Official Site of the Southeastern Conference

COACH NICK SABAN

COACH SABAN: Good morning. Hope everybody has had an outstanding summer, enjoyed themselves. We certainly did. But we're also very excited about the upcoming season, the challenges of the SEC, opening up practice on August the 1st.

It's a great time to be at the University of Alabama right now. I think we have a lot of positive energy. As an institution, we've made some tremendous strides. I think Dr. Witt has done a fantastic job of improving the university as a whole, and for us to be recognized by Forbes Magazine as the seventh best place to go to school; affordable, educational opportunity, career launching place in the world is really pretty significant to us. Certainly something that is a positive, you know, for our recruiting and what we're trying to accomplish there.

We feel really good about the positive energy our fans have demonstrated throughout the 18 months that we've been here. It's certainly contributed in a positive way to the excitement that our players have as well as our ability to recruit.

You know, our Mission Statement stays the same in terms of what we try to accomplish with the players. We want to create an atmosphere, an environment where our players have a chance to be successful as people, that their character, their attitude, the commitment, the work ethic, the pride in performance to be the best that they can be, the choices, decisions that they make are all things that are gonna help them be more successful in life for having been involved in the program.

We feel really good about the progress we made in that regard. We have a lot of players doing outstanding academically. They've made a significant improvement as football players, and they certainly have enhanced their chances of being successful in life by some of the habits that they've developed in the last 18 months.

We also want to create an atmosphere, an environment where the players can succeed academically. We feel the most important thing that any player's gonna do when he goes to college as a college football player is graduate and develop a career off the field. We feel good about the 80% graduation rate that we have, the success that our academic staff has had with our players.

We want our team to reach their full potential as football players. That's every individual becoming a complete player so that they can have confidence and feel great about what they're able to accomplish as a football player. We are making progress in that regard, as well. We want to use all the resources that we have as an institution to help them launch their career and get the best opportunities in life.

This is the reason that I love college football, so that you can impact and have some influence on things that happen on and off the field. That's something that we feel good about in terms of our program development.

Consistency in performance is probably the key to being successful. I think our team last year probably didn't play with a lot of consistency in performance. We didn't finish games. We didn't finish the season. We probably played one complete game, and that was the Tennessee game. We were inconsistent and up and down, played up to the good teams, down to the bad ones. We were inconsistent within games. Had big leads and weren't able to keep 'em.

I think those two things finishing and consistency in performance are probably the two things that were the biggest focal points for us in the off season to try to improve on.

I've seen a tremendous improvement in our team in those areas in this off season. We had a good off season. We had a good spring. We've had a great summer. And I think the team chemistry is certainly something that has improved, and I think it's because players understand what they're supposed to do, how they're supposed to do it, why it's important to do it that way, which makes them have a greater trust and respect for each other, and a confidence in what they're doing.

I think it also helps them be more responsible for their own self determination because they understand the expectation. The positive attitude, leadership that some of our older players have demonstrated has made a positive impact. We really feel good about the progress that we made.

But I think the key to our success in the future, we have nine seniors on the team, even though we have good leadership in that group, our improvement is going to depend on how our young players progress because we lack depth at several positions.

We're fortunate to have a very good recruiting year, but with a young team, we must identify or establish an identity, you know, as a team. These young players and how they respond to the challenges in the SEC is certainly going to go a long way to determine how much success this team can have and how much this team will actually improve. And we really won't know that until we get out there and play the games.

Our schedule is very challenging. I think one thing that the Clemson game will do for us early in the season, you hear all the things about exposure and national TV game. They're a great team. They're a top 10 team. They're picked to win their league. But I think what it's gonna help us do is enhance our development in terms of our identity as a team because it will certainly show us where we are in terms of how we compete against one of the best teams in the country, even though it's a first game and it's on the road. I also think that's gonna help us down the road in our competition in the league, which is several teams that will be in the top 10, top 15, and six or seven in the top 20.

I think the league is outstanding from top to bottom. I think it's going to be very challenging. It's probably better than it's ever been in terms of program and coaches. We certainly need to do everything that we can do to help our players develop and reach their full potential so that we can be competitive in our league.

THE MODERATOR: Hands up for questions, please.

Q. Can you comment on Tarence Farmer's departure, what happened there, and can you tell us where he might be headed next?

COACH SABAN: I really don't know. But we kind of mutually agreed that he wanted to play, and we thought that it might be better that he go someplace else. He sort of agreed with that. We wish him the best.

Q. You lose a lot of experience at wide receiver this year. What do you think the biggest challenge is for John Parker Wilson going into this season?

COACH SABAN: John Parker has had an outstanding off season. I think it was contributed largely to having a great Bowl game, kind of restored his confidence.

New offensive coordinator, a little more diversity, a little more quarterback friendly. I think he's a little more businesslike and mature in his approach to how he prepares in the decision making process that he goes through.

But I feel very good about the progress that he's made in this off season. I do think there is some opportunity for several people at the receiver position to sort of step up. Some of those players are young players. But we also have some players, Nikita Stover, Michael McCoy, who have some experience. But I think the development of that group is going to be really the key to our success offensively because we do have some returning players on the offensive line. We don't have a lot of depth.

We have a couple decent tight ends. We have some experience at runningback. That's the real area where we need to have some people step up and play great football for us. And I think that will help the quarterback.

Q. You talk about not being consistent last year, trying to get consistency. How much do you think the fact that you're there for a second year will help that? If that's not the thing that helps it, what do you have to do to get consistent?

COACH SABAN: Well, I think it really starts with who you are, you know. I'm talking about our players. We're trying to develop the best possible habits that we can in our players to be successful.

I think the expectation of them knowing what to do, how to do it, why it's important to do it that way, and having some consistency in system and confidence, all those things contribute to it.

I think there's a lot of things that contribute to trying to get players to play with more confidence. But having a better understanding of what they're supposed to do, how they're supposed to do it, and why it's important to do it that way probably contributes to it as much as anything.

And I think the longer they're in the same system, the better chance you have to develop that.

I think also the coaching staff, having some continuity in the coaching staff, also helps that. Even though we have a new offensive coordinator, we didn't completely change the offense or the terminology where it was totally different for the players.

Q. Your last two seasons weren't quite as good as the two or three before that. How do you deal personally with that kind of mediocrity there?

COACH SABAN: Well, I try to get better, I guess (smiling).

But, you know, I think some of them are the challenging situations that you are in, and trying to work hard to improve those situations. And that's certainly what we've done. We're very confident that the approach that we use, the system that we have, the program that we try to develop, the systemic approach that we use in evaluation and recruiting to attract a character quality player who has talent and ability, who can play winning football at this level, are all going to be things that contribute to us improving.

You know, eight years ago I started out not having a lot of success either, but you have to build. And that's what we're trying to do right now, is build on positive energy and a great opportunity so that we can have success in the future.

Q. Have any of the situations off the field changed sort of the way you view discipline or how to discipline the players?

COACH SABAN: No, not at all. Unfortunately for you all, we have about 25 or 30 guys that are doing extremely well in the program, have improved dramatically as students, have made a lot of personal choices that have enhanced their chances of being successful in the future, have improved as football players. And I think their chances of being successful in life have improved dramatically.

You know, philosophically, we are there to help players. You know, we're gonna take every player and try to get him to reach his full potential. And everybody has a responsibility and an obligation for their own self determination, but we're there to support and help those players to do that. That's our philosophy.

You know, I'm not gonna clean house and get rid of everybody just because they might be a problem. Now, when players don't do the right things and make poor judgments, then they cannot be a part of the program. But it's our philosophy to support players, to help them be successful. One of the reasons that I enjoy college coaching and want to be in college coaching and am here is to help players do that.

So that's what we've done. And I feel very good about who we are, what we've done, what we're gonna continue to try to do, so that we don't fail players and they make bad decisions and bad choices about what they do and how those consequences impact their ability to be successful in the future.

There's no change. We just need to do what we do better.

Q. You mentioned some of the freshmen who have an opportunity to come in and play right away. How do you manage the, I guess, expectations, recruiting services, et cetera, put on them? How do you keep them grounded mentally while they're trying to do that?

COACH SABAN: Well, what I think is important really to all of us is that we create our own expectations. I think it's important to Michael Johnson if he's running in the Olympics, I think it's important to any freshman that's going to any college, I think it's important to all of us, that we create our own expectations, that we know where we are, we have a goal, and we want to try to achieve that.

And I think one of the things as competitors that is always a challenge is that you're affected by external factors. And someone else's expectations of what you should accomplish, especially if it's defined in results, can create a tremendous amount of frustration which could affect how you improve and how you develop as a player because frustration is not something that's gonna help you. It's negative energy and it's not gonna help you improve.

So what we've tried to do is to get these guys to have expectations that they create for themselves, that they define and work for, and not be affected by things that happen outside. And that's not easy to do, and it's difficult.

But I would be more concerned about these guys focusing on being complete players and how they can contribute by being complete players rather than some goal of how many passes they catch or how many tackles they make or how many interceptions they make or something along those lines.

That's how we try to manage it. You know, we have the Pacific Institute in there this summer teaching 12 classes, which is a mental conditioning type character development class, that helps these kinds of self actualization, self confidence, self esteem issues that we all are challenged with every day to stay on task to focus on what we need to do, to do what we do well.

Q. Given the pending suspension you mentioned for Prince Hall, which of these freshmen do you expect to come in and compete for some of those linebacker positions?

COACH SABAN: I don't. I expect to take all the players that we have and work with them. The ones that develop the most quickly and give us the best opportunity to be successful, that have confidence and maturity to compete it may be a freshman, it may be a sophomore, it may be a junior we'll make the decision to play the best players when everybody goes through fall camp.

There is a lot of competition at the linebacker position, and we do have some young players who are talented and may be able to contribute in that area.

Q. Could you talk a little bit more about opening up against a top ranked team like Clemson? Talk about your expectations from your team and what you expect to see from Clemson as well.

COACH SABAN: You guys use that word "expectations" a lot. And I try to minimize it a lot because I think it's dangerous, because we're trying to focus on what we can do to make our team the best that it can be. So that process is taking it every day on what you can do, how you can work to improve character, attitude, physical ability, ability to execute, team chemistry, work ethic, you know, all these things that keep just continuing to help you improve so that you can become a good football team and play with consistency every week.

And I think the thing that this game with Clemson does, who has a returning veteran team, who has had success, and who will be a top 10 team, will be a challenge for our team relative to seeing where we are and how we compete and where we need to go to get better win or lose.

Q. From the outside looking in, you seem more relaxed and comfortable this year than last year, your first year coming back into the SEC. Would you agree with that? If so, is that because you're kind of back in your element, coaching in a college program for all the reasons that you described?

COACH SABAN: Well, it was a difficult situation for the Sabans. This has nothing to do with any particular place. But we love college coaching. We love college football, and I think the SEC is a fantastic league. I think we have great leadership in this league with our commissioner, and we have a tremendous group of schools that have great leadership and lots of good programs.

Sometimes you learn about yourself when you go places and do things. We took a tremendous amount of criticism for that. And as hard as we tried to stay focused and stay on the task at hand, it was difficult at times. But we certainly appreciate the warm embrace that we've had and the support that we've had from the people of the state of Alabama, especially the people who support the University of Alabama in terms of how they've supported the program and how they've made us feel welcome and at home in our situation here. And I think that's gone a long ways in making us feel comfortable.

But we have a lot of work to do. But I'm excited about the challenge of the work we need to do to become, you know, one of the dominant teams in this league, again, in terms of the recruiting we have to do and the development of the players that we have. But that's what we love.

Q. What does it say about the strength of this league that two coaches voluntarily left the NFL to come back to this league? Did the passion of this league have anything to do with drawing you back to college football?

COACH SABAN: Well, I certainly think that we certainly have a tremendous amount of respect for the SEC. The venues you play in, the places you go, the passion that the fans have just about every place that you go, I don't know how it could get any better. And sometimes you have to go someplace else to fully understand and realize that.

