University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Larry Fedora Weekly Media Conference Quotes...Sept. 7, 2009
9/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 7, 2009
SOUTHERN MISS HEAD COACH Larry Fedora
WEEKLY PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES
Monday, September 7, 2009
Opening Statement:
"Well we have one under our belts, we had a chance to look at the film and make a lot of corrections last night at practice. Now we are moving on to the UCF game this weekend."
On playing a Conference game this early:
"Ready or not here it comes. We really do not have a choice in the matter so they are coming to town on Saturday so we better be ready. We know we have our work cut out for us."
On the overall health of the team:
"I think we are pretty good right now. We have some guys that are beat up a little bit with some knicks and bruises, but I will know more this afternoon after treatments. I think we will be pretty close to where we want to be."
On the UCF Defense:
"It will be a huge test for us. They have just about all of their front seven back, which is a very good front seven. Now they have their other defensive tackle that they were missing last year. No. 95 (Travis Timmons) and No. 98 (Torrell Troup) are really, really strong inside. Then you have No. 49 (Bruce Miller) and No. 48 (David Williams) on the ends which both played all of last year and (Miller) was an exception player for them. The linebacker, No. 57 (Lawrence Young), had a lot of tackles for them as well. Those front seven will give us a huge test. They lost their secondary from last season but from watching film against Samford, it looks like they have replaced them pretty well."
On how physical of a defense UCF is:
"No doubt about it, they are a physical team. Year in and year out, UCF is always going to be strong on defense. Obviously, they have George (O'Leary) and he is known for that and those guys are going to be physical."
On the play of the Southern Miss offensive line last week vs. Alcorn:
"We did what we expected those guys to do. As we looked at the film we had a few procedure calls but those were with out two's. Overall those guys preformed about like we expected them to going into the game."
On the balance of the UCF offense:
"Basically all we have to go on right now is the first game from last week, because they have a new offensive coordinator. All the things we did in the summer we just kind of throw out the window because they are not what they were last year."
"They gave it to the big back quite a few times, over 30 (carries), which is back to running the football and eating the clock, taking care of the football and winning with defense."
On the UCF Quarterbacks:
"I talked to (defensive coordinator) Coach (Todd) Bradford today and he made the comment that if they did not have numbers on he would not know which one is which. They are very similar and that is why they play both of them, because they both fit their system."
On Hendrick Leverette not playing Saturday:
"He was out for a disciplinary reason, which was only for one game."
On the UCF special teams:
"They were one of the top teams in the conference last year. They are coached very well on special teams. You can tell they take a lot of pride in it. They had a punt return and a kickoff return that was big on Saturday. We will have our work cut out for us, but that's what we have been preparing for. We have put in extra time and effort knowing it could be the difference in a game. Our guys know and understand the time and effort we put into it last year because they had a great return guy. They will understand it and be ready to go."
On the Southern Miss special teams:
"We have guys that are first team on quite a few of the special teams. We have made a point that part of helping this football team win is putting the best football players that we can out on the field."
"We used three guys on the punt return (team) and I thought all three handled the ball well. They were all pretty solid in catching the football. Going into camp that is the way all three of them were, now Freddie (Parham) and (Tracey) Lampley did a little bit more that Andre (Watson) did. We will see going into this week, but we will probably zero in more on two guys who we want to get the ball in their hands."
On Wide Receiver DeAndre Brown playing this week:
"It is too hard to tell you right now. I will have to wait until later in the week before I know if he can go Saturday. He is going to practice live this week in practice and get as many reps as possible and we will see where he is at the end of the week."
