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FEDEX ORANGE BOWL: WAKE FOREST v LOUISVILLEDecember 28, 2006Bobby PetrinoMIAMI, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: If you could just start with on opening comment about your team's arrival here in south Florida and playing in the Orange Bowl. COACH BOBBY PETRINO: The good thing is we got here a day early so we were able to get a practice in yesterday morning, which was good for us. It was more of a work on ourselves practice more than it was work on Wake Forest, so we were trying to get the rust out and get out and run around and throw and catch the football. The main thing we need to do is make sure we practice full speed because we're going to have to play extremely fast in this game to have an opportunity to win it. I think when you watch Wake Forest on video, they do such a great job of doing what they're coached to do and not making mistakes that it's going to be very important for us that we play very fast and don't hesitate at all, particularly on defense, and offensively it's just going to be a matter of being able to execute and make sure that we block them because they do a great job with their scheme and they recognize plays real well and really show their experience with all their fifth year seniors that they have. Q. Can you assess the relative importance of turnover margin in this game as opposed to a normal game? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: Well, I think every game is about turnovers and big plays. But when you watch all of Wake Forest's video, they've lived on turnovers, particularly in the red zone when other teams are going in to score. Their defense has done an unbelievable job on getting turnovers, either in the red zone, or you watch Connecticut had a chance to win the game and they pick one off and run it all the way back for a touchdown. So they've done an unbelievable job on creating turnovers when the other team was in the scoring position. We haven't felt all year long that we've been as good in turnovers as we normally are. I think we're only plus one or plus two. So we've struggled with that a little bit, fumbling the ball more than we're used to. But we have created more turnovers as far as our secondary getting more interceptions, which is going to be important for us to do. Q. The way your season started, you got off to a pretty quick start but then you had the injuries in the Miami game. You didn't miss a beat. Does that speak more to the depth of your team, to the character of your team, maybe a little bit of both? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: I think a little bit of both, particularly the character from our seniors. I think we saw people just take over the leadership, the Amobi Okoye, not only for the defense but the entire team did an unbelievable job of leading. Our players have a tremendous amount of confidence in Hunter Cantwell. I think when Brian got hurt a year ago, the way Hunter came in and was able to be a big part in winning the Connecticut game and then played real well in the Bowl game and got hit a little bit, showed a tremendous amount of toughness. But we do have a lot of depth, and we have people that have been in the system for a number of years. So it's a lot easier to plug them in now that they're used to the system. Q. What is your impressions of Riley Skinner, the quarterback for Wake Forest, a kid who had to come in after the first game when their starting quarterback went down, turns into one of the best players in the ACC? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: Well, we're really very aware of Riley because we were recruiting him out of high school. He's from Bolles, where we have a number of players on our team. One of the first places we always go when we get to Jacksonville is Bolles high school. So we looked at him really hard in the recruiting process. He's a young man that reminds you I think a lot of the attributes of a Stefan LeFors where everyone would say he's a little undersized, a little of this, a little of that, but he can go out and win games, execute their offense. He's done an unbelievable job of just taking care of the football and doing everything they ask him to do. We need to be able to try to get him into a situation where they have to throw the ball I think is important for us. We'd like to jump on him early, get a lead and force him to be a big part of the game where hopefully we can get a good pass rush. Q. You talk about their ability to create turnovers, especially interceptions they're leading the country. Do they do anything particularly different in the coverages? What do you see and how big a concern is that? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: They play the ball real well in the air. Their safeties react to the ball, their corners have been able to read routes and jump routes. I think that's the one thing you see them do more than probably a lot of teams you play is they're real aggressive on reading the route and jumping the route. We just have to be real good on running our routes, be on time with the football, and they've also created a few turnovers where the pass rush has played a big part in this because they do a nice job with their blitz game. Q. I was just wondering about offensively, they do some reverses, misdirection, things like that. How do you get the defense to stay at home and keep their heads about them? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: The one thing that we want to make sure is we do have to play our assignments and we do have to be alert to all the misdirection in the reverse, but it's kind of a twofold deal. You don't want to slow down and be thinking and hesitating. We're going to play aggressive and play fast, make sure that we know where we need to be. But I don't want us to slow down at all. We're a better defense when we're playing aggressive and playing fast and really taking the approach that we're going to be the aggressor as opposed to reacting to what the offense does. Q. Speaking of recruiting nationally, are there enough players in the state of Kentucky for you to be good, as good as you are? Obviously we know in this state, for example, we would never have to leave Florida, FSU, whatever, they have a pretty nice football team. Do you have to go nationally? