9/4/2003 - Football
Transcript Of Paul Johnson's Press Conference

Q. Can you talk a little bit more about Texas Christian?

A. No (laughter)

Q. What kind of game plan do you have to have to beat a team that is clearly a heavy favorite?

A. I think you have to do what you do. You just have to try and do it better. My take on things is you get a system and you run it and you practice it and you get good at it. You?re not going to go in and do something out of the realm and get better at it in three days. What you have to do is hope you get good enough in 18 or 20 weeks of running your system better than they can defend it in four days.

Q. From what you can tell has TCU seen much option over the last couple of years?

A. They?ve played some option teams. Everybody runs it a little different. In the past they?ve played Rice, they?ve played Navy; they?ve played Air Force. They?ve played option teams. Of course, Gary and I coached here together so he saw it every day. It?s not going to be anything that?s going to catch them by surprise. They are going know how to line up and how to play.

Q. Your option isn?t the same as what it was in 1995 I would imagine?

A. Pretty much.

Q. Really?

A. So is his defense.

Q. What is his defense?

A. A 4-2-5

Q. How about their defensive line?

A. They are physical and they can really run. When you have 265-270 pound guys that are sub 4.6, that?s probably faster than our skill guys. They can really run. They have a huge speed advantage. The thing we have to hope is the fastest guys don?t always win. Hopefully the team that plays the best will win. That?s our only chance. If we go to a weightlifting compeition or a track meet against these guys we wouldn?t do very well.

Q. Patterson said they are an attack style defense. It seems they could be vulnerable to the option because you can get them going one way and maybe they can take themselves out of position. Is that true?

A. I don?t know about that. I think what he?s saying is that they come off the ball and they blitz. They stunt a lot. They don?t blitz as much as people think. They get good pressure with their up front people. They will pop some backers and do some stuff. They play really hard. If you get guys that are good athletes and play hard in a system they usually become pretty good.

Q. Offensively what have you seen from them?

A. They?ve got good backs and they are really huge on the offensive line. They have young receivers and the quarterback is really impressive. He carries himself well. He?s bigger than our defensive linemen. They have some weapons.

Q. There one receiver, Harold, looked like a track guy. He looked pretty fast.

A. They have a lot of guys that are fast. They are a school in Texas; you know they are going to be able to run.

Q. In terms of what they run offensively, what kind of system are they?

A. They have a system that is unique to them. It would be hard to categorize them. They have a little power game, run some option and they throw the ball. They can hurt you with a lot of stuff. They run the option a lot, but I wouldn?t categorize them as an option team.

Q. Not triple?

A. No they don?t run the triple. They run down the line, a zone option.

Q. What would it mean to Navy to win this game? Obviously beating a quality team on the road is one thing and there?s this very long streak of not beating a ranked opponent. Can you talk about what it would mean to the program if you could beat TCU?

A. It would be big. Any time you can beat a ranked team it would be huge and they haven?t done it here in almost 20 years. It would be a sign that we are going in the right direction.

Q. Do you see in the player?s faces that they truly believe they can beat this team?

A. I hope so. I hope they wouldn?t go if they didn?t think they had a chance. We?ll know more Saturday night when the game starts when you look and see. Shoot, that?s a long trip, if they don?t think they can win I wish they would tell me and I won?t go. I would be better served here doing something else.

Q. Isn?t part of what you?re trying to change here is having the team believe they can go on the road and beat a quality opponent like TCU?

A. I think you have to be honest with the kids. Just like I told them, TCU has a really good football team, maybe the best team we?ve played. Now, what that does is give you an opportunity to measure yourself against them. We need to play better than we played Saturday if we?re going to have a chance to win. Do I think it would be impossible to go there and win? No. If I did, I wouldn?t go. But they also need to understand that I doubt anybody is going to make us the favorite.

Q. I read an interesting story today about Delaware State taking some of your option offense and implementing it into their system. Can you talk a little bit about that? Have you done that a lot in your career? Have other coaching staffs on the collegiate level come to you and ask you about the triple option and how it works?

A. Yeah, through the years we?ve had a lot of people come in.

Q. Any other schools that you can remember right off hand?

A. I?ve probably had a million schools. When I was at Georgia Southern we sometimes had 50 or 60 per year.

Q. Really. Collegiate level?

A. All levels. When I was at Georgia Southern we had Notre Dame visit, South Carolina visited, a lot of I-AA teams, I can?t remember them all. Through the years there have been a bunch.

Q. So why help Notre Dame run your option if one day you might have to face them?

A. I don?t think you?re helping Notre Dame. What you do is you let them come in and watch film. It?s not like I have a patent on the thing. I think the big thing with coaching is that it?s not so much knowing what to do, but knowing when to do it. Anybody can have the rules of the offense. The deal is when you call plays and how you adjust to different fronts. You aren?t going to tell everybody all you know in two days and even if you could you wouldn?t. There are probably guys that have coached with me for 15 years that maybe I haven?t told everything I know.

Q. So when you do these little mini-clinics for coaches you are just giving them the basics.

A. We are helping them with questions. When they come in and watch our film and they want to know how you do this or why do you do that, I answer them. I try to be helpful if they want to know what I would do in a certain situation and I would give them my opinion. It doesn?t mean it?s right. Most coaches are just trying to pick up one or two things; they aren?t going to copy you verbatim anyway. They have their own ideas.

Q. So who in the country on the collegiate level runs the triple option as close to the way you do?

A. Georgia Southern. That would be it.

Q. You can?t think of another one or haven?t seen another one?

A. Nope. And even in a year they?ve gotten away from it a little bit if you watch them, but they are the closest and that?s probably because part of the staff was with me for five years. I think what happens is everybody gradually gets away from it. You can watch Navy?s film from when I was here in 1996 and the next year, when Kenny was doing it, it was similar but it starts to take on their own thing and by 1999 it didn?t even look the same. When I got back here and started watching the film it wasn?t even recognizable.

Q. Even though they called it the spread.

A. Even though you line up the same it doesn?t mean you do the same things. Everybody who runs the ?I? formation doesn?t run the same offense.

Q. If that?s the case then you do have a patent on it.

A. The way we run it I guess.

Q. Nobody else is running it.

A. As long as you?re calling plays you are going to run it the way you call the plays.