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Sept. 12, 2006
Charlottesville, Va. – Comments from head coach Al Groh’s press conference Tuesday as his team prepares to face Western Michigan on Saturday at home.
Q: Do football coaches have more appreciation for the MAC than football fans do?
Groh: I think you are certainly correct on that. As we see in so many circumstances the parity in college football, once you take out those teams that almost by inheritance are going to stand out every year, and we all can name those, then there is so much parity between teams. And it’s not so much an ACC team to a MAC team, but in a few different cases this year there has been a 1-AA team beating a 1-A team. Just a lot of players are around that are the same players and then a few players make a difference on a particular team. I think that’s very definitely the case.
Q: If the decision for quarterback is based on practice, what about the gamer factor. Does that make it harder to pick a starter?
Groh: Well, clearly, but what we have here, and we have had this since Marques Hagans walked off the field in Nashville, is that we have a circumstance where we have no quarterbacks that have a game resume to base any decision on. Who plays better in the games? Well, no one has played in the games. Over the brief experiences of any of these quarterbacks in previous years and in a relatively short period of time this season, it would be difficult to say that anyone has played better than anyone else or that anyone has played worse than anyone else for that matter. If we had four preseason games to play what we probably would have done would be to have started Christian Olsen in the first game, played Kevin McCabe in the middle of the second quarter, and played Jameel Sewell in the fourth quarter. In the second preseason game, we probably would have started McCabe, played Olsen in the second half and would not have played Sewell. In the third game, we would have started Olsen, played Sewell in the second half and not play McCabe. And then we have a real good idea and for the fourth game we would then be able to decide who gets the bulk of the action. That’s pretty much the situation we have now, except the games count.
Q: Will you alter your practice schedule this week due to the very quick turnaround between Saturday’s game and your next game against Georgia Tech?
Groh: We have done quite a bit of research on it and had a lot of conversation. It’ll definitely change things next week, it’ll change things for the staff this week. We talked to a number of the coaches in the NFL who get to experience the Thanksgiving Day game, who have to go from Sunday to Thursday and how they conducted their business. It forces us to get all of our research on the next opponent done well in advance of when we might normally do so because we cram into four days what we usually do in six. We will have to be ready to go Sunday morning with Georgia Tech as opposed to Tuesday afternoon with the players, we’re trying to get further ahead with our Western Michigan work this week. I’ve tried to come in earlier and stay later and be further ahead on a day to day basis with Western Michigan so I can get started earlier on Georgia Tech than I might normally. I’ll probably spend a good part of the day Friday doing research and then Friday right after the game we’ll come right back in here and grade the game Saturday night, so on Sunday morning we are ready to go full speed. We would have done our research, done our grading, so on Sunday morning we’ll have all that behind us and the players will be in on Sunday afternoon as opposed to being off. Start our preparation on Sunday then Monday will be a combination Tuesday/Wednesday, Tuesday will be a combination Wednesday/Thursday, then we are out of here and on our way to Atlanta. Then we have to make allowances for the fact that the players will not be able to recover as well in between games, so we have to moderate what we do in practice.
Q: Did Chris Long get a game ball on Saturday night?
Groh: I thought there were many players on defense that deserved as such, With Marcus Hamilton and Chris Long being the defensive co-captains, they were given the game balls as being kind of representative of the entire unit.
Q: Is Western Michigan even better this year as compared to last?
Groh: I think it’s hard to say early in the year. I say it every year, especially in college football, with such quick turnaround on who is on your team, with teams depending on freshmen and sophomores as much as they do, it usually takes three to four games really to see what a team is. It really takes that long for that team itself to see who and what it is, what its strengths are. I hope they are not better than they were last year because they were plenty good last year.
Q: Is this the most aggressive defense you have ever had?
Groh: There are a number of players on the defense who are very aggressive by nature. Chris Long is obviously one of them, Jeffrey Fitzgerald is one, Clint Sintim is one, obviously Nate Lyles is one just to name a few. Mike London has set a good, aggressive tone and our style of play and our play calling has been pretty aggressive to which promotes and brings out more of the aggressiveness of the players.
Q: Has Jon Copper stepped right into his role the way you have liked?
Groh: He really has. Obviously his production has said that, it has been very high through two games, he has been very opportunistic. So there are certainly more challenges to come yet, but had he been off to a less productive start in terms of numbers, it still would have been a very positive start. He really brings it everyday, every drill, every play in team period, every lift in the weight room. Those are the things. Commitment, work ethic, and toughness are the things that gain the respect of most players. In many cases when a new player comes on the team before they are known socially, those things are very prominent in terms of Jon’s makeup.