Dooleyisms….man I will be sad to see these go. We only have another week left in the regular season. I want a bowl for so many reasons, but this is a big one for me. It’s my favorite spot of the week.
On Dealing with adversity:
I think the biggest difference in the game was it was the first time I felt like we really didn’t get affected by all the things that happen in a game. When I said after the game I felt like it was a big step for our program, that’s really what I was talking about. We came out of the locker room and we put together a great drive, a good defensive stand, a good drive and we are about to go ahead 21-7. Then you snap your fingers and we are down 21-14. It was a really important time for this team. The guys didn’t flinch and it was the first time I have seen it. I didn’t even have to get them going on the sidelines. I was really proud of them for that.
Me too coach me too.
On players of the week:
On offense, we gave it to Da’Rick (Rogers). He had really an outstanding game and of course made the plays, the two touchdowns. We gave it to Malik (Jackson) and Mo (Maurice Couch) on defense. The defensive line really played a great game controlling the line of scrimmage. We gave Channing Fugate the special teams player of the week. Running down on kickoffs, we activated him and he did a good job and made a couple of tackles
1st team all conference?
I talked about this yesterday, but Da’Rick Rogers was nothing short of awesome on Saturday night. He mentioned Mo Couch. If you remember back to the spring, I was very high on Mo, he got off to a slow start, but beginning in the South Carolina game he has been our second best defensive lineman.
On Kentucky
Our focus this week is Kentucky. I know a lot of people are going to want to change the focus away from Kentucky to other things like streaks and bowls and all that, but it is so important that our team takes the same approach as they did last week and they take the same approach during the game that they did against Vanderbilt. Like every SEC game, it’s going to be hard, it’s on the road, they played Georgia to the wire and it’s their last home game. So I know how emotional it is for any team in their last home game. We have a big challenge and we will see if can live up to it. If we can, people will be feeling pretty good; and if we can’t, it will be kind of a disappointing year. That is where we are…We haven’t won on the road. Kentucky’s always a tough play to play. I remember when I was at Georgia, we went up there and got stroked. We were probably a two-touchdown favorite. I remember when we were at LSU, we went up there and had to throw a Hail Mary to win the game and we were a big favorite. “It’s a tough place to play. I’m sure the weather will be tough and, again, it’s their last home game. They are going to be geeked up and ready to go
This has been Dooley’s focus for the entire year. Focus on the present. It’s a good mantra for life.
On the post-game video of Dooley cussing
I’m a little disappointed that a video is out on our locker room celebration, but that is kind of the world we live in. It’s like there is no sacred place, and I think probably all 120 coaches out there in football have a side to them where they loosen up with team that they don’t do in public. Am I excited after a win? I always am. After a win is emotional, and certainly when you win a close game that is down to the wire it’s exciting. You take those things for what they are. It’s a postgame, emotional, have a little fun, and you then you close the door on it when you leave…Given what this team has been through, and given what happened the week before this game, and given the fact that most people had written the team off, and then to go through what we went through in the third quarter, to be able to find a way to win the game – it was a good feeling. I was really proud of them. And usually when I am that excited, it’s because I am just proud of the guys for doing something they hadn’t done all season.
I don’t know who put that thing on youtube. (It’s been taken down). It was probably a high school kid on a recruiting visit, who didn’t know any better. In case you haven’t seen the video. He says (paraphrasing a bit) “One thing I know about Tennessee, we always beat the $%^# out of Vanderbilt!” I agree with him here in his statement. It’s disappointing that there is no privacy at all.
On the running game:
Mainly, I thought the offensive line played its best game in the run game. More physical, created a lot more air – that was another thing that was really encouraging to see, in the hopes we are going to see that more as time goes on. I saw signs they wanted to deliver blows instead of getting on their guy and just blocking. There is a big difference and it created a lot of air. I think we ran it better than anybody has run it against Vanderbilt.
No argument here.
On the referring fiasco at the end of the game
I probably shouldn’t speak on it. Steve (Shaw, SEC coordinator of officials) is probably the guy to talk to about that. I think the reason there is a rule is that if a whistle is blown, generally everybody stops. That’s the reason that rule is in effect. So it’s hard to give a guy credit for a run. I can’t really speak on specifics. I know on this play, I don’t know anybody that stopped within 30 yards of him. Nobody heard him, including their team. Look, at the end of the day the right play was called.
