Head Coach Doug Marrone Press Conference Trancript (Nov. 15, 2010)
“I appreciate everyone being here today. It was a hard fought game, like I said afterward. We wound up being on the winning end of the scoreboard, where two weeks ago we weren’t when we played Louisville. We’re excited about where we are. We have a lot of challenges coming up for us as a football team. All of our focus right now is on our next opponent, which is Connecticut. Right now if you watch them coming off West Virginia and Pittsburgh, they’re probably playing as well as any team in the BIG EAST. It is a great challenge for us and we need to be prepared and ready to go for Saturday.”
On whether he has had a chance to think about where the team is:
“No, I’ll look back on the season sometime afterward. Like I said before we had a good run in New Orleans (with the Saints) my first year there and during the open week this season (in October) was the first time I went back and looked at an album that Sean Payton had made of it. It brought back a lot of good memories and I was able to enjoy it more. That is four years later, so I just have to keep moving. We’re on a tight schedule for game plans and what needs to be done for the players and coaches. I just stick to that routine. It has been working.”
On whether he will have to do less managing of the roster and players now that they’ve qualified for a bowl game:
“When I said manage it was trying to get to a point of the last two games where if we wanted to play Antwon Bailey 50 or 60 snaps then we can play him 50 or 60 snaps. If we’re playing someone who can help us on special teams but is playing on defense, then we’re going to play them on both special teams and defense. Let’s go, let’s push near the end. That is the way I’ve looked at managing the team. I give credit to the players. We’ve gone six straight weeks and we are banged up. We’re still banged up. They’ve been able to go out there and perform well. Mind over your body, I guess, they’ve done a good job of that, our trainers, our weight coaches and the players.
“The sense is that I’m happy for the players, the seniors, people in the community, the faculty, and the alumni. I try to tell people all the time that I’m really just doing my job, I don’t look at it as being extraordinary. I’m doing what I was brought here to do. To see people excited about the program and happy, I’m excited about that for them. I’m even more so excited for the players because it is more than just a football game what we play.”
On wide receiver Alec Lemon and defensive tackle Bud Tribbey not playing at Rutgers:
“Both players were cleared medically. You’re cleared medically to play, that is one thing, the other thing is being able to go out there and perform at a level where we can win. We expect both of those players to be on the field for us this week. They’re cleared medically, it is just a matter of how they perform and they’ll both be practicing this week.”
On whether he can say he feels like the team has accomplished something after qualifying for a bowl game:
“People outside the program can say that, but we can’t really say what we’ve accomplished when we still have games left to play. I would lie to you if I said we haven’t accomplished anything, we’ve accomplished a lot of what our goals were. You have to remember now; this is such a competitive game and has a competitive nature and we talk to our kids all the time about being competitors. We still have games where they keep score. I go back to when I was at the New York Jets with Herm Edwards and we’d go through the preseason. In the NFL preseason, people look to get the players in the game, get them into a rhythm and get them out before putting the other guys in to win the game. A lot of times with the veteran players, to make sure that they knew their awareness of what was going on and being competitors, Coach Edwards would always tell them that if they’re keeping score, we’re playing to win. Just remember it is always about winning because if it wasn’t they wouldn’t keep score. That is like scrimmages, when we scrimmage as a team in the preseason. Every game is important. It is the competitive nature in all of us to go out there and win a football game and that is what our focus is on.”
On how much it matters which bowl game the team plays in:
“I haven’t even thought about that. My focus is on the opponent. The administration may be (thinking about that). After the season is completed, then my focus will go to that. I don’t know if anyone realizes the time schedule that we’re under. Coming back from Rutgers we have the three phases of the game that we have to watch again. We have to meet as a staff and evaluate the performance to figure out how we’re going to get better. Now you’re talking about midnight Sunday, we’re watching the next opponent and trying to get a beat on what they do. Then we’re coming in early in the morning on Monday trying to get the base game plan done. There really isn’t a lot of time to talk to someone on the phone, email, text or talk about the season, where it is going, what happened, what we accomplished – we’re on to the next opponent win or lose.”
On going undefeated in BIG EAST play on the road for the first time in program history:
“I’ve said it all along, I loved this team from the beginning. I said it in the beginning of the year and I think it was on TV somewhere before a game in a pregame speech. It is a shame that performance and wins and losses validate what you do. We’ve been winning battles in this program from when we’ve started. This team is a team of high character and high core values and I’ve talked about that before. (Going undefeated in BIG EAST play on the road) represents the type of character this team has, this 2010 team.”
On how he gets the team to focus on Connecticut:
“It is our next opponent, we’ve been doing it every week. It is the same thought process I’ve said before where you can never get too high when you win and you can never get too low when you lose. We’ve had that mentality for every game except for right after South Florida. I expect the players to be ready to play.”
On what qualifying for a bowl game means:
“I’ll talk about it after the season is over. Right now the only thing on my mind is Connecticut. Everyone here knows some of the benefits and I’m not going to rattle them off because my mind is on Connecticut. Does it help the program? Absolutely, in many ways. When the season is over I’ll be ready to comment down the list on how it will help us.”
