home jobs contact us
Our Clients:
Browse by Sport
Find us on ASAP sports on Facebook ASAP sports on Twitter
ASAP Sports RSS Subscribe to RSS
Click to go to
Asaptext.com
ASAPtext.com
ASAP Sports e-Brochure View our
e-Brochure

ALLSTATE BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP


January 3, 2008


Glenn Dorsey

Ali Highsmith

Chevis Jackson

Bo Pelini

Kirston Pittman

Craig Steltz


NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

THE MODERATOR: We have defensive coordinator Bo Pelini, tackle Glenn Dorsey, and safety Craig Steltz. We'll ask each to open us up with some opening comments about the game on Monday before we take questions.
Coach, we'll start with you.
COACH BO PELINI: Well, we're excited to be here. You know, we just finished our first practice since we've been in New Orleans and really second heavy day here for the week, and then things are starting to wind down, and preparation's been good. And the attitude's good and we're looking forward to playing a heck of a football team on the 7th. We're looking forward to the opportunity.
GLENN DORSEY: The week's going good. We're practicing hard. Getting the game plan done. Everybody's moving around, flying around. We're just trying to focus on the task at hand. We came down here for a reason. It's like a business trip. So this is our mind-set. We come down here, we're right where we want to be. We're ready to achieve our goal that we set at the beginning of the season.
So that's the mind-set of the team, we're trying to come out and take care of business.
CRAIG STELTZ: We're excited to be here. I never thought four years ago when I was watching my brother play that I'd have the opportunity to be back in New Orleans and be playing for the national title as he did. He's more excited than anyone. And we're here and we're focused and it's going to be a tremendous game.

Q. Can you talk about your relationship with Coach Tressel and what you learned from him being you're from Youngstown and he coached at Youngstown State?
COACH BO PELINI: I've known Coach Tressel a long time. He's joked about it with me that I was the first guy that he offered a scholarship when he got the job at Youngstown State. So obviously our relationship goes way back. But obviously I just have a tremendous amount of respect for him and what he's been able to do both at Youngstown State and at Ohio State.
I think he's the only coach in history, I believe, to win a national championship at the one AA level and 1-A level and he's had success everywhere he's been. And not only has he had success, but he's done it with class.
And I obviously have a lot of respect for him, and look forward to the opportunity to compete against him. This is the first time I've ever coached against him. And I know they'll be well prepared and he has a heck of a football team.

Q. Craig, could you just elaborate on Kevin and I guess your seats four years ago and what your thoughts were when you were watching that game and now that the roles are reversed, have you talked about it with your family and did you get him better seats?
CRAIG STELTZ: It's been a dream come true. As a team we've faced a lot of adversity, and not from the beginning of the year, you know, you don't really look to the end. But, you know, the national championship is in New Orleans. And four years ago I was a senior in high school and I had an opportunity to watch Kevin. To be in a position to watch him play and win a national title in our hometown playing with family and friends to a dome that was filled with Tiger fans, I couldn't ask for anything else, an opportunity to go back with a special group of guys and a bunch of great guys. And we bond together and we fought through a lot of adversity this year to have the opportunity to play for the national title.

Q. Bo, can you talk about Craig's play and how much in terms of making all-American and so forth, how much you expected from him at the beginning of the year?
COACH BO PELINI: It was interesting, because coming into the year, everybody talked like we lost both our safeties last year, which we lost two quality football players the year before. But Craig's been a starter on our defense since I've been here.
We've used him in a lot of different roles, and we play a lot of subpackages and he's been a featured player. And coming into the year, the pro scouts come in, they talk to you, and there he was 16, all over the field. Both last year and this year. When you look at the production, I believe he was right up there on the top on our defense.
So he's been an integral part of what we've done in defense for a long time. So what he's done hasn't surprised me and there isn't another safety in the country I'd take over him.
His future's bright and to think what he's done here at LSU is -- he's done a tremendous job. And he deserves all the accolades that he's been given.

Q. Glenn, can you just talk about how you're feeling physically, how you're feeling and how the time off since the SEC championship has helped not only you but several of your other teammates that were banged up?
GLENN DORSEY: I'm feeling really good right now, that the time off let us come in, heal, kind of get our legs back under us and stuff like this. Everybody's flying around. Everybody is ready to roll. We just come out and try to prepare at practice day-by-day and just be ready come game time. I feel good. I'm ready to roll.

