Whittingham loves his team, Frustration setting in for other coaches

Kyle Whittingham loves this year’s team at Utah: “In the 16 years I’ve been here there hasn’t been another team I’ve enjoyed more than these guys. They care about each other and there is an unselfish streak that runs through this team. That is a tremendous asset for us. They are blue collar and don’t feel like we have major headliners, but a group of guys who don’t seem to be concerned or care who is getting the press. All they care about is winning. It’s a good group to be around.”

Rich Rod says defensive staff frustrated: "Our defensive coaches, they're like everybody else — all frustrated we're not making progress like we want, but there are moments. There were moments in the last game."

"We've gotten to the point we've simplified our schemes as best we can. If you're too simple, they'll find a way to go against you. So you've got to be able to slowly add to your package and change things up so they don't always know where you're at.”

"If you just line up in one defense — ‘That's who we are, come get us’ — most teams will find a way to move the ball. We don't want to limit ourselves to not give us a chance to win defensively, but we've got to balance that between not confusing our young guys as well." 

Al Golden says the Temple players and coaches are on notice: “We’re not a good football team right now. We weren’t tough enough last Saturday; we played without energy, without passion. We weren’t focused, and we didn’t deserve to win.”

“The players are on notice, and the coaches are on notice: there are going to be a bunch of changes. We’re going to see some new faces.”

Urban Meyer talks about Florida’s major problem: "The biggest issues I have right now are the lack of production in the red zone and the lack of big plays. That's why we've run the reverse (in the past two games). We haven't run a reverse around here in quite a while because we didn't have to. It certainly will be in our package now more than ever."

Tuberville pleased with offense, says defense must improve: “Offensively, we were a lot more consistent and a lot more physical. That’s what it is going to take for us to continue to get better and to improve on what we are doing. It’s hard to improve on 45 points and over 600 yards — but we can do that.”

“Our defense has got to improve. If we’re going to give ourselves a chance to win this game, we’re going to have to play better defensively. Offensively, we’re in a rhythm, but we’ve got to continue to go out and do that. We can’t take any weeks off.”

Gary Pinkel pleased with Missouri defense: "I think we're playing good team defense, basically. We've also improved. Those are the two things that kind of stand out. We're getting better each week with a lot of little things, attention to detail things that we need to do."

"We haven't arrived in any way. I'm not implying that. We've got some great tests ahead of us, including this week. But it seems like we're playing real well as a unit. That's what I've been most pleased with."

Bret Bielema answers if this is his best team at Wisconsin: "I think elements of it are, but more of the season will tell us that. From when we came back in January to where we are today, I have more seniors than ever who have been starters at anytime in my career, 13 guys.

“We are a workman's program. We don't lose a lot of kids because we really, truly understand that we are going to have the best players two, three, four years down the road that we possibly can have because of the way we develop kids."

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Best coaching performances of Week 6

Five more coaching staffs have been recognized this week as part of our 2010 Game Changing Coaches series presented by Family Relocation.

Every Tuesday during the season, we recognize the coaches involved in the most outstanding coaching performances from the past weekend.  This is our third year of this award winning series. 

This year, we are very proud to have Family Relocation, rated the #1 moving company in the country by coaches wives, as the title sponsor of Game Changing Coaches.

Family Relocation has been helping coaches move for nearly 100 years. Regardless of how far you’re moving or where you live, if you want your move to be handled professionally, trust the team at Family Relocation. You and your family will be glad to you did.

See the coaches we have recognized for Week #6 right here.

Saban: Last year we proved it. This team hasn't proved $#&T

Saban isn’t too happy.  He just dropped, "Last year we had the best team in the country and proved it over 14 games. This team hasn't proven $#!%. (Pause) Excuse my language.  That's how I feel about it.  So I'm really upset I used bad language and I'm sure I'll get some letters and emails about it.  And should."

More to come once the presser is over.

Ought to be good.

UPDATE: Saban said Julio Jones broke his hand in the first-half, continued to play the entire game, and has already undergone surgury.  Saban did not rule out Jones for Saturday's game against Ole Miss.

“Offense, we moved the ball effectively most of the time in the game but when we got in the red zone we were unable to make plays to come away with the kind of points that we could have.  And that’s really the difference in the game and there’s really nothing else to talk about.”

(asked about how his LSU team of 2003 responded after their only loss) "2003. What is it 2010?  You think I can remember this stuff 7 years ago.  Kristen was in what, 6th grade?  I don't remember her birthday party either."

Jeff Tedford and Doug Marrone jacked about defenses

Jeff Tedford pumped about Clancy Pendergast and defensive staff: "The defense played like they normally play, with a better understanding of the pistol offense. I liked their effort today; they rallied to the ball and gang tackled. They did just about everything you can ask for."

