Nov. 1, 2006

In Attendance: Bill Wagner (Annapolis Capital), Corey Masisak (Washington Times), Christian Swezey (Washington Post), Gary Lambrecht (Baltimore Sun)

Lambrecht: No TV today, Paul

Johnson: That's why I get to talk to you guys first. You don't always get to be the first pick do you?

Lambrecht: No

Johnson: I don't think I was my wife's first pick either and somehow we've made it.

Lambrecht: How much are your guys, in terms of coming out of these last two games, a little scarred.

Johnson: Hopefully they are a little mad.

Lambrecht: Can you get a sense of their attitude?

Johnson: We've had a good week of practice. The attitude is good. I think they understand the importance of the game and we've prepared pretty well. Now, we could go out there to play and come out flatter than a pancake, who knows, but I don't think so. I'm sure Duke feels like they can beat us if they watched the tape. If I watched the tape I would think they could too. We have to go and get ready to play better than we've played the last couple of weeks.

Wagner: Will Harper and Chan be able to play this week?

Johnson: Yes. They both practiced today.

Masisak: I'm sure some of these guys remember that they didn't play their best game down there last year.

Johnson: I don't know. It came down right to the end, but we've played some close games with them. You know the talent level when you play those teams, forget the record, they have some talented kids. They have some high school All-Americans and some guys that were highly recruited and our guys understand that we aren't taking a bunch of those guys down there. From a game standpoint we know what we are and we know how we have to play.

Swezey: You guys have been pretty good on the road this year.

Johnson: So far. Hopefully we will keep that going, so far, so good.

Wagner: What is your take on your kicking situation at this point in the season?

Johnson: It's been inconsistent the last couple of games. I thought it was pretty good for a while. Matt missed one the last game, but hell you aren't going to make them all. I have confidence that Matt can make them. I think he's a good kicker. He has a strong leg. I feel bad for Joey (Bullen). He's been hurt the whole time and it doesn't look like he's going to be ready any time soon. Greg (Veteto) has done a nice job punting for the most part. He didn't do as well in the last game, but for the most part he's done a pretty good job. We have to quit punting so much. That would help.

Lambrecht: And make them punt.

Johnson: Yeah, we need to get it going back in that direction again. That would be a lot better.