Georgia DC Grantham responds to Spurrier's post-game comment
First-year Georgia defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, who served on the Dallas Cowboys staff in 2009, responded Tuesday to Steve Spurrier’s subtle jab at the UGA defensive coordinator.
Following the 17-6 South Carolina win, Spurrier said, “That little inside zone play, the NFL doesn’t run that play. That’s a new scheme I guess. I’m sure they knew we’d run it, but they certainly didn’t stop it much.”
Grantham responded on Tuesday by saying, “It was kind of an out-of-left field comment, you know, but I kind of took it more as a shot at the NFL, so I really wasn’t sure if it was because of his lack of success there or what. So I kind of took it like that more than anything.”
“I appreciate his assistance, but we actually knew what plays they were running. And they actually run that play in pro ball. Our offense actually runs that play, too, so we kind of knew what was happening. I read it.”
It’s just a little fun. Commissioner Slive doesn’t need to get involved in this one.
Blown call on fake punt hurts Virginia, Lane Kiffin responds
In a scoreless game in the 2nd quarter at USC, Virginia head coach Mike London called a fake punt that was beautifully executed by the Cavaliers.
Virginia had the ball on their own 40-yard line. Aligned with a 3-man shield, Virginia snapped the ball to the punter, who then lobbed the ball over the rush to one of the three (in the shield). The other two players in the shield “cut blocked” below the waist the USC rushers.
The refs through a penalty flag, negating the successful fake. The momentum shifted and the Virginia failed the score on the drive.
On the field, Mike London blew a gasket to say the least.
Following the 17-14 loss, UVA special teams coordinator Anthony Poindexter said, “The referee said you can’t cut (block) on a punt play, but we was behind the line of scrimmage. You actually can (cut block) if you’re running an offensive play. They apologized to us (before the start of the third quarter), but that don’t do me any good right now.”
On Monday, Lane Kiffin took a different stance. Kiffin said, “It is a penalty. If you go back and read the rule book, if they are in a kicking formation, which is no one with the ability to take a snap from center and someone deeper than 7 yards, you cannot cut in any fashion regardless of the play, so the refs made a great call.”
Kiffin must have learned something different following his statement because on Tuesday, Kiffin admitted, “We were wrong.”
Since we don't have the film of the Virginia fake punt (we are working on it), we wonder which college team is going to have the %@$$* to run this fake punt:
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Paul Johnson: You better be able to motivate yourself
The Georgia Tech players should not expect to hear a “circle the wagons” type of speech from head coach Paul Johnson.
Johnson isn’t usually one to offer such type of speech to help motivate his team. But after the Yellow Jackets uninspiring 28-25 loss at Kansas, Johnson wants to see a more motivated group of players.
On Tuesday, Johnson said, “And anybody that thinks you’re going to go in the locker room and somebody’s going to punch the locker or cave in a blackboard or head-butt somebody and everybody goes ‘Ahhhh!’ Well, it’s make-believe. It doesn’t happen.”
“From the looks of the game, I can certainly motivate better. But you know what my experience has been in 31 years? That’s movie/TV (stuff),” Johnson said. “You better be able to motivate yourself, because I’m not going to motivate you 12 days, 12 Saturdays a year."
“It’s easy to talk. I don’t want to see anybody talking. Show me, don’t tell me. Yeah, anybody can stand up on the plane and say ‘we’re coming this week,’ until you get hit in the mouth the first time.”
Georgia Tech travels to Chapel Hill for a 12:00 pm EST kick-off against North Carolina. You can see the entire Week #2 TV Schedule right here.
Wednesday morning Coaches Quick Hits
Mark Richt knows Arkansas game is huge: “I don’t know how big a game can get, but this is big. The players know it, the coaches know it and Bulldog Nation knows it. We’ve got to get after it (on Saturday).”
“I went and watched the TV copy (of the game) last night. I got three quarters of it in, just to kind of get a flavor of that. There was a picture of one of our players who looked like he turned down the opportunity to lay into somebody that it could’ve made the difference on a big play that they had. That’s not Georgia football.”
