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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 21, 2009

Will Muschamp

Q. Coach, did you know you used to work for Nick Saban?
COACH MUSCHAMP: I did. I'm sure I'll find out everything as we go here, yeah.

Q. Is there anything -- does that matter at all in terms of knowledge and the little things that he does?
COACH MUSCHAMP: I think from a standpoint of maybe what our offense faces every day at practice will be similar to what they see on game day. There is some fear associated with that. But I think there will be a lot of ink wasted on this whole scenario.
Nick's an outstanding football coach, Kirby Smart is an outstanding football coach. I've worked with most of the guys on their staff of the they know me well, I know them well. But I think this game's going to come down to the Texas football team, and the Alabama football team and, the players that are going to be on the field. And the execution of those players, and those five or seven plays that come down in the game where the big plays in the game are established and what happens there. That's what this game will come down do.

Q. Are you tickled to death, here you are at Texas in this game. You know, it's kind of sweet, isn't it?
COACH MUSCHAMP: I'm just happy to be in the game. You know, as a coach and being 38 years old and having the opportunity to be part of it twice, that's pretty special. So we just need to do a great job of preparing our players and seize the opportunity. It's going to be a fun game. It's going to be everybody's going to be watching and having the opportunity to be part of this is exciting.

Q. You obviously were not prepared to treat it like it was any other game in practice. Is there any part of you that is a little more worked up?
COACH MUSCHAMP: No, I think that again, as far as the preparation is concerned, it's just another game. And nobody likes to hear that, that's boring. But that's just the way it is. It's the way I approach all games with the players.
When you try to start to treat one more importantly than the other, they know this. They know coach might be a little tight in this one. Well, no, it's going to be the same approach whether we're playing Monroe. It's all the same to me.
When you get that, you get more consistency and performance from your players. I think throughout the year we've been pretty consistent in what we've tried to do with the kids.

Q. Is that something defenses are doing more because you've been understated, too?
COACH MUSCHAMP: I think so. Of I haven't watched a lot of them. But the guy calling the defense is Kirby Smart. He's an outstanding coach. Does a great job. He's a good friend. I think philosophically and schematically we believe in a lot of the same things whether it's to deny the ball down, and the zone down and pressure down. So I think that there will be a lot of carry away in this game.

Q. Do you talk even more?
COACH MUSCHAMP: We always talk about the issues in these down and distances, these personnel groupings. So I think there will be obviously a lot of carry over.

Q. Talk about the Alabama offense. People have talked about as the years have gone by and McElroy seems to have developed certain things. Are you seeing that on film as well?
COACH MUSCHAMP: I think so. As a first year starter, maybe as a play caller Jim McElwain as the offensive coordinator, you find what your players are comfortable doing. And obviously, the quarterback positions, you've got to find that rhythm for him and what he feels comfortable with. And I think he's seen a little bit of that as the years have rolled along.
They've played really well up front offensively. They have a match-up issue outside with Julio Jones an outstanding player and Mayes is playing some really good plays of the Colin Peek when he was /SKWRURD set them back some because he's a good player and he does a good job in the passing game for him. You have two packs that are outstanding. Richardson started everywhere else behind Mark Ingram, he's a good player.
I've seen his process as far as McElroy's concerned. A guy that's come along. Very accurate with the football. They only have ten turnovers for the years, so they take care of the ball. They he don't give up a lot of negative plays, so they're not behind in the chains very much. They managed the game for third down. I think he's done a great job of being efficient in what they do as the years rolled along. And in his biggest game of the year, he played outstanding against Florida.

Q. Can you expand on the running back situation? The Heisman Trophy winner, but there is not a lot of drop-off against Richardson either.
COACH MUSCHAMP: No, there's not. Trent Richardson will be a starter in most places in the country. And obviously they've done a good job of evaluating and recruiting backs.

Q. They talked a lot about going back to basics in this bowl preparation. As a coach and teacher, is that fun for you guys to get back to work?
COACH MUSCHAMP: I think as far as sometimes during the week as you prepare, you're hurried because you've got a deadline as far as your installation is concerned of the right now we're just going back to basics and fundamentals of defense of what we're trying to do, what we're trying to accomplish.
Striking upfront, playing with our hands up front, our low pad level. Attacking well, as much as we can do at this point, and emphasizing the basic fundamentals of our players. We've inserted a little on Alabama each day, not a lot. Because when you do too much of it, they get bored. When you move too far away from game time it becomes boring for them. You want to leave a little bit for these next three days after Christmas, and we'll really hone in and get out to Pasadena?

Q. Can you sense their anxiousness though, whether it's either getting to Alabama or L.A.?
COACH MUSCHAMP: I think we've done a good job as a staff of identifying what we're practicing for each day. This is going to be a first and ten day, second down day. We're going to emphasize and work against each other. So the players understand the point of practice and what we're trying to do right now.

Q. How do you handle Christian Scott? I know at the beginning of the year you were expecting big things, but then haven't had him all year.
COACH MUSCHAMP: It will be on special teams. We'll work him through the rotation defensively. He practices through these next eight to ten practices, we'll determine how much he'll play. But we're trying to find ways to get him on the field.

Q. Is he a guy that starts better during the game or gets better as he goes?
COACH MUSCHAMP: He looks good early, and he looks good late. But he's a one-cut runner. He gets the ball north and south is what I see. He does a nice job whether it's the zone or stretch scheme. Finding the hole, cutting the ball back, pressing the ball frontside and finding the air in the defense. He gets north and south. When he does, he hits it quick.
I don't know how fast he is, but for 10 or 15 yards, he's rally fast. He gets the ball north and south. He's a low center of gravity guy. So he's a guy that's not going to get easy shots in soft areas on him.

Q. Anything you see of the three games he produced? Was there anything? I mean, their three games were like 55 or less, I think?
COACH MUSCHAMP: He runs hard. And I think he got banged up in a couple of those three. So I don't know that anything anybody did special. He just do a nice job of getting a hat on hat in the running game, moving up front, calling in on the second level. You've got to attack them in this game.
The biggest concern you have is it's a defensive coordinator going into a bowl game. Only in the first game of the year is live tackling because there's a bunch of that going into the game, you know. That's always a concern. This game's going to come down to eye control in the backhand, and running game, and leveraging the ball and tackle.

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