Tuesday News Conference Quotes
9/23/2008 8:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 23, 2008
Head Coach Ralph Friedgen
On the Clemson Tigers:
"They're very, very impressive. They've a very good looking team. They're big, strong and fast."
On the Tigers quarterback and running backs:
"Offensively, Cullen Harper, their quarterback, is a 6-foot-4, 225-pound redshirt senior. In the preseason he was rated as one of the top quarterbacks in the conference. He played very well last year. Their running backs - James Davis and C.J. Spiller - are thunder and lightening. They also play a true freshman, Jamie Harper. They have three really good backs. All of them can run. They have great speed and acceleration, and that's something we're really going to have to deal with."
On the Tigers wide receivers:
"As for their wide receivers, Aaron Kelly, 6-foot-5 and 190 pounds, makes a tough matchup for us with our corners. Jacoby Ford is probably one of the fastest players in the ACC. They'll play him in the backfield, and they'll also play him at slot. Tyler Grisham is, I believe, a walk-on. To me, he is a very dependable receiver and a tough guy who takes the tough catches, so they have a very good receiving corp. Michael Palmer is their [starting] tight end. They'll play two or three tight ends, but he's the most versatile."
On Clemson's offensive line:
"The offensive line is led by their center, Thomas Austin. They're young, they're big and they're very athletic. They have a lot of speed on offense. They're big and strong up front. The thing is that they're young up front and they're still developing."
On Clemson's defensive backfield:
"Defensively, the whole secondary is back from last year. The boundary corner is Crezdon Butler. The field corner is Chris Chancellor, and he played very well against us [last season]. They noted that he shut down Darrius (Heyward-Bey) in the game last year. Their safeties are very physical guys. Michael Hamlin, the strong safety, is used in run support quite a bit. The free safety is Chris Clemons."
On the Tigers linebackers:
"Their Will linebacker is Kavell Conner. They have a true freshman playing Mike [linebacker], Brandon Maye, and their Sam linebacker is Scotty Cooper. All of them are typical Clemson linebackers - they can run and they're very athletic."
On the Tigers defensive line:
"They probably play three teams on the defensive line. Ricky Sapp - he's a boundary defensive end who's very athletic and a good pass rusher. Their field defensive end is a true freshman named Da'Quan Bowers. He came into Clemson at mid-year, so he had spring practice. He's a true freshman and an outstanding pass rusher. Their nose guard is Dorell Scott, and their defensive tackle is Jarvis Jenkins. We played against those guys before. They're big, strong, physical kids inside."
On Clemson's special teams unit:
"On their special teams, last year (PK) Mark Buchholz was struggling, but this year he's playing very well. He's made five of five field goals and 17 of 17 extra points. They have a punter, Jimmy Maners, who's on all the watch lists. He's averaging 46 yards a punt and is one of the best in the ACC. They always have two safeties back, and we're going to have to kick to Spiller or to Jacoby Ford, both on kickoffs and on punts."
On Saturday's game at Clemson:
"They have a lot of weapons and are, I think, one of the most talented teams in the ACC. In the preseason they were picked to win the ACC. This will be a real challenge for us."
On defensive tackle Travis Ivey's prognosis:
"It is a question on how fast he'll be ready. He went out and did a little bit yesterday, and today we are going to get him involved in some team. We have to be careful not to do too much too soon with him and re-fracture his foot. Hopefully he can come in (and play some). We'll probably play him at defensive tackle. Jeremy (Navarre) has been playing 65-70 plays a game and has played very well so if we can get 10 or 15 plays out of Travis this Saturday, that will be good for us."
On the injuries in the secondary:
"Originally we were going to try to redshirt Cameron Chism and Dominique Herald. Then Dominique got hurt and tore his ACL on Saturday, so that made it a little bit tougher on us. Cameron has got to be the guy that comes along. We are getting help now. We are (are close to) getting Terrell Skinner back. We'll have to see how well he is. He looked very good last night. We'll see how he is today but I don't know how much we can ask of him coming off of a severe ankle sprain. Getting Drew Robinson back will also help us. Where we are hurting right now is at the corner position. Losing Richard Taylor hurt us. I'm hoping Michael Carter, Trenton Hughes and Cameron Chism can come up and help us. On a positive note, I think Jamari McCollough has come in and played very well for us and I think that helps us with another guy in the secondary. It's kind of like it always is, when the opportunity arises some people have to step forward, like Jamari has."
