditioned. They were still around. It was good on those days that they didn’t feel the stress of football practice. They had been going a long time. We say nine-straight weeks but there was also training camp. On Tuesday and Thursday, we practiced. Not so much specific toward certain teams as much as fundamental stuff. We did get to rest some of the more experienced players and got a number of the younger players plenty of work. That was basically what the week was. We gave them some info. They saw some film, mostly of South Florida. We even went back and showed them some of our own cut-ups and learning lessons in certain areas. We will see what we gained from it.”
Did you hold off on South Florida film?
Did you hold off on South Florida film?
“We, as coaches, had been watching them. We also watched Rutgers a little bit and Connecticut a little bit so that we don’t walk in there cold turkey. We used the week as a chance to at least break the seal on those teams. We did that early in the week so as we worked into South Florid,a. Sunday was the biggest day on our team to get started on South Florida.”
Was one of those younger players (freshman quarterback) Andrew Robinson?
“Andrew got a good number of reps.”
Is there a plan on how much you want to play him?
“Yes, I have. As I have mentioned it (being specific) doesn’t benefit me. I am not going to try and be cute. I don’t know how we are going to utilize Andrew in this ball game. Is he going to be prepared? Yes, he is. Is Andrew making progress? I think he is. Just watching him in practice last week, I see that he is making good progress. Right now the game plan is built to beat South Florida. Perry (Patterson) is going to get, I would suspect, 70 percent of the reps. How the game goes, that I can’t tell you that we have spent a lot of time discussing that.”
Do you think you should have given Andrew Robinson more reps and perhaps a series in each game throughout the year?
“I don’t know. I don’t know that right now. I think we were more a work in progress as an offense in general that I think it was really more to try and get the pieces together. I will say this though; I think that Andrew, throughout the year, has gotten as much work as any young quarterback I have ever been around. He gets good quality reps every week. That isn’t the same as being in a game, but it sure doesn’t hurt. His intent and his study and knowledge, he has grown and that is evident.”
In what particular areas did he make progress during the bye week?
“I just see that he is a little sharper. I see his footwork. I see his mechanics. I think that he has more of an understanding of what we are trying to do. He has followed Perry’s lead. I think Perry has been very helpful to Andrew to watch and communicate with. How Perry has gone about his study habits, I think that it has been very good for Andrew. You can sense it and watch it on the field.”
What is the status of (wide receiver) Taj Smith (broken collarbone)?
“I don’t think that Taj is going to make it back. Last week, I am not certain if it was a bone scan or whatever. There is healing taking place but it not specific enough. I would be shocked – I shouldn’t say that – but it won’t be this week. I know that.”
Is he practicing at all?
“No. He didn’t just have a clean break, it was a spiral break. If it is just a clean break, it is a shorter window. This one was more of a spiral break, and I use these terms loosely. I will have (team physician) Dr. Raphael coming in and asking me where I got these words. What I am saying is that there is more to it than that. It is a longer healing process. We had first heard 10-12 weeks where as I think that sometimes with a clean break it is four to six weeks. He is out there every day. You want to throw him in there. It seems like he is chomping on the bit to jump in there, but he really isn’t healed yet.”
Is (punt returner) Bruce Williams back this week?
“Yes, it was unfortunate with his family. Bruce is the kind of the person where he has a lot of responsibilities with a large family and we can all appreciate that.”
How (running back) Curtis Brinkley doing with his injury?
“He was working (on Thursday) but he wasn’t 100 percent and didn’t take all that many reps really. I thought that Sunday was more like the Curtis that I remember when he is feeling pretty good.”
What was the number one are you wanted to address during the bye week?
“I thought that first of all, they needed to get away a little bit. It has been very intense. Working to get this team to play at the level that they have played at has taken a lot of hard work and a lot of physical and mental strength. I thought they needed a little time to just get away. That was important. Really honing in on the attention to detail, be it through the physical techniques or knowledge of what we are trying to get accomplished, as well as trying to elevate some of the younger players in those areas. I think that is really the biggest thrust of what we were trying to do.”
Who were the other young players?
“I look at the secondary. We have a number of young secondary players. We have to get them in there and go out and make a few mistakes. Then all of a sudden you start to see some of those things. We have to really hone in on their specific fundamentals. We gave young linebackers more reps and some of the young defensive linemen who haven’t played were getting more time. We took that young corps of offensive linemen and watching their development. It has been kind of fun to watch that group this fall to where they look like they can do some of the physical skills that we are looking for. At the receiver position, we have been playing a number of a younger guys so we got some of those younger guys in there too. Danny (Sheeran) is back with his hand well and he was put in there. We don’t have a bunch of young running backs other than Delone (Carter) and he is out there with Curtis (Brinkley). They are the young guys. Jeremy (Horne) and Kareem (Jones) got some work. That is really about how it was.”
