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ROSE BOWL GAME PRESENTED BY VIZIO: OREGON v WISCONSINDecember 31, 2011Chip KellyPASADENA, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: We'd like to get started and welcome Oregon Coach Chip Kelly. COACH KELLY: It's been a great week for us. Got down here on Monday. Think our players have done a great job of focusing on the task at hand. Our schedule has been such that we're practicing in the morning just like we do in Eugene, and they enjoy the bowl activities in the afternoon. Two games until the game, today's a Thursday for us, and we've been consistent in our approach to things. Our guys are just excited to play against a good Wisconsin team. We know it's going to be a huge challenge, but that's what this deal's all about. Q. Coach, how do you think you've evolved as a coach since two years ago when you were here last? COACH KELLY: That's a good question. I think everybody evolves. You use experience as an educator, and we're always constantly analyzing how we do things and how can we do them better and what is a new approach if there one out there or we're consistent in what we do. I think we have a staff of guys that want to learn every day and get better every day, and that trickles down to our players. I think just the fact that we've had the experience of being in the Rose Bowl two years ago and playing in the National Championship last year we hope is going to benefit us in this game on Monday. Q. How much of a concern is it for you for the long layoff which Wisconsin would have had the same thing, but has that been a problem for you in the past? COACH KELLY: No, we all know the schedule as coaches when you're going to finish a regular season and get an opportunity to play in a bowl game. We don't control it. The bowls revolve around the holidays whether it's Christmas or New Year's or sometime later in January when you're playing the National Championship Game. I think if you make a big deal out of it, it turns into a big deal for your players. As long as you're consistent in your approach, and we have a plan on how we practice and when we give them days off and when we're back in Eugene. We don't practice every day straight through. We'll practice for three or four days and give them a couple days off and start back up again. Everybody's dealing with the same thing. So when it's an even playing field, I think if one team played last week and the other team had a long layoff, it may be a little different, but it's consistent for both teams. Q. Coach, how do you think your coaching style is different from or similar to that of Coach Bielema? COACH KELLY: I have a ton of respect for Bret in terms of what he's done there. I think we're both kind of aggressive in our approaches. There are just different ways to do it. They run a power running game with a great play‑action attack off of it. We're more of a spread out offense. But both teams want to run the football. I think that's the big thing that people don't realize about us is that we're a run football team. So I think we're similar in our approaches, it's just we use different ways to get there. Q. As the game creeps closer, is there ever a danger that the players become a big more amped up and therefore on game day have too much energy at the beginning of the game? COACH KELLY: Is there ever a danger? Yeah, there is a danger. I think you have to try to make sure you handle that the right way. The good thing for us is we've had players in our program that have been through this. Some of these guys, the Mark Asper's and the Darrion Weems, and Carson Yorks have been around and played for three years for us on the offensive line. Same thing with guys like Michael Clay or an Anthony Gildon, John Boyett, Eddie Pleasant some of our guys on defense that can talk to the younger guys about it. We talk about it, but not much. Our guys are always excited to play football. If they're amped up too early, I'd rather have them amped up early than flat. Q. I wondered do you ever get tired of hearing about the SEC and their dominance? What do you think it would take for a team from your league to stop their run of championships here? COACH KELLY: Do I get tired of it? No, because they've won five straight. So that's the reality. You can say you get tired of it, but until someone beats them, like you said, then they're allowed to say that league is the top. We've got an opportunity. We played three SEC teams in the last couple of years. We beat Tennessee at Tennessee, and lost to Auburn on a field goal, and lost in the opening game with LSU down in Dallas Cowboys Stadium. So they play a different style of football. Auburn's different on offense, and LSU's different on offense, but it's an extremely well‑coached league and there are talented players in it. You can't make mistakes against good teams, and that is a football axiom. In the games we've lost, we've made too many mistakes. Q. Last day of the season, or last day of the year, really. How many days‑‑ COACH KELLY: You're a gloom and doom guy, huh? Q. Last day of the year, how many days in this year have you won? COACH KELLY: Oh, you mean like the calendar year? Q. Yes. COACH KELLY: I'd have to check my calendar. I don't know. Do I keep a record of do I win or not? No. I'm not that anal. No. Q. For the second time in three years you've been playing in the Rose Bowl Stadium. Last year you played in the BCS championship in a new stadium. This time you'll be playing in a rather old stadium. Any difference between the Rose Bowl Stadium and say University of Phoenix Stadium playing there and what the facilities are like? COACH KELLY: Yeah, the Rose Bowl is tradition. It's that feeling when you come out of the tunnel and you can kind of just think back of all the games that have been played there and it was weird. I remember being on the field two days before or the day before when we went to the stadium down in Phoenix. You felt like you were walking into a spaceship. It was just who would have thought that you would have played a game where the grass was outside, but then they brought it in on tracks. It was kind of a futuristic feel to it. I'm a lot more comfortable in the Rose Bowl setting. That's what college football is all about, and we're excited to be back here. Q. You've seen tons of tape on Wisconsin at this point. What makes them unique compared to all the rest of the teams you've played this year? COACH KELLY: Offensively it's their balance. They run for 237 yards a