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Al Groh’s Press Conference
October 18, 2005
Due to the make-up of this current team, was it easy to go back to work last night?
Yeah, I’d say we’re on schedule for how we try to prepare for a game.
If you were not connected to the team, and were just looking at it from the outside, would you say that this is a different team at home than on the road?
One, that seems to be the trend with most teams, except for the purely dominant ones. I guess you could say that, while they’ve been winning, all of USC’s closest games have come on the road. That seems to be very much significant of college football, in general, and it seems to be underscored this year.
What about DE Vince Redd? He was pretty involved the other night. Is he beginning to settle into that position?
Well, we’ve given him that role. I wouldn’t quite say he’s settled into it yet, but we’ve given him that role. Now that he’s got it, like a lot of other players who have that role, he knows what the expectations are, and we’ll keep working to get those.
What about his athletic traits, with how big and rangy he is as a pass rusher?
Well, he’s a lot longer than most of them, and, given his basketball background, he does have a good sense of the ball. He causes our quarterbacks in practice a lot of difficulty, not just because of his wingspan, but because he does have an anticipation of the ball. Sometimes I’d like him to keep on rushing a little bit harder and not concern himself with knocking balls down.
In the course of your career, you’ve been associated with teams that have not had reliable field goal kickers. What does it mean, as a coach, to have a guy like PK Connor Hughes, who you can feel pretty confident in?
From a strategic standpoint, in conducting the game, it’s a tremendous positive, because at certain down-and-distance circumstances, you can make some decisions–obviously we want touchdowns, either directly or we want first downs that lead to more downs with an attempt to score the touchdown–but sometimes you get into some down-and-distance circumstances where the odds are against you for either one of those, and you say, “Well, if we can get the ball to a certain point, then we have a chance for points.” That’s really the most significant thing that a field goal kicker can provide for you. Number one, it’s not distance. It’s the reliability of if you can work the ball to a certain point on the field, he’s reliable there, even if it’s got to be down to the 15-yard line. If we get it to the 15, this guy’s going to make it from there, or wherever it might be. Anything that’s beyond his normally established range, then that just becomes a bonus. Well, obviously in his case, he’s got range and he’s got excellent accuracy. What was very significant about how well he’s hitting the ball is on his two longest kicks, the 50- and 45-yarder, each kick was just straight as a line. There was no movement, no wavering of the ball. That’s significant, because, obviously, any ball, whether it’s a baseball, or a golf ball, or whatever, the longer the ball is in the air, the more that can happen to it, whether it’s through the wind, or usually for some type of rotation, he just it the ball so clean, even from that distance, there was no wavering.
As you get injured players back, can you talk about building depth and how that might help down the road?
One, what we’re really hoping to do now is to build a little continuity and a little rhythm in our system, so that we’ll have the same guys, at least for this week-hopefully, by next Monday we’ll still be saying the same thing-the same guys practicing, one, individually, but two, collectively as a unit, both on defense and offense. Hopefully, that will smooth out some of the things, some of the kind of sloppier things that have caused us a little bit of concern here through the early part of the season. And, then, obviously, some of those players who have gone in, for example, Eddie Pinigis has now had, basically, four full games of playing tackle, which he had maybe 50 plays coming into the season. So, we have a lot more playable tackles now. Going into the season, we had two tackles who’d ever played in a game that we felt good about. Now, Eddie’s played, Eugene Monroe’s played, and, all of a sudden, we have four tackles. So, if this is one of those look-for-a-silver-lining in every situation, that certainly is one that is there.
Saturday night, QB Marques Hagans said, for the first time, the game actually slowed down for him. It’s kind of ironic considering the pace of the game. When you have a quarterback that’s played as much as he has, is this kind of the next step that you look for in a quarterback, when he says that the game slows down for him?
That’s what they all say. I was reading about some prominent player here Saturday afternoon-I forget who it was-but, he was making the same statement. He even said, “It sounds crazy for me to say this, but as fast as everything’s moving out there, and I feel that, as I’m more confident, I’m moving faster than ever, but I’m seeing it slower.” I forget who said it; it wasn’t Marques. But, when former NFL head coach Dan Reeves was here in the spring–he’s had some pretty good quarterbacks that he’s coached–we were kind of getting some insights from him, and he was talking about quarterbacks having slow eyes. And, he said that when they have fast eyes kind of darting around, he said, “That’s when you can tell that the game looks like ‘The Keystone Cops’ to them.” And, that for a quarterback’s development, as much as anything from a mechanical standpoint that a quarterback has to develop, “The Keystone Cops” have got to leave. For some quarterbacks, they don’t ever leave. People can’t understand why this guy is 6’5”, and 230 pounds, and he’s got a strong arm, and they should be starting him, they don’t get it, it’s never slowed down for the player. I’d say that, certainly, in their fourth year here, that’s when it slowed down for Matt Schaub. And, all of a sudden, it was just there, it was clear, he knew what he was looking for, he recognized it when he saw it, and it registered: do this. And, that certainly has been the case, starting in spring practice, for Marques. It’s been a progressive thing. Hopefully, he’ll stay fast, but the game will look slow.
