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FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 4, 2017

Jimbo Fisher

Tallahassee, Florida

COACH FISHER: So this weekend, it was a great atmosphere and environment. I think it was terrific for our football team to experience that. I think the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl put on an excellent venue. The stadium was beautiful.

I think the whole thing that they did was first class, a great opportunity for a couple very good teams to come together and play. And it was (indiscernible) for the weekend.

I think our kids will benefit from that experience in the near future, dealing with all the different things that went on, and for the most part handled it very well.

Getting to the game, watching the film, I'm very proud of our kids, the physicality and the toughness with which they played with, competed very hard in the game. Thought we played very well at times. And we had some self-inflicted wounds and things that -- also, give Alabama credit. They did a great job. And that's caused by them making the plays. And we lost the momentum of the football game, and then got it swung.

But it was a very competitive, very hard fought game. A lot of things we can get cleaned up, but at the same time it's things that are very fixable. And walking away from that game, I can say disappointed that we didn't have the outcome in which we wanted and some things in which we did at times. Feel very, very encouraged, we've got a heck of a great football team in front of us that we can still go do some great things and have a tremendous year. So, proud of the football team. Saying all that, questions?

Q. What is the official prognosis on Deondre Francois and assuming he can't go, has a starter been named (indiscernible)?
COACH FISHER: As of now, James Blackman will be the number one guy going in, but Deondre, he suffered a torn patellar tendon in his knee cap, which is actually a very rare thing. I've never actually had one as a coach. It's usually an older type injury, when you're in your late 20s and 30s. But that was the injury; it was not an ACL or MCL, anything like that. Right now the plans are for him to undergo surgery in the morning. Obviously put him out for the rest of the year.

Q. What have they told you about the long term as far as --
COACH FISHER: Should be back in five, six, seven months. It's how the healing goes. (Indiscernible) be a prognosis that way as far as that goes. I mean like they said anywhere from four to 7-8 months, in that range, like an ACL type injury.

Hopefully what we would have is spring ball being in the middle of the seventh month, so be back and participating, which he doesn't get hit then, anyway, hopefully done some drills and going through spring practice by then. But again, have to wait to see how the rehab and everything else goes.

Q. Have you ever had any true freshman quarterback playing, starting in one of these scenarios?
COACH FISHER: Had Gabe Gross, great baseball player, played major league baseball, started for me at Auburn, in that regard. I think, who else -- as a true freshman. Demarcus was a redshirt. Redshirt. I believe that was it.

Q. What are the challenges for a kid (indiscernible) on campus? (Inaudible)?
COACH FISHER: No, you coach what the guys can do. You don't change the way you coach. You coach the same way, by the amount of information and things that he can handle. That's one of the things I was encouraged about going into camp, that he did and did in our scrimmages.

And you have to remember, we had 1s on 2s and 2s on 1s, he was throwing on 1s in every scrimmage. So he went against that and produced and made a lot of good plays against a very good defense and made a lot of throws, a lot of decision, a lot of run reads, a lot of things he did, so go out there and coach and do the things they do.

Basically (indiscernible) drastic change; it doesn't. We have to continue to do what we do and do what we well.

Q. What is James' demeanor, like, in the huddle, dealing with you, going back and forth?
COACH FISHER: Excellent. I mean, very easy, very strong willed, very independent, confident, not arrogant but confident. Has a great presence to him.

Q. Question about Derwin James' recruitment. Can you recount what you saw in him at a young age, 14, 15, whatever it was when he first got his offer that convinced you that he would be a scholarship athlete?
COACH FISHER: I think, first of all, a lot of times, those guys you can't (indiscernible) potential, but you saw it in him at that age. He had the (indiscernible) potential and (indiscernible) developed. And then you saw the maturity, the athleticism, and you knew, it was almost instantly, this guy was going to be a player and you better start recruiting him now.

He had speed, size, intangibles and (indiscernible) got around him and his intelligence. And just the way he talked to you and the way he interacted and played, it was a very natural thing. It was very obvious.

