Les Miles wants some juice in Tiger Stadium vs. West Virginia
Les Miles opened his press conference today by talking about Tiger Stadium and the LSU fans.
It’s quite obvious that Miles wants a raucous crowd in Baton Rouge on Saturday night when West Virginia comes to town.
Miles explained, "I have to tell you that your football team so enjoys going into Tiger Stadium after two games on the road. I can tell you that it was a marked difference in the enjoyment of our team to play. It is interesting; I guess every coach talks about defending his home turf and how important it is in front of your friends, family and those people that love you that you perform well. This is also Tiger Stadium, and the idea that 20 years from now someone will turn to you and ask where you played football at, and if you say LSU the next question will be 'What was it like?' I think our team has really chosen to make that experience very special and play to that, so when they have to answer that question years from now, they will answer it as it was unbelievable and spectacular. Wow, how wonderful it was this weekend.”
Miles is particularly pleased with the Tiger's defense and team chemistry.
“I think this team has got a fundamental 'teammanship' to it, or in other words, the enjoyment of team.”
"Anytime that you have five turnovers and you get five interceptions, you should dominate that game. Frankly we scored on seven of our nine possessions. It was a lot of short fields, and there was not a long field to go. If our defense continues to play like that and we continue to get turnovers, our football team will have the kind of year that we will all look forward to.”
Kick-off is set for 9:00 pm EST on Saturday night.
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Mike Riley going with blue practice field to prepare for Boise State
In preparation for the trip to Boise, Oregon State head coach Mike Riley has decided to paint the Beavers’ practice field blue.
Boise State head coach Chris Petersen joked today, "Perfect. We've got them right where we want them if they're painting their field."
Mike Riley said, “Our guys know enough about Boise State to know this is going to be (difficult), even before they start watching film. They are so efficient offensively, and defensively you combine their fundamentals with the passion they play with and it’s very impressive.”
“You’ve got to keep your hands around the game,” Riley said. “You can’t let it get away like that. If they punch you, you’ve got to counterpunch. If they get a stop on defense, we have to get a stop on defense. If they score, we have to score.”
We have the video below, so you can see the field painting process.
ESPN’s College GameDay crew will broadcast LIVE from Boise. Kick-off is set for 8 pm EST on ABC.
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5 disappointed head coaches
Ralph Friedgen disappointed: “We reverted back to some things that were problems last year. Some guys panicked.”
Bill Cubit terribly disappointed with Western Michigan run game: “We’ve got to regroup, we’ve got to retool it, have some time in there. We may run the ball the whole day on Thursday and Friday. We may not throw a pass, just to get that thing going.”
Randy Edsall disappointed with passing game: "What we have to do is get more production in the passing game. Whichever quarterback gives us that production, makes the right reads and delivers the ball on time, doesn't throw interceptions ... We should be more productive in the passing game than we have been so far."
Steve Sarkisian disappointed in UW “competitive nature” : Bob Condotta of the Seattle-Times writes, “Sarkisian said one of his biggest disappointments in reviewing the Nebraska loss was some of the lapses in the team's "competitive nature,'' especially as the deficit grew in the second half. Sarkisian promised that that "will never happen again'' and said it's on him to make sure that it doesn't. Said UW will always compete for 60 minutes from here on out "I can promise you that.'' Said he hadn't felt that had ever been an issue previously during his time at UW.”
Rick Stockstill disappointed with turnovers: "This just eats at my gut because (turnovers) are things you can control. We have to protect the dang ball, and hopefully we'll get a turnover when it counts."
"All the turnovers have been by the quarterbacks except three fumbles by (Tanner, Beyah and Tyler Mason). The rest have been interceptions and a fumble by our quarterbacks. We've got to be better than that.”
Mack Brown: We need our fans now more than ever before
Although the performance from his offense didn’t meet expectations, Mack Brown said today, “If you’re not happy with winning in Lubbock, you’ve lost who you are and what we’re about. Anybody who would question a win in Lubbock, that’s pretty stupid.”
During his weekly press conference, Brown said, “I think our fans need to pull for our offense. We’ve been spoiled around here. We’re not ready to hit the panic button. Last year, we struggled offensively against Wyoming. We could run it a lick versus Colorado, and we still played for the national championship. It’s hard to blow people out all the time."
On the offensive problems, Brown added, “We had 6 dropped passes. We had 3 sacks. We had 3 holding penalties. We need to quit making mistakes. We all need to help Garrett more.”
“I’m a little shocked that some are shocked that we’re struggling some. You could see the writing on the wall. I don’t get down and mad about it. I’m exciting about fixing it. We have to do a better job coaching this offensive football team. We need our fans now more than ever before. We got a hard stretch coming up.”
“We are not good enough to go out and stand around. We have to have all-out effort from our football team.”
Texas hosts UCLA this Saturday at 3:30 pm EST. You can see the entire Week #4 TV Schedule right here.
Robbie Caldwell: I always heard the Good Lord looks after...
Vanderbilt head coach Robbie Caldwell talked with Tony Barnhart and Wes Durham on 790 The Zone in Atlanta this morning about the 28-14 win over Ole Miss.
In classic Caldwell fashion, the first-year head coach said, “I always heard the Good Lord looks after fools and children and I’m not a child (laughs).”
Caldwell said the key to defeating Ole Miss was the team believing and working to wear down the Rebels’ defense. The Commodores rushed for 227 yards and did not have a turnover in the win.
“We did (believe we could run the ball). We thought there were some things we could do. We felt like if we could get them tired, we could do some things. It looked like they ran out of gas (in the Jacksonville State loss) and that’s what we hoped would happen.”
