COACH NICK SABAN
THE MODERATOR: We'll continue with Alabama head coach Nick Saban.
COACH SABAN: How is everybody doing today? It's great to be here. It's great to be back to work. Summer vacation is a great time for family. It's a great time for building relationships, which in the coaching profession, you don't always have time to do. As you get older, you certainly appreciate more.
But with my wife Terry, for the last two or three weeks, it's really good to get back to work because at least there's somebody who will listen to what you have to say. There's a few people that will respond to what I want to do. So we did have a great vacation.
I hope y'all had a great vacation. And we are excited to be back and looking forward to the challenges of the season.
It's obviously been a great two years at the University of Alabama. The positive energy and passion that our fans have shown in supporting our team has all contributed in a very positive way to any success that we've been able to have in rebuilding the program.
I know that our players certainly appreciate it. Our coaches certainly appreciate it. And we certainly appreciate it. Our administration, Dr. Witt, has done a phenomenal job of making the University of Alabama one of the outstanding public institutions in the country academically, which has certainly enhanced our recruiting. And his support has been very positive in terms of the university athletic programs.
Mal Moore has provided tremendous leadership and facilities for us to have one of the greatest programs in the country. So we're very, very pleased and happy about all of that.
We've had an outstanding off season with our team. We've had a very good summer with our team. But, as you all will try to do after this media day, you will try to predict whats gonna happen in this season. I wish you well in that. I wish you good luck. Because, you know, it's very difficult to predict what a bunch of adolescents are going to do, and we have over a hundred of 'em on our team. It's very difficult sometimes to predict what the few of them you might have at home might do, if you have children. It's difficult to predict what's going to happen with any team.
That's why we choose to stay focused on the things we need to do to build an outstanding team. The basic process of what is important to any good team.
First thing is, is you have to have togetherness on the team. You have to have trust and respect for each other and a positive and energy and attitude that's gonna help support the players on your team so that everybody has the best chance to play their role, do their role well, and be a productive part of the team. This team chemistry and leadership is very, very important.
People who are role models for the principles and values of the organization, who buy in and understand the vision of what the organization is trying to accomplish, and have the personality to inspire other people to the vision. You know, that's what team chemistry and leadership is all about.
I think it's also important that you establish a work ethic on your team, that your team understands they're working to dominate the competition. It's not relative to what they think hard work is; it's what they need to do to dominate the competition in a very competitive, difficult, tough league, with a very difficult, tough schedule.
It's important that you have a group that is responsible for their own self determination in terms of doing their job. You know, when I worked with Bill Belichick, we only had one sign in the whole building, and that was: Do your job. And it was defined for everybody, from the janitor, to the secretary, to the strength coach, to the equipment man to the coaches, to the players- everybody had an expectation of what their responsibility was to execute their job.
And I think the will to do that in your organization, on your team, goes a long way in seeing how your team is going to develop.
Those factors are going to have a lot to say about how our team develops. You know, it's every individual. You know, we don't have one individual on our team that can make our team great. But we do have one individual, any one individual, who could destroy the team chemistry, destroy all these things that we're talking about by being a blinking light and making bad choices and decisions about what they do.
We had an example of that last year, even in our Bowl game. So you saw what kind of team we had for 13 weeks, and then what kind of team we have for the 14th game that we played.
So those are the challenges that we're faced with as coaches in terms of the process of what it takes to be successful.
There's really two things that are really, really important in building a successful program. One is how you bring players to your team, which you all refer to that as recruiting. And the second is how you develop the players on your team. I think that's critical. It's going to be critical in the development of players on our team relative to some of the challenges that we have on our team offensively, defensively, and in special teams.
Offensively we're gonn have a new quarterback. Greg McElroy has done a nice job of developing. He's a good leader. He's instinctive. Players like him. He makes good decisions. He's been in the offense for two years. But he does lack experience. He's only going to get that experience by playing and making plays. With that, he's going to develop a lot of respect from his teammates.
The offensive line is a critical area for us to develop. So we have some young players that need to step up. And how that happens, you know, last year when I stood up here, it was linebacker, a guy like Dont'a Hightower came in and played outstanding football and we became a much better defense because of that. We're going to have some of those challenges in the offensive line.
I think for our receiver core to continue and develop, and have more explosive players, other than Julio Jones, showing consistency in making plays, is going to have a lot to do with it. We have good runners with experience coming back.
The challenge to me on defense is those guys have to take it to the next level. They can't be satisfied. You know, it's kind of human nature that, when you're satisfied and you're ranked high in a lot of categories, all that, that maybe you don't challenge yourself as much. You get a little complacent; you get a little satisfied. That can't happen.
And the leadership in our organization, from players and coaches alike, cannot allow that to happen, so that we continue to improve and play even better on defense.
We slipped a little bit, other than our return game last year, punt returns, you know, on special teams. We had a lot of young players. We had 14 freshmen letter last year. A lot of them played on special teams. We weren't as good, I don't think, on teams themselves, coverage teams. Hopefully that's an area of our team that we can improve dramatically.
Those are some of the things that I think are challenges for us from an overall program standpoint, as well as individually on our team and how our team develops.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. Talk about how difficult a challenge it is to replace an Andre Smith, but also Antoine Caldwell gets overlooked, and he was an all American center, two anchor positions on your offensive line.
COACH SABAN: I don't think you can really replace guys like those guys. I think they were outstanding players. Certainly Smitty (Andre Smith) performed well had had a lot of consistency in his performance. Antoine Caldwell was not only an outstanding player at his position, but he was an outstanding leader on our football team.
I think that the players have opportunities to create their own identity at those positions. James Carpenter showed he could at least be a functional offensive lineman in this league through spring practice. We're hopeful he'll continue to develop and improve as his knowledge and experience grows as an offensive lineman. William Vlachos was a good center for us in the spring. But Mike Johnson is the guy that has the most experience and is a real quality player for us. Needs to be a leader who affects other people in this group so that our offensive line can develop.
Every question that you ask me about quarterback is gonna come right back to this group. Quarterback is a difficult position to play if you don't have good people around you, and it starts with the offensive line.
I think how this group develops will affect, especially early on in the season, how our offensive team functions.
Q. You're starting the second straight season where you have a neutral site game, the kickoff game. Could you talk about what you learned last year by starting your season where you did in Atlanta. What did you, as a coach, learn and benefit from having your team start the season on the road on a big stage like that?
COACH SABAN: Well, I think first of all, it helped our team develop. And our team gained a tremendous amount of confidence by playing on the road and playing a top 10 opponent last year. It's a tremendous venue in Atlanta. They do an outstanding job, a fantastic job, as a city and as an organization, in putting on this game that makes it a real quality event for the players.
But I don't think anybody would have said, your team's gonna go on the road to Georgia, Tennessee, LSU and Arkansas, and win all those games last year. I think playing that game over there, win, lose or draw, probably helped our team develop a confidence of playing. Neutral site or not, it's still not at home, and that helped us in those games. It helped our confidence as a team.
This year we're gonna play a very challenging team in Virginia Tech. I think it helps your off season. The players are more intense about what they're doing because they know they're preparing for a huge challenge in the first game.
So there's a lot of positive things about it. There's a lot of exposure to it, which helps recruiting. And Atlanta is one of the major cities in the South. So not really a better location around to do something like that in.
Q. What are you expecting from Marquis Maze this year? Does he have to step up and do some big things for you this year? You look like you've lost some weight. You're almost as pretty as good.
COACH SABAN: You're looking good, too. That one commercial where they say, You look good, I'm not ready for that. But you do look good. I appreciate the compliment. I don't get many of those, incidentally.
I think it's important we have explosive players on offense for our team. I think Marquis Maze is one of the players that that can provide that. He has good speed, quickness, is good with the ball in his hands. He made some explosive plays in the spring game. I think not only Marquis Maze, but other players on our offensive team need to continue to show that we have more players who are capable of making explosive plays to compliment the people that we have.
Q. How much would you say Rolando McClain has matured in this last year?
COACH SABAN: He played great for us last year. I think he showed a tremendous amount of maturity from his freshman year when he started to last year. I think his maturity is not just as a football player, but what he's been able to do as a leader.
You know, leadership is not really an easy thing. There are some people who have natural leadership qualities to affect other people. But as you learn and grow as a leader, you learn which people to pat on the back and support and which ones to kick in the tail to get them going when they need it, and how to manage all these different sort of people, personalities that we deal with on a football team.
You know, Ro has certainly matured in that regard because he is a very good leader. He does affect other people. But leadership doesn't stop with one guy. I think it's important that last year we had great leadership on our team, even though we only had nine or 10 seniors on our team.
This year, we have some outstanding leadership that's not just in the senior class, but it's at varying levels of experience on our team. It's gonna be important that we develop all that internally at every position so that there is leadership that is constantly affecting people who need to develop especially young players.
Q. In the pre season polls, 8, 9 and 10 out of the SEC West, how do you envision the SEC West, not a prediction, but as you look at the other teams, what are your thoughts?
COACH SABAN: I think the SEC West is going to be really challenging this year. I think there's a lot of good programs, there's a lot of good teams, there's a lot of good returning players. So I feel like it's gonna be as tough as it's ever been in terms of the competition in our league.
I think there's some great coaches. Houston has done a great job at Ole Miss. They're going to have a great team. LSU is going to have an outstanding team. Les has done a fantastic job there of continuing the high level winning at LSU. I think every team in our league, on our side of it in the West, has an opportunity to win the championship. Auburn has good players coming back. I think Arkansas, who developed into a pretty good team last year, got a lot of good players coming back, a new quarterback. I think that's what makes our league great. There's tremendous parity and there's a lot of competition.
If you're gonna win it all, you really have to have great competitive character and do it on a consistent basis, 'cause you have to line up and play every week and you cannot be up and down or you're not gonna sustain it in our league.
Q. Obviously, you have ties to Bill Belichick. Urban Meyer has also befriended him. Do you see any Belichick tendencies in Coach Meyer? What do you think he's been able to do to kind of turn Florida into the national championship program it's become?
COACH SABAN: I think, first of all, Urban is a great coach, surrounds himself with outstanding people, has a good staff. They work about as hard as anybody I know. I mean, we're kind of a blue collar program. We have a tremendous amount of respect for that.
I know that Bill is like that. But I think Urban was like that before he ever met Bill. I think that's why they have a tremendous amount of success in recruiting, and they do a phenomenal job of developing the players that they have.
So I can't make any comparisons to know what their relationship is. I don't know that. I know I coached for four years with Bill Belichick. He was an outstanding coach. I probably learned as much from him in terms of organization, football, management, defining roles so that people understand what's expected of them, as anybody that I've ever been around. Certainly, you know, his success proves that what he does, the process that he uses, it's very effective.
Q. Wondering if you could disclose who you voted for for quarterback for the all SEC team.
COACH SABAN: I voted for Tim Tebow. I think he's one of the most outstanding leaders I've ever seen in my coaching career. Certainly played fantastic game against us in the SEC championship game last year. I think he might be one of the most outstanding players in our league.
But I also think everybody should have the right to vote for whoever they want, and I don't think they should be criticized for that. It's what a lot of people have fought for in this country for a long time. So I don't understand why anybody would even be interested. But I guess it's somebody trying to create news. I wouldn't point any fingers about that, but...
Q. Could you talk about the development of Javier Arenas? What do you love about him that goes beyond football skills?
COACH SABAN: First of all, he is an outstanding competitor. You talk about a guy that's a perfectionist, works really hard every day to be the best he can be. I think he's one of the primary examples I would use of any personality on our team. And I think it's reflected in not his development as a return man, because he was outstanding at that in the first year, as well as last year, but his development last year into being an outstanding defensive back, and a defensive back that played multiple positions. Not only did he play corner, but he also played our fifth defensive back or star position, which is a totally different position, and did a really, really good job at that.
He continues with his knowledge and experience to become a better and better player. He's worked hard to get bigger and stronger and is a very physical player. I can't say enough about his competitive character and the kind of person that he is, how he affects the other players on our team with his example.
Q. As somebody who has coached in the NFL, I was wondering what your take is on Tebow's NFL prospects? Do you think he's talented enough to warrant a top 10 pick?
COACH SABAN: Well, you know, I don't think it's fair for me to judge that because I can't really judge who the other guys in the top 10 are. Being involved in the draft before, if you're not involved in the total body of work, it's very difficult to make those kind of predictions.
But I will say this: I think Tim Tebow is an outstanding quarterback, an outstanding leader. I have no questions about his ability to throw the ball. He made some outstanding throws in good coverage in critical times in our game last year in the SEC championship game. So I have a tremendous amount of respect for him as a quarterback, as a leader, as an athlete, in every regard. I think he is a winner. I think he will be a winner in the NFL.
But I think everybody needs to understand that the NFL struggles to evaluate people who don't do in college what they look for guys to do in the pros. And I don't think they should be criticized for that. It's a difficult evaluation when you play a little different kind of offense. I think Florida has a great offense. I think it's very difficult to defend. I think they do a great job of executing it and coaching it. So I'm not being critical.
But it is different. And that makes it more difficult. You know, a general manager sent me a letter saying, How are you learning all the spread quarterbacks, how the dynamics of the critical factors of the quarterback position have changed because this offense has changed, what are you doing differently to evaluate quarterbacks, because we're having a more difficult time evaluating players that play in that offense?
It affects everyone. The quarterback, as well as the left tackle. If somebody told me we don't know how to evaluate this guy because he's never played in a three point stance because he always plays in a two point stance because they're no huddle, and they're always in a spread. So it's every position that is different from what they would like to see because they have a defined prototype they would like to evaluate toward. When you play in a different type of offense, it makes it more difficult to evaluate.
I don't think anybody is disrespecting him, I guess is what I'm trying to say. I think it's just a little more difficult to try to evaluate.
Q. Julio came in last year and made a strong impact as a freshman. You have another strong freshman class this year. What do you expect from Trent Richardson?
COACH SABAN: I didn't expect anything from Julio Jones last year, except that he focused on doing everything he needs to do to become a complete player. You know, don't focus on external expectations. Don't focus on how many passes you want to catch. What you need to do is learn what you need to do to be a successful player in this offense by becoming a complete player at your position.
That's the same advice that I would give to every one of our freshmen, which I've always given it to them. They need to focus on the things they need to do to become complete players at their position. If they learn to do that, then they'll be able to channel their abilities into something that will effectively help the offensive team. If they can do that and show the maturity to do that, then that will enhance their opportunities to play.
We do have some guys that probably could do that. We do have some need on our team and some areas that players may have an opportunity if they can show an ability to do that.