But I think that we came back, and feel very fortunate to be able to come back to a quality institution like the University of Alabama, in the best league, the SEC. To get an opportunity to do that after going to pro football and learning that, it really is all about college and a love of the game that we have for college football and college players that make us happy and makes our job special.

So that was, I guess, the number one thing. But we felt so fortunate to be able to come back to this league, and especially at a quality institution like the University of Alabama.

Q. Given what you were just saying about coming back to the SEC, could that help you easier relate to what Bobby Petrino went through, and can you give your thoughts about him being in the West there with you guys?

COACH SABAN: You know, Bobby's an outstanding coach. He has a great record as a college coach. I'm sure he would have done a great job in the NFL, as well.

You know, Arkansas has been a very competitive team. I know he'll do a great job there. It will be very challenging systematically. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Houston Nutt, who is still in the league. I thought he always did a great job there. We had some great games through the years.

But I think Bobby will do a fantastic job, as well.

Q. Talking about the freshman class you have coming in, at what point, when players are developing at freshman, at what point in fall or summer practice do you start to see them be being able to contribute on an average basis?

COACH SABAN: I don't know. I think every guy will be different. I think all these guys will develop at a different pace relative to their maturity, maybe their ability to learn and be confident in what they do.

But my disposition on it is we're going to play the best players, and if they're freshmen and the freshmen can go out there and play with consistency and performance and do their job better than someone else, we have no issue with those guys being the performers that will give us the best opportunity to be successful as a team.

But I do think how these guys develop will have something to say about the kind of success and how much our team improves this year.

Q. You mentioned the new offense being more quarterback friendly. What exactly do you mean by that?

COACH SABAN: Well, I think that decision making and judgment and accuracy are probably critical factors in being a successful quarterback. I certainly feel if you can minimize the number of thought processes that you have to go through before you make that decision, it can be beneficial.

I think in our case it certainly is helpful to our quarterback. It's something that he did more of in high school. And I feel good about the way he's responded to that.

I think you can have a great system, but it also can be very complicated. And sometimes the complications slow down players' ability to make good judgments and decisions. That can affect their ability to perform with consistency.

Q. You talked a minute ago about your goal is to get Alabama back to being a dominant program. For the Alabama fans, what's a realistic timetable? What timetable can you give them that's realistic to bring Alabama back to a dominant at national prominent level?

COACH SABAN: We never, ever talk about it is what it is. We are where we are. We work every day to try to get it where we want it to be. We're going to make small, incremental improvements to getting there.

You know, obviously the quality of player that we can attract in recruiting, the way we can develop the players that we have, the attitude that we can develop within the organization, I mean, there's so many factors that contribute to that.

But I have never as a head coach put a timetable. And every situation is different. You know, sometimes you go into a situation, you have pretty good players in there in disarray. You straighten them out, they start playing pretty good, get confidence, all of a sudden you're pretty good.

You go in other situations where you may not have as many good players, it's going to take a little more time to recruit your way out of it.

It's always a combination of all those factors that determine, you know, how soon you can start to be successful.

But we're gonna do everything that we can to continue to build a program that our fans and supporters can be proud of. It's certainly our goal to be one of the teams that's recognized in the SEC as a top, top team again.

Q. What reaction do you have to Les Miles' line about Alabama having trouble beating teams from Louisiana?

COACH SABAN: Well, he told the truth. He told it like it was. So, you know, I don't you know, we need to earn it. You know, that's what the guy told Private Ryan, Private Ryan told Tom Hanks on the bridge after 12 guys got killed getting him out of there, Tom Hanks says, "Earn this."

We need to earn the respect. We need to earn it. So that's what he need to do. That's what we'll work to do. That's what we're trying to do.

Q. Coaches talk about team chemistry being one of the variables that will turn a good team into a great team. Is team chemistry one of those things that's hard to describe; you just know it when you have it? What can wreck it the quickest?

COACH SABAN: I think team chemistry is important to being successful because it means you have a bunch of players who have a respect for each other and trust in each other. I think that contributes to confidence. I think it contributes to consistency.

I think the whole idea that together everybody can accomplish more is something that we talk about, but the individuals that contribute to that really make the team what it is. Their intensity, their intelligence, how smart they play, the sense of urgency that they have in that particular moment to do what they're supposed to do and respect and trust that everybody will do it is something that contributes to team chemistry.

It takes a lot of positive energy. But I also think when you have a group of guys that have been together and have kind of grown up together, you enhance the chances of having that.

But in our circumstance, I think how the young players and the team chemistry sort of forms around the older, and the younger is gonna go a long ways in how successful we can be.

Q. The conference commissioners approved to maintain the status quo with the BCS system for the next several years. Do you like it the way it is now or would you like to see a plus one playoff?

COACH SABAN: I've always supported the plus one playoff. I really have supported the commissioner and think he's done a fantastic job of taking that to the forefront. I don't think there's any circumstance that you can think of in the last 10 or 15 years where if we had four teams playing in the championship. Our year at LSU in 2003, you know, Southern Cal was left out. They thought they should be one of the teams in there. If we would have had four teams playing, there wouldn't have been any doubt about that.

I think the year Auburn got left out, that would have also solved that problem. There was a year where Michigan and Nebraska shared a title. It wouldn't extend the season. If you use one of the Bowl games that we have right now and then a week later play another game, it wouldn't cause any problems academically.

My only caveat to all that, when I suggested this back in 1997, was that all the money that they make in the National Championship game would give back to every student athlete in terms of improving their quality of life by giving them $200 a month or whatever as a part of their scholarship.

I'm not just talking about football players. I'm talking about women's basketball players, volleyball players, softball players, and everybody that's on scholarship. 'Cause I think we should support the student athlete in every way that we can so that they improve their quality of life.

Q. You talked earlier about the work of the Pacific Institute. Have you used anything similar to that at any of your other coaching stops? How has that work helped this year's team?

COACH SABAN: Well, we've always done things like that. We have about three or four different people that we've used for years. We have someone from IMG, their mental conditioning, who is with us. We had several people at LSU. We had several people at Michigan State. We have a sports psychiatrist from Michigan who periodically visits and affects our players on an individual basis and has had a significant impact on, you know, helping guys be successful, resonating on things that would help them develop a direction that could help them be successful.

So, you know, I putzed around when I was in graduate school by having a concentration in sports psychology. It was very interesting to me. So this part of the mental part of the game has always been something that I didn't know enough about, probably knew just enough about to get in trouble, but have always tried to surround our organization or program with some of these people who can impact and have knowledge and experience in that area. And I've seen it over the years have a tremendous impact on performance with a lot of players.

Q. Some coaches are open about injuries. Other guys try to not talk about 'em. The ACC sort of half heartedly adopted an NFL style mandatory injury report. How would you feel about that? Is that something you think would be good?

COACH SABAN: I would have no problem with it if everybody had to do it the same way. In the NFL we had to do it the same way. Some coaches tried to take advantage of it. One of my buddies, in fact, used to have about 20 guys every week that was probable, including Tom Brady (smiling).

You know, you can do a lot of things to any system. But I would not be opposed to that, if that was something that everyone had to do. Because eventually everyone finds out anyway.

Q. John Parker Wilson has worked with several different offensive coordinators over the last few years. How do you think he's adjusted to that? Does that help him or hurt him?

COACH SABAN: I think it probably didn't help him much when he had to do it. Now that he's done it, I think it's helped him tremendously. His capacity to learn and make adjustments has probably been enhanced by all that stuff. He's adapted extremely well, you know, to our current coordinator. Him and Mack have a good relationship. I think Mack's helped him. I think he can have an outstanding year if he can just stay on task here.

Q. You said you putzed around with psychology and sports psychology. When you read stuff, do you read Freud, Norman Vincent Peel?

COACH SABAN: I'm from West Virginia, man. We don't even know who Freud is up there (smiling).

No, I just like I read Michael Johnson's book, Slaying the Dragon. I always read Rick Pitino, Pat Riley.

But I spend a lot of time discussing how to manage people with these people who are involved in our program. And I think that it helps you think out of the box a little bit and it gets you out of as a coach, you really like the cookie cutter type of everybody fits the same mold. But I think through the year players have changed dramatically and there's a lot of different personalities that play now. I think your ability to motivate, reach, affect, however you want to say it, these different personalities, but not let their personalities be divisive to the team chemistry, is a key to being successful.

And I can say that a lot of these people that we've had relationships with and work with have certainly helped us expand our thinking and our awareness so that it's helped us do that.

Q. Coaches talk about treating players differently to help them overcome their mistakes. Seems likes Urban Meyer is doing that. Can you elaborate on how things have changed in that regard?

COACH SABAN: Well, I think we're all aware that they have changed. If you have children of your own, I think you can probably attest to anyone who has gone through adolescence with someone now knows that they're different.

My kids just flat out tell me. I mean I didn't have the guts to tell my dad. You know, when I sit and look at my kids and I say, When I was your age, I worked for everything I had. And they just look at me and say, Well, I don't know anybody that does that anymore, Dad. Like you came from outer space.

So it is different. I mean, people grow up different. It's an instant coffee, instant tea, instant self gratification. Everything is on the Internet. Everything is a picture. Everything is fast. Everything is quick. There's not the same long term commitment to something and sticking with it and learning from your mistakes. Very few of the things that our young people do now, do they get consequences for? You know, we played checkers when we were growing up. And when you moved the wrong guy, you lost your guy, you got immediate positive or negative self gratification for it and you learn from that.

You know, my kids push the restart button. They don't even know if they got blowed up. I mean so it's different. It's all different.

I'm not saying that that style wouldn't work now. I think with certain people it probably would work. But I think with a lot of players right now, you have to use a little different approach.

But I think that at the end of the day they all want to be good. They all want to reach their full potential. And they all have a willingness that if you can help 'em do that, they have a respect for you, and they'll give you everything they got to do it. That's been my experience.

But I think you have to be a little more flexible sometimes and you have to think outside of the box. That doesn't mean you have to compromise your principles and values in terms of what's important because they respect that more than anything else.

Q. Having been through a spring where head coaches could not go out and evaluate and contact recruits, I wondered what your revised opinion of the Saban Rule was.

COACH SABAN: Well, you know, when you look at it now, as a head coach you can recruit in December, which is two or three weeks, and January, which is two or three weeks, and that's it. So when do we develop relationships with high school coaches? It's the NFL in me that you looked at a player on college tape, you went out and you went to the combine and saw the guy work out, and then you went and worked him out, and then maybe you looked at him again and you made a final evaluation on what kind of player that guy was.

My ability to go out and my willingness to go out all those days and see all those practices and we did evaluate. We did not recruit. I don't care what anybody says or anybody thinks, because all they do is think; they don't know. We evaluated the players.

I was the common denominator that saw all the best players and could say this guy in Mississippi was better than that guy in Georgia, was not as good as this guy in Alabama. All right. And that's gone. All right. So more mistakes are going to be made in recruiting and you're not going to be able to spend the time with people to make relationships to get as good as information. And your assistants are going to have to do that. And we have great assistants to recruit. But I enjoy recruiting, I like doing it, and I wish we could do it again.

I respect the rules. I respect the NCAA. But I missed it. I like it. I think it promotes our game, that any coach in the SEC walks in a high school and watches a practice. Every kid on the team is uplifted that what he's doing is important. It promotes our game. It does so much.

So, you know, that rule, I don't care what anybody thinks, was made out of paranoia, all right, that somebody else was doing something that they weren't doing, whatever. But assistants do it. They do the same thing.

But I respect the rule and we'll do it however we want. I don't think it's as good for evaluation. It's a disadvantage to us, to some degree. But we will overcome it.

THE MODERATOR: Coach Saban, thank you.

COACH SABAN: Thank you. I would like to say this. I would like to thank everybody here. I mean, y'all do a great job for our players, for our programs, for our institutions, for the SEC, for our league, of taking the information to the fans and promoting our game. Your professionalism is certainly appreciated. We thank you for the interest and the help. Thanks.

Alabama Safety Rashad Johnson

On the team's comfort level going into the second year with Coach Nick Saban:
"I definitely think guys know what Coach Saban wants, more this year than last. Now, we know what he wants, and when it's time to meet, he'll say something, and everyone will start laughing sometimes. So there's more of comfort level there that there wasn't last year."

