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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 28, 2016

Paul Johnson

Greensboro, North Carolina

PAUL JOHNSON: Well, good morning. We're coming off a difficult game on Thursday night against what I think is a really good Clemson team. They played extremely well, and they're very talented. We didn't play as well as we would have liked, but we have a chance this week to play another ranked team at our place, and hopefully we'll play a little better than we did on Thursday night. We certainly need to.

Q. Looking at Miami, they've changed a little bit with Mark Richt there, running the ball a little bit more effectively than they have in the past. Can you talk about how they've changed with the new coaching staff?
PAUL JOHNSON: Well, I think with anything, there's some tweaks and that kind of thing, and they've changed up somewhat. The quarterback is very talented, and they've got a couple of good running backs. You know, I think it'll unfold the more they play, too. As they start to play in the conference, you'll have a better idea of what it is they want to do.

They've pretty much run roughshod over everybody they've played so far.

Q. I want to ask about your game. I was just wondering, you guys obviously struggled to run the ball; was that your inability to execute your offense, or was that just the strength of the Clemson defense?
PAUL JOHNSON: I think it was some of both. I mean, we played as poorly offensively as any team I've ever coached. I mean, we had 15 missed assignments on the first 22 plays, and when you're doing that against a really good team, that's the result you're going to get. We played a little better in the third quarter, but overall we didn't play very well. But they're very talented on defense. I mean, they've got some great players, and they do a good job. They play hard.

Q. To follow up on that, are there one or two aspects of the offense you're really honing in on this week that improves the offense or gets it back to where you want it to be?
PAUL JOHNSON: Well, I think we'll play better. I think it would be hard to play as poorly as we did on Thursday. We've done that two years in a row against them, though, so you have to give them some credit. Yeah, we're back to basics, and we're going to do what we do. We feel like we know it works if we do it correctly and we execute. We haven't played as well offensively as we would have liked, but after Saturday, I think we will have played the No. 1, 2 and 6 ranked teams in total defense in the country, so we've played some pretty good folks.

Q. Paul, you don't hear maybe quite as much about Miami's quarterback, and he's really good, Brad Kaaya. And there's some other big-name quarterbacks in the league. But just what are your impressions of Kaaya and the kind of problems that he presents?
PAUL JOHNSON: Well, I think he's as good as any quarterback in the league. I mean, he's the prototypical drop back pro-style quarterback. He throws the deep ball really well, and he's got really good skill guys around him. He's been a good player for them for a while. He's certainly got my respect and our respect as a football team. I mean, we don't have any doubt that he can play the game.

Q. One of your guys, Lawrence Austin, came up with 12 tackles against Clemson. Just talk a little bit about Austin and the kind of player, the kind of things that he's doing well for you and how a defensive back winds up with that many tackles in a game.
PAUL JOHNSON: Well, I'm not sure that's a good thing when the defensive backs have 12 tackles. But Lawrence has played some, and he's experienced and he flew around on Thursday night and played hard. We really didn't play -- the first half we didn't play very good defensively, either, but we were kind of hanging in, and we had the kind of freak interception, fumble for a safety, and then let them score, which really was a killer, especially the way we were playing offensively.

But you know, they threw a lot of perimeter stuff and a lot of screens, and he's out there, he was our nickelback, so he made a lot of tackles.

Q. Miami had last week off, and I'm just wondering, a lot of coaches think because your offense --
PAUL JOHNSON: I think that's a rule in our league. I think everybody takes a week off before they play us.

Q. I was going to ask you, there actually are three or four more down the road. How big a difference does it make in trying to defend you, that teams have that extra week?
PAUL JOHNSON: I think it makes a difference no matter who you play. You get a chance to get people back healthy, and you have extra time to prepare. But you know, that still doesn't keep us from playing the way we can play. You know, that would be something you'd have to ask Mark, I guess, but certainly I know when we have a week off before we play somebody, I think it helps.

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