Q. With all the changes on the offensive line, do you try to find ways to get Star Jackson in the game?
COACH SABAN: Not really. We want to play the best players at every position. Every player on our team has to prove that they can go out there and execute what they need to do to play winning football at their position. And Star Jackson has outstanding athletic ability. But he needs to be able to go out there and execute and play winning football in our offense. I do think he is a player who can make plays with his feet.
But, you know, we don't feel like there's some other part of our team that's gonna make us change our philosophy to do something different than what we've sort of geared our whole group to trying to do.
Q. There was quite a stir in the lobby this morning when you came in. I'm sure you get that a lot, especially in this state. What is that like? Does it ever wear on you or get old?
COACH SABAN: Well, you know, my daddy always says, you know, you only have a problem if no one's asking for your autograph. So, you know, when there's not a stir downstairs, I got problems.
So we do appreciate the support. We appreciate our fans. We're glad to give back to our fans because they give so much to us. They certainly give a lot of positive self gratification to our players, which is the most important thing. And we have a tremendous passion in the state of Alabama for football, at both schools that we have here, both outstanding schools. We have a tremendous amount of respect for that passion. We certainly want to do our part to satisfy the passion of our fans and give them some time when we have an opportunity to.
Q. How many takes did it take you to get your lines right in that movie you did and how was that experience?
COACH SABAN: You know, I had two in two days. I don't like to do stuff like this, but I did that movie thing on Friday, and I started Talladega on Sunday. And those two experiences were sort of out of body for me, both of 'em.
I really enjoyed the movie. It's not the takes that get you. It's the angles. You know, I learned something. When I come in the door to do the recruiting spiel, there's seven of us in the picture. You have to do seven takes because there has to be a wide angle, then there has to be a close up on every person. When you watch a movie, you just kind of feel like they just kind of got it with one camera, you know, and it all works. When you start understanding that there's 90% of the movie is close up on somebody's face, and that didn't come from a wide angle camera.
So it wasn't that the lines were bad, and the director was great. I wouldn't really say it that way. I would say it this way: He said, Say it however you wanted it. That made it easier.
Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw were fantastic people to work with. I had a very small part. Our team has already voted not to go see the movie. They don't want to endorse anything like that, that I was involved in.
But the Talladega experience was also interesting, you know, going to the drivers' meeting. A lot of people asked me about taking the picture with the Aaron Girls. I said, I was standing like this because Terry had a hook right outside the camera, she was ready to put a hook on me (laughter).
Q. Talk about the impact of the spread offense on defenses in college football.
COACH SABAN: Well, I just think that it's very difficult to defend. I think when the quarterback's a runner, you create another blocker, or a receiver that you have to cover. So that kind of creates another gap on defense. And I think that that's very difficult to defend.
But I think it's like anything else: the multiples of what you have to defend are what make it more difficult to defensive players. Just like in the old days when they used to run the wishbone. When you had to play against the wishbone, that was really different. So it was difficult to get the picture and look of what you needed to do to get your team prepared to be able to play against it.
I think to some degree the spread offense is the same way. A no huddle offense is the same way. How do you get a scout team in practice to be a no huddle team to get any kind of execution so that the defensive players start to develop the mentality they need to be able to change their routine and play without a huddle?
So I think the concept of the spread offense is outstanding because it makes the quarterback an 11th gap on defense, I always say. If you only had to defend that all the time, I think we could all get a little better at it. It's the multiple of the different things you see throughout the season that make it more difficult.
Q. Commissioner Slive indicated one of the things the SEC needed to do to continue to grow and prosper was for teams to avoid self inflicted wounds, teams taking shots at other teams. Do you detect any of that? Do you see there's a potential for that?
COACH SABAN: I think we have a great league. I think everybody should respect our league. I think we're a great league because of all the individual components we have in the league.
Our focus at the University of Alabama is what we need to do to make our place a first class organization and represent our university and our state in a first class way. What other people do really doesn't affect that. We have a full time job trying to, you know, control that.
And I do feel like we should have a respect for the league and the other people in the league. I've never been critical of anything that anybody else does or says. And I think I agree with the Commissioner, because he has the best interest of this league in mind. We have a tremendous league. And I think that it takes respect on all of our parts for the members of that league so that we can stay that way.
Q. From a defensive point of view, when you're facing a quarterback that doesn't have much experience, how do you try to take advantage of that? At the same time with an inexperienced quarterback this year, how do you try to guide him through games until he gets that experience?
COACH SABAN: Well, you know, I think that everyone develops at a little different pace and rate, depending on their ability to learn the knowledge and experience, how they learn from their lessons. And I think specifically in our case Greg McElroy learns very quickly and has had some experience. But I also understand that until he makes plays in the game, he's not gonna fully have, you know, the trust and respect of all of his teammates, even though they really, really like him and they really like him as a leader.
I think the biggest mistake you can make in development of any new player, young player, inexperienced player, is give him too many things to do, and increase the multiples of the kind of mental errors that they can make.
I think that it depends, from a defensive perspective, who the guy is that you're trying to defend. If he's a smart guy, if you try to pressure him, you may enhance his chances of making plays because he understands it, he sees it, and his reads actually become a little easier.
If you try to play all coverage against him and don't pressure him and he's a good runner, he may hurt you with his feet.
So I think to really answer that question effectively, you'd have to know the specifics of who you were trying to defend.
Q. Been varying reports recently of players who either have left or are considering maybe leaving the program. Are you close to the 85 number, do you feel comfortable where that is right now? Would you classify such attrition are normal year to year stuff?
COACH SABAN: The last part of your question was?
Q. Would you classify such attrition as normal year to year operations?
COACH SABAN: We have a demanding program. I mean, when I say 'demanding program,' I'm not talking about football. We have a personal development aspect to our program that there's principles and values in the organization relative to developing a successful philosophy, creating the right kind of habits, thoughts, habits and priorities that are going to help you make good decisions, whether it's the Pacific Institute coming in, whether it's a peer intervention program that address behavioral issues, drugs, alcohol, gambling, spiritual development, how to treat the opposite sex, macho man stuff, running your mouth, getting in fights.
Most of the stuff you read about players having issues with come in some of those categories from that personal standpoint. We spend a lot of time trying to develop personalities on our team, characteristics that will help them be more successful, and they'll be more successful in life for having been involved in the program.
It is demanding. We have some players in our program who have not met those demands. We have the same kind of demands academically. We have one of the highest graduation rates in the SEC and in the country, and that's going north for next year because we'll have even more players graduate next year in our program.
But we have a demanding academic system in terms of player requirements, in terms of what they need to do. There are players that don't meet that. And we have the same thing in football. But none of these players are leaving because of the kind of football players they are from our standpoint. There may be some player who leaves because they're disappointed and don't think or don't have the confidence that they can play.
So if we have attrition for any of those areas, and I tell the player, I don't want you to leave, you're a good person in the program, you're a good student. You may be a backup player, but you have to be satisfied with your role on the team 'cause we don't want a player that's disgruntled or negative in terms of our team chemistry for selfish reasons because you're unsatisfied with your role. If you don't think you can achieve that here, I'm supportive in helping you go someplace else.
I don't know how these things get out. But I only address these things when we start fall camp. We still have a couple players who could or couldn't qualify. We have quite a few players who have already enrolled in school. This is from a young player's standpoint. We have some players who will be grayshirted and know they will be grayshirted. And we have some players who are contemplating what their future's gonna be relative to the University of Alabama.
And we have some players who are being suspended, whether it's for behavior or academic reasons, and they won't continue at our school.
Q. Can you tell us a little bit about the 2001 game between you and Kentucky and talk about the last play specifically.
COACH SABAN: Well, what I remember, most people don't remember the little things and the details of why things happen sometimes, but there was about a 30 mile an hour wind that day, and we were fortunate to be able to game manage to get the wind in the fourth quarter by the way the coin toss went and all that stuff. We practice these two plays every Thursday at the end of practice. I forget the exact seconds, but we ran the first play because we could stop the clock and gained about 15 or 20 yards. Hit Michael Clayton on an in route, then had to go up top.
But the ball sailed and almost went 70 yards in the air because we had a big wind. The Kentucky players actually misjudged the ball. That's what created the tip. Devery Henderson was the key running guy that's supposed to play the tip. And it just worked out that way.
But what I remember the most from it was not that play. I've always been told by mentors, that the worst thing your team can do is play poorly and win. And we played poorly that day and won. And we got our rear ends kicked in the worst defeat in all the time I was at LSU the next week because of that. That's what I remember the most.
So you didn't expect that answer, did you (smiling)?
Q. Talk more about what you want to see improvement on special teams. How has your team been so successful in scoring non offensive touchdowns?
COACH SABAN: The second part of that first. You know, I think defensively last year, we scored four or five touchdowns, fumble recovery, a couple interceptions running back for touchdowns, those types of things. I think we scored three touchdowns on special teams or thereabouts. I'm not a big statistical guy. Don't think I'm misquoting something. You can look it up.
I think there was something like eight non offensive touchdowns that we scored last year. I think we want to be a physical team that puts a lot of pressure on the other team, especially on special teams and defense, in terms of style of play. And I think when you score points that probably means that you did that.
But where we weren't real good last year, or as good, is we weren't as good on our coverage teams, our kickoff coverage, which was first or second in the league the year before. Slipped dramatically. I think we have five true freshmen on our kickoff team last year, and early in the season especially we weren't very good. I think we missed some field goals last year that sort of affected our efficiency there.
Our net punt was okay. Our punt return was okay. But it was really kickoff and kickoff return that were the two areas that affect field position. We weren't very good on kickoff return and we had slipped on kickoff coverage. That's where drive starts occur. That affects field position in the game. Those are two areas that we need to improve on dramatically.
Q. At a time when you're usually wearing the Alabama colors, did it give you pause when you had to put on an LSU coaching shirt knowing the movie would be seen by Alabama fans later on?
COACH SABAN: I'm hopeful all of our fans will understand that the movie is an historical event. When this happened and it occurred, that was the part of history where I was. I think we all try to represent that. Fred Smith called me. I wasn't gonna do this. And out of respect for the Touhy family and the player involved, who we recruited and liked, was glad to see do so well, become a first round draft pick and graduate and do all the wonderful things that he accomplished, I think it's a great example to college football and college football players, and Ole Miss' program that all these things were done. I think it's a wonderful story.
So, you know, it is an historical event. It's no disrespect to anyone. It's no disrespect to LSU or anybody involved at LSU. We have special memories of the times and things we accomplished there. Nothing that can ever happen is going to change that from Terry and I's standpoint. We have a tremendous amount of respect for our fans at the University of Alabama. I have not heard one negative comment about that particular situation because it's not reflective of where I am now.
You know, I was asked last year when we played at LSU to go to Michael Clayton's induction into the Hall of Fame at his high school. I just very simply explained to the players that I'm gonna be here for all of you guys, too. The guys that have played for me in the past, I have a special loyalty to, just like I will have a special loyalty to you. And when you ask me to do these things in the future, regardless of my circumstances professionally, I will be there to support you, just like I was for Michael Clayton and any other player that has played for us in the past.
So no one finds any disrespect in all that. There's certainly none intended to any institution. I think it's just a matter of professionalism that we want to do it in the right way for LSU, as well as the fans at the University of Alabama.
Q. You were involved in a great football game in the SEC championship. That game came down to dominating Florida in the third quarter, but somehow in the fourth quarter Florida was able to shift the momentum. Looking back on that change in momentum, what do you think happened? What do you see when you look at that fourth quarter? Urban said maybe two of the greatest drives he's ever been around.
COACH SABAN: We had good football players, they had good football players. It was a great competitive venue to see the way they were playing. That was a great football game. It's a great experience to have the opportunity to be a part of it.
But Tim Tebow and the Florida players sort of rose to the occasion and finished the game like you need to. To win a difficult game, especially a championship game. We have a tremendous amount of respect. And it wasn't that our players didn't do it. I mean, Florida didn't win the game on our lack of execution. They won it because they executed and did the things they had to do to win. That's a compliment to them. It's not a disrespect to our players, because I'm not ashamed for a minute the way we competed in the game and the way we tried to finish the game. They made the plays they needed to make.
That's how you really would like to win games, you know, on your execution, not the other team's lack of it. That's why that's a great game, because both teams competed so tremendously for 60 minutes in the game.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you.
COACH SABAN: Thank you. I would like to say that, you know, I certainly have a tremendous amount of respect for all that you do for college football. You are the conduit to the public for all the players and all of our programs. We have a tremendous amount of respect and appreciation for what you do to promote college football and to provide a lot of positive reinforcement for a lot of young people who play college football. We thank you for that.
OL Mike Johnson
On off-season workouts: "Our offensive line is working harder this year than any I can remember. William Vlachos, he's in position to take the starting center spot, has taken control this summer and learned the signals and taken the reigns in terms of where he needs to be. In seven-on-seven drills, Greg (McElroy)'s done a good job working with the receivers."
On preseason expectations: "I don't think it's too much to expect (good things) at all. You hear people go back to the Sugar Bowl, but they don't realize we had our second string line in there and we're struggling to make adjustments. We've got two guys battling it out at left tackle that will be really good, they'll only get better. With time, I think everyone will be surprised at what they see."
On freshman left tackle D.J. Fluker: "The kid's a freak athlete, he probably outweighs by 70 pounds and moves just as well. The biggest thing is he's willing to work to learn what he needs to do to be a better player and make us a better football team."
On expected first-year starter Greg McElroy: "I think a lot of people will be surprised to see Greg's athletic ability. I think overall, people will be surprised at how he does in gameday situations."
On the team's schedule: "I haven't thought past Virginia Tech. We're not talking about anything down the road. In order to keep our season where we want it to be, we have to win the next week. So our focus is always on the next week."
On playing in a premier opening game: "I think what a lot of people find out about college football is that you find out about who you are in the first week. We can only do the best we can between now and then to prepare and be ready. Hopefully, we can put in enough work so that we're in a good position that week."
On Coach Nick Saban's recruits: "You can only get better with Coach Saban's recruit in terms of when he gets his fully cycle in here, you'll see a great football team. Not only does he recruit good players, he recruits great men, people who are willing to buy into the system, and that's only going to help us."
On last year's finish to the season: "It's obviously not the finish we wanted, but none of us had ever been there before. In terms of how you set goals, it's hard to think about things that are ahead when they're not even on your schedule at the beginning of year. Hopefully, we'll get back there (the SEC Championship game and a BCS game) in the years to come, and that experience will pay off for us."
