University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Coach Larry Fedora's Weekly Press Conference Transcript
10/20/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 20, 2008
Coach Larry Fedora's Weekly Press Conference Transcript
October 20, 2008
Opening statement:
"First of all, the guys played hard for 60 full minutes. We played from the first kickoff to the final buzzer. The guys played extremely hard throughout the game. We still made too many mistakes in all three phases (of the game). Offensively, we put the ball on the ground two times. It cost us points one time going in and then coming out. The first play of the (second) half, we turned it over and they scored on the next play. On special teams, we had four penalties. We still are shooting ourselves in the foot with special teams. We had a missed field goal and an extra point that we didn't convert with a blocked kick. Defensively, we didn't tackle well enough in open spaces. We missed two tackles that resulted in direct touchdowns, just out in open space on a couple of plays. They spread you out really well, and they did a good job of that. There were also a couple of times we didn't make the tackle and they turned it into touchdowns."
On first fumble to start the second half:
"What happened was he (Damion Fletcher) was lying on top of the other player, and the defender pulled the ball out. I don't even think they (Rice) realized they had recovered a fumble at that time. I sure didn't know it was a fumble. Their sideline, their defense, they didn't even act like it was a fumble, no one did. But that was tough, you go in at the half, you get your momentum going, you are 12-17, you come back out, they drive it down and score, you turn the ball over one time and they score again. You are 38-17 before your offense gets their second play of the second half. I was very proud of our guys though, with the atmosphere and what was going on in the game, they could have shut it down, but they didn't shut it down, they played hard, kept fighting and kept themselves in the game. And again, came up short."
On a blocked extra point following the Golden Eagles' first TD:
"It was a low kick, that's all there was to it. It actually hit the guy in the armpit, and he didn't jump. It was just a low kick, he hit it bad."
On missed field goal on four yard line:
"It was a tough angle, but he has to make those. We work on those, and he pushed it. But that is a difficult angle for anybody."
On changing anything in kicking game this week:
"I don't know yet. We haven't decided. We will decide that by the end of the week, on how the guys kick throughout the week."
On Austin Davis and DeAndre Brown's quarterback-receiver relationship:
"I think Austin (Davis) looks for him more in situations, especially if something breaks down, he looks for him (DeAndre Brown) down the field. He knows now that DeAndre doesn't have to be wide open for him to be open. That's something that you learn, a trust between a receiver and a quarterback, that hey this guy is running along beside me, but he is not covering me, you throw the ball up and I can go get it. That is a trust that is built between two players over repetition. There were times earlier in the year where I was trying to make the quarterback understand that you can still throw it to this guy when this guy is running here, but until he does it, until he sees the guy produce, until he is comfortable with that happening, he won't do it. I think he (Austin Davis) is comfortable with that now. DeAndre is a very competitive young man; we have to make sure we get him into the forward game earlier in the game, because he can continually make plays for us."
On Sunday's practice:
"First of all, they came out with a great attitude. The offensive and defensive coaches met with them and they watched the film. The kids came out with a great attitude, a very good attitude, moved around really well and the only reason they do that is because they are being coached hard and they have a lot of pride in themselves."
On what you can say to the team right now:
"You tell them we have to make our own break, we can't wait around for something good to happen, we have to make something good happen, and then build off of it. Right now, you probably have guys that are questioning themselves and their confidence and all of those kinds of things. It is about being positive, understanding you have a philosophy and a belief in something, that it is good and it does work. You just have to make something positive happen, and then build off of it."
On now that record is 5-2 if there will be changes:
"Statistic wise, you just look across the country, there are what, 10 teams that average 50 points a game? When does that ever happen in college football? No one out there is shutting people out. The defenses are not playing the way they used to because of the style of offense that is out there. Everybody is spreading it out, everybody knows how to throw a football now, it's not just give it lip service, they know how to throw it, there are more explosive plays, because of spreading people out. One mistake and the ball can go the distance. That's why people spread it out.
"I think it's very difficult on a defense right now. I don't care, you can look at all of the stats, we don't want to be number 102 obviously, we want to be number 1, but were not. What can we change right now? I don't know what change needs to happen, we need to continue what we are doing, we need to continue to get better at what we are doing, our guys need to play better and they need to tackle in open spaces, because that is what teams are going to force us to do. We have to make tackles in open spaces."
On if players believe they can still have a winning season:
"They have senior meetings, they call team meetings, but the coaches are not in there. I'm sure they talk about having a winning season, they know they can still have a winning season. But there is no reason to talk about all of that, we really need to talk about this game. Because if you don't take care of this game it doesn't matter, if you don't take care of the next one, that is the most important thing. That's what the focus needs to be on, this next game. Then we can start thinking about all the things in the future. We have to get through this one, let's put our focus on this game and making sure we are successful this weekend."
On Memphis:
"Memphis is another team that spreads you out and throws it around. They have a lot of good receivers. I don't know who they are going to play at quarterback right now, I don't know what that situation is, and I guess we will find out on Saturday. They will have a good plan; they have big guys on defense that run around well. As far as the conference, they are the biggest defense, and probably run as well as any of them we have played to this point. I go back and I tell our guys, right now it is not focusing on Memphis, it is focusing on Southern Miss. That is what we have to focus on right now. We have to get ourselves together, we have to go out there and play without making critical mental errors and the mistakes that we are making, that's where our focus needs to be."
On preparing hard and then suffering losses:
"It is frustrating more than disappointing. It is very frustrating because these guys work hard all week, they work extremely hard. They get after it in practice; our tempos haven't changed since day one. But it is frustrating that you don't reap those rewards on Saturday and that you make mistakes. It would be much more frustrating, like I told them, if these games weren't winnable at all, if we didn't have a chance. We just need to take care of our business, that's what we need to do. More games are lost than you get beat."
On if it matters that a lot of players were not recruited to run his system:
"None of that really matters. We are going to line it up and play on Saturday, these are the Southern Miss football players and I am the Southern Miss football coach and we are going to go out there and play. It doesn't matter what system they were recruited for, it really doesn't matter. This is what we have, and this is what we are going to do. We have to adjust, we adjust the system, we adjust the players, and we go out and try to put them in a position where we can win a football game."