Q. Glenn, considering how banged up you were during the season, are you surprised at all with all the awards you won?
GLENN DORSEY: I don't know if I would say I was surprised. It was good to see that people still recognize the hard work that we put into the game. I was banged up the last couple of games, but everybody was banged up. So it was just a matter of playing through and just our guys, the guys around me, stepped up and played well and we fought through a lot of adversity. Plus my team being here in the national championship game kind of helped it out, too.
So it was all good. And I'm just right where I want to be right now. I'm just enjoying it.

Q. For both the players, the Ohio State players said yesterday they feel like the underdog coming in here because when they got off the plane there was a huge contingent of LSU fans everywhere they went. Do you guys feel like the favorites in this football game?
GLENN DORSEY: I don't really buy into all that. What other people are going to say, they're going to say. I see a great football team, two great football teams coming out going to play a hard-nosed, tough game. I'm not buying who is underdog and who is the favorite. We just gotta come out and focus on our task at hand.
CRAIG STELTZ: I think they're a tremendous team. It's something we've got to stay focused in not get caught up in that. We're in New Orleans, hometown for a lot of guys on the team. We just gotta stay focused and worry about the game.

Q. Glenn, can you talk to us about your impressions of the Ohio State offense line what you've seen on film for them and have you guys faced an O line that large this season?
GLENN DORSEY: They're real good, big physical guys. I know they'll come out, try to dominate the line of scrimmage. It's going to be a tough task for us. But we prepare hard. We go against great guys every week in our conference.
So we're going to be ready to go. I know they're going to bring their A game; we'll bring ours.

Q. Bo, were there things that you could not do with Glenn in the second half of the season when he was hurt, did you try to have to compensate or scheme around him?
COACH BO PELINI: No, we really didn't change what we do, but obviously, you know, when Glenn was nicked up, I can say this, there was probably -- you could count on one hand the amount of players in the country who would have tried to play with what he had. It wasn't something that was going to be a long-term threat to his health. But he was in a lot of pain. He tried to fight through it.
And, really, gave more snaps that I thought more guys would have attempted. It just shows that's why he's Glenn Dorsey. That's why he's a great player and that's why he's the most decorated defensive player in the history of the school. And he's a special person. And you know we weren't -- you're not as good when you take him out of the lineup. Everybody knows that.
You take away a great player you're not going to be quite as good but we had guys step up and rally around him and that's why we're sitting in this position.

Q. Coach, you mentioned your relationship with Coach Tressel, but what about come Monday night, you see scarlet and gray across the field. What sort of mixed or maybe weird emotions do you anticipate being seeing your alma mater?
COACH BO PELINI: This is a business trip, and like Glenn said. You've been in this profession as long as I have you play against -- there's emotions. My emotions are going to be flying high to win a football game for these guys. The guys I coach with, the guys I coach. And I'm all -- I'll be bleeding purple and gold on Monday night. And that's who I am and, like I said, when you've been in it as long as I have and played against good friends and coached against good friends, you take all those emotions out of it. I'm here for a reason, a specific reason, and that's to help LSU win a national championship.

Q. Coach, how beat up was the defense second half of the season? How unrealistic is the way teams move the ball in college football these days, is it to really stop people? And third part, talk about your transition after this from being an assistant to being a head coach?
COACH BO PELINI: First of all, you know, we were nicked up some, in the second half of the year. But everybody is. And I thought we played at a pretty high level all year long. And, you know, the way college football is, yeah, you're able to stop people, I mean to a certain degree.
I don't know what we ended up giving up at the end of the year, statistically. But I know one thing, nobody marched up and down the field on us.
And bottom line is we have extremely high expectations, and we set our goals high and we set our sights high and our approach. And we don't want anybody to get a first down ever. That's a little bit unrealistic. For a while there that's what people expected out of us. Like I said, that is unrealistic.
And teams, they're going to move the ball on you some and they're going to score points at times. But at the end of the day we play good enough defense to get ourselves in this football game, and we feel we're the best defense in the country and we'll try to go out Monday night and prove it to the world.

Q. The transition?
COACH BO PELINI: The transition, I've been doing this a long time. And the way I set up a defense and the way the things I do to -- and the things I believe in that make a defense special, the same principles and concepts and aspects that I'm going to bring to a head coaching position. But that's down the line.
And that's four or five days from now. Right now I'm just concentrating on LSU.