Steve on our site said it best “Sometimes two wrongs do make a right”
On the schedule:
After the season every year, I sit down and I hope to sit down with Dave (Hart) when the season is over and just talk about scheduling philosophy. I think we are going to state every year to the conference some things that are important to us, just like all the other teams talk about what is important to them. The challenge of course is that they have to accommodate now 14 teams and it’s just impossible. We can only do what we can do. There is no real way to get an easy schedule in this league, as we all see…The hard part on how tough is your schedule is that you don’t really know until — I guess they have an idea, but you really don’t always know who’s going to be that good come Game 6 or 7 or 8. I don’t think the conference worries about trying to space out tough games and they shouldn’t, because it would be too difficult. I think their concern is the travel and the rivalries that have been there and that’s the way it should be. I don’t think they worry about a schedule being too hard on a team competitively.
The schedule will certainly look different next year. Better? Worse? Nobody knows the answer to that right now, if they do, they’re not talking.
Hey Mike! Do you know what the schedule looks like next year? Is it that hard?
On Eric Gordon:
I think we’ve gotten a good comfort level with Eric in the nickel spot. It’s allowed him to use his strengths and be aggressive and make some plays. When you make a bad mistake and you are in the deep part of the field or you are playing a guy at man to man in the corner, it’s a devastating effect. Eric has a playmaking mentality, which I wish more of our guys had on the back end. I do. It’s a great quality and that’s why we want him out on the field. And if he can just keep that within the framework of the system and know when to be aggressive and when not, he’s going to make more and more plays. He will.
Risk-reward, that’s what you get with Eric Gordon. If you have safety help, it’s a good risk.
On the end of regulation play-
The first play, I wanted get about 10 yards so we could clock it and then get one more play and kick a field goal. Well we didn’t get 10 yards, which is the worst thing you could have done and the clock’s running. I only had one timeout. So I waited and said it’s going to be the last play. I called it (timeout) and the more I thought about it, we were 60-something yards away from the end zone and I didn’t have any confidence that Tyler could get it down that far. All I could think about was they intercept it we have to tackle the guy. So it just wasn’t worth the risk to me. I just felt like let’s go win it in overtime.
I want to believe him here, but I don’t. Something there was screwed up. It certainly looked awkward.
On our 5th and 6th safeties:
We’re in bad shape in the back end. If you think about it, we were on our fifth and sixth safety. If you go back to late July, we were playing with our fifth and sixth safety back there. (Brent) Brewer was injured, Brian Randolph and Prentiss Waggner came out of the game, and of course the one (Janzen Jackson) we lost before camp. It was hard. The last series in there, B-Moore (Byron Moore) and Rod Wilks were playing safety, and B-Moore hadn’t had any reps because he’s been repping the nickel with Gordon.
And to think I thought this would be the strength of the team. Injuries, and idiocy ruined the secondary.
On high school math:
The punt return game the other night, that guy hit two punts and he crossed kicked them. They went 60-something, but if you did Pythagorean theorem – you know, a-squared plus b-squared equals c-squared – I bet it was about a 75-yard kick. None of you guys have any idea what that is. That’s why you write. You create a right-angle. That’s the long side and you get the 90-degree. Did you make it past Algebra I? It’s geometry, man.
I love it! Has any football coach since the General be able to correctly throw the Pythagorean Theorem into a presser? I doubt Johnny did. I know Phil or Lane didn’t.
Do you remember your high school math?
On Curt Maggitt:
We have three linebackers who are playing well and we can’t afford to overload them or wear them down physically. Curt went that period in the middle of the season there when he had to have a week off because he was just beat up. We don’t have enough depth to be able to do that. We’d like to, and I think it would help us. But all of a sudden you put him there and everything else starts suffering. You’re robbing Peter to pay Paul…Maggitt, he’s doing fine. But he’s a football player, man. I could put him at running back and he’d say, `I’m good, Coach.’
Maggitt was the SEC freshman of the week, he had some great flashes Saturday night, including a couple of TFLs.
The reigning SEC Freshman of the week
On Tiny Richardson in the backfield:
He looked good, man. That guy, when he saw him, just fell to the ground – `I’m not taking on that guy.’ We walked in. It looked a lot better than our throws down there.
Normally, I am not very perceptive on formations, but I did notice the big Freshman in the backfield.
On sticking to the plan, and then realizing, maybe the plan stunk:
Went 0-for-6. (Throwing) was the plan. When we pulled up (their tendencies on film), 100 percent of the time they were bringing pressure and our plan was to throw it. We felt we could hit one out of three; didn’t plan on going 0-for-6. But when we went 0-for-6, I told Jim, `Let’s run it.’ He said, `But that wasn’t our plan.’ I said, `But we’re 0-for-6. We’re not going 0-for-9.’ “It was our plan and it didn’t work. We had guys open, we just didn’t execute. Looking back, we should have run it. But that was discussed and planned on Wednesday, just like most of the things you see out there. Sometimes it’s a good plan and sometimes it doesn’t work. We probably should have adjusted the second time we went out there and that’s what I would have done differently.
Sticking to the plan is one thing, being stubborn is different. It’s hard to know the difference sometimes.
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