	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 20, 2017

Dino Babers

Greensboro, North Carolina

DINO BABERS: Obviously we're going to one of the most famous venues in college football. You have to have fantastic respect for Coach Orgeron and the LSU Tigers. It's an unbelievable place. I've been in coaching for a while and I've never had an opportunity to go down there.

It's going to be exciting. It's going to be fun and we know how difficult the task is, so we're looking forward to the trip and hopefully we'll be just as excited when the trip is over.

Q. Looking at the defensive line and defensive end position with Alton Robinson and Kingsley Jonathan, what you can say about their evolution since coming on to the team and just what your expectations have been of these two gentlemen as you step forward and obviously they have risen up the depth chart a little bit?
DINO BABERS: Well, I think all our D-line is doing a fantastic job. That position is kind of a position-by-committee. Those guys really rotate a lot during the game. And although we don't have a lot of sacks from those guys, we do have a lot of hurries and I think they have been doing a really nice job in the run game.

Q. I know you said you have tremendous respect for Ed Orgeron going into the game. What are some key points you've taken away from their offense and just what you've seen from their offensive capabilities?
DINO BABERS: They are such a big, physical football team. Their quarterback, obviously, is somebody that can throw the football. Their tailback is probably the top tailback in college football, if not one of the top three, and they can just turn around and hand that guy the ball and beat people.

They are big, physical, they are tough, they are fast. If they get out in the open we are probably not going to be able that catch them and their wide receivers, they look like trees and run like deer. It's a very, very explosive offense and we're going to have our hands full.

Q. About ten minutes ago, Coach Orgeron said Derrius Guice is very questionable. How might that affect what you're trying to do defensively?
DINO BABERS: Well, we probably would have to still try to do the exact same thing, if he's not going to play, then they have probably got some freshman behind him, some other five-star, four-star we haven't seen on tape, and it will probably make our job even more difficult because we wouldn't know what he's capable of doing.

Guys like that, that guy is a competitor. He's a tough guy. I'm sure he's going to be there Saturday night.

Q. And secondly, will we see Markenzy as early as we did against Central Michigan in the backfield?
DINO BABERS: Well, I don't know about that. Ball security is job security in our program, and we need to do a better job not only with the running backs, but also with all of our skill guys in holding on to the football.

Q. When you were recruiting Sean Riley, I wondered if his size was ever a concern and what you saw in him that offset that for you?
DINO BABERS: Well, first of all, we've tried to recruit, the bigger the better. I always believed in what John Thompson used to say about his recruits: He misses on kids, but if he misses on a kid, they are big. We try to do the exact same thing on football.

But when it comes to Sean Riley, he's an explosive player and you couldn't hide his talents regardless of how big he was. When it comes to the Sean Rileys or the Antwan Cordys, those are kind of the exceptions to the rules when you start talking about size.

Q. Maybe we romanticize it, but ten years ago, it seemed like you had to be an elephant to play the sport. Has the increase of spread offenses made him a more viable player, or do you think he would always have been capable of this?
DINO BABERS: I think when you start talking, I think you hit on something there. Spread offenses, there's more space. With more space, there's more -- you have more opportunity for guys like that to move around and not get caught.

You know, when a little car runs into a big car, the big car just has a dent; the little car is totalled. So the key is space so those guys don't get caught by the big guys but when they get hit, it normally does hurt them.

Q. Just wanted to know what you were able to learn from watching the film over last week's LSU game of how Mississippi State was able to contain them?
DINO BABERS: Well, Mississippi State, their defense is so physical. We can't even compare the two teams. Those guys are bigger than us. They are more physical than us. They have got a whole bunch of five-stars and four-stars all over that football team; the way they played LSU, we can't play LSU that way. We have to try to find a different way to have the success that they had.

Q. A different way in what sense?
DINO BABERS: A different way in a sense that we are going to have to wait till Saturday might because I'm not going to say it today.

