Head Coach Doug Marrone Press Conference Trancript (Nov. 1, 2010)
“I appreciate everyone being here. Getting our sixth win of the season was our objective going to Cincinnati on the road. It was a tough game, a couple things were accomplished early, we were able to hold the ball for 21 minutes, which was important in what we were trying to do in the game plan, keeping the ball away from their offense. The defense stepped up and played well. When you look at the game a couple things stand out, the ability to score touchdowns in the red zone, we were down there five times and scored four out of five touchdowns. I thought we executed very well there. Defensively, we held them in tact most of the game, they had a good drive going and (linebacker) Derrell Smith was able to pick the ball off and get a good return out of it. We had a lot of scores off their turnovers, which is an important part of football, being able to capitalize on someone else’s mistakes. We made mistakes but our defense held well. We have done a good job all year on sudden change, when we’ve made a mistake our defense has been able to go out there and hold.
It is what it is. We’re 6-2. We’re playing a team in Louisville that I don’t feel very good about how we match up against them. They’re a good team with more starting experience than any team we’ve played until this point, overall, offense and defensively. We have a lot of work ahead of us. We’re down, numbers are an issue. Outside of the specialists and kids who aren’t playing (due to injury) we’re down to about 55 kids and we have to do a good job managing our football team for the rest of this season. Credit to our trainers, our players toughing it out and our (strength and conditioning staff).”
On who will come in as the third-string running back with the injury to freshman Prince-Tyson Gulley:
“We feel comfortable going into this week status quo like we were last week. We haven’t talked to the player yet, but what we’re going to do is take a player who isn’t a starter and get him some work on some exchanges. I’d tell you his name but we haven’t met with the players yet and I don’t want to do that. We’re going to start with some exchanges. He is not a starter, it’s not Doug Hogue or anyone that you would probably even know. It is someone who has played running back before in his past but doesn’t start for us.”
On his reflecting on what the three road wins says about the team:
“I can’t afford to do that. We haven’t really accomplished anything. Good job, we’re 6-2, but not 8-0. We need to keep our nose down because we have a lot of work ahead of us. It becomes more and more difficult each day.”
On the health of the team:
“We’re banged up, we’re banged up. It will be day-to-day and things will come out, nothing now for sure. We don’t have a bye week, I’ve said it a million times. There are two BIG EAST games this week, there is one on Wednesday and one Saturday. Louisville and Syracuse are the only two teams that don’t have a bye. I understand why that happens, I understand why it is like that, but when you’re trying to get back to where you want to be as a program, and Louisville might be going through the same thing, it is difficult. We’re playing a lot of physical football teams and this conference is a very physical conference. You survive your non-conference and then you get into conference play. We had a bye before going into conference play, which was great and helped us a great deal. Now it comes down to managing the football team, that is what I have to do and we’ll see where we go, it is a challenge.”
On not having a second bye week during the season:
“There are advantages, you can go out on the road and recruit while everyone else is still playing for a week. You try to find the right way to do it. If we didn’t have any injuries I wouldn’t say anything about it, but we’re banged up.
“This is not the right time for me to address what my personal opinion is. If I ever had a problem with something I would contact our Director of Athletics first in Dr. Gross and then we’d contact the BIG EAST if he felt that we could go do that. It is not for me to stand up here and talk about what I don’t know, because I’m new to this situation.”
On why the defense has been so successful:
“We have experience on that side of the ball, good leadership on that side of the ball. We have excellent coaching, starting with (defensive coordinator) Coach Shafer. Players are playing at an extremely high level right now; there is an urge in them to be successful. They have a confidence about them and they know how to work. They know it’s not easy to perform on a Saturday.”
On what he is worried about in the match up with Louisville:
“Mismatches with different players. Scheme, they have a good scheme both offensively and defensively. Also experience, you watch them, they’re very consistent and getting better and better each week. They run around and fly to the football. We don’t have a lot of experience, especially on the offensive side of the football, so you don’t always know what you’re going to get.”