LB Rolando McClain
On last year's ending: "Last year, we won 12 games, but we didn't finish how we wanted. We were disappointed, but this year will be different. Coach Saban is preaching to us, 'Finish, finish, finish' and that's what we're working on doing."
On the seniors lost from last year's team: "Rashad (Johnson) was a great player, but he was so much more of a great leader. I can't even explain it. He'd give a guy a look in the huddle, and you would just know (what you had to do). He worked so hard and everyone honored his work ethic. This year, Coach Saban expects that kind of leadership out of me. I'm more of a laid-back guy, but he wants me to be a leader, to speak up and to be an emotional leader, and I'm trying to embrace the role. If it means that it helps the team, then that's fine with me."
On preseason focus: "I don't think we need a coaching staff to tell us anything. Last year, we won 12 games, but we lost the last two games, so that's not a lot of success. For us a team, we're just hungry, and we want to work to get better."
On expected starting quarterback Greg McElroy: "Greg is going to surprise a lot of guys this year because he's got a good offensive line in front of him, and that'll onl make him better. It doesn't hurt to have Julio Jones to throw the ball to either. As a defense, we're going to push him in practice to make him better."
On return specialist and cornerback Javier Arenas: "Javier's scary. A lot of people look at him as just a great kick returner and a punt returner, but he's so good on defense. What makes him better is he watches so much film, watching receiver routes and different defenses. I thank him because he takes a lot off me because he's such a good leader. He pressures those guys in the secondary."
On his roles as a vocal leader this year: "It's hard because it breaks my personality. I'm laid back and typically more focused just one doing my thing, but if it helps the team, then that's what I want to do. I'm not trying to be someone different, it's just that last year, if practice wasn't going well, Rashad (Johnson) or Antione (Caldwell) would call everyone together and say something. I might not have said something, but I was thinking the same thing. This year, Coach Saban wants me to be the type of guy that says something if things aren't going well."
GEORGIA BULLDOGS
COACH MARK RICHT
THE MODERATOR: We're ready to begin with Georgia head Coach Mark Richt.
COACH RICHT: Thank you. Good to see everybody here today. I guess it's here, the season is here. We're here in Birmingham getting ready to go.
People want to talk a lot about what my expectation is of this team. I think the greatest expectation I have for this team is that we understand how important it is to, you know, put the work in and to work together and to realize that it takes a whole lot more than just two stars that everybody felt like were gonna make the difference last year.
With Knowshon Moreno, everybody expected us to win 'em all because we had these two guys that everybody considered stars, and maybe subconsciously our guys thought, We can count on these guys.
Now that they're gone, I think our team understands the only chance they have is to play together, work together, earn it as a team. I think they've done a great job of buying into that, preparing throughout this off season for that type of season. So I'm excited.
Year nine. I'm amazed I'm still here (smiling). It's a very volatile business and volatile league. But I'm very blessed to be at Georgia. Looking forward to other great season.
Q. Can you talk about Joe Cox, what you expect to get out of him this year?
COACH RICHT: Well, when it comes to quarterback play, in my opinion, you need to have an accurate passer, you need to have a great decision maker, you need to have a young man who can handle the pressure of the job, because there's a lot of pressure that comes with that job, and you need a guy who can lead.
And Joe really personifies all those characteristics. We have exit meetings in the spring. We talk to our players after spring ball. One of the things we ask 'em, besides talking about their strengths and weaknesses, what their goals are, all that kind of thing, we ask them, Who are the leaders on this football team, in your opinion? Who are the leaders? I think it was, like, 106 out of 110 guys that did their exit meetings said Joe Cox. I think that's significant. He was the No. 1 vote getter, if you want to call them votes.
For a guy who hasn't started but one game his entire career, that was about two or three years ago, I think that says a lot about what the guys think about Joe and what Joe has done in preparation for this moment.
I don't think there's any player on this team that doesn't believe that Joe was ready last season. And the year before, if something were to happen to Matt, they knew Joe was ready to go. They believe in Joe right now, as the staff does, and I do certainly.
Q. Can you tell me who did you vote for, for all SEC quarterback?
COACH RICHT: I can. It was Tim Tebow. I think that's what everybody else said so far (smiling).
Q. So far.
COACH RICHT: Yeah.
Q. What do you make of all this Tim Tebow? Every coach is being asked about that. Is it a big deal that he wasn't a unanimous pick?
COACH RICHT: Well, first of all, I think the ballots are private for a reason. But everybody wants to know what everybody thinks.
I think everybody has a right to their own opinion. I remember a few years ago, I don't remember what year it was, but it was Cutler's senior year, whatever year that was. I mean, I voted Cutler first team, all SEC. I forgot who else was around at the time, but there were a couple pretty prominent names. He wasn't the popular choice, but as I studied that kid, I thought he was the best.
There's different reasons why a coach will vote one way or another. It would be very difficult to not vote Tim. But I guess somebody did. Maybe there was a mistake in the calculation. I don't know. Maybe there was a typo (smiling).
Q. I'm wondering if you have spoken with Houston Nutt about pre season expectations?
COACH RICHT: No, I haven't. I know Houston pretty well. Enjoy his company a lot. He's a lot of fun to be around. Very sharp guy and great coach.
But we didn't get into that. When we get to Destin, we talk about family, we talk about how are things going, how is your off season. Every once in a while, we'll talk about issues like that, but we didn't get into that.
Q. You have a bit of a background in the state of Florida. Florida won two of the last three national titles. Miami and Florida State had their runs a few years ago. What is it about that state? Is it just the recruiting base?
COACH RICHT: I mean, that's a big part of it, there's no doubt. There's a bunch of tremendous athletes in the state of Florida, a lot of speed there. Then you've had coaches that have taken advantage of the speed and the talent base, parlayed that into an outstanding, cohesive unit, good enough to win a national championship.
The other thing is, I guess at one time, Miami was in the Big East, Florida State was in the ACC, Florida in the SEC. So you've got if all those schools were in the same conference, I doubt you would have had that much success. They were able to, at times, dominate their leagues because they were all in different leagues, and one of those three had a very good chance of making it to the national championship game.
I was at Florida State for I think 14 or 15 years, one of the those two, I can't remember. But it just seemed like for a time there, the winner of the Miami/Florida State game, one of those two was going to play for the national championship because both teams were gonna they were winning their respective leagues, that were allowing you to get a chance to play in that game. I think that has something to do with it, too.
Q. The contract on having the Florida/Georgia game in Jacksonville is about to run out. Do you want to see it moved, stay there, and why?
COACH RICHT: This is what I want to do. I want to focus on winning that game. That's all I want to focus on when it comes to that game.
Q. You don't care where it's played?
COACH RICHT: I really just want to focus on trying to win that game. That's my goal from here on in (smiling). That will be my pat answer from here on in.
Q. Your defense gave up some significant points in big games last year. Could you talk to us about how you and your staff have tried to address those issues heading into 2009?
COACH RICHT: Number one, we hope to stay healthy. Number two, we hope to practice the way we've practiced every year since I've been at Georgia, and that is to practice tackling by tackling, and to practice goal line by getting on the goal line, practice inside run by getting after it full speed, full contact.
What we did last year, at my direction and my decision was to we backed off of some of those practice sessions in full pads with the intention of playing full speed as far as tackling to the ground, cutting below the waist, just playing football, because we got to the point where we were so thin at some positions, if we lost one more guy, we were gonna be in trouble with just having a guy that would know what to do.
And so our injuries came fairly fast and furious. I mean, like, for example, we normally have three scrimmages in the pre season to try to determine who the starters should be, the backup should be, but also to hone our skills at playing football and tackling, playing with speed and energy and intimidation on defense. By our scrimmage number two last year, I made the decision to thud that practice rather than go full speed.
As soon as it was over, I knew I made a mistake because you don't get good at defense by doing that. So the next day, we did scrimmage some, not nearly as much as we would have the day before. I was trying to at least get us back into that mode.
But things like that happen throughout the year because of the number of guys that were banged up. I hope I'm not put in that situation again to have to make that decision, but if I don't flinch, we're gonna keep practicing the way you got to practice playing defense. Hopefully, we learned a good lesson there.
Q. Will you be having the blackout again this year?
COACH RICHT: We may wear black jerseys again this year. I don't know. That was kind of a Bulldog club question. Seemed like every time I went to the Bulldog club, they wanted to know.
The one thing about the blackout is that the fans don't buy into it, it's no good. You can wear black jerseys, any jersey you want. If you're going to say, We're going to ask the fans to all wear black, they have to have a spirit of cooperation. After what happened at Alabama last year, I'm not sure everybody would wear black.
I'm not sure if we'll do it or not. We've got the ability to do it. We have jerseys to do that.
Q. Last season you had a lot of off the field problems. This season you haven't had any. What has been the difference? Have you made any changes in terms of talking to your athletes about avoiding situations that might get them in trouble?
COACH RICHT: There's really been no difference in our coaching staff's pursuit of educating our guys about those types of things. I think when it comes to that, that has to be player led. I did spend a lot of time speaking to our seniors.
We have a character education class. We meet once a week for half an hour and talk about leadership. We sometimes get off of our curriculum and we'll just talk about the team, how we can practically lead the team.
We talked about some of the things that happened last season. One of the things the seniors came up with is they felt like there wasn't enough accountability, you know, player to player. One guy didn't have enough accountability to his teammate in how he handled his business in a lot of ways, whether it was schoolwork, how hard he worked, what he did off the field. So they felt like they needed to be accountable to each other much more than they ever have.
I think that Joe Cox, Jeffrey Owens, the two that are here today, and others, have done a very good job of relaying that to their teammates. I just think they see the value in that.
I think there's a lot of players that got sick of it themselves. They didn't want it to happen again.
Q. A lot of people seem to be penciling in the Gators for this undefeated season. How much of a motivating factor is that for you guys?
COACH RICHT: I think we're always motivated to win the East, period. You know, I don't know if it matters who's pre season number one or the pre season choice. I'll bet it's 50/50 at best at everybody picking the right now. If took the last 10 years, they might have been right half the time, wrong half the time.
We absolutely just have to focus on ourselves and what we need to do to prepare. The closer you get to the season, the more your focus begins to hone in on your opponents. Right now the only team we're thinking much about is Oklahoma State. But we absolutely had the goal of winning the Eastern Division, no doubt about that.
Q. Could you talk about your non conference schedule. Looks pretty tough. Pretty major increase in assistant's salaries, especially at Tennessee. What do you think about that trend?
COACH RICHT: Yeah, non conference, to have three BCS conference opponents out of the four non conference games is pretty heavy duty. Then when you look at who they are, you know, Oklahoma State, probably pre season top 10 by most people, loaded offense coming back, a team that you hear the coaches say, We've been kind of pointing to this season for the last couple years, opening a brand new stadium. I think they're charging $100 a ticket. I think it's the highest pre season start for Oklahoma State.
So they're gonna be off the chart when it comes to enthusiasm and excitement and expectations towards their season.
Then you also have Arizona State. Another BCS opponent. Dennis Erickson has won a couple of national championships, at least one. Did he win one or two? He won two, didn't he, at Miami?
Then of course, Georgia Tech, we've all seen what they've been able to do under Paul Johnson's direction. That's pretty tough when you consider who you play in conference.
We might have bit off more than we should have. I think the plan was never to have three BCS opponents. We did say, after the 12th game was added, we would add try to add a BCS opponent outside of the Southeast Region. We decided to do that. Just because of the scheduling, it so happened the only way it would work, with some home and aways with Arizona State and Oklahoma State, it had to happen all in this year. But I doubt that happens again anytime soon.
Then the second one was salaries.
Assistant coach's salaries, yeah, they're going up. It is difficult sometimes to keep your staff, keep your entire staff because of the amount of money out there. The thing about our staff at Georgia is we have a bunch of fine coaches, a bunch of veteran coaches. If you want to pay all these guys well because of their experience, because of their competence I mean, our pool of money is more evenly distributed than some. Some may have extremely high on the coordinator end or whatever it might be, then might be very, very low at another end of the spectrum. Everybody kind of has a pool of money. Some school's pool is a little bit bigger than others.
The goal I think is to create an atmosphere where your coaches enjoy coming to work, where you allow them to have a job, a responsibility, and you give them the authority to carry it out. I think if you micromanage good people, they tend to get a little bored with that, frustrated with that. They tend to move somewhere where they can grow and shine. I try to allow these guys to try to do that here at Georgia. Plus we try to create a really wonderful family atmosphere, too, which I know they enjoy.
Q. Could you give us some basic things you like about your team overall, a couple areas of concern.
COACH RICHT: Overall, I like defensively the fact that we're gonna be hungry, maybe hungrier than we've been in a long time. I like the fact that we have we're pretty stout up the gut. You take Jeffrey Owens and Geno Atkins, Kade Weston, DeAngelo Tyson, Brandon Wheeling, a walk on who we have high hopes for who is going to be a fifth year senior, the interior defensive line, Rennie Curran, Akeem Dent, linebackers right up the gut. You talk Reshad Jones, Bryan Evans at safety. That's strong up the middle. You need that.
We need pressure off the edge. We need guys that can cover people outside. If you're weak in the middle, you got problems. I'm not disappointed by any stretch about our corner play or anything like that. I'm confident in them.
Defensive ends, I feel like they're hungry. They feel like they've got something to prove. Historically, since I've been at Georgia, our defensive end position has been highly productive. We've had many first and second team all SEC performers. We've had guys lead the league in sacks. Last year we fell short of what was normal for us.
I like the fact we're not going to be starting three freshmen linemen like we have the last two seasons on offense. It just dawned on me, I think we only have three seniors on offense. Joe Cox and Vince Vance and Michael Moore. I didn't realize that. But we do have a lot of guys returning that have played a lot of ball for us. So that's a good thing for us.
I have a lot of confidence in Blair Walsh's ability to kick extra point field goals. I know we'll be much improved in the kickoff. Butler is unproven as a punter. Butler has proved to me he can punt well enough to be outstanding in our league, just by observing him, but he hasn't proved that he can be consistent enough. So I guess what I'm saying is maybe last year he's five or six out of 10 that were outstanding. We got to get him to where he's nine out of 10, 10 out of 10, which he's been working diligently to be that. When guys get their chance, they usually rise to their occasion, if they're a competitor, which I know Drew is.
Q. You talked about the expectations on your team going into last season. Florida has that this year. What is the best way to handle that?
COACH RICHT: I don't know (laughter). I think you just got to try to focus again on what's gonna help you win, you know. Your mind has to be focused on the process of getting prepared, the off season conditioning, behaving, the belief in how important the team is, and then getting into camp and focusing on your fundamentals. It's really pretty simple.