“We had to change the attitude that we can win. [Our players] just kept fighting. We shot ourselves in the foot (in the season-opener). We should be 2-1.”
In closing, Caldwell joked, or maybe he wasn’t when he said, “They’re (the boys back in Pageland, SC) going to ship me some turkeys and we’re going to feed the team (laughs).”
Vanderbilt is OFF this weekend, before a trip to Connecticut.
You can watch Caldwell’s post-game presser from Saturday right here:
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Bill Cubit: That's the business. You don't eat right, you don't sleep. There's no other way...
Upon hearing the news of Mark Dantonio’s heart attack, Western Michigan head coach Bill Cubit told the Kalamazoo Gazette, “There’s no other way to do this business.”
In recent years, a number of coaches have undergone heart surgeries including Chan Gailey, David Cutcliffe, Tommy West, Jim Bollman (Ohio State OC), and others.
Cubit said, “That’s the business. You don’t eat right, you don’t get any sleep. ... There’s no other way to do this business."
“He’s (Dantonio) a great guy. It’s a shame it happened. I’m sure there are a lot of coaches going home tonight after a long day, looking at their wives and having their wives look back at them, saying, ‘You’d better take care of yourself.’ The job doesn’t allow you to do it.”
Chris D’Haem, the interventional cardiologist that performed the surgery on Dantonio, said, "He is young, in excellent shape, and the damage to his heart was minimal. Coach Dantonio made the right decision to come in and get checked out immediately."
Monday morning Coaches Quick Hits
Mark Richt talks about his team: “It’s always discouraging to lose any game, so we’re not happy about the won-loss record right now. When you do the job we do and you coach and you teach and you give your guys assignments and you give them things they’re trying to get better at, and you watch the film and you see guys improve, that’s what I’m talking about.”
“I don’t want to throw out anything that would sound like dirty laundry or anything on these kids. The [blame] was spread out across the board. It wasn’t just one culprit.”
Jim Harbaugh pumped about Stanford defense: "I thought our guys did a great job of tackling in space, knocking people back, being in the right gaps and getting turnovers again. This is a defense that's really coming together."
Les Miles praises defense: "Some of those turnovers were spectacular. When they threw that ball, our guys were on it. The defense played well all game."
"Don't pretend for a minute that this team doesn't light up in this stadium. Walking to that stadium through the crowd really drew out the emotion of this team. We took the field, and I can tell you every one of our players in uniform was proud to be in that stadium."
Kevin Sumlin loses QB Case Keenum to torn ACL, also loses backup: "It’s a blow to our team, really to lose both of them and I’m really disappointed for them personally -- particularly for Case. It’s an unfortunate situation, but different things happen and we’ve got to have some guys who will step up and play. I thought Terrance Broadway coming in at the end of the game in those circumstances on the road and with very limited reps I thought he handled it very, very well for his first time out. We’ve got talented young players and our team’s going to have to rally behind our young quarterbacks and continue to move on."
Houston Nutt will make changes: “There’ll be a few things that we do different. We’re going to add to. I thought if you watch the film from start to finish or saw the game, one thing that you’re seeing is that there’s opportunities there. We left probably anywhere between 17 and 24 points, how you look at it, on the football field.”
“If we had five plays over, we’d be very happy today. And that’s just what we have to get to. We’ve got to get that corrected. And I know we can do it.”
Utah State head coach Gary Anderson upset with special teams: "A huge factor in this game was our inability to execute on special teams. We were given an opportunity to play in a big time game and we didn't produce."
Cutcliffe calls Bama loss “worst defeate I’ve ever suffered” : "I can't say I've been here before, because that's the worst defeat I've ever suffered. That's difficult to deal with, but we've had our backs to the wall before. We know exactly what our record is, and what our opportunities are. We're not going to fix it overnight, but we're going to fix it one game at a time."
Jimbo Fisher talks about mental conditioning: "This is adversity, because you have a loss. But there's other adversities, too, that they deal with. Personal problems. To family issues. To school. I mean, there's 1,000 things. And [the mental conditioning program is] all geared to help that.
"All your good programs in America and all your good organizations at the next level, they all do it. In any sport."
"I've been on some teams that at the time when [adversity] happened weren't good teams. It's not about the result. We're so caught up — it's about the process. If they keep doing things right, every day, and they keep staying the course, and doing and believing — good things will happen."
Chip Kelly talks about cream-puff non-conference schedule: "That may be the only team in the country in college football that has an open date when you have an open date. And are they willing to come to your stadium? There are not a lot of people in the country who want to come to our stadium.''
"Dennis (Erickson) got caught with it, and we kind of got caught with it with Central Michigan (who backed out of a game.”
Urban Meyer: We make a big deal of it around here
One day after defeating Tennessee 31-17 on the road in Neyland Stadium, Urban Meyer credited the Gators’ toughness.
Florida limited Tennessee to 29 yards rushing and 2 of 15 third-down conversions.
Meyer said, "On the road -- we make a big deal of it around here -- you have to bring your toughness. You have to be able to run the football. You have to bring great defense and then your kicking game has to be the difference maker.”
"You look at the road wins we've had around here, against good teams, it's because our defense comes through, our kicking game has some play or consistency where we turn the game around. But the ultimate thing, are you a tough team or not a tough team? If that was not a tough team or prepared team or trained team, we would have gave in in that third or fourth quarter, and the opposite happened."
"It was a great day for the Gators.”
Florida hosts Kentucky this Saturday night. Meyer added, “We may have to scratch, fight and claw for every win."
Kick-off is set for 7:00 pm EST in Gainesville.