Q. After last week's game, Eric walked in the room and you stopped and said, "There's Eric Dungey." What prompted that?
DINO BABERS: One thing I care about more than anything is my players, and I think that when they have a good performance, I want everybody to know it. And I thought they really redeemed himself from the previous week and I just want to take a moment to let people realize that that guy is be some.

Q. What do you make of his leadership? How good of a leader is he?
DINO BABERS: That's a leadership position, and everything he does on and off the field is a reflection of our family.

I think that when it comes to that job and what that job entails, I think that Eric Dungey does a really nice -- he does a really nice job in the leadership department for our football team.

Q. Does his toughness, is that a big factor in leadership?
DINO BABERS: I think that it helps but I don't think it's the only quality you need to have. I think he's definitely a tough guy.

Q. I know since you got there, you said maybe he'll run a little bit less and whatnot but just to took at the dynamic for what he does for the offense when obviously he's running the ball, if the plans that changed at all from what you had going in to what it's become today or if you just accepted that this is what he does.
DINO BABERS: You know, he likes to bring his legs into the game. We just want him to be smart when he does it. I don't think the game plans change much. It's just that he likes doing it.

So if he's going to do it, sometimes we need to try to block everybody and let him do it so there's not so many people available to hit him.

Q. I know you said ball security is job security. I wanted to ask about Markenzy, the rushing attack in general, what you can say you've taken away from Dontae and Markenzy and Moe Neal in the first three games of the season so far?
DINO BABERS: What I said was ball security is job security based off of anybody that handles the ball with all of our skill players. Markenzy is no different than Ishmael; no different than Sean Riley; no different than our quarterback.

We have to hold onto the football. We have to get our turnovers down. Our defenses are doing a really nice job of getting turnovers, and we're giving them right back to where I believe we're almost even when it comes to that during the season.

If you're going to have an opportunity to beat the people that we have showing up on our schedule, I think it's the third toughest schedule left in college football, we have to be able to win the turnover battle.

So if you're going to hold onto the football, you'll have an opportunity to get it. If you're not going to hold onto it, you may have to sit and watch other people play.

Q. Matt Canada is the offensive coordinator for LSU and you saw his offense last year with Pitt. Having seen that offense with all the shifts and motions they do, how does that help this time around?
DINO BABERS: You know, I don't really believe it helps. I mean, he was very effective. What we saw, we couldn't stop when he was at Pitt and now he's got even better athletes to do it.

In a sense, he's more dangerous than he's ever been and he probably can simplify it and still have as much success based off of the athletes that LSU has.

Q. Defensively you mentioned you'd have to have a different style than what Mississippi State did last week. In a general sense, could you describe sort of your defense's style?
DINO BABERS: I'm not sure what that question -- I got the first part but I didn't get the end.

Q. Could you describe the style of your defensive play?
DINO BABERS: You know, there's times when we're very aggressive and we bring pressure, and then there's times when we sit back where I don't think we're one or the other. I think we're a combination of both.

Q. When I asked you about Robinson after you got him, you said you just needed to wait and see how everything clicked for him. Obviously he started against Central Michigan. What have you seen from his growth since he got here, and you know, what do you think the ceiling is for him? Is he still kind of getting better on a day-to-day basis?
DINO BABERS: I think he's still getting better from a day-to-day basis. He has not arrived by any means. He does have a high motor but he tires very quickly.

Obviously he has not been through our conditioning program for a year. We're trying to work hard on that but it's probably something that's not going to come to him until next year. But he does play the game the right way, and he has the right enthusiasm and he has the right attitude.

So as he continues to work and grow, hopefully he'll get better and better.

Q. I think he led your defensive line in snaps this week. Is that kind of a nod to kind of where he is on the depth chart or is part of that trying to get him acclimated to playing that quantity of snaps?
DINO BABERS: I think it's more the latter; trying to get him ready. Exactly what you just said.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297