Football Presser, Victory Formation

Well, as always, the presser is just a lot less target rich after a win than a loss. Moving ahead. Smart ass remarks are in orange.

Coach had good things to say about Tom Amstutz, saying the league will miss him. Which, I suspect is true. And, Tom has two more MAC Championships than we've had in quite a few years.

On the injury front, Freddie Barnes is now upgraded to Day to Day, and he may or may not play at OU. Willie Geter practiced sparingly on Sunday. When the subject of AT came up--and Coach had to be prompted--he said "I don't know" and that AT was getting an MRI at that very minute. He did raise the possibility of AT playing later in the presser, so perhaps he will be able to go.

Also, Chip Robinson, one of our highly recruited lineman, is going to redshirt. He has knee problems because, coach says, he needs to lose weight to take the pressure off his knees. Coach is confident that he will do what he needs to do to be a productive player.

Coach said that Chris Wright is look the whole Falcon team--inconsistent. Said he had a big game when we needed it. The whole team is being challenged to be more consistent.

Like, winning two games in a row?

Coach says winning was good for the team, and they are still playing for a lot. He likened it to a single elimination tournament that is no different than what the teams in the CBS Sports.com Blog Poll are going through--lose and you are out.
(Quick note. This is technically not true. Later in the week I'll look at a couple of different sccenarios, but it would be possible for us to win the East outright with four losses).

Coach was asked if he would be scoreboard watching when Miami and Buffalo play next week, and he said the combinations are mind-boggling, and that his team has to just focus on beating OU or it won't matter. (I don't have that problem, so I have run a few of the possibilities).

Coach was asked about the two INT's. He said Sanderson's was huge, because it came right after Tyler had thrown a red zone pick, and it swung the momentum right back. It was a nice play, as he jumped the route on a WR screen. He said that PJ's pick was big, and that the offense has to make the most of those pics and capitalize.

Turning then to the Bobcats, he said OU is a solid defensive team, but snakebit. (Remember, coach is from the West). They have been in close tough games. He also said that there are weapons on offense, including their QB Boo Jackson (a "run around") guy who can throw effectively, and a strong RB and playmaking receiver.

"We're going to have to play four quarters," he said.

Which would be the first time this season.

He went on to say that Boo isn't as good a runner as Edelman (thank god for that) and that they aren't as likely to just drop him back and have him take off as Kent was. (That assumption may not have survived this week's film session in Athens.)

He said the key is:

• Defenders stay in coverage. Don't leave your receiver until he is past the line.
• Get pressure (I'm not sure about this one--seemed like we had lots of pressure on Edelman, but we couldn't actually tackle him).
• Get some turnovers.

He went on to give the usual sound to winning the turnover battle, and how when we win, we are usually more than 1 better than our opponent. This was true against Pitt and Wyoming, but in fact we beat Akron despite losing the turnover battle and we were tied with Kent in turnovers. We also have one loss when we won the turnover battle.

He was asked if Jason Rice would be the #1 RB. He said he would be in the mix, based on AT and Bullock. Said we "knew about him" but didn't offer him a scholarship. He is definitely staying on special teams where he and Zak Akenberger, another walk-on (BGHS Grad) are "blowing people" up. And cleaning up the mess, I hope.

With that, the presser died for lack of anything else to say.

One other note: I checked the KSU game notes, and Edelman ran for a career high against us. As so many have.