You just got to stay focused on the things that will help you win and try to avoid all the other stuff, which is very difficult to do, 'cause there's a constant barrage of people wanting to talk about it.
Q. Can you talk about the depth in the secondary, maybe how the running backs did this spring.
COACH RICHT: Our secondary, I mentioned the two safeties, Reshad Jones and Bryan Evans. Got a lot of confidence in those young men. We help Quintin Banks can get back. He's been hurt. He's another guy we know we can count on if he's healthy. He's had a knee injury that he's doing pretty well rehabbing, but there will be a day or two where it swells up on him and slows him down a little bit. But we've got confidence in his abilities.
Bacarri Rambo is a guy playing safety, Makiri Pugh, some young guys that we know can do it. Sanders Commings can play safety or boundary corner. As far as our starters at the boundary, with the starter at the boundary corner will be Brandon Boykin, a young man who will be a true sophomore. Very explosive.
Losing Asher Allen was not a good thing for us, but Brandon is an outstanding player and his work ethic is very much like Asher. He's a very, very serious competitor. Prince Miller out at the wide corner will be our starter, a senior for us who we have a lot of confidence in. Vance Cuff can play the field. We're going to give Branden Smith an opportunity, a true freshman, to see what he can do.
That kind of gives you a pretty good run down of who we have in the perimeter.
Q. Running backs?
COACH RICHT: Running backs, I was just mentioning earlier, I think we could probably I could probably blindly grab two or three of 'em, just pick 'em up, and I would have confidence whatever three I picked out, we will have success with them. Sometimes when you say no one has separated themselves from the pack, sometimes that's bad if your pack isn't very good. But if you got a pack of good ones, you know, it's hard to separate also because you have some talented guys around you. I think it's more a situation of that than not having anybody outstanding. I think they're all pretty outstanding.
The whole thing is going to be who gets it done when it counts the most. We have 29 practice opportunities to see who it is. If it's one guy carrying the load, the majority of the load, I'm fine with that. If it's three guys sharing it, I'm okay with that, too. But we're gonna run the ball.
Q. You obviously have a couple young quarterbacks that are pretty talented. Do you plan on trying to get them in, have packages for them, and also how you push away the most popular player on the team as the backup quarterback, push that away from the fans?
COACH RICHT: Right, well, Zach Mettenberger, Aaron Murray are our two true freshman quarterbacks. I'm assuming you're talking about them. Are you throwing Logan Gray in the mix, too?
They're sitting there trying to win that job. When it comes to the true freshmen, if I feel one is the true second team quarterback, we will play him, get him as much experience as we can.
If Logan Gray is our number two guy, we may choose to redshirt both of those true freshmen. If Logan Gray is not the number two quarterback, we may still have a package for him separate from our overall package just because he is athletic enough to do those kind of things that people do in the wildcat, whatever you want to call it.
So you got a wildcat who can actually throw and understand the entire system. That's not a bad thing. We'll just see how these guys develop.
I think the fans, until your starter wins over the fans, they'll always be crying for somebody else. Hopefully they'll be applauding Joe rather than want to have someone else play.
Q. You're playing in Fayetteville for the first time in a few years. What were your impressions of Bobby Petrino when you were in the same neighborhood?
COACH RICHT: Well, Coach Petrino's history has been very, very successful. You're going to have to have some success to get a job in the Southeastern Conference, that's for sure. You know, what he did at Louisville was really phenomenal. Since he's been gone, they've struggled mightily. It's probably not a coincidence that it had to do with him arriving and leaving.
He knows what he's doing. He absolutely is a great quarterback developer, and he has a scheme that will allow that quarterback to have a chance to be great. He knows it takes defense and special teams to win also. I mean, he's just an outstanding coach. He's like all of us, trying to prove we're the best in any given year, so...
I'll say this, too. If you look at the history, recent history anyway, of Southeastern Conference coaches, and coaches I think around the country, there's been a lot of instances where their second season they kind of broke out. That's where he's at. So that makes me a little concerned, too, that he's now had a whole year to go through all the debugging of things, and now everybody is on the same page and ready to roll.
Q. Earlier you mentioned going into your 9th year. That makes you the dean of SEC coaches in terms of longest tenure at your current school. Do you realize that?
COACH RICHT: When I said I was surprised I'm here, it wasn't so much because of any recent season or anything like that. I think I was reflecting back on being here for the first time nine years ago, and to think that you are going to be here nine years later in our league, in college football in general, the same team, the way things are going, you can't sit there and start predicting that that would happen.
You know, every decision I ever made since I've been at Georgia has been to try to make a decision that would help us in the long run. I didn't try to do anything in a quick fix fashion. I was used to working for a man, named Bobby Bowden, he had so much success at one place, you know, that was attractive to me. I wanted to provide that same kind of stability for our players and our program and our staff and their wives and children, as Coach Bowden did for me and my family.
So everything I've done is to try to make sure we will be here for the long haul. But it's humbling, no doubt. I don't know what that means other than we're doing a little something right here.
THE MODERATOR: Coach Richt, thank you.
COACH RICHT: All right. Enjoyed it.
QB Joe Cox
On becoming a leader: I have stepped into my role as a leader of this team. I am right where I want to be. I've worked hard and a lot of guys look up to me and are ready and willing to follow me.
On his leadership style vs. Matthew Stafford's style of leadership: We are different types of leaders. I'm more vocal that Matthew was. That's not a good thing or a bad thing. Matthew was a great leader, but the distinction is the team. I don't think he had enough help. This year a lot more guys have stepped us as leaders as well.
On the pressure as a starting quarterback: Obviously there is pressure. But it's not something I think about. The success of this team is not all on my shoulders. There are 10 other guys that get the job done as well. I won't carry the team. We'll work together. And that is where our success will come from, the team.
On having taken a snap before: The only game I ever started was Ole Miss in 2006. It's good to have the experience I have, to have taken snaps before. It gives me confidence.
On the off-season: It really brought our team together. With people telling you, "You won't be as good" you turn it around and use it on the field and in the locker room. When someone tells you, "You can't do something," it motivates you and you better yourself. We preached about that a lot this off-season.
On the competition with back-up quarterbacks: I think you always have to look over your shoulder. There's three strong guys behind me, but it only makes me work that much harder to keep my job. Competition can be a good thing.
On Coach Richt: He's really approachable. You can go to him anytime about anything. I see him as a "father figure." And because of that it makes it easier to follow his lead on the field. He is the easiest coach I ever played for.
On what he thinks of Coach Richt being in the "hot seat" after last year's mediocre season: I think it's a joke. With his history and a ten-win season, just the talk of it really bothers our team. When you also look at the things he does for the school off the field, there is no way you can let a guy go like that.
On the season opener against Oklahoma State: They are a team deserving of their top-10 pre-season rank. They will be toughest season-opener Georgia has had in a while. They are good on both sides of the ball. We look forward to the challenge.
On playing in the SEC: It is an honor to play in this conference. Not only are there so many talented players, there are so many talented teams. With each week, you have no idea what is going to happen.
DT Jeff Owens
On Twitter: I'm a big tweeter. I've been tweeting about this experience coming to Media Days, my second time here.
On the pre-season hype going compared to the 2009 season: It's been a big difference this season. Before last season, it was, "Georgia this, Georgia that." Hype can get to you and that was a factor with last season.
On his disappointment with last season: The past is the past. We went 10-3. That's not a great season, but good enough. Good enough to win and to win 10 in the SEC, that's an accomplishment.
On Georgia defense: I love our defense. We've got some new things for this season. To win games and be successful you have to play defense and stop the ball, stop the run.
On Florida's pre-season #1 rank: Florida has a lot of talent returning, as defending national champions. They're pre-season #1. But like we learned last year, hype is hype. It's not about the pre-season.
On spring training: Spring was exciting. We had a really good spring training. I sat sideline, but got the crowd noise up. You know…motivated and push our guys.
On Tim Tebow: He's a great football player. I hope to interview him today ((laughs)). Tebow has a lot of tools but we can get to him and rattle him.
On losing star players Knowshon Moreno and Matthew Stafford: The star of our team this year is our team. AJ Green stands out as a star. But this year its all about the "team." Everyone has to be a star to win and be successful.
On the historic rivalry with Tennessee: The rush in the Tennessee stadium is intense. No matter what else is on the schedule, it is the game. To win this year, we have to play four quarters of football, be physical. We have to play Georgia football.
On the off-season this year: It has been a lot different than last year. It's been a low-key offseason. I've stepped into my role of leadership. I challenge my teammates and we combine everything for the Georgia football equation for success.
The toughest stadium to play in the SEC: I have to say Tennessee's stadium. I've never played at Florida, LSU, or Arkansas.
On playing Florida in Jacksonville: I would like to change the location. I'd like to play one year at Florida, the next year at Georgia.
OLE MISS REBELS
COACH HOUSTON NUTT
THE MODERATOR: We are ready to continue with Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt. Coach, welcome.
COACH NUTT: Thank you. Appreciate it.
Good to be here today. Last year, just recapping last year a little bit, it was one of the funnest journeys we've had as a coaching staff. Took a group of young men, previous four seasons, it was very, very tough, the season before we got there they didn't win a conference game. So it was a little bit deeper rooted than I thought for us, just the ability to think, Hey, we're gonna win today.
As we went on through the season, our guys really started believing. When you start believing, that's when you start achieving. Our guys really played together. I was really excited about the leadership that we had.
The problem that I have is about 600 pounds. I got 600 pounds, two first team All Americans we're missing. Michael Orr, the left tackle, was a first rounder, and Peria Jerry. Those guys were not only captains of our football team and leaders, but just played so hard. So we got to replace a very good group of seniors.
The thing that was interesting when, we came back from the Cotton Bowl, they had a wonderful week. The thing that stood out was the freshmen were still talking about their flat screen TVs, their gifts, their hats were still being worn. Really, really quickly, we told them that it's so important they understand that it just doesn't happen. It took Peria Jerry, Michael Orr four years to get to a Bowl game. So it's about going to work. It's about having attitude, attacking the weight room, whether you be in study hall, weight room, it's about going to work.
I've been really proud of our leadership. Today, I brought Jevan Snead, quarterback, and Kendrick Lewis. Kendrick has really shown some outstanding leadership for us, really taken the baton from a guy like Jamarca Sanford. Really watched all those seniors. I really love the way he has led our football team. He's here today.
They're working hard. We're anxious to get going again.
Before I open it up for questions, I just want to go ahead and tell you that I voted for Tim Tebow. I voted him first team. I think Langston Rogers, my SID, will verify that. Without anything else, questions.
Q. Can you talk a little bit about the win over Florida last year, what that did to make your guys understand how important it was and believe, and also you were the only team that beat Florida last year, and the Tebow speech, just that whole how that inspired them?
COACH NUTT: The previous week we got beat by a very good Vanderbilt team. We were really down. Probably as down as we've ever been as a staff and as a team. Going into Gainesville, we knew it was a very, very tough chore. What was amazing about that game, all the players knew it had been 727 days since we won a conference game. That's how the stats, media, the information you put out, that was in their heads. Our guys knew it to the T.
That game gave us confidence. It gave us genuine confidence that we can win. To see a celebrated locker room like that, it was awesome.
The problem was the very next week, we played a good South Carolina team. We were in uncharted waters. We couldn't handle it. It took us really towards the end of October to get going. But once we came together as a team, it really fell back to Florida, that Florida game, as you mentioned, gave us the confidence that we could beat anybody if we have 11 guys doing it the right way, we take care of the ball.
I think Jevan Snead really probably had his worst game right before Florida. But then he comes back. If you fast forward from the first five games, fast forward to the last five games, Jevan Snead was a different quarterback. Why? Because he took care of the ball. He got us out of the wrong play, got us in the right play, distributed the ball to different guys. Just was outstanding.
But that win goes back to Florida. The thing I love about Tim Tebow, a lot of players will say, you know what, after a loss, a big loss, they'll say, I'm going to work as hard as I can, I'm going to do this, make all these promises. What you love about Tim Tebow, not only does he make the promise, he carries it out, and he puts his team on his back. Percy Harvin, I remember there was a couple weeks he wasn't on the field. I have those words, after our game, the words he spoke to the media, I have that on my desk. I read it to my team once. It was awesome. I have an awesome respect for that.
But that game helped us, to answer your question, and we really took off as the year went on and started playing better. We took care of the ball and our defense played awfully well.
Q. This whole Tebow not being the unanimous selection, Jevan got the other vote, do you sense there may be a sort of rivalry between these two guys, Jevan trying to out do Tim?
COACH NUTT: I don't want Jevan to look at it that way. They're both very good. I want Jevan to keep being Jevan. I had a good visit with Eli Manning yesterday. Jevan went to Eli's camp with Archie and Peyton. They watch pros, they watch professionals work. It's their work ethic, how you study the game. You just don't show up for practice. You just don't go through the motions. You really attack and work at your craft. To me, that's what Jevan has done I think in the weight room, film study. Kent Austin has done an excellent job for him.
As far as a rival, we won't get caught up in all that. We have an awesome respect for Tim. Jevan has done some good things. You have to remember, Jevan laid out the previous year. So it took him a while. Those first three or four games, he wanted to be Superman every play. Strong arm quarterbacks think they can throw it anywhere. So it took him about four, five games to really get going. I tell you, he's been very, very good.
Q. You mentioned the 600 pounds you have to replace. Talk about that process, who your candidates are, how you feel that's going.
COACH NUTT: Ted Laurent, Lawon Scott, Jerrell Powe, this time last year was 383 pounds; he's 320 right now. I'm excited about that. The strength of our team is defensive line. I'm really excited about our defensive line. Those guys have worked hard. Marcus Tillman, Emmanuel Stephens, Greg Hardy, Lackett. The good thing with that group, they played. Justin Smith has played as a freshman last year. We have some depth there. They just got to keep coming, keep working. But those are the names that you'll hear.
Q. On the other side?
COACH NUTT: Of what?
Q. Offensive line.
COACH NUTT: On the flipside of that now is where you stay up a little bit. We're gonna need some freshmen come in and supply depth for us. Bradley Sowell right now is a left tackle. Very athletic at 6'7", 6'8", 315. Really got better the end of the spring. He's got to have a good camp. Hopefully Bobby Massie will be there. We got some guys that have got to really step up.
Rishaw Johnson is another guy that didn't play. We lost three senior offensive linemen. As good as we are on the defensive line as far as depth, that's why we had to go sign some offensive linemen. We're going to really need them for depth.
