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TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL: OHIO STATE v MIAMI


December 29, 2002


Rob Chudzinski

Sherko Haji-Rasouli

Andre Johnson

Willis McGahee


TEMPE, ARIZONA

Q. Andre, having such a great game that you had last year, how much confidence does that give you coming into this game this year?

ANDRE JOHNSON: I can't rely on last year's game going into this game. It's a different game. This is a different game so I have to come into this game, you know, and approach it just like any other game and just prepare like I would for any other game.

Q. Coach, talk about the match-up between Andre and gamble this game?

ROB CHUDZINSKI: Well, you know, I think the thing is Ohio State plays a lot of zone coverage. It's not going to be Andre and Gamble against each other. Obviously with us moving their corners and formations around. It's going to be -- a lot of times it's not going to be those two. It's not going to come down to one-on-one match-ups. It's going to be our team and their team their defense, our offense. Guys performing and doing their jobs. You look at Ohio State. They're a great defense because they're not just one player. We don't rely on one player as well. I don't see it as a match-up between two specific guys like that.

Q. Gamble, has most people on shut down this year; do you see that happening against Andre?

ROB CHUDZINSKI: He's a tremendous athlete. He's been able to play offense and defense as well. It's going to be a great challenge for Andre and I know he's going to be up for the challenge. I know Gamble will be as well.

Q. Willis, tell us about your time here.

WILLIS McGAHEE: It's been okay. We have been enjoying the sights, seeing a lot of mountains.

ROB CHUDZINSKI: I've seen him with a lot of Tostitos in his hands.

Q. Andre, the same for you?

ANDRE JOHNSON: Pretty much the same. Me and Willis went to the mall yesterday. That was about it. Other than that, sitting in the game room.

Q. What was the latest curfew; what did you guys do?

SHERKO HAJI-RASOULI: We hung out for a little bit, see the town a little bit. There is a lot of nice people in this town, a lot of nice places to see. We have been doing a little bit of that.

Q. Andre, going back to the game match-up a little bit, he's sort of a smaller guy; are you going to use your strength against him to try to beat him?

ANDRE JOHNSON: It's an advantage for me so I have to use it because it's an advantage to me. So anything that's to my advantage, I will use it.

Q. In scouting him, what have you seen in making him difficult to beat?

ANDRE JOHNSON: Sometimes he gambles believes on balls. Other than that, he's a great player. He goes out and makes plays.

Q. Coach, can you talk about maybe Willis's contribution to the team coming out of spring or even out of last season, did you have my idea it's going to be the kind of grand season he had this year?

ROB CHUDZINSKI: People asked me all the time if I was surprised at the year Willis had. The answer is no. I expected him to have a great season. He's always been a guy whose been patient and waiting for his time to come. He saw an opportunity in the spring with Clint Portis coming out earlier and Willis knew he needed to be the man for our team and really carry the load for us. He had a great summer. I don't think anybody has ever worked harder in the summertime than he has. He earned everything he's gotten this year.

Q. Can you also talk about coming out of the Toledo area and making the decision to go down there and play there, and having a championship against a team, against Ohio State?

ROB CHUDZINSKI: My family still calls and reminds me. Honestly, I had a lot more ticket requests than I could accommodate on. I know probably other than my immediate family, most are rooting for Ohio State. It's a great thrill. It's a great university, a great place, they're a great team. Like I said before, our guys are really excited about the challenge for us as an offense. This is a great challenge. This is the best defense in the country that we're facing. It will be a great challenge that we're going to have to bring our A game and I expect us to do that.

Q. Sherko, can you talk about the challenge of moving the ball on the grounds against Ohio State's run defense?

SHERKO HAJI-RASOULI: They're a very active defense. They remain active. They like to shed blocks quickly and we have to give a lot of effort to make sure we finish our blocks. It will be definitely a challenge for us in watching the films to be able to move the ball and stuff. So the main thing is we have to know the game plan and our opponents and work hard in preparation as we have been doing all year.

Q. What makes the Ohio State defense so great, Coach?

ROB CHUDZINSKI: I think you start out they've got great personnel. You look at their defensive front, their linebackers, their secondaries, there playmakers in all of those positions. They're well coached, fundamentally sound, they tackle well, physically they give great effort. Those are the things. They have all those things and you put them all together and you have a great defense. That's basically what they do.

Q. Sherko, talk about how important it is to have an athlete with the ability that Andre has?

SHERKO HAJI-RASOULI: You guys watch the game. We'll be in 3-and-long situations where we need that key third down and Andre seems to always be there and making the key plays for us. Be even the last game of play against Virginia Tech where there is a lot of situations where we needed to move the ball and Andre stepped up and made plays in those situations. He's been a consistent receiver for us. That always I guess softens up the defense for our offensive line to be able to move the ball better.

Q. Sherko, did you watch the Heisman ceremony?

SHERKO HAJI-RASOULI: Yes, I did.

Q. What do you think or did you say anything when the announcement was made?

SHERKO HAJI-RASOULI: You always want to root for the guys on your team. You want them to win the trophies and win the awards and have that success. We were just watching it and then we kind of had it in the back of our mind that they might steal votes from one another but Willis and Ken Dorsey are very unselfish people and rooting for each other on the field. It was really weird to see how sincere they were supporting each other in winning the Heisman. The main goal was to go all the way. I think that was the main goal for those guys as well not winning the Heisman Trophy and not getting personal acknowledgments.

Q. Were you at all insulted they finished fourth and fifth in the back?

SHERKO HAJI-RASOULI: You know it's just voting and I think it's a little bit of motivation for us to do better. I wish our guys can win it but it didn't turn out that way.