On Coach Nick Saban:
"He's pretty blunt about what he wants, but that's what most guys want. You don't want a coach that beats around a bush and never tells you what he thinks. Most guys want to be told what they're doing wrong and how to correct things, and we don't question that what he wants out of us is good."

On the team's ability to finish:
"Finishing and consistency is a big thing for us. Our season could've been totally different if we would've finished strong, so that's what we've been talking about doing during this summer."

On the team's incoming freshman class:
"We have a lot of confidence in those guys, and we've already seen the way that they've come in and worked this summer. They've worked just as hard as guys that have been here - those guys are all about winning and it means a lot to use that they've come in and started working like everyone else."

On the team's season opener against Clemson:
"The Clemson game is going to be a big game for us. It's exciting for me because they have lots of explosive players, it'll be a big challenge. It will set the tone for how the rest of the season will go."

On his own progress:
"To be coming from a small town and to the big stage I'm at now, it's a blessing that God has allowed this for me. I work hard at every practice. I try to work and do what Coach says and be the best I can be."

On the team's first game against Clemson:
"I don't look it as bragging rights. The ACC has great teams and the SEC has great teams. For our team, we're looking for an identity and so we want the game to show how hard we've been working in the offseason to get the job done."

Alabama Offensive Lineman Antoine Caldwell

On the team's offensive line:
"We feel good about our line, but I don't think we've convinced enough people about how good we are. We do feel like we've got the most experienced and so we should be the best because we have the most veterans."

On returning for his senior year:
"I feel like we were going to have a really good season and there were relationships that I was going to miss. I'm really big on not regretting anything and I was in NFL training camp right now, I'd be thinking, "Shoot, Alabama is stacked this year and going to win the SEC Championship and I'm going to miss it. I feel like the money will always be there so I just wanted to come back and be apart of what we're trying to do here."

On the team's incoming freshman talent:
"I think the young guys we have coming in had a good grasp about things. Coach McElwain, the system that he's brought, is more friendly, easier to learn, than what we've had here in the past. It's a faster system where don't have to think as much and the younger guys have been in here this summer working with it so I think they'll be more comfortable when fall practice starts next week."

On the team's first game against Clemson:
"We open with Clemson and that's huge, exciting, for us. It's rare when you start the season that your first game is one of the biggest and so we're excited about and looking forward to it."

On the differences between year one and year two with Coach Saban:
"I think a lot of guys this year grasp what he's saying, that we have to focus on the process and not on the results. You'd think it wouldn't make a big impact, but if you think about it, it only takes about three or four guys to mess up a game and a season. I think the guys are buying into it now and that makes a big difference."

On Coach Saban:
"I know he doesn't get the most love in the media, but he's such a geniune guy. He's one of the most focused and razor sharp guys that I've ever been around. He takes pride in what he does, and we can see him on and off the field, and he's always the same person. He's definitely a big influence on us."

On Quarterback John Parker Wilson:
"John Parker has so much experience and that's great. I think he's going to have a breakout year because he's the most experienced quarterback in the SEC and he has the best line in front of him. People don't see this, but he's a real competitor, and I respect that, more out of him than on anyone else on the team."

GEORGIA BULLDOGS

COACH MARK RICHT

MARK RICHT: I was told I can get started, so here we go.

Glad to be here this morning. Glad to still be coaching in the Southeastern Conference after seven seasons, going into eight. That's an accomplishment in itself. I'm excited about that.

Excited about our football team. We've got an awful lot of returning starters that have played a lot of ball for us. We've got a lot of guys that have backed up that have played a lot of ball for us. I think a year ago we did a good job of allowing more guys to play. I think that paid big dividends as the season went on. It helped our morale. It helped our team speed. I think it helped our health.

I think we were fresher. I think we were healthier. We're going to continue to try to do that as time goes on. But we're going to report here in a couple days and get it going.

With that I thought I'd answer what you want to know, not what I might want to let you know (smiling).

Q. Obviously expectations are nothing new at Georgia. This year they seem heightened. How have your players dealt with it? How do you want them to deal with it as you approach the season?

MARK RICHT: Dealing with the expectations, of the fans, our Bulldog fans always have high expectations. We've always had high expectations. We expect to win.

Our goal is always set to win the Eastern Division. Our goal is always set to try to win the Southeastern Conference. From that point, you don't know if you'll get in the National Championship game or not, quite frankly. It's hard to set a goal that you can't control.

I know that Auburn went through it. Auburn goes undefeated in this league and finds themselves watching the National Championship game.

We try to set goals that we can control. Those are the things that we talk about. We talk about winning Game 1. We talk about trying to win the East. We talk about, if we get in that championship game, to win it.

We know that in order to even get close to that point, you've got to put the work in on a daily basis. Our goal was to try to focus on the moment, not on way down the road. I mean, people started talking National Championship after the Sugar Bowl last year. That's too long to be chewing on that bone, so to speak. We had to break it down into the smallest component, which is today, what can you do today to get better and to prepare yourself for the opportunity.

I told the players that this pre season hype could be a blessing or a curse. It's a curse if you think it gives you a sense of entitlement to where you think you don't have to prepare. It could be a blessing if you look at it as one of the greatest opportunities of your life and you put the work in to even be in position to have a chance.

So the latter, I think, is what we took on as a team. As I watch 'em, I don't see any complacency. I see guys working extremely hard and getting excited about it. That's kind of how we're trying to handle it.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about Prince Miller and his development as a player and importance to the secondary?

MARK RICHT: Yeah, Prince, he's a very quiet, unassuming guy. He came from a great high school in South Carolina, Burns High School. They do nothing but work there. They do nothing but work there. He knew how to work the Georgia way. He knew how to compete. He played as a freshman. He's been very steady since he's been at Georgia. He's a tremendous special team player and a field corner for us.

He's gotten stronger, he's gotten faster, he's gotten more mature. He was always a pretty tough son of a gun. I just expect him to play extremely well for us.

With the amount of spread offenses that are being added to our schedule, you know, in and out of conference, our corners are going to be their tongues are going to be hanging out because they're going to be playing a lot of three cornerback defenses. He's certainly one of those top three, that's for sure.

Q. You became a more emotional, animated coach in the second half of the season. Your team responded to that. Do you regret not maybe doing that sooner? Also, this year, what kind of coach do you expect to be on the sideline?

MARK RICHT: I don't regret not, you know, being any different any sooner. When I first came to Georgia, not only was I head coach, I was also our game planner and play caller. If I got too excited, outwardly excited, I would lose my focus.

I learned that way back at Florida State when I was calling plays there. I needed to stay calm and peaceful to think as straight as I wanted to be able to think to be able to make the right decisions every, you know, 30 seconds or so.

Once I delegated that role and gave it to Mike Bobo, it's probably mid season before I realize I don't have to continue to stay in that type of a calm mode. I was a little bit more free to let my emotions go.

After getting beat so bad by Tennessee, without much emotion, I was taking inventory of that game. I was kind of wondering what went wrong. As I looked around, I was seeing that everybody was kind of waiting on someone else to do something, coaches and players. I was getting kind of mad at them until I looked in the mirror and realized that they were just basically reflecting me. I was sitting there watching, waiting for somebody to do something, too.

I realized that if we don't play with emotion and energy, which usually we do, but we didn't that day, I said, Something's got to change. I knew it had to start with me. And then it did kind of catch fire, you know.

Now, how am I going to be this year? I'll probably be very much like I was from mid season on. I'll be a little bit more free. I mean, I still have a lot of big decisions that have to be made game day. It's not like I'm not making some decisions, and I don't need to stay relatively calm, but it's not like it was. You know, before, if you got the ball, it's every few seconds. If you don't have the ball, you're still focused on, What am I going to do next series, as you're discussing with your coaches upstairs, what are you seeing, what are they doing, downs and distances and all that, I mean, I'm not doing that like I was, so I'm a little bit more free to kind of turn it loose. And that's what you want your team to do, is turn it loose.

Q. You have what is on paper appears to be a possible NCC Championship team and maybe even a National Championship contender. On the other hand, you have a very, very challenging schedule, maybe the most challenging schedule in the country. How do you pretend to wade through that and possibly reach some of those goals that possibly a lot of people seek for your team?

MARK RICHT: Again, you know, here's our deal. We know everybody on our schedule can beat us. I mean, we know everybody in our division can and has beaten us. We know when we play Alabama, Auburn, LSU in the West, that's rough. We know when we play Arizona State at Arizona State, playing Georgia Tech, you know, when we play Georgia Southern, who has won national championships, Central Michigan, who won their league two years in a row. I mean, everybody we play, they all know how to win.

We don't sit there and say, Well, we got this one, we got that one. Boy, that will be a tough one. We know they're all gonna be tough. Our state of mind going into the game, every game, is that it's gonna be a 60 minute war. And if you think it's gonna be anything different, and it becomes that, you're in trouble.

So, I mean, I'm thinking of what plays we're gonna call in an overtime period before the game even starts. That's kind of how I go into every game (laughter). When we win games, I feel relief. I don't feel like, Well, we should have had that one, just get puffed up about it. You know, I know every victory's a tough one.

But that's the exciting part about this league. That's the exciting part about this season in particular. It's a great, great challenge, as you said. We've got outstanding coaches. We've got outstanding players. We've got some experience. But so does everybody else.

I mean, LSU won the National Championship. Great football team. Not good team; great team. They lost twice. You know, that's just the way college football is. That's the way our league is.

Q. Does Stafford and Marino remind you of any other tandem you've ever had, whether at Georgia or even before at Florida State? How creative can you get offensively when you have those two guys?

MARK RICHT: Well, there's been Charlie Ward Warrick Dunn was a pretty great tandem, no doubt. These guys, I don't know if they rival that or not. When you look at the production of Charlie and Warrick together, it's pretty outstanding, pretty spectacular. Will they be as productive as those two? I don't know.

As far as being creative with those guys, Knowshon is versatile enough to do something besides just be an I back, no question. Matthew can certainly play under center. His whole high school career he was in the gun. He's got much more running ability than I think people give him credit for. We have incorporated QB run with Matthew because he's a legitimate runner. He's a guy that if you don't make a plan for him, then you could get hurt by him. We don't want to game plan it where he's going to be the runner, you know, 10 or 20 times a game necessarily. But we'll pick our spots.

They do give you some good versatility. A more mature line, that gives you more versatility. I mean, last year we had three freshmen starting for us, and you can't be quite as creative when the line can't quite hold up like you want it to down after down.

Hopefully we'll be a little bit better up front earlier in the season, and that will help us, too.

Q. You're one of several coaches in the league that have won BCS games, five guys that have won national titles. Can you talk about the coaching in this league, what that's like. And what do you think Bobby Petrino is going to add to the mix?

MARK RICHT: Well, Bobby Petrino is a great coach. I mean, if you've been through the NFL, I don't care how many years, you've been through something tougher than our league, I'm sure. You know, there are a bunch of great coaches in our league. I think you said five coaches have won national championships. Tommy Tuberville had an undefeated season. Probably by all rights should have at least had the opportunity to play for a national championship. Great coaches, great players, great passion. I mean, it doesn't change every year.

But to claim that many national championships among your group of coaches, it's kind of intimidating sometimes, I guess (smiling).

I'll say this. In our schedule, the teams that we're playing, the coaches have accounted for nine national championships when you talk about the guys we play in league and then out of league. We've got some coaches. Dennis Erickson had two. Chris Hatcher has had one or two. Paul Johnson has had one or two. So we're playing a bunch of great coaches this year.

Q. When you send guys out recruiting, how locked do you get on height and weight and what's it take to get outside of that?

MARK RICHT: We don't. I think a lot of people do have a certain size that you have to be or speed that you have to be to play a certain position. If we were really caught up in that, we wouldn't have Rennie Curran today starting as a true freshman at linebacker. Some guys just break the mold and are highly, highly productive. What we have to gauge is can he take that high school productivity and actually be able to get it done at our level.

Sometimes there are great high school players that can't translate. So you do have to be careful. You can't have a massive amount of those guys. But every once in a while there's a guy that can do it.

