Here are the highlights from Tommy Tuberville’s weekly Tuesday press conference. Maybe I am tired or something, but holy crap did Tubs talk fast today. I tried the best I could to get most of what he was saying. This isn’t a word for word recreation, but I tried to get the main focus across.
Open
Starting what we prepared for all year long, conference play. Could tell a different attitude in players, been looking forward to it all year. We haven’t played up to our capabilities, lots of places to improve. Lots of problems with injuries. We are getting Deyshawn Bond and Kevin Schloemer back. Schloemer had a concussion. Cory Keebler still being evaluated. Adrian Witty will probably be back. He’s our leader in the secondary. We are excited for that.
Gotta get a lot better in more areas, running the ball. We haven’t had a semblance of defense. In 12 quarters, we might have played defense for 4. We’ve been pushed around physically. Mentally, we’ve been good, but physically we’ve been pushed around. Young guys trying to get experience. Defensive hasn’t been good. We tried it all last week against the run with different fronts, it didn’t make a difference.
Trying to build confidence. Trying to cover up for lapses has hurt our confidence. Memphis has most everyone back. They have a speedy defense that blitzes a lot. Running game is what we’ve seen the last 3 games. Haven’t been taking practice to the games in terms of technique.
Question about Luc and all his tackles
Middle linebacker and defensive end should be best tacklers in numbers. Ends only have opportunities when plays come to their side. Middle linebacker should be your leading tackler. We are up to par on that one. Haven’t played good technique on d line. Jeff has been a good hard hat worker, shedding blocks and getting to the ball. Too many tackles are too far down field. Safeties have made a lot of tackles, which isn’t a good sign for your defense. We have to create more problems with offenses.
What are you looking for Saturday from the defense
what disappointed me Saturday was we played awful on 1st down. We didn’t give ourselves a chance on 2nd and 3rd down. Got some things in mind, different people we’ll play. Had a personnel problem, not scheme, against OSU. They were fresher. We made changes. The best thing we did was drop 8, rush 3, make the QB hold the ball. Have to improve gang tackling. Looked at last 3 games, 1 problem is tackling. Still gathering yards after contact opponents have ran for, quite a few. We have to become better tacklers. Tackling is not natural but it has to become natural. We have to get more people to point of attack. Have to have 2 or 3 tackling, haven’t got enough people to the ball. OSU back was like the back from Toledo, we bounced off him several times. He fell for 5 or 6 yards. Need better technique up front, get their momentum up and allow other people to get there. Need to work on technique, playing blocks, getting people to the point of attack.
Asked about the Evans pass, was it a called play? Asked about the man downfield pentaly
Play is designed for run on the handoff for the running back or a keeper. If the safety comes up, it’s a pass. We had two people downfield. Correct call. You can call it, not call it. The big 12 runs that play, officials disregard it. Saturday night it was called, right call. It was a designed play. It’s a new play in college football the last 2 or 3 years. It’s a pretty good play.
Asked about getting pushed around and matchups up front in league play
We had good matchups with Toledo and Miami, decent matchups with OSU, but they kept running different guys. we didn’t have the depth to keep attacking. The offense they run is more a running offense. With the back behind those guys, we made tackles but too far down field. We couldn’t run the 11 man front that Virgina Tech ran. Our corners are so young, couldn’t match up.
Asked about Luc’s tackles and if anyone is playing well
Yeah, we’re not taking care of the little things. First three games, we took the blocker on, technique things. Hartsfield has played decent. Temple has played hard. Guys have tried to make up for others mistakes, it adds up. We were exposed Saturday for the simple fact we didn’t hold up with our front 4. We made tackles, but the tackles were farther down field than we hoped. Couldn’t get them (OSU) 2nd and long.
Asked about resiliancy
Harder for coaches and fans to bounce back than the players. We told them last week we wanted to get better, execute better, but it starts this week. We’re gonna get on mind on Memphis, that’s what we’ve done. Tubs doesn’t like the non-con game next week. It’s gonna be a tough match up with Memphis.
Asked about points and scoring quickly
You take ’em when you get ’em. Would prefer a long drive, but offense is hit and miss. We’re not good enough at running the ball to think we can drive the ball 12, 14 plays. We know what our strength is. We have to come up with techniques to make the offense go. Running game isn’t bad, we’ll get better. It’s awfully hard to run block when you are missing the center, left guard and right tackle. We work so much on protection because of our strength, there’s only so much time to work on run blocking. Have to work on controlling the ball.
Asked about Gunner and how he reacted at OSU
The biggest thing he (Tuberville) was concerned about was handling people around him (Gunner) in the pocket. He got hit several times against Toledo, bounced back, did a good job. Miami hit him, he bounced back, did a good job. Last week, took a helmet under the chin and fumbled. Got back to work. Got that look in his eye after he’s got the heck knocked out of him. Kay took a beating last year and kept on ticking. You’re gonna get hit in spread offenses. You have to wait long enough to get the ball off.
Asked about Moore’s big day
If you got back and look at the film, they were worried about McKay. You can’t put your attention on one guy. Moore was quarter speed in practice all week, asked the trainers if he was able to play. You’re gonna see different leaders each week. We didn’t go in specifically looking for anything. We’re gonna take what they’ll give us. QB is going to go where there are less people. The beauty of the offense is different guys catch balls and being the leaders every week.
Asked about Memphis
They had a lot yards at UCLA, lot of points. Their defense gives you problems. It’s a stern test for the offense. We’ll find out more about our offense this week. Bond could play center or guard, he’ll help us. This is one of the better teams in our league. Gonna be an interesting week how we bounce back. We know what happened last year against the first conference opponent, we stunk it up. We’ll get better on defense if we keep guys healthy.
Asked about tackling
We try to tackle high. We’ve done a poor job of it. We’ve been going lower sometimes. What’s happened is you see more missed tackles in one on one match ups, it’s a better chance to miss tackles. Small guys in the game to make you miss tackles. It’s the way football has gone. Next week he’ll have the stats about yards after contact.
And that’s where the video stopped.
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