Greg Robinson Press Conference (September 30, 2007)
Opening Statement:
"Today is not whole lot different than yesterday. I give Miami (OH) a lot of credit. I think they played very well and I don't think we played as well as we can. If there is anything positive to take from the game, you can look at the fact that even though we were shutout 14-0 in the first half , in the second half we came back scored 14 and gave up three points. We did respond in the second half of the football game, but not enough to win the game."
On what the most disappointing thing he saw at Miami (OH):
"As I mentioned, for us to be success this football team needs to have balance – in sense of that you have to feel there is productivity from the offense, defense and the kicking game. I really felt that in the first half it didn't really come out that way. We moved the football down the field in the first series. We looked like we were getting some things going and then we stalled out and came out with no points. From that point on we really went dormant throughout the rest of the first half. Defensively, we started it off with a turnover and gave good field position, 40-yard line I think, going in. We really had three-straight stops without much response. Then there is a turnover; something disappointing to me was giving up the big pass that we gave up. We didn't have very good positioning and you really have to be aware. I think it was even mentioned to the group, 'Okay, it was a turnover. Be careful for a sudden strike.' We just didn't perform right there.
"We came out in the second half and I thought offensively we would come right back out and go. I think defensively we turned it over two series in a row but really didn't get a response after that. I just didn't feel like we were firing on all cylinders for whatever reason. I have to give it to Miami's defense for a lot that they did. That would probably be my biggest disappointment that we didn't really work together offensively, defensively and kicking game. We even had a situation in the kicking game when we hold them, it's a 7-0 ball game and the defense forces a punt. The defense comes off the field and little do they know that within 30 seconds they have to go back out there again (due to a penalty). That's like another turnover. That's like having to go out because our punt return team was offsides. There's a lot of things in there that I can go on and on with."
On how committed he is with junior Curtis Brinkley as his tailback:
"Curtis is the lead guy and he was the lead guy (at Miami). I think he had 12 carries and the next back had five or six carries. Curtis is about to that point where he is about at full speed as he's going to be. He's the number one tailback, obviously, but we're always going to have someone trying to work within the mix. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough productivity to have a flow and a rhythm. It looked like we started off fine but it deteriorated there for a period of time."
On if the running game is struggling because of the tailbacks or blocking:
"At times it's both. There were some situations where I saw Curtis do a nice job at doing what he saw and getting out. There have been times, too, where we haven't felt what the line is getting done. I can't tell you that it’s the line that's breaking down because it isn't that way all the time. Some of it is you have to feel it and work it."
On why he isn't comfortable enough playing freshman running back Doug Hogue:
"We probably would have given Doug more carries except in this game we didn't have the opportunities. We didn't get the reps. The thought was to get Doug into the game somewhere in the second half, but it never really materialized."
On when the right opportunity is for Hogue:
"We have to get some things going. Jeremy (Sellers) had six or five (carries) and Curtis had 12. Well that's not enough. Andrew (Robinson) has four or five carries in there. I'm not going to get into all of that other than we were going to play Doug and it didn't work out."
On if Hogue is a different type of running back:
"That might be and you saw him in the second half of a game (Illinois) when he was going against the second string. I'm not going to take anything away from Doug, I think he's a good back, I really do. But there are things that go along with that. You have to not just be able to carry the ball and come out. You have to be able to do all the things, including the protections and running the routes. That's part of it. Can you limit it to a point? Yeah, that's kind of been our thinking to work him into it."
On if Hogue is ready:
"He's getting there. He's ready to play some. He's not ready to be a workload guy right now."
Is it Hogue's blocking or running the reason his time is limited:
"I'm not going to get into all that. I kind of just explained it all to you guys (the media). Doug is a good, fine, young player and it's unfortunate he didn't get a chance to get into the ball game yesterday."
On how much the running game is struggling because the passing game is struggling:
"I didn't feel that way last week. I felt a week ago we protected well for the most part and got some productivity in the running game. We want to get a running game going – that's the bottom line. And we need to get a running game going."
On how many times Andrew Robinson got hit and if he is concerned:
"I'm concerned. I'm very concerned. He took one shot that I thought was a real tough blow where he got hit right when he was throwing. Nobody ever wants that for their quarterback, nor does the quarterback. It's a concern. It's always a concern."
