Football: Rodriguez Press Conference
October 07, 2003 04:22 PM | General
October 7, 2003
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| Rodriguez |
What can you do to get more offensive plays?
“That’s a concern on both ends. The lack of plays comes from not having any sustained drives yourself on offense along with your defense giving up too many long drives and not getting enough three and outs. Our defense is playing 80-some plays. Sometimes it’s because the offense is getting out too quick and sometimes it’s because our defense can’t get out quick enough. We need to get more three and outs on defense and have less on offense. It’s a double problem we have to solve and we’re working on that.”
On Rutgers having a strong rushing attack:
“They’ve got an entirely new system with a new offensive coordinator. I think it fits their personnel with what they have now. Both Leonard and Hairston are quality backs that run very hard and they are being a lot more patient in the run game. Sometimes it takes patience to get the run game going and they’ve been able to do that. They’ve got a nice package to keep people off balance.”
Can the intensity level of the players be there for Saturday’s game?
“I hope. You work all year for 12 Saturdays with a hope to play a 13th game. We preach that all the time. Inevitably, you try to look in the mind of an 18-22 year old young man and wonder why they aren’t as intense in this game or that game. You see it every week throughout the entire country. Why can a team get up for this and not for that? You hope that’s not the case so you work hard all week to tell them about that so you don’t have the highs and the lows. From a coaching standpoint, you don’t have to worry about that because it’s their job. From a players’ standpoint I think as they mature and you preach it to them they start to understand that. Usually veteran clubs understand that. You worry more about the younger guys like the freshmen and sophomore. Hopefully their youthful enthusiasm will say ‘hey it’s a home game with a big crowd and we’re representing a whole lot of people,’ so I don’t think it’ll be an issue. I think our guys will be ready to play.”
Defensively, how do you prepare for a team that utilizes the fullback so well?
“I think that’s one of the best things that Leonard does is catch the ball out of the backfield. He creates some conflict with you because you can’t just key on the tailback but when they run the isolation play you can’t just disregard the fullback in the flat. That’s one of the best things they do offensively is throw the flood route and lead the fullback in the flat and dump it off and let him make some people miss. They do that as well as anyone we’ve seen so far. It causes you to be a little bit more disciplined defensively than maybe someone who doesn’t use the fullback as much. They do a great job of it and I think that’s one of the reasons they are tougher to defend this season. Also, you have to have a guy like Leonard that can do that. He’s really just a big tailback.”
With the personnel changes last week, have you found the right mix of players?
“Getting closer. I don’t think it’s set because there’s still open competition up front at right guard, tackle and at wide receiver we’re still searching. Most of our personnel changes defensively are a result of Jahmile (Addae) and Scott Gyorko being banged up a little bit so hopefully we can get healthy. At this point in the year when those guys like Jeremy Sheffey and Mike Watson play more you see how they handle things. Our goal is to always get eight offensive linemen that can be graded: five starters, a back-up center, a back-up guard and a back-up tackle. We’re not there yet, but we’re getting closer. We’re getting more confident in maybe even giving Jeremy Hines at center some more reps because he’s really come on in practice. We’re getting more confident, and that’s good, because all those guys are young guys who will get a chance to play a lot in the future.”
