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ROSE BOWL GAME PRESENTED BY VIZIO: OREGON v WISCONSINDecember 28, 2011Nick AliottiAnthony GildonEddie PleasantPASADENA, CALIFORNIA THE MODERATOR: We have defensive coordinator, Nick Aliotti, quarterback Anthony Gildon and Eddie Pleasant. Q. Coach, anybody like Russell Wilson who you've played this year or in recent years with his accuracy and his athletic ability? COACH ALIOTTI: Absolutely. I'd have to say that last year we played a pretty good quarterback in Cam Newton who can move and throws the ball very well. Two years ago, we played Terrelle Pryor. So we faced some quarterbacks that not only could throw the ball, but can hurt you with their feet, so I won't say a similar‑type guy because he's smaller than those guys but definitely a guy that can run when things are taken care of. He can scramble and make some plays. Q. Eddie and Anthony, a similar thing, your thoughts on going against Wilson after what you guys have been through with Pryor and with Newton last year in the game? EDDIE PLEASANT: Like Coach Aliotti said, we faced some pretty good quarterbacks the last past few years. It makes it a little more difficult when you have somebody that's a dual threat. But like I said, we faced them for the last past few years and we played many good quarterbacks throughout the Pac 12 so we are looking forward to the challenge. ANTHONY GILDON: I feel like in the Pac 12, every week we have got to get ready for a great quarterback. It might not be a great passing and running threat which Russell Wilson brings to the table but every week we have to be on top of our game and this is going to be another challenge for us and we are ready for it. Q. Nick, and for you guys, too, as well, you get three weeks of not having to hit somebody, and get a little fresher. Do you feel like your team has got some of the quickness and the speed back that you had maybe to start the season? COACH ALIOTTI: I'll say yes. And then I'll let those two young guys answer, because they are the ones that are doing it. But, yeah, I think we'll be fresh. I'll let Eddie and Anthony answer that. ANTHONY GILDON: Of course, any time you get a couple of days off for us, it feels like a week or two off. To have two or three weeks of not having to smash your head against somebody else's every Saturday, you feel frustrated. And Chip knows exactly what he's doing, so we're going to be fresh and ready to go. Q. Coach Aliotti, we talk a lot about the quarterback. What about the running back you're facing this week? COACH ALIOTTI: Well, I'm really impressed with Montee Ball. He's a hard inside runner, and I like his lateral movement and quickness. You know, they are the complete team offensively. I would like to say that they were lacking in some phase, but they have a big line that they take a lot of pride in, smash mouth, run the ball downhill with a good running back, good quarterback, and very capable receivers. So they have the full complement as far as when you're looking at an offense, a team that can run downhill and hurt you with playaction. And then if things are bottled up on a third‑down deal where they spread you out, the quarterback can run. I know you're asking about the running back, I think it will start there‑‑ I think it will start there, trying to get that established; that, coupled with the play‑action pass. So winning first down will be key, and bottling him up will be very important. Q. No secret you guys are the top scoring team in the nation and Wisconsin is close, as the defensive coordinator, do you bristle when everybody assumes it's the first team to 50 wins in this contest? COACH ALIOTTI: No, I don't let those kinds of things bother me. I have no control over what other people are saying or what they think. The only thing we have control of is our effort and our knowledge of the game plan, coupled with what Wisconsin does, and I have full trust in my guys to the right and everybody else we have been working with all week. It's hard to comment on that. All I know is last year, all we heard was how Auburn and Oregon were going to go up‑and‑down the field and that was last year; every year is different. That didn't quite happen. I guess the bottom line is that we play as best we can, and if we end up with one point more than they do at the end of the game, we'll all be happy. Q. Just want to get your thoughts on the two wide receivers, Toon and Abbrederis, what kind of challenges they present, especially after you face Marquis Lee and Robert Woods from USC. Are they similar? What kind of size and speed do they have? COACH ALIOTTI: Go ahead, guys. EDDIE PLEASANT: They have some pretty good receivers, they go out and make plays. They are a lot more bigger than many other receivers we play. You know, they are good off getting off jams, finishing plays. We have our work cut out for us, but like I said, we are excited and looking forward to the challenge. ANTHONY GILDON: Want to say the biggest difference between the two groups is probably their size. Wisconsin, they are a little bigger and they are both really good finishers, and Russell Wilson puts the ball on them and they are going to go up and get it and we have to make sure we go up and take it way. It's going to be a good challenge for us. Q. Coach, looking at Wisconsin offensively, the theme seems to be efficiency. Russell Wilson is so high in pass efficiency, is it important to get them out of a rhythm because of how