11/11/2002 - Football
Paul Johnson Press Conference For Monday, November 11

Q. Can you expound a little more about something you were telling me yesterday about how you?ve never gone this far into a season without a fullback rushing for 100 yards in this offense. Can you talk a little bit about that?

A. Yeah, it?s really puzzling.

Q. Was that the case at Hawaii as well, your fullbacks busted out some big plays?

A Oh yeah. Our fullback at Georgia Southern went 39-straight games over 100 yards rushing. The kid that is their now has gone over 100 every game. When I was at Hawaii our fullback rushed for over 1,500 yards my last year.

Q. Who was that?

A. A kid named Travis Sims. When I was here the first time I don?t think we had a guy with a 1,000 because Omar Nelson and Tim Cannada both played a lot but the two combined went over 1,000. It?s been an enigma. It?s hard to put your finger on it. We?ve played teams that have given us that. We just haven?t been able to bust one. We?ve been a hair off here and a hair off there.

Q. Can you explain how much of a staple of the offense that needs to be?

A. Well we run the triple option and if you don?t have one option that?s productive then it?s hard to have a triple option. People wonder what happens with the offense sometimes, why it would change from one series to the next, well defenses decide on what they are going to try and take away. We might start the game, for example Tulane, and they may take away the fullback so the quarterback and the pitch is there and if we beat them on it they may decide that hey that isn?t the answer so they start slanting out and say OK we are going to let the fullback go and when that doesn?t go it takes you out of the offense. People think you can just pull the ball and pitch it, but it doesn?t work that way.

Q. Do the center and the guards need to do a better job creating those holes?

A. There?s a lot of things. The fullback has to get his read right, we need to block better, and we just need to do some things better. I don?t know what our longest gain by a fullback is this year, but it was on a pitch, it wasn?t inside.

Q. The staple of your offense is that the fullback is going to get a lot of yards.

A. We don?t care who gets it, but the fullback has to be productive. The offense has been more productive than I would have thought considering the fullback hasn?t had 100 yards.

Q. But you thought Kyle ran hard right?

A. I thought Kyle ran hard and I thought Bryce ran hard.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about Connecticut?

A. Yeah, I think they have an athletic team. They?ve scored over 60 points two weeks in a row and any time you can do that you have to have some athletes. I?m impressed with their quarterback and tailback, I think they are good players. They have a good receiver. Defensively they run well. They have a good football team.

Q. Do you think they are better than you would have expected at this point of coming into Division I?

A. I don?t know about any of that. We played them a few years ago when I was at Georgia Southern in the playoffs, ?98 I think.

Q. Was Edsall there?

A. No, it was Skip Holtz. Skip left after our game and Edsall took the job then. They are a lot better now then they were then.

Q. So they have upgraded?

A. We beat them fairly handily in the playoffs. They are a lot better football team now.

Q. What do you see in this tailback Terry Caully.

A. He?s got good vision and he breaks tackles. He?s a little jitterbug in there. He?s a good player. He?s been good against everybody they?ve played. He?s a good player.

Q. What?s Craig?s (Candeto) status?

A. Honestly we don?t know. The x-rays were negative, we?ll see.

Q. How much practice can he miss to be able to play in the game?

A. He needs to be ready to go by Wednesday or Thursday. We have confidence in Aaron if Aaron needs to start and we should get Lamar (Owens) back this week as well. That was kind of scary on Saturday, we were already without Lamar and Craig goes out four plays into the game.

Q. I asked Scott who the third quarterback was.

A. Coach Jasper was going in the game if Aaron got hurt. Probably Ryan Moody, he had taken snaps in practice last week.

Q. Eckel?

A. Again, we don?t know. He and Bryce probably aren?t going to practice but a day or two this week. We may be to Brimage. I?ve wanted to watch him play anyway.

Q. You talked about carrying the emotion over from Notre Dame to this game and hoping it would continue.

A. It?s not just emotion, it?s intensity, and it?s the way we approach things. I hope that we?ve learned that that?s the way you play football, every week. That?s the way you play. I think everybody was disappointed after that game because they put so much into it. It?s like I?ve said all year, when you invest it hurts and that?s the way you have to play. When I walked into the locker room after the game, I think everybody was crushed. I was disappointed, I was disappointed for our players and everybody involved that we didn?t close the deal, but I saw our guys, lots of guys, that it really sunk in and it makes me feel like we have a chance to turn the corner if we can carry that over. We?ve set a new standard and that?s the standard I?m holding them too. We aren?t going back and we talked about that in the team meeting today that?s the standard we are shooting for. You can?t turn it on and off.

Q. Are you disappointed that you didn?t get a little more credit for hanging as well as you did with Notre Dame?

A. Yeah but they have their own take.

Q. I mean they should beat you 39-times in a row.

A. Everybody talks about 39 in a row but if you go back to the beginning it?s not like we were setting them on fire before the 39-game streak (9-27-1). It?s a situation where our guys like to compete against them and I think it?s a good game for us. I don?t think anybody who was at the game thought it was a runaway. I think our guys took exception to all the articles about how they were going to get time for their backups, and how it was going to be a great game for this guy to catch a pass and that guy to catch a pass and it would be a good time to get a look at everybody. I didn?t see them putting any subs in.

Q. Do you think it put to rest any talk about how that game shouldn?t be played?

A. I don?t know. That?s out of my realm. I feel like it?s good to play them every year, it?s good for our program. As far as the scheduling goes we?ve beat that horse to death. Everybody knows where I?m coming from. I?m not saying don?t play Notre Dame. I?m just saying let?s be smart who we schedule. We don?t want to play Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Nebraska back-to-back-to-back.