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FEDEX ORANGE BOWLJanuary 3, 2008Mark ManginoJoe MortensenTodd ReesingAqib TalibJustin ThorntonMIAMI, FLORIDA THE MODERATOR: Head coach from Kansas, Mark Mangino, has joined us. Coach, what does it mean to this program to win the FedEx Orange Bowl? COACH MANGINO: It means a lot. It's another step for our program. I'm especially happy for our players who have worked so hard and some of them have been in the program four or five years. And, you know, they had to endure the tough times to get here. I'm especially proud of them. More than anything I want to first of all I want to give credit to Virginia Tech. Really good football team. Very well coached. Good schemes on offense and defense, and in their special teams. Very formidable opponent. They really are everything as advertised. But our kids were determined to play well. A lot of folks counted us out on this one, and we heard that for about a month. And that's okay because we've been in that position quite a bit. I think we always play better when we're an underdog anyhow. So I'm very proud of our players, many of whom are here now. But it's been a great day for K.U. football. It truly has been. Q. Aqib, the interception, can you talk about exactly what you saw on that play and just how you sort of developed that anticipation that you've learned on defense. AQIB TALIB: We saw a lot of outs on film, and Coach had us in the call where I was able to jump any route. So I just kind of slowed down in my back-pedal and he ran the out. And the quarterback was a little late on the throw and he threw me the ball. Q. Kind of the same question: Justin, can you talk about your interception and how critical a play was that for you guys. JUSTIN THORNTON: Early in the game we noticed he was trying to hit verticals down the seam, and we were in our cover two shell. Knowing that I was able to sit down and sat on the route. And I spun out of it, seen nothing but green grass and one big guy in the end zone trying to get me. I made a move, stumbled and lost my balance. Lost momentum. I wanted to score on that, but it was all good. They got me down, our offense was able to knock it in the next play. It was a crucial interception in the fourth quarter. Q. Todd, could you discuss the momentum swings in this game and overcoming the big swings that went both ways? TODD REESING: Well, obviously, it was a very emotional game being the Orange Bowl. Both teams came out ready to play and played real hard all game long. For us on offense, we were going up against a great defense in Virginia Tech. It was really an up-and-down game, a roller coaster of emotions. Our defense was able to get turnovers and get us the ball in good position, and that was huge for the game. The offense came through when we had to. Made plays when we needed to to get the ball in the end zone and made points on the board. But it was back and forth. It was a real fun game to play in. Q. Joe, you talked earlier this week about the significance of playing in a BCS game and perhaps winning it. How much fun was it to play in the game, and how much fun was that postgame celebration for you? JOE MORTENSEN: It's the greatest day of my life, man. We really worked hard to be here, and we know we deserve to be here and we showed it today. Compliments to our coaches. They got us here, and we've got the best coaching staff in the nation. Words can't describe how we're feeling right now. I can't describe it. Q. Aqib, for five weeks now I'm sure you guys have heard all about Virginia Tech's second ranked in scoring defense, they've had the best defense in the nation the last two years. How did you guys answer that tonight? AQIB TALIB: We just did our part, man. They kind of put us in the background of the game, and we could careless where they put us in the game. We were going to prepare and come out and perform the same way, whether we was in the spotlight or in the background. We didn't mind being in the background in the game at all. Q. In the end you threw the ball up in jubilation. Can you kind of talk about what this one meant for you. The other thing is, they were throwing you around like a rag doll. You really took a pounding, can you talk about how tough it was getting back up. TODD REESING: Well, I got pads on, so it didn't hurt too bad. That's part of football; you've got to get hit. But it was just a great feeling being out there. This team has fought so hard all season long. And people continually told us we didn't have a chance to win. We weren't good enough for this reason or that reason. And we kept coming out each week and finding a way to win. People told us we didn't have a chance in this game. That really gets us fired. We'd rather be the underdog than favored. It really gets us motivated and guys come out and practice hard all winter break long. Everyone is back home, and we were up there in Kansas practicing in the snow. So we got ready. To finally be at this point at the top finishing at 12-1 is awesome. It's ecstasy. Q. Coach, do you feel as though your team disproved just about every stereotype that people had of them tonight? COACH MANGINO: Well, you know, the thing you've got to understand, you've got to understand how we operate in our program. We tell our kids, we work with our kids year round not to just be tough players or mentally tough players, we work with our kids to have emotional toughness. Because there are a number of things that you have to deal with in being a student-athlete. One of them is criticism, one of them are doubters, and another thing that you have to be able to handle is success. Both success and failure are dangerous equally, I think. You fail, you get up, keep going; if you have success, you need to be able to deal with that as well. And you have to be able to deal with the critics. We constantly year round communicate with our players in a way to try to develop a good, emotional strength about them. Our kids have it. All the stuff they read, and all the pundits banging on their desk on the TV shows talking about we haven't played anybody, we have no chance against Virginia Tech, it didn't hurt their feelings. It motivated them. I want to thank everybody who did that, it made my job easier. Q. Can you just talk for a minute about Todd's performance, and the way he kept getting back up after they just pounded him. It seemed like he made the big play when he had to. COACH MANGINO: He made plays when he had to. He made some plays that he'd like to have