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CHICK-FIL-A PEACH BOWL: OLE MISS v TEXAS CHRISTIANDecember 29, 2014Trevone BoykinSonny CumbieDoug MeachamATLANTA, GEORGIA THE MODERATOR: We have Co‑offensive coordinator, Doug Meacham, quarterback Trevone Boykin and co‑offensive coordinator, Sonny Cumbie. Coach, if you give us an opening statement, talk about your bowl week experience so far. DOUG MEACHAM: It's been great, actually after you practice as much times as we have back home, coming to a different venue and practicing in a different location makes it feel good and almost like starting over again and almost like a refresh feel to it. THE MODERATOR: Coach Sonny Cumbie? COACH CUMBIE: Same thing, it's been a good experience for our players. I think they have earned this for a reward for this season and glad they're here to go through the events the Bowl has set up together and I think they've enjoyed it. This is the time of the week that you start focusing down on the game. It's been a good experience, I think our kids have enjoyed it and we're grateful for the Chick‑fil‑A Peach Bowl for what they have done for us here. Q. Trevone? TREVONE BOYKIN: The guys have been enjoying it, we've all been having fun, they've been taking care of us, and we just try to come here and have as much fun as possible and like Coach Cumbie said it's around the time when you start to focus on the game and guys are starting to settle down a little more, but our experience here in Atlanta has been awesome, nothing that I would change in any way, but the guys are enjoying it and I'm enjoying it and we're here to have fun and play a good ball game. Q. Trevone, the season that you had, when you look back on it, does the disappointment of not getting to NewYork, does that affect to you? TREVONE BOYKIN: No, not at all. I was blessed with an opportunity and I was thankful for it and it motivates me for next year and I'm one of the guys that doesn't focus on individual awards. I'm really all about the team. I'm really just glad to be here with my teammates and we're enjoying this time right now. Q. How much credit do you give the coaches for your season? TREVONE BOYKIN: Probably the majority of the credit but they brought an atmosphere to our side of the ball. We knew that they could help us and we basically all bought in.  It was a long spring and summer but to be here at this bowl game has paid off for this to be our reward. Q. To the coaches, can you explain how you share those duties, how you collaborate, who calls the place? DOUG MEACHAM: We collaborate side‑by‑side but in terms of the game plan it's 50/50 and we all have areas that we're involved in specifically, and in the overall game plan, Sonny and I work close together on the entire game plan. COACH CUMBIE: On game day Doug calls the plays from the field and I'm up in the press box, trying to give him a view of what's going on, so it's worked well together, I think both of our strengths play off one another really well and our room has been great, Jarred Andersen, Rusty Burns and Curtis Looper those guys that have been here, have been awesome and so it really is a collective deal, Coach Meacham comes in there every Monday and we work on run game together as a staff, we work on openers as a staff, third downs, and red zone goal lines as a staff, so you know it's a testament a testament, I think, to Coach Meacham's leadership of this staff first of all and how we work. Q. What groups are you y'all responsible for? DOUG MEACHAM: Well I mean we all we do projects individually, I think Sonny is the same way, I think, we spend time alone. I don't do well thinking together, you know trying to come up together with ideas with a bunch of voices in my head going on at the same time, like too many cooks in the kitchen you know? But we go and process it individually and come together as a group and discuss it. I watch all of it, Sonny watches all of it and there are certain position groups that watch particular areas like third and third downs, or red zone score zone, or run game, or we have the coaches responsible for blitz pick up and things like that. We all convene during certain points of the week and we view it, discuss it, and we all walk out of there on the same page. Once I've had a mind‑set on what I like and don't like, I like hearing from other guys because there are always other things in there that you might have missed, but I just like to collect my thoughts by myself for a while then come together as a group, that's how we do it. It's been great. Q. Guys, beside the guy in the middle there, how do you two coordinators explain the monumental improvement from last year offensively? DOUG MEACHAM: I don't know, I guess anytime a change it needed, a fresh thought, fresh ideas may have had something to do with it. I'm going to say that we struck lightning in a bottle a little bit in that there are some really good players in place, along with Trevone, our offensive line, a really good group of players, our backfield is good, we have receivers that make plays, we just kinda got luck