On what challenges Connecticut presents:
“They beat us pretty good last year. I said it before when I first came in, getting ready for Connecticut, they’re playing as well as any team in our conference right now with the wins over West Virginia and Pittsburgh. They’re an excellent football team, the head coach has been there for a long period of time, 12 years I believe, so they have a great foundation and know exactly what they’re doing. They were picked by some to win the conference. They’re playing at that level right now and it is going to be a great challenge for us. We’re a program with a lot to improve. When someone asks where we are, we haven’t even scratched the surface, we have a long way to go to get better as a football team. We have to start getting better today to have a chance to be competitive against Connecticut.”
On what stands out most about this team:
“What pleases me the most is that the seniors are going to go out with a winning season and a bowl game. That is what pleases me the most because of the amount of focus that was put on me at a young age by Coach (MacPherson) that winning is part of the experience because it is something you’re going to have in life. That is the pressure I felt outside of what I know how to deal with and manage. For me, I felt there was a lot of pressure on myself and the coaches for us to do this the right way so that our seniors can leave here winning, knowing that it is going to help them more so in life than the gratification you get at the moment.”
On whether there is bad feelings between himself and Connecticut head coach Randy Edsall after the way the game ended last year:
“My relationship with Coach (Edsall) is excellent. First of all, Coach played here and was a graduate assistant when I was a player here before he became a coach here. Then we worked together on the same staff at Georgia Tech when he wound up getting the Connecticut job. We see each other, we talk to each other. I probably talk to him more than anybody when we’re at the BIG EAST conferences because we know each other so well. I wouldn’t say that (there are bad feelings) at all, if anything we have a great amount of respect for each other and we work together. I root for him every week, except for when they play us.”
On whether Connecticut provides a special challenge because of their physicality:
“It is a challenge every week. We’re playing a team that has a couple extra days. It isn’t scheme, I really don’t believe that, it isn’t like someone is going to put in something that you’re not ready for. It is extra days to heal up and that is where I give a lot of credit to our players. We’re a banged up football team and we’re managing the players as well as we can and the players are doing a heck of a job. When you play these types of games it is just amazing how many weeks this team has gone through these types of games and won more than we’ve lost. That tells you a lot about this football team. The challenge is to make sure we’re fresh and ready to go on Saturday. Playing a little bit later on (at 7:00 p.m.), those four, five or six hours are important for that recovery time during the week.”
On Connecticut throwing a touchdown pass at the end of last year’s game:
“There are no trick plays, it is the game of football. You go out there and compete on every play. We have a responsibility to play the game no matter how it unfolds and that is what you have to do and then you need to move on. There is no storyline behind this game. There is no grudge, there is no payback, there is none of that. The storyline behind this game is that were facing a team as good as anyone in the BIG EAST now that is coming off two big wins. They’re a very good football team that was picked to win this conference by some polls, we’re a football team trying to get to the upper level of the conference and get to consistency in winning. We have a long way to go. We’re going to fight and scratch and do whatever we can to be competitive and win a football game.”
On the offensive lines performance against Rutgers:
“I was happy in the beginning until we had the personal foul, we were rolling right there and were doing a nice job. Then we hit a point where we didn’t do a lot of things right and not just the line, but the whole offense. I was happy at the end of the game when we went on an 11-play drive down the field. I probably felt the same way that you felt and a lot of the fans felt, you get frustrated at times. With the inexperience that we have that occurs. We have left a lot on the football field, we’re close on a lot of things if you went back and looked at the film. It is just like any game, there are a bunch of touchdowns, the first third down (we gave the ball to ) Antwon Bailey, we do a better job here or there, he gets the ball and he is probably scoring a touchdown on that play. On the other end, Rutgers could say the same thing that they missed some opportunities. That is just the game of football. We have a long way to go. I don’t know what else to say. We are a team that battles every week and for the most part we have wound up on the winning side so far.”
On how surprised he is with the progress of the program in his second year:
“I’m not. Myself, personally, I don’t think myself or any of the coaches are. This is what we do. I’ve said it a million times – my job is to win football games. If I don’t win football games, I’ll be fired. If I win I’ll be able to keep the job and support my family. We all feel that way as coaches. That is how I look at it. The people who are surprised, I’m happy for them. I don’t look down on them and say they shouldn’t be, I understand that, but this is what I do for a living.”
On how he prepares for Connecticut, a team that is getting better every week like Louisville:
“Louisville is a heck of a football team, I said that beforehand. I knew there was going to be a tough matchup problem for us. Every team, if you don’t have injuries and the players can keep playing, gets better and better each week, that is the goal. You might see it during the week but not during a game when you perform on there Saturday because it is a 60 minute window. I said before that UConn is probably playing as well as anyone in the BIG EAST right now. We’re up and down in some things and we’re trying to be a consistent football team. Our goal is to try and go out there and get better today. We try to stay with the focus of what we can do to become a better football team and not look at what the other teams are doing.”