back. That's understandable. You're playing against a very good football team. No. 3 team in the country. You're going to get some shots, they're going to knock you around and force you into a few bad decisions. That's okay. As long as you keep getting up, get back in the huddle and move forward, we always have a chance. He proved the theory today that the next play is the most important play, because if you get knocked down, you get up and get ready for the next one, and I thought he did that extremely, extremely well tonight. Q. Coach Beamer thought the blocked field goal in the third quarter was a turning point after he got some momentum and they got going. Could you talk about that from your side of the coin. COACH MANGINO: Yes, I thought it was important. I felt that was an important play because it would have really tied up the game. When the game's tied, it's a new game. As long as we had a little bit of an edge, I think our kids would continue to hang on to that. It goes back to we've heard a lot about Virginia Tech's special teams, how good they are, and they are very good. But once again our special teams were overlooked. From the outside, the media just didn't pick up on the type of success that we've had on special teams. There seemed to be a story line here, I guess it's just good marketing - Kansas' offense, against Virginia Tech's defense. And that was the theme for a month. It was probably a good marketing tool. I said to people on the inside that know me, there is a mistake being made not to recognize our defensive play and not to recognize our special teams. Now I can tell you somebody who is well aware of it, and that's Coach Beamer because he's a very smart coach. He knew, we kind of chuckled the other day at the luncheon about people ignoring Virginia Tech's offense, shouldn't do that because they have a lot of weapons, and they're ignoring our defense, shouldn't do that. We're really good on defense. Q. The red jerseys, whose idea were the red jerseys? When did you come upon it, and what was the effect and the thinking behind it? COACH MANGINO: Well, we've had selected games in the last couple of years where we've worn red jerseys. I made that decision, and I made it just maybe a week, the day before we left. I thought this would be a good occasion to wear red jerseys. Our kids like it. They weren't expecting it. They took their team photo here for the Orange Bowl yesterday with their blue game jerseys on. They assumed when they walked in the locker room they were going to be in there. And they were surprised, and believe it or not, they really get excited about the red jerseys. I know they're college kids, but they act like kids on Christmas morning, you know. Presents under the tree, they walk in and they loved the red shirts. I thought this might be a good occasion to wear them. Q. Can you evaluate a little bit more about the special teams, particularly the fake punt. And just give us an overall assessment of what you thought about your special teams' performance. COACH MANGINO: Yeah, they're very aggressive in their punt. They take a great deal of pride in blocking punts. They're very aggressive with it. We watched on tape for about a month of them leaving the gunners exposed. Walking off the gunners and trying to just outnumber you to block punts. We said that we're not going to let them do that. If they did it more than once, we were going to throw the ball out there, and they did. It ended up being a key play. There was only one thing wrong: Brandon McAnderson threw it on the wrong side. We practiced for a month throwing it to the right. I don't know why, he threw it to the left. It worked. It was the same picture on both sides. So I asked him, why did you do that? And he didn't have an answer. I said, well, good thing for you it worked. Q. Yesterday at the news conference you said if you told someone when you took the job that you were going to bring a team to the Orange Bowl, they would have brought out two big nets and a straitjacket. Do you feel you've brought this program to maybe the point where you figured you could from day one? COACH MANGINO: Well, as I told you, I never set these ridiculously long-term goals. I hear coaches talk a lot at clinics about when they take over a program they have a two-year plan, a five-year plan, a seven-year plan. And I listened carefully. I said, boy, those guys are a little bit smarter than me because I didn't do that. I took a very, simple, basic approach: Let's take care of the present. Let's work hard every day. We'll be mindful of the future. Let's take each task as they come and get better all the time. If we do that, the by-product will be bowl games and championships and things of that sort. I'm not surprised. To tell you the truth, I'm not surprised. I've been a fool to tell you before the season that I thought we were going to have a chance to be ranked in the Top 5 in the country at the end of the year and win the Orange Bowl. But there is something special about this team that I knew there was something good that was going to happen. I didn't know how good or how far it would go. But let's just call it instincts. Let's call it being around the game a lot, you get a feel for kids, and I felt pretty good about this group. Q. Can you tell us just from your perspective what Aqib Talib did tonight out there on the field. And secondly, how optimistic are you that he'll be back next season? COACH MANGINO: Well, he did a lot of great things tonight. He also got a penalty for showboating. We talked about that. I don't care how many games you play for us or whatever your status is, he knew he made a mistake. He was apologetic. He came to me and he asked -- he said, "Coach, give me your hand. I made a mistake." After I told him it was not appropriate, you know, he felt terrible about it. He said, "I'll go out and make more plays, Coach. Don't worry." And he did. As far as him coming back, I'm not concerned about that. Let me tell you, whatever is best for him, I'm all for it. We'll sit down, we'll talk about it. We'll look at this in a logical way. We'll see what the evaluators think of him. And if it's time for him to come out, he's got my blessing. If he thinks he should stay, he's got my blessing. He's contributed greatly to this program. The last couple of years he's been a great leader, and I only want what's best for my players. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. Congratulations. End of FastScripts |
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