Q. With a true freshman quarterback, is there a way that you're starting the game to try to get him a little more --
COACH FISHER: You do what you gotta do to win the game. You gotta do what you gotta do to win a game, put him in position to make plays. Some people think if I start him off real slow, what's the best down to throw a football on? First down. Third and a mile everyone knows it's coming.

A lot of times it's the early down. Sometimes it's not. Whatever you think you've got to do to win the game. You can't change how you do -- you gotta do what your team can do and how he fits into the team concept. You can't play it around him. You play it around your team. And that's where I think you have to understand how he fits into that scheme.

Q. (Inaudible) seemed like there were a couple times first down?
COACH FISHER: We did. We leveraged the ball very well. We kept great leverage, great eyes on the ball. Again, saying all that during that game, you talk about our defense -- I was excited first three drives. They moved the ball the first three drives. They popped out a run, which we thought we had, had a tackle right there, guy broke a tackle, made a big run. And we managed that.

Then the second drive they got down there and then after -- then after we got ahead we got the safety rotation, and then they scored. After those first three drives they were excellent and did a great job in sudden change when they got the ball backed up, kept us in the ballgame.

The pressure they got on the quarterback. Tackled in space. Leveraged the ball -- when one guy was down, it would bounced to another. And we kept great eyes on the ball. Thought they tackled in space. Thought we were physical up front.

Pressured the quarterback. And the guy that scrambled well was still able to -- even when he broke out, still able to rally. All athletic and fast on that side of the ball. In that regard I was very proud of how they played in that regard right there. Our defense did a great job.

Q. Of course I know you like to teach freshmen quarterbacks, give them a year to develop -- someone like James, the position he's in now, how does that development process change, or does it really?
COACH FISHER: It doesn't. Usually you coach what they can do. And I say that -- for him to move up and do the things he did in scrimmages.

It's not that I like to do that. Usually, if you've got an experienced guy who is doing better, that's what usually happens.

But at the same time it doesn't say you can't do it. I didn't see nothing in the rule book that says he can't go play well or our team can't go play well.

That's what our goal will be. And we'll do the things that we need to do as a team and around him and as a team to make things work.

We've still got a lot of really good players. And like I said I feel good about our offense. That game, five out of the first seven drives, we moved the ball up and down the field, had opportunity to really move it.

We threw it, ran it. Even though we didn't run it as well -- people said we didn't run it well. That wasn't the plan, we wanted to throw the ball early, on early downs, get good down and distance, spread the field a little bit.

Then we started to run the ball and have success. Then we just lost the momentum in the game and got behind. Again, I came away from the game very encouraged in a lot of areas and disappointment overall -- disappointed that we didn't dot our Is and cross the Ts and finish some things. But I'm not discouraged at all. Very encouraged, believe it or not.

Q. Spoke to Alec Eberle after the game, he said James Blackman has an "it" factor. Whatever "it" is, James has it. I don't know if you agree with that or what have you seen from James?
COACH FISHER: Ask Eberle what "it" is? No.

Again, he has presence and poise. And he's naturally like -- he likes to be in the huddle. And when your guy calls a play -- and I say it all the time, if you ever looked at a quarterback -- I always say that the number one thing they have to have, barring anything, I always look at it very early on, I say number one thing is presence.

I don't mean it was arrogance. They just have presence. When they talk, there's a natural command and things to what they do and how they carry themselves.

And I think James does that. But saying all that, too, again, Bailey and those guys, too, I think he and J.J. both are doing a great job and I think we got a chance to have some great, young players here.

Q. As far as James, going back to when you mentioned his ability to kind of recall (inaudible). What other intangibles does he have?
COACH FISHER: We saw it on film: Athletic, threw the ball extremely well. Really good arm talent. Came to our camp, threw the ball exceptional. And learned very well.

As you taught him drops, things, he picked up and was very eager to learn and very natural in how he did things and very impressive in camp, how he learned and retained the information, how he threw the ball, his accuracy and his arm strength. And his size, what you don't realize, he's got good mobility, moves around well.