I mean, for me, we've had 5'6" receivers and we've had 6'6" receivers. If the guy is 6'6" and doesn't run as fast probably, at least he can out jump somebody or out muscle somebody. There's something about him that makes us feel like he can win and he can produce in our league.

The character of the man makes a big difference, too. You know, you might have a smaller man in stature, but he's a very big man when it comes to integrity. You know, that goes a long way for us and how we decide who we're gonna bring in.

Q. With so much hype and expectation surrounding this team coming into this year, how are you and your coaching staff approaching kind of keeping players grounded, especially the superstars that are on that team?

MARK RICHT: Again, for us it just goes back to preparation. It goes back to work ethic. It goes back to breaking it down into the least common denominator, the smallest frame of time, which is each day, and even within the day each practice, and within the practice each rep. Or when you're in the weight room, each rep that you take. You have got to take advantage of this moment to build that block strong enough so when you get to the season you have a chance to have the great things that you want to happen.

But, again, if you think too far down the road and you don't prepare on a daily basis, and you lose a day or two because you think you're it, you won't be ready at the moment of truth.

We gauge our players' attitude by the work ethic that they have. I've seen nothing but work from these guys. They're just used to it. That's the Georgia way.

Q. Going back to your discussion of your sideline demeanor, which do you feel like is more characteristic of your personality, the first half of the season or the second half?

MARK RICHT: If you talk to my family members, people that really know me, I mean, there's been people saying, you know, Mark Richt, he's a true gentleman of the game. He never gets excited. He's just kind of calm and stoic.

My family members are just texting me saying, We know better, we know better (laughter). Not that I'm not a gentleman. But I get riled up; I get fired up.

When I compete myself, whether it's racquetball or volleyball, whatever it might be, I mean, cards, my family knows I want to win. I'll do a little trash talking. I'll do whatever I got to do to get things riled up (smiling).

Again, as a play caller, I stayed a little more calm. Now that I'm not, you'll see a little bit more of that.

I did spend a lot more time having discussions with officials, which I really would never do before, because I was just so busy and I didn't think it was going to do any good anyway. When I made that little transition, I spent about two or three games getting in the ear of officials. I'll never forget one of the officials looked at me and said, I thought you were a class act. I said, I am a class act (laughter).

So, anyway, I told the staff after about two or three games, I said, Look, I know you guys want me to get after these guys, but that's not me. Now, every once in a while I will. But every play, I'm just not gonna be doing that 'cause it takes too much energy, number one, and it really doesn't help anyway, so...

Q. Was Blake Barnes just a casualty of numbers for you guys at the quarterback position?

MARK RICHT: You know, Blake's a wonderful kid. I still text Blake. We keep up with each other. I mean, we're Christian brothers. We get along great. He was not mad when he left. He just knew Stafford was gonna play. He wanted to play. He wanted to see what it felt like to be the leader of a football team. So he found a place where he would have that opportunity. He's excited about his opportunity.

You know, every once in a while that's what a guy feels like he needs to do. You know, D.J. Shockley, on the other hand, he wanted to wait through the David Green era. Even if he had a shot to only play that one season, it was worth it to him. Joe Cox is here playing behind Stafford in the same age group. They're both juniors right now.

Some guys decide they want to stay and some guys decide they just want to go and try something. I'm all for that. Just as long as they continue their education, keep chasing their dream, I'm happy for them.

Q. We want to get your opinion on the idea of an early signing period and a plus one or playoff system.

MARK RICHT: The early signing date, I was not really in favor of it. In my opinion, if we move the early signing date up, then all of a sudden we're gonna have a lot more official visits in season when you're trying to coach your team. You want to coach your team. It's hard to have a great official visit and do a great job coaching your team.

Now, the idea came up, if a guy wants to sign early, which is somewhere around the junior college signing date, December, whatever it was, they said if a guy the only way a guy can be eligible to sign early is if you did not participate in an official visit because you already knew where you wanted to go.

So now, with that idea in mind, my fear of having too many official visits all of a sudden disappeared or dissipated anyway. I'm thinking, That might not be a bad idea. If you got 10 guys that know doggone well they want to be at Georgia, don't want to take any official visit, that's going to make our life easier maybe in season. That's when it turned me, that suggestion tagged onto an early signing date, turned my thinking to saying, That might not be a bad idea. Then you could concentrate.

Let's face it. If a pool of players have decided what to do early, then everybody else knows where to go. The players know. Let's say a guy committed at his position. He knows to go to another school. We know we didn't get this guy. We know to go after another player. I think that's not a bad thing.

But it moves that calendar up, if it forces more official visits in the summer or something like that, I'm like, Forget it. We all need our summers, coaches, our families, the players, the high school coaches. Even our academic advisors. I mean our academic advisors are on call all summer when an official visit walks in town and wants to learn about what's going on. We all need to take a little break.

Q. When you get away from the Florida game last year, anything about the celebration that you have rethought, regretted, the first touchdown? Did you talk to Irvin about it at all?

MARK RICHT: Yeah, I'm going to tell you what happened. We played Tennessee. We got no fire. We got to have fire. I knew I needed to get better at that. I'm not talking to the team or coaches or anything. I'm deciding I'm going to get all exuberant, and maybe I can rally the troops against Vanderbilt.

We're losing 10 0 at halftime. I don't see a whole lot more emotion in that game. We win by the skin of our teeth. We have an open date before Florida. Then I announce to the team, Man, we are going to have to have more enthusiasm and energy or we're not gonna win. I said, Even if we got to fake it, we're gonna have more energy.

Then I said, As a matter of fact, after the first score against Florida, I want you guys to celebrate so hard that the referees throw the flag.

Now, I'm thinking in my mind, my little pea brain, 11 guys in the game, score a touchdown, 11 guys jump up and down and celebrate until the official throws the flag. That's my intention of what I had said.

I actually did it a couple years when I was offensive coordinator at Florida State. I never had the authority to have a whole team do something like that. I was just kind of going back to finding a way to get guys jacked up.

Well, anyway, we got two weeks before the game. We're preparing for that game. I got guys scoring a touchdown against a scout team, spiking the ball. I got a guy scoring against the scout team and dunking it over the goalpost. I have a guy scoring against the scout team and pretending he's throwing the ball in the stands. I'm watching this thing as it's going on thinking, That's not the way it's gonna happen.

Right before we left the hotel to go play Florida, I said, Man, I want a little housekeeping before this game. I says, Number one, I am going to stay true to my word and let you celebrate after the score. But I don't want some individual to do a little dance or throw the ball in the stands. I said, The reality is the defense is probably going to set that score up. I said, You're gonna have teammates probably blocking for you. You have 50 guys back home who probably got that scout on that scout team that prepared you to get in the end zone. So it's not an individual celebration. I want it to be a team celebration.

Again, I'm still thinking 11 guys celebrating. Well, somebody in the crowd thought I meant everybody. The other thing I said in that housekeeping thing, I said, First of all, if we don't score a touchdown in the first half, we're not celebrating anything. I said, I don't want to celebrate when we're down 31 7 or 31 6.

So, anyway, we go to the game. Sure enough, defense gets a turnover. Offensive line blocks them down the field. We score the touchdown. Then, bang, guys start leaving the sideline. I was in shock as much as anybody else. My initial reaction is, Oh, heck, you know, what's going on (smiling)?

Then I'll say this: When I saw the exuberance, when I saw the energy, when I saw the passion and the fire get unleashed that had been dormant in this football team, I got excited. I was fired up.

Now, I didn't even think that it could probably have turned into a melee. The other thing I didn't think about was that thing was under review. If that thing wasn't a score, it would have been third and 30, you know. That would have been ugly.

But, again, I had no intention for our team to clear the bench.

Now, I called urban, I called Coach Meyer on Sunday. I told him what I told you. I said, I was a coach desperate to try to get some enthusiasm, and I was willing to take a 15 yard penalty.

Now, in hindsight, I asked the team to do an unsportsmanlike act, because it's called unsportsmanlike conduct, excessive celebration. In hindsight, I shouldn't have done it. I won't do anything like that again. It could have easily turned into a big stupid brawl and everything else.

That's as truthful as I can tell you what happened.

Q. You look pretty solid at every position, other than kicker. In 22 positions, what are your biggest concerns?

MARK RICHT: Well, still offensive line. We have one junior lineman, no senior linemen. We have one junior lineman, Vince Vance. He's a second year junior college player. He's one of the few junior college guys that can come out with three to play three because he didn't play one year in junior college because of an injury.

That's our junior, but he's only been here two years. The rest are freshmen and sophomores. Yes, three did start last year. But we literally could be starting, you know, four sophomores and a true freshman possibly.

That's still a very young unit.

At safety, we've got three guys right now that I think are really game ready. You get one of those guys hurt, now you don't have any substitutes that have had any game experience at all. That's a little bit of a concern.

You know, there's other positions that even tailback, let's face it, Knowshon, he's a heck of a tailback. I have zero game experience behind him. Caleb King is a redshirt freshman, and the other three guys are true freshmen. There's no other game experience besides Knowshon.

What looks like a tremendous strength may not be, especially if he tweaks his ankle and he's out for three weeks or something.

Even at fullback right now with some injuries, I've got one fullback with any experience at all for that first ballgame. We moved two linebackers to play fullback, at least for the first couple ballgames. We're waiting on a couple guys to get healthier off of a suspension. So those are some of the areas.

You mentioned kicker. We think Blair Walsh is the number one candidate for that position. We scholarshipped him because we thought he's a heck of a player. Brian Mimbs, our punter, has been working with him all summer. He likes what he sees. We're excited about that. Hopefully he can handle the pressure of the job.

Q. Do you expect to learn a lot about your team on the early road trips?

MARK RICHT: I think we will. Until you play the first game, you don't really know what you have. Once you get into conference play and you start going away from home, you get a little bit better idea of how we'll handle that.

We've done pretty well in other people's home stadium. I think there's enough guys that have been through that that there will be at least the confidence that we can go on the road and win. But until you do it, you're just not sure.

Q. Back to the celebration topic again. I don't know if you saw Urban Meyer's comments in his biography that he's going to handle it and it will be a big deal in response to the celebration. It's something that has been talked about a lot. How much do you think that intensifies the rivalry with Florida for this year?

MARK RICHT: I don't think there's any doubt it's intensified the rivalry. But what intensified the rivalry is that we won, okay? I mean, that's the reality.

But, you know, people want to talk about streaks in that game. The way I see it, we won last year. We won two out of the last four. And if you want to start going back in history, you might as well go back to the beginning of the history of the series and see where Georgia is there.

You know, I don't know why everybody wants to go just 15 games back. I mean, if you want to go back, go back to the beginning. If you want to talk about recent history, let's talk about last year, the last few games, you know.

Q. A lot of coaches will talk about injuries. You're going to get asked about it. Some don't. The ACC sort of half heartedly adopted an NFL policy where the questions were not allowed. Would that make it easier? How do you feel being forced to reveal limited injury information?

MARK RICHT: For us, I don't think it would change one thing what we do. I pretty much tell everybody what's going on. I'll say a guy's probable. I'll say a guy's doubtful. I'll say a guy, he's gonna play. I'll say a guy probably won't play. I don't mess around.

Some coaches are trying to hide this or that. I just tell it the way it is. You know, again, sometimes I might sound a little wishy washy on a guy, but you don't know. A guy on Monday night look terrible and on Thursday he's running around, so you can say doubtful Monday, and all of a sudden the guy's froggy by Thursday or even game day sometimes.

I don't think it would change how we do anything at all.

Q. One of the reasons I think the ACC is doing that is because of gambling concerns, imitating what the NFL does. Would that be a reason to do it?

MARK RICHT: Well, if gamblers or the people that run that kind of stuff are getting their information by trying to squeeze a player or trying to squeeze a trainer, something like that, then I think it might be a very wise thing to do.

We got these HIPPAA rules and all these kind of things, too. Our kids pretty much sign off on our ability to communicate those things.

