FEDEX ORANGE BOWL: SOUTHERN CAROLINA v OKLAHOMA

December 31, 2004

Bo Pelini

Brent Venables

BO PELINI: Well, I think Brent would second it when I say he's really done a nice job. For a freshman, he's a very mature kid. He's really handled the situation well and he plays with a lot of confidence. He's done a nice job, and we feel he plays with a lot of confidence. We have a lot of confidence in him, and so it's been an excellent addition to a pretty good defense to start.

BO PELINI: Yeah, I see a lot of things that he believed in, things that we knew and he talked about when we played against him that was hard to deal with, as far as -- he's a defensive-minded coach, but he has an excellent knowledge of offense, and you see a lot of his influence in the offense. I think Brent would second it in saying they present a lot of problems for us.

BRENT VENABLES: More than anything it's the consistency that you see. Obviously there's been some personnel changes over time. Getting Antonio back helped us a great deal. Marcus, again, as Bo talked about, has been really strong and consistent for us, and we knew that at the beginning of the season, but again, the other guys had shown that they are more than capable of playing winning football and really did outside of a few plays, and Bo felt it was time for a change and to give Marcus a chance. I think those two things are as big as anything, and again, I think that our safety play was a lot more aggressive and they were more confident knowing that, again, they wouldn't have to worry about other guys out there making checks and adjustments to both Marcus and Antonio. Obviously with the experience Antonio has and knowledge of the defense, those two guys, you know, can hold their own, and again, allow the other guys to do their thing, but overall, just the overall execution with the consistency has been probably the biggest thing. You know, some of it, again, may be that the offensive fire power the last few games, maybe the challenge wasn't the same as the other team that had a little bit of success against us. But it's amazing when you're playing consistently and not giving up big plays, the perception is now all of a sudden you're playing dominant defense, but over the long haul, in time you're going to give up some plays here and there. People are more than capable of making plays. They get coached, they've got good players, but we like the way we're playing right now. We've peaked at the right time.

BRENT VENABLES: It's been a collective effort from day one. Bo has brought a number of things. One of the first things we implemented when Bo came was just having a little bit more flexibility in our defense, having a third linebacker involved in our defense a little bit more on early downs, and it's given us the kind of flexibility both pressure and coverage-wise that maybe in the past we haven't had. That's probably been the most noticeable change structurally in the defense, and Bo came from the same school of thought and a lot of the things that he did structural-wise, but he brought a number of new wrinkles, and again, the way he teaches and coaches is just a little bit different, and it's good with Mike and it's been great with Bo, as well.

BO PELINI: I mean, I wasn't here with Mike. Obviously when you come into a situation like I did with a defense that's played great defense, it's not like -- it was a much different situation I came in at Nebraska, so it's been really easy, I mean, as far as our working relationships and the things we had to do. We brought in a few new wrinkles. We thought of some things that we thought could help our football team, and I think it's been really a smooth transition. You know, I just came in and I just tried to fit in, and like I said, we've worked well together and it's a pretty collective effort as far as the staff as a whole.

BRENT VENABLES: It's obviously been different. We've had a lot of good players that have come and gone. We still feel recognized, nationally or not, that we still have a defense that's got a lot of very, very good players and some of the best at their positions in the country. Sometimes that's good when you have maybe guys that not everybody is talking about, but again, it's more collectively how you're playing together. Getting those 11 guys to believe in one another, that again, gives you a chance to play great defense and have a chance to be a championship-style of defense, and we believe that we have that. If people want to look at it, outside of Dan Cody we have a bunch of chumps and we made it to the National Championship game and so be it, but we feel really good about the group of guys that we have an opportunity to coach and their play-making ability, as well. Hopefully on Tuesday night you'll be able to see that.

BRENT VENABLES: Again, it just gives you more strength in the perimeter of your defense, both run, and some of their quick passes. Again, as long as he's not -- you're not putting yourself at a disadvantage athletically, that's the main thing, whether or not you match up well. For what they're doing, we'll pick and choose our moments in that regard, but you'll see that on early downs. Again, you set up your pressure package off that, as well, maybe a bigger, stronger, more explosive guy when you do pressure in those situations.

BO PELINI: I think Brent said it well. It gives you a little more flexibility. I think what's happened is you've seen more guys get opportunities out there, you know, Clint Ingram, that might not have -- that Brent was able to coach and have out there on the field, and you see a lot more linebackers that have made plays for us this year, and because they're out there on the field more often, you just get bigger, faster guys out there, especially against a team that's going to be in a lot of pro personnel sets, pro sets. It allows those guys to -- they might try and create some match-ups, but we can try and create some match-ups in our favor, also.

BRENT VENABLES: If you don't mind, I'll let Bo answer that, but just watching him moving around and not being limited or probably confident is the biggest thing he's been able to overcome.

BO PELINI: Yeah, I think that he's as healthy as he's been. It goes all the way back to the first game. He came back a little bit early and was still probably feeling a little bit of it, and right now you see him running, you see his speed is back. He's the Antonio we're used to seeing, and any time you have a knee just tweak the way he did, whatever happens, it takes time to not just get healthy but gain the confidence back, and like Brent said, you see more confidence in him right now.

BRENT VENABLES: We said, "Marcus, you're in."

BO PELINI: We talked a lot about it, and it got to about four or five games into the season, and we were talking about it, and we were like, "Well, let's just see how it goes." It was just a game-by-game basis. I think that things were going bad in that A & M game. We gave up just some crazy plays, and we said -- I turned to him and I said, "You're in." He had been beating down our doors to get on the field. It wasn't a situation where he felt slighted because it went into November. He was itching to get out there on the field and perform. We had confidence in him, but we thought that if we could -- if the other guys would keep making plays and playing consistently that we could avoid having to do that, but we had to do what we had to do to win them all because that was our goal coming into the season.

