Over The Pylon

Another week, another Wednesday, another SEC Teleconference with Coach Rich Brooks. Today’s commentary:

• General Commentary: “We had a much needed win on the road last week. We’re going into a very difficult game this weekend [against ULM]. Like us, they lost their starting QB, but they’ve had extra preparation time. I’m not sure what we’re going to get offensively from them. We continue to have problems with injuries as Derrick Locke hasn’t been able to practice at all this week with a sprained MCL. The flu bug has hit us a little bit. Taiedo Smith has not practiced and is questionable. Moncell Allen has not practiced either. We need to show up and play an outstanding game. Our inexperience at QB needs to grow up very fast.”
• On how they slowed Auburn down: “We were very nervous going in since they were leading the league in offense. Our front group did a really good job with gap control. We didn’t bite on the misdirection, and while we didn’t get a lot of pressure on the QB up front, our coverage was excellent. It also wasn’t a great night to throw the ball. Very cold and very windy. We also didn’t give up any big plays, and they’ve been able to do that on almost everyone they’ve played.”
• On how key the linebackers were against Auburn: “Auburn can get you with some misdirection. Our linebackers were the key to the victory. Micah Johnson had 14 tackles, Danny Trevathan had 14, Sam Maxwell had 10. The defensive line did a good job of plugging the gaps and keeping their lineman off the second level so the linebackers were free to make the tackle.”
• On how he would rank the Auburn win: “I think we’ve had a lot of significant wins here and this one falls in that category. From where we were coming off of three tough losses, and without our starting QB, without our best corner, to go on the road and get a win against a team like Auburn at Auburn has to rank up near the top of the wins since I’ve been here for the circumstances. The significance will only be meaningful if we continue to win and build off it.”
• On how the locker room was after the Auburn win: “Everyone was happy because the locker room and the trip home from South Carolina was very painful. It was great to see the young men get rewarded for making the effort and playing a great game.”
• On why the triple option went away in college football and now has caught on again: “It has caught on again, but most are doing it from the spread and the shotgun. The fans didn’t like it years ago because there wasn’t enough passing and it wasn’t exciting. A lot of the fans, particularly on the west coast wanted to see the ball thrown some more. Some changes take place because teams stop it, others because the fans don’t like it. It’s always been difficult to stop though, and it obviously still is.”
• On the benefit of Randall Cobb after the injury to a starting QB: “Randall is the ultimate playmaker and leader. He’s as exciting a football player as I’ve ever been around. He’s put it on his shoulders to sort of carry us in the 4th quarter. He’s the ultimate football player to me. He’s an exciting football player as well. He means an awful lot to what we’re getting done right now and what we’re hoping to get done moving forward.

Normally we give fun little blurbs on the rest of the coaches, but for the most part, there was nothing of real note. Perhaps it just seemed down because of the firestorm over the last couple weeks about Tebow, Twitter, etc. but for the most part it was a very status quo sort of conference call. Several coaches wrapped significantly early, and more than just Bobby Johnson had very few questions.

The only real note was the sidestepping from Bobby Petrino ducking question after question about the SEC officials and their nice gift wrapping skills and/or Florida favoritism. Petrino shot most of those down with a no comment, and said it was best to ask the league office. Something tells me that’s going to get a pretty resounding no comment as well.

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