But I'll say this: There are times I won't say anything because I haven't talked to the parents yet. That's probably the one thing that keeps me from saying something, until I know somebody who loves that kid understands what's going on before they read it on the Internet or in the newspaper.

I didn't answer the BCS question. I'm sorry. When I get multiple questions, I rarely get to the second one (smiling).

The BCS as it is, I mean, I'm fine with it. I'm fine with it. Just tell me what the rules are and let's play by 'em. That's kind of how I am about that. But, you know, do I think a four team situation would work with the plus one? I think it would work. I think it would work without really throwing our Bowl system into any you know, throwing it off kilter.

Do I think we could do eight? I think eight would be the maximum number of teams you could have and still keep your Bowl system and have something very close to what you have with the BCS without destroying or damaging the regular season.

Our regular season is the best regular season of any sport in America and maybe in the world because every game is so crucial. You lose one game, you might be out. You might not be out, but you might be out. As you're playing that game, you're thinking, If we lose this game, we might be out. But after you lose it, you're looking around, you're saying, So we still got to keep fighting because we still might be in.

Then last year you lose two, you're pretty sure you're out, and then all of a sudden a team with two losses wins the National Championship. So now if you got two losses, you're still thinking, I might be in, I got to keep fighting. I don't have to change my goals.

So I like the way it is. If you have too many teams in a playoff, then a regular season game, you might have two teams that play. I always liken, we had Notre Dame Southern Cal a few years ago where they had that dramatic victory at the end with the quarterback sneak. If those two teams were in an eight team playoff system, when that game was over, they might say, So what, I'll see you here in a couple weeks, no big deal, we're still in the playoffs.

Well, the way it was, the way we're designed now, that was just a gut wrenching, heart breaking moment for one team, and total exhilaration for the other team, 'cause you're still in the race.

So I'd be careful changing it too much.

Thank you very much.

Georgia DT Jeff Owens

On last season's defining moment:
"I think it was when we lost to Tennessee in Knoxville last season. That changed our whole game."

On the GA blackout:
"I didn't even know we were having a blackout, that game was wild though. Everyone went crazy, and it helped us out a whole lot."

On not making it to Florida for a bowl game this season:
"That is a long road. We can only control our efforts; we are not in control of anything else. All we can do is go out there and play Georgia football.

On Georgia's biggest rival:
"I think our biggest rival is Georgia Tech, because they are in Georgia. You can't deny the in-state rivalry. You get bragging rights for a year."

On Tim Tebow and Florida rivalry:
"I'm from Florida and left home to come to Georgia. Tebow (Tim) is the best in the league, he's a Heisman winner. There is a big rivalry, but I think it speaks for itself."

On the toughest team to play against:
"I think Ole Miss is tough team to play. They can run the football and have really big guys up front."

Georgia WR Mohamed Massaquoi

On high expectations for Georgia:
"We take it one step at a time; all we can do is focus on the smaller picture. We can't let ourselves get overwhelmed; it takes away from playing hard and playing smart."

On finding a new leader for the team:
"We seniors have been leading the team. We know how to handle the ups and downs of this game and are trying to lead the best we can."

On revenge from South Carolina and Tennessee:
"Last season was last season and can't worry about that. We prepare for the game that week and look to win."

On the best defensive back in the SEC:
"Every week we see some of the best."

On the black jerseys:
"I don't think I play better in the black jerseys, but definitely more emotionally. We love putting them on, and hopefully can wear them a little more this season."

OLE MISS REBELS

COACH HOUSTON NUTT

COACH NUTT: Thank you. I'm privileged to be here. Going into my 11th season in the SEC. Very excited to be the head coach at Ole Miss University. We've had a good transition so far. It seems like we've been there a long time already.

But we're excited. Our families, our coaches, we're all moved and we're into it. It's hard to believe it's 37, 38 days away and here we go again in the toughest conference in America.

So I'm excited and ready to go. Ready for questions.

Q. Could you tell me what your impressions of Michael Oher were before you came to Ole Miss, and what are they now that you have him as a member of your team?

COACH NUTT: Michael Oher, Danny, my brother, was recruiting him at the time when he was attending Briarcrest High School. The first time we saw Michael was on a basketball court. Big ol' guy, was so athletic, so fluid. Didn't get much of a shot at him.

Now being with him for the last few months, I tell you, when you see him, you'll see he's in tremendous shape, really committed and probably one of our best signees, really, when you look at him, because we had to go re recruit him.

I tell you, he is totally committed, worked really hard. He's been a leader for us. That's why he's here with us today. I'm very proud of Michael. Boy, I tell you, he brings a lot to the table for our football team. We want him to be a little bit more dominant, a little bit more physical. But he has everything. He has all the tools, has the attitude. I really think he's gonna have an excellent year for us. I'm excited about Michael.

Q. As someone who was at Arkansas for a good long while, now at Ole Miss, is there something invigorating about starting fresh? Has it surprised you in any way, the impact it's had?

COACH NUTT: It has. I tell you, from the moment Diana and I and Haven, we walked in the Ford Theater in Oxford, Mississippi, I really thought the press conference was going to be basically a room full of just press, print media. But to walk in the Ford Theater and have 1500 people, then later find out that 500, 600 people were turned away, I can't tell you how we felt that day. That was a day full of goosebumps, just reenergized us from that moment forward.

Then you go into the meeting with the players, you see that hunger again, to see how they embraced our coaching staff, it excites you, motivates you. It makes you want to please. It makes you want to work a little bit harder. So it's just been an excellent transition. You're exactly right. There's something about being reenergized with new names, new problems, new street numbers, the whole bit.

Q. Coach Saban talked a little bit about expectations and said that we as members of the media probably look at them a little bit too much. He prefers not to look at them. There's been a lot of talk about you going to Ole Miss and the expectations that fans have for you and the program. Is that necessarily good or bad that a lot of people look at you coming to Ole Miss saying, Coach Nutt is the man for us, he's going to bring us an SEC championship?

COACH NUTT: Well, I think it's good. I think it's good because I'm proud that they wanted us in their family. They see something there. What's more important, that the players, they feel the same way. You can see that by their attitude.

So I think it's a good thing. You know, to go in with no expectations or low expectations to me doesn't do much for me. I mean, you want to set that level high. When you walk into a room, in my very first meeting, when you walk into a room, you ask how many of y'all have been to a Bowl game, not one student athlete can say, I've been to a Bowl game. To me that motivates me. That excites me. You want to take them where they can't go by themselves. You want your staff to take them where they can't go by themselves. That's what coaching to me is all about, trying to make a difference in a young person's life, taking them to the next level, to make them a better person, better father, better husband, on and on.

Expectations, those things don't bother me.

Q. Four coaches now in the league that are coaching at a different SEC school than the previous one they coached at. All four of them have to play their former school every year. I know it's only one week out of the year, but do you plan to talk to the other three guys, get some advice on how to handle that week, the obvious overkill that comes with it?

COACH NUTT: No, probably won't. We have a lot of football before that game takes place. The only thing on my mind right now is Memphis. All our coaches and players should be focused on one game. That game has always been very, very tough, always close. So I think it's really wasted energy. I don't think there's too many coaches that can help me with a place that I've been to and raised, where I'm from. I've been there a long, long time, and understand what goes on there.

So I'm just really more focused on the very first game, getting our players ready.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about Kent Austin, why you like him?

COACH NUTT: Kent Austin, first of all, is just an incredible person, with great character. He won a championship in the CFL. But first and foremost, he played quarterback. He played quarterback at Ole Miss. Tremendous teacher. I think one of the things that to me you don't see as much anymore is the teaching of fundamentals. From the way you get up under the center, the way you place your hands, the first step, the throwing motion, he can critique all of those things. Fundamentally very sound. Great chemistry with our staff, other staff members. Tremendous knowledge in the passing game.

So I'm excited about Kent being an Ole Miss alumni, great family guy. But, boy, what a winner and a great quarterback coach.

Q. You've been at Ole Miss eight or nine months. Is it still surreal as you switch teams in the same conference or have you gotten used to it at this point?

COACH NUTT: I've had that question asked about three times already. You know, it feels like I've been here a long time. It's the way I feel right now. Again, I think because of the transition, it's been so smooth. I realize we haven't played a game yet. I understand that. But this was a good move, I think, for our coaches' families. You feel that way. You feel the players feel that way.

So I just feel like I've been here a while. I know we haven't played a game yet. But you just feel good about it.

Q. Your predecessor was supposed to be renowned for how good a recruiter he was. Have you found in your time there that the talent that you've inherited might be better than what you probably had left at Arkansas? As far as this season's concerned, do you like the way the schedule sets up to maybe build something with this team?

COACH NUTT: I think Ed did an excellent job of recruiting. There's some holes at some different spots, different positions. There's a lot of players that didn't quite always make it to campus. But if you look at Greg Hardy, Michael Oher, Peria Jerry, you look at those players, look at the receivers: Michael Wallace, Shay Hodge, Lionel Breaux, Dexter McCluster, boy, there's spots of I just feel like tremendous athleticism. Boy, that really excites you.

My whole problem is you have a group of guys, again, that had very little success the last three, four years, and they haven't experienced a Bowl game. They didn't experience winning an SEC game last year. So those are the obstacles that we're trying to really work hard with.

As far as the schedule, I don't have anything to do with it. That's the schedule. I really like our schedule. I like our schedule, especially starting out at home. We got some good home games. Then you got some very tough road games.

We all know, hey, once you've been in the SEC, you grow numb to it. Every single Saturday, two chin straps, buckle up. It's going to be a full day for three hours. Anybody can beat anybody.

Q. When you first came into the league in the late '90s, the conference was in a middle of a span where it was basically Florida and Tennessee rotating winning the title. Now it's known as a league that is extremely deep. What do you think some of the factors that have gone into the conference's rise to its current state?

COACH NUTT: I tell you, I think it's excellent coaching, tremendous athletes. I think you look at the athletic directors, the chancellors, the tools they've given us, the facilities. It's the greatest conference in America.

NFL, they seem to come to SEC first. You look at that and you just look at the atmosphere. You look at the pageantry, the tailgating, the stadiums that are full every Saturday. It's just a tremendous, tremendous conference.

I think there's nine or ten teams that can win a championship in our league. I really mean that. If you just look from top to bottom, just look at the athletes, nine or ten teams easily could win our league. You don't ever know. That's what makes the conference so great.

It's a lot of great talent, good coaching, great football. A lot of exposure. A lot of people here today. So I think that's the recipe. It all adds up into just a great Saturday afternoon.

Q. Talk about what you see in Jevan Snead and maybe the pitfalls of being the first time starter at quarterback in the SEC?

COACH NUTT: Jevan Snead brings a lot to our team. I think he's highly intelligent. He works extremely hard. I love his leadership. That's where you start. I love his decision making. He makes great decisions.

Has a strong arm. Very, very accurate. So he has all the qualities you need to be a quarterback. But you hit on something that's important. He hasn't played in a while. Hasn't played. He's done scout team last year. He had 15 practices this spring. So he hadn't played in a while.

You're hoping he can just take right back up where he left off, but more importantly, you're hoping that supporting cast, that defense, receivers, tight ends, backs, will be able to take some things off of him.

But overall you just love him under the center. You love him with the ball in his hands because of his decision making, first and foremost. So I'm excited about Jevan.

Q. Just wanted to get your opinion on a couple of hot button issues in college football. One, the idea of instituting the early signing period in recruiting, if you'd be in favor of that, and if so, how early would you like to see it? Also, your current stance on the plus one format that's been discussed or if you like the BCS status quo?

COACH NUTT: Early signing date, we talked about it in Destin. The way it was presented to us, we liked the early signing date if there's not an extra contact period, if there's not gonna be a prolonged recruiting time. What we're basically talking about is people that say, You know what, I've been to your campus unofficially. I've been there possibly more than one time. I know where I'm going to school. I'm coming to your place. I think that's wonderful. Sign an early signing date, it's done. And you don't worry about it. There's no, Well, it was a soft verbal and now I'm rethinking things. You know it's done. He's locked up. He's ready to come.

That's the way the presentation was presented to the coaches, and you feel good about that, of that early signing date. But extending some time or extending another visit in May, you get into all that, well, I don't like that.

