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March 20, 2007
Coach Al Groh Press Conference Transcript
March 20, 2007
Question: Are there any particular positions where redshirted players from last year have a chance to move up the depth chart?
Al Groh: “With 18 or 19 starters coming back, that’s another part of the equation that’s a little bit different from what we have had in the past. There are open spots, that doesn’t mean there isn’t competition, but they are not wide open spots that have to be filled. So the competition is going to come from these players to try to grab somebody’s spot away or playing time or to be the next player in the game at those particular spots. We are really looking forward to using these players.
For one thing, by choosing to hold them out last year, certain positions really played with a skeleton crew. There was very thin depth and they played with a yeoman service, particularly some of the defensive players who never seemed to come out of the game. With all the playing time they got and the experience they have, that’s a big asset for us. In order to be able to establish a substitution rotation and get some rest for some of these players, both during the course of the game and for the home stretch of the season, we see that to be the principle role for some of these players as they move up.”
Question: There were a number players who required surgery during the offseason, are any of them going to sit out spring practice?
Al Groh: “Everyone will be a participant but some may be limited in acknowledgement of their rehab. Though this is an important time for us, quite clearly, August camp and September the first are our most important targets. Specifically, Clint Sintim, who had shoulder surgery after the season, will participate but we will moderate what he is doing so that he doesn’t put that thing in jeopardy. His offseason has gone well, he is ready to do a lot of stuff, but we will not put him in full bore action.
Quite clearly, the principle party here is Jameel Sewell, who had wrist surgery shortly after the season. It was on his throwing wrist. For all the upbeat feelings that we have about the team, obviously that is a big issue. As we have discussed before, college football has become to a degree an offensive game and such a quarterback driven game. At this point last year we went into the spring with really no experience at quarterback, and now we have a player with a substantial amount of experience at the position but with another question mark hanging over his head. It’s not so much that he is inexperienced but what his participation and progress will be, I think each practice will determine how much of that he can take.
Kevin Ogletree had a similar surgery on his wrist, not quite as extensive but similar to what Jameel had. [Kevin] will be more of a full time participant. Obviously the stress on his wrist won’t be the same as a quarterback throwing or Clint warding off blocks, so it should enable Kevin to do more than the other two.”
Question: How exciting is it to return almost all the parts on a defense that was much improved a year ago?
Al Groh: “That really gives us a good foundation. I just made the statement that college has really become an offensively driven game. But we still have the belief that you have to play good defense to be a consistent contender and win under all circumstances. What we were able to get started last year was to be able to play defense the way I wanted to look like. Those guys got a magnified amount of experience based on what I just said about most of them playing the whole season and taking every snap of every game. So they have a tremendous amount of plays in one season time that should put them ahead of the curve, yet we still have guys with promise, who can make plays, coming up to give us some rest. We have to go back to square one and do it all over again. We can’t assume it is going to happen that way but we certainly have high expectations for what some of these guys can do.”
Question: What was your assessment on the kicking game last year, and what are your expectations for Noah Greenbaum and Chris Gould for the upcoming season?
Al Groh: “There are two aspects to that. There are special teams, which is unit performance. Our kickoff return once again was excellent, I think it was 12th in the country, kickoff coverage was good, no major breakouts against that. Punt coverage was good and Chris’ dropping the ball inside the five-yard line was consistent with what he had done in the past. That part, from a field position standpoint, was excellent. Our field goal protection was good all year long. The performance of our kickers has to improve. No matter how well you block and tackle, the difference in a lot of games and the way the conference is right now with so many teams that are essentially the same team, it doesn’t matter if you dominate anybody, it’s just can you find a way to end up with a couple more points than they do.
Then field goal kicking becomes a big issue. And one of the things that changed from 2005 to 2006 is that we went from being 21 of 23 on field goals to being 12 of 22. So, clearly, that is below standard of what we are used to and we need to improve in that particular area. And I want our long-range punting and net coverage to improve. That is when we are not dealing with a plus-fifty situation and dropping the ball down in there. Kickoffs were overall pretty decent. I do definitely think we need to get more out of our punt return game.”
Question: Did Jameel Sewell’s wrist injury have anything to do with some of his inconsistency this past season?
Al Groh: “This injury occurred in August so we were aware of it for quite some time. A lot of players get hurt on a lot of teams. We played against some players who were playing at less than 100 percent. Sometimes it helped us so it works both ways. A lot of times when people talk about injuries they forget that the other team has some injuries too. It is what it is. You have to go. It’s part of that mental toughness that a team has to have. I think that gets jeopardized by making a big deal out of it.
Certainly, whether you are a shooter or a baseball pitcher or a quarterback, it certainly has some impact on your mechanics and how you release the ball. Probably the greatest circumstance of the inconsistency was the decision making. Just a need to get more and more looks at the defense. That’s really the principle concern here in the spring. It would be heartwarming and fun for every pass that Jameel throws in the spring to be complete. But from another respect if he can just take enough snaps to get plenty of looks, to make the decisions as to where the ball should go, then that will advance his playing a lot. But if he is unable to take enough snaps and just has to stand in the back, we don’t know where it’s going to go right now.