efficient their offense is? Is that something you guys are focusing on? COACH ALIOTTI: Well, we'll do what we do. I don't know how to really answer that. We'll do what we do and hopefully we can get them out of rhythm. Unless we are stopping the run and winning first down, if they are in second and five or less a lot of the game, that will be hard to get them out of a rhythm. So we will do different things within our package to try to get them out of a rhythm and win first down. But when you have a team like that, it's interesting, I think they have had eight turnovers all year. Four picks and four fumbles, so they are not going to get themselves out of that rhythm and they are very efficient in what they do and they seem to really take care of the ball obviously, eight turnovers in 13 games, that's pretty incredible. But we do our best to mix it up and hopefully get them a little bit out of sync. But winning first down would be key in doing that. Q. For those of us that are not as familiar with it, the whole genesis of the Oregon uniform is unique and neat; if you look good and feel good, do you play good? Is that kind of what you think? EDDIE PLEASANT: We feel like it don't matter what the jersey or uniform; it's the person who is in it. That stuff don't matter to us. It's nice to have it, but we don't care about that. We go out there and it doesn't really matter. ANTHONY GILDON: The jersey is cool to have, but it's just something that's cool to have. I think it's more for something for everybody that's looking in than within the team. Because no matter what you wear, it's the same players underneath the jerseys and it's about the players, not the jerseys. Q. That being said, did you like the Darth Vadar look? ANTHONY GILDON: Oh, yeah, I liked it. I think we collaborated on trying to figure out what the next jerseys were going to be and I think Nike came out with something amazing. Q. Can you talk about LaMichael versus Montee Ball? And you see LaMichael in practice all the time and what he can do, and obviously Ball is very talented; and how you would contrast or compare those two. COACH ALIOTTI: Well, I love LaMichael James. I think he's an outstanding running back. So the fact that we face a guy like that in fall camp every day, we understand what a good running back looks like. In fact, we have a couple on our team in Kenjon Barner and De'Anthony Thomas. You know, we have two different types of offenses, but they are similar‑type backs, guys that can hurt you inside because they run hard inside and guys that can hurt you with their speed and have good stop and start and change direction type guys. So we have seen those kinds of backs, and in this league you see those kind of backs, but two different styles of offenses. Q. You guys have been in this Rose Bowl a couple of years ago, BCS Championship Game last year. This year, do you draw on those experiences and those memories? Does that help you in any way in preparing for the game this year? COACH ALIOTTI: Go ahead, guys. EDDIE PLEASANT: I feel like it's a different year. We have been in BCS games but it's not a fact that we are going to go in there and win because we have some experience in going in to play those games. I feel like we have to go out there and be ready and go out and be prepared. We have been in these games the past few years but that's not going to give us any other edge. They was in the BCS game last year, too. We just have to take every day and make sure every day counts and go out and be ready for practice and be ready January 2. ANTHONY GILDON: The thing with being in BCS games, it's more of you have been on that stage and you have been to the highest level and you know how to get there, and now you know what it takes to win it. You have to work that much harder and I think just being there last year, it has made us work that much harder and know exactly what we have got to put into it, and just get ready for the next challenge and that's Wisconsin. Q. Wisconsin has shown they have been susceptible to the sack. I think they have given up 23 sacks offensively this year. What have you seen on their offensive line. Do you see some weaknesses and do you think you can get to Wilson? COACH ALIOTTI: Well, we are hoping that we can. We can't divulge any of the weaknesses because we'd have to kill ya. So we are going to keep it within this room. Q. You mentioned the different style of offense Wisconsin has which you go up against every day in practice. A lot of the talk is Wisconsin is like Stanford. Now that you have looked at them for three weeks, is that an accurate comparison; who would you compare their offense to that you have seen already this season? COACH ALIOTTI: I would say Stanford, because of the two tight ends, a lot of tight‑end, two‑back, downhill running game and then the playaction, and also a quarterback that can move. Luck can move very well and a guy that can hit you downfield with the pass. So I would say those two offenses are similar. And believe it or not, I think Colorado's offensive style was very similar, and is very similar, to Wisconsin. So that was a very good team that we played, seemed like a long time ago now, over a month ago or two; that ran a very similar offense, that we were wondering, people were wondering, how we were going to stop run and control Andrew Luck. It worked out for us on that day. Hopefully we'll play a similar‑type game to help us in trying to get a win. Q. Describe what it's like playing