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ROSE BOWL GAME: OREGON v FLORIDA STATEDecember 28, 2014Randy SandersPASADENA, CALIFORNIA Q. Coach Sanders, there has been a lot of talk this season that James is an emotional guy. You have been a calming influence. What are those conversations like? COACH SANDERS: Jameis is very excitable. There's no question. And the excitement, the emotion is a big part of the game, and it's a part that's needed. At the same time as the quarterback, you have to stay pretty much at the same level, regardless of whether things are going well or aren't going well. Body language, the presence you project, affects not only our team, affects the fans, it affects the people in the stands, it affects the other team. So just always be aware of the body language. Don't worry about the last play. The most important play in football is always the next one. It doesn't matter what happened. You learn from the past, but you always go to the next play and you play the next play. That is the thing I've probably spent more time with him on than anything else on the sideline is just always play the next play. Let's learn from that one and let's go to the next. He's done a phenomenal job of that this year. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: Well, I think sometimes when you make a mistake there's a natural desire to go back and make up for it. And you can't play the game that way. You have to play each play on its own merit. And I think that's something that he's made a lot of improvement on this year. Go play the next play, just do what you're supposed to do on that play. Once it's over, do what you're supposed to do on the next play. As long as you do that, the end result will take care of itself. Fortunately for us, it has so far. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: He gets the guys to believe in him by getting it done. That's the first thing. It doesn't matter how much leadership ability you have, how much presence you have, charisma you have, anything else, if you don't go out on the field and produce and win, people aren't going to follow you. He loves to play. He loves to compete. It doesn't matter if it's football, playing horse, throwing rocks at street signs, whatever, throwing footballs at a garbage can, he just loves to complete. He loves to play. And when you get in the games and you get the big opponents and get to the bigger stage, I think he loves it even more. It really brings the competitiveness out. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: He definitely has the presence, the charisma, the natural leadership. And the thing the other guys know, they know how hard he works. As a coach, he always comes into the building and he's prepared. He's ready to go to meetings, he's watched his tape, he has his notes. He's watched it, studied it. Has his questions to ask: How are we going to handle this when they do this? Coach, have you noticed when the corner is in this stance, he plays like this? So he does his homework, he's prepared, and everyone knows it. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: I think that's probably something that a lot of people don't know. Unless you're there every day to see it, you don't realize it. But like I tell him, it's like when you were in grade school, you go in class, you sit in class and you couldn't wait until recess and you got to go out and play. And that's the way practice is. We get to go out and play. So he brings that attitude to practice. He keeps it lively for everyone, gets everyone competing. And there's no question it makes our team better. That's the one thing that we were fortunate with last year, we had Telvin Smith and Joyner and those guys that had the same attitude. So he's definitely carried it over. It's definitely good for our team that he has that. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: I think there's definitely ‑‑ there were probably definitely times ‑‑ "probably definitely," that's bad ‑‑ there were definitely times that it took some of his time away from football. But at the same time it made him become more efficient. In a lot of ways coming to practice, playing the games, being in meetings, being around the guys, a lot of ways it made him appreciate the team and appreciate football even more. He's been phenomenal that way, and I think it also speaks great volumes towards him that nobody on our team has ever questioned anything. The players never questioned. They never wavered in their support, because they know what type of person he is and they know what type of guy he is. And they know him. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: Yeah, yeah. No, I don't know that anyone really comes to mind. I've had a lot of my friends say, Hey, what's it like coaching? It's great. Because the guy wants to be good. He listens, he responds to coaches, he wants to be coached. He wants to be coached hard. He works hard at the game. He loves football. Not only does he love playing, he loves the whole process. He's been phenomenal to coach, to be around. It's truly been a blessing to me to have an opportunity to be around a guy like that. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: Sure, sometimes the best thing in the world that can happen to you is get fired. Q. You didn't think that at the time, I take it? COACH SANDERS: Well, I had a great time at Kentucky. I told my wife several times, It's time to move. I knew it was. Yeah, I had daughters in high school. Plus I loved the staff I was with, but I knew it was time to go. Sometimes God has to step in and say, All right, if you won't go, I'll make you go. That's the way I look at it. The fact that I ended up at Florida State and winning 27 straight games and getting to coach Jameis proves that there was a higher power in control than me. To get fired and end up going 27‑0, coaching a Heisman Trophy winner and getting the chance to play for two National Championships. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: Sure, sometimes it is. You've got to take shots. You have to take your shots. I remember Steve Springer talking one time years and years ago, said if a quarterback is not throwing interceptions, he's not pushing the ball down the field. You've got to take your shots. You've got to take your chances. Now, that being said, you have to be really smart about when you take those shots and when you need to take those chances. I haven't always liked when he's taken some of them early in the games. We have to eliminate those. But it's obvious late in the games when we had situations where we had to come back that there's no interceptions. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: Well, he did a lot last year. And this year's group has been fun. We're a good offensive team. But we're not the same offensive team we were last year obviously. Nobody in NCAA history was the offensive team we were last year. We set NCAA scoring records, the all‑time record. You think about "all‑time," that's a long time. So last year's offense was pretty special, pretty different. We're still really good this year, but we're not scoring setting NCAA scoring records, scoring 94 touchdowns. There's a certain desire, certain expectation to go out and play like we did last year, but at the same time we've all had to be realistic, temper our expectations a little bit and realize this isn't the same team. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: Well, honestly I go back into fall camp, when we had some of our scrimmages and I saw some of the runs he's made. I told our staff, This guy is really good. And Karlos is a really good player, Mario is really good. There's a lot of good freshmen. But if he stays healthy, keeps working, keeps progressing (inaudible). Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: Yes. We knew last year's class was really special. That's one of the great things about Florida State. We have a brand that appeals to kids. We have a staff that works really hard at recruiting. We've got a head coach that sets the pace. I've been coaching long enough to know it doesn't matter how good a coach you are, if you don't have the players, you can't outcoach people but so many times. Sooner or later it comes down to players. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: That's a very legitimate question. As a coach, you always have plan A, but you also have plan B and you have plan C. Now, plan A may be against what you see them doing and what you expect them to do. Plan B may be if they do this. Plan C may be if they do this and so and so gets hurt. How do we react to that? You always have your plan, then you have contingency plans and you always have to make those adjustments. And I think that's probably one of the things we've done as well as anywhere I've ever been as a coaching staff is making those adjustments during the game. Coach Fisher is phenomenal, Coach Dawsey, Coach Trickett, Coach Graham, Coach Brewster, we've got enough experience and we've got enough ability to see the game and react to it. And I think we've made some phenomenal adjustments. How will it affect Oregon? I don't know. I expect them to do a lot of the same things. I'm sure they may not play quite as much man to man as what they did before. But like I said earlier, there's no question, whoever they put in the game is going to be good. It's not like whoever plays is going to be a bad player. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: Well, it looks like some games he played one side, some games he moved around. That's part of the beauty of the chess match. He also played nickel in some situations where he was inside. But how they would have used him against us (inaudible). Was he going to go to Rashad, was he going to play to the field, was he going to play to the boundary, play in the slot, and that's all part of the matchup thing. The game within a game that you have to recognize as coaches early on. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: Sure, no question. There's things he does and there's things that Coach Fisher and I kind of coach him to do, that would never do with anyone else, because he has the ability. One example is he has unbelievable vision. He can drop back and see what's happening on both sides. Never been around anybody other than Peyton that can see what the safeties are doing, and the linebackers are doing, but tell you what both corners were doing, all at the same time. And process it and react to it just like that. So tell him to drop back, as you're dropping, see the big picture and determine where you're going, typically with guys you're: You've got this covered, you're working this side. You got this covered, you're working this side. He kind of brings the whole field into play on every play. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: I'm more worried about that when the time comes, to be honest with you. I don't mean to skip your question, but just going to coach him, enjoy coaching him right now, whoever is next, we'll get them prepared. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: I think other than ‑‑ I think other than having to sit in there through the process, I think that was probably the only real concern. I think ‑‑ I don't think there was a whole lot of concern about how the results will turn out. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: Not really, because I don't think the thought of ‑‑ anything coming up where he couldn't play came up at all. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH SANDERS: I've coached a lot of guys that had that competitiveness, that loved to play. Obviously being around Peyton, there's been a number of guys. But I don't know that I've ever been around anybody that got the same results time after time after time like he does. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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