Over The Pylon

Coach Brooks’ comments on this week’s SEC teleconference:

• “Back on track after a week off. Playing a rival game is a key game for both these teams. We get to play them at home.”
• On his division of time on the practice field: “I roam, go sometimes with the offense, sometimes with the defense. Just rove all over really.”
• To guard against overconfidence: “I don’t know how we could be overconfident since we haven’t done a lot this year. We were able to beat an outmanned opponent in our first game.”
• On fans’ rights to boo: “Fans are less patient than they used to be. Everything is gratification and satisfaction now. They expect their teams to play well. The one thing that I have seen rise is they are more likely now to attack players on the call in shows or on the blogs or on the internet than they used to do. They always went after the coaches, but now it’s spilling over to the players, which I think is wrong. We have a group of young men, some are playing as freshman, some as redshirt freshman, whether fans want to believe it or not, these kids are trying the best they can. Sometimes their talent level may not be equal to their recruiting stars.”
• How they used the bye week to prepare: “Spent a lot of our time on the mistakes from the first game and tried to improve as a team before we worked on gameplan. We spent time Sunday on the game itself in a longer practice. We only got a day and a half of extra preparation. Spent the additional time trying to fix us rather than work on the opponent.”
• The difference in atmosphere over the last 7 years at UK: “During those early years we played some people because they were the best players we had, regardless of whether or not they were ready to play at this level. Now, we have better athletes, fewer injuries. Recently, we haven’t had one of those kinds of years where things just go wrong. Recently, more people are positive, some still want us to win more SEC games, but the fact that we’ve been able to win three straight seasons in a row, which doesn’t happen very often around here, and win three straight bowls, which has never happened, most people feel pretty good about the program.

Other coaches around the league…

• Les Miles was asked a question about booing student athletes by the fans. He isn’t a fan of that. Which is sort of surprising since Miles strikes me as the kind of coach that if his players were playing poorly, a fan’s boo is the least of their worries.
• Steve Spurrier sounded, as he always does, like a guy that’s just kicking back, feet on the desk, and living the dream. Perhaps it’s the southern drawl, perhaps it’s just his persona, but that sort of swagger is seldom seen.
• Urban Meyer‘s comments were not surprisingly, drama free. No real acknowledgment that Kiffin’s comments were even a motivating factor. Right… and the team never saw Georgia dance in the end zone and had nothing to do with the woodshed beating the following season.
• Lane Kiffin didn’t actually follow Urban Meyer, but Bobby Johnson was simply nondescript and sort of meh. Telling, Dores fans. For Kiffin he again credited his comments to helping the Vols sign a Top 10 class, and get the name of Tennessee out there. Riiiiight. All part of the plan. Kudos to Lane for sticking to the story, regardless of how completely unrealistic it seems. Also, Kiffin compared Tebow to Mike Vick in terms of his dad’s preparation defensively. There’s only dozens of differences, but hey, it’s his first season! And that’s all part of the plan.
• Nick Saban followed Boy Wonder, and certainly was a marked difference than the high energy seemingly scripted Kiffinspeak to the quiet, confident, soul eating tones of Sabanish. Saban spoke about North Texas and gave them tons of credit for being a good team and capable of causing problems. That of course made me feel good.
• Bobby Petrino talked about bye week management. The fact that the bye week was so early this season followed by 11 weeks of action, it required better conditioning, heavier lifting, etc. Arkansas is looking for a homefield advantage against Georgia this weekend, and considering the lackluster Georgia games so far this season, and the beating the Dawgs are taking in the national media, they’re going to need it.
• Houston Nutt commented on the health of his team and how most are feeling better after a nasty little battle of flu-like symptoms sweeping through the team. Interesting sort of game this weekend as the Rebels have a virtual cupcake in SE Louisiana before a short week, for their season opening conference game, on the road. Interesting note… Houston Nutt always personally visits the kicking team, the special teams meeting, etc. Not ridiculously odd, just sort of surprising that that is his top priority.
• Mark Richt spoke a little about the positive things that Georgia is taking away from their conference victory over South Carolina, gave a head nod to the negatives that were also present. Spoke a bit about Bobby Petrino’s offensive aggresiveness.
• Gene Chizik was cool, calm, and collected. Spoke a bit about using Kodi Burns down around the goalline, and maximizing matchups based on whatever the defense gives them. His Tigers play West Virginia this weekend.

Filed under: Kentucky, SEC |