"(Their offense) isn't quite to the Reno (Nevada) stage yet. Reno has been doing it a long time, and the quarterback is excellent with it. They are very efficient; UCLA is not quite there yet. Once you play it the first time like we did, you learn a lot. We definitely needed to learn from our last experience with (the pistol offense). It is like triple-option football, you have to cancel every aspect of it. It causes a lot of challenges. I thought Clancy (Pendergast) and the staff did a great job of planning for it; and the guys executed it very well."

Syracuse coach Doug Marrone’s post game speech after 13-9 win at USF: "I said, 'Why don't all you guys just say what's on your mind.' They handed me the game ball, which was really humbling. They're the ones who did it. I thanked them and said, 'Let's get on the bus, I don't want to miss first pitch (Yankees)."

"Today was pretty good. Good day. Good win."

(on defensive plan against USF) “We’re going to do everything we can to take B.J. Daniels and their runners out of their game plan. We’re going to change some of our coverages and add some corner pressures to the field (wide side). We’re going to pressure B.J. Daniels every down.”

 

Les Miles reiterates coaches aren’t perfect: “Coaches aren't perfect. We handle our business pretty well here with rare exceptions. We know how to run the clock. We know how to operate the clock 99.9 percent of the time."

Brian Kelly pleased with red zone defense: "We build that mentality in the way we train. We do that in offseason conditioning, we do that in the summer. You just build that belief that when you go out there, you don't have a breaking point. Those are things we try to instill in the entire program. Bob (Diaco) has done a very good job schematically, in terms of different looks down there and making you earn it. Any time you do a good job against the run in the short field and force the ball into the right zone coverages, you've got a chance. So I'd say it's building that mentality over a number of months and gaining confidence with success. And schematically, (Diaco) has done a nice job."

Jake Locker had bad flu during Arizona State loss, Sarkisian talks about lost element: “We lost the element of Jake running around there. He’d run and he couldn’t catch his breath back for the entire drive. I don’t think we got 100 percent of him.”

Skip Holtz says USF must have resolve following 13-9 loss to Syracuse: "Right now what we've got to do is pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off ... and come back with more resolve and more determination and try to get some of these things fixed to try and become a better football team.”

San Jose State coach Mike MacIntyre talks about Kaepernick’s speed: “We knew that Kaepernick was fast and we just couldn't touch him. Once we figured out his speed we were able to slow him down and take better angles.''

Northern Illinois coach Jerry Kill pumped up about quarterback following 31-17 win over Temple: "We're getting tremendous quarterback play by Chandler Harnish. It's been unbelievable, what the kid's doing and the team is responding to him. It's fun to see."

Tulane coach Bob Toledo sounds defeated after 41-23 loss to Army: "You make or break yourself, and we broke ourselves tonight. We had no one to blame but ourselves. Again, we've got to stop from losing before we can win a football game and we obviously lost it because we gave them the ball."

"We try to remain positive, that's all we can do. We have got to regroup and we're not going to face this kind of offense anymore but we've got to stop the run game when people run at us. That's one of our goals: we've got to stop the run game, regardless of who we play. We've just got to remain positive and get healthy, hopefully play better, and not beat ourselves. We're not scoring a lot of points right now. We're struggling. We don't have a lot of guys who are playmakers for us, with the exception of maybe Robottom, we don't have anybody who's coming up and making plays right now. That's what we need, we need someone to step to the forefront and make some plays for us."

Ellis Johnson: A lot of difference between perception and reality

South Carolina defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson, in absolutely no way being disrespectful to Alabama, said there is a difference between perception and reality.

Following the 35-21 win, Johnson said, “I’m a little bit different than most people.  I said some things before the game I’m not going to share with y’all.  But I told our players a lot of people are into perception.  We beat Kentucky (in basketball last year) when they were #1, but they didn’t end up number one, okay?  We beat the number one team in the polls today, but we don’t know they’re #1.  The season isn’t over.”

“Perception and reality.  What happens, when you come into games, and you put somebody on a pedestal like that and you think you gotta play out of your skin to beat ‘em.  You start doing things, and make mistakes and stuff.  If you don’t, you realize you gotta play them the same way you play everyone else, and you don’t do things wrong.  You play up to your ability.  You find out whether you have recruited good enough.  You line up and play.”

“I just think there’s a lot of difference between perception and reality.   The polls in America are perception, let’s face it.  Everybody votes.”

Some have wondered why Alabama didn’t stay with the running game for longer in the game and into the third quarter.  Johnson said, “I don’t know if that was their approach.  I think what happened is when our offense was able to score, stay on the field, move the ball…I think you have to start thinking on the other side ‘Well, how much do we hammer the ball?’”

“The second thing is other than maybe a couple of runs that had a little electricity to them, they never got the running game going. Had those 2 things not happened, they would have still run the football.”

The key to the game?

Johnson explained, “I thought the fact that they couldn’t run the ball was the key stats in the game.  Period.  Go back and look at it.  They’ve been able to run the ball on everyone.”

Mark Ingram rushed 11 times for 41 yards.  Trent Richardson rushed 6 times for 23 yards.

