Head Coach Greg Robinson's Press Conference Transcript (Sept. 26, 2006)
What is (wide receiver) Taj Smith’s status?
“He is out. He is out. It would be a good fortune to think that he is going to make it back by the end of the year.”
What is the role that Taj has developed with this team and how do you fill that role?
“We were utilizing his physical skills, his quickness and speed. How do you replace that? We’ll find out. We have some guys who can do some things. Taj is a mature football player. He is 22 years old. He has played a lot of football in junior college so he was mature in that way. That is what you are losing, somebody who had experience, as well as physical skills. With the work habits, I think that he has instilled a lot of that into his teammates. I think that he was always a wonderful example for his teammates. I think that there has been a different, a total difference, in our work habits from the day that he got here. I am just looking to see how it all works out. There is no presto answer to say how it is going to happen. I just think that those things emerge. It might come from several different ways. I am saying that speculatively, not that I have ‘this is how we’ll do it.’ I think that it is (a case of) when one goes down, others have to rise up and sometimes it is just another person and sometimes it is a team thing.”
Is there anything that is unique about Taj that can’t be replaced?
“No, I am not going to say that because we have good receivers. We have quick receivers. We have some speed receivers. Obviously, we were using him because he was doing it better than others. That is not to say that others can’t get their game going and take advantage of a situation and make the most of it.”
Who are the others that you are going to rely on?
“It is really how are we going to use Tim Lane, Rice Moss, Lavar Lobdell, Jeremy Horne, Mike Williams, Donte Davis and Daniel Bailey. They are players that, in their own ways, will help at that position. Now if I am to tell you that with Rice Moss, this is how you do with him – I think that if I was the coach on the other side, I would like to hear that. I can’t get specific on what this guy can do and what that guy can do but I think that out of that corps of people, we will be just fine at the receiver position. Don’t get me wrong, will we miss Taj? Yes, absolutely and for more reasons than just the plays that he has made.”
Is it just a matter of maturity with (wide receivers) Donte Davis and Mike Williams?
“They’re young. I will say this, and I would think that Taj might tell you too, that those two young freshmen are much more mature at age 18 than maybe Taj was. Taj was about 157 pounds or 162 pounds (at 18). Coming off the streets of Newark, he played very little football. We are getting way off, but I am just trying to get a perspective that who is to say that these young kids, in their own way, can’t interject a boost.”
How is the psychological life now that you have won two in a row?
“My take is ‘This is exciting. This is why you play.’ Yesterday was a day off. They had the day off and I see guys all over the place (in the football wing). We aren’t teaching them but they are around. They are trying to get in the film room. They are trying to get in the weight room. It is a good feeling. You can sense that there is an eagerness to want to keep achieving.”
How about you?
“I’d like to think that it is business as usual. I don’t think we (the coaching staff) have deviated much from the first day we started last year. I think that we are hard at work just trying to train young people to do things. They are coming together. They are getting better. I don’t see it much different. Today is Tuesday. The numbers (dates) change and that is about it. The colors change. It is really about us and about our preparation. We, as a staff, we talked about that again like we do every Tuesday. It is not different in the approach. I am just happy for our players that they have had some success. You are always trying to analyze and I don’t have it all figured out. I do think that this team has grown and we just have to keep that process going. If you keep it going, who is to say how good your team could be. I don’t know. They’ll determine that.”
What does Wyoming bring to the field?
“Defensively, they are a 3-4 team, which is different. We have been seeing more of a 4-3 look through the season so we will have to adjust. We worked 3-4 schemes during training camp. They play a good sound defensive scheme. Offensively, they have some unorthodox things about them. They have two real fine running backs. They have a quarterback who knows how to mix it up and get it around to his players. Their offensive line, I think they are going to be back and healthy but I like the way that they are coached. They are a big, big offensive line.
“I followed (Wyoming head coach) Joe Glenn for many years. When I was at Denver (Broncos), he was at Northern Colorado. My son even went to his football camp. I don’t even know if Joe knows that. I sent him (Dominic) up there. The school is where we had training camp. I was always around his players. They would be out at practice and assistant coaches would be around. He (Glenn) is high energy. He is passionate about the game. Then I watched him when he coached against UCLA in the bowl game. I know what he is all about. He is about winning and he will bring a team in here that will be very competitive.”
Do you have a gag rule? Are your players allowed to guarantee a victory?
“I have never told a kid what he can and can’t say. I would never do that. I can’t. How could you say that? I can tell them that, but they have minds of their own.”
If they did say it, what would you do?
“I would frown on it. I don’t think that helps you. I don’t know that it hurts you. It might help you. Let me tell you something. I was at UCLA and we were getting ready to play USC. We thought that they were a good team. Sean Salisbury was their quarterback. Ken Norton comes out and says ‘I don’t know how good they are, but I really like their band. Their band is awful good.’ Terry Donahue wasn’t excited about that. You know what Terry said? He said ‘Kenny said it, what are we going to do about it?’ We proceeded to go out and win the game. I’m not sure it is what Kenny said that made the difference. I can’t worry about all that. If there is a guarantee, then why are we going to play?”
Is this a situation (having Taj Smith injured) where you wish that Lavar Lobdell had a year of playing under his belt?