Whenever the date was, I'm not sure when the date was, sometime right after the season, November, December, after December I think was the date that we discussed in Destin, that we all voted for, is the one that we'd like.

What was the other part of the question?

Q. BCS.

COACH NUTT: Yeah, the BCS, plus one, I love Bowls. I've been a Bowl guy all my life. I love Bowls. The plus one, as long as you keep the Bowls, that's fine. But I go back to I love Bowl games. I love Bowl games. Love Bowl games. That's the reward. A lot of people can be happy during a very, very tough year, in a tough conference.

But the final four or eight, I don't see how you can do that with finals and all the things you have to do to keep things normal, as normal as possible. Plus one, maybe. But I'm for the Bowls.

Q. In recruiting, most go out with the parameters of height and weight at different positions, what you're looking for. How strict are you with those and what does it take to go outside of that when you're looking at a kid?

COACH NUTT: In recruiting?

Q. Yes.

COACH NUTT: First of all, I want to start with, I love our location, where we're located. Got a lot of athletes starting in Mississippi. We've always been one to look a little bit past the five star rating or four star, three star, two star. Doesn't matter to me. That doesn't matter to our coaches. We pick the players. It's the person. It's the character and speed, the difference maker.

You know, there's a lot of recruiting services out there. But I think it's how your team, your coaches evaluate. I think that's key. Jamal Anderson was a tremendous example for us at Arkansas. Probably a two star maybe. Played wide receiver. Eighth pick defensive end, first round. That's just one example. There's a lot of examples like that.

So to answer your question, boy, you do your homework, you do your homework, you do your homework. You study. I think you've got to go further than the film, further than a book that says he's a five star or a four star. You got to see him run and jump, play basketball, run track. You gotta go further than that. You gotta see him play basketball, run track. You gotta see something in person, live and in color, and then you make your character references and all those things, and you add it all up and you pick your people your that best fit Ole Miss.

Q. Will Jerrell Powe ever play a down of football at Ole Miss?

COACH NUTT: I hope so. I hope so. I don't know. We're still waiting, just like y'all. Hopefully. I'm anxious to see if this guy can play. I've been told that he can. I don't know. But I'm like everybody else: we're just waiting.

Q. Do you have the kind of runningbacks there at Ole Miss? I know you don't have McFadden and Jones, but talk about the runningbacks you have, what kind of running game you can have without Green Ellis leaving?

COACH NUTT: Cordera Eason, Derrick Davis, two guys, they had a good spring. They're gonna get a lot of competition from three freshmen, Devin Thomas, Brandon Bolden, and Enrique Davis. I'm excited about Cordera, how far he came in a short period of time. He really improved each day. I really think with our offensive line, we can have a very physical running attack. Hopefully we'll be able to get better and take off right where we left in spring.

I mentioned Derrick Davis, probably not the speed, as fast as Cordera. But what you love is the three guys that are coming in that are very, very, very fast, very exciting. There's nothing like competition.

Q. Can you talk about the impact of Tyrone Nix since he's arrived on campus, and also the impact he'll have once the season starts defensively?

COACH NUTT: Tyrone to me is such an excellent defensive coordinator because of his passion, because of his energy. It's very contagious. You look at him, he still looks like a linebacker. Boy, he gives it to his players.

I've known Tyrone since Southern Miss days. His teams play hard and they play with a passion. They play just the way he played. And there's only one way: it's all out. That's what you love about him. You could just see in the spring how they were really our players were buying in. Sometimes change is always hard. New terminology, new coach, new style. Boy, there was really a very smooth transition. That credit goes to Tyrone.

If you talk to him, you listen to him as he addresses the team, as you see him work on the field as a grass coach, I mean, he is fiery, he's exciting, and he's a teacher. He's a teacher. He can move and persuade. That's what it's about. He is outstanding. Glad he's on our team.

Q. You mentioned the great coaches in this league. What do you think about Bobby Petrino joining the SEC West, your thoughts about going in there and playing the Razorbacks in October?

COACH NUTT: You know, I don't know Bobby that well. I've seen his work from afar. I know he's done a great job at Louisville. I was really impressed with the run he made there. I've known some coaches that coached with him at Jacksonville, Jacksonville Jaguars. So there's a respect there. You know, he's done an excellent job wherever he's been.

We actually played against each other when I was the head coach at Boise State. He was an offensive coordinator at Utah State. I knew a little bit about the things that Bobby was doing. So he's very, very good.

Again, it goes back to you know, October 25th is a long ways away. We have a lot of work before we get to that point.

Q. You don't have any thoughts about going back and playing (indiscernible)?

COACH NUTT: You can't help but think about it. You grew up in Arkansas. You thought at one time you'd be there for life. I had 10 great years of experience there working with some great people. We won three titles. Two of them went to Atlanta. Very close against Florida, winning that ballgame. So we had some great days, great times there. You can't help but think what it's gonna be like coming in from the visitor side.

But quickly my mind goes back to Memphis.

Q. What is your opinion of the current overtime rules in college football? Would you change anything?

COACH NUTT: I wouldn't change a thing. I love overtime and I love the way it's set up. Really ever since Murray State, we've had some awfully good experiences and good success in overtime. I know a lot of people would want it a little bit more like the NFL, where you actually play the game. But I like the way it is. I think it's pretty good. 25 yard line going in is pretty exciting. I've been involved in quite a few of 'em. I don't want to change it.

We changed the clock. We changed the time. We change a lot of things every year. Don't change the overtime.

Q. With SEC coaches being paid so well these days, I want to know if you had an appreciation for the early stages of your coaching career, how humble those beginnings were compared to now.

COACH NUTT: Absolutely. Absolutely. First walking in here 1998, it was an eye opener. Now going into my 11th season, so much bigger, so many more people, so many more rooms to go to. I have an awesome, awesome respect for this league, what you do. I'm just I feel very, very privileged to say I'm still here in this SEC Conference. I think since 1998, there's been about 26, 27 changes at that head coach's table. I'm excited and feel very privileged to be at Ole Miss.

Q. SEC teams won the last two national championships. You have so many coaches here with championship backgrounds. The balance of power in conferences, do you think it's a cyclical thing or is there something specific about the Southeastern Conference that you think might be able to make it stay on top for quite a while?

COACH NUTT: I hope so. I hope so. I think if you look again, if you just look at athleticism at every position, from kicker all the way down to the tackles, the ends, receivers, the quarterbacks, you have the Heisman Trophy in this league, the Heisman Trophy winner in this league, so many great players. Then you have great coaches not only head coaches, but the assistant coaches, excellent coaches who will be head coaches. I just think we'll be knocking on that door. I really believe that. Again, I'm a little partial. But I have so much experience of going against these guys each Saturday, you know what they bring to the table. You know how good everybody is.

It's just outstanding football.

Q. I know taking over and 0 8 team may be the bad news. Is the good news that you got nowhere to go but up? What's it like taking over an 0 8 team like that?

COACH NUTT: Again, it's very similar to me coming the very first year at Arkansas when they were 4 7, 4 7. Didn't win too many conference games. The mindset, the obstacles you're facing are very, very similar.

You just take your experiences and hopefully you try to change a mindset that won't accept losing. We got a lot of hungry guys, a lot of hungry fans. Just because you change the bus driver doesn't all of a sudden mean, hey, we're going to start winning games now.

That's one of the things we really talked hard to our players about. Just 'cause you got new coaches, new names on the walls doesn't mean necessarily you're gonna win. It's you guys. You guys are out there blocking and tackling.

That's what you're trying to get over to your team, really trying to change a mindset. We look good in a uniform, but there's a whole lot more to that in 60 minutes that you have to execute.

Q. You said you thought you might be coach for life at Arkansas at one point. Is the coach for life a dying breed? If so, why?

COACH NUTT: I think it is. I think it is. Joe Paterno, Bobby Bowden, I have so much respect for. They've been there for so long. My relationship I had with Frank Broyles. We had these conversations. It is so much more difficult.

The reason why, to answer your question, is because a lot more pressure. Salaries are higher. More talk show radios, more Internet blogs, more people can say anything without any accountability. Sometimes things are written that really puts a lot of pressure on the athletic director. It makes it very, very tough for a coach.

I think it won't go the other way for sure. I think that part of it's here to stay. Everybody wants to win. Everybody wants to win yesterday. Everybody wants to go to a Bowl, everybody wants to go to BCS, everybody wants to go to Atlanta. The toughest thing about this conference is not everybody can go. It's very, very difficult.

Q. Recruiting, big, in the state of Mississippi, Mississippi State, with the success that State had last year and Ole Miss having a down year, how crucial is this year, especially with the way Mississippi State has gotten off in recruiting so far, how crucial is it that you have a good year in the sense of recruiting?

COACH NUTT: I think it's very, very important. But I tell you, if you go back now and look at the way we finished in recruiting, I think you'll see that our freshman class is very, very good. Just about every one of them are going to be ready to go, academically qualified. You look at Enrique Davis, Brandon Bolden, Jason Jones, Lekenwic Haynes, E. J. Epperson, you got a lot of young men that are very, very athletic.

The one thing I love about Mississippi, I think there were 69, 70, 71 guys that signed to Division I in the state of Mississippi because of junior college and high school. I'm excited about, again, where we are, where we're located, how close we are to Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, plus Mississippi. So I know we're gonna find 25 every year good athletes, student athletes, that want to come to Ole Miss. There's no question in my mind.

What you're asking, I think winning does nothing but elevate that. If we did what we did in a short period of time at Ole Miss just this past few months ago, I know what we can do when we start having a little success. So naturally you want to win. Winning helps everything. It solves a lot of problems, helps everything. I think it will take you to another level in recruiting.

But I thought we finished very, very, very strong.

Q. Earlier you mentioned you thought there were nine or ten teams that had a chance to win the conference. In your mind, is Ole Miss in that group? What are realistic expectations for this team?

COACH NUTT: I would put us in there. Again, I'm not saying that, boy, you can give us our bus ticket, we're going to Atlanta. But what I am saying, if you walked these athletes in from each of those nine or ten teams that I'm talking about, you walked them in and compared them to different leagues, you'd say on paper, Whoa, they got Tebow, Heisman Trophy winner; you got this receiver, this back, this defensive end. I mean, there's a lot of athleticism, a lot of good athletes that can run, jump, hit you, block. It's good enough. But what you don't know is who's gonna get hurt, who's gonna stay healthy, who's gonna get the ball that bounces just right. So there's just a lot of variables, a lot of factors that are involved.

But that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to change the mindset of our program. We want to win. We want to win right now. I think it would be unfair to say, Okay, we're going to rebuild, just kind of gradually I think it's unfair for your seniors. Two guys I have here today, Peria Jerry, Michael Oher, it would be very unfair of how hard they've worked. You look at Greg Hardy, Marcus Tillman, Dexter McCluster, Michael Wallace, it would be so unfair to those guys to say, We kind of got to start rebuilding a little bit now, we're gonna work our way up. I can't do that. We're not built that way. Our staff is built to let's go, let's go as hard as we can, and let's go right now.

THE MODERATOR: Coach Nutt, thank you.

COACH NUTT: Thank you.

Ole Miss Offensive Lineman Michael Oher

On Coach Houston Nutt:
"Coach Nutt is a great guy. He's a great Coach, and he'll do a lot for us this year. He knows what to do and what to say, and he says, we do because we respect him."

On the team's expected quarterback, Jevan Snead:
"Jevan's a great player. We've got great receivers too, and we're just looking forward to big things this year."

On the team's goals:
"My goal is to win, and that's what our team's goal is too. (The NFL) will work out as it goes. I'm just working extremely hard, this is my senior year. The NFL comes later, and it'll be there later."

On the team's offense:
"I think you'll see us scoring more points. There's so much talent there that I think the sky's the limit for us. People might underestimate us, but I know there's talent there, and Coach Nutt knows how to put talent in the right spots."

On preparing for SEC defenses:
"It's why you work so hard in the offseason. The coaches have been working us hard to prepare us for what it'll be like when the season starts and week in and week out, you have to be ready to go up against the best."