in that regard because not only Trevone but other guys that contributed so well. I don't think there is a particular area where we're deficient. We have a solid group of players at all positions. COACH CUMBIE: When you look back last season TCU was in nearly every ball game and I think that the testament of the character of this team Coach Patterson was how they finished games last season, you know, 4‑8 at the end of the season but still there were no lay‑ups and they were fighting to the end and Trevone and those guys on offense for the last two years, we've got an older group, the guys are juniors, a lot of juniors, a few seniors and the adversity that they have gone through and the character that they have gained through that has helped us this fall and like Coach Meacham said there were a lot of talented players here that were here before we got here and we kinda came in with new ideas and I think the kids were excited and like Trevone said they bought in and when you have talented kids who buy in and are accountable like Coach Patterson has built 'em, it makes for a good transition. Q. Doug, I'm introducing myself because, of course, Gary doesn't allow us to make eye contact with the coaches during the season. DOUG MEACHAM: (Laughter) That's great, huh? Q. Yeah. I'm wondering what‑‑ back when you first saw Trevone, what was it about him that helped you to make that decision about him, that said he was the guy? DOUG MEACHAM: I think through the course of time, you have to assess day‑to‑day. We chart every throw, every practice, through spring, summer, we look at the percentages, and the numbers. We were kinda looking at‑‑ we look at the numbers for practices and the numbers for scrimmages and things like that, comparing with the other guys. Just to get, you know, something concrete you looked at those numbers. But the thing I realized early on, you know, is arm talent, he's got really good arm skill. He can move around, he can extend plays and the thing I was most surprised with, he adapted to the offense really quickly. He has a really good feel for the game and he anticipates really well. Has a lot of characteristics that you would inspect a quarterback. Q. Trevone, can you talk about Ole Miss defensively, their pass rush, what you have seen there? TREVONE BOYKIN: Watching them through the games I know they have a great defensive tackle and I met him in Orlando, he introduced himself to me, he's a pretty big guy. I know they fly around, they're pretty physical and we know we're going to have to come with our A‑game and they have a guy back there in the secondary that's really good so they're clicking on all cylinders on defense right now and we're going to have to come in and execute. Q. Has there been a pass rush that has been effective in containing you, keeping you from breaking off long runs? TREVONE BOYKIN: I would say the team that did that the best is Texas, they have a lot of talent coming from‑‑ most of the guys on their team are from Texas, they produce a lot of talent so they probably did the best job and looking at Ole Miss on film they're better than UT on defense, they fly around a lot so it will be a good game. Q. When did Texas do? TREVONE BOYKIN: They came out with more energy than we did on offense and they flew around a lot more and we didn't do well in the beginning but we had to push through with adversity and come out with a win. Q. Trevone, what would beating an SEC team do for your resume? TREVONE BOYKIN: We talked about this as a team. Not just for me but looking on it next year, if we win this game we feel like we can be a top team next year and compete for a national championship. That's our ultimate goal, to try to win a national championship. We won a Big 12, we shared it with Baylor and that was one of our goals. To win this game, it would mean so much for this university and this school and the guys in the locker room. Q. For Doug and Sonny, you get these extra practices for the bowl game, invariablely there is a small unit of players that steps up every year, not only gives you confidence heading into this game but for 2015 as well. Is there a group of players that has stepped up that has impressed you outside of what we've seen all year? DOUG MEACHAM: Oh, I don't know that ‑‑ I think most of our guys have been consistent most of the year. I don't really ‑‑ unless Sonny can think of somebody all of the sudden popped onto the radar through the course of bowl practice. I think what you find is it's also an opportunity to give younger guys that haven't gotten as many reps, you can see the guys that were redshirted, you can look at them, get an opportunity to look at a preview for spring and there are those guys especially at the quarterback position that we have been assessing through the prep, but our guys, you know, the thing I have been most impressed with, they're such a solid core unit, there is a good family vibe and they stick together and they legitimately have bonded. Their energy and their bond and their trust in one another has been the biggest thing. Just pleased with the