	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 28, 2011

Al Golden

COACH GOLDEN: We are playing a big game obviously, coming off of the Kansas State loss against a 10-win team from a year ago, and against an aggressive cookman (ph) operation here. Clearly this is a team that takes on the personality of its coach. They are aggressive in all three phases.
Obviously, you know, present us with a great deal of issues, most particularly with the spread offense. They are averaging 437 yards of offense and 219 yards of rushing a game, and that's going to present a great challenge. They are very aggressive in their special teams. We expect some block attempts and certainly some tricks. So we are getting ready for that on the defensive side they are really big, aggressive, pressure oriented. With that, open up to any questions that anybody has.

Q. How do you explain the inconsistency from the Ohio State game to the Kansas State game?
COACH GOLDEN: Something I've been trying to establish since I've gotten here, just to make it about the process and be the same team and the same student athlete every day. Clearly we were surprised by it.
We had a good week of practice. I think in the final 48, we lost our focus a little bit. And we really didn't get it back until half-time. It was already -- you know, we already spotted them an 11-point lead at that point and it just was not enough to get it back.
Again, you have to give Kansas State credit for the way they executed and prepared and played, and there's no excuses on our side. We have got to do a better job and that's starting with me, the staff, and every player that's in this building.

Q. So from your perspective and what you've seen this week, and also against Ohio State, do you feel like -- which is the better representative, I guess, of the team that Miami fans are going to see moving forward?
COACH GOLDEN: That's the question. You got it. You're all over it. I've said that -- I said that was the challenge for us going into the Kansas State game, who are we. Who are we. And that's going to continue to be my mantra right now to the team. I want to know who we are, decide what team you want to be.
And so that's going to require leadership and as I said to you in the spring, there's a dichotomy here right now and that is that we have a lot of older players, and/or experienced players and then we have youth. But we seldom have anything in between right now on our team. So the older players have to lead and the younger players have to mature and execute their role in the game.
And we didn't get that done in enough places in the game last week against a Kansas State team where I told them every day last week how fundamentally sound they were going to be and how physical they were going to be and they out-physicaled us for sure.

Q. Can you talk about the job Lamar Miller is doing? I know he's fifth in the nation in rushing. Does he have the durability to continue to carry the load you've been asking him to carry?
COACH GOLDEN: Well, we are going to find out. You know, conditioning is going to be big, the way he takes care of his body is going to be big throughout the season. Not just the physical conditioning but the mental and physical toughness is going to be huge.
You know, you've got to make sure he continues to use a stiff arm so they can't get to his body and get clean shots on him. That's something that we are working on with him. He's very physical in terms of his running style.
But we also have got to get him to use his stiff arm so he can't go to his body as much and we'll protect him as much as we can in practice. But we are trying to build a team that can operate like this for the long haul and so he's not alone. Michael James back there, we have got to -- Eduardo Clements looks like he's to the point where he can take some of the burden off.
And this is the first time since the infamous story broke that we feel really good about our two-deep and our health on the offensive line. We feel like we are going to be able to play nine or ten guys finally instead of practicing six or seven. So hopefully that will assist us as well.

Q. Wanted to ask you about the offensive line. As far as that, is run blocking a strength of this group?
COACH GOLDEN: They have not given up a sack since the opener, so I think that's part of the offensive line and that's also part of the quarterback getting rid of the ball. And we are averaging -- I don't know what it is, 185 or something, yards per game. But we are still leaving a lot of yards out there.
I heard at the end of Coach Cutcliffe speaking, and I feel the same way. You can't just play everybody 70 plays and think you are going to stay healthy the whole year.
And so we have to play more people. Obviously when you play the schedule that we play, the first three opponents had won 28 games and three Bowl opponents, you know, you just didn't have a lot of room to develop your team in terms of playing second and third team guys or guys that had little experience.
We feel like we have had enough practice now where we can play more guys.

Q. Sean Spence had to sit out the first game, but since he's been in the lineup for you, has he seemed really eager to be back on the field? He seems to be making tackles like crazy.
COACH GOLDEN: He's in great condition right now. He's a very smart player. Again sewn doesn't get enough credit. He gets credit for his natural gifts but he doesn't get any of the credit for his preparation, work ethic, his leadership and his football intelligence, and it's shown.
We are blessed to have him in our program, he's a tremendous young man, missed the opener but has really done a fantastic job since then and really doing a good job leading. So we are just glad to have him as part of the Hurricane family here.

Q. What is that preparation like? What does he do --
COACH GOLDEN: He's extraordinary. Really he's extraordinary. He's the guy who -- he's the role model for the rest of the unit, and certainly for the team and one people. Doing a lot of enemy intel and studying the formations and the personnel and different looks.
Obviously we missed him in the opener incredibly, but I really think he's starting to become an extension of Coach D'Onofrio, and he's starting to see the game through Coach D'Onofrio's eyes, and that's going to make sure we get in the right defenses based on formation or down and distance or any kind of check system we might have employed.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297