for Coach Aliotti right there and the type of enthusiasm and defense and his style that he brings. EDDIE PLEASANT: It's great playing for Coach Aliotti. He's a player's coach. He cares more than the game of football when it comes to the players, takes care of us, always has a great game plan. He never gets the credit he deserves because we have such a great high‑scoring offense. But I love playing for the guy. Due to this being my last year, I'm going to miss him but he does a lot of great things for us. ANTHONY GILDON: Coach Aliotti is a great dude to play for. He's brought me along as a player every year. Without him, I know that I would not be the player that I am today. Like Eddie said, he doesn't get enough credit because everybody things that offense is going to score a billion points, and I mean, the defense is just there trying to hold them back but we make a lot of stops and we make a lot of plays because of this man over here. We owe him a lot of credit. Q. When you think about Wilson, it obviously comes down to a team defense to contain him but are there one or two people on the defense who primarily the responsibility falls on them? COACH ALIOTTI: No. There won't be one person. We will do some things where we have gentlemen responsible for Wilson but it will be different guys at different times and different parts of the game. And there are some times when a good quarterback like that can just improvise and make a play, anyway, no matter if you have a guy looking out for him. So we have different ways hopefully of slowing him down running. He's a concern, as we have all recognized here, but I think the main concern first of all is hopefully putting them in the situation where he has to go back and scramble and throw the ball. So we'll see how that plays out. I've got two good players to my right. I appreciate what they said. I paid them off before we got in here so that always helps. But I like the attitude of our team right now. I feel a different sense, not that I didn't feel good about the first two BCS Bowls that we played in the last two years. I like the focus that these guys are showing, and that makes it exciting to see just how we look on January 2. Because these guys have been spot eye on for ten‑plus days of practice now. Q. After the last couple of Bowls, people have wondered aloud if it was an advantage for the team that was preparing for Oregon's offense that they didn't have to get ready in a short span of time and consequently that's what made the difference in the Bowl game. Do you see anything that the defense on the other side has more time to prepare for or he gone's offense and the tempo and all of the complicated things that are in it, or is that just‑‑ is that just the nature of a Bowl game? COACH ALIOTTI: I think whenever‑‑ in reality, whenever you have more time, you probably feel like you've seen things more and therefore, you're more prepared for that game. Then, too, offenses have time to do things that you have not seen and add things to their‑‑ what they do. So I don't worry about our offense. I have nothing to do with that. And I have full trust in our offense and Coach Kelly and Coach Helfrich in what they do. We just have to take care of our own backyard. That's the best way I can answer that. Obviously when you have more time to prepare, it can help you in getting ready for any offense. Q. Anthony, you've had a little bit of a frustrating season injury‑wise, how are you feeling, and in the wake of your inability to play a lot, what kind of ways have you found to contribute to the team? ANTHONY GILDON: Oh, I mean, I'm feeling pretty good, first of all. And second, I've been here for five years now. And I mean, there's a lot of young guys on the team. I just want to be a leader, and I feel like I've been a leader all year, not with just my actions but more of a vocal leader, and trying to teach the young guys what I know and pass on everything that I've learned from people, like Coach Aliotti and Coach Neal and people that came before me like Walter Thurman, T.J. Warden and Thomas Jackson. And Coach Neal talks about momentum and we try to keep that momentum and that's what has got us to where we are now. I think that's the biggest thing that I've contributed this year. Q. What is your biggest challenge to slow down Wisconsin's offense? EDDIE PLEASANT: One of the main things like every knows, they have a great offense with a great quarterback and great running back and great receivers. The main thing is, Montee don't got all those touchdowns for nothing; we have got to tackle, that's the main thing. Wilson, he does a great job of when he's under pressure, avoiding sacks and making great plays. For the most part we have to stay in coverage, make open‑field tackles and go out and have fun and fly around and we should be all right. ANTHONY GILDON: Wisconsin has a great offense and they do everything really well. But first off, we are going to have to stop the run and getting them into uncomfortable downs, because if they have second and short all day, then they are going to feel real comfortable and they are going to be able to do everything that they want to do. So we have got to make them get into second and longs, third‑and‑longs and try to have Russell Wilson drive back and make a lot more passes than they want to get into. FastScripts by ASAP Sports ... FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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