Friday Media Session Transcript
December 26, 2014 04:20 PM | General
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Coach Dana Holgorsen:
Welcome everybody, welcome to Memphis. (We) are going on our second practice here. We got in here on Christmas Day and got in a really good practice yesterday, which would be something similar to a Tuesday practice in-season. Today’s practice would be like a Wednesday practice in-season. There’s not much difference between the two. We had good bounce yesterday. The guys were excited about having a few days off and we’re coming back together in a good place. We’re looking forward to a better practice today and getting ready for a good A&M team.
Unfortunately we’re going to be without the services of Clint (Trickett). He did not get cleared so we’re going to be without him. Skyler (Howard) will be our starter. He has taken about 90 percent of our reps the entire month anyway and then Paul, it would be unfortunate if we need him but if we did need him, then he would go in. Logan Moore is also taking some reps. If a helmet pops off we’re probably going to put Logan in there but if something happens with Skyler then we’re going to go with Paul and try and put our best foot forward to be able to win the game.
Q: Talk about your reaction there for Clint. Obviously it’s a tough situation for him. It’s got to be hard for you to not be able to see him play.
DH: It’s unfortunate just because he’s done such a good job for us. He’s been our starting quarterback and I still consider him our starting quarterback. His senior year didn’t end the way that he wanted it to but with that said, 10 ½ good games and he put us into a position to be able to play in this bowl game. He played really good for the first three quarters of the year. It’s unfortunate. We’ll see where it goes from here for him whether he can continue to play after this or not you guys (media) will have to ask him. I know he’s going to be a hell of a coach one day.
Q: Any academic updates? Any academic casualties for the bowl?
DH: Yeah, Cullen Christian didn’t make it and Brandon Jackson didn’t make it so their senior years ended one game earlier than we anticipated.
Q: For you guys, you said nice bounce coming into yesterday. Any concern about that when you have guys for an extended break? You said you wanted to give them some time to maybe come back a little flat. What was it you liked yesterday?
DH: I was a little concerned with it. I probably gave them off one more day than I am accustomed to but the way the schedule worked out we wanted to give them a few days off and that was just how it kind of worked out. We wanted to knock the rust out of them yesterday. It’s hard to travel and then immediately get them out on the practice field – it’s kind of tough to do that from just a scheduling point of view. With that said, boy, they did have good bounce. Their legs were fresh. They were excited about being here. That’s Bowl 101. If the guys are excited about being here then they’re going to have a good bit of bounce. Our guys, based on what happened yesterday, I think our guys are pretty fired up about being here.
Q: Is it still a learning curve for you? I mean every bowl game is different I suppose.
DH: Well, I didn’t forget how to do it in a year just because we didn’t go to a bowl game last year. I think that humbled our entire team so there are a lot of guys that have been here who haven’t gone to a bowl game because we’re young and we’ve got a lot of JC guys. Prior to that there were 14 straight years where I’ve been to bowl games and we’ve been pretty successful at them so I think we’ve got a pretty good formula on what to do and the guys have been following it to a T.
Q: It seems like Skyler knew the offense in and out by the time he got here and then Iowa State and even before, but what has the last month done in taking him deeper into some sort of understanding?
DH: Night and day. I mean before we put him in against Kansas State I was concerned. We didn’t know how he would react and he handled it well. I think that gave him a bunch of confidence to where he got better in the Iowa State game and I’ve seen considerable improvement here in the last four weeks.
Q: And even looking back to last summer when it looked like he was going to sit out a year can you describe the kind of leap he’s made?
DH: It’s night and day. We didn’t think he was ready. Mentally we didn’t think he was ready. Physically we didn’t think he was ready and we went with William Crest earlier in the year because I thought he was ahead of him. The improvements that he’s made in the last two months I’ve never seen it with a quarterback before, not as a true sophomore.
Q: Not to demean what he’s done, but was his elevation to that almost a matter of you not having any choice other than him?
DH: Pretty much because at that point we wanted to save Paul (Millard) going into his senior year. You saw Clint improve going into his senior year so we thought Paul would show that kind of improvement as well. So we wanted to save him and the next guy up was Skyler and he took advantage of the reps that he was allowed and he’s shown a ton of improvement.
Q: Is Kevin White at 100 percent or slightly off that? What have you seen?
DH: He needs to be. He wasn’t against Iowa State and it hurt us offensively. He’s back to where he was. He’s getting on the same page with Skyler, which that takes some time as well.
Q: Do you have an update on Jacky (Marcellus)?
DH: I don’t. I talked to him a few days ago. He’s in a good place. It’s an unfortunate situation. It is something that I talk to our guys about a lot about not being in those situations but hopefully he will be joining us here in a day or two.
Quarterback Clint Trickett:
Obviously I’m not dressed and ready to go. I wish I could be but contrary to previous statements I haven’t been cleared. I tried as much as I could. Believe me, I’ve been going up to UPMC numerous times over the past month and they were unable to clear me. It’s been five concussions in 14 months now so unfortunately I have to retire from football and get into coaching – the family business – which is something I’ve been excited for and I really am ready to move on. I would love to be out and finish the season with my guys, my last game, and it’s unfortunate how it ended but I had a great senior year and I would trade it for the rest.
Q: So that is it? You are not going to try and do anything else?
CT: It’s not … yeah, it’s pretty bad so.
Q: Have you put feelers out for coaching positions?
CT: Yeah, I’ve talked to just friends and coaches I’ve been with before. Like I said, the main thing was I really wanted to … even if I couldn’t have played just to get back and practice with the guys because I really wanted to just finish it out. In my family we’re big on (finishing what we started) and it’s just unfortunate that I couldn’t be able to do that.
Q: Was it you said five in 14 months? And as far as most people know there were two, maybe three in there. Did you hide those?
CT: Yeah. In fairness to our training staff they didn’t know. I didn’t tell them so that was on me. If they would have known they would have probably been more cautious about it but I was trying to push through it.
Q: Any regrets over that?
CT: No, absolutely not. From moving up here and transferring up here to playing the way I did to everything there are no regrets and like I said I wouldn’t trade my senior year for anything else.
Q: Has this month been about not passing the baseline protocols?
CT: Yeah. UPMC they’re the ones who invented the impact concussion test and they’re very on the front end of it and it was just not where it needed to be. It was tough to hear it. The more and more I think about it I’m like, well, what I’m getting in to I probably need to have a couple brain cells left so it is for the best.
Q: When did you know for sure that you were not going to be able to play and how long have you been able to kind of process this and get yourself prepared for it?
CT: My last visit up there was right before I went back home to Tallahassee. It was almost a week ago or something like that. He just said I don’t feel comfortable and your numbers on the test are not close to where they should be and there has been a lot of typical concussion symptoms that have happened and it would be dangerous for me to be out there – and I probably wouldn’t be as effective if I was out there.
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