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:
{youtube}lRaHUr7Npyo{/youtube}
Tuesday's Coaches Quick Hits
Tuberville not pleased with run game: “Oregon rushed for almost 400 on New Mexico, and we did good to get close to 150. We’re not a running team like Oregon, but I would hope we would get at least 200.”
Interesting quote from Bobby Bowden: “I don't know of any coach in the country that does a better job of trying to keep his boys out of trouble than Mark (Richt). I remember when he first went there, he hired a man full time just to try to teach his kids what is right and what is wrong. I interviewed him at our place. We thought about hiring him at our place. We ended up hiring someone else.”
“I don't know of anybody that works harder than Mark to try to get his boys to go by the rules and do what's right. It just shows you. The kids have to live their life. They have to make that decision. To me, one of the biggest problems we've got, some of them are not getting the training at home. Just think about it. Here's a kid that's raised by his parents 17, 18 years. Then he comes to Florida State, gets in trouble.”
“The parents say, ‘Why can't you keep my kid out of trouble?' I say, ‘Look, you had him for 18 years. I've had him one. Give me time. I'll get it straightened out.' That's kind of the way it's going now.”
Very interesting quotes from Phil Fulmer. Pulling for Dooley, but down on the Vols: “It’s terrible. It’s hard to watch something you’ve put most of your adult life into and had just played for the (SEC) championship (in 2007) and all of a sudden you’re watching what’s transpiring now through the program and an obvious attempt to change the culture of Tennessee football that failed.”
“You’re looking I think at a fairly long-term problem, certainly with all the transition that the program has been through in the last couple of years from me to Kiffin, a good number of players that left the program, just I think a general attitude. I know my last few years if you talked about only winning nine, it was an act of terror, and now they’re pushing and hoping to win six to get in a bowl game someway.”
“I think the Tennessee family is very divided at this point and so much is centered around the job that (basketball coach) Bruce Pearl has done, and it has been fantastic. Obviously the last couple of years, all the uncertainty around the football program, the intent, or the seemingly intent to change the culture of Tennessee football just made it a very divided place. As an alumnus myself, and obviously the years that I served there as an assistant and head coach, it hurts to see those kinds of things going on.”
Mike Stoops and Arizona host Iowa this Saturday: "It's going to be a different kind of game than we've had. It's not going to be an east and west game. It's going to be north and south when they have the ball.
"It's going to be a much faster, much more violent game than we've had. They remind you a lot of Nebraska in a lot of ways. And we didn't handle that very well."
Houston Nutt says it’s time for Masoli: “Right now we’re going to start Jeremiah. In order to get the flow of things, and get that chemistry, it is probably best to have one quarterback.”
Mike Price very upset with defense, vows change: "I was surprised how our defense played. They didn't attack like we are going to do from now on. We may get beat, but we're not going to play defense like we did Friday night. They were sitting back catching and that's not the way to play defense."
"We don't have time to cry or sulk or pout about it. We've got the Aggies coming to town and they are improved. They look good, better than a year ago. They are making improvement and we've got to put the pedal to the medal. ... We want to give our best. Last week we didn't give our best. That wasn't Miner football as we know it."
"We're disappointed, upset, angry, anything you want to say except discouraged. We have good character on this team. We have really good people on this team." That character is now facing its first big test of the season.”
Quoting Jimbo Fisher: "I think we can play well and I think we can play better. And I think they well … We did not get in this total situation over night. You're not going to automatically wave a magic wand, snap your fingers and totally fix it."
Dan Hawkins talks about not “cashing it in” : "I think our guys have great resolve and they're not going to cash it in. They've got a lot of pride and they've worked too hard. I don't have any doubt that they will rally back."
Quoting Rick Neuheisel: "We believed we had a chance to be a good football team. We still do. I'm disappointed. We just need more competition on the practice field. We need to intensify the competition and that's going to start this week."
Bronco Mendenhall talks about loss to Air Force: “What became really apparent is we had an excellent week of preparation for Washington, with two extra days. When you add the offensive scheme of Air Force and a normal practice week, even though I thought practice went well, you could tell it still quite wasn't at the same level, and it showed up in execution.”
Quoting Charlie Strong: "We started turning the ball over and couldn't move the football. We couldn't maintain drives. We need to learn to play a complete ball game."
Troy special teams coordinator Shayne Wasden upset with KOC: "We've got to do a better job of coaching, a better job of tackling and a better job of playing hard.We had some guys out of position. That's something we can get corrected. Kickoff coverage is about 80 percent want-to and 20 percent technique, so we're going to find 10 guys who understand to run down there and run through a blocker and find the ball."
... so is Larry Blakeney: "We obviously don't have the right folks. We had to pooch (some kickoffs). You can't be a pooch team. You've got to be able to kick it deep. Some how, some way, we're going to get where we can."
Lane Kiffin's Monday presser:
{youtube}tr9x3LpVP-E{/youtube}
Richt: A couple of times we turned it down, quite frankly
Georgia head coach Mark Richt knows the Bulldogs need to become more physical and better tacklers on defense.
A caller asked Richt during his Monday night radio show if some Bulldog players were “timid” and “afraid to hit.”
"Just to work hard on the fundamentals of stepping on a guy's toes and putting your face on him and wrapping up," Richt said. "There's going to be no diving on the ground at a guy, no going low on a guy. When I mean low, I'm talking about just diving at the knees and ankles and that kind of thing."
Following the Bulldogs 17-6 loss to South Carolina, Steve Spurrier said he hadn’t seen a running back break as many tackles in his career as true freshman Marcus Lattimore.
Georgia hosts Arkansas at 12:00 pm EST on ESPN. Arkansas starting running back Dennis Johnson will not play due to injury.
Bud Foster: Pathetic! Unacceptable. Upset. To me, it's inexcusable.
Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster tried to rally the troops with an defense-only team meeting at 6:45 am on Monday morning.
"It's been a while since I've done that," Foster said. "I just wanted to make sure the kids knew how they executed.”
"It wasn't the structure of the defense and they've got to perform. We've got so many young kids that they don't know. They think they know the expectations. They think they know how to work as major-college football players, but they don't. Somebody has got to lead them and it's got to be me."
"At this level, it's a fine line in that because there are too many good athletes. It comes down to two or three plays a game whether we win or lose, and fortunately, over the years, we've been on that other side.
Asked to assess the Hokies’ defense, Foster responded, "What adjective do you want me to use? Pathetic! Unacceptable. Upset. Which one do you want to use? To me, it's inexcusable, it really is, and we're going to get that corrected. If not, we're going to find guys who want to get out here and play and play the way we've done it. We've got too good of a tradition here and too good of a history here, and it's not a complicated defense.”
Virginia Tech hosts East Carolina this week. Kick-off is set for 1:30 pm EST. Be sure to watch the FootballScoop Video of the Day on the homepage.
Manny Diaz: Whether it's Cam Newton or CM Newton, rushing the passer is the same
Mississippi State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz is looking for more negative yardage plays from the Bulldogs’ defense.
Regarding the 17-14 loss to Auburn, Diaz says, "If we make negative plays, we win the football game. That's how the whole thing has been built. We have not established that identity yet and I'm eager for that to occur."
"A fundamental is a fundamental," Diaz said. "A great player or a great athlete will expose a lack of fundamentals. How you rush the passer, whether you're playing Cam Newton or playing C.M. Newton, is the same."
The Bulldogs travel to Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge for a 9:00 pm EST kick-off on Saturday night.
"They're (LSU) trying to do what wins and that's what we're trying to do, too. That's why field position is critical. That's why getting negative plays and those type of things are of the utmost importance for us."
{youtube}xmLb7yQGSuE{/youtube}
JMU's Mickey Matthews: The dirty little secret is...
James Madison head coach Mickey Matthews told ESPN’s Mark Schlabach, "The dirty little secret is the top six to eight teams at our level can play with anyone. We struggle to find guaranteed games because no one wants to play us. I don't know if we're a top 25 team on the FBS level, but I'm sure we're better than Virginia Tech wanted us to be. They needed to play somebody they could dominate."
In his column today, Schlabach wrote, “The night before James Madison University pulled off the biggest upset of the 2010 college football season, Dukes coach Mickey Matthews asked his players if any of them made a recruiting visit to Virginia Tech.”
“None of the Dukes raised their hands.”
"I promise you they're going to want a lot of you after tomorrow," Matthews told his team.
Matthews added, "I think when Appalachian State beat Michigan, you didn't hear any football coaches saying it was a big upset. You heard a lot of media saying it was the greatest upset in college football history, but you didn't hear any football coaches saying it."
JMU returns to action on Saturday against Liberty.
Monday afternoon Coaches Quick Hits
Mike Gundy talks about Oklahoma State’s issues: “We need to limit penalties and do a better job of taking care of the ball. Defensively we have to defend the pass down the field better and tackle better in space.”
“They’ve got a ways to go but I like the way this team practices. I like the way they work together. Over the last few years you’ve heard me mention the team is close and they care about each other a lot. It takes time to be able to say that.”
Cutcliffe wanted Alabama game on campus at Duke: “(Neutral site) would have been short-term thinking. I think if we are going to change the culture of our program, there was no way I was interested in playing Alabama anywhere this year but Wallace Wade Stadium.”
“We will have the defending national champion here. I have had a great rival relationship with Nick Saban, a great respect for what he’s done. Boy, we had tremendous games when I was at Ole Miss and he was at LSU.”
Quoting West Virginia OC Jeff Mullen: "(Offensive line coach) Dave Johnson did a nice job of adjusting some chip protections to help the young right tackle out there, which helped us. Whenever you win, you play good enough."
West Virginia plays says Marshall DL called out cadence: "They were calling out a cadence during the game. We don’t play like that. That’s just dumb. The refs did nothing about it. I think if they wouldn’t be yelling, ‘Go,’ a lot of those penalties wouldn’t have happened."
Larry Porter looking for Liberty Bowl sellout vs. MTSU: "We're looking to challenge this city to sell out the Liberty Bowl this weekend."
Les Miles talks quarterbacks: "Our quarterback play, we have to get better. I think everybody knows that. I think Jordan Jefferson has run this team and can run this team."
"[Lee] is a very strong consideration, but first ... I want to see if we can get Jordan on track. I enjoy him and I enjoy his leadership."
"We just want him to play, have some fun, smile. Maybe do some things that he's more comfortable at, maybe simplify the game plan. ... We know he can run the team, we know he has leadership ability."
"I think we just need to let [Jefferson] play."
Bob Toledo talks about loss to Ole Miss: "It stabs you a little bit in the heart. It hurt a little bit, but the kids didn't get down. The talk on the sideline was phenomenal. The talk in the locker room prior to us coaches getting in there was phenomenal. These kids, their attitude is completely different then every other year since I've been here. And that hurt, that was a big blow, but they didn't give into it."
“I talk to (offensive coordinator) Dan (Dodd) about this all the time, and I talk to the quarterback about this all the time. When you get man coverage you can't shuffle up in the pocket. You have got to throw the ball. If he plants and he throws the curl, we've maybe completed. Instead he shuffles forward and it's knocked down. He shuffles forward and he gets sacked. He's got to realize that pressure is coming, he's got man blitz, he's got man coverage. Those guys are going to break on the ball fast. We got to pull the trigger and get rid of the ball quicker. You can't be shuffling and moving your feet when guys are dogging you."