Q. All three of you, Florida did a great job getting after Troy Smith last year. Have you guys had a chance to take a look at that tape or are you looking at that tape in preparation for this game?
COACH BO PELINI: Yeah, I've watched all their games from this year. I've watched probably the last four bowl -- probably every bowl game since Coach Tressel has been there. We've done our homework.
It was different time, different place, different offense. But some of those aspects will be in our game plan. And some won't. We're going to play -- we're going to do what we do. And we're going to let it all hang out and let our guys feel -- I believe our guys are confident and ready to go fly around and play their best football.

Q. Bo, what's your schedule been like the last month, how hectic has it been trying to do both?
COACH BO PELINI: It hasn't been. I've been concentrating -- I had a couple weeks there where I went and recruited. And since I've been back, I've been about 99 percent LSU. And fortunately the rules of the NCAA and the way things are set up, it hasn't been a problem at all and I've been doing this a long time.
And I'm committed to these guys. I'm committed to winning a football game. And we're looking forward to the opportunity. These opportunities don't roll around very often. And, believe me, I've never done anything half-in in my life, and I didn't start on this trip.

Q. Craig, I'm sure everybody is get bombarded with ticket requests since the game is so close to campus, but give us an idea of how many tickets you've been asked to get from friends and family since you're from right here in New Orleans?
CRAIG STELTZ: As a team in the Louisiana area, everybody wants a ticket because they're close by. But we only get so many tickets and it's only two more than we get during the regular season. Kind of the people who have been going through the regular season, they're already booked in. It's kind of hard to get an opportunity unless you have some good friends who are going to the game far away, are from California, to have an opportunity to transfer tickets from you. It's busy wish we had some more.

Q. Has your phone been blowing up with text messages?
CRAIG STELTZ: My mom takes care of all the tickets. So a lot of times she gets all the ticket requests, and I kind of just push them over to her.

Q. Glenn and Bo, could you talk about Beanie Wells, their big back? I think Kirston compared him to Alley -- Alley Broussard, sorry -- kind of a pound it at you kind of guy. Is that what you are expecting out of them and do you see that similarity, for both of you?
GLENN DORSEY: He's a big guy, runs the ball hard, has some great moves. I think he's faster than what people give him credit for. He's a quick, powerful guy. We're going to have to be on top of our game to try and stop him.
COACH BO PELINI: I think he's a quality back. I'm not big into making comparisons, but he's a heck of a football player who they feature in their offense, and they feel confident in their running game and that's obviously going to be a big key to the football game.

Q. Bo, yesterday Jim Tressel said that one of the reasons that offenses are scoring at a higher clip in the post season than the regular season is rusty tackling, that poor tackling in the post season seems to be prevalent. Is that something that you're concerned with with your guys, that they haven't had a lot of physical practices, that they may be a little rusty when it comes to being physical?
COACH BO PELINI: No, what I believe is tackling is about getting a lot of people around the football. That's something that we pride ourselves in. Our culture and our defense is that we want to be the best effort team in the country.
Yeah, there are quality football players out there. And there's a lot of good athletes on the field, good teams playing good teams in the post season. There's going to be people that miss tackles, that's part of football. But the key to it is you get more hats to the football. To me that's all about effort and accountability and having the guys back who play next to you, who is playing next to you. And I think that's what we pride ourselves in.
So, like I said, I feel real good about our chances, and the preparation that we've had in every regard, and that includes tackling.

Q. Coach, after viewing all the film, what are the two or three key things that your defense needs to really focus on the most in priority in this game?
COACH BO PELINI: I think stopping the run first. Not giving up big plays. And obviously those are the two things that I think are probably the two biggest aspects of -- make them have to earn everything they do. And obviously and probably the third thing is win on 3rd down. Get them in the manageable 3rd down situations and get off the field when you have the opportunities.
Those are probably the three aspects that we really pride ourselves in and really focus on in every given week.

Q. Craig, I know you said you're focusing, talked more to your brother about this experience, but how much have you guys leaned on Kirston Pittman? Because he's the only Tiger that has been in this situation before. He said that yesterday some guys came and talked to him about what to expect come Monday night?
GLENN DORSEY: I've been asking a lot of questions. Before we got down here I asked him what type of environment we were getting into. Because this is the big game. All the other games are pretty much done, and the biggest show. I talked to him about with all the distractions and all this.
He said there's going to be a lot of distractions but just stay focused and know you're on a business trip. You're down here for a reason, not to have fun and be distracted. You're down here to achieve your goal.
CRAIG STELTZ: You're down here to win a ball game. And when it's all said and done, you can have a great time, if you don't win the ball game, you know, Coach Miles talks about you're not ever going to remember anything. He said just go prepare, focus, stay on the game and enjoy your time here, but don't have too much fun.