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Urban not pleased, Brewster ticked off, Bielema doesn't care

Urban Meyer addresses effort, says “we should be better than we are” : "I told the team it was that far [inches from winning]. Who in this room right now who is devastated could give that much more to find a way to win that game? Obviously there's a bunch of guys who gave everything they had, but there's still a bunch of guys that haven't given everything yet. That's kind of what we have to identity and address and get better. We've got to find a way to get that."

"We're struggling right now. How's that for attributing it to something? We're struggling right now, and we've go to get a little better and got to get everybody healthy and rolling. This time of the season, when you're six games into it, very disappointed in the first half. I wasn't disappointed in the effort in the second half. Right now we should be better than we are. We've just got to work our tails off."

Tim Brewster upset with Bielema for 2-pt conversion attempt: “I thought it was a very poor decision by a head football coach and he'll have to live with that. It was wrong. Everybody in here knows it and everybody in college football knows it.”

Bielema not worried about Tim Brewster: “If we're playing and somebody is going to go for two against me because they're up 25, that's what they should do, that's what the (PAT) card says.”

TCU head coach Gary Patterson describes 45-0 win over Wyoming: "We shortened the game and still won 45-0. We could have scored more points, but why do that? That's not what we're about. We did what we needed to do. You get it short (the game) so you can get to next week." 

Kyle Whittingham pumped up following 68-27 win at Iowa State: “That is what you get when you combine a great defense, solid special teams and an explosive offense.”

Dooley’s biggest concern: "I think the biggest thing is we're not playing with that confidence and that aggressiveness we need to play with. We're in positions, we've made so much progress in getting in the right spot, being in the right spot. But now it's a matter of triggering with confidence and challenging the other team with confidence.”

"I think that's what's keeping us from finishing those plays off. There's a lot of missed opportunities, but the teams that play fast and with confidence tend to take advantage of them because they expect to make those plays. . . . That's what good teams do."

Spurrier really happy for University of South Carolina: “For a lot of the Gamecocks that have been here forever, they referred to it as the biggest win in the stadium here. Possibly it could have been that. It was wonderful for our university and our football program. We got to see where it leads us. That’s the key right there.”

Illinois defensive end Corey Liuget praises Vic Koenning and Paul Petrino: "We've got two new crazy coordinators. They're crazy, pushing you all the time and expecting nothing but the best. We're giving it to them. They have a way to get it out of you."

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Lane Kiffin: My wife reminded me...

Lane Kiffin was on the wrong end of a critical officiating blunder near the end of Stanford’s 37-35 win over USC.  Kiffin, more disappointed with his coaching staff and poor execution at times, refused to make any excuses following the game.

Facing a first & goal situation from the 3-yard line with 1:15 remaining, the game clock should have been running as the Trojans broke the huddle.  The officials failed, however, to restart the clock following the instant replay review on the previous play.  The Trojans scored on a 3-yard run, but left over a minute on the clock for Stanford to eventually kick a short field goal to win the game.

When asked about the officiating, Kiffin responded, “My wife reminded me we have a lot of house mortgages, so I'm going to answer this very carefully.”

Kiffin added, “There was never a flag thrown on them that was a judgment call. The only flags were offsides or false start the entire game, so I'm going to have to ask Coach Harbaugh in this off-season how he does such a great job."

The bottom line is the Trojans can’t let Stanford travel 46 yards in 7 plays to setup the game-winning field goal.  Stanford finished with 478 yards, converted 6 of 8 third-downs, and completed 20-24 passes with 0 interceptions.

Regarding his defense, Kiffin simply said, “Just didn’t do it.  I don’t know.  We’ll have to go back and figure it out.”

“I don't think you can have a major overhaul in the middle of the season. I don't think that would ever be successful in any phase of the game because you just don't have the hours to do that. And even if we did, we wouldn't."

He added, “We’re close to being good.  Just a few plays here and there. I’m disappointed in our coaching.  We need to do a better job. We could have played a lot better on offense than we did.”

USC hosts Cal on Saturday. 

Shannon: I'm not going to sugar-coat it. My fault.

Following the 45-17 loss to Florida State, Miami (FL) head coach Randy Shannon was a coach of few words.

During Shannon’s three minute post-game press conference, Shannon explained, “Basically, I’m not going to sugar-coat it.  We just got our butt whipped tonight.  Prime, simple, and easy.  My fault as the coach at the University of Miami.  I’m not going to blame the kids.”

“We didn’t tackle very much. Offensive line and defensive line didn’t do anything tonight.  That was the key to the game.  I’m not going to sugar-coat it.  They just dominated both line of scrimmages.”

Florida State rushed for 298 yards and finished with 471 total yards on 62 snaps. 

Shannon has no doubt his team will be ready to play next week against Duke.  When asked to describe what he would have done differently and how he will make certain his team is ready to play next week, Shannon quickly and bluntly responded, “We’ll be ready to play.”

“It wasn’t a travesty.  It’s one game.  Up front, we got beat.  That is my fault as a coach.”

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