On concerns about the Maryland defense:
"My concern was the way we ended up playing the last four quarters. In the California game, I thought we did a heck of a job in the first three quarters of the game, then, whether it was fatigue or a lack of focus, they weren't running any new patterns. Then on Saturday we played pretty for a quarter, maybe a quarter and a half. We were up 17-0 and (Eastern Michigan) did some things we haven't seen before that put us in a bind. That was good coaching on Eastern Michigan's part, but I think we adjusted the second half. That's what concerns me, we play real well for a time and then we don't. That's the thing we have to get corrected, the consistency. I'm sure losing some kinds in the secondary (has hurt us) but if you go back to the California game, that was a pretty good passing football team, and at the end of three quarters I think they had 188 yards and 23 attempts so we are capable of doing it. We are going to have to do it again this week."
On the true freshmen and advantages of redshirting vs. not:
"What I think is interesting about that is, when you have as many seniors (30) as we do and we are still playing freshmen that means we had had a pretty good recruiting year. It should be harder to play on the field as a freshman with the number of older players we have. With Kenny Tate, I was concerned about that position (safety) and that is why I asked him to move over there. He's come on and he played 25 plays on Saturday and did a good job. We've moved Jamari McCollough over to free safety and Kenny is a second team strong safety now. We expect to play more of him. He did a great job on special teams for us and it was a real advantage having him. Davin Meggett has come in and played very well for a true freshman. I'm hoping that Cameron Chism will do the same. At the end of two-a-days I thought that he would be a guy that would figure in. I asked him if he wanted to play or wanted to redshirt. He went home and asked his mom and came back and told me that she trusted whatever I thought was the right thing to do. He said he would redshirt and if I needed him, I would put him in. When Richard Taylor went down, I called him and said `I need you' and he was ready to go. He has the talent right now; it's just the experience that he's fighting through. I'm hoping that the more we get in there with him, the better he is going to be. It's a long season and we are going to need him."
On his impressions of the ACC:
"I think it's pretty tough. Looking at the tape, this is a pretty talented team we are playing. I watched Florida State and Wake Forest and I thought those were two pretty good football teams. I see how well Boston College, North Carolina and Virginia Tech are doing and all of those happen to be future opponents of ours which has not gone unnoticed by me. I think we have our work cut out for us, but right now I have to focus on Clemson and that's enough work."
On Adrian Moten and possible replacements:
"I think what we would do is if Terrell Skinner is alright, we might move Antwine Perez to that position because it is similar to what he does now. What hurts us is losing Dominique Herald. (Herald and Moten) are pass rushers and speed rushers off of the end, which has been pretty good for us. We still have (Rick) Costa and (Moise) Fokou but we are running out of guys right now, and you see that when people are throwing that much. They obviously get fatigued and then can't rush as well. Right now I'm hoping Moten will be okay but we know Herald won't so we are trying to find out if someone else can come in and take that role but I don't know if that is possible."
On quarterback Chris Turner's play vs. ranked opponents:
"I don't think there is any doubt that he has played better in the big games. I thought he played well last week and I am looking for a guy that can play well each Saturday at that position. If he's not on, it's tough. It's important for Chris to really focus and be ready to go. He doesn't have to do anything extraordinary, just make the plays that are there and take what the defense gives him. If we can get that on a consistent basis, we'd have a pretty good offense."
On linebacker Alex Wujciak's impact on defense:
"I think Alex has played well but I think he is still playing like a freshman. He is kind of learning as he goes. He'll make a mistake and the correct it the next time. I think he is going to be an excellent football player. I think the thing we forget sometimes as coaches is that he's been here for two years but he's only played in four games. It is really important for him to play well this week."