Q. Obviously no two quarterbacks are the same. What specific adjustments do you have to make going from Deondre to James?
COACH FISHER: We'll go do what we do as an offense, what we gotta do to win the game. Whatever we feel gives us the best chance to win the game is what we'll do.

Q. Backup to Blackman?
COACH FISHER: J.J. and Bailey will both be right there doing both.

Q. During the recruiting process, how did James Blackman get on your radar in the first place?
COACH FISHER: He stayed at Florida. We cover Florida religiously. All schools, we try to get in all schools, have contact with all schools.

And you get a lot of film from that area. He's from the Belle Glade area, which we've had great success in recruiting and things that go there. And we saw film of him.

We saw a film of him there and liked what we saw on film and engaged to see what kind of person he is, see the background, and see who he is and then get him to camp, see if we can get him to our camp and work for us. And he came up.

Q. What are the biggest improvements you've seen? You've only had him since July or whatever, what are the biggest improvements you've seen from him since then?
COACH FISHER: I think overall just the knowledge of the game, I think, and his ability to want to learn. He studies the game and works at it.

People don't realize football is like a class, just like math class or any class or science class or computer class, you have to work at it. You don't just do it while you're here.

It's a class you have to spend time and you study, just like you do and prepare for tests and prepare and gain knowledge as you gain.

And a lot of people don't look at that, but he does it that way. He's a guy, will go home, come back and ask questions, look at film and come back and ask questions on his own time. I think he just likes the ball.

Q. How helpful can it be to have a guy like Alec Eberle there and making calls and kind of help?
COACH FISHER: Very experienced in the running game and the pass game and help him in three down and four down, which he does for Deondre (indiscernible). And that's what Stork did so well with Jameis.

(Indiscernible) Jameis fit his way in, even as smart, as brilliant as he was. Taking pressure off: Hey, this is three down and this is fourth down and allowing calls to come quicker. Say, hey, I think this is a stack. I think -- get back on the sideline and communicate to him: This is what I'm seeing; they're playing a lot of stack and playing a lot of open, playing a lot of double eagle.

Those communications on the sideline allow those things to happen. And for your decorations and your protections and run check, it makes a big difference.

And that's what people don't realize: The center's really like a second quarterback. You say that's a great point. And again Eberle played well. And as a matter of fact he played excellent in that game. He played really well. Probably our lineman of the game.

Q. When you get the news like Deondre, and you try to bring the team together and address them, how do you handle that?
COACH FISHER: Individually. And when we have our team meeting, we'll address all the issues that go on with guys we have, guys we don't have and what we have to do.

It's all an awareness we're one family in what we have to do and how we have to approach things and do things. The biggest thing is everybody feels like they have to change.

You don't have to up your game. You gotta do what you do. You're who you are. You don't have to change dramatically or anything, except go continue to play better. Dot the Is and cross the Ts. Go help the things that change the momentum of that game, and clean up some of the special teams stuff and go play.

Q. How did your conversation with Deondre go?
COACH FISHER: He's very disappointed. Deondre is a guy -- not only does he want to play, but he wants to be there with his teammates.

And I think that's one of the things people don't really -- we say it all the time. You become so connected as a team when you're a quarterback, when you go through the work habits and the things you have to do to play at this level, at any level, and you feel like you want to be there with your brothers, and you feel like you let them down.

I told him this is part of ball. These things happen. And you have to deal with it and be mentally strong for them.

Just like Derwin went through a tough thing a year ago. And that's all part of it, how you handle it and what you deal with, and try to explain it to him. But he's down not just for himself, but for his teammates, because he wants to be there with his teammates.

Q. How much emphasis do you put on (indiscernible) -- especially, the blocked punt and blocked field goal?
COACH FISHER: The blocked punt was simple. Foot too wide. We have done it 29 days in a row. We were just too wide. It's that simple.

There was no chance of blocking because of the split you took. And it's something we do every day. And it's not -- the guys made a mistake.