game, they pass for 229, and when you play that out over the course of 13 games, it's almost scary as to how balanced they are. In that most teams when you play them, so to speak, you want them to play left‑handed and let's take away their strength. But they have strengths in both facets. People say, well, we're just going to try to pack the line of scrimmage and take Montee Ball away from them, then Russell Wilson will carve you. They have great receivers in tune in Abbrederis, and Pedersen, and Montee catches the ball out of the back field. That's what strikes me is their balance and how many good players they have at all positions. Q. The media always get it's right, as you know. But last year before the National Championship Game we all predicted a track meet. You kept saying you thought it might be more of a defensive struggle. What is your hunch for this game? COACH KELLY: First off, why do people call it a defensive struggle would be my first question. But I don't know with this game. I don't have an idea going into this game that we have to score X‑amount of points because they're going to score X‑amount of points. It's until it unfolds. The unique thing when you get into a bowl game situation is you can observe that other team on film, but until you actually see them in your league or you're playing teams and you have an idea I know how fast that receiver is on film, and I know what he's doing to run by that DB, there are a lot of unknowns when you go into bowl games. There's always going to be a feeling out process, but I have no idea how this thing's going to turn out. I wouldn't be surprised either way. Q. What would‑‑ you've been so close the last two years. But what would a BCS win mean for your program? COACH KELLY: That we're 1‑2 in BCS games in the last three years. We don't talk about it. I know we've been asked the question a lot. But this team is so different from the 2009 team, and extremely different from last year's team. Last year's team had 25, 26 seniors on it that left. Every year is a new season for us. So we can look back at our experiences and how we do things better, but there is no hey, we won this year, so that justifies what happened the other two years. We take it as it comes. Every day is a good day to us, and obviously we'd be excited for our players, excited for our fans. But that is all it is. At the end of the day, it's not, hey, we won when we got there the third time. It's just we did a good job on Monday, and that's what we're looking to do. Q. How much is your offense based on confusion or deception or whatever word you want to use to keep the other defense on its heels? COACH KELLY: Not as much as people say. I think when you play as many games as we've played‑‑ coaches are too good. You're not going to confuse them. You may be able to run a trick play here or there and catch them off guard. But the game of football is still fundamentally sound as how well do you block, how well do you‑‑ can your running backs make people miss or make yards after contact? How well do you catch the ball in third down situations? How well do you protect the football? Those aren't confusing things. Those aren't things trying to take advantage of the defense not being smart. I think way too much is given to that. Our guys lineup and play. And they've lined up and played for 13 games and that's what we're going to do on Monday. The same as Bret's team's going to do on Monday, and we'll see who ends up winning the game. If you get to this point and think you're going to be a trick operation and that's what you live and die on, you're probably going to end up dying to be honest with you. Q. You just mentioned not knowing how fast they are, how big they are until you see them in person. Just having played Oregon State, a mutual opponent help you guys figure that out a little bit more before the game than maybe last time with Auburn when you didn't have a mutual opponent during the year? COACH KELLY: Not really because it was so long ago. It was really Oregon State was breaking in Mannion at quarterback. It was really the first experience for Sean there. Katz played early in that game. And Oregon State was banged up at the running back spot, so it was tough for Mike and those guys to generate some things offensively. So in terms of that match‑up, not really, no. Q. What makes Russell Wilson so effective at play‑action, and how difficult is that to defend? COACH KELLY: Well, first off there is a guy behind him, Montee Ball that everybody knows is really, really good. So whenever the ball is faked to Montee, he certainly will draw your attention. Then I think it's just Russell is so fundamentally sound at what he does. He's a great ball handler. He's always in balance when he throws. He doesn't get out. Sometimes when people get involved in the play‑action stuff, they can get off balance as a quarterback, and not be able to set their feet and not be able to deliver the ball on time. I also think he's just such a sharp understanding of what he's doing, and that is the amazing thing for a kid that got there in August to be able to grasp a pretty technical offense the way Russell has really kind of sets him apart from a lot of people. It was similar to the things he did at N.C. State. You look at the numbers that he racked up down there. But it's his‑‑ how quickly he processes things and to be able to deliver the ball to the right person is what kind of separates him from a lot of people. Q. Coach, you were asked a minute ago about what a BCS win would mean to the program. What would it mean for you to win one and when you hear or read things that say it's time for Chip Kelly to win a big one, what is your reaction to that? COACH KELLY: They can write and say whatever they want. We really don't get caught up in that. I think if you make a game bigger than it is or it diminishes all the other victories. So our goal every single day is to win the day, and that's what this deal is all about. You can't get to here and say every game we play is all in. Every practice we have is all in. It's been our philosophy and our mindset since I've been there, and that's what it's all about. We also know when you get to games like this that you're going to play really good opponents. That's what part of it is. If you get to a BCS game, you're not going to play a team that you're going to be 30‑point favorites by. It's going to be a challenge. That's the part we look forward to. But the fact that I've never been a guy that reflects back and