|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCEAugust 28, 2013Al GoldenTHE MODERATOR: We're now joined by Miami Head Coach Al Golden, who begins his third season in Coral Gables as MU hosts Florida Atlantic this Friday at SunLife Stadium in Miami Gardens. The game will have an 8:00 p.m. kickoff and will be televised nationally on ESPNU. With that, we'll ask for a brief opening statement from Coach and then go to questions. Coach? COACH GOLDEN: Thanks, Mike. Obviously, bringing a close to training camp and have our focus on Florida Atlantic and a great opportunity to show ourselves and prove to ourselves what the 2013 team is all about. We're hosting Florida Atlantic on Friday night. Should be a great atmosphere. We're honoring the '83 team, and certainly Howard Schnellenberger, who's meant so much to Florida, not just University of Miami and Florida Atlantic, but South Florida, and should be a great night to commemorate them as well. With that, any questions that you might have, I'd like to answer. Q. Kind of just going in regards to your opening comments there, how special is it to play FAU for the first time, and you guys play four in‑state Florida schools this year. How important is it for you to continue playing in‑state schools? COACH GOLDEN: I think certainly in South Florida here, it's created a lot of energy. And playing Florida Atlantic for the first time is awesome, especially on a night we're honoring Howard Schnellenberger because he's meant so much to both programs. It is great to have rivalries within the state. We obviously have a lot of pride in the State of Florida and the Florida high school football. So it's great to take on other opponents within the state. Q. Wanted to see if you could give me an update on Nate Dortch, how he's progressing for you. COACH GOLDEN: Nate is doing a great job. He's working on special teams, and he'll be in the rotation in the game. Nate's done a real good job. He's gained a good amount of weight. He's gotten stronger. He's got long arms and a lot of quickness. So that makes him tough against the press. So we're pleased with Nate. He's a freshman, redshirt freshman, and very excited about what he's done and the position he's put himself in to have success on Friday night. Q. That redshirt season, do you think that helped him a lot? COACH GOLDEN: It had to. It had to have helped. He was underweight, so he wasn't quite ready in terms of the strength and being able to hold up and being able to be physical on his jams and everything. So he's markedly improved from a year ago, and I think that year was good for him. He's playing the game faster right now and has a great attitude. Q. Coach, sophomore safety Bush has dealt with a lot of stuff off the field. He's been banged up. Can you talk about how he's been progressing, and should we expect to see him this Friday? COACH GOLDEN: I don't know. It's up in the air right now. He's cleared to play. So it's just a function of how comfortable he feels. If Deon feels comfortable and wants to move forward, then we'll move forward with him. But it's‑‑ Deon's smart. So it's not going to be a function of him not understanding the defense or anything like that. He's taking reps. It's just going to be a comfort level deal with him. Again, 48 hours is a long time from now, more than 48 hours, in terms of when we play. It's like an eternity from now. We'll just monitor his progress, and we'll see how he is. Q. Two quick questions. First about Rashawn Scott. Obviously, you're bringing back a lot of receivers.  Where is he at with his status? Is he third on the depth chart? And also you mentioned on Monday with the walk‑ons, has that been finalized? COACH GOLDEN: Yeah, it has not. To speak to Rashaun, I think right now he's playing the best football he's played all training camp. So the last three or four practices have been his best practices. Hopefully, he can carry that momentum into the game and play at the level that we know he can play at. It's as simple as that. Rashawn does a lot of good things. He's got to just continue to be consistent and improve and get out of his own way sometimes, and I think hopefully he'll just continue to make progress here and have an impact in the game Friday night. Q. Al, you got a lot of questions in July about the NCAA report, once more still not out. How easy has it been for you to put it aside for now? COACH GOLDEN: Again, we're just‑‑ I appreciate you bringing it up, Doug. Q. I'm sorry. I wasn't going to do it. COACH GOLDEN: We're just focused on FAU. You know, opening games are tricky. They always are. So they really take a lot of your energy. They take a lot of focus, a the lot of contingency plans. If this, what are we going to do? You know, that type of thing. Because you have no idea what they have planned. So that's taking all of our energy. We know there's going to be a heated game here Friday night between a lot of kids that know each other, and that's the way it should be. That's the way college football should be. So that's where our focus has been. I just think it's a situation that's out of our hands, and let's control the things that we can control. Q. It sounds like the game time preparations, if anything, was out there on any kind of matter, that the game time prep, first week preparations are so hectic that it would be hard to think of anything else. COACH GOLDEN: Yeah, I would say, Doug, that game week preparations have been therapeutic as it relates to the NCAA, you know what I mean? It's allowed us to‑‑ again, opening games especially. A lot of people don't‑‑ can't appreciate that we don't know who their quarterbacks are going to be or what they're going to be doing on special teams or position X, Y, and Z are different. You know what I mean? There's so many different variables in the opening game. You've got to work overtime to control your variables because, if you can't control your variables and then they change, now you're in trouble. So we're working on ourselves and making sure we're ready to adapt and overcome whatever it is that we see, play with poise, have some composure, and rely on our experience and communicate. Q. Al, with you all honoring the '83 Championship team on Friday, just curious, as a young man growing up, whether you watched that Championship game or have any recollection of it? COACH GOLDEN: I did because my brother actually walked on in '81. He left before the Championship, but obviously, when your big brother goes to Miami, you become a Miami fan. I just think it was something where we were following it at that time, and certainly remember it like it was yesterday. So it will be great to see a lot of those guys. Back then, you used to tape the games on the VHS or whatever, the VCR, and then keep them. That was one of the games we used to watch every now and again. So it was‑‑ it's going to be fun to see a lot of those guys, and clearly, it will be exciting to honor them. Q. Coach, I wanted to ask you about Duke Johnson, his role last year. Pretty explosive player, you rotated him to tailback, and he was one of the best kick returners in the country. Do you see that changing in any way? Do you try to get more touches for him? Less touches? COACH GOLDEN: He's got to get more. He's gone‑‑ he's significantly stronger and heavier than he was a year ago. He's obviously more comfortable in the system, having gone through it. He's a better pass protector right now. He's a better pass receiver right now. He's playing with a more quiet mind than he was a year ago. Then he's a young man who's always had his house in order off the field. He's not cramming in school or trying to catch up in school or he's late here or late there. He takes care of business off the field. The net result of that is it allows him to focus on football when it's football time. It's hard to imagine anybody that loves the game more than he does, very hungry, very humble, and very hard worker. He'll be ready for significantly more in it all those areas. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for being with us. Good luck. We'll talk to you next week. COACH GOLDEN: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|