Quotes From Monday's Football Press Conference
November 08, 2004 | Football
Nov. 8, 2004
Audio Clips
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Head coach Bobby Petrino and selected players made themselves available to the media for the weekly football press conference on Monday at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium. They discussed U of L's 56-49 road win over Memphis last Thursday and the 12th-ranked Cards' upcoming home game against Conference USA foe TCU. Kick off between the Cardinals and Horned Frogs is set for 7:30 p.m. ET at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium and the game will be televised by ESPN2.
Following the TCU game, the Cardinals will return to the road to face C-USA rival Houston on Saturday, Nov. 20 at 5 p.m. at Robertson Stadium.
NOTE: The Cardinals (6-1, 4-0 C-USA) now hold the No. 14 position in the latest Bowl Championship Series Standings released on Monday afternoon. U of L is ranked 12th in this week's Associated Press Top 25 Poll and 14th in the ESPN/USAToday Coaches Poll.
Head Coach Bobby Petrino:
"We have a chart. Every time we take the field, we communicate to the offensive players...when we score we're going for one...when we score we're going for two. So it wasn't an emotional decision or anything like that. We knew before we go back on the field whether we are going for one or whether we are going for two when we score."
Talk about TCU and why they are so tough.
"Well, they are a very good football team. You watch them on video and you wonder how they are 4-4. They have tremendous speed offensively, two very experienced quarterbacks who've won a bunch of games for them, two really good running backs, defensively, they are very fast. Same guys basically we played against last year...a couple of new defensive linemen, the same real good linebacker, and corners. You know they play a physical game of football. During the game last year when we played TCU our players were kind of like, 'Yeah maybe we can do this' and started getting more and more confidence as the game goes on. I think we can match up with them physically. We definitely need to be able to control the line of scrimmage with our offensive line and running backs. Defensively, we're going to have to get pressure on the quarterback. If we don't do that, it's going to be a very difficult game."
"Well we tried just about everything. They had a real nice plan and they did a good job...you have to give them a lot of credit. They put a quarterback back about six yards deep and by the time he ended his drop he was ten yards deep and they were timing routes, so he got the ball out real quick. I thought they had an excellent plan. They had some really good play action they hadn't ran before out of their three backs in the backfield set. I think they worked really hard for this game in the off-season, much like we did for this game and the Miami game. You could see they had worked extremely really hard for it."
Will TCU try to do the same thing?
"Well, they're a little different style of offense. TCU is a very fast tempo offense. They do what you call, Get up, Get down, Get off so they break the huddle very quick, get to the line of scrimmage, snap the ball right away, throw a guy in motion really quick. It's a very very different style of offense then Memphis. They're very effective at what they do, they run the option which is going to cause us to make sure we have our assignment correct on every play. We're going to have to tackle a lot better than we did the other night...we missed tackles that allowed them to make big plays."
How did the defensive players respond after the game?
"They've been working hard. They came out the first two days and worked hard in practice. I think that they will continue to have confidence and I think they truly believe that it was a team win. Even though they didn't perform as well as they normally have, they made a lot of plays in that game that allowed us to win the game. They also understand TCU is good so we are going to have to be efficient."
How have you prepared for TCU in the short week?
"We really haven't had time to think about the Memphis game a lot. The coaches came back and started working on Friday. We gave the players Friday off, practiced Saturday and Sunday. Today is Thursday to us, we're completely out of it. It's a real short turnaround. We're going to try to get them there fresh, a lot of mental work, extra videos, walk-throughs, cutting practice back (Saturday we only went out in helmets) they practiced at a very good tempo and had a lot of enthusiasm."
Do you feel like the short week will help or hurt your game preparation?
"I've had it both ways. Sometimes, if you won, you felt like hey we really did a great job on the game plan. We've had the short weeks were sometimes you don't do as much, you just do what you do best and went out and performed well in those circumstances too. I'll tell you after the game (laughs)."
You're offensive line seems to have been a real key for you. Can you talk about them?
"Yeah, they've been very good, really solid. They understand our offense. Jason Spitz and Bobby Leffew. You know Will communicates, but a lot of times it comes from those other two guys because they understand the game so well. I think Kurt Quarterman is a guy that's played very well for his first year. And then to have Jeremy Darveau come in and take over by doing what he's done has been good. They are a good crew, they work hard together, and Mike Summers has done a great job with them."
How are the players handling the pressure that goes with winning?
"Well basically what I tell the players is that every time you win, the stakes get higher for the next game. So the pressure mounts. We do control our own destiny so we just have to take care of TCU and the stakes will be even higher next week. Its exciting...I just hope the players enjoy it and fell confident, but don't feel pressure."
You're now ranked number twelve and looking to go higher. Do you have any idea what it would mean to this team to be a top ten team in the country?
"No, not really, we're just trying to win one game at a time. Like I said, it's exciting. I've enjoyed watching our players work for it, seeing how they react with each other, particularly in the game the other night. We were behind, we were able to come back from being down, good football teams have to do that."
How has Louisville being on TV helped with rankings and recruiting?
"I think its helping in our recruiting. We have a lot of players watching those games and we've performed well when we've been on TV."
Two of the last three games, the defense has given up a lot of yards... are you concerned?
"Certainly you're concerned, but I was happy when they shut people out too. What you basically have to do is really evaluate your strengths and your weaknesses, what we are doing well in our defensive packages, what maybe is showing up, and keep adjusting. I think Mike and the Defensive staff have done an excellent job throughout the year. In the game the other night, Memphis was hitting on everything. Offenses have games like that sometimes, we were the same way. All of our players were making plays. If you get a ball near the receiver, he'll make a great catch. I was really impressed with their running back. To be honest with you, I didn't know he was that good. There were a number of times when we had a couple of guys in the hole and he just made them miss and was faster to the sideline."
Did you feel the pace of the game was too fast?
"Both teams were going way to fast. I tried to slow that down in the third quarter and the fourth quarter. I tried to do it at the end of the second quarter, but then Eric broke one and took it for 78 yards. Anytime Eric does that, we'll take it. I thought it was working in the second half until we turned it over. We still did a nice job offensively running the clock out. We were able to score without giving time. We made them use their three timeouts. I think making them use their three timeouts was critical."
Is Eric Shelton getting more effective as the season goes on?
"It's helped him that he's had games where he hasn't had as many carries because he's fresh and he's strong. He keeps getting stronger. Anytime I give him the ball enough he has been able to take the game over and do a good job. He's really excited going into this game."
Do you think TCU is going to be another high scoring game?
"I don't know. I've went into some games thinking they were going to be high scoring and the score ended up being 17-14. We do want to go in and move the ball and we do want to be aggressive on defense and get them stopped. We'll have to do a good job on special teams because they are very fast and they have a good punt returner. We need to get the ball punted where it's supposed to be. If we can keep the ball moving and not have to punt, that would be good."