“I don’t even think like that. I can’t think like that. Lavar has come along. Lavar just has to jump in and compete with those guys and show us what he has. If we thought that Lavar was ahead of Taj, Lavar would have been playing. I do think that Lavar has flashed talents all throughout the fall. I would for Lavar to come through where Taj has left off.”
Is Wyoming a trap game (because of their 1-3 record)?
“I am not in to traps. I’m really not. I don’t worry about 1-3, 3-0 or 4-0 (records). I don’t. I evaluate that team and I evaluate the way that they play the game. I don’t believe that I have to motivate our players by telling them ‘Let me tell you about that (Wyoming vs.) Virginia game when they had that team… or I can tell you about their Air Force game when they had the ball right there.’ I don’t have to do that. It is about us and it is about going out and preparing, preparing, preparing and working extremely hard against what they do. That is what it’s all about. When you work toward that game, once you are in balance, physically and mentally in balanced, the emotional part will take care of it. So it is about motivation. I’m not into 1-3 and traps and all that.”
They (Wyoming) seem to be a better team then their record indicates. Players look at records.
“I don’t know that. I think it is how you train your players. I believe that if you go by records, every week you can show that. I don’t want dwell on all that. I don’t think you have to. Some do and can do it well. That is not my style. I just don’t believe that you have to motivate in a negative sense. I think it is about us getting better. I feel strongly about that. I want our team to constantly to think about getting better.”
When Curtis Brinkley went over the top on the touchdown against Miami (OH), was that called?
“It is the play and Curtis had done that before. He had done that on the practice field. He did a nice job of getting up and over. But go watch the offensive line and how they blocked down the defensive linemen. Their technique started it and then it came down to that linebacker who had to play off the legs of his defensive linemen to come up and make the play. It works well together, but Curtis got up there and did a great job.”
In the spring, (tight end) J.J. Nesheiwat was awarded a scholarship. What was it that made you award him a scholarship?
“He couldn’t play last year (in 2005) because he was a transfer so he was down on the scout team all the time. There is not better way to find out about a young person than to see how they perform on those scout teams. You could tell that he could play football. So I wanted to see how he functioned in the system as a player. He did a very good job all spring. He is a good solid player for us.”
When you were describing Wyoming’s running backs, you made them seem a lot like your backs.
“I like their backs and they have some characteristics similar to our backs. Number 11 (Devin Moore) is a darting and dashing a little more like Curtis (Brinkley). Number 18 (Wynel Seldon) is a little thicker and shows a little more power in his game which is more like Delone (Carter). I am not saying that they are Delone and Curtis, but I think there are characteristics about them that are very similar. They are good players. They are very good players.”
It is the second week in a row you had a defensive touchdown. Is it a product of preparation?
“I think that really when you get those things, it is a product of a number of things. One is being in the right place. It also the matter of the offense doing something that is not right. Most cases that is usually what happens. I have never met an offensive coach who, when they threw an interception, said, ‘That was a great play. It just happened to be a better play by the defensive guy.’ No, something went wrong there, as well. Maybe sometimes the rush gets in the eyes of the quarterback or he doesn’t see or understand the coverage. I think that it is a combination of things. I just think that the more you are doing things right, the better chance you have to make those kinds of plays.”
Can you update us on (cornerback) Terrell Lemon’s injury?
“He is fine. He practiced on Sunday. He was ready to go back into the game on Saturday. I told him no. He was trying to get back in the game.”
What about (center) Marvin McCall’s health?
“He is ready to go. He has been ready to play. Today, he is more ready.”
How nice was it to have (linebacker) Ben Maljovec return that interception?
“It was great. It was great for a lot of reasons. One, the fans loved it. Two, the players and teammates loved it. There is nothing better than teammates cheering for teammates. It was great. It really was a bunch of guys who weren’t frontline players who were in there. They really had a good time doing it. At the same time, it was (starting cornerback) Tanard Jackson who was throwing the key block there to spring it in the end.
“I mentioned one thing about the crowd and I’m not going to leave here without talking about it. The numbers weren’t what some would want in the Dome, but it was still remarkable to me what Dome was all about. I know the excitement of the overtime game against Iowa was very great but there was such high energy (on Saturday against Miami), too. Our players, they are feeding off that. It (the Dome) is a special place and I know our team is so intent on trying to really get it to where it could be. I don’t have to talk about it. I know that it is a goal of theirs to make it such an advantage and such a place where everybody will enjoy and thrive off of it. Again we came into the Dome Saturday two hours and 10 minutes before the game and there were hundreds of students and they are cheering for the team again. It is things like that that motivated our football team to go into the stands last Friday after (our) practice on their own, the whole team, there were 75 guys who went into the stands and cheered for the women’s field hockey team. And they cheered and cheered for five minutes. To me, I was moved by it because that was them doing it. It’s all part of it. That is the uniqueness of a place like Syracuse. This is not a 50,000-student university with everybody to themselves. This is about a group of people together. I was very impressed with that and I am so impressed when we come into the Dome and there are students there cheering us on. And, the quad walk – to have those people there. We would like to think that we are just scratching the surface of what is to come. That is what motivates us. It really doesn’t matter about 1-3 or 3-1. It is about us.”