Rich Rod talks about Denard Robinson’s durability: “We’re not worried about his durability because he can handle it. It’s more about who’s hitting him. There is a difference from someone in the front 7 or in the secondary. 29 (rushes) is probably too many, but he can handle it.”
“We talked about an unshakable focus. We’ve got to keep that. We don’t want our focus to change from the first day of camp to the end of the season.”
Tuberville focused on the process: “I've told you this before: We never talk about winning or losing a game. We talk about playing well, going out and doing the best you can do. I don't put any pressure on myself on any game, because I know you've got a long season and you can't have all those ups and downs. You've got to have that even keel."
Joe Paterno say PSU didn’t have fun in Alabama: "Alabama is a good football team that played with discipline and enthusiasm, and we can hope that some of that rubs off on us and we realize that this is still a game, so go out there and enjoy it. We didn't have any fun down there. We were too tight."
Wisconsin OC Paul Chryst wants to see players “Finish” : "You can use finish in a lot of ways. Finishing the play means making the play. Finish means playing hard the whole play. Finishing drives means you're putting the ball in the end zone. And finishing games."
Rick Neuheisel explains struggles: "Why were struggling is not because of the Pistol. It has nothing to do with the Pistol. Has to do that we're not throwing and catching. We've had ill-timed procedure penalties. We've just got to eliminate stupid mistakes."
Doc Holliday doesn’t want WVU loss to beat his team twice: “They have no choice. It’s either that or you get beat. If you think you are going to waltz into somebody’s stadium and just (be given) a win, that isn’t going to happen. If you are not prepared and vested, you are going to get beat.”
Lane Kiffin says Minnesota better than UVA: "This team's better (than Virginia). I don't care who they played."
Rick Stockstill not interesting is talking about Memphis job he almost took: "It's not relevant to what's going on. I won't (think about it) and haven't thought about it a second until you just brought it up. It has no bearing on the outcome of the game. It doesn't mean anything to me."
Spurrier compares Lattimore to Emmitt Smith, has interesting take on upsets
During his weekly press conference today, Steve Spurrier compared Marcus Lattimore to Emmitt Smith. He also had an interesting assessment of why several D1-AA teams have knocked off some top programs.
Spurrier said, “I mentioned earlier I think his (Lattimore) style is a lot like Emmitt Smith. Emmitt, his shoulder pads seem to always be square when he comes through the line of scrimmage. Tacklers don't get a good clean shot at his body because his pad level is so low. Even when they dive at his feet and ankles, he's able to get his feet (off) the ground if they come in real low. That's how running backs can stay healthy a long time. Emmitt I don't think ever had knee surgeries, ankle problems or anything over the years. He lasted a long time without injuries. I think Marcus's style will keep him healthy, I believe. Hopefully it will. We'll see how it goes. He doesn't give tacklers a good clean shot at him. He has the ability to glance off and break tackles and so forth.”
(on the offensive line) “When we watched the tape we realized we didn't play all that great. The offensive line played decent most of the time, but we had a lot of mistakes up there. A couple of (defenders) were waiting on Marcus (Lattimore) as soon as he got the ball. One time Stephen (Garcia) got hit from the blindside and fortunately he held onto the ball. That didn't cost us, but we didn't complete much down field. I think we had four passes past the line of scrimmage the other day. We have a lot of work to do in pass protection, throwing the ball and catching. We have a long way to go if we'll have a good year.”
(On the D1-AA upsets) “I don't have the exact answer. If you watched Miami of Ohio almost beat Florida a couple of weeks ago, you can see that they were really ready to play. I'm not sure that the bigger schools get as fired up as they need to be to play smaller schools, but football is a game of emotion. It is. It's that old saying, `It's not the dog in the fight, it's the fight in the dog' in football. That's how upsets can happen. You get a big play here or there, get a loose fumble that you pick up and score; you need one or two big breaks to get a big upset. If you can get those and not give the other team anything, it can happen. That's how James Madison did it the other day. I don't think Virginia Tech punted, but they had to kick field goals and had three turnovers. (Virginia Tech) only had 16 points without punting. That means James Madison didn't give anything. That's how (upsets) can happen.”