On whether there is individual players he is worried about:
“Yes there are individual players I’m worried about. I’m not going to voice that opinion now, in every game people are concerned about matchups.”
On what the breakdowns on offensive plays were against Cincinnati:
“If I sat here and said A, B, C, then I would leave out the rest of them. I’m the head football coach, I’m not going to personally let out information that I need to address with players when I haven’t seen them yet. I can tell you this, it is overall. If it was one specific thing then we’d be able to fix it quickly, but it’s not, it is a lot of things. There are moments where you see we can keep things manageable, do things well and can move the football well and there are other times where we don’t know what we’re doing and it’s disappointing. We’ll get back to work and get this thing straightened out this week.”
On the challenges of playing at home and whether it is more stressful:
“I said from my past experiences I’ve seen (teams not play as well at home) but I don’t know what is going on here. I don’t think we’ve played as well at home, but we haven’t been home that much. We’re getting better as we go on through the season, that was our goal, but we’ve played eight football games and five have been on the road. Our last (home) performance was disappointing and hopefully we’ll be able to make sure that we’re ready to play this Saturday, which is my responsibility for this football team. There are a lot of reasons. I’ll go back to my saying before, for me personally, as a player and an NFL coach, is that sometimes the people who love you the most will support you the most, but they also distract you the most. It is just a matter of logistics. You definitely have less logistics on the road. Personally, I definitely have less logistics on the road than I do for a home game.”
On the improvement in the offensive line:
“They’re getting better. Are they going at a pace where as a coach you look at it and say we are where we need to be? Absolutely not. Basically we’ve really just touched the surface of where we want to be. We have four out of those five kids (starters) returning and the left side should be here for a long period of time. We feel good about the younger kids, developing them but they’re not in a position where they can go in there and play right now. Are we getting more physical? We have to because we’re playing very physical teams. Sometimes that is how it works, you either step it up a notch and play more physical or you get your butt kicked. Our kids are out there fighting and they’re learning how to play and they’re learning how to win. A credit to them, they have stepped it up, but we’re not anywhere that we need to be, or how I see us being in the future. I see us being very, very good up front as we progress along through recruiting and developing the players we have.”
On whether the team talks about receiving votes in the national polls:
“It is never spoken about in this room. I can’t speak for anyone else, coaches or players, but I don’t ever look at it nor speak about it to the team. It is great for the people. It is about a school that hasn’t done well in a period of time now and a point where we see a level of awareness and happiness, there are smiles on our face and people are talking. It is about this community, the lettermen, the alumni, the faculty, the people associated with the program that there is a sense of pride in what we’re doing. You can be proud of everything that we do, from the standpoint of what we do academically to what we do with our players. That is how I look at it and that is what it is about. I don’t know where we’re going, I don’t know how the season is going to be, I don’t know if we’ll win all of them, win one or not win any, I have no idea. I know what our goal is. It is important to send this senior class out as winners. It is important for me to do that for these players. I go back to what I’ve told the players and I’ve said it publicly, Coach (Dick MacPherson) used to say to us all the time that part of the experience of college is making sure you win. It is going to affect you in your life later on. I believe in that. I want to make sure for the work that this senior class has put in, I can’t even put into words how hard they’ve worked, not only on their own development but the people around them. They deserve it. Now we have to go out and earn it.”
On whether he has plans in place to prevent things like the tragedy at Notre Dame:
“Yes we do, absolutely. When you’re in charge of a program, I feel I’m responsible for everyone. We have a lot of different processes in place for how we do it.”
On what he wants from the crowd Saturday:
“Hopefully we can create an environment that I remember that makes it difficult for these teams to come in and play. We have that ability. The people who have been coming to the games have been great, they’re vocal and they really appreciate how hard these players have worked to be where we are now. For the people who aren’t, I invite them to come and see what we have to offer in our program. This program represents this community, this school, the alumni and the lettermen. It isn’t my program, I may be the person directing it but it isn’t my program at all, it’s our program. I truly believe that and that is how I run the program.”