And the other one was a technique. We got a (indiscernible), shoot a right arm up, secure the hole, make him step over. And they squeezed through. We didn't get it up, and he got his hand in there and blocked it.

And that's very disappointing again because -- for them. Because no one did it on purpose. Those guys -- the players don't do it on purpose.

We have to coach it better. We have to do it better and get them to understand that. But that's what I say, how quick the momentum of the game can change.

When we're ready to score a touchdown, maybe have it on the 2-yard line, but if we don't and we get it back and tie it up, that was a momentum swing. And then come back out the second half and moved it very well. Got down there, but still changed field position. Had a great deal.

They punted back. We get the blocked punt. And it starts. And those two huge things that every time -- like I always say, ball is a game of not just doing it right but never doing it wrong. You have to do it every time. And those two advantages right there they took advantage of, and we can't allow that to happen.

Q. In terms of how to now prepare a freshman quarterback in the second week, how much does the continuity of your coaching staff and that offensive staff kind of help with the learning curve and everything?
COACH FISHER: I think it will. I mean, we're going to do what we do. But having guys there for your other players -- because they're not going to change anything. The other players can't change anything. They gotta become -- they do what they do and who they are. And we play.

But continuity definitely helps, because when you're relating to other guys on the staff and bouncing ideas off of, things we have done in the past, things we haven't done in the past, and things, game plans, makes it easier.

Q. Your freshmen got a lot of playing time, but Hamsah seemed to really play well, had that big hit to stop the first down. What did you like (indiscernible)?
COACH FISHER: Again, I love what he's doing. He's athletic, long. He's smart. He's a big body guy who is physical but can run -- very light skill guy.

Like I said, I love his skill set, length and size and to walk out there in a game like that in that magnitude and perform as well as he did.

Cam Akers was outstanding when he got his time in there, was very good. (Indiscernible) I know jumped in there and did some great things. I'm sure there's some others. But off the top of my head I bet those guys kind of jumped out (indiscernible).

Q. (Inaudible) what did you observe with the running attack?
COACH FISHER: It wasn't that bad. We knew we were going to have to be patient with it. Get two, three yards, four yards at a time and you do it.

We started getting into it in the middle of the second quarter and that's what we planned. Early, be aggressive. (Indiscernible) misdirection.

Try to spread the field, get throws, and then be able to run the ball as you go. You're not going to line up at them, just run at them.

We had a couple of nice stretches. One time a receiver fell down on the cut. Shouldn't have cut, should have stayed up.

We had another stretch that was going to come out there big time. We were inches away on -- Cam Akers one time had about a five-yard run on a stretch about 40 going in, that was really good if you'll watch.

I'm not disappointed in the running game at all. They made a couple of stops and we knew they would. But we never got into it.

Then we got behind, had to throw the ball a little bit. And the momentum of the game changed. If you watch the first two and a half quarters, when we did run it, it was still efficient.

Even if it's a three-yard run and gets us a second and seven, and you hit a five and you go to third and two, those are very efficient runs. You have to be patient like that and they would have eventually broke. I wasn't disappointed in our run game at all, just didn't do it enough, the way the game turned out.

Q. You're not a "woe is me" guy. After the game you seemed pretty positive. Right now you seem to be positive too. Are you kind of excited about having this kind of challenge?
COACH FISHER: Yes, I definitely am. You gotta coach, keep coaching. Gotta do what you gotta do. Gotta do the hand you're dealt, go play.

We have plenty of ability, plenty of good players, now we gotta go coach and get the cobwebs out and play better. That's what we do. This is what we do for a living.

This is what we are. This is what our kids are. I'm looking forward to the challenge, and I think they are too. If you're a competitor, you definitely do.

I say I'm disappointed in some of the things that happen. But I also see the plus side of things. And we move on and address things and go.

Q. (Inaudible) starter. Have or haven't. What will be your message to him as he gets ready for his first week?
COACH FISHER: Prepare, put your time in. Show them exactly what we're going to do, what is expected of him, and to not try -- to play one play at a time. Dot your Is. Process the information. Make great decisions.