Q. How hard was it not to vote for Jevan for you? Secondly, there's a perception, whether it's fair or not, that you have been a better coach when you're not picked to do well than when you are picked to do well, as you are this year. What is your take on that?
COACH NUTT: I think if you go back and look at the times we were picked high, if you go back and look, like every coach that comes through here, the one thing that's on their mind, you hope one thing: you hope your team stays healthy. If you look at the times we were picked high, we had some major injuries, major. Not as an excuse, but part of it. It's a blow.
I can tell you this: I was really nervous when I got the phone call from Greg Hardy and Dexter McCluster getting hit in broad daylight, going through that front tire through that engine, the car catches on fire, and to think how lucky they are to be alive. To think not having those two guys for the season, that's a nightmare because that changes your team. I disagree with that a little bit. But, again, I think if you go back and study it, you'll see some major contributors were not on the field.
We're excited to be in this position. We knew this would happen. If you go towards the end of the year, you win six straight, you go to the AT&T Cotton Bowl, you beat a good team like Texas Tech, there's going to be some attention. Now you got to embrace it, handle it. The way you handle it is going to work.
Q. Obviously, last year you guys come in 0 8 flying under the radar. What is it like coming in this year with all the expectations? Do you like being in all the national polls?
COACH NUTT: I'm excited for our players. I'm excited for them because they're embracing it right, right way. How they go to a 5:30 workout, how they go to school, how they go to study hall, how they're doing things. Our antennas were up as coaches, how they would approach this off season with all the pat on the backs, much different. They're in uncharted waters.
Again, the way they're handling things, I love what they're doing right now. That's why we can't wait to get to camp and get back to work and carry that over, keep that going.
But it is different, a lot different. But we're excited about it.
Q. Can this be a successful season if you do not go to Atlanta? Is it Atlanta or bust for this program at this point?
COACH NUTT: You know, again, I think this: you're in the toughest conference in America. I believe that with all my heart. If you look at our teams 1 through 12, very, very tough. Our staff has been to Atlanta before. Been there twice. That's a difficult journey. It's very hard to get there. Things have to go right.
I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say that. For a team that had four previous losing seasons, I wouldn't say that. I think our team is on the rise. I think there's some good things that are happening. We had a very good recruiting class. When you see our freshmen on campus, they don't look like freshmen. They enrolled in summer school. So good to see all those guys that were there, to see them physically, see them going about school and work. You just feel like things are getting ready to happen and we're excited.
But I wouldn't say, Okay, Atlanta or it's really a downer. I don't believe that.
Q. You mentioned the rough games that Jevan had at the beginning of last season. How much of that had to do with his inexperience in the SEC and how much better do you expect him to be this year?
COACH NUTT: I really expect him to be much, much better. As you could see, the last half of the year, how much better Jevan got for us, being really a coach on the field, I think it had a lot to do with it. Any time you lay out a year, then you go into the fastest conference in America, things are moving very, very fast, too fast.
So at Tennessee as a strong arm quarterback, you feel like you can get the ball to anybody at any time, not true. It takes time, it takes really a lot of time. I thought he handled himself well.
I was so proud, the Vanderbilt game, that was the key because as poorly as he played, played his best game the next week in Gainesville. To be able to come back and handle that shows a lot of character. So I love the way Jevan has been approaching everything.
Q. What is the secret now to beating Florida? What advice would you give other teams playing them this year?
COACH NUTT: I tell you, I have an awesome respect for Coach Meyer, his staff, the athletes that are on the field. It's two things if you want to beat Florida. I don't know if you recall, when we were going to Gainesville, we were about a minus nine, they were a plus nine. They didn't turn the ball over, not one time, until that game. We got three turnovers that game. We didn't turn the ball over. There might have been a tipped pass or something. Might have had one turnover. But we didn't turn the ball over for the most part and we got three turnovers. I think that's key. Win the turnover margin, gives you a chance.
The other thing is, Tim Tebow is going to make plays. Percy Harvin, those guys, Percy's not there any more, but they can say, Next.
They got speed all over the field. They're gonna make plays. Limit those plays. Limit those plays. You got to play great defense. Limit those big plays. Win the turnover margin, gives you a chance to win the game. I think those are the two biggest factors.
Q. You mentioned all the weight that Jerrell lost. Talk about how different his performance might have been this spring with that lost weight and what do you expect or contribution do you anticipate from him?
COACH NUTT: I expect a lot from Jerrell. He's changed his body, changed work ethic, eating habits, of course, all those things. But he's doing it for a reason. And the reason is he really looked up to Peria Jerry. He knows now it's his time to play, to contribute.
We was kidding him the other day, he's going to be able to go more than four plays at a time. When we first got there, he couldn't go through stretch. He's come so far. So we want him to take another step now. We just feel like that he will.
Q. When you were with Arkansas, you obviously had Darren McFadden, who was a Heisman contender while he was there. Jevan Snead is going to go through some of the same individual attention he got. Anything you can take with him from the Darren McFadden experience and give to Jevan?
COACH NUTT: You know, Jevan and I have talked this summer about that, that there's going to be a lot more attention on him. When you play the way you play, at the end of the year, there's going to be attention. It's how you handle the attention.
I just want Jevan to keep being Jevan. He's always been a very unselfish guy. You're going to get to talk to him today. You'll see that. It will come out very clear. Very intelligent. He's a pleaser. He's a guy that can move the chains. He knows how to do it.
I think the biggest thing, learning what we went through with Darren McFadden, there's going to be attention, there's going to be a lot more media, a lot more TV interviewers. There's going to be more and more demands on your time. Langston will do a good job with this, help me managing Jevan's time. You have to stay focused and keep priorities priorities. What that means is managing that time. It's school, it's football, and then handle all the extracurricular activities that's gonna happen with all this attention.
Q. Three of your first four games are on the road. Talk about having to play in tough environments such as Memphis, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt.
COACH NUTT: Always tough when you go on the road. It's always tough. I like our schedule, though. You just grow numb to it. Any time you go on the road in the SEC, you know this, tailgates are going to be full, stadiums are going to be full, it's going to be loud. It's how you handle it.
The way you go about things is you start in practice. As corny or square as that may sound, it's about how you prepare. It's preparation. It's how you go through that Monday through Friday, getting yourself ready for the toughest environment.
Early on we've got to be a very good road team, starting with the very first game in Memphis. That will be the only game played on ESPN on Sunday. No NFL, no college football game, but our game on Sunday. So got to be ready to go.
Q. What do you think about the conference putting a cap at 28 for the signing limit?
COACH NUTT: 28? Was that because of my number I signed?
You know, again, every year I knew one thing, you got to be at 25. You got to be at 25 by August. So that wasn't going to be a problem for us. We oversigned for a couple of reasons. One, when you live in the state of Mississippi, there's a lot of junior colleges. When we sign student athletes, we knew eight to nine would not make it, definitely would not make it academically. And what that does, when you sign a young man on signing day, it gives them the idea, Hey, I'm in your family, I'm in the Ole Miss family. And I have a go. I got to go graduate at a junior college or prep school, I'm coming back to play for you. There's a lot of incentive there.
So the other thing was the junior college coaches that I'm just trying to get to know in the state of Mississippi, you develop those relationships. There's not a better way to develop a relationship than send a player to their school. And so that was our intention.
We don't sign 39 every year. That wasn't our intention. But the rule, to answer your question, I wish it was at 30. But, hey, the rule's the rule. We'll abide by the rule. We know this: you got to be at 25. Our numbers are going to work out. If anybody wants to know, our numbers are going to be at 25 by the time we start.
Q. How high on the popularity scale was your team's win over LSU last year? You've really had LSU's number the last few years. Talk about that, if you could.
COACH NUTT: It's such a great atmosphere to play in. It's so awesome to pull up to know it's going to be a packed house. There's a lot of passion, a lot of energy. We were on a roll at the time. We were taking care of the ball. Our defense was playing so hard, playing so much better.
So there was a feeling in the dressing room, especially the last six games, Hey, we're gonna win, we're gonna win. And we didn't have that the first six. We were very unsure.
In fact, when we had a bad play, it would always compound with two to three more bad plays. They expected that to happen. So it took us a while to turn that. By the time we hit LSU, we were hitting on all cylinders, feeling very good about ourself, playing together, taking care of the ball, playing at a very, very fast, fast speed of the game. We were playing very fast.
So I was just proud how we just really at all levels. The other thing is special teams. James Shibest did a tremendous job last year of turning really one of the worst teams the previous year in special teams to one of the best. And then Coach Decker does such a great job towards the end of the year in November. Our guys were stronger. I think if you talk to Coach Les Miles, he says we're always in very good condition in November. We keep our strength levels up. So it was good.
Q. You read here all the time about the difference between being the hunter and the hunted. Is there anything to that?
COACH NUTT: Well, it's a fact. It's a fact. Last year, the same group of experts picked us towards the bottom. Same group of experts now picking us towards the top. We tell our team, What does that mean? Doesn't mean anything. You are going to be hunted.
Last year we had an attitude we're fixing to go hunt, we're going to go compete, try to win this game when nobody gives us a chance. So that is a little bit of a factor. You know, right now we're the hunted a little bit. We're a little bit more attention.
So, again, if you ask Urban Meyer, he's picked No. 1 I guess every year. Nick Saban had the good team when he was picked No. 1. The great teams expect to be picked No. 1. That's kind of where we want to get to. You want to get to, Hey, we want to be picked first in our conference. It's an awesome statement.
But what goes with that now? When you have that much attention, you got to have much more work ethic. You got to work a little harder, you got to play a little harder.
To answer your question, I think there's a lot to that.
Q. You won six games in a row at the end of the season. That certainly builds your team's confidence. How do you keep the confidence and not be cocky?
COACH NUTT: I always talk about being very humble. There's nothing wrong with hitting somebody right in the mouth, pick 'em up, get back. You don't have to worry about reeling off your stats. You don't have to worry about, Look at me. There's going to be enough attention on you. There's going to be enough attention. That's one of the reasons why we did this TV, what y'all call a reality show. I don't like using that word. But I want the cameras on 'em. I want them to get used to it. I want them not to flinch. I want them to not draw attention to themselves. Hey, look at me. You don't have to do that. If you're playing hard, making plays, you'll get enough attention.
One of the things we did so good this summer is we won the summer. What I mean by that is they did things the right way. No one got arrested this summer. Knock on wood. We still got about 10 more days. But just those little things of doing things the right way. Don't worry about the attention. Don't worry about, Look at me, look what I've done. You don't have to do that. Go play.
Q. For everything that you did well last year, you were last in the SEC in pass defense. What happened during the spring or what are you expecting heading into the fall from the secondary?
COACH NUTT: There's always concern. I have a concern with just depth. If you look, most of the numbers come in the first five or six games. But our secondary got better. You could tell in the Cotton Bowl. Our secondary did much better. Marshay Green, a converted wide receiver, had him moved to corner for us. We were looking some real numbers there. So he helped us. Very unselfish. Guy's made a lot of plays for us, was the MVP of the Cotton Bowl. Cassius Vaughn is back. Kendrick Lewis, Johnny Brown, you have four guys that played in the SEC. They will be better.
Our problem again is now behind those guys will be young people, very, very young, some freshmen. But every team has some holes. That's what you're trying to manage right there.
But to answer your question, we will be better in the secondary, and the numbers should be much better. Got to stay healthy.
Q. Kendrick Lewis made a really great maturation from '07 to '08. Can you talk about how he made such a great progression, what you saw from him, and what you hope to have him make the next season?
COACH NUTT: Kendrick was our leading tackler. He's very physical. He's an intelligent player. I love the way that he comes to play every day. He has a lot of energy. His enthusiasm is contagious, really contagious to the rest of the teammates.
He's the one that really took the baton from those four captains. He took the baton at 5:30 in the morning. You knew the first morning of those workouts who was going to be your leader. Kendrick Lewis.
This guy wants everybody at pass scale. When the coaches can't be there in the summer, he's making sure everybody is there. It's important to him. You just love his attitude.
But he comes with a real attitude, especially on game day. He's a physical hitter, plays the ball well, has good hands. He's just an overall good football player. Even better than that, he's a better person. His character and everything, it really filters through the locker room.
Q. The spread offense has become a big part of college football. You run a more conventional approach. Does the wild rebel give you that balance that makes it difficult for defenses to prepare for you?
COACH NUTT: Absolutely. Absolutely. That gives us a chance to throw a little knuckle ball in there, try to slow down good defenses, defenses that are so fast, get them thinking maybe just a step slower.
The thing we do have, we always had a physical mentality. We're going to be very physical, we're going to run the football, play action. The thing about Jevan, he can launch the ball from different areas. He can sprint out. He has escapeability. He can bootleg. So that really helps your offense. Then we can get in four wide outs, three wide outs. We're very multiple.
When you say 'conventional,' what I like about that word, I think more of an old fashioned attitude which we have is we're going to be able to run the ball. But Jevan, threw for 2700 yards, threw 26 touchdown passes. So you have that ability to say, Don't overcrowd us now. Then you mix in that wild rebel with a Dexter McCluster at the direct snap, it gives you a lot of variety.
Q. You and Alabama are getting a lot of attention in the West, leaving LSU a little under the radar. Does that get your attention?
COACH NUTT: I don't want to ever look at it like that. I know this. I know LSU is going to be good. I can tell you right now when I look down at their stretch lines, they're going to be three deep and they're going to look beautiful. I know they can play. I have an awesome respect for them.
Alabama, I know their defense can play. I know that. Everybody in this league, Vanderbilt. I mean, Vanderbilt, you just can't say Vanderbilt, homecoming game. Those days are over. Bobby Johnson does too good a job. That guy can win football games.
When you say LSU is underneath the radar, they're not underneath the radar in my book. They're way, way up there. So I respect everybody in this league, and especially LSU or anybody else who thinks that they may be underneath the radar. I've been underneath the radar a lot of times and you know what can happen.
I do want to say this real quick. I had the privilege to go with Mack Brown, Jim Tressel, Troy Calhoun, Jim Grobe, and Tommy Tuberville, Rick Neuheisel to Iraq, to Baghdad, to Kuwait, Africa, Ramstein, Germany, where they take our soldiers back. I can't wait to show a video. I have a video I'm going a show our team on August the 9th. I can't wait for them to see it, the work that our people do. They're the same ages really of my football players, a lot of 'em are. To look at our men and women, what they do for our country so we can have freedom, so we can sit here and talk about college football is awesome. I just really respect.