South Carolina hosts Furman this weekend.
Brian Kelly: Competing is not good enough. You have to win games.
Brian Kelly just finished his weekly press conference. One thing is for certain…Kelly will not lose his cool. The first-year Notre Dame head coach answered some tough questions, never showing the slightest bit of frustration.
Kelly seems open to talk about pretty-much anything. He is to-the-point and honest.
A couple of interesting quotes from Kelly:
“For our coaches to really step in there, they picked up for one of the best special teams coaches in the country and did a good job. We ‘team coach’ the special teams. (With Coach Elston sick) Mike Denbrock will coach the defensive line. Lorenzo Guess (strength assistant) will coach the tight ends position. That is just for a short time, we are expecting Coach Elston to be back with us real soon.”
“My focus is on getting the coaches and players to play the game better, so that we can win.”
“I don’t know if I am going to talk about us being tired anymore. We just need to make plays.”
“We’ll keep coaching the same way. We’ll be careful, but not play scared. Obviously, you want Dayne in the game. We have to keep it in, but the zone read won’t be at the top of the play list. We really can’t go away with it because of the kind of offense we run. We just have to be careful.”
“We have to play better at the end of the game. A lot of that has to do with the belief that you know you are going to win, not thinking you are going to win. Competing is not good enough. You have to win the games.”
(Asked if he address his WR that dropped the ball before crossing the goal line) “What do you think? You wanna know what happened? We pulled his pants down and gave him a spanking. It’s unacceptable. It won’t happen again. I didn’t see it at the time, or I would have addressed it then.”
The Irish travel to East Lansing to play Michigan State on Saturday night.
Dabo: GameDay isn't there to see Clemson. GameDay is there to see Auburn. If we want...
Clemson will try to win at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday night with a red-shirt freshman kicker, Chandler Cantazaro.
Clemson special teams coordinator Andre Powell says, “Tell him to wear his rubber underwear. So if he pees himself, it doesn't stain up his white dungarees.”
Catazaro, who attended Christ Church Episcopal school in South Carolina, converted his only attempt of the season, a 47-yarder against Presbyterian.
“Nothing else has fazed him,” Powell said. “I can't sit here and tell you he's going to go down there and nail them all. But the kid has done nothing to tell me that he'd get nervous.”
During Tuesday’s presser, Dabo Swinney talked about his eagerness to see how his team will respond to adversity this Saturday, something last year’s team excelled.
Swinney said, “How we respond to adversity…I mean listen, there’s going to be some adversity in Auburn on Saturday. We’ve yet to find that out on this group, so we’ll see. Last year, when things got tough, we came together, we got stronger.”
On the preparation this week, Swinney said, “It’s no different. If it is, you get beat. You have to have a formula that you believe it. That’s what we’ve done well, having a daily focus, not letting other things get caught up in your mind.”
“This Saturday, it ain’t gonna make or break our season, win or lose. (We still have) the ACC season and the other school in South Carolina to finish it up.”
“Our goal every week is to show people we are passionate about winning because that’s what the paw represents.”
"Gameday isn't there to see Clemson. Gameday is there to see Auburn. We have a great opportunity. We talk about 'Go earn it.' If we want Gameday to come here, we have to 'Go earn it.'"
Kick-off is set for 7:00 pm EST on ESPN.
Auburn post-game locker room celebration
There’s nothing like winning on the road in a hostile enviroment.
Last Thursday night, Gene Chizik led the Auburn Tigers to a 17-14 win in Starkville, MS in front of a sold out crowd of 54,806.
Courtesy of Auburn Athletics, we watched the Tigers' post-game locker room celebration.
“We leanin',” says one Auburn player.
Good stuff right here:
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