Q. Coach, you have been around this program for a while and no Miami team has ever repeated. Is that evidence that it's a hard accomplishment to repeat?

ROB CHUDZINSKI: No doubt about it. Any season it's tough to go undefeated. You start trying to talk about trying to string a couple together. I think the thing we've done this year as well as last year and game-to-game is we really focus on the game and task at hand and don't worry about thinking how many games we've won in a row and what we have been doing down the road; just focussing week to week. That's been our approach and our guys have really bought into that.

Q. Willis, how much have you seen of Maurice Clarett; what do you have in common what's different about your games?

WILLIS McGAHEE: I really don't watch football. I really don't look at other running backs. I would say that both of us run hard. That's about it.

Q. Have you seen him at all, any tape of him at all?

WILLIS McGAHEE: No.

Q. Rob, Ohio State had problems last year stopping people on third down and they've really turned that around this year. What specifically have you noticed about their ability to shut people down that way?

ROB CHUDZINSKI: I don't know exactly last year what they were doing or not doing. Systematically they do some real good things to you. They mix in their blitzes with coverage as well. They get heat on the quarterback and get a good pass rush. Like I say, they blitz effectively and they do a good job of covering the guys. Gamble and the rest of the DBs, they do a good job of trying to understand what you're going to do on offense and anticipating your throws.

Q. Is there any game in particular you recall, anything they seem to take away from somebody as an example of that?

ROB CHUDZINSKI: I think if you look at their film and then do a good job in preparing for their opens and knowing what their opens are like, they will go into different games trying to stop different things. They do a good job focussing on that Ohio State and stopping the things as seeing their biggest tendencies.

Q. If you could talk about what areas of weakness Ohio's defense has if any?

ROB CHUDZINSKI: I don't see any chinks in the armor. I have been trying to find one in the last couple of weeks. They do a great job of trying to make you execute and offenses have a hard time doing that. They really make you be disciplined. They're going to be tough; not stay blocked, all the things I was talking about before. Effort, scheme, athletes all those things. You look at them we're going to have to be patient and play hard and hope the ball bounces our way a little bit as well.

Q. Coach, Ohio State has done a great job with their second-half defense this year; do you see something they do differently in the second half?

ROB CHUDZINSKI: They do a great job at half time adjustments and shutting people down in the second half. They have a tough mentality so they're going to go think, hey, we'll get the game in the second half, whoever it was this season, that they would do that. They're going to win the game in the second half.

Q. Rob, what about Ohio State's layoff? They have been off about six weeks, you just played three weeks ago; does that best you guys?

ROB CHUDZINSKI: I don't think that really factors in. Once you go more than a week I think it's a wash. If you're not -- I think it's an advantage if you just played last year and playing again this week. When you have a layoff more than a couple of weeks, I think it's a wash.

Q. Robert told us yesterday he didn't see any stars on Ohio State defense. How do you see it; do you agree with that statement?

ROB CHUDZINSKI: The statement I think is that all of them do their jobs and do it well, and I think that's probably what he meant by that. They're just a dominant defense. Everybody's doing their job so you look and say "this guy's good," "this guy's good all the way across the board." They really are. They're that consistent. One play it's a guy being a playmaker here. The next play it's somebody else. That's kind of what you come out with and I guess that would mean there is no stars because they're all stars.

Q. Can you compare them to anyone you've played this year?

ROB CHUDZINSKI: Again, they were the best defense I've seen this season, whether on TV, on film, whenever you look. I don't know schemewise and style wise. I think they're a little bit different than -- they're a little unlike any team we've played this year.

Q. Sherko, a year before Coach Coker got the job, Michigan State players asked that Bobby Williams get the job. It turned out to be a disaster. Obviously with you all it's worked great. Why do you think everybody seemed to adjust to that so well?

SHERKO HAJI-RASOULI: Well, he was the offensive coordinator before. We all had a great relationship with him. We knew he was a great person and guy. We knew he was going to be a player's coach. The fact was we had to make a quick decision. Coach Davis also recommended that Coach Coker be the head coach. We didn't want the whole coaching staff to change. All the coaches that were already coaching, we wanted them to stay. We knew that would happen if Coker would stay. As a group, the players sat down and decided we should push for that. We wanted everything to basically stay the same. We knew we had an upside, potential to do better next year. We won the Sugar Bowl. We were hungry for a national championship, hungry to be back on top again. I think Coach Coker has been the man for the job.

Q. Coach in '93, Alabama, that game, Miami was a heavily favored team Miami, won ugly; do you see anything similar between these two opponents?

ROB CHUDZINSKI: I don't remember that game honestly. I have been around a long time and a lot of people have asked me those kind of questions. I think that was a different time, era, situation, programs, different games. I think there is lessons to be learned from those things that you carry over, but you can't compare the situation then with the situation now. Again, I think our approach with these guys over the past few years has been, you know, we'll play one game at a time, and we're focussing and concentrating on that Ohio State, that's the task at hand. I think these guys have really embraced that. I think they're real excited about the challenge.

Q. Andre, so much has been made of the speed difference and how much faster Miami is than Ohio State apparently. Do you agree with that statement?

ANDRE JOHNSON: Well, we know that we're a fast team, so we feel like speed is one of our advantages as a team. When we go out in practice the coaches all tell us to play fast.

Q. Do you think you're faster than Ohio State?

ANDRE JOHNSON: I don't know. I don't know how fast they are. They look like a fast defense. We'll find out when we play against them on Thursday.

Q. Willis, what are your thoughts on that topic?

WILLIS McGAHEE: Like what Andre said, we don't really know how fast they are. They swarm to the ball pretty good. That's what I like most about them. We will just have to wait until the 3rd like he said.

End of FastScripts...

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