Ole Miss Defensive Tackle Peria Jerry

On the team's defense:
"On defense, we've got a lot of returning starters. We're looking forward to the start of the season."

On Coach Houston Nutt:
"I've got great respect for him. He's working us hard, has us doing a lot of running. Everyone loves him in town. The optimism is extremely high. I feel like everyone has a much more positive attitude and we're just ready for the season to start and to start working hard. (Coach Nutt) He's my type of guy. He's very high energy, and I'm high energy myself. He has everyone staying positive and telling us to stick together, like family. Everyone's doing a great job with that."

On the SEC West:
"Everything is wide open. There are great players on every team, and you have to get up and get ready to play them, not matter the team. I think we have a better opportunity to win games this year. With Jevan at quarterback, he's a really smart quarterback."

On SEC Media Days:
"It's crazy. I've never seen so many cameras before."

TENNESSEE VOLUNTEERS

COACH PHILLIP FULMER

COACH FULMER: Well, good afternoon. We'll get started. Have a few statements, then we'll certainly take your questions.

Obviously, like every other coach in the Conference, I'm excited about the start of the season, building on last year's football team. The Eastern Division Championship, 10 wins, a Bowl win, all those things are very exciting for us.

Our team has worked really hard during the course of the off season. Starting back in January, we had a couple of issues, off the field distractions that weren't very pleasant for us to deal with. And to our team's credit, to our coaches' credit, particularly to our seniors' credit, we haven't had anything that's come up really since February. I like that. I think that says something about our focus and our attitude, about what this team could and hopefully will be about.

We're certainly in a process right now with our football team growing, new offensive coordinator that I'm really excited about, new quarterback, in the same year, is a challenge, defensively, of getting back and playing at the level that we expect to play as we did against some teams last year, Arkansas, for an example; Georgia, in the championship game against LSU, to play at that level consistently is certainly a challenge.

The growth of our team from a leadership standpoint, I have made a list. There's about 11 or 12 guys on the offensive side that look like they can be outstanding leaders for us. Got about that many, 11 or 12 guys, on the defensive side. Not all of them are starters, but guys that can have that kind of demeanor and personality to be good leaders.

Then at the bottom of it, the question mark is, Will they do it? That's the big question as we go into the fall. You lose a guy like Jerod Mayo, the 10th player picked in the NFL Draft, to a team that prides itself on drafting character guys, it's hard to replace that kind of leadership.

Erik Ainge, who was an exceptional leader for us, particularly from the standpoint of matching up numbers, numbers very similar statistically to what Peyton had accomplished when he was there.

So not without our challenges as we go into this football season. I am excited about the fact that you're always looking for ways to motivate your football team any way that you can. I appreciate y'all's help picking us third or fourth in the East. Has served us pretty well at different times. We'll certainly use that.

I think we're probably at the best time in my 16 years as a head coach in this conference with incredible coaches that are in this league. You just look in our division, Vanderbilt played everybody tough and to the end. Had some big wins.

Kentucky coming off a great season last year. Coach Brooks has done such an unbelievable job.

Georgia finishing second in the country. South Carolina in November was sixth in the country. Florida had a great football team and the best player in the country in Tim Tebow, and a couple of guys around him that are really special.

I guess we just happen to be playing in the best division, in the best conference in the entire country. So always a challenge. That's just the Eastern Division. LSU wins the National Championship on the other side. So a real challenge, a real challenge ahead for us. We're growing and working, excited like everybody else, and can't wait to get started.

Every year, even after 16 years, this time of year, last few days of vacation, you're thinking and writing notes down, everything you see wherever you are reminds you of something. You're getting ready to play. My wife usually says, It's time for you to go back to work because we're not paying enough attention to her.

I'm excited about this team and about getting back to work and seeing where we can go with this team. I'd a lot rather be playing for the SEC Championship in December than to be picked first in July in Birmingham. So we'll see if we can make that happen.

Questions.

Q. You talk about being picked third or fourth in the East. What do you think is the reason for the perception y'all have dropped off a little bit? How do you feel just about that? Where do you see your team fitting in this year?

COACH FULMER: I mean, we were picked third in '98 when we won the National Championship. I just think it's a reflection of how good this league is. It hasn't changed since I came into it or the divisional play started. It's always been Georgia or Florida or us. Now you add Coach Spurrier, what he's done at South Carolina to that equation, what Coach Brooks has done at Kentucky, and Bobby has done at Vanderbilt. The first goal has to be to win the division, and then you worry about winning the SEC Championship. Although I'm about tired of going to the SEC Championship and not winning it. I think it's three times we've been and not done that.

I think it's the fact that the division is as good as it's ever been. Whoever has those few players that make a difference and stays healthy and the schedule falls good for them, all those things, you make the plays that you need to make to win a game, it will be that close again. That's the way it's been really in my entire time at Tennessee.

Q. I know you want to talk football, but you probably want to get this out of the way right away. Were you given a subpoena in the lobby and can you confirm or deny that, and your thoughts on it?

COACH FULMER: I have not seen that. I have not seen a subpoena. As I said to all the other groups, this is not the place for that kind of thing. There are great fans that have great passion about the Southeastern Conference that are not interested in that kind of BS. And I would have some other choice words if there weren't so many cameras in here (smiling).

Q. You're one of five coaches in the conference that won national titles, a lot of guys have won BCS and Bowl games. Talk about the coaches in this league and how tough that makes it game in and game out.

COACH FULMER: Well, you know, y'all do this more than I do. The five that have won it, then you have Tommy, who was 13 0, should have won it or could have won it at least. We had the good fortune of playing them that year. They were one of the best teams in the country.

It's about recruiting. It's about scheduling. It's about the discipline in your program. It's about a few plays and a few players that make a difference. It's that close in this league.

You can look at other conferences that have outstanding teams, the top two or three teams. But you can go from top to bottom in this conference and you better bring your A game every week or you'll get your butt beat.

Q. There was a time earlier in your tenure, during the '90s, seemed like the SEC came down to you guys and Florida, and obviously now it's a much deeper, more competitive landscape. What have been some of the factors that you've seen over your time here to get to this point?

COACH FULMER: Well, when I took over, we were all chasing Florida. We were able to catch up. Everybody was chasing us for a little while. It just goes in cycles that way.

Georgia's become a team that's won the championship two or three times. I'm talking about our division first. And schools, they're committed. They're committed to going out and hiring great coaches. They're committed to facilities and to recruit guys that can make a difference in your program. All those things, you've seen the budgets go up. It's an unbelievable commitment in the Southeastern Conference to the quality of play that y'all are blessed with and we're blessed with you're blessed to cover, we're blessed to coach, and be a part of.

I'm proud of our 16 years that we've been able to do it. I don't know how many guys are going to do it that long, you know, in the future because of the incredible amount of scrutiny and pressures and those kind of things. But the fact that we've done it right, which I hope continues in this league, you know, that those standards are set to follow the rules and do things right, that APR wise we've done it right. That's the good things that's happening in college football.

I know this is probably more information than you're interested in. You know, that we continue to be one of the group of teams that every year are going to compete not only for the divisional or conference championship, but have a chance to compete on a national level.

Last year, I don't know, most places had one and two in this country coming out of this league.

Q. It's 10 years now since the National Championship. Could you just look back on the state of the union for Tennessee football, what's different, what's the same, where you've been in that 10 years now?

COACH FULMER: Well, you know, you look at the whole scenario. We were right there in '97. We won it in '98. We had a really good team in '99, had a chance. Dropped off a little bit in 2000. I think we had eight wins or whatever. We were in a recovery mode. In 2001, we were a team that had a chance to play for it. LSU did a great job and upset us in the championship game. You know, along the way probably the 2005 season being the most disappointing season that we had.

But every situation that you are given good or bad you learn from it. I think in 2005, I said this last year or the year before, you know, we assumed way too much. If anything I was taught, you don't assume anything. We won nine year before last. Won 10 this year and hopefully have laid the groundwork to make a run again at the championship. That's how we do it.

So I don't know what you're asking, the state of Tennessee football. If you go back and look at the era in the late '90s, you're talking about some really great players. You know, I think we're getting close back to that kind of athletes at Tennessee again.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about what Eric Berry brings to your defense, what he allows y'all to do as far as coverage wise and scheme wise?

COACH FULMER: You know, I was asked that in several of the rooms as we went through. I don't know if we have enough time or tape to talk about all the things that Eric Berry brings.

But, you know, one, he's got great character, great work ethic. He's a very smart young man. He takes his academics very seriously. Wants to be a dentist. He brings his A game to the practice field every day, to the weight room, wherever, to be as good as he can be. Just love all those tangible and intangible things that he brings.

If he stays healthy and continues on the path that he's on, he'll certainly be one of the best players that Tennessee has had in a long time and one of the best players that has played in the country in a long time.

I expect those things to continue. He's a humble, hungry young man. His mom and dad have brought him up right. He has his priorities in order: his faith, family, football and his team. He just is a real pleasure to coach.

Q. Can you talk about whether you like the new clock change this year, and do you see this could be advantageous as far as some of the things that Dave Clawson brings to your offense now?

COACH FULMER: You're talking about flipping the line?

Q. The 40 second and the play starting.

COACH FULMER: Oh, the clock.

Q. Yes.

COACH FULMER: I do like it, I think. We scrimmaged it all spring, in spring practice. We actually managed it really well. That's not at Auburn or at Georgia, you know, with the crowd noise, the intensity that it will be. But our system allowed us to work and maximize the potential that you can get from the clock, whether it's fast huddle or if you wanted to milk the clock.

I just would like for them to leave it alone. It's a pain in the butt every year to have to go through all those processes to change, particularly when you're going to be different in the last two minutes of a half or a game than you were the entire game.

But, yeah, I think it's workable and I think it's probably a good rule. Some people say we'll lose some plays from it. If we play offensively like we did in the spring, we won't lose any plays, I don't think.

Can other teams milk some plays from the game? Yes, you could do that because it's a set period of time that you're going to burn each time.

Q. Recruiting question for you. When you get looking at prospects, a lot of coaches like certain heights, weight parameters for players. How locked in is your staff to that, and what does it take to get away from that?

COACH FULMER: You know, that's a great question because it's one you battle all the time. The parameters that you would like to have in recruiting, you know, they're pretty easy to set. They're awful hard to go fill, particularly at a place like Tennessee, where you're crossing a lot of state lines and going other places to recruit. So you're looking instead of at the tangible things, you're looking more at some of the intangible things that a young man might bring. You still have to have a certain size, certain ability and speed, those kind of things.

But we're not locked into anything that way. You know, everybody says an offensive tackle needs to be 6'5". Arron Sears was an All American, played great for us. To stretch it, he was 6'2" and a half maybe. That goes at all the positions.

Now, if I had my choice, I'd rather all the defensive linemen to look like John Henderson looked. But that's not real. That's hard to do, hard to get.

You know what happens in recruiting, too, is you almost get locked into numbers because you got 85 scholarships, and it doesn't always match up. You got more tailbacks interested because of the style of offense, but you can only have four or five, you know, on scholarship. See what I'm saying? So that tailback that you signed may end up as a linebacker. We've had some really good successes for that. Or a defensive back, vice versa. It's an interesting and ongoing process.

Q. Arian Foster has a pretty good chance of ending his career as Tennessee's all time leading rusher. Can you talk about some of the qualities that have made him successful?

COACH FULMER: You know, it's amazing. I think Arian has stayed under the radar, has been underappreciated a bit. When we left Tampa, I didn't think we had a chance in heck of keeping him at Tennessee. Came back as a second round, evaluated from the NFL, second round pick.

I probably asked too much of Arian last year to be more vocal of a guy. He's more of a quiet, get it done, working guy, rather than an outspoken team leader. He's worked on his game a lot to get that extra step. That's kind of the wrap on him. He's not a game breaker guy. He's going to make the first guy miss. He's going to fall forward most of the time. He's going be a threat as a receiver. He can protect. You can split him out and use him that way. He's a really, really good football player.

My hope is he takes his stays healthy and takes his game to the next level and becomes the all time leading rusher in Tennessee history. When you think of all the backs that have been through there, that's quite impressive.

