|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF SEMIFINAL AT THE CAPITAL ONE ORANGE BOWL: CLEMSON VS OKLAHOMADecember 27, 2015Mike StoopsMiami Gardens, Florida Q. You guys missed out on Trevone this year, playing TCU. A lot of your players say they look to him in terms of what they're going to see. How did facing guys like that in the past prepare you for what you're going to see this week? MIKE STOOPS: Well, I think your scheme has to prepare you for it, too, and then getting your players prepared for what they're going to see. He has a lot of Baker in him, too, in the throwing game, but the design runs are -- those are a lot of design plays for him. In the scheme you have to make sure it can account for him. The breakdown plays are just athletic plays that he's going to make that any athletic quarterback can make. Just his ability, though, to handle the football, we've got to make sure whatever we're doing, we can account for him. You still can't overplay him because they have so many other great players on the perimeter, too. That's what makes their offense effective. Q. Having veteran linebackers help in this situation? MIKE STOOPS: Yeah, I think it does. I think our whole defense is veteran. There's a lot of Tennessee in what they do. There's a little bit of Texas in what they do. You have to look at games prior and see if that's going to be a part of it. Our scheme limited us probably more so in the Texas game, in the quarterback run game. So you have to have more answers, and you have more time in this preparation to really look at different defenses, see what helps us with the quarterback. Q. Sanchez made a lot of big plays for you. He's also been burned some. Do you like the style of corner he is, a guy that goes for interceptions and takes gambles? MIKE STOOPS: Well, I think Zach has to be calculated in those types of plays. I don't think you can ever be overly aggressive where you put your defense in a bad situation. You know, Zach has been calculated in his ability to try to jump things when it's the right time. But he has to know -- he still has to play within the confines of the defense and be disciplined. Again, he's an aggressive player. To me a lot of plays were just jump balls in that Okie State game, and just having him healthy is going to help his play, as well. He just has to be patient and not force the game, and that's what he's always done, and not get overly aggressive, because we can't put our defense in that situation. Q. Why has your defensive line been so much better this year and so disruptive? Is it that good secondary play? MIKE STOOPS: It all goes together. These guys -- Diron has done a great job with those guys. We have just played well as a group. I think that's when you're -- all levels of our defense have been productive, and that's when you have something that's really good. I don't know if we overwhelm you in any particular place, but we're awfully good at all three levels of our defense, and that's what you need to be successful against the teams that we see kind of week in and week out. That will be the case in this game. You've got to be good up front. You've got to stay on your feet, stay in your lanes, but you've got to be able to give pressure. It sounds -- or spy the quarterback. It's hard to do every play. You've got to have guys that can get off blocks and stand on their feet and be able to chase the quarterback down. They have to be athletic enough to be able to do that. Q. This is probably oversimplifying it, but the great Oklahoma defenses under Bob have had great defensive lines. Does this fit in there? MIKE STOOPS: Yeah, this is very similar to -- when you talk about defensive lines, I had Striker and I had Du'Vonta because we play those guys at the line of scrimmage a lot of times. That's what makes us who we are, those two guys, along with the inside three. Those five guys we put there, four, or depending on four and a nickel, those guys are all disruptive players and they're all athletic. They put pressure on the offenses to make plays, too, and that's what's good about this group. We're multiple. We're athletic. We can come from different angles, and that's been good for us. Q. Does this defense kind of relate (inaudible)? MIKE STOOPS: It's a little bit like that group. You have your Striker and maybe Zach, you have your -- we didn't have a bunch of guys that everybody knew about back in 2000, either. These guys have -- again, I think our greatest strength has been our whole group. There's been a guy here or a guy -- there's a guy in every game or two guys in every game, but they're always different when you really look at it. Whether it's Jordan Thomas one game or Zach or Steven Parker or Dom or Striker, Tap comes on. You just need playmakers, and we have a variety of players that can do that, and that's really been our greatest strength has been playing together as a team and being able to execute, and that will be big. There won't be one or two guys in this game. You're going to need the whole group to play well and be able to execute to stop this type of offense. Q. What are some of the biggest differences between your defense this year and last year? MIKE STOOPS: Well, the corner, one cornerback position is different. You've got an all-conference player, two of them, at both corner positions, really balance your defense out where you can put more stress on those guys when you feel like you have two guys that can really cover to that extent, help you. I think that has been probably our biggest, and then just our overall execution with our outside linebackers, inside linebackers has been better. We've found some balance in our team in not exposing ourselves a year ago. We were sixth in the run and sixth to the bottom in pass defense. We weren't a real balanced team. This year we just have a better mix, and I think that's just overall scheme knowledge, position on the football and execution with our whole group. Q. What separates Watson and his ability to throw the deep ball? Talk about the kind of stresses that puts on your defense and the challenge of stopping that aspect. MIKE STOOPS: Well, I think he puts stress on you because you have to account for him. You can't every play, but you know that he wants to -- they want to feature him when they need to. When things aren't going well, that's the one guy that can make a play for them, and then it stresses your defense even more, and you're out there single covered. That's where they're good in getting the ball vertically down the field. They're going to take their shots. They're a shot team. There are four or five times a game where he's going to go vertical and he's going to give his receiver an opportunity to catch the ball. That's where you've got to -- there's only so much help in a game like this where guys are stressed, and our corners understand that, know when the shots are coming, and try to get yourself in great position. But his ability to get the ball down the field accurately and