Head Coach Doug Marrone Press Conference Transcript (Oct. 24, 2009)
Syracuse vs. Akron
October 24, 2009
Carrier Dome – Syracuse, N.Y.
Opening Statement:
“Obviously (senior wide receiver) Mike Williams was suspended for team violations. We welcome both Mike Williams and (freshman linebacker) E.J. Carter back with our team reinstated immediately after this game.
“As far as the game goes, obviously it started out tough for us with the snaps and the fumbles. I thought our defense did a nice job. It’s different than what we’ve done in the past. They really came up and stepped up. There was an enthusiasm about them. I really thought that it was the first time we had a quick change in possession and the defense was on the field and they got after it.
“We had four new starters on offense – (sophomore wide receiver) Marcus Sales had six catches for 61 yards. That was good to get him involved in the game plan. (Sophomore wide receiver) Van Chew was able to get in the game plan; he had one catch for 15 yards. I give (junior offensive tackle) Josh White a lot of credit; he started off the game and gave up a sack early. He really settled down and did a nice job for the rest of the game in both passing and running.
“(Senior running back Delone) Carter did a really nice job. He had 30 carries, 170 yards, three touchdowns – what can you say about him? It’s almost like he ran with a sense of urgency today, which might have been a little bit different. I like to say it’s the guys up front. I’ve been on those guys quite a bit and they did a nice job. We managed the game at the quarterback position. We had situations where we had shots down the field. Two plays come to mind that were touchdowns, one we missed, one we didn’t see. We had one that we didn’t want to throw across our body, someone coming over on the deep-over.
“Overall, we got a win against a team that when you’re on that field, they feel level. Akron is a team that can play. They’re a team that came in here and beat us last year. We didn’t talk about that a lot with the team, but I told the team the night before the game that it’s very dangerous when you play a team that believes they can beat you. Akron was a team that believed they could beat us, so we had all we could handle with them. I thought their quarterback did a nice job, I thought their coaches did a good job. At the end of the day, I thought we beat a good football team. We were aggressive on defense, we were able to get five sacks, and we were able to get to the quarterback at times. They hit us on three big plays and I give them a lot of credit. We still have a long way to go, we have a lot to work on. I told the players to enjoy this win, but let’s get back to work. Our goals are ahead of us, but we have a lot of work ahead of us, too.”
On senior wide receiver Mike Williams’ game suspension. Was it for academic reasons:
“Decisions are made and the timing of the decisions are always made in the best interest of the program. I believe in the privacy of the student-athlete. I think there’s privacy to a student. I’m not allowed to comment on an academic matter for a student. We’re not allowed tell grades. The decisions made and the timing of the decisions are always made in the best interest of the program, and that’s it. We won a football game, but let’s answer all the questions about Mike first and then let’s get onto the win.”
On why Williams was only suspended for one game and (linebacker) E.J. Carter was suspended for two:
“Because we have team rules."
On the bad snaps from center Ryan Bartholomew:
“It’s something that we’ll have to look at and determine how much under center we want to do. We don’t have that problem in practice. We have to put more pressure on situations. It’s something that’s done every single day, there are thousands of snaps. I was excited to see (offensive tackle) Josh White, (senior offensive guard) Adam Rosner, (senior center Ryan Bartholomew) Bart, (junior offensive guard Andrew) Tiller, and (junior offensive tackle Jonathan) Meldrum, really do a nice job of moving the line of scrimmage at times today. There were some holes which is something that’s a very good positive for that offensive line. I might have been on them for a long period of time and not have had anything nice to say at times, but I give them credit. They came out today and at times, they looked like they were coming off the football and knocking people off the ball.”
On the quarterback blitzes from your defense:
“We changed up a lot of things that we did pressure-wise. We put in a little more pressure. We wanted to make sure we got after it early. If it worked, we were going to keep doing it. If it wasn’t, we were obviously going to get back into more of a coverage mode.”
On senior linebacker Derrell Smith’s injury:
“This is exactly what happened, so everyone understands the procedures that we go through. I never ask the trainer exactly what’s wrong, the trainer comes to me and says, ‘Doug, so-and-so is out.’ I say, ‘For how long?’ ‘We’ll get back to you.’ They told me he was out, then they told me he was in. I haven’t been in the training room because I come (to the press conference) first, so I really don’t know. It looked to me like he got hit. We tell them to go down so we don’t have anyone running on and off the field. That can potentially get you in trouble.”
