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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 9, 2013Paul JohnsonPAUL JOHNSON: Well, good morning. I'll tell you, we were really disappointed in the outcome at Miami. We felt like that we had some chances and didn't get the thing finished. Certainly Miami is a very talented team, and they've got some great skill players. For the second week in a row, we couldn't seem to make a play and close the deal. Working on trying to improve on that and get better, and certainly we've got a tremendous challenge this week. I think having had the opportunity to coach at the University of Hawai'i, I know what it's like to go to Provo to play. They've got a great fan base that are right on top of you that are really into the game, and you couple that with a very physical, mature football team that's tough to play, it's a huge challenge. We're ready to try to bounce back and get this thing turned in the right direction. Q. Obviously your last meeting with BYU was kind of one‑sided there. What do you need to do better to make it more of a game this time around? PAUL JOHNSON: Well, I think that they physically just kind of got after us. The score sometimes can be deceiving, but they physically got after us. We were 0 for 10 on 3rd down against them, which didn't help. Last year they had struggled to move the ball and score on offense, and they kind of exploded against us, and we got down early. If we're going to have a chance against them, we've got to be a more physical football team than we were a year ago when we played them. That's number one. If we'll do that, we should have a chance. Q. Is your team more capable of doing that than last year's team? PAUL JOHNSON: I don't know. I would have felt last year's team was capable of doing that before we played the game. Each team is different. Our guys know it's going to be a challenge. They know what happened. They can look at the tape from a year ago and see, and I think we're excited to have another opportunity to go play. Q. Where would you gauge the development of DeAndre Smelter now that he's had four or five games to show what he can do on the field? PAUL JOHNSON: Well, I think DeAndre is becoming more and more a part of our plan. He's a very talented young man. He's got good skills, ball skills, athletic. He's still trying to learn the game and some of the finer points. We probably had him in a few too many spots last week; he was returning kickoffs and punts and playing 60 something odd snaps. He didn't play as well last week as he has earlier. We've got to try to limit his reps some, get him cut back some, but he's a really good player. I think he's got a bright future. Q. What about him has most impressed you so far? PAUL JOHNSON: Well, I think that his football IQ is pretty good. He's very athletic. He's got really good ball skills. And he's very coachable. He wants to be good. He wants to learn. He wants to listen. He can be a pretty physical kid, too. Q. Talk about traveling, a team from the East Coast out there to the altitude in Utah. What do you have to do to get yourselves ready for that altitude? PAUL JOHNSON: Well, you know, I'm not sure there's a whole lot that you do do. You hope that you're in good condition and you just go play the game. I've said before, I learned a long time ago to try not to worry about things I can't control, and we're not going to change the altitude or the time zone; that's part of it. I think you just get ready and go play. Teams do it all the time. You can use that as an excuse. If you're not real careful, and we don't need any excuses, we just need to get ready to go play. You know, there's not a lot you can do in college sports. But people do it all the time. It's not impossible. Q. Talk about BYU's defense. What did you see on video this week or film? PAUL JOHNSON: Well, again, traditionally they're very good defensively I think since Bronco has been there. Again, they're physical, they make a lot of plays. They're averaging, I think, six and a half three‑and‑outs a game on the opposing team, creating turnovers, great field position for their offense. You've got to kind of match their physicality when you play them, and that's something we did not do a year ago, especially on the perimeter. We got the ball out on the perimeter a lot and didn't hit the big plays that we need to hit when we get it out there, so that's going to be a challenge for our guys this week. You know, they do a great job. They're very sound, play hard, and they've got good players, so that's a good combination. Q. I wonder, BYU opened the season at Virginia, and Virginia did a pretty good job of controlling them, and then the next week they played Texas and just set all kinds of records rushing. What did Virginia do well, and is there anything you can learn from that as you watch that film? PAUL JOHNSON: Well, I think that BYU has evolved a lot offensively since the first game. They were kind of in a new scheme and doing that. But Virginia played very well defensively. I think the other thing is really they won the game with turnovers. They got a couple of turnovers from BYU that really helped them. And they limited the big plays. They also played in a driving rainstorm, which probably didn't help either offense. But Virginia played them very well defensively, no question about that. I think the biggest thing is they limited the big plays, gave them some negative plays. Q. Vad started the year pretty sharp it looked like, as just an observer in the passing game. He's had two tough weeks throwing the ball. You got your running game going again last week a little bit. Can you talk about Vad and his confidence level and what's going on with the passing game? PAUL JOHNSON: Well, I think Vad is a pretty confident guy overall. I don't think that he's shaken at all with confidence, and we're still confident in him. I think he's the same kind of player. As the competition level increases, you've got to up your game, and it's certainly not all that. We had protection problems against Virginia Tech for sure. The last game we had a couple opportunities that we missed, but some of it is route, some of it is protection, and some of it he's got to throw the ball better. But it's never just one thing you can point to, but we're still confident that he's going to be a good player. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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