whole output through the course of all of it. COACH CUMBIE: I think that we installed this offense in the spring and you go through the summer and the fall and I think where we're at as an offense and as a group, with our system, it's really an opportunity to continue to get better with the guys that are out there in place. I think especially for the quarterback position there is a comfort level of going through this offense for a season where you face live bullets where you have been able to react on the field, get in and out of plays, see things, there is little nuances of this offense that I think we are able to hone in better with the guys that have been in and peppering in with those younger guys. For us, we installed this offense last spring and to continue to get better and identify who is good at what and try to get those guys into positions where we're playing on their strengths, still just building off that and trying to groom those younger guys is what we have done in the last month. Q. Coach Meacham, how different is the offense now than when you first became an OC at Georgia Military? DOUG MEACHAM: Georgia Military? Let me think back! The first year I ever did it, I brought what we did at Oklahoma State, and it was basically smash mouth football, and we were in the inside/outside zones and counter and passes, which in junior college you have to be simple because you only have them three semesters, then they're gone, and you have to start all over, and then I met a guy by the name of Mike Leach, and the core nucleus of what we did then is still in place today. There are some bells and whistles that are involved now and things that suit Trevone's skill set that we're doing that weren't in the original package. Dana Holgorsen brought some things from Houston when I was at Oklahoma State that are additives to it, but the foundation of it is still there from what we did at Georgia Military, it's still there. And if you watch a Washington State game, you'll see the foundation because that's what Coach Leach is still doing today. Q. Trevone, did Coach Patterson come to you and ask you, hey, what kind of offense would you like to run? TREVONE BOYKIN: No, it was pretty much he told me that Coach Cumbie and Coach Meacham were coming and I went and did my research and found out more about the guys, but I knew it was a system that I ran in high school so I was pretty familiar with it. I was basically locked in and I bought in and I just tried to be one of those guys that soak it all in and be one of the best quarterbacks I could be. Q. Coach Meacham, you talked about what you saw for Trevone coming in, but what have you seen in Trevone in terms of what he's improved on the most over the course of the season? DOUG MEACHAM: I think if you watch him, there is comparisons to guys, you know, Johnny Manziel, whatever, but the thing that impressed me the most, and Coach Cumbie is doing a phenomenal job coaching the QBs, but his patience in the pocket, and him going through his reads and processing in the pocket and sliding through and those things, because when you have skills like he does with his legs, your instincts tend to take over and I think you see athletic quarterbacks do that and they have success with that, but I think Trevone has really bought into the reads and actually becoming a quarterback and getting better at that part of it, and they work on a tremendous amount, their feet, vision, their reads, anticipation, accuracy, all those things. He's just done a good job of not just being an athletic guy running around, he's developed into a pocket quarterback as well. COACH CUMBIE: Going back, watching all the throws that Trevone had last season, you watch, he's got great arm strength, very athletic, and as far as throwing the ball he's one of the best I've been around in terms of coming after his hand, tight spiral, strong arm, all that. He took the initiative to learn our offense and did a great job with that, and I think the biggest thing is in the pocket progressing through, there are things that, you know, we have to build off of from the spring‑‑ next spring in terms of accuracy over the middle of the field. We would like to be more accurate throwing the ball percentagewise, but I think we've taken a lot of shots this year so you're going to have some higher completions and incompletions there, but just in terms of becoming a leader of this offense in his own way, I think, has been fun to watch, and not trying to be anyone else, be himself. There are areas that he's continuing to grow in off the field and on the field but I think that's what's been most encouraging to see is quarterback leadership in his own way off the field, on the field, and I think his production has spoken for itself, and I think there are things that moving forward we will work on and identify, tangible things and hopefully we're in a really good bowl came a year from now. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, gentlemen. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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