11/17/2002 - Football
Paul Johnson's Postgame Press Conference

Q. Paul, can you give us your thoughts on the game?

A. I thought it was a pretty thorough whipping. I was

disappointed. I told the team after the game we

certainly got out-played. We got out-coached. We need

to take some of the credit too. We clearly couldn't

make a play on either side of the ball.

Q. Was there any reason for that? Have you ever had 35

rushing yards before? Could you have ever, in your

wildest dreams, imagined something like that

happening?

A. No, I don't believe I've ever, ever done that

before in my career of coaching. It's a new all-time

for me. They lined up the same way Notre Dame did. We

just couldn't stay on the field. The first half I

think we ran 20 plays. Tha'?s our own fault on offense

for not staying on the field. You've got to make first

downs to stay out there. If I'm not mistaken, I think

they scored every time they had the ball in the first

half. That's not a very good combination. We missed

some reads and we missed some blocks. I don't have any

answers. I mean, other that what we tried to do,

that's all I know how to do. It's what I've done for

20 years. The linebacker was scraping out, we were

getting him loaded, the safety was filling hard. We

tried to throw it over his head, but when we protected

we either miss-threw or dropped it. Or we didn't

protect it, we got hit, and then you get behind and

it's 2nd-and-14. Then we tried to trap because their

linebackers were scraping out. We didn't have any

success with that, so we tried to run a trap option

and of course the linebackers were scraping out so you

have no success with that. Honestly guys, I don't know

what to tell you.

Q. They have some very good skill position players.

Caulley is awfully hard to bring down. Can you comment

on his play?

A. He's a good player. We knew he was a good player

going in, and we didn't make any plays in space. It's

a double-edged sword for us. We don't ever come close

to getting any pressure on the quarterback unless we

blitz, and we have to blitz with a lot. And when we

bring a lot to get pressure, we're exposed on the back

end trying to cover. So it's kind of a pick your

poison. If you don't bring them, they got all

day to stand back there and if you do bring them, then

you have to cover them. There were probably several

times we had a chance to tackle them and maybe stop

them from a first down, and we missed some tackles

again. The touchdown, the one (Calluey) scored on the

little counter pitch play? We called the play. You

couldn't have a better call. We've got two guys out

there when he caught the pitch and he scored anyway. I

think you've got to give him some credit, he's a

pretty good player.

Q. You had talked about maintaining the emotion that

you had in the Notre Dame game. Did that happen today?

A. I think when the guys came out, I thought they were

ready to play. In all honestly, I don't think that had

a whole lot to do with it. I think our guys were ready

to play. I think the lack of success in the first half

hurt that. I don't think we came out flat. The game

started in the worst possible scenario. They took the

first drive and they drive it down the field in six

minutes and score a touchdown. We come out and get a first down because

their linebacker gets lost. After that, I think

we make a couple yards and thenwe try to get a halfback

pass cause the safety was coming up pretty hard. We get

penetration, don't block them very well, and they blow

us up in the backfield, and now it's 2nd-and-10, and when it was

2nd-and-10 today we really were in trouble. They get

the ball back, they score again. We can't move it.

They get the ball back, they score again. By then, a

lot of your emotion is gone. You're trying to hang on,

trying to find a way to move the ball, and when you're

three-and-out all the time, it's hard to fine a way.

You can't really get a set fix on them. When we did

get a fix on them, we didn't carry it out very well.

Q. You have a young team. Do you feel good about the

future?

A. I hope so. I thought we made some progress this

season from the start. I think today is probably a low

point. I know it's a low point for me. It's like I

said, I don't have any answers (for today). I don't know. You take

it and try and build. We've got a lot of young

players. But that's not an excuse. I guess today for the

most part, all our skill guys out there except for one

receiver are sophomores. Tha'?s still no reason to

play like we played. Clearly we've got to try and do a

better job coaching to try and find something they can

do. They clearly couldn't do what we asked them to do

today, so we have to try and find something they can

do.

Q. How do you think Polanco played?

A. I don't know that he was any better or any worse

than anybody else. Certainly we missed some reads and

we had some fumbles on some pitches that were probably

not what we'd like them to be, but at the same time,

when he dropped back to throw, he had people all over

him. I don't know that he ever got to the edge on the

option. It's hard to say. It certainly wasn't all on

Aaron Polanco.

Q. Did you do anything differently or say anything

differently because this was senior day?

A. We talked a lot about it, about trying to send the

seniors out the right way. We tried to use that as

motivation the best we could.