says, hey, we did this, we did that. It's always moving forward. So no matter what the outcome is on Monday, we have to get up on Tuesday, and get recruiting and play for the next season. And that's what our mindset is. Q. One thing you've talked about all year is the youth of this team and obviously it does look a lot different than the last two teams that have been here. But since you've been down here, have you been able to benefit much from the veterans and the experience of playing in these games the last few years, or is it such a fresh group that it hasn't been the impact that some might assume it would be? COACH KELLY: That's a good question. I think our older guys have done a great job all year long. They understand what we want. They understand how we want things done. They understand what it's supposed to look like. And before we have to correct a younger guy, our older guys are doing that themselves. That group, even though it's an extremely small group of older players on our team, they've done a great job of ownership. And I've talked to those guys before the season started, the Eddie Pleasants, the Terrell Turners, the Anthony Gildons, this is your team, and what do you want it to look like? The impact those guys have had on our young players shows. You watch how Terrance Mitchell plays with maturity. Troy Hill plays with maturity. But I think a lot of that has to do with Anthony, Eddie, and John and those guys back there that have brought those guys along, and shown them the way we want it done. They've been great. Even though we don't have many of them, we've really benefited because of their experience, they've been able to share that with the other guys. Q. Is there a particular Wisconsin game film that you would use as a model to prepare yourself for what they do? COACH KELLY: Yeah, I'd like to take a couple of their losses, but there aren't many. You've got to look at the totality of the season and try to get an idea of what they are. That is the one benefit of being in a game with such a long layoff. You can watch all 13 games and be able to digest them. If you were playing this game a week out after they played in their championship game and we played in our championship game, there would be a lot more unknowns. As we talked to our team, like Bill Gates said, information is the reduction of uncertainty. So if you can spend time and get a feel for them and continue to see them, and Bret's team is the same way. They'll have a good grasp of us because they've had an opportunity to see us on film. So there is not one particular game, no, but it's accumulation of everything. Q. Can you talk about when you talk to the Badger players we can still sense and feel the hurt of last year's loss and the tradition of Wisconsin and the Rose Bowl and them not wanting to have their legacy be a Wisconsin team that loses back‑to‑back Rose Bowls. Can you talk about the determination of your team and what's pushing you guys? Do you get that same type of determination that was pushed in for this game? COACH KELLY: No, we've always been a forward‑thinking operation. I do find it humorous when people talk about 19, 20, 21‑year‑old kids and what their legacy is going to be. They're just kids. We played our tails off down in Phoenix, and we lost on a field goal with no time left on the clock. It was a great experience for our guys. They've learned from it. We've learned from it as coaches, but we move on. But if you keep saying we have to be motivated on Monday because of something that happened last January. I can't get some of our kids to remember what happened yesterday in practice, let alone what happened last January, so... Q. I'm curious if there was a reason why you didn't bring the assistants yesterday to media availability? COACH KELLY: I have no idea about that question, Lindsay. Q. The entire team's supposed to be made available, and yesterday Wisconsin brought all their players and all their assistants. You didn't bring your assistants, and now they're available at 8:30 or at 9:00 this morning? COACH KELLY: Yeah, that's got to be an administrative thing. I don't say who is going anywhere. I just get in the bus and go. Last time I took a head check was when I was back in high school. So I've got nothing to do with that one. Q. It's been really impressive to watch over the last couple years the way your players have bought into your program, and I know they're incredibly close to you. How are you different with us than you are with your team behind closed doors? COACH KELLY: I'm different with our players because I trust our players and I'm with them every day, and I understand what they're all about. I'm like that with everybody. If I‑‑ it ain't going to be Kumbaya and hug you the first time I meet you. But if I see you every day and understand what you're about every day and that you share the same vision that I have, then I'll die for you. Q. Curious what's on tap for the guys tonight for New Year's Eve? Are they going to be kind of reigned in, or will they be able to go out and celebrate? Is there a curfew for them or what's up? COACH KELLY: We're actually fly to go New York City to see the ball drop first (laughing). No, this is Thursday in our lives. Our guys haven't been out past 10:00 since we've been here. So we've got to get ready. Our Friday practice is different than a lot of people. We practice pretty hard on Friday, so our guys are getting ready to get up and it may be New Year's Eve, and everybody else's lives, but it's not New Year's Eve in our lives. I can tell you that. Q. Since this is winding down, I'm going to change gears here. Have you made any New Year's resolutions and the critical part of this question is, have you ever made one and stuck to it? COACH KELLY: I didn't know it was the last day of the year until Steven just said that, so, no, I haven't. You better live your life the right way every day and not wait to start it over every year, so I've never been a New Year's resolution guy. Q. Wanted to get your take on the never on Sunday rule of the game. Won't be played on New Year's day. But it will be played Monday, January 2nd. Just your take? John Wooden once said he didn't like when college basketball games were played on Sunday. Do you have any take on not playing this game on Sunday, January 1st? COACH KELLY: I didn't know that was a rule. I thought it was because there were a lot of NFL games on. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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