Have you gotten a chance to check out North Carolina yet to see what they bring to the table?
Since 10 o’clock Sunday morning, that’s all I’ve been looking at. Everybody else is looking in the past, but for the last 50-1/2 hours all we’ve been looking at is the future. So, we’re very tuned into their team, as, with the extra week of preparation, I’m sure that they are too.
What do you see from them that impresses you?
We’re very impressed with their defensive line, particularly the interior. Their offensive line and their wide receivers are, certainly, a strength. Their return game is amongst the more dangerous that we’ve played against this year.
What about QB Matt Baker, who backed up Darian Durant seemingly forever, and now is getting his chance? What have you seen from him?
He’s done, I think, a remarkable job. It’s caused me to think, if there’s any comparison there, I hope we can be as fortunate next year.
Have you talked to your players about how quickly a season can turn around, seeing that a week after somewhat negative attention you’re right back in the Top 25 and in the hunt in the ACC, especially with such a young team?
What we talked about last week is that we didn’t really care what anybody said about us, and we don’t really care this week. We just know what we have to do this week to keep it going. What we care about is winning and losing and staying together as a team and trying to play the kind of sound, solid, tough, aggressive ball that we like to think is our trademark. The season was pretty early still last week at that stage. It’s really still pretty early; we’re only at the halfway mark. And, I think at that stage it’s too early to get hyped up about if you’ve got a great team, and it’s a little pre-mature to be running around like Chicken Little saying, “The sky is falling.”
With all the depth that you’re starting to get on your offensive line, and TB Wali Lundy looking like he’s getting back to form, do you see brighter days ahead for your running game?
Yeah, I would hope so. That’s one of the things we’re going to try to, as I said, get a little better rhythm in here at this stage in the season. It’s just been a little bit sporadic. It’s been sporadic at different positions, and, as a result, as a unit, it’s been sporadic.
TB Cedric Peerman didn’t have a rushing attempt on Saturday night, but what kind of impact did he have with his kickoff returns?
Oh, significant in terms of field position. He’s got a great feel for them. We’re getting really good performance from that unit. We talked some weeks back about the requirements to play back there, and it’s … what the off return man does and his capabilities are just as important as what the guy does with the ball. And, because of how teams have tried to locate the ball on their kickoffs, most of them have gone to Cedric, but Michael Johnson has also done a really fine job for us as the off return man, and has been very significant in the returns. You know, those guys, a lot of times, those guys… it’s like you just put an eraser on them if they don’t get the ball and suddenly you’re playing with 10. But, that guy’s involvement is very important, and he’s done a really excellent job, because more often than not, he’s ended up being the off side guy. Cedric’s usually been the guy with the ball in his hands and has done a terrific job with it. But, he had that long return at Syracuse to get us in good field position to start the winning drive. Twice after Florida State scored last week we started with excellent field position, which kind of … you know, that’s so significant in the game because the other team, obviously, as a result of the score, has got pretty good momentum boost, and, all of a sudden, bam, you’ve got it right back again. Something really positive has happened to your team, your crowd, everything else. That happened twice the other night, and that was really good.
You had mentioned, earlier in the season, that you wanted to have more playable depth than you had in the past. Do you think, in retrospect over the first few games, those injuries and some of the freshmen not being ready, that the lack of depth hurt you?
Well, we were kind of operating as we had in the past-a lot of guys having to carry the whole load, or a major part of the load. A number of them remarked, following the game, how fresh they felt at the end, because they were able to get a break. It’s critical that we find out now that that wasn’t just a one game deal, that we can get that kind of performance, that kind of help every week. It would be very beneficial to us if we could.
Is it hard to make yourself, as a coach, commit to doing that if you know there’s going to be a drop-off in talent?
Sure, that’s why I’ve kind of said a couple of times, in explanation of it, that we’re committed to playing the younger players. You just have to make that commitment. Then, eventually, after you can do it over a period of time, then that drop-off isn’t as significant, because once you start rolling them in there, then these will be some pretty experienced second-year players next year. Now, even if they haven’t captured the starting job by that time, now, maybe, instead of playing 12 plays, they’re playing 35 plays. And, then that allows other guys, the guys that follow them in, a little more time to develop. Once the process … once you can get into a phase when you’re really able to do that, then it starts to repeat itself.
Can you talk about CB Marcus Hamilton’s development?
He’s like a different player right now, mostly as a result of his confidence. He’s seen it all. He’s got his techniques down. He’s got his reads down. And, when I say that, I’m not just talking about the games, but everything that he demonstrates in practice every day, the aggressiveness with which he goes to the ball. I think I had perhaps mentioned in here following the Maryland game that Chris Cook, who had the interception for a touchdown in that game, had five interceptions in the Thursday practice before that. Marcus had three or four interceptions last Thursday. And, some of them develop that mentality that’s like the shooter who wants the ball. Now, they’re not just trying to cover receivers, they’re trying to get the ball. They’re trying to make a play on the ball, whether it’s knock it down or catch it. That comes from confidence, and it probably comes from experience.