You saw him play against North Carolina and NC State, particularly Miami and you could see he was clued in. There were other games there where it looked like he was wearing wax paper on his facemask. He just couldn’t see it. That comes from getting the looks. So we would have hoped, particularly with him being at the top of the chart, that he could have thrown 300 or 400 passes in the spring. That’s probably not going to be the case but that’s the reality of it. We will deal with that as it is. The looks are equally as important as the throws themselves.”
Question: Do you like the leadership potential of this group of 3rd and 4th year players?
Al Groh: “We do very much. There was a big discussion about that this morning. This is not a negative statement. It’s not so much that a team has good leadership or negative leadership one year. It’s that you have that thing that coaches are looking for. The mood on the team that I sometimes say is like catching lightning in a bottle. It’s just you do all the same things and sometimes it just catches. It’s got that special feel to it. I can’t say that we ever caught lightning in the bottle last year.
Part of that is that we had so many players in last year that were there for the first time and they were just thinking about how they were going to survive at their job rather than “let’s do the things that will cohesively solidify the team.” It was more of “I just need to figure out who to block here, I can’t figure out how to put this whole thing together.” Now we have a lot more players that are secure in their job and what it takes and what they have to do.
We have certainly seen elements of that here in the offseason where so much of the offseason program is identified with individual player development. Size, speed, strength types of things. We put a big emphasis, at least 50% of that isn’t a focus on player power but on team power. From a chemistry standpoint, it’s putting the team back together again. Since so many major participants from last season are coming back, it appears as though we have a head start on that.”
Question: How important was it for your young players to get a year of college football under their belt last year, and how will it help them this year?
Al Groh: “There’s nothing like being out there to learn. That is the best learning process. Guys can go on simulators, watch tape, go on walk throughs, even go to practice but you have to go out there and play in the games and learn how to play in the games and situations that occur. There is a lot of on-the-job training that goes with it. You’d like to be able to integrate guys strategically as opposed to en-masse. In some positions last year that was the case. We are hopeful that we can get the payback on that.
Guys now are ahead of where they might normally be chronologically on the learning curve yet still have a lot of games left in front of them. Obviously, some of the offensive lineman are like that, three of them have two seasons to go and have one-plus season as starters. John Philips, the tight end, has been in a lot of games for two years and still has two more seasons. Kevin Ogletree is that way. [Antonio] Appleby is that way.
Jeffrey Fitzgerald is that way. We certainly have the potential to do that. We have to turn talk into reality. There are a lot of guys on our schedule who will try to prevent us from doing that. But we certainly have the opportunity.”
Question: Does Cedric Peerman go into the spring as the player to beat for the starting RB position or will there be a rotation?
Al Groh: “Well I think [a rotation] would be to our advantage. Two running backs during the course of a game and more importantly two during the course of a season. To do that we would probably have to have three ready to go. The history around here seems to be that if you have three, there is often one that isn’t up to it that particular week. If you have three that are all capable of going in and getting the job done then we always will have the two for the ball game. A good mix is definitely what we would like to see. It would be advantageous from a game by game standpoint, and it would be particularly advantageous going into the latter part of the season, which would be the month of November.
Let’s say there were 300 carries during the course of the season. So say we give one guy 180-200 carries and we give the other 100-120 carries. That would probably be good for the team and it would probably be good for each one of those backs. So that’s an objective, we have to develop the players and we have to develop it to the point where that becomes a reality.”
Question: Jason Snelling mentioned last year to watch out for redshirted running backs Keith Payne and Raynard Horne. Are they two special backs?
Al Groh: “Players know, they can see. It doesn’t take me to come in here and tell it. And when someone like Jason comes and says it you know they got his attention. They have an energy and joy about running the ball. That was apparent when they were on the show team last year. They tried to outdo each other on every carry and challenged the defense. They got knocked around and kind of gleefully go back and say, “Is that the best you can do?” And they challenge the older guys and get knocked around a little bit. They both have running skills with talent. Keith is a big, strong player. There are not many that look like him. He’s 6-2, 240, he has running skills and toughness. We’d be foolish not to give him turns early and see where that goes. Horne doesn’t bring the same size or wallop but he is a physical runner.”
Question: Do you expect your offense to be more explosive and experienced this year?
Al Groh: “The most important thing is the experience of these lineman and the confidence that they gained last year. The quarterback position is probably one of the most important positions for a player to gain confidence because it is such a physical fight up there. We essentially had three and a half full time starters on the line last year. And in the last four or five games they did pretty well for themselves and gained some confidence. Not spectacular but certainly much improved. That’s where it all starts. I would like to think that what you described would be the case but with a quarterback who so far has only throw nerf footballs, it’s hard to say where we are going to be.”
Question: What things does Chris Long do to make this team better?
Al Groh: “I’m glad you brought Chris up. One of the previous questions I was just thinking to myself, “Boy. we have gone a long time without talking about one of the premier players in college football.” That’s what he really is. At the end of the season last year there was no player in this conference that was harder to block than he was. And all he wants to do is win. Everything that Chris thinks and does is motivated by how many games the team can win.
When your best player is focused squarely on winning as a bullseye then that sets a great standard on your team. And that is who he is. That’s what he provides more than the plays that he makes. I think he is a candidate for every outstanding award in the country. He doesn’t think in terms of those things. All he wants to do is win games. But he certainly will be one of the premier defensive players in the country next year. And we will try to make sure he is in a position to make plays. Though last year it seemed like whatever position he was in was a position where he could make plays.”