Q. Some coaches have gotten another job and moved on. Could you take us through that thought process of when the Nebraska situation came up, your thought process in staying on board to get this team ready for the national championship game?
COACH BO PELINI: Well, I never really gave it a second thought. Coach Miles never gave it a second thought. And obviously I had the support of Coach Osborne up in Nebraska.
There's too much -- we've been through too much together. Myself, these gentlemen sitting next to me, and the whole room, the whole team.
And I'm committed to them and we're committed to getting this thing finished and doing it the right way. And would have felt like unfinished business. And there was no way I wanted to walk away from these guys, and I wanted to be with them right to the end. And there was no hesitation on my part. And I know these guys wouldn't want it any other way either.

Q. For the players, just as a follow-up, has that been kind of a rallying point for your unit?
CRAIG STELTZ: You know, it was happy that we had an opportunity to play one more ball game with Coach Bo. We heard he had the opportunity to come back and coach for us, we were excited as can be. It's a dream come true for him to have a head coaching job in Nebraska, but as a coach, you coach to play in the national championship, and as a player you play to play in the national championship.
To have the opportunity and the hard work we've put in over the past three years and the bonding we've done is tremendous. So to have an opportunity to finish off the national championship is going to be pretty cool.

Q. For Glenn and Craig, as a follow-up, what do you appreciate the most about coach Pelini and what will you miss the most from him?
CRAIG STELTZ: Just the way he comes to work every day. He always keeps us focused, whether it's focused in the play or period or just the practices, or just being able to refocus on the game. He does a tremendous job of keeping us focused on the game.
GLENN DORSEY: I agree. That's the biggest thing. Just the way he approaches it, practice and the meeting room, his intensity. Second to none, you know what I mean? It doesn't matter if it's 5:00 in the morning, he's ready to roll. That's the biggest thing that I like about him. He's always trying to motivate you and making sure you're doing the right thing. You can talk to him about anything. And he's our general. He's our head guy. We just rally around him.
He's always trying to help us out. So I'm going to miss him. But we just gotta come out here and take care of business.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, players, thank you.
We've been joined by Ali Highsmith, Chevis Jackson and Kirstson Pittman.
Gentlemen, if could you make an opening statement on your preparations for the upcoming game on Monday, and we'll take questions. Start with Ali.
ALI HIGHSMITH: Preparation has been total focus by everybody going out there and just getting prepared for the game and just everybody tuning in and worried about themselves, really and what they have to do and getting better.
CHEVIS JACKSON: I mean, like Ali said, we're just out there focused on what we have to do, the game plan that Pelini has put out for us. And we're just trying to go out there, read our keys. Try not to make mistakes. Just try to make the plays when it comes to us.
KIRSTON PITTMAN: Just like Ali and Chevis both said, we're really just getting focused, paying close attention to detail and watching the film and studying our guys. And Coach Pelini has implemented a great game plan and we're starting to take it seriously, not just getting caught up in the moment and guys are focused on working hard and taking the game seriously.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. This is actually for all three of you guys. After Georgia's win the other night, after Southern Cal's win the other night, several prominent websites and publications said that maybe Southern Cal and Georgia could be the best teams in college football no matter what happens here on Monday night. When you hear that stuff, does it kind of bother you that here you guys are here playing for the national championship yet some are going to say Georgia or Southern Cal could be the best team in the country?
CHEVIS JACKSON: Well, I know me personally, I mean, it really doesn't bother me because we're here. We got in the game. We won the SEC championship. I mean, we're here. So it really doesn't bother me how everybody perceives what they perceive.
So we're just trying to go out and make the plays when it comes to us and play ball.
KIRSTON PITTMAN: Personally, I feel just like Chevis. We really don't pay attention to those kind of things. We don't buy into it. A lot of the guys, we don't really talk about it. The things that are being said, that's people's opinion. That's how they feel. But we really feel we deserve to be here. All that we've been through as a team this year, guys being injured and the long, tough games we've fought through, everything we've been through as a team has only made us better and made us a better team, made us a better people.
So we're just taking it all in stride and not paying attention to that. We know we deserve to be here and we're really focused at the task at hand and just really preparing to play the game this coming Monday night.