On if Robinson's being hit so much is a reason for a poor productivity:
"As I go back and observe the film of Andrew Robinson's play, I don't think it's fair to say that he had an off day – I really don't. It's easy to say, 'Oh, he over threw some deep balls.' Now wait a minute, there was outstanding coverage on both of those. To say he's just going to throw it into the coverage; no, he's laying it out there. If you go back and chart – I don't care if it's NFL, if it's high school or if it's college – the number of balls that travel over 20 yards, I think you can consistently find you will not complete more than 30 percent of those. If you just take it over the long hall, it's 30 percent or less in completion. Now you might have a day where you hit two or three of them and you're 100 percent. All in all when you chart it, and I've done this for years and years and years, it's not that simple to complete a ball of over 20 yards in the air – I'm talking about from the line of scrimmage and down the field further. The percentages are not that good. So when we threw them up four or five times yesterday, and we hit one of them, I don't think you can base that being off. Where I thought he had a number of balls that I thought were thrown well. I thought there was some good coverage in some situations that made it difficult for him. More than a couple, he was under duress. I really evaluated his game for the most part as being very competitive and very solid. Has he played better? Yes. But I've watched the film and I was not dissatisfied with the play of Andrew."
On how much the loss halts the team's momentum:
"I think it's clear that it was not something we wanted to have happen. How much it halts our momentum is really up to us. I'm not going to tell you, we aren't going to have anything going in. Who knows? You can play both sides of the fence and say, 'Maybe if you beat Miami you'd thought you were pretty darn good.' What we found out was that you have to be on your game at all times. The one thing I will say; there are three teams tied for first in the BIG EAST: Connecticut, South Florida and Syracuse. There are two that have no decisions and there are three teams without a win and with one loss. The most important thing to us is the opportunity to play in and win a BCS Bowl game – that's what we live for. We still have an opportunity to do that. We would have liked very much to beat Miami of Ohio and that's absolutely the fact, but what is is. Where we are heading is our choice and that's the way I look at it."
On what he expects in terms of fan support:
"I'll leave that to you (the media). I don't have a barometer. That isn't my concern right now. My concern is our football team."
On if he thought about changing cornerbacks:
"We'll talk about that later in the week."
On if he can explain the setback and if it was a loss of focus:
"You could assess that to that. A lot of times your fundamentals is how keen you are at that moment – that can be it. I remember a game last year where dropping the football was an issue against Cincinnati. I think the thing no one really took into play was there was a cross wind – it wasn't a wind that was behind you or in front of you. That affects the passing game. I'm not saying that was the only cause, but there are a lot of things that can affect it. The same thing in tackling – the more opportunities you're out there and worn down the thing goes up and I saw that late in the ball game. I saw fatigue finally begin to creep in there a little bit and I think we are a pretty well conditioned football team, but we played 99 plays the week before. I do remember a question (after the Miami (OH) game) if it (the win at Louisville) was a fluke and I said anyone would talk about that being a fluke, obviously, hasn't played. If you've played 99 football plays in one game – that is hard. My point is there are a lot of reasons that change these things. There are a lot of reasons for all those things and unfortunately there were too many of those things in the game."
On if Vincenzo Giruzzi was injured:
"He bruised his calf. He'll be alright."
On what he thought of West Virginia's loss at South Florida:
"I only got to see part of it – I didn't get to see it all. West Virginia is a good football team and I think if you ask them they would tell you they didn't play as well as they think they can. They would also tell you that South Florida is a very good football team offensively and defensively and really made the most of their situations."
On if the Iowa game from last year changed the way he prepares for the opposition's quarterbacks:
"You know what let me say this about the quarterback situations – you have to defend whoever is out there and that's the bottom line. That would be a very convenient excuse to say, 'You know what, we practiced all week for this guy.' It's unfortunate. I go back to the Washington game and Jake Locker, that we didn't know much about him so we studied Stanback and the other guy. Then we read about West Virginia – that they had some West Virginia in them. It doesn't matter. You better stop whatever they're doing and who's out there."
On whether or not next time he will go with his gut instinct (in reference to the decision to punt in the fourth quarter at Miami (OH) rather than go for fourth-and-one:
"When I said something about going with my gut feeling on something, it was a situation where it was fourth-and-one, we had just thrown an incomplete pass at midfield and it was still a 14-7 ball game with about nine minutes to go in the game. My initial feeling was that we were going to go for it. Then all of a sudden we didn't have enough time to get play off so we took the timeout. Now all of a sudden discretion comes into play and I began to thing about it and I see this, 'Wait a minute now, it's a 14-7 ball game, if we don't make this they're within field goal range and now it's a two score situation.' I thought to back this team up like we had done previously in the game and we had held them. Really up to that point we had held them and we had stopped them with turnover, turnover, stop, stop – I think. I thought we should back them up. That is not a bad decision. It might not be what everybody agrees with, but it's not a bad decision. I don't think there is a wrong decision right there. So I changed my mind and we punted. It turned out not to be a good situation because they drove down there. Credit to our defense because they still rose up there on the goal line and held them to a field goal, but it didn't work out the way we had planned. That does happen and I don't think it was a clear bad decision not to go for it right there. We had third-and-one and didn't make it. There will be times where I go with my gut and do something and the next time I won't."