You get a chance to be accurate with the ball, make it. If you make a check, make a check and believe in what you're doing, do it with conviction. Do it with conviction.

Q. With the other two quarterbacks on the roster, are they going to see some time on Saturday if it gets to that point?
COACH FISHER: Oh, I don't know. It would be great if we could. But if you can get everybody to play -- everybody has experience. But you don't know the outcome of the game.

I wish I knew the outcome of all the games. I could tell you who is going to play when, where and why. But we don't know.

They'll get ready. J.J. had a good camp. Bailey had a good camp. But he got hurt, actually got sick. Then hurt his thumb now a little bit. Now he's healthy.

Probably should have hurt his thumb earlier; he's throwing the heck out of it now. Joking with him the other day. But pleased with his progress, like where he's at.

Q. You implement psychology, cornerstone of the program for you. What kind of is the psychology or the psychological approach with guys like James being the quarterback in terms of not (inaudible) and not letting outside things influence it?
COACH FISHER: Prepare. Prepare what you gotta do -- all kids, no matter if it's James or Deondre or a senior or Derwin thinking he's gotta go do more, because everybody said he's Derwin James.

No, the psychology is prepare. Prepare for success. The power of preparation. And to get yourself -- it's like taking a test. Because when I eventually play -- it's like you're getting tested every week.

Here's my test in my class. And the tests we like to take are the ones we're prepared for. If we're prepared for them, we usually do well on them. If we're not, we don't.

It's how simple as it is. That's how you have to look at it. You've got to lose yourself in the process of getting ready and not worry about the results and him trusting us. And that's what I'm telling him and what our coaching staff and everyone is telling him, what our program does; it works.

Q. (Inaudible) what can your defense build off in that fourth quarter?
COACH FISHER: I think our team can. I don't think your defense can -- your team, your defense doesn't, your team does.

You keep playing, play hard and keep competing with them no matter what. That's our motto. Never going to back away.

I didn't expect it to happen. Really didn't. Thought our team would play that way. I thought we competed hard in the game. I don't think that was an issue. I thought we could play with them.

But they're a great team. I give them all the credit in the world. But at the same time it shows you what you're capable of.

That's the encouraging thing, that we can go, be a dominant football at times we have to be and do the things we have to do to win games. And we gotta go back and, again, don't press. Nobody's got to step their game up; we just gotta play our game.

Q. How did the receivers play?
COACH FISHER: Solidly. Solidly. Have some things we have to get cleaned up. Some of the blitz reads. Some of the blitz reads and breaking some things off.

We had some opportunity, if we broke, we had a chance to really pop there.

And Deondre missed one or two of them, too. And we had some opportunities there, really big opportunities. But, again, made some plays.

Auden had a couple plays. Noonie had a couple. Keith Gavin had seven catches. He did a real nice job. Caught some balls. Everybody talks about the fumble (indiscernible) but the rest of it, he played dadgum well. Good routes, wide open, caught the ball. Made good plays. Had a nice reverse.

Q. Will Deondre be around --
COACH FISHER: Yes. When he could. He'll have his operation tomorrow. And when he's able to get up and do what he has to do, which should be pretty quick, I imagine. I don't know. I think that he'll be up pretty quick. Actually said he's looking forward to it, spending time with them.

Q. How important is it to have him still in the mix?
COACH FISHER: It's like with Derwin last year. I think no matter what, just going through the process of how do you prepare and all the little things you do.

Q. How did Derwin --
COACH FISHER: I thought he played really well. I thought he played well. Tackled well in space. Leveraged the ball. Made all of his calls.

I thought he looked really well. He had a nice blitz or two, came off the edge, played coverage well. I thought he played well, which I was not worried but I was concerned he would try to be too much, too hyped up. But he didn't. He was Derwin; he played really well.

Q. When you look back at the game, how frustrating was that first touchdown, (inaudible)?
COACH FISHER: It was. It was very frustrating. Here's the drive right here. I was looking at it a little bit ago.