Q. Kirston, apparently you're the old man on the team giving that sage advice on handling this. Have a lot of guys approached you and talked to you about what to expect in this game and I guess from this week, and how have you taken that, in which directions have you guided them in?
KIRSTON PITTMAN: I told the guys, you have to grasp the moment and take advantage of the opportunity, because a lot of people really don't get the opportunity to play in the national championship game. I've been fortunate enough that this is my second go-around. And I just told the young guys, you know, you have to prepare better. You have to practice better.
Everything you do has to be better for the national championship game, because it is not just a bowl game. It is the game. It's just the big dance. Just take advantage of it and go out and practice like you're going to play. Because the coaches always preached to us, you have to practice the way you want to play. If you just go out and practice hard and just practice 100 percent and pay close attention to details and really focusing in and just work hard every day, it's going to carry over to the field.
So I just try to tell the guys we have to take advantage of every opportunity and don't let it pass you by, because you may never get the chance again.

Q. Number of the Ohio State players said yesterday they feel like they're the underdog coming into Louisiana. Obviously you guys have the home support here in the Superdome and had it so many years. Do you feel like you're the favorite in this football game even though you're ranked second in the BCS?
ALI HIGHSMITH: Really, like he asked us earlier about how everybody was talking about the other teams being arguably the best team in the nation and things like that, and wondering if we should be here or not, actually we feel like people are saying we really don't deserve to be here and don't give us that much credit. I mean, it's just we feel like we have a point to prove, too. And just because it's our hometown, you still gotta go out and play. It's a national championship game. Anything can happen whether you're home or not home.
So we don't go and look at it like we got everybody behind us. We really go out there and feel as though we are on a deserted island by ourselves and we have to fend for ourselves, to go out there and to survive.

Q. For all three players, how was practice today and did you find yourselves -- I know you were practicing for the better part of a month for this game, but practicing at the same venue where the game is going to be played, did you find yourself looking around just for a little bit saying, man, this is where the game's going to be taking place in less than four days?
KIRSTON PITTMAN: Not at all. I just think that everyone is just focused right now. Before practice, a lot of the guys are just talking about, we have to go out and do better. We control our destiny right now. We feel as if we control everything. What we do counts. It's not what the other team does. We have to go out and practice better. We have to go out and prepare better.
So what we do is going to play a toll on what happens in the game. Everybody has to be accountable for their own actions. You have to be responsible for your job. If you have to take a guy going in the flat or something of that nature, that's your job. That's what you have to do.
We're not really getting caught in the moment. Coach Miles talked about this is a business trip. People don't expect us to be here. We're taking that seriously and really feel we belong here. So it's not about just looking around in a stadium at all. It's business for us right now.

Q. How was practice today, how did practice go today?
KIRSTON PITTMAN: Really well, we have guys running around. We have guys really healthy, just going out and getting after each other, getting prepared for the game.

Q. This question is for whoever wants to answer. This team has a possibility of having another number one overall pick. Several mock boards have Glenn Dorsey as the number one pick going to Miami. What's your thoughts on his draft status and do you think LSU could possibly be the first school in history to have two number one picks back-to-back?
ALI HIGHSMITH: If it happens, it's well deserved. He worked hard. He worked hard, went out there and played to the best of his ability and got the support of everybody on this team really pretty much, and like I said before, it's well deserved. And if it was to happen, that would be a great honor for him to go out there and be considered the best player in the nation to go the first pick of the draft.
KIRSTON PITTMAN: He deserves it.
CHEVIS JACKSON: I second that (smiling).

Q. I know you've had injury problems over the past few years, but I've heard that your work ethic and your desire before the season shot up knowing it was your last go-around and this was it, and your numbers reflect that. Can you just talk about I guess the way you committed yourself in the off season to having a big year?
KIRSTON PITTMAN: I had to push myself to work harder. Being that I've been injured before, I took it really seriously knowing that any day could be my last day at practice or it could be my last time working out before I get injured again.
So it was just a big mental thing for me, just something I had to get over mentally. I put it into my best interests to work out sometimes two times a day, just go out in the field indoors and do some extra running knowing that I had to get prepared to play the season.
And I set some goals for myself at the beginning of the year before camp started and really felt like I could achieve those goals. For the most part I went out and achieved those goals. Being injured, it did something to me that I really appreciate being injured to a certain point, because I matured a lot and really made me a man.
And I had good guys around me like Ali and Chevis the entire time encouraging me to keep pushing, but it's just being around great people at LSU and my teammates and the coaches and the training staff really helped me a lot. I really appreciate them a lot.
But just being injured and working hard, I really appreciate more where I am today because I know what I've been through. I just thank God for it every day.

