|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ALLSTATE BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: LSU v ALABAMAJanuary 6, 2012Les MilesNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Coach Les Miles. Coach, opening remarks. COACH MILES: Really enjoyed the hospitality of New Orleans. Our guys sought to qualify for this game. Really kind of focused it right along, and the reason is such a strong attachment to the city of New Orleans and obviously the state of Louisiana. We've enjoyed the fact that the last three times that the national championship was played in this building that an LSU team was fortunate enough to qualify. And that was our goal. And the reasons are obvious. And the enjoyment of our hospitality of the Bowl committee and the enjoyment of being in New Orleans is the reason. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q.  Coach, first of all, if you could talk a little bit about sort of the up‑and‑down season Michael Ford has had? COACH MILES: Really, I think that Michael Ford has come to play and improved really kind of start to finish, playing his best football now. But there's a differing maturity, if you will, in players, and it happens through a season, sometimes in a series of games. And he has done that and looks forward to very much finishing this campaign with his best play. He's a very, very quality man. Q. Can you talk a little bit about the fact that you had so much time off to get prepared for the game, and with you and with your staff, any differences it made in the way you would prepare for a normal game? COACH MILES: We've been fortunate to play in some late Bowl games, even the Cotton Bowl a year ago, and even the national championship in '07. We really kind of identified our calendar and told our guys what to expect. First two and a half weeks were weight strength, condition, rehabilitation, and refreshing our team some. And then really the next series of practices were more LSU versus LSU and get the speed of the game up and get our execution up, and then we really put in more game plan, opponent‑appropriate material really probably five days out before we left to come here. And then here, obviously, refine the game plan. I think that's a solid schedule and gives you the opportunity to execute at a pretty high level, once you get to the game. Q. Coach, can you talk about your two senior quarterbacks, just how they've handled the sharing of responsibilities and how confident you guys are in both of them to play significant minutes on Monday? COACH MILES: Well, both quarterbacks have put us in this position, very much like our defensive line, very much like our secondary, our offensive line, but the quarterback position we have to get in significantly quality play there, period. Certainly Jarrett Lee has continued to compete and continued to get better. Obviously Jefferson not starting the season as our starter really regaining the job as the season went on and really provided with an opportunity to learn leadership yet another way. A difficult situation that he was in certainly provided him with an experience that's helped him want leadership and want more for the back end of the season. And I see him really preparing to play his best football. So both quarterbacks have been tremendous contributors. Both quarterbacks are great teammates. There will be no quarterback on our team when one is in the game doing anything but hoping that he has great success. Q. You took over for Nick, and it was a great thing because he had a program really well established. But did it ever feel like a burden taking over for Saban, having that sort of shadow linger over the program? COACH MILES: Yeah, I really never had that, because I've really interacted with the people that are LSU the way I would. I've kind of always felt like, you know, it was in a tremendous position. Certainly we're grateful for the position that it's in. But I never felt that there was a shadow or something that needed to be done. I always really only enjoyed how my team responded to me and how my team competed. And I've never really responded to that, if you will. Q. I asked Coach Saban this. I know you guys are in this bubble right now, but are you allowed or do you allow yourself to enjoy this experience at all that a lot of coaches don't even get in their careers you've had twice now, but to enjoy the championship atmosphere? COACH MILES: Right now there's no enjoyment. I promise you that when we take the field, I will be preparing to enjoy myself for that evening. But right now it's all about preparation. It's still, you know, we want to make sure this happens and that happens and how many snaps here and how many snaps there and what do we do in the red zone, tight zone, et cetera, et cetera. And so that's important and those things that are important really overshadow fun. And so we practice hard. We get after it. Our guys back in there are preparing. They'll have a good, hard practice today. And we enjoy practice. If you talk about the things that we enjoy. Here's what we don't enjoy. I don't know where my room is half the time. I don't know where my shoes are the other half. I don't know where's my pens. There's all those little insignificant harumphs that you don't know when they change your environment. Other than that, I enjoy my time generally. Q. Since you came in replacing Saban, I think most people would say you've tried to establish a real family atmosphere. How much of your football team feels like family, especially when you're playing on this big stage? COACH MILES: Well, I have to be real honest with you. They all do to some extent. I want for old Claiborne, I want for Jarrett Lee, I want for Jordan Jefferson and I want for Sam Montgomery, I want them to be comfortably prepared and ready to play. And that's a family tie, if you will. And it's a debt I owe a group of young men that worked that hard to be where they're at, really saw their path to put them here. This feels like my family. I have two sons and two daughters that have heard some of the same talks that these guys have heard and probably enjoy them in a very like fashion. Some not so much and some a lot. Q. A lot of attention has been put on the quarterbacks. And you're only one play away from having your starting quarterback injured. Do you feel like because you have two guys who have played a lot compared to McCarron and Sims who‑‑ maybe McCarron has seen a lot more playing time than Sims has, if McCarron was hurt, do you feel like your team has an advantage because your guys have‑‑ COACH MILES: I hope that neither quarterbacks, none of the four, get injured. I would like to see a game played where both teams played their best and the decision was made based on quality play. But we look forward to if we put Jarrett Lee in the game, because he operates this offense very well. Q. Les, could you talk a little bit about the job that Mike Gundy has done at Oklahoma State and what would it have been like if you were playing them in this game? COACH MILES: Mike Gundy has done a remarkable job. He's recruited a very, very high‑level athlete. The speed on that field is a very, very