And we had -- what was bad we had a play that we missed a block, about a 15-yard run. On the outside, on the perimeter blitz.

We knew they were going to blitz. Knew exactly what they were going to do and just missed it. Just flat missed it.

And the back missed it and we had it. The run Roger, we popped, we had a chance on it. And then the third down sack was disappointing that we lost that right there. We were trying to get back in.

But, again, that's what I said. We moved it the whole first half up and down the field, as far as we had one three-and-out. The first three-and-out we had, actually they battled two balls, tipped two balls, both our routes were wide open.

We felt good about everything we did. We felt great at halftime, the adjustments, what we did. We came out the second half, moved the ball well, moved it the next drive, too.

And then we missed, on a third and five, missed a blitz control read. And we break it off right there, we get a nice first down.

When the blocked punt happened, it changed. But it was disappointing. But we had opportunities but you've got to finish. And it's not an assignment, just a missed technique.

We had the guy, knew he was coming, went too wide. He cut inside it. And they made the play. And it's there when you got it. Just gotta show him and teach him and make sure the angles and the steps and everything we do is right.

Q. Deondre (inaudible)?
COACH FISHER: None. None. I think they lost a couple of guys for the year, too. I think they lost more than we did, believe it or not.

It's a shame. I hate to see any young man get hurt. That a shame. But, no, we didn't. Very physical game, clean, hard, two teams that went at it. Very physical football game.

Q. (Question about the officials).
COACH FISHER: Usually what you do, you sit in our office and they say, well, we'll sit in the Big Ten, and send it to them and there's nothing you can do about it.

But I thought it was a call, but at the same time, hey, we've got to make the field goal. Momentum swing. If you score a touchdown down there, now you got the ball on the 2-yard line, with 12 seconds, you get two plays, maybe you score, maybe you don't. You don't know what you're going to do.

But those are big momentum swings, too. That's the thing. Momentum, in the game -- you hear me talk about it all the time -- it's huge.

Won't turn them in and say -- but we had our -- we still had chances after that. And it's like the play, they don't see it; they don't see it. If they don't call it, it's not a foul. You gotta call the next play and you move on.

Q. (Question about Ryan Izzo).
COACH FISHER: I thought Izzo was excellent in the game. I thought he blocked really well. You saw him in the past -- we changed a lot of things up with pass throw. When you leave him in, that also helps your (indiscernible) linemen. On twist, if they don't get exposed on all the twist games.

We leave him in sometimes, release a back, we mix it up a lot more in that game. He pass blocked well. He ran blocked really well.

And he caught those balls really well and had a couple others we felt like got to him, but got some pressure. But he did a nice job.

The other one, as you said, that was the first drive; we had that ball right at the 36 and we had the play. We just missed it, too.

Two times, right there in the 30 -- I call that gray area. Right there where you're ready to get points and you didn't.

The opening drive of the game, we missed a little throw right there that we had. But those are the things you've got to work on and get through, but Izzo did a nice job, really nice job.

Probably the most consistent player of the game really for us. He and Eberle. They played really well.

Q. During pregame, it was like Carlos was trying to make a go of it. What did you --
COACH FISHER: Shocking. Some guys -- you guys want me to give timetables -- but people's bodies heal differently.

Some guys, the same injury can take three weeks. The next guy it takes him five days. It's just the way God makes them differently. And all of a sudden he had a lot of swelling the other day. And three days later all of a sudden the swelling started coming out.

He said he felt like he had a chance, he wanted to try it. He was close. He really was close to having -- but we'll see how that will set him back and we'll see how he does this week.

But they came up to me at the end on Thursday or Friday, we were leaving Thursday, the swelling really just a lot of it went away.

Q. Want to get your thoughts on Louisana-Monroe.
COACH FISHER: A very good team as far as different looks on defense. I know the defense coordinator Mike Collins, he was up at LSU when I was there. Was one of our off-field guys. A lot of different looks. Blitz packages, a lot of fair, double eagle fronts.