Q. We found it a little surprising that Ohio State is not going to work out really a full practice in the Superdome. You guys are going to play your third game basically in a year in the dome for any of you guys. Is it really that much different playing inside the Superdome than playing in any other venue, or are we making too much of that?
ALI HIGHSMITH: I guess you just gotta get used to the lighting and things like that. I mean, nowadays everybody play on field turf at least once a year. If that wasn't the case, then that would probably be the big thing, getting used to the field turf. But I guess it's more the lighting and things like that. Because it's not like outside stadium where the light just comes. In the dome the light bounces off of everything so it's kind of brighter. So I guess that's like the whole thing right there.

Q. What was it like when coaches getting recruited by Michigan and all that stuff and that process and then when it was finally over, what kind of thoughts went through your head that you could put it behind your guys?
ALI HIGHSMITH: I know we did our job. I mean, it made us feel good. Because if we didn't go out and play well, then Michigan wouldn't have been trying to get him to come and be their coach. So that was a compliment to us.
I mean, we really wasn't worried about that because we still had another game to play at the time. So that was our focus. And we were just going out there trying to get a W.
CHEVIS JACKSON: When coach told us he was going to be there, that he was going to be here for us, it just made it that more for us just to go out there and play harder because we wanted to keep him because he's a good coach. We really didn't try to pay much attention to it.

Q. Kirston and Ali, last year in the title game, Florida really had its way with the Ohio State's offensive line. I'd be curious to get your impression of Boone and Barton, their tackles, their interior linemen, and I don't want to overplay the speed angle, but Florida did look faster with their rush people compared to Ohio State's offensive line. Your thoughts on OSU up front, the way they block, the way they look?
KIRSTON PITTMAN: They're a really big bunch, and they're a really physical ball club and probably the biggest offensive line we'll go against all year. Watching the film, they move real well for their size, a lot of those guys have really good feet and move really well.
We know it's going to be a challenge. Florida showed some things coming off the edge with the speed on them. But we watched a film and we started the film and this coming year they really did a good job at stopping people with speed, rushing and coming off the edge.
So we're taking that into account also. So they have gotten better at blocking edge guys and guys with speed off the edge, so we've just been really paying attention to detail and working really hard at working our pass rush drills and just taking everything into account.
They're a really good bunch. We knew it was going to be a task.
ALI HIGHSMITH: Like he said, they are excellent blockers and they're big and mobile and they could get to the next level. And you just gotta take everything in account. You gotta work on all the little things as far as in practice, as far as like the feet and blocks and things like that. Just working on everything that you have to do just so that you can prepare for it. Because they are big and they can take up space and make holes. You've seen that, everybody's seen it.
They've got a great back that can find the hole. You just gotta go out there and prepare.

Q. How much have you guys noticed Coach Pelini savoring these moments with you guys as he gets ready to move on the in eastbound job?
ALI HIGHSMITH: Doesn't really feel like he's savoring the moments, just feels like he's going to be there next year because practice, he's still out there the same way he was before he even got the head coaching job. So you can't really even tell.

Q. Ali, I wanted to ask you, looking at some of the games and so forth, it always seems like after the game year out giving Pelini a hug or high five or something, it seems you two have a good relationship that sort of thing, are you going to miss him when he's gone?
ALI HIGHSMITH: Any way it went, we were going to part ways anyways, this being my last game. Yeah, I'm going to miss him. I would have missed him if he still would have been here, but it just would have been different because I could have come back and seen him. But now I got to go all the way to Lincoln. It was cool. Me and him, we have a very close relationship. He's taught me a lot coming into college and learning how to be a better football player and playing the game and respecting the game.
So things grew within the three years that we were together and I guess you could say our relationship is kind of personal, coach/player, it's both.

Q. Chevis, everybody's talking about the running game, their big offensive line. Talk about their receivers and their passing game a little bit, they don't seem flashy but they seem smooth and obviously able to get the job done?
CHEVIS JACKSON: Yeah. Robiskie and Hartline, they're both fast, they're both tall, they're both physical off the scrimmage, they run good routes. It's going to be a challenge, just like it is every week. We just gotta come out, read our keys, our play technique and try to make the plays when the ball's in the air.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, guys.

End of FastScripts
About ASAP SportsFastScripts ArchiveRecent InterviewsCaptioningUpcoming EventsContact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297