We have the best Air Force in the world. We have the best Army in the world. We have the best Navy in the world. We just got great people that are protecting us every day. I just want to thank 'em.
Q. Year two in a program, you not only know the players better, but you had two new coordinators last year. What do you expect your smoothness to be with those coordinators this year?
COACH NUTT: Well, we know each other well. Tyrone Nix, I just love him. I love the way he prepares for a game, the way he calls the game. He keeps offenses off balance. He's aggressive, but yet he's sound. He knows when to blitz. He knows when to pull back. Kim Dameron, Chris Vaughn, they've all been together.
When you have success, a lot of people come after your coaches. Tyrone Nix had a chance to go to a lot of places. He elected to stay. I only lost one coach. I got Terry Price, who had been at Auburn. I'm thankful we have him. He's done an outstanding job with our defensive line. He's been in the league.
So to answer your question, there's camaraderie, there's chemistry. There's no egos. Nobody worries about who's doing what. They go to work and have fun doing it. Offensive line coach, Mike Markuson, one of the best in the country, been with me 16 years. Jim Shibest. Runningback coach is Derrick Nix, outstanding teacher. Ron Dickerson, receiver coach. Kent Austin is a brilliant guy. Rhodes scholar, brilliant. Makes it easier to call plays when you have guys like that.
To answer your question, I think we know each other better, we didn't have to stop, relearn, reteach terminology, name. It just carried right on. It will be much smoother.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach.
COACH NUTT: Thank you.
QB Jevan Snead
On rising expectations: "I think with that ranking comes a lot higher expectations. As far as the team goes I don't think we're handling it any differently. People said we weren't going to do well last year. We ignored them and kept working hard. I think this year we're doing the same and working hard. We're going to follow that same formula and keep doing everything we can to improve."
On the Ole Miss offense: "I think we're going to be a lot better this year, especially in the first half of the season. Last year was a new system. Just having experience is going to help us. We'll be able to add a lot to the offense."
On the possibility of being the first Ole Miss team to make it to the SEC Championship: "We really don't talk about being the first team to do it. We're thinking about our team now. We had a great year last year and we having a lot of people returning. I feel like we have a great opportunity this year to do some big things."
On the possibility of winning the Heisman Trophy: "I try not to put too much into it. When you're a kid you dream of stuff like that. I've had a rocky road getting to where I am. Just to be mentioned with all the great players and for the Heisman is a great honor for me. At the same time, I'm not focused on that. That's not my main goal. My main goal is to do everything I can to improve so I can help my team get some wins."
FS Kendrick Lewis
On rising expectations: "We need to be unsatisfied. Everyone knows us. To be humble. We know that we have a bull's-eye on our chest. Everyone knows us. We're going to get the publicity. We can't buy into it. To keep doing the things we do to be successful and continue working hard."
On the team's turnaround: "One of the things that played a major role was our senior leadership. The year we went 0-8 there were a lot of guys going their own way. Our seniors stepped up this past year. They took control of the team. They showed the younger guys the way and what it takes to win. Everyone bought into Coach Nutt and what his staff had to offer."
On the beating Florida last season: "That was a game that showed us that we could compete with all the other schools in the SEC. If you look at it, we won the Florida game but we came back and lost to Vanderbilt and South Carolina. It was a turning point. It got us closer together as a team like a band of brothers. It brought us closer together. We were able to come together and win. We went down to Arkansas. It was a close, close game but we had to come together to win as a team."
On the defensive secondary: "We have Marshay Green returning at the corner. We have Cassius Vaughn at the corner. We have Johnny Brown and myself. It all starts up front. Without those guys we are nothing. We got Greg Hardy, Marcus Tillman, Ted Laurent, Lawon Scott, Jerrell Powe. All those guys are putting in the work that makes our job easier. They're the ones who are applying the pressure on the quarterback and stuffing the run. Those guys get all the credit for what happens in the backend with us.
On the schedule: "I didn't really look to far down the schedule. I know LSU and Alabama are on our schedule because they're in our division. We just take it one game at a time. We have Memphis first. We're going through fall camp preparing for Memphis. Hopefully we'll become a better team and everything clicks on the same cylinder."
FLORIDA GATORS
COACH URBAN MEYER
THE MODERATOR: We will continue with our final coach of the day, Florida head coach Urban Meyer. Coach, welcome.
COACH MEYER: Thank you all for coming. Honored to be here and represent the SEC and the University of Florida. Also here to clear up that mystery that I'm the guy that didn't vote for Tebow.
Good to be here. Have a very good football team. Very appreciative of the leadership of our program. It's as good a summer as I've been around in coaching as far as dealing with our guys and watching our strength staff work, talking to them about the professionalism. That was the key word throughout the month of January as we prepared for the championship game and December preparing for the SEC game. That has continued through spring practice and the summer.
The key is let's get to August 6th. I've never been more anxious to coach a football team.
With that said, I'll open it up for questions.
Q. There's a lot of expectations for your team. What are your expectations for this team?
COACH MEYER: Well, I want to get through these next two weeks. We go real hard for a week, then they have a week off and we start camp. I don't look much past that.
This time last year, we had some real tough injuries. So we've given a lot of thought to how we're going to practice to keep that edge, to make it a very difficult training camp, yet safe, make sure we can get to the show, and that's our first game.
Expectation as far as the season, our goals are always the same as it was in 2005, as it is in 2009, and that is we want to do everything we can to get to Atlanta. That's our whole we wake up every morning to try to achieve that goal.
Q. Would you talk about during this off season, I know you intended to make it the most difficult that Florida has ever had. Are you satisfied they did have that?
COACH MEYER: Well, I'll find out when we get 'em. We get them Coach Marotti turns over the team to me on August 6th. According to our players, who I have great confidence in, when they communicate to me, it has, we're not finished with it. You can usually tell once we get started in training camp what kind of off season they've had. We've had good ones, not so good ones. According to our players and strength coach, this has been one of the best, if not the best.
Q. With so much depth, how have you kept everyone happy so far?
COACH MEYER: I think we've really promoted the competition and we've promoted team first. Great things happen when you have an unselfish team. Last year's was arguably the most unselfish I've been a part of. They got to wear a championship ring, compete in the SEC championship game. That's what we have going for us right now. I really believe our guys love it at Florida. More importantly, I really believe they care for each other. It's a good situation right now in that locker room, in the weight room, and when they're together. That's not easy.
You have 105, 120, 18 to 22 year olds from every stretch, some overrecruited, some underrecruited, some overrated, some underrated. And to keep those guys happy and motivated, that certainly a difficult task. The only way to get it done is with great leadership on our team and our staff does a heck of a job.
Q. Is Riley Cooper returning?
COACH MEYER: I'll know that today. Is today Wednesday?
Q. Thursday.
COACH MEYER: I'm going to know it by the end of the week, or the weekend, is what I'm hearing.
Q. Everybody knows you grew up idolizing Woody Hayes. In the heart of Alabama, did you ever study Bear Bryant, read anything about him, take anything from his coaching philosophy?
COACH MEYER: Well, a great story, my first season as coach of Florida, walking in that stadium, I'm standing near the goalpost. They flip that scoreboard on. Bear Bryant is right there talking to me. I'll never forget that. That guy is not supposed to be here any more.
Up north it was Woody Hayes. Had great appreciation. Read the Junction Boys. Obviously followed Bear Bryant. However, Earle Bruce would often talk about Coach Bryant. That was one of his sources of information and sources of expertise. He would often talk about Coach Bryant. Of course, I have. Not to the same degree of Woody Hayes.
Q. You joked about Tebow and the All SEC team. What do you think of the story that's become this week?
COACH MEYER: First of all, Pat Dooley told me to do that. Second of all, no one laughed, so it wasn't a very funny joke. Someone asked me if that's going to motivate Tim. Whoever asks those questions, don't know Tim. Tim has a lot of things to motivate him. That's not one.
Didn't mean much by it.
Q. There's been some concern about Tebow not getting under center enough in the past, especially concerning his future in the NFL. Do you see he'll get under center a little bit?
COACH MEYER: There's a lot made of that. The concern is not from the professional coaches that I have a lot of conversation with. That never comes up. Tim Tebow, we can't make this more complicated than what it is. If you want Tim Tebow under center, teach him to get under center, he'll probably do it better than anybody else.
Are we going to place him under center? A lot of it depends on the quality of our tailback. To play an under center offense, you better have a monster back there at tailback that can take the pounding involved in that style of offense. I was involved in an offense I think 15 years. So we know that offense. Coach Addazio was very familiar. A great offense.
It's very personnel based on your fullback, on your tailback, your tight end. We've not had that luxury. This year, if T.J. Pridemore comes back, is a good fullback, we have three quality tailbacks. If they develop, it helps us win a game, we'll do that.
We are certainly not trying to, because someone said Tim needs to be under center to enhance his draft status. I assure you, him playing under center has nothing to do with his draft status with the programs we talked to. If it did, we would help him because he earned that. It's not that different.
To answer your question, he will be under center if it helps us win a game.
Q. What do you think is going to be the biggest challenge for Dan Mullen to successfully install that offense at MSU?
COACH MEYER: It takes a minute. It's a complicated offense, thrown around a little bit our first season in 2005. However, it's all when you say 'that offense,' people get tired of you saying it, it's all based on personnel. I'm not familiar with his personnel. You're going to see whatever variation, whether it be a Chris Leak style of offense, whether it be a Tim Tebow, Alex Smith, or Josh Harris style of offense.
A lot of it now has to do with your tight end and fullback. We happen to have an excellent tight end. That's the component that a lot of teams, do we play a spread with a tight end or fullback? We learned, we were very fortunate to have Billy Latsko, so we went that direction. It really helped us. It's just the installation and the complexity of it.
But it's all personnel based. If you have very good players, it's going to be a good offense. If his players aren't very good, it will struggle.
Q. Talk about the experience last week. You were in the state of Alabama visiting with the state high school football coaches. Talk about that experience.
COACH MEYER: It was a great experience. I'm always impressed. I didn't recruit Alabama until I was coaching down here at Florida. It was what you expect. Full house. All the good majority of the state high school coaches were there. Just a tremendous experience. I'm glad we went and did that.
Q. Could you review the play calling process, offense, the impact that Dan Mullen's departure will have on that?
COACH MEYER: Have I reviewed it?
Q. Would you review it.
COACH MEYER: Sure. There's a little transition there. Steve Addazio will be on the sideline. We have two new coaches that will be in the press box. I have a graduate assistant very close to me, he'll assist, as well.
There's a little bit of a concern there. However, we've all been together. Not one guy calls a play at Florida. There's a play caller, however that's done between series and there's very good involvement. So I am concerned because Dan was very good at what he did obviously. However, I'm very, very excited about the transition and the guys we have doing it.
So the biggest issue I have is Steve Addazio will be on the field, and we were still working through that. But I have a lot of confidence we'll be fine.
Q. With or without Riley Cooper, what is your assessment of the wide receivers right now? How big a concern is that, since you lost a couple of good guys?
COACH MEYER: Yeah, that is. I think Louis Murphy was one of the most undervalued players in America last year. He happened to be on the same offense with Tebow and Harvin. You evaluate his play making ability in the big games, Georgia made a huge play, LSU made a couple big plays. Big time games against great players, when you get single cover, you need to have a guy to go do it. That's No. 1 on the hit parade, as far as who is going to occupy that position. No. 2 will be who will occupy Percy's position.
I think we're okay at the offensive line. Those are two good players. We recruited well there. Deonte Thompson, Carl Moore, David Nelson, Andre Debose, I could go on., there's a group of players, Frankie Hammond. I just don't know. I won't know until August 6th.
We did not answer it in the spring. We didn't walk out of there in spring saying you're the guy. These next 29 practices starting August 6, that's concern number one for the Florida Gators.
Q. How amused are you when you see reports that say, He'll leave eventually? Is that the nature of the business now when someone is perfectly happy that people think it can't last?
COACH MEYER: This relates to whether coaches leave?
Q. Yes.
COACH MEYER: Well, it's disturbing. I'd lie to you if I said it wasn't. It's disturbing. I care about my family. I care about our football players, our staff and recruiting. If it affects that, then it bothers me. If it's something else, then that's good watercooler discussion. That's what makes the SEC such a valuable commodity right now, is the intense scrutiny and fan support.
I've been on the other side now. I've had a couple press conferences where there was no one out there. So I certainly understand it.
When it starts affecting your livelihood, that bothers you. Then you go into defense mechanism, attack it. You have to. We have to do that. It bothers you, but I also understand it.
Q. Are there any suspensions for Janoris or Dustin?
COACH MEYER: I don't usually release that. You'll know that after we play the game.
Q. Why would Janoris be wearing the No. 1 this season?
COACH MEYER: Because he asked me for it and he played very well, and he's a great football player and a great kid.
Q. There's been a lot of talk about the SEC beefing up its schedule a little bit. Georgia and Alabama played out of conference last couple years. You talked about the SEC being hard enough. Is there maybe a little itch to play a big time team outside the SEC?
COACH MEYER: We play FSU every year. We have a built in big one. Last year, I think we had the most difficult schedule. We have Miami and FSU at the same time. So is our goal that? Do we wake up and say, Jeremy and I sit down, let's put together the most difficult schedule in college football? Absolutely not.
We have some great rivalries within the state. We're going to do that. There's not a whole lot of discussion about going out. Once again, our scheduling philosophy is we want to play at least one big time program. That's built in our schedule every year. Sometimes when you see USC play Ohio State, that's their big one. We already have FSU. Then we'll try every couple years to get another one in there. That's kind of what we've done.
Q. When you lost 31 3 at Alabama in '05, there was ridicule about your offense. Now more teams in this conference are getting toward that style. Gratified to see you weren't going to get hammered?
COACH MEYER: I was very concerned. I started believing what I was hearing. Certainly our players had that look in their eye. Then you evaluate, it's all personnel based. We went into a landslide. Offense is probably the worst since I've been a head coach was about a four week period, it just so happened we lost Bubba Caldwell against Tennessee, lost Cornelius. We weren't very well personneled. Then the personnel started to come back. Chris Leak started to develop comfort. We did a good job of adapting the offense.
To answer your question, there certainly is a little gratification on that. However, we are very well aware it has nothing to do with the play calls. It's all personnel based. How do you evaluate if a staff recruits well? I hit our staff with this today. We lost some coaches on our staff the last years to head coaching jobs. How do you evaluate if those coaches did a good job. You look at the records, see how they've done. That's my biggest concern, make sure we keep replenishing the Louis Murphys of the world, not so much the style of offense.