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: Numbers-wise we do, just because of the fact of the number of players. But we have great players on our team from the state of Kentucky. That's what we've got to continue to try to do is get the best players in the state to stay at home at the University of Louisville, the best players in the city, and continue to get the Michael Bush, Brian Brohm, Mario Urrutia, Earl Heyman, the best players each year. We certainly have to come here to Florida, we certainly need to go into Georgia and Alabama. I like those states because the young men grew up playing football since they were really six years old. I lived in Jacksonville for three years, and it was amazing the amount of effort that goes into Pop Warner. My son started two days before we did, practiced Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday night had a team dinner and watched video, and played their games on Saturday. Q. How old were they at this point? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: They were probably eight, nine years old at that time. I mean, it's just the way you grow up here in the south, and that's what you do every weekend. I think that's really important because we use a lot of the young men's time. They've got to be very committed to it between the weight room, study hall, tutor sessions, football. We're basically using from 7:00 o'clock until 9:00 each night, almost all their time. So it's real important that they're used to that and that's important to them. Q. What does this week mean for this program, getting to a BCS Bowl game, all the attention you'll get this week, and then playing in that game next Tuesday? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: Well, we're just trying to prepare as a team, you know, like it's a normal game and go through the same routine that we do normally. We do have a couple extra practices, so I'm going to make sure that we don't leave it on the practice field. We'll shorten up a little bit here and a little bit there. We'll try to time it up like a first game of the year. That's kind of how we're approaching it, the first game of the year preparation, make sure we don't leave it on the practice field. But it's great for our fans. I think it's great for the University. It's certainly a step we wanted to make in our program was taking that next step and getting to the BCS Bowl game. But basically for the players and the coaches, you treat it just like another game. Q. The similarities are kind of unusual with both teams having lost starting running backs and starting quarterbacks. You didn't lose Brian for the season, but I guess could you talk about the way both teams have overcome that? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: There are a lot of similarities I think in the fact that we both had injuries in major players on our team, guys that you were counting on going into the season, saying okay, this is who's going to carry us, and the fact that the character of the other players on the team really showed up. A lot of times you talk about, okay, we had this injury, well, this might bring the team closer together. A lot of times just a coach trying to say that because you don't know what else to say. But it truly has shown up in both teams I think when you see the character of the teams, the way you win close games, the way you've pulled together and rallied around and had other players step up and make plays, that it certainly is kind of one of those stories for both teams. I think it's going to be a great match-up and be a heck of a football game. Q. I was wondering if you could comment a little bit about the legacy that the Brohm entire family has had on the Louisville program and how Brian has dealt with that this year. COACH BOBBY PETRINO: I don't think Brian ever blinks about anything. I think that the biggest thing is when I first got there in '98 -- it actually started a little bit earlier for me because I coached at Arizona State, and Louisville came out and played us and Jeff was the starting quarterback. We blitzed him about every single play, I think hit him a record number of times, 19 times and had a bunch of sacks. And then we had to turn around and go back to Louisville the next year and play them, and they had installed a shotgun plan and they beat the heck out of us. I think that's my first recollection of the Brohm brothers. Of course Greg never got off the bench a whole lot. You ought to him give a bad time about that. But he did make one touchdown catch. He's got that going for him, I guess. And then I always followed Jeff. Ever since that time, I followed him when he was at San Francisco, then when I came to Louisville as a coach he got injured and he was at Tampa Bay and I think tore his thumb up so he used to come and rehab a lot of times; I got to visit with him there. And then the process of trying to recruit Brian, and that's really where I learned all about Oscar and that and then just so happened the last few years Oscar has been coaching my son. It's been a really neat family relationship. Certainly you see how close the family is, and what everybody doesn't know is that Donna, the mother, is the toughness of the family and really the one that runs the show. Q. Could you talk a little bit about you have a brother coaching a brother. How unusual is that and what's good about it and what's bad about it? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: Well, I think it's a great thing, really unique relationship. I was fortunate enough to coach my younger brother a long, long time ago. You know, you grow up in the family. It's unbelievably different than anybody else could ever even imagine because you know each other so well. They have an unbelievable relationship, and Jeff is a great football coach, really good on his technique and fundamentals of the position and also has added a lot to our offensive philosophy just because of his background with Bill Walsh and the 49ers. We try to steal from everybody on what we do. It's been a great relationship, and I think the numbers and the wins and the success speaks for itself. Q. The importance of this game in terms of the big picture for the program, for the Big East, for you guys to win. You saw what happened at West Virginia last year, to take the next step and silence the rest of the critics. What does it mean to you and how do see this picture? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: Well, we want to win this game, there's no question about it. We'd like to end up in the top five teams in the country, maybe get up there as high as three. That's how we're preparing for it. It's certainly important to our success, and we think it'll probably relate a little bit to recruiting, although you never know how much that relates to recruiting. The fact that we're in a BCS Bowl game is a big thing, and any time you have a chance to win the Big East conference and you're in one, we were real close to maybe getting a little better than that, too. I think we're there. Now we need to show that we can win the big game and just keep going. I don't think that it plays a big part in the Big East picture. You'd like to see every Big East team win their Bowl games, but I certainly believe we have the respect that we've been trying to earn now for the last two years. Q. What was it like after you got that bid going out and the next week talking to kids and recruiting? Was this opening doors that you couldn't get into maybe two years ago? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: I think it is from three or four years ago when we first got started. We're recruiting in a different pool. Of course that makes it a lot more difficult, and you take a lot more hits and don't win all the battles you're in. But it's fun to compete in them. Ever since I think Louisville beat Florida State on national TV, the state of Florida and all the players in the state of Florida have been very aware of it. That helped us four years ago. And now our success recently has helped us a lot more. It's been fun and very competitive. Q. Just a quick follow-up. How instrumental are guys like Nate, Kolby and guys from Florida been in keeping that? Do you bring those guys up when you're in the houses down here, hey, we've got guys from this state that are coming and playing right away and making an impact? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: Certainly. I think we have 21 players on our team from the state of Florida. But the biggest thing is when you get them on campus. I think that's what we try to do is come out and do the best job we can to get a recruit on campus. Any time we get them on campus we've got a great chance of getting them. Everyone is shocked when they come in and see the facilities we have, and then the city of Louisville, what it has to offer, just about anything you want. And then the way the players and our fans talk about our program, I think we have as good a chance of getting a young man as anybody. Q. Just talk about what Michael has meant off the field since his injury and kind of sticking around and being there for the guys and just the inspiration, I guess, or the emotional leader that he's been. And then as a follow-up after that, have you guys talked about the future, and how is his progress right now? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: Well, the first part of it, it's been very hard on Michael. The closer you get to big games, you kind of see his moods change and the depression set in a little bit. But then he always does a great job of lifting himself up and kind of fell into a little routine where he meets us at the 50 yard line as we're coming off a Card march and shakes and hugs everybody and has done an unbelievable job of just continuing to be a leader even though he's not on the field with them. He spends probably three hours a day up there in rehab and working hard to get back on the field. He's in the process right now of contacting people in the NFL and seeing where his status is. I told him when he did get injured that it's about Michael Bush. He's given our program everything that he possibly could, has been more of an impact than he'll ever imagine. So we need to do what's best for Michael. If it's best for him to come out, then that's what he should do. If he needs to come back for another year -- I think the biggest thing is not knowing when he's going to be 100 percent, when he's going to be able to go out there and work out for the scouts, and the date that he obviously has to declare is the 15th, so we've still got some work to do and some discussions on exactly what's best for him. His father will play a big part in it, too. His father is really strong and has done a great job with him. Q. I thought I heard you say earlier that Oscar is coaching one of your kids. Which one is it, how old is he and how good a coach is Oscar? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: He coached my son Nick, who was a quarterback for Trinity High School the last two years. Nick was a senior this year, but the last two years they won the state championship. Good players always make guys good coaches, so Oscar is a good coach (laughter). Q. I was just wondering about the festivities, all the excitement about the Bowl game, the weather and everything down here, is it a distraction or are you able to keep the kids focused? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: Well, we need to make sure that we keep our focus when it's needed, which are in the mornings and the meetings right now, when we get to the practice field and what we're doing on the practice field, and I do want them to enjoy the Orange Bowl experience, but in the right way, without the use of alcohol and drugs and without doing anything that you would disrespect your family. So I think that's the biggest thing. We can have a great time, we can enjoy the Orange Bowl, but we can do it in the right way, and then when we get to meetings and we get on the practice field, we need all our focus there. As we get closer to the game, then we'll cut down the Orange Bowl fun and really get closer and closer to the type of mental approach and emotional approach that we want to get before a kickoff. Q. Along those same lines, there's such an entourage that came to this Bowl game, families, including your family. How much are they enjoying everything while you guys are busy working? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: Oh, I think they're having a great time, and that's fun to see. I think it's really fun to see. It's unbelievable everything the Orange Bowl has done for everybody, and everything has been first class. But our families enjoy it and so does all the administration, and that's great. That's what Bowl games are all about. Q. Is there a single moment or element that in your opinion -- was it the stadium, the on-campus facilities, that sort of sparked this and really helped get it going, aside from having the Brohm brothers right in your town? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: Well, I think there's a number of things. First, I think Howard Schnellenberger doing such a great job in getting that stadium built, getting Papa John's Stadium built, changed a lot of things as far as recruiting goes. I think our first year there when I was an assistant, John L. was the head coach, being able to make such a quick turnaround from 1 and 10 to 7 and 4 I think is what we ended up and leading the country in total offense really helped the next years in recruiting. And then the big game when they beat Florida State I think was important, and then we were able to just build on that, first by getting Michael Bush, by signing Michael Bush, and then following up the next year with Brian and all the other guys that have came in and made a tremendous amount of impact on our team. But there's never just one defining moment; it's a series of everybody's hard work. Q. Are you surprised at all by the reaction in Louisville after you got the bid to come to the Orange Bowl, the excitement for the last month? The football team got a bigger ovation at the Louisville-UK basketball game than anything during the whole day and I think a lot of people never thought they'd see something like that. COACH BOBBY PETRINO: It's been great. It's been great all year. I think from the start of the Card march from the Kentucky game, going right to Miami, West Virginia, I think that's what the fans have been waiting for, to play that type of schedule, bringing people like that into our stadium. So it's really exciting for everybody. Tom says that we were selling somewhere between 35,000 tickets already, and we're going to have a great crowd. We want to make sure we try to make it as much a home game as we possibly can. Q. Have you thought about what it will be like when you run out of that tunnel and see all that red, just being electric? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: I think it'll be great for our players. That's why we want to make it a home game, because we're pretty good at home (laughter). Q. Can you just talk a little bit about the stability of your coaching staff and how that's kind of enabled players to kind of develop relationships? You guys have been so successful, it would only stand to reason that guys would come look to get guys off your staff and have them move on. How important has that been and does it speak to the foundation of the program or the area? Any typical reason you think guys seem content to stay there and enjoy coaching your team? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: Well, I think first it helps you in the continuity of what we're doing each year and continuing to get better and working together as a staff and improving, certainly a big part of that. It helps you a lot in recruiting because we're going into the same area every year and the relationship you've made with the high school coaches, the junior college coaches, and that's a big carryover, your knowledge of the area, so you know everybody that's in there. It's unbelievable how much of a help that is there. I think it speaks to, one, the city of Louisville and how great a place it is to live. I've always told everyone that you walk into Louisville and they welcome you with open arms. Even if you're from West Virginia they do that. Q. It takes a while sometimes. COACH BOBBY PETRINO: It takes a while from West Virginia, I can understand that. That's just how they are. It also seems for Tom Jurich and Dr. Ramsey, how competitive they've made the ability for our coaches to stay, so you just can't come in and cherry pick them. Q. With all this time to prepare you've gotten to look at a lot of younger players. I wonder if anybody stands out in particular on scout team or red shirts or really stepped forward this month? COACH BOBBY PETRINO: I think that's the greatest thing about the Trager Center is our ability when we're practicing for the Bowl game back home to be able to stay afterwards and have about eight extra days of spring practice with our young guys. I really like our young quarterback. I think Tyler Wolfe has done a nice job, very impressive to me. We've got Johnny Patrick, looks extremely fast and very explosive, probably could play on either side of the ball. Jeremy Baker has been very impressive to me; he's as big as they come. We've just got to get him a little bit lighter and a little faster, but he certainly has stood out. Tyler Wimsatt has been playing both linebacker and running back. Stephen Garr we've moved from a safety down to a Will linebacker, he looks like he's going to be a great player at a Will linebacker. You always feel like he's maybe a step slow as a safety, and now you put him at linebacker and he's fast. So that will be a great move for us, and that was fun to get him those reps already and have him learn the position. All those things will pay off when we get to spring football. End of FastScripts |
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