fast‑paced group of young men. He's always been tremendously competitive. He is and has a very competitive team. And I couldn't be happier for him. They've taken that program much further than I had it when I was there, much further. And it would have been very difficult to play these guys‑‑ to play that team here. What would have happened would have been was you would have to have gotten by the personal attachment to enjoy the competition, and certainly that's what we would have done. But I root for those guys every time they play. Them and that Michigan team that played in here and won. So it's just one of those things. And those Dallas Cowboys. I'm sorry I had one of them helmets, so... Q. You raised the point‑‑ were you here to watch Michigan? Did you watch them? COACH MILES: No, I couldn't. I would have loved to have come down here and congratulated Coach Hoke and Mattison, and it's so wonderful‑‑ that center from Michigan that won the Rimington, he so reminds me of guys that I coached while I was there. And so I would love to have come down the road and wished them well. I had an important task that I had to take care of my own. And we had a New Year's Eve party that was celebrated by our team.  And a watch party that was set up for our team to watch that game. And I told them, frankly, anybody that's going to root for another team doesn't need to come. But, again, there were some things that we had to take care of. Q. If somebody told you on August1st your offensive coordinator would have to move because of a diagnosis, your offensive line coach would move over with little experience at play calling, and your starting quarterback would be out, what would you have told them, looking back? COACH MILES: I would have told them that this team would have found a way. I would have told them that those are obstacles but not real burdens. We'll find a way. And the truth of the matter is Studrawa called the plays for a very successful offense at Bowling Green as a coordinator. And I had been fortunate to have been in that room and realized that his ideas are very quality and that he has a good overview, not just the line, he has a good down‑the‑field view. Now, the key piece to that was that Steve Kragthorpe said: I want to coach. I want to do this. Are you kidding me? I want to coach for the next 10 years and get after it. But he said: Frankly, I'm not certain that I'll be able to handle the responsibility of coordinating. I'd like to be the quarterback coach. It was very‑‑ and with Ensminger and Wilson and Gonzales in that room, really providing a "I'll help," a "I'm going to extend myself beyond my responsibilities and I'm going to help, man," that just‑‑ it was not a difficult thing. It really became an advantage. Q. How so? COACH MILES: Well, because, one, Kragthorpe's very talented and he suggests and helps, and Gonzales and Ensminger, who has a great overview of the team, Frank Wilson, who has a specific style of coaching and creates an advantage for us with the running backs, they extended themselves more fully. They realized there was a greater need. Sometimes as assistant coach, having been in that room, your job is not to have your idea and not to progress your football, not just step and push, your responsibility becomes, first, to listen, understand what the premise is, make it yours, and then present it and coach it well. Well, I think in this instance they said: We need you to be maybe more proactive. We need you to extend yourself more fully. We'd like to hear what you think. And it really became a collective group that really has done a great job putting it together. Q. Wanted to ask about Josh Williford's development and where he's better now than he has been? COACH MILES: Josh Williford is a really interesting piece. He came to our first summer camp and he was a little chubby, a little out of shape. And very talented. You could tell that he had ability, but if he wasn't going to make a change‑‑ so then he came to the second summer camp. He lost about 20 pounds and he was moving a lot better. Still, in my opinion, you know, a guy that we needed to see play. And when he played his senior year and you could see that he had, in my opinion, changed his body attitude, et cetera, and then when he came to us, he continues to improve and take strides and have ability, I think probably his greatest attribute is he's bright, he's ambitious. He's got a great sense of humor, and humor in my opinion gives you the understanding that a man can discern differences. In other words, it's not just black and white. There's that spot in there that you just don't quite‑‑ you can't quite define. Those guys that have humor have the ability to do that, and I think that is‑‑ I think his want, combined with that talent, has allowed him to be a heck of a player. Q. Quick follow, he comes from a very small school. That's such a developmental position anyway. Did he even have farther to go, maybe? COACH MILES: He'll be a better player as we go forward. He's not topped out in any way. Q. Despite popular opinion or punditry, that your last national championship in '07 was with Nick Saban's players, I think the total number of actual starters out of the 22‑man starting roster that was even recruited by Nick Saban was about four, who were all freshmen when Saban left. But talk about what it means to come back here, four years later, back to New Orleans, with a team that is 100percent yours and an opportunity to win a national championship with all of your recruits and basically make yourself the most successful coach in LSU football history? COACH MILES: Just so you know, I have not thrown my arms around what are "my" goals. You got me? It's really allowing this team to achieve the greatest potential, to be the best football team they can be, period. That's kind of how I see it. The idea that this is an undefeated team, it's an SEC champion that really played everybody, played all‑comers, played six road games, played eight nationally ranked teams, I'm just letting you know that this football team, irrespective of the coach, deserves to play well in this next game. And that's the feel of the preparation. That's what we want. We just want to play well in this next game. Q. Two successful quarterbacks at the SEC level. Quite a feat. Talk about the dynamic and how it changes from day to day and how the team has kind of adjusted. COACH MILES: It's really interesting. Early on in the season obviously it was all Jarrett Lee and Jarrett Lee‑style of play. And, frankly, it was a burden. When you add a style, there's just a little bit more to it, and you have to accommodate that piece. And I think the team's done a great job. I think both players interact extremely well. I think both players understand their roles. I would not be surprised to see Jarrett Lee in this game early on make significant plays and Jordan Jefferson step back in and do the things that he's capable of doing. So, again, I think teammates and team understanding is key. I think both those guys are really team guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact 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
|