	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 21, 2011

Al Golden

MIKE FINN: We now welcome Miami head football coach Al Golden. We'll ask for a brief opening statement and then go to questions.
COACH GOLDEN: Obviously we're excited about the opportunity to play Kansas State at home on national TV, obviously a 3:30 start. A lot of respect for Coach Snyder and his staff. Team is incredibly fundamentally sound. They're a team that starts quickly. They're 50-5 in September since 1992, which is extraordinary in this business. On offense they present multiple challenges just because of the offense they're running. 35th in the country in rushing. Got a quarterback that can do a lot of great things with the ball in his hand.
On defense they're number one in scoring defense, total defense, pass defense, pass defense efficiency. Two very physical safeties. Arthur Brown, their linebacker, leads the team in tackles, is a leader of the defense as well. Ray Kibble, No. 95, is as good as anybody we saw last week at Ohio State, as I told our team yesterday. We think Kibble is better than the two we saw last week.
It's going to be a great challenge for us, something we're getting ready right now.
MIKE FINN: Questions for Coach Golden.

Q. I'm assuming you would tell me you think Lamar Miller could keep up the pace, but why do you think he can do that?
COACH GOLDEN: I know he can. He committed himself to the conditioning. When I got here I would not even classify him in the top 50% of the team in conditioning. But I really think he made a conscious decision, along with Mike James, in the month of May, after spring ball, May and June, specifically. He really started to get better and better as July and August came.
I think May, when a lot of guys are kind of slowing down, he was a guy that knew he was way behind in conditioning and attacked it and didn't sweep it under the rug. I think he's in great condition both mentally and physically right now.

Q. Is it ideal for you to how many carries you want him to get in a game?
COACH GOLDEN: As I sit here, I can't even remember how many he had in the game. We're trying to get him 25 in every game. With that, there will be a couple of kick returns, I'm sure, and there will be a couple of passes out of the backfield. You're talking about 30 touches a game is what we're shooting for.
A lot of that is determined by how we play, whether we can stay on schedule, eliminate penalties, when we have the ball keep it, possess the ball and get some stops on defense.

Q. Jacory Harris, his first game for you, he's always been a talented guy, had a couple interceptions, but played well most of the game. Can you evaluate how he did.
COACH GOLDEN: I think it's simple. If you just look at the left side of the ledger versus the right side, the left side of the ledger was that he threw two interceptions, he tried to force the ball, to be perfectly honest, on one or two other throws.
But I want to be fair to the young man because on the second interception, his check-down wasn't where it should be, so that wasn't his fault. His fault comes when that does take place not running or throwing it out of bounds. That's what we've got to try to work on.
The positive side of the ledger, he's 70% completion percentage. His first game was against excellent competition in Ohio State. That was his first game. He led our first two drives of the game, resulting in touchdowns. The second one had a great checkoff at the line of scrimmage to get us in the throw that he wanted. He had a two-minute drive in the end of the half, threw a touchdown. That was after throwing two interceptions. He led a fourth quarter drive that was nine minutes, converted three third downs, two in the air and one with his feet. He had no delay of games, no wasted timeouts, had great resiliency. He improved from the first half to the second half. The first game of the season against a quality opponent with a new offense.
So I'm excited about the way he progressed as the game went on, obviously the way he's practicing right now.

Q. Mike London said recently you were one of the first coaches he was aware of that was holding morning practices during the season. When did you start that? Did you get the idea from anybody? Talk about that a little bit.
COACH GOLDEN: We started that I guess three years ago, maybe four years ago now. It was just something that we didn't want to conflict with classes. The biggest thing is when you're practicing in the afternoon, it's really hard to change the social climate of a campus. If you're practicing late, then the kids have to go eat dinner at 6:30, they come back for study hall. Between getting up in the morning for treatment, going to classes, guys are getting back to their dorm room at 11:00 at night.
What this does is it moves the day up. Obviously we get them to bed at a better hour. They get their rest. But on the back end, once they're done with dinner at the end of the day, they're pretty much done. There are some guys who have to do a study session or a study hall.
But it shortens the day by moving it up. You don't have a lot of guys in the building at 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 at night doing work or doing study hall.
We felt it was the best situation, best move for us. The net result is a fresher team, too, because you get more rest between a Thursday practice and a Saturday game.

Q. Do you know how many other people do it? Did you know anybody else doing it before you?
COACH GOLDEN: I don't know. I think Wake and maybe Vanderbilt were doing it. Again, ours was born out of necessity because at Temple, it's a big commuter school, so a lot of the classes were later in the afternoon or at night. I gave that schedule at Oregon. I'm sure they're doing it. I gave my schedule to Rutgers. I think they went to it, as well. I don't know how many are doing it. For us it just works well.
Again, we just didn't want to get to the point where we were beating the kids up all day and then bringing them back at 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 at night.
The coaches get home at a reasonable hour. The coaches are fresher. They're coaching hard on the field. The players are not here till 10:00 at night, which we didn't think was fair.

Q. You're coming off a high-profile game, opponent. You won. Your players never played Kansas State, a program they know very little about. I wonder from a players' perspective if it might be difficult to prepare for a game like this, maybe not being aware potentially of how good Kansas State is?
COACH GOLDEN: Maybe on the outside. But you're talking about a team that's 50-5 in September since '92. You're talking about over the last 15 years, they're one of the best programs in the country. You're talking about one of the best coaches ever to walk the planet, to be honest. What he's done at Kansas State is remarkable.
So I think not only that, but when you turn on the film and they're the number one scoring defense, pass defense, they have a kid playing inside Kibble, game wrecker, Arthur Brown was a linebacker who was here, many of our players know him, they know he's a big player. Two big physical safeties, quarterback that's running for 10-yards a game. They understand the challenge and know what kind of team is coming in here.
It's always been a physical, high-motor, fundamentally sound team. This version of Kansas State is no different.
MIKE FINN: Coach, thank you for being with us. We'll talk to you next Wednesday.
COACH GOLDEN: Thank you.
MIKE FINN: This concludes today's ACC football coaches teleconference. Thanks for being with us. Join us next Wednesday at 10:30 for the next ACC football coaches teleconference.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297