give his receivers opportunities to make plays is really what makes him an outstanding player. He's dynamic running the ball, but he's a thrower first and foremost. I think he wants to be a thrower, and again, but they still run him aggressively, and that's something we have to account for. Q. Can you put him in context as a prospect? You've obviously played dozens of great quarterbacks over the years. MIKE STOOPS: You know, I don't know. It's hard to say that until you play a guy. I think you have a better understanding. He didn't play a year ago, what kind of upside, where his strengths -- as much tape as you watch, until you play him, you understand -- you see the ball come out of his hand, his timing on things. Those are hard decisions to make. But as of right now for a sophomore, I don't know if there's many people better, and to be able to do the things he can do with the football. And his ability -- looks like he manages the game, understands what they're trying to do, and we'll know more as we try to tweak our defense to see how quickly he's able to see what we're trying to do. Q. When you have two teams that have explosive offenses, when you have a three-and-out, is that almost like having a turnover? MIKE STOOPS: I never looked at it that way, but yeah, we've got to start counting that as a turnover, a three-and-out. That would be a new stat (laughing). That doesn't happen very often. It gives you a lot of momentum and it gives you confidence in the game, and that's going to be important in a game like this, trying to keep -- when they start to find their rhythm and they're hitting things, it puts you on your heels a little bit, so changing our calls up, changing our leverage points, those are all going to be important elements to this game, showing them different looks, different fits. It's going to be a big part of what we're going to try to do in this game to try to give them different things to look at and understand where we're coming from at different times of the game. Q. Given this offense has sort of dominated the game here in recent years, do you as a defensive coordinator assess certain stats differently or what you define a success? MIKE STOOPS: You know, I know when we play good defense and I know when we play bad defense. People can write what they want or look at it statistically. Coaches know what's good and acceptable and what isn't based upon -- there's a lot of variables that go into that. Again, stats can be misleading in a lot of ways, but we all understand what's acceptable and what isn't and what you're playing against. It carries from week to week and league to league. To compare our league to some other leagues wouldn't be just, either, but again, that's where people just look at statistics. But to me games are -- it still gets down to match-ups. We may match up better with some teams than others, so again, it's different. It's a different era statistically speaking for what we play week in and week out. Q. The Big 12, some of your defenses get a bad rap because of some of the explosive offenses in the league? MIKE STOOPS: Again, I worry about Oklahoma. I'm not worried about the nine other teams in our league. But I know what those nine other defensive coordinators go through week in and week out. I'm not going to defend or help or whatever. I'm responsible for Oklahoma's success and failures defensively. But I certainly understand the stress everyone is under and the type of players it takes to defend these offenses, what you need to be successful. I think it's really difficult if you don't have great players across the board because there is so much stress and people know how to attack those stress points. There's only so much help to go around, so I certainly see what the issues are. But we certainly -- we have our own standard here, and we understand what that is every time we step on the field and what's acceptable and what isn't acceptable, and certainly a year ago wasn't very acceptable. Q. What kind of an added wrinkle does Jordan Leggett add? MIKE STOOPS: He gives them variety. He gives them a lot of different sets, and they move him around and put him in a lot of different positions to make plays, to be a blocker, to be a receiver, and he gives them multiple -- he's a very multiple player, so that's what he creates for you, and how are you going to match up. Are you going to play nickel, are you going to play regular? Those are all what they're trying to see, how we're going to play with this guy in the game. That's what he gives you, a very -- he can play inside and outside. Q. (Inaudible.) MIKE STOOPS: Because there's only so much help you can get out there and these receivers are big and athletic and very good with the football, going to get the ball. They figure that's as good a play as running the ball up the middle, give my receiver a chance over a corner and let him go make a play. Q. It's almost not impossible stuff but you're basically relying on a guy -- MIKE STOOPS: Exactly, yeah, and every now and then they're going to make some plays, but you have to win the majority of those battles if you want to be successful. Q. Ahmad was talking last year, he said you were very frustrated, and I said what's the difference between last year and this year, and he said you've got a nice girl now. MIKE STOOPS: Right, and I've got a great corner out there, too. (Laughter.) It's more the latter than the -- (laughing). Q. Is there some serendipity to playing Brent? MIKE STOOPS: I love Brent. He's like a brother to me. When the game starts, we don't even -- you don't even recognize who you're playing. I could be playing Bob, it really wouldn't matter. I'm just happy for his success professionally. There's no question he was -- you know, we work well together. Like I said, I miss coming back and him not being there more than anything. You know, again, it's hard to make things right in that situation. I certainly have had a lot of opportunities to go a lot of different places when I left Arizona. I was the most comfortable going back to Oklahoma. It was the best job that I thought of my opportunities, whether it be wherever it was. I have a lot of people, but Oklahoma was a place that I thought you could win a championship, a National Championship, and I was comfortable. I know what to expect with Bob, and I knew what to expect with Brent. If that was different, then that was going to be different. How we were going to work it out, me and Brent talked for a week, and this Clemson deal was too good. People say that me or Bob, that's ludicrous. Brent knew where he stood in his position with Oklahoma and what he did. We complemented each other well, but it just wasn't meant to be. I think it's worked out well for both of us, and I couldn't be more happy for him and his family, and I think Dabo is a great guy to work for, too. It's hard to leave and change is difficult, but he's made a name for himself, and that's important. 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
|