	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

CAPITAL ONE ORANGE BOWL: FLORIDA STATE VS MICHIGAN

December 27, 2016

Charles Kelly

Miami Gardens, Florida

CHARLES KELLY: I think part of what makes DeMarcus a really good player is -- let me say a great player -- is that he plays with a chip on his shoulder, and most competitive, great players, they do have something that they're playing for. Now, you know, maybe it's because he's not the tallest, maybe it's because he's not the fastest, but at the end of the day, whether it's our business in coaching or your business, it's about being productive, and that's what DeMarcus brings to the table.

But yeah, I think maybe he uses that as a chip on his shoulder.

Q. You're sitting there at 3-2 after that loss to NC State. What was the team's mindset?
CHARLES KELLY: Well, you've got a decision. You either can -- we can get better or we're going to get worse. I think this game is -- you talk about it in generalities, but football is a prime example to tell you the character of people and what kind of mindset they have. It's to come, and you've got a choice every day. You can come to work and get better, or you're either going to get worse. You're not going to stay the same. I think our staff and our players, everybody involved, just said, hey, we're going to develop and we're going to get better, and again, like I mentioned a few minutes ago, the momentum is a big thing in this game. Sometimes we -- there's so many plays that go on in a game that you might not even think about affecting the outcome of a game that just changed momentum. It might be a short-yardage play, it might be the first third down play of the game. There's so many of those plays that happen. But at that point of the season, just taking the small steps, just finding -- Jimbo has a saying: Find a crumb. Just find a crumb and then go to the next step.

Q. You've had a chance to see Michigan's quarterback. What do you see?
CHARLES KELLY: I mean, he's a very big, big body, can really see the field. I think he's very well-coached, knows where he wants to go with the football, doesn't make a lot of mistakes. I think that he probably has as good a grasp right now on what they do offensively. I mean, I've mentioned a few minutes ago it's a true pro-style offense. They give you a lot of personnel groupings, a lot of different formations, create different formations out of those personnel groupings. They've got good players at every position, and he knows how to get them the ball, whether it be in the running game or the passing game or the gadgets that they run. He does a good job of that. He's a very impressive player.

Q. Given his size, how much does his footwork impress you, as well?
CHARLES KELLY: Yeah, people assume because of his size that he's not a runner, and I've always said this about quarterbacks, and I believe this to be the case: It's not just how fast you run, it's how you can avoid that rush and how you can -- I made the point to our coaches not too long ago, when we're rushing four, the pass lanes are so important because you can be -- you don't have to be a 4.4, 40 guy to get a first down or create a big play when you're not in the right pass rush lanes. We have to be very aware of that, and he is, he's very shifty and has very good vision.

Q. (Inaudible.)
CHARLES KELLY: Well, and like I said, they have a lot of those guys. It all starts up front for them. You know, they're very athletic, very big on the offensive line. But they have a lot of tight ends. They have some tight end type guys that they play as fullbacks, and then they have probably a couple of the two best true fullbacks that I've seen in football that like to create -- they like to be physical, and that's a challenge for us is being able to match the physicality of them. They've proven it all year long that they can -- that they play that way. But they're also very talented at their skill position, too. You know, you generate too much towards one specific thing, they've got playmakers at every position that can make plays.

Q. What was your mindset and your approach at that point of the season?
CHARLES KELLY: Well, and it's easy to say this, but it is, you have to make yourself -- you have to control the things you can control, and you can't worry about the things you can't control. What you can control is how hard you work, and you work and your job is to develop players and to develop players within your system. That's the things that we can control.

You know, you go to work every day with that mindset, and you do the best you can to do that. Again, we preach it to our players, so we have to live it ourselves; it's not about -- you can't get just caught up in results. Yeah, the results are important, but the results are going to come by the process of how you do things. That's the thing that we were most set on was getting better. Getting better. That's the whole mindset.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297