On whether freshman kicker Ryan Lichtenstein was injured:
“Not that I’m aware of. Ryan didn’t have a great pre-game warm-up. There was a little bit of a concern later on. There was concern after the pre-game of saying, ‘Hey, what’s going on? We need to make sure we watch it.’ We’re fortunate that we have two guys who can kick.”
On replacing Lichtenstein with freshman kicker Jake Smith:
“I think everyone has to understand this about me, and I think this will help. Every week there’s competition. Everyone has to hold their job. It doesn’t matter if it’s the quarterback, the kicker, the right guard, the left tackle, the nose guard, the corner, the safety – I’m going to put the best players on the field who give Syracuse University the best chance to win.”
On whether he was happy with graduate student quarterback Greg Paulus’ performance:
“Yes, there were no interceptions. He had no interceptions and he managed the game. He was put in some tough situations. When that ball goes over your head (on the snap), a lot of bad things can happen.”
On whether he calls it a quarterback rotation:
“I don’t put words on it, I just know that we have different packages for different players. We use the strengths of our players to help us win games.”
On the defense holding Akron to no rushing yards:
“It’s one of those things. It’s funny, you look at rushing yards as an offensive coach and when you get the sacks, the sacks come off rushing yards, they don’t come off passing yards. That’s an issue we can argue forever, but I was excited about the defense. They have done a very good job stopping the run, but the thing that I’m excited about is how much we’ve improved our tackling from the spring when we first got here, to now. We’re a much improved tackling team. We missed some today. There were some good athletes on the field, so it’s something that we continue to work on with our defense where they become aggressive and go for it. I was happy that they were able to come back onto the field and make a stand after a quick turnover.”
On senior linebacker Derrell Smith’s performance:
“He’s been hitting and playing. He hits as hard as anyone on that field. If you’re on that field, you can hear it when he hits them.”
On what he’ll bring back for next week’s game:
“I think every time you win you learn something. Every time you lose, you learn something. I don’t know if the players are getting tight, but we have to go out there and just play and take all the emotion of the ups and downs and adversity and be able to come back. I thought our defense did a good job of that. I thought our offense did a good job of that at times. (Offensive coordinator) Coach Spence and I get concerned when we see a poor snap, it’s hard when the game plan has a lot of shotgun in it. We try to put them under center and get them settled in and then we get back to the game plan.”
On spending time in the bye week working on ball security:
“It’s like, what more can we do? Do you replace players? That’s one option. I don’t know if we can commit as much time as we’ve committed to it. Those are the things that you look at and make decisions on.”
On whether he believes the team is ready to play Cincinnati next weekend:
“I don’t see why not, we have a good football team coming in. I haven’t particularly studied them yet. I believe they’re No. 5 in the country and I know this, our players are going to think they can beat them. That’s our job. They’ll go out there and they’ll play. We’re starting to get a little bit of toughness to us and hopefully we can build on it and it starts with this game.”
On getting the team ready to play old-fashioned football:
“I really thought that we all did a good job during the week of getting the team ready to play. I didn’t think we played well initially, offensively, early on. I don’t think we came into the game saying, ‘Okay, we’re going to change and be this type of team.’ I think we came into the game saying, ‘Hey, we have to take some shots, we have to have some good runs.’ Because of the shotgun snaps, it took us out of some of the things we really liked. We weren’t able to call those plays. I just didn’t feel comfortable calling them, nor did Coach Spence.”
On sophomore wide receivers Marcus Sales and Van Chew making plays in Williams’ absence:
“People have to step up. Marcus is a guy that we’re looking forward to stepping up for us. Little things happen. He took the pass today and he gave up some ground today and he should have taken it vertical. He came off the field and I said, ‘Marcus, take it vertical.’ Van Chew got in there and he does a nice job during practice. Those players have to get involved in the game plan, especially in this stretch because every team that we play can take away one receiver. I truly believe that. I’ve seen it happen too many times.”