BRENT VENABLES: There was a constant line of communication between Marcus, Bo, Coach Stoops, myself, "Just keep hanging in there." He was taking reps with the varsity, running with the twos, and we as a staff, again, were just trying to preserve and look to the future as we could, and again, between Eric Bassey, who started at both safety and corner, Chijioke, who's a fabulous talent and is exactly what you want, and Jowahn Poteat that's been in the program for four years, you'd like to believe you can find enough out of those three guys collectively to find what you need, and at times they were, but Bo said it got to a point where the inconsistencies were hurting us and you had to go to the next option.

BRENT VENABLES: Without question. The Florida State team that we played in 2000 was very similar in regards to the talent level, but I think the complexity of the offense and the problems that they create both running paths and how -- the entirety of it marries up and really balances what they present to you; that's what makes it most challenging. The decision-making of Matt Leinart, it's second-to-none; his accuracy, his poise, the way he distributes the football, just his overall decision-making is exceptional. Reggie Bush is probably the single most talented player that we've faced, and what he can cause you, the problems that he can cause you both in the running game and the things that they do with him when he's out at receiver. You look at the way he's changed and won a number of their close games where they were able to pull ahead and win in the fourth quarter throughout the year, I think that really typifies the type of player that he is and the difference that he means to their football team.

BO PELINI: I think our guys understand that game means nothing to us and nothing to USC. We know we have a tremendous challenge up ahead of us, and our guys are just looking forward to putting our best foot forward on Tuesday night. That's for the media, that's for the fans to talk about, all the ramifications of what happened last night. That doesn't make any -- it's going to be what happens between the white lines on Tuesday.

BRENT VENABLES: Obviously it hasn't been how he would have ideally liked it. He had to settle for Oklahoma when things didn't work out at Florida, and he was off to a -- he had a fabulous first year with us, led our team in tackles, barely knew the defense and was just a very dominant force for us, made a big difference on our defense and was off to another stellar start starting in 2003 and blew his knee out, and he had a lot of people pulling him in a variety of directions telling him what was best for him obviously. You know, the idea of playing in the NFL, foregoing an opportunity to come back, that type of thing, and the mental challenge more than anything, overcoming a devastating knee injury like that, what that takes, the time, the commitment, the toughness, the ups and downs that go along with that and the uncertainty on what happens when you do come back, it certainly hasn't been easy for him this year. The knee has bothered him on and off throughout the year starting in two-a-days. To be expected, but what he's been able to do for us and the way he's been playing probably the last six, seven games is a real credit to what he went through probably before he went came to Oklahoma and before he went to college. I know there's been some stories out there, the things that he had to go through growing up that a lot of guys -- he's not the first guy with that type of story, but I think it speaks volumes for the type of man that he is, the way he handled the knee injury when it first happened. He's having to cheer me up. I'm feeling terrible for him, and he's telling me, "It's okay, Coach, I've still got a red shirt year." But that speaks volumes for the kind of man that he is, and he's that presence that you want on defense; doesn't ever get too high, too low, just very strong. We tease him all the time that he's like that old beat-up pickup truck that the farmer drives around that's never going to break down, gets him from A to B to C, and you can always count on it starting for you when you get up in the morning. That's Lance Mitchell for our defense.

BRENT VENABLES: He's as healthy as he's been all year. We haven't been off by any stretch, and he's been a little bit limited just for us taking back some reps, trying to give him a little bit of rest, but without getting him too rusty without playing. But he's as healthy as he's been. His knee feels really, really good, hasn't been bothering him.

BO PELINI: Well, he's into some wrinkles. I think you're going to see wrinkles on both sides of the football, from SC, the same way you're going to have a couple new wrinkles on our side. When you have a month to prepare, you're going to see a couple added new wrinkles. But the bottom line is both teams are going to go with what got them here. You can't get away -- there's two good coaching staffs, a lot of good football players. It's not going to be just about the X's and O's and the new wrinkles. It's going to be who creates plays and who makes turnovers and who wants it the most.

BO PELINI: You know, I always say coaching is coaching, but it's two different games, and the biggest difference is in the NFL you're with your guys from 8:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon every single day, so therefore you have a lot more that you can put in and things you can do, and therefore to stay with your opponents you have to deal with a lot more on a weekly basis, but you also have a lot more time to prepare. You have walk-throughs every single day. You're almost in a two-a-day schedule throughout the whole year because of the way you're practicing and the way things are set up. In college football I found that the biggest challenge coming from the NFL was being limited to 20 hours a week and the amount of time that you have with your players and meeting time, and you have to be very organized and very conscious. I mean, we spend a lot of time, Brent and I and the defensive staff, same thing at Nebraska last year, making sure you don't overload your players but at the same time having enough to create problems for the offense. That's a challenge. That's a challenge for us as coaches because when it comes down to it, you want to make sure that your players are out there confident and know exactly what they're doing. But you want to have enough tools at your disposal.

BO PELINI: You know, the media, I think it's the same at both levels. I think the biggest difference is in the NFL, you know you have the amount of stars -- I think it's a lot more player intensive. When you get to college football, you see a lot more that they want to talk to the coaches a lot more. The head coach kind of handles it in the pros and everybody wants to talk to those star players, the big money guys. I've found in college they kind of go after the coaches a little bit more. I think it all depends on where you are and what media market you're in.