Is (fullback) Steve McDonald back?
“We’ll see. He worked a little bit on Sunday but we took him lightly on Sunday because we wanted to buy time for him.”
What are the reasons why you go into halftime close but then seem to lose it in the third quarter?
“In a couple of cases, penalties in the opening series of the second half have been issues on the offensive side of the ball. In the Wake Forest game, we got a turnover in the first series but then we came back and had the fumble. Little did we know that Marvin McCall had a broken hand and couldn’t get that ball up there (on the snap). He is trying to suck it up and go and couldn’t get the ball up. It was an opportunity for us to try and grab the momentum but instead we had to deal with a situation.
“Iowa was a battle. They are tough on both sides of the ball and we were just clawing and scratching to get there. I felt to come out the way we did in the last series and to get done what we had to get done was good. Unfortunately, we didn’t do a good job in the overtime. Then you go to Pittsburgh, I think that we dug ourselves a hole in the first half. In the second half, I thought the defense played a lot better. On offense, we compounded our problems a little bit with the penalties. We were behind so we were a little more one-dimensional and that hurt us. Against West Virginia, I think it was the big plays on defense that were the issue. We really put too much pressure on the offense with the big plays on defense. Then you go to Louisville and I thought we put too much pressure on the defense and not taking command when we had a chance to take command.
“These are all things that are a part of it. I think that you can all see it. You can analyze and see why. One of the things I will tell you is what we have learned in this bye week. For us not to be able to walk away from these experiences and be a more aware team and have a little better understanding on how we have created our own problems, then that is too bad. We have addressed a lot of those things. We have to grow and keep learning from those things. I go back to that Wake Forest football team, they said they had 18 (returning) starters and I used to tell you 20. That quarterback started six games (in 2005) and that running back started a number of games (in 2005). They had 20 starters coming back with a staff that had been together, seven of the nine coaches, for 10 years. I knew those were issues and we had to overcome that. That is what that team is doing. I watched them (Wake Forest) the other night against Boston College and they play like an experienced football team. They do a nice job. That is what we are trying to become. That kind of team that has grown and developed.”
Have people better adjusted than you at halftime?
“When I was at Texas, if you go back and look at 2004, they came up with a stat that we only gave up seven points in the third quarter all year. I didn’t even know it. They were like ‘you’re making great adjustments.’ To me, we’re making adjustments, not just at halftime, but we are making adjustments after every series when we come off the field. I am not certain that is not more about taking advantage of certain things. Putting maybe one side of the ball in a position in which it is too much on them. Our offense in the second half, if we were going to have to try and win a shootout against West Virginia, it was going to be tough. If we slowed them down and got control and minimize the mistakes, we didn’t do a very good job of that in that game. Same thing on the other side of the ball against Louisville. I think that if we could have gotten up 13-0 or 17-0, I think that we would have had a real good chance because then you get them one-dimensional and we can do what we want to do a little bit. We fooled around against good football teams. They are too talented and their systems and approach are too good. That is really what I think. Adjusting is always important but if you’re in a track meet with West Virginia, it is going to be tough for your offense. Then in Louisville’s case, if you let them keep close they are going to eventually get you because they are pretty good in every area.”
Are you philosophically opposed to the shotgun formation considering your pass protection issues?
“No, I am not. If you remember last year, we used it quite a bit. It was really a matter of getting grooved and getting into the system and getting good at what we are doing. The shotgun doesn’t necessarily make you a better pass protector. It doesn’t really. When you throw the three-step game, where do you throw it from and when you throw the seven-step game, where do you throw it from? When you’re in the shotgun, it isn’t much different. It might be on third down when there is the pressure of blitzing. When it is just the four-man rush, it still comes down to that man and that man beating you. I will say against Cincinnati, we felt their pressure. I can’t say in the Pitt game it was all about their pressure. Against Miami (OH), their ends stressed us and I think that was physical.”
Can you talk about how impressive South Florida was against Pittsburgh?
“Let’s take all three parts. South Florida opened the game up. They missed an opportunity on the opening three plays. I thought they were going to hit a big play and they didn’t. Now they have to punt and they run a fake punt and make 11 yards and they go right down and get the score. Offensively, they looked very good in that game – running the ball and throwing the football. Defensively, in every way they got after the running game and the passing game. You saw them squeeze Pitt’s offense, too. Then the kicking game is already noted. Their returner is in the top 10 of the country. The kickoff return is excellent and then they run the fake punt. They really played a complete football game. I thought they looked very good.”