Q. I asked Nick Saban earlier regarding last year's SEC championship game. The momentum shifted in the fourth quarter. Alabama dominated you throughout the third quarter. You were able to flip it. Saban's answer was that Tim did a fantastic job. Talk about that momentum shift, what happened there, how that carried you forward not just the fourth quarter by Miami and Oklahoma.
COACH MEYER: And through our off season and through the summer. I made this comment, I've been involved in football for quite a while, that was arguably the finest football game. You evaluate the way I do, you evaluate football and how hard the teams are playing, not how many yards a kid passes for or how many rushing yards. Are both teams absolutely spilling it? It's easy to evaluate. Watch the punt team, kickoff return team. Two football teams that were very well prepared. It was an unbelievable football game.
Tim made some throws in there where guys were fairly well covered. He stuck it in there. That's how you win championships. They took the momentum very clear to this day. We punted a ball down, I believe, on the four yard line. They take it, drive it right down on the field 96 yards, take the lead. It didn't look good for Florida football or the Gators that day.
Then Tim and our defense worked together, and the offense. It wasn't Tim. We held Alabama to one yard in that fourth quarter. You can say it was Tim, but there's a lot of guys on defense that had something to do with that, as well.
Q. I know you said you want to keep the Florida/Georgia game in Jacksonville. Is a deal close to being done?
COACH MEYER: I don't know that. I've been asked that. I don't know that. I just love that game. I love the atmosphere. It's one of the unique ones in college football. I don't have any idea.
Q. Jevan Snead said you and him talked today for the first time since he decommitted. What have you thought of him so far and what was that conversation like?
COACH MEYER: I think he's going to be a great pro player. He's a great college player. We started recruiting him when he was at Utah. I think he was committed started in that direction. Him and Dan have a great relationship.
Jevan made that decision, and I certainly understand why. The comment I made to him is, You look great. Tell your mom and dad hello. I look at Steve MacLean. I said, Wow, is that a good looking sucker right there?
He is. He's a tremendous player. Great release. One of the best releases in college football.
Q. As you know, both Janoris Jenkins incident and some other legal incident have given you a lot of negative attention this summer. Since then, your players have been pretty quiet. Do you think maybe those incidents served as a wake up call that they need to keep it easy to maintain this championship run here?
COACH MEYER: I think so. I think they realized, whether I don't publicize it or not, there's always action taken, sometimes rather severe, sometimes not. It depends on the offense. It's case by case. The message is real clear that are you really willing to be without this guy or this guy.
The biggest enemy right now is not the media. It's Florida, it's the team. Take care of each other. The biggest thing that bothered me in that instance, that could have been avoided, if some guys had come together as a team, not been typical 18 , 19 , 20 year olds that created an issue that was not an issue. It's never over. Did it serve as a wake up call? Probably. I don't know that. It's non stop, staying on top.
Q. You've had some great defenses at Florida, obviously in 2006, arguably the best defense the school ever had. Last year, they were also very good. Now you're bringing back everybody on the two deep. Talk about how special that unit could be and maybe a historically great defense this season.
COACH MEYER: It really could. I'm real excited about that. More important, our defensive players are real excited. Last year, we gave some yards, but our guys would stop them. The national championship game was a perfect situation, a perfect example about not letting them in. Our red zone defense was phenomenal a year ago. We can certainly improve in a lot of other areas.
The best thing we have going is rotation and depth. One of the popular things in college football in and out is to go from a four down to a three down. That's not easy. First of all, you have to have the coaches that can do it. Then you have to have the players that have that kind of athleticism to stand up. You look at Trattou, Duke Lemmens, Jermaine Cunningham, Carlos Dunlap, Brandon Spikes, have all those body types, that (snapping fingers), they could be a defensive end or linebacker. That's a problem for the offense.
Our package has grown. Right now we're very comfortable with having those kind of athletes that can play a defensive down position, stand up, play a walk around guy. You're going to see a lot of that in college football. You already do. I would think that's the next cycle of defensive football, is the ability to go three down, four down quite often.
Q. You've talked in the past, using the baseball analogy, of your team being strong down the middle. Is this team typical of that again this year?
COACH MEYER: Oh, yeah. '06, was the first time. I would always hear that. Was a firm believer. When you call the huddle, when the secondary calls the defensive alignment or makes adjustments, it's all done from the middle of the defense. You had Reggie Nelson and Brandon Siler, two of the greatest players in Florida history, you replaced them with a true freshman and true sophomore that weren't ready for that, and our defense didn't play very well. Last year we had one of the best middle linebackers in America in Major Wright, Ahmad Black, the safeties of Will Hill. I would definitely agree with that.
We're very confident, very comfortable with who we have in the middle of our defense right now. That's big. I don't hear people talk about that much, but that's like having a center and quarterback issue in the offense. The offensive line are five guys working together. The apex is the center. The quarterback is managing the back six of the offense. That's the quarterback. So real strong proponent of that. We work real hard at it and our guys understand it.
Q. Are there any annoying or bad habits that Tim Tebow has that you're aware of?
COACH MEYER: That's a great question. Annoying habits Tim Tebow has? You know, I'm sure I could think of some. You kind of caught me off guard here. There are some I can't share with you right now because I'm not sure what they are. I'll keep thinking as we go here.
Q. Won two of the last three national titles. Miami and Florida State had their runs. What is it about the state of Florida that makes it such a great football state? Just the talent pool? What have you done to lock down that talent pool?
COACH MEYER: Well, we haven't locked it down. We've lost our recruiting battles. I think when our staff first got there, there's an energy of newness down there, the intensity. My biggest concern is when we lost our you look at every program, 'cause they're all great programs, you name a bad program, there's certainly a chunk of time where that was a very good program. The common denominator a lot of time is staff transition. All of a sudden Mark Richt leaves. I read it all the time. It's true. All of a sudden something happens.
We've lost some good coaches at Florida, and we've brought in some very good coaches. How do you maintain that and keep going? Hire good guys, keep the program going at full speed.
Florida, a big reason why I think Gainesville is the best job in America is because five hours in each direction, north, south, you got as good a football quality players. I think a lot of it has to do with the transition of population from the north to the south. I grew up in Northeastern Ohio where every year there would be a bunch of players going to Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Michigan. The population base just kind of shrunk down for a variety of reasons.
Florida, the quality of high school football down there is phenomenal. And Georgia and Alabama. I mean, it's all right there, along with Texas. There's a bunch of them. There's still great football everywhere and we recruit everywhere. The population base and the level of importance of football in the south is phenomenal.
Q. How is Emmanuel Moody progressing?
COACH MEYER: We're looking for that all day, everyday tailback. Someone asked us the question about under center. Emmanuel Moody and Chris Rainey and Demps are going to have a lot to do with it. Scot Loeffler and Tim are not going to be the guys that are going to determine if we go under center. It's going to be the quality of tailback play. We're looking for that. We've not had that quality that we expect at Florida.
Emmanuel looks terrific. He physically looks fabulous. He's a great young person that works hard. I'm anxious. That's an area we're going to really watch the first two weeks of training camp, and they know it. Big year for all those three guys.
Q. You talk about possibly putting in some under center stuff that will help the team win. Something that made your offense so great is the amount of options and looks that a defense has to prepare for. Do you feel going under center, putting in the I, essentially limits what you can do?
COACH MEYER: It certainly does. Just think of under center football. That's the direct runs and it's play action pass. But that's good stuff. There's some teams that win a lot of games doing that. More than scheme, I'm going to say it again, it's all if you have a tailback, a lot of times when you turn around this is just interesting stuff. You turn around, hand the ball off, there's usually going to be an extra defender somewhere in that box.
The shotgun gives you we read one of those defenders, we neutralize that one player and now you're running versus on block people. The minute you take a ball, you hand it off without eliminating a player, option football and read football, you eliminate a guy because that's the read. The minute you just take a direct snap and hand it off that's why a lot of times the I formation, had the bigger 230 pound backs I know it's been done with smaller backs, but there's a good chance there's going to be an unblocked defender somewhere within five yards of that ball carrier.
That's the biggest difference. How do you take care of the unblocked defender in the I formation football? You play action pass. Like I said, it's not one versus the other, it's all good. If we feel that can help us win which it did in '06. National championship game against Ohio State, at least one third of our players were under center. Why? Because we felt in that game that could help us win the game. That's the way we game plan.
Q. Are you concerned your middle linebacker was too shy to come and meet us today?
COACH MEYER: No. Steve and I talked. When he heard about this room, he heard about the whole deal, heard about all the cameras, he started squiggling his way out of that thing. Then he used the 'ol, Coach, I think Stamper, he's the captain, he should be there, not me.
But Charlie, Coach Strong handled that. It's all good. Nothing is wrong with Brandon Spikes. He's great. He's just shy, I guess.
Thanks, guys.
QB Tim Tebow
THE MODERATOR: Finishing up day two will be Florida senior quarterback Tim Tebow. If you could give us some thoughts about your senior season and expectations.
TIM TEBOW: Good evening, first of all. Glad to be here. No, I do not know who did not vote for me. Got that question a lot (laughter).
It's an honor to be here. I'm just happy I get to share with y'all for a minute. I'm so excited about my senior season. It's a dream come true to me to be playing this year at the University of Florida, a school that I love and I'm so happy to be at.
My teammates that I'm playing with are the best in the world. I wouldn't trade 'em for anything. I'm just so looking forward to playing with them. This season is very special for us. I think we've had the best off season that we've had since I've been at the University of Florida. My teammates are extremely focused, ready for the season to start.
Q. It would have been easy for you to walk away with two national championships and a Heisman Trophy. You're in the spotlight every day. Why don't you walk away, start over, be okay with that?
TIM TEBOW: I definitely didn't look at it like that. I don't look at it as madness. I look at it as I'm blessed to come back to the University of Florida for my senior year. When I was deciding to go or to stay, there are a lot of things that crossed my mind. You know, but I think the important things that I looked at were number one, was the opportunity that I had to have an influence in the state of Florida and around the South, for the U.S. for that matter.
Something that really illustrated that for me is when we were sitting down at lunch, me, Coach Meyer, my mom and dad. We got a call, two days or something after the national championship game. That call told us that since the national championship game, the verse that was under your eyes was Googled 94 million times. That just kind of showed me, wow, the impact. I could wear something under my eyes and millions of people were going to Google it.
I really had a platform. I wanted to take advantage of that for one more year, be a good role model for the kids that look up to me, set an example for them. That was kind of my number one goal as far as coming back, and also to be loyal to Coach Meyer, to my teammates who have done so much for me. I wanted to come back and finish this thing strong for them.
Q. Rolando McClain was in here a little while ago. He said he was watching you during the game, the defense was huddling, you went offense and said something, they got two sacks after that. He was wondering what you said. What did you say to those guys?
TIM TEBOW: I'm trying to think. What part of the game was it?
Q. The end.
TIM TEBOW: The end? I can't even remember. I don't know. Probably so fired up I forgot. Honestly, I can't even tell you what I said. But I'm sure it was something from my heart. That's all I can say.
Q. How aware are you, if at all, about, I guess I'd call, a Tim Tebow backlash, that people have had their fill of hearing about you? I don't think it's directed at you as much as the coverage, people doing the coverage. Do you sometimes wish there was less attention on you? Does it get embarrassing at times?
TIM TEBOW: I think sometimes, as far as some thing it's hard to deal with, you would like to go to a restaurant without people trying to take pictures or reporters, go to a movie or something like that, somewhat have that. And it would be easy. But also you think about it, because of that, because of the articles that y'all have written and because of the articles that people continue to write, it's not only backlash from it, but there's also a lot of positive.
So I try to look at things from the positive. And there has been a lot of great things. There has been a lot of people that have been encouraged not to have an abortion because they heard the story of my mom, or they have been encouraged because they have heard me give my faith on TV or in a report or something. You know what, although there has been a backlash, oh, well. You know what, I'll deal with it if I have to. It's not a big deal to me because of the kids and people that have been encouraged by the stories we have tried to tell and by the life that I've tried to live.
Hopefully that's been an encouragement more than a hinder [sic] to people.
Q. With all the great things you have to come back to at Florida, what was the feedback that you got when you did your research from the NFL in terms of draft projection, positions that you might play?
TIM TEBOW: Well, I really didn't talk to too many scouts or anything like that. It was more of coaches that Coach Meyer was friends with that I talked to. You know, they said very kind things. So I was really humbled by what they said.
But that wasn't really even too big into my decision making factor. Uhm, you know, we definitely didn't talk about too many other positions for that matter. But, uhm, you know, that wasn't an extremely big thing for me coming back. It was something I looked at really, one, because Coach Meyer wanted me to look at it. I wanted to do the wise thing, listen to counsel and do that. I talked to some of the coaches and whatnot.
But, you know, it wasn't enough to give up the University of Florida. I don't know what would have been.
Q. You're a competitive guy. You used last year's Heisman voting as motivation. How does this All SEC snub motivate you?
TIM TEBOW: I didn't know I was going to get that question (laughter).
I really don't think this will be something that I will think about too much. Probably get asked about it a few more times. Really won't be something that I'll focus on. I really have enough to be motivated about.
Plus I'm pretty a pretty self motivated person. This won't play too big into my motivation factor. I'm not going to run sprints thinking about the coach that didn't vote for me.
You know, that's quite all right (laughter).
Q. Your coaches have said a few times that the summer after you won the Heisman you tried to fulfill every interview request. Kind of wore on you a little bit. How has this off season been for you? A little more low key?
TIM TEBOW: Maybe a little bit. Still been pretty busy doing things. I kind of look at it from a little bit different perspective, you know. Going and speaking, working in the hospitals or prisons or whatnot, it can get tiring physically, emotionally. But at the same time it's so worth it for me. So I'm willing to be a little tired, to get a little bit cranky after all that because it's worth it. To go in there into a hospital room and see a kid smile because of you, or to be able to comfort a parent when their infant, they don't know if they're going to make it, or to be in a hospital, sharing with inmates who no one else cares about, that's worth it for me.
So I'm not going to look at it from I'm tired or I don't do other things that everybody else is doing, it's taking up all my time. No, I'm looking at it, I'm trying to make a difference. That's what is most important. That's more important than football to me.
Q. I'm asking all the players here, not trying to get you to transfer, but if you weren't playing for Coach Meyer, what coach in the SEC might you see yourself playing for?
TIM TEBOW: If I didn't go to the University of Florida, I would have went to the University of Alabama and played for Coach Shula, who I had a great relationship with. You know, I just thought just had the utmost respect for him. Thought he was a great person, a great father, and he was a great coach. That's who I would have played for, was Coach Shula.
