Tommy Tuberville took to the podium for his weekly Tuesday luncheon press conference. The following quotes are not 100% accurate, but they are the gist of what Tommy Tuberville was saying. My transcribing skills need some work after a long offseason.
Opener
After all was said and done, we played well. We played awfully hard and got gassed on both sides. Nothing you can do until you get in game shape.
Played lots of players. Young guys made mistakes, which was expected. Working on depth and corrections. We’re trying to get as many players game ready as they can. Going to be rough with only one bye week the next 7 weeks. The main thing is we got the victory.
PBS opening crowd was good. Want to continue to make it a venue for the fans, alumni and students. Hope to keep getting good crowds, especially for homecoming this week.
119th time UC plays Miami, one of the longest running rivalries. Didn’t understand that last year. Miami has gotten off to a start where they would like a few more wins. Coaching staff at Miami changed environment. Offense is open, last year was one dimensional.
Defensively, Miami has two of the best corners UC will see this year.
Looking forward to the first Saturday night game of the year. Putting over homecoming a lot as a big event.
Question about looking forward to OSU and looking past Miami:
We struggled last year and seemed like they looked ahead last year, so I’m not worried about it. Don’t worry about who you play, worry about how much better you have to get. If we play like we did last week, where we play hard for two quarters, we’ll have a lot of losses. Have to improve.
Is it easier having a rival game before OSU:
It keeps your attention and focus. Playing 3 Ohio schools in a row couldn’t work out better. There’s a lot of pride on the line. We got Toledo’s best shot, we’ll get Miami’s and we’ll get Ohio State’s.
Do you use the rival angle:
Most of the kids understand it. We talked about Toledo last week, when Cincinnati was 5-0 and lost to Toledo. When you play in state, players pay a lot more attention to it. Some of the parents played for or against one side so there is something there.
Follow up about not understanding the rivalry:
He, and the staff, just tried to find out what UC was last year. They were trying to find out what kind of team they had. Trying to get their feet on the ground, not taking account it was a rival game. It’ll be a tough game. We recruit against each other, players know each other.
Asked about Deyshawn Bond’s knee injury:
Bond is day to day, walking around. was pleased to Mainello. We want to play both centers all year long. Bond’s knee injury isn’t serious. Mainello will start anyway. Depth at center is as important as depth at QB. Want to have more than one center.
Any position he was pleased or displeased with Friday:
Disappointed with DBs. Gave up too many big plays. Can give up completions, not big plays. Experienced players were not in communication with each other. That’s what you worry about early in the season. We blew 4 or 5 coverages, that was concerning.
Running backs ran hard, got yards after contact. We’ll brag about receivers all year, but our backs did well. Tion Green needs to break out. Rod Moore had a few good carries and scored. We know we’ll be able to throw, we have to run the ball. Shooting for 150- 200 yards a game. Gotta take your QB out of it some mentally with the run game. When you get a run game going, let’s the QB take the snap, hand off and relax a bit. We want to be 50/50, we weren’t on Friday. We were proud of how they ran the ball and pass protected.
Asked about how many QBs will play against Miami:
Says all 3. Gotta get them ready for conference play. All the wins mean something, but the ones that make a difference are the conference games. We are a work in progress as a team. We have competition and will play lots of players in game. It only makes players better if you play them. We want to play 50 players per game. If we get positive results, we’ll be better.
Question about Sam Geraci’s week:
There is still competition at punter. Lloyd has improved but Geraci has improved more. Geraci didn’t start punting until 4 months ago after his knee injury. Lloyd worked hard, but it came down to get off time, hang time and distance. He’s proud of Geraci’s first punt, which was inside the 5. He had an average night, with a shank and a line drive punt. Can’t win big game with type of execution. Want to give coverage team time. Sam and John are working hard, The starter depends who has the best Tuesday and Wednesday.
As for kicking, Gantz has Miliano right behind him. Missing the ep has doubt in mind, but kicking the field goal to put UC up 10 was good.
Asked about the viewing punter as a weapon, like Kelly did with Kevin Huber:
They have to flip the field. Last year we didn’t have a lot of that. He’s had average punters and the defense struggled with field position. Punting changes offensive philosophy in your own territory. He’s had some punters so good playcallers ran whatever they wanted because they knew they would get 45 yards and out of their end of the field. A good kicking game changes the attitudes of play callers on offense and defense.
The end.
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