Nov. 19, 2009
Offensive coordinator Greg Davis
On senior day: I do have memories of all of them when they came through, whether it be recruiting or great games or great plays. I’ve watched them mature during the four of five years that they’ve been here. Senior day is always a special time.
On the seniors: I think their personalities, their leadership, and the way they go about things on and off the football field is big. It’s really refreshing to see guys that are really and truly student-athletes that are graduates or that will graduate in December. They’ve represented your university with class on and off the football field.
On the rest of the season: We kind of get into a tunnel vision where each day you can almost set your watch by what you’re doing. For example, Monday mornings we start with a blitz. We’re excited about where we’re at, but we also realize that we were in a similar place a couple years ago; all we had to do was win one of the final two conference games to represent the South and we didn’t get it done. You don’t have to think very far back to realize that you have to be focused on each ball game.
On expectations for Colt McCoy: The thing that we liked about Colt the most is that he was extremely accurate, and he was a multi sport athlete. You could see his vision on the basketball court, he ran track and he played golf. We’ve had great success with guys that have played more than one sport, who were well rounded and good athletes. We felt like he had an opportunity to be a really good player. We knew he had to get in the weight room and get stronger, but we never questioned his leadership skills, and we never questioned his ability to pick things up. You can’t predict that this one is going to turn out to be one of the best one’s that’s ever played.
On advice from former players: When we talk to our former pro players that come back, they all miss the dressing room. They all miss the picking and harassing that goes on and the hugging and the dancing and the excitement that goes on after a ball game. Our pro players tell our current players that they need to really enjoy it.
On Kansas: Kansas is a very sound football team. They line up well and they play fast. Laptad, number 91, is the leading sacker; he has six sacks this year. They’re not a team that has a huge three-down package. A lot of people that we play really change personalities on third down from second down. These guys believe in what they’re doing and they keep doing it. They’re predominately a zone team; they blitz about 30 percent of the time.
Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp
On upcoming game against Kansas: We’re excited about playing. It’s been a tight group with what they’ve accomplished and still have an eye out there to accomplish. We’ve just got to focus on Kansas and do a good job preparing for that football game.
On Sergio Kindle: He’s done everything we have asked him to do as far as a work ethic standpoint off the field and proving himself in those ways. His draft status is out of the roof. All the scouts think he has had a phenomenal year. He’s done nothing but help himself. We told him that’s what would happen if he came back, and we’ll see what happens in April, the fruits of his labor.
On giving Kindle encouragement: I tell him all the time. You try to have positive reinforcement all the time. I think he is having a really great year for us. He knows what I think of him as a football player and as a person with high regard for him as a coach.
On defending against Todd Reesing: He’s completing over 60 percent of his passes, he’s a great scrambler, and he’s got great pocket presence. He does a great job with the football. He’s got two outstanding receivers between (Kerry) Meier and (Dezmon) Briscoe. They’ve got 148 receptions on the season, so they are two receivers he certainly likes throwing the ball to. He certainly likes to keep things alive. He makes plays out of rhythm on offense. That’s what’s hard defensively. You can be in the right call and have the right coverage, and he still makes the right play because he has a lot of ability. He’s been doing it over a long period of time. He’s won a lot of games, so we’ve got to do a great job on our pass rushing game, but he’s a guy that I have tremendous respect for. He’s a great competitor. You can see that when he plays games. I have a lot of respect for him.
On the Baylor game: I think we did a nice job of covering down the field. We did a good job of rushing four people and getting pressure. I think that’s a key part of the game. We did a good job for the most part of the game batting down balls at the line of scrimmage and maintain our pass rush lanes. You can’t give them escape lanes. The lead run for them this year is probably the quarterback draw. He does an outstanding job because he is a really good athlete. Again, all those things combined with pressure, front and coverage, all work together in having a successful day.
On difference between this year and past years for Kansas: I think you look and two of those losses, you played Nebraska and Oklahoma, really good on defense. Those are the two games I have really paid attention to. Those are some of the things you look for when you are watching film. They’ve still made plays when they move down the field. They’ve still moved the ball on everybody they’ve played. So I can just voice on what I have seen out of those two games. They are going against some really good people, but they still continue to move the ball. They are a top 10 offense in passing, top 25 in scoring. So again, they’ve got a lot of explosiveness on offense that we have to play well and prepare well for Saturday.
On seniors: They had a great challenge to go in this year and replace the leadership that we lost last year, and when you look at Lamarr Houston, Sergio Kindle, Rod Muckelroy, Ben Alexander and Deon Beasley, and they have done a really nice job of picking up where that left off, if not taking it another step. As far as their work ethic and how they have prepared every day, from on and off the field, positively affecting their teammates, I’ve been really pleased, and they’re just really fun to coach, and we don’t do a lot of baby-sitting around here. It is fun to be part of a group that has thirst and wants to get better and wants to improve and wants to take a step forward every week. We don’t have to do a lot of motivating for the guys. They motivate themselves and motivate in the group. They’ve got a lot of pride. They are a prideful group. They take a lot of things to heart as a group. That’s what you want. You want to have a lot of ownership within in the team among the players.
On an facing an experienced QB: You go through a completion chart and what affects them as far as what’s been successful, but I think at any time every quarterback is different. The experience obviously helps Todd, so we’re not going to throw him anything he hasn’t seen. We just have to do a nice job of executing on an experienced player because if he has something, he is going to hit it, whereas as more inexperienced player, when you cut somebody loose, they may not see it.
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