Q. Everybody knows about Coach Meyer's high scoring offense. Does he have any old school qualities, toughness, physicality that maybe you can talk about, the old Bear Bryant school?
TIM TEBOW: When you're around him, you would not think that our offense was like that. It's not. It's all about old school toughness, dedication, go hit him in the mouth, that type of mentality. I think we feed off of that. We try to play like that. Our offensive line tries to be a tough offensive line. I think they have a little bit of chip on their shoulder because we're known as a spread team who likes to do reverses and throw down the field and stuff.
I think if you look at our team, you see that it's not just a dink or dunk are throw down the field, reverse team with fast players. I think we kind of take pride on being a tough team. Being a team, if we need to, we're going to try to hit you in the mouth over and over and over again. We take a lot of pride in that, being a tough team, being a team if we need to, we're going to go three yards in a cloud of dust over and over and over again. We have the toughness to do that, we have the leaders to do that. It's something that we do take pride in, that if we need to win a game by will and toughness, we want to be able to do that. All the guys, we just take pride in that.
Q. Coach Meyer talked about the goal for the season being winning the SEC championship again. Winning the two national championships in the last three years, do you feel the expectations have been raised above that? After you lost to Ole Miss, you famously said you wanted to go undefeated. Is the bar raised here? Are you trying to go undefeated?
TIM TEBOW: No. I mean, worth coming back for the senior has already happened. It's being around my teammates, having a relationship with them, it's knowing when we leave the University of Florida, we're going to be ready to handle life.
As far as our goal, yes, our goal is to win the SEC championship. That's our ultimate goal. We feel like if we're the champions of the best conference in college football, then we should have the opportunity to play for it all.
But, you know, our focus is the SEC. Our focus is every day getting better. It's about having a relationship with each other.
You know, do we want to be undefeated? Absolutely. I'm not gonna say that we want to lose a game. But our focus is not our mindset, a better way to put it, is not to go undefeated. Every time we step on the field, we want to win that game very badly. We're not going to be disappointed or heartbroken if we have a loss and we still win the national championship. I think we'll take that.
Q. The struggles to repeat have been well documented in college football. What do you talk about during the summer, you and your teammates, about complacency, how you guard against it?
TIM TEBOW: We talk about it all the time. Complacency, leadership, not resting on your laurels, not worry about what we did yesterday, but worry about how we can get better today.
I think the number one way you counteract that is by every day you step in that weight room, every day you step on that practice field, you're worried about getting better and not getting by. We talk about that all the time as a football team is when we're out on that field, don't worry about when it's gonna be over; worry about how much better you can get right now. Be the best you can be as a football player, be the best you can be today as a person, a football player, don't worry about getting by.
So many times in every aspect of life, people are worried about getting by. You're worried about, I can't wait to get done with this so I have my free time. I can't wait to get this interview done with Tim Tebow so I can get it over with, instead of worrying about how it can be the best it can be. In so many different ways, that's people's mindset.
Our focus is to get better every day. How can we be the best team, best player, best unit we can be. Not how we can get by. I think that's our mindset. If we do that, I think we'll be successful.
Q. When you made the speech after the Ole Miss game, did you think it would become what it has become now? What do you think of all the hype about it, having the plaque up on the stadium?
TIM TEBOW: I didn't think it would become what it became. I wasn't even thinking about that too much after the game. I just know I was upset, heartbroken. Just felt like we let I let my teammates down, my coaches, the fans. Was very disappointed.
I wanted to let them know ultimately that something good was going to come out of this. They were going to see a different team, a different player, there was going to be positive that coming out of something that was so negative. That was my ultimate goal with what I said. But I didn't think it would have this much hype, no.
Q. The speech after the Ole Miss game has become part of college football lore. Is it at all disappointing the Rebels aren't on your schedule? Facing them in Atlanta, does that appeal to you?
TIM TEBOW: That definitely appeals because we'd be playing in the SEC championship, which is our goal. That would be great. I mean, no, we're not worried about trying to face Ole Miss or get revenge or anything like that. We're just worried about trying to get to Atlanta and win that game. That's our focus.
So, you know, we're not focused on revenge or anything like that.
Q. The LSU game is going to be critical for Florida this year. Should we give out your phone number in advance to LSU fans before the game?
TIM TEBOW: 352... (Laughter). No, I know they'll be rowdy and ready to go when we get there. That's for sure.
Q. Urban talked about wide receiver being a position of concern with the losses. What has been your taking on those guys going through spring and summer drills?
TIM TEBOW: I think they got a little bit of a chip on their shoulder because that has been the talk, how are they going to replace Percy, Murph, CI. I think those guys are going to come out and try to prove some people wrong and show that they're a good bunch of receivers. They got a little chip on their shoulder. When you have that, you can do some very, very big things.
I think, you know, they're led by a good group of guys, in Aaron Hernandez, David Nelson, DT, Carl Moore. Those guys want to be great. They've been waiting for their opportunity, for their moment. Now it's come. I think they're ready to go step on that field and do something amazing.
Q. I understand Dan Mullen offered you the invitation to follow him to Mississippi State. I'm wondering what the impact of losing him will be, the transition.
TIM TEBOW: Well, I mean, as y'all know, I'll miss Coach Mullen. We had a good relationship. We were very close. He was my quarterback coach for three years. I wish him nothing but the best at Mississippi State. I know he's going to do a great job.
But I'm very lucky and fortunate that I have an offensive coordinator who is good, Coach Addazio, new quarterback coach as good as Coach Loeffler. And Coach Loeffler is someone that I loved in the recruiting process, and I took an official visit to Michigan solely because he was a great coach. I thought it would be amazing to play for him.
It's amazing how everything works. Now I'm getting a chance to play for him. So that's pretty cool. I'm just excited and blessed to have the opportunity to play for those two coaches.
Q. Speaking of Dan Mullen, what are you going to miss most about him, and what makes you think he can be successful at MSU?
TIM TEBOW: I think he'll be successful because he wants to be, and he's going to strive to be. He's going to have enthusiasm. That's going to create more enthusiasm. That's going to just breed hunger. Those people are going to want to be successful. He has a great strength coach in Matt Bayliss, who was at Florida. Those people are going to create an environment that will make people want to succeed. They'll will themselves to win some games. That will be exciting to watch him using his enthusiasm, his passion, how much he wants it, to get those players excited, the university excited, and the state excited about Mississippi State football.
I think something that I'll miss a lot about Coach Mullen is our little traditions. The Friday games that we'll play before the game on Saturday, the bus ride to the games, you know, our little routines, the music we listen to, just the little things like that.
Q. Have you had a chance to talk to Riley Cooper? Have you given him advice? Do you think he'll come back?
TIM TEBOW: I've talked to him. He's my roommate, so obviously we're close. I don't know the situation right now. That's him and his family. That's something that I don't even want to get too much involved with.
He knows that he has a place at Florida, and we love him. He's done a lot for us. Whatever his decision, I'm sure it will be the best one for him.
Q. We asked Coach Saban earlier about the fourth quarter, the last two drives. He gave you a lot of credit for that, said Florida outplayed his team. Talk about those two drives, plays that got you over the hump, and also the conversation you had on the sideline with Coach Meyer before you went on the field.
TIM TEBOW: That conversation was simply, It's in our hands, we go get it done. Then we talked to the offense, said we train for this, we train all year to finish strong. That's why we do everything, it's for these moments. You know what, it's in our hands right now. We're going to take advantage of it, believe in that, believe in each other, we're going to go get it done.
And, I mean, you just see on every play guys giving it their all in that fourth quarter. Not always being the prettiest, not always being the fanciest, but guys cared a lot about it. They were willing it to happen. Through the runs, through the passes, just everything that happened, you know, guys were ready to step up because they wanted it so bad.
I think offensively and defensively, you know, just everybody was ready to step up. When their number was called, David Nelson stepped up, when Riley Cooper's number was called, he stepped up, when Carl Moore's number was called, he stepped up, when Jeff Demps' number was called, he stepped up. Our offensive line, Alabama was big and strong, but when they needed to, they stepped up. They were able to move the line and drive 'em back. I'm just so proud of my teammates for the character they showed, the toughness that they showed. When they needed a play, someone stepped up to make it. They just did a great job. That's what I'm so proud of my teammates for, is it wasn't one person, it wasn't two people, it wasn't five people, it was everybody in a collective effort to win that game. That's the reason we won.
Thank you so much. God bless y'all.
LB Ryan Stamper
"Coming into the season ranked No. 1, the whole team realizes we want to work every day. Our coaches do a great job keeping our heads level and focusing on our goal to win the Southeastern Conference Championship. Our off-season has been very tough for us. Our coaches are not treating us as a national championship team. Our mind-set is to work hard and get back to where we left off last year."
"With the success we have had, two national championship teams, we know how to win and know that believing in the hype is not a way to win a national championship. We have to be focused on every team, every game and not be complacent. With the leadership returning this season, we know we can win."
"There is no man like Tim Tebow. With everything he goes through, I do not know how he handles all the pressure and media attention. Tim is a great teammate. He really cares about everyone and makes sure everyone stays on top of everything. He is our leader and we all look up to him."
"We are focused on winning the SEC Championship. I'd be lying if I said the national championship hasn't crossed my mind; but we know if we win the SEC our chances to play for the national championship are much higher."
"Even though we lost [versus LSU in 2007] it was a great game. We fought really hard. I recall a fourth-and-one when Hester ran the ball. I made the hit on him, but he still got the first down. If I would have brought a little more to that hit, the game would have been over, but they got the first down. I'm looking forward to this year's game at LSU. They have a great fan base, they are very rowdy, and create a great atmosphere to play in."
Rogers Redding (SEC Coordinator of Football Officials)
CHARLES BLOOM: Good morning, welcome to 2009 SEC Football Media Days, day two. We appreciate you coming to this event each year. We appreciate having you here. We're going to start off this morning with Rogers Redding, our coordinator of football officials.
Rogers.
ROGERS REDDING: Good morning. It's great to see everyone again. Always enjoy Media Days. It signals the kickoff of the football season, for the officials as well as for the teams and the coaches.
The officials are excited about the season. They're doing their prep right now. There's been a lot of study groups meeting during the off season, physical assessment, physical conditioning, so we're ready to go just like the coaches and the players are.
The SEC officiating continues to expand in terms of its leadership role at the national level. We continue to have the maximum number of crews working Bowl games and those kinds of indicators of progress.
In terms of the rules committee action for this year, I've been involved in football officiating in one way or another for about 35 years, more than 35 years. This has got to be the smallest number of rules changes I have ever seen. There's really hardly anything to talk about. There is some things and I'll point them out to you.
I will point out that the rules committee made no changes in the clock rule this year. I think we can all be grateful for that. The rules committee has experimented with a variety of clock rules over the past several years. You may recall that two years ago, there was quite a brouhaha about when the clock started, all that. That seems to have settled down pretty well. I think there's general consensus that we're pretty much where we need to be as far as the clock is concerned.
So the rules committee really didn't even talk about the clock this year.
I should also point out that because of the fact that the rules committee is made up of coaches, the only voting members on the committee are coaches equally divided from Divisions I, II, and III. They try to manage the game from a BCS Division I level, but the standpoint of Divisions II and III, as well.
Safety and unsportsmanlike conduct continue to be an important emphasis for the rules committee and commissioners. The rules committee didn't make any changes this year in those rules, but did emphasize the need for conferences to perhaps view video following the games where if, much like the NFL does in imposing fines on players, for particularly violent acts of safety related blows, neck and head area, for possible additional sanctions.
There's one rather technical change that you may hear something about. I should explain it to you, has to do with the offensive formation. For a very long time, as long as anybody can remember, the offense has been required to have at least seven players on the line of scrimmage. They could have more than that, but they had to have at least seven players on the line of scrimmage. Now the rule reads it's the same rule, but reads slightly differently. It says the offense may have no more than four in the backfield. It's easier to officiate and it also gets rid of sort of a ticky tacky rule or penalty. We had this a couple times last year in our league.
The offense inadvertently winds up with only 10 players on the field. There's not a rule against 10 players on the field, but it's penalty enough to play short one man. If they had six players on the line and four players in the backfield, that was an illegal formation because they did not have the required seven on the line.
So this year, with no more than four in the backfield, then that penalty would go away. That's not the reason for the change. That's sort of a positive unintended consequence of that change.
The real change in the rules has to do with the punting game, kicking game. Of concern to special teams coaches over the past several years has been the rugby style kick where the punter back in punt formation takes the ball and starts running with it, and he executes a rugby style kick or becomes a runner. From a defensive standpoint, it was difficult to tell, is this guy going to be a runner, are we at risk if we run into him?
There are some advantages to the kicking team. It gives the gunners more time to get down field because he's taking more time before he kicks the ball. It's also more likely to be a line drive type kick than a nice, high, hang time spiral.
From a competitive balance standpoint, the rules committee made the following change: if the punter carries the ball outside the tackle box the tackle box is defined as five yards on each side of the snapper going back from the line of scrimmage. If the punter carries the ball outside the tackle box before he kicks the ball, then there will be no roughing the kicker or running into the kicker if he gets hit. So the defensive team doesn't have to decide if he is going to be a runner or not. They're not at risk for getting a roughing the kicker foul if he carries the ball outside the tackle box before he kicks it. He's still protected from flagrant slugging and some kind of dangerous unsportsmanlike conduct, unnecessary roughness foul, but the special protection that a kicker has when he's in punt formation and kicks the ball from deep punt formation, he loses that protection when he runs outside the tackle box.
The only thing to say with the rules process is that, much like most of the rest of the NCAA rules committee, the football rules committee now is going to a two year rules change process. If you get a copy of the new rule book, it has 2009/2010, so that there will not be any rule changes in 2010. Not only are there fewer rule changes this year than ever before, there aren't going to be any more until 2011. We're going to have at least two years to play the game under circumstances we've been used to for some time.
The rules committee, we've talked about the possibilities for this off year meeting. I think what the rules committee would like to do is to meet, without being under pressure to make changes, talk about the game.
Is the game where the coaches want it to be? Is the game where it needs to be in terms of the overall rules picture? They'll be able to talk about long term trends and not feel any kind of pressure to make rule changes in the bye year.
2009/10 will be the current rule book. 2011, there will be another potential set of changes to make in the rules.
So, as I say, very simple this year. Nothing complicated at all. We're all looking forward to getting the season started and playing under a set of rules that we've become accustomed to and look forward to not many changes this year at all, and none next year.
THE MODERATOR: Rogers, thank you.