Q. I want to clarify so there's no margin for error here. When you said that you had not seen a subpoena

COACH FULMER: I've talked all about that I'm going to talk about that. If you have a question about a schedule or a team or anything, I'd be glad to talk to you. Otherwise, I'm not talking about it any further.

Q. Could you talk about losing Eric Young, what that will mean to the offense, what kind of player he was for you?

COACH FULMER: We lost Eric about the fifth game into the season, so we really had to overcome that. It took two moves to do that. Chris Scott, who was a starter at guard, moved out to tackle. Had a really good year there. Jacques McClendon moved up. So we're well on our way to replacing Eric Young. We'll miss him from a personality standpoint, from a leadership standpoint. But that goes back to mid season. We're past that.

Q. Montario Hardesty has certainly had his issues with injuries the last few seasons. What is his status coming out of spring practice?

COACH FULMER: He is one of the greatest kids that you could ever be around. I hate the fact that he stayed hurt. When he's played, he's played well. He says right now he feels better than he's felt in a long time. He's had a knee injury, a couple of ankle injuries. My hope is that he can help Arian, help our backfield be a real solid backfield, that he can have a great year for us.

He's also a very complete back. He actually gives you more of a breakaway threat a little bit than Arian does at times. We would be blessed if he could be healthy.

Q. Your opinion on the idea of an early signing period, how early would you like to see it, and also your current stance on plus one?

COACH FULMER: I like the plus one. I think that's a real possibility. If people would just understand that we are in a playoff, particularly in our league every week to get to the point, then the plus one would give you maybe a better picture of a national champion.

The early signing date, I have not been for it, up until the last year or so. Recruiting is going so much faster now. There's so many more services, so much more information available. The kids, players and parents are much more in tune prior to their senior year than they used to be that they're forcing the issue by visiting campuses and those kind of things. So I think there's some merit to an early signing date.

Would I choose December or September? Probably I'd choose December, this is for Tennessee, to get some guys on campus that otherwise we might not have gotten on campus. It would save money and time in the month of January. I think it would be a plus.

As I said prior to this, I've always said, No, that's not a good thing for Tennessee. But I saw a poll. I don't know if it's right or wrong, but I saw a poll from the AFCA that said 77% of the coaches out there were for it. So I think they'll find some kind of early signing period that works for everybody.

Q. What are your thoughts on what Demetrice Morley went through to get back on the team? With his return, how good can your secondary be?

COACH FULMER: Demetrice is back on the team. He's done well in football. He's had a great spring practice and off season. You know, still I'm gonna reserve the right to get him to the practice field in the fall, that he's done everything that he's supposed to do to be an accountable football player and to be a guy that we know that we can count on on a daily basis.

If he does what he's supposed to do, it would certainly be a benefit for him, and it would be a great benefit for us, as it could give us the best pair of safeties that I've had at Tennessee in my time at Tennessee, which is a pretty big statement.

He's a very gifted young man. I'm proud of him getting himself back in good graces, what he's done. Don't let my silence about him during the off season confuse that he's done anything wrong. That's not the case. I'm just kind I want him to prove himself over a long period of time, not for one or two semesters or half a year.

Q. If this was 25 years ago and you had your record, do you think there would be as many critics out there?

COACH FULMER: I don't know (laughter). You guys have to answer that. I had a guy last night, we had a little barbecue that we were at, had a guy come up to me, Hey, coach, don't let them bother you. I'm like, Who is "they"? 90% of the people were very positive about what we've been able to do. He said, I was at Tennessee in the late '50s, early '60s. I thought back, they were struggling at that particular time.

I think sometimes it's just natural, somebody's been at a place for a long time, you take them for granted a little bit possibly, or you like the newness of things. I'm really, really appreciative of the contract and the support that Mike and our people have given us. That's got us headed in a very, very good direction from a recruiting standpoint, from a stability standpoint. You know, there's some things out there that people tend to want to start talking about with records, how many games, all those kind of things.

Honest to goodness, my whole focus is on this team and what we can do and how in the heck we're gonna figure out a way to win at Georgia or win at Auburn or beat Florida, those kind of games. That's how we've done it.

I am proud of the fact we've done it right, as I said earlier. When you talk about APR, those kind of things, we've been right in there as good. Things that people really understand appreciate.

THE MODERATOR: Coach Fulmer, thank you.

COACH FULMER: All right. Thank you.

Tennessee Tailback Arian Foster

On Tennessee's new offensive coordinator:
"He is a great guy and a very smart coach."

On SEC predictions:
"We are always picked third and are used to it. We just have to wait and see what happens."

On breaking Tennessee's record:
"I put the team first; you don't want individual goals to get in the way of the team."

On talking to past Tennessee players:
A lot of the guys come back to work out. I try to pick there brain, but I don't want to bombard them with questions. As a younger guy, I look up to the older guys. They are very encouraging, open, and personal.

On improving himself:
"I think I need to be more consistent as an all around player. I would like to be more consistent in all aspects of my game, solid in everything to be the best that I can be."

On beating a particular team in the SEC:
"You never know what is going to happen in this conference. You can't get caught up in one particular team."

Tennessee Defensive end Robert Ayers

On Tennessee defensive:
"We have very good, level players. Our chemistry is strong. We just need to keep building and hopefully that will lead to a championship."

On the toughest quarterback to sack:
"I'm going to take the easy way out and say Tim Tebow. He is an incredible player, a Heisman winner."

Toughest offensive line in the SEC:
"I would say Mississippi State. They have a mean, fundamentally sound, tough, big offensive line."

ROGERS REDDING (SEC Coordinator of Football Officials)

THE MODERATOR: We're pleased to have Rogers Redding this morning.

ROGERS REDDING: Good morning, everyone. Let me also welcome you to Media Days. This is just the best time of the year there is for all of us. The officials are coming in for our clinic this weekend. We're getting tooled up just like the coaches and teams.

It's my joy to be with you this morning and I look forward to talking with you outside and other venues as the day progresses.

I'm going to take you through the rules changes this morning and show you a little bit of video in connection with some of them. One of the major changes around the clock this year is the 40 second clock. For all of our lives in college football we've been used to the referee marking the ball ready for play and starting the 25 second clock on every single play. For the first time in the history of college football, that's not going to be the case most of the time. We're going to what's called the 40 second clock. The way it's going to work is when the ball is dead without any signal from the referee, just a dead ball signal from the covering official, the 40 second clock will start ticking down. So that's the length of time the team will have to put the ball in play. The referee will not declare it ready for play. It will be ready for play when the umpire places the ball on the ground and steps away.

There will be many times in the game when we will go to the 25 second clock because of administrative stoppages, if there's a penalty enforcement, a timeout, a media timeout, injured player, dog runs on the field any number of things that will cause us to shut it down and then go to 25 seconds. In those cases, the referee will chop it or start the 25 second clock as he always has in the past. Most of the time the clock will go to 40 seconds after every play, then start clicking down. So that's a major change.

Another change with regard to the clock rule is when the ball goes out of bounds. Again, for all of our lives, when the ball has gone out of bounds, the ball carrier go out of bounds, fumble, backwards pass goes out of bounds, the clock will stop, and will continue to stop like it always has. Now, instead of starting on the snap, the clock is going to start when the ball is ready for play, when the referee gives the line the clock signal, except in the last two minutes of each half, that is the second quarter and fourth quarter, the clock will start on the snap like it always has.

The way to think about this is like a first down. On a first down, we stop the clock and then it starts on the referee's signal. That's going to be the case. When the ball goes out of bounds, the clock will stop and it will start when the referee gives the signal. So those are the two major clock rules that are in play for this year for the first time.

The facemask foul, we've played around with this one again this year. For a number of years, we've had a five yard foul just for grasping the facemask, but not pulling or tugging it. Then the 15 has been for the tug and the twist. This year there is no longer a five yard facemask foul. This year there will be no longer be a five yard penalty for a facemask. And so grabbing and releasing or just grabbing and not twisting is not going to be a foul.

It will be a foul if the player grabs the facemask, twists it, turns it or pulls it, and that it's a safety issue. The coaches on the committee, the rules committee is made up entirely of coaches, the voting members are. And they felt this was not a safety issue with just grasping the facemask. But if it's twisted or turned or pulled, then that will continue to be a 15 yard penalty.

There's been some changes in the instant replay. We've expanded a little bit the plays that are reviewable. Scoring plays, if there's a question about whether on a field goal attempt the ball was above or below the crossbar, that is now reviewable. And also it's reviewable as to whether or not the ball was inside or outside the uprights as long as it's below the top of the uprights. We're not going to review it if the ball goes high above the top of the uprights, but it's reviewable if it's within the uprights, inside or outside, and above or below the crossbar.

Another couple of plays that are reviewable, we've always had a difficulty with an instant replay if the runner is ruled down on the field, we couldn't review that. The play is dead as soon as he's ruled down. Now if the ball comes out and the ball is recovered in the continuing immediate action following the play, if the runner has been ruled down, the ball comes down, it's recovered, that can be reviewable. That's a little bit of a change as far as the reviewability of plays is concerned.

The coach's challenge, the committee felt like there were a couple of situations in Bowl games where the coaches seemed disadvantaged by challenging something that was just obvious to everybody. So the coach's challenge, the coach will continue to have one challenge a game, as long as they have a timeout available to them, but the difference this year is if that first challenge is successful, the coach retains that challenge and may use it again one more time. There's a potential for two challenges during a game. That gives the coaches a little more flexibility around challenging a play that is reviewable under the instant replay rules.

Player safety continues to be a major concern of the rules committee. This is not a new rule. But the rule around the contact a player in the helmet area or contact with the helmet has been revised to sort of strengthen the language. And so as you can see on the screen, what it says is that it is illegal to target and initiate contact against an opponent with the crown of the helmet. That's more dangerous to the deliverer, to the tackler, because the head gets shoved down between the shoulders. So the crown on the helmet...

And this notion of targeting is just what it sounds like. There's always gonna be the standing tension between football as a collision sport, the tough game that we all love on the one hand, and trying to protect the safety of the players on the other, especially as players get bigger and faster and stronger. It's changed the nature of the game.

So a lot of things have been taken out of the game the last many years in terms of because of safety, and so the notion of a player targeting another player, leaving a calling card, trying to inflict injury, that sort of thing, is one that's of major concern to the rules committee and to the commissioners and many coaches.

The second part of the rule talks about targeting a defenseless opponent above the shoulders. I'm going to show a couple of pieces of video here. You'll see some examples of the kinds of things that should be called.

(Video Shown.)

ROGERS REDDING: Well, those are a couple of examples of the kinds of plays that are very dangerous and need to be attended to.

There is a new rule, having to do with player safety. It's the so called horse collar tackle. What the rule says is that it's gonna be illegal to immediately pull a runner down if you grab by the inside collar of the jersey or the shoulder pad or the back of the jersey or shoulder pad and pull the player down. Again, we have a couple of pieces of video. The first one you'll see is a foul because the runner is immediately pulled down. The second one is not a foul because he grabs his shoulder and kind of rides him to the ground over a couple or three yards.

Let's take a look at these videos.

(Video Shown.)

ROGERS REDDING: Sportsmanship and player behavior on the field tends to be a concern of the committee. So this year there's not new rules around this, but an emphasis on the part of the committee on the part of the officials to taunting, to baiting, to kind of these sort of these choreographed behavior issues on scoring plays or whatever.

So we've got, I think, two or three short videos to illustrate the kinds of things that need to be called.

(Video Shown.)

ROGERS REDDING: The other piece that's involved with the sportsmanship, game management, what used to be the sideline warning, the coaches on the committee said let's don't give a free warning anymore. So it's a five yard penalty from the get go. Last year if we would have thrown a flag for a sideline warning, that will be a five yard penalty. If we ever get to three and four, those will be 15 yards each.

So that is the major changes. I will call attention to the fact that on the table out here where there's several items of interest, there is a one page summary, front and back of one sheet that I prepared, that summarizes the rules changes. You may want to pick one of those up.

THE MODERATOR: Rogers, thank you.