On getting the ball to wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey more often:
"I think James (Franklin) had a package for him and I think he tried to get the ball to him more. It's just sometimes other teams do a good job defensively and you don't want to force the ball to him either. But we've given the ball to him on reverses, we've tried to give it to him on screens. We can't just throw it up there but I can show you the game plan and James has a list of plays to get the ball to him. What is strange about Saturday's game is our offense only had the ball 58 plays. And when you have the ball 58 plays and have almost 500 yards with your offense, you're doing something right."
On Clemson running backs C.J. Spiller and James Davis (Clemson):
"Both of them can run inside and outside but it looks as if they feature getting Spiller the ball on the perimeter. The other thing that makes it tough is they bring in (Cullen) Harper, who is a good quarterback, but then they get (Jacory) Ford in the backfield also. All of those guys can really run so you have to worry about pass coverages. Any one of those guys can go all the way in one play, that's what makes it so tough."
On the experience of playing in "Death Valley:"
"It's really great. I've played there so many times in my career. It is what college football is all about, it's exciting and loud, it's a tough place to play. I really like playing there because it gets the juices flowing. It's a tremendous environment and I think Clemson fans are really great fans. I just think of all the games played there and its one of the unique places to play in the country.
"I don't know what we can do to get more focused because this starts our ACC season. I told the kids this is a defining game for us to see where we are at. It's very important that we are able to win on the road. I think if you are going to win this conference, you have to win on the road. We've had one road game and it didn't fare well for us. We are going up against a very talented team on the road and we have our work cut out for us. So we better go down there focused, because if we don't we won't have a chance."
Senior Defensive Lineman Jeremy Navarre
On playing in Death Valley:
"It's very exciting. Two years ago we went down there and it was awesome. We ended up beating them. The fans are crazy. It is down south. It just really is a great atmosphere. The fans are fired up and especially since we beat them the last time we went down there."
On the start of the ACC schedule:
"Now every game matters if we want to reach our goal. We really want to win this thing this year. We start off with one of the best team's in the conference right away.
On the defensive line:
"I think we are doing pretty well. We are getting better every week. We started off slow. But we definitely have improved. This is the hardest working group that I have been around since I have been here."
On Clemson's running tandem of James Davis and C.J. Spiller:
"They are elusive backs. They can lower their shoulder. But they do a lot of outside runs and they can be hard to catch. We just have to contain them."
On the Clemson's offensive line:
"Clemson always has had a huge offensive line and this year is no different. These are some big guys. If we play high against these guys they will put us on our backs. We just really need to stay low."
Senior Offensive Lineman Edwin Williams
On what the team needs to do to improve:
"From each week you have to build on what you did the previous week, just kind of starting all over again. Consistency goes a long way as far as practice goes...Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday...you have to be consistent and practice very hard, and when Saturday comes just let loose and play the game."
On playing in "Death Valley:"
"It's crazy, but it's actually what you expect as far as college football goes, an 80,000-seat packed stadium, with everybody yelling at you. That's kind of what you expect playing for a Division 1-team, kind of one of those things you look forward too. As a center, it's not the ideal situation. I have to really be focused on the quarterback, and our offensive linemen, try to make the right calls. I can't let it get to me, and this being my last season, I will be able to handle things a lot better than I did in the past."
On telling some of the younger guys and quarterback Chris Turner what to expect Saturday:
"I just tell them, `You don't know how loud this place is, they have great fans and they're very loud'. You \have to just tune in. I just tell Chris (Turner), you have to make your calls loud and I tell the offensive line the same thing. If we do that, I think we will be fine."
On getting off to a good start in the ACC:
"I kind of knew that this Clemson game was obviously going to be an important one for us. We want to start off on the right foot to get to our goal to be ACC champions. We all know Clemson is a great team...their defense is amazing and their d-line is great too. I'm excited for the competition. Every time you play Clemson, there is always some type of adversity or something you have to go through. Hopefully we just practice well this week and are ready to play on Saturday."