Play a lot of over, a lot of stack, double edge pressures, secondary pressures. Mixes it up. Offense, spreads the field. Quarterback is athletic.

Got skill guys. Louisiana is a state that always has great skill guys. And all those schools -- for a state to have four million people, they have more schools that have more good players.

And I lived there. It's amazing, the amount of skill guys and things throughout that state. And you go back in history of Northeast Louisiana, I say back in the day, now it's Louisiana-Monroe. Used to be Northeast.

Go back in the history of guys that played in the NFL, players from those schools, it's amazing. Very skilled and very big offensive linemen. And we'll have to play a real good game. And we need to. We need to control what we can control, and have to play them well.

Q. Coach, you pride yourself on special teams. So many breakouts in one game--
COACH FISHER: Never had.

Q. Do you wonder, okay, are we coaching it the right way? What do we have to do to make --
COACH FISHER: Go back, look at the practice tape. Like I said, one was a split; one was a technique. We go back and look at the film the other day: Every time, did it every time. Split. Never had a problem with the split.

And then Keith just made a poor decision. Keith just made a poor decision where he was on the ball. I think he thought he was more around the 4-, 5-yard line, and should have let the ball go through.

Pride, because like I said, we've led the country in special teams at times. Or been the top two or three. And coaching is very well. We have to make sure we hold the kids accountable and we show them the right way again.

Go back and reteach it, fundamentally, the importance of it. And we didn't catch a split. The split just got wide as the game went on, and it just caught us.

And you gotta remind them, it's not just: Can I do it right? Can I do it till I can't do it wrong. We need to make sure we harp on the details. Not change. There's nothing to change. Just stay focused and make them stay focused and be aware of every little detail that they do.

It's a shame. Very disappointing. It is very disappointing.

Q. With the defense, you said it's harder for the offense to kind of (inaudible), easier to coach defense?
COACH FISHER: Didn't say it's easy to coach defense. I said defense is what you make -- when the ball is involved, timing and rhythm; you can play well and rhythm be off.

Defense usually doesn't take that. It's hard to be on both sides. I didn't mean it like that.

Q. Would you think that's the reason why certain teams that have really, really great defenses and maybe the offense is kind of like the high wide, those teams have success on their team?
COACH FISHER: I think they do. And I think the other thing is, on offense, when you make somebody with the hit say, for instance, in basketball, constantly hitting a three with a guy's hand right here in the face, when you're good on defense and you're contesting, what I always say when we play well: You contest every throw. You contest every catch. Every run. No matter what.

You have to break a tackle or really hit a guy and knock him backwards. When you make it so concise when you're good on defense, when you put that pressure on the offense, it's hard to continually just execute against great people over and over and over again because eventually it wears on you, you know what I'm saying?

It's like great defensive players. You hit a few shots here and there and then, man, they're just right back. And how many in a row can you hit? Let's find out how many you can hit.

Or in baseball, those pitchers, you can be the best hitter in the world, have pitchers throwing that ball in the black of the plate, about 95, about knee high, there ain't lot you can do.

Occasionally, you hit one. But there aren't a lot of them that do it. And that's kind of the way it is. When you're on defense, and you can affect people on three levels and you can contest everything they do and make it really tough, it makes it very difficult to execute.

You may give up plays, but for long periods of time it becomes very challenging. That's one of the things that had me encouraged because I knew how good we are on defense and that we made a lot of those things against our defense at times.

I still think we will. And we did at times in that game. The first seven drives we had the ball. Even though we did and we still -- very contested throws, catches and moved until the momentum changed. So we have to clean it up and do better.

Q. (Inaudible)?
COACH FISHER: Yes. It was a safety rotation on the motion. And once in a while he was back there, thought he was back.

And the corner, he's letting the guy go to the post, playing outside a little bit more because he's thinking the guy has to over the top, you know what I mean? So you don't give up other things. And it was just a miscommunication on the safety. And we got to clear it up.

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